Powerful people at play in Soouthern Africa

I am studying a little book called “The Destiny of the Nations” by Alice Bailey.   It was written during the last world war to guide Europe, and the world, into understanding an evolutionary force working out behind external events and the destructive effects of the war.

Africa today is going through similar crises so it is interesting to learn from the lessons of the European past.

I chose dominant personalities from Southern Africa’s recent past to try and examine how they yield this powerful first ray force of change.   It is a pity my knowledge about Northern Africa is so poor.   I would have liked to study some of the dominant personalities shaping the world there too.

Nelson Mandela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
Robert Mugabe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe
Desmond Tutu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
Julius Malema
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Malema

Snippet from the book:
“There is, at this time, an emergence of certain powerful and dominating first ray personalities into the theatre of world activity.  These people are in direct contact with this Shamballa force and are sensitive to the impact of the will energy of Deity.  According to their type of personality and their point in evolution will be their reaction to this force and their consequent usefulness to the Lord of the World as He works out His plans of world unfoldment.  The energy of the will of God works through them, though stepped down and often misused and misapplied, by their differing and limited personalities, and interpreted unsatisfactorily by their undeveloped consciousness.  These people are found in every field of human affairs.  They are the dominant persons, and the dictators in every aspect of human living — political, social, religious and educational. 

Who shall say (until at least a century has gone by) whether their influence and their efforts have been good or bad.  Where they flagrantly infringe the Law of Love, their influence may be powerful, but it is passing and undesirable, at least where that phase of their activities is concerned.  Where they meet human emergency and need, and work along lines of basic restoration and the preservation of "units of synthesis," their influence is good and constructive.

I would here point out that real group love never demonstrates as hatred of the individual.  It may work out as the arresting of the individual's activities or enterprises where that is deemed desirable in the interests of the whole and if what he is doing is estimated as harmful to the good of the group.  But the arresting will not be destructive.  It will be educational and developing in its results.”

 Copied from  “Destiny of the nations” by Alice Bailey.

Pet Tweeters

22 February 2012

Why would people tweet their pets?

There are a great number of animals tweeting on the Internet; or shall I say pet owners hiding behind the photographs of their pets.

I remember years ago I was very shocked when a “pommie” (English friend) referred to someone as having a puss-face.   In those days I only knew the South African interpretation of the word. 
Today there are many cat- and dog-faced identities on Facebook and Twitter.
It is in Twitter that one can get behind the psychology of these pet-faced identities.

For what reason would someone choose to use a photograph other then their own as an avatar?
Some of the reasons may be:
1.    The person fear identification for some reason.
2.    The person does not have the courage to make his comments face to face.
3.    The person does not like the way they look.
4.    People with poor self-esteems.
5.    The person does not want to reveal their age, gender or race.
6.    Just for fun.
7.    Want to communicate as sequels among all gender, racial or age groups – brain-to-brain rather than face-to-face.

 Why use the identity of an animal friend or pet?
1.    All the above reasons.
2.    Someone who loves animals more than people.
3.    Someone who make money from the upkeep of animals.
4.    Animal charity organizations.
5.    Someone who wants to meet other animal lovers.
6.    Someone who wants to try and experience the world through the senses of their animal.
Above are a few possible reasons for not using ones own ID photograph or using that of a most loved pet as a photograph.
I am sure there must be some professional scientific psychological profile for people using pseudo identities on the Internet.   Above is my own unprofessional summery.

If we are one of those un- or other-human profile people we can use the above lists to do some self-examination.   We may just find out something about ourselves that we were not aware of before.

For an example you may want to follow Onesock Dog on Twitter who is the mascot for the Blaauwberg Animal Trust.

It may be a good exercise for any psychologist or anyone working in a field where communication with public or with a patients are required, to look at the world through the eyes of an animal.   We are often so caught up in our own importance that we fail to recognize the true need of other.