writing = death

Well, it’s happening again. Acoording to AP, the deputy governor of a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria has called on Muslims to kill the Nigerian woman who wrote a newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant that sparked deadly religious riots.

Just like the blasphemous Indian writer Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed," Zamfara Deputy Governor Mahamoud Shinkafi told a gathering of Muslim groups in the state capital, Gusau, on Monday.

Barbaric.

I’m tempted to fully take on Rickey’s opinion on all this. What year is it anyway? Sorry, I thought it was 2002.

What does impress, if you can ignore all the human drama, is the power of the word to cause…things.

Careful what you write. It might kill you.

breath of the naga

Meanwhile, in Thailand, official investigations continue regarding a phenomenon that people claim (including the monks who have records going back hundreds of years) is the pneuma of the great serpent Naga. Once a year at around this time, fireballs erupt from the Mekong River, which is where the Naga was condemned to roam forever, after Buddha denied his request to be a monk.

A controversial documentary has been filmed, causing dismay among the monks and the believers, suggesting that the fireballs are manmade. And yet opinions differ: some claim to have seen the Naga, others say the fireballs are the result of bored soldiers in neighboring Laos shooting rockets over the river, others it is the result of trapped methane plus the earth’s proximity to the sun, while others opine that it is absolutely true.


an unexpected party

Stayed home yesterday to run errands and suddenly, family came to visit to partially celebrate my nephew (and namesake) Dean’s 2nd birthday and visit Sage. I took the opportunity to show everyone the family-tree-in-progress and they were delighted to see the 270+ people. I took portraits of people to add to the graphic portion of the tree (gah, everyone is a ham!).

My aunt and uncle helped me fine-tune some elements on their side of the family, while my sister Reb helped out with our generation. The sad elements I’ve started to add are children who died as babies.

My aunt also suggested that I go beyond the basic information I place on each person, and start putting notes on their jobs, achievements and such. This, of course, is a great idea, though a daunting one. And what I really want to put in are things of human interest – like hidden stories of passion, ambition, murder and sainthood. The stuff of novels.

A funny moment: while using ACDCSee to show my sister the digital photos I’ve taken, I mistaken clicked on another folder with a bevy of sexy girls, prompting her to ask why I had nudies of Diana Zubiri and Maui Taylor on a beach. She also saw the pictures I took of navels and was flabbergasted when I said one of those navels belonged to Maureen, our sister.

Anyhow, the real party for Dean is on Saturday, and he’s invited all his cousins, so its off to the hinterlands of Sucat for us. Thank god for the car.


if I had $100M

I would not bequeath it to Poetry Magazine, like the heir to the Eli Lilly fortune has, saving it from its regular fear of folding up due to lack of funds.

An amusing thing to note is that Poetry Magazine earlier rejected all of her poetry submissions for publication.

And she still gave them money.

Makes you think, doesn't it?


simpsons season 2 dvd

In the meantime, Nikki and I are enjoying the fantastic DVD boxed set of the Simpsons' 2nd season. Everything is well-written and like a walk down memory lane. This was during 1990-1991 and has 22 episodes - enough to last us many a dinner time viewing. And the features are neat too.

Go get it.

Great viewing.