“Who really ported our Saka”? The guy who created the character speaks

Well, as a Professional, I wouldn’t want to respond to the Saka menace going on in town but then I keep getting emails upon emails from students, clients, fans and friends. People keep asking me several questions; why on earth did Saka port?

Relatedly, I went for a Strategic meeting with the Executive Board Members of a renowned bank, and the story came up again. In fact, they played the commercial and applauded the sheer brilliance of MTN. I actually heard one of the Excos saying ‘I’m going to port immediately.’ So I asked them: what worked for you in the commercial? Majority of them said ‘we just love this Saka man’

There’s nothing as powerful as that cultural connection and that humanness factor we display as brands. As I watch from a distance the recent Saka phenomenon I can only bow to this timeless advertising principle. Culture eats Strategy for breakfast. Hats off.

As the Creative Director who was privileged to have created the iconic Saka for advertising, I watch as this device takes on a life of its own and how it is gradually becoming a major case study in the history of Nigeria’s advertising. However, before I go to major brand lessons this should teach us, I shall quickly correct some insinuations flying round in our ad circle. Ad people can be their own worst enemies. Don’t take my words for it. Go see Mad Men. However, it’s good to have a first person point of view to this saga.

For the record.

First, Saka was not a celebrity used for etisalat. Rather, he was a character we at Centrespread designed for an ad campaign that has come to take on a life of its own. When we did create the character bible, we needed a talent that could act the role and he came in for the casting like any other person. Looking at the screen test later on, we had no doubt that Saka was the man we were looking for. You must give credits to etisalat to have approved of our direction and choice. It really was not their ‘type’ of advertising. So, it was not a case of celebrity endorsement, it was a case of characterization. In Wendy’s ‘where is the beef’, the miniature old lady has become a phenomenon because of her characterization and Wendy wouldn’t dare joke with that.

Secondly, we must also quickly correct the impression that the ‘funny’ man was looking for money, hence porting to MTN. While it is a fact that all of us on this planet would want to be better paid for our talent, I know personally, that Saka gave his very best to us on etisalat’s campaign. He was not signed on a contract. He was paid like any other 3-month model arrangement. He was not paid the proverbial gbem. For the brand then, it was more of a tactical usage. He didn’t fit their typical advertising look and feel. Remember etisalat is the hip, classy and swag brand. Like I said earlier, we must credit them to have approved of the Saka idea in the first place. Although it was beginning to look like this was a devise that etisalat could own, going by the results it generated, Saka was treated like any other cast. I am very sure Banky W got more handsomely paid than our beloved Saka. Far far. But where is Banky W today? He ported also. That is what you can refer to as celebrity usage. Saka was not treated as such.

Quickly onto major brand lessons.

1. Advertising people must realize that people don’t really go all out to watch and listen to what we have to say. People don’t like ads. However, people love characters. Characterization is the holy grail of great storytelling. And if you are lucky to have one working for your brand, you’d better recognize and keep it like gold. My friend Udeme. Mama na Boy.The Malboro man. The Michelin Man. The Morton Salt Girl. Some of these are animated devices, some are real cast. Whatever it is, it is the job of the brand to treat such characters as assets for brand equity. In Africa, our type of storytelling is rarely animated. Hence, the place for human characters. I shall talk about this, another day.

2. We must come down from our high horses as advertisers and start recognizing local nuances and cultural elements in our storytelling. I don’t know where we got the theory that ‘looking good is great advertising’. Great ads may look good but that’s not their intentions. They normally have that verisimilitude to the lives of the people they serve. They are usually humanly populist, interesting and sometimes funny. How professionally done is the Indomee song ‘mama you do good o’? It may be tough selling that to a boardroom of brand people who believe in certain types of music production and musicians. The Indomee song came to the market awash with on-air fake accents and stole the show. It mirrors what our people would do. It mirrors how our children would sing.

3. Lastly, and don’t take this personal as it’s commonplace not just to a particular brand. Ad people must begin to have a relook at how we treat our local talents and agencies. If we can go on to pay Kim Kardashian that insane amount of money as a country just to appear for a 3 minute talk, we must begin to have a relook at how we treat our local talents that deliver the numbers for us. Listen guys! Don’t like me. Don’t even like my work but hey please, give me some credits if my work is delivering for you. Ad people are mad people for a reason. They are awake all night thinking of ideas. They work and work to see their works deliver for their clients. It’s a two way street. The agency has the talents and the ideas, you have the budget and the brand. So, we need each other. Hence, we must respect each other. We must respect talents. When we lose, we lose together, and when we win, we win altogether. Same goes for the agency. Do we really tell the truth to our clients? Are we honest with our proposal? I have lots of friends on the client side and I know how tough it is for them to deliver on their KPI. So, we agency people should not feel victimized. Everyone is under pressure. But we should always talk.

When I tell you about communicating your proposition, you as a client should listen. It’s what I have done for donkey years, and when you talk about your Marketing deliverable, I must listen very well. You always know better. No one is superior. In Insanely Simple, a book, Ken Segall went on to narrate how Steve Jobs cut off the unwinding long process for ad approvals. As far as Jobs was concerned, a product person did not and should not be consulted on advertising creatives. Jobs trusted Chiat to bring the magic on. No interference. This is a must read for all clients and agencies: Insanely Simple . How to create a brand like Apple. Sometimes, I don’t know if we tell ourselves real truths when we sit at those roundtables having coffee. AAAN and APCON, note.

4. Marketing is a game of opportunities. You find a loophole in competitions and you quickly use it to your advantage. Dog eat dog. That’s the case of MTN. They did try the Saka phenomenon with Osofia and Mama Gee but they knew that if it’s not Saka, it’s not Saka. We all know this is a very strategic move for MTN for the portability season. However if I must warn that etisalat is a very spontaneous brand at times. You may expect a shocker. Guys at etisalat , it’s time to look within. There’s something inside of etisalat; locked up in there. The brand must find it. Every brand has a great story locked up within it. It’s our job to find it. It is often brutally simple that we overlook it.

Ok, I need some Coffee please!

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So, the story is not as reported in some quarters that Saka betrayed etisalat. I need to port too o!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*This piece is culled from KennyBrandMuse via Ynaija

Chelsea Launch £21m Bid for Prolific Turkish Forward Burak Yilmaz

Chelsea have had a bid for Galatasaray’s Burak Yilmaz turned down according to talkSport.
The Stamford Bridge reportedly got in touch with the Turkish club to discuss a possible move for the Turkish striker, who has been in impressive form this season after scoring 25 goals in just 31 games.
But Galatasaray only recently signed the player from Trabzonspor last summer and are keen to hold on to the free-scoring striker. Yilmaz’s contract with the Turkish giants currently runs until 2016.
They reportedly knocked back Chelsea’s initial offer of £21 million but it is thought the London club are likely to return with an improved offer.
It is thought Galatasaray are looking for a fee closer to the £33 million mark for Yilmaz, but Russian billionaire and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is thought to be ready to sanction a big money move for a new striker.
Chelsea are in the market for a new striker after finally running out of patience with Spanish striker Fernando Torres.
The misfiring forward has scored just 14 goals in 74 appearances for the club and it appears the Chelsea hierarchy are now prepared to cut their losses on the striker who cost £50 million from Liverpool in 2011.

Source: Caught offside

Every top player in Europe is often linked with Chelsea Football Club. If this story is anything to go by, then something must be wrong with decision makers in the club. What then is the future of Romelu Lukaku, Islam Feruz and other young strikers in their academy?

Achebe: Bearing Witness, With Words, by New York Times

Achebe: Exit of a literary giant “If you don’t like someone’s story,” Chinua Achebe told The Paris Review in 1994, “write your own.” In his first novel and masterpiece, “Things Fall Apart” (1958), Mr. Achebe, who died on Thursday at 82, did exactly that. In calm and exacting prose, he examined a tribal society fracturing under the abuses of colonialism. The novel has been assigned to generations of American high school and college students — my college dispatched a copy to me before my freshman year. In many respects “Things Fall Apart” is the “To Kill A Mockingbird” of African literature: accessible but stinging, its layers peeling over the course of multiple readings. “Things Fall Apart,” its title taken from William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming,” has sold more than 10 million copies and been translated into some 45 languages. Time magazine placed it on its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. The novel tells the story of Okonkwo, a stoic clan leader and former wrestling hero who returns to his village after seven years in exile. (He’d been sent away after his role in an accidental death.) The changes that Christian missionaries and other white men have brought are intolerable to him. “Things Fall Apart” rolls toward a bleak denouement. What sticks with you about the novel is its sensitive investigation, often through folk tales, of how culture functions and what it means. Mr. Achebe (his name is pronounced CHIN-you-ah Ah-CHAY-bay) had plenty to say about notions of traditional masculinity, as well, not to mention his braided observations about nature, religion, myth, gender and history. The novelist grabbed the subject of colonialism “so firmly and fairly,” John Updike wrote in The New Yorker in the 1970s, “that the book’s tragedy, like Greek tragedy, felt tonic; a space had been cleared, an understanding had been achieved, a new beginning was implied.” Growing up in Nigeria, Mr. Achebe attended schools that were modeled upon British public schools. In his recent book of essays, “The Education of a British-Protected Child” (2009), he was eloquent about what it felt like as a young man to read classic English novels. They provided a cognitive dissonance he had to work through. “I did not see myself as an African in those books,” he wrote. “I took sides with the white men against the savages.” He continued: “The white man was good and reasonable and smart and courageous. The savages arrayed against him were sinister and stupid, never anything higher than cunning. I hated their guts.” Mr. Achebe grew up, and grew wiser: “These writers had pulled a fast one on me! I was not on Marlowe’s boat steaming up the Congo in ‘Heart of Darkness’; rather, I was one of those unattractive beings jumping up and down on the riverbank, making horrid faces.” Mr. Achebe was a poet, professor, short-story writer and critic in addition to being a novelist. His more than 30 other books include the novels “No Longer At Ease” (1960) and “Anthills of the Savannah” (1987). He published several children’s books. He was also the author, controversially, of an essay called “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’ ” While many critics defended Conrad, Mr. Achebe didn’t back down from his assertion that the racism in Conrad was not merely the norm for its time. In a book of essays he quoted earlier writers who, he said, were less backward. Mr. Achebe was a mentor and role model to a generation of African writers — he’s often referred to as the father of modern African writing. But like many novelists who find success with an early book, Mr. Achebe found himself almost solely defined by “Things Fall Apart.” He spent the last two decades in the United States, teaching at Bard College and then Brown University. It’s been more than 50 years since the publication of Mr. Achebe’s pioneering and canonical novel; it no longer seems to stand, to a Western audience at any rate, for African writing as a whole. His talent and success have helped spawn an array of postcolonial writing from across the continent. Among the talented young Nigerian writers alone who cite him as an influence are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Lola Shoneyin. In 1990 Mr. Achebe was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident in Nigeria. The following year he gave an interview to Bradford Morrow in Conjunctions magazine. Mr. Morrow asked him about the accident, and Mr. Achebe spoke about it with stoicism and good humor. “Children are born deformed,” he said. “What crime did they commit? I’ve been very lucky. I walked for 60 years. So what does it matter that I can’t for my last few years. There are people who never walked at all.” “Things Fall Apart” is, at base, about the strength that human beings find in community. His car accident offered him similar lessons. “It is an opportunity,” Mr. Achebe told Mr. Morrow. “It’s a lesson. It’s so much. It is an enrichment. I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned how much we depend on each other.”  Credit: New York Times

First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Capital Limited Graduate Trainee recruitment, March 2013

First Bank of Nigeria - FBN Capital Limited Graduate Programme 2013 FBN Capital Limited, a subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) is seeking to engage top-performing individuals from diverse academic backgrounds into our Graduate Programme, and groom them within an enabling culture. Opportunities await talented individuals who demonstrate a high level of determination and a winning attitude. The Program enables candidates learn about the firm, its services and work environment over a 4 month period, with the close guidance of a mentor, towards ultimately discovering value for themselves and the Group. At FBN Capital Limited, we seek to engage top-performing individuals from diverse academic backgrounds into our Graduate Programme, and groom them within an enabling culture. We know that the quality of service delivered to our clients and stakeholders is determined by the quality of our people, and we understand that true winners are raised on strong foundations. We believe our people are our most valuable asset. Being one of the leading private sector employers of graduate-level personnel in the country, we pride ourselves as being a progressive and responsible employer that constantly seeks best-practice methods and knowledge in attracting, developing and retaining staff. How to Apply For more information, visit http://www.fbncapital.com/careers]graduate_programme.php?sub_page_id=1015 To Apply, visit http://www.fbncapital.com/content.php?page_id=7

Lufthansa Graduate Trainee recruitment in Nigeria, March 2013

Lufthansa is one of the world`s leading airlines. As an internationally-operating aviation Group Deutsche Lufthansa is active in five business fields: Passenger Transportation, Logistics, MRO, Catering and IT Services.
More than 400 subsidiaries and holding companies also belong to the Group. The airline offers more than 215 destinations in approximately 80 countries using currently around 640 aircraft, more than 350 are used for Lufthansa German Airlines. Around 110 million passengers worldwide place their trust in us each year. The dedication, skills and excellent service of more than 115 000 employees from almost 150 nations everywhere in the world is one of our greatest strengths.

The following Job Vacancy exists:

Job Title: Graduate Trainee
International Airline Professional (IAP)
Lufthansa - Lagos (Nigeria)
Description:
Lufthansa Passenger Airline is looking for Bachelor Degree graduates for our International Airline Professional (IAP) trainee program. We currently have an opening in Lagos, Nigeria with a focus on sales and marketing.
Lufthansa sales offices are responsible for reaching local and regional sales targets. Building and maintaining relationships with our corporate and leisure clients as well as travel agencies form the core of their activities. By analyzing and evaluating market and customer data, they identify opportunities in existing and new business. Through careful pricing strategies they aim to achieve revenue optimization. Our sales offices are also responsible for the marketing and communication regarding Lufthansa’s products and services, including our loyalty programs.
The IAP trainee program offers you the opportunity to develop and use practical skills as you gain firsthand experience in various functions of the airline business, with the focus on sales and marketing. As an IAP trainee you will be part of an international network of trainees, interacting with different cultures and gaining a solid overview of the structure, challenges and strategies of a leading aviation group. The IAP program prepares you for future responsibilities and opens the door to interesting career opportunities in Lufthansa departments worldwide.

Qualification
Above-average Bachelor Degree or equivalent qualification
Nigerian citizenship or permanent residency and work permit for Nigeria
Fluency in English (both written and spoken) as well as basic knowledge of German or willingness to learn German
High level of service orientation
Ability to work effectively in a team as well as on your own
Intercultural competence and sensitivity
Good analytical and problem-solving skills
Entrepreneurial thinking
Strong social and communication skills
Ability to work efficiently under time constraints in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
Proficient MS-Office and computer skills
Ability to meet all local security requirements through history records check

How to Apply
https://career.be-lufthansa.com/index.php?ac=register

Ohio teens guilty of rape

Inside a small Steubenville, Ohio, courtroom filled with sobbing and exhausting emotion, Judge Thomas Lipps found Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond guilty Sunday of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl. Lipps sentenced both defendants to a minimum of one year in a youth correctional institute with the determination for a longer sentence coming from child-service experts. Mays received an additional year for transmission of nude photos, to be served after his rape sentence is completed. Mays and Richmond also will have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. "It provides a great incentive to do well," said Lipps, who could have ordered Mays and Richmond to remain behind bars until they turned 21. Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, both wept, at times uncontrollably, as the verdict was announced. Mays buried his head in a handkerchief as defense attorneys rubbed his back. He later hugged his parents goodbye. Richmond was able to stand and approach the victim's family and deliver a tearful apology before breaking down into the arms of court manager Fred Adballa Jr. "I'm sorry," Richmond said through gasps and cries, "for putting you guys through this. I'm sorry." Later, Richmond's biological father, Nathaniel, also addressed the court and the victim's family, placing some of the blame for his son's actions on his own life troubles and being an absentee father. "Everyone knows I wasn't there for my son," Nathaniel Richmond said. "I feel responsible for his actions. I feel highly responsible for his actions." The five-day trial of Mays and Richmond for the August 2012 rape of the West Virginia girl, who had come across the Ohio River for a night of partying, engulfed this old mill town in the eastern part of the state. Both boys are members of the high-profile and historically successful Big Red football team at Steubenville High School, which serves as a point of pride for the city dealing with economic hardship after the collapse of the steel industry. Trent Mays, left, gets a hug from his father after Trent was found guilty of rape. (AP) Put in the spotlight was the local football team, which, critics said, allowed players to brazenly operate seemingly above the law for years. Social-media accounts, self-made videos, photos and classless text messages exposed an entire world that seemed like a Hollywood script of a high school team out of control. It also exposed a teenage culture of weak ethics, rampant alcohol abuse and poor family structures that wound up dooming Mays and Richmond, both of whom had promising futures and no criminal past. After the verdict, Nathaniel Richmond approached the defense table and held his son for a prolonged period. According to defense attorney Walter Madison – who was overcome with tears for what he said was the first time in his legal career – the elder Richmond told his son he loved him. "I knew he realized he loved him, but he never told him [before]," Madison said. "So it took this." It took this for a lot of things to come to light. Rape, experts say, is a crime of power and control more than sex. Underlying all of that is arrogance, and in Steubenville it was taken to the extreme. Throughout this trial, the two defendants and a parade of friends who wound up mostly testifying against the defendants, expressed little understanding of rape – let alone common decency or respect for women. Despite the conviction, the defendants likely don't view themselves as rapists, at least not the classic sense of a man hiding in the shadows. "It wasn't violent," explained teammate Evan Westlake when asked why he didn't stop the two defendants as they abused a non-moving girl that Westlake knew to be highly intoxicated. "I always pictured it as forcing yourself on someone." That was part of the arrogance. Arrogance from the defendants. Arrogance from the friends. Arrogance within the culture. Arrogance based on the fact that this night, witnesses testified over and over, wasn't strikingly different than any other night in the life of a Big Red football player. The boys drank. They drove around. They went to each other's houses until 2, 3, 4 in the morning. They exploited permissive parents who let the party continue. They, according to so many locals, knew there were bars that would serve them, liquor stores that would supply them and adults who would look the other way. They were football players being football players. They slept wherever and whenever they crashed, preferably with some girl. Any girl. They were allowed the freedoms of young adults, yet lacked the maturity to handle that freedom. "The entitlement we heard during testimony, it didn't seem like any empathy or support for the victim," said Katie Hanna, statewide director of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. "To see these things happen and to say, 'I don't recall; I didn't think it was a bad thing; I just thought this was OK.' It suggests that this was commonplace behavior." Two protesters hug after hearing the verdict in the trial of Mays and Richmond. (Reuters) It's not that these kids were pure evil. Far from it. Most were headed to college or the military. They appeared presentable. Richmond, who came from a troubled family background, had seemingly turned the corner. As a sophomore about to be a starter on the varsity, his future was bright. "Everything he was working to get away from, he was headed in [the right] direction," said Madison, his attorney. In some actions, this was obvious. In others, it clearly was not. It was that way for everyone, charged or not. At one point of the night of the incident, Westlake, who was sober, determined that his friend Mark Cole was too drunk to make a 10-minute drive home. At first, Cole refused to turn over his keys, claiming he could operate his Volkswagen Jetta just fine. Westlake was undeterred, though, eventually "tricking" Cole by waiting for him to relax and then forcibly seizing the keys. Yet maybe a half-hour later, Westlake walked in on the girl, sprawled out naked in the middle of a basement floor. To her side was Mays, exposed and slapping his penis on the girl's hip. Behind her was Richmond, who, Westlake said, was violating her with two fingers. Westlake said goodbye to the guys and kept walking. A good friend with his eye on the safety of others just minutes before was suddenly unaware or unsure of what to do – or simply uncaring enough to do anything at all. "Something has gotten in there that said, 'OK, we need to prevent drinking and driving,' " Hanna said. "We need to take it to that level with preventing sexual assault." Earlier in the night, the girl sat in the middle of the street in front of one of the player's homes, leaning over slightly and puking. She was a mess, in need of significant help. One of the boys – no one recalls who exactly – took her shirt off so she wouldn't stain it, but then left her sitting there in just shorts and a bra. Soon, a group of the teenagers were laughing at the girl and her sorry state. One kid, Patrick Pizzoferrato, pulled out $3 and said he'd give it to anyone who urinated on her. "I made it as a joke," Pizzoferrato testified. "… I don't think anyone thought I was serious when I said that." It stands to reason that Pizzoferrato was being truthful. No one took him up on it. After a night of partying, surrounded by friends, never assuming that whatever he said would wind up in the center of a closely followed criminal proceeding, Pizzoferrato was making a crude and immature joke. He's a high school kid. They aren't known for tact. Yet along with the joke came nothing else. No one thought to get the girl real help, to call her friends, to take her home, to assure she was safe and watched. She was just another drunk chick to be mocked, scooped up and used. Within minutes, Mays was fondling her in the backseat of a crowded car while his buddy Cole filmed the act on his cell phone. Arrogance? Arrogance is looking at a girl in desperate need of help, looking at a friend who was committing an obvious felony and deciding what the moment called for was an impromptu porn shoot. It also was this colossal arrogance that doomed the defendants and everyone involved. The hubris of their high school good life causing a downfall that will be felt – even by those who escaped prosecution – for a lifetime. Mays, 17, was also found guilty of transmission of nude photos of the 16-year-old girl. (AP) The girl testified she woke up with no recollection of what happened. It wasn't until she began hearing the chatter on social media and eventually saw a picture of herself just after the incident that she believed she'd been attacked. Had nothing been said, shot or sent, this would've been just another night, like sadly so many anywhere in America with a confused girl wondering what really happened. Instead, this group of teens, so full of an overabundance of self worth, filmed and documented the crime, perhaps never assuming anyone would see it for what it was. They basically told the victim about it. Their friends essentially took real-time crime-scene photos for the cops. Of course, this was only possible because Mays and Richmond were more than comfortable committing the crime right in front of witnesses in the first place. Mays, in particular, essentially confessed to the crime via hundreds of text messages over the next few days – ranging from profound bravado in the immediate aftermath, to matter-of-fact statements the next day, to a panicked attempted cover-up and witness control as reality began to set in. Mays all but wrote out the prosecution's closing arguments. Yes, this was extreme arrogance. The arrogance to not just joke and brag like the teenage boys they were, but to commit those jokes to text messages, to snap a photo of the girl being carried out like she was a casualty coming off a battle field. Even guys who weren't there sat around a basement laughing about how "the dead girl" was "so raped." The arrogance to assume everyone else would think like them, to take outlandish jokes told in private and put them on YouTube for everyone to see. It's one thing to say something stupid. It's another to promote it to the world. Only, they later found out – harshly – that the rest of the world didn't find it such a laughing matter. Steubenville has a long and colorful history of organized crime, an Appalachian river town full of gambling, booze and bootlegging, of corrupt politicians and crooked union bosses thriving through the decades. The Big Red players were disorganized crime. No secrets. No code words. No shame. They neither grasped the depth of the crime nor the unrelenting pressure of true authority – not their compliant parents or ball coach, but a legal system that didn't care a whit about Steubenville High football. For all the rumors and speculation around town of cover-ups and favoritism being played, the authorities did their job. There is zero indication the Steubenville police did anything but aggressively and swiftly investigate the charges. When understandable conflicts of interest – only 18,000 people live in the city and everyone knows everyone – arose in the local prosecutors office, the case was handed over to the state's attorney general out of Columbus. A judge was brought in from across the state, near Cincinnati. And it was Judge Lipps, not anyone around Steubenville, who granted immunity to the witnesses. Meanwhile, attorney general Mike DeWine called on Sunday for a grand jury to continue an investigation into the case. "This community desperately needs to have this behind them," DeWine said. "But this community also desperately needs to know justice was done and that no stone was left unturned." It's still hard to say if Mays and Richmond ever grasped the trouble they were in until Sunday. Mays knew enough to grow concerned. The girl was never sure whether to press charges, but once her parents found out, there would be no doubt. They culled social media for clues and walked into the Steubenville Police Department with a flash drive of evidence. Just prior to that, Mays became panicked and texted the girl. "I'm about to get kicked off my football team," Mays wrote. "The more you bring up football, the more pissed I get," the girl wrote back. "Because that's like all you care about." Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were soon arrested after that text exchange. Legendary coach Reno Saccoccia couldn't help them now. The power of Big Red, their families' good names, their otherwise clean pasts and strong futures, meant nothing. A culture of arrogance created a group mindset of debauchery and disrespect, of misplaced manhood and lost morality. Drunk on their own small-town greatness, they operated unaware of common decency until they went too far, wrote too much, bragged too many times and, finally, on a cold Sunday morning, were hauled out of a small third-floor courtroom as a couple of common criminals. Their ride to the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility was waiting for them out back, two floors down, out in the real world. Source: Yahoo

Argentinian Pope, 76, is named Francis I

Tens of thousands of Catholics flocked to the Vatican City last night to witness Jorge Mario Bergoglio's unveiling as Pope Francis I - the Church's first ever leader born outside Europe. The Argentine son of an Italian railway worker was chosen as the 266th pontiff on the fifth ballot of the conclave of cardinals last night, with the Sistine Chapel's symbolic white smoke revealing the decision. To the cardinals who chose him, it is hoped the 76-year-old's election will be a watershed moment for the world's 1.2billion Catholics. They undoubtedly feel that with his Italian roots he will be able to take on the Vatican bureaucracy known as the Curia - which has been subject to accusations of money-laundering - and to take a tough line on the sex scandals continuing to embarrass the church worldwide. The former Archbishop of Buenos Aires is the first South American and also the first Jesuit pontiff, and will be tasked with leading the Church out of one of its darkest spells following the plethora of recent scandals. But despite the most daunting of starts to his new role, Pope Francis thought it best to start his first papal address with a joke. He told the thousands of soaking Catholics huddled in the Vatican City's St. Peter's Square that the cardinals had gathered to 'give Rome a bishop' but said that they had 'gone to the ends of the earth to get one'. The multilingual Pope's birthplace will be seen as a significant move for the Church, taking the Papacy to a continent in which 42 per cent of the world's Catholics live. It also poses a diplomatic puzzle for Britain, which went to war with Argentina when Bergoglio was rising through the ranks of his national church. He is first non-European Pope since the Syrian Gregory III in 731. Known as an avid reformer, he becomes the third non-Italian Pope in a row, having being born and spent his life in the Argentinian capital. Source: Daily Mail.

Still no Pope: Black smoke rises from Sistine Chapel on second day of papal conclave as world waits for the next pontiff

The cardinals who will choose the next Pope failed to make a decision this morning after voting for a second time on a replacement for Benedict XVI following his shock resignation. Black smoke poured out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel around 10.40am GMT to signify that the latest ballot had resulted in deadlock. The 115 senior priests failed to elect a pontiff during two hours of discussion yesterday, and sent up a plume of black smoke to signal their disagreement before retiring for the night. They will spend several hours today locked in the world-famous building, but it is unclear whether or not this will be day that they settle on a man to lead the Catholic Church into the future. Benedict's resignation has thrown the church into turmoil and exposed deep divisions among cardinals grappling with whether to pick a manager who can clean up the Vatican bureaucracy or a pastor who can inspire Catholics at a time of crisis. The red-hatted and red-caped cardinals yesterday chanted and prayed for divine guidance as they prepared for a conclave to choose a pontiff who will face one of the most difficult periods in the Church's history. They gathered in the Pauline Chapel and walked in procession along the frescoed halls of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace into the Sistine, where they could remain closeted for several days of balloting. 'The entire Church, united with us in prayer, asks for the grace of the Holy Spirit at this moment so that we elect a worthy shepherd for the entire flock of Christ,' a cardinal said in Latin as the procession began. They then chanted what is known as the 'litany of saints', asking more than 150 saints by name for help in making their choice of who should succeed Benedict XVI, who has withdrawn from public life after his surprise abdication last month. Smoke - white for a new pontiff, black after an inconclusive vote - emerges from the chimney on the Sistine's roof every time a ballot is held The balloting for the next pontiff is taking place under the gaze of the divine presence represented through Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgment on the wall behind the altar. The solemn afternoon procession into the Sistine followed a morning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica where Angelo Sodano, an Italian who is dean of the cardinals, called for unity in the Church, which has been riven with intrigue and scandal, and urged everyone to work with the next pope. 'My brothers, let us pray that the Lord will grant us a pontiff who will embrace this noble mission with a generous heart,' Sodano said in his homily, receiving warm applause when he thanked 'the beloved and venerable' Benedict. The former pontiff, who retired on February 28, has excluded himself from public life and was not present yesterday. No clear favourite has emerged to take the helm of the Church, with some prelates calling for a strong manager to control the much criticised Vatican bureaucracy, while others want a powerful pastor to combat growing secularism. Italy's Angelo Scola and Brazil's Odilo Scherer are spoken of as possible frontrunners. The former would return the papacy to Italy after 35 years in the hands of Poland's John Paul II and the German Benedict, while Scherer would be the first non-European pope since Syrian-born Gregory III in the 8th century. On the eve of the vote, cardinals offered wildly different assessments of what they were looking for in the next pontiff and how close they were to a decision. It was evidence that Benedict XVI's surprise resignation has continued to destabilise the church leadership and that his final appeal for unity may go unheeded, at least in the early rounds of voting. The buzz in the papal stakes swirled around Cardinal Angelo Scola, an Italian seen as favoured by cardinals hoping to shake up the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, and Brazilian cardinal Odilo Scherer, a favourite of Vatican-based insiders intent on preserving the status quo. Cardinal Scola is affable and Italian, but not from the Italian-centric Vatican bureaucracy called the Curia. That gives him clout with those seeking to reform the nerve centre of the church that has been discredited by revelations of leaks and complaints from cardinals in the field that Rome is inefficient and unresponsive to their needs. Cardinal Scherer seems to be favoured by Latin Americans and the Curia. He has a solid handle on the Vatican's finances, sitting on the governing commission of the Vatican bank, as well as the Holy See's main budget committee. As a non-Italian, the archbishop of Sao Paulo would be expected to name an Italian as secretary of state - the Vatican number two who runs day-to-day affairs - another plus for Vatican-based cardinals who would want one of their own running the shop. The pastoral camp seems to be focusing on two Americans, New York archbishop Timothy Dolan and Boston archbishop Sean O'Malley. Neither has Vatican experience. Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet is well-respected, stemming from his job at the important Vatican office that vets bishop appointments. If the leading names fail to reach the 77 votes required for victory in the first few rounds of balloting, any number of surprise candidates could come to the fore as alternatives. During the voting, each cardinal writes his choice on a rectangular piece of paper inscribed with the words 'Eligo in summen pontificem' - Latin for 'I elect as Supreme Pontiff'. Holding the folded ballot up in the air, each approaches the altar and places it on a saucer, before tipping it into an oval urn, as he intones these words: 'I call as my witness, Christ the Lord, who will be my judge that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected.' After the votes are counted, and the outcomes announced, the papers are bound together with a needle and thread, each ballot pierced through the word 'Eligo'. The ballots are then placed in a cast-iron stove and burned with a special chemical. That is when all eyes turn to the 6ft copper chimney atop the Sistine Chapel to pipe out puffs of smoke to tell the world if there is a new pope. Black smoke means 'not yet' - the likely outcome after round one. White smoke means the 266th pope has been chosen. The next pope will face a church in crisis: Benedict spent his eight-year pontificate trying to revive Catholicism amid the secular trends that have made it almost irrelevant in places like Europe, once a stronghold of Christianity. Clerical sex abuse scandals have soured many faithful and competition from rival evangelical churches in Latin America and Africa has drawn souls away. Closer to home, leaks of papal documents last year exposed ugly turf battles, allegations of corruption and even a plot purportedly orchestrated by Benedict's aides to out a prominent Italian Catholic editor as gay.

Source: Daily Mail.

Eight-year-old boy marries 61-year-old woman after 'dead ancestors told him to tie the knot'

An eight-year-old schoolboy has married a 61-year-old woman because the ghost of his dead ancestor told him to. Sanele Masilela tied the knot with Helen Shabangu, who is already married and a mother-of-five. The boy, from Tshwane, South Africa, said he had been told by his dead ancestors to wed and his family, fearing divine retribution, forked out for a wedding. They paid £500 for the bride and a further £1,000 for the big day, which was organised in just two months. Dressed in a bow tie and tiny silver suit, little Sanele, the youngest of five children, exchanged rings in front of 100 guests and even puckered up for a kiss. It's already shocked the community but the family has defended the ceremony, saying it was just a ritual and not legally binding. Sanele's 46-year-old mum, Patience Masilela said: 'This is the first time this has happened in the family. 'Sanele is named after his grandfather, who was never had a white wedding before he died so asked Sanele to get married. He chose Helen because he loves her. 'By doing this we made the ancestors happy. If we hadn't done what my son had asked then something bad would have happened in the family. 'I didn't have a problem with it because I know it's what the ancestors wanted and it would make them happy.' The widow, who works at a recycling centre, added: 'I would say that this is not wrong. 'Sanele was fine and he was happy about the ceremony and it was what he wanted. He was happy to get married and very excited.' Sanele and his bride did not sign a marriage certificate and do not have to live together. Both have gone back to their normal lives. Sanele today said he hoped he would have a proper wedding to a woman his own age when he was older. He added: 'I told my mother that I wanted to get married because I really did want to. 'I'm happy that I married Helen - but I will go to school and study hard. 'When I'm older I will marry a lady my own age.' Despite being old enough to be his grandmother, bride Helen, whose children are aged between 37 and 27, was happy with the arrangement. Helen, who also works at a recycling centre, said: 'I'm married and have five kids of my own, but I know that this is what the ancestors wanted - and now they are happy. 'It is a ritual. We are just playing now, but it is a sign that he will get married one day.' Her husband of 30 years, Alfred, 65, said: 'My kids and I are happy. 'We don't have problems with it but some of the community members were shocked.' Source: Dailymail. African societies are enshrined with different cultural practices that are bizarre to the Western world. Can you allow a member of your family to indulge in this kind of practice?