TheNewsGuru

Tag: Humanity

  • Imbibe Rotary’s spirit of giving, service to humanity, expert tells Nigerians

    …As Ikoyi Rotary Club Metro inaugurates new President

    A financial expert and Executive Director of Heritage Bank Plc, Mr. Jude Monye has said that the world and indeed Nigeria will be a better place if everyone imbibes the spirit of giving and service to humanity for which Rotary Club is known across the globe.

    Monye gave this charge when he delivered a keynote address entitled: ‘Giving’ at the official installation and fund raising luncheon of Rotarian Laurine Ngozi Ubanozie as the 16th President of the Rotary Club of Ikoyi Metropolitan, which took place in Lagos recently.

    According to him, life will be better for all if everyone not only offers service above self but also subject such acts of giving and service to the four-way test and five avenues of the Rotary Club.

    He described the act of giving to mean ‘Giving or offering service willingly without compulsion and without expectation’, insisting that all should support the good work of the Rotary Club in putting smiles on the faces of people, especially the less privileged by giving to support such humanitarian services of the Club.“No one is useless, who lightens the burden of others”, he said emphatically quoting Charles Dickson.

     

    He also said: “Giving ensures that the human race is sustained, giving does not diminish the art of living rather it promotes social connections. We should therefore give not only in terms of funds but also in service to enhance and sustain the social wellbeing of the human”.

    Monye, who was before now a Chief Risk Officer at Wema Bank Plc, Citibank Nigeria and Bank PHB, now Keystone Bank Plc respectively with over 26 years of experience in the banking industry commended the Club for it humanitarian services especially in the areas of preserving the environment, providing health and educational services, provision of water and sanitation, among several others and therefore urged Nigerians to support the Club in these humanitarian services.

    Meanwhile, the outgoing President of the Club, Rotarian Florence Egbeyemi, in her farewell speech, said that Rotary is accountable and has integrity, insisting that every money donated to the club must be put into judicious use for the good of humanity and must be accounted for.

    The Rotary President disclosed that during her regime under the 2016-2017 year, the club’s activities centred mainly on enhancing youth education as well as health services not only in Lagos but also in Ogun State.

    She listed some of the core projects of the regime to include the donation of beds, bed spread and duvet, among others to the Ikoyi hospital, which had none then as patients were sleeping on the floor.

    The Club also donated over 600 sets of chairs and desks to the Army Secondary School, Obalende while over 500 women were taken through cervical cancer checks and other medical tests during which it was discovered that some of them have advanced stages of Hepatises and HIV/AIDS, who are currently undergoing treatment at the expense of the club.

    It was also gathered that the club donated over 200 units of rain boots and coats to operatives of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority LASTMA, establishment of two interact chapters of the club in two secondary schools located within the Ikoyi-Obalende axis, having won the Presidential Award for the Rotary International, among several other laurels.

    She thanked the other members of the board that worked with her for the team spirit they exhibited, which contributed significantly to the huge success recorded by the club under her leadership.

    The newly inducted president, Rotarian Laurine Ngozi Ubanozie, in her acceptance speech thanked everyone that contributed in one way or the other to make the event successful, pledging that she would build on the successes recorded by her predecessor.

    Rotarian Laurine Ngozi Ubanozie who is a Risk financial expert, currently the Relationship Manager of an international Collateral management Company, ACE GLOBAL DEPOSITORY GROUP, who joined the club in 2010, emerged the President elect for July 1, 2017, and is to pilot the affairs of the Club for one year during 2017-2018 Rotary year.

    She hinted that the club under her watch would embark on an aggressive membership drive to ensure that it retains its succession plan, which might not be if new members were not admitted.

    According to her, a target of 40 members has already been set for the next one year, disclosing that a total of 30 new members had already joined while five are concluding plans to join, thus leaving a balance of five new members, which must be delivered before the end of her tenure next year. The club has also executed her 1st project by collaborating with Pathcare Nigeria on a Health awareness campaign and free test exercise on the 29th August, 2017 at 22 Awolowo Road Ikoyi.

    She also said that the club under her watch will focus on education, youth empowerment through vocational training and mentorship, elimination of the scourge of polio, building and equipping conventional and electronic libraries in secondary schools, donation of books and granting of scholarships to indigent students. She also said that the club star project will centered on Water and Sanitation projects thus will renovate the toilet and water facilities in Girls Secondary Grammar School Obalende for a start and mount the 4 Ways Test of Rotary bills boards in all the clubs Interact schools.

    Other programmes include ecological preservation services under which it plans to plant trees to control pollution and flooding.

    While pledging to adhere strictly to the Rotary tenets of integrity and accountability, she argued that Nigeria will be a better placed if the country is administered the way Rotary carries on with its activities.

     

  • The divinity in our humanity – Femi Aribisala

    By Femi Aribisala

    What manner of a man is Jesus? The answer reveals a kingdom dynamic vital and fundamental to the believer’s walk. Jesus is the godly man; precisely the kind of man God re-created man to be.

    Jesus is a man. Like us, he was born of a woman. Like us, he had brothers and sisters. (Matthew 13:55-56). It is imperative to recognise Jesus as a man, otherwise he would become irrelevant to us. Jesus is exactly like you and me; making him appropriately our kinsman redeemer:

    “From the very beginning God decided that those who came to him- and all along he knew who would- should become like his Son (Jesus), so that his Son would be the First, with many brothers.” (Romans 8:29).

    Godly man

    Jesus became a man in order to demonstrate to men that the impossible is now possible in man. Because of Jesus, it s now possible for man to be godly. Because of Jesus, the believer is no longer ordinary but extraordinary. He is no longer natural but supernatural. He is no longer human but super-human.

    Indeed, what the scriptures say about Jesus, is now also applicable to believers. When they talk about the ability of Jesus, they are also talking about our ability. Jesus says: “He who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also.” (John 14:12). Since Jesus is the light of the world, the believer is also the light of the world.

    Jesus’ full identification with our humanity is a great source of hope. It is encouraging that Jesus was tempted in all points, just as we are, and yet he remained completely free of sin. If Jesus had overcome the tempter in his nature as God, it would clearly have no relevance to us. But significantly Jesus met Satan’s tests as a human being.

    The devil dared Jesus that if he is the Son of God he should command stones to become bread. However, Jesus did not answer him as the Son of God. He answered him as the son of man. He told him: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).

    Brother in humanity

    Since Jesus overcame Satan’s testing as a human being, then it means we too have the dominion to overcome temptation as human beings:

    “It was necessary for Jesus to be like us, his brothers, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God, a Priest who would be both merciful to us and faithful to God in dealing with the sins of the people. For since he himself has now been through suffering and temptation, he knows what it is like when we suffer and are tempted, and he is wonderfully able to help us.” (Hebrews 2:17-18).

    In Jesus, the very power of God entered the mainstream of humanity. The scriptures proclaim this grace in dramatic fashion. When Jesus performed a miracle: “A chill of fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen right before their eyes. How they praised God for giving such authority to a man!” (Matthew 9:8).

    Jesus is so embarrassingly human that his humanity is often a stumbling stone and a rock of offence to the undiscerning. Isaiah describes him unglamorously as “a tender plant; a root out of a dry ground.” (Isaiah 53:2). If you slapped Jesus, he would cry out in pain. If you stabbed him he would bleed. When he went without food, he became hungry. (Matthew 4:2). When he went without water, he became thirsty. (John 4:7). When he was pained, he wept. (John 11:35). Confronted with the cross, he travailed. (Luke 22:41-44). When he was crucified, he died.

    Jesus was not all spit and polish. He was not a stiff and joyless religious man as are many latter-day Pharisees and contemporary Christians. He liked visiting his friends. Although purposeful, he had time for relaxation. If you invited him to a party or to a wedding, he was not too religious to attend. He would come even if you were a Pharisee or say an atheist. He loved a good meal. He was not impartial to a glass of fine wine. And if you ran out prematurely, he was known to turn water into alcoholic wine.

    Runaway Elijah

    The scriptures also describe Elijah as a man of like passions as we are. Here was a mighty “man of God,” and yet he was man and therefore very much like us. Elijah had just triumphed over the prophets of Baal, killing 400 of them. And yet Jezebel, undaunted, threatened him: “Elijah, by this time tomorrow, you are a dead man.”

    What did Elijah do? He ran away. He did not just stand firm and call down fire from heaven. Some insist: “If I were Elijah, I would have shown Jezebel a thing or two.” Well, you would have waited for Jezebel and been killed because you are a man. If Jezebel shoots you, you will die because you are still in the flesh. When Herod threatened baby Jesus, God instructed his parents to flee to Egypt.

    How did God deal with runaway Elijah? He did not rebuke him. Instead, he ministered to his humanity. He provided for his needs. An angel came and brought him food to eat and water to drink. (1 Kings 19:5-8).

    Man’s divine validation

    The incarnation of Jesus is God’s validation of our humanity. It means God has taken everything about the frailty of our humanity into full consideration in working out our salvation. The psalmist notes that: “(God) knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:14).

    Thanks to Jesus, God knows exactly how much we can take. He knows exactly what we can endure: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).

    We ascribe a lot to the divinity of God. God is holy. God is sinless. God is love. God is merciful. But what about the humanity of God? Balaam says: “God is not a man!” (Number 23:19). Bully for Balaam. God became a man. Therefore, man must become godly. If God is holy then the man in Christ must also be holy. Indeed, it is God’s commandment: “Be holy for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16).

    What happens to the man side of man when the son of man becomes the son of God? Why does God not merely create godly gods if the human side of man is supposed to be nullified? Why does he go through the route of making men godly? It can only be because God does not reject the man side of man.

    When God created man as man, he said it was very good. He only became disappointed when man became ungodly. But now in Christ, God has created the godly man. But to do that, God became a man. So doing, he validated our humanity. In which case, the son of God is not only godly; he is also quintessentially human.

  • We’ll arrest, prosecute those who commit crimes against humanity – United States

    We’ll arrest, prosecute those who commit crimes against humanity – United States

    The United States Government on Monday said it will stand up against anyone who commits crimes against humanity anywhere in the world.

    This was revealed by Secretary of States, Rex Tillerson. Tillerson made this known less than a week after Washington launched missile strikes in response to an alleged Syrian chemical attack.

    Tillerson said the U.S. would not let such crimes go unchallenged.

    “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world,” he told reporters while commemorating a 1944 German Nazi massacre in Sant’Anna di Stazzema.

    Trump ordered his military to strike Syria in retaliation for what the U. S. said was a chemical weapons attack by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces which killed scores of civilians, including many children.

    European ministers are eager to hear whether Washington is now committed to overthrowing Assad, who is backed by Russia.

    They also want the U. S. to put pressure on Moscow to distance itself from Assad.

    Tillerson, who travels to Russia after the two-day G7 gathering, said at the weekend that the defeat of Islamic State remained the U.S. priority, while the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that “regime change” in Syria was also a priority for Trump.

    The mixed messages have confused and frustrated European allies, who are eager for full U.S. support for a political solution based on a transfer of power in Damascus.

    “The Americans say they agree, but there’s nothing to show for it behind (the scenes).

    “They are absent from this and are navigating aimlessly in the dark,” said a senior European diplomat, who declined to be named.

    Italy, Germany, France and Britain have invited foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar to sit down with the G7 group on Tuesday morning to discuss Syria. All oppose Assad’s rule.

    The foreign ministers’ discussions in Tuscany will prepare the way for a leaders’ summit in Sicily at the end of May.

    Efforts to reach an agreement on statements ahead of time – a normal part of pre-meeting G7 diplomacy , have moved very slowly, partly because of a difficult transition at the U.S. state department, where many key positions remain unfilled.

    Some issues, such as trade and climate change, are likely to be ducked this week.

    “The more complicated subjects will be left to the leaders,” said an Italian diplomat, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

    However, the foreign ministers will talk about growing tensions with North Korea, as the United States moves a navy strike group near the Korean peninsula amid concerns over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

    They will also discuss Libya. Italy is hoping for vocal support for a UN-backed government in Tripoli which has struggled to establish its authority even in the city, let alone in the rest of the violence-plagued north African country.

    The Trump administration has not yet defined a clear policy and Rome fears Washington may fall into step with Egypt and Russia, which support general Khalifa Haftar, a powerful figure in eastern Libya.

    The struggle against terrorism, relations with Iran and instability in Ukraine will also come up for discussion, with talks due to kick off at 4.30 p.m. (10.30 a.m. ET) on Monday.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the UN said at least 70 people were killed and hundreds more affected in Khan Skeikhoun.

    It added: “The likelihood of exposure to a chemical attack is amplified by an apparent lack of external injuries reported in cases showing a rapid onset of similar symptoms, including acute respiratory distress as the main cause of death.

     

     

    Reuters/NAN