Easterhouse

Easter was always my favourite festival. All the choccy amidst pagan undertones, and the thrusting of spring usually well on the way. The cricket season and the smell of fresh cut grass just round the corner, followed by lazy summer days... Wrapped up in it was the minor thrill of it being close to the end of the football season - and the opportunity for the epsilons to keep shtum for a while about their simpleton game.

This Easter has a whiff of transformation about it. A few of my projects have moved into crysallis mode. NEITI looks like its going to kick ass this year and up the ante in terms of extractive transparency in Nigeria (watch this space). Meanwhile, there's another thing that you're going to start hearing about quite soon...

Meanwhile hash 2 (can't find the sign on my MacBook), a mate brought the Sunday papers from the UK. There was an article in the Sindie about Oxbridge's continuing dominance on public life (the law, media and politics in particular). The statistics are alarming. I came away thinking about how much this contributes to the hidebound nature of class in the UK and how it is stifling transformation and the opportunity for UK plc to remain globally competitive. The media is dominated by a narrow perspective on life. Think of how much for instance the BBC and the quality papers are utterly dominated by public school boys and girls who went 'up' to Oxford or Cambridge, ditto the houses of Parliament. Its not as if those who went to Oxbridge are particularly brighter than those who do their degrees elsewhere: more that the happenstance of their class background and secondary education gave them the supporting context and confidence to apply..

Note to those still commenting on the Dangote post: I simply will not approve any more of your comments, its getting quite ridiculous. I'm sure if someone lent me 400 bucks 20 years ago, I'd have forgotten about it by now..