Dear Isadora,
daddey has got to go.
All my bags are packed. I am taking a break.
Don't cry. I will be back. When i return, things will be better. I promise.
Love
Daddey
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
New beginnings
Jacque wrote to me. She thinks my current facebook profile messages are pyscho-ish.
her comment is probably because of recent i have written unusual status messages like: "one day i'll fly away, i will stop calling or caring and then you'll miss me", next it was "its going down" then my last status simply said I am "returning home."
She thinks it's all strange but i believe it's not, infact they have all been herald's of my new beginnings since i came to this new place i call home.
Because you my dear children need to know all about Daddey so you can understand him when you come, i will explain them in detail.
One day i'll fly away
When mommey left, i was depressed at first and then i slowly became strong again. We started talking again even if we were not together anymore, sometimes talking to her was depressing, not because she is boring(far from it, she is quite a handful) but daddey felt that she and he were going round and round in circles like a gyroscope or perhaps like a cat chasing its tail.
Daddey didnt have the courage at first to tell her to her face and so he wrote on the facebook wall, but then eventually one day when they got to talking he told her :one day i'll fly away, and now he is at peace...
Is daddey back with mommey, you want to know?
Oh my dear Isadora, you always asked daddey the tougher questions, just like daddey always asked. Admit it, those are your daddey's genes hugh?
Can daddey (like mommey) plead the 5th amendment on the question?
It's going down
Two exciting deals went down this week and thus the cause of the message.
(i) i was enroute to the airport with the company MD, we were going for a meeting in Guernsey, which is one of our neighbouring islands(only a 15 minute flight), as we travelled, he commended me on my continued excellent work and he reiterated his initial offer at the time i came here for an equity stake as a director in the company.
Oh my dear little ones, we are talking about at least GBP 100k a year!
Ahh but let me not get carried out, the offer is perhaps 2 years in the making and from my knowledge of the director, it is dependent on my continued delivery to a high quality standard. Nevertheless with the strengh I will receive from above, i can only thank our God for this outpouring of blessings and yeah if only to keep up the current level of delivering on tasks.
(ii)During a company dinner, i sat down with David, one of the retired company directors and we talked about a variety of topics and eventually we settled on books and i told him how expensive it was to get good books, well he told me of the Jersey hospice charity shop which has some of the most amazing book selections.
I decided to venture there and to my surprise i even found something more than the books i intended to get and much more than i could have bargained for. I got cuch cheap and great furniture, so low that i probably saved GBP 400 plus. I got the following(current market price in brackets)
TV and Stand GBP 25(150)
2 100 CD/DVD stands GBP 3(20)
4 art paintings GBP 25 (200)
I multiple stand GBP 8 (30)
1 eastern miniature golden set GBP 3 (20)
4 classic books GBP 1.5 (28)
Total Cost-Charity shop GBP 63.5
Total Cost-Standard: 428
Savings: Priceless!
I even have pictures of my new great look house and for what its worth, through my purchases I am supporting charity. Afterall if my 10 cents can provide clean water for 10 children then my 63 GBP can provide for a whole village,thats not such a bad thing afterall.
Living room(with the TV, some of the books, Eastern minature gold set and the CD/DVD stand)
Multipurpose stand(with one painting in background of kitchen)
Pai
nting
Returning home
my dear Isadora, 3 interconnected events happened to me to make me think of returning home.
The first was a simple email from a friend of mine, the second was my slowly rising portfolio and investments and the third was always going out and partying.
KK sent me email and he told me of an old school mate who had died in a bar brawl. I am always going out and being different(ie black) among a predominantly white population(99%), perhaps one day someone may not like me for dancing cool, getting the girls swooning everytime i walk into a pub or just because i am feeling cool with my cigars(and blacks are supposed to be picking cotton or starving in Darfur, not smoking cigars). They may then decide to stab me or something sinister.
I was then reminded of my own mortality and i heard the words of Roman emperor Marcus Auerlius:
death smiles at us all and the only thing we can do is smile back.
I then embarked on writing my will!
When i completed it, i sent it off to my sister who is also a lawyer.
I later told mommey. She laughed at me and she wondered why i was writing a will when i had nothing!
She is brutally honest that one, but i love her despite all. Oh well, but what she didnt know is that right now i am actually worth so much more to my family dead than alive. Its such an irony and a sad fact but all so so true.
According to my company insurance plan, at my death, my family gets my 3 years' salary.
As a director designate, that woud be GBP 300,000 , less inheritance tax of say 30% which would equal about GBP 210,000 which is wait a minute, SHS 630m!(yes, six hundred thirty million shillings), that is not even counting my national insurance scheme benefit and my current growing investment portfolio.
I now even see why for example here family members kill each other, protect loads of assets in trusts or some people fake their own deaths. Man oh man, there is profit to be made in death and it is on a definite event, its like there is a guaranteed 1000% ++ return on my death.
Its funny but as i write this, i dont feel sad or anything, rather i feel glad that even in death, i can still leave my family happy even though they will sad.
Since writing my will, i have somehow felt at peace to the extent that i have in a way organised my affairs here on earth, now only to make peace with my heavenly father and like the prodigal son start the process of RETURNING HOME.
In retrospect i have often wondered if people often get indicators of their impending demise. You know the type like where the evangelist Billy Graham went to see Marylin Monroe with a message from God and she said "i don't need your Jesus" and one week later she died.
This stuff really freaks me out and i worry whether I am being rebellious.
Oh Lord how the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Perhaps i will live another 50 years(God willing) and will look back to this letter to you my dear ones and wonder why i was worried, but what if i was not wrong? Anyway these are the causes of my present worries.
(a) I am always listening to music. Be it at home or at office(everyone knows me that i work with headphones plugged in all day).My music is always on random play and i find it strange that it too often plays gospel music. When i am say thinking or reading something religious, its like on almost cue, the music changes to gospel.I could almost bet that of recent, gospel music forms perhaps 30% of my random play list and yet its only like 1% of my total music library. Sometimes the songs even play back to back. Its like even in this I am getting messages from the Godhead. Coincidence some people will say? I am not sure there are coincidences. Someone once said that coincidences like good luck are miracles where God chooses to remain anonymous.
(b) As i write this, in a freakish way, 911 by Wyclef and Mary J Blige has began playing and the opening song lines are thus: "If death comes to me tonight girl, i want you to know that i loved you"
(c) My poetry is so often interlaced with death/sad themes that i sometimes call myself the sad poet. I feel like I am actually going to die young. Take an example of these poems
(i) On Archeology(Blackberry man)
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2008/06/on-archeologyblackberry-man.html
(ii) A fact(sadness)
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2008/06/factsadness.html
(iii) Lamentations(on the eve of my execution)
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2008/02/lamentations-on-eve-of-my-execution.html
(iv) A letter to Manjeri of the mountain
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-to-manjeri-of-mountain.html
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Give me long life that i may read these letters to these my unborn children.
That i may tell her i loved her always since i first saw her and still 50 years henceforth
That i may say:
I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith.
(2 Timothy 4: 7)
Amen
**end***
her comment is probably because of recent i have written unusual status messages like: "one day i'll fly away, i will stop calling or caring and then you'll miss me", next it was "its going down" then my last status simply said I am "returning home."
She thinks it's all strange but i believe it's not, infact they have all been herald's of my new beginnings since i came to this new place i call home.
Because you my dear children need to know all about Daddey so you can understand him when you come, i will explain them in detail.
One day i'll fly away
When mommey left, i was depressed at first and then i slowly became strong again. We started talking again even if we were not together anymore, sometimes talking to her was depressing, not because she is boring(far from it, she is quite a handful) but daddey felt that she and he were going round and round in circles like a gyroscope or perhaps like a cat chasing its tail.
Daddey didnt have the courage at first to tell her to her face and so he wrote on the facebook wall, but then eventually one day when they got to talking he told her :one day i'll fly away, and now he is at peace...
Is daddey back with mommey, you want to know?
Oh my dear Isadora, you always asked daddey the tougher questions, just like daddey always asked. Admit it, those are your daddey's genes hugh?
Can daddey (like mommey) plead the 5th amendment on the question?
It's going down
Two exciting deals went down this week and thus the cause of the message.
(i) i was enroute to the airport with the company MD, we were going for a meeting in Guernsey, which is one of our neighbouring islands(only a 15 minute flight), as we travelled, he commended me on my continued excellent work and he reiterated his initial offer at the time i came here for an equity stake as a director in the company.
Oh my dear little ones, we are talking about at least GBP 100k a year!
Ahh but let me not get carried out, the offer is perhaps 2 years in the making and from my knowledge of the director, it is dependent on my continued delivery to a high quality standard. Nevertheless with the strengh I will receive from above, i can only thank our God for this outpouring of blessings and yeah if only to keep up the current level of delivering on tasks.
(ii)During a company dinner, i sat down with David, one of the retired company directors and we talked about a variety of topics and eventually we settled on books and i told him how expensive it was to get good books, well he told me of the Jersey hospice charity shop which has some of the most amazing book selections.
I decided to venture there and to my surprise i even found something more than the books i intended to get and much more than i could have bargained for. I got cuch cheap and great furniture, so low that i probably saved GBP 400 plus. I got the following(current market price in brackets)
TV and Stand GBP 25(150)
2 100 CD/DVD stands GBP 3(20)
4 art paintings GBP 25 (200)
I multiple stand GBP 8 (30)
1 eastern miniature golden set GBP 3 (20)
4 classic books GBP 1.5 (28)
Total Cost-Charity shop GBP 63.5
Total Cost-Standard: 428
Savings: Priceless!
I even have pictures of my new great look house and for what its worth, through my purchases I am supporting charity. Afterall if my 10 cents can provide clean water for 10 children then my 63 GBP can provide for a whole village,thats not such a bad thing afterall.
Living room(with the TV, some of the books, Eastern minature gold set and the CD/DVD stand)
Multipurpose stand(with one painting in background of kitchen)
Pai
ntingReturning home
my dear Isadora, 3 interconnected events happened to me to make me think of returning home.
The first was a simple email from a friend of mine, the second was my slowly rising portfolio and investments and the third was always going out and partying.
KK sent me email and he told me of an old school mate who had died in a bar brawl. I am always going out and being different(ie black) among a predominantly white population(99%), perhaps one day someone may not like me for dancing cool, getting the girls swooning everytime i walk into a pub or just because i am feeling cool with my cigars(and blacks are supposed to be picking cotton or starving in Darfur, not smoking cigars). They may then decide to stab me or something sinister.
I was then reminded of my own mortality and i heard the words of Roman emperor Marcus Auerlius:
death smiles at us all and the only thing we can do is smile back.
I then embarked on writing my will!
When i completed it, i sent it off to my sister who is also a lawyer.
I later told mommey. She laughed at me and she wondered why i was writing a will when i had nothing!
She is brutally honest that one, but i love her despite all. Oh well, but what she didnt know is that right now i am actually worth so much more to my family dead than alive. Its such an irony and a sad fact but all so so true.
According to my company insurance plan, at my death, my family gets my 3 years' salary.
As a director designate, that woud be GBP 300,000 , less inheritance tax of say 30% which would equal about GBP 210,000 which is wait a minute, SHS 630m!(yes, six hundred thirty million shillings), that is not even counting my national insurance scheme benefit and my current growing investment portfolio.
I now even see why for example here family members kill each other, protect loads of assets in trusts or some people fake their own deaths. Man oh man, there is profit to be made in death and it is on a definite event, its like there is a guaranteed 1000% ++ return on my death.
Its funny but as i write this, i dont feel sad or anything, rather i feel glad that even in death, i can still leave my family happy even though they will sad.
Since writing my will, i have somehow felt at peace to the extent that i have in a way organised my affairs here on earth, now only to make peace with my heavenly father and like the prodigal son start the process of RETURNING HOME.
In retrospect i have often wondered if people often get indicators of their impending demise. You know the type like where the evangelist Billy Graham went to see Marylin Monroe with a message from God and she said "i don't need your Jesus" and one week later she died.
This stuff really freaks me out and i worry whether I am being rebellious.
Oh Lord how the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Perhaps i will live another 50 years(God willing) and will look back to this letter to you my dear ones and wonder why i was worried, but what if i was not wrong? Anyway these are the causes of my present worries.
(a) I am always listening to music. Be it at home or at office(everyone knows me that i work with headphones plugged in all day).My music is always on random play and i find it strange that it too often plays gospel music. When i am say thinking or reading something religious, its like on almost cue, the music changes to gospel.I could almost bet that of recent, gospel music forms perhaps 30% of my random play list and yet its only like 1% of my total music library. Sometimes the songs even play back to back. Its like even in this I am getting messages from the Godhead. Coincidence some people will say? I am not sure there are coincidences. Someone once said that coincidences like good luck are miracles where God chooses to remain anonymous.
(b) As i write this, in a freakish way, 911 by Wyclef and Mary J Blige has began playing and the opening song lines are thus: "If death comes to me tonight girl, i want you to know that i loved you"
(c) My poetry is so often interlaced with death/sad themes that i sometimes call myself the sad poet. I feel like I am actually going to die young. Take an example of these poems
(i) On Archeology(Blackberry man)
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2008/06/on-archeologyblackberry-man.html
(ii) A fact(sadness)
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2008/06/factsadness.html
(iii) Lamentations(on the eve of my execution)
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2008/02/lamentations-on-eve-of-my-execution.html
(iv) A letter to Manjeri of the mountain
http://esquire-sunshinepoems.blogspot.com/2007/06/letter-to-manjeri-of-mountain.html
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Give me long life that i may read these letters to these my unborn children.
That i may tell her i loved her always since i first saw her and still 50 years henceforth
That i may say:
I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith.
(2 Timothy 4: 7)
Amen
**end***
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be right back after a message,
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.
(Gil Scot Heron, "The revolution will not be televised")
"Dickson, I look at Tv and the press and from what i see all of Africa appears to be a bastard case, but then i meet you and it doesnt appear so, tell me in truth, how can this be, is Africa really a basket case?"
My dear dear Isadora darling,
I met Joe in a pub and drunk he may have been, he nevertheless was able to decipher in the cloudy mind of alcohol that the winds of change are here and that's why he asked me that question.
That somehow he realised I and many africans who are increasingly coming here are not necessarily conforming to the stereotypical image of Africans as a savage inferior people in need of saving is no surprise then.
I was unfortunately out of time but if he had asked me to tell him more of Africa as not just a dark continent but a beacon of life, i would have given him just two examples of the greatness of Africa from ancient times and this is what i would have told him:
1: The moors who were a candle of hope in europe's dark ages: African!
The second half of the first millennium AD in Europe is sometimes referred to as the dark ages. In some ways that's a misnomer. Although in some parts of Europe it seemed that the beacon of civilization had indeed been extinguished, in other parts, notably Spain, things were far from dark.
In Spain the candle of knowledge was kept burning by the Muslim conquerers called Moors. Not only did they possess a vast body of knowledge based on their own learning, they had also become the custodians of much of the earlier knowledge from the Greek philosophers including those of Alexandria such as Ptolemy.
The Spanish occupation by the Moors began in 711 AD when a Berber Muslim army, under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa and invaded the Iberian peninsula. Roderick, the last of the Visigoth kings of Spain, was defeated at the Battle of Río Barbate and by 719 AD the Moors had conquered the entire area from the coast to the Pyrenees.
2: Egyptian civilization was great agreed but Umm not all the Pharaohs were "white"
"Egypt was ruled by black pharaohs for nearly 100 years, but their role as leaders of the ancient civilization has been largely kept in the dark because of racism.
Some studies also have found that Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun's grandmother, the 18th-dynasty Queen Tye, may have had Nubian heritage.
In the year 730 B.C., a man by the name of Piye decided the only way to save Egypt from itself was to invade it. Things would get bloody before the salvation came.
By the end of a yearlong campaign, every leader in Egypt had capitulated—including the powerful delta warlord Tefnakht, who sent a messenger to tell Piye, “Be gracious! I cannot see your face in the days of shame; I cannot stand before your flame, I dread your grandeur.”
Piye was the first of the so-called black pharaohs—a series of Nubian kings who ruled over all of Egypt for three-quarters of a century as that country’s 25th dynasty. Through inscriptions carved on stelae by both the Nubians and their enemies, it is possible to map out these rulers’ vast footprint on the continent. The black pharaohs reunified a tattered Egypt and filled its landscape with glorious monuments, creating an empire that stretched from the southern border at present-day Khartoum all the way north to the Mediterranean Sea. They stood up to the bloodthirsty Assyrians, perhaps saving Jerusalem in the process.
The ancient world was devoid of racism. At the time of Piye’s historic conquest, the fact that his skin was dark was irrelevant. Artwork from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome shows a clear awareness of racial features and skin tone, but there is little evidence that darker skin was seen as a sign of inferiority. Only after the European powers colonized Africa in the 19th century did Western scholars pay attention to the color of the Nubians’ skin, to uncharitable effect."
Likewise there was no chilling view of muslims as is now common today.
"The story of the Moors in Spain beginning over 1200 years ago paints a picture of an Arab world that was very different from what we see today. In the 8th century, Islam was barely 100 years old and knowledge on a broad range of subjects was welcomed and nurtured. In addition the wisdom and philosophy of foreign cultures—ancient Greece and India—was eagerly embraced and assimilated.
This is a far cry from the Arab world of today where a kind of xenophobia has set in. Most "education" seems to now be limited to the inculcation and preservation of increasingly narrow views of the various forms of Islam. In addition there has developed an us-versus-them mindset that makes any kind of bridge-building an exercise in futility."
My dear Isadora,
If i was president, my first act would be to revolutionise the education system to indoctrinate pride amongst our young people.
They would see and hear of the great tales of our people and side for side we would show them that yes even though there was genocide in Africa and that there have been dictatorial leaders, how far different have they been from any dictatorial leader worldwide irrespective of his color.
Hitler, 6million jews under his belt was of the so called pure Aryan(and Christian) descent.
Mao Zedong and Pol Pot under whom millions of Chinese and Cambodians died was not black.
Napoleon Bonarparte and Lord Nelson's and even today George Bush's own military campaigns often sacrificed their own people at the expense of military glory and "for King and Country" what do they get in return?
In the centre of London, at Trafalgar square up on a pedestal where all eyes look upward in astonishment is a sculpture of Lord Nelson in his own glory. This is despite the fact that he himself married had a public affair with the wife of the British ambassador to Naples. She became his mistress and they even had a daughter together.
Napoleon's sculptures are all over France and even his personal residence is a museum.
George Bush may be called idiotic(there is even a phrase for his idiocy and its called Bushlexia) but for a start he was elected twice as leader of the greatest nation on earth!
Why then is it only African leaders whose great acts are completely ignored and instead their latter years as dictators or their less glorifying acts paraded just to make entertainment news for the western media to show their children the images of us africans as savages?
Why is the story of Morgan Tsvangrai pulling out of race due to election violence classified within the entertainment section of yahoo news?
Granted Mugabe is in many ways a tyrant but surely is the story of the Zimbabwean opposition supporters' death entertainment? You think i kid? See : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080622/ten-zimbabwe-vote-mugabe-1dc2b55.html
Perhaps it is only when you see and understand this institutional and subtle racism in the British/caucasian press which continously portrays us as savages and hopeless cases that therefore brings about the shock among white people when they meet a black person who doesn't conform to this so called "savage nature"
It is therefore in retrospect most chilling or even downright threatening then for some of these guys to meet us Africans who are holding the torch up of a new breed of African professionals.
My dear Isadora,
I am not all gang ho and don't recognise that some of these "white folk" are amazing people who don't see color but see the worth of a person, my boss and many other people i have met are like this....
I met Charlie once who in a mark of amazement(and with it silent respect) said: "Dickson, you actually speak better English than me for whom English is a native language, you must be exceptional and i am really pleased to meet you.... "
Over the past weekend, i almost felt like an Nubian Pharaoh, one of my "white mates" broke a man's nose just for making racist statements at me(apparently why was I an African feeling "cool" by smoking cigars. )
I should have felt pity for the man, afterall like Ghandi i often feel that non violence is the best way to solve problems but perpaps this was one of those times when i supported Otto Von Bismark's statment
Not by speeches and votes of the majority, are the great questions of the time decided — that was the error of 1848 and 1849 — but by iron and blood.
My dearest little Isadora,
Indeed i can feel the winds of change.
It may take us 100 years but it will happen, and when it does, the revolution will not be televised, it shall be there for all to see and on that day it will be known that:
all men are created equal,
to walk this earth,
and perhaps in walking it
shall instead of killing and demeaning one another,
focus on seeking to find the ultimate truth....
"God who made the world and all that is in it, being Lord of both Heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, nor is he ministered to by human hands, as though he had need of anything - seeing that he is the one who gives to all men life and breath and everything else. From one forefather (Adam) he has created every race of men to live over the face of the whole earth. He has determined the times of their existence and the limits of their habitation, so that they might search for God, in the hope that they might feel for him and find him - yes, even though he is not far from any one of us. Indeed, it is in him that we live and move and have our being."
(Acts 17:22-31)
Now go to sleep little one, and when you wake, daddey shall explain to you how the revolution is going to begin....
***end****
References
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-02/black-pharaohs/draper-text.html
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text/3
http://www.scienceandyou.org/articles/ess_06.shtml
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.
(Gil Scot Heron, "The revolution will not be televised")
"Dickson, I look at Tv and the press and from what i see all of Africa appears to be a bastard case, but then i meet you and it doesnt appear so, tell me in truth, how can this be, is Africa really a basket case?"
My dear dear Isadora darling,
I met Joe in a pub and drunk he may have been, he nevertheless was able to decipher in the cloudy mind of alcohol that the winds of change are here and that's why he asked me that question.
That somehow he realised I and many africans who are increasingly coming here are not necessarily conforming to the stereotypical image of Africans as a savage inferior people in need of saving is no surprise then.
I was unfortunately out of time but if he had asked me to tell him more of Africa as not just a dark continent but a beacon of life, i would have given him just two examples of the greatness of Africa from ancient times and this is what i would have told him:
1: The moors who were a candle of hope in europe's dark ages: African!
The second half of the first millennium AD in Europe is sometimes referred to as the dark ages. In some ways that's a misnomer. Although in some parts of Europe it seemed that the beacon of civilization had indeed been extinguished, in other parts, notably Spain, things were far from dark.
In Spain the candle of knowledge was kept burning by the Muslim conquerers called Moors. Not only did they possess a vast body of knowledge based on their own learning, they had also become the custodians of much of the earlier knowledge from the Greek philosophers including those of Alexandria such as Ptolemy.
The Spanish occupation by the Moors began in 711 AD when a Berber Muslim army, under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa and invaded the Iberian peninsula. Roderick, the last of the Visigoth kings of Spain, was defeated at the Battle of Río Barbate and by 719 AD the Moors had conquered the entire area from the coast to the Pyrenees.
2: Egyptian civilization was great agreed but Umm not all the Pharaohs were "white"
"Egypt was ruled by black pharaohs for nearly 100 years, but their role as leaders of the ancient civilization has been largely kept in the dark because of racism.
Some studies also have found that Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun's grandmother, the 18th-dynasty Queen Tye, may have had Nubian heritage.
In the year 730 B.C., a man by the name of Piye decided the only way to save Egypt from itself was to invade it. Things would get bloody before the salvation came.
By the end of a yearlong campaign, every leader in Egypt had capitulated—including the powerful delta warlord Tefnakht, who sent a messenger to tell Piye, “Be gracious! I cannot see your face in the days of shame; I cannot stand before your flame, I dread your grandeur.”
Piye was the first of the so-called black pharaohs—a series of Nubian kings who ruled over all of Egypt for three-quarters of a century as that country’s 25th dynasty. Through inscriptions carved on stelae by both the Nubians and their enemies, it is possible to map out these rulers’ vast footprint on the continent. The black pharaohs reunified a tattered Egypt and filled its landscape with glorious monuments, creating an empire that stretched from the southern border at present-day Khartoum all the way north to the Mediterranean Sea. They stood up to the bloodthirsty Assyrians, perhaps saving Jerusalem in the process.
The ancient world was devoid of racism. At the time of Piye’s historic conquest, the fact that his skin was dark was irrelevant. Artwork from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome shows a clear awareness of racial features and skin tone, but there is little evidence that darker skin was seen as a sign of inferiority. Only after the European powers colonized Africa in the 19th century did Western scholars pay attention to the color of the Nubians’ skin, to uncharitable effect."
Likewise there was no chilling view of muslims as is now common today.
"The story of the Moors in Spain beginning over 1200 years ago paints a picture of an Arab world that was very different from what we see today. In the 8th century, Islam was barely 100 years old and knowledge on a broad range of subjects was welcomed and nurtured. In addition the wisdom and philosophy of foreign cultures—ancient Greece and India—was eagerly embraced and assimilated.
This is a far cry from the Arab world of today where a kind of xenophobia has set in. Most "education" seems to now be limited to the inculcation and preservation of increasingly narrow views of the various forms of Islam. In addition there has developed an us-versus-them mindset that makes any kind of bridge-building an exercise in futility."
My dear Isadora,
If i was president, my first act would be to revolutionise the education system to indoctrinate pride amongst our young people.
They would see and hear of the great tales of our people and side for side we would show them that yes even though there was genocide in Africa and that there have been dictatorial leaders, how far different have they been from any dictatorial leader worldwide irrespective of his color.
Hitler, 6million jews under his belt was of the so called pure Aryan(and Christian) descent.
Mao Zedong and Pol Pot under whom millions of Chinese and Cambodians died was not black.
Napoleon Bonarparte and Lord Nelson's and even today George Bush's own military campaigns often sacrificed their own people at the expense of military glory and "for King and Country" what do they get in return?
In the centre of London, at Trafalgar square up on a pedestal where all eyes look upward in astonishment is a sculpture of Lord Nelson in his own glory. This is despite the fact that he himself married had a public affair with the wife of the British ambassador to Naples. She became his mistress and they even had a daughter together.
Napoleon's sculptures are all over France and even his personal residence is a museum.
George Bush may be called idiotic(there is even a phrase for his idiocy and its called Bushlexia) but for a start he was elected twice as leader of the greatest nation on earth!
Why then is it only African leaders whose great acts are completely ignored and instead their latter years as dictators or their less glorifying acts paraded just to make entertainment news for the western media to show their children the images of us africans as savages?
Why is the story of Morgan Tsvangrai pulling out of race due to election violence classified within the entertainment section of yahoo news?
Granted Mugabe is in many ways a tyrant but surely is the story of the Zimbabwean opposition supporters' death entertainment? You think i kid? See : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080622/ten-zimbabwe-vote-mugabe-1dc2b55.html
Perhaps it is only when you see and understand this institutional and subtle racism in the British/caucasian press which continously portrays us as savages and hopeless cases that therefore brings about the shock among white people when they meet a black person who doesn't conform to this so called "savage nature"
It is therefore in retrospect most chilling or even downright threatening then for some of these guys to meet us Africans who are holding the torch up of a new breed of African professionals.
My dear Isadora,
I am not all gang ho and don't recognise that some of these "white folk" are amazing people who don't see color but see the worth of a person, my boss and many other people i have met are like this....
I met Charlie once who in a mark of amazement(and with it silent respect) said: "Dickson, you actually speak better English than me for whom English is a native language, you must be exceptional and i am really pleased to meet you.... "
Over the past weekend, i almost felt like an Nubian Pharaoh, one of my "white mates" broke a man's nose just for making racist statements at me(apparently why was I an African feeling "cool" by smoking cigars. )
I should have felt pity for the man, afterall like Ghandi i often feel that non violence is the best way to solve problems but perpaps this was one of those times when i supported Otto Von Bismark's statment
Not by speeches and votes of the majority, are the great questions of the time decided — that was the error of 1848 and 1849 — but by iron and blood.
My dearest little Isadora,
Indeed i can feel the winds of change.
It may take us 100 years but it will happen, and when it does, the revolution will not be televised, it shall be there for all to see and on that day it will be known that:
all men are created equal,
to walk this earth,
and perhaps in walking it
shall instead of killing and demeaning one another,
focus on seeking to find the ultimate truth....
"God who made the world and all that is in it, being Lord of both Heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, nor is he ministered to by human hands, as though he had need of anything - seeing that he is the one who gives to all men life and breath and everything else. From one forefather (Adam) he has created every race of men to live over the face of the whole earth. He has determined the times of their existence and the limits of their habitation, so that they might search for God, in the hope that they might feel for him and find him - yes, even though he is not far from any one of us. Indeed, it is in him that we live and move and have our being."
(Acts 17:22-31)
Now go to sleep little one, and when you wake, daddey shall explain to you how the revolution is going to begin....
***end****
References
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-02/black-pharaohs/draper-text.html
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text/3
http://www.scienceandyou.org/articles/ess_06.shtml
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A gift for daddey on fathers day
Ahh, today is a day to celebrate all the stories of the millions of great dads in this world.
I don't want no fancy gifts....no let me modify that when you get to have your own business empires(you'll then admit that your busines brains were your daddy's genes), I just want some $80,000 in investments like bonds or equity, with a 10% fixed interest, and a 50 ft yacht called groovy baby
and one more thing:
heaven knows right now i need a hug, from your mommey but she is not here...... and even if she was, her and daddey are not happy.
Its been an empty week kids, and daddy is angry at mommey, for not being by him in times of stress and sadness and sorrow and when daddy is angry he writes. He can never ever ever beat mummy, so learn this lesson my yet to be born children...you don't beat her who you love and consider a partner. Nevertheless there are other ways daddey lets out his anger.
When you are born my oh so loved children, i will not show you the bad bad words daddey uses when he is angry.
Daddy will not show you the mean things he does when he is unhappy.
So this is father's day and instead of waiting for you to give me something, i will instead give you the gift of all: reading and knowledge which will free your minds to creativity and help you to steer away from mental slavery, so this is daddey's gift to you my children on fathers day:
the poem of the owl and the pussy cat(the wished for story of mommey and daddy)
I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'
II
Pussy said to the Owl,
'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married!
too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?
'They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
III
'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Edward Lear(1812-1888)
**End***
Last week's poll results.
27 May 2008 17:10:21 -0700
A BRITISH woman has told how she was raped 800 times and made pregnant by her brutal father — a monster chillingly similar to Austrian beast Josef Fritzl. (who incarcerated his daughter Elizabeth and fathered 7 children with her)
"dad raped me 800 times..he made me pregnant so he could claim more benefits."
Yes a day Away from all the dead beat dads, the monster dads(like the austrian beast who fathered children by his own daughter), the killer dads, the dads who never cared enough for their children to end up in jail.
But that is not the only kind of bad daddy. There are other daddy's who don't care enough about their children. Ever since the daddy instinct in me came out, I am very concerned about the future of my children and in particular how i will ensure that the environment they grow up in is not adverse.1) Bad neighbourhoods.
A man in his 30s is being questioned by police after a 15-year-old girl was found brutally stabbed to death in the lift of a block of flats near London's Waterloo station. The young teenager, who was dressed in her school uniform, had been the victim of an attack so ferocious that the handle of the knife used to kill her had broken off.
2) Not investing enough in a good quality education through choice of schools
An independent schools leader has launched an outspoken attack on state education, warning there were some pupils who "can't be controlled".
Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, warned state schools are struggling with unteachable children, ignorant parents, staff who did not want to be there and headteachers who did not understand leadership.
He said comprehensive school pupils could not be expected to get into top universities if they were bullied by classmates from "disadvantaged backgrounds". Speaking of the state sector, he said: "There are too many leaders but not enough leadership, there are a lot of managers but not enough management. There aren't enough teachers and aren't enough teachers in the subjects we need. It's lacking human, material (and) financial resources." He said children might flourish if they are taken out of their state school and put in a private school, but they would fail again "if they go back to anarchy and chaos" of a troubled home.
3) Not controlling children's exposure to bad peer influence or media
A report released by Uganda’s No Tobacco Campaign shows that cigarette smoking and other forms of tobacco use are increasing among 13-15-year-olds. This is alarming, given the well-known links between tobacco and disease. Young teenagers associate smoking with stardom and are not being helped by tobacco companies which sneak in adverts in spite of their agreement not to do so. Cigarettes are largely affordable and the health warnings on tobacco for sale are small and hidden in corners. More girls are being lured into smoking by increased access to education, movies, TV, competition.
4) At home
Daddy and mummy fighting. Although domestic violence is chronically under reported, research estimates it: accounts for 16% of all violent crime will affect 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in their lifetime 77% of victims of domestic violence are women has more repeat victims than any other crime (on average there will have been 35 assaults before a victim calls the police) on average, two women are killed every week by a current or former male partner one incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute
And the worst crime of all:
5) We mentally enslave the minds of our children.
Gorge them with Spiderman comic books rather than a sudoku crossword, spend $10 on a ben 10 watch and would balk at spending the same amount on an early childhood learning book or a revolutionary child brain development game.
"The refusal to engage deeply with ideas is perhaps the greatest obstacle to becoming a fully fledged nation. As long as we live life on the surface of things, skimming like mosquitoes on the skin of being, we will never be able to control our surroundings...
(for) Sometimes the greatest satisfaction if all comes not from using our bodies but from using our minds. Contemplation, engagement with ideas, thinking through a complex idea until we understand it, mastering concepts hitherto unknown to us....
If we are to succeed, if we are to survive, it is the world of ideas that we need to master"
But then little children, away from the gloom.....
I don't want no fancy gifts....no let me modify that when you get to have your own business empires(you'll then admit that your busines brains were your daddy's genes), I just want some $80,000 in investments like bonds or equity, with a 10% fixed interest, and a 50 ft yacht called groovy baby
and one more thing:
heaven knows right now i need a hug, from your mommey but she is not here...... and even if she was, her and daddey are not happy.
Its been an empty week kids, and daddy is angry at mommey, for not being by him in times of stress and sadness and sorrow and when daddy is angry he writes. He can never ever ever beat mummy, so learn this lesson my yet to be born children...you don't beat her who you love and consider a partner. Nevertheless there are other ways daddey lets out his anger.
When you are born my oh so loved children, i will not show you the bad bad words daddey uses when he is angry.
Daddy will not show you the mean things he does when he is unhappy.
So this is father's day and instead of waiting for you to give me something, i will instead give you the gift of all: reading and knowledge which will free your minds to creativity and help you to steer away from mental slavery, so this is daddey's gift to you my children on fathers day:
the poem of the owl and the pussy cat(the wished for story of mommey and daddy)
I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'
II
Pussy said to the Owl,
'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married!
too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?
'They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
III
'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Edward Lear(1812-1888)
**End***
Last week's poll results.
Should little Isadora's daddey should get a new mommey?
Yes: 0%
No: 100%
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Daddey where is mommey ?
I
They said that i had two main vices; cigars(King Edward or Hamlet brand) and books.
Where others were addicted to sex, they said for me a good book was enough aphrodisiac to last a month or two, until my next craving, or my next book....
My dear little Isadora darling
I am going to find you a new mommey. Where will i get her you ask? In the food store in the fresh food section? Goodness! Oh my little Isadora, don't make daddey smile when he should be sad and blue. Mommeys don't come from the food store. They come from a special place where God has kept them safe. Moulding and perfecting them and just when daddey is sad and alone and asks Him, then He will send mommey for daddey when he is sleeping, just like Adam.
And the old mommey, did she break like the clay feet of the image in Nebucchadnezzer's dream?
Nebuchadnezzer? Oh child your comparatives are uncanny, admit it, those are your daddy's genes huh? Well daddey is not going to read you such stories anymore. You are supposed to ask if mommey broke like Jill's pail when she and jack went up the hill!
And what about this mommey?
The mommey who is carrying you will not be with us for long after you come. She is leaving this little island port world of ours for a bigger sunnier world.
Oh Isadora darling. Don't be sad, your current mommey is not leaving because of you. She loves you very very much. See how she is always reading you poems from her secret little book that no one else has ever seen?
Why does mommey leave. Doesn't she love daddey anymore? Doesn't she love you anymore?
Child when you come and grow up you will understand that sometimes daddeys and mommeys cannot be together but.... we will always love you no matter what. You are our little golden girl, our princess.
II
They said that when my daughter was born, a certain oracle thus prophesied:
With the enlightenment of her mind from the wealth of her books, the kings of this world knelt at her feet like a child at his mother's feet; eagerly awaiting a new tale, perhaps of the adventures of b'er rabbi and b'er bouki.
Where is she going to you ask?
She says the cold here does her skin bad and so she will find herself a new jurisdiction, like Bahamas. What is a new jurisdiction you ask?
Is it like the ranch George and Lennie were looking for in of mice and men after they run away from the old one?
Daddey when i come, can i have a mouse like lennie? You now excitedly ask seemingly having forgotten your gloom of but a second earlier.
Oh child! i really must stop reading you these stories. No boy will want you if you carry mice in your pockets instead of flowers and barbie and lollipop!
Should we return to a form of arranged marriage just like the "good ol days"
Yes: 0%
No: 0%
It depends: 75%
You must be mad: 25%
They said that i had two main vices; cigars(King Edward or Hamlet brand) and books.
Where others were addicted to sex, they said for me a good book was enough aphrodisiac to last a month or two, until my next craving, or my next book....
My dear little Isadora darling
I am going to find you a new mommey. Where will i get her you ask? In the food store in the fresh food section? Goodness! Oh my little Isadora, don't make daddey smile when he should be sad and blue. Mommeys don't come from the food store. They come from a special place where God has kept them safe. Moulding and perfecting them and just when daddey is sad and alone and asks Him, then He will send mommey for daddey when he is sleeping, just like Adam.
And the old mommey, did she break like the clay feet of the image in Nebucchadnezzer's dream?
Nebuchadnezzer? Oh child your comparatives are uncanny, admit it, those are your daddy's genes huh? Well daddey is not going to read you such stories anymore. You are supposed to ask if mommey broke like Jill's pail when she and jack went up the hill!
And what about this mommey?
The mommey who is carrying you will not be with us for long after you come. She is leaving this little island port world of ours for a bigger sunnier world.
Oh Isadora darling. Don't be sad, your current mommey is not leaving because of you. She loves you very very much. See how she is always reading you poems from her secret little book that no one else has ever seen?
Why does mommey leave. Doesn't she love daddey anymore? Doesn't she love you anymore?
Child when you come and grow up you will understand that sometimes daddeys and mommeys cannot be together but.... we will always love you no matter what. You are our little golden girl, our princess.
II
They said that when my daughter was born, a certain oracle thus prophesied:
With the enlightenment of her mind from the wealth of her books, the kings of this world knelt at her feet like a child at his mother's feet; eagerly awaiting a new tale, perhaps of the adventures of b'er rabbi and b'er bouki.
Where is she going to you ask?
She says the cold here does her skin bad and so she will find herself a new jurisdiction, like Bahamas. What is a new jurisdiction you ask?
Is it like the ranch George and Lennie were looking for in of mice and men after they run away from the old one?
Daddey when i come, can i have a mouse like lennie? You now excitedly ask seemingly having forgotten your gloom of but a second earlier.
Oh child! i really must stop reading you these stories. No boy will want you if you carry mice in your pockets instead of flowers and barbie and lollipop!
Ah i see by your soon -to- be- formed eyes light up now just like they will do when you get a bright idea.
Will the new mommey have an exotic name like Ava Gardner. And will she charm men like Anna Karenina? And will she be loyal like Ruth, and will she help you paint your nails and lips red like Maryln Monroe. And will her dresses have little flowers like the lavenders in the meadow beside our house. And will she have the influence and heart of gold like Diana the princess of wales. What about her hair? Shall it be used to clean the master's feet after pouring on them Alabaster oil or shall it flow wild when the wind blows as she drives along winding roads in the Swiss Alps?
Child for a start, you mommey's hair piece would fly away if she drove an open car!
And are you sure there is no little TV screen in there feeding you the images and stories of this world you are not even in yet?
Your daddey will simply find a mommey who makes him happy, because daddey works long hours and needs to come home to a mommey who doesnt harangue him with all sorts of questions, cooks him his favourite meal every every day and will help him remove his tie while rubbing his beard gently. One who will kiss his tears with her lips when daddey is blue. For daddey sometimes cries when he is sad. But only when he is alone for daddeys are never supposed to cry. They are supposed to be strong and hold the world on their shoulders. Yes like Hercules, no not like Captain Jack Sparrow!
Pirates are bad bad men. Repeat after me. Bad bad men....because they smoke, they drink, they curse and even if they have only one leg, one hand and one eye, they wander around the world breaking every woman's heart at each port of call and yet when they return, these very women take them in again and again like a long forgotten lover.
Wasn't daddy once a pirate called One patch eye hooker? Alright who said that? Does Polly want a cracker, up the ass! Oops baby, never ever ever use that word. Daddy was upset for a second. Repeat after me. never ever.
III
They said that when my son was born, he had in one hand James Joyce's Ulysses and in the other Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One hundred years of solitude, two of this century's greatest books...
Now let's go and check on your little brother. Little boys left alone to their own devices, even when still unborn can be trouble. Then after that, does my little Isadora want to hear the story of the Aurelianos again?
No daddy, one hundred years of solitude is sad. I am already sad right now. I want to hear about Hassan and Ali in the Kite runner. No on second thought, that too is sad. Wait, tell me again about Anna Karenina and the captain and....
Oh daddey even Anna Karenina is sad! Maybe you should read Ulysses to Little Pete. Boys are weird and made of nails and lizard tails and that's why like Pete they like strange books like that Ulysses and a tale of two cities. Dont you see how everytime you read it to him he squirms about in the womb in excitement?
But do tell daddey, Why are all the books in your so called enlightenment list sad! Are you always sad daddey?
IV
To you my unborn children i bequethed these gifts. To remove you from the darkness of ignorance into the light of knowledge. That they may be a rock of surety in times of doubt, a compass in stormy seas of illiteracy and a shield in battles against this dark dumb world.
There is a Patek Phillipe watch advert that says that you don't really ever own it. You merely look after it for the next generation.
That is how it was with these books i bought and read to you my unborn children.
To you my unborn children i bequeth the enlightenment list....
The enlightenment list
- The King James bible
- The Tipping Point, James Gladwell
- The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
- The reluctant fundamentalist, Moshin Hamid
- Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
- Love in the time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Of mice and men, John Steinbeck
- Yinna vol 2, a publication of the Bahamas Association of Cultural Studies(BACUS)
- A tale of two cities, Charles Dickens
- Ulysses, James Joyce
- One hundred years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
***End****
Last week's poll results:Should we return to a form of arranged marriage just like the "good ol days"
Yes: 0%
No: 0%
It depends: 75%
You must be mad: 25%
Sunday, June 1, 2008
goo goo and ga ga talk from daddy
Dear baby( i haven't decided what to call you yet),
Yesterday John called me. He is a friend of mine from school. He told me of how he had just returned from his Kwanjula in Uganda. He barely knew the girl two months before he came here. He entrusted his close cousin to search the hills of Western Uganda(and Kampala hills too as long as the girl's blood flowed with that of the Ankore cow). When she was found, she was just like the times of old. Worldwise yet innocent(in otherwords "she was a virgin" he said), could get along with his mother, was a lady, humble and intelligent. I was in shock not because she had all these qualities and yet had been "untainted" by the evil world, it was more because he was one of those "hot fish" in school and i thought he was still "working the field" for some time. I must have sounded drowsy and so he asked me if i was "paying"(in adult speak my dear little one, that means he asked if i was still intoxicated from the vodka i used to drink before i knew you were coming). I dazedly said yes even though in retrospect i recall it was 5pm and i was sober because i had been working all day on our little shop's financial records for the month end.
When you come, i will show you how it runs on God's miracle and skill. When you are born and older, I can't wait to show you the other miracles of numbers and accounts.
But where was i? Ah, John. We went on to discuss the merits of arranged marriages. He thinks they work great because afterall, don't our mother's have sixth senses and would they want unhappiness for us in a choice of a mate. Would they give us a snake when we asked for a fish?
The bible uses such a phrase to describe the goodness of God(my little one, that is the first book you will read, it contains basic instructions before leaving earth). God? Instructions? Leaving earth? But you are not even here you say. Why would we need instructions, are we robots you ask? And why then would you want to come only to leave a short while later?
Oh baby, you are too smart for your own unknown as yet years. Who taught you to ask such deeply theological questions that get daddy thinking? Admit it, those are your daddy's gene's. huhh?
I want to promise you one thing though. Whether you are a boy or a girl, i will do good to ensure that i teach you to love maths and science, unlike your future nana, oh how she detests math!
Now baby,strap on your seat belt because Daddy is about to kiss Kansas goodbye. Ga ga goo goo talk as you will say to me when you are born but here goes daddy:
Dads have a major impact on the degree of interest their daughters develop in math. That's one of the findings of a long-term University of Michigan study that has traced the sources of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance.
In a study she presented recently at a campus meeting, Davis-Kean and colleagues analyzed how parents' values and attitudes affect children's math performance and later interest, and how these attitudes vary by the child's gender. They used data from a longitudinal study of more than 800 children and a large group of their parents that began in 1987 and continued through 2000.
They found that parents provided more math-supportive environments for their sons than for their daughters, including buying more math and science toys for the boys. They also spent more time on math and science activities with their sons than with their daughters.
Davis-Kean and colleagues, including the late Janis Jacobs of Pennsylvania State University, Martha Bleeker of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and U-M psychologists Jacquelynne Eccles and Oksana Malanchuk, also found that parents' attitudes, particularly stereotypes they hold about whether math and science are more important for boys than for girls, have a significant effect on their children's later math achievement, and even on their eventual career choices.They found that girls' interest in math decreases as their fathers' gender stereotypes increase, whereas boys' interest in math increases as their fathers' gender stereotypes increase.
"Fathers' gender stereotypes are very important in supporting—or in undermining—daughters' choices to pursue training in math and science," Davis-Kean said.
Enough goo goo talk I think i know what i want to call you!
If you are a boy, i will call you- Gafali. After my own daddy's daddy. And if you are a girl i will call you Manjeri after my mummy's (your nana) aunt. I always liked Manjeri. It sounds simple and so "good old days".
But then on second thought, i don't want them laughing at you in the school yard saying your name is from the dinosaur era. Oh how nasty some kids can be.
This i know would dent your confidence perhaps irreversibly. So i think i will wait until you come and then i will decide but then i won't tell you about this until many years later when you start going to school.
I cant wait for your first day to school! I will wake up 2 hours just to look at you still sleeping and to get on my knees to pray for you and all your school years for you my baby are when you come shall be a gift from my God and oh how you will give me a purpose to live and love!
It's now evening and it's getting cold. Where daddy lives, it gets cold in the evenings even when its a season called summer when the sun should be out and it should be warm.
The cold makes daddy stay in bed and then makes daddy think. Right now he is thinking of these arranged marriages things.
Perhaps our grand parents and ancestors were right after all. With all the divorce rates of today. Relationships starting and ending even before running their full run- of- the- mill. People loving half heartedly and not willing to give up all for love, for spouse.
I wonder about these things. What do you think my little one?
Baby, baby, are you sleeping? Just when daddy needs you most? Oh daddy forgot, you are perhaps tired and think that is enough ga ga talk for today.
Perhaps daddy should ask his online friends.
References:
University Of Michigan (2007, June 25). How Dads Influence Their Daughters' Interest In Math. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 1, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/06/070624143002.htm
Yesterday John called me. He is a friend of mine from school. He told me of how he had just returned from his Kwanjula in Uganda. He barely knew the girl two months before he came here. He entrusted his close cousin to search the hills of Western Uganda(and Kampala hills too as long as the girl's blood flowed with that of the Ankore cow). When she was found, she was just like the times of old. Worldwise yet innocent(in otherwords "she was a virgin" he said), could get along with his mother, was a lady, humble and intelligent. I was in shock not because she had all these qualities and yet had been "untainted" by the evil world, it was more because he was one of those "hot fish" in school and i thought he was still "working the field" for some time. I must have sounded drowsy and so he asked me if i was "paying"(in adult speak my dear little one, that means he asked if i was still intoxicated from the vodka i used to drink before i knew you were coming). I dazedly said yes even though in retrospect i recall it was 5pm and i was sober because i had been working all day on our little shop's financial records for the month end.
When you come, i will show you how it runs on God's miracle and skill. When you are born and older, I can't wait to show you the other miracles of numbers and accounts.
But where was i? Ah, John. We went on to discuss the merits of arranged marriages. He thinks they work great because afterall, don't our mother's have sixth senses and would they want unhappiness for us in a choice of a mate. Would they give us a snake when we asked for a fish?
The bible uses such a phrase to describe the goodness of God(my little one, that is the first book you will read, it contains basic instructions before leaving earth). God? Instructions? Leaving earth? But you are not even here you say. Why would we need instructions, are we robots you ask? And why then would you want to come only to leave a short while later?
Oh baby, you are too smart for your own unknown as yet years. Who taught you to ask such deeply theological questions that get daddy thinking? Admit it, those are your daddy's gene's. huhh?
I want to promise you one thing though. Whether you are a boy or a girl, i will do good to ensure that i teach you to love maths and science, unlike your future nana, oh how she detests math!
Now baby,strap on your seat belt because Daddy is about to kiss Kansas goodbye. Ga ga goo goo talk as you will say to me when you are born but here goes daddy:
Dads have a major impact on the degree of interest their daughters develop in math. That's one of the findings of a long-term University of Michigan study that has traced the sources of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance.
In a study she presented recently at a campus meeting, Davis-Kean and colleagues analyzed how parents' values and attitudes affect children's math performance and later interest, and how these attitudes vary by the child's gender. They used data from a longitudinal study of more than 800 children and a large group of their parents that began in 1987 and continued through 2000.
They found that parents provided more math-supportive environments for their sons than for their daughters, including buying more math and science toys for the boys. They also spent more time on math and science activities with their sons than with their daughters.
Davis-Kean and colleagues, including the late Janis Jacobs of Pennsylvania State University, Martha Bleeker of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and U-M psychologists Jacquelynne Eccles and Oksana Malanchuk, also found that parents' attitudes, particularly stereotypes they hold about whether math and science are more important for boys than for girls, have a significant effect on their children's later math achievement, and even on their eventual career choices.They found that girls' interest in math decreases as their fathers' gender stereotypes increase, whereas boys' interest in math increases as their fathers' gender stereotypes increase.
"Fathers' gender stereotypes are very important in supporting—or in undermining—daughters' choices to pursue training in math and science," Davis-Kean said.
Enough goo goo talk I think i know what i want to call you!
If you are a boy, i will call you- Gafali. After my own daddy's daddy. And if you are a girl i will call you Manjeri after my mummy's (your nana) aunt. I always liked Manjeri. It sounds simple and so "good old days".
But then on second thought, i don't want them laughing at you in the school yard saying your name is from the dinosaur era. Oh how nasty some kids can be.
This i know would dent your confidence perhaps irreversibly. So i think i will wait until you come and then i will decide but then i won't tell you about this until many years later when you start going to school.
I cant wait for your first day to school! I will wake up 2 hours just to look at you still sleeping and to get on my knees to pray for you and all your school years for you my baby are when you come shall be a gift from my God and oh how you will give me a purpose to live and love!
It's now evening and it's getting cold. Where daddy lives, it gets cold in the evenings even when its a season called summer when the sun should be out and it should be warm.
The cold makes daddy stay in bed and then makes daddy think. Right now he is thinking of these arranged marriages things.
Perhaps our grand parents and ancestors were right after all. With all the divorce rates of today. Relationships starting and ending even before running their full run- of- the- mill. People loving half heartedly and not willing to give up all for love, for spouse.
I wonder about these things. What do you think my little one?
Baby, baby, are you sleeping? Just when daddy needs you most? Oh daddy forgot, you are perhaps tired and think that is enough ga ga talk for today.
Perhaps daddy should ask his online friends.
References:
University Of Michigan (2007, June 25). How Dads Influence Their Daughters' Interest In Math. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 1, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/06/070624143002.htm
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