Afropolitan Economics

as 'Africa' continuers to grow in economic relevance and political power.

We have to be sure what we mean when we say 'African' in the internets global village, in Wolverhampton on anyday you will meet local citizens who's DIRECT 1st generation ethnic roots are Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, St Kitts etc. etc.. We have to be sure that we are not clinging to and discussing a 'romantic' African-ness, because MAMA Afrika is not an Old Lady she is a vibrant beautiful... fertile... Young Woman and like most young women of a certain age ... she has plans of her own. Maybe we should be talking about SISTA Afriqa.

There is an ageing body of American and European cultured 'Black' thinkers [elders] of African Descent and their 30/40 something children [I'll soon be leaving this 2nd group ;-) ] who think AFrica and African-ness is their natural right and enrobe [entrap?] themselves in their deep 1960's understanding of all things Afrikan, "Hotep to you my brothers and sisters".

Meanwhile the 20 something Afropolitans are creating the NU AFRIQA right now and only part of it is on the continent of Africa.
"Were you to ask any of these beautiful people “where are you from?’” you would get no single answer. This one was born in Accra, raised in Toronto and lives in London. That one works in Lagos but grew up in Houston, Texas. ‘Home’ for this lot is many things. It can be where their parents are from; where they go for vacation; where they went to school; where they see old friends or where they live (or are living this year).
At home in G-8 cities
Like so many African young people working and living in cities around the globe, they belong to no single place but feel at home in many. They are Afropolitans - the newest generation of African emigrants, in the industrialised world. You’ll know them by a funny blend of London fashion, New York jargon, African ethics and academic success." - http://myglobalhustle.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/afropolitan/
Where are they all? errr try the European Premier foorball leagues £100K a week Afropolitans
or The Honest Professional young 2nd and 3rd generation Nigerian investment banker Afropolitans
or Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an Afropolitan fellow of the US Brookings Institution, Okonjo-Iweala is a former World Bank vice president who graduated from Harvard and earned a Ph.D. in regional economics and development at MIT. Her son Uzodinma Iweala is the celebrated young author of Beasts of No Nation.
She was Nigeria's Finance Minister and then briefly Foreign Affairs Minister from 2003 to 2006, the first woman to hold either position.
During her tenure, she worked to combat corruption, make Nigeria's finances more transparent, and institute reforms to make the nation's economy more hospitable to foreign investment. The government unlinked its budget from the price of oil, its main export, to lessen perennial cashflow crises, and got oil companies to publish how much they pay the government. Since 2003 -- when watchdog group Transparency International rated Nigeria "the most corrupt place on Earth" -- the nation has made headway recovering stolen assets and jailing hundreds of people engaged in international Internet 419 scams.
"Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a heroine not just of Nigeria, but of the entire continent. Her crusade against corruption has put her life at risk."
The Independent (UK)

Ghana Economist George Ayittey sees Africa's future as a fight between Hippos -- complacent, greedy bureaucrats wallowing in the muck -- and Cheetahs, the fast-moving, entrepreneurial leaders and citizens who will rebuild Africa.
George unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. These "Hippos" (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile "Cheetah Generation," a "new breed of Africans" taking their futures into their own hands. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/151 has a video

And trust me they are not asking for acceptance and they don't plan on NOT being Victorious.

Happy Xmas and Holiday Eating

It might be worth noting that a method of promoting heart and general health is to avoid over eating, at this time of year, which is really why the stomach loses it's ability to digest properly.

Do eat, drink and be merry and do remember...

When the stomach is empty, having normally digested it's contents, i.e. not through starvation or lack of nutritious food, IT WILL DIGEST ANY FORM OF NORMAL FOOD IN ALMOST ANY ORDER AND BE HAPPY.

With years of over eating most of our digestive systems will become clogged, stomach wall lined and arteries narrowed, this is what leads to our sensitivity to different types of food and a host of other complaints.

I have stopped going to the gym so much and spend less time watching what I eat, I now focus on stretching and exercising at home and simply eating less of whatever, and not eating again until I'm hungry... It's cheaper than the Gym membership, less stressfull and it's working!

So be kind to your heart and ONCE YOUR STOMACH IS FULL STOP EATING!!!

Too many of our parents are going to the funerals of their 40 something children and despite the clever medical terms; from cancer to hypertension etc, the majority of the cause is Over Eating and Under Exercising.

Our parents worked so hard in their youth they built strong resilient constitutions and many are still going strong in their 70's and 80's.

Sitting down at a computer munching fast food, is setting many of us up for a short, sickly, old age....

And as for our children!!!!!!!!

So be kind to your heart and ONCE YOUR STOMACH IS FULL.... STOP EATING!!!

This may be the kindest and most loving message you get this Holiday Season.

Here's wishing you a lovely Xmas and New Year............. 2008


Ubuntu

Don

Male and Female Attributes

In my work on Gender I propose a distinftion between Man and Woman, which are sex based and genetic in there origin and development
and Male and Female which are Gender based and cultural in their origin and development.

that is if a child is born with a particular chromosome and hormone mix, wherever that child is 'aculturated' or grows up, she or he will still be the Man or Woman they were born with the genetic propensity to be.

If two children with the same genetic mix are 'aculturated' in two different societies with different concepts and traditions and training and expectations of what a MAN and a WOMAN are supposed to be then they will develop the particular MALE and FEMALE traits of their different socities.

The effect of both these influencers of core behaviour, genes and culture, are programmed at the non-conscious level and have been historically hard to distinguish within a culture.

When cultures collide the differences become starkly obvious, and as our modern cultures mix more and more, what it means to be MALE or FEMALE blurs more and more.

And as our science increases we learn that our Gonads determine what it is to be a MAN and what it is to be a WOMAN unquestionably.

Notwithstanding this our common HUMANITY as MEN and WOMEN gives us incredible flexibility, and beyond our life perpetuating SEX roles there is little our ingenuity will not allow us to do either MAN or WOMAN.

The idea of Maleness and Femaleness has been developed over time as a practical, utility function to allow us to achieve more as a group through role and task specialisation, to meet the challenges of life.

As the challenges change the tasks and roles change and so do what it means to be Male and Female, there may even come a time when beyond providing, sexually diverse, DNA there will be no role separation between the sexes.

Given the length of time it took to build the roles it is easy to see why they form an integral part of our identities and our societies. It may not take thousands of years to reprogramme ourselves more appropriately. It will take a few more generations however and some of the gender confusion we see today is that process taking place.

Going round the mountain

God ... Whoever SHE is
I conclude SHE is Ineffable = incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible:

So I have a challenge when someone can explain the nature of something which is indescribable or unutterable

I believe anger can be and should be prevented, as often as humanly possible.
"Remember, you can't eliminate anger—and it, wouldn't be a good idea if you could. In spite of all
your efforts, things will happen that will cause you anger; and sometimes it will be justifiable anger.
Life will be filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others.
You can't change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you.
Controlling your angry responses can keep them from making you even more unhappy in the long run."

Anger is a HUMAN thing...
One of the oldest and most universal of HUMAN traits is to anthropomorphise i.e. to ascribe human form or attributes to things that are not human.
So naturally in the literature we have an angry God, this is a legacy of primitive anthropomorphism applied to the ineffable elements and events totally outside their comprehension.
I find the use of someone who has been raped as an example of justifiable anger a VERY dangerous anchor to programme a community with.

I don't know what God is and as a HUMAN I accept it is most improbable I ever will.

As the shadow can never know the substance
And the spark disappears in the fire
Our divinity, unquestioned as it is
Is nothing more than a mote in God's eye
We are truly great and so
Imagine how unspeakably great
How Ineffable the Divine

To strive to comprehend the incomprehensible is a task to:
occupy the fool
and be
avoided by the wise
It is more intoxicating than strong wine and
more contagious than the plague

The greatest gift is the greatest challenge is the only challenge
KNOW THYSELF
God will reveal herself when she's good and ready ;-)

Regards
Don
AKA
Man with a Mustard Seed...
Mountains Beware!

Never heard of a Sestina before

Sestina by MDS

Autumn leaves limbless fall down.
Once green with life connected sure
Certain that certain things don't change.
And reality is life and growth and love,
A little boy skips and kicks dead leaves with joy
And laughs as mommy prays he won't trip up.

She recalls he gave her up
Lover's promises of forever let her down
And left her low with growing joy,
That strong would leave her weak for sure.
Like the fair that from itself declines is love,
Blind destiny just another word like change.

Who like sudden spring can change?
The heart's frozen winter and warm up
Ice cold indifference and rekindle love?
Rather hate than this nothing that holds her down.
Security a cracked mirror that cannot be sure
It's illusion of safety will ever return joy

Summers strength, heat and embrace, that joy
Power and redoubtable resolve defying change,
Can anyone, any dream again be that sure?
A young woman with sleepy eyes smiles as she wakes up.
She shivers and says she thinks the down
Feels chilly, and snuggles closer to her true love.

It was meant to be, she whispers to love
Know that you are my eternal joy,
There is no better, though heaven come down.
A little boy asleep, dreams of winning for a change
Of a time, a place, a person who stands to help him up
Who says and means and lives 'of me you can be sure'.

On the shifting deck seasoned feet are sure,
A man is either quick or dead in love
Life holds on to all the choices we will not give up.
From the joy we build for others comes our joy
The laws of nature flatter and dissemble, and never change
Woman or Man the one you hold up cannot let you down.

Never give up, on the seeds of joy,
They are sure as life and their fruit is love
And their only change is to draw more love down.

Finding My Flow at Akasha

The Water Comes and Goes
The River Flows
... and Still Remains

FLOW, a state where attention, motivation, and the task are experienced as entirely complimentary, resulting in maximum productive harmony and supportive feedback.

I am not the River Bed as I am not my body
I am not the River Water as I am not my mind
I am not the source of the River as I am not my thoughts
I am not the Ocean as I am not my behaviour
One is the River, One is AKASHA
One is the part and the whole
One is the moment and the motion

From Abundance
I Took Abundance
And Abundance Still Remained

I experience myself as being One and being everywhere when I am in FLOW
All other experience is Shadow and Contraction

Akasha is believed by some to be a mystical, spiritual substance that contains a record of everything that has ever happened, and also everything that will ever come to pass in the future. "Akasha" is derived from the root kash, meaning "to radiate, to shine" The Akasha is thought to be indivisible, eternal and all pervading.

Because I am Akasha I shine from the inside out and must live from the inside out.
Nothing of the senses can satisfy the soul, the senses represent the outside to the inside and all they convey is illusion.

Flow is Inspired a child of patience and focus

Gratitude and Humility are the expressions of Inspiration

Inspiration is the God energy that is awakened within as we are in FLOW

We are in FLOW when we bow to divinity in gratitude and serve humanity with humility

Struggle is the opposite of FLOW

Holding on hinders FLOW

The Water Comes and Goes
The River Flows
Akasha always was
... and Still Remains

Picture by John Cave

Does increasing our connections decrease our attachments or vice versa???

I am becoming more and more connected to more and more people via more and more networks every day. As the number of people that I am connected with and that I interact with increases... on Ecademy I am in the top 200 most connected networkers in the UK... Do I become more attached to 'others' or less??

Am I pulling energy from my network or pushing it in?

Have I saddled myself with more commitment or am I liberating myself through more options for engaging the right person, project or possibility??

By trying to make myself attractive am I inviting others into attachment? and the inevitable pain of separation.

"The fonder you are of your ideals, the greater your heart breaks."
Lin Yutang

"One afternoon, Nasruddin and his friend were sitting in a cafe, drinking tea and talking about life and love. His friend asked: 'How come you never married?'
'Well,' said Nasruddin, 'to tell you the truth, I spent my youth looking for the perfect woman. In Cairo I met a beautiful and intelligent woman, but she was unkind. Then in Baghdad, I met a woman who was a wonderful and generous soul, but we had no common interests. One woman after another would seem just right, but there would always be something missing. Then one day, I met her; beautiful, intelligent, generous and kind. We had very much in common. In fact, she was perfect!'
'So, what happened?' asked Nasruddin's friend, 'Why didn't you marry her?'
Nasruddin sipped his tea reflectively. 'Well,' he replied, 'it's really the sad story of my life.... It seemed that she was looking for the perfect man...' "



check your attachment style here http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl

Speakers, Is it cool to be nervous or not??

From my leaflet "TOP 10 Tips for Speakers"
-------------------------------------------
Tip No 1 - BE NERVOUS
It’s OK to be nervous. Anyone who says they speak well without nerves is either deceiving themselves, secretly an android or most probably a boring speaker!
NUMBER 1 PHOBIA
Fear of Public Speaking is reportedly the number 1 Phobia
EVIDENCE OF ENERGY
Nerves are the result of the body preparing itself to perform. They focus the mind and sharpen the senses.
MOTIVATES PREPARATION
Nerves remind us why we prepared so much or why we should have prepared much more. Preparation gives us direction for nervous energy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you agree with me or are you wrong on this point?

Divorce is easy

I cannot lose what has already been lost or win what was always mine.
What I want I have and what I feel so strongly I am losing I lost a long time ago.
Like the headless chicken there is noise and movement but the end has come and gone.
Once the nervous energy is depleted the living go on and the dead... well, they bury their own.

Who keeps killing the electric car?

The Story goes that Thomas Edison, Who Henry Ford worked for at the time, encouraged Ford to 'keep at' his dream of a horseless automobile and most tellingly 'to not waste his time trying to make a car run viably on electricity'.

Despite this 100 years ago there were more Electric cars on the road than petrol cars.

The Detroit Automobile Co., Ford's first company, failed, without producing any cars, and Henry Ford was ousted by angry investors.

The reason we drive petrol cars today is because of a commercial decision of Henry Ford, supported by Edison, J.P. Morgan, and especially John Davison Rockefeller. These three persuaded him to abandon the electric car and to continue with his petrol engine while Rockefeller sought to obtain a worldwide monopoly on the use of petroleum.

This is not the only example of this group suppressing superior technology in favour of higher profits; J. P. Morgan and Rockefeller controlled companies like Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric who became the General Electric Co. tried in the late 1890's to take over Westinghouse a contemporary power generating company and force them to abandon their Alternating Current[AC] power systems to protect their far less efficient and more expensive Direct Current[DC] systems.

What about the electric car?

"They are more efficient than [petrol] cars and don't rely on [petrol]. More efficient means less energy consumed and less pollution.

According to scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 2005 was the hottest year recorded in over a century.
A recent EPA study showed that Los Angeles has the second highest cancer risk in the [US] due to air toxins and hazardous chemicals like benzene, which is emitted primarily from vehicles. Electric cars are also free from many of the maintenance costs. oil changes and fuel filters of standard internal-combustion engines.
No [petrol] means Less dependence on foreign oil sources. We are mired in an increasingly costly and unpopular war in the Middle East.

We believe that giving consumers an opportunity to own or Lease electric cars again would be a step towards doing something about global warming, about pollution, and about our dependency on oil...


Who keeps killing the electric car?
This is a controversial question, What do you think?

Would you give up a $100 Trillion oil revenue just because you 'might' save the planet??
Don't forget the $100 Trillion plus automobile support industries [brake pads to air fresheners]

"In Late 2000, right around the time GM started pulling the plug on its electric car program, GM sold to Texaco Inc. its 60% share in GM-Ovonic, a partnership between GM and the Ovonic Battery Company, which developed the nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH] battery that was used in the second- generation EVI. [15] If the oil industry was so sceptical about the feasibility of battery-powered electric cars, or if they didn't really think these cars were a threat, why buy its underlying technology? In 2001, Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. sued Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Panasonic EV Energy Co. and the Toyota Motor Corporation for alleged patent infringement of NiMH battery technology developed by its subsidiary, Ovonic Battery Company.[16] The case was settled in 2004, with no party admitting liability, and the terms of the settlement were kept confidential." - http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/

My real question is why don't the leaders of these uber-companies recognise that the future technology they 'believe' will resolve our current crisis could just as easily be the technology that replaces their £100 Trillion petroleum cash cow with a £200 Trillion 'New Thing to make Money'???

What is Life? Love In A Moment!

Do not be seduced by the illusion of permanence
Nothing is as Life is a circle
Be encouraged by the knowledge of immortality
Everything is as Life is a circle
One was there before you and is cause of you
One continues after you because of you
Where is Joy without Pain
Where is there Pain without Joy
Even as the oceans dance in the raindrop
So a lifetime of love and beauty sings in each moment
Treasure Now with your love
It is all you have
All you ever had
and as you always Know
All you need

What is Life? Love In A Moment!

It takes time to write less??

As one who posts less often.

I would draw attention to the words attributed to George Bernard Shaw.

"I'm sorry this letter is so long. I didn't have time to write a shorter one"

although it has been suggested that the original version was;

"I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter" Pascal, 1656.

...either way, often we may benefit from taking the time to "boil down" posts to make them as universal and unambiguous as possible and also take time to check our sources and facts.

Least said soonest mended.

Confidence, Arrogance and Humility

A couple of thoughts on the relationship between High levels of confidence and arrogance, taken from a form reply on Ecademy

The threshold for arrogance may be lower than we might think...
"When someone asks you a question, answer him or her sincerely, and when you are not asked, do not force your teaching upon others. - Jae Woong Kim, "Polishing the Diamond"

We all have reason to be highly confident [maybe the mavericks get this and non-mavericks don't] and we all have reason to be humble [maybe the non-mavericks get this and the mavericks don't]

To prevent high levels of self confidence becoming arrogance maintain a large sense of humility...

Weak as we are, compared to the health and strength we desire;
Ignorant as we are, compared to the height, and width, and depth of knowledge which is all around us;
Miserable as we are, compared to the happiness of which we feel ourselves capable;

even so, somewhere inside we see nothing beyond or above us,
Nothing to which we or our children may not attain,
of great,
of beautiful,
of excellent.
And to feel the power of this mighty principle,
To urge it forward in its course and accelerate the change in our condition which it promises,
We must be awake to its practice and always remind ourselves
We truly can do anything.

I would agree with a previous point that, for me, the all important judgement caller for 'where high self confidence can lead' is intention.

Arrogance is; vain, aggressive, proud, greedy and a taker, if a highly confident person demonstrates these qualities then arrogance is not far away.

"There is nothing uglier than vanity
Nothing is more impotent than aggression
Arrogance dishonours pride
Even as the desire for gain shelters theft and greed
In the end all acts of force must yield
The burdens of the taker ever grow
The giver walks free of chains"

Take care of YOU
you're the best YOU there is
and that will ever be.