The Fight for Freedom

                                                      (Allied forces in a landing craft, 6th June 1944)

It’s 75 years tomorrow when allied forces landed in the vast beaches of Normandy, France. Several European nations came together after Germany occupied France. These brave soldiers waged a decisive battle against Adolf Hitler and his German forces entrenched in occupied France, and their bravery finally fostered peace in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Whether we have been able to achieve enduring world-wide peace is still up for discussion at a later date, but the Allied forces put an end to the gory adventures of Adolf Hitler, and many of us live in relative peace today. The fight for freedom was encapsulated in a moving speech by William Churchill on May 18 1944, he said:

‘’We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory despite all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.’’

The United Kingdom, under the leadership of William Churchill, joined the rest of Allied forces to fight against a force so brutal it is intent on the total annihilation of several nations of the world. The Allied forces worked towards the goal of defeating the enemy on 6th June 1944.

They are our heroes.

The world is not totally at peace, but what we have today is a luxury we can only dream of if Adolf Hitler’s dream to rule the whole world was realised.

Let us rejoice today, and hopefully, the coming days will see a more peaceful world free from slavery, racism, poverty, murders, hatred, and petty human emotions that inhibit living peaceful lives.

NP: I haven’t been able to update my website due to health issues, work commitments, and postgraduate studies. I have respite for a few months and would endeavour to post more articles and would also visit many blogs as much as I can.

Much love, always. 🙂

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The Theory Of A Second

 

(Photo credit: Flickr)

‘Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods, Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.’ Robert H. Schuller.

A second makes a year, and in fact, it makes a lifetime! When you calculate every second of our lives, add that to decisions we make in split seconds, and there, that’s our lives all tidied up and going in seconds. That’s all it takes to cross over to the New Year, just one second. And that got me thinking about decisions and the much-celebrated New Year’s resolutions.

We all have to make choices in life, and when doing that, that’s when the seconds ticked by. From the second we decide whom to marry, to the second we choose our careers to when we define our life goals, the seconds are counting.

We can make the seconds of our lives count by weighing up our options, and in the case of the young Saudi Arabian woman who renounced Islam and barricaded herself in a hotel in Thailand, she must have decided to run away within seconds. That decision will now change her life.

Thankfully, the UN has approved her refugee status, and Australia is keen to allow, and process Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun’s asylum application. This brave young woman made a decision that ultimately changed her life.

So whatever you do this year, make the seconds count!

It’s 2019 folks!!

Smile, It’s Christmas!

 

That Special Dream…

(Photo credit: Flickr)

‘A dream doesn’t become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.’ Colin Powell

Everybody has a dream, at least I think so. Some dreams are easy, go to work, come back home, take care of your kids, and you’re clean. Some dreams need getting used to; those kinds involve the lives of others, maybe a nation, a state, or a council.

Take Theresa May, for example, the nation is hooked on her decision, whatever happens with Brexit will go down in history. As a nation, we attach the success or failure of Brexit to the Prime Minister. As the country and the rest of the world waited with bated breath at the deliberations going on at Number 10, I wondered what the Prime Minister must be thinking. As a journalist, I wished I could ask for an interview and ask her how she felt to be in the eye of the storm. And as I penned these words, everyone at the cabinet meeting represents us. And what about the other side of this divorce process? The EU officials in Brussels are also having their meeting while they waited for the UK to announce the decision to either go with the draft agreement or dump it.

When the decisions you make can affect the lives of others, then you have a peculiar dream. You have to climb a pedestal to reach those kinds of dreams and if you fail? You take many people down with you. Those kinds of goals are unique. However, a parent doing two jobs, training her children to be outstanding citizens also deserves an accolade.

I love Oscar Wilde’s quote,

‘To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist that is all.’

You have to live to make a mark in the world, to make a difference. How can we live? How can we find our purpose in life? You can find your purpose in life when you find out what drives you. What do you love doing? My mum loves teaching, she eventually ended up as a teacher and later the head teacher. I have a cousin who loves taking care of sick people; she ended up being a doctor. She goes to the hospital with a smile on her face every morning because she’s found her purpose in life and that gave her the impetus to get up in the morning and make a difference in people’s lives.

I hate slavery of every form. Modern-day slavery, abuse of any kind makes my blood boil. I detest human trafficking and prostitution. I hate every form of injustice. However, how can I correct these anomalies? Through the written word, the dissemination of information. It’s what I call enlightening. People are always afraid of what they don’t know, but when there’s knowledge, a lot of wrongs could be rectified. I believe that’s one of my purposes in life.

A few years ago, on my way home from work, I went shopping. As usual, I bought more groceries than what was on my list. So instead of taking a bus home, I called a cab. Immediately I entered, the cab driver gave me a wide grin. I’ve had a rough day at work, and barely held it together until I got home, I was bone wearied, the epitome of exhaustion, so I wasn’t in a mood for a chat. But my cab driver looked relaxed and was beaming.

‘My name is Shan, Miss, what is yours?’ He asked throwing me a wide grin, and as his eyes darted to the car mirror, our eyes locked briefly. I gave a tired grunt.

I told him my name, and he kept on talking about how he loved London, going to the park with his family and relatives and how he loved his job.

Out of curiosity, I asked,

‘What’s your purpose in life?’

Without hesitation, he answered,

‘To make people happy, to make people glad they entered my cab.’

That caught me off-guard. I thought Shan would tell me about making money and being rich. That cab guy has found his purpose in life.

Have you?

 

Our Scorned, Scorched Planet!

 (Photo Credit: Flickr)

Scientists have now issued a warning that in a couple of decades, some parts of our planet may become uninhabitable. I beg to differ, some parts of our world are already uninhabitable. Our patched, long-suffering planet has endured human’s degradations for millennia; we don’t care about our world; we hate each other and are so quick to point out our differences, perhaps I am doing the same thing, but this article is meant to be constructive.

I don’t mean for this article to pander to any group of people but everyone. Recently, I watched a film titled, ‘Knowing’ and it’s about our world being destroyed by a massive solar flare which inevitably made the earth uninhabitable and in a creepy twist of fate, scientists are echoing the same thoughts. They are not predicting a solar flare will obliterate our world as we know it, they are warning us about climate change, but what they aren’t telling us to change is our attitude to everything on this planet.

 (Photo credit: Google)

Humanity has descended so low that everything is about race and religion, and this is so sad. I wanted to write an article about love, bravery, and selflessness but I am finding it increasingly difficult to do so. A young boy lost his life in a house fire today in South East London, and yet on Yahoo, people were commenting on the colour of his skin and his parents’ race? It’s unbelievably sad.

There’s an increase in knife crime among black youths in London, and when a young life is lost, people hardly care, and that same attitude is unequivocally linked to our lack of empathy. We have grouped ourselves into white/black Muslim/Christian Catholic/Protestants etcetera. And it’s the same around the world, we have created this sick, twisted ideology we’re better than the next person if we belong to a particular race or religion.

There’s divisive politics, people hate with their eyes but smile with their teeth. We are so petty and care only for ourselves. We satisfy our cravings for depravities in the most deplorable fashion possible it’s laughable.

I am keen to see a time when we would truly love one another with no inhibitions. Sadly, it’s a human condition, we are suspicious and find it difficult to relate to people who don’t look or think like us. However, there is that basic instinct that connects us all, our DNA. It differentiates us from animals, the ability to think, feel and vocalise our emotions through words. Maybe animals love and feel (I’m not an expert on that) but not on our level, and I suppose the ability to express our feelings should make us a better entity. We should be able to take care of our environment and the people around us.

I am an optimist, but just as our earth is groaning under the burden of our selfishness and nonchalant attitude toward climate change, maybe, we will finally be able to do something together and eschew our petty differences.

Climate change is real!

The Grace of a Nightingale: An Odyssey Of Survival

 

photo of woman wearing white hat

Photo by Pete Johnson on Pexels.com

I had the wonderful privilege of reading an inspiring article on Arrow Gate’s website. The post was about a nonfiction book written by a woman with a big heart. Mary Anne Willow. Her memoir titled, ‘The Grace Of A Nightingale’ would be published soon.

Mary Anne touched on many things, depression, divorce, suicide, hope in the midst of despair and vaginal Mesh, a procedure recently suspended due to the complications many women faced when they had it done. You can’t hide what’s in your heart, and Mary Anne’s got lots to share with the world. Why not click on the link below and read about this? And maybe when the book’s out, you would all read the story of this awesome woman.

I can’t wait to see this memoir in print. It depicted the resilience of the human’s spirit. We need books like this in the world.

That’s all for now friends.

I hope we’ll all enjoy the rest of our weekend.

Much love, always! 🙂

via The Grace of a Nightingale: An Odyssey Of Survival

Walking The Green Mile

                                                                        (Photo credit: Flickr)

‘The Green Mile’ is a 1996 serial novel written by the prolific writer Stephen King. I watched the movie a few days ago and the finality of the film astounded me. The film also expounded on living, healing, empathy, racism, supernatural, love, and friendship,

Someone once wrote that we’re all on death row, it’s a price we have to pay for being alive. The important thing is, have we lived at all?

Now today, I would like to write about living your life to the fullest. Which brought me to this song ‘Forever Young.’ I loved it when it came out, the only song by ‘Jay-Z’ that I understood, although I must confess I don’t know the lyrics to most of the rapping but it’s a song that filled me with nostalgic memories.

Growing up in the idyllic town of Ilorin in Africa, life was simple and filled with lots of laughter. There was this carefree attitude to things, I believed I would be forever young. I was a bookworm, if I wasn’t singing in the church choir, you’ll find me in choreography practice. I loved my growing-up years.

Now twenty-five years later, things I took for granted then are so important now. The fierce sun blazing relentlessly on my pale skin, the cold December month squeezing the blood out of my lips, running away from my mum after plundering the pantry, checking my dad’s room for loose coins, chasing after my cantankerous brothers, watching horror films with my favourite brother and, daydreaming about the future!

What did I miss? Oh yes, my first kiss! Oh, my! That was something else, and I won’t be getting into that now. I am discovering new memories; I am telling new stories with my family, friends, and people I associate with.

The thing with life and living is, every moment is significant, and we need to cherish it. As we walk down the green miles of our lives, let’s leave a jolly legacy.

I intend to do just that.

I believe everyone would have a wonderful Bank holiday, at least here in the UK. If you’re my friend and reading this from other parts of the world, have a blast this weekend! 🙂

Much love, always!