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Shaun Lawson

@shaunjlawson

31 May

This is the story of Philosopher Pigeon.

He wasn't the first to appear on my balcony way back in January - he popped up a bit after that. But what I noticed immediately was:

- He had the patience levels of a Tibetan monk
- He was completely isolated and ignored by the others

- He'd just sit in the same spot for hours and hours, thinking (hence my name for him)
- His face would kind of sink into his body, making him look really old and sad

My cleaner thought he was ill. I insisted he wasn't - well, not physically, anyway. He was depressed though.

Yes, pigeons do get depressed. There are the most awful, shocking videos on YouTube of them committing suicide: jumping to their deaths. 😭

I also kept having this image of Piggy's fate in Lord of the Flies in my head. Rather like this 😮😱😭😭😭

Read 9 tweets

Shaun Lawson

@shaunjlawson

31 May

These are Uruguay's preliminary vaccination results, published by the government last week.

Uruguay is well advanced in its vaccination programme, but most of the population have had Sinovac. (I've had Pfizer because of underlying health conditions).

Pfizer has been 75% effective in reducing cases; Sinovac, 57%.

Interestingly, Sinovac is a whopping 97% effective in reducing death numbers. Pfizer is 80% effective.

In stopping patients needing to be admitted to intensive care, Sinovac is 95% effective; Pfizer is 99% effective.

Read 5 tweets

Shaun Lawson

@shaunjlawson

11 May

There's two wildly differing responses among those who've known, either personally or through their family histories, suffering, injustice and deep deep pain.

Group 1 empathise with all those who suffer similarly. They seek understanding, they act with compassion, they CARE.

Group 2, for some awful reason which is clearly also part of the human condition, go on to inflict similar pain on others, and rejoice in doing so.

That's often even true of CEOs or office bullies, let alone what goes on in Palestine.

See also: those born poor who end up rich, then spend the rest of their lives voting for the right and to kick even more shit in the faces of those they've left behind.

So much of Israel's behaviour is based on fear. Fear, above all, of *it happening again*.

Read 7 tweets

Shaun Lawson

@shaunjlawson

11 May

At Mauthausen, from where my grandmother, great-grandmother and two great-aunts were finally liberated in 1945, Jews were thrown down this notorious staircase to their deaths by Nazis - who thought what they were doing was hilarious.

These were known as the 'Stairs of Death'.

In Papa, Hungary, before my grandmother and her family were taken first to the ghetto, then sent to Auschwitz, they were giving shelter to 2 young children: sent there by cousins in Slovakia who hoped, prayed, they might be safe in Hungary.

One day, they had a knock on the door.

The two children were taken away by the police. And outside, people - my grandmother's own neighbours - cheered and celebrated. The children were never seen again.

Read 28 tweets

Shaun Lawson

@shaunjlawson

9 May

"In order to have real adjustment within our personalities, we all want the well‐adjusted life in order to avoid neurosis, or schizophrenic personalities.

But I say to you, my friends, as I move to my conclusion...

... There are certain things in our nation and in the world, (to) which I am proud to be maladjusted, and (to) which I hope all men of goodwill will be maladjusted…

I’m about convinced now that there is need for a new organization in our world.

The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment – men and women who will be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos…

As maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation would not survive half-slave and half-free…

Read 6 tweets

Shaun Lawson

@shaunjlawson

9 May

What do the following electorally successful leaders - left, centre, right - have in common?

- Biden
- Obama
- Ardern
- Sturgeon
- Reagan
- Clinton
- Johnson
- Blair

The answer lies in how they communicate(d) their message: selling a vision by telling a story.

Storytelling is absolutely integral to my methodology as an English teacher. I think we all communicate through stories in many ways - and my aim with students is to get them to build their own stories via videos, images and their own imagination, creativity & critical thinking.

Notice how all eight of the individuals I've listed above define(d) themselves much more by what they were *for* than what they were against. Notice, too, how few - if any - of them ever got that angry at their opponents.

Left wing rage? It doesn't work.

Read 20 tweets

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