Tag: world

Categories
contemplations Global warming Photography

It’s a Mad Mad World~

Do you ever wake up, look around you, watch the news, survey the world and realise we are living what can be likened to an apocalyptic ‘Mad Max’ situation?

We seem to see this, live through it and carry on as if nothing strange is really happening. This baffles me about the nature of humanity.

We have had a pandemic, war, aggression, hunger, rising crime rates, shootings, destruction, rapid climate change, insane leadership, economic collapse in so many places, military take-overs, assassinations, to count only some of what one hears about every day, and still, we carry on as if all is normal.

We seem to let ourselves be hypnotised by the media, by influencers, by the next trend, by television, news of celebrities, the next meal, alcohol, drugs, sex and on and on…

Where is humanity heading towards? This maybe dark for some, but that is the issue. We turn away and abdicate the responsibility of shining a light on the darkness and we simply relegate it to a trend in history.

Isn’t this a signal to a big change that is desperately needed? Who are the thinkers and planners of the better future we are all striving towards? Who can think beyond their own mortality and plan for the good of future generations?

When will we finally wake up?

Categories
china contemplations inspiration morning coffee talk Photography street photography

Daily Coffee Talk~ 69/365

Shanghai~ 2019

Hi my friends, today was another packed day with so much to do, most of which was done 😊.

Earlier a conversation stood out to me about our use and our reliance on devices throughout our daily lives.

How many of you actually learn people’s phone numbers by heart? Or do you, like me, rely on the stored contact list on your devices?

Take a scenario where you are traveling and you are about to check in only to realize your phone is missing. You want to show your boarding card but you can’t, you want to show your proof of vaccination, not possible, you want to call someone, definitely can’t. It’s a mini nightmare, isn’t it?

What is it that had caused us to focus our lives away from the big world into small virtual ones inside screens?

Don’t get me started on the meta verse! That’s need its own blog entry.

Categories
contemplations Fine art lockdown morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Daily Coffee Talk~ 52/365

Good day,

I don’t think I have ever used the term ‘good day’ ever before. So here it is, good day to you.

I am still caring for my quarantined child on day 5, trying to come up with creative meals and snacks, getting used to washing my hands 25 times a day, running down my ‘to do’ list to remain sane and doing my best not to get infected with covid.

As I do all this my mind wander to thoughts about life, our state of the world, the planet, and as always, the future.

I wonder how much of what the future is trying to tell us goes unheard, undelivered and just plain missed. How do we tune to what is trying to speak to us? No matter how skeptical you may be, you know that sometimes, somehow, something is trying to tell you things, right?

Hoping ti have a better receiving system and wishing you a wonderful day.

Write you tomorrow!

Categories
Fine art inspiration lockdown morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~48/365

Good Morning,

So for those of us who think we are sitting at home or standing still, ponder this:

Our planet is spinning around its axis at a speed of 1000 miles/ hour

It is also rotating around the sun at a speed of 67,000 miles/ hour

and our Milky Way is spinning around at a speed of 130miles/SECOND or 1.3 million miles/ hour!!!

And you, me, and the neighbour’s cat can stand still and balance on one foot (well not the cat) !

Categories
Germany morning coffee talk Photography street photography UAE

Morning Coffee Talk~ 34/365

Dubai Expo~ evening shot

Good Morning,

Starting late today but it’s morning somewhere.

I chose to spend another day today at the expo and visit some of the pavilions. There is so much to take in at an event like this that you need to stand still sometimes and assess what the significance of all of it is .

I had planned to visit the German pavilion and it has proven to be incredible, eye opening, well thought of and simply brilliant. All focused on the thousands of ways in the works towards making a better planet 🌎; it called on all one’s faculty using interactive tools to help the visitor focus on only one thing: the future well being of planet earth, sustainability, clean energy and becoming carbon free by 2040.

It was certainly worth the long wait. If you have the chance to see, visit it physically or virtually, please do.

The ending hall with the swings and giant presentation almost brought me to tears. Well done Germany.

Categories
contemplations Germany inspiration morning coffee talk Photography

Morning Coffee Talk~7/365

Good morning, it’s a little after 6 am. I love the early morning, the smell of the first cup of coffee, the calm that envelopes the world around me, the promise of the first light to come reminding me that I live on a spinning sphere, a mind boggling fact on its own.

My thoughts travel today to the balance needed in these times of increasing intensity. Everything seems to register on our lives with more power, life events, world happenings, personal changes,.. it’s all quite impactful and I have the sense it is not just me registering this.

It feels more important than ever to take a moment every now and then and weigh the balances, do a self check on personal well-being, and perform some necessary housekeeping internally.

The white blanket of passage into winter is here and it feels like a cloud of peace inside all the hurry and scurry of the world.

I wish you a peaceful next weeks of crossing into the new year that I am certain will bring its own surprises and changes.

The images were taken earlier this month and last month in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Categories
Photography

The World on Lockdown~

This is day on of lockdown in Germany where we are currently living after the start of the Coronavirus pandemic and life has never been more interesting.

Suddenly there is space, and at first, you feel like you don’t know what to do with all this time, you feel restless like you are forgetting something, an errand, you need to do, a doctor’s appointment, a meeting, something… and then you realise that you need to stop.

And once you feel settled to that fact and you delete all the appointments in your calendar, it starts to dawn on you that something is shifting, onsetting, happening in a big way, seen and unseen that is bringing the whole world to a halt. And you listen very carefully, you hear the planet breathing a sigh of relief.

Manufacturing has stopped, planes are stopping, trains, cars, football games, concerts, events, all the things that allow you to feel lost in the crowd and all of a sudden there is a large mirror facing each one of us.

How will we spend our time now? Will we panic watching the alarmist news? Will we take long unhurried walks in the forest? It is Spring here after all. Will we learn something new? Or much better even, will we take the opportunity to do our much needed dwelling on the meaning of life that we had put aside all these years due to our rushed and busy lives?

What a great opportunity this is. Humans working together to combat an undiscriminating and common threat to all. How do we battle this with our humanity intact? Will we take the time to reconnect to the most basic truth of our connection to our amazing planet and its natural laws? And what about the intensifying and onsetting future? Are we ready to meet it?

In the last few days as we hurriedly tried to get ready for lockdown, I saw scared and worried faces everywhere and a big chunk of confusion and concern, which caused me to be kinder than normal to others along the way. As I let a person pass in front of me on the line, stopped the car for a pedestrian, waved and smiled at a stranger, I realised with great delight that a small act of kindness is going a much longer way than ever before. People are glowing because of it and that caused me to understand that in situations like these, humanity thrives, values are resurrected and the future has a chance…

Categories
Fine art Photography

A Historic Future Unfolds

The age of social distancing
You are never alone
Bridge of hope
Stairway to heaven
And there it was

As 2020 unfolds, it leaves us all stunned as we try to grasp the magnitude of what really is at play in these changing times. Clearly things have no chance of remaining the same in a new intensifying state of affairs that forces even the most arrogant of us humans to stop, reassess and reconsider their role in the fate of humanity on earth. It is later than we think…

Stay safe my friends as we calmly and hopefully with grace and strength we weather the storms of tomorrow.

Above photos are recent compositions inspired by the current times.

Categories
contemplations Photography

The future is calling~

Never before have I felt so unsure about what the future holds as I do today. Every morning, a new story in the news stranger than the next, wold leadership try to force the strangest and lowest of standards as the new norm and the first signs of tremors as the future threatens to eradicate the past. Anyone not feeling this must be sleep walking through life and bouncing from distraction to escape. How did we get here and what will our children’s world look like?

Categories
CHINA human rights Photography religion street photography xinjiang

Future Unknown~ Xinjiang

Future unknown~ heartbreaking news coming from Xinjiang about China holding over a million Uighur muslims in re-education centers for the purpose of removing their #faith which they label as a virus. History keeps repeating itself and we humans never seem to learn. Their most recent tactic is breaking up families whose strength and cohesion they perceive as a threat to future China.

Story here