The Confession: Discussing Religious Morals with Jack Bauer

We have all been fans of 24 right? The innovative show (in terms of story line) where Jack Bauer the secret agent solves terrorist and conspiracy plots in 24 hours, not hesitating to use the most drastic techniques (extensive torture and even shooting his team and family members) to uncover the truth? Wait you don't know what I am talking about? Shame on you :).

Well, Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who played the charismatic role in the show has done it again; This time in a smaller scale, through a 10-episode web series that he created: The Confession. The plot is rather simple: a professional killer (played by Kiefer) and a priest engage in the only truthful conversation that can happen, in my opinion, between such characters, i.e. the meaning of good and evil, all in the secrecy of a confessional.

I absolutely love the format of this series. It is web-only (mainly on hulu.com, unfortunately available only in the US, deals are signed for internatinal distribution, I just don't know what sites), 7-10 minutes per episode and really fast-paced.

Good Job on this one Kiefer, can't wait for more of your projects or more web-only specials like this one. See the trailer below:

Courage to Engage

Me trying to speak in public :)

This was the theme of this year's edition of ISLC (International Student Leadership Conference), a panel of internationals, for internationals, by internationals, organized and hosted by James Madison University and Eastern Mennonnite University.
Students from all parts the US get together to learn and discuss the tips and tricks necessary to a successful leader, coupled with fun activities (dance party for example). It is a great occasion to meet people from all around the world studying or living in the United States, hear their stories and learn about their culture. I can not possibly layout all the lessons that could be gained throughout the conference (go next year if you can, and experience for yourself!!), but I will discuss a couple points I personally gathered.

          First, a general overview of the theme: "Courage to Engage". A leader is someone that people follow and trust to develop/achieve a project, a passion or something they believe in. So each of us is a full blown tank of leadership potential waiting to burst. This does not mean that everybody has be the president of a group or war leader or anything like that (though these are included), it all starts with the little things such as having the courage to engage into a difficult conversation or with a stranger or simply getting out of your comfort zone to have a connection with your alter ego.

          One example can be derived from the inspiring documentary movie "Crossing Borders" by Arnd Wachter, which follows 8 students (4 Americans and 4 Moroccans) living together in Morocco for a week (see trailer below).  The movie was shown at the conference, followed by a very interesting group discussion on the topics developed in the movie (the previous picture was taken at that moment), moderated by the author himself Arnd who gracefully accepted to participate at the event.


CROSSING BORDERS (Trailer, 3 mins) from CROSSING BORDERS on Vimeo.

"There is enough religion in this world to hate each other, but not enough religion to love one another" - King Abdullah II of Jordan