Wednesday, November 21, 2007

WHAT WAKES ME FROM MY DREAMS

I remember my childhood, sitting quietly all by myself....amidst six other children and yet I sat alone. Speaking to myself in my head in my own language that only I and I could understand and reckon with. You know my mum said I didn’t use to cry as a baby and neither laughed.

Till date, I can’t remember what went on while I was in nursery and primary 1-2. This is because I lived in another world different from the classroom. I can’t remember any of my classmate or even the teachers and this made me remain close to the bottom of the class at the end of every term.

The only event I get close to remembering is my fourth birthday. There must have been a party thrown for me because I was born on February 29 and so my parents make it a point of duty to throw big parties for me once in four years and just do simple marking in the in-between years. So that meant I didn’t celebrate a 10th birthday but a 12th and I didn’t get the usual transforming 21st birthday notable for every babe but a 20th.

Back to my story….I remember that on my fourth birthday, I had a white top that had a black bib thrown behind and infront of the top was inscribed:

Happy Birthday
Titilayo is 4


I could be in dreamland for days on end..webbing scenarios in my head and living there. The popular scenario was a garden that had swings, chairs and tables and all manners of trees having fruits on them and I would play and take all my meals in the garden.

I remember this one most because I wished so much for it to come to past and when Dad announced we were moving to our own house I daydreamed about it more and more. However, when we got to the new house, all the floor was fully cemented, not even one plant grew within the compound talk less of a tree.

You know, I always say God saved my parents that I was not autistic…….

Till date I still find myself lost in my day dreaming world where everything is as I love it. I still love to go back to that sanctuary where I am all by self, to remain there for days on end and be a recluse. However, there are issues that startle me back to reality, issues that scream for my attention and make me alert to every little development in my environment.

I see these different issues and they make me remain wide awake asking what happened, where did we g wrong, how did we miss it and most importantly how do we get out of here?

This may sound very funny, but whenever I am around Tejuosho market, I marvel at what has become of my childhood London. Shopping for Christmas at Tejuosho was a ritual my mum strictly adhered to when we were kids. The mall was a beautiful sight with lovely wares neatly displayed in the shops and its clear and clean pathways. When I was later taken there as an older girl, a 100level student just out of the secondary school boarding house to be integrated back into the Lagos society I had left behind, I had to ask my elder sister, is Yaba market the same as the Tejuosho market we used to go to as kids?

I consider the situation Nigerians have to go through to apply for a UK visa and the daylight robbery being perpetrated by the UK commission in Nigeria, robbing genuine Nigerian citizens of their hard earned Naira bills and all I can do is scream in my head, THIS MUST STOP!!!!!!!

This list is endless…….and all I will like to do is ask, what must we do?

Thursday, November 01, 2007

From Guest Blogger: Big Brother 2.0

Having thought about this for quite a bit, I finally get to do "sthg". Anyway, I just got off a webpage with the headline Privacy Lost: These Phones can find you (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/technology/23mobile.html?em&ex=1193371200&en=cd5c706dac95e6b9&ei=5087%0A).

The gist is GPS isn't enough anymore now since people want to connect hence are signing up to mobile phone services offering such in the US. One can assume as more telecoms operators in Nigeria and other developing countries expand their pool of services, this would be added sooner rather than later.

Speaking of new services by telecoms operators, I saw an ad last night on TV where all you need to follow your favorite Premiership team (note: for football fans only), is to send an sms with a certain layout eg Arsenal text to a short code provided and just like that, you'd get live feeds and updates on all match days for your club. Hmm.

Back to privacy, the truth is Web 2.0 has brought a glut of tools, networks and opportunities to people globally with little or no restriction. However, like I first titled this, do you want to be found 24/7? Do you want a "Big Brother" looking over your shoulder and monitoring your every step anytime of the day.

If I signed up for this service, how much more of "my space" would I be giving up? Its cool to note though that parents, guardians and the likes should find such services when (not if) they are available in Nigeria of great help in tracking and hopefully ensuring safety of their wards. Though this could be assumed to hold only where wards do take their phones with them at all times anywhere they are.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Brief Profile: Having taken forever to start his own blog, 'Tope Soremi is the proud husband of Titilayo Soremi, writer of My Thots Blog. Tope is a guest blogger and would happily share his thoughts on a wide range of issues with anyone interested. He's reachable via babatope [at] gmail. com.