PENSIONER LOST HER FUNERAL MONEY

Pensioners need protection because some are too old to defend themselves Life is like a journey full of loads. If you are able to carry this load throughout your lifetime with discipline, endurance, sacrifice, and truthfulness, one can succeed in life. If one's life goes the opposite way, then things might never be better for the one.  Most people while living think of the death ahead of them and save money towards that to have a befitting burial after death. A pensioner living in England, who has carefully saved £1000, to pay for the funerals of her and her 85-year-old disabled husband accidentally lost the money, leaving her unable to sleep with high blood pressure.  According to her, she left her home at the Watford end of Wimborne, around 11.30 am, on Monday 12 January 2009, and walked to town with the money at the bottom of her shopping bag. However; when she got to the Nationwide Building Society to pay the money into her account, she discovered that the money had gone missing.  The sixty-nine-year-old woman who wants to remain anonymous said "I was absolutely gutted. My husband had been saving the money for some time so that we could pay our funerals in time," She said. She has no clue about the disappearance of the money. "I have been hoping that someone would find it and hand it over to the police, but no one has. We have had to work hard for every penny we have so to lose it this way was heartbreaking," she said. I wonder why she was expecting a miracle to get her money back in a country like England, where youths have no regard for the elders. They rob, beat up and steal from the old, without any second thought that one day they will be old as well and the same thing could happen to them.  Whatever the case, old woman don't be distraught, give thanks to God you are still alive.

WHY DO PEOPLE BLAME GOD FOR TODAY'S VIOLENCE?

There are many churches throughout Europe, but they are empty every Sunday


Christianity found its way to Africa through the white missionaries who went to the continent years ago but it is like Africans have embraced the Christian faith than the whites themselves. 

It is very common to see Africans worshipping God in churches on Sundays while on the same Sunday you see Whites at the drinking pubs enjoying glasses of wine and beer. 

In Britain; a few churches had been converted to drinking pubs, yet the government is fighting hard against alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, hooliganism, and crime without success.

Many simply have no time at all to think of God, let alone to attend church service on Sundays to worship the creator. Once I visited a church in a small town in Rome-Italy called "Sacrofano." 

The beautifully designed ancient church attracted me into it with the desire of fellowshipping with them that Sunday.

 

I was shocked to see that the pastor was preaching to only two people in this big church. I joined them and the number increased to three. 

In Antwerp, Belgium, most of the time I see people at the church when only someone is dead. It is like the church was built to pay last respect to only the dead, not the living.

The world today is full of turmoil, war, tribal conflicts, racism, discrimination, etc. All these problems are caused by man. It is the decision of man to cause pain, havoc, and unrest to people and our societies but not God.

 

Why then do people ignorantly ask, if there is God, why must all these problems occur? People drink and lose their minds to kill, stab, beat their wives and children yet many prefer to drink than reading the Holy Bible, a book that heals our spiritual and physical problems.

Hebrews chapter 12:26-27, predicts that "Everything that can be shaken will be shaken.....so that only those things that can not be shaken will remain." This means that our jobs, retirement, pensions, children, health, etc; can be shaken at times. 

At the same time, the Bible says, "Everything shall pass but the word of God shall be there forever." This is an important message to remind man to find solace in God, by reading the Holy Bible. 

Alcohol, crime, and all the evil things men commit will lead us to a place we have never dreamt of, that is going to hell and jail.

JOHN LENNON IMAGINED AFRICA'S POLITICAL CRISIS

The great John Lennon, ex-member of the 'Beetles'


John Lennon once said he is famous than Jesus Christ. Many faithful Christians around the world weren’t happy over that defamatory statement he made. However; I’m not writing this article to condemn Mr. Lennon but to congratulate him on his concern over the political crisis in Africa in his period.


Africa has been a neglected continent for a very long time, even though most of the wealth in Europe was taken from that continent. In the sixties, the members of the Beetles were presented with MBE awards and John Lennon returned his award to the Queen in protest against UK foreign policy.

He wrote “Your Majesty, I’m returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts” with love John Lennon. 

The Nigerian-Biafra war in the sixties between Yakubu Gowan and Ojukwu claimed thousands of lives. It was a catastrophe; a human disaster and a nightmare that still haunt Nigerians.

It’s astonishing that while the world does not care about the turmoil in Africa, just as the racist Margaret Thatcher does not care about the Apartheid, segregation and the discrimination going on in South Africa that time, a common musician like John Lennon cares much about the carnage going on in Africa.

To me, John Lennon wasn’t only a great musician. But a special statesman, an envoy interested in bringing peace to Africa. At the same time, he was bringing the problems of Africa to the awareness of the selfish leaders that do not care about the continent’s political crisis but only interested in the looting of the continent's rich mineral resources.

Fans of the Beetles want the rejected award that has been in storage at Saint James’ Palace, since 1969, to be placed at the museum but a spokesman for the Chancery Department of the Royal said that it’s only John Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono could decide if it has to go on display or the museum.

AFRIQIYAH AIRLINE MUST IMPROVE ITS SERVICES

Afriqiyah Airways, poor service, poor facilities




While modern aviation has taken new dimensions to improve aviation safety and ensure the safety of passengers and luggage in all flights, other airlines such as Afriqiyah has broken every rule in civil aviation. 


This is a true bitter experience of a passenger that joined the airline Afriqiyah, a couple of months ago.

"I find it very necessary to write my story for other intending passengers that want to travel with this airline to think twice before making any fatal decision," said a woman residing in Britain. In July 2008, I traveled with my son, an eleven-year-old boy, from the United Kingdom to Accra- Ghana, for a six-week-long holiday.

Even though my luggage was controlled and tagged, right under my watchful eyes, when we arrived in Accra- Ghana, our luggage was nowhere to be found. How could our luggage mysteriously disappear? Afriqiyah officials had no clues to the disappearance of our luggage.

When I called their office in Accra to find out where our luggage was, none of the airline officials gave me a positive answer. On many occasions, they don’t want to pick up the phone when I called. At a certain stage, they felt being disturbed by my constant inquiries. How could such a thing happen to a passenger?

It’s only Africa, one could hear such stories. We are a subject of mockery in the eyes of the developing world due to the way some of us do our things. It takes so many years to build up a good reputation but it takes just a second for a stupid fool to destroy all the good works that had been done. 

One shocking thing I also observed was that the toilet on the flight wasn't in good order. A hostess stood by, with a bucket of water and rinses the toilet after each use before someone else enters. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

I spent the whole six week holiday with my son in the same clothes we wore on board the flight from the UK to Ghana. Eventually, we returned to the United Kingdom without a trace of our luggage by Afriqiyah officials. 

Three months after my arrival; I received a confirmation call from them that our luggage had been found. I wrote a letter to the airline demanding compensation. Till now they refused to reply to my letter or even to send a word of apology.

Is that an airline I would encourage someone to travel with? She asked. Sometimes passengers make mistakes to join cheap airlines but in the end, they lose more than traveling with the best airlines. A word to the wise is enough.

THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL IN SOCIETY

Once alcohol takes control over you, it's hard to break free



Alcohol is now known to be equally dangerous to cocaine and other dangerous drugs that affect the health of the abusers but the fight against it is much relaxed or slow. 

A group of doctors in America believes that before the government loses or wins the campaign against cigarettes, cocaine and other dangerous drugs without considering alcohol much it would have claimed millions of lives.

During my youth, I witnessed the effect of alcohol on some of my teachers during lessons in the classrooms. When it’s eating time, we had nothing to talk about than the stinking or stench of alcohol we smelled on a particular teacher. 

I could also remember my mother on many occasions counseling an alcoholic living in our neighborhood. When my mother didn’t see him any longer passing in front of our house to buy the strong locally prepared drink, she thought he has got the message. 

Unknowing the man changed his route to avoid my mother seeing him. Eventually, the man succumbed to illness and died. The postmortem revealed that he died from excessive drinking.

In America, medical statistics has it that nearly 14 million over 18 are alcoholics. Another 1.3 million suffer alcohol dependencies. Overall, almost 8% of adults have problems with alcohol, costing the economy an estimated $100 billion a year in health care costs and loss of productivity. Fatal road accidents worldwide much are also related to alcohol.

Indy Mehigan, 17, a transformed alcoholic, once terrorized the streets of Lowestoft, Suffolk in Britain. According to her “I was just 12 when I first swigged vodka with my giggling mates in the school toilets. A few years later, I had turned into a violent, drunken youth who taught of nothing but smashing someone’s face."

"Then a friend told me about Positive Futures, a youth project in Lowestoft that helps teenagers with addiction and other problems. With their help, I left the gang and started a college course, and I’m now retaking my GCSEs. 

I’m also doing a course that I can mentor other kids. These days when I see gangs of youths, I’m the one who crosses the street. But I also feel sorry because they are wrecking their lives.” She said. (Culled from Daily Mirror, Saturday, February 23, 2008, edition)

This is the confession of a young girl who has been into the abyss of alcohol drinking but now out of it and piously and consciously stepping out to help others. As a nation, people have to understand the crisis in alcohol abuse for a number of reasons. 

Drinkers may find it legal, pleasurable and even beneficial but at the end of it all when hooked let’s us view its disastrous effect on humans and on the roads. Besides the death alcohol has caused; it has also attributed to many broken homes, painful divorce separation and juvenile crime. 

Alcohol is not just a closet problem but a full-blown health crisis that is crippling our nation as well as families. Kick it early or don’t go for it at all.