Paul Graham and Jeffrey Sachs’ Reith Lectures – an interesting mashup of wisdom and intelligence.

I read Paul Graham’s essay entitled “Is it worth being wise?” with interest. In a provocative piece he challenges the conventional definitions and interpretations of wisdom and intelligence and invites debate about the apparent divergence between the two concepts.

Whilst it’s interesting, he misses the point that both are required here and now to solve the major problems we face globally. To illustrate how both are necessary and need to work in concert at the individual and collective level the economist, Jeffrey Sachs’ final BBC Reith Lecture of 2007, “Global Politics in a Complex Age” sets forth an ambitious but achievable basis for enacting shared global goals – what he refers to as the Millenium Promises – around climate change, extreme poverty reduction, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, protecting biodiversity and halting desertification, manifest in a series of global agreements.

He calls for the public, governments and all in between to embrace the challenge of focusing on these shared goals and using our scientific and technological know-how to solve the problems we’ve created. With lots of excellent historical quotes and plenty of practical ideas for agency, he calls for individuals, social entrepreneurs, business, expert groups (scientists), and governments to forge a new basis of global cooperation through an open source approach to global problem solving, played out locally. Sachs brought to my mind once again, EF Schumacher’s brilliant, Small is Beautiful. In the follow-up questions, there’s some great contributions from John Curtice, Bernard Crick and Pat Kane. Wisdom and intelligence in concert, indeed.

Links:
Paul Graham – Is it worth being wise?
Jeffrey Sachs – Politics in an Age of Complexity
E F Schumacher – Small is Beautiful

The joy of a natural birth at home

One year ago today, in fact within the hour, at the time of writing, I experienced one of the moments of joy that will never leave me. My youngest daughter Harriet (Hattie) was born at home after a relatively short labour for my wife Sarah.

Labour commenced around 4.30pm and the community midwife arrived shortly after. We ate pizza, had a glass of wine and generally relaxed at home, with a playlist created for the occasion. When Hattie emerged, a track from Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs was playing which seemed fitting in many ways as it was the album of our honeymoon in Umbria, seven years previously.

Compared to the complications and stress involved in giving birth at the local hospital, The Sussex County, Sarah was in her own bed, with our new bundle of joy, around midnight. The sun shone the following morning, and I, as a father, experienced a new sense of purpose. I felt more connected with nature than ever before, particularly as our 14 year old cat Betty, had managed to get into the centre of proceedings whilst Sarah was at the latter stages of labour. Climbing onto the side of the birthing pool, Betty stroked Sarah whilst she was literally giving birth. Remarkably and ever since, Betty has been like an aunty to Hattie and Flo, never scratching or lashing out as she often did with Flo, Hattie’s big sister.

So I’m glad to hear that the government is encouraging home births. It’s not for everyone and the team at the Sussex County and their genuine care is our overriding memory of the birth of our eldest daughter. We wanted a home birth the first time round and didn’t consider it a risk at all. Second time round we were fortunate to have wonderful support and treasured memories.