Servants, slaves, workers?

Hi everyone, congrats on living it up in 2008. This story is about the secret lives of Nigerians. Read, comment if you like. This new year, reflect on how living standards are rising (and must continue to rise) for yourself, for Nigerians, and for people around the world. Never call any living thing stupid again. Peace and love.

House maids in America

Shyima Hall, 19, discusses her domestic enslavement Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, in Beaumont, Calif. Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in Northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the United States is an extension of an illegal but common practice among the upper class in Africa...The sentence: Three years in federal prison for Ibrahim, 22 months for his wife, and then deportation for both. Read more

In US etc, I would "Report. Report. Report." In Naija, what to do? I mean, how many parents in Naija treat their own kids so cruelly, let alone relatives, let alone their omo-odo.
To get involved with an organisation against child slavery, visit www.restavecfreedom.org or at least buy the book.

VC

In Naija, Yahoo is THE internet brand. People don't really know gmail, hotmail, etc. Many computers have yahoo.com as their homepage. Yahoo's firing workers nowadays, the recession being a fine excuse. If the company went under, don't worry we'd still use the verb yahoo, the adjective yahoo-yahoo, the noun yahoozee, ...
(I just paused to cycle my arms as in the dance to the horrific, addictive yahoozee song)

Last week I lent my first <100dollars for a FUTY student's business idea. Wish us luck. The second part of this post is from the company website of John Doerr, famous Venture Capitalist.

MESSAGES THAT INSPIRE
“Where you live should not decide… whether you live or whether you die.”
-- Bono
“I strongly believe that we can create a poverty-free world, if we want to.... In that kind of world, [the] only place you can see poverty is in the museum.”
-- Muhammed Yunus
“ [Green's] opponents... named it liberal, tree-hugging, girly-man, sissy, unpatriotic, vaguely French… I’ve been trying to redefine green as the most capitalistic, patriotic, geostrategic, pro-american... green IS the new red, white and blue.”
-- Tom Friedman
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
-- Margaret Mead

Haha

Source

Sub-prime problems hit Japan...
Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run
on HBOS in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan .

In the last 7 hours Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and
Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday, it was
announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while
today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported
to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black. Furthermore, 500 staff at
Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy
going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

……but looking on the bright side, growth at the Shitake Bank has mushroomed.