“In modern Japan the good of the nation [is] more important than the good of the class. A poor talented and diligent boy had a chance to rise as high as he could…modern Japan was perhaps the world’s most efficient distillation system, in which remarkably little was wasted..a vital part of it was the education system: it supplied the nation with the right number of workers, the right number of engineers, and the right number of managers for every need of a modern society, but, also important, it brought to the poorest homes the sense that there were better possibilities for the children “, David Halberstam, in THE RECKONING, p 277.

The Christian concept of hell; a place where God allegedly burns sinners forever in the world to come, is non-existent in the bible. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus never preached it.

Dr.(Mrs.)Dumebi Owa, a Dental Surgeon and trained health counsellor, is a multiple Masters Degree holder in Public Health, Environmental Management and Public Administration. After her first degree at the University of Ibadan, she had gone to the UK where she got married and had her children.

“Economists are like theologians. Every religion other than their own is the invention of man, whereas their own particular brand of religion is an emanation from God”.

The two things which those of us who have to watch our weight dislike intensely are, the weighing scale and the mirror. With the former, you may say that it is faulty, and that the figure it shows is not your actual weight, and you’re much lighter than that.

One of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way we’ve internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little from the world and from themselves.-Barak Obama

One of the topical issues of the previous week was the refusal of Justice Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to swear-in one of the newly appointed Justices of the Court of Appeal. The CJN reportedly based her decision on a petition alleging that the Judge concerned, Justice Jumbo-Ofo did not deserve the appointment on the grounds of State of origin. Many commentators especially politicians have loudly and publicly chastised the CJN for the decision. I disagree with them and commend the CJN for living up to her hard earned reputation.

From the foregoing, it can be inferred that acts of extreme sadism, especially the type manifested by those who actually brutalized and killed the four undergraduates and the mob that cheered them on, are the result of deep-seated alienation and psychic malfunctioning which stem from skewed individual character and sadistic social environment.

Barrack Hussein Obama was re-elected the president of the United States last Tuesday in a fiercely contested election. He defeated the Republican candidate Mitt Romney by a plurality of votes and by taking 300 of the Electoral College votes. Americans of the political divide between the two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, went into the elections nail-biting; it was too close to call and it could go either way according to the polls. The exit polls had the two candidates polling equally in the battleground states.

On Friday, November 2, 2012, we were treated to a well sketched out but poorly delivered drama piece involving two Nigerians who have been privileged to serve in various capacities before now.

It was a public holiday, the second of the two-day Sallah holidays, and I was being driven along Ikorodu road towards Surulere, grateful that the traffic gridlock of the first three days of the week had eased off considerably, when I saw him.

My heart goes out to those whose homes, villages and businesses have been ravaged by flood. It is being viewed as an act of God but knowing the Nigeria that we live in, I would not blame God for this terrible mishap.

THE representative of IMF in Nigeria was reported to have advised Nigeria “to take advantage of the current growth to strengthen her fiscal decision by saving for the future, as there is no assurance of early global economic recovery”.

THE other Wednesday night I was sharing a table with South African music icon, Mr. Hugh Masekela, Bra Hugh as everybody in Jo’burg calls him.

I FEARED that Barack Obama would lose the American presidential election but he sailed through; and I am grateful and relieved to the point of tearfulness.