On Friday 19 February 2016, a judge in New York ruled that Kesha could not cancel her six album contract with Sony. From what I understand, Kesha wants to break all ties with Sony, where she would continue to have some form of contact with Dr. Luke, the producer she said drugged her, raped her,… Read More Putting Justice Back at the Centre of the Legal System: the Case of Kesha and Dr. Luke
If you are a long time reader of my blog, it will come as absolutely no surprise that I am a firm believer in the power of the individual to make a difference. And I believe in this power not only in the small or even medium things, but in the big things. One such… Read More Voicing Our Concern for Injustice: It Starts at the Very Foundation of Our Societies
A community is in part defined by the relationships that binds its inhabitants. More specifically, the number of relationships, their nature, and their quality will have a big influence on the life the community. Both Friends and The Big Bang Theory have given millions of fans something that seems to be, on screen, very healthy:… Read More Community-Building and Friendship in the Era of Friends and The Big Bang Theory
The topic of building understanding in an increasingly multicultural world has been touched upon a couple of times on this blog (here, here, and here). But while it’s easy to agree on the importance of building understanding, it’s not as easy to come up with ways to do it. Oftentimes, the answer to such big… Read More Building Understanding in an Increasingly Multicultural World
Last June, I came across an article by John Haltiwanger in which he explained why optimists are always late. While articles such as his do help understand how people—ourselves or others—think and function, the way Haltiwanger went about excusing lateness as a natural consequence of a virtue didn’t jive well with me. I felt that… Read More Developing Virtues: Never One At the Expense of Another
Dove’s mission to get us in touch with real beauty started with this video released over six years ago. The company is still at it, recently releasing another video. It documents an experiment that begins with several participants talking to the camera about their appearance. These participants then describe themselves to a forensic artist who sketches… Read More The Clean-Up Continues: Dove Concludes We Are More Beautiful than We Think
It’s interesting how each person’s life struggles seem to distil to just a handful of challenges that occur again and again in various shapes and forms. A personal struggle of mine, which I blogged about previously (and one post of which will be reposted later on today), is the injustice that operates within so many… Read More The False Choice We Have to Make Between Helping Ourselves and Helping Others
From Harry Potter to Katniss and all Marvel and DC heroes, it seems that our society is attracted to the idea of a hero helping us defeat the forces of evil and leading us into victory, oftentimes at great personal cost. While sacrifice is an important element in overcoming adversity, I question the concept of… Read More S.O.S.: Why Looking Out for Hero Isn’t Working
Loving fellowship, mutual encouragement, and willingness to learn together are natural properties of any group of youth sincerely striving for the same ends… There is a lot that we have to learn, every single day in our lives. Sometimes, when we make a mistake while trying to learn, we encounter honks, stares, and negative comments.… Read More Adopting a learning mode: what it can look like
The end of the summer was a little difficult for my family, to say the least. As I shared back in September, my uncle was diagnosed with cancer. The conversation his wife and I started then about the support they are getting from their network has continued; it’s a little convoluted at times and unsatisfying… Read More The Emerging Clarity of Supporting Someone with Cancer