Description: fittest
By Ned Hamson
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Found on: http://bitly.com/1R7tftL
Category Archives: Viva!
Malala Yousafzai: ‘I want to become prime minister of my country’
On the eve of the release of a film about her life, Malala Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin, relive her remarkable journey from schoolgirl to ‘modern-day folk hero’ and the guilt he still feels about her attempted murder by the Taliban
On an overcast, anonymous morning, journalists assemble outside Claridge’s hotel in London. The plan is not to linger: a coach is to drive us to an undisclosed destination where Malala Yousafzai will be waiting. The security arrangements add edge to the existing sense of expectation at the prospect of meeting Malala Yousafzai and, in my case, her father. Malala, celebrated for her refusal to be silenced by the Taliban in her championship of girls’ education, is about to experience limelight of a different sort as a documentary about her life, He Named Me Malala, is released here. It’s an intimate, inquiring, moving film, directed by the Oscar-winning documentary-maker Davis Guggenheim, who directed An Inconvenient Truth, and it has earned a chorus of celebrity approval across the pond, where it opened earlier this month. Ellen DeGeneres, on her TV show, called Malala “incomparable, impressive, inspiring”. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, sees her as “proof that one person can change the world”. And to Meryl Streep she is “a modern-day folk hero”. But the film reminds us that Malala is also an ordinary girl. Hollywood is a long way from Pakistan’s Swat valley, where she was born.
The coach stops outside a labyrinthine building in a rundown part of town. I feel as if I were in an unlikely dream and wonder if that’s how Malala feels every day. On the far side of a huge, echoing room, Malala and her father have been positioned on a sofa, like stowaways. A table of untouched drinks and snacks is in front of them. It’s 10am. As I walk in, they stand up – smiling. Malala is tiny – a surprise, because one thinks of her as larger than life. Her head is covered in a purple veil through which sunlight shines. With her sweet, wonky smile (bitter souvenir of the Taliban’s attack – her facial muscles are unable to rally on her left side), there is singularity mixed with what I am trying to resist describing as saintliness. I look down and notice elegant, salmon-pink sandals with little heels, scarlet varnish on every toe. At 18, a poised, uncowed figure, she has her own version of glamour. But what I notice most is the similarity between Malala and her father. They have the same twinkle, the same animation. Everything about 46-year-old Ziauddin Yousafzai is lively, down to his flourishing moustache. And in the film he does not hold back in describing the bond with his daughter as being like “one soul in two different bodies”. His story merges with hers.
What type of teacher are you?
A report has identified four kinds of teacher – idealists, practitioners, rationalists and moderates. Where do you fit?
Why did you become a teacher? Was it to a) improve society, b) help students, c) have a steady career or d) a bit of all three? If you wanted to improve society, you may be an idealist – one of the four teacher types outlined in a recent report. Researchers looked at teachers’ reasons for joining and leaving the profession, and identified four classifications from the results. The study notes, however, that teachers could have qualities from different categories over the course of their careers.
Related: Fact or fiction? The reasons teachers choose the job – and quit
Feminism isn’t dead, despite all the assassination attempts | Laura Bates
The proclaiming of the ‘end of feminism’ by the Spectator and others is merely an attempt to deflect blame for problems society has failed to tackle
Feminism is dead. Long live feminism. The front page of the Spectator and a spate of other articles would have us believe the battle is won and we can now “move on”.
I can’t be the only one who thinks this is wonderful news. We highly strung, hand-wringing, over-sensitive, perpetually offended wilting violets can hang up our suffragette-coloured hats, stop combing Twitter in desperate search of minor criticism to weep about and finally stop hating all the men for long enough to get boyfriends. Rejoice!
Love wins: first Kentucky couple rejected by clerk exchange vows
April Miller and Karen Roberts marry on Saturday and have one request for guests – do not mention Kim Davis
April Miller and Karen Roberts stood before a minister on Saturday night, hand-in-hand, and said the two words they fought for months to exchange: “I will”.
The people packed into the room around them jumped into a standing ovation. They all wore matching rainbow buttons that read: #LoveWins.
Exclusive: UK nuclear deterrent to cost 167 billion pounds, far more than expected
China indicates readiness to join US-led Pacific trade pact
An influential Communist Party newspaper has said China should join the US-led regional trade pact. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was signed earlier this month.
New health overhaul challenge reaching Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (AP) — Opponents of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul are taking yet another challenge to the law to the Supreme Court, and say they will be back with more if this one fails….
Migrant flow unabated as leaders gather for summit on crisis
BREZICE, Slovenia (AP) — The flow of Syrians, Afghans and others through the Balkans toward Western Europe continued unabated Sunday as European leaders were gathering in Brussels to try and work out a plan to deal with the massive influx of asylum-seekers….
Man finds teeth of ‘humongous’ prehistoric shark on beach
A beachgoer finds rare fossilised shark teeth, thought to be millions of years old, on the east coast of the United States.
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