For most people, romantic relationships are the most meaningful element in their lives. Whatever the time or place, relationships are always occupying our time and thoughts. But the ability to have a healthy, loving relationship is not innate
FREIBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Pope Benedict said on Saturday the Catholic Church could not accept gay marriage and urged young people to root out evil in society and shun a “lukewarm” faith that damages their Church.
The 84-year-old pope ended the third day in his homeland with a rally for more about 30,000 young people at a fairground outside the southern city of Freiburg, a Catholic area where he received the warmest welcome of his trip so far.
“The world in which we live, in spite of its technical progress, does not seem to be getting any better,” he told the young people. “There is still war and terror, hunger and disease, bitter poverty and merciless oppression.”
He urged them to root out all forms of evil in society and not to be “lukewarm Christians,” saying that lack of commitment to faith did more damage to their Church than its sworn enemies.
Young people in the crowd cheered as he spoke.
“The Church is shown very negatively in the media these days so it is important for us young people to see we can also be proud of the Church, and the Church itself is not bad even if some people have let it down,” said Kathrin Doerr, 26, who attended the youth rally.
Earlier, at a meeting with Orthodox Christian leaders, Benedict spoke out against abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage.
“We as Christians attach great importance to defending the integrity and the uniqueness of marriage between one man and one woman from any kind of misinterpretation,” he said.
COMMUNISM’S ACID RAIN HURT FAITH
On the penultimate day of his trip, the pope straddled his homeland’s religious and geographical divisions, praising the faithful for enduring communism’s “acid rain” effect in former East Germany and then addressing cheering Catholic crowds in the west.
At a mass in the medieval main square during a subdued visit to the city of Erfurt, where only about seven percent of the people are Catholic, he praised eastern Germans who stayed loyal to the Church during oppressive years under Nazism and communism.
“You have had to endure first a brown and then a red dictatorship, which acted on the Christian faith like acid rain,” he told the crowd from the altar, set against a hill dominated by Erfurt’s cathedral and another Catholic church.
About two hours before the morning mass in Erfurt, a man fired an air gun at security staff at an Erfurt checkpoint in an apparent protest against the strict crowd-control measures, police said. The Vatican said the pope was never in any danger.
Benedict held a surprise meeting on Friday evening in Erfurt with victims of sexual abuse by priests. Church officials said on Saturday there were three men and two women present, chosen from many victims around Germany who had asked to meet the pope.
“The atmosphere of the meeting was rather relaxed,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told a news conference. “It was very important that the Pope expressed he shares in the pain the victims suffered and that the Church will do everything to prevent that happening again in the future.”
About 700 Germans have filed for compensation for abuse by priests and other Church personnel. A record 181,000 Germans left the Church last year, many in protest at the abuse scandal.
(Writing by Philip Pullella and Tom Heneghan; Editing by Tim Pearce)
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Just as we all know that it is barely three weeks to Mercy Johnson’s grand wedding ceremony, plans are being cemented and invitation cards have already started going out, but as the count down begins to the wedding date, some lady that goes by the name Lovely Okojie has surfaced, and her story is that she was married and is still married with two kids to Prince Odianose Okojie, Mercy Johnson’s husband to be.
As expected, this situation has been generating a lot of comments but here are some basic facts to the story.
The relationship between Prince Odianose Okojie and Lovely Okojie, packed up five years ago, and Mercy Johnson’s marriage plans to Odi has been in the open for quite a while. Odianose truly is the father of the girl in the pictures being spread all over the internet but there are doubts that he is the father of the boy. Odianose is a prince and can marry more than one wife under customary law. In her bid to stop the marriage, Lovely Okogie has gone to Christ Embassy to demand that the marriage be stopped, but the Church has requested that she provides a marriage certificate to back up her claim but as at the time of this publication, Lovely is yet to come up with a tenable certificate. While we are left to decide who is right and who is not, Mercy Johnson and Odi’s plans for the wedding remains the same, it will be a 4-day event that will run from August 25 to 28, 2011. In details, the court wedding will be on August 25, Engagement will be on 26, Church wedding and reception will be on 27 and then a Thanksgiving Service/Bride’s party on 28.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
What is Autism?—– Autism, also called autistic disorder, appears in early childhood (National Institute of Health, 2001). Autism can develop during different stages of infancy and early childhood, but it is classified as autism only if it arises by the age of three (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Autism affects more than six out of every 1,000 children. Generally, autism is not a disease but it is categorized as a symptom. It ranges in severity from a handicap that limits an otherwise normal life to a devastating disability requiring institutional care (WebMD, 2008). A saying goes caring is thinking with your heart. Families therefore should think with their heart when caring for Autistic children. Family members who think with their hearts will one day be remembered as great trailblazers, saintly but gentle individuals, tolerant lovers of people, and devoted protagonists of handicapped mankind. Since this handicap requires institutional care, Autism is considered the most disabling of pervasive development disorders, a series of disorders that affect intellectual skills; responses to senses; and the ability to communicate. The etiology of autism, with its pervasive, disabling effects on child developmental processes, is still not known, although all evidence points to biological factors as being prominent in its etiology (Urdang 2002). Biological factors make autism pervasive in developmental delay in children. Developmental delay is milder form of autism known as pervasive developmental disorder or PDD. Pervasive developmental disorders which seriously affect language, socialization, and behavior, include several specific syndromes (such as Asperser disorder and Rett disorder). Studies estimate that as many as 12 in every 10,000 children have autism or a related condition (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). The word autism which has been in use indiscriminately for about 100 years now comes from the Greek word autos meaning self. This very term describes conditions in which a person is removed from social interaction hence an isolation of self. Eugene Blecher, a Swiss psychologist was the first guy to use this term in everyday assessment and diagnosis. He was the first Psychologist who thinks with his heart on how best to care for these handicapped children. Blecher began using this novel term Autism around 1911 to refer to one group of symptoms of Schizophrenia. But in 1940 some erudite researchers in the U.S began to use the term autism to describe children with emotional or social behavior problems. The description between Autism and Schizophrenia then remained linked in the mind of researchers until the 1960s. It was only then that medical professions began to have a separate understanding of autism in children and families.
Autistic children are very sensitive and may even be greatly troubled. Sometimes they are agitated-by sound, touches, smells or sight that seems normal to others. They may even have repeated body movements such as rocking or hand flapping. They may display unusual responses to people, attachment to objects, resistance to change in routines and/or aggressive with self injurious behavior. As a result, Autistic children may fail to develop normal relationship with anyone, including parents, caregivers or peers. As infants, they may resist affection or consistently cling to someone. As they grow older in life, they may fail to seek comfort if they are hurt, and may generally like to play alone. These individuals may not seem to notice people, objects or activities in their own given surroundings. Some children with Autism develop seizures in some cases not until the age of adolescence. Many of them remain mentally retarded, although most of them with PDD have normal or even above-average intelligence. Often times, they show uneven skill development. Some have problems in certain areas especially the ability to communicate or relate to other children. While these children may have problems in communication skills, they also have the tendency to developed skills in other areas of life, such as drawing, creative music, creative writing, solving math problems or memorizing difficult facts. For some unknown reason to man, autistic children may test higher-perhaps even in the average or above average range-on non verbal intelligence tests. Permit me to sound weary, imaginary or idealistic in this analogy. Mr. John has great difficulty interacting with other students and family members. He has strong receptive language skills, but has difficulty expressing himself in writing skill or in speaking command. He has trouble understanding what fellow students think and what family members feel. This makes it hard for him to express himself either in words or through gestures, facial expressions or touch. Mr. John uses a computer for writing at all times. Despite the fact that he uses computer, John is fascinated with algebra, visual calculus, trigonometric identities and numbers. Sometimes, it is difficult to get him to do anything but mathematics in the classroom or at home because it is his favorite thing to do. He also has great difficulty attending activities or displays any organizational skills. These unusual characteristics make John an autistic student for special education teachers or autistic patient to psychiatric care providers.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a broad diagnosis that includes people with IQs and mental retardation. Exploratory as well as quantitative studies have shown that it is three times more common in boys than in girls (National Institute of health, 2001). Because it is common in children (boys), this disorder prevents children and adolescents from interacting normally with other people and this affects almost every aspect of their social, psychological development and wellbeing. Autism affects social and communication skills and, to a greater or lesser degree, motor and language skills (Rudy, 2007). Children with Autism can be chatty or silent, affectionate or cold, methodical or disorganized. Despite the fact that Autistic children have difficulty in speech and communication skills, studies lack adequate demonstration when it comes to differences in communication and non communication skills. In a recent study conducted by Hsu-Min Chiang and Yueh-Hsien Lin (2007) on expressive communication skills of children of Australian and Taiwanese children with Autism who had limited spoken language reveal no significant differences in the characteristics of expressive communication between children with speech disorder and those without speech handicap. Both authors admit that no significant differences existed in characteristics of expressive communication between children who used aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and those who did not use aided AAC. Children with this disorder initiates fewer bids for interactions, commented less often, continued ongoing interactions through fewer conversational turns, and responded less often to family member communication bids (Jones et al, 2008).
Often times these children are visual thinkers of exceptional type. They think in pictures and not in languages. All their thoughts are like videotapes running in their cerebral imagination. Any human being in my opinion whose thoughts run like video type is at a cross road of intellectual management and organization. And in trying to educate children with autism Grandin (2002) enjoined parents and classroom teachers to take a toy airplane and say up as they make airplane take off from a desk. Grandin further states that children with autism learn better if cards with words upside down are attached to toys airplanes. The up card is attached when the plane takes off. The down card is attached when the plane lands. This classical analysis brings us to a jaw braking quarry. Should we then query whether adults who love to play draft (Uno) morning and night are autistic when they were young? This question requires further exploration by psychiatrists and special education teachers. While we wait for answers to this query, new studies show that children with autism have problems with remembering reality in sequence or in coherence. Because they are not good in this area, many of them compensate their weakness in drawing art and computer programs. Majority of autistic children are quickly fixated on new area of strength. Many have problem with motor control in their heads. They hate sound like fire alarm; fire crackers or the sound of a chair scraping on the floor or the sound of siren (fight-fighters). In fact, they are bothered by visual distractions and fluorescent lights. Autistic children who are hyperactive always fidget. They sing better than they can speak. They respond better when words and sentences are sung to them like bed time lullabies. They lack the ability to process visual and auditory input at the same time. Sequencing is difficult for these lovely kids. Also, fussing-eating has been found to be associated with this disorder.
Matthew’s Story of his experiences (As narrated by Mary)
Mary’s son, Matt is a highly accomplished professional jazz musician, with many public appearances and several CDS to his name-and he was not even a teenager yet! Matt lives with his parents and his little sister in Boston Massachusetts. According to Mary, “Matt was born different. He was always different from other children, even from birth. He was colicky for four months, crying inconsolably and weeps inconsiderably everyday for five hours. None of any standard calming techniques worked with him. None of the baby-setting ploy worked for him either. Matthew would not ride in a car seat like most children do. He would scream hysterically until we stopped and took him out of the seat. As you can guess, we never went anywhere and we never arrives our destination on time. Changing Dippers and giving baths were traumatic time consuming and exhausting. All Matthew wanted to do was to be nursed, in the dark, with nothing going on around him. He was very jumpy, never slept, and was very fussy. He would line-up toys and does things over and over again. Matt would be traumatized if one of his rituals could not be followed exactly as he expected it should be. He usually loves the habit of dismantling something he should be touching, or running away from any sort of interactive experience. Every outing ended in a tantrum. What misled us was the fact that Matthew had an extensive vocabulary power (because he was hyper-lexical), and he was highly intelligent. We thought his hyperactivity and distinction were due to his constant curiosity about how things worked. Matthew was extremely defensive in response to sensory input. We could not watch television when he was around. Vacuum noise, popcorn poppers, any unusual sound around the house or outside the play ground would cause him to cover his ears and become angry and agitated. He was also tacitly defensive and highly preservative. His saving graces were his hyperplasia and extreme intelligenceâ€.
Signs/symptoms of autism
Autism has a wide variety of characteristics ranging in intensity from mild to severe. A child with autism does not behave like other children with the same diagnosis. Many psychiatrists, psychologists or special education teachers don’t give symptoms of Autism a second thought. These professionals take for granted that symptoms of Autism can be very much confused with Schizophrenia, anxiety disorder or separation disorder. Autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia are like neighbors in the world of psychiatric fallout. But to mental health diagnosis, they look like strangers among millions of other health diagnosis. Perhaps you might have observed this in many special education classrooms or in any psychiatric units or settings. Based on your observations, you can make a statement of significant importance that can be argued or tested. Such statements could become a hypothesis, something we can test by looking into it very deeply. A testable hypothesis is a valid hypothesis. Children and adolescents with autism typically: -have difficulty communicating with others children because of language need. -They have extreme difficulty learning language. Sometimes, they make inappropriate response to people. -A child with Autism may avoid eye contact with people, and can resist being picked up or cuddled. Often times appear to be tuned out from this world. -He can have inability to do things in a normal way or have reduced ability to play cooperatively with other people feelings. -May need a rigid, highly structured routine and can become very distressed by changes in routines. -Show extreme hyperactivity or unusual passivity and extreme resistance to change. -Repetitive body movements including pacing, hand flicking, twisting, spinning, rocking or hitting oneself. -Insensitive to pain or lack of response to cold or heart. -Impulsive behavior and no real fear of changes. – An unusual attachment to inanimate objects such as toys, strings or spinning objects. -Frequent crying and a display of continuous tantrum for no apparent reason. -He can have peculiar speech patterns. An autistic child may use words without understanding their meaning. -An Autistic children show abnormal responses to sensation such as lights sound and touch. At times a child may appear deaf. At other times he may be extremely distressed by everyday noises. -Some of these symptoms occur in children with other disabilities where symptoms change as the child grows old. -Exhibit repetitious behaviors, such as rocking back and forth, head banging, or touching or twisting objects. -Have a limited range of interests and activities. -An Autistic child may become upset by a small change in his environment or daily routine.
Children and adolescents with autism experience hypersensitivity to hearing, touch, small, or taste (NMHIC, 2008). It seems to me that other symptoms can be seen in early infancy, but the condition may appear after months of abnormal development. In most cases, it is not possible to identify a specific event that triggers this particular trait. Judy (2007) and some researchers identified common traits as: failure to tell how it actually happened. For them saying one thing and meaning another thing is simply a misnomer. To them reality-show is real and a good word from a person on the spectrum is real deal. People with Autism spectrum live in the moment. They love practical issues that confront them. They love to attend sensory input that surrounds them. Judy further notes that confronting practical issues have helped autistic patients to achieve the ideals of mindfulness. Autistic children are talented in professional skills like engineering, technology, craft, architecture and music. They hardly judge other individuals or criticize their conduct. Sometimes, they see things just on the surface appearance to discover real life situation in the inside. Because they are not judge of people, autistic children seem to be passionate. They can be passionate about beautiful houses, about flashy cars, about cute animals. They can be passionate and idealistic about abstract things, ideas and people in their lives. Children with Autism are not tied down to any social expectations. What matters to them are true liking, interest and passion, not keeping up with the Joneses (Rudy, 2007) People with autistic syndrome have terrific memories. They have photographic memory compared to their peers in matters of critical details. They are capable of remembering what happened two years with accurate precision. In overall, they love to keep to appointment. Autistic individuals are always on time to important ceremonies and events. In professional matters, they feel less concerned with outward appearances. Many of these individuals are less materialistic. Women with Autism are not very much perturbed about make-up or fashion. They worry less about brand names, hairstyles and other expensive externals than most women do. Autistic men and women are very outspoken. They play fewer head games. Majority of them do not play mind games or head games. As a result, they have fewer hidden agendas. With no hidden agendas, they can tell you what they want you to hear at the spot. Always, they bare their minds without holding back. Autistic people do not beat around bush and they do not beg the question. In sum, Autistic individuals open new doors for Neuro-typicals.
What Causes Autism in Children and Adolescents?
In the field of psychopathology, there is little knowledge of what cause this disorder in children. It seems to me that research either is unsure about what causes autism in general. Some studies suggest that autism might be caused by a combination of biological or environmental factors, or both, including viral expose before birth, or a problem with the immune system, or genetics. Studies conducted by Autism Research Institute (1988) confirmed that environmental factors-including unprecedented exposure to toxic substances and over vaccination of infants and young children are key factors that trigger autism. Candida albicans have been found another contributing factor too (Research Review, 1988). An abnormal slowing down of brain development before birth may cause autism too. This is the more reason why brains of children with autism may function differently from those considered normal. Poor brain development and function is as a result of chemicals flowing in a wrong direction. Normal brain development is seen in the level of serotonin- a chemical found in the brain which declines in most children. Small but significant proportion of children diagnosed as autistic are victim of severe Candida infection. This infection produces toxins which causes severe long-term disruption of the immune system and attack the brain. When the immune and brain systems are affected, autistic children would display an unusual level of interest in their family and surroundings. When this happens, series of ear infection may occur, soon after an ominous charge begins to occur. Speech development would drop, and then regresses, often to the point of muteness. Within a few week or months, these children would become unresponsive and lose interest in the love of their life (parents or caregivers) and in their surroundings. Many scientific investigations have examined the possible connection between autism and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Different Types of Autism
General Symptoms of Autism have led modern science to identify three Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) subtypes, namely: (Autism, Asperger and PDDNOS). In terms of clinical or demographic characteristics, these three subtypes are different (Andrea et al, 2008). The first type is called Autism Disorder: – This is what people think of when they hear the word Autism. People with Autism disorder suffers from social interactions, communication and imaginative play in children younger than 3 years. The second type is called Asperger Syndrome: – Children who have Asperger have problem with language per se. They have a poor language development. They also score average or above average range on intelligence tests. Most often, these children continuously exhibit the same type of social problems with limited scope of interest as children with autistic disorder (WebMD, 2008). The third type is called Pervasive Developmental Disorder or PDD- This is known as atypical autism. PDD is a psychiatric catch word or expression for all categories for children who have some autistic tendencies but who do not fit strictly into other psychiatric categories. The fourth type is called Rett Disorder: This form of Autism is known to occur frequently only in girls. Rett children begin to develop rapidly and later begin to lose their communication and social skills. Beginning at the age of 1-4yrs, repetitive hand movements replaces purposeful use of hands (WebMD, 2008). The fifth type of Autism is described as: Childhood disintegrative disorder: Here children develop normally for at least two years, and then lose some or most of their communication and social skills by the age of 10. When communication and social skills are lost, the child is said to have child disintegrative disorder.
Treatment of Autism
It seems that evaluation and treatment of Autism must center on diagnostic reliability and validity of assessment in psychotherapy. Assessment and evaluation must center on problems with communication, language, motor skills, speech, success at school and finally thinking abilities. Treatment also must focus on psychopharmacological efficacy. Assessment and treatment must aim at advancing the understanding of autism, including potential causes and prevalence outcomes e.g. genetic, immunological and environmental hazards. Study has shown that there is no established cure for Autism in Psychopathology. Because there is no prescribed cure, there is need for prolonged behavior modifications. Behavior modification includes positive reinforcement and social skills training. All these have been found the treatment of choice (Groden & Baron, 1988). There are some modalities that can help manage autism symptoms, as well as help teach social skills and behavioral skills. Primarily social goals and behavioral skills in treatment aim to improve the overall ability of the child to function well. Also, early diagnosis and treatment helps children in the long run. There are many obstacles in achieving these efficacious treatment modalities. According to Autism Research Institute (2008), a major obstacle in autism research has been the lack of a valid means of measuring the effectiveness of various treatments. Parents of autistic children represent a vast and important reservoir of information on the benefits or adverse effects of the large variety of drugs and other interventions that have been tried with children. Against these backdrops, there are three treatment approaches that are capable of treating Autism. Since the need of children are different, treatment modalities according to Autism Research Institute are: Drug, Biomedical/ Non-Drug/Supplements & Special diets.
Medication
Researchers have published hundreds of studies attempting to evaluate different biomedical and psycho-educational interventions intended to benefit autistic children. Experimental studies show that medicines can be useful towards treating behavioral and emotional dysfunctions associated with Autism (New York Times, 2010). Therapists and some medical critics believe that much of these researches have produced inconclusive, incoherent or, worse still, a misleading results because there are useful tests, beneficial traditional therapies or scales designed to measure treatment effectiveness. The inability to apply traditional therapeutic treatments (Herbs/roots (mgborogwu), Qigong, acupressure & acupuncture) before bio-medical options can be viewed as therapeutic suicide, a treatment in a wrong direction. In classical literary expression or in Hebrew linguistic expression-it is like when one is running well but outside the track (meaning Hamasia). There is lack of adequate scale in our health care centers and hospitals, such as childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS), or the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC). These lacks often pose an ominious danger and a big problem to assessment and treatment. Generally, these scales are designed to diagnose autism to tell whether or not a child is autistic. On the other hand, biomedical therapies are often based on the DAN (Defeat Autism Now) model. Psychologists and psychiatrists trained in DAN Protocol are most likely to prescribe special diets, supplements and alternative treatments as the case may be. This medication is beneficial to children with irritability and aggression associated with autism. Today, some children appear to respond to a gluten-free or Casein-free diet. Gluten is found in food containing wheat, rye, and barley. Casein is found in milk, cheese and other dairy products (New York Times, 2010). Nutritional supplement such as DMG is safe for young children too. While this is the case, medication becomes beneficial to children with irritability and aggression associated with autism. There are multiple brands of medications for treatment purposes. For example: Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft. Risperidon is another approved medication of choice by food and drug Administration (FDA). Some children would do better on Prozac while others on Zoloft. These medications are positive relief to high functioning Autism spectrum children with co morbidity anxiety disorders. These medications are effective because children with autism have a very sensitive nervous system. As far as I know, many biomedical therapies have offered positive results in many treatment cases. But Autism treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) is totally different (CARS, GARS & ABC) because it shares some enduring commonalities. ATEC was developed by Bernard Rimland and Stephen M Edison (1988) of the Autism Research Institute to fill this yearning lacuna that is especially urgent right now because of the 20 or more studies beginning to evaluate the secrets and privy of Autism. Their study was designed in a form of assessment checklist to be completed by parents, special education teachers, or psychiatric caretakers. This study consists of 4 subtests (1) Speech/ Language Communication (14 items) (2) Sociability (20 items) (3) Sensory/cognitive awareness (18) (4) health/physical/behavior (25 items). Other treatment modalities include:
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is defined as the science in which the principles of the analysis of behavior are applied systematically to improve socially significant behavior, and in which experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for change in behavior (Cooper et al, 2007).The word Applied means practice to develop skills while behavioral analysis refers to learning and understanding that leads to a new skill in life. Behavioral analysis was a common treatment model adopted by Skinner and other behaviorists after him. ABA is the oldest treatment modality for the treatment of autism syndrome disorder. The applied behavioral analysis focuses on reward based training on the child. This method centers on teaching autistic children some basic practical skills. Besides ABA, other types of treatments have developed which include assessment and education of Autistic and related communication Handicapped children (TEACCH) and sensory integration.
Speech Therapy (ST)
Studies show that almost all people with autism have issues with speech and language (Judy, 2007). People with this disorder are challenged by articulation, grammar and speech pragmatics (i.e. the use of speech to build social relationships). Speech therapy becomes best treatment option for kids with language disorders; having trouble understanding people or has trouble putting words together to express thoughts. Speech and language therapies are helpful to kids who have the following medical conditions: swallowing disorder, cleft-lip or palate, weak muscles around the mouth, hearing impairment and breathing disorder (Nelson, 2005).
If your kids have trouble expressing certain words or trouble understanding others, they would need to see a speech language pathologist, also known as speech therapist. Speech pathologists help children with articulation disorder to say certain sounds/words correctly. Kids who repeat certain words or have trouble saying the complete word (fluency disorder) receive treatment through speech therapy. In fluency disorder, speech pathologists assist children to overcome sound stutter (st-a-a-y, i.e. stay) which is called fluency disorder. When kids start a sentence loud and clear, but become quiet and mumbling at the end, these types of kids need treatment in voice disorder. Children with voice disorder need help to overcome the act of speaking through their noise. According to Bureau of labor statistics (2008-2009) speech language pathologists select augmentative or alternative communication methods, including automated devices and sign language, and teach their use to individuals with little or no speech capability. They also teach those with little or no speech capability how to make sounds, improve their voices, or increase their language skills to communicate more effectively. They help patients who have suffered loss of speech to develop, or to recover, and have reliable communication skills so that patients can fulfill their educational, vocational, and social roles.
Occupational Therapy (OT)
This is a treatment method of focusing on building daily living skills. Occupational therapy focuses on enabling people to do the activities of daily life (American Occupational therapy Association). Such activities include helping children in care unites or CPS learn of their new environment that is different from their family of origin. Occupational therapists help adolescents in high school to learn reading, learning and writing assignments. Another goal is to help individuals resume as much as their patterns of living as possible (Punwar et al, 2000). Its primary strategy is helping children in washing, using the toilet, grooming, and dressing. According to Punwar these strategies were medically prescribed form of treatment and were usually conducted in hospitals, sanitarium, or community workshops. Other duties performed by occupational therapists include: hand washing, computer use, driving, cooking, housekeeping or the tasks a person is expected to perform on job (Kalb, 2004). Participation in these activities is vital in maintaining the overall wellness of patients. Sometimes, occupational therapists focuses on strategies to enhance the performance of activities at home or at work, including energy management to improve productivity or to reduce fatigue (National multiple sclerosis, 2008). During treatment, therapists try by strengthening and stretching exercises for the upper body, and activities designed to improve coordination and unpresumptuous interventions especially tailored to individual level of functioning. Most health care professionals employ this methodology because patients have delayed motor skills. Besides Occupational therapy, therapists can employ integration therapy- a technique which may help autistic children manage hypersensitivity to sound, light and touch and finally help them develop an individualized plan of care tailored to each patient’s needs.
Physical Therapy (PT)
Mary Kolb (2005) described the definition of physical therapy in the dictionary of occupational titles as narrow, technical, and obsolete. In modern studies, physical therapy helps build up strength, coordination and basic sports skills. This treatment option is beneficial to individuals with any form of developmental or gross motor delays. The history of physical therapy as a profession began in 1914-1919 after the First World War in the United States. According to Dreeben (2007), this period in the physical therapy profession was called the reconstruction. It was created because the first and second world war brought a greater number of causalities and distress to American people. The post-war impact challenged American society to develop this therapeutic method to care for returning veterans. As a result, Dreeben concludes that a handful of physicians called orthopedists and 1200 young women called “reconstruction aides†were physical therapy and occupational therapy pioneers who treated injured soldiers.
Specialized Therapies (ST)
Under normal circumstances, specialized treatment includes Speech, Occupational and physical therapies. These therapies are important components of managing autism and should be included in various aspects of the child treatment. These three therapies can help in many different ways: Speech therapy can help a child with autism improve language and social skills to communicate more effectively. There are other therapies that could be of benefit namely: -Occupational and physical therapy can help improve any differences in coordination and motor skills -Occupational therapy may help to learn to process information from the senses (light, sound, hearing, touch and smell), in more manageable way -Medications-Mostly and commonly used to treat related conditions and problems including depression, anxiety, hyperactivity and obsessive-compulsive behavior (Web MD, 2008).
Social Skills Therapy (SST)
Social skills training (SST) is a form of behavior therapy used by teachers, therapists, psychiatrists and trainers to help persons who have difficulties relating to other people. Children with autism have core deficits in social relation to others. They lack social and communication skills too. Here, therapy focuses on building skills they need to strike and hold conversation, connect with new friends or even navigate the playground (Judy, 2007). A major goal in social skills training is teaching persons who may or may not have emotional problems about the verbal as well as nonverbal behaviors involved in social interactions. Social skills training helps patients to learn to interpret these and other social signals, so that they can determine how to act appropriately in the company of other people in a variety of different situations (see Encyclopedia of mental health disorder). Social skills learning and therapy groups are offered in many private and public facilities to help children who have difficulty making or keeping friends to coping with aggression and peer pressure.
Play Therapy (PT)
All work and no play they say make a jack a doll boy. Unlike adults, whose natural medium of communication is verbalization, the natural medium of communication for children is play and activity (Landreth, 2002). Play therapy is generally employed with children aged 3 through 11 and it provides a way for them to express their experiences and feelings through a natural, self-guided, self-healing process. Children with autism syndrome experience the skills and ability to play. On one hand, drama or play can serve as tool for building speech communication, or social skills. Psychiatrists and therapists have always incorporated play therapy into speech, occupational or physical therapies. Play therapy is often used as a tool for diagnosis. The objects and patterns of play, as well as the willingness to interact with therapist, can be used to understand the underlying rationale for behavior both inside and outside the session. By engaging in the process we call play, children can learn to live in our symbolic worlds of meanings and values, at the same time exploring and experimenting and learning in their own individual ways (Landreth, 2002).
Behavior Therapy (BT)
Behaviorism is the philosophy behind the science of behavior. Gombosi (1998) recognizes the importance of behavioral approach when commenting that for those of us who are raised in the psychodynamic tradition; it is both inspiring and humbling to see outstanding improvement some autistic children can make within a strictly behavioral and intensive program. Gombosi adds that such improvement sometimes point to where they attend school. Children with autism are hyper and often frustrated. They are often times misunderstood, and have a tough time communicating their needs, and as a result they suffer from hypersensitivities to sound, light and touch (Judy, 2007). In behavior therapy therefore, psychiatrists must try to figure out what motivates negative behavior and replace it with positive behavior, reinforcement and skills. They must recommend change to the environment and routine to facilitate better and positive behavior. According to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Behavioral training and management uses positive reinforcement, self-help and social skills training to improve behavior and communication.
Developmental Therapies (DT)
Developmental Therapy is the assessment, treatment and instruction of individuals with disabilities in activities of daily living. This therapy help children, teens and adults become more independent and involved in their communities. Professionals who engage in this form of treatment mode work tirelessly to develop skills for children for daily living. They also assist in helping patients in socialization, self-help and communication. Studies in Psychopathology reveal that relationship development and intervention is best therapy in strengthening family dynamics. This therapy is the best developmental treatments for children with autism. In this form of treatment, therapists often engage in building child own interests, and potentials for strengths to increase emotional, social and intellectual abilities. In developmental therapy, children are taught to learn adequate skills such as brushing their teeth, tying their shoes, washing dishes after each meal and packing books in the school bag after assignment.
Visually-Based Therapies (VBT)
Margarete Naumburg was known to be the original mother of Art therapy in the U.S, because she substituted the easel for the couch (Ulman, 1987). I call her the grandmother of autistic care and aid. As a result of this substitution, Kaplan (2007) note that her focus was on exploring the individual’s unconscious, and the painting or drawing by client that was the object of free association in a manner similar to the Freudian approach to dreams. Research on children abilities indicates that children with autism are great visual thinkers. Great visual thinkers often are not sound receptors. In trying to treat children, therapist must employ picture-based communication systems such as PECS, (picture Exchange Communication) when assisting them in skill development. Video modeling, video games and electronic communications systems often taps into autistic visual strength and image to build further skills and community enrichment (Kaplan, 2007). Screen of Autism was sometime in history designed to identify children with potential disabilities that may qualify them for special program in school, at home or within psychiatric settings. Children with Autism have language difficulties and parents are worried because they are not talking. These children also worry because other people cannot understand them too. Autistic children can have learning problems. Statistics show that 2% of children with Autism have difficulty learning new concepts such as color identification or counting of numbers. These children can have emotional problems as well. Emotional problems often cause autistic children to have multiple fears and worries or be constantly afraid of the night or dark environment (Ulman, 1987). Autistic children tend to be overly aggressive or withdrawn and unresponsive. Many Autistic children I have talked to tend to express some physical difficulties. They seem to have trouble hearing voices or other sounds. Many have been diagnosed as having severe hearing loss with special health or physical problems. And the problem of these children in my understanding is the problem of families and societies. Gerald Ogbuja
References: 1. American psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder (4th Ed), Washington DC: Author 2. Andrea, W & Lecavalier, L (2008) Examining the validity of Autism Spectrum Disorder Subtype, Journal of Autism and developmental disorder, Springer, Netherland 3. Autism Research Institute (1988) Accessed January 12, 2011 @ http://www.autism.com 4. Bernard Rimland & Stephen Edison (1988) Psychologists ended the dark ages of Autism, Autism Research Institute 5. Bureau of labor statistics (2008-2009), Occupational outlook Health diagnosis and treatment, United states Department of labor report. 6. Cooper, JO, Heron, TE & Heward, WL (2007) Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd Edition, Merill Publisher 7. Gombosi, PG (1998) Parents of Autistic children: some thoughts about trauma dislocation and tragedy, In AJ Solnit, PB, Neubauer, S. Abram & AS Dowling (Eds), the psychoanalytic study of the child. Vol.53 New Haven: Yale University Press. 8. Grandin, T (2002) Teaching Tips for children and Adults with Autism, Center for the study of Autism, Autism Research Institute 9. Groden, G & Baron, MG (1988) Autism: Strategies for change, New York: Gardner Press 10. HSU-Min Chian & Yueh-Hsien LIN (2007) Expressive communication of children with Autism, Journal of Autism and development disorder, Springer, Netherland 11. Jones, C & Schwartz, I (2008) when asking questions is not enough: An observational study of social communication differences in high functioning children with Autism, Journal of Autism and developmental disorder, Springer, Netherland. 12. Kaplan & Sadock’s (2007) Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry (10th Edition), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 13. Kalb, R (2004) Multiple Sclerosis: The Questions you have: The answers you need (3rd Edition), New York: Demos medical publishing company. 14. Landreth, GL (2002) Play therapy, Rout ledge Publishers 15. National mental Health Information Center (2008), Bethesda, Maryland, accessed January 12, 2011 @ http.www.nimh.nih.gov 16. National Multiple Sclerosis (2008) Occupational therapy informational sourcebook, accessed January, 12, 2011 @ www.nationalmssociety.org 17. Nelson, A (2005) Going to the Speech therapist, Kids Health 18. Punwar, AJ & Peloquin, SM (2000), Occupational therapy: Principles and practices (3rd Edition, Lippincott William & Wilkins 19. WebMD (2008) Autism Spectrum Disorder, Health center-understanding Autism/symptoms 20. U.S Department of Health and Human Services (1999), Mental Health: A report of the Surgeon General, Rockville, MD: US. Department of health and human services 21. Rudy, L (2007) Terrific traits of Autistic people, Autism Guide, accessed January 12, 2011 @ http://autism.about.com 22. Ulman, E (1987) Variations on a Freudian theme: Three Art Therapy theorists, CRC Press 23. Urdang, E (2002) Human Behavior in the social environment: Interviewing the inner and outer world, the Haworth social work practice
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Patient Name: Angela Chukwuma Date of admission: 02/2/2001 Chief Compliant: Depression, phobia, supernatural and Mysterious feelings,Anxiety, Suicide thoughts, History of Present illness
PSYCHAITRIC FALLOUT OR DIABOLIC EXCORCISM?
Angela is an African female with symptoms of Bipolar disorder and depression. Angela has apparently been depressed over the last three months. The condition (depression) Angela struggles with stem from the fact that she was trying to adjust to a new life in a new environment. With no job and support and also beginning her life anew put her on a difficult edge. As a result, Angela became a worry wart. Sequel to anger and worry, Angela demonstrate feelings of separation anxiety and phobia. All effort to calm her inner worries woefully failed. She begins the day with early morning worry which takes her to late evening nightmare and midnight endless replay of obsessive thoughts. Each day seems that there’s one disaster after another where she descends out of the boiling afternoon sky to a restless, sweat-soaked night sleep. Not only does she have to deal with a fastidious husband who forced her to do things she doesn’t want to do. The frustration of abandoning her dream job was marked by a blistering financial spending spree by her husband. In addition to all these are stressful life issues (new environment), illness, financial stress and trouble with in-laws, all created a nightmare of hell to her.
Angela reported persistent symptoms of chronic fatigue, numbness, depressed mood, loss of weight and poor interest in any social activities, hyper-somnina, and diminished concentration. She reported that her symptoms had lasted several months immediately after she had a quarrel with an in-law. She also reported having frequent phone-calls and argument with her father-in-law. In her own house and environment, “life is hard, lonely and tragic.†Initially, it seems she was expressing shock and depression, but symptoms she described were congruent with the diagnosis of depressive disorder, single episode (APA, 2000) and separation anxiety disorder. A major depressive episode is indicated when Angela met the following DSM-IV-TR criteria’s a) a depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, b) markedly diminished ability to concentrate (APA, 2000) which can be attention-deficit disorder (ADD). Her symptoms stem from mood changes, unemployment and experience with in-laws coupled with the fact that her family were unsupportive. Her distress and her constant mood exacerbated her depressive symptoms, causing her to withdraw from significant social aspects of her life. The continuous stream of negativity and regrets that interrupts her mode of thought late at nights consistently caused her unable to get out of bed in the morning. Angela reports that her thoughts were not focused on one thing but jumps from one negative thought to another. Her depression and worry often drains her energy and make her less likely to make good rational decisions. As a result, Angela would have late night headache, muscle tension, upset stomach, which makes it impossible for her to concentrate on other things. Angela also experienced recurrent episode of aggression due to frustration and sometimes she tore up her cloths and personal belongings. She has been sleeping minimally and has been crying considerably. She admits having feelings of hopelessness, thoughts of death starting on the day before she came to the psychiatric unit for admission. Her last manic episode was last month.
EXCORCISM OR PSYCHIATRIC ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION!
It all began after Angela returned home from work on a brassy rainy evening. On that same evening, there were trembling lightning and thunder storm that engulfed the entire neighborhood that put lights in the living room in total darkness. The sound of the thunder touched the walls and put down pictures hung on the walls. Cups slid back from the dining table and slammed on the floor, and books on the shelves fell down on its own accord. The same strange noise could be heard around the bathroom, living room and the bedroom ceilings. Friends ran to Angela’s house to see for themselves what was going on. Other came to take refuge while others came to see what was amiss. Angela’s husband was terrified as horror events unfolds in his own household. Gripped with fear, friends asked him to hit the alarm system to invite rescue men or to scare off whatever evil that had possessed Angela and overcame the entire household. In a split of seconds, security men arrived and they searched the entire household and found nothing. They found no creature of any kind intruding or inhabiting the household. Five minutes later security officers left, the same noise continued louder than before accompanied by squeaking sounds in the kitchen area. Friends of the family and Angela’s husband began to notice that glasses on the table were turning up and down in the living room.
From time to time, they found Television in the living room turned on and off by itself and plates on the dining table move from its original spot. In all these circumstances, Angela found herself a target of a mysteriously circumstance. In her room, Angela found her own bed cover and mattress shaking randomly obstructing glasses and boxes. The episode continued day after day and night after night. In a maze of fear, Angela’s husband Ekene and few other friends became wild with worry and fear. They suspected that some evil spirit had invaded Angela and had controlled her mind and possessed her body. On a cloudy breezy midnight while Angela was sleeping, her bed began to shake again and she started to scream profusely. Her eyes would stay wild open and fixed and a salivary white substance gushing out from the right side of her mouth. Her pillow was drained and her bed cover were everywhere on the floor as this squeaking sound continued to be heard throughout the household. Ekene quickly rushed Angela into his car and drove her to a nearby Methodist church for prayer and exorcism. Exorcism stems from a Latin word excorismus which means binding by oath. The act of binding by oath is a religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed by causing the entity to swear an oath. This practice is quiet ancient and part of the belief system of many cultures in Nigeria and religions by Christians. The pastor at a local Methodist church John Bosco was a tall lanky man, well known for his long experience in exorcism, deliverance and prayers. John Bosco was called a binder and prayer warrior. Often children and women call him enemy of the dark and of the twilight zone. John Bosco tried earnestly to cast out demons from Angela by hitting her hard like Bakassi boys would beat a thief, but all to no avail. He put Holy Bible on her face, touched her mouth and face with white handkerchief, but her situation was not even better than before. After prayers and long incantation, and after six month of rigorous deliverance without success, he asked Ekene to take her to hospital for psychiatric evaluation and assessment. At the hospital, Angela would laugh at Doctors and Nurses and would throw thing down from their spot making mess in the hospital. Her body would turn pale and take a super human strength. At the end of every routine psychiatric assessment and redirection, Angela would comply to medication and bed rest. Seven days after initial admission in this local psych unit in Nigeria, Angela was believed to be doing better and was discharged and sent home. At home, Angela refused to take her prescribed medications and symptoms of her psych illness came back and took a more difficult form.
A week after her symptoms became worse; Angela was taken to a native medicine man that uses alternative therapy of roots and shrubs to treat chronic mental patients. By night fall after she woke up from her coma, she felt fatigued, footsore and famished. She narrated vivid strange stories of her travel to a strange world killing her husband and children in a dastard battle with the evil one after she was asked to “make a wish.†She narrated how she found a road that led her in what she now knew to be the road to psychiatric hospital in the twilight zone. For her the road was wide and straight as a city street, yet it seemed untraveled and uninhabited. No field bordered it, no dwelling surrounded it. Not so much as the baking of wild dogs or ominous hyena suggested human habitation or animal hibernation. The black bodies of trees formed a straight wall on both sides, terminating on the dead horizon in a point like a diagram dragon in a lesion in life perspective. She narrated that she saw a great wooden but golden stars looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations. Angela expressed that they were arranged in some order which had a secret and harmful outlook. The wood on either side of the forest was full of singular noises of death and human desolation. She narrated that there were something like pain, anguish in their cry and in their limitless tears. As Angela mentioned the word “cryâ€, she heard a strange unknown voice screamed at her to stop talking to those psycho doctors! Immediately, she stopped talking with a smile of ineffable joy, and an attitude of matchless grace and dignity. Angela really was not possessed but displayed psychiatric tendencies.
PAST PSYCHAITRIC HISTORY
Angela has not been diagnosed of any psychiatric condition in the past because she came from a country where psychiatric evaluation and assessment were simply minimal. She reports that she has been hospitalized on 5 different occasions with little or no success. She denies suicide attempts but admits to have overdosed herself of alcohol on many different occasions. Before her admission, Angela has tried Lamictal, Zyprexa, seroquel (orthostatic hypotension), abilify, Zoloft, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, Remeron, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, Vyvanse, Klonopin, Restoril, Ambien and Trazodone.
CURRENT MEDICAL HISTORY
Eye surgery, Hiatal hernia and appendicitis
ALLERGIES: Cloroqine tablets and dark rooms
SUBSTANCE ABUSE: Binge drinker. Angela reported that she has never abused any hard substance or used alcohol excessively. She recollected that she has been in a situation where she could abuse alcohol but she chooses to stay sober.
VOCATIONAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Angela is married and has been in a protracted deadlock with her in-laws for the past 7months. She has a degree in Bio-chemistry and was formerly employed as Sales Rep in a multi national cooperation, Enugu Branch, Nigeria. She has a 2year-old son who stays with Dad while she works. Before this time, Angela had worked as Assistant branch manager at Enugu transportation cooperation, Nigeria. The name Angela is Omnipresent in sales and marketing industries and her face was plastered on untold numbers of billboards and posters sent out on an annual basis by Cooperate office. Her work ethic at the transportation office was humbling, that somewhat cause her to remain deliberately aloof to any good and positive mental health condition. Before her sudden illness, her thoughts on personal and emotional stability as well as temperature of fire in her belly largely remain mostly unknown. Despite her aura of inevitability, Angela largely remains an enigma or what therapists or psychologists would call a “problem patient.â€
FAMILY PSYCHAITRIC HISTORY
Angela denies that any member of her family has been diagnosed of depression, Bipolar disorder or other mental illness. She denies being treated for psychiatric illness or being put on a prayer spot for exorcism. Angela is an emerging family woman facing myriad domestic and cross-cultural shocks in her new environment.
General appearance: Adequately groomed Behavior: Cooperative Sensorial: Very alert Mood: Anxious, Sad, and depressed Affect: Congruent with mood Thought process: Circumstantial Denies delusions Perception: Denies hallucinations Memory: Poor for registration and recall. Intact for recent and remote Attention/Concentration: Distractible, lack of focus, often look confused Insight: Poor Judgment: Poor Estimated Intelligence: Average
DISCUSSION/FORMULATIONS
Angela is an African woman who has a history of bipolar disorder and struggles over internal worry and anger as a result of family conflict with in-laws and the burden of supporting a family of her own. These conditions worsened her mood where she attempted to fight people in a destructive and combatant manner. Regardless whether we chose in the end, the impact of mood changes or the reality of family illusion which resulted in Angela being depressed, one thing is common in this analysis. Angela’s current health condition was as a result of persistent family conflicts, exacerbated by lack of adaptation and limited resources and social support systems. It is not surprising for her to experience shock, confusion and unprecedented display of block-headedness or block-mindedness. It is not surprising for her to feel shy, withdrawn even as her beauty invariably tops the poll ranking as “hottest†or most eligible African queen in her new social environment.
Weakness: Depressed, de-compensated coping skills as a result of separation anxiety disorder.
PLAN: Given that Angela has experienced worsening of mood and disposition accompanied by suicidal thoughts, she is expected to be admitted for safety and stabilization. Given that she has experienced loneliness and phobia accompanied by anxiety, as a result of her separation from in-laws, she is expected to have counseling on separation anxiety disorder. She is to be admitted under voluntary status despite hospital unit arrangement. She is to be monitored for safety issues during her initial phase of assessment and treatment. Angela must discontinue the use of Lamictal and Lithium. On the other hand, she is to benefit from individual and group therapy. She may also benefit from family therapy as the case maybe. The goal of the above therapies will center on reducing her intense anxiety or phobia as a result of separation from Husband and children or other loved ones. Attention must center on helping her regain normal behavior and activities.
DISCHARGE PLANNING
Angela should not be termed suicidal risk patient or problem patient as therapists would suggest. She would not be termed mad or crazy as family members would opine! Angela should be seen as undergoing psychiatric moment as psychiatrists would suggest. Effort to overcome these moments and anomalies should be made to improve her mood at any given time. Upon inpatient stabilization, she will be recommended to continue outpatient psychiatric follow up. She will consider transitioning to partial hospital program near her place of residence. She will be recommended for a follow-up individual therapy.
Summary
The ultimate aim of any psychiatric assessment/treatment or therapy is the recovery of patients such as Angela. It is a grindstone objective of any meaningful therapist that his clients find joy, rejuvenation and fulfillment in the recovery process. To assist patients find fulfillment in their recovery process is the ultimate reason why experimental family therapists and psycho analytic theorists often use the immediacy of therapeutic encounter with patients and family members to help catalyze family’s natural drives towards growth and the fulfillment of individual members’ potentials (Goldenberg et al, 2004). Many of these therapists have succeeded in so many ways and many have equally failed in many different ways in their effort to assist patients experience full recovery. Therefore, the success of any psycho-therapy in health-care profession hinge on prescribing medications, for behavior adjustment and social deviance. These models at different times have helped to alter brain metabolism in the direction of human normalcy.
On one hand, experimental family therapy also has helped OCD, CD patients who experience severe anxiety disorder because of their inability to complete rituals. Behavioral therapy which requires interventions through exposure and response prevention have significantly helped in the recovery of many patients dealing with OCD symptoms, separation anxiety, mood disorder and manic depression. At all times, patients with separation anxiety disorder (SAD), OCD symptoms require family treatment, relaxation training and family counseling in order to clarify communication and troubling discrepancies between family members, patients, pastors, traditional healers and therapists with humanistic effort orientation towards building self-esteem or self-worth in patients. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) from Medtronic is essential here in treating patients like Angela with SAD, and OCD. Exposure/ Ritual prevention is vital for therapists, patients and families in the choice of healing {traditional or psychiatric notwithstanding}. These efforts are geared to present healing transaction and give higher priority to action than insight or book understanding by a social worker. Every behavior, insight, phobia and understanding of symptoms of depression, should be viewed within the therapeutic framework of family structures and values. Therefore, full assessment of family context and structure are essential when prescribing drugs like, placebo, group therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Stress management therapy. The ultimate goal here must aim at healing patients, satisfaction to families, reassurance to therapists, limited turnover to insurance bureaucrats and finally a healthy human society. In sum, Researchers and Veterinarians have found a surprising link between compulsive behavior in humans and compulsive trial-chasing in dogs and high cholesterol. This finding adds to the growing body of literary evidence-mostly from studies on humans-that high cholesterol maybe marker of behavioral problems such as panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder, which could be expressed by frequently tail-chasing in dogs. Bouts of trail-chasing can also occur after a dog experience physical trauma, surgery or illness. This finding was noted by Hasan Batmaz, a member of the faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Turkey’s University of Uludag, who conducted the study along with a team of colleagues (Jennifer, 2008). The reason for a link between humans and animals could be that high cholesterol level glob up cell membranes at the microscopic level affecting the flow of brain hormones such as Serotonin that are involved in mood, anxiety and behavior change as experienced by Angela. Past studies in this light, found that people with panic disorders, separation anxiety disorder and certain phobias as evident with Angela often have higher Cholesterol levels, possibly as a result of increased activity of hormones tied to the “fight or flight†response. Angela is not possessed but undergoing psychiatric fallout. She needs treatment in psychiatry and not prayers in Methodist church. She needs psyche medications and not shrubs from homeopathic healers-utilizing plants, animals and minerals in treatment without assessment.
Gerald Ogbuja
References:
American Psychiatric Association APA, (2000), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorder (4th ed, TR), Washington, DC: Author
DSM-IV-TR, Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association 2000
Jennifer, V (2008), Dog Trail-Chasing linked to high Cholesterol, Discovering News @ http://dsc. Discovery.com
Goldenberg, I & Goldenberg, H (2004), Family therapy: An Overview(6th Ed) Thomson, Brooks/code
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The first physician to identify genetic chromosomal basis of Down syndrome was a British Physician, John Langdon Down. Langdon Down was named after this syndrome because he was the first Guy to identify it as a disability. Sequel to the effort made by Langdon Down, this disorder was identified as chromosome 21 trisomy by Jerome Lejeune, in 1959. Since after then, approximately 4,000 children with Down syndrome are born in the U.S. each year, or about 1 in every 800 to 1,000 births. Statistics is not very clear of the number of individuals in Africa and the Caribbean living with Down syndrome. What I know for sure is that thousand and millions of people in the United States have Down syndrome, than hundreds of children and adolescents in Africa and the Caribbean which is a chronic health condition or a recurring and persistent condition that affects a person’s physical health. More than 90 million people in the United States live with a chronic health condition (Meek, L et al, 2005). Based on mortality trend, one could say that more than 5,000 children and adolescents suffer from this syndrome in Africa and beyond because healthy food and environmental conditions are under question. Down syndrome leads to genetic cause of mild to moderate intellectual and developmental disabilities (NADS, 2010) in children whose families are genetically tied with this disability. The average IQ of people with Down syndrome is about 50, compared to normal children with IQ of about 100 (Liptak, 2008). Scientists in modern times call this disability, chromosomal disorder because it is caused by an error in cell division that results in the presence of an additional three chromosome trisomy, 21.
In any Biology classes, you will come to learn about reproductive organs in human body and how it works to keep human body active. In any study of anatomy, you will also learn that human body is made up of cells and these cells are made of chromosomes. Human cells are made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, half of which are inherited from each parent. Scientists later identified chromosome pair for male as XY while chromosome pair for female as XX. It is believed that when reproductive cells of sperms and cells of an ovum combine at fertilization the fertilized egg that result would contain 23 chromosome pair. A fertilized egg that develops into a female XX will contain a chromosome pairs 1 through 22 while a fertilized egg that develops into male XY; will contain a chromosome pair 1 through 22. And when the fertilized egg contains extra material from chromosome number 21, this results in Down syndrome disability.
There are of course three genetic conditions that cause Down syndrome in children. These three genetic conditions are caused by the presence of extra-chromosome 21 in all cells of an individual. The extra chromosome in the body originates in the development of either the egg or the sperm as the case maybe. As a result, when the egg or sperm unites to form a fertilized egg, three rather than two chromosomes 21 are present. The extra chromosome is repeated in every cell and this repetition is called trisomy, 21. Genetically speaking, Down syndrome is due to mosaic trisomy, 21. This extra chromosome changes the orderly development of the human body and brain. Therefore, a Down syndrome based on genetic or due to Mosaic trisomy, 21 definitely have 46 chromosomes in some cells. Children who have this problem will equally have 47 chromosomes including an extra chromosome 21 in others. An increase or tendency for Down syndrome in children is as a result of increase in maternal age of parents. Women who become pregnant at age 35 and above have the likelihood of having babies with Down syndrome. The likelihood of having babies with Down syndrome continues to increase as women ages. Advancement in age of parents can cause an event that may occur during formation of reproductive cells, the sperm or ovum. Against these backdrop, Eunice (2010) quipped that there may be increased likelihood of Down syndrome in future pregnancies by parents of a child with Down syndrome due to translocation trisomy 21. This experience is common especially when one of the parents maybe a balanced carrier of the translocation. Again, Down syndrome is a result of mitotic error; an error in cell division which occurs after fertilization when sperms and eggs are joined.
Common Characteristics of Down syndrome
Characteristics of people with Down syndrome resulted out of the evolution of genetic revolution. The consequence to any peace at home, family, school and society was rendered ever more fragile by categorizing them as special education students in schools or special people with needs in families and society. Poor muscle tone; Slanting eyes with folds of skin at the inner corners (called epicanthic folds); Hyper flexibility (excessive ability to extend the joints); Short, broad hands with a single crease across the palm on one or both hands; Broad feet with short toes; Flat bridge of the nose; Short, low-set ears; Short neck; Small head; Small oral cavity; and/or Short, high-pitched cries in infancy, all this make them needy individuals in our families (See, Health Newsflash, Online Service). Most patients with Down syndrome are also diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a disease in which the protective covering of nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord are destroyed. Patients who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis always experience tingling and numberless in their body and they may feel tired and dizzy at all times. There is no cure for MS and this disease is common in young adults than in old people. Treatment of MS therefore, includes but not limited to: physical therapy to strengthen muscles, medications, avoidance of stress and extreme temperatures, psychological counseling, and support from family and friends.
Common behavioral problems associated with this disability may include: Impulsive behavior, poor judgment, short attention span and slow learning skills in school etc. Symptoms individual go through could vary from individual to another. Some individuals may have a lower resistance to infections and this condition cause them to develop respiratory problems or sleep apnea. Obesity however, is another tendency that children with Down syndrome go through. There are more than 100 characteristics of Down syndrome in children. Many of them eat break fast before coming to school and still join in the school breakfast and lunch only to return home and have another heavy lunch in a space of four hours. Study shows that individual with Down syndrome suffers from a condition known as Atlantoaxial instability. Atlantoaxial instability is a misalignment of the top two vertebrate of the neck. Misalignment of vertebrate can cause patients to be at increased risk of developing certain medical conditions not necessarily associated with Down syndrome, such as congenital heart disease. Other conditions associated with this syndrome includes but not limited to: a flat facial profile, an upward slant to the eye and learning disabilities etc. Children with Down syndrome suffer from medical health-related conditions.
Some of these conditions include:
Thyroid problems Hearing problems Congenital heart disease Eye problems Seizure disorders Bone, muscle, nerve, or joint problems Leukemia and other cancers Immune system problems Developmental delay Mental retardation Alzheimera’s disease (Emed TV, 2006, Clinaero, Inc).
Treatment of Down syndrome
There is no cure for Down syndrome since it is a problem with gene and chromosomes. Drugs or medicines are not used to treat Down syndrome either. However, medicines are used to treat other related diseases associated with Down syndrome and other health problems that may arise or develop as the case maybe. Antibiotics can be used for ear infections and thyroid hormones for under active thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). Treatment of Down syndrome also focuses on controlling symptoms and any medical conditions that come along as a result of Down syndrome. Some medical condition observed on people with Down syndrome requires expert medical surgery. Half the number of people with this problem has congenital heart disease and early onset of pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs). Common congenital heart problems include: Tetralogy of Fallot Persistent ductus arteriosus Atrial septal defect Ventricular septal defect.
Doctors have been warned time without number to engage in initial diagnosis of Down syndrome at the birth of the child based on how such baby looks. Therefore, doctors may hear a heart murmur when listening to Babies chest with stethoscope (Neil, K et al, 2010). Nurses and healthcare providers must have a blood test done to check for extra chromosomes. There are other tests that are required to be done because they are essential, namely: Echocardiogram, ECG and X-rays of the chest and gastrointestinal tracts (Neil, K et al, 2010). Again, counseling is believed to be beneficial to patients and parents at the onset of this syndrome. Meeting with occupational therapists, Nurses, counselors or member of the clergy can be very beneficial in coping with stress associated with this disease. A Down syndrome support group can be very helpful to patients and families in letting out their feelings and concerns (Auther, Schoenstadt, emed TV).
Behavioral training can help people with Down syndrome and their families deal with frustration and Anger and compulsive behavior that may arise in the process. This is why parents and care givers should learn to help a person with Down syndrome deal with frustration and irritability. Special education and training are relevant for children with delayed mental development. Speech therapy would help improve language skills or expressive development. Physical therapy would teach movement skill. Occupational therapy would help with feeding and performing skills. Mental health care would help both parents and the child in question to manage mood or behavior problems (Neil, K. et al, 2010). Women who are at high risk (advanced maternal age, positive AFP tests, or a history of previous child with Down syndrome) may benefit from additional ultrasound scans between 18 and 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Patients and families with Down syndrome disease must ensure that they safeguard patients and guard against their immune systems- i.e. protection of the inside of the body. The immune system, the white blood cells help the body fight pathogens as lymphocytes. When a pathogen enters the body, lymphocytes multiply in lymph tissue to fight any kind of infection. This immune system helps patients with Down syndrome develop lasting immunity. Immunity is the body’s resistance to disease due to presence of antibodies. For example, after a patient with Down syndrome recovers from an illness like chicken pox virus, the same chicken pox antibody would remain in the body of such patient and protect him or she from developing the sickness caused by chicken pox again. Patients with Down syndrome therefore must be safeguarded in order for them to develop active immunity. Active immunity is resistance to disease due to the presence of antibodies. After a patient with Down syndrome recovers from chicken pox virus, the chicken pox antibody remains in his or her body and protects him or her from developing chicken pox (Meek, L et al, 2005).
Gerald Ogbuja
More Information on Down syndrome
National Down syndrome Congress 1370 Center Drive, Suite 102 Atlanta, GA 30338 (800) 232-6372; (770) 604-9500 Web address: http://www.ndsccenter.org/ National Down Syndrome Society 666 Broadway, 8th Floor New York, NY 10012 (212) 460-9330 (1-800) 221-4602 (Toll Free)
The Arc of the United States (formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States) 1010 Wayne Avenue, Suite 650 Silver Spring, MD 20910
References National Association for Down syndrome (2010) retrieved November 19, 2010 @ http://www.nads.org Eunice K Shilver, (2010), Facts about Down syndrome, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institute of health. Health Newsflash (2010) Down syndrome facts and Information, retrieved November, 19 2010 @ http://www.healthnewsflesh.com Meeks, L Heit, P & Page, R (2005), Health and Wellness, the MC Graw-Hill, Glencoe Companies, Inc Neil, K.K & David, Z (2010) Down syndrome, Medline plus, US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of health
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Imagine your grand-father wandering off from the house at 6pm on a Sunday evening after a super bowl match. Imagine you and your family searching frantically for him in the house of Uncles, Nephews and friends for days and weeks without finding him. Imagine he was found walking along streets laughing and clapping his hands! Imagine your grand-mom getting lost after a shopping spree from Wall mart super stores. Imagine that her body was later found in a ditch along the subway. After the darkness has dropped and you brought her back to the house, imagine that you found her sprawled asleep, suspecting nothing and her dreams very much disturbed. Couple hours again, you found her in an unpleasant spot in the house where the wind and echo stirs, and storms splash towards the doorway! This happens to lots of men and women, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, employed or unemployed who have Alzheimer’s disease. A man can go for a walk and would not return home again. A woman can go for shopping and would not return back to family again. Some Alzheimer’s have lost their way among the tangled mazes of the street or swamp and sink into some pit or slough; others decoyed into dismal quagmire where they are found lying conformably or uncomfortably. Even the fiercest tempered, loud of tongue, the genius of ideas, the rocket of science and strong of arms lose their memory to Alzheimer’s disease. One of the leading causes of death in old people in American society today is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s could also be one of the leading causes of death among the elderly in Africa and the Caribbean. The price of this disease hurts members of the family and the cost of controlling it is very worrisome and disappointing. People who live with Alzheimer’s disease may be more likely to feel a sense of dissatisfaction and frustration. Anyone but Alzheimer’s patients would have felt unwilling to linger with this sickness for a long time. What is it that gives Alzheimer’s patients and families value and meaning in life? Is it self-expression or dependence on family for help at all times? Is it lack of organization and the inability to know where one is at any moment in time? But who is there whose story of memory loses is more pathetic or terrible to hear? Who is there whose family has been so changed by this late-life illness leaving them with nothing but ferocious agonies and sorrows? How there have family members tolerated such illness in such a silence for a very long time? The tragic experiences we know about this illness are hard enough for families to bear! And there is nothing we can say to make it worse!
According to Alzheimer’s association, an estimated 5.3 million Americans suffer from this disease and it is the seventh leading cause of death. Studies by some mental health literatures reveal that, Alzheimer is generally called a disease of the human brain. Unlike Dementia, Alzheimer’s causes brain cell to die permanently. Once the brain cells dies, the memory of the victim will lose natural control and as this condition progress and spreads, it affects a growing number of intellectual, emotional and behavioral abilities. While dementia causes intellectual decline and poor judgment, Alzheimer’s gradually affects every aspect of the human body. In advanced societies, Alzheimer’s disease comes in a form of depression while in developing countries like Africa and the Caribbean; it comes in a form of stroke, brain infection and hypertension. Symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s include but not limited to: loss of short-term memory and mild-personality changes, such as social withdrawal and mild apathy. Adults (men or women) with Alzheimer’s have trouble with abstract thinking, handling money or other personal affairs. They have trouble knowing where they are at any given time. They have problem understanding what they are reading and they lack the ability to organize activities for the day. Different from Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients, Alzheimer’s always feel troubled and irritable when dealing with family members. This is a peculiar experience patients witness at the onset of this illness. But in later stages in the illness, patients become seriously confused and disoriented, showing significant personality and emotional changes, develop incontinence and ultimately become unable to care for themselves (UTHCPC pamphlet, 2009).
These symptoms are common to elderly in both cultures. The inability to remember makes it difficult for most elderly individuals in both cultures to keep a definite account of the past, present and the future. Patients with Alzheimer’s occasionally becomes irritable, troubled with themselves and others. These patients appear to be very poor in their overall physical appearances. They are often confused and seriously disorientated showing significant personality and emotional changes. While this is the case, majority of them often develop incontinence and are unable to care for themselves when left alone. At the moment, scientific research and medical studies have not been able to identify the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Despite scientific silence and weakness on this subject, protein miss-folding and aggression have been linked to brain damage experienced by Alzheimer’s patients, said Claudio Soto, PhD Director of the George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell center for Alzheimer’s disease and related Brain disorders at UTHealth. For a very long time now, scientists have demonstrated more zeal to find solution to this problem yet they have been unable to cure this late-life mental illness. The reason is because there is no break through yet. Because there is no cure at the moment, medication appears to be the only therapeutic outlet that controls symptoms.
Treatment and How Family Could Assist Patients
Studies have identified different ways families can assist patients of Alzheimer’s disease. One of the ways family can help is constant monitoring and assisting them to take their medication on a daily basis. Families must keep them on a constant watch and observation to avoid them from wandering away like the shopping grandmamma. We are aware that medication is not good for old people because it compounds their condition as old patients. Patients who believe strongly in the efficacy of alternative therapy (Africans and Caribbean’s) always hold this as an excuse to avoid taking prescribed medications. Families therefore, should help old patients to be aware of their medications and the overall physical health status. They should work closely with therapists, physicians to find regimens that are safe and effective (UTHCPC Pamphlet, 2009). Families and friends can as well help by offering emotional support in a form of understanding, patience, affection, empowerment, guidance and encouragement. Any form of encouragement from friends and family members can transform into positive changes and attitude. Positive change torches the physical, mental, emotional and social aspects of human lives. It is altogether important that family encourage patients seeking further treatment if current treatment is not working for them. Since caring for the elderly is financially demanding, families and friends are to continue in this generous work of charity. In your distress, it is not astonishing that you will bear a double load of suffering, a double load of pain. A man completely lost who do not know that he is lost should not be despised by family members. Ignorance of the fact that they are lost lessens the voltage of agony they brought to family members, friends and themselves. The kindest thing would be for family members to be there to see and to bear with them. Family members should take them to psychiatric centers that deliver comprehensive psychiatric programs and clinical social services. Good psychiatric facilities are composed of psychiatric physicians, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, dieticians, certified Nursing Assistants etc. These professionals can provide Alzheimer patients with individualized care or outpatient partial hospitalization program and intensive outpatient assistance, providing continuity of care recently released from the psychiatric outpatient clinics or hospital or requiring a regular structured program. When these professionals and family members engage in assisting patients with Alzheimer’s with their conditions, they are not simply empowering them but inspiring them as well. Gerald Ogbuja
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The only solution to Nigerian religious crisis is for Muslims in the North to accept the Aladuras in the West as human beings. Again, the only solution to Nigerian tribal conflict is for people to make the North habitable for Southerners. To seek this kind of solution now makes Nigerian aristocrats feel frightened at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The act of accepting the other is love personified and tolerance exemplified. I say this because for so long I have gazed on the great walls of tribalism and saw with great optimism that the power of love is the ultimate weapon that could strike tribalism down. Love ultimately helps us to overcome ignorance of the other. Love quenches the longing thirst for hatred; love broadens the heart struck down by the pain of past injuries; love hopes after exhaustion which it brings freely to all people still under the yoke of material bondage struggling courageously to extricate themselves from tribal separation and the dungeon of religious intolerance. Love helps us to strive for a world where the poorest and humblest among us could enjoy the fulfillment of the promise of a good life in a nation of plenty. Love therefore, is the only powerful weapon that could seize the imagination of Christians and sensuality of Muslims alike. It is the only weapon that could arrest the attention of all mankind. Love challenges us to do away with those treasured human values such as institutional tribalism, economic injustices, political thuggery and social isolation. Many Nigerian citizens from different tribes and from different religious denominations do not understand the real meaning of love. Many have forgotten how we were indebted to the stubborn tradition of anger, hatred and religious wrangling. The actual opposition encountered by Christians and their firm determination to put righteousness, and morality at forefront, before tribal sentiment and before religious wrangling or before social and political expediency would help shape some of our most fundamental values and institutions.
Only today are thoughtful Igbo man is beginning to ponder the extent of religious and tribal problems within Nigerian society. Only today that citizens have realized that Nigeria as a nation has about four major ethnic tribes within its borders and a total of about 521 dialects. In some areas in Nigeria, ethnic groups speak more than one language. The official language in Nigeria is English, the formal colonial language, chosen to facilitate cultural and linguistic unity of the country. These ethnic groups have with them identifiable characteristics, languages and traditions. Seemingly, the Soviet like American race has about 70 major nationalities within its borders and a total of about 160 people with identifiable characteristics, languages and tradition (Sakharov, 1968). America has multi-racial groups within its borders with major racial people with identifiable characteristics, languages and way of life. Many of these ethnic groups in Nigeria with different religious upbringings have remained largely dissatisfied after fifty years of Nigerian independence largely because of repressive and chauvinistic polices on religion and tribal affiliations. Unless Nigeria takes leadership of the fight against tribalism and religious intolerance, the coming crises will impose upon future generation a cynical and anti-tribal peace. This is no oblique criticism but a progressive prediction of long enduring national problem and danger. It always takes a long desolate night of frustration to realize a prophetic call for adjustment. But it always take speedy short while to reach a dead end of human disaster and regrets.
There are times when local oppositions and tribal loyalty reflected the old prevailing national mood of people. A mood devoid of love anchors its principles on hate where the cancer of tribal bigotry would infect Nigerian cherished democratic morals and traditions. When Nigerian moral principles are infected by the cancer of tribal hatred or religious dichotomy, many people would say there is no peace. Many will feel things are not moving as it should be. Many will say they were being judged wrongly and treated unfairly. For the many who enthrone hatred and tribal wrangling in the North, these demands are prosecuting their banal acceptance of social, political and economic freedom. Nothing impresses human spirit than to work against the forces that undermine Nigerian precious values. Nothing rejuvenates the mind than to participate in a combat effort to overcome division and hatred of the other in a nation of vast tribal and religious fronts. Nothing gladdens the heart than to be part of the struggle for religious unity and tribal codification. Indeed, I am disappointed with those of us who in a very short while have transformed into “sacred cows†or “thanksgiving turkeys†who had not responded quickly to the urgent call for a new opportunity for social change. Change cannot come when human dynamism is dormant. Change cannot come when Christians fail in their responsibilities or when there is tribal complacency or when people refused to become an integral part of a national struggle. I know that scores of Christians in the North both lay and clergy; atheists and spirituals had risked their lives, properties and families for the cause of religious freedom. I know that many Christian churches have been burnt down to ashes, vandalized in desolate midnight and looted in bright sunny afternoon. But I am happy and inspired by the heroic courage and un-quantifying love in the face of hatred; to show forgiveness in the face of belligerence; to be very resilience carving out creative spirit with emotional serenity. These acts are glorious examples in the history of Christendom. For never in human history, have Christians coexisting within a Muslim society were able to be on the receiving end in such naked brutality and violence as we are witnessing today in Nigeria.
These experiences were not different from the experiences Christian’s witnessed in the catacombs where God’s house as symbol weathered as found among the Israelites in Egypt and among Igbo folks in the North. In the face of violence and hatred and in an effort to repay hatred with pure love, Christians have always transformed their lives as paragons of faith. They have always transformed their willingness to forgive into adaptive and creative spirit. Hate as I know very well is not a beautiful phenomenon. Hate is ugly and this is why it is antithesis to creative spirit of love. Hate can never undo love’s monumental contribution to moral, social, political and spiritual history. Hate can never undo the values and blessings of human endurance. In a tribal society, love often attract all together otherwise, Muslim- North would feel they were indeed the showcase of God’s blessing; and Christian -East would feel they too were on their way to promise land- One similar to the one occupy by the people of Israel in Egypt. A religious or tribal society that is not founded on love rapidly crumbles where people who were initially united would scramble to catch as many of the windfalls as possible. On one hand, a united society with greater sense of love among citizens often are considered the new moral and religious beacon light for unrighteous world lost in a hopeless wilderness of sin and decadence. These are part of the stunning empowerment or insightful portrayal of tribal and religious movement or network that nurtured and supported a free society. Whenever I am asked my opinion of the current state of religious and tribal disagreement in Nigeria, I am forced to pause because it is not easy to describe a crisis so profound that has caused an oil nation like Nigeria to stagger in confusion, poverty and bewilderment. What might once have been a series of tribal disagreement and religious intolerance now merges into national crises of almost stupefying complexity. Nigerian Nation cannot move forward without first addressing these two tormenting issues. Today, Nigeria’s problems in religion and tribal conflicts are so acute because the tragic evasions and defaults of religious freedom have accumulated to disaster proportion. This makes the very future of Nigerian nation to hang on the balance, depending on capricious turn of events where Christians and Muslims would have no control especially when violence and bitterness launches people into an utterly dark dungeon.
I therefore subject myself to logical articulation and self-purification and as well as endless self-analysis when it comes to tribalism, poor socio-economic conditions of human lives and religious fundamentalism. I subject myself to the keystone of my judgment believing strongly in the future that one day Nigeria will find alternative to tribalism. This hope and promises in the future would thwart every design planted by messengers of the dark and administrators of economic division. This promise and hope would someday lead to a thoroughly integrated society, where all will be treated equal, where there would be no Islam, Christians, traditional religionists, where everybody will be his sisters-keeper and cohabitate for the sake of common good. This hope would someday conform to the universal declaration of human rights where leaders and the led would acknowledge that men and women are born free and both have equal rights and dignity within a serene sovereignty. This same hope would reenergize everyone to accept undisputable fact that social distinctions are founded only upon the general good. It would help our tribes to reenact the aims of political aspiration as preservation of natural rights of man. The natural rights of men are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. But if the trend of events continues to move corporately in the direction of collective brotherhood and in the united spirit of sisterhood, we would have moved a long, long way toward such a just and ideal society. Ideal societies have always proved its strength and effectiveness in all tribal frontiers that make-up a nation. I say all these because I know with great conviction that the nexus of objective politics and the true foundation of democratic government in Nigeria lies in unity and compromise. Leaders of developing nations must always dramatize their strength against tribal and religious intolerance just as leaders of advanced democratic nations had for long dramatized their wisdom in racial unity and coalition. Leaders of developing nation must have to do that until the last of those who impose those injustices are forced to change attitude; until finally each tribe wins the protection of the other; until every tribe, is allowed to worship the God of their own understanding, until everybody is stricken gloriously and incurably tribe-free and faith- free. Faced with the dramatic quest for unity and freedom of religious worship, and refusal to hit back when provoked, religious oppressors would found, as the oppressed have always found in the past that they are glued with their own barbarity.
Paraphrasing the penetrating words of Gandhi, “We will match your capacity to inflict suffering on us with our capacity to endure suffering from you. We will meet your physical force with soul-force. We will not hate you, but we cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws. We cannot in moral conscience accept unfair treatment you bring in our lives. We cannot accept your unjust laws because law is the expression of the general will. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children; send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities and drag us out on some wayside road, beating us and leaving us half dead, and we will still love you. But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom to worship, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.” The way of Christian- Muslims and the message of non confrontational effort mean a willingness to suffer, a motivation to accept sacrifice and to win in the long last. When this form of rational motivational love takes place, guilt-ridden sectional majority in the Nigeria would live in fear that if frustrated poor Christians from the South-South should ever attain religious freedom, they would act without restraint or pity to revenge the injustices or the brutality of the past years. It is just like a higher deity, Amadioha who continuously mistreats a lower deity, Agwu. One day that higher deity, Amadioha raises his hands to strike the lower deity, only to discover that the lower deity Agwu is as strong as he is. The higher deity is suddenly afraid and fearful that the lower deity Agwu will use his new physical forces to repay the almighty deity for all the blows and humiliations of the past. Christians and people from the East who once were helpless children, has now grown in stature, they have grown in strength, dignity, politically, economically and culturally. As humans, we must transform and grow in all these areas of life. We must grow in education, in commerce and industry, in science and technology. We must grow in craft and trade so as to benefit from the merits of our handwork. We must transform in self awareness, self-affirmation and self-determination. To achieve these social and economic transformations, every citizen must be allowed to participate personally, or through electoral representations. And every benefit or reward must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes, whether it nurtures or denatures. All tribes being equal are eligible to these dignities and to public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, without distinction except in virtues and talents.
This organized effort would help cast away fears of Christians as Nehru would say. In the end, Muslims and agitators from the North would have no option than to grant religious freedom to Christians from the East, who has developed a new form of respect for themselves as Christians. Indeed, something must happen to those who are deprived of freedom to worship; to touch the hearts and souls of men who perpetrate religious intolerance that they will someday come together without sabotage, without back-biting, without being jealous to another; without placing oneself on the same par with one who nature and destiny has designed that he is greater than you; that we will come not because Christianity is about nonviolence, but because it is natural and right. In order words, Christian’s ultimate goal in a society of religious disunity is religious integration which is religious freedom and ecumenism. It is only through ecumenism and religious integration that these goals can be achieved otherwise angry passion and deep prejudice will arise and rumble. The spiritual power that Christians can radiate to their Muslim brothers must come from love. This spiritual power must draw strength from understanding, goodwill, free spirit and ecumenism. It may even be possible for Christians through ecumenism and adherence to one another that it may even be possible for other faith to seriously seek alternative to tribalism. This is why eternal appeal always takes the form of a warning: “All who take the sword will perish by the sword.” All who see the pen as might will do mighty things with pen. All who provoke tribal or religious intolerance will crush down Mosques and cathedrals. All who show great strength by fighting the other will kill people in leaps and bounds.
A voice greater than John the Baptizer once echoed long ago saying to tribal peters and violent Mohammed’s, “put up your sword and slut it back into its stealth.” History is undiluted with wreckages of nations, whether tribal, democratic, monarchic, dictatorial that failed to follow this Islamic or Christian command. A French philosopher once said, “No man is strong unless he bears within his character antithesis strongly marked.” This is why Martin Luther would admit that “the strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites. Luther argued further that “not ordinarily do men achieve this balance of opposites because the idealists are not usually realistic, and the realistic are not usually idealistic. The militants are not generally known to be neither passive, nor the self assertive humble in themselves. Both are not the sameâ€. Because we are not of the same tribe, Muslim faith always disagrees with Christian faith. Both faiths are not the same but they point to one ultimate truth- God. Their respective teachings are different and their respective methods are dissimilar. Because they are dissimilar, they follow different paths to arrive at that ultimate and profound reality. Muslim faith has continued to reject Christian truth with dogmatic passion and calamitous hatred. With love, Christians can turn Islamic hatred into passion and brotherhood. With love Igbo man can turn Hausa anger into creative tolerance. They can change the spirit of dichotomy into complimentarily. To do these would mean to transform Christian religious elegy from sinking into the valley of religious irrationality or paralyzing tribal hatred. Any love crusade directed to your enemy would prevent them from falling into the marsh waters of obsolete materialism and religious nihilism.
Today, many people have failed to understand that there can be no peace in a nation where faith and tribal sentiments move on opposite direction. There can be no peace in advance democracy where racial spirit is standing opposed to each other, rolling sleeves to engage in what Jack Nicholson told Tom Cruise “Stand Opposed†in the movie “a few good men.†Those who have this kind of feelings are the ones who argue blindly that tribal or racial division is what is appropriate for Christians and followers of peace movement. They are the ones who love to see lovers of serene spirit go down and crumble. They are the ones who love to beat up the weaklings and that is all they have the enthusiasm to do. They are the ones who torture and torment weaker people in society, and why, because he is Christian or an Igbo man. This same people argue that corruption and poverty should be perpetuated because Christians and people from the South-South are lagging behind in academics, health, employment and moral standard. They find glorious meaning to this belief because Southern mortality rate is far too high while Eastern level of cleanliness is frequently too low. The South-East is too often loud with tribal music in their cars and boisterous in negatives about fellow Igbo-folks. Yet, we spend too much money on drinks, pull-down and demolishing instead of erecting, building, encouraging and empowering the other. And the belief and faith that move people to behave as they do are opaque to others; and as we read or watch the news, we witness with chagrin that lunacy together with tribal suspicion and religious contempt seem to be the order of the day. All these are capable to cause one to believe that heaven is hell and hell, heaven. One of the great needs of mankind is to be lifted from the morass of false belief and negative propaganda about heaven and hell. My assumptions always rest on making evident that hell is not heaven and that heaven can never be hell. At all times, I believe that both are not the same and both can never be same. To believe in its sameness is to say that heaven has a rapport with hell and that Angels are affiliated to Satan and the demonic.
Many philosophers, Agnostics (a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable), politicians, authors, pragmatists and existentialists I have read their works are suspicious of the entire drama of faith, violence and disunity. Many have the view that the true value of certain claims, especially claims about the existence of or nonexistence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims is unknown and unknowable. This is why many of us have woefully failed to compare the similarities and differences between our tribal similarities with racial conflicts and differences in advance societies. Failure to engage in such enterprise would blur our vision about similarities and differences between beliefs, between tribes, between religions and knowledge, rather than about any specific claim of things. Many of us also are suspicious and nostalgic of the whole project of epistemology- of saying which intellectual habits deserve respect, and which ones do not. Our tribal attitude reflects that same suspicion-of saying which religion deserve to be treated fairly, and which ones does not; which tribe deserve to receive more resources and grants and which ones does not. Words like tribalism, racism, Christianity, “Islamism†and “post modernism†signals a resulting faith of a cultural people in which anything goes; in which people are murdered; in which people dies; in which progress is cut short like in a twilight zone etc. All these are object of my daily suspicion and reflection. They are object of general suspicion to Christians and Muslims and people from the South-South.
The object that man is the measure of all things is very troubling to me and poignant and crippling to those who have a higher destiny here on earth. This is why sectional minded individuals see tribe, race, ethnicity, ideology and faith, as the only measure of human life that is becoming a big issue in modern reflective or philosophical discourse. As Francis bacon would say, “The idols of the tribe are founded in human nature itself and in the very tribe or race of mankind. The assertion that human senses are the measure of things is false; to the contrary, all perception both of senses and mind, are relative to man, not to the universe. Human understanding is like an uneven mirror receiving rays from things and merging its own nature of things, which however distorts and corrupts it.†(The New Oreganon: XLI, P 41) As our perceptions are relative so are our tribes relative to each other. And when our tribes are related to each other, human beings would find peace and co-exist and unity will prevail unlike before. Unity is a cosmological reality and that was why Martin Luther cautioned and quipped, “Everyman must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.â€
Perhaps, writing about tribal unity and religious peace is something most authors are not interested in, but I always feel satisfied that such enterprise is a genuine choice rather than constraint. I feel that its impact would bring men and faith together, rather than narrowing our relationships. It would one day lead to collaboration rather than widening of the canon. It is very obvious that when unity, compromise and collaboration are achieved, minorities in Nigeria will together develop cosmic energy to speak for themselves. They will develop cosmic energy to fight for their rights. They will develop courage to approach people from other tribes like a prosecutor approaches a jury, bombarding people on the stand with testimonials from expert witnesses. Even when they failed to develop cosmic energy, courage imbued in compromise will transform their current climate of hatred into captivating spirit of unity where citizens would never meet with rapturous reception of enmity. Part of brilliance associated with the spirit of collaboration therefore is the inclusion of the other in tribal and religious matters rather than in ominous plot against another that results in anguished voice of disunity. And when compromise is achieved, certain experiences of conflict, of religious indifference, of other races, of other tribes, perhaps of other religions would no longer be appropriate territory for human imagination. Only then would dialogue, collaboration, and compromise promote unity and friendship. These three values have always given direction for a better political understanding and ethnic association. As Sydney Cox says in his opinionated book, Indirection, the pleasures of collaborative narratives ties everybody together in the wings of symmetry, where all human attachment and association makes sense for the common good. Therefore, the strategy of peaceful co-existence and collaboration must be deepened in every way possible to avoid a confusing state of affair or encouraging what Sartre might have termed a hemorrhaging between conflict and coexistence. We must realize that a confusing state of tribal or religious affair is nothing but misery and disaster that adversely cause people to escape their confines to the unknown.
Gerald Ogbuja
Reference
Sakharov, A.D (1962) Progress, Co-existence, and intellectual freedom, New York, W.W Norton & Company, Inc
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
(Codewit.com)Just as tribalism and religious indifference have become an act of sensationalism in Nigerian symbol for peace, dialogue, unity and compromise has altogether become tactical weapon used by most peace negotiators to wipe the slate of our religious antagonism clean. Effort towards compromise and unity is illustrated in many inspiring stories such as the one you are about to read. Once there were two tribes- North and South. The North was Muslims and the South was Christians with a handful of traditional religionists. These two tribes lived in a diverse ethnic country and shared among themselves the different mineral resources bequeathed to them by nature. They spoke different ethnic dialects which often times hindered progress, compromise and unity. They practiced different cultural values that differentiated them from the other. However, the two tribes displayed uncompromising attitude towards power and towards who get what not. The North believed that they had a divine mandate or manifest destiny to rule Nigeria. And the South say they too have ancestral empowerment and support to benefit from the windfall of oil money. The North has always believed that recruitment into Nigerian army is their manifest destiny. The East and South-South who seems to be minorities say they are marginalized and suppressed even when nature’s endowment that make up the nation’s income flows from their backyard. One day, traditional rulers of these two ethnic tribes – the Caliphate and Eze in chief set out on an expedition to seek for unity and compromise in a distant land of the twilight zone. Both rulers moved across fields marred by hatred, religious wrangling, tribal conflict, nepotism and hypocrisy. On their way to this mystery land, they met with a Soothsayer playing drum of unification and compromise. The Soothsayer in question was a very old man who had lost his five senses: sights; legs and ability to hear but have a long evil troubling nose that he uses to smell people who came to ask favor from him.
As this Soothsayer played his mystery drum with accuracy, prompt and rhythm, a little mechanical man and woman came out of this drum of unity and danced freely and mysteriously. Both kings had never seen such a drum before, and they staked their own lives and begged the Soothsayer to give both drums to them for keeps. Why must I give it to both of and why are both of you asking for this drum at the same time, he asked these two ethnic representatives? We heard it was a drum of peace, tribal negotiation and religious compromise! The Soothsayer looked at these tribal kingpins and laughed. “I will give it to you†he said, but only if you are really bad to citizens of your tribes and ethnic communities. Come back next anniversary of your independence day and tell me how bad and corrupt you have made your communities and tribes, and I will give you the drum. As soon as the two leaders got back to their tribes, they began to insinuate trouble during elections and encouraged bribery and corruption in both higher and lower sections of their communities. They increased people’s pain and suffering and brought more poverty than before. Strike became rampant and human atrocities intensified and became a new profession for the unemployed. Muslims fought Christians, Christians disparaged traditional religionists and government contracts were awarded based on favor or who you know at the corridors of power. At dawn, people robbed banks and individuals at gun point leading to a state of chaos, anarchy and intertribal violence. The Niger Delta became another theatre of war because the oil money has been hijacked by the privileged few and relationship is now based on friends of benefit. As a result, citizens did all they could to frustrate progressive effort towards democratic reform. Traditional prime-ministers and citizens of the communities altogether have become bad and have developed a bad blood for each other. Christians and Muslims developed tough skin against each other and would not see eye to eye.
The next Independent year, the Caliphate and Igwe hurried off to find the Soothsayer. “We were really bad with our subjects over the years.†They told him, “So please give us the drum of compromise.†The two kings once again told him how reckless they had governed their subjects with iron-fist instead of intellectual and human-fist. They told the soothsayer how they had injected atrocities acts against the innocent. The Soothsayer laughed again in disgust. “Oh, you must be much worse than that to your subjects if I must give you this drum of unification and compromise,†he said. As soon as both leaders got back to their tribes, they made life more hopeless, more miserable and more intolerable to their subjects. At every moment, there were vehement protests because the oil wealth has incurred the wrath of bakassi boys. And profit of community resources were used by few Feudal aristocratic fraction in the North. This condition resulted in ceaseless conflict of interest over the allocation of natural resources; where appointment to positions of honor received enduring kickbacks before it is accepted. Hunger took toll on people where starvation and malnutrition created community imbalance that gave rise to conflict of opinion among people. Early in the morning the next Independence Day, both tribal leaders rushed off to go find the drum of unification. When they found the Soothsayer, he was not sleeping either but playing the drum again and this point in time a Christian and Muslim were dancing together for the first time. Either by coincidence or by design, the two dancers were beginning to appreciate the other and the dancing steps. The guests told the Soothsayer how confused their tribes had been since the last they came. That must be bad enough to get the drum of compromise, they said to the soothsayer. “Oh, no,†said the Soothsayer, “you must be much tribal and divided than that,†“But we promised our tribes we would return with the drum,†said these two traditional rulers. “If you really want the drum, said the Soothsayer, “you must be more divisive and you must be able to hate the other just as Lucifer hated Christ.â€
As soon as they got home they engaged in nepotism, bribery and corruption. They ignited political crises that split people asunder. All these got their root by the widespread violence and internal disorder. Early the next independence year, the two community leaders ran to see the Soothsayer. They told him how much corruption they had planted; how much money they had starched into foreign accounts and how far they had plundered the economy. “Can we have the drum of unification now, please?†“No,†said the Soothsayer “I never meant to give it to you in the first place. I never hoped the country to be united. It was just a game we were playing. I thought you knew better.†To some people this story is a portrayal of “trail of tears†that subjects within a nation receive from their community rulers. For others, it portrays how insensitive and how slow leaders can be in seeking the welfare of the common man. Irrespective of how this story is crafted or perceived, or what it portrays, the abundant lesson it carries call our attention to the desire for unity in a tribally divided culture. A symbol of unity in this narrative is the mysterious drum. A symbol of unity in a diverse racial society like America is the status of liberty. While the status of Trojan horse would always stand as symbol for treachery, the status of liberty would always stand as a gesture of friendship between France and the United States. American status of liberty has always stood as a symbol of hope, opportunity and freedom. This status has represented ethnic, racial and religious mix that stands witness to the premise and promise citizens share. It represented diversity in unity that makes up American diversity. Today, there are more blacks in the United States than in any country except Nigeria and Zaire. More Poles live in greater Chicago area than in any city except Warsaw. Miami is the second largest Cuban city in the US; New York City has the largest Jewish population. California is the second largest city with great economic power; the third is Chicago Illinois and the fourth is Houston Texas with largest Spanish inhabitants. According to National Geographic magazine (1986), “more Americans claim English origins than England’s total population. Those claiming Irish blood outnumbered the Irish in Ireland 11 to 1. Not even the census bureau can be sure of this, but Hispanics now exceed 7 percent of our nearly 240 million people.†One thing Nigerian Nation is not and would never is just like the United States is to be a melting pot. The reason is because they are united by states just like United Kingdom’s of England of Great Britain.
Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkurumah were two patriots who call for a need for United States of Africa but their ideas were neglected and swashed. They called for a union of states despite ethnicity and diversity. Therefore, our ethnic tribes can as well melt down and be poured into cultural molds like chocolate soldiers. If a metaphor is needed in this creative analysis, we might one day be called a stew or bouillabaisse, where each ingredient (tribe) remains unique but adds flavor to the whole condiment (country). Even various American Indian groups whose ancestors first came 12,000 years ago or more, still maintain their unique tribal, linguistic and cultural differences. If we should seek alternative to tribalism and ways to overcome religious indifference like these two leaders sought this drum in a fairyland, history would begin with us. If we should burn alive our old idea of hate, our hearts would be liberated to embrace a new idea of love and collaboration. In 213 B.C, Chinese Emperor Shih Huang 11 thought that if he burned all the documents in his kingdom, history would begin with him. He went as far as burning alive scholars who continued to teach and writer old ideas on how unity could be achieved. There are times when old ideas are priceless, and there are times when they are not. Wisdom is of old while intelligence is of the new and modern. Solomon used wisdom but modern man used artificial intelligence (computer). We can reinterpret the old as Old Testament and the new as New Testament. The old will pass away and the new would replace her. That has always been the central conundrum of universal cosmology: the very quality that makes it so fascinating-the way ancient and modern milestones are reflected and analyzed. In the recent interfaith dialogue, it was Raimon Panikkar, a Harvard scholar and professor set the Christian world astir insisting that Christianity could learn from Muslims and Eastern religions. Educated by Jesuits during a childhood in Spain, this diminutive scholar took his first journey to India. He left and was deeply changed by the spiritual wisdom he found there. “I left Europe (for India) as a Christian. I discovered I was a Hindus and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian.†Panikkar spent most of his life drawing connections between religious traditions and downplaying their differences and seeking for ways to arrive at unity and compromise. The dictionary meaning of the word compromise is a settlement of differences by mutual concession; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principle, etc. To make compromise therefore, is to make a deal where one tribe or religion gives up part of his or her demand. In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms- often involving a variation from an original goal or desire. Extremism is often considered as antonym to compromise, which depending on context, maybe associated with concepts of balance and tolerance.
We must therefore learn to live together, tolerating another as brother despite our differences. Living together does not mean we have to live in the same household or ride in the same automobile. It does not mean you have to build or buy your own house on the same street or neighborhood. Living together simply means we have to love ourselves in order that we can love our neighbors. It means we have to live- and- let- live. It means we have to be team members and develop collective psyche and collaborative spirit. Collaborative spirit is the driving force when team membership is forged. A team member shares ideas and opinions without selective interpolation. A team member focuses on tasks of human uplift rather than tasks of human failure. He shares responsibilities collectively forming a united front. A good team member appreciates differences in tribe, race, culture, language and customs. He supports and encourages other members too. In this regard, nobody can be what he ought to be until you are what you ought to be yourself. For some strange reasons, no individual can live alone in a world glued into network of people. This is why Martin Luther quipped that “anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution.†At this juncture, it is clever to remark that such individual is sleeping through a midnight of nothingness because the world in which God created ex nihilo (out of nothing) is interconnected, interrelated and geographically tied. Nigerian tribes in which God created and in which have remained sempe idem (always the same) are geographically linked to the other. Therefore, the demand upon us is to make our tribal geography habitable where people from different tribes and culture can come together without minding different dialects bearing in mind that we as individuals are glued in one eternal destiny. If we are tied in one destiny, it then means that we have ethical commitment to treat each other convincingly, lovingly, respectfully and humanly. We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish separately as fools. We must learn to live together as sisters or we perish as gossips. We must learn to worship in one ecumenical canopy otherwise we melt down like snow. If we remain separate, I mean if we narrow down into fragments, we will hardly be caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. In a network of mutuality, what affects one directly affects all indirectly. What affects the eyes affects the nose indirectly. What affects white affects blacks? What affects Hispanics affects Indian Americans. What affects the North affects south and vice versa. John Donne always put this in graphic terms: “No man is an island entirely of itself.†I believe that no man is a mountain and no one is an unmoved mover. Every person is like a piece of cake in which a fragment of the whole performs its own function as part of the whole. Therefore, the South in which is part of Nigerian society must be given a place in the gamut in which is Nigeria otherwise the center would no longer hold. If the center no longer holds, then Nigerian will reaffirm with Achebe said that “things have fallen apart.â€
Again, it is essential to measure the magnitude of direct impact of tribal conflict in order to comprehend how compromise could lead a nation like Nigeria into intellectual freedom or into religious unity. The more reason why we must do this is because the measure of the existence of man is his ability to collaborate with others. To make compromise with the other does not mean that the brilliance of our minds had dimmed or the fertility of our genius had weakened. It does not mean that our far-reaching religiosity is unusual before the attorney of reason. Therefore the essence of this piece is not to win for Igbo’s the immunity from political interference. It is not to win for Christians the immunity from religious patronage that had already infiltrated into Nigerian body politics. The essence therefore is to campaign for religious freedom and tribal distrust and urge for the establishment of peace in the moderation of the state of anarchy that have resulted from disunity. If you cast your gaze into the future or peered deep into the past, you will notice that Nigeria Nation is not in unity and that disunity has caused us our lives, our faith and our social cohesion. Many Pentecostal preachers have for so long presented the religious future of Nigeria in terms of a symbolic Swiss clock, the hands of which stands at a few minutes to midnight- the hour at which the world always meet with ills, by disruptive and explosive riots and tendencies. For some time now I have inevitably found myself telling similar time by similar clock by the same destructive tendencies and by the same inspiring empowerment. My platinum inspiration for a better religious nation comes to you at this moment you found yourselves in religious limbo. It comes to you at this moment in your tribal crises; at this time you find yourselves in such consuming heat of political misunderstanding; at this moment when the clatter of religious rumbling threatens our beloved nation to tremble and drift in the path of war and aggressive conflicts. Let me repeat my words in another fashion, there would be no prospect if we found ourselves caught up in the evil currents set in motion by religious warlords or tribal Judas. These views are shaped in the milieu of religious brotherhood and in tribal intelligentsia which have manifested itself in my deep enmeshment in religion, political philosophy, history and human Anthropology. These manifestations carry with it loaded anxiety of the life and faith of Christians and Muslims alike. Tribal and religious anxiety in Nigeria is always nourished and perpetuated by conflicts it causes our economy, arts, education and people’s way of life.
The feelings in the air about tribal unity and religious peace have always been accentuated by a call for a compromise in which our tribal leaders are to play a major lead role. This call to some extent must awaken the minds of those whom we know are holders of power and directors of government polices as “engineers of human souls.†This call directed to them is essential because it has the capacity to change the psychology of Nigerian citizens who voluntarily and generously have aimed without success to improve Nigerian economy, and the living conditions of millions of its citizens. Without compromise, bourgeois tribal hegemonists and egoistical religionists will give rise to a society of “people of the abyss,†described by Jack London and earlier propounded by Engels and later adapted by Karl Marx. Without Unity it will take compromise to travel a long desolate night to raise our tribal sentiments to the heights of amicable understanding. Quoting Bertrand Russell, Sakharov reaffirms Russell’s peace talk in the congress of Moscow; reminding everyone that “the world will be saved from thermonuclear annihilation if leaders of each of the two systems prefer complete victory of the other system to a thermonuclear war.†The same enactment is relevant in our days because mankind inhabiting north and South, East and west, working and unemployed is interested in religious freedom and tribal security. Gerald Ogbuja
References: Westen, P (1990) Speaking Equality, Preston: Princeton University Press National Geographic magazine (1986) Race and Ethnicity in America, Official Journal and Magazine
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Five score decades ago, our founding fathers and patriots brought forth on the continent of Africa a new nation we call Nigeria. This new nation was conceived under the yoke of divide and rule where every tribe like an olive branch lived in harmony, peace and liberty, but dedicated to a serene spirit of unity and brotherhood. The same spirit of unity in tribal division influenced their actions to uphold the universal proposition that all tribes are equal no matter where they fall within Nigerian Geographic compass. The same spirit of togetherness compelled them to uphold that all men are created equal despite ethnic or religious affiliations. This same spirit is compelling us today to believe that Niger Delta is equal to other part of the country; that Islam and Christianity are one and equal before all men and before God who we call the maker of all things! We hold these truths as evident even after we have drifted from the very spirit of our founding fathers’ objectives. The consequence is testing whether the Niger Delta; the Nigerian nation or any other African nation so conceived and so dedicated to human right values can long endure the impact of religious antagonism, economic alienation and tribal disunity.
We are aware that Nigeria as a nation is met on a great battlefield of religious wars and on a deep Plainfield of religious antagonism. We are aware that Nigeria is met on that sectional and economic disparities and social isolation that widens the ambition of unity. Nigeria is met on that same religious Plainfield of spiritual wars against those whom we deem lovers of social justice and actors of fundamental human rights. This is the more reasons why many people have come to awaken the silence of your mind and to wake your spirit up from the morass of tribal disunity. This is why they remain tireless in giving testimony to economic alienation that is ongoing in Ogoni-land. At the same time, they have pleaded with you to dedicate a portion of your strength and wealth of your knowledge as a resting-place for those who un-hesitantly gave their lives in a bid to stop the rumbling associated with oil drilling; that this nation might have peace and live in unity. They have pleaded with you to forgive one another and to ignore vehement disputes that took place between you and the other. They have asked you to cease from blaming yourself and the other. Let me reaffirm that if you continue to blame the other, you will end up blaming youself in the long run. It may be true that in blaming the other, people will react against you. But you don’t blame one who blames himself. This would amount to blaming religious or tribal fanatics because their faith or tribes precipitated the evil acts. Ultimately, society must condemn the fanatics and not their faith or tribes. Society must protect our tribes and faith and not the fanatics. This is why so many people have come to plead with you today. I am convinced that there is nothing more powerful than to dramatize tribal and religious evil than touching your inner voice of reasoning. I have this touching fear, and people of every tribe and religion have the same fear too, that through forgiveness and understanding, we will be able to lower the voltage of our blame and the antagonism in our minds. I am not in any way compelling you to change your minds. I am not compelling you to either change your habits. But it is my believe that once you change your attitude towards the other, people will quickly adjust to accept themselves and cease to blame the other, just as the Niger-Delta have quickly adjusted by uniting themselves to fight against poor housing and poor accommodations. I am aware that the average man and woman from the Niger-Delta has not profited from the windfall of oil and bitumen for the past two decades. They have not enjoyed themselves in their own land because they are more discriminated in education; more alienated in schools and other social amenities; yet they are at the lowest rung of unemployment rate in a nation of plenty. I think where they hang now is so slippery and so precarious that any moment in time, and if caution is not put into place, they could just go down the drain or in the pit of hell. The Niger Delta experience along with tribal and religious indifference occupies the mindset of anyone who seeks tribal justice and social equality in Nigeria. I have carried with me a visual memory and image of the sufferings, of the pennilessness, and of the expressions on the faces of these inhabitants and the people of the East central states of Nigeria. These images though painful it maybe, have transformed into deep and courageous determination to cast off the imprints of the past to become free like any integrated community. I cannot but say that for so long I have contemplated for a positive solution to these anomalies without being constantly reminded of the awesomeness of its danger and responsibility. I always live and will continue to live with three deep concerns in this our troubled world filled with positive ideas. Are my ideas centered on justice and unity? Have I chosen writing career for a just cause? Am I awakening minds for positive spirit through the press? I do not dare say that your future would continue to prosper even though I believe that heaven favors those who are sincere in their intentions. I dare not say either that your present sorrows and lamentations would end with certain serenity of heart. The “mandate of heaven” which we must borrow from the Chinese dynasty is not easy to gain. The mandate of heaven became central to the Chinese view of a just government. Lack of food, lack of affordable accommodations, riots and other calamities might be signs that the ancestral spirits were displeased with the events unfolding in the Niger Delta. In this case, the mandate of heaven might pass to another leadership. This was the Chinese explanation for rebellion, civil war, and the rise of new dynasty. (Duke of Shaq, Quoted in the Chinese Heritage).
I will not forget my experience in Rumola Port Harcourt, when a CEO in one of the oil magnets drove past a woman and her daughter who was sitting by the road-side begging for sustenance. While this oil magnet drove past this woman and child, he threw a pill of banana from the window of his Range rover, and this pill of banana fall into the rough pan the woman was using in begging for money. Her daughter who already was famished and indignant was infuriated and at the same time uncomfortable. She started to rain curses on this rich man who saw the little girl from the rear mirror of his car pointing fingers at him. He drove back in reverse and stopped and said to the girl: “What is the matter with you?”, “what do you want from me the rich man asked the little girl? And the little girl looked him straight in the eyes and answered, “Food and money.” It was really a very beautiful scene to behold! She could not even have courage to ask for any other thing because they had been worn out for the day by the coercing heat of the sun. This incident reminds me that when people are subjected to penury and poverty, they would still ask for food, accommodation and a decent way of life. When you are in solely trying situations like the little girl and her mom or when you face similar episode like people from the Niger- Delta, you will always welcome the opportunity to be part of a drama of economic struggle, for it is a drama that will shape the Niger-Delta and determine the destiny of Nigeria nation. This story is one out of many stories that rings a church bell that Niger-Delta is roaring for social justice. It is one of those stories that seem that the lives of a people have been transformed into a land that time forgot. The Niger-Delta is lamenting for affordable housing accommodation. And it seems to them that living in bondage makes them to feel like Tarzan of the Apes. The Niger-Delta is roaring for competitive education. And it seems to them that a cultivated mind is the Guardian genius for democracy. Against these backdrops, inhabitants of this oil community deserve a pardon for intrusion upon their valued lands. They demand various oil corporations to treat them as individuals; to respect them as men and women and to appreciate them as Ogoni people because they obey honest but excited impulses. All these have caused them to reach this hopeless point after many hardships and privations but thanks to God in the most excellent health. As it stands now, they have no idea when they shall be free from this form of economic hardship! The people of the Niger-Delta have real problems and I wish in this articulation not to invent imaginary ones to the ones before them. These problems touch their hearts and the frustrations in their minds. You must therefore understand why we hear about the two souls of the people of the Niger-Delta. There is the Ogoni soul and the Kalabari soul-the condor and the bull. The two souls are at war with oil corporations but I know that when the two wars are over, the two would become one like trinity.
Therefore, if economic, tribal and religious wars in Nigeria are not solved in the earliest possible time, Nigeria will soon be on the road to its self-destruction. But if tribal sentiments and religious conflicts are brought to absolute control, Nigeria will just as surely be on a feeder road to the fulfillment of the founding fathers’ dream. I am proud to engage in this act of “silence awakening” because for so long now the silence of our minds has been questioned time and time without mercy to defenseless souls. It is altogether fitting and proper to engage in such enterprise even when danger lies ahead of you and me. I must say that it is even proper and fitting that we should do these courageously and collectively. In a larger sense, Christians cannot dedicate themselves in the absence of Muslim intolerance. Traditional religionists cannot dedicate themselves in the absence of Christian conservatism; likewise Muslim brothers cannot dedicate themselves in the absence of Christian piety. Indeed, Christians cannot consecrate while their Muslim brothers are belligerent and war-like; Muslims cannot consecrate to Allah while their Christian brothers are neck-deep in nepotism and kidnapping for ransom. Without doubt, Igbo-man cannot hallow when his sensibility is provoked in religious intolerance; the South-South cannot hallow in the jungle mindset of the Niger-Delta experience. Therefore, Christians and Muslims, North and South, healthy and sick, living and those who struggle in Ogoni land must collectively consecrate, dedicate and hallow that old pathway on which future generations must walk. The call to dedicate, consecrate and hallow is a call beyond my elusive power and imagination to add or to detract. I know myself that the world with little note or long remembrance will forever forget the merits of hate but welcomes the positive outcome of a just cause. Therefore, it is for us living rather than the dead to dedicate, hallow for the unfinished task of religious unity, economic inequalities and tribal codification. I therefore call on you today to dedicate your lives to the great task remaining before us and on how best to unite this noble nation and to stop the impending nightmare associated with religious indifference. We must engage in an increased devotion to the cause for which people gave the last full measure of devotion and to the same cause for which they gave their time, talent and treasure that we here highly resolve that these dead shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth; that the government of Ogoni people, by the Niger-Delta is government for all tribes despite ethnic affiliations. There is need therefore for progressive, social and economic reforms to protect and advance the lives of average and disadvantaged Niger-Delta inhabitants. Always, progressive reforms often bring about social change. Social change must embrace the premise of populist movement where effort is made to reform political parties, economic insecurities and social life of average Nigerians. Progressive reforms will establish social security art to provide financial assistance to the elderly and the handicapped. It must establish Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate Nigerian stock market. Reforms will establish recall or referendum where voters can rescind a law and where they can actually vote to pass a proposal into law. Civil service reforms will help end awarding government contracts as “favors.”These needs are relevant but they are more acute in areas of shelter, education and other social amenities. A call for a reform in this light must challenge the traditional policy of Laissez faire-where the government should leave the economy of the Niger-Delta alone. You are aware that before the emergence of indirect rule, our social, economic and political problems were settled in the village square. The chiefs, Obas and Sultans were incumbent judiciaries and verdicts and proposals were immediate and spontaneous. Solution to problems was progressive and spontaneous too. What affected dick affected Harry and the problem of the eyes was the problem of the nose too. The same indirect rule reaffirmed that it was through reforms that government can become more democratic to the people. It was through reforms that manifest destiny felt among people. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected President of the United States; he had to deal with the vast economic disaster that was the Great Depression. Roosevelt initiated a series of programs and policies that helped bring about recovery to American people. These programs include: Establishing the federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to insure bank deposits; putting people back to work, building schools, hospitals, federal buildings and roads through civilian conservation corps; establishing civil works administrations, such as progress administration and public works administration and finally creating the Tennessee valley Authority to bring electricity to the rural South.
Today, inhabitants of the Niger-Delta are in great economic and environmental depression. Therefore, there is need for reforms that would help bring about recovery to their economic and social needs. Inhabitants of the Niger-Delta need similar amenities in order to overcome their present economic meltdown. They need good infrastructures since violent adventures mixed with subhuman living conditions have created legendary stories of Niger-Delta saga and experiences. There is need for reforms that would help put smiles on the faces of people and put them back to a just employment with room and board like others. There is need to build schools, hospitals, roads and fair housing to accommodate a large number of population living on the streets and under the over bridge that we call the highway. Creating a constant power supply would help sustain financial and economic strength of the city. Establishing a city emergency relief system and passing a fair labor standard act would help integrate working citizens and dependent children of the oil city. Establishing a pension scheme would help provide financial assistance to the elderly and the handicapped. There is also need to form a National Association for the Advancement of the Niger Delta (NAAND) as against MOSOP (movement for the survival of the Ogoni people). The primary goal would be to secure a safe working condition and equal opportunities for all in this region. This organization would help reduce as well as eliminate lynching, and other forms of violence that is common in the region. Such initiatives would help the people of the Niger Delta to focus attention on self-improvement and education. I believe that with self-improvement and education, the attitude of Ogoni people would eventually change and they will join the integrated society. Through self-improvement and education, the attitude of Ogoni people would intensify for good. For so long now, Ogoni land has served the world oil corporations and in return deserve a change of their present life conditions. They deserve affirmative action through education and self-reliant. And through the spirit of self-reliant, Niger-Delta can transform their oil economy into assembly line method of factory production. This transformation would largely improve the pace of factory production and lower dependence on oil. Over dependence on oil would keep oil corporations in the soil but under dependence would force them to find other economic alternatives.
Oil attracts foreign investors just as honey attracts forest bees. Filthy environ attracts roaches just as Gold attracted the British in Johannesburg and blood diamond in Rwanda. If attraction on oil continues in the present pace, oil corporations would become too large and too intrusive in both business and private affairs of the people. Therefore, the Niger-Delta Mystique I am proposing should be considered the beginning of a new era of economic and oil management. This mystique should help inhabitants find a better job rather than evacuating to settle in towns and cities like “Obigbo” “Asa,” “Obehie ”where they are forced to provide a major part of labor needed for industrial revolution. Back in big cities like Port Harcourt, citizens were not fascinated with stories they heard about the Ogoni people, the loss of lives and properties, and clashes of cymbals between natives and oil explorers. As a matter of fact, the legendary stories of the Ogoni people would later in this our life time become a subject matter for book review in the near future. Before books and reviews are written, we must recognize the way in which rhetoric’s of unconstitutionality of violence and the legendary lynching of human lives have seeped into this community. Therefore, the analysis of human right and the quest for peace would never fail to create as many problems as it solves.
REFORMS INSTEAD OF MASS MOVEMENT
A mass movement such as MOSOP would always end in violence and intimidation, despite how humble leaders’ intentions are? Saro-Wiwa was confident on this score, but in the end it was the violence of some of his followers that led those who were responsible for his death to offer him no reward but strangulation. Many of his followers were not educated as to know how best to put behind frustrations inflicted on them by another man. They were not as rational as to know that irrationality culminates in anger, strike, protests and demonstrations. They were not as logical as to know that illogicality leads to community disorientation or barbaric disintegration. They were not as united like United Nations as to know that disunity leads to dismemberment and division. Yet, we witness how frustration, irrationality and disintegration lead to aggression and cruelty where self-affirmation and optimism continues to unite people and make them unbroken. We have observed how self-affirmation which gives way to openness and solidarity helps people to learn about self and the other. It humbles one when dealing with the other even when one is a “Viking raider” or maroon fearless warrior. I do understand that community strength must come from economic empowerment and the brotherhood of man. Anything short of this is like breaching a dragon ship in salt marshes between an island and the English coast. Therefore, the need for reforms would bring sustainable change and improve lives. Best reforms for the Niger Delta must include but not limited to:-Abolitionism of Violence: This effort would help end violence and clashes of cymbals in the Niger-Delta region and its environs. An effort in this direction would help eradicate factors that help contribute to the present escalation of crises in Ogoni land.
– Public Education: Reforms in public education would help provide free education to all children in the Niger Delta area and other people in within close environs. – Women’s Rights and Privileges: Reforms in this area would help gain economic rights for women such as equal pay for equal work. When this happens, women in Ogoni-land would gain the right to serve in juries and the right to birth control. Passing a fair labor standard act would help set a minimum wage of 40hrs a week and a national minimum wage of 40 kobo per hour; and finally breaking up oil monopolies-where one oil company dominates the entire oil industries such that others cannot compete. In the event of history, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 were two laws that were used to break up the standard of Oil Company in 1911 and the ATT &T in 1982.
-Civil and Economic Rights: Reforms in this regard would help secure economic and voting rights to Niger Delta inhabitants. Effort would center on how to secure employment, education and housing rights for members of Ogoni people and other neighboring cities. – Bell of Rights: Reform here would center on making everyone believe that all men are created equal and have right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At all times, the right to life has guaranteed freedom from cruelty, violence and unusual punishment on individual rights and protections where citizens could seek judicial relief from law and government. In return, the Ogoni people would organize their effort to gain suffrage for women and advocate for programs to help poor women and minorities.
If reforms are not carried out, the Niger-Delta would continue to roar like a wide lion looking for affordable human condition. If movement continues to take the place of positive reforms, the Kalabari, the Yenagoa and Nembe people would continue to roar like forest hyena seeking for justice and fundamental human rights. They will continue to roar because work and sustainable human accommodation which improves condition of mankind increases power and enriches self-esteem that seek comfort in human living. It is lack of work therefore, that forces people into servitude in a land flowing with oil and bitumen. It is lack of work that causes Ogoni people to wait anxiously on the mainland of their cities for nothing but stand hungry and poised for battle. If asked the reason why they continue to roar time without number, you will find they are asking for a kind of work that somehow would bring security and stability for its own sake for their communities where want would finally be eliminated. And if justice and affordable housing accommodation is provided, they will develop a cosmic energy to deal with other problems of life and join in an effort march to eliminate poverty, abolish war and eliminate violence. The poor who are transformed through education and good housing would ultimately do a great deal on their own to alter housing decay and anything that stimulates economic inequalities. Beyond these social and economic demands, a host of other positive human changes would inevitability results in widespread social and economic security. When this happens, the dignity of Ogoni people would flourish as decisions concerning social lives would be placed in their own hands than in the hands of oil corporations. And when their dignities are placed in their own hands, they would grow to transform their lives and eventually seek self-affirmation and improvement. I believe that personal conflicts and community violence would diminish when unjust measurement of human worth is challenged and eliminated.
Let me say that we must first reaffirm our zeal and commitment to the violence and riots taking place in these regions. Since our zeal’s are different, let those who hold power to execute projects get into work. Power brokers must execute good proposals because the futility of Ogoni violence in the struggle for oil benefits is tragically etching in all past and recent Niger-Delta experiences. Every time I try to analyze the violence taking place within these environs, my mind goes straight to what caused the problems in the first place. In the second instance, my mind goes to the end result of devastation of violence on life and on human properties. Always, there is something painfully sad about violence and killing of people because of oil money. The sad thing about violence is captured in a desire for self-destruction, a kind of suicidal longing for revenge. When I see screaming youngsters abandoning their studies or job or when I see angry adults fighting aimlessly with no peace in vision, my mind goes back to the goal of nonviolence and altogether my spirit remembers our two slain brothers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ken Saro Wiwa. Ken and Luther were apostles of the peace movement. Both were crusaders of nonviolence. Both were evangelizers of peace and serene negotiators for unity. I say this without stumbling words because war and violence produces no concrete gain as results. At best, riots and violence have only succeeded in producing a little additional antipoverty money allotted to frightened oil corporations, and a few water-sprinklers to cool off the hearts and spirits of children in the ghettos of Ogoni-land.
It is sometime like giving somebody a fish without any effort to teach him to fish. It is something like recruiting too many servant-boys to sell merchandize in Onitsha main market without settling them well enough when it is time for them to open their own shops. It is something like improving the food in the prison while the people remain securely incarcerated behind bars. Nowhere in history has violence won any concrete improvement such as the organized protest demonstrations by the Negros in the United States. When I try to pin down violence and its advocates in the Niger Delta region and as to what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly illogical. It is perfectly clear that a violent demonstration on the part of inhabitants would find no sympathy and support from oil corporations. It is clear that a violent demonstration on the part of the Ogoni people would find no support from the international community. Destruction of properties and the killing of lives would neither draw attention of the united nation. If this is the case, then there is no time left for romantic illusions or empty philosophical debates about the plights of these inhabitants. There is no time to smile falsely or to engage in the old fashioned devilish smile. There is no time to be furious undertaker either. Rather, this is time for action and to address the problems facing this people. The time is now to rescue oil explorers from the harm’s way. The time is now to protect the people from current reckless oil exploitation. What the Niger Delta need is reforms to address their condition of life. Oil explores and owners of the land must be saved at the same time. Both must be saved because both are not above the law. Both are not above natural laws or civil laws either. The royal seal on the document that came to be called the Magna Carta has made us to realize that everyone is equal before the law. Through the Magna Carta, England knew that the king was not above the law. Through the Magna Carta, England knew that the king was not above the law. Through the Magna Carta, English subject picked up their rights from the rubbles of nothingness and learnt that nobody shall be denied any form of justice. Through reforms Ogoni people would know that oil corporations are not above the law of the land. They will come to know that their own rights in the land; and that they are citizens of the land from which the riches and barrels of oil flows. Tactical reforms therefore, would help bring Ogoni people into the mainstream of society. So far, this has not been done. So far, this has not been done by any of the oil corporations. So far, this has not been done by meaningful people in Nigeria. Without meaningful reforms, Ogoni people would end up with solutions that don’t solve; answers that don’t answer and explanations that don’t explain. I believe that through meaningful solutions and reforms life and the needs of these inhabitants would help addressed. I am still convinced that tactful reforms are potent weapons available to Ogoni people in their struggle for economic justice. The reason I say these is because, I am concerned about universal justice for mankind. I am concerned with the brotherhood of the Niger Delta. I am concerned with the brotherhood of man. I am concerned about discouraged beggars in the life’s oil market. I am concerned in the reconstruction of those edifices that produces beggars in the land of great oil reserve. For through violence, you may murder the murderer but you cannot murder, murder. Through violence you may murder an unjust aggressor but you may not murder aggression. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you may not murder hate. Through violence you may murder one who inflicted sufferings on you, but you may not murder suffering itself. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Enmity cannot eradicate hate. Evil cannot put out animosity. Belligerence cannot put out anger while hostility cannot eradicate violence.
I have heard people describe Ogoni men as violent people without conscience. I have heard analysts say Kalabari people are war-like in nature. Critics use psychiatric terms to describe attitude of people from the Niger Delta region. Ogoni men have been labeled as having personality disorder, mood disorder, maniac with psychosis and schizoaffective disorders. They are criticized as having Bipolar disorder and depression with noncompliance to peace-talk. One cannot comply to peace-talk unless one identifies what caused one to have depression in the first place and what led to the present escalation of agitation and how it could be addressed once and for all. Therefore, compliance to peace-talk can only be possible when depressed mood of any community is transformed into a happy and triumphant mood. To use the language of hospital psychiatrists, Ogoni people are maniacs with aggressive behaviors. They are combative and destructive with malingering refluxes. These people have received expressive diagnosis as having suicidal ideations with recurrent psychosis. Let me assume they need special observations, but they are not maladjusted. They are not abnormal, disturbed, messed up, muddled, neurotic, unfit and unable. Maladjusted is a word associated with failure or when one is unable to cope with the demands of a normal social environment or when one is poorly adjusted to demands and stresses and having difficulty coping with personal relationship but not altered to fit certain requirements. One thing I can safely say is that Ogoni people hate being labeled as too angry, too aggressive and too demanding. The generalization that people of the Niger Delta are aggressive is worrisome. Therefore, it is paramount to draw attention to the way in which the debate about naked statistical evidence links more closely than hearsay to the superficially different questions about the role of generality in saying that all Ogoni people are violent and war-like. The problem with using generalization as violent and war-like, which gathered up all the Niger-Delta people with their diverse individual characteristics under a single category of being aggressive, was that one attribute of the category-a tendency toward dangerous aggressiveness was not necessarily an attribute of each member of Ogoni people. The generalization about the evidence plainly establishes that dangerousness exists in the community of Ogoni-land to a greater degree than it does elsewhere- I mean the subclasses of Nigerian societies, we call the middle class. Universal generalizations or empirical particularity tend to interest philosophers. In that case, what we encounter on the daily basis is not universal: “Swiss cheese has holes,” “Italians are demonstrative,” “Islamic faith is agitated,” “philosophers are cleaver,” “Theologians are Pius;” “Volvos are reliable,” “Ogoni people are aggressive” etc. We know that some theologians are not Pius and some Italians are not demonstrative and some Ogoni people are not aggressive. But there is no disputing the fact that many people in Ogoni-land, quite possibly the vast majority of them are not dangerous at all. Nor can we dismiss as irrational the practice of generalizing even when generalization produces errors in particular cases. Casting the problem in another light brings to mind hypothetical evidence. If we were to hypothesize that 90 percent of Ogoni people were vicious, then we could conclude, absent further information, that an attack by an otherwise unidentified “Obigbo people” was 90 percent likely to have been an attack by Ogoni people. Again, if we were to hypothesize that 80 percent of Muslims are terrorists, then we could conclude, absent further information, that an attack by an otherwise unidentified Somalian Muslim ruffians was 80% likely to have been an attack by Muslims. Let me affirm here that the paradox consist not in the willingness to admit that all Ogoni people are violent, but to say what they are not would be wrong and illogical. I therefore find it puzzling that people would continue to insist that the standard of proof in this kind of make-belief is a preponderance of half-baked evidence they have with them. To put it squarely, the preponderance of the evidence presupposes the erroneous denial of viciousness and erroneous imposition of aggressiveness which makes the matter equally regrettable. As we make such decisions and judgment, we may sometimes feel uneasy for we are attributing to the many the sins of the few. This makes our logic and intuition to fall in conflict because when we attribute the failings of the oil corporations or the failings of minority to the entire group, we may sense that we are being simultaneously irrational and unfair. The false positive is no worse than the false negative. Indeed, positive and negative are profound and incisive guide to the contested zone of aggressive accusation where justice, fairness and equality conflicts. Nothing less than social justice and economic stability is at stake in our ability to distinguish whether they are vicious, belligerent or aggressive. Nothing more than affordable housing accommodation and equal treatment is at stake in our ability to call them vicious or the pious ones. I seek not to defend the morality of aggression or the psychology of oil exploration. But I know Shell BP paid enormous sum to communities that met with a sudden oil spillage in the coastal land cities of Orleans.
Many oil corporations have put the yearnings and lamentations of the Ogoni people in different light. They say that Ogoni people are not satisfied at anything worthy of human condition. They say that inhabitants of Niger Delta can never be thankful for the development that has come their way since the beginning of oil drilling. All these accusations are tied together to destroy the Ogoni spirit, the Ogoni psych and Ogoni manhood. All I am saying is that you should look beyond these accusations and go out with “divine dissatisfaction.” Let the Niger Delta be dissatisfied until Nigerian nation no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and low anemia pulse of deeds. Let the Ogoni people be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of Port Harcourt GRA (wealth and comfort) and the inner city of poverty and despair (dungeon and slums) shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. Let the children of the oil city who lives in slums be dissatisfied until they are cast into the junk heaps of history where every family will live in a decent sanitary homes. Let the Kalabari people be dissatisfied until the dark yesterday of poor accommodation is transformed into bright tomorrows of equitable integrated society. Let them be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of natures mineral resources. Let them be dissatisfied until men and women from Ogoni and Kalabari are judged on the basis of their needs and not on the content of their agitation. Let them be dissatisfied until from every streets and subways, justice rolls down like mighty waters and righteousness like a sweeping hurricane. Let them be dissatisfied until the day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every explorer and Ogoni man will sit under a vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid of each other. Let them be dissatisfied until inheritor of oil and gas and explorers of land and bitumen recognize that out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth and enjoy its mineral resources together. Let them be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout “oil power,” when nobody will shout “Ogoni power”- but everybody will talk about God’s power and the power of the Niger Delta. I know that to overcome these odds, you must go through rocky places of frustrations and meandering points of bewilderments. I am a firm advocate of “manifest destiny”, the idea that inhabitants of Niger Delta have the God-given right and obligation to profit from the windfall of oil and bitumen in the own land. Let me expound manifest destiny in another way. The Niger-Delta are rightfully bound on the “East by sunrise, West by sunset, North by the Arctic Expedition, and South as far as oil flows. These words of empowerment from me come to you at this moment when the buoyancy of your hope has been transformed into fatigue of despair. It comes from me to you this moment when your shattered dreams and ambition for a better life in a land flowing with milk and honey is ethereally blasted. It comes from me to you after the United Nation and the world have refused to act but watched. It comes from me to you before the bier of some courageous civil rights workers whose contributions have not aided any relief but snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it may seem, you must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. Let these words of empowerment be your ringing cry. Let it soothe your balm and yarning pain. Let it give you courage and consolation to face the uncertainties of the future. Let it give your tired feet new strength as you continues your forward stride towards the city on the hill; I mean the city of oil reward. When your days become dreary with hovering clouds of despair, and when your nights become darker than a thousand midnights, always remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountain of evil done to another man; a power that is able to make a way out of no way and able to transform the dark yesterday into bright tomorrow. Always realize that the arc of moral universe is long but this arc blends towards justice and justice alone. Always realize that William Cullen Bryant was right: “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” You must therefore go out dissatisfied realizing that the Bible was right: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” These powerful words are hope for the future, and with this hope and faith, you will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow with a cosmic past tense, “we have overcome the cause of our anger; we have overcome the paralyzing fears that harrow us by day and haunts our oil city by night. We have overcome the oil money and blood diamond. My hope is that you will overcome oil tragedies, blood diamond and other kinds of death and genocides that beats your imaginations around the globe because our world is sick with war and strife and everywhere you turn you sees its ominous possibilities. It is sufficient to quote Mr Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General to make our point. He said, “There has been a deafening global silence in response to Sri Lanka’s actions, especially from its most influential friends. The international community cannot be selective in its approach to upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights. Impunity anywhere is a threat to international peace and security everywhere.” Once more, yours experiences so far are not impunity and we must recognize for the first time the virulent desire that has engulfed Ogoni people and its environs. Think of it, if you were them whether you will not readily speak the language of public demonstration. The Niger Delta has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. These people are slightly different from some of us who are educated and who knows how best to put frustration staged by another man behind. Always, understand them when their repressions come out in ominous expressions of violence. This could be the only tunnel through which they could let out their discontent. I always believe that normal and healthy discontent in Ogoni-land can be channelized through creative outlet of reforms instead of barbaric outlet of violence. Creative reforms are more excellent ways of inviting peace and grace. It is more excellent ways of transforming a chaotic streets flowing in the blood of the martyr into a fountain valley’s of spring waters. Creative reforms are more excellent ways of dismissing the militants as “rabble-rousers” and Kalabari people as economic agitators. Creative reforms would eliminate the condition that causes Ogoni people to walk in the valley of darkness and in the steep slopes of frustrations and despair. Creative reforms would compel them to use time and resources effectively well just as the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of social reforms and economic prosperity. Creative reforms would transform the contrite spirit of a violent man into a vitriolic action suppressed by an appalling silence to a good deed. If progressive reforms are put into place, the Niger Delta will come to see themselves in a good light where human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. Without progressive reforms, peace would be elusive and social amenities would join the cult of social stagnation.
Now therefore is the time to make real the promises of reconstruction and reforms. Now is the time to transform Kalabaris’ economic elegy into creative palms of workforce. Now is the time to lift up the social conditions of the Niger Delta from the quicksand of economic agitation to the solid rock of economic integration. Now is the time. If now is the time, then it would not be out of place to say that Ogoni people are reform intoxicated. It is better to be reform zealots than transform into such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial protest. Let us hope that the violent echoes of protests and penetrating drumbeats of violence in Ogoni land would soon pass away and the deep fog of creative reforms would cloud their sky and bring cosmic economic satisfaction. Let us hope that reforms would lift Ogoni people up from fear-drenched human existence to a hopeful survival mechanism not engendered by calamity or disaster that both led to the senses of sight and hearing being instantly aroused and the eyebrows raised. Let us look forward when the rain of rebelliousness will stop and give way to a bright serene sunshine of peace. Let us look forward when the burning fire of hatred will be overtaken by the calmness of environmental peace. Let us look forward to that day when the rein of bitterness is transformed into rain of happiness and sunshine of hope sparked through the wet leaves for human endurance. In some not too distant tomorrow, let the radiant stars of economic opportunities shine forth over the Niger Delta communities with all of their scintillating beauty. May anything that cause the mind of Ogoni people and hearts of oil explorers beat quickly and violently, and palpitates and knocks against the ribs be overcome by creative force of reforms.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
A good marriage tastes like honey. It excites and warms the heart. It gives you the kind of feeling that starts from the scalp of your head and gently spreads downwards to the tip of your fingers and the nerve endings of your toes.
Remembering moments shared with your spouse can turn you into a poet, and make you begin to pen lines like King Solomon did in the Songs of Solomon, a very significant book in the Bible. The micro-electrical charge set off by the recollection effortlessly makes the tiny muscle at the base of the shaft of the hair on your skin to contract and pull the hair up, off the surface of the skin. And goose pimples break out all over your skin.
Make no mistake about this: a loving marital relationship really helps keep the blood pressure at a normal level. You talk about it, all the time glorifying God for putting you in such a beautiful union. It is a wonderful, treasured feeling, every woman wants to experience and hold onto “for lifeâ€, an expression Pastor Aity Inyang unabashedly uses to describe her enviable marriage to the Senior Pastor of Sure Word Assembly, Pastor Dennis Inyang. The depth of her feelings for her husband comes across when you listen to the songs she writes specially for him in all her music CDs.
The lady with the winsome smile is a fulltime gospel music artiste who with her husband, is also engaged in pastoral work. With 20 wonderful and memorable years in marriage tucked under her belt, Aity has been using the experience she acquired to help couples build relationships that would equal or even surpass the beautiful edifice which her union with Pastor Inyang has turned out to be.
“My husband is my friend for life,†she says delightfully. In an earlier interview, she told Sunday Sun: “In my CDs, I write songs for him. In my current work, the song I wrote for him is called Just Like Yesterday. Because it’s actually just like yesterday even though August this year will make our marriage 20 years old. In my last CD, I wrote a song for him (My Beloved – If I Ever Had To Choose Again). Whenever I travel, and I do so often, he does his best to take care of the home. He calls me so often to be sure I’m Ok. He is interested in my wellbeing. In fact, he is what any woman would ask for in a husband. He wins the Husband of the Year Award every year.â€
But then, Aity also revealed: “I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be a pastor’s wife; but God has a sense of humour. When you consider my sanguine go-go temperament, you can give it to God that He can indeed use anybody. As a pastor’s wife, you affect the lives of so many people. You are a role model to several women in terms of dressing, conduct etc. So you have to make sure you are not a disappointment to God and to the ministry.
I have also found out that you share your life and your husband’s time with the whole church. So, if you are the very jealous type, you need to sit up, be mature and adapt to the situation very fast. If not, you will die before your time. Another thing is, you must know that inasmuch as so many people will bless and appreciate you for your contributions to their lives, you will be hurt by countless others, especially those you least expect. So you must learn to have a heart as large as the bosom of Abraham, and budget to live a continuous life of forgiveness, so that you don’t live in bitterness and wind up in hell while you were busy trying to prepare people for heaven. God forbid! In summary, being a pastor’s wife is actually a very rewarding experience.â€
When God is involved in a person’s choice of a marriage partner, He usually gives you the right individual that complements your life in a seamless, lovely and beautiful way. In addition to being a full time gospel artiste, pastor, mother, Aity is a magazine/book editor, who bagged a first degree in French and put the icing on her academic cake with a Master’s degree in Mass Communication. At different times she worked as a french teacher, TV producer and advertising practitioner.
And all that experience (please, assets, just like the virtuous woman) she has poured into the work of the ministry, using the abundant grace of God to minister to couples in troubled marriages, prayerfully nudging them to re-discover romance and marital friendship. More than 95 percent of the time, she and her husband have been successful, but there are those who, she reveals, fall into the undesirable five percent. In this interview, Aity shares her views on troubled marriages. Excerpts… At what point should a partner pull out when a marriage is heading for the rocks? I believe if the couple knows that their marriage is heading for the rocks, instead of pulling out, they should do everything to change direction and head towards a safer destination. No sensible couple should just sit back and helplessly watch their marriage crash. Even some air crashes have been avoided. God didn’t create anyone to come and live as a loner in this world.
The couple should get help immediately they notice the first signs of cracks in the marriage. They should talk with a marriage counselor, a pastor or a reliable friend. Help is always available. I have seen a turnaround in so many marriages that were heading for a crash just because the couple or one partner was bold and wise enough to seek help. Why we are witnessing many divorces today is sometimes because many people pretend everything is okay while they are dying in silence.
When does a marriage actually become life threatening? And at this point should either of the parties call it quits especially the partner who feels threatened? There are instances when a sickness actually becomes life threatening because the patient ignored the warning signs or the ailment was not diagnosed early and properly treated. A marriage can become life threatening, which is to say that the life of one or both partners is in danger as a result of the marriage.
For example, if there is extreme physical abuse or one party vows to kill the other, then that is a life-threatening situation. Much as I do not advocate divorce, nobody should wait to be transformed into a corpse in the name of marriage. There are some people who, if they go to hell when they die, would have gone to the place two times because their so called marriage here on earth is hell already with the husband or wife as the presiding demon.
Is it possible that Christian couples could find themselves in that situation? Can you give examples that you’ve witnessed or had to intervene? Yes, it’s very possible for a Christian couple to have that kind of experience. Life is what you make of it. Some people take instructions and their lives get better while others don’t care about whatever counsel they are given. Marriage involves two people and if both of them (…please note that I said both of them, not just one partner) are not willing and consciously working at making the union work, then that would be the end of Solomon Grundy.
Of course, I have seen some cases of this kind of marriage. I remember one couple vividly that we had to keep intervening. Each time the wife ran away, the husband would come to beg us to intervene. When we got into the case, we discovered that theirs was a boxing ring with the children as the unfortunate spectators. The wife was very stubborn and without feelings. The man resorted to becoming a Mohammed Ali and since the woman didn’t have enough fighting skill, she had to keep fleeing to stay alive.
Don’t forget that two of them were Christians, carrying very big bibles without bothering to check what was inside. If you saw them outside, you would think all was rosy. They were great posers. We counseled them to no avail. One of those times when she escaped and we tried to intervene, she said something that my husband and I can’t forget.
She said, ‘Pastor, one day my husband will kill me in that house and will tell the world a different story and since I will not be there to say that he was the one who killed me, everyone will believe him and life will go on. Pastor, when that happens what will you do?’ Since the couple was not ready to heed our counsel and we were not ready to conduct a burial, we had to stop bringing the woman back. Today they are living apart but at least they are alive.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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