Reflections from the Village Bard
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A well-loved singer Jean Ferrat left his imprint on the French conscience permanently through his songs and made them aware of all the injustices in the world, but he also sang about beauty and love. The most poignant songs that touch your heart Ferrat was born in Vaucresson, Hauts-de-Seine, the youngest of…
Women face many discriminations and exploitations because they are considered the weaker sex in many patriarchal cultures where they are still struggling for their basic right to education and gender equality. They suffer bias and many prejudices that fail to recognize them as equal partners in the development of their society. Granted women have…
The shortage of doctors, high cost of hospital care and medicines plus long wait to get the required treatment in a good hospital hurts poor people more than the rich. The universal healthcare system in some countries shows the way to cover everyone in need through taxation and strict control of prices of…
The intolerance of other ideas expressed in books has led to massive book burning in many countries under authoritarian rule. You will never know your past history if it is systematically erased by those who want to rewrite it. This practice of intolerance to new ideas and contrary views has now become outdated…
Our world is full of evil people who do harm to others in order to gain riches and power. Such people start modestly in their early life but gain notoriety progressively as they become more evil and become more powerful. They are a scourge that infects humanity that destroys many lives and puts…
LGBTQ people It is true that some people are born with attributes that are different from the rest of us, who fall into the category of LGBTQ. They also live a life of their own although in many parts of the world they face discrimination based on religious and other forms of…
The corruption eats away the national wealth that can be used in the development of the country yet it is a worldwide phenomenon that needs intense scrutiny. This is about corruption and how to deal with it. When I used to go to college every morning, I used to cross the bridge on…
We have discarded many good things in the name of progress that allowed poor people everywhere to be self-reliant and earn a living and made it easier for the big and powerful industries to take over the void and push their anti-poor agenda. The post looks back at what we have lost. I…
Stephen Bantu Biko (18 December 1946 12 September 1977) was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s.( This my painting ) A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody,…
Behind the glitter and glamor of the circus, there lurks a dark shadow of cruelty to animals that are made to perform for us under duress so I would like to make people aware so that they learn to treat all animals kindly. When we were children, we loved to go to the circus…
In any system, patriarchal or not where the male child is favored over the female leads to sheltering the child that inhibits the growth of his personality and his resolve to overcome his obstacles in life. This is the sin that should be avoided. I often end up discussing why some people succeed…
We learn about our past in the history books and are influenced by what we learn. We tend to believe what we read but it has been proven many times that the historians were often biased in favor of the ones who ordered them to write about them. This looks at the reason…
Stephen Hawking, the scientist Many people are unfortunate to be born with a disability while others get it in wars or accidents. Some like the famous scientist Stephen Hawking developed the disease that made his life so difficult and there are those who develop post traumatic stress disorder( PTSD) that makes it difficult…
The news media are full of crimes committed everyday somewhere so people become inured to such news but crimes are a social phenomenon that have their origin in the degradation of the social life of people due to economic pressure and the opportunity for stealing public money. The punishments given to criminals are…
Is it really worth living a life of crime? The criminals think so until the day comes when they cant think anymore when it is too late to make amends. The post looks at why some people choose criminality as their ticket to success and the consequences that await them . Recently a…
We often see simple ordinary people thrown in jail for minor infractions in many countries so they suffer needlessly and come out with trauma that bedevils them the rest of their life. The punishment given to anyone should be proportional to the offense so a reform in the penal system is needed to…
Everybody wants to live in a decent home somewhere but not everybody can afford it so what do the poor people in this world have to do to find one? This looks at some of the alternatives for the very poor people . I was watching many videos in the U tube recently…
We have come to accept the age of international trade as a fact of life and expect to find in the market a wide range of goods imported from somewhere. The volume of trade grows each year that supports millions of people who make things for the export market . If the trade is…
The escalating cost of healthcare in many countries is hurting the poor people the most because they do not have the medical insurance and do not have the money to pay for the hospital care so they die needlessly of common treatable diseases. The hakims and the traditional herbal doctors do a real…
I think it was in 1972 when Fidel Castro came to Mostaganem, Algeria where I was working at that time. The whole town had shown up to welcome him and the Algerian president Boumedienne. There were barricades and policemen controlling the crowd. The town had been scrubbed clean before they arrived in their…