GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

THE GREEK BAILOUT FUND, A GREEK GIFT?

Icheoku says what an irony of fate that the Greeks who are customarily used to giving others questionable gifts with hidden trip-wires inside them, the proverbial Greek Trojan Gift, are the ones now at the receiving end of such spiked gift? Talk about paying someone in his very own coin as the European creditors just did that with the release of conditionalities-laden Greek's bailout funds of $94billion; which probably will do the opposite and instead of bailing the Greeks out will sink them deeper into irrecoverable economic quagmire. Icheoku says by providing this additional bailout, the third one in a row, it appears those European creditors have only succeeded in postponing the Greek day of reckoning just for one more last time? 

The Greeks did not account for what they were previously given and there is no guarantee this time that they will make judicious use of this tranche by using it to turn around their economy and quit being an Oliver Twist with hands always stretched out in a beggarly fashion. Icheoku is not a seer but makes a projection that it will surely come back full circle when the present tranche is up and due for repayment and the Europeans will still find an insolvent Greece which rather than pay what it owes, will still be begging for another bailout. Before that time comes, the acute austerity terms of the latest bailout package would have forced the Greeks through the haranguing gates of hell, from which many of them might not return again leaving a Greece that cannot be self sustaining any longer, never again, ever. So what will happen when this day comes  and things come to a head with a Greece still unable to repay what it borrowed and still asking for some more borrowing? Will Europe still accommodate them or show tough love and let Greece fail or fall out of European Union? Icheoku does not know the answer but time will tell. 

Icheoku's says like the Greeks, there is palpable fear that Nigeria is also headed the bailout highway to hell. A fear made more eerie because the bitter potion these creditors will particularly brew for Nigeria will make that of the Greeks taste like a rose champagne. If Nigerians think that Ibrahim Babangida's SAP's conditionalities were harsh, they should wait until President Muhammadu Buhari goes cap in hand to these Western creditors for money. Then he will appreciate what it means to make someone really horn-mad and then want the raving mad person to help him out with some funds? When this time comes, a person like IMF Christine Laggard for example, will have the opportunity to really tell him how bitter she is that she cannot bring her partner on trips to Nigeria for fear of prosecution? Needless to add that gay heavy weights like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elton John might bring their influence to bear on denying a gay-hating country Nigeria any financial bailout unless they reverse their anti-gay marriage law? 

That so many other financial institutions that would be called upon to contribute to whatever bailout Nigeria might need is in the firm control of LGBT or their protected interest will not bode well for a Nigeria in need of cash life line. Most likely, they will seize the opportunity to remind President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria's anti-gay marriage law is still on their books as the law of their land. Icheoku is certain that any conditionality the West will give Nigeria will most definitely include reversing the anti-gay marriage law. So if Nigeria does not want to reverse this law, they should find a way to stay out of seeking financial bailout from these international lenders particularly those in Western gay-friendly countries; because they will be made to either swallow their vomit or take a hike. If these Western countries could be this harsh to fellow Europeans, the Greeks, with vaulted gay acceptance, imagine what they will do to black anti-gay country Nigeria? But until then, Icheoku asks the Greeks, what has become of you that you cannot manage your economy and turn it around? Please remember that he who goes a-borrowing always goes a-sorrowing and that a beggar  usually has no choice. Therefore, you need to do the needful and quickly get back on your feet and save your face, otherwise the humiliation will only get worse.

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