Month: October 2018

Drizzle Your Brain in Chocolate and Eat it: Lessons in Self-Love

A month ago, I was talking to my best friend in the early hours of the morning. I was in Yorkshire and through the window in the kitchen, the framed navy landscape outside was being caressed with autumn rain. I sat on a lopsided wooden table and ate slices of floury bread from a paper

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I Want a Reply

According to Stephen Covey, “Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Once, this was true. People were able to pay enough attention to formulate a response in interactions with others, which usually occurred live, often among humans who were familiar with each other. This was before.

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Practicality in Justice

The meaning of this is obvious, if we were to allow injustice to fester it will grow and become contagious. In Martin Luther King’s context, injustice was being done to the African American community in Alabama, and though he was based in Atlanta he had decided to travel all the way to Alabama and even

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Education – It’s a Right, Right?

I remember a story I read in a book back when I was a six-year old. It was about a boy who wanted to go to school, but cannot because his family does not have enough money to send him to school as they prioritize their eldest son who was about to graduate college with

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The Deepest Thought

I am walking, walking towards an unknown place. My mind is leading my body into a different world, an escape. I feel so lost inside and I feel that nobody, not even myself, knows who I am anymore. I am drowning in these thoughts and feelings that make me think about the end, the end

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Education – The Open Door

The words of Mr. Hugo, “He who opens a school door, closes a prison…” are fitly spoken in any culture or time-period of history. What convincing proof is there that this is true? Education opens the door of the mind which travels the hallway of possibility exploring the rooms of ideas. The reason this value

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The Wrong End Of The Ring: The Insidious Issue of Marital Status Discrimination

The world stomps on single people, not only socio-culturally, but also in law, finance, and business. The U.S. federal code alone has over 1,000 laws that privilege married people over unmarried people. In a 2013 Atlantic article, my colleague and I calculated that this institutionalised “singlism” costs the average unmarried American at least one million

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Education – our most powerful weapon

‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,’ said Nelson Mandela. It is true and everyone should have this weapon, as education is a right – a basic, fundamental, human right. Education is no longer a privilege for the prosperous families with great reputations, like it used to be

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Lady on edge

I was contemplating why this was happening, why it had to be me! I was confused. I couldn’t stop the abysmal thoughts whirling around in my head…I was too weak. My eyes scanned the fog that blanketed the lake district mountains and then down to where light mist clung over the valleys like a limpet

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It’s A Two Way Thing

If you have ever known someone who it is just impossible to have a proper conversation with, then you will relate to the quote by Stephen R Covey: “Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply.” When I first read this I thought how well such a

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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Justice means “respecting the rights of individuals” and the opposite of that is oppression. Human beings have the greatest oppression against themselves, for as long as they do not know themselves they do not understand the power they have.  The interstellar space and the silence between musical notes is a vacuum. We can only sense material

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The massive exodus of Africans; A shame to our continent

At Least a Million Sub-Saharan Africans Moved to Europe Since 2010,Sub-Saharan migration to the United States also keeps growing. Statistics from the World Bank, show that the main cause of that African mass migration is poverty. A literal move for greener pastures. That exodus is a Calvary for most of those dream chasers; they risk

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“Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” –Stephen R. Covey

What has really the world come with nowadays? Everywhere endless arguments, with nil outcome. Why is it happening? Ever wondered? Let’s create some hypothesis. Maybe because of the stunted or rigid attitude of beings toward each other or maybe the word “no acceptance” has hurdled the sense of understanding, what others try to convey. Communication

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The Texas Rangers Bank Fraud Scam and the Dark Side of Listening

 Last week, my eighty-year-old mother returned from an errand to find a message on her answering machine. The message was from a representative of the Texas Rangers. In the course of investigating a bank fraud case, the caller said, the Rangers had discovered that my mother’s bank accounts had been compromised. The caller left a

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The Importance of Listening

“Most people  don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Stephen R Covey The answer is yes, most people. Often people listen to what a person is starting to convey to them, they recognise the subject, they start to ponder upon their own opinion regarding the subject of which

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Fulfilment from Within

In the words of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre , “If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company”. It is presumable that the “company” to which he refers to are thoughts and emotions, as well as the purpose a person may serve to others and themselves. He makes the argument that the

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Crime and the Logic of Social Organisation

It is believed that the 19th century French poet, novelist and dramatist, Victor Hugo (1802-1885), once opined: “he who opens a school door, closes a prison”. In his well-known text, Les misérables[1], Hugo also wrote that to “destroy the cavern [of] Ignorance” is to “destroy the lair [of] Crime”[2]. Considered together, these statements carry three

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The World We Know

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” – Martin Luther King Jr. is a statement which is true, for each of us is a part of the whole spirit of humanity. When one part is injured in some way, some of the synergy (the energy of the entire group) is lost and damaged, making

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The Art of Listening

The art of listening is a practice which is an essential aspect of the communication process. I agree that most people listen with the intent of replying rather than understanding. It is of great importance to appreciate the true skill, patience and depth of knowledge that a good listener employs in order to make the

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Home or the Sea

“you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land” Home by Warsan Shire In makeshift camps on the French shores of the English Channel; in tents huddled under bridges in central Paris; in portacabin camps in the windswept valleys of northern Greece – scorching

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