GOLDEN RULE.
Biblically, ‘love your neighbour as thyself’ is said to be the most important law but philosophers have proposed a rule which is perceived as golden and it is ‘do unto others what you will have them do unto you’.
In life, we frown when we are at the receiving end of some actions but not when we dish them out. Each and everyday, we do things to others that make them clench their fists and gnash their teeth in agony. Sometimes, they retaliate, other times; they do not owing to our perceived superior placement.
Have we ever thought of what life will be if we treat others the way we would want to be treated if roles were swapped? Most humans if not all are hedonists (pleasure seekers), thus, they would not want to embrace pain or forms of it.
Someone would owe others gladly but when he is indebted to, he will go around swearing and cursing bitterly. I ask why would you owe or defiantly refuse paying if you cannot stand being owed?
To a person paying assailants to hunt down another for whatever reason, I put it to you that how would you feel if you are the reciepient of that fatal coup de grace. No matter how rich you are, there is someone richer who can afford to pay hoodlums to cut you down.
There are some I call ‘smooth operators’. They boast about snatching others partners, sleeping with the spouses of others, ruining relationships that took long to nurture and build. To you smooth operators, how would you feel if someone else does exactly the same thing to you? You find your partner in the warm embrace of another! It is pertinent to note that no matter what your best is, it can be bettered. Be it good or evil. If you are such a good orator and feels that your tongue can cause any lady to fall, I say someday a better orator will sweep your lady off her feet and cause you eternal emotional pain. Always know that your best is someone else’s beginning and your revelation is another’s genesis.
The golden rule though simple, let everyone observe it and the world will be an eldorado.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
PURE INSANITY OR AN ACT OF TERRORISM
There are surprises; pleasant and unpleasant. In Nigeria, recently, we have been having a deluge of the latter. Firstly, a brief medical check-up of the president in a first-class hospital turning into a sabbatical and French leave in Saudi hospice. Secondly, while the world was grappling with the Christmas season, a Nigerian attempted to blow a US bound plane. Thirdly, the imbroglio about the refusal of the president to transmit power to his vice, pressures from quarters for him to do so, the unexpected presence of a cabal blindly loyal to the president ( sick or not) and the eventual though belated conferment of acting status on the vice-president. It is obvious that these infamies are becoming one too many.
The crux of this writing is the shocking occurrence at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar in which a man attempted to blow up a plane belonging to Arik fleet by driving straight to the runway and ramming it into the plane. When news flittered in that a Nigerian gentleman had stopped being gentle by attempting to blow up a US bound Detroit plane and the consequent inclusion of Nigeria into America’s terror watch list. We all cried wolf saying Nigerians are not and can never be terrorists. We came up with the argument that though Mutallab was a Nigerian by name, he was not at heart and no true Nigerian will want to die even if he was promised a mansion full of cosmopolitan virgins. How do we now explain this recent fateful development? The cab driver at the eye of the storm declared stupidly that he would come back and round off his unfinished business. The action of the cab driver did not only jeopardize the lives of the 200 people on board, it also raised some critical questions as to the safety of our airports vis-à-vis the runways. It was also in a Nigerian airport that we saw a herd of cattle running onto the runway. Is the runway a green field where cattles graze? It must be in such a deplorable state for cattles to mistake it for grazing field.
This recent ‘punisher’ has successfully proven that there are terrorists in Nigeria and I doubt if the white house will grant us the reprieve we brazenly crave for.
I have a few suggestions that if implemented, will put a stop to these spates of shameless occurrences in our airports.
All the security men that were on duty at all the gates when the cab driver did his stunts should be sacked and made the feel the full wrath of the law. They were negligent of their duty and by allowing to ride unchallenged as there was no report of gate crashing, they are all accomplices to his crime.
The national assembly should pass a bill that would make it a criminal offence to ride straight unto the runway. This law should be binding on the rich and the poor alike as what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. If you are too rich to queue with others at the terminal, then get your own aircraft and international airspace license and if you do not want to miss your flight, go on time to the airport for your flight.
Security should be tightened at all the airports. The airport is not a market. The airports project the image of the country to a visitor. If it is rowdy, the visitor will assume that the country is unstable and if it is serene, the visitor will have just that impression.
The crux of this writing is the shocking occurrence at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar in which a man attempted to blow up a plane belonging to Arik fleet by driving straight to the runway and ramming it into the plane. When news flittered in that a Nigerian gentleman had stopped being gentle by attempting to blow up a US bound Detroit plane and the consequent inclusion of Nigeria into America’s terror watch list. We all cried wolf saying Nigerians are not and can never be terrorists. We came up with the argument that though Mutallab was a Nigerian by name, he was not at heart and no true Nigerian will want to die even if he was promised a mansion full of cosmopolitan virgins. How do we now explain this recent fateful development? The cab driver at the eye of the storm declared stupidly that he would come back and round off his unfinished business. The action of the cab driver did not only jeopardize the lives of the 200 people on board, it also raised some critical questions as to the safety of our airports vis-à-vis the runways. It was also in a Nigerian airport that we saw a herd of cattle running onto the runway. Is the runway a green field where cattles graze? It must be in such a deplorable state for cattles to mistake it for grazing field.
This recent ‘punisher’ has successfully proven that there are terrorists in Nigeria and I doubt if the white house will grant us the reprieve we brazenly crave for.
I have a few suggestions that if implemented, will put a stop to these spates of shameless occurrences in our airports.
All the security men that were on duty at all the gates when the cab driver did his stunts should be sacked and made the feel the full wrath of the law. They were negligent of their duty and by allowing to ride unchallenged as there was no report of gate crashing, they are all accomplices to his crime.
The national assembly should pass a bill that would make it a criminal offence to ride straight unto the runway. This law should be binding on the rich and the poor alike as what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. If you are too rich to queue with others at the terminal, then get your own aircraft and international airspace license and if you do not want to miss your flight, go on time to the airport for your flight.
Security should be tightened at all the airports. The airport is not a market. The airports project the image of the country to a visitor. If it is rowdy, the visitor will assume that the country is unstable and if it is serene, the visitor will have just that impression.
CORRUPTION, WHO IS AND WHO IS NOT?
When the word ‘corruption’ is said, politicians and top government officials come into mind as if they are the only ones who are corrupt. The word ‘corruption’ as defined by the Encarta dictionary is ‘dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain.
In the light of the above definition, can we search ourselves and still say we are not corrupt? Everybody that engages in any form of exploitation for personal gain is corrupt and this I say without any apology to anybody. Nigerians are great hypocrites who points to a broomstick in another’s eyes when an iroko lies unattended to in their own eyes.
The motivation behind this write-up was an incident that took place at the weekend. I had a business to attend to in Lagos, so early in the morning I went to the park to board a bus to Lagos. This I did at 420 naira. At the end of my business in Lagos, I headed for the park to board the one heading for Ibadan and it was at this place that I got the shock of my life. The bus I had taken less than 8 hours earlier had skyrocketed to 1,500 naira without a corresponding increase in the cost of fuel. I had only 2 options staring me in the face; pay the highly inflated fare or stay back in Lagos until that momentary madness was healed and because I did not have the luxury of the second option, I grudgingly took the first. If this is not corruption, then what is?
In Nigeria, if a politician embezzles 100 million, Nigerians will call for his head but what should we do to cab drivers that exploit and extort commuters? All through the journey, my heart was in my mouth because the bus was literally flying as the driver was moving at top speed just because he wanted to get to Ibadan on time to pick more passengers. In short, he wanted to maximize profit at the expense of the passengers’ lives.
So much for drivers, what about market women that dubiously shrink the container so that it would accommodate less at the normal price. We all need a change of orientation and attitude. It is not the amount that defines corruption; it is the motive behind it.
When the word ‘corruption’ is said, politicians and top government officials come into mind as if they are the only ones who are corrupt. The word ‘corruption’ as defined by the Encarta dictionary is ‘dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain.
In the light of the above definition, can we search ourselves and still say we are not corrupt? Everybody that engages in any form of exploitation for personal gain is corrupt and this I say without any apology to anybody. Nigerians are great hypocrites who points to a broomstick in another’s eyes when an iroko lies unattended to in their own eyes.
The motivation behind this write-up was an incident that took place at the weekend. I had a business to attend to in Lagos, so early in the morning I went to the park to board a bus to Lagos. This I did at 420 naira. At the end of my business in Lagos, I headed for the park to board the one heading for Ibadan and it was at this place that I got the shock of my life. The bus I had taken less than 8 hours earlier had skyrocketed to 1,500 naira without a corresponding increase in the cost of fuel. I had only 2 options staring me in the face; pay the highly inflated fare or stay back in Lagos until that momentary madness was healed and because I did not have the luxury of the second option, I grudgingly took the first. If this is not corruption, then what is?
In Nigeria, if a politician embezzles 100 million, Nigerians will call for his head but what should we do to cab drivers that exploit and extort commuters? All through the journey, my heart was in my mouth because the bus was literally flying as the driver was moving at top speed just because he wanted to get to Ibadan on time to pick more passengers. In short, he wanted to maximize profit at the expense of the passengers’ lives.
So much for drivers, what about market women that dubiously shrink the container so that it would accommodate less at the normal price. We all need a change of orientation and attitude. It is not the amount that defines corruption; it is the motive behind it.
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