'BODEDEREK

It is very easy to criticize public officials, politicians and the most powerful individuals on the planet whose influence sometimes affect us all, in some way. Now Obama sits comfortably on a chair in the Oval office, after a hard fought election, I wish him and the American citizenry the best in the next four years. I hope Mitt Romney realizes that he fought a noble campaign to unseat an incumbent President and gave us all a few worrying moments. I can assure him the right candidate eventually won the race.  Our planet is going through some of the most challenging times in recent months and a change in the presidency in the most powerful nation on earth would have further added some uncertainty to the situation and the numerous changes currently taking place all over the globe.  I was very proud to see many young Americans go out to vote last week and it seemed the majority voted for President Obama. I am impressed that the very young have now decided to be proact...

The American Presidential Election's poll shows the two candidates neck and neck but who will be the eventual winner? What does each man stand for? Which candidate represents special interests and lobbyists? Who will do more for the average citizen? These are the questions I have been asking myself in the last few days. Barack Obama or Mitt Romney? From the bottom of my heart, if I was a US citizen, I would vote for Obama the incumbent. The problem with US politics is usually the demands made upon candidates by the special interest donors who have become so significant in bankrolling candidates. The funds usually come with strings attached. I have seen a young dynamic and optimistic Obama age in the last four years, not necessarily because of the demands from the average joe, but because of obstacles put in his way by Republicans who were determined to make him a lame duck president. Despite all the aggravation, partisan politicking and some white American's aversion to a...

Stories are all works of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events and places is totally coincidental Scoring a deliberate own goal in soccer is practically unheard of, especially if there is no obvious financial gain to the exercise. The stunned silence that followed my action soon evaporated, my team mate's shock and amazement  galvanised  them towards me before any of the spectators could react to what I had just done.  Some of the spectators found it funny, others found it intriguing but many were furious, especially those who had invested money with the smart-ass because they were sure of a return on their investments. Many were dumbfounded but amused at the reaction around them. Of course, all I wanted was to get out of that place, pronto. As soon as my guys got to me, I advised them we should stick close together and not let anyone separat...

Prior to my post of 7th march 2012, I had heard sporadic stories about the group that called itself, the Lord's Resistance Army. A lot of atrocities, some with a supernatural twist accompanied a lot of the reports. The abduction of children dominated a lot these, together with reports of torture and mutilation of the civilian populace by the LRA who were led by a man called Joseph Koni. These crimes by Africans upon fellow Africans from the same region outraged and saddened me. Jason Russell's slick documentary on behalf of Invisible Children Inc., to address the outrage and focus world attention on Joseph Koni on 20th April this year seemed an ideal solution. The documentary went viral on YouTube shortly after my blog post and a lot of famous people and celebrities in show business joined in the campaign to bring the issue of Koni to the attention of the whole world.  There have been different reactions to the documentary and the campaign to make Joseph Koni famous. This ...

Stories are all works of fiction. Names, characters, place and events are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events and places is totally coincidental They were kicking us good and proper. The fouls came at us relentlessly. Every time we were a goal up, it got worse and I got worried. The only one amongst us not particularly intimidated by this was Sol the centre half who gave back as good as he got. It only made things worse for the rest of us. I was looking for worthy opponents to play against whilst we were waiting for the crucial match against Monarchs. Someone suggested we go play sets as a unit and told us about a particular part of town where we could drop in to, wait our turn and then see how long we last out there. Stupidly, without checking it out first, I took us there. Now, hindsight as they say, is twenty twenty vision, I was wishing we weren't here. Sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt and I ha...

Google have introduced Ads for Bloggers, while skimming through, I came across this one product that was relevant to a conversation I had three weeks ago with a friend of mine on Facebook. I saw a picture taken in a town in Nigeria with a woman riding a bicycle with a baby strapped to her back, another child about eight years old was riding pillion behind also with a baby strapped to her back too. All this on a busy Nigerian road with cars and trucks whizzing by. I exclaimed my horror at the danger all four faced and commented that this risk would never be tolerated anywhere in Western Europe in contrast to other comments who were praising this obviously enterprising mother's ingeniouity. My friends disagreed and claimed I had been away too long. Obviously, they have somehow been desentisized to this sort of thing and look at this as normal. I would appeal to NGOs operating in Nigeria with overseas aid to at least try and facilitate mothers such as these with a rickshaw type v...

Stories are all works of fiction. Names, characters, place and events are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events and places is totally coincidental Sitting there patiently in our sponsor's house, I tried to convince the man's nephew to at least give me a hint about what the big man had in mind, but Jackie only smiled and shook his head. "Wait, he will be here any minute", was all I could get out of him. I was starting to get a bit fidgety at the suspense, it was beginning to take it's toll on me and I was on the verge of making an excuse, so I could make a fast getaway when the man walked in. He was a handsome man, well over six feet tall with an athletic build. Probably in his mid thirties, he had on just a tee shirt,  jeans and slippers. He walked briskly into the room and casually sat on one of the stools by the mini bar. He grinned at his nephew before he turned and fixed his gaze directly a...