I have a lot to be thankful for today, even though I do bitch and moan in my blog but hey, it's better to do it than keep it all inside. And I am thankful I have a place where I can put down all my thoughts. I want to some day be able to help a lot of people. I feel that is part of my purpose in this world. To help people who are not as fortunate as me. I want to do so much more since I have seen the hope in the eyes of the kids who have nothing.
I am just thankful for ...
My sanity and gift of thoughtfulness
Lots and lots of common sense, enhanced by tons of life experience
The gift of friendship -- I am blessed with wonderful and amazing people in my life
Opportunities -- I have the ability to choose
Freedom -- as I look at how crazy the world is getting, I feel blessed by the fact that I have the freedom to be me. World events are getting crazy enough. York University, where I did my undergrad, is now anti-semitic. I was appalled to hear what is happening there and will consider withdrawing my degree if it turns out to be a university that does not like people like me. I have the freedom and a voice. I am lucky. I just hope our world is one that does not accept intolerance and hatred
If I ran the world, I would get rid of all borders. I think there are people who enjoy complaining and hard times. I just want peace and quiet
Here is two a year of tranquility, love and understanding. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I flew home from Israel to visit my family in Toronto in 1985. When I flew back, I
remember landing at BenGurionAirport
very early in the morning and at the same time, a plane landed from Ethiopia.
I saw them at immigration; they looked tired, scared and a bit hopeful. I
had read about Operation Moses but here it was in front of me.
With
Israeli and U.S. Aid, a vast program was undertaken from November to
January 1985 to transport the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The Falashas were returned
and finally recognized as descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
The Israeli secret service carried out the operation on the sly, keeping it
from the Mengitsu pro-Soviet regime who had prohibited their emigration. The
Falashas walked from Ethiopia
to Sudan,
a Muslim country under Charia law. There, they had to hide their Jewish
identity under pain of death In Sudan, planes awaited to take them to Israel. On the
road, hundreds died of sickness, famine, exhaustion. Others were killed by
bandits. In the 1980s, the Sudanese camps welcomed thousands of Africans from
26 countries who were prey to famine: Christians, Muslims, and clandestine
Jews. The first secret airlift operation, known as "Operation Moses",
saved 8,000 Ethiopian Jews. 4,000 died on the road between Ethiopia and Sudan, murdered, tortured or
suffering from famine, thirst and exhaustion. Many children reached the Holy Land alone or as orphans.
So I ordered Live and
Become from Netflix and have to say it did a great job of bringing the
complexity of this history to life. Here is a brief summary:
Radu Mihaileanu's outstanding new film is perhaps one of
the best movies ever made about the complex business of families and being
human ever made. Taking as its theme the great migration of thousands of
Ethiopian Jews (with Mossad assistance) from Sudan
to Israel
in the mid 1980s, Mihaileanu humanises this vast subject by focussing on one
Ethiopian boy. As rescue planes fly in from Tel Aviv, his mother sends him on
that pilgrimage of escape masquerading as a Jewish Ethiopian (Falasha). He
takes the place of a child who has just died in the desert camp with the help
of the dead child’s mother and a French-Jewish Médecins Sans Frontières doctor.
And I totally agree: "this
vast sprawling mud map of a movie is a wonder and the canvas it paints is one
that has lacked a painter for far too long." Rent it if you want to
be moved and think about what it means to belong. The prejudice
displayed in this film is haunting and the scene on what color Adam was is mind
blowing. There are points in the film that linger but they can be
overlooked for the fantastic performances and an ability to deal with such an
important topic.
A great quote from the film:
Shlomo: "Should we give back land we consider our own?"
Papa: "This tree provides shade: we planted it 50 years ago. But the tree over there, it was there before we got here. I think we should share the land, like the sun and the shade, so others can know love also." Shlomo: "Even if we risk being pushed to the sea and dying?" Papa: "Love doesn't come without risks. And it's difficult to decide how others should love."
I am watching The Insider again. It is such a great movie because it is so raw and real. The corruption of big tobacco and how it silences the truth. And what is the truth? This movie is actually all about the truth. In some ways, it is also about how the media was silenced.
Mike Wallace: And do you wish you hadn't come forward?
Do you wish you hadn't blown the whistle? Jeffrey Wigand:
There are times when I wish I hadn't done it. There are times when I
feel com... compelled to do it. If you asked me, would I do it again, do
I think it's worth it? Yeah I think its worth it.
And who wins and who loses? The news becomes first to market now; who can get the "story," the fastest? There is a chance of getting the news when no one is pulling the strings in the background with their money to only give people the information that is suitable.
Great movie. Reminds me of my dad and his constant pursuit of truth and justice.
I tried to stay awake. I made it until 9 pm and slept until 11 pm. I have to make sure I go back to bed by midnight. Jet lag is just brutal.
I spent yesterday listening to employees and it was exhausting. So many simple issues that if anyone cared could be resolved. I will try to help but will write the book one day, with a friend, on the corporate machine. One guy yesterday really made me laugh when he compared his situation to the Flinstones. He actually made so many animal analogies ranging from donkeys to mammoths. The sad part was that it's not really funny. I wish I could say that someone apart from me cares. Enough about work.
What did inspire me was conversations I had about their dreams to improve conditions in Kenya. It was then that we got excited about what is possible. I am looking forward to meetings with people who can actually make things happen.
After a great walk at the Reservoir
yesterday and a nice glass of cava, we came back home and decided to watch a
movie before heading to dinner. I had heard of Persian
Cats and we decided to try it out and I am so glad we did. It made me
realize, once again, how lucky we are to have our freedom.
This film was completed in 17 days and
shows the underground of musicians in Iran following two musicians who
were released from prison. Their crime? Loving and trying to spread
their love of Indie Rock with a string desire to go to Europe
to play music. All Negar wants is to play her music and sing without
fear. Something we all tend to take for granted.
Today, it's estimated that
as much as two thirds of Iran's
population is under 25 and that there are over 2,000 underground bands.
They need to find "safe" places to practice and play their music to
make sure a neighbour sells them out to the police. The film took us from
rooftops to basements. It shows how these artists are trying to pursue
their passions.
When I googled, the film this piece from the Washington Post
hit home about the director, Bahman
Ghobadi, in his own words:
The film, he hopes, will show another side
to a country so often portrayed only as a nuclear threat or a geopolitical
chess piece. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has successfully manufactured
news" to distract Western media, he says. "The issue of human rights
violations just doesn't come to the fore."
The title "No One Knows About Persian Cats" refers to an
Iranian law that requires dogs and cats to remain indoors.Similar constraints drive the country's indie-rock
scene far underground, into barns and basements and rooms soundproofed with
blankets, where hip young musicians ply their trade despite the ever-looming
threat of arrest. Some have permits. Many don't. But the talented, intrepid
rockers inhabiting this film about Tehran's
furtive indie scene have the same dreams that drive performers everywhere. What
distinguishes this group is their indefatigable gutsiness as they push to be
heard.
And today, I wake up knowing in my heart how truly lucky I am to have my freedom.
April 11, 2010
On June 8, 1980 an eight-year-old boy, Oron Yarden, was kidnapped at Savyon, near Tel Aviv. The kidnapper managed to elude the police and escape with the IL2 million ransom paid by the child's parents. Impassioned appeals by the prime minister, the chief rabbis, and others to the kidnapper to release the boy were of no avail; the decomposed body of the child was discovered buried in sand dunes near Netanya on June 30. He had been strangled to death shortly after the ransom was paid. A 33-year-old Netanya man was arrested shortly after the body was found,and was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 34 years.
Woke up this morning to a gloomy cloudy Sunday, after an amazing week of sunshine where I was indoors all week. I drove to work in the dark at 3:00 am. I am definitely feeling down today for many reasons. One is recent disappointments I am feeling with two friends who I was really close to and have found myself in uncomfortable situations with recently. And I wonder why friendships break down. With close girl friends, the ones I really trust and open my heart to, it is so sad when we take a left turn.
What they don't know is how I am questioning everything in my life right now and how I really need them on my side. I simply don't have the energy with every other area of my life exploding in my face right now. I am so tired right now and it's only morning.
I want to do something that makes a difference and on some days, I just want to pack it all in and go write about people and help. I want to help. I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos on the Holocaust since it's eve of remembrance day. It could be the main reason I am sad. I watched the awful stories with the photos of the starved victims and the bodies falling into mass open graves. And then, Anne Frank's words are flashing on the screen.
And I turn on the news and I read an article about Africa that points to the fact that Zimbabwe is where it is today because of leadership or lack of it. Autocracies continue to happen. People continue to be persecuted and killed over ideology, religion and fundamentalism. Of course, I am not comparing as there is no way to do so. But human behavior has not changed and we must never forget and always find compassion.
That is why I am hurting over my two friends. I feel they are so focused on themselves that they don't see how fragile and tired I am right now. I just want peace and quiet. If someone shows you who they are at work, how could you possibly believe they are someone else as a friend?
Yesterday I went to the last Oakland Speaker Series to hear Ted Koppel speak. I missed a lot of the lectures this year because my monthly meetings happen during the first Tuesday of every month. I am glad I made it yesterday and it is the journalist versus new media debate. It is interesting that every speaker I've heard this year has a message for the American public. And I bet that I will be criticized for writing this blog post as I am not a professional journalist :-) These are just my ramblings anyhow. And my dream of being a journalist never materialized so I am grateful to social media.
Ted Koppel started with his Epstein Fart story, which made everyone laugh and I think was simply an icebreaker to connect with the packed theatre. I am not quite sure how it otherwise related to his talk. He is a fantastic speaker and I can listen to his voice for hours. I was also impressed with how great he looks. I learned that his parents fled Nazi Germany and that he became an American citizen in 1963.
What did Ted Koppel share?
His main theme was that the changes we have witnessed in Television news are both technological and economical. Journalists, in the past, were obligated to put news into context and provide analysis. What the public received was information with importance based on events. Today, this has shifted to the news media need to "being first" with a story. Being most recent has become more significant than "important" news.
According to Koppel, one of the worst developments for news happened in 1968 with 60 Minutes. Why? Because it made money and shifted the economic model of network news. Now, TV news was expected to make a profit. In the past, the news department would get a fixed budget that it needed to work within. "It allowed us the freedom to serve a purpose."
"They gave the news division a few million dollars a year and said, here it is. Go do whatever it is
you people do, and do not come back for any more money." But during the 1970s, when CBS's
"60 Minutes" showed that a news division could rake in big bucks, ABC
began itching to broaden its news coverage.
ABC wanted to expand the evening
news program to one hour, Koppel said, but the network's affiliates were
making too much money to give back the time slot. What he valued about the pre-60 Minutes days is that when he was working for a major news outlet, there was always a producer or editor who checked his work to make sure the facts were right. This is not the case with most citizen journalists who publish their un-vetted work online. "In the final analysis," Koppel
said, "the most important thing about journalism is editing."
So What Really Changed?
Journalists, according to Koppel, gave us the kind of news they felt the public needed. There used to be a feeling of mission. The tech explosion also changed the face of news. There is no government regulations with bloggers. What we are getting is Tiger Woods and frivolous information, as long as we are first to report it.
Ted Koppel asked the audience: why are we in Afghanistan? Someone from the audience, yelled "oil." His point was well taken, it's not about what the media has been communicating. Most people are unaware of the geographical positioning of Afghanistan and its proximity to the nuclear challenge and associate the US presence solely on the terrorist threat.
In 20 years, the US will be faced with a $34 trillion deficit. All entitlements will come due. We live in a country where we are all entitled to housing and a mortgage. And we have lived beyond our capabilities. According to Koppel. 34% of Americans believe the Bush administration knew about 9/11.
"Fox is doing brilliantly giving an echo chamber effect. We all need to listen to what's going on in this country and opposing views. What is being preached are hateful disgusting messages on the right and left. There are no accountabilities any more."
There is less interest in reporting today and more focus on keeping the public entertained. "Don't be surprised if Sarah Palin runs in the next elections and even becomes President." The medium is allowing the voices of the fringe and extremists to take centre stage. Koppel would like us to be aware of what Fox is showing so we can speak out. "NPR has good news stories. It is linked to the facts and the truth." Support the news organizations that still care about the core of journalism.
So What's My Reaction as A Citizen Journalist (couldn't resist)?
I wrote my Master's thesis on the impact of television on the American political system so listening to Ted Koppel firsthand was a gift. I agree with much of what he said as the commercialization of the news did put into question the authenticity of the news. It drives me crazy when CNN tells us that "they were first on the story." And when no one still knew about Twitter, CNN would report on what was going on Twitter. I found this absolutely ridiculous. I can go on my own directly on Twitter and what I was finding that I usually knew about what was going on (Iran, earthquakes, crashes in the Hudson, etc.) on Twitter. Not only because of other citizens of the world but because I also follow NPR, BBC, WSJ and other sources I find "trustworthy."
It's not an either or. It's a combination. The internet is not evil. It is just a reflection of the world in which we live. What does not change is human behavior. Hitler rose to power, not because of the Internet. Sarah Palin knows how to work public opinion and human behavior. Extremists have existed for generations and quite frankly, throughout history. The fringes on both sides of the equation are not a US occurrence. It is worldwide and it is deepening and scary.
Social media is not to blame. We've shifted from a patriach model of getting information from the church and government to news outlets. And now, citizens have a voice. It brings the good and bad of humanity into the open. Is that all bad?
This was by far the most inspirational session I attended at this week's World Affairs Council.
Have you wondered what kind of organization you would get if you mixed the business savvy of a corporation with the passion and heart of a non-profit?John Wood, founder and executive chairman of Room to Read, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children across the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the power of education. At age 35, John Wood left his high-paying job as Microsoft's Director of Business Development in China to create Room to Read. What started as a personal goal of delivering 3,000 books by yak to a remote Nepali village in 1999 has become an award-winning NGO providing educational resources to over 3 million children and establishing over 7,000 libraries in impoverished regions of Asia and Africa. Described as an organization that "combines the heart of Mother Theresa with the scalability of Starbucks," Wood joins the Council to share how he was able to develop Room to Read into one of the fastest-growing non-profits in history and how his unique business and non-profit approach guide his vision of educating some the world’s poorest children.
March 03, 2010
Essential viewing for anyone engaged in the ongoing drama of the Middle East, Ajami is a brave, apolitical look at Jews and Arabs in Jaffa’s multi—ethnic Ajami neighborhood — a searing debut by Israeli and Palestinian co—directors, whose balanced perspective and use of non—professional local actors lend a palpable authenticity to a complex, cross—cultural drama. Shakespearian in its scope and themes — revenge, loyalty, hope and despair — the film draws us into the lives of two brothers fearing assassination; a young Palestinian refugee working illegally to cover his mother’s medical expenses; an Israeli woman and her affluent Palestinian boyfriend dreaming of building a life together; and a Jewish cop obsessed with finding his missing brother. Through this dramatic collision of different worlds, we witness the cultural and religious tensions simmering beneath the surface and the tragic consequences of enemies living as neighbors.
What is fascinating is that most of those in the film had day jobs and never appeared in a movie before. None
knew how the low-budget drama would end. And no one imagined it would
earn a nomination for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards
on March 7.
Sigh. Looks like nature is talking to us this year. There is a tsunami warning for Hawaii and the west coast. Nature humbles all of us. I pray friends are safe. And mourn those who have not been so lucky. Watching the images from Chile right now. There is live streaming at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tv-de-chile
And then, Seth Godin's post came via email and it hit so close to home that what might perceived as failure is really about trying ...
Genius is the act of solving a problem in a way no one has solved it before. It has nothing to do with winning a Nobel prize in physics or certain levels of schooling. It's about using human insight and initiative to find original solutions that matter.
Genius is actually the eventual public recognition of dozens (or hundreds) of failed attempts at solving a problem. Sometimes we fail in public, often we fail in private, but people who are doing creative work are constantly failing.
When the lizard brain kicks in and the resistance slows you down, the only correct response is to push back again and again and again with one failure after another. Sooner or later, the lizard will get bored and give up.
I found out aboutTedXAustinvia Twitter today and what a treat it has been.
Every day get up and write three pages.
It's showing up that helps us.
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. Youth is the
matter of the will, the quality of imagination ... courage over challenge
Who are we? Our earliest experiences shape who we are.
Make the pause a priority. Leave room for rest, cognition and more
inspiration for the next round of creation. Bravo
People need the opportunity to help themselves. We need to feel
hopeful. We are moving from a world of have and have nots to a
world of know more and know nots
It's one person at a time. There is nothing unique about change.
Everyone can do it.
"What you do,
where you are, matters. -Desmond Tutu - One Peace at a Time"
"If you're looking for a big opportunity, seek out a
big problem"
I am a lawyer, I don't believe in emotions. Daniel Pink
The
solution is not to do more things wrong. The new operating system
revolves around autonomy, mastery and purpose. These are building blocks
for our businesses.
Autonomy: People want to have control over their work.
Mastery: People want to get better at
what they do.
Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they
are.
Management did not come from nature. Someone invented and it
won't work. It's great if you want compliance but if you want engagement,
you need self-direction.
The news reports keep drumming into us that we have just experienced the worst decade of our lives. It keeps repeating all the catastrophes and losses we've had - both financial and human. Is that what makes news? Where are the reports of all the good? Does that not sell advertising? Why are we so programmed to hear the bad news?
I know I wrote a master's thesis on this topic but it seems like the media just perpetuates it. This is what I like about being on social networking sites. People post the good as well. I like that. I want to live in a more positive world. And, I can choose not to watch the traditional news channels.
Ode Magazine has the top 10 positive news stories from the last decade since good news rarely makes the headlines.
Lynne Twist recently gave a keynote
address based on her best selling book – The Soul of Money. Lynne
described how when we call people rich, we collapse who they are with their
financial circumstances. We are whole, complete people despite what we have in
material possessions.
Why is money
an obsession? Why do we worry, fret and spend time worrying about it? We live in
a culture that is a money culture and a consumer culture. Lynne quoted Buddha
from 2,000 years ago as saying “The source of all suffering is a lie”. She
reiterated that the suffering we all feel is intensified in a bed of lies in our
money culture.
The Big
Lies
We invented
money approximately 4,500 years ago as a way of exchanging goods and resources
with one another – as a way of sharing our gifts. If you were a cobbler who
needed a pig, you’d need to find a farmer who needed his shoes repaired. The
invention of money made the exchange of goods and services more
accessible.
We now use
money to divide and separate. We assigned its value and meaning and now are at
the affect of it. We have assigned a psychological power to money – it has
become the be all and end all – the unquestioned answer to almost
anything.
We’ve
forgotten that WE hold the power – money is a tool and we have made it something
more important than that. We have made it more important than the natural
world.
The Great Lie of
Scarcity
We have
created an unconscious body of assumptions of the way of looking at life. It’s
not what we see, it’s what we’re looking through. We have created three toxic
myths
1. There’s Not
Enough
We have
mantras such as there’s not enough money, market share, time, love… Most
conversations are about what we don’t have enough of. We start thinking “I am
not enough” and the second part is that there is not enough to go around.
Someone somewhere is going to be left out. Our job is to accumulate as much as
we can to be as far away as possible from someone being left
out.
2. More is
Better
We have an
ongoing, unconscious assumption that more is better. The fastest growing
industry in the US is the offsite storage business. It’s become a statement of
who we are that we have homeless people without shelter yet we spend money to
house the “stuff” that won’t fit into the bigger homes we buy because we have so
much stuff in them already.
The need to
want more is not escaped by having more. It just makes you want more and becomes
a never ending story. This leads to a feeling of lacking versus a place of
satisfaction.
3. That’s Just the
Way It Is
This is the
worst lie that keeps everything in place. We develop a source of resignation,
people giving up, can’t possibly turn this around, no way to change
it.
Where are you caught
in the toxic myths?
Money has
turned us into consumers – a word that means she who takes, depletes, dominates
or destroys.
Who we
really are is citizens – we stand for or take responsibility for our well being
of our selves, our community, our state and our nation. We need to reclaim
ourselves as citizens and let go of treating ourselves as
consumers.
The Radical
Surprising Truth
Lynne was a
student of Buckminster
Fuller, a brilliant scientist man who many feel was ahead of his time
(invented electric car in 1949 for example) and he made a statement about trust
that liberated Lynne from a condition of scarcity.
In 1976, he
stated that humanity had recently passed a critical threshold that we will never
turn back from. We as a human community of ingenuity and innovation are doing so
much more with so much less. We are clearly moving into a world for everyone,
everywhere to have a healthy and productive life. This will be true now, in the
future, and forever more. A world where there’s enough for everyone everywhere
to make it at no one else’s expense. We have moved from scarcity to sufficiency
to enough.
He stated
that it will take about 50 years for this to come to fruition (from 1976)
because all institutions of humankind are routed in you OR me
relationships.
Hearing him
speak changed Lynne’s life forever as she now saw everything differently. She
saw incredible bounty everywhere.
“Sufficiency” and “enough” are distinct from
“abundance”. Excess turns to waste. At the heart of it is a principle invented
by Lynne:
The Context
of Sufficiency - If you let go of trying to get what you want, it frees up
energy to turn to and nourish what you already have, which then expands and
gives you what you need. What you appreciate, appreciates.
The window
to prosperity is through the portal of enough/sufficiency which then expands
into abundance.
Lynne then
recommended the website www.gratefulness.org – gratitude has 2 branches –
gratefulness and thanksgiving.
Gratefulness
is where the bowl of life is so full but not overflowing and thankfulness is
where you want to give, share and contribute what you have. It is a way of being
that has nothing to do with the amount of anything.
She then
asked the participants to turn to each other and share for 3 minutes what each
of us was grateful for in our lives. A very powerful exercise that shows that
what we are most grateful for has little to do with material things in
life.
Have you watched any of the Clinton Global Initiative sessions this week? I saw the ones on Investing in girls and women and I want to see it again. It highlights the need for public-private partnership but not only around funding but also execution. There is a need for a new model since the billions of dollars that have been spent have had minimal returns. I think mostly because it's one group trying to change another group; instead of understanding the group and providing them with what they need.
The older I get, the more I realize there is no "right" and "wrong" that I was brought up with. It's about what works and doesn't work for every individual (not disregarding the "law" of course).
There needs to be a different way to position - somehow to build on what's there rather than need to change it all. And, YES - lines are meant to be blurred!!!
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