tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-767860989891077242024-03-05T12:49:56.491+01:00The ChronicledA Collection Of HIGH Quality Tips, News, Views, Information, On Healthy Living Lifestyle, Diet & Fitness, Entertainment, Family, Health Benefits, Open Heavens, Marriage, Personal Diary, Relationship Guide, Etc On The WebAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.comBlogger356125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-56628538509781571162016-10-29T11:00:00.000+01:002016-10-29T11:00:05.688+01:00How To Structure And Run A Sophisticated Investment Scam<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrcS_Y8jzK5POm_DRZqI4-CJB3W0e-U_7102GMhz2bzz_2IZB1RLN7P7egxjy5iHOfvgeGMpUxv3xXPTRkK_dya3_NmXFxkEduQVALKdg6qew8aZ3dEnWyQfy2rLS38YcBPXMVQMZ-DEAU/s1600/Classic+Business+Deal.jpeg"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrcS_Y8jzK5POm_DRZqI4-CJB3W0e-U_7102GMhz2bzz_2IZB1RLN7P7egxjy5iHOfvgeGMpUxv3xXPTRkK_dya3_NmXFxkEduQVALKdg6qew8aZ3dEnWyQfy2rLS38YcBPXMVQMZ-DEAU/s400/Classic+Business+Deal.jpeg" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
It's an Optimization problem resolved by assigning assumed values to variables and finding the best fit. It can be a legit aggressive move if at the end of the day, all investors get what they thought they were investing in. Nothing personal, just business.<br />
<br />
Beardman: I want to build a mini refinery, come and give me money.<br />
MoneyMan: Do you have off takers ?<br />
Beardman: Erm yes, I will bring you the letter next week.<br />
<br />
Beardman: I want to build a refinery, MoneyMan and MoneyWoman will finance me but I need an<br />
off taker, give me a letter of off take.<br />
OilMan: Ok but do you have a technical partner.<br />
Beardman: Erm yes, I will bring you the letter in three days.<br />
<br />
Beardman: Will you be my technical partner on my fantastic one in a million mini refinery, I will<br />
pay you O&M that will change your life .<br />
TechPartnerMan: Do you have money and off-taker?<br />
<br />
BeardMan: Erm sure, just sign this MOU and I will bring you the two letters next week.<br />
<br />
BeardMan: OilMan here's the TP MOU. Just sign the off-take letter template right there!<br />
<br />
BeardMan: MoneyMan, here's the offtake and TP letter I got from this Imperial Guy, the top guy in secondary oil recovery. Gimme LOI so that I can go take FDI with my board.<br />
<br />
News conference, Beardy Refineries LTD announces $1bn palm oil refinery, lines up PE, Banking, Technical and Offtake consortium, Japanese investor drops $20m as equity!!📸📽📺<br />
<br />
MoneyMan, MoneyWoman, TechPartnerMan, OilMan: 😤 I thought it was a crude oil refinery, WTF!!! <br />
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated. :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-66617399084345364462016-10-29T10:36:00.001+01:002016-10-29T10:36:40.529+01:00A Rejoinder to Dino Melaye: The Senate Lout and Thug In Switzerland by Ademola Olateju<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJl6AZEgjlRCkVZnoJTOY-FPbJkEtaSXL14ocjxd0Xw9epAqj22DIgCoecmHxYf-t3g7Hdh9rP4fMw0LuBd0BnTfZMTUKm_gJxlRVf7y9L4ZtPeLv-olaFCaxplb5cjfARU3xXa_JynwM/s1600/rejoinder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJl6AZEgjlRCkVZnoJTOY-FPbJkEtaSXL14ocjxd0Xw9epAqj22DIgCoecmHxYf-t3g7Hdh9rP4fMw0LuBd0BnTfZMTUKm_gJxlRVf7y9L4ZtPeLv-olaFCaxplb5cjfARU3xXa_JynwM/s400/rejoinder.jpg" title="A Rejoinder to Dino Melaye: The Senate Lout and Thug In Switzerland by Ademola Olateju" width="400" /></a></div>
This is a rejoinder from someone in National Assembly, who works closely with Saraki, to the post <a href="https://thechronicled.blogspot.com.ng/2016/10/dino-melaye-senate-lout-and-thug-in.html">Dino Melaye: The Senate Lout and Thug In Switzerland by Ademola Olateju</a>.<br />
Thank you so much. Bamidele Ademola and his like should stop thinking they will change Nigeria by being armchair critics. Nigeria don't need anymore of this flock but people who want to actively do something about the ill they see by contesting elections or making sure that those they disagree with don't win elections. The foolishness I see among our elite is that they think there is something special about them because they can speak English. <a href="https://thechronicled.blogspot.com.ng/2016/05/a-rejoinder-to-your-sacrifices-not-in.html">They profess so much love for Nigeria</a> and Nigerians and know more than Einstein how to solve the problems we face but ask them to spare the country a pinch of their knowledge by standing for election and filling up the space that the so called never do wells have usurped they remember that politics in dangerous and wicked and they have a precious family and career to important for politics.<br /><br />It smacks of the proverbial Chichi dodo that loves maggots but hates the excrement that produce it. Little wonder these politicians don't give them the slightest consideration because apart from talk they do nothing and the masses don't hear them.<br /><br />Very strange. We have left politics for the F9 students in our classes yet we expect them to produce A1 laws and decisions that will shape our collective future. When the outcome of our decision come back at us we think postulating gives us escape. <br /><br />But we want to compare them with those in the west who are the bests in the best schools in the world. <a href="https://thechronicled.blogspot.com.ng/2013/03/what-do-i-do-now-that-help-i-gave-is.html">God help us</a>. He should bury his head in a sand like an ostrich as usual<br /> <br /><br />Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated. :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-54726345068667174572016-10-29T10:27:00.002+01:002016-10-29T10:31:29.805+01:00 Dino Melaye: The Senate Lout and Thug In Switzerland by Ademola Olateju<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHMxUH66zFmS1wbSy1Om6mGaWSiQrQeU2NCU4yj2hwaFCDluKBGov0lc5PhusSF2HOxL_OQlwRgB7oDDeVjFDRpJpGFLeq2YllbcxSKSWrAS7OoaMCnRxmHNYUBY4BOcRptAA2I9Jel5R/s1600/Daniel-Dino-Melaye-In-The-lout-thug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHMxUH66zFmS1wbSy1Om6mGaWSiQrQeU2NCU4yj2hwaFCDluKBGov0lc5PhusSF2HOxL_OQlwRgB7oDDeVjFDRpJpGFLeq2YllbcxSKSWrAS7OoaMCnRxmHNYUBY4BOcRptAA2I9Jel5R/s400/Daniel-Dino-Melaye-In-The-lout-thug.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Saraki, Dino Melaye, Stella Oduah, Lasun, etc went to Switzerland for Inter Parliamentary Union meeting. As you will expect of thieving Nigerian public official, they stayed in Intercontinental Hotel, one of the most expensive hotels in Geneva. For the avoidance of doubt, Geneva is among the top five most expensive cities in the world.<br />
<br />
At about 7pm on Tuesday, my source; a young postgraduate student of Law who was in a reception in which the members of the national assembly addressed Nigerian professionals, started sending me pictures of the Senators as they arrived the cocktail dinner. She was beyond shocked at the appearance of a Nigeria senator and the quality of discourse. She told me it was banal and without substance. She said, only Saraki had something called a brain. Others wasted time with empty protocols as if they were addressing themselves in their usual bogus manner in the Senate chambers, with no real answers to serious questions. She described Lasun as the worst, the most uninspiring and dense Deputy Speaker ever! Followed by Gaya in lack of intellect. <br />
<br />
Saraki entered the room with Dino as his body guard. She observed; "Dino's loyalty is to Saraki rather than Nigeria". The meeting was billed for 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Diaspora Nigerians from the nooks and crannies of Switzerland arrived early waiting for them. As usual, the legislators came late, arriving almost 7 pm. To her consternation, Dino introduced and described Saraki as the irremovable senate president among other accolades and praise singing titles.<br />
<br />
For me, I wasn't surprised when I saw the picture of Dino as Saraki's bodyguard. That is what Dino is good at. He's been a bodyguard and thug all his life. I blame the system that throws up retards, thieves and bare chested idiots as leaders. What bothers me is the unfeeling nature of these people. The general lack of seriousness and comprehension about the state of the nation. The sense of we get paid whether we do something or nothing or whether Nigeria loses or wins. <br />
<br />
I am past caring that Dino is a weapon of convenience for Saraki. He has tied his fate and that of his constituency to Saraki. It bothers me, that Nigerian professionals abroad came to dinner all well dressed, to see a Senator dressed in T-Shirt screaming you killing me... And with a bathroom slippers on with jeans! It is disrespectful! It is scornful and it is demeaning to the institution of the Senate. This braggart is unfit for the office he occupies. Instead of projecting his fatherland in the best possible way, he uploaded a video of himself in his usual self promoting way, dancing in his hotel room in Geneva. Shouting God and Jesus is what you do when run out of ideas on how to do anything for Nigeria, and deceive people that you are one with God.<br />
<br />
We have a grave sociocultural problem in this country. I went to Dino's page and read the comments. Poor, jobless and oppressed youths were hailing him, calling this boorish lout their hero and role model. The opulence of his Geneva hotel got them. There are lots of professional hard working Nigerians who genuinely earn their own keep and stay in these hotels. No one celebrates them, no one wants to be like them. A society where the young looks up to Dino cannot prosper. May God save Nigeria from the evil of Nigerians.<br />
<br />
<br />
Post Credits<br />
Post Author: Bamidele Ademola-Olateju<br />
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated. :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-42870351149586849782016-09-01T11:04:00.002+01:002016-09-01T11:15:44.902+01:00 Great Lessons From Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Visit To Nigeria<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivRaycEI4TDNx203b8FoFclqzo4Q84yA6PlLsLaiftpr1s1wKpsBlIGsFfpIICkOSNgfMI2jL5-UBl57ppz0codgCh-J3cfHB5Vk8D3Z0m0XKShv8Kns3q6kXEXd31UDtwWHIBG6YCZ01o/s1600/Facebook%2527s+Mark+Zuckerberg_after_a_run_in_Lekki_Lagos_Nigeria_with_the-Road_Warriors.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg_after_a_run_in_Lekki_Lagos_Nigeria_with_the-Road_Warriors" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivRaycEI4TDNx203b8FoFclqzo4Q84yA6PlLsLaiftpr1s1wKpsBlIGsFfpIICkOSNgfMI2jL5-UBl57ppz0codgCh-J3cfHB5Vk8D3Z0m0XKShv8Kns3q6kXEXd31UDtwWHIBG6YCZ01o/s640/Facebook%2527s+Mark+Zuckerberg_after_a_run_in_Lekki_Lagos_Nigeria_with_the-Road_Warriors.jpeg" title="Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg" width="370" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mark Zukerberg, Affiong Williams, Ngozi Dozie running on Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Most wealthy people in the West do not flaunt wealth. Mark Zuckerberg came to Lagos, and he is comfortable doing ordinary things because earned money is different from stolen money. <br />
<br />
Are you surprised at the blandness of his wardrobe? Don't be. Mark attended Philips Exeter in New Hampshire; one of the best college preps in America. They teach these things early in prep schools; character, learning and selflessness. In these schools, blandness is normal; formal dress is an Oxford shirt over plain khakis and penny loafers. Informally, you wear polos and boat shoes. The emphasis is on rigorous academic curricula, athletics and etiquette. America separates their thinkers and creatives early, and nurtures them.<br />
<br />
Real money is not loud. When money is earned, people work, not because they need money but because they derive joy in doing what they love and contributing to the body of knowledge and to humanity. They know relaxation is a fluke if the contrast of challenging work is absent. They don't waste their lives in hollow pursuits of vain pleasure, material acquisition and conspicuous consumption. <br />
<br />
How many rich people in Nigeria have really earned their money and contributed to humanity? Mark is comfortable in his own skin and has nothing to fear jogging on Lekki Ikoyi bridge or navigating puddle ridden curbs in Yaba without the ridiculous immensity of sirens and armed escorts. If you check out their charitable giving, you will be surprised. It is in character; they don't oppress... they build. They invest in people, not things. They make dreams come true, not shatter them. Real money has a strong sense of privilege and the responsibilities that comes with it. Take some useful lessons from this, and use money.... be humane, and don't allow money to use you.<br />
<br />
Article written by Flash <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDFb-RON5d_ba5dDL7TejmnUp6xCHs-dUoqIdvyPQu6cfRffcXMIl0c5wBFWI8MTlY_PsG4VqSfw85Khha_7qevheU_Ashv0E11lhdYApy4SKg83TnUelCYEMZJRwNZ5mwvbarnnyaMljo/s1600/Facebook%2527s+Mark+Zuckerberg_Leaving_Nigeria.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDFb-RON5d_ba5dDL7TejmnUp6xCHs-dUoqIdvyPQu6cfRffcXMIl0c5wBFWI8MTlY_PsG4VqSfw85Khha_7qevheU_Ashv0E11lhdYApy4SKg83TnUelCYEMZJRwNZ5mwvbarnnyaMljo/s640/Facebook%2527s+Mark+Zuckerberg_Leaving_Nigeria.jpeg" width="504" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mark Zuckerberg at the Lagos airport</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
On a lighter note....<br />
One thing I have in common with Mar Zuckerberg is my DNA cold signed love for polo shirts and jeans too lol. I like to wear different colours and designs though. Feel free to join our polo shirt and jeans club, we are one big happy family.<br />
<br />
<br />
And as a matter national pride and planetary jollof rice domination, Naija has dominated yet again. The jollof rice conquest of Ghana by Nigeria which is as old as the big bang continued as Mark Zuckerberg unequivocally confirms and endorses Nigeria jollof rice as the best, better than Ghana jollof rice. Chale we love you still. I'm thinking, Nigeria jollof rice should be an export commodity.<br />
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated. :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-25999788576056365772016-05-25T07:42:00.002+01:002016-05-25T07:42:54.911+01:00A Rejoinder To "YOUR SACRIFICES NOT IN VAIN" Speech Allegedly by Mohammadu Buhari<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2A8UN3xU5_1dJQWwFYrJpag9CZ5I-qg5dQzO36nsvFrrB5cc9BNOwnnnub9P_OpU9OpM2Qr361HyJB2Ig3XX4ya-fGPvuOaQ8t9dbQkt5QWS5A14xSpO5dQyztFzA11GCGO5bKJ7EB-YT/s1600/Buhari-Osinbajo-Nigeria.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com.ng/" border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2A8UN3xU5_1dJQWwFYrJpag9CZ5I-qg5dQzO36nsvFrrB5cc9BNOwnnnub9P_OpU9OpM2Qr361HyJB2Ig3XX4ya-fGPvuOaQ8t9dbQkt5QWS5A14xSpO5dQyztFzA11GCGO5bKJ7EB-YT/s400/Buhari-Osinbajo-Nigeria.jpeg" title="A Rejoinder To YOUR SACRIFICES NOT IN VAIN Allegedly by Mohammadu Buhari" width="400" /></a></div>
A concerned citizen's response to the alleged speech; YOUR SACRIFICES NOT IN VAIN by Mohammadu Buhari <br />
<br />
Though not sure the text is a real address from PMB but it's time for someone to tell him a few home truths:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>It is not GEJ's corruption or misappropriation that caused the economic contraction and suffering but PMB and GEJ's deadly combination of foolish and irresponsible policy responses. GEJ's ineffectual buffoonery slowed us from 6.5 to 2.3% growth, PMB/GEJ's disastrous response to GEJ's buffoonery took us from 2.3% where GEJ left off to -0.38% so let each man stand up and claim his own record! </li>
<li> Both himself, his veep and beloved minister of everything cannot and do not feel our suffering. They may hear of it and believe some of it but their children don't have heat rash like Fasho stupidly commiserated with us and they certainly don't sleep in the heat neither do they queue for petrol or take public transport. Aso Rock's N3bn budget ensures that. It rings totally false to mouth these hollow platitudes.</li>
<li>Their spokesmen and women need to be trained, from Dabiri Erewa to Femi Adeshina, they've acquired an 'We are in Power Now Syndrome'. And GE when asked why some petrol stations sold >145/ltr arrogantly responded that he knew some who sold for 108, as if his own purchase experience and the rest of Nigerians are the same!</li>
<li>He completely misunderstands the real physical experience of GEJ's economy. While GEJ's people robbed the country blind, the people were okay because the economy was great! Champagne flowed, business class was full, food flowed down in spite of Deziani, Boko Haram etc. it was wasteful and we knew we were losing a golden opportunity to save and reform but physically we were very okay, in fact we were jollofing from a borrowed future while admittedly inequality and a jobless growth existed. </li>
</ol>
So PMB should stop talking about a false experience of suffering of all the masses. It is during PMB's tenure that the real suffering began and while you can call it the cost of restructuring GEJ's fast and loose ways, PMB shouldn't think we will be automatically grateful, like folks rescued from daily prison beatings and deposited into houses without light, cars without petrol and factories without work but who think 'well this is still better than prison'. We were okay as I pointed out and the cost should have been a bit of belt tightening not a noose around the neck, it should have been a 6 to 2% growth slow down but instead it's a 2 to -.4% contraction. <br />
<br />
Come 2019 the physical memory will be of PDP/wasteful jollofing and APC/painful suffering. I wonder what the people will choose. <br />
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-2854361041233326862016-05-11T11:30:00.001+01:002016-05-11T11:30:04.061+01:00"Una No Get Light" Roadmap To Fixing FGN Ministries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatRWiIYvVZ9Q4KlTSBNrN9WWkcKwJu86yMcHiOH-xiDkIueEmOCL44l37R3M5fr9d_obpSPkXQijLIUBHvcE7SUipbcFayzQp-b7j1CEPcT6QCX-XfV8btYhhRESJgvE8g_ctPr2tw7Kx/s1600/roadmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt=""Una No Get Light" Roadmap To Fixing FGN Ministries" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatRWiIYvVZ9Q4KlTSBNrN9WWkcKwJu86yMcHiOH-xiDkIueEmOCL44l37R3M5fr9d_obpSPkXQijLIUBHvcE7SUipbcFayzQp-b7j1CEPcT6QCX-XfV8btYhhRESJgvE8g_ctPr2tw7Kx/s640/roadmap.jpg" title="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com.ng/" width="640" /></a></div>
Below is a detailed account of a friend's experience at the offices of the Permanent SEC for Power Abuja. I think every government ministry in Nigeria should adopt this approach in managing their affairs, in finding a lasting solution to issues facing the nation. Have a read and take one or two things away.<br />
<br />
<br />
It's around 6pm and am sitting waiting to see Louis Edozien, the Permanent SEC for Power at their offices in the secretariat. It's on the 4th floor. But unfortunately there's no electricity to see where am going, much less power the lift. <br />
<br />No matter, I am a Warrior and if I am to have any chance of being in DeeVee's slipstream during the 400metre rumble I better use the stairs as some sort of leg strengthening exercise. <br /><br />For those of you who have been here, it's like walking into a Council estate (that means Projects) in Brixton. <br /><br />Anyway I asked the inevitable "Una no get light?" They replied "bros we tire o. Since 2 days now". I made it to the 4th floor, hot and bothered, I was actually happy when they said he wasn't around because I wanted to turn around and head back. But when I sent him a text he replied he was 5mins away and I should wait. I also warned him about the Power but he was silent on that. <br /><br />So I went to the waiting room and saw some Irate senator also waiting. He was Furious that there was no generator and or diesel and made a series of phone calls to complain to whoever was on the other line. Anyway the Perm SEC showed up and held his meeting with the Senator and then sent for me. <br /><br />It was now almost 7. Quite dark. When I got to his office he apologized for being late and I found myself apologizing to him for having to withstand the heat and the impossible and completely unproductive environment. "<a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com.ng/2016/04/why-do-we-waste-when-wanting-of-funds.html">What happened to the generator?</a>" I asked. "We don't have one" he replied. It turns out No Power ministry or parastatal is allowed to have a generator. It's a gazetted policy. It's not something that's been enforced before now, I wasn't able to establish if this will apply to all Power agencies going forward......more of that later. <br /><br />But as I sat talking at length to this articulate and first class minded public servant, 2 things struck me, I became more and more convinced that the challenges we have in the power sector (and I dare say other sectors) was less to do with corruption and more to do with mindset, incompetence, lack of exposure and my favorite topic, education. It seems we are very good at creating complicated policies and procedures for the simplest of tasks. I fully understand that bottlenecks are sometimes created just to allow for backhanders etc but a lot of the time, it's because those in charge, simply don't get it. If you evaluate NERC, DPR etc their mindset and first instinct is to stop, delay, block rather than to encourage, simplify. They find it difficult to make the connection between granting more licenses and approvals and economic growth. To a lesser extent just think how complicating it is to get a drivers Licence. <br /><br />The second thing that got to me was a small appreciation of what it meant to be a public servant. We sat in the dark and heat and he explained how he shuffles offices when he needs to get Power. He was totally unflustered . Louis Edozien could probably choose whatever job he wants in the private sector but I was struck at how committed he was to getting the foundation and structures right, which hopefully should last decades. However in between all of that is the frustrating interaction with the naysayers internally. The "can't do" attitude, for no justifiable reason other than "that's the way we have always done it". <br /><br />I don't know if I have the temperament, skill or wisdom to be a public servant. But I saw today that if more like us don't go in there, we are only hoping for change rather than expecting things to change. And the old saying of, Nigeria being a country full of smart people but ruled by idiots, will continue to be true.<br />
<br />
As told by JF.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /> Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated. :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-1757486371150522652016-04-29T22:09:00.002+01:002016-04-29T22:09:59.052+01:00Why Do We Waste When Wanting Of Funds<img alt="" class="irc_mi i89ZaGnh4qvg-pQOPx8XEepE" height="310" src="http://files.isanet.org/Media/TitleMaps/2013TitleMap-IPE.png" style="margin-top: 138px;" width="640" /> <br />
<br />
A concerned Nigerian lashed out today at the Buhari lead APC government. After nature chef - the sun flambeed him in this scorching heat, the flood in his thoughts was evapourated to reveal these burning questions.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Why do we need a ministry of power when there's no power and we have NERC as regulator ?<br />Why do we need ministry of petroleum when we have no fuel and we have DPR as regulator?<br /><br />
Why do we need a ministry of culture and tourism when tourism is dependent on personal safety, lack of crime and actual tourist destinations developed NOT by governments. At best a Tourism Promotion Council would work<br /><br />
Why ministry of information/propaganda when ICT is essential part of science and tech<br /><br />
Why 3 finance ministries when I minister could supervise min of states handling budget, revenue generation and trade/investment<br /><br />
Why do we waste when wanting of funds </blockquote>
<br />
Post Author: Concerned Nigerian.
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-5499289775497355282016-01-13T12:59:00.001+01:002016-01-13T12:59:17.055+01:00If You Were Happy Yesterday, You Are Going To Be A Lot Happier Tomorrow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwXE_ayDCxPiYylunJNOrQva7vYVY_TTR7NG9OnWGRhTrvgXZtDjEj1SfAMI57DzJ8dgkmoQJ8v2EhTuKUxvibRRe-amC8PT1Ccs-f4Tz9Gh6dS0ZjgYqdeGz3zbFfM0P2CXPAFl5XZWU/s1600/powerball_lottery_the_chronicled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="thechronicled" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwXE_ayDCxPiYylunJNOrQva7vYVY_TTR7NG9OnWGRhTrvgXZtDjEj1SfAMI57DzJ8dgkmoQJ8v2EhTuKUxvibRRe-amC8PT1Ccs-f4Tz9Gh6dS0ZjgYqdeGz3zbFfM0P2CXPAFl5XZWU/s400/powerball_lottery_the_chronicled.jpg" title="If You Were Happy Yesterday, You Are Going To Be A Lot Happier Tomorrow" width="400" /></a></div>
$1.4 billion jackpot! $1.4 billion is the all time record high amount to be won in <a href="http://www.powerball.com/">Powerball lottery</a> on Wednesday night.<br />
<br />Someone may be lucky enough to win the jackpot and even if they don’t <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/how-much-lottery-powerball-winner-takes-home-2016-1">actually take home $1.4 billion</a>, they will become incredibly rich in a matter of moments. <br /><br />Billionaire Mark Cuban has some tips for potential lottery winners, and he shared the advice below;<a href="http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2016/01/mark-cubans-tips-for-eventual-winner-of-the-1-4-billion-or-more-powerball-jackpot.html/"><br /></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<ol>
<li>The first thing you should do is] hire a tax attorney.</li>
<li id="yui_3_18_1_1_1452683358756_2087">Don’t take the lump sum. You don’t want to blow it all in one spot.</li>
<li>If you weren’t happy yesterday, you won’t be happy tomorrow. It’s money. It’s not happiness.</li>
<li id="yui_3_18_1_1_1452683358756_2065"><span id="yui_3_18_1_1_1452683358756_2064">If
you were happy yesterday, you are going to be a lot happier tomorrow.
It’s money. Life gets easier when you don’t have to worry about the
bills.</span></li>
<li id="yui_3_18_1_1_1452683358756_2089">Tell all
your friends and relatives no. They will ask. Tell them no. If you are
close to them, you already know who needs help and what they need. Feel
free to help SOME, but talk to your accountant before you do anything
and remember this, no one needs $1 million for anything. No one needs
$100,000 for anything. Anyone who asks is not your friend.</li>
<li id="yui_3_18_1_1_1452683358756_2068">You
don’t become a smart investor when you win the lottery. Don’t make
investments. You can put it in the bank and live comfortably. Forever.
You will sleep a lot better knowing you won’t lose money. </li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
Mark Cuban also shared one last bonus tip with The Chronicled: "Be nice. No one likes a mean billionaire. :)”<br />
<br /> <br />
The 3rd and 4th tip stood out for me. Most people always think with more money comes more happiness, but they are wrong. Money is Money. Happiness is happiness.<br /> <br />
<br />
Post Credits
Post Site:
Post Author:
Follow on Twitter:
Like on Facebook:
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-43318792850026908082016-01-11T14:50:00.001+01:002016-01-11T14:50:18.801+01:00The Universe Owes Me A Couple Billion Dollars<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8Zmoj9v-GxyxliZAWYQ98Nt9L0z5Dk-P9fUx6_al9iwnhviPab7It3PeT-nyXc3fWawkJicqD9XaqsxwxMOVFT9L1LH7Op5InBwh1PnpyNWLpfQGJbiaCKgbJjOUMP64Nf78o-MKAYCW/s1600/Universe-Owe-Me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8Zmoj9v-GxyxliZAWYQ98Nt9L0z5Dk-P9fUx6_al9iwnhviPab7It3PeT-nyXc3fWawkJicqD9XaqsxwxMOVFT9L1LH7Op5InBwh1PnpyNWLpfQGJbiaCKgbJjOUMP64Nf78o-MKAYCW/s400/Universe-Owe-Me.jpg" title="The Universe Owes Me A Couple Billion Dollars" width="400" /></a></div>
I believe the universe owes me a couple billion dollars in my lifetime, but I have to work to get it. Let's just say I started that work earnestly this year. So I'm looking forward to making a couple millions this year. I've been enjoying some of the billions in terms great health, divine protection, healthy family relationship, etc. But I'm thinking of the billions in wealth this time around. The universe has NO OPTION but to yield to my demands. Besides the Bible assured me this in the book of Genesis 1:28<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. (KJV)<span class="p"><br /></span></blockquote>
I sneezed non-stop for about a minute this morning. Who is calling my name non-stop? Where I’m from; a blessed nation in the blessed continent Africa, it is mythically believed that when you sneeze, it means your name is mentioned somewhere by someone or some people. Whether it be for good or bad, it doesn’t say. I’m expecting a couple millions from the universe this year. So as you mention my name, don’t forget to make out the check of highly profitable maximally assured deals, opportunities, ideas, resources, etc in my name. I want to cash them immediately. 2016 is the year of being efficient and effective, no time wasting, time is money. I’m not taking prisoners this year unless the prisoners are millions of dollars jailed in my bank accounts and investments. <br /><br />Oh that reminds me, I had a dream last night. I found myself and Ibe at this event where we won lots of household appliances like gas cookers, washing machines, fans, etc. I have no clue where or how the dream started. I have no idea what event it was. Anyway, Ibe helped me sell my gas cooker for 300,000. I don’t know what currency it was either, probably naira I guess. It could be dollar or bitcoins. I wouldn’t mind 300,000 units of bitcoins myself. I woke up without collecting the proceeds from the sale but I must collect. He was the only person that came to mind during my sneezing episode. I gave him a call but he didn’t pick. Is he avoiding me because of my 300,000 naira/dollar/bitcoins? LOL! Lord I hope not. He better pay up. The money is mine right. I’m gonna sing his name all day setting hi up for a sneezing bout. IBE! IBE!! IBE!!! Dear readers please help me shout his name. <br /><br />I did 8.51km this morning. It was hard! Getting back into running after the holiday’s roller-coaster of enjoyment is physically challenging to say the least. I was supposed to do 14km with my running crew but I overslept. I did the 8.51km alone. The infectiously motivating group energy would’ve powered me up for the 14km. I remember lazily turning off my alarm around 4:00am but I was too lazy to turn off my sleep. The run was slated to start by 5:15am, I managed to escape from bed and sleep around 6:15am. Although I’m not an endorphin junky, I’m glad I went out anyways.
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-62534717853215998082014-03-18T13:26:00.001+01:002014-03-18T13:39:44.508+01:00Agriculture & Food Crisis: The Solution To The Global Food Crisis Just Might Come From Nigeria<div data-wcm-edit-url="/Lists/AlumniStories/EditForm.aspx?ID=3264">
<i>With the world population ballooning, without matching food production, the world is head for a serious food crisis. Many concerned individuals, groups and companies are taking measures to avert the situation. Out of Nigeria comes one of such measure.</i><br />
<br />
In
one of West Africa's most turbulent countries, HBS alumni entrepreneurs
are harnessing the extraordinary power of subsistence farmers. Can they
kick-start a green revolution?<br />
<div class="shim10">
</div>
<span class="nu"><br />Re: Mr. Bukola L. Masha (MBA 2006); Mrs. Ndidi O. Nwuneli (MBA 1999); Mr. Udemezuo O. Nwuneli (MBA 2003)</span><br />
<div class="shim5">
</div>
<br />
<img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria_D9X1019_720width.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 100%;" title="Agriculture & Food Crisis: The Solution To The Global Food Crisis Just Might Come From Nigeria" /><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<div class="nu" style="padding-top: 0px;">
Photography by Jason Andrew</div>
</div>
<div class="byline">
by Francis Storrs</div>
<span class="special-paragraph-start2">Ibrahim Mustapha grows maize</span> in Katsina Fulani, a village of mud-brick houses topped by rusted corrugated roofs in northern Nigeria.<br />
Like millions of farmers in his country, Mustapha is a "smallholder";
he and his family grow their crop on a 1.1-hectare farm, a plot roughly
the size of a rugby field. The 50-year-old has been farming this
small-scale way all his life, and he's been taken advantage of just
about as long. <br />
<div style="float: left;">
<img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria_stats1.png" width="130" /></div>
The Nigerian government, long considered one of the most corrupt on
the African continent, had controlled the nation's seed and fertilizer
industries for decades. And even though Mustapha and his sons had earned
a reputation as hard workers, there was only so much they could produce
within a system that left farmers either chronically undersupplied or
dealing with bags of fertilizer cut with sand to meet labeled weights.
In a given year, Mustapha would be lucky to harvest 1.4 metric tons of
maize—one-fifth the yield farmers in Brazil and China can expect. To
match their production, he'd need to invest about $500 per hectare. But
Mustapha earned only around $600 a year—and that was if the weather
cooperated. <br />
In 2012, the weather did not cooperate. That year was among the
rainiest on record, flooding more than 2 million hectares in northern
Nigeria. Yet that December, Mustapha harvested 4.6 metric tons of maize,
about triple his annual average. After saving some for his family and
selling the rest, he netted an unimaginable $1,350. "I have plenty of
money in my pocket and healthy maize for my family to eat," Mustapha
said then. "My children are already looking healthier—I can barely lift
my eight-year-old. He's the fattest in the village."<br />
On a continent more likely to evoke save-the-children appeals than
thoughts of agricultural innovation, Ibrahim Mustapha is at the vanguard
of what could be a green revolution. He belongs to a new farming
program called Babban Gona, the brainchild of <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=283018"><b>Kola Masha (MBA 2006)</b></a>
that is aggressively transforming Nigerian subsistence farmers into
commercial growers. By harnessing the largely untapped power of
smallholders—increasing their yields, rebuilding supply chains, and
opening access to economies of scale—Masha believes he is on the way to
helping more than a million Nigerian farmers climb out of poverty.<br />
<div style="background-color: white;">
<img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria_D10X1019_720width.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 100%;" />
<b>Ibrahim Mustapha's farm tripled its annual harvest last year with help from Kola Masha's innovative franchise model.</b></div>
It's a revolution that can't come soon enough for Nigeria. The
country was once the breadbasket of West Africa until Royal Dutch Shell
discovered vast oil reserves in 1958, and the agriculture sector began
to wither from neglect. Now, nearly half of Nigerian children under five
are undernourished, even as broken supply chains mean that up to a
third of produce is wasted. The World Bank esimates that some 22 percent
of the nation's 175 million people are unemployed; half of 15- to
24-year-olds in urban areas can't find work. Some are turning to
terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, which at least promise something to
eat.<br />
<div class="sidebar-wide" style="background-color: white;">
<a class="widget-popup" href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264#popuphtml"><img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/kolamasha.jpg" width="210" /></a>
<br />
<h3>
Kola Masha</h3>
Managing Director,<br />
Doreo Partners<br />
<br />
<strong>Masha's Babban Gona system turns subsistence farmers into
commercial growers using a franchise model that provides everything from
seeds to loans.</strong></div>
Meanwhile, the Nigerian population is exploding. "Over the next 20
years, we have to generate 80 million jobs," Masha says. "That's the
population of Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy." But endemic
corruption has scared off many foreign companies. "Nigeria is a
nightmare country. Things just don't seem to work well there," says <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=97038"><b>Nancy Barry (MBA 1975)</b></a>,
founder and president of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty, which
mobilizes and supports leading companies and entrepreneurs in building
profitable and inclusive businesses that incorporate millions of
low-income people. "The biggest problem is not just infrastructure, it's
government and corruption and trying to get rules that people abide
by," adds <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=12285"><b>Ray Goldberg</b></a>,
the George M. Moffett Professor of Agriculture and Business, Emeritus,
at Harvard Business School, who conducts research in West Africa.
"Because Nigeria itself has been such a frequent violator of so many of
these things, people look on it as the most difficult country to
change."<br />
And yet, a shift appears under way. A new reformist government has
started treating agriculture as a problem to be solved by industry
rather than by aid. Private companies are springing up throughout the
food chain, from factories that produce fertilizer, to investors like
Masha working directly with farmers, to retail-focused suppliers
rebuilding local appetite for food grown in their country. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="float: left;">
<img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria_stats2.png" width="130" /></div>
Universal among these agribusiness entrepreneurs is a core belief:
The answer to feeding Nigeria—and once that's accomplished, perhaps
helping to feed the world—lies in finding ways to transform subsistence
farmers into entrepreneurs. The global population is hurtling toward 9
billion by 2050, according to the World Bank, and feeding all those
people will require a 70 percent increase in agricultural productivity.
The existing system of multinational megafarms won't be enough—the hope
for the future lies not in mass production, but in production by the
masses.<br />
And that's where Nigeria comes in. With only 40 percent of its arable
land currently used by farmers, a more-than-ample water supply, and an
exploding youth population that promises a vast supply of labor, there
is potential unrivaled almost anywhere else in the world. "The whole
country seems to be waking up to the fact that they have more natural
resources than many other countries and more opportunities than ever in
their history," Goldberg says. "They are ripe for enormous revolution."<br />
<br />
<div class="sidebar-wide" style="background-color: white;">
<a class="widget-popup" href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264#popuphtml2"><img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria2.jpg" width="210" /></a><br />
<strong>In addition to chili peppers, Mustapha's farm grows onions, tomatoes, maize, and sugarcane.</strong></div>
<span class="special-paragraph-start2"><br /></span>
<span class="special-paragraph-start2">To witness the limits</span>
of government intervention, Nigerians once needed to look no further
than the state-owned National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON).
According to federal estimates, only 11 percent of its subsidized
fertilizer reached poor farmers; middlemen skimmed off much of the rest,
often to sell to big farmers with deep pockets. The NAFCON factory
closed in 1999 and fell into disrepair. It stayed that way until 2005,
when <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=281296"><b>Onajite Okoloko (OPM 37, 2008)</b></a>
and a team of investors bought the shuttered plant and got it up and
running again. Adopting a local word for "genesis," Okoloko would call
his new company Notore Chemical Industries Ltd.<br />
Looking for professional managers two years later, Okoloko contacted
Kola Masha, whom he'd met through a mutual friend. Masha had just
graduated from HBS and was working at a medical-device company in
Massachusetts. Okoloko's call came at the right time. Professionally,
Masha was eager to join a start-up; personally, he'd resolved to move
closer to his aging parents in Nigeria. At the end of the two-hour phone
call, Masha knew he would be returning home.<br />
<div class="sidebar-wide" style="background-color: white;">
<a class="widget-popup" href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264#popuphtml3"><img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/ndidiandmezuonwuneli.jpg" width="210" /></a>
<br />
<h3>
Ndidi and Mezuo Nwuneli</h3>
Cofounders, AACE Food Processing & Distribution Ltd.<br />
<strong>In a country where 90 percent of processed food comes from
imported ingredients, AACE sources its spices from local growers,
reducing costs to consumers while supporting regional farming
communities.</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
In 2007, the two businessmen worked with a group of Nigerian banks to
complete the consolidation of a $222 million loan—the largest in
Nigeria's history—to rehabilitate the Notore plant. In 2009, a decade
after NAFCON went dark, Okoloko brought it back online. "The African
Green Revolution has indeed begun," he said at the launch. <br />
From the beginning, Notore focused on Nigeria's smallholder farmers,
who use about a tenth of the fertilizer of their peers elsewhere.
Because farmers making a dollar or two a day couldn't afford the
standard 50-kilogram bags, Notore started packaging the fertilizer in 1-
and 10-kilogram sizes, and reinforced the stitching to prevent
middlemen from breaking into them. To reach farmers outside the trading
areas, Notore trained more than a thousand "Village Promoters," who sold
fertilizer and used demonstration plots to establish its efficacy. Most
important of all, they showed farmers that Notore and its products
could be trusted. <br />
<br />
<br />
Earning confidence among trading partners is a slow but essential
enterprise in professionalizing agriculture, especially in a country
like Nigeria where small farmers have historically had so little to
depend on. "How do you go from a state of corruption to an orderly
market?" says <a href="http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6422"><b>David E. Bell</b></a>,
successor to Ray Goldberg as the Moffett Professor of Agriculture and
Business. "I think it has to start with you and me trusting each other.
Then we find someone else we can trust, and they find others. Eventually
there's an alternative economy of people who trust each other." The
Village Promoter program, spearheaded by Masha, grew this way,
eventually reaching about 58,000 small farmers. Overall, Notore's
products and activities have impacted the lives of more than 14 million
farming families and counting.<br />
The six months Masha spent traveling the countryside to set up the
Village Promoter program helped him see the scale of the challenges
facing Nigerian farmers. The biggest problem wasn't the labor force—he'd
never seen anyone work harder—it was a fragmented support system that
no one could seem to fix. "The problems facing Nigeria and West Africa
are too great for the public sector or traditional NGOs to solve," says
Masha. "The private sector can make a much more concerted, long-term
effort to address these issues while simultaneously doing what it does
every day, which is make money."<br />
<br />
<div class="sidebar-wide" style="background-color: white;">
<a class="widget-popup" href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264#popuphtml4"><img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/mustapha.jpg" width="210" /></a><br />
<strong>Mustapha breaks for lunch near his home.</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
After leaving Notore in 2010 to set up his own investment group,
Doreo Partners, Masha spent a short stint as chief of staff for
Nigeria's agriculture minister, Akinwumi Adesina, helping develop a
deregulation and investment program, the Agricultural Transformation
Agenda, that seeks to create 3.5 million agriculture jobs and add 20
million metric tons of produce to the domestic food supply by 2015.
(Adesina says they're already more than halfway to those goals.) In an
innovative initiative developed at Notore, and now being studied by
Brazil and India, the government has begun delivering subsidy vouchers
electronically to more than 10 million farmers, a measure that has
increased the amount of fertilizer that makes it to smallholders from 11
percent to 94 percent. <br />
<div style="float: left;">
<img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria_stats3.png" width="130" /></div>
Masha returned to Doreo in late 2011, now able to launch the
end-to-end investment he had imagined. He calls Babban Gona—which means
"great farm" in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria—an agricultural
franchise model, and it works much like a fast-food franchise: Babban
Gona trains farmers-franchisees and offers them loans, then delivers
seed and fertilizer directly to the farms on credit; district managers
track production and dispense advice throughout the season. At harvest,
Babban Gona provides transportation and support, including access to
tractors that can do in one hour what would take a farmer 10 days to do
by hand, and even the sacks, the needle, and the thread to package the
maize. Masha's company warehouses the grain at the end of the process,
commoditizes it, and sells it to food conglomerates like Nestlé, which
uses it to make baby food and breakfast cereal sold in Nigeria and
abroad. Babban Gona then pays the farmers via a quarterly dividend
payment. The system won the first annualHBS Association of Nigeria New
Venture Competition for the West Africa region last year.<br />
<br />
<div class="sidebar-wide" style="background-color: white;">
<a class="widget-popup" href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264#popuphtml5"><img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria4.jpg" width="210" /></a><br />
<strong>Workers at a Nestlé distribution center in Lagos unload maize produced by one of Kola Masha's Babban Gona farms.</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong></div>
But improving farming conditions also required some upfront capital,
and because many smallholders don't have clear title to their land—and
therefore no collateral—banks are loath to lend them the funds they
need. To unlock financing for his initiative, Masha turned to his friend
<a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=810"><b>Ladi Balogun (MBA 2000)</b></a>,
CEO and group managing director of Nigeria's First City Monument Bank,
which loans against measures like warehouse receipts. At the height of
the growing season, First City has 9 percent of its $2.7 billion loan
book invested in agriculture, compared to a national bank average of 3
percent. "There are millions of farmers that [still] need credit at
affordable rates," Balogun says, adding that his bank expects lending to
increase 21 percent a year for the next three years.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's what all of that looks like in practice: With a $500 input
loan, 22-year-old Jamila Josua was able to afford much higher-quality
materials for her 1.6-acre farm in the village of Nakala. And just as
McDonald's trucks raw food to its franchisees from a distribution
center, Babban Gona delivered those inputs directly to Josua's door,
including 3 bags of improved seed, 14 bags of fertilizer (much of it
from Notore), and 10 liters of herbicide. Because she is one of hundreds
of Babban Gona farmers, and the system leverages economies of scale,
all of these things come much cheaper.<br />
To help protect Babban Gona's investment, a district manager visits
Josua's farm and others in her immediate network, or Trust Group, twice a
month (once announced, once not). That person, trained in agronomy and
business, dispenses advice on everything from best practices to business
ethics, while keeping track of growth rates and other performance
measures with a smartphone app. This process also de-risks the loans in
the eyes of banks. When the Nigerian government ran a loan program in
the 1990s, the partial default rate reached as high as 73 percent. By
comparison, 99.5 percent of the loans to Babban Gona farmers were<br />
repaid
last season.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="float: left;">
<img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nigeria_stats4.png" width="130" /></div>
"Through this whole system, we've been able to demonstrate that we
can get farmers a loan 50 percent cheaper than they can get themselves,
and inputs that are 19 percent cheaper," says Masha. "We get them the
knowledge to increase their yields up to three times the national
average, and sell their produce for about 37 percent higher than what
they can get themselves."<br />
When Masha takes a moment to think back on what he's accomplished so
far, his mind turns to his family's own history. His American mother was
raised on a farm in South Dakota. Her father was poor, like most
farmers in his community, but by the 1950s his fortunes had been
reversed by working with a farming collective. "He had a larger farm, a
tractor," Masha says. "He made enough money to send my mom to college."<br />
Babban Gona farmers are beginning to experience similar benefits.
Some have been able to buy cars and put new roofs on their homes; one is
preparing to buy a tractor for his fellow members to share, another is
sending his children to private school. The program is helping a farmer
with 2 hectares secure financing to expand to 14—enough to earn him
$10,000 a year. "It's been wonderful to see," Masha says.<br />
<span class="special-paragraph-start2"><br /></span>
<span class="special-paragraph-start2"><br /></span>
<span class="special-paragraph-start2">As Nigeria struggles</span> to
crack the problem of feeding itself, boosting production is only half
of the solution—the other half is convincing skeptical Nigerian
consumers to eat what its farmers grow.<br />
A couple of summers ago, <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=2946"><b>Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli (MBA 1999)</b></a>
saw this dilemma firsthand when she stopped by a small restaurant
outside Lagos in southwest Nigeria, not far from the home she shares
with her husband, <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=134607"><b>Mezuo Nwuneli (MBA 2003)</b></a>.
It was a neighborhood place, and she wanted to know where the chef got
ingredients such as produce and chicken. It turned out that they were
bought at a nearby market, but actually originated from abroad.<br />
Decades of corruption and haphazard regulations have conditioned
consumers to see local food as overpriced and inferior, which it often
is. (It's also sometimes dangerous: An estimated 20,000 people died in
2008 from eating produce treated with poisonous chemicals.) As a result,
90 percent of processed food in Nigerian restaurants and supermarkets
comes from ingredients grown somewhere else.<br />
<br />
<div class="sidebar-wide" style="background-color: white;">
<a class="widget-popup" href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264#popuphtml6"><img alt="" src="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/PublishingImages/stories/bulletin/2014/march/nwuneli2.jpg" width="210" /></a><br />
<strong>Ndidi and Mezuo Nwuneli</strong><br />
Their investment firm is transforming the landscape by supporting small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises.<br />
<div class="nu">
Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
"Changing mindsets among the local populace that 'Made in Nigeria'
products, especially food, are high quality and suitable for consumption
has proved difficult," says Ndidi. To change people's minds, she and
Mezuo have decided to change the marketplace.<br />
In 2009, the couple launched a start-up agribusiness called AACE Food
Processing & Distribution Ltd., which buys bulk spices and other
ingredients, then processes and packages them to sell to local
customers. "Our vision," they say, "is to be the preferred provider of
food for West Africans."<br />
Ndidi and Mezuo, both children of university professors, approach the
ambitious challenge with a combination of academic rigor and devotion
to social justice. At HBS, Ndidi did a field study project with the
Center for Women & Enterprise, founded by <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=83849"><b>Andrea Silbert (MBA 1991/MPA 1992)</b></a>—an
experience Ndidi says directly inspired her pre-AACE work launching
several Nigerian nonprofits devoted to social entrepreneurship. During
his time at HBS, Mezuo served as co-president of the Africa Business
Club and worked with the admissions office to develop and implement new
strategies for attracting more students from the continent. Both always
knew they would ultimately return to their home country to try to
address hunger and build Nigerian enterprises.<br />
<br />
<br />
The couple is using their investment firm, Sahel Capital, to attack
the problem in two different ways. The first is through AACE. The second
is by managing the new $100 million Fund for Agricultural Financing in
Nigeria, a partnership between Adesina's Federal Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development and Germany's KfW development bank. Starting this
year, the fund will make investments in small- and medium-sized
agricultural enterprises that hold great promise. "We have always been
driven to transform the landscapes in which we have worked," says Mezuo.
In Nigeria today, "there are tremendous opportunities to transform the
landscape by supporting smallholder farmers and providing growth capital
to agribusiness-focused entrepreneurs."<br />
When the Nwunelis started AACE, they experimented by sourcing their
spices from local markets, similar to the one used by the restaurant
Ndidi visited. But they soon ran into the same problems faced by other
food companies: inconsistent supplies, opaque pricing structures, and
mixed quality. But instead of turning to outside suppliers, they turned
inward, building relationships directly with smallholder farmers and
farmer collectives.<br />
<br />
<br />
Like Masha and Okoloko of Notore, the Nwunelis believe in the benefit
of working to build shared value over the long term. AACE provides
groups like the Jaba Ginger Farmers Cooperative Society—which is made up
of 3,000 smallholders, more than half of them women—with a trustworthy
customer. In return, by sourcing ginger and chili pepper locally, AACE
has been able to reduce purchasing costs of the spices by as much as 30
percent, savings it passes on to consumers.<br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; float: right; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20px; padding: 8px; width: 320px;">
<hr />
<h3>
The Seeds of Agribusiness</h3>
In the 1950s, agricultural economics professor Ray Goldberg went to
his dean at Harvard Business School to pitch a new kind of conference.
For the first time, it would bring together players from all parts of
the supply chain—subsistence farmers to multinational conglomerates,
seed sellers to supermarket buyers—to share insights and piece together a
perspective on the global food system. The resulting executive
Agribusiness Seminar, which held its 54th installment in January, now
brings to HBS each year more than 200 leaders from places like the
Department of Agriculture, the World Bank, Monsanto, ConAgra, and
Walmart. They come, Goldberg says, because "this is the only place where
these groups can talk to each other."<br />
Another reason people travel from around the world, though Goldberg
is too modest to say so, is to learn from a giant of their industry.
Goldberg, together with his late HBS colleague <b>John H. Davis</b>,
codeveloped the field of agribusiness, teaching the first course on the
subject in 1955. At the time, agricultural businesses tended to focus
narrowly on their particular jobs, but the professors argued that
agricultural was a social, economic and political enterprise, and
studying the entire system would lead to better decisions. This magazine
named the publication of their 1957 textbook, <em>A Concept of Agribusiness</em>,
one of the 20 most-influential milestones in HBS history, and today
there are more than 100 agribusiness programs offered at colleges and
universities around the world.<br />
Considered HBS's most prolific professor, Goldberg is the author,
coauthor, or editor of 23 books, more than 100 articles, and more than
1,000 cases. He has taught nearly 20,000 students MBA students and
Executive Education participants. One of his doctoral students, <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/community/Pages/view-profile.aspx?alumId=68630"><b>Michael Halse (MBA 1957, DBA 1979)</b></a>,
helped lead the White Revolution in India in the 1970s and '80s,
replacing an inept state-run dairy system with a farmer's cooperative
now called Amul, one of the world's largest producers of milk.<br />
These days, Goldberg has witnessed a resurgence of interest in
agricultural entrepreneurship at HBS and elsewhere. "The students have
rediscovered food, agriculture, and economic development as something
exciting," he says. They've seen that agribusiness doesn't have to be
entirely adversarial, but that buyers and sellers along the food chain
can benefit from cooperation based on trust. "The world has finally,
finally got it," the 87-year-old Goldberg says. "I'm just glad I was
here to see it."<br />
<hr />
</div>
The Nwunelis' system is tapping into a change to the Nigerian
consumer base: The middle class of Africa's most populous nation has
been growing quickly, now accounting for 23 percent of the population,
according to the African Development Bank. "There has to be a big middle
class" to support this kind of retail effort, says HBS professor David
Bell. "If you have a society where there are only rich people and poor
people, the rich people can afford to simply eat imported food, while
the lower class lives off the farm."<br />
Tracking the rise of the middle class, AACE started small but has
grown quickly. In 2010, its first year up and running, the company sold 6
tons of product, and then more than quadrupled sales the following
year. In 2012, a year the company invested in a dedicated processing
facility, it sold more than 70 tons, and were on track to source 100
tons from smallholders in 2013. In the future, the systems the Nwunelis
are putting into place can be adapted to all sorts of nutritious
foods—AACE has added soybeans, maize, and sorghum to its product
line—but spices have proven to be an effective proof of concept. It now
sells products to customers in 6 of Nigeria's 36 states, including
noodle companies, fast-food chains, and more than 30 supermarkets. AACE
expects to directly employ 65 people within the next five years, and buy
food from 1,000 farmers within the next three.<br />
By systematizing new agricultural pathways that lead all the way to
consumers, the Nwunelis hope that AACE will show that outside companies
can succeed in Nigeria. Private industry seems to be redoubling efforts
to invest in the country, after writing it off as impossible for some
time. Cargill, for example, is working with smallholder farmers and
investing in a plant to produce sweeteners from cassava, another
important crop in the country. In 2012, SABMiller opened a $100 million
brewery, its fourth facility in the country. Africa's richest man,
Nigerian-born Aliko Dangote, is putting some $80 million into processing
factories for fruit and tomatoes, two crops Nigeria produces in
abundance yet spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year importing.<br />
<br />
<br />
If Nigeria hopes to regain its ability to one day become a major
exporter, its success will depend on testing its supply chains on the
local market. That's how agricultural economies work out the kinks that
accompany building up large-scale capacity. "If you look at the
economies that have really become agricultural powerhouses, they built
that global capacity off of a large internal market," says Masha.
"That's how Brazil did it, that's how Thailand did it, that's how the US
did it. They were all able to leverage their large internal markets to
become major exporters."<br />
<span class="special-paragraph-start2">It's about 7:30 in the evening</span>
in Nigeria, and Kola Masha sounds exhausted. Harvest is shifting into
high gear, and he was working until 3:30 that morning, helping Babban
Gona farmers stack 100-kilogram sacks of maize in a warehouse. Doreo
Partners is still very much a hands-on company, even for its managing
director. It's the second week of November, and a tractor-trailer full
of maize is arriving every day from about 50 farms within a 20-mile
radius. The same thing is happening at Doreo's six other warehouses, and
it will continue that way deep into December. Being tired is a good
problem to have.<br />
<br />
<br />
Today, Masha has some particularly good news. As he tallies sacks of
maize, he's seeing yields of up to 6.8 metric tons per hectare, which is
about five times the national average and eight times the average in
this part of the country. It's not yet time to harvest the farm of
Ibrahim Mustapha—that smallholder with the chubby eight-year-old—but a
yield assessment conducted earlier in the season showed he'll easily
exceed 6 tons, which will break last season's record by 30 percent.<br />
In the old way of doing things, Masha and his farmers would be in a
simple trading relationship. He would look to get the lowest price from
them, while they looked to get the highest price from him—someone wins
and someone loses. But farming can't operate that way these days in
Africa, says Nancy Barry, former president of Women's World Banking, an
organization that has extended microfinancing to more than 20 million
low-income entrepreneurs. "In agribusiness," she says, "you have to
create win-wins, or it's not going to work." With Babban Gona, Masha
believes he has created just that, working with the farmers as partners
to bring up yields and increase his supply to customers.<br />
<br />
This is something that Masha's biggest customer, Nestlé, has long
understood. "In order to get milk locally for its products, Nestlé
realized it had to be the one to train the farmers in production, in
making sure the milk was safe, in how to manage the business," says
Bell. "Nestlé benefited and the farmer benefited." Like Cargill,
SABMiller, and other multinational firms, Nestlé—which now works with
nearly a million smallholder farmers across West Africa—realizes that
the future of meeting the globe's skyrocketing food needs lies in
cooperation and a new model of agriculture. "As more and more companies
figure out that this is the new capitalism," says Barry, "they'll make
the private sector exceedingly well-positioned to make a difference."<br />
<br />
But until those forward-thinking multinational giants are the rule
rather than the exception, agriculture will need designs like Kola
Masha's—ideas that help Ibrahim Mustapha feed his family of six and
along the way, potentially pioneer a way to help feed millions.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Credits</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site:</b> <a href="https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=3264">https://www.alumni.hbs.edu</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author:</b> Francis Storrs</div>
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-59175901177989740392014-02-27T16:32:00.002+01:002014-02-27T16:32:40.856+01:00Marriage Advice: Top 10 Types Of Women And Men You Should Never Marry<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl9Bt_CvjhyphenhyphenqEL_tkIgWp_Zziew1gZdN-FN_eAGF_AvWx0knIpoe029JBOLVKpEDlWoAhH-iFspiOzAAxv7VSbclV5N1zmdlEZEUoqOvCoP-_2o0pP6u6V6jHNtPmVTypoGtacWVFcx6hN/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Marriage+Advice-Top+10+Types+Of+Women+And+Men+You+Should+Never+Marry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Marriage Advice, Romance, Relationship Tips, Relationship Advice," border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl9Bt_CvjhyphenhyphenqEL_tkIgWp_Zziew1gZdN-FN_eAGF_AvWx0knIpoe029JBOLVKpEDlWoAhH-iFspiOzAAxv7VSbclV5N1zmdlEZEUoqOvCoP-_2o0pP6u6V6jHNtPmVTypoGtacWVFcx6hN/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Marriage+Advice-Top+10+Types+Of+Women+And+Men+You+Should+Never+Marry.jpg" height="360" title="Marriage Advice: Top 10 Types Of Women And Men You Should Never Marry" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marriage Advice: Top 10 Types Of Women And Men You Should Never Marry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You gotta admit in terms of marriage advice this is very sound. I'm sure there are some other types worse than these but this will do for now. Now this list is where anyone man or woman who wants to get married should be on. Are you on this list?<br /><br /><div>
<b><u>10 Women A Man Shouldn’t Marry</u></b><br /><br /><b>1. The Late Night Texter</b><br />You know, the girl who only texts you after midnight. She’s the girl who only contacts you when she wants something, or someone to talk to. You can go weeks without hearing from this person, only to rarely get a text full of smiley faces and a message that reads, “Hey! How are you?” They aren’t consistent. Don’t fall into the trap.<br /><br /><b>2. The Gold-digger</b><br />She’s the woman who loves your wallet, bank account, and credit cards. Be sure to stay away from a woman who is only interested in material things, and how much of these things your salary can buy her.<br /><br /><b>3. The Flirt</b><br />This woman loves to flirt with strangers, waiters, and even your friends. The woman you should seek is one who flirts with you and only you, no matter the circumstance. That last thing you want is to be married to someone who will deliberately flirt with people in front or you, let alone behind your back.<br /><br /><b>4. The Liar</b><br />Don’t trust a woman who is constantly lying to you. If you continue to ignore her inconsistencies, she could eventually do something detrimental to your relationship.<br /><br /><b>5. The Flake</b><br />This is the woman who calls off dates, constantly changes plans and never shows up when she promised she would. If you think this will change once you’re married, you’re wrong. A flakey woman will never put her man first.<br /><br /><b>6. The Partier</b><br />Stay away from her. Although she may seem as a fun and outgoing, I guarantee you will be better off with someone who stays away from gatherings full of bad mistakes and regretful decisions. The lifestyle of a partier never fits well with the maturity that is needed in marriage.<br /><br /><b>7. The Quick To Judge</b><br />Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I would encourage you to stay away from the woman who constantly throws judgments at others. This is a bad habit that is not only frowned upon, but it will also hinder you from finding any type of outside friendships. Let Judge Judy stay a TV show. Don’t marry her.<br /><br /><b>8. The Immodest Dresser</b><br />The last thing you want to do is marry someone who put’s their body on display for the rest of the world to see. Without going into too much detail, I would encourage you to marry someone who respects their body enough to keep it covered and modest.<br /><br /><b>9. The Negative Nancy</b><br />She’s the woman who can find something negative in just about anything. And although there is nothing wrong with being a little skeptical, living life with someone who is constantly negative will definitely put a damper on your relationship. It’s not worth it.<br /><br /><b>10. The Cheater</b><br />I’m all for grace and second chances, but the last thing you want is to find yourself in a marriage with someone you can’t even trust. I’m a huge believe that everyone can change, but please don’t get caught up in the lie that cheating is just normal part of life. You deserve better.<br /><br /><b><u>10 Men A Woman Shouldn’t Marry</u></b><br /><br /><b>1. The Late Night Texter</b><br />You know, the guy who only texts you after midnight. He’s the guy who only contacts you when he wants something, or someone to talk to. You can go weeks without hearing from this person, only to rarely get a text full of smiley faces and a message that reads, “Hey! How are you?” They aren’t consistent. Don’t fall into the trap.<br /><br /><b>2. The Slacker</b><br />He’s the guy who has no dreams, vision, or passion to get up and do anything. Don’t let his smooth words trick you into a relationship that will be full of dull moments and half-hearted plans.<br /><br /><b>3. The Liar</b><br />Don’t trust a man who is constantly lying to you. If you continue to ignore his inconsistencies, he could eventually do something detrimental to your relationship.<br /><br /><b>4. The Flake</b><br />This is the guy who calls of dates, constantly changes plans, and never shows up when he promises. If you think this will change once you’re married, you’re wrong. A flakey man will never put his woman first.<br /><br /><b>5. The Cheater</b><br />I’m all for grace and second chances, but the last thing you want is to find yourself in a marriage with someone you can’t even trust. I’m a huge believe that everyone can change, but please don’t get caught up in the lie that cheating is just normal part of life. You deserve better.<br /><br /><b>6. The Partier</b><br />Stay away from him. Although he may seem as a fun and outgoing, I guarantee you will be better off with someone who stays away from gatherings full of bad mistakes and regretful decisions. The lifestyle of a partier never fits well with the maturity needed in marriage.<br /><br /><b>7. The Fake</b><br />He’s the guy who claims to be one thing, but in person never steps up to the plate. Not only is this unfair to your relationship, but you need to understand this isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Look for a man who is who he claims to be. Fakes can only pretend for so long.<br /><br /><b>8. The Hypocrite</b><br />He goes back and forth between his beliefs, standards, and regulations of life. Most of the time this man will change things to better suit his personal life. Don’t expect yourself to have a thriving relationship with someone who is constantly hypocritical in their words and actions.<br /><br /><b>9. The Flirt</b><br />This man loves to flirtatiously chat with strangers, waiters, and even your friends. The man you should seek is one who flirts with you and only you, no matter the circumstance. That last thing you want is to be married to someone who will deliberately flirt with people in front or you, let alone behind your back.<br /><br /><b>10. The Jerk</b>Simple. Don’t marry a jerk. You deserve more than that this guy can offer you. Look for someone who is kind, generous, selfless, and chivalrous. That last thing you want is to be embarrassed about bringing your man in public, all due to his attitude. Not to mention, verbal abuse is a widely spread problem that I don’t believe any woman should have to encounter.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Credits</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site:</b> <a href="http://jarridwilson.com/10-men-and-women-you-should-never-marry/">www.jarridwilson.com</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author: </b>Jarrid Wilson</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated. :-)</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-42920468992636670962014-02-17T11:44:00.000+01:002014-02-17T11:44:07.705+01:00Now That Valentine Is Come And Gone, Was The VALscapade Experience Worth It?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjhv71eqvH09Rio1LNGbufc1OJYwag5_S6rVpZTBEEn692p-ZKaAtf1wum7V9gALhbYdrmf2Mowa6hxhDC0gj4r4EgzlHZZpCr5IQKePVQTO9kATyqw68WQNYzCaWFA0F1gfiKGlvVy2b/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Now-that-valentine-is-come-and-gone-heart-love-romance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Valentine Fever, Valentine Celebration, February 14, Relationship, Love and Romance, Valentine Experiences, Valentine Love, Valentine Spending," border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIjhv71eqvH09Rio1LNGbufc1OJYwag5_S6rVpZTBEEn692p-ZKaAtf1wum7V9gALhbYdrmf2Mowa6hxhDC0gj4r4EgzlHZZpCr5IQKePVQTO9kATyqw68WQNYzCaWFA0F1gfiKGlvVy2b/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Now-that-valentine-is-come-and-gone-heart-love-romance.jpg" height="400" title="Now That Valentine Is Come And Gone, Was The VALscapade Experience Worth It" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now That Valentine Is Come And Gone, Was The VALscapade Experience Worth It?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The Media Globally Calls February The Month Of Love. By Implication
Are They Indirectly Calling The Rest Of The Months The Month Of Hate? I Think
It’s Misleading, Misguided And Retarded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Now That Val Is Come And Gone, Are We Back To Hating For
The Rest Of The Year? Do I Wanna Hear Tales Of Your VALscapades? I'll Pass On
That Fleeting Past. Although The Events Of That Past May Haunt Some Folks Till
They Breathe Their Last. But Go Ahead Tell All About It When The Red Wine Intoxication
Clears, The Red Fresh Roses Withers And Plastic Flowers Get Tossed Away, The
Red Rumpled Outfits Are Worn Back, The Red Spell Of Romantic Unconditional Love
Unfortunately Wears Off And You Are Back In That Loveless Limbo Of Your Life
Which Shouldn't Be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
When The Red Sun Happily Welcomes You To A New Day As It
Blossoms And Flourishes The Love You Found On Val's Day, The Red Gift Packs Are
Discarded After The Gifts Or Lack Of Gifts Is Appreciated Or Otherwise, The Red
blood And Rampaging Hormones Circulates Normally Cuz Your Sexual Hunger Has Been
Voraciously Satisfied, The Red Bleeding Streams From A Torn Hymen Stops For The
Inexperienced First Timers, The Red Blood The Syringe Vampires Sucked From Your
Veins For Lab Tests Returns With Result Of STDs Or A Clean Bill Of Health.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
When The Red Cent Is Spent And Your Conscience
Torturously Questions If It Was Worth It, The Red Rage From Disappointment And
Dampened Expectation Dissipates, The Red Face From Emotional Terrorism And
Heartache Realizing You Were Just A Play Thing And Not The ONE Gets Treated, The Red Alert Mode Of Heightened
Anxiety Attack To Monitor Your "<b><i>Period</i></b>" Lest It Goes "<b><i>Missing</i></b>", The Red Light That
Brought The Relationship To A Screaming Screeching Hurting Halt On Val's Day
Turns Green For You To Move On With Your Life, Etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
When The Red Blood Spilled A Day After Val (RIP <a href="https://www.facebook.com/john.ndubuka?fref=ts">John Ndubuka</a>) Has Been Drank By Mother Earth And The Oceanic Tears Cried Has Dried
Reminding Us Timelessly Of Life’s Frailty And That All Is Vanity, But Virtue
Alone Stands Tall.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In The End, Good, Some Had It. Bad, Some Had It. And
Ugly, Some Had It. Whatever However You Had It, With Relish Or Regret, You
Alone Prepared The Dish And Life Simply Served It. Life Goes On. Keep On Keep
Keeping On.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The Idea Is Unacceptably Misused And Abused. A Veritable
Device Employed By Lycanthropes To Lure Gullible Preys With A Show Of Pseudo
Love. So These Monsters Transform To A Love Beast On February 14, Feed On Their
Prey’s Body, Heart And Pocket. They Transform Back To Their Normal Hate Beast
The Next Day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Instead Of Cosmetically Renting Out Your Heart For Love
Once A Year Why Not Make Love A Permanent Resident In Our Heart All Year Round?
God's Love Is Every Day. Every Day Is Valentine So Show Love From The Heart And
Not Superficially From the Obesity Of One's Pocket.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I Will Love To Hear It If You Were Sacrificially Loving
Enough To Demolish Your Often Times Irrational Selfish Barriers And Spread Love
To The Less Privileged Living A Loveless Life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Do For Love And Heaven Will Reward You. Do For Show Off
And You Will Be Rewarded Accordingly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-51997718786396911462013-11-29T13:31:00.000+01:002013-11-29T13:31:20.113+01:00Hilarious Letter: Michelle Obama Responds to Kanye West's Recent Comments (Grantland)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-xs54eMn_Ws3Rlk_yc-635OFh5JhvGz-7ecJXPJMMbtBkYi4BBZuIQXO-FnX0AtUycMa3OpFBLPOETxEDJrxvL-gcG5kTpiGHWDYxgimUYN2VsuBju314y3b4iSw92JkyK8c51IzaAOc/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogpsot.com+-+Michelle+Obama+Responds+to+Kanye+Comment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Grantland, Michelle Obama, America's First Lady, Kanye West, Michelle Diss Kanye" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-xs54eMn_Ws3Rlk_yc-635OFh5JhvGz-7ecJXPJMMbtBkYi4BBZuIQXO-FnX0AtUycMa3OpFBLPOETxEDJrxvL-gcG5kTpiGHWDYxgimUYN2VsuBju314y3b4iSw92JkyK8c51IzaAOc/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogpsot.com+-+Michelle+Obama+Responds+to+Kanye+Comment.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hilarious Letter: Michelle Obama Responds to Kanye West's Recent Comments (Grantland)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>This letter is well crafted. It made my day. It will make yours trust me. Kanye West is a publicity stunt freak that runs his mouth uncontrollably. Im thinking that should be a medical condition yet to be classified by medical experts. He said some about Michelle Obama Vogue cover and here is a supposed response from Michelle Obama. The sickest dopest diss line from the response for me this quote below;</i><div>
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div>
<i><b>"Imagine if someone compared you to Papoose, Kanye. Well, you're Barack's Papoose. And yes, Kim is my Remy Ma"</b><br /><br />That is so mean. I can't stop laughing. Read the article below.</i><br /><br />Kanye West recently spoke to Ryan Seacrest about a number of things. Here's one of the things he said.<br /><br />There’s no way Kim Kardashian shouldn’t be on the cover of Vogue. She’s like the most intriguing woman right now. She’s got Barbara Walters calling her like everyday … and collectively we’re the most influential with clothing. No one is looking at what [President] Obama is wearing. Michelle Obama cannot Instagram a [bikini] pic like what my girl Instagrammed the other day … so it’s to say when we are there and [editor-in-chief of French Vogue] Carine Roitfeld supports my girl, that’s a breakthrough … there’s a wall of classism that we are breaking through.”</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Kanye your are bragging about a bikini pix your girl instagrammed? Seriously? Is that an achievement? Who gives a rats ass. LOL. I wonder if she'll still instagram her bikini pix when she is no longer young and beautiful. Now that will cause convulsion in kids.</i></div>
<div>
<br />I can only imagine this is what Michelle Obama had to say in response.<br /><br />Dear Kanye,<br /><br />Hi, it's Michelle. Michelle Obama, Barack's wife. Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America.<br /><br />That makes me the First Lady of the United States of America. Me = Michelle Obama.<br /><br />I hope all is well.<br /><br />You know, Kanye, I woke up this morning. In the White House. And one of my aides told me she had something to show me. Something that would make me laugh. A "cute" thing, if you will.<br /><br />It was a series of quotes, Kanye. About my husband and me. About my Vogue magazine cover. And fashion. And classism.<br /><br />They were your quotes. You were the cute thing, Kanye. And my aide was right. It did make me laugh. Oh, what a hearty White House laugh it was.<br /><br /><strike>Keep my name out your mouth, ya heard.</strike><br /><br />Tell me, Kanye, what's your goal with this? Why us? Are you still mad about my husband calling you a jackass a few times? Is that why you're focusing on me instead of on all the other women who have been on the cover of Vogue?<br /><br />That's what this is all about, isn't it? <strike>You're out here all mad simply because we're stylin' on you?</strike> I know Barack never did apologize for the name-calling, because you know how you men are with your stubbornness.<br /><br />But it's more than that. It's bigger than fashion. To you, this has become a couple vs. couple thing.<br /><br />I once overheard some of our summer interns talking about you — about how mad you get when you're compared to other rappers, because your peers are Jesus and Jobs and Walt Disney. I heard it and actually respected that. It shows you have some drive to be a great man. You should fight to get your respect. I see my husband, the President of the Free World, get disrespected every day. And it tears me apart.<br /><br />So you have to understand where I'm coming from when I say it's laughable for my 21-year marriage to be mentioned on the same website as your thing with Kim.<br /><br /><b>Imagine if someone compared you to Papoose, Kanye. Well, you're Barack's Papoose. And yes, Kim is my Remy Ma.</b><br /><br />My husband's not moving our family out the country so you can't see where we stay. Because he runs the country, you see.<br /><br />And, again, we live in the White House. Very visible.<br /><br />Look, Kanye, I'm a fan. You had me the second you brought along Uncle Charlie Wilson, and there's no turning back. I don't think you're crazy at all, and in fact fully think you're saying things that other people are scared to articulate. And, of course, Chicago will always bring us together.<br /><br />Knowing that, never think that I'm not from Chicago for one second. Barack may be from Hawaii, but I will always be from that 312.<br /><br />As a woman who loves fashion but never sought to be an iconic figure of some sort, I understand where you're coming from. And your frustrations. You're both deeply embedded in fashion, you and Kim, and daring to match, with the man skirts and silly string bikinis. I hear you even have a little pop-up store next to hers that sells nice Confederate flags.<br /><br />And there's me, a semi-conservative dresser with my fashion not at the center of my life, and somehow I still ended up on the Vogue cover. And, to make matters worse, I didn't even ask.<br /><br />They came to me. And get this, I actually had to think about it.<br /><br />But next time, Kanye, if we can agree to squash this, I will decline and tell them to ask Kim. Will that make you happy? Will that end classism? Will the inclusion of your born-rich future wife break down the walls that my trailblazing old-ladyness seeks to build up? Just let me know.<br /><br />Because, at the end of the day, who really needs to be on the cover of Vogue for a third time?<br /><br />In the meantime, there's always Terry Richardson.<br /><br /><strike>Jackass.</strike><br /><br />Send my love to Kim and baby Nori.<br /><br /><br />—Michelle<br /><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Credits</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site: </b><a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/91169/michelle-obama-responds-to-kanye-wests-recent-comments">http://www.grantland.com/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author: </b>Rember Browne</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Follow on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/rembert">Rembert Browne</a></div>
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-16021802867729430132013-11-18T11:29:00.004+01:002013-11-18T11:42:28.972+01:00Parenting: Amazing Things That Kids Say<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAalyTNKRS4Firf68sEATiQlh-AczAQdn1aEpZH_G_tkHErqr5d5WqYPd_z47CBTb_GH53rQLrDvx6YYWXlSSBNMIaUzUJBO2OnCdj0yNMlYz9UNXD1qn_mt93opVxpw63Z_LqsbCXVOxq/s1600/4yr.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Things That Kids Say, Parenting, Kids" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAalyTNKRS4Firf68sEATiQlh-AczAQdn1aEpZH_G_tkHErqr5d5WqYPd_z47CBTb_GH53rQLrDvx6YYWXlSSBNMIaUzUJBO2OnCdj0yNMlYz9UNXD1qn_mt93opVxpw63Z_LqsbCXVOxq/s1600/4yr.JPG" height="298" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parenting: Amazing Things That Kids Say</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kids are amazing gift from God. You just gotta love kids in their element, they some amazing things and gestures and also say some amazing things. I don’t have any yet but I love the ones around me and play with them a lot. I also caution them properly when the occasion demands it. The things that kids say never cease to amaze me. They exhibit wisdom way beyond their age sometimes.<br />
<br />
My elder cousin’s 4 year old son revealed something to the father recently. The dad had picked him up from school and was heading home when he said it. This little boy is a passionate and very interesting kid. Kids just say these amazing things innocently just the way their little pure minds can grasp them. This is where the work load of parents are tested in making the kid reinforce the thought process or activity that lead to these startling things kids say or reject it and any future occurrence.<br />
<br />
The little boy said; <br />
<br />
<b>4 yr old :</b> Daddy do you know what my girlfriend told me?<br />
<b>Daddy :</b> No I don’t know. What did she tell you buddy?<br />
<b>4 yr old :</b> She said I can tell her anything I want<br />
<br />
<i>The daddy’s eyes popped wide open, he laughed hard and then tells the 4 year old son with girlfriend issues…</i><br />
<br />
<b>Daddy :</b> Don’t tell her anything that’s how they deceive us<br />
<br />
He was still laughing hard. The son would’ve been a bit disappointed. He is fond of saying funny amazing things like this. I wondered what kinda conversation between male and female 4 year olds that they were having. But you know the best part of parents-kids bonding and intimacy is when you have kids that can tell their parents anything, kids that can confide in their parents. It makes it so easy to keep track of what your kids do and reduce the burden of parenting. It gives a clear glimpse into the mind of that child. It makes you fully aware of what happened in your absence so you make commendations or corrections.<br />
<br />
<b>Also Read:</b> <a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com/2013/11/parenting-society-why-my-kids-are-not.html" style="background-color: #38761d;">Why My Kids Are Not My World</a><br />
<br />
So if there is anything bothering the kid like any bullying, sexual harassment or any kind of red flags will be nipped in the bud. It is every parents duty to strive and create sustain an ideal communication culture with their kids better understanding and raising better children.<br />
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-69279668690078569662013-11-14T17:59:00.001+01:002013-11-14T17:59:43.657+01:00Parenting & Society: Why My Kids Are NOT the Center of My World (TheMetzFamilyAdventures)<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4787093699035463632" itemprop="description articleBody">
<div align="center">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAXn5L94-22K1kcXpNsdcTzOn1uv9Ae4MjC6XabZ2mBpImsTfJtFQOT6j-3DQL_R06iYnnS2QM6WhvjwgobtFP9zVqF0n_ul68L12znTM8nAwU9sI0nXHZFee8im4jUA0DnlcimLGKzvcE/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+parenting&society.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Parenting, Over-parenting, Over-pampering, Kids should toughen up" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAXn5L94-22K1kcXpNsdcTzOn1uv9Ae4MjC6XabZ2mBpImsTfJtFQOT6j-3DQL_R06iYnnS2QM6WhvjwgobtFP9zVqF0n_ul68L12znTM8nAwU9sI0nXHZFee8im4jUA0DnlcimLGKzvcE/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+parenting&society.jpg" height="236" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parenting & Society: Why My Kids Are NOT the Center of My World (TheMetzFamilyAdventures)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Don't let the title confuse you. This article is really a thought provoking piece. It takes a hard critical look at parenting and the society. The issue affects the west most but its fast creeping into the African setting. Please if you love your children take your time and read this to the end, it'll definitely teach or unteach you for the greater good of parenting in particular and the society at large. I don't have kids now but I 'definitely plan to over-parent or over-pamper them. A little pain is good for learning.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Wait, what did she say? Yeah, you read that right. </div>
<div align="center">
This blog post is a bit of a rant and it's a bit all over the place. My
kids are NOT the center of my world, and that's quite simply because
they aren't the center of any world, anywhere.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
If you're feeling adventurous today, feel free to read on. I'll
forewarn you though, this post contains subject matter about which I
feel very strongly. As are most emotionally heated issues - I suppose
it's controversial. But hey, I feel how I feel and that's not going to
be changed.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
The emotions that sparked this blog post were given a little bit of a
supercharge last evening. Hendrix was picking out what he wanted to
take to school for Show & Tell. He chose a little Imaginext action
figure - one that he's had for about two years now. With the action
figure comes a little yellow object. For the two years that he's had
this toy, that yellow object has always been a drill to him. He
gathered the action figure, the mask that goes with him, and the yellow
drill and proudly told me he'd chosen that for Show & Tell. Then,
you could see him thinking. And he promptly changed his mind and said
to me, "You know what, I better not take this. My teacher will probably
think it's a gun, and then I'll get in trouble," put the action figure
back, and chose something else.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
I often think about the world my boys will grow up in. I often get
angry when I think about it. This particular situation just furthered
those emotions for me.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
In completely selfish terms, bringing my boys into this world was such a
great decision - for me. They bring me so much joy, they fill my
heart, they make me happy. But I often question whether or not it was
the right decision for them. My boys are typical little boys. They
love to play guns. They love to play good guy versus bad guy. They
love to wrestle and be rowdy. That's the nature of little boys, as it
has been since the beginning of time.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
How long will it be before their typical boy-ish behavior gets them
suspended from school? How long before they get suspended from
daycare??? How long will it be before one of them gets upset with a
friend, tells that friend to go away and leave them alone, and
subsequently gets labeled as a bully?</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
The mentality of our society in 2013 is nauseating to me, friends. </div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
Many years ago, there was a time where young boys could run around with
their toy guns, killing the bad guys. You could take the toy guns away
from the little boys, and they'd find something else around them - a
stick, their fingers, etc - and pretend it was a gun. Today, those
little boys - if caught doing that - are labeled as threats, and
immediate action is taken to remove that threat from the group.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
There was a time - not too long ago - when bullying was defined as
slamming someone up against a locker and stealing their lunch money.
There was a time when kids got called names and got picked on, and they
brushed it off and worked through it (ask me how I know this). Now, if
Sally calls Susie a bitch (please excuse my language if that offends
you), Susie's whole world crumbles around her, she contemplates suicide,
and this society encourages her to feel like her world truly has ended,
and she should feel <em>entitled</em> to a world-wide pity party. And
Sally - phew! She should be jailed! She should be thrown in juvenile
detention for acting like - gasp - a teenage girl acts.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
Modern parenting and thinking makes me crazy. The young generations of
today (yes, I sound old. I realize I'm only 29 years old.) are being
taught that they shouldn't have to ever put up with anything doesn't
make their hearts feel like rainbow colored unicorns are running around
pooping skittles onto piles of marshmallows.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
Modern parenting is creating a generation that's not going to be able to function in society.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
Your child, who you cater to every need, who you shelter from all
things "evil." How will this child react when he or she grows into
adulthood? "Debbie" graduates from high school and goes to college.
She writes her first paper and meets with her professor about that paper
and the professor tells her that it's junk and it will get a failing
grade. How will Debbie cope with that if she's always been made to feel
that no one should ever make her feel sad, or criticize anything she
does?</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
"Donna" graduates from college and gets a job - you know, in the real
world. She has to work on a committee to come up with a marketing
plan. She shoots out an idea, and it gets immediately turned down.
What is she to do? Go home and cry because no one liked her idea? Quit
her job because she can't handle rejection?</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
Modern parents, who drop everything all the time to sit and play with
the child, who "needs attention," or drop what they're doing to help the
child the second he or she gets frustrated? How is Joey going to deal
with the fact that there won't be anyone in his adult life who's willing
to stop what they're doing, stop living their busy lives, to cater to
his every whim?</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
How do you think Billy is going to cope in the real world, when his boss
gives him a vague task to complete, and offers no helpful information
as to how to complete this task? Mr. Boss is certainly not going to
hold Billy's hand and help him through the task. Mr. Boss expects it to
be completed by Monday. How has Billy been prepared to use his
critical thinking and problem solving skills to be able to complete that
task? He hasn't.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
I certainly hope that the title of this blog post is starting to make
sense. Parents who make their children the center of their universe are
not doing anyone any favors. Obviously, as parents, we love our
children more than anything. But dropping everything to cater to their
every need is only going to lead to a very rude awakening once they
enter the real world.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
I'm not telling anyone how to parent, and I'm far from perfect myself.
But when my kids can't find something, I refuse to help them until
they've at least made a concerted effort to find it themselves. This
isn't being mean, it's teaching them to at least attempt to solve a
problem themselves before just giving up and asking for help. </div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
When the TV gets turned off after the allotted time on the weekends, my
kids are instructed to go play together in their room. I love and miss
them during the work week, but I am not just a mom, I'm also Matt's
wife, I'm also Stephanie, and I also run our household. There are
things I have to get done, and my boys understand that. My children -
while Matt and I both spend time playing with them - understand that
the world doesn't begin and end with them. This allows them to find
ways to entertain themselves, it builds imagination, and it teaches them
to get along with each other without constant intervention.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
We follow the rules and don't take toy guns or weapons to daycare. But
I'll be darned if my boys aren't allowed to be little boys when they're
at home. They have several toy guns and it's constantly a good guy vs.
bad guy battle in my house. I feel like this teaches them to do the
things they want to do, while respecting other's rules and regulations.
It also teaches them that there are differing opinions about things in
this world and that's ok. We can like and believe in the things we
want, while respecting that others may not agree with us.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
My children are all but ignored when they ask for something without
using manners. They understand that when someone addresses or speaks to
them, they are to speak back. When we go out to eat, we don't take 5
electronic devices to keep them "entertained" for the 15 minutes we have
to wait for our food. If Hendrix is "bored" (and I use that term
loosely), then he can put on his jacket and go play outside.</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center">
Everyone parents differently, and I respect that. The current generation
may be one that expects nothing less than everything from this world.
But I know of two gentlemen that are going to be able to accept failure
and move on having learned something from it. <br />
<br />
I know of two gentleman who will be hurt emotionally, but who will be
able to work through the hurt and carry on with life. I will cushion
the emotional fall as much as a mom can, but I will not completely
prevent it from happening. They will not expect whoever hurt them to be
punished. Heck, I might even teach my children the power of
forgiveness. <br />
<br />
These two gentlemen will understand the value of hard work, and know
that hard work is required to get where one wants to be in life. <br />
<br />
They will, while understanding the need for caution, appreciate that not
everyone out there is out to get them. Not everyone is out to do evil
things. <br />
<br />
These gentlemen will understand that there are about a gazillion people
in this world. While they are incredibly special to me and my family,
they are not special to the world. That probably sounds terrible, but
people! It's the harsh truth, and it needs embraced!<br />
<br />
I know that I can't change the mindset of modern parents. That's never
been and never will be my goal. I just want to make sure that I raise
my sons to grow into respectable men who can thrive and succeed, due to
having been prepared to do so.<br />
<br />
My kids are not the center of my world because I love them enough not to allow them to be.<br />
<br />
Have a great weekend, friends.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Credits</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site:</b> http://themetzfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author: </b>Stephanie</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Follow on Twitter: </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Like on Facebook: </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-7627642985469372682013-11-05T14:23:00.000+01:002013-11-05T14:23:02.648+01:00Marriage Truths: Marriage Isn’t For You (SethAdamSmith)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2qwWYAmR5kXxTvikhlMGT71G2Vt6Xiufsz7vJdOrQPVINN11ACcj0p6DGdGR2PcgRa3sbFfhRZXFuKtlIVuv52XIguWWKTValAvI4SVajq8JJP-wfp3iq0KP4RraeA-gt1-nCSqyXImwM/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+Marriage+Isn%E2%80%99t+For+You.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Marriage Truths, Marriage Isn’t For You, Marital Life, Happily Married, Marriage " border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2qwWYAmR5kXxTvikhlMGT71G2Vt6Xiufsz7vJdOrQPVINN11ACcj0p6DGdGR2PcgRa3sbFfhRZXFuKtlIVuv52XIguWWKTValAvI4SVajq8JJP-wfp3iq0KP4RraeA-gt1-nCSqyXImwM/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+Marriage+Isn%E2%80%99t+For+You.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marriage Truths: Marriage Isn’t For You (Seth and Kim)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This masterpiece, "Marriage Isn’t For You" worth reading by anyone with intention sharing their lives in a dedicated relationship with another person. It gives you a deeper understanding of of your responsibility in a relationship IF you truly love the other person. Simply put marriage is not for you if you have no love. A <a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com/2013/08/quality-marriage-results-in-quality.html" style="background-color: #38761d;">quality happy marriage</a> requires selflessness.<br /><div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Having been married only a year and a half, I’ve recently come to the conclusion that marriage isn’t for me. <br /><br />Now before you start making assumptions, keep reading. <br /><br />I met my wife in high school when we were 15 years old. We were friends for ten years until…until we decided no longer wanted to be just friends. :) I strongly recommend that best friends fall in love. Good times will be had by all. <br /><br />Nevertheless, falling in love with my best friend did not prevent me from having certain fears and anxieties about getting married. The nearer Kim and I approached the decision to marry, the more I was filled with a paralyzing fear. Was I ready? Was I making the right choice? Was Kim the right person to marry? Would she make me happy? <br /><br />Then, one fateful night, I shared these thoughts and concerns with my dad. <br />Perhaps each of us have moments in our lives when it feels like time slows down or the air becomes still and everything around us seems to draw in, marking that moment as one we will never forget.<br /><br />My dad giving his response to my concerns was such a moment for me. With a knowing smile he said, “Seth, you’re being totally selfish. So I’m going to make this really simple: marriage isn’t for you. You don’t marry to make yourself happy, you marry to make someone else happy. More than that, your marriage isn’t for yourself, you’re marrying for a family. Not just for the in-laws and all of that nonsense, but for your future children. Who do you want to help you raise them? Who do you want to influence them? Marriage isn’t for you. It’s not about you. Marriage is about the person you married.” <br /><br />It was in that very moment that I knew that Kim was the right person to marry. I realized that I wanted to make her happy; to see her smile every day, to make her laugh every day. I wanted to be a part of her family, and my family wanted her to be a part of ours. And thinking back on all the times I had seen her play with my nieces, I knew that she was the one with whom I wanted to build our own family. <br /><br />My father’s advice was both shocking and revelatory. It went against the grain of today’s “Walmart philosophy”, which is if it doesn’t make you happy, you can take it back and get a new one. <br /><br />No, a true marriage (and true love) is never about you. It’s about the person you love—their wants, their needs, their hopes, and their dreams. Selfishness demands, “What’s in it for me?”, while Love asks, “What can I give?” <br /><br />Some time ago, my wife showed me what it means to love selflessly. For many months, my heart had been hardening with a mixture of fear and resentment. Then, after the pressure had built up to where neither of us could stand it, emotions erupted. I was callous. I was selfish. <br /><br />But instead of matching my selfishness, Kim did something beyond wonderful—she showed an outpouring of love. Laying aside all of the pain and aguish I had caused her, she lovingly took me in her arms and soothed my soul. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://sethadamsmith.com/2013/11/02/marriage-isnt-for-you/skwedding394/#main" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Marriage Truths, Marriage Isn’t For You, Marital Life, Happily Married, Marriage " height="266" src="http://sethadamsmith.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/skwedding394.jpg?w=318&h=212" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Marriage is about family</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I realized that I had forgotten my dad’s advice. While Kim’s side of the marriage had been to love me, my side of the marriage had become all about me. This awful realization brought me to tears, and I promised my wife that I would try to be better. <br /><br />To all who are reading this article—married, almost married, single, or even the sworn bachelor or bachelorette—I want you to know that marriage isn’t for you. No true relationship of love is for you. Love is about the person you love. <br /><br />And, paradoxically, the more you truly love that person, the more love you receive. And not just from your significant other, but from their friends and their family and thousands of others you never would have met had your love remained self-centered. <br /><br />Truly, love and marriage isn’t for you. It’s for others. <br /><br />This post originally appeared on <a href="http://www.forwardwalking.com/" style="background-color: #38761d;">ForwardWalking.com</a>, a website dedicated to helping people move forward in life.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Post Credits</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site:</b>
<a href="http://sethadamsmith.com/2013/11/02/marriage-isnt-for-you/">http://sethadamsmith.com/2013/11/02/marriage-isnt-for-you/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author:</b> Seth Adam Smith</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Like on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Seth-Adam-Smith/129101223355">Seth Adam Smith</a></div>
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-61809050543253557112013-10-30T12:31:00.002+01:002013-10-30T13:23:29.164+01:00Priceless Mom & Daughter Moment: Cute Emotional Baby Moved To Tears By Mom's Singing (Video)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREjSe7gI0TqFFa0D9ka44ZjD5Dl6u-dvDj3LEAxbTRZw9NubSLBRA8F0MZ22vEQfz4Dvf9iwFq7elacoPrQ1G6QWBAAOmGLjRPo3NTdJwSXWphwTlqq4Zt5kR9dGjkycHz0cphTVuo-wH/s1600/www.chronicled.blogspot.com-Priceless+Mom+&+Daughter+Moment+Cute+Emotional+Baby+Moved+To+Tears+By+Mom's+Singing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Priceless Mom & Daughter Moment Cute Emotional Baby Moved To Tears By Mom's Singing, Crying Baby, Emotional Crying Baby, Precious Moment" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREjSe7gI0TqFFa0D9ka44ZjD5Dl6u-dvDj3LEAxbTRZw9NubSLBRA8F0MZ22vEQfz4Dvf9iwFq7elacoPrQ1G6QWBAAOmGLjRPo3NTdJwSXWphwTlqq4Zt5kR9dGjkycHz0cphTVuo-wH/s1600/www.chronicled.blogspot.com-Priceless+Mom+&+Daughter+Moment+Cute+Emotional+Baby+Moved+To+Tears+By+Mom's+Singing.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Priceless Mom & Daughter Moment: Cute Emotional Baby Moved To Tears By Mom's Singing</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/nIsCs9_-LP8/0.jpg" height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/nIsCs9_-LP8&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="480" height="385" src="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/nIsCs9_-LP8&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<br />
I thought I share this awesome video. I must confess, I shed tears of my own watching this lovely video. It's amazing what how this 10-month-old reacted with such powerful impassioned response to her mother's private performance of "My Heart Can't Tell You No" gives a whole new (beautiful) meaning to the word "cry-baby."<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The mom has a beautiful singing voice too. This precious moment a very powerful mother-daughter bonding exercise that should be encouraged.<br />
<div>
<br />
The little one was <a href="http://tva.canoe.ca/emissions/vlog/video/le-bebe-le-plus-sensible-du-monde-912641">identified by Canada's TVA</a> as Mary Lynne Leroux. Mom, Amanda, told TVA that she's too shy to sing in public - but clearly, she's found an appreciative audience at home.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Credits</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site: </b><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1pfsdp/10_month_old_baby_reacting_to_her_mothers_singing/">http://www.reddit.com/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author:</b> Vidbeau</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-87757561180065401782013-10-02T14:45:00.002+01:002013-10-02T14:45:56.292+01:00Ways Of Rising – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Wednesday 2nd October 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPXxbVm_k-3TfsSKNwhB1MYK8dQsuzIWK6bZGIHz8p94kRJAS_ArpxiI8952XcwwoYvwX-GH1DvtVdFvlfKKHSFhpBe-5LoI-nEsBXMucdm16cGdWihDTA0lq0_MLH49Igz8KNRRBi7fi/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Ways+to+Rise+-+germinating-seed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ways of Rising, Open Heavens Devotional, Open Heavens, Daily Devotion, Prayer Point, " border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPXxbVm_k-3TfsSKNwhB1MYK8dQsuzIWK6bZGIHz8p94kRJAS_ArpxiI8952XcwwoYvwX-GH1DvtVdFvlfKKHSFhpBe-5LoI-nEsBXMucdm16cGdWihDTA0lq0_MLH49Igz8KNRRBi7fi/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Ways+to+Rise+-+germinating-seed.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></div>
<b>WAYS OF RISING BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE</b><br /><b>Memorise:</b><div>
I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. <br />Psalms 40:1<br /><br /><b>Read:</b></div>
<div>
Judges 6:11-16</div>
<div>
<br />And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. Judges 6:11<br /><br />And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. Judges 6:12<br /><br />And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Judges 6:13<br /><br />And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? Judges 6:14<br /><br />And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Judges 6:15<br /><br />And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Judges 6:16<br /><br /><b>Open Heavens Devotional Message</b><br />If you are prepared to start small, God is prepared to turn that small thing into something beyond your wildest imagination. This season, hope will arise for you in Jesus name. there are different ways to arise, one way is by being pushed up. One person that was pushed up was Moses. In Exodus 4:10-17, God told him he was going to be used to deliver His people, but he refused. God showed him some miracles to convince him but he still did not yield, so God had to push him up. Another person God pushed up was Joshua. In Joshua 1:1-8, God had to tell him thrice to be strong and to be of good courage because he was afraid of stepping into the shoe of his master. What of Gideon? God chose him but he refused to yield so God had to push him up (Judges 6:11-16). In any way you are refusing to key into God’s plan for your life, the Lord will push you up in Jesus name.<br /><br />Another way to experience a rise is to be pulled up. Psalm 40:1-3 describes how God brought up the Psalmist from the miry clay, set him on the rock and established him. Also, in 1 Samuel 16:11-13, David who was only a shepherd boy saw himself being anointed king in the midst of his able-bodied brothers. God pulled him up. In the name that is above every other name, wherever you are, in the depth of sin, sickness, lack, ignominy, shame, disgrace, bondage or defeat, the Lord will pull you up this season. Yet, a third way to rise is to be carried up. Isaiah 40:31 talks of people mounting up on eagles’ wings. In 2 Kings 2:11, Elijah was carried up into Heaven by chariots of fire. In 1 Kings 1:11-40, Solomon did not know what was going on and suddenly he was declared king. This season, the Lord will carry you on wings like the eagle. Your effort will not solely be the determinant factor but also His favour and grace. You will see yourself rising from now on. It is your set time of favour (Psalm 102:13). You shall begin to rise and no one and nothing will be able to stop you.</div>
<div>
<br /><b>Bible In One Year:</b></div>
<div>
Genesis 33-36<br /><br /><b>Prayer Point</b><br />Father, beyond my expectations, lift me up.</div>
<div>
<br /><br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-67822182745323628372013-10-01T00:00:00.000+01:002013-10-02T14:03:16.534+01:00Let Go Of The Old – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Tuesday 1st October 2013<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglPzR56pziH1Q2x4CNy8-GjXNu1zwIitl8av2wMDJtHMPFgmWVUVCSI_V9COrH58PdyHRPx44P9FnMaDCKUpBZAHyWfnPPEdcFeKxV88BAsjgRgFnS7wXYBRd0XOOantkLqnWFI1NiDWAH/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Let+Go+Of+The+Old+-+old-guitar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Daily Devotion, Open Heavens, Open Heavens Devotional, Action Point, Let Go of the Old" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglPzR56pziH1Q2x4CNy8-GjXNu1zwIitl8av2wMDJtHMPFgmWVUVCSI_V9COrH58PdyHRPx44P9FnMaDCKUpBZAHyWfnPPEdcFeKxV88BAsjgRgFnS7wXYBRd0XOOantkLqnWFI1NiDWAH/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Let+Go+Of+The+Old+-+old-guitar.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let Go Of The Old – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Tuesday 1st October 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>LET GO OF THE OLD BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE</b><br /><br /><b>Memorise:</b><div>
A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. Proverbs 19:24<br /><br /><b>Read:</b></div>
<div>
Proverbs 24:30-34</div>
<div>
<br />I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; Proverbs 24:30<br /><br />And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Proverbs 24:31<br /><br />Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Proverbs 24:32<br /><br />Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: Proverbs 24:33<br /><br />So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man. Proverbs 24:34<br /><br /><b>Open Heavens Devotional Message</b><br />If you are overly selective of the opportunities you take among those that come your way, you may endure lack, shame, disgrace or disrespect for long time. Such attitude can alter God’s plan for you life over time. As a student who either wants first class or the first position, you must be prepared to study far above your peers. There is no success without hard work. He knows how to sort you out. But if you are lazy or failed to <span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com/2013/06/one-of-those-slow-day-at-work.html">work hard</a></span> when you had the time, be prepared to receive the comfort of the Holy Spirit after you have failed. What is your attitude to studies? Do you defer what should be done today until sometime in future? You are only making room to fail. You shall not fail. <span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com/2013/07/attitude-of-worship-2-rccg-open-heavens.html">Change your attitude today</a></span>!<br /><br />Laziness and procrastination are two major challenges facing believers today. Sometime ago, I asked someone to make me a little fish pond and they were at it for eight months. So one day, I went to them and asked if they will be through within a year. He said it will not go beyond nine months, whereas that assignment could have been done in two weeks. If the Almighty God is still working until now, what will be your excuse for not working? According to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, the one who will excel must be prepared to be disciplined in order to keep the body under. You can be great. There is a crowd at the bottom but too few at the top! There is plenty of room at the top, but the issue is whether you are willing to do the work that will qualify you for the top. Anyone who wants to mount up on eagles’ wings cannot afford to be lazy. Are you ready to pay the price? There are some people who sought God’s face, asking for His power and great move many years ago, but they have really not seen what they asked for. God did not give them the anointing because He was waiting for their time to come. Today, God is asking them to pay a little more price and they will see the manifestation of what they have sought because their time has come.<br /><br /><b>Bible In One Year:</b><div>
Genesis 30-32<br /><br /><b>Action Point</b><br />Identify whatever makes you a slave to laziness and eliminate them now. Pray that as Nigeria marks her Independence that as many as are still in bondage will experience true freedom.<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-40200547534848760332013-09-30T18:51:00.002+01:002013-09-30T18:52:35.921+01:00First Time Relationship Tips: Top 11 Tips for Nailing Your First Time With Her (MensFitness)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjUhX4d1w2aC9kI3f8K06jsdQWPx-23FBMwxuqj94TNwPz56gYFV-Fr7TVUVUx94geohqtM5aa50djO_ygtF1VB3Tu133BBW0odUCwg0bfYWAWEKsWVe74KiBanwhLk3Zb79E78g8Zc22I/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+First+Time+Relationship+Tips+-+Top+11+Tips+To+Nail+It1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="First Time Relationship Tips, Nailing First Time, Relationship Tips, Relationship Advice" border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjUhX4d1w2aC9kI3f8K06jsdQWPx-23FBMwxuqj94TNwPz56gYFV-Fr7TVUVUx94geohqtM5aa50djO_ygtF1VB3Tu133BBW0odUCwg0bfYWAWEKsWVe74KiBanwhLk3Zb79E78g8Zc22I/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+First+Time+Relationship+Tips+-+Top+11+Tips+To+Nail+It1.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Time Relationship Tips: Top 11 Tips for Nailing Your First Time With Her (MensFitness)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<b>First Time Relationship Tips: Top 11 Tips for Nailing Your First Time With Her (MensFitness)</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<i>So it has gone well up to this point, point of first time in bed with her, it is imperative you leave a lasting impression in her mind.</i><br />
<br />
Make a good impression when you get in bed with a new girl for the first time.<br />
You’ve played your cards well enough that the new <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/topics/hot-girls">girl</a> you’re dating has finally agreed to come back to your apartment after a night out. Until now, you’ve held back on making a move <a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com/2013/07/relationship-guide-12-reasons-why.html"><span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">because you didn’t want to scare her off</span>,</a> but you can’t wait any longer. You want her in your bed—badly. The pressure is on to make a smooth transition from first base to home plate, but what does that entail? Music? Candles? Definitely not.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/sex-tips/clean-up-to-get-dirty">Is Your Bachelor Pad Turning Her Off?</a><br />
<br />
Skip any elaborate scheming and keep it simple. We asked experts for their best tips on how to consummate a new <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/topics/relationships">relationship</a>—with tact. If you get it right on the first try, we promise she’ll be coming back for more.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><b>1. Pay Attention to Nonverbal Clues</b></span><br />
“Sometimes a guy is so anxious to sleep with a new partner that he gets caught up in the excitement. But if he wants it to be a great sexual experience for her, then he needs to read her <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/dating-advice/how-to-read-her-body-language">signs</a>,” says Dr. Jenn Berman of VH1’s Couples Therapyand host of The Love and Sex Show with Dr. Jenn on SiriusXM. “Look at how she’s responding to your moves—what makes her excited and what is she less excited about?”<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/sex-tips/how-to-keep-your-head-in-the-game-for-better-sex">How to Keep Your Head in the Game for Better Sex>>></a><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">2. Don’t Steal Bases</span></b><br />
As much as you want to fast-forward to the main event, don’t underestimate the value of foreplay. “A lot of men don’t realize that biologically, women need it to get their bodies warmed up,” Berman says. “<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><a href="http://thechronicled.blogspot.com/2013/07/healthy-living-tips-5-surprising-health.html">If you want her to have an orgasm</a>,</span> the best chance of that happening is a good 20 minutes of foreplay.”<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #274e13;"><b>3. Dress to Impress</b></span><br />
Girls make sure their <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/sex-tips/sex-and-your-underwear">undergarments</a> are impressive, and men should do the same. “Wear boxer-briefs. Seriously,” says Amber Madison, a New York City-based therapist who specializes in dating and relationships. “They’re sexy and more sophisticated than boxers.”<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/dating-advice/overnight-expert-how-to-shop-for-lingerie">Overnight Expert: How to Shop for Lingerie>>></a><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">4. Forget 50 Shades</span></b><br />
If you’re into the unconventional, save it for a later date. “Despite what you might have been hearing about from <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/leisure/entertainment/the-man-behind-christian-grey">Fifty Shades of Grey</a>, most women will be a little freaked out if you show up for a first-time sexual encounter with warming gel and sex toys,” says Melissa White, CEO and founder of <a href="http://luckybloke.com/">Lucky Bloke</a>. “Until you know one another’s comfort zones, you should probably stay away from anything kinky. Plus, you don’t know yet what sensitivities she might have to condoms or lubricants with heating or cooling properties—and you don’t want her wanting a shower instead of you.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">5. Clean Your Room</span></b><br />
She’s not going to sit on your bed if it’s covered in crap. “If you’re planning on having sex at your place, clean your home,” White advises. “It should look tidy and inviting—not like the set of a Seth Rogen <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/topics/movies-and-television">movie</a>.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">6. Be Well Groomed</span></b><br />
Like the status of your apartment (read: laundry not overflowing from the hamper), your appearance should be equally as pulled together. If you’re hoping she will be visiting your lower region, it’s important that the area is well kempt so as not to disgust her. “A little manscaping goes a long way,” notes Berman.<br />
<br />
“Make sure you shower and smell good, but too much cologne is a turnoff,” White adds. “We all rely on pheromones to be turned on. You want her to be able to smell you—albeit a freshly showered, you.”<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ZwiFKsPwPX-hZf83sUb6682EgaU6pvrtP4aeTrx9de4ckB7uaUlqY70dvRV7oOIrGlGfOyRuz_cxYALFB07ewiGQ5rQrhqylc778S98Irl7twtCho_Ry53zQ-blBs0YJXNYRQsZEArWH/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+First+Time+Relationship+Tips+-+Top+11+Tips+To+Nail+It.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="First Time Relationship Tips, Nailing First Time, Relationship Tips, Relationship Advice" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ZwiFKsPwPX-hZf83sUb6682EgaU6pvrtP4aeTrx9de4ckB7uaUlqY70dvRV7oOIrGlGfOyRuz_cxYALFB07ewiGQ5rQrhqylc778S98Irl7twtCho_Ry53zQ-blBs0YJXNYRQsZEArWH/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+First+Time+Relationship+Tips+-+Top+11+Tips+To+Nail+It.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Time Relationship Tips: Top 11 Tips for Nailing Your First Time With Her (MensFitness)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">7. Go the Extra Mile</span></b><br />
Thoughtfulness goes a long way, and we’re not necessarily talking flowers or chocolate. “Women like to see a man make an effort, like planning a terrific date,” Berman says. “Most men underestimate how far that goes,” meaning it might go as far as the bedroom.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">8. Protect Yourself</span></b><br />
It’s your first time together, so you probably haven’t talked <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/sex-tips/10-dumb-mistakes-that-can-get-her-pregnant">birth control</a> or previous partners. So, take the lead on this one: “Don’t make her bring up the subject; making her uncomfortable is a surefire way out of the bedroom,” White says. “It’s a welcome surprise when a man comes prepared in this department.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">9. Make the Connection</span></b><br />
Keep things close, on more than a physical level. “There’s nothing sexier than some intimate eye contact during sex,” White says. “Instead of staring at the wall or the ceiling, capture her gaze, hold her hand.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">10. Have Patience</span></b><br />
Taking the plunge with someone new means figuring out how the two of you work together—not just physically but in terms of chemistry, too. “Your first time with a new partner may not go perfectly, and that’s OK,” says Dr. Logan Levkoff, of Trojan’s Sexual Health Advisory Council. “It takes a while to get to know somebody’s body and what he or she likes.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #274e13;">11. Give Her a Proper Send-Off</span></b><br />
Everyone’s got to eat in the a.m., right? If you can cook, go for it. At the very least, offer her a cup of coffee. “This will ensure that things don’t get awkward,” Madison says. “Also, text her later that day. This way, when she starts to have the "He just wanted sex" freak-out, as many girls do, hearing from you will calm her down.” It’s the perfect close to your first time together.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Post Credits</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site:</b> <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/women/sex-tips/11-tips-for-nailing-your-first-time%E2%80%A6with-her">http://www.mensfitness.com/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author:</b> Hilary Sheinbaum</div>
<div class="cunlock_main_content">
<cunlocktag style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: franklin-gothic-urw, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.984375px;"></cunlocktag></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Follow on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/hilary_she">https://twitter.com/hilary_she</a> </div>
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-73271093233272942592013-09-30T18:34:00.001+01:002013-09-30T18:34:17.612+01:00Midwives Are Rewarded – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Monday 30th September 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKK-ZMU5GpipB6m309IsBV3FBoi8ZkZKkLOvgOTLLVOxLvSifQL64cYDKRoswqEptMDZYkimwlz6cEunoYBtEOlpYFaxBV13ILbfMEj_pXMHiXivdUMKU4S6t2N2p97wLo-d-n6nNTJ7Zt/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Midwives+Are+Rewarded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Prayer Point, Daily Devotion, Open Heavens, Open Heavens Devotional, Bible Study, " border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKK-ZMU5GpipB6m309IsBV3FBoi8ZkZKkLOvgOTLLVOxLvSifQL64cYDKRoswqEptMDZYkimwlz6cEunoYBtEOlpYFaxBV13ILbfMEj_pXMHiXivdUMKU4S6t2N2p97wLo-d-n6nNTJ7Zt/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Midwives+Are+Rewarded.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></div>
<b>MIDWIVES ARE REWARDED BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE</b><br /><br /><b>Memorise:</b><div>
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:3<br /><br /><b>Read:</b></div>
<div>
John 14:1-3</div>
<div>
<br />Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:1<br /><br />In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2<br /><br />And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:3<br /><br /><b>Open Heavens Devotional Message</b><br />Can you dare to stand alone? Can you dare to stand on the side of God while the government is against you? The midwives of Exodus 1 fell out of favour with the government of the day but they did not care. As a result of their sacrificial obedience to God, they entered into favour with God and began to receive special divine care according to Exodus 1:20. In fact, verse 21 says,</div>
<div>
<br /><b>“And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.”</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b>This could mean those who were single and searching found their right spouses and got married. It could also mean that those who were married had peace and multiplication in their homes. Also, this could mean that tenants among them became landladies by divine favour and speed. Beloved, are people laughing at you while you are obeying the King of kings? Are they calling you a fool because you refuse to compromise like others are doing to succeed? Are people saying you do not know the shortcut to prosperity? Never mind. Stay focused on your God-given assignment! God did not forget the midwives; He will also not forget you. God gave them households. God will not forget you or your labour in soul winning!<br /><br />In John 14:1-3, the Lord assures us that He is building mansions for us. Many years ago, the Lord took me in a vision to a place in a city beyond compare in beauty. I saw a house under construction which was massive and had many rooms. The labourers were busy working at it. When I asked the Lord who owns the house, He said, ‘Son, this is your house’, expecting that since there is no night in Heaven, when my children come to pay me visits, they will have rooms to stay. He said the building is still going on as long as I am winning souls. Beloved, whether people believe it or not, I know what I saw. I saw mansions in Heaven. I have seen my own building. The Lord is equally building yours. Are committed to winning souls? Soul winners are so dear to God’s heart that He makes them relevant both in time and in eternity. How much have you worked for your heavenly reward?</div>
<div>
<br /><b>Bible In One Year:</b></div>
<div>
Ezra 8-10<br /><br /><b>Prayer Point</b><br />Father, help me to serve you acceptably so that I do not lose my earthly and eternal rewards.<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-27223612938202208832013-09-30T17:22:00.000+01:002013-09-30T17:22:48.671+01:00Financial Management: What The Bible Says About Money (MoneyNews)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-g_fPdzAzAQ6e-UVrWgo-sWw3tJ-RlsT7R4jKiRzmMSHdboYlzeMYLvC7fNAm_zEbf-V4we1jZNIgZS9S5SYdj0n8Rw9T1wI0LPngooO3E_Z1EB7e2sMUDXPRrMb5_OGLIg25jaabjT-/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Bible-money-code+Bible_100-dollar-bill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Sean Hyman, Bible Principles of Money, Biblical Money Code, Financial Management" border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-g_fPdzAzAQ6e-UVrWgo-sWw3tJ-RlsT7R4jKiRzmMSHdboYlzeMYLvC7fNAm_zEbf-V4we1jZNIgZS9S5SYdj0n8Rw9T1wI0LPngooO3E_Z1EB7e2sMUDXPRrMb5_OGLIg25jaabjT-/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Bible-money-code+Bible_100-dollar-bill.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Financial Management: What The Bible Says About Money (MoneyNews)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Financial Management: What The Bible Says About Money (MoneyNews)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<i><span style="background-color: white;">I'm sure you must've read so many principles but you haven't read this exceptional expose on what the Bible says about money</span><span style="background-color: white;"> as put by Sean Hyman. It is simply called the </span></i><i><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Biblical Money Code.</b></span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Most people know Sean Hyman from his regular appearances on Fox Business, CNBC, and Bloomberg Television, but what they don’t know is that Sean is a former pastor, and that his secret to investing is woven within the Bible.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Perhaps that can explain why, despite his uncanny ability to predict precise moves in the stock market, Sean is often laughed at for his unique stance on investing.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">For example . . . a few months ago Sean appeared on Bloomberg Television. At that time, Best Buy (BBY) was dropping to all-time lows of $16 a share. Sean predicted the stock could go down to $11 a share, and would then quickly rebound to $25 per share, and after that would rally to $40 per share over the next year.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Another commentator on the show actually mocked Sean for his stance, saying “$40 on Best Buy? If that’s the case Apple (AAPL) is going to $1,500. That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!” (Editor’s Note: At the time, Apple was trading at $650 per share).</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Within a few weeks, Sean would receive the last laugh.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Best Buy dropped down to $11.20 a share and has since rebounded to $30 a share, continuing its path to $40 . . . exactly as Sean predicted. (Ironically, Apple has dropped down to about $400 per share).</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">During a recent private dinner with Sean, once he’d blessed the food, I wasted no time asking him what his secret is for investing so successfully.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">I expected Sean to say that it was his years of experience at Charles Schwab or perhaps one of the complicated algorithms he uses for timing the stock market.</span><br /><br /><u><strong>So when Sean responded that his secret to investing was the Bible, I was thoroughly shocked.</strong></u><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Yes, I knew Sean was a Christian (anyone who spends more than 1 minute with him will pick that up!). However, people usually keep their faith separate from things like . . . </span><em>investing</em><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">But not Sean.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">For Sean, the Bible is his FOUNDATION for investing.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">He explained to me how there is actually a “Biblical Money Code” woven into Scripture.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Sean says it is this Biblical Money Code that took him from making a mere $15,000 a year to now </span><em>giving away</em><span style="background-color: white;"> up to $50,000 a year. Sean also credits this code with helping him turn his father’s $40,000 retirement account into $396,000.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Certain investment titans, Sean says, such as </span><u><strong>Warren Buffett</strong></u><span style="background-color: white;"> and </span><u><strong>John Templeton</strong></u><span style="background-color: white;">, have already used this code to amass billions.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">What Sean had to say impressed me so much that I asked him to put a presentation together that reveals how anyone could use this “Biblical Money Code.” (</span><a href="http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/uwr/video_money_code_intl.cfm?promo_code=146F3-1" style="color: #030d2a; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;"><u><strong>Click here to watch it now</strong></u></span></a><span style="background-color: white;">)</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">I’ve personally watched this presentation </span><u>several times</u><span style="background-color: white;"> and it is already spreading virally.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">During the video, Sean uses the teachings of King Solomon, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Apostle Paul to show how anyone can get out of debt . . . make sound investments . . . and morally build substantial wealth.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Sean even reveals a </span><em>“debilitating ‘financial sin’ that blinds many . . . and could be costing you up to 41% of your life savings at this very moment.”</em><span style="background-color: white;"> What’s so deceiving about this sin is how innocent and safe it appears at first.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">And at the end, he finishes up with his “12-12-12 plan for investing.” This is a simple step-by-step plan to go from being a saver, to an investor, to a philanthropist.</span><br /><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Post Credits</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Site:</b> <a href="http://www.moneynews.com/MKTNewsIntl/Financial-bible-Hyman/2013/08/06/id/519032?promo_code=146F3-1&utm_source=taboola">http://www.moneynews.com/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Post Author:</b> Sean Hyman</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-65506926980956920512013-09-29T00:00:00.000+01:002013-09-30T18:15:06.339+01:00Dealing With Devourers – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Sunday 29th September 2013<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJlenoRNI_uYnyr7D_33HWs-pDMfVp6i2-U1Ovp0d4tWxHou2ZiOz21HKewKjvGEOuCHTPqvi_d4XdKb5XzKZw8hRRTP-vqjuNO1NJOYfUjpQHpK8dk7zXfIINszOZuTYjDQ9tsP297Mg/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Dealing+With+Devourers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Action Point, Daily Devotion, Open Heavens, Open Heavens Devotional, Bible Study, Dealing With Devoureres" border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJlenoRNI_uYnyr7D_33HWs-pDMfVp6i2-U1Ovp0d4tWxHou2ZiOz21HKewKjvGEOuCHTPqvi_d4XdKb5XzKZw8hRRTP-vqjuNO1NJOYfUjpQHpK8dk7zXfIINszOZuTYjDQ9tsP297Mg/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Dealing+With+Devourers.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dealing With Devourers – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Sunday 29th September 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>DEALING WITH DEVOURERS BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE</b><br /><b>Memorise:</b><div>
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:11<br /><br /><b>Read:</b></div>
<div>
Malachi 3:8-11</div>
<div>
<br />Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8<br /><br />Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Malachi 3:9<br /><br />Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Malachi 3:10<br /><br />And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:11<br /><br /><b>Open Heavens Devotional Message</b><br />Another area that restitution may be required in relation with God’s instructions can be seen in His dealings with Joshua and the children of Israel. Earlier, in Joshua 1:1-9, God promised to go with him and that no man would be able to stand before him throughout his life, etc so when they got to Jericho widely believed to be impregnable, just one shout, the walls came crashing down. Then one day, they came against a little town, Ai, and they were defeated. This was contrary to what God had promised him, so he fell on his face and enquired what went wrong. The Lord told him that some water had mixed with his petro (gas) and that until there was a separation, they were on their own. Until the culprit – Achan and his family were identified, isolated and destroyed and the stolen things were restored, victory continued to elude them. This tells us that restitution restores God’s presence in your life. It also sustains victory and ends defeat. So if you restitute, you are doing yourself a world of good.<br /><br />Moreover, restitution silences devourers. In Malachi 3:8-11, God said all His children who are robbing Him in tithes and offerings have violated His covenant, and therefore are under a divine curse. However, He says if they will restitute their ways, He will personally rebuke the devourer for their sakes and open the windows of Heaven to them and give them a blessing they will be unable to contain. There are two type of devourers – the ones sent by the devil (John 10:10) and the ones sent by God. To deal with the devourers sent by the devil, simply resist him and he will flee from you as long as you are in right standing before God. But to deal with the devourers sent by God, it is through restitution. You will have to cry to God for forgiveness and thereafter undo what made Him to send the devourers in the first place. Do you owe God in tithes, offerings, thanksgiving or vows? Ask for forgiveness and go ahead and pay what you owe. If it is in tithes, also add 20% as interest being the penalty for eating your tithes (Leviticus 27:31).</div>
<div>
<br /><b>Bible In One Year:</b></div>
<div>
Ezra 5-7<br /><br /><b>Action Point</b><br />If you tolerate devourers, God will do nothing about them.<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-21624933218985948462013-09-26T16:14:00.002+01:002013-09-26T16:14:31.489+01:00Open Letter To Governor Of Lagos State On The Sexual Harassment In Lagos State University<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqR4EVKR61Q9Htk6uPHX5uWQVTXSfSgCxQT4x_YMNQUqlgfA7xJn9wMZRjwNClyrzBSzessMwdtCBDA1fv_3vtYkeqfKg_TQ1Aa8qeFa004EximMa6JbaeyoYfWLBXXU7qXUIKPPoTZBob/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Letter+To+Governor+Of+Lagos+State+On+The+Sexual+Harassment+In+Lagos+State+University.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Sexual Harassment, Lagos State University, Social Issues, Open Letter, University Ills, LASU, Education" border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqR4EVKR61Q9Htk6uPHX5uWQVTXSfSgCxQT4x_YMNQUqlgfA7xJn9wMZRjwNClyrzBSzessMwdtCBDA1fv_3vtYkeqfKg_TQ1Aa8qeFa004EximMa6JbaeyoYfWLBXXU7qXUIKPPoTZBob/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Letter+To+Governor+Of+Lagos+State+On+The+Sexual+Harassment+In+Lagos+State+University.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Open Letter To Governor Of Lagos State On The Sexual Harassment In Lagos State University</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Open Letter To Governor Of Lagos State On The Sexual
Harassment In Lagos State University</b></div>
<br />
Dear Sir,<br />
The issue of intimate harassment and misconduct by lecturers in Nigerian universities has always been reoccurring in some of our universities and many lecturers have been found culpable in this ignoble act to the detriment of students. So many students have been victims of lecturers' escapades and we can no longer keep quiet over this issue that has ruined the lives of many students who have been our classmates or school mates as the case may be. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2r0zLafOr3o5PKgTZtiGwir1swRFrb2Bky3e2SviBLRrrmo6FS3aQVRT36VptDJtZG0VN0gXG0-NbNv78AD4rISmtgfPQqe7qzGlJohC0h_mOv9Y4uLwxG_nEtBQ88bghqevcxRqr54r/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Letter+To+Governor+Of+Lagos+State+On+The+Sexual+Harassment+In+Lagos+State+University+-+LASU-gate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="Sexual Harassment, Lagos State University, Open Letter, University Ills, Social Issues, LASU, Education" border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2r0zLafOr3o5PKgTZtiGwir1swRFrb2Bky3e2SviBLRrrmo6FS3aQVRT36VptDJtZG0VN0gXG0-NbNv78AD4rISmtgfPQqe7qzGlJohC0h_mOv9Y4uLwxG_nEtBQ88bghqevcxRqr54r/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Letter+To+Governor+Of+Lagos+State+On+The+Sexual+Harassment+In+Lagos+State+University+-+LASU-gate.jpg" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Open Letter To Governor Of Lagos State On The Sexual Harassment In Lagos State University</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At the Lagos State University (LASU ), Ojo, we have so many dedicated lecturers who take their job seriously and discharge their duties accordingly. But there are those who capitalise in sexually harassing students they are meant to teach. At the Faculty of Law in LASU, the Sub-Dean of the faculty, Mr A. O. Ogunseye is one lecturer who has been known to be involved in the victimisation of students and sexual<i> intimidation and</i> harassment of girls.<br />
<br />
Your Excellency, I want to bring your attention to this issue and the attention of Nigerians to what we are passing through in the hands of Mr Ogunseye because we are tired of this extortion, victimisation and intimate harassment by him. <br />
<br />
He has been doing this for a long time and for over five years without any form of reprimand from the school management thereby causing many students grief, pain and delays in their academic pursuit. The Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Professor John Oladapo Obafunwa is a man of integrity and I believe that if he is aware of this act, he will not hesitate to deal with such lecturer accordingly. Mr Ogunseye has committed so many atrocities against we students in the Faculty of Law and I think it is time to let you and the whole world know that we have suffered enough in silence.<br />
<br />
He gives many girls 5 points after taking them to bed and many other brilliant students who deserve to have 5 or 4 points he would deny them this and would give them 1 or 2 points at most, even when it is glaring that these academically sound students deserve more than what he gave them. He collects huge amount of money from students in order to falsify and upgrade their results for them. Recently, he told a girl doing her undergraduate programme in Law and who is supposed to graduate with a third class degree to pay him one hundred and fifty thousand naira in order for him to upgrade her grade to second class upper. But when the girl told him she didn't have the money, he advised her to sell her blackberry phone in order to bring the money to him. He is obsessed with money and sex and has slept with so many girls in the Faculty of Law in order to give them marks they don't merit and many of them have suffered too much in his hands.<br />
<br />
He also collects two hundred and fifty thousand naira from some students doing their Masters in Law (LL.M) programmes in order to upgrade their score to a higher score or grade which they don't merit. Every year, Mr Ogunseye abandons his official duty and travels abroad and spends up to two months without leave or any approval from the faculty and he would assign his course to junior lecturers who are not competent to handle the course. His stock in trade is to continually extort money from students and he has agents who usually solicit on his behalf for other students to pay him money for marks. As a result of his dishonourable role in upgrading scores for students, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Dr Olatokunbo Obadina had to change the password of the portal used by lecturers in the Faculty of Law for uploading students' results so that Mr Ogunseye will not have access to carry out his despicable acts. <br />
<br />
Mr Ogunseye was my project supervisor and for over four months he kept tossing me up and down and refused to approve my project even after collecting over ten thousand naira from me and despite all the efforts I put in researching, writing, re-writing and typing the project and all the money I spent in doing this. Later when I discovered he was not ready to approve my project and was only interested in continuing to extort money from me, I had to apply for another project supervisor, Barrister Gbenga Ojo, who supervised my project and approved it without delay and without collecting any money from me. But I had to write another project for Barrister Ojo since his own department is different from that of Mr Ogunseye. <br />
<br />
It is so frustating the type of pain, both emotional and psychological, which Mr Ogunseye has put many students through. By his conduct, he is a disgrace to the Faculty of Law and the Lagos State University as a whole. People like this should not be entrusted with positions of authority because they end up abusing their power and corrupting the minds of young and upcoming students and jeopardising the future of many of them. <br />
<br />
I hereby call on you sir, as the Visitor to the Lagos State University, to institute a proper and thorough investigation into this issue of intimate harassment, intimidation, victimisation, dereliction of duty and extortion by Mr Ogunseye, the Sub-Dean of the faculty of Law and if found culpable, he should be dealt with accordingly. <br />
<br />
We recall that some lecturers were sacked recently by the University of Benin for these same issues of intimate harassment and extortion of students. Any lecturer who engages in this dishonourable behaviour does not deserve to be a lecturer and should be shown the way out of the university system to avoid bringing down the image of the university. <br />
<br />
I hereby call on the Nigerian media to also investigate this matter discreetly using their tool of investigative journalism and I want the media to come to LASU Faculty of Law and interview many students on this issue especially girls who have been sexually harassed and abused on several occasions by Mr Ogunseye. This matter must not be swept under the carpet by the Lagos State government, the media and all well meaning Nigerians because enough is enough. We have suffered enough and we can no longer keep quiet in the face of flagrant abuses and misconduct by our own lecturers who should be role models to the youths. <br />
<br />
It is my hope that this letter will be given adequate publicity by the media to let Nigerians know what we are passing through in LASU in the hands of randy lecturers even after the school fees were increased to a whooping two hundred and fifty thousand naira per student. <br />
<br />
From: Adeshina Johnson. <br />
Faculty of Law, LASU, Lagos.<br />
<br />
<br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786098989107724.post-82905985056081673962013-09-25T16:45:00.000+01:002013-09-25T16:45:09.399+01:00Starting Small – RCCG Open Heavens Devotional Wednesday 25th September 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5wcaGQeJwQD2VwZ2dsR5Xab7hf6_gqCUu1Nm-ADrKqDZZle_JMzADdlwevSWQ3Pe7q5ioD4uAjSdh14gI_SY23MS2_cbnJGDKm7-aCh7NBOjcF8ulVi4kHmdQqDlwK_4Jqqhbr5jGS-8/s1600/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Starting+Small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Start Small, Open Heavens, Open Heavens Devotional, Daily Devotion, Key Point, " border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5wcaGQeJwQD2VwZ2dsR5Xab7hf6_gqCUu1Nm-ADrKqDZZle_JMzADdlwevSWQ3Pe7q5ioD4uAjSdh14gI_SY23MS2_cbnJGDKm7-aCh7NBOjcF8ulVi4kHmdQqDlwK_4Jqqhbr5jGS-8/s400/www.thechronicled.blogspot.com+-+Open+Heavens+-+Starting+Small.png" title="www.thechronicled.blogspot.com" width="400" /></a></div>
<b>STARTING SMALL BY PASTOR E. A. ADEBOYE</b><br /><br /><b>Memorise:</b><div>
Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. Job 8:7<br /><br /><b>Read:</b></div>
<div>
Zechariah 4:6-10</div>
<div>
<br />Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6<br /><br />Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Zechariah 4:7<br /><br />Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Zechariah 4:8<br /><br />The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. Zechariah 4:9<br /><br />For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. Zechariah 4:10<br /><br /><b>Open Heavens Devotional Message</b><br />God has appointed time to visit an individual. May your appointed time brig you utmost joy. In 1Kings 18:41-45, at the seventh time of intensive prayer, the servant of the man of God saw a small sign in the sky, yet the rain would fall, it was massive. This simply tells us that whenever God is to do something great, He starts small. Due to lack of understanding of this, many people have missed God’s plan for their lives. They say God told them He was going to use them mightily but they wonder why they are being given very negligible assignments now.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
They turned down their small assignment and miss the big ones that should have come out of the small. For those who are over selective concerning matters that God has spoken about, please heed this warning. There are small jobs whose assignment in your life is not to give you your desire haven of rest and comfort, but to link up with that choice of job or assignment! Be very careful how you handle these little assignments. Do you know that you will be assessed on how you handled the smaller jobs or tasks to determine whether you qualify for the big? If you fail in the little, you may be truncated from the big ones.<br /><br />Zechariah 4:10 says you should not despise the day you started small. Those in senior ecclesiastical positions today did not get there overnight. They started small and today they have been promoted to where they currently are. The mustard seed is the smallest among seeds yet its tree is a giant. Some people want to start a business but they continue to wait until they have a large capital when others have started similar businesses with a very little amount. Let God begin something great through you. Be ready to start small. Do not be afraid to take that step. Some people are fighting to get a job where designed not to be employees, but employers of labour. Jobs 8:7 assures you that as long as you are with the Lord, your latter end shall be very great.</div>
<div>
<br /><b>Bible in one year:</b></div>
<div>
Isaiah 61-63<br /><br /><b>Key Point</b><br />If little assignment has no place in your life, God would not have brought them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /><br />
Now It’s Your Turn. Please Don't FORGET To SHARE This POST, Your Friends Might Need It! Feel Free To Leave Your COMMENTS. Your FEEDBACK And COMMENTS Are Always Appreciated.
:-)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733424166048305710noreply@blogger.com0