Jonathan Morgan

It’s not just about 4 year olds and marshmallows

Jonathan — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:26:42 +0000

I heard about this study ages ago: the Stanford psychology professor who tested the self control of 4 year olds by leaving them alone in a room with a marshmallow. He told them that if they could wait 15 minutes before eating it, he’d give them a second marshmallow. What I didn’t realize was that this psychologist followed up his research at different stages of these children’s lives and noticed that those who lacked self control in early life, tended towards it in later life:

Thirteen years later Mischel did follow-up research that found dramatic differences between the two groups (the gobblers and the resisters). The gobblers, now high school students, were more likely to have behavioral problems and low attention spans, and they found it difficult to maintain friendships.

Read the full summary at Adbusters.org

Self control is not something we praise in our culture, unless it comes to sports personalities or the extremely wealthy, and I think we’re poorer for it. Our media continuously overloads us with the message that: if we don’t respond to our every urge, there’s something wrong – we’re boring, frigid, or “restrained” (with a negative intonation of the voice).

This is incredibly ironic, considering that self control could play a major role in combatting the ills that plague our various societies: environmental degeneration, slavery, obesity, violence against women, to name just a few.

(image source: Adbusters.org)

A Coup in Equatorial Guinea

Jonathan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:10:22 +0000

Back in 2004 Simon Mann, Mark Thatcher and a few other wealthy, power-hungry individuals decided to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Their scheme was stopped thanks to Zimbabwean intervention, and Mann has recently been pardoned. Last night we watched a BBC documentary about this fascinating story. If you're in the UK, Check it out here before it gets taken offline.

Agaton and Tractor

Jonathan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:37:36 +0000

I took this two weeks ago when we spent the weekend in Småland at Sofia's parents. When we arrived we'd just had the Swine Flu Vaccination, so it wasn't until our last day that we felt up to wandering in the forest…

Posted via email from Jonathan Morgan’s posterous

Moving (Hej Då)

Jonathan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:02 +0000

We're leaving Sweden.
It's been a couple of months in the pipeline, and we never promised we'd stay, but now it's actually happening.
Over the past few months both Sofia and I have been knocking on doors, trying to find work and to give life in Sweden a go while we prepare for whatever the future might hold.
From the start getting work here was always going to be a challenge since my Swedish isn't at a professional standard, but I contacted all the design agencies I could find, and applied for SFI, "Swedish For Immigrants," in the hope of increasing my knowledge of Sofia's mother tongue. I heard nothing from the agencies (or other random jobs I applied for) and was told that SFI had a 2 month waiting list.
In the meantime, Sofia learned that for every job she applied for in Malmö, there were often 300 other social workers applying. She sent in applications, but heard nothing and ended up working shifts as a carer in various homes for vulnerable people in the city.
So we began to think seriously about giving the UK a go. We did some research and realized that there is a real shortage of Social Workers in Wales, and a greater variety of roles within the field. There are also more opportunities for me there.
After a few weeks of discussing it, thinking and praying, we made a decision.
So on Tuesday we fly.

Posted via email from Jonathan Morgan’s posterous

On Quitting Facebook: Adbusters

Jonathan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:52:07 +0000

There was a great post on the Adbusters blog earlier this month by someone who reflectively quit using Facebook:

For the vast majority of people experiencing the fragmented, fast-paced modern world of 2008, a Sunday pause at the end of a hectic week may cause them to become all too aware of the lack of content in their lives. So we update our online profiles and tell ourselves that we are reaching out.

…the time we waste on Facebook only makes our search for comfort and community more elusive. Online networking sites are marketed as facilitators of community-orientation but when I think about the millions of people – myself included – who spend large portions of their waking lives feeding off an exchange of thousands of computerized, fragmented images, it doesn’t add up to community-engagement…

Read the full article here

Getting Married In Sweden

Jonathan — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:56:27 +0000

This post mainly relates to a UK citizen marrying a Swedish citizen, though could be useful to people from other EU countries…

Sofia and I are getting married in just under two months. The wedding will be in Småland, Sweden and we’re really excited about our friends and family who are coming! As we’ve been preparing I’ve been able to learn a bit more about the legal side of marriage over here. I’m a UK citizen (and resident) and Sofia is a Swedish citizen (and resident). Here’s the process we have gone through so far…

Certificate of No Impediment: I visited a registry office in the UK and notified them of my intention to marry Sofia. I had to show them various forms of identification and provide them with her details, as well as the details of where we will be getting married. These are placed on a notice board for 6 weeks to give members of the general public an opportunity to notify them if I have been married before. Once the 6 weeks are up, the Certificate of No Impediment is issued. According to Swedish law, the certificate is valid for 3 months from the date of issue.
Marriage Licence: Next we visited Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Office), filled in forms and provided them with our IDs (Passport for me, ID card for Sofia) and the Certificate of No Impediment. They took photocopies of our IDs and the Certificate and will mail us the Licence within 2 weeks. This license will be valid for 4 months, so it was important that we visited Skatteverket at the right time: too early and we would have a license that expired before our wedding, too late and our Certificate of No Impediment would expire.
The Wedding: This can be officiated either by a state official (at a District Court, or City Hall), or a Vicar (in this case it’s the person, not the venue, that counts).

Here are a few resources you might find useful if you’re going through this process:

Embassy of Sweden, London: Getting Married in Sweden
About.com: Swedish Marriage License Information

(photo: Sharaff)

Two New Launches

Jonathan — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:55:54 +0000

The past few weeks I’ve been at work on a couple of different projects, two of which I’m excited to tell you about:

Make Things Fair

For a while I’ve dreamed of setting up a site that will act as a source for information on Human Trafficking and Fair Trade, telling stories as well as offering ways to take action. A few months ago, after a little brainstorming with some friends (thanks Mark), I purchased the makethingsfair.com domain name. I hope that it will become a valuable resource and a place for sharing ideas and activities.

If you care about these issues, please show your support by:

Subscribing to receive email updates (click here)
Following @makethingsfair on Twitter
Contributing stories by email (stories [at] makethingsfair [dot] com)

Click here to visit Make Things Fair

Looks Can Kill

The website of my web design and development company, Looks Can Kill, hasn’t changed much since I first started the company back in 2005. I wanted to freshen it up, and to integrate it with WordPress, in the hope of expanding my portfolio offering, and having a place to file web related blog posts.

Click here to visit Looks Can Kill

Zimbabwean (Blood) Diamonds

Jonathan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:09:22 +0000

Adbusters recently published this article about the bloodthirsty conflict over diamonds in Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, has recently renewed its interest in diamonds. Diamonds are a valuable asset for foreign exchange, especially when a government has been cut off from the international community by sanctions.
Late last year the military moved into Chiadzwa and began confronting and arresting independent miners. A helicopter attack in December left 200 dead and there are assertions that the military has claimed more victims. Zimbabwe’s opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), for example, says that hundreds more miners are buried in mass graves.

Economic improvements in Zim?

Jonathan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:46:39 +0000

According to an article today from Time, the Zimbabwean economy may be on the up, thanks to a decision to scrap the Zimbabwean Dollar and instead use US Dollars and South African Rand.

“I am earning in real money, it feels good,” says Majuru. “I can now put food on the table and feed my family.” A smile spreads across his face.

(read more here)

What Is The screenplay

Jonathan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:16:41 +0000

Apparently Tom Tykwer, who directed Run Lola Run, is working on a screen adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel “What Is The What.” He told a recent interviewer:

There’s another project that I’m actually quite deeply involved in, which is based on a book called “What is the What” by Dave Eggers, who you know probably from his first novel, which was called “A Heartbreaking World of Staggering Genius”, that was his first book. He’s a great writer and he did a book called “What is the What” that is based on the story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. I’m developing that too right now.

(via kottke)