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A speech on Gross National Happiness in Berlin

2 Dec

My cousin Tho gave a talk in Berlin about the GNH paradigm: what it is, but also what it is not (eg an Happy Hippy Land). The key, take home message is: to overcome the suffering, to adopt a non dual attitude and to engage in a systematic approach in economics taking into account not only the individual but also his environment and the other living beings. Tho intervenes just after Julia Kim, the representative of UNICEF.

PGF2012: Gross National Happiness (GNH) from Presencing Institute on Vimeo.

Full code

3 Nov

“And in a sense, it is rational, given the dearth of alternatives. If nobody wants you at the party, why should you stay? Advocates of Death With Dignity laws who say that patients themselves should decide whether to live or die are fantasizing. Who chooses suicide in a vacuum? We are inexorably affected by our immediate environment. The deck is stacked.”
Excerpt from an article I just read in the Herald Tribune and that pulled tears from my eyes. An ethical topic fundamental for each human being , not only for health practitioners. As the spouse of the disabled author asks in the reanimation room, we should always proceed “full code” in order to save a human being.
This article by Ben Mattlin is worth to be read.
Reference :
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/opinion/suicide-by-choice-not-so-fast.html?_r=0

Thankful

27 Sep

 

be aware of what you have instead of being angry of what you are missing.

20120927-221115.jpg

 

Anger or gratefulness it’s up to you

15 Aug

Gratefulness could be the best way to happiness and to avoid child’s mental health problems in case of a pathogenic infancy. In France our psychologists developed the concept of resilience. Anglo-Saxon world put the accent on gratefulness as a tool for resilience, paving the way for the happening of a state of mind conducive to happiness. Listen to how Nancy Floy, an acupuncturist from Chicago, got through a very difficult childhood thank to her grand mother’s teaching of gratefulness for yet being still alive after a night of alcoholic chaos perpetrated by her own genitors.
Gratefulness is a very good way of conducting once life, don’t you think? Anyway my three dogs already behave according to this precept: they manifest energetically their joy, eyes full of gratefulness whatever the littlest good I do for them (like for example just giving them a little cup of water when they are thirsty, or appearing in the evening after a full day of absence, nothing more than that makes them very happy 😉

Thanks to the media HUMANKIND for broadcasting such interesting programs.

The interview of Nancy Floy

The public radio HUMANKIND.

The Don Quixote of the lost children

12 Aug
Micah's DNA

Micah’s DNA (Photo credit: micahb37)

DNA

DNA (Photo credit: Gravitywave)

Dr José A Lorente is a scientist specialized in forensic genetics. His career shifted toward an humanitarian mission when he travelled for the needs of an enquiry in Peru as it is stated by Suzanne Daley in her column written in the August 4-5 edition of the International Herald Tribune.
Looking at the stray children in the streets of Lima he wondered if his science could help.
And now his best reward, although he has had identified the remains of more greater people like Christopher Columbus and Simon Bolivar, is to see the gratitude in the eyes of a mother whose stolen baby daughter he has helped to find. Dr Lorente concludes: “you don’t make money at this, but you do feel proud” report the journalist.

His foundation DNA-Prokids furnishes for free DNA identifying kits to countries willing to fix the problem of stray children in the streets and lacking from financial resources.

Thich Nhat Hanh: teach me, heal me, feel me, touch me

8 Aug

 

The famous refrain of the Who’s song seems to apply to the course of meditation given by Thich Nhat Hanh at the Plum village (village des pruniers) near Bordeaux, France. The Vietnamese Buddhism way of appraising the world be it matter or living being as a whole and the exercises on our body, our feelings, our mind and the world around us that Thich Nhat Hanh advises us to practice regularly  should be mandatory putted in the curriculum of every schoolchildren in my view.

Enjoy the amazing video, given to us for free by the famous Vietnamese Buddhism Master, it includes good advises for preventing numerous diseases brought by the western stressing life we live in the developed countries. All the more there is a paragraph entirely dedicated to the scientists and the state of mind they should adopt to soundly apprehend the object of their research; nature.

 

A trip in Buthan

19 May

If you wish to follow the journey of my cousin in Buthan click here.

As a former head of education services at the international red cross committee in Geneva, he has been hired by the King of Buthan and his Prime minister to coordinate a mission at an international level to promote the Buthan’s Gross national Happiness policy.

My husband, your president

6 May

Presidential election: a meeting at the Virginia Commonwealth University.

Today France votes for electing its president. We have seen a lot of discourses and meeting an debates by our beloved French candidates. But let’s take a look at how a candidate to the presidential election expresses his program in a foreign country like the US of America for example.
A one and a half hour-long broadcast of a Barack’s and Michelle Obama’s speak in Virginia yesterday (May 5th 2012) in view of the November election in North America. The meeting begin with good sound (soul and rock music) and good vibe, then a lecture by Michelle, the spouse of the current president. We believe that in this country nobody should be bankrupted because he is sick 23 she says among other thoughts. And at the end of her speak, she says: Virginia I introduce to you my Husband and your president: President Barack Obama 32: 59.

In his program he puts education in the first place and then he makes choices for a cleaner energy than oil. He wants to end the war in Irak and Afghanistan after a decade of war. For budget balance he wants the healthiest Americans to pay a little bit more. He wants to allow young people to stay covered by their parents health care insurance. He wants an affordable birth control.

He also says: “We want our businesses to succeed but corporations aren’t people, people are people, in this country people succeed when they have a chance to get decent education and learn new skills 47:54. And by the way so do the businesses that hire those people or the companies that those people start. Our country is stronger when we can count on affordable health care and medicare and social security 49:20”

Near the end of his intervention Barack Obama declares that his campaign is about hope, changes and ordinary people 1:10
He concludes by God bless you and god bless the United States of America 1:12 and Michelle joins him on stage and makes some steps of rock and roll dance. And finally they leave the congress hall together, shaking hands. What a wonderful couple!

It seems that exactly like the two French candidates does in May the 6th, Barack will need a little help of his supporters in November the 6th.

Note: the numbers spread all over the text are the minutes (and hour in the end) of the video’s time counter.

A human rights activist at the Head of the state of Tunisia

1 May

And also a medical Doctor:  Moncef Marzouki, the current president of Tunisia, studied medicine at the University of Strasbourg in France.

As a physician he founded a center for community medicine in Sousse in Tunisia. He also engaged himself in the prevention in child abuses in Africa. He had been in a political exile in France since 2002 when the Benali regime felt.

Look at this awesome interview given to Julian Assenge the creator of Wikileaks by the president democratically elected of the state of Tunisia. He describes himself as a human rights activist; he was jailed for four month by the Benali regime and say that it was the equivalent of a psychological torture. He bans forever torture and imprisonment as tools at disposal for the special services and intelligence services of his country. He pledges for the total freedom of expression on the internet and Medias whatever they are.
He said also that democracy prevails on Islamic movements in his country because Islamic party became democrats and democrats didn’t become Islamists.

Gross National Happiness

23 Apr

News from the front line.

A Good Dog Can Bring Happiness to Your Life

A Good Dog Can Bring Happiness to Your Life (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An handful of scholars, idealists, politicians, spiritually minded and visionary people are in the pass of creating the forthcoming scale to measure the way of tomorrow life, i.e. the way of life and the wealth of our children and grand children. Those pioneers have attempted an assembly in New York the 1st and 2nd of April. Here below is the report of thoughts inspired by this meeting to one of its participant, who is also an actor of this coming revolution in the economic metrics:

http://havinhtho.blogspot.fr/2012/04/looking-back-at-new-york-meetings-on.html