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Showing posts from September, 2018

Sunday Morning Encounter: Discussions on Religion with a Port Harcourt Taxi Driver

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I get out of the house, ready to hit the road for church, and sight my neighbour driving out. I greet her and she duly responds. She knows I'm heading for church but maybe thinks it's my home church just at the junction of our street I'm attending, so she doesn't bother asking which way I'm heading. But all the while I don't think of it this way. I just thought she wasn't interested in giving me a lift.  So I keep walking towards the junction, even as I watch her turn in the direction I was heading. I was a little sad, knowing fully well that school was not in session and it was a Sunday morning, so taxis will be hard to come by. But as God will have it, when I get to the junction, a taxi-looking car drives by. I don't wave it down 'cause the driver is dressed corporately, a white long sleeved shirt and a black tie. He drives past me and stops some distance away, signalling me to know if I was going. I shout "yes" and run to him. ...

World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD)

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World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is marked yearly on September 10. The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and WHO are organisations associated with the day. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness around the globe that suicide can be prevented. One would've thought suicide is not an issue with African nations and Nigeria, but recent happenings prove that this is not so. Only on Wednesday, a final year student of Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education in Bayelsa State committed suicide after losing his lover to another man. He reportedly drank a bottle of liquid insecticide, which eventually killed him. His friend while speaking on the incident said he was shocked because he spoke with him and even shook hands with him some days before it happened. So one may wonder why this happened if he wasn't withdrawn, which is one of the red-lights a depressed person gives? So, here are some things to consider: Take a Minute Taking a minute to reac...