Blog-a-day Challenge: Day 4 - A song that calms you down

Oh this is sooo hard! I have so many me-moment songs that have a fantastic, soothing effect!! But I'm choosing this one because I think it best represents my idea of peace and serenity: the shalom I always try to embrace.

Blog-a-day Challenge: Day 3 - A song that reminds you of your parents

Hmm... kinda hard to think of a song that reminds me of my parents, but I'll try. They're the kinda happy-go-lucky, crazy-in-love, stuck-together-for-the rest-of-their-lives, whimsical couple that you'd see in older family-friendly sitcoms. They're sickeningly lubby-dubby too. Here's to them and their special brand of love. May I inherit even half of it, and replicate the experience with someone some day.

10 things to learn from Japan

I got this in an email and thought it was very instructive. And wonderful.

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.

4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly!

Blog-a-day Challenge: Day 2 - A song that reminds you of your most recent ex-boyfriend

Interesting one. But very easy. So easy, in fact, that I wasn't going to do it.

But then I thought, what the heck, a fact is a fact. So here goes. Everytime I hear this particular song, I remember him, because this was the last song we danced to before the break-up. And we both knew we were breaking up because we had come to the decision around the same time, and had agreed on it. So it was a save-the-last dance scenario (my earliest followers will remember my rants about Dude and what kind of romantic he was). But so yeah, that last last night. We danced. In a park. In open air. With people watching us and probably thinking we were crazy. To this song. And I've never forgotten it. You'll be glad to know he's still a friend today. I don't believe in bad break-ups. And after all, he was, and still is, a really cool kinda guy.

Blog-a-day Challenge: Day 1 - A song from my childhood

I've been an avid reader since my very young days. I always say I learned the magic of books early, and that literary love affair has never stopped. Reading Rainbow was one of my all-time favourite TV programmes, so, I think the theme song brings back lots of happy childhood memories. I certainly spent many happy hours drinking in the new adventures LeVar Burton presented every week.

A Kool Meme Challenge

So, I dropped by blahblahblog and found this meme ... and thought it was a totally awesome challenge. So, here goes. My second official blog challenge: a song for every day for the next 25 days coming up, because I LOVE memes too!!

Restless

In my Vanity Fair Questionnaire post, I said that my state of mind was restless. I found this on Restless Development's Facebook page and thought it so perfectly described exactly what I was feeling that I had to borrow it and show it to you.

I was watching Courtney Martin talk the other day, and she said something that I thought was so profound: "I wrote the book I needed to read." She couldn't find it, so she WROTE IT!! And now that gap no longer exists in the world.

If Jamaican youth cannot find the answer we need to see in this nation anywhere else, are we willing to BE THE SOLUTION WE NEED TO SEE? Are we restless enough?

Pray we garner the courage to be the change we're waiting for.

When Women Win ...

... the whole world gets better and brighter. We ARE change agents, and the whole world should know it.

Happy International Women's Day to one and all. 100 is a milestone that should not go unnoticed.

I was watching Isabel Allende in a TED Talk video (if you don't know TED Talks, you need to. They're awesome. Full stop). She was talking about the importance of passion, how the women she met on her walk during the Olympics were women of passion, living and working for a cause they believed in, and how essential that was.

Then I was reading Michelle Bachelet's speech at the official launch of UN Women.

Then I listened to Courtney Martin in another TED Talk about 'feministing',  and how the young generation of feminists have changed the face and name of the game, but still toil for the cause that has not, in 100 years, lost meaning or validity.

Then I remembered a talk I had with my coworkers, and how they laughed at me for calling myself a feminist, and for proposing very unorthodox views about equality between men and women ... and I remembered my mother, and the pillar of strength and resilience that she has been. What if there was no women's movement? Could she be where she is today? Could I be who I am today?

It's been 100 years. But it's been a battle well worth it.

So here are is the final stanza of a poem I wrote as an ode to my grandmother:
'I am not weak-willed. I am strong. 
The blood of a thousand warriors flows through my veins. 
Long live indomitable woman.'

When Judges STRIKE ... It's Judgement Time!

Photo taken from Jamaica Observer

What a thing when the people who enforce justice in a country can't get any justice for themselves ... This is not a case of who will guard the guards, this is a case of who will pay the guards, and give them all the promised benefits? And I can't help but wonder, where will the money come from?

We've developed a nasty habit of not paying people who work in essential services: We don't pay teachers. We don't pay nurses. We don't pay doctors. We don't pay civil servants. And now, we not paying judges. Seems like the only people getting paid up in here are government officials, crooks and their cronies, and anyone associated with this damned commission of enquiry. Anyone considering a career change? Maybe it's time for the whole country to strike, once and for all, and let Kingston become the next Tahrir or Tiananmen Square ...

I'm sure the judges will agree, it's time for action. It's time for JUDGEMENT!!