April 14, 2004

• Topic: Giles, the wonderfully funny gay English hypnotic therapist

  
  

  So, i’m in the internet cafe.  Next to me is my new friend Giles who i met this morning at the hostel.  Here’s from England, and is traveling for 18months.  At uni, he studied hypnosis and integrated psychological therapy.  He uses hypnotism to help people through their problems.  He spent some time in Australia where he started a TV how called the splendor’s of hypnosis.  He also does stand-up shows where he embarasses people on stage.  In Aus. this one young kid got up on stage and said, “You can’t f$#%# hypnotize me.”  A little while later, Giles did.  “Your cock will grow larger he said,” next thing, this kid has an erection.  “Now, you will cum.”  The kid is finally woken up with a wet patch of cum on his pants.  “Never mess with a gay hypnotist!”

  
  

  So, it’s been an interesting afternoon, getting to hear about hypnotism, and getting a first hand glimpse of how gay men shop. “Sweetie, what kind of eye-liner looks best on me?” I was asked.

  
  

  Giles shared with me his views on depression, which was one of the first topics I blogged about back in November.  “Depression is when you’re incongruent and ingenuous with yourself and others.  It is also caused by a lack of communication with yourself and other people.”  We discussed how depression is caused by the pressure people feel to act according to society. “Expectations and perfections are as real as a unicorn.  They don’t exist.”

  
  

  Giles goal in life is to see every country and island in the world.  “Where dreams become thoughts, thoughts become words, words become reality,” he says.  He views himself as being completely happy with himself, and enjoys the feeling of helping others to be the same way.  “You can be nurtured and inspired by someone who is further down the road of self-actualization.”

  
  

  As for being gay.  “I was born gay.  It’s genetic, environmental, and cognitive.  People say I’m going to hell.  I say thank you for judging me, I’ll see you there.”

  
  

  On Sat. night, I plan on seeing one of his shows in Cape Town.

  
  

  Topic: Political Issues and Quality of Life

  
  

  If you could pick one of the following to be improved over the next 4 years, what would it be?
  1) education
  2) taxes
  3) foreign policy
  4) your quality of life

  
  

  I think most everyone would choose #4, quality of life.  More than getting a good education, good job, having a lot of money, material things, we want to enjoy our limited time on this planet.

  
  

  Look at it this way.  When you follow the news, especially what is to many cryptic news about business and the economy, many people’s emotions run high and low right on with the news.  News many people don’t even fully understand.  But, what I really want to question is how it came to be, and why is still is today, in 2004, that money is so strongly tied to happiness.  If the stock market and the economy were to completely collapse tomorrow, as Michael Moore suggest could happen if we lost access to Saudi oil, what would we really be panicking about?  Would we be panicking that we couldn’t afford to eat out anymore.  Or to buy a luxury car, a fancy vacation, or send our kids to a $120,000+ university?

  
  

  Is our world really all about how  many luxuries and conveniences we can acquire?

  
  

  Well, as most people who have been exposed to poverty know, whether through personal experience, work, or finding a way to get to know a poorer community that one’s own, life does go on.  In fact, I have seen it myself in rural parts of South Africa, where there are almost know luxuries or conveniences, however, the joy of living is so high it leads to spontaneous song and dance.  No Western or first world technologies.  High quality of life.

  
  

  When you strip away the material things we treasure, as the 9/11 terrorists did, you are left only with your life, your relationship to your friends, family, yourself, and the world.  I’m not saying we should expect all our money and possessions to be taken away by terrorists or an economic collapse, but if we lived with the acknowledgement that this COULD happen, then we’d have less to worry about when we see small signs of it happening. 

  
  

  I always thought a job with a high salary was most important.  I always thought owning a lot of stock and building a rich portfolio was important.  When I was 13, in 8th grade, I couldn’t stop asking my dad questions about how the stock market worked.  Winning in the market was like betting on the right baseball team at the beginning of the season.  A close friend of mine who has worked for a stock broker the last 4 years instead of going to college, confirmed what I’ve always believed, that the stock market which we all believe in so strongly and hold as being so important to our lives, is no different than gambling.

  
  

  Now, for some practical stuff.  I think I’ve called bullshit on something quite big.  Many of us think it, but how to make it part of our culture…What would i like to see happen?

  
  

  1) Lessen the work week.  In other countries like France, 4 weeks vacation per year is mandatory, and the hours worked per week are less than the US.  Life goes on in France for 1 of 2 reasons.  Either they have learned to live with less luxuries and conveniences than the US, in which case many Americans would still prefer to work more.  Or, and this is a biggie, they’ve learned to become more efficient with their time.  Maybe, by being given less time to work, they’ve managed to produce an output that did not lessen the amount of luxuries and conveniences thay had, but instead freed up time in their lives to take advantage of these things.

  
  

  ex) Take learning for example.  The output from teachers is student learning.  Would reducing the school week from 5 days to 4, and creating 3 instead of 2 day weekends for both students and teachers have a negative efect on the amount of luxuries and conveniences we have?  I don’t see why.  And, would the level of education drop as a result of the shortened schoolweek?  Well, I’d argue that education would improve by producing les burnt out students, and giving students an extra day a week ot experience life outside the classroom.  Even if ths schoolweek were still kept to 5 days, I still think at least 1 day perweek should be dedicated to doing anything, so long as it’s outside the classroom).

  
  

  2) Expose people to the less fortunate.  Make them appreciate life for more than just material possessions.  Sometimes, a single exposure to the realities of life outside your own can result in a person drawing their own importrant conclusions in life about what really matters.  Here, in South Africa, there is an amazing number of people caught up in the material life (and I’m not saying owning material things like nice clothes and a nice car doesn’t contribute to happiness, I’m saying they should not be the main source of happiness).  There’s a saying, the true worth of a person is what they’d be worth of all their possessions were taken away from them.  Make people realize this by having them see how people, no further (or is it farther) than a few minutes away manage to live.

  
  

  TOPIC: IN THE NEWS

  
  

  Bush Asserts ‘We Must Not Waver’ on Terror or Iraq

  
  

  By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
  and DOUGLAS JEHL
  
  Published: April 14, 2004

  
  

  Quote by Pres. Bush “A free Iraq will confirm to a watching world that America’s word, once given, can be relied upon even in the toughest times,”

  
  

  Mr. Bush’s Press Conference

  
  

  
  Published: April 14, 2004
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  ARTICLE TOOLS E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Format Most E-Mailed Articles READERS’ OPINIONS Forum: Join a Discussion on Today’s Editorials TIMES NEWS TRACKER   Topics Alerts Terrorism Bush, George W Iraq United Nations

  
  

  appily, President Bush finally held a prime-time news conference last night. Unhappily, he failed to address either of the questions uppermost in Americans’ minds: how to move Iraq from its current chaos, and what he has learned from the 9/11 investigations.

  
  

  Mr. Bush was grave and impressive while reading his opening remarks, which focused on the horrors of terrorism and the great good that could come from establishing a free and democratic Iraq. No one in the country could disagree with either thought. But his responses to questions were distressingly rambling and unfocused. He promised that Iraq would move from the violence and disarray of today to full democracy by the end of 2005, but the description of how to get there was mainly a list of dates when good things are supposed to happen.

  
  

  There was still no clear description of exactly who will accept the sovereignty of Iraq from the coalition on June 30. “We’ll find out that soon,” the president said, adding that U.N. officials are “figuring out the nature of the entity we’ll be handing sovereignty over” to. In Mr. Bush’s mind, whatever happens next now appears to be the responsibility of the United Nations. That must have come as a surprise to the U.N. negotiators and their bosses, who have not agreed to accept that responsibility and do not believe that they have been given the authority to make those decisions.

  
  

  Mr. Bush did concede that the Iraqi security forces had not performed well during the violence and that more American troops would probably be needed. But his rhetoric, including the repetition of the phrase “stay the course,” did not seem to indicate any fresh or clear thinking about Iraq, despite the many disturbing events of recent weeks.

  
  

  The second issue that has overwhelmed the nation in recent days is the 9/11 investigating commission. While repeatedly expressing his grief over the deaths related to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Mr. Bush seemed to entertain no doubts about the rightness of his own behavior, no questions about whether he should have done something in response to the domestic terrorism report he received on Aug. 6, 2001.

  
  

  The United States has experienced so many crises since Mr. Bush took office that it sometimes feels as if the nation has embarked on one very long and painful learning curve in which every accepted truism becomes a doubt, every expectation a question mark. Only Mr. Bush somehow seems to have avoided any doubt, any change.
  
  

  • 8:00 am
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