Worldview

In some part of the world, if a child is born with locks it’s a sign of an omen, but how come some of us grow up and decide to lock our hair? If you live in Bradford, you’ll probably hear ‘Alright love’ from the cashier when you purchase something meanwhile some people regard the use of the word Love for someone with deep affection. What is the proper attire to be worn by the bride and groom on their wedding day? My cousin recently got married which shouldn’t be news but there was something different in his attire. He didn’t wear the regular Suit worn by the groom rather he wore a native attire known as ‘Agbada’ for the Church service. I put up his picture on BBM and asked the question, who wears such to a wedding? My charmer Eziaha responded by saying she liked the concept and besides who sets the rules. For the records the wedding was held in the US and I’m pretty sure a couple of people were surprised.

The world had shaped my perception about weddings, somewhere in my head the lady wears a white gown and the guy puts on a black suit. But what does this really mean; the lady in white represents purity and the guy in black erm …. Guess you can figure it out. In recent times people are deviating from the ‘norm’ while a few people have accepted it some are still trying to figure it out. We live in a globalised world, hence there’s a huge tendency to mix up with people of different culture, race, religion or ideology.

I recently came up with a Project on the blog after listening to the All Star rendition of Imagine by John Lennon for UNICEF as part of the celebration to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Child. I think some of the lyrics of the song could form part of the solution to what we need in our world at the moment. From the missing Mexican students, protests in Hong Kong, killings and abduction of school girls in Nigeria it is evident we are indeed living in trying times. I wanted to see through the lens of people of different cultures, religions and nationalities. The aim of the project is to imagine a world of peace, a world their kids could live in.

Just reading through some of the entries got me thinking. All of them had something to say about the propagation of Human Rights, a better environment to live in. I kept on asking myself how we can achieve this task together regardless of the colour of our skin, religious, cultural and national beliefs. A post will be put up each day depending on the number of entries I get in the month of December by different nationalities. Let’s bear in mind that all the posts are personal views and not that of the entire country. If you want to send in an entry, please send it to this email address ccogbogu@yahoo.com

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one

Loads of Love

JMAD

N/B Picture Credit : Creationwiki

Female Food Hero Award 2014

I was in a lecture on Gender issues a few days ago; we broke out into smaller groups and had a series of discussions. One of it had to do with the expectations of both the Man and the Woman in different countries. It was quite an interesting session with lots of debates; some people said culturally the woman should stay at home and take care of the children and even if she has to work, it has to be flexible enough. Well some women in Nigeria are doing just that. I wrote a post a while ago on an OXFAM Nigeria project which was aimed at empowering women through Agriculture, the entire details can be found in the post HERE.

The Female Food Hero Award 2014 held last week in Lagos; It was a weeklong activity with all the 12 finalists. They had some training from various captains of industry, from daily morning exercises to keep fit, health checks complimentary of the Livewell initiative who served as sponsors of the event. The women learnt the  importance of stress management and the need to rest always (as most of them tend to work throughout the day without giving attention to their well being). They also had the opportunity to go out on an excursion to a soap factory (Dudu Osun makers) and a fishery farm. This was done to give them an insight on how to start fishery and the procedure the products they farm are being processed such as the use of shea butter in the making of soap and body cream plus.

The finalists also had the privilege of learning from experience from the past FFH’s Gloria Caleb(2013) and and Susan Godwin(1st FFH 2012). They also had the chance to compete in groups on a cooking competition and also had time to play games for leisure. At the end of the competition three (3) winners emerged. Below is a brief introduction of them

• 1^st Place Mrs Marian Balafama Buhari : – A resident of Ilorin, Kwara State. She is married with five (5) children. Her occupation is Farming; maize, cassava, melon, tomato, cucumber, cabbage and fish.
• 2^nd Place Mrs Monica Joshua Maigari : – A resident of Madakiya, Kaduna State. She is married with four (4) children. Her occupation is Teaching, Farming of maize, soybean, guinea corn, rice, broilers, layers and goat.
• 3^rd Place Mrs Chinasa Earnestina Asonye : – A resident of Ikorodu, Lagos State. She is married with three (3) children. Her occupation is Farming; rice cultivation and processing, cat fish.

The winner Mrs Marian Buhari

L to R 3rd Place Mrs Chinasa Asonye, Winner Mrs Buhari, 2nd Place Mrs Monica Maigari

 

The three finalist and OXFAM Staff

The FFH initiative which was born in 2012 is aimed at recognising and celebrating small scale women farmers whom have been tagged in Nigeria as Ogbonge Woman, the pidgin translation for FFH which signifies a strong, industrious and dependable woman. FFH seeks to use innovative communication tools to campaign for a shift in the way decision makers and the public view women farmers and farming. First runner up, Monica J. Maigari described the one week stay as most rewarding; as they gained a lot from the experience, also in getting to know some other farmers from other geopolitical zones and learning some skill from them. Kudos to all the participants and the winners.

“A Man’s world”

Weaker sex. Be seen not heard. You’re better off at home. It’s a waste of finances to train the child. Without mentioning any particular gender, you can figure out who the phrase refers to.  For a long time, there has been a debate on gender issues; from gender equality, to women empowerment. It’s amazing to see the woman thrive, in a world that has been generally referred to as “A MAN’S WORLD”.

The woman has been at the receiving end of this feminine injustice, right from the great fall of our dearly beloved fore-father Adam, who shifted the blame to Eve. Eve made the mistake, but she wasn’t the mistake. What really happened? A man who had the power, to name every living thing on earth couldn’t just say NO to a fruit, not a truck load of it but just one fruit. This will probably make you laugh, a friend and I were discussing and he said during the creation after Adam fell into a sleep and God created Eve, Adam was still sleeping and doesn’t know what God told the woman, he feels their’s a secret between the woman and God. Well, I don’t know maybe another lady out there may have the answer.

You’ve grown up hearing that you are weak, but how come a woman can carry another living being inside her for nine months. Throughout those months, she undergoes some drastic changes; her body gets to stretch, and adjusts to these changes. Some of them still have to work all through the nine months, and if they already have children, cater for them and of course tend to her husband’s needs all at the same time. If you ask me, anyone doing all these can be referred to as a “SUPER-WO (HU) MAN”; I can’t find any trace of weakness in her.

A woman is simply a man that has a womb and has the capacity to reproduce. We’ve heard that behind every successful man is a woman, but I want to go further and say that for every man that has worked the surface of the earth, was a representation of a woman; the woman who gave life to him.  The woman from the period of conception decides the fate of the seed in her; whatever she does during the period of pregnancy, will have a huge influence on the child that will be brought forth.

 Ladies, we have no idea of what has been deposited on the inside. The moment you discover you are not weak, there is no limit to what you can do; granted, we’ve been told it’s a man’s world but women have a major role to play too.

Gen. David Petraeus, Pres. Bill Clinton, Dominique Strauss – Kahn and even the wisest man that ever lived King Solomom, all had one thing in common, Greatness; on the flip side, they experienced a downfall that wasn’t caused by a nuclear weapon, but by women.

Ladies the issue isn’t if we’re unique creatures, but rather the inability to live ignorant of who we are. These women, who brought down these men used their femininity; though in a negative way, but yielded results. Just like hydropower is gotten from harnessing the energy in falling water, women have to harness the qualities in them to make an impact in this world.

In a documentary I watched on the Argentine ‘death flights’ and human rights violations that occurred in the 70’s where many young activist who were speaking against the dictatorship of the government were either locked up in secret detention cells, tortured and murdered, the babies born in the cell were given up for adoption to some families in the military. Many people were reported missing at that time but the mothers of the missing young men and women decided to stage a protest, even when they were harassed. A journalist recalled how he saw the women in a different light; he said he noticed most of the people who came up to report a missing person were women and when the men came with them they were hesitant and tried to hush the women not to speak about the issue extensively saying they may lose their jobs in the government but the women wouldn’t keep quiet. These women who were in their 60’s and even older continued to search for both their children and grand children born in those camps. He said, nothing else mattered to those women except to get answers. They have been able to find over 100 of their adopted grandchildren; I’m talking of children in their 30’s, such tenacity. Although their children were murdered but they have been able to find their grandchildren and some of the perpetrators have been charged and given jail sentences.

Ladies, enough of the battle of the sexes; explore your unique nature to affect your environment.  We may be weak physically but we are so strong on the inside. The only limitation you will truly experience is the limitation you place on yourself. The world is eagerly waiting for your manifestation. See you at the TOP.

Loads of Love

JMAD

How late is late?

It’s amazing the kind of things that can spark up a conversation and even have the capacity to challenge your outlook to life. I was at the bus station this morning, in the midst of the cold, with my ear phones plugged into my ear and praying so hard for the bus to come. Not knowing the delay was for a purpose. A lady taps me and asks where I bought my bag from? I told her I didn’t buy it from here but somehow I went further to suggest other stores she could get some good ones from since she needed a bag that had compartments. Somehow she ends up asking me what course I was studying, and when I asked for hers she said Criminal Justice as an Undergraduate. Now I was shocked cos’ she’s a woman I mean like a Mother. I was interested and I asked her, this shouldn’t be her first degree and she says No, she’s been working for a while but needed to pursue this but that’s not the bombshell, her 19 year old son is studying law as an undergraduate in another city. WHAT!!!. She shares lecture notes with him sometimes and she told me she always told him she’ll go back to school at the same time with him. She showed me her adorable 6ft4In son and I got teary-eyed. Her son’s friends often tease him, that if they were a bit older, they would have made a pass at his mom. Hey! I don’t blame them, did I mention she’s Jamaican although I thought she was a Nigerian; am I the only one who thinks Jamaicans may just be related to Nigerians.

When she got off the bus, it got me thinking and I kept on asking when “Is late really late”? We have dreamed of the future we want to see. Some of us have imagined starting up a food-chain business, writing books, running a marathon, taking that hike on a particular mountain, enrolling for a new course, setting up that consulting firm, the list is endless and please feel free to insert yours. Truth is, it’s pretty scary but like I always say it’s better to have tried and failed (which is not always the case) than never to have tried at all. I do hope I can have an interview with the woman I met and probably let us know how she managed to take such a decision at this stage in her life. (I’m sure you know we exchanged contact details, such inspirational people shouldn’t just walk through your life and disappear)

This is a reminder, just in case you’ve buried those ideas. It’s about time you dug it up. Go ahead and look at it one more time. Life is what you make out of it, I asked a friend today and I’ll be asking you too ‘Are you the kind of person who fights for something or do you just wait for chance’? It’s another ‘Me-time’ to reappraise yourself. It’s not yet December but you can start now to do a stock-taking and see how far you’ve come with your aspirations.

LOADS OF LOVE

JMAD

Photo Credit : Google