RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman

My Honorable and Revered Elder Scholar Mwalimu Osagyefo AB, I must humbly say that you have committed a Type Three Error: that is, assessing my response against issues I never raised. And please do not poo poo laughter. The aphorisms "laughter is good medicine" and "laughter is the best medicine" are supported Biblically and scientifically. The following articles by one of my favorite writers, Richard (Dick) Innes, and the Brain and Body Help Center make the point  very well.

Laughter Is Good Medicine

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."¹

Science has finally caught up with these words in the Bible that King Solomon wrote some 3,000 years ago.

The following report is from The Week magazine: "Laughter is good for your health—and now scientists know why. Researchers at the University of Maryland found that when 20 healthy volunteers smiled and guffawed while watching the comedy, Kingpin, their blood flow increased by 22 percent, about the same increase caused by aerobic exercise. But when volunteers watched tension-filled scenes from Saving Private Ryan, their blood flow decreased 35 percent.

"The researchers say that laughing apparently causes the endothelium, the tissue that lines blood vessels, to expand, which increases blood flow. Laughter may also improve arterial health by reducing mental stress, which constricts vessels and cuts blood flow. A healthy lifestyle—researcher Michael Miller tells New Scientist—would include 30 minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of hearty laughter each day."²

It's a pity that so many totally ignore God's directives for healthier, happier living. If we would live by the principles as found in his Word, the Bible, we would not only live healthier and happier lives, but our relationships would improve out of sight. We can't improve on God's plan. The wisest thing is to get in on it.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for the principles given in your Word so that I can know how to live a healthier and happier life, and in so living greatly enhance my relationships. Please help me God to so live. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Proverbs 17:22 (NIV).
2. The Week magazine, March 25, 2005. Cited on Parables, Etc., April 2005

<:))))><

All articles on this website are written by
Richard (Dick) Innes unless otherwise stated.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

The Health Benefits of Humor and Laughter

Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use

In This Article:

• Laughter is strong medicine
• Laughter and emotional health
• Social benefits of laughter
• Bringing more laughter into your life
• Developing your sense of humor
• Using humor to overcome challenges

Laughter is strong medicine for mind and body

"Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health."

~ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert.

With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health.

Laughter is good for your health

• Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
• Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
• Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
• Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

The Benefits of Laughter
Physical Health Benefits: Boosts immunity Lowers stress hormones Decreases pain Relaxes your muscles Prevents heart disease	Mental Health Benefits: Adds joy and zest to life Eases anxiety and fear Relieves stress Improves mood Enhances resilience	Social Benefits: Strengthens relationships Attracts others to us Enhances teamwork Helps defuse conflict Promotes group bonding

Laughter and humor help you stay emotionally healthy

Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss.

More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in the fun.

The link between laughter and mental health

• Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. You can't feel anxious, angry, or sad when you're laughing.
• Laughter helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress and increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.
• Humor shifts perspective, allowing you to see situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.

The social benefits of humor and laughter

Humor and playful communication strengthen our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional connection. When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements, and disappointment.

Laughing with others is more powerful than laughing alone

Creating opportunities to laugh

• Watch a funny movie or TV show.
• Go to a comedy club.
• Read the funny pages.
• Seek out funny people.
• Share a good joke or a funny story.
• Check out your bookstore's humor section.
• Host game night with friends.
• Play with a pet.
• Go to a "laughter yoga" class.
• Goof around with children.
• Do something silly.
• Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke).

Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong and lasting relationship bonds, but sharing laughter and play also adds joy, vitality, and resilience. And humor is a powerful and effective way to heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Laughter unites people during difficult times.

Incorporating more humor and play into your daily interactions can improve the quality of your love relationships— as well as your connections with co-workers, family members, and friends. Using humor and laughter in relationships allows you to:

• Be more spontaneous. Humor gets you out of your head and away from your troubles.
• Let go of defensiveness. Laughter helps you forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts.
• Release inhibitions. Your fear of holding back and holding on are set aside.
• Express your true feelings. Deeply felt emotions are allowed to rise to the surface.

Bringing more humor and laughter into your life

Want to bring the fun? Get a pet…

Most of us have experienced the joy of playing with a furry friend, and pets are a rewarding way to bring more laughter and joy into your life. But did you know that having a pet is also good for your mental and physical health? Studies show that pets can protect you depression, stress, and even heart disease.

Laughter is your birthright, a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life.

Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from there. Eventually, you'll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything you do.

Here are some ways to start:

• Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it's contagious. Pioneers in "laugh therapy," find it's possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
• Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When you're in a state of sadness, you have further to travel to get to humor and laughter.
• When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, "What's funny?"
• Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life's absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.
• Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, "What's the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?"

Developing your sense of humor: Take yourself less seriously

One essential characteristic that helps us laugh is not taking ourselves too seriously. We've all known the classic tight-jawed sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at anything. No fun there!

Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for laughter. But most events in life don't carry an overwhelming sense of either sadness or delight. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life–giving you the choice to laugh or not.

Ways to help yourself see the lighter side of life:

• Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take yourself less seriously is to talk about times when you took yourself too seriously.
• Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, and uncover the irony and absurdity of life. This will help improve your mood and the mood of those around you.
• Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun.
• Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are beyond your control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might think taking the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, in the long run it's unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy, and even egotistical.
• Deal with your stress. Stress is a major impediment to humor and laughter.
• Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.

Checklist for lightening up

When you find yourself taken over by what seems to be a horrible problem, ask these questions:

• Is it really worth getting upset over?
• Is it worth upsetting others?
• Is it that important?

• Is it that bad?
• Is the situation irreparable?
• Is it really your problem?

Using humor and play to overcome challenges and enhance your life

The ability to laugh, play, and have fun with others not only makes life more enjoyable but also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and be more creative. People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships.

Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you "become the problem" and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning.

Playing with problems seems to come naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to experiment with new solutions. Interacting with others in playful ways helps you retain this creative ability.

Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play:

Roy, a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to golf, his favorite sport. But the more he played, the less he enjoyed himself. Although his game had improved dramatically, he got angry with himself over every mistake. Roy wisely realized that his golfing buddies affected his attitude, so he stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously. When he played with friends who focused more on having fun than on their scores, he was less critical of himself. Now golfing was as enjoyable as Roy hoped it would be. He scored better without working harder. And the brighter outlook he was getting from his companions and the game spread to other parts of his life, including his work.

Jane worked at home designing greeting cards, a job she used to love but now felt had become routine. Two little girls who loved to draw and paint lived next door. Eventually, Jane invited the girls in to play with all the art supplies she had. At first, she just watched, but in time she joined in. Laughing, coloring, and playing pretend with the little girls transformed Jane's life. Not only did playing with them end her loneliness and mild boredom, it sparked her imagination and helped her artwork flourish. Best of all, it rekindled the playfulness and spark in Jane's relationship with her husband.

As laughter, humor, and play become an integrated part of your life, your creativity will flourish and new discoveries for playing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily. Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and balanced perspective.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Assensoh, Akwasi B."
Sent: Jan 8, 2013 3:26 PM
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com"
Cc: "ama.biney@yahoo.co.uk" , "szalanga@bethel.edu"
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman

Alhaji:

 

Are you defending the whole of Idi Amin Dad's rule, or just the initial part when he was taunting his non-African opponents, including promising to send economic aid to Great Britain in the form of goats chicken and bitter leaf? One cannot defend the Field Marshal turning on his own Ugandan people! That was not defensible! Even, with the Indians, I understand that some of them were in honest businesses and other economic ventures.  Disrespect and Respect? How much respect do we have for ourelves on the continent? How many of our own people have languished and died in political detentions as well as secret prisons? Look at the alleged fate in Guinea of the OAU's first great Secretary-General Diallo Telli! I learned to my dismay that he was starved to death because his presence in Guinea hit Comrade Sekou Toure's panic button! LOook at ritual murders in some West African nations!

 

 

Alhaji, are you in agreement with Idid Amin Dad for the sake of religious solidarity: as Muslims? Please, no, you know better! Do you remember how he tried to destroy the character of Princess Bagaya of Toro (the Buganda Princess), just because she won't satisfy his large amorous desires?

 

For comic relief, we can pretend to enjoy some of the antics of Idi Amin Dada, including when he used to say that he was a leader wof simple words, which he was! I understand that he saw Economists (like Brother Mbaku, a distinguished one) like atrologists making astrological predictions. The Field Marshal had no clue about leadership although, like Ghana's executed General Acheampong, they gave a lot of comic relief.

 

Imagine Acheampong angry that Ghanaians were complaining about drought under his leadership. He reportedly mounted a platform and said: "Am I God to creat rain? Why blame me for drought in Ghana?" the joke was also that some foreign reporters asked Acheampong the important minerals that Ghana had during his military leadership. Reportedly, he answered: "Important minerals? We have coke, fanta, sprite and more..."  

 

Alhaji, please let's forget about Africa's era of laughter, as we cannot return to it, just like the anthropological book, "Return to laughter".

 

A.B. Assensoh.

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Abdul Bangura [theai@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 8:49 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman

Osagyefo Mwalimu AB, what you call "outrageous" behavior by Idi Amin, as young Afrikan students enduring ultra-racism in Italy at the time, we cheered him when the movie and the following pictures were shown throughout the country. For once, we felt like we have an Afrikan hero who gave the proverbial run for the white racists' money. And about the Indians in Uganda who have never treated Afrikans with respect and never felt like they will even be Ugandans, even though some of them were born and raised in the country and do not even know where India is, we later learnt that Amin had compensated them for their lost properties way before they started their international propaganda against him.

 

     

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Assensoh, Akwasi B.

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Sent: 1/8/2013 7:53:43 AM

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman

Osagyefo Kwabena:

 

Afrinhyia Pa oo! I like the spirit in which you handled the youngest MP's story. I also laughed when I saw where you sounded like Idi Amin Dada: "that this has not happened in Europe yet"! Does anyone remember when Idi Amin Dada outragiously asked three or four Uganda-based Whites (maybe, his friends) to carry him in a massive chair, with the caption underneath reading: "The Whiteman's burden in Uganda Today"? Many people fell out laughing at the lunatic behavior of the man, who reportedly told his Uganda Central Bank: "If we don't have money, just print more. No printing machine in Uganda...?"

 

I also like the youngish age issue because I still remember that several African countries, in the 1960s, advertsied job openings with the caveat that "applicants must not be less than 50 years old..." I still recall, with laughter, the time that an uncle, aged about 45 years old had to borrow an over-sized suit so that he would dress up to look old enough to interview for a Public Relations Officer job in the mid-1966s in Accra, Ghana. The applicants, as stipulated at the time, must be over 50 years old to put in an application, the advretisement cautioned or demanded.

 

Osagyefo Ampim Oseadeeye Kwabena, many thanks for your great posting! Now, you ame me agree that birds of the same feathers flock together!

 

A.B. Assensoh.

 

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Akurang-Parry, Kwabena [KAParr@ship.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 4:13 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman

Nana AB:

 

Afrihyia Pa. I like to massage academic buttons so bear with me in rethinking this piece. Well, the London-based Independent's account may not be "neocolonial," as you cast the caveat, but it certainly has all the webs of the Western media's hegemony over it. The Independent did the right thing by identifying the challenges of "ageism and sexism" that the young lady MP is likely to face, which at any rate can be universalized. One problem is that there is an underlying Africanization of decrepit aging male politicians which may be true, but the inconvenient comparative truth is that all over Europe we have aging male politicians dominating politics. Thus the African experience is not an exception. Absolutely, this does not mean that it is a good thing. More importantly, I expect the Independent to herald the election of a 20-year old lady MP as a major Ugandan achievement, indeed a great turning point, on the pathways of Africans' domestication of Western "democratic tradition," and arguably, this has not happened in Europe yet.   

 

Kwabena 

 

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Assensoh, Akwasi B. [aassenso@indiana.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 12:36 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: Wahab, Hassan; mannan20@hotmail.com; nwahab1@yahoo.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman

Brothers and Sisters:

 

Below is a true story, not just a neo-colonial piece! Please, scroll down and enjoy it.

A.B.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/meet-proscovia-oromait-the-worlds-youngest-mp-8434699.html

 

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