The Role of Fitness Ads in Exercising Practices

The advertising industry has taken over the world. Steadily establishing control over human behavior, thoughts, and actions we have become the product and our attention or action is being sold to the highest bidder. The advertising world first creates demand for products and services and then earns heavily by supplying the same. Every few weeks new trends, technologies, and theories are thrown at people, advertised as indispensable to a healthy lifestyle they take over the market as temporarily irreplaceable. The fad sustains till the next best product is launched for consumption. 

Ads today define fitness in unrealistic tones. By featuring slim and attractive people subject to further digital filters, ads dictate impractical and unachievable features of what fitness and health entail. Bombarding the public with ideas like being size zero and having ‘the perfect body’, infinite demand for an unattainable goal is given form. With the superficial goal of promoting health the industry ironically ends up promoting unhealthy ideas and practices among consumers. 

There are two sides to its effects on people. On the one hand it can inspire a positive change in the public, motivating them to foster a more health-conscious and fitness driven attitude. It can acquaint people to the diverse ways of practicing fitness. On the other hand, the major negative side effect of fitness ads is a general weight and body shape dissatisfaction and insecurity.

Constant anxiety associated with one’s physique and physical appearance coupled with the huge extent of misinformation prevalent in the market the resultant effect is unfavorable. There is a decreased sense of confidence stemming from these goals as they are not only limited by the physical capacity of individual consumers but by also what is scientifically possible. 

Take the ad for HealthifyMe for example, Sara Ali khan stars in it advocating the company for weight loss, “sara ka sara lose kar diya maine”, she says. I find it extremely duplicitous to use the face of influencers to lure consumers into opting for certain services. A famous face with a famous weight loss journey becomes the face of a weight loss company that might not have had anything to do with the results she achieved. I have no problem with company or its goals, I rather feel that it's important, but the advertising is a serious concern as it seeks to deceive people into buying the product. 

I believe that fitness ads play a massive role in exercising practices more negative than positive. Today’s consumer is exposed to an influx of data and media the last thing we need is to be misdirected for profit specially when it comes to matters like health. Everyone deserves the chance to explore what fitness means to than rather than being generalized.

 

 

Why We Go Cold on Our Partners

 

The story of the path to coldness in love is well known: We start off full of affection for one another, and then, with time, feeling fade. We start prioritizing work, we check our phones while they are speaking, we don’t especially want to hear how their day went. There’s a popular surface explanation for this kind of emotional frost; ‘that people naturally get bored of one another. In the same way as they get bored with everything else – the gadget that once seemed so amazing, or the film they used to love.’

Going cold is, in this story, simply the unavoidable consequence of familiarity. But there’s another explanation, dark at first, but in the end, more hopeful. The loss of interest isn’t either natural or inevitable. The boredom is something at once more complicated and more active – it exists, because we fell hurt by, angry with or scared of our partner, and because we haven’t found a cathartic way to tell ourselves, or them, about it.

Tuning out isn’t inevitable, it is a symptom of disavowed emotional distress, it’s a way of coping. We’re internally numbed, not just a touch based. This can sound strange, after all we might have no active sense that our partner has been hurting, angry or hurt by us. The idea seems laughable or extreme. It makes our partners sound like monsters or ourselves like weaklings, neither of which is true.

The self that loves in a relationship is not the normal, adult self we know from other zones of our lives. We may mostly be hugely resourceful and resilient, but the person who loves is an infinitely more vulnerable being. We should imagine it like a smaller, younger, more defenseless version of ourselves that lives in our heads and is no tougher and not much wiser than we were babies, which is when so many of our needs for, and ides about love were formed. It is vulnerable self that continues to direct our hearts even if we are 6’2” tall with a pointy beard.

The loving self has a gossamer thin ego. It gets hurt, frightened, and upset with desperate ease. You can deeply distress it by interrupting it during the story it’s telling you about the sandwich it had for lunch, by preferring a book to cuddling, or being a bit tricky about what channel it should watch on TV. Of course, these are, by ordinary adult standards, tiny slights but we don’t love by adult standards. These small arrows are enough to wound the self that loves to its tender, emotional core.

Ideally, of course, the small self would at once point out what’s happened, it would carefully explain that it’d been frustrated and hurt, but mostly it just stays silent. That’s forgivable, it doesn’t properly understand what is wrong, it just knows it is in pain and is driven by an instinct to withdraw and protect itself, which translates into behavior that looks pretty cold. If the adult self had to give to voice to the loving self’s upset, it could sound and feel absurd, which partly why it doesn’t. There can be something especially humiliating in having to say; ‘I don’t feel you took enough interest in the details of my lunch break.’

The parts of us that make themselves vulnerable in love don’t obey the ordinary adult rules. The consequence is that the loving self-dries up; it doesn’t want to have sex, it gets sarcastic and irritable, but it doesn’t even know why it is like this, it isn’t putting on an act, it is confused. To learn to cope we need a prominent mutual awareness and forgiveness of the dynamic of sensitivity and distress and commitment to decode it when engagement and indifference descend. We have to create a forum in which so-called minor, love-sucking hurts can safely be aired without the other dismissing, as they always so easily can, the issues at stake as childish or imagined.

The touchiness of the loving self is ridiculous, if judged by the more robust standards of the rest of life, but this is not the rest of life. When we have gone cold, we may not truly have lost interest in our partners, we might just need an opportunity to imagine that we are quietly really rather hurt and furious with them, and we should have access to a safe forum in which our tender and critical feelings can be aired, purged and understood without risk of humiliation.    

The Challenges of Deafness and Communication Difficulties Among Special Needs Students

 

The term special needs include various learning, physical, medical, behavior, mental health, and developmental disabilities which differentiates them from general students. They face hindrances in learning, their studies, and mobility. They are referred to as “Divyang” in India, a Hindi word for the one with a divine body part. They have special needs in order to learn and be on par with their counterpart students. 

Hearing is vital for the development of communication skills among young children. Hence it becomes crucial for early detection of deafness among children lest delayed development of speech. Hence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends screening newborn babies for hearing impairment.

If detected early, treatment can be started to prevent delays in communication and language skills, says the CDC. Decibel is unit for the loudness of voice, so children with more than 90 decibels hearing loss are considered deaf. Hearing loss or deafness could be either acquired by any illness or congenital due to genetics. 

However, hearing impairment or deafness does not mean that child has any intellectual complications. simply these don’t affect a person’s ability to learn. But they do require special education which includes auditory training from specialists, sign language interpreters, lip reading, captioned videos, basically, education is imparted with the help of alternative communication methods. 

Nonetheless, such students find it arduous to learn verbal communication, vocabulary, grammar idioms and expressions. In order to counter such delays, visible communication methods or manual communication such as sign language, lip-reading, fingerspelling, and oral amplification training are implied. 

Though it is an obvious fact that children with hearing loss have better chances of getting quality education in developed countries than in developing or underdeveloped countries. They encounter challenges of unsupportive attitude, societal stigmas and myths h, inadequate specialized teachers for auditory training, learning resources and assistive devices, and paucity of funds by the governments.

According to data of the World Federation of the Deaf (2020), almost 80 percent of people with hearing disabilities reside in developing countries. This further necessitates actions for imparting education and direct funds to poor countries. Moreover, a 2019 UN report highlighted the fact that disabled students were less likely to access education, possess basic skills, complete schools, and had lesser opportunities.

The main reasons for this disparity were lack of specialized teachers, negative attitudes, discrimination, prejudices in society, less research on devising innovative methods for special educational requirements. Harassment, bullying and abuse by fellow students have led to an increase in school dropout’s parents being protective of their disabled children. 

In the contemporary context, the Covid 19 pandemic has been detrimental to the development of hearing-impaired students. A study published in the Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and      

Humanities (MJSSH) shows that “there were four major challenges faced by the hearing impairment students; hearing devices, disruption to comprehend the lesson, not being familiar with the online devices, and being emotionally affected during online classes”. The study further revealed that “the hearing impairment students hampered their social interactions skills towards others during the pandemic”. Thus, it is imperative to improve and innovate methodologies by further research to assist special-needs students proving them “disability is not an inability” in 21st century.

 

References 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Hearing loss in children. Available online at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/about.html

World Federation of the Deaf. (2020) on Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Federation_of_the_Deaf. UN. (2019). United Nations disability and development Report

https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2019/04/un-disability-and-development-report-realizing-the-sdgs-byfor-and-with-persons-with-disabilities/. Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), Volume 5, Issue 8.

As seen on – Write Up

 

The show is set in a time seven years after an ice age hits the earth and human civilization, leaving it as a frozen wasteland. The series depict the predicament of remaining people, who inhabit a gigantic, perpetually-moving train that circles the globe.

Climate change is no longer an illusion, for we are experiencing its consequences in reality. 

We witness how excessive rise in temperature leads to a rise in ocean water level, depletion of ozone due to global warming, and many more. We fail to address the other side of this extremism in weather conditions. In the past decade, the temperature has dropped significantly in certain parts of the earth. Blizzards are predicted to become more intense in the face of climate change, despite shorter winters and rising global temperatures. Excessive snow makes it difficult for civilians to exist. 

The show is based on such a dystopian “Snowpocalypse” situation only. The nations release the substance CW-7 to control global warming, but accidentally it results in another Ice Age destroying the earth. 

It portrays how humanity perishes from the wrath of mother earth. In the train itself, humans are compartmentalized based on their wealth and social standing. The remaining common people are forced to live in dreadful conditions in the last wagons i.e. tail of the train with the bare minimum. It shows the divided nature of society and how under such life-threatening circumstances a new class system emerges. 

Despite scientific predicaments and propagated theories, the lifelines in the upcoming decades seem a blur. Until and unless some serious steps are taken, the fear continues to loom on us. 

Therefore, time demands a dire need for a holistic approach to adjudicating the prevailing environmental issues. All the world governments should come together and address such issues, for the benefit of humanity.

As Seen On: Responsible Consumption and Production

 

1. Plot Description: It is a movie and it is all about food adulteration. The food producing companies and global consumable companies mix toxic chemicals in food products. A worker in one of the food companies who is working is sales marketing department comes to know about the conspiracy and learns how he manipulates other consumers to use those toxic products without his knowledge before. He feels ashamed of the work and gets humiliated. Later he wants to work with all the regulations made by government, also he wages war against companies involved in food adulteration. He finds out the real culprit behind it. 
2. Advocates to food consumers: It advocates about food production and consumption in day-t-day life, i.e., the basic necessities children and adults consume. We earn, work hard to fulfill the needs of firm, food and fabric. Not only we consume eatables that we get, but it is quality food we need to healthy and happier life to lead.

But many of us has nil knowledge whether the consumable food is good or bad, does it contains any chemicals added which have severe levels, does it contains any expired nutrients added etc., hero wants to make understand what is actually happening to workers and employers. It all says about food consumables and the relation between producers and consumers (workers and customers). We are going to work for employers with honesty but not for the mistakes. 

3. Scenario: Generally, Junk foods are not only made by natural essentials. Food we use are manufactured using toxic chemicals. Chemicals are added to products to enhance the color and taste. Few companies add large quantity to make more profits. Customers consume these poisonous products. One of the customers consumes thrice a day to produce evidence before judiciary about the crime they are making and how it effects the end user. Reputed companies tamper the food and ultimately it is us who paranoid about eating anything.

An idea then comes to an employee as “Why can’t they convey the consumer problems to workers? Consumer buys the product directly from the manufacturer or wholesaler or retailer. But we forget, it is the worker/employee of particular manufacturing product company who makes it to us. We neither communicate them nor they do.

We are unknown to each other, but they are the one who makes consumables, the ingredients added to it. They are indirectly responsible for food consumption intake may it be good or bad. Employers who are making mistakes on purpose with the help of their workers by misusing. Similarly, we can’t force a consumer to stop buying goods. 

4. Hidden facts: The workers, who manufacture the products and the consumers, who use them are the very same people. A person remains as worker for 08 hours, the remaining 16 hours they will be consumers. He’s living in the society that he’s running by working. You can’t get workers oppose to their employers. It’s foolish that workers realize their folly. We are not going to tell the workers how to work? Everyone says to work hard, work smart, but no one says to work good with quality. One needs to be loyal to their work.

Loyalty is additional work which is not seen in physical with the labor work we do for the wages. But when there is breach of loyalty there comes a question, why do I have to be loyal to you? We need to set boundaries for our loyalty levels. We get paid for the work we do. No employer can decide it. It’s not a bribe to conceal their wrong doings. If we break the loyalty, how great the employer is, it’s easy to defeat them. 

5. Initiation is required: The first step is to bring the workers united, to amass the support of all the five department heads. Raw materials, finished goods, mixing, quality check, packing.  A product will be essential only for a few people in the market. But the company will force us to get into 100 people. And workers do so by using marketing techniques.

The first 40 people will but it saying it is essential as soon as they take it to them. After that they will make the next 30 people believe that it’s essential and sell them the products. The challenge is to sell it to the remaining 30 people. They won’t buy it no matter what you say. They deal with them emotionally by exploiting their sympathy towards as and win them over by being. But their job affects lives of common people. Harmful chemicals may or may not be present in products.

An employer may not understand the pain of consumer loss, even other consumer cannot understand pain, but consumer believes a worker will. Division of labor is extracted but not division of crime. Workers are closer to consumers than employers and be loyal to them. The workers hadn’t realized their loyalty was being misused. The loyalty shown to bad boss is betraying trusting customer.

6. Conclusive Analysis: 

Sustainable consumption involves consideration of the extent to which the products consumed meet the needs of consumers and contribution to quality of life. Sustaining of global population requires production and consumption habits. Not only considering ourselves as responsible citizen of nation but one must be responsible towards themselves, one must rely upon their standards.

Everyone who needs food to live has a relation to agriculture. The number of cultivators is coming down and the number of food consumers is rising. Hence, along with the price hikes in the market, adulteration is also on the rise. If this continues similarly, the wealth we would give our children in the future won’t be enough even for their hospital expenses.

The buyer is selling the same for ten times the buying price in the market. So, the person who grows food is losing, the food consumer we too are losing. Food consumers are increasing, along with the price hikes in the market, adulteration increases. Even after spending so much, we don’t know whether what we buy is good or adulterated. The SDGs seek sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources by 2030. Reduce the waste, particularly, halve food waste.

 

ECOWAS- Problems And Contested Issues

 

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is made up of fifteen member countries which are located in the West African Regions. These fifteen countries share common economic, socio- political interests and are culturally and geographically connected. ECOWAS was established on 28 May 1975 with signing of the Treaty of Lagos. Its main mission was to promote economic integration in the regions it covered.

ECOWAS also aims to achieve a goal of collective self-sufficiency for its member states by building a full economic trading union in order to create a single large trade bloc. Today ECOWAS faced a number of criticisms due its failure in attaining its aims and objectives. Some of the major problems faced by ECOWAS include political instability, poor governance of the member states, lack of good transport facilities, weakness and lack of diversification of national economies. 

The ECOWAS accepts the task of guarding democracy, democracy in all the member states, but it neglects or gives no importance to internal democracy. External material and financial support channeled through the ECOWAS Commission is not subject to any democratic control within ECOWAS. The ECOWAS budget remains a secrecy and is difficult to reach. In order to save its integrity there is an urgent need for ECOWAS to focus on achieving good governance regarding budget transparency. Also, only an advisory role is given to the regional parliaments. Even this role has proven to be a difficult task for the regional parliament. Democracy without regional democracy is like politics without politicians.

Countries of West Africa were politically most unstable in Africa. One-party system favored over a multi-party system. The civilians of the newly independent African Country had the opportunity to rule for their government but the increased corruption, mismanagements, the increasing supremacy of powers of the leaders and the parties resulted into military intervention to stop the new independent countries from leading wayward to such directions. 

Within the ECOWAS three languages are used for communication among the member nations. The three languages are- French, English and Portuguese. There was difficulty in finding individuals who could communicate in all the three languages to the members of ECOWAS. This created a problem when it comes to decision making, discussion on certain political and economic matters.

ECOWAS aims for economic integration which seems unsuccessful as many of its member states are some of the poorest nations in the world. Economic integration of sub-region could not be achieved as the regions are deprived of basic commodities and resources essential for survival.

Human trafficking and human right abuses are common in Africa. Children and women are victims of such acts. ECOWAS aims at reducing gender disparity but women are still deprived of their rights. ECOWAS should work towards providing women’s rights, because women are always right and by excluding women, Africa is on the left track.

 

As Seen On – Reversing Roe

 

Pro Life VS. Pro Choice

Fundamental to and at the heart of Gender Equality, Female Rights and Feminism lie a consensus of Reproductive Rights as constitutional. The flaming debate on abortion is systematically trying to overturn and reverse this consensus and to its effect Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. The documentary Reversing Roe sheds light on both sides of the abortion debate tackling the core issue in SDG 5 Gender Equality. 

The argument provided by anti-choice, or the prolife segment is that the unborn child is a person and abortion is killing human life. They claim rights for the unborn by highlighting the question of whether an unborn fetus is a person and should its moral right be considered. Their argument loses merit for the simple reason that it denigrates women who are alive now and their rights.

Reproductive rights mean that women not only have the right to have children but also the right not to have them. There is a constant political effort to degrade, accost and strip women of their right over their own bodies and the right to decide for themselves. 

"It's the basis of democracy that you control your body and it’s the basis of hierarchy and totalitarian regimes that you don't" – these words of one of the pro-choice leaders in the documentary suggest that duplicitous and hypocritic don’t even begin to cover the incessant attempts at bigotry and misogyny.

Claiming to know the best for everyone and especially for women the pro-life wing over the years has targeted the opposing side by going against the very nature of their name. From the killing of doctors performing abortions to mind washing people through unscientific and uncredited visual and data

It’s ironical that after all the progress on gender equality men decide for women in the most open, unreserved, and unashamed ways. This was true for the large part of the inception of this issue, as nearly all political offices in the United States of America and the Supreme Court were dominated and run by men. Women today yield effective voice worthy of changing the course of political action. Exceptional female leadership encompassing instances like Wendy Davis’ filibuster of the Texas Abortion Law.

This issue has divided America and the rest of the world on the lines of gender political and religious affiliations. It can only be the peak of patriarchy that the male gender and the state feel like they have authority to decide for females.

Increasingly politicized and made partisan, all action with regards to the debate came down to which of the two parties came to power and the subsequent appointment of Supreme Court judges who support the ruling parties stand on the issue. Thus, with every presidential election the verdict faces considerable opportunity to be reversed. Some people also argue that religious concerns are shaping the view of people in a country that gives religious freedom to its people.  

It should be etched into our understanding that the reversing of Roe will also mean reversing of gender equality.

 

Importance of Basic Financial Education at High Schools

 

·         High school education is not only educating them the book knowledge or let them learn about the academic curriculum. High school education the foundation for the next stepping for students, they should be taught along with finance education, teach them about the basics, so that they will have an idea of what it is, when it comes to understanding or take up a course in future, it will make them easier and not only it is like a lesson of understanding, learning, finance basics will help everyone in the day-to-day life we deal with. 

 

·         Making it as subject or inserting the concepts will be ease. Coming to finance education, it not only about dealing with money or how to make money or possible ways, it’s all about our expenditure, investment, returns, profit/losses, tackle with savings, spending on activities. 

 

·         A simple concepts or terms at the beginning make students to understand the situational circumstances and move on with it. Saving money should be a disciplined approach. Learning it in early childhood gives us best way to make expenditure or income.

 

·         This will be difficult at the beginning. But it will give us financial freedom when we desperately need it. Financial literacy is understanding the source of money and how that money can be planned and utilized for the present and future requirements. It gives understanding of various financial areas like personal finance management, money expenditure and investment.

 

·         Knowledge of appropriate decision making about personal finances such as insurance, real estate, education expenditure etc.,

 

·         It gives an opportunity to upgrade level of knowledge and information. Help in understand the basics and technicalities of financial literacy, financial planning and investments.

 

·         Effectively managing finances, also in calculating Compound interest, mutual funds, stocks, credit scores concepts. Make oneself think about or questioning themselves such as “Are we living a debt-free life”, “Are we investing well, and saving the tax”.

·         Enough savings for the emergency. Finance education is required to stop living from paycheck to paycheck, investing, become financially secure. To save money on our vacations: inspite of all of our best intentions.

 

·         To raise cash quickly: when financial emergencies occur in life, one must find themselves to go for easiest ways to raise cash. Money can often be raised in ways that have minimal long-term consequences.

 

·         Priorities reflected in spending: when most of money goes towards providing what’s important to you, you tend to live a more fulfilled life and feel more satisfied with the way you spend your money. It’s also easier to stick to your personal finance plan when its objectives are to get you what you really want out of life.

 

·         Protect yourself from a recession, Tax advantages for self-employed, All about credit card delinquency. It also teaches on how to stick to your budget. Teach about money with an allowance.

 

·         Investing when financial times are difficult: when times are tough and money’s tight, one of the first things you may neglect is investing. Investing is a way to build up for future.

·         Set and achieve fulfilling personal financial goals. Mandatory spending, discretionary spending, emergency fund, retirement fund.

·         To manage crisis: we encounter a lot of crises in life from economies to allocation of limited resources. Finance education helps us to manage such crisis by making sober decisions. We get to how to be independent of thought. We will get to know about different loan schemes available, how it works rather than knowing them. It’s good to have safe knowledge prior by learning finance in secondary education. 

As Seen On - TV Series: Chernobyl

 

Chernobyl is a historical drama that revolves around the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the events that followed.

The nuclear accident occurred in Ukraine on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in history both in terms of cost and casualties. 

The unfortunate accident transpired during a safety test on the steam turbine of a nuclear reactor. The power output unexpectedly dropped to near-zero during a planned decrease of reactor power in preparation for the test,

Operators were unable to restore the power level specified under test program. This resulted in unstable conditions in the reactors. The eminence of the risk was not evident in the operating instructions. Thus, the operators proceeded with the test and after its completion, the operators triggered a reactor shutdown. 

The critical design flaws and negligence on the operator’s part, primed the reactors to explode. An enormous amount of energy was released as an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction begun. 

The core melted down and explosions ruptured the reactor core and destroyed the reactor building. The open-air reactor core fire released considerable airborne radioactive contamination for about 9 days that precipitated onto parts of the USSR and Western Europe.

As a result of rising ambient radiation levels off-site, a large number of people were evacuated from the area, and later it became the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone covering an area of approximately 2,600 km².

The disaster resulted in the blemish of health effects in general population. As per the data published, the disaster stemmed into many childhood thyroid cancer deaths. 

Former USSR i.e. present day Russia, built a protective Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus by December 1986. This initiative was aimed to reduce the spread of contamination from wreckage and protected it from weathering.

The continued deterioration of the sarcophagus forced further enclosed in 2017 by the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement. It allowed the removal of sarcophagus and the reactor debris containing radioactive hazard. The nuclear clean-up is expected to be completed by 2065.

 

As Seen On - Don’t Look Up

 

We have taken the world for granted for as long as we have lived. The hindrance although, is that we are not looking to stop. ‘Don’t Look Up’ is a recent Netflix hit that illustrates a comet headed towards the earth, big enough to cause the extinction of all species.

 

However, its highlight is the human complacency and indifference met in response to this threat. The star-studded movie is an attempt to stir people to change considering our horrid present, slave to the Covid virus and our future, most likely headed towards impending environmental doom. Advocating SDG 13: Climate Action the film seeks to portray the continued ignorance even after recognition. 

 

We don’t have a planet B, is not just quote flooding Instagram feeds. It’s our reality. And all politics has been able to achieve is to rob us of our ability to turn things around. The movie shows a struggling scientific community unable to convince the world and more precisely leaders to take the right decision.

 

The tragedy is that this is not fiction. We witnessed it at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus was called a hoax and the scientific community was literally mocked by non - adherence. We spend our educational lives obsessing over science and its prominence, but when it comes to actual life setting, we find reasons to accost it. The consistency in the American president on and off screen is daunting." I am taking it very seriously; I’m taking it to heart” said the one on screen. “We have it totally under control. It’s going to be just fine”, were the exact words of American president Donald Trump. 

 

Clouded and bombarded with excessive and useless information, unfortunately today we are all over social media ranting about a bad celebrity break up but pay absolutely no heed to things that can have real impact. These constitute the natural principles like global warming that govern our living and are all set to wipe human civilization from the face the earth, if not urgently addressed. Instrumental human action has been in hibernation for decades and is refusing to wake up to the natural alarms blaring in our faces.

 

The comet is an allegory for the anthropogenic climate crisis that is hundred percent happening. Just because their impact today is at a smaller scale, it is invisible to human consideration. The timeline given for the comets strike, 6 months and 14 days is a fine embodiment of the real time clock that is applicable to us. It's true that that we have considerably longer, around 2-3 decades to turn things around, until runaway climate change activates, and the domino effect is in place. It is also true that we have an unfathomable task at hand.

 

The movie uses a keen blade of satire to say that if the last hope of humanity is a small group of people who do the theoretically impossible to find another planet and still end up dead, then what are we doing …

International Mercenary Funds?

 

Established following World War II to help with post-war recovery, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) serves as a lender to modern governments and an overseer of international financial markets. It has no shortage of both supporters and critics.

In its infancy, the IMF was only responsible for supervising pegged exchange rates, but grew in scope and influence in subsequent decades, particularly after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s. Now the IMF provides loans to help member nations fix perceived balance of payments problems and fight off crises.

The most notorious example was the bailout of the Greek government in 2011. As of 2020, the IMF has 189 member nations. Each member nation publicly accepts and supports the goal of global economic stability and, in theory, a subjugation of some sovereign authority to support that goal. The IMF is funded mainly through what are called "quota contributions" from its members.

Each IMF member nation is assigned an annual quota amount, based on the size of its economy when it joins the IMF. The IMF also has substantial gold holdings that it can sell and is authorized to borrow up to an amount approximately equal to its annual quota contributions. 

IMF supporters claim it is a necessary lender of last resort for areas in crisis and it can impose necessary or difficult reforms on backward economies. Critics counter the IMF supersedes national autonomy, exacerbates economic problems more often than not, and serves as a tool for the wealthiest nations only.

Economists also frequently criticize the IMF for creating a moral hazard on national scales. Critics of the World Bank and IMF have argued that policies implemented by countries, intended to control inflation and generate foreign exchange to help pay off the IMF debts, often result in increased unemployment, poverty and economic polarization thereby impeding sustainable development.

Other theories suggest that countries may sign onto IMF agreements because of the austerity conditions associated with IMF programs. Political leaders could then use the IMF as a scapegoat for unpopular policies, such as the restructuring of public finances. Although entering into an IMF agreement may have serious long-term economic costs, developing nations may find it too difficult to pass up short-term support during a financial crisis. 

 

Tell Me Your Dreams

 

Bestselling author Janet Evanovich, once wrote that, ‘romances are birthday cakes and life is often peanut butter and jelly. Everyone should have lots of delicious romance lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.’

I remember in my primary school days; I wrote a love letter to my biggest crush at the time. She had the smarts every guy would die for. Easy going and well-spoken. Her skin glowed under sun; she smelled really good. Trust, almost every boy in school drooled over her. she had nice delicious food every time we went out for recess break. I put the love letter in her bag without her knowledge. The following day all the girls in my class were smiling at me. The giggles couldn’t stop; my crush didn’t even dare look in my direction.

At lunch that day, a large crowd of females from my class and other classes, with a few other guys who didn’t have anything better to do than gossip with girls, were gathered in the middle of the school ground. In between the crowd, my crush in a very loud sharp voice was reading my letter to everyone that was gathered there.

Everyone gathered there died of laughter; it was a circus show. I could only watch from a distance; my heart was pounding so fast with embarrassment. I ran back to class to get my backpack and before I left, I located my crushes’ juice bottle. It still had her orange juice in it, and no one was in class at the time. I peed in it, shook it and placed it back where I found it and dodged out of school before it was time. I mean, what would an embarrassed young boy full of guilt and shame do, if not seek out revenge at its earliest opportunity.  

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During my early high school, my classmate introduced me to her home girl she grew up with. It wasn’t a face-to-face introduction; it was a joint conference call among the three of us. I could only hear her voice and wonder if I sound as soft and sweet on phone as she did. I once flirted with the idea of a pen pal when I was much younger. I held that thought for a while and forgot about it and it later manifested itself into a phone pal. Here I was texting and phoning a girl I had never met before; her name was Alice (alias name). We exchanged ideas between each other, she was my inside ‘man’ about girls’ emotional feelings and courtship. We became so close and friendly, it was only right that we met in person, after nearly five months of phone conversations.

Our friendship was open, there was no titles to it. I began to have negative thoughts about myself to say, what if she didn’t find me attractive in person. She just might stop talking to me and I would lose the friendship altogether. Mind you, this was a time period when smart phones were not so common, and so we couldn’t exchange proper detailed pics. I grew fond of her voice and our conversations, the thought of losing her didn’t sit well with me.

We arranged for a meeting one Friday after school, little did I know that she told her friends about the meet and that she had kept them up to date about all our conversations over the past months. Alice and her friends were so eager to meet me up (I didn’t know about her friends), I might have raised their expectations about me too high unknowingly. I sat at a Debonairs pizza outlet with our order ticket in my pocket. A few minutes later, I saw a group of girls all excited, laughing and smiling. All four were still in their St. Mary’s school uniforms.

To my surprise they kept moving closer and closer in my direction until they stood right in front of my table. At that time, my palms were already sweaty, my heart raced at an unimagined rate, I could have been in the Guinness Book of Records for most heart beats in a minute. I mean these girls’ body fragrance was like fresh roses, it was so intimidating.

I kept my cool, stood up and hugged them all like a real gentleman should. None of them introduced themselves by names (I wasn’t too pushy about it), but they did ask for my name to know for sure it was I before they took their seats. I made fun of myself whenever I could, cracked jokes whenever the opening presented itself. It kept them laughing and smiling, after a while three of the four said their goodbyes and left.

It was just me and this one girl left at the table. That was when she introduced herself for the first time in person to me. She looked at me straight in my eyes and smiled, in a very soft sweet voice she said to me, ‘Hi, my name is Alice, nice to finally meet you.’ She had the most welcoming smile I had ever seen, light in complexion, real dark long well combed hair, an oval face with big round cute eyes. Her fingers were short with well-groomed nails.

As cliché as it might sound, she was perfect in her own way. You could almost feel her confidence oozing out of her, it was only then I realized how shy I was sitting in front of her. She took note and made fun of me about it. ‘Not so confident in person huh?’ With such beauty sitting in front of me, I told myself I stood no chance. She seemed comfortable to be around me, we knew so much about each other, it wasn’t hard to find the rapport in person.

One Saturday weekend, Alice came to my home. We were in my bedroom all day eating and laughing at the silly things we did together. I looked at her for a while and then decided to tell her story I would make up at the spot. I decided to use my creative imagination, it left her in awe. Because of the story I told her on that particular day, it changed how I looked at the myself and the possibilities for myself. It was a mirror reflection of my own persistence of how far I had come in life even at a young age, despite of the many roadblocks I had as a young boy.

Alice is married now, with children of her own. We went to the same university; we remained friends throughout. But I guess we not as close as we used to be. I mean she is a married woman now. And as for myself? Well, that is a story for another day.

 

 

Harsh Truths About Women that Men Learn Too Late

Take accountability for the part you play in a relationship as a man and make sure your woman owns up to her own accountability of the relationship too.

You will be used for, what you lead with. As you interact with a woman, she will assess your strengths and weaknesses and determine what you have to offer along the way. It is important to be fully aware and cognizant that of the fact that if you base a strong emphasis on showcasing your wealth and status, you will be seen as a source of material benefits with little or nothing more to offer, because you have set the stage for that. It is similar to a woman who dresses very provocatively, does things for attention and presents herself as easy. She sets the stage for men to view her as nothing more than what she is showing.

On the other hand, if you lead with a no non-sense authoritative demeanor or also someone who displays your true self, showing genuine intentions and authenticity, she will be more likely to be appreciative and value you, for who you are. The key is to be mindful what you present and how you present it. Understand that your actions and behavior will shape how you are perceived.

Nice guys usually do finish last. When a woman is done with her proverbial “bad boy phase” and the desire to be a wife and mother starts weighing heavy on her. She’ll want to come back and settle down with a good man to start her life with. A nice guy is usually the last man she settles down with.

If you are a man who is described as sweet, sensitive, soft or shy; the vast majority of girls won’t be attracted to you. For men being labeled with these characteristics are not desirable traits in  the eyes of the majority of women.

Societal norms and expectations portray these traits as weaker or less attractive in men, because nice guys have the stigma of being boring and predictable. They are a major turnoff for the majority of women because they want to be with someone who demands respect, doesn’t tolerate anything less than what he deserves and leads without intimidation.

Men who are overly focused on pleasing everyone else and constantly seeking approval, are also lacking in authenticity. Unfortunately, as long as passive labels are associated with nice guys persona; nice guys will always finish last.

Most women lack empathy for men. Most women find it extremely hard to be empathetic with the plight of men. This is partly due to differences in socialization cultural norm. Men are constantly being told to “man up” because emotions are weak and real men don’t cry. And it has also created an emotional desensitization in the eyes of women for men. This has caused women to dislike men they view as emotional.

Most women like emotionally unavailable men. We as humans tend to want what we feel that we can’t have. We want what’s just ‘out-of-reach’ for us. Most of the time, you will find that women even themselves don’t know why they are attracted to men like these.

People tend to place a higher value on things that are rare or in short supply. When something is difficult to obtain or seems unobtainable, the desire for it increases.

The challenge of pursuing something that is difficult to obtain is usually part of the appeal. The thrill of the chase and the excitement of possibly getting the one that is unavailable, can make the desired outcome even more desirable.  

People are attracted to things that are off-limits or prohibited, it is part of our curiosity as humans. The idea of obtaining something that is restricted or prohibited, can be intriguing. And therefore, increase the intrigue of it, which increases the desire for it.

The pursue of something that is difficult to obtain, can be a way of boosting someone’s self-esteem. The sense of accomplishment of finally obtaining something that you desire, causes your self-confidence to sky-rocket. It can such an ego boost.

A woman will constantly test you. She will test you for many different reasons. She will assess compatibility – women will test to determine if you are a good match for a potential partner. She will evaluate trustworthiness – women will test men to see if they can trust them. She will measure confidence – women will test men to see if they are confident and self-assured. She will gauge interest – women will test men to see if they are truly interested in them. She will determine boundaries – women will test men to see what they are able to get away with and what men are not willing to tolerate in a relationship.

The main thing all women want is security. No matter the type of woman that you are dealing with, women innately want to feel secure with a man in every single facet of life; monetarily, emotionally, physically etc. Yes, the world has changed and women are more independent, free-willed and self-sufficient now more than ever, but a woman’s instinctive desire to feel protected by a man hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s a hardwired instinct that even the most independent woman will bow to. Every single attribute a woman desires in a man whether it be; masculinity, honesty, confidence, emotional intelligence, stability etc., will always result in one desire that she wants fulfilled, and that’s the need for security.

Making a woman feel secure is the key to her heart. This is why a woman will stay and even remain faithful with a man she doesn’t love or doesn’t even really like because he has been so successful at making that woman feel secure in whatever regard that might be, that when she weighs the pros and cons of the man, the benefit of security that he provides to her – will win every single time.

A woman’s physical desirability is everything to her. Girls grow up and are thrown into a world that values them for their beauty and sexuality. They’re unconsciously taught that being beautiful is their first and foremost important obligation. This causes an inflated sense of self and places an extreme importance on the need of being wanted and desired. And then women start leading with their sexual alter ego. This also creates a vulnerable weak spot for women when they feel their physical appearance is lacking.

Attention is the main driving factor for most women. When a woman receives a substantial amount of attention, she feels it equates to self-worth and self-validation if she doesn’t have a strong sense of security within herself. A woman’s ego is much more fragile a man’s. A woman puts the most effort into how she looks, everything else comes second. Women will fish for attention in both covert and overt ways.

This is why you have some women who will just blatantly expose themselves, the you will have others that will post, ‘oh I’m just working out’ pic. Meanwhile she is showing her whole body in the clips on social media. Bottomline, attention is a woman’s biggest currency.

She usually won’t be able to match her sex drive. A woman has an innate resistance to want to have sex very frequently as compared to a man. Because natural selection has conditioned her mind to equate sex with pregnancy. You will hard-pressed to find a woman who can actually match her sex drive. 

Top 5 Organizations Working to Reduce Gender Inequality

 

SDG 10: Reduced inequalities

 

5. Plan International

Plan International is a human rights organization working for child rights and equality for girls. It challenges discrimination against women, gender norms, stereotypes, and unlevelled power relations between genders. The organization runs on the principle of inclusion.

 

4. Centre for Reproductive Rights

The Centre for Reproductive Rights was established in 1992. Their aim is to use law to promote reproductive rights as fundamental human rights. It works to provide access to quality reproductive healthcare and allows women to make important decision in a coercion free environment.

 

3. Womankind Worldwide

Womankind Worldwide is an international organization that works in partnership with women rights organizations and movements with an aim to transform women’s lives and have their rights respected and realized. The organization works actively in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

 

2. Association for Women’s Rights in Development

AWID is an international organization with the vision of “a world where feminist realities flourish, where resources and power are shared in ways that enable everyone, and future generations, to thrive and realize their full potential with dignity, love and respect, and where Earth nurtures life in all its diversity”. Placed amid a unique ecosystem of feminist movements AWID works closely with activists and policymakers.

 

1. UN Women

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women is the official UN agency catered to promote women’s rights and help member states meet global standards of Gender Equality. Focusing on women leadership, economic autonomy, cases of violence and building resilience it works closely with social organizations and governments.

 

Top 5 Largest and Most Impactful Global Infrastructure Projects

 

SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

 

1. International Space Station

 

 

ISS is a manmade habitable satellite and mankind’s largest infrastructure in space. It has been occupied by astronauts since 2000 and is being planned for expansion to enable its use as a potential human habitat in space.

(Source: ABC News)

 

2.  South-North Water Transfer Project, China

China’s topography has demanded this humongous infrastructure project aimed at transferring water to the north which has 50% population and only 20% water resources. The project is estimated to continue for 48 years and will involve the building of 3 canals.

(Source: Global Times)

3. Jubail II, Saudi Arabia

As the world’s largest civil engineering project, it is seeking to build a multibillion-dollar industrial city from scratch. The city will include industrial plants, railways, highways, roads, a water desalination plant and an oil refinery.

(Source: Bechtel)

4. The Great Man-Made River Project, Libya

The GMR project, that largest irrigation project in the world begun in 1985, it is a pipeline system that will irrigate African cities. (Source: BOINK.SK).

 

5. The California High-Speed Railway, California, USA

The American speed rail project is currently under construction and aims to connect 8 of the largest cities in United States. The bullet train system set to complete by 2030, will be powered by renewable energy.

(Source: NY Times)

These infrastructure projects are the biggest initiatives honoring the spirit of SDG 9, that is, building resilient and sustainable infrastructure, all the while fostering innovation.