WHEN LIFE BECOMES UNBEARABLE

About three days ago, while crossing over from one side of an expressway to the other in town, one was faced with a scene which for a moment looked like some mischievous person was throwing  a huge bin bag on the expressway from the flyover only to get to the other side of the road to meet people standing over the body of a young guy (who would not be anything older than 22years of age) in a pool of his own blood. He had just hauled himself over the bridge hoping to be knocked over by the time he reached the ground, fortunately no car owner fell victim as there was no oncoming vehicle at the time he landed on the expressway.

I’m not sure that guy made it as he was bleeding profusely from his head whilst resisting any assistance from the people to take him to a hospital. I sure hope he made it, but I really doubt that.

As I walked away from the scene, shaken by what I just witnessed as though from a scene in a movie; I muttered “Lord show me your mercy, do not let us be pushed to that level of wanting to end it all”.

Sometime earlier in the month, I saw a mock video of Dino Melaye with a tray on his head hawking (what I can’t remember) and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Seeing that video, my thoughts were filled with images of those petty traders who display their wares on trays or tables by the roadside, at parks or hawk about and just by a mere look at the entire things displayed may just be like a total of three thousand naira or even less and yet these people say they are ‘selling to make a living’. And I’m wondering how do these people do it?

Most times when I buy things from these petty traders, I find it difficult to haggle or bargain with them every time because no matter how much they add, you cannot be that cheated. Sometimes, (I mean sometimes) please don’t bargain, just take it that you’re evenhandedly helping a family ‘get by’. After all how much is the entire tray?

It is with that petty business they feed their families, (at least that’s what they say) pay fees and other bills yet we expect that the crime rate in the country would drop?

A child who grows up in such a family would definitely not want to end up like his parents hence would do just about anything to get out of poverty. If he finds himself with the wrong set of friends, he may be pressured to do crime.

But let’s say he does not do crime and then tries every way ‘legit’ he knows to make wealth yet poverty seems to cling on like an everlasting plague; he may be pushed to the extent that since he cannot do crime, the only other option is to end it all by jumping off a bridge like the young man mentioned earlier at the beginning of this post.

Where am I going with all of these?

The times are tough. No matter how little you think you have, there’s still that ‘someone’ out there you can save from committing suicide with that ‘token’ that seems like nothing to you. A word of encouragement goes a long way as well.

Let’s look out for each other in these present times as people are going through a lot. People are getting depressed on a daily basis and even the counselors and psychologists are getting depressed as well.   

And if the counselors are getting depressed as well, who will then counsel us? So let’s all do the job together by looking out for each other.

©Stella Ene – Inyang

AS THE ENVIRONMENT CHANGES SO DO PEOPLE, INCLUDING TEENAGERS

Written by: Shalom Folashade

As we live every minute of every day we discover that our immediate environment changes. And just as the environment changes so do people change. Gone are the days when young girls and ladies, were truly young girls and ladies who accepted and acted their ages especially in the 90’s - as much as I can remember – when girls even though many looked matured body wise, they, at least a very large number, were very matured intellectually. Sadly, the same cannot be said about this present generation of young girls, as nowadays more than 80% of them cannot just wait to grow up. Do we blame it on technology, society or parents? You tell me.

Imagine seeing a girl in secondary school who is barely eighteen trying to act twenty-one, I mean it amazes me how young girls are willing to go any length just to mature fast. They believe there are certain processes they need to go through to get to the stage of maturity on time. You would be surprised to hear that a lot of them make concerted effort have sexual intercourse at a very early stage just to feel more like a woman, they date older men and of course some even go as far as running away from home because they feel they can now make decisions on their own.

Don’t get me wrong I am not against young girls fixing 22 inches length weave or dressing to impress, I mean these things are all part of growing up as a teenager and wanting to explore because they become conscious of their environment and want to do right by everybody, but teenagers need to understand that there is more to life than all they see, they don’t realize that the world out there is not easy and that life does not give a free pass to anyone no matter how many connections you might have, life in one word I would say is “messy.”

Gone are those days when young girls dreamed to have a stable family, always had life goals that they would go to any length to make sure they achieved, and that is because there were a lot of illiterate parents that struggled to send their daughters to school, I mean these days we go to expensive schools, even in this economy some families are not affected by the meltdown and so there is no value placed on parents’ effort. Young girls of this century just want to live in the moment.   

And as funny as this may sound some parents are so unaware that they do not know what is going on in the lives of their teenage children, so many young girls and guys dress shabbily, they now do drugs, they even raise their voices at their parents and counter their decisions. I mean why won’t such a child feel like he/she can make decisions for themselves. We feel comfortable blaming so many children now for the way they are but we forget that these children have parents that have refused to pay attention to them. We are the architects of our misfortune and so when these teenagers grow older they begin to have life time regrets.

Wishing they did things differently which is the right way. 

Let us place more focus on what is ahead of us, yesterday is gone and tomorrow will come after all and so we can’t escape what tomorrow holds for us because whatever we meet in the future is as a result of the decisions we make now.

THE POWER OF A BRAND: WHAT BRAND ARE YOU?

Hello everyone! It’s a beautiful Monday and everyone is back to work after the good number of days off work for those in Nigeria, given the bank holidays last week not to mention the weekend that followed immediately after.

It means everyone has had a good rest no doubts, right?

Good because it definitely would bring positive vibes and results on whatever you do. Make that business and brand more profiting this week.

Aha! Speaking of brands. An encounter ‘yours sincerely’ had in the course of the weekend reminded me again on the huge effect a powerful brand can have on people especially the youths which is nearly always the biggest target market of many producers especially when it has to do with electronics, information technology, fashion and the likes. Make a good impression of your brand on our youths today and I kid you not, your business will go places without you having to ‘sweat it out’ too much like your counterparts would do.

Many of you would agree to a large extent that the youths of today, fortified with technology make the world go round. With them on your team, you will always have a boost of energy whenever the need arises as long as you give them the wherewithal to be all they can be. In line with what the team represents though!

Why did I decide on this topic?

In order not to renegade on a promise made to one of my wards which was to buy her a new phone; over the weekend I decided to fulfill that promise therefore, on my way home from work on Friday, I stopped at an outlet for phones and after going through several arrays of phones given the number of brands stands in the outlet, I was eventually convinced by the attendant at one of the stands to buy a particular brand which she said was new in the market.

Now, the phone in every way looked very good to me safe for the name. Nevertheless, even though the brand of phone didn’t ring a bell, as an outcome of good marketing by the attendant, I decided on this ‘no bell ringing’ brand as the phone and all of the accessories looked really nice to the eye so I paid and left the shop happily with a feeling of  ‘at least I have fulfilled my promise’. Yeah right, you wish!

Alright fast forward!

My predicament started when I got home and I went, “guess what, your new phone is in my laptop bag” and I continued towards the bathroom.

While in the bathroom, I was expecting someone to knock or hear some excitement coming from the sitting room having seen the phone, but alas, I got no “yippee” or even a weak “yeah”. Hence I decided to keep calm, finished all I was doing and then when I got to the dinning, she was fiddling with the phone and a look on her face told me all I needed to know. She didn’t fancy the phone one bit.

Alright, sitting next to her at the dinning, “you don’t like it right”?

She nodded unconvincingly in the affirmative but I knew she was trying not to upset me so I said, “alright just pack it up, I will get someone to buy it and get you another one”.  And to my amazement, without even giving it a second thought, she did my bidding in flash.

Later on, before bedtime, she came to me and said “please I don’t want you to be angry, the phone is very fine, but I don’t like the NAME. You can even buy me a cheaper phone than this one as long as it’s as big as this one but it has to be a Samsung”.

At that point, I was immediately reminded that you can never underestimate the power of a good BRAND.

I’m not holding forte for Samsung, rather the butterflies in my stomach right now is an upshot reminder that the little advert done here by this mere mention was not paid for *winks* but then in order to get my message across, I have to say it as it is. Who knows, I just may get a paid advert from Samsung soon. *smiles*

Now back to the main issue.

My ward insisted on having this brand because that is what most of her friends have and according to her, the picture quality is “baaaaad” hence she would have none other but the almighty Samsung.

And so the next day, we went hunting for her choice of Samsung phone and luckily I got someone to buy that my ‘no bell ringing’ brand even though I lost a few bucks.

Interestingly, after a long hunt, she eventually got another brand which of course rings many great bells as she got very confused when she was faced with too many options. The bottom line is she got exactly what she desired even though I had to end up spending more.

But then, I am still fulfilled that she made her choice and she was happy for it as the “Yippeees” and “thank you” that followed would ever remain priceless. As at this morning, I was still getting the happy “thank you”.

Well everyone is happy and my predicament ended.

Never underestimate the power of a good brand!