She thought her words had power. And they did.
“There is the danger of the single story.” — Chimamanda Adichie
But no one could accuse Maya of a single story: she is a natural storyteller… And a Word Warrior.
Word Warrior
Tag Archives: idealist
Did What Is Right
According to his own conscience.
Which was against his country’s norms at the time.
A Man for All Seasons.
“You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.
People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.”
Yes, There is the banality of evil.
And, Yes, he probably did pay for his life-saving kindness. He had a tough life, but the approximately 20,000 descendents of the individuals who he helped are glad that he did the right thing, in his own mind.
Others could not, and more importantly, did not do the same. But, it was a natural thing, FOR HIM. It’s called personality: Character AND Temperament, two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate them. It is a whole.
Wings
Don’t ask me what I did. Ask what I did not do.
I did not clip her wings.
— Ziauddin Yousafzai
Ziauddin Yousafzai, Teacher Idealist, is the father of Malala Yousafzai, a young woman who protested against the Taliban for the education rights of children, especially for Pakistani girls. Originally a headmaster of his school in Swat Valley, he is currently the United Nations Special Advisor on Global Education.
Malala Yousafzai, Fieldmarshal Rational, ( born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani school pupil and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her activism for rights to education and for women, especially in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, at the age of 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary by journalist Adam B. Ellick was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. Malala rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu. [Wikipedia, revised]
“I will get my education – if it is in home, school, or anyplace.”
— Malala
As Malala became more recognized, the dangers facing her became more acute. Death threats against her were published in newspapers and slipped under her door. On Facebook, where she was an active user, she began to receive threats and fake profiles were created under her name. When none of this worked, a Taliban spokesman says they were “forced” to act. In a meeting held in the summer of 2012, Taliban leaders unanimously agreed to kill her.
Continue reading Wings
Unreasonable
But not irrational
— not by long shot.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him… The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself… All progress depends on the unreasonable man.” –George Bernard Shaw
He is unreasonable in his consistent integrity of his ideals.
Some say, because of that, he is unsafe at any speed of change.
He has always been Idealistic. THAT’S THE NATURE OF TEMPERAMENT.
He won’t change, he can’t change. He doesn’t compromise.
And he is unreasonable about that. Continue reading Unreasonable
Old Soldiers Never Die
“The XXI century will be a сentury either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind. It is my conviction that all of us – all reasonable political leaders, all spiritual and ideological movements, all faiths – must help in this transition to a triumph of humanism and justice, in making the XXI century a century of a new human renaissance.”
He won’t go away. Still, he tries to help. He has no political power. And he will fade away.
Those who fail to learn from history, will repeat it.
Slow ideas take longer to work, than fast ideas.
Counterfactuals are hard to do, but we know these atheistic Communists Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung were responsible for well over a hundred million deaths in the 20th century. Current history is also difficult: how many deaths can we lay at the feet of Putin.
So how many lives did this atheistic Communist SAVE? — Probably millions. We will never know. And he now is virtually ignored by his own countries, and the international community gives him accolades, but more likely they need a famous speaker for their get together.
“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”
– Gen. George C. Patton
Mikhail Gorbachev was key in the relatively peaceful break up of the Soviet Union. He, had been in effect, the Tzar of Russia.
He had the Idealistic Idea that the world, and the Soviet Union, could be a better place.
The Other Dream
What a Dream.
The Dream Team of Olympic Basketball: Michael, Magic, Larry …
BUT, THIS is about the OTHER DREAM TEAM.
They couldn’t even imagine their Dream in the beginning, it had been so long ago.
The Dream of Freedom…
FOR ALL
in Lithuania
It takes a Nation, with a little luck, grit, and passion.
“Yeah, And it’s a bigger dream.”
Jim Lampley
Keirsey Temperament Awards 2013
The Keirsey Temperament Awards for 2013
Keirsey Temperament Awards 2011
Keirsey Temperament Awards 2012
Each year an individual is awarded from each of the Four Temperaments: Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, and Rational. And we acknowledge this year’s passing of well known individuals who exhibited their Keirsey Temperament, In Memoriam.
The awards are given to individuals who are usually “famous” and have significantly impacted the world, as to illustrate and highlight the Four Temperaments. Keirsey Temperament Theory maintains all four Temperaments play important roles in society and we need all kinds of people to use their developed natural talents, to do the best at what they do best.
The selection is difficult, for sometimes Temperament is hidden because we are looking at these individuals from a far. Usually I don’t know the individuals personally, and only through the media am I familiar with these people. I am the judge and jury, with the suggestions from those are interested in Keirsey Temperament.
2013 Keirsey Temperament Awards
Captain of His Soul
From the Keirsey.com Website
In Memoriam, Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)
Champion Idealist Portrait of Nelson Mandela
The Captain of his Soul.
He had been in jail for 27 years, where some of that involved hard manual labor. Dust, sweat, and blood: the breaking of rocks into gravel or working in a limestone quarry. As he details in his autobiography, it was a Long Walk to Freedom.
“What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Passion requires Temperament
Success requires Circumstance
When interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, he was asked, “How could you forgive the people who imprisoned you for 27 years?” Mandela answered, essentially, that he didn’t have the time to waste on revenge or hating. He had a divided nation to forge into a united nation, for he had a passion, his country: The Union of South Africa. When he was released from prison, he had a job to do, and a job to finish, and if he didn’t do the right thing the country would have torn itself apart.
“I am fundamentally an optimist.” – Nelson Mandela
The prison system is designed to try to take away the dignity of the prisoner. It is designed to take out the enthusiasm for life. It is designed to break a man down. But there are some men, based on who they are: their Temperament and their unique journey in life, that instead become equipped to succeed in their goals, for it is enduring of trials and tribulations and becoming better for it, that forges the ability to cope and succeed with near impossible tasks. Case in point; unite a country divided by race.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt
The continent of Africa is littered with countries that have been, or are in, ethnic chaos or that are ethnic cleansing basket cases: Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia). Mandela had to find a cause that all South Africans could cheer for, to unite in. He garnered the hosting of the 1995 Rugby World Cup — and it was a simple rugby team, the Springboks, whose captain, François Pienaar, Mandela inspired with the Roosevelt quote. Said Pienaar ,”He talked to me and encouraged me in our efforts on the field, to win the World Cup.” The Springboks had now one black player, but still in the eyes of blacks South Africans was considered a symbol of the all white, apartheid South Africa. The Springboks had been the target of international controversy and protest since 1960, banned from international play because of the Union of South Africa’s whites only policies, until the breakup of apartheid. Mandela championed the team whenever and wherever he could, despite the team’s initial unpopularity. As the 9th seed in the tournament, the team defeated higher ranked teams to get to the finals. After the underdog Springboks had narrowly won, in extra-time, the epic Final 15 – 12, President Mandela, wearing a Springbok shirt, presented the World Cup trophy to captain Pienaar, a white Afrikaner. The gesture was widely seen as a major step towards the reconciliation of white and black South Africans.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul
A Nobel Element
She was not impressed.
After all, this Nobel Element is NOT a real Noble Element. Even though this medal is of that metal.
Gold is a Noble Element
“Oh Christ!… I couldn’t care less.”
It was the first reaction to when a reporter told her that she had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“I’m 88 years old and they can’t give the Nobel to someone who’s dead, so I think they were probably thinking they’d probably better give it to me now before I’ve popped off.”
Small things amuse small minds.
–Doris Lessing
The Broken Mirror of Fac-tion
For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing,
whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold,
as ’twere, the mirror up to nature,
to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image,
and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.
Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 2
He had written a play that won him the Pulitizer Prize in Fiction.
Yet, the broken mirror of reality, bedeviled him and beguiled him.
She had become one of the most famous actresses of the age.
Yet, the broken mirror of reality, bedeviled her and beguiled her.
Make-believe and Playing are simpler than Reality. And they can serve as a safe haven for the Four Temperaments.
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away
“She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence.” — Arthur Miller.