tenth issue
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4. TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF EVENTS AND MEETING Christopher MANAGEMENT Chakwana
8. the color of reproductive freedom Anastasia Karklina
14. An Evolving Reflec-
tion on being a Member of Global Community and Defining an Identity Syed Mafiz Kamal
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echnology continues to advance at an exponential rate and this is having a ripple effect to all industries in particular those in the field of events and meeting management where it has triggered research and innovation. Through the incorporation of emerging trends in technology the meeting industry has evolved over the years and continues to do so from the traditional boardroom set up to a more exciting engagement of meeting participants thus helping in the creation of better decisions as that is the prime objective of meetings. This article serves to highlight how trends in the meeting industry will change within the next years that is in terms
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of evolution of live meetings setup to strategic events were venue design, destinations and participant experience and event marketing will create a conducive atmosphere for business leaders to make better decisions in industry. The reason for this change will be driven by addressing the meeting attendees needs, wants, and concerns, and connecting meeting participants physically, intellectually, and emotionally thus fostering the creation of business networks that will last beyond the meetings Recent trends in meeting set ups are abandoning the traditional set up and becoming technologically advanced incorporating trends in the computer industry were the face
to face board room set up of meetings were people physically meet are being seen as rather costly and an inconvenient and thus replacing these with Videoconferencing, Web based meetings and chat rooms as an easy way that by passes the normal face to face meetings. Currently this is being done through the use of laptops and computers but these are slow, boring and lack reality that fosters the teamwork spirit found in real life meetings. The advent off high speed internet access coupled with continued research in the field of computer artificial intelligence will create threedimensional technologies that will make video conferencing real thus creating that much needed atmosphere of com-
TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF EVENTS AND MEETING MANAGEMENT
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Christopher Chakwana
Christopher Chakwana
radeship. These new technologies will allow people to experience 3-D worlds and highly realistic renderings in cyberspace that will in turn create real time communication on almost any device like mobile phones thus abandoning the laptops and computers making meetings much more exciting and flexible. In most cases the video conferencing will mean less money spent by organizations on traveling expenses and this will affect those in destination marketing, as they will be a sharp decline in the use of their venues. However video conferencing will remain disadvantageous as its application is relevant when dealing with small groups of people, when applied to a large audience they tend to be slow and boring.
Innovation in architectural design is improving, incorporating new design software’s that are coming up. In the near future this will influence the meeting industry allowing venue designers the capacity maximize on venue space by the production of real life design models that simulate the actual venue set up before actual construction hence giving them flexibility in deciding on what they want for their venue in order to create that much needed atmosphere of creativity and learning associated with meetings. Event designers will also begin to tailor make venue designs for their participants that is future meetings will be designed with the participants in mind, not the prod-
ucts or services being offered and this will help in generating a memorable experience for them. The introduction of broadband wireless connectivity connections will also redefine meeting venues. This is so because with the introduction of such high speed internet technologies meetings will not have to be confined to specific locations thus taking the meeting venue anywhere from cruise ships to a winery abandoning the current trends were meetings are set up in buildings that have technological requirements that support the meeting setup and this will in turn lead to a stiff competition in meeting venues. Venues will be ranked and rated by meeting planners thus giving them the capacity to select the best
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venues for their meetings at much more affordable prizes thus giving event organizers the chance to maximize on the profits obtained through meeting participation. Venue ranking will also trigger destination innovation as venue hosts try to improve on their facilities so as to attract business.
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With the adoption of the use of social media like facebook, blogger, twitter just to mention a few in event marketing the event marketers will have the ability to market inexpensively to the targeted audience through the use of these social media. Marketing of meetings
will be more creative and will not be driven simply by what we have but it will be driven in part by what the target audience expect. Instead of waiting for the actual meeting day to fill the audience in on the meeting content, event content managers will give participants a sneak preview of what they are to expect thus creating a certain level of hype about the particular meeting before it is convened. Through the use of twitter hush tags interactive blogs and other social media event participants will be given a chance to assess the content of the actual meeting presentations giving them the chance to comment and ask questions to the speakers. Event participants will also use these social media to rank events by their content and vote for their speaker of choice, event activities and other event details This will in turn create participant excitement foster participant involvement in meetings and in turn shape the crafting of better solutions during meetings. Through the use of interactive blogs event participants will get to know each other before the actual meeting thus building a fertile ground for effective business networking.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF EVENTS AND MEETING MANAGEMENT
The meeting format will move away from a lecture kind of system were the event speakers simply talk to the participants to a more interactive one were meeting speakers will engage their audience thus making the whole meeting climate interesting. Like the strategy used in marketing meeting participation will begin from the time the event is marketed. Event planners will use the social media discussed above to create a community site were the event participants will engage in open dialogue about the meeting before and during the meeting. Meeting managers will adopt the use of podcasts, RSS feeds and twitter to get the meeting participants talking as the meeting is in progress thus leading to a faster resolution of business deals. These blogs and online mobile survey will allow meeting participants’ feedback and voting during the event rather than waiting for surveys after the meeting. As meeting participants are more mobile and rather interactive the use of new blue tooth technologies that are being developed by software vendors will allow the sharing of information much more easily thus fostering social partnerships between meet-
ing participants. Match making programs like Intro Networks (www.intronetworks.com), mobile devices and proprietary hand held products like spot me (www.spotme.com) popular in singles scene will find their way in meeting event designs allowing meeting participants of the same likes and interests to discover each other thus helping in the connection of people which will in turn increase the value of meetings by fostering that much needed “team spirit � which makes meetings successful. Technological advancement and innovation in the holding of meetings will greatly affect the revenue models. As technology makes marketing easy, technologies like radio frequency identification will provide many events related applications like verifying the number of meeting attendance, catering count verification thus minimizing the costs incurred in the holding of very large meetings. Innovation in meetings will also mean event managers will strive to give participants a product that is unique and compelling and this is especially important at functions were there are registration fees. Poorly planned meetings will mean reduced
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Christopher Chakwana
attendance and subsequently less revenue and in a case were the audiences are sponsoring the event it will mean less revenue to payoff the debt incurred during the preparation of the event. In conclusion the above mentioned technological developments are just a few of the breakthroughs that will revolutionize the meeting industry and these will help in creating faster, better and cheaper means of hosting meetings within the next ten years.
About the author of the article Christopher Chakwana is a final year student of Textile technology the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe. An avid blogger, poet and writer he likes to write on critical issues and about life in general. Blog links: www.scribbledn. blogspot.com
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the color of reproductive freedom
W
hen I first stumbled across the news on supposedly forced sterilization of Ethiopian women in immigrant communities of Israel, I was outraged. To think that “population control” could be practiced in the 21st century is incomprehensible. The story kept growing, taking a life of its own, and blurring the line between objectivity and sensationalism. A number of stories published in Haaretz referred to the injection of long-lasting contraceptive, known as Depo-Provera, as “an inconceivable crime” carried out through coercion and deceit. Another Haaretz article by Alison Kaplan Sommer countered these allegations. The author is likely correct about certain inaccuracy of reporting caused by the collective hysteria that followed the release of the story into the Israeli public. Nonetheless, a fair amount of uncertainty, which requires further inquiry and investigation, remains. This issue brings me to the discussion of an important historical and particularly racially complex discourse on the implication of the aforementioned
Anastasia Karklina
drug in the lives of women of color WORLDWIDE.
Such claims have been made both in Haaretz and Huffington Post, even though the majority of Western mainstream media sources have not engaged in this discussion. Various reports mention that Ethiopian women represent 57 percent of the total number of the contraception users, while accounting for only two percent of the total population of the state. Further, that confirms the fact, The Independent argued, that birth-control injections were administered without either knowledge or the consent of Ethiopian women. This is why, according to the media, Prof. Ron Gamzu of Health Ministry instructed health care facility in Israel to halt all injections of Depo-Provera. Accordingly, attesting to that is the fact that the birth rate among Israel’s Ethiopians has decreased by 20 per cent in the span of ten years. Whether it will be proven that any of these allegations have neither basis nor merit is an open question that will hopefully be answered in the weeks to come.
The use of Depo-Provera has a long history of not only affecting but also targeting women of color in poor, predominantly non-white communities worldwide. Specifically in the case of Israel, Sommer attempts to clear up the misconceptions surrounding the issue that was narrated as an attempt to engage in “some kind of villainous genocidal plot of sterilization aimed at ethnic and racial cleansing.” Contrary to other reports, Sommer claims that the original television program revealed that the Israeli government only strongly encouraged Ethiopian women to choose long-lasting contraceptive. Since Israeli families are typically smaller in comparison, such choice would assist Ethiopian families to successfully integrate, Sommer argues. Sommer is correct at least on one account: the media has largely constructed a single narrative that suggests that the Israeli government willfully engaged in an attempt to moderate the populaYet, it is no surprise that metion growth of Ethiopian Jewish dia allowed a possibility of such allegations because it has long community in the state of Israel. been clear that often policies that
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the color of reproductive freedom
continue the decades-long history of occupation and systematic oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government are inherently racist. As Emily L. Hauser notes in her recent piece for The Daily Beast, the Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel have faced racial prejudice and discrimination since as early as the 1980s. Hauser argues that the core of the issue is deeper than “simple and striking racism,” since Israel has long struggled accepting those differing from the Ashkenazi culture (Jews of primarily Eastern European origin as defined by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). She concludes by asking what would our response be if such contraception were being forced on Jewish women in any other country.
“othering” against the norm of whiteness, the “Europeanized” Ashkenazi culture. It might be that this connection that Hauser makes discussing the historical process of negotiating the Jewish identity might not be accidental.
The reality is such that historically it is almost exclusively the bodies of women of color that have been the battlegrounds for the controversy of the long-acting contraceptive. The scenario, in which a group of white women would be subjected to forced injections of contraceptives, is unimaginable. And so, Hauser might wonder what would our public response be if such contraception would be forced on Jewish women elsewhere, regardless of whether the case in Israel has any basis or not. In fact, such scenario is non-exisWhile Hauser has a point, it is tent or incomparable (to experiimportant to understand that the ences of the established “Other,” discussion of the possibility of the marginalized, the poor, the forced sterilizations is inherently immigrants and people of color in racial. If anything, the complexity general) for those who have been of the issue is deeply rooted in the fixed within the enduring racial unrelenting legacy of racial suhierarchies and subsequent whitepremacy established by the Euro- skin privilege that places one pean imperial project and colonial within that norm of whiteness. Christianity. It is no coincidence The nature of Depo-Provera that the point of departure in Hauser’s view of the construction comes across as alarming, if not of the “Other” within Israel is the deeply troubling, in itself. The
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drug has been widely administered to women of color and poor women by its original manufacturer, Upjohn Company. Various activist organization, for example, Committee on Women, Population and the Environment or INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, cite a 1994 study that claims that 33 percent of DepoProvera users in the U.S. at that time were under the age of 19, while 74 percent were low income and 84 percent were Black women. Potential health hazards mentioned range from breast cancer to osteoporosis, loss of bone density, cervical cancer, etc. In fact, U.S. Food and Drug Administration had previously banned the contraceptive until it finally came under pressure after twenty years of lobbying from the manufacturers. Such ban was lifted in the early 1990s. While the drug has been condemned by number of women’s rights organization, Depo-Provera continued to be tested on African and African American women worldwide, according to organizations mentioned above. Who produces and benefits from the manufacture of Depo-Provera? Pfizer Corporation is a pharmaceutical giant and the current
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manufacturer of Depo-Provera that distributes the drug with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates. Earlier last year, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation raised $2.6 billion to distribute the contraceptive to women across the developing world, particularly in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as a “remedy” for poverty. The concern pertaining to the possibility of widespread sterilization abuses is not unwarranted. A substantial amount of academic literature has been dedicated to the exploration of Black women’s reproduction rights. In her book, Killing The Black Body, Dorothy Roberts sets to describe “a long experience of dehumanizing attempts to control Black women’s reproductive lives” as it pertains to the United States (Roberts 1999, 4). Roberts extends her discussion to the historical use of the contraceptive in the Global South.
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use (Roberts 1999, 145). At different points in time, various experiments have been carried out in Thailand, India, Kenya, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru with financial support from the programs funded by the US government and the United Nations. Roberts claims this drug was administered without “adequate patient counseling or medical supervision.” In apartheid South Africa, Black women were pressured to use the drug as it was distributed at factories and farms, often facing threats of unemployment. In France, 20 percent of immigrants use the drug, as compared to only four percent of French-born women, Roberts argues (145).
case in Israel is truthful or not, we can dismiss the larger picture or we can engage with the deeper complexity of this topic in relation to reproductive rights of women as seen through the lens of race. What is interesting, however, is the account of Black-Jewish relations that Cornel West undertook in his book, Race Matters. West writes that there was no age that did not see tension between blacks and Jews. Yet, West continues, there was what he calls “a better age” when “the common histories of oppression and degradation of both groups served as a springboard for genuine empathy and principled alliance (West 1993, 71).” Forced sterilization programs have a shameful hisToday, there is no evidence as tory of oppression of blackness, a to how Depo-Provera is going to campaign seeking to control black solve the issue of poverty in the female bodies and their reprodeveloping world. Yet what is ductive rights. We can choose to crystal clear is that it is the young demand reproductive freedom poor women of color who bear the and justice for all and that means Historically, population control consequences of being the guinea demanding a diligent investigathrough sterilization has been pigs of the big pharmaceutical tion into the case of Depo-Provera rooted in the idea of the urgent experiment that inevitable brings not only in Israel but also in other need to preserve the white race by corporate profits in the pockets of countries of the developing world, limiting reproduction of people the very few. where it is used as a strategy for of color. The contraceptive was poverty alleviation. largely administered to Southern To conclude in the words of Noam Black and Native American wom- Chomsky, if we choose to, we can en in the United States, even belive in a world of comforting illufore its approval for contraceptive sions. Whether the “sterilization”
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An Evolving Reflection on being a Member of Global Community and Defining an Identity
As you read this post, the title of the article might come across as flashy. And admittedly it may be so. However the purpose is not to follow the title. The purpose of this post is to stimulate, relate and reflect on a notion that is very often experience but not critically put into perspective: the notion of identity in a globalized world. I will not go on an overarching tangent of case studies and historical analysis to hereby make a point. I will take the opportunity to reflect on just the last week of my regular life experience and how to reconcile with an identity increasingly diverse and dynamic. Your identity becomes enriched as the world globalizes, and as you em-
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Syed Mafiz Kamal
India prior to which he went to primary school in southern Bangladesh who has lived and worked in Sierra Leone, Spain, Jordan and Vietnam who’s younger brother studies in Spain… I promise I can install many more “international” variables to elongate that sentence. And I am certain that over the upcoming years, there will be many more attributes and experiences relating to globalized world that may contribute to defining my identity. And I am certain that I am not the only person who is capable of jotting down such definition while reflecting on self identity. All of you have your stories and backgrounds to relate to. It’s simply a
An Evolving Reflection on being a Member of Global Community and Defining an Identity Syed Mafiz Kamal
brace the globalizing environment around you. To give a sense of where I am going, here is a note by Gianpiero Petriglieri, a true international business executive, on how to define home and yet embrace globalism: Moving Around Without Losing Your Roots. I highly recommend reading it! He really puts the thought and argument in perspective. I just thought who am I? Briefly put: As of today, I am a young masters student of International Relations at New York University living in New York City who went a liberal arts college in Mid-West America prior to which he went to international boarding high-school in Hong Kong with students from about 90 countries prior to which he went to a heritage school in western
matter of reflection and choice, whether you choose to define yourself as a global human. I am sure you have friends from say Germany or Lebanon or Swaziland. I am sure you met travelers from the US or Japan or Afghanistan. Your work or your family’s work might have involved dealing with people from Indonesia or Nigeria or Egypt. No matter whether you are from a remote village in India or a shanty town in Brazil you probably use a “Made in China” accessory. The stories go on! But the point remains that they make you a member of the global village. Some of us are probably integrated deeper than others in the globalizing tornado. But question arises: how do we reconcile with this reflection? As for me, why go to any time in history, in just
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past week itself I committed acts which truly define me. I caught up with an old Pakistani friend currently living in Canada who I met in Hong Kong. I met an ex-US diplomat who shared with me some wonderful personal stories about his encounter with Mother Teresa. I attended a climate change ThinkTank at the UN Unitarian Universalist office initiated by a German girl with a young international team from all over the world, namely: Chile, Venezuela, Canada, Micronesia, California-USA, South Korea and Spain, each of whom shared their unique personal perspectives on the matter. Two days ago I spoke about myriad issues comprising the definition of identity in 21st century to a Bangladeshi friend who went to an international school in India, went to a liberal arts college in the US, worked in Wall Street and currently at the World Bank. As I write this note, I am chatting about international law with a friend who grew up around the globe, to name a few places: China, India, Morocco, Germany and Bangladesh, and is Barrister from the UK. I just linked a 1963 alumnus from my school in India with a friend from Portland, OR, USA because the friend’s family taught my mentor back in the 50s/60s in India and thereafter the family migrated to western USA, and now my friend is studying International Affairs with me in New York. These are just some selected one-line encounters from past few days of my life. They are not the exceptional ones, rather the normal ones. And I am just putting them in a perspective. And I have no doubt that there are numerous other individuals who encounters such one-line stories every day. And these encounters, stories, experiences and realizations make us the individuals of the realities of the globalized 21st century. They enhance our re-
flections and thought processes. They help us define notions such as home, nationality, heritage, citizenship, identity and roots. They object to the old ways of thinking about who we are. They provide opportunity and inspiration for us to rethink and exclusively embrace diversity to define ourselves as we may wish. Having said all that! On a random day, when someone asks me to introduce myself, I typically say “my name is Onik. I am from Bangladesh, but(/and)…”.
Syed Mafiz Kamal is a graduate student at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. He is a native of Bangladesh. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Syed worked as the Global Logistics & Youth Assembly at United Nations Fellow for Friendship Ambassadors Foundation in New York. In his capacity he was the Youth Representative to the United Nations. In addition to widespread travels, Syed lived in India, Hong Kong, USA, Thailand, Spain, Sierra Leone and Jordan. Syed can be reached at onik@syedmafizkamal.com. For further information about Syed, visit www.syedmafizkamal.com
ISM Photography Competition
ISM Photography Competition
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people a place in decisionscreaming cries of freedom, As the night dies away, as the making builds a broader base of liberty are heard. The world is sun embraces the world in a anxious for social justice, a free citizen involvement and creates warm hug a new day has come. society.. anxious for change and stronger and more inclusive Grey hearts rise, the world is communities. Youth participasocial responsibility. However, full of anxiety. The world has tion is necessary in the developalready been barricaded by hate, in order for all this to occur, ment of active citizenship beworld leaders need to include we need that which can make cause it balances young people’s us feel a part of a world that has youths in the decision making social rights with their responsidone more bad than good to hu- process. bilities. This is to a larger extent manity. Young people across the It is significant to note policies the most effective way to make world cry out to be heard. Life is and programs designed after a beautiful tragedy, however the consultation with users are more the youths more active because future of tomorrow utters in de- likely to be effective , as a result the more we feel accepted and understood by society , it crespair, their cries go unheard, the one is bound to conclude using leaders of today have failed and youth participation you are more ates an element that binds the likely to get it right the first time society together. One of the most it is up to the young people to extraordinary things in this make a better tomorrow. As the and avoid wasting time and The Independent Skies team is pleased to announce the launch of thought crosses every individu- money on services young people world is being a young leader our first Photography competition on the 25th of February. don’t want to use. Giving young but it is what you do with the al’s mind, hope is reborn when
ISM P
There will be three phases to the competition: 1- Submitting photographs (25th/Feb – 15th /Mar) 2- Selection of the 3 finalists/ the finalist photos revealed (16th / Mar – 25th /Mar) 3- Choosing the Winner and sending prize (26th/Mar – 5th April) *Note: The winner will be announced in our April issue
The prize: 1- 50 Euros in C 2- Trophy 3- Independent
*Note: Will be sent t
ISM Photography Competition
opportunity that makes a difference. Youths in decision making process contributes to positive youth development and we have challenges like violence, drug addiction , lack of social responsibility and the primary cause being the youth. In reference to my previous statement its significant to note youth participation and being included in decision making process challenges negative stereotypes of young people and help break down barriers between adults and young people. Involving young people in decision-making can improve attitudes towards understanding about young people and create
a greater awareness of youth issues in an organization. “No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.� —Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nation. Words from a great man reports from United Nations state that youths in decision making implies a radical change in youth-adult relationships in all spheres of life including the family, schools, local communi-
ties, programs, social services, and local, regional and national government. A commitment to respecting the participatory rights of young people is incompatible with the age-old propensity. It is vital to note giving youth the power in decision making does not necessarily mean we are divorcing power from the adults, including the youth is a sign of social development that can lead and grow to many things such as better decisions and outcomes.
Photography Competition
Cash
Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe
Stay tuned to our facebook page to know about our judges in person as they get revealed, and for more details about the competition!!!!
Skies Poster
to the winner wherever they are in the world
May this be the first of many photography competitions to come, The Independent Skies Team.
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“We are proud to announce our new section on Independent Skies monthly issues. This section is dedicated to scribbled notes blog, which will include a poem from their blog on every published issue. http://www.scribbledn.blogspot.com/ We hope you’ll enjoy their poems as much as we do!!!” The Team, Independent Skies Magazine
Words of advice for my mirror image.. I see you, Lady In The Mirror Ever concerned about Being Better I’ll give you a hand then This is what being better is Not Being better is not having the last say in a quarrel Or delivering the blow that kills Being better is not having the upper hand Or conniving to stay that way Being better is not owning The appeal of a coarse voice Or the sharpness of a sleek tongue. Being better is not yelling the loudest Or expertly throwing daggers with your eyes Or how large your fist is Or the charisma in your gait.
The misnomer of ‘better’ Being better isn’t the price of your perfume Or its scent carrying with it pomp and circumstance Being better isn’t in your last name -Your tribal inheritance Or which chunk of the country you hail from Being better isn’t lording your wealth over others Or using the sound of your accent To label them lowly. Being better isn’t in how well You manage your high heels Or how far you’ve travelled From your hometown It isn’t in being a certain race Or boasting a certain complexion within a race Being better isn’t reserved for those of the first world Nor is it lodged in your background.
Being better isn’t being the best Or being the worst Or abiding in the security of mediocrity Being better isn’t about Comparison But about Exchange. Being better is understanding How common you are How fragile good fortune is And that chance -like music- is universal A gift awarded us by the grace of God. Being better is stainless elation When your best friend gets married first Being better is admiration When your nemesis wins the race Being better is blameless pride When your sister succeeds In changing the world. Is there someone you
don’t like? And for no particular reason? Being better is neutrality with all -If not outright fondness For that stranger who could be A beautiful person Believing That everybody is magnificent Acknowledging That your worst enemy is only so Because of the weight of his worst days Extract the color of discrimination from your vision View the world in black-andwhite For you are the same as your worst enemy And his too -You are human.
Tebogo Ndlovu
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