ANNETTE ALLEN
Author
Traveler

I have known Annette Allen for several years now on Facebook. She sent me a copy of her book, "An Ethiopian Odyssey: A Return to the Past to Discover my Destiny" a few years back as a gift. What a fascinating story from an experienced traveler and observer of the human condition! Her book has been endorsed by Desmond Tutu, Dr. Yusuf Islam (fromerly Cat Stevens) and former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Following is an excerpt from her website biography:

"Annette is half-English, half-Norwegian and lives in south east England, with her husband and son. She spent much of her childhood living out of suitcases, as the family travelled from place to place, following her father’s aeronautical career. Most of her childhood was spent in Africa: Ethiopia and South Africa. When she witnessed the endemic poverty in these countries and the brutality of apartheid, she developed a strong sense of justice for these people, who had so little, and yet were often happier than we were, with all our material possessions. Her simple, Christian faith grew from such encounters.

After returning to Britain in the early 1970’s, she moved into corporate communications, working for major international companies, including McDonald’s, BT and Diageo. She won awards for some of her work, but as she approached 40, life began to seem increasingly meaningless.

Everything changed in 1992, when she stopped work to care for her terminally ill mother. Planning ahead was futile: every day was precious. Annette began to question what life was really all about. In particular, she was puzzled by the three clear dreams she had between 1970 – 1973. Did these foretell her destiny?

Her first book. “An Ethiopian Odyssey”, is about her quest to find nine classmates from her schooldays in Addis Ababa in 1964, prompted by another dream in April 2000: she’d returned there to help provide water. Little did she anticipate that she would cross three continents to track them down, helped by kind strangers around the world. The quest finished in February 2005, at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York, the little church of such peace beside Ground Zero.

The book sold in 21 countries, albeit small quantities. Radio interviews have reached 15 million people around the world. She is also the first self published author to give a book talk at the United Nations, hosted by the Ethiopian ambassador to the UN – a great honour and amazing achievement for a first-time author. The book and her searing testimony about our compassionate mind and interconnectedness has inspired hundreds of people and organisations to donate to WaterAid and other NGOs who provide life changing, clean water and sanitation for the very poor. (Half the royalties go to WaterAid in Ethiopia.)

In March, she entered her second non-fiction book in a publishing competition run by “Good Housekeeping” magazine. It’s about family addictions, prophetic dreams and prodigal sons: a journey through heaven and hell.

Annette has experienced addiction both in her birth family and her own family, with tragic results. We’re all prone to addiction, but most of us are too ashamed to talk about it. Addiction, particularly alcoholism, is increasing in all societies, especially amongst people over 40. Its effects destroy many millions of families across the world, with 3.3 million people dying each year from alcoholism, according to the World Health Organisation. Often addiction continues down the generations and is no respecter of education, class or beliefs. It really is time to talk openly, intelligently and compassionately about it."

By the age of nine, Annette Allen had been to five different schools, trailing behind her father, an itinerant aviation engineer. In Ethiopia, she sat beside princesses at school whilst witnessing heart-breaking poverty; falling in love with the complex people and magnificent scenery. After apartheid South Africa, she returned to middle class life in Britain. But Annette was not your normal type of girl. For as long as she could remember, vivid dreams predicting the future had disturbed her nights.

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In Ethiopia, a Daily Struggle for Clean Water

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WYSIWIG

Most computer software program users and programmers know the term WYSIWIG, which stands for What You See Is What You Get, meaning that whatever is on the screen graphically is what you will be able to edit and output from the program. Our lives are much the same. What we see is what we get when all that we see is boxed into a limited view screen that only shows two dimensions of height and width and interpolates the other two dimensions of depth and time. How do we ‘break out of the box’ so to speak? We incorporate a new paradigm of WYFIWYM; meaning What You Feel Is What You Manifest. Feel the thoughts, ideas, beliefs, words, actions and behaviors as you manifest them and use the feelings you get to guide you as to what works and what doesn’t work. Investigate the reactions of others but ultimately use your own feelings to guide your progress. They are a gift that we use to integrate into our collective environment and express our inner desires. The thoughts and ideas are what you get and the subsequent feelings are what you will manifest. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

Conservatism

We are one in spirit but there are those who think they are better than everyone else and it is they who we must stand up to and not allow their lies to influence those less discerning than most. Those who deny their own inner feelings of superiority and disguise them as 'conservatism' are the real piece of cake; a cake that will not only choke you, but suck the living spirit right out of you WHEN you let them. Christ said you will know them by the fruits that they bear. Be watchful and attentive to what they do with what they have. If it doesn’t contribute to the growth and expansion of all then it is from their egos. If it does, then examine their motives for making it known and discern what their agendas are before you vote. You have a vote to use wisely and it affords you the opportunity to participate in the betterment of the world in which you live. Peace. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

Perspective

Let’s put things into perspective. The maximum individual campaign donation that an individual citizen of the USA can make to a political candidate is $2500.00. There is NO limit for ANY corporation or interest group outside of this country according to Citizen’s United. If you cannot see the serious imbalance and outright distortion of fairness in these laws then I suggest you go to college, the library or stay up late at night on the Internet to learn the truth. Every commercial you see, hear or take during dinner from a robotic voice has an agenda to sway your vote by giving you ‘partial’ truths. It takes a complete desire for the truth in order to see it for what it is; the truth! Call, email or write your Congressperson and say, “Campaign Finance Reform” is important to me. Thank you for helping secure our freedoms by not being barraged by big money lies. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.