Suzanne White, my favourite Chinese astrologer, is an American with a no-nonsense approach that’s a hallmark of her style even when she writes on non-astrology subjects. Here I am referring to her two posts: “Why Do Americans Fear Socialism?” and “Don’t Speechify. Teachify.”
White’s first post, and here it goes: “I don’t want to ‘become a socialist’ anymore than I want to ‘become a dentist.’ I am not a person who joins political parties. Labels restrict people.
“Why can’t Americans think outside their own system? Yes, they are isolated and yes, they are brainwashed—but mostly they are under-educated.
“America not only needs more socialism, it needs an education about what socialism is and what it can do for it. Socialism is not communism. No way. It’s a democratic method of improving the lifestyles of the people in a country so they can live productive lives.
“Socialism for the people is good for America. Obama is not a socialist. Nor am I. But we would both like to enhance the lifestyles of our fellow Americans by taking the best from the socialism we see working well in successful Social Democracies and injecting some of it into our current system which has quite simply ‘flunked out’.”
In her second post, White writes: “The current campaign for health care reform is a pedagogical disaster. We need to teach the public what the 1,000 page bill is about. And we need to do it simply and fast!
“We are both confused about and afraid of how health care reforms will affect our lives. We don’t have the time or the capacity to read a 1,000 page document written in complex lingo.
“The administration ought to hire a team of pedagogically-savvy folks who can sift through the 1,000 pages and synthesize the bill into ten or twelve short paragraphs.” More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.