Life saving media tool!

Last two weeks ago a Facebook friend of mine almost got run of the road by a crazy driver. It’s Trinidad, nothing new.

Oh but what he did next was ingenious and super cool!  He whipped out his camera phone, took a picture of the crazy driver car with the number plate in full view.  And then, he posted the picture on Facebook.  What a hero! In an instant tons of people were commenting – I’m sure a lot of people knew the crazy person was too. And more than likely this person now knows that he/she is plastered all over Facebook. For shame!

As I mentioned to a colleague of mine, I truly believe that other than domestic violence issues, many missing girls and women I feel are in such a state because of the sort of ad hoc transportation system that many face – there are so many unregistered maxi-taxis and taxis out there with so many predators taking advantage of this disorganized gap and over-demand for transport.

We were discussing possible ways of fixing this disorganization – many long term options are available and some are in the process of implementation but what can be done NOW! NOW! NOW!

There is a solution and you literally hold it in your hands my ladies and gentlemen, my boys and girls.  It’s called a cell phone. CELL PHONE, CELL PHONE CELL PHONE! Almost everyone has a cell phone, even if it is only a cell phone that can send text messages. But, most people these days do have cameras in their phone.

So listen…use it!  People, if it is late and you’re getting into a maxi or taxi you don’t trust, take a picture of it, the driver and especially if you could the license plate.  Do it discreetly, from in your purse or pocket.  If you are in a car and you feel weird – don’t wait for the feeling to pass, text someone discreetly and quietly as much info as you can about the car, the surrounding places you see – ANYTHING! And send it to at least one person – parents or friends. At least that way we’d have a start if we have to set out to look for you!

And it doesn’t have to be a car situation. Someone you know or do not know is seriously harassing you on the street? Get away quickly and safely first, but if you could, text or take a picture of the person and send it to at least one trusted person. And then if you feel safe enough to do it, anonymously BROADCAST it! Send anonymous pictures to the newspapers – who knows, it may save a life!

In 2008 I did this for a man in lower Port of Spain, who was beating and starving his tied dog to the point of death. I went to the police (funny right?) – of course nothing doing. I whipped out my camera, zoomed in, took pictures, printed them with a message that I was going to share them with the News, and stuck them all over his front gate so people could see. The next week he gave away the dog.

Now I’m NOT telling you to get camera happy like that. This is about giving yourself a chance to save your own life if you feel that you are in danger!  Make sure first and foremost that you are always discreet and safe when you take these pictures or texts and make sure to send them to someone who will 1. Get them immediately and 2. Know what to do – call the right authorities, persons etc. Nor am I saying that you suddenly shame every Tom, Dick and Harry who is happily minding his/her own business. Please this is a life saving technique, not “Jerry Springer.”

It’s not hard. It’s ridiculously easy to do – practice it with a friend or family member; it will actually be fun to do.

And ladies, girls and boys out there, as an aside, there are many extra curricular defense classes out there, some of them are very affordable – please, join a defense class.  While attending university they had a free weekend defense class open to the public and I attended – and let me tell you after it was finished I saw a 12 year old girl topple and safely run from two 6 foot robust man – knowing the right techniques.

LEADERS who are reading this, it would be good to start a self-defense drive in schools and community clubs for ladies and girls in particular. Now.

We don’t need guns and we don’t need to stay inside scared. We need to know the proper and effective tactics to defend ourselves and to make sure these attackers are exposed.

And this is not only for Trinidad this is for every citizen of every country who reads this in Facebook and wherever this note ends up. (If you can read this and translate it into another language, please do and pass it on).

I care about you!  I care about us.  Let’s do this.

Use your cell phone to save your own life, and share the word and the picture with at least one trusted person.  Become your own life saving journalist! Be the paparazzi to these predators. Empower yourself with this media tool you already have.

A friend from the US Information Services of Trinidad & Tobago sent these photos of Colonial Trinidad via e-mail. While the photos bring back nostalgia and patriotism, they also bring to my mind questions on sustainable infrastructure and the cultural aspects of such, in Port-of-Spain. I have heard my elderly relatives say they wish Colonialism never ended in Trinidad. I would of course scoff at this (and still do), but now I understand a bit what they meant. The workable order in these photos of Independence Square and Frederick Street is astounding – I never in my wildest dreams could imagine such an orderly system in downtown Port of Spain! I am highly utilitarian, and love things organized. I can only function best in a system which either 1. is workable or 2. in process of flow. Needless to say, the current situation of what has become modern Frederick Street feels uncontrollable. Freedom of movement has been distressed in downtown Port-of-Spain. Does business happen on Frederick Street? Of course. Is it possible to drive from one end to the other? Yes. But not without relentless congestion and narrow spaces.

From what I’ve observed especially with developing countries, an infrastructure system is one which leaves the congested system as is, and forms a more modern system, not realizing that systems overlap. One would argue in the case of Trinidad that downtown Frederick Street is not unlike any other busy, teeming developing urban area. That’s correct, except that Trinidad does not fit into the typical third world developing bracket anymore. The situation may be akin to what metaphysics call “ghosting,” where one new layer of being has developed over the old without removing the latter’s psychic debris. Note here the solution is to remove the debris, not the “old” or the basic framework. To me, urban/sub-urban Port-of-Spain, with the exception of Westmoorings, still has both English and French colonial format in building type, size, street & pavement formation. Increasing piles of business, people and cars provide an ill fit system-wise, which lends to naturally increased maintenance needed to uphold existing infrastructure. Port-of-Spain, as with other cities such as Chaguanas and San Fernando developed either as a structured system geared to facilitate colonial families and administration, or as ad hoc market trade hubs.

In both cases, accelerated growth into strong commerce in all fields has left a huge infrastructure challenge for decision makers. But what constitutes a workable system? Some may think one which gives wide open, sparse or dense space etc. All assumptions are correct, depending on the space and resources one has, and on the city’s historical architectural background. Specifically to Trinidad, I’m amazed and heartened that at one time a tram ran the length of Frederick Street, and who knows what other Port-of-Spain environs. For me, that means 1. It was once in the city’s culture to have such a system and 2. If it was done once, it is possible to achieve again.** Imagine the mercy a tram would bestow on all the service people who lack transport simply from uptown to downtown Port-of-Spain! Could this work?

For me, that is the key. This uncomfortable structure of downtown Port-of-Spain grew with the country’s independence, and now teems as part of the urban culture. Is this possible to change? Meaning, if the government makes a central location for car parking near to a newly re-introduced tram, paints the buildings, fixes the sidewalks, – would the people of Port-of-Spain and environs be comfortable with this? Could Trinidadian culture handle such orderly change? This is a culture of paradox – Trinidadians strive for and attain acclaimed academic, financial and commercial success; however we as Trinidadian citizens have all grown comfortable with discomfort. Many of us seem to have no problem sitting on a sidewalk to lime (hang out), orlounge in a raggedy rum shop at any time, blasting the loudest music, because it is “we culture.” Hell, I have gone out for doubles (street food) near “Smokey & Bunty” (famous rumshop, not so clean area) with a near naked vagrant smoking a used cigarette butt next to me. So then, how does Trinidad clean up and create a workable system for, say, Frederick Street, if we as a people endorse aspects of disorder as culture? What are we as Trinidadians willing to…not forswear….but clean up, for true progress and workable systems?

Please, in no way do I equate non-working infrastructure with poverty. This could be the case, but it is not always so and for Trinidad, W.I. money is not the problem. Frankly I do not view sustainable infrastructure as a way to “eradicate poverty,” but as a means to create a workable order in society…a flow where different pieces of commerce and communications can have a tangible outlet. This musing holds criticisms, but it holds hope, as Trinidad has progressed exponentially in the past decade. There was once a tram running through Frederick Street; there was once a workable system in downtown Port-of-Spain. I have hope that there can be such again, in line with the resources and space of the area. The key is for the people to gradually accept, and to MAINTAIN a new working system. The country as a whole may need to employ the Japanese concept of “kaizen” whereby one makes small constant improvements that eventually add up and make a radical difference. Maybe this issue of such disorder stemmed from a rebellion against the extreme isolated and elitist order of Colonialism. But that is a separate topic altogether.

I remember in my senior year of college in Miami I had a friend who visited his then girlfriend in Trinidad. Upon his return he reported “full of stray dogs.” Mind you during this time I had not returned to Trinidad for years, and had quite forgotten about stray dogs and stray humans. So of course I went on the defensive – “there are SO many things to see and do in Trinidad,” I reprimanded, “how could you complain about stray dogs?!” We left it at that.

Fast forward six years after this conversation – I decide to return home. And upon my first revisit to Port-of-Spain, after the tour, doubles, pineapple chow, and general melee, I noticed (to myself)…wow, there ARE a lot of stray dogs, and a lot of stray humans too. And because I was so previously bored with myself and my left-behind comfort zone, this wild living, where dogs ran in wolf-like packs and vagrants ruled the parks actually excited me….for the first three months.

For this musing, the vagrants take center stage. One of my friends from a very clean, orderly part of the US asked me “what is a vagrant”? The good ole Oxford Dictionary states – “vagrant: a wanderer, idle rover, vagabond, idle disreputable person.” In the general scheme of things this could entail a homeless person, who has normal faculties and abnormal circumstances, or someone who is not quite there in the membrane and has no significant relations to lock him in a room. For Trinidadian vagrants, the word “idle” is correct. The words “stark raving mad” were left out.

I’m going to speak for Port-of-Spain’s vagrants. The capital is again being picked on as it is where I have made most of my adult observations in Trinidad. There are some vagrants who have enough faculties to beg; the example I gave before about “Fats” the very fat vagrant down Independence Square who hangs outside the food court and demands your lunch falls under the “faculties” category. And then there are those who I believe can see in four or five dimensions – and not in a “Light” way.

What has happened is the non rehabilitated “mentally challenged” individuals previously nestled in the insane asylum in our St. Anns hills, came tumbling down to the Port-of-Spain valley, escaping when they can to add color to an already colorful capital. No matter how many times the government, the asylum officials, and even family members try to get them inside, they get out. And by doing so, they give us stories to tell.

My special vagrant haunts lower Maraval, my favorite suburban area in Trinidad. He’s very thin, and the last time I saw him, he was wearing a micro mini gold sparkly dress, holding an umbrella, rain or sun. Before this he wore a bright pink robe. And he babbles, smiling furiously to himself – it sounds something like “eh bleh bleh bleh, eh bleh bleh bleh.” But he could talk – crafty one. One fine Sunday I stopped at a doubles (street food) vendor, and who comes up babbling? Goldy. As soon as he reaches the stall though, he says with a poker face and crystal clear voice “can I have one please.” Some guy shooed him and then he continued up the road, babbling furiously.

I remember one day while taking a stroll in Independence Square another vagrant was having a loud conversation with two spaces of air, turning side to side. I decided to listen in from a safe distance. Apparently it was his non-existent mother and some other relative and it was an argument about…shoes I believe. Man, you leave home to be a vagrant and still these people can get your goat! And then there is “Jesus.” I’m not sure if he’s a vagrant or some mad fanatic or both, but there is this man who jogs 3+ miles around the Queens Park Savannah, barefoot, in a loin cloth looking short pants, who has groomed himself to look exactly like…well…the popular depiction of the crucified Lord. Very creepy.

There are so many more many stories. True stories about love (nah, lust) between a vagrant and a respectable banker during one Carnival season, those about vagrant intimate relations actually blossoming in the streets of San Fernando, many about attacks from vagrants with passing through the cities’ streets. In Trinidad, there are even mistaken identity vagrants. One day I sat ‘round the Savannah with a friend eating snow cone (sweet shaved ice), observing people. From a distance we see this thin, withered looking man, in beat up sandals, washed out brown denim shorts and polo. And I say “oh, look at this vagrant,” and my friend says “but this vagrant has an IPod,” and we exclaim “this vagrant is not a vagrant!”

Trinidad is a land of freedom and creativity, displayed by both our sane law abiding citizens and by our outlaw strays. Actually, while there are many vagrants who became thus due to family problems and drug abuse, there is a surprisingly large number who went off from being way too genius. Creativity gone wrong, really. Any Trini could tell you the story of the brightest student in high school or university who went mad after exams, and is now walking the streets ranting equations. And anyone who has undergone the Old School education system in Trinidad would empathize – pushed to the limit. And some never come back. There are actually stories of super brilliant students truly becoming possessed by the characters they studied…and I believe it.

This is why no two development plans are the same. An urban planner who is not culturally aware may assume that Port-of-Spain’s vagrants are homeless. Thus the answer would be to remove them from the city and shelter them – this solves the problem. Or it may be said that drug use runs rampant among vagrants and a drug rehab program will solve the problem. Various governments have tried both ways, and these programs work. But there is something underlying that is yet to be unearthed – and I think it’s the problem of creativity gone wrong. Suppressed creativity, forced creativity, to the point that now all these people want is the ultimate freedom – to roam and babble as they please. Quite frankly it may be more fun to talk on an imaginary cell phone and direct traffic with a wall-fan blade (like the vagrant in the city of Arima) than it is to be stuck in Monday morning traffic on the way to a boring job.

Since the V Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad in April ’09, our stray friends, human and canine alike have since decreased. I’m glad for our capital. But I’m grateful to the mad, free ones for the stories.

It was a sports stadium.

Eight Children were standing on the track to participate in a running event.

* Ready! * Steady! * Bang  !!!

With the sound of Toy pistol,

All eight girls started running.

Hardly had they covered ten to fifteen steps, when one of the smaller girls slipped and fell down, Due to bruises and pain she started crying.

When the other seven girls heard the little girl cry they stopped running, stood for a while and turned back.

Seeing the girl on the track they all ran to help.

One among them bent down, picked her up and kissed her gently And enquired as to how she was.

They then lifted the fallen girl pacifying her.

Two of them held her firmly while all seven joined hands together and walked together towards the winning post…

There was pin drop silence at the spectator’s stand.

Officials were shocked.

Slow claps multiplied to thousands as the spectators stood up in appreciation.

Many eyes were filled with tears

YES. This happened in Hyderabad [INDIA],  recently!

The sport was conducted by National Institute of Mental Health.

All these special girls had come to participate in this event They were spastic children.

Yes, they were Mentally Challenged.

What did they teach the WORLD?

Teamwork?

Humanity?

Equality among all??

We can’t do this ever because we have brains!

I like photography and i appreciate my friends and colleague for their work in photography. I got some inspiration from a friend on facebook who has been sharing fantastic clicks lately. So to give my hobby a start, I invested some money in a “point and shoot” camera but sooner i realized there is a lot that you can’t photograph because of limiting freatures of a camera. So i decided to take my hobby to a next level and buy an entry level digital SLR camera, and then the search began. By this time, i was specific about camera functions and features that i needed. I searched for every brand, its make, technical specifications to understand what am i getting out of an entry level camera.  Thanks to internet that it has plenty of information to guide and confuse you…

Anyway, I started reading reviews from different sources to find out, where is the best value i can get for my small investment. Every information on the website is not the same and you are always thinking what to believe and what not to believe. Then i thought why not ask my friends. So i updated my status on facebook that i want to buy a digital SLR camera and i need help. To my surprise, i received some 24 replies on that status within 24 hours and everyone was recommending a model to the best of their knowledge. One of my friends, in fact connected me to his friend who is a professional photographer and often sells her photographs to few big names. She was kind enough to give me her recommendation after understanding my preferences.

My hunger for information doesn’t die quickly and i am known worst in my friends, who gets into every detail before making a decision. So i started searching Blogs and Videos to get more information about the camera. By this time i was able to shortlist few. This is the point, where i noticed something entrepreneurial. I searched on youtube for camera reviews and i saw lot of videos relevant to that model. It was extremely helpful as people were sharing their personal experiences as well as giving in depth knowledge about the camera’s pros and cons. One thing that i couldn’t help noticing is that those people loved what they were doing. None of them had super professional videos but the information and facts they were sharing were extremely helpful.

So I finally made my decision to buy the camera but it gave me another paradigm about social media. Today, you search youtube for a video, say on “personal branding”. You’ll see lot of results and you won’t find big company names there but people like us, putting up their videos, who not only believe that they can help other people with their knowledge but also satisfy their love for the work. Social media has helped people to showpiece their knowledge and expertise to the world.

This has introduced a new model of entrepreneurship, where people are starting new business ideas to serve people all across the world. They have personal websites and simply by sharing information with their audiences, they make some money. Here are some interesting websites for your review

• www.styleminute.com
• www.cameralabs.com
• www.moluv.com

There is another dimension to this new shift. Social media, among all other benefits has also helped us to address another aspect of our personal life. How many of us really love what they do? I think it is easy to say that majority of people among us don’t love what they do but they do it because it is a need of a time. We spend at least 9 hours everyday at work and doing something  that we don’t love but we have to do. It leaves no satisfaction with in us. We end up coming home frustrated with an unanswered question, why am i doing this? We are becoming more miserable every passing day, going over same routine everyday but then the question is, how do you find satisfaction? Satisfaction is not in making wealth or pretending to be happy. The real happiness is beyond material values, in fact it is a sense of accomplishment within your own self and you only get this self of accomplishment when you do and share what you love.

Social media has enabled you to get in touch with as many people as you can and sell your services or a products. When i browse through those videos on youtube, read blogs, i find that passion and love for work and there is no other thing as compelling as a piece of work that has your heart and mind in it.

Social media is tranforming people’s life and today is our chance to make a difference in our life. We’ve got to stop doing what we don’t like and start doing what we love to do. Do watch this video and you’ll realize that how passion and love for your work make you work hard.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=47FC93C168389CC9

This is interesting, i have been analyzing conversations of different nature. Whether at workplace or a friendly chat at cafe or a bar. I realized we spend most of our time in talking about 2 subjects:

• How bad other people or situations are
• How good we are in managing things

This is pretty normal to find conversations that will go around the same subject. We believe that we are the best and other people are not doing their job well. Whether its your boss, Government, friends, family member etc… We forget we are in the same situation too, when we are talking about other people, we are also being criticized by other people too.

I was listening to an author of Egonomics, Steven Smith. He said if you ask a team in an organization, what are the top qualities of a good professional, they’ll list huge number of characterists that a good working professional should have. Now you ask that person to rate himself on these characteristics and it turns out that most of these people will mark them quite high on these characteristics. Which is apparently good that a person has high self esteem and he is confident about himself.

But on the other hand all of us have quite a high self esteem, we believe that we are the best in certain things that we do and that attitude brings us to  ”know it all” attitude and whenever you are listening to someone you would close your doors to their opinions. Thats why when groups are working together at a workplace, they believe in their capabilities so much that sometimes they undermine other people’s competencies.

Now steven conducted another research asking different professionl “When was the last time you were part of a great team?” On average people would say they were part of a great team 5 to 6 years back and if you ask how many times have you been a part of a great team, to my surprise it was only 1 to 3 times. Now something is not right here, when people have high self esteem, they are highly capable then what is the problem? They are good team players but how come they are not able to be a part of a great team. If you ask Steven, he would say it is about managing your Ego. Keeping it balance and you wanna read more, you must buy his book. Highly recommended.

It gives me a new definition of confidence. If you find a definition of “Confidence” in Webster dictionary, this is what it says about confidence

“A feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of reliance on one’s circumstances “

I have highlighted a word circumstances. We know if there is one thing constant in life and that is change then how come in our mind, our confidence most of the time stays high, even if our circumstance are changing every second. Why do we remain so confident about our capabilities and have that barrier of communication with other people. I think, in addition to what Webster define, “Confidence is when you consistently understand the circumstances around you”. Our circumstances are highly dependent on the people we interact with. It is very critical for us to deeply understand how other people are thinking and believe in themselves. Our confidence must show that we extrovert. As soon as we stop thinking about our ownself, we’ll start thinking how other person is feeling and thinking and thats where your confidence begin to grow.

When we are talking, how other people are wrong, infact we are saying how bad we are in understanding them. Every human forms an opinion based on their experiences and every human has a total different experience in life. Always remember, you can never ever fully understand how other person is feeling but you can relate to situations based on your own experience.

I conclude this blog by saying that no human on this earth is wrong, they just have different perspective and we need to learn through that perspective. We need to listen so well that at least we are able to relate your experience with their experience. Persuasion needs confidence and your confidence stems from analyzing circumstances well.

We love to have choices in our life. Choices in every aspect of lifestyle; what we eat, drink, wear, car we drive, cigarette we smoke, mobile we use, job we do etc etc etc… Choices give us sense of freedom and make us realize that we belong to a modern society, where we choose to have what we want.

When i go over the weekend for shopping, i end up spending lot of time struggling through the choices of products available. When i need to pick up meat for my weekly grocery, i am thinking, should i buy lamb, beef or chicken and if it is chicken, should i get full chicken, breasts pieces, thighs, boneless? If i choose boneless then what is a price range, brand names, birth place of that chicken(exactly) and whether this price range is suitbale for my budget, oh wait a minute i didn’t think what do i feel like eating, damn i had chicken throughout this week, anyway lets buy it. Believe it or not but i struggle through these choices everytime i go over the weekend to buy some grocery for the week. Well, these choices were just for the chicken, i have a full list of items that i need to buy yet. But i love it, range of choices and i get what i wanted. 

Now one thing i realize is that humans by nature want choices but we don’t realize that these choices are consuming our mental energy every moment. Today, when you go to a supermarket nearby, you’ll find people thinking hard to choose a product from range of options and after shopping you feel exhauseted because it has consumed quite a chunk of your mental energy. 

I am not sure, how many of you reading this blog go through streams of choices everyday but this is lot of mental work and worst part is that more choices, eventually leave us dissatisfied. As Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happines, explains how more choices keep you dissatisfied. I was reading one of Malcolm Gladwel books, in which he gives an example of Howard Moskowitz, who did americans a huge favor by introducing new tastes in speghetti sauce. To watch this video, click here.

Peter Drucker said 
“In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time – literally – substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.”

So one thought says what people want is choice and another one says that choices leave us dissatisfied and due to this dissatisfaction we keep exploring more choices because choice raises our standards of what we want. 

So i imagine in another decade, every human will be busy every minute of their life thinking, what he wants out of this life. Are we really prepared?

Recently i was listening to Steven Pinker who is a renowned linguist. He was describing how words play an important role in our day to day life. Languages help us to describe our feelings and ideas to other people, based on that communication, we construct opinions/judgments and make critical decisions.

Importance of language comes into place, when you travel to a desitnation where no one speaks your native language and when it becomes increasingly challenging for you to speak your second language “English” to communicate. It will not be long, when you’ll realize your limitation of communication. Real test comes when people don’t even speak your second language.  

Urdu is a widely spoken language in South Asia. In Pakistan, Urdu is the official language used in instruction at government schools, at the district level administration, and in the mass media. According to the Census of Pakistan, 1981, the number of Urdu speakers in Pakistan has been estimated at almost 11 million with the largest concentration in the metropolitan city of Karachi, and in the Punjab. The Urdu speakers in India number almost 44 million (Census of India, 1991) with the largest numbers in the state of Uttar Pradesh, followed by Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which together account for 85% of the national Urdu-speaking population.

English on the other hand is an international language with a high influence on worldwide languages. It is astonishing to see that in last 10 years, with advancement in communications, english is becoming a common language in lot of countries. Countries like China and Russia, who were entirely focused on their native languages are finally breaking the ice and learning English faster.

But this is not the only influence, due to worldwideweb, english is becoming worldwide language and we see local languages are loosing their grip in originating countries. In Pakistan, Englihs is a medium of studies in most of the schools in main districts like Karachi and Lahore. We see commercials, TV programes, radio channels using english so frequently and we do not even realize that we are not even able to express ourselves completely without a help of english phrases, sentences or words. This is how our new generation is growing, where Urdu is losing its charm. We find urdu literature either in libraries or on the last rack of bookshops. 

There is no doubt that there are many external influences on our culture and we are comfortable with an idea of developing a culture based on global inspriations, hence we have started to learn new language that i would not call Urdu but it sounds more like “Urdish”.