Toilets, The Coming of Age (?), and My Never-Ending Saga @ NYU

Toilets indeed!

This was what halted - periliously - the on-going Chess Unification Match between Kramnik and Topalov! Apparently, being down 2 - 0, the Bulgarian's team was beginning to feel apprehensive. Then, it must have dawned on someone that the Russian opponent was visiting the toilet with alarming frequency. The Bulgarians complained to the chess governing body (FIDE) about these visits asserting that Kramnik visited the restroom over 50 times in one game. Remarkably, the Bulgarians didn't say explicitly that the Russian might be cheating. However, as anyone who is in tune with contemporary chess knows, there have been escalations in the rate of 'computer aids' used by players during a tournament allied with powerful transmission devices. This was the implicit complaint by the Bulgarians. As an aside, perhaps, Kramnik is known for his poor health and his visits to the restroom may not be strange at all, all things considered.

Something that has been also remarkable though, is the way public opinion flooded in favour of the Russian; peremptorily dismissing the claims of Topalov and the Bulgarian team. The whole world seemed to scream in protest! Apparently, everyone is tired of the chess schism as well as the psychological warfare that characterizes these high level championship games. Indeed, in the eyes of many, Topalov and the Bulgarian team are now persona non grata! O, to think he was the darling of the chess world not too long ago.

Anyways, the Russian - Kramnik - did the noble thing. He forfeited a point - arising from his refusal to play the following game unless the "unfair" conclusion of the appeals committee was reversed, i.e. that he regained full use of his toilet rights. The score as at today when I write is 4-3 in favour of the Russian. For someone from whom Gary Kasparov could not win a tournament game out of 16, it will be interesting to see Topalov do the near-impossible against Vladimir.

Coming of Age

I was awestruck (well, not really) to see that the Ekiti State legislature had served Ayo Fayose with a Notice de Impeachment (forgive my French)! This is a significant coming of age for a legislative arm of government in Nigeria. Unlike the pathetic Plateau state legislature that refused to investigate Joshua Dariye in the face of overwhelming proof of gubernatorial kleptomania! [By the way, I'm glad you're all in jail now while Dariye is still breathing the air of the free.]

Fayose's story is a silly one. An Area Boy to the core, sparsely educated, and only brought to light by the corrosive and amoral ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Nigeria in a state filled with native-born Professors, one could say the gods washed his hands for him. He was set to eat with kings. But Nooooooo. In typical Nigerian style, he set out to defraud the state fisc. All told, he is accused of looting N5billion [c. $38million]...and he has only been in government for 3 years. If he is guilty of the allegations against him, I hope he finds comfort in jail. He could have stolen $1million and no one would have raised an eyebrow. Afterall, it is Nigeria! But, according to Achebe, he had to steal so much that the village has noticed.

Fayose and others like him - a clique too many to be counted individually - I hope your sins catch up with you. Here. In this time. For the generation you have wronged, the after-life is too far away for your retribution.

My Saga at NYU

It seems like my troubles and challenges never end. Just as I was settling into the mix of my lectures, I got an email from the Bursar today. An email from the Bursar in the middle of semester cannot be a good thing. My account was in deficit - by a whopping $19,000!

With the rash of things that have happened to me in this life, such things do not even bother me anymore. What the Almighty wants to happen will happen. So, I calmly called the financial aid office and told them my problem. Apparently, someone had cancelled half of my citibank loan thereby wiping out my disbursement for this semester! I wonder if this had something to do with my immigration saga from last month.... I also called citibank to see who was not doing their job. Apparently, NYU is at fault - this time.

Well, the good thing about this one is that, nothing adverse will happen until November - assuming there is a delay in the remittance. Secondly, I got the news on a Wednesday! Usually, these things happen on Friday afternoon about 30 mins before all the offices close. Naturally, you never call the right office first and so you only learn who the right person to call is just on the stroke of the last minute of the business day...then, you have to wait until Monday. Very frustrating, life can be.

I know that things can go bad very quickly so I'm bracing myself for a long battle even though I have all the documents to prove the approval for the full amounts. Someone once told me, "after you've made plans, life happens". I totally agree.

Let's see how this saga goes.