Short Story 2 - Networking or Not Working?

This is a sneak peek into another short story in my upcoming book Counting Down the Days. Last time, we looked at The Right to Remain Silent.

As earlier explained, all the short stories in this book focus on the human condition - our attitudes and responses to the things that happen in our daily lives.

Networking or Not working?
In this story, we examine the effects of spending hours online browsing and participating in social network activity. This includes, but is not limited to Facebook, Twitter, hi5, YouTube and others.
Whereas the social networks are pivotal in online marketing and brand development, they can, and often do get in the way of productivity for those who spend too much time there interacting with their friends..

Since breaking up with her boyfriend, Mercy has recently found a solution to her loneliness. She has numerous friends on Facebook, loves following cool 'tweeps' and engaging in popular trending topics on Twitter as well as sharing videos on YouTube. All this keeps her fully occupied in the office.

She no longer worries about friends in the real world, she actually has no more time for conventional relationships. She wonders why she even restricted herself to one person for a close relationship, now that the Internet offers countless people to chat with.

The super-fast Internet connection in her office has actually changed her attitude towards working on Saturdays, she gets in the office early and leaves late every working day. Thanks to a fibre-optic powered broadband connection, she spends more time "networking", not working.
Unknown to her, the IT department and her boss have been closely monitoring her online activity...

My Current Reads
I'm still reading Chika Onyeani's Capitalist Nigger and should be through with it later this week.

In addition, I keep going back to read a chapter or two of Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

This book has invaluable insights especially for those who seek to venture into new business such as publishing online in new eBook formats, in good time before every person else rushes in to make a buck in this business.

Go ahead and grab your own copy of Blue Ocean Strategy. You can also get an audio version here. You'll learn how you can create uncontested market space and thereby make the competition irrelevant.

Short Story 1 - The Right to Remain Silent

Well, as earlier promised, today I give you a sneak peek into one of the short stories in my upcoming book Counting Down the Days.

All the stories in this book essentially focus on the human condition, exploring such issues as love, crime, friendship, governance, parenting, schooling, business and pretty much anything else that happens in our day to day lives.

The Right to Remain Silent
This story touches on crime and punishment.
Ideally, people should take responsibility for their actions. That is why every juris[friggin']diction has a justice system whose core mandate is to see that people respect other people's rights, as well as have theirs respected. In other words, fairness is maintained across the board with no bias whatsoever.

In real life however, such ideals are not attained. The rules keep on getting broken with reckless abandon, which confirms that they who commit crimes are rarely punished thanks to wanton impunity, frustrating red tape and corruption practised by officials across the ranks in the criminal justice system.

In The Right to Remain Silent, Edwin is able to apprehend one of the thugs who have raided his home. He decides to make it very clear to the thug what the right to remain silent should actually mean. It is a shocking revelation of what law abiding citizens can do when the systems that are supposed to ensure their safety and that of their possessions fail them.

My Current Reads
We all know that good writing should always go hand in hand with much more reading.
I am currently reading two books, both of which have something to do with business and self discovery.

One is Capitalist Nigger by Chika Onyeani. My sister lent me her copy on Wednesday, and I already like the book.
The author makes a brusque indictment of the black race, which despite natural endowment, is a non-productive race that mostly consumes, ultimately depending on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding and its clothing.
He however asserts that only by becoming economic warriors who love making money as much as they love themselves, their wives and children can members of the black race escape from their victim mentality.

The other is Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher. It got a mention in a recent post on The Walkabout.
The book champions small appropriate technologies that empower people more. This in effect contrasts the widely held notion that "bigger is better." It discusses economics as if people mattered.

So much for the writing and reading, have yourself an awesome weekend.
Cheers!