marle feed

September is always a special month. It is the beginning of the artistic season. In our family, it was always the month when my father would also present a new production. Fo r the first time, In September, this year, I am delivering a show - an exhibition to be exact called Stor ies of Change.  My brother is also opening the season with.a play called Catch! at Le Theatre de La Tempete directed by Clement Poiree and I shall join him in October to watch him. The old man would be proud! So yes, I feel supra connected to him this month at so many different levels. On the 6th September 2018, I wrote an article called  Freedom Time - We heard you .  about a message my father passed to me and my mother in his cloud. The article included my response to his message. He said:  'Why do you stay at home? You and Marie Toto. You have to come out of the house sometimes if you want to start collaborating with people.'' My response in summary was "at home I can be the whole me'...

Lightseekers is a creative social enterprise that uses photography and storytelling as a platform to learn about and engage with important social issues. They specialise in cross-cultural education and deliver thought provoking programmes to low-income areas, where creative engagement is low and students are likely to experience exclusion and discrimination. How did I get involved with Lightseekers? I started Yoga in 2019 while finishing my doctorate and I met Kajal Nisha Patel, founder of Lightseekers and yoga teacher at Nilu.Yoga. The rest is history. We became friends and collaborators through the Breaking the Silence Initiative at Quetzal. Over the pandemic, we discussed in great details the impacts of poor mental health on wellbeing and physical health. Through our discussion, a project started emerging that will become Ways to Wellbeing - a 9 online session programme providing the tools and knowledge to communities to enhance their wellbeing. She invited me to become a director a...

Leicester Fixers   received an invitation to join Climate Action Leicester Leicestershire for the launch of their Climate vigil on Saturday 21st 12-1pm at the Clock Tower, Gallowtree Gate in Leicester .  The vigil are silent, wearing Black or White, and are to show and signal that local groups care and stand together about the issue of climate change and are concerned for all the people and places suffering from climate change across the world. Are you joining?  

Leicester Fixers met this week with FlowFinder to discuss areas of focus and next steps to consolidate what has been and do better moving forward. In the next few months, Leicester Fixers will do the following activities: redefine their vision, mission, objectives and value with the input of all the fixers. Here is a first draft Consider their delivery focus against their aims, objectives, funding streams and operations Develop their delivery plans A meeting will be organised to discuss some of the elements with people working together to repair and mend items.

Leicester Fixers is a community of citizens  that work together to mend the broken, reduce waste going into landfills, and campaign for the right to repair.  We operate under the umbrella of Transition Leicester which aims to create more resilient and sustainable communities. They do this by  Sharing tips and suggestions on how to repair  Promoting repair and upcycling businesses Organising Restart Parties and Festival - e.g. Green Festival of Making and Mending Delivering Outreach Programme to support citizens to start their own repair group - e.g. Leicestershire Community Repair Outreach Programme Delivering presentations and talks to inspire others to start their own repair community Contributing to research and discussion about the Right to Repair and the factors influencing prosumers to repair Delivering training and workshops Participating in National and International Days of Repair How can you connect with Leicester Fixers FB Group Instagram Restarters Footpa...

Leicester Fixers is in the process of redefining its vision, mission, values, as well as its delivery focus and operations. Here is what they drafted so far and we are looking for feedback, please comment: Our vision is To make repair always the best, easiest, cheapest option for citizens and their broken items in Leicester Their mission is  To empower individuals and organisations to repair and mend in Leicester  Their objectives Reduce Carbon Emissions  Increase number of items repaired Improve Communities Connection and Wellbeing Improve Individual and Community Training Achieve Financial Sustainability Their Values Fairshare,  People Care Earth Care Embrace an asset-based community approach where all are recognised and identified as having a gift that they can share with their community What do you think? There is definitely more work to do on this - It is the first draft - Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Email LeicesterFixers[at]Gmail.com

Leicester  Fixers won some time ago a £500 voucher to get tools from Ifixit . It was a thrilling gift to receive. This week, I moved forward in defining the toolkit we will order by making some enquiries to Loughborough Fixers as well as Leicester Fixers . Thanks to those who came back to me, I will study your reply and make an order. Even though, there is no plan as such to have any repair event in Leicester in the upcoming year, Thinking about it is a start in possibly doing something about it.  I also had a discussion with Durgha from Flow Finder about her coaching consultancy services I am considering to use to support Leicester Fixers. She suggested for me to restart our newsletter updating our mailing list about our activities and gather a bit energy there.  About my personal repair, I returned to Woodgate Computer this week to fetch a data stick and bring some mobile phone. I had four in total. Amongst the four, they took three to give me a quote. Amongst the th...

What I learnt from watching the 4th season of Ready to Love - know yourself - be clear about what you are looking for - be open to the opportunities that come your way - to love someone, you first need to love yourself, be secured so nothing outside of yourself can sway you away - give space to the other person to grow and flourish - listen properly - be in touch with your emotions so you can better address situations and be present when love is available for grab All the best for all the contestants, I wish you to find love 💘

Writing a book for a general audience came into my awareness for few weeks now with friends suggesting to turn my doctorate into a book. Then, I was invited to celebrate a girlfriend birthday in Nottingham. Unable to drive to the destination, I was picked up by a newly published author. We spoke all the way there and back about the process of writing a book and some of steps involved in delivering the written product. In the evening. I discussed some of the elements with another friend who told me that she will help me find the necessary funding to make this happen. My first book is about Leicester Fixers, Repair, the Doctorate and more. I want to be able to raise some funding to continue and expand the development of sustainable communities within Leicester,  Leicestershire and Rutland. Through the book, I want to be able to raise necessary funds to do this. Fingercrossed, this will be possible.  If you would like to support me with this project, please do not hesitate to get...

Time to waking it up by getting our feet to fly! I have those adidas trainers on sale on my ebay shop. They need some love. I have been thinking if I do not manage to sell them to someone who needs them straight up! I will ask Wild Bunny Arts to give them a new look and offer them to someone I know who is a size 8 hehe. Have you came  across Wild Bunny Arts before? It is a British  a one-stop shop for personalised shoes and apparel managed by Rei since 2015.  She noticed that while it was possible to buy colour custom Converse and Vans, it was not possible to buy shoes, jackets and snap-backs with truly unique patterns and artwork on them. This is where she steps in. Her work is absolutely FABoLous. Worth having a look

https://www.utilitarian.org/criticisms.html http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/jcanders/ethics/outline_of_some_classic_criticis.htm Problem : Consider the following two cases: 1. Elderly Aunt Molly is ill. Nephew Tom visits her and helps her because he loves her. Nephew Bob visits her and helps her because he hopes to be rewarded in her will. Nephew Dave visits her and helps her not because he desires to help but because he believes it is his duty. (Modified Version of case by Bowie and Beauchamp,  Ethical Theory in Business  (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1979) 16-17. 2. A two-year-old is drowning. Ruth flings caution aside because she desires to save the child and jumps in, but she cannot swim. Thus, she fails to save the child. Sue can swim, but is afraid that the child will pull her under. She does not save the child. The consequences were the same in each case, but the motives of the agents were different. According to utilitarianism, each person's action was of...

Dear Councillors of Leicester, I am contacting you as one of your constituents to ask you to speak in favour of the removal of the Evesham Road/Aylestone Road link road from the Leicester Local Plan at the council debate to be held on 4th October 2018. I go to Eversham Road every Tuesday for my violin lesson on Heyworth Road from Braunstone Frith. From there, I go to a community of repairers: The Leicester Hackspace in the Faircharm Industrial Estate to work on various projects to help people in Leicester to engage further with trying to repair items in their home. Over the summer, I went to the pebble pool on Aylestone Meadows with my nephews and greatly enjoyed it. Recently, I was made aware that there is a plan to make a link between Evesham Road and Aylestone Road.  I was disappointed to hear so. The road will erase some of the historical and social fabric of the space people have been living in for decades. It will also impact tremendously on the natural envi...

The conversation between two strangers arguing that a group offering a service shall organise themselves to make it possible for those who cannot pay to not have to pay. M: I am not talking about individual offering a service. I am talking about group offering a service and charging for it. They have to organise themselves so not everyone pays by using a collection plate so people can remain anonymous. this is the way forward for a gift economy. M: being an individual or a group does not change the fact that we have currently an incurrent charge to live in the current market economy and this includes paying rent, taxes and expenses. If as a group, we are delivering a service, we are already contribut ing in term of energy, money, time, the cost of the place, etc. As much as not being judgemental with what we receive in return, how many time do we have to send the collection plate around to make people feel that they have to share their gifts too and please note their gift does ...

The blur is real. When I was young, I was sent every holiday, in one of the toughest neighbourhood in Paris where most children of immigrants can be found, to experience first hand what it means to be a product of your environment. I was bullied not because of the colour I shared with them but what I represented in their mind - the product of a middle-class family. Yes, I was born neither white or black. I identify as mixed race. I was privileged to be raised in a household where your creativity and ingenuity was more prized than any other type of achievement (i.e. education, getting married or making money). The experience made me appreciate even more what was given to me. The experience also forced me to be very selective in what I was allowed to say depending on the people I was with. Social oppression in the age of free speech is just too real when you are young and uneducated. As for now, I am more educated and aware that free speech is one of the foundations of o...

My father is both its state of consciousness and unconsciousness. He has Lewy Body Dementia. He has wisdom though in his cloud. I pay very close attention to what he says before he goes. I had my mother on the phone. She narrated her last encounter with him. He said: ''Why do you stay at home? You and Marle Toto. You have to come out of the house sometimes if you want to start collaborating with people.'' She replied: how do you know that your daughter and I stay at home? He disappeared. As my mum narrated what happened, I heard him. Yes, I enjoy working from home. I can be the whole me. No need to engage in the war of the minds, be dominated by any isms in the form of community cohesion or for some the doctrine of religion,  no need to conform to any vision or listen to the tell-a-vision. Drink and eat to please when you already full of aspirations. Yet, I heard him. It is Freedom time now. Time to free ourselves from the shackles of conventi...

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.  At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.  And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow.  T hen a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation E ven in the cannon's mouth.  And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part.  The sixth age shifts I nto the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide ...

Here it is, your first day at work. You enter the chamber. No one notice you. There are all busying talking to one another. It is a networking event. You do not know anyone apart from your boss. He is busy chatting up with who you assume is one of your colleagues. What to do? You are a competent, warm person you tell yourself, walk up to your boss and say hello. The machine will start spinning from there. Or grab anyone and start up the conversation. It is an opportunity to start forming alliances in this competitive room. How to do it? Maurice Schweitzer, Ph.D. and Adam Galinsky, Ph.D. suggest in their book ''Friend and Foe'' that the scientific formula to gaining people's trust more quickly is to strike a balance between warmth and competence - so that you seem credible but also human. Introduce your talent, keep smiling and be genuinely interested in what the person is sharing with you. It will take you places.

A microwave is such a handy tool, so convenient, It warms the food in a blink of 1min30s. Every worker wants a microwave. It is 7.30pm, you arrive finally at home.  The bus commute from your work office to the confine of your living room took an hour.  You are exhausted.  Sitting down in front of the computer all day wore you out.  You are starved. Your belly is rumbling. You need food it is a matter of survival. Hopefully, your level of organisation has paid off.  You have food in the fridge.  Thanks to your to-do-list called ''Get Ready For Work''. On Sunday, you prepared a week worth of dishes to keep you going.  They are all in beautifully compact Tupperware you bought in your favourite or closest super shop. You open the fridge door, you take one Tupperware, close the fridge door, take your favourite bowl on the drying rack, open the Tupperware, pour the content in.  A warm feeling wraps up your hear...

The world is bound to go to entropy.  It constantly decays. Natural elements - Moisture, Damp, Expanding Ice - wear away the material fabric as they break, rot and decompose. Animals and insects breed, chew, poop. War sets in between planet earth inhabitants. Humans make mistakes over and over again  They also constantly exult aggressive tendencies towards others and themselves The entropic tendency can be likened to Freud's notion of a death instinct. The concept of the death instincts was initially described in Beyond the Pleasure Principle 1920 , where Freud concluded that all instincts fall into one of two major clasesses: life instincts or death instincts. The two classes are believed to be responsible for our behaviour.  The life instincts, sometimes referred to as sexual instincts, deal with basic survival, pleasure and reproduction. Death instinct emerges because as Freud put it: ''the goal of life is death''.  There is bot...

This weekend, I read the Refusal of Work by David Frayne. In the book, he defines work and exposes critical accounts of different authors on how work is valued and regarded as a morally good behaviour to engage in so that the individual can be financially independent to buy more stuff at the detriments of its own health and wellbeing and the integrity of the natural environment. He, then, shares the experiences of a number of individuals who refused to work the typical 40 hours a week in favour of working either fewer hours or not at all. The Whys, the Hows and the ongoing tension the participants of the research experience between what is currently seen as an ideal behaviour and their own provide the reader with a mirror to reflect upon their own working or non-working situation. The work of André Gorz on The Politics of Time punctuates the writing in a beautiful manner and I am thankful to have been introduced to his thoughts. Finally, He invites us to get ready to o...