My Favorite Things : Current Passion

My First Toastmaster speech

I always find it difficult to talk about myself, it is difficult to know where to begin or what will be interesting to others ,  truthfully  I rather observe the world around me. Today I have chosen to tell you about some of my favorite things, my current passions.  Hopefully it will take the spotlight off me a bit.

Before I begin, here are a few interesting tidbits  about me.

I am  one of those curious Gemini who want to know a little about  almost everything, I am the eternal student; I am always seeking out knowledge.

In college, instead of the normal math minor customary of Chemistry Majors, I ended up with Philosophy because I took many social science classes.

I have four first names and a compound last name… My full birth name is Elizabeth, Moriyina Cordelia  Diana Kamara-Cole.

I love History, Archeology and Psychology.  Currently, I am learning about ancient Greece courtesy of my newest favorite Historian Dr. Bettany Hughes.

My interest in the ancient world peaked recently when I stumbled on some of the program she had done for the BBC , while I was  looking for videos of the English countryside  on YouTube one Sunday whiles I was sick - I typed in moorlands and one of the video that kept popping up was “When the moors ruled Europe”.  After watching many amazing documentaries on the countryside I caved and watched Bettany Hughes video and I was hooked, within minutes.  She is an amazing presenter and she could definitely win many toastmasters’ awards. One of my favorite part about her documentaries is when she reads ancient inscriptions in the original languages.

 Speaking of language it is  Another passion of mine.

Growing up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, English was my least favorite subject even though my dad was an English professor; academically I was a math and science person who dazzled in decorating at Christmas.  When I discovered French, my passion for  using languages as a way to learn about other cultures was ignited.  I am currently immersed in the French language and culture  as my goal is to be fluent. I  even get my news alerts in FRENCH, which helps me read in French every day.  I’ve recently joined a website called Open University where I am currently  taking  an intro course on Greek and Latin as I delve  into the ancient world.  

I recently concluded that  I hated English  because it was in English class  that I was forced to read out loud and write about myself.  Funnily, Writing is slowing becoming a favorite of mine, though I am currently working through a writers block and on a hiatus from blogging.

 I use my writing to explore ideas and stay informed;  for instant I was asked via twitter  to contribute to a eBook about  how music influenced culture, I wrote  about how music had influenced my past.  At my first job after finishing Healthcare MBA degree, I started a health care blog because I felt that I was not getting much interaction with the healthcare community.  My writing has also helped me document amazing experience such,  the connection I felt to Paris when I visited it for the first time in 2010 and my interaction with Musician Alanis Morissette when I met her in Boston in 2008.

I hope that you have gotten a glimpse into my life by me telling you about my interests in learning, ancient  civilizations, languages and writing; which are my current passions. My favorite things.

Thank you!

 

Getting to their subconscious: Suicide Booming, Police Brutality, Hate Speeches, Physical/Mental Abuse, Hate Crime

I have noticed that as the disgusting content of our global unconscious mind is coming it light, it is being accompanied by the rise of social psychology. I think our collective prayers have been answered and I am hopeful that those with the power to make the much need change will take note. With the help of social psychology we can get to the root of our fears, prejudices, racism and learn useful mechanism to help us control our negative actions, detrimental thoughts and our unfair treatment of others resulting from them.  Laws when they work are great for punishing those who harm after the fact, they also serve as a deterrent to others but the control our natural tendencies have over our actions is greater than laws.  For the type of change that is needed to make the world an equal, safe and free place for all, we need a new approach, one that puts the human mind in focus. We need to learn skills to override those tendencies that are harmful to others and ourselves. One thing that must be done is to use what we are learning from social psychology to  create programs (especially public service arenas) which will provide people the much needed tools to fight their own fear, prejudices and racism. Such programs might not work for everyone because as we know some  humans  are downright hateful and take pleasure out of  making others life hell, but what programs like this will do for  those people is show them that their hatefulness is not welcomed and won’t be tolerated.