TED Community » Desiree M. Mondesir

More About Me

I'm passionate about

God, writing, weddings, and people.

An idea worth spreading

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan." (Proverbs 29:2 NKJV)

Talk to me about

God, Godly Government, Reformation, Faith and the Imagination, weddings, history, and fashion.

People don't know that I'm good at

Singing, anything that involves public ministry.

My TED Story

I don't have a TED story, but I do have a TED Aspiration: To address a prominent of thought leaders and provide them with a thought-provoking TED Talk. After that happens, I'll change what's written in this box.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Talk: Eric Whitacre: Virtual Choir Live

  Mar 24 2013: Hi Mary,
  
  You are so welcome!
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  A comment on Talk: Eric Whitacre: Virtual Choir Live

  Mar 24 2013: Also, if you want an even more stirring experience, listen to Eric's "When David Heard" describing when King David heard of his son Absalom's death. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P62p0GczDew At one point, this song breaks into 18 parts at once--18!!
  
  You may also like his "Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsLiivVgxmM
  
  In the Bible it says that there is nothing new under the sun. Eric's music proves this. I've always thought that his music was like a compilation of the chanting of monks infused with ethereal classical music. This is not meant to be an insult but a statement of awe. The fact that he can sound like something ancient and cutting edge at the same time is absolutely awe-inspiring.
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  A comment on Talk: Eric Whitacre: Virtual Choir Live

  Mar 24 2013: I had the all-phenomenal privilege of meeting Eric and his lovely wife Hila (the most amazing Soprano I've ever heard sing to date!) a decade ago in High School! Eric was adjudicating our choir's performance at Chapman University where he told us that he had to have us as a part of his opera chorus when he debuted Paradise Lost at the Berliner Dome in Berlin, Germany. It was an absolute life-changing experience!
  
  During the year preceding that summer trip, we sang not only Cloudburst, but also "Water Night", "Sleep" (my favourite!), and "A Boy and a Girl"! During our Spring Concert, Eric and Hila came and spent the entire day with us and conducted our chorus himself at our concert that evening!
  
  Eric and Hila Whitacre are some of the sweetest, most talented, amazingly brilliant artists this side of heaven!
  
  And when my literary works get put on the silver screen, I want Eric to compose the scores!
  
  All that to say, Eric's music gives me chills just as much now as it did when I first heard and sang it so many years ago! #blessedwoman

• A comment on Conversation: Can donor funding really fix African challenges, or should we empower African communities to address their own challenges?

  Feb 10 2013: Thanks Paul!
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  A comment on Conversation: Can donor funding really fix African challenges, or should we empower African communities to address their own challenges?

  Feb 2 2013: Absolutely not! Donor funds, while appreciated, can only put a band-aid on the problem of Africa's systemic poverty. It is a question of mentalities when a strong, beautiful people lives on the richest continent on the face of the planet, yet are, by far, the poorest, too many of them with a corrupt, vicious mentality.
  
  Africans don't need to be given a fish. They don't even need to be "taught how to fish" although that will help. What our African brothers and sisters need is to be taught how to own the pond as well as how to maintain it once they own it. This is where proper education comes in.
  
  But I can't even take credit for these thoughts. I know Bishop Tudor Bismark, also from Harare, who is an international figure and meets with a group of Africa's leading pastors, etc. to ask questions like yours, Innocent. I've heard him say time and time again, that if he raises a man from the dead (which he has done before!), he wants to know why the man died so the problem can be prevented and properly dealt with when he comes back to life.
  
  Once the proper mentalities are in place, then the donor funds will make a lasting impact and one blessed day, you will become "the lender and not the borrower" to the benefit of the whole world.
  
  If you can't transform the minds of the leaders, go to the adults. If you can't go to the adults, go to the youth, and if you can't succeed with them, go to the children. They are the future of Africa.
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  A comment on Conversation: Can Money Buy Happiness?

  Feb 2 2013: The obvious answer is no: money cannot buy happiness. However, money can buy you things, it can erase or prevent debts, it can pay for medicine and medical procedures, and it allows you to be able to give to someone else in need presuming of course that your are benevolent in nature. These things may not be able to make you happy in and of themselves, but they can certainly heighten the quality of one's life.
  
  "Money answereth all THINGS." (Ecclesiastes 10:19 emphasis mine)
  
  The LOVE of money, greed and avarice, is what makes money appear to be evil and rob one of their happiness. When you keep money in its place, you can be as happy as you want to be!
  
  I can give you ten dollars to buy your child a Happy Meal and that money enabled that child to be happy. Or I could take that money and give it to the drug dealer on the corner, purchase drugs and addict myself. That money will have enabled me to put myself in bondage and become wholly unhappy. It's how you see the money and what you do with the money that makes one happy, sad, mad, etc.
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  A comment on Conversation: What if nothing comes from our devotion, effort, faith and work?

  Feb 2 2013: I believe that if you think this way then you are not exhibiting faith to begin with. I am personally a woman of faith and believe that it makes all the difference. Yet for those who are not so sure, when you faith enables you to show compassion to another human being, to clothe a naked child, or feed a hungry man, it makes all the difference if only the person who received that kindness. And when that simple act is done, you have no idea the impact it could have that one life and, in turn, how many lives, that person will impact because you in your faith decided to act in compassion.
  
  Now on a personal level, I have a personal relationship with the God who created me. He is my Father; He talks to me, teaches me things, chastises me, and, ultimately, enables me to reach the destiny that He created me to fulfill. That is the proof that there are lasting benefits and fruit demonstrating the efficacy of my faith in my God. However, if one's religion does consist of mere routines and a constant reaching without ever finding anything to fill the void within, then I would be as concerned as anyone about the potential failure of my faith. That is no way to live.