For two years now these words were my moral restraint as they kept rising in my head ever since the MC repeatedly sang it in one occasion I attended. They probe my conscience whenever I am about to judge someone. We are all books with distinct personalities as our covers with a content/character that most often betrays the conspicuous. We judge and are judged. We give and take opinions about people. All of these combine to influence our relationships.

Whatever/whoever we spend time on/with, we tend to know more about it/them. At the work place, most employees only know themselves professionally and this most time defines how they relate. I have always known that the best way to know someone is to live with him. Because we don’t always get that opportunity we must seize it when it arises; and this I did when I hung out with some of my colleagues on their invite.

Before the rendezvous on 2019 new year’s eve, I knew peoples’ thoughts about John, not real name, but I never allowed that to influence how I interacted with him because I know better. They said he was inefficient, incompetent, and confused on the job. I was tempted to concur to that because whenever I worked on his files there were always issues that I hardly find in those of others. Even his disposition seem to give credence to the negative conversations. He looked timid and spoke with fear. Always apologising and asking for clemency.

On that night, I saw the real John. He changed to the complete opposite of the Office John. What happened?! He got confirmed. That was the magic. I was bewildered as I watched him with the disciplined focus of a scientist peering through a microscope. He beckoned to the waiter to take our order. He lit a cigarette, pulled in the nicotine saturated gas and puffed it out into the air. This time he was in charge. In expressing his gratitude for our role to see that he was not sacked that was when I knew the cause of his inability to meet his target when he should. He just buried his late father barely three months ago. Coming out from a long period of unemployment with piled up bills on the home front, it was a challenge to focus at work with an impending sack. He missed his Dad due to the bond they shared. ‘I still hear my Dad’s voice on the phone after work asking, “John where are you now.”‘ According to him.

The office was scheduled to close three hours before the usual time but we all stayed behind to attend to only and all of John’s clients. He said, “I came to work today believing it to be my last here. I prayed and told God that His will should be done. I have tried my best.” He was full of praises to God.

Now I can judge him. Those who judged and condemned him before knowing him would be shocked to see a new efficient, competent and composed John with zest. This is what a confirmation with good pay increase and other good benefits can do to a depressed employee. I felt so happy and proud to have played a role in saving someone’s job on the last day of the year. This would not only keep food on his table but increase the quantity and quality. We sent John and his family into year 2020 in celebration. No better way to end the year.

So, before you speak about someone in this new year, try to know why they act that way. In other words, if you don’t know me, don’t judge me.

Have a splendid new year!

Tesla has begun to deliver its model 3 cars built in China. The U.S electric automaker said the delivery will take effect December 30, in preparation of full scale sales before the Chinese New Year.

In January, Tesla delved into its first production adventure outside the U.S. soil, building a plant in China. Production started in October with a target of 250, 000 vehicles a year when the Model Y was added to the initial phase.

It has been just a year since the company took the first steps in China, as a result of the government’s relaxation of its 50%+2 rules that opened the window for foreign automakers to establish in China for the first time in many years. The rule has kept foreign investors at bear for years and enabled indigenous growth of car manufacturers.

A statement from Tesla said that the first 15 customers to receive their cars today are the company employees. The Model 3 and Model Y cars are priced at 355, 800 Yuan ($50, 000) before subsidies were granted by the Chinese Government because the cars were produced from Tesla’s factory in Shanghai.

The Shanghai plant became a center of attraction to the locals from inception and the thrill of Tesla electric vehicles spurred overwhelming preorder earlier in the year. The plant also tuned down the intensity of the U.S-China trade war that cuts across many areas of investment with a negative impact.

China has become the world biggest auto market where electric vehicles are thriving. Last year, 1.3 million New-Energy Vehicles (NEV), were sold in the country, and it opened ways for further interests. Tesla is trying to cash in on the huge market by offering special treatment to china.

Apart from the subsidies for the first models of Tesla in the country, the automaker is offering racing events and showroom parties. It is also building service centers and charging stations across China to assure customers of standardized after-sales services, according to a report by Reuters.

The goodwill gesture appears to be mutual between China and Tesla as the Chinese Government has been supportive. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said last week that it has added Tesla Model 3 to a list of new energy vehicles exempt from purchase tax. In August, the Ministry had announced that it has exempted all tesla models from purchase tax.

After the purchase tax exemption, the Model 3 orders spiked and hit around 6, 400. This is because the tax exemption lowered the cost of the vehicles. The lowest-priced standard-range version of that car is about $50, 000 (355, 000 Yuan) but it has been brought down to about $14, 000 (99, 000). The tax exemption is more like a subsidy and it has increased the demand, putting up a demand spike that Tesla has said it wouldn’t be able to meet in a short time.

The automaker said the Shanghai factory won’t be able to make Model 3s in high volumes, which means, producing 1, 000-2, 000 cars per week until mid-2020. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk highlighted some of the challenges that need to be tackled to meet the current demand.

“We need to bring Shanghai factory online. I think that’s the biggest variable for getting to 500, 000-plus a year. Our car is just very expensive going into china. We’ve got transport costs, we’ve got higher costs of labor here,” he said.

So the possibility of making up the demand in China with cars produced in the U.S has been ruled out due to labor and logistics cost. Tesla is to rely completely on cars produced at the Shanghai factory to satisfy the demand, and that will take some time.

While China remains a promising market for Tesla, the challenge hangs on its capacity to meet the demand of buyers. The tax break is only for made-in-China cars and that has practically ruled out any possibility of shipment from the U.S. due to cost and Chinese trade laws, especially in the face of ongoing trade war with the U.S.

It is not sure how long the purchase tax exemption will be in play, but If the Shanghai factory fails to increase its production capacity before the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology withdraws the tax break, there may be a significant drop in sales for Tesla due to potential increase in the cost of purchase.

Another decade is being celebrated at the dawn of 2020, a continuity of the idea promulgated and accepted in the year 2000. Although it has become widely acceptable to those using the Roman calendar, many are still skeptical about the years marking the decade since 2000, and the controversy dated back to the years preceding 2000 that many believe were erroneously miscalculated.

Toward the end of 1999, the actual year ending the millennium became a serious subject of discussion. The controversy was centered on calculation of dates and times according to the Roman calendar which was mainly based on Jesus’ birth period. The argument was about the start of the 21st century and the third millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ.

For those who believed that the year 2000 was the end of the century, it was a time to celebrate. To others who were curious about the authenticity of the date, it wasn’t time to celebrate. They point out that contrary to the belief of many, the 21st century and the new millennium do not begin on January 1, 2000, but on January 1, 2001. Since there was no year 0, the first century ran from year 1 through 100, the second century from 101 through 200, and so forth. Thus it is argued that the 20th century, which began on January 1, 1901, and the second millennium, which began on January 1, 1001, will not end until December 31, 2000.

There is an additional point to consider. According to Awake series that dealt with the issue in the late 1999, our calendar divides time on the basis of being either before or after the birth of Christ. Scholars now recognize that Jesus was born earlier than previously thought, thus making the calendar’s pivotal point inaccurate. Opinions differ as to when Jesus was born, but Bible chronology points to the year 2 B.C.E. By that reckoning, the third millennium after Christ’s birth actually began in the fall of 1999.

At midnight, December 31, 1999, many people around the globe celebrated the start of a new millennium. But while it is “natural for a year with such a round number” to be celebrated, says a statement from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, in Cambridge, England, “accurately speaking, we will be celebrating the 2,000th year, or the last year of the millennium, not the start of the new millennium.” The confusion arises from the transition from B.C.E. to C.E. determined by Bede, a seventh-century historian and theologian, who endeavored to date events according to the birth of Jesus. No zero year was included, so the time between the first day of 1 B.C.E. and the first day of 1 C.E. was only a year. Consequently, the first millennium started with the first day of 1 C.E. and ended with the last day of 1000 C.E. The second millennium then started on January 1, 1001. “It is thus clear that the start of the new millennium will be 1 January 2001,” the researchers said. In any case, the celebrations will be based solely on the Gregorian calendar and not on the actual birth of Jesus, who is now known to have been born some time earlier than believed.

According to scholars, “the millennium actually turned several years ago. Sorry, but we all missed it,” states Newsweek magazine. The reason is because our calendar “rests on an arbitrary division of time,” supposedly based on the birth of Christ. But, the article notes, modern scholars believe that Jesus was actually born several years “before Christ.” According to Newsweek, that “means that we are already well into the third millennium by 1999.” The error was attributed to Dionysius the Short, who, in 525 C.E., was commissioned by Pope John I to develop a standard liturgical calendar. Dionysius decided to use Jesus’ birth as the pivotal point but erred in calculating it. “Historians will never know for sure exactly when Jesus was born,” says Newsweek. “Even the dating of Christmas, which celebrates his birth, is arbitrary. The church selected Dec. 25, scholars believe, to coincide with—and religiously counter—pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.”

However, a controversy was raging over just when the millennium was supposed to dawn. “The trouble started in the nation of Kiribati,” notes U. S. News & World Report. “The international date line used to cut right through the chain of islands: When it was Sunday in eastern Kiribati, it was Monday in western Kiribati.” The nation solved the problem by stating that from January 1, 1995, onward, the date line would go around its easternmost island, Caroline. That would mean Kiribati would be the first landmass to see the start of a new day. However, other nations, such as Tonga and New Zealand, wanted “first” status. According to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the question is moot. “Since the sun shines on the South Pole from the September equinox to the March equinox, the millennium dawns first on the bottom of the Earth,” states the report. However, adds the Observatory, that will not be until January 1, 2001—not the year 2000

To understand why some claim that the third millennium from Jesus’ birth will dawn on January 1, 2001, consider this illustration. The Awake of November 1999 put it this way: Suppose you are reading a book that is 200 pages long. When you reach the top of page 200, you have finished reading 199 pages, with one more page to read. You will not complete the book until you come to the end of page 200. Similarly, 999 years of the present millennium, as commonly viewed, will have elapsed on December 31, 1999, with one year to go until the end of the millennium. By that reckoning, the third millennium begins on January 1, 2001. That does not mean, however, that on that date exactly 2,000 years will have elapsed from the date of Jesus’ birth.

So the beginning of the decade started from 2001, therefore, another decade should have started in 2021 not 2020. But as the Royal Greenwich Observatory stated, “the world celebrated the 2000th year or the last millennium, not the beginning of the millennium, if we are being accurate.” By omitting the facts and accuracy of times, those following the Roman calendar have consequently chosen to go by the round figures instead of the actual numbers.