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Topic
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How to cope with negative thoughts?
Digital safety
Holistic education in the digital era
Speaking another language
From birth, I have spoken English, and English only. It wasn't until recently that I realised the world isn't always going to auto-translate things for me, simply because I was ignorant enough to believe it would. The truth is, as a white, British, native English speaker, it's never been expected of me that I go out of my way to study another's dialect. Fortunately, throughout my life, my parents have repeatedly stressed to me the importance of having a second, or even third language under your belt. My father, with his broken essential-phrase-book dialects, has managed to befriend people from...
Part 1: A Mennonite identity
In writing all this and speaking with the wonderful lady who inspires me every day, my mom, I've learned a lot about myself and who we are as a people, all people. I'm sharing a part of myself as I write this. I'm sharing a part of my family, which scares me. I don't trust the general public with my family history. We're a private people for a reason. But what I will say are the things I wish everyone could know. This will be in bullet style, general sentences because I tried writing essays about the different aspects of the Mennonite identity and it is just too long. - The Mennonite religion...
Changing the script: The gender problem in the tech industry
While the 20th and 21st century have seen massive improvement for gender equality, with previously unheard voices, perspectives and stories hitting the media. The #MeToo movement brought hidden issues to the surface and created the space to look at the reality of being a woman in the West despite the progress we’ve made. The UK’s mandatory gender pay disclosure brought to light how senior positions are still dominated by men. Every year it seems we learn more about inequality, but lack the ability to make real change happen quickly. This is understandable as change always takes time, but our...
9 Questions about communication
Endless possibilities
Another language
I think that we need another language. A language of passion and love. A language of heart and hope. We need a new language of compassion, sympathy, and integrity. The language of hugs and embraces. A language of eyes and expressions. When we love, we should express the love we feel. When we care, we should show the care we hold dear. We should be humans before it is too late. The language we share is humanity and our universe is one. We share the sky and the ground. We share the dreams and hopes. We are one, inside and out. We are humans in time and space. We are the children of oceans and...
The digital economy: Advancing the opportunities for youth in Jamaica
Forever
‘Forever’ For as long as I can remember, I've always assigned very little value to this one word. I never really thought about it much. Perhaps, I firmly relied on the assumption that ‘forever’ was one of those inherently constant things in life, like the sure way the scorching sun bites harder in the desert. My severe disillusionment came with the shock of losing a loved one. Its saddening, isn't it? The way it takes a reminder of how brief life is to actually appreciate it. But, I'm relearning. I've come to recognize that despite how fleeting or infinite forever might seem, the truth is, the...
Overexposed and overexaggerated: The unfiltered truth about social media
I am The Girl
To support me give me back my space of freedom. Don't talk for me and let me do it myself; let me voice my own thoughts, my own visions... my own dreams. I am a girl and you can see me in the face of every girl starving every day for education but not allowed to fulfill it. You can hear me in those little girls' voices as they cry refusing to get married at the age of nine. You can see me in the footsteps of the girls marching to cross borders and seas running away from war and violence. If you want to help me hand me a pen and a book and let me write my own future and draw my own path. Then...
The Activist
These words are mine and what I claim is what I believe in. I do not assume that my opinion is the ultimate truth. However, this is how I see the world. I don’t claim myself as the perfect activist and I am not giving myself the right to define what a true activist is. Yet, let me draw for you the picture of the activist who lives inside my head. An activist is a limitless person— they belong to the whole universe. They are a person who sees the world as their own home. An activist is part of everything and belongs to everyone. They treat people as human beings and not as commodities. An...
They bullied us, now we are stronger
My parents had me after eight years of marriage; I was their first child and you can imagine what kind of a treatment I had. I was a loved kid and both of them tried to provide me with everything I needed. Without a bad intention, but rather out of a pure love, my mother did not pay attention to my diet, so I grew up as an overweight child. Before school I did not understand what the word ‘fat’ meant but after my first day there I knew that I was different, physically speaking. The kids kept laughing at me and as time passed they started calling me names. Whenever I tried to integrate I failed...
The digital divide in Benin
Hopes and dreams
A seven billion voice, a seven billion hope and a seven billion dream. The number is big, the earth is round and it is the only place we have. Different races, different beliefs, different backgrounds and different souls but we all live under one sky, we all admire the same stars and we all breathe the same air. We all have a heart, see with two eyes, hold with two hands and walk on two feet, some of us may grow wiser and some others may fall every time they walk. Maybe we see things differently for example I like winter; a cloudy sky and a rainy day, it happens that you like it when it is...
Online, my wheelchair is invisible
Part 2: Where will they go
Here are my feelings on the Mennonite Identity, (continued) I think there's a lot of sadness, inherent to a lot of people in the faith and in the families. But there is so much love. That's what I hope my family is remembered for, because that's how I remember them. Mennonites are complicated, their descendants are complicated. But my family was pretty amazing. They weren't all the stereotypes people might think about them. The thing is a part of me has known that it is more than possible there will be no more Mennonites in America in the next few centuries. I am not personally of the faith by...