CC™ VideoSpective
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
British Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch triggers Kashim Shettima and the leadership of Nigeria’s kleptocracy
CC™ VideoSpective
At the recent International Democracy Union (IDU) Forum dinner, firebrand leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch touched on several issues (video below) including that of her connection to Nigeria (she was born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian aristocrats).
In response to her speech, Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima, took exception to his perceived slight or denigration of Nigeria and proceeded to essentially declare her persona non grata, as far as Nigeria was concerned.
In her response to Shettima’s vile and rather uncouth remarks toward her, Badenoch made it clear to Shettima (a known sponsor of Islamic terrorists including Boko Haram, like majority of the Northern Nigeria political class) that she was Yoruba and held no allegiance to the geographical contraption called Nigeria, or the terror ridden and Islamist North Shettima and his ilk originate from.
In listening to Badenoch’s speech, her vision for the United Kingdom is clear. While I may disagree with most of her salient points (and categorically if I might add), she should be left alone and allowed to pursue her goals and aspirations without the unnecessary distractions and hissicuffs from a rudderless kleptocracy, steeped in debilitating corruption.
In a sane society with true human values and the rule of law, Kashim Shettima would be throwing stones behind bars rather than from the podium.
Kemi Badenoch is British and her future lies in the United Kingdom, regardless of whether or not she becomes the Prime Minister.
Nigeria’s loss is Britain’s gain and what Shettima and his band of marauders should be more concerned about is creating a conducive climate that allows for the nurturing, development and retention of our most prized asset, our people.
Sunday
Barbarians at the gate - How America mortgaged its future on the altar of MAGA
CC™ Editor’s Sunday Review
The incoming administration of Donald J. Trump has predicated its policies on ‘cleaning the swamp’.
Here are the facts:
1) 8 of Trump’s cabinet picks donated almost half-a-billion dollars to his (Trump’s) re-election campaign. While the influence of large campaign donors on policy making is a recurring concern across administrations, the scale of these donations with regard to the incoming Trump administration, raises valid concerns about cronyism and how these relationships might shape policymaking.
2) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
The establishment of the DOGE with figures like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy underscores broader concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Tesla’s historical receipt of government funds to innovate in clean energy contrasts with any policy that undermines competitors like Rivian. Canceling Biden-era funding for Rivian, as Ramaswamy has intimated, could:
•Stifle competition in the EV market, undermining innovation.
•Harm Georgia’s economy if the promised 8,000 jobs fail to materialize.
•Reinforce perceptions of favoritism, potentially benefiting Tesla.
3) Regulation Rollbacks
A loosening of regulatory oversight, particularly in critical sectors like healthcare and aviation, could indeed have far-reaching consequences. Historical examples suggest that deregulation:
•May increase corporate profits but often at the expense of public safety or service quality.
•Risks weakening consumer protections, as seen in sectors like banking and energy following similar moves in the past.
4) Broader Implications
My concern (and that of many well-meaning folks) is about how concentrated wealth and political influence can blur the lines between public service and personal gain. While Trump’s policies have long championed deregulation as a driver of economic growth, the balance between efficiency and accountability will ultimately define public perception of his governance.
Policy Implications for the EV Industry as a result of the possible actions of DOGE and the impact of deregulation, using the Healthcare and Aviation industries as test cases:
Policy Implications for the EV Industry
The competition between Tesla and newer players like Rivian is central to understanding the potential effects of DOGE’s decisions. Here are the key points:
1. Market Competition and Innovation
•Favoritism Risks: If Rivian loses the $6 billion promised by the Biden administration while Tesla continues benefiting from previous subsidies, the playing field could tilt significantly in Tesla’s favor. This reduces competition, which is vital for innovation and cost reduction in the EV market.
•Job Loss and Economic Impact: The proposed Rivian factory in Georgia would generate around 8,000 jobs, directly boosting the local economy. Its cancellation could harm not only the state’s workforce but also U.S. efforts to expand domestic EV manufacturing capacity.
2. Global Leadership in EVs
•Policies favoring one company over others may hinder the U.S.’s ability to compete globally, especially with countries like China, which dominates the EV supply chain and production. A diverse domestic EV ecosystem is critical to achieving energy independence and global competitiveness.
3. Public Perception and Policy Credibility
•Rolling back Rivian’s funding while Tesla remains dominant could spark accusations of bias or corruption, undermining public trust in government energy policies.
Impact of Deregulation
Deregulation in sectors like healthcare and aviation often has mixed results, with both short-term gains for businesses and long-term risks for consumers and workers.
1. Healthcare
•Impact on Safety Standards: Deregulation could loosen controls on drug approvals, hospital standards, and medical device quality. While this might accelerate innovation and reduce costs for companies, it risks patient safety if oversight is weakened.
•Access and Affordability: If deregulation leads to the consolidation of insurance companies or healthcare providers, patients may face fewer options and higher prices in the long run.
2. Aviation
•Safety Concerns: The aviation industry is highly regulated to ensure passenger safety. Reduced oversight could increase the risk of accidents or mechanical failures, as was seen in the aftermath of deregulation in the 1980s.
•Cost vs. Quality Trade-offs: While deregulation might lower ticket prices, it often comes at the cost of service quality (e.g., reduced legroom, increased fees, or overbooked flights).
With no guard rails in place for the incoming Trump administration, balancing efficiency and oversight will be a tall order as Trump will not be favorably disposed to the concept of independent watchdogs.
Furthermore, policies that support fair competition, especially in the EV industry, through the encouragement of a diverse marketplace that engenders innovation across multiple players, will be abandoned for archaic and authoritarian policies that promote favoritism and stifle competition.
The basic premise for the creation of the DOGE was to promote transparency around funding and policy decisions. It was supposed to help rebuild trust and reduce perceptions of corruption.
Under Trump, with Musk and Ramaswamy as the anchors, realizing that aforementioned noble premise will be at best, an illusion.
America and Americans are in for a long and painful ride.
Saturday
How Israel and the United Stares helped Al Qaeda 2.0 take over Syria
CC™ VideoSpective
Friday
Thursday
Wednesday
Tuesday
Ifá/Afa- A Computer Programmer’s Perspective
CC™ Opinion
By Eyes Sea
For some of us who earn our daily bread from programming computers (I have been doing this for over 2 decades), making the connection between Ifá binary notation and programming is a no brainer.
We programmers write codes/instructions (incantations) on the cpu – made from silicon (sand) to carry out our desires.
The parallel between a Babaláwo and a computer programmer is striking. We write on sand (silicon/cpu), a Babalawo writes on Iyerosun (camwood powder). We chant/write binary codes, a Babaláwo recites Odù Ifá!
In essence, a computer code is Ă fọ̀ṣẹ par excellence! In Yoruba, Ă fọ̀ṣẹ means “oun tĂ a fọ̀ tĂ Ăł sì ṣẹ” – something commanded to happen.
Our incantations (computer codes) can animate the entities in the cpu (sand) and make them become whatever we want: a game console, a financial trading system, an air traffic controller, facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Bitcoin etc.
How did this come about? Well, the Binary System makes this possible.
The Binary System of Ifá is based on the YorĂąbá philosophical duality of Ibi and Ire (Evil and Good); for several millennia, the YorĂąbá had been using the binary system before the German mathematician – Gottfried Leibniz formalised in 1679.
These days, the Binary Numeral System (Base 2) is well known in Mathematics and digital electronics and the system underpins how computers work by representing numeric values using just two digits – zero (0) and one (1)
In Computing, a Bit (i.e. BInary digiT) is the smallest unit of storage and can either be 1 or 0
A Nible (also called half Byte or semi-octet) is the grouping of four Bits e.g 0 1 0 1
In Ifá, OdĂą signatures are marked with “|” and “||”. Where “|” is the binary number “0” and “||” is “1”.
For example Ogbè (0000) has the following signature:
|
|
|
|
Ọ̀sá (1000) is represented as:
||
|
|
|
Òtúrá (0100) is marked as:
|
||
|
|
We can therefore summarise the representation of the first sixteen Odus as follows:
Decimal == Nibble == Odù
00 == 0000 == Ogbè
01 == 0001 == Ògúndá
02 == 0010 == Ìráşątáşą̀
03 == 0011 == Ìrosùn
04 == 0100 == Òtúra
05 == 0101 == Ọ̀sáşą́
06 == 0110 == Èdí
07 == 0111 == Ọ̀bàrà
08 == 1000 == Ọ̀sá
09 == 1001 == Ìwòrì
10 == 1010 == Ọ̀̀fún
11 == 1011 == Ìká
12 == 1100 == Ọ̀wọ́nrín
13 == 1101 == ÒtĂşrĂşpọ̀n
14 == 1110 == Ọ̀kànràn
15 == 1111 == Òyáşą̀kĂş
́
Since Ifá speaks only in binary (Odu Èjì Ogbè says: “Èjèèji ni mo gbè, n ò gbe ọ̀kan ṣoṣo mọ́” i.e “I will only support two, I will not support one”), each Odu must be paired.
For example, after pairing the main Odu, we get the following (see graphic for the main Odu signature)
Èjì Ogbè (also called Ògbè Méjì): 00000000
Ògúndá MĂ©jì : 00010001
Ìráşątáşą̀ Méjì : 00100010
Ìrosùn MĂ©jì : 00110011
Òtúrá Méjì : 01000100
Ọ̀sáşą́ MĂ©jì : 01010101
Èdí MĂ©jì : 01100110
Ọ̀bàrà MĂ©jì : 01110111
Ọ̀ṣá Meji: 10001000
Ìwòrì MĂ©jì : 10011001
Ọ̀fún Méjì : 10101010
Ìká MĂ©jì :10111011
Ọ̀wọ́nrín Méjì :11001100
ÒtĂşrĂşpọ̀n MĂ©jì :11011101
Ọ̀kànràn MĂ©jì :11101110
Ọ̀yáşą̀kĂş MĂ©jì : 11111111
The other 240 minor Odus are derived from the main 16 Odus.
For example (note: the binary notation and the marks are read from right to left)
Ogbè-Ògúndá : 0001-0000
| |
| |
| |
|| |
Ọ̀yáşą̀kĂş-Ìráşątáşą̀ : 0010-1111
| ||
| ||
|| ||
| ||
Computers also speak in binary and binary numbers can be converted to decimal, hexadecimal, octal etc.
Without getting into too much math, below are the decimal values of the 16 main Odu:
00000000 = 00
00010001 = 17
00100010 = 34
00110011 = 51
01000100 = 68
01010101 = 85
01100110 = 102
01110111 = 119
10001000 = 136
10011001 = 153
10101010 = 170
10111011 = 187
11001100 = 204
11011101 = 221
11101110 = 238
11111111 = 255
i.e. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
In Ifa, the patterns of bits above translate to…
ọ̀wọ́nrĂn-ọ̀sá èjì-ogbè èjì-ogbè
ọ̀wọ́nrĂn-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá
ọ̀wọ́nrĂn-mĂ©jì ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọtĂşrá
ọ̀fĂąn-ọ̀sá ogbè-òtĂşrĂąpọ̀n ogbè-ọtĂşrá
ọtúrá-méjì ogbe-ọtúrá ogbè-ògúndá
ìráşątáşą̀-ọ̀wọ́nrĂn ogbè-ọ̀sá èjì-ogbè
ìráşątáşą̀-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá
ọ̀sá-ogbè ogbè-ọtĂşrá èjì-ogbè
èdì-ọtúrá èjì-ogbè èjì-ogbè
This was how programmers used to write computer programs before high level programming languages like Fortran and Lisp were created in 1957 and 1958 respectively.
For programmers, entering these patterns manually was a laborious, tedious and error-prone task. Even for a seasoned programmer, it could get dizzy and nauseating after assembling a couple of these patterns.
However, a competent Ifá priest can commit to memory 256 of these patterns without breaking a sweat and able to recite close to 4,000 Ifá verses by heart!
Effectively, the meaning of the 1s and 0s in the code above is as follows:
- Store the number 0 in memory location 0.
- Store the number 1 in memory location 1.
- Store the value of memory location 1 in memory location 2.
- Subtract the number 11 from the value in memory location 2.
- If the value in memory location 2 is the number 0 continue with instruction 9.
- Add the value of memory location 1 to memory location 0.
- Add the number 1 to the value of memory location 1.
- Continue with instruction 3.
- Output the value of memory location 0.
Using names in place of numbers for memory and instruction locations, we can do the following:
Set the value of “total” to 0.
Set the value of “count” to 1.
[loop]
Set the value of “compare” to the “count” value.
Subtract 11 from the value of “compare” .
If “compare” is zero, continue at [end].
Add “count” to the value of “total”.
Add 1 to the value of “count”.
Continue at [loop].
[end]
Output “total”.
In a modern programming language like Python, we can write the following:
total = 0
count = 1
while count <= 10:
total = total + count
count = count + 1
print total
In 2017, I wrote series of programming tutorials on this wall using the Python programming language. In the coming series of articles, I will translate the posts into Yoruba so stay tuned.
Ire o.
Credit:Ifá – Olobe Yoyon
SOURCE: rymcitigh