Alex1Powell Categories Life
Coming from someone who lives in the States that didn't do those things & instead pursued it later, I mean it with sincerity when I congratulate you on discovering your passion & deciding to pursue it so early! I'm frustrated you are being defensive of folks not paying talent.
Starting your own publication is probably very difficult. Again: I'm super happy you're doing it at such a young age & that you have peers collaborating in a joined vision.
I started The Indiependent in 2014 when I was in sixth form, and have worked on it VOLUNTARILY ever since. I probably spend about 20 hours a week working on the site, alongside a day job which I need to do to live.
— Beth Kirkbride (@BettyKirkers) December 7, 2020
As I'm in the States, I can tell you from experience & discussions w/ journalists at major pubs that Jschool isn't necessary in order to gain freelance clips. I wish more folks knew that. You really can do it without a
The amazing editors all give up their time to do the same, often juggling their positions alongside university/work. For them, they get the editorial experience which to someone looking to apply for a journalism course or go on to work in the media industry, is valuable.
— Beth Kirkbride (@BettyKirkers) December 7, 2020
Pitching to national or international publications can absolutely be intimidating no matter what level of experience or age you are. Thankfully there are several resources out there which can be found online to help folks with that vs 10+ years
Trying to pitch to national publications is depressing for an experienced freelance journalist, let alone inexperienced newcomers who i) don\u2019t have any clippings and ii) don\u2019t understand what a pitch is or how to write one.
— Beth Kirkbride (@BettyKirkers) December 7, 2020
A love letter to my half-dead wife [urdu thread]
— Hassan. (@HassanDastgirr) December 19, 2020
It's been 8 years that I have been in the throes of what can be called psychosis, which started suddenly shortly after a much-awaited trip to #Konya maqaam-e-Rumi. All the pain & fears I'd been holding within that primarily centered on the loss of Nature & innocence, boiled over.
As it hit in a shockwave, I REFUSED to look at such things as caged animals, fallen trees, and horrible cement buildings. Refused to come out of my house and finally had to be transported to mountains where I still live. But seeing "development" encroach here too, I have finally
taken the wound on the heart and given myself the courage to live horribly in a world that is becoming a veritable hell. It's been now a week that I am waking up telling myself: "I will possibly die, and that's OK. Bear witness."
I am under terroristic assault by aggressive madmen and nadwomen of this broken civilization who are practically after my life for having sought peace... but also, for meeting tragedy on my way. (I went to live in mountains, was assaulted there, his friends now give me threats.)
This is gonna sound cringe but only abandoning patriarchal culture will save them
Society doesn't owe you a girlfriend, but I do believe that society has an obligation to at least try to help the bulk of its people form healthh romantic relationships. I hope this belief doesn't make me The Joker...
— Noah Smith \U0001f407 (@Noahpinion) December 24, 2020
Japan is America's future where a large % of the population is going to be sexless and marriage less. We're already seeing the signs.
The globe is over-saturated with males because of stigma about daughters. Dating apps mean young women have a unprecedented amount of selectiveness to a (tiny) amount of high quality men. Other men will falter, making relationship rates decline and promote general unhappiness.
Sex work is good for a sex-crazed culture like ours but make no mistake it will not solve the depression and loneliness epidemic. Young men aren't sad about not getting sex, tho they say they are, they're actually sad about feeling
Is the solution that prostitution should be decriminalized like in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Australia?
— Tim Smyth (@Tpsmyth01) December 25, 2020
We're going to have a to teach a new generation of women that masculinity isn't real and they selective few men they chase is not representative. To abandon their desires for a high earning man for marriage and the belief that somehow they expire at 30 years old.
Belief is an affective reflection on what one knows that applies some kind of inductive guess/bet as to what related knowledge will be discovered in future.
— Scott Hamilton (@DoqxaScott) December 7, 2020
Why should we be wary and cautious about our sense of confidence about what we know?
For the same reason Bertrand Russell's (metaphoric anthropomorphic) chicken should have been wary about the benevolent farmer (see quote at end of thread).
Had it conceived alternative theories about the farmer feeding it, it may have acted differently and had a better life outcome.
Although unlike in Russell's chicken metaphor, belief is not necessarily a consequence of the error of induction. Strictly speaking, it never is (again, refer to quote at end thread).
However, when one believes without an accompanying explicit argument (theory), it prevents any possibility for critically questioning the reasons for the belief.
Yes, I cried.
Prolly cos I’m someone who takes friendship too seriously and always put in my best when it comes to the few people in my cycle.
I’m the type to always ask questions, get closure before I move on.
So, I sent her messages asking what happened and she called https://t.co/rhpYAVXCnP
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqPZDpxXUAAvJsQ.jpg)
Saw pictures and videos of my \u2018supposed\u2019 best friend dancing and kneeling to offer drink to a man.
— Ego Oyibo\U0001f478 (\u1ecckwa Pounds and Dollars) (@CrystabelKelsey) December 27, 2020
This human got married yesterday and didn\u2019t bother telling me.
I\u2019ve been my own best friend for 11years and I didn\u2019t even know it.
God, please let me just cross over to 2021 \U0001f494
Then she reminded me of what happened in Oct.
I lost my grandma - who also happens to be the mother figure I had - during the lockdown and her burial was scheduled to hold Oct 15th
I kept making plans for burial.
Telling my friend about plans and all that.
Then she told me she is pregnant and feeling really sick so she might not be able to travel down for the burial.
I don’t know how sick pregnancy makes people so I saw reasons with her.
But that period, I was so emotionally down.
I even stayed off all social media and was barely
Replying WhatsApp messages.
My family even asked after her and I told them a lie.
I had other friends around for the burial so I had tons of help.
We still chatted some days before the burial and I was asking what she plans to do about the pregnancy.
Assuring her that
whatever she decides to do that I got her back.
I was totally down before and after the burial.
Really needed to heal cos my Grandma and I were really close.
She was my person.
I didn’t know my friend was mad at me that I wasn’t checking up on her to know how she was fairing.
As a Believer, one of the greatest tests of my life is granting real forgiveness to all those who because of Politics twisted my deep agony and agitation for rescue of ChibokGirls into all forms of wicked accusations I have had to bear since 2014. And yet I must.
In this 2018 tweet, I was recounting how the @BBCAfrica handle broke the news of the abduction of ChibokGirls on the 15th and my immediate reaction was to ask them if the news was “verified”.
I mean, it was hard to imagine hundreds of schoolchildren being abducted. It was hard.
This was what on that April15 2014 I tweeted @ the .@BBCAfrica handle the first time I ever heard of the #ChibokGirlsAbduction:
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) February 1, 2018
Verified? @BBCAfrica: Over 200 girls have been abducted in an attack on a school in north-east #Nigeria, parents say https://t.co/NKMOruZCI2\u2026\u201d
My follow-on tweet after asking @BBCAfrica if their breaking news on the abduction was verified is captured below. It sank in my mind that it was BBC News and that by the quality control standards, it was near impossible to break unverified news. Ah. My eyes rolled down tears.
I followed on that 1st tweet with:
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) February 1, 2018
I hope this is NOT TRUE. The @BBCAfrica reports that some 200 school girls were abducted LAST NIGHT in Borno State? Any Tweeps in Borno?
As I waited for some minutes to learn more, tears rolled involuntarily because my mind said \u201cit\u2019s BBC o\u201d
As I waited handle out in Borno replied my tweet affirming the @BBCAfrica report .
My family remembers up until today how I wailed reading that.
It pierced straight to my heart that hundreds of poor innocent children of my fellow human beings were in the grips of terrorists.
As I waited with sinking feeling on that April 15, 2014 a fellow responded to my tweet and here was my reaction:
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) February 1, 2018
\u201cOh dear! Praying our Security Team ACTS swiftly&brings GOOD NEWS @othmanyakubu: @obyezeks abductions confirmed and the number is above 100.\u201d
I started wailing.
Those who by 2014 followed me here would remember that EVERYDAY from that April 15 afternoon, all I started tweeting about was a shout to the then FG and Military to ACT SWIFTLY and RESCUE the abducted ChibokGirls.
Sadly, the Presidency and FG pretended nothing had happened.
Those who already followed me here on Twitter in 2014 would likely remember that EVERYDAY from that April 15 afternoon, ALL I BEGAN TO TWEET ON was a shout out to the then FG and Military to ACT SWIFTLY and RESCUE the abducted ChibokGirls.
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) February 1, 2018
Sadly, THE FG PRETENDED NOT TO HEAR ME.