₦airaland Forum

rose4flower:
My own experience was worse my hubby to be den (we are married now) came to visit me he lives @ apapa while I live @ okoko area he came & said he was hungry dere was no Food @ home so I took him to a restaurant he ordered for food & was eating I ask dem to give me malt people were drinking it was a busy place b4 we no it 6police van & 3 bus & a jeep just pack dey came to d restaurant & ordered everybody out dey ask us to line up & enter d bus we were asking what was our offense Dat was when dey started hitting us with dere booth & belt dey even shoot gun Dat was when we knew dey really mean business dey stop a commercial bus & ask us to enter one man & his pregnant wife Dat came to buy pepper soup were also in d bus wit us d man was pleading Dat dey should allow his wife go dey he wil stand for her b4 I knew it dey rushed d man & start hitting him calling him a criminal dey now look d bus & spray tear-gas I nearly died Dat day & my fiance was asthmatic he started coughing I begin to cry pleading wit dem Dat my husband has asthma one of d police a young guy just came to me and slap me he said ashawo u get mouth to talk u want make I wound u give me ur phone he collected my phone & hit me on my ass d tin was like film trick Dat day pple were just looking nobody came to help us dey started d bus & took us to ojo police station we got down & dey ask us to line up one by one dey started called us names armed robber & ashawo we were up to 50 on getting Inside d place was filled up dey ask us to sit on ourselves I can neva forgot Dat day meanwhile my guy av already slump dey manage to give him water while some were saying he is pretending I started begging dem Dat he was nt pretending dey ask him to sit separately luckily for us a police woman ask him to give her money to go & buy ventolin bt she said she wil collect 2000 naira I gave her & she went to buy it he used it & start to regain himself along d line dey ask women to stand separately frm men dey ask d men to write dere name & ask dem to remove dere cloth remaining only boxers & took dem to two different cells dey call d women ashawo make una line up enter Dat cell. Although my guy was outside dey left him because he was stil struggling to breathe d pregnant woman started vomiting one small girl wit is was crying bitterly Dat dey wil kill her she said Aremu ti koba mi. Around 9:30 dey open d cell & said if we av 5000 dey wil bail us Dat once it ten we won't be able to go home again few minutes later I heard my name I came out my guy said he has bail us wit 8000. Bt dey said dey don't no d person who collected my phone I just left it for dem as we were going we saw d pregnant woman & her husband been escorted to Atm so dey can make withdrawal to pay d man gave d police 7000 b4 he left dem & went back Dat day was a bad day I can't forget in a hurry

is it movie script?

Ok

crackhouse:
please can u give me an example of professional courses in Engineering field.

COREN registration

mjbaba:
Well, let me share my experience on this. First all, I'm a polytechnic graduate from Kaduna Polytechnic. My advise is that whatever u do, polytechnic or university, make the best out of it. Get out of sch with the best grade you can. It greatly increases your chances in the employment market.
Second, accept that life is all about choices. You chose to graduate from a polytechnic. Even if it was a second choice for you, it's your choice nonetheless. Even as a teenager almost 19 years ago when I started my polytechnic sojourn, I knew polys were second fiddle to universities. I gave it my best. Finished ND with Upper Crédit and HND with a Distinction. Served immediately and d next level of choices began. I turned down an offer of employment as an instructor with my school. (note, even your institution discrimates against its own products. Lol. HNDs are employed as Instructors while Uni grads, as Lecturer 2 or so. Can't remember) anyways I went for employment by a bank. I was taken alongside university grads and I experienced d discrimination. While they were started on about 73k salary, we were started on 45k. It wasn't funny but I refused to allow it weigh me down. I learnt all I could, worked well. Never made myself appear inferior in front of them and you would never catch me lamenting about the discrimination. Rather than lament, I channeled my focus on my next big choice- where to move to, where I would not be discriminated against. I started researching. Among d big banks, which of them take HNDs on the same level as BSC and I tell u, there are more of them who do that, than those who don't. I picked three - intercontinental, oceanic and Firstbank. I started applying to these banks but as God would do it, I ended up in a bank I never knew would not discriminate against my grade. Zenith bank. Because of my distinction, I was taken as a core staff and that was the end of the discrimination. It has lasted just a little over a year. Several of my friends who had upper credit also joined the likes of oceanic, first bank, union bank, wema bank, first antlantic, UBA etc without being discriminated against.
Once in, I was rapidly promoted and would later port to Oceanic bank before quiting banking when I turned 32 to set up my own company which had always been what I wanted. I currently employ 10 university graduates.
Note that in the banks I worked, on several ocassions, I was selected over university graduates on the same grade as me; to head units and just 4 years into my career, I was an Operations Manager.
So, bottomline, stop lamenting. Stay focused on achieving the best with your HND, make your choices right. Look in the direction of organisations that would not discriminate against you, obtain additional qualifications along the line and never see yourself as inferior.

Finally, finally...whether BSC or HND...don't see paid employment as the ultimate objective. You won't get rich on that ish.. it may not be now, but plan on being your own boss in future. There is nothing like it. We are blessed to be Nigerians. This country has opportunities. We have the market, we have the population..identify a product or service that is in need, provide that product or service to where it is needed and you're there!

I like your spirit. There is no discrimination without your consent. No body can make you second fiddle in life without your approval. The problem with most HND holder is that they have low self esteem. It has been programmed into there brain by there lecturers that bsc is superior to HND. So immediately after graduating they are on the look out for signs of discrimination from prospective employers and co workers.
Not knowing that what determine their success in life is hardwork, your output and not your so called paper qualification.
I have HND (2001) , been working as a technologist for close to 10yrs , in a polytechnic. I knew i can not become HOD of my department , I will be bar at com14. So I knew what im getting into when entering into HND program.
Though bsc is overated, they are still considered to be superior in any managerial position. I have seen so many of these acclaimed bsc holder who cannot write good report, teaching basic engineering subject matter is a problem. Lecturer with bsc in electronic/ electrical engineering who cannot identify a diode, capacitor. They always claim practicals are mainly for technologist to carry out for the students.
So anyone getting into HND program should know there certificate limitation. It is either you upgrade your qualification or go into self employment.

No value for human lives again.

CREDENTIAL VS POTENTIAL
One thing that has killed the productivity of many Nigerian graduates and put them permanently on the unemployment queue is the excessive emphasis and dependence on paper (academic) qualification at the expense of potentials. Credential is good, but in this present economic
time your credential alone might not sustain you in the real world. If you depend solely on the fact that you graduated with a good grade, then you might end up frustrated in life. This over-dependence on credentials has (so much) affected the youths that most of them do not care to know if they posses any abilities that could be developed into a career, all they care about is how
to go to school, graduate and then join the unemployment queue in search of unavailable
white collar jobs. This tradition is a major cause of graduate joblessness in the country; graduates
that are supposed to develop their potentials and use them to affect humanity are busy moving from one company to another submitting CVs and hoping to get a job. On a practical note, it is not your credential that matters but your competence and ability to carry out tasks. A result-focused employer is not really concerned with what you graduated with, but his interest is on whether you have what it takes to move his organization forward. I believe school should be a place where potentials and talents are refined and developed, and not merely a place for acquiring paper qualifications. Paper without potential makes you a liability, which is why there are lots of graduates with papers that are liabilities. If you want to work in the bank it shouldn’t be because you are a graduate of Banking and Finance or Business Admin, but it should be because you have the potential to deliver as a banker and notjust another employee. If you are just ‘anotheremployee’ you will be sacked or retrenched in no time. Let me tell you the truth; there are academicbankers as well as talented bankers. An academic banker only adds to the bank’s payroll, with verylittle contribution to the Bank’s growth; while a talented banker is one whose potential is able to impact to a large extent, on the bank’s growth. The talented banker is an asset to the bank, and they are the ones that climb faster on the corporate ladder. The difference between the academic and talented banker is in their level of intelligence. Intelligence here doesn’t refer to having good grades in school
L or being able to cram long theories. “Intelligence is the ability to provide practical solutions to practical problems”. So, our talented banker here is one thatis intelligent enough to provide practical solutions to practical banking problems. He depends onpotential, natural intelligence and abilities unlike the academic banker whose strength is just on his paper qualification.
People like Jim Ovia and Tony Elumelu, former CEOs of Zenith Bank and UBA respectively, are intelligent bankers. They could never have risen to their positions merely because of their paper qualifications. Though I’ve used banking as an illustration, it also applies to
other fields-Technolo gy, engineering, business etc. Majority of mechanical engineering graduates cannot fixa car engine, while most mechanics are not graduates
of any university or polytechnic. Most of the so-called Mechanicalengineering graduates just have their heads filled with formulas and theories which have turned their heads into warehouses of unproductiveinformation. Don’t deceive yourself; it is not about what you know, but what you can do with what you know. Would you hire someone to fix your car just because he is a graduate or because he can actually fix the car perfectly? Life is about delivering value. It is this
credential-mind edness that has affected theeconomy of the country negatively. Why can’t we
develop our potentials like the Americans, Japanese, Chinese or Indians? A large number of
the major corporations owned by Americans were started while the founders w

The Difference Between HND And BSC Certificates Is Discrimination – Wole Soyinka (SHARE THIS)
The recent media sprout pertaining to the long lasted discrimination between holders of Bsc and Hnd degrees have successfully passed through to the second reading in the House Of Assembly.

However, the nobel Laurette; Professor Wole Soyinka was invited to Channels TV to share his opinion on the aforesaid issue. And he gave clarification on the matter by saying the Government is the root cause of the discrimination sprouting across all industries.

“Basically, looking at this, one would agree the cut off marks for these institutions are clearly not the same. But who sets these cut off marks? What would it cost the Government to ensure the appropriate bodies charged with the sole responsibility of setting the yardsticks into these institutions; get to review the measures.

These are pertinent things we shy away from. I can tell you I have been across products from both institutions and you should know they both produce quacks and good products. So its a question of individual development to an extent. But as regards the nomenclature of the divide. Most people claim, perhaps if the Government can put in facilities to upgrade the polytechincs, maybe they can measure up. But that is pure rubbish.

When was the last time facilities were installed in universities across the nation? All these rants need to stop, because its like planting a seed of enmity among these two categories of students.

When reliance is totally placed on a government on issues like this, the society fails to move forward. I personally think its high time students across both divides started looking forward to what they can do for themselves as individuals than what some certificate can do for you.

Geniuses are made and not born, but apparently, we have a government that isn’t ready to scrutinize the frustrations being caused by the educational sector to these children at the early stage. When I pass Jamb a couple of times but refused admission several times at the university just because I didn’t make them both my first choice and second choice, won’t I opt for a polytechnic. Or must I keep trying till I wield grey hair? We need to think deep about these things.

The government has really neglected its checks and balances on that. A BSC holder and an Hnd holder should be equal given that they were both able to squarely take-on whatever that was thrown at them during their cause of study.”

HND and BSc Discrimination, part of Nigerian major problem


Higher National Diploma (HND) is obtained from Polytechnic schools, while Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) is obtained from Universities.

Polytechnic students in Nigeria have suffered due to unconstitutional dichotomy created by some disgruntled occultists in Nigeria for their own selfish interest. This act has gradually killed Nigeria technical education and caused this country more harm than good.

Some of these Discrepancies are as follows:
a) Inequality in salary Grade Level (HND:GL 07 & BSc:GL 08).
b) Security personnel; Bsc (Commissioned), HND (Non-commissioned)
c) Promotion; HND (maximum of GL 12), while BSc (Unlimited).
d) Banking/Financial institutions treat HND holders like slaves.
e) BSc holders employed as Admin staff, while HND holders are kept as cheap staff.

Some of the dangers imposed on organisations and this country at large are:
a) Unemployment for HND holders, which has caused some of them to engage in all kinds of vices, such as; Assassination, kidnapping, Armed robbery, money ritual, etc.
b) Nonchalant attitude in place of work.
c) Hiding of acquired/inherent ideas that could move Organisations and Nigeria higher.
d) Hatred among colleagues or comrades, causing each to kill one another through, poison, assassination, charm, etc.
e) Candidates now rush and lobby for University admission, thereby killing Nigerian’s technical education which polytechnic mainly offer.

If this disparities/dichotomy must exist, the following conditions must be adopted:
a) Educational years in polytechnic (from OND to HND) should be reduced.
b) UTME/Post-UTME should be scraped out for Polytechnic candidates.
c) School fees in Polytechnic should be slashed down drastically.
d) One year Industrial Training/Attachment for polytechnic students should be scrapped.
e) Five (5) credits SSCE requirement for admission into polytechnic should be reduced.
f) Subjects offered in Polytechnics (both OND and HND) should be reduced.
g) Carry-over should be scraped from Polytechnic.
h) Theoretical exams should be dropped, while objective exams adopted for Polytechnic.

Government should put a stop to this barbaric act because is not stated in either of the following; Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Public Service Rules, Financial Regulations, Civil Service Handbook, Federal Establishment Circulars, Schemes Of Service.

If these could not be stopped, government should scrap Polytechnic education in Nigeria to avoid further frustration of visionary/brilliant Nigeria HND graduates.

Popoolaoladayo:
In the first place, it is important to note that the two systems are not the same and can never be the same. One is also not an alternative to the other. Polytechnic education is purely a techno-scientific education. This is in contrast to that of the university that is predominantly academic. The meaning of this is that while polytechnic education concentrates on technical cum scientific education and at the same time providing the nation and economy with the much needed and indispensable middle level manpower, the university concentrates on academic work and research. The result of their academic and research work is exactly what the polytechnic cadre puts into a practical form. For instance, an Electronics/Electrical Engineering graduate from the university can sit down on a table and plan how a given building can be wired. He is not expected to do the wiring himself. The wiring, which is a practical aspect, is now the responsibility of the polytechnic Electronic/Electrical Engineering graduate.
The argument here is that while polytechnic education is more of practical, The Bachelor’s Degree also known as “Baccalaureate” in many countries. The word baccalaureate is a distorted version of German word “Bakkalaureus.” The Bachelor’s degree was first awarded in Germany, but was later abolished. The degree resurfaced in 1820, however, as part of a change in the higher education system. A Bachelor’s degree is an undergraduate academic degree. The name “Bachelor” was given to the degree because of the English word “Bachelor” meaning young apprentice (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2007).that of the university is theoretical. Polytechnic education is, for instance, 60 per cent practical and 40 percent theoretical while that of the university is vice versa.
This little explanation is a pure pointer to the fact that both educational systems are not the same or is one an alternative to the other. Therefore, a student who is opting for the polytechnic education should bear in mind that he is opting for a practical- oriented education. He can only switch to the university if he wants to go academic or theoretical. In a nutshell, one does not enter a polytechnic as a last resort. It is a different educational system with its own mission, vision and, of course, a clear objective.
Countries like Japan, Korea, Germany, Australia, Malaysia and many developed economies rely deeply on skilled and technical education despite knowing that the university education has an edge over the polytechnic education.Both qualifications work hand in hand because they compliment each other.The government of Nigeria should apply Adams Stacy's equity theory so as to give a positive end result in organizational goals.More so course content of both the university and the Polytechnic should be interwoven.
The discrimination is conspicuous and i know how you feel jakarta.i held the bull by the horn by going back to school dumping my two HNDs for PGD.I surged on and today i will affirmatively tell you that i have two masters degrees and a PHD in view.You can even decide to do a top program in any university(it is just one year six month).
Finally you will observe that you even have the edge over every because you have the acumen of the practicals and theory in you.IF THE CONTEMPORARY SITUATION IS DOWNGRADING YOUR EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT,FIGHT IT HARD TO BEAT THE CONTEMPORARY POLICIES OF THE EDUCATIONAL DICHOTOMY.

You really make sense.

obailala:
Now this story just makes me remember the GEJ days. If this interview was reported a year ago, hundreds of GEJ worshippers would have insanely jumped into defensive calling the soldier all sorts of names for lying against his country. These paranoid trolls always felt everything was about GEJ and that everyone was out to attack GEJ's presidency.

Thank God we are past that era, at least now we can have our brothers thinking like humans again.

People failed to realise that Nigeria problems was not caused by Gej.Every sectors of Nigeria economy have crashed. Everyone is an icon of corruption.Greediness, nepotism, tribalism are our major problem. I'm still waiting to see miracle PMB is going to perform on this entity called Nigeria.

Potus1:
Soldiers who are in the North East are being paid 1,000 per day, can you believe that. Well,my gratuity after serving the NA for 15 years was 671,000. Kai...when I saw the alert I just smiled because it was expected. I'm glad I left.

#1000 per day for soldiers in warfront!! #671000 gratuilty after serving for 15yr . Surely Nigeria is a failed state?

People are really suffering

Suffering and smilling. That's our motto.God bless Nigeria

dorox:
Until we are able to replicate simple things like uninterruped power suply, good road and rail network and a proper educational system we wont be able to reproduce anything requiring a high level of engineering.

But is those things mentioned rocket science that we have not been able to replicate most of these basic things ?

My heart bleeds whenever I see something like this. Africa still have a long way to go. We are far far behind. Those people seen in that factory are mostly technicians and technologists. Where are the African engineers? We are still battling with stable power supply, when others have moved far ahead.

.

chibas:
where can i buy micro controller?

If you are in Lagos try oshodi main market or ALABA. You can also order online

obaobirin:
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Thank you.

How much per one

You just need to make sure you understand what you are copying. By understand, I mean you need to know why you are copying a particular solution versus another. As long you can the answer the why question, you are developing as a coder.

Copying and pasting becomes bad for you when it resembles an old man banging a TV and moving the antenna until he gets a picture. If you're just trying pieces of code until something works, you're not learning anything. You will eventually run into a problem with no exact answer on a forum and spend a frustrating amount of time learning what you could have learned at an earlier time.

The main problem is that If you copy and paste code, you will never be able to learn the Syntax and Semantics of a programming language. Also since you are not using your brain, in the later stages when you will be required to find a logic of something new and code it, you will never be able to do it.
My suggestion to you is not to use copy paste programming, if you want a better future in programming.

How much is it?

solomonjesus:
some interesting station like MBC cartoon natgeowild is showing on daarsat position for free

what's the frequency

Kindly check this for me 56290225CA

Good job. Keep it up. I will contribute later

Which programming language are you good in for embedded system. You can also link this thread to https://www.nairaland.com/1988764/electronics-circuit-design-concept-implementation/ for hardware design

NiceMan4:
Forget about the government. Your destiny is in your hands. How many hours do you spend in chatting, playing games, partying etcetera, you can convert those times in creating ideas. Our problem is that we are overwhelmed by the comfort the west has afforded us, and we don't see the need to work any longer.

Rather I thought it is the general political apathy prevalent mostly amongst the african middle class. As rightly point out, the government has been a huge let down. Whose fault is it? Stop and ask yourself that. Its your fault, its my fault, its our fault. The greatest democratic power necessary for good governance to take place lies with the voters. The day we will vote objectively, that’s the day when things will start shifting in the right direction. If we can make this resolve, bad leaders are much easier to deal with.

Another problem is mental lazyness as I thought was with those who are educated. Unfortunately we’ve all been wrongly told to work hard, earn a good salary and escape poverty. And once one gets academic qualifications, we just sit back. Most of us do what we do to earn a salary, period. Not because we are driven by higher ideals, like being of service to humanity for doctors for instance, I could go on, but i know you get the gist. This too is apathy, laziness. do you know that the bulk of african intellectuals are sitting in multinational corporations and multilateral organisations and are simply just other walters?

hahn:
Word!

We have to accept it, get angered by it and do something about it!

What can we do ? Major problem is from the government.

Source:http://mindofmalaka.com/2012/01/18/you-lazy-intellectual-african-scum/

You Lazy (Intellectual) African Scum!
So I got this in my email this morning…



They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”

My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.

“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”

Quett Masire’s name popped up.

“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”

At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.

“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”

I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.
The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they

were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”

For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”

I was thinking.

He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”
I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.

“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”

He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.

I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.

“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here)

Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.

Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.

use bb to change the file extension. just change it to filename.jpg

laykhorn:
Anyone has any resources on
.
"Architecture and Development of a ROM interfacing to a 7-segment display"
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I need your help. I have to submit a report on this topic by Friday and the project March 2nd.
CC: baba11 and other hardware gurus

I have never heard about rom interface to seven segment display. do you mean interfacing seven segment to a microcontroller. ROM IC can never drive a seven segment display without micro, rom is just a memory. Try to reframe your topic

When is FUTA post graduate form will be out