#1. It doesn’t have mosquitoes.
#2. Almost everyone here has a car, and there are adequate traffic signs on its perfectly tarred, perfectly networked roads. There are traffic lights where necessary, and the signs tell the cars when to stop and where not to. It has an efficient transport system – nice large buses free for students and all other residents – that arrives on schedule.
#3. Everyone who lives there is educated, at least beyond four years of University education. Does that count?
#4. Cougar Village has a standard post office. Every apartment has a mailbox into which letters are safely delivered. All is part of the bill.
#5. It’s an expensive place to live in, one that gives good service for the money paid.
#6. It has regular police patrols.
#7. It has wireless internet access, and electric power supply 24/7. This is notwithstanding that one time exception. There is an active telephone and data jacks in every room, and GSM service actually works there. Let’s just say it has all the basic utilities necessary for a sane, civilized survival.
(NB: I heard the word “generator” yesterday for the first time in three weeks – from my Nigerian friend on the internet, and it sounded strange to the ears. Pardon me Nigeria for forgetting what that word, and others like “conductor”, “danfo”, “LASTMA” and “PHCN/NEPA”, means.)
#8. It has a laundry service which you have to pay for, of course.
#9. It has wide recreation centres that include basketball, tennis and sand volleyball courts.
#10. I live there, duh!
1
Temitayo at http://bookaholicblog.blogspot.com/
Now I totally enjoyed reading the comparison…light-hearted, balanced and makes one think: what makes a village/city? I am sure in my village in Ijare, there are so many young people hot on the latest happenings in the world of music (even if the lines are filled with elipsis)…yet does it make it a city? I am not sure. So is it the people, the location or the amenities?
Now we say Lagos is a city, urban and civilised…Cougar ‘Village’ has so many things we don’t have. So much for city life and its civilised residents…
Wiki says ‘A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement’ so maybe Lagos is one in this regard… but permanent? Uhm. Lagos has many villages within it…you only need to look around!
Wiki also says ‘cities have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, and transportation and more.’ The ‘megacity’ plan…hahaha…how easy the ordinary becomes the ‘mega’… Eko O ni baje o!
Posted at August 31, 2009 on 4:51am.
2
rayo at http://all4words.blogspot.com
wait oh, lagos doesn’t have 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,10, does that make gidi a village? 😉
Posted at August 31, 2009 on 11:40am.
3
ifeoluwa
really,what makes a village a village and a city one?
for the French your village is where you were born, so if you were born in Paris, that’s your village!
who on earth will call Paris a village!
Posted at August 31, 2009 on 5:54pm.
4
Buki
This description reminds me of Nigerian ‘cities’… In 2020 of course! Lol
Posted at September 1, 2009 on 6:43am.
5
Bimbo
The test of time will tell whether Lagos, Ibadan or anywhere presumed to be village is a village or not.
I still ask you to research into when civilization makes them sort of conservative or…
Change a government of a people and ask for the benefits of such a government.
But the bottom line is I like a place to be called a village as far as they are up-to-date with events globally and locally.
Posted at September 1, 2009 on 2:54pm.