Monday, March 5, 2012

A piece of DR. KWAME NKRUMAH's independence speech

"And, as I pointed out... from now on, today, we
must change our attitudes and our minds. We must
realize that form now on we are no longer a colonial
but free and independent people. But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work.
That new Africa is ready to fight his own battles and
show that after all the black man is capable of
managing his own affairs. We have won the battle and again rededicate
ourselves ... OUR INDEPENDENCE IS MEANINGLESS
UNLESS IT IS LINKED UP WITH THE TOTAL LIBERATION
OF AFRICA" IF DR. KWAME NKRUMAH WAS ALIVE, HOW WILL HE
FEEL TOMORROW 6TH MARCH? WILL OUR LEADERS BOW THEIR HEADS IN SHAME OR
LIFT THEIR HEADS WITH PRIDE? DID WE CHANGE OUR MIND AFTER INDEPENDENCE OR
WE ARE STILL UNDER OPPRESSOR'S RULE? DID WE WORK HARD ENOUGH FOR THE NEW AFRICA? IS THE BLACK MAN MANAGING HIS OWN AFFAIRS? THINK ABOUT IT...

Friday, September 23, 2011

Twenty-Five Pieces of Basic Sartorial Knowledge So You Don’t Look Dumb

When I’m interviewed about men’s style and Put This On, I’m almost invariably asked “what are the fashion mistakes you see men make every day?” or “what is the most basic style knowledge men often don’t have?”

That’s the kind of stuff I usually leave off this blog. After all: you’re discerning and tasteful! But every time I see some incredibly basic principle violated, I cringe. So: for the benefit of your slovenly coworker our your teenage cousin or your uncle who’s never had a job, I wrote this. Forward it to them. Anonymously, if you must.

Below are twenty-five pieces of vital information that every man over 14 in the Western world should know. Every man. No excuses. Seriously. Seriously.

1. Unbutton the bottom button of your jacket. It’s not intended to be buttoned.

2. Same goes for your vest.

3. Remove the tags on the sleeves of your jacket before you wear it.

4. Jackets sometimes come with white basting thread on their shoulders or holding
closed their vents. Remove this thread before wearing the jacket.

5. Jacket pockets are intended to be opened. Use a small scissor or seam ripper.

6. More than three jacket buttons is never appropriate for anything.

7. On a three-button coat, buttoning the top button is optional, and some lapels are rolled so as to make the top button ornamental. In other words: if buttoning the top button seems wrong, it is.

8. Brown shoes, brown belt. Black shoes, black belt.

9. Belt or suspenders. Never belt and suspenders.

10. Your jacket sleeve should be short enough to show some shirt cuff – about half an inch.

11. Your pants should end at your shoes without puddling. A slight or half break means that there is one modest inflection point in the front crease. If your pants break both front and back or if they break on the sides, they’re too long.

12. Your coat should follow and flatter the lines of your upper body, not pool around them. You should be able to slip a hand in to get to your inside breast pocket, but if the jacket’s closed and you can pound your heart with your fist, it’s too big.

13. When you buy a suit or sport-coat, it should be altered to fit by a tailor. This will cost between $25 and $100.

14. Your tie should reach your belt line – it shouldn’t end above your belt or below it.

15. Your tie knot should have a dimple.

16. Only wear a tie if you’re also wearing a suit or sport-coat (or, very casually, a sweater). Shirt, tie and no jacket is the wedding uniform of a nine-year-old.

17. The only men who should wear black suits during the day are priests, undertakers, secret agents, funerals attendees and yokels.

18. Cell phone holsters are horrible.

19. So are square-toed shoes.

20. Never wear visible socks with shorts.

21. Or any socks with sandals.

22. If your shirt is tucked in, you should be wearing a belt (or suspenders, if you’re wearing a jacket as well, or your trousers should have side adjusters and no belt loops).

23. Flip flops are great for the pool and the beach and not great for anything else. (Some say this is a matter of taste. We agree. If you have any taste, you will only wear flip-flops at the beach or pool.)

24. Long ties are not appropriate with a tuxedo.
Never wear polyester outside of the gym or theme parties.

25. If you see someone violating one of these basic principles, feel free to send them our way. We’ll straighten them out.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Law of the Garbage Truck

How often do u let other people’s nonsense change ur mood?
Do u let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss or insensitive employee ruin ur day?
However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what’s important.
David J. Pollay explains his story in this way…. Sixteen years ago, i learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here’s what happened. I
hopped in a taxi and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the
right lane wen, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right infront of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean … he was friendly.
So, i said, ” Why did u just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what i now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck”.
Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustrartion, full of anger and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if u let them, they’ll dump it on u. Wen someone
wants to dump on u, don’t take it personally. U just smile, wave, wish them well, and
move on. U’ll be happy u did.
I started thinking, how often do i let Garbage Trucks run right over me?
And how often do i take their garbage and spread it to other people; at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day i said, "I'm not going to do it any more". Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Love the people who treat u right. Forget about the ones who don’t. Believe that everything happens for a reason. Never let the garbage truck run over you.

“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own
solution. If you don’t have any
problems, you don’t get any seeds”. Norman
Vincent Peale.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

''Chinese Proverbs''

Man who run in front of car get tired. Man who run behind car get exhausted.

Foolish man give wife grand piano, wise man give
wife upright organ.

Man with one chopstick go hungry.

Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails.

Panties not best thing on earth! but next to best
thing on earth.

War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.

Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.

Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.

It take many nails to build crib, but one screw to fill it.

Man who drive like hell, bound to get there. Man who stand on toilet is high on pot.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.

Man who fart in church sit in own pew.

Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Health Benefits of Coconut Water

Drinking coconut water has many benefits. Coconut Water is naturally

* Low in Carbs
* 99% Fat Free
* Low in sugars

Coconut water contains organic compounds possessing healthy growth promoting properties that have been known to help

1. Keep the body cool and at the proper temperature.

2. Orally re-hydrate your body, it is an all natural isotonic beverage.

3. Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells.

4. Naturally replenish your body's fluids after exercising.

5. Raise your metabolism.

6. Promote weight loss.

7. Boost your immune system.

8. Detoxify and fight viruses.

9. Cleanse your digestive tract.

10. Control diabetes.

11. Aid your body in fighting viruses that cause the flu, herpes, and AIDS.

12. Balance your PH and reduce risk of cancer.

13. Treat kidney and urethral stones.

14. Boost poor circulation.

Coconut Water Benefits

Coconut water is incredibly healthy and one of the best drinks to hydrate the body. Besides helping to remove toxins from the body and aiding digestion, coconuts have amazing anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties that help to cure the diesease.

The English name coconut, first mentioned in English print in 1555, comes from Spanish and Portugese word coco, which means "monkey face." Spanish and Portugese explorers found a resemblance to a monkey's face in the three round indented markings or "eyes" found at the base of the coconut. On the Nicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean, whole coconuts were used as currency for the purchace of goods until the early part of the twentieth century.

Coconuts are the fruit of the coconut palm, botanically known as cocos nucifera, with nucifera meaning "nut-bearing." The fruit-bearing palms are native to Malaysia, Polynesia and southern Asia, and are now also prolific in South America, India , the Pacific Islands , Hawaii and Florida. The light, fibrous husk allowed it to easily drift on the oceans to other areas to propagate. In Sanskrit, the coconut palm is known as kalpa vriksha, meaning "tree which gives all that is necessary for living," since nearly all parts of the tree can be used in some m anner or another. The coconut itself has many food uses, including milk, meat, sugar and oil as well as functioning as its own dish and cup. The husk was also burned for fuel by natives, but today a seed fibre called coir is taken from the husk and used to make brushes, mats, fishnets, and rope. A very potent fermented toddy or drink is also made from the coconut palm's sap. Coconut oil, a saturated fat made from dried coconut meat, is used for commercial frying and in candies and margarines, as well as in non-edible products such as soaps and cosmetics.

Although it takes up to a year for coconuts to mature, the trees bloom up to thirteen times a year, so fruit is constantly forming yielding a continuous harvest year-round. An average harvest from one tree runs about 60 coconuts, with some trees yielding three times that amount. The coconut's name is a bit of a misnomer, since it is botanically classified as a drupe and not a nut. It is the largest seed known.

If you've ever opened a fresh coconut, you will have seen the thin, opaque almost clear coconut juice or water which has a slight almond flavor. Contrary to popular belief, this is not the coconut milk. However, the water is consumed as a drink fresh from the coconut by many, and it can also be used in recipes.

Health Benefits of Coconut Water

"It's a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It's the fluid of life, so to speak." In fact, during the Pacific War of 1941-45, both sides in the conflict regularly used coconut water siphoned directly from the nut to give emergency plasma transfusions to wounded soldiers.

Most coconut water is still consumed fresh in tropical coastal areas - once exposed to air, the liquid rapidly loses most of its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics, and begins to ferment.

* Coconut Water is more nutritious than whole milk - Less fat and no cholesterol.
* Coconut Water is more healthy than orange juice - Much lower calories.
* Coconut Water is better than processed baby milk - It contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother's milk.
* Coconut water is naturally sterile. Water permeates though the filtering husk.
* Coconut water is a universal donor. It is identical to human blood plasma.
* Coconut Water is a Natural Isotonic Beverage - The same level that we have in our blood.
* Coconut water has saved lives in 3rd world countries thru Coconut IV.

"Coconut water is the very stuff of Nature, biologically Pure, full of Natural Sugars, Salts, and Vitamins to ward off fatigue and is the next wave of energy drinks BUT natural", according to Mortin Satin, Chief of the United Nation's Food & Agriculture Organization.

* Coconut water contains more potassium (at about 294 mg) than most sports drinks (117 mg) and most energy drinks.
* Coconut water has less sodium (25mg) where sports drinks have around 41mg and energy drinks have about 200 mg.
* Coconut water has 5mg of Natural Sugars where sports and energy drinks range from 10-25mg of Altered Sugars.
* Coconut water is very high in Chloride at 118mg, compared to sports drinks at about 39mg.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Boom! Boom! Pow!

Boom! Boom! Pow!

Been a while eh? Self-imposed ‘journo-exile’, call it ‘blogohiatus’ all this while has done me some good I tell you. All and nowt has passed without me spewing my thoughts as I promised but I just could not resist the ear-shuttering raucous coming from Todai’s Missus and ‘follow-backs’. The whole of Ghana and a billion more ‘Africawide’ had our attentions glued to our tubes and radio sets with our hopes on Africa’s lone standing Gladiators i.e. Black Stars do battle in the footie tourney in Colourful South Africa see? Funny thing, hope, and some lesson it did teach us. For heartaches sake, I shan’t tread those grounds.
Neways, Todia’s Missus was heard on radio one fine, grey morning announcing to all who had the ability of hearing to sympathise and help them secure a place to lay their weary, ‘grey and perpetually-scarfed’ heads. Since till date, months after their ‘State provided official residence’ was dissolve by a ravenous inferno of ‘brimstone and white phosphorous’, they’ve still not found a ‘suitable’ roof over their heads.
Hold your horses Madam former ‘Ka-bi-mma-me-nka-bi-Omanmmuo’ ObaaHemaa? Was it not a couple of moons back that you rejected two or so ‘worthy-of-king’s’ abodes for one ‘queer’ reason or the other? Live on air, she commiserated by shedding some ‘octopus tears’ and all to win hearts, a class act too. To what point and purpose I ask? Posterity will make a fine judgement of that, I may be swing more than a pendulum if my opinion is sought.
Where is this heading? (This question I pre-empted and I will adequately answer). Todia’s claim to fame was amongst others, ‘Probity and Accountability’, ‘Poverty Alleviation’, ‘Bridging the gap between the poor and the rich’, an ‘Equal share of the national Cake’, blah blah blah...this family owns ‘hospitable’ property in a number of places, here in the capital and elsewhere they could seek temporary shelter till the former, that which was razed to the ground is refurbished (at the Exchequer’s expense of course) or one that befits their status is allocated to them. The cries of having to ‘put up with my mother’ and what not’s reeks with ‘selfish disregard’ for the mantra professed and the ideals ‘they’ stand (or should I say stood?) for, one I strongly believe is and should be the foundations for the democrazy (typo...sorry, but does sound a wee bit like what we have eh?) democracy we acknowledge (amongst others).
Walk through the streets of the capital at night (I wont name places) and feast our eyes on the droves of people who sleep in/on the streets. It is not a sight to behold I tell you. Our dear nation’s transportation networks is shambolic, strewn with heavy traffic bottlenecks and others routes to certain parts inaccessible certain times of the year, energy is as unstable as a traffic light on amber , food and agriculture is heavily subsistent to such an extent that we import tomatoes from our northern neighbours and plantain, a major staple form our western neighbours and apparently, we don’t have enough sheep, goats, cattle, fish, chicken to meet consumption rates yet we ban ‘turkey tail’! Education is tinkered with time and again without regard for the end product, Science and Technology...oh well...that too has degenerated to pranks on a national scale. Tourism, ah ha! It seems we don’t know what we’ve got and how to sell it to the world. Our health sector is struggling to cope with the scant and sparse resources, infrastructure and personnel. National Security scarcely secures and disaster management is partisan (I moot the idea for a new organisation for disaster prevention) Immigration and Customs & Excise? A.A. Anas will snap at your heels again. Housing? Has anyone been to any of the barracks of the security services? These gallant men and women tasked to preserve protect and make sure we have some peace deserve far better places to lay their heads.
These and many more are immediate and legitimate concerns we should be addressing and not the whim of a former first family (or is one member?) that I believe is very well resourced!
Whoever is consiglierie or publicist to Todia’s Missus (or if Todia his self) must have given her some horrendous advice! On the back of her clamour and ambition for ‘flagbearership’ of their beloved party in the next election, this portrayal of ‘insatiable greed’ will make an irremediable dent on her image and ‘hard-earned’ reputation!
I adore Todia, methinks he is a great man, don’t get it twisted, but when the ‘truth whip’ needs to be cracked it has to! Where did all the ‘benevolent friends of the Lawringes’ go? Eh? Did they lose their hearts of munificence? Or perhaps they lost their wallets and obese cheque books?
Madam former ‘Ka-bi-mma-me-nka-bi-Oman mmuo’ ObaaHemaa, in all humility, please, please, spare the good ‘Tax Don’s’ ears with these unnecessary distractions and leave the Ministry of Works and Housing to do some serious work.
Speaking of this Ministry, I’ve got two questions that really bother me; whatever happened to the ‘affordable housing’ project started by the previous administration? Am I the only one who thinks the deal with a certain South Korean outfit stinks???