Global SoCal

There's a fantastic group of people here in Southern California who work in and around the global development, relief, and diplomacy spaces. (For everyone out there who thinks LA is all fluff and Hollywood, you are so wrong!) They call themselves Global SoCal.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking to some in the group, thanks to an introduction by my dear friend Carolyn Wagner. Not surprisingly for such a worldly, mindful group, they asked all the right questions about Bhutan: Are the people really happier? What is the status of women? How do you measure Gross National Happiness, anyway? How is it possible that a Buddhist Kingdom would expel people who are ethnically different? Why does the government control where tourists go?

Was a really great way to spend a few hours, and the meeting was at the beautiful Episcopal Diocese in Echo Park so the bonus for me was going into a building I'd not visited before.