You can change policy but changing hearts is a different thing altogether.....

CC™ Viewpoint 

By the Editor-in-Chief

I have always believed in the human ability to change. However, change is something that can't be legislated or wished upon a people. Change comes primarily through the following: 

a) An armed revolution - Here, the change is essentially forced on the people through a violent upheaval that results in a coerced political and socio-economic change. b) A socio-cultural revolution - Here, as opposed to forcing change on a people, a combination of events over time ultimately results in a re-think of the social contract by the masses. 

The latter thus seek to renegotiate the terms of the former through an organized ressistance against the status quo. This was evident in the United States of America, following the murder of George Floyd, by a racist white police officer, and may resurface again of the acerbic assault (by right-wing extremists through gerrymandering and judicial apartheid) on the fundamental human and civil rights of Black people continues unabated. 

This is a conversation that requires a more in-depth discussion, but as can be seen from the reactions (below) to a story (a few years ago) on Yahoo about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick playing again in the National Football League (of American football), attitudes take a while to change and some folks may in fact never change.

Kaepernick famously took a knee four years ago, while the American anthem was being played at 49ers games, to protest the killings of black men by the police and was subsequently blackballed by the overwhlemingly white owners of NFL teams.

As I have stated before, racism is an institution and the privileges that heinous institution bestows upon its entrenched recipients, make it logical that the latter will ressist any change to the status quo. That is where the resolve on the part of the masses to effect the necessary change becomes paramount, as where there is a will, there will always be a way. 

• 2 days ago

  Father time doesn't care about social injustice.
• 

  yesterday

  I feel he should have taken the broncos offer when they wanted him even if it was lower than what he wanted. At the time the broncos simply didn't have enough salary cap space to bring him in for what he was asking, so he turned them down. Both sides would have been better off then.
• 

  4 hours ago

  So many people remain convinced that he was cut, as part of a vast conspiracy, by the 'Niners. Nope. He walked away from his team, his contract and teammates. He thought he was worth far more in FA than he really was. He just wasn't that good. He threw as many TD's in his 5-year career as an elite QB throws in 10-13 games. He only threw 3 more TD's than INT's in his last season. He just refused to accept a BU role, or the money anyone was offering. He was locker room poison and no team wants that. He just found a way to cast himself as a victim and, with Nike's help, found a way to monetize that.

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• 

  yesterday

  If any team signs him I am done with the NFL. The guy doesn't have the talent to be an NFL starter and if a team signs him it means the league did a back door deal and gave that team millions just to appease the rioters.
• 

  yesterday

  After all this time some team will sign him now so they can show everyone how racially sensitive and politically correct they are.
• 

  2 days ago

  He should never play!

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  • 

    4 hours ago

    hes a terrorist and a rabble rouser
• 

  yesterday

  Go ahead and sign him. He will not be happy because he will not be a starter. The team that does i believe will lose attendence. They might pick up TV and steaming and jersey sales. I think as a whole the NFL will lose in the long run. Kapernick and ball players knelling will be too much for a good percentage of their paying fan base.
• 

  2 days ago

  let him play
• 

  1 hour ago

  Bench warmer at best
• 

  2 days ago

  Hopefully some team puts a bounty on this anarchist...
• 

  1 hour ago

  If the players in the NFL kneel, I will stand! However if Kappernick goes on the field I might watch that game and watch him get torn from limb to limb! It would be worth compromising my principles for one game! Just to see him carted off the field on a stretcher!
• 

  2 hours ago

  PLEASE SIGN HIM! I hate the Seahawks and would love to see them waste money and lose games.

FLASHBACK: WHAT DO YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?

CC™ Perspective - By Yahaya Balogun

"We must always find a way to get into GOOD TROUBLE; speak against all evils, and do the right thing at all times!" - John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020). 

John Lewis believed in the courage of his convictions. He followed his mind and he conquered his fear and left a great legacy worthy of emulation. - Yahaya Balogun. 

"It's time to prod our minds and look at ourselves in the mirror; ask ourselves the questions: are we going to be part of the problems, or are we going to be part of the solutions? History will judge our decision, action, and inaction" - Yahaya Balogun.

In 1963, John Lewis was, at age 23, the youngest person set to speak at the March on Washington. John Lewis gave a resounding speech of his life during the protest for civil rights in the United States of America. John Lewis was a man of peace, and a conscience of the US Congress and the world. Historically, no one has under any circumstances, stop an idea whose time has come. There's always a reward for every action or inaction. John Lewis was arrested more than 40 times during the civil rights movement in the US. He was brutalized, jailed, and dehumanized. But John Lewis remained steadfast, and never get discouraged. The historic movement he participated in paved the way for the recognition of the dignity of African-Americans.

It seems time has come to systematically put an end to racial profiling and systemic racism in the United States of America. Thanks to the modern well-informed, articulate, and decent American millennials. The American millennials are morally reading American history in congenial ways to turn surreptitious hate to love in the United States. John Lewis was a moral fiber and a quintessential fine man. John Lewis was an epitome of moral values and principles. Values are principles, standards, or qualities by which we live our lives; our values shape the person we become, and our actions to our neighbors and humanity reflect those values. This is the definition of John Lewis in the conscience of his contemporaries in the US Congress.

John Lewis was a liberated man. A liberated man is free, fair-minded, fearless, and humanistic. A liberated mind is not concerned by the noises emanating from the cyborg market, or enemies' territory! A liberated soul is mindful of his association and carefully chooses his friends and acquaintances. He is conscious and informed of what he does to other people. All his actions are from the repository of good ideas for man's humanity to man. A liberated man is a complete man with mindfulness, emulative values, consistency, and love.

The mind of a good man is concerned about how to enlivening and stimulating the souls of his neighbors and adversaries alike for their success and happiness altogether. A man with a purposeful mind is focused and anticipatory about the results of the good he has invested in himself and other people. The ROI-return on investment of the good a good man has done to fellow human beings is the undiluted joy in his heart. The integrity of man is known when his character comes to fore. He keeps true and never gets ashamed of doing what's right or best for him and humanity. The value of a liberated man defines him and shapes the kind of person he becomes in life and after that. A liberated mind has zero-tolerance for pretense, hatred, idiocy, and other negative nuances of life. He pays close attention to discern the evil-minds around. He is not perfect, but his fallibility makes him reasonable and humble when he realizes his mistakes or wrongdoings.

A man with a liberated mind fights fearlessly with no opportunistic expectations and grandstanding. His encumbrance (burden) is his deafening silence in the face of oppression and tyranny. A complete man shares his beliefs, virtues, integrity, principles, and missions with unblemished vigor and robustness for the common good of all. A whole man doesn't mind the short-term consequences or rewards for his act of goodwill, but he's fixated on the imports of his deeds to benefit him and humanity.

On the other hand, a warped mind is a reservoir for uncanny men to deposit resentment, vices, hatred, and manipulations. One of the most significant damages unnatural man has done to society has been his refusal or nonchalant attitude to discover his value through mindfulness. Uncanny man is very narcissistic, jealous, opportunistic, mindless, and resentful of others. He is always in penchant rivalry or competition with others rather than with himself!

Every man has roommates (negative and positive minds). A resentful man listens continuously to his roommate's negative voice (i.e., the blistering spirit of hate and resentment). The sound of roommates is mutually complementary if they agree with each other. Uncanny man has no compliment or encouraging disposition towards the other man making progress. He is always striving for the unwinnable war of envy, and needless struggle with his midget mind to falsely outpace himself.

The completeness of a man is embedded or assembled in his subconscious mind. When a man rediscovers himself, he is liberated from the existential invasion of his mind by the selfish figures of the affluence, bad friends, and influential people around him. He is immune to antisocial behavior and societal vices. A liberated man is ensconced in constant self-evaluation and rediscovery. Through self-discovery, a liberated mind becomes a renewed man and predisposes to self-consciousness. A liberated man only believes in what will be engraved in his tomb after he kicks the bucket-greed, hedonism, resentment, extremism, opportunism, jealousy, bigotry, and hatred, not in his personage or lexicon. He always enjoys constant happiness, and the inner tranquility and peace flowing ceaselessly from the (subconscious) base of his mind.

Collectively, the common humanity that is in all of us should rise now. People must be morally engaged to join other people of goodwill to fight corruption, diseases, unhealthy competitions, hatreds, terrorism, religious and ethnic bigotry, jealousy, and deliberate divisiveness in our society. To bring peace to our environment is better than engaging in the negative nuances that can bring war, hatred, and disorderliness for our mutual destruction.

Generally, life is not fair and just, but it's beautiful to an only, thoughtful, and mindful mind. What divinely unites humanity (Love) is more than those defeatist nuances (racism, bigotry, hate, war, jealousy, false-religiosity, resentment, etc.) that divide the world. Your existential legacy should be your responsibility now before you expire. What man needs now is to rediscover himself through mindfulness; do self-talk; reinvest in moral armament to bring inner peace to himself, peace to his neighbors, and peace to the world.

John Lewis came; he saw, but he has left humanity an existential assignment of grace and decency. Our performance in the assessment will determine what people and posterity are going to jot down on our catacombs when we expire or kick the bucket.

May John Lewis's gentle and wonderful soul rest in perfect peace.

From gas to solar, bringing meaningful change to Nigeria’s energy systems

CC™ Energy News

Turner Jackson - MIT Energy Initiative

Growing up, Awele Uwagwu’s view of energy was deeply influenced by the oil and gas industry. He was born and raised in Port Harcourt, a city on the southern coast of Nigeria, and his hometown shaped his initial interest in understanding the role of energy in our lives.

“I basically grew up in a city colored by oil and gas,” says Uwagwu. “Many of the jobs in that area are in the oil sector, and I saw a lot of large companies coming in and creating new buildings and infrastructure. That very much tailored my interest in the energy sector. I kept thinking: What is all of this stuff going on, and what are all these big machines that I see every day? The more sinister side of it was: Why is the water bad? Why is the air bad? And, what can I do about it?”

Uwagwu has shaped much of his educational and professional journey around answering that question: “What can I do about it?” He is now a senior at MIT, majoring in chemical engineering with a minor in energy studies.

After attending high school in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, Uwagwu decided to pursue a degree in chemical engineering and briefly attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. Unfortunately, the impacts of a global crash in oil prices made the situation difficult back in Nigeria, so he returned home and found employment at an oil services company working on a water purification process.

It was during this time that he decided to apply to MIT. “I wanted to go to a really great place,” he says, “and I wanted to take my chances.” After only a few months of working at his new job, he was accepted to MIT.

“At this point in my life I had a much clearer picture of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be in the energy sector and make some sort of impact. But I didn’t quite know how I was going to do that,” he says.

With this in mind, Uwagwu met with Rachel Shulman, the undergraduate academic coordinator at the MIT Energy Initiative, to learn about the different ways that MIT is engaged in energy. He eventually decided to become an energy studies minor and concentrate in energy engineering studies through the 10-ENG: Energy program in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Additionally, he participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) in the lab of William H. Green, the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor in Chemical Engineering, focusing on understanding the different reaction pathways for the production of soot from the combustion of carbon.

After this engaging experience, he reconnected with Shulman to get involved with another UROP, this time with a strong focus in renewable energy. She pointed him toward Ian Mathews — a postdoc in the Photovoltaic Research Laboratory and founder of Sensai Analytics — to discuss ways he could make a beneficial impact on the energy industry in Nigeria. This conversation led to a second UROP, under the supervision of Mathews. In that project, Uwagwu worked to figure out how cost-effective solar energy would be in Nigeria compared to petrol-powered generators, which are commonly used to supplement the unreliable national grid.

“The idea we had is that these generators are really, really bad for the environment, whereas solar is cheap and better for the environment,” Uwagwu says. “But we needed to know if solar is actually affordable.” After setting up a software model and connecting with Leke Oyefeso, a friend back home, to get data on generators, they concluded that solar was cost-comparable and often cheaper than the generators.

Armed with this information and another completed UROP, Uwagwu thought, “What happens next?” Quickly an idea started forming, so he and Oyefeso went to Venture Mentoring Services at MIT to figure out how to leverage this knowledge to start a company that could deliver a unique and much-needed product to the Nigerian market.

They ran through many different potential business plans and ideas, eventually deciding on creating software to design solar systems that are tailored to Nigeria’s specific needs and context. Having come up with the initial idea, they “chatted with people on the solar scene back home to see if this is even useful or if they even need this.”

Through these discussions and market research, it became increasingly clear to them what sort of novel and pivotal product they could offer to help accelerate Nigeria’s burgeoning solar sector, and their initial idea took on a new shape: solar design software coupled with an online marketplace that connects solar providers to funding sources and energy consumers. In recognition of his unique venture, Uwagwu received a prestigious Legatum Fellowship, a program that offers entrepreneurial MIT students strong mentoring and networking opportunities, educational experiences, and substantial financial support.

Since its founding in the summer of 2020, their startup, Idagba, has been hard at work getting its product ready for market. Starting a company in the midst of Covid-19 has created a set of unique challenges for Uwagwu and his team, especially as they operate on a whole other continent from their target market.

“We wanted to travel to Lagos last summer but were unable to do so,” he says. “We can’t make the software without talking to the people and businesses who are going to use it, so there are a lot of Zoom and phone calls going on.”

In spite of these challenges, Idagba is well on its path to commercialization. “Currently we are developing our minimum viable product,” comments Uwagwu. “The software is going to be very affordable, so there’s very little barrier for entry. We really want to help create this market for solar.”

In some ways, Idagba is drawing lessons from the success of Mo Ibrahim and his mobile phone company, Celtel. In the late 1990s, Celtel was able to quickly and drastically lower the overall price of cell phones across many countries in Africa, allowing for the widespread adoption of mobile communication at a much faster pace than had been anticipated. To Uwagwu, this same idea can be replicated for solar markets. “We want to reduce the financial and technical barriers to entry for solar like he did for telecom.”

This won’t be easy, but Uwagwu is up to the task. He sees his company taking off in three phases. The first is getting the design software online. After that has been accomplished — by mid-2021 — comes the hard part: getting customers and solar businesses connected and using the program. Once they have an existing user base and proven cash flow, the ultimate goal of the company is to create and facilitate an ecosystem of people wanting to push solar energy forward. This will make Idagba, as Uwagwu puts it, “the hub of solar energy in Nigeria.” Idagba has a long way to go before reaching that point, but Uwagwu is confident that the building blocks are in place to ensure its success.

After graduating in June, Uwagwu will be taking up a full-time position at the prestigious consulting firm Bain and Company, where he plans to gain even more experience and connections to help grow his company. This opportunity will provide him with the knowledge and expertise to come back to Idagba and, as he says, “commit my life to this.”

“This idea may seem ambitious and slightly nonsensical right now,” says Uwagwu, “but this venture has the potential to significantly push Nigeria away from unsustainable fossil fuel consumption to a much cleaner path.”

MIT News

Super Eagles of Nigeria: The Symbol of Excellence and Nigerian (Black) Exceptionalism

CC™ VideoSpective

In April 1994, the Super Eagles of Nigeria were ranked 5th in the FIFA World ranking, the highest FIFA ranking position ever achieved by an African football team to this day.

HISTORYVILLE

Italian mafia chased me out of Milan - Taribo West

Taribo West

CC™ SportsWire

Former Super Eagles defender Taribo West says he was sent packing from Italian giants AC Milan by The Mafia. Taribo joined the Rossoneri from city rivals Inter Milan in December 1999 and made just four appearances before he was sent on loan to Derby County, then in the English Premier League.

In  an interview with ScoreNigeria, Taribo said Italian mafia could not accept the fact that an African defender would play ahead of their Italian club legends Allesandro Costacurta, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi. 

"The Mafia would do anything in their powers to make sure I was done with at Milan," Taribo said. "They cooked a vicious story in the press that I was injured in the desperate bid to send me out of Milan.

"The doctors were bribed to say I was injured, but it was a lie. They did that because they felt it was unthinkable for an African player to take the place of those three aging defenders.

"Liverpool came with an offer, but at the end of the day, I had to settle for Derby County."

Taribo had a successful playing career at both international and club levels, notably winning gold as a member of Nigeria's inaugural "Dream Team" that shocked the football world at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. 

Taribo also represented Nigeria at the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cup™.