twenty second issue
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
4. What the Alphabet Has Taught Me in Life RJ BARRETE
12. Pieces for peace
16. the No Privacy Generation 18. What If You Died Today? 22. She wrote me a poem
Pardon Gwara
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
What the Alphabet Has Taug
whAT ThE ALPhABET hAS TAUGhT ME In LIFE
ght Me in Life
RJ BARRETE
B
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RJ BARRETE
ack during our childhood days, we were taught to learn the ABC – recognize, write, and pronounce each letter. However, more than learning it we eventually learned to come up with words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs. I feel the deeper meaning in every letter that comprises the English alphabet. We now share thoughts, exchange ideas and totally learn from it. Below are some of things that the alphabet has taught me in life.
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Award yourself once in awhile. I promise, you need it.
Big dreams keep working on it; be that someone you wish to be.
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Create your life.
Deliver all the things that you do perfectly.
Eagerness will take you to the place where you want to be.
whAT ThE ALPhABET hAS TAUGhT ME In LIFE
Friends to keep. Surround yourself with people that bring out the best in you.
Go out and explore. There are so many things to appreciate about life.
Happiness is the Initiate only feeling that goodmakes your world ness. extraordinary.
Joy is the best feeling in the world. Anyone can afford it.
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RJ BARRETE
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. The really good ones make you feel that you can become great.
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Live high. Live mighty. Live righteously.
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Make the best of everything.
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
Now or never.
Oh life, what a great gift.
Positivism. It causes you no harm.
whAT ThE ALPhABET hAS TAUGhT ME In LIFE
Qualify and never quantify what you give.
Reset. If thing’s won’t work; give it another try.
Smile. Give a smile; it is the most priceless one.
Touch others’ lives.
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RJ BARRETE
Under the rain, it brings back so many good memories. So appreciate, what nature gives you for free.
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Victory should always be your goal.
When life fails you, it is never the end of it. Pick yourself up and continue walking your journey.
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Xtra. Do things xtra special.
YOLO. You only live once.
Zoom in and never zoom out.
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| Issue 18 oct 2013whAT ThE ALPhABET hAS TAUGhT ME In LIFE
“Each letter of the alphabet is a steadfast loyal soldier in a great army of words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories. One letter falls, and the entire language falters.”
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RJ BARRETE
| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
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ES F O R P E A C E
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P I E
O
ne of magazine partners IHAV Foundation, an NGO that seeks to inspire and challenge youth across Africa to envision change and ACT on it, last month donated several items to orphanages in the Greater Accra region, Ghana. The donation worth over Gh₵ 5000.00 was to five orphanages in Tema and Accra, which included food items and clothing. Beneficiaries of this donation included Teshie Orphanage, The Lords Arm Orphanage, Save the Young Mission International, Remar Ghana and Street Wise Orphanage. As a part of its internal campaign to support youth development through capacity building, the President of the organization, Ms Christabel Ofori, stated that the “Pieces For Peace” idea was initiated to get upcoming fashion designers and fashion houses to exhibit their works by sewing African prints for the kids. She mentioned that spending time with these orphanages and donating
Pieces for peace
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ISM
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the items to them was to make them know that youthful organizations such as IHAV cared for children in these orphanages and wanted them to feel loved. In her words most people think of used clothes whenever donations comes to mind but IHAV Foundation thought about giving each child two new clothes designed to fit them. In collaboration with Dress-A-Kid, IHAV foundation gathered pieces of fabric from individuals across the country and gave them out to be sewn for the various orphanages after gathering information on sizes of children in these orphanages.
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On the day there was a bus to pick people that were willing to join the group make the donation at various pick up points both in Accra and in Tema. The first orphanage the group visited was the Teshie Orphanage, where the group was briefed on how the orphanage was formed. Though old and not very well, the joy on the founder’s face when the group showed up to make the donation couldn’t be hidden. Everyone that went with the group dressed at least one child with the exception of those that have reached the adolescent age and were shy to dress in front of the group.
The next stop was to The Lords Arm Orphanage also in Teshie and indeed the good Lord had stretched His Arm upon them. Pieces For Peace had just come at a right time for them, because to them it was to climax the wonderful start to the year they have had. An NGO in the United States of America had just been kind enough to relocate the orphanage from its ‘land dispute’ location so the new clothing was a sign of a new start and new life for the kids. The reception in Tema was amazing as the group reached the third orphanage Save them Young Mission International. The kids were
Pieces for peace
happy to see the group and pleased with the drinks, toffees and other goodies. The team spent time with the kids dressing them up and taking pictures; it was all joy and merry making. At Tema Remar Rehabilitation Center, which was the team’s fourth stop for the day, only about 15 boys were present as most of them had gone for an eye check up. They were clothed in the shirts, and given some goodies whilst the team was briefed on the centers activities. Finally IHAV hit the road with destination Chorkor in mind, to visit StreetWise Orphanage. The team looked
exhausted at this stage but was determined to finish on the high after a long day. Most of the people in the bus had never been to Chorkor and were curious to see the place. The facilities there were amazing, especially with a beautiful beach view and a well stuffed library. The head of the Orphanage took as round the place and told us the plans He had for the Orphanage but lacked monetary support especially from the Social Welfare.
PIECES FOR PEACE
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ISM
Certain things cut across in all the Orphanages visited, and these are: •Not much support from the Social Welfare •Lack of donations from individuals and organizations •Lack of infrastructure •Inadequate volunteers and teachers We applaud IHAV for the great work they are doing in Africa, they surely are putting their “vision in action”. It is such small selfless acts that help change the future of Africa. On another note their IHAV Africa conference is coming up soon and ISM will be covering information on how to apply for it in their next issue.
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
The No Privacy Generation
ThE no PRIvAcy GEnERATIon
1.11
Billion is the number of users on facebook alone (yahoo news, 2013), and most of the 1.11 billion people have clicked the “I agree” button to declare their submission to the hands of the privacy policy of facebook. Facebook, in the privacy policy declares that any material published on its databases can be used by the company in public or private use, no matter what your choice of profile is.
many people… I remember for instance, I was surfing the net and stumbled upon a screenshot of a student that wrote hate speech about the principal of the school and left the status update public… yup, the principal saw it, commented, kicked the student out of school and filed a case.
It can also get more serious, to a situation where some murder case information can be taken by a reporter and publish it, but at the same time would that be ethical?. We all publish personal/embarrasing things It gets complicated, the person publishon facebook thinking that only those close ing the info “friended” the reporter and will see it, and publish good pictures on our even though the information published is public profiles for our potential employers private, it is public at the same time because the person had some 350 friends. to see. However, what we don’t know is that all We are moving towards a world with the information whether private or public is floating on the internet, and anyone can new dimentions like we have never had before and therefore, we need to create get to the so called “private” informanew rules for journalists, corporations and tion if they have a little more than adgovernments have to follow to protect the vanced knowledge in coding. privacy of the social network users. But, for the time being we should all take good This has also put people in confusion of care of what we post out in the internet, the status of their publications, we often don’t realise if what we publish is private because literally nothing is private and evor public and that cause a lot of trouble for erything is accessible.
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
What If You Die
the No Privacy Generation
edYToday? es, you read right. What if you died today? What if you just went to bed and never woke up? What if you went to work and never came back home, but joined your ancestors? Sounds scary, doesn’t it? I know death is one of the last things that comes to mind while we are alive. We wish life will continue and be full of fun. But let’s face it, the time will come for us all to die and be laid to rest. The time will come for people to mourn for us. The time will come when we shall be no more. That time is going to come when we shall be
lifeless, and have no idea where our mortal bodies lied. My intention for writing this is not to scare you. But to stir in us the reminder that the set time will surely come for us to die. While at that, what will be said of you, of me, and of us when we die? What will people say about us when we are finally laid to rest? Will it be said of us to have been kind to all we came into contact with, or that we treated people with disdain and disrespect?
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
What will the history books of the world tell about you? Ultimately, what can you tell of yourself? You see, many of us have been made to believe life is all about living for ourselves. We have been imputed with a false sense of selfishness. That it is okay to desire to live the best of lives for ourselves; graduate from school, get that good paying job, marry that beautiful or handsome spouse, bring forth to those nice children, and then live life a day at a time.
Indeed, I am not against such a school of thought. But I believe life is bigger than that. Life is not just to live for ourselves. Life is for all. Your life was given you to be of help to the rest of the world. Come to think of it, how would the world have been if Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, told himself that he would just live all for himself without doing anything for humanity? How would our lives have been if Bill Gates didn’t give his life into transforming the world of personal computers?
ThE no PRIvAcy GEnERATIon
How about Steve Jobs? Would you have had the “i” devices you have all around? One of the things that should engage your mind as you live through life is what kind of legacy you will leave behind if you died. No one will remember you for the big cars you bought for yourself. Or the huge mansion you built overlooking the beach. What we will remember you for is how you impacted lives positively. How you touched the lives of those you came into contact with. The smiles you brought to
the desolate, and the hope you brought to the broken hearted. Don’t live life all for yourself. Think of others, too. Shannon L. Alder, an author once said, “Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.” Don’t die with all that is inside of you. Live your best. Share as much as you can; for life is best lived when shared.
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014
She wrote me a poem
I copied it in my mind, and pasted it in my heart. I should have read the subliminal irony in it. And not the surface words The sweet nothings That left me love diabetic She wrote me a poem And i kept it in my heart Took to heart the words The meaning my mind could fathom If they could be reversed I will not read again She wrote me a poem Painted my life with a colour so bright I lost my sight Mabye it was the night Or with her i lost all my might She wrote me a poem, In pencil. Her hand held an eraser To clean the words i so eagerly believed By Pardon Gwara (Zimbabwe)
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| Independent Skies Magazine
| Issue 22 Feb 2014