Mourning his brother

International Herald Tribune, February 18, 2011

On Thursday, Februari 17, at least five people were shot to death by the military in Bahrein  during manifestations for freedom and democracy. This is reported by The International Herald Tribune, February 18, and at he same time they also publish the photo below:

                                                                                                                                                                Photo John Moore/Getty Images-AFP

This is Ahmed Abutaki who in the morgue mourns his beloved brother Mahmoud Makki Abutaki, one of those who were killed.

Michelle Obama - what a role model!

Watch this!


Michelle Obama is dancing in Ellen de Generes´show:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y74NGlVOcIc



And, after her dance, what is she saying in the interview ? Watch it all, her conversation with Ellen:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqUSlVQfbY

- I fell in love with Michelle Obama when she delivered her fantastic speech at the Democratic Party Convention, August 2008, when Barack Obama was appointed his party´s candidate for the US presidency:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=790hG6qBPx0








But - in love? - Yes, because in her speech, Michelle turned out to be:


- intelligent


- with a high ethical standard


- eloquent


- honest


- funny


- loving


- self- ironic




- and, in the middle of all this. she was wearing this dress, which precisely, without words, underlined her fabolous personality:

.
Dress created byPeter Soronen



It was in this speech that Michelle Obama declared what her part would be, if she was going to become the country´s First Lady: what was she going to do? Was she going to be a factor of power like Hillary Clinton when she was the president´s wife? Or was she going to make cookies, like Barbara Bush?


Michelle Obama declared that she was going to be "Mom- in- Chief" - also in the future, the most important thing for her was her two daughters, as they always had been:






In expressing this not-threatening aspiration, they were put to peace, those people who maybe hade been worried about what this talented lawyer and carreer woman would start from the White House. 




- I t wasn´t just me who was struck by the unusual appearance that Michelle Obama made that night in Denver.Her dress and style underlined her pesonality - independent, dressing the way she wants without giving much thought to what was expected from her.

A woman who both has reflected on of her vision of society, says intelligent things,  and shows that she enjoys being a woman, feeling her worth - and dresses accordingly. So, a blog was started to follow Michelle Obama and to pay special attention to her way of clothing:

http://mrs-o.org/

Mrs-O.org is dedicated to following the fashion of First Lady Michelle Obama. The site hopes to be a central, ever evolving resource to chronicle Mrs.O’s style, while providing fashion commentary and information. The site encourages visitors to contribute tips, commentary and respectful dialogue.

The site was conceived and created by Mary Tomer Byun, "Mrs. T", in September 2008, in partnership with Zag, a division of her former employer, Bartle Bogle Hegarty. As of August 2010, Mary Tomer holds majority ownership of Mrs-O.org. She is currently pursuing her MBA at Columbia Business School in New York City.



This blog, Mrs-O.org, has had fantastic lots of material since that day in Denver, August 2008.
For Mrs. Obama has turned out to be a lot more than  "momma-in chief".
She has engaged herself in the caue of the veterans´families ( all the militaries who have served the US and come home and not received recognition or help to go on with their lives).
She has encouraged children, expecially young girls, to study and has visited schools all over the country and also abroad




"I want to encourage you to keep dreaming big, gigantic dreams, not just for yourself but for your communities," Michelle said in her opening address at an interaction with students at  St. Xavier's college, Mumbai, India.



and told them what great fun it is to study and to fight to excel, she has delievered speeches both at universities and pre-school fsacilities, reading books to the small children. 

She has also opened up the White House for arts, music, concerts, dancing,and for visits by youth and children:






Mrs. Obama has also launched a project against child obesity, encouraging children to eat better and to move more. Together with children from schools in Washington DC she has made an ecological garden on the White House south lawn:








And she has accompanied hur husband on PR. trips, helping him to restore the  reputation of the US in the world. Here she is with Mme. Sarkozy, Carla Bruni, France´s First Lady:
 
Ensemble by Thakoon Panichgul, who made his first collection in 2004



And here she gives an interview in the tv Today talk-show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41488071#41488071



This interview was talked about all over the world because of -
the dress.

This dress is NOT a design creation by one of the young fashion designers that often are favored by Mrs. Obama - no, this is a dress from H&M!Price: 50 dollars- - Now sold out all over the world.

While Michelle Obama dedicates herself to all these laudable activities, she is wearing these most fantastic, interesting, often bold and colourful clothes.


She has also given publicity to young, creative fashion designers (and here, the web site Mrs.O-org  and its many readers have helped identify the designer behind a garment and so helped to create attention for its creator) and by doing se enhanced a renewal of American fashion.


Fashion designers in this way made famous by Michelle Obama are, among others, Narciso Rodriguez (who created the dress Michelle wore during the election victory night in Grant Park, Chicago; Isabel Toledo, born in Cuba, who made the yellowish ensemble with pearl embroidery that Michelle was wearing during the inauguration ceremony when Barack Obama was sworn in as president; Moschino, Italian designer; Michael Kors; Peter Soronen, who is the man behind several of Michelle´s fairy tale evening gowns. Yet another favourite designer is Thakoon Panichgul, who made the beautiful ensemble Michelle wore at the state visit in France, photo above.


But Mrs. Obama isn´t just wearing expensive design clothes or tailor-made creations - J. Crew is a brand selling easy-to-wear, tasteful everyday garments and whose cardigans are loved by Michelle Obama:

 .


 So,  a sympathetic trait of  Mrs. Obama is that she dresses functionally, sometimes wearing simple and everyday clothes, sometimes wearing exclusive fashion - according to the context she is moving in. By doing so, women all over the world can be inspired by her - also be inspired to follow their own personal taste, just like she is doing, in all possible directions, thus expressing their own personality.




The previous rather stiff and conventional dress code of  official Washington DC has been opened up by the First Lady. (Now it is even reported that in the summer, the Washington ladies walk around bare-legged in sandals... which Michelle has shown is quite possible to be done.)


Michelle Obama wears exclusive and unique evening gowns,





  sports wear,




 relaxed flower summer dresses...


...is sometimes smashing,






sometimes more everyday ...





But the message comes across: "I think clothes are great fun, I like colour, flower patterns ...



....and accessories. I think what is important is what you do with your life, not the way you dress. And you can dress in a nice and feminine way and also accomplish a career, at the same time."







Michelle Obama is the first presidential wife with a doctoral degree (law). In 2006, she earned 273 618 dollars from University of Chicago Hospitals.


That same year, her husband´s income from the US Senate was
157 082 dollars.

"Suicide Surfers"

What is a  "suicide surfer"?

Suicide surfers are people who are contemplating if life is worth living or not, and who surf the Internet to find information about suicide, either information about support and help aganinst thoughts of suicide, or the opposite..

 - The opposite?

- The opposite does exist, namely Internet sites that actually describe methods to commit suicide, and that even encourage suicide. So this is what the youngest, most vulnerable individuals may find on the Web when they feel lonely, unhappy, depressed, without support and have thoughts of suicide

Suicide surfers have a greater than average risk to die - beacuse  suicide behaviour  is often impulsive. - An individual may be searching the web for suicide information, but he might just as well be distracted from his self-destructive thoughts.

Dr Keith Harris, University of Queensland, Australia, has investigated more than 1000 suicidale Web surfers. Among these, he identified some 500  ”suicide surfers”.  


Keith Harris says these individuals are contemplating whether they shall die or go on living. When they search the Web for suicide information, they haven´t finally decided. Instead, on the Web they try to find support for either choice.

In Australia, since 2005, there is a law prohibiting pro-active suicide internet sites ( according to the Criminal Code Amendment, Suicide Related Material Offences Act, 2005, No 92).

For persons with suicide thoughts and suicide plans, it is important, together with such a prohibition, to give information on the Internet about where to find help.

If you search the Net for  the word "suicide" you will as one of the first sites find one such positive, helpful site that advises against suicide and demonstrates that there is help to be found ( ”Thinking about suicide? Read this first!”).

The best help that you as a fellow human being can give to a friend, a colleague at work or someone related to you, or someone else with suicide thoughts or plans, is to stop by, to listen, to show that you care, that wou intend to help.

.

When you do this, you show, by your behaviour, that the other person is valuable. A person with suicide thoughts or suicide plans has a very low self-confidence - in his own eyes, he isn´t even worthy of living.

If you make a halt, make time and sit down in calm and peace with the other person  ( Lévinas´ The Other One) - then you show that this person is valuable, and that he must not take his life but go on living.


In this way, you become some sort of  lever for the other person, enabling him to get a first tiny bit of self-confidence back. This also means a first step to seek professional help together. 

  During the last 25 years, the number of suicides in Sweden have deminished to almost the half. In 1980,  2243 individals died because of suicide. In 2008, the corresponding figure was 1467.   The Swedish suicide rate has gone down, but:  this is true only for the age groups of 25 years and over.

In the age group  15-24 years, since the early 1990:s,  there is no decrease in the number of suicides in Sweden.

- It is precisely in this age group where you find the biggest use of the Internet.

A day at work (Cannes Festival)

 Foto. Virginia Mayo, AP, publshed in Sydsvenska Dagbladet, May 14, 2011


What a picture! 

And it is a woman who saw the angle and made the shot...

The text (Ulf Törnberg) that goes with the photo is also good:

"I guess this is what it feels like for most of us, going to work in the morning..."

Friends

  I love this picture!

 I love this picture! It is a photo of three little friends, three favorite friends, who have great fun together, who cannot wait, when they wake up in the morning, to run to each other´s houses to meet and play.

When you look at the eyes of these children, they are really beaming of happiness. -  Life is never better than this.

I have put this picture on my job calendar, a book I open many times  a day to write in. When I sit in my office, listening to my patients, or to my colleagues, telling me tough life stories, of difficulties, of helplessness, of sorrow –  then I turn my eyes to this photo. My eyes meet the warm, happy eyes of the children, and I feel comfort.

-         I think the two girls to the left are best friends, always, while the boy to the right maybe is the younger brother of the girl in the middle. He can be together with the other two now and then, but maybe not every time.

These children are loved also by their mummies. Look at the girl to the left, and her fine frock!  I am sure that there is only one dress in the world lika this one, and it is the mother of this girl who lovingly has made the dress at her sewing machine, using the prettiest fabric she could find for her little daughter, a fabric with a pattern of little rose buds.  I can imagine how happy the girl was the first time that she put this dress on.

But right now, the children are not thinking of their clothes or of the way they look. They have been interrupted in the middle of a project, and now they sit in front of the photographer, patiently waiting for him to finish. The laughter in the eyes of these three little friends have nothing to do with the photographer, but with their happiness of having found each other in life.

-          Friendship is the best thing ever.

"He got what he deserved!" - Oh yeah...?

"He got what he deserved", president Barack Obama said yesterday, referring to the killing of Usama Bin Ladin. "He was the perpetrator of mass murder."


President Barack Obama


Watch the interview on CBS 60 Minutes, May 8:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/08/60minutes/main20060876.shtml?tag=strip


The Iraq Body Count now estimates  100 708 - 110 000 civilian casualties dead in the Iraqi war that the US launched in the spring of 2003, watch

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database


Please note, civilians killed. Children. Women. Old people. – Innocent human beings.

-        Just as innocent as those 3 000 persons that died in the attack on World Trade Center in New York, September 11, 2001.

How many have been killed in Afghanistan? Some 8 813 civilians;

http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html


-Some months ago, nine children were out on the hill sides in Afghanistan, collecting wood. They were shot at, all of them died – the military believed they were out placing land mines.



Afghanistan


- Before Barack Obama was elected US president he seemed to me to be intelligent, analytic, and at the same time humble, psychologically insightful and empatic and also prepared to take responsibility. He was to end the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He intended to close Guantanamo. He planned to give all Americans access to good health care. He was going to give all American children equal rights to  quality schools and good education.



Children in Afghanistan


What happens to a person who is given almost unlimited power? And almost as much wealth? As well as admiration and applause? Who unavoidably is surrounded by beckoning nay-sayers?

And where every gesture, every word from you is paid attention to and registered, all over the entire world?

- Well, in any case, something seems to have happened to Barack Obama. He became a Christian believer as an adult, in his twenties,  as he himself describes it (in his autobiography "Dreams of My Father). It was in the very moment when he realized he didn´t have to throw away his intelligence and reasoning when confessing to be a Christian. The Christian social-liberal message fitted well in to his own life experience.

But, quite obviously: power does change a human being. Maybe not through and through, but quite enough for him to say about a fellow human being:

"He got what he deserved."



- The slave on the triumph carriage, anyone? -





Memento mori.

Remember: you are mortal.