Booktrust is delighted to announce the launch of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011
The Prize honours the best work of fiction by a living author, which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom during 2010. Uniquely, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize gives the winning author and translator equal status: each receives £5,000.
Submissions for the 2011 Prize – which can be novels or single author short story collections – are now being accepted and will close on 30 September 2010
A longlist will be announced in March 2011, followed by the shortlist in April. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Central London in May.
Click here for details http://www.booktrust.org.uk/Prizes-and-awards/Independent-Foreign-Fiction-Prize
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award
We are now accepting entries for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011- the world’s biggest short story award.
The award aims to honour the finest writers of short stories in the UK and Ireland. It is open to authors with a previous record of publication in creative writing. Entries may be previously unpublished, or first published or scheduled for publication after 1 January 2010. All entries must be under 6,000 words and entirely original.
The winning author will receive £30,000 and the five runners-up £500. The winner will be announced at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in April 2011, with the longlist announced on 20 February 2011 and the shortlist on 13 March 2011 (these dates are subject to change).
Last year’s winner was New Zealand’s CK Stead, with his story ‘Last Season’s Man’.
Click here to read about last year's prize
The deadline for submissions is 1pm on 30 October 2010.
For full details of eligibility and how to submit a story, please download the terms and conditions and entry form.
Click here to download the entry form for the 2011 Award
Click here to download the terms and conditions for the 2011 Award
Click here for more information on the prize
Prize administration
For prize information, please contact the prizes team on 020 8516 2960 or prizes@booktrust.org.uk
The award aims to honour the finest writers of short stories in the UK and Ireland. It is open to authors with a previous record of publication in creative writing. Entries may be previously unpublished, or first published or scheduled for publication after 1 January 2010. All entries must be under 6,000 words and entirely original.
The winning author will receive £30,000 and the five runners-up £500. The winner will be announced at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in April 2011, with the longlist announced on 20 February 2011 and the shortlist on 13 March 2011 (these dates are subject to change).
Last year’s winner was New Zealand’s CK Stead, with his story ‘Last Season’s Man’.
Click here to read about last year's prize
The deadline for submissions is 1pm on 30 October 2010.
For full details of eligibility and how to submit a story, please download the terms and conditions and entry form.
Click here to download the entry form for the 2011 Award
Click here to download the terms and conditions for the 2011 Award
Click here for more information on the prize
Prize administration
For prize information, please contact the prizes team on 020 8516 2960 or prizes@booktrust.org.uk
Sorry State of The Nigerian Flag
When last did you take note of a flying Nigeria national flag? The one you took note of, how was it looking? I am almost certain that there must have been something wrong with the flag. It is either it is tattered almost in rags, discoloured as a result of continuous exposure to the elements of the weather, flying at night in the dark, wrongly flown with the green and white laying horizontally instead of vertically, perpetually flying at half (or even quarter) mast when the nation isn’t mourning, very tiny in comparison to other flags flying beside it or looking so funny, like an article just out of an apprentice tailors shop with the green and whites sewn together and so poorly done.
These are the few I can remember of the very sorry states the Nigerian national flag is commonly seen. I guess you might have seen and in a better position to describe even worse forms of flying Nigerian flags as you must have observed in your own vicinity.
I see one every day. The flag-if at all it qualifies to be called that- hangs miserably on a wooden pole about twelve feet long. It isn’t even hanging as there was no rope; it is nailed to the wood. But that is not even the worst part of the flag. The poor flag which from immediate observation presents the picture of a worn out piece of cotton has painfully lost the green parchment at its edge. So effectively, it is green and white only and it flies there from January to December, twenty four hours a day, in the sun and in the rain and daily –every morning- the pupils of the primary school in which it is located face and salutes it while singing the national anthem.
Each time I walk past, I feel a huge sense of shame, a mesmerizing pain in my tummy and a reminder that just like the flag, my country (which the flag represented) was also in rags. For if national symbols are important instruments for creating and sustaining a peoples national identity, then what ours shows is a country of a people who do not even –in the remotest sense- appreciate what it is to be a nation and thus practically not in a position to be one. At least, not in the true sense of the word, nation.
Abuse of our national symbols now seems a national policy. A whole lot of us have little or no regards for the Naira which over the years has been a victim of un-speak able kinds of abuse. A great percentage of our school children sing the lines of the national anthem wrongly and their teachers who don’t equally know what the right lines are do not bother to correct them. Same goes for the national pledge. A few years ago the nation was treated to drama when a ministerial nominee could not sing the National anthem before the Senate. An even greater percentage of our populace cannot recite the pledge and don’t even bother asking any one to explain the symbols of the Coat of Arms, what you will get is absolute silence.
Of all the national symbols which includes (as I was taught in Social Studies Class back in my primary school which I believe has not changed) the national flag, the coat of arms, the national anthem, the pledge, the national currency, the Nigerian passport, etc. I think the national flag suffers the severest forms of abuse.
It is disheartening to note that this abuse of the national flag is not limited to obscure institutions like the Little school with the rag I pass by every day described above, but surprisingly also perpetuated in bigger Government institutions such as the premises of the police and in federal ministries and parastatals, in private institutions especially banks and in a host of other premises occupied by people who ought to know better such as churches, party offices etc.
Some days back, I passed by a party office of the ruling party in one of the Area councils in the FCT and observed that the tiny Nigerian flag was sandwiched in between two much big and better looking flags of the party.
The flag of most corporate institutions especially banks are far bigger than the national flag that flies along side them. The national flag seems to be there only by compulsion or a need to fulfill all righteousness while theirs, which represents their corporate image flies tall and big, not only intimidating the poor green and white, but also virtually removing it from existence. How wrong this is.
And of course, the national flag all over the country perhaps with the exception of military barracks flies all day long. My elementary civic studies taught me that the flag should not fly in the dark. I wonder if the tradition has changed.
In effect, our national flag has been (and is still being) defaced, desecrated, mutilated, disrespected and abused. What is more interesting is that no one really cares. For a country like The United States where Respect and Pride in the State is a national policy, the national flag is treated with such respect that when any group of people are demonstrating against Americas foreign policy, they make a huge show of burning the American flag in front of television cameras just to hurt the Americans. If you do the same to a Nigerian flag with the hope of injuring our sensibilities, you will be simply wasting your time as we ourselves do worse things to our flag.
What is more, the man who designed our national flag is unknown, unsung, and currently languishing in poverty in his old age.
The issue here is simple. We are just not proud of our country or put more appropriately, there is hardly any thing to be proud about our country or better still, the condition of the country makes it impossible for us to be proud of the country. We have too many things to worry about that remembering to honour a piece of cloth ranks last in our line of thought.
The state of our national flag represents the state of mind of a people who have given up so to speak on the ideals on which their nation is built and are more pre occupied struggling to make ends meet.
The solution? A massive national re-orientation. But it does not end there, we need to get the basic things such as the economy, jobs, food, power, etc right. Only a man whose stomach is full remembers to respect the national symbols. Only a man whose need has been met by his nation will care to know and respect the national symbols and laws. Until our leaders begin to do what they should do, the way it should be done, we will continue to be what we currently are; a pariah state.
These are the few I can remember of the very sorry states the Nigerian national flag is commonly seen. I guess you might have seen and in a better position to describe even worse forms of flying Nigerian flags as you must have observed in your own vicinity.
I see one every day. The flag-if at all it qualifies to be called that- hangs miserably on a wooden pole about twelve feet long. It isn’t even hanging as there was no rope; it is nailed to the wood. But that is not even the worst part of the flag. The poor flag which from immediate observation presents the picture of a worn out piece of cotton has painfully lost the green parchment at its edge. So effectively, it is green and white only and it flies there from January to December, twenty four hours a day, in the sun and in the rain and daily –every morning- the pupils of the primary school in which it is located face and salutes it while singing the national anthem.
Each time I walk past, I feel a huge sense of shame, a mesmerizing pain in my tummy and a reminder that just like the flag, my country (which the flag represented) was also in rags. For if national symbols are important instruments for creating and sustaining a peoples national identity, then what ours shows is a country of a people who do not even –in the remotest sense- appreciate what it is to be a nation and thus practically not in a position to be one. At least, not in the true sense of the word, nation.
Abuse of our national symbols now seems a national policy. A whole lot of us have little or no regards for the Naira which over the years has been a victim of un-speak able kinds of abuse. A great percentage of our school children sing the lines of the national anthem wrongly and their teachers who don’t equally know what the right lines are do not bother to correct them. Same goes for the national pledge. A few years ago the nation was treated to drama when a ministerial nominee could not sing the National anthem before the Senate. An even greater percentage of our populace cannot recite the pledge and don’t even bother asking any one to explain the symbols of the Coat of Arms, what you will get is absolute silence.
Of all the national symbols which includes (as I was taught in Social Studies Class back in my primary school which I believe has not changed) the national flag, the coat of arms, the national anthem, the pledge, the national currency, the Nigerian passport, etc. I think the national flag suffers the severest forms of abuse.
It is disheartening to note that this abuse of the national flag is not limited to obscure institutions like the Little school with the rag I pass by every day described above, but surprisingly also perpetuated in bigger Government institutions such as the premises of the police and in federal ministries and parastatals, in private institutions especially banks and in a host of other premises occupied by people who ought to know better such as churches, party offices etc.
Some days back, I passed by a party office of the ruling party in one of the Area councils in the FCT and observed that the tiny Nigerian flag was sandwiched in between two much big and better looking flags of the party.
The flag of most corporate institutions especially banks are far bigger than the national flag that flies along side them. The national flag seems to be there only by compulsion or a need to fulfill all righteousness while theirs, which represents their corporate image flies tall and big, not only intimidating the poor green and white, but also virtually removing it from existence. How wrong this is.
And of course, the national flag all over the country perhaps with the exception of military barracks flies all day long. My elementary civic studies taught me that the flag should not fly in the dark. I wonder if the tradition has changed.
In effect, our national flag has been (and is still being) defaced, desecrated, mutilated, disrespected and abused. What is more interesting is that no one really cares. For a country like The United States where Respect and Pride in the State is a national policy, the national flag is treated with such respect that when any group of people are demonstrating against Americas foreign policy, they make a huge show of burning the American flag in front of television cameras just to hurt the Americans. If you do the same to a Nigerian flag with the hope of injuring our sensibilities, you will be simply wasting your time as we ourselves do worse things to our flag.
What is more, the man who designed our national flag is unknown, unsung, and currently languishing in poverty in his old age.
The issue here is simple. We are just not proud of our country or put more appropriately, there is hardly any thing to be proud about our country or better still, the condition of the country makes it impossible for us to be proud of the country. We have too many things to worry about that remembering to honour a piece of cloth ranks last in our line of thought.
The state of our national flag represents the state of mind of a people who have given up so to speak on the ideals on which their nation is built and are more pre occupied struggling to make ends meet.
The solution? A massive national re-orientation. But it does not end there, we need to get the basic things such as the economy, jobs, food, power, etc right. Only a man whose stomach is full remembers to respect the national symbols. Only a man whose need has been met by his nation will care to know and respect the national symbols and laws. Until our leaders begin to do what they should do, the way it should be done, we will continue to be what we currently are; a pariah state.
Kwani Call for Submissions: CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN WOMEN’S POETRY
Across the continent as well as in the African Diaspora, African women are well
known for their word craft. Over the centuries, African women have accomplished
difficult feats using a capacity for words that is only surpassed by their
ability for physical labor. This project on Contemporary African Women’s Poetry
is looking for submission of poems written by African women from all works of
life. We are looking for: (A) poetry about contemporary African life and
experience on the continent; (B) poetry about life in the African Diaspora.
Poems may focus on any of the following: the work life, motherhood, wifehood,
children, the state and nation, war, Africa’s wealth or lack thereof, poverty,
HIV-AIDS, prison, freedom, celebration, grief, happiness, border crossings,
marriage, birth, the environment, loss, love, trans-nationalism, migration,
gender, race, class, and any other topics or issues that interest African women
globally.
Unpublished poems are preferred. The original poems can also be in any African
language if the poet will provide a translation into English. If the original is
accepted, it will be published alongside the translation. If a translator is
used, the author should indicate how credit should be acknowledged. Maximum
number of submissions per person is three (3) poems.
For consideration, submissions should reach us before or on December 31, 2010.
Please send submissions by email to: Anthonia Kalu (kalu.5@osu.edu); Folabo
Ajayi-Soyinka (omofola@ku.edu); Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi (jmphd@ncsu.edu)
For submissions via snail mail, please mail your submissions to:
Anthonia Kalu, PhD
Professor
Department of African American and African Studies
486 University Hall 230 North Oval Mall
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210-1319
Folabo Ajayi-Soyinka, PhD
213 Bailey Hall,
1440 Jayhawk Blvd.,
University of Kansas,
Lawrence, KS 66045.
Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, PhD
Professor
Department of English
212 Tompkins Hall
North CarolinaState University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
known for their word craft. Over the centuries, African women have accomplished
difficult feats using a capacity for words that is only surpassed by their
ability for physical labor. This project on Contemporary African Women’s Poetry
is looking for submission of poems written by African women from all works of
life. We are looking for: (A) poetry about contemporary African life and
experience on the continent; (B) poetry about life in the African Diaspora.
Poems may focus on any of the following: the work life, motherhood, wifehood,
children, the state and nation, war, Africa’s wealth or lack thereof, poverty,
HIV-AIDS, prison, freedom, celebration, grief, happiness, border crossings,
marriage, birth, the environment, loss, love, trans-nationalism, migration,
gender, race, class, and any other topics or issues that interest African women
globally.
Unpublished poems are preferred. The original poems can also be in any African
language if the poet will provide a translation into English. If the original is
accepted, it will be published alongside the translation. If a translator is
used, the author should indicate how credit should be acknowledged. Maximum
number of submissions per person is three (3) poems.
For consideration, submissions should reach us before or on December 31, 2010.
Please send submissions by email to: Anthonia Kalu (kalu.5@osu.edu); Folabo
Ajayi-Soyinka (omofola@ku.edu); Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi (jmphd@ncsu.edu)
For submissions via snail mail, please mail your submissions to:
Anthonia Kalu, PhD
Professor
Department of African American and African Studies
486 University Hall 230 North Oval Mall
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210-1319
Folabo Ajayi-Soyinka, PhD
213 Bailey Hall,
1440 Jayhawk Blvd.,
University of Kansas,
Lawrence, KS 66045.
Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, PhD
Professor
Department of English
212 Tompkins Hall
North CarolinaState University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
Monday, August 30, 2010
Before We Give ourselves Away
Sylva Ifedigbo
The registration of Subscriber Identification Module (otherwise know as SIM) cards has finally commenced. This exercise, which is poorly understood by the populace, has continued to be the object of debate among telecommunication industry professionals on how the registration should work, who should be responsible for it and how the exercise is different from the Registration of Telecommunications Subscriptions (RTS) or Subscriber Registration.
While the argument rages, MTN Nigeria has continued a nation wide public registration of its SIM cards. The conduct of the exercise has raised fresh issues, which threaten the success of the exercise as a whole and undermine both the security of subscribers as well as that of the country.
SIM registration is a regulatory requirement by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). With crimes committed through the help of phone lines on the increase this exercise has become exigent as it is intended to assist law enforcement agencies to investigate, track down and prosecute those who exploit the anonymity currently provided by prepared GSM subscription.
As laudable as this scheme seems, there is everything wrong with the way MTN Nigeria is currently handling the exercise.
MTN, a South African company, is the foremost GSM operator in Nigeria.
According to latest figures, of their 129.2 million subscribers worldwide, 35.1million are in Nigeria. If figures, which put the telecommunication subscriber, base in Nigeria at over 75 million are anything to go by, it would be safe to conclude that MTN owns close to 50% of the GSM subscriber base in the country.
This is currently how MTN’s SIM registration exercise works; some roadside kiosks offering telephone services including those that sell accessories and recharge cards now have MTN branded notices announcing that they register SIM cards. When you walk in, you are asked to fill out a form which requires you to disclose such information as your full name, date of birth, occupation, address and phone numbers. Your thumbprints are taken along with a digital passport.
As harmless as this seems, it raises grave questions about privacy and security. Is it safe to leave such a sensitive exercise with all its security implications entrusted to just anyone? In the wrong hands the information filled out in the form could be used for many things ranging from the exploitative to the down right sinister. We certainly can’t be registering SIMs to combat crime and at the same time empowering criminals by allowing them easy access to sensitive personal information.
Perhaps even more important is the overall national security question,
which the exercise raises. When MTN is finished with this exercise it would effectively have in its possession the most accurate statistical information about Nigerians complete with such details as faces, names, addresses, and occupations. No other government agency, not even the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has such detailed data. Should we be comfortable placing such data in the hands of a foreign private company?
Have we taken into cognizance the many other uses such sensitive data can be put to in the hands of other nationals to undermine our sovereignty as a people and our territorial integrity as a nation? Is there a law regulating access to and the use of the information generated with clear cut penalties for its abuse or mismanagement?
It is even more curious that while the debate is still ongoing about whether the National Communications Commission (NCC) should be responsible for the exercise, MTN is already carrying on with it. Just last week the National Assembly sat and deliberated on the N 6 billion budget submitted by the NCC as funding required to carry out the exercise. One is tempted to ask why the enthusiasm on the part of MTN? Why is it that none of the other major operators has hit the streets seeking for our bio data? Even as this is going on, new SIMs are still being sold without any registration or activation hindrance.
The publicity for the exercise leaves much to be desired. Very few people are aware that this is going on. Currently it is being handled like some clandestine matter with nobody sure of what exactly it is about, not the serious exercise with grave national security implications that it is. Just this week newspapers reported a case of an agent who was charging subscribers to register them.
It would be unfortunate and indeed a national shame if in trying to solve one problem we end up creating an even bigger one.
It is important that all necessary security and quality assurance checks be put in place to avoid the abuse of peoples privacy and misuse of the information currently being generated. This is a threat to National Security and must be addressed with both the urgency and the seriousness it deserves.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)