Thinking of Petunia

Petunia, the silly and seemingly wise goose... can you help me count ducklings?

There were seven
And now there were four
And yesterday there were three

Can artifacts give more meaning to your life?

This month, Apple launched iPhone5 and Apple executives claim that iPhone5 comes with capability that gives purpose to previously empty and meaningless lives. Quite a promise, isn't it?

This claim comes from human quality of empathy, a new feature that Apple added to Siri. Now, Siri has the ability to offer human-like responses to complex life questions like "Why didn't my parents love me?"

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO said: "We believe that the iPhone5 will make your current relationship obsolete." Wow.....

Better

"A person who takes advantage of every moment of his or her life to become a better person, one who is better able to contribute to the happiness of others, can die in peace."

Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk

What's left?

A lesson learned from South Korea, a country that has been focusing on economic growth in the past decades. This is a story told in the form of a novel by Shin Kyung-sook about a society that moves from a poor country to the world 13th largest economy in a short period of time.

Here is a link to the article covering Shin Kyung-sook's work in the NYTimes

So, the question is: whether there is anything lost in this triumphant economic fairy tale? Similar to the U.S., South Korea society has seen a widening disparity between the rich and the poor. But that is not the end of the story. Another sad loss falls on the generation that pushes their kids to get good education so these kids can have better lives than their parents. Now, these kids are adults who get caught up in the hypercompetitive circus and have no time to take care of their aging parents. These parents, after spending most of their savings on their children's education, are left to spend the little time left in nursing homes.

As countries focus their attention on economic growth, we end up losing "human-to-human relationship" that sustain all of our lives. Isn't this sad?