My Granddaughter’s Hard Year+

Nkiruka, my granddaughter, has had a tough year!

After two years at Syracuse University, she transferred to NYU. But she took off for a one-year break. After completing an internship in the summer and fall, she left for Nigeria in January 2020. She remained there until June 2020. She’s now 21.

Then she “entered” NYU in August 2020. But this year has been a disaster for her. She has spent a few weekends and a couple of weeks in New York. More time has been spent at home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Sometimes she’s with me in Connecticut, or at friends’ houses. She’s been avoiding her dad who hadn’t yet been vaccinated. Like most students in this year, she has endured taking classes online.

I do hope NYU is fully reopening in the Fall. She’ll have classes that actually meet in person. Meeting people who are sharing her major will be good for her. (I can’t exactly say what her major is!)

She might find one professor who can relate to her. I’m sure that’s difficult with the number of people that are at NYU. Still, she’s now in a good position to do that.

I hope she’ll experience the city as it’s meant to be. NYU is in good hands. I trust and believe she may have a successful year to come.

My Other Granddaughter

My other granddaughter Teya is in Nigeria. I did spend time with her and her brother in Nigeria when I was there visiting for seven weeks. But I wish I could see her and her brother more often.

Sam, my son, is working on a plan that we might go to England in August to see her and her brother. And of course see Sam too!

Western Media, Israel and Gaza

The Western media has been heavily focused on the struggle between Israel and Gaza. The images have shown us sights of the humanitarian disaster that was unfolding.

There is a peace process that is holding for now. I wonder how long it will last? Does President Biden hold the key?

It’s a grim, familiar cycle that has haunted the Middle East for decades and bedeviled successive American administrations. But this time, President Joe Biden said that he believes there is “a genuine opportunity to make progress” toward Israelis and Palestinians living in peace.

It’s a big pitch that would require making headway on a seemingly intractable problem with ancient roots and a litany of contemporary complications.

Biden seems to be holding on for a bit to see what happens. Perhaps he is waiting for Anthony Blinken, our Secretary of State, to see what he says.

In the meantime, teams of Egyptian mediators have been going back and forth between Gaza, Israel and the West Bank.

Nigeria in Contrast

There are more than 2.9 million people internally displaced in northwestern Nigeria. Many of those are residents around the capital city of Maiduguri.

In another part of the North, northwestern Kaduna and Zamfara States have many deaths.

In addition, there are armed bandits at work. Many people have been kidnapped. They are usually released after payment of a healthy ransom.

But the military and police forces are not on top of this. Where is President Buhari? Why doesn’t he take action against the perpetrators? He is unfortunately sadly lacking in necessary tools in Maiduguri and in other parts of the North.

He is also not on top of the southern governors who are seeking to pre-empt him in the next election. He is embattled by these forces. They are the governors of the South West, South South, and South East.

Security issues, incursions by Muslim “Fulani” cattle herders, and frustration with the federal government’s inability to provide security appears to have brought together governors from Yoruba, Igbo, and minority-ethnic group states. Most, but not all, are Christian.

We will have to wait and see, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope for Buhari to do more to take control of the crisis.