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AuthorsRoy, a semi-retired businessman, was excited to finally have time to devote to golf, his favorite sport. But the more he played, the less he enjoyed himself. Although his game had improved dramatically, he got angry with himself over every mistake. Roy wisely realized that his golfing buddies affected his attitude, so he stopped playing with people who took the game too seriously. When he played with friends who focused more on having fun than on their scores, he was less critical of himself. Now golfing was as enjoyable as Roy hoped it would be. He scored better without working harder. And the brighter outlook he was getting from his companions and the game spread to other parts of his life, including his work.
Jane worked at home in her apartment complex designing greeting cards, a job she used to love but now felt routine. Two little girls who loved to draw and paint lived next door. Eventually, Jane invited the girls in to play with all the art supplies she had. At first, she just watched, but in time she joined in. Laughing, coloring, and playing pretend with the little girls transformed Jane’s life. Not only did playing with them end her loneliness and mild boredom, it sparked her imagination and helped her artwork flourish. Best of all, it rekindled the playfulness and spark in Jane’s relationship with her husband.
As laughter, humor, and play become an integrated part of your life, your creativity will flourish and new discoveries for playing with friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and loved ones will occur to you daily. Humor takes you to a higher place where you can view the world from a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and balanced perspective.Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Dave chappelle doo baby
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: September 03, 1992
Published: September 03, 1992
Peering from their apartment windows, the residents of West 96th Street have watched Larry Hogue's slow descent into madness. At first, he was just another shambling homeless man who muttered to himself, slept barefoot in the snow and ate from the garbage.
But over the years his behavior became more bizarre. He stalked a teacher as she walked her fawn-colored Akita, and threatened to roast and eat the dog. He dragged a raggedy chair into a busy intersection, leaned back as if he were reclining in a chaise longue and munched a bagel as cars swerved around him.
He jumped on the hood of a red Jetta and banged on the windshield as a terrified woman tried to pull out of a parking space. He heaved rocks through the vaulted stained-glass windows of a landmark church. He knocked a schoolgirl into the street, where she was almost struck by an onrushing truck. Like Typical Horror Movie
Dozens of times, police officers in the 24th Precinct deposited Mr. Hogue in psychiatric emergency rooms or jail cells, but each time, like some horror movie cliche, he returned to his old haunts.
But over the years his behavior became more bizarre. He stalked a teacher as she walked her fawn-colored Akita, and threatened to roast and eat the dog. He dragged a raggedy chair into a busy intersection, leaned back as if he were reclining in a chaise longue and munched a bagel as cars swerved around him.
He jumped on the hood of a red Jetta and banged on the windshield as a terrified woman tried to pull out of a parking space. He heaved rocks through the vaulted stained-glass windows of a landmark church. He knocked a schoolgirl into the street, where she was almost struck by an onrushing truck. Like Typical Horror Movie
Dozens of times, police officers in the 24th Precinct deposited Mr. Hogue in psychiatric emergency rooms or jail cells, but each time, like some horror movie cliche, he returned to his old haunts.
Mr. Hogue is among the growing ranks of mentally ill people who are also addicted to drugs. His scary collision with the Upper West Side, a bastion of upwardly mobile liberalism, has not only tested the tolerance of residents, but has also offered an unusually detailed look at the failure of the mental health system to help people like Mr. Hogue or protect the public, say his psychiatrists, mental health experts and city officials.
Although he is an extreme case, Mr. Hogue represents the sometimes dangerous fusion of two trends: the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and the rise of cheap crack cocaine. Community Care and Money
Since the 1950's, when there were almost 90,000 patients in New York State mental hospitals, the state has greatly shrunk that population. The goal was community care, which critics charge has never been adequately provided. Even in the last five years, under grinding budget pressure, the number of patients has been almost halved, from 20,000 to 11,000. Critics say the state policy has left the city to cope with the consequences.
Thousands of those living on the outside, especially the homeless, have turned to crack and other street drugs that give an anguished mentally ill person a way to feel intensely alive, unlike prescribed medications that can deaden sensation, doctors say.
The disastrous results can be found in one staggering statistical leap: In 1985, 20 percent of the psychiatric patients discharged from public city hospitals were dependent on drugs or alcohol. Last year, 41 percent had a "dual diagnosis" of mental illness and substance abuse.
Men and women like Mr. Hogue cycle in and out of hospitals and jails. Programs to treat their complex problems are still relatively scarce, officials say. Under state law, people cannot be hospitalized against their will unless they are legally considered dangerous to themselves or others. And mental hospitals, under the gun to reduce costs, often release them when they stabilize, researchers say. But once they leave the hospital, the drug addiction often reasserts itself, fueling the patient's sickness.
"There's an enormous pressure to get people out of hospitals because they cost a lot of money," said Elmer Struening, an epidemiologist at the state-sponsored Psychiatric Institute. "They stay in the hospital until they simmer down. Then they are discharged." 'He Was Pushed Through the Cracks'
This was the pattern with Mr. Hogue. He became psychotic when he smoked crack, so the police took him to an emergency room. From there he was transferred to a state hospital. Then after he calmed down, he was discharged to start the destructive cycle again -- even though his records indicated he probably would be back to the hospital again. Mr. Hogue is now under psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital Center.
"Larry didn't fall through the cracks," said Michael Powell, a psychiatrist who saw Mr. Hogue at least a dozen times at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in the 1980s. "He was pushed through the cracks."
The portrait of Mr. Hogue that emerges from interviews with doctors, mental health officials, the police and residents of 96th Street is of a man whose troubles appear to have begun in Vietnam. He was struck in the head by a propeller blade and suffered damage to the frontal lobe of his brain.
Mr. Hogue, now 48 years old, first went to jail and a state psychiatric hospital in 1972. Over the next two decades, he was in and out of state hospitals about 20 times -- not counting many other stays in the psychiatric wards of Veterans Administration hospitals, officials say. He also served jail terms ranging from five days to a year for crimes of criminal mischief, gun possession and attempted robbery, among others.
He first turned up on the Upper West Side in the mid-1980's. No one seems to know why he made the undistinguished blocks of 96th Street between Amsterdam and Central Park West his home base.
Lisa and David Lehr moved there from the New Jersey suburbs in 1985 and spotted Mr. Hogue in the first hour. In winter, Mrs. Lehr set out meals of cheese, crackers and milk for him. Sometimes, when he slept shirtless and barefoot on a grate, she covered him with a wool blanket.
But he deteriorated as crack unhinged his sanity. A disabled veteran, Mr. Hogue received about $36,000 a year in benefits, officials say, but did not spend the money on shelter. Instead, residents say, he collected cash from a bank and spent much of it to buy crack and other street drugs.
Mr. Hogue crouched behind cars, sneaking from one to another, with his arm outstretched and his finger pointing like a gun, perhaps, residents thought, in a flashback to Vietnam.
He seemed to have a special grudge against cars. He set fires under them and stuffed rags in their gas tanks. He ripped off side-view mirrors, then wandered into the street and shaved with a knife as he gazed at his reflection.
When the police took Mr. Hogue to St. Luke's, Dr. Powell said, the nurses and doctors there would sigh and say, "Oh, God, it's Hogue again." Dr. Powell, the director of the psychiatric emergency room there from 1977 to 1990, said: "He just ran people ragged because he was such a pain in the neck. We were uncomfortable restraining the guy, but if you didn't he was constantly into stuff."
Dr. Powell said Mr. Hogue suffered from the brain injury, crack addiction and a psychiatric illness that was hard to disentangle from the other problems. The doctor said he believed that Mr. Hogue needed long-term hospital care, but never got it because of the pressure to empty state hospitals.
Mr. Hogue was the kind of patient who could make life miserable on a hospital ward, the doctor said -- an added incentive to discharge him. "He's ungratifying to work with," Dr. Powell said. "He ruins your stats because he stays forever. Every time he breaks something, there's an investigation. He's very high overhead, so they export the problem to the streets." Shoved Schoolgirl In Front of a Truck
In 1988, a 16-year-old girl was walking home from her private school when Mr. Hogue came shadow-boxing through the intersection of 93d Street and Amsterdam Avenue, punched her in the stomach and pushed her in front of a Con Edison truck, said her father, Jeff Agrest, a real-estate lawyer.
The truck driver, who stopped in time, chased Mr. Hogue and the police took him to a hospital. Mr. Agrest, enraged, wanted to press charges, but said the police and the District Attorney's office told him not to bother because of Mr. Hogue's mental state.
But the girl's mother, Susan Agrest, who had been a Newsweek correspondent for many years in the city, called the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, her husband said. Mr. Hogue was subsequently indicted on attempted murder charges.
"Morgenthau's not frightened of an angry father, but of a reporter with access to ink," said Mr. Agrest, so disgusted by the incident that his family moved upstate.
Mr. Morgenthau said through a spokesman he had no memory of Mrs. Agrest's intervention. At the trial, Mr. Hogue contended he had just bumped into the girl. A jury convicted him of reckless endangerment and he was sentenced to a year in jail.
When Mr. Hogue, inevitably, showed up again at St. Luke's Hospital after his release from Rikers Island, Dr. Powell, aware of the truck incident, was worried that Mr. Hogue would kill someone. The doctor said he wrote to the head of a Veterans Administration Hospital and warned him not to let Mr. Hogue go again if he was readmitted. The doctor also took the case to court and Mr. Hogue was involuntarily committed to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, a state hospital on Wards Island.
"I did not want to be on the cover of The New York Post as the guy who let him go," he said.
But the revolving door kept spinning. "When this guy's drug problems clear, his psychosis seems to disappear," said Robert Spoor, spokesman for the state Office of Mental Health. "When a person's condition no longer requires hospitalization, we discharge him."
Alan Malter, assistant chief of psychiatry at the V.A. Hospital in Montrose, N.Y., where Mr. Hogue was treated, declined to comment on the case, but speaking generally about the issue, he said: "How long can a person be kept against their will when their psychiatric condition is stabilized? Ninety days? A year? Five years?"
On Jan. 5, Mrs. Lehr, an auxiliary police officer and community advocate, saw Mr. Hogue bolt across 96th Street, carrying a slab of stone.
"With incredible fury, he rammed it through my car window," she said. "It not only shattered the glass, it bent the frame."
Mrs. Lehr pressed charges and went to The Manhattan Spirit, a neighborhood paper, which published a cover story headlined "The Wild Man of West 96th Street."
On a cold dreary morning this February, about a dozen residents climbed into a police van and went to the state hospital on Wards Island to meet with Mr. Hogue's medical team. 'Cooperative' Inside, Furious on Street
"The psychiatrist explained to my amazement that Larry was calm and cooperative and so they put him on the street," said Joyce Wouthers, a board member at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, whose windows Mr. Hogue had broken. "My mouth was hanging open."
At the time, Mr. Hogue was still in jail, but in May he bailed himself out with his veteran's benefits, went out of control and was taken back to St. Luke's, which sent him to the V.A. hospital, which released him a couple of weeks later.
He pleaded guilty to breaking Mrs. Lehr's car window and was sent to jail. But in mid-August, he was back on 96th Street.
On Aug. 17, Mrs. Lehr said, a police van followed him to his bank, and from there to a crack house. He was not arrested.
On Aug. 18, Mrs. Lehr said, she saw him walking down the street with a screwdriver in one hand, an ice pick in the other and a machete in his back pocket.
On the afternoon of Aug. 22, the police took him to St. Luke's after he started jumping on the hoods of moving cars. The next morning, a neighbor told Mrs. Lehr in disbelief, "This is not 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' but Larry's back."
On Aug. 23, Andrea Kerzner-Torgovnik, a schoolteacher, went to the window. She said Mr. Hogue was circling her red Jetta, appraisingly touching the side-view mirrors, when he pulled out a long knife and scraped it along the side of the car.
In earlier years, he had threatened her dog and scared her 8-year-old son, Max, so badly that he was afraid to ride his bike on the street. This time, she pressed charges.
"Until he does something horrible, he's not going to be taken off the streets," she said.
The case has ignited a debate about the adequacy of state laws to involuntarily commit a person like Mr. Hogue. It also raised questions about why the Veterans Administration gave Mr. Hogue a sizable pension, apparently with no strings.
Given Mr. Hogue's violent history, the state's Commissioner of Mental Health, Richard C. Surles, now says Mr. Hogue is likely to be committed to long-term care. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21 in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The city's Mental Health Commissioner, Luis R. Marcos, says he believes state law should be changed to allow involuntary hospitalization for drug addiction, as well as mental illness.
But Gregory A. Miller, a psychiatrist who treated Mr. Hogue periodically at St. Luke's between 1990 and this summer, is skeptical that changing the law would make any difference. The system is so overburdened, he said, that even mentally ill addicts who beg for help often do not get it, much less those who resist treatment.
"What this boils down to," he said, "is that we as a society have decided to ignore the problem and then get mad when someone is out on the street.
Although he is an extreme case, Mr. Hogue represents the sometimes dangerous fusion of two trends: the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and the rise of cheap crack cocaine. Community Care and Money
Since the 1950's, when there were almost 90,000 patients in New York State mental hospitals, the state has greatly shrunk that population. The goal was community care, which critics charge has never been adequately provided. Even in the last five years, under grinding budget pressure, the number of patients has been almost halved, from 20,000 to 11,000. Critics say the state policy has left the city to cope with the consequences.
Thousands of those living on the outside, especially the homeless, have turned to crack and other street drugs that give an anguished mentally ill person a way to feel intensely alive, unlike prescribed medications that can deaden sensation, doctors say.
The disastrous results can be found in one staggering statistical leap: In 1985, 20 percent of the psychiatric patients discharged from public city hospitals were dependent on drugs or alcohol. Last year, 41 percent had a "dual diagnosis" of mental illness and substance abuse.
Men and women like Mr. Hogue cycle in and out of hospitals and jails. Programs to treat their complex problems are still relatively scarce, officials say. Under state law, people cannot be hospitalized against their will unless they are legally considered dangerous to themselves or others. And mental hospitals, under the gun to reduce costs, often release them when they stabilize, researchers say. But once they leave the hospital, the drug addiction often reasserts itself, fueling the patient's sickness.
"There's an enormous pressure to get people out of hospitals because they cost a lot of money," said Elmer Struening, an epidemiologist at the state-sponsored Psychiatric Institute. "They stay in the hospital until they simmer down. Then they are discharged." 'He Was Pushed Through the Cracks'
This was the pattern with Mr. Hogue. He became psychotic when he smoked crack, so the police took him to an emergency room. From there he was transferred to a state hospital. Then after he calmed down, he was discharged to start the destructive cycle again -- even though his records indicated he probably would be back to the hospital again. Mr. Hogue is now under psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital Center.
"Larry didn't fall through the cracks," said Michael Powell, a psychiatrist who saw Mr. Hogue at least a dozen times at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in the 1980s. "He was pushed through the cracks."
The portrait of Mr. Hogue that emerges from interviews with doctors, mental health officials, the police and residents of 96th Street is of a man whose troubles appear to have begun in Vietnam. He was struck in the head by a propeller blade and suffered damage to the frontal lobe of his brain.
Mr. Hogue, now 48 years old, first went to jail and a state psychiatric hospital in 1972. Over the next two decades, he was in and out of state hospitals about 20 times -- not counting many other stays in the psychiatric wards of Veterans Administration hospitals, officials say. He also served jail terms ranging from five days to a year for crimes of criminal mischief, gun possession and attempted robbery, among others.
He first turned up on the Upper West Side in the mid-1980's. No one seems to know why he made the undistinguished blocks of 96th Street between Amsterdam and Central Park West his home base.
Lisa and David Lehr moved there from the New Jersey suburbs in 1985 and spotted Mr. Hogue in the first hour. In winter, Mrs. Lehr set out meals of cheese, crackers and milk for him. Sometimes, when he slept shirtless and barefoot on a grate, she covered him with a wool blanket.
But he deteriorated as crack unhinged his sanity. A disabled veteran, Mr. Hogue received about $36,000 a year in benefits, officials say, but did not spend the money on shelter. Instead, residents say, he collected cash from a bank and spent much of it to buy crack and other street drugs.
Mr. Hogue crouched behind cars, sneaking from one to another, with his arm outstretched and his finger pointing like a gun, perhaps, residents thought, in a flashback to Vietnam.
He seemed to have a special grudge against cars. He set fires under them and stuffed rags in their gas tanks. He ripped off side-view mirrors, then wandered into the street and shaved with a knife as he gazed at his reflection.
When the police took Mr. Hogue to St. Luke's, Dr. Powell said, the nurses and doctors there would sigh and say, "Oh, God, it's Hogue again." Dr. Powell, the director of the psychiatric emergency room there from 1977 to 1990, said: "He just ran people ragged because he was such a pain in the neck. We were uncomfortable restraining the guy, but if you didn't he was constantly into stuff."
Dr. Powell said Mr. Hogue suffered from the brain injury, crack addiction and a psychiatric illness that was hard to disentangle from the other problems. The doctor said he believed that Mr. Hogue needed long-term hospital care, but never got it because of the pressure to empty state hospitals.
Mr. Hogue was the kind of patient who could make life miserable on a hospital ward, the doctor said -- an added incentive to discharge him. "He's ungratifying to work with," Dr. Powell said. "He ruins your stats because he stays forever. Every time he breaks something, there's an investigation. He's very high overhead, so they export the problem to the streets." Shoved Schoolgirl In Front of a Truck
In 1988, a 16-year-old girl was walking home from her private school when Mr. Hogue came shadow-boxing through the intersection of 93d Street and Amsterdam Avenue, punched her in the stomach and pushed her in front of a Con Edison truck, said her father, Jeff Agrest, a real-estate lawyer.
The truck driver, who stopped in time, chased Mr. Hogue and the police took him to a hospital. Mr. Agrest, enraged, wanted to press charges, but said the police and the District Attorney's office told him not to bother because of Mr. Hogue's mental state.
But the girl's mother, Susan Agrest, who had been a Newsweek correspondent for many years in the city, called the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, her husband said. Mr. Hogue was subsequently indicted on attempted murder charges.
"Morgenthau's not frightened of an angry father, but of a reporter with access to ink," said Mr. Agrest, so disgusted by the incident that his family moved upstate.
Mr. Morgenthau said through a spokesman he had no memory of Mrs. Agrest's intervention. At the trial, Mr. Hogue contended he had just bumped into the girl. A jury convicted him of reckless endangerment and he was sentenced to a year in jail.
When Mr. Hogue, inevitably, showed up again at St. Luke's Hospital after his release from Rikers Island, Dr. Powell, aware of the truck incident, was worried that Mr. Hogue would kill someone. The doctor said he wrote to the head of a Veterans Administration Hospital and warned him not to let Mr. Hogue go again if he was readmitted. The doctor also took the case to court and Mr. Hogue was involuntarily committed to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, a state hospital on Wards Island.
"I did not want to be on the cover of The New York Post as the guy who let him go," he said.
But the revolving door kept spinning. "When this guy's drug problems clear, his psychosis seems to disappear," said Robert Spoor, spokesman for the state Office of Mental Health. "When a person's condition no longer requires hospitalization, we discharge him."
Alan Malter, assistant chief of psychiatry at the V.A. Hospital in Montrose, N.Y., where Mr. Hogue was treated, declined to comment on the case, but speaking generally about the issue, he said: "How long can a person be kept against their will when their psychiatric condition is stabilized? Ninety days? A year? Five years?"
On Jan. 5, Mrs. Lehr, an auxiliary police officer and community advocate, saw Mr. Hogue bolt across 96th Street, carrying a slab of stone.
"With incredible fury, he rammed it through my car window," she said. "It not only shattered the glass, it bent the frame."
Mrs. Lehr pressed charges and went to The Manhattan Spirit, a neighborhood paper, which published a cover story headlined "The Wild Man of West 96th Street."
On a cold dreary morning this February, about a dozen residents climbed into a police van and went to the state hospital on Wards Island to meet with Mr. Hogue's medical team. 'Cooperative' Inside, Furious on Street
"The psychiatrist explained to my amazement that Larry was calm and cooperative and so they put him on the street," said Joyce Wouthers, a board member at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, whose windows Mr. Hogue had broken. "My mouth was hanging open."
At the time, Mr. Hogue was still in jail, but in May he bailed himself out with his veteran's benefits, went out of control and was taken back to St. Luke's, which sent him to the V.A. hospital, which released him a couple of weeks later.
He pleaded guilty to breaking Mrs. Lehr's car window and was sent to jail. But in mid-August, he was back on 96th Street.
On Aug. 17, Mrs. Lehr said, a police van followed him to his bank, and from there to a crack house. He was not arrested.
On Aug. 18, Mrs. Lehr said, she saw him walking down the street with a screwdriver in one hand, an ice pick in the other and a machete in his back pocket.
On the afternoon of Aug. 22, the police took him to St. Luke's after he started jumping on the hoods of moving cars. The next morning, a neighbor told Mrs. Lehr in disbelief, "This is not 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' but Larry's back."
On Aug. 23, Andrea Kerzner-Torgovnik, a schoolteacher, went to the window. She said Mr. Hogue was circling her red Jetta, appraisingly touching the side-view mirrors, when he pulled out a long knife and scraped it along the side of the car.
In earlier years, he had threatened her dog and scared her 8-year-old son, Max, so badly that he was afraid to ride his bike on the street. This time, she pressed charges.
"Until he does something horrible, he's not going to be taken off the streets," she said.
The case has ignited a debate about the adequacy of state laws to involuntarily commit a person like Mr. Hogue. It also raised questions about why the Veterans Administration gave Mr. Hogue a sizable pension, apparently with no strings.
Given Mr. Hogue's violent history, the state's Commissioner of Mental Health, Richard C. Surles, now says Mr. Hogue is likely to be committed to long-term care. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21 in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The city's Mental Health Commissioner, Luis R. Marcos, says he believes state law should be changed to allow involuntary hospitalization for drug addiction, as well as mental illness.
But Gregory A. Miller, a psychiatrist who treated Mr. Hogue periodically at St. Luke's between 1990 and this summer, is skeptical that changing the law would make any difference. The system is so overburdened, he said, that even mentally ill addicts who beg for help often do not get it, much less those who resist treatment.
"What this boils down to," he said, "is that we as a society have decided to ignore the problem and then get mad when someone is out on the street.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Laughter is the Best Medicine
Laughter is the Best Medicine
The Health Benefits of Humor and Laughter
In This Article:
- Laughter is strong medicine
- Laughter and emotional health
- Social benefits of laughter
- Bringing more laughter into your life
- Developing your sense of humor
- Using humor to overcome challenges
- Related links
Text SizeLaughter is strong medicine for mind and body
“Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.”
~ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.
Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert.~ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.
With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health.
Laughter is good for your health
- Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
- Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
- Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
- Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
| The Benefits of Laughter | ||
Physical Health Benefits:
| Mental Health Benefits:
| Social Benefits:
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Laughter and humor help you stay emotionally healthy
Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss.More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in on the fun.
The link between laughter and mental health
- Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. You can’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when you’re laughing.
- Laughter helps you relax and recharge. It reduces stress and increases energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.
- Humor shifts perspective, allowing you to see situations in a more realistic, less threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.
The social benefits of humor and laughter
Humor and playful communication strengthen our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional connection. When we laugh with one another, a positive bond is created. This bond acts as a strong buffer against stress, disagreements, and disappointment.Laughing with others is more powerful than laughing alone
Shared laughter is one of the most effective tools for keeping relationships fresh and exciting. All emotional sharing builds strong and lasting relationship bonds, but sharing laughter and play adds joy, vitality, and resilience. And humor is a powerful and effective way to heal resentments, disagreements, and hurts. Laughter unites people during difficult times.Using humor and laughter in relationships allows you to:
- Be more spontaneous. Humor gets you out of your head and away from your troubles.
- Let go of defensiveness. Laughter helps you forget judgments, criticisms, and doubts.
- Release inhibitions. Your fear of holding back and holding on are set aside.
- Express your true feelings. Deeply felt emotions are allowed to rise to the surface.
Laughter and Relationships
Mutual laughter and play are an essential component of strong, healthy relationships. By making a conscious effort to incorporate more humor and play into your daily interactions, you can improve the quality of your love relationships— as well as your connections with co-workers, family members, and friends.Read: Playful Communication in Relationships: The Power of Laughter, Humor, and Play
Bringing more humor and laughter into your life
Creating opportunities to laugh
- Watch a funny movie or TV show.
- Go to a comedy club.
- Read the funny pages.
- Seek out funny people.
- Share a good joke or a funny story.
- Check out your bookstore’s humor section.
- Host game night with friends.
- Play with a pet.
- Go to a “laughter yoga” class.
- Goof around with children.
- Do something silly.
- Make time for fun activities (e.g. bowling, miniature golfing, karaoke).
Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from there. Eventually, you’ll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything you do.
Here are some ways to start:
- Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
- Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When in a state of sadness, we have further to travel to get to humor and laughter.
- When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”
- Spend time with fun, playful people. These are people who laugh easily–both at themselves and at life’s absurdities–and who routinely find the humor in everyday events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.
- Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”
Want to bring the fun? Get a pet…
Most of us have experienced the joy of playing with a furry friend, and pets are a rewarding way to bring more laughter and joy into your life. But did you know that having a pet is also good for your mental and physical health? Studies show that pets can protect you depression, stress, and even heart disease.Read: The Therapeutic Benefits of Pets: How Caring for a Pet Can Make You Happier and Healthier
Developing your sense of humor: Take yourself less seriously
One essential characteristic that helps us laugh is not taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic tight-jawed sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at anything. No fun there!Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for laughter. But most events in life don’t carry an overwhelming sense of either sadness or delight. They fall into the gray zone of ordinary life–giving you the choice to laugh or not.
Ways to help yourself see the lighter side of life:
- Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take ourselves less seriously is talk about times when we took ourselves too seriously.
- Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them. Look for the humor in a bad situation, the irony and absurdity of life. This will help improve your mood and the mood of those around you.
- Surround yourself with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your desk or in your car. Put up a funny poster in your office. Choose a computer screensaver that makes you laugh. Frame photos of you and your family or friends having fun.
- Keep things in perspective. Many things in life are beyond our control—particularly the behavior of other people. While you might think taking the weight of the world on your shoulders is admirable, in the long run it’s unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy, and even egotistical.
- Deal with your stress. Stress is a major impediment to humor and laughter.
- Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.
Checklist for lightening up
When you find yourself taken over by what seems to be a horrible problem, ask these questions:- Is it really worth getting upset over?
- Is it worth upsetting others?
- Is it that important?
- Is it that bad?
- Is the situation irreparable?
- Is it really your problem?
Using humor and play to overcome challenges and enhance your life
The ability to laugh, play, and have fun with others not only makes life more enjoyable–it also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and be more creative. People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships.Life brings challenges that can either get the best of you or become playthings for your imagination. When you “become the problem” and take yourself too seriously, it can be hard to think outside the box and find new solutions. But when you play with the problem, you can often transform it into an opportunity for creative learning.
Playing with problems seems to come naturally to children. When they are confused or afraid, they make their problems into a game, giving them a sense of control and an opportunity to experiment with new solutions. Interacting with others in playful ways helps you retain this creative ability.
Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around through laughter and play:
Related articles
 Playful Communication in Relationships The Power of Laughter, Humor, and Play |  Emotional Intelligence Five Key Skills for Raising Your Emotional Intelligence |
More Helpguide articles:
- Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress
- How to Stop Worrying: Self-Help Strategies for Anxiety Relief
- Play, Creativity, and Lifelong Learning: Why Play Matters for Both Kids and Adults
Related links for humor, laughter, and health
General information about health and humor
How Humor Makes You Friendlier, Sexier – Seeing the bright side of life may strengthen the psyche, ease pain, and tighten social bonds. (Scientific American Mind)Articles on Health and Humor – Psychologist and humor-training specialist Paul McGhee offers a series of articles on humor, laughter, and health. (Laughter Remedy)
How Laughter Works – Explains the physiology of laughter, as well as its physical and emotional benefits. (How Stuff Works)
What is Humor? – Discusses the relationship between humor and health and suggests ways to improve your sense of humor. (Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor)
Laughter as medicine
Laughter is the "Best Medicine" for Your Heart – Describes a study that found that laughter helps prevent heart disease. (University of Maryland Medical Center)Give Your Body a Boost -- With Laughter – Learn all about the physical health benefits of humor and laughter. (WebMD)
Laughter Therapy – Guide to the healing power of laughter, including the research supporting laughter therapy. (Cancer Treatment Centers of America)
The social benefits of laughter
The Benefits of Laughter – Article on the social benefits of laughter and the important role it plays in the relationships between people. (Psychology Today)The Science of Laughter – Psychologist and laughter researcher Robert Provine, Ph.D., explains the power of laughter, humor, and play as social tools. (Psychology Today)
Bringing more laughter and humor into your life
Humor in the Workplace – Series of articles on using humor in the workplace to reduce job stress, improve morale, boost productivity and creativity, and improve communication. (Laughter Remedy)EU debt crisis weighs on world markets
LONDON — The euro rose on Friday as pressure on Spanish and Italian bonds eased after the European Central Bank stepped in to stabilise the market, but fears both countries’ borrowing costs are at unsustainable levels sent European stocks to new five-week lows.
World stocks remained near their lowest levels since October and commodities were weak on persisting fears the eurozone’s debt crisis is spiralling out of control.
The ECB intervened in the bond market a day after Spain’s borrowing costs at a sale of 10-year debt soared to their highest in the euro’s history, as the crisis now entering its third year increasingly threatens Europe’s bigger economies.
The yield premium investors demand to hold Spain’s 10-year bonds rather than safer German debt eased 8 basis points to 454 bps while the equivalent Italian premium fell below 5%.
The reprieve was expected to be temporary, with traders and strategists expecting Spanish yields especially to resume their rise ahead of the country’s elections on Sunday and in the absence of more aggressive buying from the ECB.
The euro was last 0.5% up against the dollar at 1.3534 as investors unwound bearish bets on the single currency to book profits ahead of the weekend. But dealers said appetite to sell on such small rebounds was high.
“With so much up in the air there’s nothing else to focus on apart from the immediate, which is that the eurozone looks to be heading into the precipice,” Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank. “Ahead of the weekend I don’t think anyone is ready to counter that view.”
European stocks cut earlier losses and were last 0.2% down, leaaving the pan-regional index on course for a 3% fall over the week.
The banking sector was among the losers, with the STOXX Europe 600 Banking Index 0.3% lower. It has lost more than 36% in 2011, as banks take writedowns on exposure to eurozone peripheral debt.
“The focus has very much moved towards the core of Europe, away from the periphery. Italy’s in question. France is in question,” Daniel McCormack, strategist at Macquarie, said.
“It really has pushed the sovereign crisis into a much more dangerous phase. You should have some kind of overweight in defensives, and avoid financials.”
The MSCI world equity index was down 0.4%, near its lowest levels since Oct. 20 and falling for a fourth consecutive day.
Investors remained on edge as eurozone governments struggle to raise funds and given signs that banks are refraining from lending, causing market liquidity to seize up.
Euro/dollar three-month cross-currency basis swaps , the cost of swapping euros for dollars, widened to -136 basis points on Thursday, the most since the 2008 financial crisis.
Other safe-haven currencies such as the Swiss franc and the yen outperformed the dollar. The greenback hit a 2-1/2 week low against the yen of 76.68 and fell 1% against the Swiss franc to 0.9116.
“Generally safe havens are doing very well at the moment and once you’ve filled up your exposure on dollars, the yen is the next one in line irrespective of whether you might be worried about intervention,” said Adam Myers, senior FX strategist at Credit Agricole in London.
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/11/18/eu-debt-crisis-weighs-on-world-markets/
World stocks remained near their lowest levels since October and commodities were weak on persisting fears the eurozone’s debt crisis is spiralling out of control.
The ECB intervened in the bond market a day after Spain’s borrowing costs at a sale of 10-year debt soared to their highest in the euro’s history, as the crisis now entering its third year increasingly threatens Europe’s bigger economies.
The yield premium investors demand to hold Spain’s 10-year bonds rather than safer German debt eased 8 basis points to 454 bps while the equivalent Italian premium fell below 5%.
The reprieve was expected to be temporary, with traders and strategists expecting Spanish yields especially to resume their rise ahead of the country’s elections on Sunday and in the absence of more aggressive buying from the ECB.
The euro was last 0.5% up against the dollar at 1.3534 as investors unwound bearish bets on the single currency to book profits ahead of the weekend. But dealers said appetite to sell on such small rebounds was high.
“With so much up in the air there’s nothing else to focus on apart from the immediate, which is that the eurozone looks to be heading into the precipice,” Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank. “Ahead of the weekend I don’t think anyone is ready to counter that view.”
European stocks cut earlier losses and were last 0.2% down, leaaving the pan-regional index on course for a 3% fall over the week.
The banking sector was among the losers, with the STOXX Europe 600 Banking Index 0.3% lower. It has lost more than 36% in 2011, as banks take writedowns on exposure to eurozone peripheral debt.
“The focus has very much moved towards the core of Europe, away from the periphery. Italy’s in question. France is in question,” Daniel McCormack, strategist at Macquarie, said.
“It really has pushed the sovereign crisis into a much more dangerous phase. You should have some kind of overweight in defensives, and avoid financials.”
The MSCI world equity index was down 0.4%, near its lowest levels since Oct. 20 and falling for a fourth consecutive day.
Investors remained on edge as eurozone governments struggle to raise funds and given signs that banks are refraining from lending, causing market liquidity to seize up.
Euro/dollar three-month cross-currency basis swaps , the cost of swapping euros for dollars, widened to -136 basis points on Thursday, the most since the 2008 financial crisis.
Other safe-haven currencies such as the Swiss franc and the yen outperformed the dollar. The greenback hit a 2-1/2 week low against the yen of 76.68 and fell 1% against the Swiss franc to 0.9116.
“Generally safe havens are doing very well at the moment and once you’ve filled up your exposure on dollars, the yen is the next one in line irrespective of whether you might be worried about intervention,” said Adam Myers, senior FX strategist at Credit Agricole in London.
Brent crude oil rose a dollar to over $109 a barrel, helped by a weaker dollar, after posting steep losses in the previous session, but analysts and traders said the risk remained to the downside given the economic weakness in Europe.
Brent crude was last up 0.8% at $109.27 a barrel, after closing down $3.66 in the previous session. U.S. crude oil futures were up 0.2% at $99.05.
© Thomson Reuters 2011
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Monday, 7 November 2011
Italy within an inch of economic crisis - RT 110711
Italian bond yields hit new record as Berlusconi resignation rumours swirl
Concern about Italy's high levels of government debt and slowing economic growth sent yields on the country's government bonds to a new high, at a level seen by many as unsustainable.
The yield, or interest investors charge to hold Itay's govenrment debt has been climbing steadily in recent weeks as concern that the eurozone won't do enough to help indebted economies made investors more wary of the country's borrowings, which stand at 120pc of GDP.
Italy’s 10-year bond yield rose to a record 6.68pc today, before falling back slightly to 6.56pc in late morning trading. That pushed the difference in yield, or spread, over German securities to as wide as 491 basis points.
The moves also spurred intense speculation about the future of embattled Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
Italian press reports this morning from two journalists regarded as close to Mr Berlusconi said he could stand down as soon as today.
However the leader then moved to deny that speculation, posting on his Facebook page that: "the rumours of my resignation are groundless".
Italian share prices and bond yields both recovered slightly after reports Mr Berlusconi's may stand down started circulating this morning.
Regardless, Mr Berlusconi faces a crunch vote on Italy's pubic finances in parliament tomorrow, and centre-left parties say they are preparing a further motion of no confidence in the government if the prime minister survives tomorrow.
Regardless, Mr Berlusconi faces a crunch vote on Italy's pubic finances in parliament tomorrow, and centre-left parties say they are preparing a further motion of no confidence in the government if the prime minister survives tomorrow.
German support
NICOSIA - Members of the German-Cypriot Friendship Group at the German parliament (Bundestag) have expressed their support and solidarity with efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, during a meeting they had on Tuesday with House President Yiannakis Omirou.
An official press release said that the German MPs praised the very good relations between the two countries in all fields and levels, and particularly between the two parliaments.
Omirou expressed his thanks for the longstanding support of Germany to efforts for a Cyprus settlement on the basis of international law and the principles and values on which the EU is founded.
As regards current developments in the Cyprus problem, Omirou noted that the results of the negotiations between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu are not satisfactory so far and that prospects are not favourable at all, due to the longstanding Turkish intransigence.
He said this intransigence is not expressed only in the framework of the talks, but also through public statements and threats by Turkish officials against the Republic of Cyprus and in particular most recently as regards Cyprus’ inalienable sovereign rights, deriving from international law.
The Republic of Cyprus supports Turkey’s European prospect, provided that Ankara will fulfill all its obligations as every other candidate country has done, including the obligations it has undertaken on the basis of the Ankara Protocol, which relate to Cyprus, he added.
Omirou and the German MPs exchanged views on the situation of the economy in the broader European region and in Cyprus and the measures proposed to address the financial crisis.
The members of the German group are Dr. Dietmar Bartsch (Chair -The Left Party), Bettina Kudla, (CDU/CSU), Heinz-Joachim Barchmann (SPD) and Michael Kauch (FDP).
An official press release said that the German MPs praised the very good relations between the two countries in all fields and levels, and particularly between the two parliaments.
Omirou expressed his thanks for the longstanding support of Germany to efforts for a Cyprus settlement on the basis of international law and the principles and values on which the EU is founded.
As regards current developments in the Cyprus problem, Omirou noted that the results of the negotiations between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu are not satisfactory so far and that prospects are not favourable at all, due to the longstanding Turkish intransigence.
He said this intransigence is not expressed only in the framework of the talks, but also through public statements and threats by Turkish officials against the Republic of Cyprus and in particular most recently as regards Cyprus’ inalienable sovereign rights, deriving from international law.
The Republic of Cyprus supports Turkey’s European prospect, provided that Ankara will fulfill all its obligations as every other candidate country has done, including the obligations it has undertaken on the basis of the Ankara Protocol, which relate to Cyprus, he added.
Omirou and the German MPs exchanged views on the situation of the economy in the broader European region and in Cyprus and the measures proposed to address the financial crisis.
The members of the German group are Dr. Dietmar Bartsch (Chair -The Left Party), Bettina Kudla, (CDU/CSU), Heinz-Joachim Barchmann (SPD) and Michael Kauch (FDP).
Turkey warns Israel against 'threatening' gas proprietorship
Turkey warns Israel against 'threatening' gas proprietorship
Yildirim's statement followed a comment made by President Shimon Peres, who – while on a State visit to Cyprus – lauded Israel's joint gas exploration projects with Cyprus.
Turkey will not stand for any "threats" by Israel over its proprietary interests, he said: "The Turkish 'road map' on the matter is clear… No project will be allowed to take place without Turkey's consent."
Much of Peres' visit to Nicosia focused on Israel and Cyprus' collaborations in the field of maritime gas exploration. But the matter is at the heart of growing tensions between Turkey and Cyprus.
Ankara and Nicosia have launched UN-brokered negotiations to try and resolve the gas rights dispute.
The Cypriot government is under contract with Noble Energy, which is partially owend by Israeli businessman Yitzhak Tshuva. Cyprus is set to hold gas explorations in an area bordering Israel's territorial waters, where a vast depository of natural gas is believed to exist.
The area is adjacent to the Levitan offshore rig.
Israel and Cyprus have recently signed a new cooperation agreement in the field of energy development, exploration and conservation.
Related stories:
Cyprus: Offshore gas search to continue
Noble Energy reports record sales in Israel
Ankara says will not stand for Israel-Cyprus independent gas exploration in east Mediterranean Ankara will not allow for any independent natural gas exploration projects in the east Mediterranean, Turkey's Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communications Binali Yildirim told the Turkish Daily Hurriyet on Saturday.
Ynet
|
Yildirim's statement followed a comment made by President Shimon Peres, who – while on a State visit to Cyprus – lauded Israel's joint gas exploration projects with Cyprus.
Turkey will not stand for any "threats" by Israel over its proprietary interests, he said: "The Turkish 'road map' on the matter is clear… No project will be allowed to take place without Turkey's consent."
Much of Peres' visit to Nicosia focused on Israel and Cyprus' collaborations in the field of maritime gas exploration. But the matter is at the heart of growing tensions between Turkey and Cyprus.
Ankara and Nicosia have launched UN-brokered negotiations to try and resolve the gas rights dispute.
The Cypriot government is under contract with Noble Energy, which is partially owend by Israeli businessman Yitzhak Tshuva. Cyprus is set to hold gas explorations in an area bordering Israel's territorial waters, where a vast depository of natural gas is believed to exist.
The area is adjacent to the Levitan offshore rig.
Israel and Cyprus have recently signed a new cooperation agreement in the field of energy development, exploration and conservation.
Related stories:
Cyprus: Offshore gas search to continue
Noble Energy reports record sales in Israel
How microbloggers vault the 'Great Firewall of China'
Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- Type the words "Egypt," "Tiananmen" or "June 4th, 1989" into any of China's microblogging sites and the search will return this message: "According to relevant law and regulations, the results are not displayed."
But type in "8x8" -- shorthand for 64, in turn shorthand for 6/4 or June 4th; the date of the Tiananmen crackdown -- and you may catch some lively and surprisingly open exchanges on the social networking sites.
References to "the Pharaoh nation" instead of Egypt, misspelling democracy as "democrasy" or "democrazy" or even scanning written comment and posting it as an image are just some of the ways microbloggers cheat the bots that seize on keywords and bring them to the attention of censors employed at social networking sites such as Renren and Sina Weibo.
Others use a mixture of street slang or dip in and out of one or more of China's 45 regional dialects to disguise comment. Others still are either past caring whether their comments are detected or like to test their nerves and those of the censors.
"We could have done it [overthrown the government] 22 years ago, but in the end we failed," laments one microblogger from Guangzhou on Sina Weibo, comparing Egypt with the Tiananmen protests of 1989. "Now we can only dryly witness another's happiness and project our dreams on it, imagining it."
Later the microblogger retweets.
"Even though he [former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak] was forced to resign, he still deserves some respect. Here [China], nothing ends without the use of force or bloodshed."
Censorship and restrictions are a fact of life. The government has already closed down some Twitter clones
--Gang Lu, Chinese internet entrepreneur
Microblogging has exploded in China, presenting a serious pressure point to a government that has built an industry around restricting comment. Microblogging campaigns have targeted corruption, suspicious lawsuits, kidnapped children and the plight of activist lawyers.
Unrestricted social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are banned in mainland China and only determined or relatively wealthy individuals use virtual private networks (VPN) to get around the Chinese internet restrictions which have been dubbed "The Great Firewall of China."
Microblog reunites father and lost son RELATED TOPICS
China
Internet
Censorship
Chinese social networking sites such as Renren employ as many as 500 censors -- all of them centrally located in the Chinese city of Wuhan -- to make sure that comment on the site does not contravene Chinese information laws.
Nevertheless, strong comment still makes it online and for many of the new microblogging sites, the banks of censors are simply a requirement in China of doing business in a new industry.
"Compared with two years ago, I would say the government is much more relaxed now," said Gang Lu, a Chinese internet entrepreneur who moderated at the Social Media Week Hong Kong event last week. "There is a lot more negative comment on microblogging sites than there used to be."
"From the operators' point of view, censorship and restrictions are a fact of life. The government has already closed down some Twitter clones," said Lu. "Almost half the team at Sina Weibo are engaged in monitoring content at some level. Even so, Sina is very bold but they are under pressure as well -- they still have to be responsive to the government."
He said one of the positive signs was that local officials -- from police to local mayors and even China's President Hu Jintao -- now have their own microblogs.
"It may just be for show, but I think it's a good sign," he said. "It shows that they are at least prepared to listen and are responding to the phenomenon of microblogging."
The size of the microblogging community in China is growing exponentially. There were 420 million internet users in China in June, 2010, or about 35 per cent of the entire population, according to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, a non-profit group affiliated with the Ministry of Information Industry.
Of this number, Sina Weibo -- a site similar to Twitter and run by China's largest internet portal Sina Corporation -- says it has more than 80 million users and is adding 10 million new users per month.
"At this rate, Sina estimates that the microblogging market in China will be mature within two years," said Lu.
High-profile microblogging campaigns have included a site dedicated to reuniting street children with their parents. Called "Take a snapshot and save the child beggars," it calls on the public to post photos of street children to help reunite them with their families and raise awareness about the problem of kidnapping in China.
Other sites have given people an unprecedented voice on local issues such as petty corruption.
This month 23-year-old Li Qiming -- a Chinese man who killed a college student while drink driving and then tried to use his father's name as a police official to escape punishment -- was sentenced to six years' in jail, sparking a furious reaction on microblogs where the verdict was condemned as too lenient.
Bigamy -- condemned by the Chinese Communist Party but unofficially practiced by the wealthy and powerful in China -- has become the latest microblog hot topic, along with other previously uncanvassed social issues.
Qiu Xiaohua, a former chief of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) who was sentenced to a one-year term of imprisonment in 2007 for bigamy, opened a microblog account this month which attracted 37,300 followers within days despite the fact that he posted just two messages online.
Most Chinese Web users, however, are relatively unconcerned about government censors and use microblogs to catch up on entertainment and gossip.
Famous microblogs no sooner emerge than parody sites are set up. A mirror site of the child anti-kidnapping campaign called "Take a snapshot and save an 'over aged' single woman or bachelor" is the latest microblog parody to go viral, making fun of the pressure young people come under from their families to bring home a marriageable candidate for the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Since the dating microblog opened on February 11, it has attracted more than 31,000 followers and has become such a sensation that a Shenzhen jewelry store has offered three free rings to the first three women successfully "rescued."
Jie Chen contributed to this report
But type in "8x8" -- shorthand for 64, in turn shorthand for 6/4 or June 4th; the date of the Tiananmen crackdown -- and you may catch some lively and surprisingly open exchanges on the social networking sites.
References to "the Pharaoh nation" instead of Egypt, misspelling democracy as "democrasy" or "democrazy" or even scanning written comment and posting it as an image are just some of the ways microbloggers cheat the bots that seize on keywords and bring them to the attention of censors employed at social networking sites such as Renren and Sina Weibo.
Others use a mixture of street slang or dip in and out of one or more of China's 45 regional dialects to disguise comment. Others still are either past caring whether their comments are detected or like to test their nerves and those of the censors.
"We could have done it [overthrown the government] 22 years ago, but in the end we failed," laments one microblogger from Guangzhou on Sina Weibo, comparing Egypt with the Tiananmen protests of 1989. "Now we can only dryly witness another's happiness and project our dreams on it, imagining it."
Later the microblogger retweets.
"Even though he [former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak] was forced to resign, he still deserves some respect. Here [China], nothing ends without the use of force or bloodshed."
Censorship and restrictions are a fact of life. The government has already closed down some Twitter clones
--Gang Lu, Chinese internet entrepreneur
Microblogging has exploded in China, presenting a serious pressure point to a government that has built an industry around restricting comment. Microblogging campaigns have targeted corruption, suspicious lawsuits, kidnapped children and the plight of activist lawyers.
Unrestricted social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are banned in mainland China and only determined or relatively wealthy individuals use virtual private networks (VPN) to get around the Chinese internet restrictions which have been dubbed "The Great Firewall of China."
Microblog reunites father and lost son RELATED TOPICS
China
Internet
Censorship
Chinese social networking sites such as Renren employ as many as 500 censors -- all of them centrally located in the Chinese city of Wuhan -- to make sure that comment on the site does not contravene Chinese information laws.
Nevertheless, strong comment still makes it online and for many of the new microblogging sites, the banks of censors are simply a requirement in China of doing business in a new industry.
"Compared with two years ago, I would say the government is much more relaxed now," said Gang Lu, a Chinese internet entrepreneur who moderated at the Social Media Week Hong Kong event last week. "There is a lot more negative comment on microblogging sites than there used to be."
"From the operators' point of view, censorship and restrictions are a fact of life. The government has already closed down some Twitter clones," said Lu. "Almost half the team at Sina Weibo are engaged in monitoring content at some level. Even so, Sina is very bold but they are under pressure as well -- they still have to be responsive to the government."
He said one of the positive signs was that local officials -- from police to local mayors and even China's President Hu Jintao -- now have their own microblogs.
"It may just be for show, but I think it's a good sign," he said. "It shows that they are at least prepared to listen and are responding to the phenomenon of microblogging."
The size of the microblogging community in China is growing exponentially. There were 420 million internet users in China in June, 2010, or about 35 per cent of the entire population, according to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, a non-profit group affiliated with the Ministry of Information Industry.
Of this number, Sina Weibo -- a site similar to Twitter and run by China's largest internet portal Sina Corporation -- says it has more than 80 million users and is adding 10 million new users per month.
"At this rate, Sina estimates that the microblogging market in China will be mature within two years," said Lu.
High-profile microblogging campaigns have included a site dedicated to reuniting street children with their parents. Called "Take a snapshot and save the child beggars," it calls on the public to post photos of street children to help reunite them with their families and raise awareness about the problem of kidnapping in China.
Other sites have given people an unprecedented voice on local issues such as petty corruption.
This month 23-year-old Li Qiming -- a Chinese man who killed a college student while drink driving and then tried to use his father's name as a police official to escape punishment -- was sentenced to six years' in jail, sparking a furious reaction on microblogs where the verdict was condemned as too lenient.
Bigamy -- condemned by the Chinese Communist Party but unofficially practiced by the wealthy and powerful in China -- has become the latest microblog hot topic, along with other previously uncanvassed social issues.
Qiu Xiaohua, a former chief of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) who was sentenced to a one-year term of imprisonment in 2007 for bigamy, opened a microblog account this month which attracted 37,300 followers within days despite the fact that he posted just two messages online.
Most Chinese Web users, however, are relatively unconcerned about government censors and use microblogs to catch up on entertainment and gossip.
Famous microblogs no sooner emerge than parody sites are set up. A mirror site of the child anti-kidnapping campaign called "Take a snapshot and save an 'over aged' single woman or bachelor" is the latest microblog parody to go viral, making fun of the pressure young people come under from their families to bring home a marriageable candidate for the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Since the dating microblog opened on February 11, it has attracted more than 31,000 followers and has become such a sensation that a Shenzhen jewelry store has offered three free rings to the first three women successfully "rescued."
Jie Chen contributed to this report
Friday, 4 November 2011
Greece's legitimacy crisis
Greece's legitimacy crisis
Editor's Note: Thomas Meaney is a doctoral candidate in history at Columbia University and an editor of The Utopian. Harris Mylonas is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Thomas Meaney and Harris Mylonas.
By Thomas Meaney and Harris Mylonas - Special to CNN
In the past 48 hours, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has succeeded splendidly in one thing: Stirring up the anger of nearly everyone around him. The European Union, his own party PASOK, the opposition party New Democracy and the Greek electorate are all pitted against Papandreou. The Greeks have a word for this special brand of rage - they call it “thymos”. This refers to the simmering resentment that arises when one's views are not recognized.
It’s little wonder Papandreou has had to back down from his initial call for a national referendum on the 50% haircut deal decided by the European Union heads of state on October 27.
First off, he failed to get the opposition to agree to the referendum. They called it blackmail, denounced Papandreou as an opportunist and asked for a grand coalition government or immediate elections. Main opposition leader Antonis Samaras’ consensus on Thursday was short-lived and with many conditions.
Meanwhile, the European leaders - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel - called Papandreou’s bluff. 'Go ahead and make our day,' they told him. “Imagine what would happen if we called a referendum on the bailout in our countries?' The International Monetary Fund, for its part, threatened to freeze all of its loans to Greece.
Finally, for Papandreou’s party PASOK the situation is even more dire. Instead of shoring up support from his own party members, the referendum only emboldened cries for his resignation — including from his own Ministers and PASOK Parliamentarians.
Papandreou has recalled his decision for a referendum because he failed in all fronts and it’s become clear that he can no longer be part of the solution.
There are three possible ways the crisis will play out. First, Papandreou could refuse to resign and possibly win the no-confidence vote Friday. This is unlikely since his overall support has reached its all-time low. The second, more likely scenario is that Papandreou loses the vote tomorrow and the President of the Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias, turns to the other political party leaders to determine if the existing Parliament could form a government. The final scenario, if these efforts fail to build a government, would be new elections, as called for by the Greek Constitution. But it is most likely that a one-party government will not emerge from these elections.
The only way out of these three scenarios is to form a Grand Coalition government. What is a Grand Coalition government? In multi-party parliamentary systems, sometimes one-party governments cannot form. In such instances, coalition governments are often formed including more than one party in order to secure a Parliamentary majority, manage to form a government and pass legislation.
Greece’s history with such governments in the late 1980s does not exactly inspire faith, and the global stakes were smaller then. A grand coalition would entail the cooperation of all the political parties that are in favor of a European future for Greece. They would be ready to support the austerity measures needed to balance the Greek budget and overcome the solvency problem, but most importantly they would be the the parties that can agree on the composition of such a government. This last feature of a Grand Coalition is particularly valuable at a time when consensus-building in the Greek parliament has become nearly impossible.
What remains left out of this discussion is the Greek people. They voted two years ago for a party running on an anti-austerity platform and this is not what they received. Perhaps the current political system is afraid to hear their message. "Thymos" may not be the best state of mind to make choices.
Regardless, the greek political leadership's ownership of the austerity program and responsible governance are necessary steps toward resolving Greece's legitimacy crisis, which would then allow them to confront the Greek people with the responsibility they must take in order to end the financial crisis.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of Thomas Meaney and Harris Mylonas.
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