#humanisim

There are few important things I have realized recently, not only in light of the very unfortunate Santa Barbara incident, but in my own experiences, and I would like to share with you all.

1. Pointing fingers at specific people or groups of people will not get us anywhere. It will do the opposite. Let's not do that.

2. We are all problems and we are all solutions. Which one you will be is entirely up to you, but I hope we all try to be solutions.

3. A lot of people lash out and make generalizations because they are afraid. People are usually afraid for a reason. Before you lash back, please take a minute to be open minded and see where they are coming from. I have found that as long as you show/demonstrate to the person that you heard them and their feelings, they are more willing to listen to your side of the story. Even though you may not agree with what they have to say, show others the respect and maturity you would like to be treated with. They, and you, may be pleasantly surprised. 

1. Proclaim the natural dignity and inherent worth of all human beings.

2. Respect the life and property of others.

3. Practice tolerance and open-mindedness towards the choices and life styles of others.

4. Share with those who are less fortunate and mutually assist those who are in need of help.

5. Use neither lies, nor spiritual doctrine, nor temporal power to dominate and exploit others.

6. Rely on reason, logic and science to understand the Universe and to solve life's problems.

7. Conserve and improve the Earth's natural environment—land, soil, water, air and space—as humankind's common heritage.

8. Resolve differences and conflicts cooperatively without resorting to violence or to wars.

9. Organize public affairs according to individual freedom and responsibility, through political and economic democracy.

(Peter Ustinov at the beginning of his career- picture taken from

www.ustinov-foundation.org )

Besides my parents and grandparents the person I most admire and I aspire to be like is the late great Sir Peter Ustinov.

Generally I’m not one who idealises celebrities, for me we are all just human beings, fame and fortune are things that distort peoples sense of self and lead to terrible excesses and unhappiness.

I admire Sir Peter Ustinov not because he was a famous Oscar winning old school actor but because he was an exceptional human being and above all an exceptional renaissance man in the artistic sense.

(Sir Peter Ustinov in his role as UNICEF representative, apologies for skipping everything else in between - picture taken from

www.ustinov-foundation.org )

Sir Peter was someone who had a tireless energy in life dedicating himself to every possible creative and humanistic pursuit. He was not only a gifted character stage, t.v and movie actor but a talented director of film, opera and theatre, playwright of numerous award winning stage plays, author of hundreds of titles, documentary maker, journalist, visual artist, humanitarian (a UNICEF ambassador), voice artist, stage designer, impersonator (he could imitate every person you can think of),linguist (he was fluent in Italian, French, German, English, Russian and could string a sentence together in Turkish). But above all he was an extraordinary communicator who respected all humanity and he did it all with an astounding humility. The goodness he did in the world is continued by the Peter Ustinov Foundation whose goal is to continue his work to build a world without prejudice.

I’m almost embarrassed to mention the fact that I actually got to meet my so called ‘hero’ (I don’t particularly like that word). It was embarrassing on my part simply because I got terribly overwhelmed that I came across as a complete jackass.

I got to interview him back during my student days when a fellow broadcasting classmate and I ventured to his press conference on his visit to Perth Western Australia when he was touring on his one man show. Thanks to an amazing fluke no one turned up to his press conference and so we got a one on one interview in Sir Peter’s hotel room. So you can imagine what happened to this nervous little thing with not questions and a head filled with Sir Peter memorabilia gathered from years of following his career as a fan. I couldn’t blurt out the fact that he was the person I most admire in the world, I would have sounded like a maniac.

Thank goodness Sir Peter came to my rescue understanding that I was completely out of my depth we ended up having a completely normal conversation, which he assured me really is the best kind of interview.

Looking back I am thankful that Sir Peter Ustinov met my expectations and taught me the most important thing is to communicate.

Rochelle