Merry Christmas !
Thank you guys for your friendship during the year.
I wish you all a very happy year ahead.

The Girl Summit 2014 - Re-orientation is Imperative

After the Girl Summit  2014, what next ?
 What are the conclusions arrived at during the Summit's deliberations which need to be backed up legally and urgently ; as regards ending the harmful practices of Female Genital Mutilation and Child Forced / Early Marriages ?
By the end of the Summit, the participants were able to draw up the framework for some immediate solutions for eradicating the out-dated and harmful cultural / religious beliefs which have upheld the practice of FGM and CFEM.
Since the end of the Girl Summit 2014 some nations like the UK, have been swift to act by setting in place urgent legal reforms  to curb and eradicate these harmful practices in their own countries .
By mid October 2014,the UK government has through amendments to the Serious Crime Bill tabled in Parliament,  empowered the nation's courts with new sweeping legal reforms .
These reforms will grant the courts power to enforce new FGM protection orders to remove girls' travel papers when the courts believe that there is danger that the girls will be taken overseas to be cut , especially during the notorious "cutting season" in some countries.
 Also , the new orders in the UK have created a legal duty on parents to protect their daughters from mutilation , with the threat of prosecution if the erring parents fail to do so.


                           

Even with legal reforms in the affected countries , is it a tall dream for people to hope for the eradication of centuries of generational male fears of educated females and the generational female ignorance about the harm done to the girl-child by practising FGM and Forced Early Marriages?
In the face of stiff oppositions to change by some sections of these communities,the eradication of these harmful practices could be tall dreams indeed. 
Insurmountable challenges they might appear to be, but they are dreams which could be actualised by legal means and through re-orientation ; via mass educational campaigns, via spiritual re-births with sustained prayers.

The theme of such re-orientation campaigns should be to inform the affected people that :
1. "There is no art to know the human mind's construction" and " The apparel does not make the monk ".
There is no art , no fool-proof devices or gadgets which have been invented by Mankind which could reveal or ascertain which girls or married women have been promiscuous or which ones are prostitutes. 
Therefore FGM and CFEM are unacceptable yardsticks to measure a woman's virtue and "holiness" ; neither do these practices guarantee a woman's qualification to be " a good and faithful wife" .

2. Marriage is honourable and desirable but marriage is not the cure for prostitution or the panacea for promiscuity.
There must be changes in peoples' mentality which would enable them to realise that sexual promiscuity and prostitution are personal vices,chosen willingly by some females, for reasons best known to them; not because such girls and women did not experience FGM and Forced Early Marriages.
There are uncircumcised married women who have chosen to remain faithful to their husbands, just as there are some circumcised married women who got married as circumcised 12 year old virgins,but later in their lives,they changed and they chose to became married prostitutes.
Therefore promiscuity and prostitution are not the resultant "curses" for all uncircumcised girls neither is it correct to assume that these are the usual life-styles and "trademarks" of single girls and single women.

During the Girl Summit 2014 some of the speeches evoked laughter,while some speeches stirred up anger,disgust and pity. Some listeners were so shocked and touched by what they saw and heard, that they were reduced to tears at the enormity of the unjust and cruel practices suffered by girls and women in many areas of the world as narrated by the victims and survivors.
 It became glaring to all present at the Summit that these cruel and unjust yokes placed on the girl-child are as evil as they are discriminatory in their entirety.

                    

After the Summit ,people have been puzzled that the female population in these affected areas have failed to protest and reject the torture inflicted on them."Why have these females in these countries allowed themselves to be treated like this? Why wait for foreigners to help them? They should help themselves by organising dissent , protesting enmasse and speaking against their plight with one voice."
Also ,there have been questions about why it has taken so long for the world community to decide to intervene in their plight and too long to heed the cries for help from the victims and survivors of these two horrific crimes against girls. 
Is the rest of the world just waking up to the realization that these evil practices were happening in some parts of the world?
The reasons for the previous lack of response from the outside world could be the unpleasant experiences of people who could have tried in the past to intervene to end these practices.
Such people could have recoiled from speaking out after being accused by the very people whom they were trying to help saying,"Judge not ; that you be not judged! 
You are judging us by speaking against our culture and religion like this !"
Also,people could have been put off intervening because they were silenced by accusations such as;
 "You people are racists !"
"You have no right to tell us how to live our lives! 
Mind your own business ! "
 Therefore people who should have intervened have ,until now, indeed been minding their own business.

Today, the world needs to take a stand against FGM and Forced Child Marriage. Everyone male,female,young and old has a part to play.
There must be zero tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation and for Child,Early and Forced Marriage because these harmful practices have imposed pain , illiteracy and backwardness on millions of vulnerable girls and women .
It is not as if these unfortunate female victims "deserve their lot because they have allowed themselves to be treated like that !"
The victims of FGM do not  choose or desire  to be "cut".
Neither do the victims of Forced Early marriage like it when they are carted off to marry strange men at the tender age of 10 years. 
 These females are victims who have no say in the matter . The females in such countries have no say, even though females form the majority percentage of the population of these affected countries.
 These helpless victims need external intervention and international aid to be free from the burdens placed on them by their societies and by the religions into which they were born.
 Victims of Forced and early marriages are little girls who desire to live normal lives, to go to school and become trained professionals.They do not want to get married at such tender ages.They would prefer to be left alone to experience the joys of childhood , to get an education and to grow up and become well-trained and useful girls and women before they decide when to get married and to be free to choose which men they would like to marry.
 These desires are not too much to ask for ; are they ?

 In these affected countries, the girls who harbour the desires to postpone marriage and opt for the classroom could rebel by resisting and rejecting the burdens of these dual evils. When or if they rebel , the punishment for that would be their being disowned, ostracised and even murdered by their own families.
After rejection and ostracism ,victims have no place to hide and no one to turn to for help because in the countries where FGM and Forced Child Marriages are upheld as the norm, such communities usually do not have reliable legal aid or dependable law enforcement units for the protection of the victims of these evil practices .
 Neither do such places have effective Departments of Social Welfare and Victims Support Groups to help "rebelling females" find a place of refuge and solace.
Some rebellious girls have been declared "missing". 
In communities where FGM and CFEM thrive, some "missing" rebellious females have disappeared because they been murdered by members of their religion,of their race or by members of their own families .
They become "honour killing" victims to "salvage their family honour".
Some of these crimes committed in the UK ,have been concealed by a code of silence amongst the guilty immigrant communities . 
In the UK , FGM, CFEM and "honour killing" are illegal but their illegality does not stop these criminal practices from flourishing amongst those immigrant communities whose cultures and religious beliefs support the practice of these harmful and unacceptable crimes against little girls.

            
Global summits could be effective to identify and eradicate the root causes of these socio- cultural problems .
However, it would be like scratching a sleeping lion on the face if only fiscal and legal measures are put in place to solve problems without  addressing their root causes which are not physical causes only but also with spiritual implications.
 Therefore the perpetrators of these evil practices and the unfortunate girls who have experienced these horrors are, all of them,VICTIMS who need not only "brain transplants but also"heart transplants" in the form of new spiritual hearts.
There must be a two -pronged approach,  both spiritual and physical , for mapping out enduring solutions to these two evils of FGM and Child and Forced Early Marriages.
Short of physical and spiritual "surgery",  all the Global summits , religious preaching, moral teachings and stringent laws would not be effective in stopping the practiceS of FGM and CFEM.

In the countries where these two practices thrive as their normal life-style; therein abound men, women and children who need urgent re-orientation because they have been brain-washed to accept these dual evil practices as the proper way of life for all "decent " girls and women.
The physical and spiritual solutions must be proffered as determined efforts to educate the culprits and the victims in the following ways :
1. Organise campaigns to educate the masses by shedding light on the needless ignorance and fear in these cultural settings which have perpetuated these two evils.
These  campaigns must be held for re-orientation whereby people would attain the level at which they would become aware that the practices of FGM and Forced Child Marriages are out-dated,they are evil and they are totally unnecessary.
 2. These two evil practices are firmly entrenched, especially in male -dominated societies where women and girls are regarded as second-class citizens who must  be "kept down and out" always . In such places, females are not only  "Kept down and out ", female emotions are disrespected and the opinions of females do not carried much weight . 
In male-dominated societies ,the culture of morbid fear of educated females breeds oppositions against allowing females to gain free access to formal education and gainful employment.
Some men feel threatened by the idea of granting freedom of access to formal education to females, especially to the girl-child. Access which such men know would enable females achieve literacy, good jobs and financial capabilities.
Such men are afraid that  granting females such access  would result in men "losing control" over all women who  would become enlightened and capable of rubbing shoulders with men!
3.Re-orientation of the male mentality is essential to purge the masculine phobias of educated females and the fear of uncircumcised females .
 Irrational male fear of the emergence of educated girls and of uncircumcised females has been the main reason for the entrenchment of discriminatory cultural and traditional harmful practices against females.
Men who are terrified of giving their female population the equal opportunities of becoming educated,full-fledged participating members of their communities should be imbibed with the mentality which states that:
 "For the good of all of us,we must accept that it is a big wide world with plenty of space to accommodate every body's ambitions ; including those of women and little girls!!".

Apart from educating the men to overcome their irrational phobia of educated girls; the women and the girls in those affected societies also need re-orientation .
 In order to stop perpetuating these dual evil practices , it is imperative that females , girls, wives,mothers, aunts, sisters, community leaders and female religious leaders have to become aware of  the harmful effects of FGM and CFEM.
All brain-washed and repressed females need to be enlightened about accepting their new roles as complete and useful human beings in the new  scheme of things .

 For their own good, female victims themselves need to be delivered from the evils of generational illiteracy and delivered from their life-styles of hypocritical conformity to  their societies' harmful cultural laws .
The theme of educating brainwashed and de-humanised women and girls would be to aid them to shed their  self-deprecation i.e. lack of confidence in themselves and  their own capabilities even as females .
This would instill in them the mentality about how empowered and useful an educated girl / woman would be to herself ,to her husband, her family and her country .

Women are said to be each other's worst enemies.
The re-orientation of de-humanised female minds is imperative because the facts on the ground are indicating that in the affected societies, there are millions of women and girls who have been brain-washed to the point of accepting these two harmful practices against little girls .
The brainwashing of the female population in these affected countries is completely entrenched to the extent that women and girls themselves engage in launching verbal and physical attacks against fellow girls and women who they perceive as "rebels", "prostitutes", "Jezebels" and "misfits"; because such girls and women have refused to accept and to conform to their societies' religious doctrines and cultural values which support the harmful practices of FGM and Forced Early Marriage for all girls and women .

 Women ,especially the older, illiterate women who have been brain-washed are guilty of perpetuating FGM and CFEM in the following ways which must be abandoned:
* Women are "the traditional cutters" who do the evil job of circumcising little girls in their communities.
Many of the women who take their daughters to be "cut " don't see anything wrong with it .
They think they are doing what is right for their daughters. 
* Women perpetuate the practice of Forced Child Marriage by teaching their daughters and other young girls , from infancy to believe that "getting married early is the more superior achievement than getting an education.This is the best life-style for all women!"
* Also it is women preaching as "counsellors" in religious places who see it as their religious duty to teach young girls  that FGM, Forced Early Marriages and female illiteracy are
 " God-ordained destinies for all women ".
*  Millions of girls who have been brainwashed to accept their fate by embracing FGM and CFM as the "responsible and decent things to do".
Therefore they have embraced the unnecessary pain of FGM and the shame of illiteracy.
After these brainwashed girls have suffered the harmful effects of FGM and CFEM ,they too would pass on the same brain-washing by teaching their own daughters and other young girls to accept such old wives' tales.
Through the teaching of such tales , the vicious circle of evil control and brainwashing has continued to flow from generation to generation of females.

 Where then is the hope for eradicating these two harmful practices if older women (and men) and religious leaders continue to believe it and to teach little girls the old wives' tales which say: 
"a decent girl's proper place and role in this life is to do as she is told by accepting the great honour and respect of female circumcision and getting married as early as possible "?
 Urgent re-orientation of all men , women and children in these countries is imperative if the harmful practices of FGM and CFEM would end in this generation. 

Nigeria  has been shown on the UNICEF map above as one of the nations where  these evil practices prevail amongst 10-25 % of the Nigerian population.

The map does not indicate its date and how these statistics were collated for Nigeria and the other nations shown .

Even in the same nation, the pervalent mentality to  female education and the practices of FGM and CFEM  are not the same amongst Nigeria's various tribes and religions.

 The facts are that in those areas of Nigeria where female education is highly valued , there are millions of parents  who are enlightened about the value of sound education for their daughters. Such parents are known for going to great lengths such as selling their houses, land , cars , clothes , jewelry, and other valuables if need be ; just  to give their children quality education.
These parents would sacrifice a lot to educate their children even up to the levels of first and second university degrees; irrespective of the sex of their children.

After hearing of the sad experiences of girls in these affected areas where FGM , CFEM and female illiteracy thrive, I apreciate my lot in life ,even more.
 I thank God for my parents and for the kind of life they gave me. They never put me and my sisters under the threat of these harmful practices .The words FGM , CFEM and enforced female illiteracy were unheard of in my family.
Growing up in Lagos,Nigeria; as children, my siblings and our childhood friends , sometimes , were disgusted and frightened to hear the sad news about unfortunate little girls who had suffered the tortures of FGM and CFEM in far, far away other parts of Nigeria. Such sad stories were to us children , indeed unimaginable  horrors inflicted on their own daughters by "weirdo parents and evil people".
By God's grace ,I was privileged to be born and bred by educated and devoted Nigerian parents who gave my six siblings and me the best and the highest education and the best standard of living which any child could ever hope and pray for. 
Always I will cherish the beautiful memory of my loving parents and all they stood for . 
For this ,I say forever," We thank you ,Lord".

I know that  nowadays, the percentage of the Nigerian population who practise these dual evils has reduced considerably ; thanks to enlightenment campaigns and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all communities.

We should pray that the same reduction in the number of victims is and will be the case in all the other nations indicated on the UNICEF map.

 In conclusion , in order to birth enduring solutions and to usher new perspectives into the mentality of the men, women and girls in these affected communities, the world should join hands to work and pray together for speedy changes there .

Please pray for all the governments and the peoples of the nations infected with these harmful evils, pray for the victims and potential victims of FGM and CFEM and pray for their oppressors who are resisting change.

May the glorious light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ shine into every area of these countries to set free the captives who are the victims and perpetrators of FGM,Child and Early Forced Marriages .

May they accept the Light of the Son of God who is the expression of God's Righteousness and Love . Amen.

Girl Summit 2014 in London UK - Excerpts

The Girl Summit took place in London on 22 July, kick starting a global movement to end child, early and forced marriage and FGM for all girls within a generation.
Doing this will help preserve girls' childhoods, promote their education, reduce their exposure to violence and abuse, and allow them to fulfil their potential in life.

The Girl Summit, hosted by the government and UNICEF, is aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child and forced marriage (CFM) within a generation.
It was a well-attended event which brought together campaigners, policymakers and development professionals, from around the world, to a school in south London.
Speakers  at the Girl Summit included the UK prime minister David Cameron, the UK , girls education champion Malala Yousafzai and actress Freida Pinto -

 The event was attended by over 500 delegates from 50 countries, United Nations agencies, survivors, charities, community groups, faith leaders and front line professionals, to galvanise global efforts to end FGM and CFM within a generation.
Prime Minister David Cameron said :
"All girls have the right to live free from violence and coercion, without being forced into marriage or the lifelong physical and psychological effects of female genital mutilation. Abhorrent practices like these, no matter how deeply rooted in societies, violate the rights of girls and women across the world, including here in the UK. I want to build a better future for all our girls and I am hosting the Girl Summit today so that we say with one voice – let’s end these practices once and for all ".
Home Secretary Theresa May said:
"FGM and forced marriage are incredibly harmful practices, and it is terrible to think about the number of women and girls in the UK who have been subjected to these crimes.
Today’s summit aims to inspire and secure a better future for thousands of women and girls who are at risk of being seriously harmed by those closest to them – either by having their sexual, physical and mental health damaged by FGM or having their education, freedom and ambition curtailed when they are coerced into an unwanted marriage. I am proud of the action we are taking in the UK to stamp out these harmful practices and delighted to be joined by community leaders, frontline professionals and charity partners from across the world in taking further action to end FGM and forced marriage ".
 A new report out today from City University London in collaboration with Equality Now estimates that approximately 60,000 girls aged 0 to 14 years old were born in England and Wales to mothers who had undergone FGM.
 It estimates that approximately 103,000 women aged 15 to 49 and approximately 24,000 women aged 50 and over, who have migrated to England and Wales, are living with the consequences of FGM. In addition, approximately 10,000 girls aged under 15 who have migrated to England and Wales, are likely to have undergone FGM.

The Girl Summit 2014 was indeed as timely and as proactive as it was necessary .
The occassion was graced by men , women and children who had either been victims themselves or have been involved in caring for and mentoring victims and government officials whose business it was to proffer opinions  and solutions  to the destructive practices of  Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriages of girls .
The Girl Summit captured imaginations beyond the hall, however, with a public pledge to end FGM and child marriage reaching a staggering 700 million people through social media.
Hundreds of millions of pounds were committed at the Girl Summit  in an effort to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage within a generation.
Child, early and forced marriage affects millions of girls every year. One in three girls in developing countries is married by the age of 18. Some are as young as eight. Girls who marry young have babies while still children, putting them at risk of death or suffering for the rest of their lives. They are more likely to be poor and stay poor.
In the UK, hundreds of girls risk being forced into marriage, violating their human rights. Forced marriage victims can suffer physical, psychological, emotional, financial and sexual abuse.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) removes a girl's right to have control over her own body. Traditionally considered essential for marriage and inclusion in the community, it is an extreme and violent way in which girls are controlled and disempowered. It can result in a lifetime of pain and difficulty in childbirth. Trends suggest at least 30 million girls will be at risk over the next decade - with more than 20,000 at risk in the UK every year.
Female genital mutilation

• Practised in 29 countries in Africa and some countries in Asia and the Middle East.
•  Includes "the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons"
• An estimated three million girls and women worldwide are at risk each year
• About 125 million victims estimated to be living with the consequences
• It is commonly carried out on young girls, often between infancy and the age of 15
• Often motivated by beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behaviour, to prepare a girl or woman for adulthood and marriage and to ensure "pure femininity"
• Dangers include severe bleeding, problems urinating, infections, infertility and increased risk of newborn deaths in childbirth
• In December 2012, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for all member states to ban the practice.
• Types of FGM • Clitoridectomy - partial or total removal of the clitoris
  • Excision - removal of the clitoris and inner labia (lips), with or without the outer labia
  • Infibulation - cutting, removing and sewing up the genitalia
  • Any other type of intentional damage to the female genitalia (burning, scraping et cetera)
• 
  
  
  Comfort Momoh runs the African Well Women's Clinic at Guy's Hospital in London which treats FGM victims.
  "The problem is big in the UK," she admits. The clinic sees between 300 and 350 women every year.
  The UK problem includes girls being cut here but also being taken overseas - sometimes in school holidays - to be cut before returning home.

• Major steps to stamp out these practices have been announced and they include:

• a £1.4 million FGM Prevention Programme, launched in partnership with NHS England to help care for survivors and safeguard those at risk
• new police guidance from the College of Policing and an inspection programme by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) that will look at how the police handle cases of FGM
• a consultation on proposals to introduce new civil orders designed to protect girls identified as being at risk of FGM
• new legislation that will mean parents can be prosecuted if they fail to prevent their daughter being cut.
• 
  * Parents who allow their daughters to be subjected to female genital mutilation will face prosecution under new legislation.
  * Child protection squads will also target summer flights out of Britain, in an effort to protect at-risk girls from being taken to countries where the practice is commonplace.
• new legislation to grant victims of FGM lifelong anonymity from the time an allegation is made
• a new specialist FGM service which will include social services, to proactively identify and respond to FGM; this will be supported by an ongoing package of work led by the Chief Social Worker Isabelle Trowler
• new programmes to prevent child and forced marriage in 12 developing countries
• an international charter calling for the eradication of these practices within a generation.

Empowered by Knowledge

"For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  
Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish." 
Luke 14 : 28 - 30.

Some people would admit that within a time frame of as short as about two hours of discussion and interacting with others , that they would have formed their first impressions of that adult or child.
They would  be able  to guess what are the levels of those  persons' social background , their education and their overall mentality.
Basing their judgement  on  their very first meeting , people have been known to decide to form relationships or to reject any further  interactions with persons whom they see as not "fitting the bill " of their expectations.
 For those who rely on their first impressions or first instincts, they could change their mind and decide  to defer their final judgement on that person until after they make extra efforts  to find out more about the person . Usually this decision  to "get  to know better" would arise if and only if such persons  have aroused their interest because they find them physically attractive or because they think that such  persons could be useful to them in future.

Life becomes less complicated if one knew what one should know about products before buying them, as I wrote in my previous blog  titled " Reviews-powered Shopping".
As well, life would be hassles-free if we knew before hand what and who we allow to come into our lives.
Just as we have the guidance of products reviews , wouldn't it  be nice to have " people - reviews" too?
Having the foresight provided by the medium of  honest and reliable recommendations is vital in aiding us in assessing  people before we decide to  reject them or admit them into our lives .
 How wise is it  to depend on human knowledge when forming a first impression about anyone ?
Using our own limited human knowledge , it is not possible  to know the true picture about anyone .
Whatever the information or knowledge is , which we are searching  for to enable us form our impressions about people , there is the need for moderation and caution .
Divinely - inspired revelations about people and things are the ultimate source of  knowledge which can guarantee  fool-proof and error-proof decision - making .
The easy alternative is  to depend on our impressions or on "hear-say".
If you do that, you could make the costly mistake of

Reviews-powered Shopping

“Buy what you don’t have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.”
― Karl Lagerfeld
                                       
For savvy  shoppers , it has become a popular  option  to conduct thorough Products and Prices reviews and checks  before embarking on their shopping sprees on line and in stores .
Recently , I decided to treat  myself and give my kitchen "a make-over" ; by replacing the kitchen gadgets I had used for years  with  new and latest designs of  a bigger frost-free fridge - freezer , a  new washing machine , a complete Tea set , a  shiny Red four-slice toaster and a shiny Red kettle.
To get the best products and prices reviews , I decided to check for them on the websites of products reviews experts who know which sellers are offering the best deals for the products I desired to buy.

With a vast array of products choices before me.,  to say the least is to say I was spoilt  for choice,
 I had loads of fun and laughter reading all the products reviews !
After reading all the product reviews , I couldn't decide which ones to choose, because there were so many lovely products to choose from , which were within the same price range.
 
Finally , as usual,  I decided to choose the best quality products with the best brand reputation, though they were a bit more expensive than the ones with lower brand names .
Surprisingly , minutes after I logged off the various shopping  sites , my Amazon and eBay accounts , my smart phone , email and the side panel of my Face Book accounts were inundated with flashes of adverts of more and more top of the range designs of frost-free  freezers , red four -slice toasters and kettles , and washing machines ; the latest deals in the market!
This would give you an idea of how competitive sellers have  become .
How, you may wonder, did these stores know my phone number , my email , Face book accounts and other accounts ?
They know because the websites  use internet cookies and because prior to that time , I had shopped and paid for some other goods on their websites using my lap top or my smart phone.
When you shop on line , you pay with bank cards or with store cards only. These cards contain all your contact details including your home address , phone number and email accounts.
Also your email address and phone number could have been obtained in the past from you by the stores to enable them to confirm your payment for the goods by text or by email and to inform you of your goods delivery tracking.
As for how these stores would trace any one's Face Book account, the stores like anybody else could easily trace that one out .
Goods on offer in stores and on line which compete for the shoppers' attention range from the smallest items like office or  household bric-à-brac to essential stuff like foods , drinks , medicines , insurance policies , fashion wears , cosmetics , perfumes , jewellery and then the "heavies" such as computers, electronics , household gadgets, lap-tops, mobile phones ,cameras , cars , trucks , heavy machinery and even  caravans , flats and houses and the list goes on.
It is the desire of every shopper  to get value  for  their money .
 When numerous similar  products are claiming to be the best of the deals on offer , the decision to buy which one becomes a challenge and a time consuming effort .
Like I always do, when I am " at sea " about which product  to choose, I  would get the best deals by resorting  to checking independent products reviews and comparison websites. 
Product reviews and price checks are essential for  millions of shoppers , especially for those who shop for high-priced goods on line , whereby  it is  impossible  for them to do physical checks  before they purchase their desired goods and  for people who do not have the luxury of the time to spend on conducting  such thorough reviews.

 The best  products reviews  are obtained when the buyers do their own searches by using ready-made  independent reviews and the recommendations of experts and of  consumers  who have used these products  for some time;  and so they  have had a first-hand  knowledge of the quality of the goods.
 Are products' reviews and products prices comparison a waste of time and effort ?
Since when did looking before leaping become a waste of time?
It is a waste of time and effort to return goods purchased in a hurry .
When the quality of goods do not match what their advertisements described them to be; they are not fit for purpose . As such,  more resources and time are wasted in in returning them to the sellers and ordering for  their replacements .
" Since hunters have learnt  to shoot without missing ; birds have learnt  to fly without perching ".
It is  not enough to rely on the manufacturers and sellers glowing reviews and descriptions of their products . For the reason of making high figure  sales , these advertisements could  be embellishing the facts about the quality of their goods.

Professional and reliable product reviews and price checks for all goods and services  are best obtained from the independent product reviewers such as the Consumers' Protection Groups which are made up of popular review sites like : Which?, GoCompare, Confused.com, CNET , CompareSearch.com , TopConsumerReviews. com , AskJeeves.com, Buzzillions.com, reevoo.com, OmgiliProductsReviews, hotdiamonds , Ask.com , Epinion.com etc.

Usually , sellers would give previous  buyers of their products the chance  to rate them and to write products reviews and recommendations beside the products on display on their website; with messages  by the sellers on their websites like  these:
"On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate this product's performance ;10 being the highest score?"
"Would you recommend this product  to a friend ?"

Recommendation  stars are awarded by products reviewers ranging from zero stars to 1,2,3 ,4 or 5 stars.
Getting favourable  raving reviews and the highest numbers of stars from independent reviewers is the name of the game for  attracting customers and huge sales.
The higher the number of stars and the number of the "Yes , I would recommend this ....!" reviews ,  the easier it is for people  to decide to opt for its purchase .
 
Some popular top quality products score up to 5 stars and they could have up to one hundred positive comments and reviews attached to them on line .
 Since anonymous comments and previews are allowed to be posted on line , people do have a field day , feeling free to writing the facts they know  about the products which they are reviewing .
Some customers see it as their civic responsibility  to warn potential buyers ; and so they  would  not hesitate to give a straight answer like : "No! Not recommended ", if they were not impressed by the standard of the quality of any particular product.
Most of the products reviews and comments I have read on line are positive ones.
Products  reviews even when they are negative ones , they are not  glaringly malicious negative  reviews. .Some products deserve negative reviews and such reviews if many , could put off potential buyers.
Unfavourable  reviews , putting them mildly , would  read like these :
 " HANDS OFF! DO NOT BUY THIS! " , "This is junk stuff!" , " DON'T even go there !", "What was I thinking when I bought this ?!",  "I bought this and returned it two days later!", "Not fit  for Purpose!", "Not recommended!" ,"Did you say ; "this is top of the range ?"  "Bull !"; and so on.
Some products get so many bad reviews and unfavourable comments that your heart would go out  to the sellers and  you would wonder what the sellers of those products were thinking when they decided  to give people the privilege  to write reviews of  their  not-so-good products on their websites!
For all it is worth , whether good or bad ones , independent consumers product reviews are here to stay .
They aid  not only the consumers but the manufactures and sellers as well.
For the big companies , their Customer Relations Departments  monitor all the comments  and reviews which are made about the quality of their  products  and their services to  members of the public .
The companies  use these comments and reviews for their staff training  purposes  and for improving the quality of their goods , leading  to better reviews for them in future.

“A shopping cart flipped upside down forms a cage that I use to protect myself from consumerism.”
― Jarod Kintz, Who Moved My Choose?