The black queer community certainly has a lot to be proud of these days. From sports to television, from music to advocacy, there’s a growing number of Black queers who are making moves in their respective fields, while courageously living out loud. Here, we salute a few of the LGBT trailblazers who are doing the work of creating and redefining culture.
If you’ve been in an elevator or a waiting room, you’ve heard “The Girl From Ipanema.” It’s the song that made the bossa nova famous!
The story goes that Antonio Jobim and Vinicius Moraes were sitting in a bar in Rio de Janiero, drinking and watching girls, when suddenly the gorgeous Heloisa Eneida Menezes Pais Pinto passed by and the two men, overcome with inspiration, scribbled the song down on a napkin for her right then and there.
Except, that’s not the entire story.
Turns out, Jobim and Moraes were working on a musical comedy called Dirigível (or Blimp, in English) about a Martian who lands in Rio during Carnival. And what might most impress a little green alien about Earth? Why, a lovely young lady in a bikini, of course! The songwriting duo figured Helo Pinto was just about the finest representation of earthly beauty this planet had to offer. Their musical Blimp never did take off, but “The Girl From Ipanema” lives on as the second-most recorded song in the world after The Beatles’ “Yesterday.”
So there ya go. The song isn’t really about a creepy old dude leering at a barely legal teenager, after all; it’s about a horny Martian!
Comedian Kevin Janus and I tell you all sorts of other fun facts about Brazil — and we even have ANOTHER special appearance by Steven Seagal! — on the latest episode of the Where The F**k Are We comedy podcast (WTFAW for the kids on iTunes and on Stitcher). Have a listen!
We asked some current and former volunteers with America’s Unofficial Ambassadors about the most useful things they packed for service abroad, or what they wish they had packed after they arrived. What we got were some surprising answers and, in the process, some lessons about what it means to be an effective volunteer overseas. Here’s the top five items that stood out on their packing list.
5. Nice Clothes
Whether you’re volunteering in a remote village or an urban center, the fact remains that being a volunteer is a job, one that you’ll need to take seriously if you want to gain the respect of the people and the community you’re serving. That means dressing the part.
People often imagine volunteers working abroad in tie-dyed t-shirts and flip-flops (okay, the flip-flops are sometimes true) but it’s wise to pack at least a couple outfits of so-called “office attire” before you go overseas. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should wear a suit or an expensive dress, but having a few dressier articles mixed into your travel wardrobe can make a big difference.
In fact, you’ll probably need them on your first day of volunteering abroad because that’s when you’ll likely meet your local supervisor, not to mention the people you’re there to serve. It’s also fairly common for volunteers to get invited to community events that call for a bit of dressing up. Invites to weddings, family gatherings or dinners — particularly if you’re serving in a Muslim community during Ramadan — all require you to look presentable.
4. Construction Paper, Crayons, Stickers
If you’re a volunteer teacher or working with kids, it’s wise to think about the extra supplies you’d like to bring into a classroom for lessons or for arts and crafts. Even just a few sheets of colored construction paper and crayons can open up a range of possible games and activities for your students but those items might be hard to find where you’re heading. Volunteers also reported getting a lot of use out of small items like gold star stickers, glitter and glue sticks.
Sports equipment should get an honorable mention here too, though it is often difficult to pack. Inexpensive items like a Wiffle Ball set, an old pairs of kid sized soccer cleats or a soccer ball can be especially useful if you’re volunteering in a summer camp or anywhere else you’ll need to organize activities for young people.
3. Sealable Plastic Bags
Keeping your belongings dry, clean and free from creepy crawlies is sometimes tough to do if you’re volunteering in a remote area. This is particularly true for storing that stash of Power Bars or snacks you might keep in your room, or for keeping your toiletry items clean. In rainy climates, a sealable plastic bag is also handy for keeping valuable items from getting soaked, like your passport or health insurance card. It helps to have bags in different sizes as well, a large one for documents or files you need to keep safe and smaller ones for your personal stuff.
2. Postcards from Home
Being a volunteer abroad is about a lot more than the actual scope of your service work, it’s also a chance for you to be an ambassador representing your community and, in a larger sense, your country. Depending on where you serve, you might be the first foreigner some of the folks around you have ever really gotten to know and part of building a relationship with them means sharing about where it is you call home.
Postcards are an easy, cheap and effective way to do that. Consider bringing a selection of inexpensive cards with cool pictures that you can use for “show and tell” or to give to people as a nice gift that they’ll remember. Even if you’re faced with a language barrier, those pictures will help you tell the story of who you are and the place you represent.
1. A Laptop
Deciding what kind of electronics to bring with you during your service can be tricky. Very often, volunteers want to use their service time as a chance to unplug, to get away from emails and social media. There’s also the worry that computers could be damaged or maybe even stolen while abroad.
Still, a lot of service placements out there will require you to use a computer at least a few times a day. You might be tasked with typing up lesson plans for your next ESL class or charting out a communications strategy for a local grassroots organization, all of which means sitting down in front of a keyboard. The computer skills you have, even if it’s just a basic understanding of Word or Excel, can provide substantial benefits to the people you’re serving.
So, it’s wise to bring your own laptop and be ready to apply what you know computer-wise in a new setting. Just remember to keep it safe and dry during your time abroad.
Your laptop is also your best way to stay connected during your service with people back home and to share your story with a larger audience. Keeping a blog is a great way to let everyone know where you and what you’re doing, and it’ll be something you can look back on when you get home.
What would you bring for a service role overseas? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think the most useful item on your packing list would be.
This summer, 10 million children are enjoying time at camp — half at one of the more than 2,400 accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA). The derivatives of these experiences have been cataloged in ACA’s Directions research report. Among other positive benefits, the data reveal that young people attending summer camp identify gains in confidence, self-esteem, social skills, independence, adventurousness and leadership.
Is that why they’re so darn happy? Well, those personal gains plus fun activities such as swimming, archery, songs around the campfire and walks with new best friends.
But there’s also something more nuanced going on in these unique experiential environments that spurs positive youth outcomes across five key spheres:
1. Team Building
2. Academic Enrichment
3. Workforce Development
4. Environmental Stewardship
5. Health and Wellness
In particular, summer camps are infused with the core concepts of positive psychology developed by Martin Seligman, past president of the American Psychological Association, and growth mindset, advanced for decades by Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University.
Seligman’s 2002 book Authentic Happiness (Simon & Schuster) encouraged focus on not just mental illness but also on joy, total engagement (or “flow”), accomplishment and well-being.
Sounds like summer camp to me.
More recently, psychologists Karen Reivich and Jane Gillham of the Penn Resiliency Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center have applied tenets of the practice to build protective factors in youth to ward off mental health issues further down the road. According to “Positive Psychology for Kids: Teaching Resilience With Positive Education” in US News & World Report (June 9, 2009), Reivich and Gillham’s work addresses links between self-talk, both negative and positive, and important educational outcomes.
In this way, these efforts mirror an increasingly popular form of mental health counseling called cognitive-behavioral therapy, which — in part — addresses dysfunctional emotions.
At Penn, a key ingredient of success has been identified as the simple prospect of hope, or the overall perception that one’s goals can be met. They point to three necessary ingredients of hope: goal-oriented thoughts; pathways to achievement; and agency thoughts (positive emotions) and state that research has linked hope to higher academic and athletic performance and better adjustment.
Intrinsic to hope is resiliency — or the ability to handle setbacks, including failure.
Two recent articles, Paul Tough’s “What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?” (The New York Times, September 14, 2011) and Scott Adams’ “Secret of Success: Failure” (The Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2013), also highlight the value of struggle.
Once again, camps demonstrate primacy in creating “safe places” where young people can venture outside of their comfort zones, face failure without judgment, learn from the experience and bounce back to bigger and better things. In turn, that process engenders feelings of competence and hope.
States of mind are also the key to Carol Dweck’s pioneering work on “self-theory,” which informs one’s motivation to learn and degree of resilience. She talks about fixed and growth mind-sets, the latter framing intelligence as influenced by learning rather than as a static construct. According to Dweck, individuals with growth mind-sets thrive on challenge and benefit from goal-setting and feedback (Mindset: The New Science of Success, Ballantine Books, 2006).
Extrapolated to the summer camp setting, counselors promote growth mind-sets and build resiliency in children by praising effort as opposed to ability; demonstrating that intelligence, learning ability and athleticism are not fixed at birth; expressing confidence in campers’ ability — and giving them the tools — to improve; and creating environments in which children take responsibility for their own learning.
These concepts form the basis of the learning model at Camps Kenwood & Evergreen in New Hampshire and Everwood Day Camp in Massachusetts. Founder Scott Brody says, “Children are born with innate drives to help others, make social connections, solve problems and acquire knowledge. Our job is to nurture those characteristics by intentionally communicating to campers our belief in their capacity to grow as human beings.”
Many of these same strategies also resonate in the leadership-development programming at Camp Rising Sun (CRS) in Rhinebeck, New York. At CRS, learning is predicated on exposing youth to real problems in a diverse social setting. “This experiential model involves a cycle of ‘Do-Reflect-Redo,’ requiring immersion in an activity the learner is fully invested in,” according to Patrick O’Malley, M.D., board president of CRS’s parent organization, the Louis August Jonas Foundation.
Perhaps most amazing is the fact that camps have been delivering on this value proposition for 150 years – while the kids think they’re just having fun. Or as ACA CEO Peg Smith put it, “The magic of camp can be found in the transformational lessons learned while children are fully engaged in enjoyable, fulfilling activities and relationships.”
Whether they know it or not, long after this camp season ends, millions of young people will move confidently toward adulthood armed with the skills and frame of mind to experience lives of success and service — making them the proverbial happy campers.
Ed Gillespie downplayed the difficulties of living on the minimum wage in a video of the Republican Senate candidate speaking to voters in Virginia Beach.
“A minimum wage job is where you learn to get to work on time. It’s where you learn the great feeling at the end of a week of getting that paycheck, of knowing you gave an honest week’s work. It’s where you learn the social aspects of work,” Gillespie said in a video recorded by a Democratic tracker and obtained by the Richmond, Virginia NBC affiliate. “It’s where you play on the work softball team or go out for a beer after work.”
Gillespie, who doesn’t support a federally mandated minimum wage, said that most minimum wage workers aren’t heads of households. He said lawmakers should “find a way to help” those struggling to make ends meet on a minimum wage salary “without destroying their jobs and the other 97 percent of [non-household-heading] minimum wage earners’ jobs as well.”
Though few may head households, most minimum wage workers live in households that make less than the national median income, around $50,000 annually.
Gillespie also cited a Congressional Budget Office report that said raising the minimum wage nationwide to $10.10 an hour could result in a loss of 500,000 jobs, though the report has been controversial. A new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, for instance, shows that states in which the minimum wage increased saw higher job growth.
While many states have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and some cities and companies are raising their minimum wages, an effort to do so nationally has stalled in Congress.
HuffPost Pollster’s data shows Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who supports a nationwide increase in the minimum wage, leading Gillespie ahead of the November general election:
Photo by Veronica Layunta Maurel
Have you ever felt as though you are being guided? You read a book that feels like it has been written precisely for you, you watch a film that reflects that exact question you have been pondering for ages, you hear some random words of wisdom that unequivocally show you what is next for you. It might take some time to learn to stop and listen to the signs — I found out the hard way — but when you do, you realize that the breadcrumbs were there all along for you to follow.
After being very ill with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) for over the last 18 months, I am now writing to you, and I must add, I am writing in full health. This blog post talks about the first of many breadcrumbs that I encountered on my journey and that I am now called on to share with the hope of shining some light on how rediscovering your purpose and shifting perspectives in your life can lead your way to healing and happiness.
Unwelcome Chaos: Who am I?
I had been overworking all my life, constantly gasping for more time to get everything done; pursuing I don’t know what exactly, approval, fulfillment, survival, happiness, dreams, security, independence, success, all at the same time — although everything, as always, is much more complicated than that. Sound familiar? I knew it was wrong but I did not know there was a different way. For the last five years I worked the longest hours as a university lecturer, I started pursuing my dream of becoming a writer and I completed an MA in creative writing and a yoga teacher training course. I did many other things, too. I was always active and had thousands of interests. Then, suddenly, I could do nothing. I crashed about a couple of years ago. Kidney infection, miscarriage, flu, bronchitis, a few more minor infections, extreme exhaustion and, finally, I was diagnosed with ME. I was bed-ridden for a few months and housebound for almost a year.
The suffering felt never-ending, catastrophic. My life appeared shattered in front of me, or what was left of me. Among all that devastation the first question burst in, Who am I now? I can’t work. I can’t teach. I can’t talk. I can’t read. I can’t write. I can’t do yoga. My thoughts escape me. My body screams in constant pain. Nothing that I do or don’t do relieves me. I am a burden. I’m of no use to the world. My body is a waste of space. My life as I knew it has ended. Who am I?
Meditation
There was one thing I could do, meditate. During meditation, I discovered the true essence of yoga. I repeated to myself -trying hard to dismiss the evidence against it — I am still a worthwhile human being with a purpose to fulfil in this life. Day in and day out, I would sit on my half-moon cushion listening to Deva Premal‘s mantras. Only through meditation I could find that space inside where I could be me again. A place with no pain, no illness, no suffering, a breather, a place where I was taken care of, the seat of pure bliss, for an instant. In this space, the second question came up one morning, clear and loud, the question wasn’t anymore who am I? The question was how can I serve? My overactive, logical-mind chuckled. You can’t even brush your teeth without feeling exhausted! However, every cell of my body relaxed at once. They knew, before my mind did, that I was heading towards the right direction.
Writing
My life purpose strongly pointed towards my lifelong passion: writing. But how could I write now? Short quotes on Facebook — that’s all I managed, and that’s what I did. Hardly a writer’s ambition. One day somebody thanked me for something I had posted. I had made her day, she said, my words were exactly what she needed to hear. More comments followed, my words made some people smile, think, dream. No matter my state of health, even if I never recovered, I felt my life could still have a purpose. I could serve others through my words. My healing process had started.
Odyssey Films Ltd
It was not a straight line. It was chaotic, confusing, scary but also deep, transformational, and luminous. My gratitude goes to Ayurveda, Mickel Therapy, yoga and meditation, mantra practice, perfectly timed books, inspirational films, a black cat who appeared in my back garden and never left, nature, and the love and support of my loved ones.
There is no better medicine than to stop navel gazing and start looking at the world around you. With the power of an ancient mantra, the same old question kept being chanted from within every cell of my body, how can I serve? The answer was becoming louder and louder. Write.
Odyssey Films Ltd. was born in this process. I teamed up with my husband, Rory Herbert, an experienced script supervisor who was ready to make his first step as a director. We shared the same vision, to produce films that were thought provoking, insightful, fiction and non-fiction that would ask the deepest questions about ourselves and about our journeys in life. We are currently working on our first project, The Eagle, which shines the light on surviving domestic violence through the empowerment of yoga.
A new life
Through my healing process I have experienced the biggest shifts and the greatest miracles (full recovery!) by redefining what a happy and successful life is to me. Success means now health, boundaries, honest expression, connection, sharing, creativity. After months of darkness, life has become a bright path that I cannot wait to walk and breathe.I hope you can follow me on my journey to recovery and also share the breadcrumbs that make your life shine with truth.
Every day in our daily lives, we see people who can’t afford to sustain themselves whether due to a physical, mental or other disabilities.
These people live daily on the streets in rags, with no food or shelter and with no health care. And most are constrained to making a living by begging alms; at the mercy of the populace.
Many times they are subjected to various types of abuses including rape, physical assaults, and kidnapping for rituals
But being rightful members of the Nigerian society, these people deserve certain privileges which are conferred on them by their fundamental human rights.
The government owes it to the less privileged, orphans and every single one of the people who are socially handicapped to be housed, protected and catered for.
A country who ignores the social welfare of her people cannot attain true national development.
Because according to the United Nations, a nation’s human development index is an essential component of development and this importantly involves the measurement of the living conditions of the citizens.
Nigerian governments needs to realize that every single citizen does not only have civil and political rights, they also have social rights!
And the onus is upon government at all levels to take up their responsibility of providing adequately for the welfare of people out there on the streets who can’t provide for themselves and also to defend those who are constantly been abused. A government is constituted to protect the rights of the people.
Government should guarantee that persons living with disabilities have access to quality health care and education without discrimination.
Government should take appropriate steps to ensure that persons living with disability have good standard of living and this include adequate food, clothing and housing.
Public Transport service should be operated in a way that would be accessible for persons living with disabilities.
Persons living with disabilities should be protected from discrimination, exploitation, neglect, violence, abuse, torture, cruelty or inhuman treatment.
For how long shall females who have psychiatric illnesses be raped and made to carry pregnancies with no care. There are countless stories of sexual abuses and physical assault on people living with disabilities.
I particularly remember the story of a girl with disabilities as told by the assistant head teacher of her school, her mother and sibling had brought her to the school for admission but when referred by the school to one specialized for the child’s disability, dumped and abandoned the child just as they stepped out of that school. And very sadly, the girl was raped by the hoodlums and social miscreants in that neighborhood.
People should start going to jail for abusing the helpless and disabled in our communities.
Public places such as banks, eateries, hospitals,schools, malls cinemas etc must be made accessible to people with disabilities with ramps and lifts knowing fully well that its not everybody that can climb stairs no matter how small.
Nigerians should be more considerate towards people with disabilities in queues by giving them first consideration.
Governments at all levels should setup vocational training centres to facilitate the acquisition of skills for the economic liberty of people with disabililties.
Governments have the responsibility of ensuring that social services are available those Non-Governmental Organizations play a major role in planning, organizing and providing these services, such deserving ngos should be supported by the government.
Development isn’t just about constructing roads, markets, school and proving electricity and schools, it’s also about ensuring that the poorest of the people are well catered for.
Development is both material and social and as a result all nations need both social and economic resources to achieve national development. Social services are an essential element of the social development in a country’s overall development
Social work plays a vital role in national development through empowerment of the vulnerable and disadvantaged people thereby reducing the gap between the poor and the rich.
Nigerian should take a clue from the western world by implementing good and effective welfare programmes for the less privileged as it has been found that most of the developed world have considerably lower poverty rates than they had before the implementation of such programs.
The Nigerian legislation is gradually warming up to protecting the rights of the people living with disabilities. In April, 2012, the Nigerian federal house of representatives passed into law a bill sponsored by the Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa for the Full Integration of Nigerians with Disability into the Society and Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Them”
Likewise in March 2014, the Nigerian Senate also passed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Bill. The bill which was sponsored by Sen. Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, seeks to protect the fundamental human rights of people living with disabilities.
Both laws prescribes financial penalties and jail terms for those who contravene them whether corporate bodies or individuals.
With the exception of Lagos, most of the other states in Nigeria don’t have laws yet protecting the rights of the people with disabilities but this has to change.
For how long shall people inflict pain and torture on those with disabilities just because they are seemingly weak and unable to defend themselves?
Ours need to be a community that is more sensitive, receptive and protective of the rights of people with disabilities because in the words of Nelson Mandela “to deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”
Dr Freeman Osonuga
Founder/Executive Director,
Heal The World Foundation Nigeria
freemanosonuga@htwfnigeria.org
www.htwfnigeria.org
www.twitter.com/freeman_osonuga
www.twitter.com/htwfnigeria
This post originally appeared on Reductress.com.
Three months after their first date, Shelby Dash and Patrick Whalen confirmed they are both “totally cool” with their decision to continue dating without putting any kind of title on their relationship.
“We’re just going on dates, texting incessantly, and relying on one another for comfort and emotional support,” said Dash. “Why try to define that?”
Whalen added that foregoing titles would keep their relationship light, fun, and unburdened by terms and conditions. “Labels complicate things,” said Whalen, who recently surprised Dash with a toothbrush to keep at his place. “We’re simply enjoying the benefits of dating without the pressures and behavioral responsibilities that come with defining it.”
The couple noted that, while taboo words like “boyfriend” and “exclusivity” would add unrealistic pressure to their relationship, they had recently opened a dialogue about the possibility of moving in together.
“We would both really benefit from the split rent, and my commute to work would nearly be cut in half,” Dash said, excluding all mention of emotional entanglement whatsoever.
“My roommates love her too,” Whalen added.
At press time, Dash was seen fielding text messages from an ex-boyfriend while Whalen went into the men’s bathroom and punched a hole in the wall.
To read more, click here or visit Reductress.com.
I traveled to Brazil for the World Cup with my family after two years of planning. Attending the World Cup in Brazil allowed me to merge my two loves (second-rate loves, of course) — watching quality football on a grand scale and traveling. Brazil is a country where a majority of the citizens live, love and breathe football.
The number of citizens on the street wearing Brazilian jerseys was astonishing. I even made up a game with my boys to count the number of people wearing Brazilian jerseys, while in a taxi to a destination 30 minutes away, we had to give up 10 minutes into it, because we got tired of counting so many jerseys.
A country where establishments shut down when the Brazilian team is playing. I witnessed this first-hand when Brazil played their second match against Mexico on June 17th. The match was at 4 p.m., by 3:30 p.m. the mall was empty, and all the stores had closed.
Having the world’s best football player of all time (in my opinion), the legendary Pelé, as their native son definitely accounts for some of their pride in the sport.
In order to enjoy watching football, you must and I mean must establish where your loyalties lie, without it watching a football match loses its significance. Your relationship with a team can be superficial as in a casual affair or a committed one like a marriage. This allows you to be emotionally attached and become immersed in the highs, lows and at the end of it all the final outcome, that can leave you jumping for joy or upset and internally analyzing what went wrong, much like a personal relationship.
I have a personal relationship with three teams in the World Cup. Nigeria (I’m originally from there), United Kingdom (I was born and went to school in the UK) and the United States (my current country of residence). Like a mother with no favorites I value all of them equally. Then again maybe not, but like a mother I would never tell you which one was my favorite.
Coaches with their teams arrive for the World Cup with different levels of expectations. Some teams are happy to go the next level (the round of 16), for others it might be their ambition to reach the quarterfinals and for some leaving the tournament without the hardware, is not an option they even want to consider. Fans also have their own expectations for their teams.
Loyalties and expectations aside, the World Cup has the potential to teach us to look outside of ourselves and embrace one another authentically. While I was in Brazil the atmosphere was inviting and friendly. I took pictures and smiled with complete strangers and it is safe to say that a sporting event like the World Cup allows us to take off the masks and layers that would ordinarily makes us cautious of strangers and allow “the core of our genuine selves” to be displayed in the forefront for all to see.
Questions like:
“Where are you from?”
“Where do you live?”
“Can I take a picture with you?”
…flowed back and forth with gestures interspersed to communicate and break down the language barrier. Smiles, laughter and hugs were seen all around in the stadium.
I thought to myself:
“These are the human connections we live for.”
“This is the human spirit, pure and raw.”
It was magical with a child-like aura, strangers doing the wave together all across the stadium as if to say:
“We are all one.”
For a split second I began to wish this could last for much longer, much longer than the World Cup tournament.
And then it dawned on me that if it lasted longer and became the norm it would lose the added significance and value. And in that moment I realized it was worth lasting for just as long as the World Cup tournament was going on. I knew that as soon as the trophy was handed over to the champions, the atmosphere would gradually transition back to normal. The masked-up, layered-up cautious versions of our human selves would return to the forefront
I would then have to wait another four years (if I’m fortunate enough to go to Russia) to experience the indescribable excitement and positive display of the human spirit, that is associated with a unique and beautiful sport like football.
“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver has one request for all the world tourists out there: PLEASE don’t go to Antarctica.
Thanks to morning talk shows touting the icy continent’s “free penguins and sno-cones,” thousands of tourists are tarnishing Antarctica’s pristine landscapes every year.
Luckily, Oliver is here with an important PSA directed at anyone who’s actually thinking about stepping foot on Antarctica just so they can brag to their friends. Watch the clip from his June 22 episode above.
“Last Week Tonight” airs Sundays at 11:00 p.m. EST on HBO.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
