General

Every year on February 14, people celebrate Valentine’s Day or rather, the Feast of Saint Valentine. What was first celebrated as a Christian feast day to remember one or more martyred early Christians by the name of Saint Valentine, has today, developed into a significant cultural, religious, and economic celebration of passion and love in many parts of the world. Single men and women tend to feel left out as their feelings of loneliness and even depression get ballooned by the appearance of “love everywhere” at the times just before, during, and just after Valentine’s Day.  Understanding and the awareness can lead to better handling of situations. That said, have you heard, or do you know, the story behind the celebration?  According to various historical accounts, Valentine, was a holy priest in Rome, who was persecuted for his Christian faith and executed on Feb. 14, approximately 270 A.D.  Depending on the source, Valentine’s crimes against the Roman Empire are described differently, but some claim he was detained for covertly officiating Christian soldiers marriages despite Emperor Claudius’ orders to the contrary, while others point to his propensity to aid Christian martyrs in escaping from Roman prisons as his main transgression.  The narrative has had various later embellishments that better connect it to the idea of love. For example, an 18th century addition states that before his execution, he wrote the jailer’s daughter a note addressed to “Your Valentine” as a farewell.  A phrase that is still used today several years on.  In any case, Valentine or the Feast of St. Valentine emerged from obscurity several hundreds of years later when the Christian church had a greater presence in Europe and began its campaign to eradicate pagan rituals, becoming a symbol of love and compassion.  Traditionally in the fourth century B.C, the Romans held an annual rite of passage for young men to the god Lupercus. During this rite, the names of adolescent women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; the name of the woman he picked  became a companion for a year of mutual entertainment and pleasure (often sexual), after which another lottery was held. The early church fathers sought a “lovers” saint to replace the deity Lupercus in order to put an end to this eight-hundred-year-old practice. Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred over two centuries before, was identified as a likely candidate.  Thus, in A.D. 496, a stern Pope Gelasius forbade the Lupercian feast in the middle of February. However, he was astute enough to keep the lottery since he was aware of Romans’ fondness for gambling. The names of saints were now inserted into the box that had previously contained the names of available and willing single ladies. Both sexes pulled slips of paper, and they were supposed to follow in the footsteps of the saint whose name they had drawn for the following year. With difficulty and the passing of time, an increasing number of Romans abandoned their pagan celebration in favour of the church’s holy day. Gradually, the “religious” sentiments ascribed to the day depreciated but the lottery aspect of the day remained fairly intact up until the ninth-century.  For instance, in London, from at least the first quarter of the seventeenth century, groups of men and women assembled on the evening of 13 February to take part in valentine lotteries. During the lottery, participants inscribed their names on pieces of paper that were then wrapped up and placed into hats or aprons. “And then, everyone picks a Name, which for the moment is termed their Valentine,” the tradition said. After that, using a predetermined line of rhymed verse for each letter of a person’s name, people would write poems. The verses were fastened to women’s breasts and wrapped around men’s hatbands throughout the following days.  Away from the sermons, by the eighteenth century, what started off as a religious and public rituals had metamorphosed into individual superstitions surrounding love and marriage. One superstition stated that one should kiss the first stranger they see on the morning of February 14 because that stranger is their Valentine. Putting a “slice of the bride-cake, thrice drawn through the wedding ring” or, in the north, a piece of the “groaning cheese” used during christenings, under a pillow is one method people have used to forecast their future spouse, according to dictionaries of popular superstitions. It was said that if an unmarried woman observed a fast on Midsummer’s Eve and set out bread, cheese, and ale on the table, “the person she will later marry will come into the room, and drink to her by bowing.”  In the later years of the eighteenth-century, the superstitious aspects of Valentine’s Day certainly persisted longer in rural areas. This was however met with lots of criticisms. For instance, John Brand, argued that “Christians, or rather Papal Rome,” had “borrowed her Rites, Notions, and Ceremonies, in the most luxurious Abundance from ancient and Heathen Rome,” with celebrations like Valentine’s Day rituals being “stolen out of the Wings of the Dying Eagle.”  On the other hand, the authentic Christian religion was categorically neither enigmatic nor superstitious. Henry Bourne, a curate, asserted that popular rites were either “a Scandal to Religion” and “a promotion of Wickedness” or they had lost their original purpose “through Folly and Superstition.” It was believed that the “ordinary people” who performed these ceremonies held unholy superstitious beliefs that were “either the Produce of Heathenism or the Inventions of lazy Monks.” In the last ten years of the eighteenth century till date, Valentine’s Day became a part of the consumer economy as bookstores, printers, and stationers offered pre-made cards for sale. Thus, a custom that had previously been part of folk rituals was monetized and transformed into a commercial event.  Valentine’s Day, which was marked by the manufacturing of cards made and marketed as desirable consumer goods, was a component of a commercialized culture that featured lucrative entertainments including art exhibitions, balls, the circus, concert series, pleasure gardens,

Have you ever wondered why, whilst in school, a particular student solved all the difficult maths questions effortlessly? Have you also wondered why on the tracking field, a particular athlete appears to have been born with two hearts? On the job market, have you also wondered why some salesmen almost always exceed their target while you struggle to sign just a single client? In the face of adversity, how come he gets to keep a cool head while you are almost losing it? The answers to these are in their genetics, personalities, and intelligence. It could seem pointless to describe a term so basic. After all, we have all heard this word countless times and are likely familiar with its overall meaning. However, the idea of intelligence has been a hotly contested subject among psychologists for many years. The study of human intelligence, by way of history date back to the late 1880s. Since then, many psychologists have attempted to capture in essence through theories due to their fluidity.  Thus, while some argue that, intelligence is a general ability, others believe it comprises specific skills and talents. See for instance; Spearman’s General Intelligence (g) theory. Spearman set out his theory in 1909, based on a technique called factor analysis.  The conclusion at the end of Spearman’s General intelligence theory was that; there is a single g-factor that describes a person’s overall intelligence across different abilities, and that a second component, s, describes a person’s specific competence in one particular field (Spearman, as cited in Thomson, 1947). After Spearman, several theorists have gone on to challenge the view of Spearman. For instance, Howard Gardner in his Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory, Robert Sternberg in his proposed Triarchic Theory of Intelligence, and many others have all gone ahead to argue that there are different, independent multiple intelligences instead of a single intelligence, each of which represents special abilities and skills applicable to a certain category. This intelligence includes; spatial, musical, Practical, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence.  That said, presently, intelligence is commonly considered as the capacity to comprehend and adjust to one’s surroundings using innate skills and acquired information. Likewise, numerous new intelligence assessments have emerged, including the University of California Matrix Reasoning Task (Pahor et al., 2019), which can be completed quickly and online. Additionally, new approaches to rating these assessments have also been developed (Sansone et al., 2014). Specific aptitude and accomplishment exams, like the SAT, ACT, and LSAT, are required for admission to universities and graduate programs. These tests have ingrained themselves deeply into our life. Regrettably, and by convention, these above tests and our entire educational system have generally focused on just one type of intelligence [the Intelligent Quotient (IQ)], even when modern-day psychologists make us believe there are four types of intelligence. They are; Intelligence Quotient (IQ),          Emotional Quotient (EQ), Social Quotient (SQ) and Adversity Quotient (AQ). What do these different types of intelligence mean? How are they expressed and how many can a person have? To start with, the term “IQ” is derived from the German term Intelligent-Quotient, which was coined by psychologist William Stern. The intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score obtained from one of several standardized tests meant to determine relative intelligence. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale are two popular standardized examinations (WAIS) (Oommen, 2014). Thus, IQ is the measure of one’s cognitive ability to comprehend a problem, hereditary and non-genetic. Even though hereditary variables play the most important role in determining IQ, a variety of other changeable environmental effects can influence an individual’s IQ. Thus, Science has had difficulty identifying the precise genetic and environmental elements that influence IQ, but a number of environmental factors, such as socioeconomic level and educational attainment, are associated with IQ, and it has been demonstrated that starvation can lower IQ.  Regardless, the following studies suggest proof that IQ is influenced by genetics In another context, Budrina, (2017) set out to identify gender-specific characteristics of intelligence and academic achievement in early school age. The results demonstrated no such influence of gender on IQ. The differences in grade (girls tend to perform more than boys) are due to other factors such as interest and ability to obey the instruction, other than their IQ. Again, previous research has also shown that high IQs are reasonably reliable predictors of academic success, job performance, career potential, and creativity. That notwithstanding, a wealth of evidence demonstrates that IQ alone is not sufficient for success. Psychological research has shown that having crucial personality traits like confidence, openness to new experiences, and organization can help you succeed in life. That is to say if you seek to develop your best qualities and skills, having a lower IQ does not necessarily mean you will have a miserable or unsuccessful life. Moving on, let now turn our attention to another type of intelligence: Emotional Quotient (EQ). The ability to notice, utilise, and regulate your own feelings/emotions in order to lower stress, clearly communicate, convey sympathy, defeat obstacles and diffuse conflicting situations is known as emotional intelligence (EQ). It is possible to grow more robust relationships, achieve higher at school and at work, and to actualise your personal and professional aspirations when you use your emotional intelligence. Additionally, it can assist you in establishing a connection with your emotions, putting your intentions into practice, and choosing what is most important to you. According to Singh (2001), emotional intelligence (EI) enables managers and staff members in professional contexts to recognize and control their emotions. This demonstrates how crucial EI is to manage the job well. Goleman (1995) identified four aspects of emotional intelligence, including Thus far, Hanzaee, & Mirvaisi, (2013) in their study set out to determine the association between employee emotional intelligence and client satisfaction. The result revealed that, in especially, a hotel context, which is a work environment and frontline, employee EQ has a significant role in customer satisfaction and retention. Subsequently, a high level of emotional intelligence can help you lead and

Tech and media giant, GhanaWeb, has announced a strategic partnership with Maxwell Investments Group (MIG) on entrepreneurship-based content. This will come by way of the Entrepreneur In You video podcast series, and the MIG Business Forum. The Entrepreneur In You video podcast will be a series of short videos that follow the life of the Ghanaian serial entrepreneur and MIG’s founder, Dr. Maxwell Ampong. Within these short stories will be the lessons, trials and interactions as GhanaWeb seeks to furnish young and upcoming entrepreneurs with relatable pointers that add to growth and leadership, and generate conversation at home and with the diaspora about entrepreneurship in Ghana, and in general. The MIG Business Forum aims to engage the key players cutting across various sectors and the general populace in a solution-oriented, people-centred forum. The maiden volume shall narrow down on product and service providers, together with society decision-makers discussing viable escape routes during a current economic downturn within their respective sectors/markets. The Forum will include Twitter Spaces and other web platforms as conversations on optimising economic manoeuvrability becomes louder. “Our partnership with GhanaWeb is based on a mutual interest to positively influence their massive viewership on entrepreneurship as modern times have necessitated this,” said Dr Maxwell Ampong. “The aim is to have meaningful conversations on how entrepreneurship can drive economic growth, innovation, and social change, amongst others,” he continued. “This is a great partnership that will inform and educate the public on entrepreneurship. This project would improve economic literacy at a practical level, in a practical way, and help Ghanaians make the right decisions in personal and professional businesses,” said Mr. Ismail Akwei, Editor-in-Chief for GhanaWeb. MIG Media Contact: Communications Department: +233 (0) 20 039 4120