NaijaPositive.com

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

On Nigerians and Generalizations in General

Someone asked "how do we go about degeneralizing those generalizations?"

Assuming the no. of people who have heard negative news (true or exaggerated) about Nigeria supersedes the no. of those who have had actual experiences and heard positive news about Nigeria.

Assuming also that the no. of upright citizens in Nigeria's population of 130 million, which supersedes the no. of the minority partaking in atrocities that contribute to the negative image of Nigeria, do not necessarily have access to media, internet and other effective means of communicating beyond the shores of Nigeria.

Assuming also that each person has a mouth with which they can use to proclaim any news of choice, since it is impossible foreigners to actually witness the goodness and other outstanding characteristics of good Nigerians in and out of their environment; then I suggest the duty rests on each and everyone of us to not only 'exhibit' but to also use our mouths to 'proclaim' our positive attributes, while challenging and correcting innuendoes, exaggerations, propaganda and untruths.

If we begin to proclaim our own 'good news' since no one else will willingly do it for us, then the little trickles will in time be effective in attracting the ears of those who are willing to be objective rather than narrow-minded.

I for one, I'm not a 419er, neither are my family and friends, and Nigerian associates and acquaintances, and I can assume neither are you or everyone else actively complaining about those that denigrate the name of Nigeria, so what handicaps us from CHOOSING to speak of its good rather than dwelling on our shortcomings and challenges, except in cases where we are seeking solutions to correct negative issues?

If the majority continues to choose to be docile, complacent and non-vocal, except when complaining, what is to stop the minority from acting as our ambassadors as negative as they may be?

If I cursed your Mum or made derogatory remarks about your family name for instance, I'm sure you'd react instantly and deal with me, so why do we have so little regard for our nation? That is from where our citizenship comes, so why can't we stand up and speak up on its behalf? Why can't we fight to honour it's name, even if is just with our mouths, pens and keyboards?

Nigeria has more than enough unpaid volunteers (including its very own citizens) perpetuating its ills with each person that chooses to contribute to the negative news out there, so why can't we today begin to make individual choices to substitute our complaints with news of good events, accomplishments, etc., that we're aware of? [This may include be professional, sports, scientific, cultural, artistic and/or other personal or national accomplishments, etc.]

A parent whose child takes the 1st step, proudly tells everyone willing to listen about that seemingly small or irrelevant event and/or accomplishment. Yes, the child may fall on her/his butt 1000 times before s/he finally learns to walk, but it is an accomplishment none-the-less and that parent is proud to PROCLAIM it.

Why can't we ACTIVELY search and seek out good news about Nigeria and proclaim it to the world, even if it's only a trickle in the bucket?
A person dating or married seeks out the best in their mate not because their mates don't possess any negative qualities, but because they CHOOSE to see the good in them. That is why relationships and marriages that last do.
Maybe instead of dedicating our magazines, newspapers, and other communication devices including our mouths and pens to negative news, gossips and meaningless exhibitions of affluence, we can begin to dedicate them to more positive and meaningful purposes?

Sometimes bailing out is just not the answer, we can't all defect and become British, American, Canadian or whatever other citizenship is available to us. It takes a populace to make a nation, and Nigeria cannot be one without the existence of Nigerians. We can't all defect because we're ashamed of the actions of a minority. Maybe it's time we all stand up against the cancer and fight for survival, albeit just the NAME of our country.
Ills that exist in Nigeria exist elsewhere too, but they just aren't front news daily. News management and damage control is what makes other countries prevail over others, even in similar circumstances.

For instance the U.S. has existing and continuing dangerous occurrences sometimes even of negative consequences to foreigners, (such as the sniper incidences, flu outburst, Anthrax, murder of Germans arriving in Florida, Russian killings (assassinations) in California, roving serial killers, roving rapists, daily gang shootings, freeway shootings in Ohio and wherever else they sporadically occur, etc.) but you don't see them putting out Travel Alerts to foreigners to discourage them from visiting the U.S. But they are quick to put out alerts about SARS in foreign countries, Sharia incidences in localized areas of Nigeria, etc., even when the incidences are isolated or localized.

How many potential investors has Nigeria lost due to such alerts, negative publications, propaganda and exaggerated news?

How much money in potential income has Nigeria lost due to negative media proclamations and strategic and deliberate propaganda prior to national events, such a Miss World, All African Games, Benny Hinn's visit, etc.? If Holyfield, Queen Elizabeth, Clinton, etc., and those who recently visited Nigeria based their decisions solely on negative news, would they have ever stepped on Nigeria's soil?

The person stated that "Where 419 is concerned, it seems as though one is sentimentally defensive... without substantial facts to the contrary."

I say the fact that majority of Nigerians, including you and I are NOT 419ers alone is sufficient proof, but no one would know 'unless and until' we make them aware of that fact.

Going about our daily routines and choosing not to be an active voice is deemed passiveness, feeling bad about our country and not taking active choices to effect change is apathy, so, yes, we may stay out of trouble that way, but whatever affects our household (or nation in this case) eventually affects us. Whenever we're shortchanged by virtue of our national origin, that shortchange, whether it's in a loss of employment, business opportunity, personal relationship, loss of face, loss of pride, resulting racist comments, etc., it remains something we could have had an effect in preventing by choosing to be active before it became a snowball.

Finally you asked "Abi? How to disprove our 419ness?"

By continuing to be upstanding citizens of Nigeria.
By making others aware of the good we do, accomplish and achieve in society.
By educating any family, friends or acquaintances that presently partake in such schemes as to the detrimental impact on all Nigerians (including themselves and their offspring's).
By refusing to partake in activities that are unethical, illegal, etc.
By choosing not to capitulate to greed or living above our means.
By being vocal in our communities against illegal and fraudulent acts.
By being vocal in promoting positive news and accomplishments of Nigerians and Nigeria.
By educating and correcting the public regarding misconceptions and exaggerations that are circulating.
By owning up to our citizenship when we are in public. If you or I call ourselves Jamaicans, when we accomplish good in society, then the glory goes to another country, whereas for every time a non-Nigerian claims to be Nigerian, or for every foreigner partaking in the 419 scam (portraying themselves as Nigerian citizens), that is another negative mark that cancels any good an outsider knows about Nigeria.
By striving to vote in officials who are upstanding, rather than self-seeking people who seek Government offices just to stuff their personal pockets.
etc.....

I'm sure by now you get the gist and I'm sure others can contribute more, as to possible and workable solutions.

People have the capability to change and so do countries. Eddie Perez an ex-gang leader was just voted in the Mayor of Hartford Connecticut, Schwarzenegger a woman groper was just made the Governor of California, Strom Thurmond a racist (who most likely raped the 16yr old black slave who bore his well-hidden out of wedlock daughter) was elected to Senate and served a lifetime term as the longest-serving member of the upper house of the U.S. Congress, so who's to say the people perpetuating ills in Nigeria presently are incapable of change? They might just need proper steering in the right and positive direction, and that step begins with you and me.

Cxsm
4th Jan '04

© Cxsm 2004 All Rights Reserved

_________________
May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Who Ever Said Being Rich Meant Being Intelligent?

After reading about a chap who scattered money on the ground for the public to pick up because he feels so wealthy, my response is that "One who is so endowed (regardless of how he amassed his money) would have been better off giving the money to some charitable organizations, and if he felt he could not trust that the intended would receive the bulk of the money, then maybe to some families for the education and/or welfare of their children."

There are lots of impoverished families all over the world including Nigeria that could have benefited from 'a' kind act, rather than the foolish dissemination of funds in a public place, which I consider seeking recognition. No wonder the word of God teaches us that wisdom is better than riches. Solomon was known for his wisdom and this fine quality attracted and added riches to his kingdom.

There are a lot of GREEDY people with misplaced values walking the face of this earth. Imagine the fool shaking at the thought of making megabucks from a mere 419er.

If it's not sex, then we're deluged with money making scams on the media, internet, etc. daily, and some people will do anything for money; so as honey attracts, so does 'the potential to gain unearned money' attract those who have an 'unhealthy love of money'. Some people have NO work ethics and as a result are always looking for quick ways to make money, and since we all know that "there's a sucker born everyday", such people will naturally gravitate towards schemes and scams in their search for freebies.

There is nothing wrong in seeking interest from the use of your hard earned investments and while some us are content with investing in financial institutions, bonds, stock options, etc., and maybe indulge in playing the lotto occasionally; some opt to gamble beyond their financial capabilities, by spending their life savings and sometimes other people's money on lottos and get rich quick schemes, pyramids, etc.

In this group are 2 classes, those who know where to draw the line and those whose greed causes them to do anything for money. Such are the lawyer who used his firm's money towards a 419 scam, the pastors who (though too ashamed to proclaim publicly) used their congregations collections and tithes to participate in 419 scams, and the other greedy people now crying woe.

Greed begets greed and the greedy shall continuously fall into such scams because of their natural tendencies towards greed and their lack of contentment with what they presently have. Even if there was a possibility of eradicating the 419ers from Nigeria (for instance), the non-Nigerians in the U.S. and other countries would still exist and continue to CON.

The topic of 419 is already covered in another thread, but the wisdom we can hope to grasp from this thread is that it is unfair to generalize about people, nations and races on issues that are not genetic.

Most behaviours are learned and no race or nationality is predisposed to any character flaws. There is NO superior race, although there exist people who have flawed or exaggerated opinions of themselves or their nationalities and race (or a superiority complex); neither are there are inferior races, but people who accept the denigration, maligning, disrespect and other negative values sometimes assigned to them.

Anyone, nation or race who doesn't speak up for themselves by their acts of passiveness (those who do not correct the misconceptions); biased agreements (such as the Nigerians who agree with all the negative statements without balancing the opinions with positive facts); or the negative rumour mills (who never have anything positive to say about themselves or their people) are themselves accepting the values assigned and only serve to propagate the negativity and generalizations.

Cxsm
23rd Dec. '03
_________________
May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Corruption is a WORLDWIDE Problem and is NOT Just Peculiar to Nigeria

U.N. Countries Reveal Costs of Corruption

Mark Stevenson
The Associated Press

Merida, Mexico (AP) - For decades, corruption was something governments denied. But with the signing of the first worldwide anti-corruption treaty, governments are talking, revealing the enormous cost of embezzlement, collusion and "accounting errors." The revelations are exactly what the U.N. Convention Against Corruption - being signed this week by leading officials from around the globe - was designed to accomplish: uncover corruption, detect illicit funds and return them to the countries from which they were stolen.

"Corruption ... has ruined our schools and hospitals," Kenya Justice Minister more equal Murungi told a gathering of some 125 nations expected to sign the accord. "It has destroyed our agriculture and industries. It has 'eaten up' our roads and jobs. ... It has destroyed our society." Consider the costs: The U.N.'s top anti-crime official, Antonio Costa, estimates that Zaire and Nigeria, two of Africa's hardest-hit states, have lost some $5 billion each in the last few years to graft, most of it spirited out of those countries.

In Pakistan, an estimated 30 percent of the price of all public works projects goes to kickbacks and bribes. In Bangladesh, corruption eats up a whopping 50 percent of foreign investment. As high as that price tag stands, there are even more alarming activities: what officials call the intermingling of terrorism, money laundering and corruption. "The routes for arms trafficking and drugs are usually lubricated by corruption," Costa said. He estimated that about one-quarter of the $2 billion in annual proceeds from Afghan heroin - a trade that couldn't survive without graft - may be used to finance terrorism.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, one of the first to sign the agreement, said corruption "provides sanctuary to the global forces of terror." Corruption also represents "a tax on the poor ... it steals from the needy to enrich the wealthy," Ashcroft told the convention in Merida, 620 miles east of Mexico City.

That is especially true in Africa and Asia, two regions which have never signed onto such a pact before, where embezzled money is usually sent abroad to a rich banking capital. Some of those banking centers - such as Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein - have signaled their intentions to join the pact; others, such as the Cayman Islands, have not yet done so, according to officials.

The agreement opens banks in money-havens to more scrutiny and may allow some poor countries to recover billions of looted dollars. It requires signatories to fight theft in the corporate sector, and punish domestic companies that pay bribes in other nations. The treaty also requires governments to enact laws against corruption, protect whistle-blowers and assist other countries in detecting illicit funds. All this places poor nations - who normally have to beg for years to get looted funds returned - on a closer footing with rich nations. It also marks a sea-change over the last decade in the way corruption is viewed.

"Bribery ... was simply a part of human nature, a trivial issue," Ashcroft said, describing the attitudes of a decade ago. It was viewed as "a necessary oil to lubricate the wheels of business, or even promoted as a normal expense to be deducted from taxes at home."

_________________
May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm