That 'ZAIN MY BUSINESS' advert

Advertisements for product and services no doubt a lot of the time play quite a big role in getting people to decide whether to go for the services and or products advertised.

A lot of time, the adverts may be more attractive and attention-grabbing than the actual product and service really on display. At other times, one may see a less than inspiring advert for a product that is really quite good. In Nigeria particularly among the GSM (global system for mobile communication) providers, I have always felt that MTN has the best adverts. I must in fact admit that there was a time when I was so irked by the difference (or rather disparity) between their adverts and their image that having just seen one of their really nice adverts, I couldn't help but exclaim something to the effect that the only thing they are known for is their quite good adverts!

The other telephone networks have over the time managed to get by with adverts that have in my opinion, not particularly been inspiring. Some of these adverts have been at best, just there while a few have barely managed to score average marks.

Zain has however been airing one advert for Zain my business on the radio in recent times. I find the advert a bit annoying and I think Zain should change the agency in charge of their account and or the people who approve adverts in their company.

The 'Zain my business' went roughly as follows:

A guy runs panting to his boss and says "boss, we can seal that deal now if we can get all the other people to agree"
BOSS: I'll cal everybody
GUY: How're you going to get XYZ in Abuja?
BOSS: (sighs heavily) that's true, I'll call him
GUY: And all the others?
BOSS: (another quite heavy sigh) yeess, I'll call everybody one after the other (this said as if weighed down by the enormity of the work ahead of him)
GUY: But that's a lot of airtime boss
BOSS: (bursts into laughter) don't worry, I use zain my business!

I am not sure what message the authors or creators of the adverts thought they were trying to pass across by the mannerism affected by the people in the advert but I sure thought there was a subtle attempt at insulting the listeners to the advert inherent in that advert. The insult is implicit in the guy's question to his boss "How are u going to get XYZ in Abuja?" To hear that question you would think we were back in those days when calls had to be routed from one quaint place to another. What in fact play on my mind every single time I hear that advert is that the call to Abuja will be routed through the Nigerian roads from one state to another until it gets to Abuja and since our roads are in a really sorry state, having to call someone in Abuja really should be a cause for concern! This is because not only will it take days before the call goes through, it might also suffer accidents and police extortion on the way! Now who wouldn't worry and sigh heavily at the thought of having to go through all that in an attempt to get some people to give a quick assent to a deal they've been praying and probably fasting for!

I got the same impression when the boss said he'll call all the others one after the other in a tone of voice that falls just short of mournful. The boss only stupidly (in my view) burst into laughter when the subordinate expressed the concern at the cost implications of calling all those people. One would have thought the boss would have from the beginning showed an eagerness to make the calls since he knew all along that he had zain my business which was supposed to make calls really cheap and affordable instead of affecting the heavy and mournful tone until the very last moment.

Well, just goes to show, we can't get it right all the time!



GUY: How are

SUCCESS VERSUS HAPPINESS

I was watching one of the too many reality shows (Holly's World)that are on TV these days a few days ago and a guy on his way to what at that time was to him, sure success (read fame)thought out loud whether he would prefer success to happiness. To him, happiness was hanging out with his friends and having a generally good time with people he was comfortable with. Success on the other hand, was leaving the place where he had all his friends and going to earn a living and achieve fame in a place he could hardly understand.

At first, I was startled by the question he asked himself about whether it was happiness he wanted or success. My first reaction was of course to exclaim "but they are not mutually exclusive!" And of course, I believe with all my heart that happiness and success are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, I have only ever had one ambition in life. It is not to be a lawyer or to be rich beyond my wildest dreams or to be famous. No, it is a very simple ambition. And yet in my opinion, it encompasses so many other things that people ask for individually. What is this ambition? It is simply, as you might have guessed, to be happy.

My own definition of happiness, unlike the young man's in that reality TV show includes success; not just in my work, but also in my personal life. It includes the happiness or fulfillment of members of my family, immediate and extended, it includes the happiness of my friends and the success of my country.

I have not checked the definition of happiness in the dictionary, but I know I really do not need to, to arrive at my definition. And my definition has to be so wide because it really will be a difficult thing for me to say I have everything I want when the people around me either lack so many things, or have to constantly run to me to give them this or that due to probably the biting economic hardship in the country.

While for me happiness and success might not be mutually exclusive, I wonder, whether particularly the celebrities and a lot of the public figures we see both in Nigeria and abroad, do not make a conscious decision to pick one and sacrifice the other. More than once, I have had to ask myself why people who are so creative that they literally bring a lot of joy into the lives of others do not themselves get any happiness from their works.

Michael Jackson was by all and any standard imaginable, a very successful musician, indeed, he was a legend. Was he happy? That is a question I believe can only be truthfully answered in the negative. Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, all have achieved a great deal of success in their chosen career. But can it be said that they truly have happiness? Well...I very much doubt that.

And yet, I am positive that success and fame are not mutually exclusive. whether a person has just one or both really depends on what the person truly desires. And a person can be successful, famous and still be happy. Such a person will only have to work at it...

Guilty!

Once again, I have found myself criminally negligent of this blog. I have both good reasons and no reason at all for my negligent behaviour. I have actually been swamped with work, but I know if I had really been determined to put something up, I would have. In the meantime, a lot of things have happened; the good, the not so good and the downright bad.

In the time in which I have neglected to post on this blog, 33 Chilean miners had been trapped thousands of feet below ground and been, happily rescued, Nigeria had its 50th anniversary as an independent country amidst bomb blasts which claimed some lives and the president made a mess of the situation by jumping to absolve the group that claimed responsibility of any blame in the matter. The president by so doing jeopardised the investigation into who was responsible for the bomb blasts.

I discovered the enjoyment of watching the X-Factor (yeah, I know, I know, it's been on for years and years!). Kayode Fayemi reclaimed his lost mandate in Ekiti State after 3 1/2 years of almost frustrating legal battle!

A lot has actually happened that should have required in depth commentary but I snoozed through them all! I hope to start getting my act together again and to be more up and doing in the days to come.

And did I remember to mention, thanks to Facebook, members of my secondary school were able to get together again after 17 years! I tell you, it was wonderful to see some of these people again and I look forward to the next reunion.

Signing out now, hope to post again real soon!

Guilty!

Once again, I have found myself criminally negligent of this blog. I have both good reasons and no reason at all for my negligent behaviour. I have actually been swamped with work, but I know if I had really been determined to put something up, I would have. In the meantime, a lot of things have happened; the good, the not so good and the downright bad.

In the time in which I have neglected to post on this blog, 33 Chilean miners had been trapped thousands of feet below ground and been, happily rescued, Nigeria had its 50th anniversary as an independent country amidst bomb blasts which claimed some lives and the president made a mess of the situation by jumping to absolve the group that claimed responsibility of any blame in the matter. The president by so doing jeopardised the investigation into who was responsible for the bomb blasts.

I discovered the enjoyment of watching the X-Factor (yeah, I know, I know, it's been on for years and years!). Kayode Fayemi reclaimed his lost mandate in Ekiti State after 3 1/2 years of almost frustrating legal battle!

A lot has actually happened that should have required in depth commentary but I snoozed through them all! I hope to start getting my act together again and to be more up and doing in the days to come.

And did I remember to mention, thanks to Facebook, members of my secondary school were able to get together again after 17 years! I tell you, it was wonderful to see some of these people again and I look forward to the next reunion.

Signing out now, hope to post again real soon!

TOO HUMAN TO SUBMIT

HE created everything
I know HE sees all things
All HE asks of me is that I submit totally,
so HE can give me all that I desire to live happily
But oh no, I am sure He asks too much of me,
How on earth should I be expected to just leave things be
When I can contribute to my own paintings?
Oh no, I’ve got to help myself I can’t just do nothing!
I know, I know, I am expected to surrender
While HE takes charge and make my life a wonder
Being me, I couldn’t help but fight HIM every step of the way
Wondering how HE could be so slow and expect me to wait
HE has fought my battles I realise, with the benefit of hindsight
I know HE has foresight, hindsight and all sights
I just wish HE would not expect so much of me!
Expecting me to submit totally is such a heavy burden!

ÓAdenike Abimbola Oyalowo
10082010

OWHIESKY

I heard a joke today on my way to court and I feel it will be criminal for me not to share it with y'all. The joke was about a girl who was meeting her boyfriend's family for the first time. The girl was nervous, not sure exactly how to behave in front of her potential parents-in-law. To make matters worse for this girl, she started having the kind of discomfort can sometimes be brought on by eating too rich food that sometimes do not agree with the system. And so it was that the girl (Jane) let out (inadvertently), a faint sounding fart. The boyfriend's father after the fart looked towards their dog under the dining table and shouted "Owhiesky". Jane heard this and smiled in relief and so when nature came calling the second time, she did not bother to muffle the sound and the boyfriend's father again looked towards the dog and shouted "Owhiesky". Jane again did not bother to hide or muffle the sound of yet a third fart when it beckoned, and this time, the boyfriend's father shouted 'OWHIESKY, WILL YOU GET AWAY FROM THERE BEFORE THAT GIRL MISTAKENLY DEFECATES ON YOU?'

I couldn't resist bursting into loud laughter when I heard that joke this morning, and it reminded me of a quote by Robert Bloch which goes:

A man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone else to blame.
Surely, Jane would not have comfortably continue letting out fart after farts if she did not think the poor innocent girl nestling under feet was a convenient fall guy, well, fall dog if you like.

Those Little Things!

Someone shared a link on Facebook yesterday. The link was about a man who had made up his mind to divorce his wife but who accepted his wife's conditions that he put the divorce on hold for a month for the sake of their son who was to write his exams at about then and also that the husband carry her out of the house the way he had when they newly got married. The husband accepted the conditions thinking nothing would change his mind as he had found love in the arms of another woman. To his surprise however, carrying his wife of ten years out every morning for the 30 days made him to start paying attention to those things that he had long closed his mind to, and he discovered that he loved his wife still. Though he resolved that he would not go ahead with the divorce, his wife eventually died of some sort of cancer just at the end of the 30 days period.

My focus here is not on the death of the wife and the guilt the husband would have felt had he not resolved not to go ahead with the divorce, rather, it is on the fact that the time in close proximity that the couple had to spend together made the man realise that the love he thought was gone from his marriage was still very much alive. Reading that story, I could not help but be amazed at how seemingly little things could destroy major things in our lives. A lot of us for instance, tend to take our partners for granted once we feel that our feet are now firmly grounded in the relationship/marriage, we expect our partners to understand when we fail or neglect to create chance to spend real quality time together. Of course we always have 'valid' excuses why we can't find that time to spend together; the men have to work very hard to make the money for the family to live a good life, the woman also probably has to be more up and doing in order not to be part of the load that her office will shed in this time of economic difficulty and on and on the excuses can pile.

The major suspects in marriage/relationship break-ups usually include lack of trust on the part of one or both of the partners,actual (and sometimes imagined) infidelity, lack of communication etc. However, little things that we do not often suspect also wreak havoc on marriages and relationships and cause sometimes lasting damage to a relationship that has taken years to form. Like the man in the story, we may need to ask ourselves when we last took a really good look at our partner. The man in the story had not really looked at his wife in a long time and that was why he never noticed that she was suffering from cancer and was in fact dying. We may also need to remind ourselves of the original qualities that attracted us to each other and whether those qualities are still there, hibernating or can be rekindled.

About two years ago, a lady came to me that she wanted a divorce from her husband and she wanted the paper filed before November 11 of that year. I was of course puzzled by the mention of that specific date and inquired why that date. She replied that the day was supposed to be her third wedding anniversary! Now, November eleven happens to be my birth date and I frown seriously at anything untoward happening on that day. And so I decided to become an emergency counselor, preaching and pleading that she hold on and see whether things could not be salvaged. Fortunately for me (and of course she and her husband), other people also intervened and she and her husband decided to have another try at making things work. And guess what, things started to work! Now she has had another baby and she could not contain her excitement when she was telling me about it on phone. I was also very happy for both of them and thankful that they both decided to make things work again. I often wonder how many marriages could be saved by the couples trying just that much harder to see things work? When was the last time we reminded our partners of how much we value their presence in our lives?

Don Marshall once said Love is like a muscle, it needs constant exercise or else it loses its strength. How many of us still exercise our muscle so that it responds to us every single time we need it to? With the spate of divorce and break-ups and separations all around, you'll be surprised at how amazingly few the number will be. I was shocked when I read the recent report of Al and Tipper Gore's break up of their 30 year-old marriage. After staying together for 30 whole years, I wondered what really could have gone wrong.

Well, it should not be too surprising if it just happens to be those seemingly little things that are often overlooked and yet contribute in making marriages and relationships so much more pleasant and enjoyable.