QUESTIONS FOR THE POPE; STORY FOR THE WORLD.

  What happened to be a fulfilled 5-day visit of the pope Francis II to the Filipinos marked as one of the most historical papal visit to this country came to an end with many questions yet unanswered and posing a major teaser for the world at large not excluding the non-governmental organizations and various bodies that were meant to address them. The nation really showed the world what it meant to be prepared for such visit with 15,000(fifteen thousand) policemen and 12,000 military men on guard with both police and traffic wardens given diapers to maintain security alertness. It was really an experience not to be forgotten in a hurry by the Filipinos.

  

  But beyond the papal tour, what would be considered one of the high points of the event was when 12year old Glyzelle Palomar, a girl that had been picked up from the streets and taken into a charity home by the church tearfully asked the pope- “many children are abandoned by their parents. Many children get involved in drugs and prostitution. Why does God allow these things to happen to us? The children are not guilty of anything. And why are there so few helping us?”

   The pope replied “the nucleus of your question almost doesn’t have a reply. Only when we are able to cry are we able to come close to responding to your question. Those on the margins cry. Those who have fallen by the wayside cry. Those who are discarded cry. But those who are living a life that is more or less without need, we don’t know how to cry.” He continued “there are certain realities that you can only see through eyes that have been cleansed with tears.”

   Miss Palormas question appears to be a question of the century and that meant for His Holiness Pope Francis to answer. But critically looking at the question at this moment the high point of the question was- “and why are there so a few helping us? Having read about the likes of father Flanagan, mother Theresa, Oseola McCarthy about some years ago I began asking   myself repeatedly the later part of miss Palormas question – why are there so few helping the poor these days?

    Father Edward Joseph Flanagan founder of the famous “BOYS TOWN” Nebraska during his time gathered the less privileged boys that the society termed thieves and miscreant and started educating them that out of them came forth juries, physicians and so many priests in the city of Nebraska.

        How about Oseola McCarthy a woman that dropped out of sixth grade to care for her ailing aunt (who had no child of her own). She later became a washerwoman, like her grandmother a trade she continued until arthritis forced her to quit in 1994. The most touching aspect of this black woman’s  life was that after a long period of her  job and when she retired she donated $150,000 to the less privileged students of the university of southern Mississippi from her life savings in the year 1995 despite pressures by her bank to buy a house with the money.

        But the papal answer was perfect “……… but those who live a life that is more or less without need, we don’t know how to cry.” This is really the reason why those that care for the needy are on the decline. The church on its own has not made it anywhere better. There are two sides to Jesus life and attitude about the poor in the holy bible. The first was that he fed the great multitude because they were hungry thanks to the spirit of compassion that underlined his ministry. Secondly was his reply to Judas when he said “…….. You have the poor always with you.’’

        What better world will it be, but unfortunately pastors have decided to take the later reply “you have the poor with you always. Is it a world where the success of most ministers is now measured by how many houses and jets they possess? Truly it is really a question without nucleus like the pope said.

       The poor is always amongst us but how is the government, church and the rich doing to better the society and make it habitable for them. Can there be a resuscitation of the spirit of the McCarthy’s and father Flanagan’s so they can teach this present world engrossed in the “gain the whole world and lose the poor mentality” what true religion means?

        Truly it has been said that the best thing you can do for the poor is not to be amongst them but like the pope has rightly said “those who are living a life that is more or less without need we don’t know how to cry. But there are some realities that you can only see through the eyes that have been cleansed with tears.”

 

 

 

       WELCOME TO HOMZ FUNITURE

 

WITH CUTTING EDGE ARTS AND A SENSE OF 21^ST CENTURY MASTER CLASS DESIGNING, WE OFFER YOU A HOME OF UNIMAGINABLE CHOICE.

CONTACT US TODAY AT NO 123/25 OLD ONITSHA ROAD NNEWI.

CALL 08066462858.

EMAIL Chibeth2003@gmail.com.

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  ALL YOU TRULY NEED IN AN OFFICE OR HOME IS WITH US AT HOMZ.

           

    MC AKONUCHE NOW ON WHEELS
    

   
    What appears to be a promising year of unlimited possibilities for fast rising comedian of the federal republic and hottest radio presenter east of the Niger, has added a car to his shopping troll  for the year. The elated Akonuche sent in " join me and thank God, I have just been blessed with a four wheel drive  more to come."



    It promises really to be a year with more to come for him as he rolled out the celebration carpet launching his exclusive honda car at his madonna residence with friends and well wishers.

       HOW MUCH IS ACTUALLY ENOUGH

                                                 

A man once went on a journey to a strange land and then on getting there he discovered the people were drunks and were willing to give out the land they had in large swathes, but there was just one simple rule which goes thus “you can keep working to wherever you wish to get to but you must return to your starting point before it is dusk or else you lose out on the whole land.”

Seeing how fecund the land was the man kept working and at dusk he had not gotten to his final point of satisfaction. At last he was content and was about returning to his starting point when he was exhausted and worn out, eventually he died and this aide of his had to dig six feet and  bury him there.Here comes the much ambiguous question-''how much land is enough''?

‘’Oakland” as this vicinity is fondly called is a land that has no pre colonial history discoverer like Christoffer Columbus and pre-natal antecedent that can boggle the mind of its tourist. But the vicinity as a whole portrays an array of characters and potentials that can be brandished and exhibited.

In spite of this fecundity and fertility that it boasts of, it still remains a place where goals of attainment and pursuits of glory do not measure congruently with efforts and vibrant strategies. Permit this article not to be mistaken for the perfect figment of pessimism, portentous tremor and apocalyptic foretelling.

Goals can be achieved when pursued with vigor and focus because Henry Thoreau said “if you have built your castles in the air no problem that is where they should be but just put a foundation beneath them.” but here appears to be a place where you aim at launching into the moon,but fall back to the top of the mountains, but considering the plight of fellow snipers you are a hero.

Business ideas have failed, academic goals have crumbled, spiritual energies have been drained and mighty dreams have been turned into the worst of nightmares. But one thing still remained that the occupants of this Promised Land (for first years) have always struggled to beat the dead lock and won.

But now as an emerging army of entrepreneurs, we must make here an abode and a treasured domain of uncommon possibilities and if others can, we can. The words of Lee Kuan Yew former Prime Minister of Singapore “if it took the communist in China nothing to root out all the fleas and sparrows, we can transform our nation from third world to first.” It then means for us we can if we decide we could.

Wishing us the best as we write our quizzes and assessment tests.

 

  

        

 

      AFRICAPITALISM- LIVING THE  AFRICAN                                  DREAM

 

Launching the initiative in the year 2010 the originator of the word AFRICAPITALISM and president TONY Elumelu Foundation Mr. Tony Elumelu said “that is the heart of Africapitalism: long term investments that creates economic prosperity (a commercial objective), as well as social wealth.” The concept with its root from a proven business tycoon is extremely important to be considered as it is for functional evaluation to see how well it has fared since its inception.

Taking a look at his work “africapitalism- the path to economic prosperity and social wealth” Elumelu states “Let me be clear. I do not suggest that entrepreneurs should build companies in Africa or that capitalists should invest in Africa out of goodwill, in essence because they are the economic equivalent of Father Christmas. I suggest that Africa offers compelling economic and business opportunities that can, at the same time, meet a range of social objectives. In fact, over the past decade we have seen that, in many respects, private sector development has much greater potential to improve self sufficiency and prosperity in both the economic and social spaces of Africa than charity and development assistance ever have, or ever could. Unfortunately, the story heard about Africa is more often about the charity than the prosperity, something we hope to dispel through our words and our actions.”

Stemming from two words Africa and Capitalism Africapitalism has always proposed hope to the ever increasing faith of the average African that has every iota of belief in his or her action geared towards the advancement of Africa both industrially socially and capitally, from the stories of Simdul Shagaya who with the mentality of building Nigeria’s version of amazon.com started konga.com an online retail outlet from relatively nothing to the emerging giants of the various online business outlets the word africapitalism might not be familiar with everyone but an unconscious resonation still rings and vibrates around to exude the awakening of an emerging company of entrepreneurs that would portray Africans not as the previously manacled slaves but frontiers of a 21^st century business hub .

 

So truly what can africapitalism offer beyond the publicity it has brought? just as we look at its prospects and the opportunities it presents when followed not as other government policies  that has been talked about religiously but as a lifeline and panacea for making Africa a home of productive investments let us consider the following facts.

THE MTANGA FARMS IN SOUTHERN TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA

 

 

 Based on Elumelu’s concept ‘’the idea of Africapitalism gains resonance, validity, and momentum. It exhorts Africa’s entrepreneurs to join the campaign and put their ingenuity and innovation to work in order to be amply rewarded. It invites investors — foreign and domestic — to be forward-thinking and look for long-term investments where doing well delivers value to the bottom line.”

So in other words it promotes the concept of financial and economic responsibility amongst Africans and enables a right thinking frame of mind enhancing our abilities and promoting the concept of thinking out of the box so that we get to know that the era of we waiting for foreigners to come and fix our economic needs like job and wealth creation and not just that where everyone clusters around a business idea because of its numerous pecuniary potentials is now moribund.

This is an era where even a little business initiative with the right goal can create a lot of economic traffic once it is backed up with proper concepts can meet the needs of the teeming population thereby creating jobs and even creating a market where none existed before. Individuals taking maximum advantage of the already laid down advancements coming into Africa like the recently launched $100 million entrepreneurship grant by the Tony Elumelu Foundation to build a new Africa where we do not depend on charity to survive but promote productivity to improve because the destructive effect of charity is that it recycles poverty.

Hence, beginning from the smallest of all opportunities to start up a business the goal behind it should not be a short distant aim of making profit but that even the space be maximized so that through it many can put food on their table not only through charity but by employment of labor because when ideas like these are been promoted then truly we can have an Africa we can call our own.

 So from story of Jack Ma who left teaching English language to become one of the world richest men establishing Alibaba a Chinese online business, Africans can come not just by creating a market but can arrive at the center stage of creating a new need for the world at large. Enough of the slave mentality where we expect others to come and fix the state of our environs for us because the perils of colonialism has been like apparitions haunting the development of Africa where what we have as natural resources are best known in their crude forms to us than the refined products we import after exporting them.

 Hence in conclusion the concept of capitalism promotes we seeing Africa as a fecund land of many opportunities and then actively investing in them to make it a better one which posterity would never fail to reward our actions because in the taking of giant steps towards advancement it is better to see the glass half full rather than half empty. Happy Sunday

FESTIVAL OF PRAISE QUAKES NNEWI

What promised to be an enigmatic event never failed to deliver to the much awe of expectant hearts. with all the artisits that were meant to be present [except Chimere Nwaenu] thrilling the crowd, made it  an awesome night.

 event started with the red carpet rolled out with anchors Omalichanwa[Blaze fm] and Obinna okoli never failing to be at their best attesting to the reality of excellence of which HOUSE ON THE ROCK  is known for.

Performances included Chika Okpala[NOTHING MEGA], Gideon i-rock, Tonneil Avo, Lord wow, and a host of other performing artist and choirs not forgetting the royal vessels that really capitalized on the advantage of being at home to strut their stuff.

Declaring the event open the resident pastor house on the rock Nnewi Pastor J.P Ndukwe stressed  the need of the event not being likened to a concert where talents were to be displayed, but an avenue for bringing down the presence of the most high.

various groups presented their renditions after which prayer sessions were conducted by men of God present before the guess artists took their turns from the awesome Gideon I-rock to energetic Lord Wow and then the sensational gospel reggae innovator Tonneil Avo, finally Chika Okpala added his midas touch to what appeared to be a sensational night for all as they took the congregation to the presence of the lord after which a statement of fact was made by Pastor J.P that this promised to be the first and beginning of festivals to come.

                                

       

CHORISTERS FROM HOUSE ON THE ROCK AWKA

                    What an awesome night

THE INIQUITY OF CHOICE

                                                                                        

 Overtime we have come to believe that the performance of students lies in factors ranging from their attitude to studies, facilities exposed to and some other environmental factors. At the best of our wonderful assumptions and assertions we have exhausted all what seems to be what we think is the solution of which we have applied practically and principally without getting the desired results.

 A salient but silent institution that we have failed to explore and dig into which has ravaged and hampered our development collectively as a nation is the concept of Innate abilities and passion. It is a necessity that even the best of professors and academics have willingly turned blind eyes on and of which its perils thereof has never failed to terrorize our aspirations and lust for societal and technological advancement.

 As we continue to shower the blame on exam bodies like WAEC and JAMB for the poor turnout of results and also the Nigerian tertiary institutions for the routine of churning out less than average and globally incompetent graduates of about 300,000 annually of which they eventually unleash into the labor market, it is imperative that we pause and take a critical look into what has being and how to go about it.

 A less thought of but first question to start with is how many of these graduates wanted to study the courses of which they have been certified but are invariably less satisfied? The Nigerian setting has made it imperative and clear that some courses are professional while some are not why because there is a higher percentage of assurance that after graduation there is a job already tailored for this discipline, forgetting that there was a time when the so called professional courses were not regarded because of their irrelevance to the common man on the streets of which a good example is that in a domain where there is no petroleum as natural resource, the profession petroleum engineering is of little or no value. But the stark truth which is as crucial as the effect of the menace is that the dignity and nobility of any profession lies in its capacity and potentials to solve the problems of the common man in the sphere of its reach or better still within its ambit or proximity.

 So the rat race begins from the secondary school where the most intelligent of students must study sciences because there is no fortune and prestige in the social sciences, arts, and commercial courses, thereby bringing to extinction the talented and futuristic Achebe’s and Soyinka’s of which I would have to refer to this mentality as genocidal ignorance. Can these parents look into their children truthfully and see the innate abilities and gifts in them beyond their selfish stances and think out better ways in which these gifts can be harnessed in these children who are victims of unrealized parental dreams and misfortunes? Can they see ways in which these God given gifts can turn around the fortune of our great nation and world at large and not kill these resources with which God has blessed this generation with? A practical example is the prevalent psychic maelstrom exhibited as the crave for the much celebrated title of “mama doctor” ravaging the average Nigerian mother not minding if the child even has any clue about what it entails been a doctor or even worse of all has the hunger and love for the profession.

 Another manifestation of this is seen in our educational system where the biology teacher who read Education/biology cares free to look into his students to know who replaces him as a teacher to future generations because every good biology student must be a doctor or a health scientist as erroneously assumed. Is he or she to be fully blamed, I partly disagree because there was a system which had called teachers burning with passion to teach and not the present day where the advent of private schools has made teaching a solace for both the unemployed and unemployable.

 However this misnomer is carried over to the university where an undergraduate is given a project topic in a field of little or no interest and the result of such project becomes a dead end that no reasonable discovery can be made from, and we are still asking why an average graduate of our raped educational system cannot carry out successful researches on topical issues staring at our faces, forgetting that the record for the youngest Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine was that of a certain Sir Frederick Banting for his discovery of the hormone insulin at the age of 22 just as a fresh graduate medical doctor.

 The government on its own needs to rehabilitate the moribund departments of guidance and counseling in our elementary and post-elementary schools where the mentality of self discovery by our pupils at this early stage is encouraged. So for our government, the best place to start the rebranding process is not in the media enthusiasm  but in institutionalizing a mentality that encourages personal development,foundational laying and individual responsibility on the part of every citizen as a tool for nation building.

 Stories of children that outlived this parental and societal pressures are innumerable but worth imitating from the likes of Jonas Salk the inventor of the polio vaccine who was a lawyer turned Scientist to Arnold Schwarzenegger whose Mother forced into becoming a carpenter but took up the hobby of soccer where he was advised to take up body building for performance enhancement by his coach of which was where he found his fortune, or do I talk of the legendary Nelson Mandela who was almost forced into marriage against his wish, the story continues and is endless.

 As it has been said that you can force a horse to the stream, but the pleasure of drinking is what you cannot superimpose on it. Our parents, guardians and supervisors must have to learn that a child’s greatest happiness is seen when he or she accomplishes a task that gives him or her satisfaction. I write this not to be misconstrued as an assertion or a figment of idle imagination, but unlike Jonas Salk who said ‘’I have had dreams and I have had nightmares but the secret of my success is that my dreams have been able to conquer my night mares,’’ the dream of any child might be conquered by the dream of his ambitious guardian which apparently appears to be his worst nightmare.