Art in the slums and streets

Here’s another one on the art world.  (This by recommendation from Oli.)  Should an artist like this really be considered a philanthropist?  How much can his art really help those in whose neighborhoods he installs his works?  Is there a certain mystique about being outside the norm (or even outside the law) which adds to his popularity?  Does all genuine art, in fact, come from outsiders?  This article is fairly short and does not give a lot of information about the artist and his work, so you may want to do a bit more research to comment on this…

Erica Jong says modern motherhood is a trap

A really fascinating article on child-rearing with a lot to comment on.  Are parents being asked to sacrifice too much for their little darlings these days?  Is the emphasis on being a good parent sapping their ability to see the larger picture and become politically active?  Is attachment parenting just one of a long line of different theories about parenting, or does it show a marked improvement on the past?  Jong obviously has an ax to grind here.  Where does she make some interesting/important points and where does she exaggerate?  A look at the comments may also be enlightening…

Swedish town burns garbage for fuel

Rather more optimistic than most news about the environment, but how encouraging is this?  It takes care of two problems at once, waste disposal and the use of fossil fuels, but will it really catch on?  Doesn’t it also produce greenhouse gases?  Some people say that the search for alternative fuels simply masks the real problem: we are consuming too much.  What do you think?  With a continual increase in population and industrialization, is this just a drop in the bucket?  Or is technology part of the solution rather than the problem?  And what about the fact that it seems to have been spurred by a tax on emissions?  What do you think of these sorts of environmental laws?  Is this the best way to encourage individuals, governments and corporations to be responsible?  What about the economic effects?

Did Slovakia sail through the economic storm?

Here’s one for those aspiring businesspeople out there.  What do you think about this writer’s optimism in terms of Slovakia’s economy?  Is he right that being in the Eurozone is a good thing at this point?  What about dependence on the auto industry?  Some have said that we have too many eggs in one basket and that the jobs provided are mostly low-wage industrial positions.  What do you think?   Finally, is the debt that serious and what should be done about it?

Narcissism considered normal?

This article is ostensibly about narcissism and its removal from the manual of mental disorders, but it seems to be more about the effects of celebrity.  It may help you when responding to look up the Wikipedia article on narcissism to find out what the psychological pathology entails.  Also look at the comments below the article, some of which are quite interesting.  Three obvious questions come to mind.  Should it be considered a mental disorder or just a personality trait?  Are we really living in more narcissistic times than in the past?  Finally, do the pressures of celebrity and fame and the unnatural nature of such lifestyles automatically lead to a deformed or distorted personality, or does someone seeking such fame already have these problems?

Chernobyl: the next hot tourist destination?

So, would you like to take the trip?   What do you think about disaster tourism?  Is this similar or different from visiting concentration camps?  Do you think that this plan to raise awareness about the continuing problem of the site will work?  Also, it seems that the popularity of nuclear power is on the rise because of global warming and other factors.  Is Chernobyl an exception because of faulty construction or safety procedures?  Or are nuclear power plants more problematic than people seem to think? 

What happens when women bring home the bacon

This is the last article you can comment on for December.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this trend?  Since women’s school results keep getting better than men’s (at least in the U.S.) and the information age is phasing out some traditional (physical) male jobs, where will this all end?  How soon will this issue arrive in Slovakia, if it hasn’t already?