#sometimes human intervention is needed to solve problems caused by humans | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brazenautomaton · 4 years

Text

My Libertarian Principles

idk for some reason I feel like I should explain my political views because... because idk. I think we need to stick a lot closer to libertarian principles, but anarcho-capitalism is not the solution.

this gets long and rambly

I like the free market. The free market, and capitalism, are extremely good things. I am pretty sure I heard that the invention of the smart phone has helped the Third World more than all the foreign aid money the US has ever spent, and I believe it, because the ability to coordinate isn’t free! I also believe that people make incredibly bad decisions most of the time. Capitalism is good because it says “Hey, anyone who identifies a problem or need? You go ahead and try to address that, and if you happen across a good idea by accident, people will reward you for it and emulate you.”

People making bad decisions is not a case for government regulations to force them not to make bad decisions, because government regulators ALSO make bad decisions. And then those bad decisions get locked in and everyone has to follow them. With one set of regulations, the odds that “someone accidentally had a good idea” is much lower. The regulations become calcified and eternal because there is much less feedback of “this is not working and you are failing try something else”. They are subject to Goodhart’s Law like whoa, using imperfect and gameable proxies to measure imperfect and gameable proxies..

One example is things like OSHA. OSHA is supposed to keep people safe on the job. This is a good thing that we like! But OSHA regulations can’t say “Make sure people are safe”. How do you define safe? How do we define safe? What’s a reasonable expectation? You can’t answer shit that fuzzy with black-letter law. So OSHA has a bunch of very specific regulations on individual types of workplace and equipment. You need railings everywhere and they need to be this high and they need to be this far from the wall. You need to store everything capable of this kind of reaction in a container this thick. Eye wash stations need to be every X feet. Et cetera, et cetera. There are a lot of regulations, they are not always clear or in the same place, they are expensive to ensure compliance with, the overwhelming majority of them don’t make anyone any safer, the ones that DO sometimes make people safer cannot adapt to situations or conditions, and it leads to obviously absurd outcomes like “you have to treat water as a hazardous material”. It’s not a good system.

Libertarian OSHA, an idea I bring up because it really stuck with me how clever it is, is “There are no regulations on workplace safety or construction whatsoever. Anytime someone dies or is injured in your workplace, even if it clearly is not your fault, you pay us fifty million fucking dollars. If you do not want to pay fifty million fucking dollars when people keel over from heart attacks or commit suicide or die in ways that aren’t your fault at all, well, then you should get some employee death insurance. Those employee death insurance companies would then be incentivized to inspect your workplace and ensure it’s actually safe, instead of if it adheres to an arbitrary list of criteria that are an imperfect proxy for an imperfect proxy for safety.” So, should we institute Libertarian OSHA? Well, that’s the thing.

My philosophy is “The free market will solve everything... eventually.”

Because the free market is people not being actively prevented from solving their problems, people will keep trying things to solve a given problem until they happen upon it. But seeing what works takes time. The first thing probably won’t work, because people make bad decisions. It takes time for someone to chance upon a good decision by accident. Once they do, it takes time to prove itself. Once it does, it takes time for everyone to adopt it.

So in once sense it is unfair to go up to ancaps and say “Well what will you do about contract disputes” and make them say “well uh uh private contract syndicates that are voluntarily joined!” and look dumb. Because the point of the free market solving problems is, you’re an idiot, we’re all idiots, someone is going to have a good idea by accident, we don’t know what that’s gonna look like because we’re morons.

But in the time it takes people to figure out “oh hey, this is a really good system we can use to arbitrate disputes without a government” once it is invented, that need for dispute resolution will go unmet. And that could cause a lot of heartache and misery and destruction in the meantime.

The poor have no healthcare? There are a lot of poor people so serving them is in fact a very good idea to make money (Walmart, big evil corporation, got so huge because it served poor people). Usually it’s onerous regulations that make it a bad idea to serve poor people. So there is a need there, and there is an incentive to address it, and as long as we’re not actively preventing people from solving the problem (like when we got very upset that HMOs, which kept costs down by not paying for extremely rare or experimental treatments or treatments with low success rate, were not paying for experimental treatments or treatments with a low success rate, so we made them stop providing affordable health coverage altogether), someone is going to eventually find a way to address that problem because they get rewarded if they do. But until someone does come up with that solution and it gets widely spread around, a LOT of poor people in Ancapistan are going to die from lack of healthcare.

So that is why I am not an ancap. In theory, Ancapistan will eventually arrive at an optimal solution for everything. But no it won’t because in the time it takes to solve those problems things are gonna get really really bad and the free market’s solution to shit being awful is going to be “make this stop being ancapistan” and then the state is going to exist and will start micromanaging people’s lives because that’s human nature.

So that’s why I think we need a state, but it should adhere to libertarian principles. There are things where it is actually valid to say “Yes, the free market could find a solution to this eventually. But we as a society are not willing to pay the cost in lives and unhappiness that it would take to give the market time to sort that out.”

But the thing is, a state with libertarian principles needs to A: be aware that they are doing this, that when they make decisions it is to put into place a bad and inefficient system so we won’t have to pay the staggering human cost of waiting for the good one. This means “I don’t like that people do this, there ought to be a law” is not sufficient grounds to make a regulation. This means you need to be aware that there are a lot of times you can see people hurting, or being exploited, and you should not intervene because you should know by now that your intervention will make it worse.

And B: a state with libertarian principles should, whenever possible, allow the free market to still have the chance to come up with a better solution. This is why I am for the public option. People need healthcare. The government says “Okay, everyone needs healthcare. So here is this insurance plan we have, everyone can join it, but because we’re the government it’s kind of a crappy plan. If anyone else can provide a better plan, you can go ahead and do that. If you can’t provide a plan that’s better than this crappy government plan, well then fuck you you deserve to fail.”

So Libertarian OSHA needs one more step to work. All the onerous, shitty OSHA regulations that are expensive to comply with and don’t really make people safer are still there, in one book, but OSHA is now OSHIA. Occupational Health and Safety Insurance Administration. If you comply with those shitty, costly regulations, then you’re covered by the OSHIA plan, and our adjusters will gauge your premiums accordingly, and you don’t have to pay fifty million fucking dollars when someone dies or is injured. But if someone comes along and has a better idea of what keeps people safe, that takes less money to comply with than OSHIA’s regulations, then you can join their plan and not care about OSHIA’s rules at all.

There are legitimate purposes of a state with libertarian principles. Sometimes, solving coordination problems is a very good thing that a state can do because it creates shit-tons of value that can’t be effectively captured by the coordinator as a reward. The fact that we have roads and a postal service enables great amounts of economic growth, but the road-makers can’t be effectively paid for it (toll roads suck and are only profitable in high-traffic areas, but we want roads to connect everywhere), and the postal service is allowed to have competitors who can offer to do a better job than the postal service. But again, you gotta *know that is what you are doing*. You can’t just say “People need something, the government will give it to them!” and you certainly shouldn’t do the thing America does where it goes “People need something, so the government won’t provide it but WILL tell other people they also can’t provide it!” You need to be saying “People need something, and the government will facilitate their ability to serve their own needs.”

Libertarian principles mean you know what the government should intervene in, why it has to do so, and only do so when warranted, cognizant of the fact that your interference is by necessity deforming incentives and taking away people’s ability to solve their own problems better than you can. (Even Libertarian OSHA creates deformed incentives; namely to cover up deaths or injuries in your workplace. Not sure how to solve that.) You can’t create regulation because you’re upset or you think you know better than people. Money isn’t fake. Money is resources, and the freedom to expend one’s own resources however they need to is a vital freedom for human beings. You can’t just blow off the consequences of your regulations because “pfft, it’s just money, you care too much about money, something something capitalism greed”. Increased costs have a cost.

You can’t say we need to end the drug war, and then advocate for a bunch more policies that are driven by that same “I know better, I should make decisions for them, they aren’t using their resources the way I want them to!” impulse.

Like let’s look at a justified case of state intervention. Segregation. Now the free market could have absolutely solved segregation in the South, because refusing to deal with a significant portion of society means you’re just leaving a lot of money on the table and businesses that leave money on the table will fail compared to businesses that don’t. The incentives of capitalism are not to discriminate because the Almighty Dollar doesn’t discriminate. But even without existing bigots being able to enlist the state to enforce their bigotry, it would take a long time -- multiple generations -- for the money you get from serving the whole population to outweigh the penalty of going against the social system and the customers you lose from that. That’s much too long to ask people to live in an area that hates them and discriminates against them, and though there may be a more market-based solution to the problem (”you can discriminate all you want but it’s gonna fuckin’ cost ya until you give up on it of your own free will” and “you can discriminate all you want but also we just pay for black people to leave so they don’t have to put up with your bullshit” are xamples) they also have their own serious problems, and it was a legitimate reason for a state, even one with libertarian principles, to intervene.

But the intervention didn’t stop at what was necessary, it didn’t do the bare minimum to allow people to solve the problem themselves or nudge incentives so that they were encouraged to solve the problem. One of the most egregious examples was “busing”, which was the practice of assigning kids to schools outside of the school district where they lived, so as to achieve a better mix of racial integration in each school. This was one of the shittiest ideas ever and everyone who was actually affected by the system despised it -- you had to get up super fucking early and get home super fucking late because your bus ride to a distant school was way too long, and when you got there, you were surrounded by people you didn’t fucking know and couldn’t hang out with because they loved too far away and this was an era where kids played with neighborhood kids! So you got to be exhausted and lonely and miserable so someone else could nod approvingly at the racial percentage of the school. It didn’t help at all and just built resentment. That’s the easiest, most uncontroversial example of how legitimate reasons for intervention easily go too far. The regulators and those demanding change, as they often do, completely ignored what the costs to affected people would be because We Know Better. And they thought their job was to change people’s minds, instead of to allow people to solve their problems, so they piled on more feel-good policies that did nothing but hinder people. That’s the kind of restraint and self-knowledge I am talking about when I talk about having libertarian principles. “It sure would be nice if people of different races got exposed to each other more and felt more comfortable around each other. But doing that is not my job, and I know I won’t be able to do it well, so I’m just here to ensure people aren’t actively causing harm and have opportunities to solve their own problems.”

#long #politics #personal

17 notes · View notes

tejkohlifoundation · 4 years

Text

Tej Kohli: Profile Of A Technologist

Tej Kohli is a philanthropist who is well known for his worldwide mission to eliminate corneal blindness from poor and underserved communities by 2035. In 2006 he sold a company that he had founded just seven years earlier as part of a high value sale. The company specialised in online payment gateways for high risk sectors and also in the acquisition, turnaround and trade sale of online gaming properties. Since this 2006 liquidity event Tej Kohli has been actively engaged in building the not-for-profit Tej Kohli Foundation.

Tej Kohli is also an impact investor focused on artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology ventures that have the potential to drive positive human impact. His impact investments include proprietary technologies that have the potential to have a transformation impact in a variety of applications. Ventures backed by Tej Kohli are engaged in activities ranging from resolving the treatment gap that leads to poverty-driven blindness through to solving the logistical challenges of organ donation and even using machine learning to dramatically increase the efficiency of plastics recycling.

Tej is a father to two teenagers and has been married to his wife Wendy for over twenty years. He is a keen esports fan and an unashamed supercar enthusiast. He is also an avid ballroom dancer who has competed in international events. Tej Kohli regularly shares his thoughts and wisdom in a series of #TejTalks blogs and is an active user of social media.

Here we find out more about the colourful technologist…

What is #TejTalks?

Tej Kohli - #TejTalks is where I share my thoughts and also important information about the things that matter to me or which have captured my attention. I blog using Medium and I also post a lot on Twitter and Facebook. I am not that well known and I am not a public figure, so I do not have much of a platform elsewhere. The beauty of place like Medium and to a lesser extent Twitter, is the ability to make unmediated connections with experts.

The Tej Kohli Foundation for example, is entirely depending on forming new partnerships and coalitions all around the world to solve big challenges. So #TejTalks is a great place to zone in onto some of the constitute parts of those challenges or the underlying factors that are causing them, and to connect and share ideas with relevant experts. A huge proportion of corneal blindness for example is a poverty-driven ailment, and so you cannot solve it without also looking at the underlying causes of poverty. Female inequality also plays a big role in poverty blindness, and so recently I have been learning and blogging about that too.

You recently published ‘Rebuilding You: The Philanthropy Handbook’. Why?

Tej Kohli - My own approach to philanthropy has been heaving focused on rebuilding people and communities around the world. And one of the things that I have learned on that journey is that in becoming a philanthropist you cannot simply become a kinder and more benevolent version of yourself. You also need to behave differently, think differently and change your outlook. I wrote ‘Rebuilding You’ as a guide for others who want to use their wealth for good, so that they can avoid some of the common pitfalls and have a greater impact more quickly.

I have organised the ‘Rebuilding You’ handbook into key decision areas. Each area will enable would-be philanthropists to combine some of my experiences with their own to synthesise new ideas about how to define a brand of philanthropy that will best achieve their goals.

What is the biggest lesson that you have learned during your career?

Tej Kohli - I am about to turn 63 and I have led a rollercoaster life. People often tell me that my life story would make a great movie, but I tell them that if it was a it would do badly it because the story would not seem believable! I made a single youthful mistake in 1988 that I have regretted ever since and which I still feel great remorse for. I think what that taught me is that sometimes the important thing is to know what not to do.

At the same time if you want to achieve something you need to aim higher and go further than almost every other person is prepared to go, and if you start young like I did, it is inevitable that you will make some mistakes. I feel bad for young people these days as so much of their lives are recorded and documented online. I counsel my kids and their friends to aim high but also to be very careful as any indiscretion could follow them forever.

But the biggest lesson I think I have learned is that you will always have your critics and not to let them detract from what you are doing. It’s best not to give them the satisfaction of allowing them to diminish who you are and what you are doing. The best thing to do is to simply keep going, keep doing good, keep giving back and keep helping others.

youtube

What for you have been the key moments in your life?

You know my mother is 86 now and if I am anything in life then I owe it to her. She has always been there for me and that consistent love and support has been more important to me than any particular moments, except of course for the birth of my son and daughter. I had my children quite late in life, but my kids are by far the thing that I am most proud of.

In terms of my career, my first job after graduating in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology was installing tachometers. I was installing at a facility owned by Rabocomtel and realised that I could design a process controlled which would significantly increase the efficiency of their facilities. It’s a long story, but ultimately, I was able to pitch the idea to the CEO who placed a big order with the company that I worked for. That gave me my first real affirmation of my desire to become an entrepreneur.

When the company that I launched in 1999 reached $100m of turnover was also a key moment for me too. It affirmed my belief in what was possible, and we quickly expanded to employ hundreds of software developers and began buying and turning around companies too. And obviously when that company was sold in 2006 it was a life changing moment.

You graduated in from the Indian Institute of Technology with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Do you still consider yourself an engineer?

Tej Kohli - Today I would call myself a technologist, but I think that to be an engineer you now need to be a technologist and vice versa. It was 1980 when I graduated in Electrical Engineering and ‘technology’ as we know it today did not really exist. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) remains today one of the top educational institutions in the world and it has become famous for the problem-solving abilities of its engineers.

When the COVID-19 crisis hit in 2020, India found itself with a catastrophic shortage of ventilators, but within weeks engineers at IIT had created a low-cost ventilator that could be manufactured using off-the-shelf parts. They made their design open source so that local manufacturing companies could turn their resources to manufacturing ventilators, which they did. That is an elegant example of engineering and technology coming together.

In 2018 my alma mater conferred their Distinguished Alumnus Award upon me for serving society at large through my work at the Tej Kohli Foundation. That made me proud because part of what we do at the Foundation is to deploy technology to solve human problems.

Who has inspired you most in life?

Tej Kohli - The late Kofi Annan was by far the wisest and most inspirational man that I have ever met. But from a more practical perspective, as obvious as it may sound, I greatly admire Bill Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation approach to philanthropy has set a high standard to which all other philanthropists can aspire. The way that Bill Gates defined very specific objectives and then intensively targeted vast resources into both grassroots activities and also major scientific innovations, has been a big source of learning for me that has continually motivated and inspired me to do even more. Bill Gates achieved so much in business and then used that success to achieve so much for others that like me he has almost had ‘two lives’. His example is a wake-up call for any human who has accumulated wealth to consider how they might use that wealth for the betterment of their fellow human beings.

I am also greatly indebted to Michael Milken. His story resonates strongly with me because Milken got ‘tripped up’ by his prodigious early success, but then made a colossal comeback and focused on using his success to help others. Today Milken is one of the biggest funders of research into prostate cancer, and the results are incredible. In 2004 Fortune Magazine called Milken ‘The Man Who Changed Medicine’. Milken shows that it is possible to move on from past youthful mistakes and rebuild yourself for the betterment of other people.

You have been at the helm of the Tej Kohli Foundation for well over a decade. When did your philanthropic ambitions start?

Tej Kohli - It was my wife Wendy who started off our journey into philanthropy when in 2005 we sponsored a group of disabled children in Costa Rica. By 2005 we knew that a sale of my company was imminent, and we wanted to have something new to put all of our energies into. The group of disabled children that we committed to help had varying levels of disability, and our job was to make interventions that would improve their lives. Some had such severe disability that they would need permanent care for the rest of their lives. At the opposite end of the spectrum, with our support one young girl eventually attended college in the USA.

That same year my wife Wendy launched the ‘Funda Kohli’ project by establishing a series of free canteens in Costa Rica, which is where she is from. The canteens are still operational today more than fifteen years later. They feed hundreds of school age children for free every single day to make sure that they have the nutrition and sustenance that they need to thrive.

But today you are best known for your mission to end corneal blindness by 2035, where did that mission come from?

Tej Kohli - In 2010 I was invited to fund donor corneal transplants at Niramaya Hospital in India. There is no history of blindness in my family and corneal blindness is not something that I had known a huge amount about before then. Nowadays I consider myself something of an expert. I was present in 2010 as the recipient of a corneal transplant that I had funded - a 50-year-old man who had been blind for decades - had his bandages removed. The man was able to see his wife and grown up children for the first time in decades.

That was a life changing moment for him and also for me and was my affirmation that having enjoyed so much rapid success in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, I now wanted to use that success to eliminate corneal blindness. I felt it was my calling.

Another one of the reasons that corneal blindness resonated so strongly with me is because it is at its heart it is a poverty driven ailment. 75% of corneal blindness is either preventable or treatable. But when it is left untreated, it impedes the ability of entire families to become economically successful in communities that are already impoverished. NGOs do not reach a majority of the remote and rural communities in India. In communities that are underserved for healthcare provision due to their remoteness or poverty, there is a huge treatment gap.

The other challenge with corneal blindness, is that because it’s not life threatening, it attracts less attention than some other global health issues. But the social and economic impact of restoring someone’s vision is immense. It changes families forever. That’s why I became determined to make a difference. And by 2015 I was funding so many corneal transplant operations at Niramaya that a bigger facility was needed.

Is that when the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute project was started?

Tej Kohli - The Tej Kohli Cornea Institute in Hyderabad was the biggest project that the Tej Kohli Foundation had ever embarked upon. It opened in late 2015 and by November 2019 it had welcomed more than 223,404 outpatients and completed more than 43,255 surgeries.

People living with corneal blindness or visual impairment in India were often living in total poverty and in some instances could not even afford the train fare to travel to see a doctor, let alone to pay for a complex corneal transplant operation. We treated anyone referred to the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute for free regardless of who they were. It meant that we were able to help people who had been economically ‘shut out’ from the life changing treatment.

There was one girl who was the same age as my daughter whose vision was so poor that she was nearly blind. I was visiting Hyderbad and met her just after she had received her corneal transplant. She gave me a big hug and I couldn’t help thinking how I would feel if this was my daughter. After that I couldn’t stop thinking about how many others like her were still out there. Knowing that I could help them felt like a big responsibility that I wanted to rise to.

The focus of the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute is in India, but you haven’t lived in India for many decades. What is it that keeps your focus on India?

Tej Kohli - ‘First world’ problems are invariably the ones which it would be relatively expensive to solve. By contrast, high rates of poverty mean that many developing countries are plagued by diseases that it would cost the ‘first world’ comparatively tiny sums to control. In 2018 India commenced the world’s largest experiment in Universal healthcare when the Government granted 500 million people the entitlement to free health insurance overnight.

This will mean that those living below the poverty line in India will no longer have to pay for hospital treatments that would until now have pushed them into crippling debts. But whilst on the surface this is a hugely positive step forward, too much optimism entirely ignores the fact that it will still take many decades and billions of dollars to bring all of India’s healthcare systems up to the equivalent standard of that in the West. Until then, highly pervasive treatment gaps will continue to permeate the poorest communities.

My own focus on India as a philanthropist actually has nothing to do with my own heritage. Unfortunately, India is an epicentre of poverty-driven corneal blindness, and so it is the obvious place for us to be in our mission to combat this form of blindness, the vast proportion of which is either avoidable or treatable. But closing the treatment gaps is about more than money – it is also about logistics, resources, education, knowledge, cultural understanding and having a deep reach into communities. Does my heritage help with this? Yes, a little.

youtube

But in 2020 you announced that you were going to shift your focus away from these direct interventions in favour of finding cures. Why?

Tej Kohli – What has always been abundantly clear from the beginning is the sheer magnitude of the task of closing the corneal blindness treatment gap. I have always felt that official data is incomplete and so in reality there could be ten million people in the world living needlessly with corneal blindness. Most of them are in remote and rural communities across many different countries speaking different languages and with different systems in place.

You simply cannot eliminate corneal blindness by relying on transplantation surgery. Transplantation is too expensive, too complex and too inaccessible for most of the people who need it. The only way to eliminate corneal blindness by 2035 is to bring to market a novel solution that is affordable, scalable and accessible in all circumstances. What you need is a solution that can be applied by ophthalmologists or nurses without surgical intervention.

Finding that ‘universal’ solution is not something that we have just embarked upon: we have been working on it for years and today we have our own intellectual property which we have developed ‘in house’ as well as sponsoring the projects of third parties at major institutions. To begin with we tried to synthesise new corneas from yeast and then later from peptides. We were able to create them, but the rejection rate was too high, and neither solution would have removed the need for invasive sutures and expensive surgery.

It took until 2019 before we achieved a breakthrough when we created a proprietary regenerative solution, which in theory, could be applied using a syringe and cause the cornea to ‘regenerate’ and repair itself. Subject to regulatory approvals, this ‘universal solution’ is now years rather than decades away and could be relevant to more than one third of people with corneal blindness.

The “major institution” where you are sponsoring projects, is that Harvard Medical School?

Tej Kohli – Actually the Tej Kohli Cornea Program resides at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, which is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It is Harvard professors from the Department of Ophthalmology who lead the research that we sponsor at Mass. Eye and Ear, but our donations do directly to the hospital and it is they who administer the spending.

I donated $2m in 2019 to support the development of innovative technologies to improve medical diagnoses and treatments of corneal blindness. That money is going toward two major projects, one being similar to our own in-house project, and the other utilising nano string technologies to aid early diagnostics and preventative treatment. The funds are also used to provide seed funding to projects that address unmet medical needs in ophthalmology. In my mind the first $2m is just the start and we will do more together in the future too.

In 2019 we also inaugurated the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute UK Centre of Innovation in the United Kingdom. The Institute is building a research network to bring scientific expertise together and is also harnessing the best of British innovation to bridge the corneal blindness treatment gap in poor communities by awarding grants to UK-based technological and scientific projects. Decisions are made by an advisory board of UK experts in Ophthalmology.

youtube

Recently you returned to your earliest days of feeding children by launching food support programs in the UK. Why?

Tej Kohli - in the Spring of 2020 the world was plunged into a global crisis due to the Coronavirus. The pandemic required an emergency response of immediate interventions to alleviate individual human suffering. We had for a long time been formulating plans for how we could get involved in the mission to combat holiday hunger in the UK. When the crisis hit we had to bring those plans forward and play our part in supporting the local community.

The Tej Kohli Foundation partnered with community groups to create capacity to deliver 100,000 cooked meals each week to any charities or volunteer groups who need more free food to distribute into their local community. We also created the ‘YouCube’ box, a youth-focused food initiative that aims to ‘repackage’ food provision as an off-the-shelf initiative that existing charity and volunteer groups can adopt to combat hunger in their community.

Now the Tej Kohli Foundation aspires to use the organisational memory that has been developed during this period and the deep community connectivity of the scheme to combat ‘holiday hunger’ amongst children.

You also donated $100,000 toward the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, what motivated that?

Tej Kohli - I donated $100,000 of emergency funding to Harvard Medical School researchers based at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in Boston. They had developed a novel and experimental gene-based vaccine which utilises a harmless ‘Trojan horse’ virus as a carrier to bring a tiny piece of the DNA of SARS-CoVid-2 into a patient’s cells, building a protein that stimulates their immune system to fight future infections. I think it is a promising solution to a major global problem, and I am hopeful that it will prove successful.

youtube

Your ‘Future Bionics’ program is funding 3D-printed bionic arms for young people in the UK. How did you arrive at this project?

Tej Kohli – I am immensely proud of our Future Bionics project. It captures so elegantly what the Tej Kohli Foundation is all about: making direct interventions to improve people’s lives using technology, with a particular focus on younger people with their entire life ahead of them. The project came about when I had lunch with the CEO of the company that make the bionic arms and he told me that a lot of families turn to crowdfunding because they cannot afford to purchase one of the arms for their child, and that most of this crowdfunding fails.

The first arm was delivered to a 10-year-old from Blackburn called Jacob as an early Christmas present. He has set a shining example and is a fine young man who is a great role model to other young people. And since then we are working our way through to provide arms to ten young people to begin with. I hope we can continue the program after that, but we will have to take a view on the cost versus the impact once that the current tranche is completed.

Why do you place so much faith and emphasis into technology?

Tej Kohli – you should never underestimate the role of technology in making the world a better place. We are living through an unprecedented time in human history where a chain reaction of rapid technological development across science and technology is unlocking unprecedented new opportunities to solve major human problems. Technologists can look out across the vista of a hugely rich and fertile landscape of new opportunities to improve human life. Many new and novel solutions are within grasp and simply need to be incubated and ‘proven’ to stimulate their widespread adoption.

Many technologists and entrepreneurs have built successful commercial enterprises or pioneered new technology solutions before. It’s my belief that this expertise is absolutely critical for unlocking the potential of these new and frontier technologies in a way that can have an exponential global impact in terms of solving human problems and improving human life.

I have long been fascinated by deep tech and new frontier technologies. When I started my payment gateways company in Costa Rica in 1999 we were figuring out frontier technologies and combining them to build brand solutions and applications. By the time that I left in 2006 my company employed armies of software developers. And this experience as a technologist is now also part of the DNA of my objectives and ambitions as a philanthropist.

youtube

It was Peter Thiel who noted that “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters”. Is there a risk that technology will not deliver in the ways that you expect?

Tej Kohli - My real point is that we are now at a watershed moment where the opportunity is to innovate solutions that could eliminate specific areas of human suffering entirely, rather than merely alleviating them. I strongly believe that AI and ‘humanitarian robotics’ have the potential to drive innovations which will alleviate human suffering and hardship, both directly and indirectly. I also believe that humanitarian efforts the world over will be greatly advanced by these emerging technologies as they continue their exponential growth.

That’s why earlier this year I established a new incubator to back scientific projects and commercial ventures that were targeting solutions to corneal blindness, with the caveat that those solutions must be affordable, scalable and accessible in the world’s poorest countries.

You have predicted that artificial intelligence could become a $150 trillion economy within five years, which is ten times more than the current combined output of India and China?

Tej Kohli - Artificial intelligence, and also biotechnology for that matter, are both frontier technologies that are locked into an exponential growth trajectory. The cost of deciphering the human genome has dropped from $3 billion in 2001, to about $1,000 today and what took many months ten years ago can now be done in less than one hour.

I believe that AI will be so manifest within all aspects of life, and that the applications are so broad, that the AI economy will worth four times that of the global Internet economy, which is today worth approximately $50 trillion. AI is also already transforming developing countries. In Nepal, machine learning has been utilised to map and prioritize reconstruction needs after earthquakes. In Africa AI tutors are helping young students to catch up on coursework. NGOs and humanitarian aid agencies are using big data analytics to optimise the delivery of supplies for refugees fleeing conflict and other hardships. And in India rural farmers are being encouraged to use AI to improve crop yields and boost profits.

Technological innovations like these bring us much closer to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on issues like eradicating poverty, ending health-care inequality, increasing access to schooling, and combating global warming. And yet the world is only just scratching the surface of what these new technologies could do for human progress.

Your Kohli Ventures investment vehicle focuses on impact investment. Where does philanthropy end and impact investment begin?

Tej Kohli – That’s a good question. Impact investment looks at the double bottom line of profit and social impact. Philanthropy is a good way to spend wealth, but somewhere along the line you need to first generate that wealth. So why not, when the circumstances are right, try to do both at the same time? Take for example Detraxi, a Florida-based biotech company that I wholly own. It’s a commercial venture but could have a significant humanitarian impact.

More than 100,800 solid organ transplants are performed each year worldwide according to the World Health Organisation. Eight lives can potentially be saved by just one organ donor. Demand far outstrips supply, yet thousands of organs get discarded every single year though wastage due to the practical difficulties of preserving and transporting organs. Imagine if you could solve that problem, it would be a good business that would also save thousands of lives? Well that is what we are trying to do by bringing the Detraxi solution to the market.

But which is more important, philanthropy or impact investment?

Tej Kohli - It was Sir Ronald Cohen who said that “the world must change but we cannot change it by throwing money at old ideas that no longer work. To change the world, we must change how we do business, starting with where and when we invest our money”. Can you imagine a world where every investment decision made by every institution also weighed up the human or social impact of that investment? The consequences would be immense.

Worldwide impact investment is currently was worth around $715 billion in 2018, but the International Finance Corporation estimates that based on current demand from investors’ total demand is nearer to $26 trillion, which is fifty times larger. Impact investing already has the power to solve issues that are often beyond governments. And I am convinced that impact investing is one of the best ways of funding the technology-led changes that the world urgently needs in order to solve some of our biggest challenges.

What have been your favourite impact investments so far?

Tej Kohli – my impact investment portfolio is doing very well indeed, but I deliberately do not disclose my investments since having my name associated can eb a hinderance. And anyway, the focus should be the founders and entrepreneurs at those venture, not on me. One of the largest investments I have made was in 2019 when I committed $100m into the Rewired robotics-focused venture studio ‘with a humanitarian bent’.

Rewired is a Switzerland based organisation, so I do not have any direct influence over what they invest in and their portfolio is also a tightly guarded secret. But based on the Rewired investments that are already in the public domain, one of my favourites is Aromyx based in Silicon Valley. Aromyx was originally initiated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The company is creating new modalities of data that have the potential to be disruptive across many sectors and applications. In 2019 Aromyx completed a large-scale study with one of the world’s largest chemical companies with a view to deploying Aromyx into the recycling process to improve plastics recycling rates by over 90%.

Other investments publicised by Rewired include Seldon, which is at the heart of accelerating the adoption of machine learning to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems. There is also Raptor Maps, which was founded by MIT Engineers and makes it simple and affordable for solar companies to adopt drone technology as a tool to increase performance. Open Bionics is enhancing the lives of all humans everywhere with its next generation of 3D-printed ‘bionic’ prosthetics. And Elementary Robotics is re-engineering automation intelligence through its deep learning artificial intelligence software.

You have said before that you believe your children, who are teenagers, could live to be at least 125 years old. What will the world be like by 2125?

Tej Kohli - If I look at how the world has changed since I graduated in 1980, and given the acceleration of technological and human progress, I think it’s impossible to imagine the world in 2125. Thanks to economic growth the world is already on track to end extreme poverty by 2030, so perhaps the next 100 years of human history will see humanity unlocking the latent potential that has always been restrained by global inequality.

Of course, there are still major human challenges such as over population, sustainability and climate change that need dealing with. But even during the next decade AI will change every aspect of our lives. So by 2125 I am optimistic that technology will have unlocked even more solutions to these major global challenges.

Time will tell. What I am certain is that the opportunity is right in front of us, and it is for all of us to master it for the betterment of all of humanity.

For more information about Tej Kohli visit:

Tej Kohli official website: http://www.TejKohli.com

Tej Kohli Foundation official website: http://www.TejKohliFoundation.com

Kohli Ventures official website: http://www.KohliVentures.com

Tej Kohli personal blog: https://medium.com/tej-kohli

Tej Kohli Foundation YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tejkohlifoundation

@MrTejKohl on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrtejkohli

@MrTejKohli on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrtejkohli

Tej Kohli Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tej-Kohli/e/B08CY13FNR

Tej Kohli Telegraph profile: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/10/04/tej-kohli-indian-tech-billionaire-plans-turbocharge-britains/

#TejKohli TejKohliFoundation NotForProfit Foundation Blindness Poverty 3DPrinting bionic robotics humanitarian healthcare

1 note · View note

supersupplements1-blog · 4 years

Text

Occupational Health: Core Areas of Knowledge and Competence, Part 1

It is not possible to describe a highly complex and dynamic process such as occupational health nursing simply in terms of core activities or tasks. Occupational Health Nurse (OHA) are constantly learning new skills, adapting current practices to meet new needs and developing new approaches to solving problems and therefore their practice is not static but is constantly improving based upon a core range of skills.

However, within this limitation it is possible to describe those core areas of knowledge and competence that occupational health nurses use. The following list is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to give an indication of the wide range of competencies that occupational health nurses demonstrate in practice.

The Clinician

Primary prevention

The OHA is skilled in primary prevention of injury or disease. The nurse may identify the need for, assess and plan interventions to, for example modify working environments, systems of work or change working practices in order to reduce the risk of hazardous exposure. Occupational health nurses are skilled in considering factors, such as human behavior and habits in relation to actual working practices. The nurse can also collaborate in the identification, conception and correction of work factors, choice of individual protective equipment, prevention of industrial injuries and diseases, as well as providing advice in matters concerning protection of the environment. Because of the occupational health nurses close association with the workers, and knowledge and experience in the working environment, they are in a good position to identify early changes in working practices, identify workers concerns over health and safety, and by presenting these to management in an independent objective manner can be the catalyst for changes in the workplace that lead to primary prevention.

Emergency care

The OHA is a Registered Nurse with a great deal of clinical experience and expertise in dealing with sick or injured people. The nurse may, where such duties form part of their job, provide initial emergency care of workers injured at work prior to transfer of the injured worker to hospital or the arrival of the emergency services. In many instances, where hazardous conditions exist at work, or where the workplace is far removed from other health care facilities, this role will form a major part of an occupational health nurse's job. Occupational health nurses employed in mines, on oil rigs, in the desert regions or in areas where the health care systems are not yet fully developed will be familiar with a wide range of emergency care techniques and may have developed additional skills in order to fulfill this role. For others, who are working in situations where the emergency services are on hand, they may simply provide an additional level of support beyond that provided by the industrial first aider. read this article vitamins

Nursing diagnosis

Occupational health nurses are skilled in assessing client's health care needs, establish a nursing diagnosis and formulating appropriate nursing care plans, in conjunction with the patient or client groups, to meet those needs. Nurses can then implement and evaluate nursing interventions designed to achieve the care objectives. The nurse has a prominent role in assessing the needs of individuals and groups, and has the ability to analyze, interpret, plan and implement strategies to achieve specific goals. By using the nursing process the nurse contributes to workplace health management and by so doing helps to improve the health of the working population at the shop floor level. Nursing diagnosis is a holistic concept that does not focus solely on the treatment of a specific disease, but rather considers the whole person and their health care needs in the broadest context. It is a health based model rather than a disease based model and nurses have the skills to apply this approach with the working populations they serve.

General Health advice and health assessment

The OHA will be able to give advice on a wide range of health issues, and particularly on their relationship to working ability, health and safety at work or where modifications to the job or working environment can be made to take account of the changing health status of employees.

In many respects employers are not solely concerned with only those conditions that are directly caused by work, but do want their occupational health staff to help address any health related problems that may arise that might influence the employees attendance or performance at work, and many employees appreciate this level of help being provided to them at the workplace because it is so convenient for them. In particular the development of health care services to men at work, younger populations and those from ethnic groups can be most effective in reaching these sometimes difficult to reach populations.

Research and the use of evidence based practice

In addition to utilizing information and knowledge produced by research in various fields to support activities that relate to the occupational health component of their role, occupational health nurses will also utilize fully research information available from many fields to help support the general health of the working population.

Specialist

Occupational health policy, and practice development, implementation and evaluation

The specialist occupational health nurse may be involved, with senior management in the company, in developing the workplace health policy and strategy including aspects of occupational health, workplace health promotion and environmental health management. The OH nurse is in a good position to advise management on the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of workplace health management strategies and to participate fully in each of these stages. Possibility to perform that role will depend upon level of nurse education, skills and experience.

Occupational health assessment

OHA's can play an essential role in health assessment for fitness to work, pre-employment or pre-placement examinations, periodic health examinations and individual health assessments for lifestyle risk factors.

Collaboration with occupational physician may be necessary in many instances, depending upon exiting legislation and accepted practice. The nurse can also play an important role in the workplace where informal requests for information, advice on health care matters and health related problems come to light. The nurse is able to observe the individual or group of workers in relation to exposure to a particular hazard and initiate appropriate targeted health assessment where necessary. These activities are often, but not exclusively, undertaken in conjunction with the medical adviser so that where problems are identified a safe system for onward referral exists.

Health surveillance

Where workers are exposed to a degree of residual risk of exposure and health surveillance is required by law the OHA will be involved in undertaking routine health surveillance procedures, periodic health assessment and in evaluating the results from such screening processes. The nurse will need a high degree of clinical skill when undertaking health surveillance and maintain a high degree of alertness to any abnormal findings. Early referral to an occupational health physician or other appropriate specialist will be the responsibility of the occupational health nurse where any abnormality is detected. The nurse will be involved in supporting the worker throughout any further examination or investigation, and may help to monitor their health on return to work. Once alerted to the possibility of an adverse health effect the occupational health nurse is in a good position to co-ordinate efforts to re-evaluate working practices in order to help protect others who may be similarly affected.

#vitamins #healthy lifestyle

1 note · View note

fairycosmos · 5 years

Note

i have plans to kill myself may 23 and i dont know what to do. i dont want to die, not really, but i have to. im not the kind of person life is meant for. im so fucking scared

hey. it's okay to be scared, i promise. you don't have to be confident and brave and sure of yourself all the time. no one is. fear is a normal human response, and you will get through it one breath at a time. i can't imagine the specific brand of pain you're in but i need you to know that just sending this message in the first place established a few really important things. one, you're capable of reaching out. that's a very viable and real possibility. and two, you don't want to die. the fact that you can say that, and mean it on any level, is a genuinely positive sign. that's what it should always come back to. no matter how hard it gets sometimes, there's always a glimpse of rationality and hope. right. i can't stress this enough - you don't have to do anything. nothing bad is going to happen if you try to look at suicide from an objective standpoint. you're in control of your physical body. not your sadness or your impulses or your fleeting fears. i know it's easy for me to sit here and say that. i know there's things i could probably never understand, and they're hurting you more than i can comprehend. but on a base level, i know. i'm absolutely familiar with the hopelessness. i get it, and so do so many others, and you're not alone. no matter what your mind tells you. there's so much left for you to realise. give yourself a fair chance. give yourself the time you need, at least. there's no harm in doing that. it's unbearable, until it isn't. listen, may 23 is just another day. doesn't even exist yet. you can dictate it however you want. that plan is simply a concept, an urge, one you can recognise, one you can cry and agonize over - but not one you need to listen to. nothing is set in stone. you're terrified because a massive part of you knows that hurting yourself isn't going to solve anything. a massive part of you knows that losing your life will be a million times worse than taking advantage of it. like you said, you don't want to stop existing - you just want to stop existing like this. and that's a very achievable goal, there are so so many ways to do that and none of them involve killing yourself. okay? new experiences are guaranteed. nothing stays the same, and that's not a negative thing. i'm telling you straight up that i believe in you with all of my heart. i'm telling you point blank that from an objective perspective, and not one that is clouded by your own self hatred - you do not need to do this. i wouldn't say it if it wasn't true, if there wasn't a way forward for you. if you can't believe yourself then believe me. i know exactly what it's like to feel as though you're not built for life. i have that thought numerous times a day, and it's one of the loneliest things in the world. i sort of think modern life isn't built for anyone, and everyone's just pretending. some are better at it than others. so maybe people like us have to forcefully carve a life out of this world instead. maybe it's something we have to fight for. it's challenging, it's exhausting, it is not always worth it, and it's unfair. but it's the one chance we're ever going to get. that's not something you can just pass up. you don't want to, you don't have to. you're worried because you haven't lived all of the solutions to your problems yet. it'll all make sense when you have some perspective, when you grow and learn how to accept and navigate this. please allow yourself to get to that point. please.i know words aren't enough to fix anything. i know it's complex and fucked up and it doesn't seem like there's any truth to any of this positivity. but you sent this for a reason. you have a genuine choice. you do not have to act on each negative thought and feeling you experience. you can cry and scream and process it all for what it is, but you can do that while keeping yourself safe. you can. there are so many things that are out of your hands but this, consciously working on doing what you need to do to survive this, is in your control. look, suicidal thoughts are not normal but they're quite common and there are numerous ways to forcefully begin to manage them. the crux of all of this, the thing it's all leading up to, is the fact that you need to let someone know what's going on. say it out loud. if there's anything you're silently required to do, it's that. please don't take this lightly, please don't allow your brain to talk you out of it. because it'll try, of course it will. but you are stronger and more self aware than that. whether it's your parents, your friends, your doctor, even a hotline......there are so many options. so many opportunities for you to choose the path of survival even when you don't want to because you know it's the right one regardless of your temporary emotions. i get that it feels embarrassing and impossible and terrifying, admitting to whats going on. but i'm sure the people in your life will appreciate the honesty. give them the chance to be there for you, to show you. you don't have to go into great detail or anything. just tell them what you told me, tell them you have a problem and you need some support in reaching out for professional help. think of the person you trust the most, and then honour that trust accordingly. if not, like i said before there's so many hotlines and resources, so many people who can guide you through this. there's cost effective options too, if you're stressed about that. there's always a way around it, love. always something you can do.your metal health is just as important as your physical health, man. it's alright to require genuine medical intervention and assistance, in fact if you get to that point it's wonderful because it means you're actively working on the problem. you need to confront the root causes of why you think and feel the way you do. a professional will offer a new perspective, specialized advice, a substitute for your current unhealthy thinking patterns and coping mechanisms. and that change we talked about earlier, that's where that happens. that's where you go from one state of being to the next. not by committing suicide, but by spurring on that self growth. i get that it's daunting, that it feels like too much effort. but there's nothing wrong with trying, with picking up the phone, and actively defying all of the hurt inside you. you know? as cliche as it is, you can and will put yourself back from this. just wanting to is enough. you are more than capable. i can not overstate the importance of your life and your presence on this earth. your life is supposed to be lived. whatever that means, however it turns out. i can guarantee you that if you acted on those suicidal urges, you'd feel nothing but irreversible regret. and by then, it'd be too late. no point putting yourself in that situation, no point causing yourself more pain, not when there are so many other ways to go about minimizing the damage instead. it's so rare to be here, so easy to become disillusioned with life, so necessary to let others in, even a little. please give it some rational thought when you can. please take care of yourself and please, above all, if you feel like you're in danger of hurting yourself - please just call someone. you are so much stronger than you will ever fully realise. peace is not an impossible concept, it'll find you over and over again. i'm begging you not to throw away your future over temporary situations. take it one moment at a time, and let the rest deal with itself. i will always be here if you need a friend or if you want to discuss this properly, just let me know. you don't have to carry the weight of this all by yourself. i'm sending all my love. https://ibpf.org/resource/list-international-suicide-hotlines

#tw suicide #anon #i had more to say but i can't #please just message me if u need someone

17 notes · View notes

yahoosg-spookytales · 5 years

Text

A day in the life of a ghostbuster, in FAQs and images

You may scoff at anything unexplained and supernatural, but to the Ghostbusters – a group of spiritual practitioners who help people sort out supernatural problems that could not be solved by normal means – the unexplained can drastically affect one’s quality of life and should be dealt with appropriately.

That’s why despite naysayers, the Ghostbusters have withstood the test of time, thriving out of the basement of Katong Shopping Centre as well as a temple in Geylang, backed by a growing international clientele. There have been numerous coverage of this ghost-busting father-and-son duo, so we are not going to bore you with that today.

If you would like a rundown of the services they offer, just go through the gallery above. For those more discerning, we’re going straight into the burning questions that some of us really, really, really want to know.

How does a ghost look like?

They look just like us! Except that they are more translucent and pale and you can't see their feet. Some of the spirits who died an unnatural death can look pretty scary though. They will appear in the state in which they passed on, for example by hanging, after a car accident and etc.

Can anyone learn how to exorcise a ghost?

Anyone can learn, but whether or not you have the grit to stay in this profession for a long term is another matter. Of course, you need to be bold and unafraid of the unknown such as ghosts and spirits. The heart needs to be good, and you have to be in this line for the right reasons. In addition, you will also need to have an affinity with the deities in order for you to progress in your learning. For all the above reasons, not everyone will be suitable for this line.

Where do the ghosts go after they’re exorcised?

Contrary to popular belief, we do not keep them! We usually send them on their way to the next stage of their spiritual journey. That's why we favour the use of joss paper and hell money to send the spirits away peacefully. Even in the underworld, money makes any journey smoother!

Can I become friends with a ghost without them affecting my luck?

Unfortunately, no. Being around a ghost will sap you of your positive energy and good luck. Over time, this will cause you many problems like health issues, quarrels with family, poor interpersonal relationships and loss of wealth.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve encountered?

We have so many interesting stories, including several possession cases, but once you been in this line long enough, nothing from the spiritual world really scares you anymore. In fact we do find that some of our fellow humans can be scarier than ghosts!

Do you have any precautions you do to make sure your life is not affected negatively by what you bring back from work?

Our guardian deities will protect us from severe harm and there are of course rituals and procedures that we perform to protect ourselves. However, being in this business also means that we are giving away our good luck and merit to help those in need. That is why we charge a reasonable fee for what we do. To supplement that, we also do charity to accumulate merit and good karma as well. In fact, we do a charity event for the old folks and needy every year on our deity, the Supreme Jade Emperor’s Birthday every year and give back to society.

Can anyone with very bad luck turn their luck around?

We would say yes! Except in exceptional cases where the client refuses to heed our advice or there is a special situation. We recalled one case in which the client had very bad luck and upon checking with our deity, we found out that this particular client had borrowed money from a friend who had passed away and he needs to repay his debt in order to change his situation around. Unfortunately this client borrowed money from so many people that he did not know which of his creditor had passed away and was thus unable to fufill his debt obligations. Never a borrower or lender be!

How much of our lives are influenced by our “Ba Zi”? What can I do if my Ba Zi points to a mediocre life?

Our Ba Zi form and influence our character and path at the time of birth but it is not the end of. We still have some control over our post-destined fates, as well as our emotions. The rituals we do help you make the best of what you are given. In addition, we should have a positive mindset of wanting to know your destiny. By going through a bazi consultation, you will be equipped with life’s map and be prepared for whatever that is coming your way, be it good or bad.

A peek into a Ghostbuster’s life (Photo Gallery)

There is no typical day in a Ghostbuster’s life. From invitation of deities into houses to days-long exorcisms, they provide a repertoire of supernatural services to help individuals. Here are some of the services they provide.

Invitation of deity into home

Before bringing home a statue of a deity, it is important to invite the being properly into the house so that it may protect the occupants of the dwelling from harm and bring good fortune to the family. There are elaborate processes, detailed specifications and rituals that one must follow, which can be easily outsourced to practitioners such as the Ghostbusters.

Luck enhancement

What’s better than finding a 4-leaf clover? Becoming luckier, even if you didn’t find a 4-leaf clover! For that, there are certain rituals to help those who need a little boost in the luck department. Whether you’re a businessman clearing obstacles or trying to lift yourself up from a low period, the rituals can be tailored to fit your needs.

Exorcisms/Easing Rituals

Sometimes, entities get attracted by negative energy and latch onto an individual, causing bouts of bad luck to follow through. Call it placebo if you want, but there are many documented cases of difficult problems solving itself upon successful intervention from the Ghostbusters. Coincidence, or not?

Bazi Consultation

Bazi is the study of the elemental forces that form and influence a person's character and path at the time of birth. By understanding a person's predestined fate, the team will combine various rituals to help an individual achieve his maximum potential in life.

#1197790588 #nocomment

2 notes · View notes

thatomoruri-blog · 5 years

Text

The internet (Mass Media) is affecting how we communicate in the 21st century.

In today’s day and age media is the quickest and most relevant way to gain information and stay in contact. whether it be social, sports, politics and anything in between and as a species that thrives on technological development, we need to consider how easy access to a plethora of resources through the internet affects the way in which we communicate in person.

In 2019, everyone wants to be different, everyone wants to have something unique to say or add to the conversation. There is nothing wrong with that, but if it means making things up just to have a sense of individuality, then that’s where the issues lies.

We live in the world where FAKE NEWS EXISTS. It doesn’t matter what is said, where it comes from and or who said it, as long as you said it it first then you must be correct and what you said must be true. if a country, furthermore, a planet is infested with false information, pure, true and genuine communication will be something very rare and valuable to come by.

everywhere you go someone has access to the internet, which means they can alter and manipulate data online to trick people for their own personal gain. Some will pretend to be sick/injured, some will pretend to be assaulted/abused just to gain attention and fame or publicity. but these same people forget or overlook the fact that if it was so easy to make up these stories it will make it possible to expose them eventually. Even for those who genuinely have been affected by these issues, they may find it easier to go to the internet and express their sorrow allowed, yet in anonymous ways to avoid any back lash from their offender and insensitive people. We all go through emotions, but society has somehow deemed it immoral to express your emotions in public without any negative feedback. causing most of the population to believe that in this world emotions are sign of weakness. This causes a lot of people, mainly teenagers and young adults lost and helpless. and feeling like they are part of the problem that they themselves are facing

That’s when someone would go seeking advice or help from a person who might be able to sympathies and maybe guide them, but since mass media is easier to access its seen as the go to, and only when that has nothing remotely relevant to help solve the problem then we decide go seek human help . that’s usually when its sometimes too late or the issue is so far gone that they have been changed forever.

Although it maybe contain a lot of false information and content that disrupt a persons mental and emotional values and morals, the internet can really help and develop a lot of people, emotionally, psychologically, socially, ect. it has as many, if not more, benefits as there are issues. The internet has the capabilities of allowing you to purchase a house in Spain while you live in japan. learn languages of countries you’ve never been to. understand cultures you never experienced. you can even start a multi billion rand company in your moms backroom and meet your soul mate the next week.

the possibilities are endless. both good and bad. it is some what like a two-sided coin. yin and yang so to speak. it isn’t all bad but its not all sun shine and rainbows either.

With that being said, we need to consider how much it has taken away from human interaction and activity to give us a sense of efficiency and productivity.

for instance when you and your partner go out for diner. instead of having deep and meaningful conversations with each other. you and your partner will be face deep in your phones and take pictures of each other and the food just to prove to people, whom where not even invited and couldn’t care less about you and your partner, what you two are eating and how much of a good time you are having. Which is not a problem at all. to each his/her own, but where does the connection come in that interaction. what do you learn about your partner. what do they learn about you. because mass media made it so easy to share our moments with the rest of the world, we now forget to take in our moments for ourselves and enjoy them to their full potential. sharing with the rest of the world can be bad thing. because people filled with insecurity and jealousy and envy will see/ hear what you said/did on the internet and hate you for it, and some will take it overboard threaten you or even hurt you all because you where doing you for everyone else to see.

some could say you where asking for it. but you are not wrong for wanting to express yourself. and how you do it shouldn’t matter to anyone but you. That is unless of course it harms others, then you must reconsider your methods.

I personally think the world needs to have some sort of intervention. Day of disconnection if you will, where all forms of mass media are banned and people must actually interact with and learn about each other and grow and eventually develop a strong sense respect and pride for your fellow brother/sister as well as themselves. which is an outrageous thing to want to happen, but in a world where people would rather pull out a phone to record than a hand to help, something outrageous is exactly what we need.

but those are just my thoughts.

1 note · View note

niobe44 · 5 years

Text

My first fanfic is a melendaire

Hi, I am French, my English is poor, so I hope there are not many faults in this text. I’m new to Tumblr so I don’t yet master the app. I hope you will be pleased with this text, and I welcome your comments.

Chap1

The episode of the illness that plunged the quarantine service had somewhat disrupted every staff member. If, according to Shaun's statistics, one and the same event will not be repeated in St José for fifteen years, the faces of the doctors were badged of the anxiety recently undergone.

Neil Melendez paced the corridors this Thursday of February. The sky was white outside and he thought quickly that a weekend in the country would be beneficial. He was tired of the past year and sometimes pretending. If his arrogance allowed him to assert his authority in his career he had little opportunity to show his sensitivity. Since his forties he was tormented by his present life. His relationship with Lim was simple, a strong friendship with a few nights of drinking. However, he felt empty, something was out of place.

When he saw his interns he cast out his thoughts out. Park seemed happy to him since his son was more present with him, Morgan faithful to herself stood straight and haughty on the lookout for surgery that could propel her directly resident, Shaun and Claire were talking together. Claires's curls came off in a cascade on his blue blouse and for a split second Neil was caught in this contemplation. The last operation he had led with Claire was a success and the young woman kept to surprise him. Sensitive, communicative, gifted, she was an excellent student and would become a great surgeon. He knew it. The smile Claire give him to brought him back to reality.

"- Hello everybody, this morning we have a case of hypoplasia of the left heart on a child of 11 years, Murphy you can tell us more?"

- It is a malformation of the left ventricle, the whole right part of the heart must compensate: eject the blood to the pulmonary artery but also to the aorta .. Normally it is detected by pre-natal electrocardiography. It is necessary to repair the aorta too small.

- Exactly. Park and Murphy you will be with me on this case. Reiznik Dr. Lim needs you in the E.R. Browne, the dermatology department asked to see one of us. Take the file and give me the situation .

Morgan protested with a glare. Claire was disconcerted by this distance. Only Park and Shaun seemed delighted with their fate.

Claire arrived at the dermatology department when the doctor Syrus, an accomplished dermatologist came to meet her:

- "Ah finally it is you the intern that we are sent to us , it falls well, come see by there in my opinion this case isn't up to than my sole responsibility anymore , at these words he quickly entered a consultation room whose windows were tinted and hurried to close the door behind them.

"Oh," Claire exclaimed in front of the patient, "Excuse me,said she, Hello, I'm Dr. Browne, I'm an intern in surgery, and I'm here because Dr. Syrus thinks that together we can help you.

The patient, a 35-year-old man was visibly contaminated with lewandowsky-lux disease. His body was completely covered with bark-like warts, forming outgrowth on all his limbs. His hands and torso were no longer distinguishable and his head leaned back, pulled by the weight of the root skin. His eyes were still visible, but he spoke with difficulty.

"- Obluo is Filipino, his disease has developed there, in his village he is considered a sage because he heals, sees the future, administers the village.This is an OnG who helped to bring him to the United States hoping it can be cared by doctors, explained Syrus.The radios show extensive skin carcinoma and multivisceral failure.This is no longer a matter of dermatology it requires a heavy surgery to find the epidermisThere may lesions deep downs that need to be treated.

Claire looked at the man with difficulty.

The man seemed to smile at Claire.

"Obluo," she said, "I'm going to get other doctors and all together we'll try to solve your problem." She was aware that the man did not understand, but his benevolence forced her to explain.

"Dr. Syrus, I'll tell to Dr. Melendez.

She found Neil at his office surrounded by Shaun and Park,discussing the best way to intervene on cardiac hypoplasia.On seeing her, he said happily, "Ah, Dr. Browne, so this dermatology why does she need us?

- Uh a verruciform Epidermodysplasia on a 35 year old man ..

- A what ? Asked Park.

"The tree man," said Melendez, "dont you know that means?

- It's genetic, interrupted Shaun and incurable. There are only 200 cases worldwide.

"Well, what do you think Dr. Browne?" asked Melendez .

-In the current state of things it is necessary to release the limbs in causing internal lesions in order to relieve the vital organs.

- Well now let's see if we can get a better particulars . Murphy, Park prepare our patient for the intervention I'll join you after.

Claire and Neil encountered Syrus,scowling, that annonced them bad news:

"the carcinomas have reached the pancreas, the liver and the weight of the warts compress the circulation including that of the encephalon.The operation is very risky, the chances of success guarantee it only temporary comfort but if we do not operate it will die in a few months of multiple internal injuries.And an interpreter arrived.

After greeting the interpreter and explain to him the situation Melendez osculta Oblua.

Oblua was smiled alternately at Claire and Neil while listening to the interpreter who explained the operation. The man laughed and asked questions: the interpreter answered them, then Oblua said something and the interpreter laughed.

"- What's he saying ?" Asked Melendez

"-He says you are one and the same heart that does not know it yet.

Claire's eyes met Neil's amused gaze.

"-It is very enigmatic all this, it can mean everything, it's thruth I operates hearts!

The interpreter translates to Oblua, who frowned and shook his head laughing louder.

"-He says dawn will rise in your mind.

"-Well," said Melendez, "we're done with preoperative consultation, Oblua, me, and my mind we'll see you in a few hours."

Melendez had leave Claire with the" tree human" and was heading to the block for heart surgery. He was troubled by the words of the man. The man must have been learn that he was a cardiac surgeon, which was probably the content of the message. And then after all who did not need more light in his mind?

He thought furtively about Claire's curls and their exchanged gaze but decided that none of this had any logical explanation and that he was really too tired.

Claire was also thinking of the man's words. He seemed wise, benevolent, "One heart." To believe the rumor the heart of Neil was taken again. She must have been lucid: that annoyed her a little. Yet their looks remained unchanged: intense and talkative. He had to looked at all his colleagues like that ..

The cardiac operation was a total failure. The heart was not strong enough, the child had other organic disorders. Hours of complications and urgency to keep the child alive had only succeeded in plunging him into a coma. The parents were collapsed.Shaun placidly announced that the child would die while Park was affectedd by the patient who was the same age as his son .He was searching for a cure.

Melendez looked at hell when he entered the No. 2 block. Obluo was not yet anesthetized and was smiling at the sight of Neil and Claire standing side by side:

"-You know," he said to Melendez, "for the child: his spirit is free, he's going to leave now" and Obluo fell asleep.

Claire saw the surprise on Neil's face.

The operation lasted more than 15 hours, it was necessary to cut sometimes with the saw the hard skins of the body of the man to clear his body of his tree prison. When they had finished, the man's constancies were normal.

All the staff was exhausted.

When he woke up, the patient was calm and thanked each of the doctors standing on either side of his bed. Obluo squeezed Claire's hand in a respectful gesture and grabbed Melendez's wrist for talk him.

-"He left " .

Claire watched with concern as Melendez slowly emerged from the man's embrace and out of the room. He was nauseated.

It was then that Shaun came to announce the death of the child.

Neil had decided to send his interns home. All were tired. It was past 6 a.m

Neil left his blouse, he was hot and needed to get fresh air immediately.

The end of the night was cooling on the terrace of the refectory. The first thing he saw was the brown curls. He settled down next to Claire.

"I learned for your patient," said she , "I'm sorry.

- Yes, the day was difficult. But you worked well, Obluo is alive.

- The disease will come back but he does not seem to be worried.

- Some things always come back. Thoughts, obstacles. Things that turn ... in a loop. He said that last sentence in a low voice.

"It may be a good thing," said Claire. It may mean that happiness, joy, love come back too.

Neil looked at her. It seemed to her that Claire's eyes were an answer to everything that was flickering in her thoughts. Claire smiled at him, returning that deep and immense look.

It had begun to rain and a drop was spinning on a lock of Claire's hair.

Neil stared at the drop and ran her hand over the curl. Mechanically he put the lock the hair behind Claire's ear. Her eyes plunged again in Claire's. He feld over into it. He slipped his hand from his ear to his temple, his thumb traveling over his cheekbones. His second hand came to join Claire's neck. Nobody said words. Each look was an endless fire. He framed his face with his hands as if to contemplate it better. Claire's mouth was smiling. She touched Neil's hip with her palm and her forehead swung against Neil's. He caressed of his lips Claire's lips before kissing them. The attraction of kissing was so strong that it was impossible for them to stop pressing their lips against each other, from his mouth Neil gently took Claire's lower lip to taste it entirely and she did the same with his . Her fingers were lost in her hair and Claire let her fingers run down Neil's neck to his chest.

The ground was falling under their feet.

They were felt the axis of the earth was where it should be.

They ruled out from each other.

Their eyes betrayed the gigantic confusion that came to reveal themselves. They panted for a moment, their breath caught in the embrace, looking at each other in amazement. Neil picked up his briefcase, straightened up as the sun illuminated Claire's curls and the mirror of her eyes. Upset with desires, he stared at her intently in the morning light and stepped out of the terrace.

Dawn had risen.

#melendaire #melendez #claire browne #the good doctor #fanfic #love

32 notes · View notes

the--bot · 5 years

Text

For GAYANDAGRYSPACEDORRITO

Like I said you would you resorted to ugly vulgar attacks rather than discussion. Nor did you read any of the truth told you. All interactions with lesbian sister was love n support. The misery and truths came from her. As I plainly stated u don't need God to tell you it is wrong, nature, your own mind, body, spirit, genetics, DNA wars against itself. Why, the truth none of you can argue n why at some point when societies and medicine falls away u will be extinct, why YOU CAN'T PROCREATE. That is nature itself, ur own bodies telling u it is wrong. This can't be argued, period, no matter how u try.

There are many false studies to support ur narrative but real science no. Genetics are genetics, period. It is choice.

Here is real study showing exactly that.....

Report refutes LGBT ‘born that way’ theoryStudy from researchers at Johns Hopkins University dispels popular myths about sexual orientationTheresa Farnan and Mary Rice Hasson OSV Newsweekly

8/22/2016

Shutterstock

According to a new report, scientific evidence fails to support the “born that way” theory of sexual orientation. In addition, there is “no evidence” that “all children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behavior should be encouraged to become transgender,” the findings state.

The report, “Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” is co-authored by Dr. Lawrence Mayer and Dr. Paul McHugh, both of Johns Hopkins University, and published in The New Atlantis, a journal of technology and society. While Mayer, an epidemiologist trained in psychiatry, insists that the “report is about science and medicine, nothing more and nothing less,” it is expected that, in light of the “great chasm between much of the public discourse and what science has shown,” the findings will generate intense pushback from cultural voices that advocate for LGBT-affirming policies. Emboldened by court victories and federal executive actions following the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage, activists have depicted their efforts to further LGBT civil rights as grounded on settled science.

But, as Mayer and McHugh, a leading psychiatrist, make clear, the science is far from settled. The authors reviewed the findings of hundreds of peer-reviewed studies on gender and sexuality, and their conclusions challenge some of the popular cultural myths that surround questions of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Myth 1: Science proves that homosexuality and other forms of sexual orientation are biologically based (the “born that way” theory).

The authors reviewed several possible explanations for the “born that way” hypothesis, including genetics, exposure to prenatal hormones and neurobiological differences. They argue that science is not settled when it comes to understanding the origins of sexual attraction, sexual desires and sexual behaviors. In fact, the authors note, a scientific explanation of “sexual orientation” is problematic because the term “sexual orientation” means widely different things — sexual desire, sexual attraction, patterns of sexual behavior — to different people and therefore is hard to measure accurately.

In addition, by presuming that sexual orientation is rooted in genetics, researchers or clinicians may miss other relevant factors — including, for example, childhood physical or sexual abuse, which is experienced in disproportionately high numbers by nonheterosexuals. Moreover, if nonheterosexual desires, preferences and behavior were indeed biological, one might expect them to remain fixed throughout a person’s life. Instead, “there is now considerable scientific evidence that sexual desires, attractions, behaviors and even identities can, and sometimes do, change over time.” Adolescents especially exhibit fluidity of sexual desire, although the authors note “opposite-sex attraction and identity seem to be more stable than same-sex or bisexual attraction and identity.”

Myth 2: Social stress from stigma and discrimination is the root cause of the poor mental health of persons identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Removing social stress, by normalizing nonheterosexual behaviors, will resolve these issues.

Mental Health Statistics

Compared to members of the heterosexual population, nonheterosexual persons are:

1 1/2 times higher risk of anxiety disorders

Twice the risk of depression

1 1/2 times the risk of substance abuse

Nearly 2 1/2 times the risk of suicide

Source: “Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences."

The “social stress” model proposes that stigma and discrimination directly cause the numerous mental health issues disproportionately found in the nonheterosexual population. The report identifies several shortcomings of the social stress model: Scientific evidence for the social stress model is limited, the parameters of social stress (what it is, what it means) are vaguely defined, and the model itself “does not put forth a complete explanation for the disparities” in mental health “between nonheterosexuals and heterosexuals.” In addition, the social stress model is unable to “explain the mental health problems of a particular patient.” They conclude that, “The social stress model probably accounts for some of the poor mental health outcomes experienced by sexual minorities, though the evidence supporting the model is limited, inconsistent and incomplete.” They recommend “more high-quality longitudinal studies” to assess the model’s usefulness.

Myth 3: A transgender person’s gender identity does not match the person’s sex at birth, so the transgender person is “trapped in the wrong body.”

The new report strongly counters this transgender myth. “The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex — that a person might be ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence.” A variation of this myth argues that a transgender person has, for example, a “male brain,’’ but a woman’s body. After reviewing studies of neurobiological differences in the brains of transgender persons, the report’s authors state that “all interpretations, usually in popular outlets,” suggesting that brain differences between transgender people and others are “the cause” of being transgendered are “unwarranted.”

Myth 4: Early transitioning, using medical treatments like puberty blockers, is the best way to treat transgender children.

The study’s authors emphatically reject this myth as not only unfounded in science but also potentially harmful to children. “The notion that a 2-year-old, having expressed thoughts or behaviors identified with the opposite sex, can be labeled for life as transgender has absolutely no support in science.” Moreover, Mayer and McHugh warn, “An area of particular concern involves medical interventions for gender-nonconforming youth. They are increasingly receiving therapies that affirm their felt genders and even hormone treatments or surgical modifications at young ages. But the majority of children who identify as a gender that does not conform to their biological sex will no longer do so by the time they reach adulthood. We are disturbed and alarmed by the severity and irreversibility of some interventions being publicly discussed and employed for children.” Because of the “scientific uncertainty” over treatments in children and the “lack of reliable studies on the long-term effects,” the report’s authors “strongly urge caution” toward such “premature” and “drastic” interventions.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe now in print or digital.

The report by Mayer and McHugh challenges current cultural myths surrounding gender and human sexuality, but their primary purpose in writing the report is concern for the well-being of transgender and nonheterosexual individuals. Many of these individuals have been promised — by cultural narratives if not physicians — that social affirmation of their chosen gender or sexual orientation will improve their lives and even resolve their psychological issues. The data, however, proves that this is not true. Mental health statistics paint a sobering picture of the mental and physical health challenges facing transgender and nonheterosexual persons. According to the report, members of the nonheterosexual population, compared to members of the heterosexual population, have approximately:

— 1 1/2 times higher risk of anxiety disorders.

— Twice the risk of depression

— 1 1/2 times the risk of substance abuse.

— Nearly 2 1/2 times the risk of suicide.

Transgender individuals fare worst of all, with lifetime suicide rates estimated at 41 percent; those who underwent sex-reassignment were about five times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die by suicide.

Mayer and McHugh’s report contradicts the conventional, highly politicized narrative that “transitioning” and “coming out” will solve the problems of nonheterosexuals or gender-dysphoric children. In fact, these experts argue, nonheterosexual and gender-dysphoric persons deserve better than being steered into life-changing decisions and radical treatments on the basis of faulty science. They deserve compassionate care rooted in sound scientific evidence.

Theresa Farnan, PhD, is an adjunct professor at Franciscan University in Ohio. Mary Rice Hasson is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

U can find psuedo science to make u feel better but it won't. Sorry, truth is truth.

11 notes · View notes

dihcorrea · 6 years

Text

The Gift of Song - Jimin Fairytale AU! (Part 1)

Pairing: Jimin x Female Reader (feat. Taehyung, Mamamoo Wheein, and GOT7 Jackson)

Genre: Fluff, angst, fairytale au! (PG15)

Summary: When Fairies lost one of their powers after too much contact with humans, they secluded themselves in their world. But you believe it is possible to hope again when you find out that a human has what your people has lost.

Word Count: 11.736

Warnings: Mentions of death

A/N: This is part of the @serendipity-day project for Fairytale and Voice themes. I hope you like it.

The working zone was getting filled up when you arrived. You were not late, but most of the fairies were already there. You smiled as you flew by, saying “good morning” to the ones you recognized. Your best friend was waiting for you close to one of the edges of the field and you smiled as she waved at you, spotting you at the same time as you recognized her.

Despite what people may think, fairies have their own types of work. Of course they have to personally help nature keep it’s balance sometimes, but Observing, Detecting and Filing were more important. At least that’s what the lead fairies always said. And you could understand why. If those three things weren’t well done, how could the Ground workers know what to do?

In Fairyland, fairies were divided into groups of five or six, and each group took its place in the field, with its own personal garden to assist in concentration, to observe a part of the Earth or a species. Of course, the fairies could do this kind of work on buildings that separated the teams from each other, but that would never work. Fairies are stirred up beings, who do not like enclosed places. In addition, the connection with nature always helps them to work better. They need nature as much as nature needs them. So they work in open fields. Not in dense forests, but in clearings that can give space to small gardens, according to the will of each team.

The teams were different because the fairies were different. Each of the fairies has a special gift, a Connection with one of nature's elements, given by Nature on the day they were born and that helps with some aspects of their work. Some are connected to the Air and know when it bears a different smell or particles, such as when it is dense with rain. Others know everything that happens to the Earth, whether it is ready for planting or if it is intoxicated in some way, even when it has some missing nutrients. The fairies connected with Water have all the perception about the element, and can even control it, which, of course, some use to control the wheather. And lastly, the connection with Heat is particularly interesting. When humans speak about the elements of nature, they always call this one Fire, although fire is only one of the manifestations of the element. Heat can appear in many ways and, like water, it is more used for wheather control to help with planting, but it can also be present in the way mothers hold their babies to protect them from the cold.

The teams had the number of fairies connected with each element according to the need of their work. But some, like yours, had a fairy of each element, because they all had equal importance and control over the part of the Earth or the species that was observed.

"Good morning," said Wheein, your best friend, when you finally reached her. Her short blond hair barely reached the chin line and she always had to throw it back so as not to cover her eyes, as at that moment.

You two still had a few minutes until one of the field leaders ordered them to start working. The previous shift was still retreating to the hours of rest so you could take their place.

The work zone encompassed the three most important stages of the work of the fairies. Observation was the first and longest stage, in which all teams observed what was happening on Earth from their gardens, using their gifts to find irregularities, anything that could harm Nature or the harmony of the world.

Fairyland was not exactly another world, but a second dimension where fairies were not affected so quickly by the changes of Nature that occurred on Earth, and from where they could observe everything through the portals of observation, a natural version created by fairies of what humans call crystal balls, or what could be called "crystal screens," since it occupied a flat, not round space.

If the fairies Detected any anomaly in their assigned part, they needed to catalog it according to the level of damage it could cause nature and notify the leaders of the work zone, and that was where the Council, a select group of older and more experienced fairies, stood in; they decided what should be done in relation to that irregularity.

Sometimes the Council decided to do nothing. If the irregularity was too small or too simple, they let fate take care of it alone, but that wasn't often. Most of the time, the Council sent Ground workers to solve the problem.

It was a difficult and often dangerous work, so only a few brave fairies were chosen to work on the Ground, crossing the portal that led from Fairyland to Earth and coming into contact with the other species and with the damaged nature. Not all fairies could stand to be near the imperfect nature they saw through the portals of observation. The lack of balance around them was able to break the balance within themselves. But someone needed to do that job and bring back to Fairyland the reports on how they dealt with the problem. These reports were Filed for learning, so the fairies knew what to do with each new anomaly, according to what they had already experienced.

So once again despite what people may think, there are no such things as fairy godmothers. Humans have gotten obsessed with it and insist that it is real. But just because some fairies, long ago, broke the rules and tried to help humans, it doesn't mean that this is a real job in Fairyland. In fact, all fairies who did this were punished for disobedience.

One more thing about fairies that isn't common knowledge. The superiors do not tolerate very well when someone break the rules.

The field leader who took care of your team area gave the order to begin and you and Wheein turned to your own screens to begin Observation.

Earth appeared in front of you, a blue-green part that you had learned was the ocean. And then you moved the controls to change the image, from the fascinating green of the trees to the colors of the flowers until arriving at the buildings. How could a place with so many nature harmony problems could have such beautiful landscapes? And how could a place with such creations of nature as this one have so much difficulty in maintaining itself?

That particular area you observed mixed the buildings with some plants. It was prettier than when it was just the gray of the buildings.

It had been a few months since your team had been observing that part of Earth, when was watching humans, but you had never been able to get used to that color. The building's gray looked so different from the glittering colors of nature that it always caught your eye. But the explanation for the places you saw was exactly because you observed humans. Your team was one of many designed to observe humans. Not only a specific part of Earth that was inhabited by them, but also their acts. Humans were a very complex species, with almost incomprehensible ability to modify nature, which made them important and dangerous to fairies. If fairies' work was to maintain balance on Earth, and consequently on Fairyland, their main task was to monitor the species with the greatest chance of ending that balance.

You directed your screen to a park, while Wheein watched the parking lot of a nearby company. There were some teenagers in the park, probably killing time after they left school. After so much time doing that work, you had already gotten a little bit into the routine of humans, at least in that part of the world.

But something about the behavior of those young men caught your eye. By a connection that only the fairy that controlled the screen could have, only you could hear the sounds of the image on your screen, and even without being human, you knew that the laughs and the jokes of those humans were the same as always, but their behavior was different.

A human female, a young girl who should not have been more than sixteen years old, was trying to get something out of the hand of a human boy, not much older than her, but much taller. The young man kept his arm raised to prevent the girl from catching whatever it was, and suddenly he raised his other hand.

It was only then that you realized that what the boy held and the girl wanted was a piece of paper, but now it was too late because the paper was burning. The boy had set fire to it when he raised his other hand.

You kept watching carefully, doing your job no matter how unusual the scene was. You were not there to intervene in humans lives. You were there to Observe and Detect something that could harm nature.

And then everything changed. Suddenly a stronger gust of wind took the still burning paper from the boy's hand and led it aimlessly through the air. As only a fairy could do, you concentrated a little more and you could foresee what would happen to that paper, like a movie passing in your mind at a greater speed than the reality on the screen, and you knew, without any doubt, by the gifts that nature gave to your kind, that the paper would fall in a part of the park with some dry leaves and would begin a fire that would take half of the park and would wound at least two of the adolescents before the human authorities could contain it.

This was the kind of intervention to nature that fairies were to avoid. That was the kind of job you were there to do.

Then, without taking your eyes off your own screen, you called Wheein, loud enough so that your friend had no doubt you'd called her, but low enough not to alert the other teams.

"Wheein, I need your help."

As the words left your mouth, your hands touched the screen. This contact was not necessary if you just wanted to control the image, but it would help if you needed to use the Connection, which was exactly what you were going to do.

Wheein did not approach you, she was not allowed to use your portal of observation. No one had. To facilitate the use of Connections, each fairy had and used their own screen for as long as they worked with Observation. Then Wheein directed her screen to the area you were observing and immediately realized what she needed to do.

You had already slowed the wind in the park until the paper stopped moving in the air and your friend knew you had asked for her help as a matter of Connection. Your entire team was there to solve the adverse situations on Earth, but each of the four was connected to a different element and had a specific role to play. In a case like that, if you had already used your connection with Air to stop the paper from continuing on the disastrous course, it was Wheein's turn to use her connection with Water to put out the fire.

That would appear in the records, of course, the way you two came together to intervene in the humans actions, but neither of you was concerned. That's what you were there for. It was not necessary to waste time with Council decisions for such situations. A decision had to be made quickly to prevent the damage, and no one would judge you for doing your job, especially when leaders saw the logs on the screen and could themselves foresee the damage that would have been done if you and Wheein did not had acted.

Once the situation was under control, you finally relaxed and moved your eyes off the screen, watching as the field leader near you nodded.

"Y/N, Wheein. Good job." Said the leader before moving away.

You and your friend smiled at each other before returning to work. Your shift was not over yet.

But it was all quiet now and the Observation would be quiet until you or someone else realized that a human was being neglected again to the point of wreaking havoc on nature. And then one or more fairies would work to solve the problem, because that was how the system worked. At least, that was when the situations were simple. And you hoped that the next situations would also be simple, to the point of not needing the Council's action. Nothing was simple when the Council needed to act, neither for humans who normally caused these interventions, nor for fairies.

But the Council had its reasons for it, because things were not always as simple as they seem today.

Long ago, when humans had not yet occupied Earth - at least not as the species they are today -, fairies already worked for balance, using Air, Water, Earth, and Heat. And all was fine, until the most recent stage of humans evolution.

Unlike other species, humans created more awareness at each stage of evolution and learned to use more tools. As a result, they began to use the planet's resources to create and change things, and the changes they made to Earth made it all get out of control. The four initial elements were no longer sufficient to contain the imbalance. The fairies' dimension began to collapse because they couldn't contain humans.

But Mother Nature would not let that happen, not without fighting. So she created a new gift for the beings who had always cared for her, the fairies, and called it the gift of Song.

The gift of Song was not one of the original gifts, and never worked the same way, because singing is not something that can be manipulated. Voice and music have a different effect from the elements that fairies could manually control and use to balance a situation by modifying it physically. The essence of Song was the purity of fairies, which made them different from the other species in character, and what made them chosen as protectors of nature and harmony.

That's why Song had a direct impact on the mood of humans. By itself, it could bring harmony to every person who listened to it, soothing heart and mind, and changing bad intentions to good ones.

It was later realized that this gift affected not only humans, but all species, including Fairyland ones, but only a few fairies possessed it, within the division of the elements into the species. And those who possessed the Song were venerated and protected for years, decades.

But the new gift came with a price no one noticed at first, and that was the biggest mistake of the fairies.

Humans were an extremely complex species. And the Song could not be controlled from afar. It was necessary for the person to hear it so that it had an effect on them. This forced fairies to leave Fairyland and go to Earth to calm humans and, excited to finally have a way to bring harmony back to the two dimensions, they didn't think much about it and hurried to do their job. So none of them imagined what could happen. Or realized when it did.

The coexistence between the two species brought some balance to humans, transformed the way of thinking of many of them, who began campaigns to save the planet. But this same coexistence also modified the fairies. Those few who possessed the gift of Song spent too much time among humans, not bothering to return to Fairyland while their powers were taking effect and, without realizing it, they began to act less like themselves and more like the other species. Humanity had the power to transform fairies as much as the last ones thought they could transform the former.

When the Council realized what was happening and ordered all fairies to return to Fairyland, it was too late. They came to their land without any power. The purity that had generated the new gift had been compromised and disappeared, before Mother Nature's eye, taking the Song with it.

Since then, the gift of the Song did not exist anymore. It was just a story told to the children in their learning days, as a legend, to teach them to be careful of their gifts and with humans. And the Council had to take measures to end the coexistence between the two species. That is why Observation and Detection were done through the screens. So there was so much bureaucracy when the situation required direct intervention and only a select group of fairies were allowed to cross the portal. So the two species were more separated now than at any other time. The fear of the transformation that humans could cause to fairies was too great.

The proof of what was possible was still present in Fairyland, in the way every fairy who had lost their gift felt about all that. No other gift had replaced the one that no longer existed to calm the feelings that were stronger now, after living with humans, than before. The purest old fairies were now resentful and angry. They resented nature, who had first chosen them for the new gift and sent them to do a difficult job and then punished them for not being strong enough. They blamed humans for having transformed them into what they were today and taking away the purity that made them so special.

So it wasn't a simple task to watch humans, as you did every day. It wasn't necessary to have any special features for this, but it was a job well supervised by the leaders.

The image on the screen in front of you changed and you began to watch people walk back and forth in the hallway of a building. The name on the facade of the building had no special meaning when you read it, because it wasn't a company that worked with chemicals or natural resources specifically, but you knew it was your job to Observe that place as well. Nothing could be ignored.

You guided the screen as if it were your own eyes, as if you were flying yourself inside the building, seeing all those people, while they couldn't see you. Everything made it look like you were there, as your connection to the screen continued. The images, the smell, the sounds.

Something caught your attention and you suddenly stopped the screen moving. It was a voice, young and pretty, strong too, a little thick, and hoarse as well. Whoever it might be was singing. And he was foccused because he did it very well.

A few years ago, humans had also realized that music had some power. Of course, they had no idea what the gift of Song was, not even that it had once existed, but they knew there was something in the music that helped influence people, even to calm them down. And they began to explore it as well, as they did with everything else. They made sounds playing instruments, and with their own voices.

It was admirable of them, since they would never even have the chance to experience the gift of Song, but they tried anyway, and succeeded in their attempts. Without knowing the magic of the Song, they didn't want to get what it brought, they just wanted to entertain each other.

But some fairies resented even that. Humans using something that was originally from the fairies and that they no longer possessed. Not only the fairies who now had no gifts, but most fairies resented the humans who could make music, and nothing, in years, managed to change what they felt. The fairies still blamed them, as if they had taken the new gift of the species themselves.

Then another voice joined the first. Lighter, less thick, but obviously more instinctive, completely natural. And when the first voice stopped and let the second master the song, suddenly it was not just the image on the screen that was motionless, so were you.

The sound was like a breeze moving the leaves of the trees, the freshness of a flowering garden, the mild warmth of spring and the waves beating gently against the sand of the beach. All this at the same time.

The voice was sweet, angelic even, with a touch of calm even at the highest notes. And a slight hoarseness that only made everything even more shocking. And as the words came out, you could see every feeling the person wanted to express.

It was a man who was singing, but you didn't pay attention to it, just kept listening, for a moment forgetting what to do.

Wheein stopped Observing when she realized that you had been motionless for some time and began to watch you, frowning with worry. She said your name softly, trying to get your attention without calling the leader's, but you didn't hear. She thought the humans could have done something this time, something really terrible and powerful, that had petrified you through the screen.

The fear of what might be happening to you was taking hold of her as the leader approached and began to talk to you.

"Y/N. You've been watching this image for a long time. Is there any problem?"

"Actually," Wheein began, suddenly feeling that she needed to stop the leader from realizing what was happening and giving you room to get back out of your trance. At least she hoped you could come back alone. "She's thinking, trying to help me."

"We don't have time to think in this work, Miss Jung. You should…"

"The matter, leader, is that I have a question."

And the discussion continued, with Wheein saying almost anything that popped into her mind to try to divert the attention of the leader of your body as frozen as your screen.

But you were not hearing a single word of what they said. Your were too stunned to pay attention. Because the immobility of your body was only a reflection of the surprise of hearing something so beautiful. Inside, you felt as if you were flying, floating in the warm breeze of your own element. The Connection with the Air made you feel light, complete, as if your spirit were totally at peace.

It was as if that voice were magic.

And then you knew.

Of course there was no special reason for you to be so sure, except that you had listened his voice. Because you had never met someone who had that ability, not while the person had it, at least. So you didn't know exactly what it was like and you had nothing to compare with. But something inside you was sure.

The hairs on your body were still bristling, your heart still pounding as you began to move the screen images to find the owner of the voice that had done that to you. Because somehow you knew that human had the gift of Song.

What you thought to be impossible was happening. The gift of Song still existed, and was Connected to a human.

As soon as the screen began to show different images, the leader stopped discussing with Wheein, who sighed in relief.

You passed the halls and the rooms looking for him, watching from another dimension, but feeling as if you were there in person. You did not want to lose it by carelessness, if you saw it, but did not pay attention, so you looked at the places carefully, albeit as quickly as possible. You didn't want the song he was singing to end and the gift to no longer be there to help you.

Then you found him, just as he was singing the last note so sweetly and so lightly that you smiled, even without thinking about doing it.

There were two young men, about twenty years old, in the room. One of them had blond and messy hair. His eyes were very dark and penetrating, but the box smile was lively and carried lightness to his handsome face.

But the other one, the owner of the voice you couldn't forget, had black hair, with the fringe falling over his brown eyes. He wasn't smilling, but his full lips complemented his concentrated expression. He was handsome too, and looked more serious than the first one, who was taller, but his eyes sparkled with the same excitement. His voice suited him, after all.

"It's amazing what you can do with your voice," said the first man. "I couldn't even continue singing."

He laughed. And you smiled with him. And the quick smile that came later almost knocked you out of breath. Was there anything about him that wouldn't bewitch you?

"It's only practice," he replied to his friend. "If you train hard enough, you'll be able to do it."

"Jimin, you know what I'm talking about," continued the blonde one, taking one of the instruments in the corner of the room and hanging on his shoulder. "Not even all the training in the world makes someone's voice sound magical."

So his name was Jimin. Suddenly this seemed like very important information as he smiled back at his friend and left the room.

"Maybe you have your own magic," he said, right before looking up.

You weren't there for real. He couldn't see you or see how fascinated you were. Even so, you felt your cheeks blush. It was as if he had caught you staring at him.

The two left your screen as they walked out, and you chose not to follow them at that moment. Instead, your breathed, a little more relaxed.

"Glad you're back," Wheein said, turning her body to you and resting her chin on both hands as she studied you. "It would've been difficult to explain to our leader that you're overtime for a non-important situation. Because if it were important she would want to know exactly what it was. "

"Wait. Overtime?" you asked.

"Yes, our shift is over. But you were still there, as if in a trance. I thought I'd have to poke you."

"I didn't..." you interrupted what you were saying. You had known Wheein all along, and you knew there was no point in arguing with her. If she thought you looked like in a trance while Observing, she would keep saying that, no matter what you said.

But it wasn't going to take long for you to tell her what had happened. You told each other everything. You just didn't want to do it there, in the work field, where anyone else could hear.

You still felt the energy the flapping of wings carried when you stood at the front door of Jackson Wang's house. You, Jackson and Wheein had been best friends since the Learning era, but he worked in a different and distant part of the work zone, Observing savannas and other species while you and Wheein were Observing cities and humans. So you three made it a habit to meet him at his place after work.

Jackson didn't take long to answer. His brown eyes were already full of recognition as he opened the door, because he already knew it were you and Wheein who had arrived. His brown hair would fall on his forehead no matter how much he threw it back.

"Come in," he said, and walked away so you could pass.

Mrs. Wang left the kitchen at that moment with the cookies she always made for you and set the tray on the table.

"Hello girls! The cookies are ready. I'll leave you here and go," Mrs. Wang said, and then turned to her son. "I'm going to the central garden. It looks like they want to make some changes over there. If you need, you know where to find me."

Then she left, flapping her wings quickly to get to the door just as the three of you sat on the heated stone carpet in the living room.

The gifts were not divided by families, but by affinity and personality, but somehow, Jackson's family managed to have almost all its members with the Connection with Heat.

As the proximity to their own element made the fairy feel in balance and satiated of their needs, the houses ended up always containing some touch of the elements. In Wang's house, for example, everything had to do with Heat. The heated stones that formed a decorative rug on the living room floor, the shades of red and orange on the walls. If everyone in the house had an affinity for Heat, the more that element was present, the better.

Jackson's grandmother was the only one in the family you knew who didn't have the same gift. Nowadays she didn't even have a gift, because she had been chosen for Song, and also lost it. She was not a bitter fairy, as many in the same situation had become, but kept away from fellowship with the other fairies. And in a way, you could understand why. It must be difficult to see everyone around you happy and complete with their gifts and while you had none.

You thought of Air and how it made you feel like everything in the world was right, and you imagined how sad it would be to have to live without it. And perhaps for the millionth time, you wished you could pass on that good feeling to Jackson's grandmother, as his family did with Heat, warming the stones on the floor of the room so that the visitors would feel comfortable on cold days.

"What are we doing today?" Jackson asked excitedly.

You didn't answer right away, you were snuggling to the rocks. They were warm enough, and the feeling was good and welcome.

Then Wheein answered for you.

"Something happened in the field today. Y/N saw something and stood completely still, as if something on Earth had paralyzed her."

"It wasn't like that," you defended yourself, but you knew it was a lie. Surprise had not let you move.

But Wheein grimaced in your direction, showing that she didn't believe your lie, and proving to Jackson that you were lying. "But she still hasn't told me what she saw," she continued.

You sighed. Not because you didn't want to tell them, but because you knew it would be difficult to make your friends believe. You yourself had trouble believing, even though you saw and heard everything.

"There was a boy..." you started, but the two interrupted you at the same time.

"I can't believe it," said Wheein.

"And he's handsome?" asked Jackson.

You smiled. Wheein was outraged, but the things that worried her were not the main detail of the story to Jackson. Wheein knew the complications of observing humans very closely and getting involved with them for any fairy, but Jackson was interested. A handsome man was always a good candidate for a romantic engagement. And Jackson never ignored it. He believed he would find his soul mate sometime soon and was always willing to look for him. And as it seemed, it didn't matter if the handsome man was a human.

Your friends were so different sometimes.

You didn't answer either of them and kept narrating. "I was watching when I heard a voice singing and I stopped to listen. The voice was beautiful and caught my attention. But then another voice came and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The second voice had something different, special. I listened until the end, without noticing the time passing."

When you looked at Jackson, he waited anxiously. His eyes sparkled with curiosity. Then you answered with a short laugh. "Yeah, Jackson, he's handsome. Both are."

Satisfied now, your friend smiled too and relaxed, but Wheein's voice was not relaxed when she spoke, it was worried.

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened," she said. "You stood there, with your screen frozen, for a long time. The field leader started asking questions, but you didn't hear anything. I managed to distract her, but you're risking a lot. You know what can happen to you if she starts to think you're getting involved with humans."

"You don't understand," you protested. "He was Singing." The emphasis you gave the word made Jackson blink. "Not both, but the second boy was. It's incredible and scary to deduce this, and I don't know how, but I felt it. It was different from the first voice."

"You can't be serious," Wheein said, gawking in surprise.

"I am," you stated. None of you had ever lived with the gift of Song because it had disappeared before you were born, but everyone had heard stories of what it felt like. "I heard it, and I couldn't believe it at first either. It was exactly as they say it is."

"Wow!" Jackson exclaimed, earnestly, but with an excited voice. "Grandma always said it could happen." When the two of you looked at him with questioning expressions, he continued. "She says changes have occurred in both fairies and humans. That the two species were influenced on the same level. So if the fairies developed bad and bitter emotions, humans could also have developed something that only fairies had. But I don't know if she imagined that any of them could have the gift of Song. "

"It's been a long time since the species lived together. It may be that the gift was developed later, taking longer to appear." You noted. "But I'm pretty sure I felt it."

Then Jackson tapped a hand on the heated stones on the floor, as if decreeing something. "That's why I asked you if he's handsome," he said.

"What? Why?" asked Wheein.

"To see if he's worth it," Jackson replied. You looked at him with a frown, confused as Wheein, but he completed. "It's obvious you want to go to Earth and find this man. You want to prove personally that he has the gift. I was wondering if he's worth the trouble you can cause by doing it."

"If he's beautiful is it worth it?" Wheein asked, shaking her head as if she couldn't believe what your friend was saying. Jackson shrugged, but his smile was an affirmative answer.

"I was thinking maybe your grandmother could help us make sure he has the gift or not." You spoke directly to Jackson.

Wheein sighed, realizing that you had made your decision.

***

The portal flickered just before you passed it. It was not hard to find, since the Council believed that fairies would be obedient enough not to go through it if that was not their job.

You took a deep breath. You had never been through the portal before and didn't know what the other side, Earth, was like. At least, no more than your Observations had shown. The portal seemed only the meeting of two different densities of air. If someone saw it without paying attention, they wouldn't understand that it was the passage to another dimension, but you knew what to look for.

The portal involved you as you passed by, flying low, afraid, because you didn't know what would happen when you reached the other side. And you felt the heavy air, literally dense around you, as if it were a cloak all over your body, and the feeling was stronger on your back.

Suddenly you searched for a river that ran close by and came to it, still flying low and this time looking around, afraid that some human might see you, but there was no one close by.

And when you saw your own reflection in the water, you finally understood why you felt so much the air's density on your body. Your slightly pointed ears were now rounded, and your back, where you most felt the weight of the wind, were where your wings should be, light and flexible, like a butterfly's, but the water did not reflect them.

The portal not only connected the two dimensions, after all. It made one species resemble the other, at least visually.

You sighed and blew the hair that fell on your face as you let the air out. Mother Nature certainly had reasons to make the portal that way. It would probably have been a mess if the fairies who visited Earth simply showed themselves to humans as they were. And anyway, the power of the portal did not change anything to you. Humans couldn’t see, but your wings were still there and you could still fly.

A movement to your right suddenly caught your eye, but before you could scream, Wheein stepped out from behind one of the trees in the woods where you were. She shook her head as if to make something fall from her short hair.

"So it's true," said your friend. "I always wondered how the portal prevented humans from seeing our wings." Then she looked at you, frowned, and her eyes widened. Her face lit up with surprise as she spoke again. "And it looks like it's not only the wings! Your ears!" And she put her hands to her own ears to see if the same thing had happened to her.

"What are you doing here?" you asked and saw when your best friend's expression turned serious again and she shrugged.

"I couldn't let you come alone," Wheein replied. "Who'd help you if you got in trouble?"

You shook your head, laughing to yourself. It was quite typical for Wheein to pretend she was not interested in the adventure, even though she knew that you could see that was exactly what she wanted. Of course she'd do anything to help you if you really got into trouble, but she also didn't want to be left out of the excitement.

"Is Jackson here, too?" you asked, looking around.

“No. He decided to stay to prepare Grandma for what we are doing and to give an excuse to the leaders if we don't come back soon."

But neither of you knew that you didn’t need to take long to get the leaders' attention.

Jackson didn't take long to tell his grandmother what you had seen and heard in the field, or that you were already gone, looking for the young man who could Sing. Mi Kyoung didn't look as surprised as her grandson thought she would.

"Does anyone else know that, Jackson?" she asked in a subdued voice, her eyes shining as if a whole world of possibilities passed before them.

“No ma’am. Y/N said a field leader was bothered by the time she spent Observing the same image but she couldn't have listened to what was happening on the screen. The portals of observation only allow the one who manipulates it to listen," Jackson replied, sure of what he was saying. He really believed all the danger you were in had to do with the unauthorized visit to Earth.

But he was wrong this time.

"You never noticed, did you?" Mi Kyoung asked suddenly. When Jackson blinked at her, not understanding what Grandma meant, she continued. "Portals of observation can be handled by anyone, even if only one at a time."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But no one ever uses another fairy's portal. It doesn't make sense."

"They do if they think it's important," Mi Kyoung said. "Jackson, living with humans in the past has brought us more than different emotions. Fairies also learned from them how to use some technologies. Portals of observation are as natural as possible, but not completely. The Council used in them the same technology humans use with surveillance cameras. The portals record the images and audio of everything that passes through them."

Jackson's eyes widened, finally realizing what his grandmother meant.

If the screens could record what was Observed, the field leader could've gone back to your screen after the work shift and seen everything you saw, and listened to what you heard. And then she'd know about the gift of Song and would be able to tell the Council.

"Jackson." Mi Kyoung caught her grandson's attention one more time. "The gift of Song is more powerful than you think. Being able to change a person's emotions, or even a fairy's, gives the gift’s owner the power to do almost anything." She paused and closed her eyes as if the memory brought her pain. "Yes, it takes a pure heart and personal harmony to have this gift, but it is a very delicate Connection. The Council never gave the fairies total freedom to use the Song in fear of the changes it might cause in Fairyland. The Council was happy when we lost this gift."

Jackson's grandmother stopped talking, waiting for her grandson to take in everything she had said. She noted the look of astonishment on his face, worried about what he might do next to help his friends, but only when he said his own words did she realize his decision was made.

"Honey, the Council wasn't able to control humans even when using the gift of Song. And fairies' fear of that other species only grows. What do you think the Council's going to do when they find out there's a human who can Sing?"

Jackson's eyes flashed with determination right before he answered.

"Like humans, we kill what scares us," he said.

***

You and Wheein weren't flying when you reached the building where you had seen Jimin through the portal of observation. You didn't want to scare humans. In fact, you didn't even know if you'd find him in the building, since you had seen him leave with his friend, but it was the only place you could search, for you knew nothing more about him.

It was strange to walk so much and go upstairs when in Fairyland you used your wings more than your legs, as much as it was strange to feel the weight of the portal power on your wings, but you wouldn't complain. You were there with a purpose and wasn't willing to go back before achieving it.

You stopped walking when you heard a loud, clear voice, following the rhythm of the beginning of a song. Of course, in a building where everyone worked with music, that voice could be anyone's, and it certainly wasn't Jimin's. You'd know if it were. You were convinced you'd recognize his voice anywhere, even if millions of people were singing along with him.

Still, you recognized the thick, husky voice that sang, and followed the sound to the next room. If Jimin's friend was singing nearby, there was a chance he'd be there too.

Wheein followed you, frowning at the thought that you might have recognized that voice as having the gift of Song. Because, despite being a beautiful voice, it didn't stir Wheein's emotions as she always thought the Song would. It didn't get her thinking about home, or feeling everything in the world was right. It only made her shiver.

When you opened the door slowly and quietly, however, she saw that your eyes didn't cling to the singer. They wandered around the room searching for someone else. Someone that, Wheein realized, lit your eyes when you found him, but at the same time made you nervous.

At that moment, the deep voice of the tall, dark-eyed singer changed slightly, but enough for him to stop singing. He looked at his friend who watched him a few steps away.

“See? That's where I always have problems. I can't make that part sound as good as it should," the singer said. "You said it's a matter of practice, but I don't think it's worth practicing if I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"It's not you, Tae. It's the song," Jimin replied, approaching his friend. "I don't think it was written thinking about you and you don't have a common voice. That's why sometimes your voice doesn't seem to fit in."

"Maybe it was written with you in mind. All song writers of this place dream of composing for you. And girls dream of hearing you sing to them."

"Nonsense. I'm not the pro here. It's you everyone wants to hear." Jimin said.

Tae gave him a skewed look and a half-crooked box smile, as if he thought his friend and teacher were only saying that to cheer him up. But Taehyung, whom Jimin called Tae thanks to the intimacy of a long friendship, had no low self-esteem and didn't envy his friend. Jimin had made his choice when he decided to be a singing teacher instead of a professional singer, such as Taehyung, and the two were happy in their professions, helping each other whenever they could. But Taehyung never stopped trying to convince his friend to be a singer. Maybe they could form a duo if Jimin agreed. Jimin's magic voice could charm a crowd in mere seconds.

Jimin smiled at his friend, approaching a piano in the corner of the room.

"But I think we can fix the situation," Jimin began. "Do you think the song writer will be too upset if I made some modifications to the song for you?"

"Not if I tell her it was you who changed it."

"She's not in love with me, Tae. Stop with that."

Kim Taehyung's smile brightened even more at his friend's slightly embarrassed words. "If you say so," was his answer.

Then Jimin ran his fingers over the piano and let out a few keystrokes. Neither of them had noticed your or Wheein's presence, and the two of you watched in silence, as you had spent years learning to do for working in the Observation field.

"Why don't we try this?" Jimin asked and suddenly began to play the instrument, his voice following shortly after.

It took a second, maybe two, for you to be totally bewitched by his voice again, feeling like the whole world didn’t even have a flaw, and you were exactly where you should and wanted to be. Involuntarily, you smiled, lost in time and space, just listening. Feeling the magic engaging you.

Only now did you think about his natural voice, the one you heard when he wasn’t Singing. The gift of Song was present in Jimin's music, but his voice was still beautiful when he didn't Sang. And then you realized that it was not exactly the voice that changed, but it's energy. The voice was still the same, but the gift made it so harmonious that the man couldn't contain such perfection. The sound spread the sense of peace and harmony to all the ones who heard it.

Looking at him at that moment, you thought Jimin seemed to glisten, but you knew it was all your imagination, for you were so affected by his gift. Probably.

In a curious moment, you looked at Wheein, wanting to see her reaction, and you knew that your friend was recognizing what you had recognized through the portal of observation. There was something special about that man's voice, and for you fairies to think so, it was because there really was something different. After all, you were born to deal with such things.

Wheein was wide-eyed, her hands clutching her arms, as if that could contain her shivers. When she looked at you, she didn't have to say anything to let you know what she was thinking. It'd been hard to believe for you, too.

When you looked forward again, you saw Taehyung open his eyes. He had closed them to better appreciate the sound of his friend's voice.

Jimin stopped singing and smiled. He had only Sung for a few seconds, but it felt you'd listened to him all your life. Your heart was still pounding in your chest.

When Taehyung tried to sing the way Jimin told him to, and his voice sounded better, he laughed, the deep sound surprising you.

"Jimin, you're a genius!" Taehyung said. "How did you know it was going to work?"

Jimin also laughed before answering and shrugging. "It's a gift."

He obviously didn't know how close he was to the truth. And maybe it was time to tell him. But Wheein was faster than you, and before you could do anything to get the two men's attention she was already speaking.

"How long have you been doing that?" she asked.

The two of them looked at you wide-eyed, their bodies tense and threatening to run away.

“Who are you? And how long have you been here?" Taehyung asked.

"You didn't answer my question," Wheein stated, and you nudged her ribs.

It seemed a crime to frighten the two men in front of you that much. So, you decided to be friendlier and answer their questions first.

"I'm Y/N and this is my friend Wheein. Forgive her rush. We're here for only a few minutes and we didn't want to scare you." Then you hesitated. What'd you say now? You hadn't thought of anything, rehearsed anything. You had been too focused in the possibility of hearing his voice again to remember thinking of anything to say when you met him. "It's just that we had to come and meet you. I couldn’t wait anymore."

Your last two sentences came out in a whisper that grew lower with every word, but even so, Jimin could hear. You had to come and meet him? Why? He restrained a smile when he thought that perhaps there was something special that might have caught your attention even from a distance.

Jimin thought you were beautiful. Wheein too, but she stared at him as a scientist looked at a new discovery. As if she wanted to study every detail of his until she discovered what had caught your attention. But something in the respectful, ashamed way you looked at him made you even more attractive, and made him smile unconsciously.

He wasn't stupid. He knew he had something special on his voice. If not since he was born, at least since he began singing. And he knew how it affected people. Everyone said they heard something wonderful when he sung and it seemed he didn't have the ability to miss a note, or, if he did, nobody noticed. Some people were envious and angry, others were willing to become his personal slaves, if he wanted them to. He'd already received such suggestions. And others were obsessed with hearing him and finding out why and how he could do that.

Few people had grown used to the idea enough to become friends with him, as Taehyung had done. Of course, Tae was already his friend before they discovered what his voice could do.

But no one had looked at him like you were looking at that moment. He waited patiently for you to speak again.

"I... ahn… Your voice. I heard you from afar and... I had to meet you." You said, still stumbling on your own words.

So that was it, despite the different way, you were just another girl in love with his voice that didn't want to know the real man who owned it. You just wanted to hear him sing. For the millionth time, Jimin wondered if his life would be easier if he were a professional singer, as Tae always suggested.

“No. That's not right." And there you were again, not finding the right words. "What you do is important to my people. It was part of us one day, but it isn't anymore. We need that back. We need you to bring it back."

This was new to Jimin. People had never invented stories to make him sing before. They simply asked him to sing. Sometimes, if they were girls, they said they were in love. But that left him with no reaction at all. All he could manage to say was a quick, "What?"

You sighed, trying to find the words that would better explain the situation than the first attempt, but Wheein spoke before you.

"What you've got in your voice is really a gift, as you said. It's not just a talent, as humans call it. And it's not something you can do easily. It isn't something humans should even be able to do. This gift was born with us in our land." Wheein paused when she heard you sigh again and took your hand. "We're not like you." When Taehyung raised one eyebrow with a mixture of curiosity and mockery, she ignored him and continued speaking. "We're fairies and came from another dimension. Our people have lost that gift of yours many years ago and still suffer from the loss. We'd like your help to bring it back."

You raised your eyes to Wheein. You two hadn't talked about it, but somehow, you'd thought the same. It wasn't only the fact Jimin had the gift that had brought you there. Both of you hoped he could help restore the balance that Fairyland had lost when Sing disappeared.

"Do you guys really expect us to believe that? That you're fairies?" Jimin asked.

You started controlling the air around you without saying a word. Fairies powers that humans didn't have were what distinguished you from humans and the best way to show it was telling the truth.

A light breeze made Jimin's black hair move, spreading around his face, and then followed to do the same with Taehyung. Their expression didn't change. Even if they were inside a closed room in a building, feeling wind in their hair wasn't unusual for them.

You were going to try something stronger when Wheein gave up waiting and raised one eyebrow, catching the men's attention. She didn't move. Only her eyes roamed Jimin's body first and then Taehyung's. That was the only proof that what came next was her fault.

Fairies didn't need to create the elements to use them. Their Connection to Nature was so great that they could use whatever they had of their element in the environment, in any form. And Wheein was very good in controlling Water, even the one that was already part of the human body.

Even in the air-conditioned room, beads of sweat appeared on the men's faces and shoulders. And the water didn't stop appearing on their skin until their shirts were soaked.

How could they explain it rationally? To sweat in a refrigerated room and only on the top of their bodies.

Wheein smiled at the result, but you worried they could catch a cold or something. Saying your friend's name in a reprimand tone, you used a warm wind to dry them both. When it was over, you analyzed them both, pleased, trying to forget the image of how the wet shirt had attached to Jimin's well-made body just seconds earlier.

When you looked into his eyes, you saw they were wide open, but before you could say anything, Taehyung said.

“Wow! That was incredible! How did you do that?"

"It's like Wheein said," you answered. "We're fairies. We do it naturally. We're born with the gift of controlling some element of Nature. Jimin does that too, but his gift is less known and common, yet very important. It's called the gift of Song."

Taehyung laughed, in contrast to Jimin's very serious face and stormy eyes.

"Did you hear that, Jimin? You've got a gift. Like a fairy. That explains a lot." Tae said cheerfully. At least he believed what you said, since his friend didn't seem to believe it.

"That’s ridiculous," Jimin said, waving his arms nervously. "I just know how to sing. It's no big deal. Tae knows it too and you're not interested in him."

There was only one thing that'd get them more shocked than your element powers. The last thing you could do to try and convince the black-haired, brown-eyed man who was frowning at you.

Then, with some effort, you used Air to push away the portal density from you. The weight left your body slowly, until you felt light again, despite the concentration needed to do that. And you could see on Jimin's eyes the exact moment when your wings got visible.

They were white with gold details, like long, firm strokes made by a talented painter, but everyone who'd looked at them up to that point was so used to seeing something like this that they reacted as if it was something absolutely normal and ordinary. But it wasn't like that for Jimin. He'd never seen a fairy before, and his eyes, wide with surprise, also showed delight. And that attracted you even more.

When the effort to keep the wings visible became too much, you let the portal density cover them again.

"If your friend had the gift, we'd certainly be interested in taking him too," you stated.

Taehyung raised his eyebrows, flattered.

"If, by chance, I believed in you, what do you think I could do to help?" Jimin asked.

"First, you can show our people there's still hope. The gift of Song has to do with harmony and balance. Everything fairies have struggled to achieve for centuries. Losing it made them believe they'd lost their essence as well. Maybe you can show them all that it's possible to get back on track," you explained, with more emotion in your voice than you intended.

"And maybe you'll finally find out who you are, Jimin. And understand what you can do with your song." Taehyung spoke suddenly, encouraging his friend to agree to go with you to Fairyland.

"Hey, I'm not a fairy!" Jimin exclaimed, but this time he seemed more playful than outraged.

“No. You are totally and utterly human," you completed. "But you have something that fairies have missed. Maybe you are the element we need to restore our balance and our relationship with Mother Nature."

"I can't leave it here. I'm helping Tae with something." Jimin insisted.

"You've already helped me," Taehyung rebutted, a big smile on his face as if overcoming a very important discussion. "With your help, the song will be perfect for recording. You can go with no fear."

Jimin looked at his friend, then at you and Wheein, and for a second you thought he was looking for other excuses not to go, but fortunately he found none.

"Let's go," you said as you took his hand and led him to the door, a quick thankful look to Taehyung. "The faster we go, the faster we get to Fairyland and then we can fix things. And bring you back."

***

Jimin wasn't convinced he was doing the right thing yet, even as he followed you and Wheein out of town. But he relied on Taehyung's judgment, since he certainly didn't trust himself, at least not when it came to his gift.

He hadn't always sung. He'd discovered his talent and passion in high school when he was about to enter college. And the exploitation had begun almost at the same time.

The music industry was complicated and demanded a lot from the new singers, but what Jimin could do with his voice, even unintentionally, was very unusual and rare. No one he knew had ever seen it happen before, but that didn't stop acquaintances and strangers from doing anything to use it to their advantage.

It'd taken him some time to understand the power in his voice. More than it should. Certainly, longer than other people. And by the time producers and headhunters realized he could catch the attention of everyone who heard him and bring such a good feeling that everyone wanted to keep listening to him incessantly, they began to fight over each other for the opportunity to work with Jimin, who could no longer sleep from so much exploitation, and to use his gift to manipulate people.

All this made him give up music. After all, he never wanted to manipulate anyone. All he wanted was to have fun while distributing entertainment for a living, lessening the world's pain and worry. But if, thanks to people's ambitions, his music was doomed to do more harm than good, he was willing to give it up.

It was Taehyung that made him think better about it. After a few years trying, the box-smiling young man finally managed to make the friend realize that gift would only be turned into a curse if he let it. Leaving music was painful for Jimin, and Taehyung could see it clearly. So, he didn't rest until his older friend decided to go back into the business. Jimin swore he'd never sing again for profession, but Taehyung was pleased when he realized there was no harm in being a singing teacher.

And ever since, that was what Jimin did, taking advantage of the ease the gift brought him and extending his teachings to Taehyung himself when he needed it.

After everything that happened, Jimin only sang when he thought it was safe, and in public, only if it was strictly necessary.

And there you were, walking fast ahead of him. Determined and eager to get to your land. Agitated because you wanted to use your wings again. A completely unknown girl who'd become interested in him because you heard him singing.

Until that part you were like all the others, except for Taehyung, but until now you hadn't asked him to sing. And you weren't asking him to do it only so you and your friend could feel good, or even that others would feel in paradise while being led to do your wills and things they didn't want to.

No. You were asking him to save your people. The Fairyland fairies, a people and a place that he didn't even knew existed until he met you.

Of course, as a human, he didn't even know whether it was possible to bring harmony to a whole people that way. Especially knowing his gift only worked as long as he continued singing. But he knew how a little spark of hope could be strong enough to make a person move forward, as it had done to him.

Maybe his voice was powerful enough to bring hope, however small, to a whole species. You at least seemed sure of it. And if you and Taehyung were right, he could save your people and learn about his gift at the same time.

Of course, everything could still be a big lie to try and manipulate him. The music industry could be quite creative when it wanted to. But something deep inside him said no one would go as far as to pretend controlling the Air and Water elements, nor creating wings so convincing and able to disappear in the blink of an eye just to make him sing.

When Jimin heard the sound of a branch breaking, he stopped walking and looked back. He didn't know where the sound had come from, and he didn't want to seem fainthearted, if it was just an animal passing through the part of the forest where you walked. But then he heard the movement of the wind, as when it is shaken by wings flapping, and hoped he wasn't imagining something that was not there when he called your name.

You were surprised by the sound of his voice. He hadn't said anything since the three of you'd left the rehearsal room and you thought you wouldn't listen to him for a while longer.

You knew something was wrong though, as soon as you looked at him. His brown eyes met yours and you realized he knew it too.

Looking around, you gestured him closer to you. Frightened, he covered the short distance and widened his eyes as you positioned yourself in front of him, facing a cluster of nearby trees.

"There's something wrong, isn't there? What is going on?” he asked.

You didn't answer, watching the trees as you tried to maintain a natural and confident posture at the same time. Thoughtful, Wheein replied as she took her place behind him.

"They're here."

Of course, that answer didn't help to soothe Jimin's racing heart.

"They who?" he asked again.

"The Council," you whispered quietly, right before a tall blond woman with a slim body appeared through the trees you were watching. She seemed to float on the ground, since her large gray wings were also hidden by the cloak of the portal.

Jimin watched the woman even as you settled your body in front of his. She was older than you, who he thought was the same age as him, and had a stunning beauty. Maybe all fairies had. But her body was rigid and her eyes had a wicked glow. And she didn't shine in white and gold, as he saw happening to you, as if you had your own light. But by the way she floated, he figured she was a fairy too.

"Y/N," the woman said. It was a cold greeting.

"Lady Fiona." Fairies adopted the treatment of lords and ladies long ago, trying to resemble human monarchies, and as the Council’s leader Fiona always demanded this when it came to herself. "What a surprise to meet you here."

"You shouldn't be surprised. You knew there'd be consequences when you left Fairyland without permission." Fiona replied with the same harshness, even though her hands gracefully joined in front of her body.

You and Wheein had the same thought, but neither of you put it into words so as not to make the situation worse. Of course, you knew the Council would send someone after you as you crossed the portal linking the two dimensions. You just didn't know that the situation was so important that the Council’s leader herself felt the need to do it in person.

"I had permission, of course." You started, but when she asked from whom, you weren't able to say anything. It was obvious that you had no permission, and if you continued with the lie, you'd end up creating problems for the friends who helped you out there. "But the point is that it was too important to wait. I've found something that can help us. After so many years, we finally have the chance to..."

"I know what you found." Fiona interrupted you. "And there's a reason why it doesn't exist among us anymore."

The icy tone in her voice made Wheein frown and made Jimin step back. You shuddered, but still didn't want to believe what you were hearing and continued.

"Yes, Mother Nature's taken it from us. But maybe now we can change the situation. And the attitudes. Perhaps he can bring the necessary harmony to meet purity again."

"That won't happen, Y/N. There's a reason we chose to live without that gift. Yes, Mother Nature lost some of her chosen ones when they came to live with humans, but not all of them. There was still enough purity to keep the gift among us until we decided it was time to eradicate it."

As Fiona spoke, other fairies came from the trees, all floating and with hostile glances. All members of the Council. You counted twenty of them and moved closer to Jimin, touching him lightly with your hands to make sure he was there behind you and try to protect him.

There were only two ways a fairy could lose the Connection to her element. Having it withdrawn by Mother Nature, which was rare, or dying. You felt a pain in the chest when Fiona's words made you realize it wasn't Mother Nature who took the gift of Song from the fairies. But it was possible, of course, that after such cruelty, it had decided it'd be best not to have it born again.

Everything you ever believed in was falling apart with those words. The fairies themselves had the courage to take lives to eliminate an element. The tale may not be entirely true, but it was not entirely false either. The gift of Song really disappeared because the fairies changed too much and lost the purity that made them special.

At that moment you felt even more the need for Jimin's help and the gift he had. Even more than before, you knew you had to save the warm brown-eyed man behind you and your own people from harm. They were more lost than you'd imagined.

With a sign from Fiona, the whole Council began to approach you three with slow but long steps.

"You need to Sing," Wheein said to Jimin, even without looking at him. "Now."

Frightened, Jimin looked at you for guidance, but you kept staring at Fiona. Then your hands found his, even when your back was turned, and you felt how nervous he was. He'd ran away from his own gift for so long.

You took his hands to your waist and had one hold the other.

"Hold tight," was all you said, and then you began to float in the air, rising faster every second, unaware that the flapping of your wings caused a frenzy in Jimin's stomach for meeting his skin.

But when the two of you were ten feet off the ground, with Wheein following behind you, the older, faster Council members overtook you. And you could feel the weight of all four elements working together to get you back to the ground and hold you there. The air was heavy and seemed sickly, while Water, Air, Earth, and Heat worked together under the Council's command to keep you from moving.

And in an instant, Fiona, who also had a Connection with Air, made yours come out of your lungs, and held it so far that you began to choke without oxygen. The sound that came out of your throat in a desperate attempt to breathe made Wheein sob, and Jimin lost control.

"Don't hurt her!" he shouted at Fiona. "I'll do whatever you want, but please, don't hurt her."

He was almost relieved when Fiona left the air so you could breathe, but his heart sank when he heard you whisper. "Don't do that."

#serendipitydayproject #95line.net #jimin #jimin scenario #jimin fanfic #park jimin #park jimin scenario #park jimin fanfic #bts #bts scenario #bts fanfic #*mine

17 notes · View notes