resilience

Recording resilience: Filmmaker shares Japan recovery experience

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Kaori Brand is a filmmaker who spent five years working here [Japan] at the United Nations University. One project that marked her especially was about the region deeply affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. In the following article she reflects on the experience of recording the recovery efforts of the fishing communities of Kesennuma and Omoe.

What is this Resilience, anyway?

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Change doesn’t come easy to us humans. We like to know what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next year. Sudden change can be severely upsetting; a death, unemployment or illness has the ability to turn our lives upside down for weeks, months or even change it completely. Most of these unexpected and unplanned changes are therefore unwelcome and a lot of people would find it difficult to discover silver linings in these kinds of challenges.

Holding this book in your hands

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Mourid Barghouti, the Palestinian poet, once said that a writer’s task in a world ruled by tyranny and abstractions, is to praise the real and the ordinary. The people in the room, the earth outside your door, the things you hold beloved in your hands. I’m remembering those words as I wrap this Dark Mountain anthology in its brown paper jacket and head out down the frosty lane towards the post office.

What happens when we shock a system?

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Have you ever noticed that some things in the world like to be disrupted? Rogue militant groups set out to garner counter-attacks that distract their opponents while draining their resources. Viruses encourage multi-cellular organisms to activate their immune systems in attempts to wipe them out. Teenagers seek the disdain – and occasional wrath – of authority figures in their lives.

Resilience: Why so many parents today are getting it wrong

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I’ve lost count of the number of articles I’ve read about the importance of developing resilience.  It’s mentioned all over the web and for good reason, as it’s a critical coping mechanism.  Most of those articles however, are directed at developing resilience within the adult population.  Seldom, do we talk about how parents can and should create resilience in children, particularly when there are many parents out there who are doing the exact opposite of what’s required.