Five minutes ago I walked into Euston Station at the top of the Charing Cross road and I saw a sign ahead of me in bright neon orange that said: "Sainsbury's Loca" For those of you from the British Isles you'll know what it was meant to say. For readers from elsewhere, this is a local supermarket chain. 'Loca' in spanish means 'Crazy".

I stood up for an old lady on the tube the other day (I do this if I have the option), when I say "I stood up" for her, I don't mean that I advocated her rights in a dramatic speech that was described in the Independent as a 'Tour de Force... a brutal indictment of the government's neglect of its ageing population...' and I also don't mean that she was attacked by a mob with knives and pea shooters and that I stood in the way and bravely took the bruises and cuts whilst she and her husband made a dramatic escape to the jubilee line. 

Of course I mean that I literally "Stood up" and gave her my seat. And yet this was enough to put a smile on her face for the few minutes afterwards. How nice of me.

Yes. She was smiling for a few minutes, happy in the knowledge that young people (I use the term loosely since I almost had more hair than she did) have not completely lost that sense of good will towards their elders...

Little did she know that behind the pages of my book that I was reading, and stuffed into the armpit of a large man in an Emirates T Shirt, a smug happiness had begun in my head that would last not just a tube ride, but the WHOLE DAY!

I felt BRILLIANT. It was great to do something nice for someone else and it made my whole day better. I suspect I got far more out of standing up for that lady than she would have had from the pleasure of sitting down.

But this begs the somewhat cynical question (it's one that I grapple with constantly)...

Have I just done something nice because I wanted another person to be happy? OR have I done something nice in order to make myself feel better?

The problem with this question is that I have not been able to find an answer. I do want other people to be happy and I do want to feel happy myself. So is the good deed doer motivated by a desire to help others or themselves? 

Does true Altruism ever exist? I can convince myself that I am doing this for the right reasons but if it didn't feel good for me, I probably wouldn't do it again... or would I?

So me and Manda decided when we were out in Addis that we'd like to write a song about some of the young boys of the project that reflected their attitude to life. In particular a boy called Kinde and his friends. They were the ones who saw us off on my last day and carried my guitar case for me and disappeared in a swirl of dust into the heart of Addis. There was something so special about these guys. It wasn't really until today that I was able to sit down and write something. I have borrowed little snippets of Amanda's writing here "Corrugated Canvas" is hers for example.

Anyway, I will record this soon and post it but until then, maybe you'll enjoy reading the lyrics...


The Kings of the Dusty Road

I found the fountain of youth 
In the labyrinth of Addis Ababa
The dust of this city does not settle
On the souls of those who live here

Down the alleys and avenues
I met the Prince of Empty Pockets
And the Lord of Nothing Left to Lose
Took my hand and died singing
"God will provide for you..."

Then amidst the swirl of the city's soul
Between the buses and the traffic flow
With crowns made of dirt, not of gold
I saw the Kings of the Dusty Road
I saw the Kings of the Dusty Road

Through the corrugated canvas
I drifted down the scrap metal streets
Odd shoes and engine parts
Contented hearts and sewn up trouser seams

"The air here is thin like my mother"
Said the Prince of Empty Pockets
And the Lord of Nothing Left to Lose
Took my hand in his singing
"God will be listening to you"

Then amidst the swirl of the city's soul
Between the buses and the traffic flow
With a wealth that can't be measured in gold
I saw the Kings of the Dusty Road
I saw the Kings of the Dusty Road

Today I was wondering to myself… am I happy? It's a question which pops into the pool of my mind every now and again, has a little paddle at the shallow end and then hops off to the showers to dry itself off and have an ice cream. But today it stuck with me a little longer than usual.

Perhaps it was something to do with having just seen 'On the Road' the film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's diary of hedonism, or perhaps it was something to do with the smiles I remember on the faces of the kids in Ethiopia. Children living with AIDS, who still spend the majority of their time upbeat, happy and content.

I remembered some time ago, a friend of my brother who committed suicide in New Zealand. This was when I was about 13 or so and the funeral was held at my local church. I remember the priest giving the sermon being particularly scathing of the wasting of what he called 'The Greatest Gift'. I thought 'What could have been so awful that would have made him do such a thing? How must his parents and friends have felt afterwards?' I tried to put myself in his position, to see it from his perspective, but of course that was absolutely impossible, because if I'd been feeling what he was feeling then perhaps I would be dead too.

Anyway, it got me wondering about our society. Most people would think of New Zealand and say. 'Yeah. New Zealand. What a brilliant place to bring up your kids. It's got all that green stuff and mountains and space that I saw in Lord of the Rings. Maybe I could meet a hot elf and have magical babies.' Maybe they wouldn't, but it's generally agreed that NZ is a pretty great place to grow up. Safe, prosperous and happy. And I would agree, I had a great time there.

In fact according to the Legatum Prosperity Index, (which Forbes, no less, use as a measure of a nation's happiness) New Zealand is the 3rd happiest and most prosperous nation in the entire world. Isn't that nice? So then you have to ask the following question...

Why does it have the 4th highest suicide rate in the whole world for young men?

I don't know the answer to this question. But I think some of it may lie in how it seems western civilisation is classifying 'happiness'.

In the Legatum Prosperity Index (and I quote from their own pages): 

"Each of the sub-indexes provides us with two important analyses: first, an economic assessment, and second, an assessment of a country’s subjective wellbeing, or happiness."

An economic assessment first? Then subjective wellbeing? I find this to be a fairly damning indictment of western values. If we have managed to wittle the human condition down to just two assessable areas then at the very least, shouldn't 'subjective wellbeing' be the thing that comes first on the list?

Within those categories are the following sub indexes. Again listed as they are on the index (you'll note that Economy is no.1, followed by Entrepreneurship etc. Personal freedom and Social Capital happily bringing up the rear.

1. Economy - Stable and growing economies increase per capita income and promote the overall wellbeing of its citizens.
2. Entrepreneurship & Opportunity (E&O) - A strong entrepreneurial climate in which citizens can pursue new ideas and opportunities for improving their lives leads to higher levels of income and wellbeing.
3. Governance - Well-governed societies enjoy national economic growth and citizen wellbeing.
4. Education - Education is a building block for prosperous societies.
5. Health - A strong healthcare infrastructure in which citizens are able to enjoy good physical and mental health leads to higher levels of income and wellbeing.
6. Safety & Security - Societies plagued by threats to national security and personal safety cannot foster growth in average levels of income or wellbeing.
7. Personal Freedom - When citizens enjoy their rights to expression, belief, organisation, and personal autonomy in a society welcoming of diversity, their country enjoys higher levels of income and social wellbeing.
8. Social Capital - Social networks and the cohesion that a society experiences when people trust one another have a direct effect on the prosperity of a country.

And this is how we, as a Western Civilisation, deign to judge the happiness or sadness of other countries. Certainly these things have merit on their own and it is useful for us all to know them and be aware of the hardship other countries are facing but to use them as a measure of happiness is beyond ridiculous. 

I can absolutely guarantee that the person who finalised the list could never have been to Ethiopia. 

Have a look, it's listed at number 108 and is apparently the third most depressed country in the entire world, coming in just above Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic. If this person had been to Ethiopia they could not in good faith have published this list as it stands.

It's a different culture, with different standards and different values. It might as well be a different planet as far as the LGI scale goes. It's like putting a whale next to a human and judging them on who can swim the fastest. OK, Ethiopia has got it's problems. In fact they are huge problems, their democracy is hardly a democracy, construction on new buildings rapidly grinds to a halt because they run our of concrete more often than water and the poverty is absolutely appalling.

However, I would argue that these things do not amount to unhappiness. Addis Ababa, the capital, has a very poor standard of living, but spiritually speaking they seem to be among the most content I've ever met. Certainly they are (of my limited experience of both) happier than Londoners, but also on a whole New Zealanders. It is not a prosperous country but in many ways it is richer than any Western Country. 

You can be happy with very little and you can be sad with an awful lot. 

If I know anything at all it's that happiness is relative. The journalist for this article http://www.ezega.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?Page=news&NewsID=3176 has made some good points. She points out that when judging using something like the LGI, the thing which is most important is not the index item itself, not safety, not prosperity, not personal freedom or social capital.

The thing that they have not listed is the peoples' ATTITUDE to these things. 

And that  

Now I do not know an enormous amount about politics, but in my 32 years on the planet I have learnt a couple of things:

1. People are different and value things differently

2. Cultures are different and value things differently

For the LGI to have the arrogance to judge other cultures based on western 'ideals', and I'm speaking of Ethiopia in particular (purely because it's the place that I have been to where the culture is most different from my own) is absolutely outrageous. 

And in any case, it looks like Western Civilisation is really getting something wrong given the suicide rate in places like New Zealand. 

Happy people don't commit suicide do they?

For your information, in the LGI the countries rated top are all Western countries. The bottom 10 are 90% on the African continent. 

Below is a video of a piece of the R & D showing of Zachary Briddling show being developed by Paper Balloon team (Katie Boon: Director and Alex Kanefsky: Creative Producer) in collaboration with international playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer for which I am composer and Lyricist. This section explored the physical language of the piece. I composed the music alongside the sequence as it was being devised, which was enormous fun. Have a watch! The premiere of the final piece will be next year at the Pegasus Theatre (Arts Council Funding Willing!!)