etnobofin

BBC News has a good preview of the findings of an international panel looking at reform of the UN. More intervention and a larger, more representative Security Council seem to be the main thrusts of the recommendations.

Clinical psychologist Patricia Dalton writes a great piece in the Washington Post on how our desire for material gain is destroying our ability to relate to each other, especially within our families.

Even if it relies on the usual media “what’s-the-Christmas-shopping-thing-all-about?” story that crops up every year around this time, I thought this article went a bit deeper.

“….there is ample evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, that once people attain a reasonably good standard of living, making more money and buying more has no appreciable positive effect and in some cases has negative effects….we are allowing ourselves to be robbed of what is most precious and counts the most: free time.”

Tom supplied this pick of the band playing at Fest Napuan, Port Vila on Friday, October 22nd, 2004.

Rather than comment on anything that’s actually happening….

Who remembers Fabuland?

Ah, memories

NYTimes.com has an amusing article by Frank Rich on the “Moral Values” debate in the United States…



If anyone is laughing all the way to the bank this election year, it must be the undisputed king of the red cultural elite, Rupert Murdoch. Fox News is a rising profit center within his News Corporation, and each red-state dollar that it makes can be plowed back into the rest of Fox’s very blue entertainment portfolio. The Murdoch cultural stable includes recent books like Jenna Jameson’s “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star” and the Vivid Girls’ “How to Have a XXX Sex Life,” which have both been synergistically, even joyously, promoted on Fox News by willing hosts like Rita Cosby and, needless to say, Mr. O’Reilly. There are “real fun parts and exciting parts,” said Ms. Cosby to Ms. Jameson on Fox News’s “Big Story Weekend,” an encounter broadcast on Saturday at 9 p.m., assuring its maximum exposure to unsupervised kids.

Yoiks! Bruce has lent me his copy of the Art Ensemble of Chicago In Concert, taped on November 1st 1981 in Chicago. If ever there was a film that could sell improvised music to sceptics or those not yet au fait, this is it.

Art Ensemble of Chicago

I may have to pick up a copy for myself – (along with the Bergman Fanny & Alexander)

Ah, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of using Bislama in my post titles. Blong. So deceptively simple, mildly amusing, possibly savage-sounding to these western ears, and yet… so resonant.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the trip to Vanuatu…

Welcome at Mele village – October 21st, 2004