"I don't think like that anymore."

Alex Wilson is smiling again after winning excellence award

by Iain Lundy, from the Evening Times Online

TWO years ago Alex Wilson had it made. He had a successful job, owned houses in England and France and was a partner in a luxury apartment business in Brazil.

The engineer drove plush cars, swam in his private pool, played tennis on his own court and had plans to build a golf course. But in January 2007 his world collapsed.

Cancer - which he had suffered 10 years previously - returned and he lost his job, his business partners deserted him and his marriage broke down.

Alex, 54, from Motherwell, was forced to return to Lanarkshire penniless and with no home to go to.

He contemplated suicide but, after almost two years in the doldrums, he is again on the straight and narrow and says his is a classic tale of "riches to rags to riches".

He has managed to turn his life back around thanks to the support he received in his home town, particularly a scheme run by Motherwell College, which has helped him relaunch a new career.

After completing his engineering apprenticeship in the old Lanarkshire steelworks, Alex went to work in England for British Aerospace and began to enjoy the good life.

He said: "I had worked hard and along with some friends I bought some holiday apartments in Brazil. They were full all year round and the income was brilliant."

But things started to go wrong when his stomach cancer came back and he was treated in France.

"My partners obviously thought I was not going to last. They got together and effectively wrote me out of the business. I had cashed in 85% of my pension to put it into the business, so all that was gone.

Alex then stopped working and his third marriage ended in divorce.

He said: "I had a couple of T-shirts, two pairs of jeans and a jacket to my name. There was only one thing I could do and that was go back to my home land.

"North Lanarkshire Council was brilliant. I arrived in the morning and by mid-afternoon it had set me up with a flat in Shotts and given me some money.

"I am not a Catholic but the local priest, Father Lamb, came round that night with three bags of shopping."

Through the JobCentre, Alex was put in touch with the "Support Employment" football project run by Motherwell College, Motherwell FC and Careers Scotland.

He has now been presented with Careers Scotland's Over-20 Excellence Award at a ceremony at Glasgow Science Centre.

He added: "A year ago I just wanted to die. I don't think like that any more. "

This summer Alex hopes to graduate from the college in Swedish massage and reflexology - and use his new skills to work again.

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What are you giving thanks for?

What are you giving thanks for?

by Kevin Masterson, Los Angeles Religion & Spirituality Examiner

With all the economic challenges that so many are facing this year, most certainly many people are struggling to find something for which they are thankful for this holiday season. This is a no brainer to me. I am thankful for being so healthy. Let me tell you why.

The next person I’d like to give their fifteen minutes of fame in my series on people who have been inspirational to me are my cousin, Steve & his wife Marsa. The last time I saw Steve was four years ago at my mother’s family reunion. Most of Steve’s family had come up from Texas to attend the reunion—no small feat, as his mother, my Aunt Nancy has seven children. I hadn’t seen most of them for at least ten years so it was hard to recognize everyone. Steve put his hand out to me as he recognized me. We talked for a while that day & had a beer. His family is so warm and friendly that anyone would like to sit down & have a beer with any of them.

Several months ago, I found out from my mother that Steve had malignant melanoma and his wife, Marsa had breast cancer. She had to have a double mastectomy. As ovarian cancer runs in her family, she also had a complete hysterectomy done at the same time. They have a son who is only two years old, as well as two teenage daughters. This past year has been about going to chemo, doctor’s appointments, etc. You’d think this would leave little time for joy, but Steve held his son on his lap as he got his first haircut several months ago. Marsa’s cancer is now under control, but Steve’s has spread to his lungs.

What is most inspirational to me about Steve is his complete acceptance about his situation. He is totally at peace. He’d like to live, but he is not afraid to die. I think that is what is keeping him going. He is not resisting the flow of life. He is trusting in God’s plan for his life.

Many of us are challenged in many ways this year, but Steve & Marsa’s situation really makes me put things in perspective. Money comes & goes--as do jobs, relationships, material objects, etc. However the greatest gift that we all have that we forget is that we are alive, that we draw breath, that we have an opportunity to contribute to the upliftment of the planet.

Steve & I are lucky. If anyone is going to pull through this, it is him. We both come from strong Pennsylvania stock on our mothers’ side of the family. Our grandparents raised eight children during the depression, after my grandfather lost his construction business. Those types of life problems are temporary, but the things that really matter are family, are sticking together and helping each other. Those are the real gifts of life. You just keep on going, keep looking for the pony with all that manure around.

When times are tough, I try to develop "an attitude of gratitude.I think that it is really important this year  in particular that everyone really look at the blessings they have in their lives, to be thankful for what they have, rather than be resentful for what they feel they are lacking. With all the political chaos & economic upheaval in the world right now, it is vital to realize the commonalities that we all share: family, friends, triumphs, tragedies, goals, dreams. I’ve heard it said that “you pray to God for more, but he won’t give you more until you take care of what you’ve got.” That is what I am focusing on this Thanksgiving—what I am doing with the gifts that God has given me, what I can be grateful for, taking care of my “ten percent.”  When times are tough, I try to develop "an attitude of gratitude. Might I suggest that you consider doing the same?

I am sure Steve & Marsa & their family, his mother & all his siblings and their families will be celebrating Thanksgiving together this year, grateful to have each other, grateful for one more day of life. God Bless them. Please keep them in your thoughts & prayers during this holiday season.

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A Festival That Aims To Uplift Audiences

Gloom, begone. The Sydney Herald reports that uplifting themes are at the heart of this little film festival that could.

AT A time when the world is hurtling towards a recession, flanked by doomy predictions about global warming and terrorism, people are still paying good money to go to the movies to be scared, angry and depressed. For Toni Powell, this just didn't make sense.

The amateur filmmaker from Gympie, in rural Queensland, was tired of cinema that focused on the darkest aspects of human nature, especially after she toured festivals with one of her own short films.

"When I went to festivals I thought: 'This feels like it was programmed by a 22-year-old guy with a sadistic streak,' " Powell says. "I would have to sit through a whole pile of other shorts which left me feeling assaulted."

So in 2006 Powell did what anyone who lived in a small town and had no experience in the festival industry would do: she started a festival of her own.

Powell is now the director of the highly successful Heart Of Gold International Film Festival. All the films at the yearly event in her town - attended by more than 5000 people - are chosen because they intrigue, inspire and uplift their audience.

The festival is now going on tour around Australia for the first time and will come to Sydney next week, where Powell hopes it can alleviate some of the city's cynicism.

"People are so over being depressed and that's the attraction," she says. "They're sick of living in fear and they want a change. Movies change people."

The films that will screen in Sydney from next Wednesday are a selection of the best movies from the past two years: a mix of dramas, comedies and animations from the world over, from local productions to Oscar-nominated foreign shorts.

The films have been divided into three programs, each of nine to 12 films that will screen throughout the week.

Included in the second program is Mavis, a short documentary by Sydney filmmaker Loosie Craig. It's about a 90-year-old grandmother who sabotages her entries into a yearly doll competition after she finds out the winner can't keep their winning entry. By sewing on buttons backwards, she can enter without winning and keep her precious dolls.

"I just really love the fact that she totally thinks she screwed them," Craig says of her subject. "Just that little cheeky revenge factor that was in the story."

From the beginning, Powell devised a selection process for the films to ensure they would appeal to a broad audience.

"I literally went down the street to an art gallery, a library and various other places and got a group of people aged 14 to 80 who agreed to meet every week," she says.

The festival has earned some high-profile support. Actor Tony Barry, playwright David Williamson and At The Movies critic Margaret Pomeranz are among the industry heavyweights who have got behind the little festival that could.

Pomeranz sat on the judging panel last year. "It's about films that are really affirming of the human spirit in a variety of ways but they're not cloying films," she says.

Powell is confident Heart Of Gold will have as big an impact on a festival-weary Sydney audience as it did in rural Queensland.

"It's hard to talk about this festival without it sounding sweet but it isn't sweet, it's complex and nourishing," Powell says. "It's just like going out to a top-class organic restaurant compared to McDonald's."

The Heart of Gold International Film festival at Cinema Paris, Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, opens on Wednesday ($30, including wine and nibblies) and runs until November 25; $17/$12/$10 for each set program of nine to 12 short films.

Gold index: Four of the best

Binta And The Great Idea: This film about a young girl in Senegal sharing her father's idea for changing the world was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film last year. In program two.

Ruby Who?: A children's film from Australian director Hailey Bartholomew about a girl who spends her time trying to imagine she's someone else. In program three.

Bloody Footy: George Kapiniaris stars in this Australian film about an Italian son who defies his father to play Australian rules instead of football. In program one.

Agricultural Report: An animated comedy from Ireland concerning a cow that becomes distressed after hearing about a bovine disease on the radio. In program three.

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