Thought for the week ...

Nelson Mandela Day

July 18th each year has been declared as Nelson Mandela Day by the United Nations - July 18th was Mandela's birthday.

Nelson Mandela was a civil rights leader in South Africa. He fought against apartheid - a system where non-white citizens were segregated from, and did not have the same rights, as white people.

He was classified as a terrorist by the South African government and spent 27 years in prison. However, his imprisonment brought about greater international visibility of the anti-apartheid movement and, in 1990, he was finally released after growing international pressure.

In 1993 Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with F.W. de Klerk "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa."

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of South Africa to be elected by a democratic system, and he became their first black president. He served as President from 1994-1999.

Mandela Day is an international day of humanitarian action and celebrates the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. It serves as a catalyst for each and every person to realise that they have the ability to change the world through action.

On this day people are encouraged to give 67 minutes in the service of others  ...  1 minute for each of the 67 years Nelson Mandela served his people.

As Mandela has reminded us, “it’s in our hands” to create a better world. 

“No one is born hating another person

because of the colour of his skin, or his

background, or his religion. People must

learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate,

they can be taught to love, for love

comes more naturally to the human

heart than its opposite.”

'A Long Walk to Freedom' by Nelson Mandela

Want to know more about Nelson Mandela?

Watch the film 'Invictus' or read his auto-biography

'Long Walk to Freedom' 

Six Qualities you need in a Pandemic and Beyond

Six Qualities you need in a Pandemic and Beyond

I just read a BBC article with the above title and thought I'd share it with you.

Here are the six qualities listed, along with a few quotes:

Here is the link for the full article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/xqldbgDZkF21p5xp6Sn2Vw/six-qualities-you-need-in-a-pandemic-and-beyond

On a personal note ...

After somewhat struggling my way through three months of being home alone, I was thrilled to finally be able to travel westward to stay with my Dad and visit with family.

This is the first photo I took - not sure my smile has been
so wide in a while.

I travelled home on a Friday and on Sunday we enjoyed lunch in Tony & Sarah's garden (brother and sis-in-law).  Life almost felt normal ... though minus the hugs 😒

One positive to come out of lockdown is the fact that making this throw for my sis-in-law took just a matter of weeks rather than months.  It was good to be able to finally deliver it in person 😀

Many of you know Uncle Bill, he came for lunch one hot, sunny day ...

One evening, Tony, Sarah, Dad and I enjoyed a take-out meal ordered from the pub down the road. All very scrumptious!!

I don't always like photos of myself, but Sarah took this one and I think it's super nice ...

Another day we had coffee with my niece, Heather, and hubby, Damian.  How they managed to take a photo of us and we didn't get one of them I don't know.  We were probably too busy chatting and eating millionaire shortbread 😋

Then we enjoyed a rather windy BBQ with my nephew, James, and Lydia and the boys, Jonah & Reuben.  It was sooooooooooo windy the gazebo broke and almost blew away, and the children's paddling pool ended up out on the street!!  But we still got to play football, and build a volcano, and enjoy a local walk before the rain decided to set in.

At one point when Jonah needed to pop in to the house I said
I'd sit down for two minutes. His responses was, "No, you need to
practise and get good."  I thought that was a bit of a harsh
comment on my football skills.

Reuben knows how to play to the camera 😁

 

My niece, Heather, had a hospital appointment so she, Sarah
and I made it a girls' day out  -  with coffee and cake
😁😁😁

Thought for the week ...

Thought for the week ...

The Power of Forward Thinking

My sister-in-law's late father, Geoffrey Whatmore, was a lovely man. He was also well-travelled, extremely clever and a wrote a number of books. I was recently shown this newspaper article, written in November 1968, which I thought some of you would find interesting ...

 

Here is an extract of Geoffrey's obituary,

which appeared in The Guardian newspaper

on 8th Jan 2016

My fellow news librarian, Geoffrey Whatmore, who has died aged 95, was one of the key figures in the world of media information during the second half of the 20th century. Appointed in the early 1950s as the Manchester Guardian’s first professional librarian, he later became BBC head of news information.

Geoffrey was to spend the next few years turning an archaic collection of press cuttings, index cards and random books into an effective newspaper reference service, providing valuable assistance during major events such as the Suez crisis. He even managed to persuade management to install a telephone in the library.

Eventually, though, he found the paper “stuffy” and, keen to move to London, found a job running the British Institute of Management’s information department. Following this, he was appointed personal assistant to Cecil King, chairman of the Daily Mirror. Throughout much of the 1960s and during dramatic company takeovers, Geoffrey was at the newspaper baron’s side, writing many of his speeches.

Over the years, the BBC had fostered a whole tribe of intersecting libraries and it was one of Geoffrey’s jobs to bring some order to radio and TV reference services. The role was also the focus of intense library politics, but he was later to look back at this time at the BBC as the most rewarding of his working life.
A fine writer, Geoffrey was the author of a number of books, including titles on news information and a guide to his adopted home of Pershore in Worcestershire. In a long retirement he ran his own antiquarian books business, specialising in angling, one of his favourite pastimes.