₦airaland Forum

It is socially incorrect to refuse a handshake, and it is standard business etiquette to conclude a business transaction with handshakes...it is like an unspoken sign of concordance. Even in church, especially for the Catholics, there is a particular time at their 'Holy Mass' when worshipers are expected to shake hands.

So inevitably it is almost impractical to 'dodge' handshakes. But personally, I impose a very strict regime of personal hygiene to mitigate the effects of contacting infections through these handshakes. After shaking hands, I never do anything else with my hands until I have washed them (not even putting them in my pockets). And if for any reason, I had to handle my phone before washing my hands, as soon as I have the opportunity, I disinfect both my hands and my phone. That is why I consciously always handle other people's phones and remote control with my left hand, because I always clean mine. I do the same for the steering wheel as well. So as you can see, you can still shake hands (and remain socially correct) without contacting an infection.

[quote author=Donalð Genes]Just passing oh[/quote]...it is either you are very good at Photoshop or...this is a miracle!

OP, sorry to say this but, I don't know what your experiences are but I think you are being very subjective. If you live in Italy you must have noticed how difficult things are for the Italians and even for the rest of Europe. They are now pinching pennies and do not have the type of resources they used to have to spend on social services again. Hence they are trying to manage illegal immigration as best as they can. In fact the Italians are probably one of the most liberal towards illegal immigrants. If you were in Cities like Rome or Florence, you must have noticed all the Senegalese guys on the street selling counterfeit bags close to High-street fashion stores. Once in a while the police comes to chase them away, but besides that, nothing else happens to them even though they are all illegal immigrants.
In fact from time to time the Italian government takes it upon itself to absorb this class of people into their society but granting them resident permits.

With regards to the Anti-immigration party, I will say there are Anti-immigration leaning parties everywhere...check out the Golden Dawn in Greece, that is even going as far as physically attacking foreigners. Yet we can't accuse all Greeks of being racists, because even the Greek authorities are currently clamping down on the activities of this group of people, and the average Greek wants to have nothing to do with them. Hence, I think it is unfair to accuse the Italians being racists because of the Northern League. The truth is, there are racists everywhere...even on Nairaland.


When I applied for my very first Italian visa, I was living in Kiev hence, I applied there. When I went to the Embassy, I showed the Carabinieri (Police) guy at the gate my documents, and he was very excited because, he said I was going to study in his hometown and he chatted with me for quite a while. And that is the kind of treatment I got from all the other embassy staff, through out my visa application process, they were all very courteous. So if the embassy here in Lagos is disorganized, it is because our own government officials are not performing their duties, by ensuring that Nigerians get good quality service at all the Foreign embassies in Nigeria.

Personally, I had a great time living in Italy and I made great friends there as well, looking forward to my next visit.

If this fellow was such a good hacker, why has he chosen an easy target? He should be flexing his muscles with the Chinese or even with the Russians after-all they have more stringent anti-gay laws than Nigeria does.

AjanleKoko: I need a developer who is really good with Adobe Flash, interactive touch screen apps for mobile OS (Android and WinCE 5.0).
Send me a PM if you are good enough, and are up for some pp

Why not hire a professional on People Per Hour? The rates are very good and you get to pick from a pool of experienced professionals (unless of course you want to meet the developer in person).

I think they should restrict these new charges to only Private Jets because theirs is a luxury service and they can afford to pay to keep enjoying that service no matter what. I think Commercial Airlines should be exempted since they are offering an essential service. That said, I think it is irresponsible for the operators to threaten to relocate to Ghana. If they can't find a more diplomatic way of resolving this, they should just relocate quietly, instead of making a show of it. They must also bear in mind that they will be loosing at least 70 percent of their current business by doing so.

Generally speaking, I think the owners of all the shopping malls in Abuja need to step up their security. The Shoprite building in Abuja is a sitting duck. It has too many design flaws that makes it very vulnerable to attacks, I spotted them the very day it opened. Cars are allowed to park too close to the building itself. And even the main entrance into the place is wide open without metal detectors or any form of security check. People just stroll in and out like a roadside market

Ceddi Plaza is also unsafe to some extent; especially when using the side entrance from the car park outside. The security guys there are more interested in profusely 'greeting' visitors to get tips, than they are about the security of the place. I also think they need to work on the security at the basement car park. People just park their cars and walk in without any form of check.

Silverbird Galleria seems to be the safest at the moment, but they also need to keep a close eye on their side entrance.

Hey, do you have a website or catalogs? We might have need for this on a project we are currently designing.

O.P., I agree with you 200 per cent! I think this is a general problem around the world today. People hear a dictum or maxim and then the next thing is to start using it carelessly. In my opinion, the question we should have asked is... What is the context in which the words (no knowledge is wasted) were first spoken?

This is because there are several notorious maxims like the one above, being daily bandied around without having any correlation to the context in which they were first used. It is also important to note that just because these maxims are been used every day and almost by everyone for decades doesn't in any way make them logical.

If you were in the Architecture and Design industry you probably would have also heard notorious maxims like "Form Follows Function". This has even used by Design professors around the world for well over Ninety years now. In the course of my research, I found so many holes in that maxim. First the phrase was misquoted and secondly the context in which it was used then, is difficult to align with how it is been used today. In fact as part of a larger body of work, I have only recently written a 5000 word polemics on the irrelevance of this same maxim- Form follow Function.

So in essence, with regards to the maxim- No knowledge is wasted, we must look for the context in which it was first spoken before ascribing any meaning to it. But on its face-value, it think it is absolute nonsense. For instance, in the early days of the craze for Oracle, CCNA and other computer Certifications, I had associates who graduated as Civil Engineers and while they were waiting to go for service and even while job-hunting, enrolled for and took a handful of these certifications. I was disgusted then because I knew, they will never be able to use them; and till this day they have never used those certifications and will never use them because they are full time Civil Engineers. Imagine if they had used half of the resources and time they had then to enroll for classes on Building Information Modelling programs like Revit Architecture, Bentley etc, won't they be standing well above their peers in the industry today?

That said, I still think it is good for people to casually study about different subjects just for the sake of general knowledge, without expecting any gratification on account of this. The mere knowledge they have acquired in the process should be enough gratification.

The problem we usually have is when people aggressively veer off their professional mark to go speculate in other parallel professional terrains acquiring knowledge they don't need, wasting time they don't have.

I honestly can't believe all that I have read here this evening. Imagine thieving politicians using public funds to sponsor political parties and political factions and yet all we can do is to come here and engage one another in 'E-fisticuffs' over which of them is right or wrong. Are we truly this stupid?

This is exactly what pickpockets do at motor parks; Nigerian politicians simply create a smokescreen and while Nigerians are engaging one another in a Pro and Anti PDP or APC shouting match. These same people they are fighting over will be fast at work picking our pockets. Only to reconvene in the evening to reconcile and munch happily on the day's loot.

naijababe: I am not so sure, what is considered a healthy mixed economy of China today was driven mostly by Deng Xiaoping and to some extent by Chairman Mao. The former saw the need to move away from hardcore communism as you put it. Russia is still bogged down by it, in fact if not for their military might, they'd be inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

I honestly don't think we understand the responsibilities of being in power in Africa, we seem to be only enamoured by the trappings and the largesse we can corner for ourselves.

Yes I agree with you but, in terms of ideology, China still insists it is a communist state, but in actual practice what we see everyday is that they are sliding daily into a Capitalist state. But my suspicion is that they have deliberately kept the 'communist' facade so that they can easily crush dissidents and pro-democracy campaigners without attracting much attention.

Surprising Russia is a lot more capitalist in practice than most outsiders know. Having observed things up close there for a while, I have come to conclude that the country is only taking on the persona of the man in charge at any given time. Remember when Medvedev was President (even though Putin still pulled the strings a little) somehow there was a semblance of decorum in Russia and it was easier for the West to deal with Russia. But now that Putin is fully in charge again as President, it is evident that his utterances and posture are still reminiscent of the days of Stalin. I think he is also doing that to keep political opponents under his grip.

About whether we understand the responsibilities of being in power in Africa; I think most of our leaders are simply too mentally lazy to to think beyond their pot bellies. Some of these guys in government have never even held a good job in their life before. I know people who went straight from Student Union politics to become Councillors and from there kept going up the political ladder without ever having to earn a single 'private' kobo in their life. They see nothing outside politics so they simply grab everything within reach, including government cutleries and kitchen utensils (by the way, I am not exaggerating).

homesteady: Mr. James Madugba, said that the
allegation could not be true.
Madugba said: “I am speaking authoritatively, it
is impossible to penetrate the female cell,

/

Of Course! It is impossible to penetrate the female cell.

naijababe: True that.....I read communism and the next thing that floats in my head is China and Russia, especially, the latter before and just after the cold war. Communism in Africa I am afraid will be Animal Farm proper.

Somehow, I am almost tempted to say that Communism could have been the best system for Africa in the immediate years after Independence. And probably if not for the western-sponsored assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the system in Congo then could have evolved from hardcore communism into a healthy mixed-economy (or whatever they call it)that China has today. In those days, the western propaganda made all communists look like villains, hence it was like a tar brush and very few people wanted to be associated with it.

....Hmm! Architects in Nigeria, where do we even start? The problem with Architects and Architecture in Nigeria is multi-faceted but they are almost all connected. First, the Architecture Education curriculum in Nigeria is very archaic; hence most Nigerian Architects are only giving back what they were given in Architecture school. They go in with a lot of enthusiasm and creative imagination but by the time they graduate, they probably would have lost all of that. I think it won’t be out of place to say American modernist Architect Louis Sullivan was referring to Nigerian Architecture schools when he said…

“How strange it seems that education, in practice, so often means suppression: that instead of leading the mind outward to the light of day it crowds things in upon it that darken and weary it. Yet evidently the true object of education, now as ever, is to develop the capabilities of the head and of the heart”.
-Louis H. Sullivan

It is scandalous for a Nigerian Architecture student to be forced to take courses like Computer science 101 and 201, where he is taught programming languages like Visual Basic, things he will probably never use. Yet he is only taught CAD programs like AutoCAD in his third or even fourth year in some schools- all on the blackboard of course (save for occasional demonstrations on the computer). So after graduation he now has to start learning how to use softwares that should have been part of his Architecture education in the first place.

Secondly, If any Architecture student were to present the designs like that of the Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort you posted above, the student will simply be told by his lecturers that; “my friend, these design cannot work”. Unfortunately, these lecturers are also products of the very crude Architecture educational system in Nigeria and are probably too lazy to add value to what they have learnt; as we speak only very few of them today have CAD knowledge. Hence they cannot give what they do not have. Unfortunately, these are the same set of Architects working as Bureaucrats in Development Control Departments responsible for approving building plans so when you show up there with these type of design they will also tell you; ” it can’t work”.

Another challenge is that of materials and technical expertise. Nigerian Engineers are also not insulated from the obsolete technical educational system in the country; hence, if you are not hiring Julius Berger to work on this project for you then, you must be ready to fly in consultants from overseas to do so.
Building material is also a very big problem for Architects here in Nigeria. Their choices are very limited. Lets say for instance you have a design that requires the use of large single sheets of double-glazed glass of say (3 X 4) metres, there is nowhere in Nigeria you will get that, not to even talk of using sheets of curved glass as could have been used above. You will probably have to import everything.

The worst thing to have happened to Architecture in Nigeria is the NIA-Nigerian Institute of Architects. They have failed in their oversight duties in ensuring that Architecture Education is up to date. The organization is simply stagnant save for the poorly organized Archibuilt they organize every year, they are hardly visible in the National scheme of things, and have never deemed it fit to lobby government to improve Architecture Education….. yet as far as I can remember, there is hardly any time in recent History that they haven’t had at least three Architects on the Federal Executive Council.

delors: If there was no money for research, ASUU would have gone on strike for that purpose alone or betterstill, claim that the present strike is because there is no fund for quality research. We all know the present strike is a result of the lecturers' demands for salaries and arrears...not research funds. i think our so called lecturers have misplaced their priorities and they do not care for the students. They form the bulk of the problems we have in that sector truly. i can list their faults:
1. No improved teachings (same old things), no research
2. They do not encourage the students, they exploit them and paint a bleak future (some of my highly trained lecturers did that).
3. they sell copy-and-paste, buy-and-pass handouts to students
4. They exploit the students monetarily and sexually
The list goes on.

Lets even just imagine for a brief moment that the funding they are getting from the government is not enough for their research, can't they look elsewhere for funds if they believe so much in their ability to come up with something tangible? Besides, there are organizations around the world looking for researchers to back irrespective of their location... I know someone who even sold his only car to finance his intellectual research work, how can such a person not be successful in life.

As much as I am impressed and proud as a Nigerian that she has at such a 'young' age, come up with this innovation. As an Entrepreneur, I do have my reservations about her been hastily rushed to see the President with the product, because I think she still has a lot of work to do. The best the Nigerian government can ever do for her is to probably say; "lets buy about a million of Jessica's balls and then distribute to every local government area in Nigeria." As an Entrepreneur, this model isn't sustainable, because she will not be able develop her own natural product distribution channels neither will she be able to get the right feedback from the 'real' users of the ball. She should have been allowed to independently test her products in the market here and probably fix every issue that might arise (i.e if they do). This is important because, I believe she will probably be looking beyond Nigeria to sell or even licence her product(i.e if she owns the patent), or would she also be visiting all the Presidents or ministers in those countries before her product sells? All these big titles they are giving her now will simply distract her from continuing with her 'actual' work or perfecting her product and leveraging on the same technology to create new ones. All that said, if she is just content as an innovator to simply make this product available in Nigeria then, her moves are well in order.

On a lighter note,I won't be surprised if PDP, APGA or APC starts distributing the balls as campaign souvenirs in 2015.

As much as I don't totally dispute your analogy, I still think it has a lot more to do with individual ambitions and independent mindedness than the school curriculum, or else what do we say about people who never set foot on a University campus at all, but turned successful at a young age? Considering that a high school education isn't even sufficient enough 'technical' knowledge to invent all that you have listed. In my opinion, I think it takes a lot of personal effort fueled by ambition to achieve this. Take for instance Dave Karp the 27 year old High-school drop-out CEO of Tumblr whose company was acquired by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in May this year, he practically taught himself all he knew about his trade and still went on to make a success out of it.

These kind of people are typically restless and simply can't stick to conventional routines and are also usually very stubborn about what they want to achieve, for them, it doesn't matter if everybody is headed in one direction, they will simply head in the opposite if it will further their cause. The truth is,most Africans are too scared to take the unconventional route to their dreams. They would rather go to school, graduate and get a good job like everyone else and probably keep 'daydreaming' about launching their own venture someday (but would probably never get around to doing it).

Another reason is that, Most Nigerians nay Africans cannot see beyond money, and would rather have instant wealth than taking the time to do anything of value. Most of these inventors you talked about started their ventures with the aim of been part of something of VALUE, and eventually that value translates to wealth. But here, people simply assume that it is only wealth that can create value.For instance after Max Levchin and his partners sold Paypal to Ebay in 2002, he said he was almost depressed because he spent day and night wondering what to do to stay busy (after collecting his own share of at least $32 million from the sale). According to him, he simply wanted to be a CEO of 'something' it didn't matter what it was, he just wanted it to be something of value, so he went to work and today he has to his credit a string of ventures like HVF, Affirm, Glow, Yelp and Slide (which he sold to Google).


Another key but surmountable obstacle here in Africa, is the availability of private funding. Most of these businesses you listed got funding from investors at one time or the other during the early stages of the business, which in the long run helped shaped it early enough. Although, this isn't much of a problem in Africa today as it used to be in the past, because a handful of African start-ups are beginning to receive funding from overseas Venture Capitals and Private Equity funds, it could still be better.


Lastly, I think most Africans are mentally lazy, they simply don't like leaving their comfort zone, not even for a brief moment. Even on this forum, people show up here to ask very mundane questions that they could easily have googled themselves, or better still, taken time to digest all the information at their disposal, they would rather want other people to talk them through the pile of information that is right before them. Whereas the one hour they spent fighting E-tribal wars on Nairaland would have been more than sufficient for them use to thoroughly grasp all the information they seek.

Thought they just siphoned it...didn't know it involves this kind of Hard work.Na wa o, money hard to get o!

1 shortblackboy: how will civil unrest benefit us ? take a look at all the so called arab spring countries they are still wallowing in anarchy till now. violence only begats violence. if u want change let it be constitutional go to the polls and vote the right people and don't let tribal and religious sentiment influence ur decision... I don talk

Forget all those crying about Nigerians not been as brave as the Egyptians. In fact, it is my desire that Nigerians never become like the Egyptians. When most people here were cheering the courage of the coupist and their civilian supporters they failed to understand the implication of illegally removing a democratic government; and that courage is an asset but could also become a liability when deployed in the wrong direction. Today, the Muslim Brotherhood in the name of courage, have allowed their supporters to be needlessly slaughtered, when they could have simply got to work to put together a more purposeful opposition movement.


By the way isn't all these getting confusing already? Imagine in Egypt the International community cheered the Egyptians on to remove a radical Islamist government from power, while in Syria they are now cheering and supporting Radical Islamist organizations to remove a secular government. The truth with all these is, anarchy helps no one. If you have ever physically witnessed a communal or religious riot up close, then you should have a faint idea of what all these "we no go gree, we no go gree" can cause. With the current crisis, the Egyptians have regressed by at least 5years rather than progressed.

Is this the kind of crisis we want to find ourselves in? By the way what would we even be protesting about? Bad Leaders? How can we complain about bad leaders when even on this small forum it is impossible for people to see through Tribal and religious sentiments to objectively pass their points across? When even the simplest of thread topics like "Man bites snake" is enough to start five pages of tribal war on Nairaland.

AjanleKoko: [/i].

The God we worship in Nigeria is truly made in Nigeria, and He Doesn't Give a Damn

Haha! This is the truest thing I heard this year.

If your long term goal is to develop full length comics, I will advice you try using Nigerian/African themes because, these will appeal to a wider audience than the everyday action hero story line that is already over-flogged; people simply want to see original content, it doesn't matter whether they are in Nigeria or in China. Secondly, I think this will make it a lot easier for you to draw inspiration from your immediate environment probably using everyday scenes of the typical day-to-day happenings on Nigerian streets.

Regarding your drawings, I think you should you should try not to make your colour shades too dark, so that your pen lines can be appreciated a lot more. Very good job all the same.

GenBuhari: Interesting piece.

The man could have written a very interesting book!

Very true...I if knew him before his death, I could probably have sort him out and extracted a biography from him. Stories like his will contain tons of back-stories on how most decisions were reached at the seat of power over the years.

It still amazes me how people like this get issued with travel visas.

I think most people on this forum and the larger African society are been very unfair to the Italians. In a country like Nigeria for instance, in spite of how sophisticated our society is becoming, an Italian would never be employed into the Nigerian Civil Service not to talk of becoming a Government Minister. Was it not in this same country that some Governors in the South East started retrenching fellow South Eastern Civil Servants that were not from their own state?

Football incidences shouldn't be used as a yardstick for generally calling Italians racists. It is a fact that fanatic Football fans in Europe and South America are some of the most violent. They usually come from the dregs of those society and will typically have a life that revolves around gambling, football and alcohol. Their propensity for violence is so high that in most cases when a soccer team is visiting a place. They are received by the Police at the train or bus station and escorted to the stadium and immediately after the match they are escorted back to the station without setting foot in any other part of the city. Even during the match they are sometimes kept in stands with cages. I once witnessed the arrival of English fans in Italy once even without provocation, they started chanting violently and breaking spirit bottles as they were been marched to the stadium.By the time they were gone they left a trail of broken bottles and smashed shop windows in their path.

...these are things that the average Nigerian soccer fans will probably not do. This says more about the fans than about the larger country. At least the clubs get fined heavily when a player is racially abused and I doubt if the NFF or LMC would have meted out the same punishment if a Nigerian fan was found guilty of the same offence.

Regarding the case at hand, politicians have the same traits everywhere...they are all very selfish and would do or say anything to score points. This is not to say that racial incidents should be condoned. No, it shows that the average Italian is embarrassed and equally as sad about these incidents as we all are, hence we must judge every case by its merit instead generalizing issues.

Limitless and 3 idiots

[quote author=2winx.com]Congrts Dr. Pate even as the ED\CEO of NPHCDA you left an enduring legacy. Go make nigeria proud[/quote]Yes you are right. I don't know him personally but have followed his work from his days at NPHCDA. He looks and sound every inch a gentleman.

By the way, I think its high time Nigerian Medical professionals show more interest in core medical research work instead of all angling to get into government.

I heard someone mutter something about why the National Assembly hasn't said anything about the large size of the Presidential fleet...well sorry to disappoint you, but the Senate President and the Speaker also fly around in those jets as well.So as you can see, we are on our own.

I don't know if a few instances qualifies for generalization but I had a few Kenyan classmates and I must admit that I love the way they spoke English even with the accent, it still sounded quite sonorous.

I do not know the back stories behind all that is climaxing into these skirmishes so I will restrict my opinions to that which is visible. I think the President is been grossly mislead by his selfish aides and if he continues to listen to them, this whole imbroglio could eventually consume him and even the entire country, because it is easy to see where a fire starts but it is impossible to say how far it will burn. The President must withdraw his support for any of the sides he is currently supporting and must ensure that the security agencies do their jobs impartially. Whoever is found guilty whether Pro or Anti Amaechi should prosecuted for this barbaric display.

The President and his supporters must realize that Amaechi is merely a state Governor and has no powers under the sun to thwart the President's ambitions for re-election in 2015; in fact no single individual in Nigeria today has such powers, not even all the 36 state governors put together. It is only the over 160 million ordinary Nigerians that has such powers and it is in the President's interest to pitch camp with them. If he continues to allow charlatans and riff-raffs dance around him then...he should be prepared for long term consequence.

Why did the security agencies allow things to degenerate to this extent? After the first fifteen goals they should have mobilized reinforcement from headquarters to round up these goal-scoring machines, their coaches, the referee, linesmen and a handful of spectators for effect.

By the way, where were these guys when played Tahiti? They sure would have made a difference.