The Herald

Tendai Rupapa in ACCRA, Ghana

ZIMBABWES Environment and Tourism patron, First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, has voiced concern at the exclusion of women in tourism despite forming a huge base of the workforce in the sector.

She said in the tourism sector, the percentage of women who work in the industry was high, but they occupy unskilled and lowly-paying jobs.

The First Lady decried the low representation of women in decision-making positions in the industry.

Addressing delegates at the inaugural Regional Congress on Women Empowerment in the Tourism Sector Focus on Africa here yesterday, Amai Mnangagwa said in most developing countries, women were excluded in mainstream tourism, in spite of them being natural hospitality players by virtue of their warm and welcoming nature.

The First Lady, who is a champion for women empowerment, is leading a delegation of Zimbabwean women in the tourism sector.

The tourism sector definitely provides various entry points for womens employment and opportunities for creating self-employment, thus creating paths towards the elimination of poverty in women and local communities, she said.

Tourism presents both opportunities and challenges for gender equality and womens empowerment.

The contribution of women in the business world has increased in recent years, although women are under-represented in management and leadership.

The First Lady paid tribute to United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Secretary-General Mr Zurab Polikashivili for his sterling leadership that has seen UNWTO partnering with Ghana to host this event on Women Empowerment in the Tourism sector.

Gender stereotyping and discrimination, the First Lady observed, meant that women mainly perform jobs such as cooking, cleaning and hospitality.

Much tourism employment is seasonal and fluctuates according to the volatile nature of the industry. If a strong gender perspective is integrated into planning and implementation processes, tourism can be harnessed as a vehicle for promoting gender equality and womens empowerment at the household, community, national and global level.

At the same time, greater gender equality will contribute to the overall quality of the tourist experience, with a considerable impact on profitability and quality across all aspects of the industry. I have no doubt that this platform will allow us to share and exchange the various strides being made to ensure inclusion and empowerment of women through the Women in Tourism Empowerment Programme (WITEP), which was set-up by the UNWTO.

In Zimbabwe, Amai Mnangagwa said, the Government supported the inclusion of women in the tourism sector and has supported the creation of a Women in Tourism National Chapter.

She said this development has been taken to the grassroots through the launch of Provincial Chapters of Women in Tourism.

These local chapters have enabled us to organise the women in the sector for better access to finance and capacity building to enable the economic empowerment of women in the tourism sector from the grassroots level.

I am happy to advise this gathering, taking advantage of the fact that tourism is a low-hanging fruit, most women in Zimbabwe have been involved in the setting up of tourism businesses, especially in the accommodation sector, said the First Lady.

She cited the example of Bulawayo, where 80 percent of lodges are owned by women and were operating successfully.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to a number of declarations aimed at increasing the number of women in top decision-making positions in politics and other spheres.

A study conducted in 2011 funded by the World Bank revealed that about 28 percent of workers in the tourism sector were women and 11 percent of these were in leadership positions.

As Women in Tourism, we continue to engage Government to provide more incentives to empower women to participate in the tourism sector and ensure more are employed in leadership positions in the sector.

I am glad to note that our current private sector organisation in the tourism sector, the Tourism Business Council, is currently being led by a woman, which is a vote of confidence to our abilities to lead as women.

Amai Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was intensifying its focus on cultural and heritage tourism promotion to diversify the tourism product base and promote domestic tourism.

This type of tourism, she said, had resulted in tourists interacting with communities and having a personal encounter with traditions, history and culture.

Zimbabwean women and the youths have been spearheading these projects in our less developed communities. The participation of women through community-based tourism programmes has resulted in creation of employment at grassroots level, development of infrastructure in our rural communities and promotion of social cohesion and environmental responsibility. Through the community-based projects, a total of 50 community-based tourism projects have been implemented in Zimbabwe, benefiting close to 200 000 households in Zimbabwe.

Speaking at the same occasion, Mr Pololikashvili acknowledged that tourism in Africa was on the rise.

The number of international tourist arrivals to African countries has been growing by 6 percent annually since 1995 and we are confident arrivals will reach 134 million a year by 2030.

We estimate that tourism supports more than 20 million jobs. It also helps build schools and roads and promote natural and cultural heritage, he said.

He added: The true potential of tourism as a driver of change for Africa is yet to be realised and this cannot happen without true gender equality. Women are at the forefront of development in Africa, therefore, this congress, a first of its kind, is our opportunity to discuss the importance of gender mainstreaming in tourism.

Ghanaian Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who officially opened the congress, said the event was taking place at a significant moment when international tourism was reaching new heights globally.

He said tourism constituted one of the fastest growing sectors in the world.

The industry has become a global and highly competitive socio-economic and environmental activity in both developed and developing countries.

It is a labour-intensive industry creating skilled and unskilled jobs in the supply value chains. (The) tourism market has shown strong growth across Africa in recent years.

It has a great potential to accelerate progress across the sustainable development goals.

Well-managed, the sector can generate quality jobs, reduce poverty and offer incentives for environmental conservation.

Dr Bawumia said tourism was one of the major sources of foreign exchange in many developing countries.

He added that he was informed the UNWTO was working hard to harness tourisms immense contribution to develop the most vulnerable members of society. The three-day congress aims at analysing the challenges and opportunities for women empowerment in the tourism sector, creating a synergy among African countries and key stakeholders.

Among the dignitaries attending the congress is the First Lady of Spain, Begona Gomez Fernandez.

See the article here:

First Lady decries exclusion of women in tourism - The Herald

Learn more about this groundbreaking toy company that changed the industry forever on "Lost LA" S4 E6: Shindana Toy Company - Changing the American Doll Industry

A police stop of a black motorist may have set off the 1965 Watts Riots, but segregated schools, joblessness and poverty have widely been identified as the social factors that drove residents of this South L.A. community to take to the streets and resist. For six days beginning on August 11, community members overturned cars, set fires and confronted police. In the end, 34 people died, 1,000 suffered injuries and property damage topped $40 million. The massive devastation left in the rebellions wake led to hopelessness about societys race problem, but it also spurred African Americans such as Louis Smith and Robert Hall to take action.

On November 24, 1965, the duo launched an organization called Operation Bootstrap on 4161 South Central Avenue in Watts. It would work to enhance the educational and professional skills of residents and connect them to the career networks that eluded them in South L.A. Fifty-four years after Operation Bootstrap began, the project is most remembered for starting a variety of businesses namely Shindana Toys that put community members to work and allowed them to witness economic empowerment through an African American lens. While Operation Bootstrap ended in the 1980s, its contributions to black life reverberate today. The organization emphasized the importance of black entrepreneurship and used its business initiatives to shift public perception of black identity and uplift the community.

While walking down Central Avenue in the late 1960s, a young man named Lewis Kisasi discovered Operation Bootstrap. Seeing a group of people gathered in an empty warehouse piqued his curiosity enough to prompt him to walk inside. Barely out of his teens, Kisasi was welcomed when he stepped into the Bootstrap offices, which had an open-door policy.

"I was excited about the possibility of Operation Bootstrap," said Kisasi, now 75. "Lou was the intellectual powerhouse, and Robert also had great strength. He was more of a people person and was easy to relate to. Right off the bat, people liked his personality and Bootstrap's philosophy of people doing for themselves. That really was the genesis of Bootstrap to do something for self."

While Operation Bootstrap was certainly a team effort, much of the credit for its success has been given to its charismatic president Lou Smith, who started out in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Born to a Philadelphia police officer and homemaker in 1929, Smith revealed an activist streak when he was just a small child, according to his son, Lou Smith III.

In fourth grade, his school tried to expel him because he said it was impossible for Christoper Columbus to have discovered America when there were already people there, his son said. He wouldnt come off that, so the school called his parents in for a big meeting. He was an interesting guy. He was a funny guy.

A portrait of Robert Hall and Lou Smith, founders of Operation Bootstrap from a Jet Magazine storypublished by Johnson Publishing Company| Still from "Lost LA" Shindana Toys

Smith may have been a nonconformist, but that didnt stop him from joining the racially segregated armed forces in 1947. Years later, he bragged about flouting military rules, drinking whiskey on the job and farming out his clerical work to his latest romantic conquest, according to the paper Operation Bootstrap: Beginnings. But the Army wasnt just fun and games. While riding in a jeep, Smith suffered a back injury that would cause him chronic pain.

Although hed hoped to pursue a career as a commercial artist, his career path changed when a friend invited him to a CORE function circa 1959. He quickly became an active member in the Philly chapter and, later, its chairman, according to his son.

My father always had a sense of fairness, Lou Smith III said. He was always for the underdog, and he skyrocketed up the CORE ranks.

He participated in sit-ins and sleep-ins targeting trade unions and housing programs that excluded African Americans. David Crittendon, a fellow CORE activist, said that the trade union campaigns particularly inspired him.

It had a huge effect on Lou Smith, Crittendon said. He really admired the trade union activists who were asking, Why cant black workers have the same opportunities as white workers? It made him a genuine civil rights activist.

By 1963, CORE officials asked Smith to go to Mississippi to serve as a leader there. He was in Mississippi the following summer when white supremacists abducted and killed civil rights workers Michael Scwherner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. Since Schwerner and Goodman were white Northerners, their murders garnered national media attention, but 41 years would pass before anyone was held responsible for the crimes. In 2005, a jury convicted klansman Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter for the killings.

After the gruesome 1964 murders, Smith headed to California to serve as COREs West Coast and Midwest regional director, his son said. His supporters urged him to run for national director of CORE, but Smith enjoyed interacting with the public and loathed the idea of sitting in an office all day.

In Los Angeles, he found a fragmented CORE, with traditional and radical factions who couldnt agree on the best approach to serving the community. The left-leaning members formed a group called the Non-Violent Action Committee (N-VAC), which met on Central Avenue in the heart of black Los Angeles. In contrast, the established CORE chapter met in the largely white San Fernando Valley. Smith first met Robert Hall at an N-VAC event protesting COREs national leadership, but the two didnt share their philosophies on social justice with each other until the Watts Riots. In the aftermath of the violence, they sat in a cafe and exchanged their ideas about how to better the community.

"South Central Los Angeles it was an extremely isolated black neighborhood," Crittendon said. "The city was extremely segregated, and there was a real sense of just being shut out and overpoliced living in very poor conditions with very few opportunities to break out of those situations. Say you were a young black teen who wanted to be employed in a department store; you wouldn't get that job. And the aerospace manufacturing companies that had been in South L.A during World War II had moved far away. South Central was left as kind of this desolate area with poverty and poor infrastructure."

Three months after Smith and Hall's brainstorm session, Operation Bootstrap kicked off. With Smith as president, Hall served as executive vice president, and the board included members Woodrow Coleman, Linda Clark, Clarence Price and Sheila Tucker. Working with psychologists and other professionals, Operation Bootstrap identified the Watts community's main needs, primarily jobs and remedial education classes. Via a press conference and leaflets, the organization then publicized its plans to help the deprived neighborhood. A racially diverse mix of groups, including the Pacific Palisades Hadassah, the Soroptimists Club of Alhambra and the Laguna Beach NAACP, offered to help Operation Bootstrap with its mission. In addition, more than 50 volunteers agreed to teach reading, writing and speaking classes to the Watts community. Instructors also led courses on electronics assembly, key punching, and computer programming.

Kisasi, who would eventually become a Bootstrap board member, recalls the organization offering sewing classes and holding community dialogues.

Wed have these sensitivity sessions where people from various communities, mainly the white communities, would have these dialogues about fixing the problems in the black community, he recalled.

The systems approach diagram that Operation Boostrap operated under | Southern California Library

Operation Bootstrap attracted not only concerned citizens and volunteer teachers but also politicians such as the national Office of Economic Opportunity director Sargent Shriver, California Gov. Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan, who would serve two terms as the state's governor beginning in 1967. Although politicians visited the organization, Smith strongly opposed taking the government's money to support Bootstrap financially.

All money was raised through personal or public outreach, Crittendon explained. Lou Smith, being a very astute activist, realized that there were individuals and communities outside of South Central L.A. who wanted to do something to aid the citizens in the Watts rebellion zone.

Friends of Bootstrap clubs fundraised enough money to allow Bootstrap to start various business ventures, including the clothing store Bootstrings; daycare and educational center, Baby Bootstrap; the Afrocentric boutique Kiwanda; and even a gas station.

People showing off the Boostring clothing collection | UCLA, Library Special Collections,Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives

By far, Shindana Toys stands out as the most commercially successful Bootstrap business. In 1968, it opened and became so profitable that it allowed the operation to run almost totally autonomously. An infusion of cash, including a $500,000 loan from Mattel and a collective $1 million in funds from Chase Manhattan Bank, Sears Roebuck & Co. and Equitable Life Assurance, gave Shindana (Swahili for "competitor") a strong start. The toy company featured black dolls, such as "Baby Nancy," with features modeled on actual black children's faces.

That was the ultimate company, Kisasi said of Shindana. It started because of a young black girl who only had little white dolls. That gave Lou the idea for the Shindana Toy Company.

A woman manufacturing Shindana Toy dolls from a Jet Magazine story published by Johnson Publishing Company | Still from "Lost LA" Shindana Toys

According to the Los Angeles Times, Nancy was the first doll marketed as black by a toy company. Shindana would subsequently debut Asian and Native American dolls in addition to a line based on black celebrities like Flip Wilson and O.J. Simpson. Debbie Behan Garrett, a doll collector and author of books such as The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls, is a fan of Shindanas career doll line.

It represented different occupations to aspire to, she said. One may have been a receptionist, another a race car driver or a stewardess or ballerina.

Click right or left to see some of the career options presented by the Wanda doll:

Catalog for the Wanda doll showcasing her many different careers | Courtesy of Billie Green

Catalog for the Wanda doll showcasing her career as a nurse | Courtesy of Billie Green

Catalog for the Wanda doll showcasing her career as a ballerina| Courtesy of Billie Green

Catalog for the Wanda doll showcasing her career as a stewardess | Courtesy of Billie Green

In the 1960s, realistic-looking black dolls were scarce, with most resembling white dolls in darker hues. Before then, many of the black dolls on the market looked like racial caricatures of African Americans. Garrett said that growing up in North Texas in the 1950s and '60s it was nearly impossible to find black dolls with realistic features. When she discovered Shindana dolls years after they were first released, she felt overjoyed.

I was shopping at a store that carried overstock or discontinued items, and I saw Shindanas Baby Janie doll that had ethnically correct facial features that werent exaggerated. She had the little pug nose and fuller cheeks and fuller lips. She didnt have curly hair, but you knew this was not a white doll painted brown. I was so excited.

During the 1974-75 fiscal year, Shindana earned $2 million in revenues, with sales representatives in major cities across the country. Shindana's success allowed Operation Bootstrap to launch other projects, such as Honeycomb Child Development Center, designed to educate the children of South L.A. while instilling a sense of racial pride in them. But Shindana's huge profit margin would be short-lived. Aware that Shindana was thriving by serving black clientele, rival companies began to sell black dolls of their own, having previously ignored African American consumers desperate to find positive images of themselves. The 1970s recession marked a downturn for both Shindana and Operation Bootstrap, as consumers were less likely to spend their disposable income on nonessentials or donate to social justice causes.

Lou Smith devoted almost all of his time to running Shindana, and Bootstrap faltered without his leadership. Meanwhile, Robert Hall struggled to adjust to the corporate environment of Shindana, which employed 50 to 60 workers. His difficulties resulted in him being asked to resign as the companys CEO and president. This led to his departure from both Shindana and Bootstrap overall. Just six months after his exit, Hall had a fatal heart attack in 1973 at age 42. Three years later, another tragedy occurred when a car wreck claimed the lives of Lou Smith and his daughter Matilda; Smith was 47.

The loss of Smith hit Shindana hard, but the company remained in business until 1983. With its assortment of dolls of color, the toy company was ahead of its time. Lou Smith knew that representation mattered decades before consumers could easily find dolls in a range of skin tones, body types, and hair textures, as they can currently.

With no black dolls to play with as a child in the 1940s, Portland native Laverne Hall grew up to manufacture a line of black paper dolls, organize a show called LaVerne's Original Holiday Festival of Black Dolls, and publish the DOLL-E-GRAM newsletter about the toys in the 1990s. She applauds Lou Smith for his contributions to black dolls and has presented a Shindana award at her former doll show.

His story was such a marvelous story, she said of Smith. The political part of this thing for me is that the major toy manufacturers were making millions of dollars on black dolls that were the same as the white dolls, just painted over. There was nothing authentic about them. While theyre making millions of dollars on us [African Americans], we were not getting anything out of it.

Its important for black children to play with toys that resemble them because it fosters self-esteem, Hall said. Shindana recognized this need and became a competitor in an industry that had traditionally overlooked African Amerians.

Laverne did not have the chance to meet Lou Smith in person but described his approach to Operation Bootstrap and Shindana as progressive.

He was very forward-thinking, she said. He was creative, and he didnt mind stepping out and taking a chance in the interest of his community. Whatever he could do to move his people and his community forward, thats what he did.

Without Operation Bootstrap, of course, Shindana would never have come to fruition. Crittendon said it saddens him that both the toy company and the economic empowerment organization behind it have largely been forgotten.

"Bootstrap it has gotten lost just like a lot of black history gets lost," he said.

But Smith and Hall led lives that deserved to be remembered, Crittendon added.

Lou Smith and Robert Hall were absolutely unbelievable as individuals, he said. They meant what they said and showed it in their actions. They walked their talk, and that made all of the difference.

Top Image:Shindana's Little Friends collection represent children from around the world. A scan from the Shindana catalog | Courtesy of Billie Green

Original post:

Operation Bootstrap: Empowering the African American Community through Entrepreneurship - KCET

Getty

How can we use our dollars most effectively this holiday season to effectively support and empower disabled people?

Black Friday marks the start of the holiday shopping season. Four days later, #GivingTuesday kicks off the holiday charitable giving season. Shopping and donating both offer opportunities to support people in society who could use some extra help. Here are four different ways to support disabled people this holiday season:

1. Shop at businesses that are staffed or owned by disabled people

Its common enough now that a kind of media narrative is taking shape. A disabled person, anxious to work but finding employers unwilling to give them a chance, starts their own business, and local news runs an inspirational story about it. Even more often, its the story of parents of a disabled son or daughter who start a business for them and for other disabled people who struggle to find work. While the often sentimental tone of these stories can be off-putting, particularly to disabled people themselves, disability-centered businesses can be a great way to support disabled people in a simple and natural way.

2. Buy gifts online from disabled craftspeople

Disability entrepreneurship thrives online. Craft sites like Etsy and swag store sites like Zazzle make it easy for disabled creatives to make money selling their jewelry, artwork, t-shirts, and other items online, without physical barriers or the upfront capital required to open a bricks-and-mortar business. Each year, disability blogger Emily Ladau publishes a Holiday Gift Guide focused on disabled people selling products online. Our goal is to shine a spotlight on their work, she explains, giving people a meaningful way to support the disability community by doing something they were likely already going to do - buy holiday presents for the people in their lives.

3. Support disabled freelance content creators

Another way to support online disability culture is to contribute to disabled bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, and freelance journalists. Most creators have donation links, or Patreon and Ko-Fi accounts where you can make one-time donations, or pledge a small amount per month to help sustain their work. Online disability culture has enriched the disability community immensely, and its well worth supporting your favorites. If you arent familiar with any yet, just search terms like disability in your favorite online media platforms, and explore.

4. Give to disability charities

The most traditional way to donate to disability causes is to support disability nonprofit organizations. There are of course the big, disability-specific organizations everyone knows about, through their professional PR campaigns, high-profile and popular fundraising events, and celebrity spokespeople. But while many of these do good work, on closer examination, you may find that some of them dont fit well with your interests and ethics, or those of the people they are supposed to help. This is especially true if you value authentic empowerment of disabled people themselves, and strong, visionary advocacy. Disabled blogger, (and mother of a disabled child), Meriah Nichols has an informative list of links to disability organizations you may not have heard of, but are well worth a look.

At a time when social and political hazards are everywhere, supporting people with disabilities seems like a fairly easy call. But disabled people and disability culture are just as complex as any other parts of society. Its not always immediately obvious to casual observers, but there are some disability causes, trends, and organizations that sizable numbers of actual disabled people feel ambivalent about ... even despise.

How can you be sure the disability-connected businesses or charities you want to patronize are truly responsive to the disability community, and consistent with your values? Here are some key questions to ask:

Are disabled employees paid at least minimum wage?

This is a crucial question to ask about businesses that promote themselves as employment initiatives for people with disabilities. Some businesses have certificates allowing them to pay disabled workers less than minimum wage. And while some continue to argue that the practice has its place, its an approach that is steadily being phased out, as the inequity of it becomes harder to reconcile. At the very least, asking about it helps ensure that businesses and organizations appealing to our goodwill towards disabled people continue to wrestle with important ethical questions about their methods.

Are disabled people working in visible, integrated settings, or are they segregated and invisible to the public?

Payment of sub-minimum wage often goes hand-in-hand with sheltered workshops and other employment models that keep disabled workers away from public contact. Its another practice that is rapidly falling out of favor ... a relic of the past. As such, its not something these businesses tend to advertise. So although you may be buying products made by disabled people, you may want to find out under what conditions, and think about how they match up with your own values and how you would want to be treated in your job.

Are there disabled people in leadership and decision making positions?

This doesnt necessarily have to be a strict litmus test. But there is a potential difference between a restaurantwhere all the employees are disabled, but the owner and managers are not and one owned and/or managed by people with disabilities. Its also a critically important question when exploring disability nonprofits. There is no more important place to apply the disability rights principle, Nothing about us without us, than in disability organizations. Being staffed and governed by disabled people not only provides employment and leadership opportunities for them, but also helps ensure that disability charities pursue goals important to actual disabled people, using strategies that disabled people themselves have developed and approved.

Does the business or charity present an empowering, unsentimental image of disability and disabled people?

You can raise a lot of money by presenting disabled people as either sad, pitiful, and burdensome to care for ... or as almost inhumanly angelic and inspirational for literally anything they do. On the other hand, its possible to recognize a business or organization where disabled people are truly liberated and empowered, where you want to help, not to rescue disadvantaged people or pick up some sort of vague good karma, but because they offer a good product in a positive atmosphere, and a mission that puts disabled people themselves at the center. Its often hard to see the difference, but developing a more discerning eye towards these intangible qualities is crucial for making good charitable choices, especially in the disability field.

Finally, it helps to ask yourself what, exactly, you want to support. Disability charities in particular can have a variety of different missions and approaches. Sometimes its hard to tell up front what an organization actually does. Before choosing what to support, think about which of these aims you care about most:

Disability activism - Working towards changes in laws, policies, and practices to make life better more accessible, and more liberated for people with disabilities.

Individual services and advocacy - Providing direct, individual services to disabled people, including counseling, individual advocacy, information, accessibility modifications, and education.

Individual care - Providing one-on-one physical assistance to help disabled people with everyday activities, including personal care, household chores, and transportation.

Cultural and awareness activities - Promoting greater visibility, better understanding, and disability representation in everyday life and culture.

Medical and technological research - Striving to cure, prevent, or alleviate disabling conditions, and developing assistive devices for people with disabilities.

Preferences and opinions on disability causes vary a great deal, even on foundational issues as segregation and fair wages. But responsible givers and patrons will at least explore these issues, and make their disability contributions consciously, deliberately, and consistent with their values.

Read more:

How To Support People With Disabilities On Black Friday And Giving Tuesday - Forbes

Self-care is not selfish.

What do you believe you deserve? That's a pretty loaded question, isn't it? In more than twenty years working as a women's life coach, I've asked it thousands of times, and I've received countless answers. The majority of responses I've received have been disheartening, and they've revealed a startling truth. Women - even very successful, accomplished women - doubt their deservingness.

Deservingness is not to be confused with entitlement. Entitlement is about believing you have a right to something. Deservingness is about how much you believe you're worth.

When you doubt your deservingness, what you're really uncertain about is whether or not you measure up. Are you good enough? (YES.) You've made some pretty big mistakes. Do those bad blunders make you a bad person? (NO.) Are you a good enough person to deserve good things? (YES. YOU ARE.)

Many women carry around a secret shame that impacts their feelings of self-worth and deservingness.

At some point in your life, someone told you there was something wrong with you. This is inevitable, of course, because there's something wrong with all of us, but it gets to dangerous and disempowering territory through repetition.

If even one person in your life tells you over and over again that there's something wrong with you, well, you can start to believe them. Being rejected or criticized hurts, and it has a cumulative effect. Imagine every criticism you've ever received is a tiny little pin that landed right in your heart. (Seriously bad visual, right? Wouldn't your heart look like a pincushion if that was the case?) Beyond hurting like hell, a heart full of pins holds you back and makes you play small. YOU ARE NOT SMALL. I want you to stop acting like you are.

Tweet this!

You'll sabotage, procrastinate, and excuse the good right out of your life if you don't believe you deserve it. Happily, you can raise your sense of deservingness, and deepen your feelings of personal worth. I'm going to show you how today. It's time to start believing in you again.

On the face of it, you'd think this advice would be obvious and unimpeachable. Of course you have to take care of yourself. The problem with this truth is that there are whole communities of people who will try to convince you that prioritizing your needs makes you a selfish person. (And who wants to be seen as selfish?)

I've never encountered a woman who hadn't heard some version of this self-care-is-selfish-nonsense. The thing is, these messages are about control, and they come from people who are happy to keep you down and disempowered. (Which makes it easier for them to manipulate you.) Do not fall for this line of hooey.

Self-care is not selfish. Self-neglect is selfish.

Self-neglect tells you that you don't matter. It asks you to stuff your wants and repress your emotions. When you chronically neglect yourself, eventually, you turn into a repressed, angry, self-doubting zombie (or banshee depending on your anger level). Nothing about self-neglect is attractive. I want you to stop doing it. TODAY.

We need you in top form. There is purpose in your life. To make good on it, you need to connect with your SELF. The most fundamental way to begin that process is to take care of your physical body. When I'm working with a client, we practice four physical care basics. (I practice these guys too. Religiously.)

Notice I said, "you need." These are non-negotiable requirements. If you're tempted to argue against your ability to practice them, please pause. I've heard every excuse known to woman. And I don't buy a single one of them. We're in a no-excuses zone now. You don't get to argue against yourself and also be empowered. It doesn't work that way. You have to choose.

If you haven't taken care of yourself in a long time, this topic can feel totally overwhelming. I understand, and I want you to do it anyway. Remember, I'm your coach. A loving boot-in-the-butt will sometimes be required in our relationship. Consider this my velvet tipped toe, making contact with that booty of yours.

Take a deep breath and start tackling your care basics. You DO have time. You are NOT selfish, and there's no wrong way to do this except not to do it at all. Practice makes powerful. SO PRACTICE!

Okay, time to up the ante a little bit. This next step is harder.

You can't think your way into believing in your own worth, but you can act your way there. As it turns out, keeping the commitments you make to yourself increases your feelings of worth and deservingness, and strengthens your confidence too.

Think about it. You make countless commitments every day. The trouble bis that most of them are for other people. When you don't have a strong sense of your own worth, you agree to most incoming requests. Which means you're probably way overcommitted.

When your calendar is crowded, and something's got to give, you're the one who usually goes. Because it's easiest to break commitments to you, right?

WRONG.

Every time you break a commitment to yourself, what you're really doing is showing yourself, through your own inaction, that you don't matter. NO! Bailing on yourself is like giving your hopes and dreams a big middle finger. (Please stop doing it.)

It's time to start following through FOR YOU. Don't panic. I'm not suggesting you stop doing things for other people. As a woman, you're a natural-born nurturer. Of course, you're going to do it for other people. I just want you to add yourself to the list of people-you-do-for.

The best way to get a handle on showing up for yourself is to start paying attention to what's going on when you don't. What causes you to cross yourself off your own list? When you bring your triggers into your awareness, you'll notice a pattern, which will give you the power to make changes.

Take things one choice at a time. Whenever possible, choose to follow through for you. Every time you do, you remove one of those tiny little heart pins and strengthen your sense of worth and deservingness.

Now for the hardest part

When you don't believe in your own deservingness, you become an earner. Meaning, you spend your time and energy earning love. This can show up in a lot of different ways. We'll talk about three of them here.

It gets worse. When you live as an earner, you attract users. (That's just as bad as it sounds.) There are unfortunately people in the world that will live at your expense without giving it a second thought. If you're willing to give it, they'll take it, and even talk themselves into believing they deserve what they're taking. These kind of people like to keep you small, scared, and doubting your deservingness. (Then you do whatever they want. Whenever they want you to.)

YOU MUST STAND UP FOR YOURSELF.

Start by catching yourself in the act of playing the earner. What and who triggers the earner response in you? What are you afraid of? What are you trying to prove? If you feel drained or bad about yourself after you're with a specific person or in a certain place, you need to think twice about being with that person or in that place.

I know this is easier said than done. It's possible the people who make you feel bad are co-workers or family members. It's not like you can just stop seeing them, right? If you find yourself in this position, there is only one path. You need to speak up for yourself. Stat.

For help, you can check out three of my other blogs. They'll show you how to stop living like a pleaser, set some boundaries, and say no like you mean it. Will you be uncomfortable? Yep. You will. Can you handle it? Yes. You can. Be willing to be uncomfortable. Speak up. Stand up. Stop accepting less than you deserve.

Every time you speak up for yourself, you remove another pin from your heart, raise your sense of deservingness and you deepen your own sense of worth. You also show other women what it looks like to know your worth and live like you know it. Which encourages them to do it too. (THAT is female power.)

You are good, and you deserve good things. You deserve acceptance, belonging, and love. There's no mistake in you, my sister. YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH. Just as you are.

My mission is your empowerment. That's why I'm here. If you haven't already joined my community, please do it by entering your email (www.kimberlyfulcher.com). Until we meet again, know that life is happening for you.

You've Got This!

Kim

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How to Put the Passion Back into Your Life - SWAAY

Comment

Rob Campbell spoke to the NZ Leadership Programmes graduation ceremony earlier this month about what makes a good leader, including daring to challenge the status quo and toughing out the opposition to change.

The times we live in are turbulent. While that is true and important, it is equally true and important that we do not overstate this, still less use it as an excuse. Other generations and communities have faced wars and depressions, poverty and dislocation, oppression and disaster.

For most human beings, much of the time in our history, turbulence has been more common than the peace and tranquillity of which many of us fantasise.

It was the Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung ( a great leader with great faults) who spoke the phrase Great disorder. An excellent situation to stir his revolutionaries. I like to think that we can constructively take a similar view of our times and location. Great turbulence. An excellent situation might be our slogan, because within the turbulence of our time and place lies enormous opportunity a future in which we are freed from many problems by better technology, better understanding of the diversity of humanity and how to get the best out of it, and better ability for personal and cultural expression and respect than any previous time or place has ever had.

I want to be clear that for me leadership is not about maintaining the status quo. It is a foundation stone of my thinking on leadership that there are many things in our society which need to change to meet the goals of a better, fairer life.

To achieve this we will need daring leadership, so I want to talk a bit about what I think this means.

To me leadership is defined not so much by those designated as leaders but by all those who are active in change. Society changes because many of us take actions that is pretty much the definition of social change, many people acting in different ways. Sometimes those changes are clearly articulated by leaders. Other times they occur, no less rationally and effectively, without such obvious leadership. Karl Marx, the nineteenth century founder of communism, referred to revolutionary change as that old mole picking up on a line of Shakespeare, the seventeenth century playwright, who noted in Hamlet well said, old mole, canst work in the ground so fast about events being influenced by unseen forces like a mole burrowing away and surfacing unexpectedly. Its not hard to think of mole events in our day like the Arab Spring, Hong Kong Riots,#Me Too and more locally the terrorism attacks of March 15th. Each presented suddenly, even surprisingly, though one can readily see on reflection the conditions and preparations for the shock.

... they will be opposed and quite possibly vilified and attacked by the forces of the old system ... this is certain. I am aware of no structure of influence and power which simply recognised the need to change and stepped down. Some individuals may do that but all those who most benefitted from the old system will not give up without a fight.

This is not to say that individuals do not play a role and that we are at the mercy of unseen forces all the time. To make social change we do need people who stand out, who sense the potential for change, sense the way the winds of change are shifting, who can articulate the possibilities. Those are the leaders who are daring. They may be thought of as like a surfer who can pick the right wave, drive onto it at the right time, and ride it to the end.

The poet and rock star Bob Dylan wrote decades ago that we dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. That never meant that we dont need leaders to sense the shift and new direction, but that such leaders are not outside observers but active participants in the process. Not reporting on the change, but riding with it and encouraging others to do the same. Like the surfer they become part of the wave.

To be this sort of leader one needs to intimately understand the community or society in which one lives. Understand its strengths and limitations, divisions and points of unity, yearnings and anxieties. This leader needs also to be able to see more broadly, to see the big picture, to have good understanding of the forces of the past and the forces of potential adverse futures. Such a leader is well educated in the sense not so much of formal learning, though that may be required in today's world, as educated in the sense of holding the requisite wisdom to identify, frame and articulate in the language of those who must act.

This leader will be daring. Will be brave. Will be resilient. Wisdom and communication will not be enough. That is for two reasons. First, the leader is not only likely to be wrong and make mistakes but is certain to do so. The leader will fail and will need to change direction. They may need to experience rejection. They have to summon the personal strength to carry on. Second, they will be opposed and quite possibly vilified and attacked by the forces of the old system. Again this is certain. I am aware of no structure of influence and power which simply recognised the need to change and stepped down. Some individuals may do that but all those who most benefitted from the old system will not give up without a fight. Social structures are power structures. Social change is a transfer of power. Leaders have to be tough and resilient to see social change out.

This leader will also have to be full of aroha. Of love for those acting in the process of change. There are plenty of examples in history of leaders who were driven by negative emotions and who therefore had to use force not only against the old structure but also to coerce their own people to act. The results of this were never benign either in the process of change or in the aftermath of change. Given that here we are interested in change for the better, for good, we reject this concept of leadership. We need leaders who care about the people before, during and after the process of change.

... our larger businesses do not have great track records and this is very often a failure of leadership. This leadership is pretty much a self- appointed, self-referential and self- reverential elite.

This leader must also have humility. They must respect those who are active in the process of change with them. Often they must respect those who are giving up important things in the change.Most importantly they must have the ability to recognise when their leadership role is past. Just because you have an important leadership role in one process does not mean that you are the best leader in some other time, place or change. Arrogance can easily arise from a leadership role but it is the enemy of effective leadership. Part of your daring must be daring to stand aside when your job is done.

How do we cultivate people like this ? These qualities are not inherent in everyone. So we do need to identify young people who from their genetic inheritance, social and cultural experience and psychology have the potential to lead. These will not always be the people who look like the leaders within the old social structure the one that needs to change. They will not always be the people who most strongly promote themselves as leaders as these may often have strong personal ambition rather than a service-to-others motivation. But given the right exposures and opportunities these leaders, often quietly, will be become apparent to themselves and others. Well meaning older people who are not guardians of the past but enablers of the future will assist. When these young leaders do start to emerge we must encourage, educate and promote them. Processes like this programme are important in this. Our future leaders - those who will sense, define and lead us to the better future are here in our communities right now.

In my primary world of established business we typically have poor leadership. We have an abundance of people who are innovative and creative and who start new businesses. We have entrepreneurs who can grow businesses capable of competing with the best in the world. Of course we can always do with more of these people and embolden others to have a shot at changing some market or another.

But our larger businesses do not have great track records and this is very often a failure of leadership. This leadership is pretty much a self- appointed, self-referential and self- reverential elite. Like liking like with like effects. It is no surprise that such leadership excessively rewards itself and is reluctant to meet the needs of others, that it is slow to embrace or resistant to the diversity which is increasingly evident in our society, that it favours hierarchical, control structures of operation over devolution and empowerment, that it concerns itself with protection of the leadership over taking commercial risks, and favours posing and self congratulation over positive action where social change becomes unavoidable.

I am part of that world and even I find it frustrating. I can only imagine how it looks and feels from the outside. I strongly suspect that similar problems exist in the established political, administrative and social organisations.

What I can do is to illuminate some of the myriad faults in our business leadership. I can cajole and try to persuade. But these things are of limited effect when the self interest of those involved is so strongly in continuation of the game they are winning. Much more effective will be the voices and actions of a younger generation more aware of the big risks and opportunities, more attuned to the winds of change and courageous enough to challenge.

So tautoko katoa and lagolago atoatoa to your effort in being part of this leadership programme. I look forward to seeing you out there, pushing for change, fulfilling your potential and the potential of our communities. I will try not to get in the way.

Get it early This article was first published onNewsroom Proand included in Bernard Hickeys 8 Things morning email of the latest in-depth business and political analysis.Get it early bysubscribing noworstarting a 28-day free trial.

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Comment How to be a modern leader We need tough and resilient leaders able to propel - Newsroom

All our lives, we have been listening to people tell us, Speak up and be heard. But, very few of us can gather the courage to be assertive when the need arises. Sometimes, we need short doses of inspiration to speak up or take up cudgels on behalf of those who have been wronged. Speaking up, when it is necessary, can do wonders for you and the world around us.

If 2018 was the year of Me Too, 2019 had more women across ages and countries speak up, putting the spotlight on several issues that demanded our attention.

Greta Thunberg, Charlize Theron, Jameela Jamil,Chanel Miller, Oprah Winfrey and Glenn Close.

Last August, Swedish student Greta Thunberg sat outside the Parliament in Stockholm with a hand-painted sign that said 'Skolstrejk fr Klimatet' (School strike for Climate) alone from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm for an entire school day. Her one-woman protest quickly went viral with students all over the world beginning to voice the impending doom of climate change.

At the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September, a defiant Thunberg accused world leaders of inaction on the issue.

Parts of her fiery speech went like this:

My message is that we'll be watching you.

This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

At the Golden Globe Awards presented in January this year, actor Glenn Close made a moving statement while accepting her award for her performance in The Wife. She said that her role in the movie was a reflection of her own life, where her mother took a backseat while her father moved forward in his career. The powerful feminist statement resonated with every woman in the audience and across the world.

She said, I feel what I've learned through this whole experience is that women, we're nurturers. That's what's expected of us. We have our children, we have our husbands, if we're lucky enough, and our partners, whoever. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say, 'I can do that and I should be allowed to do that.

In September this year, 27-year-old Chanel Miller came forward and told the world that she was Emily Doe, the young woman sexually assaulted by Stanford University student Brock Turner. At Glamour magazines annual Women of the Year Awards, Miller read out a poem addressing assault survivors everywhere.

In a moving poem, she said, I dont give a damn/What you were wearing/I dont give a damn how much you drank/I dont give a damn/If you danced with him earlier in the evening/If you texted him first/Or were the one to go back to his place./People may continue to come up with reasons why it happened/But the truth is, I dont give a damn.

But I do/give a damn/How youre doing/I give a damn about you being okay/I give a damn if youre being blamed for the hurt you were handed/If you're being made to believe youre deserving of pain.

Popular talk-show host and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey has always been a strong epitome for the cause of womens empowerment and social justice.

Her commencement speech for Colorado College was full of ruminations, practical insights and a powerful call to be you at all times.

Heres a part of what she said.

You have to pay attention to your life because it is speaking to you all the time. And the bumps in the road and the failures that pointed me in a new direction and led me to a path made clear that is what Im wishing for you today: Your own path made clear. And I know that there is a lot of anxiety, a lot about what the future holds and how much money youre gonna make. But your anxiety does not contribute one iota to your progress. Im here to tell you. It does the opposite. Look at how many times you worried and you were upset. And here you are today you made it and Im here to tell you that youre going to be more than okay. So take a deep breath with me right now and repeat this:Everything is always working out for me.I want to hear it.Everything is always working out for me.Thats my mantra. Make it yours. Everything is always working out for me because it is, and it has, and it will continue to be as you forge and discover your own path. But first, you do need a job.

Actor Jameela Jamil has always been in the forefront in the fight for healthy body image. At the 2019 MAKERS conference in February in California, she spoke about misogyny and the toxic masculinity that prevails our world.

She said, Women have the power to infiltrate misogyny in their own homes. It starts by never taking for granted how poisonous society can be to the male psyche, and protecting boys from the onslaught of misinformation everywhere, she said, Its as if men are recruited young and brainwashed, in order to be indoctrinated and manipulated into an oppressive patriarchal institution.

She added, This is a call to arms for the women who have boys growing up in their houses. We have a lot of work to undo. Mothers, sisters, and aunties, I implore you to take this little sponge, and render him sodden with humanity and an understanding of women. It will send him into this delusional world with an armour of empathy and self-assurance All you have to do is tell him the truth. Tell him what happened to us. Tell him our whole story.

Actor Charlize Theron made an impassioned speech as she accepted the Glamour 2019 Woman of the Year Award on November 11. One of the highlights of her acceptance speech was on empathy and the need to support different kinds of people with all our hearts.

She said, The point is we need to help the hard-hearted to empathise with others. Like sexual assault survivors, people living with AIDS, our trans community, children who are different or who have special needs. The women in this room tonight are putting themselves on the front line of the empathy battle, be it through storytelling, creating opportunities for those that need it most, or just unabashedly being yourself and telling other women we dont have to apologise for who and what we are.

Heres looking forward to more women shining even brighter in the next year, and throughout the next decade.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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Looking back at 2019: What we can learn from the most powerful voices of the year - YourStory

Heather Wood, Lifestyle Editor

Published Nov 25, 2019 at 8:00 am(Updated Nov 25, 2019 at 7:41 am)

Focusing on paint and canvas: Elizabeth Arnold opens new show at the Bermuda Society of Arts (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

Focusing on paint and canvas: Elizabeth Arnold opens new show at the Bermuda Society of Arts (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

As a child, Elizabeth Arnold watched as her grandfather carved exquisite armoires and chests out of cedar.

Something about the design aspect struck a chord, and art became a lifelong passion. Faces, a collection of her most recent work, is now on display at the Bermuda Society of Arts.

My art classes, those were the only classes that were ever important to me with most artists thats how it goes, the artist laughed. I just wanted to do it, dive in there and get it done.

That attitude didnt always sit well with teachers in Texas but, once she got interested in photography, Ms Arnold learnt the value of following instructions.

In my late teens, I got a job in a photographers studio, which landed me with another outlet for creativity, she said. Within photography, I did have to be very disciplined.

I couldnt break the rules; there was not much room for failure when photographing weddings and at the studio, I took to it really well.

In 1993, she moved to Bermuda where she established herself as a photographer and contemporary artist.

I photographed quite a few weddings, she said. I stuck with it until my fourth child and then put [my camera] down when I was six months pregnant.

Despite that she always kept [her] foot in the door, donating her photographic skills to her childrens schools.

I didnt pick up a paint brush, except for the murals in my children rooms, until 2010 when I bought a new camera. I picked up a brush and started a mixed-media approach, painting on photographs.

Beloved Lily, an ethereal life-size portrait of her eldest daughter, was accepted into the Charman Prize in 2011 and later used to illustrate childrens books.

Ms Arnolds 2016 Charman Prize painting, Spring, was acquired by the shows benefactor John Charman for his private collection a career highlight.

In the studio, I did a lot of restoration work on old photographs, but now, its all digital, she said. I decided to do away with photography and [focus on] paints and canvas. It was just easier.

Faces, her first solo show here, was inspired by the late American singer Mary Wells.

Although famous for helping to define the Motown sound in the 1960s, she was penniless when she died of throat cancer in 1992.

I admire her music and was really compelled to do something, Ms Arnold said. She sang so many songs for everybody and didnt get royalties. I felt it was such a shame.

Cleopatra, Amy Winehouse, Frida Kahlo, Wonder Woman and Nina Simone are the other faces featured in the exhibit.

The idea behind it was empowerment, Ms Arnold said.

Each face demonstrates feminine strength and resilience and was created using an inventive combination of media including paper, metal, acrylics, oils, metal, gold and silver leaf on wood cradle boards.

When I first moved here I had the opportunity to show with a small group of people who are now well-established artists, but this is my first solo show.

Ive had solo shows in Texas when I was young and felt like I wanted to dive in there again.

From my early photography days Ive always loved working with women the bride, the mother and child.

The show started with my idea of Mary Wells [and continued based] just on my own personal taste in music and who I work to.

Having not exhibited in a while, shes been happy with public response. This show was really challenging for me in a good way. Out of all the pieces I had the most fun on Wonder Woman because shes so light-hearted. Shes just fun; all the colours. Its been really well received. Im happy about that. The opening was a success.

Faces is on display in Studios A and B of the Bermuda Society of Arts until December 10. Part proceeds of the sale of the musical artists on display and Frida Kahlo, will go to cancer and health organisations on the island. For more information on the artist, Elizabeth Arnold, visit http://www.mixedmedializ.com

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Strength and resilience - Royal Gazette