Hello all,

I'm looking to create a Wikipedia entry on kunu, as I find that information on this drink is missing. I'm thinking of putting something like this:

"Kunu (also known as kununzaki) is a popular drink consumed throughout Nigeria, mostly in the north. It is usually made from millet or sorghum, although it can be made from maize as well.

The variety of the drink made from sorghum is a milky light-brown colour, and it is usually sweetened and flavoured with ginger before being consumed."

So my questions to fill in the gaps are:

Does anyone know if it is consumed in other parts of Africa?

Can anyone PLEASE fill me in on the exact procedure on how to make kunu? I know it involves using ground grains that have been soaked in water, but my knowledge beyond this is scanty.

Am I right that is it flavoured with ginger?

Are there any other variants of grains used to make it?

What is the colour of kunu made from millet? I think kunu made from maize is the colour of ogi.

If there's any other thing you can add, please feel free to do so. Let's put our culture on the map of knowledge!

Thanks,

Ka

There are no such things as 'fashion mistakes'.

The only mistakes people make are not wearing what they wear with the right amount of confidence and panache.

The fashion mistake of today is often the fashion trend of tomorrow.

there's something called the middle road. and nigerians just want the truth. do you really think that's too much to ask?
overly negative stories of nigeria will draw ire. over positive and saccharine sweet gist will draw scorn.

OK Texazzpete, so here's a mathemtical formula you can use to work out the truth:

(Western stories + NTA stories)/2

See? NTA still has its use in providing a necessary variable to solve this equation.

When the Western media report tales of 419, Niger Delta militancy, corruption, electoral rigging, collapsed buildings, aeroplane crashes, stark poverty, etc., Nigerians complain that they are giving Nigeria a bad name.

But when NTA news reports about how inflation is down, how democracy is taking root, how reforms are spreading, how corruption is being fought, how foreign reserves are being built (by our great leader, General (Chief) Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd (that is, retired general, not retired chief)))- Nigerians complain about government bias (as they have done on this thread).

Hm! Naijans. . .   there's just no pleasing them.

I wrote a couple of articles on this a while back.

Mazaje: I have live in nigeria and am living in europe now and i will tell u that part of the reason why their economy is growing all the time is because most of the people are getting and doing jobs they desire by so they give their best and contribute more to it.

Well, perhaps before they got those jobs, they were doing jobs that they DIDN'T desire quite so much. But they used those 'undesirable' jobs as stepping stones to get to where they wanted to be.

Hm. How did I miss this?

OK, let me adjust my devil's advocate hat.

First of all, do you equate 'favouring' with 'not disfavouring'?

walelead: Probably, none of us commenting on this topic will become president come 2007. . .

Which is why I gave a facetious answer. When I was younger, I used to expend a lot of energy on this topic - but after a while, I realised that my serious energy was better put to use elsewhere.

. . .so what can I do NOW to help improve my country?

That's a much more relevant question to ask.

I think one thing anyone can do is to encourage anyone they know to try to be as economically independent as possible. Educate them on how to educate themselves so that they can obtain the relevant information they need to be independent.

If Nigerians were more economically independent, they wouldn't be willing tools in the hands of the political elite. They also would have the energy and confidence to challenge the political elite who make such a mess of Nigeria.

Hm, what will I do?

Well, as you know, a nation's greatest resource is its people.

So if I am made president in 2007, I will endeavour to maximise the use of this valuable resource!

First of all, I will make it mandatory that everyone should have their head shaved at 4 month intervals. The idea is that after 4 months, enough hair will have grown to make clothing fibre (just like sheep are shaved for sheep's wool). I will ensure that we become the leading exporter of 'Naija Faiba' and thus make lots of money which I shall personally manage on behalf of my compatriots.

As we all know, there are a lot of wars going on in the underdeveloped parts of the world, and lots of crime going on in the developed parts. What do both parts of the world need? BLOOD! Lots of BLOOD! So my second measure will be to make it mandatory that every Nigerian should donate at least one litre of their blood every 4 months. This high quality blood (which has been fortified with ewedu and ugwu iron) will be exported to the areas mentioned above, and I shall again personally manage the accruing revenue.

Lastly, I shall pursue my drive to maximise the potential of my fellow citizens by mandating them to give up their spare kidney (which science tells us isn't used, anyway). The harvested kidneys shall be exported to the developed nations where people who have wrecked their kidneys through too much good living can have them replaced. But I will not stop there in my bid to ensure that Nigeria is the World Center for Kidney Harvesting. I shall comission research into growing three, four or even six kidneys per person so that our dominance will never be threatened.

And of course, the revenues shall be properly managed by U NO HU. . .

My question would be:

Please help to settle a dispute between me and my friend. I say that the dimensions of the gap in your teeth is 3.75mm; he says it is 5.17mm. Who is right?

Here's the concluding part of this article published a few days ago.



Jerry: Typically, most applicants put down their name, contact details, date of birth, gender, profile, work experience, academic qualifications, hobbies and references. How irrelevant are any of those items?

Alex: It's not what they put – it's how they put it.

Charlie says that when he looks at a CV, what he is expecting it to do is to sell its owner. He's expecting it to convince him that the applicant is absolutely passionate about working for him, that the applicant is definitely the best person for the position and that he would be crazy to think of hiring anyone else.

And that's the problem with many of the CVs he looks at. They may state all the things you mention – but does that necessarily convince him that he should employ them?

Jerry: I still don't get you. If an applicant puts in his profile that he is hardworking, ambitious, a quick learner and self-motivated, why should any employer not want to employ him?

Alex: But this is the thing! It is not enough to state these things – the applicant should provide convincing evidence that this he has those qualities in the rest of his CV. For example, if he says he is hardworking, he should give an example elsewhere in his CV where he has demonstrated this. As Charlie says, "why should I believe that an applicant is the best thing since bottled kunu if there is no corroborating evidence of this in his CV?"

Jerry: OK, I give you that – but how can an employer fail to be convinced of someone's suitability for a position when his CV shows that he has a first class, or that he has worked in a similar position?

Alex: It's funny – this is another point I put to Charlie, and it made him even madder than before! He said that time after time, he sees applicants who expect the whole world to fall down before them just because they have a first class degree. Having a first class may be evidence that the applicant is academically gifted and prepared to work hard - but in the end, when he sees a CV that says that an applicant got a first class degree, all he can be certain of is that the applicant is capable of getting a first class degree. And this does not necessarily mean that the applicant is fitted to working in his company.

Jerry: But what's wrong with employing a hard worker who is academically intelligent?

Alex: Remember what I said earlier? The CV is supposed to convince the employer that the applicant is right for that particular position. What if it's not so important to be academically intelligent and hardworking? What if it's more important that the position requires that you should be creative? Or that you should be good at verbal communication? Or that you should be an analytical thinker? How does your first class degree by itself convince the employer of that? Even if the employer decides that you are hardworking and intelligent, does it follow automatically that you have the skills listed above?

I think Charlie put it best: "The point is that it is not enough to simply say 'I did this course' or 'I worked at that place' on your CV and expect the employer to magically conclude that you are the person he is looking for. You have to first decide what skills the employer is looking for. Then you have to look at your academic and work experience and ask yourself "Which incidents in these experiences demonstrate that I have these skills?" Then you should highlight these incidents in your CV".

Jerry: Did he give an example of what he was talking about?

Alex: Yes, he did. There was this position that was open at NDTech a while ago for a hardware engineer. The advertisement stated that the company was looking for someone who was analytical, good at solving problems, a good communicator and very familiar which computer terminology. Of course, he was deluged and unimpressed by the usual emails with CVs stating that the applicant had gone to this prestigious university or worked in that blue-chip organisation.

However, there was a CV from this applicant that stood out for him. Under the section on his academic experience, he talked about a project that he did configuring a computer to act as a server. He went into detail about this project, using technical expressions to explain what he was doing. That tied in with one of the company's requirements – that the applicant should be familiar with computer terminology.

Then in describing the project, he talked about one or two problems that he faced during the server configuration. He talked about how he diagnosed what the causes of the problems were, how he researched a solution to these problems, what alternative solutions he came up with and how he chose and implemented the eventual solution. Again, this description showcased two skills that the company was looking for – analytical and problem solving skills. And he repeatedly did this in other areas of his CV.

So the point is that his CV wasn't just some dry fact sheet with a list of dates and events. It was richly filled with stories and incidents – incidents that were a living testament as to how suitable the applicant was for the position. It didn't send Charlie to sleep – instead, it made him say "I want this man!"

Jerry: Wow! That's interesting. Is that all Charlie had to say, then?

Alex: No, that wasn't all. You know how sometimes you see a girl wearing a beautiful white satin dress and it looks all perfect,

Jerry: Yes,

Alex: , but then, you notice a black ugly stain right in the middle of the dress, visible to everyone. How would that make you feel?

Jerry: Actually, I would feel very irritated that the beauty of the dress was being spoiled by the stain. In fact, I would probably be more annoyed than if the dress was ugly and had the stain.

Alex: Ah, good. So you can imagine how someone like Charlie was feeling when he brought this up. I swear, I could practically see the steam coming from his nostrils and ears! Honestly, at one point I thought I should call the messenger to get a bucket of cold water,

Jerry (raising his hands): Hold on, hold on! What do satin dresses have to do with job applications?

Alex: Oh, sorry – I should have explained. Charlie was referring to the way many applicants don't check an otherwise flawless CV for little mistakes that end up spoiling it.

Jerry: Mistakes like what?

Alex: Come on, you know! Mistakes like grammatical errors, non-sequential dates, wrong names, cut-and-paste errors, that sort of thing.

Jerry: Ah-ah, you come on! Those are very small errors.

Alex: It's lucky for you that you're not saying that in front of Charlie. Actually, it's lucky for both of you – because Charlie would probably self-explode and kill both of you. He says that for him, attention to detail is absolutely crucial in any CV he is looking for!

Imagine – your CV is supposed to be your supreme advertisement. This is the document in which you say all the good things you can possibly think of about yourself. Now if you are careless with that, why should you be any more careful with something that has nothing to do with you? And why should he employ someone who will do a sloppy job?

But it's not only that. Sometimes, these minor mistakes show that you are not that good when it comes to written communication. And we are living in an age where communication is vital to the efficient functioning of any company. Imagine if the company told someone to order 10,000 printed circuit boards, and instead he ordered 100,000! Do you think the company would accept his explanation of "Oh, it's just an extra zero"?

So I'm actually with Charlie on this one too. I believe that attention to detail is vitally important - all applicants should check their CVs for any miskate, no matter how minor.

Jerry: Phew! So that's that, then. Man, that must have been a long tirade by Charlie o!

Alex: And he delivered it with the volume knob turned all the way up to ten, too! I know that as Nigerians, we traditionally raise our voices when talking – but sometimes, I think Charlie was raised on an airport runway and he had to learn to raise his voice to be heard above the planes taking off.

Jerry (laughing): Come on, you're just exaggerating! (In a more sombre tone) But I was thinking, sure it would help if applicants could structure their CVs better, but does it really matter if there aren't many jobs out there for them, or if they truly don't have the skills that the companies need?

Alex: Well, this is the thing. Applicants need to be made aware that companies are looking for skills beyond the academic knowledge that you gain in university. Oh sure, there will always be professions requiring specialist knowledge – for example, you would expect that a doctor should have gone to medical school. But really, for many positions, employers would be happy to get a candidate who had the right soft skills like many of the ones I've spoken of earlier.

Jerry: You mean being good at communicating verbally and in writing, doing research, analysing and solving problems, being creative and holding presentations?

Alex: Yeah. There's also the need to have the right attitude – being flexible, hardworking, able and willing to learn new things, disciplined, for example.

Jerry: Hm. I guess that just like any market, when applicants realise that employers are looking for people with these skills in addition to their vocational skills, they'll undertake to develop themselves to get these skills. And even if they don't find a job, they are useful skills to have if they want to set up their own businesses.

Alex: And that's actually a good thing for Nigeria as a whole!

Why Charlie Agoro Is Being Driven Crazy (part I + II)

This article is in part inspired by my experiences taking part in the recruitment of people for vacant positions in a company in Lagos. Looking at many of the CVs that were submitted, I realised that there was something of a knowledge gap on the part of many applicants - and I thought that I might help to close that gap by writing this. If it helps at least one person to get the job they've been chasing, then that's good enough for me. Otherwise, enjoy.

Alex: Jerry! How are you doing? I haven't seen either you or David for a while now.

Jerry (in an apologetic tone): Sorry, o, no time these days to meet up. The bank is doing an infrastructure rollout and they are killing me with work. I hear David is abroad for a while chasing one deal or other. What of you? How are you keeping?

Alex: I'm well o. Guess who I ran into the other day!

Jerry: Who?

Alex: Charlie Agoro! He's now a big man - he is a manager in the Human Resources department of NDTech.

Jerry: NDTech? The big computer company? He has really landed on his feet o!

Alex: But he wasn't too happy. He was bitterly complaining about the quality of applicants that he routinely had to deal with when recruiting for positions in his company.

Jerry: Really? What did he say?

Alex: He said that his very first complaint was that when he advertised for positions, he would get flooded with emails in response,

Jerry: So what's wrong with that? You advertise for positions - you get responses.

Alex: Ah-ah! Let me finish now. He says that the e-mail he gets have no information on which position the applicant is applying for. His words, "My company advertises many positions. How the hell am I supposed to know which position the applicant is responding to if there is no information about this in the email? And if I don't know, how can I know how to process their application?" So it would make his life so much easier if applicants stated clearly which position they were applying for in their e-mails.

Jerry: I see. But that's a small thing to get upset about surely?

Alex: Hohoho. My friend, Charlie was just getting warmed up! He was even more annoyed about how applicants sent their CVs with their e-mails, but never bothered to explain how they were suitable for the job.

Jerry: But that's the whole point of the CV. If he wanted to find that out, he should have looked at what was in the CV.

Alex: Well, the way he described it, it isn't as easy as you make it sound. He was telling me of an instance where his company were looking for an accounts assistant. In the advertisement, they stated that they wanted somebody who had a good head for figures. Of course they got plenty of CVs which did the usual thing of listing academic and work experience. However, this meant that he had to open every single CV and trawl through it for the parts that were relevant to the advertised position before he could decide whether the applicant was suitable or not. "And", he said "that is a very tedious, frustrating and irritating task".

However, there was one smart applicant amongst the lot. In her email, she mentioned specific sections in her CV which showed that she had worked in a position where she had to do a lot of ledger account maintenance, and as a result, she had become very good at checking figures.

This meant that all Charlie had to do to make a judgement was to go to those sections in the CV that she had pointed out. It made life so much easier for him, and she ended up getting shortlisted for the interview. Charlie said "I wish all other applicants would similarly state in their e-mails how the skills and experience listed in their CV showed that they had the attributes that we were looking for in the advertised position".

Jerry: Hm, I see his point now. So really, what he's just saying is that the CVs of most applicants are all right, it's just that the applicants need to pay more attention to the e-mail that they send along with the CV.

(Alex bursts into laughter.)

Alex: You know what's funny? That's what I said - that the CVs of most applicants were all right. That just set Charlie off on a long rant!

Jerry (confused): How?

Alex: He said that I obviously hadn't seen many CVs sent by job applicants recently. Then he said "Imagine that you had to read a book where there were no paragraphs and everything was just one loooooong solid block of text. How easy would you find it?"

I said it would be difficult. "Then how can you tell me that CVs of most applicants are all right", he shouted "when they just merge the sections of their CV without putting white space to help me determine which section is which? Sometimes after reading ten of those CVs, I feel like a man who has drunk 90% proof ogogoro! It's even worse when the contents are not properly tabulated so that dates of work or academic experience meander all over the page".

Jerry: I don't quite get what Charlie means by meandering dates.

(Alex brings out a sheet of paper from a bag he is carrying, and sketches something out.)

Alex: See, this is what Charlie is complaining about:

June 2003 - date: Supervisor at Ogoni Bakery
October 2002 - May 2003: Office Manager at Maxwell's Chambers
November 2000 - October 2002: Assistant Manager at J and O Sons. Ltd.

Whereas this is what he would like (he sketches some more):

June 2003 - date: Supervisor at Ogoni Bakery
October 2002 - May 2003: Office Manager at Maxwell's Chambers
November 2000 - October 2002: Assistant Manager at J and O Sons. Ltd.

Notice how the employment positions are now vertically aligned?

Jerry: I see your point now. Not only would the CV would definitely be a lot easier to read if the sections and the section headers were separated from each other by white space, but it is a lot easier to read when the dates and other labels are well tabulated.

Alex: Exactly. But he didn't stop there. He also complained some applicants went completely overboard when using word processing software to create their CVs. It was like their CVs were the equivalent of, you remember that fashion disaster that you, I and David saw walking down the street the other day?

Jerry (smiling): The one who was wearing a bright red pair of trousers, a yellow shirt, a lime green and pink checked jacket, an electric blue tie and a purple pair of shoes topped off with an orange cap?

Alex: That's the one! Charlie said that is exactly how some of those CVs are. One font for the heading, one font for the name, one font for the address, one font for the profile, and all the fonts in different sizes and weights! The poor man said that he needed to have paracetamol and ibuprofen nearby after reading some of those CVs.

Jerry (laughing): So what would he prefer, then?

Alex: He went all philosophical when I asked him, and said "there is beauty in simplicity". He said that one font family - something serious like Times New Roman or Verdana - should be enough for any CV. He said that it's all right to increase the size of the font for section headings, or the boldness of the font for words that needed to be highlighted. But he said that whichever fonts were selected, they should serve mainly to direct his eyes to the important parts of the CV and not confuse him over its content.

Jerry: OK, so the format of the CVs that Charlie reads isn't great. But that's surely a case of elevating style over substance?

Alex: Well, according to Charlie, there's even no substance to elevate the style over!

Jerry: Huh?

Alex: He said that what most applicants put in their CVs would never land them a job.

Jerry: Why?

And I'll have to stop here, as this is a bit much already for a single article. I'll publish part II in a few days.

In our daily lives, there are things that we can largely control, and things that are largely outside our control (which I'll refer to here as externalities).

However, we hope that these externalities do not impede our pursuit of happiness on this earth.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, externalities DO impede our pursuit. For example, a person would like to get from A to B in a short time, but the poor state of roads and the chaotic state of transport (outside his control to do much about) mean that his hopes are not met, and he is not has happy as he could have been.

So why is this so? How is it that many of the things that an average individual can do little to change are in such a state that they hinder his pursuit of happiness?

I'd say that the blame should lie primarily with those people who have the most power to change these things, i.e. the leaders of Nigeria.

But how did the leaders end up with the personality traits and the lack of skills that render them unfit to change the way things are? Well, they must have adopted SOME of their personality traits from the culture they grew up in (like the conservative attitude towards change; the undue deference to elders that quashes good ideas; the lack of a scientific approach in their thinking; the need to be seen as powerful and wealthy which leads some to acquire more wealth than they are legally entitled to. . . you get the picture.)

In addition, the educational system in Nigeria does not properly equip students of today to be good leaders of tomorrow.

So how did this culture develop? And how did the educational system become so inadequate?

Well, poverty is a factor - the poorer people in a society are, the more likely they are to defer to powerful and wealthy people (and to aspire to be wealthy, too!). Also, the more likely they are to scorn science in favour of the supernatural in the search for material well being. In the same way, a lack of funding for education means that students do not receive the good quality education they need to be good leaders.

And how come there is this lack of money at a private and public level? Well, it's because there are many externalities that prevent an individual from reaping rewards for his hard work (like poor law enforcement, weak infrastructure, etc.). The same kinds of externalities mean that government funds are poorly allocated and managed.

But we've already established that when externalities do this, they are a manifestation of NIGERIA NOT WORKING.

So in short, Nigeria does not work because Nigeria does not work.

Nigeria should be compared with the big countries in Africa like South Africa, Egypt, Lybia or Algeria and not with "minnows" like Kenya, Mozambique or Malawi or whatever!

Oh?

In terms of GDP, you would have a point. . . but you also have to consider per capita income (which is a rough measure of average income) as well - and Nigeria's per capita income (at 1,188 USD in 2005) is NOWHERE near the per capita incomes of South Africa (11,035), Egypt (4,282) or Algeria ($7,095). I don't really consider Libya a developed country, since their revenue source is not diversified like Egypt's or South Africa. (Source)

And then when you start looking at other indices, like mortality rates, infrastructural development, literacy rates, etc. it becomes clear that Nigeria is a long way off from being bracketed with the likes of Egypt and South Africa.

So which countries should Nigeria be compared with, then?

Have you considered a hybrid approach?

For example, you might have a drama/sitcom which is aired in self-containing episodes, but which have a running theme to them. This way, you can still enjoy the drama/sitcom even though you've just joined in, and you get hooked because of the long running themes.

I was just looking at some of those non-violent punishment methods on Wikipedia.

So what happens if:

Time-outs
You want tell the naughty child "time out", and he disregards your time out by running away from the designated time-out space?

Distraction
You try to distract the child but he continues to be disruptive?

Reason
The child is not at an age where he can clearly understand your reasoning (i.e. 12-24 months), or he doesn't want to listen?

Consequences
The child wants to put his hand in fire?

Modelling
The child simply ignores the example you're trying to set?

Scolding
The child doesn't care - after all, he's receiving attention?

Face it - sometimes, Mr. Koboko needs to get involved.

Truly, I don't see what the fuss is.

If this girl had striven and got to go into space by her own efforts, I'd be applauding.

But that's not the case - she was PICKED - and not by a Nigerian space program either.

To me it smacks of "Oh, let's pity these poor Africans who have never smelt space and invite one of them to have a faint idea of what it's like".

Oh well, you gotta take your heroes where you can find 'em . . .

I don't understand how people advise others to start learning Java or C++. I think its stupid really.

Why?

I think C++ is a good language to start learning. You get to learn all sorts of programming concepts - like conditional statements, loops, variable, functions, parameters, classes, inheritance, polymorphism and templates. Of course, you can question whether someone new to programming will be able to take all that in - but the idea is to introduce the simpler concepts first, and the more complex ones later on.

Of course, if you want to learn a language that will make you lots of money, that's another story altogether. . .

"Yes, in the sense that every single sin in whatever degree they may be in brings eternal damnation."

Then that's it really. All sins are equal. What's the point in talking about 'gravities of sin' when they all carry the same punishment? I might as well not waste my time trying to commit only a 'small' sin when I can knock myself out and kill, steal, rape, lie, steal again, kill again, etc.