You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
3/26/2018
Why is Finland so happy?
IN THE 1860s Finland suffered a famine that killed about 9% of its population. It has come a long way since. Earlier this month Finland was named the happiest country in the world by the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Three of its Nordic cousins, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, took the next consecutive places.
In recent years Finland has been named the most stable, the freest and the safest by various organisations. These may be understandable; but in a country where temperatures regularly hover around -20°C and some parts hardly get any sunlight for a big chunk of the year, what do the locals have to be so happy about?
The World Happiness Report, as the survey was called, used global polling data from Gallup to measure how pleased people felt with their lives. The researchers used variables such as GDP per person, social support, healthy-life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption. The differences between top-ranking countries are tiny, and the top five have not changed for years. This year’s report measured immigrant happiness for the first time, and Finland topped this category as well. This suggests that happy societies are those with supportive social systems and institutions that make it harder for people to fall through the cracks. They are also more willing to accept and integrate immigrants. Unsurprisingly, the poorest and most violent countries were the most miserable.
The secret to Finland’s happiness might just be that free education, generous parental leave and a healthy work-life balance ensure that people have the time and the means to pursue their pleasures, no matter how mundane. Over 80% of Finns trust the country’s police, education and health-care systems. And because of progressive taxation and wealth redistribution, the lifestyles of the rich and the poor are not dramatically divergent. Finland is widely considered one of the best places in the world to be a mother and to be a working woman. Though suicide rates are distressingly high, Finland has reduced these by 30% since 2000. The happiness of immigrants stems from a strong support network and integration policies, but also from the fact that immigrants in Finland tend to come from places that are culturally close, like neighbouring Estonia and Russia.
The rankings contain some surprises. The happiest countries are not necessarily the richest. Though the USA has doubled its income per person in the past 40 years, this seems not to have increased the subjective well-being of its people. It has slipped to 18th place, five rungs down from 2016. Britain comes in 19th.
What is more, people of different ages, cultures and social classes define joy in different ways. People in Latin America reported they were significantly happier than their country’s wealth, corruption or high levels of violence would suggest, since their happiness is connected to strong family bonds.
From The Economist (edited)
3/24/2018
Dutch prisons are closing
Dutch prisons are emptying fast. The number of prisoners in the Netherlands fell from 20,463 in 2006 to 10,102 in 2016.
This is equal to about 59 prisoners per 100,000 population. In comparison, the United States, which has the world’s highest incarceration rate, has 666 prisoners per 100,000 population, or a total of more than 2.1 million inmates.
The Netherland’s low incarceration rates are largely thanks to relaxed drug laws, a focus on rehabilitation and an electronic ankle monitor system.
 |
| Bijlmerbajes prison in Amsterdam Photo: Janericloebe / Wikimedia Commons |
 |
| Bijlmerbajes - Future energy-neutral development Photo: Inhabitat |
As a consequence, multiple prisons across the country are closing, including Bijilmerbajes in Amsterdan, which was shut down in 2016 and will be demolished. The Dutch government will transform the prison complex’s iconic six towers into an energy-neutral development powered by renewable energy and built largely from recycled materials.
Alongside this project, the city of Amsterdam and various partners will help refugees secure employment opportunities.
This initiative reflects Amsterdam’s policy of actively fostering and encouraging activities aimed at the inclusion of refugees.
Re-imagined spaces are also becoming increasingly common elsewhere.
For example, Bayview Correctional Facility in New York City was recently converted into the Women’s Building, a dedicated space designed to help promote partnerships and create networks.
In Slovenia, meanwhile, a former Yugoslavian military prison was converted into a youth hostel in 2003, following a campaign between 1993 and 2001 to renovate the space.
The hostel’s owners says the prison was “artistically upgraded from a place of confinement into an open space, place of personal freedom and artistic expression”.
While each room is unique, they still have one thing in common: prison bars on the windows and doors.
Image: Hostel Celica
United bumps passenger
Last Thursday Allison Preiss, a United Airlines passenger, got bumped from her flight when she lost her seat on a full morning flight from Washington Dulles to Austin.
The issue, as it turned out, is that a broken seat on the plane apparently had to be taken out of service. That meant United now had one less seat to offer on the fully-booked flight.
Once it looked like she was about to be that passenger, Preiss – a communications director from Washington – took to Twitter with a long list of complaints.
"United is offering $1K in travel credit for an oversold flight. If nobody bites, they will kick off the lowest fare passenger by pulling them out of the boarding line. For a flight that THEY oversold. Unreal,” she said in an 8:19 a.m. ET tweet on Thursday that kicked off a Tweetstorm about the incident.
.@united offering $1K in travel credit for an oversold flight. If nobody bites, they will kick off the lowest fare passenger by pulling them out of the boarding line. For a flight that THEY oversold. Unreal.
"I AM THE LOWEST FARE PASSENGER.""They are kicking me off this flight.""They can’t board me on this plane because there is a broken seat."“.@united IS THE WORST.”
Preiss didn’t want to miss the flight out of concern she would miss her friend's bachelorette weekend in Texas.
When there were no volunteers to be bumped, United singled her out because she paid the lowest fare.
United agents offered her a $2,000 voucher, but she pressed for cash instead. The gate agent agreed and was about to issue a check for $650 when another agent offered a $10,000 travel voucher and a spot on the next plane.
Preiss accepted, tweeting a photo of the voucher while saying “this is how badly United didn’t want to give me cash.”
.@united tried to get me to sign a document that says I volunteered my seat on this plane when I was involuntarily denied boarding. Sketchy af.
They really do not want to give me cash. They just offered me $10,000 in travel credit. TEN THOUSAND.
As you might expect, Preiss ultimately concluded that the episode turned out OK for her.
"Well, I can say it was the best flight delay ever,” she said.
United raised its cap last April for what its employees could offer fliers on oversold flights to $10,000 per passenger. That, of course, came after the global public relations crisis faced by the airline after passenger David Dao was bloodied as he was dragged off United Express Flight 3411 to free up a seat on the full flight.
3/18/2018
3/17/2018
French Baker Fined
Residents in Lusigny-sur-Barse, a small French country town 100 miles southeast of Paris, are supporting Cédric Vaivre, owner of La Boulangerie du Lac, after labour inspectors imposed a fine of €3,000 for the offence of opening seven days a week.
Mr Vaivre, 41, who is the town’s only baker, broke regulations which decree that shopkeepers and artisanal trades must close their premises at least one day a week. Such rules apply across France, which tightly regulates the location and working hours of bakers in particular.
A petition in support of Mr Vaivre gathered 400 signatures yesterday after national television reported the heavy fine. Christian Branle, the mayor of the town of 2,000, appealed for common sense. “We’re in a small rural community with no other baker,” he said. “In a tourist area, it seems vital that we can have businesses open every day during the summer. There is nothing worse than closed shops when there are tourists.”
Although bakeries, grocer’s shops and cafés are vanishing from villages and small towns across France, trade associations defend the limits to working hours in the name of fair competition and ensuring rest time. “The baker is getting up to work at the oven at 4am and often stays open till late. He has to have time off,” an official at the National Bakers’ Confederation said.
Local labour inspectors keep a special eye on boulangeries. In 2015 they made news by fining four in the southwest for staying open too long.
Mr Vaivre has not paid his fine yet and is hoping that the authorities will revoke it.
In addition to enforcing rigid working hours, France applies rules to ensure that its local boulangers and patissiers stick to the traditional methods. They still supply 65 per cent of the nation’s bread and pastries.
3/11/2018
St Patrick’s Day
EVERY March, for about a week, Dublin’s
corridors of power empty out. Government ministers and officials pack their
bags and head abroad on promotional trips linked to St Patrick’s Day, the Irish
national holiday that falls on March 17th.
Surprisingly, the patron Saint of
Ireland was not actually Irish. He was born in Roman Britain and brought to
Ireland as a slave. Since his death in 461 AD his life became more ingrained in the Irish culture.
The day began as a religious feast day in the
17th century to mark the death of Saint Patrick, and celebrate the arrival of
Christianity in Ireland.
But how did the celebration of a devout
fifth-century missionary become a global phenomenon when people drink whisky,
dress up in green and demand that people kiss them because they are Irish, even
if they are not?
Emigration has been at the heart of it.
During and after the famines that afflicted Ireland in the 19th century, some
2m people left the island, the majority settling in America and Britain. By the
1850s, the Irish accounted for up to a quarter of the population of cities like
Liverpool and Boston.
Within these communities, an Irish identity emerged based
on a strong Catholic faith and the political cause of the day: independence
from Britain. This nationalist identity was especially celebrated on St
Patrick’s Day when, in America and elsewhere, public sermons celebrating
Irish heritage became common.
By the mid-20th century St Patrick’s
Day had evolved into a celebration of all things
Irish, and was well established all over the world, but especially in the US,
Canada and Australia. More than 100 St Patrick’s Day
parades are held across the US - New York City and Boston are home to the
largest celebrations.
Around
one million people take part in the annual multi-day St Patrick’s Festival in
Dublin, which features parades, concerts, outdoor productions and fireworks
shows and can bring in as much as €70m ($87M).
Now there is the Global Greening, in which
landmarks from the Great Wall of China to the Eiffel Tower in Paris are bathed
in green light. Celebrations have even been held on the International Space
Station. Business deals are struck on trade missions and dignitaries take the
opportunity to be snapped with pints of Guinness in their hands. For one day
revellers around the world raise a glass to Ireland and its patron saint.
Sources: The Economist and Sunday Express
(edited)
You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button
The gondola - the symbol of Venice (video)
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
Non-smokers vacations
You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button
Should non-smokers get
extra vacation days to compensate for the time smokers take off during the day
for smoke breaks?
Many workers
say they should. A whopping 42% of non-smokers feel they should get 3-5 extra
vacation days than non-smokers and 28% of smokers agree with that amount,
according to a new survey.
To understand
how workers feel about the time their co-workers spent smoking, e-cigarette
maker Halo surveyed 1,005 American adults.
According to
the survey, 25% of non-smokers said 1-2 days is a fair amount. However,
14% said 6 or more days was fair.
More than 38%
of smokers, on the other hand, didn’t think that non-smokers deserve any extra
vacation days. Twenty-percent of non-smokers agreed they did not deserve extra
vacation time.
The survey
found that more than 81% of smokers said smoke breaks were fair. Only about 25%
of non-smokers agreed.
How severe of
a work productivity issue is caused by smoking breaks?
The average
smoker wastes around 6 days a year on work smoke breaks, according to Joe
Mercurio, Halo’s project manager for the study.
One company
giving extra vacation days a try is Japan's Piala Inc. Last September the
Tokyo-based marketing firm added six extra vacation days for its non-smoking
employees after a non-smoker complained about the problems smoking breaks were
causing.
To date, no fewer than
30 of Piala Inc.’s 120 employees have taken additional days off under the new
system since it was introduced.
The USA Center for
Disease Control and Prevention reports that smoking related illnesses cost
more than $156 billion in lost
productivity each year in the U.S. That includes $5.6 billion due to secondhand
smoke exposure.
Looking at
CDC 2016 data, about 15% of U.S. adults 18 or older, smoke cigarettes - an
estimated 37.8 million people.
In 1965, 45 %
of Americans were smokers. In 1997, 25% of Americans smoked.
So, what
would it take to get smokers to give up the habit at work? According to the
survey, smokers said on average that they’d give up the habit at work for 11
extra vacation days each year.
If you are interested in the survey, click HERE
Article source: The Telegraph and USA Today
3/09/2018
3/06/2018
Lessons from the philosophy of water (TED Talk)
You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)