The Negrete Vultures

That's what they are, that's what Luis, boyfriend of Alicia, opened our eyes to see, in the light of the unbelievable tragedy that this family carry about and deposits on any one they perched on. From Hawkish Adela to whimpering Gustavo, vanity boy Ricardo and, young opportunist Luisa. This is the family of vultures that angel Catalina found herself born in.

It so happened that Luis became annoyed with his friend Eduardo for instituting divorce proceedings against his wife, Silvia, and he voiced out his frustration. That was 'good news' to Adela and her son Ricardo, they launched out a plan to woo distraught Silvia. They concluded that she needs affection and Ricardo was the best candidate to do the job.

Luis was nauseated and rebuked them for attempting to profit from the misfortunes of Silvia. Adela insulted him for being vulgar. he 'washed' Adela with an acidic tongue, saying she had a long last name but lack the dignity of a class. He told her he knew her ignoble story and should not pretend before him that she was high society lady.

After mother and son left,Luis was shocked by the unbelievable cynicism displayed by them. He announced to Petra that: "... the Negrete vultures are flying all over Silvia and Eduardo, to devour the corpse of that failed relationship ..."

This same family set eyes on the Mendoza family and tore their flesh to shreds, they set eyes on nouveau rich Carmelo, and drove him to his death. They set eyes on Kiki and almost suck her dry through Luisa. They nurtured Catalina into a disastrous matrimony and, raised Ricardo as a seducing Monster.

Beware if you have family friends who manifest traits of the vulture in their relationship with you. Complete absence of love and calculating precision to dig out treasure from you always.

The Pride of A Mendoza!

Actor Sergio Basanez is one great and sagacious fellow on screen. Unfortunately, every actor or actress is at the mercy of script writers. If the script is flawed, the best of your acting talents cannot save you from the angry and disappointed tongues of the fans.

The Catalina and Sebastian telenovela script has taken a popularity plunge in recent times due to fundamental flaws in the production. Sebastian was able to rekindle the fire of passion in me when he confronted Jessica, saying: "... the pride of a Mendoza would crumble to pieces, if Carmelo were found to be a true Mendoza son..."

That is precisely the heart of the trouble- PRIDE! Guadalupe Mendoza fell prey to his pride against poor Catalina. He was chasing shadows when the real enemy of his destiny is one boy he raised from childhood and promoted to be foreman on his ranch. That boy grew to become a desperate and unsecured man, and devoured unsuspecting but proud Lupe, at his weak moments. In righteous indignation though, Sebastian admitted to Jessica that Lupe was unfair to poor Carmelo, if truly he were his son.

The same vanity of arrogance made Sebastian fell prey to JessIKA, he despised his only true love, Catalina. He spited her with Emilia and later Jessica, he paid dearly for despising true love on the platter of Pride.

Watch it if you too are currently playing a game of pride with your true love. Encounters with true love are to be desired and not despised. To be pampered and not sand-papered.

That statement above was a powerful negative prophecy which came to pass for the Mendozas. They had to swallow their pride when the Will was read and 'poor' but crafty Carmelo crept out of his hole to be crowned the sole and universal heir of Guadalupe Mendoza.

Martina and Sebastian broke down and wept bitterly for the 'betrayal' of their father who 'gave' everything to Carmelo without a mention of their inheritance.

The big lesson here is that of patience and humility. Pride is a blinker, when it consumes you, you will go bonkers! Unbridled anger is the ladder of descent into the pit of folly wherein pride lieth.

Blog Incomes and Ministerial Poverty

The parable of the "one-eyed man" is quite amusing to read in the papers, that during the glorious reign of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, her fat emoluments ($240,000) were a source of envy and resentment among her cabinet peers, whose own salaries ($6,000), were 40 times lower than hers.

In the land of the blind, it is natural for even the one-eyed man to be treated with awe and deference. I chuckled to learn about the poverty of leadership in this part of the world. $6,000 is a 'pocket money' for many bloggers in the world.

Yes, it's funny that ministers of the Federal Republic scramble, struggle and complained over a 'royal' and 'privileged' basic pay of $6,000 per month, in a country where 95 per cent of the populace live on less than $200 per month!

These "one-eyed" and 'honorable' men and women are not satiated that they live 30 times far above the poor masses they claimed to be serving. The truth however is that our collective poverty has blinded even our leaders of the potential earnings of enterprising individuals in a globalized economy.

There is none that takes blogging as a profession in the blogosphere, that do not earn an average of $10,000 monthly income from their blogs. So, what is the hue and cry about their 'one-eyed' salaries $6,000! Is it not better for them to 'open' our 'blind eyes' so that, we can all see and make greater global standard of living incomes? Many would be grateful to have that 'one-eye miracle' as theirs, but many more amongst us would not be satisfied until our two eyes are fully opened, just like Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

In my little corner here, despite not being on full-time blogging, and also not yet on PayPal, like I mentioned in my tribute to Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, I am quietly going to the bank with over a thousand Dollars every month from my blogging activities.

Would that our leaders, develop technological infrastructures, to uninterruptedly power the economy for broadband internet connection, so that we could compete at world-class level-playing fields for the global resources and income.

We can bring heaven down to Nigeria and Africa, that our people may live palatial lifestyles, flushing out the hellish poverty from the dark continent. Give us light and we shall see, give us understanding and we shall live above ignorance! Yes, give us electricity, and we shall electrocute ignorance from our land!

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Delay Is Not Denial

This is a story of the glory of two Ngozis, who have brought so much glory and international attention to Nigeria this year. The first and younger Ngozi is a 30-year old author, who beat all contestants world-wide, to win the prestigious and much coveted Orange Broadband (£30,000) Prize for fiction, with her book, "Half of A Yellow Sun".

Exactly four months ago in June 2007, Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie beat veterans much older than her in the fictional literature game, in fact she looked more like their granddaughter.

The second and most familiar to us, is the indefatigable former Minister of finance and later, foreign affairs in Nigeria. This time, 52-year old Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's unflagging, trademark head-tie took another leap, flying higher above her mockers, to the coveted position of Managing Director of the World Bank in charge of Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia regions.

An irrepressible fighter, who fought and won all the battles against forces whom she described as: "... vested interests still try to undermine me,..." Those interests eventually forced her to resign, when they could not beat her in the game of integrity. they were bent on winning the 2007 elections by hook or crook, and felt the the financial corruption tool for winning that election would be hindered unless she leaves the system.

A few months later when she aspired for the UN's number 2 seat of deputy secretary general, those forces still pulled the presidential strings to shot down her ambitions. Now she has been catapulted by fate to higher position, in spite of their oppositions. She is listed by Forbes as the 62nd most powerful woman in the world.

I congratulate her on this attainment and urge her to take Africa's poverty, with the same passion with which she carried her younger sister 40 years ago, trekking for over 5 kilometers, to the nearest medical assistance, so that she won't die of malaria.

Africa needs you... for example, no African country is fully recognized on PayPal, the most popular and largest online payment system. I say this because, like so many Africans, I am an online entrepreneur selling my writing skills but typically hindered because many of us miss the opportunity of earning greater incomes online, (wealth transfer), because our continent is not listed among those that can receive payment by PayPal.

Having given Nigeria a taste of proud leadership for 3 years (2003-2006), that makes us to lift up our heads again in the comity of nations, I look forward with eager assurance to your return one day soon, to lead us out of the woods. The hands that rocks the cradle successfully, would surely rule the world well.