Stories Cultured For Curious Minds

Resisting Ecocide: Crimes and Rents

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 28, 2010
Post category:Ecocide Governance Institutions Niger Delta Crisis The Environment
Post comments:15 Comments
Reading time:6 mins read

t is interesting to know that the Niger Delta is listed third out of ten hotspots of ecocide in Polly Higgins’ Eradicating Ecocide. I have written a review of the book on this blog for two reasons: its project represents the amalgamation of my three main research interests namely, corruption, institutions, and green economics, and it is a very interesting visionary book. The fact that the region has been classified as an ecocide hotspot saves me the need to describe the monstrous environmental and human degradation going on there in the name of Nigeria being a “middle-income nation” and doubling as an “improving nation” within the provisions and expectations of “transparently globalised profit-seeking”. Transparency for what it is worth washes its hands of a lot of things and especially ecocide. (more…)

The Grandeur of Rejecting a Disabled Person

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 27, 2010
Post category:Institutions
Post comments:2 Comments
Reading time:4 mins read

The Grandeur of Rejecting a Disabled Person

Being disabled is neither pleasant nor easy in any society, and Britain is a society civilised enough to appreciate the fact fairly in all institutions. Not everyone in Britain shares such civilisation. (more…)

Spiritual Infections, Physical Cures

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 23, 2010
Post category:Musings Social Relations
Post comments:10 Comments
Reading time:2 mins read

Spiritual Infections, Physical Cures: Catching Gonorrhea In A Dream

I am increasingly taking the message of James Randi quite seriously, well beyond and above average, because of the decadent state of belief and irrationality that certain people adopt and adhere to in their quest to explain the unacceptable conditions of life they encounter. Beliefs are the software that keeps society together but only when they are the stuff of “useful or rational” contents necessary for its proper coordination.

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Corruption in Nigeria: Is It Curable? Part One

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 23, 2010
Post category:Corruption Governance Institutions
Post comments:13 Comments
Reading time:7 mins read

Corruption in Nigeria: Is It Curable? Part One

The Nigerian nation might not be a failed state but it is certainly by all ostensible standards of politics and governance a true kakistocracy. Nigeria’s condition of kakistocracy is a function of corruption and moral decadence. It is a truism to say corruption is a major societal ill in Nigeria blighting its way of life; Nigeria is a certainly bandits’ nation. Hitherto, Transparency International perennially ranked Nigeria as one of the most corrupt nations in the world for a number of years but the recent ranking of the nation as being a much less corrupt from practical experience and common sense appears at best to be dubious. (more…)

Educating a Shell Worker

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 19, 2010
Post category:Corruption Ecocide Governance Institutions Niger Delta Crisis The Environment
Post comments:4 Comments
Reading time:13 mins read

Ever since ex-President Obosanjo threw the gauntlet to Nigerians in general in to prove the acts of corruption of General Babangida (rtd) (Nwaobi 2004), it has become fashionable for specially interested Nigerians to ask for proof of obvious crimes and malfeasance carried out against the nation and its people by either privileged individuals or organisations with a sole purpose i.e. the presumed impossibility of individuals to provide the proof asked for. That is a very delusional precedent for Nigerians to uncritically follow since in reality there is abundant proof of Babangida’s acts of corruption. (more…)

Eradicating Ecocide: A Review

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 16, 2010
Post category:Ecocide Institutions Niger Delta Crisis
Post comments:4 Comments
Reading time:5 mins read

Eradicating Ecocide: A Review

Ecocide eradication, as both a concept and an institution of (enforceable) international (and local) application, is creating a popular stir of concern for its critics and enthusiasm for its supporters; respectively. It is going to get more serious as the ascendance of both its acceptance and the resistance to it unfolds. Acceptance often takes time, and resistance wears out with time, so that time will decide the fate of ecocide law as a legitimate institution. (more…)

Good for the People, Good for Everybody

Post author:Grimot Nane Zine
Post published:November 11, 2010
Post category:Musings Social Relations
Post comments:3 Comments
Reading time:3 mins read

Good for the People, Good for Everybody

Lawrence Cook in The Spy Who Sat On The Doorstep (Courtesy IMDB)

I remember from the mid to late 70s, Sacro Ogban, a cool, sociable, and trendy guy I admired for his personality and style. About 12 years older than me, he was of light-skin and had a close resemblance to Larry Cook. Yes, the star of the movie, The Spook Who Sat At The Doorstep and also a similar persona. Sacro would always make a toast at some stage during drinking sessions with his friends, a regular event.

The wording of the toast was constant, said with a hint of a Harlem, New York accent. “That which is good for the people is good for everybody” or sometimes “What is good for the people is good for everybody.” His use of the latter version more often. The meaning or context of the toast was obscure to me but always met with effortless acceptance from his friends. Yes, the toast made little sense to my preteen mind, but it was catchy. In 1978, he left Orerokpe, where both our parents lived and went overseas for studies. (more…)