tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68477121853191408762024-03-23T10:21:08.012+00:00A Fork in the RoadFiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comBlogger738125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-84930927295497306472018-05-28T06:22:00.000+01:002018-05-28T06:22:55.328+01:00The Myth of Poverty Induced Happiness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Dear Friends<br />
<br />
If you ever visit a developing country, may I humbly request that you do not return home and wax lyrical about the smiling happy people you met there. Do not exclaim about how much we have to learn from these people living a simple life.<br />
<br />
Happiness is not a by-product of poverty. Happiness is a normal human emotion. People can be happy in all manner of difficult situations. People can experience happiness during war time. People can experience happiness in refugee camps, or on the front lines, or in the midst of unspeakable hardship.<br />
<br />
It's funny though how we rarely stop and say - look at those people laughing in that refugee camp, we have so much to learn from their simple life - but we love to glorify people living in poverty. When was the last time you heard someone say - "I just got back from [insert rich white country] and i saw a group of happy kids smiling and playing. We have so much to learn from them!"<br />
<br />
Aspirational poverty-happiness is patronising and suggests that you have no idea what living in poverty is like. It ignores the fact that while someone can appreciate their children running around like maniacs laughing and shouting they probably also think insanely high infant and maternal mortality rates suck, and a non existent education system sucks and having one meal a day really sucks. They may be singing on the way home from fetching water but still have pretty strong views on the fact that not having access to running water or sewerage or electricity really, really sucks.<br />
<br />
Instead of being inspired by 'poor people' be inspired by the specific culture that you are immersed in. Be inspired by the individual personalities of the people that you meet. Find a translator and actually talk to the kids instead of taking your requisite selfie.<br />
<br />
In having those conversations it should pretty soon become apparent that there are happy poor people and there are also depressed poor people who are totally destroyed by their experience. There are generous and caring poor people and there are arseholes. Basically poor people run across the full demographic of what can be classified as 'people'. We have a lot to learn from all of them, just as we have a lot to learn from all the people we meet whatever their colour - including the grumpy arseholes.<br />
<br />
Studying happiness is a noble pursuit. Aspiring to happiness is something we should all do. But don't forget that there are also blissfully happy people in the country you come from. There are blissfully happy, filthy rich people wallowing in materialism in the country you come from. And as an aside there are probably also some filthy rich people in the 'poor country' you just visited who are pretty happy as well.<br />
<br />
Don't talk about the happy simple people you met. Talk about the people you met, about what you learned from exploring their complex life experiences. That's a far more interesting story to tell.Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-48452330375487283212017-02-24T12:27:00.000+00:002017-02-24T12:49:15.778+00:00What's With The Gays?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
A man came to audition for my latest play. "I really like the script," he said, "but I don't understand the gay women. What's the point?"<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The point? There is no point. They're two people who happen to be dating. Just like the heterosexual couple in the play. His question made me happy though, because it reassured me that I had achieved what I set out to do.<br />
<br />
When I say there's no point to having a gay couple in my play I'm not being entirely honest. I put them there for a reason: because it's important. Because there should be gay couples in plays; gay couples who are not there to discuss "gay issues", gay couples who are not there to prove anything. There should be gay couples in plays and films and television series, because there are gay couples in the world.<br />
<br />
In the real world, gay people do not exist on the margins of straight people's narratives. They do not exist in the world to round out a heterosexual story, to provide depth and conflict. They do not exist to showcase how open-minded and inclusive and diverse everyone else is. They are front and centre in their own stories.<br />
<br />
Gay couples do not need to be included in plays and films in order to explain gay issues to straight folk. They do not need to be included in order to meet quotas, or to increase ticket sales by appealing to an untapped demographic.<br />
<br />
Including gay people is not making a point; leaving them out is making a point. To leave them out is to ask, “why should they be there?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-27004434869092965252017-01-15T16:44:00.001+00:002017-10-26T13:44:30.119+01:00The Civics Lesson You Need To Take Right Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Dear America,<br />
<br />
Things are about to get interesting.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><i>I'm assuming you understand that 'interesting' is simply a polite euphemism that won't be blocked by your net filters...</i><br />
<br />
Here's the thing. Right now, you're all running around looking at historical precedents, calling on the legacy of the Founding Fathers and quoting the constitution, but trust me, you're looking in all the wrong places. Don't get me wrong, I love <a href="http://www.hamiltonbroadway.com/" target="_blank">Hamilton</a>, but when it comes to dealing with Trump, you're going to need to look at some other source material.<br />
<br />
.1 Jerry John Rawlings, Ghana<br />
<br />
In 1972, a young Flight Lieutenant named Jerry John Rawlings, staged a coup in Ghana. Rawlings and his supporters rose up in opposition to what they saw as rampant corruption in the Government of the day. One of his first acts after coming to power, was to authorise a 'house-cleaning exercise'. Not merely a throwing open of musty office windows, Rawlings ordered his enemies taken to the beach and executed. <a href="http://africanspotlight.com/2014/01/10/we-killed-good-innocent-people-to-save-ghana-ex-president-jerry-rawlings/" target="_blank">He has since acknowledged</a> that good, innocent men died in the process. He's noted though, that he does not regret their deaths, because he remains convinced that it was necessary to sacrifice them in order to quell the national rage.<br />
<br />
Will the new US administration march their opponents to the beaches? Maybe not literally, but there will be sacrifices; many, many sacrifices, some of them innocent, and many of them good hard-working people. <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/06/ambassadors-barack-obama-donald-trump-inauguration-day/" target="_blank">It has already started</a>. Do not be surprised. There will be more. It will be fast and bloody.<br />
<br />
Rawlings is also well remembered for enshrining Clause 57/6 in Ghana's constitution; a useful little addition that immunised Presidents from prosecution for acts committed during or before their time as President. Sound familiar?<br />
<br />
2. John Howard, Australia<br />
<br />
In February 2003, <a href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/ten-years-biggest-anti-war-protest-history" target="_blank">over a million Australians took to the streets in the country's largest ever demonstration</a>. So many people took part, that inner Sydney was gridlocked by demonstrators. The message was simple - Australians did not support the second Gulf War. The then Prime Minister, John Howard, made a public announcement following the march saying that he had heard, and he understood the sentiment, but he was going to war anyway. He said that he had been elected to lead the country and he would decide how best to do that.<br />
<br />
In that one simple statement, Howard decimated opposition across the country. You could feel the nation sag under the weight of knowing that even when a million people were mobilised, the Government would still do whatever it wanted. It would take years before the population effectively rallied again.<br />
<br />
People are not paid to protest. For the most part, they cannot earn a living doing so. They do so because they are committed to a cause and because they believe they can make a difference. But they all have a breaking point and people like John Howard know how to find it.<br />
<br />
And Trump, too, will find it. He will not be swayed by numbers, he will not be swayed by argument, and he has staying power. He will wear the protesters down both directly and indirectly. The question is does the country have<i> at least </i>four years of protest capacity?<br />
<br />
Which brings me to example number three...<br />
<br />
3. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe.<br />
<br />
Former revolutionary, Robert Mugabe was elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980 and President in 1987. Yes, he has been President for 30 years. There is much that can be learned from Mugabe's rule, but for now, let's just explore the question of longevity.<br />
<br />
To date, Trump has benefited from the overriding assumption that he won't last, that he will implode, that something will happen to stop him. I heard similar arguments in Zimbabwe in 1997, twenty years ago. Since then, Zimbabwe's opposition forces have come and gone. Some have imploded, many were silenced. Some were physically tortured, others had their businesses destroyed. Legislation was changed to undercut individuals. Throughout it all, Mugabe has continued to reign. Dictators do not surrender power in a hurry. They should never, ever be underestimated.<br />
<br />
Do not expect Trump to be gone before the end of his first term. This is wishful and dangerous thinking. Assume that he will be there for two terms. And don't be surprised if he considers changing the constitution to allow for a third. Which of course couldn't happen...well, except in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and Cameroon and Senegal and Nigeria and Mozambique and Nicaragua and, oh yes, <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/12622987" target="_blank">Russia</a>.<br />
<br />
While the prospect of Trump rewriting the Constitution may be a long bow to draw, I think we can safely assume that Trump's legacies will live on long after he has gone, whether in the Supreme Court or in legislation, or the rolling back of freedoms, or social gains, or environmental impact or...<br />
<br />
As an aside, if you want an insight into how Trump may use his position to ensure financial advantage, Robert Mugabe is a perfect case study. From his <a href="http://thezimbabwean.co/2011/10/wikileaks-mugabe-assets-worth-over/" target="_blank">real estate assets estimated at over $1 billion (including the castle in Scotland),</a> to his <a href="http://thezimbabwean.co/2016/12/grace-mugabe-bought-13-million-diamond-ring/" target="_blank">December purchase of a $1.3 million diamond ring,</a> Mugabe is a shining example of how you can line your own pockets whilst shredding those of your population.<br />
<br />
Oh, and I'm assuming you don't need me to find examples of Heads of State with a penchant for silencing the press, right?<br />
<br />
Sure you can keep referencing the Founding Fathers, but you need to stop measuring Trump against them.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-71186490124870138302016-10-11T11:47:00.001+01:002016-10-13T08:51:42.114+01:00Who The Hell do you Think Refugees Are?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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An article appeared in my Facebook news feed this morning about a Syrian refugee, now living in Germany, who has made a beautiful short film about his new home. The film is stunning and deserves to be shared <i>(embedded below)</i>. It should not, however, be shared with a sense of surprise and wonder. A refugee making a stunning film about a German city? How incredible! Who would ever have thought that a Syrian could make an artistic film about Germany?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The dehumanising of refugees by their opponents is well recognised. Refugees are reduced to numbers, to statistics. They are presented as nameless people taking our jobs, contributing to crime rates and threatening our women. They are a problem to be solved. They are 'they', a collective, a group not meant to be relate to or empathised with.<br />
<br />
But the same dehumanising also occurs amongst those who claim to champion the refugee cause. Sure the story of the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/30/syrian-refugee-in-canada-saves-the-day-by-mending-brides-wedding/" target="_blank">Syrian refugee who saved a Canadian woman's wedding dress</a> was a lovely story, but it also carried with it that air of surprise - <i>look, here's one who is nice! See, they can be trusted! Look, they're just like us! </i><br />
<br />
Refugees do not need to prove that they are like us. We already know that, because they're people. That's what makes them like us, and us like them. The only difference between us and them is that they are people whose houses were blown up and ours are still standing.<br />
<br />
We shouldn't be surprised that refugees can sew wedding dresses or make films. They can also teach philosophy and run multinationals and perform operations and deliver babies and make cakes and design aeroplanes and build bridges. They are people who had jobs. They are people who worked in government and business and the arts. They're not a different category of civilisation. <br />
<br />
We shouldn't open our doors to them because they are talented or good looking or kind or resourceful. We should open our doors because we can. Because our countries are still intact. Because our economic system is still functioning, because our schools are still standing.<br />
<br />
We should open our doors because they are people.<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="273" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/145487432" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/145487432">Stadt, Licht & Bewegung (City, Light & Movement)</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/waref">Waref Abu Quba</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-74102061136278476202016-10-07T09:41:00.000+01:002016-10-07T12:33:41.386+01:00Luke Cage Wasn't Made for Me...And That's a Good Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Saturday night we fired up Netflix with a view to watching <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">House of Cards</a></i>. Except it didn't happen, because Netflix imploded. While we were hitting refresh in search of evil, white, back-stabbing politicians in Washington, every other Netflix subscriber was trying to watch a story about a bullet-proof black man in New York. Since then I've been playing catch up, binge watching <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3322314/" target="_blank">Luke Cage</a></i>. There's a lot to like about this series, but one of the best things about it is that it's not made for me. And when I say 'me' let's be clear, I mean 'white people'.<br />
<br />
I didn't understand the first five minutes of <i>Luke Cage</i>. I had no idea what they were talking about. And that makes me extremely happy, because this is a series that has not set out to pander to white viewers. This is a series that says from the outset, 'Keep up or go and watch one of the other million shows out there that have been created for you.' This is a show about an African American character, made for an African American audience. White viewers are bystanders with viewing privileges. The show references African American popular culture, history and politics at great speed and depth and it is unapologetic. If you don't know what or who they're talking about, turn on the subtitles, take notes and go do your research, because keeping up is your responsibility.<br />
<br />
Too often when people advocate for diversity in media, what they are saying is - I want television for me that also accommodates marginalised people: make the shows I like and just add in some women/gays/black people/people with disabilities. In doing so we end up with shows that include token characters - the best friend, or the neighbour, or the colleague. Those characters are less likely to make it into the middle of the movie poster. They're there, but on the fringes where they're obvious enough to make everyone in the middle feel like they've done their bit, but without running the risk of alienating the mainstream market.<br />
<br />
True diversity is making movies and television where those characters are front and centre, and where their culture, their identity and their issues are interwoven into the narrative. It's where their identity is not just referenced as a plot point; identity is the backdrop, the context and the atmosphere in which the narrative is positioned. It's Luke Cage in Harlem, wearing a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/09/29/marvel-luke-cage_n_12202516.html" target="_blank">bullet riddled hoodie</a>, against a<a href="http://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.2969/title.marvel-luke-cage-gang-starr-cheo-hodari-coker" target="_blank"> Gang Starr soundtrack</a>, reading <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/ralph-ellison-9286702" target="_blank">Ralph Ellison</a>. Including this level of detail respects both the narrative and the audience it is created for.<br />
<br />
And when you do that, you have to accept that there are people in the audience who will not understand what is being created and conveyed, <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/luke-cage-is-racist-against-white-people-say-white-people-a3363081.html" target="_blank">(<i>they may even be really pissed off about being left out)</i></a> and that's okay. They won't be the first people in history to sit through a program and not see anyone who looks like them on the screen.<br />
<br />
Like Amazon has done with <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pilot/dp/B00I3MPZUW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475754174&sr=8-2&keywords=transparent" target="_blank">Transparent</a></i>, Netflix seems to be prepared to take risks with themes and audiences. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, it is unapologetic about who it is targeting and how it is going to speak to them. Here's hoping there's a whole lot more of this to come.<br />
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We throw viewers into the deep end of the pool of black culture, but don't thrash. Relax. You'll float if you allow it.</div>
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— Cheo Hodari Coker (@cheo_coker) <a href="https://twitter.com/cheo_coker/status/783379691675619328">October 4, 2016</a></div>
</blockquote>
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<b><br /></b>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-80982497395805363712016-09-10T10:49:00.003+01:002016-09-10T10:49:30.104+01:00My Close Encounter With Literary Colonialism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
A few years ago I helped a friend start a library in a remote Ghanaian community. She did all the hard work, I just sourced the books. And I had a fabulous time. I would spend hours scouring a secondhand store for quality books. I loaded up box after box with books that would be well placed on any shelf. But let's be honest, my selection of books was highly problematic.<br />
<b></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b>Problem Number One: White People Books</b><br />
<br />
Never before have we had access to such an incredible range of books. Every year, millions of books are written and distributed. And for the most part they are of an incredibly high standard, especially those written for kids and young adults. For all there is a collective gnashing and wailing about the state of the publishing industry, this century will go down as one of the greatest periods in publishing history. The problem, however, is not the volume of books, its that most of those books are coming out of a very small number of countries with<a href="http://www.pik.org.pl/upload/files/Global_Trends_in_Publishing_2014.pdf" target="_blank"> 60% of the global publishing market claimed by only six countries </a>- the United States, China, Germany, Japan, France and the UK. And those books are getting cheaper, access to them is getting easier, and they are being distributed across the globe.<br />
<br />
And that has far reaching effects. The media that we are exposed to plays a critical role in defining our identity and sense of self. Giving people nothing but books that come from far off places shifts perceptions of identity, self worth, culture and aspirations. Exposure to the new and the different is important, but in a healthy society, people also need books they can relate to.They need books that reflect them: books about people who look like them, live like them, and have shared experiences. And that needs to be reflected across all genes, whether non-fiction or fiction.<br />
<br />
I'm not saying that there was anything wrong with the quality of the books I chose. They were outstanding books. But stop and think how you would feel if an American library was stocked entirely with the best books coming out of India. India has an awesome literary tradition and produces brilliant works, however, should an American library only stock Indian books? Should a Japanese library only stock books by Chinese authors? What about a British library only holding books by German authors? It doesn't make sense, and yet stocking a Ghanaian library with books by English and American authors seems perfectly acceptable. It shouldn't be.<br />
<br />
<b>Problem Number Two: Literature by the Literate</b><br />
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Finding relevant books, however can be hard, primarily because books are written by the literate. That seems like a blatantly obvious thing to say, but it's important to think through the implications. Stories that are captured and retained come from those who can write; usually those who have been gone through school to a reasonably high level. They will be disproportionately middle class, most likely coming from urban communities. And if you want to run that further, the chances are that there will also be<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/04/research-male-writers-dominate-books-world" target="_blank"> a bias towards white, cisgendered males. </a>Where there are authors who have come from countries outside the big six publishing countries, they will quite often have been 'discovered' in the diaspora.<br />
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The demographics of literacy will tend to skew the balance of what gets published in favour of both those who are fortunate enough to have learned how to write well, and those who can afford to make a career as a writer.<br />
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<b>Problem Number Three: Killing the Domestic Market</b><br />
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Filling a library in Ghana with books from overseas may have benefits for readers but it's a disaster for the local publishing industry. Imagine the challenges of trying to sell a book in a country with over 50% illiteracy. Take out the people who can't afford to buy your book, who aren't interested in your book, or who would rather buy something from overseas, and you're going to be struggling to be commercially viable. Now add to that mix a deluge of books from overseas - including those donated by well-meaning international organisations - and things are looking grim.<br />
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<b>So When Faced With an Empty Library, What To Do?</b><br />
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Should we immediately stop using foreign books to stock emerging libraries? I have to say I'm conflicted. Yes. Because of the broad ramifications outlined above. But also probably no. Because there are obvious benefits to giving people access to diverse, quality literature. I don't know. Are there a lot of Ghanaian books to buy? No, not enough to fill a library. Do I think the Ghanaian Government will ever invest in domestic publishing? No. Do I think there is likely to be a commercial impetus in Ghana to really promote domestic publishing? No, not really, but still...<br />
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So, what if I had a magic wand?<br />
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At the macro level I would like to see governments shift away from an emphasis on purely teaching people to read and give equal weight to the importance of fostering a writing culture. I am yet to come across a government that sees a correlation between promoting writers and promoting literacy. When governments talk about promoting reading and writing, they are talking about functional writing, not creating a literary industry that captures, preserves and promotes the country's intellectual capital. As long as promoting literacy equates with ensuring purely a functional capacity, then literary colonialism will persist, and the social, economic and cultural impact will be felt for generations to come.<br />
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It's also critical that we shift the perception that illiterate people are unintelligent and see them instead as people who are simply learning a new language (<i>and I say that with the heartfelt emotion of one who hates learning new languages!)</i> Just because a person can't form a sentence on paper, doesn't mean they can't form it in their head. Just because they can't write a story down on paper, doesn't mean they don't have a fabulous story to tell. And just because your stories are written down and theirs aren't, that doesn't mean theirs are any less valuable than yours. Literacy is about teaching people to communicate, not teaching them to think.<br />
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One of my pipe dreams is to have a budget to be able to dispatch a global flotilla of vehicles like<a href="http://www.emergencyresponsestudio.org/slides/images/56_ers_north_1_web.jpg" target="_blank"> this one </a>into the world. Designed initially to allow artists to work self sufficiently in disaster zones, a vehicle like this could be kitted out as a mobile publishing house. It could be parked in communities as a collection point for people with stories to tell. With minimal equipment, stories could be transcribed, printed out and spiral bound on site and distributed back into the community to be used as literacy tools. Send an artist along and you could very easily add illustrations into the mix. Throw in a digital camera and you could have pictures as well. The technology exists to make self publishing cheap, easy and mobile we should be deploying it.<br />
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Such an approach is not going to allow for full novels to be produced overnight, but it would still lay the foundations for fostering a culture of respect for homegrown literature - both fiction and nonfiction. It might help to dispel the notion that stories of value can come only from far away lands. And it would give members of communities whose voices are not normally heard, a way to put their stories into the world.<br />
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Sure you might still not have enough books to fill a library. Sure you might grow a community of readers who can consume faster than you can create, and you might still need to bring in books from outside. But we should be looking into communities first to see what's there, to see what can be nurtured and grown, before we start reaching overseas.<br />
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Grow local writers as well as readers and let them nurture each other. And please, please see foreign literature as an add-on rather than the starter pack.<br />
<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-68942009146757799782016-09-08T11:02:00.001+01:002016-09-08T11:03:12.621+01:00Don’t Teach Your Child To Read<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Halfway through a workshop I was teaching to a group of high school students, I asked “Let’s be honest, how many of you hate reading?” Without hesitation, two thirds of the hands in the room shot up. What was fascinating was not that a group of teenagers proclaimed to hate reading, but how many of them genuinely believed it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>In our rush to meet literacy standards, ensure our children pass standardized testing and meet globally imposed goals, we have come to believe that reading for pleasure is a waste of time – a luxury that the modern student (and adult for that matter) cannot really afford. We no longer believe it’s important for them to engage with the words, as long as they are able to parrot back the required answers. In doing so, however, we have lost the most powerful literacy tool we have at our disposal.<br />
How would literacy programs be transformed, if instead of setting out to teach children to read, our goal was to teach them to love reading?<br />
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Seeing a child engrossed in a book, is a reward in itself, but the rewards go far beyond simple joy. According to the research, there is a significant link between reading for pleasure and literacy achievement. Children who read for pleasure have greatly improved writing abilities, expanded vocabularies and are more likely to be self-motivated learners. Teaching children to love reading not only boosts literacy rates, but according to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284286/reading_for_pleasure.pdf" target="_blank">UK’s Institute of Education</a>, boosts performance in other subjects including mathematics. Regular reading for pleasure has been shown to have a greater impact on children’s test results than their parent’s level of education. Reading for pleasure has also been shown to increase general knowledge, encourage community participation and promote empathy and tolerance.<br />
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The question then is how to bridge the gap between functional reading and reading for pleasure?<br />
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Parents remain one of the primary sources of reading education. Reading to children from an early age demonstrates that the act of reading is something to be enjoyed and shared. It opens new worlds and concepts, and offers the opportunity to explore foreign places, ideas and themes. But parents have an important role to play in modelling good reading behavior. Parents need to be seen reading: not just skimming the newspaper reading, but curled-up-in-bed reading, go-away-and-don’t-disturb-me reading, or you-can-hammer-on-the-bathroom-door-all-you-want-but-I’m-not-coming-out-until-I’ve-finished-this-chapter reading. A parent with their nose occasionally shoved in a book hints at a world worth exploring.<br />
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Choice is another significant factor. I firmly believe that a child who doesn’t like reading, just hasn’t found the right book yet. Never before have we been exposed to such an incredible range of wonderful books, particularly for children and young adults. While kids might not always choose the books we would like, it’s crucial they have the opportunity to read what interests them. Sure the classics may be worth reading in the long run, but for now a book on football, or dinosaurs or vampires, may be the best place to start. Similarly, thick books with lots of words may be daunting and instead what your budding reader needs is manga, or graphic novels, or books with lots of images and less text. As an aside many of the classics are now available as graphic novels which can be the difference between literary love and hate!<br />
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But what of my book-hating high schoolers? We went back to the basics. Each student was asked to name their favourite book. By the end of the class we had a board covered in book titles. Every single student had suggested at least one, and each was scribbling down the titles of others that had been suggested. Turned out they didn’t hate reading, they’d just forgotten how to love it.<br />
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-34199803546108260802016-09-02T16:50:00.000+01:002016-09-02T17:36:14.797+01:00Change Your Mind. Please.<br />
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When did changing your mind go out of fashion? Was it somewhere around the time we stopped competing for basic necessities and started competing for air time? Was it when everyone was told they needed a niche, to be on message and always consistent? Was it when we decided we needed to be right all the goddamn time?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Somewhere along the line we came to accept that it was okay to change your wardrobe every year, but changing your attitudes and ideas was strictly taboo. Consumer culture is founded on a principle of infidelity as companies seek to seduce or scare you into converting to their cause. And yet when it comes to ideology and issues, debate involves two behemoths bellowing across a ravine. Neither expects to change the other's minds, they're just trying to attract the attention of the apathetic middle who they are unlikely to change, but may possibly be provoked into action.<br />
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It's hard to change your mind, especially on the big ticket issues. In doing so you have to acknowledge that you no longer agree with what you once held to be true. And that feels like a personal attack. At best it makes you feel stupid, at worst it can make you feel sexist, bigoted or racist, and no one wants to go there. No one wants to step over the line and admit that they were once in the other camp. It's far safer to just stay put and push back with all your might.<br />
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But we can't go on living in polarised, partisan arenas. We need to make space for people to utter the very simple statement - <i>I'd never thought of it that way. </i>We need to allow people to listen, ask questions and then not judge them; both for changing their minds, and for what they believed before the shift.<br />
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Until last year, I'd never considered that people might think <a href="https://newmatilda.com/2016/01/26/change-the-date-read-this-if-you-want-to-know-why-australia-day-is-so-offensive-to-aboriginal-people/" target="_blank">celebrating Australia Day on 26 January was a bad idea</a>. I'd never read anything about it, I'd never heard anyone discuss it. Should I have thought about it? Yep. But I hadn't. Now I have and I agree the date should be changed. Does that make me feel uncomfortable? In a way, yes. I'm used to Australia Day being on the 26th, it's what I grew up with. Plus, I don't like looking back and thinking that I was celebrating something that was founded on injustice. I like to think of myself as a broadminded person who embraces diversity and empathy, and yet I never made the connection. That sucks, but I'm not going to stay quiet now because I might be judged for what I thought before.<br />
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In many instances, broader awareness comes when marginalised members of a community are given a platform and a voice. And this is one of the great achievements of our current time. Issues that were once discussed on the fringes of society can now gain traction in mainstream spaces. Twenty years ago you would have had to go where those conversations were happening. Today those conversations come to you. Or at least they should be able to come to you.<br />
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As our social media channels become more powerful, the flow becomes heavier and our desire to filter becomes stronger. We cannot absorb everything thrown our way and so we become selective, we restrict who we listen to, and what we hear, and in doing so we are at risk of creating echo chambers where we hear only what we already know and believe. We shut out the arguments and the dissent. We tune into what reinforces our view of the world. We don't want to be wrong and we don't feel like we have the time and energy to sift through what is being said on all of the different sides. As a result, we never fully engage.<br />
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But we have to.<br />
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Should we immediately agree with every dissenting opinion? Of course not, but we should listen, even when listening feels gritty and uncomfortable. We should listen even when listening makes us question the way we were brought up, how we behave, what we endorse, or what we enjoy. We may not have heard the term '<a href="https://www.deanza.edu/faculty/lewisjulie/White%20Priviledge%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.pdf" target="_blank">white privilege'</a> or '<a href="http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2011/11/list-of-cisgender-privileges/" target="_blank">cisgendered privilege' </a>before. Such ideas may make us uncomfortable, and frustrated and guilty. We might feel out of our depth and unsure of the implications. We might wonder how it will impact our speech, and our behaviour and our daily interactions. We might stress about getting things wrong and causing further offence. But none of those are reason enough to give up and tune out. We should listen and if what we're hearing makes sense, then we should give ourselves permission to think and act differently.<br />
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As adults and especially as parents, we need to accept that changing our minds does not make us weak in the eyes of our children. We want them to question the world, we want them to bring new perspectives to old conversations, we want them to do things better. We want them to raise ideas we had never considered, because that's how societies evolve. Sure, maybe some things should stay the way they are, but not everything.<br />
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Likewise, we need to allow our leaders and our politicians to change their minds. Instead of hammering them for 'flip flopping' or 'back pedaling', we need to reward them for saying things like 'I've given this a lot of thought and I've talked to people who are smarter than me, and I've realised there is a different way to think about this topic.' We want our leaders to be listening to all sides of the debate and making informed decisions with the best information available at the time. And we want our leaders to evolve. We expect them to operate in the political arena for decades before they are elected into the highest office, and yet we refuse to consider that their and society's thinking may have evolved in all that time. If society hasn't changed, if politicians' thinking hasn't changed and if our thinking hasn't changed, then there is something fundamentally wrong.<br />
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-72727208907232024232016-08-31T15:00:00.001+01:002016-09-01T10:35:23.335+01:00We Should Stop Building Schools<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Remark to a friend that your child will be starting school next year, and they will instantly have a mental picture of what is about to unfold. They will visualise what, where and when. Like followers of some distant pagan ritual, they will naturally assume that learning will be drawn out across a roughly twelve year cycle. They will assume it will be oriented around religious festivals. They will expect it to take place at a centralised location: indoors, and preferably behind a desk. There will be an enforced hierachy. Age resctrictions will apply. There will be discipline, structure and order.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The concept of 'school' as we know it dates only back to the 19th Century and the industrial revolution, and yet the world clings to it as if it sprang up sometime after the dinosaurs disappeared.<br />
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In a relatively short period, the acquisition of knowledge has become synonymous with the institutions within which learning takes place. We are no longer able to distinguish infrastructure from intellectual pursuit. When we think about bringing education we know only one format. As is said in Ghana, 'that is how we have been doing.'<br />
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In most parts of the world, this juggernaut trundles forward in an unstoppable motion, give or take the trickle of homeschoolers leaking out the sides. Where it is firmly embedded, there is little chance of it being turned around because by and large it is a mostly functioning system.<br />
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But should we still be imposing a 19th Century practise on communities who are looking for access to education today? Should they be led to believe that they have to put the walls up before anything of value gets shared?<br />
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Building a school in a developing country is a complex undertaking, beginning with the construction of classrooms, roads, drainage and sewerage. Teachers must be found, and must themselves be educated. They must be paid enough to discourage them from working second jobs when they are meant to be teaching. The teachers will need accommodation and means to get to school every day. If girls are to attend - leaving aside the need to overcome possible cultural resistance - there should be safe bathroom facilities. There may have to be economic support mechanisms within the community that will offset the lost labour cost of sending children to school and away from supporting family businesses, especially during peak times like harvesting. Meals may need to be provided.<br />
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We haven't yet got to books, and pencils, and chairs, and desks...In this regard, pragmatism and a dwindling/non existent budget will probably win out. There will be no science lab. The computer will possibly consist of a keyboard drawn on a piece of paper. Tough decisions will have to be made about what <i>realistically</i> the school can afford. Chances are there will be text books but no novels. Electricity is doubtful.<br />
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It may take a village to raise a child, but the way things are at the moment, you have to <i>build </i>a village to educate one.<br />
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But you shouldn't have to; not if there's a willingness to return to the basics and start asking questions. We need to take everything off the table that we currently believe has to be in place before education can happen. We need to look at what is wanted now, not what was wanted in the 1800s. What does the community need? What does the country need? What makes a rich and nuanced society? What promotes advancement and also preserves culture? What skills are needed in order to create a complex society and a critical one? What concrete skills are important? And what intangible skills? What has to be done in-community/country? What can be outsourced? What is changing in the community that they must be informed about in order to address, accommodate and survive?<br />
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Then, what delivery methods are available? What solutions can be tailored to suit specific needs?<br />
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One of the most important shifts that has to happen is to stop expecting teachers to be experts. Demanding the physical presence of a knowledgeable individual on a specific subject, drastically limits potential for delivering information. A single teacher, or a small handful of teachers in a remote school cannot be well versed in every topic that they are currently expected to teach to meet a formal curriculum, let alone a broad reaching one that is consistent with a rapidly changing world. Specialisation is impossible if the goal is to bring about the maximum amount of learning in the most efficient way possible.<br />
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Having specialists in classrooms may work in well funded institutions with diverse and complex resource bases. Demanding specialisation in a remote and poor community, is impractical, debilitating and a waste of time. It will only ensure that the range of subjects taught is narrow and shallow.<br />
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Alternatives must be found. At the very least there needs to be a shift away from sending out teachers and instead an exploration of sending out facilitators; people who teach children <i>how </i>to learn (as opposed to <i>what</i>), and who are able to impart a passion for learning, rather than trying to beat knowledge into students. <i>(And yes, I use 'beat' in the literal sense.)</i> It's a process of training educators with the lateral thinking skills that will help them to find ways to connect children with the vast array of knowledge that exists in the world. One person cannot expect to be an expert on every aspect of world history, for example, but one person could very easily be taught how to tap into the global memory bank on the subject, and be taught how to light a flame of interest. Under the present approach, a child living in a remote community who harbours a desire to build aircraft will be lucky to find a teacher with the expertise to impart that specific knowledge. An educator with an understanding of the internet and good lateral thinking skills, could have that child constructing rudimentary planes by the end of the day. As <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind?language=en" target="_blank">Malawian teenager, William Kamkwamba </a>clearly showed, point a kid in the direction of some useful instructions and the sky's the limit.<br />
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In tandem with this, there is a need to support creators who can develop innovative solutions for facilitating the connection between knowledge and learners. And those solutions must be applicable beyond the walls of a building. As long as the expectation is that the learning transfer will be to students sitting behind a desk, we're locked into existing paradigms. Instead of grappling with how to get students out of the fields and behind a desk, how could learning be delivered to them in the fields? What if the five day school week was abolished and instead students were required to come only one day a week? What tools could be made available that they could use to download and debate, collect new resources, and share learning? Or what if teachers were mobile? What if they were put on a bike and sent around to community points? What tools could educators be given that would transform the lives of not only students but the broader communities? What discussions could an educator provoke with a solar powered laptop, projector and a slide show of something random like <a href="http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">people of colour in European Art History</a>? Or a Youtube video on building drainage systems? What would be the impact of putting learning back into communities and households?<br />
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What would happen if people were simply given tools and left to their own devices to teach themselves? What if education was turned on its head and was approached from the perspective of unsupervised learning? We are so used to the way it has always been done, that such things seem impossible. And yet in 2012 the <a href="http://one.laptop.org/" target="_blank">One Laptop Per Child</a> organisation<a href="https://www.nextnature.net/2012/10/illiterate-kids-learn-to-hack-tablet-computers-with-no-outside-help/" target="_blank"> left a box of solar powered tablet computers in a remote Ethiopian village with next to zero literacy</a>. The tablets were simply deposited in the middle of the road inside a taped up box. Within five minutes the box was open and a tablet turned on. Within a week, 47 apps were being used. Within five months the children in the village were hacking Android to enable the cameras that had been inadvertently disabled.<br />
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In India, the term <a href="http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Beginnings.html" target="_blank">'Minimally Invasive Education'</a> has been coined to describe an education approach whereby, with little guidance, community members have been encouraged to teach themselves. In this instance, computers have been installed in a wall, with terminals accessible to passers by. As was the case in Ethiopia, local children actively engaged with the computers teaching themselves and others. Similarly, in one of Mumbai's largest slums,<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/30/girls-india-learn-app-coding-navigate-way-out-mumbai-slum" target="_blank"> the Slum Innovation Project is taking learning to the communities, </a>bringing in computers and teaching girls how to code apps for their phones with a view to them creating their own solutions to community problems.<br />
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The time has come to take 19th Century models of education off the table and to start creating new ones. It's not rocket science...but it could be, if that's what you want to learn...<br />
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<em style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Image courtesy of africa at FreeDigitalPhotos.net</em><br />
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<i><br /></i>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-63419329495536559452016-08-27T10:02:00.001+01:002016-08-27T16:47:21.526+01:00To Hell With Equality<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm sorry, but I am over the notion of equality. Equality is about playing catch up. Equality is about reaching down a hand and pulling people up onto the platform. Equality is about looking at what other people have and thinking, 'that would be nice'. We are teaching our daughters that they should strive for equality, but we're teaching them the wrong thing.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The only thing we should be playing catch up with, is learning what men have known for thousands of years, and that's the fine art of exploration.<br />
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Since time began, women have largely stayed on the shore while men set off in pursuit of the great unknown. Women have been protected from exploration. We have been taught that there are boundaries, perimeters which we cannot cross in our pursuit of what lies beyond. We have been told that we will be raped and pillaged if we venture too far from home. In thousands of years little has changed. When women venture too far beyond the boundaries of what is expected of them on the internet, the threats are the same: cross the border and rape and pillage awaits. Men are explorers, women tend the fires.<br />
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Meanwhile men have been taught how to seek what they do not know; to leave home with the expectation that there is something over the next hill that is theirs for the discovering. What they are entitled to, is out there to be found. Where women have been given advancement it is in the attaining of what others already have. It is not in the discovering of this new thing called government, but rather fighting to be a part of it. It is not in the creation of an industrialised workforce, but rather to be able to take our place within it.<br />
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And yet we now stand on the brink of a world where so many of the barriers to exploration have been removed. Women across the world have access to information as they have never had before. At a rapidly diminishing cost, women can access knowledge on any subject imaginable. Vast worlds are now at our fingertips allowing us to build, create and destroy, to entertain and inspire.<br />
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But if they are to access this wealth, then we must teach our girls to be explorers. We must redirect our efforts away from trying to stuff them full of knowledge and instead teach them how to learn and how to discover for themselves. We must teach them to seek information, to qualify that information, to think laterally and to be passionately curious. We cannot begin to grasp what they need to know and neither should we. Instead we should give them hints of what might be discovered, a thirst for the act of discovery and a map that leads them part of the way. For the best maps are not those that tell you exactly what is to be found, but rather show a shadow of an outline, and dare you to find out more.<br />
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We must have the courage to tell our girls that we do not know everything; that we cannot begin to fathom what there is to be discovered and created. And then we must push them firmly out the door and tell them to do exactly that; to build their own vessels, gather their own crews and set sail for lands that we do not yet know exist.<br />
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I do not want to stuff my daughter's head full of all that I have seen. I want to send her out into the world and wait with bated breath for her to return with rich and magical tales of what I could not possibly have imagined.<br />
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I don't want her to be equal, I want her to be so very much more.Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-37332572217454967412016-08-23T18:25:00.001+01:002016-08-23T18:25:55.965+01:00My Latest Theory About The Geese or Why You Shouldn't Fly Straight Away<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4h9fS7svac29EEBhHzjgXdr9aGjFgFp477enTYpYquN2iw7m7PFCJKE5T-WTMmcBUcdmineV_V4I7JlBzOrFGfclvV6gLlzukPLac9TVsneCK8A0vXmICEfCqJkxQeqqlKTBl46on2qsK/s1600/ID-100338300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4h9fS7svac29EEBhHzjgXdr9aGjFgFp477enTYpYquN2iw7m7PFCJKE5T-WTMmcBUcdmineV_V4I7JlBzOrFGfclvV6gLlzukPLac9TVsneCK8A0vXmICEfCqJkxQeqqlKTBl46on2qsK/s200/ID-100338300.jpg" width="172" /></a></div>
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The geese continue to fly over our apartment on a daily basis - usually heading North in a rough V formation. They're a noisy lot, you can hear them coming from a distance; squawking at each other as they pass above. At first I thought they were sick of the less-than-inspiring Summer weather we've been having, and were leaving early. But lately I'm beginning to think that maybe they're just in training.<br />
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Six months of sitting around on the edge of a lake waiting for the next round of passersby to arrive with their lunchtime snacks, has got to take its toll on your average duck waistline. Sure, occasionally they have to fluff up their feathers to protect the newly hatched youngsters or drive off a tourist who's been up in their face taking one too many selfies, but on the whole, these geese aren't really working up a sweat. Sometime in the next month or so though they'll be off, heading south for warmer climes. With that on the horizon, there has to come a point in your average duck life cycle when you begin to worry that the beer and bratwurst is going to make flying heavy going. Hence the practise.<br />
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It's one of those classic misconceptions; that one day the ducks just take to the sky. It's assuming that everyone just packs up and transforms without preparation. That everyone else reinvents themselves with ease and grace, while you're still in that messy, slap-it-all-together-and-hope-for-the-best phase. You're still faking-it-til-you-make-it, while the rest of the world is heading for the Bahamas because they're already done.<br />
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Except they're not. The Best New Artist, has ten years of seedy pub gigs under their belt, the breakthrough author has three other novels in their bottom drawers, that will never see the light of day, the entrepreneur has notebooks full of the shitty ideas that were never going to work. You're comparing your cutting room floor outtakes with everyone else's official 3D trailer. You see the geese flying south without ever wondering whether they had to do a whole lot of conditioning before they left.<br />
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So I've stopped feeling like the seasons are changing before I'm ready, or that the year is slipping by faster than I can grasp. Instead I'm there with the geese, getting in the conditioning, doing the work, showing up in preparation for the next big thing. And generally I'm giving the wings an airing so when the time comes I'm ready to fly.<br />
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<em style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image courtesy of MrWildLife at FreeDigitalPhotos.net</span></em>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-7730282853862224622016-08-19T14:16:00.003+01:002016-08-19T14:38:41.342+01:00Advice From My Twenty Year Old Self<br />
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Back in May I returned to my old neighbourhood...my old, old neighbourhood...the one where I did my university growing up. I wandered around streets that felt like home and stepped into cafes where I'd eaten many times before. In one familiar haunt I ran into my 20 year old self. She was sitting at a table, hot chocolate in hand. I ordered wine, because I can drink before midday now and not be sent for counselling. We talked of what was and what would be. We mused about the ways of the world and the things that never change.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>My instinct was to provide reassurance to this creature setting out into the world; to the self who was applying for one job and hoping it would work out, because she/I had no fall back plan. The woman with no fallback because there was just falling into. I wanted to tell her/me how to get through the rough patches, to impart platitudes about lights at the end of tunnels, to reassure her that things have a way of working out.<br />
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And then I realised that she wasn't interested in knowing about the things that might go wrong, she wanted to know only of the adventures we would have; the people we would meet, the crazy, wild things we would do. She couldn't fathom that we might be where we are now, or that we would have traveled through places she had never even imagined to get there. With this life rolled out before her, she wasn't phased by the missteps and dumb mistakes. She would ask only, 'and then what happens?'<br />
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I/we forget what it was like to be starting out. We look back through the filter of what has gone wrong and berate ourselves for all of our shortcomings. But take a moment and sit down with your self of days gone by, and ask them what they really think about all that you have done. And listen when they tell you that they're amazed and intimidated and impressed.<br />
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And when you're done talking, leave. Let them be. Because you know they'll work out fine. And then go out and have an adventure. And when that one's done, start looking for the next, so that one day, in twenty years time, you'll look back on today and smile about all the incredible things that you don't know are out there, waiting, still to come...<br />
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<em style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image courtesy of Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net</span></em><br />
<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-47627642757258010352015-09-28T13:53:00.000+01:002016-09-01T10:55:04.672+01:00Dear Facebook Person With Whom I Have Been 'Discussing' Middle Eastern Refugees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not a big fan of pissing competitions, so rather than go into detail justifying who I am or what right I have to speak about refugees, I’d prefer to tell you who I <i>aspire </i>to be.<br />
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In 1990 I had the privilege of meeting <a href="http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/weary-dunlop" target="_blank">Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop</a>, an Australian military surgeon who was a POW during WWII on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway" target="_blank">Burma Railway</a>. Weary Dunlop was known for both his heroism during the war, and his tireless efforts afterwards to build and strengthen ties between Australia and Asia. He is quoted as saying ‘in suffering we are all equal’. I met him at an event welcoming Asian students, from countries where he had been held prisoner, to Australia.<br />
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In 1997 I met former US Ambassador to Burundi, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/From-Bloodshed-Hope-Burundi-Genocide/dp/0292714866" target="_blank">Bob Kreuger</a>. He had been in Burundi during the genocide and showed me many of the photographs he had taken during this horrific time and related many of his experiences. Rather than leave the continent, he took a subsequent posting in Botswana. He spoke with empathy and compassion about those he had left behind and continued to work tirelessly to support Burundi.<br />
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In 2002 I met many of the families of victims of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings" target="_blank">Bali bombings</a>. Many of those killed were young men and women in their late teens and early twenties. Parents, grandparents, partners, came together to mourn those they had lost. Many would later travel to Indonesia and would form close bonds with the Balinese community.<br />
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In each case, despite all that they had witnessed, and all that they had suffered, those people chose a path of empathy and kindness. They chose not to condemn an entire nation for the actions of a few. They chose to forge ties not sever them. And they all worked to raise awareness about what those communities had to offer. They opened doors instead of shutting them.<br />
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These are the people I aspire to be like. I will never aspire to operate from a position of fear and hatred. If these people can live through so much and still move forward with empathy, then I can try to live the same way.<br />
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Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-17121634415815789492015-09-21T09:00:00.000+01:002015-10-09T17:23:21.546+01:00Don't Think About Making Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In a tiny Dusseldorf gallery, there's a print leaning up against a wall. I crouch down and I think <i>Thank God, Andy Warhol stopped sketching like <a href="http://www.ludorff.com/imagecache/01/3e/andy_warhol_boy_with_stuffed_tiger_ca_1957_awp_2_540x315_q80.jpg" target="_blank">that</a>. </i><br />
<a name='more'></a>In the midst of an <a href="http://www.kunstsammlung.de/en/discover/exhibitions/miro-painting-as-poetry.html" target="_blank">exhibition </a>of Spanish painter, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Mir%C3%B3" target="_blank">Joan Miró</a>, I am blown away by the explosion of colour and abstract style. And if I angle my body a certain way, I can avoid seeing any of the hideous still lifes he painted during his early career.<br />
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Rounding a corner in a gallery in Paris, my daughter stops and laughs. She points to the collection in front of us. <i>There's someone who desperately wants to be Picasso when he grows up, </i> she says. She's right, he does. Because it is Picasso, in his early years, when he was exploring his craft and finding his creative voice.<br />
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It is one thing to see the great works of well known artists, but if you want to seek creative inspiration, you have to go back to their early work, to see the ordinary pieces they turned out at the beginning of their careers, to see what they were creating when they were trying to fit in with what everyone else was doing. And you have to have the courage to think,<i> Some of that is absolute rubbish. </i>Because when you're poking around in the dusty corners of their past, if you're lucky you come across the turning point; that moment when they started experimenting - when Miró began his journey from <a href="http://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/joan-miro/portrait-of-a-young-girl.jpg" target="_blank">this </a>to <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfu3ushEK01qzn4kzo1_1280.jpg" target="_blank">this</a>. When Warhol left behind his pencils and started making screen prints. And you are reminded that greatness takes practise, and persistence, and courage.<br />
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We'd like to think that the turning point is a single moment in time - a lightbulb, a loosening of the ties that bind - when in fact it may be a year, or a decade, or a life's journey. For every burst of greatness, however, there's a path littered with the not so great and some very ordinary and a whole lot of crap.<br />
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Warhol is most often quoted on his views on fame. But he also said,<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>"You have to do stuff that average people don't understand</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i> because those are the only good things.”</i></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”</i> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">and this:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>"Don't think about making art, just get it done. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>While they are deciding, make even more art.”</i></span></span></div>
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-23528841617285404952015-04-08T23:18:00.002+01:002015-09-25T16:43:52.927+01:00On fatigue and the manic street preacher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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'That's bad' the doctor says, looking at my blood test results. He shakes his head and frowns. I settle back in my chair and wait, patiently. 'You have enteric fever...typhoid' he adds helpfully.<br />
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I resist the urge to high five him.<br />
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I'm not in Australia any more. I'm so far away from the person I was then. Now I am told I have typhoid and a part of me gloats - <i>Ha! It wasn't malaria after all. My five year clear track record stands!</i><br />
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I wait for him to go on.<br />
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'There's a really high viral load. That's bad.'<br />
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I almost smile.<br />
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An hour earlier he had diagnosed fatigue. 'You are <i>fatigued</i>,' was what he said. Perhaps because I am a white woman, and I feel like I want to curl up in a chair and not move. Perhaps because I can feel every bone in my feet they hurt so much. Fatigued is what you get when you're white and hurt all over.<br />
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No, I know fatigued. This is not it.<br />
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I felt like I had been diagnosed with the vapours. As if I should immediately don crinolines and head for the nearest spa to take the waters.<br />
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An hour later, I wear my high viral load with pride. Now he looks at me with respect. I am still standing, despite it all. Fatigued my arse. You'd be tired too if you had that load swimming in your veins.<br />
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Just give me the tablets and I'll be on my way.<br />
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At 630pm the power returns. I shut the windows and turn the air conditioner on. Maybe I will sleep tonight and not hear the 4am preacher who roamed the streets this morning, baring his lungs to the sky.<br />
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'Imagine if this happened in Australia,' my husband and I mused as we lay in the darkness, awake, listening to the sound getting louder and louder. 'Someone would have called the police by now.'<br />
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Who would we call here? We would have to go and fetch the police in our car, perhaps wake them, probably pay them. They would come and then what? They would only laugh at the foolish <i>obrunis </i>who need their sleep.<br />
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Because we do need our sleep, lest we get fatigued.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">www.freedigitalphotos.net/praisaeng</span></i><br />
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-50208713409569101032015-04-06T14:07:00.001+01:002017-10-11T09:55:44.457+01:00On Meeting Yourself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I met myself last week.<br />
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A young woman embarking on the same career as I did, setting out in the same way.<br />
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Twenty years apart.<br />
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She came to meet me. We spoke about the ways of the world, about careers, about life.<br />
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She had that look, the great courage of one who has no idea what life will throw at her, and the great fear of one who has no idea what life will throw at her.<br />
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I gave her all the advice that I wish I had known back then.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>You made the right decision.</i></blockquote>
It doesn't matter what it was, it was right, for you, in that moment.<br />
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There were other choices, other paths, and yet you chose this one.<br />
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You can't go back, only forward.<br />
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And it all works out in the end.<br />
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Even the bits that don't.<br />
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-67440917911755920952015-03-09T09:00:00.000+00:002015-09-25T16:49:09.165+01:00One Memory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><i>What if your mind was going...</i></b></div>
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<b><i>What if your memory was about to be erased...</i></b></div>
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<b><i>What if you could only save one moment from your life...</i></b></div>
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<b><i> Which one would you choose?</i></b> </div>
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Sunday, January 4, 2015 - I am lying on the front lawn on a rug with the family, looking at the full moon. The sky is clear, the air is warm, the night is beautiful.</div>
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If I know nothing more than that the three of us are here, I will know I have done something right along the way. We clearly got through any bad stuff, and we're all healthy and together. I have a teenager who thinks such things are worth doing and that in itself is a testament to what has gone before, and a positive sign for the future.<br />
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I am loved and know how to love.<br />
I have learned the joy of looking at the moon.<br />
I am at peace.<br />
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Yes, that memory will do nicely.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit: www.freedigitalwriters.net/tuelekza</span></i>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-52861599435196630792015-03-07T09:00:00.000+00:002015-09-25T16:48:23.258+01:00Is There A Film So Bad It Shouldn't Be Fixed?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ahhhhh, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1617661/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Jupiter Ascending</a>, so big and brash and bold, so fresh in my mind, soooo incredibly bad.<br />
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Let me just clarify a few things. I loved Jupiter Ascending, perhaps because I had read <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/review-jupiter-ascending-the-worst/" target="_blank">this article</a> prior to going and I was prepared. I laughed throughout. I put my shawl over my head at one stage (and not because it was cold...which it was) and I mocked it shamelessly. This movie is so awful you really need to go out and see it right now.<br />
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When you've seen the film, perhaps we can sit down and talk, and maybe you'll be able to answer a few questions for me...like...<br />
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1. Does Sean Bean have a drug problem? Because that's the only reason I can think of to explain why he felt the need to make this movie. Did he spend all of his <i>Game of Thrones</i> earnings on crack? If so, I hope this pay check got him back on his feet. Full marks though for demanding that his character had an intricate and complicated back story just to give him a bit of credibility. It's a just a shame that his back story is so insanely complicated and delivered in such a mumbled, vague way that you have no idea what the hell is going on...except that his daughter has a cough that's terminal meaning Sean will do all manner of stupid stuff to save her, and that he covered for Channing Tatum once (no idea why) and that got him into trouble and he got his wings cut off and some other stuff...<br />
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2. Did Eddie Redmayne hurt his voice making <i>The Theory of Everything?</i> Because he spoke very, very quietly. Like, what's with the whispering thing Eddie? Also why didn't Eddie get more air time, because really he was awesome. Seriously, Eddie dug down into the very depths of his thespian roots and he poured everything into the terrible lines he was given. And not once did he crack a smile, or look sideways at the camera with a wry "I know, right?" smile. Also why didn't we get more shirtless-Eddie and less my-cape-is-attached-to-my-wrist-Eddie?<br />
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3. Why don't Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis like each other? Sure they get the job done when it comes to the kissing part, but the rest of the time they just seem really awkward. Maybe it's because Channing Tatum was confused about why she would rather clean toilets and make tea than be Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Or was he just pissed off because he had to rescue her AGAIN AND AGAIN. Or maybe it's because every time Kunis looked at that super creepy beard he's wearing she cracked up and they had to start the scene all over again. Or perhaps she was perpetually confused wondering why, if Channing Tatum is an albino wolf hybrid, he's well, not, you know, albino. Or maybe she just realised that he's a spliced wolf hybrid with wings and no way should she be having sex with him even though she has just spent a whole lot of screen time suggesting that it would be a good idea.<br />
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4. Speaking of weird animal references, what's with all the ears? I mean, Channing Tatum's pseudo wolf ears are funny enough, but the mouse ears and the elephant... And what's with those bees? Cause that was really random.<br />
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5. Whose daughter got to choose the music? Let's be honest people, there was waaaaayyyy too much Disney style music and not enough epic space music, well except for that riff which was a knock off from the beginning of <i>Star Wars</i>...<br />
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6. SPACE ROLLER SKATES????<br />
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7. No really, space roller skates? Is this a sequel to Tron? If so, why doesn't Channing have a light up suit?<br />
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8. And while we're on the subject of those roller skates, because I want to believe that if there are heaps of inhabited planets and there are people on those planets with the knowledge to be able to invent super cool space ships, and splice genes and stuff, surely they would have evolved way beyond space roller skates.<br />
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9. Speaking of advanced species...what's with the whole journey through the bureaucratic back blocks of space? The Supreme Princess Ruler of the Universe has to queue up to get her form stamped before she can inherit the world? What is this? Ghana? Actually...there is that bribery scene...<br />
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10. No really, SPACE ROLLER SKATES?????? WTF????<br />
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The only thing that makes me sad about this film is that there wasn't a loophole in there that would have allowed Eddie to survive the plunge to his death. <i>(Yeah, yeah, spoiler alert, whatever. As if that's going to spoil your movie going experience. He's the bad guy. They all die...well, unless they're Benedict Cumberbatch who will never die.)</i><br />
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I know it's in Eddie's best interests to get the hell out of space and go back to making movies that have real scripts, but, let's be honest, without Eddie, the sequel is going to be...well, crapper than this one. Because when you've reached the lofty heights of epic badness, there's just nowhere else to go, except maybe to fix up the crap bits, and hire a script writer, and a good editor, but then you'd run the risk of ending up with a middle of the road ordinary film that people are just embarrassed to mention in polite company, rather than an oh-my-god-that-was-so-shit-let's-see-it-again!<br />
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<i>Jupiter Ascending</i>. You weren't going to see it were you? Well, you're welcome.<br />
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-89693818975674101152015-02-02T16:57:00.002+00:002015-02-02T16:57:42.306+00:00Ten things I have learned about editing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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1. You cannot edit a blank page. Hence, it is easier not to write anything than have to do the work to make it better. Procrastination will save you from heartache.<br />
<br />2. Procrastination is not your friend. Procrastination will buy you drinks, get you drunk and then post the photographs on Facebook.<br /><br />
3. Editing is sad. It involves looking at something you loved and realising that it doesn’t make sense/is clumsy/needs to be thrown out/rewritten. Chances are that around this time you will tell someone that you have to "kill your babies" <i>(because that's what gritty writers say)</i> except the person you tell won't know the first thing about gritty writers and they'll just think you're creepy and your kid should be taken away from you, and then they'll realise you don't currently have any babies and they'll start to worry even more.<br /><br />
4. Editing is exciting. All of a sudden a character gains a back story you never knew s/he had. They grow purpose and perspective, they become rounded and rich and rebellious.<br /><br />
5. Editing and alliteration are not friends. They may have dated once, but now they’re barely on speaking terms.<br /><br />
6. Edits are a gift. Someone cares enough to tell you how your novel could be better, before a single review has been written. They’re basically the only bad review you don’t get defensive about <strike>cry over</strike>, because you know they’re right AND you get to fix your mistakes.<br /><br />
7. Dogs get rescued during the edits. I mean, seriously people, if you put a dog in your story, make sure it goes to a good home, or that there’s at least a nice neighbour who will come by and feed it. There’s an abandoned (literary) dog in an apartment that I still worry about. I don’t have any dogs in my stories…only chickens. Now I think about it, there is a chicken that no one takes care of…and that’s bad, because it’s only a small chicken and if my daughter notices she’s going to harass me about what happened to the chicken for the next twenty years. I shouldn’t put animals in my books, because now I’m going to have to rewrite half the book so that wretched chicken is taken care of.<br /><br />
8. It’s embarrassing when the answer to ‘why does this happen?’ is ‘I don’t know.’ A far better answer is 'Just because, shut up' which sounds really funny if you're Joss Whedon. If you're not Joss Whedon you shouldn't say it. You should just stop procrastinating and rewrite the damned thing.<br /><br />
9. You may think you have a big vocabulary but you don’t. Chances are you use the same words over and over again: words like "that" and "turned" and "stared". It’s funny when you first realise that your characters turn and stare and shrug a lot, and then it’s not funny, it’s really annoying.<br /><br />
10. Stephen King doesn’t like adverbs. He thinks you should get rid of all of them. When I inadvertently think of Stephen King, I quickly want to write fabulously ridiculous adverbs…but I don’t because I know that he is right and I will just have to take them all out. For the record, when I’m removing adverbs from 250 pages of text I hate Stephen King, unreservedly.<br /><br />
11. Some days when you're meant to be editing, it's really tempting to spend the day writing lists instead.Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-70971129328318400532015-01-07T13:00:00.000+00:002016-09-02T17:33:58.799+01:00A Story About Magic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On a street corner in Montreal a magician moved amongst the crowd, wrapping the darkness around his shoulders, and calling upon the stars with tales of wonder and delight.<br />
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Flowers appeared out of nowhere, and children clapped and cried out. Knots slid from one end of a rope to another as hands flashed before eager, sparkling eyes.<br />
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He paused before me and held two coins aloft.<br />
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<i>'See here! Watch as I turn these two coins into three.'</i></blockquote>
He reached for my hand and tucked the two coins into my palm...one, two, three.<br />
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He stepped away with a flourish.<br />
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<i>'How many coins do you have in your hand?'</i></blockquote>
We locked eyes and for a second there was a question, and a plea.<br />
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<i>'Two.'</i></blockquote>
He grinned, took my hand in his and triumphantly revealed three coins to the world. The audience applauded as we knew they would.<br />
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Every magician needs an assistant.<br />
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And sometimes the magic is what matters most.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/luigidiamanti</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-7511350944956265232015-01-02T13:00:00.000+00:002015-01-02T13:00:01.265+00:00Some Reflections on a Year of Reading and a Book You MUST Read<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For the first time in several years, I didn't reach my Goodreads reading challenge target of 52 books in a year. I came close, but missed the mark by four books. The obvious excuse is that I didn't have time, but that's really not the case, my problem was that I actually got caught in a trap of trying to read only books I could be nice about in my blog reviews. So I felt like a lot of time I was stopping and starting books as I tried to find ones I could love.<br />
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As an author I don't feel like it's my place to write bad reviews about other authors. While personally I understand that there will be plenty of people who dislike my book I have a pathological fear of running into an author whose book I've slammed on my blog. Well, except maybe the authors of <i><a href="http://www.fionaleonard.net/2013/05/a-book-week-beautiful-creatures.html" target="_blank">Beautiful Creatures</a></i>, because I stand by that review and I still think it's pretty funny...and besides I really don't think they care what I think.<br />
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My other issue was that I felt like needing to read a book a week was changing the way I read - I had to keep away from long books, and complex books - and generally I felt like I was reading to a deadline rather than reading for pleasure. The emphasis was on finishing rather than savouring. This year I definitely want to do more savouring, both for the sheer joy of reading, and also because it gives me more time to learn from other authors.<br />
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That said, 48 books is a good haul. And I'm pretty happy with the diversity - ten or so different nationalities, a nice mix of non-fiction and fiction and some YA books as well to round it out. If you're interested, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/1081562?page=1" target="_blank">the full list can be found here</a>. You'll note that according to the count I'm actually six books short, but I've read a couple that haven't been published yet so they don't make it to the tally.<br />
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One of the last books I read in 2014 was superb and a brilliant way to round out the year. If you have an unspent Christmas book voucher I highly recommend that you rush out now and buy <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Detection-Jedediah-Berry-ebook/dp/B001QNVPUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419864195&sr=8-1&keywords=manual+of+detection" target="_blank">The Manual of Detection. </a></i><br />
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<i>The Manual of Detection</i> is a bit like a literary version of the film <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/" target="_blank">Inception</a>, </i>if <i>Inception</i> was about detectives and circuses and alarm clocks. Okay, well, maybe it's not really like <i>Inception</i> except for the fact that they're both about dreams, and they weave in and out of reality and how we perceive the world and you're not entirely sure when things happened or why, or how they relate to what you think is reality.<br />
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Charles Unwin is a lowly clerk in a monolythic detective agency. He knows his place and thrives on the opportunity to make his assigned detective, Travis Sivart, look good. His files are meticulous and his reports on point. That is, until Sivart goes missing, and Unwin is promoted to the position of detective for no good reason, and the woman in the plaid raincoat steps in to take over his role as clerk. Armed only with a copy of The Manual of Detection (missing Chapter Eighteen) and a desperate desire to return to his previous life, Unwin sets out to solve the ever-unfolding series of crimes and mysteries he has become entangled in.<br />
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This is a beautifully written book. To be honest it's one of those books that makes me want to give up writing, because I read passages and just get sad thinking that I'll never be able to write like that.<br />
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Buy it, read it and thank me later.<br />
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<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-21656176519813331992015-01-01T18:20:00.002+00:002016-09-08T10:25:38.560+01:00My Dream Roles (or "Films I Would Like To Have Worked On")<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The year is barely hours old and already I have been tagged in a Facebook thingy <i>(is there a proper name for them???) </i>where I am supposed to list my ten dream roles. I have zero interest in being on stage or in front of a camera - I prefer to be waaaaaaaayyyyy back in the wings, or general offstageness - but I do harbour a deep-seated hope that I will get to be on a movie set one day. The following are not really dream roles, but rather movies I would like to have been involved with; either as crew or as an extra soaking it all up in the background.<br />
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1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781769/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Anna Karenina</a> (2012) - I love this version of the Tolstoy classic. It's an incredible mix of cinema and theatre and I would have loved to have been there and seen how it was all put together. Also the costumes were superb. I may have created a diversion and stolen one or two...<br />
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2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Boyhood </a> (2014) - This was one of my favourite films of last year. I love the fact that the cast and crew came together every year for thirteen plus years to create one film. It must have been incredible being a part of this sort of creative community/family and watching each other grow and evolve.<br />
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3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094064/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Much Ado About Nothing</a> (2012) - I've written before about my interest in <a href="http://www.fionaleonard.net/2014/11/a-book-week-joss-whedon-autobiography.html" target="_blank">Joss Whedon and his work.</a> Filmed in black and white over twelve days, at Whedon's own house, this would have been a brilliant chance to see the Whedonverse in Action.<br />
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4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">The Princess Bride</a> (1987) - It's a classic. That should be reason enough, as would seeing this diverse group of actors in action. But it would also have been interesting to have been involved in a low budget, hard to market production that evolved into a movie with a cult following.<br />
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5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Moulin Rouge</a> (2001) - See earlier reference to stealing costumes... This is such a lush movie, it would have been wonderful to have been a part of its construction. Actually, I would happily have been part of any Baz Luhrman production...<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Romeo and Juliet</a>...<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105488/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Strictly Ballrooom.</a>..well, any except <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455824/?ref_=tt_rec_tti" target="_blank">Australia</a>. Then again, maybe if I'd been there I could have smacked everyone around the head and shouted "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?????"<br />
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6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083791/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">The Dark Crystal</a> (1982) - I grew up on the Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock. To have been able to watch people give life to puppets, especially in the early years of the technology would have been a brilliant experience.<br />
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7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Gravity </a>(2013) - Similarly I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the making of Gravity. Whilst the technology side of movies is way out of my comfort zone, I would have loved to have been in an environment with creative people who have fantastic ideas and then have to go away and create the technology in order to realise those ideas.<br />
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8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116209/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">English Patient</a> (1996) - I suspect I wouldn't have lasted long on the set of <i>The English Patient</i>, because I would have been totally obnoxious, interjecting every five minutes with questions about whether that was really the best way to realise the true essence of the book in a cinematic context. This is my all time favourite book, and I would have found it impossible to keep quiet. Still, it would have been wonderful watching a novel being translated onto the big screen...until I was escorted by security from the set.<br />
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9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588173/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Warm Bodies</a> (2013) - It's a zombie romance movie, and a very funny one at that, what's not to love??? If I had a bucket list, being an extra in a zombie movie would be on that list. In fact I think I will start a bucket list just so I can put that on the list.<br />
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*update: Ok, so I've just created a <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/fionajleonard/bucket-list/" target="_blank">bucket list board on Pinterest</a> and yes, it has one item on it. Stay tuned for further updates.<br />
<br />
10. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Thief-Fiona-Leonard-ebook/dp/B00JLGMWD2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420135683&sr=8-2&keywords=the+chicken+thief" target="_blank">The Chicken Thief</a> (201?) - So this is the only one that's not retrospective. There's a screenplay written of <i>The Chicken Thief</i> and it is currently being shopped around interested people. Do I have to spell out how immensely cool it would be to see my book made into a movie?<br />
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*update: yep, that's now on the bucket list too.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net/stockimages</span></i>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-7217064086382837932014-12-31T13:00:00.000+00:002014-12-31T13:00:00.809+00:00A Year in Five Things and a Little Bit More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I should have done this weeks ago, when I was tagged, amidst other people reflecting on their year, and trying to make sense of what had gone, and what was coming and where they fitted into it all.<br />
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But I wasn't ready then. I wasn't done with this year; hadn't made peace with what I had hoped for and what I had received and how I had embraced the good and the not so good.<br />
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Now it seems I am, or at least I'm close enough to being ready, to begin. So out of all the things that happened, the big and small, here are five randomly chosen moments from 2014 that I will carry in my heart into the new year, with pleasure.<br />
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<br />
1. I sat in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night and was convinced once and for all that the earth is round and that the sky is round and everything is wrapped around each other in a great cosmic interplay that really warps your brain when you try to stare up into it.<br />
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Being in the desert reminded me of everything I'm not and everything I would love to be. It aired out my soul and made space for new things.<br />
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2. I signed a book for a woman I'd never met, who didn't know any of my friends or family and I felt incredibly humbled that someone had taken the time to read something that I'd written just because.<br />
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Then she asked whether there would be another, and I said yes, and a third, and she looked pleased. And that felt very cool...and a little bit terrifying.<br />
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3. I finished a draft of the third book and I was both pleased that it was done and bitterly disappointed because some chapters make me cry I love them so much, and others I look at in disbelief.<br />
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But I reassured myself that it would get better, because this is actually the fourth book I've written and by now I know that there is more left inside me, if only I can dig deep enough to find it.<br />
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And I put it aside and started work on another one that is set in a different world, and is rough, and awkward and not quite working, and yet it keeps me awake at night dreaming.<br />
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4. I stood in the darkness and watched a group of people I had worked with for twelve weeks come together to create the most incredible production I've ever been involved with.<br />
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And I cried, not just because it was such a wonderful show, but because what was on stage was such a small part of what had been achieved in that time.<br />
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Where the audience saw lights and costumes and laughed until their faces hurt, I saw kindness and courage and friendship and love.<br />
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Then I cried some more.<br />
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5. I spent time with friends I hadn't seen for sixteen years, and friends I hadn't seen for two but had known forever, and said goodbye to friends who were going far away and I didn't know when I would get to hug them again. And I made new ones that I can hug whenever I want to.<br />
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I learned new things about friends I thought I knew better than anyone else in the world, and recognised things in others that had never been spoken but I felt like I had known forever.<br />
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I watched their children grow into the most wonderful beings and was amazed and impressed and not in the least bit surprised.<br />
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I laughed and sang and complained and cheered and loved and maybe even cried a bit, because well, sometimes I do that you know...<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>And another year went by and I was reminded once again</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> that all things are possible even when some things seem improbable </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>and that I can put my feet in the ocean and my head in the clouds </i></div>
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<i>and somewhere, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>always </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>in between,</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> I will find magic and wonder.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net/nipitphand </i></span>Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-26756959224565662012014-11-18T12:03:00.000+00:002014-11-18T12:03:12.283+00:00The Top 5 Reasons Why I Hate "Do They Know Its Christmas?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sometimes with Top 5 lists it's really hard to come up with a complete list. But when it comes to the recently released do-gooder rubbish that is the latest incarnation of <i>Do They Know It's Christmas?</i> I'm ready to roll because this song just makes me want to punch someone.<br />
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1. AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY!<br />
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Only <b>THREE </b>countries in Africa have ebola. That's all. The other <b>FIFTY-ONE </b><u>COUNTRIES </u>do not. However, because of mass global hysteria, perpetuated by media stunts like this, the entire continent is being blacklisted. Recent statistics suggest that <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21632641-virus-claiming-new-victimsafrican-tourism-and-football-ignorance" target="_blank">tourism has fallen by up to 70% in some African countries</a>. By continuing to tell the world that Africa is a tin pot country [sic] full of hideous disease you are condemning its entire population. The amount of money raised on this album will in no way compensate all of the tourist operators, business people, artists, etc who are suffering in the face of global fear mongering.<br />
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2. And while we're on the subject of geography, can we talk about this lyric?:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa</i></div>
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West Africa is also not a country. It is a region that comprises <b>EIGHTEEN </b>countries of which only <b>THREE </b>have ebola. I live in West Africa and you can be damn sure there'll be Christmas joy in my household and plenty of others like it. But once again, thanks for making everyone think they should keep well away from the entire region.<br />
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3. Speaking of lyrics...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>There's a world outside your window and it's a world of dread and fear.</i></div>
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In all of West Africa? Seriously, we expect better than this from you lot. Some of you have even been here. Bono, Bob, even One Direction have all set foot on the <u>continent</u>. Was it "dread and fear", everywhere, all day every day? No? Well stop singing crap like that. It's cliched, lazy, and stupid, and we're sick of it.<br />
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4. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/band-aid-30-new-lyrics-for-ebolathemed-do-they-know-its-christmas-revealed-9863007.html" target="_blank">Bob Geldoff has been quoted as saying: </a>"It really doesn't matter if you don't like this song. It really doesn't matter if you don't like the artists, it really doesn't matter if it turns out to be a lousy recording - what you have to do is buy this thing."<br />
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No, we don't. Because there are plenty of other ways you can donate to organisations that are providing on the ground, practical relief to the actual people who are affected by ebola. For a start you could consider:<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.msf.org.uk/ebola" target="_blank">Medecins Sans Frontieres</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.redcross.org/ebolaoutbreak" target="_blank">Red Cross</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.africare.org/how-you-can-help/ebola-online-fundraising/" target="_blank">Africare</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.samaritanspurse.org/disaster/ebola-crisis/#donatenow" target="_blank">Samaritan's Purse</a></li>
</ul>
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Being told that you have to buy something even if it's rubbish speaks to the heart of all that is wrong with a consumerist society. We're better than that. We have the means and the outlets for making educated and astute decisions about how we spend our money.<br />
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5. And finally, about this Christmas thing...you do know that nearly 30% of the population in Sierra Leone, 12% in Liberia, and, wait for it, 85% in Guinea, are actually Muslim? Would you like the statistics for all of West Africa, seeing as that's what you're apparently singing about? Well in West Africa as a whole, 70% of the population is Muslim. It's just a hunch, but I'm not thinking they're too fussed about Christmas.<br />
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Enough with the bandaids. Let's try for some genuine practical solutions that aren't wrapped in hype and hysteria.<br />
<br />Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847712185319140876.post-57348773693912171902014-09-24T16:52:00.000+01:002014-09-24T16:52:00.255+01:00All The Things I Learned (well some of them anyway) At My First Writers Festival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Last week I had the very great pleasure of participating in the <a href="http://openbookfestival.co.za/" target="_blank">Open Book Festival</a> in Cape Town, South Africa. For five days, writers from around the world came together to discuss their books, writing processes and inspiration. While I was there ostensibly to speak about <a href="http://penguinbooks.co.za/book/chicken-thief/9780143538554" target="_blank">my own book</a>, it proved to be an incredible opportunity to learn from a very talented group of writers and publishers.<br />
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While much came out of the week, the following are a few key observations from my first writers festival.<br />
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<b>1. Take Your Writing Seriously</b><br />
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I met a lot of writers over the course of the week. Some wrote full time, others in the margins of other jobs. They were all incredibly focused and committed to their work and they had a team of people who supported their endeavors. To put it simply, they were all professionals. I think it's safe to say that there's a very good reason why almost all had several books to their names.<br />
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It's easy to get bogged down in the chatter surrounding the death of the publishing industry and of reading and writing in general. The flip side is that you can take the head down, bum up approach and just keep writing and promoting your work.<br />
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Writing can be an elusive, ephemeral calling, or it can be a viable career like any other: your call.<br />
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<b>2. Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously</b><br />
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After my very first panel, I and my fellow panelists were herded off to the signing room to sign books. There was a table with our names on it, and thoughtfully provided pens. It all looked very official and impressive.<br />
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Next to our table was a table for American fantasy writer, <a href="http://www.crydee.com/" target="_blank">Raymond Feist,</a> who has written thirty novels and sold over 150 million copies. The queue of people waiting to get Feist to sign their books stretched across the room and out onto the street. The queue of people waiting for the three of us to sign our books was...well, let's just say there wasn't one.<br />
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We sat on our table for a couple of minutes and then one of the other panelists suggested that we sign each others' books and retire to the bar. It was the perfect end to a very enjoyable day.<br />
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Unlike me with only one book in the wind, my fellow panelists were both experienced novelists with a clutch of books to their names. Both were highly accomplished - one a lawyer and a reservist, the other a Rhodes scholar, freelance journalist and photographer. And both arrived at the festival equipped with a healthy dose of pragmatism and a sense of humour. It was a good lesson.<br />
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<b>3. Be Prepared...for any Question</b><br />
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When I first started promoting my book I went to great lengths to prepare for interviews. I made lists of possible questions and answers. It didn't take me long to discover that most interviewers hadn't read my book and so the questions were likely to follow a pretty simple formula, starting with, 'so, what's your book about?'<br />
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Open Book Fest was very different. All of the panel chairs had read the books of the authors they were interviewing. And on some occasions it turned out the other authors had read their fellow panelists' books as well.<br />
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I have never been blind-sided by so many questions in my entire life. I was quizzed about a diverse range of issues including sex in my book <i>(why isn't there any?)</i>, music <i>(how is it used as a narrative device?)</i> and censorship <i>(did your publisher challenge what went into your book?). </i>On one hand it was a bit daunting, but it was also a lot of fun. And it made me realise very early on that there was no point in trying to prepare. I was far better just going along ready to enjoy the experience, to listen to what others had to say, and practise extreme gratitude that someone had not only taken the time to read my book, but also think about it and come up with challenging questions.<br />
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As an aside, one of the surprising takeaways was that being constantly challenged about how and why you write, makes you think about how and why you write! It may seem a stretch, but I feel like the experience will help to make me a better writer.<br />
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<b>4. Be Pragmatic and Practical</b><br />
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One of the questions I was asked, was 'what do you want the reader to take away from your book?' My first reaction to this question is always that I don't want to tell the reader how they should think about the book. I believe there are two versions of the book - the one I wrote, and the one the reader reads. Once it is in a reader's hands, it is up to them to decide how to experience, enjoy/hate and interact with the book. Want to pronounce all the names in the book differently to me? Go ahead!<br />
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Coming from that perspective, I want people to take away more general experiences. I want them to see the value of books coming out of Africa that are not simply 'struggle stories'. I am a passionate advocate of the need for all genres of fiction to be written with African settings - romance novels, zombie novels, fantasy, chick lit etc. There need to be more books with familiar settings, but which explore a range of diverse topics.<br />
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To those people who were aspiring writers it became very clear that the best thing I could give, was very practical advice - what books should you read if you want to be a writer? how do you find a writing community? How do you go about self publishing? If I was to prepare anything in the future, it would be two or three very practical suggestions dealing with the nuts and bolts of writing.<br />
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<b>5. Ask Good Questions</b><br />
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This one relates more to sitting in the audience rather than up on stage. At several of the presentations over the weekend there were controversial and confrontational interactions between audience members and panelists. In each, however, the questioner completely missed the opportunity to get their point across, instead getting bogged down in the emotion and heat of the moment. As a result, the questioner came away looking like a bit of a nut, as they failed to respond to the moderator's requests to get to the point.<br />
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In each case, if the questioner had arrived with a clearly articulated context and question, they would have had a public forum in which to make a genuine point and potentially put the speaker on the spot. I have no idea of the issues, and who was in the right, but I would have much preferred to see a genuine debate, than a rowdy confrontation.<br />
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<b>And finally..</b>.<br />
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Writers festivals offer an amazing opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of reading and writing. I feel better for the experience both as a reader and a writer. A huge thanks to both my publisher, Penguin SA and the organisers of Open Book Festival for including me in the line up.<br />
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And by the way, if you're the organiser of an upcoming writers festival - pick me! pick me!Fiona Leonardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01525958429026423167noreply@blogger.com