whatintheworldweekly

[whatintheworldweekly]

Book Review #18: Becoming Nigerian

Rating: 9/10 Author: ElNathan John Genre: Satire, Social Commentary Length: ~ 4 hours Summary The book is structured as a series of short ‘How-To’ guides which mock the behaviour of Nigerians. For example, in the chapter on becoming a Pastor, John explains that you are not a Nigerian pastor until you start selling special anointed oil, bless your flocks material things and finally achieve…

[whatintheworldweekly]

Is surrogacy unethical?

The lede: “I don’t understand the desire to want biological children so badly?!” “Why can’t you just adopt? There are loads of those children”. After news of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s twins (delivered via surrogacy broke), even some of her most ardent defenders found this a bit too much to stomach. An enjoyable debate erupted over whether surrogacy was unethical. For context, Adichie is 47…

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Book Review #17: The Looting Machine

Rating: 6.5/10 Author: Tom Burgis Genre: Finance, Non-Fiction Length: ~ 11 hours Summary The book goes behind the simplistic headlines of poverty in Africa to examine the political economy of resource rich states. It exposes how corruption works in the modern economy. The days of simply transferring money from the Treasury directly to an account in your wife’s name are (largely) over. The…

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Book Review #16: In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Rating: 9.5/10 Author: Gabor Maté Genre: Non-Fiction, Mental Health Length: ~ 15 hours Summary A comprehensive story of addiction, starting from the beginning (how the neural pathways which crave the dependency on self-medicating are developed in the brain) to the end (practical steps to regain control of addiction). Essentially, the book proves, through the explanation of ground-breaking…

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From hell’s heart, Palestinian children stab at Harris.

Trigger warning: This article contains pictures/videos of dead children. FROM HELLS HEART, I STAB AT THEE; FOR HATE’s SAKE, I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE”.– 13,000 dead Palestinian children That title of this article was borrowed from the Herman Melville classic, Moby Dick. Facing certain death, Captain Ahab mustered one final effort against the victorious whale. It is an ultimate demonstration…

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Book Review #15: Only Big BumBum Matters Tomorrow

Rating: 7/10 Author: Damilare Kuku Genre: Fiction, Coming-Of-Age Length: ~ 7 hours Summary The book tells the story of Temi, a Nigerian university graduate living in Lagos who believes the key to the life of her dream of having a bigger bum. As is typical of this modern time, the surgical knife was her method of choice. Upon telling her family about her plans, deeper secrets about their…

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Book Review #14: Troy

Rating: 6/10 Author: Stephen Fry Genre: Fantasy, Mythology. Length: 11 hours Summary Troy is a retelling of Homer’s epic, The Iliad. For those unfamiliar with The Iliad, it tells the stories of the power struggles that engulfed Ancient Greece. The story featured major characters such as King Agamenón, Menelaus, Helen of Troy, Paris (her lover), Hector and the infamous Achilles. Achilles…

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WhatInTheWorld #16: Israel killed its citizens on October 7.

3min read. Opinion Israeli leadership sought a high bodycount on October 7 to justify its already planned genocide of the Palestinian people. The Hannibal Directive It has long been an open secret that the Israeli government has a policy of killing their own citizens in order to deny Hamas the propaganda victory of hostage exchanges. This is known as the Hannibal Directive. While not…

[whatintheworldweekly]

US Election #10: This one is for the donors.

The only thing she is probably convinced about is that she wants to be President.

5min read. Preamble In my recent post about Trump’s attempted assassination (a compelling read by the way), I proposed a theory that Biden would be emboldened and use this opportunity to display his leadership. This would mean he does not drop out. I would like to admit that things haven’t exactly worked out that way… At the time of publishing this, there are rumours that Biden is in hospice…

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US Election #9: What if…Trump died.

(This article was inspired, in part, by the Marvel series “What If…?”. The series explores various alternate timelines across the multiverse in which major moments occurred differently. For example, if Peggy Carter was injected with the serum and became Captain America, instead of Steve Rodgers.) I consider an alternative timeline in which Trump was killed yesterday. The Lead After news broke…

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Book Review #13: The Stranger

Listen to this article here: [TO FOLLOW] Rating: 5/10 Author: Albert Camus (pied noir: Camus is described in French as a pied noir. This description refers to French people who were born in occupied French territories. I am reliably told it is used perjoratively.) Genre: Philosophical, Fiction Length: ~ 3 hours Summary The book follows our protagonist, Arthur Meursault, a French man living…

[whatintheworldweekly]

US Election #8: Trump and Palestine

Unfortunately for the Palestinians, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.​

Listen to this article here: Much has been made of Joe Biden’s full throated support of Israel in their genocidal campaign against the Palestinians since October 7. Of course, I should point out that the Israel campaign of genocide began long before October 7. However, it took a more leisurely pace, a pace their Western backers could ‘begrudgingly’ support. Days after the attack, Biden repeated…

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UK Election #2: What the hell is a “tactical vote”?

Listen to this article here: Tactical voting: Voting for people whose policies do not appeal to you, for the sake of removing another party whose policies do not appeal to you. – Ade For those of you who read Chapter One of my UK election series, you will be aware that we are less than a month away from the UK parliamentary elections. Given the shocking state of our country after Tory rule…

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UK Election #1: The Debates

The UK parliamentary elections are fast approaching, but there appears to be little intrigue and excitement in the public. In previous cycles that I can vividly remember (2015, 2017 and 2019), there was serious debate about the plans and ideas of the two main parties. For my non-UK readers, this would be the Conservative Party and the Labour Party (centre right and left of centre respectively…

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US Election #7: ERMMM…WE GOT HIM?

Listen to this article here: Click and hold the Spotify link to launch the podcast. It was the sort of charge you’d concoct if the target is a bad guy and you want to nail him for something. – Jon Chait One of the many contrived legal cases against former President Donald Trump has finally caught up to him. Last week, Trump was convicted on a 34-count case in a New York court. This central…

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Chapter #15: Did Lucy Letby actually do it?

“We haven’t got evidence, but we’ve got concerns”

Before I get any further into this, I would like to make it clear (for legal reasons) that I am writing this article in my capacity as an opinion commentator, not a reporter or journalist. I am simply talking about a public matter in a public place. Now to the article… Listen to this article here: Click and hold the Spotify logo to listen to this article. “We haven’t got evidence, but we’ve…

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Book Review #12: Scattered Minds

Listen to this article here: Click and hold the Spotify logo to launch podcast. Score: 7/10 Author: Gabor Mate Genre: Medical, Self Help, Psychology Length: ~ 12 hours Summary This book explores Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Written by a family doctor who himself has been diagnosed with the condition, he discusses the…