I don't believe that takes anything away from the point I made about the title 'Welcome to Lagos' being a play on words. Thanks for the link though!

The title 'Welcome to Lagos' was I believe a play on words and thus not entirely inappropriate. The programme was not about Lagos or Nigeria per se but merely used the situation of Lagos slums to highlight the issue of urban agglomeration in general. Lagos occupies a special position worldwide as a commercial nerve centre and one of the fastest growing cities in the world. The aim of the programme, which was stated at the beginning of each episode in the series, was to show how people cope with increasing urbanisation. The truth is that it is often the poorest who suffer from urbanisation worldwide and the challenge is greatest in developing countries where cities are growing at the fastest rate. Therefore, it was not unreasonable to show the life of the most marginalised. Channel 4 did a very similar programme about the slums in Mumbai recently. As someone who was born and grew up in Lagos I thought it was very enlightening, and showed that there was order in the chaos which people would otherwise see from afar and want to bulldoze. I happen to think Nigerians were portrayed in a very positive light.

The play on words which I feel the title was is this: whenever you enter a town you see a sign saying, 'Welcome to [Town]'. It is the sign that you have arrived. So it is apt that this programme, showing the reality of many people who come to find their fortune in Lagos without any prior connections or history in the city, be they economic migrants from other parts of the country, the surrounding rural areas, or even refugees from other African countries, be called 'Welcome to Lagos'. It is not the Lagos that greets the wealthy tourist or visitor (many of whom the BBC audience represents), but the Lagos that greets the poor recent immigrant to the city - since these are people who usually occupy the 'bottom rung' of society. Maybe the title could have been improved by a question mark rather than a full stop at the end - 'Welcome to Lagos?' For many people Lagos is a land of opportunity, but what do they find when they arrive? That is what the programme is about, and it is the story of the world, not just Lagos.

sartorial

I would be more curious about your culture and the religion than anything else. Where did the belief come from,who started it, what do you do, etc.

However the fact that there are more lower life forms than complex ones is no proof of this belief. It is simply the laws of thermodynamics:
1. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
2. Everything tends to disorder (entropy)

The higher you go up a food chain, the smaller the biomass becomes because energy is lost via processes like respiration, death, excretion, etc. More complex animals tend to have a larger biomass and more energy is needed for organisation (since everything tends to disorder naturally, energy is needed to make it stay ordered). Since energy can neither be created nor destroyed and some energy has already been dissipated to the environment on the way up the food chain, there is less energy available for the creation of biomass in the more complex (and bigger) organisms up the food chain. That is why there are even fewer elephants than humans.

So maybe I might ask you: what happens to the bigger and more complex animals when they die?

Thank you angela k and layi. I think the purpose of this thread was to discuss how each of us had experienced God personally, not to debate his existence.

Guys, I didn't even bother to read the preceding 96 posts. I was so excited I had to write this immediately. So I'm sorry if I repeat something that's already been said.
Tithing is biblical. This analogy came to me recently. It should be very relevant in the African context.
Imagine a family that is very poor where the older children have small jobs that they do to earn some money. When they get their meagre wages, they immediately give it all to their parents for the upkeep of the family. They are so happy to help out, they don't even think, 'it's so unfair, I worked hard for that money and now it's all gone'. They don't expect their parents to give them a little bit of the money as pocket money. They don't even expect them to put it in savings for them and give it to them when they are older. That money is going to be used to buy food so they don't starve to death. The honour that they are helping in their own small way to sustain the family brings them joy. This is a very common situation so I know it can't be too hard to imagine.
I'm not saying tithing is exactly like that but it helps me understand the attitude we need to have. In the old testament, the Levites (the tribe of priests in Israel) didn't earn any salaries. All they had for their upkeep was that given as tithes. Today, our tithes are used to develop the church: for the upkeep of ministers and missionaries, etc. So it's used for the care of God's family, our family. And God as our father blesses us for this. If everyone tithed regularly, I'm sure churches would need to take up far fewer special offerings.
Also recently I did a Bible study on tithing. We were discussing the prescribed 10%. And here was something interesing that was said - in the old testament, people didn't have the Holy Spirit living in them all the time and they still gave 10% of their earnings to God in addition to special thanksgiving offerings. God has blessed us so much more! There's nothing we could give to God that would make up for what he's done for us, but we could at least have hearts that gave generously and thankfully to him -like David did.
It's really easy to say all these things. I myself struggle deeply daily over the issue of giving money to God, especially when it seems I don't have enough for myself. But then I realise: all that I have is from God, and he meets all my needs. So all I need to do is do what he asks me to do with all that I have and he'll give me all I need. He can supply much more than I ever could,even if I lived to be a hundred and worked every living day of my life!

Well I think anything that goes against God's will is sin. All the good that is in this world comes from God. Therefore evil, which comes as a result of sin, is as a result of a disengagement from God. God created us with free will; we can choose to go against his will which leads to sin, which leads to evil. So in essence I agree with Layi.
I checked Isaiah 45:7 in my Bible. It says: I am the one who sends good times and bad times. This seems a little clearer to me than the other version.

I don't know why everyone is judging them. Just because they are Christians doesn't mean they are perfect. If we were perfect, we wouldn't need God in our lives, would we? Salvation is a life long process. Or doesn't anyone make mistakes? If they stick together and pray about the issue and maybe get some counselling from a mature, trustworthy person in their church, then it'll bring them closer together in the long run and to God as well. And to all those people advocating for divorce: this situation is by no means any justification for divorce. She made a mistake and she's admitted it now. And that was before they were married. Just because she lied to him (by error of omission) doesn't mean she didn't love him. Maybe she was just scared to lose him. Whatever happened to forgiveness?
Has anyone seen the Mount Zion Film Ministries drama called 'Secret Reasons'? That was exactly what happened in it.
In terms of the child, God can do anything. There are lots of children in the world who are desperately in need of loving parents.

It can never work. Even the 'agreement' that Will and Jada have, how do you know they've ever tested it before?

I've never seen the ad but it looks and sounds pretty irritating to me. And I'd be pretty darned annoyed if my boyfriend rang and woke me up from sleep! Just to show me the sunrise and make sure his voice is the first I heard in the day! How self centred is that? Why not just marry the girl if you want your voice to be the first thing she hears?
There is one word that can be used to describe that ad. And that is [/b]cheesy[b].

I only watch so called 'Nollywood' films in order to have a laugh and criticise them. It sounds cruel, but those films are a waste of time (except when you're laughing at them, lol!) The thing about 'Nollywood' is that it favours quantity over quality, it is only ranked 3rd in the world for the sheer bulk and turnover of the industry, the way they produce so many low budget films in such a short space of time.
I think Nigerian films are good but not the conventional 'Nollywood' ones which are so pretentious. Yoruba films are much more realistic and entertaining. My favourites are 'Saworoide' and 'Agogo Ewo'. Also the evangelistic films which are not your typical 'Nollywood' films are better as well. I really do believe that the quality of acting in these types of films are better than the 'Nollywood' ones because you can really believe the actors as their characters, you don't just see an actor playing a fantastic (as in fantasy) character as they would imagine that person to be. It's like if a good actor plays a doctor, you really believe that they're a doctor and not somebody pretending to be a doctor. I saw an evangelical film called 'A Day to Die'. It was really good. The acting was so great, you could see yourself recognising characters in the film like the pastor greeting his congregation, slapping palms with his friends in greeting and 'hailing' them, the pastor's wife leading the prayer team, the people addressing each other as 'sister', 'brother', etc. I wish I knew who made the film, it's one of the best Nigerian films I've ever watched. And it had good values as well, not warped, twisted ones.

chxta I had to read the book from which you got that excerpt for English literature in secondary school. What was it called again?

Use Feminax. It's got paracetamol (analgesic, helps with the pain), codeine (another powerful painkiller), caffeine (a stimulant) and hyoscine (eases the muscle spasms). It also makes you feel drowsy so you sleep better. It's great.

Small point of correction. [/b]Passive[b] somking is when a non smoker inhales the fumes from a smoker's cigarettes. Casual smoking is when someone doesn't smoke very often e.g. they only smoke socially, at the bar or at parties etc.
I agree that people have the right to smoke. Sometimes I question it though. Why is it OK to smoke, but not do cocaine, heroine, amphetamines, etc? Anyway that is not the point of this topic as suicide is no longer illegal. It is very unhealthy to smoke but the case with smoking is that it inflicts these health risks on innocent people as well which is wrong so I think it should be banned in public places. Not really to stop people from smoking (as that's not really the way to go about it). But to protect the non smokers, especially children. As we live in a democracy I would have said we should put it to the public to decide whether or not it should be banned in public places as there's no clear cut answer to questions like this. But in this situation, for the sake of innocent children's health, yes, it should be banned.
Also is it just me but it seems like many Nigerian movies tend to promote smoking as 'cool' nowadays.

As a Christian, I believe that man is the head of the home but not for the reasons most people stated. I totally disagree with many of you that men are more important than women simply because Adam was created first. Does this then mean that fish, birds and other dumb animals created before Adam are more important than him? Remember that God knows the end from the beginning. He never makes mistakes. He looked at all he created and said that it was good. Why would he create males and females of all the other animals and neglect to do the same for humans? Remember that the Bible is God's way of speaking to us. I believe what he was trying to illustrate in that story is that 'it is not good for man to be alone'. He symbolised the perfect unity, harmony and complementary love to be found in Godly relationships. I don't think Eve was an afterthought. God had something he wanted to show us. He used this technique later on in the new testament with the man that was born blind, 'not because of any sin, but that the glory of God be shown through him' (i.e. with his miraculous healing).
The Bible says that in Christ there is neither man nor woman, jew nor greek, slave nor free but that christ is all in all. Nobody is more important or worthier to God than anyone else, for he loves all his children equally and unconditionally. He created man and woman in his own image,not woman in man's image. That would be idolatry.
After the fall, Eve was cursed: 'your desire shall be for your husband, yet he shall rule over you'. However Jesus came to deliver us from the curse of the law. And I believe that it is from Jesus that we should take our cue. Which is what brings me to how as a female I have resolved the issue of the man being the head of the family.
It is not because men are better, or more important, but just because that's how God wants it to be. I do not want to be like the friends of Job who pretended to know all the answers and tried to interprete the scriptures to suit their own ends. But I know that God created man and woman to be different and complementary to each other, with their own strengths and weaknesses and in his perfect plan he decided that wives should submit to their husbands. This does not mean men are more important. As I said earlier, women should take their cue from Jesus who 'did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but humbled himself...' Jesus willingly humbled himself even though he is God. And look what good came out of it! (such an understatement). So also, women should do the same. This does not mean women have no rights or God cannot use them, however.
Looking at the issue out of the context of the family, we live in a patriarchal society where men dominate women because they can, because it makes life easier for them, and because women let them. This is very bad. We need proportional representation of both sexes in all aspects of society, including leadership. Men and women are different and equal and society should reflect this. Did you know that the face of African poverty is invariably that of a woman because of the heavy burdens men make them carry in the name of 'leadership?' People have very warped and irresponsible views of their roles in society.But that is getting off the topic. I believe the key to it all is love. If we truly acted in love towards one another like Jesus showed us how to, and learned to lead through service, we would spend far less time debating over who deserved the power. Because that is why most people want to lead, be it in the family or elsewhere (e.g. politics). And leadership isn't really about power and control.

Why does it seem that when it comes to issues like this, people are only talking about girls? Young boys also exist! Or are we still operating double standard sexist values?

If the child is truly a kleptomaniac then I'd take him/her to see a shrink, seeing as it's a psychiatric condition.

Excuse my for sounding stupid, but what exactly is the man supposed to have done? What cimes has he been charged with?