Programmers: Why Are You On Nairaland?

 

Panache:
I think you should look at yourself as a human being capable of competing with fellow humans, rather than as a Nigerian who can compete with "Americans, europeans and asians".  Fact is, we are all humans and as such have the same brain cells, granted degrees of "smartness" vary from one person to the other.  It is a fact though (I can't remember where I read this, but trust me, it is true) that *on average*, asians are the smartest, in part due to larger heads (no laugh o) which means larger brain size/capacity.

As for why I joined Nairaland:
To share knowledge with my peers world over and see how I can play my part to help Naija come up on the IT map.  I will confess that prior to even hearing of Nairaland, I didn't believe that we had such impressive talent.  Minus the sextellectual posters, we have enormous talent that is begging to be tapped.

ajiboyet:
Racism does exist, but you shouldn't let it reign over you.  Rather, you should use it to get you ahead.  In other words, make your haters your motivators

Having said that, what I meant, and sorry if I didn't make it clear, is that we shouldn't have the "u been think say na only una fit do am.  We for naija fit do am too" attitude.  If they don't want to respect us, rather than make them respect us, we should apply our brain power towards the development of our own country.  Once they see it working for us, trust me, they will be the ones coming to us for ideas. 

As long as we continue using oyibo inventions, rather than coming up with something of our own (like the chinese for instance), oyibo will never respect us.

I hope this clarifies my stance on the issue.

"The world is flat - the playing field has been levelled" Thomas Friedman. We can horizontal collaborate with anyone, anywhere. Outsourcing is taking a different turn on the way businesses operate and India and China are taking a big chunk of the outsource pie. I want Nigeria to join in. Forums fall under one of the 10 forces that flatten the earth - uploading.

Besides that, do you know how many forums I belong too. Name it, I'm probably on it, from PS2DEV to PSPDEV to C++ programming, to microchip.com, to CCS PIC C, to macusersforum, the list is endless. Of the above not one is "Nigerian" so this is the Nigerian forum I'm proud to be part of. Programmers have lives outside developing you know, we are humans too; who also like to "discuss" and "collaborate" and as Andresseen (one of Netscapes founders) put it, humans will go through all means to communicate.

I initially found this site after a google search, joined the forum and was bewildered at the volume of activity. Ever since I religiously visit, post, read and keep up with whats going on in and out of Nigeria and other posters minds/opinion. Buttressing my outsourcing notion, I also try to help other Nairaland posters with their programming.

hey,
that's the reason why l joined this forum  , l want to know more about the IT industry ie. Java,Linux,HTML, etc.
l personally got astonished with most posts/threads - that we're good in this field ! whaoh , that thing wey l dey find for sokoto actually dey for shokoto .

Insert Quote
To celebrate the fact that Nigerians can excel if given a fair chance on a  leveled playing field. We can match techies from any part of the world be it America, Asia or Europe.[i][/i].

Guys thanks for your comments, no matter what America has in stock for me, if our leaders (CEO of banks, oil companies and multi-nationals) can give us the oppprotunity that foreigners give Nigerians outside our borders, I would prefer to be contributing to the It growth of Nigeria in a cozy buka facing the ocean in Lagos, than surviving the erractic weather of Atlanta, GA. I tried checking my Zenith account the other day, and I noticed that the date format was in US stadard instead of our regualr Day/Month/Year, that's what I'm trying to say. Why giving our opporutnities to foreigners when we have tons of smart Nigerians who are unemployed. Thank God, they've changed the format. The web site of Bellsouth, a comapny bigger than MTN, Glo and Celtel combined, is managed by a Nigerian. So who say we no smart!

During a recent visit to Banglore, India I shook my head and wondered why ourr govt no fit make the ground fertile for outsourcing, afterall we have the manpower.

Dat's interesting.i joined this form(nairaland) 2 acquire knowledge on my shortcoming,2 b current in all fields and 2 impart knowledge on fellow nairaland's member.
Isn't that great and interesting

Permit me to add an opinion.
Whenever i go to other fora where programming is the subject of discussion, i hardly ever see the people there whining about "Level playing field" and such the likes. they just go out and do what they do best. They Write programs. If they are good they will be noticed and  snapped up. you don't hear thae griping about other people thinking that they are "not smart". An example. I know this guy that was here working(jamaica). Some white consultants came to work on a project and saw the guy in action. He was hired to their US firm within a month.