6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning

Story curled from YAHOO NEWS

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

 

The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.

The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.

The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheater but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said. The fire department would release a monetary damage estimate Tuesday, he said.

Travelers on Interstate 75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them.

The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.

A Call for Entry

Call for Essays/Short Stories and Photographs

For a Publication on:

UNITY IN DIVERSITY: DIVERSITY IS POSITIVE FOR NIGERIA

The Heinrich Böll Stiftung is a German political foundation, affiliated to the Green Party Germany. The Foundation is engaged in civic education worldwide with 28 offices. The Foundation was named after the writer Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novels and short stories in 1972. His courageous and unerring intervention significantly enriched and influenced political culture in Germany. He personifies the values the Foundation now stands for: the defense of freedom, civic courage, tolerance, open debate and the valuation of art and culture as independent spheres of thought and action.

The Conflict Management Program of the Foundation’s Nigeria office emerged as a response to threats at Nigeria’s democratic processes (see www.boellnigeria.org). As part of the Foundation’s contribution towards addressing the recurrent and protracted conflicts in Nigeria rooted in diversity issues, the proposed publication should underline the positive role the rich diversity of the country can play and explore ways of transforming the current negative social cohesion into a common strive for development.

This call for essays/short stories and photographs on the theme: “Unity in Diversity: Diversity is positive for Nigeria” intends to:

-Encourage future generations of Nigerians to be part of a solution to the recurrent diversity related violent conflicts in Nigeria.

-Explore new ideas/strategies to solve the conflicts through youth-led solutions.

-Provide a platform for citizenship participation in the quest for sustainable peace in Nigeria.

The essays/short stories should concentrate on:

-Telling a true-life story of how the diversity of Nigeria’s people enriched your personal, your families or your friends’ life and explore how the positive aspect of diversity could benefit Nigeria’s social and economic development

-Drawing conclusions from your own positive experiences to develop new ideas/strategies for integrating the positive role of diversity into the social and political structures

- Considering the role of future generations of Nigerians to ensure peace is sustained in the country

The photographs should

-Concentrate on the theme “Diversity is Positive for Nigeria” and include a brief description of how the photograph depicts the theme

Send entries to: competition@boellnigeria.org

Word Count: Not more than 3000words. Quotes and references must be clearly marked as such and properly cited at the end of the text

Format: Texts are accepted in the following formats: word or pdf, they must be in English language

Age Limit: 18years to 35years

Deadline for submission: 31st August 2010

Notification: Selected entries will be notified before 9th October 2010

Further Information:

Heinrich Böll Stiftung

16a, Oladipo Diya Street

2nd Avenue Extension

Roselyn (at) boellnigeria.org

Heinrich Boell Foundation Website

A jury of Nigerian writers, conflict experts and photographers will select the best entries which will be posted onto the Foundation’s website and published as a book. There will be an official presentation ceremony (date to be communicated) followed by a short expert roundtable discussion. Note: We reserve the right to modify the format and content of the submissions for publication purposes.

REWARDS:

-A 5-day trip to Berlin / Germany to participate in an arts festival and educational event organized by the Foundations head-office for the overall best entry!

-The selected essays/short stories will be rewarded with N 25 per word up to a maximum of 3000 words.

-The selected photographs will be rewarded with N 30,000each

QUOTES ON "DIVERSITY" BY NIGERIANS

OLA JOSEPH, Nigerian author: “Diversity is not about how we differ. It is about embracing one another’s uniqueness”.

TONI KAN, award winning writer: “I drew inspiration, anecdotes and ideas from the diverse nature of my country, Nigeria. My thesis was that by focusing so much on what divides us, we fail to see the ties that bind. The world we live is no longer delineated by clear cut boundaries. We have become a true global village and it is more evident in Nigeria where travel, the imperatives of work and survival as well as inter-tribal marriages has blurred the lines of division.”

PROF. ALBERT OLAWALE ISAAC, internationally renowned conflict expert from the University of Ibadan defines diversity as “human differences in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology or social class. It calls attention to the fact that human beings are not born the same and even when they are, some environmental factors make them to have diverse social, economic and political orientations. However, diversity is like a budding flower with many beautiful petals that complement each other in adding beauty to the environment. It is therefore an asset to any nation. For example, diversity makes it possible for Nigeria to be one of the most culturally significant nations in the world. This could be seen in the variety of languages, food, dresses, songs, festivals and cultural sites in the country”.

ADE BANTU, Musician: “As a Nigerian-German, I consciously embrace the best of the world and my continent. Diversity is my reality, yes, it is challenging and demanding, at times, but I have learned that as long as I am open, curious and willing to go extra miles, there is so much of ‘me’ to be discovered in the alleged ‘others’.”

ROSELYN ONYEGBULA, HBS Program Manager, Conflict Management: “Diversity is like a human being, each with a distinct finger print but with other common features that make us all human. Nigeria is a very diverse nation, to draw strength from our diversity we need to focus on our commonalities and not differences, to move the country forward.”

AMP – House of Discord – Season ONE

Few days ago, I was listening to a TV report on a particularly new group for Nigerian film producers, ANCOP - Association of Nollywood Core Producers, and its members condemned the opperations of AGN, saying that it's an association of hooligans and unserious minded people in the Nigerian film industry. This story was written last year, I have decided to publish it here since my last post was on cinema. You can see the contrast in the reality of the indsutry. 

As soon as I came down from a bike at the entrance gate of NCAC Artistes Village, an extension of National Theatre, I saw pioneer actors and actresses of Nollywood leant upon jeeps parked serially along in the premises. At first number of jeeps parked and the crowd of artistes surprised me, since the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) is no more in the premises. But a colleague told me that the presence of the artistes in the premises is nothing than an election for new executives of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP).

They were said to have moved from the Film Cooperation, which is not quite at a distance from the village to continue their electoral process, when the office closed for the day.

As my mission at the village is never to participate in the election neither am I an observer, I decided to mind my business. Well, I had scheduled a meeting with an art administrator earlier in the day at the Village, and as soon as I find my way in, I saw the fellow sipping a brand of beer from a glass-cup at the mini-bar behind the Little Theatre. Adjacent to the mini-bar is an open-ground where AGN normally audition for films some two years before they moved to their new office in Surulere, and there were actors and actresses in twos, threes and fours, having cheerful discussions with themselves. While some five of them sat round a table with seemingly documents for the election on the table. Having a full understanding of this kind of arrangement, I concluded that this must be the electoral board representative.

Having seated beside my colleague, the operations of the electoral board and the electorates for the AMP election were vivid from the mini-bar.

Some minutes after I had finished my meeting with the colleague of mine that we started noticing a different look on the faces of a while ago cheerful artistes in the premises. Out of my curiosity, I stood up; moved closer to the artistes and on getting into there midst I realized that there is bottled anger in some of them. Somebody asked, “why would they disqualify Lilian Amah?” behind me. I quickly looked towards that direction and I saw a round belly fellow who was later identified as Tony, on his feet, Paul Obazele and Lilian Amah, glued to their sit and some other unknown (to me) artistes around them. “Whatever happens you are still the president,” Tony said, referring to Paul Obazele, the current National President of the association.

Now the mood has changed completely and the unease pacing and whispering in the premises send a signal, which was later to be understood by me rashly. Suddenly, Paul Obazele pulled himself up from the seat and went towards the entrance of the village with his face laced with anger. He returned not quite long, alone, and Tony went to the electoral board representatives to challenge them. There were seconds of argument between him and the board before he started screaming “everybody come and cross check your name now…this list is doctored,” the list which was later to be recognized as the accreditation was protected by the electoral representatives from been touched. And artistes started approaching the table one by one. Within a twinkling, a crowd surrounded the table, argument ensued, the table got turned upside down by Femi Ogedenge, who coarsely ran towards the mini-bar, he got hold of a bottle and brook it. Approaching the table again with a sharpen edge of bottle, Tony, Fred Amata, Franca Brown, and some other artistes blocked his way with soothing words. But then, season one of the “AMP: house of discord” had began.

“Where is Ifeanyi Ikpoenyin running to, he started this, he should stay” Paul Obazele said pointing his finger at a jeep zooming off the premises. Few minutes later Madu Chikwendu, President Producers Guild, movie producer, director and organiser of the Lagos International Film Festival (LIFF) arrived with two armed “mo-police,” and started shouting, “where are those who say this election will not hold…where is Femi Ogedenge,” but the Madu could finish pronouncing the name, the fierce producer charged at him and a serious uproar brook. The policemen couldn’t arrest anybody realizing that they are artistes. They couldn’t stop the fight that ensued neither. The scene turned to two fighting scenario: Femi against Madu, Sosa furiously slapped Dickson Iroegbu, also threw pouches at Madu intermittently, Tony threw a wrecked chair at Madu. All the while, I peeped from behind Tope Babayemi’s jeep parked at a corner. The ace art and culture manager, Tope Babeyemi, is busy settling the dispute but was unsuccessful despite his continuous shout “don’t spoil this place! Sosa stop this shit!”

Although, the lyrics of Asa’s song “Fire on the Mountain” reverberated in my head continually as the show went on, but “if I run away who will report this discouraging attitude of the men who control our presently world acknowledged industry”–Nollywood–was a question that beamed through my mind. As I pulled down the thought of running for my dear life, similar lyrics of a song by Daddy Showkey echoed in my heart: “fire dey bone wall no run,” I smiled and concentrate more on the show.

Now seated in the mini-bar, Femi Ogedenge, Sosa, and other artistes chanted aloud: “Paul is the best!” twice. As I tried to catch a glimpse of this scene from where I was hiding, some heavily armed “mobile-police” came down from a vehicle, running after everybody and shooting aside at the same time, unfolded another scene. The whole place scattered. Nobody told me to run for my dear life at this point in time, because I realized that Ben Johnson was just opportune to be a track-lane athlete, if he is to be a street runner, really with my moves ahead of the policemen on the August 5th, 2009, I would outran him.

Ode Dance studio took hostage of many of us–the onlookers. We were in the studio for close to thirty minutes until one of us called somebody with her moble phone, she was told that the policemen left.  awhile ago. Indeed, the artistes had equally gone with the policemen too by the time we were out from the studio.

Well, this exhibition of frivolity is no big deal as far as I’m concern. It is just a typical of Nigerian leaders in all spheres. They usually lost all sense of reasoning when post and money is involve. The culture of throwing chairs in both the house of Reps and the house Senate is eminent with our political leaders. But theatre is a scared venue and these warring producers of our film industry, Nollywood, should know better.

THE STREET CINEMA CULTURE

Through the 60s to late 90s in the entertainment history of Nigeria , cinema plays a vita role. Cinemas are mainly found in the cities. Lagos , as the former capital of the country, has the largest and biggest, and these are always well populated by people who want to see foreign films, from Hollywood to Bollywood and Japan . Historically, artistes in Nigeria have not yet started documenting their creative ingenuity in the form of film for commercial purposes.  Hubert Ogunde and Ola Balogun who made their films in the 60s got their commercial successes from the cinema, although production costs were really huge.  

Since Nigerian artists, as championed by Mr. Kenneth Nnebue with Living in Bondage in 1992, started documenting their own histories–folk-tales, fable-stories and fictional stories on tapes and cds for commercial purposes–Nigerians have come to feel at home with their own histories being documented and they troop out to see them in the cinemas. Although, they still appreciate the foreign films. Indeed, this culture of going to cinema to see both old and new films has drastically changed.

The Casino cinema in Alagomeji, Yaba, Pen Cinema in Agege, God Dey Cinema in Ajegunle, Odion Cinema on Lagos Island, Jebako cinema in Idi-Oro, and of course the Studio Cinema in Mushin are all presently ordained venues for church crusades and services. Some are under many years lease to the church that occupies them and others are completely sold to the church owners.

After a decade of the dead cinema culture in Nigeria , Ben Murray-Bruce the former Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority(NTA), and presently the Chairman of Silverbird Group, invigorated the cinema culture by building two cinema centres, Silverbild Galleria and The Ozone. And several cinema outfits suddenly sprang up like a cobweb afterwards. City Mall, Civic Centre and The Palms cinemas are a few of the Nigerian 21st century cinemas.

Today, Nigerians who can afford the elitist cinemas, that is the new city cinemas, pay between one thousand and two thousand five hundred naira to see either new or old films in the new age cinemas. But those who cannot afford the money troop out at night to watch films of their choice on the streets of Lagos . Actually, the street cinema has not erupted from a vacuum, it came out from the new marketing strategy by the film-sellers, scattered on the streets of Lagos .

Returning from work every night, I see a multitude of people crowding before a mini TV set, which is normally placed on a high shelf, to see a film – from the Island to the mainland and the suburbs of Lagos. At first I had thought that these sets of people were those who had no home to return to– the scavengers, the cart-pushers, the load-carrier, but when I began to take proper notice of the bulk of these street cinema goers, I realized that most of them are responsible people, with office jobs in some cases.     

However, when I asked a couple of friends and neighbours about this development, some were of the opinion that anybody who could stoop low enough to see a film on the street at night when he/she should be at home resting for the coming day’s job is not responsible in anyway whatsoever. Some on the contrary agreed that there are responsible people amongst them, but they had this to say: “I cannot do it!” One even asked me if I could do it for any amount of money and I flinched.

Ideally, one cannot talk about this decadence in our entertainment life without pointing a finger to the Satellite TVs, which became the first source of cinema culture breakdown before its resurgence under Nigeria entertainment business men. The story is different now that if you cannot afford DSTV, which usually come with big dish when the satellite television newly came in the 90s, you can now buy HITV, a Nigerian own company.

But as a low income earner, if you struggle to buy satellite TV decoder, either DSTV or HITV and it cost five hundred naira to fuel your mini-generator every night, why would you not decide to join the street cinema club?

Is it now that the effort of Nigerian filmmakers is being recognized worldwide that the entertainment industry, film in particular, should be faced with this kind of plague? “No!” will be my candid answer if asked.

PHCN, an offshoot of NEPA has proven not to be the answer to our epileptic electric power  problem, which is the foundation stone on which the street cinema culture is built. Although, campaigns have started on the “light out Nigeria syndrome,” the popular tendency is “LIGHT UP NIGERIA,” which appeared on I-report website, an arm of CNN.

Indeed, if the “responsible” amongst the street cinema goers can have light to watch their films at home, they will rather buy the film than to join in the promotion of street cinema culture which is detrimental to the growth of our film industry and the cinema culture.  

P.A.G.E.S presents Deola Sagoe and Odili Ujubuonu

In keeping to the promise of producing series of entertaining and thought provoking art events this year,  it's with elation we at Kowry Kreations Media announces another edition of P.A.G.E.S, which holds on April 24th, 2010 at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos. 

Pinar Yolacan, a fashion designer and photographer, will be discussing the conceptual ideas behind her works exhibited at this edition of P.A.G.E.S in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Art. The panelist include Deola Sagoe, an International Fashion Designer, (explore Deola Sagoe's creative world via her company's website: www.deolasagoedesign.net ) and Odili Ojubuonu, an award winning creative writer and author of two books.

P.A.G.E.S is the confluence of literature, art works, comics and photography. This programme is designed to create dialogue between fictionists, poets and playwrights around the world by providing literary interpretation to the works being exhibited at a given gallery or art-space.

The exhibition launches with a light reception at the CCA,Lagos gallery space on Saturday 17^th April, where press and guests will be invited to view the works and meet with the artist.

Artist Bio

Pinar Yolaçan was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1981. She attended London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Chelsea School of Art and Design, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Cooper Union in New York City. She has participated in several international exhibitions including most recently Dress Codes, the 3rd ICP Triennal of Photography, International Centre for Photography, New York, (2009), Tracking Traces KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, (2009) In the light of Play CCA,Lagos at Durban Art Gallery, Durban, and 2nd Johannesburg Art Fair, South Africa (2009), Turkish Realities: Positions in Contemporary Photography from Turkey, Fotografie Forum International Frankfurt, Germany (2008). She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Istanbul, Turkey.

Exhibition Programme

To coincide with the programme CCA,Lagos will be hosting a three day workshop on fashion and photography, in which artist Pinar Yolacan will guide participants in conceiving and realizing work(s) that will go on to be exhibited within the CCA,Lagos library space as part of our Fashion, Art and Identity series. The workshop will take place from the 19^th- 21^st April 2010, for more information please contact Oyinda Fakeye at info@ccalagos.org or on 07055680104, spaces are limited.

Our established P.A.G.E.S event which invites artists and writers to discuss work from our exhibitions will be held on the 24^th April 2010, featuring a panel that includes; designer Deola Sagoe and writer Odili Ojubuonu in conversation with the artist Pinar Yolacan. The event will start at 3pm prompt and be followed by light refreshments.

CCA,Lagos is located at 9 Mcewen Street, off Herbert Macaulay, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos

The Lagos Arts Scene

There is a lot happening this weekend on the arts scene of Lagos. And I am in the middle of it all as an artiste and arts manager.

That Sunday morning, Nigerians woke up to the shocking and horrific news of the killing of innocent children and defenceless women in Jos again. We have seen the horrifying pictures on the pages of newspapers, on television and on our computers via the internet of human beings dismembered and their guts spewed out.

This orgy of mindless killings and violence against women and children, indeed against anyone, only diminish our humanity and should be condemned in the strongest terms.

Rhymes and Reasons for JOS is a literary protest – an avenue for creative people, celebrities and citizens who shape opinions and set trends to lend their voices and speak up against the massacre in Jos and other parts of the country.

Rhymes and reasons for Jos has no political or religious undertone; it is the convocation of people who believe in the power of the word in whatever form – spoken, written, rapped or sung.

Come with a poem.
Come with a story.
Come with verses and choruses.

Please join other literary minds and celebrities to add your respected voice to this campaign against this man’s inhumanity to man.

Date:Friday, March 19 2010

Venue:Bogobiri House,9 Maitama Sule, Off Awolowo Road (by Falomo Shopping Complex), SW Ikoyi, Lagos.

Time:6.00pm – 8.00pm prompt.

The African Artists' Foundation (AAF) in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Schlumberger Nigeria Ltd. present a female-only exhibition titled "50 Years Ahead; Through the Eyes of Nigerian Women", in commemoration of Nigeria's golden jubilee. Through this exhibition, the AAF is drawing the focus to Nigerian women, giving them a platform to express their vision of our great Nation, 50 years ahead.

Join us as we celebrate our women in the premier edition of a series of annual women artists' exhibitions at the Civic Center, on the 20th of March 2010.

For more information please contact the African Artists' Foundation on 01-7454750, or send an email to info@africanartists.org or visit: http://www.africanartists.org

The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) is honoured to celebrate Mabel Segun at 80 with an ARTHOUSE FORUM, one of the prime programmes of the organisation. Though belated, the organisation insisted on setting up this celebration as a mark of appreciation of her unquantifiable contribution to the birth and progress of Nigerian contemporary Literature and the Arts.

The Forum, which has the theme “Promoting a Closer Cooperation between Our Literature and Our Motion Picture” will hold on March 21, 2010 at 2.00 p.m. prompt and the venue is National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. The theme is inspired by what is consider as one of the watermarks of her illustrious career, which seeks at all times to establish a link between the various arms of the arts.

As you already know, the Arthouse Forum is periodically organized to discuss hot burner issues in the arts.

The above-stated theme is to allow the panel of discussants and the audience to debate the apparent absence of cooperation between Nigeria’s Home Video industry and her Literature in view of the leading positions of both forms within their respective artistic traditions in Africa. Some observers have argued that the younger art, the Home Video industry, is the loser for not having related more closely with our Literature in view of the quality of the latter and the pattern in other cultures with older motion picture industries.

Can Nigeria’s motion picture producers learn something from our works of Literature? Is the ‘text-to-screen’ model the next breather that the motion picture industry badly needs to mount its next growth curve?

The discussion promises to be interesting and enriching as discussants will be drawn from both industries as well as informed observers of the arts.

REVIEW – P.A.G.E.S

By Aderemi Adegbite

In the quest to constantly come up with innovative ideas, Kowry Kreations Media collaborated with the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos) on the project: P.A.G.E.S. This is a platform created for artists and writers to dialogue with their art and literature. This project is designed to assemble fictionist, poets and playwrights, arts and literary lovers in Art Exhibition Halls around the world.

This project started in February 2009. It is geared towards giving literary analysis to works being exhibited at the Centre and initiate dialogue around the works during each exposition. The project has been a thought provoking experiment since inception.

The photo exposition – Like A Virgin was the first to work with on this project and it was quite incisive due to its probing nature and the central theme that dealt with homosexuality. This give room for the discussion of bi-sexuality treated in the book: ‘Walking with Shadow,’ written by Jude Dibia. For the first time, the Nigerian art and literary audience was faced with the reality of sexuality, womanhood and human existence in both Zanele Muholi and Lucy Azubuike photography works. Gabi Ngcoba and Bisi Silver co-curated the alien exposition for the Nigerian contemporary art circle.

The World is Flat was another interesting theme to work with but posed difficulty in sorting for the book that could best treats the issue of mapping and locations around the world in the Nigerian literature. But then, a newly published book by DADA Books, The Abyssinian Boy, which its central theme was multi-cross-culture, became the canvass on which the discussion was laced.   

The larger percentage of the audience were dazzled by Toni Kan’s knowledge and appreciation of the art during Trash-ing, an exposition by Kainebi, in collaboration with CCA, Lagos. The most reveling aspect of the edition of the project was that a lot of people got to know that Toni Kan – banker and writer - and Charles Onwordi (RIP), prolific graphic artist are blood brothers.

It was challenging bringing together for the first time, two writers from different genres – fiction and poetry. Teju Cole, a US based art historian and the author of ‘Everyday is for the Thief’ entangled in a contrast dialogue with Jumoke Verissimo, a Nigerian based writer, the author of ‘I Am Memory’ during the exposition – Identity: An Imagined State. The pioneering video art exposition which was co-curated by Oyinda Fakeye and Jude Anogwih tackled the theme of African identity, migration and racism. And this served as the fabric on which discussion on cross-cultural issues affecting not only Africans but the world in entirety was woven. Members of the audience were made to realize that complex is an international phenomenon and a thing of the mind, by both writers.

Achievement

The platform has succeeded in letting writers and artists see a core connection in their respective works. On the writers’ side, P.A.G.E.S gives them a new interpretation of their works through art works – paintings, photography, installation and video art. It was interesting to know that the 2008 NLNG Literature Prize shortlisted writer, Jude Dibia, read for the first from his award winning book ‘Walking with Shadow’ at this event. The author was surprised at how Aderemi and Hansi brought out a new perspective of his book in their effort to making it relevant to the theme of the exposition. With this, Aderemi Adegbite, the curator of this project established that book should not be limited to the main theme it explores but its sub-theme at times could be stronger.

The 22 year old author of the most ambitious book that recently won two prizes in the just concluded Abuja Literature Festival, Onyeka Nwelue, is currently working with a US based Dane visual and film artist Lesse Lau on the film of his book. The Oscar Award nominee film producer and the author of ‘The Abyssinian Boy,’ met during the exposition of The World is Flat, the second edition of P.A.G.E.S at the centre where they discussed the volatile issues surrounding the meridians of the world map and its intricacies.