Six Word Fridays: Warmth

Warmth is;

A comforting smile across the room,
A hug when we are down,
A kind word lifting us up,
A generous soul seeking  us out.

Warmth is;

The joyous laughter of inocense child,
The rush of excitement ushering hope,
The restoring grace of genuine care,
The love that flows from children.

Rue's Friday Fragments # 16

Hi I'm Rue, the artist and voice behind Passion in the Moments / E:thos Photographic. This weekly posting is essentially an opportunity to share tid-bits, rants and observations that I have come across in the course of the week that are not really worth writing a whole article about but are interesting nevertheless. These coupled with that odd picture I have taken that doesn't really fit in anywhere, news about what's going on @ E:thos and a review of something interesting, put together in one post makes up what I call Rue's Friday Fragments. There is humour, righteous indignation, sad truths and a little of me, so something for everyone...enjoy!

10. Picture of the week

Reclaimed and recycled...see more here

9. Tunisia

'If you wont give us some rights and democracy, we will take it!' - what a powerful message the Tunisian people are sending which is resonating throughout Africa and beyond. It is indeed possible for a peaceable people to reach their breaking point and say enough is enough! No one has to suffer a tyrannical form of oppressive leadership indefinitely and Tunisia has proven to us that there is always a choice, you just have to be willing to fight for it...

8. Carlina White

Carlina White's story is simple insane yet fascinating. She is a young woman who suspected being adopted as she and her family seemed to be too different with her not reassembling any of them. When she started digging she found she had no birth certificate and so she employed the online database, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited children and to investigate her past and found she was actually reported kidnapped at age 4. Now 23, Carlina has been reunited with her parents, a sad story that has a happy ending.

7. Can White People Be Africans?

I saw this title for an article on Global Voices, an online group for writers / bloggers who have a keen passion for human rights and justice. My opinion is simply this, if you are born in a country and live there all your life, and there are traceable generations of our people being settled in that place you are a part of it. The best example of this is the United Kingdom peoples. In the UK, the native peoples are referred to as English, those who have settled in the continent are called British, because it is recognised that they are a part of the continent though not native. The problem we have in Africa is that we do not have this secondary term for those who settle on our continent. We used to call such peoples colonialists however that term is no longer appropriate and I can imagine for most peoples, there are still scars of colonialism generations later that cause indigenous native Africans to identify white people with colonialism. I think that there is room for a new term for African white people that is equatable with the term, 'British', a term that will give a genuine and positive identity to the descendants of white settlers that still live in Africa today as many of them have never known any other home.

6. Selena Gomez working with UNICEF  

It is encouraging to see young Hollywood with a social conscious. Selena Gomez is one such example. She has recently started working with the UN in their battle to protect children from poverty, hunger, disease and human rights violations among other issues. They have good examples to follow with the likes of Angelina Jolie who champion the social responsibility of the celebrity world and genuinely knit their hearts with important causes that affect the majority of the worlds population of people in developing countries. I think that there can never be enough done to highlight the plight of disaffected peoples around the world and if celebrities lend their profiles to draw attention to theses issues and educate the world in the process, I think it is a very good thing.

5. Sarah Palin

Good old Sarah Palin has been in the news this week for one thing or another. The moral of the story is that she is not too popular right now, honestly I wonder when and why she was popular in the first place. She is great at making noise but I dont really subscribe to her politics. However you have got to love the American way where anyone can rise into politics and be given a platform and a voice and I guess what Sarah is learning is that it is what you do with that platform that matters... 

4. Film: The Black Swan

I recently watched Natalie Portman's movie, 'The Black Swan' and I must admit I was somewhat disturbed by it. The storyline was deep in terms of Natalie Portman's character the lead ballerina. She was totally nuts by my reckoning but her mental struggle to overcome herself; her fears, her inhibitions and self imposed 'glass ceiling' was a display of the internal struggle we all go through daily. The ballerina's self-destruction leading to death at the end is much like the emotional / spiritual death that many people allow themselves to be subjected to because of their fear predominantly. Natalie Portman's portrayal of the Black Swan is outstanding and I would vote for her to get the Oscar for her performance.

3. Food for thought...

2.Quote of the week

Words to live by;
"This above all: To thine own self be ture,
And it must follow, as the night, the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man..."
Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet - Act One, Scene 3

1. Video of the Week

Ray Charles - Georgia on my mind
I heard this song this week and it reminded me of the sad movie of Ray Charles' life beautifully portrayed by Jaime Foxx and I thought that this would be a good choice for this week's video, enjoy...
[Click here for video]

And that's it for this week folks! Remember you can get in touch by commenting or emailing me atethosphotographic@gmail.com