Saturday 20 July 2013

Marriage or Murder.



Hi people. Wish i had something more pleasant to share today but i saw this post by someone on facebook and felt the urgent need to share it. Please, don't lets turn the other way while evil cruises the streets....



STOLEN LIVES

“ELHAM MAHDI AL ASSI WAS A YOUNG GIRL WITH GREAT PLANS FOR HER FUTURE. THOSE PLANS CAME TO A CRUEL END WHEN SHE MARRIED A MAN WHO WOULD LATER BECOME HER MURDERER. ONE DAY AFTER HER MARRIAGE, ELHAM WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL DUE TO EXCESSIVE BLEEDING. THE DOCTOR WHO EXAMINED HER SAW THAT HER INTERNAL CANAL WAS RIPPED AND ASKED FOR HER TO BE ADMITTED. HER HUSBAND REFUSED TO ADHERE TO THE DOCTOR’S ADVICE AND INSISTED IN TAKING HIS WIFE HOME. TWO DAYS LATER HE BROUGHT A MOTIONLESS ELHAM BACK TO THE DOCTOR IN AN EMERGENCY. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE DOCTOR PRONOUNCED HER DEAD FROM SEVERE HEMORRHAGING RESULTING FROM THE RUPTURE OF INTERNAL ORGANS CAUSED FROM INTIMACY WITH HER HUSBAND… ELHAM MAHDI AL ASSI WAS 12 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME SHE WAS MARRIED OFF AND 12 WHEN SHE DIED.”

“FAWZIYA AMMODI WAS A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GIRL, WHOSE LIFE CAME TO A TORTUROUS END WHEN SHE WAS FORCED INTO MARRIAGE WITH AN ELDERLY MAN. SHE BECAME WITH CHILD ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AND BORE THE COMPLICATIONS PREGNANCY PUT ON HER VERY SMALL FRAME. DURING CHILDBIRTH, FAWZIYA WENT INTO BRUTAL LABOR AND SUFFERED FOR THREE DAYS STRAIGHT. TOGETHER WITH HER BABY, SHE DIED OF SEVERE BLEEDING AND SHOCK. FAWZIYA WAS 11 WHEN SHE WAS GIVEN OUT IN MARRIAGE AND 12 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE DIED.”

“NUJOOD ALI WAS A GIRL WITH THE AMBITION OF ONE DAY BECOMING A DOCTOR. HER DREAMS WERE HALTED ABRUPTLY AND HER TROUBLES STARTED WHEN SHE WAS TAKEN OUT OF SCHOOL AND MARRIED OFF TO A MAN OVER TWICE HER AGE. HER HUSBAND BEAT AND RAPED HER CONTINUOUSLY, BUT A DETERMINATION WITHIN HER PROMPTED HER TO ESCAPE TO A COURT HOUSE, WHERE SHE DEMANDED FOR THE JUDGE TO GIVE HER AN ANNULMENT. NAJOOD WAS 10 WHEN SHE WAS MARRIED OFF AND 10 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE SAID “NO” AND SURVIVED.”

The case of angels like Elham, Fawziya and Nujood are a stark reminder of the increased risks placed on young girls who are married off too early and are clear examples of the justification for limits and enforcement of such limits on the age of marriage.

In several Islamic countries such as Yemen, the trend of very early arranged marriage, where girls as young as 8 and 9 are pawned out to much older men are common. In such societies there is a preference for child brides because they are considered docile, submissive and subservient to a husband. Usually the parents of the girls are agreeable to such union because the marriage of the girls lessens the financial burden on the family. In some instances, the parents insist on an undertaking from the husband that the marriage would not be consummated until the girl gets older and is mature. But from the accounts of the girls, the husbands hardly ever adhere to this arrangement. The high rate of underage marriage is generally attributed to economic reasons and largely takes place in Middle Eastern countries or rural areas of third world countries.

This week’s news that the Nigerian senate reversed a vote that appeared to outlaw underage marriage despite a senate policy that prohibits repeat votes on clauses was not only outrageous but disturbing and injudicious.

The calamity of abject poverty, sheer ignorance, sordid influence, appalling desire and absolute disregard of liberty personifies the atrocious case of the senators or anyone else for that matter, making a case to permit the marriage of minors.

Cases where andropausal men in the midst of their mid life crisis endeavor to purloin the innocence and childhood of a girl young enough to be their granddaughters, all in the name of matrimonial bliss are simply thoughtless, unfair and scandalous. Although the age at which a child assumes majority varies in different countries, depending on the jurisdiction and application, it would be difficult for anyone to make a case that a girl yet to reach the age of 13 has in anyway reached maturity or is any way near the threshold of adulthood, let alone view such a minor as a wife. It really is a contemptible catastrophe and a desecration of common decency for any adult Nigerian in this day and age to openly justify the rationality and humanity of such an unfortunate union. To take a young girl and treat her as if she were a woman is in all definition nothing short of child abuse and pedophilia.

The distaste of the senators who are justifying the concept of child marriages is made even worse by the fact that the senators are senior member of a legislative body that is meant to make laws that protect every citizen of Nigeria, including young girls. What happened in the hallowed chambers last Tuesday is outrageous to the very highest level and a huge embarrassment to the Nigerian Senate. Under the Child Rights Act 2003, the rights of every child are categorically outlined. The statute provides “a child’s best interests shall remain paramount in all considerations” and they shall be given the care and protection that is necessary for their wellbeing. Such laws were made in order to shelter children, especially young girls, from the transgressions of elements in the society. As leaders, one wonders what kind of example the senators justifying underage marriage imagine themselves to be setting, especially in the light of numerous cases of child abuse that the government is fighting.

One wonders where the Nigerian senators place the concept of maternal mortality, which is so much higher in societies that fail to protect prepubescent girls from exposure to the dangers that come with being a child bride and the medical safety of young girls. It is absolutely medically unsafe for a child to be exposed in a way that makes them candidates for Vesico-Vaginal fistula (VVF). When a young girl, whose pelvis is too narrow to give birth, is exposed to carnal acts or carrying and bearing a baby before her body is ready, pressure from the baby’s head blocks the circulation in her anatomy, destroying her tissue and forcing a gape which allows for involuntary urine flow. These and other pregnancy and labour complications are the fatal and painful realities faced by young girls who are forced to marry before or as soon as they reach puberty.

Every child should, at the very least have the right to grow up and every child should, in its most basic form, have the freedom of innocence. Regardless of any opinion, culture or religion, the issues regarding what values represent the right of a child to care, education, protection against violence and so many other basic liberties, are one and the same. This can certainly not be an un religious, western or imperialist viewpoint, but one of humanity.

Elham Mahdi al Assi, Fawziya Ammodi and Nujood Ali were all beautiful young girls, who deserved to have a childhood that prepared them for adulthood, but it was stolen from them. And while Elham and Fawziya didn’t survive their ordeal, Nujood stands as a beacon of hope for all the pre-adolescent child brides who are the unfortunate victims of stolen lives.

As the Nigerian National Assembly resume in voting for the laws that will eventually make up a revised new Nigerian Constitution, they should step up to their responsibility of protecting the rights and freedoms of the young by addressing this issue of such ridiculous early marriages and completely outlawing it.

While they do that, in the interest of all the young girls in Nigeria, Egypt, Yemen and beyond, those who have the opportunity should please ask the senators and those adult men who forage on the innocence of other people’s young daughters, if they truly believe that marrying a small, little, preadolescent girl is a right, positive or fair act. If the answer to that question is in the affirmative, they should then ask those same senators and men whether they would be ready to accept such early marriages for their preteen daughters. If the answer to that second question is nothing less than an ecstatic yes, then they have conceded that marrying a girl at such a tender age in these times is not right; it’s taking advantage of a girl and rendering her life… stolen!

Those of us who choose to stand on the side of the girl child and protect her from the dangers she will be exposed to as a child bride must all lend our voices in urging the senate to reconsider its position and resolution on child marriage. We must also pressure the House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly to reject any clause that gives life to underage marriage… And before they cast their votes, I urge the legislators to take a minute to think about their own preadolescent daughters’ best interest.... Because whatever is in the interest of their own prepubescent young daughters is also in the best interest of another person’s preadolescent young daughter.



Written By Hannatu Musawa


Please let's pray and do the best we can as individuals to turn this around.
Stay blessed.


xxx, kwiksie~

Friday 19 July 2013

Life: It Isn’t Yours’ To Take (pt. 2)


Hi people. Hope you’ve been ruminating on my last post for the past few days (?).

Yeah, well you see I’m not quite finished with this topic (to be honest I don’t think it can be stressed enough) and I just have to do the best that I can with the help of the Holy Spirit to drum it into the Spirits, hearts and minds of every single individual who’s thus far been deceived that ‘the world would be a better place without me’ is a proven truth.

Please. That’s the lamest lie I have EVER heard.

No really, it actually is.

I mean uhm, hel-looo! Has it ever been reported that there was a decrease in the rate at which the ozone layer was depleting because someone killed themselves? Or maybe that there was a sudden decrease in poverty levels worldwide, or an unexplainable extinction all across the globe of much feared ailments like cancer (of whatever kind) and AIDS and STDs and all the rest of them? Can you link me to one such case, whereby someone thoughtlessly wasting their precious lives, given to them by the Almighty, resulted in some positive and edifying testimony??? I’ll help you with that one; THE ANSWER IS NO! Alright? Good is not birthed by evil, EVER! Your death will not fix whatever it is you’re trying to run from, it will not change the situation that has bruised you so badly, it will NEVER help anybody, and worst of all, it will FOREVER (as in, permanently plus a little extra) separate you from an eternity with Jesus. You have nothing to GAIN and EVERYTHING to LOSE if you give into the urge to destroy you.

How does accepting the short-term offer with the bleakest and most depressing prospects ever, become more appealing than the long-term one with a lasting and trusted promise?! o__0

I just don’t get it!

Please believe me when I say this; suicide is a scam! It never works. And the worst part is, the moment you fall for its peddler’s honey-coated lies and buy into it, you can’t get a refund. 

You are stuck with that decision and there is no turning back. It isn’t THE solution to a million problems like thousands believe; it is simply a much speedier way to fall into an escape-proof pit, where all the nightmares and pain and heartbreak and trials you thought you were escaping from, reside…with all their many cousins.

This is not an attempt to put fear into any heart (fear’s not God’s thing, it’s the devil’s) but instead hope. To remind you that there’s such a glorious reason He’s helped you hold it together this long, to remind you not to give up.

God’s the maker of every happy ending and even though we human beings try our hardest a lot of the time to turn our stories into heart-wrenching tales of woe, He still is able to weave a wonderful, colorful conclusion out of the mess we make of things! But, only if we let Him help.

To my darling brother or sister dealing with or struggling with whatever trial, tragedy, dilemma, sickness, attack, addiction, pain, hurt, heartbreak, poverty, crisis… (anything at all), who’s reading this right now, all I’m trying to let you know is, there IS someone who can fix all this (someone who can help you fix things as well) and you’ve got no idea how much He yearns to! But you’ve got to quit running!

Quit running from Him and His truth.


*      You have to stop fighting His love.
*      Stop trying to scienc-ify His awesome power.
*      Stop trying to challenge His authority.
*      Stop taking for granted His mercy.
*      Stop questioning His will.
*      Stop ridiculing His gracious sacrifice
*      And stop limiting His unrestrained, unconditional love for you.

You need to stop right where you are and admit it to yourself: You need Him. You need Jesus. To save you, and help you and guide, lead, direct, protect, shield and comfort you. You need to believe that He really does love you, and gave His very life up WILLINGLY so nobody would ever have the right to hurt or separate you from His love. But you can render all that a waste and make the one who despises you the most ecstatically happy if you reject Jesus and throw His love right back in His face. You need to choose wisely


So, what’s it going to be mate? <3



Xxx, Kwiksie~

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Life: It Isn't Your's To Take.

Hi people. Hope you’ve all been well? Long time no post… ;)
Come to think of it, it has been quite some time since I’ve been active here hasn’t it? Well, I sincerely apologize for that; I let a lot of activities get in the way of my ‘blogging’ time. Lol.

A lot of things have been happening these past few months that have been weighing on my heart to a high degree, not just with me mind you, but on a larger scope. I mean, I’ve got loved ones who informed me that they’re yet denied a college education, all thanks to the exceedingly untrustworthy and, sad to say, highly decomposed state of the educational system in my beloved country and as if that hardly encouraging update on their affairs wasn’t bad enough, just yesterday I was hit with the very much unpleasant news that yet another two people known to me, from my high school this time, have passed away. To top these few, there are all the various goings-on around the globe; the unrest in this country, the natural disaster in that, the economic meltdown in so-so region, the rise in the crime rates in another…the troubles seem endless sometimes, don’t they?

Yes, they do.

To be honest, they tend to overwhelm a person----heck, I’d be overwhelmed myself if I didn’t have Christ! It’s the truth! Because there is just so much that we emotionally fragile human beings can deal with on our own and when the issues, which most certainly will arise, exceed our ‘i-can-handle-it’ meter, we break down. End of story.

But you see, our stories don’t all have to be tragedies; and neither do we all have to play the victim. Who was it that said; “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”? See that there is very useful advice. Now anyone telling you it’ll be easy to turn that sour lemon into a nice, refreshing, tasty drink…is a massive liar. Of course it won’t be easy, but you can never say a task was challenging if you never made an attempt at it now can you? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.


You know what I’ve learned over time? No human being is to be praised nor blamed for my position or predicament. You heard me (or read me) correctly; no one. You want to know why? Because the conclusion of this journey I call my life, whether pleasant or disheartening will be resulting from my decisions. There will be people, factors, situations and experiences that will serve either as stepping stones or stumbling blocks along the way to boost or possibly break me, but where I end up is as a result of the critical choices I’d have made on the way. I simply must take responsibility for them. Of course, God is always faithful and gracious to reward they who completely rely on Him, seek His will and follow His leading. 

i.e The ‘right’ choices that prove profitable in the long run and we can take pride in must be the ones that obey, please and honor Him on every level and in every way. (Philippians 1:11// Galatians 6:14// 2Corinthians 10:17-18 and 1 Corinthians 10:31). Anything outside that is bound to flop…eventually.

Very often, I get to hear some very moving life stories. Either via the media, or someone repeating a story they’d heard or when an individual chooses to share a personal experience with me. You know sometimes it can feel like there are a lot of forces viciously working against you and the temptation to melt into a pool of pity arises, but then you hear of some really pathetic, almost unbelievable experiences of the next person which just totally break your heart and you wonder; “How did they hold it together this long?”, “What must they have felt?”, etc. It’s happened to me countless times, there I am feeling thoroughly sorry for myself for some mean hand fate’s dealt to me…till someone’s much more harrowing situation jerks me back to being thankful for whatever good thing I’ve got going in my life.
There’s ALWAYS something to be grateful for that should keep you going!!!

I’m sick and tired of the way ‘giving up’, ‘giving in’ and ‘getting beat’ by circumstances has become the new fad. 
Oh, and you want to know the ultra-modern, fast spreading ‘cheap exit’ we seem to have come up with when ‘we’ve just had enough and can’t take it anymore!’? Suicide.







Sure, hit me with all the ‘it’s MY life!’, ‘you just don’t understand’, ‘there’s nothing else one can do’, ‘it’s the only way’ or better yet, ‘you’ll do the same if you were in their shoes’ that you’ve got. You know what I say?

WRONG! WRONG!! WRONG!!!

You know why? Because it is wrong, that’s why.


First of all, it’s not your call. You did not create yourself nor give yourself life (Genesis 2:7); God did. Imagine if when the first Apple product was produced, it was configured to pack up after a stipulated period of time during which it ought to have performed a series of tasks for its owner, despite the fact that the device had the ‘ability’ to permanently shut itself down whenever it ‘chose’; only for many of the products in question to so ‘choose’ to shut down without accomplishing any of the tasks they were designed and produced to. Would you consider that fair to the producer, who would suffer staggering loss? Would the devices have added any value to their numerous owners who never got to take advantage of all they had to offer? Do you think the producer will be pleased that his prized creation would have to go to the junk heap, without fulfilling that for which it was made? No, I seriously doubt that.

God, you see, took the time and love to make you and give you life. He made you in His image, gave you His breath, sacrificed His ONLY son (John 3:16) and then provided the manual by which He wanted you to operate on this earth, so that you would add value to the numerous people who’d need to take advantage of the truth and knowledge of Him that you’d have to offer. He owns all that you are…how then can it be ‘right’ for you to deny Him of what is His right

Think about it...please.

xxx, Kwiksie~

To Be Continued On Next Post…