A new direction

I been gone for a minute but i'm back now *bbm dance*. I got lots in store for the new year ( happy new year btw)  I'm  taking my blog to a whole new direction/level, I guess you guys can attribute that to me not being the same person since I last blogged!! I'm excited about it, I simply can't wait! :-)

stay tuned & stay blessed,

TD

Just when I was feeling sorry for myself, I realized that life really is too short to be feeling sorry about anything. Brain aneurysms are scary. Two of my family friends have survived them, and only just slightly. It was yesterday that I realized that waking up in the morning is never guaranteed. One of my family friend's would not have  survived had she not been out that night, the doctor said she would  have been dead had she went back to her house and went to sleep. That's how sneaky death is and you know,God has really been good to us even in the moments where we don't even deserve it. I was online yesterday, on alopecia world, and there was a story about a  little 10 year old girl who regrew all her hair using Chinese medicine. I was excited, because maybe this was an answer to my prayer, but then it hit me : I should pray for acceptance and inner peace with myself, not for hair.


TD.

Brain drain

 The brain drain ( particularly in Africa) is a BIG  problem. I remember reading somewhere that in 1995, there were more Nigerian doctors and nurses in the US then the WHOLE Nigeria! That is seriously some crazy stuff right there. Nigeria,Ethipia,South Africa, and Ghana are Africa's biggest exports to countries like the United States, West Germany, UK, and Australia. There are about 20 million Nigerians outside of Nigeria and about 1 million Nigerians in the US. 64% of foreign born Nigerians ages 25+ hold a bachelors degree. Many never return to their home country. I can't say that I blame them though, (despite the fact that I'm not familiar with the conditions in which Nigeria/Africa is under, I haven't been there to experience it). For the bloggers who are currently in college maybe in Canada, UK or the US: do you plan on staying there and getting a job? or are you relocating to Nigeria? For the bloggers who have gotten their education in the US/UK/Canada and have remained in your respective 'adoptive' countries: what made you stay? and do you have plans on returning home?




Heres an excerpt from an interview with Emeagwali:


What are the social impact of brain drain?


EMEAGWALI:

Brain drain makes it difficult to create a middle class consisting of doctors, engineers and other professionals. We have a two class African society: a massive underclass that is largely unemployed and very poor people and a few very rich people that are mostly corrupt military and government officials.

Brain drain gives rise to poor leadership and corruption. A large educated middle class will ensure that political power is transferred by ballots instead of by bullets.

When the medical doctors emigrate to the United States, the poor are forced to seek medical treatment from traditional healers while the elite fly to London for their routine medical checkups.

Nigerian government officials are using tax payer's money to travel abroad for routine medical check-ups and malarial treatment. Overseas medical check-ups is a national disgrace and banning it would force Nigeria to re-hire those medical doctors that emigrated to Europe.

 Do Africans who leave their home countries to study and work have an obligation to return and share the benefits of their education?


EMEAGWALI: 

In theory, we are morally obliged to return to Africa. In reality, an African professional will not resign from his $50,000 a year job to accept a $500 a year job in Africa. A more meaningful question will be to ask: What measures can be taken to entice Africans leaving abroad to return home and what can be done to discourage those professionals in Africa to remain in Africa.

          Five Possible Solutions to curve the brain drain:

             1.Good governance at the national and international level, especially maintenance of reasonable

               security for peoples' lives and property is essential for economic progress, Thus withholding

               political and economical emigrants, who blame their governement's failure for political unrest

               and stagnant economic growth is possible. Transparency in leadership is essential and should

               be maintained.

             2.Offering higher wages for `insiders` according to their qualifications is essential, instead of over

               estimating and hiring expatrates, which are more costly.

             3.Education plays a powerful role especially in the growing problems of international migration.

               Therefore, offering these individuals the necessariy education qualifications in their home

               countries, and expanding a better educational infrasturcture may definitely prevent emigrants

               who are seeking a higher education abroad.

             4.Seeking alternative measures for return of warranty from the beneficiaries, such as the

               withholding of academic degrees until the graduates return and are willing to serve the people,

               may be another considerable alternative.

             5.The last alternative measure could be, taxing emigrants who are indigenously trained in home

               countries. This is indeed a sensitive issue and may sound absurd, and may potentially infringe

               on the basic human right and freedom to chose the nature and location of individuals where to

               live and where to work. Thus, it must be agreed upon the international community and

               international laws.

             6.Since richer African States are also the stakeholders of this so called brain drain, a deal must

               be made between rich and poor states of the continent that prohibits the later from taking

               intellectuals of the poorer states.

               http://chora.virtualave.net/brain-drain7.htm

Inspiration

I been struggling lately to accept the fact that I'm hairless. I've been getting strange looks, and inquiries about my 'hair wig. I feel like I need to break free and just be me, so sometimes I wear scarves, the ladies above are beautiful even with short cropped hair.

Photos:Kwesi Abbensetts

Ambition

I've neglected my blog, but for good reasons. I had school work, mid-terms and lots of thinking to do.
I missed blogging though. If I was blogging regularly I would have blogged about Nigeria's 50th independence and how I celebrated ( my Oct.1st was completely horrible btw) but I was in ny for the parade but I didn't go clubbing ( so much eye candy* wink*) but my new thing is " leave every cute man alone where you found him until he approaches you and when he does check his references with the holy spirit". Its been working so far, but then again the way I carry myself these days won't attract such a man lol. I'm pretty casual about what I wear these days and how I wear my hair, errr wig. Dc has been great, it definitely has problems with poverty and rats, which every city in America is struggling with I guess.  I've joined clubs,made a few more friends,ignored a few,dropped some, yea you know the whole spiel. Since I've been in dc I've really been struggling with something I never thought I would struggle with: my identity. For those of you who don't know, I'm an American born Nigerian. For some reason I'm feeling like the other Nigerian students (some are exchange/international students) treat me very different as if I'm not even one of them. For weeks, I was finding it hard to comprehend, but now I've come to the a conclusion that I've been denying for quite some time. We are inexplicably different. I mean the Nigerians born and raised in the US and the ones raised in Nigeria. We act differently, we speak differently(obviously) our mannerisms are different. We are just different. I'm ok with that and I fully understand how/why we are so different. I don't have to become best 'buddies' with someone for the simple fact that they are Nigerian, and a Nigerian guy who I met in the library made me fully aware of this when he started off our 'convo' like this: him: are you african? me:yes him: Nigerian? me: yes--him: have u been making an effort to meet other Nigerians on campus? me: no, its not really my priority right now--him: wow, I've never met a Nigeria that would say that me: *silent* him: so do you hang out with the 'whites'? --me: umm no---him: ok, well when you see me around campus say hi, because I always see you and you just walk by me, I knew you  must be a nigerian, cuz thats nija babe behavior'. Wow, I never knew I had 'Naija babe' behavior. But anyway point is, I'm friendly to those who are friendly to me. If your not friendly, I usually just ignore you. Its a terrible way to go about things, I know! I'm trying to change really I am!


I'm kind of feeling like a 29 year old thats turning 30, like I'm running out of time to do my last minute-life changing thing.Almost like I'm rushing to the alter *laughs* Like I'm feeling wayyyy out of my element. I feel like ok here I am, a 20 year old college student, with the world as my oyster, yet I feel like something is missing, like I haven't really accomplished much in my 20 years on earth. When you go to a university where juniors are working full time on capitol hill or at the White House as Obama's activity coordinator, then you might have an inkling about how I feel. I'm trying to really take advantage of the opportunities that my school has to offer. I mean my school is KNOWN for the crazy/incredible internships/jobs that students land ( some students get internships in their freshman year) and also the study abroad programs. I'm trying to do so many things at once, my mind is always thinking of a new idea, I'm constantly writing mental notes in my head about something, and I KNOW that using a job at the white house as my measuring stick is just ridiculous, but forgive me, I can't help it. I know I'm ambitious, I just don't know how to make my ambitions reality. I talk more than I do, I write more about what I want to do more than I act on it.

I gotta admit, thinking/writing about my goals,hopes and dreams is just not cutting the cake anymore. I need to make moves! I need to get more ambitious and get to work.

Have a wonderful week ahead!


RIP to The Cunning Linguist. The talented ones always leave us so soon.
shouts out 2 kilishi.e-hugs*. You'll be ok!

random

- My roommate is annoying.
Shes annoying in more ways than one but the number one reason why is she keeps the tv remote on her bed or desk., yet she says I can watch it and change the channels or whatever...I should have just kept my television and connect it somewhere else somehow...oyinbo ppl are something else.


-Cute guys are everywhere on my campus. From asian to lebanese to Nigerian...'i never see this kain thing be for' ( jaywon voice lol) i met a Nigerian boy last night...he was tooooo cute, we were both smilin hard like fools lol


-I start bikram yoga this week. Its in a heated room for around 90minutes. DC is surprisingly a very health conscious city...people are always jogging or walking or doing some sort of  physical activity


-Something i observed since i got here is Nigerian girls who come straight from Nigeria seem to have attitude problems..like a real serious one. They start to act stuck up for no reason and sort of act standoffish...like the two nigerian girls in my bio class..the first one is cool but shes boring as anything...as in im trying hard to hold a convo and shes in another planet ( she wasnt the issue, her friend was) i came up to her friendn started talking and she was acting aloof n what not, almost like she was trying to make me look stupid, i just walked off and left the two of them standing there...since then i ignore both of them...made me realize that i dont have to make friends with every nigerian i see smh!!

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Ive arrived

Shoutsout to everyone who commented on my last post, I'm about to post my replies.
On another note, I've arrived in DC( this post was meant for 8/24!)...well I've been here since what friday I think. I love dc already, last time I was here was back in '06. Only thing I don't like about DC is the cost of living here, na wa o, my pockets are howling. I went to the grocery store today, and they charge 5 cents for an extra bag....lmyo its not that serious its just a plastic bag. But on the flip side, dreads are big out here, and I love dudes with dreads...short, tall,light or dark as long as he has dreads then he has my attention...then i focus my attention elsewhere lol. My school is absolutely beautiful and  its kept pretty clean. Most of the students here are pretty wealthy ( their parents that is )which means on any given day its not out the ordinary to see a BM or a lezzus cruising down the streets of the campus & most kids are foreign and have diplomat/ambassador parents which explains it all. I'm slowly trying to make friends, because chillin in the dorm is no fun,but this time around Ive been lazy about it...I had the opportunity yesterday and I blew it. I went into the bookstore, and I saw this tall,black dude, I dont know if he was cute because I didn't look at his face...so this dude says hi, how are you? I said hi and kept moving....15mins later hes coming towards me...and I'm thinking...what in the world does this guy want?...so he asks me if I needed help with anything and I said NO!! i said no!!! now that I think about it, it would have been a perfect opportunity to make a new 'friend'...lol or a new driver lmao... if there are any bloggers in the DMV area, email me oo (damsel44@yahoo.com) i wouldnt mind meeting up...

Since I turned 20 I've:
1. joined twitter
2.went vintage shopping for the first time
3.got my nose pierced
4.moved to dc
5.been to more weddings in a month than I ever have in my whole life
6.eaten gelato for the first time