On the up

Feeling a bit more positive about being here today: we have internet access at home! When we left the UK two years ago, our lives were wrapped around cheap Broadband. Now I'm typing this in via a 56k modem (soon to be upgraded to a 128k ISDN line). As was seen in the UK, its only when a society shifts its infrastructure into an mass-market affordable broadband (ie minimum 512kps) infrastructure that e-commerce can truly take off. Unfortunately, very few people in Nigeria understand this. Still, its nice to be able to blog from the comfort of my study.

Two other pieces of good news: www.lagoslive.com is very nearly ready - we're ironing out glitches and loading up content. We'll be fully loaded and ready to fire up Lagos within a month, in time for the Christmas returnee rush. Our aim is to help rebrand Lagos (which has just been voted 5th worst world city!) The second bit of news is a secret, but if we can pull it off, it would be the first step along a thousand mile journey: transforming Nigeria by feeding the country's collective imagination, weaning young and old of fruitcake fundamentalist belief.

Talking of nutcase religions, my love of Islamic culture has faded rapidly since we moved to Maitama. Nearby is the local mosque. They insist on broadcasting prayers over the loudspeaker, even though the convention is to only broadcast the call to prayers. And now its Ramadam, the guy in the tower has been tunelesslessly wailing pretty much all day. I completely resent having someone else's religion stuffed down my ears. It leaves me with a depressing thought: would humankind ever develop spiritually and intellectually to leave the folly of monotheism and a simplistic idea of spirit-being behind? Even the lizard on the rock has a better understanding of the spiritual magic of nature than most monotheistic belief systems. Oh that Zoroaster had never lived!

Another bit of good news: the Bayelsa State thief gets to languish in Brixton prison until his next hearing on November 6th. The time is nigh for all the governor-thieves.