Fundraising Initiative - a caring response to HIV and Aids

At Centre Court, Cavendish Square helping Marcus Brewster Publicity to sale books in support of childern's literacy and Wola Nami Aids- a caring respone to Hiv and Aids.

War . . . can we have a summer break?

Wars are part of every nation. Both small and might nations have been fighting each other since the first people carved knives, with the development of metals, way of fighting became more powerful.

In Africa, wars do not take a summer break. With its rich national resource, Africa eats and drinks war. In North Africa, heavy farming caused the land to become dry and infertile, make the area to become the dominant feature. People were unable to find food which meant some tribes had to fight to get access to food.

Tribes sometimes fought over river shore for safe fishing. Some fought to protect their kingdom from others. Even defend against tribes from other side of the sea. Some nations from another continent also came to force their culture or belief on the inhabitants of Africa which change how African sees war.

Towards the end of the 16th century, Africa witness European and Asia interest. Traders came from far and near to barging and sometimes to steal supplies and resources, which resulted in colonization of some part of the continent. French occupied the Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt. British seized the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and most of West Africa.

Their interest introduced new factors of change, not merely in trade but also in the political, social and economic life of African people. This brought with it wars. Firearms introduced, and it became objects of competition between different states within Africa.

Between 60s and early 90s, Africans are no longer strangers to war. We witness Civil War in Nigeria, Genocide in Rwanda, war in Democratic Republic of Congo which directly involves armed forces and rebel groups from Burundi, Uganda, Central Africa Republic, Congo Brazzaville and Angola, and apartheid in South Africa.

The war in DR Congo was seen as African’s First World War. It directly and indirectly caused the dead of over 4 million people. War in Serra Leone that been going on for over decades cause life and damage properties. Guinea and Liberia became a home of gangster-like regime that develops into conflicts. Somalia was still without active central government which left the country in a state of conflict

By the end of 1990’s, any progress in Africa had been overshadowed by a series of wars that engulfed many parts of the continent causing not only physical and human damage but also moral and cultural devastation.

Early 21 century, with help of United Nations, European Union and African Union, there has been significant improvement in terms of peace in Africa. But, in terms of these, it can hardly say that wars in Africa have finally turned.

At any level, war is a problem because most of us would like to avoid it. The question we should ask is why do men go to war? Or Nations go to war? Can we say the reasons deep-rooted in human mind and its personal motivations? (Eric Carlton, 1990). The answer to war in Africa may be seen in social change, outlawing of classes and the equal distribution of powers.

We have to fight or die: HIV & AIDS

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was discovered by scientists in 1985. Since then it dominates every headline on Televisions, Radios, and Internet.

HIV is a transmitted disease that can transmit from person to person through the exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, breast milk, and vaginal secretions. The most common way of spread HIV/AIDS, is through sexual contact, but it can also be contacted through sharing of needles when injecting infected person, or during childbirth and breastfeeding.

HIV/ AIDS is not just a disease, evident have showed its more than a disease because it damage the body’s immune system and expose the body to illness and infection. It doesn’t only touches the lives of those infected, but almost everybody on our plant.

In South Africa, it became a big problem because of high rate of infected people. Currently South Africa is rated as one of the highest HIV prevalence in the world with about 5.2 million people living with the disease in 2008(Human Sciences Research Council ,2009) it is believed that in 2008, over 250,000 South Africans died of AIDS(Statistics South Africa,2009).

The research conducted have showed that almost one-in-three women aged 25-29,and over a quarter of men aged 30-34, are living with the disease .There is also case of mother-to-child transmission which have a lot of impact on children . This means that infected child is born into a family where the virus may have already had a severe impact on heath, income, productivity and the ability to care for each other.

However, there is a lot of Orphans home which can be traceable to HIV epidemic as the cause. It is estimated that the HIV /AIDS has created half of country’s Orphans. Because a lot of children had lose their mother to the disease and Orphanage become there only hope.

Though South African government have put a lot of measures to manage HIV/AIDS epidemes.HIV awareness campaign, condom use and distribution, sex education, circumcision, HIV testing, treatment for infected people etc. In terms of AIDS- awareness campaign programme, some organizations like Khomanani -caring together has run since 2001 using media to create awareness, Soul City and Soul Buddyz aim at adults and children ,and the Campaign -lovelife operate since 1999 and used media to deliver its massages.

Regardless of government efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa, the disease is still wide-spreading among the youth proofing that nothing have be done to stop it. This administration has gone down deep to look for a way out of this epidemic in our nation. The truth is, it is not the job of government alone, NGOS, Public and Private sectors need to join hand with government to help stop the spread of this deadly disease.

Let’s voice it out; the number of infected people is increasing every day. We are now at a point in our history we have to fight or die.

Fish falling from the sky in Darfur

“Fish falling from the sky” can be seen as idiom just like"it is raining cats and dogs", used to describe an especially heavy rain, is of unknown etymology, and is not necessarily related to the "raining animals. So fish falling from the sky is help giving to people by someone else. World has come together and let fish fall to displaced people in Darfur who suffered decades of civil war that displaced about 2 million people.

Struggling to rebuild and recover from this two decades of civil war has cause food insecurity and underdevelopment , which make UN to categories Darfur as food-deficit country that need food assistance.

To let fish fall from the sky, the World make Darfur their number one priority to provide all that is necessary to bring hope to people. United Nation World Food Programme(WFP) provide food assistance to help more than 350, 00 people returning to their homes. Development-oriented assistance has been put in place to help secure the fragile peace and encourage development.

WFP provides monthly food rations to approximately 2 million internally displaced people. Throughout the rainy season also known as the pre-harvest "hunger gap", WFP also provides food rations to vulnerable people in communities and rural areas. During these peak months, food distributions in Darfur reach more than 3 million people.

Is that not fish falling from sky in Darfur through the help of WFP?

What is the colour of the wind?

Just like every other kids in my position usually does – we Google. I Googled, and it bring me down to what one of American pop/R&B superstar: Vanessa Williams saying, “something you should know about colour of the Wind”.

"You think you own whatever land you land on

The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But if you know every rock and tree and creature

Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people

Are the people who look and think like you

But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon?Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?"

Some said, wind doesn't have a colour. . . just put two and two together . . .common sense. . .To others, Wind has color, it can be a wind of success, future and destiny. To this friend of mine, it pretty much means everything and nothing. But I said wind have colour. Just this few days in Cape Town, wind blow and treating everybody which answer the above question, that colour of wind is the fresh breeze that penetrates your cloths and skin to remind you you are still alive.

Photo source: vandelaydesign.com

Is it right to kill in the name of God?

Nigeria, the Africa richest and the largest black nation in the world, is located in West Africa. Its neighbors are Cameroon, Benin, Niger and Chad. In the southern area are swamps and mangrove forests and inland is hardwood forest. With population estimated about 140 million people.

The capital is Abuja with 590,400 metro areas. And the largest cities are Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Kaduna. Nigeria is made up different ethnic group but mostly dominated by Hausa/Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba. Islam and Christianity are the dominate religion in the country. The two have been on each other from the time of amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1914.

Islam was introduced in the 13th century and control the whole of Northern part whereas Christianity dominated some part of South and the entire Eastern part of Nigeria. These two religions have been causing ethic and political unrest in Nigeria. Stability has been repeatedly threatened by fights that erupt between Muslims and Christians.

Over the past years, millions of people have died during these religious crises that destroyed the country’s unity. A lot have been said and written about this crisis but little has been done by Nigerian government to address this ugly incident.

I can say that the cause of these fights between Christians and Muslims can be as a result of introduction of Sharia law to some state mostly Northern part of the country-Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi and Bauchi state. When some of these states adopted Islam as State religion, their authority went to force everybody within the state both Muslims and Christian to leave according to Sharia law and it triggered violence. In the other hand, they put their state above Nations constitution that permits the freedom of worship.

In Bauchi, over 200 people have been killed and many others seriously injured (reported Tribune newspaper). Millions of properties destroyed as they were going about killing and looting everything they could lay their hands on. In Kano over 500 Igbo’s were massacred which promoted questions and mounted a lots of concern to some countries and major institutions working in the area of religious tolerance in the country. This frequent religious crisis in Nigeria has placed the country on the radar for serious discussions over these years.

In Kano, the fight that broke out rapidly spread like wide fires to the neighboring states including the Eastern parts of the country were Igbos leave. To an extent that those in Igbo land –Onitsha, Aba and Owerie after hearing news of the fight and took to the street killing all the Muslims they can find. Many people were wounded and many houses were burnt. Many others including women and children were killed and their body was shattered along the road sides. And those who escaped fled to Army barracks and nearby police stations.

No doubt that Nigerian government is responding to these crisis but nothing have been done to protect it citizenry from this epidemic that eating deep of our unity.

Facebook: Blessing or curse to young people?

“It’s really addictive and costing me millions”, says Tumeka Ngqongqwana a work colleague when asked what she thinks about the second largest social networking on the website”

With an estimated 280 million registered users, facebook has become the most popular social network among youths and these numbers are growing, with more than 175 million users logging into the site daily.This record breaking social network was brought into existence by former Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg on February4, 2004. Facebook primarily focused on High School and college students but now found its wings in Universities, organizations, and companies all over the globe making it the new communication instrument in our world today.

Arguments have being going on on Radio, Television and the Internet on why young people throw their weight on these forms of communications as a means of making friendship rather than face to face communication or telephone conversations that our fathers grew up with. Many young people argue that facebook is a blessing because it’s a new way of effectively staying in touch and sharing pictures with our families and friends from all over the world. Within seconds one can communicate and share one’s current look with anyone around the world. In the past it took half a year to send one’s message and pictures across the world.

According to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Facebook leads young people to seek “transient” friendships, with quantity becoming more important than quality. To him, the key factor in suicide among the young people is the trauma caused when such relationship collapse. Skill such as reading a person’s body language is in decline, and the exclusive use of facebook has a “dehumanizing” effect on community life.

Anonymous Cape Peninsula University student, says “although we all love “facebooking”, let us not forget who we are because many companies are searching for their job applicants on facebook to check for competence. Many users have forgotten about reputation when updating their crazy pictures and weird wall posts on their profiles. Privacy is no longer in our hand as it’s widely known that facebook have access to our profiles and can collect date to determine who our closest friends are”. According to research, facebook tracks everything, every photo we view, every person we tagged with, every wall post we make. Even our demographic details appeared to everyone who logs on to facebook.

The question we should ask as users of facebook: Is facebook a blessing or a curse? Can we continue flagging on or stay away from these computer friendships? Or can we say that the reason is rooted in the human mind and its personal motivation. The bottom line is whatever that happened on the facebook you sign them to yourself. Enjoy facebooking but . . .

Two peole come out of a building and into a story. .

"It was horrified to see the scream of MyMac turning blank before me.

But within a couple of hours it came back to life"

MyMac has been a resilient performer for me as it helps in my school assignments, class presentations, office work etc. As well as having been to Nigeria with me on holidays, it's also survived a 45 ° C as we drove from Johannesburg to Cape Town through the Death Valley and came back.

"I remember sitting in a car where it was 45°C with MyMac on my knee smoking hot".

If MyMac is a human I wonder what actually will be going through its minds as we travel through this journey under this horrible condition: walked out of the building-heat and hot temperature in Nigeria and South Africa and walked out into a story that make it my best friend and a centre to my life.

Today, we are making headlines at my home as everyone asking if its my wife.

Design PR

Public relations is a communication career. Public relations professional work to let people know about their organization’s purpose and needs, to listen to what people think about their organization, and to help their organization establish and maintain a good reputation that is based on good performance.

Public relations involve the cultivation of positive relations for organizations and products with its key publics through the use of a range of communications channels and tools. But today they are much more than that:

• Building awareness and maintain good image for an organizations within stories and articles found in relevant media outlets.
• Closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment about organizations.
• Managing crises that threaten organizations image.
• Building relationship among organization’s shareholders.
• Organized special programs and events

In fact, Public relations is an organizations designer

Meet Google, the internet Big Brother

Google the search giant on the Internet was created in the March 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University. The name “Google” originated from a misspelling of “googol”. Having started with only 25 000 web pages has grown dramatically that by the end of 1998, Google had a catalog on about 60 million pages. Being more technologically innovative, Google significantly changed the way we research on the Internet.

This famous search engine which allows users to find almost any kind of information, news, websites, jobs and answers to questions has single handily beaten its rivals like Yahoo, Ask.com. Wikipedia, Excite.com, Go.com etc and become the Internet Big Brother: the future of the web. Not that these search engines are not powerful but Internet users are not willing to use their services as long as Google is out there.

Many argue that Google is almost synonymous with Internet just like facebook. “Whether we like it or not, Google has everything the Internet cannot do without”, says a friend of mine.” I wouldn't think how the Internet would look like without its best and fastest search engine”, he concluded.

A colleague at work, says “computers and the Internet emerged and became important to us in finding information, but Google shows up to organize all that information in a way that is quicker and faster. He further commented: “I sometimes forget there are other searches engines on the Internet which makes me wonder how it will be like without Google on Internet”.

“Google is not only big brother on the Internet but also Internet users because anything they do on the Internet or in the real life, Big Brother “Google” knows about it. He pretty know everything, he knows everything related to what we need, what we are looking for, blogging about, interested in, reading, click on, our names, friends, hobbies etc. That’s because we used all its service that require us to put our personal and technical information which give him a tremendous power over us. In other word, I can say, be careful what you wish, Google knows it”.

It seems almost impossible to work without Google on Internet but it isn’t, because in everything there is alternative. So almost every service Google provides that makes him the Big Brother, there is alternative service waiting to be discovered.

There is no doubt that every information we want on the Internet is at the click of the button, but we need to ask ourselves if life is going to be decide by the Internet and its friend Google. The question is, is Google truly the Internet Big Brother?

I AM

I am so glad you stopped by to read my blog.

I am not the best or the worse but rather one of most in the middle.

I am a Public Relations Management student, Cape Town campus.

I am the last in the family of six.

I am a Christian, who devoted half of my time trying to understand why there is so much evil in our generation. As a matter of fact, I was born on SUNDAY, named “SUNDAY” Meaning-the LORD’S DAY. The day son of God defeated the devil by his resurrection.

I am blessed and it’s my duty to honor the creator of heaven and earth and praise him for where I am today.

I am one of those who believe that my country, Nigeria will be free from corruption and money-laundry of our leaders.

I am of the thesis that “talent is programme at birth into a selected few” – Dougas Kruger.

I am a social realist- warm-hearted, popular and conscientious, always put the needs of others over my own needs, feel strong sense of responsibility and duty and have greater interest in serving others.

Who do you think I am?

If I were the Boss?

My dear country, Nigeria has been on the spotlight for the past decades as a result of mass suffering and poverty in respective of huge material and human resources in our possession.

As the third largest oil producing country, my fatherland has been facing historical problem, religious crisis, failed economy, poverty, looting of nation’s wealth by those we elect into power, collapse of industries,stumbling health care, a weakened Nara, unemployment, etc, these has eating deep into our economy, why those in power do nothing to improve the economy and bring hope to poor people.

New election is fast approaching politicians have starting to position themselves to run in other to enrich their pocket and neglect the people. So if I were the boss (President), I will seek to bring hope to our people by work with members of all political parties and end the power tussle that has so far frustrated Nigerian public.

Our public and private schools have produced thousands of young men and women, who have humanity to serve their country with distinction. I will recruit some of them for an executive search to help my administration find the right angle to solve our energy problem that has cripple our economy.

I will make every aspect of government purchases and performance transparent. Information on every step of contracts and grants will be making available in plain and simple language. My team and I will embark on monumental projects in our road infrastructure that has been neglect by our past leaders .

With these in mind, hope is not far from reality.