I WONDER HOW THIS WORLD WILL BE WITHOUT MEN.

Are you stunned at the fact that a woman is writing in favour of the male folks? You need not be dazed nor gripped in a faze as I solve this jigsaw puzzle. I chose to begin this way, Man, unlike woman, is beautiful, because man, unlike woman, is a thinking creature. This means,Man has a thirst for knowledge (he wants to know what the world around him looks like and how it functions).   Man thinks (he draws conclusions from the data he encounters).   Man is creative (he makes something new out of the information achieved by the above processes).   Man is sensitive (as a result of his exceptionally wide, multidimensional emotional scale, he not only registers the commonplace in fine gradations but he creates and discovers new emotional values and makes them accessible to others through sensible descriptions, or recreates them as an artist). Of all the qualities of man, which I can't exhaust, his curiosity is certainly the most impressive. His curiosity differs basically from that of woman. A woman takes interest only in subjects that have an immediate personal usefulness to her. For example, if she reads a political article in the newspaper, it is highly likely that she wants to cast a spell on some political-science student, not that she cares about the fate of the Chinese, Israelis, or South Africans nor how the Nazis took over Germany. I must tell you, a lot of women don't know about the cause of Biafra war and how it ended. If she looks up the names of some Greek philosophers in the dictionary, it does not mean she has suddenly taken an interest in Greek philosophy....no way. It means she is trying to solve a crossword puzzle or preparing for her Philosophy exams. If she is studying the advertisements for a new car, she is not doing it with a platonic interest in its technical features, but because she wants to own it, she intends to buy the car for herself. It is a fact that most women - mothers included - generally have no idea how the human foetus is formed, how it develops in the womb, or what stages it passes through before birth. Of course it is entirely unnecessary for her to know about these things, since they cannot influence the development of the embryo anyway. It is only important to know that a pregnancy lasts nine months and that for the duration one must take care of oneself, attend antenatal care and, in case of complications, immediately consults one's doctor, who will, of course, restore everything to order. Man's curiosity is something quite different. His desire for knowledge has no personal implications, is purely objective and, in the long run, is much more practical than a woman's attitude. One has only to watch a man go past a building site where a newly developed machine is being used, for example a new kind of dredger. There is hardly a man - regardless of social status - who will pass by without a glance. Many will stop to have a good look and to discuss the characteristics of the new machine, its advantages and disadvantages, and its differences from previous models. A woman would never think of stopping at a building site unless, of course, the crowd was soooo big that she thought she might miss something exciting like (Construction Worker Crushed by Bulldozer) or stuffs like that. In that case she would demand to know all the details and then look the other way to gist her girlfriends later. Man's curiosity is universal. There is almost nothing that does not interest him, whether it is politics, botany, nuclear physics, football, basketball, food, or God knows what. As a teacher, I discovered that generally in academics, girls perform better than boys not because girls are more intelligent rather it stems from the fact that girls always read and study their subjects while boys diversify their intellect and read books not relevant to their subject area. Three days ago, I caught a J.SS 1 boy intensively studying a human anatomy textbook and I vividly remember my childhood friend, Kingsley, whom at primary Six, was studying Engineering Mathematics by K. Stroud.Such is hardly seen in girls.Even subjects out of his province holds the male interest, such as bottling fruit, preparing cake mix, or caring for a baby And a man could not be pregnant for 9 months without knowing all the functions of the placenta, womb, uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries in well elucidated detail. Men not only observe the world around them, it is in their nature to make comparisons and to apply the knowledge they have gained elsewhere with the new. One need not emphasize the fact that practically all inventions and discoveries in this world have been made by Men, and not only in the fields of electricity, aerodynamics, gynecology, cybernetics, mathematics, quantum mechanics, hydraulics, and the origin of the species. In addition, men have devised the principles of child psychology and infant nutrition, as well as pasteurization and other means of preserving food. Even the changes in women's fashions and designs or other such trivial matters as the creation of new menus and palatal nuances are traditionally the province of men. Where are the women? What are we doing? because I am a woman too. What and when will we invent ? What most of "we" Ladies do is to sit reiterating how wicked men are. Are they really wicked? When most of them have platonically made life very comfortable for most of us, I inclusive. Let's be frank, Ladies, If one wishes to have an unusual culinary treat, maybe Chinese or Spanish dishes, generally one will not find it at home but at a restaurant, where, of course, the chef is Male. A woman's sense of taste is so blunted and deadened by the repetitive preparation of unimaginative, run-of-the-mill, and sometimes tasteless, everyday cooking that, even if she wanted to try out new foods, she would not be capable of it. There is no female gourmet; women are good for almost nothing except  sex and childbearing, that's why we need to sit up and add more values to our lives by being versatile. Versatility is what we should crave for. I must say,with his numerous, multidimensional gifts, man would appear to be ideally suited, both mentally and physical, to lead a life both fulfilled and free. Instead he chooses to become a slave, placing his many discoveries at the service of those who are incapable of creation themselves - at the service of `mankind', man's own synonym for women, and of the children of these women. How paradoxical that this very sex (Men) which is capable of leading a life as nearly perfect as possible, is prepared to give it all up, to offer it all to the female sex, which is not interested in such perfection. We have grown so accustomed to the blunted mechanism of one-sided exploitation of one group of human beings by a parasitic clique that all our moral values have become completely perverted. Without really giving the matter any thought, we consider the male sex as a kind of Sisyphus: he has come into the world to learn, to work and to father children: his sons, in their turn, will learn to work, and produce children, and so it will continue forever; it has become almost impossible to think why else men should be here. If a young man gets married, and starts a family and spends the rest of his life working at a soul-destroying job, he is held up as an example of virtue and responsibility. The other type of man, living only for himself, working only for himself, doing first one thing and then another simply because he enjoys it and because he has to keep only himself, sleeping where and when he wants, and facing woman when he meets her on equal terms like Jim Iyke who is almost 45 yet unmarried is rejected by society. The free, unshackled man has no place in its midst except one with an Episcopal or ecclesiastical office or priestly ordination. How depressing it is to see Men, year after year, betraying all that they were born to do at the feet of women. New worlds could he discovered, worlds one hardly dares even to dream of could be opened by the minds, strength, and intelligence of men. Things to make life fuller and richer - their own life, that is, of which women are ignorant - and more worthwhile could be developed: all these things could be done by men. Instead, they forsake all these tremendous potentials and permit their minds and their bodies to be shunted onto sidings to serve the repulsively primitive needs of women. Am not disparage nor harsh to women, I am a woman too with my breast and vagina to show for it( I'm not vulgar also, for the words aforementioned are simple biological terms). I simply wanna trend the dread-end and commend the relevance of men in our society. Man has the key to every mystery of the universe in his hand, but he ignores it, he lowers himself to the level of woman and insinuates himself into her favor. With his mind, his strength, and his imagination, all intended for the creation of new worlds, he opts instead for the preservation and improvement of the old. And if he happens to invent something new, he needs to prefix it with the excuse that it will one day be useful to `all mankind,' i.e., to women. He apologizes for his achievements, for making space flights instead of providing more comforts for his wife and children. He apologizes to his fiancée for spending much time at work and forgetting on the long run to call her meanwhile he's working so hard to provide and satisfy her financial and emotional needs for in satisfying her needs lies his own happiness. We really need to appreciate the Men in our lives because I wonder how women will survive without Men and their multidimensional minds.

Send a sweet message to the Man in your life appreciating all his effort to make you, "His sweetest Lady" always happy and emotionally fulfilled.

Esther Ijeoma Ogbuka.