Oops! It took me about six days to stumble on the news that Adidas, the German sportswear and equipment maker had announced its plans to launch an internet site, www.mercizidane.fr, on Saturday 15^th July, 2006 to say MERCI to the French football playmaker, Zinadine Zidane who retired from professional football after this year's World Cup finals at Germany, thus confirming its firm support for the French enchanteur, despite being sent off disgracefully during the final game of his professional career.  Hence, Emmanuelle Gaye, director of external relations for Adidas France, noted that "In no case does it change our relations with Zinedine Zidane, with whom we have been associated since 1996 and until 2017," referring to Zidane's last red card.

Right now, the site is up and running, but tant pis for those qui ne parlent pas français!  The site, as far as I'm aware, is all in the Frenchman's tongue.  I guess, like Gaye said, the site was designed "to invite the French to thank this master of French football for all that he has done."  Dommage...

Eh bien, allez y les français!  Fans can now go and send their text and video messages for the retired former Les Bleus captain.  One of the owners of the two best videos will be walking away with the Adidas jersey Zidane wore during the final game against Italy.

Oh well, at least I now have his golden boots, which I downloaded from the site, sitting gloriously on my PC's desktop.  This is a man I would always adore and respect any day, red card or no red card, headbutt or no headbutt!  Out of my first eight posts on this blog, this is the third with him as the subject matter.  I couldn't help but let slip the devotion.  That is why I wrote on www.mercizidane.fr, "Je t'adore beaucoup, Zizou, maintenant et toujours dans les siècles!"

Merci bien Zidane!

Danke shön Adidas!

In 2003, a study of more than 65 countries published in the UK's New Scientist magazine suggested that Nigeria had the highest percentage of happy people.  More recently, the same Nigeria has been touted as the most religious nation.  How factual these findings are, I cannot be certain, but one thing I'm certain of is that religion has actually become the opiate of many, may be, most Nigerians, with myriads of churches wantonly proliferated here and there.  The other thing I can be sure of is that if Nigeria really had the greatest proportion of the earth's happy folk, it thus still lays credence to the belief that money doesn't really buy happiness, as Nigeria is no where among the richest nations, judging from the income per capita.  In fact, in some part of the country, it is advised that money not be respected, as respect for money is often only reciprocated by disrespect from the same money.  Incredible, isn't it?  You even hear the poor say that when they make money, they would "rubbish" it (in the sense of, abuse) and even use it as tissue paper after 'long visits' at the loo.  Whether they ever eventually make it or not is an issue for another day.

In point of fact, Nigerians actually do abuse money (the currency notes).  This has recently prompted the Nigerian Government to begin a campaign geared towards discouraging people, particularly her citizens, from the widespread appalling rough-handling of the notes of the country's currency, the naira (N).  Unfortunately, even paradoxically, most Nigerians appear to have the inclination to abuse the naira, while they, on the other hand, seem to have a great regard, if not adoration, for the currency notes of other countries, most especially the British Pound Sterling, the US Dollar, the German Deutschmark and the most recent entrant, the European Union's Euro notes.  As a matter of fact, a single One Dollar ($1) bill could turn out to be an object of dissension in some Nigerian families as had been portrayed in an exhilarating Nigerian sitcom, One Dollar.  This is not surprising considering the constant depreciation of the naira value in the foreign exchange markets, leading to sky-rocket inflation in the country.

The naira, whose copper coins have ultimately become keepsakes, as they are even very difficult to come by (due to devaluation), has eight (8) of its denominations in notes.  They are N5, N10, N20, N50, N100, N200, N500 and N1, 000.  Sadly, even the newly introduced suave N1, 000 note is already being rumpled and ruffled, in contrast to the VIP treatment given to Dollar notes, etc, which are painstakingly kept in such a manner and at such a place that they can hardly lose their straight and crisp nature.  What manner of Nigerians!  Whatever the poor naira has done to us?

Talking about Nigeria's happy folks and the abuse of the naira, one of the occasions where this exuberant happiness is flamboyantly exhibited is at social gatherings and ceremonies (wedding, birthday parties, seasonal parties, religious festivities and of course, naming ceremonies etc).  Interestingly, but disappointingly again, one of the most frequent modes of expressing this happiness is through the abuse of the naira.  Wads of naira notes (and yes, Dollars and Pounds sometimes) are sprayed willy-nilly by the haves on celebrants at such occasions to show how happy they are with the celebrants and how happy they are to be part of the occasion.  Performers, especially musicians who entertain the guests are often not left out of the 'naira rain'.  They know how to appeal to the philanthropic faculties of the wealthy fraction of their audiences, mostly by singing their praises and recounting their heroic and philanthropic deeds.  This strategy would almost always elicit more wanton naira spraying on the singer and his/her band.  The issue here is not just that the notes are sprayed on the air, but also the fact the both the 'sprayers' and the 'sprayees' continue dancing while trampling on the notes littered on the floor.  Those assigned with the responsibility of picking up the crumpled and grimy notes would still do so even with bare hands.  Pity.

...To be continued.

As much as possible, I want to enjoy to the utmost every little moment of growth and success that my blog records.  By yesterday, just a day after I launched this blog, it got listed in the TOP 100 Blogs on Blog Counter as the 46^th. At the end of yesterday, it climbed up to the 34^th position.  As I write today, it has already recorded more hits than it did yesterday, thus breaking it's own record again while still setting a higher one for tomorrow.  At the present, my blog has recorded over 100 hits within three days.  I just hope you guys keep the hits coming even in quadrupled measures and more.

I know these statistical records may be rather meagre when compared to the blogs of other power bloggers and those other blogs that have gained much popularity with time.  However, like I mentioned before, I cherish every (little) progression  made by my blog, as that's one of the ways I can really show that I'm grateful to all those who make any efforts to even visit my blog at all.  More so, that may also be the only way I could get encouraged and reinforced to continue updating the blog and spreading the word about it around, knowing well enough that repeated negative statistics at these early days of my blog's existence would really dampen my impressionable spirit.

Hence, with much excitement I wish to announce that I have already appropriated a url for my music blog, D's Music Dome, which I hope to start updating soonest.  I also hope to link both blogs so one can always visit one from the other.

For now, I can only say 'THANKS' to my current blog readers, 'WELCOME' to the new visitors, and 'SO FAR, SO GOOD!'

Once again, the Middle East is boiling!  Israel, in a reprisal attack on Lebanon has relentlessly raided its neighbour with devastating attacks.  Early Friday, Israel further put the Lebanese economy into critical conditions when it battered the neighbour's roads, flyovers and fuel tanks.  More crippling is the air and sea blockade which Israel has forced on Lebanon by storming on its airport with barrages of rockets, damaging the runways and setting fuel tanks aflame, leading to the closure of the northern neighbour's only international airport.

With its air-strike at the heart of the Hezbollah's power base in Beirut, over 60 Lebanese are afraid to have been killed in the latest Israeli retaliatory campaign in Lebanon.  Israel claims to be retaliating for the hostage taking of two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday in a cross-border attack by the Hizbollah, a Syrian- and Iranian-backed Islamist (guerrilla) group.  Hizbollah, which has also rained rockets across the border (killing two Israeli civilians and wounding 95), is asking to trade its captives for those held in Israel.

Israel, also pointing accusing finger at Syria and Iran, has accused Lebanon of being responsible for the actions of Hizbollah which has sparked off what is tagged as "the fiercest violence since Israeli troops left Lebanon six years ago."  Israel maintains this position with regards to the fact that the Shi'ite faction, which has the control of the southern part of Lebanon, has representatives in the Lebanese parliament and the cabinet.  Unfortunately, the Beirut government, too fragile with the division within it lacks the power to disarm the guerrilla group, and has implored the U.N. Security Council to help put an end to the Israeli blitzkrieg, which it has described as disproportionate.  Meanwhile, US President Bush has noted that "Israel has the right to defend herself."

With increasing apprehension of a regional warfare resulting from the current bellicose exchanges, the financial markets in both countries are currently in a ruffled condition as the Lebanese queue at the fuel stations and families hoard food and drink as fear of further and more intense attacks escalate.  Thousands of tourists, most of which are Gulf Arab nationals, have also fled Lebanon through Syrian border since the Israeli blitz had forced the shutting down of the Lebanese airport and blockading of its ports.

Will there ever be peace in the Middle East?  It really bothers me.

However, while Zidane did not specifically mention what Materazzi said to him, Materazzi, in his own interview, told the Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian paper, that he never insulted Zidane's mother.  We are yet to hear from FIFA as it still seems to be investigating the incidence.

In his interviews, Zidane repeatedly apologized to the fans, and most especially children.  Nevertheless, he maintained that he did not regret his actions and the consequences, pointing out that doing so would mean that Materazzi was right to say all that he did say to him.

Despite Zidane's misconduct on the field of play, many, especially France "still loves and admires him", and the French President Jacques Chirac, who has only kind words for Zidane since the match, reassures him.  From a poll published Tuesday in the French newspaper, Le Parisien, most of the French appear to have already forgiven Zidane, as the poll showed that 61 percent of the 802 people interviewed had forgiven Zidane.