Lisa Napoli's Blog, page 43
June 21, 2011
Bhutan Research
A work-in-progress site that rounds up information about and articles pertaining to Bhutan. http://www.bhutan-research.org/
Youth problems in Bhutan
today sums up what appears to be a growing problem:
Youth admitted comatose to emergency room
Drug Overdose 21 June, 2011 – It was probably the first time medical practitioners at the emergency room of the Thimphu referral hospital came across an unidentified youth overdosed on psychotropic substances.
Around 4am yesterday, an 18-year-old youth was brought into the room unconscious by two young men presumed to be his friends.
They registered him as Tenzin and left the emergency room immediately.
That was the only information the hospital had retained.
By dawn that day, the medical staff at the forensic department were left puzzled as to who the young man with a colourful dragon tattoo on his left arm, and the profane four-letter word spelt out on each finger of his right hand, was.
The youth was still lying unconscious on the hospital bed seven hours after being admitted at the intensive care unit.
The young man, doctors said, was facing respiratory problems, which is said to be the main problem in such a case.
They said he had even experienced a cardiac arrest after being admitted to the hospital.
"Experiencing a cardiac arrest once indicates higher chances of experiencing another later," a doctor at the unit said.
The man's urine test revealed he was under the influence of benzodiazepine, a drug commonly used to treat anxiety, mania, depression and insomnia, besides signs of having taken marijuana.
The hospital staff later identified the patient and found out that one of his parents was in Trashiyangtse and the other in Canada.
They also found out that the two friends, who dropped him at the emergency room, had provided false details of the patient in the register.
Police are investigating the case.
This is the second reported drug case for June 2011.
About seven overdose cases were recorded in 2008, nine in 2009, and five in 2010. At the beginning of this year, a woman had died of a suspected drug overdose.
By Dechen Yangzom
June 20, 2011
Buddha Standard Time
Can't wait to read this book by Lama Surya Das: Buddha Standard Time. About this over-busy rushed rushed world and how to cope, make more of it (although I've mercifully learned a thing or two about this in the last years, I'm always happy to know more). Here are the first few pages.
He says: "Actually, it's not time we lack; it's focus, awareness and a sense of priorities. We must change the space of the pace — wake ourselves up by shifting to another way of being. We have all the time in the world. It's up to us to choose how to use it."
More: Does it deserve my time?
A simple question, but asking it will help you convert time wasted into time well spent. Why don't we save and invest time as carefully as we do money, since it's far more valuable and irreplaceable? Instead we often let time slip away. We squander, waste and kill it. We would all do well to consider the balance between our actual needs and mere greed and indulgence. How often do we say yes to something we don't mean? Say yes to yourself instead, by gently saying no to unreasonable demands and expectations.
Time is what we make of it. Our time is our own. Does watching TV or surfing the net for hours on end really make us happier or better people? We live in the over-information age, but knowing the world and others is mere knowledge; knowing oneself is wisdom. Let's look and inquire deeper.
Take the Time to Make the Time
I find that I can have all the time in the world if and when I focus and pay attention to what is most important and actually needs to be done, and maintain heightened present awareness in the course of what the Buddhists call right work. So when people ask me, I generally advise them to take time to make time for their best selves and their genuine values and priorities. Intention is everything: intend to attend. Be where you are and not where you ain't — dwelling on the past and future.
Time is an excellent servant but a poor master; you have to take time to make time, by intentionally creating some space in the pace. It's now or never, as always. Who can afford to wait? Better to wake up to our lives, by thoroughly and uninhibitedly engaging in what we're doing right now, mindful of our words, thoughts and deeds.
Living intentionally with conscious awareness can be hard, but it's a good hard, although reverting to habit is so much easier. It's helpful to practice remembering to remember, to recall what you're doing while you are actually doing it. Take a breath break to fresh your present awareness, come back home to the present moment and start again — awake, lucid, focused, calm and energized.
Using these nowness-awareness techniques has helped me to awaken and find myself in the sacred zone of Buddha Standard Time, the holy now, more and more each day. They can help you too, right now. Who can afford to wait?
Save the date: Pursuit of Happiness Day
Coming April 13, 2012, thanks to the good folks at Sustainable Seattle:
Pursuit of Happiness Day
Happiness is as American as Apple Pie. April 13th is the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, author of the famous "pursuit of happiness" line in our Declaration of Independence.Friday, April 13, 2012 is the first Pursuit of Happiness Day. The event will be a national festival/teach-in on American campuses,[image error]
Background
Interest in measuring and promoting well-being or happiness, instead of simply increases in Gross Domestic Product, is galvanizing people around the world. The science of happiness has exploded in universities around the world. The most popular class at Harvard is now a class about happiness, from which hundreds of students are turned away each year due to demand. Business leaders like Tony Hsieh are coming to understand the great importance of well-being in the workplace. The United Kingdom just launched its Action for Happiness Day and campaign to great fanfare, and its Prime Minister announced that the UK would publish a happiness index with quarterly GDP figures. Cities and universities in Brazil have launched happiness campaigns as has the city of Victoria, BC. In the US, Sustainable Seattle is leading a city happiness initiative that is spreading to other places—including small towns like Decorah, Iowa. The Gallup-Healthways organization now polls people's the positive affect aspect of happiness in the US on a daily basis, and in 150 other countries around the world.
2011 Focus on Universities
US campuses were the launching pad for the enormously successful Earth Day in 1970, the much more limited, Take Back Your Time Day in 2003, and Bill McKibben's hugely popular 350 events around climate change in 2009. Sadly, counselors at American universities have witnessed a major increase in depression in recent years—at Cornell University, six students committed suicide in the last year alone. Pressures on students are taking a toll. A focus on what they can do to improve their lives and their happiness is an imperative today.
We need a vision of the future that sustains us. Happiness is subject that allows nearly all disciplines on campus to participate and contribute their knowledge to a teach-in and celebration. Happiness scientists, working for the United Nations in the Kingdom of Bhutan, have identified nine essential domains of happiness. Neglect of any of these ultimately reduces personal and social well-being. Here are the domains, and academic disciplines connected with them that could be encouraged to participate in Pursuit of Happiness Day:
• Psychological Well-Being: psychology, pharmacy, theology
• Health: Public health, medicine, physical education
• Time Balance: Leisure and Recreation, Theology, Management, Information Technology
• Education: Education, Library Science, Information Technology, Communications, English
• Social Vitality: Sociology, history, urban design, architecture, social work, IT
• Cultural Vitality: Art, music, drama, Recreation, Languages, Anthropology, Ethnic and Gender Studies, Geography
• Governance: Political Science, Public Policy, International Studies
• Environment: Environmental Science, Ecological Economics, Biology, Meteorology, Agriculture, Engineering
• Material Well-Being: Economics, Business, Labor Studies, Social Work, Agriculture, Architecture, Engineering, Finance
Inter-disciplinary teams could work together to share insights as the teach-in develops.
Get Happy: Suggested Activities for Pursuit of Happiness Day
The focus should be on the personal, social and policy dimensions of happiness, and the aim should be to get students more engaged with each other, their colleges, their local communities and national issues. In the 2010 elections, only 21 percent of American college students actually voted.
The event should include substantive information and serious consideration of the subject, but will be enhanced by festive activities, planned by student teams.
Students would be encouraged to take "The Happiness Survey" and colleges would be provided with aggregate scores for discussion, with the idea of increasing happiness scores on each campus, and a sharing of "best practices."
A pre-recorded video of insights from happiness scholars could be shown campus-wide, followed by small group "World Café" style discussions or "happiness circles."
A handbook could be created and distributed with insights on improving personal happiness, including a focus on generosity and community participation.
Events could illustrate these themes—a volunteer activity at a food bank, home building with Habitat for Humanity, for example.
University libraries can provide displays of happiness books and other resources.
Faculty and students can organize for-credit elective classes. These might include planning projects for the event. Students in many classes can be encouraged to engage in projects, papers and research leading up to the event.
Prominent campus scholars can take their knowledge into the local communities to make presentations. These communities might be encouraged to conduct their own happiness initiatives, with support from Sustainable Seattle.
International students can be encouraged to present ideas for improving well-being from their own countries (eg. Bhutan).
Pursuit of Happiness Day can be confined to campus teach-ins or it can be extended to include high school students and entire communities, as was the case with the first Earth Day.
Students and faculty will be encouraged to help plan the day.
Social networking tools can help spread the idea widely and media interest in the day is virtually guaranteed.
The events of Pursuit of Happiness Day should lead to action for positive change.
There is no limit to ideas for this project. In the next few weeks we will be collecting input and feedback on this idea, and lining up commitments to participate. Development of the project idea will continue through spring and summer. Email happyThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to get involved!
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Domestic helper issues
Women and men have been training as domestic helpers in Bhutan, in an effort to professionalize maid and nanny services, and discourage people from hiring illegal underage nannies—as well as to create jobs for the growing number of unemployed.
However, shows many of those who took this three-month course aren't keen on cleaning other people's houses or taking care of their kids. Ironic, since many Bhutanese yearn to come to the US in the hopes of doing just that kind of work.
Tricycle online BuddhaFest
I haven't forked over the $20 yet for a pass but a lot of what's being offered at this online Buddhist Film Fest looks awfully compelling:
http://www.tricycle.com/buddhafest
Queen of Bhutan and domestic violence
Producer/reporter Stephanie Guyer-Stevens has filed dispatches from her trek with one of the Queens of Bhutan across the far eastern part of the country.
The mission: To generate awareness that it's not okay for a husband to hit his wife. RENEW is an agency headquartered in Thimphu that's sponsored by this particular Queen to help counsel battered women and promote information about other women's issues we take for granted here in the US. Give a listen to Stephanie's stories to get an amazing glimpse of the access she had.
June 19, 2011
Who does she think she is?
Seems kind of fitting on Father's Day to post this trailer for a fascinating documentary on women and how having children affects their artistic pursuits. It's called "Who does she think she is?"
http://www.whodoesshethinksheis.net/
