We all strive for happiness. Every human being is very different in so many ways but one thing we all have in common is our pursuit of happiness. But what is happiness? Maybe learning about the properties of happiness will allow us to have a better understanding of how to actually achieve it.
Happiness is often misunderstood as a temporary emotion that comes and goes. But in reality, happiness is not necessarily dependent on the events of our lives. It can be considered as a state of mind. And you can definitely make choices and some behavioral changes to achieve it.
In this article, I will extensively discuss the answer about is happiness a state of mind. I will also talk about how to stay happy for most of the time of your life and how you can train yourself to be happy. Hopefully, you will understand the true meaning of happiness if you read through the whole article.
Is Happiness a Feeling or State of Mind?
We call true happiness the mixture of harmony, tranquility, and fulfillment. Happiness is therefore certainly a state of mind. On the other hand, feelings are responses to different real-life experiences that are produced inside your brain. You may be scared, for example, if you watch a scary movie, but you cannot consider it a state of mind.
Gladness was deemed an emotional consequence in everyday life in earlier days. Psychologists once said that if we do something fun and satisfying, we are happy. However, scientists came to the conclusion after thorough studies that pleasure is not simply an emotional manifestation of a fun experience.
Steve Maraboli was the first one to suggest that happiness is a state of mind. According to him, happiness in everyday life is not an emotional result. This remarkable author described happiness as a way of life. As a product of any form of success. He said that the way a person lives will decide if he will live a happier life.
Through scientific research, it has been found that the degree of satisfaction we enjoy is dictated partially by the genetic code in our DNA. This research also showed that about 50% of our happiness depends on DNA coding, another 10% depends on the circumstances of the individual and the remaining 40% are in our possession.
So, we can’t really control our state of mind due to genetic causes. But the other 40% is in our hands. We can actively make changes and adapt behaviors that can make us happy.
You may have noticed that some people almost always are in a good mood and some are the opposite. In your life, even though all is going smoothly, you might have observed that you are not happy. And sometimes you feel good for no reason whatsoever. Why does this occur?
Knowing the true meaning of it is important so that you could understand the roots of happiness. It is a very difficult job to define a proper concept of happiness. Instead, I will try to explain it thoroughly and address how people confuse other feelings with happiness.
Say, tomorrow you will watch a film and for a long time have been excited about it or your favorite video game has come and been waiting for that game for a long time. You may think it will create happiness in your brain when you watch that movie or play that game. Shockingly, it is wrong.
There is a big difference between happiness and excitement. And above-mentioned events of life only generate excitement.
Playing games, watching videos, riding on the rollers, kissing your better half, enjoying a delicious meal, etc. would give you massive excitement. But your brain will ask you what’s next right after you’ve completed any of these tasks. And your brain will be looking for a new source of stimulation that generates excitement.
Most people think this is how life works. We think life has a higher curve and a lower curve in terms of satisfaction and we just have to accept that. But it is a wrong concept. We made this up and down curve for our minds, which in the long run is bad for us.
Then what does happiness mean? It simply means harmony, calmness, and pleasure. You’re happy if you’re done with what happens now in your life. A happy man doesn’t think of the past, he doesn’t think of the future. He lives only today. Moreover, the most important fact is that he is not related to any unique stimuli. A happy person is able to overcome any kind of hardship.
Happiness is not an accomplishment, it’s a sensation. People believe that by satisfying our life needs we will achieve happiness. But the fact is after fulfilling one part of our lives, people want more and more. The satisfaction for the achievement of real-life goals is extremely transient. So, people spend all their lives looking for happiness.
Happiness gives people pleasure. Everyone believes that the other person is happier than him. However, for everyone, happiness is different. You can also not put your life on a par with others, they can just be miserable without showing it.
How Our Brain Handles Emotions
As the human race evolves, we embrace the nature of holding on to negative aspects over positive aspects of our life. You will be grateful, just for a very short time when your boss informs you that you are doing an outstanding job at work.
But you can recall only the derogatory remark of your boss, if he adds, “… but you must make certain improvements on some areas of your work.” This is the way our brain functions. In other words, a positive life experience does not neutralize a negative experience.
We once needed this form of physiological effect for survival. It didn’t matter if we survived with a happy mind at the time. Our brain just cared for survival in a very harsh world. There wasn’t even any time for considering happiness in a world of constant peril and dangers.
However, this negative drive is virtually useless in our minds nowadays. As we don’t have to be scared for our lives all day. The absence of stress for survival has left our minds with an emptiness that can only be filled with happiness or sadness.
A good thing is that we can train our brain so that we are satisfied and can forget the negative aspects of life. This is important for proper mental development and a happy life.
How to Be Happier in Life?
Happiness can be achieved with the right mindset and practices. As mentioned before materialistic gains only give you excitement, not happiness. You being happy only depends on how you perceive and interact with the world around you.
How here are some tips on how you can be happier. Following these tips will definitely bring some positivity in your life which is a precursor to being happy.
Smile as much as you can
Smiling is one gesture that will put a positive impact on your mind. It can have a good effect even in a difficult situation. It’s been scientifically proven that smiling more often helps reduce stress and automatically make a person happier. So, we are just going to improve our morale by putting a smile on our faces. This is a very simple way to always be happy.
The subtle shifts in muscles in our bodies have some drastic effects on our minds. Close your palm, for example. You should know that smiling doesn’t come easily when the palms are clenched tightly because it triggers the rage in your brain. Likewise, the brain would feel content with a persistent smile.
You might question if you should always smile. I know it’s not an easy task at all. When you’re going through a tough time, it is very difficult to smile. But this is achievable in reality and a smile can be used as a boost in your life. Smiling is one of the best ways to imitate joy in your brain. So, always try to put on a happy face regardless of the situation.
Wake up early in the Morning
Waking up early in the morning not only has positive effects on your wellbeing but also on your emotion and mood. Psychologists recommend that you wake up early in the morning because this will give you a good attitude and will relieve you of stress. Some studies say early risers are less likely to be frustrated.
Waking up in the morning is a must to embrace inner peace. I’ll recommend that you wake up, if possible, before sunrise. Your mental state will improve by the pleasant atmosphere present during sunrise. However, it is crucial to note that breakfast is absolutely essential within 30 minutes of waking up. Otherwise, the main purpose of waking up early might get inverted.
Try to Change Your Perspective on life
You would never experience a genuine sense of happiness if you have a pessimistic outlook on life. I agree, it’s not an easy feat for all of you out there. Some years ago, when I broke up with my girlfriend, I hit a rough patch in my life as well.
Obviously, I was devastated, and I saw the world and life as God’s cage. But with time, through a close relationship with my friends and family, I have repaired the wound in my heart. There is a fair possibility that you feel the same as you are reading this post.
Believe me, life has a lot to offer and it is surely no wise decision to hang on to the tragic past. You need to learn to let negative memories go and go on to find real happiness. Maybe it won’t be easy, but if you want a good and stable life it is necessary.
Express Your Emotions
One of the best ways to achieve real happiness is to show affection to the ones you value. Depressed people are typically someone who can’t show their emotions to the people they care about.
Katarina Blom is one of today’s most inspiring psychologists. During a talk, she addressed how your life and attitude will have a positive effect by expressing affection and kindness for your mom, dad, sister, wife, and friend. You have to inform people around you what you feel about them to pursue true happiness.
On the other hand, you should also take action if you do not like the behavior of someone against you. Because saying nothing to them is going to make you feel wretched. But you shouldn’t use the wrong behavior because doing that will give you some pleasure momentarily, but it is far from what true happiness means. It’s not good for you or anyone else.
A happy person never has disrespectful behavior with others and appears to maintain a positive friendship with everyone. You will need people around you who will support you in order to experience inner happiness.
Try to Appreciate the Things You Have
In our life, we all have multiple goals. Some tasks can be accomplished and others cannot be achieved. That’s how life operates. You might not reach a certain goal even after putting in a lot of effort. Often this continuous loop of success and failure causes people to feel unhappy, sad, and frustrated.
Another excellent way to be consistently happy is to appreciate stuff that you already have. Grinding over the stuff you haven’t done would just rob you. Just know, there’s somebody out there who lives a far more terrible life than yours. But still, if you are less happy than that man, what are your life’s accomplishments?
Acknowledging stuff you have already done would not only please you but also provide a further boost to your life’s success. To excel, it is important to have great ambition. But it is foolish to equate the emotion with this ambition because it will keep you from achieving a different target in the future if you fail.
Write Down the Strengths that You Have
There must be certain things in your life that you can do better than someone else. And this has no relation to the education or the area of employment. It could be like gaming, painting, dance, and so on. Whatever talent you seek, write it down on a pad or your screen. It doesn’t matter what field you excel at.
Writing down your strengths will inspire you to excellence in these areas and ultimately make you very happy. Some of the experts agree that our depression is directly related to our thoughts. Numerous people think they are utterly pointless and have little to offer. So, by recording our skills, we feel happy with ourselves.
You have to be content with what you have. When you learn how to count your strengths, you will never be disappointed. You must write it down at a place where you can see it easily. Writing advice will assist a man to better understand his life and fill an optimistic mind. And it will eventually lead you towards constant happiness.
Meditation is a Great Way to Pursue Happiness
You should start your day with sunrise meditation when you wake up in the morning. Mediating every day is not only healthy, it also gives you a sense of fulfillment. Studies have shown that the cure for depression can be meditation. Mediating on the morning wind is sure to improve your mood.
Meditation may play an important role in sustaining a positive spirit. The first two things that your mind needs to adapt to be calm and quiet if you want always to be happy. And several studies have shown that everyday meditation not only gives you these things but also helps in tough times. A regular mediator would not break down in stressful conditions.
Happiness is a mental state, and meditation trains a person to understand happiness. For your own betterment, you should wake up and become accustomed to morning meditation. Obviously, it is not an easy job to pursue a happy state of mind, but it is most likely done by meditation.
Keep a good Relation with Your Loved Ones
The research found that a solitary lifestyle is a principal cause of depression. You could be more miserable and failing if you live alone. It’s important for a joyful life to have a family and friends. You have to stay or remain in touch with the ones you love and care about if you want to be happy.
I previously discussed how we get confused between Happiness and Excitement. An impressive study has shown how family members and friends can allow us to be happy continuously. In that experiment, a mouse was put in a tank with enough food and water. The mouse was given two types of food.
One form of food was mixed with opium and the other was just raw grain. The mouse had all but had no companion inside the tank. The mouse almost always chose the food with heroin.
The same experiment was performed again but a group of mice was present this time. Scientists were shocked that the group of mice did not touch the food contaminated with heroin. This experiment shows how important family members are to stay happy. Having a good relationship with your loved ones will help you to excel in your life.
Try to Work on the Field of Your Interest
Many people in the United States die from heart disease. One magnificent research has found that at around 9 a.m. most cardiac attacks or strokes occur. Do you know why this research was crucial to the time of heart attacks? The reason behind that is, 9 am is the hour of people’s general office. In the USA, 80% of people dislike their work completely.
How would you look forward to a happier life if you work in a field that you don’t like? The U.S. faces a major depression crisis around the world. Their place of employment is one of the major factors behind this depression. Many people still commit suicide because every day they choose death to jobs.
It is frightening, but really important to leave your career and to try to work in the field you want. You won’t necessarily see immediate success, but just trust me. You will have to be consistent for years, but once you hit the summit, you don’t have to think about your happiness. You will be pure and continually grateful that you work in your preferred sector.
Try to Spend as Less Time as Possible on Social Media
When a certain amount of dopamine is emitted inside the brain people feel relaxed and excited. And you may have guessed it before but cigarettes, heroines, and other narcotics unleash big dopamine’s into the brain, which is why they are so addictive. While social media scrolling is not as extreme as drugs, it still releases tremendous quantities of dopamine.
When the brain is familiar with this dopamine level, it increases the expectations of dopamine amount. This leads to various issues including headaches, inability to concentrate on work and research, lack of confidence in life, etc. Furthermore, it just adds to the self-created up and down the curve of happiness we described before.
You should prevent this kind of dopamine effect as far as possible to be reliably satisfied. Real lives, not social media, are the basis for the perpetual good mood. It’s a terrible thing for social media to devote that much time. An individual may be imposed across social networks in depression. It is a source of unhappiness and uncertainty for many people in society. People are contrasting their lives to others, and that is tragic.
Try to do One Good Thing Everyday
I’m very sure you have done something positive in your life, like helping elderly people go down the road or helping a homeless person with some cash. I bet you really felt good about it. Psychologists have agreed that serving victims would certainly boost your morale and purify you.
Helping people to seek constant pleasure is always beneficial. It makes you improve the situation once a day by being accustomed to supporting others. As I said, calmness and harmony are one of the main elements of real happiness. You would have a rare piece by supporting a less fortunate man that you cannot otherwise feel.
Try to Cut Ties with Things and People that Depresses You
There is something or someone in almost everybody’s life who made them feel less of a person. These individuals just drag people down. To seek true happiness, it is very important to break ties with these people. These people would make no constructive impact on your life and will only depress you.
For your personal and work life, any form of negative energy is highly hazardous. For a calm and happy lifestyle, cutting them down is very important. You may find it a little complicated, but you can really see immediate effects. You should quit the workplace rather than face constant embarrassment if that guy is your boss.
You must not only cut ties with negative people but also to objects that depress you. If you smoke, drink, or use some sort of drugs, then you need to acknowledge that these are just positive stuff that can drag you away. These toxic items are just made so that you get hooked to these goods.
They do not only harm your body; they also cause considerable damage to your brain and emotions. Nothing is greater than the feeling of genuine happiness. So, cutting off access to stuff that makes you sad will greatly improve your life and will help you to pursue true happiness.
Many people tend to divert towards drugs in search of happiness. It is unfortunately a common occurrence in our society. If ever have the opportunity to dabble in such practices. I highly advise that you don’t.
These will only temporarily make you forget about your depression and other troubles. As soon as the kick wears off, you’ll be back where you were. And this will continue like a vicious cycle until you are morally and economically ruined. The same goes for consuming alcohol.
Try to understand that these things do not bring happiness. They just make you forget about your sadness for a brief period. So, instead of taking the easy and temporary route, try to make actual positive changes to your life.
In this article, I briefly talked about happiness and tried to explain your question of is happiness a state of mind. I have also discussed how happiness can be archived by bringing small changes in your behavior, perspective and interactions with others. The fundamental goal of this article is to let you know that within your mind you can create constant peace. But only if you are determined to do so.
It is necessary to understand the difference between excitement and happiness. If you want to be happy, then you can practice some of the advice in this article. I’m sure you will notice the differences in a matter of days. I hope this article helps you to live a better and happier life. Wishing you all the best. Thanks for stopping by.


Deforestation and Google Earth
|Posted by David Cliff (david.cliff) on Jun 14 2011|
|VERTIC Blog >> Environment|
Mikael Shirazi, London
A recent article, making use of Google Earth imagery, on the environmental website Mongabay, has called attention to the damaged forests of Sarawak (a state in Malaysian Borneo), comparing their poor health with the apparently pristine forests just across the border in Indonesian and Bruneian territory. These publicly available images—as the authors point out—seem to cast into doubt the local authority’s claim that 70 per cent of the territory’s forest cover is intact. But how much does Google Earth contribute to independent civil society actors’ ability to monitor deforestation? Whilst powerfully illustrative of the effects that different industrial and regulatory policies can have on tropical woodland, these images are of limited use in accurately and systemically tracking changes in the forest over time . A new tool developed by Google, however, may open up the field of more sophisticated and precise deforestation monitoring, which has usually been the preserve of well-resourced official or commercial bodies, to much wider participation.
Sarawak’s damaged rainforest
The spidery formations of brown logging roads permeating the forest in Sarawak, set against the verdant uniformity of the landscape across the border, is striking. The Mongabay article suggests the images ‘seem to lend support to claims from environmentalists that Sarawak's forests have been heavily logged.’ Indeed, some groups have previously claimed that the area retains only 10 per cent of its primary forest cover. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called it ‘probably the biggest environmental crime of our times.’
The article was posted online a week after Sarawak's Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, made the statement claiming the territory has 70 per cent forest cover. In an interview conducted in response to the ‘exaggerated claims’ reported in the article that only 10 per cent the territory’s forest remained, Taib reaffirmed the 70 per cent figure and claimed that his estimates were the most reliable, since they are based on the calculations of ‘Sarawak’s own foresters, who are charged with replanting and managing Sarawak’s renewable resources in an environmentally sustainable way.’ He continued: ‘Part of the problem is that the activists are making these claims from far away, and are not actually on the ground.’ (This contentious issue last week entered a new phase with the opening of an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into Taib for corruption, including his and his family’s alleged ties to the logging industry.)
In such cases, where interested observers call into question official determinations on forest health, it seems there would be a use for objective ‘measurable, reportable and verifiable’ (MRV) analyses to be more widely available and help make sense of these competing claims.
Unfortunately, Google Earth images themselves are unable to shed much light on these conflicting forest cover estimates. Although logging roads are rendered in some detail, Mongabay makes no attempt to glean quantitative information from them – claiming only that they ‘lend support’ to the 10 per cent forest cover claim that some environmentalists have put forward. The relationship between the numbers and spread of logging roads visible from space and the level of deforestation is unclear. For example, it is suggested in the comments page of the article that further logging occurs across the border by light trail rather than road – a driver of deforestation which cannot be traced or measured via the Google Earth images.
The images are also stitched together from several satellite providers, such as GeoEye, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas and Europa Technologies, making accurate comparisons difficult as they were taken over different time periods, with shifts in resolution quality and colour variations. They may be more useful as an alarm-bell and a tool for the purposes of advocacy rather than systematic monitoring. Historically, satellite monitoring of deforestation has been limited to states and organisations large enough to develop expensive equipment and technical expertise. And capacity-building in this area forms a key part of developing initiatives such as the UNFCCC’s REDD mechanism (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). As the Sarawak example shows, Google Earth does not, by itself, provide actors with smaller resources a tool that allows for measurable conclusions to be drawn, and so does little to improve independent assessments of official figures - but a new programme from the company could change this.
Google Earth Outreach
Google’s charitable arm has recently launched a product that may be able to provide a more accurate and consistent means of ‘MRV-ing’ forest cover in Sarawak: the ‘Google Earth Engine’. Together with the Carnegie Institution for Science, Imazon (Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the application was developed by Google to enable online users to assess land cover change across the globe. It makes available Google’s extensive computing infrastructure to analyse 25 years of images from the US Landsat archives. Although these images provide as low as a 30-metre resolution (where each pixel represents 30 square metres on the ground), which limits their ability to track logging roads in the detail available from Google Earth’s commercial satellites, they do provide consistent and reliable representations of forest changes over sustained periods of time – essential for MRV purposes. The Earth Engine also makes use of innovative programming, including SAD (Sistema de Alerta de Deforestation), which has been generating deforestation maps and statistics of the entire Brazilian Amazon on a monthly basis since 2008, and CLASlite (Carnegie Landsat Analysis System–Lite), which processes many images and automatically extracts three different land cover classes (live vegetation, non-live vegetation, and bare substrate).
According to Google, ‘unthinkable tasks are now possible for the first time’, and it is dedicating 10 million CPU-hours a year in 2011 and 2012. It has also been working in partnership with the UN-REDD programme to test the application in Tanzania. The accuracy of the system remains to be seen (even established monitoring techniques can vary wildly in their estimates - see Joseph Burke’s contribution to the VERTIC site for more on this), but it may represent a considerable step-up in terms of the tools open to civil society observers that can provide reliable quantitative data on deforestation. In the case of Sarawak, this would be helpful in turning from illustrative but inconclusive images to solid evidence.
Last changed: Jun 15 2011 at 4:55 PMBack


Why do we get so nervous?
Does the thought of going to an interview make you sweat? The very thought of a first date make your stomach flutter? These are natural reactions to stress. When you feel stress, your brain sends a signal from the pituitary gland to the adrenal glands where a release of adrenaline is triggered.
When the adrenaline is released, your body reacts by increasing circulation to your heart and muscles in preparation for “fight or flight.” But, no reaction to stress is universal. Each stress presents a “threat level” ranging from mild to life-threatening. An example of a mild stress might be a date, or the first day at a new job. The stronger the perceived threat, the more intense the reaction to stress may be.
So how do you effectively combat these feelings so that you can effectively manage your stress? Olympic athletes use mental imagery to quiet feeling of intense nervousness before a competition. You can take the same principles and apply it to your own stressful situation.
One technique termed “cognitive specific imagery,” suggests you imagine yourself competing, interviewing, dating, speaking, presenting, or whatever else may make you nervous beforehand. And science has proven, by imagining yourself doing what makes you nervous neurons in the brain are activated and you become better at your imagined skill.
How athletes are actually getting rid of nerves
Athletes also use motivation specific imagery to recall a time when they succeeded to bring back those same feelings, in order to dissuade the nervousness. And finally, motivational general mastery is commonly used by athletes to feel more confident, but you can tap in to it as well. Simply, imagine yourself focused, prepared, confident, and ready-to-go. This will help you gain confidence and overcome your nerves about upcoming events.
Whether you are training for an Olympic event, or preparing for an interview, nothing can kill confidence faster than nerves. Relax. Take a deep breath. And imagine yourself succeeding. You may be surprised how quickly these seemingly simple techniques can quiet your “fight or flight” response to stress. And when you are relaxed you are more likely to showcase the best version of yourself and succeed.


Chaos, somewhat ironically, has one clear attribute: random-like, apparently unpredictable, behavior. However recent work shows that that unpredictable behavior could provide the key to effective and efficient wireless communications.
A team of researchers at the Xian University of Technology in China and the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom have demonstrated that chaos can, in fact, be used to transmit information over a wireless physical channel offering wide-ranging advantages from enhanced communications security. The researchers explain their findings this week in Chaos, from AIP Publishing.
Wireless communication is the fastest growing segment of the communication industry. But the physical constraints of wireless physical media, such as multi-path propagation, complex ambient noises and interference, prevent quick transmission of information and at a low error rate.
Chaotic signals are aperiodic, irregular, broadband spectrum, easy to generate and difficult to predict over time, making them desirable for communication, sonar and radar applications. While much of the previous research focused on the use of chaos in conventional wired communications, H.P. Ren at the Xian University of Technology in China and a team of researchers sought to demonstrate numerically and experimentally that chaotic systems can be used to create a reliable and efficient wireless communication system.
"We showed that the information transmitted over a wireless channel in a chaotic signal is unaltered even though the received chaotic communication signal is severely distorted by the wireless channel constraints," Ren said. "We also demonstrated that it can be decoded to provide an efficient framework for the modern communication systems."
Chaos is very dependent on the initial conditions; therefore, when controlling the circuit to produce an encoding wave signal, even tiny mistakes in the control instrumentation drives the circuit to states where the wave signal does not encode the information for transmission. This research shows how to control the circuit using an optimal set of perturbations that minimally disturb the natural dynamics of the circuit, yet create the desired encoding signal, despite its chaotic and unpredictable nature.
The research team ran into a pleasant surprise when they found that the chaotic signal they used as a basis for their communication system (generated by an electronic device) can encode any binary source of information in an energy efficient way.
The next step is to utilize these ideas and methods to develop prototypes for real world wireless communication systems, demonstrating that chaos can provide the backbone for future communication systems that offer benefits like enhanced security.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 21, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160823125153.htm


Children and disasters
Children pose an interesting challenge when it comes to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). They are vulnerable, so we instinctively want to protect them and not involve them in DRR. However, children also own valuable knowledge about hazards such as floods or earthquakes in their local area. They are also cognizant of vulnerable members of the community such as the elderly or those with disabilities, and of local capacities like emergency services and resources within their community. These are all key elements of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Children can conduct risk assessments and have the legitimacy to participate in DRR activities, but they tend to be seen as weak and passive. As a result, they are often excluded from DRR initiatives. Furthermore, a challenge lies in making children’s knowledge tangible, usable and communicable to outside stakeholders such as government agencies, scientists and non-government organizations so dialogue can take place. This is important as generating discussion is essential to achieve DRR and build resilience at the local level.
One way that we may be able to overcome these obstacles is by taking advantage of recent advances in technology, with portable devices such as GPS, mobile phones, digital cameras, tablets, video games, and drones. Together with play, these technological innovations have the potential to better allow children to participate in DRR initiatives, while posing different challenges.
Researchers in our Resilience to Nature’s Challenges Cultural Resilience team have been assessing the role and contribution of technology and play in fostering the participation of children in DRR. The work pioneers two initiatives, including participatory mapping using Minecraft and LEGO modelling. The research project links researchers from Auckland University of Technology and The University of Auckland and practitioners from Hawke’s Bay region with CDEM groups and East Coast Lab as well as end users including Maraekakaho school and the wider community.
The potential of Minecraft and LEGO for building resilience
LEGO modeling and Minecraft provide opportunities to conduct participatory mapping, which is the collection, plotting and analysis of georeferenced data such as natural hazards, vulnerability and capacities in facing hazards. Children are very familiar with both LEGO and Minecraft since these games are grounded in their daily life. They potentially provide a platform for dialogue with practitioners and policy makers involved in DRR.
The project is done in partnership with the Maraekakaho school in the Hawke’s Bay region. LEGO and Minecraft were included in the school curriculum over one semester, which included two weekly sessions over an eight-week period. LEGO mapping was conducted with 13 children aged 10-12 years.
Children used 30,000 pieces of LEGO and came up with a 190cm x 114cm map which represented 3.12km x 1.92km of Maraekakaho. Participatory mapping using Minecraft involved 16 children aged 8-10 years.
Geographic information system (GIS) data was inserted into Minecraft, so children could map their school and the surrounding area. Check out the Minecraft version of Maraekakaho here.
For both Minecraft and LEGO, children identified the legend (i.e. hazards, vulnerability, capacities, land use type etc.) of their map, had to think about what constitutes a community, decided what could and could not be mapped, and reflected upon past events and their own knowledge about disasters and risk reduction.
This participatory process involved discussions, critical thinking and consensus building to map relevant information. Some of the positive outcomes and limitations associated with this process are summarized in the table below.
Strengths and weaknesses of LEGO and Minecraft to foster participation for DRR
|Strengths / positive outcomes||Weaknesses / challenges|
Both LEGO and Minecraft worked very well in fostering participation with children taking ownership of the process. This is because children are very familiar with both tools, and activities were fun rather than tedious. Produced maps are powerful tools for planning and carrying out DRR activities since they enable dialogue between children and external stakeholders. On the other hand, we also faced some difficulties related to the cost of buying and implementing the tools. Minecraft presented different technical challenges such as reliance on the Internet and Microsoft server, which can affect the entire process, while building a map at scale with LEGO is time consuming.
The team is currently working with the local stakeholders (schools and practitioners) on the different opportunities that LEGO and Minecraft provide to increase children’s participation in DRR. These include photogrammetry (see an example here), inserting scenarios (i.e. earthquake, tsunami, flood and climate change models) within Minecraft and LEGO modelling, and use of these tools in the long term, as well as scaling up in other schools.
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About Dizzy Gillespie
Everything about Dizzy Gillespie was original -- his bullfrog cheeks, his bent trumpet, his music, his soul. Along with Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie spearheaded the revolutionary Bop movement of the '40s. Both played with intense sophistication, but while Bird sax soundalikes started coming out of the woodwork, Dizzy trumpet clones were few and far between. Both giants became a Bop University of sorts, teaching others and spreading the word of the new jazz. Gillespie's unique combination of musical ideas, range, curiosity and, best of all, his joy of life could not be duplicated. Indeed, much like his forebear Louis Armstrong, Diz was a showman and an entertainer who captivated a wide audience. Gillespie's big bands and small groups brought Bop, Bossa Nova, and Afro-Cuban rhythms to the world. Gillespie's influence looms long and large over the course of Jazz history.


Emotions such as joy and inspiration can be the effects happiness. On the other hand, emotions such as gratitude and appreciation can be the causes of happiness.
Emotion is energy in motion and energy is neither created nor destroyed. Learn to channel this power within you by directing the flow of your emotions.
For some, it may come as a revelation that we can choose the emotions we experience. As suggested above, emotions are expressions of subtle energies flowing within our body.
This is one of the bases of mindfulness. We don't need to act out emotions as we can observe them as physical sensations within our body.
As you can see from the image below emotions are correlated with increase or decrease of sensations in specific parts of our body.
Self-reported body maps showing areas where subjects felt sensations increased (warm colors) or decreased (cool colors) for a given emotion. (Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences).
We can see the radiance of whole-body sensations with great vividness in the head and chest areas that happiness brings. The usual blushing associated with experiencing shame can also be seen as the bright areas around the cheeks.
The body is like a circuit board in that, every cell responds to every thought we think or every word we say. Thoughts and words carry their own vibrational frequencies. Through amplification, they manifest into one emotion or another. Positive thoughts create light airy feelings while negative thoughts create heavy, dense vibrations.
Verbalising or thinking negative statements such as "I'm so stressed", "It's a pain in the neck", "It's so bad" leave measurable imprints on our being. With repetition, these shape into mental and emotional patterns which shape our experience.
We must become aware of such tendencies, realise how they harm us, and vow to change them. Here is a simple 3-step process that you can start using today.
If in doubt, however, here are some things that can only help:
Move. Get up and go for a brief walk. Moving our body helps get the energy inside it moving. This can help us transform energies that have stagnated into undesirable emotions.
Smile. Our brains don’t know the difference between a real smile and a fake smile. Your brain responds in exactly the same way by releasing ‘happy chemicals’. So, even faking positive emotions has a positive impact.
Re-frame. Find the positive in the situation, person, or event that triggered your negative emotion. The meaning we give to things is one of the most important decisions we make in life. Choose wisely, and you will be the master of your internal world.
Our emotions are not coincidences. Mastering the flow of our emotions is one of the biggest happiness influencers we have.
The value of happiness
Happiness influencers: Desires
Happiness influencers: Beliefs
Happiness influencers: Identity (roles)
Happiness influencers: Time
Happiness Influencers: Conditioning (patterns)
Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Martin S Petkov helps people master their super power - mind, body, and heart in balance and alignment. This naturally brings more happiness, health, and harmony into their lives.
He uses the Japanese system for relaxation and gentle transformation Reiki. It facilitates growth and healing by naturally harmonising and strengthening mind and body on a deep level. Martin also offers courses dedicated to happiness or life purpose.
Martin Stefanov Petkov
Master your Super Power


World War II Victory Day celebrations in Russia and across Europe
After Adolf Hitler’s suicide on April 30, 1945, the occupying German armies began surrendering in Europe and the former Soviet Union. Ultimately, Germany signed an unconditional surrender, signaling the defeat of the Nazi Germany regime. VE Day (Victory in Europe) is commonly celebrated on May 8, while the countries of the former Soviet Union celebrate the day on May 9.
The following compilation includes scenes from, and revolving around, Victory Day across the ocean.


Having waited a full year to see the fruits of our labours in a potato breeding project we have finally been rewarded with success today. Our aim was to recreate the Edinburgh potato (Solanum xedinense), which is found naturally occurring in Mexico. The first flower to open has provided the final proof of success in recreating what is in fact a hybrid of two potato species. The parents of this cross are the familiar spud or tattie, Solanum tuberosum, and a wild Mexican potato, Solanum demissum. In Mexico this hybrid is found where fields of potatoes grow alongside the wild potato and interbreeding happens naturally.
But why, you might ask, is a Mexican potato associated with Edinburgh? Well, the potato in question was originally described as new to science in 1911. In the scientific paper where the name and description was published the author based the observations on plants he grew that originated from RBGE. Consequently, Berthault, the French botanist behind the name of this plant, decided to choose a name based on Edinburgh – edinense. As a result, we can reasonably claim this potato as Edinburgh’s own, although Mexican’s might have something to say about that. You can read a bit more background to the story in an earlier blog post Recreating Edinburgh’s potato.
One curious discovery we have made in the process of conducting controlled crosses between the two parent species is that in many cases the hybrid offspring grow very weakly and fail to thrive. Not all seedlings have done this and we do have a few healthy hybrids. Research by others has shown that sometimes hybrids suffer from genetic incompatibilities between the parents that result in what has been called hybrid necrosis. A syndrome where the plants defense mechanisms may become self-destructive.
It will be interesting to see how the few healthy Edinburgh potatoes develop over the summer and to see whether tubers are produced. The Mexican parent produced very small pea-sized tubers in 2018, so it is unlikely that the Edinburgh potato is going to be winning any prizes in the giant vegetable category of a flower show!
In the meantime, some of our seedlings are undergoing testing at the James Hutton Institute to see whether or not they have inherited resistance to late blight from their Mexican parent. It was this disease that devastated the potato crop in Ireland over several seasons from 1845 and contributed to the Irish Famine. This disaster was instrumental in initiating Scotland’s research on potatoes and the ongoing breeding and genetic research to overcome such problems led by the James Hutton Institute.


Feel the flow: Water Cooling
Since we have been discussing the cooling of your computer system quite a bit, I’ll tell you something more about a water cooling. As explained in my post about overclocking, a CPU will generate a tremendous (for a computer at least) amount of heat when you will overclock it.
In order to get rid of this heat, specialized cooling was created, one of them is a water cooling system.
I can just hear you thinking, isn’t this rather dangerous? Water and electricity don’t mix that well. Do they?
No that’s true, but the cooling system has, of course, a closed circuit were water can run through, this is really a safe method to get fluids in your system.
Generally a computer water cooling system, for CPUs at least, uses a CPU water block, a water pump and a heat exchanger. The most obvious advantage of water cooling is that you can overclock your CPU (and by the way, you can also overclock other components, but let’s just stick to CPUs for now) but not only that. A water cooling is a lot quieter, it can even potentially run without fans. Oh and speaking of other components, yes, you actually CAN cool a power supply with a water cooler. Living on the edge man! ;-)
Water cooling isn’t new, it has been around since 1982, it was used in the development of Cray-2 (this was a super computer in those days). However in those days, water wasn’t used but a liquid called Fluorinert. Water cooling for home computers started to gain recognition during the 1990s. But this type of cooling really got a boost during the mid 2000 with the release of AMD’s hot running athlon processor.
Funny thing is, the water cooling systems used during the ’90s where homemade. Since there wasn’t a hardware producer in the world who created such things. These DIY coolings were made from radiators, aquarium pumps and home made water blocks. Sounds like the perfect cocktail for disaster to me. However, this is how it was done.
But in this day and age, you can just walk in to every respectable hardware store and ask for it. Since most stores will just have it in stock. Even the installment of this type of cooling is something you can easily do yourself. There is nothing to it really, just follow the manual.
And in case you wondered, yes there were (and still are) computers for sale that come with a water cooling system as standard. The first one was the Apple’s Power Mac G5, followed by the XPS series computers of Dell. The most recent example of this is the Alienware computer, also provided by Dell. They offer water cooling as an option.
Of course, just telling you what a water cooling looks like and works doesn’t quite help to identify this component. So here are a few very nice examples of desktop water cooling systems.


Loring M. Danforth. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995. xvi + 273 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-04357-9.
Reviewed by Nicholas Miller (Boise State University)
Published on HABSBURG (January, 1996)
The Construction of Macedonian National Identity
Loring M. Danforth's The Macedonian Conflict examines the formation of the national identity of the people of Macedonia from an anthropological perspective, and it is an absorbing work. For all of the immediacy of the conflict between Greece and Macedonia that the book describes, the work makes its most intriguing contribution by taking the question of the origins of national identity out of the speculative realm and providing the reader with a case in progress.
Danforth divides his book into eight chapters that reveal the wide range of the study. A brief overview of the various theories of nationalism is followed by a chapter on the background to the conflict between Greek and Macedonian Slav claims to the territory and history of Macedonia. The third chapter delineates the development of a Macedonian national identity, and the fourth concerns the "transnational" nature of that process. A chapter on the status of the Macedonian-speaking population of northern Greece is followed by a discussion of the use of symbols in the conflict between Greece and Macedonia. The seventh chapter is a case study of an individual's odyssey from Greek emigrant to Macedonian nationalist in Australia. The final chapter draws conclusions regarding the construction of national identity among emigrants from northern Greece in Australia.
Danforth believes that Macedonian, Greek, and other national identities are socially constructed and therefore in flux. This is not a radical departure, as he demonstrates in the review of literature that constitutes much of the first chapter. The work of Fredrik Barth provides his framework, although he pays homage to recent contributions by Ernest Gellner, E.J. Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson, Anthony D. Smith, and others. When Danforth writes, "Any successful analysis of nationalism must, therefore, balance an emphasis on the obvious modernity of nationalism as a political principle with the equally obvious preexistence of the identities, traditions, and cultures from which it draws" (p. 16), he is mediating the contributions of Gellner and Smith. Gellner is an advocate of the interpretation of national identity as a necessity of the modern industrial state, whereas Smith urges the examination of the historical depth of ethnic identities. The value of the Macedonian case is precisely that the observer can trace with some precision exactly how the preexisting identities and traditions are reinterpreted and ultimately recast in the modern nation.
Danforth then examines the history of the construction of Macedonian identity. He is rightly cautious about providing a particular date for the emergence of a Macedonian nation. Few Slavs in the region saw themselves as a separate Macedonian people until after the First World War. Greece came into possession of southern Macedonia (as part of Greece, it is known as Aegean Macedonia) in 1913, and thereafter the Greek government's hostility to the Slavs of the region helped convince those Slavs that they were a unique people. The interwar period "was the time that many of them finally came to the conclusion that they were Macedonians and not Greeks" (p. 72). Greek hostility to the Slavic communities of northern Greece produced tensions that eventually found expression in separatism, of which the Greek civil war was an example. That separatism was reinforced by Yugoslavia's support of the Communists in the civil war, since Yugoslavia's new regime encouraged the growth of Macedonian national consciousness. Following the war, the Slavs of Yugoslav (Vardar) Macedonia did begin to feel themselves to be Macedonian, assisted by a government policy that nurtured the separateness of that population. The former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is now the home of the Macedonian nation.
In contrast to Yugoslavia after 1945, in Greece the rigid nationalist identification of the Greek state and the Greek nation has never permitted the existence of citizens who do not "speak Greek, who are not Orthodox Christians, or who simply do not identify themselves as Greek..." (p.110). Greek educational policy, judicial behavior, and rights of citizenship all are affected by official refusal to admit the existence of people in Greece who do not consider themselves Greek. In spite of official Greece's attempts to stifle Macedonian identity, "[t]he existence of a Macedonian human rights movement effectively refutes the Greek government's claims that there are no Macedonians in Greece, only 'Slavophone Hellenes with a Greek national consciousness'" (p. 108). So the Greek refusal to recognize Macedonians as citizens now faces a Macedonian movement demanding that the government recognize their human rights -- in this case, the right to use one's mother tongue and the right to claim a given nationality.
There are parallels elsewhere in southeastern Europe: Kosovo springs to mind, where Albania demands that the Serbian government recognize their rights are lost on a Serbia that will not acknowledge the validity of the Albanian presence in the region --although the Serbian government has never asserted that the Kosovars are "Albanophone Serbs". Other examples of government refusal to acknowledge the presence of minorities include the Pomaks and Turks of Bulgaria -- although it should be noted that none of these cases is a direct parallel to the Macedonian situation in Greece.
Given the inability of Greeks and Macedonians to communicate successfully or to mediate their differences, Danforth evaluates the state of contemporary Greco-Macedonian relations in their proper context: as the outgrowth of a symbolic discourse, which makes those relations difficult to decipher for the uninitiated. "The most hotly contested symbol in the global cultural war taking place between Greeks and Macedonians has been without a doubt the name 'Macedonia'" (p. 153), he writes. The Greek position regarding the name is simple: "because Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians were Greek, and because ancient and modern Greece are linked in an unbroken line of racial and cultural continuity, only Greeks have the right to identify themselves as Macedonians" (p. 32). The Macedonian position is that "a Macedonian is defined as 'a person by inheritance who speaks a Slavonic language coming from that area of Europe known as Macedonia whether such is part of Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, or Albania'" (p. 44).
The fundamental inability of Greeks and Macedonians to agree on the very status of the name of the land and its people seems to be a product of their use of entirely different criteria in defining basic terms -- for Greeks, the word "Macedonia" and all that it symbolizes is the critical issue; the goal of the Macedonians is recognition of their ethnospecificity. Other symbols are contested: they range from Alexander the Great to the star of Vergina (possibly an emblem of Alexander's dynasty), but also include the personal names of the people of Macedonia. Petkov becomes Petropoulos, Markov becomes Markidis: "We all have two names," noted one of Danforth's interviewees (pp. 160-61).
The hostility of the Greek government to the development of a Macedonian national identity has driven the Macedonian nationalist movement out of Greece proper. Australia has become one of the focal points of that movement, Canada another. Today there are between 20,000 and 50,000 Macedonian speakers remaining in Greece, of which Danforth estimates 10,000 have a Macedonian national identity (p. 78). There are, according to Danforth's sources, 323,000 Greeks in Australia, of which 55,000 are Greek-Macedonians (Greeks from Macedonia) (p. 86). In 1988, there were about 75,000 Macedonians in Australia, of whom one-third had come from Greece.
Danforth's treatment of that diaspora community and its role in the development of a Macedonian national identity is one of the major focuses of his book. The diaspora has played a critical role in the formation of Macedonian identity: it has given immigrants from northern Greece "the freedom to express an identity which they were unable to express freely before" (p. 200). Danforth believes that more attention should be paid to "the construction of national identity as a short-term biographical process that takes place over the course of the lifetime of specific individuals" (p. 197). He pursues that goal in the final chapter of the book, entitled "Construction of a National Identity," which treats case studies of emigrants from northern Greece who live in Australia.
In this chapter, it becomes clear that the rigid definitional battles fought between Greeks and Macedonians only serve to give their struggle an imaginary finality: "No one buys his nationality; no one chooses his mother. I inherited this nationality. It's my inheritance, the milk of my mother" (p. 224). Such a statement could come from the mouth of either a Greek or a Macedonian. "Real Greeks" and "real Macedonians" understand each other, even in their often violent struggle. But in the comparative freedom of the diaspora, the most compelling of Danforth's case studies concern those whose identities break down our assumptions and the strictures of official nationalist ideologies.
Danforth's thesis is that national identity is constructed, not primordial, and the most compelling evidence (to my mind) for the verity of his assertion is that there are individuals today who confound the definitions, break the barriers that seemingly divide Greeks and Macedonians. One, who speaks Macedonian, is "a Greek first...a Greek from Macedonia" (p. 233). Others claim varying degrees of Greekness or Macedonianness, usually with certainty. In many of those cases, the subject's identity has shifted within his or her own lifetime. "From a Macedonian and even a Greek nationalist perspective, such people may seem incongruous, their nationality suspect, but from an anthropological perspective, the claims to Greek national identity of people who were born in Greece but speak Macedonian and not Greek are just as legitimate as the claims to Macedonian national identity of people who earlier in their lives identified themselves as Greeks" (p. 225). As a historian, I can only wish that such confounding individuals speaking so clearly could be found in my sources.
Perhaps it is too bad that this wonderful book does nothing to refute the old cliche about the ultimate inscrutability of Macedonia. The converse is actually true: Danforth adds to the complexity of our understanding of Macedonia and Macedonian and Greek identities, but in a rich and ultimately rewarding way. Because it is resolutely not reductionist, The Macedonian Conflict will be of much less use to the concerned policymaker trying to "solve" the difficulties in Greco-Macedonian relations than to the scholar of identity formation, who will rejoice at its use of evidence from the field. It is an outstanding book: it ranges widely, treating historical and modern political issues with dexterity.
National identity has become the pervasive form of self-identification and political action in the modern world. This book can stand as a warning, both to historians who precipitously attribute firmly developed national identity to peoples in the past and to politicians who assume the validity of simplistic national categories. I must leave to reviewers with anthropological expertise the evaluation of the theoretical contribution that Danforth's study makes, but from a historian's perspective, the book is a rich consideration of a problem that will vex those concerned with southeastern Europe for some time.
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Nicholas Miller. Review of Danforth, Loring M., The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World.
HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews.
Copyright © 1996 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at firstname.lastname@example.org.


Of the $1.1 billion in boxed chocolates that Americans are expected to buy on Valentine’s Day, very little will be untainted by the scourge of child labor. Although some who buy those bonbons will do so without knowing the sinister history of their purchases, others, like the chocolate makers, will have known for at least two years, if not longer, that cocoa beans imported from the Ivory Coast — used to make nearly half the chocolate consumed in this country — are harvested in large part by children, some as young as 9, and many of whom are considered slaves, trafficked from desperately poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.
The most recent survey of conditions on West African cocoa farms, completed by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture for the U.S. Agency for International Development, estimated that nearly 300,000 children work in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms in the four countries surveyed — Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon — the vast majority of them in the Ivory Coast. The report, released in July 2002, says that of the 300,000 children, more than half (64 percent) are under 14 years old. Twelve thousand had no connection to the family on whose cocoa farm they toiled, but only 5,100 of them were paid for their work. Almost 6,000 were described as “unpaid workers with no family ties,” provoking advocates to refer to them as “slaves.” The rest work on their families’ farms, kept home from school to do punishing work during the all-important harvest seasons. The latter category are, in the definition of the International Labor Organization, child laborers.
The existence, and the plight, of these children were publicly acknowledged by chocolate companies in 2001 after high-profile stories in the media — most significantly, a documentary by the BBC and a prize-winning series by Knight Ridder reporters — had exposed the horrific details of the children’s lives, and their connection to the chocolate consumed, often by unknowing consumers, in this country.
And yet, despite committing themselves 16 months ago to a highly publicized four-year plan to abolish child slaves and laborers from the cocoa farms with whom they do business, the chocolate industry, worth billions a year in U.S. revenue alone, has managed to continue making and selling products without demonstrating any discernible progress in solving the child labor problem.
The chocolate companies say their efforts so far have been defeated by the chaos of civil war and the stubborn traditions of an agriculturally based society. But those who monitor child slavery around the world, and others who scrutinize the labor practices of American companies with factories abroad, insist that chocolate companies have failed to take serious steps to end the abhorrent labor practices.
“You have potentially conflicting interests here,” says Alec Fyfe, senior advisor for child labor at UNICEF. On the one hand, Fyfe says, there’s “an industry trying to protect itself from adverse publicity and [from] consumers walking away from their product.” On the other, “a group interested in protecting children’s interests. Where’s the overlap?”
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Hershey’s and M&M/Mars control two-thirds of the U.S. chocolate market, which generated $13 billion from retail sales of 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001. Both companies, along with other major producers like Nestlé, Archer Daniels Midland, Cadbury, Guittard and Bernard Callebaut, import cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast, which, as the largest cocoa producer in the world, provides almost half the cocoa beans that end up in America. Most of the cocoa from the Ivory Coast comes from 450,000 small farms of 12 acres or less.
In September 2000, a BBC documentary entitled “Slavery: A Global Investigation” featured a segment on boys enslaved on Ivory Coast cocoa farms, showing children with heavily scarred backs from beatings with whips and switches.
Awareness of the problem became more widespread in June 2001, when a four-part Knight Ridder series on the same topic told the stories of boys in the Ivory Coast, most of them 12 to 16 years old, some as young as 9, who had been sold and then tricked into indentured labor on cocoa farms. The boys told reporters that they were underfed, locked in their filthy sleeping quarters, and forced to work more than 12 hours a day, sometimes hauling 50-pound bags of beans that were bigger than they were.
Caught in the glare of negative publicity, representatives of the chocolate industry admitted the problem existed, but insisted they should not to be held responsible since chocolate companies didn’t actually own the farms. But this argument didn’t deflect continuing criticism, and the issue was taken up by two congressmen, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). The Knight Ridder series came out the same week that an agricultural bill was up for a vote in the House of Representatives. After reading the newspaper articles, Engel quickly added a rider to that bill, proposing a federal system to certify — and label — qualified chocolate and cocoa products as “slave free,” much in the way that tuna produced under certain federal guidelines can earn “dolphin safe” labeling. The measure passed the House of Representatives — and created a potentially significant problem for Hershey’s, Nestlé, M&M/Mars and the other major companies that wouldn’t qualify for the “slave free” label.
Before the bill could reach the Senate, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a trade group that represents the major American chocolate makers, hired former senators George Mitchell and Bob Dole to lobby against it. With possible consumer boycotts and punishing federal regulation looming, chocolate companies found a way to deal with the issue — and dodge the labeling bullet. According to a source on Capitol Hill who was involved in the talks between the industry and a handful of congressmen, Mitchell and Dole urged the chocolate companies to make a deal, saying, “Too many reporters are willing to go to Africa and get kids on record that they’re slaves.”
The solution — crafted in October 2001 by the biggest chocolate companies in the world, in negotiation with Harkin and Engel — was a document called the Harkin-Engel Protocol. The companies that signed the protocol — Hershey’s and M&M/Mars, among others — promised to follow through on a four-year, six-point plan. The companies’ stated goal was to rid the industry of child slavery by July 2005, at which time their products would be certified as “slave free.” To work toward that goal, the companies committed themselves to instituting programs in West Africa to improve the lives of cocoa farmers and make them aware of the consequences of child labor — not just trafficking in children, but also keeping their own kids home from school to work the farms. The “slave free” tag would be the payoff — a signal to consumers that their candy bars and M&Ms could be consumed without guilt.
But halfway to the protocol deadline, little headway has been made. And critics of the chocolate industry say companies are attempting to control implementation of the initiative to make as little impact as possible on their own bottom line. Most importantly, say these critics, the chocolate companies are avoiding the crucial role of cocoa pricing in the perpetuation of child slavery. It is a subject that needs to be addressed, say child labor experts, but it is a threat to industry profits.
Two months after the protocol was signed, the Child Labor Coalition, comprising more than 70 advocacy groups focused on domestic and international child labor issues, released a statement acknowledging the industry’s initiative but asking them to go a few steps further. The statement suggested that the industry commit to ending exploitative child labor practices on cocoa farms all over the world, not just in West Africa but also in Indonesia and Brazil, where anecdotal evidence suggests it exists. Susan Smith, a spokesperson for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, acknowledges that the problem may exist elsewhere, but says, “There are only so many things we can do at a time.”
The CLC’s statement also asked the industry to consider ensuring “that family farmers get a fair price for their products and agricultural workers are compensated fairly for their labor.” Smith says that the industry is addressing pricing, but through indirect avenues. “We’re teaching the farmers about marketing their products to get more money,” she says. “To produce more and a higher quality of cocoa and how to sell the cocoa, what buyers are looking for.” Smith cites the Sustainable Tree Crops Program, which has been tested and is ready to be implemented. Among its goals is devising a way to get radio updates about the world market to isolated farmers so that they know how much they should get for their beans. Another goal is to improve the farmers’ quality of life and the quality of the cocoa by introducing environmentally safe pest- and disease-control methods. “This all relates to the prices the farmers are getting,” says Smith.
The industry’s reluctance to deal with cocoa pricing directly was evident at a workshop held in early February in Washington, where the chocolate industry presented its findings to representatives from the International Labor Organization, the Department of Labor, USAID and UNICEF on why more than half the children working on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast have never attended school. Their conclusion — that Ivory Coast farmers will always keep their children home to work the fields because it is a practice embedded in their culture — contradicted years of research by child labor experts who identify poverty — in this case, caused in part by low and unpredictable cocoa prices — as the root of child labor and child slavery.
“There was a very selective use of data which seemed to bolster the view that poverty is not a major cause of the problem and that kids working on those farms are no worse off in terms of education,” says Fyfe, who attended the meeting as a UNICEF representative. “It was very perverse.”
A more balanced use of data, says Fyfe and others who have studied the causes of child labor, would have led directly to a discussion of cocoa pricing and, ideally, to a plan to regulate pricing. Such a plan would help farmers escape poverty and reduce the need to use children on their farms. Of the millions of dollars that the chocolate industry says it is investing in programs like the Sustainable Tree Crops Program to reeducate farmers in West Africa, very little trickles down to the cocoa farmers, say critics of the chocolate companies’ handling of the child labor problem. Instead, the farmers remain at the mercy of a world market price for cocoa that fluctuates according to supply and demand, as well as weather and political instability.
At the time the Harkin-Engel Protocol was signed, cocoa prices were at an all-time low. The Ivory Coast’s government-run board had been protecting the country’s farmers since 1955 by setting a minimum price at which they’d export their product, but it was split and privatized in 1999.
Suddenly, farmers with no idea of the mechanics of free trade or world market prices or commodities brokers were left to fend for themselves. Working mostly in isolation on their small family farms spread throughout the country, the farmers did not, and still don’t, have the means to confer among themselves about the prices they’re getting for their cocoa. They operate at the mercy of pisteurs, or buyers, who drive out to the farms and give each farmer cash to haul away his cocoa beans. (The farmers are generally too poor to own trucks.) It’s difficult to know how much cash exchanges hands at the farm gates, but Global Exchange, an internationally focused human rights organization based in San Francisco, estimates that the cocoa farmers make between $30 and $100 a year. Transfair USA, the only independent third-party certifier of Fair Trade practices in the United States, estimates that farmers earn about one cent for each 60-cent candy bar that’s sold here.
The pisteurs are paid by exporters, multinational companies with offices in Ivory Coast port cities like Abidjan and San Pedro. Three U.S. companies — Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland, California-based Nestlé USA, and Minnesota-based Cargill — are among the major exporters.
Since 70 percent of the population of the Ivory Coast is involved in cocoa farming, the fall of cocoa prices in 1999 and 2000 greatly increased rural poverty and led to the cutting of teachers’ salaries, a reduction in government spending for healthcare, and, according to a report by the International Labor Rights Fund, to “the widespread use of cheap child labor.”
Right now, because of civil unrest in the Ivory Coast, cocoa supply is down and cocoa prices are higher. But farmers have not benefited from the higher prices, since many are not even able to get their product to port. Watchdog groups like Global Exchange, Save the Children and the International Labor Rights Fund insist that without minimum pricing to ensure a steady income, farmers are not likely to make major changes in labor practices — and pay — on their farms.
There are some cocoa farmers, outside the Ivory Coast, who are guaranteed a minimum price for their cocoa — they belong to Fair Trade Certified producer groups, or collectives made up of democratically managed farms. There are 20 collectives in eight countries — Ghana, Cameroon, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Belize — that represent more than 42,000 farmers and their families. Importers and chocolate makers who buy Fair Trade cocoa produced by these farmers sign a contract with the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), based in Bonn, Germany, promising to document that they pay the co-op’s farmers the Fair Trade price: the world market price plus a premium that guarantees a living wage and extra money to go back into the co-op community. The supply chain is designed to be transparent, with the FLO reserving the right to inspect documentation tracking the product from the farm to the manufacturer.
Fair Trade Certified chocolate was introduced to the U.S. last fall. The certified licensees, small companies like Dean’s Beans, Ithaca Fine Chocolates, Day Chocolate and Cocoa Camino, produce only a tiny fraction of the amount of chocolate produced by major outfits like Hershey’s and M&M/Mars. Other companies, such as Scharffen Berger Chocolate in San Francisco, choose not to buy from West Africa at all, since they believe that any cocoa from that part of the world is probably besmirched by the involvement of child labor. Producers of organic chocolate, sold by such U.S. companies as Newman’s Own and Dagoba, is also “slave free,” since organic farms are subject to their own independent monitoring system that checks labor practices.
The amount of cocoa purchased by companies signed on to pay the Fair Trade price for Fair Trade Certified cocoa is too small to make a dent in the amount of cocoa produced worldwide — only three of the 89 million pounds of cocoa farmed by Fair Trade Certified collectives in 2000 could be sold at the Fair Trade price.
Global Exchange is trying to pressure M&M/Mars to commit to buying at least 5 percent of its cocoa beans from Fair Trade Certified collectives. (Part of the campaign enlists supporters to send valentines to the company asking them to “have a heart” and sell Fair Trade chocolate.) That would take care of the 85-plus million pounds of Fair Trade cocoa that could not be sold at Fair Trade prices in 2000, and probably more, since M&M/Mars imports hundreds of thousands of tons of cocoa each year. The organization, and other supporters of the Fair Trade strategy, acknowledge that a company that pays the Fair Trade price is likely to increase the price of its products, but they point to the increase in sales of Fair Trade coffee, which is more expensive than coffee without the Fair Trade label, as a sign of the potential success of Fair Trade chocolate. According to a report by the Fair Trade Federation, certified Fair Trade coffee imports in the U.S. grew more than 50 percent, from 4.3 million pounds in 2000 to 6.7 million pounds in 2001.
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Chocolate makers, government groups like the Department of Labor, and a handful of non-government groups, including Free the Slaves, have held numerous meetings since the Harkin-Engel Protocol was signed. They’ve set up committees and subcommittees. They have the beginnings of a foundation, based in Geneva. But it is still unclear how much has been done to meet the commitments outlined in the protocol. Bill Guyton, executive director of the World Cocoa Foundation, has visited Africa frequently in the past few months to see farmers and government officials. “The farmers know about the issue,” he says. “They want to know how they can work with us to overcome their problems.” An office is being set up in Ghana as headquarters for a program, spearheaded by the ILO, that focuses on improving awareness among farmers of child labor issues. But none of the chocolate industry’s proposed child labor projects have officially begun. Says Guyton, “The activities will be rolled out at different time periods.”
For right now, at least, the civil war in the Ivory Coast that has been raging since September overshadows the child labor problem — the issue of child soldiers is pressing as well. (It is believed that some of the child laborers are being “drafted” into military service.) But a plan for accomplishing the goals after the civil unrest is resolved appears elusive.
Fyfe, who attended the February meeting where the chocolate industry gave its briefing on the extent of child labor in West Africa, says there was very little connection between the ILO, the DOL, USAID and the other organizations whose representatives stood up, one after the other, to describe proposals for programs they want to implement. “I couldn’t see what the mechanism was for who would take leadership in bringing all this together in some kind of coherent strategy,” Fyfe says. “That was missing for me.”
Ther Aung of the International Labor Rights Fund agrees. “It’s all very vague,” she says. The only definite objective appears to be the “slave free” labeling, set for July 2005. And that goal is a source of controversy among child labor experts. “Labeling is only as good as the monitoring,” says Fyfe. Of the labeling systems he’s studied — including rugs produced in India and shoes produced in Brazil — he’s found the industries that self-police, as the chocolate companies have proposed, to be markedly less legitimate. (The scenario is at the root of the old joke in labor rights circles about “slave free” labels being stitched on by exploited child laborers.)
Even if the industry does have the best of intentions in labeling, Fyfe questions if it is a workable goal, considering that the cocoa farms are so small and spread out. “How will you be able to monitor a supply chain so fragmented over such a large scale?” he asks. “Even in traditional monitoring — sending inspectors into factories — they don’t do a good job of that in the U.S., much less in the Ivory Coast, and that’s the easiest kind of monitoring to do.”
Anti-sweatshop activists have found that opening factories to inspectors as a means of monitoring is ineffective. “It’s impossible because of the sheer number of factories around the world,” says Jason Marks, a spokesperson for Global Exchange. The money is better spent, Marks says, on worker empowerment — giving workers a living wage and allowing them the right to form trade unions. Worker empowerment is what makes Fair Trade collectives easy to monitor — they’re more invested in maintaining the criteria that a FLO inspector comes to check on once a year.
“Labeling is not the magic bullet,” Fyfe agrees. “It’s got to be seen as part of a much broader strategy. There are much more fundamental things that have to be done to deal with children being exploited at work — poverty, education, good government, child protection laws, good public services.” He and others are hoping that the industry will think about refocusing their efforts — and multimillions — into strategies that incorporate all of those factors.


German loanwords in the English language
Cockroach, lantern, algebra, sabbath – these are only a few of the loanwords that we use in the English language without them striking us as being particularly unusual. Appropriately, ‘loanword’ itself is a loan translation (a so-called calque) of the German Lehnwort (Lehn from leihen = ‘lend’ + Wort = ‘word’).
Throughout history, English has borrowed words from other languages, through strong cultural links or historical events like the Norman Conquest in 1066, manifested linguistically through the adoption of Norman French vocabulary. It is also often the case that some cultures are more dominant than others in particular fields, and this dominance means that they shape the language in this area beyond their geographical borders.
Pianoforte, synthesis, brainstorming, and email
One area where this is particularly apparent is in classical music, with many terms borrowed from Italian, where examples include pianoforte, allegro, and soprano. The word ‘pianoforte’ found its way into the English language in the middle of the 18th century and literally means ‘soft and loud’ (piano e forte). Allegro stems from the Italian for ‘lively, gay’, and soprano is derived from sopra, which is Italian for ‘above’, itself borrowed from the Latin supra.
Similarly, many words in the field of science, especially medicine, originate from Greek and Latin. Take for example pancreas, which entered the English language in the late 16th century via modern Latin, with pan meaning ‘all’ and kreas meaning ‘flesh’. Other examples are retina, from Medieval Latin rete = ‘net’, and synthesis, which derives from the Greek suntithenai = ‘place together’ and entered the English vocabulary via Latin in the early 17th century.
Naturally, this works the other way around as well. The increase of words being borrowed from English reflects the enormous importance of the English language in today’s globalized world. Accordingly, many English business terms are used in other languages. Thus, the French have meetings, and Germans will regularly have brainstorming sessions. Similarly, most languages have – officially or unofficially – adopted English terms like Internet, email, or login.
However, it is always advisable to be careful with some of these words, as they might not mean exactly the same as in the source language. An example of this is the German use of Handy for ‘mobile phone’, which makes it a common false friend for German learners of English. I am sure that everyone who has studied a foreign language has fallen into a trap like this, which can be both embarrassing and amusing at the same time.
Pretzel with noodles?
Let’s take a look at some of the words borrowed from German; you will see that some of them are more obvious than others. One of my personal favourites is muesli, which derives from the Swiss German Müsli. Other foodie words borrowed from German are pretzel and noodle. Everybody knows that ‘pretzel’ is originally German, but while any German will know what you mean when you ask for a ‘pretzel’, the German standard spelling is actually Brezel. In Bavaria and Austria however, you would call them Brezn, and to make it even more complicated, there are other regional variations like Brezl and Breze. I would claim that the origin of the word ‘noodle’ is less obviously German. It did however enter the English language in the late 18th century via the German Nudel. Unfortunately, the origin of the German word is unknown.
A more classic example would be wunderkind. It is a term that is fairly easy to translate: Wunder = ‘wonder’ + Kind = child. Still, for some reason we say ‘wunderkind’ and not ‘wonderchild’. Other frequently used words borrowed from German include the very useful schadenfreude, the pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune; weltschmerz, a feeling of melancholy and world-weariness; and zeitgeist, which is the defining spirit or mood of a period in history as reflected by the ideas and beliefs of the time.
Not to be ignored are more recent borrowings from the 20th century, reflecting the traumatizing experience of the Second World War, with German loanwords like führer, now more generally used to describe a tyrannical leader, or blitzkrieg (literally ‘lightning war’), which is an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift (in other words, as fast as lightning) victory.
These are only a few examples and, of course, any language could be looked at in depth. Even if you think that a word is undoubtedly English, a closer look at the etymology may surprise you. Anyone studying a foreign language will have found themselves in a situation where they could think of a word in their mother tongue that exactly describes a situation or concept, but for which there just isn’t an appropriate translation. Therefore, let me end with three German words that are my top contenders for eventually forming part of the rich English vocabulary:
1. Fernweh – This is basically the same as ‘wanderlust’, but has a less old-fashioned ring to it.
2. Feierabend – literally ‘party evening’ – the time when you finish work (Feierabend machen) as well as the rest of the evening after you’ve left work. It’s also used colloquially to say I’ve had enough / enough of this: Jetzt ist aber Feierabend!
3. Fachidiot – A ‘subject idiot’ – someone who knows an awful lot about one subject, but doesn’t really have any capabilities outside of this particular area.
The opinions and other information contained in OxfordWords blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.


Children have the most amazing imagination and simply require a few tools to stimulate their thought process. Take a look around your home and what do you see-this is the most amazing teaching environment any child could ever ask for.
Nature provides many opportunities, such as nature scavenger hunts, offering an insight into the animals and insects in our world. Water is a precious resource but this is also an opportunity for children to be taught to nurture and care for mother nature and help our gardens to thrive and produce some organic vegetation.
The kitchen has endless resources that will keep your child entertained for hours on end – a simple pot and spoon, the Tupperware containers, so much learning can occur.
So, the moral of the story is to keep it simple and just see what endless opportunities you can provide to your children at home like we do here at Sonas.


- 1 What is the cutoff birthday for kindergarten?
- 2 Is August a late birthday?
- 3 What is the cutoff for school birthdays?
- 4 What year will my kid start kindergarten?
- 5 Is 7 too old for kindergarten?
- 6 Is it better to start kindergarten at 5 or 6?
- 7 Can August babies start school later?
- 8 What is a late birthday called?
- 9 How do you say Happy early birthday?
- 10 What is the best month to be born on?
- 11 Can you skip kindergarten in first grade?
- 12 Can 4 year olds start kindergarten?
- 13 How do you know if your child is ready for kindergarten?
- 14 Is Pre K and TK the same?
What is the cutoff birthday for kindergarten?
Children can start Kindergarten at the beginning of the school year if they turn 5, on or before 31 July that year. By law, all children must be in compulsory schooling by their 6th birthday.
Is August a late birthday?
If you have a birthday between the months of September and December, you qualify as having a “late birthday.” Sometimes people even consider August to be a late birthday month. Having a late birthday is not that uncommon, and yet most people are always so surprised when they find out.
What is the cutoff for school birthdays?
Districts must admit children at the beginning of the school year (or whenever they move into a district) if they will be five years of age on or before September 1 (EC Section 48000[a]). Children who are age-eligible for kindergarten may attend any pre-kindergarten summer program maintained by the school district.
What year will my kid start kindergarten?
Children in California can commence kindergarten if the child has turned 5 years old by the 1st of September in that year. Kindergarten is not mandatory in California however nearly all students will attend.
Is 7 too old for kindergarten?
A new study finds strong evidence that delaying kindergarten by a year provides mental health benefits to children, allowing them to better self-regulate their attention and hyperactivity levels when they do start school.
Is it better to start kindergarten at 5 or 6?
Many children have the social, physical, and rudimentary academic skills necessary to start kindergarten by 5 or 6, but for kids who are born just before the cut-off date or who are experiencing a slight delay, it may be better to wait a year. 14
Can August babies start school later?
You can’t be made to put your child into school before their fifth birthday. But some local authorities may tell parents they won’t hold a reception place for them – meaning a child born in August could start school at the age of five, but they would have to start in Year One, missing reception.
What is a late birthday called?
The Meaning of Happy Belated Birthday The word belated means that something is late or delayed. If you wrote the phrase happy belated birthday but changed the word belated to its synonym “late,” you’d get happy late birthday.
How do you say Happy early birthday?
You can say “Happy Birthday in advance”, but some people think it’s unlucky to wish someone a Happy Birthday before the day itself.
What is the best month to be born on?
August is the overall most popular month for birthdays, which makes sense, considering a late August birthday means December conception. Cold weather, snow, romantic fires and holiday parties seems to create just the right equation for the beginning of human mating season.
Can you skip kindergarten in first grade?
No school will permit skipping kindergarten without a full educational assessment. For early entrance or grade skipping, some states require an IQ score of at least 130 or up. By the way, in my home state, kindergarten is required before a child is promoted to the first grade.
Can 4 year olds start kindergarten?
Minimum age for kindergarten entrance is 4 years 7 months before the first day of the school year. All children must attend kindergarten before age 7. Kindergarten entrance age is 5 on or before September 1 for 5-year-old kindergarten, or age 4 on or before September 1 for 4-year-old kindergarten.
How do you know if your child is ready for kindergarten?
What is school readiness?
- Demonstrating a curiosity or interest in learning new things.
- Being able to explore new things through their senses.
- Taking turns and cooperating with peers.
- Speaking with and listening to peers and adults.
- Following instructions.
- Communicating how they’re feeling.
- Empathizing with other children.
Is Pre K and TK the same?
Pre-Kindergarten is much more engaging and focused on similar areas of the standard kindergarten curriculum. When it comes to transitional kindergarten, the TK environment is a mixture of preschool and pre-kindergarten.