Life is one big prisoner's dilemma.

Subjectivity and Objectivity

How much of a person is who he or she actually is and how much is how we perceive them to be? Perceptions that are either internalized and then reflected outwards to reinforce this image we have of them, or that cloud the way we see them as they actually are.

Am I who I am to you because of how you see me to be or because of how I really am? And vice versa. Are you who you are to me because of how I think you are to be or because of who you truly are? 50/50? 75/25?

Decontextualization at its finest...and most confusing.

dipping my croissants in olive oil

Some of the tastiest couscous I've ever had was prepared by a French woman in Valenciennes.

One of my go-to places for petits pains aux chocolat and my morning baguette is the corner épicerie managed by an Algerian man.

A movie was just released starring two of France's most talented young actors at the moment: one of French origins, the other of North African origins.

Maybe the diffusion and sharing of food and cultures is the answer to our differences. Opening doors and ears rather than sealing them. To ending this poisonous us/them, theirs/ours discourse.

To what degree does the French (general)system foster creativity?

Even the title of my post is problématiser--they're getting to me already.

"Foster an entrepreneurial culture by instilling the skills and attitudes needed for creative enterprise."
-Ministerial report on the OECD Innovation Strategy, May 2010

Entrepreneurship? Innovation? Creativity? France?

Omar m'a tuer

Must see this as soon as possible.

Sexual Violence Against Men

"In a nutshell, that's exactly what happens," Dolan agrees. "Part of the activism around women's rights is: 'Let's prove that women are as good as men.' But the other side is you should look at the fact that men can be weak and vulnerable."

One of the most powerful articles I have read in a long time: The Rape of Men

I will blog more about this SOON (sooner than later).

Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States...

"Fox News table, that was not my real birth video...Ask Disney if you don't believe me."

The Revolt of the Masses

"To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. This is the sport, the luxury, special to the intellectual man. The gesture characteristic of his tribe consists in looking at the world with eyes wide open in wonder. Everything in the world is strange and marvelous to well-open eyes. This faculty of wonder is the delight refused to your football "fan", and on the other hand, is the one which leads the intellectual man through life in the perpetual ecstasy of the visionary. His special attribute is the wonder of the eyes."

-José Ortega y Gasset

Jambo Kenya!

Flying to Kenya (Nairobi) tomorrow.


Photo from Google Images

Excited to meet some courageous individuals from conflict areas including CAR, DRC, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and South Sudan. I want to understand how people who are actually living through violence and war have the courage, the patience, the passion, and the DRIVE to become activists in their areas. Respect.