What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

From: Common Dreams.org 

By: Carl Lindskoog

 In the hours following Haiti's devastating earthquake, CNN, the New York Times and other major news sources adopted a common interpretation for the severe destruction: the 7.0 earthquake was so devastating because it struck an urban area that was extremely over-populated and extremely poor.  Houses "built on top of each other" and constructed by the poor people themselves made for a fragile city.  And the country's many years of underdevelopment and political turmoil made the Haitian government ill-prepared to respond to such a disaster.    

True enough.  But that's not the whole story.  What's missing is any explanation of why there are so many Haitians living in and around Port-au-Prince and why so many of them are forced to survive on so little.  Indeed, even when an explanation is ventured, it is often outrageously false such as a former U.S. diplomat's testimony on CNN that Port-au-Prince's overpopulation was due to the fact that Haitians, like most Third World people, know nothing of birth control.   

It may startle news-hungry Americans to learn that these conditions the American media correctly attributes to magnifying the impact of this tremendous disaster were largely the product of American policies and an American-led development model.    

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don't mess with the classics

Will Smith's youngest kid will play "Dre" (as opposed to Daniel) in the remake of the "Karate Kid".

(via.)

bad apple

there's not much you can do with an apple that's rotten in the core.

there's so much you can learn from a bad apple.

just do it.

(via twitter @dinoignacio)

the block is hot

This is the reality of my day. Shots rang out in the middle of the day. Not the first time. And not the last time, I'm sure. The police tape you see here is tied to my gate. Not the first time that's happened either. I reminded the officer to remove the bit of tape they left behind the last time they were here. Injured parties were able to run off before police got there. At least they showed up this time...

I could let this get me down, but still, I move forward!

Weekend Revelations

This weekend I attended a strengths building conference for moms, called the Yelo Experience. I admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but like many things, you take the best and leave the rest. I took an assessment called the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator. The type indicator was created by mother/daughter team, Katharine Briggs and Isabel Meyer, and was based on Carl Jung’s theories of psychological type preferences. The type indicator identifies 16 personalities types based on where you focus your attention, the way you take in information, the way you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world. The results do not define who are so much as they may help you to understand the way you prefer to interact and react to the world around you.

My test results show that I am an ENTJ: “Frank, decisive, assume leadership readily. Quickly see illogical and inefficient procedures and policies, develop and implement comprehensive systems to solve organizational problems. Enjoy long-term planning and goal setting. Usually well informed, well read, enjoy expanding their knowledge and passing it on to others. Forceful in presenting their ideas.”

Because this was a conference for mothers it was interesting to see all these different women apply this knowledge to the way they respond to their children, their partners, and their pursuits outside of family life. Women who were familiar with the type indicator seemed to not only know their partners better, but they seemed to have a lot of acceptance for their differences. Where aspects of their personalities might seem like weaknesses, they would turn around and present them as strengths. This was incredibly motivating and eye opening.

While I employ many tools to my creative process I am opening myself up to exploring the validity of these findings before fully recommending them to my readers. For the next few weeks, I will be examining my results from the conference and accessing the things that make me strong versus the things that drain my energy and how this pertains to my creative life.