In ‘Yellow Rose,’ An Undocumented Filipina Sings for Her American Dream

In Diane Paragas’ musical-drama feature, the lead character reveals casually what the title “Yellow Rose” means. Of course, our immediate association would be with the familiar folk song, but “Rose” here is Rosario (Eva Noblezada), an undocumented 17-year-old Filipino-American, who, showing an inclination for singing country music as a child, was given the racially insensitive moniker “Yellow Rose.” While this could’ve kindled didactic sociopolitical commentary on the complicated issues of migration and race, Paragas ferries...

If gold rust…what then would iron do? —Catholic Priests and unrestrained canal pleasures

As a practicing Catholic, I do not go to confession. These priests do not deserve to hear my sins that belong in the Ears of God. ―Don Okolo There is a Catholic priest in Louisiana, and he takes the cake. I don’t know what his name is, but I guarantee you the one called Samael, Lucifer, that is, does. If anyone in the realm of Heaven is weeping right about now, it is Jesus, The...

What is An Algorithm? How Computers Know What to Do With Data

The world of computing is full of buzzwords: AI, supercomputers, machine learning, the cloud, quantum computing and more. One word in particular is used throughout computing – algorithm. In the most general sense, an algorithm is a series of instructions telling a computer how to transform a set of facts about the world into useful information. The facts are data, and the useful information is knowledge for people, instructions for machines or input for yet...

Nigerians Cry Out Against Police Brutality

In 2017, Nigerian youths adopted a campaign against brutality from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The objective was to catalyze mass action against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the NPF set up to respond to armed robberies. The campaign, which adopted a mix of online and offline strategies, was popularly known on social media as #EndSARS. Over ten thousand Nigerians signed a petition and submitted it to the National Assembly calling for...

Nigerian (and American) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Finalist for WTO Director General

The two finalists for the position of director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are Yoo Myung-hee, Republic of Korea, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian and (since 2019) an American citizen. The media is portraying Yoo Myung-hee as an international trade specialist and a WTO insider, while Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala describes herself as a WTO outsider; she combines, however, exceptional political and diplomatic experience with her economic training and subsequent career. She has been twice Nigeria’s finance...

End SARS Campaign: Beyond the Rhetoric

By Ebuka Onyekwelu There is nothing more brazenly scandalous than abuse of power and public trust. But somehow, Nigerians have been able to put up with more than enough outrageous abuses, vandalism of sorts and dehumanization of the highest level. This, to the point that most Nigerians now justify or at least rationalize these incongruities, perhaps those are part of what it takes to be a Nigerian. In public bus, once police stops a bus...

Current regime trends stir revival of xenophobic conspiracy theorists

White privilege is a beast. It is an innate, naturally concocted following…it is therefore hard to extricate oneself from its snares. ―Don Okolo Man has disintegrated badly; his mind is still functional in the sense that it still wants to satisfy the musings of those like him. But the rest of him has acquired real estate in the pit of squalor where he now sits in comfort writing essays of disdain and mischievous husbandry in...

Nigeria at 60: to be or Not to be?

Aside from the ruling class in the north, south, west, and east of the country, nobody else is benefitting from the country. ―Ebuka Onyekwelu Sixty years is too long, but apparently, too short a time within which Nigeria can decide the identity it wants to take on. For six decades after Nigeria’s independence, basic questions of nationhood remain unanswered; Nigeria is yet to resolve issues surrounding its identity. Most recently, the recurrent question remains if...

Sharia Punishments Embarrass Nigeria

Inhumane sharia punishments, including flogging, amputations, and stoning, have long embarrassed the federal government of Nigeria. That is happening now, with the 120-month prison sentence handed down by a Kano sharia court to a thirteen-year-old boy, Omar Farouq, and the death sentence handed down by the same court, again for blasphemy, on a twenty-two-year-old musician, Yahaya Sharif, for a song he shared on social media. A third, Mubarak Bala, a self-proclaimed atheist, has disappeared in police custody....

What Nigerian Voters Must Learn from Edo Voters

It could have been minority’s win because of the absence of majority participation. ―Ebuka Onyekwelu The just-concluded governorship election in Edo state was a clash of powerful political forces and no doubt part of the buildup to the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria. But most importantly, the victory in that election belongs to the people of Edo. The less than six hundred thousand Edo voters, who matched their words with action, went out to cast...

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