Rant & Reason

COVID-19 has turned around everything it touches. We've  so far changed the nature of human interaction, roles at the house, hygiene at all levels and an economy obsession, among the lot. It has given us time to stop and rethink about everything that was the norm, if we would only be so bold. Coming so far in such short a time, we may as well go the way and end this transformation with that big bang - kindness.  Kindness is bigger than it seems. It involves so many touchpoints that most of these smaller changes will flow with the ease. It requires us to respond to someone's pain without judgement. It asks that we accept someone else's truth without condescence. It requests us to tell people that they can reach out when we know that they are not at their best. It sometimes asks us to do more and just give anyway, because woe can, even if it means squeezing our own resources at times.  Depending on whether you needed a lot of kindness or never blinked wh...

The irony of a industralised work-based era is that it is driven and has roots its very nemesis: rest. Both go head to head. We work as hard as we do so that we can rest. Rest is the natural state; we are born and bred into it. It's the optimum state we seek. Look at the freedom we get when we are younger to just be, and enjoy our lives. Work doesn't even come close in comparison. We are abruptly required to make the sudden shift, once we're older and work is inevitable because money doesn't fall from the sky (at least for most of us). It is much less an option for most people.  Enter passion : that you've got to love what you do. The idea makes sense. What's love got to do with it? Nothing except that we don't have spend the better part of our days like we hate how we spend it. Love and work are a happy couple. Love is happily single and work feels crappily single without love. But this whole fairy tale romance ends once we have achieved the quota we need f...

I've uncovered a pet peeve and I'm coming at anyone who waves it in front of my face. Not because of my personal ego, but because it's about the personal ego of those people who have been scarring children since when man officially turned stupid. And here I fire.  Some values are celebrated across the spectrums of religion and society, and one of them is spanking children i.e. giving them a good thrashing. Apparently, it's the only way that children will learn and they will become disciplined adults, rant back some uncles, aunties and (surprisingly) some young people too. Now sit back and watch me tear apart this nonsense that has seeped so deep into our thinking that it's normal.  "It's the only way they'll obey", say some of these other strange people, "and you'll know when you have one." Let's consider obedience. It's another of those values that have been accepted across the spectrums. Everybody wants someone to obey the...

Greta Thunberg has been getting more than a fair share of flak for putting herself out there—more than most in quantity. Let's leave aside the patronization she gets for being just a kid, having a "mental disorder" or any other right-wing narrative. Those arguments don't deserve any credit. They're just toeing the line because the people who scream them are just dissonant with how the views in their head don't line up with what their eyes actually see in the world. Sadly enough, that how most people pick up and perceive with their views these days. Moving on. Most people, the opposing inspiration of whom are worth a ear, are irritated with her tone, but don't disagree with her message. Some say that she has said nothing new, nor she offered new and better solutions. Why can't she be a Boyan Slat or Sharon Barak ? They, and others like them, have designed actual solutions and did R&D about the problem. Actually, there's a perfectly good r...

Digital is all the rage. It's handy and quick. Anything that used to require actual physical presence or on the spot gauging of emotions now can do without it. Unfortunately, what an overdose of digital really ends up meaning is disconnect, as opposed what it's supposed to mean which staying connected all the time. Suddenly, we don't need to be experts or hold well-considered opinions. We can just Google them. We don't have to check up on people. We can just find out about them from a profile. We don't have to seek the actual company of those who are our tribe. We just tag strangers by what they think and say, and box them so we can either bash them for their view or join them with it. We don't need to truly engage anymore. While the picture may seem grim, it really isn't. In this digitally disempowered age, we also show our cracks when our erstwhile connected, human traits shine through. This can't be anymore obvious than our imm...

Marriage is one of society's oldest traditions. It's the bedrock, goal, focus and obsession of many societies around the world—the Golden Ticket, even if to where is in question. Even the communities that are liberal about it have their share of tears when someone they know is, and has been, of age for a long time and yet unmarried. The latest addition to it is - love! As much as we'd like to fool ourselves otherwise, love played has a very new role in marriage. Its mostly winning competitors have been *status elevation maintenance, property, honour, security and protection (usually of women), family and childbirth, generational extension, and stability & support. But what's love really got to do with it? Love probably worked its way in because if you're going to get married anyway, you may as well like who you're with, and then take it another level. If you don't, the other factors will make you—living-in, with and alongside another p...

Friends, today we gather to peer into the curious case of "Amele Huduga Sigala", otherwise meaning "afterwards you won't get boys to marry". We're going to put on our detective caps and delve into this strange Universe where boys are so scarce that parents simply cannot find a good enough man for their daughter to marry honourably. The statistical improbability is mind-blowing yet it remains a penetrated truth of life. Why no one has authored research and won awards on this phenomenon? Is the male:female ratio that bad?! We'll send a urgent better to the Prime Minister asking him to address this ASAP. It is unprecedented. Anyway, on with the investigation! Here lies the case. The Parents: They want their children to "settle down". The deal, at least according to them, is they had their "freedom" to do what they wanted to through school, college and life so far. Party time's over and now it's time for reality to kick in. T...