Lotz of thoughts

A month (and a day) ago, on a Sunday evening we heard President Ramaphosa announcing that the coming Thursday the country is entering a 21-day period of lockdown – to be later expanded with extra two weeks. That Monday, our family decided to #stayhome – it is 30 days today, a full month! Overall, our family has dealt with the situation with positive energy, although not all the days are as if out of a TV commercial. We don’t laugh the whole time, although we try. We don’t cuddle the whole time, although we want. We don’t sing and dance, although the boys have the energy to do so. But as a family, we do many things together; we value the family meals and discussions, we read books laying in one bed, we watch movies holding hugs, we work productively so that we play afterwards, and we fight and makeup. Most of all, this lockdown gave us more time to think – slow thinking though, not the one that is compulsory for work purposes. Here, I am sharing four of the recurring thoughts ...

Speech at the UN Science and Peace Week Inaugural Conference Pretoria, 12 November 2019 One of the 2019 Nobel prize winners in economics, Prof Esther Duflo, wrote one of her most famous papers – or maybe just one of MY favourite ones in 2012 in the Journal of Economic literature explaining the bidirectional linkage between women empowerment and economic development.  She defined “women empowerment” as improving the ability of women to access the constituents of development—in particular health, education, earning opportunities, rights, and political participation. In one direction, development alone can play a major role in driving down inequality between men and women; in the other direction, continuing discrimination against women can, as Sen has forcefully argued, hinder development. Empowerment can, in other words, accelerate development. Policymakers and social scientists have tended to focus on one or the other of these two relationships. Those focusing on...

A few days ago I was invited at a Women’s day event at Future Africa, where one of the questions posed as conversation starter was to discuss which moments or events in our lives were pivotal to our career thus far. I was making my notes and as I was going deep into a self-reflection and evaluation of my career thus far, I thought “my kids”. Now most women that became mothers will attest to the fact that having kids contributes to the need for more hours in a single day, to the juggle of many more things on your to-do list and in general, to the feeling of guilt every single minute of the day. My response, however, was less driven by everyday challenges: having kids made me realise that they are the future of this world so I have to make sure that the world they grow up into is a better version of the current one. My aspiration for the future and in a sense a motto for my life purpose is to change the world by changing the people . Hence, all my activities, all my efforts, ...

Reposted from SAYAS https://sayasblog.com/2019/08/29/women-decision-making-lessons-captain-marvel/

I could not have achieved the things that I have without my husband. There I said it. It is about time that we acknowledge and appreciate the men that are supportive of women empowerment and it is about time that women are comfortable enough to say that I am a human being and I need support. Women empowerment is debated widely in the literature and in the academic circles even more. Women and particularly mothers face extreme challenges with regards to time management, unequal opportunities and lack of support from their family and their institutions. Too many things are expected from us and maybe it is us to blame in a way because we have shown that we are able. There are cultures however that are not as supportive and conducive to the new profile of a woman-academic/researcher and leader. There are women among us that have thought of or they have already quit academia due to various systemic pressures. Women with brilliant minds that decided they cannot juggle everything becaus...

This past December, I took some time off from work. Like REAL time off; I did not switch on the laptop, I did not answer to emails, I did not read papers for ten days. For those of you that know me well, you understand that this was not an easy decision but a much needed.  I needed time to clear my mind and be with my family. Within this "being with my family" need, I also had the need to spend quality time with my two boys, observe them, understand them, and know them better. As a working mother, time is limited during the routine of everyday life. Or rather let me put it better, how many of us parents have the time to reeeeeeally sit down and talk with our kids every single day of our lives? Among school, family, work and social obligations, days come and go and we talk only about practicalities. So, my idea for these holidays was to cover for all the lost time. At the same time, I had the need to find new ways to become a better parent (don't we all do so?) and I w...

Growing up in Greece and only leaving when I was 23, all my Christmases were “white” (well, sort of but close enough) being cold (best excuse to wear scarves and gloves and new boots), smelling of hot chocolate and kourampiedes (the most delicious cookie EVER!), and listening to carols in every corner (I would have made it romantic and talk about the cracking of the wood in the fireplace, but let’s be realistic here). Since 2007 that I left, I have only returned in December twice – so the last decade, my Christmases have  turned “blue”- like the blue skies, the blue water of the ocean (or the swimming pool), and the blue of my swimming costume. My Christmases now smell of watermelon and sunscreen lotion, sound like the coal in the braai and taste like ice cream three times a day. There has not been one single year that someone (from Greece or the rest of Europe has not commented in one of my summer December photos in social media something like “oh how different”, “brrr w...