Friday, 16 January 2015
FASHOLA DESTABILIZES BUHARI’S CAMP: SAYS AGBAJE (57) IS “TOO OLD TO RULE LAGOS” AT IKEJA RALLY
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Wednesday, in what is deemed a major faux-pas on his part has tasked Lagos residents to resist the idea of voting for Mr. Jimi Agbaje the PDP governorship candidate for being too old to rule the state. Mr. Jimi Agbaje born March 2, 1957 is currently 57 years old. Governor Fashola made this remarks at the Lagos West senatorial campaign of the APC governorship candidate, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, which took place at Sky Power Play Ground, Ikeja. that: “Today, at 52, I am counting the number of black hair on my head. Akinwunmi Ambode is the man that can do it. If you put an old man there, he cannot do it. If you call him in the night, he may not pick your calls,” he warned. The controversial remark has prompted several campaign groups affiliated with the General Buhari campaign organization to embark on strategic meetings since last night with the aim of controlling the damage caused by the statement as conversations on the APC Presidential and VP candidates age who are far older than Agbaje and with more daunting assignments, have been reawakened. According to Fashola, the task of governing Lagos State was required age to be on the side of the candidate and vigour on the part of the person at the helm of affairs, recalling that in 2007 when he took over governance at age 44, he could count the number of grey hair on his head.
Thursday, 15 January 2015
I hate this insidious trend for belittling men, says MELISSA KITE
Watching a recent episode of the female detective drama Scott And Bailey, I suddenly felt deeply uncomfortable.
The heroines of the ITV show — two gutsy, senior, women police officers —were discussing how to solve a crime, while their bumbling male counterparts sat around, gawping helplessly.
Whenever the men managed to get a word in edgeways, it was to suggest a course of action that was utterly stupid and they were put in their place by their female superiors.
There is something dishonourable about the portrayal of men as completely useless for the purposes of entertainment says Melissa Kite
No doubt this demonstration of ‘girl power’ is intended to make the show appeal to me as a woman, but instead, it made me feel rather queasy. There was something dishonourable about the portrayal of men as completely useless for the purposes of entertainment.
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Yet the more I flicked through the channels, the more I realised that, increasingly, almost everything on TV — from comedies to reality shows, murder mysteries and even adverts — now features women as the heroines, equipped with a fine brain, while men are depicted as thoughtless buffoons, aggressors, or ineffective idiots.
Take a recent KFC advert. A dad and his two offspring are sitting at a table in one of the chain’s restaurants, waiting for Mum to bring their order over. Both children remain engrossed in their phones, as Dad unsuccessfully attempts to get their attention by suggesting activities for the afternoon.
Watching a recent episode of the female detective drama Scott And Bailey, Melissa suddenly felt deeply uncomfortable
When Mum returns and makes the same suggestions, naturally both kids answer immediately, leaving Dad looking like a twit. It gets a cheap laugh and might be easy to shrug off, were it not for the fact that any advertiser who tried to achieve sales by belittling women wouldn’t be tolerated.
It’s the same story in TV comedy. In the really big hit shows, there seems to be a pretty set formula, whereby the male characters are idiotic, if endearing, fools, saved from themselves by the women.
In Friends, for example, the male characters, Ross, Chandler and Joey, are, respectively, two well-meaning but ineffectual geeks and an unthinking lothario, while the female characters, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe, are far more well-rounded and worldly.
From Everybody Loves Raymond to Two And A Half Men, the most influential U.S. shows feature flaky men who won’t be serious, or take responsibility for anything.
The formula persists in popular British TV. In Gavin And Stacey, buffoonish Smithy, played by writer James Corden, veers between sentimental fool and drunken idiot and is, apparently, incapable of growing up. He’s constantly wrong-footed by his on-off love interest, the formidable Nessa (co-writer Ruth Jones).
In family comedy Outnumbered, Pete is the blundering dad who is constantly befuddled by his children. His wife, Sue, is exhausted and long-suffering, but far sharper, shrewder and more capable.
The trend begins early. In the wildly popular children’s cartoon show Peppa Pig, the family’s father, Daddy Pig, is a hapless bumbler, while it’s clear Mummy Pig is the boss of the household.
What all of these shows have in common is that they exaggerate the uselessness of men.
But it’s the insidiousness of this socially-acceptable sexism that’s most concerning. For it’s not overt hatred of men, rather the casual denigration of them, so often done for comic effect.
In Friends the male characters are well-meaning but ineffectual geeks and an unthinking lothario, while the female characters are far more well-rounded
It seems belittling men barely registers any more, yet making fun of women — especially joking about violence towards women — is something we’d never stand for.
Consequently, comedienne Jo Brand is able to make jokes about men that would never be deemed acceptable the other way around. For example: ‘What’s the way to a man’s heart? Straight through the chest with a kitchen knife.’
And don’t laugh, but there is also an alarming trend for men to be portrayed as sex objects. Gone are the days when a half-naked woman could come on stage in a skimpy, lamé two-piece, smiling inanely, as a magician’s assistant.
But the amount of male flesh on display in shows like Strictly Come Dancing is staggering. Yes, the women wear skimpy costumes, too, but when the camera lingers over the naked torsos of dancers like Pasha Kovalev, the whoops from the audience are reminiscent of the Roman amphitheatre.
When Gavin Henson danced the Paso Doble topless in series eight, head judge Len Goodman congratulated him on ‘working your assets’, while Alesha Dixon declared: ‘Your body looks amazing, which helps.’ They would never get away with it if they leered over a woman’s physique so blatantly.
Is it all harmless fun? I don’t think so. In Spreading Misandry: The Teaching Of Contempt For Men In Popular Culture, Katherine Young and co-author Paul Nathanson warn that this patronising of men is now so pervasive in movies, TV, comic strips and even greetings cards, that it could have ‘disastrous consequences’ for society, and eventually provoke a serious backlash against women.
Since the mid-1990s, they argue, men have been increasingly portrayed as evil or inadequate. They have gone so far as to say there is now a culture of ‘misandry’ — literally ‘hatred of men’.
When Gavin Henson danced the Paso Doble topless in series eight, head judge Len Goodman congratulated him on ‘working your assets’ which would never be acceptable to say of a woman
‘Our hypothesis is that, like misogyny once upon a time, misandry has become so deeply embedded in our culture that few people, including men, even recognise it,’ they write.
Feminists have rightly fought for an end to men putting women down, but we will surely never improve relations between the sexes by ushering in a new era of sexism that consists of women constantly traducing men.
Once you are aware of it, you start noticing how this culture of misandry seems to permeate everything. As I had lunch with a friend recently, she snatched up her ringing phone and began barking a tirade of abuse into it.‘What do you mean, you can’t find their football kit? I don’t have time for this! Show some initiative. I can’t nursemaid you. Don’t call me again.’
I assumed she was having bother on the nanny front, but no — it was her husband, a man who works tirelessly, in a highly-pressurised career, to support her and their children. He was off work that day and had offered to stay at home with the kids so she could go to lunch with me.
Comedienne Jo Brand is able to make jokes about men that would never be deemed acceptable the other way around
I wish I could say her diatribe was an isolated incident. I notice more and more that my girlfriends speak to their husbands and boyfriends in a derogatory manner, as if they are somehow inferior. Needless to say, they then complain that they are not ‘manly’ enough in their attitude, or in the bedroom.
I have to confess that I’m not altogether innocent. My boyfriend, Will, and I were in Pizza Express the other day, when I snapped at him to hurry up because he couldn’t decide what to order. He walked out, which was hugely embarrassing for me.
But I wouldn’t have put up with him talking to me in this obnoxious way, so why should he? I count myself fortunate to have a boyfriend who is an unreconstructed, traditional — even macho — male.
What’s particularly worrying is that a lot of my friends do not hesitate in putting their husbands down in front of the children. Surely, in doing so, they teach their daughters to denigrate and disrespect men and make their sons feel emasculated and demoralised.
Is it any wonder girls are now outperforming boys at GCSE and A-level? Girls are already ahead in most subjects by the age of five and the gap widens as they get older, the latest research shows.
Last year, there were 40,000 more female applicants for university places than male, while women outnumber men by three to two in many universities. There are also more young women entering the top professions such as medicine.
Research also suggests a quarter of UK women are now the family breadwinner — five times more than at the start of the Seventies. Female earnings have soared 44 per cent since then, compared with 6 per cent for men.
Psychologist Mark Sherman, author of Boys And Young Men: Attention Must Be Paid, says relegating men to supporting roles, such as stay-at-home dad or house-husband, is damaging.
‘Weren’t under-education, under-employment and relegation to the home among the major motivators for the modern women’s movement? Are we parents of sons simply supposed to sit back and say to our boys, “College isn’t essential, but if you do go, maybe you’ll meet a future doctor or lawyer; in fact, maybe you could be her secretary. And, listen, there’s nothing wrong with being a house-husband!”
Last year, there were 40,000 more female applicants for university places than male, while women outnumber men by three to two in many universities
‘Did women working far below their true abilities turn out to be a good thing? Obviously not. Then why should we expect it to be a good thing for men?’
Ultimately, if the background noise of our lives is banter about male inadequacy, while leering at their biceps, it is in no one’s interests — least of all women’s.
One of the unintended consequences of belittling men is that we women end up with the sort of men we really don’t like, if truth be told. For, when we are not lampooning men for being idiots, we seem to be attacking them for not being manly enough.
We only have ourselves to blame. If we want our men to be in any way exciting, gallant, high-earning, swashbuckling, or, indeed, protective, we have to allow them to keep their dignity and self-respect.
Running a man down never turned him into Clint Eastwood.
LSE Student Daniel Wickham's Epic Tweets Expose Hypocritical World Leaders Who Attended Charlie Hebdo Rally
From left : European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union President Donald Tusk, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and other heads of state take part in a Unity rally 'Marche Republicaine' on January 11, 2015 in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of the three-day killing spree. The killings began on January 7 with an assaul | ERIC FEFERBERG via Getty Images
Instead, he realised many of the countries represented had a pretty poor record of free press - and so decided to name and shame each and every one..
And not forgetting..
Safe to say Wickham's been a bit of a household name on Twitter over the past 24 hours.
Babangida's Associate Denies Endorsing Jonathan
Hassan Jallo, a close associate to Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, has revealed the true outcome of the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the former military president.
President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen, Ibrahim Babangida
The Nation reports that Jallo debunked speculations of Babangida endorsing Jonathan for next month’s presidential election while speaking in Kaduna on Sunday.
READ ALSO: Jonathan Is Irresponsible – Osinbajo
He explained that what Babangida and Jonathan discussed were “security issues and the unity of Nigeria”.
Jallo further stated that the former military president promised to support Jonathan in the aspect of the security challenges facing the country, insisting that it did not mean that Babangida endorsed Jonathan for re-election.
“I am saying this on behalf of IBB… So, don’t expect him to descend very low to come out himself and debunk this so-called endorsement of President Jonathan. I am saying this for him, and I believe the endorsement is the creation of the media,” he said.
Jallo, who revealed that he was not at the meeting, explained that information made available to him hinted that Jonathan was only there to consult with Babangida on the challenges facing the nation and the way forward.
According to him, issues relating to endorsement or 2015 elections were not part of their discussions, and reiterated that Babangida has not endorsed any of the presidential candidates.
He also maintained that the former military president is a strong member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but cleared the air that the former head of state’s comment was misinterpreted for Jonathan’s endorsement in the general elections.
“President Jonathan is not the first to visit the former head of state. Other presidential aspirants and leaders have paid him visit, regardless of their political parties for one consultation or the other. I want you to quote me very well that IBB has not endorsed Jonathan or any other presidential candidate for the 2015 presidential race. Jonathan requested to visit him. And he couldn’t have turned down a president’s request as an elder statesman. There is no man like IBB in Nigeria of today. I therefore urge media men to express professionalism in their reportage to avoid misleading the public,” he said.
It would be recalled that Babangida and Jonathan reportedly had a closed-door meeting on December 27, 2015, where the former military head of state was said to have urged Nigerians to support Jonathan in the next-year’s elections.
Meanwhile, a popular Prophet, Primate Theophilus Oluwasaanu Olabayo, the founder, of Evangelical Church of Yahweh, located at Mende Village, Maryland, Lagos State, has predicted what the new year holds for Nigeria.
Pics of the teeth that caused Twitter meltdown in the UK...lol
Photos from the Lagos state Gubernatorial debate today...
Lagos state governorship candidates gathered today at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja Lagos for a debate organized by the Diocese of Lagos West of the Anglican Church. The debate had in attendance 17 governorship candidates of various political parties. The candidates took turns to explain how they plan to improve the state if elected as Governor. More pics after the cut 
PRESIDENT JONATHAN VISITS NIGERIAN SOLDIERS IN MAIDUGURI, SALUTES THEIR COURAGE AND PATRIOTISM
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan undertook a surprise visit to Maiduguri Thursday on the occasion of Nigeria’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day to meet with officers and men of the Armed Forces currently in the frontline of the war against terrorism and insurgency in the country. Accompanied by the Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs, the National Security Adviser and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, President Jonathan visited officers and men of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army at Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri to thank them for their patriotic and courageous service to the nation. The President told officers and soldiers of the Division that the nation was very proud of them and grateful for their dedication and commitment to the defence of the civilian population against terrorists and violent extremists. President Jonathan also assured the troops that the Federal Government will continue to do everything possible to ensure that they get the weapons, equipment, welfare and logistics support they require to completely rout the insurgents and restore full security and normalcy to affected parts of the country. Describing the troops as a special breed of men who were undertaking a great assignment for their fatherland, the President assured them that all necessary action was being taken to address challenges facing them in their operations against Boko Haram. “In terms of equipment and logistics, we have already made considerable progress since the insurgency started and we will continue to improve in that regard until your operations are successfully concluded,” he told the soldiers. President Jonathan also toured wards of the 7 Division Hospital and Medical Services Centre where he met with soldiers recovering from injuries sustained in operations against Boko Haram. He wished them speedy recovery. Before leaving the Borno State capital, President Jonathan visited over 900 displaced persons from Baga at a camp in the city. The President commiserated with the displaced persons on the losses they suffered during the attack on their town by Boko Haram. He promised them that the Federal Government will strive to make their stay in the camps more comfortable while it continues to do all within its powers to restore peace and security to enable them return to their homes soon. “Terrorism and insurgency have been very traumatic for all of us. I feel particularly disturbed when I hear of our people being displaced within their own country. “I assure you and other displaced persons that Government is working very hard to ensure that you do not remain in these camps for too long. “I know that many of your houses have been destroyed. We will assist you financially so that you can rebuild your homes and return to them gradually,” President Jonathan told the displaced persons. The President thanked the Red Cross and other international organizations who have been assisting in the provision of relief materials to the displaced persons. He also charged local, state and federal government officials to work with greater harmony and cooperation in rendering support to the displaced persons. “I do not want to be hearing conflicting reports on support being given to them. Government is one and we must all work together to assist our people whenever the need arises. “We must cooperate maximally and work together at the local government, state and federal levels to ensure that our people who are unfortunately displaced from their homes get the best possible treatment,” President Jonathan said
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