OPEN SESAME

There is an Arabian night’s tale of a poor merchant who discovered a grotto full of treasures belonging to some thieves by uttering a magic password “open sesame”. The tale is that of Ali Baba and the forty thieves.

There is a seemingly ordinary guy you see on your street and maybe at work scraping through a mundane existence but you would never have guessed the kind of adventures he has had.

You would be amazed that the brother had, battled dragons and goblins, shared the round table with King Arthur, wondered at the grace of Guinevere, been amazed at the beauty of Helen of Troy, cast spells with Gandalf, fought in the trenches of world war 1, seen the onslaught of the Nazi machine being halted in Stalingrad, frolicked with elves and fairy’s, been part of the Californian gold rush, rubbed shoulders with Donald Trump, hobnobbed with Einstein, deliberated with John Maxwell, had lunch with Joel Osteen, has been part of a Pharaoh’s daily itinerary, witnessed the six day war, shed tears as Romeo died for Juliet, donned a Spartan war suit and fought against the Athenians, handled submachine guns alongside rebels, ridden on horses, galloped on camels, traversed deserts, trekked the arctic, hiked in the Amazon, seen a Samurai commit seppuku, fenced with Templers, been involved in the battles of angels and demons and parried the thrust of musketeers.

His transport medium is made of papyrus; he enters new worlds through portals of ink. He has a fever from the bug of bibliophilism. He is a bookworm, a reader. For him turning the pages of a good tome is like Ali Baba saying open sesame and unlocking a cache of treasures beyond his imagination (King David attested to this in one of his timeless poems by saying reading the words of the bestselling Author of life makes him as deliriously euphoric as one who happened upon invaluable jewels).

Our world would never have been complete without books. They are one of the few things that will transcend earth. Books are eternal, even the heavens have a library. They are one of the best gifts God gave to man.

God presents himself to us in the Book. St Luke the physician tells us that before Jesus began his ministry, he read a biography about himself by the prophet Isaiah. Joshua was advised to meditate and obey a legal volume because it was the manual for prosperity and success. Timothy was told that to obtain God’s approval he had to study. I dare say that part of Paul’s missionary accomplishments can be attributed to books because even when he was staring death in the eye in a Roman prison, one of the last things he asked for was his parchments.

Books are powerful; Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” was a huge factor in the turning of a nation into genocidal Nazi’s. Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” made him a target for assassination. Harriet Beecham Stowe’s “Uncle Tom Cabins” is purported to have been part of the initiator of the American Civil war. Adam Smith’s “Wealth of nations” changed world economics forever. Darwin’s “Origin of species” still makes some people believe that human beings are the progeny of apes. Karl Max’s “Das Kapital” spearheaded world communism. Josiah’s men found a book during the renovation of Solomon’s temple and it sparked off a spiritual revolution in morally bankrupt and decadent Israel. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A BOOK!!!

The value of a good book is priceless; it enlarges your mental capacity and makes your mind as agile as Spiderman. It is actually inexplicable but a change akin to Bruce Banner becoming an intelligent Hulk from gamma irradiation or Reed Richards becoming Mr. Fantastic after being subjected to cosmic rays happens to one after the perusal of a really nice book. For example after reading “From third world to first world, the Singapore story” by Lee Kuan Yew, something stretched within me. That is the wonder of a good book, whether it be fiction or true life like Chimamanda’s “Half of a yellow sun” or a business book like Jim Collins “Good to Great”. A great read can change your life in more ways than one. Martin Luther started the protestant movement when he came across the verse “the just shall live by faith” in the Book.

Are you seeking for some heady experience, a tour of exhilaration or you are on a quest for knowledge? Go out of your way and pick up a good book today, opening its pages might just be like saying open sesame. You might discover things you never bargained for.

I posed a question to Seun Akinsanmi, the photographer I talked about in my post “The Kiss” about how he was able to discover treasures in the depths of photography that his predecessors never found. I will never forget his answer, he paused for a minute and said in a contemplative voice “BOOKS, BOOKS ARE THE SHORTEST ROUTE!!!” I wasn’t surprised though; you should try and check out his library someday, the riches in the cave of the forty thieves has nothing on it!

LESSONS FROM MOLLUSCS COUNTRY

Tyre was an ancient prosperous island with wide spread and far reaching influence in its day. It was a world power in international trade and a force to be reckoned with in the world of enterprise that is until it got too big for its breeches and incurred the wrath of God, Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great. Sadly enough it subsequently fell (but its fall is not what this post is about).

The Murex is a water snail found in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, whose glands produced purple dye. This slug was a prominent factor in the prosperity of Tyre.

The people of this island country learnt how to extract the mollusc’s dye to make robes for royalty and nobility all over the world. Through this business the nation enlarged its reserves and grew like a fat squid whose tentacles reached into the heart of the world. Tyre used a snail’s gut to multiply and diversify itself into greatness. It ultimately became the hub of commerce and the merchant centre of the globe.

The people of Tyre were illustrious and industrious. They were financially savvy and canny. So much gumption was also in their creativity mix, that even God had to refer to their wisdom in the prophetic book of Ezekiel.

Besides the purple dye, they had a great forest (I bet you must have heard of the Cedars of Lebanon). It was from this lumber industry that the monumental temple of Solomon was built, earning them great foreign exchange from about the most stable economy in the world then. The citizens of Tyre used what they had to get what they wanted. They became an economic power to be reckoned with through their innate smartness.

Nigeria is blessed with more man power and resources than this small but big nation, but we are still trying to get our act together. We don’t even know how to make the most of what we have yet. Some years ago, Malaysia got some palm seedlings from us and now they are one of the world’s greatest producers of palm products. This is heartbreaking sad.

But enough said about Nigeria, what about you and I ? Its takes insight and innovation to make the most of the seemingly ordinary things around us ( there is no big deal about creating a radio station in a local language, but the crew of WAZOBIA FM have been so great that they absolutely thrill me no end. Believe me, the kind of gold being deposited into their coffers in ship loads is amazing). James.W.Henry the owner of Liverpool football club and the Boston Red Sox spent about a 100 million pounds to purchase footballers this season. The man made his billions trading futures in Soya beans. Yeah, as ridiculous as it might sound, Soya beans.


Inherent in the red ocean of our lives are gifts that might be as ordinary and as unglamorous as the mucus of a slug. If we could process and refine them to the point where they appeal to the noble and royal streak in every man, then we can trade them for the best things in life, the ivory of wealth, the gold of substance, the wine of merriment, the silk of comfort, the timber of stature, the pearl of value, the jewels of distinction and so on. Until our gifts are processed, they remain of little worth like the glands in the murex, (the peanut butter is more expensive than ordinary peanuts).
　
There is a dye that sticks fast to the destiny of everyman, a colour that separates you from the other man but for this hue to be as valuable as a Tyrian purple robe, we need to put in a lot of hard work. The extraction of the murex’s mucus was cost and labour intensive. Extract your potential, whatever the cost! The journey might be slower than a groggy invertebrate slowpoke's but you just keep at it. It is a matter of time!

The citizens of Tyre, knew that irrespective of how much stuff they were blessed with, they could not become much unless they went international. This galvanized them into becoming one of the greatest seafarers of all time. They ensured their goods got to the length and breadth of the world. The lesson is that in order for us to become great, the gifts God has blessed us with need to become world class! Good enough to be consumed by all and sundry. The reason why we would rather patronize goods from Europe, Asia and the US, than our own locally made products is because they are found wanting a lot of the time.

Another essential feature of this remarkable Island is that they had natural ports which was open to the world. They employed the use of specialists from different parts of the world in their economy. Being open to knowledge is one sure way of becoming successful. The need to subject ourselves to the expertise of experts and specialists can never be overemphasized.

If the slimy saliva of a snail could turn a small island into a great seafaring nation, then the beautiful things God has deposited in you can bless nations.

The question is, WHAT IS THE MUREX IN YOUR BLOOD STREAM? Take note of it amigo, the answer to this eternal query is what will take you far and beyond your ports into the international waters of life’s trade.
　
　
　

ALTARS OF MEDIOCRITY

Moloch, Baal and Tlaloc were some of the evil gods that ancient civilizations sacrificed their children to. The promise of a bright future for those progeny was destroyed due to ignorance and the consequence was that most of these races were wiped out by more enlightened people.

Watching a good movie takes you through a spectrum of feelings; it is usually an evocative experience that may never leave you except if it is a Nigerian home video that is. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I would have to say that some of the worst acting you would ever see is usually displayed in Nigerian flicks (I had said in one of my earlier posts that there should be a caution sign on the screen aside from the usual ratings). Some of their thespians should be jailed and not celebrated (compared to them Muppets should receive Oscars), most plots are shallower than a thimble and a huge number of the directors cannot direct themselves to the rest room in their homes. I dare say subjecting oneself to these videos would ultimately turn your brain to mush. They leave the mind addled. Of course, there are a few good ones like Jenifa, which substantiates my claim that most of the ones that catch your attention are those made in our traditional languages. The best cosmopolitan production I have seen in this country recently is Tinsel and you can see it is painstakingly made with attention to detail.

I grew up knowing some Nigeria programmes, like “Cock crow at dawn”, “The Village Headmaster”, “Checkmate”, “Mind-bending”, “Second Chance”, ‘Things fall apart”, and some others. They were world class in their sublimity.  Even the groundbreaking home video “Living in bondage” was very good. With the improvement of technology, one would think that we should have gotten better; unfortunately this has not been the case.  The whole thing got me thinking and I realized that the difference between then and now is profit and commercialization. Back in the day, there was a touch of excellence because directors like, “Tade Ogidan”, “Amaka Igwe”, “Lola, Fani-Kayode (these folks were masters of their craft) were more interested in the beauty of their work than in making money from their creations. A true creator is always concerned about the product his name is attached to. One of King Solomon’s timeless proverbs says that a good name is better than silver or gold. The man would know, his works of excellence gave his name fame and made the Queen of Sheba come looking for him with all the gold in the world. After creating the Titanic, James Cameron wanted to make Avatar but he felt the technology he needed to produce the movie was not yet available so he held on for more than a decade. If he had produced it immediately, he most likely would have still made a lot of money from it, at least riding on the waves of his previous success.  But this producer cum director was more about exceptionality than profitability. Avatar turned out excellent. In contrast to this, Nollywood churns out movies in days. That is why you would find someone currently wearing the same hairdo and clothes, he or she wore five years ago in some of their productions.

The argument might be that the blame should be laid at the feet of the Nigerian Public and not Nollywood since they consume the shabby works voraciously. But works of excellence is first about the manufacturer, then the consumer. Another argument might be that Hollywood is far older than Nollywood but like we have already established the movies made in the past are better than the current ones and anyone making that argument should check out some of the movies made fifty years ago in Hollywood. “Dr Who” is more than thirty years old but it still has a cult following today.

The challenge with the Nigerian movie industry is greed but this is not limited to Nollywood alone, the problem is like cancer cells spreading into the vital organs of this nation. Most Nigerians worship money and would sacrifice their tomorrow on its altar of mediocrity like an Aztec offering a child to Tlaloc to summon rain (in this case, naira rain). For a fledgling business, this is a recipe of disaster. An average Nigerian would have seen many enterprises start up and shrivel off over time. Mediocrity is high up on the list of discouraging factors in our part of the world that cause the demise of businesses. In the bid of hitting the big times faster than speed racer hits the finishing line, we take up jobs we cannot do and even if we can do the job, we take on more than we can handle and spend little time on them. At the end of it all, the production turns out to be a disaster and the disgruntled customer walks out the door taking future business elsewhere.

Our artisans are some of the worst in the world because immediately they get the cash advance from you, they do not care about the job anymore and even when they come through, it is usually with the stuff nightmares are made of. This bars the customer from coming back to them. Their mediocrity swallows up their future.

The greedy jaws of the altars of mediocrity keep wolfing down the promise of what would have been and for the culprit, life becomes like dew drops on a rose petal that gets sucked up by rays of harsh sunshine, ephemeral at best.

Steady plodding on the path of excellence eventually leads to wealth while hasty slip-shod work ends in penury.

Don’t rush, give that manuscript another look over, try another scene with the movie, another brush stroke with additional colour might be all your painting needs, give the dress another trim, do something new with that cake, polish that punch line, it might take time but it will be worth it. Believe me!

Excellence is what will make our name and our creations outlive us. C.S Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill, Michelangelo, Versace, Heath Ledger (he was exceptional in the dark knight, absolutely top notch) are some of the people that give much credence to this.

God did such quality job with the earth that despite man’s habit of wrecking things with war, nuclear inventions, and flagrant bush burning, e.t.c the earth is still so beautiful after aeons (check out the setting sun drowning in a deep blue sea sometime). It is not a surprise though since it was recorded that after God had made the world, he looked at it and saw that it was EXCELLENT in every way (LB)! YOU CAN NEVER BEAT CLASS!!!