GOOD CHEER (September 5, 2015)
The online edition of the Financial Times surprised me today. Unusually, it is brimming with good cheer. Climate change talks are inching towards a deal, I read. Also, Austria and Germany are letting refugees in. A British study shows that money can actually buy happiness. Sotheby’s is auctioning an art collection worth half a billion dollars. G20 finance chiefs are defying gloom and forecasting growth. Great! Of course, not everything is exactly hunky-dory. For instance, Putin is blaming America for the migrant crisis. Also, violence in America is fomenting the “Ferguson effect” fear. Finally, Wikipedia is struggling to save its soul, as the online encyclopedia’s principles of independence are under attack. Overall, though, it is a great day. Which is why I decide to read no more. With a smile on my face, I leave the newspaper’s website, quit the World Wide Web, close my laptop, get up from my chair, and walk toward the window. It is raining at last. And the temperature has dropped considerably. There is good cheer all around, very much in line with the famous newspaper. Ah, what a day!