info4u: A TEST OF FAITH

info4u: A TEST OF FAITH

A TEST OF FAITH

Richmond is a picturesque town in North Yorkshire, England. Its castle, built just after the 1066 Norman Conquest, affords a commanding view across the valley of the river Swale, leading to the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The television documentary THE RICHMOND SIXTEEN has revealed an important aspect of the castle’s modern history-the fate of 16 conscientious objectors imprisoned there during World War 1. What happened to them?

CONSCRIPTION

Following Britain’s declaration of war in 1914, patriotism swept some 2.5 million men into the armed forces. In the face of increasing army casualties, however, and the realization that the war was not going to end as quickly as the politicians had promised, “recruiting became less a matter of entreaty, more a matter of pressure,” comments war historian Alan Lloyd. So for the first time in British history, in March 1916, single men were conscripted into the armed forces.

Two thousand tribunals were set up to hear appeals, but few, if any, of those who objected on the grounds of conscience were granted total exemption. Most conscientious objectors were ordered to join the noncombatant corps, set up to support the war machine. Those who refused to join were still viewed as conscripts and were court-martialed. They were dealt with harshly and imprison, often in terrible, cramped conditions.

THE RICHMOND SIXTEEN

Among the Richmond sixteen were five International Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were then known. Herbert Senior, who became a Bible Student in 1905 at the age of 15, wrote some 50 years later: “We were put into cells that were more like dungeons. They had probably not been used for years, as there was [five to seven centimeters] of debris on the floors.” Graffiti and writing now faded and in places illegible, that prisoners drew and wrote on their whitewashed cell walls have recently been made public. They consist of names, messages, and drawings of loved ones, along with statements of faith.

One prisoner simply wrote: “I might as well die for a principle as for lack of one.” Many messages include references to Jesus Christ and his teachings, and there are also carefully drawn replicas of the cross-and-crown emblem, used at that time by the International Bible Students Association (IBSA). Herbert Senior records that he drew on his cell wall the “Chart of the Ages” from the Bible study aid THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES, but it has not been found. It may be lost along with other writings on the walls in the main cell block or elsewhere. Another inscription reads: ‘Clarence Hall, Leeds, I.B.S.A. May 29th, 1916.sent to France.’

TO FRANCE-AND BACK

War casualties in France and Belgium were increasing at an alarming rate. War minister Horatio Herbert Kitchener and British General Douglas Haig desperately needed more troops, including married men, who by May 1916 were also being conscripted. To strengthen their hand, officials decided to make an example of conscientious objectors. So at gunpoint the Richmond Sixteen were illegally loaded on a train, their hands in irons, and secretly taken to France by a roundabout route. There on the beach of Boulogne, says HERITAGE magazine, “the men were tied with barbed wire to posts, almost as if they were being crucified,” and made to watch the execution of a British deserter by firing squad. They were told that if they did not obey orders, the same fate awaited them.

In mid-June 1916, the prisoners were marched before 3,000 troops to hear their sentence of death, but by the time Kitchener had died, and the British prime minister had intervened. A postcard with a coded message had got through to authorities in London, and the military order had been countermanded. General Haig was ordered to commute all death sentences to ten years penal servitude.

Upon their return to Britain, some of the 16 were taken to a Scottish granite quarry to do “work of national importance” under appalling conditions, says an official report. Others, Herbert Senior among them, were sent back to civil, not military, prisons.

LEGACY

In view of the fragile state of the cell walls, a comprehensive exhibition at Richmond Castle, now under the care of English Heritage, includes a virtual-reality touch screen that enables visitors to scrutinize closely both the cells and their graffiti without damaging them. Student groups are encouraged to understand why conscientious objectors were prepared to suffer punishment, imprisonment, and possible execution for their sincerely held beliefs.

The Richmond Sixteen successfully “brought the issue of conscientious objection to public attention and began to win acceptance and respect for it” This led to a more understanding approach by the authorities when dealing with those who registered as conscientious objectors during WORLD WAR II.

In the year 2002, pleasant garden in the castle grounds was dedicated in part to the memory of the Richmond Sixteen as a tribune to their moral convictions.

info4u: A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery ...

info4u: A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery ...: "Allen and Violet Large won their fortune in July and decided to donate 98% of it, saving the rest - around £130,000 - for a rainy day. 'We ..."

A Canadian couple who won nearly £7m on a lottery have given nearly every penny away.

Allen and Violet Large won their fortune in July and decided to donate 98% of it, saving the rest - around £130,000 - for a rainy day.

"We were quite happy with what we had and the way we were going," said Mr Large, a 75-year-old retired welder.

"We have no plans. We're not travelers. We're not night-prowlers. We're not bar-hoppers."

After taking care of their family, the Larges donated the rest to churches, fire departments, cemeteries and the Red Cross, as well as hospitals where Mrs Large, who has cancer, has undergone treatment.

Mr Large said he and his wife decided a week before they picked up their winnings to give most of it away.

He said they had worked for 30 years in Ontario and put away money every year before retiring and returning home to Nova Scotia.

"We weren't millionaires before but we had enough to keep us going in our retirement years," said Mr Large.

Word of the couple's generosity has generated a wealth of attention from the media. "We're not used to all this attention," Mr Large said from the couple's modest home in Lower Truro.

"We're just plain, old country folks."

THE SPOUSES THAT KNOWS THEMSELVES

1.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's favorite food?
2.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's date of birth?
3.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's favorite color?
4.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's hubby?
5.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's size of shoe?
6.Who is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's best friend?
7.What is your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's middle name?
8.When did your husband's/wife's or boyfriend's/girlfriend's finish his/her primary school education?
9.When last did you stroll out?
10.When last did he/she said I Love You?

HEPATITIS B: A SILENT KILLER

  The liver filters poisons from the blood and performs at least other important functions. That is why hepatitis inflammation of the liver can devastate a person’s health. Hepatitis may result from excessive alcohol consumption or exposure to toxins. Most often, though, viruses are the culprit. Scientists have identified five such viruses and believe that there are at least three more.

  Five viruses are known to cause hepatitis, the three most common being designated A, B, and C. Other viruses are also suspected. The symptoms of all forms of hepatitis can be flu like and may or may not include Jaundice. Many people particularly children, have no symptoms. With hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the liver may already be several damaged by the time symptoms appear.

  Just one of the five hepatitis B and virus (HBV)-kills at least 600,000 people a year, compared to the toll of taken by malaria. More than two billion people nearly one third of the world’s population have been infected with HBV, and most recovered within months. For about 350 millions, however the disease became chronic for the rest of their lives, whether they have symptoms or not, they will have the potential to infect others.

  Proper medical care, started early, can help some with chronic HBV to ward off serious liver damage, but more are unaware that they have been infected, as only a specific blood test can detect HBV. Even routine liver function test may come back normal. Thus, HBV can be a silent killer, striking without warning. Obvious symptoms may not appear until after infection. By then, either cirrhosis or cancer of the liver may be developed. These diseases take the life of 1 in 4 HBV carriers.

 

 

I HAVE A DREAM

Whenever we talk about dreams, what readily come to our mind are the things we experience while asleep. What we have to consider today, however, transcends the vision of the night. It is a vision of the future; a desire, an ambition, a projection and a purpose. It has nothing to do with fantasy or wishful thinking; it is a purpose which stretches and propels into action.

  We experience our full human potentials when we embrace and pursue such dreams. Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. A man/woman without vision is dead and only waiting for the grave; indeed must be a goal that you desire to attain in life.

  Do you realize that the great achievements that we see all around us today are not mere accidental occurrences? They are but dividends of great dreams and purposeful living. The creation of our World was the product of God’s dreams. The redemption of mankind from the pangs of sin and hell was the products of Christ’s purpose and dream. People like Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, nurtured the dream of greatness and consequently became the prime minister of Egypt in his days. History also recorded that Abraham Lincoln, after several failures, got to White House as America’s President because his dreams neither died nor waned through the pressure of disappointment.

  Indeed, your dream determines your place, molds your destiny and makes your future. If your dream is small, then you are small, if your dream is mediocrity, then you are mediocre, if your dream is supernatural, then you are supernatural.

  What then is your vision as a man/woman? Do you aim at being a man/woman of nothingness or of greatness? Do you even have a dream at all?

info4u: Lesbians In The Big Brother All Star House.

info4u: Lesbians In The Big Brother All Star House.

DEMOCRACY

The origin of Democracy is traceable to ancient Greek; “Demo” meaning people and “kratia” meaning government, these two words in Greek “Demo” and “kratia” metamorphosed into the word “Democracy” and it is Abraham Lincoln that defined Democracy as the government of the people by the people and for the people. This definition can be divided into three explainable parts;

A.    Government of the people refers to government on behalf of the people

B.     Government by the people refers to representative government and

C.     Government for the people means that the government should be carried on the people of high principle that is that those trusted with the affair of government should not be politicians who seek to make themselves rich or powerful at the expense of those whom they are supposed to serve-the people

  In Nigeria, everything there is to say about Democracy that we claim to practice, we do not have it in our political system and as for me the political system that best describes ours is “Oligarchy” it is a form of Government that places political power in the hands of a few people. Democracy in Nigeria to the politician is a whole new ball game; it is the survival of the fittest/strongest. In the past years to be précised, Nigeria elections has been the kind where all the parties nominates their candidates and then they go to a board meeting of all the god-fathers and make a general selection of the top person to come out s the winner after the whole campaigning noises and false promises and we the citizen after standing in the long queues to cast our vote, they make the “selection” and not “election”.

  Nothing could be easier, and yet it is the hardest: to be simple (Ephesus, 2^nd edition, 1957, in German).

  Independence/freedom is a very sweet thing when it comes to those that knows what it means to them, to be free from the hands of another and to be able to work independently on your own, is a blessing. Many have worked towards it for so many years; some has attained it and moved on independently very well on their own to the benefit and improvement of themselves, while others have attained and still yet to be free from the spirit of being dependent.

  In 1898, the British governments establish and maintain a colonial state in Nigeria, and Sir Frederick Lord Lugard became the   High Commissioner of Nigeria and his wife gave the name Nigeria after the amalgamation of the two pectetorates in 1914. For some years, the Nigeria masses undergo some sort of degrading, racial discrimination in employment and so many more, Nigerians decided to fight for their right and to be free from the hands of the British colonial, In the likes of our noble and proud brothers; Nnamdi Azikiwe, H.O.Davies, Herbert Macaulay, Obafemi Awolowo, Kwame Nkrumah etc mobilized the masses for support, during the struggle for independence, so many lost their lives in this struggle and at last it came to our hands, freedom at last.

  1^st October, 1960, that date will forever remain in the heart of many Nigerians, the day after the long fought war for independence and freedom came to our hands after being under the British colonial for 62 years. It is now 50 years since that faithful year when we got our independence, we Nigerians, lets be sincere and ask ourselves are we truly independent? Or are we still leaving in the shadows of our colonial masters, I must say that we, our government has not made any significant impact in our communities, economy, security, global recognition and so on. Look at our neighboring country Ghana, we are bigger than they are, they respect us (Nigeria) but when it comes to economy I will say they are better than we, our citizens are moving down there to reside, and work etc and we call our self the “Giant of Africa”.

  This song goes out to all Nigerians at our faithful day and let’s remembers the suffering our fore-fathers went through for us to get this independence, let’s not make their sacrifice be for nothing.

Wish way Nigerians x2

Wish way to go

I love my father land

I want to know

Wish way Nigerians

We are heading to.

A MARINE WONDERWORLD: SHARK BAY

   Shark bay is a large, shallow inlet located at the westernmost point in Australia, some 650 kilometers north of the city of Perth. In 1629, Dutch explorer Francois Pelsaert branded this desert area “a bare and cursed country, devoid of green or grass”. Later visitors recorded their impressions with such names as Hopeless reach, Useless inlet, and Disappointment loop.

    But today over 120,000 people goes there annually to see this remarkable attraction called “Shark Bay”, so remarkable is this place that it was placed on the World Heritage list in 1991. If only Pelsaert would have looked under the water he would have found his meadows.

     Shark Bay contains the largest and most diverse sea-grass meadows in the world, over 4000 square kilometers in all. The sea-grasses support a dizzying array of marine life; Juvenile Prawns, Tiny fish, and countless other marine creatures, it also provides ample food for some 10,000 resident dugongs or sea-cows, these gentle and inquisitive mammals, weighs up to 400 kilometers.

    True to its name, Shark Bay hosts a large number of sharks of more than a dozen species. They include the: Fearsome tiger shark, and the gigantic but harmless Whale shark the biggest fish in the world, sharks share these water with Dolphins, exposing the myth that “where you find sharks you will not find Dolphins”.

    The greatest attractions of Shark Bay are the Bottlenose Dolphins of Monkey Mia, a beach on the edge of Denham Peninsula. Monkey Mia is one of the few places in the World where wild Dolphins regularly visits to interact with the humans. No one knows for sure when this interaction began. In 1964, a local fisher woman threw a fish to a lone Dolphin splashing around her boat at Monkey Mia. The dolphin, which people called Charlie returned the next night and took a fish directly from the woman’s hand; soon Charlie friends joined him.

     These days, Dolphins, often with their young, visit Monkey Mia beach most mornings. Crowds of excited visitors awaits their arrival, but only a few share in the feeding because Park Rangers wants to ensure that the animals do not become dependent on handouts, Nevertheless, all the people present gets a good view of the proceedings. “If only humans could enjoy this intimacy with all of earth’s creatures”.

Lesbians In The Big Brother All Star House.

Lesbians In The Big Brother All Star House.
Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:34 PM PDT
Meryl and Sheila.
The Uganda online reports that Kenya’s Sheila and Namibia’s Meryl made out a few days before Sheila was evicted, under the same bed for over 30 minutes as the rest of the housemates were out there in the jacuzzi. Meryl and Sheila kissed, touched and did all silly things as the barnmates watched every move they made under the sheets.
This left all the barnmates perplexed because they watched a lot going down between these two. Initially we were suspecting Code under the sheets with Meryl but later as the other face was shown, it was Sheila.
This hurt Hanningtion so much that he kept on saying ”I knew it” and he added that he wants to go back to the house. Yacob said that was cool because they showed them what viewers are able to see.
Tatiana said that it looks like it is not the first time they were doing, it looks like they have been at it all this while.
The cameras focused on Mwisho who was moving round in circles and at one point he tried to touch below their mattress looking for a match box to light his cigar, that is when we saw Meryl’s face.

UNIJOS STUDENTS SET TO PROTEST FEE INCREASE

‘we no go gree! We must fight this out!’ These and many more has been the sayings of both the regular and part-time students of University of Jos (UniJos) who has been on three month break that started after an 18 month session. It was at the middle of the break a rumor turned true that school fee has been increased with over 200%. It was a great surprise when student from home read in the punch news paper published on the 10^th of august 2010.
The student has been using every medium to communicate within themselves. Several meeting among different student associations has been held and messages has been going round with the urge to pass it on to other and warned that no student should pay the tuition fee until the problem is been resolve. “Not at this time that we are just recovering from great losses from crisis that claim our property and life of our friends. Many of our parents have lost their jobs, and many businesses have been affected.”

The school authority defended their action; saying that the increment was necessary, because a session was canceled as a result of strikes and various unrest in Jos and it’s metropolis, and they have loss so much in the process, they added that it has been showed that cheap/free education is what leads to useless/unusable graduates, and that as been what has been bastardizing our educational system in Nigeria we cannot pay our lecturers a living wage, we cannot develop our learning resources and we cannot provide modern research facilities. This and others are what this increment is setout to reduce.
Views of many, if this increment is finally implemented is that; cultism might be re-enforced, raping, arm robbery, exam malpractices, kidnapping of staffs, blockings, etc would definitely be encouraged. This is because some poor desperate students would rather die in such than withdraw from the school system due to inability to pay school fees. Beside these, death of parents will increase due to high blood pressure and stroke as a result of much thinking of how and when to get children school fees.