Extreme Measures

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re all well. I’m great these days – I’ll bet that you all know why (Hint: read my most recent posts). Anyways, I was just thinking today that I haven’t written about what’s going on in the country for some time. I guess it’s symptomatic of how I feel – a lot of terrible things are happening in Nigeria right now but I’m so removed from them, so insulated in my own cocoon, that I have failed to realize that they affect me. The frequency of these events has also served to desensitize me; I have found it increasingly hard to muster the outrage and empathy required when these things happen. I think that is a sad state of things – a sign that I have resigned myself to the situation as it is. I hesitate to speak for the general public but I have a feeling that they also feel the same way. A sad situation all around.

The recent abduction of 276 girls in Borno state has whipped up the sentiment of the public. Social media platforms are blowing up. Sadly, I have found myself unable to identify with them and it makes me feel terrible. In fact, I found this post very difficult to write and thought about it for several weeks. I guess it has been a good thing – it has forced me to take stock of what’s important. I also didn’t get caught up in the storm when all the blogs were coming out with outrage pieces. I’ve had a lot of time to think about the situation and now I have something to say.

I’ve had a chance to live in the US and I used the opportunity to study their way of life and their approach to solving problems. In fighting terrorism, one thing that stood out for me was that their measures were largely preventive, proactive and involved the use of intelligence. Now, to do this, you need the cooperation of your people. The catch here is that you don’t earn that cooperation overnight – it is built over years (In the case of the US, centuries) of performance. The government must be seen to be on the side of the people in everything it does. If the people see this, then they are more willing to cooperate with the security agencies when the time comes to fight crime in all its forms. I guess you can see where I’m going with this: there is no trust between the people and the government of Nigeria, most especially in the north. Those people have been oppressed callously for decades and now, the whole area is a breeding ground for terrorist organizations.

That this is a fact isn’t new information. What irks me is the fact that the government has used the excuse of not wanting the kidnapped girls to be harmed as an excuse for inaction. They are twiddling their thumbs and hoping this thing will go away. It took international pressure generated by the “bring back our girls” initiative to force the government to accept international help. While I’ve always believed that protests don’t work, I was pleasantly surprised that it did in this case. You see, protests put you at the mercy of who you are protesting against. You are essentially appealing to their good nature. For a believer in the fact that people respond to incentives, you can see how I’d be skeptical about the effectiveness of protests. I digress.

For the last two weeks or so, US specialists have been in the country and today, I read that 80 troops have been sent by President Obama to help. While I appreciate his help in this matter, let’s not be stupid enough to believe that this doesn’t make him look good. Finding these girls will do wonders for his public image – he killed Osama, after all. In the midst of all this, there was another bomb blast which, at the last count, has killed over 200 people. This situation is becoming untenable. This government has shown time and again that it is unable to deal with this boko haram problem. In any civilized country, the president would have resigned or been impeached. This is Africa however. Presidents don’t resign and the legislative arm is too corrupt to impeach them. They are making out like bandits; why would they impeach? Have you noticed that the legislative arm has been very quiet? This has taken attention away from them and they are content to keep it that way. Occasional attempts to show they are still working include probes into the oil minister’s extravagant lifestyle and other things. If I believed that anything would come of it, I’d be interested but I know nothing will. See? Trust.

Over these last few weeks, I’ve heard some very disturbing news regarding our military. There have been reports that Jonathan is scared of them. He is the commander-in-chief but he’s afraid of them. I also heard from one of the military chiefs on the radio that the military needs money to fight book haram. The army needs money… I have no words. If I’m correct, the defense allocation is the biggest item in the national budget. And the army needs money. We need to look at ourselves because it is getting ridiculous now.

I am going to recommend something drastic. I believe that the government knows exactly where these girls are being kept or at least have a good idea – for goodness sake, they have satellite imaging technology at their fingertips. 300+ people in a forest will probably stand out. The government should adopt a scorched earth policy against these guys. The problem with this policy is that the girls may be killed. That is a horrible scenario and while I would be the first to rejoice if they are released, I’m not sure that’s going to happen. I understand that people may be hesitant to embrace this idea but the girls are a buffer for boko haram whether we like it or not. Torch that forest. Smoke these guys out. Enough is enough. Since intelligence is not an option anymore, extreme measures are needed. Boko Haram is a cancer and it will get even more virulent unless drastic measures are taken. Like any cancer, treating it may mean removing a part of yourself so you can survive. Coming to this conclusion was very hard and while I cannot begin to imagine what the parents of these girls must be going through, it is up to the president to take such decisions. I will liken it to cases where patients have relatives who are doctors. Those people are usually told not to be involved in the patient’s care because they cannot be objective. This is because sometimes decisions need to be made that involve some cost to the patient but could save the patient’s life. I think that’s where we are now as a nation. Unfortunately, Jonathan has shown that he is incapable of fully grasping the situation. The immediate future looks very bleak.

This is the longest post I’ve written and with good reason too, I think. That’s all I have to say however. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr. Fox

Why are we here?

Hello everyone,

It’s that time again – that time when I give you all the benefit of my old age. How are things with you? I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Things are really great with me right now – a new relationship with an amazing woman, trying out new things and pursuing a personal dream have left me in a pretty good place.

Today’s post is a bit controversial, I think. It’s about why we are here on earth – the purpose of our existence. It’s something I’ve always thought about and I’m going to talk about it from a biblical point of view. I’m talking about it now because of some things I’ve heard in church over the past two weeks. The general theme here is temptation. Let’s dive in.

I’ll start with Adam and Eve. In the garden, they were covered in God’s glory and therefore did not realize that they were naked. It wasn’t until they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they realized that they were naked. One thing I’ve always thought about is: Why did God put that tree there? Why did he not hide it? If God wanted man to be like Him, why did He let the tempter into the garden? By extension, if God knows everything, and He knows what we are going to do, then He knows who is going to heaven and who’s going to hell. As a result, life itself becomes an exercise in futility. I don’t believe that. I believe that at every point in life, God knows all the possible consequences of our actions – it’s like a humongous decision tree with infinite possibilities. However, at every decision node, God doesn’t know what we are going to do – that’s why He gave us free will. That’s why He gave us the Holy Spirit to help guide us. Ultimately, we are the authors of our own destinies. In my opinion, the temptations He lets us go through are designed to see if we are worthy of His glory. Adam and Eve were tested too; they were found unworthy and God’s glory left them. God knows that I’ve been found unworthy on very many occasions but I’ve come to realize that temptation is not a bad thing – Job was tested and found to be worthy. So was Jesus. Let’s stop seeing temptation as a bad thing. When the devil tempts us, He is indirectly doing God’s work and that’s always a good thing.

I realize that this is a bit out of left field but this is the only rational explanation that I can come up with. Some people will see this and say “how dare you say that God doesn’t know something? You can’t understand God…” and so on. I realize this too. In fact, someone once asked me what this knowledge would do for me. The answer is that I just want to understand. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I want a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God. This is because I am at a period in my life where I’ll be making decisions that have far reaching implications. I need God now more than ever. But I also want to understand what the whole point of life is just for my own satisfaction. I will never have a definitive answer and I know it but I have a theory that makes sense to me and I’m ok with that. I believe that God gave us brains for a reason but this type of thinking shouldn’t distract us from what’s truly important – to love God and love your neighbor. It’s as simple as that.

On an unrelated note, Arsenal’s season has crumbled (predictably) the way my favorite biscuits crumble in my mouth (they are digestives by the way). This past weekend, we were on the brink of being knocked out of the FA Cup. If that had happened, I believe Wenger would have resigned. I find myself increasingly thinking that he has to go. I’m a huge fan of his but the time has come for him to leave. Things have to change. This can’t keep happening to us. I hope we win the FA Cup but as long as he’s there, I don’t think we’ll win the league or the champions’ league.

I watched “Captain America – The Winter Soldier” about a week and a half ago. It’s a good film but that’s all it is for me. I liked the twist though. I finally watched “Her” a week ago. For those that don’t know, “Her” is a movie about a guy that falls in love with his operating system. I thought it was beautiful. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing as was Scarlett Johansson (I thought she was more impressive given the role that she played). It is a truly great film that has so many messages - so many bits that you can take away. I think that’s what truly great movies do.

That’s all for now. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr. Fox.

Re-basing Re-basing...

Hello people,

How are you? I expect a response… It’s getting really annoying talking to myself. Anyways, I hope you’re all well. I've really taken to this blogging thing, haven’t I? Yes… it soothes me a little. I woke up this morning to the news that Nigeria’s GDP is now about $510 billion which makes it the largest economy in Africa. I was like “what..?” GDP was like “Them don re-base me na… Abeg park well.” And then I started to do some research on the subject.

I've always known that Nigerians love shiny things. We put value on things that have no substance and our priorities are skewed. I like to extrapolate – to draw conclusions about unfamiliar things based on stuff I already know. I wrote on my blog the other day about our need to propagate the illusion of success which is why we buy expensive cars and rent massive houses that we cannot afford. It happens all the time here. I’m not saying that it doesn't happen in other parts of the world; it’s just that here, people will always have something to say about your situation which puts pressure on people to live extravagant lives. Another example is age group competitions and I think this example summarizes my point very well. When Nigeria goes for age-group competitions especially football, we take over-aged players because we want to win. The purpose of those competitions is not winning per se – it is for the discovery of exciting talents that could potentially be future world beaters. But we are not concerned about that. We carry these over-aged men and women, we win and everybody is happy. Take a look at this stat: Nigeria has won the under -17 world cup 4 times but have never gone past the second round of the world cup proper. Countries like Brazil, Argentina, and USA all do the right thing. And sometimes they don’t win but they keep their eyes on the big picture. Are our priorities skewed? I think so. We like the illusion of success. A deeper look at things will show this.

Now imagine my lack of surprise when I woke up to the news of the GDP re-basing. I was not moved in the least. I was thinking yesterday about what to write on the blog and this came like manna from heaven. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot. In the newspapers, the big news is that Nigeria’s economy is the 26^th largest in the world and Africa’s largest. What they didn't mention is that in GDP per capita terms, we rank 121^st and that South Africa’s GDP per capita s over three times our own. What they didn't mention is that almost two thirds of the world’s poorest people are situated in 5 countries, one of which is Nigeria. What they didn’t mention is that 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line and that a good proportion of them are classified as extremely poor – extremely poor means living on less than $1.25 dollars a day. Quite frankly, I’m tired of complaining about the situation in this country but stuff like this just irks me.

When I came back into the country last year, I came with certain expectations. I know that I’m extremely fortunate to be able to come back and I’m grateful for that. But a lot of these expectations came from my experiences abroad. One thing struck me when I was there – they are not different from us. We are exactly the same. If you put an American in Nigeria, he will act like a Nigerian – he will cut corners, grease palms and all sorts. However, the system over there controls behavior. It makes people want to do the right thing simply because it’s in their best interest. This is something their founding fathers knew in the 1700s which just makes it unbelievable that in this day and age, we are still where we are. I guess the reason we are where we are and they are doing so well is because those founding fathers had a vision. They had a very clear idea of what they wanted their society to be. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the America we know today is an iteration of the America that was founded in 1776 – It has evolved because the world has changed but in very many ways, it is probably the same. The founding fathers were able to put the needs of the many before their own and act in the interest of the general public.

I was reading today that we have a democracy and that people should leave Jonathan alone to rule. I maintain that we don’t have a democracy – we have a civilian dictatorship. The only difference between this and a military dictatorship is that this one is tenured. Democracy is highly nuanced – it involves all bodies working together. It needs an impartial judiciary, an alert legislative body and an active electorate. These all control the executive. I’ve said it before: Democracy is not an event. It is a process. The situation we have now is that the executive is allowed to run unchecked and as is only logical, they are acting in their own best interests. This is human nature and should not be surprising.

In my opinion, what we need is proper law enforcement. If that is implemented, all other things will follow including power. Let us amend the constitution to ensure the independence of the police force, revamp it and make sure it is funded, not according to the whims of whoever is in charge, but by a mandate in the constitution. Let the Inspector-General have a single term of 5 years to so he doesn't have to worry about his job or who he pisses off. Apply these same principles to the judiciary and we’ll see this country turn around – I’m sure of it. An active law enforcement apparatus is important to reduce corruption. It is no surprise that in the most corrupt countries in the world, there is a corresponding lack of law enforcement. It doesn't make any sense for man to go against his nature in that situation – it is just stupid. 

What do you want out of life?

Hello again,

How are y’all doing? Hope all’s well. I am very well, thanks for asking. I have started a new job and so far, it’s ok. I’m seeing someone too so you could say my glass is quite full. God has been good. Over the last year or so, I’ve been thinking very hard about what I want out of life. Yesterday’s church service kinda hit home as a result and I was in a reflective mood throughout the day. The title of the message was “The Power of Vision”. The pastor talked about visualizing where we want to be in the next 20 years. I like to think that I’m a serious guy and I live my life on a mostly needs-based basis. I am intensely aware that I’ve been blessed to be born into the family that I have and that makes me acutely aware of the things that I take for granted. As a result, I have very simple things I want to accomplish in the next 20 years – I want a good wife, I want to be able to send my children to the best schools, I want to have my own business and I want to be able to help underprivileged people. These are the things that would make me happy 20 years from now. They are not lofty ambitions by the world’s standards – please note that I’m not bashing what we would normally call lofty ambitions. If you want to be the future president of your country or you want to be the future CEO of a fortune 500 company, more power to you. I was talking to a friend of mine last night and the conversation drifted to this topic. I told him that I would consider my parents to be very successful. My father has worked in government all his life and my mother has risen to the top of her profession. While that’s good, what makes them successful in my eyes is that they have given their children the platform to succeed in life by sending us to school and leveraging on the goodwill they’ve accrued over their careers. At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you would consider success in life to be. Insha Allah, I am on my own journey and it will end up well. My church has become a very important part of my life now – it constantly reminds me not to relent in the pursuit of the life that I want but that I should always put God first. I couldn’t always say that and my mother is a pastor. Go figure.

Like all good people, we want the good things in life. I think in this day and age, these things have drifted to the more superficial things. To me though, these things are usually what other people would consider good. Don’t get me wrong – I want to be comfortable and God knows that I cannot Imagine living off the Island. However, a lot of these things are things we don’t actually need (remember needs-based living?). That lavish wedding you want when you haven’t paid rent, that flashy car when something cheaper would do the job and the one that absolutely irks me – renting more space than you actually need. For what? So that people can say we are successful? Give me a break.. Sometimes, our self-consciousness as humans makes me so sad. I was at a friend’s place about a month or so ago. She just got married and she and her husband live in a one bedroom apartment. It is small but I absolutely fell in love with it and their situation. Just her, her husband and their tiny place. I’m an idealist and I don’t think there are many of us left so we always seem to be a bit off. I’m happy with that. Over the last few years, I’ve come to realize that the only opinion of me that matters is my own and it is liberating. I want to be rich but I don’t need to be. If it happens, it’s a bonus and it would mean that I can help more people. In my opinion, that’s what Nigeria needs – people who will stand up to be the examples they want to see. In my humble situation, I’m trying to do that. And that makes me happy which, at this point, is all that matters.

On an unrelated note, Arsenal drew with Man City on Saturday. I honestly thought we'd lose but hey, I'll take a point.  Nothing has changed though - looks like the FA Cup is the only hope for silverware this season. I hope they don't bottle that.

I haven't seen any movies recently and I don't know when I will again but rest assured that I'll let you know when I do. I just can't shut up really. I also finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It is a good book - very soft but very philosophical. It talks about fulfilling your destiny too. Kind of a running theme this weekend, huh?

That's all from me. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr Fox.

Death

The past few days have been very interesting to say the least. I've had a few surprises and I actually wrote another piece with the intention to share. But it is personal - intensely so. Therefore, I will keep it on my hard drive and look at it from time to time. Still, this one is pretty interesting if I do say so. Here goes. Today, I will be talking about death. Duh.

Don’t be scared. I know this is a bit of a departure given the nature of my posts so far but I’ve thought about death a lot over the past few years. I’ve always been fascinated by how people view it. Are you scared of it? Why are you scared if you are? I don’t think people ever really think about it. So once again I’m asking: Are you afraid to die?

Let’s start with a logical assumption: I believe in heaven and hell. I believe that I’m a good person and that if I die I’ll go to heaven. Since heaven is such a wonderful place, why should I be afraid? I should actually welcome it if I’m being totally rational. Given that we all claim to be so religious, we should actually subscribe to this view. But for some reason we don’t. We are scared – this is one of the reasons why we will always say “God dey...” when the time comes to actually do something about the situation in the country. To an extent, I do this too and I’ve been thinking about why I do it.

In a simultaneous action game, coordination is needed to get the best result for all parties. A good example is the Prisoner’s Dilemma. In this situation, we have two suspects being interrogated in different rooms about a crime they committed. They are each encouraged to confess to the crime with the reward being that one will go free if the other one doesn’t. Hypothetically, this is what happens:

·         If they both confess, they get 5 years each

·         If one confesses and the other doesn’t, the confessor goes free and the other spends 10 years in prison

·         If they each refuse to confess, they get 1 year probation but they don’t know this.

So, If player 2 decides to confess, the best thing for player 1 to do would be to confess (5 years is better than 10). If player 2 decides not to confess, the best thing for player 1 to do would be to confess (going free is better than probation). The same thing holds for player 2. Therefore, the likely outcome is that they both confess and get 5 years each. However, the best outcome for them would be to keep their mouths shut but because they cannot coordinate, they end up confessing. That’s the situation we find ourselves in with regard to the situation in the country. People are unwilling to act because they don’t know what others are thinking and are afraid of the consequences of acting alone which would likely be death or grievous bodily harm. So the government only has to make coordination difficult to maintain the status quo. Hence, bad infrastructure, bad record keeping systems, a partial judiciary and so on. I realize that I’ve digressed but I will tie things up.

Since people are not supposed to be afraid to die, what’s keeping us from taking control? I think the prospect of suffering and the consequences of death scare us far more than death itself. I was watching Robocop and someone asked me if I could choose to live after going through what he had gone through. I thought about it a bit and came to the conclusion that I would. People’s motivations for living come into play when facing death. They have people depending on them for survival or they have loved ones who would simply go to pieces if they were gone. Some just hate the idea of being made to suffer. That’s why most people would take a bullet in the head if given the choice between that and torture before being executed. The fact is that the end result is the same but people prefer one route over the other.

To answer my question: I’m not afraid to die. I am however afraid of suffering before I die and afraid of the effect my death would have on my family. Death is most felt by those left behind. Also, let’s face it: some people are afraid they’ll end up in hell. Ha-ha.

What about you?

That’s all for now. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr. Fox.

Pearls of Wisdom or Whatever…

Hello all,

First post in March… Whooooo!!! Hope y’all are doing well. I just thought I’d give you the benefit of my old age once again. A certain young woman always says I’m old… She doesn't know that I fantasized about having grey hair for a while (just like Richard Gere or more hilariously Abdulsalam Abubakar) so I love it when she says that. Ha-ha. I may actually be a little insane. Anyways, it’s good to be back.

To start with, I watched what may be one of the worst movies I've ever seen yesterday. Winter’s Tale is horrible. The dialogue is horrible. The direction is horrible. It was an all-around terrible movie and a waste of two hours of my life although it should be said that I had good company so it wasn't a total waste. (my arm died while I was trying to be suave. Don Draper, I have a lot to learn). What boggles the mind is that it was chock full of stars – Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly (who I absolutely love; she has the most amazing eyes) and Will Smith in a hilarious turn as the devil. I honestly don’t know what they were all thinking. Upon further research, I found out that the writer/director is highly respected (as a writer) so maybe that was it. The movie reminds me of The Counselor which was also full of stars but somehow left me wanting a little more. Ridley Scott is a well-respected director with Gladiator, Body of Lies and Kingdom of Heaven in his body of work. Cormac McCarthy is mainly known as an author with books like The Road and No Country for Old Men, both of which have been made into very good movies. But then Cormac McCarthy wanted to try his hand at screenwriting. It wasn't very pretty. The movie had some memorable lines but it fell a little flat. I liked it though.

I started watching True Detective recently. It is a good show with amazing performances. Woody Harrelson is very good but Matthew McConaughey steals the show. The man has become a powerhouse. He is absolutely amazing as Rust Cohle. The Tag-line of the show is “Man is the cruelest animal”. It is full of philosophical dialogue that somehow rings true. The dialogue is absolutely fantastic and it may be what I love most about the show. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I’m gonna be a little controversial here. I keep hearing that women today aren't allowing men to be ‘men’. What does that mean? I read one Facebook post today and the lady was talking about how women need to go back to being traditional. She said “When was the last time you asked God to bless your husband? Instead of praying for God to bless you, pray for God to bless your husband and cause him to love you.” I don’t know about you but I was stunned. Is that all women have to aspire to? The days are gone where we had clearly defined roles for men and women – when majority of the paying jobs involved skills that were mostly particular to men. These days, that line is blurred – people are competing for opportunities where the determining factor is usually how smart you are. In that respect, the playing field has leveled considerably. Therefore, it is only natural that women would aspire to be more than love interests for their husbands. To me, this is not a bad thing. In the home, there should be respect and love between a husband and a wife. More important is an understanding that they're are in it for the long haul together. This means sharing responsibilities. I couldn't marry a woman who would just stay at home, who would not challenge me intellectually or who couldn't call me on my crap. I just think we are in a male dominated society and these men are not willing to change with the times. Things change… deal with it. Maybe I'm looking at it from a different angle so please educate me if you can. 

One last thing – Lupita Nyongo. The media have been raving about this young woman. I listened to a couple of her speeches and she is certainly very intelligent. She is also self-aware – she knows that she’s been very fortunate to be where she is and she always tries to motivate young people. I’m all for that. But mehn… the hype is getting too much jo. I was on twitter during the Oscars and when she got out of her car, people were just gushing praise and I was like “what the hell is going on here?” The girl has done well… she was good in “12 Years…” and she may well be an inspirational figure to young people but let’s dial it down a notch, yeah? Thanks.

On that note, I’m signing off. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr. Fox.

Role Models

Hi there,

Regular readers of my blog (Laugh now. Haha…) will have noticed that I have done a little rebranding. For one thing, I have changed my name to Mr. Fox. I think it’s appropriate – I love the movie (Fantastic Mr. Fox that is) and the fox picture is cute so what the hell. Also, this is some kind of record – 3 blog posts in less than a week? Amazing… What can I say? I’m enjoying it.

Today, I’m going to talk about role models. Some people don’t feel the need to have one and that’s fair (Ms. B, I’m looking at you). However, I have a few. And one thing seems to link them all – a ruthless streak. I don’t know what that says about me. Some of them are fictional (Walter White and Don Draper) while some of them are historical figures (Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla come to mind). I’ll tell you why I find them so awesome.

Walter White: To put it simply “He is the danger... the one who knocks!” Breaking Bad fans will know what I mean. Anyways, I like Walter White because he is able to assess situations objectively and take the most appropriate action even if it is not totally ethical. He is willing to do what needs to be done. He is also a fascinating character because he is deeply flawed – watching Breaking Bad these last 5 years opened my eyes to the fact that humans can live with anything. I came up with a saying (I do that from time to time) – “Human beings are like elastic bands – stretch them far enough and they are never quite the same again.” Over the seasons, Walter White escalated his behavior and continued to find things he could live with. His character gives a fascinating insight into human nature.

Don Draper: Another deeply flawed character but also an extremely cool one. Don Draper is the kind of man men want to be and women want to be with. As I’ve said, he is flawed – he can’t seem to find happiness and is always looking for his next fix. And while I find that I’m generally a person who finds contentment in simple things, I cannot deny that I want to be as cool, smooth and suave as he is. A man’s man any day of the week.

Gaius Marius: He is a former Roman consul (what we would call the senate president these days but with a lot more power). He was consul 7 times. To do that in those days, you had to have your wits about you – a hell of a lot of it too. He was extremely cunning and that’s why I admire him. (I am contemplating naming one of my future sons after him. I’m still undecided since madam must agree. Haha)

Lucius Cornelius Sulla: He was a former Roman general and consul. As a matter of fact, he and Gaius Marius were close until his ambition drove them apart. Sulla was probably more cunning than Marius but in addition, he had a seriously ruthless streak and the will to push ahead with whatever he felt he had to do. The man basically took Rome hostage until he was declared consul – he became a dictator. At that time, doing that meant huge balls and brass ones at that. The man had cojones. (I am also considering naming one of my future sons after him. I feel more strongly about this one and madam will hear my argument when the time comes by God’s special grace).

So tell me: who are your role models? And why? I’d really like to know.

That’s all from me for now. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr. Fox.