CredoWriters:Wakdok,Samuel Stephen
Weep not Child
Weep not
No matter how long the river flows it must empty into the sea
No matter how high the mountain is, it can not touch the sky
Weep not child
Weep not
When we walk and wobble
we can run and reign too
when we stumble and fall
we can stand and jump too
Weep not child
Weep not
No one harvests the night since no one planted the day
They come and they go and meet us where we are
We move and leave the day behind because today will become yesterday by tomorrow
If tomorrow comes
When tomorrow comes
Thorns will give way to throne
Tears will give way to Triumph
Sorrow will give way to success.
Weep not Child
Weep not
Those who bring down the ladder will have more working holding it down
In the end like my friend will quote
Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor
But I sometimes see the fallacy in that quote
Some onlookers will just be passing by
Sure I know we will not all be onlookers
Weep not Child
Weep not
There is surely light at the end of the tunnel
But even if there is not light at the end of their tunnels
We shall be carrying our own lights with us.
Weep not Child
Weep not.
It pays more to spend a minute of goodness than have an eternity of malice.
17052011
Monday, May 30, 2011
My Interview with Osama Bin Ladin’s Soul
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
I was granted a sole interview of global urgency hours after The US Special Forces of Naval seals shot Osama Bin Ladin on the night of May 1st 2011 in Pakistan. The man on the world’s most wanted list for over 12 years and with a price of twenty five million US dollars. A Saudi man born in 1953 and graduated with a degree in Electrical engineering in 1979. He formed Al Qaeda in 1988 and was expelled by the Saudi authorities in 1991.
The next you will read are the words of the greatest terrorist of all times.
“As you can see I have outlived my live and it is unfortunate I had to die in the way I died. Now my soul has seen all the vain I have lived. I lived a life of terror and caused grief to the globe. But what do you expect from a person who has 51 other siblings? The family which is the nucleus of the society was missing for me from day one. If the optimum number of children to a man is pegged at 5, my family would have needed 10 fathers to effective take care of our needs. It takes more than financial resources to take care of a family. Money was not our father’s problem nor was it ours but the emotional connection was not there.”
“Though suicide bombers were our valuable assets, we only succeeded in brainwashing them that they would go to heaven. As you can see there is no heaven for them and that was why I never used my children for suicide attacks.”
“You asked why I chose to exchange my degree in civil engineering for terror engineering. I wish I had the perfect answer but I would only be a coward to blame the Americans or the Israelis for the occupation of Palestine. I would only be spineless to agree it was the devil who tricked me; the question is not why I allowed him to recruit my mind but why I became so gullible.”
“Of course the cold war contributed to all of these. If the Soviets had not invaded Afghanistan I would not have joined the resistance force there and the CIA will not have trained me if the west was not at war with communism. It was however cruel to have killed in God’s name or whosever’s name.”
“You think I feel any compunction after all the lives we took? What pains my soul the most is the souls we deceived. Innocent people we killed but more worrisome is the hitherto harmless people we turned into murders, suicide bombers and extremists. The world has known more hate than love and much blood has been spilled.”
“I have only come to realize that man can not fight for God. God is not handicapped so why would man fight in the name of God? The God who created all things definitely has the wherewithal to defend himself, but why and how will God even come under attack in the first place”
“My greatest regret is that it took so long to kill me, in these years before and after I became the most wanted man and the face of terror, I have manufactured and exported so much terror across the globe. Forming Al Qaeda in 1988 was one of the worst achievements the underworld ever had; having operations in over 60 countries is our greatest failure, because the world can never be the same again.”
“Of course poverty contributed in our successful recruitments of volunteers and turning millions around the world into fundamentalists. I appreciated wealth and affluence which is evident from my million dollar mansion that I was killed in. Education frees the mind and would have helped to dispel our influence over those innocent people we conscripted. That is why in many cases we made it inaccessible for them so we could maintain a hold on them through their ignorance.”
“Hitler was killed or disappeared on May 1st 1945; I was killed on May 1st 2011,I am sad because I was killed late, late enough to have caused so much global terror and to have trained other terrorists who will now struggle to take over me and create more havoc but better late than never. If I was not killed I won’t have seen the heaven I worked so hard to miss; now the gates of hell are opening and Lucifer is smiling because if the devil ever created a human it must have been me . I just wish for their good; my followers will see the futility of our actions and turn a new leaf”
I hope you enjoyed this very incisive interview; it took an Obama to kill an Osama. Shot in the head and buried at sea. Thank you.
I was granted a sole interview of global urgency hours after The US Special Forces of Naval seals shot Osama Bin Ladin on the night of May 1st 2011 in Pakistan. The man on the world’s most wanted list for over 12 years and with a price of twenty five million US dollars. A Saudi man born in 1953 and graduated with a degree in Electrical engineering in 1979. He formed Al Qaeda in 1988 and was expelled by the Saudi authorities in 1991.
The next you will read are the words of the greatest terrorist of all times.
“As you can see I have outlived my live and it is unfortunate I had to die in the way I died. Now my soul has seen all the vain I have lived. I lived a life of terror and caused grief to the globe. But what do you expect from a person who has 51 other siblings? The family which is the nucleus of the society was missing for me from day one. If the optimum number of children to a man is pegged at 5, my family would have needed 10 fathers to effective take care of our needs. It takes more than financial resources to take care of a family. Money was not our father’s problem nor was it ours but the emotional connection was not there.”
“Though suicide bombers were our valuable assets, we only succeeded in brainwashing them that they would go to heaven. As you can see there is no heaven for them and that was why I never used my children for suicide attacks.”
“You asked why I chose to exchange my degree in civil engineering for terror engineering. I wish I had the perfect answer but I would only be a coward to blame the Americans or the Israelis for the occupation of Palestine. I would only be spineless to agree it was the devil who tricked me; the question is not why I allowed him to recruit my mind but why I became so gullible.”
“Of course the cold war contributed to all of these. If the Soviets had not invaded Afghanistan I would not have joined the resistance force there and the CIA will not have trained me if the west was not at war with communism. It was however cruel to have killed in God’s name or whosever’s name.”
“You think I feel any compunction after all the lives we took? What pains my soul the most is the souls we deceived. Innocent people we killed but more worrisome is the hitherto harmless people we turned into murders, suicide bombers and extremists. The world has known more hate than love and much blood has been spilled.”
“I have only come to realize that man can not fight for God. God is not handicapped so why would man fight in the name of God? The God who created all things definitely has the wherewithal to defend himself, but why and how will God even come under attack in the first place”
“My greatest regret is that it took so long to kill me, in these years before and after I became the most wanted man and the face of terror, I have manufactured and exported so much terror across the globe. Forming Al Qaeda in 1988 was one of the worst achievements the underworld ever had; having operations in over 60 countries is our greatest failure, because the world can never be the same again.”
“Of course poverty contributed in our successful recruitments of volunteers and turning millions around the world into fundamentalists. I appreciated wealth and affluence which is evident from my million dollar mansion that I was killed in. Education frees the mind and would have helped to dispel our influence over those innocent people we conscripted. That is why in many cases we made it inaccessible for them so we could maintain a hold on them through their ignorance.”
“Hitler was killed or disappeared on May 1st 1945; I was killed on May 1st 2011,I am sad because I was killed late, late enough to have caused so much global terror and to have trained other terrorists who will now struggle to take over me and create more havoc but better late than never. If I was not killed I won’t have seen the heaven I worked so hard to miss; now the gates of hell are opening and Lucifer is smiling because if the devil ever created a human it must have been me . I just wish for their good; my followers will see the futility of our actions and turn a new leaf”
I hope you enjoyed this very incisive interview; it took an Obama to kill an Osama. Shot in the head and buried at sea. Thank you.
WHO GAVE THE ORDERS?
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
I want to know who gave the orders for Nigerians to be poor when their country is rich. Who gave the orders for corruption to be the official language of governance in Nigeria ? Who gave the orders for our pupils to sit on the floor or under trees while we graduate millions to starve on the streets? Tell me who gave the orders that our pipes should run dry making our throats to run thirsty. Who gave the orders for us to dwell in darkness as our industries shut down one after the other including our textiles while the smugglers have a field day? Who gave the orders for nepotism and ethnicity to replace nationalism, for religiousity and extremism to replace spirituality and humanitarianism?
Now that they gave orders turning our hospitals into death rows and our roads into death traps. They gave the orders sending our refineries into menopause making us to depend on oil importation as they engage in oil bunkering. The bombs in Eagle square, Jos and Mogadishu barracks who on earth gave those orders? As they gave the orders to pass a N4.9 trillion budget on paper only, poverty and unemployment will only skyrocket. Who gave the orders to steal our votes at a period when we need our votes to count?
Who gave the orders for infants to be born still born and mothers to die at child birth due to poor facilities? Who gave the orders for kidnappers and terrorists to become the new faces of the country when the Police hide on the roads extorting the citizenry?
Who gave the irrational orders to flare gas and destroy the eco system at the detriment of our power plants which function below capacity due to inadequate gas supply? Who gave that order to sell our state enterprises and privatize our heritage for the benefit of a selfish few? Who gave the orders for our take home pay not to take us home? Who gave the orders for the people to keep suffering and smiling?
They gave the orders to make life difficult for the majority of the people while an infinitesimal few belch on our commonwealth. Tell me who gave the orders and what do we do with them?
Powered By CredoWorld Media
I want to know who gave the orders for Nigerians to be poor when their country is rich. Who gave the orders for corruption to be the official language of governance in Nigeria ? Who gave the orders for our pupils to sit on the floor or under trees while we graduate millions to starve on the streets? Tell me who gave the orders that our pipes should run dry making our throats to run thirsty. Who gave the orders for us to dwell in darkness as our industries shut down one after the other including our textiles while the smugglers have a field day? Who gave the orders for nepotism and ethnicity to replace nationalism, for religiousity and extremism to replace spirituality and humanitarianism?
Now that they gave orders turning our hospitals into death rows and our roads into death traps. They gave the orders sending our refineries into menopause making us to depend on oil importation as they engage in oil bunkering. The bombs in Eagle square, Jos and Mogadishu barracks who on earth gave those orders? As they gave the orders to pass a N4.9 trillion budget on paper only, poverty and unemployment will only skyrocket. Who gave the orders to steal our votes at a period when we need our votes to count?
Who gave the orders for infants to be born still born and mothers to die at child birth due to poor facilities? Who gave the orders for kidnappers and terrorists to become the new faces of the country when the Police hide on the roads extorting the citizenry?
Who gave the irrational orders to flare gas and destroy the eco system at the detriment of our power plants which function below capacity due to inadequate gas supply? Who gave that order to sell our state enterprises and privatize our heritage for the benefit of a selfish few? Who gave the orders for our take home pay not to take us home? Who gave the orders for the people to keep suffering and smiling?
They gave the orders to make life difficult for the majority of the people while an infinitesimal few belch on our commonwealth. Tell me who gave the orders and what do we do with them?
Powered By CredoWorld Media
WHY I DUMPED MY MBA!
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
I am an ardent believer in education, at least my parents made sure I had the best I could get in terms of education from elementary through tertiary schools. Education can never be under rated, it was not in the past and it should not be in the present day because it holds the key to the future. More ever than not we live in a knowledge era where technology and science, art and culture, medicine and literature have come to redefine man’s existence. Primarily man looks ahead and hopes to be better than what he is. Education has proven to be the greatest source of white collar jobs. We grew up to know that our liberation from poverty lies in education. We were taught and told to read well and pass our exams to enable us to get good jobs and pay our way through life. That exactly is also where our educational system failed us. We were not taught to be independent but rather to depend on good jobs {created by others} which takes away our ability to be creative. We were not taught to create value but rather to become part of the value chain as employees. This made us to look down on blue collar jobs; this made us to become lazy in our minds even when we know that the jobs are not available or sufficiently available.
After going through three semesters of MBA class in Nigeria, I eventually realised I was only groomed along the traditional Nigerian educational system. More talks than action, more exams than knowledge. I sit pondering at my skills if at all I have any and none was honed out by my education. I take my shoes to the cobbler for a fee; get my hair cut by a barber, my clothes sewed by tailor and make my furniture from the carpenter. I get a mechanic to check and work on my car, a plumber to fix my water pipes and an electrician to work on my lights. I buy CDs of musicians and DVD plates of actors. I take my family to the studio for photo shots or to the pictures to watch movies. We pay the caterer for party rice or the baker for birthday cakes. We buy basket from the weavers and pay for knitted cardigans. The painter comes in to paint the stained walls while the bricklayer mends the fence. The technician works on the air conditioner and generator, the vulcanizer has to patch and pump the tyres while the DJ burns the song on a CD plate. All I do is to spend the income I earn from my white collar job as payment to others for their services. How then can I save; of course my income will always fall short of my expenditures. If I can not save how do I invest, if I do not invest how can I break the cycle? If only our education had taught us some bits of skills or vocation? If only they taught us how to create jobs and not just to get good paying jobs?
This is the time to re appraise our system of education and incorporate into our curricula the need to be self reliant, the need to depend less on white collar jobs, the need to be entrepreneurial and industrious. Students and our children must be encouraged to realise their skills and harmonise them. Specialists can help our children discover their hidden talents, most especially we as parents and guardians must help our children and wards to nourish and develop their skills maximally. We should not look at any skill as dirty or menial and therefore undeserving of our western education oriented children. The world is shifting and only those who can unlock their potentials discover their skills and develop their talents to create or add value would step into that rich future. These skills will help guarantee multiple income streams which is the anti dote for economic deprivation or stagnation.
This is not meant to discourage the pursuit of education in any way (so please do not dump your MBA, rather dump any kind of mental deceit that makes you believe education alone holds the key), but to make us realise that we need what I dub the “double strength strategy”. Skills without education limit our horizon, and education without skills makes us too dependent on paid employment. The two therefore should be pursued and attained, and if well harnessed it will be the secret to a life of wealth and comfort. Apart from the monetary value of exploiting our skills and creating commercial value, the satisfaction derived from seeing our skills/talents coming to life is exhilarating unimaginable. The art of selling is also a skill, music and sports are also talents. Painting and sculpture, comedy and acting, baking and decorations, production of hand made cards and knitting, photography and even writing are all very viable talents to tap from. Discover a skill or talent if you have not, rediscover yours if you have allowed yours to go dormant and encourage people around you to explore theirs.
As you pay others for their products let others pay to get yours too. Let our schools not only teach us to pass exams and get good jobs, let us teach and be taught how to understand, pass exams and create the jobs. We must not repeat the mistakes in our children where we were restricted to concentrate only on academics at the expense of other skills or vocations which has become the bane of our ingenuity.
Powered by CredoWorld Media.
I am an ardent believer in education, at least my parents made sure I had the best I could get in terms of education from elementary through tertiary schools. Education can never be under rated, it was not in the past and it should not be in the present day because it holds the key to the future. More ever than not we live in a knowledge era where technology and science, art and culture, medicine and literature have come to redefine man’s existence. Primarily man looks ahead and hopes to be better than what he is. Education has proven to be the greatest source of white collar jobs. We grew up to know that our liberation from poverty lies in education. We were taught and told to read well and pass our exams to enable us to get good jobs and pay our way through life. That exactly is also where our educational system failed us. We were not taught to be independent but rather to depend on good jobs {created by others} which takes away our ability to be creative. We were not taught to create value but rather to become part of the value chain as employees. This made us to look down on blue collar jobs; this made us to become lazy in our minds even when we know that the jobs are not available or sufficiently available.
After going through three semesters of MBA class in Nigeria, I eventually realised I was only groomed along the traditional Nigerian educational system. More talks than action, more exams than knowledge. I sit pondering at my skills if at all I have any and none was honed out by my education. I take my shoes to the cobbler for a fee; get my hair cut by a barber, my clothes sewed by tailor and make my furniture from the carpenter. I get a mechanic to check and work on my car, a plumber to fix my water pipes and an electrician to work on my lights. I buy CDs of musicians and DVD plates of actors. I take my family to the studio for photo shots or to the pictures to watch movies. We pay the caterer for party rice or the baker for birthday cakes. We buy basket from the weavers and pay for knitted cardigans. The painter comes in to paint the stained walls while the bricklayer mends the fence. The technician works on the air conditioner and generator, the vulcanizer has to patch and pump the tyres while the DJ burns the song on a CD plate. All I do is to spend the income I earn from my white collar job as payment to others for their services. How then can I save; of course my income will always fall short of my expenditures. If I can not save how do I invest, if I do not invest how can I break the cycle? If only our education had taught us some bits of skills or vocation? If only they taught us how to create jobs and not just to get good paying jobs?
This is the time to re appraise our system of education and incorporate into our curricula the need to be self reliant, the need to depend less on white collar jobs, the need to be entrepreneurial and industrious. Students and our children must be encouraged to realise their skills and harmonise them. Specialists can help our children discover their hidden talents, most especially we as parents and guardians must help our children and wards to nourish and develop their skills maximally. We should not look at any skill as dirty or menial and therefore undeserving of our western education oriented children. The world is shifting and only those who can unlock their potentials discover their skills and develop their talents to create or add value would step into that rich future. These skills will help guarantee multiple income streams which is the anti dote for economic deprivation or stagnation.
This is not meant to discourage the pursuit of education in any way (so please do not dump your MBA, rather dump any kind of mental deceit that makes you believe education alone holds the key), but to make us realise that we need what I dub the “double strength strategy”. Skills without education limit our horizon, and education without skills makes us too dependent on paid employment. The two therefore should be pursued and attained, and if well harnessed it will be the secret to a life of wealth and comfort. Apart from the monetary value of exploiting our skills and creating commercial value, the satisfaction derived from seeing our skills/talents coming to life is exhilarating unimaginable. The art of selling is also a skill, music and sports are also talents. Painting and sculpture, comedy and acting, baking and decorations, production of hand made cards and knitting, photography and even writing are all very viable talents to tap from. Discover a skill or talent if you have not, rediscover yours if you have allowed yours to go dormant and encourage people around you to explore theirs.
As you pay others for their products let others pay to get yours too. Let our schools not only teach us to pass exams and get good jobs, let us teach and be taught how to understand, pass exams and create the jobs. We must not repeat the mistakes in our children where we were restricted to concentrate only on academics at the expense of other skills or vocations which has become the bane of our ingenuity.
Powered by CredoWorld Media.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Our Dreams Can Still Come True.
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
There goes a song with the title “Dreams can come true.” The difference between the title of the song and the title of this article lies in two words; our and still. The former to personalize it and take ownership of the dream; the later to illustrate that it is not time barred. This is not also to say our dreams should not be time bound.
We often look and marvel at the dreams of others that we fail to have our own dreams. And many times we fail to dream or believe in the veracity of our dreams because we feel time has run out.
Irrespective of what we feel or even believe, it is our responsibility to not only dream, but to believe that our dreams will come true. It is not just mere wishes but when we back our dreams with actions, then we are on track. We must first dream and then take ownership of our dreams. We must personalize our dreams to stop us from regretting when we see others living and fulfilling their dreams which may be the replica of ours.
Severally we have dreams which did not come true in the past that is not to say that they will not or can not come true. They still can come true and we can still make them come true. Dreams that we have while awake, whether consciously or sub-consciously. Dreams we have with our pens and papers on our desks or with our key boards and black berries. Dreams consciously pursued will be attained. Dreams we believe in can still come true.
It is never too late to start dreaming, neither is it too late for those dreams to come true. It is only too early to call it quit but never too late to succeed. It may be too early to declare that we have failed but it will not be too late to win. Our dreams may come true as slowly as a snail but is better than crashing on our hopes as fast as a jet.
What ever our dreams were, we can keep them going. What ever our dreams are we can push them on. What ever our dreams will be we can achieve them. Our dreams will still come true if we believe in ourselves and the dreams we have. No dream is too tall, even dreams which look like fantasies can be made realistic fantasies. Fantasy is the creative power of imagination and that is what dreams are all about. We create first in our minds and then we re create in reality exactly that which we created in our minds.
Mistakes are what seem to take us farther from realizing our dreams. Mistakes threaten the spokes of our dreams’ wheels. Yet, mistakes are not to destroy our dreams or stop them from coming true. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never dreamt. Any one who has never made a mistake has never dared, and no one wins without daring. Brooding over past mistakes only deprive us from dreaming. Mistakes should only serve as learning points rather than endpoints.
Our dreams are the seeds of hope which can grow into bamboo trees. The seeds may take long to sprout. The stem when the tree finally grows is the strongest hollow produced by a tree. Our dreams can still come true only if we do not kill the dreams we have and if we start dreaming again. God who has been so kind to give us this life will not be so cruel not to allow us achieve our dreams! Our dreams, the seeds of hope can still come true.
Powered by CredoWorld Media.
stcredoworld@gmail.com
There goes a song with the title “Dreams can come true.” The difference between the title of the song and the title of this article lies in two words; our and still. The former to personalize it and take ownership of the dream; the later to illustrate that it is not time barred. This is not also to say our dreams should not be time bound.
We often look and marvel at the dreams of others that we fail to have our own dreams. And many times we fail to dream or believe in the veracity of our dreams because we feel time has run out.
Irrespective of what we feel or even believe, it is our responsibility to not only dream, but to believe that our dreams will come true. It is not just mere wishes but when we back our dreams with actions, then we are on track. We must first dream and then take ownership of our dreams. We must personalize our dreams to stop us from regretting when we see others living and fulfilling their dreams which may be the replica of ours.
Severally we have dreams which did not come true in the past that is not to say that they will not or can not come true. They still can come true and we can still make them come true. Dreams that we have while awake, whether consciously or sub-consciously. Dreams we have with our pens and papers on our desks or with our key boards and black berries. Dreams consciously pursued will be attained. Dreams we believe in can still come true.
It is never too late to start dreaming, neither is it too late for those dreams to come true. It is only too early to call it quit but never too late to succeed. It may be too early to declare that we have failed but it will not be too late to win. Our dreams may come true as slowly as a snail but is better than crashing on our hopes as fast as a jet.
What ever our dreams were, we can keep them going. What ever our dreams are we can push them on. What ever our dreams will be we can achieve them. Our dreams will still come true if we believe in ourselves and the dreams we have. No dream is too tall, even dreams which look like fantasies can be made realistic fantasies. Fantasy is the creative power of imagination and that is what dreams are all about. We create first in our minds and then we re create in reality exactly that which we created in our minds.
Mistakes are what seem to take us farther from realizing our dreams. Mistakes threaten the spokes of our dreams’ wheels. Yet, mistakes are not to destroy our dreams or stop them from coming true. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never dreamt. Any one who has never made a mistake has never dared, and no one wins without daring. Brooding over past mistakes only deprive us from dreaming. Mistakes should only serve as learning points rather than endpoints.
Our dreams are the seeds of hope which can grow into bamboo trees. The seeds may take long to sprout. The stem when the tree finally grows is the strongest hollow produced by a tree. Our dreams can still come true only if we do not kill the dreams we have and if we start dreaming again. God who has been so kind to give us this life will not be so cruel not to allow us achieve our dreams! Our dreams, the seeds of hope can still come true.
Powered by CredoWorld Media.
stcredoworld@gmail.com
THE CHAIRS OF THIS WORLD
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Many proud and arrogant people no doubt have succeeded greatly in different endeavours of life, but pride has also cost the world so much. Arrogance has led men and nations to wars, pride has killed generations and arrogance has destroyed families and homes. Humanity has found itself at the mercies of arrogant people at one point or the other.
The build up of arms and ammunition, the invasion of lands and countries and attacks on the inhabitants are all fall outs of pride. Pride is responsible for the greed to have all and thus exploitation. The pride of people who feel their ego rather than conscience must be obeyed has led the world to various misfortunes.
Humility which is the opposite of pride is seldom always found, yet no humble man or woman has ever been known to regret his or her humility. True great people have always been humble; Gandi, Mandela, Lincoln, King, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, Pope John Paul etc. Humility is a virtue many people would rather not want to court. We will not certainly allow the other party to carry the day. No; the world will call us weak when we allow our humility to chase away that ego that demands respect, that ego to covet all, that ego to oppress others.
I have seen humility in a few people which is highly commendable, but the greatest I have seen is in chairs. The chairs squat all their lives on earth to enable you and I sit. Can we beat that? Competition is good and it brings about choices and varieties. Pride however has led to unhealthy competitions and rivalries among individuals, groups, organizations, religions and even nations. Lacking the humility and simplicity of the chairs is what makes men to lie, steal and even kill to protect what they feel is theirs and in some cases; what is not even theirs. Pride and unhealthy competition make us to cheat even if just to show ourselves in a better light than what we truly are. Pride and ego is what make organizations to falsify their results and exaggerate their capabilities or achievements.
The chairs of this world have the patience none of us will be ready or pleased to have. Chairs squat for years to see students through schools, to sit us at homes, to sit visitors and researchers, to sit business men and politicians. As inanimate as these chairs are, what will be the fate of human beings in a world without chairs? From the dinning to the sitting rooms, from the church to the conference room, from the car to the aero plane. Do these chairs not deserve our commendation? Have we ever given these chairs the glory of passing an exam, of clinching a deal we negotiated on a round table, or the growth of our businesses etc?
Rather when we graduate from school we leave them behind, when we gain promotions we discard our old seats but the chairs do not get jealous that we left them behind or we would leave them behind when we succeed from point A to point B.
The chairs of this world should teach us to be humble, simple and selfless. Many at times we ought to be the chairs that will lead to success, lead to break-throughs, lead to inventions. We can not become furniture but metaphorically speaking we must be humble and patient like the chairs to enable us act as catalyst which will lead to greatness, harmony and development. And unlike the chairs made of furniture that are lifeless, we have the privilege of seeing the results of our virtues, which is transforming the world and leaving good legacies behind.
Powered By CredoWorld Media
stcredoworld@gmail.com
Many proud and arrogant people no doubt have succeeded greatly in different endeavours of life, but pride has also cost the world so much. Arrogance has led men and nations to wars, pride has killed generations and arrogance has destroyed families and homes. Humanity has found itself at the mercies of arrogant people at one point or the other.
The build up of arms and ammunition, the invasion of lands and countries and attacks on the inhabitants are all fall outs of pride. Pride is responsible for the greed to have all and thus exploitation. The pride of people who feel their ego rather than conscience must be obeyed has led the world to various misfortunes.
Humility which is the opposite of pride is seldom always found, yet no humble man or woman has ever been known to regret his or her humility. True great people have always been humble; Gandi, Mandela, Lincoln, King, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, Pope John Paul etc. Humility is a virtue many people would rather not want to court. We will not certainly allow the other party to carry the day. No; the world will call us weak when we allow our humility to chase away that ego that demands respect, that ego to covet all, that ego to oppress others.
I have seen humility in a few people which is highly commendable, but the greatest I have seen is in chairs. The chairs squat all their lives on earth to enable you and I sit. Can we beat that? Competition is good and it brings about choices and varieties. Pride however has led to unhealthy competitions and rivalries among individuals, groups, organizations, religions and even nations. Lacking the humility and simplicity of the chairs is what makes men to lie, steal and even kill to protect what they feel is theirs and in some cases; what is not even theirs. Pride and unhealthy competition make us to cheat even if just to show ourselves in a better light than what we truly are. Pride and ego is what make organizations to falsify their results and exaggerate their capabilities or achievements.
The chairs of this world have the patience none of us will be ready or pleased to have. Chairs squat for years to see students through schools, to sit us at homes, to sit visitors and researchers, to sit business men and politicians. As inanimate as these chairs are, what will be the fate of human beings in a world without chairs? From the dinning to the sitting rooms, from the church to the conference room, from the car to the aero plane. Do these chairs not deserve our commendation? Have we ever given these chairs the glory of passing an exam, of clinching a deal we negotiated on a round table, or the growth of our businesses etc?
Rather when we graduate from school we leave them behind, when we gain promotions we discard our old seats but the chairs do not get jealous that we left them behind or we would leave them behind when we succeed from point A to point B.
The chairs of this world should teach us to be humble, simple and selfless. Many at times we ought to be the chairs that will lead to success, lead to break-throughs, lead to inventions. We can not become furniture but metaphorically speaking we must be humble and patient like the chairs to enable us act as catalyst which will lead to greatness, harmony and development. And unlike the chairs made of furniture that are lifeless, we have the privilege of seeing the results of our virtues, which is transforming the world and leaving good legacies behind.
Powered By CredoWorld Media
stcredoworld@gmail.com
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Strength to Love and Walk
CredoFiction: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen
Eunice and I met during my last semester at the University. I had spent all my years in school playing and wondering what it would be like to get a woman of my dreams that can hold me down. I am not extra ordinarily handsome but I am good enough to get the ladies catch a glimpse of me when ever I passed. In the evenings when I would don my sports wears and head to the badminton court to play the game I love so much, the ladies turned and whispered among themselves. They talked about my broad shoulders, my hairy legs and my stamina.
On this fateful day on my way to the court I over heard one of the ladies asking her friend what it would be like to have this guy all to herself. That was a naughty comment to make about a stranger I said to my self, I just winked a smile at the ladies to let them know I heard their gossip. They giggled and as she turned to escape; our eyes locked. I saw in her shyness a kind of beauty only a goddess could possess, but the beauty is concealed by her bulgy eyes at the face value .Here was I, priding my self as one of the most admired guys in my hostel which sits adjacent the female hostel. All I could do was mutter some few words; “hi I am Fabian, I didn't hear what you girls were gossiping about if you don't mind can you repeat?” That was the beginning of a relationship that will blossom into a wonderful love affair. Eunice was as beautiful within as she was without, she was the flower any sane man would want to wake up with and walk around with. She was the flower who never lost her stigma and her beauty was as wild as it was soft.
I graduated and left Eunice to complete her final year in school without me. The time spent during my service year was lonely because I had come to appreciate her place in my life. She gave me love and fun, she gave me a purpose too. The friends I left behind in school who thought Eunice would fall in love with other guys on campus after my graduation couldn’t believe how she remained faithful to our relationship and rather decided to have my friends as her friends with none of them doubting her fidelity to me. I wish the same could be said about me, but I continued in my frenzy ways hitherto to when I met Eunice. My calls reduced but hers increased. Some times I purposely refused to pick her calls, rather than getting discouraged, she only became more resilient. Months became a year and I was through with my service year and she too became a graduate. I was once again lucky to get a good job with a consulting firm, as hectic as the work schedule was; I didn’t relent in my Casanova ways and that only broke her heart the more. The period between her graduation and service was spent transiting on the road between her parents’ home and mine, she was always the good lady who washed and cooked but I remained a guy whose ox never stayed in a place. Of course I was polite enough to be discrete each time she was around, but I couldn’t completely hide all the traces, she knows about my escapades. She would cry and tell me how much she loves me which I knew was true. She would go ahead to tell me she was not desperate, how she can get any man she liked. In fact, many men were on her prowl but she was just simply in love with me and she grew more beautiful by the day so I could imagine how many men would want to give her their cards and how many more would have been willing to throw money at her not to talk of if she decided to love any of them unconditionally as she loved me. Unfortunately I am not a one woman’s man and no matter how I try to appreciate Eunice and admit the fact that I love her, the spectrum was too wide that I saw all shades of beautiful and sexy ladies and I couldn’t help cheating on Eunice. I went to the extent of consoling myself that I was not cheating on Eunice since I had not married nor proposed to her. That was taking her love too far?
Eunice completed her service year and because she came from an influential family, she got an immediate appointment as a corporate affairs officer with the National Gas Company. Her pay check was good and she was always traveling in and around the country. Meanwhile I had become a chattered Consultant and set up my own consulting agency dealing in Power and Energy. The money was coming and I was also meeting the right people; the liberalization of the two sectors by the government was a blessing to people like me who are pioneer consultants in the fields. Of course Eunice proved to be very helpful by aiding me to meet the top shots at National Gas Company, the ministries of Energy and Power who were very instrumental to my agency getting a lot of contracts both for advisory and training purposes. With more money came more ladies, with more wealth came more urge to indulge but Eunice would only complain, yet she never walked away.
Interestingly she never caught me in the very act with another lady, either because I was good at my game or she never bothered to bait me or even both. The truth remained that she knew what I was up to and I never denied either. We remained a charming couple and we always caught fun to ease off the tension of our works. My family especially my parents were very happy with Eunice and my only sister was very comfortable in her company. My sister would prefer to spend the weekend in Eunice’s house but because Eunice will be in my house, my sister often found excuses to drop in anytime during the weekends. Her father is a politician and though he seems to be in one meeting or another; or travel to one location or the other, he would always ask of me and when ever we met, he would tell me to drop by more often. We discussed political events both locally and internationally and he is a good analyst like he said I am one too.
Years rolled by and I could see she was becoming ready to settle down, but now more than ever my passion to make more wealth and fame was getting into my head. I was not keen about talking of marriage either with her or any other lady I was dating. I had this faith that Eunice was not going to run away, she was going to remain and that gave me the excess drive to drag foot. Eunice was growing more beautiful and she was climbing her career ladder. She had the beauty, the money, the position, and the family connection, but she was waiting for Fabian to initiate a marriage proposal. As days went by I saw her impatience grow but not a bit of desperation, yet I was not having the courage to settle down. I saw the money I was making and the freedom of bachelorhood as a gold mine to keep enjoying. On some occasions she had threatened to leave me alone but she always returned- her love for me was unequivocal. “Fabian, why are you not ready to discuss this issue? Do you want me to grow old and then you will get a younger lady? Am I compelling you to do what you don’t want to do? This is five years since we started dating, five years of relationship and you have no excuses. The money is there, we love each other, and our families are familiar with us, what exactly is the problem? Talk to me Fabian”
This time I saw the despair in her eyes, the tears came rolling but quickly she regained her composure and took her car keys. She let herself through the door and reversed her car driving away as gently as she came. I did not notice my key that she slipped through the door as she went out, she had returned my key without my knowledge. She picked my calls whenever I called but she was not calling any longer. She stopped visiting too and it became more difficult to track her. She had a very tight schedule at work but she always created time for me, she had simply plugged me out of her schedules and was busy running her life as corporately as ever. She will come back as usual I said to myself. This time, it slowly began to dawn on me that she had moved on, but not until my mum asked me about the last time I saw Eunice did it occur to me that she got tired and had walked away.
I made frantic efforts to see Eunice and I was told she had traveled out for an International Conference of Global Gas and Clean Energy Summit in Doha. The conference was to last for 5 days and she would proceed on her annual leave to Tahiti. Eunice spent her previous vacations in Nigeria because of me, each time she asked me to plan my work so we could go on vacation outside the country I was always coming up with excuses, this time around she had freed herself from my yoke and was determined to give herself the treat she deserved after working so hard.
I became lovesick for the first time, and all the ladies I met did not seem to replace Eunice. Eunice had this beauty blended with humility. She was a good cook and not the lazy type. She was friendly to everyone and my mom had particularly told me it is not every day a man gets a lady with all those qualities in one person. Now I am beginning to see what I am going to miss. It won’t be until another three weeks before her expected return and it was too long a time to wait. I braved it and went to her mother for an international number to call her, I guess she must have discussed with her mother because I saw it in the woman’s eyes. The mom was not hostile but it was evident in her eyes that her daughter had been patient enough with me, hence I deserved what I got since I was not serious enough to know what I had in my hands until she slipped away.
“Fabian it is good to hear from you again, hope you are fine?’
“Eunice, how can I be fine when you bolted out on me?”
I could hear the laughter at the other end but it was not funny to my ears
“How did I bolt out, you were holding out against me and after five years I knew I couldn’t take it any more. I decided to leave you alone because as you know I am not a desperate lady. I have all it takes to get me a serious minded man for a husband, but love made me stick with you all these years. Since the love cannot be returned by you, I have made a clean break for myself. I had to come to terms with the fact that a relationship can not end in a relationship; it either ends up in marriage or it ends. Since I do not have the power to unilaterally make it end in marriage, I did the one that is in my power. A relationship is like a cheque; it is either good for payment and given value or it is not good for payment and returned. It cannot remain in transit for ever.”
“Eunice we can still talk about this, please when will you return to Nigeria?”
“Fabian I just got a job with OPEC in Geneva; I may not be coming back soon. I had severally refused to take this job offer because I did not want to live away from you, but as you can see I have made a break from the past and my relocation to Geneva is to allow me continue with my life. I have been patient, I have endured all your escapades, stomach all your secret girl friends, I have waited and prayed for the day your eyes will be opened to see what hurt you are causing me, time did not stop, it kept moving till five years without any seriousness on your part. You had me as a last card to run back to if and when you get tired, I was not in a hurry to leave but it was obvious you are not going to get tired and Fabian , unfortunately I have taken enough, my mind is made. I have walked away.”
That was when I finally realized that I gave Eunice a cheque that bounced severally until it went stale. Frantic attempts to get Eunice have a change of mind yielded nothing positive; the strength she used to love me is the same strength she is using to put my chapter behind her.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
Eunice and I met during my last semester at the University. I had spent all my years in school playing and wondering what it would be like to get a woman of my dreams that can hold me down. I am not extra ordinarily handsome but I am good enough to get the ladies catch a glimpse of me when ever I passed. In the evenings when I would don my sports wears and head to the badminton court to play the game I love so much, the ladies turned and whispered among themselves. They talked about my broad shoulders, my hairy legs and my stamina.
On this fateful day on my way to the court I over heard one of the ladies asking her friend what it would be like to have this guy all to herself. That was a naughty comment to make about a stranger I said to my self, I just winked a smile at the ladies to let them know I heard their gossip. They giggled and as she turned to escape; our eyes locked. I saw in her shyness a kind of beauty only a goddess could possess, but the beauty is concealed by her bulgy eyes at the face value .Here was I, priding my self as one of the most admired guys in my hostel which sits adjacent the female hostel. All I could do was mutter some few words; “hi I am Fabian, I didn't hear what you girls were gossiping about if you don't mind can you repeat?” That was the beginning of a relationship that will blossom into a wonderful love affair. Eunice was as beautiful within as she was without, she was the flower any sane man would want to wake up with and walk around with. She was the flower who never lost her stigma and her beauty was as wild as it was soft.
I graduated and left Eunice to complete her final year in school without me. The time spent during my service year was lonely because I had come to appreciate her place in my life. She gave me love and fun, she gave me a purpose too. The friends I left behind in school who thought Eunice would fall in love with other guys on campus after my graduation couldn’t believe how she remained faithful to our relationship and rather decided to have my friends as her friends with none of them doubting her fidelity to me. I wish the same could be said about me, but I continued in my frenzy ways hitherto to when I met Eunice. My calls reduced but hers increased. Some times I purposely refused to pick her calls, rather than getting discouraged, she only became more resilient. Months became a year and I was through with my service year and she too became a graduate. I was once again lucky to get a good job with a consulting firm, as hectic as the work schedule was; I didn’t relent in my Casanova ways and that only broke her heart the more. The period between her graduation and service was spent transiting on the road between her parents’ home and mine, she was always the good lady who washed and cooked but I remained a guy whose ox never stayed in a place. Of course I was polite enough to be discrete each time she was around, but I couldn’t completely hide all the traces, she knows about my escapades. She would cry and tell me how much she loves me which I knew was true. She would go ahead to tell me she was not desperate, how she can get any man she liked. In fact, many men were on her prowl but she was just simply in love with me and she grew more beautiful by the day so I could imagine how many men would want to give her their cards and how many more would have been willing to throw money at her not to talk of if she decided to love any of them unconditionally as she loved me. Unfortunately I am not a one woman’s man and no matter how I try to appreciate Eunice and admit the fact that I love her, the spectrum was too wide that I saw all shades of beautiful and sexy ladies and I couldn’t help cheating on Eunice. I went to the extent of consoling myself that I was not cheating on Eunice since I had not married nor proposed to her. That was taking her love too far?
Eunice completed her service year and because she came from an influential family, she got an immediate appointment as a corporate affairs officer with the National Gas Company. Her pay check was good and she was always traveling in and around the country. Meanwhile I had become a chattered Consultant and set up my own consulting agency dealing in Power and Energy. The money was coming and I was also meeting the right people; the liberalization of the two sectors by the government was a blessing to people like me who are pioneer consultants in the fields. Of course Eunice proved to be very helpful by aiding me to meet the top shots at National Gas Company, the ministries of Energy and Power who were very instrumental to my agency getting a lot of contracts both for advisory and training purposes. With more money came more ladies, with more wealth came more urge to indulge but Eunice would only complain, yet she never walked away.
Interestingly she never caught me in the very act with another lady, either because I was good at my game or she never bothered to bait me or even both. The truth remained that she knew what I was up to and I never denied either. We remained a charming couple and we always caught fun to ease off the tension of our works. My family especially my parents were very happy with Eunice and my only sister was very comfortable in her company. My sister would prefer to spend the weekend in Eunice’s house but because Eunice will be in my house, my sister often found excuses to drop in anytime during the weekends. Her father is a politician and though he seems to be in one meeting or another; or travel to one location or the other, he would always ask of me and when ever we met, he would tell me to drop by more often. We discussed political events both locally and internationally and he is a good analyst like he said I am one too.
Years rolled by and I could see she was becoming ready to settle down, but now more than ever my passion to make more wealth and fame was getting into my head. I was not keen about talking of marriage either with her or any other lady I was dating. I had this faith that Eunice was not going to run away, she was going to remain and that gave me the excess drive to drag foot. Eunice was growing more beautiful and she was climbing her career ladder. She had the beauty, the money, the position, and the family connection, but she was waiting for Fabian to initiate a marriage proposal. As days went by I saw her impatience grow but not a bit of desperation, yet I was not having the courage to settle down. I saw the money I was making and the freedom of bachelorhood as a gold mine to keep enjoying. On some occasions she had threatened to leave me alone but she always returned- her love for me was unequivocal. “Fabian, why are you not ready to discuss this issue? Do you want me to grow old and then you will get a younger lady? Am I compelling you to do what you don’t want to do? This is five years since we started dating, five years of relationship and you have no excuses. The money is there, we love each other, and our families are familiar with us, what exactly is the problem? Talk to me Fabian”
This time I saw the despair in her eyes, the tears came rolling but quickly she regained her composure and took her car keys. She let herself through the door and reversed her car driving away as gently as she came. I did not notice my key that she slipped through the door as she went out, she had returned my key without my knowledge. She picked my calls whenever I called but she was not calling any longer. She stopped visiting too and it became more difficult to track her. She had a very tight schedule at work but she always created time for me, she had simply plugged me out of her schedules and was busy running her life as corporately as ever. She will come back as usual I said to myself. This time, it slowly began to dawn on me that she had moved on, but not until my mum asked me about the last time I saw Eunice did it occur to me that she got tired and had walked away.
I made frantic efforts to see Eunice and I was told she had traveled out for an International Conference of Global Gas and Clean Energy Summit in Doha. The conference was to last for 5 days and she would proceed on her annual leave to Tahiti. Eunice spent her previous vacations in Nigeria because of me, each time she asked me to plan my work so we could go on vacation outside the country I was always coming up with excuses, this time around she had freed herself from my yoke and was determined to give herself the treat she deserved after working so hard.
I became lovesick for the first time, and all the ladies I met did not seem to replace Eunice. Eunice had this beauty blended with humility. She was a good cook and not the lazy type. She was friendly to everyone and my mom had particularly told me it is not every day a man gets a lady with all those qualities in one person. Now I am beginning to see what I am going to miss. It won’t be until another three weeks before her expected return and it was too long a time to wait. I braved it and went to her mother for an international number to call her, I guess she must have discussed with her mother because I saw it in the woman’s eyes. The mom was not hostile but it was evident in her eyes that her daughter had been patient enough with me, hence I deserved what I got since I was not serious enough to know what I had in my hands until she slipped away.
“Fabian it is good to hear from you again, hope you are fine?’
“Eunice, how can I be fine when you bolted out on me?”
I could hear the laughter at the other end but it was not funny to my ears
“How did I bolt out, you were holding out against me and after five years I knew I couldn’t take it any more. I decided to leave you alone because as you know I am not a desperate lady. I have all it takes to get me a serious minded man for a husband, but love made me stick with you all these years. Since the love cannot be returned by you, I have made a clean break for myself. I had to come to terms with the fact that a relationship can not end in a relationship; it either ends up in marriage or it ends. Since I do not have the power to unilaterally make it end in marriage, I did the one that is in my power. A relationship is like a cheque; it is either good for payment and given value or it is not good for payment and returned. It cannot remain in transit for ever.”
“Eunice we can still talk about this, please when will you return to Nigeria?”
“Fabian I just got a job with OPEC in Geneva; I may not be coming back soon. I had severally refused to take this job offer because I did not want to live away from you, but as you can see I have made a break from the past and my relocation to Geneva is to allow me continue with my life. I have been patient, I have endured all your escapades, stomach all your secret girl friends, I have waited and prayed for the day your eyes will be opened to see what hurt you are causing me, time did not stop, it kept moving till five years without any seriousness on your part. You had me as a last card to run back to if and when you get tired, I was not in a hurry to leave but it was obvious you are not going to get tired and Fabian , unfortunately I have taken enough, my mind is made. I have walked away.”
That was when I finally realized that I gave Eunice a cheque that bounced severally until it went stale. Frantic attempts to get Eunice have a change of mind yielded nothing positive; the strength she used to love me is the same strength she is using to put my chapter behind her.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
MUBARAK’S DATES WITH HISTORY: THE PRESIDENT WHO BECAME A MONARCH.
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has dates with history. His 30years rule on the presidential throne faces the greatest challenge. How he comes out of this will determine how the final history about him will be written or how he will write his final history. Thirty years or three decades is a long time when you consider that six US Presidents have ruled within this period, four of which ruled for 2 terms of four years with only George Bush Snr. ruling for one term and Barrack Obama still in his first term. To identify the three decades of his rule we iterate three years of each decade on world history with particular impact to the Arab world/Middle east using a 3 by 4 matrix of years 1979,1980,1981; years 1989,1990,1991; years 1999,2000,2001 and years 2009,2010,2011 which is the year of the final show down.
Egypt is one of the world’s oldest civilizations with a long known history of its Pharaohs, Mummies and Pyramids. It is the only non-maghreb nation in North Africa
Egypt is the most populated Arab country in the world with 80million citizens. 90 percent are Moslems, 9 percent Coptic Christians and 1 percent other Christians. Its three principal cities are Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. Its strategic geographical location especially after the construction of the Suez Canal connecting the red sea with the Mediterranean Sea makes it the shortest route between the west and the east. The Mediterranean climate is a warm invitation to tourists from all over the world.
Cell One:
The Iranian Revolution of 11/2/1979 opened a new chapter in the history of Middle East. The Islamic revolution over threw the Shah of Iran (Formerly Persia) and Ayatollah Khomeini became the supreme leader of the Islamic republic of Iran. On 4/5/1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. On 22/9/1980 the eight year Iraq-Iran war broke out. The United States would go on to back Iraq in the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. President Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his first term as US President on 20/1/1981. Pope John Paul was shot in an attempted assassination on 13/5/1981 and Princess Charles of Wales married Dianna Spencer on 29/7/1981. Suddenly Anwar Sadat was assassinated on 6/10/1981 for signing a peace treaty with Israel by Khalid Islambouli an Islamic hardliner. Mubarak who was the Vice President became the President. This era marked the height of cold war between the West and Soviet Union, a bi polar world with two super powers the USA and the USSR; this period witness a stern competition between Capitalism and Marxism. Black and white TV was in vogue, analogue Telephone was the means of communication. There was a serious expansion of multi national corporations leading to internalization of capital. The Mafia in Italy and America were at their worst. Our age brackets were either toddlers or not born.
Cell Two:
The Tiananmen Square protest in China which led to the massacre of Chinese protesters took place on 4/6/1989; brave Chinese faced the tanks of the China’s red army. General Omar Al-Bashir came to power in an Islamist backed coup on 30/6/1989. He introduced Sharia law across Sudan which has Christians and animists in the south, this escalated the second civil war in Sudan; once again bringing the matter of political Islam to the fore. Sudan is Egypt’s neighbor to the south and the largest country in Africa in terms of land mass. The Berlin wall fell on 9/11/1989 signaling the collapse of the iron curtain. Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison on 11/2/1990. (The CIA had earlier caused his arrest by the South African Apartheid regime in 1963)
On 2/8/1990 Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded Kuwait. Margaret Thatcher resigns as British Prime Minister on 22/11/1990 after been forced out by her own Conservative party. The Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein led to the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War 1 code named Operation Desert Storm on 17/1/1991. The US army (which supported Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war) led the invasion of Iraq and fighting on the same side with the Soviet army for the first time.
The Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party was thrown out on 26/1/1991 and Somali Dictator Siad Barre fled to Nigeria. That was the last time Somalia had a functional government and Islamist rebel groups have been battling the Fragile AU backed government; Somalia is the world’s number one failed state.
The final collapse of the USSR on 31/12/1991 led to a unipolar world with the USA as the single world super power. Iraq was the dominant Arab military power and the world witnessed increasing shift towards market economy with structural adjustments for developing economies. Digital Telephone followed coloured TV supported by Satellite TV. Our age brackets were either in primary or secondary schools.
Cell Three:
On 6/9/1999 Mubarak survived another assassination attempt. Ivory Coast the then most stable West African country witnessed its first military coup on 25/12/1999 when General Guei ousted President Henri Bedi, this will degenerate into a civil war between 2002 and 2004. Boris Yeltsin of Russian resigned on 31/12/1999 paving way for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to beome the Russian President on 1/1/2000. The Camp David Accord ii pushed by President Bill Clinton was signed on 11/7/2000 and this was meant to be the final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. George Bush Jnr became the US president on 20/1/2001.The terrorist attack on the WTO centre and Pentagon in USA took place on 11/9/2001 and this redefined the global war on terror. The CIA trained Osama Bin Laden becomes the most wanted man in the world. The United States believed Bin Laden was hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan and they invaded the country on 20/11/2001 to remove the Taliban government in response to the twin bombings of world trade centre in New York. This era raised the stake on international terrorism and globalization became the order of the day. Russia under Putin will rise from the ashes of the Soviet Union to be a major player. The introduction of email and GSM revolutionized communication, and cables overtook satellite TV. Our age brackets were between secondary and tertiary schools.
Cell Four:
Barrack Obama was sworn in as the first black President of the US on 19/1/2009. On 12/06/2009 Iran held an election which was disputed by the opposition sparking a mass protest which was quelled by the use of force. The Supreme Leader of Iran Ayotollah Khameni backs radical President Ahmadinejad. David Cameron of the conservative party became the youngest Prime Minister in Great Britain on 11/5/2010 and the first coalition in 70 years. In Ivory Coast two men each claiming the rights to be Presidents swore themselves in as Presidents on 4/12/2010. This was the aftermath of a disputed election held to reunite the Ivory Coast after a bitter civil war which tore the country into two; the rebel controlled Moslem north and the government controlled Christian south.
On 17/12/2010 Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in Tunisia sparking street protest on the high cost of living and high unemployment in Tunisia he died on 4/1/2011. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the Sudanese civil war fixed 9/1/2011 to 15/1/2011 for a referendum to take place in the autonomous Southern Sudan and South Sudanese overwhelmingly voted for succession from the repressive Moslem North.
The Protest in Tunisia spread to Algeria and Tunisian ex-President Ben-Ali was ousted as he flees Tunisia on 15/1/2011 to Saudi Arabia. Dubbed the Jasmine revolution, the Tunisian revolution was a people’s revolt without a leader. The Domino effect of the Tunisian protest resonated in Jordan, Algeria, Yemin and Egypt. Irked by the dictatorial and corrupt regimes in the Arab world the people decided to take to the streets. Unlike the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran, this is a people’s protest, though it gives the banned Islamists parties an opportunity to come back to the political scene of their countries. The revolution in social media like face book and twitter helped to mobilize protesters and aggravate the demonstrations. The recent economic meltdown makes this era one of austerity and bail outs.
Mubarak Appointed former Intelligence chief Omar Suleyman on 29/1/2011 as his Vice President the first in his 30 years rule, this has knocked off his Son Gamel out of the succession line and may pave way for an Egyptian Transition. The rising profile of China is a big challenge to the western powers and Iran is the dominant Power in the Arab region. Our age brackets are either getting married or some have become parents.
Improbabilities:
Prince William son of Prince Charles and Diana who wedded in 1981 when Mubarak became president will marry Kate Middleton in West Minister Abbey (London) on 29/4/2011. Kate is presently wearing Princess Diana’s engagement ring, Prince William was not born when Mubarak became the Egyptian President. Will Mubarak defy all odds and still be the President of Egypt on the wedding day?
Pope John Paul II who survived an assassination attempt in 1981 the same year Mubarak became President will be beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, a step to sainthood on 1/5/2011
Will Mubarak the President who became a king still be on his throne to witness the beatification of Pope John Paul II?
South Sudan or any name it will be called will become the world’s newest country on 9/7/2011 splitting Egypt’s Southern neighbour into two.
What ever the outcome will be, whether Mubarak will remain the President or not, he has a place as the longest serving ruler of Egypt since Ismail and he has played a very vital role in stabilizing the turbulent Middle East by been an ally of Israel. Iran of course is spreading its influence in the region and as a sworn enemy of Israel, Iran will be happy to see Mubarak go, that is why despite quelling its own revolt in 2009 by force; Iran is urging Mubarak to listen to the voice of its people. The United States has always had Mubarak as an ally; the hypocrites that they are, U.S. now says it stands with the People of Egypt. With a Hezbollah led Government in Lebanon, Iran’s influence is growing in the region and Israel will loose another ally in the region if Mubarak is forced out. The Israeli Prime Minister fears Egypt may end up with a radical Islamic government like that of Iran. The banned opposition Moslem Brotherhood may win election in the nearest future if not now.
The outcome of 1/2/2011 one million man march in Tahrir square and the general strikes called by the April 6th Movement (a face book based protest movement started in 2008) will determine if the ex air force officer who became the President and eventually became a king will either make history or will be marred by history. Until then, Mubarak has a lot of dates with history. If only he left office before now, will he be on this brink?
Eplilogue
On the 11/02/2011 other wise written as 11/02/11 Mubarak steps down. He will not make the dates of the royal wedding, canonisation or independence of a new nation. However that was the same day as 11/02/1979 when the royal regime in Iran collapsed after guerrillas armed rebel troops loyal to the Islamists overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. It is also celebrated yearly as Islamic Revolution’s Victory day with a national holiday in Iran.
Powered by CredoWorld Media for Credo Library
1/2/2011
President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has dates with history. His 30years rule on the presidential throne faces the greatest challenge. How he comes out of this will determine how the final history about him will be written or how he will write his final history. Thirty years or three decades is a long time when you consider that six US Presidents have ruled within this period, four of which ruled for 2 terms of four years with only George Bush Snr. ruling for one term and Barrack Obama still in his first term. To identify the three decades of his rule we iterate three years of each decade on world history with particular impact to the Arab world/Middle east using a 3 by 4 matrix of years 1979,1980,1981; years 1989,1990,1991; years 1999,2000,2001 and years 2009,2010,2011 which is the year of the final show down.
Egypt is one of the world’s oldest civilizations with a long known history of its Pharaohs, Mummies and Pyramids. It is the only non-maghreb nation in North Africa
Egypt is the most populated Arab country in the world with 80million citizens. 90 percent are Moslems, 9 percent Coptic Christians and 1 percent other Christians. Its three principal cities are Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. Its strategic geographical location especially after the construction of the Suez Canal connecting the red sea with the Mediterranean Sea makes it the shortest route between the west and the east. The Mediterranean climate is a warm invitation to tourists from all over the world.
Cell One:
The Iranian Revolution of 11/2/1979 opened a new chapter in the history of Middle East. The Islamic revolution over threw the Shah of Iran (Formerly Persia) and Ayatollah Khomeini became the supreme leader of the Islamic republic of Iran. On 4/5/1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. On 22/9/1980 the eight year Iraq-Iran war broke out. The United States would go on to back Iraq in the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. President Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his first term as US President on 20/1/1981. Pope John Paul was shot in an attempted assassination on 13/5/1981 and Princess Charles of Wales married Dianna Spencer on 29/7/1981. Suddenly Anwar Sadat was assassinated on 6/10/1981 for signing a peace treaty with Israel by Khalid Islambouli an Islamic hardliner. Mubarak who was the Vice President became the President. This era marked the height of cold war between the West and Soviet Union, a bi polar world with two super powers the USA and the USSR; this period witness a stern competition between Capitalism and Marxism. Black and white TV was in vogue, analogue Telephone was the means of communication. There was a serious expansion of multi national corporations leading to internalization of capital. The Mafia in Italy and America were at their worst. Our age brackets were either toddlers or not born.
Cell Two:
The Tiananmen Square protest in China which led to the massacre of Chinese protesters took place on 4/6/1989; brave Chinese faced the tanks of the China’s red army. General Omar Al-Bashir came to power in an Islamist backed coup on 30/6/1989. He introduced Sharia law across Sudan which has Christians and animists in the south, this escalated the second civil war in Sudan; once again bringing the matter of political Islam to the fore. Sudan is Egypt’s neighbor to the south and the largest country in Africa in terms of land mass. The Berlin wall fell on 9/11/1989 signaling the collapse of the iron curtain. Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison on 11/2/1990. (The CIA had earlier caused his arrest by the South African Apartheid regime in 1963)
On 2/8/1990 Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded Kuwait. Margaret Thatcher resigns as British Prime Minister on 22/11/1990 after been forced out by her own Conservative party. The Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein led to the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War 1 code named Operation Desert Storm on 17/1/1991. The US army (which supported Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war) led the invasion of Iraq and fighting on the same side with the Soviet army for the first time.
The Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party was thrown out on 26/1/1991 and Somali Dictator Siad Barre fled to Nigeria. That was the last time Somalia had a functional government and Islamist rebel groups have been battling the Fragile AU backed government; Somalia is the world’s number one failed state.
The final collapse of the USSR on 31/12/1991 led to a unipolar world with the USA as the single world super power. Iraq was the dominant Arab military power and the world witnessed increasing shift towards market economy with structural adjustments for developing economies. Digital Telephone followed coloured TV supported by Satellite TV. Our age brackets were either in primary or secondary schools.
Cell Three:
On 6/9/1999 Mubarak survived another assassination attempt. Ivory Coast the then most stable West African country witnessed its first military coup on 25/12/1999 when General Guei ousted President Henri Bedi, this will degenerate into a civil war between 2002 and 2004. Boris Yeltsin of Russian resigned on 31/12/1999 paving way for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to beome the Russian President on 1/1/2000. The Camp David Accord ii pushed by President Bill Clinton was signed on 11/7/2000 and this was meant to be the final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. George Bush Jnr became the US president on 20/1/2001.The terrorist attack on the WTO centre and Pentagon in USA took place on 11/9/2001 and this redefined the global war on terror. The CIA trained Osama Bin Laden becomes the most wanted man in the world. The United States believed Bin Laden was hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan and they invaded the country on 20/11/2001 to remove the Taliban government in response to the twin bombings of world trade centre in New York. This era raised the stake on international terrorism and globalization became the order of the day. Russia under Putin will rise from the ashes of the Soviet Union to be a major player. The introduction of email and GSM revolutionized communication, and cables overtook satellite TV. Our age brackets were between secondary and tertiary schools.
Cell Four:
Barrack Obama was sworn in as the first black President of the US on 19/1/2009. On 12/06/2009 Iran held an election which was disputed by the opposition sparking a mass protest which was quelled by the use of force. The Supreme Leader of Iran Ayotollah Khameni backs radical President Ahmadinejad. David Cameron of the conservative party became the youngest Prime Minister in Great Britain on 11/5/2010 and the first coalition in 70 years. In Ivory Coast two men each claiming the rights to be Presidents swore themselves in as Presidents on 4/12/2010. This was the aftermath of a disputed election held to reunite the Ivory Coast after a bitter civil war which tore the country into two; the rebel controlled Moslem north and the government controlled Christian south.
On 17/12/2010 Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in Tunisia sparking street protest on the high cost of living and high unemployment in Tunisia he died on 4/1/2011. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the Sudanese civil war fixed 9/1/2011 to 15/1/2011 for a referendum to take place in the autonomous Southern Sudan and South Sudanese overwhelmingly voted for succession from the repressive Moslem North.
The Protest in Tunisia spread to Algeria and Tunisian ex-President Ben-Ali was ousted as he flees Tunisia on 15/1/2011 to Saudi Arabia. Dubbed the Jasmine revolution, the Tunisian revolution was a people’s revolt without a leader. The Domino effect of the Tunisian protest resonated in Jordan, Algeria, Yemin and Egypt. Irked by the dictatorial and corrupt regimes in the Arab world the people decided to take to the streets. Unlike the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran, this is a people’s protest, though it gives the banned Islamists parties an opportunity to come back to the political scene of their countries. The revolution in social media like face book and twitter helped to mobilize protesters and aggravate the demonstrations. The recent economic meltdown makes this era one of austerity and bail outs.
Mubarak Appointed former Intelligence chief Omar Suleyman on 29/1/2011 as his Vice President the first in his 30 years rule, this has knocked off his Son Gamel out of the succession line and may pave way for an Egyptian Transition. The rising profile of China is a big challenge to the western powers and Iran is the dominant Power in the Arab region. Our age brackets are either getting married or some have become parents.
Improbabilities:
Prince William son of Prince Charles and Diana who wedded in 1981 when Mubarak became president will marry Kate Middleton in West Minister Abbey (London) on 29/4/2011. Kate is presently wearing Princess Diana’s engagement ring, Prince William was not born when Mubarak became the Egyptian President. Will Mubarak defy all odds and still be the President of Egypt on the wedding day?
Pope John Paul II who survived an assassination attempt in 1981 the same year Mubarak became President will be beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, a step to sainthood on 1/5/2011
Will Mubarak the President who became a king still be on his throne to witness the beatification of Pope John Paul II?
South Sudan or any name it will be called will become the world’s newest country on 9/7/2011 splitting Egypt’s Southern neighbour into two.
What ever the outcome will be, whether Mubarak will remain the President or not, he has a place as the longest serving ruler of Egypt since Ismail and he has played a very vital role in stabilizing the turbulent Middle East by been an ally of Israel. Iran of course is spreading its influence in the region and as a sworn enemy of Israel, Iran will be happy to see Mubarak go, that is why despite quelling its own revolt in 2009 by force; Iran is urging Mubarak to listen to the voice of its people. The United States has always had Mubarak as an ally; the hypocrites that they are, U.S. now says it stands with the People of Egypt. With a Hezbollah led Government in Lebanon, Iran’s influence is growing in the region and Israel will loose another ally in the region if Mubarak is forced out. The Israeli Prime Minister fears Egypt may end up with a radical Islamic government like that of Iran. The banned opposition Moslem Brotherhood may win election in the nearest future if not now.
The outcome of 1/2/2011 one million man march in Tahrir square and the general strikes called by the April 6th Movement (a face book based protest movement started in 2008) will determine if the ex air force officer who became the President and eventually became a king will either make history or will be marred by history. Until then, Mubarak has a lot of dates with history. If only he left office before now, will he be on this brink?
Eplilogue
On the 11/02/2011 other wise written as 11/02/11 Mubarak steps down. He will not make the dates of the royal wedding, canonisation or independence of a new nation. However that was the same day as 11/02/1979 when the royal regime in Iran collapsed after guerrillas armed rebel troops loyal to the Islamists overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. It is also celebrated yearly as Islamic Revolution’s Victory day with a national holiday in Iran.
Powered by CredoWorld Media for Credo Library
1/2/2011
Saturday, November 13, 2010
The Splendour of Networking
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Building of lives, physical structures, enterprises and services are at the core of existence. Nothing existed which was not first built and nothing was built which was not first created or perceived. There are many more things that have been built and can still be built, but one which has taken a prominent role is building of relationships. Relationship building permeates family, physical, emotional, business and international relationships respectively.
Relationship may be defined as a significant connection or similarity between two or more people or things or groups; and especially as regards the way they behave toward and feel about one another. Relationship shows our affiliations, rapport, bond, correlation and association with one another or with other members or group in our society or different circles. No man is an island; this cliché has over the years defined the basis on which relationship must exist in all spheres of lives. And this relationship is what I prefer to look at as networking.
Networking simply is the process or practice of building up or maintaining informal relationships, especially with people whose friendship could bring advantages such as business/social opportunities. Take for instance when God decided to create man he entered into a relationship with man where man will serve and worship God and God will be man’s deity giving man life and blessings. When a man marries a woman or a man dates a lady it becomes a network where both parties stand to benefit from each other. Even in school we benefit by associating with serious or intelligent students who either spur us or teach us when we are lost. When business associates form groups such as mergers or cartels or even partnerships these kinds of relationships provide networking opportunities for them to benefit from economies of scale. Networking has taken a more central role now with revolution in both knowledge and information& communication technology (ICT). Taking a cue from broadcast networks it is easier and cheaper for a media outfit with a network of stations to reach many audiences at a time and hence maximize revenue from massive advertisements due to their wide coverage. Same for computer networking where the internet or central server provides a platform for many computers or processing units to interact with each other. Bringing this into human networking, we stand to benefit and maximize our potentials by building networks around us. We will gain in terms of knowledge and information, business and job opportunities; family and social activities, religious and spiritual growth. Building network is as important as maintaining these networks. No relationship is important if we go into them and just abandon them. They become more useful when we maintain them and even upgrade them.
Have you imagined what happens to you if you do not maintain contacts and someday you have an urgent need that any of them is in position to address? Let’s say you care less to keep in touch with your mechanic and someday, your car suddenly breaks down far away from town where you have no one to call for aid? Visualize you had established a rapport with your mechanic, will he not leave anything he is doing and come to attend to your car no matter how odd the time is? Or do you think money can solve all the problems all the time? Look at critical areas of human need today like health, law, security, banking, insurance, business, etc and see if you have any kind of relationship with a professional in each or some of these fields. Why not make friends with a doctor today so that you can call him /her when ever you have an emergency and you may just need medical information. Why not find and build a contact with security agents today to enable you make that urgent call when the need arise since 911 does not work in this country. You can even make friends with a lawyer who will advise you informally and for free in case you need a legal advice or you need to go into a contract. How about knowing that banker whose area of competence is more than yours or different from yours. Even in the office, we can build our networks with the people who work with us on the same desk or different floors because we need them.
As we need them, they will also need us or our services. As we see the need in others we must also make ourselves needful and useful by becoming experts in our professional and informal lives. We must be willing and able to place ourselves to be available when they need us. Networking is a wonderful opportunity which gives room for synergy. We must give as much as we take, we must learn as much as we teach, we must also improve the relationships by updating our capacities to be and remain relevant in the networking equation.
Networking in this present day makes it possible for us to tap from the pool of talents embodied in others; it enables us to tap our own potentials in the bid to remain active and relevant. Networking teaches us about the interdependency evident in the fact that we need each other and even businesses need each other whether as competitors or as holding companies; as linkages or as markets. Networking gives each of us a social value or economic value since we have the opportunity to develop our resources. We make money from networking and also save cost from this.
Building and maintaining contacts is the key to surviving in a highly competitive world. Information and communication technology has made it easier by compressing space and time, thus we can network across distance and beyond mere physical contacts. Let’s keep building if we have already started, let us start building if we have not started, most importantly, let us not only build but let us maintain our networks. As the world keeps moving from analogue to digital, from manual to automation from physical to fibre, we can not afford to shy away from upgrading our own networks. At the height of it, is when networks build networks between and among themselves to harness the boundless opportunities which integration affords all.
Powered By CredoWorld Media.
Building of lives, physical structures, enterprises and services are at the core of existence. Nothing existed which was not first built and nothing was built which was not first created or perceived. There are many more things that have been built and can still be built, but one which has taken a prominent role is building of relationships. Relationship building permeates family, physical, emotional, business and international relationships respectively.
Relationship may be defined as a significant connection or similarity between two or more people or things or groups; and especially as regards the way they behave toward and feel about one another. Relationship shows our affiliations, rapport, bond, correlation and association with one another or with other members or group in our society or different circles. No man is an island; this cliché has over the years defined the basis on which relationship must exist in all spheres of lives. And this relationship is what I prefer to look at as networking.
Networking simply is the process or practice of building up or maintaining informal relationships, especially with people whose friendship could bring advantages such as business/social opportunities. Take for instance when God decided to create man he entered into a relationship with man where man will serve and worship God and God will be man’s deity giving man life and blessings. When a man marries a woman or a man dates a lady it becomes a network where both parties stand to benefit from each other. Even in school we benefit by associating with serious or intelligent students who either spur us or teach us when we are lost. When business associates form groups such as mergers or cartels or even partnerships these kinds of relationships provide networking opportunities for them to benefit from economies of scale. Networking has taken a more central role now with revolution in both knowledge and information& communication technology (ICT). Taking a cue from broadcast networks it is easier and cheaper for a media outfit with a network of stations to reach many audiences at a time and hence maximize revenue from massive advertisements due to their wide coverage. Same for computer networking where the internet or central server provides a platform for many computers or processing units to interact with each other. Bringing this into human networking, we stand to benefit and maximize our potentials by building networks around us. We will gain in terms of knowledge and information, business and job opportunities; family and social activities, religious and spiritual growth. Building network is as important as maintaining these networks. No relationship is important if we go into them and just abandon them. They become more useful when we maintain them and even upgrade them.
Have you imagined what happens to you if you do not maintain contacts and someday you have an urgent need that any of them is in position to address? Let’s say you care less to keep in touch with your mechanic and someday, your car suddenly breaks down far away from town where you have no one to call for aid? Visualize you had established a rapport with your mechanic, will he not leave anything he is doing and come to attend to your car no matter how odd the time is? Or do you think money can solve all the problems all the time? Look at critical areas of human need today like health, law, security, banking, insurance, business, etc and see if you have any kind of relationship with a professional in each or some of these fields. Why not make friends with a doctor today so that you can call him /her when ever you have an emergency and you may just need medical information. Why not find and build a contact with security agents today to enable you make that urgent call when the need arise since 911 does not work in this country. You can even make friends with a lawyer who will advise you informally and for free in case you need a legal advice or you need to go into a contract. How about knowing that banker whose area of competence is more than yours or different from yours. Even in the office, we can build our networks with the people who work with us on the same desk or different floors because we need them.
As we need them, they will also need us or our services. As we see the need in others we must also make ourselves needful and useful by becoming experts in our professional and informal lives. We must be willing and able to place ourselves to be available when they need us. Networking is a wonderful opportunity which gives room for synergy. We must give as much as we take, we must learn as much as we teach, we must also improve the relationships by updating our capacities to be and remain relevant in the networking equation.
Networking in this present day makes it possible for us to tap from the pool of talents embodied in others; it enables us to tap our own potentials in the bid to remain active and relevant. Networking teaches us about the interdependency evident in the fact that we need each other and even businesses need each other whether as competitors or as holding companies; as linkages or as markets. Networking gives each of us a social value or economic value since we have the opportunity to develop our resources. We make money from networking and also save cost from this.
Building and maintaining contacts is the key to surviving in a highly competitive world. Information and communication technology has made it easier by compressing space and time, thus we can network across distance and beyond mere physical contacts. Let’s keep building if we have already started, let us start building if we have not started, most importantly, let us not only build but let us maintain our networks. As the world keeps moving from analogue to digital, from manual to automation from physical to fibre, we can not afford to shy away from upgrading our own networks. At the height of it, is when networks build networks between and among themselves to harness the boundless opportunities which integration affords all.
Powered By CredoWorld Media.
WINDOW OF FORTUNE
CredoWriters:Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
How many times have we out of anger, frustration, fatigue, fear, hatred, laziness and even sheer mediocrity lost other opportunities because we shut ourselves in or out by failing to leave a window open? We pass opportunities by shutting ourselves out and opportunities pass us by because we shut ourselves in.
We have lost the will to try other pastures because when we discovered the present pasture we threw all to the wind, locked ourselves in this and believed that we have attain the best. We have lost the faith in our ability to dare because we didn’t leave any window open for possibilities to believe in our selves. We are living on the dexterity of those who left their windows open and pushed their frontiers to build enterprises while we have limited our selves to their whims and caprices.
Even in love sometimes we fail to love again because the last time we did we got hurt or disappointed hence we said never again; and this came with shutting of the doors and windows to everyone and anyone including those who unknowingly to us are the right people we have been born for. Even plants can not survive if they are isolated and locked away in rooms without window, because they need air, light and sun to grow. What more of we humans and how much more for the human mind, heart and will?
No matter what we face now or we have faced, we need to leave at least a window if not a door, and we need to leave a pigeon hole if not a window. No matter how good life is, it can still be better and no matter how bad life is, it can still be worse. This window we leave makes it possible for our good lives to become better and makes it possible for the bad life to have an opportunity to become good else it can get worse; because there is always a motion in life, nothing is static.
The desirability for us to take charge of our emotions and decisions makes it imperative for us to allow a vent in and out of our lives. This vent gives us the advantage over those who live in a sealed world. Living in a sealed world whether in affluence or penury has already foreclosed our ability to gain more or change our fortune for good.
The golden opportunities of life come at different times and outlooks, they major way to benefit is to leave a lee way that we can use to tap into those opportunities. Leaving a window open no matter our circumstances in life makes it possible for us to smile again, love again, gain again, achieve again, excel again , fly above our inadequacies and discover our destiny.
How many times have we out of anger, frustration, fatigue, fear, hatred, laziness and even sheer mediocrity lost other opportunities because we shut ourselves in or out by failing to leave a window open? We pass opportunities by shutting ourselves out and opportunities pass us by because we shut ourselves in.
We have lost the will to try other pastures because when we discovered the present pasture we threw all to the wind, locked ourselves in this and believed that we have attain the best. We have lost the faith in our ability to dare because we didn’t leave any window open for possibilities to believe in our selves. We are living on the dexterity of those who left their windows open and pushed their frontiers to build enterprises while we have limited our selves to their whims and caprices.
Even in love sometimes we fail to love again because the last time we did we got hurt or disappointed hence we said never again; and this came with shutting of the doors and windows to everyone and anyone including those who unknowingly to us are the right people we have been born for. Even plants can not survive if they are isolated and locked away in rooms without window, because they need air, light and sun to grow. What more of we humans and how much more for the human mind, heart and will?
No matter what we face now or we have faced, we need to leave at least a window if not a door, and we need to leave a pigeon hole if not a window. No matter how good life is, it can still be better and no matter how bad life is, it can still be worse. This window we leave makes it possible for our good lives to become better and makes it possible for the bad life to have an opportunity to become good else it can get worse; because there is always a motion in life, nothing is static.
The desirability for us to take charge of our emotions and decisions makes it imperative for us to allow a vent in and out of our lives. This vent gives us the advantage over those who live in a sealed world. Living in a sealed world whether in affluence or penury has already foreclosed our ability to gain more or change our fortune for good.
The golden opportunities of life come at different times and outlooks, they major way to benefit is to leave a lee way that we can use to tap into those opportunities. Leaving a window open no matter our circumstances in life makes it possible for us to smile again, love again, gain again, achieve again, excel again , fly above our inadequacies and discover our destiny.
The Agony of a Baking Powder
CredoWriters:Wakdok,Samuel Stephen.
Once upon a time, I was non-existent; I was happy where I was because I was no where.
I had nothing to fret and worry about. I could wake and sleep at will and travel everywhere at anytime.
I was really a free being because I was not even in being.
The baker and the flour had an affair and they decided to start baking.
Good, homemade bread tasted so sweet and people rushed to buy and eat.
The increase in demand led to a surge in production.
The profits were coming and so was the market expanding.
At the rate the flour was been used to bake the bread, the baker knew it would run out of fashion and it was going to cost him more to sustain the rapid purchase of flour to keep the bakery at optimal point.
They introduced the production possibility curve concept and baptized it as Isoquant. But something was missing. For the curve not to obey diminishing returns they needed more dough with less flour.
From my wilderness of freedom they cajoled me into the baking process and called me a baking powder.
Little amount of flour combined with Sammybest gives more dough for higher loaves of bread.
The market kept booming, the people ate enough and the baker smiled home with more silver.
I bear the mixing, endure the heat and undergo the transformation.
I see how my captivity aids a small portion of flour give birth to many loaves for the accomplished baker.
I am mostly locked in a tin or tied in nylon without light or air, when I am brought out it is not to get some fresh air but to be added to the dough and sent into the heat.
Like an animal fat I get heated and evaporated, at the end of the process everyone sees the bread and the coal but no one remembers me because I have gone
But since I am just some powder and I have no mouth to eat the bread, I must now wait for miracle.
Now I fret at my existence because I was happier when I did not exist.
Their avarice is my agony.
Once upon a time, I was non-existent; I was happy where I was because I was no where.
I had nothing to fret and worry about. I could wake and sleep at will and travel everywhere at anytime.
I was really a free being because I was not even in being.
The baker and the flour had an affair and they decided to start baking.
Good, homemade bread tasted so sweet and people rushed to buy and eat.
The increase in demand led to a surge in production.
The profits were coming and so was the market expanding.
At the rate the flour was been used to bake the bread, the baker knew it would run out of fashion and it was going to cost him more to sustain the rapid purchase of flour to keep the bakery at optimal point.
They introduced the production possibility curve concept and baptized it as Isoquant. But something was missing. For the curve not to obey diminishing returns they needed more dough with less flour.
From my wilderness of freedom they cajoled me into the baking process and called me a baking powder.
Little amount of flour combined with Sammybest gives more dough for higher loaves of bread.
The market kept booming, the people ate enough and the baker smiled home with more silver.
I bear the mixing, endure the heat and undergo the transformation.
I see how my captivity aids a small portion of flour give birth to many loaves for the accomplished baker.
I am mostly locked in a tin or tied in nylon without light or air, when I am brought out it is not to get some fresh air but to be added to the dough and sent into the heat.
Like an animal fat I get heated and evaporated, at the end of the process everyone sees the bread and the coal but no one remembers me because I have gone
But since I am just some powder and I have no mouth to eat the bread, I must now wait for miracle.
Now I fret at my existence because I was happier when I did not exist.
Their avarice is my agony.
Monday, October 18, 2010
THE GOODLUCK-PATIENCE CO PRESIDENCY?
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Nigeria may have started with the West Minister or cabinetry system popular called parliamentary system of government in the first republic. The good thing about this system is that it is very cost effective as the members of parliament are also the cabinet ministers. It also allows for a vibrant opposition and shadow ministers who serve as checks to the ministers from the ruling party. It encourages debates and the principle of collective responsibility falls on the Prime Minister who like other parliamentarians is also present in the House to defend or convince the parliamentarians to vote for any policy or decisions to be taken. In the parliamentary system there is no tenure limit, as long as a party gets the majority seats in Parliament, that party continues to form a government and the leader of the party becomes the Prime Minister. The good thing is that even in less than a year, month or week in office, once a vote of no confidence (there is no impeachment) is passed on the Government or even any of the government sponsored debate, the party/ government is removed. It is cheaper to conduct a vote of confidence or vote of no confidence than to conduct impeachment proceedings.
Gbam! The military struck in 1966 and we summarily passed a Vote of NO Confidence on the first republic? After the coup and counter coup of 1966 and a 30 months bitter civil war between Nigeria and the former Eastern region known as The Republic of Biafra we had another attempt to return to civil rule but Uncle Jack (General Gowon) didn’t keep to his time and the ruthless Murtala came in 1975 promising to hand over. After his assassination his deputy General Obasanjo promised to complete the transition programme which he did. Rather than stick to the parliamentary system, he opted to return Nigeria to democratic rule in 1979 via the Capitol Hill model i.e. the American presidential system. Unlike the former, the argument is that the Presidential system is based on the principles of separation of powers because the Executive is different from the legislature. They snag with this system apart from been so expensive is the over concentration of power in the President. Unlike the parliamentary system of government where the Prime Minister is the head of Government and a president even albeit ceremonial is the Head of state, there is fusion of power in the Presidential system of Government where the Head of State and Head of Government is one and the same person. This is called the Executive President. The fusion of the executive and parliament (many people) of the 1960 gave way to the fusion of the head of state and government (one person) in 1979. We jettisoned check and balances for separation of powers which in essence was not the truth. The time bomb with this is that it gives room for a civilian dictatorship. Thank God the first Executive President of Nigeria Alhaji Shehu Shagari was either not a dictator; or Buhari didn’t allow him to rule long enough to translate into one, but unfortunately the Palace coup of August 1985 gave birth to a military dictator who saw the Presidential system as an opportunity to practice diarchy.
Babangida would not have used the title of a military prime minister because there can not be a Prime Minister without a parliament, but he found it perfect to use the title of a military president because as earlier stated, the fusion of the two offices into the executive presidency is already an almighty formula to dictatorship and what better dictatorship than to have a military dictator who was also a president? At the height of his diarchy he had a civilian Vice President, civilian state Governors and mockingly a legislature at not only the state levels but at the federal level. A military President, giving or withholding his assent to a bill by a National Assembly.
When invariably the third republic was aborted and the military continued their adventure until 1998, another era of returning to democratic rule finally came. Since we used the Parliamentary in the first republic and presidential in the second republic, and the 3rd republic failed why didn’t we use the French system called the Hybrid system which is a combination of the Parliamentary and Presidential system? What do we love so much about the Americans that we stick so much to their Presidential system as expensive as it is. Yet we do not practice their accountability and transparency .The Presidential system concentrates so much power in one man and in developing countries like Nigeria, the President even exceeds his limits by dictating to state governors in a federation where the states are supposed to be autonomous?
If I was complaining about the Presidential system placing too much responsibilities and powers in the hands of one man, the Nigerian solution is been worked out. We are now drifting into our own model of Presidential system called a Co Presidency. This will enable the excess responsibilities and powers on the President be shared by his wife. This will then call for an amendment to the constitution. If we vote for the party in a parliamentary system, and vote for the candidate in a presidential system, will it be out of place to ask that we should amend the constitution to ask voters to vote for husband and wife in a co-presidential system? Patience Jonathan is becoming as strong as Goodluck Jonathan. The constitution recognises only the man or woman elected as President or who succeeds a President but we are faced with a scenario now where the wife has become a Co-President. Gradually but fiercely, she is consolidating her hold on power with her retinue of aides and its attendant cost to the economy. She is trying to outdo Maryam Babangida in glamour and has assumed the motherly role of Maryam Abacha. Patience is now blatantly addressed as the Mother of Nigeria. She will out pace Stella Obasanjo in travels and jewelleries. The impoverished tax payers’ money is used to sponsor her women for change initiative which is a decoy for her going round to campaign for her husband’s election .She is trying not to talk as fast as Turai Yar’adua but she talks rather too slow that before the end of her sentence one would have forgotten what she said at the beginning, she doesn’t bother to take a cue from the professional Fatie Abubakar. The constitution does not recognise the office of the first lady but here in Nigeria we have turned that office to that of an Executive First Lady. I have no grudges with that but it should be enshrined in our constitution if it must be.
I can not wait for us to have a female President so that I will see how the husband will be addressed. Will he be called the First Gentleman or the First Husband? Will he influence his wife to create the ministry of Men affairs and have the Minister of Men affairs who is a member of the federal executive council follow him like an orderly? Will he meet with state governors or husbands of state governors? Will he arrange a meeting with all male political appointees and go round states asking for affirmative action? It is high time we demanded for a constitutional amendment to include a clause insisting that people taking a shot at the presidency must have spouses who are professionals and gainfully employed to save us from wasting public funds. But until that is done, the Goodluck- Patience Co-Presidency may after all be the Nigerian home grown model of democracy we have all been praying for.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
Nigeria may have started with the West Minister or cabinetry system popular called parliamentary system of government in the first republic. The good thing about this system is that it is very cost effective as the members of parliament are also the cabinet ministers. It also allows for a vibrant opposition and shadow ministers who serve as checks to the ministers from the ruling party. It encourages debates and the principle of collective responsibility falls on the Prime Minister who like other parliamentarians is also present in the House to defend or convince the parliamentarians to vote for any policy or decisions to be taken. In the parliamentary system there is no tenure limit, as long as a party gets the majority seats in Parliament, that party continues to form a government and the leader of the party becomes the Prime Minister. The good thing is that even in less than a year, month or week in office, once a vote of no confidence (there is no impeachment) is passed on the Government or even any of the government sponsored debate, the party/ government is removed. It is cheaper to conduct a vote of confidence or vote of no confidence than to conduct impeachment proceedings.
Gbam! The military struck in 1966 and we summarily passed a Vote of NO Confidence on the first republic? After the coup and counter coup of 1966 and a 30 months bitter civil war between Nigeria and the former Eastern region known as The Republic of Biafra we had another attempt to return to civil rule but Uncle Jack (General Gowon) didn’t keep to his time and the ruthless Murtala came in 1975 promising to hand over. After his assassination his deputy General Obasanjo promised to complete the transition programme which he did. Rather than stick to the parliamentary system, he opted to return Nigeria to democratic rule in 1979 via the Capitol Hill model i.e. the American presidential system. Unlike the former, the argument is that the Presidential system is based on the principles of separation of powers because the Executive is different from the legislature. They snag with this system apart from been so expensive is the over concentration of power in the President. Unlike the parliamentary system of government where the Prime Minister is the head of Government and a president even albeit ceremonial is the Head of state, there is fusion of power in the Presidential system of Government where the Head of State and Head of Government is one and the same person. This is called the Executive President. The fusion of the executive and parliament (many people) of the 1960 gave way to the fusion of the head of state and government (one person) in 1979. We jettisoned check and balances for separation of powers which in essence was not the truth. The time bomb with this is that it gives room for a civilian dictatorship. Thank God the first Executive President of Nigeria Alhaji Shehu Shagari was either not a dictator; or Buhari didn’t allow him to rule long enough to translate into one, but unfortunately the Palace coup of August 1985 gave birth to a military dictator who saw the Presidential system as an opportunity to practice diarchy.
Babangida would not have used the title of a military prime minister because there can not be a Prime Minister without a parliament, but he found it perfect to use the title of a military president because as earlier stated, the fusion of the two offices into the executive presidency is already an almighty formula to dictatorship and what better dictatorship than to have a military dictator who was also a president? At the height of his diarchy he had a civilian Vice President, civilian state Governors and mockingly a legislature at not only the state levels but at the federal level. A military President, giving or withholding his assent to a bill by a National Assembly.
When invariably the third republic was aborted and the military continued their adventure until 1998, another era of returning to democratic rule finally came. Since we used the Parliamentary in the first republic and presidential in the second republic, and the 3rd republic failed why didn’t we use the French system called the Hybrid system which is a combination of the Parliamentary and Presidential system? What do we love so much about the Americans that we stick so much to their Presidential system as expensive as it is. Yet we do not practice their accountability and transparency .The Presidential system concentrates so much power in one man and in developing countries like Nigeria, the President even exceeds his limits by dictating to state governors in a federation where the states are supposed to be autonomous?
If I was complaining about the Presidential system placing too much responsibilities and powers in the hands of one man, the Nigerian solution is been worked out. We are now drifting into our own model of Presidential system called a Co Presidency. This will enable the excess responsibilities and powers on the President be shared by his wife. This will then call for an amendment to the constitution. If we vote for the party in a parliamentary system, and vote for the candidate in a presidential system, will it be out of place to ask that we should amend the constitution to ask voters to vote for husband and wife in a co-presidential system? Patience Jonathan is becoming as strong as Goodluck Jonathan. The constitution recognises only the man or woman elected as President or who succeeds a President but we are faced with a scenario now where the wife has become a Co-President. Gradually but fiercely, she is consolidating her hold on power with her retinue of aides and its attendant cost to the economy. She is trying to outdo Maryam Babangida in glamour and has assumed the motherly role of Maryam Abacha. Patience is now blatantly addressed as the Mother of Nigeria. She will out pace Stella Obasanjo in travels and jewelleries. The impoverished tax payers’ money is used to sponsor her women for change initiative which is a decoy for her going round to campaign for her husband’s election .She is trying not to talk as fast as Turai Yar’adua but she talks rather too slow that before the end of her sentence one would have forgotten what she said at the beginning, she doesn’t bother to take a cue from the professional Fatie Abubakar. The constitution does not recognise the office of the first lady but here in Nigeria we have turned that office to that of an Executive First Lady. I have no grudges with that but it should be enshrined in our constitution if it must be.
I can not wait for us to have a female President so that I will see how the husband will be addressed. Will he be called the First Gentleman or the First Husband? Will he influence his wife to create the ministry of Men affairs and have the Minister of Men affairs who is a member of the federal executive council follow him like an orderly? Will he meet with state governors or husbands of state governors? Will he arrange a meeting with all male political appointees and go round states asking for affirmative action? It is high time we demanded for a constitutional amendment to include a clause insisting that people taking a shot at the presidency must have spouses who are professionals and gainfully employed to save us from wasting public funds. But until that is done, the Goodluck- Patience Co-Presidency may after all be the Nigerian home grown model of democracy we have all been praying for.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Nigeria at Fifty
CredoPoets; Wakdok, Samuel Stephen
Mama is fifty
The world is sending congratulatory messages
My elder siblings are dinning and wining
They are celebrating mama’s age,
They bought lipstick to adorn her lips
New clothes to wear on her
My sisters even sewed theirs
My uncles are busy popping champagne.
Mama is fifty
Everyone is happy for her
Even the sun seems to be smiling from afar
As the rains walk southwards to give us room
I look around and see everyone dancing and jubilating
Thanking God for her life.
When I stare into mama’s loving eyes what I see are misty clouds.
I know why mama is sad on her birthday.
Mama has attained the golden age but with wooden legs.
And my family members who took away the gold in her
Are the very ones dancing more than ever.
Mama is fifty
At fifty our mother is wooden not golden.
Mama is fifty
The world is sending congratulatory messages
My elder siblings are dinning and wining
They are celebrating mama’s age,
They bought lipstick to adorn her lips
New clothes to wear on her
My sisters even sewed theirs
My uncles are busy popping champagne.
Mama is fifty
Everyone is happy for her
Even the sun seems to be smiling from afar
As the rains walk southwards to give us room
I look around and see everyone dancing and jubilating
Thanking God for her life.
When I stare into mama’s loving eyes what I see are misty clouds.
I know why mama is sad on her birthday.
Mama has attained the golden age but with wooden legs.
And my family members who took away the gold in her
Are the very ones dancing more than ever.
Mama is fifty
At fifty our mother is wooden not golden.
THE PRESIDENT’S FATHER
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Watching Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on television reading his declaration to become the next President and Commander In Chief of the Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I asked myself a question. Who shall we call our President; The father or the son?
Bukola Saraki did not convince me that he wrote the speech he read, I want to believe his father, the self styled god father of Kwara Politics wrote the son’s speech. He claimed Nigeria needs a younger generation to take charge of the affairs of our country. Agreed we need the new breed to come and salvage us, but someone should please tell Mr. Governor what we do not need are old breed masqueraded in their children as new breed. Each time I see Bukola Saraki I see Olusola Saraki’s shadow looming around, anytime hear Saraki Jnr. talking it is the voice of Saraki Snr. that is talking to me. How else would one explain a man who made his son governor of a state for 8 years and his daughter a senator from that state. How can I imagine that the godfather now wants his daughter to take over from the son as the governor as he promotes his son to the presidency of our nation? Will it not become the trinity of the father, the son and the daughter? If kwara state can be re-baptized to Saraki state and all people of kwara state made to adopt the surname of Saraki, will Nigeria become the Republic of Saraki too?
I dare say that if Bukola Saraki was the son of a commoner like many of us, he would not have become a governor, it was his father’s rather than his popularity that made him a governor. It is his father who months ago gathered political big wigs in kwara and told them to pray for his son who after two terms as governor was too young to go into retirement. The father has now found another employment opportunity for the son.
Bukola Saraki made mention of what he hopes to accomplish as the President of Nigeria based on his achievements in kwara, none of the politicians is shamed to be promising things we ought to have overcome by now. But must one be a President to serve or create a change? Can’t he as a senator, philanthropist, or as an adviser, still contribute in the development of this country? Can’t we have a Saraki Foundation that will create Jobs or provide scholarships to empower the youth? Can’t we have a Saraki NGO that will address infant and maternal mortalities? What of a Saraki Center that will train skilled and unskilled Nigerians to make them well equipped to face the challenges of a modern world? Why must it be a Saraki Presidency; will there be this urge to serve as the President if that office is divorced from having access to the billions of oil dollars at the president’s disposal to be spent or embezzled at selfish politicians’ whims and caprices?
In other civilized societies, great men who contributed to the development of their land and people were and are not politicians. Bill Gates is making impacts worldwide without a government portfolio. Michael Jackson pumped millions of dollars into Charity without seeking for political office. Oprah Winfrey is doing same without the patronage of public funds or power. Why can’t we take a cue?
I don’t want to be in doubt of who is my President come 2011, whether it is the son or the President’s father? I don’t want our country’s budget to be prepared from Ilorin or laws to be made by a father whose son is privileged to be the President. I don’t want my nation’s armed forces to be confused on who really there Commander in Chief is .I believe that the mystery of the Holy Trinity should end in the spiritual sphere of God the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and not extend to the political of sphere in form of the selfish trinity of the father’s President, the Son and the daughter. It is only in a tortoise economy like ours where growth is so slow or non-existent that people personalize governance and economic resources to this magnitude.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
Watching Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on television reading his declaration to become the next President and Commander In Chief of the Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I asked myself a question. Who shall we call our President; The father or the son?
Bukola Saraki did not convince me that he wrote the speech he read, I want to believe his father, the self styled god father of Kwara Politics wrote the son’s speech. He claimed Nigeria needs a younger generation to take charge of the affairs of our country. Agreed we need the new breed to come and salvage us, but someone should please tell Mr. Governor what we do not need are old breed masqueraded in their children as new breed. Each time I see Bukola Saraki I see Olusola Saraki’s shadow looming around, anytime hear Saraki Jnr. talking it is the voice of Saraki Snr. that is talking to me. How else would one explain a man who made his son governor of a state for 8 years and his daughter a senator from that state. How can I imagine that the godfather now wants his daughter to take over from the son as the governor as he promotes his son to the presidency of our nation? Will it not become the trinity of the father, the son and the daughter? If kwara state can be re-baptized to Saraki state and all people of kwara state made to adopt the surname of Saraki, will Nigeria become the Republic of Saraki too?
I dare say that if Bukola Saraki was the son of a commoner like many of us, he would not have become a governor, it was his father’s rather than his popularity that made him a governor. It is his father who months ago gathered political big wigs in kwara and told them to pray for his son who after two terms as governor was too young to go into retirement. The father has now found another employment opportunity for the son.
Bukola Saraki made mention of what he hopes to accomplish as the President of Nigeria based on his achievements in kwara, none of the politicians is shamed to be promising things we ought to have overcome by now. But must one be a President to serve or create a change? Can’t he as a senator, philanthropist, or as an adviser, still contribute in the development of this country? Can’t we have a Saraki Foundation that will create Jobs or provide scholarships to empower the youth? Can’t we have a Saraki NGO that will address infant and maternal mortalities? What of a Saraki Center that will train skilled and unskilled Nigerians to make them well equipped to face the challenges of a modern world? Why must it be a Saraki Presidency; will there be this urge to serve as the President if that office is divorced from having access to the billions of oil dollars at the president’s disposal to be spent or embezzled at selfish politicians’ whims and caprices?
In other civilized societies, great men who contributed to the development of their land and people were and are not politicians. Bill Gates is making impacts worldwide without a government portfolio. Michael Jackson pumped millions of dollars into Charity without seeking for political office. Oprah Winfrey is doing same without the patronage of public funds or power. Why can’t we take a cue?
I don’t want to be in doubt of who is my President come 2011, whether it is the son or the President’s father? I don’t want our country’s budget to be prepared from Ilorin or laws to be made by a father whose son is privileged to be the President. I don’t want my nation’s armed forces to be confused on who really there Commander in Chief is .I believe that the mystery of the Holy Trinity should end in the spiritual sphere of God the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and not extend to the political of sphere in form of the selfish trinity of the father’s President, the Son and the daughter. It is only in a tortoise economy like ours where growth is so slow or non-existent that people personalize governance and economic resources to this magnitude.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
Saturday, September 18, 2010
“THE (DIS) ECONOMICS OF PROSTITUTION IN NIGERIA.”
“THE (DIS) ECONOMICS OF PROSTITUTION IN NIGERIA.”
CredoResearchers: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Background:
The issue of prostitution is a complex one; it is so dynamic and hence its economics also. Prostitution exists with us and since we co-exist with it whether as participants, agents or onlookers; we as members of the society cannot afford to shy away from this phenomenon much as we try to. Prostitution is extremely wide spread, though the question of prostitution is a difficult and thorny subject that has received a little attention in Nigeria. Our reluctance to come to terms with the harm widespread of mass prostitution does to the entire society is highly hypocritical and comes with a lot of associated costs.
Economic reasons such as vicious circle of poverty have raised the tally of the women in crimes labeled among which is prostitution and women trafficking. The women’s involvement in prostitution though can be linked to poverty is not limited to it. Also most of the money generated from prostitution is expended on the sustenance of family, education, etc. Most women and children are not freely choosing to work in prostitution, “it is a choice based purely on economics of food and shelter”. According to a World Bank report 20 % of the world’s population possesses 86% of the world’s financial wealth. The assets of the three executives of Microsoft are more than the combined assets of the 43 poorest countries in the world – representing more than 600 million people. This has led to an increase in immiseration-the growing poverty of the mass of the population in the periphery.
Naanen (1991) writing on the history of prostitution in Nigeria’s upper Cross River Basin during the first half of the 20th century, traced the rise in commercial sex activities and blamed colonialism and even the sexual habits of the colonialists. Colonization led to an increasingly monetized economy where sex could be bought. This paper attempts to bring to the fore the problems posed by prostitution in a bid to attract attention to this menace with the view of finding solutions to this societal challenge.
The Dynamics of Prostitution:
Prostitution is said to be the world’s oldest profession. It is a complex and worldwide phenomenon. Kollantai 1921 sees prostitution as a phenomenon which is closely linked with unearned income. He further defines it as the act of selling one’s body for material benefit- for decent food, clothes and other advantages. It can then be said that for prostitution to take place; there must be an exchange at a cost-value, making prostitution an economic activity. It is however not limited to one sex alone but over the centuries, the females have been on the active side of providing the services with the males as the patrons.
The double standard and the depersonalization of sex combined, making sex a viable commodity in a society of consumers. The growing use of nudity and illicit sex scenes in the media, as an effective economic tool, and the focus on pleasure rather than work assisted the commercialization of sex. As it became defined in economic terms, society began to equate sex with success. Women derived their sexual success from desirability where as men’s success is measured by their ability to have or buy sex. With success as a goal, the demand for sex as a commodity increases, creating a broader market for pornography and prostitution. In this economic system, most often lower class women, recognizing the monetary worth of their bodies, sell it as a means of income. This relationship makes urban areas the centres of prostitution because “the city” provides more sufficient patrons to make prostitution a profitable occupation. Prostitution is thus defined as a socio-economic phenomenon, illustrating a free market where every participant sells themselves for money or goods, exploits and is exploited and where some make more profits than others. In that sense prostitution (including male prostitution) is an economic rather than a sexual phenomenon. On the other hand, prostitution illustrates clearly the gender difference which lies at the heart of the sexual system, and it is therefore not a by-product but at the very foundation of many economies.
The international labour organization for one has recognized prostitution as work. Whatever arguments, prostitution is one of the few ways in which women with no other skills and little education can earn a living. The United Nations believes that at least 10% of the world’s female population in urban areas earns all or part of their living working in prostitution. Prostitutes often argue that they are also therapists. Therapy now includes “sex surrogacy “- where substitute female partners help men who lack sexual experience or suffer feelings of inadequacy in bed. Sex surrogates would certainly not see themselves as prostitutes, and yet they perform sexual service for money.
Those who sell sex are as diverse as sex itself. Most are female, some are male. Most are heterosexual, many lesbian or gay. Some see prostitution as a personal tragedy; others have chosen it freely. Prostitution and sex tourism fall under a more general category of sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation happens when one person (or persons) receive(s) sex or money through another person’s sexuality. For instance, prostitution entails a man receiving sex while a pimp may receive the money using a woman as a prostitute. In sex tourism, a foreigner may pay a sex travel agency for a trip to Nigeria which includes airfare, hotel, food and women for sex. Sex trafficking is defined by the European Union as the transportation of women with the goal of sexual exploitation with or without their consent. The concepts of prostitution are dynamic especially with the advancement of capitalism and the growth of globalization, yet they all centrally revolve around a pivot; sex is purchased through prostitution no matter the guise.
Causes of Prostitution:
As already stated poverty and the excuse of poverty drives the trading in prostitution and wealth increases the buying power of the patrons while at the same time raising the allure for more players. This means that inequitable distribution of income which is reinforced by corruption and high rate of unemployment are among the major drivers f prostitution. Towns grew where both goods and sex could be more easily bought. Discriminatory practices against women like widows or sterile women who are driven out of their homes; is another major cause of prostitution.
The demand for commercial sex in itself is another major cause for increase in prostitution. Long distance truck drivers and men with high sexual drive seem to push up this category of demand –induced prostitution. The revolution in Information and communication technology (ICT) has radically influenced the choice of women participants in prostitution. ICT enhances the recruitment and participation in prostitution through e-prostitution. Ladies keep their pictures and mobile numbers in hotels for clients and patrons to contact them. Modern technology has made them to now see what glamour is; and the crave for material wealth as evident in the society is driving more and more people to work in this industry.
The Market structure of the Industry:
Prostitution can be decomposed into four forms; institutional, freelance, corporate and international prostitution respectively. The first is mostly practiced in the hotels, brothels and bars while the second is a single sex operator. Corporate prostitution occurs when ladies are compelled into sleeping with their bosses to get jobs, promotions or even keep their jobs; or when female workers must sleep with clients to achieve their targets. The last one involves cross border prostitution which involves smuggling and human trafficking
Prostitution integrates most of the various market situations. It is often a monopolistic competition because the sex providers can be differentiated. High valued prostitutes can however become monopsonists when they attract and restrict individual clients to themselves alone. Also the supply of clients can be a monopsony or oligopoly when one or a few rich clients become the sole or few patrons of a sex worker(s). In other cases prostitutes form cartels to maximize the benefit s from the trade. Outsourcing is very rampant where madams or established prostitutes provide younger ladies or new entrants to men who will in turn pay them for acting as suppliers. Consequently the value chain moves in both directions from the clients to the sex providers or from the sex providers to the patrons through intermediaries.
Most of the women are below the age of 30 years, indeed many see prostitution as a stage in their life circles because men demand younger women. The women see this period as one when they can and must save for later investment back home. Unfortunately in the modern day, even ladies from comfortable backgrounds, students and some working class ladies have been attracted to the glamour which prostitution provides, and hence they have joined in the trade at the economic sphere of ostentatious living rather than necessity. Even Professional and other employed ladies engage in prostitution on a part time basis.
Benefits of Prostitution:
The benefits of commercial sex for the supplier is that prostitution even after food and clothing and the institutions cut are taken into account is lucrative. The average prostitute makes as much money as a senior civil servant. The flow of sophisticated young women into towns and cities like Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano, Jos, Benin and Ibadan among others is a product of modernization. Naanen (1991) showed that half a century ago, the remittances from prostitutes into Obubra of South East Nigeria amounted to more than double the public revenue, contributed to house building and family support.
Costs of Prostitution:
Commercial sex is an active source of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV and AIDS. Prostitution is becoming more of a dangerous profession, with the increase in crime rates ladies working in prostitution stand a high chance of becoming victims of rape, kidnapping and rituals. Daily trust newspaper of May 18, 2010 on page 41 reported the story of a 22 year old female undergraduate who jumped from the third floor of a hotel in Abuja to escape ritualists. She broke her waist in the process; she had been picked the previous night to sleep with a client (who happened to be an agent of a ritualist) at the rate of N4, 000 only.
Prostitution discourages hard work because it gives the ladies the false impression that there is an alternative to success through selling their bodies for money or favour. This brings about moral decadence in the society and is a major reason for human trafficking which results to human degradation and also sex slavery.
Control Measures Against Prostitution:
The Family Based Approach: Should be the fundamental and primary control measure. Family values must be reintroduced and entrenched at the very tender age with close monitoring through the formative years into adulthood.
Community/Religious Based Approach: must be emphasized to save the society from the pollution caused by prostitution. It should be a participatory /collaborative method designed to expose the dangers of prostitution on the individuals and society while encouraging the populace on the merit of morality and hard work. Counseling and rehabilitation facilities should be made available both for preventive and corrective measures. The media must reduce its sensational portrayal of sex as a tool for exploitation and achievement.
The Government Approach: comes in the area of ensuring adequate living standard with qualitative human development indices to all citizens. Corruption must be minimized, poverty alleviated, infrastructure provided, education subsidized and employment generated or the opportunities enabled. Rural areas should be developed and urban poverty with high rate of population densities must be checked. People who exploit others sexuality for greed or money should be brought to book and border control should be enforced to check human trafficking.
The Radical Approach: like the current moves by the incumbent minister of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja to flush out prostitutes who have refused to leave the trade. However care must be taken to put in place adequate measures and incentives for the prostitutes to buy into scheme, else they will go under and this will distort the supply of commercial sex. This in turn will only create black markets and hike up the price of commercial sex. Again this will serve as a multiplier effect to motivate more prostitutes to find ways of circumventing the government since it will become more lucrative at a distorted supply rate.
Conclusion:
It is clear that economics more than any other factor propels prostitution. This could be economics of needs or economics of wants, economics of survival or economics of luxury. In the short run the boom is an incentive with attendant benefits but in the long run the doom to the individual or society is a collateral damage. The economics invariable becomes a diseconomy with the industry creating disequilibrium. The big challenge is to identify the major causes of prostitution like poverty, dislocation of the actors from their families, corruption, and the commercialization of sex among others. Adequate measures at both the governmental and nongovernmental levels must be taken to address these causes. Radical control measures taken must be careful not to criminalize the prostitutes. Rather they should be integrated. Prostitution should be taken out of the prostitutes and not just mere taking them out of prostitution.
In addition, because prostitution is deeply rooted in economics, making it illegal doesn’t reduce the persistence of male demand. Illegalization, however transforms prostitution into a subculture with a criminal status. Once a prostitute has a criminal status, she becomes trapped in an economic and criminal cycle that facilitates societal rejection. In the final analysis the economics of prostitution is a zero-sum gain; the disadvantages far outweigh any perceived advantages.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
www.credoworldmedia.wordpress.com
CredoResearchers: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Background:
The issue of prostitution is a complex one; it is so dynamic and hence its economics also. Prostitution exists with us and since we co-exist with it whether as participants, agents or onlookers; we as members of the society cannot afford to shy away from this phenomenon much as we try to. Prostitution is extremely wide spread, though the question of prostitution is a difficult and thorny subject that has received a little attention in Nigeria. Our reluctance to come to terms with the harm widespread of mass prostitution does to the entire society is highly hypocritical and comes with a lot of associated costs.
Economic reasons such as vicious circle of poverty have raised the tally of the women in crimes labeled among which is prostitution and women trafficking. The women’s involvement in prostitution though can be linked to poverty is not limited to it. Also most of the money generated from prostitution is expended on the sustenance of family, education, etc. Most women and children are not freely choosing to work in prostitution, “it is a choice based purely on economics of food and shelter”. According to a World Bank report 20 % of the world’s population possesses 86% of the world’s financial wealth. The assets of the three executives of Microsoft are more than the combined assets of the 43 poorest countries in the world – representing more than 600 million people. This has led to an increase in immiseration-the growing poverty of the mass of the population in the periphery.
Naanen (1991) writing on the history of prostitution in Nigeria’s upper Cross River Basin during the first half of the 20th century, traced the rise in commercial sex activities and blamed colonialism and even the sexual habits of the colonialists. Colonization led to an increasingly monetized economy where sex could be bought. This paper attempts to bring to the fore the problems posed by prostitution in a bid to attract attention to this menace with the view of finding solutions to this societal challenge.
The Dynamics of Prostitution:
Prostitution is said to be the world’s oldest profession. It is a complex and worldwide phenomenon. Kollantai 1921 sees prostitution as a phenomenon which is closely linked with unearned income. He further defines it as the act of selling one’s body for material benefit- for decent food, clothes and other advantages. It can then be said that for prostitution to take place; there must be an exchange at a cost-value, making prostitution an economic activity. It is however not limited to one sex alone but over the centuries, the females have been on the active side of providing the services with the males as the patrons.
The double standard and the depersonalization of sex combined, making sex a viable commodity in a society of consumers. The growing use of nudity and illicit sex scenes in the media, as an effective economic tool, and the focus on pleasure rather than work assisted the commercialization of sex. As it became defined in economic terms, society began to equate sex with success. Women derived their sexual success from desirability where as men’s success is measured by their ability to have or buy sex. With success as a goal, the demand for sex as a commodity increases, creating a broader market for pornography and prostitution. In this economic system, most often lower class women, recognizing the monetary worth of their bodies, sell it as a means of income. This relationship makes urban areas the centres of prostitution because “the city” provides more sufficient patrons to make prostitution a profitable occupation. Prostitution is thus defined as a socio-economic phenomenon, illustrating a free market where every participant sells themselves for money or goods, exploits and is exploited and where some make more profits than others. In that sense prostitution (including male prostitution) is an economic rather than a sexual phenomenon. On the other hand, prostitution illustrates clearly the gender difference which lies at the heart of the sexual system, and it is therefore not a by-product but at the very foundation of many economies.
The international labour organization for one has recognized prostitution as work. Whatever arguments, prostitution is one of the few ways in which women with no other skills and little education can earn a living. The United Nations believes that at least 10% of the world’s female population in urban areas earns all or part of their living working in prostitution. Prostitutes often argue that they are also therapists. Therapy now includes “sex surrogacy “- where substitute female partners help men who lack sexual experience or suffer feelings of inadequacy in bed. Sex surrogates would certainly not see themselves as prostitutes, and yet they perform sexual service for money.
Those who sell sex are as diverse as sex itself. Most are female, some are male. Most are heterosexual, many lesbian or gay. Some see prostitution as a personal tragedy; others have chosen it freely. Prostitution and sex tourism fall under a more general category of sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation happens when one person (or persons) receive(s) sex or money through another person’s sexuality. For instance, prostitution entails a man receiving sex while a pimp may receive the money using a woman as a prostitute. In sex tourism, a foreigner may pay a sex travel agency for a trip to Nigeria which includes airfare, hotel, food and women for sex. Sex trafficking is defined by the European Union as the transportation of women with the goal of sexual exploitation with or without their consent. The concepts of prostitution are dynamic especially with the advancement of capitalism and the growth of globalization, yet they all centrally revolve around a pivot; sex is purchased through prostitution no matter the guise.
Causes of Prostitution:
As already stated poverty and the excuse of poverty drives the trading in prostitution and wealth increases the buying power of the patrons while at the same time raising the allure for more players. This means that inequitable distribution of income which is reinforced by corruption and high rate of unemployment are among the major drivers f prostitution. Towns grew where both goods and sex could be more easily bought. Discriminatory practices against women like widows or sterile women who are driven out of their homes; is another major cause of prostitution.
The demand for commercial sex in itself is another major cause for increase in prostitution. Long distance truck drivers and men with high sexual drive seem to push up this category of demand –induced prostitution. The revolution in Information and communication technology (ICT) has radically influenced the choice of women participants in prostitution. ICT enhances the recruitment and participation in prostitution through e-prostitution. Ladies keep their pictures and mobile numbers in hotels for clients and patrons to contact them. Modern technology has made them to now see what glamour is; and the crave for material wealth as evident in the society is driving more and more people to work in this industry.
The Market structure of the Industry:
Prostitution can be decomposed into four forms; institutional, freelance, corporate and international prostitution respectively. The first is mostly practiced in the hotels, brothels and bars while the second is a single sex operator. Corporate prostitution occurs when ladies are compelled into sleeping with their bosses to get jobs, promotions or even keep their jobs; or when female workers must sleep with clients to achieve their targets. The last one involves cross border prostitution which involves smuggling and human trafficking
Prostitution integrates most of the various market situations. It is often a monopolistic competition because the sex providers can be differentiated. High valued prostitutes can however become monopsonists when they attract and restrict individual clients to themselves alone. Also the supply of clients can be a monopsony or oligopoly when one or a few rich clients become the sole or few patrons of a sex worker(s). In other cases prostitutes form cartels to maximize the benefit s from the trade. Outsourcing is very rampant where madams or established prostitutes provide younger ladies or new entrants to men who will in turn pay them for acting as suppliers. Consequently the value chain moves in both directions from the clients to the sex providers or from the sex providers to the patrons through intermediaries.
Most of the women are below the age of 30 years, indeed many see prostitution as a stage in their life circles because men demand younger women. The women see this period as one when they can and must save for later investment back home. Unfortunately in the modern day, even ladies from comfortable backgrounds, students and some working class ladies have been attracted to the glamour which prostitution provides, and hence they have joined in the trade at the economic sphere of ostentatious living rather than necessity. Even Professional and other employed ladies engage in prostitution on a part time basis.
Benefits of Prostitution:
The benefits of commercial sex for the supplier is that prostitution even after food and clothing and the institutions cut are taken into account is lucrative. The average prostitute makes as much money as a senior civil servant. The flow of sophisticated young women into towns and cities like Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano, Jos, Benin and Ibadan among others is a product of modernization. Naanen (1991) showed that half a century ago, the remittances from prostitutes into Obubra of South East Nigeria amounted to more than double the public revenue, contributed to house building and family support.
Costs of Prostitution:
Commercial sex is an active source of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV and AIDS. Prostitution is becoming more of a dangerous profession, with the increase in crime rates ladies working in prostitution stand a high chance of becoming victims of rape, kidnapping and rituals. Daily trust newspaper of May 18, 2010 on page 41 reported the story of a 22 year old female undergraduate who jumped from the third floor of a hotel in Abuja to escape ritualists. She broke her waist in the process; she had been picked the previous night to sleep with a client (who happened to be an agent of a ritualist) at the rate of N4, 000 only.
Prostitution discourages hard work because it gives the ladies the false impression that there is an alternative to success through selling their bodies for money or favour. This brings about moral decadence in the society and is a major reason for human trafficking which results to human degradation and also sex slavery.
Control Measures Against Prostitution:
The Family Based Approach: Should be the fundamental and primary control measure. Family values must be reintroduced and entrenched at the very tender age with close monitoring through the formative years into adulthood.
Community/Religious Based Approach: must be emphasized to save the society from the pollution caused by prostitution. It should be a participatory /collaborative method designed to expose the dangers of prostitution on the individuals and society while encouraging the populace on the merit of morality and hard work. Counseling and rehabilitation facilities should be made available both for preventive and corrective measures. The media must reduce its sensational portrayal of sex as a tool for exploitation and achievement.
The Government Approach: comes in the area of ensuring adequate living standard with qualitative human development indices to all citizens. Corruption must be minimized, poverty alleviated, infrastructure provided, education subsidized and employment generated or the opportunities enabled. Rural areas should be developed and urban poverty with high rate of population densities must be checked. People who exploit others sexuality for greed or money should be brought to book and border control should be enforced to check human trafficking.
The Radical Approach: like the current moves by the incumbent minister of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja to flush out prostitutes who have refused to leave the trade. However care must be taken to put in place adequate measures and incentives for the prostitutes to buy into scheme, else they will go under and this will distort the supply of commercial sex. This in turn will only create black markets and hike up the price of commercial sex. Again this will serve as a multiplier effect to motivate more prostitutes to find ways of circumventing the government since it will become more lucrative at a distorted supply rate.
Conclusion:
It is clear that economics more than any other factor propels prostitution. This could be economics of needs or economics of wants, economics of survival or economics of luxury. In the short run the boom is an incentive with attendant benefits but in the long run the doom to the individual or society is a collateral damage. The economics invariable becomes a diseconomy with the industry creating disequilibrium. The big challenge is to identify the major causes of prostitution like poverty, dislocation of the actors from their families, corruption, and the commercialization of sex among others. Adequate measures at both the governmental and nongovernmental levels must be taken to address these causes. Radical control measures taken must be careful not to criminalize the prostitutes. Rather they should be integrated. Prostitution should be taken out of the prostitutes and not just mere taking them out of prostitution.
In addition, because prostitution is deeply rooted in economics, making it illegal doesn’t reduce the persistence of male demand. Illegalization, however transforms prostitution into a subculture with a criminal status. Once a prostitute has a criminal status, she becomes trapped in an economic and criminal cycle that facilitates societal rejection. In the final analysis the economics of prostitution is a zero-sum gain; the disadvantages far outweigh any perceived advantages.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
www.credoworldmedia.wordpress.com
Saturday, July 31, 2010
HOW WE LOST OUR VIRGINITY
CredoWriters: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
Humanly speaking we were all born with our virginity intact, but honestly speaking most if not all of us have lost our virginity. How we lost our virginity, when we lost of virginity, and what or who we lost our virginity to is very key, but not the ultimate.
Virginity is defined by the dictionary as an unspoiled state. It is the state of being untouched, unexplored, or unspoiled. Many of us were virgins in our hearts, in our trust, in our finances, in our beliefs, in our academic pursuits, in our ambitions, in our careers and in a host of others. And as varying as these states of virginity are, so have we lost our virginity in various states; individually or combined.
Once we were innocent, once we were full of trust, once we were happy, once we were young at heart, once we were optimistic, once we were full of faith and not long ago we believed in hope, we had confidence in our selves. Today the young man has lost his self esteem, the boy has lost his confidence, the lady has lost her trust in love, the woman has lost her happiness, the parents have lost their sleep, and the citizens have lost faith. We have lost one or few or many of the various states of virginity. We gave our all and got none or so little in return. He loved with all his heart and got all the disappointments. We had gone to school with the hope to achieve our ambitions, some have achieved, some are still achieving but some have lost the drive to achieve. Many a young people grew up to seek and believe in love. Some are happily in love; others are sadly out of love. Most of us had plans to be financially emancipated, some are on their path, others have met with obstacles and some have met brick walls.
We were once naive; today we are suspicious, worldly and shrewd. We were once innocent today we are malicious and some times tainted. We were once full of hope; today we are skeptics and pessimists. We were once courageous today we live in despair. We were once happy today we are sad and full of grief. We were once buoyant; today we are glum and sullen. We no longer aspire, we no longer dream, we no longer plan, we no longer wish and we no longer desire. How then can we hope to achieve? How can we live if we do not anticipate? Should loosing our virginity kill our dreams and life?
We lost our hearts to heart break, should the heart break last for ever? We lost our love to failed relationships; must we deny ourselves the right to love again? We lost our wealth to the economic meltdown will the gloom remain till death? We lost our happiness to those who exploited us, should we remain in that state? We lost our trust to those who betrayed us must we doubt the whole world? We lost our childhood to wrong peers can't we become better adults?
We may have lost a lot but we can not afford to loose our head. We need to win our confidence and faith and trust and personality back. Loosing our virginity is not as tragic as not gaining the lessons that will help us regain our worth. Loosing our virginity may be painful but remaining in a state of perpetual lost is more painful, that will be a total lost.
That we have lost our virginity is no longer news, how we lost our virginity should not kill our morale but the question we should ask is: what did we gain when we lost our virginity? Did we gain the lessons? Did we gain the experience? Are we going to remain perpetual losers or can we bounce back?
If we lost our virginity we can not afford to loose ourselves.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
Humanly speaking we were all born with our virginity intact, but honestly speaking most if not all of us have lost our virginity. How we lost our virginity, when we lost of virginity, and what or who we lost our virginity to is very key, but not the ultimate.
Virginity is defined by the dictionary as an unspoiled state. It is the state of being untouched, unexplored, or unspoiled. Many of us were virgins in our hearts, in our trust, in our finances, in our beliefs, in our academic pursuits, in our ambitions, in our careers and in a host of others. And as varying as these states of virginity are, so have we lost our virginity in various states; individually or combined.
Once we were innocent, once we were full of trust, once we were happy, once we were young at heart, once we were optimistic, once we were full of faith and not long ago we believed in hope, we had confidence in our selves. Today the young man has lost his self esteem, the boy has lost his confidence, the lady has lost her trust in love, the woman has lost her happiness, the parents have lost their sleep, and the citizens have lost faith. We have lost one or few or many of the various states of virginity. We gave our all and got none or so little in return. He loved with all his heart and got all the disappointments. We had gone to school with the hope to achieve our ambitions, some have achieved, some are still achieving but some have lost the drive to achieve. Many a young people grew up to seek and believe in love. Some are happily in love; others are sadly out of love. Most of us had plans to be financially emancipated, some are on their path, others have met with obstacles and some have met brick walls.
We were once naive; today we are suspicious, worldly and shrewd. We were once innocent today we are malicious and some times tainted. We were once full of hope; today we are skeptics and pessimists. We were once courageous today we live in despair. We were once happy today we are sad and full of grief. We were once buoyant; today we are glum and sullen. We no longer aspire, we no longer dream, we no longer plan, we no longer wish and we no longer desire. How then can we hope to achieve? How can we live if we do not anticipate? Should loosing our virginity kill our dreams and life?
We lost our hearts to heart break, should the heart break last for ever? We lost our love to failed relationships; must we deny ourselves the right to love again? We lost our wealth to the economic meltdown will the gloom remain till death? We lost our happiness to those who exploited us, should we remain in that state? We lost our trust to those who betrayed us must we doubt the whole world? We lost our childhood to wrong peers can't we become better adults?
We may have lost a lot but we can not afford to loose our head. We need to win our confidence and faith and trust and personality back. Loosing our virginity is not as tragic as not gaining the lessons that will help us regain our worth. Loosing our virginity may be painful but remaining in a state of perpetual lost is more painful, that will be a total lost.
That we have lost our virginity is no longer news, how we lost our virginity should not kill our morale but the question we should ask is: what did we gain when we lost our virginity? Did we gain the lessons? Did we gain the experience? Are we going to remain perpetual losers or can we bounce back?
If we lost our virginity we can not afford to loose ourselves.
Powered by CredoWorld Media
THE RHODESIAN CONNECTION
CredoFiction: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen.
August 14th 2012
The Queen knows she has had a long life and has outlived all of her children except Charles, who is terminally ill, her grandsons William and Harry. Philip her husband died two years ago and her mum died a decade ago. Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving, monarch in British history knows fully well that her sojourn on earth is about to end. After ruling for over a century, the House of Windsor has no heir to the throne. Eighty Percent of the population knows no monarch except her, Queen Elizabeth II: The sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Queen of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
July 2nd 1979
Grace Mugabe was angry; she was screaming and cursing the idiot.
“Joan is only 15 years old “she cried
Robert Gabriel Mugabe who has finally come out of the trench after fighting the British and now Smith after his Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia in November 1965. Mugabe is now set to head the new and independent government of Zimbabwe formerly known as Southern Rhodesia. He seemed undisturbed that his 15 year old teenage daughter was pregnant. Robert has always known the white racists colonialists to be thieves. They captured blacks and sold them into slavery to develop the new world in the Americas, stole the black people’s land and they can do worse.
Mugaba has always been a fox, he was not bothered at the cause of his wife’s anxiety he only smiled at his wife in the presence of his war cabinet members
Elizabeth Alexandria Mary was born in 1926 in London. The first child of the duke and duchess of York, later King George VI. On November 20, 1947 Elizabeth married Philip Mantabatten the former prince Philip of Greece at Westminster Abbey in London. He had become a British subject nine months earlier and was married under the title of Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh. A year later Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Charles. In 1950 she gave birth to a daughter Annie. A second son was born in 1960 and a third son Edward in 1964. The sudden death of King George VI, her father cut short a trip to Kenya in 1952; she came to the throne on February 6th 1952 and was crowned at Westminster on June 2, 1953.
Queen Elizabeth described 1992 as a horrible year. Her daughter and two sons separated from their spouses. Prince Andrew separated from his wife Sarah in March. The marriage of Princess Annie and Mark Philips ended in April. The prince and princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) parted in December. The divorce of Prince Charles from Princess Diana in 1996 raised questions about Charles’ succession as the monarchy has no modern precedent for a divorced sovereign. The Queen marked her golden jubilee of her ascension to the throne in 2002. She lost her mother and sister in that same year. This is 2012, 60 years after she ascended the throne. Her reign is longer than any one ever imagined, at 86 she is not scared of dying but she frets about the continuity of her line on the throne. With Charles dying also, she has no heir to the revered throne.
Robert Mugabe’s government has brought sanctions and embargoes since 2003 on the country and people of Zimbabwe. The British government has led the US and EU to tighten economic sanctions and travel bans on the regime in Harare. After he was accused of rigging his elections is 2003 and confiscating land owned by white Zimbabwean farmers. This led to a near collapse of the economy with inflation running into millions of percentage. Mugabe has remained a faithful catholic even after the catholic bishops condemned his government. His children were all brought up in the catholic faith. Joan Mugabe has since married a Kenyan but her son born to her at the age of 15 was adopted by her parents and has always known Robert and Grace to be his parents even at his present age of 32 years. John Paul Mugabe was named after Pope John Paul I, the unknown pope who only spent 33 days as pope in 1978. The paternity of John Paul Mugabe was only known to four people on earth.
Prince Charles could barely speak but he would muster all the life in him to speak to the Queen. His mum came in as soon as he sent for her. She looked frail though full of courage at her age. Charles murmured some words into her ears and she saw her legs wobbling, she managed to sit beside him as confusion ran her brains. She doesn’t know whether to curse or bless her first son.
The Queen summoned the Prime Minister for an emergency private meeting. David William Donald Cameron was born on 9th of October 1966 and became the Prime Minister at a very young age of 43. David was born 21 years after the Second World War; he is a direct descendant of George I, George II, George III and King William IV with his mistress Dorothea Jordan. As an illegitimate descendant of King William (1765-1837) David Cameron is not in line of succession to the British throne.
When the Queen presented her demand to the young Prime Minister, Cameron froze. He couldn’t believe the Queen was asking for too much, more than any one on earth can offer. Elizabeth has nothing more to loose. She has seen it all in life and now that she can die anytime, she will either preserve her blood on the throne or bother less about the continuity of the British monarchy.
Robert Mugabe has been the Prime Minister and later President of Zimbabwe since 1980. He has watched his country suffered various sanctions from the west championed by his colonial masters the British since the tenure of Tony Blair. He kept his secret without malice and suddenly history is about changing; he will be part of that history changing event. He began to recite the Hail Mary full of Grace. His demands were said in a few words but their weight will be enormous, which ever option they chose he has lived enough to deal a big blow to the white supremacists.
David Cameron saw this as an opportunity to bargain with the Queen. This is his chance to get into the succession line of the throne since he was a descendant of King William even if illegitimately. He will use his coalition in the House of Commons to change the statutes while the Queen will impress upon the House of Lords to ratify it. Cameron was mistaken, the Queen is not just concerned about preserving the monarchy, but she is worried about her blood vanishing from the throne. She told him to his face and the fury could be seen on his face. He never thought a day will come that he will walk out on the Queen but the day has come. He adjusted his tie and was about to stand up when she softly told him to sit back.
“David”, she began” I have nothing more to fear because we all will loose. I, you, England, we all will loose”
“I have some classified documents from my father which of passed to the Americans will show how the British forces bombed the Pearl harbour in 1944 and blamed it on the Japanese to draw in the Americans into the second world war. You were not born then but I am sure you know the history the way it was written. That will be changed if I am forced to make this revelation. The Japanese will ask for trillions of compensations as a result of the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the Americans in retaliation. Britain will go bankrupt, the pound will become worthless, I will be in my grave and you Mr Prime Minister will have no country to govern at just the age of 45 and your kids Nancy and Arthur will grow up to know a Europe without a Britain. France will be happy at last, Germany will be happier and the Russians will only chuckle”
The Rt.Hon. David Cameron was shivering as he stepped out of Buckingham Palace. The Queen knows she had played her last card and she hoped to God that her lies on Pearl Harbour woks.
The British Parliament convened late into the night as a matter of urgency. Some members will rather prefer the abolishment of the monarchy. Some citizens had complained about its huge cost on the British economy. However the monarchy is the last emblem of Imperial Britain. Canada, New Zealand, Australia will all become republics, the common wealth of nations will collapse, and Argentina will get the oil in Falkland Islands. The House voted in secret, when the outcome was transmitted that night to the Queen, she sighed knowing what Britain has suffered. Mugabe had demanded that all the sanctions against his country should be lifted and a compensation of 10 billion dollars should be paid over a period of 5 years. Only on those conditions will he accept to talk with the Queen or her Prime Minister. On the other hand the Catholics were once a persecuted people in England since the time of King Henry VIII in the 16th century, until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 granted full political and civil liberties to the Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland.
On August 31st 2012 Queen Elizabeth II like her uncle Edward once did announced her abdication from the British throne .She is to be succeeded by her grandson who she met only a few days ago. He is also the grandson of Robert Mugabe the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe once called Southern Rhodesia at the time of his (the new king) conception. The United Kingdom will have a catholic king after all the wars in Northern Ireland; the once colonial Britain will have an African blooded King.
In the evening of September 10, 2012 after the coronation of the new King, Elizabeth Alexandria Mary died in her sleep. Only two people knew the pills she had taken; her physician and the Prime Minister. She would be buried besides her father King George VI and her grandfather King George V. She has gone to her grave happy; knowing that the British monarchy will go on with her blood on the throne.
David William Donald Cameron will carry a heavy burden to his grave and he hopes he does not have to live long to suffer the misfortune for ever.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe called his grandson to condole him on the death of his grandmother and predecessor on the British throne. He too would finally allow the opposition or any young member of his party to take over the reigns of power in Zimbabwe; his colonial enemy has paid the supreme price. His own blood and name is now the sovereign of the United Kingdom, the King of Canada, Australia and New Zea land, the head of the common wealth of nations, the protector of the British Dominion overseas; King John Paul Mugabe.
Powered by CredoWorld Media.
August 14th 2012
The Queen knows she has had a long life and has outlived all of her children except Charles, who is terminally ill, her grandsons William and Harry. Philip her husband died two years ago and her mum died a decade ago. Queen Elizabeth II, the longest serving, monarch in British history knows fully well that her sojourn on earth is about to end. After ruling for over a century, the House of Windsor has no heir to the throne. Eighty Percent of the population knows no monarch except her, Queen Elizabeth II: The sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Queen of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
July 2nd 1979
Grace Mugabe was angry; she was screaming and cursing the idiot.
“Joan is only 15 years old “she cried
Robert Gabriel Mugabe who has finally come out of the trench after fighting the British and now Smith after his Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia in November 1965. Mugabe is now set to head the new and independent government of Zimbabwe formerly known as Southern Rhodesia. He seemed undisturbed that his 15 year old teenage daughter was pregnant. Robert has always known the white racists colonialists to be thieves. They captured blacks and sold them into slavery to develop the new world in the Americas, stole the black people’s land and they can do worse.
Mugaba has always been a fox, he was not bothered at the cause of his wife’s anxiety he only smiled at his wife in the presence of his war cabinet members
Elizabeth Alexandria Mary was born in 1926 in London. The first child of the duke and duchess of York, later King George VI. On November 20, 1947 Elizabeth married Philip Mantabatten the former prince Philip of Greece at Westminster Abbey in London. He had become a British subject nine months earlier and was married under the title of Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh. A year later Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Charles. In 1950 she gave birth to a daughter Annie. A second son was born in 1960 and a third son Edward in 1964. The sudden death of King George VI, her father cut short a trip to Kenya in 1952; she came to the throne on February 6th 1952 and was crowned at Westminster on June 2, 1953.
Queen Elizabeth described 1992 as a horrible year. Her daughter and two sons separated from their spouses. Prince Andrew separated from his wife Sarah in March. The marriage of Princess Annie and Mark Philips ended in April. The prince and princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) parted in December. The divorce of Prince Charles from Princess Diana in 1996 raised questions about Charles’ succession as the monarchy has no modern precedent for a divorced sovereign. The Queen marked her golden jubilee of her ascension to the throne in 2002. She lost her mother and sister in that same year. This is 2012, 60 years after she ascended the throne. Her reign is longer than any one ever imagined, at 86 she is not scared of dying but she frets about the continuity of her line on the throne. With Charles dying also, she has no heir to the revered throne.
Robert Mugabe’s government has brought sanctions and embargoes since 2003 on the country and people of Zimbabwe. The British government has led the US and EU to tighten economic sanctions and travel bans on the regime in Harare. After he was accused of rigging his elections is 2003 and confiscating land owned by white Zimbabwean farmers. This led to a near collapse of the economy with inflation running into millions of percentage. Mugabe has remained a faithful catholic even after the catholic bishops condemned his government. His children were all brought up in the catholic faith. Joan Mugabe has since married a Kenyan but her son born to her at the age of 15 was adopted by her parents and has always known Robert and Grace to be his parents even at his present age of 32 years. John Paul Mugabe was named after Pope John Paul I, the unknown pope who only spent 33 days as pope in 1978. The paternity of John Paul Mugabe was only known to four people on earth.
Prince Charles could barely speak but he would muster all the life in him to speak to the Queen. His mum came in as soon as he sent for her. She looked frail though full of courage at her age. Charles murmured some words into her ears and she saw her legs wobbling, she managed to sit beside him as confusion ran her brains. She doesn’t know whether to curse or bless her first son.
The Queen summoned the Prime Minister for an emergency private meeting. David William Donald Cameron was born on 9th of October 1966 and became the Prime Minister at a very young age of 43. David was born 21 years after the Second World War; he is a direct descendant of George I, George II, George III and King William IV with his mistress Dorothea Jordan. As an illegitimate descendant of King William (1765-1837) David Cameron is not in line of succession to the British throne.
When the Queen presented her demand to the young Prime Minister, Cameron froze. He couldn’t believe the Queen was asking for too much, more than any one on earth can offer. Elizabeth has nothing more to loose. She has seen it all in life and now that she can die anytime, she will either preserve her blood on the throne or bother less about the continuity of the British monarchy.
Robert Mugabe has been the Prime Minister and later President of Zimbabwe since 1980. He has watched his country suffered various sanctions from the west championed by his colonial masters the British since the tenure of Tony Blair. He kept his secret without malice and suddenly history is about changing; he will be part of that history changing event. He began to recite the Hail Mary full of Grace. His demands were said in a few words but their weight will be enormous, which ever option they chose he has lived enough to deal a big blow to the white supremacists.
David Cameron saw this as an opportunity to bargain with the Queen. This is his chance to get into the succession line of the throne since he was a descendant of King William even if illegitimately. He will use his coalition in the House of Commons to change the statutes while the Queen will impress upon the House of Lords to ratify it. Cameron was mistaken, the Queen is not just concerned about preserving the monarchy, but she is worried about her blood vanishing from the throne. She told him to his face and the fury could be seen on his face. He never thought a day will come that he will walk out on the Queen but the day has come. He adjusted his tie and was about to stand up when she softly told him to sit back.
“David”, she began” I have nothing more to fear because we all will loose. I, you, England, we all will loose”
“I have some classified documents from my father which of passed to the Americans will show how the British forces bombed the Pearl harbour in 1944 and blamed it on the Japanese to draw in the Americans into the second world war. You were not born then but I am sure you know the history the way it was written. That will be changed if I am forced to make this revelation. The Japanese will ask for trillions of compensations as a result of the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the Americans in retaliation. Britain will go bankrupt, the pound will become worthless, I will be in my grave and you Mr Prime Minister will have no country to govern at just the age of 45 and your kids Nancy and Arthur will grow up to know a Europe without a Britain. France will be happy at last, Germany will be happier and the Russians will only chuckle”
The Rt.Hon. David Cameron was shivering as he stepped out of Buckingham Palace. The Queen knows she had played her last card and she hoped to God that her lies on Pearl Harbour woks.
The British Parliament convened late into the night as a matter of urgency. Some members will rather prefer the abolishment of the monarchy. Some citizens had complained about its huge cost on the British economy. However the monarchy is the last emblem of Imperial Britain. Canada, New Zealand, Australia will all become republics, the common wealth of nations will collapse, and Argentina will get the oil in Falkland Islands. The House voted in secret, when the outcome was transmitted that night to the Queen, she sighed knowing what Britain has suffered. Mugabe had demanded that all the sanctions against his country should be lifted and a compensation of 10 billion dollars should be paid over a period of 5 years. Only on those conditions will he accept to talk with the Queen or her Prime Minister. On the other hand the Catholics were once a persecuted people in England since the time of King Henry VIII in the 16th century, until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 granted full political and civil liberties to the Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland.
On August 31st 2012 Queen Elizabeth II like her uncle Edward once did announced her abdication from the British throne .She is to be succeeded by her grandson who she met only a few days ago. He is also the grandson of Robert Mugabe the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe once called Southern Rhodesia at the time of his (the new king) conception. The United Kingdom will have a catholic king after all the wars in Northern Ireland; the once colonial Britain will have an African blooded King.
In the evening of September 10, 2012 after the coronation of the new King, Elizabeth Alexandria Mary died in her sleep. Only two people knew the pills she had taken; her physician and the Prime Minister. She would be buried besides her father King George VI and her grandfather King George V. She has gone to her grave happy; knowing that the British monarchy will go on with her blood on the throne.
David William Donald Cameron will carry a heavy burden to his grave and he hopes he does not have to live long to suffer the misfortune for ever.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe called his grandson to condole him on the death of his grandmother and predecessor on the British throne. He too would finally allow the opposition or any young member of his party to take over the reigns of power in Zimbabwe; his colonial enemy has paid the supreme price. His own blood and name is now the sovereign of the United Kingdom, the King of Canada, Australia and New Zea land, the head of the common wealth of nations, the protector of the British Dominion overseas; King John Paul Mugabe.
Powered by CredoWorld Media.
NIGERIA'S FOURTH RELIGION & FIFTH GOSPEL
CredoWriters: Wakdok,Samuel Stephen.
We have a 4th religion in Nigeria, and is the fifth gospel after Matthew, Mark Luke and John It is evidently present though not officially recognised in our constitution, it is the most practised in our land. We have the African Tradition Religion , Christianity and Islam. This three we know though the last two have chased the first one. But this fourth religion is so unique. It allows for dual membership. You can be a member of any of these three religions and also be a member of the fourth. The religion called CORRUPTION. It is a gospel that has spread across the length and breadth of this land. It starts from the homes to workplaces and even to the places of worship. It is the official religion of government officials. Corruption is now the state Religion in Nigeria. Corruption is that which makes our budget to become like nursery rhymes. It is the empty drug stores in our hospitals. Corruption is the reason why those who fail get the job and those who pass get the knocks. Corruption will not allow prostitution to be banned in Abuja, it will only disrupt the supply and jerk up demand. That will result to black marketing and hike in the prices of commercial sex. Corruption is what makes our country to be lost in the woods at 50, and makes our leaders to make us their street urchins.
In this religion called Corruption , their reward is not in heaven , it is right here and that is why our taps are not running today and our schools have become fountain of failures.
Comfortably you can be a Christian or Moslem and still belong to this religion. No one will accuse you of serving other gods.
There are two aspects of this religion. The illegal and legal corruption. The illegal corruption is carried out by the poor and lowly. In fact when you are caught you are already found guilty even before you are tried. The legal corruption is that by the high and mighty. This legal corruption is in fact a holy communion, you have to belong. The incentive for corruption in Nigeria is very high and attractive. Ask the president, the senators , the governors and even the local government chairmen. A minister has a special adviser, the special adviser to the minister has a special adviser in turn. The President has special assistants, special advisers, senior special assistants, presidential assistants, domestic aides and personal assistants. That is a sure way of helping themselves with the national cake. The people bake the cake, the politicians eat the cake. The people hold the cows and the politicians milk the cows.
Unless we define the role of this forth religion, unless we evaluate the impacts and decide to all convert to it so we can all benefit or cast it out if it is not good for all; many will be called but just a few will remain chosen.
It may be a good religion to the wolves in power, but a very bad gospel.
Powered by CredoWold Media
We have a 4th religion in Nigeria, and is the fifth gospel after Matthew, Mark Luke and John It is evidently present though not officially recognised in our constitution, it is the most practised in our land. We have the African Tradition Religion , Christianity and Islam. This three we know though the last two have chased the first one. But this fourth religion is so unique. It allows for dual membership. You can be a member of any of these three religions and also be a member of the fourth. The religion called CORRUPTION. It is a gospel that has spread across the length and breadth of this land. It starts from the homes to workplaces and even to the places of worship. It is the official religion of government officials. Corruption is now the state Religion in Nigeria. Corruption is that which makes our budget to become like nursery rhymes. It is the empty drug stores in our hospitals. Corruption is the reason why those who fail get the job and those who pass get the knocks. Corruption will not allow prostitution to be banned in Abuja, it will only disrupt the supply and jerk up demand. That will result to black marketing and hike in the prices of commercial sex. Corruption is what makes our country to be lost in the woods at 50, and makes our leaders to make us their street urchins.
In this religion called Corruption , their reward is not in heaven , it is right here and that is why our taps are not running today and our schools have become fountain of failures.
Comfortably you can be a Christian or Moslem and still belong to this religion. No one will accuse you of serving other gods.
There are two aspects of this religion. The illegal and legal corruption. The illegal corruption is carried out by the poor and lowly. In fact when you are caught you are already found guilty even before you are tried. The legal corruption is that by the high and mighty. This legal corruption is in fact a holy communion, you have to belong. The incentive for corruption in Nigeria is very high and attractive. Ask the president, the senators , the governors and even the local government chairmen. A minister has a special adviser, the special adviser to the minister has a special adviser in turn. The President has special assistants, special advisers, senior special assistants, presidential assistants, domestic aides and personal assistants. That is a sure way of helping themselves with the national cake. The people bake the cake, the politicians eat the cake. The people hold the cows and the politicians milk the cows.
Unless we define the role of this forth religion, unless we evaluate the impacts and decide to all convert to it so we can all benefit or cast it out if it is not good for all; many will be called but just a few will remain chosen.
It may be a good religion to the wolves in power, but a very bad gospel.
Powered by CredoWold Media
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)