Pass the Book. Hold The Oil

Pass the Books. Hold the Oil. By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

 

 

EVERY so often someone asks me: What’s your favorite country, other than your own? I’ve always had the same answer: Taiwan. Taiwan? Why Taiwan? People ask. Very simple: Because Taiwan is a barren rock in a typhoon-laden sea with no natural resources to live off of ”it  even has to import sand and gravel from China for construction ”yet it has the fourth-largest financial reserves in the world. Because rather than digging in the ground and mining whatever comes up, Taiwan has mined its 23 million people, their talent, energy and intelligence men and women. I always tell my friends in Taiwan: You’re the luckiest people in the world. How did you get so lucky? You have no oil, no iron ore, no forests, no diamonds, no gold, just a few small deposits of coal and natural gas and because of that you developed the habits and culture of honing your people’s skills, which turns out to be the most valuable and only truly renewable resource in the world today. How did you get so lucky? That, at least, was my gut instinct.

 

But now we have proof. A team from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., has just come out with a fascinating little study mapping the correlation between performance on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, exam which every two years tests math, science and reading comprehension skills of 15-year-olds in 65 countries and the total earnings on natural resources as a percentage of G.D.P. for each participating country. In short, how well do your high school kids do on math compared with how much oil you pump or how many diamonds you dig? The results indicated that there was a significant negative relationship between the money countries extract from national resources and the knowledge and skills of their high school population, said Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the PISA exams for the O.E.C.D. This is a global pattern that holds across 65 countries that took part in the latest PISA assessment. Oil and PISA don’t mix. (See the data map at:http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/9/49881940.pdf)

 

As the Bible notes, added Schleicher, Moses arduously led the Jews for 40 years through the desert just to bring them to the only country in the Middle East that had no oil. But Moses may have gotten it right, after all. Today, Israel has one of the most innovative economies, and its population enjoys a standard of living most of the oil-rich countries in the region are not able to offer. So hold the oil, and pass the books.

 

According to Schleicher, in the latest PISA results, students in Singapore, Finland, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan stand out as having high PISA scores and few natural resources, while Qatar and Kazakhstan stand out as having the highest oil rents and the lowest PISA scores. (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Bahrain, Iran and Syria stood out the same way in a similar 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or Times, test, while, interestingly, students from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey also

Middle East states with few natural resources scored better.)

Also lagging in recent PISA scores, though, were students in many of

the resource-rich countries of Latin America, like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Africa was not tested. Canada, Australia and Norway, also countries with high levels of natural resources, still score well on PISA, in large part, argues Schleicher, because all three countries have established deliberate policies of saving and investing these resource rents, and not just consuming them. Add it all up and the numbers say that if you really want to know how a

country is going to do in the 21^st century, don’t count its oil reserves or gold mines, count its highly effective teachers, involved parents and committed students. Today’s learning outcomes at school, says Schleicher, are a powerful predictor for the wealth and social outcomes that countries will reap in the long run. Economists have long known about Dutch disease, which happens when a country becomes so dependent on exporting natural resources that its currency soars in value and, as a result, its domestic manufacturing gets crushed as cheap imports flood in and exports become too expensive. What the PISA team is revealing is a related disease: societies that get addicted to their natural resources seem to develop parents and young people who lose some of the instincts, habits and incentives for doing homework and honing   kills. By, contrast, says Schleicher, in countries with little in the way of

natural resources — Finland, Singapore or Japan” education has strong outcomes and a high status, at least in part because the public at large has understood that the country must live by its knowledge and skills and that these depend on the quality of education. ... Every parent and child in these countries knows that skills will decide the life chances of the child and nothing else is going to rescue them, so they build a whole culture and education system around it. Or as my Indian-American friend K. R. Sridhar, the founder of the Silicon Valley fuel-cell company Bloom

Energy, likes to say, when you don’t have resources, you become resourceful. That’s why the foreign countries with the most companies listed on the Nasdaq are Israel, China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, South Korea and Singapore none of which can live off natural resources. But there is an important message for the industrialized world in this study, too. In these difficult economic times, it is tempting to buttress our own standards of living today by incurring even greater financial liabilities for the future. To be sure, there is a role for stimulus in a prolonged recession, but the only sustainable way is to grow our way out by giving more people the knowledge and skills to compete, collaborate and connect in a way that drives our countries forward, argues Schleicher.

In sum, says Schleicher, knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st-century economies, but there is no central bank that prints this currency. Everyone has to decide on their own how much they will print. Sure, it’s great to have oil, gas and diamonds; they can buy jobs. But they’ll weaken your society in the long run unless they’re used to build schools and a culture of Lifelong learning. The thing that will keep you moving forward, says

Schleicher, is always what you bring to the table yourself.

Beautiful Alternatives

Recently, while on a vacation in the
commercial city of Lagos, I walked into a bookshop to get some books I will need
for next quarter of the year. To foil being caught in the snare of ‘on the
sight covetousness’, I drew a list of the needed books. With that, all I had to
do was to pick up the books, pay the storekeeper and take my exit. The plan was
as easy as that until an interesting scene ensued.

My list contains among other carefully selected books a title I
have been so eager to own. As I walked around the commodious room of the bookshop
and scanned inbetween the carefully arranged books on shelves of moderate height, I
discovered the number one book on my list was not available on any of the
shelves. I beckoned to one of the guys working in the store to enquire about the
book, to which he responded ‘it is temporarily out of stock.’ He didn’t stop
there, as a good sales representative; I understood what he was trying to do
when he suggested another title by the same author. ‘O thanks. I need this particular
title’ I politely turned down the offer of a good sales man he was trying to
be. (I would have done the same or even more) This is a good material, you will
like it’ he humorously retorted.’ ‘No, thank you. Let me pay for the ones I
took and go’ I responded. At that point, I understood the guy was trying to cajole
an alternative. And since I am old enough to make some decisions on my own, I
could agree to get the book or turn down his offer. The latter was what I chose
to do.
 The sales rep would definitely have his
reasons for trying to give me a good alternative - perhaps because he wants to
make sales or he wants me get the teachings from the beautiful book of Joseph
Prince. For whatever reason, the alternate book remains a substitute to my
initial plan. I wouldn’t want to trade the lessons and timeless ideas I was expecting
from the book on my list with any other, even if authored by the same
respectable man of God I love reading his books.
My experience in the bookshop reminds me of a story in the Bible
– let my people go scenario in Exodus 8: 1-28. The Lord had a wonderful plan
for the children of Israel and to get it actualized, he instructed them to
leave Egypt for the wilderness and make sacrifice to him. That means the
Egyptians, whom they have served for several years will now miss their
services. Then, Pharaoh, king of Egypt came up with well invented alternatives “Instead
of going through the stress of migrating into the wilderness to sacrifice to
your God, why not stay back and still make sacrifice to your God here?” He
advised Moses, the leader the Lord has chosen for the Israelites.

“If because our land is full of idolatry and immorality, you
can take your people out to sacrifice but please don’t go too far” Pharaoh pleaded
while trying to get another awesome alternative for Moses and his people. Moses
at this point Stood up and said “take a look at me O king. All we want is the
Lord’s best for our life, and to get it, we must not negotiate or think of
alternatives.
The Israelites encounter with pharaoh
gives a helpful synopsis of my message. God was calling them into land flowing
with milk and honey – it’s called the ‘Promised Land.’ He was calling them out
of slavery and anguish into freedom and fulfilment. His plans for them were
such that could open a whole lot of alluring vistas for them and their unborn
generations. And on the other hand is an arch-enemy of progress, Pharaoh,
painting a picture that depicts uncertainty and disaster. After all, a known
devil is better than an unknown angel. Staying here or very close to us will
spare you the menace of travelling a long distance through the wilderness to a
destination unknown. Think about the dangerous animals, beast and mighty
soldiers you will fight on your way?
It’s highly recommended and indeed better to settle here & keep
enjoying cucumber and garlic.

Many times, life presents us with cleverly
devised alternatives which try to compete with God’s plan for our life. We are
faced with ideas that constantly flicker on the screen of our minds, whereas they
are never in synch with God’s plans. The devil is always trying to lure us with
alternatives against God's plan. Most times he designs the alternatives to be
suitably convenient to work with. But in all, no alternatives can better divine
plans for us. The most interesting thing is that every of God's plan has
one or several alternatives readily available to compete for our
attention.  We face stiff competitions
and it requires strong determination and Grace to stick to the best, which is
God's amidst pressure and all seemingly challenges. Remember His words: ‘I know
the plans I have for you, thoughts of good and not of failure...’  If it’s God's, you are always safe, stay in
and say no to alternatives.


I love and cherish your future

Gboluwaga Olaomo.

OGBENI SHOULD LEARN FROM HISTORY

2003 gubernatorial election in Osun state will linger long in the memory of many political stalwarts in the state, most especially, Chief Bisi Akande, the national leader of Action for Progressive Change (APC) who was then a gubernatorial candidate in the election keenly contested with Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola with the later winning the election from the platform of Peoples Democratic Party.

Prior to the 2003 elections, it was gathered that Chief Akande who was gunning for a second term in office took some callous decisions which affected many indigenes and students at different levels in the state. The effects of the compelled mass exodus of secondary school teachers from the teaching service in the state during Chief Akande regime will continue to be a plus factor in orchestrating his failed attempt to return to office coupled with reckless neglect of the four state owned higher institutions – Osun state college of Eductation, Ila- Orangun and Ilesa, Osun State polytechnic, Iree, and Osun state college of Technology, Esa- Oke among many other contributing factors.

Few years after, power changed hand in the state and one of Chief Akande’s political sons, Engineer Rauf Aregbesola got the mandate to govern the state in November 2010, after the court of appeal abolished the 2007 gubernatorial election. Aregbesola took over from Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola in November 2010.

Since 2010, the state of Osun has experienced great developmental strides with different lofty projects getting executed in different sectors within the state. But one area the governor has failed is in the incessant industrial tussle between the state lecturers downing tools, which is now termed an ‘annual strike.’ Record has it that the lecturers went on a 5 months strike in 2011, shortly after the governor assumed office.  And again, by December 2012, lecturers went on another 3 weeks warning strike before embarking on a full stretched strike in March 2013 which lasted 4months, leaving the students and the society to the menace of students being temporarily out of school and disrupting the normal flow of the academic calendar. More disgustingly, on February 2014, all the four institutions were again closed down as the academic staff resumed the adjoined strike.

In Osun sate, students are tired of the annual strike they are now accustomed to because governor Aregbesola has failed to meet lecturer’s demands to a satisfactory extent for over four years. Some of the demands which include: elongation of retirement age from 60 to 65 years, full implementation of the federal government consolidated polytechnics and colleges of education academic salary structure, the non-remittance of contributed pensions and address the issue of understaffing in the higher institutions.

 However, governor Aregbesola’s courageous steps in revitalizing the educational system in the state with transformation reform policies being enacted in the elementary and middle and high schools. But the governor should extend these gigantic streaks to the higher institutions. Many are the deficiencies of these schools in term of infrastructural decay, understaffing, poor road networks, hostel accommodation and eventually find a lasting solution to incessant demoralising industrial action. Aside reduction in school fees and increment in bursary allocation for finalist students alone, the governor, has not really extended his reforms policies to higher institutions. 

Finally, with gubernatorial election fast approaching, the governor should remember his hopes lie in the hands of the electorates, students and lecturers inclusive. And like his fellow kinsman, Chief Bisi Akande learnt his lessons and was denied 2^nd term ambitions in 2003; Governor Aregbesola should set his house in order and reach a logical compromise with the warring opponents.   

Olaomo Gboluwaga John.

Osun State College of Education, Ilesa.

 

It was worth doing

‘Be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded.’ 2Chronicles 15:7

Dedicated to my fellow colleagues and friends at Calvary Baptist Schools:

Ayanleye Seyi Joseph, Oladiti Samuel Olatunji, Falodi toyin (Aunty Toyib)  Fagbenro Oluwatoyin Elizabeth & Amao Busayo.

Emotions were defiled; tears rolled down tender cheeks, prayers rented the air. It was a tensed and sober atmosphere, last Thursday. Why? “Twenty friends cannot play for 20years.” Or so they say, simply because, there are bound to be regroupings and re-structuring for individual, and of course, collective progress.

It was an action sparkled and tensed atmosphere to bid a heavily painful farewell to the 6 student teachers, who have diligently served the students and staff of Calvary Baptist Schools. And, yesterday (Thursday), it also became more crystal clear to me that ‘6 student teachers cannot be student teachers for more than 6weeks.’

I intentionally opted for a private secondary school for my second teaching practice exercise. To me, I needed a place to be passionately committed and massively distilled and brewed in some personal area of my life. A school I believed my conventions will be rightly challenged under the excellent administration, acute leadership of the school and of course the brilliant, diligent mind of the beautiful students. And so, I found, after failed attempts to some other private schools, Calvary Baptist Schools, Ikoyi. CBS was a square peg for my square hole. Quite on the contrary, reverse was the case. The students will surely remember I don’t spare the school when it comes to critical comparison and rational criticism in relation to other schools, most especially, my own secondary school, Wesley College of Science, Ibadan. I, like other student teachers made the students realize an urgent need for change. We therefore mobilized ourselves to ensure we position the students aright for local, national and global change. And, our efforts were well appreciated. It was evident in the grand farewell given to us at the college assembly ground, Thursday morning.

In life we meet to part and we part to meet. Thursday formed a very important day in our life as student teachers. Completion of a 6weeks compulsory teaching practice means we are making headway into destiny fulfilments. We can’t but say glory to God who has been faithful ever before now.

Never in the history of the school has it had a set of diligent, smart and lovable student teachers like us. Really, I must commend my fellow student teachers who have grown to be my friends over the course of the last 6 weeks. You guys are the best. To me, success in measured in impact, the level of success made/achieved must have a direct correlation with the level of impact made. No gain saying, our impact at CBS was lofty, and that could be felt in the grand farewell by those proud kids. We all made substantial correlate of impact.

It was a collective effort to ensure that the students were not where we met them at the end of 6weeks. Hence, every one of us was diligent to the cause we have chosen. We formed a cooperative team that was really mutual and we loved ourselves, knowing full well that an injury to one is an injury to all.

To us at Calvary Baptist Schools, we were not just interested in teaching Economics, English language, Agricultural science and more of our respective subjects, we touched lives and impacted destiny, sowing seeds of light into students’ future. We knew it was not just to teach, but change lives, model lives and mentor lives. We help some of the student right on destiny track, knowing full well that when the ‘foundation is destroyed, the righteous is left with no option but a calamitous end.

Also, we instituted a new and functional press Club, named ‘the Calvary Baptist Press Club, to relay and keep the students and staff abreast of happenings within and outside the campus community. We also set up the Junior Engineer Technician Scientists (JETS) club to help science students read ahead of their peers and to know what is out of their syllabus in a bid to grounding them into core aspect of their courses.

A day to our final exist, I had a ‘destiny chat’ with a one of the students. At a point in the middle of our discussion, the flow and depth of our discussion forced tears out of her eyes. Sincerely, I never knew she was having a special case until that day, and then, it was really no time help her more than what I’ve done by and the with the help of the Lord. While we had the farewell programme the following day, I saw her bursting in joy and laughter. And that propagated some pint of satisfaction on the inside of me. Although, not with the hitting conscience of ‘you could have done more, if you’ve started earlier.’

Finally, one vital lesson I learnt from the last 6weeks is just in the lines of this quote: “whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your heart and with all your might.” The world is watching, and so is the creator. God in heaven will move people and things to bless you for whatever is diligently done. I’m quite content with the many gifts I received from those wonderful kids, (my first teaching practice wasn’t like that) but my colleague, who wept like a baby, because he was to leave the children he loved, taught, and mentored had a substantial equivalent of material and emotional rewards. His passion, commitment, involvements and zeal paid off a great deal. That teaches me that wherever we find ourselves committed to a responsibility or given tasks to perform we are not be diligent, as the popular dictum goes: “ what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”

God bless you.

I valve and respect your future.

Go beyond borders

After our parents got married, people were eager to know if momma has conceived. Luckily, mum conceived and everybody who saw her with protruded belly was happy. In fact, they soon became very eager to know when she's going to put to bed, because they want to come felicitate with the family. Mum soon put to bed, and dad announced to his in-laws and his own family, church members, family friends were not left out. Soon, everyone gathered together on the 8^th day to witness the christening – they were indeed in high spirits.

Now, months after, they care to know if as a baby, you're sitting very well, if you're crawling if you're walking, and if you've started growing teeth. Hahaha! They want to know if you've started nursery school. They want to know when you're making headway into secondary school; they want to know if you're enrolling for external examinations in senior class 2. They want to know what your SSCE results look like after college. They are keenly interested in knowing if your SSCE & JAMB results are fine enough to get you admitted into a higher institution, preferably, a university.

They want to know when you’re to graduate from higher institution, and definitely they want to know when and where you're serving your fatherland, as a youth corper. They want to know when you're looking for job; as if you're being an economically successful self employed citizen isn't any better.

Few years after you’re fortunate to be a gainful employee, laboring hard in someone else’s vineyard, at that point, they are interested in knowing your relationship status, they want to know if you're engaged and when you've set for introduction between you and your would-be in-laws. They can't wait to have you invite them to your wedding ceremony, they are eagerly waiting to escort you to the altar, and dance to melodious songs as you treat them to sumptuous meals with exotic wines on your wedding day.

Happily, after much anticipation for a phone call from the hospital, waiting to get a phone call breaking the good news of a child birth, they are back after you put to bed to witness the christening of your 1^st child. Months after, they await the child to start sitting, crawling, start formal schooling, as they soon expect a protruding belly, ready to welcome another baby, repeating what they did for your parents years before, ditto to your children. What a life!

But I ask myself, is that what life is about life? Cabbage in cabbage out and that’s all? This is a world where a little deviation from the conventional trend and cycle, make the world soon term you a failed entity. To me, I think I am getting to let no one dictate or define my life. And to you, it’s time your life starts on a brighter note and a clean slate. Let the world know you have your destiny in your hands, perfectly planned and programmed by GOD. No one but the creator has a say over your life and therefore you are not bound to any traditional or conventional expectations.

Fortunately, we as God’s people are mandated to live our lives as summed up in the perfect command, ‘let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence (and) your praiseworthy, noble, (and) good deeds (and) glorify your Father Who is in heaven – Matthew 5:16 (AMP) Anything short of that isn’t any worthwhile, acceptable accomplishment.

We belong to a kingdom that transcends human limited reasoning; our lives should equally transcend human expectations. We’ve received power and grace to do that with ease, so, step out of that limit, enlarge the place of your tent, and stretch forth the place of your habitation, spare not, lengthen your cords and strengthen their stakes. For you shall break forth on the right, and on the left… (Isaiah 54: 2-3)

Friend, break the bounds and go beyond boarders, you have what it takes to do it; you are too loaded to fail.

 I love and value your future.

 See you at the top, doing great. 

The Grip of Salvation Home

The Grip of Salvation Mission care is a mission care institute initiated by God to raise and nurture less privileged and disadvantaged children in the way of the Lord. Thus, they give the children hopes for better greater future and help them to become self reliant individuals, so they can live and lead successful life and become agents of change through adequate training, formal and qualitative education, empowerment and enlightenment, building the children up on God’s timeless principles.

The ministry is centered on supporting the less privileged, and the disadvantaged children from darkened societies. Thereby, raising kids that will radiate God’s light, which shines in the midst of gross darkness as a result of mass underdevelopment, ignorance and lack of civilization.

This idea was conceived by Mrs. Felicia Odeyemi in 2007. After she has spent over 33years in the Northern part of Nigeria as a itinerant professional photographer. She was the family photographer to the Dangote, Shagari, Buhari and many other famous families in the North. She was led to close down her multi million naira stocked studio in Kano, where customers in hundreds defile the Northern sourcing sun queuing to patronize her sophisticated photography studio to resumed what she now calls her ‘destiny job.’

Now, Mama is married to picking and raising Northern Christian children, (most of whom are yet to see the slightest form of modernization) from the street and societies of the ‘Maruzawas’ - a place secluded to the meager percentage of Christians in the North, where they seemingly lack the chance of getting qualitative formal education, opportunities and capacity to be well equipped to live a successful life.

Mama Felicia is now committed to raising contemporary Moses, Joshua, Calebs, Esthers, and Deborahs, just as the biblical Moses was divinely raised by Pharaoh Daughter in Pharaoh’s palace, to deliver the children of Israel from their Egyptian enemies. The children are being brought up to take their rightful place, and deliver their society from the hands of Midianites.

To achieve this, the children need to be housed together, shown care and love under a house where the word of God will be well rooted in their heart, where they will be formally educated, empowered and enlightened to start manifesting. Hence, the Grip of Salvation Mission Care. 

AT AGAPE MISSION

Agape mission is a non denominational Christian organization that propagates God’s love through unconventional means. We are a group of passionate, focused & young adults who have interest to initiate and sustain change.

Our vision is to be a first class mission institute of international reputes, making impacts in different sphere/sector of the society, which will be evident in lives of individuals we come in contact with. We believe absolutely in God - The author of love & giver of grace, our shield and lifter of our heads. 

As such, we extend God’s love to the less privileged, needy, vulnerable and orphans in the society. To God’s glory and to His praise alone, we have visited 3 of such homes in the year, 2013.

THE CHRISTMAS SEASON…

Christmas is a time Christians celebrate the birth of our Saviour and King. The time we rejoice in the ‘best thing’ that happened to humanity.

Christ, a King, came to this world to be a prisoner to reconcile us back to God, after the man fell and was found wanting of God’s glory (Romans 3:23)

To celebrate this unique season, we are at agape are once again extending the love we have received to the less privileged, vulnerable and orphans and children at the Grip of Salvation Mission Care.

This time, we are not just going to the home to donate and bless them with material gifts, foods and clothes; we also want to equip them with vocational skills that will help them build their capacity. We intend going to train the children with skill, that include catering, and decoration, time management, writing skills etc.

In addition to these, we also want to help restructure the compound of the home. During our last visit, we felt the need to create a more attractive, clean and tidy environment, especially, one that will portray the celebration of the Season. 

  

 WHY WE FEEL YOU SHOULD BE PART OF THIS?

God made it clear in His instructions to Israel: “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land’” (Deuteronomy 15:11). The principle of helping the needy goes back to God’s original instruction for people to care for each other. Jesus Himself said that serving others and having love for one another were honorable, identifying characteristics of His followers (Matthew 25:31-46; John 13:34-35). As we are able, at times we need to provide additional help to the needy. As the apostle John wrote: “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18). Proverbs 3:27 adds, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.” When we give to people in need, we follow the example of our Creator, whose nature is love toward others (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8). God wants us to develop the same loving, caring concern He has for all humankind. Describing this giving attitude, Paul wrote, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need” (Ephesians 4:28). Charitable giving, we believe is a gentle way to attend to God’s bidding.

Furthermore, we believe whatever you give are sown seeds. The interesting principle of sowing and reaping in the bible can never be overemphasized.   God promised Noah after the flood, that as long as the earth remains, planting and harvesting will never seize. Whatever you sow will produce a bounty harvest that will expand God’s blessing in your life. (Luke 6:38)

You can be part of this vision, you can go with us and be part of the team that will be a channel to release God’s joy and love to the needy this Christmas season OR you release your resources go on your behalf to bless these children. Trust me, we’ll be glad you did, the children will be more glad and the heavens will be the most glad you did.  

Join us as we impact lives; let us extend the joy of the season to the needy and vulnerable in the society. For more information, please call Agape Project Manager, Dada Mayowa on: 08163318127 or  Gboluwaga on 07089348047.

Donations can also be sent to our UBA account: Account name: Agape Missions Network

Account no: 2058875601.