Tag: blog

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Experiences on Integration: 1

Welcome back to Red Breast’s blog after a long break!! It’s been hot here in Portugal lately – I hope the rest of you are enjoying a more cool summer somewhere out there, even if I doubt it.

News. I am working on a new project - a book. In the coming weeks I will posting extracts here … So stay TUNED!  This book is about my experiences trying to integrate into different societies.

This not an embassy-approved manual of vaccinations needed, nor a best-practices guide of how to hob-knob at a local cocktail party. It lays bare the psychology of being a stranger in a foreign society. All is based on personal observations and experiences without referencing solely previous works, neither statistics nor research.

Who might this be for? For anybody who is interested in understanding what lies beneath the stereotypes of encountering and living in new societies.

I hope this no-nonsense account will give you more perspective of the true values, interests, preferences, strengths and weaknesses of living abroad than a regular travel book. Because the best truth, is what happened.

I lived my first 25 years in Finland, before moving first to The Netherlands, then to the UK and France now Portugal.

Back soon ...

 

Photo by Alex Paganelli

 

 

 

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Be True to Yourself – Speak Up Now

Are you somebody who sits back and says nothing when something really needs to be said? It could be an idea, a suggestion, an observation, a criticism ... but for some reason you don't want to speak up. Well, I was.

Some people might say like staying silent is the wiser choice – and it does apply to some situations.
But there are a few reasons why despite the risk, standing up is a good choice.

‘You must feel the fear and speak your mind anyway. Then act in spite of fear. Act in spite of anything.
So often people sit back and say nothing when something really needs to be said. Speaking up is an important form of honesty – for yourself’

 

gandhi

Think about fear. Why are you frightened? Imagine you feel in your guts that you want to say what you think. Say it, and it will bring you relief and release your emotions.
- If you stay silent it is usually taken as if you would agree. And if you don’t say what you wish, what could be further from the truth – it will later frustrate and create resentment in you.

You may not be alone in your thinking. Others may share your thoughts and opinions, but may be also unwilling or fearful to speak up. By speaking your mind you also encourage them to voice their opinions. If you say something that is considered irrelevant and unimportant then you voiced your opinion anyway: and if this is criticized in the group – it is a sign that the dialogue is not open.

Speaking up demonstrates that you will be truthful not only with other people, but with yourself. And when you practice this – it will flow naturally to speak up as your confidence improves, even if you would be an introvert.

 

Photo by Ricardo Mancía

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Journalists Packaging it All For You – Meet the Press

The world is in chaos, but luckily the all-knowing, wise, reliable, transparent reporter is here to hold your hand.

You don’t even have to think for yourself – they will do it for you. And give you

  • The way you should approach the issue
  • The underlying problems
  • What the solution is

Ain’t that nice.

But hang on…do you think Brexit is working? You can’t mean that surely. And what about Trump?! Get a grip on yourself. You don’t mean to tell me that guy has some point in something he is uttering.

Don’t you dare … you must surely be

  • Combative
  • A Nationalist
  • A Populist
  • Confrontational
  • Anti-EU
  • Anti-Establishment

 

Photo by Elijah O'Donell
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Life Quotes

The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.
— J.M. Coetzee

Look at me if you wish, you won’t find anything I haven’t discovered for myself and come to terms with. I’ve probed my depths: you’re free to try too if you want to. Provided you do not expect it to give you any claim on me.
— Andre Brink

Perhaps it does us good…to have a fall every now and then. As long as we don’t break.
— J.M. Coetzee

In my experience poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response. Like lightning. Like falling in love.
— J.M. Coetzee

The best thing a father can do is die when his son is in his teens. This is apparently the case with many world leaders and happened to my own father. The process ensured that he grew up extremely quickly into a responsible, hard-working adult.
— Geraint Anderson

 

Photo by Faye Cornish

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The Roman Character: Confidently Facing the Future, Conserving the Past

ROME NEVER FOUGHT TO IMPOSE a political idea or a religious creed. On the contrary, she left local institutions and manners of thought untouched.

In Rome's imperial expansion, self defence was accounted the first motive; but trade inevitably followed and the first motive was mingled with that of commercial exploitation. True, reasons of safety safety were sometimes alleged in order to hide greed and ambition.

Rome fought to 'impose the ways of peace' and by peace she meant the positive blessings of settled order and security of life and property.

We can't say that a religion such as the old Roman religion promoted greatly the religious development of man; it carried no intellectual appeal and was therefore unable to contribute a theology. But it is certain that with the associations and habits which clustered round its contribution to Roman character was great. Great men were almost canonized for their characters or for their achievements.

To the beliefs and manners of these days we must ascribe that sense of subordination  or obedience to exterior power, whether a god, or a standard, or an ideal, which in one form or another - marked the Roman to the end.

To the same source must be traced the feeling for continuity which preserves the constant, assimilates the new and refused to break with the past. For the future could be be faced with greater security if the values of the past were conserved.

 

Photo by Vek Labs