Mindfulness and Retirement: Time To PlayWritten by Maya Talisman Frost
I have a 17-year-old daughter who is finishing up a year in Vitoria, Brazil. She's been having time of her life in a gorgeous coastal city with beaches of her dreams and cute guys to match. What's not to like? Tara told us that we could buy a beautiful home ("All marble floors!") on a spectacular beach ("White sand!") in a number of lovely cities ("Amazing architecture!") with friendly neighbors ("Dancing all night with people who don't know you but love you anyway!") In fact, she helpfully suggested that we could snag one of these properties for a mere $100,000...less than half of median price for a typical house in our area. She went on to say that we could buy a house on coast in Brazil and retire there, with a delightful lifestyle, plenty of great friends, outstanding and inexpensive medical care, and zero chance of boredom or loneliness. We weren't surprised that she suggested this. After all, she has an ulterior motive--why, SHE could be one to manage property until we decide to retire! She would, of course, have to live in beautiful, coastal, hunk-heavy, dance-crazed Brazil in order to do this, but she was willing to make this supreme sacrifice to support our perfect retirement. How thoughtful. No, really. It sounds fantastic. I'm turning 45 in June, and that's not too early to think about how I want to spend next few phases of my life. I truly appreciate suggestion. The people I admire most are those who continue to reinvent themselves about every decade, and who laugh out loud at notion of retirement. They're on their fifth or sixth "career" and fully expect to have a couple more, just for fun. What we really long for in retirement is time to play, and what we don't recognize is that we should be playing on a daily basis. We need to live our lives in a way that connects us to our creativity and joy. Think of it as Brazilian plan.
| | The Roots Of PovertyWritten by Isaiah Hull
Remedying only superficial manifestations of deeper underlying problems of extreme poverty will never end poverty itself. At best, this approach will temporarily relieve urgent problems; at worst, it will exacerbate them or create long-term trade-off problems. If we want to eliminate poverty, we must look at its roots and apply sustainable, pragmatic development solutions.There are many popular misconceptions about underdeveloped countries that prevent both politicians and private citizens from seriously considering solutions. Some people think less developed countries (LDCs) are poor as result of laziness, mismanagement, and corruption. While corruption and mismanagement do play a role in inefficient and criminal diversion of aid funds, they definitely do not make it impossible to conduct successful development operations--unless, of course, we use corrupt regimes as a justification to not give aid at all. So what are some of common root causes of poverty? Each of following roots of poverty can be eliminated through development projects when they bypass government involvement or develop mutual-accountability agreements with governments to ensure best results for program constituents: Geographic Isolation: Geographic isolation actually occurs on two levels: 1) within regions and continents; and 2) within countries. The first type of geographic isolation generally includes countries that are landlocked hundreds of miles away from closest port. These countries end up paying excessive fees and costs for freight to export and import goods. The other type of isolation--that occurs within countries-- generally includes villages that are separated from rest of country because of a lack of infrastructure. These villages typically lack electricity, adequate food markets, and adequate sources of clean water.
|
