Category: Published Articles

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Aging: Planning Makes A Big Difference

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally appeared in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 27, Number 21 October 17, 2019

Aging is an inevitable aspect of living. Its absence from general school curricula has generation after generation of young adults living in the moment, not thinking or planning too far ahead, thus ignorant and unprepared for retirement and old age. The unpreparedness is exacerbated when leadership couldn’t be bothered to dispense advice regarding planning for old age and there are no peers to encourage same…

 

N Oji Mzilikazi is the author of Shards of Glass and president of the Council for Black Aging Community of Montreal Inc.

The Council’s 18th Conference, Health & Wellness: Beating The Odds takes place October 26, 2019, at Le Nouvel Hotel &Spa Info: 514-935-4951

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Loneliness and Seniors: An Emerging Public Health Threat

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally appeared in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 27, Number 20, October 3, 2019

Given size of community, we’ve all known someone or heard stories of members who died alone in their home and whose body was only discovered days later…

 

…Rebuild your social network. Volunteer and/or join a club/organization or activity/interest group and enrich your life.

N Oji Mzilikazi is the author of Shards of Glass and president of the Council For Black Aging Community of Montreal Inc.

The Council hosts its 18th Conference, Health & Wellness: Beating The Odds on October 26, 2019 at Le Nouvel Hotel & Spa.

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Reflections On Carifiesta 2014

REFLECTIONS ON CARIFIESTA 2014

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally published in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 24, Number 14 July 10, 2014

The 39th staging of the Carifiesta Parade on July 5th was one of the best in years.

While my heart welled with pride for the thousands of community members that were participants — revellers as well as on-lookers — I couldn’t help but weigh the power of their presence, the financial and voting power they collectively constitute in their hands against community laissez faire attitudes, divisiveness, paralysis, and other shortcomings.

I couldn’t but weigh the potential power in our numbers against the continuous underfunding of Carifiesta by City Hall, the absence of funding from the Quebec government and the Montreal Tourist Board, and that Carifiesta is without a corporate sponsor…

 

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To Rectify Damage, Reverse Paralysis Conclusion Part 1

TO RECTIFY DAMAGE, REVERSE PARALYSIS Conclusion Part 1

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally published in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 24, Number 13 June 26, 2014

A rule of success is to “Beat the iron while it is hot.” More so in this internet age of information overflow, information access, and social media hydra-headedness that overwhelming has focus on the trite, superfluous, just what is current. And news is fast, immediate, and quickly forgotten.

The partial collapse of the historic Negro Community Centre (NCC) in Little Burgundy on April 13 that prompted this series …

 

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To Rectify Damage, Reverse Our Paralysis (Part 3)

Black public figures are just as opened to bias and discrimination as any of us…

TO RECTIFY DAMAGE, REVERSE OUR PARALYSIS

(Part 3)

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally appeared in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 24, Number 12 June 12, 2014

What is the purpose of education for the children of enslavement and colonialism who bear multitudinous psychological, educational and economical scars from centuries of inhumane and unbridled exploitation, torturous suffering, dehumanization, racism, discrimination and hatred, if not to make us whole?

Yet the scars of colonialism; internalized racism and self-hate have many believing it’s all about becoming privilege, being a cut above others of the race, achieving “white gaze” – validation and approval of whites – escaping the constraints racism placed on Blackness…

 

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To Rectify Damage, Reverse Our Paralysis Part 2

To Rectify Damage, Reverse Our Paralysis Part 2

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally appeared in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 24, Number 11 May 29, 2014

Moving forward sometimes call for one to look backwards; even take a couple steps backwards. Doing so allows us to engineer change. Doing so facilitates understanding the forces that made; shaped us, have us where we currently are.

Doing so allows us to learn from the past, gain new perspectives, contemplate and come up with better strategies, make different and more informed choices — strategic choices to bring about better, healthier, and more successful outcomes…