From 27 February to 9 March, diversity will be celebrated at ESFF. Get involved. Join this wake-up call against intolerance and discrimination! Let's celebrate our differences and rejoice!
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Friday, 24 February 2012
Love and Gratitude
Love water crystal
Love and Gratitude water crystal
Dr. Masuro Emoto's Hidden Messages from Water has fascinated people from all around the world for some time now. His studies and on the behaviour of water and the experiments made show that water responds to words, thoughts, sounds, music and so on.
Find out more about Emoto's Water Crystals.
Treat others as you want to be treated
The 'fittest' may be 'the kindest', after all. Modern scientists argue a new case: The survival of the kindest.
Kindness, compassion and gratitude will make you a happier person.
The more you give, the more respect you get.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Minorities in Portugal: Gypsies
Gypsies have long been among the most mysterious, exotic peoples on earth.
Romanticised as free spirits, hounded for being different, the people who call themselves Roma fight for their place in a hostile world.
They have been described as a race of nomads, who have no real home, but their native country is Romania, where they always were a vulnerable minority. Their ancestors came from India.
Whenever they arrived in Europe, curiosity was soon followed by hostility and xenophobia. They were subject to expulsion, abduction of their children, and forced labour. During World War II the Nazis murdered hundreds of thousands of gypsies.
In Portugal, the gypsies, called 'Ciganos', also survive at society's margins. They are the ethnic group that the Portuguese most reject and discriminate, being also the object of discriminatory practices from the State. For this minority group, access to employment, housing, and social services is hard to get. Most gypsy communities live below poverty line.
Do you have a gypsy neighbour? A gypsy friend?
Watch this video about Nomadic Gypsies in Portugal.
Take a look at this photo of Gypsy Children.
Photos credits: Gypsy Queen Beggar, by Yequem46, TrekEarth; Gypsy Musicians, Romania, and Gypsy Farmer and Scythe, Romania, by Tomasz Tomaszewski, National Geographic; France , August 2010, by Associated Press, Kyiv Post.com; Gypsy Women, Gypsy Woman (Bairro da Sapateira, Portugal), by Rui Dias Monteiro, A.23 Online
Friday, 17 February 2012
Homelessness
Stop Hobophobia! Homelessness can strike anyone
Greece, 2012, by Dimitra Papadimitropoulou |
Nakedness is not just for a piece of cloth.
Nakedness is for human dignity. For respect.
Homelessness is not only for a home made of bricks. Homelessness is being rejected, unwanted, uncared for, having forgotten what is human love, what is human touch.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Tackling discrimination in Europe!
There are 500 million people from 27 countries living in the European Union. We have the right to live, work, travel and shop anywhere in Europe. We make over a billion cross-border trips every year and 12 million of us live in another EU country. But sometimes we face barriers to our rights and our freedom to move across Europe. The European Union is working to make sure everyone benefits from the same rights in everyday situations. As a European citizen, your rights are protected at home, abroad and online.
The time is now!
The time is now to embrace our differences
To be aware
To be compassionate
To open our hearts
To Love
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Ah, Look at all the Lonely People
Bits and Pieces from Students' Poems:
Why can't you hear me?
By Jéssica, Alexandre, Pedro Vares (Class 21)
Child of Divorced Parents
I am all alone
In this sad street
Every night I cry
But nobody helps me
Why can't you hear me?
Can't you see me?
I try to touch you
But you walk away...
Who will teach me
How to love
Where to live
What to eat
Why to choose?
By Annalise, Dário, Dulce (Class 22)
I am a lonely child
I want a family
I wish I had a home
Please listen to me
Every night I cry
Trying to understand why
If only I could smile
And be happy for a while
By Jéssica, Alexandre, Pedro Vares (Class 21)
Child of Divorced Parents
Tell me why
Tell me why
All through the night I cry
I don't want to feel this way
I dream of a new day
Tell me why
Tell me why
The pain is so deep
I cry myself to sleep
By Jéssica, Mariana, Débora, Daniela (Class 22)
Tell me why
All through the night I cry
I don't want to feel this way
I dream of a new day
Tell me why
Tell me why
The pain is so deep
I cry myself to sleep
By Jéssica, Mariana, Débora, Daniela (Class 22)
Lonely Old Lady
Do you remember
when you helped me in the kitchen
When you told me your secrets
When you cried on my lap?
I miss that time
I miss your smile
My soul is empty
Stay for a while
By Hugo, Sara and Sílvia (Class 22)
I cry when I see you go
I'll be here on my own
I'll be here all alone
In this sad, empty room
Will you be back soon?
I touch your photos
And hear your voices
I feel your presence
You've made your choices
By Bernardo, Pedro Freitas, Paula, Tatiana (Class 21)
Do you remember
when you helped me in the kitchen
When you told me your secrets
When you cried on my lap?
I miss that time
I miss your smile
My soul is empty
Stay for a while
By Hugo, Sara and Sílvia (Class 22)
I cry when I see you go
I'll be here on my own
I'll be here all alone
In this sad, empty room
Will you be back soon?
I touch your photos
And hear your voices
I feel your presence
You've made your choices
By Bernardo, Pedro Freitas, Paula, Tatiana (Class 21)
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
80's is Hot!
Maya Angelou speaks about ageing
Maya Angelou: Author. Poet. Pulitzer Prize Winner. Singer. Dancer. Actress. Survivor. Activist. Maya is the quintessential strong, brave, intelligent woman. At 83 years of age, she is still as beautiful and as powerful today as ever.
And wiser and wiser.
Young Maya Angelou as Miss Calypso. (Maya sang and danced the Calypso.) |
Grandmothers
Grandma's hands
used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma's hands picked me up each time I fell
Grandma's hands
Boy, really came in handy
She'd say, "Matty, don't you whip that boy
What do you want to spank him for?
He didn't drop no apple core
But I don't have Grandma anymore
"A child needs a grandparent, anybody's grandparent, to grow a little bit more securely into an unfamiliar world."
Charles and Ann Morse
The Elderly: Do they matter?
Abused by their family or by caretakers in retirement homes.
Abandoned, forgotten, elderly people die alone and unnoticed.
In Australia. In the UK. In Portugal.
In the so-called civilised world.
In the UK
- Over 180,000 old people are physically abused in their own homes every year
- An old person falls victim to crime every 24 seconds
- Every week 10 more care homes are closed
- Over 48,000 old people are homeless in the UK
- Last yearover 12,000 care home beds were lost
source: Truevisiontv.com
In these modern times, old age can be a rather scary place. But it doesn't have to be this way.
2012 is the European Year
for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations.
How can we contribute?
Find out what the AGE Platform Europe is all about.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
You are not alone!
When you think you've had too much
Don't let yourself go
Hold on
Take comfort in your friends
You are not alone!
Still I Rise
Meet some famous African-American authors who fought against discrimination and segregation, and get acquainted with some of their poetry celebrating the beauty, dignity and heritage of black America.
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Don't Laugh at me!
Deaf, dumb, disabled, damaged...
Hey, aren't we all, somehow, sometimes?
But we're also daring, devoted, deserving, divine!
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