sinead's Blog

 SARS (Special anti-robbery squad)

The acronym SARS stands for Special Anti-robbery squad. It’s a Nigerian police force created in 1992 to deal with all sorts of crimes like burglary, abduction, motor vehicle theft and firearms related crimes. But cases have turned out otherwise where the police force brutalise the citizens of Nigeria, which is known as police brutality. https://www.flare.com/news/end-sars-nigeria-explainer/ 

Paul Kenneth, a victim of police brutality which are the SARS officers. Paul explained in detail on the Nigerian police force. The Special anti-robbery team interferes with the public and gather details concerning hoodlums and criminals so they can go after them. But they have taken it upon themselves to harass the public and use their guns to kill the citizens of Nigeria, simply because their extortion was not carried out by the victim or victims. Nigerian people and other citizens across the globe sparked the protest in Nigeria known as #ENDSARS. “I knew of an action that sparked this #ENDSARS protest when I went to Nigeria. A man was killed in broad daylight by a specific member of the society for not yielding to SARS extortion. When people saw this, with the help of social media and social media influencers they took it upon themselves to create various groups to make a protest” Paul Kenneth said.

 The Disbandment and renaming of the Police force. 

The Nigerian people wanted SARS to be dismantled, which is why they were tens of thousands demonstrating, the government yielding to the demands of the demonstrators by scraping SARS, but they renamed the police force to SWAT, but the Nigerian civilians reacted by disagreeing with the police force’s renaming by saying NO to the change of the name because “ Today you cannot dismantle a police force wing and make a quick change to the name and force without adequate training, it’s like putting old wine in a new bottle”. What the Nigerian citizens said. The demands of the protesters are very basic which is #ENDSARS #ENDPOLICEBRUTALITY. 

“I am a victim of SARS, I wasn’t driving, I was well dressed and the SARS force drove by me in a pickup van and said, you come here! About five of them came up to me with their guns” Paul said. “I’m on holidays, I do not live in the country” Paul said. After that, they told Paul to come to the station to investigate more about him. The #ENDSARS movement has not spread around the world but what is happening in Nigeria is noticed by the world and they know of a protest in Nigeria, but they did not have ample awareness of the situation and how serious it was. 

In solidarity of the Nigerian people, so many world leaders needed SARS to be disbanded because they have heard reports and seen what they have done and still doing to the citizens.

Casualties Of the Protest.

During the rally, there were protesters which were killed during and after the protest. There were about twenty-two people who died from the military violence of the protesters but the Governor of the state of Lagos, head by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, he gave an incorrect number of people that died in an interview with CNN, but CNN ultimately learned they were more than the number of death casualties the governor provided. 

The Lekki Massacre.

At around 6:50pm on the night of 20 October 2020, officers of the Nigerian army opened fire on unarmed ENDSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos State, Nigeria. The Lekki toll gate was completely burnt down, which was part of the #ENDSARS protest. This act quailed a riot. The president of Nigeria, known as Muhammed Buhari, did not discuss the situation of the Lekki Massacre and the ENDSARS protest, but after 80% of the destruction has happened, Muhammed Buhari addressed the situation later. When he addressed the situation, little concern was displayed to the protesters and he was not sympathetic to the families of the deceased. 

We have thirty-six states and a federal capital territory, making it thirty-seven states. Nigeria is a very large nation. The federal capital territory has not yet been proclaimed a state. Every governor of the thirty-six states were sympathetic to every protester simply because they did not want more harm to be done in their states. The smart thing that each governor did was to help the protesters by sending a letter to the federal government to say that this is what the country needs is to end SARS and the violence of the police.

The Nigerian Police force is a force that can be categorized as politician’s beck and call and not necessarily in order to support Nigerian people, because they do what politicians want and not what the citizens want. The police force sees the protection of the politicians is more important than the citizens of Nigeria. 

The rebranding of SARS unit.

SARS was rebranded, but the protesters claimed they didn’t want SARS to be rebranded. Like the American SWAT, the rebranding name they developed was SWAT. The protesters objected that they should not disband an arm of the police department and rebrand them few days after they were disbanded, no proper instruction/training was offered, they are still the same people with the same mindset about how they interact with the public. During this tumultuous time, it was very difficult for people to cope. 

From the beginning, foreign and local media have reported the events, but the drastic turn at the Lekki toll plaza has put a renewed emphasis on the Nigerian situation. The united states and the European union have called for an end to police violence.

The protest should however, not dwell on the short term, but on the long term. Leaders need not to dwell on hopes of winning political influence, but should also ensure that the authorities adhere to their pledge to change and put to justice the errant police. It’s not all about police brutality, #ENDSARS. It’s is for Nigeria and the future generation ahead.

I watched this live event called One Man Two Guvnors. I will give a little summary about the play . One guy, two Guvnors is a play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of servant of two masters. The play replaces the setting of the original in Italian time with Brighton in 1963. In 1963, Brighton, out of work skiffle player Francis Henshall is hired separately by two men, Roscoe Crabbe, a gangster and Stanley Snubbers a twit of the upper class. Francis attempts to prevent the two from meeting, so that each of them does not know that Francis is also working for someone else. Complicating matters, Roscoe is actually disguised as Rachel Crabbe, her twin brother Roscoe was killed by her boyfriend who is none other than Stanley. Local mobster Charlie the duck, who orchestrated the engagement of his daughter Pauline to Roscoe amid her preference for over the top amateur actor Alan Dangle is still complicating things. Yet more difficulties are caused by numerous letters a very large suitcase some unfortunate volunteers from the crowd, an exceedingly elderly waiter and Francis pursuit of his own passions, Dolly, food and drink.

THE LIVE EXPERIENCE:

The genre of this play is Comedy. The opening of this play was lively/funny . The characters customs suited the role they were acting as . The display of the play had an historical context to it , looks like it was done back in the days, not too modern. pertaining to the characters, there were a lot of ironic statements they made which made the play fun to watch , more like a metaphor .

Alan and Roscoe , which Rachel was in disguised of,

quote from Alan: My love for your daughter clicks poetry. But I could see from the scene Pauline wasn’t interested in Roscoe, because her love lies with Alan. One of theme of this play is love, love was shown between Alan and Pauline and Rachel and Stanley. Before this Stanley and Rachel got to live in Australia.

Lloyd and Rachel have a good relationship, which was displayed well in the scene, especially the first scene of the play. Another theme is friendship.

Talking about the appearance of the Stage, the stage was lively. a lot of laughter, the colours compliments the atmosphere is different scenes.

The second scene , seems like the country side and there was a different costume for all characters to compliment the scene, There sounds which made the audience laugh . For example, when Francis Henshall was chasing after something, there were sounds of breaking bottles which made a sense of the atmosphere.

The play was a good one as they interacted with the audience, an example was when Francis took two audience from the crowd to be a part of the play, made things funnier. The comedy is a well narrative play. Pertaining to lighting , they dined the lights for when it was necessary.

A funny part was when Francis realises he has two jobs and excited about it but was a little paranoid , and he had a soliloquy, I found that creative, spoke out aloud what he was thinking for everyone to have an understanding. A quote from Francis: “I did not know paper could taste this good, I might go back to communion”.

The stage presence of all characters were good , they acted their role well and the audience enjoyed it.

The telegraph and the Guardian.com.

The film Roma is an old story that has a historical content to it , it shows an extraordinary way of how people lived their lives in the early centuries. It’s a black and white cinematography movie. The world of Roma is the world of the writer director’s childhood, which refers to the middle-class Mexico City neighbourhood where he grew up, a housekeeper lived with them called Cléo, the main character of the movie.

The film begins with a close up shot of a marble floor of somebody washing the floor with soap and water, it had an extraordinarily detailed sound which complimented the washing of the floor, no music, no conversation just the sound of the water swishing across the floor.

The main character Cléo the housekeeper spends her days tending to the family looking after the kids, the house, preparing food and constantly washing the floors, dishes and clothes. The film is her story, as a housekeeper, as a woman, and as someone who is truly alone in this world. Her story is one of compassion, loyalty, love, sacrifice, tragedy, heartbreak and loss. It explores the harsh and extreme conditions of war and respectively of how Roma tackles everyday life in Mexico City. But also shows the loving part of a family living together. The dominant sounds of the film Roma are not bomb explosions and gunshots, but of planes flying overhead, dogs barking and street chatter. Every scene displayed, maintained a background noise like the birds chirping, planes/jets engines flying overhead.

The film explores various themes, the first is

LONELINESS;

The theme of loneliness is prominent here, particularly as it applies to women which applies the main characters, the present and future mothers who were abandoned by their significant others. The experience of the main character, Cléo is sad and jarring. Cléo, a young woman who got pregnant after her sexual experience with her boyfriend, finding out later the man who got her pregnant wasn’t willing to stay and take care of the child and help her as a pregnant woman. And this affected her in the way she interacted with the other children, she isolated herself from the children a bit but still showed them so much love and care.

MOTHERHOOD; The theme of motherhood is shown in this film, Sofía the mother of the family. Cléo and Sofía builds a relationship in the film, they become something like friends but not it all, but there was a relationship, it can be seen when Cléo came to Sofía to tell her she was pregnant, Sofía took it in a loving way, and asked who got her pregnant, when Cléo told her about the man and how he left her all by herself , Sofía could relate to it because her husband left her and the kids as well. Sofía took her to the hospital for her to know how the unborn baby is faring , Sofía showed great concern about Cléo and the unborn baby. Motherhood is greatly shown how in this.

LOVE;

Love is prominent here, it is greatly shown how Cléo catered for the children and for the family in general. How she prepared the children for school, waking them early in the morning with a positive atmosphere by singing them songs and tickling them. you can see the loved them and the children loved her too. Cléo made sure everything was in order in the house, and it shows she really liked the atmosphere of the children around her, no matter how sad she was, she made sure it was bestowed on the children .

Love is also shown through how she felt about her boyfriend, but the love wasn’t shown back. He basically used her and dumped her, but Cléo ran back to him to see if he could give and show her the same love in return and at first when they started talking, but sadly that wasn’t the case .

TRAGEDY/LOSS;

This is shown in Cléo’s part of her being pregnant and the loss of her unborn baby. Cléo was such a kind heated fellow and cared for everyone more than herself , the losing of her baby was the worst part because she didn’t deserve it. It was a very sad experience for her, even when her boyfriend didn’t care or want the baby but she did. These are themes explored in the film Roma.

Roma captures a truly memorising insight into daily life. Which gives the audience a sense of the serenity and chaos of life in Mexico City .

Some quotes from the film Roma are;

Sofia; We are alone, No matter what they tell you, we women are always alone.

This first quote explains her talking to Cléo relating to her husband living the house and wanting a divorce and also Cléo’s boyfriend abandoning her .

Dra Velez; Mountains are old, but they’re still green .

theguardian.com/wordpress.com.

Derek jarman was a stage designer, English director, author and artist . His work was shown through his artworks/paintings before he died. Derek jarman has designed so many artworks for people. For example, he designed Fredrick Ashton’s(was a ballet dancer and choreographer) jazz calender at the royal ballet . Following this success, John Gielgud ( an english actor) approached him to design his production of Mozari’s Don Giovanni at the National Opera.

His themes are expressed through various of his artworks, Jarman engages with both art and society, also concerning with his political protest and personal freedom arising from the AIDS crisis. He uses his artworks as a means of communication to his audience. some themes includes; 

Black paintings:

Jarman often worked in series that expressed his current interests. while researching the film caravaggio ( a British drama film directerd by Derek Jarman), he began to utilise some of the Renaissance artist’s techniques. He created a new body of work that he broadly described as ‘ Black paintings’. These were made by placing gold leaf on the canvas surface. over painting with black oil paint, and scraping through to reveal the gold leaf below. Many of the images are explicitly sexual, a radical political gesture at a time of increasing conservatism. A group of these paintings were shown at his 1982 solo exhibition at the Edward Totah gallery in London. 

Below are examples of his black paintigs:

Another of his painting he designed was DIZZY BITCH.

By the time he made these paintings, jarman’s health and sight had deteriorated to such an extent that he needed the help of studio assistants to undertake the heavy work. He pasted photocopies of the homophobic front pages of tabloid newspapers onto his canvases, covered them in heavily layered paint, and scraped his own messages into the paint. 

below is a picture:

He painted this piece below: 

This work is based on a postcard from 1910 addressed to ‘Dear Ethel’. The figures are Edwardian women in large picture hats. In the background a Ferris Wheel and boats. In this painting we see jarman begin to combine figuration with geometry. His uses cheap materials. seascapes and a flattened perspective in somewhat naïve style is reminiscent of the work of St Ives artist and fisherman alfred wallis. Jarman was increasingly interested in artists working outside the academy who still explored past and mythical worlds. This paintings demonstrates his artistic maturity at a young age as he had already absorbed many principles of modern painting.

 Another theme is his Mental health:

Derek jarman was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and this really affected him and it was shown through his artworks. He has a prospect cottage which represents his legacy. Jarman bought prospect cottage, an old fisherman’s hut in 1987, shortly after his HIV positive was diagnosed. He had been a gardner all his life. He combines local plants with sculptures made from flotsam and jetsam, pebbles and stones.

some of his sculptures are shown below:

A picture below shows a struggle of his mental health/illness:

Another theme is sexual identity and religion:

God and religion were never far from Jarman’s mind after 1987. A devout atheist , his fixation on religion derived from his conservation education where his early sexuality was severely punished. He combined religious icons purchased in junk shops with paraphernalia of war and sex. Used condoms, spent bullets, rosary beads, and wedding rings all found their way onto his canvases. These unexpected juxtaposition create images that immediately jar and confront social and religious norms. 

Here is a picture below:

Some of Derek jarman’s themes are shown through his artworks. His paintings/artworks are his legacy and has a meaning to every one of his pieces. 

Internet safety is very important. Internet Safety means you have to be more conscious/ careful using on online platforms, this is relating to social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and the rest. We all know of various story incidents that has happened due to lack of Internet safety. Everything and Everyone around the world, excluding the some small percentage are found on online platforms. It’s the internet, everyone uses it for the smallest of things. That’s why we have to be more careful as to how you use the internet, what informations to give out and the informations you absorb in, it’s all keeping safe. Unsafe surfing can lead to other threats from embarrassing personal comments, images, that, once online, can nearly impossible get erased from the internet.

Below are some safety rules;

1. Keep personal Informations to yourself . People online do not need to know every small detail about you. It is very unsafe and harmful for your being . Little details will do.
2. Practice safe browsing. Don’t visit dangerous neighbourhoods sites. By resisting the urge, you don’t give the hackers a chance.
3. Make sure your internet connection is secure. This is very important, going to public places and connecting to their internet, meaning you have no control of their internet, use SECURE VPN CONNECTION to secure safe browsing.
4. Be careful on what you download. not every app that pops up on your screen you download, make sure you do your researches on the app before downloading.
5. Create a strong password. Having a strong password is very important.
6. Be careful on what you post. No to personal informations, you can’t get rid of embarrassing photos/images when it’s online. so be careful on what you post.
7. Be careful who you meet online. Not everyone you meet online is genuine. some are not real, there are fake social media profiles, a popular way for hackers to easily hack your account. Be cautious and sensible on who you meet online.
8. Download anti-virus programmes, and keep up to date with them.

In my first semester I did a module called Thinking, writing and presenting. For this module you have to participate by talking , more like an interactive session. I had an outing to go for called the Claire Byrne show. The aim was to go experience how the show is, how it feels being part of the audience and back stage.

It was a Monday evening, I went with two other of my course mates, I took the bus down to RTE, when I got there, I went to the reception office and signed my name in for the show. The show started at 9pm and I got there 8:30pm. When it was time to go in, a lady working at RTE handed us a piece of paper and a pen in order to write any questions we would Like to ask during the show, when we were all done with writing the questions, we were called into the showroom, we all saw Claire Byrne. The show was to start in ten minutes. so we all took ours sits and waited for the show to commence, I must say the workers were well organised . When the show commenced, Claire Byrne gave the headlines as to what she was going to be talking about. Half an hour later she answered questions from the audience, and a little game was done at the end before the show came to an end. My experience at the Claire Byrne show was a great experience. I got to experience being back stage and seeing how things are put together before the show goes live . I recommend you go see the Claire Byrne show !

Staying motivated isn’t the end point, but it is where you start and how you start . Think about your goals and how you want to achieve them, how and why you want to reach them, it isn’t so easy, but at the end of it, you will be happy and satisfied with yourself.

Here are some tips below on how to stay motivated daily;

1. Have a vision for yourself, by doing this, you’re setting a clear goal on how you want the end results to be.
2. Have passion for your goal, have the drive to get out of bed and get work doing.
3. Follow up on your results , make sure everything is on the right track. ( having a little diary will help).
4. Read motivational quotes, this will give the drive to do more.
5. When you have achieved some goal, give yourself a threat, pamper yourself.
6. Don’t be too hard on yourself, if things aren’t working out as you want them to, challenges arises, so, it’s perfectly fine. Get up and continue with the good work!
7. Give yourself a reward when the goals are completed.

How To Write An Academic Essay.

STEP ONE- Examine the Essay Title.

• The most important step to a good academic essay is to examine the essay title. Find out what it means and how you are going to approach the subject.
• Look up academic materials/ online resources that will be necessary to carry out your task. Such as online books or books in the library, journals and articles.
• When you find out the necessary information needed for the essay. You write down where you could located those resources you searched up. 

STEP TWO- Make an outline.

• Make an outline on how you are going to start with the essay. Starting with the introduction, essay content which is the body of the essay, and the end which is the conclusion.
• Plot your information, relating to the style and how you are going to flow throughout the essay with the same style. Such as paragraphs.
• Making an outline is more like brainstorming. It helps you decide on what information you want to add in your academic essay.
• Don’t clutter to many ideas in one paragraph, it makes your essay look messy and makes everything look confusing and off-topic. It is very important you make an understandable essay, that is easy to read and knowledgeable when a reader is reading.

STEP THREE- Explore.

• Explore reading materials crucial to the academic essay.
• While you are exploring/researching, take down notes and links so you could refer them back to their references when it comes to the bibliography section.
• The purpose on exploring is to inform you on the range of ideas centered to your chosen academic essay title.

STEP FOUR- Composing your Essay.

• INTRODUCTION.
• An introductory part of an essay is very important. It is also intended to capture the reader’s attention. When you are writing/composing your essay, start with the title and the necessary information you want to add to the beginning of your essay. For an example, if you want to define a word, it should be part of the introduction. By doing that, you are setting a clear aim/goal on how you want your essay to presented. Having a good structure is important.
• BODY OF THE ESSAY.
• The body of an essay is where you explain what your essay entails. The body of an essay entails different paragraphs, with each paragraph involving different main points to start up a paragraph for an essay. While doing this, you can accompany each paragraphs with quotations you searched up or have down written on your piece of paper.
• CONCLUSION.
• The final paragraph is the conclusion, which entails the ending of the body of the essay. In this section you briefly discuss each paragraphs of your essay, this will show, you have an understanding of what you have researched on and writing about. Your conclusion has to be short and straight to the point because you have said the necessary points in the body of the essay. Conclusion is just the summary point of an essay.
• STEP FIVE- Bibliography.
• Doing a bibliography is very important for an academic essay, it helps researchers/lecturers keep track of the research materials you consulted while doing your research on your essay title. This will also prove/back up your claim you used these research materials. And you were well enough to provide evidence to avoid plagiarism. 
• A bibliography includes, author’s name, the title of the work, the names of the locations of the companies that published the copies of the sources, the date was copy was published, the page number of your sources. All these listed above are very important and should we included when writing a bibliography.
• STEP SIX- Language.
• Using the correct grammar, making sentences flow, incorporating rhythm is very important. That will make the reader know you understand what you are talking about, you know how to use your grammar properly and you have been making researches necessary for your essay.
• STEP SEVEN- Revise.
• It is very important to revise your essay. Reread your essay for unclear statements or off-topic information, grammar, spellings and punctuations. Revise it over and over again, you can also get your friend to help you out in revising your essay. By doing that, you are getting feedback of what he/she thinks about your essay.
• STEP EIGHT- Add the finishing touches.
• When you are done revising over your essay, paying attention to every small details and you feel there are places that are not in the correct order, either grammatical errors or punctuations where they are not needed and places you didn’t punctuate, this is the time to put things into order, and correct any grammatical errors and put in punctuations. This is why revising is a crucial tip when writing an essay. It will help you find things you thought you already added in your essay.

Early last year, I went on a trip to Nike Centre for Art and Culture museum on Christmas Day. That was my first time going to a museum in Nigeria. It was a great experience. Nike Art Gallery is an art gallery owned by Nike Davies Okundaye who is a Nigerian batik ( is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied with whole cloth) and Adire (tie and dye textile) textile designer. The gallery is arguably the largest of its kind in West Africa. Housed in a five-story tall building . It boasts a collection of about 8,000 diverse artworks from various Nigerian artists.

I got to experience different beauty artworks . Here are some pictures below;

This is an embroidery using richly colored threads to make intricate designs and patterns.

These are some of her art works , the more I got to see pictures and sculptures the more I loved art , it is a beautiful place to visit with your family and friends. I was so obsessed with the beautiful images/pictures that I had to buy three pictures. The images/pictures and sculptures reflect on the African culture, I loved how when I looked at an image/picture I could tell a story from it. Thats how powerful and amazing her art works are!