₦airaland Forum

And this one too:

The real issue about our dear Continent - AFRICA - is the disunity among us. We only think of SELF, not our countries, not our regions and worst still not about the continent as a whole. Several years ago, the late Reggae crooner, Bob Marley sang,' AFRICA UNITE.' Typically, most people chose not to see the message in the music. Rather, we chose to 'celebrate' the rhythm and the voice, whist dancing away the lyrics, the true meaning.

So where are we today? Still dancing away the real truth! Still in our state of disunity! Still on our trail of SELF, rather than COLLECTIVE propagation! Still nurturing the mindset that there is nothing good about Africa.

It is this erroneous mindset that convinces us that it is better to go to foreign lands and inadvertently channel our energies towards 'developing the developed' (to borrow a phrase from you).

Look at how many Africans are in the diaspora? Some never remember home. Some pretend they were never Africans. They spend the time seeking after opportunities that are not there. YET, those same opportunities are there back home. And really, their lives would have been better, had they believed, had they tried!!

We accept, there are challenges in Africa. I can list a few, as i'm sure others can. Indeed, we cannot deny that fact. BUT we must RISE ABOVE, WALK and WORK around those challenges to make something happen. It is interesting that we have so many Africans in the diaspora teaching people how to overcome challenges, improve themselves and their environment (again developing the developed), but they never think of doing the same thing for those 'back home.'

AFRICA cannot develop itself, the Europeans, the Americans, not even the Chinese can develop Africa. WE, AFRICANS are the only ones who can develop Africa

And how? By coming together - UNIFYING - to change our mindset, think positively about Africa, speak positively about Africa. Most of all, by BELIEVING in Africa and the opportunities that abound in Africa.

This is my submission!

Saw this on reconnectafrica. . . . . . . . .felt like sharing.



AFRICA is a Continent of opportunities. YOU just have to FIND, EXPLORE, CREATE and BUILD ON THE OPPORTUNITIES around you.

True, Africa has its own challenges, as with EVERY other Continent. BUT, UNLESS and UNTIL, we as Africans begin to have a more positive mindset of, about  and towards Africa, we will never see the opportunities that are starring us in the face.

They are there, yes, they are, !! We don't see them because we choose to think, assume and internalise that nothing good can come out of Africa. We choose to 'celebrate' the negatives!! YET, Africa is the only Continent in the world, where there are so many opportunities.

We sit and wait for the Europeans, Americans and very recently, the Chinese to come and 'discover' those opportunities, and sadly, employ us to fester the same opportunities that have always been with us.

We would rather go to Europe or America to take up jobs as road sweepers, security men, train/subway attendants, garbage collectors, funeral home attendants, nannies and such low-esteem jobs. WHY? Because we look at the foreign exchange value of the money from those jobs and allow it to dent our pride. We 'sell' our pride and souls, and pocket our hard-earned degrees for a 'mess of pottage' (literally), rather than use them to develop Africa.

And WHY? Because we fail to see THE GOOD OF, IN AND ABOUT AFRICA. We see other places as being better!!

UNLESS and UNTIL, we as Africans begin to have a more positive mindset of, about and towards Africa, we will never see the opportunities that are starring us in the face. No one can do it for us. WE have to do it ourselves.

THAT, is the sad truth.

Uche2nna:
I don't know about that.

In Israel they have a common enemy and that is sufficient to turn their differences into cheesecakes.

So, lets shove aside their differences. We can safely call them ''suicide bombers'' or ''Muslim (religious) extremists'' - right?

This reminds me of one cartoon I saw on Osisi's profile sometime ago -

Martian:
Persians, arabs, ragheads, who gives a f*ck, they are all crazy.

ye p ye p. lol

flyuche:
i think the poll result is being rigged

Me too.

I await, eagerly, your response to tolu10's request. While compiling answers and pictures, please scan a copy of the application form to my e-mail box: onosj5@yahoo.co.uk. Thank you very much.

I can only tow the line of world leaders here: I urge all the parties concerned in the Middle East to exercise restraints while going about solving the crisis situation there.

If you're in Nigeria, please give me your mobile number - send it to onosj5@yahoo.co.uk.
That price is way too high for a 2005 Accord - no matter how well it's kept and/or maintained. Do a proper evaluation of the price and come up with something much better than what you have now.

Beside, a cursory look at that engine reveals one that's been sprayed with some ''shiny'' stuff. Some of the engine parts looks old already.

I think more pictures will do the trick. Please send pic of all of em . . . .Somalians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, West Africans, South Africans, North Africans. . . .post pictures. Leave us to judge. But there's more to outward appearance that folks should look out for: Inner beauty. And that is not the subject of this discourse, I think.

But how on earth did we allow Villa to come back from 2 goals down?!! Damn!

I'm with Texazzpete on this one. You need to compare ''apple for apple''.

But All said and done, I still fancy my HP Pavillion DV9420US. multiple USB ports, 17'' double lamps at both ends, Windows Aero, extremely powerful web and ''voice'' cams (if there's anything like that) - I mean, folks hear me speak on YIM even when I'm some 3 metres away from the PC.

Now, talk about support, I haven't tried others yet, and I hope I'll never have any reason to, but I think HP has got some of the best hands so far. My 17'' screen came up with a line problem recently, and when I called for help, they came in handy. They requested that I bring the PC to the place of purchase, US, North Carolina. Laptop was under warranty, so they can help fix it for free. I did that, and they changed the screen outright for no fee. Screen is working perfectly now. I don't know about some of you here. But I've had the best deal with this HP laptop.

I see other laptops around. Sony, Dell, Toshiba, Apple. Well I guess they're all good. But I've never had any reason to want to do away with this HP Pavillion DV9420US yet - two years on now, still working perfectly.

Someone said Prof. Osotimehin is better placed as Health minister of the Republic. I know very little or nothing about the man. Can someone come up with his profile? Just for my learing, please.

If he's better than Dora, then let him be there. No wahala.

Now, we have quite a lot of folks from the US, UK, France etc living in Nigeria and they eke out a living in this hell on earth of a place. I once discussed the situation of things here in Naija with one of my UK oga recently.

His position about the situation of things in Port Harcourt: It isn't as bad as they make us believe out there. He's ready to stay. He's comfortable here in spite of everything, why pull out for anything? And I quote him verbatim.

What I'm driving at is this:

Just get your priorities in life right; right from the start. Then head off to get what you want, where ever you are. And while you're at that, remember there isn't any place you can call home, other than home itself.


Now, as per economic downturn forcing people home, well, I have listened out for such news around here. Haven't heard anything like that in a while. Maybe it's the normal ''season's'' rush. And who am I to suddenly jump into conclusion that they're doing that to permanently relocate back to Naija for good?!

For sometime now, I've been reading the pages of the papers about the recent ministerial appointments in Nigeria. I must say I'm dissappointed at the turn of events in the administration of Umoru Musa YarAdua. I had high hopes at the beginning.

Could it be that he's allowed his ''good'' intentions to be hijacked by the hawks? How on earth did he place Dora in the information ministry? How is it that Lucky ''the Edo thief'' Igbinedion is allowed to part with a paltry N3.5 million to get away from the long arms of the law? What's happening to power supply suddenly? We had it so so good a couple of months back. What's going on?!

It's sad to see so many folks here saying they're not bothered about what the CNN came up with. I decided to stop contributing to the Niger Delta issues thread for a while, hoping to see some change and improvement across board. Now see what so-called fellow citizens are saying here.

Debo at least is wise and smart enough to say something soothing. And big ups to CNN. They should continue to show these sort of stuff on TV and in their report as time and opportunity permits. More grease to their elbows for doing a good job of this.

Enuf said on this one. Time to move on to something else.

RichyBlacK:
The OP's view is true only for a fraction of African men, however, her broad generalization, which implies that African men love African culture because it favors them, extinguishes whatever truth the statement was trying to echo. In summary, the statement is false and holds no truth because it is just too broad.

African culture has several components and the different subcultures (by region, ethnic group, nationality, etc.) within what we refer to as African culture put different emphasis on these components:
1. Seniority (wisdom, authority)
2. Communal life (emphasis on being your brother's keeper)
3. Oral traditions (the main conduit of cultural continuity)
4. Family (basic unit of society)
5. Respect for elders (even if the elder has no formal authority)
6. Moral code of conduct (e.g., Omenala in Igbo, the concept of "abomination", etc.)
7. Respect and acknowledgment of the dead (reverence for ancestors)
8. Spirituality (belief in the after life, the supernatural, etc.)
9. God (central to all African subcultures)
10. Patriarchy ("the structuring of society on the basis of family units, where fathers have primary responsibility for the welfare of, and authority over, their families" --Wiki)

Of the ten components of African culture listed above, the OP reasoned that African men that like African culture, only like it for one reason - the patriarchal nature of the culture.

To further stress the absurdity of the OP's assertion, let's focus for a moment on the major monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. These religions, like African culture, all have patriarchy as a major component. Based on the OP's reasoning, any man who loves his religion, only loves it because of the patriarchal nature of the religion.

Logically, the fundamental flaw in this type of reasoning is the assertion of causality - the patriarchal nature of African culture (cause) is the reason African men love African culture (effect). Correlation, a cousin to causality, is easier to establish, however, not even a high correlation is sufficient to establish causality. Causality has to be established either by construction or by a formal/scientific experimental study.

hmnn. . . . . . . you've succeeded in putting together, and in a fancy way, what the rational guys/ladies have been saying ever since. Nice one.

Maybe the menfolks here should just accept what the women want: We like our (African) culture because it ''favors'' us.

Ok. We agree. Now, what next?

For me, I think this (men-women inequality argument stuff) will continue until such a time that it will become glaring to all (men and women alike) that there are certain issues that are better left the way they are. 

ChinenyeN, nice insight.

Maybe Michelin needs be specific here on the African Culture thing. I know that in Ghana, women generally are favoured above men in their homes (and even at that, I still believe they have something to complain about men over there anyways). This is to the extent that children in Ghanaian homes can take on the maiden names of their mum as their surnames or so I think. This culture style is obtainable in some other Arican countries I believe. Today in Liberia, a woman is President of that country. Men aren't complaining, and I guess everyone is happy.

Now, here in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. And it's same in quite a number of African countries. In either case, women generally still complain about men's approach to family issues and life, and men complain about women too.


What I want from Michelin is the type of African culture that she's got some beef with among the two above - from the ''favour'' viewpoint. For me, both men and women win some and lose some in both cases. This should not be another gender war thread!

Weebee,
It's ok. Thanks.

They have been married for 3yrs without a child and they decided to see the Dr. for medical attention. After the tests, they were asked to come back for the result and the man went to get it. The Dr expained to him that he his fertile and can make a woman pregnant but his wife has had abortion more than once and this has completely destroyed her womb, so she could never have a child. Really it was truebecause the lady really had fun when she was single but later changed. Unfortunately, the woman never told her husband about any abortion or her escapades as a single lady.

When the man got home, his wife was really anxious to know the outcome of the result and right from the door the man began to shout sweetheart congratulations i was told nothing is wrong with us that we could have as many children as we want and he took her out that day and bought her presents thanking her for given him children already. The woman was so happy and exactly 3 months after, she got pregnant. It was when the man was holding their son in his arms at the hospital that he told her that the Dr. actually told him that day that she could never be pregnant but he refused to accept his reports and refused to tell her so that she wont destroy his faith. The woman was speechless and with tears she confessed that it was true and thanked her husband for bestowing such undeserved love on her. They now have 2 boys expecting the 3rd. So my dear there is nothing God cannot do. Just be sure you know what you really want.

I know miracles happen, and this might be one of them. But I have my doubts about this one.

duduspace:
And who no fight war before? The Scots and the English or the Irish and the English anyone and even various clans within the Old English tribes such as the Normans and the Saxons abi you no read Ivanhoe? not to mention the Germans and the Austrians as well as the Russians and the balkan states.

But when you mix Hausa, Igbo and Yorubas plus a lot of other languages I can't even begin to count, add religion into the mix, show favouritsm when you are about giving them independence, continue to interfere in their affairs after "leaving" then expect them to start making love and not war.

Whoever thought that up must have been on some strange cocktail of drugs.

Think out of the box my brother, the root cause of our problems is plain to see if you ponder enough, problem is we are content to gloss over it and assume it doesn't matter but until we critically examine those issues and work out our "own" solution rather than all these American and British constitution we have only in writing but not in spirit our problems will remain with us and you and I and possibly our grandchildren will continue to have this conversation.

Bobo Dudu,
Will they listen? These people are content killing each other! How I wish I can turn things around. Must we wait until we finish killing ourselves before we realise the futility of this union, our actions?

When we canvassed that we divide this country along ethnic lines, many of una here say make we sharrapp. See what we're all passing through now because of some useless election in the land of cattle rearers. Election that will bring in people who will share proceeds from oil sales, and not from goat herding.

See how lives are wasted in the streets of Jos over nothing. Both the innocent and guilty are all dying. And like Jakumo said sometime ago, the outside world does not give a . . . . . . . what happens in our hole in there. . . . there are more important things to lookout for elsewhere. The US is in a recession already, why waste precious time filming cattle rearers? goat herders who are tired of life?  This is how some folks killed so many people because of some cartoon in Denmark.

Me, I don tire for this country. And I repeat that we split quick quick. Nothing will happen. Life will go on - smoothly.

Josboy,
The Ikwerres said they're not Igbo - time and again. This is strange, but that's the reality on ground. But the Igbos said they're their kin. Me no understand sha.

No objection. Spot on. Nice analysis.

Why don't I feel like contributing to this topic sef.

1ofall,
I did not know that you're Isoko too. Great. Do.

Ermm, shie gware!!

Me ro N1000 ro ''wedge'' egware na. Wa do o oo. Uyouyou o to ma are kpobi!

eee, I yeee!

Alrite! We're in page 5, the thread is picking up gradually. Ifyalways (please change that name to Ufuoma) I don come back. I was at Owodokpokpo-Igbide some 2 weeks ago for one very important occasion. The road to Iyede, Olomoro, Oleh is still very bad. Uduaghan should please do something about that road.

Obama is President-elect of the US (not news anymore). We Isoko's need to read the significance of that election. Please read the article by Chris Akiri below.
[url]http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article04//indexn2_html?pdate=131108&ptitle=The significance of Obama's victory[/url].

We too can make a difference irrespective of our numbers and position in Nigeria. I believe we're blessed with quite a lot of intellectual people to librate Nigeria from the present shackles of poverty, quagmire and ignorance.

All Isoko folks at home and in the diaspora (including those who can't speak fluently, or can't speak at all) must understand their position in the scheme of things where ever they are. You have to begin to think of how you can contribute to the welfare, growth and progress of the Isoko people in particular and the human race in general

Isoko wa do o o o. Isoko waa je? eeeee, Iyeeeee. Be right back.

We need to tow the line of reasoning of those who said we should pray for Ray Boltz. I think he needs our prayer now, more than ever.

That said, I urge all Christians to take heed now - including myself, for I'm equally prone to derail. Let us pray for one another, wherever we are. We need the Lord now more than ever before.

Ray said in one of his beautiful songs (People Need the Lord) that at the end of a broken dream, that Jesus is the open door. I sing that song back to Ray in my heart now, and I pray the Lord lead him to the right path, when all hope seems lost, and he's going astray. Shalom.

Arrant nonsense. I don't believe the story either.

Is this car sold now?

bagoma,
Erm, lets talk outside of here. . . . at the usual place.