BLACK COCKTALE

The German friend who inspired the discourse on ‘The German Machine’ last year has spoken yet again. He complains that the huge glaciers that he saw as a young man in Switzerland more than 50 years ago have all but disappeared. And he attributes this to the following theory. The average person inhales three litres of air that contains 30 per cent oxygen, 60 per cent nitrogen and 10 per cent mix of other gases. When he exhales, the three litres of air that come out is 30 per cent carbon dioxide derived from the oxygen that was taken in, the 60 per cent nitrogen, and the 10 per cent mix of other gases.

If you check the math, man, by breathing, is releasing toxic air into the atmosphere by three parts, for every one part of oxygen that he inhales. With more than 100 per cent increase in world population – from 3.5 million about 50 years ago – to more than 7.5 billion today, man is gradually breathing himself to death. That’s not all. Man’s economy is premised on growth. And as more human beings breathe more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, trouble nature by indiscriminate felling of trees, and run more industries and vehicles that puff out carbon dioxide from fossil fuel, man may asphyxiate himself. This wicked German. It’s increasingly looking like man will not await the rapture promised by Christ, but simply burn himself out by global warming.

Knowledge of global warming is still sketchy and wooly. A former American President, Ronald Reagan, once said that air pollution comes from plants and trees. (sic) Eminent climatologist, Richard S. Lindzen of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says no one can predict occurrences of global warming with certainty. Scientists generally admit that they cannot fully explain how changes in humidity, ice cover and cloud formation spread up or ease atmospheric temperature. But they think that climate is affected by population growth, uses of energy and technology, just as they hold man responsible for global warming through the burning of fossil oil, coal and gas. This has led to a rise in the temperature of the surface of the earth. The Industrial Revolution has substantially increased the concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. The temperature of the earth rose from 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit to 1.5 in the 20th Century. Before the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were typically 190 to 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv). By 1958, they were 315, and 370 by 2001. They have been rising by 1.5 every year. This is increasingly leading to shrinking glaciers and likelihood of drought, and disruption of agriculture.  Computer analyses estimate that temperature could rise by 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit to 10.4 by 2100. Look at the vicious cycle. Increasing temperature shrinks the glaciers and releases water that creates flood. The flood water is licked up by the increasing heat in the atmosphere. The resultant lack of moisture desiccates the soil and leads to desertification. This reductionist, and not so brilliant, argument should compel man to urgently address the global warming issue.

Michael Grunwald, a contributor to Time Magazine, argues that the historic 2012 heat waves, droughts and wildfire and Hurricane Sandy that ravaged the US, the Caribbean and parts of Canada, and the unprecedented ice meltdown in the Arctic Region, happen when you broil the planet with fossil fuel. He adds that warmer seas and warmer air produce nasty storms, and predicts that the oceans will rise by one foot by 2100. Hurricane Sandy, with diameter exceeding 1,100 miles, is the largest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Its highest speed was 115 miles per hour. It killed 253 people and destroyed assets worth more than $74 billion. Climatologists say that heat or moisture in the atmosphere leads to climate change. They also contend that, nature, enhanced by global warming, caused Hurricane Sandy. They add that increase in atmospheric temperature, a result of global warming, makes sea surface abnormally hot. This increases its capacity to hold water, and leads to stronger storms and higher rainfall. In 2012, Nigeria experienced severe flooding, reportedly caused by the overflowing of the Benue and Niger Rivers. It ruined settlements, homes and farmland, as it ran down southerly toward the coast, to end in a “collision” with water coming from the Atlantic Ocean. This rampaging flood, the result of terrestrial folly, disturbed celestial agendas, and prevented 2,600 Nigerian Christians from performing the Holy Pilgrimage to Israel last year.

To stall commitment to emissions reduction agreements, a former American President, George Walker Bush, created the diversionary US Climate Change Research Initiative. But America has now introduced strict rules on cars and trucks to reduce carbon emissions by six billion metric tons by 2025. The US will also insist on clean energy, double its use of wind power, increase solar energy use by 1,000 per cent and plant trees in factories and government buildings. There is cheering news, however. The US emission level is dropping inversely with the growth of its economy. Oil giant, Shell, is making PR hay as a global leader in the drive to generate electricity through gas, which emits about half of the carbon from coal fuel.  The 1997 Kyoto Protocol has set binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emission of green house gases. By September 2011, about 191 countries had signed and ratified the Agreement.

Though America and a few other countries signed, they refused to ratify it. Some industrialised countries, mostly in the EU, are committed to reducing emissions of four of the most dangerous greenhouse gases, namely, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulphur hexaflouride, as well as hydroflourocarbon and perfluorocarbons. Never mind these dense terminologies, they are mere classifications of noxious gases. But note that the eco-system, to use the fancy word for the planet, is getting hotter, and the trend must end. You can get a good idea of the devastation by taking a look at the very graphic images in the video of “Heal The World,” a song by late musician Michael Jackson.

In 2012, Kyoto Protocol’s successor, Doha Climate Change Conference, extracted further commitment from consenting industrialised nations to maintain emission reductions at 15 per cent till the end of 2020. However, some former Soviet Union nations, led by Russia, may withdraw or not even ratify the Protocol Amendment.  It is important to note that the Kyoto Protocol exempts (so-called) developing BRICS nations, like India and China, from binding emissions limit. This puts an unfair burden on industrialised countries, but, more importantly, reduces the pressure on nations to conform to emission restrictions. Predictably, America opposes the Protocol because it believes that the emissions provisions are detrimental to its economy.

For the earth to remain, man must control the appetite of his technology for fossil fuels, and explore alternative and less climate devastating energy sources. He must invest in re-greening of the earth by aggressively replenishing the devastated  rain forests and planting trees in urban centres. Greening the deserts is going to be a tall order. But more inner city woodlands like New York City’s Central Park should be developed. These should compensate for the atmosphere-corroding externalities, effluents and smokestacks that come out of industrial parks, like Hoboken in New Jersey. This should greatly reduce the chances of man literally burning himself out.

by Lekan Sote

TODAY, February 14, Feast of St. Valentine, or now simply called Valentine Day has become a global celebration of love and romance. From the United States to Australia and New Zealand, and from Canada to France and Great Britain; and now with the increasing phenomenon of globalisation, non-Western nations like Turkey, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Nigeria are caught up in the celebration of Valentine Day, which is marked by the exchange of millions of material gifts, flowers, post cards, text messages and electronic mails.

Among young people who have become the most engaged in this celebration, social networks are bombarded with texts, sounds and images of love and romance. And as usual with modern day celebrations, there is widespread commercialisation of the event, as shops, hotels, banks, telephone companies and the entertainment industry are agog with flashy decorations, and they advertise ever newer products and services to mark the day. A recent research revealed that these days no less than 150 million Valentine Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine Day the second most popular card-sending feast after Christmas. And with increasing use of social network platforms, hundreds of millions of people across the globe are likely to connect with one another today in celebration of love. But who is this mysterious person whose name Valentine has become synonymous with love and romance? What is the origin of the Valentine’s Day celebration?

What we know today regarding the origin of Valentine’s Day and the story of Valentine, its patron saint, is part history and part legend. Much of it is shrouded in mystery. However, February 14 has in the Western tradition long been observed as a day to celebrate love and affection. There are legends that link the Valentine Day celebration to an ancient pagan fertility cult which was celebrated in the middle of the month of February, and was Christianised when Rome became a Christian empire. A more popular tradition, however, traces the celebration to a 3rd Century AD Catholic priest named Valentine who was martyred by Emperor Claudius around the year 270 AD on account of his commitment to (chaste) marital love. Emperor Claudius had outlawed marriage for young men, so they could serve in the army without any family encumbrances and distractions. For him, single men made better soldiers, so he forbade marriage for young soldiers upon the pain of death.

The priest Valentine, found such law unjust and oppressive. So he continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When however his actions were discovered, he was arrested, thrown into jail and eventually put to death. It is alleged that while in prison, the daughter of either the emperor or the chief gaoler often visited him and they regularly exchanged affectionate notes. On the day of his execution, Valentine sent the young lady a note signed “from your Valentine.”  The priest died as a champion of chaste love and marital commitment, but he had won the hearts of young lovers around the Roman Empire, and as time went by his fame spread through the then known world as the hero of love.

 One of the extant traditions says that in the 5th Century AD Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day, and Valentine quickly became a household name and a lovers’ delight all over Europe. The feast was marked annually with the exchange of gifts and cards with rich poems and reflections on love and romance.

from the guardian editorial.

I AM often shocked by the expressions: sex worker, commercial sex worker, sex trade worker, call girl, street-walker, etc that describe the practice of prostitution. All these terms conceal the gravity of the activity while bestowing on it a positive tone. We should call a spade a spade and remove all nuances. Prostitution is an act that disrespects a person’s body. Practised by a male or female, it should be condemned. It operates on the principle of objectifying the human body, while disregarding his/her personality.

Women are particularly vulnerable since they are the ones who practise prostitution more. Prostitution contributes to the male-centred objectification of women, increases sexual violence, undermines the objective of sexual equality and it is a form of male domination. It is instrumental to numerous psychological problems. There is no doubt there are neurological defects that could be treated with medication, nevertheless, personal choices are mainly implicated in one’s sexual orientation, prostitute, heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual.

Hindsight should make us question if the woman could have done something else apart from prostituting her sex organ. In the first instant anthropologists make us believe that the patriarchal culture around the world kept the woman in subjection to a degree that she could not have decided on her own to sell her body. The male figure in her life appropriated her body to such an extent that only the man should have the privilege of attaining orgasm. Thus, various traditions were put in place to control her sexuality: genital mutilations of various degrees like excision, circumcision and infibulations. These have been devices to subordinate her sexual desires to the man’s.

However, the woman goes through the excruciating pain of having the orifice opened with a razor to make penetration possible. Awa Thiam, a Guinean female writer, identified these errant cultural groups in her book La parole aux Négresses (The Views of Black Women). This obviously is a preamble to emphasise the lopsidedness in gender relations. In my opinion, this disparity in sexual relations has been responsible for the attitude of some men towards women.

The pimps or madams, who engage in sexual slavery by trafficking young girls abroad, hoodwink them with the pretext of fixing them up in well paying jobs. They actually perpetrate the culture that holds out that women should just be sexual objects servicing men. It does not seem that these girls knew the fate that awaited them. May be some knew and made independent decision to engage in the commercialisation of their bodies. Many have defended this venture as caused by extreme poverty, lack of opportunity, or psychological causes of past trauma due to child abuse, drug addiction etc. If it appeared an easy job, the attendant dangers should actually teach our young girls lifelong lessons on self-preservation.

The health danger of HIV/AIDS and STDs is high on the list of issues that prostitutes face. Call-girls have been murdered by their clients in hotel rooms and elsewhere. Countless numbers are killed leaving no identity that can be traced to possible relations. In Nigeria, people are killed for the flimsiest reasons, like a couple who vengefully killed their neighbour’s toddler in a scuffle. Ritual killers are permanently on the prowl. The craze for fortune has reached alarming dimensions as kidnappers defy the traditions of respecting old age by holding octogenarians to ransom. Fundamental to prostitution is the unbridled desire for money.

Lack of money has been responsible for avoidable disasters. Whole families have been wiped out because they sold petrol in tanks and jerry cans in order to make ends meet. It is even very pathetic that children are turned into the streets by parents who cannot afford to feed them. Children hawkers have been crushed by trailers. The accumulation of social problems that have become so much a part of us has left most of us insensitive. It is as if we are comfortable living with them and we make little effort to address them. Can our girls refrain from prostituting their bodies?

Our  social values seem to place premium on sex. Hence trading in it does not raise questions about its moral significance. Our newspapers and media organisations project pictures of half naked girls, who have become models for the upcoming ones. They highlight the sexiness of the supposedly successful artistes and individuals, who have no intention to enhance morality in the society. It cannot be underestimated that the mode of dressing of the younger generation arouses men who cannot dominate their sexual desires.

The cases of gang rapes that are often reported may not be unconnected with this. I am not advocating that women go about in drab clothes; however, it is quite imperative to consider the reason for clothing as being for covering one’s nakedness. When this purpose is discarded, we have nothing short of pornography, an industry which is complicit in sexual violence like rape and sexual harassment. It eroticises the humiliation and coercion of women and reinforces cultural attitudes that objectify women and enhance sexism and inequality. This misdemeanour is further compounded by youthful fantasy whetted by foreign films and cultural practices, which have become the norm and actually determine social acceptability. In a quest to satisfy this desire, our young girls opt for prostitution in order to have the required money. The high rates of unemployment and prevalent poverty have not helped matters.

Did this state of moral decadence dropped on us from nowhere?  No. Parents, guardians and significant persons in the lives of our youths have been responsible for the leeway that has created this socio-cultural disorder. Permissiveness quietly crept into the fabric of our moral lives and is getting out of hand. This tendency is not only reflected in the issue of prostitution, but in every area of our lives. We should return to the basics and ask ourselves what we want to achieve as a nation and work out modalities for accomplishing it. Our understanding of democracy has made everything permissible. A cultural reorientation may make us better predisposed to respecting human rights, helping one another, allowing the rule of law and making a personal choice to do what is good. Not to sound a religious nut would mean repudiating the position of majority of Nigerians who are adherents of the most crowd-pulling religions of the world, Christianity and Islam.

If we truly believe God, let His love determine all we do, even the prostitute will not destroy society, lives and homes, including himself or herself, if we all practise this kind of selfless love.

In addition, we will not turn a blind eye to the poor, needy and helpless. Our utmost desire will be to preserve humanity and solve human problems.

• Siwoku-Awi (Mrs.) is a lecturer at the Nigeria French Language Village, Badagry.