Articles
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It was midnight and yet I was wide awake and sweat drenched, the cool breeze from the hotel window being the only relief from the African heat. I stared wearily at the wooden table; everything was there, the registration form, a pen and a set of firmly pressed clothes. I was nervous and excited at the same time, I had been anticipating this moment for years now and finally it had arrive ... [read more]
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Writing inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s BLINK (The power of thinking without thinking)Many years ago psychologist Norman R.F. Maier conducted an interesting experiment with a group of people. Maier hung two ropes from the ceiling of a room at distances so far apart that it was impossible to grab one of the ropes while simultaneously holding the other. Maier then carried out ind ... [read more]
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In the early 70’s popular Nigerian artist Fela Kuti released “shuffering and shmiling” a song that served to juxtapose the chaotic environment of Africa with the blinding optimism of its indigenes. Optimism that many times was the product of a mass flooding of religious hope into the minds of Africa’s people. According to Fela ... [read more]
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“Why?”That was the question I asked myself at 3 am in the morning as I struggled to stay awake writing a monthly 1000 word newsletter article. Why was I up so late?Why was I doing this?I must admit I knew why, or at least I thought I knew why.Years ago the idea of fi ... [read more]
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On a hot 1995 summer morning my family gathered for breakfast in the reception of a hotel. It was the same sweet breakfast routine, tea, bread and a little family talk, the moment was beautiful. However ... [read more]
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"Oweroo” were the words she said. In my language that meant he d ... [read more]
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No matter how hard I stared or how much I prayed it just kept disappearing, eroding my pride along the way. I wanted to hide my flaws, but couldn’t find a place to hide it. I stared again, watching as another strand fell helplessly to t ... [read more]
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It was dark when we arrived, but the light from the full-moon did little to conceal the faces of nervousness that stood in line that morning. In the cold December morning we all stood together in a line that must have wrapp ... [read more]
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It was one word. One word used by immigrants to describe their fellow brothers in not so kind terms. A word that rode the harsh waves of the Atlantic, the same route traversed by millions of slaves. For so ... [read more]
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I had heard it all, Audi, Sade, Chiakezie, the various mispronunciations of the Nigerian name that had all but become common place. I eagerly anticipated what would happen to a name like mine that gave even Nigerian indigenes a hard time to pronounce. OKECHUKWU. That anticipation came to reality when I arrived in the United States to study Mechanical Engineering. The struggle began al ... [read more]
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Her hand tightened strongly around the rock. She squeezed it harder and harder, gritting her teeth in pain with each thrust. She winced with each forward motion of his hips, shutting her eyes tighter with each grunt. She winced, and turned away from the sweating, ... [read more]
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He crouched on the starting blocks, his hands nervously placed behind the bright yellow line on the dusty Rome track. His head faced down. He was focused, simply anticipating the sound that would eventually ... [read more]
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Speech presented at the 2008 UHNSA Rising Star Awards, inspired by Barrack Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address.The Genesis ... [read more]
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It was a plane crash that started it all. One single plane crash, pushed an entire nation past its realm's of logic into the treacherous depths of hatred. Hatred that resulted in the mass slaughter of millions of Rwandans. Victims of a senseless war, victims of their ... [read more]
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A tin mill worker was falsely accused of stealing a bucket of nails, he denied it vehemently but nobody believed him. Frustrated he jumped into a turbulent river and stayed there proclaiming his innocence. A crowd formed urging him to come out but he stayed, never coming out, eventually succumbing to the power of the river.
"Why would an innocent man let himself di ... [read more]
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The noise from the rain pelting the empty runway, could barely drown out the noise that vibrated through the public announcement system, “flight 4062 to Seattle is going to be delayed another hour.” This was the third delay ... [read more]
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He stood there. On the corner of Adams and Crenshaw - one of the busiest intersections in South Los Angeles - and still nobody saw him. I don't know w ... [read more]
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This January I went on a journey, a journey that led me through institutions of learning in a land cursed with its blessings, one that quite never attained its full potential. I had the dreamy goal of resurrecting leaders that would one day transform that land to lofty heights. Armed with words embellished with pure passion I s ... [read more]
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C’est la vie is a famous French expression which means that’s life. Well when it comes to rejection no matter how much it’s a part of life it isn’t always easy to overcome or let go of in current and future relationships. In 2005, I decided I would pursue my dream of becoming a published author. The beginning of this endeavor was a very discouraging one. The first few ... [read more]
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Don’t forget once you get that Dream, take it back to your country and give them a piece of that inspiration” ... [read more]
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"Some People Make Things Happen, Some Watch Things Happen, while Others Sit around and Wonder What Happened." Larry Walters had always wanted to be a pilot but for one reason or the other, he just quite c ... [read more]
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Growing up in Nigeria, thanksgiving was every single week. Every Sunday to be precise. People got up at the end of the day's sermon and gave thanks to God for life's blessings. As a young child then, thanksgiving simply came across as an avenue for people to show off their dance mo ... [read more]
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Life is complicated when you think about it and oh so simple when you don't. For the first time in a long time I came home early from work with absolutely nothing to do. I had checked my schedule three or four time to ensure this was no mistake, and it wasn't. I w ... [read more]
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Prism 3: Trying to impress people we don't like
We've all been affected by this disease, right from High school. We wanted so badly to wear the latest and greatest that we went all out to buy the best clothes popularized by the mainstream pop artists at that time. Unfortunately as we grow older we get worse, way way worse. You see we are all human and like humans we want to impress people, and on ... [read more]
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Prism 2: Spending money on things you don't need
The line between a need and want is very blurry, until you are dead broke then it become clearer. But if you feel you have all the money in the world, there is a simple test to ascertain if an item is a need or a want. If you go to a store and find yourself pondering in the aisles of indecision over a product, go back home and think it over for a d ... [read more]
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Prism 1: Spending money we don't have
6 months ago, I partook in the greatest step ever towards financial freedom. I took out my American Express card, on which I had charged over $2000 monthly and cut it in 2 separate unusable pieces. At that point in life, I made a strong decision to get out of my credit card bondage. I remember growing up in Nigeria; you bought everything with cash, food, cars ... [read more]
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A lot of people have used the popular saying "the love of money is the root of evil" in accepting a position of poverty, they feel that striving to be rich is some form of evil. Robert Kiyosaki in his best seller "Rich Dad Poor Dad" debunks that popular saying. Instead he modifies it in a truer more realistic form to say "the lack of money is truly the root of evil." And when you look at it that i ... [read more]
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A farmer owned an old donkey, one day the donkey accidentally fell into a dry well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. The farmer threw a rope down to the donkey in an attempt to lift the donkey out of the well but this attempt failed as the well was too deep and narrow for the donkey to be pulled by the rope. The farmer made several different attemp ... [read more]