BPM-ONE DJ CHAMPIONSHIP CATCHES ON
LATEST GHANAIAN JOINTS AND NEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
Thursday, December 18, 2014
BPM-ONE DJ CHAMPIONSHIP CATCHES ON
The buildup started about 5 weeks ago and Interested
DJ’s can participate by posting a performance video on the www.facebook.com/bpmdj to be shortlisted for Final 10. The maiden edition is fast gaining
popularity and incredible anticipation by DJ’s all over the country.
BPM-ONE sees to compliment the effort that RED BULL
ENERGY DRINK has championed for a very long time spark up responsible and
thrilling competition among DJ’s.
The stage is now set for BPM-ONE to be the most popular
and competitive DJ championship in Ghana.
On 24th December, 2014 10 of the hottest talented
DJ’s will converge at the Silver Lounge to displaying scintillating skills and turntable
supremacy for your eyes only.
The BPM-ONE DJ CHAMPIONSHIP is highly anticipated to
be an electrifying night of clean skills and style over big hits of music with
timing and scratches all on point.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Are you in love, or are you emotionally dependent?
"Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you’.” ~Erich Fromm
How often have you thought you were truly in love, only to lose those in-love feelings after a few months? Have you believed you were in love but discovered that you were ‘in need’ instead?
Emotional Dependency
Are you making up the person you think you are in love with?
Have you discovered from past relationships that you have a tendency to idealize people?
Do you project onto them how you want them to be, rather than how they are?
Are you primarily focused on how your partner treats you, rather than who he or she really is inside?
Are you overly impressed by how this person makes you feel special?
Have you made your partner responsible for your happiness, worth and safety?
Do you feel anxious or panicked when you are not with your partner, or when he or she doesn’t call when you expected?
Do you have a list of expectations that your partner has to meet for you to feel loved and safe?
Do you feel that you can’t live without this person?
Are you terrified of losing this person?
Do you feel empty and alone inside unless your partner is with you, giving you the attention and approval that you are not giving to yourself?
Do you feel jealous and possessive of your partner?
Do you try to have control over getting your partner to do what you want him or her to do?
“Love” that comes from fear isn’t love — it’s neediness. Emotional dependency comes from the inner emptiness that is created when you abandon yourself — and you then expect your partner to fill your emptiness and make you feel loved and safe.
Once you make your partner responsible for your happiness, safety and worth, then you need to try to have control over getting him or her to love you the way you want to be loved.
In Love
There is nothing controlling about love. Love is that which supports your own and your partner’s highest good — which means that you would never try to control or possess the other person.
Love is about giving and sharing — not about getting. Love is not needy. When you love someone, you deeply value their essential qualities — the qualities that don’t go away with time.
It’s not about the more superficial qualities of looks, money and power, but about the deeper, enduring qualities of the heart and soul.
The challenge of real love is that you cannot desire to get love and to be loving at the some time.
Your focus on getting love will always lead to a closed heart and controlling behavior, which shuts out love.
Your focus on being loving, and on learning what is loving to yourself and your partner in any given moment, is what opens the heart.
When you consistently choose to be loving with yourself and others, you will experience real love.
If you do not love yourself — your own beautiful, wonderful essence — then you cannot see or love the essence of another.
When you don’t see and value yourself, you become emotionally dependent in your desire to get love.
When you love yourself, you will be far less vulnerable to someone coming on strong with their attention and approval.
When you give yourself the attention and approval you need, then it’s far easier to discern when someone is trying to score with you, or when they are genuinely caring about who you are in your essence.
The key to falling in love and staying in love is to first learn to love yourself!
Source: mindbodygreen.com
Why Is Nature Important?
Nature isn’t just important, it is imminent.
Notice how you feel. How do you feel after a few hours on the computer, spending the majority of the day indoors, after a long drive in traffic, after a trip to the city, after a 20 minute or longer phone conversation?
How do you feel when you have flowers in the house? After a walk? After sitting in the sun? After going for a swim in the ocean? After sitting on a nice big rock warmed from the sun? How do you feel when you observe an insect, or listen to a bird song, or appreciate the flowers and landscaping in the front yards throughout your neighborhood? How do you feel when all the windows are closed in your home, when you have socks and shoes on?
You get the point, right?
For those of us that do not have beach front property (or we do and don’t use it), do not live in the forest or in the mountains, or enjoy nature on a daily basis, even if it’s planting herbs, the likelihood is that we’re “too busy”, “too tired”, “too full”, “too hot”, “too cold”, “too over worked” to spend the amount of time that we would like to, outdoors or enjoying nature. As I come to have a greater understanding on the impact of nature on my psyche, physical and spiritual well-being, a short run in the morning or new flowers in my vases is not enough to sustain the amount of hunger that I have in me for the natural world. This isn’t me just getting all “hippied” out.
It is proven that nature affects our electromagnetic field, which is the life energy emanating through our physical form. The weaker this energy is the more likely we are to be negative, sick and “stuck” people. In fact, the actual magnetic field of the earth itself is the one of the most powerful energetic force affecting its’ inhabitants. Furthermore, many animals are absolutely dependent on this magnetic field for navigation and their basic existence. The amount of light energy being processed by all of earth’s life (plants, oceans, animals, insects, rocks and sediment) offers us humans (which process light energy through consciousness) an incredible opportunity for purification, balance and energy. While nature is pleasing to all the senses, its impact is very physical and instantaneous. While it may truly not be possible for all of us to move into the mountains, spend the whole day hiking or saturate the house with plants, the easiest way for us to get our “fix” of this energy is to spend most of the day barefoot (especially in water, sand, mud or grass) to ground ourselves and connect with the earth’s energy, reduce chronic disease, affect the DNA, neutralize free radicals, enhance circulation and many more benefits including hormone regulation. Another beautiful option is sun gazing. The sacred energy of the sun, when looked at directly (obviously when the sun is at a lower point in the sky), opens the pineal gland or intuition center, infuses the body with large amounts of energy, boosts production of serotonin, improves vision and mental clarity.
When we deprive ourselves of nature we are withholding vital life force energy from our bodies, minds and souls. I believe that any ailment can be cured by nature. We must return to our earthly roots and nurture the delicate and healing spirit of our mother to experience the interconnectedness and wholeness within ourselves and within all of life.
Source: natureshub.com
Facebook ponders 'dislike' function
Facebook is thinking about adding a way to "dislike" posts on its site, founder Mark Zuckerberg has said.
Speaking at a Q&A session in California, he said it was one of the most requested features the social network receives from its users.
He said the site would need to find a way to make sure it did not become a way to demean people's posts.
According to Facebook's own figures, 4.5 billion "likes" are generated every day.
"One of things we've thought about for quite a while is what's the right way to make it so that people can easily express a broader range of emotions," Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at Facebook's headquarters.
"A lot of times people share things on Facebook that are sad moments in their lives. Often people tell us that they don't feel comfortable pressing 'like' because 'like' isn't the appropriate sentiment.
"Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to say, 'That thing isn't good.' That's not something that we think is good for the world.
"The thing that I think is very valuable is that there are more sentiments that people want to express."
Fake likes
Facebook's Like button has been criticised as being a method by which the social network collects data on its users' browsing habits.
The system has also come under fire due to a high volume of "fake likes" - when the popularity of a brand or piece of content is inflated artificially.
Facebook has moved to combat the trade of so-called "like farming" - businesses that, for a price, will provide a huge number of likes quickly. This will be via automated robots, or by a network of humans paid a tiny sum for each click.
An investigation by the BBC in July 2012 showed that a fake company, set up by the BBC, could gain thousands of "likes" - despite the fact that the company, which promised bagels via the internet, was quite clearly bogus.
On closer inspection, many of the "likes" appeared to come from accounts that were not real people. Hardly any of the "likes" originated from places like the UK or US - instead the majority originated in places such as the Philippines.
Facebook has initiated legal action against firms offering "fake likes" or other bogus business practices on the social network.
Nervous advertisers
Any enhanced method for expressing sentiment - particularly negatively - would be likely to make advertisers nervous, said Paul Coggins, chief executive of ad firm Adludio.
"Facebook's big concern is revenue," he told the BBC.
"They need to keep their advertisers happy. I would think it highly unlikely that they would come up with a button that says you can 'dislike'.
"I think they will extend the success of the like button, which has been huge. Rather than have a quick yes-no, which is a bit black and white, my guess is that they'll probably look to do something with a bit more sentiment around it."
Mr Coggins suggested buttons which would indicate how a user feels, rather than a direct "dislike".
Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, said brands are now used to being openly criticised online.
"If brands do put something out which people don't like, they find out pretty quickly. It's been a force for good - advertisers know more about tone, or when they've gone too far."
Source: BBC
1 in 3 South Africans is mentally ill
A new study has revealed the shocking statistics of mental health in South Africa
The investigation published by the Sunday Times says that of the 33% of South Africans who are mentally ill, 75% of them will not get any kind of help.
More than 17 million people in South Africa are dealing with depression, substance abuse, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia – illnesses that round out the top five mental health diagnoses, according to the Mental Health Federation of South Africa.
Why, then, do they not get help? The reasons are depressing.
Among some of the reasons is that juvenile psychiatric patients housed in state-owned facilities run the risk of being raped or being held incarceration-style.
In South Africa’s biggest hopsital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, women in psychiatric wards are squeezed in a dormitory environment – up to 55 women at a time.
The shortage of available beds in state institutions means that only those who are severely ill get admitted
Dr Yusuf Moosa, head of clinical psychiatry at the University of the Witwatersrand, confirmed that such conditions are not conducive to proper recovery.
“You only have two nurses on duty and there’s little or no stimulation for these women. Now, if you’re struggling with depression, these conditions are not ideal”
Despite the high figures, the government health departments breaks off only 4% of its budget to address the crisis.
The limitation of available beds in state institutions means that only those at the “severe’ end of the mental health spectrum get admitted.
The situation is maddeningly dire.
Currently, 85% of psychologists in the country are in private practice, which means they service only 14% of the country’s population.
Dr Melvyn Freeman, head of non-communicable diseases at the Department of Health attributes this to money. He says a professor of psychiatry could earn R1.5-million ($150,000) a year working for the government – but such a professional’s annual salary in the private health sector could be as much as R5-million ($500,000)
He added that the most effective way to deal with the problem would be implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI), which will probably only come into effect after 2025.
Source: Times Live
An African woman’s lot in life?
We need to talk about this pressure on African women to have at least one male child. It devalues women, and, equally saddening, it causes mothers to devalue their own daughters.
Yesterday, I went to an outdooring in Dansoman (on the outskirts of Accra). I went early to help out the mother, my cousin. While there I had the following conversation with a woman who was also there to help out:
“Good morning.”
“Fine morning.”
“I am Kuukua, Naa Adjeley’s cousin. I’ve come to help out with things this morning. How are you? What’s your name?”
“Oh me? Mary. Naa and I went to SHS together. I came early to help but I have to leave soon because my mother has to go to the market, but she’s watching my baby until I come back.” She turned away from me and reached inside the cot for Naa’s baby.
“Oh you have a child?”
“My husband said his father wants a grandson before he dies. Plus...you know how men are…”
“Yes. A girl. But I really wanted a boy.” She said wistfully as she rocked the 2-week-old boy we were about to outdoor. I turned around to watch her.
“Maybe if I hold him tight enough, close to my belly, tonight my husband and I will make a baby boy.”
I tried not to shake my head in disbelief. I remembered that for some women this was their reality.
“We’ve been trying for some time now to have a boy.”
“Oh? How old is your daughter?” I asked expecting to hear an age upwards of five years.
“Oh Yaa?” She says almost dismissively. She will be one next week. The shock on my face might have been visible to her if she wasn’t so intent on making a baby boy. I think: barely old enough to have a sibling. Certainly barely old enough to stop needing her mother’s attention. I shudder.
“Why are you in such a hurry to add to the family? Why don’t you enjoy the little one for a while?”
“Oh you are so funny! You abrokyi people with all these ideas. My husband said his father wants a grandson before he dies. Plus…you know how men are…” She meets my eyes with the sadness in hers. I smiled apologetically. Yes, I knew how men were. I was raised here even though I now lived abroad. I also knew that these same men were mere products of the culture they were steeped in, and often a lack of exposure and education left them blaming the woman for not producing male children. These men were offspring of mothers who perpetuated the same story, instilling in their sons what their own mothers drilled into them; devaluing their daughters.
But why can’t some men be satisfied with daughters?
I wondered if she would be wanting another child so quickly if Yaa had come out male. Why does our culture attach such importance to male children? Is it something we as a people will ever grow out of?
“So what do you do for work?” I asked her. “Tell me about yourself. How old are you? Where did you go to SHS? What did you study?” I want to draw her out of her daydream.
The first question out of everyone’s mouth is: “Oh, you didn’t bring a husband? No children either?”
She looks baffled at the change in conversation. For a minute I get her to stop squeezing the life out of the newborn and tell me a bit about herself. She is shy at first then she gains a little bit of confidence. This all goes to waste when she ends with finality: “But my husband just wants me to stay home and mind the children. He says he wants three boys. She says this after she has just told me that she is 20 years old; currently shopkeeping for a perfume store that belongs to a Lebanese man who is always touching her butt so she wants to quit and start her own business; she read Sciences and got a rather high level mark after the SSCE; she had wanted to study to become a phlebotomist but her family, faced with spending more money or collecting dowry, chose the latter. So at 19, she was married off to a man almost twice her age.
“Did your family know you wanted to do further studies?”
She shrugged, then went back to hugging the baby as though talking about herself was a sin and focusing on the intent of making a baby boy would absolve her from this sin.
I was sad. I wondered why so often women are not given a chance to talk about themselves and what they want from life. Why we are constantly told that nothing we do or accomplish is of relevance without a husband and children. Why almost everyone makes it their duty to ensure that women grow up knowing this in their very core.
I have recently moved back to the continent after 16 years of living and working abroad. Since I arrived, not a single interaction has involved being asked how I am doing or for that matter what job I have procured. The first question out of everyone’s mouth is: “Oh, you didn’t bring a husband? No children either? Well we’ll fix that soon, don’t worry! How old are you now?” With almost daily interactions similar to this, I am wondering why I have chosen to move back to a place where the single woman is in a phase that will “hopefully pass.” And if it doesn’t pass she would suffer the consequences of being labelled various versions of an ashawo. Am I making a mistake giving up my carefree single life in the U.S. for one fraught with endless streams of questions about men and babies? In the midst of this introspection however, my inquiries took another turn. Is there something inherently wrong with such an age-old institution? Is it possible that all there is to life, especially for us African women, is a husband and children? And if so, why bother with all these accomplishments? If these convictions are so entrenched in the culture, what hope did I, the been-to, have of challenging any of it?
Written by: Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe
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