Release Ali @alifakh Fakhry NOW!!! @Najib_Mikati @UNESCONow #Lebanon

Friends! Freedom of expression is drowning in Lebanon! I worked with Ali Latifa Fakhry during the last UNESCO Youth forum. I just learned he has been arrested for defending and protecting the rights of domestic workers.... You and I must do something to ensure that Ali and other young activists are released!!

You don't have to travel to Lebanon to take action. You can start by sending emails to conseilm@pcm.gov.lb, fax the Prime Minister office in the Sarai on 01983065, also tweet publicly to @Najib_Mikati requesting the immediate release of Ali and Khodor.

Click the link for more info on how freedom of expression is drowning in Lebanon: http://mohamad.posterous.com/freedom-of-expression-is-drowning-in-lebanon 

But please don't forget to email and tweet demanding for Ali's release! Merci!!

Read about Ali on 10 Young Journalists to Watch

Speak out! Take action NOW!!!

A Bit Of Inspiration [The Video]

We all need a bit of inspiration every now and then. It could be something, a word or someone who re-ignites our passion and faith... or it could be by seeing the progress of others. Yes, these are all good sources of inspiration.

September last year, I interviewed Malik Afegbua the twenty-five years old founder of Slick-City Apparel. It is interesting to learn about this new video that showcases the Slick City collection:




Inspired and eager to launch your idea or brand? Malik says:

"If you are passionate about something, just believe and be focused because people could only limit you for sometime but nobody can stop your shine when your time is right."

But still wondering what to make of what life is throwing your way right now? Don't ponder for two long if you already know that the responsibility lies on you to make the decision that will alter your life for good. Well, here is Ayo Owodunni, giving a toastmaster speech on "DECISION":




In life sometimes,  you don’t need to focus on what place you come in or what you’re ranked. You just need to run the race with your heart. If you give your best, you’ll be your best.”



Click here for "A Bit of Inspiration."

Youth. Entrepreneurship. Everywhere.

Youth everywhere, young people in Nigeria are embracing entrepreneurship. From tech innovations to petty trading, using their skills and maximizing opportunities around them- one man's need is another man's business.

Women are not left out. Ren, my friend says in Nigeria there is a high rate of feminism. Maybe it is growing. But, truth is, gone are the days when women will sit at home and wait for the men to bring back daily bread. That ended with our grandfathers, or maybe their fathers' generation. In our time, mum work too.

Children are not left alone. In impoverished homes, kids take to the street to hawk goods to support their parents. Okay this is not right. Children should be children. They should not worry about making a living. Adults are responsible for securing their future.  This population should not make up labour force.

The government leaders, of course, hold a major stake in addressing most social problems. But then, where are they?

Beyond all the unemployment statistics, young people everywhere can take responsibility in securing their future by choosing innovation over pounding the pavement. If they decide to go for full time employment instead, that is a different story entirely.

Image via investireoggi

Call for Volunteers! Exciting Opportunity for youth in Lagos!

PEER Group Initiative ’ll like to invite you to participate in their forthcoming event scheduled to hold on April 28, 2012.

The event is themed "Kick-Out Malaria" and is planned to commemorate World Anti-Malaria Day (April 25, 2012). It will hold within Shomolu Local Government Area, Lagos.

The Kick-Out Malaria project will be implemented that day in three stages:

1. Clean up exercise
2.  Free Medical care for residents (basically on anti-malaria)
3. and issuing of between 1,000 - 1,500 Free anti malaria nets also to residents.

“We would like to call for volunteers to participate in the Clean-Up exercise. The clean-up exercise involves cleaning of very dirty streets and the canal that demarcates Bariga and Shomolu local government Areas.”

The project is sponsored in stages by PEER Group Initiative, LAWMA, Exxon Mobil, Institute of Social Workers of Nigeria, Shomolu Local Government Area, Health Matters Incorporated, Adesola Clinic and a host of other youth organizations.

Volunteers will be highly needed. Interested volunteers can send their details to peeryouths@gmail.com or reach Salu Adepeju on 08056045500.

This project is for a good cause. The clean up exercise will help reduce the flooding witnessed in Lagos recently and reduce malaria incidences in the Local Government Area to the bearest minimum.

Don’t miss out! 

Going into unfamiliar territory will not destroy your old, comfortable world. Rather, it will expand your world, your vision, your knowledge and your possibilities. The next time you come across a road that you've never traveled -- whether it is an idea, a person, a belief system, or an actual road -- take a side trip and make your world a bigger, more interesting place.

AppsBidder.com (@appsbidder) Launch Contest! Cash Prizes to be won!

Hey! My friend, the founder of appsbidder.com, is holding a competition to spread awareness about a site he and his team have worked hard on…He is giving out guaranteed cash prizes to people who can signup and share the site with friends, which will take only two clicks of your mouse. I hope you guys find this information appealing! Please sign up here:  https://apps.facebook.com/appsbidder/?fb_source=request&request_ids=352913394744091,221604081280322,144864988974422
 

Appsbidder.com is introducing a platform where users can collaborate with developers to implement app ideas and suggest billing system. Besides rewarding app downloads, the site also rewards social engagement and gives out monthly prizes.

Check out their Facebook page, like the page and watch the videos to see what people are saying: http://www.Facebook.com/Appsbidder

Contest rules: http://bit.ly/wzCHJ0

Sign into appsbidder with Facebook: 

While you are logged into Facebook, go to www.appsbidder.com's home page at the top right corner and access the "login" drop down: click sign in with Facebook, and you will get a Facebook box to refer 50 of your friends, please refer all of them by checking all check boxes. 

You can also improve increase your chances as one of the cash winners by:

Liking their Facebook page: 50 pointsDownloading apps, 5, 10 + pointsSharing those app downloads on FB + 5points

WHY SHOULD YOU SIGN UP, aside the money incentive?
That is a good question! Signing up on APPSBIDDER will earn you points for discounts, free software downloads in the market place and of course help us spread the word...If you use MACs, PCs or mobile phones you can always get software from AppsBidder- especially those you can't find elsewhere!

Help Spread the word on FaceBook and Twitter!

Tweet:  "@appsbidder http://www.appsbidder.com is giving out guaranteed cash! Click here: http://bit.ly/HvutfL to learn more"

WATCH VIDEO Explaining the Contest:

WATCH VIDEO Explaining the MarketPlace:

Click here to read review of the website

Writing like a child stringing beads in kindergarten -

If you are writing and you find yourself sweating and panting all over, I don't know what that is. Writing ought to be a very pleasurable exercise. Just as Brenda Ueland says:

 "I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."  

MING! eeerrrr Why black women don't go for "yellow" men :-)

Excited! After what seems like ages, MING's special edition on Lagos is coming out! No, it is out!! Wooot!! Ren put a lot of work into that story. And I enjoyed contributing! Ola was the official photographer! Yes, I am still waiting for him to invite me to model for him o... Free photoshoot :-)

Anyway, back to MING (a magazine based in Hong kong),  the focus of the feature was LAGOS... mega city, Eko Atlantic city, Lagosians (people of Lagos), young business men and women etc. Ignore the title of this post- I culled it from Ren's blog post.

You can read Ren's blog entry after her trip to Lagos by clicking here.

We all knew it. Africa. Africans. The struggling history of slavery, the “next-day-may-never–come” living attitude. The ground-shaking, impoverished scene that charity campaign photos embark. The worst tags are all on this piece of land, and we are no short of hearsay. But what and how on earth is Africa? Who on earth are Africans? How does this piece of continent differ from ours?

And as a follow up she writes:

FINALLY HERE – LAST YEAR’S LAST FEATURE STORY FOR MING.

Finally here. I have been waiting, but now I don’t want to read it at all.
It just reminds me too much of that trip very much unlike all others.
Not that it’s special, the whole experience was just completely beyond my expectation.
How undeveloped the place is but how high the spirits of the people are.
How absurdities are twisted to make sense there.
The only time I bought nothing back home at all.
But in the end – I have high admiration for Lagosian women.
Their spirit was a huge lesson to me.
Feminism is well manifested there.
Now I get the answer of why there are so many black men
with Asian women in Hong Kong, but rarely black women with yellow men.
After all, your life depends on no one but on yourself, so does your homeland....

I never really gave it a thought. Black women don't go for "yellow men" (or white men)? :-)

Anyway, I'm uber-EXCITED to read my article in CHINESE!!

I will let you know when I start taking classes in chinese- until then, keep following my work on VENTURES AFRICA. Peace!