my conspiracy theory is that a major drug dealer is trying to centralize the entire market and be the only supplier so they’re ruining things for others.
As a gardener that moves around frequently, I buy from the local markets. The taste of Surulere grass is different from the taste of Orchid road grass. Or at least it used to be. Now it’s all tasting the same, it all has the same texture because someone is trying to take over the entire supply chain.
It's rather ironic that in Lagos, the wealthy often pay a premium to live in waterlogged neighborhoods, yet treat them as a status symbol.
Meanwhile, the "ordinary" man enjoys drier roads and better environmental conditions.
Mainland >>>>>>>>>> Island <<<<<<<<<<
📊 HOW DOES KANO COMPARE TO SOUTH WEST STATES (EXCLUDING LAGOS)?
💵 IGR PER CAPITA
Kano — ₦4,422 (22nd)
South West States
Ogun — ₦28,692 (3rd)
Ondo — ₦9,065 (11th)
Osun — ₦8,970 (12th)
Ekiti — ₦8,287 (14th)
Oyo — ₦6,344 (16th)
📉 MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX (2022)
Kano — 62% (21st)
South West States
Ondo — 27.2% (37th)
Ekiti — 36.0% (32nd)
Osun — 40.7% (31st)
Oyo — 48.7% (26th)
Ogun — 68.1% (20th)
👤 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)
Kano — 0.482 (28th)
South West States
Ekiti — 0.612 (11th)
Ondo — 0.611 (12th)
Osun — 0.607 (14th)
Oyo — 0.603 (15th)
Ogun — 0.569 (21st)
📚 LITERACY RATE
Kano — 54.6% (25th)
South West States
Ogun — 85.7% (8th)
Ekiti — 84.9% (9th)
Osun — 84.5% (10th)
Oyo — 80.7% (13th)
Ondo — 75.6% (16th)
🤝 EASE OF DOING BUSINESS
Kano — 9th (Top tier)
South West States
Oyo — 3rd (Top tier)
Ogun — 5th (Top tier)
Ekiti — 8th (Top tier)
Ondo — Lower tier
Osun — Lower tier
Kano performs better than most South West states only in Ease of Doing Business rankings, while South West states generally lead in income per capita, human development, literacy, and poverty reduction indicators.
#StatiSense
(PEBEC, State of the States Report, NBS, BudgIT)
Mexico paid $20 million for eight minutes in this movie. Then those eight minutes forced them to invent an entire cultural tradition.
Before Spectre, Mexico City had no Day of the Dead parade. The holiday was celebrated at home, at cemeteries, with family altars. Quiet, intimate, centuries old. Sam Mendes fabricated a massive street parade for the opening sequence, shot it with 1,500 extras in skeleton costumes across the Zócalo, and audiences worldwide assumed they were watching a real annual event.
Mexico's government had negotiated hard for the placement. Leaked Sony hack emails showed officials offered up to $20 million in tax incentives for four minutes of positive portrayal. Sony was drowning in a $300 million budget. The deal included script changes: the Bond girl had to be a Mexican actress, the villain could not be Mexican, and the city's modern skyline had to appear on screen.
Then the movie opened in 182 countries and tourists started booking flights to Mexico City for the parade.
The parade that did not exist.
Tourism authorities panicked. Visitors were arriving expecting the spectacle they saw in the film and finding nothing. So in October 2016, the government spent $500,000, hired 650 volunteers, built dozens of floats and giant skeleton marionettes, and staged the first real Día de los Muertos parade in Mexico City's history. 250,000 people showed up. They openly called it a "Spectre-style parade" in press materials.
Ten years later, the parade draws millions. Anthropologists call it the "pizza effect," where a cultural element gets exported, transformed abroad, and reimported as authentic. Mexico's most famous public celebration of its most sacred holiday was invented by a British director shooting a $300 million spy movie.
That tracking shot is doing more for Mexico City's economy every November than the $20 million they paid for it.