PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

That almighty quest… happiness. How do you know what the essence of this enigma is, if the beings that brought you into existence never actually displayed one ounce of it? How does a young developing mind calculate the necessary stepping-stones towards that blissful existence known as happiness? Does anybody really possess the wisdom to clearly define its meaning? How can we base our lives on the failings of our predecessors? How can we even think we know what we want from life? Ever?

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Returning from our three-day “team building” outing, which took place at some agricultural research center on the outskirts of Ibadan, we had our bus searched for bombs, as we turned into Walter Carrington Crescent – the home of our office and numerous foreign embassies. Apparently there had been a bomb scare at the US embassy the day before, and every vehicle coming in was scanned and occupants questioned. Now, I can fully understand why US embassies are prime targets for terrorism – as there are millions of people across the world who think Bush and his cronies are the biggest terrorists of them all – but I sure do hope that this particular one doesn’t get blown up. You see, my office is next door and I live only a block away.



This brings me back to my last entry, to the part where we were all contemplating becoming rich in Iraq, just before I lost my train of thought and went on an “intermission”. What I wanted to say was this; last year I jokingly predicted something that I now believe to be true – Nigeria will become the next Iraq.

‘They have lots of oil and lots of Muslims… that’s all the criteria Bush needs for an invasion’ I said, as we swigged on our bottles of “Star” beer, still mind-boggled over what our yearly salaries would be, based on the monthly contract rates we could get in Iraq.

‘It’ll begin slowly but surely, via a propaganda campaign… they’ll start saying that there are Muslim extremists hiding out in the north of the country and that this region needs to be monitored… then controlled… then invaded! Think about it… they are in the world’s top-ten list of oil producing nations!’

My co-workers acknowledged my point, but really didn’t believe that Bush & Co could pull something so shrewd off without the international community stopping it. That’s what many people thought about the invasion of Iraq…



One month ago, the US CIR (Central Intelligence Report) on West Africa was released, and whaddya know? Phrases like “breeding ground for terrorists” and “Muslim extremists” were popping up everywhere within the report, which also predicted the breakdown of the Nigerian state within fifteen years. Hmm… I heard somewhere that the predicted time of total control in Iraq will take about ten to fifteen years. And what are all those soldiers gonna do when the job in Iraq is done? Bingo! Well then, I guess we can expect a steady flow of US troops flooding this region over the next decade, whilst corporate news networks flood the airwaves with propaganda – to prepare us for the inevitable: Operation Jungle Storm. :op

You see, if your country has a lot of oil reserves, but it is too poor to spend billions of dollars investing in the American market, then you better just accept your fate; the Americans are coming to take your oil. And by “take” I really mean "control".



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To be continued…