The helpless princess and her rescuer

There is feminist movement going on that aims to empower women and make us feel equal to men. I love the idea of equality of all adults. When I was a child I wanted equality of all children. I used to get punished because such rebellious views did not fit well with my father's views. Before I entered puberty, I was treated equally for the most part and then one day everything changed. One day I was expected to be the one to wash dishes. clean the house, learn to cook, and in general stay inside the house. While my brothers were supposed to rake the yard, wash the vehicle, run errands, ride bicycles, play outside and in general, just have more fun than me.  I couldn't understand why anyone would want to make such a distinction between my brothers and I, so I rebelled. I said no. I said no to washing dishes when I didn't dirty them just because I was a girl. I said no to cleaning with no help from my brothers just because I was a girl. I said no to coming inside the house as soon as the sun set just because I was a girl. I rebelled and I was vocal about why I was doing it, so after a while, my mother started to understand me a bit more. My father, on the other hand was not that flexible. He was set in his ways, so I just got punished for being disobedient over and over again, until he got tired.

And so I grew up to be a feminist.

Fukuoka & Jamaica: Patties and Jerk Chicken

I was recently in Fukuoka, Kyushu (Japan) attempting to have a vacation. I'm not sure how well the vacation part worked out, however, the city made an unexpected impression on me.

Fukuoka is located in the southern part of Japan and its capital is called Hakata. From the descriptions of my friend who used to live in Kyushu, Fukuoka sounded like the Tokyo of southern Japan. When it was suggested that I visit the city though, I wasn't thrilled. I guess I'm more of a sub-urban type of gal. Anyways, I went. Upon arriving at Hakata station, I was taken aback by the lack of organization that I'm used to in Kansai. Passengers did not line up for public transportation. There was a lot of bundling at the bus and train stations. The only saving grace was that they did not really push while entering the bus or train. I say not really because I got pushed once but decided to call it a mistake.

The Power of Habit

This post is dedicated to my lovely hobby of reading. I'm always reading something. These days though, it has been mostly academic material, however, I try to get some non-academic literary nourishment as often as I can. Most times that means short stories and / or short romance novels. Today, however, was not one of those days. Today I completed an extremely powerful book called 'THE POWER OF HABIT: Why we do what we do and how to change' by Charles Duhigg.

On October 16, 2014 I had a conversation with a high school friend on Facebook. We hadn't seen each other in years and just did a bit of catching up. We were both students pursuing post graduate degrees at the time, albeit in different parts of the globe. We both had struggles relating to school and I remember telling her that I was having problems with time management and productivity. As a solution to this problem I was finding things to fill up my schedule so that I would be forced to be more productive with the little time I had for each task. My plan was to create habits of going to the gym every night, working two part time jobs, studying Japanese more seriously and attending language classes, in addition to working on my thesis.

In essence, I wanted to change my habits. I told my friend about how I had lost motivation and how hard it was to work on my thesis. I went to school everyday, but most days were not productive. My friend then told me that she also went through something similar and suggested that I waste time productively by reading a non-wishy washy book called 'The Power of Habit'. She even sent me the link to the book on Amazon. I thanked her for it and decided not to buy it. A few months later, as I idly browsed the isle of English books at a bookstore in town, I saw 'The Power of Habit' on the shelf staring at me. It was fate, I had to buy it. So I started reading in 2015.

They're gonna talk!

Beres Hammond is one of my favourite artists. His music is so mello. He has gotten a bit old these days though, so he doesn't produce much music anymore. Anyways, his musical catalogue is long enough for him to retire comfortably without fans like me begrudging his inactivity. I am quite satisfied with all the songs I have to choose from his catalogue.

So today I will Explain the lyrics of one of his songs, entitled 'They gonna talk'. This song is in broken English, so it should be easy for non-Jamaicans to understand.  However, let me still provide an explanation for the benefit of those who still find it difficult to comprehend his lyrics.

The song is basically a love song. Two persons are in love or like each other a lot but one partner is overly worried however about how their relationship will be perceived by others. So Beres Hammond says 'as long as we know what's in our heart, we know our inner thoughts...' there's no reason to worry. That is, as long as we know that we are sincere in our feelings, we don't need to worry about other people doubting our love. In the chorus he continued to say people will talk, they will say a lot of things about the lovers.

The lyrics project an image of a poor man and a rich girl falling in love or a market vendor and a stockbroker falling in love. In such scenarios, people will definitely have an opinion on the couple's relationship because of their different social statuses. Beres' message is, 'let them talk, because as long as we are sincere in our feelings for each other, we have nothing to worry about'.

They gonna Talk

Some things were meant to be, so why not let it be and stop worrying about it.
Long as we know what's in our hearts, we know our inner thoughts, hey, no reason for concern.

Chorus:
They gonna talk, they gonna talk, they gonna say a lot of things about us.
You said you know that love is not a sin, but you worry about what people say
when they see me with you
Wonder what the crowd would say  when they find us together
Wonder what the people say when they know we are in love
Worry what the crowd would say

You pass them on the street, yes
Greet you with a smile, hey, as broad as a nile.
They will say all kind of goody goody to you, yes, that lingers for a while
All there in your mind - you wanna go, you wanna stay
It seems you can never ever make your mind up about it,
well,  but if you know that love is deep within, why should you worry what the folks will say?

When they see me with you?
Worry what the crowd would say when they find us together
Wonder what the people say when they know we're in love.
Wonder what the people say, oh yea

Wonder what the people say when they see me with you
And you wonder what the crowd would say when they find us together
Worry what the people say when they know we are in love
And you wonder what the people would say, yea yea

[Chorus]

Source of lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bereshammond/theygonnatalk.html
Source of Picture: https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=beres+hammond&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIrInp-rWwxwIVipqUCh00Nw4P#imgrc=VBeUoCyiWey0-M%3A