Happy New Year!

Normally around this time of the year everyone starts making new years resolutions i.e. to lose weight, to give up smoking etc. You normally hear phrases such as "This year is going to be my year" or "This year I am going to change and become a different person". The reality is that this happens every new year. There is always a big hype where people are adamant about making changes and are really motivated. However this dies down around February where people seem to forget about their goals and go back to their old habits, therefore not achieving their goals, and when it comes to December the whole process starts again.


This is not a useful tactic at all, it is just a waste of time.  I admit I used to do that myself. I think the problem is that many people do not set their goals properly and end up being unmotivated,  once  this happens you are unlikely to achieve the goals that you set out to accomplish.


There is a useful way of setting goals using the mnemonic SMART 


Specific - you need to specify exactly what you want to achieve, do not make vague goals like "i want to lose weight" be specific i.e I want to lose 1 stone


Measurable - you have to be able to quantify your goal so you can easily keep track of your progress. For example if your goal is to read more books say something like "i will read 3 books a week"


Attainable - When you decide on what your goals are you need to figure out how you are going to achieve them. You need to create goals that are actually attainable and not too far out of your reach. For example if your goal was to learn a new language giving yourself a week to do so is not wise but giving yourself a year is much more achievable. 

Realistic - Your goals need to be realistic. Don't say for example that you are going to lose 10 stones in 10 days because it is very unrealistic. Yes you can have ambitious goals but make sure it is something that you know you can achieve.


Time - It is good to give yourself an appropriate deadline in which to accomplish your goals. This allows you to work towards something and focus on completing it before a specific time. This will encourage you to achieve your goals otherwise if there is no deadline you won't feel the need to accomplish the goal.


Remember that you need patience and persistence to achieve your goals. Don't try and achieve too much quickly or you will get discouraged. You need to keep at it even if things don't go well keep going on. Some of the most successful people failed many times before they were able to achieve what they wanted. One quote I like is "Fear of failure becomes fear of success for those who never try anything new". Don't allow fear, procrastination, laziness, other people's opinions stop you from achieving what you want to in life. Be the best you, you can be and everyday is a new day to work on your goals you don't need to wait till Janauary 1st before you make changes.

Happy New Year to you all and good luck with achieving all of your goals!


Written by Dinah

Why do we celebrate Christmas?

It's that time of the year again where we exchange gifts, eat  roast turkey (or chicken), decorate our homes and give out cards. As a child I used to love Christmas, mainly because of all the customs that came with the celebration of Christmas such as receiving presents and eating a lot of food. Those were the times I had the 'Christmas spirit' which eventually disappeared as I got older.

Growing up in a Christian home I had always believed that Christmas day was Jesus' birthday. That is the reason why school children take part in the nativity play right? or  films about Jesus birth in Bethlehem are shown on TV on christmas day?. For a "Christian festival" it is celebrated by many non-christians and many aspects of the celebration has nothing to do with Christianity at all. For example why do we eat turkey on Christmas day? why do we put up Christmas tree's and decorate it? and how does Santa Claus fit in?  I started to do my own research on the origins on Christmas.

Many biblical scholars say that it is highly unlikely that Jesus was born in December. They say it is more likely that he was born around September. So why do we celebrate Christ birth on 25th December? Well this date has pagan origins in ancient Rome. The Romans used to celebrate the winter Solstice (shortest day of the year) which was used to worship their God Saturn (The God of agriculture) during 17th-24th December. On 25th December they celebrated  the Re-birth of the Sun God Mithras. The celebrations involved  having a feast, merry making, lights, giving presents etc. Sounds familiar doesn't it? This had occured many years before the birth of Christ. Many years later the Roman Catholic Church decided to 'Christianize' this festival and adopted 25th December to mark the birth of Jesus who is viewed as 'The light of th world'.

The idea of Christmas trees are thought to also stem from winter solstice celebrations. In Germany it was normal practice to cut down fir trees and put it in their homes since they believed that it represented life.

But where does Santa Claus come from? well there was a man called Nicholas from Turkey who was a Saint during the 4th century. He was a devout Christian and used to give to the poor and needy and was known to be a very generous person especially towards children. After he died his legacy continued and evolved into what today is the modern day Santa Claus.

Why are turkeys eaten on Christmas day? well traditionally in Britain it was goose that was eaten on Christmas day then in the 16th century Turkeys were introduced in England which eventually replaced the eating of goose. King Henry VIII was cited to have been the first person to eat turkey on Christmas day.

There are some customs we that we take part in in modern day Christmas celebrations that derive from pagan rituals which were practised centuries ago. I'm not saying taking part in these customs are evil but I do think it is important to understand why we do what we do and know its origins.

An important thing to remember is regardless of your personal beliefs, Christmas allows us to show love, practice the act of giving and spend time with those important to us. I hope you enjoy this holiday and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Written by Dinah

The System of Life 2

This is a continuation of my previous post called 'The system' if you have not read it yet I suggest you read it then continue with this post. As a final year student at university I will officially become a graduate next year. The expected next step for me will be to attain a graduate job.  As a result of ‘the system’ mentality, I have always believed that once I attain all of my academic qualifications with high grades then getting a 'good' job would be inevitable. How wrong was I?

Growing up I have realised society is not as meritocratic as I had once thought. Academic success is not a guaranteed ticket to a good job. Nowadays there is more of an emphasis on knowing the right people and having plenty of work experience in order to secure a good job especially in this economic climate.

Most recruiters want a person who has the work ethic and experience rather than someone who has purely academic qualifications and nothing else to offer. This is because education can never be a substitute for practical work experience since it is a whole different environment. School does not prepare you for the world of work or teach you how you can create wealth (unless your course includes a placement year). It seems as if most of the theory learned throughout education is mainly useful for just passing exams (there are many exceptions to this especially if what you have studied is directly related to your future career).

Don’t get me wrong I believe that education is very important and having a degree does increase your job prospects but there another type of education we don’t learn in school. The creation of wealth starts in the mind; wealthy people are always continuously creating more wealth because they have a rich mentality, whereas a ‘poorer’ person has a completely different mindset about money. For example wealthy people make investments in order to keep multiplying their wealth and they pass this down to their children. A poorer person’s mentality towards money is that you should get a job (Just Over Broke) in order to pay bills so any money earned it just spent and not increased. That is why when a ‘poorer’ person wins the lottery they usually finish all their money, because they have a poor man’s mentality. This following video expands upon this.

From reading many books about the creation of wealth the recurring factors are:

1. Do something you are really passionate about do not allow money to be your only motivating factor
2. Find a mentor in your chosen field
3. Read many books on wealth and success, study the lives of successful people
4. Never let people put u down, be persistent and never give up
5. And most importantly change your belief systems about money, think like a wealthy person because your thoughts will eventually manifests into reality

This is an inspirational speech by Steve Jobs creator of Pixar a must watch

Written by Dinah

Black History Month

The month of October is almost over which marks the ending of Black history month (BHM) here in the UK which is celebrated annually every October. The aim of BHM is to remember the achievements of people of African descent and their contribution to the progression of society. The ways in which this month is marked is usually by events being held around the country and schools teaching pupils about Black history.

I remember learning about Black history in secondary school. Personally, I did not enjoy it much because every year we were taught the same aspect of black history. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade. We were taught about Africans being captured by the Europeans and then being transported to America and the Caribbean in slave ships to live the rest of their lives as slaves (I’m sure many of you like myself have watched the Roots series). We were also taught about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement. Do not get me wrong these are very important aspects of Black history which greatly impacted the progression of black people around the world; but I always used to wonder isn’t there more to black history rather than slavery and the civil rights movement?  I know for a fact there was life in Africa before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. As a result of my curiosity I started doing my own research on African history and I learned so many things. Africa had the first civilization and many great empires; it had some of the world’s first scholar’s, some of the greatest inventions in the world were created by Africans.  There is such a wide range of rich African history that many people are unaware of. This is one of the main reasons why this blog was created; to share the knowledge that I have gained.

There is still a debate as to whether BHM is still needed. Some argue that it is needed to educate people about black culture and achievements. Others argue that it is irrelevant because there isn’t an ‘Asian History Month’ or ‘Latino history month’ etc. However my opinion is that black people should educate themselves about their history. In this day and age information is readily available at the click of a button. We have access to numerous sources of information such as the internet and books. We should not rely on the education system to teach us about our history but we should make the effort to educate ourselves and each other about it. In later posts I will post articles about aspects of African History which I have learned about and my aim is to help educate you about the African history you do not know.


Written by Dinah

Killings of African leaders

As many of you may have noticed by now, Africans well the black race in general, has lost many leaders. These leaders are not just any leaders. They were the leaders who had Africa’s interests at heart. They were prepared to fight and die for their cause. If these leaders were not castigated, then the black race would not be suffering at present. For the rest of this article I am going to elaborate more on our leaders and their accomplishments before they were removed from power.

Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana. He was a visionary leader, who aspired for all Africans around the world to unite. Kwame Nkrumah had the foresight for a United States of Africa. Under Kwame Nkrumah governance Ghana’s economy rose rapidly, and Ghana was tipped to become a rich nation. However he was unable to achieve his dream because he was ousted from power by his fellow African brothers who were being helped by western powers such as the CIA.

Patrice Lumumba, the first president of the Republic of Congo was a leader who envisioned for Congo to become a powerful and rich nation. He was a man of respect and dignity, who wanted respect and patriotism to flourish in Africa, and also supported Kwame Nkrumah’s idea of Africans Uniting. Congo’s economy also grew under its good leadership, however you can guess what happened next. He to was betrayed by fellow Africans who were again being supported by western powers. So as a result Congo is in a worst state now than it was when Lumumba was in power.

There are also many more African leaders who were ousted from power by the west who used Africans as their middle men. I have often asked myself, why did the west do this? Do they have a grudge against the black race? Or is it simply because they do not want the black race to prosper? You see many years ago Patrice Lumumba said after Congo gained independence, that “Now is the time for us to show the world what the black man can do”. By this Lumumba meant that independence not only marked the turning point for Congo, but for the whole of Africa. So it is evident that the west didn’t want the world to believe that Africans can develop by themselves without their help.

All of this could easily have been prevented if Africans stuck behind our true leaders, instead of turning on them. How much would the west have paid the Africans who helped them oust our leaders from power? I assume it wasn’t much but as they say you give an African money and he is prepared to do anything even if it leads to the detriment of his country. Today Africans have never recovered from the loss of our leaders, and as a result we are suffering. Although I do not think the West is fully to blame, we are. We are the people who didn’t stand by our leaders. Instead of emulating the Cubans who stood behind Fidel Castro when assassination attempts were made at him by the west,  African's cared more about their own greed. Cuba today is a good peaceful nation. I wish we could one day follow their footsteps in terms of supporting great leaders. I do not agree with Africans or even black people in general who consistently blame "the white man" for  all their troubles and problems in recent times, we need to stop finding someone to blame and take responsibility. As if not for our cooperation none of this would ever have happened. So what do you say people do you agree or disagree?

Below is a song that relates to this article listen to the lyrics

Patrice Lumumba -Congo's first president

Kwame Nkrumah - Ghana's first president

 
Written by Aaron

The System of Life

I am someone who love’s reading books on self-development and how to become successful and wealthy. Whilst reading “Rich dad, Poor dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and watching U-stream’s by Shanel Cooper-Sykes it opened my mind to “the system” that we are all part of whether knowingly or unknowingly.

What is “the system”?

From childhood many of us are taught that we should do well in school and aim for high grades which will enable us to enter further education. From A UK educational system this would be attaining high GCSE’s proceeded by A level’s and then progressing into University to obtain a degree so that in the end we can get a  “good” secure job that pays well. This system is ingrained in many of us and many people follow this because it is seen as the norm in society and the ‘right’ thing to do

People who do not do very well in school or those that choose not to go to university are sometimes told that they can never be “successful” or amount to anything in life.  This is because the mentality of most people is that academic education = success which is not entirely true.

Those who do have academic qualifications usually end up working for a big successful company for most of their lives which means they are always working for someone (the company owner’s). This primarily benefits company owners because they are becoming even richer; thus re-enforcing the cycle of ‘the rich getting richer’ even if the workers are well paid. From a Marxist theoretical point of view this will be viewed as the ruling class (the rich) exploiting the lower classes to maintain the status quo.

The education system does not teach people HOW to create wealth but instead aides in the mentality of having to work for someone else instead of working for yourself. From reading many books by successful wealthy people the common thing they all mention about creating wealth is to be creative and to have the right mentality about money. It is important to be educated about money, businesses, investments, assets etc. These are the things we are not taught in schools. I’m going to expand upon this on a later post but in the mean time useful books to read about the creation of wealth are: 'Think and Grow Rich' – Napolean Hill, 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' - Robert Kiyosaki, 'Secret’s of A Millionaire Mind' – T. Harv Eker

Written by Dinah

Can Africa ever unite?

On many occasions I have asked myself: Why is Africa poor? and why are a lot of black people around the world suffering? Is it because people of other races have been blessed with better intellect? Or is it simply because a curse has been put upon us?

You see black people have been blessed with so much, we have been blessed with all of our natural resources, our vast and beautiful landscape, and in fact God gave us the task of building the world’s first civilizations. Although this might seem a long way away, but Africans from ancient times were more united than what we are today. So racism in ancient times was never a problem for us. Nevertheless since black people are not united in modern times, we are then left vulnerable to be victims of exploitation, degradation, humiliation, colonization and other forms of brutality from other races. This is because other races are united, for example white people and Asians are united, although they might not necessarily have peace with each other, they know that in order to survive in this world they need to work together, so as a result they stand firm. However black people choose not to stick together and as a result we have fallen victim to this cruel world. However all of this could come to an end if black people all over the world could unite. As I know that unity can create trust, and trust and trust can create cooperation, and cooperation can create wealth amongst people. So in short if Africa were to unite then we will be the world’s superpower. However what do you think is stopping us from uniting? Is it simply because of our language barriers? or our mentality i.e. greed, corruption, the white is superior etc. Can anybody share a few thoughts on this issue?
Click here to read the blog post where this issue is discussed further

Written by Aaron

Introduction

Hi everyone!

Thank you for viewing this blog. This is a new blog which aims to discuss social, economic and political issues with a particular emphasis on Africa.  We hope to enlighten and educate you the readers on many issues that we feel are important for people to know. We hope to open your mind about many things which aren’t always taught in schools or portrayed in the media. We aim to post once a week.

Now to introduce ourselves, we are brother and sister (Aaron and Dinah). We are both students in the UK, one in University and the other in College. Combined we have backgrounds in the Social Sciences including Politics, Law, Sociology and Psychology.

We hope you enjoy what we have to offer and feel free to leave your comments and opinions