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| Author: Prince Foday |
Opening Message
We live in a broken world and happen to face cracks beyond the imagination of the rational being. One could sometimes tend to ask, where the problem lies and how can we collectively fix it? There is the need to focus on long-standing cracks in the world, so as to find solutions on the way forward. We as individuals have our responsibilities to the societies we live in and it is time to reflect on the need to distribute our services between paid work and voluntary work. We are obliged to perform our individual social responsibilities (ISR) to communities we happen to find ourselves. Businesses, whether private or public, are bound to respond to their corporate social responsibilities (CSR). The ISR and CSR have become a global call for individuals and enterprises. Furthermore, we happen to find ourselves in societies where there are demarcations between evil, good and evil-good. It is time for individuals, households, businesses and nations to be sensitive about their actions toward the path of evil, good and evil-good. We need our nations to grow and many may not have the resources to achieve their goals, thereby, leading to the tapping of donor funds. Domestic and international well-wishers are meant to intervene to assist striving nations to grow. Donors would want to have value for their generous help and they expect their material and financial assistance to be used for the right purpose. It is indisputable that donor funds are required to be administered but the concern should be about the ratio of funds used between the administration and the actual purpose of the funds. This is where we need an independent satellite body to follow the use of donor funds. Nations need independent presidential advisory volunteers to provide advisory services to leaders apart from the conventional advisory body appointed by national leaders.
The Broken World: Raising the Burning Issues
The world we live in is perceived to be broken due to melting factors like terrorism, the environment, politics, the economy and social issues. Before unfolding the issue of terrorism, it would be a great thing to take the first step in trying to understand its meaning. According to The Chambers Dictionary (12th Edition), terrorism is an organised system of violence and intimidation. The key words enshrined in the meaning of terrorism are derived from the chambers dictionary and they are violence and intimidation. The second step is to identify the internal and external sources of terrorism. Internal sources of terrorism are from national politics, the domestically aggrieved, domestic organised crime, race and ethnicity, religion, academic and professional, household and corporate. External sources of terrorism are state-to-state, international organised crime, race, religious clash, the aggrieved deportee and other international grievances. The Third step is to know the effects of terrorism (both positive and negative) and they are death, insanity, increasing migration to safe havens, population pressure and increasing demand for domestic goods, economic inequality, brain drain, trauma and psychological torture. The environment is another contributing factor to our broken world. The actions of human beings and corporate houses have led to challenging moments for our environment. We can see the impact of this all over the world. The global experiences of flooding, alarming health risk fuelled by pollution of the air and the global deforestation that is minimising the oxygen that humans are supposed to extract from plants for their well-being are issues that are of utmost concern. Domestic and global politics are part of the factors contributing to our broken world. It is becoming clear that weak and unfair policies domestically and from international economic integrations continue to widen the cracks the more. Furthermore, the harsh countervailing power from political competitions at domestic and international levels is an added issue resulting in the broken world we face. The world is further faced with fluid economic factors like increasing unemployment, rising prices of goods and services, widening the gap between the rich and poor and widening economic inequalities between rich and poor nations. More even, are other social issues like an increasing rate of homelessness and vulnerability in our global society, an incremental rate of anti-social behaviour and other social issues have added effects on our broken world.
Gossips from the Global Baobab Tree
One of the gossips gathered from the global Baobab tree is on terrorism. The bubble from this reveals that in the past the world was experiencing reasonable peace until the initiation of the gulf war, the war in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other wars around the globe, and the uprising in other parts of the world. These wars and uprising had generated hate, sparked an increase in terrorism around the world, led to increasing migration around the world, tightened the knots on migration in developed nations, brewed grievances from deportees or failed asylum seekers, led to increasing insanity and vulnerability and their exposition to be used by terror cells. There is gossip on organised crime by some pharmaceutical companies inventing viruses and spreading it around the world so as to promote their business by manufacturing the cure. Further gossips include powerful states using their might to make creeping nations to permanently crawl economically, socially and politically. More still, is the gossip on politics of nations orchestrating killer groups or plans to get rid of anyone on their way or opposing their weak governance style.
Individual and Corporate Social Responsibilities: Breaking the York
As individuals, we have implied obligations to our communities. Although we all are looking for paid jobs, it is the ideal thing to do to commit some hours per week of voluntary or unpaid services to our communities. There are many organisations out there that you can channel your voluntary services to and the advent of internet services has made it simple for us to Google and find where the different outlets for voluntary services are. As John F. Kennedy rightly spelt-out, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. It is time to screen ourselves on what we have done or done for our communities and the focus on paid services should not only be the case. I suggest that we think in line with the principle of self-reliance to complement the development efforts of our governments through the establishment of own organisations but ensuring that you work in partnership with others. Remember, the increasing number of members in the partnership will pool more resources and talents together. Our communities can develop the more if we all try to put hands on deck and having that services share ratio between paid work and unpaid work. I definitely know we have bills to pay and save to meet unforeseen contingencies. However, we have to consider the need to do voluntary or unpaid services to our communities. At a corporate level, there are responsibilities to be done to the communities where these corporate houses operate. An organisation (that is any institution or body established for either making profit or non-profit making) has obligations to the area where it is launched. Organisations operating in any of the communities can gain from that area in many ways such as the people in the community it uses as employees and other resources used as inputs for their outputs of goods and services, the consumers of their goods and services in that area, the pollution and noise they create through their machines, vehicles and employees.
Evil, Good And Evil-Good: Where Do You Belong?
The world is stratified in such a way that we have three sets of groups, which is the evil group, a good group and the evil-good group. The evil group threads on destroying individuals and the very fabric of society, desires nothing good for anyone, selfish and generally have a negative outlook on people and life. The good group are focused on building the social fabric of society, yearns for progress for everyone and have a positive outlook on people and life. The evil-good group comprise of those that are indecisive and their actions are a mixture of the ingredients of evil and good that were raised. An explanation of a Venn diagram on their behaviours clearly shows that the evil group is strictly evil; the good group is strictly good but the evil-good group is where the common elements or common ground lies between evil and good. It is a great thing for us all to do by screening ourselves as to where we all belong or want to belong, reflect on our actions and evaluate ourselves whether we are on the right path of what is enshrined in the Bible and Quran scriptures. For those that had chosen the evil group and evil-good group, I will suggest a rethink of the decision and reflect on the negative implications of being out of the feasible region of God’s behavioural expectations of mankind.
INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORY VOLUNTEERS (IPAV): A Potential Force for National Leaders to Reckon With
The readers of the Global Incarnator Online News might be wondering, why Independent Presidential Advisory Volunteers? Well, the thought to establish IPAV sprang from the need to have an independent body meant to provide advisory services to national leaders. We very well know the Presidents have their advisers appointed by them. However, it is our conviction that it is necessary but not sufficient to deliver all needed to dispense sound and appreciable national leadership. We are all not an island of knowledge and creating an independent presidential advisory body is an ideal way of covering the untouched and mending the existing and potential national leakages. The national and global development efforts require all hands on deck, and independent bodies should not be isolated in the development stride. IPAV shall exist to supplement the efforts of appointed presidential advisers. Overall, we shall serve as middlemen or agents between presidents and the people they are serving. Our actions shall include research, analysis and advisory services to national leaders. We further intend to have a unit called the Foundation for Africa Development Aid Watch (FADAW). FADAW shall serve as a satellite unit for following domestic and international aid with the intent of creating the atmosphere where development aid donors and target group can have value for money. The site http://fadawafrica.blogspot.co.uk/ can be great for your digest. We are very aware of the fact that the road ahead is going to be rocky but determined to use the appropriate model necessary to break through the potential hurdles. We want a fair society for all and aim at promoting sustainable domestic and international peace. We are all human beings, regardless of race, colour, ethnicity and whatever perceived differences. The truth is the genuine intentions of IPAV and FADAW needs to be given a chance in order to contribute to the global call for making this world a better place for mankind.
Closing Message and Prayers
We might be cynical that the fluid issues affecting human existence can never be fixed. I am with a firm view that there is light at the end of the tunnel. What is surfacing around us are lessons that are meant to learn. We all (individuals, households, businesses, domestic and international leaders) need to identify those issues leading to our broken world, evaluate them and decide on how we can avert them. Some countries in the world had experienced a civil war, famine, flooding and all other nightmare experiences, yet still, these countries do not want to face the reality of putting policies in place to stop the recurrence of the experiences of the past. Leaders and policymakers in the world have to put their people first and divert their minds away from accumulating wealth at the expense of the people they are serving. We all need to hold on the path of dominant national and international interest relative to our self-interest. The issue of focusing on promoting predominantly national and global interest is the right way to foster sustainable happiness and peace for mankind. Politics is about fairness and a contravention of that contaminates the real essence of politics. Good domestic and international politicking is not about bashing political opponents and creating an appalling environment for your people. There is a saying that, “what goes around comes around”. We are now living in a democratic world and it happens that politics rotates, though some countries are yet to come to terms with the global call for true democracy. It is unhealthy to create the atmosphere of political opponent abusing in a rotational political stage. A precedent of such harsh political countervailing power is bound to have a ripple effect on the politics of the nation. Good political precedent begets good political precedent, and it is this healthy political scenario that genuine domestic and world citizens are yearning for. Where politics is about creating a ditch for political opponents and whosoever opposes the political party in power, this trend will continue and the ongoing harsh payback is not good for a nation’s development. We want a political style that is tolerant and works toward the general good of the nation. A defective political dispensation will affect the real principle of politics and the resultant effect of this is a chaotic socio-economic trend. Looking at the issues raised on terrorism, it is now time for us all as individuals, households, and corporate entities, domestic and global governance to reflect on the identified issues and try to tackle them for sustainable peace. The war on terror should not be skewed and that war should be on all the perpetrators of terrorism. The war on terrorism will never end if those responsible for the terror around the world do not accept their actions and find a way of solving it for lasting peace. Terrorism is a sensitive and explosive issue and identifying the perpetrators, diagnosing why they are engaging in such inhuman act or anti-social behaviour and finding solutions are sure way to solve the problem of terrorism. We have a spilt meal of terrorism around the world and it is time for us to work collectively to clear the mess and the mess can only be cleared if those perpetrations are ready to accept their wrongdoing and a rehabilitation strategy employed to eliminate the problem. The environment around us is faced with challenging problems, like the environmental issues that were raised earlier. We all need to fix the problems so as to avoid the high health risk linked with the increasing pollution and deforestation as a result of the actions of corporate institutions (both private and public) and we as individuals. The deforestation is depriving mankind of the very oxygen necessary for our existence and the carbon dioxide we humans generate as a waste product that is beneficial to plants and the accompany circle that is maintained between humans and plants. Unemployment remains a daunting problem for nations and it is important that affected nations encourage their people to be self-reliant by engaging and providing them with the needed resources to open their own enterprises in order to minimise the unemployment pressure faced by nations. We are having increasing numbers of poor and vulnerable members around the world, particularly in the case of developing nations. The issue of increasing number of poor and vulnerable members requires high attention, as neglecting the issue is dangerous for our societies. We need to give them hope and address the very issues leading to an incremental trend. Getting track of the poor and vulnerable members of our society through a data bank and making yearly progress of reducing the numbers are great strides in minimising the problems linked with that sector of our societies. Empowering the poor and vulnerable members of society can avoid the situation of them slipping away to terror cells and minimise the anti-social behaviour that comes out of their plight. It is great for us as individuals to apportion our services between paid work and voluntary services. Voluntary services, though financially unrewarding, is an appropriate thing to do. We need to be cognisance of the fact that whatever voluntary services we do there is that indirect reward from God, though the atheist school of thought may have a different view on this. However, whatever our opinions may be on this, the truth is, we all have the responsibilities to help in the development process of our nations. Corporate bodies are required to adopt the principle of win-win situations between them and the communities they are operating. Including corporate social responsibilities as part of the objectives of the institutions and ensuring that this specific objective is met is the right way to break the ice between communities and enterprises. Addressing the CSR and reporting on that can clear the doubts in communities and can be the ideal way of closing the gap between the enterprise and community. The gossips from the Global Baobab tree had shown that some individuals and businesses are involved in organised crime. Nations need to be alert about those organised crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice, and this can be tackled through a strong intelligence network by ensuring that their activities are monitored and report any suspected dodgy move. Developing nations fall victim of intelligence failure due to their actions of putting their private pockets above national interest. Everyone has the freedom to choose where you want to belong to for the evil, good and evil-good groups. The expectations of the Supreme Being and the scriptures recommend that the good group is the feasible sector to be. I know we all not perfect and being completely good is a hard thing to achieve. However, we all need to strive hard to achieve a large proportion of good, and taking a yearly stock of this can help in getting rid of the element of evil in all of us. The worst case scenario is where one's evil is highly detrimental to society. Being a destroyer of a life you did not make and depriving families of someone they so cherish through death action is an act worst for wear and extremely evil, particular where we are all in the queue to die. Depriving someone of opportunities and making life difficult for others through evil moves is surely not the right thing to do in this beautiful world that we all live in. We live in a world where we have weak and strong nations, rich and poor people. The material and financial resources that nations, particular weak nations may have might not be sufficient to meet their development needs. Such shortage of resources might warrant weak nations to explore domestic and international aid. However, what is observed from the information gathered from the Global Baobab tree is that a large proportion of the aid is spent on administration and a minimal proportion spent on the target group. We need to create a situation where the resources offered for development aid are largely used in the target group. FADAW shall be monitoring both domestic and international development aids so that both target group and donors can have value for money or resources. There is a gossip that developed nations are contributing to the creeping of weak nations and it is a good thing for developed nations to try to clear their name on the claim. Developing nations are having the style of governance where most of the resources committed to development aid and even the local resources are mostly drained off to developed nations by the politicians whilst their people are left to face perpetual suffering. Developed or strong nations have a role to play in tracking down the perpetrators rather than hosting them and it is the right move to help minimise the anti-social behaviour that accompanies the extreme and perpetual poverty hardly hitting a large proportion of people in developing nations. Furthermore, strong nations have a role to play in keenly monitoring the reporting culture of developing nations. The Global Baobab Tree had noticed that most of the information collected in developing nations undergo vetting by the politics of the day before it reaches international bodies. The hard truth about developing nations is that recruitments for jobs are mainly based on political links, hence, those employed are meant to dance to their political masters’ tune and the ultimate effect of this is that information collected are urged to be forwarded to those masters for vetting before it is presented to interested international organisations and even for national reporting. International experts that work in developing nations are meant to work with indigenes that are mainly connected to the political party in power, so information collected is prone to be doctored before it reaches the desk of interested international organisations. Sometimes one could really wonder whether these international organisations highly trust the information on their desk or whether they like it that way because they are part of the game. I would want to suggest that international organisations properly diagnose the information on their desk and try to figure out whether the information collected truly represent the purpose of their survey. In my opinion, international organisations have to reflect on the information they are relying on and try to devise a model that is fit-for-purpose, the type of model that is devoid of political interference and that can deliver value for the research they are conducting around developing nations. I do hope the article will be food for thought for individuals, households, domestic and international organisations, domestic and international politics. All journeys will have to come to an end and I need to close this piece with prayers for the year 2016. Oh God, I pray that you give us all sound health and long life. I pray that you strengthen the family ties in households and protect them against any evil that may want to break their family ties. I pray that domestic and international organisations deliver the expected goods and services to their clients and ensure a win-win scenario between them, their clients and the communities they are operating, and I pray that any organised crime face exposition and stopped permanently. I further pray that both domestic and international politics become fair, promote religious tolerance, lift our global people out of poverty, create the environment where we all see ourselves as human beings, provide the scenario where we all fairly benefit from our national cakes and promote global peace. God, I bend down on my knees for the prayers to be achieved. Amen! Ishalla!
Author:
PRINCE FODAY
Managing Editor, the Global Incarnator Online News
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