Circumspecte

Hi Everyone! Hope all's well. Okay, so this is just a quick note to alert you guys on two things. First - the TED Talks - which is basically a series of forums where leaders or innovators in various sectors share their work, passion, opinions etc. And second - Ghana's newly launched FIRST online electronic library. TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading I've made reference to many TED videos here on Circumspect, but I realized I never actually dedicated a single post to it. Essentially, the TED talks have people from all walks of life and professions - art, science, language, culture, politics, food, health, and what-have you - coming together to share their passion, their life experiences, their ideas for a better world and so on. The talks happen all over the world, so there's been TED London or TED Toronto and so on, and also, sometimes focuses on specific themes like TEDxYouth or TED Women. The GREAT thing about it is everything is available online AND you can downlo...

A TED spin on the birds and the bees So, the TED Global talks are taking place in Oxford, England this year and as I was looking around at their latest pool of videos, I came across this short "Talks in Less Than 6 Minutes" piece. What's the topic of discussion? "The Talk". Now, in case you didn't know, "The Talk" is just parent code for the subject of sexuality. Other variations in code include "the birds and the bees", "the stalk story", and so on. Anyway, this is quite a funny piece, but very real. It made me think about how everyone back in junior high was so excited as we slowly progressed towards the end of the integrated science textbook. What was at the end? (and now that i think about it, why was it at the very end?): the human sexual reproductive system. The topic of sex seems to be such a big deal, especially for adolescents. I remember that some of my classmates even bookmarked the date we were supposed to cover ...

In Ghana, the first Friday of December is set aside to acknowledge the hard work of some of the country's most important individuals - farmers and agricultural workers. So that would mean today! Happy Farmers' Day !! For a while now I've wondered about the future of agriculture in Ghana. It has been Ghana's predominant sector since the early days of independence, and even though a lot of activities are undertaken, the potential for growth still remains. Question is, are Ghanaians willing to take up that charge? Or more specifically, are Ghana's youth willing to do so? One of the typical composition questions featured in English examinations in basic schools when I was younger was: "The Farmer and the Doctor: Who Is More Important?" I always grappled with that question, but more often than not, it came down to the farmer. Why? Because basic human instinct seeks nourishment before other needs or wants. Maslow's theory confirms this, and it's al...

Finally, finally, finally. I brought my notepad home with all the juicy info from an event I went to a couple of weeks ago: "Media as a Global Diplomat II: New Findings on the Science of Media and Conflict". It was organized by the US Institute of Peace, and boy, was it a blockbuster event! Great and inspiring people like Al-Jazeerah's Riz Khan (formerly of the BBC) and Jordan's Queen Noor were present, as were a whole bunch of amazing individuals. I really enjoyed the event cos I'm all about policy and media, and at one point in my life I figured I'd be a psychologist (until I had to take psych 100 at 8am and chickened out.) So anyways. Details. Essentially, some researchers from MIT (Rebecca Saxe, a neuroscientist), Harvard (Dean Jay Winsten) as well as media personnel like Riz Khan (Al-Jazeerah) and Michael Medavoy (a Hollywood film maker) spoke about how media influences global diplomacy and conflict. The researchers presented their findings on the ...

My dad sent me this TED video a couple of weeks back, and I only got a chance to watch it last night. Like all the TED series, I learned something new. Additionally, the presenter, Sir Ken Robinson makes his piece on education very light-hearted, funny, yet to the point. If you don't learn anything at all from this video, you will definitely be awed by this man's ability to bring humor to something as serious as accusing schools of killing creativity. He notes that education is important because it is what will essentially take us into the "future we can't grasp." He states, "if you think about it, children starting school this year (2007), will be retiring in the year 2065." His point being, we're educating children for the future, yet we can't even determine what will happen in the world in 5 years. At the bottomline, he contends that "creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same status." Here's the ...