Sadness has a direct line to the soul

One of the best articles I've read in a long long time:

OURS are ominous times. We are on the verge of eroding away our ozone layer. Within decades we could face severe oceanic flooding. We are close to annihilating hundreds of animal species. Soon our forests will be as bland as pavement. Moreover, we find ourselves on the verge of a new cold war. But there is another threat, perhaps as dangerous: we are eradicating a cultural force, the muse behind much art and poetry and music. We are annihilating melancholia.

A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre shows that almost 85 per cent of Americans believe that they are very happy or pretty happy. The psychological world is abuzz with a new field, positive psychology, devoted to finding ways to enhance happiness through pleasure, engagement and meaning.

What are we to make of this obsession with happiness, an obsession that could well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed by global warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation? What drives this rage for complacency, this desperate contentment? Surely all this happiness can't be for real. How can so many people be happy in the middle of all the problems that beset our globe, not only the collective and apocalyptic ills but also those particular irritations that bedevil our everyday existences?

I, for one, am afraid that this overemphasis on happiness at the expense of sadness may be dangerous, a wanton forgetting of an essential part of a full life. I am concerned that to desire only happiness in a world undoubtedly tragic is to become inauthentic, to settle for unrealistic abstractions. I am finally fearful of our society's efforts to expunge melancholia. Without the agitations of the soul, would all of our magnificently yearning towers topple? Would our heart-torn symphonies cease? MORE

John Simpson: my favourite journo

Stumbled across these videos on YouTube. John Simpson interviewed by The Panel on RTE. Assume it was taped in 2006.

Part 1:


Part 2:

Even lighter note

Since I've started posting, might as well continue eh? Make up for all those lost months, which frankly, I wish never existed.

Anyway, this is the "lighter" note. A cool mime by British comedian David Armand of the song Natalie Imbruglia Torn, with a very special guest ...

On a brighter note ...

Here's a cool pic of a house in Ireland:



I wonder how many millions of pounds it costs. Well, you never know I guess ... oh for a place like that ...

Whither Australia

An interesting article in the Herald about Australia, its psyche and its position in the world. Definitely worth a read!



A country that has stopped thinking

Prosperity has brought security but also a lack of vision and an absence of courage, write Steve Burrell and staff reporters.

Relaxed and comfortable. Or just timid and slow on the uptake? Anaesthetised by the Lucky Country prosperity of a once-in-50-year global resources boom, with leaders who have become frightened to lead, obsessed with cost but often blind to opportunity, Australia is being left behind on things that matter for the future.

Whether it's improving broadband speed and access or grasping the huge business opportunities thrown up by the climate-change challenge, we go around in circles - or backwards - as the best of the world moves ahead. The same can be said for capitalising on our innovation, scientific research and development, building world-class infrastructure and improving education, medical services, transport and urban design.

We have good ideas, world-class ideas, but too often our best and brightest have to go somewhere else to pursue them. The problem goes deep, with many of its roots in the way we are governed and, perhaps, in the nature of our national character. ... more

Children see, children do

I have been seeing this advertisement on TV from Australia's National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) recently and I think it's really good. Just thought you might like it too:



NAPCAN says: "NAPCAN's powerful multi-media community service campaign challenges adults to make a positive influence on the lives of children and young people."

Randy Thai sniffer dogs get the sack

Two Thai street mutts who became ace sniffer dogs at an airport near the notorious Golden Triangle opium-producing region have been fired for urinating on luggage and sexually harassing female passengers.

The pair, Mok and Lai, had been plucked from obscurity under a program initiated by King Bhumibol Adulyadej to turn strays into police dogs, the Bangkok Post said today.

Although they won plaudits from police for their work in sniffing out drugs at northern Thailand's Chiang Rai airport, near the border with Laos and Burma, so many passengers complained about their behaviour they had to be fired.

"He liked to pee on luggage while searching for drugs inside," Mok's former handler, Police Lieutenant Colonel Jakapop Kamhon, said. "He also liked to hold on to women's legs."

"Both were just as good as foreign dogs trained for use in drug missions," he added. "But they were stray dogs, so their manners were worse than those of foreign breeds."

Mok and Lai now work on a farm, herding chickens and pigs, the paper said.

Reuters