Go look in the Mirror!

Happy Valentine's Day. :)

Thoughtful Thursday ~ Un-American

Musical Monday for the Chinese New Year - The Dog Days Are Over

The Chinese Dog year ends today. Tomorrow is the New year of the Pig.
This seemed the perfect song to celebrate that fact.

Musical Monday - Magical Glass

Thoughtful Thursday - For the New Year

Musical Monday - New Year Party with Electro Swing

Suzy by Caravan Palace.

Thoughtful Thursday - Are we Asking the Right Questions?

Now Christmas is over and I'm back to mundane life, I've been reading all the fear, pity and/or  outrage at the ongoing problem with illegal migrants and refugees swarming into North America and Europe.  I've watched the videos, the news media of various types and one thing stands out very clear: we're not going to stop this.

There's just too many people on the move and anyone desperate enough to face drowning, leaving behind everything they know, starvation, etc are not going to stop. I've seen it in South Africa with Zimbabweans and others coming through the border in wild areas where lions eat them off one by one. These are desperate people who so need to move that they are willing to face death. You cannot stop that. If the fear of what they are running from is greater than the fear of what they must battle through... nothing is going to stop them. 

 I think people are asking the wrong questions about this problem.

Years ago in the 1980s, I read a book about brainstorming and the fact solutions can vary hugely depending on the questions we ask ourselves. Here's a case from the book: Students are told that many people were mistakenly buried alive during the Middle Ages. Two groups of students came up with radically different solutions due to the fact they ASKED DIFFERENT QUESTIONS.

Group A suggested removing the hearts from each "dead body" and group B suggested leaving food and water in each coffin and a pipe for air and through which any living person could scream for help.

In other words, group A asked "How do we ensure everyone buried is dead?" and Group B asked "How do we ensure anyone buried alive is rescued?"

I think most countries right now are asking the wrong questions about refugees and migrants. They're asking, "How do we stop them?" instead of "How do we make them want to stay in their homelands?"

Once people realise that fact, we might actually get somewhere with this problem. Until then, I don't see anything changing.