The Treasure Around You

Have you ever listen to the little things that happens around you? Have ever sense a beautiful voice singing around you? Have you ever awaken to the beautiful things that happens around you everyday?

Have you ever imagine why people feel different when they travel out of their places?  Have you ever noticed what you hear when you're out of your place?

Traveling out of your place to feel different is not the best way to experience aliveness.

Sure,  I like traveling but I discovered recently that what got most people excited about visiting a new place is not only because of the beautiful things there but because of little things that is present in their own place too (which they're not taking notes of).

Most people are always aware of the world around them when they are out of their country especially when they're in unfamiliar environment.

They sense the present and feel every single thing that is happening around them because at those times they sense perception and they become more conscious of their surroundings.They tends to be conscious than thinking about what's happening around them.

And this is why the insignificant things become significant to us. As we give undivided attention to listening and feeling every little sounds that we heard.

When last did you listen to the kid's conversation, when last did you listen to the beautiful sound of animal at your backyard, when last did you pay attention to the reading of your wall clock .

When you really pay attention to the world around you everything became your teacher.

Live in the present and make it beautiful sense everything that happens around  you and enjoy a new life.

Changing your environment starts with you.

You Probably Didn't Even Realize This Existed In You.

A pain body is a part of our body that always triggered aggression over any situation it rejected.

This pain body acted without Human awareness. It always want to get you up on anyone. Anger, Negative thoughts, and Negative emotions are pleasure to a pain body.

Pain body is very easy to figure out in other people but quite difficult to recognize in ourselves. Having a pain body is never your fault.

When you had a negative thought you're feeding this pain body, because it is feed on your negative thoughts and emotions.

Pain bodies love intimate relationships and family because that's where it gets most of its foods.

In intimate relationship, pain body are clever enough to lie low until you start living together.

So when you finally marry someone, you don't just marry that person but you married his or her pain body as well.

Excessive consumption of alcohol usually awake the pain body particularly in men and some women as well.

You might be surprised to see your wife or your husband acting strangely soonest after you move together. You need to recognize that he's not fully in charge of his pain body.

When you're critize this pain body tends to defend itself.

If you see someone who always gets involved in fighting and arguing it's because his or her pain body is  highly active and he's looking for another pain body to connect with.

The only way to know when you're in this situation and how you can act at your best is when you're awaken to this reality in you, when you recognize you're feeling the way you felt because something in you wants it but "not you".

You have to first accept that this exists in you to figure it out, and keep reminding yourself anytime you want to involve in Fighting, Arguring, Emotional depress, Negative thinking. That you only felt the way you felt because your pain body is activated and tell yourself "this is not my real self".

Then act towards the person you really want to be.

The only way to conquer your pain body is by being aware of it existence in you.

Thanks for reading..

A Beautiful Journey To The Edge Business Series Summit

It’s great to be back home!

Yes, my stay in Lagos was a very beautiful one and I’ve been looking forward to sharing it with you. I was given the honor by SwiftThink Company to present my beautiful idea to a group of panelist.
Do you know what took me to Lagos?
You’ll be surprise to know that it’s an idea about the kitchen waste and leftover food we all waste in our homes every day!
Yes, that’s what qualified me to participate in this year The Edge Series Business Start-ups Challenge o.
The event happened in Ereke House, Alausa Ikeja and it brought together 50 top business ideas across the nation.
Oh! I guess you may be thinking, how can kitchen waste idea be part of top 50? Oh yes! Let me put you a step closer.
Do you know about $750 billion worth of food is wasted in Nigeria annually?
Do you know that kitchen waste can actually be converted into organic fertilizer?
Do you know that chemical fertilizer is causing threat to our health and death to millions of Nigerians daily?
Okay, now you know.  So the idea is, what if we can turn this annual $750 billion worth of wasted food in Nigeria into new jobs, treasures for farmers and happiness for households?
What if we can eliminate the inorganic chemicals in our food that is causing daily threat to our health and death to our loved ones?
Eh en you can’t believe what you just saw abi, email me at abdulrahemadams@gmail.com if you want the details on how to make it happen.
So let me continue pouring you into the event, it was a beautiful morning in Oworoshoki Lagos Water Point, I actually slept on top of water as the house was built on water but I had a great time spending a night there.   
Oh yes! I followed the description sent to me and I didn’t get lost o.
I got to the event venue two hours earlier and I met this calm, warm and handsome man named Victor Okeckukwu from River State who also was there for the event. Something instantly attracted us to one another.
He also works in the development sector and we talked about different kinds of development projects and the need to do more for our nation.
I have not told you that this guy actually knows Google, he told me that Google is organizing free digital training in ten states in Nigeria and Kwara state is one of the states.
That got my eyebrow up and I asked how I can connect with them to make it happen in my community (Afon, Asa LGA, Kwara State). That was how I got their team leader’s number in Kwara.        
In the process of our discussion, one of the facilitators called us in as the event was about to start.
Oh yes! Someone is coming behind us, I looked back to see who was coming and the face looked familiar but I couldn’t place where I met him.
I waited as he was approaching, he also looked confused as he greeted me then I asked where we’ve met but he couldn’t remember until I mentioned my erstwhile school, his eyebrow got up and he shook me firmly and excitedly. We talked about life after school and we walked in to the venue together.     
Inside the hall, other participants have arrived and we were asked to seat down and wait for the panelist. And we were welcomed to the organization. In a few minute the panelist started coming in one after the other.  
Fear eroded my heart as I was told I will be the second person to present my idea before a group of panelist, I breathed in and out heavily several times to allow the fear to get me up instead of pulling me down as I learnt it lately.
In ten minute, I found myself presenting my idea to the panelist, the fear had disappeared and I was excited to see myself using PowerPoint presentation for the first time (LoL).
I talked for ten minute non-stop and answered the questions from the panelist for five minutes.
The panelist did not need to tell me that my presentation was superb because I knew it myself but they still said it was excellent.
And that was how I pack my kaya and waka come kwara o.                   
Thanks for reading….
               

'Happy New Month Great People' Join me to celebrate Saran Kaba Jones

Saran Kaba Jones

“I decided to focus specifically on water because the issue of water really crosses all aspects of development, it affects education, it affects health, it affects gender issues, so for me there was nothing more basic than the issue of water so I decided to make that my cause.” – Saran Kaba Jones

Saran Kaba Jones is a clean water advocate and social entrepreneur from Liberia.

She founded FACE Africa, a nonprofit organization that provides marginalized communities with clean and safe drinking water for thousands of Liberians.

Sara Kaba Jones is not just making Africa proud, but she is enriching the life of people in her country through her foundation.

FACE AFRICA

Saran Kaba Jones

FACE Africa was established and incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) organization in January 2009. In late 2009, the organization won a $10,000 grant from the Davis Project for Peace and completed its first clean water project in partnership with Clean Water for Kids. The project was implemented in Barnesville, Greater Monrovia and involved the installation of a water purification system, known by its trade name as the Skyhydrant, capable of producing up to 20,000 liters of drinking water per day. Approximately 300 people benefited from the project.

Since 2009, FACE Africa has raised over $800,000 for clean water projects in Liberia with support from partners like the Voss Foundation, JP Morgan Chase Community Giving, P&G’s Covergirl, The Global Neighborhood Fund, Chevron and The Coca Cola Company. The organization has implemented over 50 water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects that have benefit more than 25,000 residents.

In January 2013, FACE Africa launched an ambitious new initiative to provide complete water coverage to the entire county of River Cess, one of the most marginalized regions in Liberia, under-served in water and sanitation and least likely to be served through the efforts of government and other agencies. The initiative, known as County-by-County or CbC, intends to build 250 water points over a 3 to 5 year period and will address the county's challenge in meeting the Millennium Development Goal for water. Once completed, CbC will benefit over 60,000 residents, and will ensure that River Cess meets the Liberian Government’s 250 persons per safe waterpoint standard.

In recognition of her commitment to clean water initiatives in Liberia, Saran was appointed International Goodwill Ambassador for the county of River Cess, Liberia in 2012. In her role as Goodwill Ambassador, she is tasked with encouraging and promoting business and philanthropic investments throughout the county.

More recently, FACE Africa was at the forefront of Ebola response efforts in Rivercess County, Liberia, where they conducted social mobilization, prevention and awareness and community engagement programs.

Meet {Angélique Kidjo} Today

Angélique Kidjo was stoned when she was in school and she went home crying  her grandmother was with her mom when she arrived and she hold her after Kidjo explain to her and she replies "Loot at me, talk to me , what do you care about what people think about you? You have to learn one thing in live you cannot love everybody and appropriate everybody and it goes both way if you don't learn that now you gonna always be a fool of somebody live your live to the full as long as you don't hurt anybody and you're happy doing what you do let them talk" This change her life for good. Enjoy the rest of her wonderful story and be inspire....    

Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, known as Angélique Kidjo (born July 14, 1960), is a Beninese-born American Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has included Kidjo in its list of the African continent's 50 most iconic figures. The Guardian has listed her as one of its Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World and Kidjo is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa" by Forbes magazine. The Daily Telegraph in London described her as "The undisputed queen of African music" during the 2012 Olympic Games River of Music Festival In March 2013, NPR, National Public Radio in America, called her "Africa's greatest living diva". Kidjo is listed among the "2014 Most Influential Africans" by New African magazine and Jeune Afrique.^[10][11] Forbes Afrique put Angelique on the cover of their "100 most influential women" issue in 2015.^[12] On June 6, 2013, Kidjo was elected vice-president of the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs (CISAC). She now resides in New York City,^[13] where she is an occasional contributor to the New York Times.^[14][15][16] Angelique has received Honorary Doctorates from Yale University, Berklee College of Music and Middlebury College.^[17][18][19]

Her musical influences include the Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel, and Latin styles; as well as her childhood idols Bella Bellow, James Brown, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Miriam Makeba andCarlos Santana. She has recorded George Gershwin's "Summertime", Ravel's Boléro, Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" and the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", and has collaborated with Dave Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band,Kelly Price, Alicia Keys, Branford Marsalis, Ziggy Marley, Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Carlos Santana, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Josh Groban, Dr John, the Kronos Quartet and Cassandra Wilson. Kidjo's hit songs include "Agolo", "We We", "Adouma", "Wombo Lombo", "Afirika", "Batonga", and her version of "Malaika". Her album Logozo is ranked number 37 in the Greatest Dance Albums of All Time list compiled by the Thump web site.^[20]

Kidjo is fluent in Fon, French, Yorùbá and English, and sings in all four languages; she also has her own personal language, which includes words that serve as song titles such as "Batonga". "Malaika" is a song sung in the Swahililanguage. Kidjo often utilizes Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique and jazz vocalese.

Recently, Angelique added 'Actor' to her long list of accolades as she featured in 2015 Nollywood movie, 'The CEO.'

Angelique is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum of Davos in Switzerland^[21]

 

Kidjo was born in Cotonou, Benin. Her father is from the Fon people of Ouidah and her mother from the Yoruba people. She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Osibisa, and Santana. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother's theatre troupe,^[22] giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance. She started singing in her school band, Les Sphinx, and found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba's "Les Trois Z", which played on national radio. She recorded the album Pretty with the Cameroonian producer Ekambi Brilliant and her brother Oscar. It featured the songs "Ninive", "Gbe Agossi" and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her role models. The success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1983.

ACTIVISM

Angélique Kidjo found The Batonga Foundation a non-profit organization that aims to provide African girls a secondary school and higher education. It was founded in 2007 and is now working in five African nations: Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali, and Sierra Leone.

The foundation is run by a board of directors, the members of which are Angélique Kidjo, her husband Jean Hebrail, Mary Louise Cohen and John R. Phillips.^[3] The organization attempts to achieve its goals through granting scholarships to girls, founding schools, and improving teaching standards. The foundation also provides schools with supplies.^[4] Batonga's current countries of focus are Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali and Sierra Leone.

Kidjo has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. With UNICEF, she has travelled to many countries in Africa. Reports on her visits can be found on the UNICEF site: Benin, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Haiti.

Along with Mary Louise Cohen^[35] and John R. Phillips,^[36] Kidjo founded The Batonga Foundation, which gives girls a secondary school and higher education so that they can take the lead in changing Africa. The foundation is doing this by granting scholarships, building secondary schools, increasing enrollment, improving teaching standards, providing school supplies, supporting mentor programs, exploring alternative education models and advocating for community awareness of the value of education for girls.

She campaigned for Oxfam at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO meeting, for their Fair Trade Campaign and travelled with them in North Kenya and at the border of Darfurand Chad with a group of women leaders in 2007 and participated in the video for the In My Name Campaign with will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas.

She hosted the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in Alexandria, Egypt, on November 26, 2007, and on November 15, 2008, inDar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on November 14, 2009, and in Mauritius on November 20, 2010. She hosted the "Africa Celebrates Democracy Concert" organized by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in Tunis on November 11, 2011, and sang at the Award Ceremony on November 12, 2011, also in Dakar on November 10, 2012, Addis Ababa in November 2013 and Accra in November 2015.

Since March 2009, Kidjo has been campaigning for "Africa for women's rights". This campaign was launched by The International Federation of Human Rights(FIDH).

On September 28, 2009, UNICEF and Pampers launched a campaign to eradicate Tetanus "Give The Gift Of Life" and asked Kidjo to produce the song "You Can Count On Me" to support the campaign. Each download of the song donates a vaccine to a mother or a mother-to-be.

With Jessica Biel and Peter Wentz, Angélique Kidjo was a LiveEarth Ambassador for the 2010 Run For Water events.

Kidjo has recorded a video based on her song "Agolo" and on the images of Yann Arthus-Bertrand for the United Nations SEAL THE DEAL Campaign to prepare for the Copenhagen Climate Change summit.

The Commission of the African Union (AU) announced on July 16, 2010, the appointment of Angélique Kidjo as one of 14 Peace Ambassadors to support the implementation of the 2010 Year of Peace and Security programme.

She appears in the Sudan365: Keep the Promise video to support the peace process in Darfur.

In June 2010, she contributed the song "Leila" to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo’s women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo.

In 2011, Kidjo collaborated with Forró in the Dark and Brazilian Girls on the track "Aquele Abraço" for the Red Hot Organization's most recent charitable album Red Hot + Rio 2. The album is a follow-up to the 1996 Red Hot + Rio. Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues. Kidjo recorded a version of Fela Kuti's "Lady" with Questlove and Tune-Yards for the Red Hot Organization in 2012.

In September 2012, she was featured in a campaign called "30 Songs/30 Days" to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book.^[37]

On February 18, 2013, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Kidjo was the host of a night of celebration for the cultural heritage of Mali. The event included performances by many Malian artists. ^[38]

On May 22, 2014, Kidjo met with First lady Michelle Obama to discuss international girls' education, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House.^[39]

On September 21, 2014, Kidjo was one of the endorsees of the People's Climate March.^[40] She joined the march in New York, along with Mary Robinson, and was interviewed by Amy Goodman for Democracy Now.^[41]

November 2014 saw Kidjo collaborating with many other artists in Band Aid 30, the 30th-anniversary version of the 1980s supergroup.

In 2015 she signed an open letter which the ONE Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively, which will start to set the priorities in development funding before a main UN summit in September 2015 that will establish new development goals for the generation.^[42]

Angelique is a contributor to the Art Of Saving A Life Campaign initiated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.^[43]

On Sept 25th, 2015, she sung Afirika at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in support of the launch of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development along with Shakira after a speech by Pope Francis and before Malala.