THE HIATUS; 'Do not speak to the Press!'

  We all take breaks. It might be in our relationships, in our jobs, in our dreams, from something WE love. I took a break and it feels like a big hole in my heart. I guess that is what happens when you take a break from something you love. You get this incomplete feeling, you feel like something is missing. You go to bed the sleep does not come. You do other things but you know there is something left. I have felt that way these past weeks. It is not as if I did not want to but I could not because circumstances beyond my control came to play so I took a hiatus. My hiatus is officially over. I feel the hole closing up and healing up. My unexpected break is over. Therefore, what is one of the things that kept me away for so long? I answered the call to serve the fatherland. Sometimes I ask myself frankly, did I really answer the call out of my own freewill or was I made to. Give me a moment to think. I am back, it was not my choice and I would never have chose it, same goes for more than half the population I was in it with, sorry I meant am because I am still in it. We are made to spend one year as cheap labourers serving the fatherland they say but what has the fatherland done for me that I have to serve it? Nothing! From my days as an infant until my undergraduate days, nothing was done for me. All the fatherland could do was make the cost of living so high that our parents groaned under the pressure to send us to school with their sweat and blood. The fatherland made the system of education look like a child’s play. The fees are high, why couldn’t they make it free? Build more infrastructures for us?  Pay our teachers’ well so they do not carry out their frustrations on us? Some of us got free education through the public school system in the primary and secondary school stage but the education is horrible, the teachers act as if they are forced to teach, so you guess what happens. Let us not go into the tertiary education where strikes keep us at home for months on end. After that, this same fatherland makes it compulsory for you to serve it before you can gain gainful employment. Employment to make money and spend on your parents. Yes, the money for serving is up but how long will it last in this harsh times? The one year of becoming cheap labourers and pawns in the hand of the fatherland (moment of silence for those who lost their lives serving). We are uprooted from our comfort zones and thrown into the unknown; some of these zones turn out to be volatile and deadly. The fatherland knows this but he sends us there. When we end up dead, they dole out 5 million to our parents. What is that after a parent has suffered for years and spent more than that awaiting to reap millions from their investment?  Wouldn’t that pawn alive make that in just a year or more? Use that money to buy his first car? Look at it this way why not give us that money now we are alive so we can start up our own businesses, further our education and not end up unemployed after serving you? Why send people to far places and they end up in schools after that they come back to their comfort zones, unemployed and with practically no genuine work experience? Why not use that one year and train us in our fields of interest or create alternative interests we can learn not necessarily white-collar jobs so after this one year we can start our own businesses as entrepreneurs, create employment for others and help the dying economy? It has become a circle that after, since we know nothing else, have no skills we end up in white-collar jobs working for others to get richer, we see it as the only option. We are not groomed to think out the box and strike out on our own so we end up in banks, oil companies and telecommunications  when our small scale idea , if we were groomed to take steps could have grown to become a huge company like them too. After the one year, we say to ourselves we’ll go back to our dreams but we never do, we get lost in it all, the system makes us tired and kills the urge we had. The fatherland has placed us in a box and yet he wonders why it never grows. The fresh minds of the fatherland die rapidly in dead end jobs, they are so tired to stand up and fight for him. Yes, I am not happy that I too have fallen into that box. One year of my life will be wasted in a box when I could have done great things starting now with my fingers, discover the person I am meant to be and grow stronger doing what I love. Each day I wake up,i go to a work I do not love, I come back home drained out and unable to think of anything else because I have become a circle of routine; wake up early, work, come home late and sleep. Nothing productive is achieved for me, towards my growth in becoming who I want to be. The fatherland breeds unsatisfied youths who feel they can do nothing about it. The society has done it to us, by saying ‘after school you serve, get a good job, get married and have kids.’ Look at that sentence or is it a phrase ‘get a good job’ why is it ‘get’ and not ‘create’?  If you leave me, I will go on and on
  ‘Do not speak to the press’ Every time I heard it, it sounded ominous and the warning bells rang. Why would someone say that repeatedly if they have done no wrong? If your conscience were clear, you would never say that. I heard that a lot in the prison I was never allowed to leave. We wore our white prison uniforms; the sight blinded the sun when he looked down at us. I got to prison late. There were no accommodations, luckily, I got space. We were thirty-eight souls in each room, if there was an epidemic we would have all died. The rooms were too small, the restrooms unimaginable. Every time I went there to do my business, my business refused to come out, maybe it saw the environment. The food was ok they say, I never ate it. They say it is better than most of the other prisons because ours was a special prison. The clinic was an apology. They hoarded the drugs; any complaints received paracetamol, two tablets of it. It was the rainy season, they had no inhalers but pink liquid syrup, and they had that in excess. What happened to the drugs that were supplied to the clinic before the prison was opened?  Did I forget to mention I did not get my prison uniform until the week I was meant to leave prison? The cost of living provided by the Sherlock merchants in there was too high; I felt a pound of flesh leave every time I patronized them.  I heard we were entitled to a cow each day. I guess a lion ate half the cow before it got to us; my index finger is bigger than what we got. I heard a plate of food for each person per meal as budgeted is 500 naira but we got 100 naira worth. Some of us slept in twos in the tiny bunks, others slept in the church halls and on the floor. I also heard the prison kit for each person was budgeted at 70,000 naira. When I got my kit, I had never seen such substandard wears in my life; the poor people in the war country of Sudan wear better. The quality was an apology. To sum it up, they were worth 8,000 naira. No, they were not made in China wears, those are better, they could not have been made in the beloved city of Aba either, we were clothed but we were naked, any little movement the clothes gave way and revealed the rest. On the bright side, I met many lovely people who became my friends; they made my days bearable in prison. I thank them all for their friendship.  It is time for me to go now; you can imagine the last words I heard before I left prison, ‘Do not speak to the press.’ Are you the press? What is the worst that can happen to me? They trace my prison code through my name and increase my probation period. I hope they do it; I have always wanted to take the fatherland to his court and see the headlines in the papers. ‘THE FATHERLAND versus FRANCES, A SLIP OF A GIRL.’

Music or Fashion design, which is the higher form of Art?

                                                        (THE MUSIC SERIES, PART 1)
MUSIC OR FASHION DESIGN, WHICH IS THE HIGHER FORM OF ART?
  The word Art, according to my English electronic dictionary, is the expression of creative skills in a visual or non-visual form by creative activities such as painting, music and drama.  In my own words, Art, is something creative, that leaves a lasting impression, you appreciate it and it makes you happy, sad or thoughtful, It is an extension of what the Artist is feeling and wants others to feel and see through his own eyes and make their own.  Checked up on Fashion design, could not find such a word in my dictionary, so I will split the word in two. Fashion is a popular trend, a way of doing something. While Design is a decorative pattern. One can now say that Fashion design is a way of putting down a decorative pattern that becomes a popular trend and a particular way of doing or rather wearing some things.  Music, on the other hand is the art of writing or playing music by combining vocal or instrumental sounds in a pleasing way. 
  They both represent what Art is about but I believe Music is the higher form of art between the two. You may not agree with my point of view. Fashion design, we agree takes a whole lot of work, the Designer, has this sudden burst of creativity, he begins to draw it on paper like the true artist he is. After that, he tries to see his creativity brought to life, the way he pictured it, in form of a belt, bag, shoes, cloth or jewelry Etc. Music is conceived the same way. The musician has this song in his head; maybe he saw something or heard something and he is moved, he begins to put it down in writing or sound. He wants to tell the story to others. So, after the writing comes the making of the music. Here, we have the vocalist and the instruments needed to make the song the musician has created in writing into its final true form. This takes a whole lot because the vocalist has to get the right tone that portrays what the written music is about to pass the right message.  So, why would I still say music is higher when they go through the same process of creation? Read on.
  Art is supposed to last forever. There are songs by Dolly Parton, the Abbas, and Barry White that were released years before I was born but I love these songs. How possible? They were still in circulation on radios and TV stations and my parents still had their records after I was born. Cannot say the same for fashion designs; let me give you an example. I have no idea what was in the Christian Dior’s spring collection of 1986. That is to show you that fashion design does not last and it never leaves a lasting impression, it goes and comes with season. Today it is Gladiator sandals and tomorrow, peep toes. Imagine wearing a gown with a large tummy belt five years ago and you would have been laughed at, called a relic of a lost age and a fashion victim. Yes, we have songs that are rave of the moment but they never go off circulation completely, even after twenty years because people still love them. Yes I agree,when you wear a sexy gown, it makes you feel seductive and all, in jeans you feel free and depending on what you wear it with, if It is sneakers you feel so comfy and tomboyish, if they are heels; you feel like a lady. Yes, people dress according to their mood and certain dresses and other apparels can put you in any mood; black is sober and elegant, red is sexy and dashy, yellow is sunny, pink is girly etc. I shop a lot but most times, I can forget a cloth for a month, do not even remember it exists. I have art works. That is my first passion; I never forget I have those. Music on the other hand can motivate you, make you say wow, make you cry, happy, in love etc. yes what does that have to do with art? A lot! Art is an expression.
  Art is a universal form which music represents because it is a universal language. You can listen to music from different countries and you appreciate and enjoy them even if you do not understand the language. A very good example is songs from South Africa by Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Brenda Fassie. Yes, Fashion design is somewhat universal e.g. we have Calvin Klein designs all over the world but hey! You cannot compare the two. We do not understand the words in songs from other countries but we understand the art, the music, the expression used. Yes, fashion has different genres or kind, music does too. 
  Music is more in depth it tells you a story. It makes you happy, sad, cry, shout, dance, and motivated which is everything Art should be. Fashion design does not do that for you. Agreed, you feel good when you wear the cloth, jewelry, shoe or bag but you pull it off and forget it for months or years in your wardrobe or give it out. It goes out of style. Music like every true art does not. check out works done by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt ,Michelangelo, Pablo Picasso they never go out of style they are sought for and they were done years before my birth, centuries even. Looking at music, works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart done centuries back but we still love them. Yes I do.  What was the first work of coco Chanel? What does it look like? Found it online but prior to that, I had absolutely no idea and so those more than half the world’s population. As I said before, I am a fashion enthusiast, my friends will say I am fashion mad but facts are still facts.
  Music is free for all. It is something everybody can enjoy free, through the radio stations and TV stations like the sky. The rich and poor enjoy it, it is not expensive, and one can afford it in its originality, no need for a fake. However, fashion designed products, Pheew! Most people cannot afford the originals unless they get the knock offs.  Only the rich can afford the originals. Yes, the artworks I buy are expensive too but they last and do not go out of style rather it appreciates, the expression created by the artists moved me that is why I bought them.
    Music is art in its entirety and even the definition of Art wraps it up because music was mentioned in the definition and Fashion design was not.
     They say Fashion design is shallow and I agree to a degree because it makes an impression but it never lasts but is forgotten and dies off with time like a withered rose. Music, never dies, it lives on inside because Music is forever like Art.  Do you agree?