As men we often wear this toga of infallibility. We act macho even in the face emotional disappointment and heart breaks. You often hear about how this guy broke that girl’s heart and as usual you hear the common saying, “men are heartless”. Well I think that nothing can be further from the truth than this fallacy. Or maybe I am just a different kind of guy, I don’t think so. In life there would always be good and bad people, we only have a cause to worry when evil is more prevalent than good. I am sure that there would indeed be some heartless men out there, just as there are heartless women.
I woke up this morning to pray and to my surprise I heard the spirit of God saying to me, let go of the hurt of the past. To my own amazement, faces of certain women started to flash in my head. I’ll not mention names to respect their privacy. But these are women who used their softness to penetrate the armor of my heart and left the warrior in me shattered. To these women I gave my heart on a platter but the platter they either rejected or smashed on the floor. I was broken, hurt in a place I never learnt to protect; my heart. First you feel nothing, then comes the feeling of rejection and like a deep flesh wound, the sharp pain sips into your body suddenly. You hurt because of a betrayed love; you hurt because hope just died. Then you say to yourself, “I don’t need this, I can always get any woman that I want”. That is when we start jumping from one woman to another, searching for that which we lost, in places where we cannot find them.
The irony is that when a woman says that her heart has been broken by a guy, it’s usually (not saying all the time) an aftermath of a broken heart that was not healed. Yes we all walk around with hidden hurts in our hearts without knowing it. A functional relationship between a man and a woman requires partners who are both whole, with no emotional baggage from past hurt. Unforgiveness is a burden on the carrier and that explains the hidden hurt we feel. I believe that we have perfected the art of concealing our unforgiveness that most times we also forget that they exist. I was surprised at the freshness of the hurt when the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray about it. This reminds me of what the bible says about us not knowing what to pray for and hence the need for the Holy Spirit to make intercessions for us. So instead of praying for a partner, the spirit knows that what you need pray for is just forgiveness.
I have made the decision to forgive those who hurt me emotionally in the past, intentionally and unintentionally. I believe that the hurt of the past was preparing me for a greater future. From the depth of my heart I pray that God will bless you with partners that would give you the happiness and contentment that you seek. You know yourselves and I believe that our paths crossed for a purpose. You still have my friendship if and when you want it. And as for those that I have also hurt because of my ignorance, please find it in your hearts to forgive me, it was never intended. Have a splendid day. Cheers
Together, we can achieve more. Cheers
Monday, December 14, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Eskom board room tussle
Let me first start by appealing to anyone that knows my father to please appeal to him not to keep reminding me of the fact that I am still single. Every day I come back to a quiet flat it reminds me of that fact, so I am sure that I can do with a little breather from him. I know that the intentions are genuine, but the additional pressure is counterproductive as women tend to perceive a sense of desperation which is not necessary. But if he wants to go ahead with his plan of finding a good woman from a good family for me, well that would also be fine. That’s just by the way; this is a topic for another day.
A lot has happened in the past few weeks around South Africa in terms of management of government owned parastatal. The new trend seems to be that once black people rise to the hem of affairs; there seem to be a power ready to push them out. People have different opinions about why this happen. Some believe that white people just can stand when a black man is the boss while some believe that black people lack the ability to run such organizations profitably. First it was Dali Mpofu at the SABC, then Siyabonga Gama at Transnet, and now Jacob Maroga at Eskom. Sorry did I forget the guy that used to be the CEO of SAA, Khaya Ngqula who was accused of mismanagement, yet had to be given a huge monetary settlement to terminate his appointment, even though the company was not profitable.
People are quick to pull the race card when things like these happen. But I am sure that based on the policies of the ANC, people who get to serve on these boards are either predominantly black or the party candidates. So I still find it hard to believe that the issue is just simply about white people not wanting black people to ascend the corporate ladder. One thing I can be sure about is the fact that styles of management might be very different, so while many black people might not see anything wrong with man-know-man style of business being disguised as BEE, the white man thinks that its unfair practice. I am not in a position to judge whether BEE should be scrapped or not but I do know that you do not right a wrong with another wrong.
I was particularly interested in the final outcome of the Eskom debacle. First was news that the CEO, Maroqa resigned. Then the Black Management Forum and the ANC Youth League came out, all guns firing with the race card, saying that the CEO of the power utility company never resigned but was “edged” out by the Chairman of the board Bobby Godsell. Then to our surprise, the chairman resigned complaining about political interference in the running of the company, especially considering the fact that Maroga resigned voluntarily and now he was being dubbed racist. His resignation was accepted and an interim chairman was appointed who happened to be a black man. The new chairman came and reaffirmed the decision of the board, which was that Maroga was no longer the CEO.
So after about 2 weeks of bad publicity and miscommunication, the whole Eskom fiasco is over with two management vacancies. Who would become the new CEO and chairman remains to be seen. Whether that would affect the already proposed 45% hike in the price of electricity annually for three consecutive years is something we all eagerly look forward to. Even though I personally believe that the race issue would always pop up for a while, I am optimistic that economic and management sense would always prevail. I look to a future where issues would be debated on its merits and demerits, not on the basis of whether you are white, black, coloured or Indian. All said the beauty of this country is the freedom of speech. People love to talk and are encouraged to talk even when it is obvious they are talking “nonsense”. But at the end of the day the most important thing is that a consensus that moves the country forward is reached. I am sure that a lot can be learnt from the experimental democratic experience of this rainbow nation, where we disagree to agree.
Together, we can achieve more. Cheers
A lot has happened in the past few weeks around South Africa in terms of management of government owned parastatal. The new trend seems to be that once black people rise to the hem of affairs; there seem to be a power ready to push them out. People have different opinions about why this happen. Some believe that white people just can stand when a black man is the boss while some believe that black people lack the ability to run such organizations profitably. First it was Dali Mpofu at the SABC, then Siyabonga Gama at Transnet, and now Jacob Maroga at Eskom. Sorry did I forget the guy that used to be the CEO of SAA, Khaya Ngqula who was accused of mismanagement, yet had to be given a huge monetary settlement to terminate his appointment, even though the company was not profitable.
People are quick to pull the race card when things like these happen. But I am sure that based on the policies of the ANC, people who get to serve on these boards are either predominantly black or the party candidates. So I still find it hard to believe that the issue is just simply about white people not wanting black people to ascend the corporate ladder. One thing I can be sure about is the fact that styles of management might be very different, so while many black people might not see anything wrong with man-know-man style of business being disguised as BEE, the white man thinks that its unfair practice. I am not in a position to judge whether BEE should be scrapped or not but I do know that you do not right a wrong with another wrong.
I was particularly interested in the final outcome of the Eskom debacle. First was news that the CEO, Maroqa resigned. Then the Black Management Forum and the ANC Youth League came out, all guns firing with the race card, saying that the CEO of the power utility company never resigned but was “edged” out by the Chairman of the board Bobby Godsell. Then to our surprise, the chairman resigned complaining about political interference in the running of the company, especially considering the fact that Maroga resigned voluntarily and now he was being dubbed racist. His resignation was accepted and an interim chairman was appointed who happened to be a black man. The new chairman came and reaffirmed the decision of the board, which was that Maroga was no longer the CEO.
So after about 2 weeks of bad publicity and miscommunication, the whole Eskom fiasco is over with two management vacancies. Who would become the new CEO and chairman remains to be seen. Whether that would affect the already proposed 45% hike in the price of electricity annually for three consecutive years is something we all eagerly look forward to. Even though I personally believe that the race issue would always pop up for a while, I am optimistic that economic and management sense would always prevail. I look to a future where issues would be debated on its merits and demerits, not on the basis of whether you are white, black, coloured or Indian. All said the beauty of this country is the freedom of speech. People love to talk and are encouraged to talk even when it is obvious they are talking “nonsense”. But at the end of the day the most important thing is that a consensus that moves the country forward is reached. I am sure that a lot can be learnt from the experimental democratic experience of this rainbow nation, where we disagree to agree.
Together, we can achieve more. Cheers
Friday, November 06, 2009
Time for Transformation
I have often overlooked the use of the note facility on FB, reason being that I have a blog site which I blog on once in a while called the Naija boy in Jozi. But I have come to realise that I tend to spend more time on FB, at least because of the ease of keeping abreast of happenings in my friends' lives and the truth be told; I share a common addiction of many, the FB dependency.
So I decided, at least if I am going to use this medium created by some guy who is much younger than I am and who is smiling to the bank, I can as well find a creative use of the platform. So it is my intention to use this avenue as a means of getting across some of my opinions concerning issues that touch me in places that drives my passion. You can call it an extension of my blog site, but I intend to use it as a means of communicating my desire to see and be the change that I believe our society needs.
Yes I said our society, yet I live in Johannesburg South Africa, yet I am originally from Nigeria. So what society am I talking about, Well I guess you already have the clue, Africa is my society, I am domiciled in Joburg but Nigeria remains my passion. Hence the Naija boy in Jozi - uniting two nations by comparison. I want to be able to use the examples of qualities that are desirable in Nigerians to teach South Africans to become a better people while also using exemplary traits of this great rainbow nation to teach Nigerians how they can become the true giant that God has called them to be. As I know some people would quickly interject, "but better is very relative". And yes I agree that's why it’s my note and not theirs. But I am very open to criticisms that are positive.
What exactly do I hope to be writing about? I am not so sure yet, but I believe it would almost be like doing a SWOT analysis of our livelihood, developing on our STRENGTH, working on our WEAKNESSES, finding means of tapping into our OPPORTUNITIES, while also guarding against factors that can constitute THREATS to our existence as a people. In between though, I might also chose to write about personal struggles that I encounter on my way to becoming who God has called me to be.
It is my desire that we would be able to help build leaders into trans-generational thinkers who know that it is their responsibility to build a better society and leave a legacy for generations to come. We need more people to share the vision that a nation can only be transformed by transforming the people. So it is time for us to be the change that we want and deserve. Cheers.
Together, we can achieve more. Cheers
So I decided, at least if I am going to use this medium created by some guy who is much younger than I am and who is smiling to the bank, I can as well find a creative use of the platform. So it is my intention to use this avenue as a means of getting across some of my opinions concerning issues that touch me in places that drives my passion. You can call it an extension of my blog site, but I intend to use it as a means of communicating my desire to see and be the change that I believe our society needs.
Yes I said our society, yet I live in Johannesburg South Africa, yet I am originally from Nigeria. So what society am I talking about, Well I guess you already have the clue, Africa is my society, I am domiciled in Joburg but Nigeria remains my passion. Hence the Naija boy in Jozi - uniting two nations by comparison. I want to be able to use the examples of qualities that are desirable in Nigerians to teach South Africans to become a better people while also using exemplary traits of this great rainbow nation to teach Nigerians how they can become the true giant that God has called them to be. As I know some people would quickly interject, "but better is very relative". And yes I agree that's why it’s my note and not theirs. But I am very open to criticisms that are positive.
What exactly do I hope to be writing about? I am not so sure yet, but I believe it would almost be like doing a SWOT analysis of our livelihood, developing on our STRENGTH, working on our WEAKNESSES, finding means of tapping into our OPPORTUNITIES, while also guarding against factors that can constitute THREATS to our existence as a people. In between though, I might also chose to write about personal struggles that I encounter on my way to becoming who God has called me to be.
It is my desire that we would be able to help build leaders into trans-generational thinkers who know that it is their responsibility to build a better society and leave a legacy for generations to come. We need more people to share the vision that a nation can only be transformed by transforming the people. So it is time for us to be the change that we want and deserve. Cheers.
Together, we can achieve more. Cheers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
+(5).JPG)
