Sane New World

Ruby Wax is known as an American stand-up comedian who got herself a career in the UK. Partly to her own surprise she became the face in a campaign of people with a mental illness especially in her new country. Since she was outed as a victim of regular and severe depressions, she quit her TV career, got an Oxford degree, did a TED talk and wrote a book.

Sane New World
Ruby Wax

The book is called Sane New World: Taming the Mind and tells the story about how the brain works and how 21st century challenges can cause all kind of troubles in a brain that was evolved for a completely different purpose and hardly equipped for today's stimuli-rich and information overloaded society. And although some fellow human beings seem to cope with that quite reasonably, a staggering 1 in 4 is diagnosed with a form of mental illness.

Ruby Wax is a professional comedian and has a story to tell from the inside out. The humour and the openness about her own situation make the book very readable and even outright funny despite the subject. The in-depth study she made (getting an Oxford degree in the process) gives the topic the substance it deserves. And for those who want every book to have an happy ending, the author describes her success in dealing with depressions through a technique called mindfulness.

I can recommend the book to anyone who interacts with mental patients on a regular basis (and given the ratios, who doesn't?) and to those struggling with depressions in particular. If you can't find the time to read the whole book, there is her TED Talk: "what's so funny about a mental illness?" as a first introduction. I like to conclude with quoting the closing statement from her TED Talk when talking about people with a mental illness: "..can we please stop the stigma?".

ERegoS

Racism is not a joke, the hassle about the UN investigating on "Zwarte Piet" is

When autumn approaches, the Netherlands get prepared for Sinterklaas. Wikipedia describes it as a large traditional ancient winter holiday celebrated in the Low Countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as some parts of Germany, French Flanders, Lorraine and Artois. The rest of the world usually mixes it up with Santa Claus but apart from the presents, this is something completely different. Sinterklaas is earlier in December (5th) and he is supported by a legion of Zwarte Pieten (Black Pete's) where Santa has his elves and is associated with Christmas.

Almost as traditional as the festival itself is the repeating discussion about the alleged racist tendencies in Sinterklaas given the fact that his helpers are all black. Some claim the roots for this go back to slavery while others are of the opinion that Zwarte Piet is black due to his work in chimneys (since that's how the presents get delivered to the children).
What made this years discussion different from last year is that it escalated to international levels by a UN investigator expressing her advice to the Dutch government to abolish Sinterklaas altogether. In the Netherlands this was all over the papers, several times it was an item in the evening news and international media picked up on it. But what was the fuzz al about? When assessing the facts, this turn out to be a storm in a teacup.

The original letter from Verene Shepherd dates back to the 17th of January of this year. Apparently someone raised his/her concerns with the High Commissioner  for Human Rights of the UN and this ended up at the desk of the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on people of African descent being Verene Shepherd. After describing the complaint and some general remarks, she has 5 questions for the Dutch government. The worst you could say about the tone-of-voice is that it seems to anticipate on the answers when posing judgement but it seems a polite letter altogether.

On behalf of the Dutch Government Roderick van Schreven (Ambassador, Permanent Representative) replies on all 5 questions in 3 pages: there is no outstanding request to have Sinterklaas on the UNESCO World Heritage list, some complaints have come to the attention of Dutch authorities as well and the Dutch Government is "fully committed to combating discrimination" and legislation to that extend is in place and functions well. Again a very civilized letter apart from the fact that "an answer within 60 days" as requested has not been achieved, the letter dates 10th July 2013.

Two polite letters, one from January and a response in July of this year created an avalanche of opinions (in October!) including the nowadays regretfully unavoidable social media hype and obscenities in the direction of Verene Shepherd.
It took me less than 15 minutes to find and read the letters that started all this. Fact finding is not that difficult especially if the relevant information is available on-line. A lot of the emotion in our small country could have been avoided and the time wasted could have been used for writing some beautiful poems with the Sinterklaas-presents.

I hope people of all race and colour enjoy a happy Sinterklaas!

ERegoS

Ender's game

In 1985 Orson Scott Card wrote a book called Ender's Game. In that year it won both the Hugo and Nebula Award for best Science Fiction novel. A year later Speaker for the Dead was published by the same author and again won both prizes. Since then several sequels and prequels have been published creating what the fans call The Ender Saga. Now almost twenty years later the first book has been the basis for a movie with a cast including Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley. The movie was launched in early 2013 in the US but in the Netherlands our patience is tested until January 2014.

Ender's Game 

In a way it is a pity the story is labelled as science fiction because for a lot of people that might be a reason not to read the book or watch the movie while this story deserves a wider audience than just SF fans. The SF-label is correct however since the story has all the characteristics: it includes futuristic technologies, space battles, travelling to distant planets and alien civilizations. The movie will probably include spectacular effects and I intend to see the 3D version if for no other reason than to experience the scenes about training in zero-gravity.

But for me the story most certainly is not just another SF-story and the awards are an indication that others feel the same way. The author uses the future technology and space-elements as a canvas for a story about leadership, loneliness, politics and building character. And also about how to relate to others especially with whom you have hardly any common ground. All of that in multiple layers and with several unexpected turns where things are not what they seem at first sight. The book is a real page turner and all the ingredients are in there for a great movie. I'm looking forward to it!