The Ultra Pursuit of Happiness
Category Archives: Kindness
Released at last: “You’re Not Alone” an athology in aid of MacMillan Cancer Care
Fantastic Christoph! Great post.
The wait is over:
“You’re Not Alone” an anthology in aid of MacMillan Cancer Care has been released. A paperback version is also available! Get your copy now!
Twenty-seven writers from around the world, including myself have entered an assortment of short stories for your pleasure, show your support by liking the new page on Facebook and expressing an interest in buying the book.
You’ll find the book on your Amazon via these links:
http://smarturl.it/YoureNotAloneAnth
http://bookshow.me/B00Y5RCOOE
You’ll find the Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/yourenotalone2015
And here is the fund, in loving memory of Pamela Mary Winton
https://macmillan.tributefunds.com/pamela-mary-winton
100% of the royalties earned or accrued in the purchase of this book, in all formats, will go to the Pamela Winton tribute fund, which is in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
An anthology, themed on relationships, of more than 20 authors
from around the world – from urban fantasy to stories that bring tears to the…
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ANZAC Centenary
Today ABC reported: Thousands of people have attended Anzac Day dawn services at Gallipoli and Villers-Bretonneux to mark exactly 100 years since Australian and New Zealand troops came ashore. Here is more on the history of ANZAC from a fellow blogger.
Thank you for sharing this post, Pacificparatrooper
James Charles Martin (1901-1915), youngest Australian KIA at Gallipoli
Anzac Centenary
Between 2014 and 2018 Australia and New Zealand will commemorate the Anzac Centenary, marking 100 years since their involvement in the First World War.
Gallipoli today
The Anzac Centenary is a milestone of special significance to all Australians and New Zealanders. The First World War helped define them as a people and as nations.
During the Anzac Centenary they will remember not only the original ANZACs who served at Gallipoli and the Western Front, but commemorate more than a century of service by Australian and New Zealand servicemen and women. [And I hope other nations will as well.]
The Anzac Centenary Program encompasses all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations in which they have been involved. And to honour all those who have worn the uniforms. The programs involved with the Centenary urge all to reflect on their military…
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Australian Aid Cuts Will Affect Four Continents
Australian aid agencies have begun the first wave of cuts to overseas projects, as they start to feel the effects of the Government’s budget decreases to foreign aid. The cuts would heavily affect poverty-stricken children and youth across the world.
Plan Australia and World Vision have settled on more than a dozen projects, worth around $6.5 million between them, after negotiations with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade over the foreign aid cuts announced in last December’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
The projects being axed are only the first instalment of what will be a $1 billion slice out of the foreign aid budget, affecting four continents.
World Vision estimates up to 1.31 million people will miss out on services affected by the cuts.
Projects include:
Senegal – Child Protection and Participation Project: $459,000
South Sudan – South Sudan Education Project: $966,000
Uganda – Urban Youth Livelihoods Project: $432,000
India – Child Protection Project: $700,000
India – Delhi HIV/Aid Mitigation Project phase two: $80,000
Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza – North Gaza Community Resilience Project: $765,000
Pacific Timor-Leste – Clean water, gender-based violence eradication, health, education: $591,000
World Vision’s total cuts are valued at $5,574,012.
Raising Sancho
This is a very moving BBC Natural World documentary about a friendship between a woman and a giant otter orphan.
A Haunting Songbird
In 1990, Wassoulou singer Sangare became a superstar in West Africa with Moussolou, which sold an astonishing 250,000 copies (many more were likely pirated). She received much of her attention for writing and singing lyrics that specifically addressed concerns of women in modern West African society, such as the conflict between marriage and personal freedom; not a shocking subject in the Western world, perhaps, but a pioneering one for the popular music of the region. Western listeners who can’t understand the lyrics will be drawn in by her mellifluous vocals and smooth, circular compositions, which use full arrangements without sounding over-produced. Both traditional instruments and electric guitars/basses are prominently used (without getting in each other’s way) on her 1993 release Ko Sira, her most widely available recording in the U.S.
Aid flows in for Vanuatu, Death Toll Still Unknown
As world-wide aid flows in for Vanuatu, death the toll is still unknown.
Communications and some electricity have been installed in parts of Port Vila, after Cyclone Pam’s weekend devastation.
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Thank you very much to all the friends/bloggers who shared my post calling for help for Vanuatu. For the latest news, there is power connection and communication in Port Vila. All outer islands still cannot be reached and death toll is still unknown except for the eight initially reported.
Those who are interested to donate to assist recovery work in Vanuatu, please click on the link below. I am sharing this link from Vanuatu friends (including a senior minister and member of parliament)
Donate direct to Cyclone Pam/Vanuatu’s Recovery programme – click here
What are the funds for?
As a community of researchers, volunteers, aid workers, friends and family we are saddened by the loss of life and injuries caused by Cyclone Pam. As an international community with links to Vanuatu we want to help.
Our hearts go out to all our friends and family in Vanuatu.
Funds will be spent directly in Vanuatu on rebuilding essential infrastructure at the Central Hospital, Port Vila. The Central Hospital sustained significant damage and flooding during the cyclone. This is significantly impacting on the care that the hospital can currently offer its patients.
Allocation of funds will be administered on-the-ground by a Committee made up of the Vanuatu High Commissioner or his representative, a representative of the Australian Friends of Vanuatu, and a representative of the Vanuatu Department of Finance.
Who will manage the funds?
This is a joint initiative based on an ongoing partnership between ‘the Australian Friends of Vanuatu’ and the Vanuatu High Commission, located in Canberra.
The request to set up this funds comes directly from the Vanuatu High Commission. The Vanuatu High Commissioner Kalfau Kaloris has been involved in developing this fund with representatives from the Australian Friends of Vanuatu.
The bank account attached to this fund is located in the Vanuatu High Commission, in Canberra. All funds will be properly acquitted to donors.
The Rewards of Gifting
ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta speaks at TEDx Berkeley on ‘Designing For Generosity’.
“Life is Easy”
“Life is easy” says Jon Jandai. “Why do we have to make it so difficult?”
After pursuing “success” in Bangkok for several years, Jon dropped out of university to return to village life. There, he went back to the life he knew as a child, working two months of the year to grow rice (with an additional 15 minutes a day to grow vegetables), dug a couple of fish ponds, built his own homes using earthen bricks, and gave up buying clothes (he has so many clothes from friends and visitors that he has to give them away). Jo contends that to be happy, we cannot just rely on money; we have to reconnect with each other.
“Before I thought that stupid people like me … cannot have a house… because people who are cleverer than me and get a job need to work for 30 years to have a house. But for me, who cannot finish university, how can I have a house. It’s hopeless for people who have low education like me. But when I start to do earthen buildings, it’s so easy! I spent two hours per day… and in 3 months I have a house. A friend who was the most clever in the class he has a house too but he has to be in debt for 30 years, so compared to him I have 29 years and 10 months of free time. I feel life is so easy.”
Jon runs Pun Pun an organic farm, seed-saving operation, and sustainable living and learning center. At Pun Pun they use ancient natural building techniques with readily available, local, natural materials with little embodied energy and salvaged materials to make homes, a practical and affordable alternative to resource intensive conventional building.
Tribalmystic Stories 