₦airaland Forum

Cortana is all part of the plan in the diabolical match fixing schedule. (In the voice of magneto) "You never learn, do you?"

Breaking News: After Brazil's loss to Germany, Neymar has been moved from intensive care to the psychiatric ward

Thank God for Germany. Very soon ladies will be too ashamed to wear Brazillian Hair

7 Up has announced that it is going to be the official sponsor of the German national team

The world cup final will be played by Argentina and Holland, as Brazil is out and Germany are being sued for despoil

this is fine

“Be grateful for what you have now. As you begin to think about all the things in your life you are grateful for, you will be amazed at the never ending thoughts that come back to you of more things to be grateful for. You have to make a start, and then the law of attraction will receive those grateful thoughts and give you more just like them.” — Rhonda Byrne, The Secret

There is so much that is wrong with the society we live in. There is so much about ourselves that we wish to change. In an attempt to make ourselves better and to change our society, many times we forget to be grateful for the things we do have. We focus so much on the negative that the positive loses its place in our hearts. Here is a list of some things we all should be grateful for, for gratitude itself is a virtue.

1. Your Life
No matter how you think it is, it is a gift. So many individuals don’t get a chance to make it as far as you did. Disease, poverty, famines, and droughts (and bombs. . . yea bombs) claim thousands of lives each year, but you were lucky. You got to live, to survive, to exist and to be able to dream. Be grateful for your life.

2. Your Situation
Wherever you are(be it Borno or Yobe), if you’re reading this you are already in a better situation than the hundreds of millions of individuals who are struggling to have two square meals a day. Be grateful for your situation.

3. Your Friends
They’re the family you picked. Think of the crazy inside jokes, the embarrassing memories, the late night phone calls and the fact that they’ve always got your back. . . Yeah the they annoy the hell out of you, but be grateful for that priceless relationship.

4. Your Parents
Yeah your dad is not Dangote or they didnt provide everything for your but yes, they are your biggest fans and most honest critics. The only beings who could possibly love you more than you could ever love them. Not all parents are great, I agree, but they did choose to let you live and gave you life. Be grateful to your parents for their support, their encouragement, for their strength and undying love. Be grateful for the opportunity of life that they gave you. Remember that they could have aborted you if they wanted to.

5. Your Courage
You’ve lived so long, you’ve come so far. You made it despite heartbreaks and pain, though disappointment and failure. Yet here you are, alive, motivated and rearing to go. Remember to be grateful to whatever is giving you the will to drag yourself out of bed and face the world. Be it your motivation, your goals, your God, whatever, be grateful for the courage.

6. Your Strength
The fact that you didn’t break down that once. The time when you supported your friend in despair, that time you smiled for the family photo when all you wanted to do was to cry, but you didn’t. Be grateful for your strength to face your troubles and overcome your sorrows.

7. Your Mind
A complex science, a firm friend. Your mind can wander to destinations unknown and yet be back to the present in a fraction of a second. It keeps you hoping, dreaming, thinking. It is in essence a part of what makes you, you. Be grateful for your mind’s ability to contribute to making you who you are.

8. Your Heart
Scared, wounded, healed, and still up for more of the same, your heart is like the spirit of a three-year-old. No matter how much it bears it bounces back. If it were to stop even for a second your life could be in danger. Be grateful for you heart for its mettle.

9. Your Senses
To touch, to smell, to see, to feel all the beautiful feeling we take for granted. Think of a day when you couldn’t feel. Think of the misery if you couldn’t taste. Think of the beauty that you would miss out on if you couldn’t see. Be grateful for your senses that make the world so pretty.

10. The Things You Love
Everything you love gives you joy. It becomes a part of you and can easily make you smile or tear up. Be grateful for its presence and its effect in your life.

11. Your Belongings
Your bag, your clothes, your couch, your table, everything that’s yours has a story. Even if it’s boring, it’s a story. When you got it, why you got it, how you got it, when you used it, every little detail works its way to make your life more complete. Each story captures a moment in your life that will never come back. Be grateful for those moments hidden in your belongings.

12. Your Tears
Remember that time you cried in joy? That time when you thought you couldn’t be happier? Do you also recall that terrible night when you thought you’re heart couldn’t take any more? Your tears bear testimony to the best and worst times you’ve had. Be grateful for the emotions your tears brought forth.

13. Your Mistakes
A clouded judgment, a tinted perspective, an unfair remark, that stupid, stupid, phone call. Some mistakes that were forgiven and some that weren’t. Some mistakes that warranted an answer and some that didn’t. Every mistake helped you grow, to learn, to understand. Be grateful for the wisdom that your mistakes enabled.

14. Your Life Lessons
A lesson could be anything. Basic etiquette, the touch of a hand, the path back home, the stranger who helped, the little girl you learned to console. A lesson in life is one that only experience can enable. With every lesson learned, you’re one step more experienced than you were yesterday. Be grateful for the experience.

15. Your Mentors
Be it your family, friends, professors, or bosses, be grateful for those individuals who took time out of their lives to help you. To make you feel more competent and give you the cheat sheet of life that they never had. Be grateful for their guidance.

16. Your Happiness
Happiness is a misunderstood, often misquoted commodity. To be loved is to be happy, to be an artist is to be happy, to walk in a park alone with your thoughts is to be happy. Happiness is how you define it. Many people are robbed of their happiness for they often try to follow someone else’s definition of it. It’s a rare commodity today, one that the world is scrambling to own. Be grateful for your happiness.

17. Your Disappointments
With every disappointment that you encountered, be it academic, emotional, physical, artistic or mental, you got a little stronger. Your disappointment temporarily saddened you though, taught you to overcome the sadness and be happy again. Be grateful for the strength your disappointments gave you.

18. Your Job
For all the hard work you put in and for the job that pays your rent. It may not be the best yet, but it could help you get the best. It’s one door that will lead to another. It’s a door that you had to fight to get to. Be grateful the door opened.

19. Your Enemies
Your enemies taught you about the world the way that no book or reality show could. They taught you how to fight, how to be true to yourself and, most importantly, what not to be like. Be grateful to your enemies for showing you who you never want to be.

20. Your Teachers
They encouraged you, corrected you, motivated you and applauded you, asking for nothing in return from you. Some you loved, some you didn’t, yet they cared for you all the same. Be grateful for their time and effort that they spent on you.

21. Your Heartbreaks
Each heartbreak made your heart stronger, wiser, more experienced. It gave you the wisdom to tell between loyal and faithful, a lie and a truth, and eventually between reality and expectations. Your heartbreaks taught you to bounce back and introduced you to your quieter side and your best friends. Be grateful for that knowledge.

22. Your Laughter
To be able to extract humor from a situation is nothing short of a talent, a gift if you will. To be able to look at something with such an eye that you couldn’t help but laugh. Be grateful for the talent that enables you to laugh.

23. Your Body
It’s able, it’s healthy. Be grateful that your body is responsive, healthy and yours. Your body is yours alone and for that be grateful.

24. Your Pain
The funny thing about pain is that when you feel it, it hurts so bad, but when it’s gone, you can’t remember how it felt. You have an idea that you hurt but not how much. Be grateful that it’s over, that the pain you once felt is no more. And the pain you feel will slowly die out. Be grateful for the pain for it introduced you to a greater joy after it passed.

25. Your Siblings
Your first and last friends. Your partners in crime, your shoulders in despair. Your siblings are the best thing that could ever happen to you. Whether it’s an inside joke, an anniversary gift, a heart break or even plotting a plan, they’re always there and always on your side. Be grateful for your siblings.

26. The Sun
Every day, it comes and spreads its light over all of us. Unselfish and kind, its warmth spreads in every direction. Be grateful for the sun, for without it food wouldn’t grow and your body wouldn’t experience its tender warmth.

27. The Trees
Ask any child, they’ll tell you why. But if there isn’t a child around, let me tell you. Trees make the world prettier, give us fruits and purify the air. Be grateful for the selfless trees that allow us to live so well.

28. Your Privileges
No matter how few privileges you have, at least you have some. You may work towards a fairer society and that is awe inspiring, but don’t forget to be grateful for the knowledge of their existence and the power to utilize your privileges. Be grateful that you know your privileges.

29. Your Choices
Your choices — good or bad — were yours alone. You were lucky to have an opportunity to make your choice, to do as your heart desires and to be able to pick from among options. You were lucky that it wasn’t just one way. Be grateful for the opportunity to make your own choices.

30. Electricity
It’s hot, we have fans, it’s cold we have heaters, imagine those who have nothing. Be grateful that you have electricity to pamper yourself. It’s not a right, it’s a luxury.

31. Drinking Water
Everyday on the streets of my hometown I see children begging for mercy, for food, but even more so, for water. Be grateful for the water you drink. For the ease of the availability of that water and the purity of the water. Be grateful, for millions are dying because they don’t have water. For water, too, is a privilege.

32. Your Name
It’s an identity you were born with. Your name gave you a place in the world. It doesn’t matter whether you changed it, or kept it or hate it, it’s your first, not only, identity, but an identity nonetheless. Be grateful for an identity.


http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/32-things-you-should-grateful-for.html?ref=fbp&n=1

President Goodluck Jonathan, through the Co-ordinating Minister for Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, recently laid the Appropriation Bill for 2014 before the two chambers of the National Assembly on December 19, 2013.

The breakdown of the appropriation bill contains some revelation the will shock you and make you weep at the same time, except you have mucus in your head instead of a brain, in which case, no sane human being should waste his/her precious time arguing with you.

1. Newspapers

The Presidency and 21 ministries intend to spend about N75 million for the purchase of Newspapers alone. The State house alone wants 15.5 million (N42, 349/day) on newspapers.

To break this down, it would mean that in a day the state house and 21 ministries will spend about N205, 000 on newspapers every day.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201312310188.html

2. Villa Zoo

The Federal Government wants to spend the sum of 14.5 million for the addition of two animals to the Presidential zoo at the Aso Rock Villa. N23 million was also budgeted for wildlife at the Villa.

Whoever prepared this should be asked, where are the animals coming from? Mars? If you ask anybody, N14.5 million for two animals is crazy, even if the animals are immortal.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201312310330.html

3. Budget Preparation

What does it take to prepare a budget? Obviously millions, because according to the 2014 Appropriation Bill over 100 million was allocated by government agencies for budget preparation.

It makes you wonder, the Nigerian government is spending about 100 million to prepare a document that would swindle more money. Ironic right?

http://allafrica.com/stories/201312300438.html?viewall=1

4. Another Private Jet

By now you might be recovering from the fact that the Nigerian government has 10 private jets, while Japan has just two (2) aircraft, the Netherlands has two (2), South Africa has just one presidential aircraft, Malaysia has two (2) and the British Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth II, and Cameron travel on chartered British Airways flights. Only two domestic airlines in Nigeria have larger fleets that the presidential fleet. It is even believed that over N9 billion is spent on the maintenance of the presidential fleet each year.

Angry already? Don’t be, continue reading.

The 2014 Appropriation bill has voted N1.6 billion for the purchase of the 11th aircraft in the president’s fleet. Now you can get angry

http://www.punchng.com/editorial/nigerian-jet-for-malawian-president/
http://allafrica.com/stories/201312310330.html
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/152015-jonathan-spend-least-n1-5-billion-another-presidential-jet.html
http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-spends-n9bn-annually-on-10-aircraft-presidential-fleet/

5. Fuelling Generators

The Presidency as well as ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government had budgeted N834m for fuelling generators alone.

That is about 2.3 million naira per day. Like seriously?

http://www.punchng.com/news/2014-budget-outrage-over-allocations-for-zoo-new-jet/

6. Foreign and Local Trips of the Presidency

N2.4 billion for the local and foreign trip is just extravagant if you ask anybody with half a brain.

And in the words of Melaye, “Where is the President going to that he will spend over N2 billion? Is he the supervisor of the world?

http://www.punchng.com/news/2014-budget-outrage-over-allocations-for-zoo-new-jet/

7. Good Governance Tour

The federal Government voted N241 million for the Good Governance Tour being led by Mr. Laraban Maku. In the words of Fashola, “Do the people of Nigeria need a tour to know that they’re being well governed?”

http://allafrica.com/stories/201401020704.html

8. Magical block of classrooms

The Federal Ministry of Education will spend N950 million on the construction of a single block of three classrooms in 2014.

The budget did not specify where this single block of three classrooms will be sited. The construction project, coded in the budget proposal as
EDUMM010008897 is among the 310 others newly by the ministry of education for 2014.

Is this block of classrooms going to be made of total gold or it is going to be built on the moon? We would like to know.

9. State house feeding

The State House Headquarters wants to spend N363.3 million on foodstuff/catering materials supply and refreshments/meals.

It makes you wonder, “What are they eating in the Villa that will cost that much? Are they eating Gucci rice, Louis Vuitton beans, and Prada bread or Polo eba?”

http://allafrica.com/stories/201312300692.html

10. Airport Flowers

The aviation ministry plans to spend N208 million to plant flowers and trees in the country's five main airports. They include Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Enugu airports.

Please does anybody know the price of a single flower?

http://allafrica.com/stories/201401030318.html

Which of the following expenses do you think is justified? Please post your comment below.

Source: http://giftedgreen.com/2013/?q=content/10-outrageous-and-exorbitant-proposals-nigerias-2014-budget

If you are on the quest for kids, it is of utmost importance that you should have a lot of bullets in your gun (you know which gun), and not just shooting blanks, that is if you even shoot at all.

You might already be aware that laptops, stress, sugar, tobacco and tight pants are not very good friends with your manhood. But the items on this list will shock you, trust us on this one.

1. Cell phones

Yes cell phones, your mobile telephone can cause semen quality to decrease, which makes it more difficult to sire a child. Yes, we know you cannot survive without your cell phone, and you might doubt this already but science always has proofs.

One study study where 361 men were divided into four groups, group A contained men who don’t use cell phones, group B use cell phone for about 2 hours per day, group C used their cell phone for 2-4 hour per day and the lastly group D used their cell phone for more than 4 hours per day. The conclusion was that use of cell phones decrease semen quality.

Another study from Austria that examined 2,110 men from 1993 to 2007 also has the same result.
Getting scared already? Well the good part is that the decrease from semen quality is only temporary and semen quality is bound to improve with reduced exposure to cell phones.

The moral of these researches is that you should spend less time with your phone if you want to make a kid. Is that a tear in your eye?

2. Television

Do you love television? A lot? You could watch a whole season of a television series in one day? You have a marathon record when it comes to watching television? The only thing that can separate you from your television is PHCN? If your answer to any of the previously asked question is yes, and you are trying to have kids, it would be safe to say you are on a long thing. If you are really serious with having kids, you might have to let go of the television, at least for now.

A Recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health released in British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that people who watch too much TV (5 to 20 hours per week) has almost half percent sperm count than those who does not watch TV. While people who exercise has 70% more sperm count than those who are idle.

What they did not say is what happens if you decide to exercise while watching television.

3. Sagging your pants

To be honest it is totally hilarious imagine that someone who wants to be a father is still busy sagging his pants. We are not saying it is uproarious to sag your pants, we are saying that . . . okay, it is completely immature and funny for a grown man to sag his pants. Well, looking funny in a weird way is actually the least of your problems.

According to posture and vitality expert Aaron Parnell, one of the biggest health problems is severe bad posture.
Another study discovered that continuous wearing of sagging pants severely impacts sexual performance. Sagging pants wearers are 70% more likely to prematurely ejaculate during intercourse.

In this study, men as young as 23 are seen having severe cases of erectile dysfunction. The cause is traced back to the constant mis-aligning of their hips and lower torso from the gait (people’s walking patterns) which are symptomatic to sagging pants.

The study estimated that 75-82% of the men who wear saggy pants have some sort of sexual dysfunction.

4. Drugs for hair loss

Going bald is a nightmare to some men and the thought of this can make young men go berserk. Men deal with hair loss in many ways. While some men might decide to wear a hat at all times to hide their baldness (which is really cool until the hat comes off), some prefer to shave all their hair as a form of disguise and a few take the path of medication. Yes, obviously there are drugs that help treat hair loss.

If you are among the third group, well we have bad news. Research has shown that most Medications used to treat male pattern hair loss and enlarged prostate may produce side effects such as erectile dysfunction and loss of libido in some men.

"These drugs work by reducing the amount of dihydrotestosterone circulating in the blood,” Dihydrotestosterone is the male sex hormone that helps maintains sex drive.

While the drugs may help with hair loss and alleviate urinary tract symptoms due to an enlarged prostate, the hormonal changes can also lead to the inability to get an erection.

So you either accept baldness as a part of you or say adios to your little friend.

5. Gum disease

If you are among those guys that do not take their oral health seriously, we are sorry to announce to you that not only will people continue to run away from you, your chance of being a father is also running away from you.

Having peridontitis (chronically inflamed and infected gums) may increase your risk of erectile dysfunction, according to research. The study, performed in mice, suggests a link between gum disease and ED , but the connection in humans and the mechanism by which periodontitis may lead to ED is still unclear.

Gum disease is an indicator of overall poor health, and has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, another risk factor for erectile dysfunction, the researchers said.

Whoever said you should brush two times a day was obviously a very wise person.

6. Pepper Mint

Are you always taking pepper mints to hide your bad breath or to impress a potential partner? Sorry, but, you could you be doing damage to your own causes?

Research has been shown to link spearmint and peppermint teas the suppression of the male hormone androgen, this study also found that the minty flavors did not decrease overall testosterone levels. The researchers did recommend further studies to confirm or deny any link between mints and sexual dysfunction.

The verdict: inconclusive.

So it is you are safe to risk taking your peppermint, at least until the professionals make up their mind.

Conclusion

Your village witches might have nothing to do with your impotence afterall.

If you suspect that you suffer from infertility, we advise that you visit a professional, and when we say professional we do not mean those people that walk around with herbs on the street, we mean a qualified medical doctor.

http://giftedgreen.com/2013/?q=content/6-things-might-be-killing-your-manhood#sthash.OeZxIIHQ.dpuf

First of all, we would love to wish our readers a wonderful New Year ahead. Yes, you probably heard enough of that today, but it wouldn’t kill you to hear it one more time. Happy New Year.

By now, we know you’ve probably made your New Year resolution already and most people will not get to keep their New Year resolutions (not you, those other people).

As you ponder on the life modifications you want to make in 2014, below are some life changing habits we hope you adopt in 2014 – Best of Luck.

1. Save – up to 20% of your income

You might be thinking to yourself that you barely have enough to maintain yourself and we are trying to make you save out of the little you have. Right? Right? Wrong.

You do not have to earn hundreds of thousands or millions of naira before you start saving. The truth is, if you can’t save on your meager income right now, you most probably will not be able to save even when you become a millionaire.

You should realize that no matter how little you earn, there is someone out there who earns less and the fact that someone out there earns less than your current income is not dead is an indication that you would survive if you try hard enough. No excuses.

2. Invest - wisely

We would be giving you some horrible advice if we tell you to just save, save and save. The first reason you should save is for you to have money during life’s numerous times of emergencies, the second and no lesser reason is for you to be able to invest into a profitable venture, so as to increase your streams of income.

Remember how you are always complaining that your income is never enough for you? How else are you going to overcome that without having another source of income?

When you are able to save a sizeable amount of money, look for any suitable and “CRIME FREE” venture to invest in or better still start a small private business. We really hope you notice that we emphasized on crime-free – very important.

3. Spend More Time With People – and less time with your phone

Thanks to smartphones, cloud technology and social networks, we can take the Internet with us everywhere these days. The down side–we can take the Internet with us everywhere these days.

It’s kind of ironic when the youths of nowadays are the one’s shouting ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once) and many other variation of that phrase and yet they prefer to spend that one life on a screen?

Except you are Linda Ikeji (in which case, congratulations), you have no business spending up to 3 hours in a day on social networks. Take some time out once in a while, have meaningful conversation with your family and friends, and make memories. Do not use your phone in every possible location you find yourself, yes including the toilet.

4. Exercise – routinely

Now we are not asking you to get a gym membership – although it would be awesome to get one and actually go to the gym, we are asking you to at least work out every once in a while (three times a week would be great).

All that sitting down at your place of work, to driving your car all the time and spending the rest of the day on your phone or laptop won’t do you any good, now and in the later years of your life.

These few minutes of regular physical activity will actually help you avoid numerous health problems down the road. Except excessive weight gain, heart disease, high blood pressure and every weight related disease sounds like fun to you.

5. Plan weekly and daily

Life is a like travelling on a road for the first (and sadly, last) time. We really hate to sound corny but it is still true that if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

You should make out time to plan out your week and days. Have a list of what you need to get done or accomplish. Have a budget to help you plan your expenses, have a reading time-table, whatever you do have a plan.

Living life without a plan is like shooting without aiming. Proper planning and execution yields great benefits and there are no arguments about that.

6. Read - for pleasure

Reading for your examination or reading the Facebook status of your friend does not actually count as reading. Yes, know you also love to read articles but you should pick up a book every once in a while, and when we say books we mean physical books.

Reading books is a great way to sharpen your senses, grow your vocabulary and a whole myriad of benefits. Just in case you can’t get to a physical book, then it is not such a bad idea to read a book on your Smartphone or tablet device.

7. Smile – and relax

This is the digital world and everything is about speed. For most people life is about survival of the fittest. It either you eat or be eaten. The competition for survival seems to be fiercer than ever. If this is how you see life, then you are not far from reality. You are on the right track, but taking some time to relax every now and then never killed anyone.

Even if you are busy finding the cure for cancer (in which case you do not need to rest) you should at least put a smile on your face. It would be a shame if you acquire all that you want in life and not have the time to enjoy them. Take some time to rest, smile and be happy.

What other habits do you think will make you a better person in 2014? Post your comments below.

http://giftedgreen.com/2013/?q=content/6-essential-habits-will-make-you-better-person-2014

Nigeria is a country blessed with rich human and natural resources, and yet Nigeria is not exactly among the best countries in the world, you would not be far from the truth if you say Nigeria is retrogressing.

Now don’t get it twisted, Nigeria has some pretty impressive records to show off, like the fact that it is the most populous black nation in the world, the Giant of Africa (or at least it used to be), a pioneer in numerous fields (mainly in Africa oh, not worldwide).

At first, you would think that Nigeria would be a source of pride to the African continent, considering the fact that its citizens are among highest private jet owners in the world, fourth highest importer of armored vehicles, it is the home of 11 out of the 40 Forbes richest people in Africa and the 6th largest oil producer in the world.

1. Nigeria is the 16th Most Failed State In The World

According to Fund for Peace, Nigeria has been ranked as the 16thmost failed state in the world.

Fund for Peace is an Independent non-profit research and education institution. A failed state has several attributes, common indicators include a state whose central government is so weak or ineffective that is has little or practical control over much of its territory; non provision of public service, widespread corruption and criminality, refugees and involuntary movement of populations, and sharp economic decline.

2. And the 14th Least Peaceful Country In The World

According to the first study that rank countries according to their peacefulness, the institute for economics and peace Nigeria ranked the 14th least peaceful country in the world. In the rank of countries like Chad, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Pakistan among other conflict ridden states.

The 2013 Global Peace Index ranked 162 countries by measuring security in the society, the extent of conflict and the degree of militarization.

3. She is also the 11th Worst Country For Journalist In The World

The United Nation Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) ranked Nigeria as the 11thworst nation for journalist. CPJ, in a statement lamented that unpunished, deadly violence continues to plague the press globally and has notably increased in Nigeria. The committee’s 2013 Impunity Index stressed that Nigeria is where journalist are murdered regularly and killers go free.

Now you know why our journalists are good at self-censorship. It is a survival instinct.

4. 12th Worst Life Expectancy In The World

Life expectancy equals the average number of years a person born in a given country would live if mortality rates at each age were to remain constant in the future. Nigeria has a life expectancy of 52.46 (2013 est.) years. Nigeria ranked 211 out of the 223 countries on that list, trust us you do not want to know the countries that ranked higher than Nigeria.

5.Nigeria is the 7th Most Terrorized Nation In The World

In attempt to systematically rank nations of the world according to terrorist activity, Nigeria had the dishonor of ranking the 7th most terrorized nation in the world. Losing only to Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Yemen and Somalia

From the 16th slot in 2008, Nigeria went down to 11 in 2009; 12 in 2010: and now seventh. Nigeria is worse that Sudan which ranked 11th and Mali (34th)

6.Nigeria also has the Worst Refineries In Africa

One of the numerous committees in Nigeria, The National Refineries Special Task Force (NRSTF), set up by the federal government has disclosed that Nigeria’s refineries are the worst managed of 42 existing African refineries.

There are 42 refineries in Africa. Nigeria has three and the third largest combined capacity of 445,000 bpd and they have the worst performance record among the 42 refineries, with an average capacity utilization of only 18 percent.

7.She has the 2nd Worst Electricity Supply In The World

The World Bank has rated Nigeria as the second worst country with high electricity access deficit. The report states that 82.4 million people lack access to electricity. Nigeria came second to India with a population of 306.2 million people with lack of access to electricity. While India is moving fast to resolve the challenge ahead of sustainable energy for all by 2030, Nigeria is lagging with an annual increase in the access to electricity at the rate of 1.8 percent.

8.Nigeria is the Worst Country To Be Born In 2013

Nigeria is the worst country to be born in 2013, according to a study by the Economic Intelligence Unit. The firm looked at 80 countries scoring them across 11 variables to determine “Which country will provide the best opportunity for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead”.

According to an International non-governmental organization, Save the Children 89,700 babies die on the same day they are born in Nigeria.

9. And Has the Largest Out Of School Children In The World

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) rated Nigeria as the country with the worst global education indicators. According to the report Nigeria has the largest population of out-of-school children. The report showed that Nigeria has about 10.5 million out-of-school children.

The report also indicated that education costs are generally prohibitive in Nigeria among others.

Just in case you are saying to yourself this cannot be true, well, the Minister of Education Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’I was there and she did not challenge it.

Since 2000, the percentage of out-of-school children has continued to increase and by 2010 only about 47 percent of Nigerian children actually get into secondary school

10.Not Withstanding the Worst Road Death Record In Africa

World Health Organization (WHO) survey indicates that Nigeria has the worst road death records in the world – nearly 34 deaths out of every 100,000 residents.

11.The 8th Most Corrupt Country In The World

The 2013 Global Corruption Barometer of Anti-corruption nonprofit Transparency International has placed Nigeria as the 8thmost corrupt nation in the world.

Nigeria was ranked 59th most corrupt in 2008, 50th most corrupt in 2009, 2010(39), 2011(40) and just last year Nigeria was 35th most corrupt.

Which might seem like an improvement, considering the fact that Nigeria has been rated three times the most corrupt nation in the world(1996,1997 and 2000), four times second most corrupt(1999,2001,2002,2003), two times third most corrupt (2004 and 2005) and fourth most corrupt in 1998

12.And The Most Stressed Out Country In The World

When Bloomberg decided to score 74 nations around the world for their “stressed-out” factor, Nigeria was ranked the most stressed out nation in the world. Seven equally weighted variables were considered namely; homicide rates, unemployment, GDP per capita on a purchasing-power-parity-basis, Income inequality, corruption perception, urban air pollution and life expectancy.

- See more at: http://giftedgreen.com/2013/?q=12-Depressing-Records-That-Would-Make-Every-Patriotic-Nigerian-Sad#sthash.ncC2DnDW.dpuf

It depends on how you decide to look at it

Nigeria gained independence in 1960 with other African countries (sixteen) and include Mali, Congo, Mauritius, Chad, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia etc, and it would be okay to say compared to those Nations, Nigeria is doing just okay, not great, just okay

Still, compared to Cyprus (that also gained independence in 1960), we are lagging behind.

^^
Thank you for your feedback

Today marks 53 years since Nigeria gained independence from its British colonial masters, and like every other patriotic Nigerian we want to desist from the pessimistic habit of asking what Nigeria has achieved since independence and embrace a cheerful mood instead and celebrate Nigeria’s Independence and wish her many more prosperous years ahead.

Nigeria is not the only country that gained independence in the year 1960, in fact 17 other countries gained independence in the year 1960, sixteen in Africa and Cyprus in Europe. How these countries got their names can be quite interesting or boring, why don’t you read on to find out.

1.Nigeria

Flora Shaw invented the name Nigeria. Who is Flora Shaw? She was a British journalist who later became the wife of Lord Fredrick Lugard. Remember Lord Lugard? The guy who amalgamated northern and southern protectorate? The first Governor-General of Nigeria? Yes, that Lord Lugard, and yes he married Flora Shaw. Flora Shaw suggested the name “Nigeria” in a letter to the Times of London, in January 8th 1897. She referred to the area as Nigeria, after the Niger River. Interestingly, the word Niger is Latin for black, so it is left for you to decide if she was referring to River Niger or a nation of Black people.

2.Cameroon

Cameroon got its name from the Portuguese who, upon arriving on the coast in the 1400s found seafood in such abundance that they decided to call the main estuary Rio dos Camaroes, or River of prawns.

Unfortunately, today, the people of Cameroon import most of the seafood they consume, while local fishermen are going out of business, and you taught Nigeria has a serious problem with mismanagement of resources.

3.Senegal

The country takes its name from River Senegal. And how did River Senegal get its name? The most popular etymology from Wolof people state that the name derives from the local term “sunu gal” to mean “our canoe” or more precisely “our pirogue” because when the colonist came that’s what they people kept saying… The colonist thought they were learning the name of the country.

The story goes that when a Portuguese captain came across some Wolof fishermen and asked them what the name of the river was, they believed he was asking who their fishing boat belonged to and they simply replied “it is our boat” (sunu gaal)

4.Republic Of Togo

Modern day Togo and its surrounding region were formally called “The Slave Coast”, this is because, and as you can guess the region used to be a major trading center for Europeans searching for slaves.

It was called “the Slave Coast” for about 200 years until a treaty was signed at Togoville with Germany and this area became the Germany colony of Togoland.

Togo’s name comes from Togodo, which means ‘behind the lake’ in ewe – a reference to Lake Togo.

Since 1884, Togoland and later Togo became synonymous for the entire region under colonial control. The term Togolese first appeared after World War I, and population increasingly identified with this term, culminating in 1960 with the choice of Republic of Togo as the Official name.

5.Burkina Faso

Burkina was called Upper Volta (land of the Upper Volta River) whose main tributaries originate in the coutry. The Volta itself is a Portuguese word for twist or turn.

The country got its name using a word from each of the country’s two major native languages, Moore and Dioula. Figuratively, “Burkina” from Moore may be translated to “men of integrity” while “Faso” means “fatherland” in Dioula. Burkina Faso is thus meant to be understood as “Land of the upright people” or “Land of honest People”

The capital of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou. Written as “Wogodogo” in the Moore dialext, it literally means “You are welcome here at home with us"

6.Central African Republic

Central African Republic is a self descriptive name from its French name “Republique centrafricaine”

Central African Republic was a French colony known as Ubangi-Shari, because the land is split between the basins of Ubangi and Shari Rivers.

When colonialism started collapsing, Barthelemy Boganda, a nationalist leader of the present day Central African Republic announced his plan to unite much of the continent under the name “the United States of Latin Africa”. That didn’t work out, but, under the advice of the outgoing French colonial official, Boganda did rename the newly independent Ubagi-Shari as “Central African Republic” with the intent of convincing his neighbor to join this republic. But the plan never worked out and Bogander died of a mysterious plane accident eight years before he was to take over as president.

Conspiracy theorists please gather around and find someone to blame for his death

7.Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo

Both countries gets its name from the river, the river gets its name from the ancient Kingdom of Kongo which inhabited the lands at the mouth of the river around the time of its discovery by the Portuguese and whose name derives from its people, the Bakongo, an endonym said to mean “hunters” (Kongo: Mukongo, nkongo)

8.Somalia

The overwhelming majority of Somalis trace their genealogical origin to the mythical founding father, Samaale or Samaal. Their name derives from Samaal, their eponymous ancestor.

9.The Republic of Madagascar

It was Marco Polo who gave the island its name. Madagascar got its name from Marco Polo in his memoirs where he described an African island of untold wealth called “Madeigascar” although it was accidental since he intended to say Mogadishu. Hence early reference to the Island as Madeigascar or Mogalasio, this eventually became Madagascar about the 16th century.

10.Cote d’Ivoire

Elephant, with their ivory tusk were once numerous in the region formerly known as Ivory Coast. It was named Ivory Coast when people began trading ivory there. The French called it Cote d’Ivoire while the Portuguese called costa do marfin, all literally meaning Ivory Coast. The name Ivory Coast reflected the major trade that occurred on that particular stretch of the coast: export of ivory. There was a Grain Coast, Gold Coast and Slave Coast, if you ask us these seem like very obvious ways to name places.

The country retained the name – Ivory Coast – through the colonial rule and independence, but in 1986 the government of the country declared Cote d’Ivoire (or, more fully, Republiqeu de cote d’Ivoire) to be the formal name of the country for the purpose of diplomatic protocol and officials refuse to recognize or accept any translation from French to any other language in its international dealings

11.Chad

Chad got its name from Lake Chad with Chad being a local word for “a large expanse of water”. Chad is name derives from the Kanuri word “Tsade” (lake)

12.Cyprus

There are no specific sites citing how Cyprus got its name, but there are implications that it was named after the Mediterranean cypress tree

Another folk etymology is that Cyprus derives its name from “copper” since the island’s supply gave Greek and Latin gave words for metal.

13.Gabon

The Nations present name originated from “Gabao”, Portuguese for “cloak” which is roughly the shape of the estuary of the Komo River

14.Mali

Mali is named for pre-colonial empire that didn’t have the same border as its modern namesake

The name “Mali” is derived from “Malinke”, the name of the people who established the Mali Empire in 1230. Malinke is the name their neighbor’s gave them. It’s a corruption of their name for themselves – Madinka (which means “People of Manden”, their homeland in the Niger region)

15.Niger

The name Niger is derived from the phrase gher n-gheren which means “river among rivers” in Tamashek language.

16.Mauritius

The name of Mauritius was named to honor Prince Maurice de Nassau by Dutch Explorers. The French claimed it in 1715 and renamed it “Ile de France”. In 1810, Mauritius was captured by British and renamed back to Mauritius

17.Benin Republic

Benin republic derives its name from bright of Benin, a water body located in the southern region of the country.

During the colonial period Benin used to be known as Dahomey (On the belly of Dan) an ancient kingdom located in the south of what is modern-day Benin Republic

- See more at: http://giftedgreen.com/2013/?q=Other-Countries-Turning-53-This-Year-and-How-They-Got-Their-Names#sthash.EUFQcbOW.dpuf

2. This Romantic Guy

And tell him that flowers do not do the trick on Nigerian girls

1. The Reporter Who Wrote This

And tell him that it is 2013 and there is still black out in Nigeria

network kinda slow, still trying to upload complete list from www.giftedgreen.com/content/?q=16-Nigerians-you-need-to-meet-immediately

There are hundreds of conspiracy theories that are pointing towards the CIA and in most (if not all) of these conspiracy theories, the CIA is always painted in a bad light. In Nigeria there are some events that conspiracy theorist believe are the handiwork of the CIA.

Some of these conspiracy theories are usually hard to dismiss, considering the fact that they are backed up by strangely plausible facts and questionable circumstances. For instance …

1.The CIA Assassinated Murtala Muhammed

According to conspiracy theorist General Murtala was a thorn in the flesh to the American and thus they had to “take care of him”.

General Murtala Muhammed he was threatening to hit America with an oil embargo over her support for Apartheid South Africa. He declined an official visit of U.S Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. General Murtala is said to have gone to an OAU meeting and said "Africa has come of Age, and will not take instructions from America".

He reappraised foreign policy, stressing a "Nigeria first" orientation in line with OPEC price guidelines that was to the disadvantage of other African countries.

This much is reflected in a secret report prepared by the U.S. Information Service (USIS). The USIS 1976 Country Plan for Nigeria, declassified only five years ago, the confidential report called Nigeria "the primary external source of crude oil for the United States," and repeatedly stressed the need for increased American influence.

A secret dispatch, written less than two weeks before Mohammed was killed, hints that U.S. officials were prepared to sabotage Nigeria's booming economy. Ambassador Easum wrote on 2 February 1976, "Nigeria desires to play leadership role, [and will] require modern army if its power (within African context) is to be credible. Further, it likely that given foreseeable internal political realities, Nigeria will maintain relatively large army for some time to come."

2.IBB Is a CIA agent

In 1986, the Time Magazine reported that during the Reagan administration, the U.S had the elite commando unit, the SEALS, dispatched to several different countries for covert activities.

This unit was in Nigeria in August 1985, during the week that Babangida overthrew Muhammadu Buhari. Babangida in 1985 overthrew Buhari/Idiagbon regime because the Buhari/Idiagbon regime fought vehemently against drug-traffickers.

After the coup, the CIA cut a deal with Babangida, where Nigeria was used as a major drug transit and money laundering center for the proceeds of the CIA drug trade.

The phony or rogue bank, BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) was used to launder the proceeds of the drug business and take them out of the country.

Journalist Dele Giwa stumbled on this information about drugs and was about to break the news when, in 1986, he was killed by a mail bomb.

Up to date it is speculated that the CIA still visits IBB in his residence in Minna.

3.Death Of General Sani Abacha

According to Nigerian military, General Sani Abacha died of a sudden heart attack. He was buried on the same day without an autopsy.

The Newswatch and DailyMailUK reported the maximum ruler died after a heart attack induced by an overdose of Viagra before an orgy. Abacha was said to have gone into convulsions while in the midst of two imported Indian prostitutes.

According to Kehinde Olaosebikan, the Vanguard journalist who was the first to break the news of Abacha’s death, the two Indian girls were from Mumbai and were initially detained but were later released to the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Satinder Uppal. When Indian Express called Mr. Uppal, he flatly denied: `I have no information, no knowledge about the incident. I don’t know about any girls, I don’t even know if they were Indian.” Up to this day the identity of the prostitutes has not been established.

The theory states the said “prostitutes” were actually undercover CIA agents, who had help within Abacha’s administration. The Supreme Court of conspiracy theorist hasn’t passed its judgment on the traitor yet; right now Lt. General Jeremiah Useni, Major Al-Mustapha, General Ibrahim Babangida and Generel Abdulsalam Abubakar are the top contenders.
4.Death Of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola

Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola is the presumed winner of the 1993 election, unfortunately the election was annulled. After the annulment, General Abacha seized power. Abiola declared himself the lawful president of Nigeria and he was jailed. Seriously, who declares himself the president when fierce looking General Abacha is the military president? We digress. Fast forward five years later and Abacha is dead. Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Mr. Kofi Annan to met with Abiola and asked him to relinquish and renounce his mandate if he wanted to be released but he refused.

On the day Abiola was due to be released he died under suspicious circumstances. While the official autopsy states that Abiola died of natural causes. The final autopsy report, which was produced by a group of international coroners, has never been publicly released.

An American delegation, which included Susan Rice and Thomas Pickering and two nameless and faceless officials of the American Embassy, visited Abiola on the day of his release. It is said that Susan Rice served Abiola a cup of tea and moments later he started gasping for breath, a few hours later he was stone dead. The man charged with looking after Abiola, ASP Zodak told the Oputa panel in 2002 that Abiola was “hale and hearty” and in “very high spirits” just before going into meeting with the Americans.

Abacha's Chief Security Officer, al-Mustapha has alleged that Moshood Abiola was in fact beaten to death; Al-mustapha claims to have video and audiotapes showing how Abiola was beaten to death. If Abacha did not beat Abiola to death, who else would want to beat him to death?

Conspiracy theorists believe the CIA killed Abiola because of his talks about reparations. Reparations for Slavery are the call for payment of $777 Trillion to Africa by all those countries who benefited from the Trans-Atlantic Slavery. And the world was beginning to take him seriously, compounded with the fact that he kept insisting that he must serve his tenure as the president of Nigeria – the most powerful black nation in the world.

5.Orji Uzor Kalu is Also a CIA agent

Orji Uzor Kalu is the former governor of Abia State from 1999 – 2007. He was a presidential candidate in the election of 2007. Orji Uzor kalu is the youngest Nigerian to receive the National Merit Award from President Ibrahim Babangida at the age of 26 in 1986.

Reports say, Kalu drives into CIA Virginia Headquarters freely, with little or no clearance required of him as expected of visitors at CIA headquarters; only CIA agents and its operatives can have such access in that CIA Virginia facility.

Kalu was arrested by the EFCC on July 15, 2007 on his return from one of his trips and was charged with embezzlement and abuse of power. 4 former governors were also arrested by the EFCC, Kalu was singled out by the U.S. for release simultaneously by the U.S. congress, State department and the White House.

Maryland police cleared Orji Uzor Kalu of involvement in the death of a woman, Chinwe Masi at his residence in Maryland, USA. Late Chinwe Masi’s family were considering lawsuit, for unlawful death of their daughter, but all charges were mysteriously dropped. The CIA did not want Chinwe Masi's mysterious death in Kalu’s Mansion to become a distraction to the “CIA Nigeria Roadmap”.

Why American congress men were present at the official declaration of a Nigerian presidential candidate is one of the numerous questions that remain unanswered.

Are these reasons enough to call Orgi Kalu a CIA agent? Talking about CIA agents….

6.Underwear Bomber Was a False Flag Operation

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab confessed to attempting to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board a Delta Airlines aircraft flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. Abdulmutallab has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Even after Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed to have organized the attack with Umar, conspiracy theorist still have something to say.

For starters, it was disclosed that Abdulmutallab did the seemingly impossible as he boarded the flight without a passport! Minimal efforts have been made to reveal the identity of the man who allowed Abdulmutallab to pass without security check.

Some people have claimed that Abdul-Mutallab is a mere pawn in a sophisticated, smoothly executed international political chess game. People who advance this perspective say Umar was probably drugged and made to do what he was alleged to have done against his wishes.

Some say that he was set up by the CIA to justify the continued profiling and maltreatment of Muslims and the addition of northern Nigerian Muslims to the list. Others insist that the Abdul-Mutallab incident was orchestrated by individuals and corporations intent on making billions of dollars from the sale of body scanners for airports.

A different group says that the plot was planned to coincide with the expiration of the USA Patriot Act, which gives government sweeping powers in the war against terror. The incident was supposed easily scare the American public into supporting an extension of the Patriot Act.

Every conspiracy theory seems to portray Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab as an innocent actor who was just sticking to the script.

7.So Was The Woolwich Attack

On 22 May 2013 a British Army Soldier was attacked and killed by two British men with Nigeria descent men near a military Barrack. The Soldier was attacked by two men who ran him down with a car and used knives and a cleaver to stab and hack him to death. The men dragged the soldier’s body to the road and waited for the police to arrive. When the police arrived, the assailants charged at the police who fired shots that wounded them both.

Conspiracy theorists insist that some things just don’t add up. They claim that they assailant might have been under some kind of mind-control system which was triggered by someone or something. And this incident was meant to give the western powers and the British people another reason to demonize Islam and target mosques and Muslim clerics.

They say the killing was orchestrated by the authorities to create more terror in the land and to give them the opportunity to introduce more draconian laws, curb immigration and do away with even more civil liberties on the grounds

Another group thinks that the killing was faked. A number of Twitter users claim to have spotted inconsistencies in the official account of events, which they see as evidence of a cover-up. This theory states if the soldier was really beheaded then both of the attackers should be covered in blood - not just their hands. Some say that blood was digitally added to one of the killer’s hands, pointing out there is a “blood-free” version - the undoctored original. There is even a “Woolwich false flag” Facebook group.

8.Boko Haram Is a CIA covert operation

Boko Haram is a name that needs no introduction in Nigeria, you do not get to kill over 10,000 people in a country and go unnoticed.

Conspiracy theorist are already cocksure that the US embassy in Nigeria is a forward operating base for wide and far reaching acts of subversion against Nigeria. In December 2011 an Algerian based CIA wing gave out 40 million naira as a planned Long term partnership with Boko Haram with a pledge” to do more”.

The theory states that Boko Haram is just a means to an end – disintegration of Nigeria. The main aim of Boko Haram is to stir unrest in Nigeria. When the unrest is at its peak, the crisis with be made an international issues and the US will call for a UN intervention.

The main beneficiary will of course be the United States which started all this in the first place and which will be there to profit at the end.

9.Disintegration of Nigeria By 2015

Conspiracy theorists believe that the US embassy in Nigeria as a forward operating base for wide and far reaching acts of subversion against Nigeria.

US embassy’s subversive activities in Nigeria fits into the long term US government’s well camouflaged policy of containment against Nigeria the ultimate goal of which is to eliminate Nigeria as a potential strategic rival to the US in the African continent.

This theory believes that the National Intelligence Council of the United States estimate that Nigeria will disintegrate by the year 2015 is not guesswork or coincidence but a coded statement of intentions of the United States to dismember Nigeria using destabilization and every other means necessary.

Why would the United States want to disintegrate Nigeria? This theory states the Liberia civil war was a subversive activity of the CIA and Nigeria led ECOMOG was able to contain the Liberian crisis without any significant intervention from any of the western powers. Nigeria’s role in helping southern African countries in the 70’s and the 80’s was also a clear opposition and defiance to the interest of the United States and its western allies.

If, Nigeria was to collapse on its fault-lines of ethnic-countries by 2015 or earlier as predicted by the CIA intelligence community, US will use its AFRICOM to protect the oil-wells from destruction by rival territorial border wars that might possibly break-out, amongst Nigeria regional powers.

- For reference links visit original article at

http://giftedgreen.com/content/?q=Interesting-Nigerian-Conspiracy-Theories-Involving-The-CIA

A date usually consists of social activities done by two people with the aim of assessing the other’s suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship. It entails two people meeting and engaging in some mutually agreed social activity, in public, together, as a couple, who may or may not yet be having sexual relations.
The main reason normal healthy people to go on a date and is to assess your partner and know if they are datable or not. Any other reason would mean that it is not a date. You should not go on a date ….

1. If You Are In a Relationship

This is actually a no brainer. If you are in a relationship, you are not allowed to go out on a date with somebody that is not your lover.
Going on a date when you are in a relationship is like attending job interviews when you have a job. It only shows that you do not like your present job and you want out.
What could possibly go wrong? You would only lose your current lover and the “prospective lover” would not work out. In case we forgot, going out on a date when you are in a relationship is flat out cheating.

2. Because You Are Hungry

A date in not an opportunity to eat chicken, shawarma, nkywobi or any meal that you normally eat once in a year – and it’s usually Christmas. It is not an opportunity for a free meal either.
Except if the word self-respect means nothing to you, please by all means you should feed off every Adamu, Emeka and Olawale that asks you out on a date. If you do not like the guy, just say it.

3. Just To Kill Time

If you are bored, there are a lot of things you could do instead of putting a fellow human through the stress of preparing for a date just so you can get a toy to keep you busy. Playing with the time, emotion and hopes of another human is not fun.
How would you feel if you were interviewed for a job just because the interviewer was bored and needed someone to keep him company?

4. If You Are Feeling Sick

If you are not feeling fine then you should just cancel your date, even if you really like this person. If you are on medication, remember a not-so-funny side effect could kick in. And when we say not-so-funny, we mean the side effects could range from unannounced stooling, nasal drip, phlegm or uncontrollable flatulence. Worse still, your sickness could be infectious and you end up getting your partner sick
If you're sick, stay home. Seriously. Arrange for a new date when you are feeling better.

5. Out Of Desperation

Remember that time you were so hungry you were ready to eat almost anything as long as it would not kill you. This happens in the dating world also.
Being desperate can make you do a lot of silly things, like make you consider just anybody as a viable dating option. Just anybody includes your next door neighbor whom you are so sure would die a virgin.
Like a wise guru would say, never let desperation lead you into the arms of the wrong person.

http://giftedgreen.com/content/?q=Reasons-To-Not-Go-On-A-Date

Zinos Alexander is the Owner of GiftedGreen. His sense of humor can be described as being odd and weird. If something he says is bizarre, annoying and or incomprehensible, then odds are good that it's a joke.

In the long fight for women’s rights, we sometimes forget that there can be collateral damage. As we work to bring them up, we have to make sure we aren’t accidentally dragging men down.

10 Career Choices

While men don’t face the same problems in the workplace as women, they do battle against stereotypes that society has placed upon them. Certain careers, like being a nurse or nanny, are considered reserved for women. The inherent comedy of a male nurse was even a recurring gag in the film Meet the Parents.

9 Better Employment Opportunities

Men are recovering from the recession more quickly than women. One study revealed that men gained 768,000 jobs after the recession, while women actually lost 218,000 jobs.

But is this really a case of gender inequality? Are women getting beaten out of jobs simply because of their gender? Although that’s plausible in some situations, this particular study says more in what it doesn’t say: it fails to account for the women that turned to other sources of employment. For example, after the recession women were starting more of their own businesses than men. Could that account for the difference?

8 Lack Of Intelligence

Countless cartoons and sitcoms portray the father figure as being constantly outwitted by the mother. The father makes stupid mistakes, says stupid things that get him into trouble, is incapable of handling everyday household chores, and is sometimes forbidden from entering the kitchen. But he can fix things and he brings home a paycheck—because that’s what really counts, right?

No, it is not fair that men are far more likely to be depicted as lacking intelligence than women. This is yet another example of how we discriminate against the male gender.

7 Acts Of Kindness

Do women expect too much? It’s not unfair to want men to treat women nicely. Opening doors, offering to pay for dinner, and general acts of kindness are expected. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be treated well—unless it’s an act of selfishness.

For the women with male partners that are reading, when is the last time you held the door open for your mate? Opened his car door? Paid for a meal or done something kind for him without expecting anything in return? It’s important to give respect to get respect. Women want their men to treat them like queens and have a tendency to bash or insult them when they don’t do it. But how often do we treat men like kings?

6 Lack Of Emotion

How often have we heard the term “real men don’t cry“? We expect men to be tough and hide their emotions. Men are supposed to shake things off and move on, not turn into emotional beings.

The truth is, real men do cry. Every man has emotions. Why should it be unacceptable for a man to show weakness?

5 Deadbeat Dads

One of the media’s favorite punching bags is the deadbeat dad who tries to evade child support, doesn’t spend time with his kids, or generally tries to avoid any form of parental responsibility. This is unfair because it doesn’t apply to all of the single fathers out there. In fact, there are many deadbeat mothers who have abandoned their children in every way possible, including financially and emotionally, leaving the father to play both parenting roles for their children.

Fathers aren’t incapable of caring for their offspring. They aren’t all deadbeat parents that would rather hang out at the local bar than give their children the time, love, and affection that they deserve. When it comes to single parenting, why do we often praise the mothers for their hard work, but demean the fathers?

4 Lack Of Trust

Men aren’t just kept out of the childcare and nursing industry because of the jokes—there’s also the lack of trust. People will often assume that a man who wants to spend time caring for children has dark ulterior motives.

For example, teenage girls are commonly hired to babysit and nobody gives it a second thought because it’s in their nature to be a parent, but we never assume the same for teenage boys. They’re forced to go get adult jobs.

3 Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is a difficult and painful topic, and nothing here is meant to suggest that there is any excuse for rape. No matter what a woman says, wears, or does, she never deserves that kind of assault. No one does.

But it is also important to remember that men are victims of rape as well, and though such incidents are no less heinous, we as a society are taught to ignore it or even find it funny. One of the most offensive examples comes at the end of 40 Days and 40 Nights when Josh Hartnett’s character is raped by his ex-girlfriend. Not only does his new love interest believe him to be responsible, but the audience is expected to find her position understandable or even sympathetic.

Ignoring even one victim of rape is unacceptable because it weakens our resolve against this horrible, and tragically common, crime.

2 Violence

Males are considered more violent than females. We expect them to physically express anger because an inability to control emotions is considered part of their inherent nature.

But what about females? We almost never hear reports of men being attacked, injured, or abused by females, even though it does happen. Do we consider those males weak if they do report such incidents? Do we not trust their stories of abuse?

1 All Boys Have Cooties

Parents have a tendency to tell their daughters to stay away from boys because they’re icky, mean, and have cooties. The intentions aren’t bad, because we all want to protect our children and keep them young and innocent for as long as we possibly can. But when we start drilling into their heads as early as possible that boys are bad news, what kind of lessons are we teaching them?

Instead of encouraging our daughters to keep their distances from boys, shouldn’t we tell them to play together? That would likely help to teach both genders to respect one another. Telling our daughters how disgusting boys are encourages resent and disrespect. Shouldn’t we, as a society, teach our children that discriminating against either gender is a bad thing?


Source: http://listverse.com/2013/08/02/10-ways-we-discriminate-against-the-male-gender/

Everybody views success differently; to some people it is having more money than they can spend, while to others, it means marrying a husband that has more money than they need. Some people view success as fame, prestige, power, having as many kids as you want, winning a Grammy award etc

Success is not an easy task, and every successful person will tell you that success is no child’s play. There are going to be obstacles to overcome, mountains to climb, risky decisions to make, sacrifices to be made, but at the end the hit is always worth the fall.

Some people prefer to chase the shadow and leave the substance, and when that happens the only thing they will be left with is one excuse or the other as to why they are unsuccessful. Today we take a look at some of the most popular excuse as to why such people will say they are unsuccessful and we will provide them with some ( not your everyday) advice on how to cope with such excuses.

God

You are definitely going to be successful someday and there is nothing anybody can say or do about it. This is because your “God” is going to bless you according to his riches in glory. He has promised his children immeasurable riches and as such you do not have to work in order for you to be successful.

You do not have to look for a job; a job is going to look for you. Just stay in your room and keep on praying ceaselessly. You do not have to read for your examinations, God will work out a miracle for you. When you are sick, there is no need to get help from the hospital, you are serving the diving healer.

Look on the bright side, if you are not successful here, there is a mansion waiting for you on the other side.

Parents

Doesn’t is just hurt when you see rich spoilt kid spending money willy-nilly. If only your parents had made a whole lot of money, you are 150% sure you would be successful. You still wonder why your great grandparents were not captured by the slave owners, maybe by now you would be the next Kanye West or Beyonce.

But here you are, you are 35 years old and you still blame your parents because you do not have a job, no degree, no family, nothing. You still blame your parents, even though you have sibling who have a Master’s Degree and are doing just fine.

Your failure in life has nothing to do with the fact that you are a drug addict, cultist, have sired enough children to form a basketball team and not to mention the sexually transmitted diseases. Your parents are to blame because if only they had struggled hard enough, by now you would be an epitome of success.

Government

The only reason you are not as successful as your counterpart in other parts of the world is because the government of your country has sworn to make your life as miserable as possible. The only thing your leaders know how to do is to loot the national treasury.

The government is the reason you have been unable to give birth, not your fertility status. The government is the reason you have been unable to get a spouse, and it has nothing to do with your repugnant, obnoxious attitude and not to mention your total lack of decorum.

The unemployment rate in your country is the lowest in the whole world, there are no polices put in place to support graduates and as such you are going to spend your life whining and complaining and maybe one day the government will hear your voice and let you have a taste the much talked about national cake.

Just keep waiting on the government, one day things will get better and you will have a president who is going to come to your house and spoon feed you until you are full.

Economy

The economy of your country is in shambles and there is nothing you can do about it. There are no jobs around and when you eventually get one you are always underpaid and everybody knows you do not have a university degree so that you are going to be underpaid.

Start your own business? No matter how small? No, don’t do that. What about your pride? Your ego? And remember it is too stressful. After all, you are just waiting for the economy to get better you will get a job in the civil service, where you get to do nothing and get paid lots of money.

The Devil

The root of all your misfortunes is the evil forces in your life. It is the work of the devil and his agents. Each time something bad happens to you, it is as a result of the witches in your village. They are always trying to undermine your “hard work”.

Your company crashed because the witches in your village did not want you to excel, it has nothing to do with mismanagement and total lack of oversight. It is the devil that made your accountant to siphon all the money from your company’s account. It is the witches in your village that killed your sister, not her sixth abortion.

We would advise you to keep moving from one prayer house to another, until all the evil spirits in your life is destroyed.

Money

Some people say money makes the world go round and your lack of it is the reason you are unsuccessful. You have a wonderful idea, but you just need money to start up your plan.

Remember, you need an epic amount of money to start up your business, because businesses that started with a meager amount of money never survives in your imagination and as such it won’t in real life.

Just sit tight and keep eyeballing the rich, and maybe one day you will win the lottery or money will fall down from the sky. When that time comes, success will be ultimately yours.

Destiny

Some people will try to argue with you that there is no such thing as destiny, but you know better. Your fate has already been written and sealed; and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

Your marriage cannot work out because it is written that every first male in your family will never graduate from the university, it is not because you turned your days in school to a never ending party. Your kids are a nuisance to the community because it is the destiny of your family to be the trouble maker of your town; your poor parenting skill is not a factor here.

The best thing for you to do is just fold your arms and sulk and wait for the day the gods (or whoever is in charge of writing destinies) will rewrite your destiny for you.

……… In conclusion

You are never the cause of your woes, there is always a reason, and you just have to find it.

What other excuse do you think people use to defend why they are unsuccessful?



Zinos Alexander is the Owner of GiftedGreen. His sense of humor can be described as being odd. If something he says is bizarre, annoying and or incomprehensible, then odds are good that it's a joke.


www.giftedgreen.com/content/?q=The-Main-Reasons-You-Are-Unsuccessful

There are certain important aspects of Christianity that are filled with the markings of paganism. For all we know paganism might actually have a wider influence on Christianity than we agree to admit.
Let’s take a look at some aspect of Christianity with pagan origins

1. The Word “Christianity”
The word 'Christian' was coined by Pagans.
The first followers of Christ borrowed Jewish terms to describe themselves and the two most popular names that they normally called themselves were "Disciples" and "Saints".

The word "Disciple" means one who is trained or taught, and appears 31 times in the book of Acts, starting with Acts 1:15.

The word "Saint" means set apart or separated, and appears 62 times in the New Testament, most commonly in the letters of Paul.

So how did the term Christianity originate from?

Two of the early missionaries, Paul and Barnabas, went to work spreading the Gospel in the Pagan metropolis of Antioch, where the locals derisively called them 'Christians'.
Acts 11:25-26 - “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch”

Paul and Barnabas would certainly not dispute that they were indeed Christians and would have been quite pleased that the Romans made it the official name.

2. Easter

Easter is without doubt, the most significant event on the Christian calendar. It is the time Christians remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But did the celebration of Easter start with Christians?

The early Christians called their celebration Paschal, from the Hebrew word for the Passover feast, pesach.

However, plenty of people were already celebrating a feast in the month of April called Eostur-monath, which means, literally, “month of Eostur.” Eostur, also spelled Eostre or Ostara, was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility.

Early in the history of Christianity, many pagan observances were adapted for the new faith. The early missionaries discovered that it was easier to get converts to celebrate a new name than it was a new date.

3. Amen

Amen, the very last word in the Bible (Rev 22:21), could well have begun as a Pagan word. Yet Christians end their prayers, Scripture readings, and hymns by saying Amen as an expression of concurrence. They also say it to acknowledge their agreement or reinforce a statement that another person has said.

The root of the word comes from Hebrew aman, which means to nourish and make strong. Emunah (faithfulness) also comes from aman. The ancient Greeks used the word (AMHN) from Hebrew to mean 'truth', 'surely', 'absolutely'

From old Egyptian texts, people regarded the sun as the emblem of the Creator. They called the sun Ra, and all other gods and goddesses were forms of the Creator. One of these gods was Amen; a secret, hidden and mysterious god named variously Amen, Amon, Amun, Ammon and Amounra. Amen was elevated from being a minor god to be the national god. This position gave Amen the attributes and characteristics of the most ancient gods, and his name became Amen-Ra, that is, a supreme form of God the Creator.

Jews settled in Egypt for around 400 years and during this sojourn they would certainly have been fully exposed to the worship of Amen-Ra. By the time of their exodus from Egypt, the term 'Amen' would be in their language even if it was not their god. It would be a word that had associations with reverence and majesty.

Amen was seen as a powerful god and the name continued, out of context, as an exclamation or salutation.
In the Bible (Rev 3:14) we see Jesus Christ referred to as "The Amen". Thereby the name used for an old Egyptian god is replaced by the same name used for Christ.

4. Eucharist

I guess you know about the Christian Eucharist, right?—the Lord's Supper. It commemorates the supper Jesus had with his disciples the night before the Romans nabbed Him and dragged him off, eventually to be crucified. Right? Christians still reenact that meal with Jesus, the meal with the God Jesus. You know this. Some Christians believe the meal is the body and blood of Jesus.

What you maybe didn't know is that Mithras' faithful celebrated a sacred meal with their God. So did followers of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, and other Pagan Gods of the Mystery Religions. New members of the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris completed their initiation with a sacramental meal.

The notion that worshipers eating together would be joined by their God was widely diffused throughout the ancient world hundreds of years before Jesus. In Rome the rite even had its own name, "lectisternia." A lectisternia was a sacred meal in which an icon of the God was actually brought to the table with the celebrants. In Rome the whole Senate celebrated a sacred meal, with a statue of Jupiter lying on a cushion, and the two goddess Juno and Minerva in chairs beside him

5. Baptism

By the time of Jesus purification with water was already an ancient Pagan sacrament. Purification—from unclean foods, or acts, or contacts—is an idea so old it fades into pre-history. Pagans purified themselves with fire, incense, blood sacrifice; they even purified themselves with a winnowing fan or sea onions! But the most used, most widespread tool of pagan purification was...water

Pagan water purification rituals were used in the archaic Near East and are written about in the Old Testament.
Homer mentions the washing of hands before prayer, and the purification of an entire army with water [Iliad, 1.313].

The Greeks even had priests, kathartai, who specialized in purification with water. After the conspiracy of Cylon in Athens in 632 BC, a fellow named Epimenides of Crete purified the entire city -- with water [Diogines Laertius 1.10.3]. Mithra's followers celebrated the sacrament of taurobolium—baptism in the blood of a bull, with the result of "Salvation". Pagans at Gerasa celebrated the Maioumas, rites in which women bathed and were purified in a sacred pool outside town.

New members into the Mysteries of Isis / Osiris began their initiation with a sprinkling of purifying waters brought from the Nile. The result of the baptism and initiation? Salvation

6. Christmas

By now you should already know that Jesus Christ was not born on the 25th of December. If so, why celebrate Christmas on that particular day.

The earliest history of Christmas is composed of "pagan" (non-Christian) fertility rites and practices which predate Jesus by centuries. The truth is, in short, the real history of Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity.

Saturnalia was a festival held between 17 and 24 December, which began in the days of the Roman Empire. This was a week of feasting, gift-giving and an excuse for an orgy during the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice. The objective of the debauchery and dancing around was to give the sun a nudge and send a message to Mother Earth to begin reproducing for the spring. This seemed to work quite well because sure enough, in spring things started growing again.

Celebrating the winter solstice was forbidden by the early church, but customs survived anyway and it didn't take much to tempt Christians to join in the solstice feast in honour of the Pagan god Mithra. So the church provided an alternative with a festival in honour of the birth of Christ and celebrations were definitely in order.

In the 2nd century, the winter solstice was 6 January and Christians celebrated both the birth and the appearance of God's Son on that day, Epiphany Day.

By the 4th century, the date for the winter solstice was moved to 25 December and Pope Julius I declared that Jesus' birthday celebrations would also be on that day. This effectively transformed the Pagan occasion into a Christian holy day (holiday).

7. The cross

You probably already know that the cross is used within the Christian faith and among the Christian sects. It is the most common symbol seen in, on, and around Christian churches all over the world.

This has not always been the case however. Christians didn’t use the sign of the cross as their religious symbol for many generations after Christ was crucified. Rather than being a Christian symbol of hope and love, it only had the negative association as an execution apparatus for criminals.

The cross is a pagan symbol that was adored in Egypt thousands of years before Jesus was born. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the cross symbol at least 600 years after Jesus was supposedly crucified.
There are several pre-Christian beginnings of the cross symbol that can be found. These crosses range in design but are a cross nonetheless.

In Babylon the cross took its place with a crescent moon and was the symbol of their moon deity.
In Egypt the ankh cross (a Tau cross topped by an inverted tear shape) reflects their Goddess of Truth. It also represents Isis and Osiris and their sexual union.

In India, in Hinduism, the upright shaft stands for the higher states of being while the horizontal bar stands for the lower states of being.

In Assyria the corners of the cross represent the four directions in which the sun shines.
In Scandinavia the Tau cross symbolized the hammer of the God Thor. In Europe the use of a human effigy on the cross in a scarecrow form has been used since ancient times

Whether Jesus was actually crucified on a cross or a pole is an argument for another day, but using a cross to represent the death of Christ is definitely of pagan origin.

8. Virgin Mary

What do you know about Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ? You probably remember a Virgin Mary, who conceived a God. But is the idea of a mortal virgin mother giving birth to a God new? Not really.

There are at least a few dozen instances of virgin births in history, mostly of religious figures.

Eighteen hundred years before Christ, we find carved on one of the walls of the great temple of Luxor a picture of the annunciation, conception and birth of King Amunothph III, an almost exact copy of the annunciation, conception and birth of the Christian God.

Krishna was born of the virgin Devaki. Savior Dionysus was born of the virgin Semele. Buddha too was born of a virgin, The old Teutonic goddess Hertha was a virgin impregnated by the heavenly Spirit and bore a son. Scandinavian Frigga was impregnated by the All-Father Odin and bore Balder, the healer and savior of mankind.

In Phrygia, Attis was born of the virgin Nama. In Egypt, virgin mother Isis begat Horus. A Roman savior Quirrnus was born of a virgin.

Even images of a loving mother with her child which is also a picture that seems to be familiar with Christians did not even start with Christianity.

9. Christ savior

Not only the idea of a savoir born of a virgin mother, who was to die and resurrect on the third day originate with Christianity, but all the other miraculous events, such as the stable cradle, the guiding star, the massacre of the children, the flight to Egypt, and the resurrection and bodily ascension toward the clouds, have not only been borrowed, but are even scarcely altered in the New Testament story of Jesus.

Dionysus is said to have descended to the underworld and conquered death, ultimately bringing his dead mother back to the land of the living. He also is said to have died and been raised again. His followers called him Lysios or Redeemer, and grape juice commonly was used to symbolize his blood.

Like Jesus, Dionysus is a god whose tragic passion is re-enacted by eating his flesh and drinking his blood”.
The Dionysus cult reached Rome in 496 B.C., but had been around long before that.

Osiris-Dionysus is God made flesh, the savior and “Son of God.” His father is God and his mother is a mortal virgin. He is born in a cave or humble cowshed on December 25 before three shepherds. He offers his followers the chance to be born again through the rites of baptism. He miraculously turns water into wine at a marriage ceremony.

He rides triumphantly into town on a donkey while people wave palm leaves to honor him. He dies at Eastertime as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. After his death he descends to hell, then on the third day he rises from the dead and ascends to heaven in glory. His followers await his return as the judge during the Last Days. His death and resurrection are celebrated by a ritual meal of bread and wine, which symbolize his body and blood.

Prometheus is another legendary, mythological god who experienced a death similar to that of Christ. His story first circulated around 547 B.C.
Or, consider Krishna, the ancient Hindu deity who is alleged to have shared a doom similar to Christ’s. He has been portrayed as hanging on a cross, with holes through his hands and his feet. His title?—“Our Lord and Savior.” Krishna supposedly “rose from the dead” and then “ascended bodily into heaven”. He even is purported to have said: “Do good for its own sake, and expect not your reward for it on Earth”. Christ employed the same idea in Matthew 6. But Krishna’s story dates to 1200 B.C.

In the Egyptian Papyrus of Ani (also known as The Egyptian Book of the Dead), which is dated between 1450 and 1400 B.C., the god Osiris commands the titles of King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Prince of Princes. “Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour, after being put to death, rose from the dead, and bore the title of ‘The Resurrected One’ ” (p. 221, emp. in orig.).

In the latter part of the papyrus, a specific creed is provided that supposedly is capable of providing justification for the person who recites it upon his or her entrance into eternity. That creed reads as follows: “I have given bread to the hungry man, and water to him that was athirst, and apparel to the naked man, and a ferry-boat to him that had no boat”. The writer of this papyrus could have copied the words of Jesus as found in Matthew 25:31-46—except for one small fact: the Papyrus of Ani dates to 1400 B.C.—over a thousand years before Christ made His earthly appearance.

Furthermore, in 550 B.C., Confucius said: “Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself.” Christ uttered an almost identical statement approximately 600 years after Confucius when He said: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

The Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld. One of the oldest resurrection myths is Egyptian Horus. Born on 25 December, Horus and his damaged eye became symbols of life and rebirth. Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox.

http://giftedgreen.com/content/?q=9-Aspects-Of-Christainity-With-Pagan-Origins

On June 12, 1993 presidential elections were held in Nigeria, which most observers deemed to be Nigeria's fairest. Early returns indicated that wealthy Yoruba businessman M.K.O. Abiola won a decisive victory. However, Babangida, using several pending lawsuits as a pretense, annulled the election, throwing Nigeria into turmoil. More than 100 were killed in riots before Babangida agreed to hand power to an interim government.

Around the world we take a look at other events that also took place on this very date, June 12

1. Philippine Declaration Of Independence – 12 June 1898

The Philippine Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898. With the public reading of the Act of the Declaration of independence, Filipino revolutionary forces proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain.

The event also saw the unfurling of the National Flag of Philippines and the performance of the National anthem. Both the flag and the National anthem are still used to this day.

2. Iran’s Tenth Presidential Election -12 June 2009

Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election with 62% of the votes cast, and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 34% of the votes cast. There were large irregularities in the results and people were surprised by them, which resulted in protests gathering millions of Iranians in every Iranian city and around the world and the emergence of the opposition Iranian Green Movement.

The European Union and several western countries expressed concern over alleged irregularities during the vote, and many analysts and journalists from the United States and United Kingdom news media voiced doubts about the authenticity of the results.

3. Kokkadichcholai Massacre – 12 June 1991

Kokkadichcholai massacre refers to the massacres of minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians in the village Kokkadichcholai. The massacre happened on June 12, 1991 in which 152 civilians were killed. On the 12 June 1991 following a rebel landmine attack on a Sri Lankan Army soldiers, number of civilians were greater Kokkadichcholai region were killed.

Although the Human Rights agency University Teachers for Human Rights(UTHR) estimates that over 123 civilians were
killed the local government authorities certified to the death of only 32 individuals. Although locals allege that 6 women were also raped, the government officials initially denied the allegations

In 2001 the army accepted responsibility for the large scale massacre at the hamlet of Kokkadicholai. A military tribunal found the commanding officer guilty of failure to control his troops and illegal disposal of the bodies, and he was dismissed from service. The other 19 soldiers under trial were acquitted but nevertheless sent to the front lines in the north of the country as a punishment. A number of organizations have expressed regret over this decision

4. Interracial Marriage – June 12 - 1967

On the June 12, 1967, the United States Supreme Court invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage.
The case was brought by Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state's anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as "white" and people classified as "colored." The Supreme Court's unanimous decision held this prohibition was unconstitutional.

The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S., and is remembered annually on Loving Day, June 12.

5. Nelson Mandela – June 12 1964

Just in case you live under a rock, Nelson Mandela is a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as the president of South Africa form 1994 to 1999. He is probably the most respected African alive, or ever. On
June 12 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government. Mandela served 27 years in prison, he was released in 1990.

Within South Africa, Mandela is widely considered to be "the father of the nation", and "the founding father of democracy". He has also received international acclaim. In 1993, he received the joint Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk.

Source: http://www.giftedgreen.com/content/?q=5-Events-That-Also-Took-Place-on-June-12

The fact that you are reading this already shows that you want to become a millionaire. If it is your dream to become a millionaire, then this is one article that you should print and carry at all times because it is going to give you the simple steps on how to become a millionaire.

1. Start early
When we say start early, we do not refer to a specific age for you to start working towards your millionaire status. We mean that you should start now, yes NOW.
Simple mathematics tells you that if you start working towards your millionaire staturs at the age of 25, give or take, in ten years time you should be a millionaire and you have enough time to still enjoy the fruit of your labor.
Remember the right time is now.

2. Plan
The next step to becoming a millionaire is for you to have a plan. Money is like a toddler; it is incapable of managing itself. Since you cannot expect a toddler to grow and mature properly without proper management, you should not expect your money to do the same either.
It is almost impossible to accomplish anything in life without planning, and becoming a millionaire is not an exception.

3. Spend less than you earn
As long as you are not a millionaire, then you can decide spend like a millionaire or become a millionaire. Common sense tells you that, even if Bill Gates decides to spend more than he earns, sooner or later, he is going to be broke.
You cut your expenditure down to the basics, cut down on your consumer product and say goodbye to your exuberant lifestyle.

4. Multiple stream of income
As time goes by, your expenses are surely going to grow. You are going to have kids, and ask around, kids are not cheap. You should expect unplanned expenses form life. The only way to keep with your expenses is by increasing your steams of income.
Most people did not become millionaires by just working their job, except the retired folks. Most millionaires have multiple streams of income. It is quite difficult for a single income family to make it to millionaire status.

5. Invest, not save
Keeping money in your bank account does no good to anyone, except the bank. And it is very unlikely that you will become a millionaire by hoarding money in your bank account. Think of the value of N500,000 three years ago and now. So image keeping N500,000 today in your bank account and coming to withdraw it in three years time. You get?
The only way to remain afloat in the economy of Nigeria is for you to invest your extra cash, not save it. If you want to become a millionaire, start should start investing now and continue to invest regularly.

6. Live life
GiftedGreen does not encourage you to be reluctant to spend, to the point of depriving yourself of some basic comfort and some necessities, in order to hoard money or possessions. Life is short and is should be enjoyed.

7. You wait
If you think you are going to become a millionaire next week because you followed a few steps or you read an article then you are sitting on a long thing. You wealth will accumulate when you build your investment over time, and by time we mean years or decades.

So just keep practicing these steps and you are surely on your way to becoming the next millionaire.

http://giftedgreen.com/content/?q=becoming-a-millionaire-seven-stepping-stones

I apologise if the term discovered is demeaning, and when you put it like that, it actually is. If anyone should discover anywhere, it should be africans discoverin Europe. This is because Africa is the birth place of the human race.

kwangi: Did you read my post?
Did I argue that Africans didn't kidnap fellow Africans?
You conveniently avoided or ignored the issues I raised.

if you are talking about the diseases, then malaria is a good example. It is the same reason indirect system of rule was introduced.

As for if they discovered Africa, then its figurative. Of course, Africa existed before the Europeans came. Did Christopher Colulumbus discover America? Same case scenerio

I can understand with most people that do not agree with this work, but it's normal. The truth is bitter

Humans use gestures as a form of nonverbal communication to communicate important messages. If you did not know the origins of these gestures, well you now do.

Handshake

A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other’s like hands, sometimes accompanied by a brief up and down movement.

Handshaking was practices in ancient Greece as far back as the 5th century BC. Back in the days when the most powerful weapon was the sword, when two people meet, they would hold their right hand, since it would be difficult to draw your sword with your left hand. The handshake originated as a gesture of peace by demonstrating that the hand holds no weapon. Even after people stopped using swords, the tradition remained.

Salute

A salute is a gesture or other actions used to display respect.

Salute originated in the Middle Ages when knights who greeted each other raised their visors to show their faces, using a motion that resulted in what resulted to the modern salute. The naval salute with the palm downwards is said to have evolved because the palms of the naval ratings were often dirty through working and was deemed insulting to present a dirty palm to an officer.

Fist Bump (Chop Knuckle)

A fist bump is a gesture similar in meaning to the handshake. It is performed when two participants each form a closed fist with one hand and then lightly  tap the front of their fists together.

The origin of fist bump might lie in the animal kingdom since it is a gesture observed in natural behavior observed in primates. If we are to leave animals out of this and find another reasonable explanation, then the fist bump would be traced back to the early 1800s and early 1900s, when boxers started using it as their own form handshake, the boxers’ handshake.

Pinky swear

This is the entwinement of the little fingers of two people to signify a promise has been made. This gesture originally meant that the pinky promise would be cut off if the promise is not kept.

It originated from Yubitsume, a Japanese ritual to atone for offence to another, by means of amputating portion of one’s own little finger. And how does cutting one’s little finger is supposed to be an apology? Well, in Japanese swordsmanship, the little fingers’ grip is the tightest on the hilt, so if you lose your pinky finger, you become weak in battle and making you more dependent on your boss.

So you should be careful when making pinky promise, you never know who might cut off your pinky finger for not keeping a promise.

Toast

A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of goodwill or honor.

The custom of touching glasses evolved from concerns about poisoning. Clicking glasses together was supposed to cause each drink to spill over the others’. Yes, it doesn’t make sense, we know.

A toast in which you raise your glass could be a modern form of pagan practice in which a sacred liquid is offered to the gods in exchange for a wish, thus a summarized prayer would be said in the words ‘long life’ or ‘to your health’. A similar case can be seen Nigeria where we pour our wine on the ground before drinking.

If you like this article, then you should thank the writer by sharing it on one of the social networks below. Your participation is highly appreciated

www.giftedgreen.com/content/origin-of-some-everyday-gestures

Soliloqyofchaos: I don't believe alot of the information posted. These are merely half truths to excuse the white elites of their actions.

Which one exactly?

Slavery existed in Africa, it is an indisputable fact and it is not a good memory. Slavery is wrong from every perspective and the team and no one should support it in any way, be it physical, emotional or otherwise.

There are a lot of things most Nigerians do not know about slavery, and sometimes they prefer to believe otherwise. These misconceptions could be as a result of what we have been taught in school or as a result of what our minds want us to believe and yet, it could be the hand work of Nollywood. Any ways we are going to expose some unknown facts about slavery.

10. Slavery did not start in Africa

It might seem that when the Europeans discovered Africa, the immediately came up with a new idea known as slavery. The truth is slavery is actually as old as man itself. Slavery is an ancient practice. It was mentioned by Aristotle, it is mentioned in records that date back to 1760 B.C. it is also mentioned in the bible. So don’t even start to think that slavery started with Africans. Surprisingly, we were already enslaving ourselves before the Europeans joined in the trade. Heck! Talking about the origin of slavery……….

9. Europeans did not came to Africa and captured slaves by force

European slave traders rarely ventured beyond Africa's coastal regions. The African interior was riddled with disease, the natives were often hostile and the land uncharted. The Europeans preferred to stay in the coastal region and have the natives bring the slaves to them.

The majority of those slaves were actually sold to Europeans by other African slave traders—slave traders who had been operating on the continent for thousands of years.

Slave traders realized that Europeans would pay for their slaves; they actively began kidnapping people just to sell them

8. Africans also had European slaves

When the word slavery is mentioned, the first image that comes to your mind is a white man with a long whip flogging the hell out of some black men in chains. Well, this is an eye opener. Egyptians were using Caucasian slaves in their armies during the thirteenth century. Over 1 million Europeans were taken as slaves by north Africans between the years 1530 and 1780.

Slavery apart from being an ancient practice, it also a widespread practice and it existed everywhere. What is the moral of this? Anybody can be a slave, no one is above slavery.

7. All whites wanted slavery to continue

False, not every white man wanted slavery to continue. In fact one of the causes of the American civil war which was fought between 1861 and 1865 was slavery. The American civil war had a death toll of about 620,000 people dead and about a lot more wounded, all partly because of slavery.

And did we also mention that some blacks also owned slaves? Well……..

6. A black man started slavery, officially.

You would think that with all the suffering portrayed by historians a black man would not own a slave, think again. Slavery was officially established in the United States of America in 1654, when Anthony Johnson, a black man, convinced a court that his servant (also black) John Casor was his for life. Johnson himself had been brought to Virginia some years earlier as an indentured servant (a person who must work to repay a debt, or on contract for so many years in exchange for food and. The court ruled in Johnson’s favor, and the very first officially state-recognized slave existed. Johnson eventually became very wealthy and began importing his own black slaves from Africa.

5. Christianity doesn’t diapprove slavery.

We do not like to talk about religion, politics and sports, but this is inevitable. I hate to burst your bubble but did you remember when Jesus healed the centurion’s servant? Jesus didn’t take the time to condemn the man for having a slave or tell him that slavery is wrong. Saint Paul said this to slave owners: “Do not threaten [your slaves], since you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him” (Ephesians 6:9). There was even a short period when it was allowed to own a slave with special permission from the pope Nicholas V in 1452

4. Southern American are among the culprits

Of the 10 to 16 million Africans who survived the voyage to the New World, over one-third landed in Brazil and between 60 and 70 percent ended up in Brazil or the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Only 6 percent arrived in what is now the United States.

This is probably rarely noticed because the living conditions of slaves in Latin America was a lot harsh and thus a higher death rate compared to that of British North America

3. Monrovia

Monrovia is the capital of Liberia. We all know that the Liberia was formed be American slaves who had been freed. What you might not know is that its capital, Monrovia, was named after President James Monroe for his efforts.

2. Most slaves were close to their captors

We pointed out that slavery was in existence in Africa before the arrival of the Europeans and that a black man officially started slavery. That is not the end of the story, it gets worse. Most slaves were close to their captors? As a historian recounted;

“During my stay on the coast of Africa, I was an eye-witness of the following transaction: a black trader invited a Negro, who resided a lit­tle, way up the country, to come and see him. After the entertainment was over, the trader proposed to his guest, to treat him with a sight of one of the ships lying in the river. The unsuspicious countryman read­ily consented, and accompanied the trader in a canoe to the side of the ship, which he viewed with pleasure and astonishment. While he was thus employed, some black traders on board, who appeared to be in the secret, leaped into the canoe, seized the unfortunate man, and dragging him into the ship, immediately sold him.”

And lot more stories of that kind. It is really a pity

1. Slavery is not totally over

According to studies done by anti-slavery groups, there are currently more slaves today than at any time in history! Three quarters are female and over half are children. It is believed that there are around 27 million people in slavery right now. Furthermore, this number does not include people who are not technically slaves but are in a form of servitude tantamount to slavery.

The FOS/ILO National Child Labour Survey (2003) estimates that there are 15 million children engaged in child labour in Nigeria with 40% of them at the risk of being trafficked both internally and externally for domestic and forced labour, prostitution, entertainment, pornography, armed conflict, and sometimes ritual killings.

The essence of this article is our own way of saying no to child abuse, human trafficking and all similar crimes against humanity. Say no to child labour, say no to human trafficking.


http://giftedgreen.com/content/?q=things-most-nigerians-do-not-know-slavery-africa

The look and function of a telephone might have evolved drastically, but when it comes to telephone courtesy, the basics remain the same. Courtesy is as important in speaking over the phone as in talking to people face to face.

Basic telephone etiquette requires politeness. Remember, being polite and cheerful does not cost anything, it will only go a long way to make the whole experience enjoyable and bearable for both parties

Your telephone etiquette creates an impression of your personality, education, family background and we tend to believe no one would love to look like an untrained monkey in this modern society.

Since poor phone manners can have a negative effect on your reputation. Let us look at the basic etiquettes that you should learn to observe
Time of call

The rule is that you should follow the nine-to-nine rule. This means that every phone call should be made between nine in the morning and nine o’clock at night. You should also try not to interfere with the work schedules of whoever you are calling.
Answering a call

Answering a phone call begins with a “Hello”. Not a rude and uninviting hello, but a friendly, welcoming and cheerful “Hello”. You do not receive a phone call with “Talon soro” nor “Onye ye kwo” or any other phrase in your local dialect.

After that, you should identify yourself. So basically, the right way of answering a phone would be by saying: “Hello, Emeka Adamu here”.

You could go ahead and politely ask who the caller is. The person on the other end of the line should identify him or herself, but frequently this is not the case.
Making a call

When placing a call, always state your name along with the name of the person you are calling. Example: “Hello, my name is Rebecca Osas. May I please speak with Ms. Maria Segun?”

After you both parties have identified each other, don’t just start speaking, before starting the conversation use warm greetings like “good morning”, “good evening” or “good noon” depending on the time.


During Calls

Always remember your voice should be considerably pleasant while interacting with the other person over the phone, even when you are having a bad day.

The person on the other hand can’t see your expressions so remember your tone should be apt to express your feelings in the correct form. Try not to sound overly anxious, aggressive or pushy. Your tone of your voice should convey authority and confidence.

While interacting over the phone, don’t chew anything or eat your food. If you were eating, finish you food before you dial the number. If you are reading, please leave the book aside, first concentrate what the other person wishes to convey and then continue with the book. Carrying out other tasks during a phone call is just rude.

After completing the conversation, don’t just hang up. Reconfirm with the receiver whether he has downloaded the correct information or not and do end your conversation with pleasant words like “Take care”, “nice speaking with you” and a warm bye. Never say Goodbye.
Answering some else’s call

It is advisable not to answer someone else’s call, but if it is inevitable or you are sure you have the permission to answer such a call the first thing to do is to identify yourself, ask who is calling and take a message if necessary.

For example, “Hello, I am Ireti Sunday, this is Thomas’ phone”. "Who may I ask is calling, please?" Then you respond to the answer with, "Just a moment please, I will be right back." If you have to put the caller off, say, "I am sorry but Thomas cannot come to the phone right now, May I, please, take a message?" Then the message is repeated back to the caller before saying good-bye.

When the requested party cannot come to the phone, it's best for the person who answers to not give a reason. The person usually shouldn't say that the unavailable person doesn't want to speak to a caller or that he or she is somewhere else — be it in the bathroom or at a doctor's appointment. A simple statement that the person isn’t available is enough.
Wrong Number.
If by mistake you have dialed a wrong number, don’t just hang up, do say sorry and then keep the phone courteously. A simple, "I'm sorry, I dialed the wrong number." would do the trick.
Missed Calls
If you miss a call, make sure you give a call back as the other person might have an important message to convey. Avoid giving missed calls at work places as it irritates the other person.
Interference

If there is any disturbance in the network, don’t just keep speaking for the sake of it; try to call after sometime with a better line. Decrease the volume of the television or turn off the speakers while speaking over the phone as noise acts as a hindrance to effective communication
Conclusion

Phone calls should be about communication between people. Without etiquettes, effective communication is going to be difficult.

In conclusion you should try your best and keep phone calls brief, but friendly.

http://www.giftedgreen.com/content/?q=Telephone-Etiquettes-To-Be-Displayed-At-All-Times-Part-I

In your search for prince charming, you are definitely going to kiss a number of frogs. The truth is that you do not even have to kiss some frogs before you realize that they are not your prince charming. Since we gave you a list of Men You Should Never Date yesterday, we are going to continue today by giving you the list of Men You Should Never Date.

An important aspect of dating is knowing which guys to say “no thanks” to. These men are the undateable men. Yes, a breed of undateable men exists - guys that women wouldn't even want their enemies to date. These breed of men are created to remain single – at least until they decide to repent of their ways.
Read on. . . . .

1. Peter Pan

This is a guy who has decided that he is not growing up. He is childish to the core and wants things to remain that way
We are not saying that there should to an age restriction when it comes to dating; we are saying that a guys age should match his emotional maturity. This kind of guy is good for having a good time but not for much more.

In no time, he is going to promote you from the post of his lover to his mother and before you know it, you are stuck with an emotionally stunted man-child who wants to re-live his childhood forever.
If you're the kind of girl that is ready to tie his shoelace, select clothes for that everyday outing of his, cook for him and feed him, among doing his other chores, we will say, congratulations and good luck.

2. The Master

This guy does not see you as an equal in a relationship. He sees you as a maid and he is ready to abuse you verbally, emotionally, and physically. Our best advice is that you should get out while you can.
He scoffs at anything about you and his sole purpose is to bend/manipulate you to his will. He feels because you are his lover you are obliged to do his laundry, cook for him, and clean up his dishes, while he watches TV.

As a rule, if a guy hits you once, we lay emphasis on the number ONCE. If a guy hits you once then you should be out of his life. Do not be deceived by his apologies, do not be deceived by his tears, if a guy hits you once, he is going to do hit you over and over again. If hits you when you are dating, what makes you think he is going to change when you get married?

Remember, you are his partner, not his maid and if you continue in this relationship, you will know what it is like to be a slave for the rest of your life.

3. Mr. Constant
Everybody has rules, principles, beliefs or anything they hold dear to them. Once you are in a relationship you are going to let go of some of these things. Sacrifice is an important aspect of every relationship. Once you are in a relationship you are going to make a lot of sacrifices.

You should be ready to give up some of your principles, beliefs or rules for your lover and he should be able to do the same for you. There should be a balance. You should be careful not lose who you are totally, just because you are in a relationship.

If you are with a guy who insists that he will not change anything because of you then he is not a dateable type. This guy will only become more rigid over time. Dating someone who refuses to do anything new makes for a long-term relationship that is both boring and one-sided.

Assuming that he will eventually change and open up to you and make some changes because of you is misguided. This will likely never happen.

4. Unemployed
This is not about supposed to make relationships about money and this is a snobbish attitude towards the poor, but nothing could be further from the truth. A guy could be unemployed for a while, yes, agreed. But there are those who do not have a job and the feel that the most important thing in their life is to hook up with a girl. That is the category of unemployed that this refers to.

You can barely take care of yourself and you want to take care of another person. A Yoruba proverb says, “Person wey them carry for back, no day carry another person for back.”

The essence of a healthy romantic relationship is marriage. You do not have money to host a decent wedding ceremony, yet you are promising her marriage. Please do not waste your time, and hers.
There are plenty of guys who make a career out of living off their girlfriends and we all know where such relationships go and how they end.

5. Unsure
In as much as you do not want a master and slave relationship, you do not need a guy who does not know what he wants out of life.

He has not figured out what he wants to do with his life, he does not know where your relationship is going; he does not have a plan. In short, he has no vision.

You should never go out with a guy that cannot make a simple decision about anything. Ask him, “Where are we going today?” he replies, “Anywhere you want”.” What are we having for lunch” he replies “Anything you want”.
If your man cannot make simple decisions for you, or give his opinion on simple issues how do you expect him to man up when life threatening situations occur?

6. Hot and cold
Of all the men you should never date, he is the most frustrating of all. He treats you like a princess when you are about to leave him and treats you like dirt when he knows you are back. He says he loves you but his actions say the opposite.

He is the king of guy who will disappear for months without a single word of explanation and then comes back, expecting you to continue the relationship form where he left it.
Except if he works with the army and he went on a peace keeping mission on the moon, and we all know no Nigerian is going to the moon anytime soon.

7. Downhill guy
Many men hit the romantic break early on in the dating process, by the fifth or sixth date; the laziness starts to creep in. We are not saying that you have to be all gooey from the beginning of the relationship to the end, at the same time; we are no saying that after you agree to become his girlfriend he decides that he should stop calling you the way he used to. After a few months, he no longer takes care of himself, he is no longer romantic. He is the type of guy that feels that a fisherman has no need to give worm to the fish is in his basket
Another way to recognize this kind of guy is to watch his behavior towards you after you go to bed with him. If he truly cares about you, his good behaviors will grow stronger. This type becomes a monster after taking you to bed, proving to you that he was after only one thing in the first place.

This type of guy thinks the battle has been won, you are now his lover and he is sleeping with you and so there is no reason to be romantic, what he doesn’t know is that relationships grow and that you are strong enough going to dump him even after going to bed with him.
What other type of guy do you know that should be Women should not date?


http://giftedgreen.com/content/?q=7-Types-Of-Men-You-Should-Never-Date