So here’s a bit of news. I am moving house on Sunday.
For over a year I have been either staying in friend’s places in London, or staying with mum in Lilongwe. And as wonderful as this has been, I am SOOO excited to be moving into my own place.
I am moving in with another girl, and we have a spare room so please come and visit!!!! Photos coming soon.
Words of the day: HOUSE, HOME, RESIDENCE, DWELLING, ABODE, DOMICILE, ADDRESS, QUARTERS.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Monday, 26 January 2009
failed already!
I was in front of the computer on Friday and I didn't post :(
My New Year Resolution has been broken already! Oh well, I will try again!
Check this out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/26/usa-carbonemissions
My New Year Resolution has been broken already! Oh well, I will try again!
Check this out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/26/usa-carbonemissions
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Features of a speech
Just a quick one. Am going to the lake this weekend (yay) and I plan to take a couple of the speech booklets. So I thought I should think about which features I should take note of while I read. This is what I came up with:
The speech theme
The audience
The opening and closing
Humour
Structure
The historical setting
For now the delivery is not really an issue as I am reading the speeches. The use of Youtube may come later.
I suspect that because of my past blog apathy, my readers have not noticed the new years resolution as there have been no comments. I wonder when they will (if ever). Please do comment if you visit
Word of the day: GUANTANAMO!!!!
The speech theme
The audience
The opening and closing
Humour
Structure
The historical setting
For now the delivery is not really an issue as I am reading the speeches. The use of Youtube may come later.
I suspect that because of my past blog apathy, my readers have not noticed the new years resolution as there have been no comments. I wonder when they will (if ever). Please do comment if you visit
Word of the day: GUANTANAMO!!!!
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Credit crunches can be romantic too
In the back of my head, I was sure that I had written something about speeches before, but I looked back on my blog and found that I hadn’t, and was a bit confused. Then I remembered that I had commented on one of Castles in the Sand’s posts. So I just want to give credit to CITS for inspiration for the theme “SPEECHES” – respect! (Although respect is diminishing as his last post was Monday, September 8th 2008).
So Obama’s speech.
It certainly wasn’t a Martin Luther King “Dream” speech, however I maintain the opinion (from the CITS comment) that it is more difficult to write a moving speech that will go down in history about climbing out of a credit crunch, than it is to write one about people coexisting in harmony. I believe he corrected the guy reading the oath – I love that!
I thought Naomi Wolf’s comments on the speech were pertinent:
“I thought Obama did three things impressively. Firstly, he sounded a note of our dire circumstances that was in line with a reality that many have been in denial about. That is technically brilliant, because he's inheriting a mess, and he's telling people, "We're not going to dig ourselves out of this easily." But also, "Don't blame me for it all."
The second was that he reasserted the primacy of the constitution and the rule of law. With Bush sitting behind him, that was like showtime at the OK Corral. I have written in the past that it is going to take a grassroots movement to support him in reasserting the rule of law, because there are so many vested interests that stand opposed to it. But that was a shot across the bows.
Thirdly, most amazingly, I feel that he dialled down the threat level of the US with just a few sentences. He reached out a hand to the Muslim world. For Obama to say, "I'm not going to demonise you" – that is extraordinarily stabilising.”
For the full article go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/21/obama-inauguration-no-more-fake-optimism (still haven’t worked out that whole URL thing).
As a follow up to my post on 20th October 2008, have a look at this http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/19/sources-obama-may-use-executive-order-reverse-abortion-policy/
Word of the day “OBAMA”.
So Obama’s speech.
It certainly wasn’t a Martin Luther King “Dream” speech, however I maintain the opinion (from the CITS comment) that it is more difficult to write a moving speech that will go down in history about climbing out of a credit crunch, than it is to write one about people coexisting in harmony. I believe he corrected the guy reading the oath – I love that!
I thought Naomi Wolf’s comments on the speech were pertinent:
“I thought Obama did three things impressively. Firstly, he sounded a note of our dire circumstances that was in line with a reality that many have been in denial about. That is technically brilliant, because he's inheriting a mess, and he's telling people, "We're not going to dig ourselves out of this easily." But also, "Don't blame me for it all."
The second was that he reasserted the primacy of the constitution and the rule of law. With Bush sitting behind him, that was like showtime at the OK Corral. I have written in the past that it is going to take a grassroots movement to support him in reasserting the rule of law, because there are so many vested interests that stand opposed to it. But that was a shot across the bows.
Thirdly, most amazingly, I feel that he dialled down the threat level of the US with just a few sentences. He reached out a hand to the Muslim world. For Obama to say, "I'm not going to demonise you" – that is extraordinarily stabilising.”
For the full article go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/21/obama-inauguration-no-more-fake-optimism (still haven’t worked out that whole URL thing).
As a follow up to my post on 20th October 2008, have a look at this http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/19/sources-obama-may-use-executive-order-reverse-abortion-policy/
Word of the day “OBAMA”.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
New Year’s Resolution
This post is intentionally written in a very rough form. I have a new year’s resolution. I am going to post on my blog every day from now on (well…. every day that I am in front of my computer with internet). It is allowed to be one line (hopefully it will normally be more).
The reason I am doing this is that I have been rubbish with my blog in the last few months and I have been meaning to write more. But then I start a post and get stuck on it and feel like it has to be perfect before I post it. And then it ends up taking a month to write. This way I will keep writing, and post more and hopefully be more productive even with the more polished posts.
I also want to try new ideas out. I think I will have themes that I will come back to. I might even have a work of the day.
Today’s word of the day is “SPEECH”. And “SPEECHES” is also my new theme.
A lot of us will be watching an important speech later today. It will be Obama’s first speech as POTUS (“President of the United States” for non-West Wing Watchers).
So what exactly is it that makes a good speech?
About a year ago (maybe two years ago) the Guardian did a special series where every day you got a free booklet inside the paper of a famous speech (Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela etc). I collected most of them, and have them sitting next to my bed. So I intend to read them, and one at a time I will make comments. Please make this interactive (all four and a half of you).
And for those of you who are West Wing fans, check out Obama’s Sam Seabourn http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us-speech
(I have forgotten how to make that clever thing when you change the URL into a description, but I don’t have time today to look into it – this is my experiment of a speedy-typed post).
Anyway, Happy New Year dear fans! And go Obama! A new year, a new hope!
The reason I am doing this is that I have been rubbish with my blog in the last few months and I have been meaning to write more. But then I start a post and get stuck on it and feel like it has to be perfect before I post it. And then it ends up taking a month to write. This way I will keep writing, and post more and hopefully be more productive even with the more polished posts.
I also want to try new ideas out. I think I will have themes that I will come back to. I might even have a work of the day.
Today’s word of the day is “SPEECH”. And “SPEECHES” is also my new theme.
A lot of us will be watching an important speech later today. It will be Obama’s first speech as POTUS (“President of the United States” for non-West Wing Watchers).
So what exactly is it that makes a good speech?
About a year ago (maybe two years ago) the Guardian did a special series where every day you got a free booklet inside the paper of a famous speech (Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela etc). I collected most of them, and have them sitting next to my bed. So I intend to read them, and one at a time I will make comments. Please make this interactive (all four and a half of you).
And for those of you who are West Wing fans, check out Obama’s Sam Seabourn http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us-speech
(I have forgotten how to make that clever thing when you change the URL into a description, but I don’t have time today to look into it – this is my experiment of a speedy-typed post).
Anyway, Happy New Year dear fans! And go Obama! A new year, a new hope!
Friday, 19 December 2008
Turning point??
So I turned 30 yesterday.
And for the last few weeks I have been drafting a bit of a philosophical post, questioning all sorts of things and meanings of life and why we are here etc etc etc.
It is not finished.
But for now, here is a poem my mum wrote a couple of weeks ago. Mums are cool :)
And for the last few weeks I have been drafting a bit of a philosophical post, questioning all sorts of things and meanings of life and why we are here etc etc etc.
It is not finished.
But for now, here is a poem my mum wrote a couple of weeks ago. Mums are cool :)
FOR HAZEL’S BIRTHDAY
Our Small is turning 30 in a while
And in those three decades how much she’s done
And ev’rything she does, she does with style
Like study, travel, work and having fun
Degrees she has with honours and first class.
America has seen her and Taiwan
In Thailand she saw Buddhas made of brass
Our Small is turning 30 in a while
And in those three decades how much she’s done
And ev’rything she does, she does with style
Like study, travel, work and having fun
Degrees she has with honours and first class.
America has seen her and Taiwan
In Thailand she saw Buddhas made of brass
And rode an elephant like Genghis Khan.
No verses about Hazel are complete
Without a mention of a certain cat
Who’s mostly black with white on chest and feet
And often joins us for our tea and chat.
Haze makes us laugh and entertains us too
And someone, very proud, is saying “Boo!”
No verses about Hazel are complete
Without a mention of a certain cat
Who’s mostly black with white on chest and feet
And often joins us for our tea and chat.
Haze makes us laugh and entertains us too
And someone, very proud, is saying “Boo!”
Monday, 20 October 2008
Go figure....
I haven’t written for a while. Since my last post I have finished my masters, and started a job. Is that excuse enough for a bit of silence?
So this is just a quick one. I read an article in a Malawian newspaper on Friday. I don’t have it with me but it went along the lines of… USAID has stopped providing US donated contraceptives to Banja la Mtsogolo, a Malawian family planning and reproductive health NGO (along with organisations in 5 other sub-Saharan African countries). This is apparently because BLM (and the other organisations) receive funding and technical support from Marie Stopes International, a British not-for-profit sexual and reproductive health organisation.
The reason that they have banned the contraceptives coming to these countries is that the Bush administration claims that a UN program in China (in which Marie Stopes is involved) is promoting coerced abortion and sterilisation.
So, in order to address their concerns over a program run by the UNITED NATIONS in CHINA, the US government is barring contraceptives to some of the poorest countries in the world, that are badly affected by HIV/AIDS.
Now I must admit that I only have one side of this story. I am going to speak to a friend who works at USAID here in Lilongwe to try and get more information.
But for now, all I can think is:
IT’S NOT JUST THE US THAT NEEDS YOU OBAMA – THE REST OF US DO TOO!!!
So this is just a quick one. I read an article in a Malawian newspaper on Friday. I don’t have it with me but it went along the lines of… USAID has stopped providing US donated contraceptives to Banja la Mtsogolo, a Malawian family planning and reproductive health NGO (along with organisations in 5 other sub-Saharan African countries). This is apparently because BLM (and the other organisations) receive funding and technical support from Marie Stopes International, a British not-for-profit sexual and reproductive health organisation.
The reason that they have banned the contraceptives coming to these countries is that the Bush administration claims that a UN program in China (in which Marie Stopes is involved) is promoting coerced abortion and sterilisation.
So, in order to address their concerns over a program run by the UNITED NATIONS in CHINA, the US government is barring contraceptives to some of the poorest countries in the world, that are badly affected by HIV/AIDS.
Now I must admit that I only have one side of this story. I am going to speak to a friend who works at USAID here in Lilongwe to try and get more information.
But for now, all I can think is:
IT’S NOT JUST THE US THAT NEEDS YOU OBAMA – THE REST OF US DO TOO!!!
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