Rani Rashmoni statue at the Esplanade, Kolkata (cc) Wikimedia Commons
India’s independence struggle is a long, hard struggle filled with many heroes and some heroines who have attained almost mythical status in the decades that have since passed. However, it is easy to forget that many acts of individual courage and small victories led to the massive success on Aug 15, 1947.
Here is one such individual and victory Continue reading
my religion is kindness (cc) sharyn morrow
Criticism is always a hard thing to do. Actually, let me rephrase that. Good criticism is hard. In my mind, good criticism is the kind that enables a discussion around something which allows BOTH parties to learn from each other and evolve their views/actions without feeling like they won/lost. That one is really difficult to do since we all get caught up in “I am right, you are wrong, and I will prove it so you can become better” mentality that only results in everyone feeling hurt enough to further dig in to their own positions even more strongly than before.
Brain Pickings, one of the best aggregator for all-things thoughtful and interesting in the world of books, has a great piece: How to Criticize with Kindness: Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently that provides some tips on how to criticize Continue reading
Appropriate technology is working tech + local contextual use…
Iron (cc) Jeff Elkins & The Atlantic
The Atlantic’s The Good-Luck Charm That Solved a Public-Health Problem: Warding off anemia with small iron fish provides how it (IT – pun intended) can work.
The public health problem:
In 2008, Christopher Charles was living in Cambodia and researching anemia. The condition, which is commonly caused by iron deficiency, afflicts roughly half of Cambodia’s children and pregnant women.
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds, Continue reading
Appreciative Inquiry Process (cc) Chris Corrigan
Recently came across an interesting AI (no, not Appropriate IT…that is not the only AI in the world you know ;-)) – Appreciative Inquiry.
From The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist pg 131:
In their book Appreciative Inquiry: Toward a Positive Theory of Change, they suggest we shift our frame of reference from one of “problem solving” to one that seeks to identify the sources available in any collection of people for inspiring, mobilizing, and sustaining positive change. Continue reading
Ah, here is what I want to be…when I grow up. ;-)
I don’t think education is about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the process establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity.
Neoteny, one of my favorite words, means the retention of childlike attributes Continue reading
