Dorothy

I got a comment on the Goldman Sachs post. It was interesting reading through it. I would have loved to publish that comment but I feel it's private. I saw it as someone sharing her life with me and I'm a strong addict for keep confidences. I use this medium to ask Dorothy to send another comment with her email address so I can get in touch with her.

Thanks to all those who sent birthday greetings, I appreciate it but the central time was kinda slow. I post that comment past 12 but it appeared as having been sent before 12. Thanks anyway.

When will the patriots rise?

Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria's call obey
To serve our fatherland
With love and strength and faith
The labour of our heroes past
Shall never be in vain
To serve with heart and might
One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.

Oh God of creation, direct our noble cause
Guide our leaders right
Help our youth the truth to know
In love and honesty to grow
And living just and true
Great lofty heights attain
To build a nation where peace and justice shall reign

I just got back from a concert of sorts where the glory of Nigeria was once again showcased. I felt proud to be a Nigerian. A prayer was sung for Nigeria in the second stanza of this great anthem and really that was when this idea came to me. I got out of that concert and straight, I got on the computer to blog!

The first stanza calls upon compatriots to rise and obey the call of their great nation, this is followed by a reminder of what their service to the nation should and would demand. The gone heros were not left out of this as their labour was remembered . This to me is a call to service but have we sat down to consider the second stanza? That really is prayer for Nigeria.

This is a challenge to all patriots of this great country. It might take you so much time to say a prayer for Nigeria everyday but can you sing a prayer for Nigeria? SIng that second stanza loud and clear and at the end of it, say 'AMEN'.

I wish myself a huge happy birthday. It's great to be a Nigerian! Black, Afrcan, NIGERIAN and PROUD!

If you can wait

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

Many times we get to react to things that have happenend to us before or is/are happening to us. How do we explain this? Many times we give up a minute too early and wished we never tired of waiting. Just that second of making the decision to go, and we actually let go of our 'dreams'.

What about retaliating? Someone has caused me pain, therefore, I should cause another pain. Seriously hurt? Must the whole world bear the brunt? In all of this, do you brood and carry the world on your head? Do you pay attention to what you say? Do you take time to season your words with salt? Do you want to come out the wiser for all you might have been through?

Sayings

These are some sayings about children. Spare a thought for each. Deep thought.

'You cannot teach a child to take care of himself unless you will let him try to take care of himself. He will make mistakes; and out of these mistakes will come his wisdom.'
- Henry Ward Beecher

'Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children.'
- Albert Camus

'When children sound silly, you will always find that it is in imitation of their elders.'
- Ernest Dimnet

'Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

'To a father waxing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter. Sons have spirits of higher pitch, but less inclined to sweet, endearing fondness.'
- Euripides

'In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is, but that which we hope for.'
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

'Children generally hate to be idle. All the care then should be, that their busy humor should be constantly employed in something that is of use to them.'
- John Locke

'Children have more need of models than of critics.'
- Joseph Joubert

'Give me a child for the first seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards.'
- Anon

'I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.'
- Harry S. Truman

'I do not love him because he is good, but because he is my little child.'
- Rabindranath Tagore

'A child tells in the street what his father and mother say at home.'
- The Talmud

'A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure.'
- Martin Farquhar Tupper

Who has the Son

Think on this...

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art.

They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael.
They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war.
He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier.
The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door.
A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life.
He saved many lives that day,
andhe was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly.
He often talked about you, and your love for art."
The young man held out this package.
"I know this isn't much.
I'm not really a great artist,
butI think your son would have wanted you to have this."

The father opened the package.
It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man.
He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting.
The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears.
He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.
"Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me.
It's a gift."

The father hung the portrait over his mantle.
Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son
beforehe showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later.
There was to be a great auction of his paintings.
Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings
andhaving an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son.
The auctioneer pounded his gavel.
"We will start the bidding with this picture of the son.
Who will bid for this picture?"

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, "We want to see the famous paintings.
Skip this one."

But the auctioneer persisted.
"Will somebody bid for this painting.
Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"

Another voice angrily."We didn't come to see this painting.
We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts.
Get on with the real bids!"

But still the auctioneer continued.
"The son!The son! Who'll take the son?"

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room.
It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son.
"I'll give $10 for the painting."
Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

"We have $10, who will bid $20?"

"Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters."

"$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?"

The crowd was becoming angry.
They didn't want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel.
"Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"

A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now let's get on with the collection!"

The auctioneer laid down his gavel.
"I'm sorry, the auction is over."

"What about the paintings?"

"I am sorry.
When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will.
I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time.
Only the painting of the son would be auctioned.
Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!"

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross.

The next two

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:

How many times do we release our dreams go past us just because it looks like no one believes in us? There are times we could actually be sincerely wrong but there just has to be that element of trust in the self. YOU JUST GAT TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

Don't be tossed about like a flimsy film, stand your ground and make your mistakes, learn from them however and remember that no one got 'there' in a day. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, you'll just have learnt new ways not to do what you did wrong.

Goldman Sachs Spring Internship Program - The Africa Initiative

This program is for undergraduate students studying in Ghana,
Nigeria and South Africa. If studying in a Ghanaian or Nigerian
university, you must currently be in the first year of a three year
course or the second year of a four year course. If studying in South
Africa, you will be in the second year of a three year course or third
year of a four year course.
In order to provide program participants with an insight into our
businesses and culture, program attendees will be flown to London to
spend up to 10 days in our offices during April 2007. The program
features seminars, divisional rotations, interesting assignments and a
range of social events. High-potential participants will be invited
back to the firm the following year for an 8-10 week fully-funded
internship during June/July 2008. The purpose of these internships are
to identify strong candidates to whom we may ultimately extend
fulltime Analyst offers in 2009.
There is a two-step application process - both stages must be completed:
Step 1: Apply online (www.gs.com/careers) and upload you CV and cover
letter. Select Internship = New Analyst.
Step 2: Visit the Upcoming Events in Europe page and register using
the "Goldman Sachs Africa Initiative" link where you will answer two
essays:
1. What are your key strengths? (300 words)
2. Why should you be selected for this program? (300 words)
The application deadline is 31 January 2007.
Please note that you must be studying at a university in South Africa,
Ghana or Nigeria to apply to participate in this initiative.

First two lines

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

Let's take it from here. How many times do we blame others for our wrong actions? How many times do we blame the crowd for things we did? How long will teenagers continue to lose their heads and blame it on peer pressure? When will husbands stop gambling and squandering precious family money and blaming it on moods or such flimsy excuses? When will we all hold our heads and stop blaming others for the loss of ours?

If...

I came across this poem and thought you should go through it too. Read, and let's talk about it later.
have a beautiful week ahead.

IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling

Budding

A happy new year to you. How was the past year? And plans for the new? Make good your plans.

Ever considered a plant bud? Have you looked at it closely? Do you see how unattractive and unpromising it looks at that stage? I rememeber that as a kid, my friends and I would pluck the bud off the plant and open it up. I guess we thought it was a kind of flower (which really it was) but were disappointed when we opened it up and it contained a couple of shrivelled petals. It just didnt look like a flower. But we would notice a new flower and wanted to be the first to pluck it and put in our hair. It never once crossed our minds that if we had allowed, left that bud to blossom, we wouldn't be scrambling for just one flower, there would have been at least one extra!

The meaning of my rantings? Look at it this way. Every child you see on the road is a bud waiting to blossom. Some are plucked away by death, bad company, family breakup, wars, epidemics, name them and others 'escape' these factors and blossom. After they open up their beauty (maybe graduating with a very beautiful class of grade), the very society that almost plucked them in their prime scramble for them, dangling enticing offers in their faces. Each company wants to show off the wealth they possess in human resources.

What brought about these? I happened to have watched the 'Change a life scheme show' on New Dawn (www.newdawnwithfunmi.com) and was so touched by the changes that have occurred in the lives of those kids whom Funmi Iyanda and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu have jointly helped to get out of choky situations and I almost cried. These kids appeared to me as buds which are being preserved by some people who have seen the potentials in them to turn out to be beautiful bunches. God bless Funmi and preserve her own 'Bud' for her to blossom well and beautifully.

Resolutions? Well, it's good to make them but instead of remaking resolutions that are over 5 years old, why not change your 'resolution' this year to include fighting for the rights of these buds and adding to the beauty of the society. Desist from child traffiking, abhor child labour and all such 'bud threatnening' acts. See the beauty in these ones and give them a chance to grow.

'I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let then lead the way
Show them all the beauty they posses inside
Give them a sense of pride, to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be'.