"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve this world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us;

It is not just in some of us - it's in everyone!

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others!

Nelson Mandela - Inaugural Speech 1994
12:30:14 PM     comment []

Notre peur la plus profonde n'est pas que nous ne soyons pas à la hauteur. Notre peur la plus profonde est que nous sommes puissants au delà de toute limite. C'est notre propre lumière et non pas notre obscurité qui nous effraie le plus. Nous nous posons la question: "Qui suis-je, moi, pour être brillant, radieux, talentueux et merveilleux?" En fait, qui êtes-vous pour ne pas l'être? ... Vous restreindre, vivre petit, ne rend pas service au monde. L'illumination n'est pas de vous rétrécir pour éviter d'insécuriser les autres. ... Elle ne se trouve pas seulement chez quelques élus, elle est en chacun de nous et, au fur et à mesure que nous laissons briller notre propre lumière, nous donnons inconsciemment aux autres la permission de faire de même. En nous libérant de notre propre peur, notre présence libère automatiquement les autres.

Nelson Mandéla, extraits du discours prononcé lors de son investiture à la présidence de la république d'Afrique du Sud en 1994.

I'll look for the original in english and post it asap.
11:55:44 AM     comment []

Apartheid at work again! Instead of solving the palestino-israeli problem at it's core, israel does something constructive! It builds a fence! Now that we are sure this will keep suicide-bombers from blowing themselves up and killing innocent people in israel, when will we see the rest of palestine fenced?

Peace? I've always wondered how an extremist rightwing warlord, Sharon, who has pursued one goal for the last 20 years - kill Yassir Arafat, can make peace with this same Arafat. Arafat who is also hated by the islamic extremists (Hamas & Islamic Jihad, to cite just a few) who blow themselves up in israel, hoping to make some victims. These suicide bombings in return make a perfect alibi for Sharon to pursue his destruction of anything called "Palestinian State" and of course, Arafat.

In a couple of years we will probably learn that the islamic extremists had a deal with Sharon....
1:11:29 AM     comment []