MERRY X-MAS TO YOU ALL

Christ came and died for us, he couldn't have died for our sins without his birth. Lets celebrate his coming. Here are three popular and lovely carols, enjoy them. Accept them as my little gift to you for visiting during this period. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

1. Joy to the World

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

2. Silent Night
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth "


3. We Three Kings of Orient Are

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to rein

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray'r and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR?

There was a large orchard in one big estate,
And a large tree stood in the middle of that orchard.
Gigantic was it and beautiful to behold.
It was a source of delight to the land lords,
As they proudly showed it to all their visitors.

The large tree was loved by everyone but one,
The orchard man.
He reasoned that his work will be lighter,
In the absence of the tree which littered the whole orchard.
And he devised his means.

He concluded plans.
And got the large tree withered off.
Indeed, his work became lighter,
For there was no tree to litter the orchard,
And thus more time to himself.

His shock came one day,
When the lord of the estate told him
That his service will no longer be needed
Because, the tree that necessitated his employment was gone.
No tree droppings, no orchard man.

At last he discovered
That it was the tree that gave him the job
For what will be his need but to clean the mess of the tree
Thus, he has destroyed his purpose in the large estate,
With his own hands.

My brother, this is the message,
That before you take that move
Be sure you are not frustrating purpose
That torn in the flesh may just be your purpose
Don’t destroy your purpose.

'Seun Alade

CHANGE

If the affairs of this world were left in the hands of those who say “that’s the way it has always been done” on reply to the question “can we do it this way”, then we would still be in the Stone Age.
Without change there can’t be progress. But change is only possible when we crack “CHAlleNGE”. Always challenge mediocrity.

Man once believed that since steel can’t float on water then it is impossible for ships to sail on water.
A clergyman once told a college head that flying planes were impossible. Few years after, the clergyman's two boys – Orville and Wilbur Wright did it.
It was believed at one point in time that if rails ever moved at 25 miles/hour then people will die because circulation of blood will cease.
Having tried for centuries without success using various means like drinking Lion’s blood and Tiger’s milk the conclusion was reached that man can never run a mile in less than four minutes. It was held like a principle until Roger Bannister broke it.
Scientists once said that it is impossible to connect America and England by telephone, having tried endlessly without success using cables. Today, you can connect to any part of the world from a village not located on the world map.
As Napoleon Bonaparte rightfully said, impossible is a word only found in the dictionaries of fools.

You were born an optimist but the world tries conforming you to “reality”. Do not accept it as it is only a way of caging you in mediocrity.
If you don’t change you will soon find yourself out of value. Imagine where IBM Computers will be if it didn’t change its world sale target from 6 computers a year! Or if Henry Ford never changed its initial car design which had no reverse gear.

AN UNDEAFEATED ARMY OF GOD

In the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949 Arab forces (including the armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq as well as Palestinian guerrillas) had expected an easy victory over the small and isolated Jewish state, but despite heavy casualties Israel won. Israel also increased the land under its control far beyond what it had been given by the partition plan. The region just west of the Jordan River known as the West Bank came under the control of Transjordan (which was renamed Jordan in 1949). Egypt gained control of the Gaza Strip, a small region bordering the southern end of Israel’s Mediterranean coast. The demoralized Arab world was unwilling to accept the Israeli victory, and shortly after the war the Arabs began to regroup for more fighting. The war had also created a large population of Palestinian Arab refugees who fled Israel for camps maintained by the UN in neighbouring Arab states.

In the mid-1950s the Egyptian government began to support Palestinian guerrilla raids into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Egypt also refused to allow Israeli ships to use the Suez Canal and in 1951 blockaded the Strait of Tiran (Israel’s access to the Red Sea), which Israel regarded as an act of war. In June 1956 Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been jointly owned by Britain and France. In late October, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, defeating Egyptian forces there. Britain and France attacked Egypt a few days later. Although the fighting was brief and Israel eventually withdrew from the Sinai and Gaza, the conflict further exacerbated regional tensions.

In 1967 Egypt, Syria, and Jordan massed their armies on Israel’s borders, and several Arab states called for war. Egypt demanded the withdrawal of UN observers from the Sinai Peninsula. Assuming the Arabs would attack, Israel struck first, in June 1967, and caught the Arabs by surprise. In the Six-Day War that followed, Israel demolished the armies and air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. It also gained control of the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights region of south-western Syria, and all of Jerusalem. A second wave of Palestinian refugees fled the fighting, worsening the problem created by the first exodus in 1948.

The Arab states continued to call for the destruction of Israel, while Israel for its part, refused to consider withdrawing from the territories it had occupied except in the context of a comprehensive peace plan. The Arabs increasingly threw their support behind the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a political body that had been formed in 1964 to create a Palestinian state. Using terrorism, the PLO attacked Israel from their bases in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria; attacks by Palestinian Arabs came from within the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well. Israel’s position hardened, and little progress toward achieving peace was made in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat reconstructed the Egyptian army in the early 1970s. Syria also prepared for war and received weapons from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Israel, in turn, fortified its forward positions and was supplied with weapons by the United States. The Arabs attacked in October 1973 on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and caught Israel by surprise. Egypt and Syria pushed across the armistice lines established after the Six-Day War, which had kept Egyptian troops west of the Suez Canal and Syrian troops northeast of the Golan Heights. The Arab advances greatly restored Arab confidence. Israel, however, quickly recovered from the surprise and again pushed into Arab territory, surrounding or destroying the bulk of the Egyptian and Syrian forces. Nevertheless, Israel suffered greatly in the three-week war, especially from the injuries, deaths, and massive physical destruction of the war’s first two days. Moreover, Israel’s confidence was shaken, and the euphoria that followed the country’s victory in the Six-Day War was lost. In Israel and among most Western countries, the conflict came to be known as the Yom Kippur War; Arabs call it the October War or Ramadan War.

Following the war, U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger negotiated a series of disengagement agreements with the warring parties. Kissinger’s work (labelled shuttle diplomacy because he flew back and forth between the capitals of the warring countries, which refused to meet with one another) did little to change the pre-war status quo, and the countries were technically still at war. Even so, the agreements did reverse the military build-up and achieved a relatively peaceful, if tense, stalemate.

In the late 1970s Egypt’s military expenses caused it increasing economic hardship and social unrest, prompting Sadat to initiate negotiations with Israel in 1977. Sadat hoped to end the military build-up and regain the Sinai Peninsula. Israelis greeted Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem enthusiastically. United States president Jimmy Carter facilitated the negotiations between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The agreements came to be known as the Camp David Accords after the Maryland retreat where Carter hosted some of the negotiations. Under the peace treaty signed in March 1979, Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula, which was partially demilitarized; foreign observers were placed in the peninsula to maintain the treaty’s provisions; and Israel and Egypt entered into normal diplomatic relations. For its part, Israel achieved peace with what had been its largest enemy at the cost of evacuating Israeli settlers from the Sinai and losing some investment in the area’s infrastructure, such as roads and housing. The Camp David Accords, however, did nothing for Syria and only advanced the Palestinian cause in the vaguest of terms. For these reasons, the Arab League expelled Egypt and the rest of the Arab world widely condemned the accords. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by a group of Islamic fundamentalists within the Egyptian army. Egypt continued to maintain relations with Israel after Sadat’s death.

Following Camp David, Syria maintained its warlike posture and demanded the unconditional surrender of the Golan Heights, and the PLO continued its terrorist assaults on Israel. In 1982 Israel tried to wipe out the PLO by attacking its bases in Lebanon, which had been plunged into its own civil war in 1975. The assault on the PLO, which Israel called Operation Peace for Galilee, quickly escalated into ground battles in Lebanon and full-scale engagements between the Israeli and Syrian air forces. After a siege on Beirut the PLO leadership evacuated from Lebanon and relocated to Tunisia. Arabs were frustrated that Israel had occupied an Arab capital with little intervention from the rest of the world, and the Palestinians of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip felt more isolated and abandoned than ever. Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon by 1985, though it continued to maintain a self-declared security zone inside Lebanon along the Israeli border until 2000.

Excerpt from Encarta.

Post script: Israel is a story and demonstration of what God can do with little people (remember David and Goliath). Israel is one small people doing great things.

IS MY TEAM PLOUGHING?

I woke up some few days back and was wondering about some stuffs I was involved in before I left OAU, then I remembered the words of the poem, Is my team ploughing. Its about the questions asked by a dead man, about the events happening in the world he left behind. It was one of those poems I learnt way back in secondary school, I recommend it to anyone having nostalgic feelings, here is the first stanza:








Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive?
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?

A. E. Housman (1859 - 1936)
British poet and classicist.
A Shropshire Lad, XXVII

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

As I rose from my bed some weeks back all I could feel in me was the words of Mordecai to his Cousin, Esther in the Book of Esther 4 :14 ‘

‘and who knoweth whether thou art come ... for such a time as this?’

As a student of history I know that history does not waste its time on nonentities but rather on people who have made great contributions to the course of this world. History books are full of those kind of people and I will mention a few.
George Washington of the US stands today as an icon not because of his extreme brilliance but because of the courage to stand up to the test of time and move for the independence of his nation. Abraham Lincoln is greatly remembered not for his great speeches but for rising up to the defence of the oneness of his country. These two men realized that they had come at a crucial point in the lives of their nation and they rose up to the demands of such task.
Mary Slessor is remembered in Nigeria, till tomorrow, not because of her beauty (many don’t even know how she looks like) but because she rose to the demand of her time. A very great example that will probably bring home the point I am trying to make is the exemplary work of Prof. Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, the second VC of this University. This name sure rings a bell in the ears of every great Ife student, whether past, present (or even those yet coming) and this is because he stood to the test of his time. I once read a book where it was narrated how the then Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo ‘begged’ this man to come and put things in place in the new university and the story is told, till tomorrow, of how he impressed all; most of the structures of this University was built in his time.
Every time I think about people and achievements, I always refer my mind back to a folktune about one of the great founders of Ibadanland, Lagelu which goes thus:
Eniyan ki l’ose / what will you do
ti omo araye o’royin / that generations (to come) will talk about
Lagelu waye / Lagelu came to this world
o fi ogbon ori re tedo Ibadan/ and established Ibadanland with his intellect.
When we are gone, the stories that will be told about us will be of what impact we made while we were here. Take a good time to think if you have been able to justify your coming ‘at such a time as this’.
’Seun Alade.

A WORD FOR THE CRITICS

1. If you throw mud you lose ground and stain your hands.
2. Any fool can be a critic and most are.

WELCOME

This is just another avenue for me to reach out to the world and to you my friends.