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the sleeping giant

Published Wednesday, March 03, 2010
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Author:  Jidé Afolabi       Author Biography

To quote one of my very favourites, K'naan, "until the lion learns to speak the tales of hunting will be weak".

Well, the lion may not be speaking yet, but with the video below, it sure is discovering cadence. Thunder Bay is a gem in the rough of northern Ontario. It has, for far too long, been a sleeping giant at the foot of the Sleeping Giant. Still, those who call it home are fiercely proud and loyal. It might well "learn to speak some day", and take its place as more than a middling city in the near north of the True North.




the podium that was

Published Tuesday, March 02, 2010
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Author:  Jidé Afolabi       Author Biography

So it is that with the flourish of a ceremony distinctly Canadian, our podium season has come to an end. We stood proud, we stood tall, and perhaps most important of all, we surprised ourselves and the world. High was our resolve, and high was the result of the same. To create a policy categorically dedicated to excellence was audacious. The questions were obvious. What if we fall short? What if we only get to own the podium in the sense that we provide the softwood that goes into building it? Those questions certainly came early, and came hard. Still, the truth is that to refrain from dreaming is to stagnate. Own The Podium was about well placed audacity, and at the close of it all, stagnation was far from Vancouver, records had instead been broken.

What then, is the lesson we must take from our athletes? I would hazard that there are many. From triumph over adversity to the psychology that simply says "giver 'er"; from never shying away from a face-off to having the temerity to battle back from the brink; from knowing that your best if often far above the point pegged in your mind to taking on mountains, our athletes have thought us to set high bars and then take them on.

The scope of what we are yet to achieve as a nation is breath-taking, and we can achieve all of it through a culture that mixes excellence with humility, aplomb with compassion. Ours is the true north, strong and free, and there is strength and freedom enough for much good within and beyond our shores.



Blog

  1. the sleeping giant Jide Afolabi 03-Mar-2010
  2. the podium that was Jide Afolabi 02-Mar-2010
  3. beyond our season of discontent Jide Afolabi 28-Jan-2010
  4. love in the time of cholera Jide Afolabi 18-Jan-2010
  5. mid term middle east? Jide Afolabi 30-Dec-2009

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