Monday, April 26, 2010

Assumptions

This past Saturday evening I was glad to have the opportunity to just chill at home. The TV in the living room was tuned to CNN and I ended up watching Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta. It was interesting at first, but then, I found myself getting angry. Here's what happened...


They followed men hunting for bushmeat in Cameroon and Central African Republic. The men were trying to find meat to bring back to those cooking at home. I guess they were going further and further into the bush because of food shortages. The reporters were traveling with a man who studies zoonotic diseases, diseases that can jump from animals to people. The man said that he was concerned about the meat that the men were capturing, saying that some of the species of monkeys carried certain viruses that could be deadly for humans. They also showed a market where the meat was sold, and showed what a big-seller it was.

I didn't have any problem with any of this. They were merely showing people trying to survive: hunting for food; cooking it; selling it. It's the next section that got to me.

They started talking about AIDS, saying that it's an example of a zoonotic disease that jumped from monkeys to people. They said the disease probably started when someone who came into contact with bushmeat had their blood mix with the blood of a monkey, maybe while butchering the animal in Africa somewhere............I was like WHAT?!?! As far as I know, AIDS is still a disease that is being researched; no one really knows its origins and what can stop it. I was so mad at how the report just casually said it, as if it has been proven.

I know that AIDS is ravaging Africa in a really big way, but I really hate negative stereotypes. Until it has been proven, I would prefer that CNN and others not assume that AIDS came from Africa. And even if it does one day surface that AIDS originated in Africa, it will hardly matter anymore; it has become a worldwide problem. More important is finding a cure than placing blame on wherever it came from. I really hope and pray that I live to see the day that a cure for the disease is discovered and when it is, that it is made available to all. How terrible would it be if greed would cause those with the cure to make it unavailable to many because of high prices? God forbid!

Monday, April 19, 2010

New Background

So, this semester I'm taking a class that teaches you how to build a website. It's probably one of the most useful classes I've ever taken and I'm definitely going to be able to use all that I learned for years to come.

Anyways, in that class I learned that dark backgrounds can be hard to read and even depressing. I don't know about the depressing part, but after thinking about it for a while (months, literally) I decided to change the background. Hope it's easier to ready. And not depressing. Hahahaha....

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Buddies in Business

Being an entrepreneur is a great way to have control over your income. Instead of depending on someone else to tell you how much money you can make, what you have to do to make it, and when you can make it, you can be your own boss. I'm trying to get myself into the mindset of an entrepreneur. My Meat Pie Girl business could be doing better. Being in school makes it kinda hard to make those things everyday. I wish I could sell the recipie to some huge company and get a huge monthly revenue. I'm talking global, cause those things are really good! Hahahaha.......That would be ideal.....Lol. A girl's gotta have dreams, right? I know it's possible, though.

Another one of my dreams is to write books: biographies of people with interesting stories; poetry; a memoir of my family's history (after I get the whole story down) and so much more. An author is another form of an entrepreneur: they produce words and sell them in the form of books for what they feel is a reasonable price. I am definitely working towards this goal every day. It will come to pass in my lifetime. And the church says...........AMEN! :)

Anyways, a few of my friends have businesses of their own. I think they're all awsome.

Take my friend Chinonso, for instance.
It's kinda funny calling her my friend because I feel like we're more like cousins. She's just a few years younger than me and we grew up together. Lots and lots of memories. :) It was kinda sad when her family moved from Michigan to Ohio almost two years ago. But we still keep good contact, so it's all good. (Special shout out to her: Hey Nkwocha, remember "Come back hia. What chapta are you from?" LOL!!!!)

Anyways, Chinonso is the proud owner of a hairbraiding business, called Naija American Enterprises. Now, the name used to be Braidz by Nonso, but the girl changed it. She jockin' on me, the Naija American Girl. Lol. Chichi (short for Chinonso) can really do some hair. She was looking for a way to make some extra money and she found it using one of her many skills. That's always an awsome way to start a business.

Another one of my friends, Gael, has a business of his own too. Gael and I both go to Wayne State and are members of the Wayne African Student Society and he's the only person from Burundi I've ever met! Anyways...his business, Gael's Gift , sells all kinds of great gifts, from household decorating items to jewelry and a lot more. For our African group's Christmas party we did a secret santa and he gave my sister a gift card to his website. She bought some pretty cool jewelry. His business is cool because you can access it from all over the world.



And then there is Ms. Elizabeth, founder of so many African organizations in Michigan, known by most Africans throughout the state, and owner of Eliscoco Ventures African Entertainmaent. This business does it all! Not only does it sell Nigerian and African movies, music, magazines, books, and so much more, they also do catering and ushering services for events. I've seen Elizabeth and her team in action at many local events. They does the job, ya dig? Lol.....Eliscoco Ventures is definitely a superbusiness run by a superwoman!


As you can see, young Africans are taking over!


Monday, April 12, 2010

School.....

So I'm convinced that spring weather is here to stay and with that has come the onset of  a severe case of im-tired-of-this-stupid-semester-itis. I mean really, who wants to be in any kind of class when the sun is shining bright and the weather is so nice? Not me! And academically, this semester has been mentally exhausting. Always worrying about some project or paper that's on the verge of driving me insane. Add to that my very bad tendency to procrastinate, and it's almost inevitable that at least one disaster will happen. I'm just ready to take all my final exams and be done. I pray to God that I pass all my classes.

Anyways..................

A little over a week ago on April 1 Motown recording artist KEM stopped by my school and gave a little talk in honor of the school of social work's 75th anniversary. It was very inspiring because KEM, who grew up in Metro Detroit,  has recovered from alcoholism, drug addiction and homelessness and has been clean for 20 years. What I appreciate even more is the fact that he gives God all the thanks. His first words when he came onto the stage were, "God is good"  (crowd responds: all the time) "And all the time"  (crowd responds: God is good).

If you're not familiar with KEM, here is the single that put him on the map, Love Calls:




KEM was so down to earth, he talked to all his fans after his talk, signed autographs and took pictures. You know I had to get one with him. Lol...



His new album is set to come out this spring with a single to be released shortly.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

WASS Cultural Week in Review

Last week, my group's African Cultural Week was awesome! I was so happy with how everything went: very smoothly; no glitches; no meltdowns. And great turnout. We had a lot of non-WASS members at each day's event: Monday's movie night, Tuesday's Taste of Africa, Wednesday's discussion forum, and Thursday's African dance class.  Of these days, Wednesday will definitely be most memorable to me. We put on a discussion on the similarities and differences between Africans and African Americans. On the panel we had two African Americans and three Africans. The audience was a good mixture of the two groups, with a few whites and even an Asian sprinkled in there. Lol....

Anyway, the discussion was very interesting. Unlkike in the past when we've had professors and professionals, all of the panelists were students. People were really honest on their views and the discussion got really heated at some points. Hahahaha..... We got on the subject of education. The argument by some Africans was basically that Africans value education and when they come to America they are more motivated than African Americans. The Africans were saying that their parents always told them that education was the way to a better life, and they didn't understand why so many African Americans don't pursue higher education. One guy even said that African Americans were lazy. Yikes! His reasoning was that he was often the only black person in his advanced math and science classes for engineering and when he asked some of his African American friends why they don't major in the math and science fields, they said it was too hard.

The African Americans said that many of them didn't always have someone telling them that education was the way, pushing them to go to school. They said it's hard to be motivated when no one is pushing you, and the system is plotting their downfall. The African said who cares about the system? You can rise above. The African Americans said that they can only rise so far before they get pulled down by the system because of their race............It went on and on.

In the end we basically all came to the conclusion that our differences were based on the cultures in which we were raised. Everyone left with good feelings and I don't think anyone took anything personal.

As great as the discussion forum was, our main event, the Cultural Show on Saturday was the best!!! Again, I was so happy with the way things went. Last year, there was utter chaos behind the scenes. This year, things ran as if we had practiced several times when in fact, we didn't. I was sooooooooo glad that things went well because honestly, I was kinda scared. Lol. But it was really awesome.

We had so many awesome acts. One girl, an African American, sang Asa's Fire on the Mountain.


Awesomeness.

The guys in our group did a dance.




So did the girls.




There was also a hilarious skit about an African girl and an African American guy that were dating, and each of their parents didnt like it because of stereotypes they held about the other group.





And then we had the Black Angel's African Acrobats, and they were truly amazing.




I participated in the show by performing an Igbo dance with a group, I performed a poem, and I was in the fashion show. Here are some pictures:




Overall, it was a really great show and it was lots of fun. :)