Tonight we will have our party going on! The smaller version of what we had planned will take place at the ice skating rink. Now, remember, we are traveling through the Caribbean, but yes there is an ice skating rink! Not that anybody is skating…..

The Sencity crew is very excited. After several breakdowns and some restrictions from the cruise director, they want to show them what they are capable of. They are so driven that I’m starting to like the idea of having all these restrictions. I might work with that ‘concept’ more often.   Read more...

It’s a weird thing, communication. You might think, on a boat with 6,000 deaf and hearing people, there will be a lot of miscommunication or non-communication.

I wanted to write about that in the first place. At the airport we had some interesting examples of prejudices against deaf people. At the custom service I told the employee that the next people in line were deaf. He looked at them and then asked me: ‘do you know who is mentoring them?’ While I was thinking why on earth deaf people should need mentors anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to tell it to next custom officer again. Behind me, Serhat, one of our deaf dancers was waiting. Still the employee started mumbling to him, without looking at him, asking to take off his jacket. I repeated that he was deaf. She looked surprised and said, ‘Ohhhh, but he looked so cool, I thought, he cannot be.....’   Read more...

So here I am, waiting at the Amsterdam Airport. I am about to fly to Miami harbor to meet the members of my team, including an Aroma Jockey, an Experience Jockey from Miami, 3 deaf dancers, 3 sign dancers from Canada, 2 instructors, 1 producer, and 2 assistants. Tomorrow we will board on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world. For 3 days we will entertain 4,000 deaf visitors on this cruise, the biggest event ever in deaf history.   Read more...

I am still wildly enamored of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. The title alone is a good formula for creating peace on our lovely Earth.

At one point in her journey, a poet gives her the words which appear below in italics under the rubric “INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREEDOM.” My commentary for peace is in Roman type.   Read more...

I want to tell you about me and my mother. Today is her birthday and I want to stand still for a moment and see all that she has given to me and what she means to me.

She was there to love me, feed me and clean me when I couldn’t even say my own name. She brought me to school, nurtured me and taught me how to ride a bike so one day, when the time would be ripe, I could cycle proudly to school on my own. She stimulated me to grow, praised my talents and my interests and wanted me to succeed in life. As all mothers do, she had a time in which she might have wanted me to be more than I had to offer (for the moment). She was there for me to give me hope and keep the family going when I lost my father. She was always ready to reflect on what she could do better, do differently or stop doing for my well being in a phase when I didn't give any attention to my or anyone else's well being. She was there to accept me as I was, while I didn't and it was so easy not to. She was there to talk to me and show me her love in a time when I couldn't let anyone near (she was so persistent it got quite annoying)...

Several weeks ago a friend told me about a concert of Mongolian music that was coming to town. Since I am captivated by the world and its variety of cultures, traditions and mindsets, I ran to get tickets. The show turned out to be a blend of styles, from traditional Mongolian, to jazz, to percussion, to traditional Japanese. The pieces were performed by Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese and an American: a true blending of the world spirit in its many manifestations. But there was something else that made this concert very special. It was given for charity.   Read more...

I got a lovely email this week from a man who is a Peace Tax Resister. In it, he suggested I spearhead a new website called Peace On. His idea is that our various and sundry War(s) on various and sundry themes—terrorism, drugs, obesity—aren’t working and he wondered about the notion of throwing a little peace on these matters to see if that might work better.

Not so coincidentally, I’d been thinking about ways to use the worldwide web for peace. His idea made me smile.   Read more...

It seems that so often the buzzword these days is “Intention”: the focusing of consciousness to picture a scene so real that it becomes actual. It is about how “thoughts are things”, as Edgar Cayce would say, and how we make our how reality though our mental skills and attitude. (1)

In Ode’s October issue there was a well-written, insightful article by Peter Russell called “The Real Secret”. It dealt with quantum physics and the human mind. That article dispelled many false beliefs and misunderstandings about the pop culture’s interpretation of mental powers. Among many other helpful ideas, Russell pointed out that the poor and ill should not be accused of creating their condition because they did not think happy thoughts. In the end of his article Russell said, “ . . . we always have a choice in how we see, experience and interpret reality.”   Read more...

With effect from 1st September 2007, the ban on polythene bags commonly known as "Kavera" in Uganda took effect. Uganda joined her neighbours in the East African community in banning a material that has wreaked havoc on the environment. It has now become illegal to import these polythene bags and its use is being phased out. The polythene bags have been a major environmental hazard and a menace for many years especially in both urban and rural settings where mushrooming commercial activities increased the demand for "kaveera" for packaging among other uses.   Read more...

For our October submission we Bloggers have been requested to write a piece about the Environment. So much press about that timely topic is concerned with correcting human-caused disasters. That is crucially important, of course, but I have decided to focus on the topic from a different angle: the Environment and how it affects our soul. Since I live in Japan, I will write about how things manifest here.   Read more...

I have recently joined the moderation team of an online community by the global project dropping knowledge (http://www.droppingknowledge.org). What is dropping knowledge? “dropping knowledge encourages social change. Using advanced web technologies, the initiative with offices in Berlin, Germany and Cambridge, MA, USA, links the voices of individuals and organizations. The web-platform enables the global public to ask and answer questions, exchange ideas, and start initiatives around the most pressing issues of our time. Events like the Table of Free Voices, campaigns like "ask yourself" and projects in cooperation with different partners create a meaningful bridge between the on and offline worlds.”   Read more...

Today bloggers all around the world are going to write about nature, conservation, the need for a more sustainable environment. I don’t need to explain to you that this is necessary, because you read and hear the sad news each day. You see things that might make you angry, sad or helpless. But life goes just the way it’s supposed to be, we are always in the situation that we are supposed to be in. There is always something to be learned and an almost immediate solution. Doesn’t mean that when we go for the solution all the done damage will turn itself around in a second, but the way to sustainability is here, it can be instant ...   Read more...

Although I am a member of the English Department in my college, I also teach in the other departments as well. I always try to have my English lessons tie in with my students’ majors. So of course, for the Environment Department I recently assigned a project dealing with that theme.   Read more...

I live in a rural community where there is little to no overt emphasis on caring for the environment; it

Is there room in your home for peace? I’m really asking.

How can we expect to create peace on this blessed orb if we don’t or won’t work to create peace in our own homes?   Read more...

I am an optimist, but in writing a blog about the environment I found myself dubious about the value of small progressive steps. I just don't see buying a Prius or hydrogen fuels happening in time. So I've written about what I see as the obstacles instead. We need to look at environmental rights as fundamental human rights, but won't. Here you go.....

This blog is influenced by The Rambler, by Samuel Johnson. I suggest that environmental rights are human rights, and like all human rights, they should be enforceable in the courts of all countries. It may be, however,that although an International Convention on Human Rights is capable of broadly protecting our environment, it may pass without notice, huddled in a variety of things, and thrown into the general miscellany of life. Even though our natural environment is comprised of individual parts comprising a whole, our environmental community does not operate that way. Admittedly, the hardest work is done by the valiant efforts of those who struggle to protect every forest, river, and species. I have done this by arguing many lawsuits in state and federal courts. But the law which is the will of the people and the guardian of the environment is inadequate to the task.   Read more...

I had a great experience yesterday. I went to a one day retreat where we did mostly tantric yoga exercises. Your thought; “that’s sex, right?” My thought; “More like sex between your and the others soul”. It’s about celebrating life and learning to open up to and love people just because they are people. You don’t need to really know them, don’t even need to know their names and you can still feel a strong love and openness for them (when you do tantric exercises together).

The exercises that we did can seem weird at first. But don’t worry; you don’t take of your clothes and there’s no nipple biting (as far as I have seen). The big advantage of this weirdness is that you are more or less forced to look at your thoughts and feelings when you are in a vulnerable situation, so close to a person you don’t know. You get all kinds of negative ideas about the other person, yourself and the situation, even if one of your usual values is respecting (and loving) all people you can see all the prejudices you’re still stuck with and live with in daily life. It took me a few hours to let go of those thoughts. Thank god we started at 10 in the morning and ended at 3 that night, I had plenty of time to realize and change important things.   Read more...

Once again, I am inspired to write. I do so to introduce you to a young man who is both extraordinary and ordinary. Before I share his story, I want you to know some of my own philosophy and observations of what I call the realized expressions of life. One is born with the ability to seize and manipulate the experiences of ones realities and create expressions and outcomes that are a lot more than just mundane. Seizing opportunities, perhaps with or perhaps without fear, yet seizing opportunities that others do not notice or are not inspired by.

A case in point is the young man I am writing about, Roni, born in Northern India in a home/sanctuary created for those whose parents and grand parents were affected with leprosy.   Read more...

By the time Katie posts this, I will be just days shy of fifty years of age. Like many of you, I’m sure, people have always asked me the standard birthday question: Do you feel different now that you’re X? I’ve been feeling different about this birthday for a long while.

Half a century. My paternal grandmother is thriving at the one century mark as I write this. She makes me wonder what I want my next fifty years to be about. I’ve been dreaming about it, daydreaming about it, brainstorming about it, wondering about it.   Read more...

If so, do look at this MSC in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath, UK.

This course addresses the challenges currently facing society as we seek to integrate successful business practice with a concern for social, environmental and ethical issues. It looks at the complex relationship between business decisions and their impact on local and world communities and economies, on the environment and on the workplace itself. Participants will develop management practices which are responsive to pressures for greater awareness in these areas. The course offers a wide range of alternative perspectives on business, all of which challenge ideas about where "responsibility" begins and ends. Participants will learn about management techniques and approaches being developed in leading-edge organizations, and will test the relevance of these ideas and practices in their own workplaces.   Read more...