Can It Pay to Study What I Love?
Following my speech to its graduates last year, the Australian National University’s College of Business and Economics gave me the honour of addressing its Prize and Scholarship winners at a recent ceremony. As I prepared my talk, I thought about my hopes and concerns for our students. The modern world offers them almost limitless possibilities. At […]
“Decadence: Decline Of The Western World”
The Western world seems to be in decline – but what is really happening? What are the forces behind this? Five years ago Pria Viswalingam approached me to join him in producing a film on the topic. “We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.” Kenneth Clark […]
Give A Christmas Gift That Makes A Difference
Possibly the best gift you could give your children this Christmas is to teach them the value of giving. While there is strong psychological research showing giving increases the sense of wellbeing of the giver, we are not born with this knowledge. The truth is people consistently over-estimate the impact on their wellbeing of […]
Bhutan: The Happy Magical Dragon Kingdom Part 2
While Bhutan’s version of modernisation is bringing it many benefits and its idealism is welcome in a world of so much cynicism, the country of course is far from perfect. The issue of national identity can be vexing and has led to a mass exodus from the country of people from Nepal. The concept of […]
Bhutan: The Happy Magical Dragon Kingdom Part 1
Bhutan is one of the few magical countries left on earth. What particularly attracted us to visit it, is the fact that this is the country that invented the idea of Gross National Happiness – but more about this later. About the size of Switzerland, this Himalayan kingdom is a country of mountainous forests, riverine valleys and only 700,000 people, steeped in Buddhist mysticism. […]