26 Years Behind Bars

The book is written from the perspective of a participant observer. It is not strictly an autobiography or a history, although it has elements of both, as it would fail without them. It is intended for both the general reader and criminal justice professionals. My intention is that the book is educational, showing the prison system over three decades in the context of social, political and organisational change, in particular the impact of the decline of deference, the growth of public managerialism and the rise of political correctness. The trenchant opinions expressed are based on intellectual rumination, observation of human behaviour, and personal and professional experience. I have deliberately chosen a thematic approach for the book so that explanation and information work in tandem, giving a unique insight into the modern prison service and the workings of the public sector.

A Foot in Both Camps

Susie is a four-year-old determined child born in the UK, whose parents have come to the UK from the Caribbean during the Windrush years in the late 1950s to help with rebuilding the country after the Second World War. A battle of wills ensues between the diminutive, wiry and strong-willed Susie and her overbearing and towering father who commands obedience from not only Susie and her siblings, but also her mother.

Although tender in years, Susie develops a stoicism which is remarkable for her age, and risks being ostracised from her family with her steely determination to stand up to her father. She is faced with negotiating the juxtaposition of conflict between two opposing cultures, which creates an internal tug of war and cultural confusion. Her identity is challenged, with Susie questioning where she really belongs. With the odds stacked against her, we see a strength of spirit which shines through and never diminishes. Even in the face of adversity, she pushes herself towards what looks like an uncertain future, determined to succeed come what may.

Armenians of Iraq

Armenians are one of the ethnic components of the Iraqi social spectrum. Nothing was known about Armenians of Iraq except as Christians or as migrants from Armenia originally. It is well known that the Armenians of Iraq are generally keen to preserve their Armenian ethnic and cultural entity and are usually peaceful and far from being involved in political conflicts and polarization. However, some people might imagine them living in the shadows or margins of Iraqi life, especially since there is a near-total absence of studies on Iraqi Armenians in the different fields of humanities and social sciences.

This gives us an impression of their conservatism and closeness, but this dissipates as soon as the researcher goes to investigate them.

This leaves us with a number of questions about the existence of Armenian people in Iraq. What is their relationship with the mother country, Armenia? What are the demographic characteristics of their population in Arabic countries? What are the social and cultural characteristics of their lifestyle in Iraq, including marriage customs? What were their roles in the development of Iraqi public life if they existed in Iraq? Do they have a conflict of social identity? All these queries are our current research concerns through which to introduce Iraqi Armenians to the reader and interested parties.                                    

Beautyland

“She is going to sell you something and you will buy it.”

It’s Fashion Week and Lower Manhattan churns with construction on the third anniversary of 9/11, as Emma O’Farrell Paige arrives at the federal courthouse to depose her former boss, the diabolical villain behind a counterfeit perfume ring.

With little more than tenacity and courage, Emma breaks free from her dysfunctional Midwest childhood and fights for her long-distance marriage to independent league baseball pitcher Ethan Paige, as she plays to win among world-class dealmakers in the trenches of the international beauty biz.

Under the guidance of mentor and boss Julian Petrenko, Emma masterminds the two-hundred-million-dollar fragrance deal with boy band sensation ‘UK Connection’. When the deal of the decade reveals the underbelly of the vaulted Beautyland, Emma is forced to examine herself as closely as she’s studied the beauty game.

*********

Beautyland is hard to put down, engaging the reader from the first word, a riveting story of a women who knows her destiny and never gives up. Dana Kline’s writing makes you feel every emotion deeply and twists and turns in the story are ones you would never expect. I didn’t want to put the book to end as I felt like I was saying goodbye to my friend. You will truly love this book”

– Tracey Bregman

American Actress & Producer

How Smart Is Your Phone – Sequel

Invasive technologies and social media fed by mobiles will destroy your planet and the cyber-criminal is YOU.

Global warming, pollution of oceans and exhaustion of natural resources will pale into insignificance against this threat. Rampant uncontrolled technology, apps and social media platforms will end the world as we know it.

The sad reality – the one to blame is YOURSELF.

How Smart Is Your Phone?

To infinity.

Revealing all of your personal information and data.

Human Model

In Human Model, Dr. Issam Wadi summarises and explains more than 40 years of professional and academic research into human and social behaviour. He examines important aspects in our lives by showing how human and social systems are deeply influenced by universal, natural processes. He shows how research in the natural and social sciences can help to illuminate complex human processes, using friction theory to explain how human beings relate to one another, how resonance theory provides us with a better understanding of mass behaviour, advertising, and marketing, and how feedback theory explains human behaviour from a management perspective.

Drawing these parallels between natural and human systems helps to illustrate the way that human beings are embedded within larger, natural processes, as well as supplying a much clearer and easy to understand approach for readers and researchers. With the starting blocks in place, one can then begin to use proven scientific theories and social models to develop more sophisticated analyses and studies of complex social behaviour, from mass movements and crowd psychology to financial markets and economic forecasting.

This book is an important milestone in the modelling and understanding of human social behaviour and aims to contribute both to a broader mainstream understanding of these fields and further research through these versatile social modelling tools. Human Model also explains the author’s own ‘Zero Sum Theory’ for explaining happiness in life and how this can be affected by the individual’s own mental models, while providing further reflections on the impact of technology on modern life, social behaviour, the family, and society more broadly.

Let the Souls of Our Children Sing

As the stigma and taboos around mental health issues soften, unparalleled numbers of people are seeking counselling, psychotherapy and life coaching. Millions of viewers are transfixed to the emotional traumas played out in reality TV shows, soaps and dramas such as Homecoming, The Bodyguard and Wanderlust. As part of this awakening to the importance of emotional well-being, many parents, educators and carers of the young are bravely attending to their own wounds and are now more determined than ever to mitigate the wounding of the children in their care.

Langley believes that the greatest impediment to young people's development as free-thinking, spiritually-enlightened and emotionally-responsive, integrated human beings is that mainstream education is still based on a nineteenth-century model emphasising cognition and logic, which can be counted and measured, over the enrichment of children's souls which is beyond measure. The existing anachronistic structure desperately needs a new paradigm. At a time when arts education is seen as an increasingly marginal activity in state schooling, she argues that it is only by putting children's innate creativity and curiosity at the heart of our educational mission that we can hope to re-engage the vast number of young people switched off from the current system and avoid the poverty of imagination and the absence of hope which are the root causes of so many contemporary ills.

Marriage, The Iranian Style

Every time I attended a wedding for a reason, I noticed that despite all prior talks and agreements, the wedding ceremony was again carried out with great difficulty, and the couple endured many troubles to be able to get together. It was not because of not having a home and a lack of income, or due to the legal age for marriage, but the customs of the time, the condition of parental consent and their meddling in their child’s future life, or even the influence of the bride and groom siblings, were the main reasons to lead the simple routine of marriage in a bumpy and misled way, and even prevent it from happening.

I’d already written about my cousin in a family context in my diary. After reading it again, I realized what interesting and surprising, and at the same time painful, points there were during their marriage. For this reason, I decided to write about this event, which might be considered as a sample for other marriages, in a separate book in detail, called Marriage, The Iranian Style, so that the unpleasant parts can be reflected on.

Pieces of a Larger Mirror

“If anyone believes they are religious and does not bridle their tongue but deceives their own heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” James 1:26

Not to be read in isolation, or necessarily in order, walk side by side with the narrator as she opens up on issues of childhood experience and race, upbringing and relationships, schooling and culture through a unique lens intended to be merely the beginning of your journey upward, outward, inward. Are you ready to look into the mirror?

Receiving Your Personal Truth

Our contemporary world is experiencing a crisis in facts and truth. Conflicting messages or fake news bombard us every day, about religion, politics, and COVID-19 and vaccinations. The daily newspaper, internet news, websites, and social media all compete for our attention, and quite often each insisting on their version of the facts. Made-up news and distorted information, create confusion and a distrust in various religious and political institutions.

How do we know what is true when watching the news, listening to elected officials and religious leaders, or using social media? Who is telling the truth? How can we know? What can we do?

In Receiving your Personal Truth, you are taken on a journey where you experience what is truth for yourself. Practical ways of receiving your truth are suggested. The skill of awareness and self-critical thinking enables us to understand what is true and what is false. In observing that we are one with oneness of it all, we act with compassion towards everyone.

The Aftermath

After a decade of graduate studies in the US, he returned to a homeland transformed—not for the better. The once pristine landscapes were now marred by environmental degradation and polluted waterways. With water becoming a scarce resource, the rural communities who depended heavily on fuelwood stood at a precarious juncture. Urban centers, once bustling with life, now languished in squalor. More disturbingly, he observed a pollution of the mind: those who should have been stewards of the earth were either indifferent or alarmingly unaware. They failed to see the broader implications of their actions. Determined to make a difference, he began advocating for the earth’s restoration, emphasizing its vital significance. After all, the earth is our shared home, and neglecting it risks the future of us all.