Grandiose Parlor

It’s amazing how blogs and citizen media in general have made global interaction easy. The barrier to entry is almost next to nothing, even in places with some serious infrastructural limitations, people blog.

If not for the emergence of blogs, how on earth would I come across the interesting folks I met in New Delhi during the brain-storming session on Hibiscus Project, or the energetic men and women that visit the Grandiose Parlor reading and commenting to the often incoherent rantings? Neither would I have had the chance to interact with Cegieu, a Polish blogger who happens to be a fan of the Super Eagles, the Nigerian national soccer team, if not for blogs.

Cegieu blogs at Nigeria.blox.pl, and in Polish, and I suspect he’s have never been to Nigeria, yet he writes about Nigeria. Even though I can’t read a sentence in Polish, I sense his blog entries are interesting and equally as relevant as those posted by Nigerian bloggers.

I asked Cegieu why he blogs about Nigeria, this is his response, unedited:

“It’s simple and rather fun story. I used to play with my friends in ‘Actua Soccer’ computer game. Every time we were arranging tournament of three teams. One of my friends always chooses Argentina, another Spain. I took Nigeria - I really don’t know why Just an impulse. First, I started to learn names of players, then I started to learn their biographies and successes. And for about four years I try to watch every Super Eagles game I can. I even went to Egypt for last Africa Nations Cup - I’ve seen two Super Eagles games - against Ghana (1:0) and Zimbabwe (2:0). I’ve got some photos, I even talk to Osaze Odemwingie for 30 seconds

My cat’s name is Joseph Yobo. My daughter has small figure of Yobo in her bed. I’m getting interested to Fela Kuti’s music. I read about Nigerian politics, try to know what’s going on in the country.

Of course I’m not a specialist of Nigeria. I’ve never was and I don’t know if I ever will But I can say that Nigeria in general is my ‘hobby’ if we can use that word.”

As I stated in an earlier post, Citizen - or participatory - media as a global phenomenon has achieved a socio-cultural and political impact on an unprecedented scale, and so ground-breaking is this impact that the Time magazine has tagged kindred spirits like Cegiue - a burgeoning mass of new media information brokers - “The 2006 Person of the Year“.

During this Yuletide, it’s proper, in my opinion, to celebrate one another, particularly fellow key-board pundits, and appreciate how our medium - the blogosphere - has turned into a breeding ground for global advocacy, friendship, and mutually beneficial partnership.

Compliments of the season to you all!

If you were wondering who’s in picture above, well, that is Zosia - Cegiue’s 2 month old daughter, draped in the Nigerian Super Eagles’ windbreaker. Cute, ain’t she?