Youths Of My Age

"wasted generation", "irresponsible", "lazy" are least of the names that youths of my time have been forced to bear in my country. They are blamed for anything that goes wrong.

So has is it been in my time; an age where many cannot afford western education and are still inundated with "if education is expensive, try ignorance" by those that went to school either on scholarships or community efforts.

Majority of the youths of my age roam the streets armed with their first class and second class certificates, worn out shoes and threadbare suits looking for the much promised but non-existent jobs. 

"Employment for all by the year 2008, 2015, 2020" no longer mean anything to them. They are told that education is the key yet they have had more doors slammed in their faces than they can remember. Defying hunger and frustration, some still stand tall in salute to the dignity of man. Yet they are termed "unresourceful" by those who were offered jobs, cars, houses even before they finished their degree exams.

The burden of expectation has been too much for some and they fell by the wayside of armed robbery, prostitution, fraud and other vices but my SALUTE goes to all of you who have despite all odds, risen to touch that silver lining in their cloud of uncertain future and resolved to be rallying points for others and a beacon of hope to the rest.

Emeka Amakeze writes

Culture Transmission: The Youths Approach

Culture which can be defined as the art, music, literature and other intellectual expressions of a particular society in time, transmits from one age to another, from one generation to the other. 

The transmission of culture can either occur consciously or unconsciously. Each age has their own concepts and specific techniques of encountering the transmission of culture. In the same vein, the youths of each age assume a peculiar approach to cultural values which more often than not manifest in the form of constant re-enactment of acceptance and rejection, modification and fine tuning of the cultural values of the passing age.

The youths are often challenged to sift the values of the passing age in preservance of modern and current values, thereby making it one fundamental feature of any cotemporary culture that the modern and current values are the requisites from whatever cultural values the youths of an age would preserve from the past ages.

The youths are always opposed to the consistency of cultural values from one age to the other. By virtue of their constant dynamic reactions to new realities and novel discoveries, the youths argue that the cultural values upheld by a past age should not have any influence on those of the modern age. Thereby holding the concept of change as a constant in culture and culture transmission.

However, being conscious of this attitude of the youths of every age towards culture and culture transmission and knowing full well that one day, the youths of today will become elders of tomorrow and would expect the youths of such generation to be tied to the values of their past age, a compromise is all that is needed.

Liberty should be given to the maintainance or marriage of some of the cultural values of a passing age and the modern and current ones. What the youths deem unbecoming of the passing age should not be forced on them. Attempts to do so , even in the past have always yeilded nothing but widening the gap of cultural perspective between the past ages and the youths.

Emeka Amakeze writes 

Between the Dreamer and the Realist

God made some people, investing them with a vivid imagination to see all kinds of visions. They are often impatient with their surrounding and are eager to speed off to some promised land beyond the horizon. If these people are not checked, they would destroy life's stability. They would forever be stampeding the rest to all kinds of fanciful realms, where their lives could not be sustained.

The creator therefore provided a brake in people who are stern realists, who will puncture every dream with the needle of keen analysis, who will challenge every vision in the name of facts and circumstances.

Between the dreamer and the realists, there is an unending feud. It may be bitter, for the realists judge the dreamers to be enemies of the society. Indeed, history knows instances where dreamers seized control and turned fanatics and destroying those who are not ready to join them in their adventure.

A healthy society is one in which the dreamer recognises the right to be challenged in the name of realism and in which the realist recognises the right to be questioned in the name of progress. 

The dreamer and the realist were meant to be collaborators. Through the balance of their conflicting pressures, we forge an ordered progress in which we shall reach out towards our goals, without sacrificing settled achievements

Emeka Amakeze writes

Personality Development

A man is as good as his destiny, nay, his thoughts. Thus the heart of every matter settles in the heart. And in the life of a man, his health, his ability to relate well with others and his level of success are inextricably interwined with his personality - good or bad.

The personality of a man is a functional by-product of both some internal and external factors. He is internally affected by his thoughts, mental pictures, his mindset and imagination whereas externally, he is influenced by his physical environment - what he sees, hears or feels. Negatively or positively, he is affected by his society and the people he interacts with. But the development of certain traits and abilities would make us to be either loved or hated, liked or just tolerated by others.

A loathsome personality would most probably scare people away from a man and place him on the highway to perdition. In the same vein, a pleasant personality traits or behavioural patterns create an enabling environment for success, accomplishment, recognition, love and care.

If you are personable, you will be able to improve your circumstances, modify your situation and influence other people. Developing your personality positively is a sure way of distinguishing yourself from everyone else. This is done through conscious and sustained efforts, as personality traits do not evolve spontaneously.

Negative thoughts and actions produce bad feelings, depression and regrets but good thoughts and actions lead to joy and happiness. And it goes beyond that as people like to associate with easy-going and agreeable personalities even though they may not be personable themselves. Personable individuals appreciate every little positive effort made by others and more often than not, extol virtue generally in people.

Personable people are made, they are not born and you can be one.

Emeka Amakeze writes...

Immortality Accomplished

For centuries, the search for immortality, which seems to man, the only thing that will give meaning to his sojourn on earth, has been an elusive and unending one. He has however turned his dread on among other things; suffering and death, believing them to take meaning away from life.

Shallow understanding of the transitory nature of our potentialities has denied mankind the true nature of immortality. In the wavy line of actualising our set goals and objectives, parts of us are left with the moments which with the turning of the hands of time, belong to the past. But then, nothing is lost as the past only stores them for the appropriate time when they would be called upon.


Until man comes to the understanding that suffering, poverty, death and the likes do not take meaning away from life, he will continue to delude himself that somewhere beyond horizon lies the power of immortality rather than in himself.


However, since man is out-Pictured by the extent of his ephemeral realisation, suffering and death become essential as they would serve as yardsticks for how he builds or justifies his existence. 

Man will always put suffering and death into consideration as he ponders on the myriad of his immediate potentialities. They either make him take good or bad decisions, or make him weep for the fact that all he laboured for will go down the drain. It all goes to intensify the search for immortality but man does not need to search.

If only he will see the light and realise that there are always two sides to every coin. Someone died that he may be here and so, he will have to go for another to come. It's unending but once man understands that in that line of perpetual going and coming, he will forever remain a spot of reference. He and all that he did will inevitably be delivered to the past which in turn will be rescued. He thereby lives on forever, and immortality is his.

Emeka Amakeze writes...

Children and Beer: For Laughs

"It is now an established fact that all human motive and action is due to beer; not merely among adults but also among children. The whole life of a child, of either sex is actuated by beer.

The first action of which a child is capable is a lusty yell; we have established that this is no less than a cry for beer, or at any rate for some kind of drink.

The next action of the child is to drink. If it does not drink beer it is because it's system is not yet capable of drinking beer. But behind the relish of milk is the desire for beer. These we call the primary instincts. The secondary instincts are to be found in the love of popping corks, of yellow-brown colours, of frothy substances like soap and so on.

The child calls his father Papa, which represents the popping of the cork, and his mother Mamma which gives the noise of the liquid being poured into a glass. All the gurgling noises of childhood go to prove the strength of the instinct...
Most of our knowledge is based upon dreams, which we have taken as the most reliable evidence scientifically possible.

We know, by means too elaborate to tell here, that even very young children dream about beer; nay, more, that they dream about nothing else. When a child dreams of a boat upon a lake, what is it but a symbol of beer? Of a shower of pain, a river, a sea? Everything yellow or brown is beer. Every thing frothy or sparkling is beer. Everything in something else is beer; a nut in its shell, for example, is obviously representative of beer in the bottle. Everything issuing from an aperture is beer Everything that moves is beer, particularly quick moving jerky things, which are reminiscent of "hops". In fact, we can say that the child cannot dream of anything but beer.

There is no dream possible but beer ."