| I work from home and usually have the radio on all | | | | Kristof goes into in his talk). |
| day, sometimes just as background noise or to catch | | | | Another thing really struck me about Kristof's speech. |
| the occasional news story. This week, I walked into | | | | He pointed out that social psychology has shown that |
| the kitchen to make lunch, and I heard an incredible | | | | humans have very different base levels of happiness. |
| talk given by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and | | | | Some tend to be more happy, some tend to be less, |
| author Nicholas Kristof at the Westminster Town Hall | | | | and all the things that we think will make us happier |
| Forum. I stood silent at the kitchen counter for a full | | | | usually don't. And here's the paradox, as outlined by |
| hour, my lunch uneaten, unable to tear myself away | | | | neuroscientist and author Jonah Lehrer: |
| from the pull of the stories he was telling. | | | | Although per-capita wealth has more than doubled in |
| Kristof has been writing for years about human rights | | | | many industrialized nations over the last fifty years, |
| abuses in Asia and Africa, particularly human | | | | levels of happiness have flat-lined. Even more |
| trafficking and the genocide in Darfur. He has been | | | | dispiriting is the fact that, as countries become more |
| the international voice of many women abroad who | | | | prosperous, depression becomes significantly more |
| have faced unspeakable horrors and who have dared | | | | common. |
| to tell their stories anyway. With his wife, also an | | | | To that paradox, Kristof offered this reminder to his |
| accomplished journalist, Kristof wrote Half the Sky: | | | | listeners: there is one thing that has been found to |
| Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women | | | | universally elevate our base level of happiness, and |
| Worldwide. | | | | that is "engagement with some cause larger than |
| During his presentation, he spoke candidly of the | | | | ourselves." |
| urgent need to establish gender equity. Research has | | | | It is a difficult and cynical time we live in. People |
| shown the the best way by far to fight poverty and | | | | everywhere will tell you that there's nothing you can |
| extremism globally is to educate women and girls. | | | | do, that we are removed from these stories and |
| The ripple effect of educating girls literally changes | | | | that they have no real effect on our daily lives. But |
| everything. It elevates the social and economic | | | | our engagement -- whatever the cause -- shows |
| situations of individuals, families and neighborhoods. | | | | something vastly different: that these stories matter |
| Entire villages have been lifted out of poverty in one | | | | a great deal, that we can be transformed by them, |
| generation when its girls have had a chance to go to | | | | and that they have something to say to us, now, |
| school (there are several reasons for this, which | | | | about who we are and who we will be. |