In most of Africa, the elderly are the know it all. They also keep some cautious closeness with the young ones. Not so much in Longewan, a tiny village some 350 kilometers North of Nairobi.

Here, the Samburu, a pastoral community still clung on traditional culture, parents are joining their kindred in classrooms. However, the parents are not studying for exams but to demystify education, understand it so that they can accord their children proper guidance.

“We’re doing this so that we can actively monitor the progress of our children’s education,” says Alice Lesororo, a mother of six children at Longewan Primary School.

Like hundreds of parents in Samburu, Lesororo is being introduced to the process of the school system so that she can appreciate education and offer the best support to her children.

“Today I have learnt what to look for in an exercise book. I know when my children have failed and when they have got sums right,” she enthuses when we catch up with her during break time.

With an acute sense of insecurity, drought and a bleak future, parents here know the way to sustain and perpetuate a generation is through the classroom and not the age-old culture of cattle and raids.

“I want the best for my children,” Lesororo declares thoughtfully. “I have six children in this school; it is important they succeed. Education is their future.”

Ordinarily at this hour, Lesororo would be tending to cattle. Her children used to miss school in turns to support in domestic chores. All that is in the past, she promises.

Parents here are increasingly being sensitized on education issues. Today, they troop classes and seminars in their hundreds in a bid to understand the dynamics of education, a pattern that repeats with rhythm and fabled harmony. They love it, thanks to an elaborate home-grown model mooted by retired teachers to stimulate the growth of education in an area where literacy levels are hitting the 90 per cent mark.

“Former teachers chose to sensitize parents on the importance of their children’s education. We realized that there was little appreciation of education due to illiteracy. That is why we chose to bring them to classrooms,” says Joseph Owino, one of the founders of Samburu Education Empowerment Programme (SEEP).

Parents join the classroom for a seminar.

Their efforts have given forth fruits. Today, the Samburu parent knows the primacy of working closely with the teacher and pupils in an interesting tripartite arrangement.

Now the parents understand the importance of inspecting exercise books. They are being encouraged to allow their children time to complete assignments. The parents are aware too that the future of their sons and daughters is not in the meadows but classrooms.

Rose Lenkai knows this too well. Her children go to Lesuuk Primary School, and Rose has been keen to know why the homework seems to be too little. She raised the issue with some teachers and the workload increased a bit.

“Now my children are busy. When I have time, I assist in the revision,” she says.

SEEP came up with an ingenious way of engaging parents. First, they explained the difference between a ‘tick’ and ‘X’. they know what to look for. Parents also can count the pages of the exercise book to determine whether the assignments are enough. They no longer tolerate absenteeism.

This new wave is threatening to the non-performing teachers. Not once, parents have stormed schools to demand explanation when pupils lag behind.
“Some parents now know the syllabus and we can’t afford to drag our feet. There is a time they came to demand why their children were not given enough assignments,” Rodgers Wambuko, the head teacher Lesuuk says.

This is a mark of how interventions are changing lives in communities. Parents are finding the opportunity outstanding. Initially, schools here were registering very low enrollment, there was runaway absenteeism, but all that seem to be in the past as the new wave catches momentum.

“Initially we believed education is the prerogative of teachers. We never bothered. But now we have been sensitized and we are keen,” Lesororo says.
And it doesn’t end at the classroom. Lesororo says every evening she must check her daughter’s exercise books to see if it has been marked. She knows that she can confront a teacher in the event of laxity. She knows the difference between a right and a wrong and she knows that her daughter must go to school. That’s not enough. She knows every day the teacher must give her daughter some assignments.

“We chose to provide seminars to parents and encourage them to take interest in education for the good of their children,” says Owino. “Children are no-longer let to go for wood or herding. Parents take that role,” she says.

Parents now support their children in education.

Leah Njeri, a programme advisor at SNV Netherlands Development Organization is upbeat that the next generation of Samburu will not be one of bows and arrows but one with pens and papers. SNV has been keen on changing the fortunes of education in marginalized areas by building the capacities of such organization as SEEP and the Ministry of Education.

“Our approach is holistic. It ranges from empowering on proper management of funds to attracting and retaining pupils,” Njeri says.

Education no doubt is gaining currency here as the new social economic enterprise in this county. Parents tread unchartered paths, away from the pastureland and the under-tree tobacco-snuffing-prattle to ensure that their kindred invest for the future. This idea was mooted to bring to speed the county at par with other areas.

“We demystify what education is, and know the importance of education and how they can participate in the growth of their children,”Owino says.

We encourage parents to prepare their children in the morning for school, to monitor performance in schools. Most of those we target are the ones who don’t understand the workings of a school environment,” he says.

In the manyattas, we bump in Josephine Namlek. She peruses the exercise book of her child to check on progress and performance. She follows up with the school to establish the problem. This way everything is put on the straight and the narrow. Education for the daughter has really improved, she says.

Namlek also enlists the services of older children to guide her on the performance of the younger ones.

“I didn’t know what to do with elder children. Perhaps that is why they didn’t perform well. Today I know better,” Namlek says.

Wambuko is happy, he says. There is positive change among stakeholders following genuine participation and interrogation.

“We assist the parents to get the feel of a classroom. We guide them to cross-check the progress of school work and not to be misled by cheeky pupils. Therefore, they count the pages; put identifying marks to see progress. Parents-support groups represent the classes,” Owino explains. Here, parents have been encouraged to provide time, space, lighting, food and to closely work with teachers.

EWAMANJI

An award-winning journalist, I'm a writer, photographer and documentary maker. Besides writing human-interest feature stories, I also enjoy writing travel pieces.

Dear Barack,

I call you in first name terms because you are a child of our people, so don’t judge me yet. Get to the end. I am writing this because today, I believe that you’re the most powerful man on earth. I believe just a spoken word from you can change the way children are treated by the powers that be in Kenya.

I have just been talking to Judy, a pretty 12-year-old, and she sounds shaky. Not just she, but there are two other children in my neighborhood who can’t even work up the nerve to talk to anyone. Their names are Chris and Omari. They sat their primary school exams in 2010 in private schools, but now at thirteen, they know that their futures lie in the precipice because their parents were able to take them to private schools.

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters

Ok, let me start at the beginning. Education, public or private, was expensive in Kenya before Mwai Kibaki, our president, came to power. When he knew he had the nation and the world hearing, he played his trump card; education was going to be free for anyone who could get their child into a public school. Of course the populace rushed there; it was free and reputed to be good. The result was bulging classrooms.

My friend, Mildred had to mark her son’s homework herself. She could see it. After a full day of being in class after class, the teacher had to mark eighty homework books. In a few weeks, the teacher was too exhausted to do this effectively and stopped marking any homework, only giving it. Mildred realized that a public school was not the answer, so she got another job that could pay her better. She wanted to afford private schools, you see, where her son could get the attention he needed. They were a bit on the steep side. But I must admit that I have no idea where he went – I lost touch with Mildred.

Suddenly, the scenario is replaying itself all over again before my eyes. You see, last Sunday, Judy came to leave the keys at my place for her parents to find when they got home from church; she had to go to school for private tuition. The private school demands that she does so in order to make the grade required for that all important national school. I was shocked, and I asked her who said: she explained that although she will sit her exam next year, her school has to work extra hard with her so that she can get there. She knows that those who set the deciding primary school exams are usually from national schools, and they will train their pupils in the very same questions they intend to set so that the government may save face. What knowledge for a child, eh?

The week leading up to that Sunday, every news broadcast was about parents crying foul; they had done all they could do for their children to make the necessary grade (the results had been released by the ministry) and yet when they did everything required of them, the government made a public announcement that only children from public schools would be admitted to the national schools.

Oh, national schools; I went to one. They’re set up to give back to society the best that’s possible in a child. Ask the Ivy Leagues who they pick from Kenya and then compare it to the list of national schools that we have; it’s actually more than 90% I believe. All kids know to w0rk their way to a national school so that they can go to the best universities in the country and in the world. They are up at 4am and don’t get to bed until 11 am. They study every day and then they study more; they go to school on Sunday. They want to be the cream of the crop.

One hundred and nineteen children are crowded into a single classroom of a rural school in Western Kenya. In 2003, the Kenyan government elimiated school fees at the primary level, revealing--in principle--the country's to the global consensus on Education For All (EFA). Yet large class sizes and astonishing pupil:teacher ratios leave both Kenyans and internationals wondering if, in Kenyan primary schools, quantity has come at the expense of quality.

They have now done their exams and they have hit the targets – spot on. But national schools are now for those who attended public schools, places where classes are 70 or 80 to a room, homework is never seen, food is a scramble and discipline comes by luck. The 0nly mistake that Judy, Omari and Chris made was for their parents to understand that they needed one-on-one attention in learning and so took them to private schools – of course they paid more.

Omari and Chris, who sat the exam this year, are not outside with us any more. They stay indoors because they feel that they have failed; Cambridge, Cornell, you name it, are now just a dream. They have been sent letters to join second grade high schools. True, some of them do eventually spit out brilliant children, but not very many. These kids feel that they have just gambled away their young fortunes.

Perhaps, Obama, being who you are, you can shine a light to guide us as a nation… help to show us the way, so that the next crop of leaders we have are not all about the “grab what you can now coz it won’t last, coz we’re not worth it.”

I do hope to hear from you.

Sincerely with love,

Mutuo Mbilla

Mutuo Mbilla

Article by Mutuo Mbilla - www.goodarticlewriter.com Mutuo is a professional article writer and IMer who likes to occasionally emerge from her work and catch up with the rest of the world. Her articles here are mainly from what she sees when she sticks her neck out :-).

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A story is told of a woman, her husband, 3 old men and her daughter-in-law. It goes like this:

One day, a sweet old lady was sitting in her chair by the window doing some knitting. From where she sat, she could see the road that led to her door. Right outside her house was a great tree that had great shade. It was a hot day.

As she sat there, she saw 3 old, wizened men walk up to her house, and she waited to hear them knock so that she would open. She was alone – her husband, her son and her daughter-in-law were all out at work and any kind of company on a day such as this was welcome.

They walked up the road, but to her surprise, they didn’t come to the door. Instead, they went and sat under the great tree. Strange, she thought; they must be really tired and hot and maybe just looking to cool off. She stood up to go to them and ask them to come in so that she could offer them something cool to drink.

When she got to them, they did indeed look hot and tired; it was obvious they had been around and were seeking somewhere to rest. She asked them to come in so that she could offer them something to drink, and after all, it was cooler in the house anyway. One of them asked her whether her husband was home. A quick mental calculation told her that though she was old, but they looked a bit older, tired and more beaten than her, they could do her no harm.

She told them the truth – that he wasn’t.

They said in unison: we will only come in when he comes home. And so they continued to sit there until at sunset, her old man came home. Seeing them there under the great tree, he was puzzled, but decided to check with his wife why there were 3 old men sitting outside his house. When the wife explained that she had offered them to come in but that they had said they only would if he was there, he asked her to go outside and tell them they could come in anyway; he was curious.

Wealth, Success or Love? Which would you choose?

When she got to them, she asked them their names. Wealth, Success and Love, they said (were they Malawians??). She said that her husband had come home, and he had asked that they come inside. Wealth looked at her and told her that they would never all go in together – only one at a time. She would have to choose. Baffled, she went back inside and told her husband: they say that their names are Wealth, Success and Love, and only one of them can come in at once. Which one shall I ask in? Without thinking too hard, you can guess which old man the husband wanted in the house; Wealth. The woman looked at her husband and asked – why don’t we choose Success? Surely, he looks the most used up of the three.

The daughter-in-law, who had just come in, shouted from the kitchen “I would pick Love. Pick Love, Mum.” (I guess there must have been something going on with her husband:)). The old woman went back out, still torn on which to pick, but when she looked all 3 in the eyes, she said “OK, Love, lets go in.”

Wealth and Success looked baffled and disappointed. The woman thought she must have made a mistake and asked them what was wrong. Success said “Love almost never gets picked. It’s either me or Wealth, and there you are picking Love. And that means that we both have to go in with him and do whatever he commands us to do. If you pick Love, we, Success and Wealth come with him automatically.” The rather clichéd ending to the story is that they lived happily ever after.

So, Luther Vandross was right – The Greatest is Love. But there are numerous lessons in this tale, pick out and share as many as you can see.

Mutuo Mbilla

Article by Mutuo Mbilla - www.goodarticlewriter.com Mutuo is a professional article writer and IMer who likes to occasionally emerge from her work and catch up with the rest of the world. Her articles here are mainly from what she sees when she sticks her neck out :-).

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The other day, a friend of mine visited me in the lobby of my dorm, just to chat while her laundry was drying. As we were chatting, two young freshmen came by. One of the boys wanted to ‘talk’ to my friend (as in date). She asked him how old they were, and both of the boys replied 18. My friend and I both laughed hysterically because we are both 22 years old. After my friend left, the young men were still hanging around and one wanted to know how he could gain her interest.

The first thing I told him to do was to pull up his pants! He asked why, and then said he liked saggin’ his pants. I told him to come over to my computer and spell the word saggin’. Then I told him to write the word saggin’ backwards.

I told him the origin of that look was from centuries ago. It was the intent of slave owners to demoralize the field workers by forbidding them to wear a belt as they worked in the fields or at any other rigorous job. In addition, men in prison wore t heir pants low when they were ‘spoken for’. The other reason their pants looked like that was they were not allowed to have belts because prisoners were likely to try to commit suicide. And, saggin’ pants prevents you from running.

We as young Black people have to be the ones to effect change. We are dying. The media has made a mockery of the Black American.. Even our brothers and sisters from Africa don’t take us seriously.

Morehouse bans Do-Rags, Grills, and Sagging Pants in new dress code.

Something as simple as pulling up your pants and standing with your head held high could make the biggest difference in the world’s perception of us. It is time to do right by ourselves. We need to love and embrace each other. No one is going to do that for us.

It all comes down to perception. What people perceive is what reality to them is. We have to change not only the media’s perception of us, but we need to change our perception of ourselves.

Remember all eyes are on you Black Man. All eyes are on you Black Woman. All eyes are on your Black Child. People point the finger at us and expect us to engage in negative and illegal activities, to manifest loud, boisterous behaviour, to spend our hard-earned money in their stores, buying goods we don’t need, or really want. We have allowed not only the media, but also the government and the world to portray us as a ‘sub-culture.’ They have stripped our culture down to the point where the image of Black people is perpetuated as rappers, athletes, drug users, and consumers of junk food, expensive tennis shoes, expensive cars, expensive TVs, cell phones and not investing in homes for our families.

We are so much more!!!!!!!

To all our Black Men

It’s time to stand up. There are billions of Black Women who want to do nothing more than worship the ground that you walk on. We are so in love with your potential. We want to have your back, we want to love, support and cherish every ounce of your being. But with that, you have to show that you are willing to be the head of our households. You have to prove yourselves worthy of our submission. We need you to be hard working…Not a hustler. We need you to seek higher education, to seek spirituality. We need you to stand! And trust us; we will have your back. We know that it gets hard. We know you get weary. Trust and believe that there is nothing that a Black Man and a Black Woman can’t handle with GOD on their side.

To all our Black Women

It is also time for you to stand up. It is time for you to stop using our bodies as our primary form of communication. It is time to be that virtuous woman that Proverbs spoke of. You cannot sit by the wayside while our men are dying by the masses. You are the epitome of Black Love. It starts within you. You need to speak with conviction to let not only our Black Men know, but the world, that you are the Mothers of this world. You are so powerful. You are so beautiful. You need to love and embrace every blessing God has given us physically, emotionally and spiritually.

For all our Black Children

We need to love them. We need to teach them. We need to stand up for them. We need to protect them. We need to show them that there are no ‘get rich quick’ schemes. We need to tell them that they WILL die trying if they submit to a life of crime and deceit. We need to teach our children that no one will love them the way we can. And being a basketball player, a rapper, or a drug dealer is not reality. It’s not realistic and only a small percentage of people ever make it as a rapper or professional athlete . We need to teach our children that we can be more than rappers and athletes. We can be the owners of these sports teams, too. We can be the CEO’s of OUR fortune 500 companies. We need to believe in literacy. I am almost certain if we were to look back to the 1930′s and 40′s, the literacy rates for Black American Children are probably still the same.

To You

Please share and keep this going, and have a wonderful day.

This is the year of empowerment. God will empower us to accomplish mind-blowing things this year.

Regards,
CLIFTON O. GUMBS
:1-954-415-2630

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Jack Dee

I've been an IT consultant for over 15 years. Strange to get paid for doing what you love. May be in danger of being called a geek... but who cares? I actually enjoy every opportunity to drive through the concepts, design, and creative framework on even personal web-based projects. My other passion is travel: 72 cities in 35 countries at the last count.

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Dear Reader,
I have taken this step to connect with you as a mother to ask for your support on a fundraising event we are organising on Saturday 20th November 2010.

I am the founder of JAGS Foundation in remembrance of my son James Smartt-Ford who was tragically murdered in 2007.

James Smartt-Ford: Murdered at Streatham Ice Rink in 2007.

He was in his first year of an Electrical Engineering course at Carshalton College and was to attend Guildford College in September 2008 to study for his CeMAP exams (mortgage qualification) to join me in my mortgage practice. He never made it to 18. This life changing experience has been a very harsh lesson as a mother raising a son and has exposed the real life crisis facing young people in this epidemic of gun and knife crime being witnessed across the Capital.

After 3 years, I have learnt how to come to terms with his death and set up JAGS Foundation to support young people in acquiring money management skills to enable them to become financially astute. I believe in today’s society, financial literacy is of paramount importance to young people’s independence and future success.

Visiting schools to share the harsh realities of losing a child and to raise awareness amongst children and teenagers of the devastation caused to families and friends is now a focal point of my life. I am also a regular contributor to community and governmental debates and discussions including local police consultative, pastoral and pressure group meetings in joint efforts to ‘Save Another Child.’

Our first annual fundraising event will be held on Saturday 20th November 2010 at Park Plaza hotel in Victoria, 239 Vauxhall Bridge Road London SW1V 1EQ. Tickets are priced at £79.00 each for dining guests and £25.00 for the live evening entertainment with stand-up comedienne Angie Le Mar.

Comedian Angie Le Mar: We need your support!

We are fundraising to develop financial literacy and life-skills programmes for young people in London and to become a registered charity. (We are currently a not-for profit community interest company).

It is only with the continued support of friends, family and individuals within the community, can we individually affect change and improve young people’s chance of surviving these unbelievable turbulent years. Details of the event, can be found on the website at: www.jagsfoundation.co.uk.

I do understand that you may have prior engagements and may not be able to attend. If this is the case, would you please consider sponsoring the attendance of another family or making a donation at: www.jagsfoundation.co.uk.

We are not government funded and recognise the importance of honouring the lives of so many young children cut so tragically short and it is with the support of individuals and like you, can the work of JAGS Foundation help to positively impact on the youth journey.

I look forward to you joining us on the 20th November, as we honour the lives of the children we have so tragically lost.

Warmest regards,

Tracey Ford

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Jack Dee

I've been an IT consultant for over 15 years. Strange to get paid for doing what you love. May be in danger of being called a geek... but who cares? I actually enjoy every opportunity to drive through the concepts, design, and creative framework on even personal web-based projects. My other passion is travel: 72 cities in 35 countries at the last count.

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The philosophy of the mind is built on the basis of free thinking without limitations or boundaries. Some thoughts are executed by the body while others remain inside the mind. Those that remain inside the mind only remain their out of fear…fear of punishment and unexpected consequences.

If you fear nothing then you are free, which means your body can execute all the thoughts within the body’s power and within the frame of logic and reason. This is what every human wants…to do what ever they think of doing and to have what ever they desire regardless of the means.

Those who run after their dream chasing it and trying to pursue it making it true by any means possible…these are free people because they fear nothing even if they fail to pursue their dream.

Those who fear to chase their dream out of failure, those who think they cant because eventually they will fail, those who see no hope or light at the end of a dark tunnel…those will remain miserable most of their lives and will remain a prisoner of their own minds. Humans…cannot live without hope, even the hope of the near future, the next second, hour or day, etc.

Having no fear is the key element to freedom because free will, free thinking, and freedom always go hand in hand in having no fear because it is fear that chains you and makes you a prisoner. For these reasons above…I believe the philosophy of the mind is built on free thinking.

The nature of the mind’s thinking believes that the only way to be truly happy is to do everything the mind thinks of doing and having all the things the mind thinks of having, these thoughts are merely directly related to materialism, feelings of love and the instinct of sex, having said that…the mind does not think whether these thoughts and desires are good or bad, whether they will fruit negative or positive results in our lives, because in any case…all minds are ignorant of the future.

These thoughts are based on the fact that the mind thinks “all will go as planned” merely day dreaming. If these remain as thoughts that come and go…then there is no negative side to it. But if one thought sticks in, and evolves to be a craving dream for, then in most cases…failure will lead to human collapse, sadness and misery and in some cases in weak minds it will lead to insanity.

The wise thing to do here is to detach from a dream that is far away from reality, a dream that is far away and nearly impossible to manifest and make true. If you detach from it…then you are happy, because you are not afraid in losing your dream or your desire, you are not afraid to go on a new quest in search for a new dream and also you are happy because you are in control of the free thinking your mind generates rather letting your own thoughts control you.

Thoughts whether simple or not can be very dangerous leading you to an undesired fate…depending on the nature of the thought of course and how much you are willing to add to it making it evolve to become action. Thoughts…they can be a blessing or a curse, so be careful of what you think and want. Its all about Philosophy and the Psychology of the human mind.

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Al Hussain Al Nasseri

I am a Blogger. I write philosophical and inspirational articles.

We’re conditioned to ‘no’ our way through life.  From the moment we’re born we cry as a way of saying ‘no.’ Any resistance we have to anything – no matter how potentially beneficial – our conscious and unconscious resistance is, in essence, an expression of ‘no.’ The fear that builds within us as we journey through life – fear of risking, fear of change, fear of growth, fear of loving – creates an immense “No Factor” in us.

Dorothy and company no longer assume the animated character – and more importantly, his ways, are boss!

However “no” didn’t start off limiting us, it simply and covertly developed into an imprisoning barrier constricting our fulfilment and self expression.  “No” began as an instinctual means of protection – our survival instinct – we would, in effect, through our actions or non-actions say “no” to any perceived threat to our well being.  This was and is good for basic survival but then, unconsciously and insidiously, we began to allow the mind to perceive anything outside of what’s familiar as a threat – no matter how promising the possibility.  At this point “no” increasingly became in deference to the familiar over the unfamiliar.

In short, the mind’s process has become, “Am I familiar with the idea before me?” If the response is “Yes” then the experience is accepted.  If the response is “No” regarding whether an idea is familiar or not, then unconsciously and often consciously, the possibility of an experience is rejected.  “Do I want more love in my life?” perhaps may be a proposition you resoundly desire, yet the question, “Am I familiar with more love in my life?” is the question your subconscious is posing to itself.  “Do I want more abundance in my life?” may seem like a no-brainer in response to the affirmative, however the question the subconscious asks of itself is, “But is more abundance what I am accustomed to?”  Herein lies the root of your unconscious struggle.  The subconscious does not deduce.  In other words, the subconscious’ programmed mandate for accepting or rejecting an experience is not based on whether what’s proposed is beneficial or not – deducing value by what something would mean for you – (greater love, more abundance – what’s not to like about those possibilities?);  but rather, its acceptance or rejection is based on whether a dynamic is familiar or not.  This is the reason for little or incremental change in one’s life; the body-mind is constantly accepting or rejecting based on familiarity and little else.

By definition expansion of any good in your life is an unfamiliar reality so the mind has developed the “no” response in various forms.  And the mind has countless ways of saying “no”; through procrastination, doubt, resistance, sabotage, conventional thinking, minimizing risk, self pity,  anger, legitimized excuses, ignoring, etc.  However the mind’s strongest ally in its “No Factor” arsenal is fear. Beyond a healthy fear that safeguards our basic survival all other fear is manufactured.  It is the most potent ingredient in the No Factor.  What’s more effective than adding an emotional component to the mental habit of “no”?

Here’s how it works:  When you decide to take action that overrides the No Factor the No Factor calls in reinforcement by kicking in the emotional component of fear.  By employing the emotional feeling of fear, it’s as if the No Factor is saying, “That’ll teach ya’ to go against our conditioning!” Ironically, by default, even the No Factor has a survival instinct! But fear not! (No pun intended) This predicament exist only because “no” has been programmed to be the resident program of your being.

And therein is the key to exiting the limitation of “no”; to appreciate that any programmed response can be reprogrammed!  I am constantly extolling to clients a point that has become a familiar refrain, “You have a body, you’re not a body.” This means that the dynamics you witness that you assume comprise the “me” that you are (habits, automatic responses, perceptions, etc.) really is a superimposed profile that draws its power from the Real You that is animating it. 

Read carefully, for what follows is the Holy Grail for true, successful change.  This “You” that is enlivening the “me” you’ve become accustomed to assuming is “you” is akin to the Wizard in the “Wizard of Oz” who is manipulating the levers behind the curtain that cause the animation of the fire and brimstone “Wizard” everyone sees.  As the story goes, those unaware that there’s an “operator” behind the scenes assume that the fire and brimstone, shouting character is actually the Wizard.  This is true of the “You” behind the ‘you’ that expresses various traits.  Your assumption that the “you” that’s comprised of the physical body, personality, and traits, is who you are is like Dorothy and her posse in “Oz” assuming that the fire and brimstone shouting wizard is actually the real thing.  And just what happens when Toto pulls the curtain and the gig is up?  Dorothy and company no longer assume the animated character – and more importantly, his ways, are boss!

You are not your programmed responses, thoughts and habits!  “You” are the one “controlling the levers,” as it were, of the person who moves around as you!  This is the reason you have the power to reprogram the No Factor into the “Yes Factor.”  The Yes Factor creates openings for desires to be met and achieved. 

You’ve always had the Power to go back home.

So let’s get started!  Here’s how you program the No Factor into the Yes Factor.  It’s really quite simple. You begin saying to yourself,  “yes” to everything.  Every thought, feeling or fixed idea that reflects “no” in your mind you begin to replace with saying, “yes”  as situations and thoughts occur.  For example, if the idea of taking a vacation to an extravagant locale brings up the feeling of “no” (a feeling is the emotional translation of a thought) because of existing financial constraints, immediately replace that thought-feeling with a mental “yes.” If the prospect of finding true love brings up any negative thoughts such as despair or the like, again immediately replace the thought-feeling with a mental “yes.”  If the thought-feeling of losing weight, having a healthier body, eating right, etc. brings up any negative or limiting feelings of any sort immediately say, “yes.”  You can even make your “yes” replacements audible – under appropriate circumstances of course.

The important point of reprogramming is that this is not about the pro-active actions that presumably would follow whatever “yes” area or thought-feeling you are replacing. It is solely about the mental application of reprogramming the habitual No Factor thought process into the Yes Factor thought process.  You will be amazed at how consistently and chronically, on both subtle and overt levels, your automatic No Factor is in operation.  It is the reason lives stay fixed in certain emotional or circumstantial states.

As you sufficiently change your “Yes” quotient (in your mind) to be greater than your “No” quotient you will then find that you almost magically begin to produce the focus, commitment, ideas, motivation, circumstances or whatever is necessary to successfully engage the actions that fulfill the objects of your Yes Factor.  In fact, the reason most goals, no matter how enthusiastically begun, quickly or eventually are not realized is because the silent No Factor – if not reprogrammed – undermines the best of intentions.

The most important thing to remember in reprogramming “no” to “yes” is that your focus is solely on reprogramming the mental habit – not on the results.  Results take care of themselves as sufficient reprogramming of this single aim is employed. You find increasingly that you begin to take actions reflective of “permission granted” thoughts.

As Glenda the Good Witch said, “You’ve always had the Power to go back home.”  Home is your true birthright of abundance, love, purpose, vitality and ever greater expression.  Saying “yes” consistently to every good thing that is beneficial to your well being is the equivalent of Dot clicking her heels in “The Wizard.”

There’s no place like home.

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Isaiah McGee

Hypnotherapist and Empowerment Coach Isaiah McGee is director of A Conscious Life Enterprises. Through his practice, Isaiah employs effective modalities and techniques such as therapeutic hypnosis to get the subconscious on board with the conscious intentions of one’s heart and soul. “My work is transforming not because of how good I am, but because I know how good YOU are.”

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Baylor International Champions is an organisation based in High Wycombe in the United Kingdom who have teamed up with four media students from Orpington College to produce The TakeOff – a film that includes interviews from young people who relate their feelings about the game of cricket, what brought them to the sport and what inspires them to keep going at it in the face of funding cuts and the sell-off of school playing fields to make way for commercial property developments.

But BaylorIC haven’t let that stop them. Their film, The TakeOff, is taking off and will receive its first national airing on The Community Channel’s “Your Sport” programme on April 12th 2010 (See it on Sky 539, Virgin TV 233 or Freeview 87). The aim of the production spearheaded by Ingram Jones, a professional coach who calls on his extensive experiences of training sportsmen in Australia using explosive dynamic exercises as the key to his work with young people, is to encourage more children of primary school age to take part in sport, regardless of their ability or background.

From the Baylor International Champions (Documentary), The TakeOff: Tom Lathey, Andrew St Maur, Haseeb Ali, Jordan Roberts, Zain Gill, Ingram Jones (centre), Steven Hunter, Uzair Hassan.

“The dove image used on the cover of our video is symbolic of freedom,” he tells me. “We want all our young players to be able to experience that sense of flight and unbridled restraint reminiscent of my own youth, so that they may more fully enjoy learning and playing the great game of cricket.

In today’s digital world, too many kids are at risk of living an unhealthy lifestyle, and while others might be tempted to make poor choices, leading to a life of hardship or crime, we want to make a REAL difference at BaylorIC by providing sport and educational opportunities for our young people.”

Very noble sentiments. And in addition to coaching, BaylorIC also seek to encourage young cricketers to get involved with their local club and to continue their development as league players. They are visiting as many schools as possible in the UK to help set up cricket development programmes; “our hope is to benefit the local community by establishing strong club links with local cricket clubs and schools,” Ingram Jones said.

BaylorIC currently deliver cricket programmes in primary and secondary schools for both boys and girls. Coaches are fully recognised by the English Cricket Board (ECB) and have been appropriately checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) in an effort to relieve any undue worries parents or carers might have. There are also a range of coaching packages available and delivered specifically for schools, including curriculum time coaching, breakfast and lunch time coaching as well as after school clubs.

Primary school sessions are delivered in the form of Kwik Cricket–a high-speed version of the game aimed mainly at encouraging children to take part in the main sport–with all basic cricketing skills being taught; batting, bowling, and fielding. Secondary school sessions are delivered in the form Hard Ball Cricket–using the original leather stitched ball as opposed to a soft ball used for junior players–with basic through to advanced skills being learnt by groups of very appreciative youngsters who seem to delight in the game and being taught by an attentive coach.

“If you want to see a change, you’ve got to get up and do something about it sometimes,” Ingram said. “That’s why we made The Takeoff,” and with the London 2012 Olympic Games just around the corner his Baylor International Champions have a complimentary mission:

1. To produce top class players in Cricket.
2. To establish and administer after-school clubs/academies of excellence.
3. To produce players with the self-confidence to be physically, mentally and emotionally ready for the challenges that await them in competitive sport.
4. To providing professional coaches to young people in the local borough who would otherwise not get access to sport after school.
5. To encourage young people to play sport at its highest level.
6. To teach not only the discipline of this sport, but also the disciplines of how to be a champion in life.

Sounds good to me! Need more information?

Baylor International Champions can be found on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For a sample copy of The Takeoff, please visit the website or try befriending Ingram Jones on Facebook.

We wish Mr Jones and the project every success.

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Paul Boakye

Writer, editor and marketing specialist who sat on The Power Inquiry. Former editor and CEO of the consumer lifestyle magazine, Drum (UK), and author of five plays published for an academic audience by Alexander Street Press, USA. Recipient of business and writing awards, including prestigious accolades such as advising British government, BBC radio and TV commentator, and invitation to meet Queen Elizabeth II in 2007. Currently works as a communications professional, creating contagious ideas to help great brands change the conversation to their advantage, across the entire Central and West African region.

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In recalling the adage, “what you see is what you get,” I find myself always in insight mode, continuously seeing empowering insights often in the most uncommon ways.

All Messages Have Been Played!

A recent insight ambush occurred as I was playing back messages at my empowerment studio. At the end of the playback of any series of newly recorded messages the answering system announces, “All messages have been played.” Okay, sounds like a standard thing that an answering machine might state, right?

Well during one of those recent occasions of listening to messages, the machine intoned its standard end-of-messages announcement, “All messages have been played”…and right then, it hit me, as my consciousness received the following insight: You’ve already heard the chronic messages in your mind of limitation or doubt before; they’ve already been played (and heard) so why are you continuing to listen to those messages?!

Man! Talk about a revelation! All I could do was chuckle as suddenly this grey box of wires and communications technology suddenly took on anthropomorphic proportions as it would, in steadfast fashion, remind me each time at the end of listening to messages, “Hey bud, least you forget, all messages have been played; let go of those repetitive tapes playing in your head.” Hey, anybody recall seeing that old black and white episode of The Twilight Zone where the doll would say whatever it wanted to say when you pulled its cord? HA! And before you call the loony bin, my machine is only repeating the same message, thank you.

Seriously though, no matter how much success, productivity – or lack thereof – you experience, the mind still tends to greet continual growth and expansion with messages of doubt, fear, resistance or limitation simply because those messages are the ego’s way of saying, you’re introducing something to me that I’m unfamiliar with and the ego’s primary prerogative is to remain in the familiar.

In truth, you need not pay attention or give credence to those repetitive mental messages of doubt or limitation because in all likelihood you’ve heard them before and, I repeat, it is merely the ego’s way of saying I’m not familiar with the idea of…having more wealth, or greater health, or lasting love or __________ (you fill in the blank).

You’ve heard the messages before – ignore them, and get on with greater living! You’re worthy, you’re capable and you’re able.

Isaiah McGee

Hypnotherapist and Empowerment Coach Isaiah McGee is director of A Conscious Life Enterprises. Through his practice, Isaiah employs effective modalities and techniques such as therapeutic hypnosis to get the subconscious on board with the conscious intentions of one’s heart and soul. “My work is transforming not because of how good I am, but because I know how good YOU are.”

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“If you have knowledge that you do not share, you are responsible for your people’s ignorance.” –Author unknown.

Have you ever had a message that you tried to push into the recesses of your mind, but it kept wiggling its way back up to the front saying, “Speak on it?” You successfully push the thought back into its place; continue business as usual, and then it screams louder to you, “SPEAK on it!” Then, you stuff that sucker down into it’s rightful compartment, deep in the back of your mind, and put a piece of duck tape on the latch, go on about your business ignoring your conscience, and yet again the voice screams at the top of it’s subconscious lungs, “DAG ON IT, LADY SPEAK ON IT!” Been there? Well, that’s how my inner voice is speaking to me now, so to quiet her down, I’m putting my thoughts out into the universe and “speaking on it dag on it!”

The message – BE THE DREAM. Imagine life without the dream. March 7, 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decides to stay at home instead of Marching to Selma. Internally, he insists there must be someone else who can conduct the marches, speeches, and meetings for civil rights. Imagine he doesn’t think enough of himself to use his intellect and passion to help free enslaved black and white minds throughout every country in the world.

Can you imagine that?
What if he thought marching the streets of Montgomery and Selma was just too long of a walk, and said, “Coretta baby, I’m a bit tired tonight and it’s so cold out there, let’s just stay in instead of going to church to inspire and share his dream?” Can you imagine how different life would be without Martin Luther King using his anointed charisma to expose the world’s ugly hand dealt to the oppressed? I can’t imagine him neglecting us like that. Not his dream. Not throwing in the towel and definitely not giving up hope that one day you, and you, and yes even you would have an equal playing field in America.

That brings us to an ugly question. Why do so many of us forgo our dreams?

Have We Overcome?
Fast forward to 2010 and many believe that since the freedom marches and We Shall Overcome speeches are post dates, because we have a “black” president, and just because a level of comfort in our surroundings has developed, that we are playing on a level playing field. All that we have to do to know that is not true is ask ourselves, “Can I take a look around the nearest black community and in good conscious say “we” don’t have work to do?”

Poverty wrecks black communities where children are neglected, abandoned, abused and undereducated right under our noses. Of course this happens in every community, but even worse many black youths are dying to senseless violence against them. Some youth are so undereducated about their past that they do not even believe that slavery and segregation existed. Some show no hope for the future because they’ve never had the opportunity to see hope up close and personal. All they have ever seen is despair.

The Dream Redefined
When Martin Luther King said to turn the other cheek, he didn’t mean to turn that cheek on your fellow man, as in look in the other direction and act as if you do not notice his struggles. He did not mean for us to turn the other cheek on our community. Yet, he wanted us to embrace our fellow men and women, as he did. He wanted us to uplift them, as he did. He wanted us to live according to the dream, as he so voraciously did.

One of MLK’s famous quotes ties this message together, “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” Through his many speeches, he left his light to shine in each and every one of us so that, at the very least, we have hope for a better future, a vehicle to get there, and a light to guide us to our destination. We have the same tools to make a difference as did any other community activist in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement – two hands, two legs, a heartbeat and one brain. All we have to do is turn on the light and “be the dream.”

Be the dream activities

Participate in events that promote literacy and community building. These often can be found through the local YMCA or recreational programs (or started by you). Donations are good, but more often than not time and leadership is what is needed most.

Start your own nonprofit doing work that you are passionate about and use that passion to uplift underprivileged communities.

Volunteer your time to local charities and churches that assist in educating, emergency assistance, and career development.

There are many other ways to help through donations, creativity, and giving of your time. The most important thing to do is to get busy reviving the dream.

Shani G. Dowdell

Shani Greene-Dowdell is the author of Keepin' It Tight, Secrets of a Kept Woman (Volume 1), and editor of the erotic series, Mocha Chocolate: Taste A Piece of Ecstasy. When she is not working full time as a medical transcriptionist, she can be found promoting her books at various outlets.

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