[Sitaram]

http://voicesofafricaunited.blogspot.com/

A Chat in ICQ

Voices of Africa (11:33 AM) :

visit http://www.voicesofafricaunited.myfreeforum.org


I also created an e-group yahoo email listserve for Voices of Africa United..

If you join, you shall be my first member.... I started this project on Friday

My other message board, which is almost 6 months old is http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org but I am doing the African Voices board to help my internet friends in Nigeria in the internet cafes

DOTMABRIXS (11:53 AM) :
Thats interesting, I will join as soon as possible


Voices of Africa (11:53 AM) :
I shall create a forum for you at voicesofafricaunited.myfreeforum.org and make you moderator which simply gives you maximum powers to edit and delete everyones posts but, it is not a burden of duty or responsibility. It is simply a power, should you require it

Here is the yahoo egroup for my site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/voicesofafricaunited/

If you join, you will be first member...

You can configure it for individual email, or for daily summary of emails.... or no email, simply to browse posts

That is the convenience of egroups

http://voicesofafricaunited.blogspot.com/

There is the blogspot for the message board

and my email is voicesofafricaunited@yahoo.com of course


Voices of Africa (12:02 PM) :
Please, if you can, mention the message board to others at every opportunity, so it may grow and benefit many

I meet most of my new contacts on Yahoo. I find so far that ICQ is far less useful for meeting people. But please share my ICQ number with anyone in ICQ that might have an interest in Voices of Africa United message board

DOTMABRIXS (12:05 PM) :
You see I've got all it takes to publicize this message board but I need to know what I stand to gain personally, because right now am on my own no sibling or relatives to look up to. am currently a student of Ladoke University of Technology Ogbomoso studing civil engineering.and also the president of Junior Chamber international Nigeria-Lautech chapter


Voices of Africa (12:07 PM) :

What you shall gain is the satisfaction of helping the peoples of Africa. If everyone looks only to immediate personal tangible benefit for each action, then Africa will not benefit and progress as rapidly in the long run.
And, if everyone who is a citizen of in a troubled nation seeks only to emigrate to a prosperous nation, then that troubled nation shall perhaps remain forever troubled.


If you plant a tree today, which takes seventy years to yield fruit..... you will perhaps not live to taste the fruit.

But... still, you shall benefit from the satisfaction that you have benefited the unborn generations to come after you and shall taste the fruit and harvest.

I am elderly, with a wife on dialysis, and very little money,... yet I undertake this project to help a continent that I shall never see, and peoples who have no connection to me beyond my concern for my fellow man. And in this, I take great satisfactiion, if it should be that the world is a better place, after I am gone, because I have passed this way and said and done these things.

[sgts]

Sitaram,
I don't know why this person would want to benefit? It seems to me that you are doing the work and he wants a slice of the cake that doesn't exist! I know what I'd tell him but you put it far more eloquently that I would have ;-)

[Sitaram]

Thanks for your kind words.

His reaction is one that I often encounter. There is some extreme poverty in Africa. Although I am not wealthy, I have never known want. It is impossible for me, as a middle class American, to understand the feelings, or desparation of such people.

I cannot stand in judgment of anyone.

I have never had to wonder where my next meal is coming from.


It is true that these people I encounter have Internet access, in the cafes. They pay the equivalent of $1 US per hour, whereas I see cafes in US charging $5 or $10. But some Africans scrimp and save for several weeks to have the luxury of two or three hours on the Internet.

My first encounter, while in Yahoo, in the book & literature chats, promoting my own literary discussions board, was a college student calling himself Jeff_Max. He wanted to discuss his concerns about the U.S. as a world policeman. I sensed some "chip" on his shoulder. I hesitated to continue our discussion. Then when I learned he is Nigerian, I had a passing thought about the "scams" which are said to originate from Nigeria. But I thought I must take him seriously, and discuss these matters, and not pre judge him. That was the beginning of this new message board.

[admin (no pm's please)]

it is tricky, the net is an environment which is prone to trickery.

A friend of mine now sadly deceased would undergo a remarkable degeneration in behavior when on the net

I have known someone to fake their own death

People reinvent themselves in terms of web identity all the time.

All the people I have known on the net like this have been from the UK/US as that is the range of people I tend to be in contact with. If you deal with Nigerians, a Country where internet fraud is by all accounts big business and corruption is part of the economy (a situation incidentally both fueled and exploited by western oild companies) then you just have to be realistic and exercise even more caution that usual.

[Thunder]

Sounds like some of the spam you and I get now and then about the folk in Nigeria that wants our bank account number so he can deposit a large sum of money that he'll gladly share with us...
Or perhaps that letter that says greetings in Christ...blah blah blah...and then a presentation of some money scheme...

Not too long ago on one of my forums: Philosophy Spirit, I had someone that offered to help. They did in fact help. However, it seems that the spirit of competition and greed and other evils in this world of ours prevent people, some people only, from being straight forward and having a genuine attitude to help, or be helped, in your case...

I have opted to follow my intuition and gut feeling for lack of better technical skills when on line, and really follow my gut, when it comes to those situations. I encourage you to do the same...I have fallen prey of a few schemes and stuff in my life, on and off line and do not claim that I won't fall for any of them again, but we do learn from these experiences...

[Guest]

The REAL question, of course, for all of us now is:

When will Admin take off the Santa hat?

Seriously folk, I know what you mean about the hoaxs and scams coming out of Nigeria.

But I have spoken at length with these various people, and they know that I am too poor to send them money. I am not poverty stricken, but lets just say that I do not have lots of "descretionary income" to send to Nigeria, or anywhere else.

Of course, it is not fair to generalize and stereotype and say that all americans are "ugly americans", capitalists, imperialists, or whatever, or that all Israelis are this way, or all Irish people are that way (though lord knows we hear enough Irish jokes).

My wife was talking to day with her best friend, a woman from Trinidad, who is in her 60s and never married. My wife comment that her friends schedule of activities for one day seemed like a lot. Her reply was, "I like to keep busy, and that is why I have no use for MALES." My wife and I discussed this remark, speculating that it might be sour grapes consolation for never having married. Or the super busy schedule might be a way to distract herself from her loneliness.

But I said to my wife, "It is certainly not fair to characterize males as lazy. I created my entire http://www.voicesofafricaunited.myfreeforum.org message board, as you now see it, between Friday afternoon and Sunday night. And I have been writing on the computer steadily now from 1am to 6am, after having slept four hours. And I never leave the house without a book. And I am always reading. So it is not fair to describe me as lazy, simply because I am a male. True, I may not be tidy in the kitchen, but I do known males who are neatness freaks, and compulsive housekeepers. So it is not even fair to say that all males are lazy in the housekeeping/tidyness arena.

I believe that one can conceivable be great, apart from race, color, gender, nationality, etc.


Perhaps someone might not care for Hilary Clinton, or Condolezza Rice, but I feel certain that women, and black women, could potentially be great political leaders, or build financial empires like (oh lord i am forgetting names), Oprah Winfree, or the woman that just came out of prison, (I have not slept for a while)....
oh... Martha Stuart.

So, I am sure I shall meet many wonderful sincere people who are Nigerians.

Jeff_max, the Nigerian biochem major, said that some people wont even talk to him when they learn he is in Nigeria.

[Sitaram]

Sorry, so sleepy, I forgot to log in.

The above post (Guest) was me. But you knew that!

[admin (no pm's please)]

Indeed we did,

The Santa had comes off Jan 4th, which will be when I'll be back at work, or least back at work full time, as support is always on the go.

You certainly should not stereotype people, and yet realistically we all do to some degree as a defence mechanism.

So for example I pick up hitchhikers, and hence make a snap judgement of their character without speaking to them in the space of 2 seconds If that judgement is good I stop, if not I carry on going and leave no doubt many perfectly decent people at the side of the road.