How’s your speech working so far?
Language as a conveyor
of knowledge has huge effects upon the physical world. Mankind utilizes this in
international communications, enabling people of different cultures and parts
of the planet to forward information and positioning to one another. But
unfortunately, communication skills have not kept pace with the means, and in
some cases, have deteriorated leading to mediocrity.
Is this what we want
for our future? Certainly not! Personalities have to engage before there is
movement. We don’t take action if we are deficient of aptitude. We’ll never
encounter excellence in that way.
A successful career,
be it in academia, research or industry, is independent on the individual
having scientific knowledge and the art of using them to best effect.
The skill is largely one
of communication: through talking, listening, writing or reading; by way of
body language; or through that mystical factor, interpersonal chemistry. Good
communication skills are what separate the distinguished, from the good and
from the indifferent. No one becomes a proficient typist overnight. Similarly,
no one learns a foreign language without practicing consistently. The
communication skills work if you work at using the skills. ‘Nuff said.
In this multifaceted
universe, it is essential that everyone is capable of reading, writing and
communicating in articulate and organized manner. Communication then, as a
universal bonding agent, must be understood, for once the seeds of motivation
have sprouted in our minds, we’ll flourish academically. How so?
In any form of
business, communication is an internal as well as an external affair. The
success of the business rests upon communication. To be a good communicator,
you need to be a good speaker and a patient listener too. Without effective
communication skills, a person may find it difficult to climb the corporate
ladder.
The potential benefits
of good communication skills are too many and various to go into here; they
could even save your life at some point in the future. That’s why I am learning
and finding out ways to put my skills to test every time because communication
is really important in every walk of life, be it in making friends, in
professional life, in talking to world in face and feeling confident.
I wrote this in an
effort to share that it is only we who can make a difference in our lives. If
we think we can, then we will be able to do so. Else as the saying goes:
“Either you make the choice or the choice will make you”. So if everything else
fails, remember that boundaries are everywhere and that we need to stay within
the lines; never overstep our boundaries. Because amidst all ambiguity, one
thing will always be certain: Your communication excellence will save you.
(Louie dela Vega/FOCUS)
UN
summit: Aquino calls for more investments from developed countries
President Benigno
Aquino pushed for a worldwide investment from development countries so that
developing countries can shift towards renewable energy from fossil-based
sources of power, to help avert climate change.
“I believe the challenge before us is to
innovate on ways in which the transfer of useful technology and the building of
climate-smart infrastructure might be achieved under a global unity of effort,”
Aquino said.
Noting that the
Philippines is on a “climate-smart development pathway”, Aquino said the
Philippine Congress had passed its Renewable Energy Act in 2008.
“We continue to take
steps to maintain and even improve our low-emission development strategy and
the trajectory of our energy mix,” he said.
But much needed
radical moves like investments must come from developed countries, Angela Ibay,
climate and energy programme director of World Wide Fund (WWF) for
Nature-Philippines told Gulf News in Manila.
The Philippines, in
particular, needs $12.4 billion over the next 16 years after its department of
energy pledged to increase the Philippines renewable energy capacity from 5,400
to over 15,000 megawatts, Ibay said.
Citing lack of
financing and technology for renewable energy, the Philippine government has
approved the construction of no less than 20 new coal-plants which will begin
operating in 2020. Although a world leader in geothermal energy, the
Philippines has yet to tap solar, wind, mini hydro, modern biomass and ocean
technology as sources of power.
Noting this, Ibay
said: “We call on governments and business leaders to disinvest from
carbon-intensive fossil fuels and to shift to renewable sources of clean
energy. It’s time for world leaders especially from countries which emit the
most carbon — to seriously commit to reducing emissions and scale up financial
support for vulnerable countries to show that they truly mean business.”
“Climate mitigation
looks at the reduction of global carbon emissions by shifting to renewable
energy sources plus energy efficient practices and technologies,” explained
Ibay, adding that her group’s two-pronged solution to avert climate change must
be adopted worldwide.
Anna Abad, a climate
justice campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines, also said that President
Aquino’s ongoing request for emergency power from Congress for more power
production must be used to “remove obstacles to the mainstreaming of renewable
energy in the Philippines”.
In his speech at the
UN, Aquino said gas emissions from developed and industrialised countries were
the source of climate change, one symptom of which is increasing intensity of
storms and typhoons that have hit the Philippines — such as the four-grade
Typhoon Haiyan that killed almost 7,000 displaced 15 million and left six million
jobless in central Luzon in November 2013.
“It would not be an
exaggeration to say that Filipinos bear a disproportionate amount of the burden
when it comes to climate change,” said Aquino.
French President
Francois Hollande pledged $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in the coming years to
help developing countries to invest in green energy. Stressing a much needed
radical move from developed countries, Hollande added that other developed
countries must follow suit.
This helped jump-start
one of the ambitious aims of the UN summit which is to increase international
funding and help developing countries go into renewable energy and help avert
climate change.
More than 140
countries joined the UN Climate Summit to agree on how to reduce carbon
emissions; limit the rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius;
and end global deforestation. (Source: gulfnews.com)
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