IN REMEMBRANCE: BRENDA NOKUZOLA FASSIE (1964-2004)

Brenda Nokuzola Fassie   (3 November 1964 – 9 May 2004) was a South African anti-apartheid Afropop singer. Affectionately called Mabrr by her fans, she was sometimes described as the "Queen of African Pop" or the "Madonna of The Townships".

Fassie was born in Langa, Cape Town as the youngest of nine children. She was named after the American singer Brenda Lee. Her father died when she was two, and with the help of her mother, a pianist, she started earning money by singing for tourists.
 In 1981, at the age of 16, she left Cape Town for Soweto, Johannesburg, to seek her fortune as a singer.

Fassie first joined the group Joy and later became the lead singer for a music group called Brenda and the Big Dudes. She had a son, Bongani, in 1985 by a fellow Big Dudes musician. She married Nhlanhla Mbambo in 1989 but divorced in 1991. Her song enjoyed great international popularity, and Brenda and the Big Dudes toured to the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and Brazil. Throughout the decade Brenda also established herself as a great solo pop star.

In 1989 she married Nhlanhla Mlambo, and the next year they were both sued for fraud. In August of 1990 newspaper announced the break-up of their marriage. Her drug and alcohol abuse as well as her bisexuality also received much media attention. Fassie became addicted to cocaine around 1989 and her career suffered the effect of this bad attitude in 1995, she underwent rehabilitation and got her career back on track. However, she still had drug problems and returned to drug rehabilitation clinics about 30 times in her life.

From 1996 she released several solo albums, including Now Is the Time, Memeza (1997), and Nomakanjani?. Most of her albums became multi-platinum sellers in South Africa; Memeza was the best-selling album in South Africa in 1998.

On the morning of 26 April 2004, Fassie collapsed at her home in Buccleuch, Gauteng, and was admitted into a hospital in Sunninghill. While her family gave the impression that she had suffered cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma brought on by an asthma attack; the post-mortem report revealed that she had taken an overdose of cocaine on the night of her collapse, and this was the cause of her coma.

Fassie an unofficial adopted daughter of Madiba, was visited in the hospital by Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki, and her condition was front-page news in South African papers.

 Brenda voted 17th in the Top 100 Great South Africans, died on 9 May 2004 in hospital without returning to consciousness after her life support machines were turned off.  She was aged 39. Her body was laid to rest on 23 May in her hometown, Langa. She left behind a 19-year-old son, Bongani Fassie.

In March 2006 a life-size bronze sculpture of Fassie by artist Angus Taylor was installed outside Bassline, a music venue in Johannesburg.

Brenda Fassie was an all around great entertainer: Great dancer, singer and comedian may her gentle soul continue to rest in peace.

DISUNITED KINGDOM: DAVID CAMERON BEGS THE SCOTS: PLEASE DONT GO

In a sign of new panic in the British ruling elite over the fate of the 307-year-old union, Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband scrapped their weekly question-and-answer session in parliament to speak at separate events in Scotland.

"We do not want this family of nations to be ripped apart," Cameron, 47, said in an opinion piece published in the Daily Mail newspaper. "The United Kingdom is a precious and special country."

But Cameron, whose job may be on the line if he loses Scotland, tempered the emotion with a clear

warning: "If the UK breaks apart, it breaks apart forever."

Cameron has until now been largely absent from the debate after conceding that his privileged background and center-right politics mean he is not the best person to win over Scots, who returned just one Conservative lawmaker out of 59 in 2010.

Given the unpopularity of the Conservatives in Scotland, Cameron's trip is fraught with danger: if Scots vote for independence, Cameron will be blamed just as Britain prepares for a national election planned for May 2015.

Cameron, Miliband and third party Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - all English born - will visit Scotland in what nationalist leader Alex Salmond said was a sign of panic that would only help the secessionist cause.

"If I thought they were coming by bus I’d send the bus fare," Salmond said. The Scottish leader said Cameron was the most unpopular Conservative leader ever among Scots, and Miliband the most distrusted Labour leader.

'DISUNITED KINGDOM'

Several opinion poll surveys have shown a surge in support for independence over recent weeks, discomfiting investors and raising the biggest internal challenge to the United Kingdom since Irish independence almost a century ago.

Following a vote for independence, Britain and Scotland would face 18 months of talks on how to carve up everything from North Sea oil and the pound to European Union membership and Britain's main nuclear submarine base at Faslane.

Aside from the money, nuclear weapons and oil, uncertainties include the course of the 2015 election, the structure of the United Kingdom, symbols of state such as the "Union Jack" flag and even the role of the monarchy.

With the fate of the United Kingdom hanging in the balance and polls showing a swing among

Labour voters to the independence camp, the referendum has electrified Scotland.

On streets and in pubs and meeting halls from the Highlands to the windswept islands of the Atlantic, independence is being debated with passion.

Bookshops are full of referendum guides and tracts for and against independence. The Scotsman newspaper published six pages of letters on the vote on Wednesday, equally split between yes and no, including some from English people and Scots in England.

"This is the most exciting thing I’ve done my life,” said Kate, a waitress in a restaurant serving fancy Scottish fare in Edinburgh’s Old Town. She wore a blue “Yes” bracelet on her wrist. Others can be seen wearing blue “Yes” T-shirts but there are plenty of “No” supporters too.

Seeking to tap into a cocktail of historical rivalry, opposing political tastes, and a perception that London has mismanaged Scotland for decades, nationalists say an independent Scotland could build a wealthier and fairer country.

Unionists say independence would needlessly breakup the United Kingdom and usher in years of financial, economic and political uncertainty. They have warned that Scotland would not keep the pound as part of a formal currency union.

"If the UK lost Scotland, it would be diminished," said John Major, who served as Britain's premier from 1990 to 1997. "We face a constitutional revolution."

Cameron, the unionist campaign and the Labour party have all been criticized for allowing the case for the United Kingdom to be overly negative, riven by divisions and coldly economic.

Major, 71, hinted at a much longer catalog of mistakes, blaming the Labour government of Tony Blair for granting devolution to Scots, a step he said had stoked the drive for separation.

The nations of Britain have shared the same monarch since James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603. Formal union created the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, known today as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which includes England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Peter Graff)

Culled: Reuters

ALAAFIN AND 21ST CENTURY OLORIS

Kaabiesi (Ka bio o si), Iku baba yeye. Mo sun m’Oba nigba egbefa, mo jina s’Oba nigba egbeje o; eni ba r’Oba fin l’Oba npa o ! Toto Alaafin o.

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi and his four younger queens celebrated his 76th birthday recently in United Kingdom, and have been photographed as they went shopping in London.

Happy birthday to you Kaabiesi, we your children will celebrate your 100 years and more in good health and Ajinde ara. Ase.

Kaabiesi bami sir, we revere you as the custodian  of Yoruba culture and traditions, but the Oloris’ dressing are not promoting our culture in any way, at least they need to dress in nice Yoruba attires like ‘Ofi’, and decked their necks with lovely beads. Why putting on is tight trousers and Brazilians’ hair? Do they forget that they married to an Oba?

However, am not saying that the Oloris’ cannot dress in western ways if they choose to but whenever they are with Kabiesi, all dressing protocol must be follow in details. Happy vacation Kaabiesi.

S*X BEFORE MARRIAGE REDUCES ADULTERY AND FURNICATION...SEYI EDUN

Yoruba actress Oluwaseyi Edun said sex before marriage is the way to go before marriage if you really want to assess your partner at the same time to reduce adultery and fornication among the youths.

 In her own words, Oluwaseyi said: "I think it’s an individual thing. Once you are an adult and you think you are ready, go for it. Personally, I think sex before marriage is good. Because it will make you know your partner well before going into marriage. So if there is anything you are not comfortable with, you have an ample time to correct it before actually going into the lifetime contract of marriage. Doing it before marriage also reduces adultery and fornication. It is also a good way of studying your partner before you get committed to him or her." What do you think ?

FOR RECORD: ALTHEA GIBSON 1ST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO WIN WIMBLEDON TITLE

 Althea Gibson was born on August 25, 1927, in Silver, South Carolina, and raised in the Harlem section of New York City. She began playing tennis as a teenager and went on to win the national black women's championship twice. At a time when tennis was largely segregated, four-time U.S. Nationals winner Alice Marble advocated on Gibson's behalf and the 5'11" player was invited to make her U.S. Open debut in 1950.

In 1956, Gibson's tennis career took off and she won the singles title at the French Open--the first African American to do so--as well as the doubles' title there. In July 1957, Gibson won Wimbledon, defeating Darlene Hard, 6-3, 6-2.

In September 1957, she won the U.S. Open, and the Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year in 1957 and 1958. During the1950s, Gibson won 56 singles and doubles titles, including 11 major titles.

After winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open again in 1958, Gibson retired from amateur tennis. In 1960, she toured with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, playing exhibition tennis matches before their games. In 1964, Gibson joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour, the first black woman to do so. The trailblazing athlete played pro golf until 1971, the same year in which she was voted into the National Lawn Tennis Association Hall of Fame.

After serving as New Jersey's commissioner of athletics from 1975 to 1985, Althea Gibson died at age 76 from respiratory failure on September 28, 2003, at a hospital in East Orange, New Jersey.

CULLED: THE HISTORY

NIGERIA A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A FAILED STATE -2

In my previous blog where i wrote that ‘’NIGERIA A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A FAILED STATE’’, i received lots of comments, while some are encouraging, some are not. As i wrote then, the concept of “state failure” focusing on three gaps mainly: Capacity, Security and Legitimacy. Any country or countries that is not able to provide these three, is in the process of failure.  Capacity, when state institutions lack the ability to effectively deliver basic goods and services to its population is a failed state. Security, when the state is unable to provide security to its population under the threat of armed groups is also a failed state. Lastly, Legitimacy, when a “significant portion of its political elites and society reject the rules regulating power and the accumulation and distribution of wealth is also and indices of a failed state.

Having said that, a failed state index can also be measure in term of education, youth developments, skills acquisitions, sport developments, employment, technological advancement etc, in this area of capacity building Nigeria is found wanting in this direction!

How can someone deduce a statement from the mouth of president and commander-in- chief of a legitimate country when he said “When you talk about corruption, the private sector is involved; the public sector is involved; even the individuals including other societies, and I wouldn’t want to mention names so that I will not be attacked,”! A failed statement from a failed leader about a failed country!

How a President could say that if he mention name he would be attacked? Why is he president and commander-in- chief then? This statement shows corruptions have eating deep in ramification of government to the extent that it will soon be promulgated into law!

.It is no longer news in Nigeria that provision of public amenities are not in existence; widespread corruptions is just part of the system,  criminality is the order of the day; no employment for the youths; and  the economy is in sharp decline. What baffle me is that central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory. Boko haram are now more equip more than our soldiers! The state has been rendered ineffective and is not able to enforce its laws uniformly

Moral values are no longer there, Pastors, Imams and our elders our now colluding with the government of the day to milk the country dry, the rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer.

This extreme political corruption, an impenetrable and ineffective bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, a situation whereby some individuals wield more power than the state over a certain area is part of an example of a failed state.

Part of a failed state strategy is to indoctrinate the vulnerable youth, we can see in the statements credited to one Yinka Gbadebo,NANS President  that he challenged members of the opposition party who are challenging the performance of the Jonathan administration to a national debate.

He said, “If all what we have said here today is not the truth, I want to challenge anybody in Nigeria to a public debate to come and debunk these things.

“We are now wiser and we would not be indoctrinated. We have formed a group known as Nigerian Students Transformation Vanguard, to educate students of voting age to support good governance, pragmatic progress in the 2015 elections” he said.

MY FIRST S*X EXPERIENCE.....BIODUN OKEOWO

Biodun Okeowo , is one of the Nollywood hottest and most talented Yoruba-speaking actresses, known in the industry as Tolani Oshirin is certainly a face to reckon with in the Yoruba sector. She is beautiful and sexy.

 Biodun said that God has blessed her with what African men really like, that is her hips and eyeballs! ''Even the modern day African man who pretends to like a skinny woman, after getting down with her, he would marry a woman who has ample flesh in the right proportions.'' She said.

 A single mother with two lovely kids said her broken marriage was a place of learning for her. ‘It taught me to be a better person and has opened a hidden part of me. Then I was younger but I have learnt that what will be will be, no matter what.’

Biodun ,who claimed that she marry as a virgin said: ‘It is saddening that pre-marital sex has taken over our time. In the past, most of our men would disassociate themselves with girls who have been deflowered outside wedlock. Then a woman’s virginity was her pride but time has changed and human beings have changed. I am not happy about it. Maybe we should blame civilisation or modernisation for this.   I pray for God’s intervention in this era.’

She went further to narrate her first sex experience thus: ‘’my first (s*x) experience was full of fear, uncertainty, pain and alas! I loved it at the end.’’

How do you think your kids feel when they see their mum in sensual roles?