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Money matters: A new Europe
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
There has been much talk about the admission of the new
members into the European Union, and the benefits that these states and
the previously existing EU will derive from this in the as they gradually
drag Old Europe into the twenty-first century by offering competitive
labour and tax rates to attract the region’s more nimble corporations.
In an aggregate sense, the benefits of increasing flexibility and
diminishing union power will take some time to bear fruit, but the seed of
reform is sown. Improving labour flexibility in Euro-land is unlikely to
come as swiftly – or as harshly – as it did in Thatcher’s Britain,
but the medium term prospect for domestic growth, for a change, could now
be better in Euro-land than it is for the UK.
As the now-familiar international productivity
comparisons have shown, output per hour in parts of Europe is at least on
a par with that of the US, despite consistent assertions to the contrary
through the turn of the century. (A useful discussion of these points can
be found in the latest OECD Employment Outlook 2004 as well as in
today’s Financial Times newspaper.) That said, because Europeans spend
less time at work than their US counterparts, output per person in America
is significantly higher than in Europe. As we’ve seen in just the past
few weeks, European companies are now making strides towards lifting the
number of hours worked by their employees at little or no extra cost –
so this should help close the ‘productivity’ gap even further. One
significant hindrance which is not likely to be alleviated in the near
term is the burden of non-wage labour costs which, in Euroland, occupies
nearly 30% of the total labour cost – around twice the proportion paid
by UK and US businesses.
Of course, the aggregate statistical effect of the
Siemens-led labour restructuring will, in the near-term, be fairly
insignificant. We still expect the cyclical impetus behind the recovery to
lead to somewhat better employment numbers in the coming months, bringing
about a further improvement in personal income and consumption for the
Euroland region as a whole. For its part, the French personal sector
continues to lead the way. June consumer spending rose by a remarkable
4.2% mom, lifting annual sales growth to its highest in six years. This
assures us of a solid second-quarter personal consumption figure within
French GDP, even after the surging 1.1% 1/4 on 1/4 growth rate seen in Q1.
While there may be some element of displaced consumption from Q3 (as many
French retailers started summer sales earlier this year), we continue to
observe robust household credit growth in France (and, to a lesser extent,
across the wider Euro Area) suggesting that income certainty and therefore
a broader recovery in spending behaviour, remains on track.
In contrast to the UK, where households’ financial liabilities are
close to all time highs of 100% of GDP, personal indebtedness in Euroland
is far lower – just below 50% of GDP at the start of 2004. The close
association of house price behaviour with household debt uptake in the UK
is not a phenomenon which we would expect to be replicated across Euroland.
Allied to this, we would not foresee a rapid expansion of indebtedness to
sweep across continental Europe. But we strongly believe that the clear
vulnerability of the UK personal sector, due to having largely exhausted
the debt card in the current cycle – and facing the prospect of higher
taxes within the next two to three years – stands in stark contrast to
the comparatively rosy prospects for Euroland consumers. In that regard,
we expect Euroland personal consumption growth to outpace that of the UK
over the balance of the next three years.
Snap Shots: Crop and enlarge for impact
by Harry Flashman
 Everyone
wants to take photographs that make the viewers go, “Wow! Wish I’d
taken that.” Well it is not so hard, once you understand that all
photographic images are not really 5x4 or even 10x8.
The size you get back from your friendly photo shop is
related in most instances to the size of a 35 mm negative. The 5x4 print
is very roughly of the same proportions as the 35 mm negative, so what you
see on the negative can be reproduced on the photographic paper. This is
great in theory, but does not necessarily correspond to the subject you
want to photograph. Not everything or everyone fits neatly into a 5x4
format.
For those who shoot 6x6 or 6x7, this is still the case
- not all subjects fit nicely into the format of your negatives, unless
you take photographs of house bricks!
Take a look at the photograph this week. This is a long
tailed lizard, taken by my keen amateur photographic friend Ernie Kuehnelt.
This is a great shot and was one that Ernie had to use all his stealth to
record. Lizards are not renowned for responding to exhortations to “keep
still”, but he kept going, until he got the shot, with the head framed
nicely contrasted against the light background.
Now look again at the photograph. Long tailed lizards
are not 5x4 or even 10x8 (same proportions obviously) or 6x6 or 6x7. When
Ernie first brought the lizard pic into my office, he had cropped a little
off both the sides to produce an elongated print. We sat and looked at it,
but in the end we both decided it needed even more cropping to both sides
to get the best from the photograph. We laid sheets of white paper down
both sides, and suddenly the lizard became more and more powerful as the
subject. The blank spaces either side had been taking the impact away from
the subject. Cropping severely brought it out. So now Ernie was left with
a long skinny print. Instead of 10x8 it was now more like a 10x4! But that
did not matter, when you see the impact in the final print.
The moral to the tale (or the lizard’s tail) is that
you should look very critically at some of your better shots, and then sit
down with four sheets of paper and begin to look at how you could crop the
shot, to give the subject more “oomph”. Pro shooters use two “L”
shaped pieces of card, moving them around to find the best cropping
situation, but four pieces of A4 printer paper are just as good.
To bring your prints into such that they will look good
hanging on your wall, my suggestion is to get an 8R enlargement done
(generally around B. 80 in most photo processors) and then begin the
visual cropping exercise as detailed above. Be bold, even cropping right
close to hair lines, or even into the hair sometimes looks better. Don’t
be afraid to crop into elbows when framing up portraits, for example. The
idea is just to make the subject stand out.
When you have the best crop lines, then using a
guillotine (most photo shops have these too), carefully finish the
cropping exercise. It is this final print, no matter what proportions it
ends up, that you should have framed and hung as wall art for your home or
office. It should also be remembered that the frame requires careful
consideration. It is no good to spend all this time on making the subject
stand out, and then dwarfing it with a huge ornate gold frame! Don’t let
the frame dominate the subject!
Do all this and then people will walk in and say, “Wow! I wish I’d
taken that!” They will, believe me. The different shape is an immediate
eye catcher, and with the subject matter now being the definite
“hero”, you have that powerful head-turning shot you have always
wanted.
Modern Medicine: 15,000 kids and dead
in six weeks! The worm’s tale
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
There are some people with strong maternal
urges, but other than from a card carrying masochist, I doubt very much that
anyone would be stepping forward as the maternal volunteer! That being the
case, pity the poor old Enterobius vermicularis, otherwise known as the Pin
worm. This little fellow comes out of its egg and lives for six weeks only,
and at the end of its time, releases 10,000 - 15,000 eggs and dies, its
life’s work over.
So why should this little worm be of interest to us?
Quite simply - you’ve either got it, or you’ve had it. That’s the
statistics. Virtually all children will have been infected by the time they
reach high school, and at any one time, 50 percent of all children in the
5-10 year age groups will be harbouring the little worms. Another good
reason to stay away from small children!
So how do you know if your children are currently
harbouring a host of Pin worms? There are various tests that can be done,
from microscopic stool examinations to the simple sticky tape test around
the anus which picks up eggs and the occasional wriggling worm itself.
However, just as we routinely “worm” the family cat and dog, you can
routinely “worm” the children. Single shot mebendazole works well, but
you have to repeat the “worming” two to three weeks later to pick up the
newly hatched eggs, since the eggs themselves are not affected by the drug.
There are also many other worms that like us. They all
have wonderfully exotic sounding names, for some very much non-exotic
creatures. There is Ascaris lumbricoides, the human roundworm and
Ancylostoma duodenale, the hookworms. There is also Ancylostoma braziliense,
a cat and dog worm whose larvae can penetrate human skin and grow slowly
under the top layer producing cutaneous larva migrans, a creeping skin rash.
This one is often seen in beach volleyball players known colloquially as
“sandworms”. And you thought beach volleyball was a safe sport!
Then there’s my favourite - Strongyloides stercoralis,
the human threadworm! “Step this way and see the amazing Strongyloides
bring a grown man to his knees!” Yes, a super-infection of Strongyloides
can be fatal as the worms invade all the tissues of the body producing
meningitis, pneumonia and septicaemia.
It doesn’t stop there either, as there is Taenia
saginata and Taenia solium, the tapeworms, to be considered too, and their
baby brother Hymenolepsis nana, the dwarf tapeworm.
There’s many a peril underfoot, as that is the way that
many of these worms get into our bodies - through walking on larval forms
with bare feet. And you thought that crossing the street was dangerous.
The other classical way is to ingest the egg forms which
can be on vegetables that have been fertilized with infected faeces. Hence
the warnings about eating salads at the side of the road. Cooked is OK, but
beware the unwashed vegetables.
So if you have been having some intestinal pain, some
diarrhoea and itching around the anus, it just might be a worm infestation.
How do you check - see your doctor, there are tests that can be done
directly and sometimes via the blood, but you won’t diagnose this one by
yourself, unless you meet the worm face to face.
And oh yes, worms are very common in tropical climates, though unless
they are good swimmers, they’ve probably drowned in our current wet season
by now!
Learn to Live to Learn:
by George Benedikt
History
Discovering a school’s history can be a tricky
business. You will only read the positive parts in the prospectus, and
often these are exaggerated or manipulated as previously described.
After all, they want your business!
Often (and this is a global phenomenon) schools
will adopt a well-known local dignitary or personality to ‘front’
their prospectus. Whether the esteemed individual you are eyeing
actually has anything to do with the school in an active way, is
another matter entirely.
Look beyond the first page. Looking at previous
figures, such as student numbers, results and audits can certainly be
helpful, although one should always remember that figures are
susceptible to distortion.
Looked at carefully, figures can provide a
realistic measure of a school’s progress or lack of it. If schools
base any kind of rhetoric on year numbers less than 5, then they can
pretty much be discounted. But don’t be surprised to find, 4, 5 and
6 students in a whole year at a school.
Boarding
Many schools proclaim gorgeous rural idylls as the
basis for their boarding facilities which all sounds marvelous. Post
9/11, I certainly favour a rural lifestyle myself. However, just
consider for a moment what boarding involves and design your questions
accordingly.
How about, “Is the matron a qualified and
experienced boarding person? Is there care for both male and female
students? How are meals provided? Is there a first aid expert at hand
24 hours a day?”
Ask to see the health and safety policy and the
homework policy. What provision is made for students at weekends? What
are the rules regarding curfews?
Check (as should be the case) that throughout the
whole building (especially staff quarters) alcohol and tobacco are
prohibited. In a future issue I will talk about policies and
procedures – but you might very well find that in the less reputable
boarding establishments, alcohol is permitted and tacitly encouraged,
whilst smoking is by no means forbidden.
Consider what kind of environment you want your
child growing up in. A good starting point is, “Are staff ever
allowed to smoke or drink in front of students?” and then, if you
happen to be at school around break time, take a look around.
Send questions, comments and/or suggestions to
editor @pattayamail.com
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
You are always saying that we farangs should learn Thai if we want to live
here. That may be OK for you, but for some of us it is not so easy when
English is my mother tongue. Where can old codgers like me go to learn?
The Old Codger
Dear Old Codger,
Hillary can forgive your being unable to read Thai or speak Thai, my Petal,
but are you blind as well? There are several language schools in town and
they have this fact, and the languages they teach, all clearly written in
English, your “mother tongue” as you put it. They have posts outside
where you can tie up your Labrador and you can put the white stick beside
your desk.
Dear Hillary,
I am 16 years old and have just arrived from Australia, but I am big for my
age. Do you think there would be any jobs in the bars for someone like me? I
have experience in bars and worked for a while in McDonalds after school. I
have met a girl here and I would like to stay here to be with her. Is this
going to be easy, or should I look at something else?
Big Boy
Dear Big Boy,
You don’t say what part of you is supposed to be
“big” but it certainly isn’t the brain, is it, Petal? I could start by
asking what is a 16 year old from the Antipodes doing hanging around our
bars, when the minimum age is supposed to be 20, but then perhaps you showed
the man on the door your “big” bits and he thought you were older. You
have absolutely zero chance of working here in a bar, even if you were 46
and all of your bits had grown bigger. Forget the girl, forget the bars and
go home to Mummy in Australia, that’s a good boy.
Dear Hillary,
On my weekends off I like to get away from the city and
go to the beach. This takes some organizing, but I used to think it was
worthwhile just to get away from the endless pressures of work. Now I find
our day is spoiled by the never ending pressures from beach vendors all
trying to sell bolts of material, food, sunglasses, inflatable toys, model
airplanes, massages or nail polish. What can be done about them? Surely the
person in charge of the area could tell them to go, but it doesn’t seem to
stop them. Have you the answer to this problem?
Browned off on the beach
Dear Browned off,
Hillary agrees with you. These vendors are a pest. There
is just one answer to all this, but it does mean you have to travel a little
further. If you follow the coastline you will find deserted beaches with
pristine sand and no sales people. Mind you, there’s no-one to bring you
an ice cream either! The choice is yours.
Dear Hillary,
I have a problem with my girlfriend, but not the usual
one you hear about. She is perfect in almost every way. Does not hold her
hand out for money every day. Her parents are alive and well and her brother
manages to stay on his motorbike OK. The buffalo is well, as are the
grandparents and she has no children that I know of. I do not have an excess
of sexual demands, and in fact at my age (over 70) I am happy with once a
week, and then it is best with Viagra to assist me. What happens though is
that when my desires come up hers comes on even stronger and she wants to go
for hours and hours. If it weren’t for the blue tablets I think I would
die. I am only too pleased to pleasure my girlfriend, but there has to be a
limit. What should I do?
Victor V
Dear Victor V,
You do have such a problem, don’t you, my Petal. But
the answer is simple. You must stop taking Vitamin V immediately and when
you can’t perform, your girlfriend can make up her own mind whether to
wait till next week after you’ve managed to wind yourself up (instead of
winding up Hillary) or find an alternative. Victor, if you keep coming (or
going) this way, you will definitely die. I think it is time that you had a
little chat with your wonderful lady and explained the real situation.
Dear Hillary,
This should be an easy one for you to fix, being a lady
who enjoys the odd drop as far as I can see. I work in the hospitality
industry and have to entertain clients a lot. This does mean that I have to
spend a considerable amount of my time socializing, and that means drinking.
It has now got to the stage that I think I am drinking a bit more than is
good for me. What suggestions do you have?
Tippler Tim
Dear Tippler Tim,
You are right about my enjoying the “odd drop” and it really is just
a drop these days, since my readers (especially the one called Mistersingha)
keep forgetting to send me any. Your answer is simple. Drink soda with a
slice of lemon, it looks just like vodka, and only you and I need know!
Horsin’ Around: Horse Riding for Beginners
The Canter
by Willi Netzer
What would horse riding be without the canter? Centuries
ago, before the invention of the motorcar, there was certainly no finer way
of impressing the ladies or whoever was watching.
The canter can be distinguished from the gallop mainly by
the latter’s increased speed, but a more thorough understanding of the
mechanics of canter and gallop will reveal a completely different movement
of the horses legs.
 The
canter
Recollecting the sound of a horse’s hoof beat in a
canter, it reveals itself as a three beat or three-tact sound, not unlike
the sound of marching music. This could perhaps be one of the reasons why
marching music and horses seem to blend so well.
In a canter the horse, or perhaps the proficient rider,
will choose to move in a so called left or right-hand canter. This can be
easily observed by watching the horse’s front legs in a canter. One of the
front legs will be moving sort of in front of the other as it were leading;
it is therefore called the leading leg. Should this leading leg be the right
front leg, it would be called a right-hand canter and a left-hand canter
would be led by the left leg.
Trying to follow the terminology of dressage riders,
there is a correct and an incorrect canter, and there is something called a
counter canter. This is perhaps of interest to know; since there is quite
some finger pointing should a dressage rider canter on the wrong leg.
Now if a rider canters his horse inside an arena without
any obstacles, like a fence or a jump, he could consider himself a dressage
rider and should follow certain rules so not to endanger himself or his
mount. To be more precise, in a right-hand canter, moving along the fence of
the arena to the right, the leading right front leg should face the center
of the arena, unless the horse was moving in a counter canter, in which the
horse would have to be bent towards the fence and lead with the left front.
For the not so inexperienced beginner, the very first
canter should, in my opinion, be while riding outdoors. At horse trekking,
there are no leading legs, no endless backbreaking trotting periods. With
the right choice of horse, the beginner’s horse will change into a canter
exactly at the time the front horse does. Cantering a horse will become what
it’s meant to be; the ultimate pleasure right from the start.
Now before you get me all wrong, this is not the way it’s meant to be,
but it is certainly a way to remove all the unnecessary apprehension, which
slows down any progress. Once a canter is experienced, I will move a
beginner back into the arena and make him work on the trot and on a proper
seat. Without a proper seat a correct transition into a correct canter is
not possible.
PC Blues - News and Views:Micro$oft Update
First, an update on the
Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrade: second, a look at the changing world of
Longhorn - the future of Windows.
The service pack roll-out continues, and problems are found.
Nothing earth-shattering, and nothing to criticize. Interested parties should
visit http://support.microsoft.com, and follow links to 1) Programs that run
differently after SR2, 2) Programs that seem to stop working after SR2.
The subtitle of “Programs that run differently ...” is
“.. programs that are known to experience loss of functionality ...” How
interesting. Top of the list is the AOL toolbar. Further down, it appears most
of the third-party anti-virus or firewall programs stop working or fail to
install. Now, ‘run differently’ in my book does not include ‘stops
working’, particularly when there is another section for ‘seem to stop
working’. Another program in this list is Encyclopedia Britannica 2000 Deluxe
- java rendering stops working. Yahoo Instant Messenger and WordPerfect Office
update mechanisms also fail.
Longhorn is further postponed - to 2007, now, with the beta
release late 2006. We are also advised that the new, wonderful, file system
will not be incorporated. It is, apparently, a bit too difficult. Also, other
new bits of technology from this project will be brought forward and
incorporated in upgrades to the existing Windows XP. People are beginning to
ask what they will get from Longhorn which will make the change worthwhile.
The new file system, WinFS, was to have been the basis for a
new search technology. With the growing size, and cheapness, of discs and DVDs,
you can easily lose track of data. Since Win98, Microsoft has provided a tool,
FastFind, which catalogues the information in Word documents for easy search.
As much of my information is not in Word documents, I turn it off, as it slows
my computer down. However, my main disc has 80,500 files, my other discs a
further 50,000, and I shudder to think what I have archived on CDs. If I lose
track of something, it is hard work to find it again.
WinFS is said to offer an underlying file system which will
make it easier to search for something forgotten. I have read the blurb, and
don’t understand it. It says it uses a direct acyclic graph of items, a set
of stored items and their relationships whose physical storage is a relational
database. This is geek-speak, I know that a relational database is a set of
stored items and their relationships whose physical storage is usually a hard
disc. If it will make it easier for me to find the pictures I took of Aunt
Nellie in Easter 2001, then it may be worth having. If it will make it easier
for companies to file and retrieve documents and other items of data, without
resorting to arcane SQL incantations, it will be a commercial proposition. But
it won’t. Micro$oft are dropping it.
Micro$oft are also dropping Avalon and Indigo. Correction:
they are bringing these items forward to be included in a forthcoming upgrade
of WinXP.
Avalon will give improved 3-D handling, while Indigo will
“make it easier for PCs to use online services and talk to small devices”.
Including them in XP may well result in reduced functionality.
Longhorn has been long promised, and its new features are
being gradually eroded. An improved Internet Explorer is in the offing, 3-D and
better online services will be part of WinXP, and the basis for better
information retrieval has been dropped. Will Longhorn, itself, be worth buying?
Personal Directions:
Focus on your talents
by Christina Dodd
The pressure on small business owners
today is unprecedented. For many, their training and background has not
equipped them for the problems they face. The playing field is slippery,
time is a commodity they don’t have, the future is unknown and security is
a thing of the past! Have the rules of the game changed so much, or are we
in fact, playing a different game?
In this environment it is important to remember to try
differently, rather than trying harder!
For most of us, when things are not going the way we had
anticipated or at least the way we like, our inclination is to put our
shoulder to the wheel and just try harder. When that doesn’t work, we
press on once again! Although this occasionally works, often the result of
our extreme effort produces exhaustion and frustration coupled with personal
and business chaos. The people within our organizations often don’t
understand the depth of the problem, nor do they know what they can do to
help.
When this happens, it’s time to take stock, to stop
long enough to examine what is going on. It is time to bring some clarity
into the picture. What we do must work if it is our intent to be successful
in both our business and personal lives.
It was Shakespeare who said, “This above all, to thine
own self be true.”
A wise statement, for when we are not true to ourselves,
when we try to be something we are not, we inevitably set ourselves up for
failure.
The story is told of business person loaded with talent
and potential. The only trouble was that he was misdirected. He was asked to
join a firm where he didn’t agree with some of the corporate values, but
he convinced himself that this was ‘just until’ something better came
along. Then came an opportunity for promotion but it was into an area of the
business that he didn’t particularly enjoy, although he could handle it.
Next came the pressure to travel, which conflicted with
his personal priorities, but the money and the contacts were good. The
inevitable happened. He became disillusioned, he was unhappy, and questioned
what he was doing. He didn’t like what his life had become, and he was
determined to start again, but this time being true to himself. Sometimes in
business, we don’t learn this lesson until it is too late. We dream of
what could have happened, if we had just made different choices along the
road.
Most people are focused on where the opportunities are
and then try to fit themselves into that mould, without giving appropriate
thought to their own unique talents and abilities.
When you are in crisis ... it is important that you start
here. First, ask several of your closest friends or associates to give you
their perception of your five greatest strengths. Is it leadership,
attention to detail, creativity, are you a people person, nurturer,
strategist, or perhaps a good listener? Whatever your gifts, prioritize them
and then rank them in an order that best reflects you. Now ask them to do
the same for your weakness, except this time, don’t be too hard on
yourself. Ask for only two or three.
If you are perceptive you will see what I am doing here.
Basically, I am recommending that you to focus on those areas in which you
know you have talent and begin to align these talents with what you do for a
living.
Let me give you an example. Marg was in sales and knew
she was an outgoing spontaneous people person, she got excited meeting new
people and exploring new ideas was her idea of a great day. She saw
opportunity where others simply saw hurdles. Her downside was although she
has lots of ideas, she knew she became bored easily, and follow through was
a problem for her. This scared her because she feared not following through
might one day be costly in terms of her job.
Through coaching Marg began to understand that she had
this weakness. Her goal then was not to achieve the impossible and never
become bored, but to be more self-aware. Her awareness gave her the insight
to hire a top-notch assistant who was excellent at details and she in turn
could utilize her skills in a way that saw her become a top achiever in her
field.
This focus, this attention to what you do best will allow
you to be creative in a very dramatic but practical sense. When you are
absolutely clear about the skills you possess, you can become absolutely
clear about what you want and how you can go about achieving your ‘aim in
life’. So many go through life without ever realizing their potential or
what it is they were capable of achieving.
Here we return to your business dilemma. Focus on
resolving your problems utilizing your talents. If the scope of the problem
is outside your area of expertise, seek out the guidance of those who have
skills in the areas you don’t. A simple success strategy is this:
Focus on your talents, this will keep you energized and
on target.
Have the right support people in place to compensate in
areas where you are weak. You are not unique in this situation, we all have
skills and we all have areas where we need to utilize the skills of others.
This is one of the reasons it is important not to hire those who are mirror
images of yourself!
Come to understand that when it is all said and done, it
is not the world outside of you that dictates how you feel, it is the world
inside you that creates the conditions of your life. When your talents are
aligned with your life’s work, you feel great!
Once again the work of Barb McEwen a truly inspiration
Lifecoach from the US inspired this week’s article.
Until next time, have a fabulous week and … Focus on
your talents!
For more details about our life coaching services,
personal and professional skills development programs, please email me
directly at christina [email protected] or visit our website
www. asiatrainingassociates.com
Psychological Perspectives: “The only thing we have to fear…”
by Michael Catalanello,
Ph.D.
The aim of terrorists is to frighten us. They perform
acts that are calculated to scare us out of our wits. Terrorist attacks
remind us of our mortality and the fragility of life. Such thoughts are
disturbing to many people.
Fear, of course, can be an important emotion to have if
you are faced with a real and/or imminent threat that you can do something
about. If you are alone on a dark and lonely street late at night, for
example, your experience of fear could serve as a signal to be alert, to
take precautions to avoid possible hazards. It can also prepare you and
energize you to perform certain acts that could save your life, as in the
famous “fight-or-flight” response to danger or situational demands.
If, however, the danger is nonexistent, remote, or if
there is no effective action at one’s disposal, fear serves no useful
function. Besides being an unpleasant experience, fear can actually
interfere with effective decision making and behavior. If fear results in
actions that are helpful or protective it can be considered appropriate.
Otherwise, it is considered inappropriate.
Some people experience fear associated with certain
objects or situations. Many people are afraid of snakes. If you are one of
those people, and your normal activities seldom or never place you in a
situation where you are likely to encounter one, your fear of snakes is
probably not a problem. If, however, you happen to be employed as the head
trek guide through Snake City, you may experience difficulty going to work.
If you have a fear of boarding airplanes, you have no problem, unless your
job or chosen lifestyle makes air travel a necessity.
Sometimes a focused or limited fear can become more
severe or diffuse. It is normal for people to experience a bit of
nervousness in certain new and unfamiliar social situations. People
commonly experience nervousness before speaking or performing in public,
for example, a condition sometimes referred to as “stage fright.” If a
person begins to avoid public performances as a result, he may have a
problem. Some people have an extreme fear condition called agoraphobia, and
confine themselves to the home or other familiar places where they feel
relatively safe.
Psychological treatment of fear and anxiety is fairly
straightforward, and quite effective. Approaches can roughly be classified
into two categories, cognitive and behavioral. Cognitive approaches target
the person’s thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs which may be unhelpful or
self-defeating. Behavioral approaches aim to change the person’s (what
else?) behavior. Changing behavior and thoughts results in eliminating the
troublesome emotion. And it works like a charm.
People with inappropriate fear usually entertain
unreasonable beliefs and ideas about the feared object or situation. People
who are afraid of public speaking often imagine themselves saying or doing
something foolish, and the audience responding with harsh judgment or
derision. They may tie their sense of self-worth to their performance, and
hold unrealistically high standards for their performance. These attitudes
suggest the presence of any number of irrational ideas.
Psychologists teach people to critically examine their
underlying beliefs, to dispute their irrational ideas, and replace them
with more rational beliefs, compatible with more functional behavior and
emotions. So, for example, a person can learn to accept himself
unconditionally, to recognize that his self worth is not dependent upon his
skill at public speaking, that saying or doing something foolish in front
of an audience does not spell disaster.
A behavioral approach to fear generally encourages the
person to expose himself to the feared object or situation. If you are
afraid of public speaking, start speaking publicly. Afraid of initiating a
conversation with a stranger? Start initiating conversations with
strangers. For added effectiveness, you can make engaging in some
pleasurable activity contingent upon doing the thing that you fear. No TV
until you carry out your assignment, for example.
For those who fear terrorist attacks, it is recommended
that you avoid vacationing in terrorist hot spots like Baghdad or Gaza, and
avoid being influenced by the fear mongering of politicians and terrorist
alerts. Statistically, you have a much greater chance of meeting your maker
as a result of a traffic accident on Sukhumvit Highway than from a car bomb
or terrorist nuke.
Dr. Catalanello is licensed as a psychologist in his
home State of Louisiana, USA and a member of the Liberal Arts Faculty at
Asian University in Jomtien. Address questions or comments to: [email protected]
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