PhysicsHD's Posts
Nairaland Forum › PhysicsHD's Profile › PhysicsHD's Posts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (of 9 pages)
 Politics › Re: Omo Baba Ijebu Sweeps Remo by PhysicsHD: 1:54am On Jan 07, 2011 |
MzD@rkSkin:190's hittin' that? Just like that? Nigeria > Cameroon.  Props to 190. |
| Politics › Re: Witches And Wizards Warn Atiku by PhysicsHD: 1:50am On Jan 07, 2011 |
Ozin:LMAO |
| Culture › Re: Colonial Alaigbo (Igboland) in Pictures by PhysicsHD: 1:18am On Jan 07, 2011 |
Akhenaten:Now this is just too cool. Do people still perform any kind of masquerades using costumes like these today? The Yorubas are still doing gelede, and the Hausas are still doing their horsemanship competitions. It would be a shame if art and tradition this creative was allowed to fade away because of modern lifestyles. 1 Like |
| Culture › Re: Colonial Alaigbo (Igboland) in Pictures by PhysicsHD: 1:11am On Jan 07, 2011 |
Akhenaten:What are the geometric patterns behind him for, and what are they made on (what is the wall behind him made of)? Any ideas? |
| Politics › Re: Buhari Likely To Win Under Free And Fair Election - John Campbell by PhysicsHD: 1:05am On Jan 07, 2011 |
jason123:  |
| Politics › Re: Buhari Likely To Win Under Free And Fair Election - John Campbell by PhysicsHD: 1:01am On Jan 07, 2011 |
Depilot:I said what I meant and I meant what I said. Jonathan's campaign (visits, endorsements, allies) and his non-governmental supporters cut across more ethnic groups, states, and regions, than Buhari's. Buhari is not even more popular among the youth than Ribadu. |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 12:37am On Jan 07, 2011 |
aasog1:Things are often deeper than they appear to be on the surface. I respect that the simplest possible explanation is often the best one (Ockham's razor), but anyone familiar with even a little bit of science would realize that a more complex explanation might actually be superior in explaining a phenomenon than one which appears simpler or straightforward and brief. The relativistic (complex) supplanted the Newtonian (straightforward) world view. The Darwinian (complex) replaced the Lamarckian (straightforward) hypothesis. There are many more examples of this in science. In all things, brevity and simplicity sometimes feature in smarter/better explanations and in smarter/better solutions, but not as a rule. Theres a big difference between the way you argue and the way a business man argues: the difference, business people use more of data rather than florid prosaics like you've conveniently displayed here.I don't know if there have really been any studies done to show blacks are really inherently more risk averse than whites, or Asians more risk averse than whites, or Hispanics more risk-averse than Asians, and so on. I requested such factual based studies but many or most in this thread seem to have taken as a given something which I think may be founded on assuming the simplest explanation (inherent (genetic ? ?) risk-aversion) must be the best explanation for some phenomenon (lack of creative entrepreneurs), when there have not yet been any convincing facts supporting this idea. I think it more logical to suppose that risk aversion is due to greater risk (more to lose, due to one's lack of advantages) than due to one's predecessor's supposed habits. (I don't want this to turn into one of those nature v. nurture discussions, so I'll only say this much.) Honestly if I had been presented with a study or article, I would have attempted to shoot it down and definitely not with florid prose, so I admit I'm not unbiased, but not to the point of masking illogicality under flowery language or ignoring real data and facts. Im not heckling you, only letting you know that no business man reading all the concurrent arguments will have time to go through your unsummarizable expantiations.I write as I think. If businessmen find it too drawn out, it doesn't indicate that there is anything wrong with the quality or content of my explanations. I believe you are either[b] a college professor[/b], million lights away from the average street hawkers whose experience counts but not necessarily more.Lol, definitely not there yet, quite a while away from that, if I do decide to go down that road. The truth with this argument is this:1. The identification of one major thing that affects or causes creativity or creative entrepreneurship is too simple an explanation. There could easily be multiple different, unrelated or possibly interrelated things going right for the West. Africans need to change, but for all you know you need to do much more than change a few big things here and there and you could be chasing shadows (inherent risk aversion, is my idea of a shadow). Simplicity at the cost of being wrong is of no use. 2. There's truckloads of non-creativity in the West. The ratio of copy-cats, stagnant businesses, closed-minded entrepreneurs, risk-averse and content mediocrities to innovators/creators is certainly many many times lower in the West than it is in Nigeria or other developing countries, but we need to stop making the West into such an infallible ideal that we just assume that we are so much less capable because of the unreal extent to which we exalt the West and other places over our own peoples in our minds before we even try to catch up. 3. True. Nigeria has not found a place for real creativity to be rewarded. Not in the universities, not in the buildings/architecture, not in the film industry (see how Senegal rewarded creativity in this department, and produced classics and compare with Nollywood), not anywhere basically. But it's never too late. Black people, Africans, Nigerians, etc. may need to make some serious changes, but I don't know that we are burdened with excessive contentment and low expectations and low aspirations as an inherent characteristic of "Nigerianness" or "Africanness". What happened in the past needs to be put in all of its context and what happens in the future will be different if the real and tangible problems are identified and solved. |
| Celebrities › Re: The Beautiful And Brilliant Deputy Of Ekiti State @ 50; Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka by PhysicsHD: 11:13pm On Jan 06, 2011 |
Atiku's long lost Yoruba brother, or his non-evil twin, creeping up in the background. |
| Politics › Re: Buhari Likely To Win Under Free And Fair Election - John Campbell by PhysicsHD: 11:11pm On Jan 06, 2011 |
It might be true that if Buhari actually won, then the elections were free and fair, but it doesn't follow that if GEJ won that they would not be. What Campbell didn't bother to mention (though he is probably aware, as a very informed outsider) is that Jonathan has far more popularity with the youth and also a much stronger and more widely reaching (to all parts of Nigeria except the "core North") campaign. I would even give the edge to GEJ over Buhari for who is more popular with "the ordinary Nigerian on the street". It's also quite strange to hear an illegal government imposed on Nigeria by a military dictator referred to so positively by a Westerner, but I guess Nigerians allow this by treating a career coupist with kid gloves and giving him a pension. |
| Celebrities › Re: The Beautiful And Brilliant Deputy Of Ekiti State @ 50; Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka by PhysicsHD: 11:01pm On Jan 06, 2011 |
Ileke-IdI:Is it just me or does the guy in the white look somewhat like Atiku? |
| Culture › Re: Colonial Alaigbo (Igboland) in Pictures by PhysicsHD: 10:46am On Jan 06, 2011 |
Akhenaten:Wow. Great picture. @ poster, did you mean to say "colonial" rather than "pre-colonial"? |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 7:18pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
Katsumoto:I meant that more development allows groups the ability to produce individuals that can focus on things/ideas/people other than their immediate needs when I referred to the luxury of being able to indulge in risks/adventures. Of course bold leaps into the unknown can be taken without development, but I'm skeptical of whether formerly war-torn Eastern European countries were producing habitat for humanity volunteers and medical volunteers for third world countries by the bucketful before developing/re-developing merely because they are white. I think to see this kind of thing happen on any large scale you need to come from a developed society. I think many more white volunteers can make a difference because of where their particular families are at economically, socially, etc. I could be wrong. This is probably something that will seem conjectural. It seems like a reasonable enough assumption to me though. You will find Nigerians in all corners of the world but it is usually for educational or economic reasons. More often they are just barely surviving; they are not pace-setters. The simple fact of the matter is that we are risk averse.I think people learn to take more risks as they are in more advantageous positions. Call it a conjecture, but I think I see this repeated worldwide, black or white. People who are just emerging from lower-middle class living or poverty are not risk averse for reasons of having genetically based character flaws, in my opinion. How many kings are in Spain, England, Denmark, Sweden, Saudi Arabia? How many kings were in France? How many emperors did Japan have at a time? The fact of the matter is that strong nations require one leader and not many. Whether there are 300 kings or 20 kings in Nigeria, the fact remains that we have several kings who did not really attempt to assimilate other kingdoms. To make matters worse, there are several ruling houses in the kingdoms in Nigeria. When the House of Lancaster wanted the kingship of England, it challenged and defeated the house of York in what is known as the war of the roses. In case you miss the point I am making, you can understand why Africans are generally risk averse and un-adventurous by understanding the small mindedness of our kings. There were/are far too many small domains in Africa.I really don't see how this is a Caucasian versus non-Caucasian thing then. Mali, Songhai, Ethiopia (Axum, and later Ethiopia), Nubia (Kush --> Makuria), come to mind as counterexamples. The Zulus did exactly what you state needed to be done here by Africans but Zululand was nothing spectacular really in terms of development or advancement. They were in fact strong, however, so the risks Shaka took paid off. The Ashanti Confederacy did likewise and it paid off for a while. The Kingdom of Kongo did likewise. Didn't result in much. I don't know how apt the comparison of Saudia Arabia, Sweden, or Denmark is with Nigeria. I might compare all of those countries to an individual part of Nigeria, given the populations. If I were to compare the process that led to the emergence of one king of Saudia Arabia to the process that led to the emergence of one Sultan of most of Northern Nigeria, I would see not too much significant difference really. I don't see the aptness of the Denmark comparison. Denmark is tiny in population and land and is as homogeneous as the Benin people in Nigeria. Sweden did become quite powerful off of their own initiative, kudos to them, same with France and Spain, but I wouldn't confuse technological might (Spain over Azetcs, Mayas, etc.), much of it actually imported from foreign sources, with the ability of one state to independently and by itself become powerful because of a supposed tendency for risk-taking. The Spanish are noted for bravery, that can't be denied, but what is frequently not noted is how little the tools they used to conquer "inferior" groups like the Mayas, Aztecs, etc., had to do with their own state, it's leadership, or their actual or purported risk-taking tendencies. I think that if I were to ask, which was more important, for Spain to not be isolated from outside sources of technology or for Spain to have risk-taking explorers and leaders, to get to its present position, I would go with the former by a large margin. Another counterexample might be Benin in a sense. They were quite small, but were disproportionately ambitious, if you compare what they tried to do with what groups with similar populations in that same area tried to do. Maybe not ruthlessly ambitious enough to try to force all the groups paying tribute to them into being part of their state through constant warfare though, so I can see the lack of ambition you're referring to, but you have to take factors like lack of technological superiority and size into account. It might be the case that the groups best suited to build a a very large, powerful, centralized and basically homogeneous monarchical state, like the Igbos, have no such inclination, and it might be the case that some small group like the Igala or Nupes are very interested in building powerful states, resulting in the too-many-kings phenomenon that you see as a sign of mediocrity and lack of ambition. Ideally there would have been 3 or 4 "kings" in Nigeria (not 1 or 2), but you have to take other factors about the actual populations into account. And yes, there were not enough large nation states in Africa. That would have made things much simpler, but I don't really agree with the conclusions you're tending towards. I don't really see the purpose of the existence of Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland, etc., if the large unified nations are the ideal towards which whites naturally strive due to the fearless risk-taking nature of their leaders. All these countries can be merged to larger nearby nations or split up between similar people around them and probably should have been conquered long ago by larger mega groups like the Germans and French or Russians already anyways going by some of your reasoning. |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 5:38pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
Katsumoto:I merely wanted to point out that there is the very real possibility that there are probably more rich people (not necessarily millionaires, but there are possibly even more millionaires too) now than previously and possibly a greater percentage of rich people than previously but we wouldn't know because they would necessarily be more obscure just like every brilliant scientist or artist or athlete in modern times will be more obscure and less great seeming than the established giants in their fields. No way to know without numbers and information though. So it does remain a conjecture. Regardless of numbers, your basic assessment is right though. The richest in our time are crooks or corrupt businessmen, while the richest in the 50s/60s were hard working pioneers. |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 4:05pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
4. Please find Nigerians today who can compare to these past Nigerians - Sir Odumeghu Ojukwu, Sanusi Dantata, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, S. L. Edu, Emmanuel Akwiwu, Odutola, Ade Tuyo. Don't mention individuals who derived their wealth from stolen funds and monopolies protected by successive governments.I honestly couldn't. Not because I don't know any that can compare but because I really don't know the assets and wealth of many of the big names you hear about today nor do I know the wealth of many of the owners of companies in Nigeria today that you don't hear about. I'm actually quite sure there are a lot of legitimate Nigerian millionaires around, but the idea I was bringing into consideration is this: Are we sure we are not claiming that the first few great pioneers in an area (being a millionaire/being a business mogul) are vastly superior and the only real examples of their type (great business moguls/millionaires) when in fact, their modern-day equivalents or even superiors (in terms of relative wealth) are spread about more evenly and are more numerous but must necessarily be less noticeable and less glaring and famous than their predecessors were because of the different nature of the playing field today? I suspect this is really the case. There are certain select parts of a long passage by James Gleick, in his biography of Richard Feynman, that convey what I'm saying here a bit more clearly, lucidly, and beautifully, though this deals with "genius" (you can put in business genius/creativity here): "There was only one Einstein. For schoolchildren and neuropsychologists alike, he stood as an icon of intellectual power. He seemed - but was this true? - to have possessed a rare and distinct quality, genius as an essence, not a mere statistical extremum on a supposed bell-curve of intelligence. This was the conundrum of genius. Was genius truly special? Or was it a matter of degree - a miler breaking 3:50 rather than 4:10? (A shifting bell-curve, too: yesterday's record-setter, today's also-ran.) " "When otherwise sober scientists speak of the genius as magician, wizard, or superhuman, are they merely indulging in a flight of literary fancy? When people speak of the borderline between genius and madness, why is it so evident what they mean? And a question that has barely been asked (the where-are-the-.400-hitters question): Why, as the pool of available humans has risen from one hundred million to one billion to five billion, has the production of geniuses - Shakespeares, Newtons, Mozarts, Einsteins - seemingly choked off to nothing, genius itself coming to seem like the property of the past?" "By understanding genius, rationalizing it, celebrating it, and teasing out its mechanisms, perhaps they could make the process of discovery and invention less accidental. In later times that motivation has not disappeared. More overtly than ever, the nature of genius - genius as the engine of scientific discovery - has become an issue bound up with the economic fortunes of nations. Amid the vast modern network of universities, corporate laboratories, and national science foundations has arisen an awareness that the best financed and best organized of research enterprises have not learned to engender, perhaps not even to recognize, world-turning originality." "Literary and music theory, and the history of science as well, lost interest not only in the old-fashioned sports-fan approach - Homer versus Virgil - but also in the very idea of genius itself as a quality in the possession of certain historical figures. Perhaps genius was an artifact of a culture's psychology, a symptom of a particular form of hero worship. Reputations of greatness come and go, after all, propped up by the sociopolitical needs of an empowered sector of the community and then slapped away by a restructuring of the historical context. The music of Mozart strikes certain ears as evidence of genius, but it was not always so - critics of another time considered it prissy and bewigged - nor will it always be. In the modern style, to ask about his genius is to ask the wrong question. Even to ask why he was "better" than, say, Antonio Salieri would be the crudest of gaffes. A modern music theorist might, in his secret heart, carry an undeconstructed torch for Mozart, might feel the old damnably ineffable rapture; still he understands that genius is a relic of outmoded romanticism. Mozart's listeners are as inextricable a part of the magic as the observer is a part of the quantum-mechanical equation. Their interests and desires help form the context without which the music is no more than an abstract sequence of notes - or so the argument goes. Mozart's genius, if it existed at all, was not a substance, not even a quality of mind, but a byplay, a give and take within a cultural context. How strange, then, that coolly rational scientists should be the last serious scholars to believe not just in genius but in geniuses; to maintain a mental pantheon of heroes;" "Meanwhile, before their eyes, the world has grown too vast and multifarious for the towering genius of the old kind. Artists struggle to keep their heads above the tide. Norman Mailer, publishing yet another novel doomed to fall short of ambitions formed in an earlier time, notices: "There are no large people any more. I've been studying Picasso lately and look at who his contemporaries were: Freud, Einstein." He saw the change in his own lifetime without understanding it. (Few of those looking for genius understood where it had gone.) He appeared on a literary scene so narrow that conventional first novels by writers like James Jones made them appear plausible successors to Faulkner and Hemingway. He slowly sank into a thicket of hundreds of equally talented, original, and hard-driving novelists, each just as likely to be tagged as a budding genius. In a world into which Amis, Beckett, Cheever, Drabble, Ellison, Fuentes, Grass, Heller, Ishiguro, Jones, Kazantzakis, Lessing, Nabokov, Oates, Pym, Queneau, Roth, Solzhenitsyn, Theroux, Updike, Vargas Llosa, Waugh, Xue, Yates, and Zoshchenko - or any other two dozen fiction writers - had never been born, Mailer and any other potential genius would have had a better chance of towering. In a less crowded field, among shorter yardsticks, a novelist would not just have seemed bigger. He would have been bigger." ""Giants have not ceded to mere mortals," the evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould wrote in an iconoclastic 1983 essay. "Rather, the boundaries, have been restricted and the edges smoothed." He was not talking about algae, artists, or paleontologists but about baseball players. Where are the .400 hitters? Why have they vanished into the mythic past, when technical skills, physical conditioning, and the population on which organized baseball draws have all improved? his answer: Baseball's giants[b] have dwindled into a more uniform landscape. Standards have risen. The distance between the best and worst batters, and between the best and worst pitchers, has fallen.[/b] Gould showed by statistical analysis that the extinction of the .400 hitter was only the more visible side of a general softening of extremes: the .100 hitter has faded as well. The best and worst of all come closer to the average. Few fans like to imagine that Ted Williams would recede toward the mean in the modern major leagues, or that the overweight, hard-drinking Babe Ruth would fail to dominate the scientifically engineered physiques of his later competitors, or that dozens of today's nameless young base-stealers could outrun Ty Cobb, but it is inevitably so. Enthusiasts of track and field cannot entertain the baseball fan's nostalgia; their statistics measure athlete against nature instead of athlete against athlete, and the lesson from decade to decade is clear. There is such a thing as progress. Nostalgia conceals it while magnifying the geniuses of the past." "Of course genius is exceptional and statistics-defying. Still, the modern would-be Mozart must contend with certain statistics: that the entire educated population of eighteenth-century Vienna would fit into a large New York apartment block; that in a given year the United States Copyright Office registers close to two hundred thousand "works of the performing arts," from advertising jingles to epic tone poems. Composers and painters now awake into a universe with a nearly infinite range of genres to choose from and rebel against. Mozart did not have to choose an audience or style. His community was in place. Are the latter-day Mozarts not being born, or are they all around, bumping shoulders with one another, scrabbling for cultural scraps, struggling to be newer than new, their stature inevitably shrinking all the while?" |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 3:56pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
Katsumoto:Well, I think going to the UK or US is also a matter of going to where their family and relatives abroad are located. You also have to consider that in terms of entertainment, the US is far superior to almost every other country, but most importantly, the US and the UK speak and write in English, the official language of Nigeria. There are many Nigerians who go to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, in addition to the US and UK in order to eke out a living or for education, but sometimes only for holiday (well probably not Ireland, Saudia Arabia or Canada), and take the risk of enduring racism, humiliation (for being Nigerian), religious discrimination, crime, or the inability to integrate into or not be an outcast in their host societies, because they know such risks are better than staying in a bad or deteriorating situation in Nigeria. I've met multiple Nigerian Americans with relatives serving in the U.S. military, so that is an example of being in places where they can be killed, but yes by and large Nigerians don't intentionally run near death. The main thing to consider here is that volunteering is a luxury and volunteering in unsafe areas is an even greater luxury. People from places where foreigners might come in and volunteer to help development or help the sick are not really going to go to volunteer to help in Iraq or Afghanistan or China in significant numbers. I would consider Nigeria to be one of those places. The back-packing thing also seems like a luxury thing to me and also a cultural thing. But I guess you mean here that hiking and outdoorsy activities are evidence of a more bold and risk-taking culture. I'm not too sure of that. When you live in a highly developed artificial city all of your life, going up a mountain or deep into a forest is like an exaggerated way to realize the desire of experiencing "nature" or something "new". It all seems like the kind of indulgence born out of development rather than any intrinsic characteristic. Afterall, when the European age of exploration started only certain nations among the white race (the developed/most advanced nations) had the luxury and the desire to pursue something "new." The rest of them were doing nothing as far as adventure and were rather insular. I also think some of the more advanced or courageous nations amongst blacks took some risks too. 2. People are inspired by what their parents did. In western europe, you find individuals who continually strive to compete with what was achieved by their fore-bearers. What are the rich people doing in Nigeria if not having or trying to have intimacy. Little wonder that Nigeria has become a decadent society with old pot-bellied men sleeping with girls young enough to be their grand kids. Even young guys have caught that bug. They make small dough and immediately spend it drinking and paying for sex.I guess so. I think there are some things that do inspire modern Nigerians. In the North, dan Fodio inspires both Islamist radicals and legitimate Arabic scholars and scholars of Islam. In the south, you find a great interest in art, history, and literature, based on the history of their forefathers but a poverty of interest in pure science. I'm sure this would have been quite different if there had been many early pioneering Nigerian scientists who made landmark, world-class discoveries/innovations, etc. such as in China or India. With business, if there had been several large, world-class companies, industries, etc. the same would apply. It's never too late to lay the foundation, and in this regard I once again have to bring up the issue of groups like the Jews. Maybe they are too unique a group to be a good reference point, but it seems that their forefathers were moral scholars, prophets, religious fanatics, martyrs, dream interpreters, etc. but they didn't need to look at their ancestors' history to tell them what they needed to focus on to succeed in Europe. They focused on finance and economics and on science, despite having no history to inspire them in such directions and they did wonderfully after adapting. 3. History suggests that expansionist states were successful even though all empires will crumble eventually. Having 300 kings in a place like Nigeria suggests that the individuals at that time did not really have any grand ideas. They were content with their little villages. England and Wales were under one Saxon king before William the conqueror in 1066. Scotland was conquered several times before the Acts of Union in 1707. The picts did not become extinct; they became assimilated by a superior group and their language died. Did the Cornish people of Cornwall become extinct or their language did?Well I don't really believe the 300 kings thing, so maybe you can mention some of the kings you're talking about . Every ethnic group and sub-ethnic group may have later allocated itself a king or exalted a community elder to a king due to politics introduced by the British but I don't think there were ever anything like up 30 kings in Nigeria. I think Kanem-Bornu, Sokoto, Oyo, and Benin did have grandiose plans, but you seem to be saying that because they didn't conquer enough, that they should be considered failures in certain aspects. You might be right. However, I think this suggests a lack of superior technology and numbers, rather than outright aversion to risk or unwillingness to expand due to contentment. One other thing to consider, however, is that most places in Nigeria that could be called states were more like city-states. The situation was more like that of the various Greek city-states rather than like one where there is only Rome and Carthage or only Britain and Ireland. I don't think the Greeks were averse to risk or unadventurous before Alexander the Great, though. Scotland was invaded and routed at some important battles, but I'm not sure they were ever really conquered by England. And yes Wales and England were one, but the Welsh never stood a chance for resisting off sheer numbers alone. They're a small group. You're right on the Picts, my mistake. The Cornish people did not get fully absorbed, as I understand it. Just many of them. |
| Culture › Re: Heartbreaking POWA ad. by PhysicsHD: 1:55pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
Tragic. Domestic abuse is probably one of humanity's oldest crimes, and in 2010/2011, it seems communities are still unwilling to intervene in any kind of disturbance. Reminds me of that story of a woman being assaulted while tons of bystanders just watched or walked by in New York. Or another story about that old man (in America) who was lying in the cold for hours while people just walked by. I don't think this double standard- the willingness to object to or intervene in problems that affect you directly and immediately while ignoring those that do not out of apathy or indifference or fear- is a cultural problem. I think it is a human problem, but it's unfortunate that this behavior extends to domestic abuse. People should at least call the police if they're scared of the attacker in the home (people have been killed in domestic disputes). This sort of thing should not be seen as a normal or acceptable occurrence in any society. |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 1:02pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
Then of course there's Kunle Olukotun, who's company was bought for millions by Sun Microsystems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afara_Websystems That's innovative enough. But this thread was about creative Nigerian entrepreneurs, not creative American entrepreneurs. |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 12:56pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
From the linkedin dot com profile for J.A. Edosomwan. It seems he may be painting a comically over glorified picture of himself on his linkedin profile but I visited his company's website and he seems legit:Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Summary Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan is the Chairman and CEO for JJA CONSULTANTS, Inc., the Chairman and General Manager for the Johnson A. Edosomwan, LLC, and the Group Chairman for C.I.C. His is an executive consultant to over 6000+ public- and private-sector organizations. He has completed over 1300+ consulting projects, developed 630+ performance improvement tools, and trained over 290,000+ executives, leaders, and professionals around the world. He is a pioneer in continuous performance improvement and author of over 66 books and 325 papers including the most recent books, “World-Class Leadership Competencies” and “One Race: Human Diversity Solutions”. Dr. Edosomwan is the recipient of 175+ awards, honors, citations, fellowships, and commendations, including the following: “Men of Achievement in the World”; “Who’s Who of Intellectuals”; “Who’s Who of Intellectual Distinguished Leadership”; “Personalities of the Americas”; “Who’s Who in Technology/Innovation”; “5000 Personalities of the World”; Fellow, IIE, ISPQR, Paul Harris, EBAT®, Social Science Research Council, NIOSH, Burger King; “IIE Technical Innovations Award”; “Outstanding Young Engineer”; “Innovative Business Entrepreneur”; “IIE Pride Award”; and the IIE Electronic Industry Division Award”. He is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, Alpha Pi Mu, and Sigma Xi honorary societies. Dr. Edosomwan is the holder of over 16 certifications in several academic disciplines and holds the following degrees: B.S.I.E. and M.S.I.E., University of Miami; P.Engr., Columbia University; and Doctorate of Science in Engineering Management/Economics, George Washington University. Dr. Edosomwan is the founder of the University of Miami, Johnson A. Edosomwan Leadership Institute. The following awards were established by University of Miami in his name: Johnson A. Edosomwan Productivity and Quality Scholarship Award, Johnson A. Edosomwan Researcher of the Year Award, Johnson A. Edosomwan Scholarly Productivity Award. Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Specialties: Executive Coaching, Leadership, Performance Improvement, Customer Service, Process Re-engineering, Baldridge, Diversity and Strategic Planning Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Experience Owner JJA Consultants, Inc. (Management Consulting industry) Currently holds this position Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Education Columbia University - Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science Professional Degree , Engineering The George Washington University Doctorate of Science , Engineering University of Miami Masters of Science , Industrial Engineering University of Miami Bachelors of Science , Industrial Engineering |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 12:48pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
SEFAGO:There might not be enough creative entrepreneurs in Nigeria relative to the population of Nigeria, but I'm not too sure about this claim about Nigerians abroad. On linkedin dot com searches of common Nigerian names, I do come across owners of companies in both the US and the UK. The question then might be, how big these companies are (how successful), which is a whole different thing. One example that comes to mind is Kase Lawal. But then again that's oil money, and is thus "irrelevant" to this discussion of creative entrepreneurs. Examples of Nigerians with creative entrepreneurship abroad that I can think of are Nosa Omoigui, Kingsley Idehen, and Johnson Edosomwan. But their companies might be too small to merit being considered within the context of this discussion. I really don't have a definite grasp of how big their companies are, but they're probably much smaller than the companies being previously discussed. Anyways, when you consider the fact these three people are all from one small population (from one city, actually), I'm certain that within the population of the rest of Nigeria there will almost certainly be many times more creative entrepreneurs to be found abroad. Regardless, the real problem though, is the much larger problem of Nigerians in Nigeria, not those in diaspora. And anyways, the establishment of a large Nigerian diaspora significant enough in size to have entrepreneurs here and there is a kind of recent thing (late 1980s onwards). The majority of Nigerians abroad are just students or non-business man/woman professionals whose children are students. The parents, or the students, should take a hint from the Westerners in their immediate environments and start up creative, innovative businesses, but that's a LOT easier said than done. It's a lot easier to just go through life with the rest of the herd. |
| Culture › Re: Fattening Rooms Of Calabar by PhysicsHD: 12:02pm On Jan 05, 2011 |
Old news. Interesting perspective on fatness from this culture. A bridge into the past of all humanity, when plumpness was preferred by all. Not that I agree with it though. |
| Politics › Re: The Politics In Integration (Nigerian Free Dating Site) by PhysicsHD: 11:39am On Jan 05, 2011 |
For Ireland, I can't remember the book I read it in just now, but I'll look for the quote again. As for the Spaniards, this gives a pretty good summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Prisoner_Letter |
| Politics › Re: When Oil Finishes, What Next? by PhysicsHD: 11:25am On Jan 05, 2011 |
careytommy:What does this even mean? Anyways, you probably mixed up the Itsekiris with the Yorubas. An understandable mistake if that's the case. |
| Nairaland General › Re: znsbsbabahahBHhzhahzbzbsb by PhysicsHD: 10:16am On Jan 05, 2011 |
This is sickening. I think invading this region and inflicting much worse than what was carried out in the Niger Delta on any suspected militants is necessary. This unending crisis is even more important than the Abuja bombings. |
| Politics › Re: Mess With A Ghanaian Mans Gurl And Catch 30 Hot Slugs To The Butt by PhysicsHD: 10:11am On Jan 05, 2011 |
This man is incomprehensibly hideous. That's world class ugliness right there. How on earth was he married in the first place? Sorry for the poor couple that lost their lives and especially the woman, first having to be married to that thing and then getting murdered by it. |
| Politics › Re: Why Does Nigeria Lack Creative Entrepreneurs by PhysicsHD: 10:02am On Jan 05, 2011 |
Katsumoto: 2. Finance is not readily available; how do you make a profit if you have to finance your project at 22%. The net present value of your project will most certainly be negative if you use the standard term of 30 yearsGood point. This is definitely one of the most important factors. 4. Risk aversion and complacency - Caucasians usually take risks with their lives; when you can do that, take risks on your finances is not such a daunting task. This is one of the biggest factors and can usually be traced back to our forefathers who didn't really build empires. There is one Queen in England but there are over 300 kings in Nigeria. An ambitious king should have aggregated all the small and distinct kingdoms in Nigeria. Similar to what occurred in Europe. The desire to conquer or prevent being conquered led many European states to become creative and innovative. In Africa, our fore-fathers had so much time on their hands that they just had many kids.Do Caucasians usually take more risks? Have some studies been done (not a rhetorical question, because psychological or economic studies certainly could be done to determine this) to support this idea convincingly? I doubt that the ability of one's forefathers to build or not build empires is a significant factor in creative entrepreneurship. What empires did the Jews/Israelites build? Yet they are some of the most creative businesspeople on the planet. Just look at Mark Zuckerberg. As for Nigeria having 300 kings, I'm not too sure about that. There are only a few real kings in Nigeria, in the proper use of the term. The rest are really the equivalents of dukes, counts, barons, priests of traditional religions, etc. and a few are even just recently (after British establishment of warrant chiefs/colonization or maybe even post-independence) self-proclaimed monarchies. And some Nigerian societies did not have the inclination towards monarchy so empire building could not even have arisen. Those that did have such an inclination did not brutally oppress the territories they ruled over like the English wanted to do to the Irish and Scottish. So I guess your message is that groups with military advantages were not ruthless enough or lacked sufficient ruthless ambition to create a superior kind of state, but this might be a good thing, otherwise some Nigerian peoples might have become as extinct as the Picts. I think the extreme cultural/political division of Nigeria should not be seen as a result of the failure of the kingdoms that existed to overrun their neighbors but as a natural (and not necessarily unfortunate) and unchangeable fact of life. I also believe the emergence of one supreme ruler in places like Turkey, Iran, Britain, Mali, Ethiopia, does not indicate a superior ability of those peoples to take risks. I don't think that the fact that there is one Sultan of a large Caliphate, and the fact that the rest of the political leaders know that they are only emirs or waziris and don't dare call themselves sultans, suggests that the Hausa-Fulanis would be more gifted in creative entrepreneurship than their southern neighbors. The English/Scottish/Welsh only came to have one king/queen over a large (not that large physically, actually) domain in the 18th century with the unifications, but the Hausa-Fulani were only a century behind them in this regard. Yet there has been a world of difference between the entrepreneurship drive, creative or not, between these groups for multiple centuries and up to this day. 5. Crab mentality - Most Africans tend not to support one another. There are often instances of family members who go out of their ways to prevent another family member from succeedingToo true. 6. Laziness - Some Nigerians want the champagne lifestyle but are not ready to put in the hard work required and are not even patient enough to be successful without resorting to dubious means. Drug pushers, kidnappers, ritualists, politicians come to mind. Also, people that you employ are ready to rip you off. I know one hotel in Lagos where the attendants give you 70% discount as long as you pay into their pockets instead of into the books. If you open a shop and are not present, the shop assistants will bring in their products to sell while your inventory remains static. Many Nigerians accept this because they are looking for bargains then complain when they become victims.Wow @ that Lagos story. 7. Unstable political climate - IBB, Atiku, OBJ, GEJ and many othersSomehow I suspect that this doesn't have to much to do with it. This might affect foreign investment, but indigenous creativity should not necessarily be hampered by this. 8. Crude oil - Nigeria had more legitimate millionaires before the discovery of oil than it currently has. People are so dependent on contracts associated with the oil industry that they refuse to be creative and innovativeDid Nigeria really have more legitimate millionaires? Or just more people who were famous for being business moguls/millionaires because being one was a greater rarity at that time? Or maybe you mean a higher ratio of millionaires to non-millionaires, in which case you're almost certainly right. The ratio of poor people and non-rich people who never became rich to people who became millionaires is probably greater now than during the 50s/60s, but maybe that's only natural and not evidence of some major failure. Also, before the discovery of oil, a "naira" was equal to a dollar, right? Then earning a million naira made one a millionaire. While prices have been adjusted (e.g. paying 1500 naira for one small meal at some cheap restaurant), to match the change in the naira's worth, it's not certain that people aren't paying less because the prices for every product and service have not been adequately adjusted (raised) to what they should be to make companies wealthier, while still keeping their prices low enough to be competitive. Of course this would be the fault of the companies themselves but the point is maybe all this relative cheapness of products and services on the part of companies is significantly decreasing profits. Just an idea. |
| Politics › Re: Let's Have Your Complaints Here by PhysicsHD: 9:07am On Jan 05, 2011 |
PhysicsMHD:I feel your pain son. I feel your pain. Stay strong and keep hope alive. |
| Politics › Re: Senator Jibril Aminu - True Federation, Federalism, Okah Agenda, It’s Nonsense by PhysicsHD: 8:50am On Jan 05, 2011 |
Kilode?!:lol |
| Career › Re: edit by PhysicsHD: 8:47am On Jan 05, 2011 |
There are several professions that are harder than medicine, in terms of thinking. And there are only certain areas of medicine where choices have life and death consequences or similar risk. |
| Career › Re: edit by PhysicsHD: 8:42am On Jan 05, 2011 |
I think the somewhat unspecific terms "IT" and "Medicine" are making this a misleading and ultimately worthless comparison and thread. |
| Politics › Re: Saleha Huuda Dead: University Of Florida Found Dead In Brush Fire by PhysicsHD: 8:34am On Jan 05, 2011 |
rip |
