April 30, 2019

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 31

Hellenistic science was influenced by amalgam of cultures,with town of Alexandria,a meeting point between east and west.Athens had been center of philosophy,still relevant after Socrates Plato and Aristotle,Alexandria now became center of science.Its extensive library became research center for biology,medicine,maths and astronomy.We shall move onto greater scholarship by highlighting various schools of philosophy,still extant today.Hence,new ideologies and thoughts have been devised over time and some of them have been summarised below.From the Cynics,Stoics,Epicureanism,Neoplatonism,Mysticism etc.Cynics,or Cynic School of philosophy was founded by Antisthenes around 400 B.C.in Athens.The story goes that Socrates had visited a market and stood gazing at the stall and all its wares been sold.He said"what a lot of things i dont need".That became the motto for the new school.He was a pupil of Socrates and was particularly interested in frugality. They entertained belief that true happiness lies in depending

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 30

But prior to the conquest of Hellenistic world by Romans,Rome itself was a mere province of Greek culture.And so the already dominant Greek culture came to play a major force in the syncretic movement.There was fusion of religion,philosophy and science together with the borders and boundaries of the Persians,Greeks, Babylonians,Syrians,Romans, Egyptians completely erased.City squares replaced by world arena and also oriental gods were worshipped in the meditteranean countries.This gave birth to new religious formations and this is called fusion of creeds or syncretism.It did not really matter that doubts,pessimism and cultural delusion set in that characterised late antiquity but the fusion of creeds had certainly achieved its goal of preparing the road to new global religions like christianity or mohamedanism that rose later. Also spiritual teaching about how to obtain salvation from death also spread like wildfire.Philosophic insight with its own rewards was thought to have its own of freing man from death.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 30

But prior to the conquest of Hellenistic world by Romans,Rome itself was a mere province of Greek culture.And so the already dominant Greek culture came to play a major force in the syncretic movement. There was fusion of religion,philosophy and science together with the borders and boundaries of the Persians,Greeks, Babylonians,Syrians,Romans, Egyptians completely erased.City squares replaced by world arena and also oriental gods were worshipped in the meditteranean countries.This gave birth to new religious formations and this is called fusion of creed or syncretism.It did not really matter that doubts,pessimism and cultural delusion set in that characterised late antiquity but the fusion of creeds had certainly achieved its goal of preparing the road to new global religions like christianity or mohamedanism that rose later. Also spiritual teaching about how to obtain salvation from death also spread like wildfire.Philosophic insight with its own rewards was thought to have its own of freing man from death.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 29

Aristotle died in the year 322 B.C.at a time Athens had lost its dominant influence.This decline was linked to the political upheavals,ochestrated from the conquests of Alexander the Great-356-323 B.C.That long period from Aristotle near the exit of 4th century B.C.up to the early medieval around A.D.400 with christianity as powerful force during the period should provide a rational template for our discussion.He was the young Alexander's tutor,and it was Alexander that won the final decisive battle against the Persians.He had many conquests that linked Egypt and the Orient up till far east,then India to the Greek civilisation.This conquest brought a new civilisation led by Greek culture and their language played a major role and lasted a tercentenary.It was called'Hellenism'to refer to a period when Greek dominated culture prevailed in three Hellenistic Kingdoms of Macedonia,Syria and Egypt.Around the year 50 B.C. Rome finally secured upper hands in both military and political affairs as the new superpower.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 28

He lampooned platonic as infantile and puerile,trapped in the mythical,in which mortal imagination was confused with the real world. That nothing exist in the consciousness which has not first been experienced in the senses.He also held that all our thoughts and ideas have come into our consciousness based upon what we have heard and seen.He disputed Plato's notion of innate ideas and never deny reason as man's most distinguishing characteracteristics,that man has no innate ideas,and reason is completely empty until we have sense something.He was able nature into several categories such as living things and non living things with the former equiped with potentiality for change.Non livings such as stones,drops of water or heaps of soil were classified as having no potentiality,a submission that Herarclitus would have debated and ferociously challenged.It should be noted however that Aristotelian metaphysics and its geocentric principles of the universe dominated European thoughts for more than 20centuries .

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 27

According to records from Antiquity,refer to 170titles supposedly authored by him,some 47 preserved and uncompleted books;a repertoire largely of lecture notes given that philosophy during the period was completely an oral activity.He was said to have created scientific terminoloy in use today,a great organizer,established and categorised various sciences accordingly.He sharply critiqued his teacher,who held that ideas were more real than allthe phenomena of nature,Aristotle didnt spare him,retorted he was turning things upside down.He wasan empiricist,consideringutmost significance,he placed in the use of senses like Parmenides.Their highest degree of reality is what we perceive with oursenses,not what we think with ourreason.He contradicts his assumptionthat all things we see in the physicalworld were purely reflections of the things that existed in the spirit world of higher reality and ideas.He thought the contradiction,nature is the real world,things buried inthe human soul were pure natural reflection.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 26

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) unarguably the most influential scientist in European history,who not a native of Athens,was a pupil of Plato's Academy for close to twenty years.Like Alexander the Great,he was born in Macedonia and came to Plato's Academy when Plato was 61 years old.Aristottle's patriarchy was a respected physician and scientist and that speaks volume the inspiration especially his philosophical project started from home.He may not have been the last great philosopher but certainly he was Europe's first great biologist.Unlike platonic fantasy,he was interested in nature's study and finding suitable explanation for natural processes.While Plato shut its eyes to everything around us and turn heavenwards to unrealistic world of eternity and ideas,Aristotle did the opposite,a stark contrast and hardly spared him.Aristotle was empiricist while his predecessors were both rationalists alike.Plato was a mythologist and a poet and they claim Aristotle had extensive writings,though debatable and unproven.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 25

He then likened a state to human body that has similar three parts,rulers,auxilliaries and labourers or farmers.Plato's ideal state has been likened to the hindu caste system in which everybody has a role for the good of the whole.Prior to Plato's time hindu's has similar tripartite structure between auxilliary caste,or priest caste,the warrior and then labourers'castes.It was like Plato's totalitarian state and his viewsthat warriors and rulers should nothave private property or not allowed family life would consideredalien to mordern times where lucre is god.Plato wrote the Laws in which he considered constitutional state as nextbest stateand reintroducedboth private property and familybond.He calls for education of women.Consideringthe time,he lived,scholars arefond of the fact hehad a positiveview about women.For a state to refuse to train woman is like a man that trains only his right hand.In the Dialogue symposium,he reserves a woman the legendary priestess Diotima,the honour of giving Socrates insight.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 24

His world of reality is divided into categories or regions.In the sensory world,or physical world or material,all thing flows and nothing is permanent and then secondly the world of ideas or spirit world is eternal.With this submission he believed man is a dual creature and all natural phenomenal are merely illusion and shadows of the eternal forms of ideas.He popularised the myth of the caves and illustrates in the myth how philosophers'road evolved from shadowy images to the true form of ideas behind all natural phenomena.He might have been thinking about Socrates his masterthat the cave dwellers killeddue to the fact he disturbed them,given his popularity by trying to show people the true light,when he wrote this myth.He believed the human body is composed of three parts,mainly the head,that controls reason,the chest that controls the will and abdomen that controls appetite.That each of these soulful faculties has a virtue: reason aspires to wisdom; human will aspires to courage or faith;and last modesty.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 23

Just like Empedocles'eccletic model,he borrows from Herarclitus and also says but partly that"all thing flows.That any tangible thing,everything form in nature flows and there are no substances that do not dissolve. Everything that belong to material world that time can dissolve but those after a timeless mold are eternal or immutable.Hence,he borrows partly from Anaximander and partly from Herarclitus to draw an eccletic conclusion.While he points toward heaven,Aristotle points towards the earth.He concluded there must be a force or reality behind the material world and he called the reality'world of ideas.'This contained immutable patterns that back up various phenomena inherent in nature and this influences his propositionthat gives birth to Plato's theory of ideas.He submitted we cannever have a true knowledge of anything in a constant state or flux of change,apart from opinions of those things that belong to the world of senses.We mean tangible things and can only have true knowledge of things by reason.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 22

Plato wrote a collection of Epistle and about twenty five philosophical dialogues,deployed the use of myths extensively than any of the ancient and mordern philosophers. Plato set up his school of philosophy in a grove not too far from Athens.He academy named after the legendary Greek hero Academus and the world academies and academics were from this groundswell.He taught philosophy,mathematics and gymnastics there.Although the right word rather than 'taught'should be used which is were lively discussed and not purely by chance that it produced a lot of dialogues.Inthe Plato's philosophical project,unlike the sophistsand socrates,fighting for their defense of relationship preoccupied betweenthe eternal norms andthe flowingvirtues or morals,samewith Parmenides and Herarclitus,Democritus a monist and then Empedocles at polar opposite, Plato took a different dimension. I still do the belief his theory was that different from that Anaximander's theory on boundless though he categorised them.Platonic heavenward.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 21

Hence,popular words today such as biology,history,logics,philosophy,ethics and psychology,politics,democracy,economy,physics,theory,method,idea,system or sciences by rudimentary emerged from this modest spot,that gave birth to European civilisation.The small populace whose everyday life revolved around this square,where Socrates spent most of this life talking were instrumental to the evolution of sciences in use till date.Now,we are still in Athens of the Antiquity Or the helenistic era,about 2,400years back,in the year 402 B.C.just three years prior to Socrates death,all the marble buildings were fantastic we saw an inquisitive plato ready to explore and defend his master's reputation,even in death. Plato-428-347 B.C. was twenty nine when he drank hemlock and followed his trials too closely.He was schocked to the bone marrow that Athenscould condemn its noblest citizen to untimely grave. Then,his first deed was to publish Socrates'Apology,it reveals his plea to the large jury.He also wrote several others.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 20

Below the Acropolis lay the oldest theater in Europe, Dionysos Theater,where the great tragedies of the antiquities were staged.They include the tragedies of Aeschylus,ill fated king Oedipus, Sophocles, Euripides,were performed during Socrates period especially Sophocles was first staged in his honour.They played comedies,featuring Aristophanes,who also wrote degrading comedy about Socrates as buffoon of Athens.Moving on to the foot of Acropolis,pacing up a small hill,pointed towards Athens,the hill is called Areopagos,where Athenian court of justice passed judgements on murder trials.It was mostly popularised by Apostle Paul who stood there and preached christ to the Athenians.Down to the left,the place called Agora,the remains of old city square in Athens lays its humbled posture.There was also the large temple devoted to Hephaestos god of smiths and metalworkers.The Old Agora in Athens was surrounded by magnificent temples,courts,concert hall,public offices,huge gymnastic complex and many more situated.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 19

Acropolis means'Citadel'or precisely the city on the hill'having been lived by people ever since the stone age. Its unique location was a vantage,an elevated plateau was easy to defend against marauders and also had an excellent view down to one of the best meditaranean harbours.Athens developed beneath this plateau and the Acropolis was used as garrison,fortress and a sacred shrine.The first half of the fifth century witnessed an acrimonious feud against the Persians and by 480,its king Xerxes plundered Athens and all old wooden buildings of this sacred fortress.When the Persians were mauled a year after,the golden age of Athens was begun,including the Acropolis that was rebuilt,prouder,more magnificent and glorious than ever be. Socrates passed through Athens during the period,and witness proud construction ,including those of the biggest temple'Parthenon'meaning'the Virgin's place'constructed in honor of Athene,the patron godess of Athens.He walked through the streets and squares,talking to the Athenians.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 17

In the art of speaking,he chose not to lecture,but to discuss first by interrogation and playing the dumber ignorant to enjoin people to use their common sense.This method was called'Socratic Irony!' It enabled him to expose fragile human things and wasnt even ashamed to do that in the city squares.In 399 B.C.,he was accused of corrupting the youths by introducing new gods that debased their belief and legal acceptance of the accepted gods.A slender majority of above 500 people,found him guilty and put him to death.The truth is that why did he have to die? Because he valued truth more than conscience and would rather have die than to disober the laws of Athens.His friends could certainly have saved his life,but declined.He was sure that he knew nothing and he clearly belong to the school of rationalists.He was concerned finding universally valid definition to what was right and wrong and no one could be happy,if they acted against their better judgement. By turning to Plato,we shall learn trulymore about him.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 16

We quite agree he is possibly the most inscrutable element in the history of western philosophy,though never wrote a single line and had the greatest influence on European thoughts,adopted same method like sophists and Christ,wandering and teaching in the city and village squares and marketplaces discussing with local citizens and scholars,bombarded by schizophrenia at times,stand lost in thoughts for hours.He had bulging eyes,oblonghead,a snub nose,a potbellied element and extremely ugly guyand was saidto be inwardlyhappy.Unfortunately,he was put to death for the sake of theprofession,that he loved.It is popularly known we have no accountof his life and contribution exceptthrough the writings of Plato,hisdisciple.These are made known in a number of dialogues,he wrote,which discuss philosophy and uses Socrates as main character. This made it difficult to distinguish and differentiate what Socrates said or what Plato said.It is thelatter's portraiture that have been to sell his master to the west for 2,500yrs.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 15

Sophist Protagoras says"Man is the measure of all things"and when confronted with his belief in deities,he made the statement"The question is complex and life is short"making an agnostic,a brother to atheist Anaxagoras.The Sophists were globetrotters and cosmopolitans,junketted widely and had studied all forms of government worldwide,including variations in local laws and conventions.With this technical knowledge of good and bad,and what works or what barely works,they were able to challenge individuals,public institutions and pioneered social criticism in Athens. These peripatetic Sophists wandering the city pointed out thatthey were absolute norms for what was right or wrong.They also popularised debates on natural modesty or issues that were socially induced.Where Socrates theiropponent tried with distinction to show them otherwise.That there are some normsthat are eternally valid and generally
absolute.We cannot write western history,without constant reference to the voluminous literatures left behind.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 14

With the paradigm shift,it gives them a leading position in the history of science where in Athens interest was now based individual and place in society.This led evolution of democracy made thick by popular assemblies and the courts of law.And to take part in the democractic project,education became extremely necessary.The Athenians were compelledto master the art of rhetorics as foremost tool to succeed inthis context.Subsequently,then,itinerant mentors,foreign tutors and philosophers popularly known as Sophists,the group that laidan enduring framework to the basis of mordern jurisprudence flockedto Athens and they taught the people for money.They were exponents of the school of skepticism because they were critical of traditional mythology like the natural philosophers but similarly also detested futile ideological speculation.They barely believed that man had enhanced faculty to know the truth about the puzzles of nature,even though answers elsewhere may exist.Given this dubiety,they chose to focus on Man

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 13

As the trends evolved,they were still using the supernatural causes so much deimphasised to back up their so called natural causes.For instance,Hermes in Greek mythology,the messenger of the gods,was also been used as the god of the seafarers.Infact at a time,upon consultation of the Oracles at Delphi,affirmed that Socrates was the wisest man in Greece,even against his dubiety.Now,the three greatest Greek Philosophers came onboard and put an end to presocractic era and instead of focusing on the cosmos or nature,man became the centre of their studies.He was the first of great philosophers to be born at Athens and all of them lived and worked there. Anaxagoras was hounded out of athens also,he said the sun was a redhot stone,but Socrates himself was treated shabbily fared worse and died of hemlock.Begginning from the time of Socrates,Athens became the center of Greek culture.I will like the Sophists first prior to Socrates and now let us back to around 450 B.C.when philosophy entirely took on a new dimension.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 12

The failure to win a war,could be likened to vengeance or anger of the gods and that require appropriate sacrifices to pacify the gods.Common sickness could be ascribed a sign of divine intervention and the gods could make people well again with the right sacrifices.And so,it was the same thing with the Greeks and to debase the supernatural causes attributed to everything like sickness,led to the evolution of Greek medicine.A good knowledge of history,was needed to comprehend the fables and later debase them,an effort that was begun with Hesiod and Homer in the Illiad and Theogony and sustained by successive historians. Greek medicine arose and tried to find natural explanation to the the natural causes of sickness and health.Hippocrates born around 260 B.C.on the Island Of Cos,began this practice.According to him based on the Hippocractic medical condition,the best safeguard against sickness and to maintain good health was moderation and healthy lifestyle.Any illness means by nature has gone off course sAugustine of Hippoorily

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 11

Many heads of states dared not go to war without consulting the oracle to take decisive steps,with the priests of Apollo the diplomats and advisers,experts in this field of fortune tellers.At the entrance to the temple at Delphi,had the famous inscription"Man Know Thyself!",which was a reminder to the visitors that man must know his destiny and he not being less than a mortal must be mindful of that destiny.The Greeks had ample stories of fatal destinies and so have a handful of plays-tragedies written in that regard,of which the tragedy of the King Oedipus,is the most famous.Fate had considerable influenceon peoples lives and they believed even world history was govered by it and were swayed thatthe fortunes of war could be influenced by the intervention of the gods.At the same time divine or fatalistic belief was entertained,the philosophers were to find natural explanations to the natural processes for the course of history.The best known Greek historians Herodotus-484-424 B.C.and Thucydides-460-400 B.C.

April 29, 2019

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 10

The earliest philosophers from Greek to the Nordic where they entertained strong belief such as" lagnadan"or fate in the old Icelandic sagas of Edda.Other parts of the world also entertain fatalism that people could learn their fate,by consulting oracle.Also people can tell your fortune on the cards,read your palm,that is palmistry,or predict your future in the stars.Fortune tellers or all forms of fortune telling try to foresee the future.Sometimes it is hard to repudiate fortune tellers'claim given the ambiguity of what they see.The famous oracle at Delphi for instance in Greece,could beconsulted by the Greeks.Apollo,the god of the oracle often spoke throughpriestess pythiawho on a stoolsat over the earth's fissure,where hypnotic vapours summoned and arose that put Pythia into trance.She was apollo's mouthpiece and when they cameto Delphi to interrogate the priests of the oracle,who passed it to herand then reinterprete the vagueness in hermessage to the people.In this way,people got the interpretedmessage.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 9

Before i turn to Democritus the monistic unifier,let me cite another philosopher Anaxagoras-500-428 B.C. who could not disagree with Thales and then Democritus theories.Now,he held that nature is made of thousands of tiny indivisible particles not seen by the eye.He called them minuscule particles and was generally interested in the earth study and was the first philosopher we hear of in Athens where he migrated to at age 40 from Asia Minor.He was chased from the city after he was accused of atheism.After studying a meteorite,he concluded all heavenly bodies were made of the same materials as the earth.This gave him clue that life existed in them too.Democritus(460-370 B.C.)came from a little town of Abdera on northern Augean Coast.He was the philosopher that discovered atom and concluded that nature consisted of these smallest units and varieties of atom.He did not believe in any soul or spirit to interve in the natural process.Beginning with natural philosophers'tradition,the Greeks were tireless searchers.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 8

Empedocles was like a dualist in the mould of Rene Descartes,when he came onboard and settled their scores and differences using Hegelian dialectics.He found out that the basis of their disagreement was they were monists and such gap between the two schools would be unbridgeable. He agreed with Parmenides that nothing changes and similarly concured with Herarclitus that we must trust the evidence of our senses.Then,he concluded though their differences nothwithstanding that it is the concept of a single substance that should be rejected. That four elements made up the nature such as earth,fire,air and water.And all matters are composed of them,settling their differences.After Empedocles'accurate classification of nature's composition and transformation as combination and dissolution of four roots,the next line of explanation,what make them combine to be able to operate effectively so that meaningful life can happen?That honour was left to Democritus to earn its prestige and also make a beautiful discovery.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 8

Empedocles was like a dualist in the mould of Rene Descartes,when he came onboard and settled their scores and differences using Hegelian dialectics.He found out that the basis of their disagreement was they were monists and such gap between the two schools would be unbridgeable. He agreed with Parmenides that nothing changes and similarly concured with Herarclitus that we must trust the evidence of our senses.Then,he concluded though their differences nothwithstanding that it is the concept of a single substance that should be rejected. That four elements made up the nature such as earth,fire,air and water.And all matters are composed of them,settling their differences.After Empedocles'accurate classification of nature's composition and transformation as combination and dissolution of four roots,the next line of explanation,what make them combine to be able to operate effectively so that meaningful life can happen?That honour was left to Democritus to earn its prestige and also make a beautiful discovery.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 7

He was in favour of what his reason told him rather than what his sense said.He believed that our senses give us fake evidence and incorrect picture of the real world that disagrees with our reason.With this submission he was obliged to fight all forms of perceptual illusion and deceit.Hence,he belong to a rational school of philosophy,due to his unshakeable faith in human reason.His contemporary Herarclitus 540-480 B.C.around the same period,in the opposing school thought otherwise.He was from Ephesus,Asia Minor and thought that constant change flows.He says"all things flow"and that was the most basic feature of nature." Everything flows"and "we cannot step twice into the same river".When juxtaposed,Parmenides says that nothing barely change whereas Herarclitus says otherwise that all things flow.That our sensory perceptions are reliable in contrast to Parmenides that sensory perceptions are unreliable. They were still burning in hell of disputation,when Empedocles c.490-430 B.C. from Sicily came onboard .

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 6

That which comes before or after them must be boundless.The third philosopher Anaximander-570-526 B.C.thought the source of all things must be vapour or air.He must have been widely read about Thales'theory of water to make that conclusion.Now,philosophers begginning from the Hesiod times had debunked existence of deities and religion as myths and legends now begin to recreate their own world,in their own image,in the same way,Xenophanes 570 B.C.had lampooned mankind created gods in their own image.The Miletian philosophersbelong to the monist league wherethey entertain belief only one singlesubstance was catalyst to all natural processes.Then came the Eleatics League.In the Greek Colony of Elea,Southern Italy,at around 500 B.C.They nailed their poser.Parmenides-540-480 B.C.thought that nature has everlasting nature and there was no such thing as actual change,that nature is in a constant state of flux.He might have perceived with his senses that things change,but it sound ridiculous for his reason to agree.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 5

The earliest natural philosophers were not Greeks,but reside in its colonies.There are three philosophers from Miletus and the first philosopher Thales came from Miletus,a Greek colony in Asia Minor,now North Africa.He traveled round the world,including Egypt,when he studied pyramid and estimated and calculated its heights by measurement of its shadow,at the precise moment when his own shadow's length was equal to his height.Not only did he accurately predicted a solar eclipse in the year 585 B.C.but also thought that the source of everything was water.That all life originated from water and later returned back to water.He noted that"all things are full of gods"not reffering to Homer's godsand also enthused that the earth was full of tiny invisible"life germs".After him we know of another philosopher who lived at the same place at about the same time like him called',Anaximander'.He had different views entirely that the world was made of something boundless,that nature or matter has limited powers to exist.

THE PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 4

The word'Natural Philosophy'or philosophy of nature in latin 'philosophiae naturalis',was coined to refer to the scholastic study of nature,a practice that was dominant prior to the evolution of mordern science.It is the harbinger of mordern science,which was begun from the ancient Aristotellian times when it was coined 'natural philosophy'.And by the 19th century,the term'natural philosophy'refering to the physical study of nature was later coined 'mordern science'.From the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th century,a revival in the paradigm of natural philosophy was conspicuous in the German tradition and scholarship of great philosophers such as Goethe,Hegel and Schelling and their contemporaries made prominent contribution to the field.Natural philosophy,is one of the branches of philosophy.The first specialist in the field of natural philosophy Jacopo Zabarella,came in 1577 at the University Of Padua.From the mid-19th century,it came to mean or refers only to 'physics'and not even medicine per say.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 3

Philosophers believed men have created gods in their own image and they extensively challenged Homer's mythology and that the myths were nothing but human inventions and sheer notion.During the period,the Greek founded many city states,both mainland and outside Greece itself,in her colonies Asia Minor and Southern Italy,where slaves laboured while citizens devote their time to thinking in politics and culture.So,in the city environments,they began to think and therefore a new way of life was begun.Myths and legends provided the rich source for this evolution,a new mode of development of development based on reason and experience.They craved to find that esoteric and natural way rather thansupernatural way for explanation of the natural processes.We shall begin the discussion of thisvoluminous topic and philosophers'project with the clinical treatment offirst and foremost the pantheon of natural philosophers and their place in the historical development of philosophy,then science and technology respectively.

PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 2

World mythologies abound and then we take Nordic myths for instance we might have heard of Thor and his hammer,a popular tales before christianity came to Norway. The tale was believe Thor made rain and even lightning with his hammer and rode across the sky with chariot drawn on his heels with two goats.We shall be drawn into even brief glimpse at the world of Norse mythology which the extract vividly deals with including numerous myths about Thor and Odin, Freyr and Freyja, Hoder and Balder.It also existed in Greece at the time that philosophy was evolving,as handed down for millennia,from generation to generation.In Greece,they have prototypes and gods like Zeus and Apollo,Hera and Athene,Dionysos and Asclepios,Heracles and Hephaesto and numerious others which were nothing but an embellishments and minor alterations of the Egyptian deities. When the myths were written down to a larger extent by Hesiod and Homer,around 700 B.C.,created a whole new situation in which they could now be debated and challenged.

PHILOSOPHERS' STONE.PART 1

In this treatise,we talk about philosophy.-Six hundred years prior to the birth of christ,a new way of thinkingpopularly known as philosophy emerged in Greece,which answers questions in everyfields ofhuman endeavours including religion.First,it began with the story suchas myth,including religiousexplanations handeddown from generationto generation,in the form of myths.Itspecifically explains the genesisof life and its norms have certainly over the course become partand parcel of the human tradition and culture. Hence,over the course of millennia,a wild profusion of mythological exposition,touching philosophical questions,fables and imaginative figments that barely can be trusted,spread over the world.The Greekphilosophers contended and attempted to prove their fallacity or mendacity,that those explanations were not to be trusted.In my unpublished novel"Professor Of Nkata"the first of the trilogy,whose excerpt would soon be posted here,the world mythological picture was clearly painted in theopening chapters.

April 28, 2019

BANDWAGON EFFECT : COLLECTIVE PERCEPTION.PART 2

The peculiarity and sanctity of this timely infested necessity,habituates its pristine appeal,ochestrated in a prevailing fatal scenario.The causal degeneration of collective perception,exploiting injurious tradition,swooped at the edge of precipice,will not dismember quality human verdict,much needed to revert back the sinking position to its contented space and elevated buffers that leverages on new ethical norms of the ensuing ideology.Too much bandwagon effect,given the preeminence mankind attributes to collective perception darkens priceless judgement and quality thoughts. The operative framework for growth and development,that hinges on standard,practices,norms,ethics,methods,policies,tradition,custom and programs that guide development work,are byeproducts of this bandwagon effect.The arbitrary influence of higher power and superior technology of extant arts submerges conditional resistance for their populous appeal.The growth of the framework'sliability risk,accentuates as retrogressive impact grows.

BANDWAGON EFFECT: COLLECTIVE PERCEPTION.Part 1

We are what we see and the embrace of universal perception sometimes given its unavoidable drawbacks contaminates effect,as well as the outlays of human progress.We are influenced by universal perception and delimits its highly prejudiced boundary tresspasing the disenchanted and disillusioned horizons of percapital sentry and highly segregated human judgement which provides a background for its archetypical catapult.That depreciates originality of individual thoughts and demotes distinction and not until the operating risk of necessity is on the increase,mankind hardly flexes brawn to avert this miasma.The truth is according to the law of this perception:what others look is what you look and what you look is what others look.In the first instance,the former logically produces the latter and once it goes into frequency and even ultravires,unless the liability risk of necessity is fatal,the latter barely contends to curtail the contagion.The main tangled know to sustainable when injurious tradition last longer

HOW TO MAKE YOUR FIRST EASIEST BILLION.PART 3

Obviously,the 25%should be sold for a $1billion.Step 8- Use that a billion dollar of new equity,to borrow another $9billion at say 0.25% from the Fed.
Step 9.Buy another $9billion of treasuries.Collect another $400million per year and pay yourself and your team twice as large as previous year.You worth for all your hardwork and you now $500million richer.Step 10- Be patient at least wait for your stocks to double or tripple.Really,that wont take a long time due to your healthy balance sheet and inherent good growth trajectory.When you hits $10billion market capitalisation,sell another 10% of the company for a billion dollar.Now ready to grow.Step 10- Now popularise yourself through the media,go into expansion,buying branch network,engage in mergers and acquisition especially the asset management firm could do this.Start rolling out loans or take on new investment.All those risk of expansion arent yours because you are already $500m.richer.Step 11-Sell $500m,to a strategic investor,go and rest.Now $1b.richer.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR FIRST EASIEST BILLION.PART 2

Dont worry about fed.raising shor term rates. That's not your problem,not much risk because they will have to periodically fix the economy as their major role.It could only delay the making of your first billion a bit longer.Whatever doesnt concerns you,for you already $400million richer in a single year.So,pay yourself fat salary and your executives to compensate for all your hardwork.Dont worry about your bankers or fund managers being stupid or idiot,for you only need one of them to borrow from the Fed.a job that can be done part time.Dont be greedy,pay yourself fatsalary and your executives based on the industry standard compensation ratio of 50percent,some $200million. Step 7: Go Public.After bonus pay,with half earnings remaining and your capital ratio extremely strong,that is 10% equity to debt with clean balance sheet and all risk free treasuries,a beffitting scorecard.Now,you should be able to persuade investors to pay you 20times that earnings or a valuation of $4billion.Sell 25% of the company.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR FIRST EASIEST BILLION.Part 1

It may be hard to be a billionaire and the task of making billions for yourself,could be an expertise that can be mastered either by self discipline or by tutorship and both makes you thick.But i think,to improve your financial literacy should be the major responsibility of investors in general,that i think it shouldnt be a nightmare.We shall be compelled to follow a Henry Blodget's Law Of Compounding.It explores eleven steps and hereby follows its circadian rhythm: Step 1- Form a Bank:In this case,if you cannot given the complexity involved,can set up an asset management company that specialises in investment management;Step 2 - Employ some unemployed bankers or fund managers;Step 3 - Raise a billion dollar equity.(Note:we use rate obtainable during the meltdown); Step 4 - Then borrow from the Fed,at say less 0.25percent; Step 5- Buy $10billion of 30year treasuries at the prevailing rates; Step 6- Sit back and watch the cashflow in; Step 7- Assuming we use rates of 4% on your $10billion or $400million

April 26, 2019

TRY AGAIN BUT FAIL BETTER.PART 4

The techniques of fable and vaudeville,hatswapping,pratfalling with Laurel and Hardylike bantering and jabbering was famously adopted in "Godot",which in the verdict of Irish critics Vivian Mercier that"Godot"is a play in which "nothing happens twice",a scar like malediction stuck to its artist. "No matter.Try again.Fail again.Fail better"an evergreen maxim that media pundits has regarded as his motto and laughter,his signature bonus often appended as trademark.I was fond of the most popular quotation in the play"Endgame" uttered by Nell,an uncivilised mendicant dustbin dweller that"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness"that inspired this semioriginal piece.If one is unhappy,either driven hunger or thirst to succeed,a good sense of commedy and humour could lighten the yoke of distress.To regret being unhappy,could be like fueling the hellfire of distress.We should copy that Beckett refined attributes such as boredom,nothingness,emptiness,reppettition common to mankind in distress times,with sense of laughter.
two birds on branch

TRY AGAIN BUT FAIL BETTER.PART 3

Endgame as second play,depicts bleak catapults at gallows humour,where Hamn confined to wheelchair and is blind trounced around with prickly attendants"Can there be misery......loftier than mine?"And then he yawns."No doubt.Formerly.But now?(pause) My father?(pause) My mother?(pause) My.....dog?"What a staggering art an embellished repertoire of gallantry and dense imagery!He deployed decrepitude and adversity as magnetic painting charm and emulsifying rich source of humour.A globally acclaimed playwright still widely celebrated a century after his birth with centenary festivals that took place more than a decade ago.He was widely celebrated in London and Dublin when there were highlights in both cities that kickstarted the revival of 1984 production."Waiting For Godot",his magnum opus and best known work according to the Economist Magazine March 18th,2006"possibly the most influential play of the 20th century".When Godot was first staged in Paris in 1953,startled critics as well as audiences hillariously.

TRY AGAIN BUT FAIL BETTER.PART 2

of"The Play Of The Western World"same with Jack Yeats'illustrious paintings and its windswept landscapes,but in the mid40s switched to French.It was influenced by dispopulous fictions,the two novels " Murphy and Watt,"the latter was published in 1953. Richard Seaver,his translator could recall reading of Watt in 1952 with much funfare of hillarity that"took many more hours than it should have..."simply "because we kept pausing to wait for the laughter to subside." The switch was glorified by novels such"Godot"and then"Endgame" and later spewed a bleak trilogy of novels from his erudite spigot",Molloy,Malone Dies and Unnamable".The language inspired him to positively explore ignorance,misery,indigence and impotence which was fully liberated from the mood of his 1930s writing style,replete with wits and thickness of literary allusions.He also was his own translator from French to English and then back from English to French,but only once into his native tongue,plainfully funny often evident with distinction.

TRY AGAIN BUT FAIL BETTER.Part 1

In a prose masterpiece " Worstward Ho",published six years before his death in 1983, Samuel Becket,the Nobel Laureate for Literature in 1969,concluded"No matter.Try again. Fail better" He was rated to be a master of deflation,fame dreaded,a contrast of self promoter,a self demoter that was intensely privacy satisfied,wielding cliches to withering blast. He was no equal in the capability to paint tragedies and images of human collapse,with poetic elan descriptively where the will to succeed and efforts at living were comically doomed and defied in an immanent hostile planet.A quintessential Irish man whose aggregate writings was rooted in Irish speech latent with rhythmic hoots and sonority.The finest Irish novelist of all time and the acclaimed father of mordern had considerable influence over him. He met Beckett way back in 1920s and 30s in Paris and had great impact on his writing thermometer and thinking distinction.Though he detested the clipped morose blandness of Irish playwright J. M. Synge the author

THE BENEFITS OF MONEY MARKET.PART 3

The deposit funds with the banks are mobilised cheap, compared to bank lending rate of about 20 to 21percent.Whereas,investment in money market funds hover around 15percent.Hence,it guarrantees returns against the inflation rate. Note also,it has a compounding effect on interest where every interest income acrued to principal initial deposit.It grows faster than simple interest fund and also depends on the size of your initial deposit including monthly compounding frequency.However,to start investing you can pool between 5,000naira and 10,000naira respectively.Although different managers require different start up deposits.Parents too can begin to save for the future of their children,with plans for the 16years saving gaps.This benefits from the compounding effects and monthly multiplier frequency on the initial deposits.They need not worry about their future once they implement this plan.The investment can be quickly converted to cash at short notice.People can set up dedicated fund for project finance.

THE BENEFITS OF MONEY MARKET.PART 2

The money market instruments as short term fund papers provides the template for the investment.They include discount securities such as treasury bills,bankers acceptance,commercial papers,certificate of deposits,bank bills and promisory notes.These money market funds are basically managed by seasoned fund managers,being mindful of shareholders'returns,with balanced investment portfolio to guarantee investors'funds with returns higher than the inflation rate.The benefits of money market varies markedly and laden with many advantages but here are some of them.First and foremost,it is a low risk investment platform with higher returns benchmarked against inflation rate.It implies that your capital is safe,from the volatilities of the stock market when yourfund managers invest on your behalf in a very low risk debt securities such as treasury notes and government bonds.Moreover,current inflation rate stands at 14.6% per annum and such growth of prices signifies depreciated currency that then buys less over time.

April 24, 2019

BENEFITS OF MONEY MARKET.Part 1

Financial literacy is low in this part of the world and explains why poverty is on the increase.We examine the prospects and benefits of investing in the money market.-The financial market a giant enterprise occupies the heart of any nation's economy and a place for investors,shareholders and creditors to borrowers,seeking to raise funds for business finance to meet.In one of my essays written on financial market,i treated the topic or the nature of financial market worldwide but in this edition i shall narrow down to money market and the benefits of money market investment.Money market is a market for short term funds and the investment taken place with investors fund has an interest yielding compounding effect than a simple type.Practically very few Nigerians have heard about this form of investment.If they do,may not take to its working principles,let alone invest in it.We shall define money market as an open ended mutual funds where discount securities are traded

April 18, 2019

A HIDDEN BLESSING.PART 2

That it should either pay up or face foreclosure.After that when somebody was on the brink of bankruptcy,it was then that he discovered his hidden blessing yet he lived like pauper for donkey years without himself knowing it.A man from an oil company,his heavenly angel knocked on his doorstep and asked for a lease to drill oil only almost bankrupt land.He was stuck with amazement and since he was going to loose the land anyway,there was no need keeping tight ownership of it and decided to let it go.Then it was drilled and the oil company hit a gusher astounding 82,000barrels of oil per day and so farmer Brown became instant millionaire. Imagine!what an amazing story and was he a millionaire when he first bought the land?or when he was driven to the edge of the precipice?A missing link a hidden blessing.Let me recall the story of a famous publisher William Randolph Hearst who read about a certain painting and became interested in acquisition to make it part of his collection.Then,he sent people out to find it.

A HIDDEN BLESSING.PART 2

That it should either pay up or face foreclosure.After that when somebody was on the brink of bankruptcy,it was then that he discovered his hidden blessing yet he lived like pauper for donkey years without himself knowing it.A man from an oil company,his heavenly angel knocked on his doorstep and asked for a lease to drill oil only almost bankrupt land.He was stuck with amazement and since he was going to loose the land anyway,there was no need keeping tight ownership of it and decided to let it go.Then it was drilled and the oil company hit a gusher astounding 82,000barrels of oil per day and so farmer Brown became instant millionaire. Imagine!what an amazing story and was he a millionaire when he first bought the land?or when he was driven to the edge of the precipice?A missing link a hidden blessing.Let me recall the story of a famous publisher William Randolph Hearst who read about a certain painting and became interested in acquisition to make it part of his collection.Then,he sent people out to find it.

A HIDDEN BLESSING.Part One

Life is funny and when you seem to discover that those who are blessed sometimes barely live in clover and denied that opulence.People suffering in the midst of plenty due to ignorance of this hidden blessing.In his book Outlive Your Life,author Max Lucado said the Greek word for'blessed'makarios was a name given to an Island off Greece.They called it"blessed island",because it was self contained and the residents didnt need to travel to have their needs met.It contained all natural resources so rich to meet all these needs.The inhabitants were well awared of their blessings and hardly denied the usage of such resources to benefit theirsociety.Unfortunately,there are still people who impenitenly hardly surmount the courage to identify this matrix of hidden blessings. Then the secret of Farmer Brown in America,blew me away,the day i read the story.During the period of great depresion,he had problem paying his mortgage on his farm. And so suddenly his bank gave him thirty days to catch up back on payments.

April 17, 2019

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 11

Various forms of microlending have certainly evolved worldwide from India to China, South East Asia to Latin America,have absolutely taking their grassroot and the world by storm.The Microcredit Campaign Summit 2015 report noted that by 2013 about 3,078 M.F.Is had touched over 211million people worldwide and about half of that figure were classified under extreme poverty bracket.The Asian Pacific region and India is expected to strengthen this growth.The market for microfinance investments ranging from micro,small and medium loans was envisaged to grow by 15percent.Now,many economists submit,it has a powerful force to alleviate or contract mass poverty,despite overwhelming odds by western pundits to the contrary.Despite the devastating tales of failure in some countries where it has plunged many households deeper into poverty due to inability to repay small loans,tremendous growth has been recorded elsewhere.This case of random failure cannot be exonerated from the inherent punitive or penalinterest charged.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 10

Whereas over 50percent of subsaharan african population still wallowsin mass poverty. Phenomenal progress has been recorded in the last two decades,impacting heavily on the millenium development goals of united nations.Little wonder the proportion of world's poor in relationto world poverty has declined from 50percent in 1990 to 14percent by 2015.Western Asia like therest of Africa and middleeast is seriously lagging behind by all indicators to the contrary.Though poverty is still a majorthreat in peoples lives but certainly retreated.The practice of microloans giving small loans to the poorbetween $10 to $500 can be traced to Grameen Bank Founder alongside other financial services such as saving mobilisation has come to stay.He started the practice back in the 70s,empowering poor women in the Bangladeshi village of Jobra.As reward for this breathtaking innovation,he was awarded nobel peace prize for himself and his baby giant Grameen Bank of Banglandesh that has influenced more than 70 countries ever since.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 9

Microfinance has been growing exponentially ever since 1970s,with thetechnology of microlending developed by Muhammed Yunus,transforming Bangladesh Communities.According to a study published in the B.E.Journal of Macroeconomics,it found out that a small boost in microloans or microlending in the developing countriescould lift about 10.5million people out ofmass poverty.With about 836million people,approximately 12percent of world population,living in extreme poverty,on less than $1.25 a day,the efficacyof microfinance driven by development aid can create a soft landing.Infact its unprecedented growth over the last twenty years specifically as shown in the prior analysis,is solid evidence that through the instrumentality of microfinance,mankind can battle the global poverty to a standstill.The available data from 106 countriesthat covers the period between1998 to 2013 found out that a ten percent increase in gross microfinance loans'portfolio,could this above number or population of world poor by 1.26percent.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 8

And 0.5percent in Middleeast and comparatively low in South Asia where comparatively smaller loans are doled out.The microloans in the year under review or generally are relatively driven by the concept of development aid or by non profit approach.Now,of the top 50 MFIs under survey,about 40percent states their goal is pure lending to micro,small and medium companies,while 14 percent mentioned individual development and poverty alleviation as the overriding goal.Serving the underbanked through rural microfinance was cited as the main goal,giving support to local economic development.The rest 4 percent cites the growth of microfinance as the main intent. The desire to lift the poor out of thedespairor asshole of mass poverty ordinarily inform its growth,making development aid and influence of the nonprofit approach override initially.As commercial microfinance stabilises and intensifies its strategic impetus,this approach could wane on the perfectability of microfinance,with boon on the growth of population.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 7

The microloans'movement and outreach is growing exponentially around the world,gulping billions of dollars,with the world biggest Microfinance institutions(MFIs) and lesser brands,doling out record funds,for the purpose of poverty eradication and development aid respectively.The world largest MFI Postal Savings Of China,doled out a record 14billion dollars in gross total loans;with the second biggest % followed by Vietnam Bank For Social Policy(VBSP) in Vietnam and BRI in Indonesia,coming second and third,with $4.6b. and $ 3.6 b.respectively.Now,of the top 50 MFIs,the average loan is close to billion dollar approximately $996m. This transcedent disbursement that could avert the malthusian trap,by record is situated in Latin America,Carribean andthen followed by SouthAsia,Eastern Europe and Central Asia.Given that the Chinese boastsof the world largest MFIs doled out 55% of the gross loans'portfolio located in East Asia and Pacific;24.3percent in Latin America and Carribean,9.3percent in South Asia;4.2%africa.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 6

This group should spearhead the battle and then the nonenlightened group through capacity building,training,workshops and seminars should follow from the rear,prior to microlending.In some parts of the world like Nigeria,it is a calamity to conduct empowerment seminar and capacity building without affordable to microlending. Microfinance is driven by philantropic motives and donor subsidies and sometimes high cost of lending drives poor people back deeper into poverty.Conventional investors see it as investment opportunities and disputations gather on these two sides of intellectual bickerings that it should be seen as development aid or driven by capitalist propensity. Institutions like SKS in India or Mexican Compartmentos already listed on stockexchanges,pulling funds from investors.These are emergent symptoms of the golden age era of commercial microfinance. It is illogical,irrational or baseless to compare the social cost benefit ratio of microfinance with the strategic intention of development aid.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 5

.This includes also clothing,education especially of the children and the environment( Montgomery and Weiss:2011;Ibikunle 2019).They also found a relation between microfinancing and economic equality,anda relation between microfinance borrowers,nutrition and medical treatment,that is microhealth and then education. This improves relationship between microfinance borrowers,education and theenvironment that supports their survival.The micro borrowers'empowerment also had enduringimpact on the education of their children and microhealth,environment boosting economic,social and financial capital.These criteria and impact analysis so easily proved its success rate.There are studies that show that capital is not only the major problem of the poor but also citedknowledge,products,prices,skills and markets as albatross behind poverty and ability to conduct a succesfulbusiness.It is also noted only a handful of the poor boasts of resourceful attributes.It implies that the battle thenshould start from enlightened group

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 4

Given the challenge of inaccessibility,were largely exploited by loan sharks and money lenders.Now,that it accelerates and facilitates access financial inclusion and someday sort of environmental inclusion that most economists,scientists and ecologists especially climate change scientists,hardly talk about.This consequently expanding finance to the vulnerable groups,basically members of the base pyramid.It leads the fight against environmental degradation and global poverty respectively.It also spreads the unobserved ideology of corporate democracy and economic equality,something unthinkable in western macroeconomics and social Darwinists who enthused and theorised that it is fitting that the poor be allowed to die if indeed they can die and the fittest to survive.To negate this is to boost human rights,engages and enables more women to participate in the bread basket.The quality of life tends to grow,under this crusade of microfinance,as Microfinance Institutions(MFIs)care more about borrowers' health etc.

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 3

With affordable access to sustainable capacity platform like microfinance,the poor cannot only create sustainable wealth,but can also take endurable and meaningful control of their environment making wise judgement with all the available information at their disposal and reducing thethreat that their economic and microeconomic activities including inherent global warming risk poses to the environment that support their survival.With the emergence of microfinance,the poor and communities at last have hope of productively controlling the environment with their philosophicaljudgement not one driven by hunger,disease,famine and genocide and a host of other survivalist instincts,predated by capitalism.The truth as income of the grows through this conduit of sustainablewealth platform,they think wisely,handle environment wisely and the challenge of desertification and deforestation tend to reduce.Now prior to the emergence of microfinance,the poor had no formal access to financial services including microloans.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE.PART 3

She was curious to know why the fuss about the two weeks interval. And Ghandhi replied"Because i needed two weeks to stop eating sugar myself."Wonderful! So the lives of commoners are worth ample research by the mighty and certainly,they provide cover and tutelage to inspire the latter out of their weaknesses.Change is a reflection that transforms a notion from point A to point B,where the new motion trains transports new reflection into another horizon.There is no change elsewhere around the world the real change lies within us.The poor provides the fortitude base for the mighty and both leadership and followership shares the burden of communicating that be knowingly or subconsciously,voluntary or involuntarily,must belabour for the attainment of timely needed mandate to transform mankind. Change is constant by nature and in human society but the strategic demand that paradigm shift for a meaningful is in short supply and a symptom of lack of visionary leadership and ambitious artists.Indeed,it is a fact.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD.PART 2

We are refering to the unhallowed tension felt by change makers at ensuring that the change they seek is granted at every hanging horizon in question,making the world a better place than they met it.The incompatible and sometimes plausible connection between the followership and leadership provides enduring charm that guarrantees this possibility.They said:"Ghandhi,we are told was approached one day by a woman who was deeply concerned that her son ate too much.According to Al Gore account,"Am worried about his health"she noted."He respects you very much.Would you be willing to tell him about his harmful effects and suggest he stop eating it?"After reflection on the request,told the woman,he would do as requested,and upon one condition that he brings the son back two weeks later.Two weeks after the woman returned with her son after the two weeks interval and Ghandhi spoke to him and suggested he stop eating sugar. Then he complied to his idol's advice.The mother,though thanked Ghandhi wondered about the
delay.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE.Part 1

Change is as constant as eternity and we may not befar,from the truth,if change thatis all encompasing and the environment surround us inside andoutside,is also,the real eternity that we are headed given they share similarity in their infinity longevity.We are haunted with the spectre of ever rising social debt crisiswhich certainly requires utmost change that guarrantees utmost relief for the salvation of dying humanity.The evidence of epic struggle ordinarily calls for artistic flexibility,uncommon expertise and technocracy of an ambitious and visionary people whomay hang onto the precious butarduous task of proffering solution to the myriad of human tumultuous challenges. Frankly speaking,it is all about good leadership andgood followership.True change requires potent salvos being firedon both sides of the divides.Mahatma Ghandhi once concluded:"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."Gary Schindler,Gary Lapid and Al Gore provides a graphic portraiture of the kind of intense pressure in context.

April 11, 2019

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 2

Many thanks to Malthus,for opening up the fundamental evils of overpopulation and the dearth of appropriate subsistence technology to avert this evil of malthusian trap.Almost during the same period of Malthusian lifetime,Lysander Spooner expounded the concept of microcredit,a unit of microfinance.In the same way,in which Malthus undermined or could not foresee the use and potential impact of contraception,initiated by neo malthusian like Richard Place,even though not much effective at curbing population growth,albeit a reduction,but the use of Spooner's concept of microcredit certainly will reduce death rate and skyrocketed birth rate.The same concept must have been utilised in spurring the industrial revolution peradventure its second's phase which coincided with Spooner's lifetime.It could be a far more effective phenomenon at growing human and economic welfare and wealth creation sustainably,beyond the disputation of western pundits alike.A good practice of sustainablecapacity building and economic growth

THE EFFICACY OF MICROFINANCE.PART 1

The strategic imperative of microfinance in this most volatile mordern civilisation cannot be overemphasised most specifically its widespread or fast growing popular appeal at this critical juncture of human history,strangulated by overpopulation and extreme poverty,for which microfinance is a better panacea.The Blogger Ibikunle Laniyan examines its significance and potential and empirical impact.Stay tune.-There can be no doubt about the efficacy and sustainable capability of microfinance at alleviating mass poverty and at eradicating poverty through sustainable wealth creation.In my treatise:Global Warming: Ecology And Human Spirit"one of my longest ever written series,i pourplaudits and similarly also heavilycriticised the book written by Al Gore Earth In The Balance,for discrepancies in the use of facts and then his armchair criticism of the Malthusian theories.I reservedmy applause in most cases,for Malthusian popular study.This unprecedented scholarship is still influential a century after and beyond.

April 6, 2019

A Helping Hand Part 2

He took him by the hand into the president office,with whom he had direct access.Then,he said,"Father"passionately",this man really needs to speak with you. According to the narratives,that son was the president's son.Is it not the same president's son that historians have reported and concluded died young.He perhaps had achieved his greatest mission albeit died untimely.Indeed,a helping hand is a lifting hand aod the hands that shower justice save generation yet unborn with the compassion of mercies,not yet evaluated into far distant age yet unknown.There is no compassion in the grave and certainly his widow's mite could arguably,have surpassed the freedom granted by his father to three million black slaves. Pardon me comparison please!

A HELPING HAND Part 1

We all desire charity and everything in life is not money.But i doubt in amplitude that in this volatileage,we shall have charity in amplitude as well.We are all living witness that a helping hand is a lifting hand.Every humanity needs a helping hand.The dearth of philantropy explains why public injustice or monumental slavery is on the increase.A helping hand saves souls many times before they are saved.The cardinal virtues of mordern civilisation do not share these equalitarian impulses,but certainly that dearth still a missing link of this golden age.There's a story during the American civil War days of a good samaritan,alittle boy of renowned charity.Notmanyknew till date that simplestact of charity,still remainsunmatched in american history.A soldierwas sitting outside the whitehouse,looking depressed,for thepresidentialguard,wouldnt let him see the president.Then,that little boy passed and asked what was wrong.And he said,the guard wouldnt let him in.Hearing him directly,the boy took him by the hand to

FOCUS IS A WINNING MEDICINE

Ithink it is much easier to get distracted than to stay focus,due to our common propensity to jump the bandwagon.You never know what works for mahommet and taking the onus in grabbing the mountain could be considered a better alternative than patience,but the worst alternative is to rationalise inaction.This we could do or prone to making excuses and giving excuses of a lack of the right weapon.I know when it comes excuses,we are infinitely blessed but why not the same energy channeled to positive ways.That is focus,a winning medicine.It also implies we understand the significance and strategic imperative of purpose,when we stir our spirit and spur our hearts and mental drive to move in that direction.It is a defining moment in your life,when you are learned to stay focus.You hardly worry about the results.To be frank,focus is an art that drives the whole summit of science and a ministry of the becoming.Focus on doing the right things,for the right reasons and being at the right place at the right time,

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP NF 1976.PART 9

Gomwalk had told Goyol,before he left him in detention that he was at a loss,for been associated with a coup,he never knew.That nobody hadtold him what his offences were except the letter,he wrote to Bissala,that soldiers were harrasing him inhis house.This was after countless investigations and tribunals moving from one table to theother.Up to the time they left,he never mentioned anything about the coup and was far better thanany of those granted presidential pardon.He said getting rid of him,was a northern agenda to fulfill all righteousness,for daring thenorth,to develop middlebelt. Because,they could not get Gowon,to rope him,then Gomwalk now became the prime target.He did not regret death which was evidenced in his letter where he said his killers might think,they had succeeded in getting rid of him but that they had only succeeded in getting him out of this wicked world.He concluded Gowon read the message when he launched a book on Gomwalk.Wonderful! It is clear they can be no development in Nigeria.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 8

Dimka's visit to London no doubt was to inform Gowon about the coup and he met those who visited Gowon who were with him also in prison and told him Gowon had no prior knowledge of the coup.Had he been seduced back how,he would have been killed.Infact the failure to extradite him by the British angered the Nigerian Goverment to launch vengeance on Gomwalk and the first set of people that were killed were thirty three soldiers,including Dabang,who was evacuated from Hospital where he was recuperating.Goyol eulogised Dimka for savinghim from death,that he would havebeen killed had Dimka,spokena lie against him.He said,while they were before the tribunal and gave testimonies of their involvement,investigations showed he was close to Dimka and they felt,he must have known a lot about the coup.He too did not deny Dimka,who did a lot during his wedding as in law but did not tell him about the coup,in order not to disrupt his education.That was how he was saved from the hangman's noose.Nobody knew Gomwalk offences.

April 4, 2019

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 7

The truth,the military governor was hated by northern oligarchy.Why? Because they call him a rebel.A rebel! why the rebel?According to Goyol,he was accused of creating another north out of the north.How,did he achieve that?Gomwalk exponentially expanded development projects and brought so many projects to the middlebelt. First,he cut off from New Nigerian Newspapers and established the Plateau Printing and Publishing company;cutting off from kaduna Television and founded Benue Plateau RadioandTelevision and a host of others.So,because of that derision and envy for middlebelt economic progress,and for daring to beindependent,he was set up. That was a major reason and he later faced trials in Lagos and together with Gomwalk were put in detention,knowing he had nothing seriousagainst the head of state. Later theygave him a life jail term,alongside a handful of officers.It was not true that Gowon was part of the coup,and he was only informed of the coup during Dimka visit to London.He heard the story in prision.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 6

After he retired,he was living in Pankshin,and Abdullahi Mohammed was then military governor.Government threatened to take over Gomwalk's house in Pankshin and so send soldiers to invade the house but the governor was not happy with that treat.Then,he wrote to his friend and classmate Illiya Bissalla who was then chief of staff.He told Bisalla,that he had contacted the then governor who did nothing to relief him.He lamented that he was being harrased,ready to be thrown out of his house.It will linger on in his memory,for long time,that gory letter that they saw that was used against Gomwalk.Gomwalk and Bisalla were related,given that Gomwalk's elder brother Clement was married to Helen,an elder sister of Bisalla's wife.Infact,they Say Bisalla too was accused of planning another coup.Because,she was on holiday at Bisalla's House during holidays,she was arrested. Despite the allegation,they could not prove it.And when they picked Helen in that house,they saw letter Gomwalk wrote to Bisalla,in a random search.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 5

The petition exposed the ill treatment meted out to fellow officers by the head of state and the way,he was governing the country.It was written by unhappy petitioner to the military high command.Infact the book Just Before Dawn,written by Professor Kole Omotosho,talks about the petition.He was able to recall the petition incident way back in kaduna.He could still recollect that Dimka stayed in kaduna for two days where he visited the officers that were coup plotters.He was able to link all these events together,after that coup.It was the captains and majors that went for the exams that plotted the coup.So Dabang was sick and he wanted them to shift the coup execution date.But they said it could if they waited and while he was in the hospital,Dimka that came in midway and the rest executed the coup.Now,the funniest part of it is that how did they rope Gomwalk in?Gomwalk was in no way involved in that coup except in small incident according to Goyol,which Could still not a link.The late Governor was cheated.

April 3, 2019

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 4

They were writing their exams at the Nigerian Defence Academy,kaduna.From Kakuri,which they visited to drop of their sisters,shortly returned back to the house.Then Dabang came around,and was complaining against the ill treatment meted out to junior officers.It was the first time he met Dabang and he told Dimka to talk to brigade commander on their behalf and that the brigade commander should know they were not cadets that could be asked to fetch water and menial jobs.He was furious and demanded that Dimka let the brigade commander realise they as officers came to write promotion exams and wrong to force them fetch water.After his departure, Goyol and Dimka,went to ibrahim bako and Dimka told bako to send message to brigade commander about the ill treatment meted out to officers taking examination.Bako then asked Dimka,if he had heard about petition written by a major against major general murtala muhammed who was the head of state then. He replied,he hadnt seen it.The petition exposed the head of state,then.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 3

But when the coup was attempted and failed,he was arrested alongside Dimka and could have been killed,had he confessed against him.Goyol lived in Enugu,while he lived in lagos where the coup was perpetrated by junior officers.The true is that Dimka was not the architect of the 1990,and the real master minds were Major Dabang, Captain Wakyes,Major Gagara etc.None was above the rank of major.Dimka was closer to junior officers,very close to captain,majors,lieutenants than senior officers.And when the plan was going underground,he heard about it from junior officers and was comfortable with them. Maj. Dabang is from Shendan and it was after the coup that he was able to uncover more pieces of information about the event.With the pieces of information at his disposal,he was able to know the extent of Dimka 's involvement in the coup.They went to jos and kaduna before they part ways in kaduna,while he was to return to lagos and Goyol. When they got to kaduna,theCaptains,majors were writing their promotional exams.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 2

Gomwalk was an intelligent,hardworking and unselfish person,when he was in school,came first always in exam.A lover of sports who had used his position to change many lives.As governor,he made sure he touched the lives of his people and every district and local government in the state.Go to the state till date,his legacies still stand out.According to Goyol,in the said interview,he first knew the governor when he became a student at Bukuru Technical College.His roommate was a younger brother to one of his wives.Through periodical visit with his family,on weekends,depened their relationship or acquaintance.Goyol later joined the army,and didnot stay in plateau. Gomwalk laterrelocated to Pankshin,when he was removed from office.Goyol made periodical visits and they met againafter the coup.Been,a smallboy,they relate like father and son.Then,they met in different detention centres in lagos and finally,both ended up in kirikiri.He narated the fact that,he was the closest link outside,to Lt.Col. Buka Suka Dimka.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE NIGERIAN COUP OF 1976.PART 1

In an interview published in Sunday Punch of April 21,2013,Mr Anthony Goyol tells Jude Owuamanam about plan of northern oligarch intended to massacre all officers of middlebelt origin who participated actively or passively in the coup of February 13,1976.Goyol who was detained with some of the plotters bares his mind in the untold story of how the innocent people were massacred,for which the blogger now reviews.It is very clear that the northern oligarchy barely nurse any optimism for the civilisation of the hapless nation that they ruled with iron fist.-The pace of economic development in the north far lags behind the south even by hundred years,if not more and by all socialand economic indices,justifiable and empirically proven.But out of the very few informed minds in the north in the 60s and 70s,certainly Joseph Gomwalk the first military governor of Benue-Plateau State,who was innocently executed in the coup of Feb.13,1976,for daring the core north and brought unprecendented development into the state.

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 39

Once we loose forested land,rate of soil erosion balloons at an extraordinary pace of 90 tons per hectare compared to forested land that was found at 0.3 tons per hectare per annum even steep slopes.Deforestation also forces emigration into another region and the vicious cycle continues.He gave an instance of the repression of Duvalier regime and the deforestation of Haiti as main catalysts for the emigration of a million Haitians,to abode in the Southeastern United States. Heavily logged regions and devastated western forests like Pacific Northwest,Alaska and Germany's highly cherished Black forest,and the American forest land with more forest land than a century ago,has certainly loose its originality,heavily harvested and replanted where the softwood monoculture connifer forests,transformed from dense hardwood barely support the original species that first thrived in the woods.The problem gets exacerbated by desertification,that is expanding desert,soil erosion,degradation,wetlands and drylands'plunder.
silhouette photography of couple

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 38

According to the author everywhere rainforests are seriously 'under siege',being pillaged for pasture,for lumber and flooded with dams or so called artificial development projects.As they disappeared from the surface of the earth at the rate of one and a half acres per second per night per day and every day per annum,caused by rapid and tireless population growth and expansion into previously uninhabited regions,into marginal areas,the need for energy to bridge shortage of fuel by people in the developing countries and exploitation of their mineral resources for short term gain groaning under the yoke of neocolonialism and ravenous civilisation cannot be exonerated from this brutish plunder.He has predicted the extinction of the rainforest at the dawn of this century and we risk not only the loss of the richest storehouse of genetic information on the planet but also possible cures for the ailments that currently afflict us and diverse form of vital medicine,extracted from plants and animal of the forests.

April 2, 2019

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 37

It is truly responsible for the growth of deforestation and desertificationspecifically tropical rain forest,located at the equator,where more than 90percent of all living species live and thrive and barely live elsewhere.The loss of that habitats due to artifial developmentmight risk the extinction of mankind.If it may take thousands of years to come to heal global ecological system,then complete destruction of diverse living species,may take a hundred million years to recover.The three great stretches of rainforest:amazon the largest;the central african rainforest in zaire and adjoining countries;then south east asian rainforest largely concentrated in papua new guinea,malaysia and indonesia.From Central America along atlantic coast of brazil to the southern edge of subsaharan portion of african 's bulge,the eastern coast of madagascar to the remote and extreme of indian subcontinent and indochina peninsula,the philipines and northeast of australia with smaller remains in puerto rico to hawaii to Srilanka,

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 36

Contrary to the author and many critics,he wasnt an irrational pessimist.He did believe that man could improve his condition and that the ability of man to reproduce at a fairly rapid would jeopardise this improvement.Although i disagree with Malthus program of population control,so as to hedge against any increase in the means of subsistence,it was certainly beneficial to the west and secured her prosperity.None of the theorists,in the natural theories,compete with him in terms of originality and quality of thoughts.Most of these theories,were published to rubbish him and his pessimistic outlook who opposed distributing money to the poor and the later amendment to the Poor Laws of England.From Michael Thomas Sadler's theory published in Malthus time,to Thomas Doubleday's theory somewhat similar to Sadler,down to Herbert Spencer's and Gini's,then Karl Marx and Henry George,Arsene Dumont and Alexander Morris Carr- Saunders,none had originality of thoughts like Malthus.Population explosion is truly responsible.
pink flower

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 35

phenomenal growth of the so called artificial development projects,such asdams,logging,roads,irrigation projects,colonisation and mordern agriculture etc.What a struggle for mankind with nature to survive! Going through the chapter 7,the learned author himself lamented about the limitation of technology that Malthus had long forseen,yet he and his ilks had criticised the undisputed father of mordern populationabout his shortsightedness of human capabiility to make improvement throughtechnological application. Hence,mankind yet to exit malthusian trap,the final armagedon of mankind.So,Malthus was absolutely correct that in the absence of effective preventive checks,mankind with random technology boom and shortlived expectations and exception would continue to suffer positive checks,precipitating high death rate.It could even beworse in the years ahead,having seen the escalating nature of technological limitation,painted in this book.Malthus is much more responsible in bringing population study to preeminence.

GLOBAL WARMING: ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 34

huge amounts of fertilizer and pesticides now routinely used in agriculture frequently drain off into the groundwater beneath the fields,contaminating them for many centuries to come."Can you see that intelligent submission? Certainly,Malthus is the greatest prophet in the history of capitalism,even far better than Adam Smith,his mentor and pioneer of the school of classical economics,to which they both belong.The future of the generation to come has been mortgaged even before their time. That Malthus worried about food supply and that the major worry is seed supply.What a barrel of contradiction?He sometimes skew facts,when it is known,are both oriented towards food production. The expansion of population to "a few wild refuges around the world,""fragile places that serve as the nurseries and reservoirs of genetic robustness,vitality and resillience but all of them are now in serious jeopardy",due to population explosion jeopardy.The intense and wild demand of the explosion is accountable to the phenomenal

GLOBAL WARMING: ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 33

Who says Malthus did not forsee the use of agricultural technology and its limitations,if indeed,as they claimed he undermined the true capability of mankind to make improvement?What gain is it if the adjustment is shortlived?Al Gore indirectly himself admits the ephemerality of the gain from technological boom when he says...."and we are beginning to understand that many of the most widespread mordern techniques used to squeeze more food from each season's harvest have done so at the expense of future productivity.For example,the high yield methods frequently used in the American Midwest loosen and over time pulverize the soil to the point that large amounts of topsoil wash away with each rain,a process that leads inevitably to a sharp reduction in the ability of future generations to grow similar quantities of food from the same land.The extensive use of inappropriate irrigation techniques often leads to such large accumulations of salt in the soil that it becomes useless and barren.And the huge amounts....
two person sitting on bench near lake

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 32

I mean precisely,that the west has been sustaining her civilisation,by unbridled imperialism and neocolonialism,making a mass rape of the underdeveloped regions,usurping also their natural capital and massive market relentless exploited to the boon of the west.It's payback time but unfortunately,even these underdeveloped innocent regions,are made to reap even more the dire effect of global warming.In the chapter under critique,he shows little understanding once again,of the gravity of yet undiscovered and highly undermined population war,when he says"The problem we now face is therefore more complicated than the one Malthus identified." Yet in the following sentence,he displayed little foresight,and still minced the larger picture when he says".In theory,the food supply can keep up with the population for a long while yet,but in practice we have chosen to escape the Malthusian dillemma by making a set of dangerous bargains with the future of theatrical legend that haunted the birth of scientific revolution."

April 1, 2019

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 31

He continues".Malthus was right in predicting that the population would grow geometrically,but he didnt foresee our ability to make geometric improvements in agricultural technology.Even today with several countries in the world suffering massive famines"....over malthusian population theory still applies,"there is little doubt that a commitment to use more land and newer agricultural methods could vastly increase the amount of food produced on earth"You see that eroneous submission,forgeting there is a limit to the volume of agricultural production that technological application can bring.And that farmfields that currently generate output would later be inhabited by man. This is certainly inevitable,will surely happen,even if it takes a thousand or another ten thousand years to come,or more when trillion of people would inhabit the surface. The surface of the earth would later sink due to population intense pressure.The development gain they now experienced is shortlived.Moreso as they are using imperialism.

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 30

will increase or double every 25 years.(Thompson:1953).The projection had been surpassed,given the application of technology to agriculture that skyrocketed birth rates as predicted,with far more evidence than in his time.In the chapter 7 of his book'Seeds of Privation'i was able to capture first the quality of Al Gore's population ideology as farcical and hurriedly made up not back up with intense research.It is true,he entertained the same ignorance,as did those critics of the Malthus time.Now i quote him once again(pg.127)'.But with the scientific revolution in the seventh and eighteenth centuries,the human population began surging,and for the first time,it seemed possible that the population might soon outstrip the ability of the environment to yield enough food.This fear was articulated at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the English political economist Thomas Malthus;that he was famously wrong has been due to a series of remarkable innovations in the science of agricultural production."
brown wooden bench near bare tree

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 29

They believed improvement rate,in the standard of living,through such application was understimated by Malthus,who had contended that living standard would remain at minimum subsistence level.If it grew,population would grow,pressurising resources and driving standard back again.That population would depreciate,if it fell below subsistence level,due to starvation and so resources would become bountiful,causing population to grow.Hence Malthus like David Ricardo,believed there were real limit to economic growth,that it would at last stop.The subsistence projection maynot beaccurate,but it is wrong to assume,given the low clarity in his work,to assume that he could not foresee explosive in technology.Adduced from a great volume of data,that with relative subsistence abundance,man's death rate tend to fall and birth rate rose.Giventhe birth rate prevailing in his day and a reasonable subsistence abundance,he projected population could or would double in 25years. Natural increase of 28percent per a thousand annum

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 28

In the second essay,he dealt with vast amount of data to support his argument that the reason population did not grow much faster,than it did was linked to hardship that man experienced,due to the tendency to outgrow subsistence means.That hunger and disease were natural positive checks that keep population from explosion and skyrocketed death rates.He did not consider the workability of contraception,that was later by his disciples like Francis Place, Richard Carlile.Beginning in 1823,Place had begun its active propaganda, the defense of Malthus,refuting Godwin's perfectionism.Malthus was doubtful,having been fully convinced of the conditions of his time that food and a host of other necessities of life could grow enough to cater for the needs of progenies that man was able to produce or likely to produce.Those who opposed him,were in his view greatly exaggerated the possibilities in human welfare growth,they had envisaged with the application of science and technology to agriculture but saw limitations.

GLOBAL WARMING: ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 28

The ratios,he had in mind were: geometrical- 1,2,4,8,16,32,etc;arithmetical-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,etc.When he wrote the first essay,he had a relaxed mind,spoke straight from the gut,not influenced by any scholar and made the greatest remarks in the history of capitalism and the world at large. That...and i quote again,'the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power,in the earth,to produce subsistence for man.'By the time,he wrote the second essay a longer version,he claimed to have been more informed,having been influenced by extant scholarship on the subject.Nevertheless,he did note that.....'the poverty and misery arising from a too rapid increase of population had been distinctly seen,and the most violent remedies proposed...'a burden and challenge that had been existing even before the antiquity.In the mordern times beginning from the French economists,physiocrats and political writers such as Monstequieu and others such as Dr.Franklin, Sir James Steuart, Mr Arthur Young and then Mr Townsend.

GLOBAL WARMING:ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT.PART 27

Malthus owed the origin of the inspiration,for the first essay,published in 1798 to a conversation with a friend probably his father.The discussion was based on the subject of Mr.William Godwin's essay,on avarice and profusion.In his enquiry,the object was to debate the speculations on the perfectability of man and society,that generated exceedingly great excitement of considerable proportion,during the period.In the first edition he make two postulata,as quoted below: I think,i may fairly make two postulata.First,that food is necessary to the existence. Secondly,that the passion between sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state.'Now,i like this part'.Assuming then my postulata as granted,i say that the power of population is indefinitely greaterthan the power in the earth to produce subsistance for man.Population when unchecked,increases in a geometric ratio.Subsistence,increases only in an arithmetical ratio.A slightacquitance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power...'.