Notations On Our World: On #Syria & The Last Call From #Aleppo, #PEOTUS Watch and other Thoughts

The World has been witness to the inhumanity that is going on in Syria right now.  As our team finished off the latest review available on our Twitter Feed @ordinaryfaces, we wanted to give voice to the plight of all those who have been trapped--especially as Syrian Regime Forces have begun shelling Aleppo again as we went to press courtesy of the Observers at +FRANCE 24.  As we remember such valiant souls, this statement underscored the true predicament in Syria now: "..   "This (victory) was achieved through excessive reliance on regional supporters, the destruction of the country, the tearing of its social fabric, and a long-term generational crisis of unparalleled trauma. Nobody can claim victory after all of this."--We could not agree more.

THE LAST 'CALL' FROM ALEPPO

We are also witness to the continued formation of the emerging Trump Government.    The CEO of Exxon is the latest to be named as his nominee for Secretary of State.   It is of interest how the so-called establishment Republicans have fallen in as epitomized by what Senator Jeff Flake noted:  

The fact that Condi Rice, James Baker and Bob Gates are recommending Tillerson carries considerable weight. I look forward to the hearings.

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) December 13, 2016

It is also of interest that Rick Perry, the Former Governor of Texas, has been named to lead the Energy Department.  Mr. Trump noted that, "...."As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy,..".   It is in line with Mr. Trump's apparent view that Government can and should be run like a business.   It is also of note that Mr. Trump had scheduled a December 15, 2016 conference to discuss disengaging from his business which has been postponed--in the meantime, the Office of Government Ethics came out and noted that Mr. Trump's plans falls short.    

One thing we agree with that was noted in a recent column in +Econsultancy  as trends for 2017 was discussed: "...Not many people will be sad to see the back of 2016...."

Onward....

Celebrating the Holidays in our Hometown of @LagunaNiguelCty

Our hometown, @LagunaNiguelCty is fully in the holiday spirit as the Annual Holiday Parade was held this past Saturday.   Some 3,000 people participated--and we are very pleased to feature our Community here today during this joyous season:

On the Tragedy in #Syria: The Ordinary Faces of Eastern #Aleppo Speak Out

Scenes From Aleppo (Source: Al Jazeera) 

As we went to press with our daily review here, we wanted to extend our salute to the people of Eastern Aleppo as we are seeing distressing stories from Aleppo as Assad Forces have defeated the Syrian Rebels.   The residents have been pleading for help and nothing has happened.    The World is silent as people are dying with reports of summary executions with this latest from the Al Jazeera News grid--and the headline said it all:    

"Save Aleppo. Save humanity."

Residents of East Aleppo are giving their final messages to the world. pic.twitter.com/Hzd4VWp0wC

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 13, 2016

UN has reported shooting 82 people being summarily shot by Regime forces.  The plight of this 7-Year Old Eastern Aleppo Resident said it all: 

My dad is injured now. I am crying.-Bana #Aleppo

— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 12, 2016

My name is Bana, I'm 7 years old. I am talking to the world now live from East #Aleppo. This is my last moment to either live or die. - Bana

— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 13, 2016

Thought For the Week

During this joyous season, our team wanted to share this as we wish you all and your loved ones the most joyous of holidays and a prosperous 2017:

To love. To be loved.

To never forget your own insignificance.

To never get used to the unspeakable violence

and the vulgar disparity of life around you.

To seek joy in the saddest places.

To pursue beauty to its lair.

To never simplify what is complicated

or complicate what is simple.

To respect strength, never power.

Above all, to watch. To try to understand.

To never look away. And never, never, to forget.

- Arundhati Roy

Looking Back to 2016: What 2016 Taught us about ourselves

As 2016 is withering away, we wanted to continue some periodic updates in all #Outsider properties.  For this edition of "View of the week",  please enjoy this courtesy of the team at +TED :

PLAYLIST OF THE WEEK

What 2016 taught us about ourselves

A year in reflection: What we learned about our personalities, health, hopes and world as we know it. Watch »

13 TED Talks • Total run time 2:54:56

A Charlie Brown Christmas: Please Enjoy!!!

  

It is never Christmas without Charlie Brown.   This is from 1965 as we hope all enjoy!!!

Eli Manning Agent of Social Change

We welcome our newest contributor, Edith, as she shares our inaugural column dedicating her dissertation to Eli Manning:

Here is an agent of social change that personifies the mission of Walden U which is why I dedicated my dissertation to him: 

Eli Manning

QUARTERBACK

NEW YORK GIANTS

WATCH VIDEO

A two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Super Bowl MVP, former No. 1 overall pick Eli Manning has spent the entirety of his 13-year NFL career at the helm of the New York Giants. He holds numerous team records, including passing touchdowns, pass completions and passing yards, and also currently is the league leader in consecutive starts with an impressive 167 mark.

Manning is driven by a passion and energy, which also fuels his commitment to creating positive change in the community. As a father of three daughters, championing causes that involve children has always been a priority for Manning. He has served as the Chair of the New York March for Babies for the past seven years, joining thousands of New Yorkers in the walk in support of March of Dimes. Manning's efforts with March for Babies helped to raise over $25M over the past seven years.

Since volunteering to quarterback the Tackle Kids Cancer campaign ahead of the 2015 Season, Eli Manning has been the charity's most valuable player. His visits to the Children's Cancer Institute have warmed the hearts of the children and families battling cancer. His fundraising, appearances and personal donations are exemplified by the creation of the "Sohn-Manning Pediatric Cancer Survivorship Program", resulting in a grant of $500,000, among the many fundraising efforts he inspired. During its inaugural season the Giants, Manning and Hackensack University Medical Center were surprised by the many local grass roots organizations supporting Tackle Kids Cancer, so Manning pledged $100,000 for the 2016 season to match and inspire those efforts - and "Eli's Challenge" was born, raising over $30,000 from local community groups in the first few weeks of the program. To date, his support of the program has directly led to more than $1,000,000 in fundraising in just over one year, and propelled the new charitable program to over $3,000,000 in funds raised since its inception.

Manning along with his wife, founded the Eli and Abby Manning Children's Clinics in 2007 and kicked off a five-year fundraising campaign that ultimately raised close to $3M. Building on that accomplishment and model, they also created the University of Mississippi Medical Center Manning Family Fund, which received close to $1.5M in its first year last year.

Manning devotes his time and resources to a myriad of other initiatives, including working with the American Red Cross; his nearly 10-year relationship with and commitment to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an organization that trains guide dogs; his participation in the No More campaign as part of the NFL Against Violence program; his contribution to Operation Smile's NYC gala; his scholarship endowment at the University of Mississippi; and his fulfillment of numerous Make-A-Wish and Wounded Warrior experiences.

Due to his continued commitment to charity, Manning has been the Giants' nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award as well as the team's nominee for the Byron "Whizzer" White NFL Man of the Year Award numerous times.

Notations From the Grid (Special Edition): On the Need to Confort Hate Now in All Its' Forms

Our team picked this up while on the "Grid" as this was the headline from yesterday's New York Daily News--a very telling reality that should be addressed in the strongest possible terms by all political leaders.    

This one was even more bothersome:

Making critics pay a huge price is how you silence future potential critics. Trump knows it and does it effectively. https://t.co/2tBKfOs5qG

— Arash Karami (@thekarami) December 8, 2016

Notations On World (Special Edition): A Musical Interlude With a Message

As we are seeing reports out of Syria about a surrender in Aleppo and the spectre of a looming Civil War in Iraq and the broader challenges in the Middle East as the battle for Mosul continues, our team wanted to share this Musical Interlude with a message that we hope it resonates with all the leaders of the World as a follow up to what our Columist  & Editor , Nancy Doyle, noted earlier--We have no choice but to "hold on":  

Don't Fear the Next 4 Years - Trouble is Nothing New.

Listen to the Dire Warnings of This Kingston Trio Hit from 1959.
Then think about all the things that have changed for the better since then.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Jean-Baptiste Anphonse Karr 1849

By listening to a popular song from over 60 years ago, we can see that the problems we have in today’s world are nothing new. Our country and our world have had many ups and downs. It’s depressing to think that modern  humans haven’t move past causing problems for each other, but it puts our current world into perspective. The next US administration has everyone on the edge of their seats. 

Some people yearn for “the good ol’ days,” 

but those days weren't so great either.

The Kingston Trio (who inspired folk singers like Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary) sang this song in 1959 during a century that saw tremendous loss and violence and injustice. With the incoming administration, there is still a lot of work to be done and we must be vigilant to protect the personal freedoms and fight for the equality that has taken so many decades to put in place. 

The "Rioting in Africa" song has always stuck with me because it has always been current. But in many ways things are better than they were then and we have to be positive and proactive to keep them that way and to make things better.

As long as we stay informed, and active we can hope that someday this song will be as obsolete as a medieval ditty about the flat earth (yeah I know there are still a few hold-outs on that one…). 

The Kingston Trio's Merry Minuet

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8-BI89mb9A  

Merry Minuet

They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much!!

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away!!

They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't so to us
Will be done by our fellow man

Songwriter
SHELDON HARNICK

Published by
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC

A "Virtual Treat" To Enjoy :)

Looking for something fresh  to rock this holiday season?

Check out New Holiday Radio.  Handpicked and refreshed weekly.

LISTEN NOW

An #Outsider Newsflash: Introducing Amazon Go and the world’s most advanced shopping technology

We were just "blown" away" as we saw this that Amazon is testing in Seattle: 



 Fortune's @adamlashinsky reflected on it this morning in his latest commentary:





There it goes again. Amazon, the most disruptive retailer since Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward hit the scene is noodling again on something new. It’s called Amazon Go, a convenience-store-sized shop staffed by robots and sensors rather than humans.

As with much of what Amazon does, this is only a test. Its current Amazon Go store in Seattle is only open to employees for now. But Amazon is like a computer virus: It probes, it examines, it learns. And then it attacks. The company announced Amazon Go with a video, and Fortune’s Andrew Nusca and Robert Hackett also produced a video discussing the move. I’m with Nusca, who argues that Amazon is a master at building on top of its existing infrastructure. Just as Amazon Web Services was able to jumpstart itself by being its own best customer, Amazon’s massive distribution network is a natural partner to a chain of convenience stores.

Amazon doesn’t succeed at everything it does. (Think: Fire Phone.) Nor does it do everything quickly. It has been investigating the grocery business for years without achieving the dominance it has in online commerce. But when Amazon tries something new, it is worth paying attention.

And Still to USA they Get!

To leave home,

old friends,

with nothing,

but tales,

hope,

desire,

desperation,

fed,

into the ears,

somatized,

every breathe,

every step,

every dose,

of sleep,

tinged,

with arrival,

to USA,

a friend,

aunt,

uncle,

friend of,

a friend,

father,

mother,

were told,

it becoming,

a communal task,

to get,

the daughter,

or son,

to USA,

a street cabby-hole,

housing a trafficker,

is the first stop,

promises are made,

money,

a lot,

is exchanged,

the next day,

the cabby-hole,

and the trafficker,

disappear,

but still,

the hope,

desire,

to come,

to USA,

remains,

one,

two,

years,

pass,

revived plans,

goats and lamb,

chicken and cow,

entire estates,

are sold,

and still to USA they get.

Three Very Important Things to me!

This is my first blog here. I pondered so much, on what to write. This, being my first time. I did go through almost all other blogs written by a mentor who is also my friend,  someone who inspires me and who kindly invited me to contribute blogs here.

I am a poet storyteller/ griot. In my culture, poems are used to tell stories as well as capture events. My culture only began writing in 1944. A week before leaving Uganda for good to come to USA via a short stay in Europe, I went to  the elders of our clan to have them place their hands on me (as well as spit in my face as a way of giving me blessings). A goat and chicken were rounded up by very fast running young boys who were charged with slaughter, roasting and serving us. It was a send off as well as an opportunity to have one from our clan "go on yonder to the world." That was also a ritual pact to never forget them! For they sacrificed two prize animals for me.

I was now joining a line of long dead ancestors who were skilled hunters, herbalist-botanists, itinerant harp players, cloth traders and metal workers said to have loved adventure and travel. Unlike them, I was travelling with a passport; I cannot smell the wind for water or a predatory animal; the biology skills I have are only good enough to join medical school; I can't even tell my direction by a star; the only hunting I had done was when I was looking for a misplaced shoe, socks, pen or pencil. In other words, I am the early 70's born new kind of black man whose way of life is between that of a Western culture and less of my own culture.

But, I digress. The purpose of my premiere short blog is to tell you about the three important things to me now: America; Blackness; and education. A poem first to that insignia that is distinctly American;

Star Spangled banner in spring

This balmy spring,

Once again,

 a welcome moment,

swans swimming in the pond,

the woodpecker,

 bang, bang, bang.

An occasional clear sky,

The sun,

 a fiery globe,

A puddle here and there,

The snow,

 grudgingly giving up its horde.

The banner,

 on a lofty perch,

Spread fully,

 by a blowing wind,

Dotted glimmering glint,

Of random stars and stripes.

Enjoy!

Thought For the Week (W-End Edition)

We hope all enjoy these selections of thoughts as December is before us....

Life is Unpredictable

Love may arrive when it’s least expected.

Laughter may occur at any moment

and tears may fall without warning.

Happiness may be around the corner

or sadness over the next hill.

Embrace every moment and every emotion.

Your life is unique

and it’s a journey that only you can travel.”

~ Susan Gale

​

An #Outsider Newsflash: New Malware Compromises More Than 1 Million Android Devices

Please note this for reference courtesy of Technilious as Checkpoint has created a nice little tool for all to check to see if devices has been hacked.

New Malware Compromises More Than 1 Million Android Devices: In the largest breach of Google accounts ever, Gooligan malware gains access to all of your data, including Gmail and Google Docs. Find out if you're infected.

As A New Month Dawns: A Special Edition of "Notations From the Grid"

Our team picked this up from one of our Friends on Facebook while doing a "Virtual Walk-About" on as one of the divas of all time, Tina Turner, turns 77.     Some of her sayings hit home to members of our Team as we hope all enjoy!!

Happy Birthday,  Tina Turner!!

View of the Week: Leadership in Action w/this Profile: Lucy Kellaway, co-founder of Now Teach

Our Team just ran across this from someone who has decided to become a true "ordinary face" by dedicating her life to teaching after 31 years at the Financial Times of London. We found it to be quite inspiring.

Profile: Lucy Kellaway, co-founder of Now Teach

Make a Difference on #GivingTuesday

It’s time to set aside our differences and actually make a difference. Tuesday, November 29^th is the fifth annual organized day of coordinated volunteering and philanthropy.

“ #GivingTuesday harnesses the potential of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities; it provides a platform for them to encourage the donation of time, resources and talents to address local challenges. It also brings together the collective power of a unique blend of partners— nonprofits, civic organizations, businesses and corporations, as well as families and individuals—to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness.”

https://www.givingtuesday.org/

Support groups that make a positive difference. Donate money, donate your time, spread the word. We will need groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the Sierra Club more than ever. Find out what their lobbyists are doing, what laws they are supporting and opposing, and what good they are doing. Volunteer and you’ll not only help your group, you’ll also understand the causes, effects, and needs better so you can become a better advocate.

The #GivingTuesday website has links to ways to get involved. Registration is closed for this year, but it’s a good place to get started, get inspired, get active!

Notations From the Grid (Week-End Edition): On This Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

Bana Alabed (Source: Twitter) 

As we celebrated thanksgiving here in the United States, what our team picked up on the Grid earlier (courtesy of reporting by +Al Jazeera English  gave us a true moment of pause to remember all that we're thankful for.  She is a 7-year old who began tweeting earlier this year with her Mother's Help on the plight of the ordinary faces of Aleppo as we just got reporting that the Syrian Regime's Forces have just taken two key districts in Aleppo as over 200,000 People are under siege:

If this does not give pause to us to remember all that we're thankful for, I don't know what does...FYI @GOP @realDonaldTrump #SyriaCrisis https://t.co/PAExawbzBu

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) November 27, 2016