BLOGGING CAN GET YOU KILLED

Bangladesh is a South Asian country with more than 160 million people. 90% of the population is Muslim, approximately 8% are Hindu, while Christians, Buddhists, and others comprise 2%. The constitution of Bangladesh guarantees both a secular and an Islamic nation. In 2010 the Bangladesh Supreme Court namely restored secularism in the constitution, which had been deleted in 1977 by a Military ruler named Ziaur Rahman. But Islam as the state religion has not been deleted from the constitution; it was incorporated in 1988 by the then military ruler H. M. Ershad. The constitution also guarantees both the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom of the press, albeit with some ifs and buts. The constitution states: “Subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interests of the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation, or incitement to an offence– (a) the right of every citizen to freedom of speech and expression; and (b) freedom of the press are guaranteed.”(1)
Time and again the Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh has limited the freedom of expression or the freedom of the press by laws, and has at times tried to limit it by unlawful harassments of journalists and/or newspapers. Every year many journalists are unlawfully tortured, many face trials, and many are imprisoned. In 2013 the government passed a new law, the Information & Communication Technology (Amendment) Act, which has a very controversial section. In section 57 of the ICT (Amendment) Act-2013 it states: “If any person deliberately publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the website or in any other electronic form any material which is false and obscene and if anyone sees, hears, or reads it having regard to all relevant circumstances, it’s effect is such as to influence the reader to become dishonest or corrupt, or causes to deteriorate or creates the possibility to deteriorate law and order, prejudice the image of the state or person or causes to hurt or may hurt religious belief or instigate against any person or organization, then this activity will be regarded as an offence.” For this offence one cannot get out on bail and it is punishable with a minimum of seven years to a maximum of fourteen years imprisonment or with a fine up to ten million BDT (USD 130,000). Since the enforcement of the law, it has been severely used against the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, particularly for those who express their thoughts in social media such as blogs and on Facebook. Many bloggers and facebookers have been arrested and sent to prison with the charges of hurting religious sentiments, particularly Islam. Few have been arrested for criticizing the ruling party’s activities.

The worst part of the law is that the majority of Muslims are deliberately using this law to harass others, particularly people of other religions and atheists. In September 2015, an NGO director named Mohon Kumar Mondol was arrested on the charge of hurting religious sentiments in a Facebook update. He had just criticized the Saudi Government for the accident during the hajj pilgrimage. It is surprising that he was arrested less than an hour after the status was given. Similar arrests are very common in Bangladesh. A journalist named Manash Mukherjee was arrested for his writing on Facebook and for criticizing in a newspaper a minister’s activities to wipe out a renowned Hindu family in Faridpur, Bangladesh. But, after huge criticism on the social media such as Facebook and various blogs, he has been released on bail. Although he has been charged with an ICT offence (usually not bailable), he has been allowed to get out on bail. This indicates that the judiciary system is totally controlled by the Government. Similar kinds of arrests for exercising the freedom of speech are very common in Bangladesh.

The examples above show the general restrictions enforced by the authorities that the people of Bangladesh are facing concerning the freedom of speech. However, the most fearsome restrictions are those that bloggers and writers are facing in Bangladesh. In 2015 a total of five persons have been hacked to death by the Islamic terrorist organizations—among them four writers/bloggers and one publisher. Another two writers and a publisher have been attacked but they have survived. All these writers/bloggers and the publisher were murdered on the grounds that the Islamic terrorists deemed their writings to have hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. In fact, as atheists the writers/bloggers favored secularism, human rights, women’s empowerment, and they sometimes criticized Islam, particularly Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic terrorism, and the filthiness of the Sharia law; they wrote scientific essays of which some contradicted Islamic teachings, and the publishers published books by atheists for business purposes even though they are not atheists themselves.

On the 26th of February 2015, Avijit Roy (42), a Bangladeshi-American writer and founder of the first Bengali secular blog site Mukto-Mona (free thinker), was hacked to death at Dhaka University Campus. He is the author of nine books—a few of them unique in Bengali literature. He came to Bangladesh to attend a month-long book fair on the occasion of publishing two new titles. His wife Bonya Ahmed was also nearly killed at the same time. She survived but lost her left thumb. Avijit Roy was one of the most prominent scientific writers in the Bengali language and he was a great international voice practicing the freedom of expression in Bangladesh. In 2013, when four bloggers had been arrested and sent to prison by the police, he stood up against it and built international support for their release. His death is a great loss to the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression for the Bangladeshi people.

Another writer, Washiqur Rahman Babu (27), was murdered on the street of Dhaka city on March 30 on his way to his office very close to his house. He was a secular blogger and a satirist of social injustice and religious bigotry. Rahman was not even on the list of the 84 atheist bloggers published by the fundamentalists of Bangladesh in 2013. Although he wrote in his own name, most of his fellow bloggers did not know his identity nor had they ever seen his photo. But the terrorists identified him anyhow and killed him. Two murderers were captured with machetes by a passer-by when they were fleeing after the murder. Both of them are madrasah students, who told the police that they feel proud to have killed Rahman; they do not know what he wrote or where he wrote but they had simply been ordered to carry out the murder by their superiors, which they did.

Also, a blogger and writer named Ananta Bijoy Das (32) was murdered in Sylhet on the 12th of May in 2015. He was likewise killed on the street close to his house on the way to his office. He was a moderator of the Mukto-Mona blog along with Avijit Roy and the author of three scientific books. Most of his blog entries are about evolutionary theory. After the death of Avijit Roy, Bijoy Das understood that he would also be killed by the Islamic terrorists so he tried to leave the country but failed.

The latest secular blogger to be murdered in Bangladesh is Niladri Chatterjee (27) who is also known as Niloy Nil. He was killed at his rented house on the 7th of August. On the 15th of May he posted on Facebook that he had noticed that some persons were following him, and that he had gone to the police for a general update but the police refused to listen. He also wrote that the police refused on the grounds that they would not be able to ensure his security. Instead they had advised him either to stop writing or to leave Bangladesh. Most of the Bangladeshi bloggers are not willing to go to the police because they fear harassment by them. Niladri Chatterjee was an active voice against the oppression by the Islamic fundamentalists of Hindu and other minorities. He was also active in participating physically in all kinds of demonstrations, for example, with the human rights movement and the women’s rights movement.

After the death of Niladri Chatterjee the police have been severely criticized in media at home and abroad and now they are granting some kind of security to those who apply for it. But bloggers can depend little on the police since, two days after the murder of Niladri Chaterjee, the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) of Bangladesh advised the bloggers not to cross the limit. Though he criticized the killing his speech almost legitimized the murders. Besides, it seems that the Government of Bangladesh has little concern over the killings of the secular bloggers. There are so many murders but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is yet to say anything about them to media or elsewhere. Sajeeb Ahmed Wajed Joy, son of the Prime Minister, told Reuters that the killing of the bloggers is too sensitive an issue for his mother to speak about in public. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, a popular writer and former professor of the Shahjalal Science and Technological University in Bangladesh, told media that Joy's statement seemed to give the impression that the murders would continue and that the Government would do nothing—say nothing. After this speech Mr. Iqbal was severely criticized by some members of the student’s wing of the ruling party, and radical Muslims sent letters to him to warn him to prepare himself for death. Now he has been assigned bodyguards for his safety. Moreover, most of the mainstream writers, fearing for their own lives, are reluctant to speak against the murders. Instead, like the IGP, some of them are criticizing bloggers for the content of their writings. Very few writers have participated in the movements demanding the arrest and trial of the murderers.

So, at this point almost all the bloggers fear to live in their own country. Most of the prominent bloggers have left Bangladesh with the help of various humanitarian organizations—few have left by their own capacity but there are still many left in the country. They are living in the utmost fear of being killed anytime and anywhere. Many have stopped writing altogether; many have deleted their posts, or blogs, or deactivated their Facebook IDs.

And on October 31 Faisal Arefin Deepan, the owner of a publishing house named ‘Jagriti Prokashoni,’ was murdered in his office. He had published two books by Avijit Roy, who was murdered in February. Another publisher of Avijit Roy’s book was also attacked on the same day along with two writers/bloggers but they survived, having procured huge injuries. The attacks on these publishers have of course changed the total scenario of the freedom of speech in Bangladesh. Earlier on, only secular writers/bloggers feared to be killed by the Islamic extremists, but now publishers are also fearing attack. So, most of the publishers are scared to publish books by secular writers. In February 2015, the office of a publishing house called ‘Rodela Prokashoni’ was also attacked by the extremists for publishing a translated book named 23 Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Muhammad originally written by Ali Dashti. The office of the publishing house had been closed and for two years it was banned from participating in the ‘Ekushey Book Fair.’ So, the future of the freedom of speech in Bangladesh remains dark. All the murders and attacks on the writers/bloggers and publishers have been acknowledged by the ‘Ansarullah Bangla Team,’ a banned terrorist organization of Islamic radicals, or by ‘Ansar Al Islam,’ the Indian Sub-Continent wing of Al-Qaeda.

The persecution of writers is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. Since Independence Bangladesh has been suffering from a lack of freedom of speech and writers have been persecuted for exercising this freedom. The first case in this regard was in 1974 when a poet named Daud Haider was exiled for writing a poem. Now he is living in Germany. Several times he tried to return to Bangladesh but could not. Taslima Nasreen, a famous writer and a feminist, needed to flee from the country in 1994 for her book Lajja, a book about the problems facing Hindu families living amongst radical Muslims. The book is banned in Bangladesh along with three other books published later in Kolkata, India. Ms. Nasreen is also currently living abroad and she has never been allowed to return to Bangladesh. Islamic extremists have demanded a death penalty for the writer and intellectual the late Professor Ahmad Sarif; they have attacked the house of the renowned poet late Shamsur Rahman in 1999; they have tried to assassinate the renowned writer late Humayun Azad on Dhaka University campus in 2003; they have in 2007 demanded a death penalty for Arifur Rahman, a cartoonist of a news magazine who faced trial and relocated to Norway afterwards with the help of ICORN; they have attacked Asif Mohiuddin, a secular blogger, in front of his office in Dhaka on January 15, 2013 (he later left Bangladesh and is now living in Germany); and they have killed Ahmed Rajib Haider, a secular blogger from Dhaka, on the 15th of February in 2013.

In 2013, immediately after the murder of the blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider by the Ansarullah Bangla Team, a few newspapers owned by radical Muslims deliberately and unethically published blog writings that contained a critique of some Quranic verses promoting violence. As Haider was a supporter of the ‘Shahbagh Movement’ (a spontaneous movement initiated by some bloggers to demand capital punishment for the war crimes in 1971), and as most of the convicted persons involved in war crime belong to a radical Islamic political party, there was a huge uprising of the radical Muslims against the ‘Shahbagh Movement’ as well as against the bloggers. An Islamic organization of madrasah teachers and students named Hefazot-e-Islam demanded a death penalty for all the secular bloggers (they used the term ‘atheist bloggers’). Attending an Islamic gathering, Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, chief of the organization, provoked the Islamic radicals by saying that the killing of the atheist bloggers is the solemn duty of every Muslim. But he was neither arrested nor did he face any kind of trial for this type of provocative speech, instead the Government donated some valuable land to the madrasah he governed. In fact, the Government of Bangladesh tried to pacify him with some reward so that he and his organization would keep calm. This Islamic organization has thirteen demands on their list and almost all of them are primitive in nature.

During the uprising this Islamic organization handed over a list of eighty-four atheist bloggers to the Government and demanded a death penalty for all of them. In response the Government arrested four bloggers. They were sent to prison and a trial ensued. Three of them have left the country free on bail. The ICT (Amendment) Act-2013 is also a response from the Government to the demands of Hefazot-e-Islam. Now all the secular bloggers fear being killed by the radicals or being arrested on the grounds of violation of the ICT (Amendment) Act.

In Bangladesh there are some other facts that have made the secular bloggers vulnerable to persecution by the Islamic extremists. There are more than 50,000 madrasahs in Bangladesh over which the Government has no control at all. These madrasahs are called ‘Qawmi’ madrasahs and they follow their own syllabus, which includes only Islamic education and jihadism. Every year thousands of children are getting this education and mentally they are becoming jihadists. The Government has several times tried to take control over this kind of education but has failed. Moreover, due to protests organized by the Islamic extremists the Government of Bangladesh was bound to cancel the drafted women’s development policy that entailed equal rights to property. They also demand the cancellation of the present education policy although the policy does not cover the ‘Qawmi’ madrasahs and there is already religious education in the policy.

During its emergence as an independent country Bangladesh was a secular country because the liberation movement was secular in nature and at the root of the movement was the Bengali Language Movement of 1948 and 1952, which also was secular in nature. But, immediately after Independence the country has gradually moved backwards and now there is very little scope to exercise the freedom of speech. It is now quite normal for most of the countries to have some religious and/or ethnic radical/extremist organizations and it is also normal that these try to stop people from exercising their freedom of speech/expression. These organizations must be successfully curtailed by the Government, but sadly, Bangladesh has failed to tackle them and there is little hope that they will do so in the near future.

Another list here.

Blogging is generally a benign, silly, typo-ridden, fact-challenged, and entirely inconsequential pastime—but not always, as many of the following real-life stories gruesomely illustrate. In some instances, these victims lost their lives as a direct result of their blogging; in others it was merely incidental. But every case was fatal.

1. Jessica Ghawi (USA)

A young sports blogger, Ms. Ghawi was shot down during the infamous Dark Knight Rises massacre at a Colorado movie theater in July 2012. A month earlier, she’d narrowly escaped death during a shooting spree at a Toronto food court. After that incident she’d blogged:

I can’t get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won’t go away….I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.

Her last online post was a Tweet directed to a hockey writer for Sporting News: “MOVIE DOESN’T START FOR 20 MINUTES.” Soon afterward, she was one of 12 dead victims.

2. Christine Keith (USA)

Beloved as the woman behind the “Adventures of a Thrifty Mama” blog, this Michigan Zumba instructor and mother of four had separated from her unemployed husband and filed court papers alleging that he’d repeatedly threatened to kill her with his hunting rifle. One night in the summer of 2013, her estranged husband showed up with a rifle and murdered both her and one of her sons before killing himself.

3. Ahmed Rajib Haider (Bangladesh)

An architect and anti-Islamist blogger who joined mass protests against fundamentalist authorities, Haider was attacked by two masked men outside his home and chopped to death one night in February 2013. A bloody machete was found next to his laptop.

4, 5, 6, 7. Mexican Cartel Victims, Autumn 2011

Next to Iraq, Mexico is purportedly the most dangerous place on Earth for journalists, with an estimated 58 reporters, editors, and photographers having been slaughtered by drug gangs since 2000. In September of 2011, a pair of unnamed “narco-bloggers” were found hanging from a pedestrian overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a sign allegedly identifying them as “Internet Snitches.” Later in September, 39-year-old Elizabeth Macias, who blogged under the pseudonym “Laredo Girl,” was found beheaded with a sign that allegedly said:

Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours. For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl…ZZZZ.

In November of that year, an anti-cartel blogger who wrote under the pseudonym Rascatripas (“Belly Scratcher”) was found beheaded with this note near his carcass: This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report on the social networks.

8. Edinaldo Filgueira (Brazil)

A pro-worker political party leader and newspaper owner, Filgueira was thought to have been shot to death in June of 2011 as the result of a blog entry that criticized local government officials. He had received death threats subsequent to his fatal post and was gunned down by three men on motorcycles while leaving his newspaper office.

9. Robert Chasowa (Malawi)

A 25-year-old student at a Polytechnic School in this tiny eastern African country, Chasowa reportedly received threats after criticizing the regime of President Bingu wa Mutharika. He was eventually murdered on campus in September 2011. Police originally ruled the death a suicide, although a special commission concluded that he had been murdered.

10. Zakariya Rashid Hassan al-Ashiri  (Bahrain)

In April 2011, this Bahraini blogger was arrested and charged with spreading false information and inciting hatred against the government. He was found dead while still in custody. Although officials said he had died from sickle cell anemia, photos of his slashed corpse emerged and led to an investigation which concluded he had been beaten by authorities. They eventually filed his case under “Deaths Caused by Torture.”

11. Socratis Giolas (Greece)

An investigative journalist and blogger who allegedly wrote about Greece’s “seamier underside,” Giolas was allegedly shot sixteen times on the doorstep of his Athens home in front of his pregnant wife by a radical Marxist group known as the Sect of Revolutionaries. The 2010 slaying was timed mere days before he was scheduled to publish “an investigative series on corruption.”

12. Magomed Yevloyev (Russia)

The owner of a news website in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia that was known for its oppositional stance toward the republic’s president, Yevloyev was taken into police custody in August 2008, whereupon he was fatally shot in the temple. Police claimed he’d tried to grab one of their rifles, an explanation that has not been accepted by global human-rights organizations or the US government.

13. Sattar Beheshti (Iran)

An Iranian blogger who’d repeatedly criticized the Islamic Republic’s government on Facebook, Beheshti was detained by the Iranian Cyber Police in late October 2012. The day prior to his arrest, he allegedly posted the following on his blog:

They threatened me yesterday and said, ‘Your mother will soon wear black because you don’t shut your big mouth.’

After his arrest, he filed a signed complaint to his prison warden stating the following:

I, Sattar Beheshti, was arrested by FATA and beaten and tortured with multiple blows to my head and body….I want to write that if anything happens to me, the police are responsible.

On November 6, his family was notified to come and “collect his body.” A member of the Iranian Parliament denied that he had been murdered while in custody but instead had died of “shock and fear” despite the fact that 41 Iranian prisoners signed a letter that said “signs of torture were visible on the blogger’s body.”

14. Mohammed Nabbous (Libya)

A renowned Libyan blogger and “civilian journalist” who founded an independent TV channel, Nabbous was shot dead in March 2011 by a loyalist sniper in Benghazi while filming a broadcast about clashes between government forces and revolutionaries.

15. Simon Ng (USA)

A teenage Chinese immigrant to the US, Ng and his sister were stabbed to death in Queens, NY in 2005 by his sister’s ex-boyfriend, who allegedly was trying to rob them of money for a return trip to Hong Kong. Police located the perpetrator after reading a blog entry of Ng’s posted only moments before his murder where he stated that the ex-boyfriend was getting agitated and that he wished he would leave.

16. Dennis Lane (USA)

Reputedly a “popular” Maryland “blogger and podcast co-host,” Lane was allegedly stabbed to death by his 14-year-old daughter and her 19-year-old boyfriend in May 2013. Police reportedly said, “It’s our detectives’ understanding that [Lane’s daughter and her boyfriend] have conspired over the last two months, exchanging electronic communication about planning to kill Mr. Lane.”

17. Diing Chan Awuol (South Sudan)

Blogging and writing professional news stories under the pseudonym “Isaiah Abraham,” Awuol was openly critical of his government and urged “an improvement with former enemies in Khartoum.” As a result, he had reportedly received phoned death threats saying, “either stop writing or we will get rid of you.” A week later, they got rid of him.

18. Steven Vincent (Iraq)

An author, journalist, and travel blogger who wrote several investigative pieces about corruption among Shia militias, Vincent and an Iraqi translator were kidnapped by men in police uniforms in the city of Basra in 2005. He was bound, gagged, beaten, and shot to death.

19 Andrew Olmsted (Iraq)

An Army major with his own website, Olmsted wrote an ominously prophetic entry in July 2007 as he headed to Iraq. He gave it to a friend and told him to publish it if he were to be killed:

The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous, even if most people who have read my writings haven’t agreed with them.…I have my own opinions about what we should do about Iraq, but since I’m not around to expound on them I’d prefer others not try and use me as some kind of moral capital to support a position I probably didn’t support.

Olmstead also wrote that if he got killed, he would miss “not being able to blog any longer.” He was killed in action, and the blog post was published posthumously.

20. Renée Wathelet (Mexico)

A 60-year-old Canadian expatriate living in Mexico and blogging in French, Wathelet posted the following in September 2009:

I look at the sun emerging gently from the clouds, before beginning my morning walk, from sand to the rocks, the rocks to the sand….I try to imagine the beauty….I take the time to take the time.

Later that day, she was stabbed to death.

HOW TO BE A DISCIPLINED INDIVIDUAL

You may read about those people who have built self-discipline. They get up at 5 am, meditate and plan their day, run for 6 miles, and then drink a kale and protein smoothie for breakfast. They do all of this before going to work at their startup, which they hope to take public next month. They never waste time, and their accomplishments are astonishing.
Yet, here you sit, surfing the internet, reading online politics, playing candy crush, and eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream straight out of the container.

Is this the life you really want to live? Or, are you searching for a life in which you will accomplish your goals and dreams, no matter what they are?

If this is your goal, the key to success in achieving your goals and plans both in your professional and personal life is to become a more self-disciplined person.
How can you build the kind of self-discipline that other people have? Discipline is critical to career success, so are there tricks to ​help you become more self-disciplined? There are. Here are eight ways to help yourself become more self-disciplined than you are now.

1. Start Small

You don't need to wake up as a completely different person. As a cultural event, people tend to make resolutions on New Year's Day: They say, this year will be different. Well, you can make this year different, but you don't need to change everything at once. For best results, pick just one thing.
Otherwise, you'll tend to overwhelm yourself with too many changes to make at once.

This defeats your intention of becoming a more self-disciplined person.

2. Identify What You Want to Do Differently

Do you even like kale smoothies? Do you want to? While drinking one may seem like the noble, healthy thing to do, it's not likely to make you a better person. It may make you an insufferable jerk, though, if you are only doing it to show how awesome you are.

If you're focusing on health, pick something that is practical and that will make a real difference in your life. That could be going to the gym, walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator or limiting the ice cream you eat.
If you want to make your career different and more successful, ask what would make a difference. Take a look at the performance of people who have the job you want. What do they do differently than you? Do they arrive early? Stay late? Work from home? Dress up, even though the dress code is casual? Do they respond to all emails within an hour? Figure out the characteristics that you are missing, pick an important one and build on that.

3. Remember You Are an Adult

Adults don't sit around and wait until someone tells them what to do; they just do it. That may mean giving up some of your downtimes at work, but disciplined people are the ones who succeed, and disciplined means that you keep going even when you'd rather not.
Again, you can start small. If you normally sit at your desk and play on your phone until your manager comes by and gives you a new task, set your phone time for 5 minutes. Then, when the alarm goes off, go find your manager and ask for something new to do.

The timer will help remind you that you are on the clock even if you don't have a task at hand.
Better? Work with your manager to establish such clarity about your goals and the expectations about your contributions in your job that you never have to ask your manager what to do. You just move on to the next task. (Perhaps you may never play on your phone at all. It's conceivable.)

4. Make a List

Part of self-discipline is knowing what you need to do and then doing it. When you're not used to behaving in a disciplined manner, you will sometimes struggle to come up with your next activity. Start your day with a list of tasks that you need to accomplish.
You can make the tasks work-related or plan part of your day for personal items. Everything from emails to laundry to stopping at the grocery store can go on the list.

Checking the items off the list can help you towards developing self-discipline.

5. Make Choices in Advance

If your goal is to pay attention in meetings, choose to leave your phone at your desk. Don't even put it in your pocket. You can't play with it if it's not there. If you want to become more self-disciplined about food, ask the waitress to box up half your meal before she puts it in front of you or choose to always eat just half of the sandwich.
If you want to get on top of your emails, decide how many emails you'll respond to before doing something else, whether it is 5, 10, or all of them. Just decide before the situation presents itself and you'll find it a lot easier to remain steadfast in the face of temptation.

6. Make Use of Technology

Technology makes people flighty—they can always check Facebook or Twitter or reblog something on Tumblr, not to mention playing games and texting friends. But there are also technological tools that can help you build self-discipline.
One such tool is ZenZone, a brain fitness trainer app that will help you achieve your goals in self-discipline training. Another is Coach.me which helps you form a new habit with their habit tracking app.
Additionally, you can set timers that limit the amount of time you spend playing a game, or on your favorite time-wasting website. Take advantage of these tools. You can use one that tracks your time to give you an idea of how you spend your time and then work from there to lower the number of hours you spend wasting time.
If your goal is a fit lifestyle with a healthy weight, regular exercise, serious walking, and a restful sleep each night, trackers exist to help you. Fitbit, for example, helps you track all of this. While you need to record some of the data, Fitbit connects with other devices to automatically capture, as one example of its capabilities, your weight from a synchronized scale.

7. Recognize Your Limited Temptation Capabilities

If a self-disciplined life was easy, everyone would practice self-discipline. But, it's not. However, did you know that every temptation you avoid improves your ability to avoid the next temptation? So, for example, when you make decisions in advance, you reduce your temptations. This also holds true for decisions in your personal life.
If you want to stay sober and professional at the office holiday party, decide in advance that you will strictly limit your intake of alcohol. If you want to eat healthily, go grocery shopping when you're full and don't buy bags of candy.
If you want to arrive on time for work, go to bed earlier so that you have time to get up and get out the door without feeling pressed for time. If you know that the drive to work varies between twenty minutes and a half hour, always leave expecting to spend thirty minutes on the road.
Figure out a way to make the things you struggle with less available. This will lower the number of times you are tempted to do something that hurts your self-discipline. This will also save your strength for unexpected temptations. For instance, if snacking on salty carbs is a disaster for your diet, don’t buy the potato chips. Keep only healthier carbs such as SmartFood popcorn items in your pantry.
If you know that you will have a difficult time talking with your boss about a particular topic without rolling your eyes and saying something inappropriate back, plan what you’re going to say in advance.  Then, schedule the discussion for the beginning of the day when you have the most stamina against temptation.

8. Remember That Failure Is Always Part of Succeeding

Many people want to become self-disciplined and then they make a mistake in their hoped-for routine on day two and give up. You will not make yourself perfectly disciplined overnight, so expect some failure to happen along the way. But, if you plan for it, and understand that you will fail from time to time. one mistake won't derail your whole plan on your way to success.
At the same time, when you experience success, you need to celebrate. You accomplished all of the five goals that you had set for yourself this week. Reward yourself and celebrate in a way that won't undermine your success. (Eating healthily? No food rewards.)
Say that your goal is to gain new clients for your business. A bad reward would be to take three days off from prospecting. A good reward might entail lunch at a fancy restaurant with a friend.
Building self-discipline can help in all areas of your life. If you're ready to get started, pick one area and get going. Don't worry about perfection in all areas at once, and don't worry about failure, just worry about becoming better today than you were last week. Gradually, you'll become disciplined in that one area and then you can move on to the next! Goodluck.

FUNNY NIGERIAN JOKES

Plantains

Teacher: Kola, spell plantain
Kola: whish one? the lipe one or the unlipe one?

He asks "Which one? The ripe one or the unripe one?", some people (like me) have trouble with the 'r', and with some people, it sounds like an 'l'

Teacher: what difference does it make? Just spell plantain!
Kola: Teasha, If you fly the lipe one na 'DODO',
if you fly the unlipe one na 'SHIPS'
if you loast am, na 'BORLI'
All of them na plantain,
so whish one you wan make I spell? 



LONDON ZOO

A Nigerian youngster who was visiting the United Kingdom for the first time was taken to the London zoo for sightseeing. On getting to the section where monkeys are kept, he was amazed to see other tourists giving out plenty of money to the monkeys that were hopping around doing acrobatics. The more the acrobatics, the more the tourists enjoyed the show and the more the money (hard currency) the monkeys got.

This young man suddenly had an idea and when he got back to Nigeria, he started learning all kinds of acrobatics. He visited his medicine man and asked for a portion that will transform him into a monkey.

During his next visit to London, he went into the zoo and took the portion and was transformed into a monkey. He joined the other monkeys and started his own type of modern, systematic and attractive acrobatics. He soon caught the attention of all the tourists who wasted no time in showering him with plenty of pounds sterling. He was now making more money than the real monkeys.

The king of the monkeys didn't like this and challenged the new monkey to an acrobatic duel. The contest was tough and very keen but the new monkey won. The king monkey had to go on exile in shame but before he left he set a trap for the intruding monkey who now became the new king.

The next day, monkey business started as usual, with money coming in from the tourists. There was this particular tourist who really enjoyed the show that he threw a lot of money into the cage. The new king pocketed his money but to his amazement all the other monkeys threw their earnings into the adjacent cage. The new king could not comprehend this and would not allow all that money to go away like that; so he jumped into the adjacent cage to pick up the money. It was only when he got there that he realized it was a lion's cage.

The lion looked at him, looked at the money and roared and started toward the monkey who was now sweating, shaking and foaming in the mouth.

Half way, the lion suddenly stopped, looked at the monkey again and said:

"Oh boy, if no bi say we all na Naija, I for show you."




Hungry and Broke

There were three men living together in London. An Afro-American, a West Indian and a Nigerian. They were all starving because they didn't have money to buy food.

However upon coming close to a posh London restaurant in this classy neighbourhood, they decided to come up with a plan.

The Afro-American went in first. After being seated, he ordered a three course meal with white wine. When he had finished the meal, the waiter came by with the bill. "LISTEN MY MAN, I ALREADY PAID YOU!" - the Afro-American shouted! The waiter was very confused because he could not remember being paid. But because he did not want to cause any trouble, he let the brother leave.

Five minutes later, the West Indian walked into the same restaurant and ordered a five course meal with red wine. When he was finished eating, the waiter came by to collect the money for the food. "HEY, HEY, LOOK AT ME CROSSES. BUT AH PAID YOU ALREADY!" - the West Indian shouted. This time the manager came and had to calm down the West Indian, because he did not want anything to upset the other customers. He let the guy go.

Ten minutes later, the Nigerian walked in. And you know how we are. He sat down. Lit up a cigarette, and ordered the most expensive meal on the menu, plus two bottles of Beer. After he had finished, the waiter came to collect the money for the meal, But before the Nigerian could say anything, the waiter spoke to him."Sir, I have been having all sorts of problems all day and I can't understand it. Two other people like you came in earlier and ate, and they say that they paid me but I don't remember getting any money from them so, " Before he could finish, the Nigerian interrupted, rather emphatically, "OGA I SORRY FOR YOU OOOO. BUT DAT NA YOUR PROBLEM. I JUST WANT YOU TO GIVE ME MY CHANGE!!"




NNA, IYON AND KANABAR

An Akwa Ibom passenger once boarded a bus in Lagos. The bus driver was an Ijaw man and the conductor was a Calabar man.

The Akwa Ibom man said to the bus conductor, "Ah de ko ori oro."

The conductor then told the driver, "Idi-oro wa O."

On the way, the bus had a flat tire. The Ijaw man then told his conductor, "Zackson, get the zack, make you put the spare tire. Make you no allow us sleep for road in Nagos O."

The conductor cracked up in laughter, "Oka Yohn, you dey call yack Zack, You no know say dem no go understand you for Dagos."

One Igbo man then disembarked the bus in anger and exclaimed, "Ekolo Gbeja mi, Malu fo soke.",

BY-Joey Akan @pulse

MYTHS AND FACT ABOUT ISLAM

There are 1.6 billion Muslim people worldwide and an estimated 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States. Islam is currently the second largest religion in the world next to Christianity. Despite the fact that there are so many Muslims in the world, in many places there is a lack of understanding about Muslim people and Islam. In addition, the increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric and the unfortunate conflation of terrorism with Muslim people contributes to biased attitudes and reinforces stereotypes. As a result, Islamophobia—the fear, hatred and discrimination of Muslim people—is manifesting itself in personal biases, rhetoric, education, politics, hate crimes and more.

This resource is intended to: (1) provide background knowledge about Muslim people and Islam, (2) dispel stereotypes and myths and replace them with facts and information, (3) suggest ways that educators can address these important topics in the classroom and (4) provide relevant key words and definitions.

Myth #1: All Muslim people are Arab or Middle Eastern.

The Facts:

Although Islam began as a religion in the Middle East and its holiest sites are located there, the region is home to only about 20% of the world’s Muslims. As of 2010, there were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, which is roughly 23% of the world’s population, according to a Pew Research Center estimate. While many people think that most Muslims are of Middle Eastern descent, in actuality Indonesia (in Southeast Asia) currently has the single largest Muslim population. Projections into the future estimate that India (in South Asia) will have the world’s largest population of Muslims by the year 2050.

In terms of Muslims in the United States, 75% of all U.S. Muslim adults have lived in this country since before 2000. The Muslim American population is significantly younger and more racially diverse than the population as a whole, with 30% describing themselves as white, 23% as black, 21% as Asian, 6% as Hispanic and 19% as other or mixed race.

Myth #2: Islam is a violent religion and Muslims identify with terrorism.

The Facts:

Within every religion, there exists a spectrum of attitudes and behavior and extremism is not unique to one particular belief system. There are people who sincerely view themselves as Muslims who have committed horrible acts in the name of Islam. These people, and their interpretation of Islam, is rightly called “extremist;” they are a minority within Islam and the vast majority of Muslims reject their violence and consider their interpretation a distortion of the Muslim faith. Extremism is not unique to Islam. 

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study collected in 11 countries with significant Muslim populations, people overwhelmingly expressed negative views of ISIS. It is important to keep in mind that Islam, like other Abrahamic religions, includes a large pool of opinions and different ways to understand the traditional holy text that was written in a different era. Terrorists use radical interpretations of Islam, which take a small number of texts that were meant to regulate warfare in the early days of Islam. Terrorists then apply these interpretations to contemporary times.

There is also a perception—even among many Muslims—that Muslim groups and leaders do not sufficiently denounce acts of terrorism. A 2011 Pew survey found that about half of all U.S. Muslims said their own religious leaders have not done enough to speak out against terrorism and extremists. However, it is useful to note that there are many Muslim heads of state, politicians, organizational leaders and individuals who regularly condemn these acts. For example, after the 2015 terrorist attacks in France, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt led condemnations of the attacks. A coalition of leading national and local American Muslim groups also held a press conference to condemn the attacks. Further, thousands of Muslim clerics worldwide passed a “fatwa” (i.e. Islamic legal opinion) against terrorist organizations such as ISIS, the Taliban and al-Qaeda and requested that these terrorist groups not be branded as “Muslim organizations.”

Muslims are also subject to increased incidents of hate crimes. In 2014, there was an overall decrease in hate crimes in the United States, but the number of hate crimes targeting Muslims grew from 135 in 2013 to 154 in 2014. And this is most likely an underrepresentation of the number of Muslims targeted because the numbers reflect only those crimes reported to police.

It is important to remember that terrorist attacks in the United States have been committed by extremists who have adhered to a wide range of ideological beliefs including the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacy, anti-government, Islamic extremism and others. No one ideology is responsible for terrorism in the United States.

Myth #3: You can’t be Muslim and be patriotic to America.

The Facts:

Based on a 2011 Pew Research Study survey, there are an estimated 2.75 million Muslims in the United States (some estimates of the Muslim population are larger), making up a little less than 1% of the total population. A 2011 Gallup poll found that the majority of Muslim-Americans say that they are loyal to the United States and are optimistic about the future even though they experience bias and discrimination. In a 2011 study by Pew, a majority of Muslim Americans (56%) reported that most Muslims who come to the United States want to adopt American customs and ways of life.  

Muslim Americans are equally as likely to identify with their faith as they do with the United States; 69% identify strongly with the U.S. and 65% identify with their religion. A 2013 Pew study found that most Muslim-Americans (63%) say there is no inherent tension between being devout and living in a modern society; as a point of comparison 64% of American Christians felt that way. There are currently two members of the United States Congress who are Muslim-American (Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Andre Carson of Indiana) and 5,896 members of the U.S. military self-identify as Muslim. (Note that of the 2.2 million members of the military, 400,000 of those have not reported their religion so the number of Muslims in the military is likely higher.)

Myth #4: Islam oppresses women and forces them into a subservient role.

The Facts:

A common perception is that Muslim women are oppressed, discriminated against and hold a subservient position in society. The role and status of Muslim women in society cannot be separated from the role of women in the larger society because women around the world of all races, religions and nationalities face inequality on many levels. Muslim women are not alone in this. The Quran explicitly states that men and women are equal in the eyes of God and forbids female infanticide, instructs Muslims to educate daughters as well as sons, insists that women have the right to refuse a prospective husband, gives women the right to divorce in certain cases, etc. However, interpretation of gender roles specified in the Quran varies with different countries and cultures and in the Islamic world, there exist principles and practices that subjugate and oppress women (e.g. forced marriages, abductions, deprivation of education, restricted mobility). Many contemporary women and men reject limitations put on women and reinterpret the Quran from this perspective. It is also important to understand that, similar to other religions, people in positions of power will sometimes use religion as an excuse to justify oppression of women.

The head scarf is often cited as an example of oppression. The Quran directs both men and women to dress with modesty but how this is interpreted and carried out varies a great deal. Many people think that Muslim women are forced to wear a hijab (head scarf), niqab or burqa. While it is true that in some countries with significant Muslim populations women are forced to wear the hijab, this is not the reason Muslim women wear the hijab in most cases, particularly in the United States. In fact, many women choose to wear a hijab, niqab or burqa on their own and do so for a variety of reasons including a sense of pride in being Muslim, a collective sense of identity or to convey a sense of self-control in public life.

Another measure of women’s roles in Muslim society is leadership. Since 1988, eight countries have had Muslim women as their heads of state, including Turkey, Indonesia, Senegal, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh (two different women), Pakistan and Mauritius. Many Muslim countries—including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia—have a higher percentage of women in national elected office than does the United States.

3 Things Educators Can Do

1. Incorporate the experiences, perspective and words of Muslim people into the curriculum through social studies and current events instruction, children’s literature, and learning about different cultures. When you teach about world religions, be sure to include Islam.
2. Teach about stereotypes, bias and discrimination in all forms, including religious bigotry. Discuss different forms that bias and discrimination can take in personal interactions, school, the community and the larger society.  
3. Help young people learn the different ways they can be an ally when they encounter bullying or bias that target Muslim students, both in person and online

Emmanuella to star in Nolly wood movie

Popular Nigerian child comedienne, Emmanuella Samuel, aka Emmanuella, is set to feature in a Hollywood Disney movie.

She took to her Instagram account on Sunday, February 18 to make the big announcement.

The Instagram account @officialemanuella although unverified displayed pictures of her on set at Disney Studios. She also appreciated those who have given her comedy career support. She said in the post that she never dreamed of reaching such huge height in her career.

“Thanks @disneystudios God bless everyone whose support has added to bringing us here. I never dreamed of being here so soon. I miss Success. I love you all.” her post read.

Emmanuella is well known for her intriguing roles in Mark Angel’s comedy skits. The Child comedy superstar clocked seven years old in July 2017.

Since her venture into Nigerian Youtube space, with the popular Mark Angel Comedy show, her fan base has enjoyed so much growth making her one of the first African Comedy Channel to hit 1million subscribers on YouTube.

A SCREEN SHOT OF HER INTERVIEW WITH DISNEY 

FLORIDA MASS SHOOTINGS

Nikolas Cruz and his lawyer make a brief appearance before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica in Fort

PARKLAND, Fla. — The suspect in one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history confessed to the police that he “began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds,” according to a police arrest report released Thursday.

The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, carried a black duffel bag and backpack, where he hid loaded magazines, the report said. He arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in an Uber at 2:19 p.m. on Wednesday and pulled out a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, according to details described by the authorities at a news conference on Thursday.

Mr. Cruz also shot people inside five classrooms on the first and second floors of the freshman building. He eventually discarded the rifle, a vest and ammunition in a stairwell, blended in with fleeing students and got away, the authorities said.

After leaving the school, Mr. Cruz walked to a Walmart, and bought a drink at a Subway. He also stopped at a McDonald’s. He was arrested by the police without incident as he walked down a residential street at 3:41 p.m.

“He looked like a typical high school student, and for a quick moment I thought, could this be the person who I need to stop?” said Officer Michael Leonard.The victims — 14 students and three faculty — ranged from 14 years old to 49.

Among them was a popular football coach and a geography teacher credited with saving a boy’s life when he stood in front of a classroom door.

The coach, Aaron Feis, was seen as someone who looked out for students who got in trouble, those who were struggling, those without fathers at home. “He’d go out of his way to help anybody,” said Mr. Feis’s grandfather, Raymond. 

Mr. Cruz made his first court appearance, clad in an orange jail jumpsuit.

Shackled around his hands, feet and waist, Mr. Cruz was asked if he understood the circumstances. “Yes, ma’am,” he whispered“He’s sad. He’s mournful,” his public defender, Melisa McNeill, said afterward. “He is fully aware of what is going on, and he’s just a broken human being.”

Mr. Weekes, the chief assistant public defender, said the lawyers were still trying to piece together the details of Mr. Cruz’s life. Mr. Cruz has a “significant” history of mental illness, according to Mr. Weekes, and is possibly autistic or has a learning disability.

Photo

Nikolas Cruz. CreditBroward County Jail

But Mr. Weekes was not yet ready to say whether he would pursue a mental health defense.

Howard Finkelstein, the chief public defender in Broward County, said the case will present a difficult question: Should society execute mentally ill people?

“There’s no question of whether he will be convicted of capital murder 17 times,” he said. “When we let one of our children fall off grid, when they are screaming for help in every way, do we have the right to kill them when we could have stopped it?”

Since his mother’s death last year, Mr. Cruz was living with another family, said their attorney.

The family that took him in, the Sneads, had seen signs of depression in Mr. Cruz, but nothing indicated that he was capable of this kind of violence, Jim Lewis, the family’s attorney, said. The family had allowed Mr. Cruz to bring his gun with him to their house, insisting that he keep it in a lockbox.

Mr. Lewis had encouraged Mr. Cruz to attend adult education courses, work toward his G.E.D., and take a job at a local Dollar Tree store, he said in a brief interview. The Sneads’ son, a junior, knew Mr. Cruz from Stoneman Douglas High.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cruz and the Sneads’ son were texting until 2:18 p.m., Mr. Lewis said — about five minutes before the first 911 calls about the shooting. “But there was nothing crazy in the texts,” Mr. Lewis said. Here is our profile on Mr. Cruz.

Gino Santorio, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Broward Health, said the hospital where Mr. Cruz was taken, Broward Health North, enacted safety protocols when he arrived on Wednesday.

The staff treated the suspect “like every patient they treat,” Mr. Santorio said.

“We were able to seclude the patient, treat and get them out without any issues,” he added.

Broward Health North received nine patients, including the suspect, according to Kelly Keys, manager of emergency preparedness for the health system. Two patients died, three remain at the hospital, and three have gone home.

The school community urged action from lawmakers, including tougher gun legislation: ‘We need change.’

Students and parents in Parkland, an affluent suburb in Florida’s most intensely Democratic county, said a focus from policymakers on treating mental illness was not enough.

Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa, 14, was killed, made an emotional plea for action.

“President Trump, we need action, we need change,” she said, the urgency rising in her voice. “Get these guns out of the hands of these young kids and get these guns off the streets.”

“If we’re constantly having our children worried about getting shot at, what are we telling our future?” said David Hogg, 17, a senior, who said two of his 14-year-old sister’s friends were killed. “And that’s what these people are killing, our future.”

Superintendent Runcie did not mince words: “Now is the time for the country to have a real conversation on sensible gun controls in this country,” he said.

Democrats in Congress welcomed a gun control debate. “At some point, we’ve got to say enough is enough,” Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said on the Senate floor.

But in an interview on WIBC radio on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that public policymakers “shouldn’t just knee-jerk before we even have all the facts and the data.” He added, “We need to think less about taking sides and fighting each other politically, and just pulling together.

In an address to the nation, President Trump announced he would visit Parkland and work with the nation’s governors “to help secure our schools, and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” But he made no mention of guns

The F.B.I. had information about a suspicious comment on YouTube.

Ben Bennight, a bail bondsman in Mississippi, said in an interview that he reported a suspicious comment left on his YouTube channel last fall by a user named “nikolas cruz.”

“I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” the Sept. 24 comment said.

Mr. Bennight took a screenshot of the comment and flagged it to YouTube, which removed the post. Mr. Bennight said he then left a voice mail message at his local F.B.I. field office alerting it to the comment.

Mr. Bennight, 36, said that when he originally reported the comments to the F.B.I., a pair of agents interviewed him the next morning. Mr. Bennight said two F.B.I. agents visited him a few hours after the shooting on Wednesday, spending about 15 to 20 minutes with him. The agents told him they thought the person who posted on his channel might be connected to the Florida shooting because they had the same name.

The F.B.I. on Thursday released a statement that said it received information about a comment made on a YouTube channel in September 2017. “No other information was included in the comment which would indicate a particular time, location, or the true identity of the person who posted the comment,” the statement said. The F.B.I. said it conducted database reviews and other checks, but was unable to further identify the person who posted the comment.

On Thursday, Jordan Jereb, a leader of a white supremacist group based in North Florida, told The Associated Press that Mr. Cruz had joined the group, but later Mr. Jereb said that he did not know whether that was true. Sheriff Israel said he could not confirm any ties Mr. Cruz might have had to white nationalists.

The suspect’s Instagram accounts showed guns and hinted at animal cruelty.

Two Instagram accounts that classmates said belonged to Mr. Cruz were filled with images of weaponry, as well as the hats and bandannas he liked to wear to school. Among more innocuous pictures of animals, including a dog and a gecko, was a picture of a slaughtered toad. In response to a comment on that image, Mr. Cruz wrote that toads tended to run away when they saw him, because “I killed a lot of them.”

Other posts on the first account, like one captioned “arsenal,” showcased collections of firearms, including what appears to be a Savage Axis bolt-action rifle, a Smith and Wesson M&P15-series rifle, and at least two shotguns.

In New York, two students were arrested after threatening on social media to ‘gun down’ their Brooklyn high school, police said.

Cole Carlberg, 16, turned himself in, and the police picked up Joshua Schechter, 16, after receiving a 911 call at about 9 a.m. on Thursday. Both were charged with making terroristic threats, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon, a New York police sergeant, Brendan Ryan, said.

On Wednesday, the teenagers had posted on Snapchat that they had planned to shoot up Brooklyn Prospect Charter School on Fort Hamilton Parkway, Sergeant Ryan said, adding that the school contacted parents about the threat. One of the teenagers had an “air pistol rifle” that Sergeant Ryan described as a pellet or BB gun, but said it was unclear who owned it. “That’s still under investigation,” he said.

Mr. Carlberg and Mr. Schechter remained in custody on Thursday night, Sergeant Ryan said.

It was unclear whether the profile picture for that account, a face nearly entirely covered with a “Make America Great Again” hat and large bandanna, was an image of Mr. Cruz.

The profile picture for the second account also featured a face almost fully covered, this time with an Army beanie. The account included several pictures of a figure wearing several different Army hats and carrying guns and knives. It also contained a picture of a Google search for the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar” — God is great.

Instagram did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

‘The shots were something I’ll never forget’

Moises Lobaton, a senior, was in psychology class when gunfire boomed. The students scurried to try to hide as far away from the door as possible.

“There wasn’t enough space behind the desk, so not all of the kids could fit,” he said.

Shots shattered a glass window on the door, injuring at least three of his classmates, including a girl who “wasn’t moving at all.”

“She was next to a pool of blood, but I couldn’t tell if it was hers or the guy next to hers,” he said. The boy had been shot in the arm and was bleeding profusely. His classmates wrapped the arm in cloth. Another boy called 911.

“The shots were something I’ll never forget. It sounded like bombs going off, one at a time,” he said. “If I was one or two feet to the right, I would have died.

source:newyorktimes