“If there’s no conflict, there are no stories worth telling-or reading.”- Veronica Roth. It seems that human beings tend to hope and search for perfection, to look for the one key opening all the doors. However, life has many shades of grey. We, people, are intricate and interconnected. We all wish to create a perfect
Year: 2019
Curiosity, the bedrock of all achievements
Would you agree with me that what people call intelligence and creativity boils down to curiosity? There is no denying that. Some would probably say the passion and desire to do something would make one exceedingly skilled. This is a good point but what about curiosity? Does passion bring curiosity? A little bit. But passion
Telling Stories in Time of Conflict
We live in a time of conflict, but then, we have always lived in a time of conflict. Worldwide, there are 57 wars of conflicts currently happening, as of September 2019 (1). These range from wars between nations, and internal armed conflicts, to minor conflicts and clashes. Four wars in the past year have each
Remembrance
I take my usual walk along the promenade, lasting approximately the same number of steps as usual, past the same houses, seawall, and sand. Yet, walking this familiar route is always a different experience. Today, it’s in greyscale, and the windows of limpet houses look out with seal eyes, reflecting back the shades of the
Individuation and Self-refusal: the struggle for identity
The French philosopher Michel Foucault, after arguing his thesis statement during a seminar in 1982 on ‘Technologies of the Self’, stated that ‘the target nowadays is not to discover who we are, but to refuse what we are’. It can be deduced from this statement that knowing what you are is to form an identity
Let Me Swim
This is the story I see behind the above picture. They were all drowning, every single one of them. The waves dragged them into the rapids of humanity. Fighting against the current, fighting against the flow. But it was too late. They found themselves in the middle of the ocean, trapped by the water. The
The Conflict in Human Life
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And I ask, what are those things that can either kill you or make you stronger? Conflict can literally either get you beaten black and blue or let you walk away with the money in the bank as a champion like fighters in the WWE. These
Born Into A World Of Conflict
“If there’s no conflict, there are no stories worth telling – or reading.” – Veronica Roth It is tough to challenge Ms. Roth’s views about stories without conflict and about them not being worth telling. Why? Authenticity. Stories without conflict become unrealistic and dull to the individual experience. Everyone faces some turmoil because the world
Conflict Makes The Character
Humanity is defined by four unique traits: the ability to reason; innovation; the double face of kindness and cruelty; and the potential to adapt to, and overcome, conflict. The human body and mind are capable of surviving odds that seem insurmountable. They are designed to preserve the person possessing them in the most whole shape
To Live Is To Change
The human race is obsessed with the grand search for “self.” They have this undeniable thirst to set a label on themselves that defines what they are, a need to place themselves into a neat box. Two issues present themselves in this matter. Firstly, the point of life is to grow not stagnate, and growth
The Reason We Hate
If you throw a glass of water on to my face, it will trickle down my skin and burn in my veins which will prompt me to throw a glass of water on to your face. It’s just a simple mechanism. An eye for an eye. If someone were to charge at me with a
“[…] The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” – Michel Foucault.
Many people around the world do not believe in themselves because of the shortcomings they have either biologically, physically, morally, or even spiritually. What they fail to know or understand is that everyone is well placed to become someone else that they were not in the beginning. All it calls for is a change in
Who Am I?
I recently binge-watched a series on the popular online video platform, Netflix. It was a true story about a spy, who, after succeeding in his mission to extract important state secrets, had finally gotten caught. He’d lived under an assumed identify for years, staying away from his family and friends, and for a brief time
Conflict: The Basis of a Story
Stories are a part of our daily lives. They are told to entertain, educate or inform. Stories can be told in different forms like; oral narration, writing, arts or films. Whichever form, a story should have a theme, conflict, and characters. This piece sets to highlight the various forms of stories and show that conflict
Knowing Nothing, is Everything
Once upon a time, I wanted to know everything. The idea of who I am ate away at me like a stale fungus. I just had to know. Or so I thought. For many years, I struggled with identity. It’s so prevalent in our culture. The first thing we say in conversation is what do
An Odysseus’ Journey
The all-inclusive blend of life means that it has both good and bad. For a dramatic touch, some might add the ugly too. From Homer’s “Odyssey” telling the tale of a warrior returning home, to Dickens’ “Oliver Twist”, a story of an orphan boy thrust through life’s woes, it is clear that we have always
The Ugly Truth About How Hate Attracts Hate
Martin Luther King Jr. was once quoted as having said that, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” In the French film La Haine (Hate), director Mathieu Kassovitz shows how hate towards a person or people based on their religion, status, and
Utopia Now!
Pithy title, but is a utopian society achievable? Or even desirable? First, yes – it’s almost unavoidable. We’re so close to it now, globally. Consider what Marshall McLuhan write in The Gutenberg Galaxy, in 1962: “What we have called ‘nations’ in recent centuries did not, and could not, precede the advent of Gutenberg technology any
Uncaged: The Beginning Of A New Dawn
Aisha was the only child of her parents. But she was no ordinary child. She was considered a genius by everyone who met her- well, that was what they thought before she started school, at the age of five. Aisha was a curious child who would ask the most intelligent questions. At the young age
Ask or Do?
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford. In this quote Henry Ford implies that people do not know what is best for themselves. An American industrialist, innovator, entrepreneur and founder of the Ford Motor company, he did not invent the car to replace slower forms