BONUS:TRAVEL SECURITY TIPS

TRAVEL SECURITY TIPS

ESPECIALLY THIS SEASON

*Do not leave money or valuable in pain view as they tempt criminals as well as many security operatives.
*As much as possible, restrict information about your travel plans ; but always ensure someone in your office or home knows where you are going and your estimated time of arrival.

*Avoid isolated and dangerous areas.
*Do not give lift to strangers including those in uniforms
*Do not stop on the road for anyone except on official check-points. Beware of hoaxes.
*Be careful of accident scenes along the way
*If witness to a car-jacking, it is advisable to turn around and drive to safe location and call the relevant security official.
*If involved in an armed robbery you should conduct your self in the following manner:

· Do not offer resistance
· Never make any sudden physical move
· Keep your hands visible
· Do not attempt a high speed get away unless you are sure of the possibilities, the road is clear and you are close to a safe haven

Have a lovely holiday season

Vision Africa Online

WHY MANY RUN FROM STARTING THEIR OWN BUISNESS

THE FEAR OF FAILURE

“Failure to fail will make you a failure”

If you never fail you will never stretch yourself to be more than you are, you will never learn that there are many ways to solve a single problem.

Without failure Man would never had discovered the cure to cancer.
Without failure man would have never walked on the moon.
Without failure we would still be riding horses to town, sitting around in the dark hoping that we could get to the closest tree before our bladder exploded.

Failures are the hurdles to greatness – each failure is a brick that builds the foundation of a huge victory.
The next time you try something .GO BIG! Because if it is worth doing, it is worth doing in a large way; And if you are going to fail – fail big

“Never run from challenges, in fact welcome them, they are the bread you need to grow”

Reasons Why You Need a Business Plan

Good management requires setting specific objectives and then tracking and following up. I'm surprised how many existing businesses manage without a plan. How do they establish what's supposed to happen? In truth, you're really just taking a short cut and planning in your head--and good for you if you can do it--but as your business grows you want to organize and plan better, and communicate the priorities better.

Be strategic. Develop a plan

Your business plan can also to help decide what's going to happen in the long term, which should be an important input to the classic make vs. buy. How long will this important purchase last in your plan...?

You can use your plan to set targets for new alliances, and selected portions of your plan to communicate with those alliances; deal with professionals.

You should share selected highlights or your plans with your attorneys and accountants, and, if this is relevant to you.
Lastly for today your business plan can help you sell your business. Usually the business plan is a very important part of selling the business. Help buyers understand what you have, what it's worth and why they want it.

As we continue in this our month long series you are surely going to learn much more...

A GOLDEN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR 2010

FARMING MADE EASY

MAIZE FARMING IN NIGERIA

Maize is one of most important cereal grain corps in the world. It is second only to only rice and wheat. It is grown in the tropical and temperature region of the world e.g. brazil, U.S.A, china, etc, with Africa producing below 12% of the world’s maize consumption even with it’s adequate soil and climate requirement(especially in its equatorial and rainforest regions)

USES OF MAIZE
It can be eaten,boliled or roasted
Fresh corn can be prepare into corn
Dried maize grains can be used to prepare pap
It is used to prepare livestock feeds e.g. poultry mash

Flour and oil be obtained from the seed.

It can be used in starch preparation
The vegetable part can used in silage making
Pith of maize stalks can be used in making explosive

click here for more deatails

BUSINESS PLAN _ Why? and How?P

We shall begin with the how and then proceed into the why. Below is a simple pattern you van employ in designing your own unique business plan.

BUSINESS PLAN _THE HOW

7 golden steps

1. State the name of your organization

2. The address

3. Ownership structure

3. Also you should enumerate your major goals and objectives

4. Describe any special skills and experiences you and your executives possess

5. Describe the products and services you offer and what advantage your products/services have over your competitors

5. State your current customers if any

6. Indicate when, where and how you intend to advertise/publicize your business

7. List equipment and supplies you will need to start

Register with the relevant bodies such as corporate affairs commission in your country

WHY YOU MUST START YOUR OWN BUSINESS IN 2010

In the next couple of weeks we are going to embark on a journey to empower Africans all over the world financially for FREE.

We will be giving out free businesses that you can start and expect good returns on your investment, We encourage you to keep in touch with our posts so you don’t miss anything.

1. Conception of an idea

2. Project identification

3. Feasibility study

4. Business plan

5. Sourcing of financing

6. Project execution and implementation

7. Evaluation and control

8. Sales and marketing

I hope this link is useful for our friends from Nigeria

www.smedan.gov.ng

7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius Pt.1

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered one of the greatest marketers in corporate history. For more than three decades, he has delivered legendary keynote presentations, raised product launches to an art form and successfully communicated the benefits of Apple products to millions of customers. Whether you’re in sales, marketing, advertising or public relations, Steve Jobs has something to teach you about telling your brand story.

1. Plan in analog. Steve Jobs may have made a name for himself in the digital world, but he prepares presentations in the old world of pen and paper. He brainstorms, sketches and draws on whiteboards. Before a new iPhone, iPod or MacBook is introduced, the Apple team decides on the exact messages (aka, benefits) to communicate. Those messages are consistent across all marketing platforms: presentations, Web sites, advertisements, press releases, and even the banners than are unfurled after Jobs’ keynote.

2. Create Twitter-friendly headlines. Can you describe your product or service in 140 characters? Steve Jobs offers a headline, or description, for every product. Each headline can easily fit in a Twitter post. For example, when he introduced the MacBook Air in January, 2008, he said that it is simply, “The world’s thinnest notebook.” You could visit the Apple Web site for more information, but if that’s all you knew, it would tell you a lot. If your product description cannot fit in a Twitter post, keep refining.

3. Introduce the antagonist.

In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. The same holds true for a Steve Jobs presentation. In 1984, the villain was IBM, “Big Blue.” Before he introduced the famous 1984 ad to a group of Apple salespeople, he created a dramatic story around it. “IBM wants it all,” he said. Apple would be the only company to stand in its way. It was very dramatic and the crowd went nuts. Branding expert, Martin Lindstrom, has said that great brands and religions have something in common: the idea of vanquishing a shared enemy. Creating a villain allows the audience to rally around the hero — you, your ideas and your product.

4. Stick to the rule of three. The human brain can only absorb three or four “chunks” of information at any one time. Neuroscientists are finding that if you give your listeners too many pieces of information to retain, they won’t remember a thing. It’s uncanny, but every Steve Jobs presentation is divided into three parts. On September 9, 2009, when Jobs returned to the world stage after a medical leave of absence, he told the audience that he had three things to discuss: iPhone, iTunes and iPods. Jobs even has fun with the rule of three. In January, 2007, he told the audience he had “three revolutionary” products to introduce — an iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator. After repeating the list several times he said, “Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. They are one device and we are calling it iPhone!”

7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius Pt.3

5. Strive for simplicity. Apple chief design architect, Jonathan Ive, said Apple’s products are easy to use because of the elimination of clutter. The same philosophy applies to Apple’s marketing and sales material. For example, there are forty words on the average PowerPoint slide. It’s difficult to find ten words in one dozen Apple slides. Most of Steve Jobs’ slides are visuals — photographs or images. When are there words, they are astonishingly sparse. For example, in January, 2008, Jobs was delivering his Macworld keynote and began the presentation by thanking his customers for making 2007 a successful year for Apple. The slide behind Jobs simply read “Thank you.” Steve Jobs tells the Apple story. The slides compliment the story.

6. Reveal a “Holy Smokes” moment. People will forget what you said, what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. There’s always one moment in a Steve Jobs presentation that is the water cooler moment, the one part of the presentation that everyone will be talking about. These show stoppers are completely scripted ahead of time. For example, when Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air, what do people remember? They recall that he removed the computer from an inter-office envelope. It’s the one moment from Macworld 2008 that everyone who watched it — and those who read about — seem to recall. The image of a computer sliding in an envelope was immediately unveiled in Apple ads and on the Apple website. The water cooler moment had run according to plan.

7. Sell dreams, not products. Great leaders cultivate a sense of mission among their employees and customers. Steve Jobs’ mission is to change the world, to put a “dent in the universe.” According to Jobs, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” True evangelists are driven by a messianic zeal to create new experiences. When he launched the iPod in 2001, Jobs said, “In our own small way we’re going to make the world a better place.” Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs sees it as tool to enrich people’s lives. It’s important to have great products, of course, but passion, enthusiasm and emotion will set you apart.

Vision Africa Online

Signs of Malaria

The first signs of this disease are headaches and recurring fevers that star about 2 weeks after infection. The drug resistant forms of the disease can be deadly when not recognised and treated in time. Always inform your GP of the fact that you had visited a foreign country, if you develop any disease or symptoms when you return. Much of the practice of medicine is still based on intelligent guessing, but then your doctor or GP must have all the facts.

Prevention of malaria

Judicious use of insect repellent sprays or sticks, which may not always be obtainable in remote places or countries, sleeping under a proper mosquito net and avoidance of areas near open stretches of water at dusk, dawn and night when mosquitoes are at their most active, can go a long way towards warding off this dreadful disease which can cause a period of debilitating illness.

In order to be infected by Malaria, you need three things:

* A female Anopheles mosquito,

* Who had dined on an already infected carrier?

* exposed skin on your body

There is little you can do about the first two items other than avoiding the area where these mosquitos’ occur, but repellent spray and use of proper netting will give you the upper hand.

Malaria prevention in Africa

Malaria is a serious mosquito born disease found in many tropical and sub-tropical low lying and swampy areas of Africa, mostly Central Africa, East and North Africa, but also the Northern and Eastern areas of Southern Africa, along a 100 km strip along the borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique or Maputo.

African art

African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize “traditional” African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African diasporas, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.

* Emphasis on the human figure: The human figure is the primary subject matter for most African art. In historical periods involving trade between Africa and Europe, the introduction of the human body into existing European pottery and other art forms can reliably be taken as evidence of contact with African cultures. For example in the fifteenth century Portugal traded with the Sapi culture near the Ivory Coast in West Africa, who created elaborate ivory saltcellars that were hybrids of African and European designs, most notably in the addition of the human figure (the human figure typically did not appear in Portuguese saltcellars).

* Visual abstraction: African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction over naturalistic representation. This is because many African artworks, and generalize stylistic norms. [2] Ancient Egyptian art, also usually thought of as naturalistically depictive, makes use of highly abstracted and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted. [3]

* Emphasis on sculpture: African artists tend to favor three-dimensional artworks over two-dimensional works. Even many African paintings or cloth works were meant to be experienced three-dimensionally. House paintings are often seen as a continuous design wrapped around a house, forcing the viewer to walk around the work to experience it fully; while decorated cloths are worn as decorative or ceremonial garments, transforming the wearer into a living sculpture.

African Proverb

“When there is no enemy within,
the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”

African Personalities:Maiko Zulu

Maiko Zulu is a Zambian musician, human rights activist and a recognised International labour organisation child ambassador to zambia. His work both in the music industry and human rights arena is well recognised by all Zambian spectrums.

Maiko was born in Livingstone which is a tourist capital city of Zambia. He grew up on his family owned farm. Maiko moved to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia at the age of six according to his biography Maiko Zulu website,[4]. It was while in Lusaka that maiko began his singing career. He entered the music industry with a stage name called St. Michael, a name he later changed for some controversial reasons.

Maiko is a song writer, musician and producer. He has produced Reggea music. His songs has included a Mad president, a song which the state owned TV Broadcaster refused to play on their station.

The Best Of African Personalities:Ken Saro-Wiwa

Kenule “Ken” Beeson Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 – November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic Nigerian minority whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and which has suffered extreme and unremediated environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate oil waste dumping. Initially as spokesperson, and then as President, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and natural waters of Ogoniland by the operations of multinational oil companies, especially Shell. He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce proper environmental regulations on the foreign oil companies operating in the area.

At the peak of his non-violent campaign, Saro-Wiwa was arrested, hastily tried by a special military tribunal, and hanged in 1995 by the Nigerian military government of General Sani Abacha, all on charges widely viewed as entirely politically motivated and completely unfounded. His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations.

A son of Ogoni chieftain Jim Wiwa, Ken was born in Bori, in the Niger Delta.[1] He spent his childhood in an Anglican home and eventually proved himself to be an excellent student, and obtained a scholarship to study English at Government College Umuahia. He completed his studies at the University of Ibadan and briefly became a teaching assistant at the University of Lagos.
However, he soon took up a government post as the Civilian Administrator for the port city of Bonny in the Niger Delta, and during the Nigerian Civil War was a strong supporter of the federal cause against the Biafrans. His best known novel, Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, tells the story of a naive village boy recruited to the army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970, and intimates the corruption and patronage in Nigeria’s military regime of the time. His war diaries, On a Darkling Plain, document Saro-Wiwa’s experience during the war. Saro-Wiwa was also a successful businessman and television producer. His satirical television series, Basi & Co., is purported to have been the most watched soap opera in Africa.

In the early 1970s Saro-Wiwa served as the Regional Commissioner for Education in the Rivers State Cabinet, but was dismissed in 1973 because of his support for Ogoni autonomy. In the late 1970s, he established a number of successful business ventures in retail and real-estate, and during the 1980s concentrated primarily on his writing, journalism and television production. His intellectual work was interrupted in 1987 when he re-entered the political scene, appointed by the newly installed dictator Ibrahim Babangida to aid the country’s transition to democracy. But Ken soon resigned because he felt Babangida’s supposed plans for a return to democracy were disingenuous. Ken’s sentiments were proven correct in the coming years, as Babangida failed to relinquish power. In 1993, he annulled Nigeria’s general elections which would transfer power to a civilian government, sparking mass civil unrest and eventually forcing him to step-down, at least officially, in the same year.

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa began devoting most of his time to human rights and environmental causes, particularly in Ogoniland. He was one of the earliest members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which advocated for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement’s demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands. In particular, MOSOP struggled against the degradation of Ogoni lands by Shell oil company.

In 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.
Ken was Vice President of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) General Assembly from 1993 to 1995. UNPO is an international, nonviolent, and democratic organisation (of which MOSOP is a member). Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.

In January 1993, MOSOP organized peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people – more than half of the Ogoni population – through four Ogoni centers, drawing international attention to his people’s plight. The same year the Nigerian government occupied the region militarily.

Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month.
On May 21, 1994 four Ogoni chiefs (all on the conservative side of a schism within MOSOP over strategy) were brutally murdered. Saro-Wiwa had been denied entry to Ogoniland on the day of the murders, but he was arrested and accused of incitement to them. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The same happened to other MOSOP leaders (Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine).
Nearly all of the defendants’ lawyers resigned in protest to the trial’s cynical rigging by the Abacha regime. The resignations left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers. Many of these supposed witnesses later admitted that they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. Brian Anderson, the Managing Director of Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, met with Owens Wiwa, Saro-Wiwa’s brother and offered to trade Saro-Wiwa’s freedom for an end to the protests against the company. At least two witnesses who testified that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of the Ogoni elders later recanted, stating that they had been bribed with money and offers of jobs with Shell to give false testimony – in the presence of Shell’s lawyer.[2]
The trial was widely criticised by human rights organizations, and half a year later, Ken Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award for his courage as well as the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Very few observers were surprised when the tribunal declared a “guilty” verdict, but most were shocked that the penalty would be death by hanging for all nine defendants. Many were skeptical that the executions would actually occur, as the Nigerian government would face international outrage and possible sanctions and other legal action should the penalties be carried out. But on 10 November 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders (the “Ogoni Nine”) were executed by hanging at the hands of military personnel.

According to most accounts, Ken was the last person to be hanged and so was forced to watch the death of his colleagues. Information on the circumstances of Saro-Wiwa’s own death are unclear, but it is generally agreed that multiple attempts were required before Saro-Wiwa died. His death provoked international outrage and the immediate suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations as well as the calling back of many foreign diplomats for consultation. The United States and other countries considered imposing economic sanctions on Nigeria because of such actions.

A memorial to Saro-Wiwa was unveiled in London on 10 November 2006.It consists of a sculpture in the form of a bus, and was created by Sokari Douglas Camp, also from Nigeria. It toured the UK the following year.

Beginning in 1996, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), EarthRights International (ERI), Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris & Hoffman and other human rights attorneys have brought a series of cases to hold Shell accountable for alleged human rights violations in Nigeria, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment and arbitrary arrest and detention. The lawsuits are brought against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the head of its Nigerian operation.[4]
The cases were brought under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 statute giving non-U.S. citizens the right to file suits in U.S. courts for international human rights violations, and the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows individuals to seek damages in the U.S. for torture or extrajudicial killing, regardless of where the violations take place.

A biography, In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son’s Journey to Understanding His Father’s Legacy, was written by his son, journalist Ken Wiwa. Published in September 2005, shortly before the tenth anniversary of Saro-Wiwa’s execution, Canadian author J. Timothy Hunt’s The Politics of Bones documented the flight of Ken’s brother Owens Wiwa, after his brother’s execution and his own imminent arrest, to London and then on to Canada, where he is now a citizen and continues his brother’s fight on behalf of the Ogoni people. Moreover, it is also the story of Owens’ personal battle against the Nigerian government to locate his brother’s remains after they were buried in an unmarked mass-grave. Ken Saro-Wiwa’s own diary, A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary was published in January 1995, 2 months after his execution.

A book of essays about Wiwa entitled Before I Am Hanged: Ken Saro-Wiwa, Literature, Politics, and Dissent was published by Africa World Press in December 1999. More information on the struggles of the Ogoni people can be found in the book Ogoni’s Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria (ISBN 0-86543-647-9)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York set a trial date of June, 2009. On June 9th, 2009 Shell agreed to an out of court settlement of 15.5 million USD to victims’ families. However, the company denied any liability for the deaths, stating that the payment was part of a reconciliation process. In a statement given after the settlement, Shell suggested that the money was being provided to the relatives of Saro-Wiwa and the eight other victims, in order to cover the legal costs of the case and also in recognition of the events that took place in the region. Some of the funding is also expected to be used to set up a development trust for the Ogoni people, who inhabit the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The settlement was made just days before the trial, which had been brought by Ken Saro-Wiwa’s son, was due to begin in New York.

The Finnish band Ultra Bra dedicated their song “Ken Saro-Wiwa on kuollut” (”Ken Saro-Wiwa is dead”) to the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The Best Of African Personalities:Nwankwo Kanu

Nwankwo Kanu (born 1 August 1976 in Owerri, Nigeria), usually known simply as Kanu, is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Nigerian national team and for English club Portsmouth. His Igbo name, Nwankwo, means “Babyboy born on nkwo market day”. He is the most highly-decorated African footballer in footballing history, having won a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three F.A. Cup Winners Medals and two African Player of the Year awards amongst others. He is the only current Premiership player to have won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, Premiership, FA Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal.

His younger brother, Christopher Kanu, is also a professional footballer.

Kanu began his career, aged fifteen, at First Division club Federation Works before moving to Iwuanyanwu Nationale in 1992. After a notable performance at the U-17 World Championships he was signed by Ajax Amsterdam in 1993 for €207,047. He made his Ajax debut in 1994 and went on to play 54 times for the Dutch side, scoring 25 goals; Kanu came on as a sub in Ajax’s 1995 Champions League final win over AC Milan. In 1996, Ajax sold him to Serie A side Internazionale for around $4.7 million; that summer he captained the Nigerian team that won gold at the Olympics, famously scoring two late goals in the semi-finals against powerhouses Brazil to overturn a 2-3 scoreline into a 4-3 win in extra time. Kanu was also named African Footballer of the Year for that year.

However, soon after returning from the Olympics, Kanu underwent a medical examination at Inter, which revealed a serious heart defect; he underwent surgery in November 1996 to replace an aortic valve and did not return to his club until April 1997. In interviews, Kanu frequently cites his faith as a Christian, and has often mentioned this trying time of his career as an occasion when he prayed to God. Kanu’s experience also led to his founding the Kanu Heart Foundation, an organisation that helps predominantly young African children who suffer heart defects. Kanu is known throughout Africa for his philanthropic work.

Kanu was a free agent following his departure from West Brom, and he signed for Portsmouth F.C. on a one-year deal shortly before the start of the 2006-07 season.[7] Pompey had undergone a revival in the second half of the previous campaign, following the return of Harry Redknapp as manager, avoiding relegation by four points after being in serious danger at the turn of the year. At the start of the 2006-07 season, they were undefeated in their first five games, during which they did not concede a single goal.

Kanu made his debut for Portsmouth as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers on 19 August 2006, the opening day of the 2006-07 Premiership season. He scored twice and missed a penalty, then bagged another brace in his third appearance, a 4-0 win against Middlesbrough; this included a 60-yard sprint followed by an exquisite finish. After scoring goals in the initial matches, Kanu had a goal drought for most of the season, but still finished as the top goalscorer for Pompey. He scored 12 goals that season.

In his second season at Portsmouth, Kanu scored goals in both the FA Cup 1-0 semi-final win against West Bromwich Albion and the 1-0 win in the final against Cardiff City, earning him a Man of The Match award and a third FA Cup winner’s medal. These goals also meant he joined the exclusive list of players who have scored at both the old and new Wembley stadiums. In a post match interview Kanu stated his desire to remain at the club, in turn Harry Redknapp suggested a new contract would be offered.