Web Summit Lisbon 2023: A Diary and Reflections
The Guardian describes the Web Summit as “Glastonbury for geeks”, while The Financial Times has labelled it as “the world’s largest tech conference”. [1] When initially founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly, and Daire Hickey, the events were held in Dublin, Ireland, albeit on a much smaller scale. As it gained popularity and grew, […]
The World Cup, Qatar and Human Rights
This World Cup of 2022 has engendered much discussion in the area of human rights and criticism of the way Qatar has dealt with its workers. There has also been much debate about wether Qatar should have hosted the World Cup given its view on same sex relationships. In this blog based on the VOI […]
NEW YEAR: What’s it all about?
Another year has just come to an end as as we wave goodbye to 2021 I am again reminded of the many different ways that we all usher in the new year. Being brought up in the west the new year is greeted with great celebration. Many people will party, drink, set off fireworks hold […]
Leading By Example
What springs to mind when you think of a leader? What qualities define a good leader? and is leadership necessary? These are some of the questions we will be reviewing in this blog. Let us start by having an understanding of the words Leader and Leadership. Leader: a person in control of a group, country, […]
HRH Queen Elizabeth II: A life of service.
I distinctly remember the Queens Silver Jubilee in 1977. All the children at my middle school received a silver coloured medallion to commemorate this very special occasion. I still have this little piece of memorabilia. It occurred to me on the day that our Queen passed away that she had been a constant, background presence […]
Fornication and Adultery, should we accept these behaviours as normal?
In the Voice of Islam show 1 that this blog is based on, some of the areas discussed were, has fornication become commonplace in western culture and is adultery seen as a minor failing. What impact is this having on society? what can be done to change it? and what advice does Islam have to […]
Vaccine hesitancy
The World Health Organization (WHO) regards vaccine hesitancy as one of the biggest threats to global health1. So, when a colleague first told me that she would not be getting the Covid-19 vaccine, I was slightly taken aback. How can someone put other’s lives at risk after knowing that vaccines have successfully decreased transmission rates […]
Grief: Navigating this painful journey
As we travel this journey of life it is inevitable that we will be faced with difficulties. Loss, is often the main issue behind the feelings of grief. That feeling of loss can come from a number of sources, 1 these include estrangement, financial or worldly losses, illness or injury, relinquishment, institutional losses and the […]
Breaking Addictions
As a young adult, I constantly feel the strain of needing to fit into society and for many other young people like me, the effects of this unabating pressure can become quite harmful if we find ourselves giving in. One such form of this problem arises from the ever-prevailing drug and drinking culture. As a […]
East and West
The occident and the orient, the west and the east, us against them. Nowhere is this reality better explained than in Edward Said’s Orientalism. Published in 1978, Said paints an incredibly vivid image and brings to life a detailed history whilst drawing on his own life, “a Palestinian going to school in Egypt, with an […]
