Update from Qudus' blog

Sep 11, 2008

Armé de la terre and a other writing.

Armé de la terre !



This Soldier is special one, Usman the Soldier boy... lol
Few weeks ago I got the saddest news... or what can be as bad in a news
as knowing that ones close relation has joined the Army! 
He goes to war to fight those they call his enemy. Foolish Fool, 
he sees himself matured enough to go to war, 
but not cynical enough to know amongst whom his enemies are, 
how can you call people you don't know your enemies, 
neither do they know you,
his real enemies he has left back home, 
he has just accepted to be used as a sacrificial lamb 
for the world to move on.

Sometimes, if he is lucky not to have gone with the memories of the war, 
he maybe come back with what he calls good news of victory, 
hmm funny right? Forgetting that those he left at home are still around, 
and he will never be man enough to go blow their head off as his profession permits. 
Oh sorry, his profession permits, but only on his "foreign enemy"
Then what will be his gain, 
is he not wise enough to understand that he's been used 
as an apparatus for some people's power grabbing tussles? 
A political instrument who think one day he will be a hero, 
trained for the realization of the dreams of the gun makers 
and fought gallantly for the showbiz of politics and power. 

Just like in the movies, war films; 
every second the bullet is hitting somebody, 
someone his loosing his dear life for the dear war to go on, 
someone is struggling not to die 
and the other prefers to die than enjoying the pains of survival, 
someone is being used for awful images that passes emotion to the audience
but the camera never reminds us of those spear carriers, 
that are meant to die for the sake of the lead characters 
who turns out to be the heroes at the end. 

So now i'm thinking to myself now, Those we assume as heroes are actually far from it, 
the real heroes are unspoken, those who didn't made the media their homes, 
those who were not so much awaiting the public applaud of what they are/were doing
but affects lives of the populace and the localities they represent first, 
most heroes are self made isn't it? 
most heroes are criminals i must add, heroes my foot! . . . lol
there is always a first thought of self proclamation and a reason to fight 
that is far from the trumpeted motive, 
have you ever heard of a hero 
that got no link to politics in whatever form of it 
and not hyped by the media? 
Hero for the realization of a dream, 
for the survival of their friends, families, offspring and their generations to come.
is your hero known to others?


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My Squatter has started again.



How could you have done that to me
How could you?
Five minutes after you went into the cinema
I called you but your phone was 
Not reachable,
I called home, no one to pick it up
And you know you got the keys on you
You were almost so stupid to have done that
But at times you think you're so wise,
So if I hadn't think of something wiser 
I would have been outside the cold 
Waiting for you
I had to call the landlady
For a spare key,
Now she knows you live with me
And you know what that means
what's the reason for your stupidness and foolishness, 
don't you realize the consequence of your injudicious actions
At times you tire me
And moreover why didn't you wait
For me before going into the cinema
Anyway, how was the movie?
Don't you think it's a movie to watch?
Don't you want to answer me?
Why are you in this mood?
Is your melancholy back again?
But don't judge me by my words
Don't take them personal
I was only being sincere with you
Because I love you.
why u acting like a fool?
Qudus, You've started again.

8 comments:

  1. a writer with a passion... who always talk to the mind of his audience. This is a lovely piece...

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  2. Mr Onikeku..

    You have just made one of the most sacrilegous statements that could ever be used to describe the honour and nobility with which our military personnel protect our borders!!!

    Do you not realise that the Military is one of the ways in which a countries might is judged in international affairs. Do you not also realise that territorial integrity is one of the cardinal points with which your sovereignty as a nation is guaranteed!!?? If there were no military apparatus in our country we would be nothing but sitting ducks for the world to exploit!! Just the way your Grandfathers could not defend themselves during the days of slave trade where superior firepower guaranteed that the whiteman ruled over all and sundry in sub-saharan Africa!!

    I reckon that you hava made a big JOKE of our heroes past.. that fought for the country called Nigeria!! It is unfortunate that the politicians do NOT recognize the courage of our military during the civil war otherwise you would never write such a satirical piece.

    I also write satirical articles but i ensure that i DO NOT JOKE with that which is most sacrosanct to the Nigerian constitution!! The military is the last bastion of orderand civility in any developed nation!!

    I am sorry to say that you have destroyed the beauty of the above written rhetoric by choosing the WRONGEST topic to attack!!

    Furthermore...

    OUR MILITARY IS A NOBLE TRADITION THAT IS FOLLOWED BY GREAT FAMILIES IN THE MOTHERLAND and we should praise them and EXTOL THEIR ACTIVITIES as opposed to ridiculing them in the most unlikely forum.. FACEBOOK!!! NO OTHER NOBLE PROFESSION THAN ONE TO SERVE THE FATHERLAND WITHOUT EQUINAMITY OR MENTAL RESERVATION!!

    We can write and talk {Politicians and the Literatti} but the MILITARY ARE WILLING TO DIE FOR THE MOTHERLAND... Talk is cheap.. ACTION IS WHAT BRINGS ABOUT MOMENTUM FOR PROGRESS!!

    An apology is expected of you regarding this desecration of the Nigerian Military apparatus!!!!!

    Regards

    DBA
    www.nigerianyouthleague.org
    Motto: Dialogue, Power & Progress

    ReplyDelete
  3. QD ..... So U still went ahead with your threat...lol
    U try...
    1 - 0 .... Imo get U for this...lol

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  4. Inasmuch as i disagree with QD on this note, i cannot help but agree and disagree with Daniel Afilaka. My reason for DISAGREEMENT goes thius:

    Do we have to determine the strength of a nation by her military might?

    (IF) the world was peaceful enough?
    (IF) nations were not as hungry for power?
    (IF) superiority/respect was not forced upon, but earned?
    (IF) intelligentsia was the preffered choice of determinance for greatness?
    (IF) border control was eradicated?
    (IF) humans ways were in total submission to God's will?
    (IF) there was no "BAD" in the world dictionary?
    (IF) ammunitions were not invented?
    (IF) there was a limit to wealth and richness?
    (IF) we didnt have enemies? etc etc...
    Then the world wont need armoury neither would we need battalions.

    Unfortunately the world is not a bed of roses and my AGREEMENT with Mr. Afilaka goes thus:

    The world had and still have Hitler.
    The world is still a confused community.
    The survival of the fittest is the order of the day.
    we all have to protect our own.
    We all have to proclaim our superiority complex by our military might and neutralising the amoury of whoever we perceived our competitor/s.
    Chaos, anarchy reigns supreme amongst us. It is the only thing that seem to keep the sanity of the ruthless mighty nations.
    We all have to protect our own. The people that help us protect our nation are the heroes. The soldiers are the pillars that stood firm and hold our nation on solid ground. They deserve honour, they ought to be revered not ridiculed.
    The world has always been a race for survival. From the minute a spermatozoa was released, the race has begun and its the same story for survival. Even the first creation a la Kane & Abel walked the path of survival. This is confirmed in both scriptures i.e The Qur'an and The Bible.
    QD, for you to depict the soldiers of a nation as sacrificial lamb is an unconscious admittance that they should be revered. They should be honoured because in the proverbial sense and indeed in the real sense, a sacrificial lamb seeks peace with a supreme being. Its not by its choice but by force.
    Qudus, you have written well. You have expressed your opinion but the flaws are (in my opinion) translated to disrespect for those that are supposed to be our HERO.
    Peace
    DJ King.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmmm Much has been said while i was away, i like to write and stand by my words, perhaps both party will learn how to go into controversial write ups, from another angle, especially ones writen by a schizophrenic lunatic like me, i mean those that wants me to appologise and those that stands by me, first to start with i will like to responde to Mr Afilaka's long note of contempt,...

    i pause here, to go see if there is in any part of the note i mentioned Nigerian Army, perhaps you are a military man or in a way or the other have a close relation with them, so you feel their pains more than i do, but if i will have to point it, i write from a part of believe, that is, logical reasoning, every profession has its ethics and rigour and beauty, so as the military does, but that has not made them in any way superior or whatsoever.

    Dj king has perhaps said some of my mind, but one thing that is as well important that you forget to state was that you are perhaps talking about a military guy trained to be at the bothers of his nation, and possesses all the rosy attribute you give to them, if that is to be their job, wonderful. i will humanly respect them, but for example, let talk about those American soldiers that left the shores of their country to go build a base somewhere in Sao tome or Iraq looking for their enemies, hmm, lets forget about the nation then talk about the individual, are those guys really his enemy?

    i don't know if you guys ever witnessed two rams turned to each other by some silly humans, forcing them to fight each other while they are by the side betting with big cash, ahh thats the showbiz i am referring to, those guys are mere apparatus, for some people's power tussle, ad you and i know it, so i wonder if they listen to the same news we listen to, if not let george bush pick up his Ak47 and move to join them at the war front, some guys who knows nothing about the game that once existed between Bush family and the Bin Laden family, becomes the victim.

    That is where i talked about war films, those guys are just extras, then some guy that was runing in between bullets, hiding in some bushes comes out to claim the hero.

    Of course i perfectly see from which angle you guys were coming from, but perhaps i didn't want to state the obvious, if not its of no use for me. so if armies are meant to be mere gate keepers, then nothing would have prompted this note, but from the moment warfare becomes another industry, to determine the strength of a nation or whatever, having their own equivalent of Nobel price for peace, Oscar awards, then i refuse to call any of those man haters hero. no way.

    i will leave you guys with Asa's lyrics;
    MR SOLDIER MAN, TOMORROW IS THE DAY YOU GO TO WAY, BUT YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR ANOTHER MAN'S CAUSE AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HIM, WHAT DID HE SAY TO MAKE YOU SO BLIND TO YOUR CONSCIENCE AND REASONING, IS IT THE LOVE FOR YOUR COUNTRY OR FOR THE GUN YOU USE IN KILLING...???

    Answer that... and tell me how those guys going to war, draw the line between the love for their country and their addiction to pulling the trigger.

    Qd

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  6. Q.D I could see the 'poetry' in your prose. I know what you mean. J.P Clark writing in one of his poems said {paraphrased} war drum isn't something beaten on the fields of war, but in the smoke filled rooms of the protagonists.

    War is politics and economics. It's all about creating a demand for something manufactured against people's wills. It's domination to make sure someone unwillingly does another's unholy biddings.

    Now off prose and poetry, i understand that armies are a way of self-defence for nations and maybe a negotiating tool, but that's not the total thing. Armies have been used to develop, there are army engineers, doctors and to fight natural disasters like China did when Earthquake occured.

    In my own fatherland, my earliest images and association is that of oppression, killings and stealings. We are not at war and our army can't point to any major projects they have done. They develop peppersoup pregnancies at will and father bastards with glee.

    And when the other guy talked about them fighting the civil war, what use is it anyway? The 1 Nigeria they fought for has been undermined by the same soldiers who fought from a distance.

    If you have an army officer as a neighbor in my country, he's your god. You have to keep watching your back because they're laws unto themselves. My mother-in-law used to be a high ranking officer, she was thrown away at the point of her highest need of the same organization.

    I went to their function in Dalston the other day and saw people who aren't happy with the state of things in Naija.

    Moore, the American satirist interviewed members of congress if they actually have their own sons and daughters fighting in Iraq, only one out of close to 700 of the war mongers have their kids there. They go to the hinterlands of America to lure poor kids from godforsaken back water places.

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  7. Much as I admire and respect your views on this issue, may I inform you that there are many points you are missing here. Before I go further, I'll like to inform you that I'm not a soldier, neither do I have family in the millitary, but I do have friends who have chosen for one reason or the other to enlist in the millitary in different parts of the world.

    I'm a lover of peace who will rather see the world freed of wars or other atrocities, but this is just a wishful thinking, "It ain't gonna happen"
    This world is so complicated! Much as we have people like Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Ladden, Samuel Doe, even our own Sanni Abacha, we will have men of courage and goodwill who will volunteer to checkmate these evil men of the world.

    Your article would have received my commendation if you have directed it to the politicians who exploit the nobility and sancity of these men of courage to promote personal and political agendas.
    May I ask you some salient questions here? If you were around in the 40's would you have allowed Adolf and his supreme race advocates go unpunished?

    What do you propose we do to Osama and his cohorts who are interested in forcing their own brand of Islamic rules down own throats?
    Should we allow ethnic cleansing and genocides in Sudan continue unabated?
    Unfortunately my brother, this world is not as simple as you think. While there are peace makers, there are war mongers, while there are vulnerables, there are oppressors.

    I believe you are in France now and able to excercise your freedom of speech, courtesy of the men and women in the uniform who in the 40's fought to wrestle France out of the grab of Adolf and his Master-race advocates.

    You are not alone, I,m enjoying same freedom here in US because of the efforts of the civil war army that fought for the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the slaves in this great country.
    Maybe, my grand parents would have died in the plantations somewhere in the Carribbean. Maybe, just maybe!

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  8. Mr Q..

    I have to say i loved the piece but the Nigerian in me will not stand by and let the military tradition {which i have no links to whatsoever} be denegrated for a laugh or a good read... Sincerely didnt mean to sound contemptous.. i just got carried away with my instinctive emotions to defend our national pride and integrity as Nigerians especially on Facebook!!

    I will not quote poets on this subject matter but just be objective.. The military tradition has been from time before time.. even the Bible which you so eloquently quoted spoke of the armies of heaven fighting for the Glory of God.. This was in the beginnig and it will also be in the end {Armageddon} soooo.. The Army is an essential part of any coherent and developed country!!

    PS: You been a schizophrenic...hmmmm :-)

    Regards

    DBA

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