Category: People

{A hitchhiker was caught off-guard when a world leader offered to give him a lift. }

Gerhald Acosta was looking for a ride on his way home from his job at a paper mill plant in southwestern Uruguay, earlier this month. He later explained in a Facebook post that though several cars passed him, an SUV with a government license plate pulled over, according to RT.com. Upon getting inside, Acosta realized that Uruguayan President Jose Mujica and his wife, Sen. Lucia Topolansky, were in the vehicle.

“I know this woman. It was Lucia, with Manuela the dog, and Pepe (Jose) in the front seat,” Acosta told El Observador, according to Fox News Latino. “I couldn’t believe it. The president was giving me a ride.”

The president and his wife had been on their way to their residence when they picked Acosta up, according to El Observador. The hitchhiker said that Mujica was concerned about why Acosta, who had to return home unexpectedly, needed a ride.

Acosta said that though the ride was a brief one, he was moved by the couple’s gesture.

“When I got out, I thanked them profusely because not everyone helps someone out on the road, and much less a president,” he told El Observador.

While Mujica’s decision to pick up the hitchhiker was a kind one, the leader is widely known for his acts of compassion. During a television interview in Montevideo last November, Mujica paused to give money to a man in need.

The leader has even been nicknamed “the world’s poorest president,” thanks to his decision to donate 90 percent of his salary to charity. When speaking about the money he actually keeps, Mujica told El Mundo, according to Univision’s translation, “I do fine with that amount; I have to do fine because there are many Uruguayans who live with much less.”

{It was only a matter of time before Malia Obama’s secret social media profiles were revealed. On Monday, a mysterious photo surfaced apparently featuring the First Daughter striking a pose. }

The image shows her wearing a white T-shirt with a red and green logo on it from Pro-Era, a Brooklyn-based hip hop collective. A representative for Joey Bada$$, who is a member of the group, told Gawker that the photo was received through “a mutual friend of Malia and the pro era member.”

The White House is reportedly looking into how the image made it onto the Internet. While the authenticity of the image is up in the air, one very sleuthy commenter noted that there are pine trees visible in the window, just like those that are in the White House lawn near the residential section.

This isn’t the first time that Obama just tried to just do what the cool kids were doing online and IRL. In August, she attended Lollapalooza to watch Chance the Rapper with her secret service (and maybe some friends too). It also probably won’t be the last. She’s a 16-year-old girl! Even the President can’t keep a teenager away from SnapChat, Facebook, Vine, and Instagram.

Yahoo News

({{Reuters}}) – {The man who tried to kill former Pope John Paul II 33 years ago showed up at the Vatican on Saturday to put white roses on his tomb and said he wanted to meet Pope Francis.}

Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk, left John Paul critically injured after firing several shots in the failed assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

The former pope forgave Agca, once a member of a Turkish far right group known as the Grey Wolves, and went to meet him in 1983 in the Rome prison where he had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack.

Agca called the Italian daily la Repubblica on Saturday to announce he had arrived in the Vatican, his first visit since the assassination attempt and exactly 31 years after John Paul met him in prison.

The visit was confirmed to Reuters by Father Ciro Benedettini, the Vatican’s deputy spokesman, who said Agca stood for a few moments in silent meditation over the tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica before leaving two bunches of white roses.

Agca, 56, was pardoned by Italy in 2000 and extradited to Turkey where he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of a journalist and other crimes. He was released from jail in 2010.

The attack against John Paul, who died in 2005, has remained clouded by unanswered questions over who may have been behind it. An Italian investigative parliamentary commission said in 2006 it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that it was masterminded by leaders of the former Soviet Union.

The Vatican on Saturday gave a cool response to Agca’s request to meet with Pope Francis. “He has put his flowers on John Paul’s tomb; I think that is enough,” Vatican spokesman father Federico Lombardi told la Repubblica.

{Fidel Castro has been awarded China’s version of the Nobel Peace Prize, reports said Thursday, with a newspaper close to the ruling Communist Party hailing the former Cuban leader’s “important contributions” to world peace.}

Castro bested more than 20 nominees including South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional group led by Moscow and Beijing, to win this year’s “Confucius Peace Prize”, the state-run Global Times reported.

The Cuban revolutionary icon was selected by nine judges out of a group of 16 experts and scholars, the paper said.

The shadowy Confucius prize emerged in 2010, when it was suddenly announced by the panel two days before jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel to Beijing’s anger, sparking speculation it was set up with the government’s guidance.

A Cuban exchange student received this year’s award on Castro’s behalf at a ceremony on Tuesday, one day before Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi accepted their Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

“While in office, Castro didn’t resort to violence or force to settle disputes in international relations, especially with the United States,” the Global Times wrote.

“After his retirement, he has been actively meeting with leaders and groups from all over the world and has made important contributions to emphasising the need to eliminate nuclear war,” it added.

Since leaving office in 2006 during a nearly fatal health crisis, Castro, 88, has spent his free time writing books and articles for the official press in Cuba, which now is led by his younger brother Raul.

In 2010, the first Confucius Peace Prize winner was awarded to Taiwan’s Lien Chan at a chaotic press conference, although the former vice president’s office denied all knowledge of it.

Organisers of the prize denied links to the government, but the award’s executive chairman Liu Haofeng told AFP later that it had been set up by an association overseen by China’s culture ministry.

In a move that added to the confusion surrounding the prize, the following year the ministry ordered organisers to scrap it, but the academics pressed ahead with their plans and gave it to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping shared the award in 2012, and Yi Cheng, a Zen master who is the honorary head of the Buddhist Association of China, was awarded it last year.

{{FRANCE 24}}

{Former Miss France Sonia Rolland said that Rwanda is changing, modern and uninhibited.}

“Africa is multiple, it has enormous resources and is able to bounce back, we see well through different examples. You have to leave for Africa the right to write its history. Why is it that external historians always write the history of Africa? Rwanda has found that identity, the capability to tell its own story. Rwandans will draw-in the pre-colonial traditions and put them up to date so that they are part of the big political, economic and social factors of the country. This is an example of a new political concept. Rwanda has much to teach us…It is therefore necessary that Africa is organized and is running in the same direction. Then she’ll rise. This is also what scares the West,” said Sonia Rolland.

A fervent admirer of President Kagame, Ms. Rolland commended Rwanda’s ambition is to become ‘the Singapore of Africa.’ “The country puts a lot into showcasing its particular brand of tourism to present the splendours of the country to investors. Hotel chains of very high standards are common. Strict environmental policy is enforced in Rwanda and everything is very clean!” she said. “Also, the role of women is very important, for example, 64% of them are elected to Parliament, this is remarkable and yet all this would be nothing without consensus,” she added. “The people have almost abandoned their individual desires; they have realized that through collective work, one could arrive at a good result.”

Speaking on the subject of genocide, Rolland said, “Yes, we know, Africa has suffered colonialism and still suffers today in the form of paternalism…The example of Rwanda shows Africa must get out of this, you need to know to question in order to correct history. This is not to hide, but to avoid repeating the same mistakes. There is a real disinformation regarding the growth of the country. For the financing my film on Rwanda, it was difficult to convince producers that Rwanda is experiencing a phenomenal evolution. Honestly, when I spoke, I felt like telling bells and whistles.”

PR News Wire

{Success is not a straight line. While patience and great work are essential, they don’t pave the way forward in a logical progression.}

Consider how some people who are terrible at their jobs still have them—even get promotions—while others who are great get stuck, plateau, or quit because they’re blocked from advancing. There are many other forces at play. Your achievements don’t line up all orderly and dutifully so you can collect your rewards.

{{Do Things, Tell People}}

Good work doesn’t necessarily speak for itself. Somebody has to speak up for it, and it makes the most sense for it to be you. “Do things, tell people” is one pithy formula to success, according to programmer Carl Lange. What’s so often overlooked, of course, is the “tell people” element.

Just as artists and authors hire managers and agents to get their work in front of the right people, you must do this for yourself. According to Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, visibility is the vital key to becoming the kind of person who gets promotions, raises, and access to opportunities.

As he shares in his book, Power: Why Some People Have it and Others Don’t, research confirms that there’s a real disconnect between your performance and your job outcome. The “effect of your accomplishments on those ubiquitous performance evaluations and even on your job tenure and promotion prospects” is much smaller than you’d expect. As annoying and unfair as it can be, perception often becomes reality in the workplace.

Research confirms that there’s a real disconnect between your performance and your job outcome.

We miss out when we wrongly assume that other people will know about our great work without having to tell them. Believing that pointing to your achievements is being overly self-promotional and that good work should be enough on its own is, ironically, selfish thinking. You’re almost always on your mind—but that goes for everyone else too. Most everyone is busy with their own concerns, problems, and lives.

That means people, including your boss, usually have very little sense of what you’re accomplishing and what you’re doing with your time. If you aren’t proactive about reporting your accomplishments, you’ll never get recognized for your good work. Even great managers who proactively care about your development can have a lot on their plates, and it’s helpful to make relevant information visible for them.

If you’re too busy keeping your head down, nose to the grindstone, it’s harder to see you. Part of managing yourself and your trajectory means making it easier for people and opportunities to find you. Getting coy or bashful about your accomplishments does both yourself and your work a disservice—and may unintentionally make the job of managing you harder.

Assume that people don’t know what you’re working on. Gain some sense of control of how you’re appearing on others’ radars, and to do so, you have to send out a signal.

The Other Half of Your Job

Even smart, talented individuals require corralling to work well together as a team. Having to work with others on problems that are complex, time-constrained, and flat-out hard can be enough to break down an individual’s creativity and productivity. That’s why every successful company where people are both productive and happy feels a little magical.

Tom Sachs is a contemporary artist famous for his sculptures, which are elaborate DIY recreations of modern engineering and design masterpieces. In his studio, if you’ve merely just done your work, he says, you’ve only done half of your job:

‘[S]ent does not mean received’ is a profound thing. Half of your job in this studio is doing your work, the other half of your job is communicating that it’s been done. Because if you do it, and I don’t hear about it, how do I know what’s going on? I’m not trying to control everything, but in an intimate work environment, where we’re really trying to develop something complex, a nod, saying, ‘I got it,’ helps move things along.
What Sachs says about artists rings true for anyone involved in knowledge work. Productive people often respond to the frustration of not getting enough done by going into heads-down mode, but disregarding the fact that you work with other people just exacerbates the problem.

Plus, focusing too hard on getting stuff done just produces more that needs to get done, and that’s a trap. Yes, productivity means you get stuff done—but moving that work forward relies on communicating about what got done.

{{Send 1 Simple Email}}

Getting ahead, however you define it, requires people to notice your work. The most direct way to do that is to tell them and be a good advocate for your efforts. Nobody is a mind-reader. The tricky part can be how to tell people so that you feel authentic to who you are. For many people, the thought of being more proactive about sharing accomplishments at work can be daunting and a real turnoff.

At his blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker provides an elegant solution to this problem that takes minimal effort and doesn’t require you to turn into a loudmouth braggart. His recommendation? Every week, send one simple email to your boss.

Take a few minutes on a Friday and jot down a simple description of what you accomplished that week. Your boss will be able to see the progress you’re making and appreciate not being left in the dark wondering whether you’re doing your job.

What makes Eric’s one email idea so powerful is that it turns what could come off as a loaded act of self-promotion into an ordinary, informative update that perpetually builds up your credibility with your boss. While others scrabble to ramp up their lobbying for promotions during performance review-time, you’ll already be top-of-mind, without having to gather and tout your accomplishments in the strained atmosphere of a formal review.

Every Friday is just a suggestion. Feel weird about sending something every week? Do it every two weeks or every month. Deliver something in your boss’s language, at whatever frequency and style she or he will understand.

Alternatively, start keeping a record for yourself. It’s so easy to get swept away with daily grind that you forget what you get done, and progress and achievements slip away from your mind. Capture your accomplishments by keeping a running record. You’ll have information at your fingertips when it comes to review time or when you’re thinking about next steps. This light tracking also helps you keep what you get done at the front of your mind, making it easier to figure out where you want to go and how to get there.

{{Here are three more tactics to increase your visibility:}}

1.{ Don’t end the week with nothing.}

Entrepreneur Patrick McKenzie’s excellent advice is to work on more visible projects. He writes:

Prefer to work on things you can show. Prefer to work where people can see you. Prefer to work on things you can own. Why? Because when your work is in public, you can show it to people. That’s often the best way to demonstrate that you’re capable of doing work like it.

To sum up: “optimize for impact and visibility.” The nature of knowledge work makes it inherently difficult to see the fruits of your labor. Can you choose the more impactful project? Can you work on some aspect that is customer-facing? Can you turn what you learn about management, customer service, or selling, into a presentation or guide?

2. {Ask for help and feedback.}

People are often afraid to ask for help, for fear that it makes them look less competent. Yet asking for help is part of getting better at your job and shows that you care enough to be proactive about learning and fixing problems.

Managers and co-workers would much prefer you reach out for help and feedback rather than be kept in the dark because you’ve placed yourself in a cone of insecurity. It’s much easier, even instinctive, to go find a corner to mope, brood, or hide in when you’re stuck — but working out loud and asking for input is what increases the likelihood that you’ll be able to climb outside the rut.

Many people — the good ones, anyway — enjoy helping others, and being asked can be flattering to boot. Instead of committing the work sin of radio silence, reach out for support and feedback, and then also ask how you can help others.

Asking for help is part of getting better at your job.

3.{ Work where people can see you.}

Gaining visibility might require going outside your office. Maybe you have a side project, or maybe your work culture isn’t a healthy environment to pursue visibility.

Promoting yourself doesn’t have to be on someone else’s terms. Write a book, start a blog, make a side-project, collaborate with new people outside of work, or speak at panels and conferences. Tell people about what you’ve done, what you’re doing, why it’s important, and how you did it. Give talks, teach others, raise your hand for new projects.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an employee, a boss, or looking for work, when you “do things, tell people,” you open doors because people know where to knock and why. Those people may be customers, potential partners, or powerful leaders who can act as sponsors and mentors. You hold the magic power to make the invisible visible to help yourself and your work create more impact and opportunity.

{{99U.COM}}