Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa Stephen Kamugasa

Podcast summary: Summary: In this podcast, Stephen Kamugasa interviews Mr. Robert Pacilio, a retired school teacher and writer. Robert, who grew up in a tough part of Brooklyn, shares his experiences of being the only child in an Italian-American family. He also discusses his journey as a teacher and his latest memoir, "It Was Never About the Books (https://www.amazon.com/Was-Never-About-Books-remarkable/dp/B0BW31GJ5W)," which explores the influence of teachers on their students. Finally, the podcast explores the butterfly effect of great teachers and the impact they can have on students' lives.Show notes/Time stamp: 00:04:48 The power of resilience and determination. 00:10:32 Teaching is about empowering students. The timestamp in the podcast where it starts to discuss the challenges of the teaching profession in a highly polarised political climate is 00:21:00. Teaching in a polarised climate 00:27:10 Words and ideas can change. 00:29:38 Treat people with dignity always. 00:37:01 Respect and care for others. 00:45:16 Artificial intelligence cannot replace human teachers. 00:49:59 Importance of personalized education.

Podcast Summary: In this episode 011 of Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa, Stephen welcomes Milton Alimadi, a Ugandan-American author, journalist, professor, and publisher of Black Star News. Milton discusses his background, including being the son of a former Prime Minister of Uganda and his education at Syracuse University and Columbia University. He shares his experiences working as a journalist for publications, among them the New York Times, where he exposed the trend of white reporters fabricating stories about Africa. Milton also talks about co-founding Black Star News, an investigative newspaper, and highlights his notable investigative pieces. He is the author of several books critiquing racial stereotypes in Western media's portrayal of Africa. The conversation delves into Milton's most significant work, "Manufacturing Hate: How Africa Was Demonised in Western Media." Throughout the episode, Milton's passion for challenging stereotypes and promoting accurate narratives shines through. Please read the blog that supports this podcast, which includes book recommendations, at The Kamugasa Challenge (https://thekamugasachallenge.com/). Timestamps: [00:02:21] Racial stereotypes in Western media.  [00:06:09] Stereotype propaganda about Africa.  [00:12:18] Kindness and standing up for injustice.  [00:18:45] History of demonisation and conquest.  [00:25:31] The dangers of tribal stereotypes.  [00:30:55] The abuse of the T word.  [00:35:26] Institutionalized racism in South Africa.  [00:41:09] Institutional racism and collective indifference.  [00:47:09] Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia.  [00:53:59] Borderless Africa and Unity.  [01:01:31] The importance of the common human family.  [01:06:23] Historical demonisation of African people.  [01:14:09] The New York Times' historical archive.

A crisis between town and country is as real as the day is long. It is a widening cleavage which manifests itself in everything we do: in our politics, in our education, in the way we work, in what we dream about, and yes, most crucially, in our att...

 This is the 2nd of three podcasts on Climate Change.   Today’s guest is Ms Maria Diekmann, a scientist and conservationist.    Maria was born in 1965 to Major William Carl Buerk, a US fighter pilot who saw active service in the Vietnam war. Major Buerk was among those listed as missing in action - presumed dead. Maria’s mother, Mrs Antoinette Mira Buerk, was subsequently folded into the legendary Earl Warren family, after remarrying Earl Warren Junior. Earl Warren senior, was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of USA from 1953 to 1969. Warren also led the Warren Commission, a presidential commission that investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy; he is considered to be one of the most influential supreme court justices and political leaders in the history of the United States. Warren was the only governor of California to be elected for 3 consecutive terms.      Maria attended the amazing Carden School in California; whose unique curricula had, in Maria’s own words, “a great influence on me.” She afterwards went to Principia School in Missouri, before taking up her place at Principal College in Illinois, where she graduated with a degree in sociology. After leaving Principal, Maria, inspired by her legendary step-grandfather, Earl Warren, first tried her hand at politics, working for Democratic Party Senator, Thomas Eagleton, but subsequently removed to South Africa to explore new pastures in 1989. She was fortunate to know a few friends at the University of Wits, where she acclimatized to South Africa’s rapidly changing political climate, which saw Nelson Mandela released from prison in 1990. This was the environment in which Maria’s life changed fundamentally by falling in love, getting married and settling down to start a family in Namibia in the 1990s. It was in Namibia that she also fell in love with endangered and misunderstood animals.    It was this love for endangered and misunderstood animals that led to the formation of the Rare and Endangered Species Trust, REST, in 2000. REST soon acquired a world wide reputation for Cape Griffon vultures conservation, but subsequently turned its focus to conserving the pangolin, after Maria devoted more than three months of her life to a pangolin pup, meticulously recording every aspect of the pup’s life as it developed. This was the first time such a thing had ever been done in history; the experience completely changed Maria’s life. Her dedication to the pangolin is captured in a BBC documentary, “Pangolins: The World’s Most Wanted Animal,” narrated by Sir David Attenborough.     Maria is now busy working towards establishing a primary pangolin conservation centre and a carbon sinking initiative in Emerald Forest Reserve in Nigeria. It is spearheaded by her Nifty Pangolin campaign, a fundraising initiative, with a view of establishing nine pangolin conservation centres around the globe, dedicated “to the protection of the most trafficked animal in the world.”     As her hands are not full enough, Maria has just published a book entitled, Pangolins in My Life.  In this Episode, we discuss the topic: “How To Love Endangered And Misunderstood Animals.

1. This is the 1st of three podcasts on Climate Change. 2. Today’s guest is Sir Jonathon Porritt CBE, a distinguished British environmentalist, broadcaster and writer.  3. Jonathon Porritt was educated at Eton College, from whence he went to Oxford, to read modern languages. Graduating with a first class degree, Jonathon qualified as a teacher in 1974, teaching at St Clement Danes Grammar School, in Shepherds Bush, West London. He remained at the school for 10 years, including serving as Head of English from 1980 to 1984.  4. As much as Jonathon loved teaching, it was his childhood appreciation of wildlife that seduced him into trying his hand at politics. He joined and became a prominent member of the Ecology Party (now the Green Party of England and Wales), becoming its co-chair in 1980. He subsequently became a full-time chair of the party, carrying out many changes in the process, thus making the party more prominent in national elections. Jonathon stood for parliament in the general elections of 1979 and 1983; he did not win, but received attention from national media. He was instrumental in growing the party membership from just a few hundred members to around 3000.  5. However, in 1984, Jonathon gave up both teaching and the chair of the Ecology Party; to become a director of Friends of the Earth in Britain - a position, he held until 1990 - a decision which in his own words, “was probably the best decision of my life.” For he transformed the Friends of the Earth into the face of “radical respectability,” by encouraging the organisation to promote practical solutions locally, as well as thinking globally. His tenure at the Friends of the Earth saw the charity’s membership grow from 12,700 to 226,300. Friends of the Earth is now a hefty international powerhouse of ideas and solutions.    6. Jonathon’s accomplishments in the cause of climate change and the environment are too many to mention here, but one may be cited. In 1996, Jonathon, along with Ms Sara Parkin OBE and Professor Paul Ekins OBE, co-founded Forum for the Future. Forum for the Future is a sustainable development charity, working in partnership with businesses, governments and civil society to accelerate the shift towards a sustainable future. The charity specialises in addressing critical global challenges by catalysing in key systems, from food to apparel, energy to shipping.  7. Jonathon is the author of many books on environmental issues, including presenting television series on them; he has chaired the United Nations environmental and development committee for the UK. His greatest work by far, however, is his book, Hope in Hell.  8. In this Episode, we discuss the topic: Climate Change: The New Apocalypse?19. Look up Episode 008 of Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa, and please rate and subscribe to Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa (https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/conversations-with-stephen-kam-4153254) podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our guest thought leaders.

1. Practising hospitality to strangers and refugees is fraught with difficulty, it is not for the faint of heart. And as the number of the forcibly displaced people the world over surpasses a 100 million mark, it is becoming increasingly clear that troubles are the trials of friendship. For when a man is afflicted he will see who are his friends and who are but pretenders; a brother is born for adversity. Which is why it is fitting for us, in this age of geopolitical upheaval and climate change, to examine ourselves how we may most effectually be a friend to a stranger and a refugee. 2. No one is better qualified to assist our self-examination than Lord Alf Dubs, who was once both a stranger and a refugee in England.  3. Lord Dubs’ life commenced on 5 December 1932, in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia; born to a secular Jewish father, who was involved in the cotton export business; and his mother, a gentle local girl, a qualified dietician. Alfred was one of 669 Czech-residents, mainly Jewish, children who were saved by a British stockbroker, Nicholas Winton, from the Nazis on the Kindertransport between March and September 1939.  4. A graduate of the London School of Economic and Political Science, Lord Dubs is driven by a personal notion that “If evil men could do such terrible things, they could be countered by others doing something good” - which was underpinned by a desire to help strangers and refugees. Accordingly, Alf has enjoyed a long career in public life, achieving that particular goal: he has been a local councillor, an MP, Chair of the Fabian Society, Chair of Liberty, a Trustee of Action Aid, Director of the Refugee Council and a Trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service.  5. Appointed a Labour working peer in 1994, Lord Dubs readily acknowledges that Britain has given him ‘enormous opportunities’, that he has been ‘incredibly lucky’ and benefited from opportunities that he had ‘not expected as a refugee child.’ It is in this respect as a former stranger and refugee that Lord Dubs has made, perhaps, his most significant contribution to the UK, namely, as the official spokesman for strangers and refugees - as and when opportunity has occasioned. An instance is worth mentioning: In 2016, Lord Dubs moved an amendment that the UK should take-in unaccompanied child refugees from Europe, especially Calais and the Greek Islands. The Tory Government fought hard against this but eventually gave way because of the weight of public opinion – though they then arbitrarily put a cap on the numbers. 6.  Lord Dubs is currently a trustee of the Open University, and sits on the Advisory Board of The John Smith Memorial Trust, which was formed in 1996 to promote the ideals of democracy, social justice and good governance. 7.  In this Episode, we consider: How, in the most practical ways, we may practise hospitality to strangers and refugees in our midst?8. Look up Episode 007 of Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa, and please rate and subscribe to Conversations with Stephen Kamugasa (https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/conversations-with-stephen-kam-4153254Conversations%20with%20Stephen%20Kamugasa) podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our guest thought leaders. Also, visit The Kamugasa Challenge (https://thekamugasachallenge.com/) to learn more.