Coaching?

I work as a jobcoach in Malmö since the 3rd of september. I like most of my colleagues and the duty that I have but it is not an easy task to deal with people in general and vulnerable groups in particular.

If a person has been unemployed for a long time and has lost all the confidence in the society and its system, it takes more than time and energy to motivate him/her to be engaged in a constructive dialogue.

The current economic crisis across the world is having a tremedous impact in the lives of millions of people and Sweden is not an exception. The challenge for me is to find a mutual forum for building a trustworthy and cooperative relationship with my participants so that we could end up getting a common solution for all individuals.

Human realtions are delicate and deserve genuine dedication. Coaching can be compared to a long journey where the driver and the passenger complement each other. Everyone of us are responsible for our actions but at times the odds could be against us and we might need to change our ways of coping with some issues because some problems need to handled differently than before.

Walls of shame!

Kefah Omwanzi, alias, bushman Kimani wrote the following poem some time ago. The poem has touched me so much that it deserves to be spread to humanity.

"It matters little what they are called-
whether walls,
Barriers or fences -
The intention is the same :
To redefine human relations into "us" and "them"

It is about division,
The barriers that men erect,
In calculation or desperation,
To separate themselves from others,
or others from them

There are many types of walls:
Barriers between countries,
Walls around cities
And fences that zig-zag through
neighbourhoods-
Built Bridges;not walls of Shame!!"

Tear down the walls of babylon once for all!

Swiss/Swedish......???

I am in Switzerland and visiting my friends. I have spent almost a week in here and I like it so far after having been in Zurich, Lucern and Basel where I am right now. This small country with a population of roughly 7 million belongs to one of the richest countries in the world. Their system of direct democracy with many referendums in the 26 cantons(federal states) is one of the things that I have found to be very exciting.

20 % of the people are said to be having a migrant background in one way or the other, yet the issue of migration is a delicate one even in here as elsewhere in Babylon or Zion. My friend who has moved to Switzrland after having lived in Sweden for many years, tells me that he feels more at home in Switzerland than Sweden.

80 % of his friends are Swiss people while in Sweden he had no friend of ethnic Swedish background except for Peder who as a matter of fact is more Eritrean than the Eritrean president himself :-) This hard fact actually explains the attitude of people towards foreigners.

Integration is a mutual project where both the host and the guest give and take with the will to build a better society. Switzerland is not of course a success story and Sweden is not a failure either in this respect. The question is more complicated than that but I have got some understanding why my friend feels better in this part of Europe than the north.

Why me! Never kneel down!

Fire on fire

clumsy people

lousy days

speechless

cloudy

foggy

swedish summer

Eritrean dishes

poems and poetry

chicken bones

surialism

sufism

perfectionism

existentialism

presidential

statesman

A Humanbeing

Mi viaje parece no terminar!

La vida es como un tren que va de estación en estación y cada uno de nosotros espera que llegue nuestra hora de bajar, pues el tren no es cómodo como la vida no lo es, a nadie se le ocurre quedarse a vivir en el, pues un tren es solo un instrumento, una experiencia pasajera, un medio para alcanzar un fin, no hay en el atractivos permanentes, solo se lo considera útil para alcanzar la meta, que nadie sabe cuando llegará, pero es tan seductora la idea de llegar a ella, que estamos dispuestos a vivir cualquier circunstancia en el viaje, todo vale como precio para llegar allí, algunos hasta piensan que si tuvieran que morir en el intento, lo harían, pues vale la pena el sacrificio, en Pro de intentar llegar a la parada tan ansiada, pero es curioso, pues nadie sabe a donde va, ni cual es la característica real del lugar en donde se tiene que bajar, es como una especie de lotería, que en el momento menos esperado nos toca, mencionan nuestro nombre y se supone que nos debemos bajar sin mas, es tan raro, pues pareciera que esas ansias incontenibles de llegar a ese lugar, nos hacen amoldarnos y luchar en el recorrido del viaje, miramos por las ventanillas observando todo tipo de panorama, miramos los paisajes y ciudades que pasan a diario, vemos llover y solear, campos buenos y terribles desiertos, pero solo eso hacemos, mirar, y en cada instante nos preguntamos si será esta la tierra, la ciudad, la montaña en la que nos tocará bajar.

Cada vez que el tren se para tratamos de ver los rostros de los nombrados y queremos encontrar en esos rostros una expresión, ya sea de felicidad o de decepción, al encontrarse de frente a la puerta y el paisaje que detrás de ella les espera, y lo extraño es que no hay manifestaciones de ese tipo, mas bien hay una especie de sensación de sorpresa de haber sido llamados a bajar, y de querer enfrentar aquello que tanto esperaron con mucho valor y que no supieron que sería, aunque no se parezca en nada a lo que ellos habían soñado en tan extensa travesía, y una y otra vez me pongo en el lugar de ellos y trato de ensayar cual será mi actitud en tan importante hora, solo que quedo perdido en mi confusión interior, pues ni siquiera yo se en que lugar me tocará descender, y día tras día la maquina sin descansar nos lleva por una ruta sin final, y es por eso que esta tarde al mirar por los cristales, veo como están mojados por la lluvia y veo la vida de los demás pasar frente a mi, van y vienen, cada uno en su preocupación, cada uno con su vida, que es mucho para pensar y me pregunto seriamente en lo mas profundo del corazón ¿ha donde va tu vida caminante? ¿Cual será tu lugar? ¿A dónde te tendrás que bajar? ¿Estas preparado ya?

El caminante

My life is a never-ending journey without children!

This summer of 2009 in Sweden has been rainy as usual....The spring was promising but to no avail. I believe that it has to do with the credit crunch once again :-)

God is angry! He has got to pee all day and night long.He is stressed by the muslims, christians,jewish, buddhists,sikhs, satanists,tourialists.e.t.c. Let him urinate to hell!

I am still undecided about the future concerning where to live and what to do. The only thing that I currenty feel certain about is that I do not want to live in Babylon and die as a bitter man in here.

I tried to work with homeless people in Malmö a couple of times this summer but never enjoyed it. It is good to know what you want to get out of life but a work that I do not like is not worth investing on. I have some other options now and hope that one of them shall work out. I should be doing something somewhere in Africa or Latin America this fall. Europe is actually the third choice.

Life is too short to be spent in Sweden for good. The never-ending journey continues and I have been to Berlin, Prag, Bratislava and Vienna since I came back from south America in april.

I will turn 38 in september but am not yearning for a bright future with kids in a big house somewhere as yet. It may sound strange but it seems that I have made up my mind not to have children (unconsciously or consciously for some reasons).

I may change my mind in the near future but this is the way I feel right now. Some say that Life is empty and meaningless without kids, I say:not inevitably!This is it!

5 Tips för ett lyckligare liv

Praktiskfilosofen Bengt Brülde menar att "Det går att leva sitt liv så att man ligger på en ganska hög lyckonivå.Men då gäller det i meningen att känna livstillfredställelse och välbefinnande. Det går däremot aldrig att känna eufori under en längre period. Många verkar satsa mer på att vara lyckade än att vara lyckliga."

Jag vill vara lyckligare än lyckad. Vad en lyckad eller misslyckad person är låter jag osagt eftersom det bara finns människor som strävar efter att berättiga sin blotta existens. Jag finns alltid i relation till andra människor.

Ur intet och tomheten, ur vilsenheten och rotlösheten uppstår insikten om ens sårbarhet och maktlöshet. Försök alltid att göra något som du mår bra av men livet består av berg och dalbanor också.

Lev medans du lever för annars tar det slut innan du ens har förstått varför du överhuvudtaget har kommit till denna värld. Följ de följande råden. Hör av dig om eventuella förbättringar äger rum. Sunt och förnuft funkar för det mesta.

1. Skriv tacksamhetsdagbok

*skriv regelbundet ner fem saker du känner dig tacksam över. Idén är att bli mer optimistisk och se det positiva i tillvaron.

2. Sätt upp långsiktiga mål

* Formulera hur du vill att ditt liv ska se ut om tio år. Då fokuserar du på bästa tänkbara framtid och vaskar fram dina innersta önskningar.Om inte annat kan det få dig att fundera på dem.

3. Gör extra snälla saker

* Bjud på middag, hjälp en kollega, engagera dig i en förening eller ge blod. Gör något en gång i veckan som är särskilt snällt. Kan ge tillfredställelse, men även positiv respons. Prova gärna saker du inte gjort tidigare.

4. Ta reda på vad som gör dig glad

* Notera varje kväll i en vecka vilka aktiviteter du gjort under dagen och hur lycklig varje aktivitet gjort dig. Kanske blir du överraskad över resultat och kan ägna dig mer åt det som faktiskt gör dig gladare.

5. Förbättra dina sociala relationer

*Vet dina nära och kära hur mycket du uppskattar dem?Fundera på hur du kan förbättra dina relationer till partnern, vännerna och kollegorna. Goda vänner och relationer gör dig glad.