pics of the week

Flowers got to me this week, so i'm posting shots of anthuriums as the pics of the week. A few years ago the Anthurium Late Blight demolished the local anthurium production, leaving all farmers/growers with nothing but empty shadehouses and farm lands. Anthuriums in Dominica are usually grown under shade netting or in forested areas where the plants can recieve shade during its growth period.

The Roseau Valley but more particularly the Giraudel/Eggleston communities are famous for their anthurium blooms and flower show. But enough of my talk about growth and so forth, just enjoy the photos. They tell more than a thousand words

quote of the week: faults

Found this quote on Wisdomtips.com and felt that I should share it. It speaks about how people react to certain things depending on who is doing it and not exactly what is being done. I think it rings true, I know of situations that i have witnessed and some that I have also been in where I would have done otherwise if it were a friend that had committed the grievance against me. So here is the quote.

A fault in a loved one is no matter. The same fault in an enemy is an outrage.

And please try to treat people on an equal footing and look more at the situation than the person in the situation.

For more wisdom tips click here

Nesta

Photo of the week: doggy tricks

Took this photo just a few minutes ago while walking through the Botanic Gardens. I'm not sure how the dog got the roll around it's neck and thinking about it now I should have helped it to get it out.

Then again, I was the victim of a dog bite as a little boy and I surely do not want to relive that experience. Anyways, I hope people can see the amusement from the photo.

Nesta

quote of the week: happiness

Simple, to the point and timely as I am searching for a personal happiness. Don't get me wrong, I am not the sad, depressed character, far from that, but still there are moments where I search for more than I can find. So when I found this quote, I just felt the need to share it with the internet world, although I am sure they know more about it than me.

Happiness is not the absence of conflict but the ability to cope with it.

by Dr. Wayne Dyer

Dr. Dyer is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development. He's the author of over 30 books, has created many audio programs and videos, and has appeared on thousands of television and radio shows.

For more information: Dr. Dyers Website

quote of the week: Prime Minister Skerrit

The quote of the week come from the Honourable Prime Minister of Dominica Mr. Roosevelt Skerrit. I just like the whole use of words and characterization in the speech.

It comes at a time when the PM and his government have been under tremendous fire for the procurement of garbage bins among other issues. This quote signals that the PM is not going silently into the night but intends to retaliate, he and his supporters...

“No longer shall we, like turtles, draw our body parts and take a beating. Nolonger will we sit silent and allow our members and or our comrades to be preyedupon by our detractors. Henceforth, the battle shall be on. We shall take thefight to those who wish to take us on. We shall hold them accountable or everyact of irresponsibility. We shall draw strength from the Old Testament, inwarning of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We shall not lie down andplay dead. Henceforth, on the political front in Dominica, it shall be tit for tat and butter for fat,” he said."

Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit

Prime Minister of Dominica

Disclaimer: The use of the Prime Minister's quote on my blog is not a sign of any politicial alliance, neither is it a sign that I am for/against the Prime Minister or the Dominica Labour Party, I just love the quote and let's just leave it at that.

Nesta

quote of the week: life

Quote of the week for this week comes via the msn messenger sign-in name of a friend of mine. It speaks about life and it simply says:

"In three words I can sum up everything that i have learnt about life: it goes on"

thanks Diana for this one...

I guess it speaks to not taking things too seriously and even in the worst of situations we always have to be mindful that life will continue with or without us. It also makes me want to live for the moment and cherish the time that i have already spent on earth. Love the people i should love while i can love them because tomorrow is definitely not my own.

So to anyone who reads my blog, tell your loved ones how you feel before it's too late.

Nesta

My fave five of the week

Another week; another list of my five favourite things of that week:

1. the 4D Ag Centre Bath Estate team are back to back national football (soccer) champions. Blue Blue, Estate For True; going for a three-peat;


2. Got some donuts and banana bread from my friend Michelle; a peace corps volunteer at the National Youth Council of Dominica; you can check out her donut story on her blog. She always have some wonderful baked goods, keep em coming Michelle, I want to put on some weight, lord knows 140 aint much, lol;


3. Had a wonderful night on Monday; Walked through Roseau up to Goodwill and spent some time in the middle of the Lindo Park football field looking at the "stars" for about an hour or so;


4. My farmers treated my supervisor, karen (my friend) and I to lunch; we had a one pot brath and some wine, Johnny Walker Red Label Scotch. My farmers really know how to treat me well, lol, except when they arguing for seeds and fertilizer, then it is a verbal onslaught. But at the end of the day it's all good.


5. Hosted the environmental program (Environment and Sustainable Development) last night on Kairi FM radio. We discussed Invasive Alien Species as the theme for International Day for Biodiversity (today) as well as Access and Benefit Sharing for Genetic Resources.
   
   Nesta

quote of the week?

The quote of the week comes from an Irish kid who played a hoax on the entire world, well at least those who use the internet as a research source, especially those who use wikipedia (free internet encyclopedia) as a source. He said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news. He added the quote to Maurice's Jarre Wikipedia page. And the fake quote reads:

"One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack, Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear."

I guess we can now attribute the cute quote to Fitzgerald.

For more on that story go to: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/11/international/i090708D96.DTL

Nest@

Quote of the Week: friendship

This week's quote is based on friendships. I've read a number of friendship quotes and always here people say that true friends last a lifetime and so forth. The quote for this week comes from Fr. Jerome Cummings:

A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway

I guess that it really speaks about the person knowing your shortcomings, deficiencies, bad habit and so forth but being able to see beyond that and appreciate you for who you are as an individual. These are the friends we mustn't let go from our lives and these are the kinds of relationships we should try to develop with our friends too.

Nesta

Quote of the week: Albert Einstein

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form."

Albert Einstein

Management or Leadership? quote of the week

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing"

Peter F. Drucker

Quote of the Week: Strength

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

by Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi ( or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore) and in India also as Bapu ("Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, for expanding women's rights, for building religious and ethnic amity, for ending untouchability, for increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the Non-cooperation movement in 1922 and in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (249 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on numerous occasions, in both South Africa and India.

As a practitioner of Ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

For more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

http://www.mkgandhi.org/

Quote of the week: Shakespeare (King Henry IV)

This week's quote comes from Shakespeare in his play Henry IV. I guess it speaks for itself and demonstrates that a person with great responsibilities, such as a king, is constantly worried. Worried because of the challenges he faces, decisions he makes and opposition seeking his demise.

I'm not too much of a fan of Shakespeare, i still consider my English Literature classes from highschool and college to be pure torture. I guess the constant Shakespearean text at that age didnt really get me to appreciate his writing. I would just like to share the passage from which this quote was taken:

From Shakespeare's Henry IV. Part II, 1597.

KING HENRY IV:

How many thousand of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile

In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains

In cradle of the rude imperious surge

And in the visitation of the winds,Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them

With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?

Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,

And in the calmest and most stillest night,

With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Quote of the week: Frederick Douglas

I chose to highlight a quote from Mr. Frederick Douglas this week because I can hardly believe that February went by without this blog's recognition of Black History Month. I have been so preoccupied about so many things that I simply forgot the significance of February and in a move to ask for forgiveness I am highlighting a quote from an abolitionist, author, orator, statesman and so much more.

He will forever be linked with Black and American history as the first black man to seek election as a Vice President in America on the same ticket with the first woman to seek the Presidency of the USA.

He was frequently heard to utter the following words: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." but this is not the quote I would like to highlight in this blog.

He had a number of other famous quotes; one which I have often recited myself: "There is no progress without struggle" even before I knew who the orator was and I grew even prouder when I found out who I was actually quoting. But the quote of this week is:

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

I think the quote in itself is clear, putting more emphasis on raising our children right than correcting them when they become adults through judicial and prison systems. I think the Bible also mentioned something along those same lines in Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

So many people have sung that song and the message is even true today as we see the breakdown in so many societies across the globe. Let's hope this present generation takes heed and takes time to really train its children...

For more Frederick Douglas quotes

For more Frederick Douglas information

Nest@

Quote of the week: Osho

I came across this quote via a website (http://www.wisdomtips.com/) that sends me daily tips, quotes, hints, suggestions, etc. I usually put some of those quotes as my sign in name on my msn or yahoo messenger, at least when it pertains to me or says something that i believe is true.

This week's quote of the week was sent to me some time ago by this website (January 26, 2009) and for some reason i didnt delete it after i read it, which is my normal response. Today i was going through my emails and came across it today and so decided to share it on my blog. The quote is by Osho, an Indian who had several name changes during his lifetime. He was a spiritual leader, educator and sometime controversial critic, especially when he spoke out against organized religion and other leaders like Ghandi.

He was also known for outlining his own "Ten Commandments" although he mentioned that he was against any kind of commandment:

Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
There is no God other than life itself.
Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
Love is prayer.
To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and attainment.
Life is now and here.
Live wakefully.
Do not swim – float.
Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

For more on Osho

Now for the quote of the week:

That which can be taken away by death is worthless to accumulate. Accumulate something that death cannot destroy.

Osho

I guess what he is saying is riches, possessions shouldn't be the goal of man because we cant really take it into the after life but that as well is controversial since he didn't really believe in the after life from his commandment "Life is here and now" and even if you accumulate that which you think death can't be taken away, you can never truly be sure because you are dead and i'm sure there are people who died with good names and characters only to have it sullied after.

Anyways, i am in no real position to critic his quotes or beliefs, but just sharing my thoughts.

Nest@

quote of the week: hellen keller

The quote for this week comes from Hellen Keller and it speaks for itself. She even spoke for herself too as a deafblind activist and author.

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

Hellen Keller

For more information on Hellen Keller click here

and for more of her quotes

Quote of the Week: Maya Angelou

I really like this quote, particularly at this time when the National Youth Council of Dominica is coordinating Keira's Book Club. The Club, which was started by 9 year old Christina (Keira) Valentine, targets primary school students in hopes of encouraging reading as an extra curricular activity and to assist literacy programs at schools and communities across Dominica.

So far, 9 year old Keira, with the help of her mother and friends, has managed to collect and ship over 800 books to Dominica and the launch of the program is scheduled for the month of February.

A logo design competition is currently being coordinated by the Youth Council to give the program an official launch and a number of schools/persons have already shown interest in participing in the program.

This week's quote speaks of reading and it comes from Dr. Maya Angelou.

Dr. Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race and Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

And now the quote:

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

To support Keira's Book Club please contact the National Youth Council of Dominica at email: nyc_dom@hotmail.com or simply reply to this blog post.

Nest@

quote of the week: think before you speak

When i first came upon this quote i let off a loud laugh, not because it was funny but it brought back memories of people calling the radio talkshows in Dominica saying whatever comes to mind and with no regards to whether it makes sense or whether their comments were even warranted.

The quote also brings back images of suffering, i guess because it speaks of attaining freedom the image of blacks being brutalized for their freedoms. I am not saying that blacks are the only ones who were made to suffer for personal freedoms but as a black man myself, i can more relate to that struggle.

This quote also brings back another one which i heard often as a little boy, that "one must listen twice as much as one speaks and for that reason God gave us two ears but only one mouth." I cant remember where i heard it first nor do i know who wrote it but i know it as a true saying. It is always better to first listen then speak.

The quote for this week comes from Soren Kierkegaard who was a Danish Theologian and Philosopher. And it reads:

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." --Soren Kierkegaard

Mr. Kierkegaard has many more famous quotes, click here, and he even predicted that he would be famous after his death. In his journal, he wrote:

"What the age needs is not a genius - it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening. And therefore someday, not only my writings but my whole life, all the intriguing mystery of the machine will be studied and studied. I never forget how God helps me and it is therefore my last wish that everything may be to his honour."

For more information on Soren Kierkegaard

Nest@

Quote of the week: Chinese proverb

I've read so many Chinese proverbs that I am of the thinking that all they did was think of cute things to say and note them. Off course that is just a joke but the Chinese are a very intellectual people and have long showered the rest of the world with cute quotes to live by.

What astonishes me even more is that the original authors of the quotes are seldom noted. Almost like the quotes just fell from the sky to occupy the pages of a book or in their case, Chinese scrolls.

So here is the quote of the week; I don't know why I call it quote of the week, since it isn't really weekly but done randomly as quotes come my way. It is timely, so cliché eh... The quote speaks about going through tribulations in order to grow as a person and that all in all we should see those difficulties as making us better,stronger individuals.

"A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials"

I have also seen it written as: "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials"

I guess i should reflect on this quote whenever i am going through personal obstacles and see that the end might just justify the means...

Hats off to the Chinese for this one...

Nest@

I am only One: Quote (poem) of the week

Responsibility is a funny thing, alot of people embrace it but even more shun or hide from it. Some say its because of fear of failure but I remember reading that it is mostly because of fear of success and even more added responsibility from that particular sucess.

I have never been one to hide from responsibility (except at my workplace, but that is a different story altogether, one of sour grapes, lol). Responsibility indicates a certain level of dependability; a responsible person is a dependable one. This brings me to a poem by Edward Everett Hale:

I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do

I think the poem illustrates that although we might seem little in number (one) there are still things that we are capable of and we must do these things to the best of our abilities. It also speaks of doing something even if you cant achieve everything, that is to say that every little bit of effort counts in the big picture. The poem speaks of taking responsibility and doing what we are capable and not holding back or refusing.