Don's Blog

What is the Social Web? - Ecademy

2011-10-12T02:04:00.000-07:00

Community : What is the Social Web?

by Thomas Power BlackStar

What does the social web mean to you?

How has the social web impacted you and your business?

What new opportunities or deals has the social web brought to you?

In what ways has the social web changed you and your behaviour?

What further effect do you see the social web having in the future?

These questions are part of his research for his eighth book coming out in 2012. Anything you contribute will be recognised and attributed. Thank you in advance.

What is the Social Web? - Ecademy

Always giving

2011-07-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

What if to give or not to give, does not exist, ad we are all always giving.

The Bedohagi model allows us to follow this natural process.

Living is BEing, being takes effort(energy) and this leads to DOing(Change).

The laws of Entropy, Growth and Decay mean that doing nothing, if that were possible, would be the most energetic activity there could be.

Doing leads to HAving the outcome(s) of action(s). Having is a function of NOW, the moment, and to have is temporary. The second principle of thermodynamics, is often interpreted as proof of permanent decline leading to death and annihilation. The principle being that all changes of state lead to a LOSS of useful energy, including the change from 'having' to 'not having'.

What happens, however, if instead of losing we talk of GIving. Scientists and engineers often talk about systems 'giving up heat' as if it were a choice not an inevitability.

When we move from 'having' to 'not having' we can make this a conscious, loving decision to give.

What if giving instead of lowering overall energy states, by creating a movement of energy, increases them.

Matthew 5 -41 "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. -42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you."

The Messenger (Bless him and give him peace) said: "When a person dies, his works end, except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, and a righteous child who prays for him."

When we give we create. What if that act of creation is a process of bringing new energy into the world.

When we focus on loss do we block the advent of new things and fail to create space for receiving.

If Life is a gift then is to live to give?

Maybe being alive means giving is not an option, how and what you give is, and this defines your BEing.

Live if you wanna Live? Give if you wanna Live!

Sticks and Stones

2011-07-23T03:43:00.000-07:00

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-Albert Einstein

You're The One For Me

2011-07-04T02:23:00.001-07:00

You're The One For Me Dallas Fisher

You're the one for me.
Your eyes are like fire on a cold winter's day
Your soul burns within me
Your touch blossoms my innermost passions
And your voice melts my heart.
You're the one for me.
You are the key to unlocking
My most sacred fantasies.
You're the one for me,
The one that wakens me
When I'm at my deepest sleep
With your passionate ways,
The one that rivets me with
Your beautiful, unique face.
You're the one for me.
You are the one that I want to share
My life, my love with for all eternity.
I will love you always and forever.
You're the one for me.

The Cloud offers new horizons for SME's - Ecademy

2011-06-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Cloud offers new horizons for SME's - Ecademy

Nice article underlined for me by the fact I can now connect my home printer to my home pc and through google cloud I can now print to my home printer from anywhere... that's in the house or from anywhere I can log on to the google cloud.

Scary exciting stuff

Living in the past

2011-05-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Oh how a picture can take you to a simpler place and a different space..
It can be tempting to live in the past...
I think it's OK to visit those previous happy times...

Just remember to focus on the happy times to come!

Would you be healthier eating a paleolithic diet?

2011-02-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

"Since the appearance of behaviorally modern humans perhaps 50,000 years ago and particularly since the Neolithic Revolution of 10,000 years ago, cultural evolution has proceeded more rapidly than has genetic evolution, thereby producing ever-greater dissociation between the way we actually live and the lifestyle for which our genome was originally selected."

A brilliant paper discussing the pros and cons can be found HERE

Extract "Suboptimal circumstances take varying time periods to induce ill effects. Lack of oxygen is lethal in minutes, scurvy develops after months of inadequate vitamin C intake, and insufficient dietary calcium commonly takes decades to produce clinical osteoporosis. Deviations from our ancestral lifestyle—in nutrition, exercise, reproduction, etc.—can produce ill effects during early life, but many individuals appear outwardly healthy well into middle adulthood and even beyond. However, if preagricultural lifeways are truly those for which humans remain genetically programmed, we can expect that, despite our adaptability, most of us will eventually have to pay the piper. The evolutionary hypothesis proposes that chronic degenerative diseases are the price."

In the 21st Century is Speaking in Public the No1 THRILL???

Vote here to help measure what's going on...

Where do you think public speaking comes in the general populations list of Greatest Fears?

Where does public speaking come in the list of your Greatest Fears?

I can help you deliver powerful, effective and memorable talks, presentations and speeches with confidence, style and presence. When's your next opportunity?

Business Networking | Ecademy

2011-02-07T03:48:00.000-08:00

Epigenetics and Pregnancy
by Michael-Don Smith on 7-Feb-11 11:47am

Should Pregnant Women go on a Raw Food Diet {A Raw Food Diet is one where 50 to 80% of the diet is Raw food i.e. where un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods form a large percentage of the diet. Raw food advocates typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health of an individual}

"... research is also looking at the influence of various substances from the environment on the epigenetic constitution of organisms, including humans. Diet and epigenetics appear to be closely linked. The most well known example is that of the Agouti mice: they are yellow, fat and are prone to diabetes and cancer. If Agouti females are fed with a cocktail of vitamin B12, folic acid and cholin, directly prior to and during pregnancy, they give birth to mainly brown, slim and healthy offspring. They in turn mainly have offspring similar to themselves" -http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090412081315.htm
So it is possible that Raw Moms gift their children AND their children's children, the health benefits of a Raw Food Diet...

I would be intrigued to know your thoughts?
m-D

Business Networking | Ecademy

Business Networking | Ecademy

2011-01-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

Community : Still Raw-n-Smooth

by Michael-Don Smith on 27-Jan-11 9:24pm

I am really into the Raw Food Movement, it really has been the missing ingredient in my personal health and fitness. Quite simply being Raw means 50% to 80% of what I eat is raw, uncooked, as natural as possible and to make it all go down without being 'mushed' by cooking most of what I eat is blended i.e. the magic Green Smoothie... check out http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/ get started and let me know how you get on...

Today Take Flight

2011-01-14T02:37:00.000-08:00

Kapani Mind Body Detox Jan 2011

2011-01-01T14:50:00.000-08:00

Special New Year Seminar Including:

Food Matters Video
Diet Related Medical and Health Challenges
Mind Detox Workshop
Body Detox Workshop
Smoothie Presentation
Juicing For Health
Smoothie Tasting Sessions
Discussions

Join us for a tasty and nutritious start to 2011 at the Kapani Mind Body Detox Taster
Treat Yourself to a Healthy Start to the New Year

Registration only £17

20 12 Places Available
Call Sonia NOW! on 07985 670 758

A Story of War with a NAME

2010-11-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

Zainab Salbi: Women, wartime and the dream of peace

The Death of BS? - Ecademy

2010-11-22T03:34:00.000-08:00

During after dinner coversation at a [friends] house last night the discussion turned to television. It appears, unfortunately, that TV even when not being watched can still claim the focus of attention, at least from my point of view.
My friend, no names no pack drills, my friend insisted that 14 million people in the UK watched 'strictly', the common short form of the BBC TV show Strictly Come Dancing, 'the country's most popular dance programme', please let me know of the others it is competing against.
Without dragging you into the *minutiae of the conversation, actually now I think of it there was nothing but intellectual minutiae in this strand of l'après-déjeuner banter. As the discussion on the validity of this number was about to get over heated... the host for indeed my friend was the host and as with hosts from the dawn of time he felt that this position gave him the right to BS is guests as a matter of due course, foolishly as it turns out, turned to his 15 year old for back up and support, as he was clearly losing the argument with the adults at the table. Without hesitation, deviation or allowing time for interruption the young man whipped out his shining internet enabled PDA/Phone/MP3 player/BS annihilator and 'googled' the audience figures for 'strictly'!

Although nearly captured by the Google distraction effect and being lured into a tempting siding of 'few Strictly Come Dancing viewers would have guessed Felicity Kendal, 64, and Ann Widdecombe, 63, were born just a year apart, shortly after the Second World War.' we managed to stay focused and learn... [strictly] Audience figures peaked when Miss Widdecombe took to the dance floor on Saturday evening, with 10.1 million viewers and 45.9 per cent of the entire audience share.

So although mine hosts underlying argument that strictly was horrendously popular was in fact correct, his BS audience figure was shattered by the ready and speedy access to real time data that the majority of us can now have, if not in our pockets, surely within very easy reach.

Another and perhaps more important example is the case of the 'Bargain' Vauxhall Vectra. For reasons of my own which are no real concern of yours I was looking to upgrade my car to a 1.9 diesel Vauxhall vectra. Now now gentle reader this is an example of the death of BS and your opinions on my transport choices are not relevant at this moment thank you. As I was saying, in the process of negotiation the jolly car salesman assured me he was doing me a massive favour by offering me a 56 plate 112,000 mile very nice condition vehicle of the aforementioned genus for only £4000 great british pounds. Lulled and seduced by his not inconsiderable charm, which included taking the vehicle home overnight 'to get a feel for the quality' I did indeed drive home feeling like the cat who ate the cream etc.
However not only did the salesman's charm fade quickly as I considered where the £4000 was going to come from, I also felt a growing and easily fulfilled need to search on 'Parkers' car price web site for the current figures on cars of this particular make and model... and so within seconds the salesman BS disapeared like a bachelor ninja being chased by Ms Widdecome for a french kiss, as I discovered the market price for the 100's of Vectras for sale on line was around £3,300 and most of them of that age with lower mileage.

So, now that so many facts are so easily checked and double checked, are we living in the age that saw the end of BS as we know it?

What do you think?

and
Do you have any other examples of the Intenet killing BS in your experience?

PS
Minutiae (singular. minutia) are, in everyday English, minor or incidental details
PPS
If you tell me you don't know what BS stands for... that's most probably BS

We live in amazing times with the speed and variety and reach of communication continuing to gather speed and with no sign of slowing down. In this modern context is...
Speaking in Public...
Still the No1 fear or...
In the 21st Century is it the No1 THRILL???
Vote here to help measure what's going on...
Where do you think public speaking comes in the general populations list of Greatest Fears?
Where does public speaking come in the list of your Greatest Fears?

The Death of BS? - Ecademy

Choose your reality

2010-11-10T04:20:00.000-08:00

If everything changes... what then of truth?

There is no PRIZE

2010-11-10T02:20:00.000-08:00

If you don't find your true passion, someone else's passion will find you!!!
Call of Duty is someone else's Passion and they've got you paying time and money to play their game and fulfil there dream. Time is your biggest asset, how are you investing it, in your dream in your studies or in someone else's dream, someone else's plan? you know you can't get any of it back, this time thing, you do know that don't you?

There is no prize... out there. The prize is inside of you and if you haven't found your prize and your passion yet... inside is the only place you can find it. Kevin Spacey tells it beautifully... as always ;-)

21st Century Business Club - November '10

2010-10-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

21st Century Business Club - November

21 CBC October

2010-09-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

One of the best business networking events around, and probably the most cost-effective way to turn your business ideas into reality.

Networking events can be run badly or they can be done well.

The 21st Century Business club is Networking at its best.

You won't be standing around, making awkward small talk. I will ensure it is inspiring, fun and useful and make sure everyone remembers that the main purpose of networking is to attract opportunities and do better business.

If rather than spending all your time, money and effort chasing opportunities, you want to get into the position where people come to you with interesting opportunities, attending the 21st Century Business Club will give you three ways to do this:

1 it will raise your profile

2 it will Create positive relationships

and

3 It will Keep you in touch with the latest business news and events.

Oh and there are great speakers who present at each meeting.

Call 07788 717 444 to register
or
On line @ http://bit.ly/djC9jg

Knowledge is Action

2010-09-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

Only when you act on what you have learned of something can you truly say you know that thing.

The Power of Gratitude

2010-09-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat..

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."
Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Source Rudi Metha

Forer's Unrecognised Genius Test

2010-08-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

Does this fit You?

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage.
While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you.
Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.
At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others” statements without satisfactory proof.
You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved.
Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.
Security is one of your major goals in life.

If it is you are not accessing your Genius Potential!

Contact me urgently to discover how you can release your true potential...

We Are All One Consciousness

2010-08-19T02:03:00.000-07:00

Haiti: The devastation began in 1492

2010-08-18T13:00:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Haiti: The devastation began in 1492

View more presentations from apscuhuru.

Mike Forrester Official High Court Statment in Manchester 2010

2010-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

African diaspora and travels (Paul Obinna's 'TIMELINE' DVD trailer)

2010-08-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

This is what you do...

2010-08-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

When you are in a terrible place

and the illusion of fear seems too bright to bear

and the false aprehension of disaster
is twisting at you inside

This is what you do...

Keep breathing! Keep breathing!
Keep looking and listening!
Deal with things as they really are... not with how bad they could be!
Never stop yourself... let the situation or the problem stop you... it rarely will!
Know that there absolutely is a solution... probably more than one...
                                                Some of them really easy...
                                                                    keep seeking for it/them!
When you get over/past/through it...
                            as you almost certainly will..
                                           You will be stronger, wiser and
                                                                     more able than before!

When you get over/past/through it...
                                 remember these words...
                                                    ...for the next time...

and in the meantime...
                                     share them!

Colin Powell speaks about leadership

2010-08-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Chushingura

2010-08-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Loyalty is faithfulness to commitments to obligations, it is fealty, devotion, constancy, allegiance, fidelity, an unwavering sense of duty and devotion to a person or principle.

Loyalty is the emotion and the feeling of devotion that one holds for one's country, creed, family and friends. And by extension, one's obligation to support that group, cause or individual.

"Some people live all their lives without knowing which path is right. They're buffeted by this wind or that and never really know where they're going. That is largely the fate of the commoner - those who have no choice over their destiny. For those of us born as Samurai, life is something else. We know the path of duty and we follow it without question." - Oishi Kuranosuke
"I have lived my entire life for this moment. One's life weighs lightly against duty." - Oishi Chikara's

'natural born leader' ?

2010-07-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

"I think all leadership starts with self leadership", so in that respect we are all natural born leaders. In most areas hard categories can be confusing and rarely as useful as those who like to put people in boxes like to suggest.

Truly great/inspirational leaders rarely fit any particular model of "the leader" and often start out as the most unlikely candidate... check out recent history, where more people feared for Barracks life than how hard it would be to maintain his positive opinion rating. also check out -attributes-of-inspirational-leaders

Rehab - The Jolly Boys

2010-07-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

True to your Art

2010-07-02T04:10:00.001-07:00

The foundations of the strongest buildings are sure because they can move, within limits!

The strongest tree bends in the storm to become the oldest tree it can be, it's roots do not move!

The effective person changes his path on the journey to remain true to the destination, one destination!

Perfect balance is perfect and never ending movement, around one point!

Your [He]art is your source of peace in the midst of the chaos that is life, be true to your [He]art!

Primary Purpose

2010-07-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, there was a lighthouse keeper who was given sufficient fuel to keep the light going for a month until further supplies would be delivered.

On the first night of his watch, a mother with young children asked if could he spare her some fuel as her family were frozen and they had no money until her husband came back from sea. He helped her out with a small ration of fuel.

One week later he had a similar request from another family.

The same thing happened with a different family the following week and each time the lighthouse keeper helped with a small donation of fuel.

At the end of the third week he ran out of fuel for the light.

The following night there was a storm and in the darkness a ship ran aground killing all of the twenty crew on board - including the husbands and fathers of the families he had helped.

At his trial the well intentioned lighthouse keeper was found guilty of manslaughter.

He'd made the mistake of taking his eye of his primary objective, with tragic consequences that caused devastating harm to the very people he'd tried to help.

White Supremacy A Short History

2010-06-23T16:07:00.001-07:00

White Supremacy A Short History

View more presentations from profgjay.

Tim Wise-The Pathology of White Privilege Part 1/6

2010-06-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Dr. Clarke: Christianity Before Christ

2010-06-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yes We Can

2010-06-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Justin Bieber - Never Say Never ft. Jaden Smith

2010-06-16T04:57:00.000-07:00

Adebayo Ogunlesi, owner of Gatwick Airport

2010-06-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

Adebayo Ogunlesi, chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners, said he is going "to make Gatwick a truly first class experience".
However he cautioned it would take "somewhere between 12 and 18 months" before passengers started noticing a difference at the airport.
GIP agreed a £1.51bn deal with Gatwick's current operator BAA last week, which represented a "good price", Mr Ogunlesi said.

Rene Carayol on the New Entrepreneur

2010-05-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

Speak softly

2010-05-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

It's not the destination that is important, nor the path we take, it is not even the journey that matters, it is the conversation we share with those we meet on the way that gives meaning to our lives.

"My Friend speak softly for your words are footsteps and you are walking on my heart" Anon

Scintillating on the home stretch

2010-05-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

The Haberdashers’ Adams’ Federation

Adams’ Grammar School

A Member of the Family of Haberdashers’ Schools
Newport, Shropshire
Founded 1656

Headmaster’s News
Summer Term Issue 2
14 May 2010

Athletics
Our Year 11 athletes competed in the
Telford and Schools District Athletics meets
at Oakengates, pitting their skills against the
best in the area across the range of activities. The event
was kicked off in style with the boys 800m, which saw Ned
Rutty storm to victory, leaving at least 20 metres of
daylight between him and his nearest rival. Following this
initial success Michael Walsh lined up for the 80m hurdles
and put in a good performance, managing second place.
Despite a slow start Duncan Morrison came close to
winning the 200m but was just beaten into second on the
line. Despite being three places back in the 400m William
Wallace kept up the good work with a blistering last 100m,
winning in style before Aquile Smith stuttered out the
blocks but once again came in a credible second in the
flagship sprint event, the 100m. Ryan Cattle prefers even
longer distances but, despite trailing three others going into
the final lap in the 1500m, he glided round the course and
was bearing down on the leader as he crossed the line in
second.

In the field events Adams' were no less successful, with
Morrison claiming 2nd in the Long jump, Smith was also
2nd, but in the javelin. Walsh came in 2nd in the discus
and also 3rd in the high jump, with Josh Webster 2nd in
the shot and Cameron Roberts 2nd in the triple jump. The
final event of the evening was the 4x100m. Roberts lead
the way, passing the baton onto Morrison, who stormed up
the back straight. A slight stutter as Webster took over on
the bend, before passing onto Smith, who was scintillating
on the home stretch, cruising in a mere 20m ahead of the
nearest rivals. The results meant that we were certainly in
the top two. Depending on how Thomas Telford did in
certain events when the points come out, it could quite
possibly be a victory. The boys were great and the effort
they put in all evening was superb. Well done Adams'.
Mr Armstrong

Adults! Time to Say No!

2010-05-10T02:21:00.000-07:00

"Rather than being paralysed by the scale of the problem, we need to think about what time and skills we could use to make a difference." ...

Trained to maim at age 7

The alarming rise of Britain's 'baby' gangsters

CARVE-UP: Crafty young gangsters use broken CDs instead of knives to slash victims

By Lucy Panton, Crime Editor, 09/05/2010

KIDS as young as SEVEN are slashing their way up the gangland ladder - using shards of broken CDs as vicious weapons.

Young hoodlums use the sharpened plastic to fool cops and avoid being jailed for having a knife, we can reveal.
And by aiming blows at victims' arms they can argue they were acting in self-defence.
The alarming new evidence is outlined in a chilling book by Patrick Regan, who has spent almost two decades trying to rescue youngsters from a life of crime. It also reveals how:

GANG members, including a new group of under-sevens called Babies, are taught how to stab rivals in the BACKSIDE so they need a colostomy bag;
NEW recruits are ordered to RAPE as part of their initiation;
THOSE who fear reprisal attacks even wear BULLETPROOF vests beneath school uniform.

Horror

Official estimates which suggest there are 20,000 gang members across the UK hugely under-estimate the problem, says Regan.
He was stunned to be told by one community worker in Birmingham: "A gun is easier to get than a mobile phone." The revelations in his book are sure to alarm the new Home Secretary.
Horrifyingly, Regan quotes the chairman of a police advisory body who said: "We'd have had a lot more deaths on our streets if it wasn't for the fact that the youngsters firing the guns are such poor shots."
While shootings remain comparatively rare, police report a 500 PER CENT increase in youngsters taking some form of weapon to school.

One former gang member, rescued by Regan's ground- breaking campaign group XLP which operates across London, explained how his mum gave him this tip: "She recommended I stab the person in the arm in defence and not the stomach, as it's less likely to cause major harm."
John Poyton, director of charity Redthread which works with young crime victims, added: "It appears to be the current trend for people to stab someone in the butt.
"They're not trying to kill their victim but leave them needing a colostomy bag so they have to suffer the degradation of the attack for life."
The report also highlights a worrying increase in girls involved in gangs, as casual sexual partners and "honey traps", drug and weapon handlers.
"The boys would treat us as their bitches, phone whoever they felt like f***ing, order them over, and most girls would drop everything and do whatever was wanted," said one girl ex-gangster.
Regan reveals how a girl will be phoned by a gang member and asked for sex. If she agrees she will then be asked if their "brethren" can join in.
"This they refer to as a line-up, where one girl performs sexual acts on a group of men in turn," he explains.
"Their justification is that if the girl doesn't respect herself why would they respect her?" He adds: "In some cases initiation into a gang involves raping someone first."
Family breakdown has exacerbated the problem. And so-called "Tinies", kids of seven and eight, are increasingly used because they're less likely to be stopped by cops.
"There are now even younger children getting involved known as Babies," says Regan. "Police know of gangs led by a 14-year-old boy."
In London, doubts have been raised over the widespread use of stop and search powers by police. One study showed that, despite 9,437 searches in six months in Southwark, knife crime rose by 8.6%. And last year FOURTEEN youngsters were stabbed to death in the capital.
This week's murder of Nick Pearton, 16, stabbed repeatedly in a playground brawl, brings this year's toll so far to TEN.
Regan's book, published by Hodder & Stoughton next month, tells how in North London police found boys of 13 or 14 who had been stabbed up to FIVE times.
One 15-year-old admitted wearing a bulletproof vest beneath his school uniform. The researcher told Regan: "We found him a mentor but six weeks later he was stabbed when leaving school."
Despite the grim picture he paints, Regan believes the situation is reversible.
In a passionate plea, he concludes: "Rather than being paralysed by the scale of the problem, we need to think about what time and skills we could use to make a difference."

Nina Simone Feelings

2010-04-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

Abbey Lincoln: Where Are The African Gods?

2010-04-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

Max Roach Quintet w/ Abbey Lincoln - Driva-Man [1964]

2010-04-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Billie Holiday-Strange Fruit (Live)

2010-04-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Logos, Pathos, Ethos and

2010-04-28T01:44:00.000-07:00

POWER Leadership is the ability to develop a PURPOSEFUL relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with YOUR vision. - e.g. The Corporate Leader [Logos]
Power leadership has nothing to do with morality or empathy. This leader persuades people to follow him by any means necessary. Napoleon led the French to catastrophe, and they followed him almost to the end. Marlborough and Wellington were masters of Power Leadership, unfortunately for the world so was Hitler. Al Capone was a Power Leader in a criminal context.

SERVANT leadership is the ability to develop a LASTING relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with THEIR vision. - e.g. The Political Leader
[Pathos]
The archetypal Servant Leader was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who while wielding tremendous personal and political power practised and advocated non-violence and truth, even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organising an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha—he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Nelson Mandela was born and raised to be a Power Leader as a tribal chief, his 'long walk to freedom' sees him arrive in power as the first President of a united South Africa and the most significant Servant Leader of the modern era. Dusé Mohamed Ali an influential Pan-Africanist, a supporter of Islam. He traveled widely throughout the African Diaspora. He founded the African Times and Orient Review in 1911, which spread the call for African nationalism, and later founded The Comet in Lagos, Nigeria.

GREAT leadership is the ability to develop a LASTING relationship of influence where you inspire people to take action in accordance with A SHARED vision. - e.g. The Spiritual Leader
[Ethos]
Servant Leader Martin Luther King moved into the Category of Great Leader when he crystallised a nation's [and perhaps the World's] vision with a speech that captured the 'Dream' shared by all races, creeds and colours. Julius Kambarage Nyerere was one of Africa's leading independence heroes (and a leading light behind the creation of the Organization of African Unity), the architect of ujamaa (an African socialist philosophy which revolutionized Tanzania's agricultural system), the prime minister of an independent Tanganyika, and the first president of Tanzania. Kwame Nkrumah was the motivating force behind the movement for liberation of Ghana, and its first president when it regained independence in 1957. His numerous writings address Africa's political destiny. In 1999 BBC world service listeners in Africa voted Kwame Nkrumah, "Man of the Millennium".

Typically Power Leadership is short lived and the power leader is dethroned by a rival or disillusioned followers. The nature of the Power Leader is such that they will continually strive to return to power

The Servant leader will normally step down once the task is completed and be reluctant to return. Servant Leaders who serve for extended periods can evolve into great leaders... if they survive the twin threats of the corrupting effects of power and the correcting actions of the men in shadows!

Game Changer

2010-04-13T03:14:00.000-07:00

Bright young thing - Technology - ArabianBusiness.com
Meet Suhas Gopinath; the 23-year-old CEO of technology company Globals Inc turning over $25m a year.

The world's youngest CEO is not what you'd expect. A diffident, slight 23-year-old, who stutters lightly when he talks, Suhas Gopinath has none of the brash front you'd expect from someone who hit the pinnacle of corporate job titles when barely into his teens.

He is, in fact, about as far from a Richard Branson-style teen tycoon as you could imagine. So what, at age fourteen, spurred him to set up his own technology firm?

As it turns out, basic materialism.

"I wanted my own PC," Bangalore-born Gopinath admits in his lightly accented English. "The internet shop across the road charged $4 an hour, which was very expensive for me. I thought I could monetise my skills and buy my own computer to use at home."

Strictly speaking, then, his first deal was with the owner of the internet store, whom he persuaded to let him watch the shop in exchange for free surfing hours. Fast-forward six months, and Gopinath had taught himself how to build websites and was pitching cut-price portals to bricks-and-mortar firms in the US.

But business contacts, recoiling at the cockiness of this fourteen-year-old web whizz, didn't respond well.

"There was a lot of frustration and humiliation. Firms would say; ‘I see you're still in high school,' and ‘so, no moustache yet?'" Gopinath recalls. He later confesses he spent years trying to coax a moustache along, in the hope of cultivating an air of gravitas. "The rejections really were the spark for me to start my own company - I knew I needed to formalise my set-up."

At fourteen, however, Gopinath was four years short of being legally able to establish a firm in his native India. So he did what any other tech geek would do and turned to the net, in search of a US partner who was old enough - and willing - to put his name to an unknown dotcom start-up.

His search turned up a Silicon Valley resident who offered his home address as a base and, on August 1, 2000, Globals Inc was born, courtesy of a few hundred dollars saved from Gopinath's freelance web work.

As corporate launches go, it sounds unfeasibly simple. He really launched a firm with someone he had never met?

"Of course," he says, frowning slightly. "There are matrimonial sites that organise arranged marriages without either party even seeing the other person. Why can't I start a company with someone I haven't met?"

Now, at 23, Gopinath's gnat-sized start-up has morphed into a $25m-a-year technology firm, with a 250-strong staff and offices in India, the US and Germany - and all without a modicum of venture capital. It's enough to make even Bill Gates, legendary founder of Microsoft Inc, sit up and take notice. Gopinath met him while mingling with the top brass at a recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

"The first thing he said was, ‘I should be afraid of you. When I started Microsoft, I was already at university. I was eighteen. You started at fourteen - I should be worried,'" he grins. Gates is his self-confessed hero. "He is amazing, so modest."

We are talking on the sidelines of an entrepreneurship conference in Dubai where Gopinath, with all the confidence of nine years of CEO-dom, is about to preach the virtues of going it alone to Emirati high school students. Flanked by property moguls, biotechnology bosses and financiers he is, by some two decades, the most junior member of the panel.

In the course of the day, a trio of Emirati girls will scoop $25,000 in prize money after winning a nationwide hunt for the best student entrepreneurs. Afterwards, they talk of the need for seed money and venture capital to turn their invention into a reality. The contrast with Gopinath - who ran his business out of his family home, without borrowing any money - is sharp. His parents, I say, must have been very proud.

He looks faintly embarrassed. "Actually, I didn't tell them."

This is incredible. He started a firm in secret? He rushes to explain. "I come from a very orthodox, non-business family. My dad is a scientist. The feeling is, if you don't have a nine-to-five job and a monthly salary, you're not settled in life and you can't get married. To them, entrepreneurship is a sin.

He pauses. "So I just didn't tell them. I lied and said I was working as a freelancer for an American firm. Which I was - it was just my own company. I'd go to school during the day, and then work on the business in the evening. The time difference helped - in my evening, US firms opened for business."

Gopinath kept the deception up for four years, until he was eighteen. At which point Globals Inc was employing some 40 staff in the US and generating $1m a year in revenue.

He must be the only CEO on record who, when his firm turned over its first $500,000, was still getting pocket money from his dad: the princely sum of $0.50 a month.

Global Inc's success is testimony to the game-changing power of the internet, which allows any go-getter with a smart idea to hit the ground running.

The Hau de no sau nee

2010-04-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

The people of the Six Nations, also known by the French term, Iroquois Confederacy, call themselves the Hau de no sau nee (ho dee noe sho nee) meaning People Building a Long House. Located in the northeastern region of North America, originally the Six Nations was five and included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, migrated into Iroquois country in the early eighteenth century. Together these peoples comprise the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. Their story, and governance truly based on the consent of the governed, contains a great deal of life-promoting intelligence for those of us not familiar with this area of American history. The original United States representative democracy, fashioned by such central authors as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, drew much inspiration from this confederacy of nations.

"...The European penetration affected every facet of the Native Way of Life from the very moment of contact. The natural economies, cultures, politics, and military affairs became totally altered. Nations learned that to be without firearms meant physical annihilation. To be without access to beaver pelts mean no means to buy firearms. . . .

"European churches, especially in colonial practice, take on their feudal roles as economic institutions. Among natural world people, they are the most dangerous agents of destruction. They invariably seek to destroy the spiritual/economic bonds of the people to the forests, land and animals. They spread both ideologies and technologies which make people slaves to the extractive system which defines colonialism. . . . "

"By pretending that the Hau de no sau nee government no longer exists, both the U.S. and Britain illegally took Hau de no sau nee territories by simply saying the territories belong to them. To this day, Canada, the former colony of England, has never made a treaty for the lands in the St. Lawrence River Valley..."

"The Hau de no sau nee territories are not and have never been part of the U.S. or Canada. The citizens of the Hau de no sau nee are a separate people, distinct from either Canada or the United States. Because of this, the Hau de no sau nee refuses to recognize a border drawn by a foreign people through our lands"

The Storm Is Over Now

2010-03-23T04:08:00.001-07:00

Look beyond the Glory

2010-03-23T03:54:00.001-07:00

Success is like breaking through wood with your bare hands...
If you look at the wood you may break your hand...
If you focus far beyond the target you will break through every time...

Go The Distance!

At the barricades

2010-03-23T03:38:00.000-07:00

Don’t wish things were easier, use your challenges to grow stronger!

Self-interest

2010-03-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

Self-interest hides in many ways, hides under every stone and every act -- hides in prayer, in worship, in having a successful profession, great knowledge, a special reputation, like the speaker. When there is a guru who says, `I know all about it. I will tell you all about it' - is there not self-interest there? This seed of self-interest has been with us for a million years. Our brain is conditioned to self-interest. If one is aware of that, just aware of it, not saying, `I am not self-interested' or `How can one live without self-interest?' but just be aware, then how far can one go, how far can one investigate into oneself to find out for ourselves, each one of us, how in action, in daily activity, in our behaviour, how deeply one can live without a sense of self-interest?

So, if we will, we will examine all that. Self-interest divides, self-interest is the greatest corruption (the word corruption means to break things apart) and where there is self-interest there is fragmentation - your interest as opposed to my interest, my desire opposed to your desire, my urgency to climb the ladder of success opposed to yours. Just observe this; you can't do anything about it -- you understand? - but just observe it, stay with it and see what is taking place.

-- Krishnamurti, Last Talks At Saanen, 1985, pp. 84-85.

A HAUSA TALE

2010-03-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

Life and Death

There were two old men who journeyed together.
The name of one was Life, and the other was called Death.
They came to a place where a spring flowed, and the man who owned the spring greeted them. They asked him for permission to drink.
He said: "Yes, drink. But let the elder drink first, because that is the custom."

Life said, "I, indeed, am the elder."

Death said, "No, I am the elder."

Life answered: "How can that be? Life came first. Without living things to die, Death does not exist."

Death said: "On the contrary, before Life was born everything was Death. Living things come out of Death, go on a while and then return to Death."

Life replied: "Surely that is not the way it is. Before Life there was no Death, merely that which is not seen.
The Creator made this world out of the unseen substances. When the first person died, that was the beginning of Death. Therefore you. Death, are the younger."

Death argued: "Death is merely what we do not know. When the Creator created, he molded everything out of what we do not know. Therefore Death is like a father to Life."

They disputed this way, standing beside the spring.

And at last they asked the owner of the water to judge the dispute.

He said: "How can one speak of Death without Life, from which it proceeds? And how can one speak of Life without Death, to which all living things go?

Both of you have spoken eloquently.
Your words are true.
Neither can exist without the other.
Neither of you is senior.
Neither of you is junior.
Life and Death are merely two faces [masks] of the Creator.
Therefore you are of equal age
Here is a gourd of water.
Drink from it together."
They received the gourd of water. They drank. And after that they continued their journey.

What say you of these two travellers?
They go from one place to another in each other's company.
Can one be the elder and the other the younger?

If you do not know, let us consider other things.

Dangers of the Super Religious State

2010-03-20T05:21:00.001-07:00

John Henrik Clarke speak on Farrakhan

Send in the Clowns

2010-03-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

According to Malcolm, Martin Luther King was a Clown, wonder what he would have made of Barrack?

"It was the grass roots out there in the street. It scared the white man to death, scared the white power structure in Washington, D.C., to death; I was there. When they found out that this black steamroller was going to come down on the capital, they called in Wilkins, they called in Randolph, they called in these national Negro leaders that you respect and told them, "Call it off." Kennedy said, .Look, you all are letting this thing go too far." And Old Tom said, "Boss, I can't stop it, because I didn't start ~ I'm telling you what they said. They said, "I'm not even in it, much less at the head of it." They said, "These Negroes are doing things on their own. They're running ahead of us." And that old shrewd fox, he said, "If you all aren't in it, I'll put you in it. I'll put you at the head of it. I'll endorse it. I'll welcome it. I'll help it. I'll join it."

A matter of hours went by. They had a meeting at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. The Carlyle Hotel is owned by the Kennedy family; that's the hotel Kennedy spent the night at, two nights ago; it belongs to his family. philanthropic society headed by a white man named Stephen Currier called all the top civil-rights leaders together at the Carlyle Hotel. And he told them, "By you fighting each other, you are destroying the civil-rights movement. And since you're fighting over money from the liberals, let us set up what is known as the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership. Let's form this council and all the civil-rights organizations will belong to it, and we'll use it for fund-raising purposes." Let me show you how tricky the white man is. As soon as they got formed, they elected Whitney Young as its chairman, and who do you think became the co-chairman? Stephen Currier, the white man, a millionaire. Powell was talking bout it down at Cobo Hall today. This is what he was talking about. Powell knows it happened. Randolph knows happened. Wilkins knows it happened. King knows it happened. Every one of that Big Six they know happened.

Once they formed it, with the white man over it, he promised them and gave them $800,000 to split up among the Big Six; and told them that after the march was over they'd give them $700,000 more. A million and a half dollars split up between leaders that you have been following, going to jail for, crying crocodile tears for. And they're nothing but Frank James and Jesse James and the what-do-you-call-'em brothers.

As soon as they got the setup organized, the white man made available to them top public-relations experts, opened the news media across the country at their disposal, which then began to project these Big Six as the leaders of the march. Originally they weren't even in the march. You were talking this march talk on

Hastings Street

, you were talking march talk on

Lenox Avenue

, and on

Fillmore Street

, and on

Central Avenue

, and

32nd Street

and

63rd Street

. That's where the march talk was being talked. But the white man put the Big Six at the head of it; made them the march. They became the march. They took it over. And the first move they made after they took it over, they invited Walter Reuther, a white man; they invited a priest, a rabbi, and an old white preacher, yes, an old white preacher. The same white element that put Kennedy into power labor, the Catholics, the Jews, and liberal Protestants; the same clique that put Kennedy in power, joined the march on Washington

It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep. This is what they did with the march on Washington. They joined it. They didn't integrate it, they infiltrated it. They joined it, became a part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. It ceased to be angry, it ceased to be hot, it ceased to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, a circus. Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all. You had one right here in Detroit saw it on television with clowns leading it, white clowns and black clowns. I know you don't like what I'm saying, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Because I can prove what I'm saying. If you think I'm telling you wrong, you bring me Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph and James Farmer and those other three, and see if they'll deny it over a microphone.

No, it was a sell-out. It was a takeover. When James Baldwin came in from Paris, they wouldn't let him talk, because they couldn't make him go by the script. Burt Lancaster read the speech that Baldwin was supposed to make; they wouldn't let Baldwin get up there, because they know Baldwin is liable to say anything. They controlled it so tight, they told those Negroes what time to hit town, how to come, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to sing, what speech they could make, and what they couldn't make; and then told them to get out of town by sundown. And every one of those Toms was out of town by sundown. Now I know you don't like my saying this. But I can back it up. It was a circus, a performance that beat anything Hollywood could ever do, Performance of the year. Reuther and those other three should get an Academy Award for the best actors because they acted like they really loved Negroes and a whole lot of Negroes. And the six Negro leaders should get an award too, for the best supporting cast." Malcolm X

Yes We Can

2010-03-20T03:34:00.001-07:00

Richard Bandler told me "study and seek for the original form... there is very little new in the world of human thinking"

Tannika

2010-01-29T08:03:00.001-08:00

Tannika A Nice Naughty Intelligent Kinda Angel
At first when I saw her I was just another Stranger
Nothing I said made turn her head, look at me
Nothing I did whatever however what could it be
I was'nt scared not upset, made myself a bet
Kindness is deep soon she'd have to speak
And learn that I'm strong enough to appear weak

Bless that License fee

2010-01-18T01:44:00.001-08:00

"In the commercial model programming is used to divide the public into demographic groups of supposed gormless consumers, people with no rights whose only purpose is to be titillated and frightened into buying stupid crap they don't need. To help prevent them changing channel they're yanked around by their emotions with sensationalized 'news' coverage, fired up with sex and violence and held with dramatic cliffhangers over ad segments. This model is thus most successful when it has the greatest control over the attention of its viewers, it seeks to disempower people, lest they exercise their freedom to flip over to the competition or turn off the TV and read a book." - http://strix.org.uk/

"Sony Connect (for itself and for its content providers) reserves the right to enforce any usage rules with or without notice to you ... your rights to access, download and use the Content are subject to immediate termination, without notice ... AND [you] HEREBY WAIVE, TRIAL BY JURY AND/OR ANY DEFENSES ..." - Sony Connect EULA

"In the socalised model, by contrast, broadcasters are most successful when they best serve the interests of the public. Sure, there'll be some bickering about what those best interests are, but it still means that news can strive for objectivity, rather than ratings and that those making content can focus on what they're doing without having to be attractive to advertisers. This model serves citizens, people whose rights and self-determination are respected, it seeks to empower people. I think it's an excellent model and would love to see the BBC carry this MO into new services as new forms of media and content distribution emerge." - http://strix.org.uk/

Darn it's cold {Jan 2010}

2010-01-12T05:22:00.000-08:00

When the rich nations were decimating the rain forests and polluting the atmosphere in the name of progress, and advancement of the dominant 'race', the scientists agreed Gaia could take it... Now it's Africa's turn to develop and eat at the table of Technology, the 'scientists' say NO that can't happen because it would destroy the world... Darn it's cold in January 2010

John Coleman slams global warming

The Lies Of Global Warming

Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore says there is no proof global warming is caused by humans

World War III Clock?

2010-01-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

Right NOW:

The US National Debt is:

Refresh this Blog page to watch it rise....

What happens when a bully[America?] can't pay back what it owes?

What happens when the one being bullied[China?] decides to use it's kung Fu?

The current RECESSION, [Peter Schiff] argues, is only the beginning of a larger economic restructuring. The American economy has been destroyed by years of reckless spending and borrowing. And now, the U.S. government is so deeply in debt that at some point in the very near future, he says, its lenders - namely China - are going to come to their senses and cut America off. "We can't have one country that just borrows and one country that just consumes that's supported by the rest of the world. It doesn't work." When this system collapses - and it inevitably must, he insists - inflation will run wild as the U.S. prints money to support its spending habit. Interest rates will jump and everyone will suffer. The real day of reckoning is still to come.

Peter Schiff on Creating Jobs

What's in your Tea?

2009-12-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

If I have a cup of tea or coffee and my worst enemy, with the worst feeling towards me possible, puts 2 teaspoons of sugar in it, what will happen?

If I have a cup of tea or coffee and my best friend, by accident and with the best intentions possible, puts 2 drops of deadly poison in it, what will happen?

Your brain is like the tea or coffee...

The intentions of the sources that fill your mind, will not significantly impact the quality of what it becomes filled with!

What you allow into your world is what you allow into your world.

'Good' people can put poor/dangerous/unhelpful thoughts into your mind

'Bad' people can put useful/high quality/helpful thoughts into your mind

Pay attention to the outcomes of your associations not just the activities.

Pay attention to what goes in your Tea!

>

my response to 'Economic Violence'

2009-12-17T01:26:00.001-08:00

my response to the article 'Economic Violence' is in BLUE

ECONOMIC VIOLENCE - Are You Guilty? If So, What Are You Doing About It?

Have you ever received money from a Chinese person for anything other
than them making change for you?  Yes - I have had several Chinese clients over the years, one of them is a manager of a Wing Wahs restaurant and I did some work on improving Customer Service with him [i.e. African heritage person training chinese person on customer service ;-) ]

"Have you ever given money to a Chinese person?"  Yes - I eat at Wing Wahs and I've never spent as much as my fee for the training!
Yes. This is an imbalance of give and take but not an imbalance of value for money!!!

There is a reason why every Black Ghetto has a Chinese food restaurant, but
there are no Soul Food restaurants in Chinatown - Because we have not opened any!!!

There are many successful African Carribean restaurants in London and they are increasing all over the UK, Including the stylish Carlton's Caribbean Cusine in Wolverhampton [shameless advert alert] do try it out.
EVERY good quality Caribean restaurant catering for the 96% of UK residents and visitors, i.e. NOT AFRICAN CARIBBEANS, that I know of is doing well, Cottons in London have now opened there 2nd restaurant and you can't swing a cat in Brixton without finding a Caribbean restaurant... despite the shootings.
Are they all doing equally well? No! some are some arent't that's down to business ability, something we are catching up the chinese with in terms of systems, processes, procedures and business discipline. WE ARE getting better... we're not there yet obviously... we are getting there though.

If a Black person tried, the business would be shut down, before it started. Why? Economic Violence? I think not, lack of Economic Education I think so.

Every group of people understands practices and strategically utilizes the
concept of economic violence ???   If every group of people practice this fantasy why does every town in England have a chinese restaurant. a macdonalds, pizza hut, spec savers, etc.
Not violence... Economic know how, all these businesses have systems and practices that make them reliable. cheap. profitable and easy to do business with.

That means purchasing a Black person's service or product
"first" before I purchase any other ethnic group or race's service or product.  - This is Economic suicide
If the product is not fit for purpose or is more expensive or of questionable quality.
Your response in argument is CHILDISH
1) If that's your attitudinal posture, then do not get mad if
people don't patronize your Black business (product or service) for fear of
deficiencies.  = if you don't buy mine i'm not buying yours so you better buy mine!
2) Since when has the uncleanliness of a Chinese food restaurant stopped you
from buying a to-go order of shrimp fried rice, or the messiness of an Arab or
Indian corner-store, gas station or bodega stopped you from purchasing those
pork rinds you love and a soft drink. Have you committed economic violence
on your behalf or against yourself today?  = everybody else's stuff is rubbish too so don't pick on me!

Black people: Due to our lack of economic militarism, we are losing the fight
for economic independence.  No OUR LACK of ECONOMIC EDUCATION

The European transatlantic slave trade of kidnapping millions of Africans as
Prisoners of War was the biggest gang bang of all time.  Use this fact to motivate not to whine!

Stop Eating Pizza,*You're not Italian  - What madness is this! my best friend had a wicked pizza shop on stapleton road in Bristol and black white and yellow were queing for his Ackee and Saltfish pizza, off the back of the lunchtime 'Jamaican' pizzas he sold more cooked food and patties as he atracted the 96% into his restaurant.

This is extremely important as all products and services spring from a cultural
landscape.  - and everybody loves our music our language [working class inner city UK young people speak more patois on a daily basis than i did at there age]  and OUR FOOD, we just have not been MARKETING our products to the mainstream effectively.

(1) An overwhelming amount of people in America, purchase turkey on the third
week of November, every single year. -  Great opportunity!  Buy or invest in Turkey farms

(2) This is the same reason why U.S. federal, state and municipal government
cars must be American cars.    Great opportunity - Buy or invest in American car supplies or repair services

(3) Selling beef to Hindus won't work.  - That's right not a good opportunity -skip that one.

A further examination of tastes, interests and values reveal that once you adopt
or are coerced into perpetuating the tastes, interests and values of another
group of people you will not only be committing economic violence against
yourself but you will be committing violence against your health.  - IT IS OUR RESPOSIBILITY TO EDUCATE OURSELVES ABOUT OUR HEALTH TOO.
I think this is more to do with LAZINESS on our part in the modern era... Our parents didn't have the internet we do, our parents didn't have mobile phones and access to business finance, we do !

*Example 1: In Hawaii*,  - EDUCATION as defence against corporate greed

*Example 2: I was at a supermarket in Miami,* - Education as defence against personal greed
* Sickle Cell Anemia*.  - Education to set up our own centres for helping our people http://www.wolvssicklecell.org.uk/

Americans have been forced to develop a taste for everything, other than
African root food,  - aahh poor americans being forced to eat all those nasty things - GET EDUCATED
**The Opium Wars:  - VALUABLE lesson in Education KNOW YOUR MARKET(enemy) - GET EDUCATED

**Slavery and the Value of Labor: Adam Smith*
what are Black people now? The biggest one-dimensional pure consumers the world has
ever seen.  - i DON'T THINK SO - particularly in the UK where we make up less than 5% of the population - I personal know what my value is and as an Afrikan I practice humility to divintiy and service to humanity as more Afrikans are educated we will realise the potential of the 2nd largest continent is practically untapped. the wealth of Africa's people is far greater than it's minerals and land.

The slavery relationship is still the same. If you work a job that pays you
ten dollars per hour and you pay $150.00 to Tommy Hilfiger for his jeans,
you have effectively given 15 hours of your labor to Tommy Hilfiger.
You worked 15 hours for him. When are you going to work for yourself
and your people,  - Or better still get Tommy Hilfiger junior working for you
Lesson: In your economic life, if you are buying  and not selling you are holding the thin end of the stick whatever the colour of the sales man

ARE WE GUILTY OF ECONOMIC VIOLENCE I DOUBT IT!

ECONOMIC IGNORANCE? PROBABLY

Remember we are all in business! the only question is:
Is it our business or someone elses?

Peace and Love to all our Social Entrepreneurs who create succesful businesses and give back more than they take.

I'm Possible

2009-12-17T01:21:00.001-08:00

"The impossible happens somewhere every day that's what makes the possible... possible!" - TOCD

"Alice laughed. `There's no use trying,' she said `one ca'n't believe impossible things.'

`I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. `When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. " Lewis Carroll from Through the Looking Glass

Income Statement

2009-12-11T15:06:00.001-08:00

Great business income is the direct result of providing great client and customer outcomes.

Be Cautious then Bold!

2009-12-10T04:36:00.001-08:00

LET HOPE PREDOMINATE, BUT BE NOT TOO VISIONARY
Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every project looks to them like certain success, and therefore they keep changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always ?under the harrow.? The plan of ?counting the chickens before they are hatched? is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by age.

Invictus

2009-12-08T08:47:00.001-08:00

by William Ernest Henley (1849 ? 1903)

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

>

A quick History Lesson

2009-12-02T02:49:00.000-08:00

If our Children do not know the depth of their history

How will they know the deepest parts of themselves?
TOCD

"Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research."
Malcolm X

"People pay for what they do,

and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become.
And they pay for it very simply;
by the lives they lead."
James Baldwin

"If you can cut people off from their history,
they can be easily persuaded."
Karl Marx

In business as in life you either make history,
learn from history,
or, very quickly, become history.
TOCD

The Bedoha Cycle

2009-12-02T01:52:00.000-08:00

To be is to be, to not be is to not be, there is no question.

Who do you want to be? that is the 1st question and why? the 2nd.

To do is to change and be responsible for change.
Where do you want to go? is the 3rd Question and How is the 4th

To have is to own and that which you possess possesses you.
What do you want to have is the 5th question, and when is the 6th

Being leads to doing, doing leads to creation, the thing(s) created change the being,
...changed being leads to changed doing, leading to creation, the thing(s) created change the being ...

It's Your Life

2009-11-27T02:50:00.001-08:00

Your life is yours, to spend or to invest, the first will be the measure of what you do with the Legacy you received from your ancestors, the second will be the measure of the Legacy you leave to future generations. - TOCD

The Cross Roads Convert

2009-11-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

A Change of Heart

‘Crossroads’ was one of South Africa’s miserable shantytowns on the outskirts of Cape Town. It was also under the flight path of Cape Town’s international airport and unfortunately for the government it was quite visible by visiting journalists. So Crossroads would be the scene of many bloody riots as the authorities tried to relocate the blacks to another township.

In 1989 black Africans in Crossroads would watch, with a mixture of indifference and amazement, as one tall, well-built white Boer mixed among them, trying in his own way to alleviate their wretchedness. If this sounds familiar of the odd modern missionary hailing from the oppressor’s side, the story of Stoffel van den Berg was certainly not familiar. It was extraordinary.

Stoffel’s ancestors had emigrated from Holland in the eighteenth century and he had never travelled abroad in his life. He grew up accustomed to having black servants who were there to carry out his slightest whims. No one is born with prejudice in their hearts although some are introduced to it at an early stage and this was certainly true of Stoffel. He sincerely believed in his prejudice against the black Africans. At his first primary school this unthinking prejudice was simply reinforced, with classes full of white children being taught only by white teachers. The few blacks he saw cleaned the lavatories that they were not allowed to use themselves.

Stoffel proved to be above average in the classroom and by his final year of school this six-foot-two Boer was a superb, outstanding cricketer. There was talk of his joining the national elites – the Springboks. His cricket career rocketed and he soon captained the team of the university he attended.

Upon graduating, he was recruited by Barclays Bank; it was made clear to him at the interview that his first priority was to ensure that Barclays won the Inter-Bank Cricket Cup. Springboks informed him that he was being considered for the national South African team. So he followed the matches in England with keen interest but eventually this country’s team never played in South Africa for colour prejudice reasons. Stoffel was utterly disappointed but maintained his firm belief in apartheid. Outspoken, he got himself heard publicly.

‘I do not understand why the Government does not hang Mandela and his cronies!’

By the time he was thirty and married, the white National Party had spotted him as a prospective candidate for the coming general elections. He accepted the offer and jumped on the bandwagon of political campaigns and meetings, his racial prejudice peaking to an all time high.

On a Friday 18thAugust 1989, he was late for a meeting and drove at full speed along a road which fortunately was familiar to him. But he misjudged his timing when overtaking a lorry and smashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle. His car bounced violently across the road and ended up in a clump of trees. That was the last thing he remembered.

Stoffel regained consciousness six weeks later to find his wife, Inga standing at his bedside. When she saw his eyes open, she grasped his hand and then rushed out of the room to call for a doctor.

The next time he woke they were both standing by his bedside, but it was another week before the surgeon was able to tell him what had happened following the crash.

Stoffel listened in horrified silence when he learned that the other driver had died of head injuries soon after arriving at the hospital.

'You're lucky to be alive,' was all Inga said.

'You certainly are,' said the surgeon, 'because only moments after the other driver died, your heart also stopped beating. It was just your luck that a suitable donor was in the next operating theatre.'

'Not the driver of the other car ?' said Stoffel.

The surgeon nodded.

'But … wasn't he black ?' asked Stoffel in disbelief.

'Yes, he was,' confirmed the surgeon. 'And it may come as a surprise to you, Mr Van den Berg, that your body doesn't realise that. Just be thankful that his wife agreed to the transplant. If I recall her words,' he paused 'she said, "I can't see the point in both of them dying." Thanks to her, we were able to save your life, Mr Van den Berg.'

He hesitated, then said quietly, 'but I am sorry to have to tell you that your other internal injuries were so severe that despite the success of the heart transplant, the prognosis is not at all good.'

Stoffel didn't speak for some time, but eventually asked, 'How long do I have?'

'Three, possibly four years,' replied the surgeon. 'But only if you take it easy.'

Stoffel fell into a deep sleep.

It was another six weeks before Stoffel left the hospital, and even then Inga insisted on a long period of convalescence. Several friends came to visit him at home, including Martinus de Jong, who assured him that his job at the bank would be waiting for him just as soon as he had fully recovered.

'I shall not be returning to the bank,' Stoffel said quietly. 'You will be receiving my resignation in the next few days.'

'But why ?' asked de Jong 'I can assure you … '

Stoffel waved his hand. 'It's kind of you Martinus, but I have other plans.'

His first move was to go and thank the dead driver’s wife in Crossroads. The blacks watched the tall-fair haired man sullenly as he walked among the shacks.

He finally met the widowed wife.

She refused all the help he tendered.

‘Perhaps you and your child would like to come and live with us.’

‘No thank you master.’

‘I have been blind,’ he told his wife as she drove him back home.

‘Me too, but what can we do about it?’

‘I know what I must do.’ His wife listened to the plan of his short life ahead.

The next morning Stoffel called in at the bank, and with the help of Martinus de Jong worked out how much he could afford to spend over the next three years.

'Have you told Inga that you want to cash in your life insurance ?'

'It was her idea, ' said Stoffel.

'How do you intend to spend the money ?'

'I'll start by buying some second-hand books, old rugby balls and cricket bats.'

'We could help by doubling the amount you have to spend,' suggested the General Manager.

'How ?' asked Stoffel.

'By using the surplus we have in the sports fund.'

'But that's restricted to whites.'

'And you're white', said the General manager.

Martinus was silent for some time before he added. 'Don't imagine that you're the only person whose eyes have been opened by this tragedy. And you are far better placed to … ' he hesitated.

'To …? ' repeated Stoffel.

'Make others more prejudiced than yourself, aware of their past mistakes.'

And so it was that Stoffel returned to Crossroads. He walked around the township for hours before he settled on a piece of land surrounded by tin shacks and tents.

Although it wasn't flat, or the perfect shape or size, he began to pace out a pitch while hundreds of young children stood staring at him.

The following day some of those children helped him paint the touchlines and put out the corner flags.

For four years, one month and eleven days, Stoffel Van den Berg travelled to Crossroads every morning, where he would teach English to the children in what passed for a school.

In the afternoons, he taught the same children the skills of rugby or cricket, according to the season. In the evenings, he would roam the streets trying to persuade teenagers that they shouldn't form gangs, commit crime or have anything to do with drugs.

Stoffel died four years, one month and eleven days after 18 August 1989.

The funeral of the ‘Cross Road convert’ was attended by over 2000 mourners who had travelled from all over the country to pay their respects. The journalists were unable to agree whether there had been more blacks or more whites in the congregation.

* * *

A story based on true incidents?

'A Change of Heart' in To Cut a Long Story Short, Jeffrey ARCHER, 2000

Thanks to Tim Grimsley for sharing this story with me

21st Century Progress

2009-11-03T00:31:00.001-08:00

"21st century breakdown
I once was lost but never was found.
I think I'm losing what's left of my mind
To the 20th century deadline" - Green Day - Billie Joe Armstrong

Historically, while winning the fight for the rights of the individual we failed to protect the rights of the community.

Now we live in an increasingly fragmented and dysfunctional society, full of the fear and pain caused by solitude, selfishness and the disintegration of the family.

The business and entrepreneurial education required for economic recovery, must include as a matter of the highest priority, the social, human and moral development necessary to ensure everyone will:
be safe,
be able to enjoy life,
be able to achieve; physical, financial, spiritual and emotional wealth,
be able to make a contribution
and be able to own property
as part of a vibrant and caring community.

10 Words of Wisdom from a Very Very Smart Lady

2009-11-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

Margaret Thatcher

Vulnerability
"To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside where it functions best."

Independence
"If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing."

Power
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

Perseverance
"I have a woman’s ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves."

Work

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it."

Integrity

"Of course, it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story."

Rights
"There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

Society
"There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families."

Discipline
"Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction."

Freedom
"We who are living in the west today are fortunate. Freedom has been bequeathed to us. We have not had to carve it out of nothing; we have not had to pay for it with our lives. But it would be a grave mistake to think that freedom requires nothing of us. Each of us has to earn freedom anew in order to possess it. We do so not just for our own sake, but for the sake of our children, so that they may build a better future that will sustain over the world the responsibilities and blessings of freedom."

Men from an Invisible Land

2009-10-31T02:40:00.000-07:00

"You let the white folk worry about pride and dignity — you learn where you are and get yourself power, influence, contacts with powerful and influential people — then stay in the dark and use it!" - Ralph Ellison Author of 'Invisible Man' the greatest novel of the 20th Century

You seem surprised that we are invisible
Could we be otherwise? the very idea it is risible
Newton, 'The' student of the lights
Made it clear
The rainbow combined glows white
The essence of all that is dear
While the presence of darkness like night
Signs the unknown, the ill-formed and the feared

Like the moon, our world is unrevealed
In an eternal noon, where even shadows are concealed
Douglas, ran Prometheus' race
Again and again, to the Harbour of Grace
Henrik, defined a nation to replace
A colour that does not exist in any face
And still you wonder we are not seen in this place
When again and again you choose rhetoric and eschew race

You seem surprised that we are invisible
Could we be otherwise?

My Prayer

2009-10-28T21:45:00.001-07:00

There is darkness in the world.
There is darkness in our lives.
I cannot eliminate the darkness
I can only illumine it
but a little
With my very own flame
Struck bright by divine spark
Struck bright from within
We have come to this place
to be together
Add your light to mine
Let us add ours
to another
and another
and another
So that if my light should burn low
I might stand close with you
for a moment
And not be lost in the darkness
yet again.
Amen
-Author Unknown

.

What you see is what you get

2009-10-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

“When you change the way you look at things
– the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer et. al.

.

The Juice is the real me

2009-10-27T12:55:00.001-07:00

"When the soul is naughted and transformed, then of herself she neither works nor speaks nor wills, nor feels nor hears nor understands; neither has she of herself the feeling of outward or inward, where she may move. And in all things it is God who rules and guides her, without the meditation of any creature.... And she is so full of peace that though she pressed her flesh, her nerves, her bones, no other thing come forth from them than peace."
St. Catherine of Genoa

My Useful Beliefs

2009-10-27T00:52:00.000-07:00

These beliefs are not necessarily true

They are Very Useful for understanding and influencing behaviour
I believe we must know our purpose, understand our natural drives and recognise our human needs.

3 Keys to Purpose

A powerful Purpose facilitates Living in Flow (Positive Psychology)

Key #1 is Optimism

Because Faith in the Future dramatically determines Performance in the Present
It is incredibly important that we are optimistic
It is incredibly important that every Parent, Coach, Mentor and Teacher be OPTIMISTIC

<> Requires a clear and credible Vision

Key #2 is +ve Motivation

Because every living creature, every woman, man, young woman, young man, every girl and boy is motivated to act,
is designed for action and WILL do SOMETHING, influenced by both internal and external sources
It is of utmost urgency that every parent, mentor, coach and teacher be an influential +VE MOTIVATOR

<> Requires a powerful and persuasive Reason (Why?)

Key #3 is Service
Because their is nothing new under the sun and because everyone is unique
It is unquestionable and undeniable
That every parent, mentor, coach and teacher must serve as both a follower and a leader

<> Requires a self-confident and selfless Character

4 Natural Drives

The Push From Inside

The Drive for Safety
<> Fear
<> Fight, Flight, Feed, F?

The Drive for Acquisition
<> Desire
<> to Grow

The Drive for Inquiry
<> Curiosity
<> to Learn

The Drive for Love
<> Love
<> of Self, of the Erotic, of Family & Friends, of Nature

3 Human Needs

There are 3 human needs
Each need has a tendency to one of 2 states
A moving away state - >avoid pain< and
A moving towards state - <seek pleasure>

The Pull from Outside

The need to Manage Change

<> The need to Control our world (Purpose)

>Certainty<
Comfort, Know what's happening, predictability, being in control, peace

<Adventure>
Dis-Comfort, Variety, surprise, being controlled, challenge

The need to Manage Identity

<> The need to Control Self (Self Esteem)

>Connection<
Being Loved, part of a team, conversation

<Independence>
Significance, maverick, silence

The need to Manage Value

<> The need to Control the Interaction between 'self' and 'the world' (Reason)

>Receiving<
Growth, >gifts<, valuing, learning, following

<Contribution>
Giving, <presents>, being valued, teaching, leading

Pain -v- Suffering

2009-10-26T00:18:00.000-07:00

"You are outside life, you are above life, you have miseries which the ordinary person does not know, you exceed the normal level, and it is for this that people refuse to forgive you, you poison their peace of mind, you undermine their stability. You have irrepressible pains whose essence is to be inadaptable to any known state, indescribable in words. You have repeated and shifting pains, incurable pains, pains beyond imagining, pains which are neither of the body nor of the soul, but which partake of both. And I share your suffering, and I ask you: who dares to ration our relief? We are not going to kill ourselves just yet. In the meantime, leave us the hell alone." - Antonin Artaud

Pain is inevitable

Suffering is an interpretation of meaning

Pain is a fact of life

Suffering is a feeling of powerlessness to stop the pain

The common illusion is that Pain and Suffering are always combined and that the latter automatically follows the former, and it is a tempting and persuasive deceit. Any study, prolonged or brief of dictionaries, novels or religious texts will soon educate that this is far from the case in reality.

Joy and Pain are as often lovers as enemies and in no way like "sunshine and rain" mutually exclusive.

Joy and Suffering are however exact antonyms, opposite in every way as are Happiness and Suffering.

In the same way as the Pain of Labour does not prevent the Joy of giving Birth, the challenges of life can never separate us from the opportunities of life.

Pain = An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder.

Suffering = Permitting, allowing, tolerating or enduring evil, injury, pain, or death.

Victims choose suffering as their reason and rationale for poor performance

All great warriors and champions experience pain as a natural part of their journey

It is for those with a journey to make, "...and on it the redeemed will walk. They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee." - Bible the book of Isiah Ch. 35 v 1-10

We can always do something to change the pain... even if only by a small amount to begin with.. when we have a purpose that means we have to go on, when we have a mission in and for our lives.

"In general usage the preferred preposition after suffer is from, rather than with, in constructions such as He suffered from hypertension. Ninety-four percent of the Usage Panel found suffered with unacceptable in the preceding example. In medical usage suffer with is sometimes employed with reference to the pain or discomfort caused by a condition, while suffer from is used more broadly in reference to a condition, such as anemia, that is detrimental but not necessarily painful." - www.dictionary.com

'Affected by Sickle Cell Syndrome' can be a much more useful term, than 'suffering with sickle cell' and is often preferred by those affected by sickle cell syndrome.

The strength to overcome limitations caused by pain can be found by refusing to suffer because...

What's your because...?

How big is you reason...?

If your why is BIG enough, no pain whatsoever can hold your spirits down, as you anticipate the Joy to come, it will not allow suffering

The Status of the Family

2009-10-18T01:19:00.000-07:00

"I shall not pause to detail the calamities which slavery has entailed upon our race in the domain of the family. Every one knows how it has pulled down every pillar and shattered every priceless fabric. But now that we have begun the life of freedom we should attempt the repair of this, the noblest of all the structures of human life.

The basis of all human progress and of all civilization is the family. Despoil the idea of family, assail rudely its elements, its framework, and its essential principles, and nothing but degradation and barbarism can come to any people. If you will think but for a moment of all that is included in this word "family," you will see at once that it is the root idea of all civility, of all the humanities, of all organized society. In the family are included all the loves, the cares, the sympathies, the solicitudes of parents and wives and husbands; all the active industries, the prudent economies, and the painful self-sacrifices of households; all the sweet memories, the gentle refinements, the pure speech, and the godly anxieties of womanhood; all the endurance, the courage, and the hardy toil of men; all these have their roots in the family. Alas! how widely have these traits and qualities been lost to our race in this land! How numerous are the households where they have never been known or recognized! The beginning of all organized society is in the family. The school, the college, the professions, suffrage, civil office, are all valuable things; but what are they compared to the family? Here, then, where we have suffered the greatest, is a world-wide field for our intellectual anxieties and our most intelligent effort." - Dr Alex Crummell, Washington, D. C. published by J. T. Haley & Company, Publishers. 1897. Quoted from the compilation 'SPARKLING GEMS OF RACE KNOWLEDGE WORTH READING. A Compendium of Valuable Information and Wise Suggestions that will Inspire Noble Effort at the Hands of Every Race-Loving Man, Woman, and Child.'

I don't know why the caged bird sings

2009-09-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

I see crowds of people, walking round, in a ring
African Heritage People, Proud to sing
and dance and paint and draw
I see them rushing, Now Here, Now There, Now here
People of Nature, made unnatural, unprepared
un read in tooth and claw

I saw once warriors, turn their strength to games
Nubian fuel, feeding futile infertile flames
Martial heads under artist's caps
I saw boy men stride and strut to play, heads high
Then Limp to work as chocolate hungry, babies cry
at baby mothers boot straps

My Eyelids meet with force to hold the flood
A salty prayer to stem the issue of my blood
I see the light, inside, strong
Insight, in side, within me, the wit in me
the wit in us, in us, within us the 'free'
You see, it's time, to stop the song!

Graduation Day

2009-09-18T07:45:00.001-07:00

Once there was a time
when a man could outgrow the child
at the age of thirteen
a rite of passage would set him free
then they said
he's too young, alone to tread
the path of life
to raise wife and child
so they said when he wasn't listening
You won't be capable until you are sixteen
When two times eight arrived
almost too late they realised
he had not learned enough to really handle life
18 was still a teen
and by 21 what had he really seen
when you reach your quarter century
we'll test you to see if by then you just might be
free of all your childish insecurity
35 would come and pass
and see him still in class
confused unclear
of just exactly where
his best interests would be
and when the rules would set him free
at 40 now when life begins
he understands some vital things
to live means to cease to pray
to truly seize the day
to give means to cease to prey
move from putty into hardened clay
there is no predetermined time or day
or wise elders who can rightly say
who or what or when or why
just as none can know the length of life
So I choose to LIVE by a code that's mine
any other road is to choose to die
for death can breathe and run and fly
and still, you know you're dead by the pain of why
for life without a purpose of my own
is an empty cage, the bird has flown
I don't know what the end may be
and so I'll choose it before it chooses me
there's no life exam no predetermined fate
I will be free of others rules today
today I graduate. - TCoD

It's not hard if you have a passion for it!

2009-09-06T02:27:00.001-07:00

"Education experts say youngsters as young as 10 can experience great achievement at an early age if their thirst for knowledge is encouraged and they are given opportunities to shadow professionals and get internships. Also, a rigorous study schedule that also builds in some recreation is key." Jackie Jones, June 16, 2009, BlackAmericaWeb.com

"It's not hard if you have a passion for it" Tony Hansberry

"A Jacksonville researcher has developed a way of sewing up patients after hysterectomies that stands to reduce the risk of complications and simplify the tricky procedure for less-seasoned surgeons. Oh, and he's 14 years old. Feel free to read that again." JEREMY COX, APR. 24, 2009

Tony Hansberry II isn’t waiting to finish medical school to contribute to improved medical care. And he's only 14.

Hansberry responded to a challenge to improve a procedure called the endo stitch, used in hysterectomies that could not be clamped down properly to close the tube where the patient’s uterus had been. The teen devised a vertical way to apply the endo stitch and, using a medical dummy, completed the stitching in a third of the time of traditional surgery.

“It took me a day or two to come up with the concept,” Hansberry said.

My Car 2012

2009-07-25T02:19:00.001-07:00

I have been studying/interested in Electricity powered vehicles, Nicola Tesla, and 'Over-unity' energy ideas for a while now. See my Blog Who keeps killing the Electric Car.

So I am so excited to see the upsurge of interest and practical introduction of 'mass' produced electric cars.

I own a Tesla Model S Saloon Car by 2012

On Parenting

2009-07-19T02:44:00.000-07:00

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults."
-Frederick Douglass

The law of project focus

2009-07-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

If you want to be among the best at anything, you need to focus on something, and to focus on that one thing!

If you want to ensure a project happens and is completed on time, in budget and to specification, you need to focus on that project!

If you walk around town with a little shovel, you'll just end up digging thousands of little holes, not one big one. - The law of the little shovel

When project staff allow project sponsors to keep tasking them with new initiative after new initiative, prior to the completion of existing incomplete project briefs.
They may succeed with some...
rarely all...
and it is almost certain...
non will hit their original, Time, Cost and/or Quality targets.

The important thing to remember is that projects by definition are stand alone entities. Yes they may share common resources, Yes they may be part of the same programme and yes they may share the same powerful and influential Sponsors and Stakeholders. These facts actually demand a greater PROJECT focus, more myopic attention to resource availability and even more rejection of scope creep. Just because someone has the authority to ask for something, does not magically create the wherewithal required to produce the result.

Get Project Focus by ensuring:
Project ownership [personal power]
Pay, promotion and peer esteem is linked to project success [commitment]
Project relevance [passion]

Maintain Project Focus by:
Keeping to the project plan
Earning the trust and 'buy in' of stakeholders and sponsors
Accurately and regularly communicating the risks and opportunities of the project
Quantifying the value to be lost by unmanaged project variance

If NO is not an option, close the original project and demand the required resources for the new project(s), because that's what you have, a new project.

Failure to observe the Law of Project Focus means the project is being managed by luck not judgement and success is a lottery.

Observing the Law will mean a surprisingly large number of projects get delivered with consistently high levels of success and blessedly low levels of stress.

Do You Know Wolverhampton?

2009-07-19T00:45:00.000-07:00

The Express & Star was founded in Wolverhampton in the 1880s by the Scottish-American millionaire Andrew Carnegie and a group of radical Liberal Party members, including Thomas Graham.

The Express & Star is an evening newspaper based in Wolverhampton, England, publishing 11 different editions covering the Black Country, Birmingham and areas of the wider West Midlands from Tamworth to Kidderminster.

The newspaper had a daily (Mon-Sat) circulation of over 130,000 in the second half of 2007.^[1]

The Express & Star is also one of the few independent newspapers now operating in the UK having been under the continuous ownership of the Graham family almost since its inception.

Its associated website expressandstar.com was launched in 1997.

Two other papers are published by the Express & Star, The Chronicle, which is a free weekly newspaper and The Sporting Star, published every Saturday.

wikipedia.org - Express_&_Star

5 Attributes of Inspirational Servant Leaders

2009-03-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

I have always run from Leadership in the past, more from a fear of hard work than lack of confidence.
Somehow over the last few years as my networth has diminished the demand for my services in leadership roles has increased.
AND as I look at the great leadership talent around me locally, nationally and internationally I am still struggling to overcome the Groucho Marks principle "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. " or my version 'I wouldn't want to lead a group of people who would settle for me as their leader'.

My leadership style is definitely a 'servant leadership style':
Servant leadership is an approach to leadership development, coined and defined by Robert Greenleaf and advanced by several authors such as Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Peter Senge, Max DePree, Margaret Wheatley, Ken Blanchard, and others. Servant-leadership emphasises the leader's role as steward of the resources (human, financial and otherwise) provided by the organisation. It encourages leaders to serve others while staying focused on achieving results in line with the organisation's values and integrity. - wikipedia

AND i aspire now to be an inspirational servant leader:

5 Attributes of Inspirational Leaders - Dr John C. Maxwell

ATTITUDE OF SERVICE
To be an inspirational leader, one must adopt an attitude of service toward those you lead.
AFFIRMATION
To inspire consistently over time, one must positively affirm the views of others. Magnifying the attributes in everyone around us.
ATTENTIVENESS
Great inspirers know and attend to the desires of those they lead.
AVAILABILITY
Servant Leaders inspire by intentionally investing time in the people they lead.
AUTHENTICITY
To inspire, leaders have to be genuine. Servant Leaders gain their true Authority through unwavering integrity

Summary
Inspirational servant leadership cannot be confused with momentary charisma. Leadership requires endurance. More than a brilliant speech, it's cultivating habits of brilliance that manifest themselves daily. By modeling the five attributes of an inspiring servant leader, I trust that i will win my own self respect and feel worthy to join a club that is eager to have me as a member.

Ubuntu

2008-10-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

Your tribe is simply, and when we think about it in the context of our lives, couldn’t be anything more or less than, the people you spend your time with.

Ubuntu = I am who I am because of [my interaction with] you

The people you interact the most with are the closest members of your tribe.

Communication is much less than 50% spoken language

You are all-ways communicating

Words change lives
All the other communications change lives

There is more of the other communication going on
The other communication creates greater and more profound change because the conscious mind is unaware of it and accepts it without resistance, editing or judgement.

Ubuntu = I am who I am because of the irresistible communication I have with you

Your team at work is in your tribe,
Your clients are in your tribe,
The person you go home to is in your tribe,
I am in your tribe even as you are in mine.

I spend more time with you I bring you closer into my Tribe

I am who I am because of your irresistible communication…
I will become who I will become because of the irresistible communication of my tribe

Are you responsible for your communication?

We cannot not communicate, once you know this, and I just told you, so now you know!
You are responsible!
Are you your tribes keeper?
YES!

The law of unintended consequences, Karma, what you reap you sow, be careful what you ask for, treat others how you wish to be treated, etc, etc, etc.

The language is rich with evidence of tribal responsibilities

Who do you want me to be?

Communicate it and I have no choice!!!

Giving Massive Value

2008-10-09T03:04:00.000-07:00

Often I am admonished 'you give too much away for free'. This in no small part to my commitment to Mindstyle being associated with MAD, SICK, Head No Good value for money [My trip to Lambeth council in 2007 is open for argument [by them] I believe they got Exceptional Value]

Would you agree that giving massive value is a good business practice or should we always try and get maximum return on our investments of business resources?

My case is clearly that it is...

"David Ogilvy in the 1960's gave away all the secrets of creating good advertising in an advertising campaign for his agency Ogilvy and Mather, Madison avenue was aghast that he would do such a thing. It paid off for him big time. People absolutely knew that O&M knew what they were talking about ... and beat a path to their door. As far as they knew, the competitors were all out to rip them off. O&M PROVED that they knew what they were talking about, and proof, above all, is what sells." - citation needed
He gave away massive information knowing that few would be able to apply the massive effort required to exploit that information. At the same time he gained massive leverage by letting the world, competitors, clients and potential clients know that he had the knowledge and the capacity for effort required to provide the best service in the world

Knowledge is important
Knowledge is not that important
Knowledge is what to do

Action is essential
Action is proportional to effort
Action is doing it

Effort is the Energy
Effort is the Force
Effort is the cost
Effort is the pain

Leverage is the Magic
Leverage is the Key
Leverage is the Recipe/Formula/Process

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Archimedes [after his travels in Egypt], he taught that by applying a lever, one could lift the heaviest of weights by applying even the weakest of forces.

There is a difference between knowledge, information and leveraging information. Someone once said to me that to know is the key, that’s not quite right, even to use what you know is not quite right… to leverage what you know, that IS the key.

Knowledge is the direction of the force
Action is the application of the force
Effort required is proportional to the length of the lever [the value/ratio of the leverage]
Leverage is proportional to the position of the Fulcrum or balance point of the lever [value of the leverage information]
More Leverage less effort.

One way of increasing leverage is through Branding

Notice the biggest brands spend the most on advertising

Giving Massive value is the best advertising, brand building strategy there is, emphasis on GIVING massive value. a la Michael Jordan who always gave more than was asked of him and reaped the rewards.Jordan battles flu, to make Jazz sick 'MJ could barely make it off the court after his 38-points.'

Women in Leadership

2008-09-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

I am learning so much about this Gender thing, it's actually very subtle.
When I talk to women about women in leadership, as well as men...
Very few start from a different position than 'great leaders, lead both men and women'
However things get a little wobbly, for men and women, when we look at the statement
'great women leaders, lead both women and men'
How can you have a really powerful and effective leadership programme for Women,
run by women for women and not informed by any men and vice versa, that then produces great leaders
who are leaders of men and women?
and heaven forbid leaders of men and women working together as complementary equals.

www.athena1.co.uk

The Descent of Woman

Zimbabwe? Let it Fall!

2008-07-10T23:51:00.000-07:00

One of the GREATEST writers of all time was Frederick Douglas

Who wrote in his book, "What the Black Man Wants". 'Everybody has asked the question. . ."What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!'

So when the West and the United Nations of self interest ask the question "What shall we do with Robert Mugabe" I would say "Let him alone".

Leave Zimbabwe alone and separate:
Seperated from Chinese and Russsion Weapons
Seperated from US Oil and Mineral Multinationals
Seperated from foreign aid [I know! what foreign aid?]
Seperated from the paradox of being the wealthiest African Nation in terms of resources and one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of fulfilling it's potential.

Often we must say yes to the tears of the moment so that we may say yes to the laughter of a lifetime.

When you are always having to help someone it is very important to understand how your actions are keeping them helpless.
TOD

Concentrate Now!

2008-04-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

The young take strength from what they imagine in their future. The old take strength from what they remember of their past. The wise understand imagination and memory are illusion and give their strength to the present. - Thoughts of Chairman Don

John Henrik Clarke - A Great and Mighty Walk

2008-04-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

We do not need role models so much as we need identity models... roles are what we do, identity is who we are. Roles are masks, identity is our face. Roles determine our place in society... Identity determines our society. - ToCD

John Henrik Clarke was born January 1, 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16, 1998 in New York City. His mother, Willie Ella Mays Clark, was a washerwoman who did laundry for $3 a week. His father was a sharecropper.
Clarke was inspired by his third grade teacher, Ms. Harris, who "convinced me that one day I would be a writer." But before he became a writer he became a voracious reader.
Clarke noticed that although many bible stories "unfolded in Africa...I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons," he wrote in 1985. "I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began."
Clarke committed himself to a lifelong pursuit of factual knowledge about the history of his people and creative application of that knowledge.
Biographical Information and Selected Writings

"What you are calling African history and Negro history is nothing but the missing pages of world history. You will have to know general history to understand these specific aspects of history." - Arthur Schomburg

"History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be." - JHC

"The main focus of an education for a new reality in the African world must have as its mission the restoration of what slavery and colonialism took away. Slavery and colonialism took from African people their basic culture, their language, their concept of nationhood, their manhood and their womanhood. They mutilated and tried to destroy their traditional culture and reduced Africans to beggars at the cultural and political door of other people while neglecting the job of restoring their own culture, the main thing that could have sustained them." - JHC

"Throughout the whole of the African world most Africans who call themselves civilized, and here I have to question their definition of the term, worship a concept and image of a god assigned to them by a foreigner." - JHC

"Most people in the civilizations of the world generally look at a spiritual deity that resembles themselves, mainly the father in their home, be this right or wrong. Why are we an exception?" - JHC

"It is better to be right and march into Hell, than to follow a bunch of fools into Heaven." - JHC

"There is no way to move any people from a lower to a higher position unless they are willing to accept some form of collective discipline. You can not move an unruly mob into anything but chaos." - JHC

"The past illuminates the present and the present will give us some indication of what the future can be. Education for a new reality in the African world has to be three dimensional in its approach." - JHC

"We must be bold enough to reject such terms as "Black Africa" which presupposes that there is a legitimate, "White Africa." We must reject the term "Negro Africa" and the word "Negro" and all that it implies. This word, like the concept of race and racism, grew out of the European slave trade and the colonial system that followed. It is not an African word and it has no legitimate application to African people." - JHC

"In essence, Pan-Africanism is about the restoration of African people to their proper place in world history." - JHC

"The objective of Pan-Africanism is not only the restoration of land and nationhood: it has as one of its aims the restoration of respect." - JHC

"The present search for the place of African people in world history and the Black Power Revolution that produced the Black and Beautiful concept out of which the Black Studies Revolution emerged, is part of a chain reaction to the absence of African people from the accepted commentaries of world history." - JHC

"In the early development of man, the family was the most important unit in existence. Through the years the importance of this unit has not changed. The first human societies were developed for reasons relating to the needs and survival of the family." - JHC

"When you address a people by their right name that name must relate to land, history and culture." - JHC

"Our culture is in our DNA..Where ever there is African blood, there is a basis for greater unity." His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I

There is no BLACK land ergo BLACK people have no land
There is no BLACK history ergo BLACK people have no history
There is no BLACK culture ergo BLACK people have no culture

BLACK is a colour AFRICA is a Continent

There is AFRICAN land ergo AFRIKAN people have land
There is AFRICAN history ergo AFRIKAN people have history
There is AFRICAN culture ergo AFRIKAN peole have culture

BLACK is a label, AFRIKAN is a name, should you choose to use AFRIKAN as your name you will connect yourself to a land, a history and a culture that is the very wellspring of humanity. -ToCD

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

Arthur Schomberg

The Arab Slave Trade

Cheikh Anta Diop

"Go study the history of your masters, go study the history of the people who enslaved you. Find out why they found it a necessity to remove an entire people from the respectful commentary of the history of the world." - JHC

"Let us therefore stay the course together as comrades in the common struggle so that we can, together, celebrate the common victory and together, rebuild our continent from the Cape to Cairo, form the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, so that in the end our people can together stride the globe as signified human beings, proud of their antecedents, their colour, their culture, their achievements and their humanity." Nelson Mandela

Afropolitan Economics

2007-12-30T00:24:00.000-08:00

as 'Africa' continuers to grow in economic relevance and political power.

We have to be sure what we mean when we say 'African' in the internets global village, in Wolverhampton on anyday you will meet local citizens who's DIRECT 1st generation ethnic roots are Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, St Kitts etc. etc.. We have to be sure that we are not clinging to and discussing a 'romantic' African-ness, because MAMA Afrika is not an Old Lady she is a vibrant beautiful... fertile... Young Woman and like most young women of a certain age ... she has plans of her own. Maybe we should be talking about SISTA Afriqa.

There is an ageing body of American and European cultured 'Black' thinkers [elders] of African Descent and their 30/40 something children [I'll soon be leaving this 2nd group ;-) ] who think AFrica and African-ness is their natural right and enrobe [entrap?] themselves in their deep 1960's understanding of all things Afrikan, "Hotep to you my brothers and sisters".

Meanwhile the 20 something Afropolitans are creating the NU AFRIQA right now and only part of it is on the continent of Africa.
"Were you to ask any of these beautiful people “where are you from?’” you would get no single answer. This one was born in Accra, raised in Toronto and lives in London. That one works in Lagos but grew up in Houston, Texas. ‘Home’ for this lot is many things. It can be where their parents are from; where they go for vacation; where they went to school; where they see old friends or where they live (or are living this year).
At home in G-8 cities
Like so many African young people working and living in cities around the globe, they belong to no single place but feel at home in many. They are Afropolitans - the newest generation of African emigrants, in the industrialised world. You’ll know them by a funny blend of London fashion, New York jargon, African ethics and academic success." - http://myglobalhustle.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/afropolitan/
Where are they all? errr try the European Premier foorball leagues £100K a week Afropolitans
or The Honest Professional young 2nd and 3rd generation Nigerian investment banker Afropolitans
or Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an Afropolitan fellow of the US Brookings Institution, Okonjo-Iweala is a former World Bank vice president who graduated from Harvard and earned a Ph.D. in regional economics and development at MIT. Her son Uzodinma Iweala is the celebrated young author of Beasts of No Nation.
She was Nigeria's Finance Minister and then briefly Foreign Affairs Minister from 2003 to 2006, the first woman to hold either position.
During her tenure, she worked to combat corruption, make Nigeria's finances more transparent, and institute reforms to make the nation's economy more hospitable to foreign investment. The government unlinked its budget from the price of oil, its main export, to lessen perennial cashflow crises, and got oil companies to publish how much they pay the government. Since 2003 -- when watchdog group Transparency International rated Nigeria "the most corrupt place on Earth" -- the nation has made headway recovering stolen assets and jailing hundreds of people engaged in international Internet 419 scams.
"Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a heroine not just of Nigeria, but of the entire continent. Her crusade against corruption has put her life at risk."
The Independent (UK)

Ghana Economist George Ayittey sees Africa's future as a fight between Hippos -- complacent, greedy bureaucrats wallowing in the muck -- and Cheetahs, the fast-moving, entrepreneurial leaders and citizens who will rebuild Africa.
George unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders and the complacency that allows them to thrive. These "Hippos" (lazy, slow, ornery) have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile "Cheetah Generation," a "new breed of Africans" taking their futures into their own hands. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/151 has a video

And trust me they are not asking for acceptance and they don't plan on NOT being Victorious.

Happy Xmas and Holiday Eating

2007-12-22T02:07:00.000-08:00

It might be worth noting that a method of promoting heart and general health is to avoid over eating, at this time of year, which is really why the stomach loses it's ability to digest properly.

Do eat, drink and be merry and do remember...

When the stomach is empty, having normally digested it's contents, i.e. not through starvation or lack of nutritious food, IT WILL DIGEST ANY FORM OF NORMAL FOOD IN ALMOST ANY ORDER AND BE HAPPY.

With years of over eating most of our digestive systems will become clogged, stomach wall lined and arteries narrowed, this is what leads to our sensitivity to different types of food and a host of other complaints.

I have stopped going to the gym so much and spend less time watching what I eat, I now focus on stretching and exercising at home and simply eating less of whatever, and not eating again until I'm hungry... It's cheaper than the Gym membership, less stressfull and it's working!

So be kind to your heart and ONCE YOUR STOMACH IS FULL STOP EATING!!!

Too many of our parents are going to the funerals of their 40 something children and despite the clever medical terms; from cancer to hypertension etc, the majority of the cause is Over Eating and Under Exercising.

Our parents worked so hard in their youth they built strong resilient constitutions and many are still going strong in their 70's and 80's.

Sitting down at a computer munching fast food, is setting many of us up for a short, sickly, old age....

And as for our children!!!!!!!!

So be kind to your heart and ONCE YOUR STOMACH IS FULL.... STOP EATING!!!

This may be the kindest and most loving message you get this Holiday Season.

Here's wishing you a lovely Xmas and New Year............. 2008

Ubuntu

Don

Male and Female Attributes

2007-12-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

In my work on Gender I propose a distinftion between Man and Woman, which are sex based and genetic in there origin and development
and Male and Female which are Gender based and cultural in their origin and development.

that is if a child is born with a particular chromosome and hormone mix, wherever that child is 'aculturated' or grows up, she or he will still be the Man or Woman they were born with the genetic propensity to be.

If two children with the same genetic mix are 'aculturated' in two different societies with different concepts and traditions and training and expectations of what a MAN and a WOMAN are supposed to be then they will develop the particular MALE and FEMALE traits of their different socities.

The effect of both these influencers of core behaviour, genes and culture, are programmed at the non-conscious level and have been historically hard to distinguish within a culture.

When cultures collide the differences become starkly obvious, and as our modern cultures mix more and more, what it means to be MALE or FEMALE blurs more and more.

And as our science increases we learn that our Gonads determine what it is to be a MAN and what it is to be a WOMAN unquestionably.

Notwithstanding this our common HUMANITY as MEN and WOMEN gives us incredible flexibility, and beyond our life perpetuating SEX roles there is little our ingenuity will not allow us to do either MAN or WOMAN.

The idea of Maleness and Femaleness has been developed over time as a practical, utility function to allow us to achieve more as a group through role and task specialisation, to meet the challenges of life.

As the challenges change the tasks and roles change and so do what it means to be Male and Female, there may even come a time when beyond providing, sexually diverse, DNA there will be no role separation between the sexes.

Given the length of time it took to build the roles it is easy to see why they form an integral part of our identities and our societies. It may not take thousands of years to reprogramme ourselves more appropriately. It will take a few more generations however and some of the gender confusion we see today is that process taking place.

Going round the mountain

2007-11-30T03:20:00.000-08:00

God ... Whoever SHE is
I conclude SHE is Ineffable = incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible:

So I have a challenge when someone can explain the nature of something which is indescribable or unutterable

I believe anger can be and should be prevented, as often as humanly possible.
"Remember, you can't eliminate anger—and it, wouldn't be a good idea if you could. In spite of all
your efforts, things will happen that will cause you anger; and sometimes it will be justifiable anger.
Life will be filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others.
You can't change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you.
Controlling your angry responses can keep them from making you even more unhappy in the long run."

Anger is a HUMAN thing...
One of the oldest and most universal of HUMAN traits is to anthropomorphise i.e. to ascribe human form or attributes to things that are not human.
So naturally in the literature we have an angry God, this is a legacy of primitive anthropomorphism applied to the ineffable elements and events totally outside their comprehension.
I find the use of someone who has been raped as an example of justifiable anger a VERY dangerous anchor to programme a community with.

I don't know what God is and as a HUMAN I accept it is most improbable I ever will.

As the shadow can never know the substance
And the spark disappears in the fire
Our divinity, unquestioned as it is
Is nothing more than a mote in God's eye
We are truly great and so
Imagine how unspeakably great
How Ineffable the Divine

To strive to comprehend the incomprehensible is a task to:
occupy the fool
and be
avoided by the wise
It is more intoxicating than strong wine and
more contagious than the plague

The greatest gift is the greatest challenge is the only challenge
KNOW THYSELF
God will reveal herself when she's good and ready ;-)

Regards
Don
AKA
Man with a Mustard Seed...
Mountains Beware!

Never heard of a Sestina before

2007-09-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Sestina by MDS

Autumn leaves limbless fall down.
Once green with life connected sure
Certain that certain things don't change.
And reality is life and growth and love,
A little boy skips and kicks dead leaves with joy
And laughs as mommy prays he won't trip up.

She recalls he gave her up
Lover's promises of forever let her down
And left her low with growing joy,
That strong would leave her weak for sure.
Like the fair that from itself declines is love,
Blind destiny just another word like change.

Who like sudden spring can change?
The heart's frozen winter and warm up
Ice cold indifference and rekindle love?
Rather hate than this nothing that holds her down.
Security a cracked mirror that cannot be sure
It's illusion of safety will ever return joy

Summers strength, heat and embrace, that joy
Power and redoubtable resolve defying change,
Can anyone, any dream again be that sure?
A young woman with sleepy eyes smiles as she wakes up.
She shivers and says she thinks the down
Feels chilly, and snuggles closer to her true love.

It was meant to be, she whispers to love
Know that you are my eternal joy,
There is no better, though heaven come down.
A little boy asleep, dreams of winning for a change
Of a time, a place, a person who stands to help him up
Who says and means and lives 'of me you can be sure'.

On the shifting deck seasoned feet are sure,
A man is either quick or dead in love
Life holds on to all the choices we will not give up.
From the joy we build for others comes our joy
The laws of nature flatter and dissemble, and never change
Woman or Man the one you hold up cannot let you down.

Never give up, on the seeds of joy,
They are sure as life and their fruit is love
And their only change is to draw more love down.

Finding My Flow at Akasha

2007-08-07T14:11:00.001-07:00

The Water Comes and Goes
The River Flows
... and Still Remains

FLOW, a state where attention, motivation, and the task are experienced as entirely complimentary, resulting in maximum productive harmony and supportive feedback.

I am not the River Bed as I am not my body
I am not the River Water as I am not my mind
I am not the source of the River as I am not my thoughts
I am not the Ocean as I am not my behaviour
One is the River, One is AKASHA
One is the part and the whole
One is the moment and the motion

From Abundance
I Took Abundance
And Abundance Still Remained

I experience myself as being One and being everywhere when I am in FLOW
All other experience is Shadow and Contraction

Akasha is believed by some to be a mystical, spiritual substance that contains a record of everything that has ever happened, and also everything that will ever come to pass in the future. "Akasha" is derived from the root kash, meaning "to radiate, to shine" The Akasha is thought to be indivisible, eternal and all pervading.

Because I am Akasha I shine from the inside out and must live from the inside out.
Nothing of the senses can satisfy the soul, the senses represent the outside to the inside and all they convey is illusion.

Flow is Inspired a child of patience and focus

Gratitude and Humility are the expressions of Inspiration

Inspiration is the God energy that is awakened within as we are in FLOW

We are in FLOW when we bow to divinity in gratitude and serve humanity with humility

Struggle is the opposite of FLOW

Holding on hinders FLOW

The Water Comes and Goes
The River Flows
Akasha always was
... and Still Remains

Picture by John Cave

Does increasing our connections decrease our attachments or vice versa???

2007-07-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

I am becoming more and more connected to more and more people via more and more networks every day. As the number of people that I am connected with and that I interact with increases... on Ecademy I am in the top 200 most connected networkers in the UK... Do I become more attached to 'others' or less??

Am I pulling energy from my network or pushing it in?

Have I saddled myself with more commitment or am I liberating myself through more options for engaging the right person, project or possibility??

By trying to make myself attractive am I inviting others into attachment? and the inevitable pain of separation.

"The fonder you are of your ideals, the greater your heart breaks."
Lin Yutang

"One afternoon, Nasruddin and his friend were sitting in a cafe, drinking tea and talking about life and love. His friend asked: 'How come you never married?'
'Well,' said Nasruddin, 'to tell you the truth, I spent my youth looking for the perfect woman. In Cairo I met a beautiful and intelligent woman, but she was unkind. Then in Baghdad, I met a woman who was a wonderful and generous soul, but we had no common interests. One woman after another would seem just right, but there would always be something missing. Then one day, I met her; beautiful, intelligent, generous and kind. We had very much in common. In fact, she was perfect!'
'So, what happened?' asked Nasruddin's friend, 'Why didn't you marry her?'
Nasruddin sipped his tea reflectively. 'Well,' he replied, 'it's really the sad story of my life.... It seemed that she was looking for the perfect man...' "

check your attachment style here http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl