Ovi magazine; Tuesday November 7th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday November 7th, 2023

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An Open Letter to President Biden by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Mr. President,
More than 20 years ago, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old  American peace activist, was killed in Rafah by an American-made, Israeli-owned Caterpillar bulldozer. Her crime: she protested a demolition campaign by the occupying Israeli government that destroyed over a thousand in the Gaza Strip.

In a letter sent to her family from Gaza, Corrie described the Palestinian suffering she had witnessed. “No amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word-of-mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here,” she wrote. “You just can’t imagine it unless you see it.”

In another letter she wrote, “I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Those early years #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“I didn’t learn much in those early years,
just remembered a few essential things,
and my middle years were mostly spent
convalescing through my hidden fears.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Desertification Decade Ends: Challenges Remain by Rene Wadlow

The U.N. General Assembly had proclaimed an International Decade on Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification (2010-2020).  The aim of the Decade was to promote efforts to arrest the spread of deserts and desert-like conditions worldwide. 

Desertification is a plague which upsets the traditional balance between people and the socio-economic system by which they live.  Because desertification disturbs a region’s natural resource base, desertification leads to insecurity and in some cases to violence.  The violence in Darfur province of Sudan and in the Sahel states of West Africa is largely linked to the persistent drought and the advance of the desert.

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #72 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Monday October 23rd, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday October 23rd, 2023

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Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenian Exodus by Rene Wadlow

After the 19 September 2023 attacks of the Azari military on the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and the 20 September surrender of the Armenian forces in the enclave, called by the Armenians the Republic of Artsakh, a chapter of the conflict begun in 1988 as the Soviet Union was disintegrating was closed.

In 1988, the human rights defenders in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia were playing an increasing positive and self-disciplined role.  They had become not only defenders of the rights of Armenians, but also a vanguard force in the struggle for perestroika and therefore an example to other republics within the USSR.  The Nagorno-Karabakh activists became the forefront of a coherent grassroots movement for constitutional rights, meaningful elections, freedom of the press, and other democratic structures.  As their work became more effective, there was repression against them until the disintegration of the USSR.

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I’ll shoot the first angel I come across! #poem & #painting by Amir Khatib

“We are all going to die!
But who dies first,
It is a matter that time alone decides;
A time in which we share the relationship, each according to the weight of his life and the place of time in it.
This is not an introduction, but an intuitive recognition of an axiom in which there is nothing new.
That is why I invite you to a game to make sure that this axiom is correct.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #71 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Sunday October 8th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Sunday October 8th, 2023

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Friends and Sisters #fiction by Abigail George

I am waiting for someone to tell me that they see my value. Dorianne Laux, the American poet was a sanitorium cook, a gas station manager and cook. Did she only find her worth when she turned poet. She was born in Augusta, Maine. Nobody knows what I have carried gently and otherwise I want to tell her. I am a witness. Particular because of my upbringing. There are days when I ask my reflection in the bathroom mirror when are you going to start to live? Birds have layers to them like an onion. Sound, illumination, contesting the innovation of the air with their wings apparent they go forth. Onwards.

Dorianne Laux perhaps said that all that poetry is is preparation for death but does pain end is my question. With your painted third eye sister-guru can you see my sorrows and feel my tears in the long distances between us? I’ve had difficult relationships with my siblings. I’ve struggled to find myself within intimacy, within relationships with the opposite sex and there are days when everything around me seems to be in sync. The world, the betterment of society, positive outcomes, and in those moments I tell myself that the world is an efficient place. We don’t have to fight for anything. We have more than enough resources.

Continue reading HERE!

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The Present Home #poem by Dr. Lawrence Nannery

“She was beatified, really and truly,
To think that he, far off there in the war,
Away from everything he knew and cherished,
Seeing things he was forced to see:
The filth, the fear, the mud, the rats, the food,
The sight of the bodies blown into undefinable pieces”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #70 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday September 8th, 2023 – International Literacy Day

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday September 8th, 2023 – International Literacy Day

The International Literacy Day was decided by the UNESCO at 7th of November in the year 1965 to celebrate it at 8th of September every year which was celebrated first time in the year 1966. It was started celebrating all over the world to emphasize the great importance of the literacy to the individuals, society and communities. The day is celebrated specially to rememorize the status of the literacy and adult education to the international community.

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Getting to know the Madani government – By their deeds you will know them by Murray Hunter

The Anwar Ibrahim administration aka the Madani government has been in power for more than nine months now. As a commentator trying to tell the people the reflections I am seeing, these have met push back with a number of standard criticisms.

The most common one has been that Anwar is better than the alternative. This argument was recently used by Anwar himself when replying to a question by a student on the issue of student race quotas, a couple of weeks ago.

Others say, give Anwar a chance, while still more say that Anwar’s government is not a ‘reformasi’ government, and is a ‘unity’ government, sharing power with other political parties. And so, the one liners go on.

Continue reading HERE!

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Fallen faces #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“Fallen faces lined on cruel sidewalks
bodies sprawled against the walls.
one disappears, another takes its place,
forgotten under dirt, in man’s lost space.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Denis de Rougemont (1906-1985), The Future is within us. by Rene Wadlow

Denis de Rougemont, whose birth anniversary is 8 September,  was an intellectual leader among world citizens often walking on uncharted paths.  A French-speaking Swiss, after his studies of literature at the University of Geneva, at 25, he moved to Paris where he quickly became part of a group of young, unorthodox thinkers who were developing a “Personalist” philosophy.  The Personalists around Emmanuel Mounier, Alexandre Marc, Robert Aron and Arnaud Dandieu were trying to develop an approach based on the ‘Person’ to counter the strong intellectual currents of communism and fascism then at their height in European society. (1)  De Rougemont was one of the writers of the 1931 Manifesto of the New Order with its emphasis on developing a new cultural base for society.

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #68 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday August 24th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday August 24th, 2023

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Simone Weil : Roots in the Ideal by Rene Wadlow

Simone Weil, who died on 24 August 1943, was one of those warning voices writing a memo in London for General Charles DeGaulle’s Free French on the problems that would face France after the victory over Nazi occupation.  Her memo concerning the need for humanity, non-violence, and equity was published after the War as Enracinement in French and The Need for Roots in English.  The memo, too philosophical for people who were primarily concerned with the upcoming D-Day and the need to coordinate the different resistance movements within France, had little impact.

No one in the Free French leadership was sure where Simone Weil fit into the different groups which had assembled in London.  The Free French officials had quickly rejected her request to be sent back to France to partake in armed resistance or in helping the wounded.  Simone Weil had had a short experience with armed combat as part of an anarchist brigade in Spain in the Civil War against Franco, but her poor eyesight and very fragile health had quickly put an end to her armed participation.  She returned from Spain convinced of the need for non-violent action, influenced by her philosophical interest in Indian thought and the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi. 

Continue reading HERE!

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REMEMBER LAHAINA #poem by David Sparenberg

“Those with holes
instead of eyes
do not see.
They are blind.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #67 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Wednesday August 9th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday August 9th, 2023

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Problems of Underestimation by Jan Sand

When I was a kid, which was quite a few years ago, I visited a dentist quite often. In those days children were considered not quite up to basic adult standards. The dental drill, commensurate with today’s high-speed quality rumbled slowly towards the tooth nerve uncooled by water jets and exquisitely tortured the unanaesthesized victim’s nerve system. Children screamed to no effect and were considered an unavoidable (but financially rewarding) nuisance by the dentist who became sadistic in his efforts to get his job done, whatever the brutality involved.

It was a time when children and fish, amongst others, were considered insensitive to pain. Lacking the adequate vocabulary to thoroughly disparage their torturers, babies were routinely operated upon without painkillers and fish, of course, who never felt the hooks, were equally inarticulate. Currently children have been discovered to be somewhat more sensitive and fish have yet to be written into an amendment to the constitution in the matter of brutality, whatever the sophistication of their nervous systems.

Continue reading HERE!

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Incandescence All On #poem by Saloni Kaul

“Strolling our urban galleries I often wonder
Do scenes, pictures, art capture the essence of life in transience
And love though out of the frame somewhere torn asunder,
Can that live on in permanence in this evanescent world of strife?”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #66 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday July 25th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday July 25th, 2023

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Social systems around the world by Joseph Gatt

Last time I discussed legal systems around the world. This time I’ll discuss social systems in free, tribal and militarized societies.

Simply put, in militarized societies, people are treated like “dolls.” That is, when a girl (or a boy) owns a doll or a teddy bear, they don’t care about the teddy bear’s feelings, emotions, needs, urgencies, freedom. They play around with the doll, cuddle with the doll if they’re in the mood to, hit the teddy bear and tear out its head if that’s their mood. They don’t allow their teddy bears lunch breaks, nor do they understand that teddy bears might have their mama bear or wife bear wanting to spend a quiet weekend with them. The teddy bear is available 24/7, and the boy or girl has full and complete ownership over the teddy bear.

Continue reading HERE!

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Old Hens and Young Folks (V2) by Michael Lee Johnson

“Why do old hens’ cry-
socialize in familiar doctor offices.
The smell and the scent of times unchanged.
Those medical lab tests, the slap on bandages;
those stale magazines, edges folded back, undeclared ownership.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #65 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Monday July 10th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday July 10th, 2023

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Modi Lied to the US Public Once Again by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi spoke at the joint session of the US Congress on June 23. Modi became the second Indian Prime Minister after Manmohan Singh to be honored with a State Visit to the United States. This visit and speech came after seven years of his last visit in June of 2016 when he said, “Mr. Speaker, our nations may have been shaped by diverse histories, cultures and faiths, yet our belief in democracy for our nations and our liberty for our countrymen is common… Today, across its individuals and institutions, and in its villages and cities, in streets and states, are anchored in equal respect for all faiths.”

He lied.

This time, in his speech to the US Congress, Modi said, “Now, the US is the oldest and India the largest democracy.Our partnership augurs well for the future of democracy.Together, we shall give a better future to the world, and a better world to the future.”

Modi’s actions since getting reelected belie his claims and aspirations. The US-India partnership is bad for the future of democracy and the entire Indo-Pacific region.

Continue reading HERE!

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Who lies to himself #poem & #painting by Amir Khatib

“There,
who lies to himself,
And whoever buys lies at the most expensive price,
Although lying is more available and cheaper than flies,
And there are those who transcend into emptiness and find no one pointing at them other than their own shadow.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Book Review: Deep Corruption, Deep State: What, Who, How and Why By Lim Teck Ghee

For Murray’s work is not just about the massive monetary corruption associated with 1MDB and the mountain of financial scandals that have made the headlines and which the public is well acquainted with. It is about the larger and deadly cancer of debasement and degradation of the nation’s leading institutions – political, religious, economic and socio-cultural – which has eaten away at the heart, soul and other parts of the nation’s body since independence, and has gone little checked.

The existence of the deep state in the country was first brought into prominence and public attention by Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah in April and June 2019 when he accused deep state actors for the Pakatan government’s failure to ratify the Rome Statute and ICERD, the convention to eliminate racial discrimination. According to him, “the deep state is real and it is out to sabotage Pakatan Harapan’s reforms and policies”.

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #64 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Sunday June 25th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Sunday June 25th, 2023

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Elise by Abigail George

It feels as if my bones have been put into a box for safekeeping until I am sane again. Until all the madness in my life has left me. This makes me happy, elated but I am also left sad. I am surrounded by water. I know when winter comes then I will not be able to stand the water. It will be too cold to swim. There were days when the insanity was like having a sweet tooth. There lies a blazing a trail. There lies isolation in front of me, behind me. The fall, Lazarus, berg falling slowly, and what we keep when our world shifts and family and early life. You are gone. My second mother and the love of my life. The bonds that mothers and their daughters have are like veins. I never anticipated this moment of nostalgia for one second. How much I would miss her and the conversations that we used to have.

So, what if I searched for intimacy in the wrong places? Everybody else was doing it so why could I not do the same thing. I knew that it was not an experience of love or respect. This temporary feeling. I lost someone. The lighthouse was no longer beaming down at me. All men could do was scheme. At first, I was oblivious to that. To their movement in the world. I wanted to survive on the little affection that they gave me. I wanted them to scribble affection, written on my body I thought that would make me complete somehow.

Continue reading HERE!

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The We #poem by Jan Sand

“I doubt the me is singular
The sense is multilingualar
The I is sky and fingertips,
It’s tears and years and smiling lips,
Not one nor ten, but uncountable”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #63 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Saturday June 10th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Saturday June 10th, 2023

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Travel Log by David Sparenberg

First is the mountain, with a peak that is highest of the eastern range. Near the summit lives a mysterious, solitary man. The man is tall and powerful built. He is reputed to be a master of enchantments, a practitioner of white magic and caster of spells of weather and waters.

People of the land hold the Wizard of the Mountain in highest esteem. The ablest youth, in body and mind, vie for apprenticeship with him. Many have been tested, but no one to date has been chosen.

Impossible to imagine that someday the cloak and staff of power could pass to another! Yet I have discovered that here, in the County of the Curious (governed as all is by the morphic principle of Dark Heraclitus), the impossible becoming possible is routinely anticipated.

Continue reading HERE!

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Suspicions #poem by Jan Sand

“Have you written any poems, painted any pictures?
Walked upon the Moon and noted its odd mixtures
Of the deadly lack of air and the bleakness of terrain
That would surely scare the hell from any capable sane brain?”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #62 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday May 26th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday May 26th, 2023

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Sudan Instability Pushes Refugees to Chad by Rene Wadlow

Media attention has been largely focused on the armed conflict in the capital Khartoum between the rival generals Abdel Fattah al-Burham, Chief of the Army and Mohamed Hamdam Daglo, better known by his battle name “Hemetti”, Chief of the Rapid Support Forces.  There has been the evacuation of personnel from the diplomatic embassies and refugee flows toward Egypt and South Sudan.

The current armed conflict has also had an impact on the unstable area of Darfur, western Sudan. Officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that in the last couple of weeks some 60,000 persons from Darfur have crossed the frontier into Chad which lacks the resources and infrastructure to deal adequately with this refugee flow.

Darfur (meaning the home of the Fur) is an area about the size of France but with a scattered population of some six million people, divided between camel and cattle-raising groups and the settled subsistence agriculture of indigenous tribes of the area such as the Fur and the Masalites.  Darfur has been largely outside the development activities of Sudan’s governments.  It has a weak economy and a lack of social services.

Continue reading HERE!

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The Majesty Of Nature #poem & #painting by Nikos Laios

“Afternoon sunlight 
Streams though gaps 
In the blinds picking up 
Flecks of dust floating 
Slowly over the carpet.
The wind howls outside 
Roaring up the coast
And the roof timbers shake.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #61 by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday May 11th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday May 11th, 2023

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Perhaps Not Yet Mars by Jan Sand

As a kid back in the 1930’s I was fascinated by the literature of H. G. Wells. Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and the many others who described the possible adventures of travelling off this planet to spread human civilization elsewhere in this solar system and beyond. Actually seeing the initial phases of this possibility in my lifetime seemed impossibly remote in those early days, but the technologies post WWII moved very quickly to edge into actuality towards realizing what might be needed towards the first primitive steps in that fantasy.

As with much in the development of human technology, initial funding for rapid advance in the totally new required generous funding from military possibilities and space venturing was no exception.  This century has finally seen the growth of several civilian firms invading the technological field of space in supplementing the several governmental efforts in satellite launches and the necessary machineries of maintaining space stations and sending probes throughout our solar system and beyond. Elaborate plans and initial technology is moving along to establish bases on our Moon and to Mars but making that a profitable exercise is mainly theoretical since the financial requirements are immense and the unknown dangers of human space habitation can be quite severe and very difficult to ensure routine safety.

Continue reading HERE!

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Discerning #poem by Saloni Kaul

“Speaking up for others is grand, worthy and noble,
Indeed high public speaking in itself is quite an art!
How they in taking the part of others, feat or foible,
Wheedle, cajole, aim to convince heart or tilt cart!”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #60 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday April 27th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday April 27th, 2023

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How To Find A Good Mental Health Counselor by Stan Popovich

Many people have a difficult time in finding an effective mental health counselor that will help them get their life back on track.

The key is to find someone that you can trust in discussing your anxieties and depression.

With this in mind, here are seven suggestions on how to find a great mental health counselor that works for you.

1. Talk to your doctor or primary care physician: Your medical or family doctor is a great source in finding a therapist. Explain to your doctor your problems and he or she can point you in the right direction in seeking the proper treatment. Your primary care physician may even know of some low-cost services that you can use to your advantage.

2. Go to your local hospital: Your local hospital is another source you can use to find a good counselor and they also know of many different mental health programs in your area. Your emergency center can also handle your situation right away if you are struggling with fear and anxiety. This is just a few examples on the importance of getting mental health assistance in your life.

Continue reading HERE!

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I Was the Fireman #poem by Dr. Lawrence Nannery

“he ambulance people called on the Fire Department.
I was the fireman sent in to bring him out.
Mister McKeon. He had not broken 81.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #59 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Wednesday April 13th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday April 13th, 2023

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Extraterrestrial by Jan Sand

Some time ago, back in the late 1940’s, I became fascinated with tropical fish.  They are quite beautiful and very different from any of the other animals I kept as pets, requiring that their water, food, and general care be closely watched so that the aquarium remained in good health. The aquarium was of reasonably large size so I acquired several types of fish, but my favorites were a pair of black striped  small angelfish and I was lucky enough to discover, as they matured into large size that they were a mated pair. As I grew to know them better and as they grew to know me better our daily confrontations became recognizable signals of food or other standard possibilities.

Although I am fully aware that much of the living world is far too different from me to manage even faint interpersonal relationships, since apples are unfortunately mute, and whatever might be going on in the mind of a potato or a wild and uncivilized mushroom is far too occult to accomplish mutual communication. I expect the same is true for anything that might slither out of a flying saucer, but that opportunity has never faced me. Sign language has had a modicum of success with a pair of gorillas, but angel fish are ill equipped in that area as well, so I was left to devise, with what seemed to me small successes, with a vocabulary of significant wiggles and lip expressions. None of that, of course, even vaguely approaches a simple Shakespearean sonnet, but one must be satisfied with faint implications of fellowship, and it seemed to me something was getting across, and since I and my angel fish were both heterosexual and somewhat of a family, my presumptions may not have been totally outrageous.   

Continue reading HERE!

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Picking over the Bones #poem by Dr. Lawrence Nannery

“Dilapidation is the earth’s sucking love.
That’s what you learned here today, high up.
Take heart.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #58 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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