Muhammad Jalloh

It was exactly eight years ago today. It started as just another day. Well, except that it was Ashoura’ (the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic Hijrah Calendar.) Millions of Muslims worldwide were commemorating the day in any number of ways, the most common being fasting the whole day. The fasting tradition was as old as the days of the Prophet Muhammad himself (Peace Be Upon Him). After migrating to Madina, and during the last few years of life, he had asked the Jews of the city why the fasted a certain day every year. They told him that it was to commemorate the Israelites’ divine deliverance from the persecution and enslavement by the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt by the Prophet Moses (Peace Be Upon Him), an occasion commonly known among them as “Pesakh” or, to the non-Hebrew speakers, as “Passover.” The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) responded that he and the Muslims would be even more entitled to fast on this day, citing his bond of Prophetic Brotherhood with Moses. He therefore, commanded all Muslims to fast on this day (and the day preceding it, the 9th, or “Tasou’a”,  which he added) from then on, until God commanded the Muslims to fast the month of Ramadhan. At that point, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) declared it optional to fast on Ashoura (Passover). But its optional nature did not hinder Muslims from fasting on both days every year.

Cherno Abubakar Siddeeq Jalloh was also fasting, too. Though now in his eighties, he seemed as strong as ever. And he proved it by fasting the day, a tradition he had followed for as long as his sharp memory can afford him.

Earlier that day, he had received a call-the “good ole” go-and-tell-him-to-come-now type of call-from his cousin from the next
compound, Cherno Ibrahim, because his infant was ill. Chernojo-on (or “The Sheikh”) as he was often referred to and called by others, hurried over to his cousin’s compound and took a look at the ailing child. He recited some prayers on him to alleviate the illness and gave the worrying father more prayers to use should the situation worsen. And, then he took his leave.

As his tradition on this day, he called his wife and told her to cook all varieties of food. The whole village will be breaking their
fasts and feasting at his home after sunset later that evening. It wasn’t an easy feat to pull off, but he had done it for years-and people had come to expect it of him. But it wasn’t a magnificent wealth that he owned as much as it was the magnanimous heart that he possessed that enabled him to host the whole village to a sumptuous meal on Ashoura’. He was a man of modest means,
though much hard work – he still reared cattle, poultry, goat and sheep, as well as farmed even at such an age-meant that he always had something good to spare and share. For this reason, the village would always point a visitor to the village-whenever there was one-in his direction; for in his home, the guest would find himself welcomed by a warm heart, a generous hand and a man whom his peers look up to to, in his own image, paint for the guest the best portrait of the village’s people.

As sunset neared, he went out to check on the food. “Mariam, please, cool the food down a little. You don’t serve hot food to a fasting people,” he said. He had earlier on sent word to the village to assemble there at sunset to break their fast as usual. They would soon be there. He knows it. He was expecting them any minute from now. What he was not expecting was what happened next. He suddenly felt an excruciating pain in his body. It did not seem to make sense. It was true that over the last two years, his health had gradually failed him. He even had, for the first time in his life, to be hospitalized. But he had regained his old self and would climb the mountainous paths and walk the plains of the land to attend his Friday prayers and to pay homage to friends he loved and places that had an intimate connection with his life.

Nevertheless, the pain increased. So, he called Sounusi, his nearest son and eldest of Mariam’s children. “Please, come and stay by my side,” he said as he walked into the house Lamarana, his eldest son, had built a year ago. He lay on the bed and marveled at his condition. “This pain will not leave me alive,” he told Sounusi. “Stop talking like that, father”, he retorted. Far in the horizon, the sun had set and the guests were also gathering in the compound to break their fast and partake in the feast. Sounusi knows his father well. He was not a man given to weakness or giving in at the slightest pain. But this pain was different.

And, it was clear to his son that something else was upon them. “At least, break your fast. It is already sunset,” he pleaded. “I have
eaten all my life,” he pointed out and declined. “Today, I will meet my Lord while still fasting,” he said, in what were to be his last words to Sounusi or any mortal. He then stretched himself, recited the Declaration of Faith (“I bear testimony that there is deity worthy of worship except Allah and I bear testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”) and his soul departed his
body and ascended. Sounusi ran his palm over the corpse’s eyes and positioned him well. No dying man wants his corpse to be found in an improper state by strangers. And, it was to be there and help make him presentable immediately after
he passes on to the world beyond that he was called there by his father.

His son then went out and delivered the ominous news to the guests who had gathered to answer Chernojo-on’s call to break their fast and feast at his place: their host has himself now answered another call, the call of God Almighty. He is now himself a guest, a guest of the Lord and the angels above. They all looked at each other with disbelief. Only a few hours ago, he was at his cousin’s compound praying for his ailing child. Only moments ago, he was telling his wife to cool down the food for the guests. But a few minutes ago, he had also refused to break his own fast and the Angel of Death had extracted his soul and ascended with it. The miracle of life, they pondered. The spectacle of death, they wondered. And, now the man who had invited them to a
feast was not destined to join it himself. He was now himself a guest in an eternal embrace with the Great Spirit Himself. Staring at the food, at each other and at the absence of their now-lifeless host, they pondered the great mystery of life and death.

Some thousand miles away, also fasting, was his eldest son, Muhammad Lamaran. His neighbors and friends in the city (yes, New York City) had received the news of his father’s passing. But none could tell him while he was still on the road. So, they gathered at his apartment and waited. It was not unusual for people to gather there. After all, one of his neighbors is one of the elders of the Fulani community in New York. But he felt unease at their sight when he arrived. These last few days, he had had strange feelings running through him randomly. He suspected something may be wrong or going to be wrong. His people called it “dilleh” (or the bearings of bad news). But he also felt unease at the cold silence of his colleagues. His cousins were not teasing him as usual. His friends were not joking about the frivolities of life and their daily experiences. The “Sanaku” system (as the Muslim West African tribes called the cultural jokes and inter-family, and sometimes inter-tribal, teasing) was nowhere in the air. The atmosphere was eerie and uneasy. It was the news no one wants to receive, the news nobody wants to have to deliver to a colleague. But at last, they broke the silence and the cold news that was buried in it: his father had died earlier today. He wept profusely. He had lost his mother at six and grown up looking up to his father as both a fatherly and motherly figure in one. This had created an intimate bond between them. But now, forty years after his mother passed away, he had also lost the one person whose guardianship
he cherished as a child and whose image and awe he had always carried with him in his travels from city to city, from one country to another and across continents. But now he was no more. And, worse still, he could not see him before he would be finally laid to rest. Thousands of miles away and unprepared, he would miss the funeral of the one person he had grown to love his whole life. In him, he had found the filling for the void that his mother left when she died while he was still a child himself. He had loved him with a single love that would have being adequately shared and abundantly showered on both parents. But now, his father too had passed on to the Great Beyond.

Moments after he had pulled himself together and listened to the passionate and elegiac prayers of his colleagues for his father’s eternal peace, he picked up the phone and called his own children. For he was a father, too. But they, too, were in another continent, a few thousand miles away. In the city of Lagos, in a crowded room full of young men and boys-and their older
teacher-sat three brothers, studying and helping others with their Islamic lessons. Suddenly, a phone vibrated. It was Muhammad’s, the eldest of them.  He smiled as he saw the digits appearing on the screen. It was a US number. It could only be his father. He walked over to the balcony and answered the call. “My father has died,” came the voice on the other end. And, then the caller wept. It was the first I had seen or heard him weep. I was dumbfounded. I was as shocked as he was when he first heard the
news. For the old man was my grandfather and this caller was my own father. His weeping made me even more uneasy. My father never weeps. He seemed to have an endless drainage to channel the tears when they come knocking. But today, that drainage
wouldn’t be useful. “My condolences. May Allah have mercy on him and forgive him,” I said, almost disoriented. There wasn’t much of anything to be said again, so we hung up. Back in the room, I went over to our Islamic teacher and whispered the news to him. In what was a rare instance, he stopped the lessons, called the neighbors and told them and then we all headed to our house to deliver the news to my mother and sister. In what no easy task. Of all his daughters-in-law, my mother had been the most trusted and closest to my grandfather and they both spoke highly of each other even though they had not seen one another in about a decade.

As we walked into the living room, Mother felt uneasy. The expressionless faces gave her a cold shiver. There could only be one
explanation: that somebody close to her had died. But who? Her brother? One of her sisters? An older relative? There was no telling…yet. But as soon as we sat down, Cherno Tijani, our teacher delivered the uneasy news to her. They both wept uncontrollably-both daughter-in-law and granddaughter.  Even Abubakar (our younger brother who had being named after him) found the burden too heavy to bear for too long and soon found rivers of tears flowing down his face. Even I could not uphold the “boys don’t cry” principle as I found myself tearing away and over the recollections of the events of our brief days together just a
year earlier. It was also the first time I had being moved to compose an elegy for the dearly departed one. (See: Assalaamu
Alaikum, Grandfather ) It was, admittedly, not as classic as the “Ziyaratu Arba’een” (“Mourning the Forty”) elegy written by Jabir ibn Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with him), one of the great companions of the Prophet (Peace Be UponHim), to mourn the massacre and martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Hussein and his forty companions (May Allah be Pleased with Them), who had been killed by a despotic leader (Yazid) on the day of Ashoura about forty years after the Prophet’s passing away.

Cherno Abubakar’s passing away, though admirably executed-with respect to the day, his last actions and even refusal to break his fast-left an indelible mark on all those who knew him. A year earlier, I had gone to see him and he had admonished me greatly. He once said, “Three things in life will never miss you: your sustenance, your death and (the consequences of) your intentions-good or bad.” And, pointing to the sometimes tumultuous, but ultimately successful and enviable, life that he led, he once told me, “that a
person says, ‘I bless you’, does not shower blessings on you, just as their saying, ‘I curse you’, does not place a curse on you either. Or [if these were so], Abubakar [referring to himself] would not be here today.”

And, though admittedly a stubborn man by nature, he never wavered with the truth. He was always the last resort of conflicting parties, as he himself was known not to ally himself with anyone who harbors a falsehood. He had also never liked the wayward ways of politicians and their sycophants. In that respect, he followed the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Sheikh Umar
bin Ibrahim-a scholar from ancient Timbuktu, who, though he carved and had thrown the first spear in the 17th century revolutionary war that saw the Fulanis establish a new, formidable and just state in what would come to be known as the
Imamate of Fouta-Djallon, drew his authority not from the intoxications of political power, but from his sincerity of purpose, purity of character and unwavering adherence to the Islamic principles that defined his way of life. Sheikh Umar, who would be nicknamed “Maama Barkindo” (“the blessed grandfather”), had turned down the privilege of political office even after he had helped to firmly establish a formidable nation. “I just want to teach,” he said in his defense.

Meanwhile, Cherno Abubakar was laid to rest the following day. It was a day of mourning for the village, for what little was left of surviving friends, but mostly for the men and women he had given life and those that those, in turn, have given life. It was a life well-lived. A formidable legacy sustained and passed on. But, most importantly, the life of a man intimately loved and fondly remembered by all whose lives had intersected with his. May you find eternal peace, grandfather.

Part 2: Sourcing and Publishing Your Content Online

In this second part of our online personal branding series, we will cover how to source (come up with), create and publish content on your website. I am assuming that you have a basic knowledge of how to setup a personal website or blog online. If you do not think you have enough background information in this regard, please, read the first part of this series, “Establishing an Online Presence” .

Now, why should you take the time to post content on your website? Why should you put in your best efforts into publishing the best information that you can? Before we move onto the technicalities of doing so, let us look at some of the reasons you should make sure you have the best content you can put together. These include:

1.    Portfolio Development: Irrespective of your current (past or intended future) professional calling or title (professor, administrator, student, entrepreneur, employee, civil servant, etc), you most likely have a storehouse of information related to your field of expertise or area of focus that you can publish and share with the world. Every man and woman is a powerhouse of quality information if only they can harness it. And, you are not an exception.

2.    A Unique Brand: When you regularly publish quality content online, you establish yourself as an authority in your field of expertise or interest. If you frequent the web, you are probably familiar with people who made a name for themselves on the Internet and attained celebrity status by just publishing online. This also sets you apart from the crowd as you would have proven yourself to possess both a sufficient working knowledge (or extreme interest) in your area as well as the ability to effectively communicate these to a wider audience. If you have been paying close attention, you would have noticed that online bloggers are increasingly being invited to appear as guest (or sometimes even as regular) commentators on talk shows and TV programs to share their insights on politics, the economy,  education, environmentalism, etc.

3.    Career Advancement: If you are in search of a (perhaps better) employment opportunity, then go ahead and start a blog or website and share great information. This has landed people jobs at some of the nation’s top media companies. If you are a professional, you can also get more qualified business prospects by publishing online. You are also more likely to land consulting gigs when you publish and establish that you are an authority in your field than if you do not.

4.    Academic Prospects: As a student, it makes a big difference when you publish. You are more likely to qualify for scholarships, grants and other forms of financial support since you can readily point to or mention your online publications when you speak to or apply to prospective scholarship or grant opportunities. This sets you apart from those who have nothing to present more than just a resume and a personal statement. You have already made a statement online about your interests, experience and/or expertise.

There are many other reasons to publish online, depending on your field of endeavor, interest or expertise, but the aforementioned are just a few of the most evident.

Now that you know why you should publish online, let’s get to how to go about it quickly, easily and systematically. There are three elements to it:

1.    Sourcing or Creating the Content: This component deals with how and where to get the content you will be publishing on your website.

2.    Content Organization: This deals with how best to sort your content into different and sensible categories so that every piece is filed in the right place and could be found easily by your readers or website visitors.

3.    Publishing Your Content: This is where you actually (and finally) post your content online. This is the final stage in the content publishing system.

But before we move on, you should know that the content you publish online can be in any one or a combination of a number of formats. These are:

• Text: This is what the bulk of information online is published in. This is the usual text that you see on websites and blogs. This can also take the form of PDF documents that you can post online.
• Audio: You can also upload and publish audio files or podcasts on your websites. If you are more of a speaker than a writer, this route may be a better option for you than writing, especially if you are not particularly comfortable with the art of the written word.
• Video: Whether you shot the video using your web cam, phone or had a professional videographer’s help, you can post them on your website or blog and share with the world (or just your website users.)

You can also post a combination of any of the above content formats, if and when necessary. For example-if you are a poet-you can post the text of your poem online as well as a video of you reciting it and/or the audio files of the recital. It is all possible with the Internet.

Now, let’s get back to the three elements or stages of publishing your content online:

1. Sourcing and/or Creating Your Content

This is the first stage. Here, you have one of two means of getting content:

• Source for content from already available resources.
• Create fresh (new) content to post on your website or blog.

Five Simple Ways to Generate Your Own Original Content

To come up with your own original content, all you have to do is look at the different dimensions or aspects of your personality and the circumstances around you and you will see that you have a never-ending pool of content anytime you want it. These dimensions are:

1.    Personal Passions: Whatever personal interests you have, if you are sufficiently interested or grounded in it, you can create great content around it. Here are some ideas:

• Science: Do you enjoy hacking (professional security hacking, not to be confused with malicious cyber crime), then blog about it; it may land you a Computer Security job or consultancy when you least expect it. Are you a nerdy programmer? Build some cool software and blog about them. Do you love or hate the current state of the world of engineering? Make a list of all that’s wrong with it and each one, one at a time, on your website.
• Arts: Do you love drawing, sketching cartoons, penciling funny caricatures of your friends or politicians, or are you a skilled Photoshop pro? Scan and post samples of your work on your blog or brand them with your name and website address and allow college newspapers and other website owners and bloggers to publish them for free. You may soon start getting gigs for some regular comic stripes or graphic design work.Are you a skilled photographer or an avid videographer? Then post samples of your work on Flickr, Youtube and your own site and develop a strong following and watch what happens next. (Hint: People with jingling pockets may come calling with regular paid work.)
• Literature: Are you a creative writer, a gifted wordsmith, an artful or skilled storyteller, or a passionate spoken word artist? Go ahead and publish your work on your website. The publishers may soon be knocking on your door with some juicy deals for you.
• Activism:  Are you always talking about how the latest police brutality case has spurred racial hatred or how the oil companies are making life unbearable for the average people? Do you worry and always complain about the deplorable state of education in minority communities? Or do you always grunt and grumble whenever the issue of immigration or global warming is brought up in the media or by those around you? Congratulations! You may have the spirit of an activist! Now, go on and share your thoughts and concerns online. You will soon find out that you are not alone and will create a large and loyal following of like-minded and concerned people.
• Volunteerism: Are you always taking part in one walk-a-thon or the other? Do you find yourself spending time volunteering at your local soup kitchen instead of cooking your own turkey during Thanksgiving? You should share your experiences and passions with others by maintaining a blog. You will soon develop an army of likeminded and highly motivated volunteers. Society will be better off because of your efforts to publish and recruit in one breath.
• Sports: Many of us are avid sportsmen and women (or at least passionate fans). Whether it is football, soccer, baseball, basketball, scuba driving or even the extreme sports, you will always have enough going on that you can create and publish regular and rich content for your website and the avid visitors who will be storming it to read, listen to or watch every new thing you post on it. You can cover the wins, losses, athlete updates, games, etc in that field. You may never know when a reporter will call you up to appear on their show as a commentator to discuss the latest beating that “Team X” (a fictional team) got at the hands of their arch rivals!

2.    Hobbies: Whatever your hobbies are, you can create a blog or website around them and post regular content dealing with them. It does not matter whether you are in love with gardening, fishing, traveling, learning new languages, developing new recipes or making movies. Whatever your hobby, you can create content around it. Discuss related news, industry trends, local associations, upcoming conferences or seminars or hard-to-find deals that you come across.

3.    Professional Experience: Are you currently working (used to work or hope to work) in a particular field that you are passionate about? Discuss best practices, your likes and dislikes about the status quo or workings of the industry and ways to improve them. If you have observed it closely, then you have “insider knowledge” (not to be confused with proprietary company information) that you can share with others.

4.    Academic Pursuits: If you are a student (and are hopefully passionate about what you study), then go ahead, do research and publish your findings on your website. Or, discuss the state of your area of interest (the good, the bad and the ugly sides of it and possible ways of improving them) and post these on your website. If you are a professor, you have most likely published materials in your field, presented at conferences or professional events or collaborated on academic works. Whatever it is, publish them on your own website too and go a step further by exploring and publishing more (detailed) areas of your expertise.

5.    Personal Background: Do you consider yourself an evangelist for your beliefs? Are you concerned about the current state of your ethnic or racial group? Do you find yourself worrying about the standard of living of people of your background or community? Do you come from a family of geeks and technocrats? Whatever your background, it is interesting enough that you can find a lot of information that you can publish and share with others on a regular basis. Discuss new legislation that would affect you, trends that are changing the tide (positively or negatively) or your insights into the best ways to solve the recurring problems.

From the foregoing, you would have realized by now that whoever you are and whatever you are involved in or want to be involved in or associated with, you can create valuable and original content around it.

2. Organizing Your Content

Once you have figured out and made a list of all the possible ways of sourcing and creating content for your blog or website, the next thing you should do is to:

a.    Categorize: Organize your content into different categories for easy filing and management. For example, if you are a poet, you may want to organize your poems into themes. So, you could have a “social” category (for your poems about family, relationships, etc), a “politics” category (for those poems about how bad your elected reps are running and ruining the government), a “personal” category for those poems that has to deal with your daily musings and experiences, and so on. Whatever you area, you can organize your content into categories to make it easier for you to collect your thoughts together and for your readers, visitors and loyal fans to find your content.

b.    Use Tagging: Most modern website development and blogging software (like WordPress, Joomla, and others) give you the ability to ‘tag’ your content. If you have used the Photos feature on Facebook or Flickr, you have already been exposed to the idea of tagging. For your content, you can also tag every article, video or audio/podcast file that, for instance, has to do with ‘web programming’ (if your focus is on computer technology). The WordPress blogging system is especially great for this.

c.    Cross-Linking: Once you have sufficient articles, videos or podcasts posted on your website, you can cross-link them to make it easier to find or continue reading on a certain topic. For instance, if your interest is on creating new recipes, you can cross-link the part 1 of “How to Cook Delicious African Fufu” with the Part 2 and 3, and so on. You can cross-link content you post on different websites online so that it becomes very easy for your readers to stay updated on what, when and where you publish online.

3. Publishing and Managing Your Content Online

This is the third stage in your path to having your content on the Internet. There are a number of ways that you can make your videos, audio (or podcasts) and articles available online, depending on your area of focus or your chosen and target audience.

Depending on the format of your content and your target audience and their internet content consumption habits (where they go to watch videos, read what other people write about or hang out, etc), you can post your content on a number of platforms and or cross-post them on any number of places online. These include:

• Video Sharing Websites:  If you have videos that you want to post online, then you may want to think about creating an account on Youtube, Viddler and other video sharing websites and uploading your content on them. You can then easily embed these videos (link to them) on and from your website. This way, you won’t have to worry about whether you end up having too much website traffic and having to deal with a monstrous web hosting bill for the bandwidth that your videos will be consuming from all the thousands of views.
• Social Media Sites: If you have an account on Facebook, LinkedIn, Squidoo or other social media websites, you can post your content on them or post links to your website content on them. For example, you can use the “Notes” feature on Facebook to pull the content from your website or blog and have them automatically posted on your Facebook Notes whenever you publish new content on your website or blog.
• Your Website or Blog: When you create your own website or blog (see www.jalloh.com/tech for more info on how to do so), you can post whatever format of content you want (videos, pictures, articles, audio, etc) on your website. Since your site is your own personal online storehouse of information, you can publish any content on it. Want to upload that video of you giving a speech at your club’s annual convention? Upload it to your website for the whole world to see. Have you been wanting to share your feelings and experiences about that community service program that you participated in? Just write an article on it or record a video or audio of you talking about it and publish it on your website.

Now that you know how to source or create content, how to organize them for simplicity, ease of navigation and access, and the different ways you can publish your content online, let us take a look at what I call, “The Five Golden Rules of Online Publishing.” There are certain principles of “common sense” (as uncommon as common sense may be) that you should have at the back of your mind whenever you decide you want or need to publish any type or format of content online, whether on your own website or others’.

The Five Golden Rules of Online Publishing

1.    Thou Cannot Retract What Thou Publish: If you don’t want your mother, significant other, employer or business partner to know about it, then think twice about publishing it online. Because once it’s online, it’s not going anywhere. In addition to the ease of sharing published online content, there are sites that specialize in archiving the content available on all sites online (and you can be rest assured that “no website is left behind”.) So, think twice. You may perish by publishing the wrong way or content!

2.    Thou Shalt Treat Thy Online Personality Like a Delicate Brand: Just as what you say, wear and look like comprises your offline personality, what you publish online is what your online personal brand is composed of. So, be careful about what you post online as your online personality WILL be judged by it.

3.    If Celebrity is Gold, Privacy is Golden: Sometimes you may be tempted to post details of your personal, professional and love life online. Please, DON’T! Do you feel like updating your Facebook status to say that you just left home or are leaving tomorrow for vacation and won’t be returning until mid next week? Don’t! You may come back home to an empty house or even expose your family members to your online “friends” who may be sexual predators, burglars, and other types of criminals or misfits.

4.    Er, keep Your Qualms to Yourself: Did you just break up with your significant other? Did you just have a heated argument with a co-worker or think you are taking too much heat from your “control freak” of a boss? Please, don’t whine about it online; instead try to settle it with them. Once you blog about it, post those embarrassing pictures of them or update your Facebook wall to reflect it, it is now public information and could have dire consequences. So, think thrice about sharing your personal troubles or rants online.

5.    Don’t be a Stray Webbie: Or, in other words, “no common sense lands you in a gutter of nonsense.” Are you so obsessed with the web that you publish every single detail and waking moment of your life online? Do you share where you eat, your full date of birth, where you go and stay and your most intimate likes and dislikes with your crowd of Facebook “friends” (aka stalkers) or Twitter followers? Then, you are probably “virtually naked” and have left total strangers and stalkers with a very clear and working map of your whole life. So, share and publish with care. In a virtual world, the last thing you want is to be vulnerable. Remember: DON’T be caught virtually naked!

That may be all you need to know to learn how to source, create and publish your own content online to develop your online personal brand. In the next part of the “Online Personal Branding” series, we will take a look at how you can develop a large and responsive following of people who will read and share your content and drive even more people to your website or blog. Till then, please, go online and start building your website or blog and publishing content on it. Thank you for reading! J

If you have questions, comments or suggestions (on what you may want to see covered in the next issue, etc) or to get a list of resources that you may need to use, please, visit www.jalloh.com/tech . I am counting on your feedback. For all personal questions, please, send me an email . Now, go and start publishing online and building your online brand! Hasta La Vista!

Learn How to Create Your Own Winning and Professional Online Brand in 3 Simple Steps
Part 1: Establish an Online Presence

Whether you are a student, professor or a staff member of an academic institution (like BCC), you can effectively create and maintain your own online personal brand in 3 simple steps. In this piece, I will share with you how to go about this quickly and efficiently. Now if you thought that an online personal brand just involves having an account on Facebook, I would just like to say that that is just one (perhaps very small) aspect of it.

But first, “why do I need to create a personal brand online?”, you may want to ask.

Here are a few reasons:

• Your potential employers (if you are looking for a job or hope to change or “upgrade” your current one) will most likely run a query (search for you) online. The problem is that if most of what they find about you involves your unscrupulous (“night out” parties, beach adventures and childish rants on Facebook, Myspace, etc), then you probably won’t go far as far as a job is concerned. Your whole world now exists online.
• Your potential partners will “google” you to make sure you are not a potential liability for them when your tracks are eventually uncovered. (This applies to both your professional and social life.)
• You may have namesakes that are criminals, felons, etc and who may have made it onto news items that are currently (and will continue to be) online. You may be mistaken to be the same Jose Garcia (not real name) who stole a car and was profiled in your local newspaper, or Rick Smith (fictional character) who defrauded a bank and got a “fair mention” in the New York Post.
• You may be thinking of creating your own online portfolio of activities, experiences, volunteer work, professional work (articles, papers, speeches) and presentations, etc.
• And many more…

In any of these cases, the only way to redeem yourself (when you have a misfit namesake) or create a lasting impression is to create your own personal brand online. You can do this in 3 simple steps:

• Establish an online web presence,
• Create and/or publish your content, and
• Develop a loyal and large following, both online and offline.

In this article, however, we will focus on the first of the thre steps-establishing an online presence-and cover the others in the next issues of the newspaper.

3 Simple Ways to Establish a Web Presence

The Internet thrives on content-text, images, videos, etc. But these don’t also exist out of nowhere. They are uploaded to the web by people, like you and me. There are a few ways to create a web presence, some with their own “pros and cons.” Here are some of the most widely used forms of web presence:

1. Social Network Profile: If you have a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter account, then you have a social network (the technical term given to online socializing websites) profile. In the case of Facebook, you can further customize your profile page’s link and make yourself easier to find by going to www.facebook.com/username and customizing your Facebook page to something simpler like www.facebook.com/emilygarcia instead of the string of incomprehensible code that appears when you load your Facebook page.Now, while having social network profiles is part of the online dimensions of our 21st century personalities, these are not enough to create a sustainable and professional personal brand for yourself.
2. A Free Blog or Website: You can do this in one of two ways, the free or the professional way. Websites like blogger.com, wordpress.com and others offer you the opportunity to “tag along” on their website. For example, if your name is Emily Garcia, you may create an emilygarcia.blogspot.com or emilygarcia.wordpress.com blog. You may not have access to all the tools you need to create a professional website, but it is a good place to start.
3. A Professional Website: The professional way of creating your website or blog is to having your own “full domain” website. So, you may have www.Jalloh.com or www.EmilyGarcia.com, for example. These portray a professional image and you have a host of tools and resources available to you to create your own personal brand.
4. In this case, you will have to register a domain/website name (for a little less than $10/year) and pay to host (rent space for it online for)  your domain (for as little as $5 a month). With a professionally-hosted website, you will also be able to create and use personalized email addresses. So, instead of having emily-garcia@gmail.com or talktoemily@yahoo.com (both fictional email addresses), you can simply create and use such emails addresses as email@emilygarcia.com or contact@emilygarcia.com .

   (A snapshot of a sample professional website: www.Jalloh.com )

While this obviously costs some money (typically less than $70 per year for both the domain and website hosting), it helps you create a better and more professional image for yourself. Imagine having a line on your business card that says something along the lines of:

Emily Garcia

Phone: 718-555-5555
Email: contact@EmilyGarcia.com
Website: www.EmilyGarcia.com

That hands down beats a business card with an @gmail.com or @yahoo.com free email address any day and anywhere. It also portrays you as somebody who is very serious about their image, both online and offline.

What You Should Do Next

While you await the next article on how to easily and simply source, develop and publish all types of content (text, videos, presentations) for your own professional online brand, here are a few things you should do:

• Setup accounts with the major social networks:

?        Facebook.com

?        Twitter.com (Great for “micro blogging”. Think, “group texting gone online.”)

?        LinkedIn.com (This one is especially good for professional networking. It is to your professional life what Facebook tries to be for your social life. It is a great site to network with potential employers and mentors, get recommendations, form partnerships, stay abreast of industry trends, polish your resume and land new job offers.)

• Setup Your Own Personal Website:

?        Go to either of www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com (better option) to register your blog and learn how to set it up by playing around with the interface.

?        You may find tutorials on www.Wordpress.tv (if you choose to set up your blog on www.wordpress.com) or at www.youtube.com/bloggerhelp (if you chose to use Blogger.)

?        Place a link on your blog to your social network (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) profiles.

?        Go to http://www.jalloh.com/tech for a list of some free and recommended blogging tutorials, online branding tools and other resources.

That will be it for part 1 of the “Online Professional Branding Series.” If you have questions, comments or suggestions (on what you may want to see covered in the next issue, etc), please, do let me know on www.jalloh.com/tech . I am counting on your feedback. For all personal questions, please, send them to tech@jalloh.com . Thank you for reading. Now, go and start building your online brand!

Once upon a heavy heart,
When love beckonests,
Shuns idle rests,
And echoes to be heard.

There lived a bearded chap,
Who dreamed of a maiden in a flowing cap,
Flowing down her bosom like a heavenly tap,
Who transported his mind in an ambiguous wrap.

Like the constellations of heaven was her face,
Which left lightning lamps in her trace.
To  her he did quill without menace,
On a French papyrus to seek her grace:

For the Love of Thee and thine for me,
For the sake of Him who planted thy soul in the heart of me,
Hold my heart in bondage, I prithee,
In bondage to thy love for the sake of we.

I prithee to tell, of generations come and gone,
And even those yet unborn,
Who tickles thy mind and makes thee smile,
Smiles of love stretching for a mile.

I prithee tell who makes thee cry,
Tears of love that never dry,
Like a hearty tide on a summer Nile,
Or trailing the trail of love over many a mile.

Who makes thy heart skip a beat,
Or enter into love’s ecstatic feat,
I prithee, tell thy tale of love,
And for whom was borne the message of thy dove.

To whom belongests the warmth of thy mind,
Reveal who keepeth thy treasure’s find,
I prithee, tell if I am thy loving pirate,
Who claims thy heart without being irate. 

I beseech thee not to shed a tear on my shroud,
Or of my remembrance to make in thy eyes a cloud,
Or to mourn my passing after the passing of days,
Or retrace my hearty strides when I lose my ways.

But I prithee for a worthy second of thine,
To tell who claims thy pearly mine,
Who makes thee frown and smile and fine,
And upon thy aromatic produce will one day wine and dine.

I prithee, from the gallows, free my bleeding heart,
And let what thy felt for me be loud and heard,
By every clown, scribe, priest or nerd.

Let it be witnessed by the birds of the air,
Where keepeth thee my heart, loud and clear,
Thy love for me or stolen stare,
By all, high and low, near and dear.

For the Love of thee and thine for me,
I prithee.

For the love of we and the heavenly scores,
Tis the Custodian of thy heart and sincerely yours.

It was the most challenging of times and the most crucial for me. It was the summer of 2007 and I was working a minimum wage job at a local retail store. But it was a time for me to make one of the most crucial decisions of my life: going back to school. I had always known my success in life was a function of how intimate I became with my books and how soon I returned to school to pursue my higher education studies and my dreams of becoming a computer scientist to be reckoned with. Such was the time and thus ran the dreams of my heart and the musings of my intellect. But this was the time and I had to make a decision. I had decided that this fall will not pass me by but that I will be in college, where I always knew I belonged. Such was the time and I had to decide.

After applying and getting into Bronx Community College and taking the COMPASS tests, I responded to a letter inviting me to come for the New Students Orientation program, a BCC tradition to welcome, advise, register and inform new students about the different opportunities on campus. A few weeks later, I was one of the hundreds of new students walking the halls and occupying the classrooms of BCC. But this was just the beginning-the beginning of an experience in leadership that I would not have dreamed of on my own.

It all started at the entrance of the school cafeteria during the “Welcome Back Days” week. Having setup a table and handing out informational booklets and flyers regarding the different services and opportunities within the college was a tall young man who was trying to talk to everybody and eager to help anyone who passes by, especially the freshmen (and they were usually very easy to pick out of the haystack of students.) Looking puzzled and unsure, I walked over to him and took some of the materials he had on the table. I then relayed my concern to him: I wanted to know if there was a space on the campus that I can perform my daily Islamic prayers. “I know just how to help you, young man,” I can now imagine him thinking. He directed me to RBSC 306, which served both as a prayer room for the Muslim students as well as a meeting place for the members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and a quiet recluse for study from the sometimes noisy school library.

By his side (also helping out) was a lady who also gave me more information pertaining to other campus issues. Curious, I asked her, “Are you a student?” Amused, she threw the questions, “Do I look that young?” I later found out the man was no other than Manny Lopez, the assistant director of student life, and the lady was Melissa Kirk, the director of student life. They were often times referred to, in the college, as “the Dynamic Duo” for how effectively and efficiently they work together. It was the beginning of a relationship that would see me often in their offices asking for guidance, getting clarifications on ambiguous issues or sharing some productive time with them.

But that was just the beginning. In the spring of 2009, I stopped by the Office of Student Life’s office to pick up a form to apply for candidacy in the upcoming SGA elections. I had always wanted to be involved in the governance of the college, serve the student body, gain some advocacy knowledge and develop leadership skills that I can put to both immediate use as well as apply to my future career –wherever that took me. However, I was also very much involved with the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) and serving as its vice president and web administrator of the club’s website, www.BCCMSA.com .

Fearing that the club may not have a strong leadership, I gave up the thought of running for the position of an SGA senator. But just until about 24 hours before the deadline for submission for candidacy, I met Mr. Lopez and Ms. Roslyn Gillespie, (then Vice President of the SGA) by the staircase and having asked me why I had not submitted my application all this while, I had told him that I may just stay with the MSA and give it the much-needed leadership rather than run for a senatorial position in the SGA. But he pointed out that my service as an SGA Senator is just an extension of my service in the MSA: I was just serving a broader and more diverse population-a student population that was 10,000 strong. I took it to heart and slept over it. The next day, I filled out and submitted my application. I launched my campaign and enlisted the help of my friends not just to vote, but to campaign for me as well. The result was a testament to the power of social networking and the possibilities that a strong and trusted network of friends and admirers could do. It was the beginning of an experience that I would always cherish.

A few weeks later, the election results were released: I was among the top 15 candidates that were elected to form the next SGA body. The SGA executive elections followed next. I ran for the offices of president, secretary and legal and legislative representative and lost all three. It was a sour pill to swallow, but another lesson learned: connect on time with potential voters and rivals as numbers, not competency or speeches, win elections. A friend of mine called the results a “travesty.” But it was more than that: it was an opportunity to learn…the hard way.

Enter, the CUNY Leadership Academy

A few days later, I received an email from the (then) CUNY Leadership Academy informing me that I have been nominated to be a fellow of the academy and undergo a yearlong leadership training program and experience. I immediately knew whose handiwork this was. I met him a few days later while going up the stairs in the Student Center. “Yes, it is. I have been looking out for you”, Mr. Lopez admitted. It was an honor I could not have asked for, especially since I did not even know about the existence of the Academy. I sent in the application and waited for the results. But they were many weeks in the making.

Meanwhile, the new SGA senators were invited to attend the New Leadership Challenge Conference at Brooklyn College on June 12th, put together by the CUNY Council of Student Life Directors and the CUNY Leadership Academy, where they will meet with other SGA senators from the different CUNY colleges to learn the skills necessary to be effective leaders in the various schools. But the leadership skills learned and acquired were not all that the students took away from this seminar. I was particularly happy that I was able to meet so many student leaders from all across CUNY who faced the same challenges, had the same hopes and were committed to working for the good of the over 400,000 students that see CUNY as their bridge to their future and the missing link between them and their success in life. It was an exhilarating experience, to say the least.

During this time, the CUNY Leadership Academy was reviewing the over twelve dozen applications to the academy that they received. A few weeks later, 60 of the applicants were selected to appear for a final interview session that included a simulated group project planning and execution and a personal interview for each of the candidates. I had also received a letter asking me to choose one of many available dates for my interview. Wednesday afternoon, the last day of the interviews, seemed good to me and realistic based on my schedule. It was a challenge working with seven other students from different CUNY colleges and with different leadership experiences to put together a project from planning to execution. Ms. Julie Agosto, (the CUNY Corps and CUNY service learning coordinator) and Mr. Derrick Boone (CUNY coordinator for student life), were in the room observing and taking notes about how effectively the students worked together and how efficiently they were able to adjust to working with others. It was a challenge. Being somewhat shy and not “pushy enough”, I thought I had little hope of being selected as one of the Fellows for the year.

In between working on the group project, the candidates were called one after the other for their individual interviews with Dr. Joe-Joe McManus (the executive director of the academy), Ms. Christina Joseph, (the academy’s coordinator for special programs and professional development) and two other alumni of the academy. Having recently served on the BCC Search Committee for the vice president for student development and enrollment management, I seemed more confident with the personal interview session as I have been preconditioned to think like an interviewer and seemed to be in a better position to know what was expected of me and the potential loopholes that I had to avoid that may cost me the opportunity to be one of the fellows for the year. Walking home later that day, I was sure of one thing: if everyone else in the group made it into the Academy, I will have a chance; but if there had to be eliminations, I may just be the first to be let go.

However, towards the end of July, I received an email from the academy: I had been chosen as one of the 25 students this year to undergo the yearlong leadership training experience as fellows of the academy. It was one of the happiest emails I had ever read in a long time. To be one of only 25 students out of CUNY’s 400,000 students to be accepted into the CUNY Leadership Academy was a privilege whose significance was never lost.

“The Fellows that Could”: The Malave Leadership Academy Fellows at the Innovation Workshop at John Jay College
of Criminal Justice with the team from “The Medici Effect.” Standing, from L-R: Julie Agosto (CUNY Corps and
Service Learning Coordinator), Muhammad Jalloh (BCC), Ayeesha Berte (Lehman College), Evita Belmonte (City
Tech), Linda Gomez (CSI), Daysi Manzano (York College), Jasmine Patel (Brooklyn College), Christopher Browne
(Brooklyn College), Liliete Lopez (Hostos CC), Fitz King (John Jay), Karishma Chawla (Brooklyn College), Philip
Parris (Medgar Evers), Leen Feliciano (QCC), Brant Douglas (Medgar Evers), Qimei Luo (CSI), Alyna Brown
(Lehman College), Keisha Fuentes (Executive Assistant to the director of the Academy), Sweet Joy (Medici Effect
Team), Christina Joseph (coordinator for special programs and professional development). Sitting, from L-R: Edgar
Romero (LaGuardia CC), William Leverett (Queens College), Moses Kanduri (KCC), and Dr. Joe-Joe McManus
(executive director of the Academy), Kristian (Medici Effect), Katrina Hannan (CSI), Jimmy Domdeth (CSI), Jay-
Sheree Allen (City College) and Carlos Ruiz (Baruch).

During this time, the new senators of the BCC SGA had assumed office and were undergoing an intensive six-day leadership training put together by the Office of Student Life to prepare them for the challenges ahead of serving the student body as they promised during the campaign season and expected of them. It was during one of these training sessions that Mr. Laconia Therrio came in as one of our scheduled speakers. He touched on the issue of diversity and how importance it was that the people tell their “stories” to find commonalities and establish unity in the world. This led me to developing www.MetroTribes.com , a website devoted to celebrating cultural diversity by sharing cultural experiences and histories that have the potential to bridge the cultural gap between the various ethnicities and races of the world instead of widening it.

“The Making of Leaders”: The SGA senators at the BCC Leadership Training Sessions L-R: Melissa Kirk (Director of Student Life), Raya Bayor (SGA Treasurer), Manny Lopez (Assistant Director of Student Life), Muhammad Jalloh (Vice-Chair of Senate), Sebastian Pessoa (SGA Senator), Leona Alfred (SGA Executive Secretary), Omar Murray (SGA Vice President), Margaret Rodriguez (SGA President). Sitting: Dr. Otis Hill (Former Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Management) and Dr. Carolyn Williams (President of BCC).

The College president, Dr. Carolyn Williams and the (now retired) vice president for student development and enrollment management, Dr. Otis Hill, also came in and spoke to the new student leaders to encourage and remind them of their responsibilities and expectations both as students and student leaders on the campus. Dr. Ruth Bass (then chair of the BCC Senate) also came in to talk to us about how the College Senate works and the role of the SGA senators in helping it to function efficiently and effectively.

To the average student, it may seem that, thus far, I had had enough leadership training to last me for a long time. And they would be right. Usually right. Except that in August, I was at the College of Staten Island for the two-day orientation program for the new fellows of the CUNY Leadership Academy. For the first time, all 25 of the fellows met and were in the same place to learn about what it takes to make it through the year in the Academy. Here, I also met two other SGA senators from other CUNY schools who had made it in as Fellows: Christopher Browne (Brooklyn College) and Evita Belmonte (City Tech). Alyna Brown (Lehman College) and Tyesha Allen (BMCC), both of whom had been part of my interview group, had also made it into the academy.

It was amazing to meet students of different ages, diverse cultural backgrounds and nationalities and various academic pursuits in the same place, at the same time, for the same reason: they had been chosen as CUNY’s best and brightest and now had to undergo a yearlong intensive training program to sharpen their leadership skills, expand their cultural horizons and learn firsthand the challenges of global leadership and how cultures, politics, economics, selfless service and other factors played a key role in how leadership functions and how leaders can make the best impact on their societies without compromising their personal values or dispelling the values of others because they seem “different.”

Next, Community Service

A few days into the fall semester, I had the opportunity to do my first community service event since I started college. It was on September 11th, a day that has been set aside as the “National Day of Service” to encourage Americans to devote themselves to help their communities by volunteering their time and energy and helping to remember the victims of the tragedy of 9/11. As a Muslim, this held special significance to me. I consider myself above average when it comes to a conceptual and contextual understanding of Islam and Islamic Law. But I also know that Muslims have been blamed for the tragedy of 9/11 eight years earlier. It was also clear that current US foreign policy towards the Muslim world was not the most favorable. But I found solace in knowing that I can and should be able to bridge the cultural gap between “East and West” and the Muslim and Western world. And, this was one of those perfect opportunities to gauge the feelings on the “American side.” Working alongside other Fellows and staff members of the Academy at the HELP USA Wards Island rehabilitation center and helping to clear the facility of unneeded junk and giving it a “facelift” by helping to paint it, it became clear to me that one of the most effective ways to unite people was to have them put aside their trivial differences and work together to make life better for the less-privileged members of our world.

During this time, school was already in session and I was also very much involved in the BCC Student Government Association. At an earlier meeting, the SGA had chosen to put me forward as the sole candidate for the vice-chairperson of the College Senate (a post traditionally held by the SGA President). At the first Senate meeting, I was nominated by my colleagues for the position. The vice president of the SGA, Omar Murray, had also decided to run for the same position during this Senate meeting. After the “campaign speeches” were done and the votes were cast and in, I beat him by 31 votes to 15 to become the vice-chair of the BCC Senate.

In the following months, the academy gave me the opportunity to attend both the MtvU Woodie Awards (which recognizes the best of radio, musical and media excellence on America’s colleges and universities). I was also, along with the other fellows, invited to attend the “Investing in Futures” higher education event organized by The New York Times and CUNY and heavily attended by stakeholders in higher education, the unions and others. This was an opportunity for me to widen my horizon, expand my cultural competence and hear and understand the challenges facing public higher education in the US from those intimately involved in the system, including CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and Dr. Muriel Howard, the president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU). The contacts I made at this event were also invaluable.

Parties, Retreats, Conferences, and Conventions

Around the same time, I was also involved in the BCC SGA’s planning and execution of both the “Welcome Back” Party and the Halloween Party, events that had become SGA traditions over the years. Being rather unaccustomed to attending parties and very uncomfortable in the arts of parties, I had engaged myself in what I could do best: conduct interviews, take pictures and shoot videos.

By mid-December when the finals came around and the winter break came knocking, I was already looking forward to the Fellows Retreat put together by the CUNY Leadership Academy for the 2009-2010 cohort. The two-day retreat was a welcome relief from the previous weeks of finals and a great way to usher in the New Year. But the retreat was just a good beginning for what promised to be a year full of experiences for the fellows. At around this time also, the University was considering renaming the academy after the former vice-chancellor for budget and finance Ernesto Malave, who had passed away in Puerto Rico while attending the “Somos El Futuro” Conference.

During Presidents’ Day weekend in February, I joined the other senators of the BCC SGA and our mentors from the Office of Student Life, Manny Lopez and Regina Smith, to travel to Albany for the 39th Annual Black, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Conference. It was a great opportunity to meet and hear from the stakeholders in the state’s political system, including Gov. David Patterson, President Ruben Diaz of the Bronx and many other council members and legislative representatives, including Hassel Thompson, Marcus Crespo, Pedro Espada and Nick Perry (the chair of the Legislative Conference).

At the Black, Hispanic and Asian LegislativeConference in Albany, February 2010.

A week later, I was on my way to Tucson, Arizona, along with 11 other fellows and two staff members of the CUNY Leadership Academy for the annual National Collegiate Leadership Conference. Being my first time traveling to the American Southwest, it was an invaluable opportunity for me to meet other student leaders from different parts of the country and establish a strong social and professional network of like-minded people from diverse backgrounds, academic pursuits and socio-political interests. Realizing the enormity of the opportunity at hand, I had gone ahead and finally launched my long-in-the-making social networking site, www.Rumiya.com. I had also ordered some business cards to make it easier for me to share my information with others without risking their losing them if they lose piece of paper I scribble my contact information on. For the first time, I came into contact with “real” Native Americans, usually thought by many people to be almost extinct. I met and made friends with people from both the Navajo and Pueblo tribes. It was striking to note that many of them may be easily mistaken to be Hispanics, whether as a result of the way they look (many look very Mexican) or the names that they bear.

A few weeks later, I was also sponsored by The Communicator to attend the annual National College Media Convention at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in Times Square. Having attended the conference as an official delegate of BCC the previous year, I knew how invaluable and critical the sessions could be when it comes to learning and applying the science and art of journalism. I also had the opportunity to meet Mark Halperin, Time magazine’s editor-at-large and co-author of Game Change, one of the hottest political narratives of the decade that chronicles the historic campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Sarah Palin and the political dealings, interests and interactions that played behind the scenes. The previous year, I had the opportunity to meet Byron Pitts, Charles Gibson and Brian Storm, all persons to be reckoned with in the field of journalism. Here, I was able to learn valuable newsroom management skills, pointed to newspaper editing resources, introduced to the power and potential of multimedia journalism and given insider perspectives on some of the best opportunities available within this industry, including internships and portfolio creation. I was also able to meet and keep in touch with people who would have a lasting impact on how I approach journalism and view the world. It was nothing short of an experience that gave me a fresh perspective on the future and potentials of journalism.

The Malave Leadership Academy

While it may seem that I had done my own fair share of traveling, learning and experiencing leadership, appreciating service, and realizing and embracing the rich diversity of our world, the (now renamed) Malave Leadership Academy had one more experience in store for me. This came in the form of the “Cincinnati Urban Experience,” an alternate spring break opportunity volunteering to work with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless in far-away Ohio. This was an opportunity to realize that, despite the wealth of America and the somewhat carefree and luxurious lifestyle (by world standards) that many of us lead, homelessness and hunger were as real in almost every American city as daylight. It was touching to see both the blacks and whites languishing in abject poverty and deprivation while the big corporations have a free rein to maltreat them as they want while their elected representatives watch on without even raising an eyebrow. Cooking and cleaning at the soup kitchens, packing canned foods for families at the food pantry, cleaning gardens and recreational centers and observing and interacting with those who rarely get help and have almost lost hope in themselves, the corporations and especially their elected representatives, it was as frustrating as it was touching for the Fellows that had the opportunity to take part in this experience. It was also a wakeup call to the fact that while there is supposed to be a system in place to protect every American from humiliation, abandonment and abuse by either the corporations or the government, the people always have to initiate change in their societies if they ever have to move forward.

Reflections on a Year

After a year serving in the BCC SGA, working alongside other fellows of the Malave Leadership Academy to better acquire the necessary leadership skills needed for an effective and efficient leadership system that works for our world, and taking advantage of the opportunities that came my way from them, I realize that not every student may get the same opportunities as I did and not everyone may have the “prepared mind” to recognize the challenges and embrace the invaluable opportunities that present themselves to them. But I also know that my experience this past year is a testament to the fact that a quality CUNY education and co-curricular experience may be all one needs to acquire the skills needed to make a difference in our communities and the increasingly globalized world that we live in and must adapt to.

To my family for their love and support,
To my friends for their support and rapport,

To my fellow students for challenging me,
To my graceful teachers for educating me.

To the Student Life and  the SGA for the experiences,
To the Leadership Academy for the opportunities.

To all my admirers for their love,
And the less admirable for being a wing-less dove.

To the politicians for their hypocrisy,
And their false doctrines to replace democracy.

To all those who loved for the sake of it,
And those who hated without wit.

To the oppressed of the world with no hope,
And those who extend a heart and a rope.

To the angels who served tirelessly,
And those who upheld the Truth fearlessly.

To pure love and a wonderful life,
Failed successes and life's worthwhile strife.

Roses are red and violets are blue,
And God, you know, there's love between us two.

To all of you alive to breathe tonight's fresh air,
A Prosperous, Blessed and Happy New Year!  

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
But you are twice as true.

Tinker Bell was bounteous,
Cinderella was beauteous,
And you are twice as gracious.

The sun is a healing sight,
And the moon a refreshing light,
But your smile shines thrice as bright.

Good captains blink,
When Titanics sink,
But my love for you will never shrink.

As seasons get warmer,
And snows make it colder,
You always will remain my only summer.

When I went into battle,
To fight for my title,
Your love was my biggest mantle. 

While great men gallantly fought,
And honors were sold and bought,
Your heart was all that I sought. 

When victory's song was sung,
And bells were graciously rung,
After men were wrong and stung,
Your smile was all that kept me strong.

Yesterday I had a dream,
And you were a lightning beam,
And I swear you so seem,
Your love overflows like a heavenly stream.

When beauties go a singing,
And bearded chaps a fishing,
All I want is to go with you a loving,
And in your ocean of love a swimming.

Does God exist? Do we just have to believe that He exists or can we really prove His existence without resorting to dogma?

Of course, His existence is very much provable.

Look at the millions of stars and ask yourself who created them.

Look at the size of the universe, how many billions of years traveling at the speed of light it will take and ask yourself who would have created such a thing.

Look at our own planet, how everything seem to work seamlessly together, how snow only occurs in Winter, it is sunny in Summer, cool in Spring and plants flower and fade at the same times of the year every year.

Look at how the babies of lions look exactly like lions, how the babies of cows are exactly cows and don’t look like lions and how and why people look like their parents. Now ask yourself, is there no Intelligent Creator and Designer behind all this perfection?

Now look at yourself, how smart you are? You made the computers you are typing on, made the phones to help you talk to and hear people thousands of miles away without delaying a split second.

Why do members of your own race and the races of humans all have their noses growing between their eyes and mouths? Why do you all have seven days in a week? Why is it that you can always tell a male from a female no matter the tone of their skins, the texture of their hairs, the color of their eyes, the shapes of their noses or where and how they live?

Why do we all have the signatures of our lineage (our DNA) eternally embedded in our beings, never to be tampered with? Why is the biometrics of each one of us unique among billions of other people and hundreds of others out there who may look exactly like us?

Yet all you need to do all these is simply to ‘think’ with your brain. But the brain is just a sandwich of flesh, bones and blood to be consumed by maggots when you are just six feet below where you used to walk, talk and run on.

So, wherein lies your own intelligence. And where does the intelligence of great men go to when they suddenly ‘die’?

What makes us live, love, fear, hate and think intelligently?

Isn’t there some Power behind our own powers? Isn’t there a Creative Designer behind our own beautiful creation? Isn’t there some Source of Knowledge that we all seem to tap from for our existence and survival?

Who taught the ants to work in harmony, gather food for the ‘rainy day’ and procreate and pass on the same values to their own offspring since the beginning of time and till the end of time?

Who taught the bee its perfect geometry and gave it its sense of taste and freedom of choice to choose the flowers of its liking? Does the bee know that it has created the most perfect syrup (honey) for humanity’s ailments, yet unrivalled by the medical breakthroughs of thousands of years?

Who taught the tigers how to hunt for meat and the zebras which leaves and grasses to eat and the poisonous ones to avoid?

Who made all these possible?

Chance or Nature? If either Chance or Nature is so intelligent, then why don’t you just call it God, the Intelligent Creator and not deny Him?

Evolution? Then why did we suddenly stop evolving? Why aren’t the monkeys and apes in my jungle growing less hair, walking more upright and start thinking of weaving their own fabrics?

Why are the worms no longer interested in becoming lizards and the lizards in becoming crocodiles?

Why is man no longer producing new human species? Maybe people who can develop gills and live in the water? (‘Homo Fishiens’) Or people who would grow wings and fly in the air? (‘Homo Aviatus’)

If you can’t find any other possible answer, then why don’t you just acknowledge that Somebody, Some Power, Some Intelligent Designer is indeed behind the existence of the brilliant human race and the intelligent members of the creation, whether they are birds of the air, fish of the sea or humans conquering all three elements with their ‘superior smartitude’ ?

If you can’t come up with an all-inclusive name for Him, just call Him what names already exist!

Call Him God, Elohim, Atnatu or simply Allah, ‘the Only One worthy of Adoration’

Coram Deo: God, Godliness and Man in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

When I shall reach dear Lengeren,
Stony eyes shall cease to be barren,
Oh lofty fence of ancestral glory,
Knowing no bounds or kinly boundary.

Those huts of honor and goodness,
Embodiments of milk of human kindness,
The dignified wise and elderly one,
Is full of joy to see a cherished man.

A perfect mirror of his sonly features,
The album of his beloved’s pictures,
Unrestrained smiles on joyful faces,
Welcome the grandson and relieve the stresses.

A moment of joy and great re-union,
A moment of peace in the heart’s dominion,
“So the pigeon’s chick knows its way,
To its ancestral nest after a long stay.

Today thou art my precious toy,
Forever to love, cherish and enjoy,”
Cool silent tears of long separation and love,
Flowed in appreciation of the blessing from above.