The Enthusiast

  As the world population reaches seven billion people, the BBC's Mike Gallagher asks whether efforts to control population have been, as some critics claim, a form of authoritarian control over the world's poorest citizens. The temperature is some 30C. The humidity stifling, the noise unbearable. In a yard between two enormous tea-drying sheds, a number of dark-skinned women patiently sit, each accompanied by an unwieldy looking cloth sack. They are clad in colourful saris, but look tired and shabby. This is hardly surprising - they have spent most of the day in nearby plantation fields, picking tea that will net them around two cents a kilo - barely enough to feed their large families. Vivek Baid thinks he knows how to help them. He runs the Mission for Population Control, a project in eastern India which aims to bring down high birth rates by encouraging local women to get sterilised after their second child. As the world reaches an estimated seven billion people, people lik...

  Let’s pretend for a moment that you are a giraffe. You live on the grasslands of the African savanna. You have a neck that is 7 feet long (2.1 meters). Every now and then, you spot a group of humans driving around on a safari taking pictures of you. But it’s not just your neck and their cameras that separates you from the humans. Perhaps the biggest difference between you and your giraffe friends and the humans taking your picture is that nearly every decision you make provides an immediate benefit to your life. When you are hungry, you walk over and munch on a tree. When a storm rolls across the plains, you take shelter under the brush. When you spot a lion stalking you and your friends, you run away. On any given day, most of your choices as a giraffe—like what to eat or where to sleep or when to avoid a predator—make an immediate impact on your life. You are constantly focused on the present or the very near future. You live in what scientists call an immediate-return environm...

  -By Silent Beads Before I started writing this story, I counted the number of rules we’ve set for ourselves since we got married. Hundred? Two hundred? Maybe more. I don’t remember. We didn’t write them down so it’s hard to remember. The truth is, if we wrote them down, we would have needed a hundred yards of paper to be able to write everything down. Each day comes with different issues and each issue demands a new rule. The funny thing is, we don’t remember the existence of most of the rules until someone breaks them. This is how the first rule came about…I was at the kitchen cooking when my husband joined. I had fresh fish, salted fish, and mɔmɔne on display. He tried to help with the cooking. A few seconds later, the scent in the kitchen changed. The scent started innocuously and got deadly by the second. I thought the scent was coming from the salted fish or the mɔmɔne. I smelt all of them and they were good. Not knowing my husband had farted. The smell was so bad it stayed ...

Once upon a time I met a man who told me that telling the truth and making someone cry, is better than telling a lie and making someone smile and happy.  He said to me your true friends are those who will never avoid you just because they have met new friends.  As he kept on speaking to me, he said If some people do not appreciate and value my presence, I should work hard to make them value and appreciate my absence.  He said I must not be angry with anyone who is quiet on me because there must be a reason why they are quiet, and that I will get to know the reason later.  He told me it is always better to be a blessing to others at all times than to be a burden at all times.  He said I must learn to forgive others not because they deserve it but because I deserve the peace that comes with forgiveness.  I must know that everyone deserves a second chance and many more chances if they ask for forgiveness, but I must not loose my guard over their intentions....

My African son When u get old Don't get told That your ways are odd Don't be fooled by the shiny Don't try to be skinny Don't deny the poor a penny Learn their ways But choose your way And Never stay away From your baby  My African son For what u eat U must pay For what u drink U must pay Don't confuse Pray and Pay Even if they make u pay before u pray Avoid cigarettes Avoid pork and his cousins Avoid the Napoleons Avoid needles and guns They sting more than the African bee Don't call the mountains by the white man's name Don't call the Lakes by the whitemans Name Don't pray to a white liberator Don't change the color of your skin My African son U are greater than u can imagine U are a livity of the creators might Look to the color Yellow Look to the color Green Look to the color Red For when it rains My presence u will see Remember your greatness when u see the lion, Remember your greatness when u touch your dreadlocks For u have been curved fro...