Haiti is a small nation which has been devastated about 10 years ago by a terrible earthquake. Thousands of people were left homeless, families lost parents and children across all generations, homes were destroyed and businesses wiped out. In a nation that was already poor such an event is a catastrophe.

Hospitals, telecommunications centres, water supplies, shelter are all badly affected in such events. Recovery is already hard but when surrounded by ocean on all sides and the whole community is affected, finding resources to bring about improvement is doubly difficult.

With no infrastructure to start the recovery, outside help was needed esoecially while people were still in shock from the terrifying experience of the strong earthquake and the lost of livelihoods, loved ones and basic necessities for survival. After a server earthquake, the aftershocks go on for days and days. They can be as strong as a new earthquake, bringing more fear to the survivors and any fresh damage to those few structures still standing.

Humanitarian aid poured in from around the world, to help the people of Haiti recover from this devastating event. Private individuals donated small amounts to charities and relief organisations, while some larger companies and organisations gave greatly of time, personnel and medical supplies, food and clothing and urgently needed materials. The mainstream volunteer groups and charities like the Red Cross, Save The Children, Medecins Sans Frontier were there. Other international bodies such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation assisted. Some nations such as Cuba sent over 200 doctors. Larger nations such as USA or the EU gave more in the way of support, funds, personnel and supplies. Many famous celebrities made large personal donations while many governments also contributed financially. John Travolta personally flew his private plane bringing 6 tons of food and medical supplies, along with medical personnel and ministers.

But in the midst of all the confusion it was found that some unscrupulous people took advantage of the disorder and distress to exploit the situation. They used it to abduct children for their child trafficking ends. These stories are covered elsewhere, shocking as it may seek, child traffickers used the opportunity to smuggle children out of the country.

So what can be done about it?

Operation Toussaint tells the story of how one man, Tim Ballard, became involved in people smuggling. He went to Haiti to investigate and save children who were being trafficked. Tim started an organisation called the The Underground Railway.

Another person’s answer was to educate people about Human Rights.

After World War II, the united Nations put together a document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its purpose was to help prevent further outbreaks of war and injustice, to better conditions around the world.
Dr Mary Shuttleworth took this Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She travel the world lecturing and teaching people about their rights.

You can find out more here.

https://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights/

We live in crazy times.

For many of us, during lockdown, whatever part of the world we live in, we have had time on our hands in ways we never had before while busy earning a living, looking after the family, the job, meeting friends, worrying about things, shopping for clothes or not, depending on our budget. We have had to live quietly at home. No more gym, movies, date nights in restaurants or pubs, meet ups for coffee, play time with the kids in the park with their friends, church services and church socials or clubs and hobbies.

Amazing things came to our view. The water in the canals in Venice ran clear. Silvery fish darted here and there; dolphins swam in water where only gondolas went before.

You could hear the birds in the silence of the traffic that ran no more. The air pollution over northern Italy disappeared off the maps.

People panicked over toilet paper. Tins of sardines were rationed. Flour became more valuable than gold dust.

But as people sat at home and turned to the internet, they discovered another world hidden away behind the glossy view of glamour and glory in Hollywood, the high flyers and powerful.

Human Trafficking.

July 30 is World Day Against Human Trafficking.

What does this mean to you?

One of the most consistent and well regarded internet marketers is Jim Cockrum. He is the author of several books and courses and different programs for making an independent living on line.

One of his earliest books is his famous “Silent Sales Machine” which has been updated and kept fresh and relevant. It is now in its 10th version.

Jim himself successfully lives the life of an online business man making an abundant living from multiple income streams on mutliple platform, including eBay and Amazon, from home, all while living the internet life-style at home with his wife and 5 children who are home-schooled.

So Jim Cockrum knows what he is talking about from personal experience. With his work ethic and desire to help others succeed, he gains huge satisfaction from helping others also achieve their freedom to pursue their own goals, give back to their communities and help others.

That was the decade that was.

And so we wish for a new decade where freedom rises from the conflicts and confusions of yesterday to a brighter dawn in a better world.

A new generation faces new challenges to make the world thrive and survive on a better level than we have known before — or even just to maintain existing levels in a bigger world population than the earth has ever had to sustain within living memory or anything an archaeologist can find out about.

We need to build new technologies and develop new businesses to turn our throw away waste in to resources for our survival, to unlock the hidden potential in nature’s forces all around us such as wind and wave power, geothermal heat sources, the carbon capturing possibilities of algae in the oceans, to make climate control ethical.

With these thoughts, I wish you a wonderful decade starting with 2020.

May your dreams come true.

It’s the newest diet and the best one for you at that.

What’s more it’s simple, fast, cheap and easy to do. No extra meal prep time, no special recipes, No extra shopping, and no washing up after it’s all over.

So, what’s the problem?

None i can see.

It’s the method Dr Jason Fung of Toronto in Canada uses to handle his kidney patients and help them lose weight, recover from diabetes and other conditions

It’s an epic story from a far away country and a time long ago.

But it tells of eternal truths, a legendary love that defied ancient tradition and deadly enemies and still inspires a nation. It tells a tale of love and hate, of honour, integrity and courage, of vicious intrigue and violent death in a world where people learn to smile at father murderers and sit with back stabbers.

And all set in the painted beauty of Korean palaces with their ancient, curving roof tops, wooden trellis panels, sliding doors and carved stone sculptures; court ladies who float in and out of scenes in long, elegant dresses all awhile the men, dressed in long flowing silk jackets over their trousers and high black horse hair hats covering their top knots, defend their territories, protect their loved ones and fight for freedom or for power.

The story of Dong Yi is based loosely on the lives of people who really lived in the times of the Joseon dynasty in Korea under the King, Sukjong, around the end of the seventeenth century. It is the story of a girl who rose from the lowest rank to become favourite concubine of the king, the most powerful ladies of the court despite her lowly start in life and the mother of the next King of Korea, a king who was exceptional in his time.

This story is told beautifully. It is fictionalised because little actual detail of these character’s lives was recorded at the time. Even so, many of the details of daily life, the landscape and culture are authentic. They are backed up by some amazing martial arts fights, elaborate court music scenes played on traditional Korean instruments, with entertaining dance displays from the palace dancing girls.

It is a story of freedom fighters, fighting back against oppression and evil, against injustice and the final triumph of good over evil.

Yet it is done with honour, without vicarious violence or soft porn love scences. All the more commendable!

It is a television series of 60 episodes, yet it is so gripping just through the skillful drama and story telling of the scriptwriter and director that many people who watched it could not stop until they had watched all 60 episodes. And quite a few went back to the beginning and have watched it over and over again.

It is a series that never stops giving from the incredible acting of Han Hyo-Joo as the legendary Dong Yi and Ji Jin-Hee as King Sukjong.

It is a surprising find on YouTube where you can find all 60 episodes with English subtitles or find on Netflix.

i wish you many hours of delightful viewing, tears and laughter and moments of beauty.

There is a doctor who herself had an illness,

Her illness was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis.

Because she was a doctor in a large hospital which specialised in multiple scleroris, she herself was in the position to receive all the best, the most modern treatments available for this disease in America.

Her physical condition continued to degerate till one day, her doctors warned her that she would soon be at the point of no return. She knew what this would mean. She would no longer be able to work to support herself or her young children, she would not be able to afford more medical care and eventually she would not even be able to look after herself physically.

Her situation was desperate.

Using her rmedical knowledge, she looked into all the medical research papers she could find to learn about her condition.

What happened next?

One of the biggest recent changes in education has to do with how we learn to read and write and how this is taught in schools.

There have been many sweeping changes in our Western way of life introduced after the war.

Television arrived. People from one end of a country to the other listened to the same programs, watched the news, followed the soaps, loved and laughed at the same figures, together. And as they did, they began to talk and think and dress the same way. People moved into cities away from the countryside, schools got bigger and school budgets smaller.

One of the biggest and most profound changes to take place was to do with how our children are taught to read.

The tried and tested Phonics approach went out the window and kids were left floundering,

The result is that many children leave primary school unable to read properly.

Diane McGuinness tackles this head-on in her book “Why Children Can’t Read” And What We Can Do About It.

Her analysis of the changes in the education system in the English speaking world in recent generations is vital to understanding what went wrong and why.

Hers is not a narrow view. She compares the development of spoken language and the reading and writing systems developed in such different languages and cultures as Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Sumerian, Russian, Hindu, Arabic, Hebrew cultures, cultures both present and past and brings it together into a simple, logical system that works.

This is one of the most vital books you can read if you want to understand a key factor in development and continuing existence of our culture.

Being able to read and to write are vital skills in our modern world.

Individual prosperity and cultural richness are interdependent, built on a bedrock of language, spoken and written and read with understanding.

The Silk Road has fascinated me ever since I first heard about it.

The ancient route across Europe and the Middle East, across Asia all the way to China.
Legendary Marco Polo travelled the road nearly a thousand years ago across lands that were unimaginable to those who lived at that time,

A journey on horse back, camel back and even yak, over snow-capped mountains and rocky passes, through deep valleys and wide open, vast deserts, stopping only at remote caravanserais for rest, water and some conversation. it’s a life so different to our western world today.

What was it like then? Joanna Lumley takes an adventure through time to show us a glimpse of life as it once was lived by so many, as it has been for hundreds of years before and still is for a few following their traditional way of life.

Our modern Western world has gone through many changes. We can see so much with the touch of button and a good internet connection that we can see it all sitting at home.

Is that the same as the smell of spice in the bazaar, the colours on the ceiling of the mosque, the feel of the handmade carpet.

When you look into how to take care of yourself and your health, there is an ocean of information out there. Where to start?

There are so many approaches and conflicting ideas, that it is hard to understand what works and who to believe. Wherever you look there are conflicts of interest.
Profit driven companies sell their breakfast cereals to children who love the taste. While the cereals are full of toxic weedkillers that the child consumes along with milk from cows pumped full of antibiotics.

Most doctors have little information about nutrition, it is not a part of their medical training, so when confronted by disease, they only have one route to take — the drug route.

So who knows what actually works or used to work before the scene got muddled by men with dollar signs in their eyes.