1/Joe (not real name) is a Beninoise young man who has been my family plumber for over 8 yrs. Very effective, competent, friendly & trustworthy, he graduated from petty kitchen sink fixes in our rented apartment to being the only artisan we did not collect a comparative quote for

2/ He has helped with full house plumbing works for 2 projects in the past 6 years, both costing millions in material and labour. But the more important part is, we introduced him to a big man brother, a bank executive, about 5 yrs ago and he has been their own family plumber too
3/ He has helped the brother to do the plumbing jobs in all the projects he has done since then. Impressed with his work (and character), this VI based brother has also introduced him to his friend/neighbour, another bank executive (husband CEO of a bank, wife ED of another bank)
4/ He has been their go to guy for all water issues in their houses. The last thing I saw on his Whatsapp status was video of him fixing the water system of the swimming pool in the palatial home of these execs.
5/ We that introduced him are probably the smallest fry in his portfolio now. But he remains humble. Still use him for renovation work last week. He still takes small N30k jobs from his low to middle income neighbourhood customers.
6/ It's been a win-win for him and his big men clients - obviously costs less than corporate or Lekki plumbers, and possibly more efficient, and he also gets better pay than petty plumbing works in the low to middle income neighourhood he started from.
7/ Now usually well dressed, with a team of 5 apprentices he supervises, he has grown from repairing kitchen sink in a rented 3 bedroom flat for N1k to getting contract costs a few millions in houses that he requires 3 level of security to enter.
8/ Apart from upskilling (not sure he can fix swimming pool when we knew him 8 years ago), he has also done a good job of rising to the demand of his new semi-elite plumber. Last December, he gifted us gifts worth N25k for patronage in 2020.
9/ I'm sure he would do more for his bigger men clients in Lekki and VI.

And his biggest win so far: He finished a 4-room 2 storey building on a quarter plot last year. He has tenants.

Now, that's some transformation within a decade.

Not bad for a 32 year old Cotonou boy!

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This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?