by Rebecca Solnit
Source: Huffington Post website
How can I tell a story we already know too well? Her name was Africa. His was France. He colonized her, exploited her, silenced her, and even decades after it was supposed to have ended, still acted with a high hand in resolving her affairs in places like Côte d’Ivoire, a name she had been given because of her export products, not her own identity.
Her name was Asia. His was Europe. Her name was silence. His was power. Her name was poverty. His was wealth. Her name was Her, but what was hers? His name was His, and he presumed everything was his, including her, and he thought he could take her without asking and without consequences. It was a very old story, though its outcome had been changing a little in recent decades. And this time around the consequences are shaking a lot of foundations, all of which clearly needed shaking.
Who would ever write a fable as obvious, as heavy-handed as the story we’ve just been given? The extraordinarily powerful head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a global organization that has created mass poverty and economic injustice, allegedly assaulted a hotel maid, an immigrant from Africa, in a hotel’s luxury suite in New York City.
Worlds have collided. In an earlier era, her word would have been worthless against his and she might not have filed charges, or the police might not have followed through and yanked Dominique Strauss-Kahn off the plane to Paris at the last moment. But she did, and they did, and now he’s in custody, and the economy of Europe has been dealt a blow, and French politics have been upended, and that nation is reeling and soul-searching.
What were they thinking, these men who decided to give him this singular position of power, despite all the stories and evidence of such viciousness? What was he thinking when he decided he could get away with it? Did he think he was in France, where apparently he did get away with it? Only now is the young woman who says he assaulted her in 2002 pressing charges -- her own politician mother talked her out of it, and she worried about the impact it could have on her journalistic career (while her mother was apparently worrying more about his career).
And the Guardian reports that these stories “have added weight to claims by Piroska Nagy, a Hungarian-born economist, that the fund's director engaged in sustained harassment when she was working at the IMF that left her feeling she had little choice but to agree to sleep with him at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2008. She alleged he persistently called and emailed on the pretext of asking questions about [her expertise,] Ghana's economy, but then used sexual language and asked her out.”
In some accounts, the woman Strauss-Kahn is charged with assaulting in New York is from Ghana, in others a Muslim from nearby Guinea. “Ghana -- Prisoner of the IMF” ran a headline in 2001 by the usually mild-mannered BBC. Its report documented the way the IMF’s policies had destroyed that rice-growing nation’s food security, opening it up to cheap imported U.S. rice, and plunging the country’s majority into dire poverty.
Everything became a commodity for which you had to pay, from using a toilet to getting a bucket of water, and many could not pay. Perhaps it would be too perfect if she was a refugee from the IMF’s policies in Ghana. Guinea, on the other hand, liberated itself from the IMF management thanks to the discovery of major oil reserves, but remains a country of severe corruption and economic disparity.
Pimping for the Global North
There’s an axiom evolutionary biologists used to like: “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” or the development of the embryonic individual repeats that of its species’ evolution. Does the ontogeny of this alleged assault echo the phylogeny of the International Monetary Fund? After all, the organization was founded late in World War II as part of the notorious Bretton Woods conference that would impose American economic visions on the rest of the world.
The IMF was meant to be a lending institution to help countries develop, but by the 1980s it had become an organization with an ideology -- free trade and free-market fundamentalism. It used its loans to gain enormous power over the economies and policies of nations throughout the global South.
However, if the IMF gained power throughout the 1990s, it began losing that power in the twenty-first century, thanks to powerful popular resistance to the economic policies it embodied and the economic collapse such policies produced. Strauss-Kahn was brought in to salvage the wreckage of an organization that, in 2008, had to sell off its gold reserves and reinvent its mission.
Her name was Africa. His name was IMF. He set her up to be pillaged, to go without health care, to starve. He laid waste to her to enrich his friends. Her name was Global South. His name was Washington Consensus. But his winning streak was running out and her star was rising.
It was the IMF that created the economic conditions that destroyed the Argentinian economy by 2001, and it was the revolt against the IMF (among other neoliberal forces) that prompted Latin America’s rebirth over the past decade. Whatever you think of Hugo Chavez, it was loans from oil-rich Venezuela that allowed Argentina to pay off its IMF loans early so that it could set its own saner economic policies.
The IMF was a predatory force, opening developing countries up to economic assaults from the wealthy North and powerful transnational corporations. It was a pimp. Maybe it still is.
But since the Seattle anti-corporate demonstrations of 1999 set a global movement alight, there has been a revolt against it, and those forces have won in Latin America, changing the framework of all economic debates to come and enriching our imaginations when it comes to economies and possibilities.
Today, the IMF is a mess, the World Trade Organization largely sidelined, NAFTA almost universally reviled, the Free Trade Area of the Americas cancelled (though bilateral free-trade agreements continue), and much of the world has learned a great deal from the decade’s crash course in economic policy.
Strangers on a Train
The New York Times reported it this way:
"As the impact of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s predicament hit home, others, including some in the news media, began to reveal accounts, long suppressed or anonymous, of what they called Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s previously predatory behavior toward women and his aggressive sexual pursuit of them, from students and journalists to subordinates."
In other words, he created an atmosphere that was uncomfortable or dangerous for women, which would be one thing if he were working in, say, a small office. But that a man who controls some part of the fate of the world apparently devoted his energies to generating fear, misery, and injustice around him says something about the shape of our world and the values of the nations and institutions that tolerated his behavior and that of men like him.
The United States has not been short on sex scandals of late, and they reek of the same arrogance, but they were at least consensual (as far as we know). The head of the IMF is charged with sexual assault. If that term confuses you take out the word “sexual” and just focus on “assault,” on violence, on the refusal to treat someone as a human being, on the denial of the most basic of human rights, the right to bodily integrity and corporeal safety. “The rights of man” was one of the great phrases of the French Revolution, but it’s always been questionable whether it included the rights of women.
The United States has a hundred million flaws, but I am proud that the police believed this woman and that she will have her day in court. I am gratified this time not to be in a country which has decided that the career of a powerful man or the fate of an international institution matters more than this woman and her rights and wellbeing. This is what we mean by democracy: that everyone has a voice, that no one gets away with things just because of their wealth, power, race, or gender.
Two days before Strauss-Kahn allegedly emerged from that hotel bathroom naked, there was a big demonstration in New York City. “Make Wall Street Pay” was the theme and union workers, radicals, the unemployed, and more -- 20,000 people -- gathered to protest the economic assault in this country that is creating such suffering and deprivation for the many -- and obscene wealth for the few.
I attended. On the crowded subway car back to Brooklyn afterwards, the youngest of my three female companions had her bottom groped by a man about Strauss-Kahn’s age. At first, she thought he had simply bumped into her. That was before she felt her buttock being cupped and said something to me, as young women often do, tentatively, quietly, as though it were perhaps not happening or perhaps not quite a problem.
Finally, she glared at him and told him to stop. I was reminded of a moment when I was an impoverished seventeen-year-old living in Paris and some geezer grabbed my ass. It was perhaps my most American moment in France, then the land of a thousand disdainful gropers; American because I was carrying three grapefruits, a precious purchase from my small collection of funds, and I threw those grapefruits, one after another, like baseballs at the creep and had the satisfaction of watching him scuttle into the night.
His action, like so much sexual violence against women, was undoubtedly meant to be a reminder that this world was not mine, that my rights -- my liberté, egalité, sororité, if you will -- didn’t matter. Except that I had sent him running in a barrage of fruit. And Dominique Strauss-Kahn got pulled off a plane to answer to justice. Still, that a friend of mine got groped on her way back from a march about justice makes it clear how much there still is to be done.
The Poor Starve, While the Rich Eat Their Words
What makes the sex scandal that broke open last week so resonant is the way the alleged assailant and victim model larger relationships around the world, starting with the IMF’s assault on the poor. That assault is part of the great class war of our era, in which the rich and their proxies in government have endeavored to aggrandize their holdings at the expense of the rest of us.
Poor countries in the developing world paid first, but the rest of us are paying now, as those policies and the suffering they impose come home to roost via right-wing economics that savages unions, education systems, the environment, and programs for the poor, disabled, and elderly in the name of privatization, free markets, and tax cuts.
In one of the more remarkable apologies of our era, Bill Clinton -- who had his own sex scandal once upon a time -- told the United Nations on World Food Day in October 2008, as the global economy was melting down:“We need the World Bank, the IMF, all the big foundations, and all the governments to admit that, for 30 years, we all blew it, including me when I was President. We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade, and we all have to go back to a more responsible and sustainable form of agriculture.”
He said it even more bluntly last year:
“Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy, until the last year or so when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was a party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did.”
Clinton’s admissions were on a level with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s 2008 admission that the premise of his economic politics was wrong. The former policies and those of the IMF, World Bank, and free-trade fundamentalists had created poverty, suffering, hunger, and death. We have learned, most of us, and the world has changed remarkably since the day when those who opposed free-market fundamentalism were labeled “flat-earth advocates, protectionist trade unions, and yuppies looking for their 1960's fix,” in the mortal words of Thomas Friedman, later eaten.
A remarkable thing happened after the devastating Haitian earthquake last year: the IMF under Strauss-Kahn planned to use the vulnerability of that country to force new loans on it with the usual terms. Activists reacted to a plan guaranteed to increase the indebtedness of a nation already crippled by the kind of neoliberal policies for which Clinton belatedly apologized. The IMF blinked, stepped back, and agreed to cancel Haiti’s existing debt to the organization. It was a remarkable victory for informed activism.
Powers of the Powerless
It looks as though a hotel maid may end the career of one of the most powerful men in the world, or rather that he will have ended it himself by discounting the rights and humanity of that worker. Pretty much the same thing happened to Meg Whitman, the former E-Bay billionaire who ran for governor of California last year. She leapt on the conservative bandwagon by attacking undocumented immigrants -- until it turned out that she had herself long employed one, Nickie Diaz, as a housekeeper.
When, after nine years, it had become politically inconvenient to keep Diaz around, she fired the woman abruptly, claimed she’d never known her employee was undocumented, and refused to pay her final wages. In other words, Whitman was willing to spend $140 million on her campaign, but may have brought herself down thanks, in part, to $6,210 in unpaid wages.
Diaz said, "I felt like she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage." The garbage had a voice, the California Nurses Union amplified it, and California was spared domination by a billionaire whose policies would have further brutalized the poor and impoverished the middle class.
The struggles for justice of an undocumented housekeeper and an immigrant hotel maid are microcosms of the great world war of our time. If Nickie Diaz and the battle over last year’s IMF loans to Haiti demonstrate anything, it’s that the outcome is uncertain. Sometimes we win the skirmishes, but the war continues.
So much remains to be known about what happened in that expensive hotel suite in Manhattan last week, but what we do know is this: a genuine class war is being fought openly in our time, and last week, a so-called socialist put himself on the wrong side of it.
His name was privilege, but hers was possibility. His was the same old story, but hers was a new one about the possibility of changing a story that remains unfinished, that includes all of us, that matters so much, that we will watch, but also make and tell in the weeks, months, years, decades to come.
Rebecca Solnit is the author of 13 books, including A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disasters and Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Monday, 23 May 2011
Despite economic growth, Africa still lacks industries
Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa like Uganda have been posting impressive rates of economic growth over the past decade and experiencing increasing urbanisation, but the pace of industrialisation has remained slow.
And despite investments in infrastructure like roads and the spread of modern technologies like mobile telephony, several African countries have largely remained exporters of primary commodities. In many cases, labour has moved from more productive roles to less productive ones. These were some of the findings by studies carried out under the International Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“Economic growth ultimately stems from rising productivity within different sectors of the economy and directing a country’s limited resources, including its labour force, to increasingly productive activities,” observed Ms Margaret McMillan, a deputy director at IFPRI.
Other than Uganda, the studies covered Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Nigeria. Highlights from the Ugandan study showed that agriculture was the biggest employer—involving up to 85 per cent of the population, thus the largest source of income and livelihood, though the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had declined to just 20 per cent. Compared to other sectors, agriculture has continued to remain sluggish but a source of the most of the export earnings. In this, the role of exports of fish, flowers and other horticultural products was significant.
With the shrinking of agriculture’s contribution to GDP, the services sector, which has benefited from foreign investment and remittances from abroad, has filled the gap. But it was noted that in spite of the increased value, the number of Ugandans employed in the sector had in fact declined over the last 10 years.
Another factor pointed out was the high population rate. At 3.4 per cent, Uganda has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Interestingly, this was surpassed by urban growth that increased at 5.4 per cent between 1991 and 2002. One of the conclusions that the researchers arrived at was: “The high population growth rate of Uganda poses an immense challenge for Uganda’s economic development. The increasing number of Ugandans engaged in agriculture is more a reflection of the inability of the more modern sectors of the economy to provide adequate employment for the many Ugandans entering the workforce every year”
The research paper, titled Rural-Urban Transformation in Uganda, was written by Paul Mukwaya, Yazidhi Bamutaze, Samuel Mugarura and Todd Benson. The paper was presented at an international conference that was held in Accra, Ghana, from 10-11 May 2011. It was jointly organised by IFPRI and University of Ghana. The event focused on the opportunities and obstacles in transforming African economies and the policy implications. There was also comparison of lessons learned from other developing regions—Asia and Latin America.
“Industrialisation and urbanisation tend to go hand-in-hand with economic development,” In his remarks, Dr Shenggen Fan, director general of IFPRI, noted in his remarks, “Without appropriate policies, sufficient public investments in infrastructure, and adequate provision of critical social services, these changes will not necessarily accelerate economic growth or improve human welfare. However, if these concerns are taken into account, the transformation of national economies will no doubt have a huge and positive impact on Africa’s future.”
And despite investments in infrastructure like roads and the spread of modern technologies like mobile telephony, several African countries have largely remained exporters of primary commodities. In many cases, labour has moved from more productive roles to less productive ones. These were some of the findings by studies carried out under the International Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“Economic growth ultimately stems from rising productivity within different sectors of the economy and directing a country’s limited resources, including its labour force, to increasingly productive activities,” observed Ms Margaret McMillan, a deputy director at IFPRI.
Other than Uganda, the studies covered Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Nigeria. Highlights from the Ugandan study showed that agriculture was the biggest employer—involving up to 85 per cent of the population, thus the largest source of income and livelihood, though the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had declined to just 20 per cent. Compared to other sectors, agriculture has continued to remain sluggish but a source of the most of the export earnings. In this, the role of exports of fish, flowers and other horticultural products was significant.
With the shrinking of agriculture’s contribution to GDP, the services sector, which has benefited from foreign investment and remittances from abroad, has filled the gap. But it was noted that in spite of the increased value, the number of Ugandans employed in the sector had in fact declined over the last 10 years.
Another factor pointed out was the high population rate. At 3.4 per cent, Uganda has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Interestingly, this was surpassed by urban growth that increased at 5.4 per cent between 1991 and 2002. One of the conclusions that the researchers arrived at was: “The high population growth rate of Uganda poses an immense challenge for Uganda’s economic development. The increasing number of Ugandans engaged in agriculture is more a reflection of the inability of the more modern sectors of the economy to provide adequate employment for the many Ugandans entering the workforce every year”
The research paper, titled Rural-Urban Transformation in Uganda, was written by Paul Mukwaya, Yazidhi Bamutaze, Samuel Mugarura and Todd Benson. The paper was presented at an international conference that was held in Accra, Ghana, from 10-11 May 2011. It was jointly organised by IFPRI and University of Ghana. The event focused on the opportunities and obstacles in transforming African economies and the policy implications. There was also comparison of lessons learned from other developing regions—Asia and Latin America.
“Industrialisation and urbanisation tend to go hand-in-hand with economic development,” In his remarks, Dr Shenggen Fan, director general of IFPRI, noted in his remarks, “Without appropriate policies, sufficient public investments in infrastructure, and adequate provision of critical social services, these changes will not necessarily accelerate economic growth or improve human welfare. However, if these concerns are taken into account, the transformation of national economies will no doubt have a huge and positive impact on Africa’s future.”
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
“My civil protest against Museveni”: A voice in the wilderness?
by Benji Ndolo
Tuesday, May 3 2011
Mr Benji Ndolo, a consultant with several Kenyan Civil societies was over the weekend whisked away from a Nairobi hotel where President Yoweri Museveni addressed a forum ‘Mindspeak’ because he had booed the Ugandan President. Below are his reasons for his civil protest.
“On Saturday 30 April I arrived at the Intercontinental hotel to interact and share with other Kenyan professionals from the private sector, civil society and media. The name of the forum was mind speak an annual event.
Prior to the president’s arrival, speaker after speaker took to the podium and waxed lyrical about the importance of Kenya getting a grip on its affairs and positioning itself in its rightful place in the world by first getting serious about good governance, clean politics, eliminating tribalism and strengthening the economy and democracy.
The Swiss ambassador explained that his own country faced a similar economic and food crisis a century ago. They had to think hard about what to do to create a just society. A small Swiss minority was fabulously wealthy while a large majority was going hungry at the same time.
After a coffee break courtesy of Nation Group CEO Linus Gitahi who paid out of pocket because it was unplanned for the president to take 3 hours to arrive, Museveni finally walked in accompanied by PNU metropolitan development minister Njeru Githae.
The president was relaxed and begun his speech on Economic Rights and Social Transformation with an analogy about insects and their metamorphosis from egg to pupa, larvae to adult. The president was affable. But it is important to define Museveni.
After decades of terror and rampage occasioned on Ugandans by Idi Amin Dada and Milton Obote, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni then a young soldier fought a guerilla war to power restoring Ugandans’ collective dignity and returning the country to normalcy and decency. But that was 25 years ago.
Slowly but surely, President Museveni has begun his slide back down the path of intolerance and dictatorship. For the past one month, Ugandan forces have systematically and consistently brutalised unarmed men and women walking to work to protest against the very high cost of living because of sky-high food and fuel prices.
Of course there is a political component to these protests given that they are even led by his opponent, Dr Kizza Besigye, but does that justify beatings, shootings and spraying human skin and eyes with copious amounts of acidic pepper?
As I sat listening to Museveni crack jokes and the audience roaring in laughter, I realised that the whole event was too casual and that for a fact a victim of Museveni’s brutality was admitted at Nairobi Hospital 7 minutes' drive from where we were sitting, going blind. Our attendance of Museveni’s forum was dignifying him and giving him aid and comfort. Initially, I felt I should walk out. But to just stand up and walk out alone as a Head of State speaks, constitutes a security breach and does not say much. Or they would think perhaps because I wasn’t feeling well, or was pressed for a short bathroom call. I stayed calm. But as the president spoke, and paused, I interjected.
“Mr President, it’s very difficult for us to sit here and listen to you as Kenyans when daily you are brutalising innocent, unarmed Ugandans. Why are you allowing this Sir…” I was swiftly apprehended by four officers and bundled into a GK Land Rover outside.
Several of my friends subsequently called and opined that it may have been better to wait for the Q&A session and confront Museveni with ideas. But that argument misses the point. The whole point of a civil protest is to necessitate change not to accommodate. I was sending a strong message to the President of Uganda and to the people of Uganda that Kenyans are democratic and won’t stand for human rights abuses.
We can only move our countries and region forward by embracing dialogue, tolerance, principle and integrity. Not by military violence, propaganda and platitudes. Top on my mind was the fact that the Ugandan president was present at Uhuru Park when we promulgated our Constitution last year, a progressive document which is very strong on justice, fairness and individual rights and freedoms enshrined in Article 33.
I explained to the police that our president is not perfect but he’s a democrat and doesn’t batter protestors. I strongly feel that President Museveni by battering Ugandans is betraying the ideals of our common humanity, is at odds with principles of Uganda, Kenya the region and the world. It is the same thing Gaddafi stands accused of today in the court of public opinion and possibly soon in a legal court as well.
The Kenyan police treated me professionally and well. But one senior officer labouriously explained that I shouldn’t try to be “Jesus” as the world is a difficult place and poor people will always be there. Regretfully, this may be conventional wisdom in the establishment. After being released without being charged, I watched an angry Museveni berate a stoic and composed Linus Kaikai during an interview where he called the journalist “the evangelist of civilisation”. I must say that was some quality journalism from Mr Kaikai.
The challenges of the Third World are well known and documented and will never be solved by posturing, deceit or cheap tribal politics. Rather, it will take selfless leadership, sacrifice and commitment on the part of leadership to inspire Africans, implement good policy and bring fresh ideas to create opportunity and lift the masses out of poverty and desperation.
I remember after the Madoff trial in New York last year, his wife was informed by a hair stylist that she was not welcome to the salon any more because of all the suffering her family had caused by fleecing citizens. I have no ill-will toward the president. I respect him as an elder statesman and like a father. But we must not tolerate bad behaviour from a councillor, governor or president. We must stand for truth, say what we mean and mean what we say. On Saturday, I expressed my displeasure with the goings-on in Uganda. At the risk of irritating comrades in attendance at mindspeak, I stood up for democracy. I spoke my mind. I have no regrets.
Story was published at http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1155612/-/c23vj8z/-/index.html
Tuesday, May 3 2011
Mr Benji Ndolo, a consultant with several Kenyan Civil societies was over the weekend whisked away from a Nairobi hotel where President Yoweri Museveni addressed a forum ‘Mindspeak’ because he had booed the Ugandan President. Below are his reasons for his civil protest.
“On Saturday 30 April I arrived at the Intercontinental hotel to interact and share with other Kenyan professionals from the private sector, civil society and media. The name of the forum was mind speak an annual event.
Prior to the president’s arrival, speaker after speaker took to the podium and waxed lyrical about the importance of Kenya getting a grip on its affairs and positioning itself in its rightful place in the world by first getting serious about good governance, clean politics, eliminating tribalism and strengthening the economy and democracy.
The Swiss ambassador explained that his own country faced a similar economic and food crisis a century ago. They had to think hard about what to do to create a just society. A small Swiss minority was fabulously wealthy while a large majority was going hungry at the same time.
After a coffee break courtesy of Nation Group CEO Linus Gitahi who paid out of pocket because it was unplanned for the president to take 3 hours to arrive, Museveni finally walked in accompanied by PNU metropolitan development minister Njeru Githae.
The president was relaxed and begun his speech on Economic Rights and Social Transformation with an analogy about insects and their metamorphosis from egg to pupa, larvae to adult. The president was affable. But it is important to define Museveni.
After decades of terror and rampage occasioned on Ugandans by Idi Amin Dada and Milton Obote, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni then a young soldier fought a guerilla war to power restoring Ugandans’ collective dignity and returning the country to normalcy and decency. But that was 25 years ago.
Slowly but surely, President Museveni has begun his slide back down the path of intolerance and dictatorship. For the past one month, Ugandan forces have systematically and consistently brutalised unarmed men and women walking to work to protest against the very high cost of living because of sky-high food and fuel prices.
Of course there is a political component to these protests given that they are even led by his opponent, Dr Kizza Besigye, but does that justify beatings, shootings and spraying human skin and eyes with copious amounts of acidic pepper?
As I sat listening to Museveni crack jokes and the audience roaring in laughter, I realised that the whole event was too casual and that for a fact a victim of Museveni’s brutality was admitted at Nairobi Hospital 7 minutes' drive from where we were sitting, going blind. Our attendance of Museveni’s forum was dignifying him and giving him aid and comfort. Initially, I felt I should walk out. But to just stand up and walk out alone as a Head of State speaks, constitutes a security breach and does not say much. Or they would think perhaps because I wasn’t feeling well, or was pressed for a short bathroom call. I stayed calm. But as the president spoke, and paused, I interjected.
“Mr President, it’s very difficult for us to sit here and listen to you as Kenyans when daily you are brutalising innocent, unarmed Ugandans. Why are you allowing this Sir…” I was swiftly apprehended by four officers and bundled into a GK Land Rover outside.
Several of my friends subsequently called and opined that it may have been better to wait for the Q&A session and confront Museveni with ideas. But that argument misses the point. The whole point of a civil protest is to necessitate change not to accommodate. I was sending a strong message to the President of Uganda and to the people of Uganda that Kenyans are democratic and won’t stand for human rights abuses.
We can only move our countries and region forward by embracing dialogue, tolerance, principle and integrity. Not by military violence, propaganda and platitudes. Top on my mind was the fact that the Ugandan president was present at Uhuru Park when we promulgated our Constitution last year, a progressive document which is very strong on justice, fairness and individual rights and freedoms enshrined in Article 33.
I explained to the police that our president is not perfect but he’s a democrat and doesn’t batter protestors. I strongly feel that President Museveni by battering Ugandans is betraying the ideals of our common humanity, is at odds with principles of Uganda, Kenya the region and the world. It is the same thing Gaddafi stands accused of today in the court of public opinion and possibly soon in a legal court as well.
The Kenyan police treated me professionally and well. But one senior officer labouriously explained that I shouldn’t try to be “Jesus” as the world is a difficult place and poor people will always be there. Regretfully, this may be conventional wisdom in the establishment. After being released without being charged, I watched an angry Museveni berate a stoic and composed Linus Kaikai during an interview where he called the journalist “the evangelist of civilisation”. I must say that was some quality journalism from Mr Kaikai.
The challenges of the Third World are well known and documented and will never be solved by posturing, deceit or cheap tribal politics. Rather, it will take selfless leadership, sacrifice and commitment on the part of leadership to inspire Africans, implement good policy and bring fresh ideas to create opportunity and lift the masses out of poverty and desperation.
I remember after the Madoff trial in New York last year, his wife was informed by a hair stylist that she was not welcome to the salon any more because of all the suffering her family had caused by fleecing citizens. I have no ill-will toward the president. I respect him as an elder statesman and like a father. But we must not tolerate bad behaviour from a councillor, governor or president. We must stand for truth, say what we mean and mean what we say. On Saturday, I expressed my displeasure with the goings-on in Uganda. At the risk of irritating comrades in attendance at mindspeak, I stood up for democracy. I spoke my mind. I have no regrets.
Story was published at http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1155612/-/c23vj8z/-/index.html
Monday, 25 April 2011
What to do about high food and fuel prices
With the concerns rising over high food and commodity prices, and now spilling over into protests and tensions in different parts of the world, a recent policy brief from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) suggests a number of measures that should be taken by governments and international institutions.
The IFPRI policy brief, Urgent Actions Needed to Prevent Recurring Food Crises, was released at the end of March 2011. The authors, Shenggen Fan, Maximo Torero and Derek Heady, point out that the elements of the global food crisis, experienced three to four years ago, are present in the current trends though not yet to the same levels. “Although many parallels exist, certain aspects of today’s world food situation differ from the situation in 2007–2008. Overall grain production and stock levels, particularly in developing countries, are higher compared with the levels then.”
In addition, they acknowledge that the previous crisis and present situation are caused by a complex web of factors which include the development of biofuels from maize, soya beans, sugarcane and other food crops, depreciation of the US dollar, rising oil prices, and extreme weather in major producing countries, as well as events such as drought and wildfires in Russia and floods in Australia. These in turn triggered responses like panic purchases, export restrictions and market speculation.
They observe that studies carried out since then show there are several lessons to learn, which should be used to inform current actions. So, they argue that “to prevent a repeat of the 2007–2008 food price crisis, proactive steps must be taken by governments of developed and developing countries, as well as interested institutions and organisations.”
The first of these actions is to formulate policies and make technology investments in the US and European Union (EU) countries that would encourage the use of non-food inputs, instead of maize and other grains, for the production of alternative fuels. “Reduction of the non-food demand for grains can also relieve some of the pressure on food markets,” assert Fan and his co-authors.
In developing countries, governments are advised to put in place social protection programmes to protect the most vulnerable groups against the effects of food crises. They cite that many countries failed or neglected to do this following the 2007-2008 crisis. In those countries, with no established programmes, it is suggested governments should begin with focusing on geographic areas with extreme hunger, and should draw on best practices from other countries. “Combined social protection and agricultural support interventions can lead to greater impacts on food security than either intervention alone”.
Governments should institute policies and support investments that promote agricultural growth, especially targeted at smallholder farmers. These should increase access to seeds fertiliser and agricultural technologies, lower costs in transport and marketing, improve rural infrastructure, and enable support services like research, extension and insurance. The policy brief notes that “the occurrence of the global food crisis has renewed attention to agriculture and spurred increased investment in the sector”.
Also, the aspect of climate change has implications for agricultural productivity and human welfare. So investments in adaptation and mitigation on top of the political will and commitment are vital things that governments should do to avert future food signs.
At the global level, the suggested measures include the establishment of an emergency grain reserve that would be managed by an institution such as the World Food Programme and stocked with donations from large food exporters as well as producers like US, Canada, France, India and China. While admitting that there would be challenges, the brief says “such a grain reserve system should be started on an experimental scale with relatively small reserves”. It is noted discussions on this kind of initiative have begun among countries of south-east Asia plus China, Japan, and South Korea on an emergency rice reserve.
The publication advocates for a transparent, fair and open global trade to enhance the efficiency of global agricultural markets. It calls for governments to eliminate barriers to trade. The argument is “although export bans may help to secure domestic food supply, they lead to tighter markets for other exporting countries and induce panic purchases by food-importing countries, both of which lead to further price increases and volatility.”
Also proposed is a working group of international institutions that will monitor food production, consumption (including for biofuels), trade, stocks, prices, and policies, as well as energy prices, input prices and financial market speculation. This group will respond in a coordinated way to trigger action against volatile prices and trends that would lead to a crisis.
Global food prices can have substantial impacts on domestic prices in many parts of the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, between June 2007 and June 2008, the average increases in staple food prices exceeded 60 per cent. Sharp increases in the prices of staple foods and uncertainty are particularly harmful for the world’s poorest consumers, who cannot adjust quickly to rapid price increases. “The research-based initiatives described,” the policy brief concludes, “should be a guide for a coordinated effort to stabilise food markets and thereby continue the reduction of hunger and malnutrition worldwide.”
--MWESIGYE GUMISIRIZA
The IFPRI policy brief, Urgent Actions Needed to Prevent Recurring Food Crises, was released at the end of March 2011. The authors, Shenggen Fan, Maximo Torero and Derek Heady, point out that the elements of the global food crisis, experienced three to four years ago, are present in the current trends though not yet to the same levels. “Although many parallels exist, certain aspects of today’s world food situation differ from the situation in 2007–2008. Overall grain production and stock levels, particularly in developing countries, are higher compared with the levels then.”
In addition, they acknowledge that the previous crisis and present situation are caused by a complex web of factors which include the development of biofuels from maize, soya beans, sugarcane and other food crops, depreciation of the US dollar, rising oil prices, and extreme weather in major producing countries, as well as events such as drought and wildfires in Russia and floods in Australia. These in turn triggered responses like panic purchases, export restrictions and market speculation.
They observe that studies carried out since then show there are several lessons to learn, which should be used to inform current actions. So, they argue that “to prevent a repeat of the 2007–2008 food price crisis, proactive steps must be taken by governments of developed and developing countries, as well as interested institutions and organisations.”
The first of these actions is to formulate policies and make technology investments in the US and European Union (EU) countries that would encourage the use of non-food inputs, instead of maize and other grains, for the production of alternative fuels. “Reduction of the non-food demand for grains can also relieve some of the pressure on food markets,” assert Fan and his co-authors.
In developing countries, governments are advised to put in place social protection programmes to protect the most vulnerable groups against the effects of food crises. They cite that many countries failed or neglected to do this following the 2007-2008 crisis. In those countries, with no established programmes, it is suggested governments should begin with focusing on geographic areas with extreme hunger, and should draw on best practices from other countries. “Combined social protection and agricultural support interventions can lead to greater impacts on food security than either intervention alone”.
Governments should institute policies and support investments that promote agricultural growth, especially targeted at smallholder farmers. These should increase access to seeds fertiliser and agricultural technologies, lower costs in transport and marketing, improve rural infrastructure, and enable support services like research, extension and insurance. The policy brief notes that “the occurrence of the global food crisis has renewed attention to agriculture and spurred increased investment in the sector”.
Also, the aspect of climate change has implications for agricultural productivity and human welfare. So investments in adaptation and mitigation on top of the political will and commitment are vital things that governments should do to avert future food signs.
At the global level, the suggested measures include the establishment of an emergency grain reserve that would be managed by an institution such as the World Food Programme and stocked with donations from large food exporters as well as producers like US, Canada, France, India and China. While admitting that there would be challenges, the brief says “such a grain reserve system should be started on an experimental scale with relatively small reserves”. It is noted discussions on this kind of initiative have begun among countries of south-east Asia plus China, Japan, and South Korea on an emergency rice reserve.
The publication advocates for a transparent, fair and open global trade to enhance the efficiency of global agricultural markets. It calls for governments to eliminate barriers to trade. The argument is “although export bans may help to secure domestic food supply, they lead to tighter markets for other exporting countries and induce panic purchases by food-importing countries, both of which lead to further price increases and volatility.”
Also proposed is a working group of international institutions that will monitor food production, consumption (including for biofuels), trade, stocks, prices, and policies, as well as energy prices, input prices and financial market speculation. This group will respond in a coordinated way to trigger action against volatile prices and trends that would lead to a crisis.
Global food prices can have substantial impacts on domestic prices in many parts of the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, between June 2007 and June 2008, the average increases in staple food prices exceeded 60 per cent. Sharp increases in the prices of staple foods and uncertainty are particularly harmful for the world’s poorest consumers, who cannot adjust quickly to rapid price increases. “The research-based initiatives described,” the policy brief concludes, “should be a guide for a coordinated effort to stabilise food markets and thereby continue the reduction of hunger and malnutrition worldwide.”
--MWESIGYE GUMISIRIZA
Monday, 4 April 2011
Note to Self: What CAN does, What CAN'T doesn't
A milk vendor used to sell milk on his motor cycle in a town. He was carrying four milk cans, two on each side of his vehicle. One day, while he was calling on a house, two students approached his motor cycle and pushed frogs one each in two cans.
The happy frogs started finding themselves in a tight position. The frog in one of the cans studied the situation. It made a SWOT analysis.
His strength was – to swim effectively in any liquid. He recollects from his "WISDOM BANK" that most difficult times come only for a short time and will not last long. He starts swimming and swimming and finds himself sitting on a butter lump formed due to the churning action of his swimming. He is now safe for a while. When the milk vendor opens the cans for his next call, the frog leaps to his freedom.
The frog in other can does not turn on his attitudinal bulb. He blames the student for his misery and started cursing him. He blames God for making him so small that he can neither lift the lid of the can nor he can drill a hole in the can. With all these negative thoughts, he eventually drowns in the milk and dies.
What is the moral of the story? It is about ATTITUDE.
While the first frog was a ' I CAN' person with a positive mental attitude, the other one was a ' I CAN'T ' person. You can be a "CAN" or 'CAN'T' person. The choice is with you alone. No one except yourself can make you a 'CAN' or 'CAN'T' person.
A Winner is NOT one who NEVER FAILS......But one who NEVER QUITS!!!"
Many people spend their whole life in overcoming their weakness… But they forget it is only possible by strengthening their strengths... Let us work on our strengths such that any problem can be converted into opportunity and be a positive person...If we are positive ....then surely we would be able to see negative energy in others...too.....
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process".
The happy frogs started finding themselves in a tight position. The frog in one of the cans studied the situation. It made a SWOT analysis.
His strength was – to swim effectively in any liquid. He recollects from his "WISDOM BANK" that most difficult times come only for a short time and will not last long. He starts swimming and swimming and finds himself sitting on a butter lump formed due to the churning action of his swimming. He is now safe for a while. When the milk vendor opens the cans for his next call, the frog leaps to his freedom.
The frog in other can does not turn on his attitudinal bulb. He blames the student for his misery and started cursing him. He blames God for making him so small that he can neither lift the lid of the can nor he can drill a hole in the can. With all these negative thoughts, he eventually drowns in the milk and dies.
What is the moral of the story? It is about ATTITUDE.
While the first frog was a ' I CAN' person with a positive mental attitude, the other one was a ' I CAN'T ' person. You can be a "CAN" or 'CAN'T' person. The choice is with you alone. No one except yourself can make you a 'CAN' or 'CAN'T' person.
A Winner is NOT one who NEVER FAILS......But one who NEVER QUITS!!!"
Many people spend their whole life in overcoming their weakness… But they forget it is only possible by strengthening their strengths... Let us work on our strengths such that any problem can be converted into opportunity and be a positive person...If we are positive ....then surely we would be able to see negative energy in others...too.....
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process".
Friday, 18 March 2011
9 Things Successful People Do Differently
Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.
Motivational psychologist, author of Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals
Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer -- that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others -- is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
Here are nine things successful people do differently:
Get Specific
When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight" because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague -- be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10 p.m. on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.
Seize The Moment To Act On Your Goals
Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide in advance when and where you will take each action you want to take. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g. "If it's Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work"). Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300 percent.
Know Exactly How Far You Have Left To Go
Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress -- if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently -- weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.
Be A Realistic Optimist
When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.
Focus On Getting Better Rather Than Being Good
Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality and our physical aptitudes are fixed -- that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong; abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.
Have Grit
Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking -- well, there's no way to put this nicely -- you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.
Build Your Willpower Muscle
Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body -- when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.
To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching or try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up or just not bother, don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur (e.g. "If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.
Don't Tempt Fate
No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it, you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time. And don't put yourself in harm's way; many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.
Focus On What You Will Do, Not What You Won't Do
Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g. "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior; by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, "What will I do instead?" For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like this: "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.
It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember: You don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.
This post originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review. I got it from www.huffingtonpost.com
Motivational psychologist, author of Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals
Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer -- that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others -- is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
Here are nine things successful people do differently:
Get Specific
When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight" because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague -- be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10 p.m. on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.
Seize The Moment To Act On Your Goals
Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide in advance when and where you will take each action you want to take. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g. "If it's Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work"). Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300 percent.
Know Exactly How Far You Have Left To Go
Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress -- if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently -- weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.
Be A Realistic Optimist
When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.
Focus On Getting Better Rather Than Being Good
Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality and our physical aptitudes are fixed -- that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong; abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.
Have Grit
Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking -- well, there's no way to put this nicely -- you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.
Build Your Willpower Muscle
Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body -- when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.
To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching or try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up or just not bother, don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur (e.g. "If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.
Don't Tempt Fate
No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it, you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time. And don't put yourself in harm's way; many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.
Focus On What You Will Do, Not What You Won't Do
Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g. "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior; by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, "What will I do instead?" For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like this: "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.
It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember: You don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.
This post originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review. I got it from www.huffingtonpost.com
Friday, 4 March 2011
Note to Self: All the 5 Signs Are There
This is more of a note to myself (and any reader of this blog who feels this situation). So, I'm posting so that I can keep referring to it frequently.
Five Signs You May Be Sabotaging Your Writing Career
by Writers Relief Staff on 1 March 2011
Many professional writers credit their success to both hard work and to being in the right place at the right time (note: Writer’s Relief can help with the latter!). But sometimes, being in the right place and working hard simply aren’t enough. Unless you’re truly open to success, you’ll have stacked the deck against yourself even before the cards are dealt! Here are five signs that you might be self-sabotaging your own writing career.
Sign #1. Writing doesn’t make you happy anymore. Maybe, at some point, you truly loved your work. But lately, your stories feel flat. You find yourself twitching and getting distracted when you’re supposed to be working, and when you finish a piece, you don’t get that lovely glowing feeling that follows a big accomplishment.
SOLUTION: Get back to basics. Stop and assess where your listlessness is coming from. What used to make you happy about writing that isn’t making you happy now? Make a list of what you love about writing, and read it before you sit down to work. Then, focus on what you love, and let the rest go.
Sign #2. You don’t feel your writing is strong. Perhaps you have many publication credits, perhaps you have none. Either way, you’re feeling down about your writing—and that feeling is leaking into the actual words you write.
SOLUTION. Time to reevaluate how you look at your work. Take drastic measures to do whatever it takes to begin to love your own stories and poems. Ask friends and family to tell you what they like about your work. Make a list of what you like about it. When you love your writing and are confident in your own talent, your chance at success improves!
Sign #3. You sit down to write, but there’s no inspiration to be found. You want to write but your fingers remain quiet on the keyboard. How will you become a well-regarded writer if you’re not writing? You’re caught in a downward spiral.
SOLUTION: Time to reinvigorate your muse—but there’s absolutely no reason to do it alone. Find a local poetry reading series—even if you don’t write poetry, you’ll be inspired. Join a writing group or a book club. Just being around words that inspire you—or even words that fail you and make you long for something better—will revive your muse. Also, consider going to an art museum or a concert, or take a class on glassblowing. Sometimes changing the direction of your creativity, if only for a moment, will reinvigorate your passion for words.
Sign #4. A great opportunity comes your way—maybe a literary agent is interested in a book project, or an editor wants to publish one of your poems, but she or he requests a few revisions. You worry. You worry so much that you end up sending multiple emails to the agent or editor in a single day. You call and pester. When you finally do get in touch with the agent or editor, you’re cranky and suspicious—you question everything. You feel you’re not getting enough attention. You think you’re being mistreated. You wonder why literary agents and editors aren’t taking you seriously and why good opportunities dry up.
SOLUTION: Your nerves may be blocking your path to success. Time to relax—but also to be aware of your own proclivity to botch situations that could help your career. When in doubt, treat people as you want to be treated—with trust, patience, and kindness.
Sign #5: You’ve finished your book, short story, poem, or essay, and after a period of procrastination, you send your work to a handful of literary agents or editors. Rejection letters ensue. You think: Well, I’ll send it out to a few more people, but then you don’t actually do it—or you do very little. Your work, which you suspect is quite good despite your handful of rejections, languishes and remains unpublished.
SOLUTION. Rather than relying on vague goals (I will send out my work), it’s time to make concrete, specific goals and stick to them (I will send my book to X number of agents per week/month). Tell others who will hold you accountable to check in with you and encourage you to stay on track (and remember to be nice to them even when it feels like they’re nagging you). Then, even if the prospects look glum, you won’t lose momentum.
Writer’s Relief can help you if you’re having a motivation problem. We keep our clients writing and submitting. Our system works and gets results!
BOTTOM LINE: This list of five signs of sabotage are symptoms of deeper issues. If you’re self-sabotaging your writing career, it’s time to do some deep introspection. Although you’re going after success, is there something that’s keeping you from getting it? Journal, listen to your own voice, and learn what may be blocking you.
Originally published here
Five Signs You May Be Sabotaging Your Writing Career
by Writers Relief Staff on 1 March 2011
Many professional writers credit their success to both hard work and to being in the right place at the right time (note: Writer’s Relief can help with the latter!). But sometimes, being in the right place and working hard simply aren’t enough. Unless you’re truly open to success, you’ll have stacked the deck against yourself even before the cards are dealt! Here are five signs that you might be self-sabotaging your own writing career.
Sign #1. Writing doesn’t make you happy anymore. Maybe, at some point, you truly loved your work. But lately, your stories feel flat. You find yourself twitching and getting distracted when you’re supposed to be working, and when you finish a piece, you don’t get that lovely glowing feeling that follows a big accomplishment.
SOLUTION: Get back to basics. Stop and assess where your listlessness is coming from. What used to make you happy about writing that isn’t making you happy now? Make a list of what you love about writing, and read it before you sit down to work. Then, focus on what you love, and let the rest go.
Sign #2. You don’t feel your writing is strong. Perhaps you have many publication credits, perhaps you have none. Either way, you’re feeling down about your writing—and that feeling is leaking into the actual words you write.
SOLUTION. Time to reevaluate how you look at your work. Take drastic measures to do whatever it takes to begin to love your own stories and poems. Ask friends and family to tell you what they like about your work. Make a list of what you like about it. When you love your writing and are confident in your own talent, your chance at success improves!
Sign #3. You sit down to write, but there’s no inspiration to be found. You want to write but your fingers remain quiet on the keyboard. How will you become a well-regarded writer if you’re not writing? You’re caught in a downward spiral.
SOLUTION: Time to reinvigorate your muse—but there’s absolutely no reason to do it alone. Find a local poetry reading series—even if you don’t write poetry, you’ll be inspired. Join a writing group or a book club. Just being around words that inspire you—or even words that fail you and make you long for something better—will revive your muse. Also, consider going to an art museum or a concert, or take a class on glassblowing. Sometimes changing the direction of your creativity, if only for a moment, will reinvigorate your passion for words.
Sign #4. A great opportunity comes your way—maybe a literary agent is interested in a book project, or an editor wants to publish one of your poems, but she or he requests a few revisions. You worry. You worry so much that you end up sending multiple emails to the agent or editor in a single day. You call and pester. When you finally do get in touch with the agent or editor, you’re cranky and suspicious—you question everything. You feel you’re not getting enough attention. You think you’re being mistreated. You wonder why literary agents and editors aren’t taking you seriously and why good opportunities dry up.
SOLUTION: Your nerves may be blocking your path to success. Time to relax—but also to be aware of your own proclivity to botch situations that could help your career. When in doubt, treat people as you want to be treated—with trust, patience, and kindness.
Sign #5: You’ve finished your book, short story, poem, or essay, and after a period of procrastination, you send your work to a handful of literary agents or editors. Rejection letters ensue. You think: Well, I’ll send it out to a few more people, but then you don’t actually do it—or you do very little. Your work, which you suspect is quite good despite your handful of rejections, languishes and remains unpublished.
SOLUTION. Rather than relying on vague goals (I will send out my work), it’s time to make concrete, specific goals and stick to them (I will send my book to X number of agents per week/month). Tell others who will hold you accountable to check in with you and encourage you to stay on track (and remember to be nice to them even when it feels like they’re nagging you). Then, even if the prospects look glum, you won’t lose momentum.
Writer’s Relief can help you if you’re having a motivation problem. We keep our clients writing and submitting. Our system works and gets results!
BOTTOM LINE: This list of five signs of sabotage are symptoms of deeper issues. If you’re self-sabotaging your writing career, it’s time to do some deep introspection. Although you’re going after success, is there something that’s keeping you from getting it? Journal, listen to your own voice, and learn what may be blocking you.
Originally published here
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