Independent Skies Magazine 10th Issue

tenth issue

| 2 | Independent Skies Magazine | Issue 10 Feb 2013

4. TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF EVENTS AND MEETING MANAGEMENT

Christopher Chakwana

14. AN EVOLVING REFLEC-TION ON bEING A MEMbER

OF GLObAL COMMUNITY AND DEFINING AN IDENTITY

syed Mafiz kaMal

8. THE COLOR OF REpRO-DUCTIVE FREEDOM

anastasia karklina

| 4 | Independent Skies Magazine | Issue 10 Feb 2013| 4 | Independent Skies Magazine | Issue 10 Feb 2013

of evolution of live meetings setup to strategic events were venue design, destinations and participant experience and event marketing will create a conducive atmosphere for business leaders to make bet-ter decisions in industry. The reason for this change will be driven by addressing the meet-ing attendees needs, wants, and concerns, and connecting meeting participants physical-ly, intellectually, and emotion-ally thus fostering the creation of business networks that will last beyond the meetings

Recent trends in meeting set ups are abandoning the tra-ditional set up and becoming technologically advanced in-corporating trends in the com-puter industry were the face

to face board room set up of meetings were people physi-cally meet are being seen as rather costly and an incon-venient and thus replacing these with Videoconferencing, Web based meetings and chat rooms as an easy way that by passes the normal face to face meetings. Currently this is be-ing done through the use of laptops and computers but these are slow, boring and lack reality that fosters the team-work spirit found in real life meetings. The advent off high speed internet access coupled with continued research in the field of computer artificial in-telligence will create three-dimensional technologies that will make video conferencing real thus creating that much needed atmosphere of com-

Technology continues to advance at an exponential rate and this is having a ripple effect to all industries in particular those in the field of events and meeting management where it has triggered research and innovation. Through the incor-poration of emerging trends in technology the meeting indus-try has evolved over the years and continues to do so from the traditional boardroom set up to a more exciting engage-ment of meeting participants thus helping in the creation of better decisions as that is the prime objective of meetings. This article serves to high-light how trends in the meet-ing industry will change within the next years that is in terms

TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF EVENTS AND MEETING MANAGEMENT | Christopher Chakwana

Christopher Chakwana

Innovation in architectural design is improving, incorpo-rating new design software’s that are coming up. In the near future this will influence the meeting industry allowing venue designers the capacity maximize on venue space by the production of real life de-sign models that simulate the actual venue set up before ac-tual construction hence giving them flexibility in deciding on what they want for their venue in order to create that much needed atmosphere of cre-ativity and learning associated with meetings. Event designers will also begin to tailor make venue designs for their partici-pants that is future meetings will be designed with the par-ticipants in mind, not the prod-

ucts or services being offered and this will help in generat-ing a memorable experience for them. The introduction of broadband wireless connectiv-ity connections will also rede-fine meeting venues. This is so because with the introduction of such high speed internet technologies meetings will not have to be confined to spe-cific locations thus taking the meeting venue anywhere from cruise ships to a winery aban-doning the current trends were meetings are set up in build-ings that have technological requirements that support the meeting setup and this will in turn lead to a stiff competition in meeting venues. Venues will be ranked and rated by meet-ing planners thus giving them the capacity to select the best

radeship. These new technolo-gies will allow people to expe-rience 3-D worlds and highly realistic renderings in cyber-space that will in turn create real time communication on almost any device like mobile phones thus abandoning the laptops and computers making meetings much more exciting and flexible. In most cases the video conferencing will mean less money spent by organiza-tions on traveling expenses and this will affect those in destina-tion marketing, as they will be a sharp decline in the use of their venues. However video confer-encing will remain disadvanta-geous as its application is rel-evant when dealing with small groups of people, when ap-plied to a large audience they tend to be slow and boring.


With the adoption of the use of social media like facebook, blogger, twitter just to men-tion a few in event marketing the event marketers will have the ability to market inexpen-sively to the targeted audience through the use of these social media. Marketing of meetings

will be more creative and will not be driven simply by what we have but it will be driven in part by what the target audi-ence expect. Instead of wait-ing for the actual meeting day to fill the audience in on the meeting content, event con-tent managers will give par-ticipants a sneak preview of what they are to expect thus creating a certain level of hype about the particular meeting before it is convened. Through the use of twitter hush tags in-teractive blogs and other so-cial media event participants will be given a chance to as-sess the content of the actual meeting presentations giv-ing them the chance to com-ment and ask questions to the speakers. Event participants will also use these social media to rank events by their con-tent and vote for their speaker of choice, event activities and other event details This will in turn create participant ex-citement foster participant in-volvement in meetings and in turn shape the crafting of bet-ter solutions during meetings. Through the use of interactive blogs event participants will get to know each other be-fore the actual meeting thus building a fertile ground for effective business networking.

venues for their meetings at much more affordable prizes thus giving event organizers the chance to maximize on the profits obtained through meet-ing participation. Venue rank-ing will also trigger destina-tion innovation as venue hosts try to improve on their facili-ties so as to attract business.


ing participants. Match making programs like Intro Networks (www.intronetworks.com), mobile devices and propri-etary hand held products like spot me (www.spotme.com) popular in singles scene will find their way in meeting event designs allowing meeting par-ticipants of the same likes and interests to discover each oth-er thus helping in the connec-tion of people which will in turn increase the value of meet-ings by fostering that much needed “team spirit ” which makes meetings successful.

Technological advancement and innovation in the holding of meetings will greatly af-fect the revenue models. As technology makes market-ing easy, technologies like radio frequency identification will provide many events re-lated applications like verifying the number of meeting atten-dance, catering count verifica-tion thus minimizing the costs incurred in the holding of very large meetings. Innovation in meetings will also mean event managers will strive to give participants a product that is unique and compelling and this is especially important at functions were there are reg-istration fees. Poorly planned meetings will mean reduced

attendance and subsequently less revenue and in a case were the audiences are sponsoring the event it will mean less reve-nue to payoff the debt incurred during the preparation of the event. In conclusion the above mentioned technological de-velopments are just a few of the breakthroughs that will revo-lutionize the meeting industry and these will help in creat-ing faster, better and cheap-er means of hosting meet-ings within the next ten years.

The meeting format will move away from a lecture kind of system were the event speak-ers simply talk to the partici-pants to a more interactive one were meeting speakers will en-gage their audience thus mak-ing the whole meeting climate interesting. Like the strategy used in marketing meeting participation will begin from the time the event is marketed. Event planners will use the so-cial media discussed above to create a community site were the event participants will en-gage in open dialogue about the meeting before and during the meeting. Meeting manag-ers will adopt the use of pod-casts, RSS feeds and twitter to get the meeting partici-pants talking as the meeting is in progress thus leading to a faster resolution of business deals. These blogs and online mobile survey will allow meet-ing participants’ feedback and voting during the event rather than waiting for surveys after the meeting. As meeting par-ticipants are more mobile and rather interactive the use of new blue tooth technologies that are being developed by software vendors will allow the sharing of information much more easily thus fostering social partnerships between meet-

About the Author of the Article

christopher chakwana is a final year student of textile tech-nology the National university of Science and technology in Zimbabwe. An avid blogger, poet and writer he likes to write on critical issues and about life in general.

blog links: www.scribbledn.blogspot.com

TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF EVENTS AND MEETING MANAGEMENT | Christopher Chakwana


the Color of reproduCtive freedoManastasia karklina

When I first stumbled across the news on supposedly forced sterilization of Ethiopian women in immigrant communi-ties of Israel, I was outraged. To think that “population control” could be practiced in the 21st century is incomprehensible. The story kept growing, taking a life of its own, and blurring the line between objectivity and sensa-tionalism. A number of stories published in Haaretz referred to the injection of long-lasting con-traceptive, known as Depo-Pro-vera, as “an inconceivable crime” carried out through coercion and deceit. Another Haaretz article by Alison Kaplan Sommer countered these allegations. The author is likely correct about certain inac-curacy of reporting caused by the collective hysteria that followed the release of the story into the Israeli public. Nonetheless, a fair amount of uncertainty, which re-quires further inquiry and investi-gation, remains. This issue brings me to the discussion of an impor-tant historical and particularly racially complex discourse on the implication of the aforementioned

drug in the lives of women of color WORLDWIDE.

The use of Depo-Provera has a long history of not only affecting but also targeting women of color in poor, predominantly non-white communities worldwide. Specifi-cally in the case of Israel, Sommer attempts to clear up the miscon-ceptions surrounding the issue that was narrated as an attempt to engage in “some kind of villain-ous genocidal plot of sterilization aimed at ethnic and racial cleans-ing.” Contrary to other reports, Sommer claims that the origi-nal television program revealed that the Israeli government only strongly encouraged Ethiopian women to choose long-lasting contraceptive. Since Israeli fami-lies are typically smaller in com-parison, such choice would assist Ethiopian families to successfully integrate, Sommer argues. Som-mer is correct at least on one account: the media has largely constructed a single narrative that suggests that the Israeli govern-ment willfully engaged in an attempt to moderate the popula-tion growth of Ethiopian Jewish community in the state of Israel.

Such claims have been made both in Haaretz and Huffington Post, even though the majority of West-ern mainstream media sources have not engaged in this discus-sion. Various reports mention that Ethiopian women represent 57 percent of the total number of the contraception users, while accounting for only two percent of the total population of the state. Further, that confirms the fact, The Independent argued, that birth-control injections were ad-ministered without either knowl-edge or the consent of Ethiopian women. This is why, according to the media, Prof. Ron Gamzu of Health Ministry instructed health care facility in Israel to halt all injections of Depo-Provera. Accordingly, attesting to that is the fact that the birth rate among Israel’s Ethiopians has decreased by 20 per cent in the span of ten years. Whether it will be proven that any of these allegations have neither basis nor merit is an open question that will hopefully be answered in the weeks to come.

Yet, it is no surprise that me-dia allowed a possibility of such allegations because it has long been clear that often policies that

THE COLOR OF REpRODUCTIVE FREEDOM | ANASTASIA kARkLINA


continue the decades-long history of occupation and systematic op-pression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government are inherently racist. As Emily L. Hauser notes in her recent piece for The Daily Beast, the Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel have faced racial preju-dice and discrimination since as early as the 1980s. Hauser argues that the core of the issue is deeper than “simple and striking racism,” since Israel has long struggled accepting those differing from the Ashkenazi culture (Jews of pri-marily Eastern European origin as defined by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). She concludes by asking what would our response be if such contraception were be-ing forced on Jewish women in any other country.

While Hauser has a point, it is important to understand that the discussion of the possibility of forced sterilizations is inherently racial. If anything, the complexity of the issue is deeply rooted in the unrelenting legacy of racial su-premacy established by the Euro-pean imperial project and colonial Christianity. It is no coincidence that the point of departure in Hauser’s view of the construction of the “Other” within Israel is the

“othering” against the norm of whiteness, the “Europeanized” Ashkenazi culture. It might be that this connection that Hauser makes discussing the historical process of negotiating the Jewish identity might not be accidental.

The reality is such that historically it is almost exclusively the bodies of women of color that have been the battlegrounds for the contro-versy of the long-acting contra-ceptive. The scenario, in which a group of white women would be subjected to forced injections of contraceptives, is unimaginable. And so, Hauser might wonder what would our public response be if such contraception would be forced on Jewish women else-where, regardless of whether the case in Israel has any basis or not. In fact, such scenario is non-exis-tent or incomparable (to experi-ences of the established “Other,” the marginalized, the poor, the immigrants and people of color in general) for those who have been fixed within the enduring racial hierarchies and subsequent white-skin privilege that places one within that norm of whiteness.

The nature of Depo-Provera comes across as alarming, if not deeply troubling, in itself. The

drug has been widely adminis-tered to women of color and poor women by its original manufac-turer, Upjohn Company. Various activist organization, for example, Committee on Women, Popula-tion and the Environment or INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, cite a 1994 study that claims that 33 percent of Depo-Provera users in the U.S. at that time were under the age of 19, while 74 percent were low in-come and 84 percent were Black women. Potential health hazards mentioned range from breast cancer to osteoporosis, loss of bone density, cervical cancer, etc. In fact, U.S. Food and Drug Administration had previously banned the contraceptive until it finally came under pressure after twenty years of lobbying from the manufacturers. Such ban was lifted in the early 1990s. While the drug has been condemned by number of women’s rights orga-nization, Depo-Provera continued to be tested on African and Afri-can American women worldwide, according to organizations men-tioned above.

Who produces and benefits from the manufacture of Depo-Prove-ra? Pfizer Corporation is a phar-maceutical giant and the current


manufacturer of Depo-Provera that distributes the drug with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates. Earlier last year, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation raised $2.6 billion to distribute the contraceptive to women across the developing world, particularly in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, as a “remedy” for poverty. The concern pertaining to the possibility of widespread steriliza-tion abuses is not unwarranted. A substantial amount of academic literature has been dedicated to the exploration of Black women’s reproduction rights. In her book, Killing The Black Body, Dorothy Roberts sets to describe “a long experience of dehumanizing at-tempts to control Black women’s reproductive lives” as it pertains to the United States (Roberts 1999, 4). Roberts extends her dis-cussion to the historical use of the contraceptive in the Global South.

Historically, population control through sterilization has been rooted in the idea of the urgent need to preserve the white race by limiting reproduction of people of color. The contraceptive was largely administered to Southern Black and Native American wom-en in the United States, even be-fore its approval for contraceptive

use (Roberts 1999, 145). At differ-ent points in time, various experi-ments have been carried out in Thailand, India, Kenya, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru with financial support from the programs fund-ed by the US government and the United Nations. Roberts claims this drug was administered with-out “adequate patient counseling or medical supervision.” In apart-heid South Africa, Black women were pressured to use the drug as it was distributed at factories and farms, often facing threats of un-employment. In France, 20 per-cent of immigrants use the drug, as compared to only four percent of French-born women, Roberts argues (145).

Today, there is no evidence as to how Depo-Provera is going to solve the issue of poverty in the developing world. Yet what is crystal clear is that it is the young poor women of color who bear the consequences of being the guinea pigs of the big pharmaceutical experiment that inevitable brings corporate profits in the pockets of the very few.

To conclude in the words of Noam Chomsky, if we choose to, we can live in a world of comforting illu-sions. Whether the “sterilization”

case in Israel is truthful or not, we can dismiss the larger picture or we can engage with the deeper complexity of this topic in relation to reproductive rights of women as seen through the lens of race. What is interesting, however, is the account of Black-Jewish relations that Cornel West under-took in his book, Race Matters. West writes that there was no age that did not see tension between blacks and Jews. Yet, West con-tinues, there was what he calls “a better age” when “the common histories of oppression and deg-radation of both groups served as a springboard for genuine empa-thy and principled alliance (West 1993, 71).” Forced sterilization programs have a shameful his-tory of oppression of blackness, a campaign seeking to control black female bodies and their repro-ductive rights. We can choose to demand reproductive freedom and justice for all and that means demanding a diligent investiga-tion into the case of Depo-Provera not only in Israel but also in other countries of the developing world, where it is used as a strategy for poverty alleviation.


An Evolving Reflection on being a Member of Global Community and

Defining an Identity

As you read this post, the title of the article might come across as flashy. And admittedly it may be so. However the purpose is not to follow the title. The purpose of this post is to stimulate, relate and reflect on a notion that is very often experience but not critically put into perspec-tive: the notion of identity in a globalized world.I will not go on an overarching tangent of case studies and historical analysis to hereby make a point. I will take the opportunity to reflect on just the last week of my regular life experience and how to reconcile with an identity increasingly diverse and dynamic. Your identity becomes enriched as the world globalizes, and as you em-

brace the globalizing environment around you.To give a sense of where I am going, here is a note by Gianpiero Petriglieri, a true inter-national business executive, on how to de-fine home and yet embrace globalism: Mov-ing Around Without Losing Your Roots. I highly recommend reading it! He really puts the thought and argument in perspective.I just thought who am I? Briefly put: As of to-day, I am a young masters student of Interna-tional Relations at New York University living in New York City who went a liberal arts college in Mid-West America prior to which he went to in-ternational boarding high-school in Hong Kong with students from about 90 countries prior to which he went to a heritage school in western

syed Mafiz kamal

matter of reflection and choice, whether you choose to define yourself as a global human.I am sure you have friends from say Germany or Lebanon or Swaziland. I am sure you met trav-elers from the US or Japan or Afghanistan. Your work or your family’s work might have involved dealing with people from Indonesia or Nigeria or Egypt. No matter whether you are from a re-mote village in India or a shanty town in Brazil you probably use a “Made in China” accessory. The stories go on! But the point remains that they make you a member of the global village. Some of us are probably integrated deeper than others in the globalizing tornado. But question arises: how do we reconcile with this reflection?As for me, why go to any time in history, in just

India prior to which he went to primary school in southern Bangladesh who has lived and worked in Sierra Leone, Spain, Jordan and Viet-nam who’s younger brother studies in Spain…I promise I can install many more “internation-al” variables to elongate that sentence. And I am certain that over the upcoming years, there will be many more attributes and experiences relating to globalized world that may contrib-ute to defining my identity. And I am certain that I am not the only person who is capable of jotting down such definition while reflect-ing on self identity. All of you have your sto-ries and backgrounds to relate to. It’s simply a

AN EVOLVING REFLECTION ON bEING A MEMbER OF GLObAL COMMUNITY AND DEFINING AN IDENTITY | SYED MAFIz kAMAL


past week itself I committed acts which truly define me. I caught up with an old Pakistani friend currently living in Canada who I met in Hong Kong. I met an ex-US diplomat who shared with me some wonderful personal sto-ries about his encounter with Mother Teresa. I attended a climate change ThinkTank at the UN Unitarian Universalist office initiated by a German girl with a young international team from all over the world, namely: Chile, Venezu-ela, Canada, Micronesia, California-USA, South Korea and Spain, each of whom shared their unique personal perspectives on the matter.Two days ago I spoke about myriad issues comprising the definition of identity in 21st century to a Bangladeshi friend who went to an international school in India, went to a liberal arts college in the US, worked in Wall Street and currently at the World Bank. As I write this note, I am chatting about interna-tional law with a friend who grew up around the globe, to name a few places: China, In-dia, Morocco, Germany and Bangladesh, and is Barrister from the UK. I just linked a 1963 alumnus from my school in India with a friend from Portland, OR, USA because the friend’s family taught my mentor back in the 50s/60s in India and thereafter the family migrated to western USA, and now my friend is study-ing International Affairs with me in New York.These are just some selected one-line en-counters from past few days of my life. They are not the exceptional ones, rather the nor-mal ones. And I am just putting them in a per-spective. And I have no doubt that there are numerous other individuals who encounters such one-line stories every day. And these en-counters, stories, experiences and realizations make us the individuals of the realities of the globalized 21st century. They enhance our re-

flections and thought processes. They help us define notions such as home, nationality, heritage, citizenship, identity and roots. They object to the old ways of thinking about who we are. They provide opportunity and inspira-tion for us to rethink and exclusively embrace diversity to define ourselves as we may wish.Having said all that! On a random day, when someone asks me to introduce my-self, I typically say “my name is Onik. I am from Bangladesh, but(/and)…”.

Syed Mafiz Kamal

is a graduate student at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs. He is a native of Ban-gladesh. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Syed worked as the Global Logistics & Youth Assembly at United Nations Fellow for Friend-ship Ambassadors Foundation in New York. In his capacity he was the Youth Representa-tive to the United Nations. In addition to wide-spread travels, Syed lived in India, Hong Kong, USA, Thailand, Spain, Sierra Leone and Jordan.

Syed can be reached at [email protected]. For further information about Syed, visit www.syedmafizkamal.com

ISM pHOTOGRApHY COMpETITION

ISM Pho-togra-phy Com-petition


As the night dies away, as the sun embraces the world in a warm hug a new day has come. Grey hearts rise, the world is full of anxiety. The world has already been barricaded by hate, we need that which can make us feel a part of a world that has done more bad than good to hu-manity. Young people across the world cry out to be heard. Life is a beautiful tragedy, however the future of tomorrow utters in de-spair, their cries go unheard, the leaders of today have failed and it is up to the young people to make a better tomorrow. As the thought crosses every individu-al’s mind, hope is reborn when

screaming cries of freedom, liberty are heard. The world is anxious for social justice, a free society.. anxious for change and social responsibility. However, in order for all this to occur, world leaders need to include youths in the decision making process.It is significant to note policies and programs designed after consultation with users are more likely to be effective , as a result one is bound to conclude using youth participation you are more likely to get it right the first time and avoid wasting time and money on services young people don’t want to use. Giving young

people a place in decision-making builds a broader base of citizen involvement and creates stronger and more inclusive communities. Youth participa-tion is necessary in the develop-ment of active citizenship be-cause it balances young people’s social rights with their responsi-bilities. This is to a larger extent the most effective way to make the youths more active because the more we feel accepted and understood by society , it cre-ates an element that binds the society together. One of the most extraordinary things in this world is being a young leader but it is what you do with the


The Independent Skies team is pleased to announce the launch of our first Photography competition on the 25th of February.

There will be three phases to the competition:1- Submitting photographs (25th/Feb – 15th /Mar)2- Selection of the 3 finalists/ the finalist photos revealed

(16th / Mar – 25th /Mar)3- Choosing the Winner and sending prize

(26th/Mar – 5th April)*Note: The winner will be announced in our April issue

The prize:1- 50 Euros in Cash2- Trophy3- Independent Skies Poster

*Note: Will be sent to the winner wherever they are in the world

ISM PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

opportunity that makes a differ-ence. Youths in decision making process contributes to positive youth development and we have challenges like violence, drug addiction , lack of social respon-sibility and the primary cause being the youth. In reference to my previous statement its signif-icant to note youth participation and being included in decision making process challenges nega-tive stereotypes of young people and help break down barri-ers between adults and young people. Involving young people in decision-making can improve attitudes towards understanding about young people and create

a greater awareness of youth is-sues in an organization.“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a life-time. Young people must be in-cluded from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth sev-ers its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.” —Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nation. Words from a great man reports from United Nations state that youths in decision making implies a radical change in youth-adult relationships in all spheres of life including the family, schools, local communi-

ties, programs, social services, and local, regional and national government. A commitment to respecting the participa-tory rights of young people is incompatible with the age-old propensity. It is vital to note giving youth the power in deci-sion making does not necessarily mean we are divorcing power from the adults, including the youth is a sign of social develop-ment that can lead and grow to many things such as better deci-sions and outcomes.

Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe

ISM pHOTOGRApHY COMpETITION

The prize:1- 50 Euros in Cash2- Trophy3- Independent Skies Poster

*Note: Will be sent to the winner wherever they are in the world

Stay tuned to our facebook page to know about our judges in person as they get revealed, and for more details about the competition!!!!

May this be the first of many photography competitions to come,The Independent Skies Team.

ISM PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION


“We are proud to announce our new sec-tion on Independent Skies monthly issues.

This section is dedicated to scribbled notes blog, which will include a poem from their

blog on every published issue.http://www.scribbledn.blogspot.com/

We hope you’ll enjoy their poems as much as we do!!!”The Team,

Independent Skies Magazine

The misnomer of ‘better’words of advice for my mir-ror image.. i see you, Lady in the Mir-ror ever concerned about Be-ing Better i’ll give you a hand then this is what being better is not Being better is not having the last say in a quarrel or delivering the blow that kills Being better is not having the upper hand or conniving to stay that way Being better is not owning the appeal of a coarse voice or the sharpness of a sleek tongue. Being better is not yelling the loudest or expertly throwing dag-gers with your eyes or how large your fist is or the charisma in your gait.

Being better isn’t the price of your perfume or its scent carrying with it pomp and circumstance Being better isn’t in your last name -Your tribal inheritance or which chunk of the coun-try you hail from Being better isn’t lording your wealth over others or using the sound of your accent to label them lowly. Being better isn’t in how well You manage your high heels or how far you’ve trav-elled From your hometown it isn’t in being a certain race or boasting a certain com-plexion within a race Being better isn’t reserved for those of the first world nor is it lodged in your background.

Being better isn’t being the best or being the worst or abiding in the security of mediocrity Being better isn’t about Comparison But about exchange. Being better is understand-ing how common you are how fragile good fortune is and that chance -like mu-sic- is universal a gift awarded us by the grace of God. Being better is stainless elation when your best friend gets married first Being better is admiration when your nemesis wins the race Being better is blameless pride when your sister succeeds in changing the world. is there someone you

don’t like? and for no particular reason? Being better is neutrality with all -if not outright fondness For that stranger who could be a beautiful person Believing that everybody is magnificent acknowledging that your worst enemy is only so Because of the weight of his worst days extract the color of discrimi-nation from your vision View the world in black-and-white For you are the same as your worst enemy and his too -You are human.

tebogo ndlovu

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Independent Skies Magazine 10th Issue

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