Congratulations to Mali Bickley, Grade 5 teacher at W. H. Day Elementary School, Bradford, Ontario who wins over $10,000 in classroom technology and thanks for the mention of TakingITGlobal in your video! We are so thrilled that you are using TIGed.org in your classroom.
So. It’s over. It is really over; and there are no riots in the streets of Chicago and LA, no disappointed citizens packing their belongings together to leave this country for good, no thoughts of anger, of despair. No. Instead there is hope. A light at the end of a long and dark tunnel; after eight years of disappointments, of embarrassments, of failed policies, and of a divided country, there is suddenly a future again that people are willing to fight for, that they are excited to fight for.
It is amazing for me to think about the journey this country has traveled over the past two years. Since I moved to New York, and probably long before, no other topic has been discussed as much as the presidential election. What a long journey it must have been for Barack Obama. From campaigning for the first primaries, to his victory over Hillary Clinton and winning the Democratic Presidential Nomination, to this day of his election and his speech at Grant Park in Chicago tonight.
While I was watching the results come this evening, I couldn’t help but wonder what he must have felt during those last hours of this two year long process. Where was he? What was he doing? New Hampshire. Pennsylvania. Ohio! What went through his head when he saw these election results come in, like we did? Relief? Joy? Pride? Did he possibly even cry when the news channels announced him to be president-elect of the United States of America? All this stress and tension falling off him for a few moments and making room for emotions to take control. Even if just for a split second maybe?
I can only imagine his thoughts and his feelings in those moments. A whole country, the entire world is now looking up to this man. What a responsibility! And how courageous to take on such kind of responsibility, not to shy away from it. What kind of character does it take for someone to endure a two year long campaign, to be scrutinized by the media – every single sentence you say, to be followed wherever you go, and wherever you have gone in your past?
Being an aspiring leader myself, I look up to this man today and bow before him in awe and respect for what he has achieved. For making history. For bringing back hope to this country, and to the world. For standing firm in his beliefs against all odds. For showing strength, courage and fearlessness, when I know that no man or woman, facing the enormous challenges that he will face as the next President of the United States, no man or woman will not also at times feel week, dispirited and fearful during difficult times like these.
But today is not only the day of Barack Obama. Today is the day of the American people. In the past couple of years, Americans I met were embarrassed for their President Bush, for the politics of their country. They apologized for what their country has done to the world. But after eight long years, Americans can finally be proud again; proud to have now an incredibly intelligent, inspiring, and humble man as their leader. I am proud of Obama, and I am happy for all of my American friends who don’t need to feel ashamed anymore, but who can be proud, too. Proud of their new President, and proud of their country, which is no doubt capable of doing much good in this world.
Today, the United States has become a better place. Today, the world has become a better place.
In a day and age when most do not agree on anything, from east and west, to conservative and liberal politics, to issues of race and geography, and amongst differing religions and faiths, I believe, along with the founders of Global Dignity, that dignity is the one thing that everyone in the world wants equally. Dignity can be the unifying force that brings us all together at a time when the world needs this more than ever.
On Monday, October 20th 2008, I, in concert with the co-founders of Global Dignity (www.globaldignity.org), His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Professor Pekka Himanen and John Hope Bryant, and several other Young Global Leaders (as associated with the World Economic Forum) conducted our first ever GLOBAL DIGNITY DAY 2008 in 30 countries, inclusive of every continent.
In this blog, I am sharing an update on Global Dignity Day in Canada. I have taken part in other Dignity Day events including one in Vancouver and another in Jordan that involved Her Majesty Queen Rania in Jordan. I am pleased to report back on Global Dignity Day in Toronto, Canada on October 20th, 2008! We reached 40 grade 9 students (14 years old) in a Leadership Course at Greenwood College (http://www.greenwoodcollege.com/)
I had about an hour to deliver the course for each of the two classes. We kicked off with having the students write what Dignity means to them on a sheet of paper that I handed out, and then it led into a group discussion and a brief presentation on the Dignity Principles. I found that most of the initial definitions people wrote down on defining dignity related to self-respect. My co-facilitator was a grade 11 student (Celine Caira) from the school who helped me to prepare for the event. Celine shared a story about what dignity means to her based on a recent encounter with a 14 year old girl that she met in a recent trip to India with her family. I shared a few personal stories and gave context on the work of TakingITGlobal.org and how we are growing a global community of youth making a difference. I connected the mandate of our website to the dignity principles. In helping the students further understand the meaning of dignity, I asked them to share their own examples of increasing or even decreasing the dignity of others. They were able to generate many strong examples of what dignity is NOT - which actually transformed the energy in the room to be more supportive (for example after talking about the negative impact of making fun of someone for who they are).
As a process note, it was very helpful to have the students read each of the dignity principles out loud and talk about what that particular principle means to them. There were certain words that they did not understand - such as interdependent - so I took time to explain the meaning behind the word.
The bulk of the interactive time was when I had the students break out into groups of 4-5 and develop their own ABC’s of Dignity. They had about 6-7 minutes and I was amazed to see how our their depth of understanding about dignity had significantly increased since I first entered the class. At first, in doing the ABCs, we started out as a full class discussion, but I quickly realized that it would be better to have them work in teams - and this was a very smart decision. Each of the group then had a representative read out their ABCs of Dignity to the class and they were all eager to hear about the different impressions and interpretations.
At the end of the class, I unveiled the ‘Dignity Flag’ which I prepared (a huge canvas with bright colours) with Celine and Caitlin (another student) prior to Dignity Day. The Flag stated ‘We Pledge to DIGNITY’ and the students were invited to put their name on the flag, along with a word that relates to dignity starting with the first letter of their name (i.e. Jennifer - Justice). They were eager to make their pledge and I noted that many of the words were difficult for the students to spell (which could lead to future vocabulary activities in their studies). The Dignity Flag is now being hung in the school and I am hoping that at the next school wide assembly, it will be shared by some student representatives with the entire school!
Thanks for the opportunity to work together!
Special appreciation goes out to Kim Samuel-Johnson who is part of the World Economic Forum community and was a former Global Leader for Tomorrow. Kim helped bridge the connection with Greenwood College and hosted the Dignity Day planning meetings. I would also like to thank Caitlin Samuel-Johnson and Celine Caira, who are the Grade 11 students that helped me in preparing for Dignity Day. Here is our team photo taken at one of our planning sessions! Also, closing reflection from Celine, “Seeing the way Greenwood students responded to Dignity Day gives me hope that one day we will live peacefully with global dignity”.
I am incredibly energized from my experience at World Blu Live in New York last week – what a dynamic group of thinkers and leaders in the area of organizational democracy.
While at the conference, I delivered a presentation in the section on ‘NEXT’ – where I was asked to share examples of democratic and inclusive practices at TakingITGlobal. After providing an overview of the mission, vision and programs our organization offers, I talked about the value of the WorldBlu Scorecard process and how it has provided an opportunity for our core team to improve our internal communications and processes as a result of the feedback from the surveys. TakingITGlobal has been recognized in both 2007 and 2008 on the WorldBlu list of Most Democratic Workplaces. Here are a few quotes from staff members who completed the scorecard:
• “TakingITGlobal is a unique organization not only in the work it does that inspires, informs and involves members, but in the way the organization functions, which is equally inspiring for its team.”
• “This is a genuinely democratic organization with an informal yet effective management system in place. Hierarchy is virtually non-existent. It is idea driven and riding the very crest of the tech-wave. Intellectual blossoming is only one of the benefits of working here”
In my presentation, I talked about how we have created evolving visualizations of or organizational model including an earlier version of a tree. For those interested in understanding this model, here is a description that I wrote in 2003 as part of a mid-term paper that I wrote as part of my Masters course on Management in Turbulent Times. Through the roots, the organization is grounded in its core vision and values. The trunk is where much of the administrative support and technology development occurs, which all helps to nurture the growth and development of TakingITGlobal’s key program areas which are depicted through the fruit. In the diagram, the red fruit symbolize the core areas of engagement which address the various key gaps. These areas focus on engaging key stakeholders that work to support youth such as international and youth-led organizations, educators, local communities etc. The online community which is placed at the centre of the organizations activities and focus, highlights the nature of its core program. The yellow circles which connect to the online community are nodes which are drawn in a way that illustrates each of the various online community components (Action, Community, Opportunities, Expression, Voice), and how they are organized in a way that transcends the notion of a tree/organism. The research and sourced projects are ‘low-hanging fruit’ which provide support for other program areas. The overall framework is best explained in the context of a living system because it is one that needs to be able to respond and adapt to changes in external environments. In contrast to the purpose of most organizational charts, this structure does not exist to support people at the top of a hierarchy, but rather, to serve and support the growth and development of key program areas (‘fruit’) which are supported, nurtured and grounded in the shared vision (roots). The issue of survival is one of great importance to living systems, as it is to TakingITGlobal. In order for organizational objectives and ideals to be achieved, a sustainable and healthy ‘system’ must be maintained.
Another important part of our organizational culture includes teambuilding activities which have ranged from bowling and indoor beach volleyball, to taking part in a ropes course. One of the challenges for our organization is the difficulty in having teambuilding activities that are inclusive our staff and volunteers who are based in different parts of the world and often in different time zones. When Philip Rosedale, Founder and Chairman of Linden Lab, spoke at the conference, he talked about how they utilize Second Life to conduct meetings. Here is a photo of their board room and the various personalities that emerge through the avatars developed! Organizational practices that have been inspired by discussions with other WorldBlu Democratic Companies include the As and Os weekly emails that all staff send out to an 'As and Os' mailing list - each focused on objectives for the upcoming week and accomplishments from the past week. Additionally, we have a monthly Above and Beyond Award based on a staff voting system and a 'kudos' tool where you can send comments through an online system to other staff that are archived on our intranet. For ongoing knowledge management and sharing of information, we have developed an intranet and are constantly using collaborative tools such as wiki's.
Here are a few thoughts that stayed with me after listing to the diverse array of presentations (http://www.worldblu.com/live/schedule.php)
- Bill Shannon, Chief Wisdom Officer at DaVita talked about how their company is oriented around a village-like culture. They have regular town hall meetings, the office of the CEO has a 'Mayor' sign on it and executive employees have a 'uniform' which is designed like a superhero style costume. Considering the large size of the organization, they are able to maintain an atmostphere of community.
- Rodney North, Vice Chair and Answer Man of Equal Exchange focused his talk on the importance of governance and how their company entitles each employee to one vote and one share. This shared sense of ownership creates shared accountability. They believe that the role of a company include the aim of training better citizens.
- Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer and Author talked about how everyone can achieve happiness at work and that it starts with the simple act of how you say 'good morning'. He shared the '5 Levels' - starting off with 1 being a mumble, 2 saying good morning with no eye contact, 3 is good morning with eye contact and a smile, 4 is good morning with eye contact, a smile and a question about how they are, and level 5 includes everything in level 4 plus physical contact through a handshake. The best part of this session was being part of a transformation of energy in the room when we tried out each of the levels.
- Mike Ferretti, CEO of Great Harvest Bread Company talked about the high levels of customization and localization in their franchise model and shared a powerful diagram that includes about 6 concentric circles highlighting various spheres of their competition.
- Brett Jackson, CEO of Generation Think Tank shared his experience in being part of the first 10 employees at Crocs and some of the negative impacts of the hyper growth experienced by the company.
- A personal highlight of the WorldBlu experience was outside the conference venue at at Carnegie Hall where we watched an awe inspiring performance of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra who played in absolute harmony without a conductor!
- Other insights included learning about a simple practice of having an anonymous question/suggestion box where the CEO can respond to what is submitted during staff meetings, several comments on the importance of expressing appreciation, and the significance of having a results-focused workplace. Also, there was discussion on the concept of scarcity and how it is in your mind - as as the concept of abundance. It is important to choose your views carefully. On the last day, someone observed me taking notes based on my notes, he called me a 'concrete random' essentially based on a matrix model where the y axis includes concrete + abstract and the x axis includes sequential and random. I thought it was interesting to have my thought process being analyzed on the basis of my notebook!
My final highlight of WorldBlu live was listening to Bill Taylor, Founding Editor of Fast Company Magazine, who talked about how important it is for those of us to stay connected and ‘stay in the game’. A very special thank you goes out to Traci Fenton, Founder and CEO of WorldBlu for putting this event together and for her vision and dedication towards promoting and supporting organizational democracy in the workplace. Here’s a photo with Traci, Bill and I.
At the beginning of my presentation, I asked the audience to think about the following question: "What contribution can young people make to addressing global poverty?" People sent in text responses via their mobile phones. I was really impressed with the responses and followed up with Matt McKenna at Red Fish Media who sent along the list of text messages for me to post on my blog:
- Volunteering
- Money.
- Communication
- Conserve conserve conserve
- The ability to connect
- Be more selfless
- Promote conservation
- Spend some time walking in their shoes
- Spend less volunteer more vote democrat
- Micro investments and localglobal involvement can be very impactful.
- Just getting involved in one key focus and acting against it
- Teach
- Provide education and employment to the poor
- Start recycling cheaper use of electricity fewer car trips etc.
- Consume less in developed nations.
- Social networking can bring countries and people much closer....
- After graduating college young people can pay it forward by volunteering in impoverished nations.
- First become aware. second start donating .
- Start education programs
- Young people can connect across cultures via the web to create greater awareness at a personal level.
- Create friendships to harness Energy.
- Improve knowledge of the burdens poverty places and spur collective action to take ownership of the problem and make a difference.
- Organize create opportunities for each other and for adults
- Set an example Start a business and employ other young people.
- Mentoring and outreach
- Since poverty is rising in North America young people can get directly involved by working in soup kitchens halfway houses etc.
I am honoured to share a reflection on my experience at the 2008 Silver Bay Leadership Forum in Silver Bay, New York where they are celebrating their 90th Anniversary of a conference that explores the current and emerging state of leadership.
Last night I was one of three recipients of the Inaugural Leadership Forum Awards. As stated in the program “each of this year’s honoured recipients has been selected for his/her demonstrated ability to take bold action, provide solutions to complex leadership dilemmas, and generate tremendous followership. These leaders have also exhibited the rare ability to cross streams and address issues through commercial, governmental, social and economic channels”. We were recognized for our work in solving ‘wicked’ problems and as you might imagine, it was a very humbling and uplifting experience for me.
In accepting the award, we were each asked to make a few remarks and share our perspectives on leadership. I kicked off my comments on how leadership emerges based on your state of mind. I asked the room two questions. The first – ‘how many of you believe that every problem has a solution’? A collection of people put up their hands. I then asked ‘how many of you believe that NOT every problem has a solution’. An even larger group of people raised their hands. I then went on to share a visual diagram that came to mind while travelling to Silver Bay and reflecting on my perspective of leadership.
In the past, my perspective on leadership was somewhat simplistic and singular. Today, I see leadership in the context of trying to solve some of the world’s most complex and interconnected challenges. It is a moving and evolving target that requires constant re-alignment and mobility. In response to my questions that I posed to the room, I shared my realization that problems are interconnected – and YES – there are solutions, though we often need to invent and co-create them.
While preparing for my remarks on leadership on the plane, in addition to my diagram, I also prepared a series of reflections on what I have learned about leadership over the years:
For me, leadership has been about...
- Being aware of problems and taking an active role in being part of creating solutions
- Being called upon to reflect and represent collective and shared experiences
- Asking critical questions in order to better understand realties
- Energizing processes through taking interest, showing appreciation and participating
- Making connections between diverging ideas and different people with diverse backgrounds
- Reflecting on lessons of the past and making decisions that move towards a brighter future
- Having perspective with the ability to both focus in on a situation as well as see a bigger picture
- Taking responsibility for my actions and intentions
- Believing in ideas and possibilities
- Convening conversations across differences and differences
- Resolving conflict through deep listening, understanding and building trust
- Transforming ideas into actions and new realities
- Dancing with life and celebrating beauty in the midst of it all
While at Silver Bay, in addition to connecting with official conference delegates from various corporations and non-profit organizations, I also enjoyed spending time with the children of the delegates. They were truly delightful and took great interest in TakingITGlobal and my experiences with leadership. I enjoyed responding to their questions and learning from their own experiences. A highlight was also being able to go Kayaking & make a necklace at the Craft Shop!
based on our brainstorm session, we put together a spec document and sent it out to 5 designers in order to have 5 different interpretations of what the new homepage could look like!
notes were included:
Join TIG
-permanent eye-catching 'join TIG' in header (when not logged in)
Login
-has separate logins/signups for organizations and educators (takes organizations, educators to pages relevant to them)
I want to:
-easy drop down lets you go straight to posting your own content/ also gives new members an idea of all of the different things they can do [* doesn't have to be "I want to"] – examples: I want to post a blog, send an e-card, submit an article to Panorama, etc.
Browse Bar – [on left] [example from http://www.connect2earth.org/index.cfm]
-sections drop down and minimize
-clicking on an 'issue' takes you to the corresponding understanding the issues page, ex: http://issues.takingitglobal.org/culture
-what's hot can contain whatever we want – could browse content by popularity, # of views, could also be a 'staff picks' section where we recommend content to users
-languages will show all 12 languages, clicking will let you surf site in that language
Map
-icons at the bottom (not pictured) could allow you to switch btw content displaying on map, ex. One map will show active org profiles, one will show member stories, one could show upcoming events. Map will default to showing member stories, with one story already 'open' on map with a preview of the content, then you can click on the opened story to be taken to the full page, possible ways of displaying members on the map discussed were showing the latest 10 members to sign in as separate points on the map, as well as providing numbers such as: total number of member's online, and total membership.
-note: move members online list (on current homepage) to member search page
Member Content
-divided between the Make Connections, Take Action and Browse Resources section so that members can compare content at a glance, can also see the diversity of what the site has to offer
-will show three items for each section at a time, view more will take you to that site section homepage
–potentially content displayed is rotating between 10 popular/highly rated items from that section from a certain period of time
Spotlight & Partner Spotlight
-big
-flash and video potential
-can browse through all active spotlights (numbers at bottom)
-spotlights automatically rotate every few seconds
Video
-permanent spot for video, initially would be welcome video with space to link to other videos as we add them
-link to About Us Section, 'Check out the latest at TIG' would link to our staff TIG blog
It was so exciting for the TakingITGlobal team to be part of our sixth year at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) these past few days here in San Antonio, Texas! TakingITGlobal had a great presence across the conference, and I am proud to share the ways in which we were able to reach out and connect with so many educators. To start with, I’ve personally just renewed my commitment to serve on the NECC conference committee for the next two years. I see my role as helping to think about the ways in which we can best engage the next generation of educators.
Before the NECC conference kicks off on opening day (Sunday, June 29th this year), an International Reception is held at the Global Connections Lounge, to welcome attendees from around the world (over 30 countries this year!) and to provide a space to share and discuss opportunities for global connections.
This year, TakingITGlobal was an organizing sponsor of the International Reception, and my co-founder Michael Furdyk along with our US Education Program Manager Emily Kornblut, presented an overview of TakingITGlobal’s recent work and invited the attendees to collaborate with us for greater global awareness. Following the International Reception, the conference’s Opening Reception was held, and provided about a dozen poster sessions for presenters to share their work. TakingITGlobal was one of the organizations provided with this opportunity. We spoke with hundreds of attendees and were able to share our programs with many enthusiastic educators.
On the following afternoon, we had a Spotlight Session, Social Networking for Social Good, held in the Lila Cochrell Auditorium, where we discussed the opportunity for educators to incorporate TakingITGlobal programs into the classroom, and shared many stories of how young people’s use of social web tools have provided them with life-changing opportunities to engage with the issues facing our planet. For the rest of the afternoon, our booth was abuzz with discussions of classroom collaboration and opportunities for partnership with dozens of school districts and organizations.
TakingITGlobal was also featured as an example of positive youth engagement by Education Technology consultant Sara Armstrong in her session Educating Students about Online Safety. The following morning was an exciting one – two educators who have been using our TIGed tools, Mali Bickley and Jim Carleton, were invited by ISTE to give a keynote speech about the collaborations they developed with schools around the world. During their talk, they highlighted TakingITGlobal.org as a social network for social good, and also showed screenshots of the TIG homepage and their TIGed classroom space.
On the final afternoon, Steve Dembo from Discovery Education featured TakingITGlobal as a resource in his session Policies, Safety and Socialm, where he provided our website as an example of well moderated, classroom friendly, safe social networking website. The conference was closed by TakingITGlobal US Advisor Idit Caperton, who provided the conference’s closing keynote, and highlighted TakingITGlobal as a resource for positive student engagement.
We have been so pleased to work with ISTE and engage with the NECC conference on so many fronts! Our partnership with ISTE has also lead to a recent presentation in Dubai and a future event in Singapore, and we were honoured to be mentioned in ISTE’s 2008 Annual Report as one of their key institutional partners!
Special Thanks to our TakingITGlobal staff at NECC !
(below photo: from left to right)
Michael Furdyk
Jennifer Corriero
Emily Kornblut
Kirsten Jordan
Luke Walker
LawMatters.in, a new site which aims is to build a collection of articles related to basic (Indian) law, is looking for contributors.
Contributors could:
- write articles for the site on a regular basis either on any particular subject or on a variety of subjects or
- write one or more articles whenever they want to.
What to Write
Any article that has to do with the law will be considered for publication. If it offers a fresh perspective on the subject it deals with, so much the better! It need not be intensely academic but it should be logical and readable.
All contributions to the website must be original and must not infringe any personal or proprietary right including copyright.
We encourage contributors to search the site before sending us any article. We don't mind publishing more than one article on the same subject but would prefer articles to be on topics which have not been previously covered.
Who can Contribute
Anyone can contribute to the site.
All contributors whose articles are published will be credited as having written the articles they have contributed. Also, LawMatters.in will, on request, certify that contributors whose article(s) are published have written for the site so as to enable them to validate the article(s) as publications on their CVs.
Where to Send Articles
Articles should be sent to submissions@lawmatters.in and must follow the site's submission terms.
Please see:
The site: http://lawmatters.in/
Submission guidelines: http://lawmatters.in/submissions.html
… The lawyers in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ have always struck me as being of the ‘My Cousin Vinny’ variety: fun, easy to relate to, not difficult to understand and not entirely legally sound. However, I can’t help but wonder whether such an absurd technicality would actually have wound up defeating Shylock in Shakespeare’s play had he not been a Jew. Perhaps the Court’s acceptance of the Portia’s interpretation of the contract had less to with legal accuracy (or lack thereof) than it had to do with social acceptability and expedience.
Today will be the first time ever i am trying to look into this topic.
A lot have been said by various speakers and writers, but small result has so far been achieved.
It is very sad that most nations across the globe believed the scurge of HIV/AIDS is all about government responsibility and our various NGO's also mostly relied on foreing grants and infact little was achieved.
I my opinion, i think a concourent audits from donor nations and organizations be carried out on routine basis to asses their activity and make amendments where need be.
We have witness cordinators of this programmes living a flamboyant life after securing a grants and left the purpose for which the grants is made for to suffer, all this orphan should be allowed a chance to be something in life, it is their right.
Thank you all.
I just read a post at Nita’s blog which said that Indian youth are beginning to drink at nineteen. I’m not sure if the age is correct — I suspect that that’s the age at which Indian youth are willing to say that they started to drink.
The post, however, made me think about how entirely irresponsible many young people are when it comes to alcohol and about what their parents could have done to get them to not be as irresponsible as many of them are.
On one hand, I believe that parents should introduce their children to alcohol under their supervision when they are young. I do realise that that’s not going to happen considering how ‘wrong’ it supposedly is to drink but I find it very difficult to believe that so many people would be as irresponsible as they evidently are if they were brought up to be able to enjoy a good wine or whiskey — or anything else — for what it is instead of not knowing what on Earth to do with it other than to use it as an instrument to prove that they’re cool or as a means to escape the unpleasantness which life often throws at one.
And on the other hand, I don’t believe that parents should create an atmosphere where their children feel obliged to lie to them about drinking. Many of my acquaintances who drink like there’s no tomorrow have parents who have absolutely no idea that they drink at all and that’s not something I understand. I do appreciate that one may not feel comfortable admitting to being an alcoholic but to be an adult who goes home to one’s parents pretending that one has never touched a drink seems bizarre to me. And I cannot imagine why parents would be comfortable with creating structures which cause their children lie to them.
“As the word alcohol or drinking was never a taboo subject in our home, the subject was discussed freely. It was excessive drinking which was bad, and it was lack of control which was bad…not drinking in itself. A drink had to had slowly, with food in the stomach, and in moderation, and if at all one had to have that extra drink, one had to be careful if one was in a public place. Having that extra drink with close friends and family was never taboo.”
It’s education along those lines that one would want to have imparted to teenagers about alcohol. However, unless there exists some basic level of honesty between parents and children about the fact that drinks exist and are drunk, that is not the the sort of education that can be imparted.
What’s unnerving about things which can leave one terrified is that they come unbidden, without warning. They are often entirely harmless in themselves. They bear no resemblance to anything which should frighten one.
And yet, there is some tiny connection in them to something which is so frightening to one that despite being harmless in themselves, despite bearing no resemblance to anything which should frighten one, despite one’s knowing that they are harmless, despite knowing that one has no reason to feel frightened, all one can actually do when they confront one is feel frightened.
It could be something as unremarkable as a photo taken on what looks like a Westside bedsheet which you see on the homepage of a social networking site but remember in an entirely different context, as mundane as having someone make gestures so excitedly and so expansively when they speak that they remind you of someone else entirely.
Knowing that your feelings are irrational does nothing at all to keep them from overwhelming you.
Do they become less worthy of being validated solely because you know in your mind that they are irrational even if that’s not what you feel in your heart?
(The picture has not been taken me. For obvious reasons, I haven’t IDed its source, and, for even more obvious reasons, I’m going to trust that the source doesn’t consider suing me notwithstanding being lawyer.)
I suppose we have been denied a right of a lifetime that could have save a hundred of innocent souls of women and children, who could have been opportune to give hope and direction to our world.
I would like us to look at the causes of various wars across the globe. Vietnam war, Japan/China war, Apartheid South Africa war, United State of America invasion of Iraq, Nigerian civil war, Sudan war, Angola war, Sierra Leone war, Liberia war, Israeli/Palestine war, Iran/America war threat, and various sectarian violence across the world over.
In my opinion this wars are avoidable if truly we wish to be at peace with our neighbors, for instance why should I because I want to become untouchable begin to spend close to 60% of my nation annual budget in stocking my armory with a fear of invasion from another nation I am trying to out-weight in terms of military might?
War is all about showing supremacy to your opponent whom you feel should take instructions from you, and if we are to be honest with ourselves. Why should a sovereign nation take instruction from another nation or trying to do her wish to avoid its wrath?
We wake up every day to watch on news how military rose from their barracks and went into presidential palace to seize power. This would not have been possible if, we do not over equip our military, it is understand able the insurgence crime rate which need to be control at our various nation.
It is understood that if a nation over equip her armory, she is prone to go to war at any slightest opportunity; even if the war in question has nothing to do with her jurisdiction.
A nation that over equip her military is always eager to go and fight a senseless war after which she will be the first person drumming support for international aid to come to the assistance of the invaded nation, whereas her own internal crisis that has to deal with, economic, political, education, agriculture and host of other is left un-attended.
Uganda under Late Idi Amin who died in Saudi Arabia village sometimes in August 2004, witness one of the craziest power drunkardness in Africa where her people suffer senseless broad-day light murder, rape and all sort of maiming; despite this man heinous crime against humanity, he was house and given all right due to a former leader in Saudi Arabia, he was never tried for his crime either despite visible evidence; I personally watch one of his son defending his father role of his government, asserting all leaders kills and querying why his father case will be treated as exception on Aljazeera news network early this year.
Former Liberia warlord, Charles Taylor. United Nations and the rest of world regional organization treated him untouchable while he was in power, had it been there was an existing legislation to stop him while on rampage then, thousands of souls would have been save and a lot of money conserved for meaningful developmental purpose.
Nigeria today is known to be the giant of Africa, of which all Nigerians are proud of; but as a Nigerian it is disheartening to tell the world, what we are going through internally for the sacrifice our leaders are making on our behalf to play a fatherly role in Africa.
If those war that is ravaging our continent are well looked into before embarking on them perhaps, the resources expended to those nation in wars situations would have been well utilized internally for the development of our nation which can as well be extended to our sister’s country in terms of development.
In united nation today, ever since her establishment over 50years ago and other regional bodies; they have all failed us. One would expect them to at their various levels of operation make an enabling laws that would allows regional body organizations to take control of power from any leader, who instigate or start a war in her own country or another nation.
World crime tribunal for past leaders who has committed genocide or crime against humanity can only attain 0.2% judgment punishment, as in my own opinion ; the punishment passed onto any guilty past leaders can never bring back our loved ones who might have suffered their cruelty, either; revenge is always the order of the day; we all are witness to Iraqi scenario and saw the aftermath event of Saddam Hussein execution, Iraqi today is ravaging in sectarian war.
By this if we are yet to end the various wars across the globe, at least it will give us a peace of mind that there is no likely hood of any upcoming wars anywhere in the world.
Most of us must have read a lot from our holy book of worships, almighty God has promise not to destroy this world again with water as it is the case in time of Noah; well according to that great man who saw tomorrow “Nostradamus” he predicted in his book that the last war that will bring this world to an end will start from gulf region and its cause shall be the minerals resources from the soil.
It is clear to the entire world that gulf region is, “middle east” and their main source of economy is “oil from the soil” ; why can’t we seat and put head together and try to bring to minimal the catastrophe that await to befell our world and pray to almighty to be compassionate with us?
By this we would have serve humanity and have pleaded with the creator of heaven and earth while alive to grant us his compassion here in the world and thereafter; wars is never the solution to world problem over, we had better make use of the grace we have now before it is too late, I think we have to sacrifice this for the generation unborn to appreciate our existence now and when we are no more.
Thank you all for your attention and God bless.
