The NOVICE MASTER|Welcome to Uncle Che’s NOVICE MASTER. This blog is all about Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Home and Family, Personality and Self Improvement as well as personal opinions, reviews and lifestream

It is very easy to identify certain things because they come or occur following a particular pattern. When something happens or appears randomly, it is very difficult to recognize or tweak to suit our concerns. Take the case of playing cards, for example. In a pack of 54 playing cards it is guaranteed that each card player knows all the cards in the pack. However, when it comes to playing the game itself, those cards are not arranged in a particular sequence. The arrangement of the cards is non sequential, so qualifying cards as a game in which like any other game, one has to brainstorm and look for means to succeed. If the cards where in a particular sequence and we all knew the exact cards each player is holding, then it will be too easy to be a game.

Lets take another example of days and months. It is easy for kids to know which day or month it is because they come in a particular sequence. Everyone knows after December is January, so there can’t be a challenge in that.

Where am I taking this to? You will know by the end of this post.

Have you ever heard the popular saying, “Do unto others what you expect them to do unto you”? I prefer the more grammatically correct and shorter version which says “Do as you will be done by”.

Do you believe in destiny? That everything that happens to us at any moment in time has been predestined? I think that’s crazy, but I believe in destiny.

Here comes another one. Do you believe “nothing is hidden under the sun” and that someday any secret will no longer be a secret? If you believe in a divine being (God), then I am sure you believe in the “No Secrecy” theory.

Do you believe “the evil that men do live after them”? I personally don’t. I believe “The evil that men do live with them”.

I am gradually getting to my destination and now is one last thing I will like to say before I finally land. “What goes around comes around”.

It is very easy to take advantage of others. To lie to them, cheat and deceive them, steal from them and do any thing to that that we will never wish someone does to us. But listen! “What goes around comes around”.

Most people don’t believe the above because what goes around goes sequentially. We plan evil before executing them. Take the case of a thief, for example. Before a thief successfully steals something, it is a sequence of planned actions. That’s why I say what goes around goes sequentially. He/she might cut off the power, break through the main gate, then the door, stab or maybe rape a victim, steal gadgets, cause a diversion by maybe setting a fire somewhere, shoots a witness…etc. That’s evil, right? That’s how every evil deed is carried out. Just as one lie leads to another, one part of the event of evil deeds leads to another until the target is met.

There is always time for payback. That is why we say “What goes around comes around”. The problem with us believing in payback is that it comes around non-sequentially, so we don’t even attribute the payment as payback. Ills befall us, one event to another, and we claim we are unlucky, just unlucky.

There are certain things that need no courts and lawyers for justice. Nature will always take its course.

Love is not just about loving. There are many thins we either miss entirely or take for granted. Most of the things you hardly ever think of are the things loved is based on. Each might look unimportant and even insignificant, but with which you will spend the whole of your love live fighting hard to give or receive love.

When you start having that feeling of love towards someone, it is good to take a break, relax and ask yourself certain vital questions. The last of those questions will be what you normally ask. “Do I love him”? “Do I love her”?

Most people claim that as long as love is involved, any other thing can step aside. That’s true. I also like to think of it that way. Giving love such independence really makes it very powerful and unbeatable. The question, however is “Is love really independent”?

The world is one big complicated web where everything depends on everything. If you are falling in love, then you may be moving froward into a relationship, long-term or short-term. You need to get prepared and you will have to consider your lover more than the feeling of love itself.

SACRIFICE
Love without sacrifice is baseless. Giving your heart to someone is a very big risk because you don’t know what they future holds. Everything may look very real and easy now, but what if they go wrong? You have to fight very hard to set them right or accept them the way they will become. That is sacrifice. If you move into love without that sacrificing spirit, even if the love is true, it will immediately die when sacrifice is called upon.

TRUST
I will even like to call this faith, but i will reserve that word for the spiritual part of it. While preparing against the worst, hoping for the best is the best part of it. It keeps your mind at peace. Trust the one you love beyond reasonable doubts. Trust him/her in his/her capabilities of standing up for you when the time comes. Trust in actually everything. Relationships without trust often stand on quick sand. They are easily broken when “enemies” come into play.

FORGIVENESS
No one is perfect. Yes! But that doesn’t mean you will want everyone to act up around you. You are always ready to set people right when they go wrong. You want to punish them as a sign of revenge. Your heart approves of that and gives you some satisfaction. Love is different. No hatred or revenge. Punishing for correction can be justified but later on, attach no negative feelings to it. You must be ready to forgive your love one’s wrongs and forget about it.

CONSIDERATION
You are not being given fully all what you deserve, but you have to consider the factors that normally affect what you get. Because of your lover’s work, you both don’t get to spend enough time together, or even see each other often. Work can be given up for love, but should everything that love depends and lies on be given up for love too? If you can’t have that gold chain you so much desire, why don’t you consider your lover’s financial situation? That helps.

RECIPROCITY
They say love should be reciprocal. Yes. Not only reciprocal but you really need to even get back more than what you put in. What if that is not the situation? The fact that they don’t love you as much as you really want them to doesn’t mean they don’t love you. By the way, how talented are you in detecting love and evaluating it? Not everyone is good at doing the things that you assume are signs of love.

I got inspired after replying to a Love Tag on my blog from Lainy.

Do you believe there are some words that work like magic? Yes! I call them “magic words”. There may be hundreds of them, but I know of three that when mentioned, can make impossible things possible, bad things change to good ones, and relationships built or mended. If magic words are not mentioned when needed, the results could be catastrophic.

At times, people fall into a quarrel, and later on hatred and become enemies just because one person failed to mention one or more of the magic words. We should always practice using them, even when it is not our turn. We should use these words for your sake and the sake of others. The first magic word I want to mention in this post is “Please”.

Please

What are the impressions always made by the above word? When you hear someone say “Please”, what comes to your mind first? Is he/she pleading? Does he want someone to do something for him that he can’t do? Does he want someone to do something for him that he can do but not effectively? Is he desperate? Most of the time, the answer to the above questions is “Yes”, but we should not always consider them as they are. Not from that point of view. Some people will say “please” for you to do something for your own benefit. A teacher can say to his students “Please, don’t forget to do your assignment”. The teacher is not desperate. He wants the students to excel in academics.

I therefore consider someone who says please, not as desperate or incompetent, but as kind, polite, respectful and appreciative. These are very good characters to portray in our society. We can always rely on people with such character traits. Do you believe that just by saying please, someone can sacrifice and do you a favor, which he/she didn’t have to?

As I have mentioned above, the word “please” is not only used when asking for a favor. You can also use it when offering something. “Can I help you, please?”, “please be at peace with your parents”, “we are about to land, fasten your seat belts, please”.

By using the word “please”, we do not only push people to “go an extra mile” for us, but we also encourage them to do so later. I bet if someone says “please” when sending when sending you for an errand, you will be very much encouraged to answer when next he calls.

I strongly believe it is impossible for someone to have everything he/she needs. Well, that will also boil down to the person’s needs. So, let me break the statement down top a less general and more direct one. I don’t believe you can have everything you need, when you need it and how you need it. Take note of the statement. I have included “when” and “how”. Because you don’t have everything you need, be it physically or not, there will also be some people willing to lend a helping hand.

When I talk of “helping hand”, I am referring to goods and services, be they free or paid. Is there really a free good or service? Is there a free ride or meal? I don’t think so. But I do know there is one simple and cheap way of paying for the so-called free services or goods. This simple and cheap payment method can also be applied for paid services, to act as some sort of additional payment to let the ones at our service know we appreciate them or what they have done.

“Thanks” may be a very simple word but means a lot when said. We use it to show some sort of appreciation for a good act; at times we even say thanks before we are offered something. Even when we don’t need what is being offered to us, saying “thanks” will let the giver know that although his favor or participation is need, he willingness to help is appreciated. Not saying “thanks” when we really suppose to can be a bit detrimental to the people around us. It hurts someone when he expects you to say “thanks” and you don’t. The thought of not being appreciated can drive some people into disappointment.

I think we should always develop the habit of saying thanks when helped or offered to be helped. I don’t think one loses anything by saying a simple word as “thanks”. On the other hand, we should not expect it very much from others. They say “one good turn deserves another, but we should not always expect others to say “thanks” when we make a good turn.

Have you ever frowned at someone for not saying “Thanks”?

What is a fact?

People use the following to define facts

• a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred
• a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened
• an event known to have happened or something known to have existed
• a concept whose truth can be proven
• an observation that is confirmed repeatedly and by many independent and competent observers
• a statement that is objectively true and can be verified.
• proposition that has been asserted to be either True or False
• something that is the case

Most of the definitions as seen above somehow relates to truth. What is truth, and what is the difference between truth and facts?

The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines truth as “true facts”.

Does this really mean there are wrong facts? If something is wrong, how then can we call it a fact in the first place?

Looking at the various definitions of a fact as outline above, let’s try to see how facts can be wrong and still be called facts.

A fact is a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred: Will those circumstances always exist? Are we wise enough to know when they change? When those circumstances change, will the facts still be true? Where we there when the events took place? If we were not, are we sure those who were there recorded the events correctly? Were they just in their testimonies?

A fact is a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened: How is the information being verified? Is the verification process flawless? Who says it is the case? Is it the case everywhere?

A fact is an observation that is confirmed repeatedly and by many independent and competent observers: The observers are independent, but how competent are they? Who decides on their competence level? Does it sound abnormal for all those competent observers to be wrong? If they are all wrong, can the facts be true?

Continue analyzing all the possible definitions of a fact, and you will realize that facts are based upon complex questions of what, who, where, when, why and how. Just one mistake in validating any of these questions will lead to false facts.

Do you know of any false fact?

Many times, over the radio, TV, magazines or websites, one can get news of people involved in a strike action demanding one thing or the other from their “superiors”. Angry people use strike actions to present their problems and call for a solution. I was very surprised when I learned that strike actions are “legal” within certain conditions and limits. But I keep asking myself. Is a strike action the most suitable means of communication in the midst of anger and despair?

Getting involved in a strike action is some sort of habit that one nurses right from childhood. A child, as young as three, is already aware that he/she can refuse to eat so that his/her problem can be taken serious. Maybe because the child needs a new doll, he/she decides not to eat until his/her parents provide one. This habit is gradually developed as the child grows up. Students in secondary schools can be found using a strike action as a means of telling the public that their laboratory or library is not well equipped, or that they don’t want a particular instructor. This continues when students get to the university. They may use a strike action to declare their rights of forming student bodies, or condemning teaching and evaluation methods. At job sites, workers use strike actions to ask for better working conditions or salary increment. At the level of the nation, citizens don’t hesitate to go on the streets marching, shouting or singing with placards carrying demands for the government to fulfill them. Most of these demonstrations are usually for human rights or development.

“All diplomatic measures have failed, nobody wants to listen to us, so we saw the streets as our last resort”, said a perpetrator of a strike action. Most strike actions usually start as a peaceful demonstration but latter turn into violence for one reason or the other. This violence is always characterized by destruction of property and even killing. Sometimes, government officials make things worse by sending the forces of law and order to suppress the people involved in a strike action.

Most officials claim that responding positively whenever people get on the streets is not correct because the people will always be encouraged to do so whenever they have problems. This might be true to an extent, but it does not justify armed policemen shooting at unarmed citizens. Is it easier to attend to their problems when they cry or stand against them when the get on the streets?

Strike actions are no good since they usually result in loss of live and property. Humans of the 21st century must be informed enough to prevent them. However, the fight for freedom still remains a vital tool for development and better living.

Have you ever heard of the Nigerian scams? I guess yes. Who hasn’t? Nigeria is a small African country located on the west coast of Africa. Nigerians are well popular in the world as far as scamming is concerned. People of various ages, sex and races in Nigeria rely on deceiving people, especially over the Internet, through false and fraudulent acts, to earn a living. People who involve in such acts are unofficially called “scammers”.

Most of the Nigerian scammers are uneducated illiterates that have learned the act of scamming from a few masters in the field. These guys successfully convince potential victims into believing that they have something they will like to sell very cheap or even give out for free. They do everything possible to provide prove that is undisputable to their victims. They search the web; download photos that they claim are photos of their merchandise and send them to their victims. They even create fake contacts to represent the police of lawyers which further makes their victims believe in them.

What do these scammers claim they have to offer? A Nigerian scammer will force his/her victims into believing one or more of the following

• that there is a large sum of money in their bank that was abandoned by a foreigner who died without specifying a next-of-kin. He will like a foreigner to come and stand as next of kind and collect the money.
• that he is in possession of a large plantation of cash crops like rubber, cocoa, banana, palms…etc and will like to sell it very cheap to a foreigner.
• that he is a very poor parent who is no longer capable of taking care of his kid(s) and will like a foreigner to pay a small amount of money and adopt the child.
• that he is in possession of many pets and will like to sell out a few at a very cheap cost or give them out for free to anyone who promises to take good care of them.
• that he wants to donate his kidney to help anyone in need of it and in return will as just a small favor.
• That he is running an orphanage (or non-profit of any sort) that is of very great importance to the society but lacks funding.

These scammers have a million stories to tell you and believe me; it is very easy to fall for any of them. It is something they have been doing over and over, so they are now professionals. There is no ticklish question that you can ask and use to trick them. They know it all.
How do they succeed in collecting money from their victims, especially when they fake their present location? Let’s take the case of pets. Even when their victims get suspicious and demand delivery before payment, they ask for advance payment for shipping, handling and insurance. Most of them mention Air France as their means of shipment and ask for payment via western union, express union or bank transfer. For those not disclosing their current location, they ask you to pay the money to a relative, friend or non-profit in Africa.

Cameroon is a neighboring country to Nigeria. The Nigerian government has put in place several policies and strategies to fight against scamming. Most of the Nigerian scammers now flee to Cameroon, where the can scam openly and freely. Cameroon is now the second leading African country in the scamming domain. Cameroonians specialize in pet scams, adoption scams, non-profit scams and kidney scams. Most of these scammers will do even disclose the fact that they are in Africa, since everyone is getting aware of the exponential growth of scamming in Africa. They may tell a victim that they are in the US, and will use a virtual US number, which is then forwarded to their real phone numbers.

Most website fight against scamming be restricting IP addresses. This is longer a problem to these foolish African scammers since they now know about proxies.

What can be done to curb or eliminate scamming in Africa? Most of them claim that they scam the “white man” to revenge since Europeans and Americans exploited their African forefathers. Well, there is always a justification, even for wrong things.

Is it true that only greedy people get scamed?

This may not apply to more modern and advanced communities, but in almost all parts of Africa…

Boys and men feel very free to express themselves emotionally, especially in words. Though with much hesitation at times, they still struggle with themselves and find the courage of walking up to a girl or woman and asking them out for a date or reciting phrases about love. In most cases, a boy or man’s peers will measure his strength and skills in the domain of dating by how fast he can create an acquaintance with the opposite sex, and how many girls or women he has dated so far. The above, to my humble opinion, is very misleading and greatly reduces the value of sexual relationships. However, that is not my point of concern in this post.

Here, it is not easy for a girl / woman to walk up to a boy / man and ask him out for a date or tell him “I love you”, “I will like to be part of your life…”. While a boy / man who constantly does that is considered a king amongst his peers, this same society will consider a girl / woman who does same to be very cheap, and at times, described by names as nasty as the word “prostitute”.

Like I said in the beginning, it might be less of a problem in the modern and advanced world, but in primitive and developing communities, it is considered some sort of a taboo for a woman to openly express emotions by making the first step towards a relationship. It is very common to see a girl / woman greatly in love, but dying in silence. She doesn’t want to “lose face” by letting people around her know she is “running after a man”, as the situation is frequently described.

In these “underdeveloped” communities, don’t women have rights to expose their emotions? Of course, they do. Why then are they being deprived of those rights? That is a question I really can’t find an answer for.

Most girls / women are however using personal efforts to fight against this. Most have realized that speaking is not the only way out. Most have developed very effective tactics they can use to ask a man out or say “I Love You”, without using words. “Action speaks louder than words”, yes, I have heard this popular phrase many times but we should not forget that although actions are louder, most people do not understand them. They will rather go for the words that are not so loud.

How does a girl / woman use action to say, “I love you”? They do everything possible to reveal themselves to the man they love. They try hard to let them know that they care about them; spending time with a man, finding out what his problems are, helping him find solutions, encouraging and boosting his morale when he feels a lost of esteem…

How effectively can actions replace words? Some women are very skilled in the art and in less than no time a man will feel wanted, and them make a move. Some men however are so “blind” that no matter what a woman does, they won’t “hear” anything. They won’t hear her when she speaks with action. Some men do understand actions of love, but they are not courageous enough to face it. This is true for the case of shy boys, or in a case where the social status of the woman is far greater than that of the man. Don’t you believe it will almost be impossible to the peasant’s son to hear the princess saying, “I love you”? Yes, of course.

Speaking to single women, especially the ones who are ready for not just a date but looking up to a more serious relationship like marriage, I won’t advice you to just sit on your hands and wait for anybody to come by. If I were you, and I think I have found Mr. Right, the whole world has the right to step out of my way. I am going for him, carrying along all the weapons of love and goodwill I possess. If my intentions are good, I won’t look back, and certainly I won’t fail.

How do you feel loving with your lips sealed?

Third world countries, especially those of Africa, usually take a “very long” time to pick up with recent developments in science and technology. The Internet as a whole and blogging in particular is part of this immortal tradition. Blogging, though an old concept that commenced before the start of this century has not yet fully established its roots in Africa. However, one can’t deny the fact that the Afro-Blogosphere (presence and influence of African bloggers and blogs) is gaining breadth and depth at an always-increasing rate.

When I started blogging about a year ago I scarcely heard the word blog mentioned around me (although I was not very sure of what I was getting myself into). Recently, I realized that Africans are more into blogging than I ever thought.. After a quick search on Google, I was very surprised by how many African blogs I found, most of which were listed on www.geoblogdirectory.com and www.afrigator.com. I also found www.afrikeo.com, a site that features feeds from African blogs and news sites. Pay a visit to Afrikeo, and you won’t believe how many blogs’ feeds are fed into it.

Africa, just like the west, is full of talented and skilled individuals in various walks of life. This includes writing as well. Writing is an art that can be easily transformed into blogging. The afro-blogosphere has a very great potential of tippling in just a few months if more Africans are sensitized about blogging and given some basic training.

Below are 3 (out of a thousand) reasons I think Africa does not have as many bloggers and blogs as it is supposed to.

1. A majority of Africans are still new to the Internet. They lack basic knowledge on various web related stuff. As a matter of fact, most can barely check their emails, chat and do simple searches on Google. Networking on Myspace, Hi5 and Facebook is an extra plus. Most Africans are still to hear the words blog, blogging and blogger. Sensitization can help a lot in this aspect.
2. A typical African, relative to the westerner, works harder to earn a living and therefore lacks time for items placed low in the scale of preference. Most Africans will do very hard work during the day and just manage to have enough time to rest and sleep at night. So, Africans who have heard about blogging and have the potential to blog may be held back by time constrains. This is hardly the case with the West where majorities of people have enough time to stay online for several hours a day.
3. Blogging is “expensive” in Africa. Though certain platforms like Blogger (by Google) take care of domain and hosting costs, most Africans who are ready to blog still find it a very great deal paying for surfing time in cyber cafes. This, of course, is a problem because a computer at home connected to the Internet is still considered a luxury in most parts of Africa.

There are many problems standing on the way of potential African bloggers, but instead of pondering much on those problems, I think the experienced bloggers have a responsibility of encouraging others to blog, especially in the domain of sensitization. If bloggers in Africa reach out to their fellow mates and colleagues and educate them on the subject of blogging, I believe blogging in Africa will experience an exponential rise.

Personally, I started a blog (www.azblogging.com) with some lessons that I think can help newbies start blogging. AZ Blogging hosts a form that can be used to ask personal questions related to blogging and get customized lessons tailored to fit the skill level of the inquirer.

Long Live Blogging in Africa!