Memorable Images and Time (Jesse Owens)

Heavyweight boxer Joe Louis puts his arm around Jesse Owens, Ohio State University track star and holder of three world's records. They were introduced during a boxing program sponsored by the Colored Elks. Washington, D.C., August 27, 1935.


Vice President Richard Nixon met with Illinois Republicans here 10/14/1958 to open a 6-day campaign tour in behald of GOP congressional candidates. With Nixon is famous track star Jesse Owens, left, now running for county commissioner. Nixon said the GOP campaign is picking up and "we have every chance to upset those who predict defeat." Date: October 14, 1958. Location: Chicago, Illinois


Jesse Owens, sensational track star of the Olympic games, waving to crowds during the "ticker-tape" parade up Manhattan in honor of the Olympic athletes. Fifty-two members of the Olympic squad, last of the 150 American athletes to return from Germany, arrived in New York, Sept. 3 on the liner Manhattan. Others of the squad who arrived last week joined them in the parade. Date: September 03, 1936.

Q & A Interview With Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

Tell me about yourself?

My name is Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha. I hail from Iho-dimeze in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria. I live in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria. I was born into the family of Mr. and Mrs. Godwin Onuoha on the 12th day of the beautiful Month of May, 1984. I attended Golden Nursery and Christopher Memorial Primary School, all in Aba, Nigeria. I did my Junior Secondary School education at St. Bridget’s College, Aba and my Senior Secondary School education at Federal Government College, Okigwe. I gained admission to study Medicine and Surgery at Imo State University and later dropped out.

I discovered while growing up that I have the passion to motivate, inspire and help people make their lives better. When I left school I went and joined my dad in his ladies footwear business at Ariaria International Market, Aba. I later left the business to pursue my passion and fulfill my God-given purpose to make a positive difference and leave a noteworthy legacy. I went into self education by reading and putting into practice the principles and truths I discover in life. The desire to make a positive impact in people’s lives made me to pay the price and go the extra mile to become an inspirational speaker, life coach and a social entrepreneur.

I work and teach people to make their lives better, this gives me joy. I write and share articles on self-improvement, leadership and other topical issues. I like networking and masterminding with great minds because I know that no one can achieve success alone and secondly, iron sharpens iron. I am grateful to God for the great people He brings my way like you, Sir Ambrose, Mr. Anyaele Sam Chiyson and others I cannot mention due to time. I am thankful to all my friends. I enjoy reading, writing, good music and enriching lives positively.

What was the motivation behind writing a book of this nature?

The motivation behind writing this book was to write a book that will humble, inspire and encourage people to arise and achieve greatness. The content will give the reader the Midas touch to lead a better life.

You said “In this day and age, there is a greater call to build your self-assurance, overcome anything that upset your applecart.” What exactly are you saying here?

Here am saying that in today’s world, to make your dream come true you must define your self-concept and understand who you really are. This helps you believe in yourself and stand firm to defeat the challenges of life that want to distort your great destiny.

As founder of Higherlife International, what is your foundation’s goal?

Our goal is to make the world a better place for all by empowering people with the right education to lead their lives and make a success of it.

How did you come up with the title of the book and what convinced you to know that it was the right choice?

The idea was clear that it will be a book that will enlighten, equip, empower, enrich and inspire people in a way that no book has done. I first titled it: "Overcoming The Challenges of our Time," but when I took it to my friend and brother, Anyaele Sam Chiyson, he read the book and said that the title needs to be changed to something more attractive for my audience. We brainstormed on names that will be right for a book of this nature and finally, we arrived at: "OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE."

I was convinced it was the right choice because whoever heard of it would be compelled to purchase the book and learn how to overcome life's changes.

As a visionary leader what are your thoughts on a Nigeria that has fallen from the standards?

Nigeria is a blessed and beautiful country! One challenge we must overcome urgently is corruption because it is one factor stagnating our advancement. As a nation, we need a positive transformational leadership that will put an end to the works of those cabals that are enriching their personal purses and impoverishing our country. The betterment of our country Nigeria requires a collective effort, alone we can do so little; together we can do much more. Let us immortalize our names and make a lasting legacy by coming together to make Nigeria great again.

Did you ever think of yourself writing a book of the subject matter?

There is no way you can embark on a journey without having any destination in mind. Yes, I have to write a book on this subject because I have seen and had challenges and I overcame them. One thing I won’t fail to mention is that as I began writing, doors to greater wisdom and knowledge opened and I thank God for His favors.

What kind of audience did you target before making up your mind on the book?

The audiences were those who want to improve their lives, and I know that every positive person desires to make better his/her life.

Was the purpose of the book to teach, learn and make a difference, or was it for commercial purposes?

I have a passion and conviction to make humanity better. My purpose for writing this book is to educate, inspire and encourage people to make a positive difference and leave a lasting legacy worthy of emulation. This book teaches true leadership, defines integrity and excellence to the reader as well as positive self improvement.

Followers and the Following

My readers -- the ones I bump into in the hood, on the streets of Los Angeles and in events -- have complained about the abandonment of my thorough political commentaries and Igbo-related cultural analysis I have been known for, wondering what brought about such a swift change. No. Nothing changed. It's just that I have been caught up in a cross road tweeting and having fun for the moment; and I am quite sure my followers and the ones I follow are watching with keen interest with what is about to resurface in my files. And besides that, there is absolutely politics in every game which means we are all political junkies by tweeting, feeding the world with the goings on, whether it's politics, pub-crawling, hanging out, poking around and stuff like that.

Summer just arrived, and seriously, I'm just having fun and loving every moment of it. But the real deal is social networking these days, and no one could tell how far that's going to last. So far, it seems like kinda trend that will be around for a long, long time to come.

Remember when it took days or weeks, or months, or longer than that to reach a loved one, a family member, a brother, a sister, a cousin or an uncle via the telegram, word of mouth, post office, courier service and other wire-related services? Remember? Not anymore. Things have changed. Technology has made communication much easier and has drawn the world very close. Thanks to the internet age. Just like Twitter made its followers and the following fishers of the "New Dawn" as new ideas pops up with a following.

It is really amazing how each of these social networks operates, and how it becomes addictive at any given time the moment one is hooked. I have tried to stay away from these networks which I did some many years ago, limiting myself to just few, precisely the discussion groups and messageboards I was either the owner or moderator, and which, of course, had to do with news items like NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, BNW News, the print media and other news-related outlets does to keep their listeners, readers and followers informed.

What has erupted in recent times is beyond imagination based on the rate these social networks are growing creating an era seen to be heading a direction seemingly to have placed the entire universe into one bucket, otu uwa, one world.

I keep wondering how these networks pops up uniquely in their own respective rights even though all appear to be the same whether a one-liner as in Twitter, or wordy as in Yahoogroups, Messageboards, Facebook and the rest. Over the past ten years or so, and when the listserve E Group had a bigger audience, a whole lot did change from the way social networking operates on the net.

Think about My Space and what it does with Generation X an K. Or Facebook that is not leaving the web arena anytime soon. Blogged, like the crab-like cancer is doing the same thing as Twitter in the pattern of following and followers. Just like if you follow me I will follow you. Or thanks for the follow and I will follow you which has generated a huge amount of business-related conferences.

Interestingly, these social networks have their own set of rules accompanied by how money is generated to keep these links afloat, meaning every social network in today's economy aggressively pursues its own highly localized interest.

The interests, like in Facebook which has gone local with the advertisers as they encourage Facebookers to indulge in taking advantage of promoting their accounts from around which they subscribe, and as it implies, one might be smiling all the way to the bank, if at all it's not a gimmick and one of those easy money deceptive stuff that has bombarded cyberspace. Web-bloggers and web-designers are equally engaging, too. It works hand-in-hand to a level of convicing, in order to attract readers to your site and the products that you market, and how different patterns of money making opportunities could be achieved through a wide variety of techniques -- tele-conferencing, tele-marketing, social networking, business-related workshops, conventions and things like that.

I, for one, has been in a couple of these "money making" opportunities, and it boils down to getting things done by way of that fast money which is indeed a good thing. It does not work like that. Somebody is playing smart and another one playing dumb, and it all leads to greed. Other than that, social networking is a kind of counseling in many ways. It helps alleviate depressed-anxiety-related problems most faced in today's society. It is a terrific workshop for many things in life including the opportunity door knockers who would try to convince their victims that a bag full of money to the brim would be theirs in a couple of weeks if only they take a simple step. There are other schemes also that encourages the application of doing some little, little stuff for enrollment on the block of new millionaires. It's all about following and whom you follow.

The irony of all these gimmicks and a recession riddled population is that the doers and schemers are all smiling, allegedly to the bank because whatever idea they created to gun down a panicking public due to a never seen before austerity measures, works effectively. And no one is giving away these "ideas" for free, no matter what.

All in all, the Twitter nation is now prospering in the game of social networking with its 140-character post at a time, and tweeting is the name of the game. It has become an institution of its own developing and enhancing its library with vocabularies such as "We Follow" meaning a direction of interesting Twitter accounts; "Trazz-ler Buzz," meaning tracking popular travel destination via Twitter; "Tweets on tees," meaning awesome crowdsourced shirts by Threadless; "Twitterific," a fur mac application for twittering; "Stock Twits," meaning an investment idea and information service, and it goes on and on.

If Time Magazine gave the Twitter guys -- Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey -- a thumbs up why shouldn't we who have found a home where there is love, affection and caring? Talk about Twitter, how about my own creative word Ohuzo and its meaning? It's a "New Dawn," people, and let's keep following and be the fishers of humankind.

Fascinating Igbo Blogs on the Web

"They are all over the web doing stuff telling people their stories; writing about life events; lecturing their readers on literature, philosophy and society; providing marketing strategies on how to succeed in business; writing about their love affair and the ideal man of their dream; analyzing music to a pace unimaginable; teaching on business solutions; reviewing books; talking about the battle wounds and the pogrom; communicating and exchanging ideas; and a profound biography about Nd'Igbo, among others too numerous to mention."

"Here you go again. What's wrong with you, man!?"

"Nothing is wrong with me. I'm just excited about my people."

"Who are your people?"

"My people are my kith and kin that have shown they can do stuff and mean whatever they say."

"What the hell is that?"

"You see, you just don't get it, do you?"

"I sure don't get it. What in heavens places are you talking about?"

"Nothing, but hold on, what's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem. You the one that have issues because you seem to be losing it."

"Losing what?"

"I mean, come on, you are not making sense at all about your ramblings. 'Writing about their love affair and the ideal man of their dream,' what the hell is that?"

"Well, I found out you are nosy and would like to know the goings on. Did I ever tell you about how unique the Igbo people are?"

"No, I don't remember."

"You see, when I say you have a shallow brain, you think I'm talking down on you."

"I know who you are. Your whole thing is to break the country up because you think Igbos are the master race."

"Now, you are quoting Obafemi Awolowo, who, feeling threatened with Igbo pragmatism thought Igbos were the 'master race' during the so-called constitutional conferences of a fabricated state."

"Look, man, I'm not gonna go there with you. Don't even go there, Okay?"

"You are just nuts."

"Maybe, I'm nuts because I am not singing about the Obi of trumpet and Ajoa."

"You see why I called you a knucklehead? How did the legendary trumpeter pop up here, in our conversation?"

"Because he is Okoro like you, and Okoros are known to be mean-spirited people. We call them ajaokuta ma momi."

"You see, that's the problem with you imbeciles, bigots and Igbo haters. When you can't handle the Igbos you start calling them names. What's up with that?"

"Quit man! I thought you brought me out here over some coffee and storytelling. What's the gist?"

"Okay, I gotcha. I am talking about Igbo people and the kind of fascinating stuff they are doing on the web. Some good, good stuff, you know..."

"And what's that?"

"I'm impressed. Finally, you succumbed to knowing what Igbo people are up to and all I can tell you is pay attention and listen carefully. Are you ready?"

"Yes, I am ready."

"Here you go, and this is my story":

For some reason, every now and then while checking out the goings on in cyberspace, interesting Igbo blogs pops up and before you think you are just passing through, you get stuck with what the blog has to offer. It happens to me all the time and it is becoming a habit to figure out what these blogs are up to. I have gone through a whole lot of them, and to be honest, I am really impressed.

About seven or so years ago when I began to blog at Biafra-Nigeria-World and Igbonet until the black hats, the robots catapulted from far away China disrupted the drives of BNW News' blog continent and other weak servers on the web, not many Igbo bloggers had emerged. And this happened when the Igbo haters at Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the Nigerian world website run by North Carolina-based Chuck Odili had savagedly axed my colleagues and I for the fact that we mentioned Biafra in our write-ups. That hatred toward Nd'Igbo led to the origin of Biafranigeriaworld, Igbonet and other Igbo-related websites. And the appearance of the messageboard changed all that. That, it can be done.

But now it is pleasing to know my Igbo folks are doing stuff as bloggers, and they are sending the messages across.

First, it is amazing what my boy, Uchenna, is doing with his Comb & Razor Blog. He has digested every part of back in the day pop music from the 60s through the 80s, the whole stuff is now baked in his genes. It is worthy of mention his digging of every damn thing about the 70s songs including my favorites of that era, while growing up.

Somehow, I wonder how he does it. His list of analysis includes Wings (the one led by Jonathan "Spud Nathan" Udensi), Action 13, Wrinkars Experience, Sonny Okosun, Oby Onyioha, Danie Ian, Ofege, Theodora Ifudu, Nelly Uchendu, Bongos Ikwu, Godwin Ironbar, Ubo Jazz Band of Africa, Benji Igbadumeh and His Okeke Sounds International, Harry 'Mosco' Agada, Jake Solo, Funkees, Joni Haastrup and Monomono, Segun Bucknor, Ofo the Rock Company, William Onyeabor and the list goes on and on. His superbly written piece on Danie Ian got me "crawling," I mean crawling because it was indeed well-done.

Enter my home girl, North Carolina-bred Adaure Achumba whose The World According To Adaure is also intriguing and full of life. Now based in Lagos, she blogs about the happenings in her neck of the woods in Eko, and she has pretty good followings. She's been blogging since June 2005 and the stuff in there is the stuff of life which captures her readers from her style of writing -- clear and concise.

So, too, is this lady who should be writing scripts for the silver screen (maybe she does, I dunno) because she really got it together in her compelling fictionalized stories. I am talking about Essex, Maryland-based Vera Ezimora, the Verastic lady who got her readers glued for her brilliant masterpieces. I love to read her notes. They are quite entertaining. But methink sometimes her stories are based on her life experience, I mean, probably with some dude.

And somewhere in London, my home boy out there has taken his stuff to another level. Who knows? The next Amazon will be popping up soon and Britain's one and only online hip-hop company is just about to do that. 2GEES, the hip-hop company which has gone deeply into selling any product is run by Daniel Ezihe. He's been working so hard he's optimistic 2GEES will eventually be a brand name starting from the streets of London and all across the world. A blog of note is on the website, and has blogging ever been made easier? You bet!

Also, there is this New York-based enterpreneur called Emeka Okafor. He is the director of the award winning TED Global. He runs Timbuktu Chronicles which takes one to another level of discovery and other environmental matters. Technology is at its highest level here and Okafor would go to any length to bring it to you. He is on a mission and the innovation is just amazing.

Celebrating Nd'Igbo got me on my feet as I kept wondering how these beautiful Igbo minds work. A one of its kind biography blog of Nd'Igbo from all walks of life. Names I have never heard of popped up. How he does it, I don't know, and I surely have to give it to him for it has to deal with a whole lot of research. C. Ezeh, the nwanna that runs Celebrating ND'Igbo has done something entirely different and is doing a wonderful job a magazine on Igbo biography should be on the news racks and I'm quite sure he's giving a thought to it, or someone should be doing something about it, for the job he's done there is enormous.

On Professor Chielozona Eze, who teaches African and world literatures at North Esatern Illinois University, his Chielozona offers literature, philosophy and society. And on the literary circle, there is the Okri Blog run by Okri C. Okri which publishes literary work independently. In case you have plans to publish in future, check him out for a good deal and tell him that I sent you.

Lagos-based model Linda Ikeji is amazing, too, and she knows her stuff very well. With her smooth image, she has digested every part of the media on fashion, travel, publishing and environmental journalism. She's so proud to tell the world about her multi-talents and promises to reveal more whenever she remembers. She is a blogger and that's the part that I like. And this is Linda Ikeji.

Another interesting blogger is Dawn Okro who is studying law at Texas Southern University in Houston. She seems to be accomplished and has been blogging since 2006. She is a painter, an activist and all that. Bella Naija is another heavyweight in the Igbo blogosphere. It is run by Uche Eze. She, too, has a significant amount of following. Her website has transcended her blog, meaning progress is being made and perhaps she now hears the distance tapping of fingers in JP Morgan Chase.

Have you heard of "The Long Harmattan Season"? If you haven't, it is a book written by London-based liberal journalist, Uche Nworah, and he created a blog to promote his book, as a result. When you have time check it out and learn more because I can feel it; your brain is getting rusty. There is another one too run by an architect, Ugo Okafor, and co-edited by Chika Okafor and it's about women on planet Earth. It's called Spectrum Women and I know you will jump in there as soon as we vacate this coffee house. Your life cannot hang without women, and that's why.

Elsewhere on cyberspace, you will see one Jude Dibia whose blog is specifically on new 'writings, reflections and reviews.' His blog is doing well catching up with the old guards. At the same time there is New York-based fashion consultant by the name of Adanna Gbulie whose new blog is about Igbo enterprise and culture. I think she is on a good footing trying to figure out a whole bunch of stuff at one time. How she's gonna do it I dunno. That's tough.

Gosh! I almost forgot the one run by my childhood buddy, Teddy. It has all the videos you would love to see and there are many other activities on that site. You can create your own blog right in there and write your own reviews on a movie you watched. It is called Nigeria Home Videos. It's got lots of lots of goodies. Seeing is believing. Youtube will soon be a midget campared to what my buddy, Teddy, is doing out there.

Before I end this session, do not forget to check out the glamorous world of Chinwe Enemchukwu's Victorious Living, Ndi Uwa Oma blog. Maybe, it will lead you to what you are looking for. It's time to go!

"Thank you so much Ambrose. I have learned a lot and have seen what Igbo people are up to. They are a great people. And Ambrose, you, too, a rare gem. Once again, thank you very plenty!"

"It's my pleasure, my boy, and have a great week!"