Is Silence Golden?

 Silence  as  a  word  etymologically  is  derived  from  the  Middle  English:  from  Old  French,  from Latin  silentium,  from  silere  ‘be  silent’.

  Oxford  Advanced  Learners  Dictionary  8th  Edition  defines the  word  in  four  ways:   1.  A complete  lack  of  sound/noise 2.  A situation  where  nobody  is  speaking 3.  A  situation  in  which  somebody  refuses  to  talk  about  something  or  to  answer  questions and   4.  A situation  in  which  people  do  not  communicate  with  each  other  by  letter  or  phone.

From  the  2nd  to  the  4th  definitions  captures  the  line  of  thought  of  this  article.  When  one  is  in  these states, can it be seen as golden?

Zora  Neale  Hurston,  a  U.S.  writer  and  folklorist,  submission  that  ‘There  is  no  agony  like bearing  an  untold  story  inside  you’  sees  no  golden  moment  in  keeping  quiet  in  situations  one needs  to  speak  out.

Silence  here  breeds  agony  to  the  mind  and  wreaks  havoc  to  the  soul.  This  is because one’s opinion is not aired as at when it should.

This  bottleneck  might  result  to  unwise  and  violent  eruptions  that  might  come  when  one  who  is enduring  in  the  agony  of  silence  could  no  longer  carry  the  burden.  This  situation  is  captured  in the  Igbo  proverb  which  states:  Edikata  ihe  obi  agbawasia  (A  continuous  endurance  breaks  the heart).

Even  in  the  fictional  world  of  Purple  Hibiscus  by  Adichie,  the  silence  of  Mama,  Jaja  and Kambili  to  the  atrocities  perpetrated  Eugene  Achike  leads  to  Eugene  being  poisoned  by  his  wife, Mama,  when  she  could  no  longer  bear  his  high  handedness.  His  death  is  seen  by  the  family  as  a relief rather than a loss! So bad, I think?

Even  in  marriages,  I  have  heard  people  say  that  one  of  the  key  factors  to  divorce  is  silence  of  one of  the  spouses.  The  talking  spouse  takes  to  liberty  that  his  or  her  spouse  is  the  most  quiet  and understanding  one  as  he  or  she  accepts  and  bears  his/her  nuisances  without  raising  an  eyebrow. But  one  day,  the  accumulated  unexpressed  anger  will  erupt  and  there  won’t  be  any  going  back. Be  wary  of  silence!

 Speak  out  your  mind  when  necessary  as  Wole  Soyinka  puts  it:  ‘The  man  dies  in  all  who  keep silent in the face of tyranny.’ Are you dead or alive or dead living?

Good morning and have a Nice Day!

Is Silence Golden?

 Silence  as  a  word  etymologically  is  derived  from  the  Middle  English:  from  Old  French,  from Latin  silentium,  from  silere  ‘be  silent’.

  Oxford  Advanced  Learners  Dictionary  8th  Edition  defines the  word  in  four  ways:   1.  A complete  lack  of  sound/noise 2.  A situation  where  nobody  is  speaking 3.  A  situation  in  which  somebody  refuses  to  talk  about  something  or  to  answer  questions and   4.  A situation  in  which  people  do  not  communicate  with  each  other  by  letter  or  phone.

From  the  2nd  to  the  4th  definitions  captures  the  line  of  thought  of  this  article.  When  one  is  in  these states, can it be seen as golden?

Zora  Neale  Hurston,  a  U.S.  writer  and  folklorist,  submission  that  ‘There  is  no  agony  like bearing  an  untold  story  inside  you’  sees  no  golden  moment  in  keeping  quiet  in  situations  one needs  to  speak  out.

Silence  here  breeds  agony  to  the  mind  and  wreaks  havoc  to  the  soul.  This  is because one’s opinion is not aired as at when it should.

This  bottleneck  might  result  to  unwise  and  violent  eruptions  that  might  come  when  one  who  is enduring  in  the  agony  of  silence  could  no  longer  carry  the  burden.  This  situation  is  captured  in the  Igbo  proverb  which  states:  Edikata  ihe  obi  agbawasia  (A  continuous  endurance  breaks  the heart).

Even  in  the  fictional  world  of  Purple  Hibiscus  by  Adichie,  the  silence  of  Mama,  Jaja  and Kambili  to  the  atrocities  perpetrated  Eugene  Achike  leads  to  Eugene  being  poisoned  by  his  wife, Mama,  when  she  could  no  longer  bear  his  high  handedness.  His  death  is  seen  by  the  family  as  a relief rather than a loss! So bad, I think?

Even  in  marriages,  I  have  heard  people  say  that  one  of  the  key  factors  to  divorce  is  silence  of  one of  the  spouses.  The  talking  spouse  takes  to  liberty  that  his  or  her  spouse  is  the  most  quiet  and understanding  one  as  he  or  she  accepts  and  bears  his/her  nuisances  without  raising  an  eyebrow. But  one  day,  the  accumulated  unexpressed  anger  will  erupt  and  there  won’t  be  any  going  back. Be  wary  of  silence!

 Speak  out  your  mind  when  necessary  as  Wole  Soyinka  puts  it:  ‘The  man  dies  in  all  who  keep silent in the face of tyranny.’ Are you dead or alive or dead living?

Good morning and have a Nice Day!

DIVERSIFICATION OF THE ECONOMY: THE ONLY WAY TO BY-PASS SOUTH AFRICA AGAIN.

It is no longer news that South Africa has bypassed Nigeria as the biggest economy in Africa; this was as a result of the appreciation of the Rand, South Africa’s currency and the concomitant depreciation of naira over US dollar orchestrated by the reduction of the oil price. You may recall that two years ago during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria overtook South Africa as the biggest economy in Africa after the rebasing of the nation’s economy.

Nigeria is currently a mono-economy and no country maintains economic stability in such situation, hence the current administration must go beyond the usual government rhetoric’s and revamp the nation’s economy so that the people can experience economic development. To diversify the economy, government should look into the following areas:

First, the country should be divided into economic zones, not just political zones as we currently see. We can return to the old good days when the Northern region was known for groundnut pyramids, Palm oil in the East and rubber in the West. Every region or zone should be identified with one thing. Meanwhile this is how it is in the United States where each of the State is known with a particular thing. The US has the largest oil reserve in the whole world but nobody remembers that the country has oil because they are involved in so many other economic activities.

Secondly, Nigeria has a large population with good soil which should be of a great advantage to her economy, thus the agricultural sector, is a very important area in which the nation can utilize to dominate the African markets. Agriculture has moved from ‘cutlass and hoe’.  We are talking about mechanized agriculture. The government seems to forget that we have left the 21st century; we are in the times where some countries like China can cultivate, harvest and produce rice within a week.

Education is also another important aspect of our economy that we tend to negate owing to the fact that we have not domesticated it. How can someone be the Minister of Education and every year we lose billions of dollars to other nations, in the name of quality education, why can’t we develop our educational system, so much so that other countries will send their children and wards to our own schools? The government can start by developing one school, let say the University of Abuja and turn it into something like Oxford, Yale or Cambridge.

The Health sector is another area we are wasting a whole lot of resources, in what is usually referred to as health tourism. The number of Nigerians who travel with the money they made here to other parts of the world to get medical attention is alarming; paradoxically most of these Nigerian patients are treated by Nigerian doctors resident in those countries. We can develop the health sector so much so that our President will have no reason to travel for an ear disease or some sorts.

Finally, I think the Minister of Finance should either resign or be sacked because she has shown that she is incompetent in handling the economy. We do not need experts to tell us that we are in the middle of heavy economic recession and there are no policies coming from that office as to what to do. This is beyond party affiliation even if it means getting someone from PDP to fix this economy; we have to because Nigerians are suffering.

Uwakwe Roland