I do not think they are called \u00abBoko Karam\u00bb; its abbreviation would fit our title.\u00a0 We imagine those in the borders of Nigeria and Cameroon wreaking havoc to political structures on both countries, the ones who abducted 276 schoolgirls from northeast Nigeria\u203as Chibok.\u00a0 The girls\u203a future has already been directed elsewhere other than a return to the classroom.<\/p>\n
They are called Boko Haram, translated \u201cWestern Education is forbidden\u201d, a militant Islamic Jihadist movement accused by the US in 2013 as a terrorist organization, officially called Jama\u2019atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda\u2019Awati Wal-Jihad, (People Committed to the Prophet\u2019s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad).<\/p>\n
\u00a0I live in a University town where Aerospace, Medical, Engineering, and Normal School have all relocated from downtown Shenyang, and have a high percentage of students from Africa.\u00a0 I once kidded a girl if Boko Haram was named after the Burka (the first a headgear and the last an attire that hides everything including the eyes that looks only through a mesh) and the Hajib, but she did not think that was funny.\u00a0 She was Hausa from Kano, Nigeria where once I landed when my London-Lagos (Yuruba land) flight sheltered because a Taureg sandstorm threatened.\u00a0 That was also where I saw more burkas in one place and where Hausa and Boko Haram prevails!<\/p>\n
The Hajib is rather common in the department stores and subway stops near my dwelling as many students are proud of their cultural heritage, resist the wind force and dust on the hair, and provide comfort from the cold, but I look at them more from the fashion perspective rather than their Sharia meaning. \u00a0\u00a0Having lived in Kentucky, Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina, where the Ku Klux Klan wore the caparitos that Nazareno priests processed with during Espa\u00f1a\u2019s Holy Week quickly made me separate symbol from their significance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I was BK\u2019d this week.\u00a0 That is not an acronym familiar to pugilists whose KO and TKO is more the familiar lingo.\u00a0 My friends keep forwarding me news blips of boxer-turned-Philippine legislator Manny Pacquiao, especially after he won his last two Macau bouts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
At 36, Pacquiao needs to climb the ring with perennial verbal foe Floyd Mayweather who at 38 guards an undefeated record.\u00a0 Of course, their bout has been five years in the making, but the current betting is that one will be held within six months, now that Dallas Cowboys\u2019 owner is bidding to hold the event at his 100K seat stadium in Texas with a minimum take at $50 million to each fighter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still on boxing, we just learned that Mickey Rourke at 62, after his last professional bout in 1994, KO\u2019d his 29-yr old opponent (who allegedly took a dive) in Moscow to improve a career record of 7-0-2.\u00a0 I last noticed Mickey, Academy Award nominee, in Wild Orchid filmed in the Copacabana of Brazil (where I spent a month outside of Rio Bonito).\u00a0 He was with Jacqueline Bisset, pleasantly tart and playful in the movie, with French Elite super model Carr\u00e9 Otis who was rumored to have had a real sex scene with Rourke.\u00a0 They were later married and divorced (\u201892-\u201998).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Otis wrote in her memoirs three years ago how her modeling agency boss raped her at 17, adding her to the recent Joan Collins revelation, noticeable now that Bill Cosby got the accusatory finger on his questionable bed manners.\u00a0 Shia LeBeaouf claims to have been raped by a fan while his girlfriend waited in line outside a set-up one-on-one encounter with fans.\u00a0 Lucky guy!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boy, and I was just going to follow-up my article on Suba, Kimchi and BK, but I took a round about way to get here, from Nigeria to Macau, Brazil to Hollywood.\u00a0 It must be the cold!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yup, I got whopped at BK (for the uninitiated, that is Burger King, the home of the Whopper).\u00a0 The fast food service corner finally opened, a suggested venue to meet acquaintances that I avoid.\u00a0 I walked in the cold the other day, so I ran for warmth at BK.\u00a0 I looked at the pictures, recalling that BK had Alaskan fish and Persian Gulf fish served in Kuwait (pork was verboten – the Yumbo sandwich unheard of – while beef, sheep and goat meat were imported) but no fins were in the grills in Shenyang.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Da du zi (big tummy) growled and we knee-jerked.\u00a0 The Whopper meal cost 35 rmb, thirty-five rides on the bus for me before the rates go double in three more months.\u00a0 The bun pictures on the wall were bigger and firmer than what came in my plate.\u00a0 It did not surprise me but the beef on the wimpy sandwich bun tasted like mush dried on the grill.\u00a0 That, or I had forgotten what beef tasted like.\u00a0 There was no refill on the soda.\u00a0 The redeeming virtue of the place was a waitress who spoke English.\u00a0 Graced with Africans and Caucasians who spoke halting Chinese among its customers, her English came in handy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I was royally whopped at BK, and lighter on the pocket, too, as my oral englisCHe learners come motivated and earnest but hardly paying customers, so I shall avoid getting into the BK arena again, or add more warmth against the cold. \u00a0B-r-r-r.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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