Bisi Alimi: Please Vote for 2013 People's Choice Winner: Asylum - Bisi

The emotion is palpable

I am literally moved to tears with great emotion anytime I watch this short film, the episode of New Dawn with Funmi in 2004 on Nigerian television where a young man Bisi Alimi came out as a gay man during a daytime live broadcast.

The event changed the lives of these people, Funmi Iyanda’s show was taken off-air the next day and Bisi Alimi came within inches of being murdered in Nigeria.

Things ought not to be so, but that is the kind of society that led Bisi Alimi to flee Nigeria and gain asylum for himself in the United Kingdom.

A man of great conviction

Since then, Bisi Alimi has been a vocal and efficacious activist for the rights of gay black men, their access to services and treatments and finding a platform from which gay black men can be proud to be who they are and live without fear or threat to their lives, contributing to society as any good citizen.

Bisi Alimi is in great demand to speak around the world not only on his experiences but on policy, advocacy, human rights and other socio-economic factors that affect gay men of colour all around the world.

He has met representatives and heads of government in Europe, Africa and the Americas challenging people to think different, get involved and speak up for rights, fairness and justice – he is an amazing, jovial, friendly and wonderful human-being – you cannot but be touched by his force of personality which is for good and for right.

Please Vote

This story is told in a documentary entered for the PBS Online Film Festival - Episode: 2013 Festival | Asylum - Bisi

I ask you to watch the film and vote for it here to become the 2013 People’s Choice Winner.

Thank you.

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited isn't getting better at this

Address the improper tithe

The MegaNet Resource Limited (MRL) saga continues as changes are made to their website and more emails come into my possession with atrocious grammar and excuses that still do not address some of the fundamental questions I asked in my first blog.

For all that MegaNet Resource Limited has written to date; they have not touched on this particular portion of their original letter.

“Note that, there will be a reduction of 10% of your salary for the first month which will be in a written agreement between you and MegaNet Resource Limited, after that you will have no business with us.”

A justification cannot be found

I am yet to understand the reason and justification for filching the tithe of the applicant’s first month’s salary and whether the clients that have presumably engaged MRL are aware of this arrangement made as part of the contractual process of engaging new employees.

This arrangement is not only improper, it is reprehensible and no organisation should be party to having recruitment agents dip into the salaries of new recruits as the compensation for recruitment services.

A strange medical

I am still not happy with the idea that applicants need to pay up front for a medical before consideration when what should happen is that applicants first get a provisional offer subject to passing a medical examination wherein the offer becomes substantive leading to a probationary period of work that might include inductions and training.

As for the latest letter to come into my possession I will suggest MegaNet Resource Limited find another language for business in which they can be grammatically correct and plausibly coherent, this is a shame.

An “English” letter?

From: MegaNet Resource Ltd

Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 06:50:55 +0100

To:

Subject: Chat Rescheduleing

Dear Applicant,

Your recent chat invitation with the HRM of MegaNet Resources Limited has been rescheduled to 5th March 2013 (Tuesday) as a result of the questions and answers that arouse from the invited applicants that was were selected for a CHAT with the HRM in other order to verify the credibility of the company/job due to the FACT that a N2, 200 (Medical Fee) was imposed on them.

We are a Human Resources Consulting Organization with RC 1523321. Our head office is located at 26, Church Rd [Which I note is once again different from 26, Alagomeji Street, Church Rd. And different from the address that was there yesterday – can these people get anything right?], Ikorodu Lagos State. We recruits for banks and Industries Nation Wide, but right now we are recruiting for Unilever Nigeria Plc.

A questionable ploy, still

The reason why the N2, 200 Medical fee was imposed on you is for a Medical Test that is compulsory we carried out on every qualified Applicant we are to post to Unilever Nigeria Plc. and the money can’t be paid at the venue because Unilever does send an investigative panel to monitor the recruitment exercise and we wouldn't like a situation whereby they will think we are extorting money from applicants. The purpose of this chat is to screen the original copyies of your credentials before being posted.

Under normal circumstances, you are supposed to be given a written test then an interview follows, but due to the urgency of the request of for staff from Unilever Nigeria Plc we couldn’t achieve this that is why your CV/NYSC certificate was randomly screen regionally and an invitation was sent to 40 qualified 40 applicant Nation Wide knowing full well that as a Nigerian Graduate you will be able to cope with since an in house training that will be giving given to you.

Therefore, if you are one of those that was selected I will advise you to pay your medical fee and follow all instructions been giving being given to you oin the previous invitation letter to enable us to complete the recruitment process. It’s for your good and ours.

Yours Faithfully,

Dorcas Bode

Sec. [Now the secretary has upended the Human Resources Manager?]

Phew!

Bunglers beyond belief

After all the blogs I have written about MegaNet Resource Limited and the actions they have taken to-date, we can safely say they are bunglers of the first order, unprofessional to a fault and incapable of paying attention to meticulous and essential detail.

We met here with a situation where a company that may well be genuine has operated on the fringes of legality that it is almost impossible not to consider their speciality scamming.

When I compare they are doing to the activities of a similar but better organised recruitment activity by TrippleLink Global Solutions Limited who are organisers of the National Recruitment Fair 2013, MegaNet Resource Limited plays charlatan without dispute.

Pages, charges and videos

That is not to say I do not have some issues with the TrippleLink enterprise considering they have a website that has no detail of their business especially no indication of their Upcoming Events.

If you are going to put a webpage up as a business, make sure it promotes what you do rather than show your business practices as sloppy, uninspired and amateurish.

They will also be charging N3000 for applicants to attend, however, that would be for conference materials and other needs at the fair.

Then as we pay tribute to the inferiority complex that so easily impresses us of foreign things, they published a YouTube video that includes a Text-to-Speech voiceover with an American accent. Shame on them.

The MegaNet Blogs

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited has all the trappings of a scam outfit

Nigeria: They Came to Bury MegaNet Resource Limited

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited and Flights of Fancy

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited and Flights of Fancy

If...

If what we end up doing with regards to MegaNet Resources Ltd (MRL) is force it to stop operating like a scam outfit that it polishes up its act to start operating like a professional recruitment services company, then we would have achieved something for the business landscape in Nigeria.

Besides that, it will become a greater benefit for MRL in the long run and we who have scrutinised, criticised and excoriated their practices can come to a point where we might deign to praise it as the most improved Nigerian recruitment firm by reason of social media activism, but we are a long, long way from that prospect.

What I find interesting is that since we published our misgivings about MRL, they have begun to put up a web presence and started to answer some questions, many of which I say are quite unsatisfactory, but these are early days yet. I have time for this matter and I will devote time to it.

Meganet Resource(s) Limited

In the 3^rd of March 2013, a week after my blog, they launched a website, a blog where they have attempted to present a professional front that looks like props of a desperate outfit fighting for some respectability.

Apparently, as they claim, they have been in business since 2009 and are involved in Staff Management, Professional Resourcing, Talent Management and Fleet Management services.

Herein is my confusion, is it MegaNet Resource Limited (singular) which appeared 4 times in the original email that brought on my first blog about this outfit being a scam or MegaNet Resources Limited (plural) which now appears on the website and it makes you wonder how the Human Resources Manager (HRM) could have gotten the name of his company wrong 4 times in addressing applicants.

Threats?

Then, I only had two comments to my original blog which were addressed in a following blog, however, agents and/or clients of MRL have been more active on this blog, claiming MRL is a genuine business concern and threatening the writer of that blog for making them lose an opportunity for a job prospect.

Address to no place

My second problem is with the Contact Details – They claim to have this address –

MegaNet Resources Limited.
Church Rd. Alagomeji Street,
Ikorodu, Lagos.
P.O Box 67430,
Lagos State.

According to comments in the other blog, MRL is based in Ikorodu town which is to the East of the Lagos metropolis but I have a problem getting my head round “Church Road, Alagomeji Street”, a road on a street, anyway, let us not belabour a point, I can only find Church Street, Ikorodu on Google Maps, all the other permutations of Church, Alagomeji, Road and Street do not seem to have been documented by Google Maps for Ikorodu town.

Then they claim to have a Post Office Box, but no letter will arrive here because a letter has to arrive at a post office box at a particular locality, the way that address is written, it is not referring to a post office box in Ikorodu town or in the sprawling metropolis of Lagos but in Lagos State.

You have to ask if they hired idiots to do this. How can a business not be able to present its visiting address and postal address in a sensible coherent fashion that does not make it look suspicious? These are charlatans whose every attempt at gaining respectability exposes them as worse, they should have kept their peace.

Who is touching you up?

Next, they provide a reason for why they are charging for the medical examination which they say is compulsory. Their words: “The N2,200 is for a Medical Examination that is compulsory we carried out on every qualified Applicant we are to post to our client company and the money can’t be paid at the venue because some of our client company do send an investigative panel to monitor the recruitment exercise and we wouldn't want a situation whereby they will think we are extorting money from applicant. The purpose of this chat is to screen the original copy of your credentials before being posted.”

I will not bother myself with grammatical corrections but if their client checks to ensure they are not extorting money from the applicant, does the client known that the applicant signs away 10% of their first month’s salary as part of the chat where original copies of credentials are examined? Whose account is that 10% paid into?

MD, we need you now

The moneys are paid into the HRM’s account because, “Is for easy access of fund to pay our medical expert because the MD is not around at the moment to sign a cheque for withdrawal of fund from the company's A/C and the request of staff from our client company is very urgent.”

This is interesting because it makes you wonder of the medical expert who might well not be a qualified medical doctor will be touching up people as if to give them a clean bill of health or even fail them and still walk away handsomely rewarded.

This should be a business to business transaction; the reputation of MRL should be such that the medical expert knows they will get their money from the company because whenever the Managing Director returns, all bills will be made good.

Charlatans

The more I look at it; even charlatans running an outfit on a shoestring will probably do a better job. Should there not be signatories to the company account and why does it not involve the accountant? Too many questions arise as to how MRL is run and by whom.

Again, from what I said at the beginning, Meganet Resources Limited has a long way to go for its activities to be viewed as professional, their rather limp effort leaves much to be desired. I am not out to get MRL but an organisation that fails to get its house in order will be a subject of public ridicule.

Do I think MegaNet Resource(s) Limited is a scam? – It looks like one, it operates like one and I have not been convinced it isn’t one. 

Thought Picnic: Of Justin Bieber in London with that look

Unconcerned

Now, apparently, a Mr Justin Bieber has been on a UK tour, having been in Manchester the week before when I was up there and then in London as the weekend rolled in.

I do not particularly care for his kind of music but I have seen the female folk swoon and squeal with glee at his appearance and performance that I can quite patently say I do not want whatever they are on to make them see whatever they are seeing or hear whatever they are hearing.

Then again, for the kind of music the young man purveys, he has become rather financially successful and some credit for his upbringing should go to his tenacious mum, Pattie Mallette whose intrusion into the public sphere has now included her sententiously religious opinions about abortion.

Unabashed

He turned 19 on the 1^st of March and he allegedly was staying at The Langham London which along with its luxurious opulence will not be lacking in the class and grace of a decent gourmet restaurant, however, the dear boy thought he might have a kebab instead, we cannot for now vouch for what kind of meat might be on the skewer with the food industry horsing around on pigs and cows that we might just be racing camels at the Grand National if all the horses enter the food chain.

One should not begrudge the man the need for something less exquisite, the presence of means does suddenly accrue to good bearing and exemplary mien, these things cannot be brought and only so much can be taught.

Unimpressed

It turns out that he left the hotel topless and what a body he appears to have but the low-hanging trousers exposing the full complement of his underwear must be the lowest expression of oafish conduct I have seen since I last told some boys on an Amsterdam shopping street to pull up their trousers and stop assaulting and outraging public decency with cack-ridden slips.

Every picture captured of the boy, because it does not become a man to be in such a state of undignified exposure, rankles with revulsion that makes one give up the hope of rescuing a fashion victim that has no doubt become a fashion suicide.

The worst bit of this display of gaol fashion that was attributed to men in prison who allowed themselves this demonstration to suggest they were available to be used as sex objects is the many others who will model their slouching gait and backside exposure tendencies after this Justin Bieber enterprise which should attract much excoriation and opprobrium.

Unacceptable

If my life had taken another course, a 19-year old kid would probably have been a 3^rd or 4^th child and I cannot see how regardless of situation, circumstance or peer pressure where any of my children would have been allowed to walk the streets inappropriately dressed to fit in with a nominally uncouth culture and appearance.

Being proper and properly attired is a matter of breeding, class and comportment without having to be dependent on means.

At this point, if there were occasion to warrant a cacophonous imposition on my aural faculties of this man’s crooning croaks my estimation of this very successful man who William Shakespeare would have effusively praised by saying, “You show yourself highly fed and lowly taught,” would not move one to find the slightest respect for his standing.

You only have to see the pictures to understand where I am coming from.

Thought Picnic: How Do They Launder Demons?

You cannot make this up

Pat Robertson the American Televangelist says the darndest things that makes people think he had been quaffing psychedelic drugs in place of breathing air for oxygen.

It is then not surprising that he then attracts even the most unspeakably bizarre questions to his 700 Club show, his responses are sometimes impossible to watch creating a cringe-worthy sense of unease and queasiness that leaves you all so queer.

Recently, he had to answer a question about second-hand clothes being possibly inhabited by demons, of course, the idea was not originally his, but by the time he provided anecdotal evidence and the additional commentary, he as good as said clothes can be the residual habitation of demons and something to the effect that demons can reside in inanimate objects.

Get me a Demons for Dummies manual

Now, I am no expert in demonology or the exegesis of exorcism, nor would I suggest that I fully appreciate the manifestations or fantasy of the paranormal that excites the Pentecostal folk to the point that they handle spiritual matters with unusually physical vigour that a typical WWF fixture will not have as much movement or entertainment value.

However, the problem arises when agnosticism takes the place of disbelief; the seed of the questionable has been sown in a mind that conjures much vivid imagination and imagery.

As I was checking out of my hotel yesterday, I usually leave some of my stuff at the hotel over the weekend which means one has to pack wisely.

Demon reproduction

I use the laundry services of the hotel and so imagine my surprise when it looked like I had another suit in the wardrobe that had returned with my clothes some 3 days before.

Yes, a small-sized Burton’s suit had mistakenly been carted back to me and had dissipated its life amongst my clothes for days unbeknownst to me because my laundry is usually returned to my room when I am out. I just assumed everything was fine.

Back to Pat Robertson’s drug-addled theory of demonology and demon estate management you begin to wonder whose demons are cavorting with other demons and whether those I tolerate have been copulating with those of the stranger’s suit – I can’t go on, but you get the drift.

Some people need to be taken off television with immediate effect, I can’t remember if I said my prayers – over the clothes.

Nigeria: They Came to Bury MegaNet Resource Limited

Speaking up for MegaNet Resource Limited

Within 5 minutes of each other today I received comments pertaining to the blog I wrote four days ago about MegaNet Nigeria Limited.

I had good reason to think and suggest that the outfit was a scam and I laid out my case as to why it had all the appearances of a confidence trickster’s front to fleece people of their meagre means in return for an unconfirmed and improbable posting with Unilever Nigeria Plc.

Chinedu wrote: “Meganet Resource Limited are not scammers, my brother got a job through them. According to him he said the job was a contracted one been given to Meganet Resources Limited from an insider in the said company. Investigate properly before writing.”

Tosin then wrote: “Is it every job that requires you to pay that is a scam. Though I know it is improper but with the type of world "Nigeria" we find our self many things do happen. Well I have heard of Meganet Resources Limited and they are for real, I don't know the reason why people will be calling them 419.”

Act local but always think global

I will answer each of the claims made here because the issues need to be addressed as clearly as possible to raise the standard of business activity especially in Nigeria.

Now, MegaNet Resource Limited might have thought the sphere of their business is within a local community of people they could access via email whose interest in whatever they claim to be selling or offering a service for will be central to just Lagos.

Nothing could be further from the truth, much as any organisation can seem to act locally, they must think globally, no act that can be communicated in this world is local anymore, it risks at all times global scrutiny and those acts will be measured by the standards the scrutiniser deems are reasonable, fair, just and above reproach, regardless of where they reside, it is not a cultural or regional thing, anymore.

A fish rode a horse

Chinedu claims his brother got a job through them, I cannot vouch to either Chinedu or his brother and MegaNet Resource Limited (MRL) which is most affected by this matter has not put out a disclaimer with regards to the seemingly questionable practices I highlighted in my orginal blog. Chinedu will have to realise that I require a greater burden of proof than a flippant comment.

The provenance of the job supposedly contracted appears to have breached the transparent and somewhat professional channels one would expect both firms to have adopted. In fact, the lack of process and procedure would mean that MRL was most likely doing their own thing with the even greater possibility of prospective employees being sent on the wild goose chase for jobs which may or may not be existent since there was no clear official procedure involved.

Appear professional or else

I did enough investigation and if MRL were an organisation worth its salt, it would have a website, the protagonist will have a proper email address rather than a gmail.com email address and the email sent out will have an office address for MRL. This kind of activity is not meant for tyros and MRL’s activity in this regard was so amateurish, it had all the trappings of a scam.

You are either professional or not and when you are not professional, others cannot be responsible to giving you an image you do not possess.

Advance Fee Fraud?

Answering Tosin’s question, the answer in my humble opinion is Yes. If you have to pay for your medical examination and forfeit 10% of your first month’s salary one has to ask if MRL was indeed engaged by Unilever Nigeria Plc in the first instance and whether Unilever will want their global brand to be associated with what is evidently, suspect, underhand and to put a finer point on it, atrocious.

Now, Tosin does agree that the demand for money is improper and then tries to justify it to the situation, circumstance and location. Well, what is improper is improper and any organisation engaged in improper activity is unprofessional, probably fraudulent and needs to be excoriated in Nigeria and anywhere else their activities come to light.

Another point I must mention is why the money is paid into a personal account rather than the company accounts of MegaNet Resource Limited.

An abuse of position

We cannot continue to tolerate a society where those who have information and access use it to gain additional undue advantage of others to unfairly enrich themselves at the expense of the desperate and the vulnerable.

If Unilever Nigeria Plc did engage MRL, I do believe MRL would have had a contractual engagement for their services and that service would have been fully paid for by Unilever.

If MRL in producing they contract failed to fully account for the costs of recruitment with the view of pilfering and tithing the first month’s salary of the successful applicants, they should not be in the recruitment business.

They came to bury MegaNet

In my view, the comments posted by Chinedu and Tosin have literally buried MegaNet Resource Limited in ignominy and exposed the charlatans who have run a haphazard unprofessional outfit that has gotten by on the lean and the questionable for so long until it came under my purview.

MegaNet Resource Limited might well be a going concern, as to its viability conducting business with questionable practices; it does not have much of a future.

With regards to my original blog, I have not be persuaded that the MegaNet Resource Limited for all that is know about them is not the healthy front for an unhealthy scam activity – they have got their work cut out and I am not backing down from the impression formed by reading their original email to a prospect.

Finally, I reviewed the comment source and found both comments came from the same IP Address: 41.203.67.54, even though it appears the comments are from 2 different people with different email addresses. See the graphic below.

Thought Picnic: The Dank Art of Arse Covering

We are first, human

There is something I still believe matters in the work environment; the realisation that you are still dealing with people, a subset of humanity that have personalities, interests, ambitions and lives.

Just because one is paid to work somewhere and by reason of that, fulfilling a role in a job does not take away from the fact that core elements of interaction as in courtesy, respect, appreciation and gratitude do not matter.

I find that in some cases I do appear culturally old-fashioned in appearance, demeanour, speech and written word, but it remains of the utmost importance and it does not cost a thing.

Covering arses

What I cannot stand is professional dishonesty, not so much because the person is morally bankrupt but because the environment is infused with a blame culture that everyone is afraid of being told-off because we have been deluded into thinking we are all infallible.

Maybe I should rephrase that, I have worked in places where what everyone does is find ways to shirk responsibility from owning a problem or admitting a mistake to the point that the problem becomes too obvious to ignore but with no one available to solve it even though all interested parties have both the ability and wherewithal to tackle the issue and provide a solution without much fuss.

In common parlance, I once wrote to a colleague, I cover my arse by getting the job done not by looking for someone to shift the blame unto.

Unhealthy environments

However, an environment that fosters the abrasion of basic humanity for meeting targets where the goal is to win all the accolades and foists all the faults on others even in the face of damning evidence is poisonous and unhealthy; it makes one adopt an antagonistic stance where mutual respect should grow and pitches people in camps ready to war against each other even though they work for the same organisation.

Sadly, there are no clear processes to glean where activities within an organisation are inimical to its development; the system becomes business as usual; the culture and the way things are done.

Bear or dare?

The more frustrating element to this is where people have accepted things as they are, after hitting so many brick walls they have become inured to what outsiders are newcomers consider an unnecessary inconvenience that has developed into an atrocious aberration.

You then wonder, whether you will be subsumed or stand aloof of the fray, maintaining both the composure and comportment that has always defined you – from what I know of myself, when it gets untenable and the environment is impervious to change, a walk is prepared for another challenge than to have one’s soul destroyed because we cannot find the best of our civility to do business together.