Daily Lessons from Life 29-30 September 2010 - Workers swarm Europe's streets to protest spending cuts

I was not able to gain reliable web access while in Thailand on 28 September and was simply too beaten up to write on 29 September 2010 night. So, this is another catch up for 28-30 September 2010.

It is the end of 3rd quarter of 2010!! 3/4 of the year has flown by us. Hopefully everyone is also 3/4 way to their 2010 Resolutions and Goals. If not, there is another 3 months more to do something! Anything!! Cheers.

"Channel NewsAsia - Workers swarm Europe's streets to protest spending cuts 30 September 2010

BRUSSELS - Angry workers across Europe on Wednesday staged mass street protests against spending cuts, bringing cities to a halt, clashing with police and even ramming the gates of Ireland's parliament.

Around 100,000 protesters, according to unions, staged the biggest Brussels march in a decade and riot police barricaded EU headquarters as marchers from 30 countries joined the backlash against brutal spending cuts."

It is easy to point the fingers at these unionists and their members and tell them that they are basically being IRRATIONAL! Funny how this may sound as we just had a dinner and discussion with a long time Thai friend while in Bangkok, Thailand, just 2 nights ago about a book named: 'Predictably Irrational' he had just read. He found it fascinating and, more importantly, back up by many empirical evidences.

Lessons for me are:

1. it is Predictably Irrational when your comfort zone is disturbed and you knew it will involve a lot of efforts to take actions to change. This is especially true if the change will involve pains for you!;

2. it is Predictably Irrational when you believed that the ills that befall you is a result of OTHER PEOPLE not doing their parts. e.g. the politicians, the bankers, the employers, THEY!! Why do you need to change when it is NOT YOUR Fault??;

3. it is Predictably Irrational when the majority does not believed that 'doing the right things' is the right thing to do! So, why do you need to hang on to a job that produces nothing when there are no other jobs to move on to?

In Singapore, the government has schooled or brainwashed the populace that: You cannot have something for nothing. The giant national reserve is for the really super heavy rainy days of which the magnitude we had no idea how to fix yet. Self-reliance is the ultimate sign of we have arrived and NOT social welfare's. If you fall sick, you got to have money unless you are dirt poor and have NO ONE to turn to. You have to be desperately destitute to qualify for state aids! Will this cause a backslash also? Well. Not now. In the future it may well be. That will be another story for another time!