Vlisco Delicate Shades Collection

Vlisco has done it again . . . their latest fabric collection, "Delicate Shades" is simply fabulous.

Some of the fabrics have an almost futuristic look to them, appearing like two different prints overlaid over each other. Very fascinating. And as usual, they feature gorgeous colors with blue reigning supreme this time.

It's not too late to buy some fabric and have some new threads made for the holiday season.

Click here for the look book. Especially love the looks on pages 2, 24, 30 and 50.

2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee on The Daily Show

Leymah Gbowee totally rocked it on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday night. She was warm and funny and witty and tough all rolled into one. I would love to hang out with her.

She talked about her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War. Click here to order your copy. If you missed the show, you can catch the interview here.

Leymah is one of the three 2011 Nobel Peace Laureates, honored for her work to end civil war in Liberia and the story has been told through the 2008 documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell".

Watch Pray the Devil Back To Hell on PBS. See more from WOMEN WAR AND PEACE.

When.... Cold Wintry Nights by Kuson

When

Cold Wintry Nights

Approach

Again!

(I Think I read somewhere

That the  earth is an Old Revolving Woman)

Starchy airs drop on dry alveoli

Left parched after scorched

summers

And dry eyes strain on beyond the 

skinny naked trees

In a placid landscape of white

Then the 

Mind Ties In Quietly the

Years Thoughts in Bundles

Like My Cucus did and do with firewood

And The Prevailing Bareness Burns

Itself

Out!

IN

 Laughing Fires.

(Cucus means grandmothers)

Safari Golf Club of Texas Partnering with inABLE to Open New Doors of Opportunity

Tee Up for Great Cause – Saturday Nov 19^th at Quail Valley in Houston, Texas

InABLE is a non-profit based in Nairobi, Kenya and in Atlanta, USA. It was co-founded by Chris Macharia, Houston resident and long-time friend of Safari Golf Club Texas. inABLE’s mission is to empower the blind and visually impaired through assistive technology.  In 2009, inABLE opened its first computer lab at the Thika Primary School for the Blind in Kenya, with a wildly popular and highly successful computer skills training program for the blind students and teachers.  

Today the students in their program can surf the web independently, communicate with their friends, use social media, type essays, blog and they even have a group of blind students designing their school website. Check out  inABLE  on YouTube video and on their website at www.inable.org. 

Safari GCTx is proud to host our November Mug tournament, which will be held at the Quail Valley Golf Club-Eldorado, in support of inABLE’s activities. As Safari GCTx first charity tournament sponsorship, members are encouraged to go all out in support of this worthy cause.  We encourage you to visit inABLE website and learn more about their activities, and donate on their website if you would like to. 

In order to maximize our support for the visually impaired children that inABLE serves, we will be taking the following steps:

• Tournament fee for the November Mug will be $20 of which, $10 will go towards inABLE cause and the rest will cover tournament expenses. 
• In support of this event Safari GCTx will donate a trophy in appreciation to the member who raises the most funds and another trophy to the member who collects from the most people, but not necessarily the most funds (golf honor system-no double dipping).
• Members are encouraged to invite their friends and families 
• Sponsor-a-hole in support of this event is greatly encouraged and prizes will be given accordingly. (this being our first charity tournament, we’ll not have signage for the sponsors on the holes, however participants will be advised on this before they tee off and during prize giving.) Companies, organizations, individuals or friends are welcome to sponsor.

Let’s take this opportunity to fund a worthy cause. May the best golfer win, and on this day we know that the blind children of Kenya will also be winners, with a hand from Safari GCTxs and from you.

To learn more about Safari Golf Club of Texas, check out their Facebook group page. 
Written by Kevin Njuguna, Safari Golf Club of Texas, Chairman. 

Everyone Loves Lady Gaga . . . including Chinese Seniors . . .

Attitude is Everything!

One of the most important things that any immigrant can learn is how to maintain a positive attitude. It will help you overcome many of the obstacles that come your way as you build a new life.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines attitude as the mental position with regard to a fact or a state. To get started on your positive journey, start with practicing daily gratitude. No matter how bad things are, there is always something to be thankful for. Check out this inspiring video by one of my favorite motivational speakers and get going towards a more positive attitude.

What You Can Do to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

In light of the sex abuse scandal unfolding around the Penn State retired coach, Sandusky, I am sure that everyone is asking how can we keep our children safer? I know we cannot protect them 24-7, but is there anything we can do to prevent child sex abuse?

Darkness to Light is an organization that is devoted to ending child sex abuse. Their stated mission is to "empower people to prevent child sex abuse".

The organization runs programs to raise awareness about child sex abuse and educates adults on the steps they can and should take to "prevent, recognize and react responsibly to the reality of child abuse".

According to their website:

1. 1 in 4 girls will be abused before she turns 18
2. 1 in 6 boys will be abused before he turns 18
3. More than 90% of abusers are people that the children know, love and trust

As the statistics above show, the unfortunate reality is that most of us "know" a child who is being sexually abused and yet we are not aware of it.

The organization holds training sessions all over the country. Training is also available via an online module.

As a first step, read the 7 Steps to Protecting Our Children from Sexual Abuse.

Watch Free Documentaries Online

One of the most interesting documentaries I have watched recently is End of Poverty. It highlights economic policies around the world that keep some countries poor while others continue to get wealthy. IAccording to the documentary, 20% of the world's population uses 80% of its resources which is 30% more than the planet can regenerate. If you want a different point of view on global economics watch this documentary on http://topdocumentaryfilms.com

Other documentaries on this site are

• Super Size Me
• The Fall Of Lehman Brothers
• The Money Masters

If you would like to change the type of media you consume, check out http://topdocumentaryfilms.com!

Veterans Day—November 11

Even though the Treaty of Versailles that officially ended the war was signed on June 28, 1919, the Allies and Germany had ceased hostilities about seven months earlier and November 11, 1918 had been declared as "the end of the war".

This is the day that we celebrate as Veteran's Day, in honor of all the soldiers who have served this country both in wartime and in peacetime.

Veteran's Day is different from Memorial Day in that it is also supposed to honor living veterans whereas Memorial Day honors those who have given their lives in the service of their country, our country.

We salute our heroes and thank our brave men and women in uniform for their services.

Does Your Child Need Additional Resources To Learn?

If you need additional resources for your child to learn biology, algebra and other tough subjects, check out Khan Academy. It is a free online resource started by Sal Khan a Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager. He makes learning exciting and fun for kids and makes it easy to learn difficult concepts.

The Khan Academy has over 2600 videos on almost every subject and over 235 practice exercises. The videos are only 10-15 minutes which is palatable for almost anyone. The great thing about this concept is that everyone no matter where they are in the world has access to a great education. Check out what Bill Gates had to say about Khan Academy

source:

www.khanacademy.org

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm

Do You Have The Courage To Do The Right Thing?

This Penn State scandal has me sick to my stomach.

I have been praying (literally) that should I ever find myself in a similar situation that I will have the courage to do the right thing, regardless of what it may cost me.

If you are afraid of talking to the police, you can always call anonymously.

Don’t keep quiet, you can stop the abuse and protect a child from further abuse.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.

Nnedi Okorafor: An inspiration for African parents living abroad

I stumbled over this amazing author while watching "Behind the words" on the African channel. She is an American born author to two Nigerian Parents and is a professor at the Chicago state University

She has authored various books such as Zahrah the Windseeker, The Shadow Speaker and others. She has also won various awards such as the Wole Soyinka prize for literature, CNS parallax award among others.

I love how she weaves African culture and fantasy together. Her writing will take your imagination someplace you have never been. She is an inspiration to african parents who are raising their kids abroad and wonder if the kids will ever get in touch with their culture. Obviously Nnedi's parents heritage has a big influence in who she has become. Culture is such an important part of who we are and parents should not be afraid to teach it or model it because it enriches the next generation. Nnedi is a great example of that.

Check out a portion of her interview on the Africa channel

You can learn more about Nnedi on her website http://nnedi.com/index.html. You can also purchase her books on Amazon. 

One solution to dealing with 7 Billion on earth

Most Fridays I’m usually at my daughter’s class where these intelligent third graders throw all kinds of questions at me on a particular topic. I always try to make it fun and have fun doing it. One thing’s for sure is that these are not your grandma’s third graders. In my line of business, I have been questioned plenty of times by new and existing clients that I meet with, but nothing compares to a third grade class. They always make it challenging because they are armed with far more information today than ever before.

Last week, we were trying to understand how big 7 billion was. Now, this is not kindergarten where I can spread my hands wide and say “this big” nor is it high school where they have a better sense of large numbers. It dawned on me that trying to explain 7 billion to third graders is almost rocket science.  Eventually by relating that number to what they already know I began to see their jaws drop in amazement as they began to realize how large 7 billion really was.The topic came on the heels of the UN officially announcing that we are now 7 billion people on earth.

In my last post, I pointed out here that it’s not the number that’s we need to be focused on, rather its finding balance. How do we get the needed balance to sustain 7 billion people?

Solution 1: Raise level of consumption amongst the bottom one-third. 

The bottom line is we need a balanced approach to consumption. Whereas the top 5% consume 17% of resources, the bottom one-third consume only 3.2%. 

It’s not practical to ask the top consumers to consume less. Instead market forces will make the high consumers to consume less as we’re beginning to see in Europe and North America. What we should be doing is figuring out how the bottom can consume more.

So then how do you raise the level of consumption amongst a group that may not have personal resources to do so?

Back in 2005 when I visited Kenya there was an underlying problem chocking consumption. For anyone back then to transact required carrying cash around. This was further exacerbated if the transactions had to happen miles apart. For majority of the population who are still unbanked getting things done was a drag. However, there was a service that was just gaining momentum that would forever change how transactions were  done.  

M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service developed by a team of Kenyan entrepreneurs came about to help solve such challenges. The product was designed as a bankless way to move money. The service made sense to the bottom one-third who do not have access to banks. The result was increased consumption of new products and services using MPesa as a way to transact.

It’s been a great success story for M-Pesa who recently surpassed western union in number of transactions done within Kenya. Today MPesa has been at the heart of several business ventures, product and service creation amongst Kenya’s population.

The opportunities as well as the effect of such products and the impact to the bottom one-third to create more goods and services and hence consume more is nothing short of remarkable. It’s this kind of social entrepreneurship that will help raise level of consumption. Products and services that can be used especially by the bottom one-third to create more goods and services are what we really need. 

Here’s one definition I read, “A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem uses entrepreneurship principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve a social change.” We need these kinds of men and women to help bring balance. If you happen to be one of these, please let me know, I have a third grade class ready with questions to vet your product or service.

Bernard Wambugu

CEO Lantel Systems

http://lantelsystems.com How we work continues to change. We provide the technology solutions to allow for that change.

Let’s stay in touch 

http://www.facebook.com/bernardmw

http://twitter.com//bernardmw

Runners Wanted!

Now that the temperatures have cooled down considerably, I am considering taking up running and I am inspired by Nike's campaign, "Never Stop Running". Check it out below.