Welcome to Hollywood the armed forces radio and television service brings you the Hollywood Radio Theater starring Van Johnson and George Murphy in Battleground. Ladies and gentlemen, your producer, Mr. Irving Cummings. Greetings from Hollywood ladies and gentlemen. Ten years ago there was a battle being fought. Tonight we honor that momentous battle of Bastogne with Metro-Gowan mayor's great tribute to the foot soldier of World War II, Battleground. And from the original cast our stars are Van Johnson and George Murphy. Now act one of Battleground starring Van Johnson as Holly and George Murphy as Javas. This is a story about a squad of men, the second squad of the third platoon of I company of the 101st Airborne Division. It's November 1944. We're in a rest camp in France after 63 days on the line in Holland. Couldn't ask for a better deal. Even Kenny our platoon sergeant is feeling his oats. Horsing around with the rest of us out there on the truth. Now and most of the squads just killing time waiting for tomorrow.  Three days passed to Paris. Sanderford, Abner and Wallowitz are playing cards. That fella hanging up his socks is Rob Regan. Next to him the one with the glasses that's Hanson. Hanson's writing a letter home to his wife. That's her picture there on his bunk. His wife and his kid. Next to Hanson is Kip. Rushing his teeth are those gleaming white false teeth. And then as Layton he just walked in a brand new replacement. Sergeant Kenny. Yeah. My name's Layton. I've been assigned to your platoon. Well you'll be in the second squad then make yourself at home. But on some other sack home that was my own. Sorry I didn't know. Sergeant. There's a replacement I came in with fellow named Hooper. We've been together ever since we got in the Army.  Yeah he's in K company. I was wondering if there was anything you could do to get him over here. Well I tell you I'm a little outranked. All you see there's a major general in every outfit. It's his job to find out who your buddy is and then split you. That's for sure. That's for danger. And will you stop saying that will you please. I heard the war was on his last leg so I thought I'd better come back. That holly gets a rough deal huh. Little scratch in his leg and a month later he comes back in time for a three day pass to Paris. I was misery in that hospital Rodriguez. Passes every night champagne. And me rooting all the time about my dear old buddy's back there defending the.  It was when you was back holly you find out about some regulation you can't keep a man on the line unless he's got at least six teeth of his own. I didn't know nothing about that regulation so he busses G. I. T. with a butt of his rival I ran to a tree drunk in the dark. Anyway he was off the line for two weeks getting a new set made. Which one of these cuts is mine you can have this back next to me holly nobody's got it out there.  Of course I spent all my spare time in the art gallery there but I happen to hear about a place that might interest you plus big. Big Ali be sure to bring your dog tags with you though because one night in Pig Ali and you're going to think you're the Caleb of Baghdad. Hey Jarvis how about you and me butting up in Paris.  I love you Rodriguez I love all of you but I'm getting me a private room and a private bath in Paris if I have to get it at the point of a gun and the big brain wants to get away from us common people hasn't got anybody around here to chat with about the Einstein theory what do you mean he's got me and if I ain't nothing we like to talk about better. What are you busting out about pop though it's nothing at all son hardly worth mentioning they're making me a civilian that's all they're what an arthritis it ain't the arthritis they they got a report from the Red Cross and my wife's too sick to take care of the kid so I let him talk me into accepting a dependency discharge glad you made it pop I was going to adopt Rodriguez he'll be lost without his popsy wopsy kept one of these days you're going to get a GI bootsy wopsy right square and those GI teeth when you leave pop any day now I just got a sweat out a letter of confirmation from a higher headquarter you're going to miss me after that for sure that's for dang sure have no will you please I'm sorry Jarvis keep slipping out how about dousing that light then Paris trucks will be leaving early yeah go ahead turn it off hey that's my culture laying off sorry I didn't know I'm in your replacement I was just that phone number of Paris I told you a dozen times a 12 carat do what's on these yeah who is that guy said the ward be over by Christmas what do you want egg in your beer here we are two hours from Paris so it goes small talk then the slow even breathing as we fall asleep and the clicking of kip's false teeth I had a wonderful dream that night Paris a private room a private bath but yesterday they said we were off the line for good please order just come through now let's truck this time a set of gliders that's a good sign anyway this is one for the birds brother strictly for the bird general I need a crack division to plug up that gap a crack division general I'd be honored if you'd use the hundred and first awfully nice of you old boy thanks a lot not at all general not at all hey pop maybe the adjutant can put in a phone call about your discharge oh yeah they'll probably send me home in a private plane oh I forgot to tell you man reach the village and the convoy hauling there seem to be three or four roads coming together here some of the truck started to deploy on the street is scattering of civilians that watch it garbage that's the more we are will you hey killing an arm to save me large what does he say where are we are you kidding we're gonna be in this town like this is what I like about the infantrymen you always know just what's going on how do you like this guy he don't like it in the he must be off his nut in about a second he found a home in the army to keep her in shocker for about a week she wants to know if we'd like to come inside warm up yes warm up a run right down main street no bombs no strapping just leaflets a flurry of leaflets and then it was gone the ink was fresh and the printing was in English get a load of this will you welcome to the 101st airborne division I like these secret moves yeah we sure slip one over in the Jerry's huh how do they find out these things who tells them I keep them posted short way yeah well somebody does but you see they occupied France for four years naturally when they left they left a few spies behind yeah that's an idea why don't us GI's hire some spies so we'll know what's going on once in a while get him inside sergeant on the double all right looks like a good hot spot look coming out of the chimney yeah but once we get a break brother yeah it wasn't Paris but it could have been worse a nice warm house with a beautiful girl waiting to serve as hot coffee I jotted down the name of the town so I'd be sure to remember it best own best dog me huh I won't be forgetting this place in a hurry I wouldn't mind all my panel Christmas I heard that's just what we're going to do all the rumors a good one come on mama let's you and me take a little walk that she isn't the mother the kids from a town near here bombed out both parents killed are you all got a sob story let's cut a rug underneath don't say first you got a fork over another chocolate bar what you say please I said do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb please you tell me what he says he um he wants to know if we could have a little coffee oh we the cafe or plenty of coffee to sweet anything you want sure as long as you pay for it they're all alike over here yes they're all alike kept scared they're hungry and they're lonely oh stop beating your gums will you let a man please it's about that time we sure come up for a piece today that's for sure that's for dang sure they are so tired you want to get me no no I guess not I go no I guess so I'm all beat up all beat up you know it never fails every time you meet a pretty babe you're either out on your feet or you get the order to move what you say please oh nothing nothing thank you for the chocolate that's all right hey where you going Jarvis God oh aren't we Mademoiselle she did a little chocolate for Charlotte what she say what she say she said she's gonna hide the chocolate from the kid with Christmas oh brother I wish I knew for sure we'd be here tomorrow we'll be here Holly are you sure Kenny all we do is lie around here till the fog left so the air core can come up and win the war for us oh well in that case I guess I'll take a chance I'll see you in the morning Denise this may go down in history is the greatest gamble of the war good night Denise good night soldier hey Kenny are you are absolutely sure yeah but see all told us so wake me up early Denise huh it was dark and cold on the street as I went out to relieve late late and stood in the middle of the street you've heard someone approaching through the thick wet fog fast forward hamburgers onions I thought the 101st was the only division here they will be soon as the rest of us can get out what's that we were over a little of the east in there for weeks without find a shot and they started coming tanks planes everything you ever heard of but they told us it was just a weak little counterattack yeah no probably tell you that this is just a strategic withdrawal but take it easy up right and early the next morning Holly went out on a patrol an egg patrol in Denise's backyard his mission was accomplished seven beautiful white eggs carefully concealed in a towel no just getting a breath the first year I didn't know you're up I'll be right back hey Jarvis keep an eye on these eggs will you all right Holly get your pack on what the internal McCallup decided to move my company up on the line that is if you agree I should have known better maybe she'll give you a refund on those chocolate bars Kenny how much time have I got ten minutes five minutes anything you got to do you better do in 30 seconds oh no all right you guys wouldn't be a long march Kenny said only three or four miles the morning was gray with the fog but on either side of the road we could see the land rolling into little hill covered with a thick wood it was beautiful country beautiful we never saw anybody hit the ground faster than we did all except Holly he had to take it easy so he wouldn't break those precious eggs we got that that you want to clear let's go we entered the woods this is the back of battleground you know what our servicemen stationed in so many countries around the world they have a wonderful opportunity to observe the customs and traditions of other people and they're finding out that well these customs aren't so strange after all for instance in many countries the first of May May Day is quite important in Japan the children build immense paper kites in the shape of a carp a fish that represents the abundance of food from the sea they parade these kites through the streets on this day halfway around the world in Austria and other parts of central Europe a king and a queen are chosen to reign over the festivities of May Day complete with music and dancing in English communities a maypole is erected the children attach long streamers to it as they dance around the circle well as our servicemen have observed we've adopted this to our own culture many new England communities still retain the custom of the maypole complete with a king or queen of the May we also use May Day as an international signal of distress this is true about other customs and traditions of all countries the way of doing things may be different but the ideals are the same and our servicemen are helping to maintain goodwill by observing these customs by learning about them and honoring them this after all is one of our traditions to let the other fellow have the same rights and privileges that we want for ourselves now our producer mr. Cummings act to a battleground starring Van Johnson this holly and George Murphy as jobless we started into the woods slowly because of the fog slowly because we were scared but the woods were clear at least this section so we dug in fox holes in the frozen ground and burn these eggs it takes a slow steady flame when you cook an egg in a helmet it wasn't my idea we got to dig in at another area about a mile from here tell me something pop at time when you're in that camp in New York if you ever phone your wife would it cost a nickel what you think that's right came there to see you what did you phone your kids long distance yeah just before we get down why what did that cost a couple of bucks for three minutes why Johnny well I was thinking it's probably far from New York to Wichita where your kids were and it is from Wichita to Los Angeles my folks are and when you get back home what would that be pop you wanted Frank I'll send your bill Johnny tell him that I eat and if it runs over three minutes that's okay sure don't worry I'll phone for you I know a boarding house far far away where they serve ham and a three times a day oh how the borders yell when they hear that dinner bell I don't really like eggs they'll taste a lot better tomorrow morning for break up I'm out of your helmet and put it on your head you got the next on the roadblock with Jarvis not no man they said to watch out for Jerry's wear on GI uniforms what about the password that might be nice to know in case somebody thinks with Jerry's it's a bug jitter okay hey pop I'm pouring my eggs into that canteen cup watch it for me will you okay okay you get half of thanks chum with darkness we took over the guard at the roadblock at the roadblock Holly and I crawled into a ditch the fog was worse now we could barely see late we could hear him stamping his feet on the frozen ground and then we heard other footsteps coming down the road oh password but jitter what is this Charlie company no sir item I company and this must be the road to new Chateau I think it is sir well the bridge up ahead yes sir about half a mile good let's go man we got a good look at him from the ditch lieutenant and about a dozen men smart cookie that lieutenant wearing his bars and a patrol must be a new replacement yeah they were from cake company I got a buddy in cake company fellow named Hooper sure hope I run into it wasn't bad enough to fog and the cold the next morning something new was added snow look pop it's snowing I never saw snow up close before it's beautiful you didn't hear by any chance that it's kind of cold and a bit on the wet side of course you can see snow from Los Angeles way off in the mountains close the window Johnny and fix that hole in the roof I'm really good when you get the branches for your fox hole where do you usually get branches ladies oh I didn't know those woods have been cleared yeah sure a company moved in a while ago cake company I got a buddy in cake company I was in the woods cutting some branches to build a roof for my own foxhole when Leighton went rushing past towards one of the men in cake company hey Matt well I find Hooper Hooper never heard of him I know he's in cake company William J Hooper there's nobody by that name with us yeah there is he came in with a new replacement just the other day oh that was his name huh hey sergeant what's up that kid that got it last night his name is Hooper what do you mean got it directed on this box more you don't hear him coming you don't know what hit you you didn't even know his name we didn't even find his dog the snow kept falling but we did get one break the mail was still getting through to us charlotte yeah holly yeah Leighton yeah start up a go and wallow it's you know that's all nothing for me I'm sorry pop it'll probably come up in the next batch you act as if I wanted to discharge man I like it here but hey Kenny what about that patrol let's think I better take it out I can't let you go all of it so I want to be sure you'll be around to take over if I have to go back go back yeah it's my feet they froze up pretty bad last night all right I want three volunteers to go on a patrol you you and you you'll be in charge holly why am I always volunteering for patrols just a cowboy G2 says that Jerry's dropped some paratroops last night you know that farmhouse we passed yesterday well they think they're hiding in the woods this side of it G2 wonderful how they always know what's cooking yeah well I can tell you something they do know last night some Jerry's and GI uniforms infiltrated right through this area they blew up a bridge on the road to new chateau was one of them wearing lieutenant bars how did you know Leighton oh we get all the latest rumors rumor my eye they captured one of them spoke English perfect knew our password plan of deployment everything that's incoming all right head it's right out you leave your a they're cooking over there on the fire we left on the patrol Holly Rodriguez and I we found the farmhouse what was left of it and we looked around for a little while before entering the woods this is what G2 calls a patch of woods a whole division could be hiding in there nice job for a three-man patrol huh yeah we don't get back that's how they'll know we rented us and Jerry's get behind those trees cheap like GI's from here three of them we better make sure you guys cover me right what's the password I said what's the password I just didn't cover corporal and maybe German and they lie on these woods major I didn't hear the kind of sign oh Liga Texas Liga was rotate at the third battalion headquarters straight ahead that going corporal I just a minute what is a Texas Liga major of that I said what's the Texas Liga well it's some kind of baseball term what kind of safe it just over the head of infield nobody asked you how the Dodgers make up this year hey who's your commanding officer soldier whoever he is he knows all the Dodgers made out let's see a dog tags what come on come on we're not taking any chances like and see to it hey what is this what's this dynamic what kind of not a little snail not much break and see it just a minute you who's Betty Grable going with he's a romance not you him who's a dragon lady she's entering in the pirates but the hot rod it's a hopped up Jalopy hello Joe what do you know just got back from a board of it I guess they're okay thank you Sergeant a PFC major praying for civilians that's why I believe in being careful and may I suggest sir that you study up on baseball yeah I guess I'd better by the way you might tell your buddy that Caesar Romero is out she's married to Harry James let's go purple we moved on into the woods maybe half a mile or so and the further we went the less we liked it should have sent out a bigger patrol well if you want to goof off anything about goofing off nobody nobody I'm just saying the best ways to tell him you you heard voices talking in German let's say we heard voices talking in Japanese and let G2 figure that out well I'm going to sit down read my morning mail that paper any good best in the world that's the daily a news hey get a load of this our changing times by Mrs. Donald Jarvis pinch hitting for your favorite columnist and her favorite husband now on active duty U.S. Army well you know I worked on a newspaper yeah but I call them big stuff I'd had its point I used to get those wire releases and know that I was the first person in town who had the news I'll guarantee you that my wife knows what's going on at Bastone all I know is what's happening to the second squad in the third foot soon of eye company. Sound off pal password. Legos. Hi fellas hi what's the situation nothing but pine trees in these woods we've been all through well I guess our mission to accomplish that courtesy of our company you can tell them they can stop worrying about this area thanks well guys I guess we might as well party huh yeah yeah. Jarvis did you see what I saw yeah that guy with the bars is the one who brought the patrol through our roadblock last night those Germans and uniforms Kenny was talking about there's too many of them for us let's get out of here on the double come on Rodriguez got two of them with a hand grenade but they were coming at us in too many directions we fought our way back to the ruins of the farmhouse behind the stone foundations maybe we'd have a chance but just before we reached out Rodriguez been in front of us out of sight of the Germans with the snow covered record of the grab Rodriguez and drag him in behind.  Thanks coming. Thanks over there. Go ahead. We left him there in the snow under the Jeep there wasn't anything else we could do. We reached our fox holes reported to Kenny Kenny with his frozen feet wrapped in strips of blank he called in the lieutenant we saw them lieutenant coming straight at us Kenny think we've got enough anti-tank grenade to do any good we ain't got any. You mind if I make a suggestion with them. Well our usual defense against tanks is to call for artillery and then one like a jack rather ordered to hold the division. All right. Well let's call for artillery and keep our heads down. We could send out some bazooka men if we had any bazookas but in the cold rock. Yes sir that's great artillery with Rodriguez line out there under that Jeep.  When the barrage was over Holly and I went back to the farmhouse pop stay Zach was with us hop was going crazy hurry up will you how long you think a guy can last in this cold come on hurry up that's it pop that's the Jeep Johnny Johnny. No with a hand the palm up turn the fingers stretched reaching the way a man who had never seen it before might raise his hand to catch the falling snow. Way off in the mountain. They say it's just like going to sleep. He was a religious kid and anybody got hit he used to he used to say it was God will. We covered him with a blanket and left in there that afternoon Layton found a copy of the Stars and Stripes but three days old but it was the first news we'd had as we hit past home. What's wrong and balls it says. What's the ball. It's me Hitler's military counter offense he swept on yesterday plunging twenty miles into Belgium. Hey that's where we are we Belgium I thought it was like some bird let me see that paper. War Department reports the morale is high along the fog bound front that'll harden the boys pressure up but making trying to get the commercials Jarvis. Hey look at that at best on the hundred and first air ball and that's us men you'll be proud to know that you are making a heroic stand hurling back the best upon one step and throw at you who's born run a step and not see general the best they got pop is a hundred and first the only division up here it don't say late and we'll have to wait for the next edition only you won't be here to read it up here is a letter for you it looks official thanks Kenny you want to get back to the age station Kenny before those feet get any worse they won't take frozen feet unless they started to change color besides all they got left at the age station as aspirin and I what about the field hospital captured medics casualties of work for me Kenny I'm a civilian it's official signs field and delivered. No place I ate I kept read this letter yourself I don't care what it says nobody's leaving best head for this patrol just went by we're out on the road block and I got it straight from them was surrounded around if this is one of your company don't get bound up in G.I.T. right down your taking a straight pop I was on the road block I didn't have the heart to tell you much in coming they'll hit it you know I can get them in a lot of trouble for this it's against the rules of war to shoot it's a video. I set some burnt out powder you'll die of old age if we see a shadow around here this fog ain't never gonna lift to the plane have to wait didn't they never hear a blind blind nobody cares they just don't care I don't believe that you're ever on the lake well now lead us in prayer might not be a bad idea they only passed out some information man gets hit at least has the right to know what country he's died in yeah that's for sure that's for dang sure after I've asked you eight hundred times honest I won't say it no more that's for sure we were digging in at the railroad bank the cold was never more penetrating to the fog thick we could barely see our own men in their foxhole we knew that the Nazis were coming closer and closer close now that we could hear their order first when the voices came from and dropped to the ground only some who dropped never moved anymore have never was one of them stand up for the answer was badly wounded I saw how he jumped from his box hole and start running I couldn't figure it out and then latent after a moment back three of battlegrounds you know the world is in pretty good shape when people try to outdo each other in doing things for others if that sounds a little confused let me tell you what I mean in Tokyo two of the commanding generals honor guard platoons each adopted an orphanage they sent work parties to repair roofs walls ceilings windows and floors to fix the plumbing and renew kitchen and heating facilities intense rivalry developed between the units as to which could do the most each platoons solicited money at its pay tables they bought bolts of cloth and had warm clothes made for their protege is the kind of game the kind of a rivalry that we like to hear about because it's one in which everybody wins and such acts by you and your friends today are shaping our world of tomorrow we pause now for station identification curtain rises on act three of battlegrounds starring Van Johnson as Holly and George Murphy as job Holly and Layton had run to a ridge of small snow covered hill then Kenny jumped to his feet and waved his out of our foxhole eight of us made it to the hill the Germans hadn't seen us and then we waited and they came into sight maybe 40 of them all told creeping toward the railroad in bank and then Kenny gave us the word it was one of the hottest skirmishes were ever in Layton had had his baptism of fire he was a veteran now I like Holly was one of the way Jarvis I fly around after how do you know what Holly was thinking how do you know if he was thinking at all things just happen and then ask would you try to figure out why you acted the way you did I know why I ran I was scared to that you just joined the biggest club in the army late and everybody belongs later on that day we had more visitors this time they came with a flag of truth to not see officers and to enlisted man I thought they had up around it. I speak English who is here in command I am here in command the ever message for the commanding general I'll get a jeep and take the officers back Jarvis you keep the other two here maybe you can get something out of them I threw all the German I know what these two Nazis but all I could get out of them was their name and rank if I don't have told you all come on loosen up give us a load on you can talk now Hitler's kaput how'd you guys like some nice K rations shock a lot yeah shock a lot you know they're on a shot of cigarette and ready he says you'll talk for a pack of cigarettes okay talk they're still in an I know the madam and they don't ever got up or a tot what they say they want us to surrender surrender or be killed he said well tell him to take a fly and leap at a rolling donut that's all we learned until Holly came back with the officers with them was a colonel from our headquarters the Nazi captain seemed a little upset general MacAleff must have missed on the foot we have appealed to the well-known American humanity to save the people of Bastogne from further suffering we have given you two hours to consider before reigning destruction upon you we do not understand general MacAleff's answer well I'll be glad to repeat it the answer is not new sir you know there's a negative or a positive in this is that a negative or an affirmative reply not to strictly negative a negative then feel American is on global mission we will kill many Americans on your way but well I feel better for once we know what's going on around here for once we get the story before my wife writes it up in the Sedalia news they weren't kidding they poured it on us everything they had from every direction and we drew back still further no reinforcement no help of any sort it looked as if kip had something when he said nobody cares they just don't care cold is getting me you think they'd let it stop lying up to build a fire don't tell me your problems late and tell the chaplain oh yeah chaplain forgot we've got nothing to worry about only Joe's gonna pray for it the Christmas day that wait up on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagle that's a fog lift they shall run and not be worried unless they have frozen feet and they shall walk in that thing if they don't lose too much blood before the medics come up hit it hit the ground it was another airmail message from Hitler propaganda leaflet this time delivered in a shell which exploded near barly picked up one of the leaflet hey listen to this merry Christmas soldier and our deepest sympathy it's tough being away from home at this time of year especially when you're surrounded and outnumbered 10 to 1 don't you feel your loved ones worrying about you praying for you yes old boy praying and hoping you'll come home again man have you thought about it what if you don't come back just remember this where there's a will as a way hot chow and safety are waiting for you only 300 yards away I don't miss a trick him Jerry's hot chow and safety well all right come on on your feet come on let's go services were just a little bit different from any we'd ever attended before maybe 30 of us gathered in a clearing the chaplain was just as cold just as dirty just as tired as the rest of it and he talked our language I'd get the show on the load anybody here from Ohio but I like this an addict or I'm from Chilacati and you man losing my wife is all mine and these services aren't just for losing any more than just a minute from Ohio I'm really happy to be in your area in other areas there are other chaplains of various denominations and religions you know what all of us holy Joes or switch hitters earlier this month in Holland I held Hanukkah services for some of the men of the Jewish faith how'd I do all this not bad for a beginner well man nearly Christmas here we are in beautiful Beth Stone enjoying the winter sports and the 64 dollar question is was this trip necessary I like to better answer that of a can have it my sermons like everything else in the army depend on the situation in the terrain I can assure you this is going to be a quickie was this trip necessary the boys let's look at the facts and I'll nobody wanted this war but the Nazis great many people tried to deal with them a lot of my debt millions have died for no other reason except that the Nazis wanted them dead so the final showdown there was nothing left to do except fight a great lesson in this those of us who learned it the hard way aren't gonna forget it we must never let any force dedicated to a super race super idea super anything become strong enough to impose it must be smart enough and tough enough in the beginning to put out the fire before it's fresh the boys my answer to the 64 dollar question is this trip was necessary the years go by a lot of people are gonna forget it you men won't boys don't ever let anybody tell you that you were a sucker to fight in the war against passion now Jerry's committing a great place for this almighty God the organist is hitting those bass notes a little too loud for me to be heard so let's each of us play in his own way to his own God morning did we know how bad it really was it was then that the cooks the headquarters clerks the typists even a walking wounded who've been brought to Bastone came back on the line every man who could go fire a right no more little feelers to find out where the enemy was everyone knew where they were they were all around us Holly got out his bandit and he fixed it to his right he just looked at him slowly one by one we followed suit I was watching Kim suddenly he dropped his right he just stood there staring down at the snow at a shadow of himself on the snow it's China it's China the box lifting China later playing bombers T-47 dropping rations ammunition medical supplies just what we wanted for Christmas came the replacement new men fresh men men with clean uniforms and strange clean faces we sat on the road watching them come in and then the most beautiful sight of all daddy what are them thing all that's new kind of warfare son mechanized I think they call it right about the stars and strides well what'll they become into the stars and stripes the folks back home knew we'd get out of this they had relief was breaking through two days ago fine I'd hate to think they've been worrying you'll be happy to know that we're in Belgium not Luxembourg just so we're going back that's all count you mean you're not happy in the service I didn't say that I love it you found all many armies jump me through never had it so good in my life I get it back to best own Kenny living along in front of us to get hardly walked but he didn't like the way some of those new replacements were staring at it all right all right come on come on what do you want those guys to think we are and you make an ally there's a thought for you to keep in mind as many another American has perhaps one of our greatest ambassadors was the humorous Artemis Ward who did a great deal to cement the friendship between America and England in 1866 Artemis Ward arrived in London for a series of lecture tours although he wasn't in the best of health after his first lecture an English newspaper wrote there is certainly this foundation for a cordial understanding between the two countries calling themselves Anglo-Saxon that the Englishman puzzled by Yankee politics thoroughly relishes Yankee jokes when two persons laugh together they cannot hate each other much so long as the laughter continues as Artemis Ward continued his tour in his own humorous way he criticized both England and America and the cordial understanding grew between the two countries although his health grew worse Artemis Ward refused to abandon his tour and he didn't stop until he collapsed in the middle of a lecture within a few days he was dead at the age of 33 in announcing his death the London Observer said Artemis Ward never used his great powers of humor for that biting purpose which is implied in the word sarcasm he's been a man not only of humor but of good humor there is no man among us who does not feel that he is the better for having known him since his landing in this country he was taken by the hand and the feeling of brotherhood between our two countries so it was that Artemis Ward proved to all America that by helping others you help your country now here's Mr. Cummings with our stars and here they are Van Johnson and George Murphy I'll tell you about next week's play it's an exciting paramount picture a drama of an American adventure out to steal a sunburst of the ancient tribe of Peruvian Indians secret of the Incas and as our stars of this strange treasure hunt filled with intrigue and romance will be the original stars Charles Heston and Nicole More we won't miss that one either everything good night good night everybody good night. The theater is produced by Irving Cummings our orchestra is directed by Rudy Schrager this is your announcer Ken Carpenter inviting you to be with us again next week at this same time for another presentation of the Hollywood Radio Theater.


a couple days ago and then we're going to see them now against a color bar team that features these players. Well, let's take a look at the color bar high lineup. Omari grantees between the six. They do have a back four of Edwards, Henry McLeod and Hutchinson in the middle of the park. O'Brien Marks doing a late fitness test manages to make the starting line of four color bar. Anthony McDonald, Raheem Rankin will be playing centrally in the middle of the park and up to Christopher McKenzie with three goals to his name. He's going to be flanked by Javel Watson on the right and Sheridan Wilson on the left. Yeah, it's an enterprise coach team. So, you know what that means, possession, football, but with some quick attackers looking to exploit the opposition defense. As far as high delis concerned, they go on the road with Tajari Lee between the sticks. The back four of Darren Campbell, Joe McGordon, Joseph Brightley and Dante Stewart. All veterans in the business as far as high delis concerned, returning from last year in the middle of the park, Michael Forbes, Gabriel Seabourn and Ronaldo Barrett. Up top, Kierland Smith, the center forward, seven goals and three assists to his name so far. Deshaun Henry on the left or Mario Henry on the right-hand side. Yeah, a lot of star-studded players here, but of course you have to look out for the number eight. As we take a look at the full-time highlights here, high del knew that they needed their way win, but they conceded pretty early here just a terrible mix about the back between goalkeeper Tajari Lee and defender Brightley, Joseph Brightley. They just couldn't clear that long-range effort from Isaac Clarke and Calabar with the advantage on home soil early in the first half. That was his first goal this season. And high del, they had a few chances from the Henrys. Deshaun Henry, the eventual goal scorer with that attempt, but it was straight to the goalkeeper and they kept plugging away. And from one Henry to the next and the former Calabar student with the finish, Deshaun the provider for Mario with the finish. Didn't celebrate did for Mario Henry out of respect. There's a long ball played inside and that was a big opportunity for Fitzroy McLeod, you know. Couldn't place it either side of Tajari Lee. And then, second yellow card flashed in the direction of Keelan Smith and high del, they were down to 10 players. Imagine that. There's a trip from behind. And with that, he was sent for an early shower. Calabar thought they would take advantage with the one-man advantage. Didn't quite do so. There's an attempt that went across the face of goal. Slipping all the time, couldn't find the target. Then the ball over the top. That was a delightful ball from Baratino and then Henry with the finish. The Calabar defenders for all their worth, trying to clear their lines, couldn't. And Sean Henry, who was provider of the first goal, was a score of the second. High del with the advantage there. And there was a free header for the Calabar captain again, Fitzroy McLeod couldn't convert. And high del held on for the win. Calabar with 15 shots, four which were on target. High del had 16 shots, five on target. There were 24 fouls committed in this game. Four yellow cards were flashed in the direction of high del, who of course lost a player. And corner kicks, five a piece. And high del high with the advantage in terms of possession at 55%. And it's now time to hear from our KFC man of the match. He seems to be injured, but he's still a big deal. The captain is right beside him as well. Let's hear now from Gerard Mauricyli. Yeah, thank you so much, Donald. I'll have the man of the match here with me. He's winning the number five jersey. You can hold on to that, sir. Your captain is right next to you. And his name, obviously, is Michael Forbes. Let me talk to Michael first, though, as the man of the match. Michael, obviously, you have a little knock there. The injury, tell me about it. Are you doing okay? Yeah, I'm okay. Yeah. You would have played a lot of positions on the field today. Just tell me exactly what your role was and which position was your favorite? Yeah, I played center-back. Center-back is my normal position. But the coach just tried me forward to see what I can do. All right, well, let me talk to Ronaldo here now.  You must be very proud of this result today. Do you think, well, this is the start of you getting onto the group? Of course, we know that you've had a pretty difficult couple of matches. But now, is this a bright spark for what has been a pretty good season for Haida? Well, I'm great for the win. Yeah, we fell short. I'm with the player, but we fought through the end and we're grateful for the win. All right, thank you so much, Ronaldo. Let me talk now to coach Andrew Price from Calabar, Haida. Of course, he's not a happy man, but we'll get his thoughts very shortly. Coach Price, you know that we saw you throughout the entire game. You had that exact look on your face. Just exactly what are you thinking now? Well, I think that we gave up an opportunity to have collected all three points. The game was decided on a goalkeeping error. It's a real travesty, but these are young players. They'll make mistakes. We're not going to burn them with too much pressure. We'll just have to get it right the next time around. But to give up that goal at that particular time was really, really hard on the rest of the team, we tried to fight and we tried to come back. And I think we gave as much as we got from this ideal team. They are a bigger and stronger team than us, so we tried to match up as best as we could with them. I think it was a good game and it will serve us well for the remainder of the season. Yeah, well, this result doesn't steal your fate, but it does give you a little bit more work to do. Just exactly what you're looking to touch upon as you move ahead for the rest of the season. Well, you know, as I said before the game, we had to play three games in five days and this was the second game. So the next game is against KSC on Tuesday here at Calabar and we have to get maximum points when we play that game. All right, Coach, well, we'll see you in that game. Thank you so much for this interview. That was Coach Andrew Price there, you know, from Calabar. Let's have a chat now with Coach Devin Anderson from Haida who obviously would be the happier of the two. Coach Anderson, you did say before that you would tell us after the game just exactly what you learned about Calabar. What did you learn about Calabar? Yeah, we have a portion, a mix, you know.  Yeah, yeah. The opponent, yeah. Well, Coach, you know, join Calabar on points. You don't go past them on the table though, but this is a good foundation, of course, for your team to move forward. Yes, we take it one game at a time, you know. Calabar can't take anything away from them. It was a hard-fought game, you know. We went down to 10 players, you know, whenever he's up, whenever back, you know, we continue to press, we continue to press, you know. We're never going out of defensive mode or panic because I know the ability of the kids that, you know, we can pull it off. Yeah. I just want to ask, you know, because obviously you're at a point of the season now where you'll be looking ahead. You're on your route to being into the second round just as actually what is the goal for this season? We start the season with the goal to win the Manning Cup and our goal, even though a lot of obstacles are along the way, our goal never changed. We no differ from our goal. We continue. No matter how difficult it may seem, we continue on that process. All right, Coach. We'll see you throughout the season. Thank you so much and congratulations for today. Respect. Yeah. Yeah.


Terry Lanez has seen his bail fee increase and it boils down to him breaking a protective order that's in place for Megan Thee Stallion. The Canadian star was firmly charged with felony assault for allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot. As he awaits trial, he was hit with a court order to stay away from her. However, by appearing as a surprise during the baby's rolling, loud Miami performance moments after Megan's showing, a judge ruled today that he'd violated the order. While there was a chance that Lanez could have found himself behind bars, his bail increased from $190,000 to $250,000. It means he will have to pay an additional $60,000 to remain free in his shooting case. He was also warned that any more violations would result in him being put in the slumber. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Yes, I'm now super excited to invite our SDSN Malaysia manager, Karen Shond, she is the manager of SDSN Malaysia, but also the director of strategy and operations for the Jeffrey Sacks Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University, where she plans, and oversees all of the programs and activities. Karen is also actively involved in the research projects on building sustainable cities and communities. She's going to introduce us to our next session here and we will get started. Karen, would you like to turn on your video and join us. Perfect, great. Go ahead and test your audio. Yes, we can. It sounds great. And so I also have your slides queued up. So just let me know next slide and I'll advance them throughout your introduction. Thanks. Greetings from Malaysia and happy Earth Day everybody. We hope that you and your families are safe and well. During these unprecedented times, we as fellow inhabitants of the Earth can take comfort in observing a mobilization of ideas to rethink our response to the challenges facing our planet today. During what is therefore also a time of reflection, SDSN Malaysia hosted at Sunway University is humbled to be part of this global webinar on happiness and sustainability around the Earth. Before the question, what is happiness? We gathered a few experts from various disciplines, economics, human rights, psychology, health and anthropology. Allow me to briefly introduce them. Next slide please. Professor Wu Wing Tai joins us from the University of California Davis, where he is a distinguished professor of economics. Professor Wu is also the director of the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development here in Sunway University. He's an expert on East and Southeast Asian economies, particularly China, Indonesia and Malaysia, where he also advises governments. Next, Miss Jacqueline Ann Surin is an award-winning former journalist who has also spent most of her adult life as a human rights activist. She is now a corporate trainer with web events that connect with the specialization in managing conflict at work. Next, we have associate professor Dr. Zubaida Jamil Osman. She's a clinical psychologist and she also teaches psychology at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Saibajaya. Next, we have Dr. Kor Sui King, the founder of the Malaysian Health Alliance, trained as a doctor of internal medicine. He went on to work with refugees in disaster relief and then to anti-corruption work for the pharmaceutical industry. And he's now furthering postgraduate studies at Oxford University while also working on health systems and health policies in Malaysia. And last but not least, we have Dr. Vilasini Somya, an anthropologist and senior lecturer with the Gender Studies program at the University of Malaya. Dr. Somya's work focuses on Indigenous persons, irregular migrants, and gender equality. I would like to especially thank my colleagues behind the scenes, Professor Wong Chin Huat for curating this entire production, and Amira Majid and Ho Yee Jen for their tireless work in putting this together. Let us now proceed to watch the pre-recorded conversation I had with the speakers recently. We would be very happy to take your questions in the chat function of this webinar. So do post your questions and please enjoy the show. Could you tell us what is happiness to you personally? I would say happiness depends on me being able to do what I like to do. That means I'm able to afford to do what I do. I am able to be with the people I love and like. So happiness would not only just be my own personal material well-being, it would involve the well-being of my family, my community, and as I get older, the importance of my country and the world at large of how well they are doing. So personally, happiness to me is being able to have a life of my own choosing on my own terms. Happiness means being able to make my own choices and having the opportunities and the resources to make those choices for the kind of life that I want. So it has to be on my terms and it has to be my choices. It means having the opportunities and resources to succeed in the kind of life that I've chosen for myself. And this is particularly important for me as a woman, right? Because women often do not have those kinds of choices because of all the stereotypical notions around what it means to be a woman. We are constantly being put under stress to conform to certain stereotypical roles. So many women don't have a choice as to whether they get married or not. Then they don't have a choice as to whether they have children or not. And after they have children and after they start a family, then they are forced to make a choice as to whether they want to maintain the family or to have a career, right? And even when women are able to make a choice for a career, they are still expected to play the stereotypical roles of managing the home. They are still expected to carry the burden of the invisible and unpaid worry work that goes into managing the home and managing the family. So for me as a woman, having choice, being able to make a choice as to the life that I want to lead, independent of all of those societal pressures, is really, really important for so long as the choices that I'm making do not harm myself and do not harm anybody else. As for me, happiness is not a destination, it's like a journey. And I think if you are in the process of achieving happiness, I think you probably might be experiencing a bit of sadness and other core emotions in individuals. So basically, coming from my background, I feel that happiness is basically how much satisfaction you have with what you have and how you feel about in your daily basis and then how much you feel connected and engaged in people around you. So a bit of balance between physical health, social, as well as psychological well-being. I think happiness means very different things to very different people. To me personally, happiness means duty. If I can fulfill my duty, the duty to myself, the duty to my family, the duty to my friends, the duty to my country, a duty to, I guess, my species here, the species of homo sapiens, all of humanity as we're now talking about COVID as you're watching this, we're all in the middle of a pandemic. There is a significant amount of duty that all of us hold in this world and for every citizen, for every human being, the relationship that we have to other people is actually a combination of duties and rights. What are your obligations to others and what are other people's obligations to you? I think we focus a lot about the political conversation and social discourse on what are other people's duties to us and we often think, especially in today's world, to be happy we want other people to fulfill their duty to us. And I think that's wonderful and beautiful. What's to me makes me personally happy is if I can fulfill my own duty to other people. Well, you know, of course, I think there's the age old answer of, you know, the simple things in life, generally, you know, keeping incredibly connected with loved ones of course and appreciating things like your health and your freedom for a long time. If you were to ask me this question six months ago, I think the answer would have been a lot more different simply because of the way our lifestyles have been led. My belief for the longest time was that personal happiness had a lot to do with success. It was maybe professional success. It was a kind of success that I felt that was worth, was necessary as a 21st century woman, for example, you know, having the right amount of education and exposure and so on and so forth. But I think with time I've started to sort of uncouple these concepts of success with happiness because I don't think they naturally have to go hand in hand with each other, just because I had a little bit, a little extra in my bank account or, you know, maybe a nice opportunity on these things don't necessarily bring happiness in that sense. And also when in times when we do have pleasure or joy or jubilation of sorts is to also be able to understand that there is a difference between, I guess, happiness and content. And I find myself being very content with life but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am happy. Do you think a society can be definitely happier with higher GDP per capita? It certainly helps. It certainly helps because like the old joke, what is the secret of happiness? The answer is just have low standards. Even then you are always happy. But that is true. But think of how much happier a person would be if he could afford to give his parents the best medical care in the world so that they could live longer. He's able to afford the quality education for his children. So certainly income is important. One of the major problems with GDP, however, is that it's an average number which is a total income of the country divided by the number of people. And it means that if one person owns everything, like if one family owns all the oil fields in that country, and the rest of the people get hand out from that individual, then it's hard to say that GDP per capita is a very good indicator. The minimum we have to bring in, what is the distribution of GDP within a society, which is why the United Nations Agency, United Nations Human Development Program has developed another index of which GDP per capita is one of them. And that goes into other factors. One of them is, what is the expected life expectancy in that country? Because that clearly has a lot to do with how income is distributed. When income is concentrated in the hand of one person, you have only one long life individual and a whole bunch of short lives individual and the average will be low. So life expectancy is the average life expectancy is one. But when you think about quality of life, it is more than just having a long life. It's having a meaningful life. Life in which you are more in charge of decision making, and you are adequately informed about the world. So the third variable that the United Nations has included is what is the expected educational attainment of the population. So for the older people, you take how many years have they had, but for the younger people, it would be their expected years of schooling. So a better measure than GDP per capita would be to at least take into two other factors, life expectancy and the amount of educational opportunities that an average person in the society would have. And I'd like to show you what that does once you take into account the happiness factor. This is the 92018 ranking of the Human Development Index by the United Nations, and the Human Development Index takes into account life expectancy, the years of schooling, and the GDP per capita, as I've said. As you can see, these are the top 20 highest ranked countries. And I want to bring your attention to Lichtenstein, which is ranked number 18 in terms of HD of the Human Development Index, because in terms of GDP per capita, it would be ranked number two. But if you look at the life expectancy in Lichtenstein, you look at the years of schooling, you'll see that they are not particularly better than countries that are much richer or poorer than them. Look at Sweden. Sweden, the income is only 68,000 per person compared to 99,000 per person in Lichtenstein. Largely because of the gross inequality in income distribution. Another worthy example is looking at Singapore, number nine. Singapore is ranked number nine, but in terms of income, it is ranked number three in the world. So, again, it has to do with the distribution of income in Singapore that is pulling it down. The average GDP per capita overstate the quality of life of the average person. And of course, we got to know about what does Malaysia say. Well, the HDR, the Human Development Index is ranked 189 countries. And Malaysia is in the top 10. Well, we should be very proud. We are number 61. We are possibly among the big Asian countries. We do very well compared to Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia. But on the whole, there is quite close correlation between the GDP per capita and the Human Development Index. They are not identical, but they are quite closely related. So that would be the first adjustment I would make to GDP per capita as a measure of welfare. Professor, are there other limitations of GDP accounting as a measure of human well-being? I think that is this idea of why do you measure by indirect measures. Like, you see how long the person live, how much education, why don't you ask the person directly. If you ask, this is exactly done by the SDSN. SDSN puts up a report every year called World Happiness Report. Gallup poll and large number of survey organizations conduct this survey in a very golden country and get an assessment of how people rank their happiness. The numbers are quite interesting and have some unexpected parts to them. So ranking of happiness. The happiest is Finland. And then, as you can see, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, they are... When you ask these people, they say they are happy. Look at the bottom. The United States is number 11 in terms of GDP per capita. But in terms of the human development index, it was 15. That's what we saw. But in terms of happiness, the US has fallen to number 99. It is very interesting that Singapore, which is ranked number nine on the human development index, number three on the GDP index, is ranked 34. And if you go on, Japan is ranked number 58 and who is ranked above Japan, Thailand. And Malaysia, which is ranked number 61 in the human development index, now is number 80. And the Philippines, which is ranked in 106 in the human development index, is now 69. So here we have a case of, I may be poorer than you, but I'm happier than you. And the only consistent part we see is the absolutely poorest countries in sub-Saharan African are also the unhappiest countries. So we have got the interesting finding that the correlation of human development index of GDP per capita is quite close. But the measure of happiness at GDP per capita is not as close. With some exceptions. And I presume the part that really gets to me is there are no East Asian countries in the top 20 happy countries. In fact, most of the East Asian countries, countries like Korea, Japan, Hong Kong are in the middle. Hong Kong, which is ranked number five on the human development index, number nine in the income is ranked number 76. Perhaps it shows that life in East Asia is very stressful. We may be earning high income, but we are very stressed while earning the high income. We may have lots of years of education, but we are very stressed in the competitive education system that we are in. So I think if that is one thing is we shouldn't make so much fun of the data bar attitude. This brings us great psychological comfort. However, now if you talk about other limitations of GDP per capita as a measure of happiness. I like to mention that what are we logically engineered to do? It is built in us to care about the future generation. And the GDP per capita, the measurement of the HDI index do not take into account how much we care about the happiness of the welfare of our future generations. So if you think of it this way, GNP accounting gives you the value of how much we produce. But if most of our value comes from taking petrol from underneath the ground, one day the petrol runs up and we'll have zero income. So what we need to do is to have some concept of sustainability. And the concept of sustainability is closely related to our love for our descendants or more broadly for the survival of the human species. So on that, there should be a measure of sustainability built into a measure of welfare because it reflects our biological hard software within us to care about our descendants. So the most simple type of accounting that builds in sustainability is to take into account the loss of the natural environment and the exhaustion of natural resources. So we should adjust the GNP numbers, taking out the part that comes from destroying part of nature because that's not sustainable. That measure called green accounting of GDP sounds very sensible, except it misses a very important part is that sustainability of my descendants and of the human species in general is a group concept. If I am as green as one could be, but if my neighbor is not green, that will affect the sustainability of my descendants, of the welfare of the people I love that will come in the future. So if you want to talk about welfare, you cannot just talk about individual country welfare. You got to talk about is the whole world sustainable because there is no such thing as will you be sustainable because it depends on what is happening outside. So green accounting should also take into account what is the responsibility one is doing to prevent climate change in the world. So it's like how what's the CO2 emission. So that shows the responsibility you are undertaking and every country should have that particular element into its measure of happiness because it also measures how much of a sense of responsibility they are taking. To bring about happiness for the people they love. Sometimes when making choices for ourselves, we may not know the outcomes. In your opinion, can people be happy without the freedom to make mistakes. No, people cannot be happy if they don't have the freedom to make mistakes. Now why do I say that I say that because as a species, we evolve from making mistakes. So if we don't make mistakes, we're not learning we're not growing and then when we don't have the ability to evolve. A lot of my ideas around this come from the notion of anti fragility that was written about by the Lebanese American scholar. Naseem Nicholas Talib. So it is book anti fragile. Talib describes all the different situations in which when you put a system, whether that system is an individual or an organization or a government under stress, how that system responds to that stress is really, really critical for making that system anti fragile. So an example of anti fragility is vaccinations. So what do you do with vaccinations, you introduce a certain amount of pathogens into the human body and the human body then will adjust and will do the necessary corrections so that it becomes stronger. It becomes inoculated from that particular pathogen. Yeah, so vaccinations is an example of anti fragile behavior, you want to stress the system just enough so that it becomes stronger, better, because of that stress. Yeah, and vaccinations right now are really relevant in the time of another example of anti fragility is a Mexican proverb. It goes like this. They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds. I have used this proverb as an activist. Every time I need to go and demonstrate a protest. And even if I'm afraid that the state will crack down on us or arrest us. This proverb is what keeps me going as an activist that I will got stronger that civil society will become even stronger. Despite all of the oppression that a state tries to put on us when I'm training so when I'm doing my corporate training, I tell my participants that it is really important for them to welcome making mistakes to celebrate making mistakes, because it's in the making of that mistake that their system is put under stress. And so within this notion of anti fragility, you need to be making mistakes. If you don't make mistakes, you're not going to be learning from those mistakes and if we don't learn as a species, we're not evolving. Yeah, so if we don't make mistakes, it's not possible for us to be happy because we wouldn't be evolving as a species. There is a caveat for that though. So the caveat is that the level of the mistake that's being made needs to be below the level that might cause loss of life or devastating financial losses or climate collapse. So if we were to think about vaccinations, for example, if you're going to vaccinate somebody against Ebola, you need to make sure that the level that you vaccinate with is low enough that it doesn't kill the person, but just enough so that the system is able to respond to that stress to become even stronger than it was before. Yeah, so in short, it's not possible for me that humans can be happy if they don't make mistakes. I think what's really important is to think about how as individuals, as a society, as an organization, as a business or even as government, what can we do, what conditions can we create so that we become learning organizations so that when mistakes happen, we actually learn from it, we become better at it. We grow from it. What's fatal is when mistakes are made and there is no change in the system. So that suggests that there is no ability to learn from it to grow from it to become better and stronger as a result of the mistake. Yeah, so that would be fatal. How important is autonomy and freedom to make personal and collective decisions to the meaning of human life? So I don't see that the human race is capable of evolving and becoming better versions of what it is today if people didn't have the autonomy and freedom to make those kinds of choices. And again, I go back to the caveat that for so long as those choices are not self-harming or harmful to other people, then I think it's critical to have that kind of autonomy and freedom to make those choices. Whether you take it from a feminist point of view or you take it from an ecological point of view, if we can't make those choices, then it becomes quite impossible to sustain any kind of action. So if, for example, it's a top-down kind of power relationship, then that's a lot of energy being spent on forcing people to act in a particular way. That cannot be sustainable. So if you think about what they did in Wuhan in terms of just confining the spread of the virus in the short term, that's possible. But if they tried to do that for a year, two years, three years, is that going to be sustainable? No, it's not going to be sustainable. It's going to require too much energy of the system to try and make that sustainable. And if you want to talk about people's happiness, are they going to be happy that they don't have the choice to make decisions for how they will live their lives, how they will make decisions about how they will live throughout this pandemic? It's not going to create a very high level of happiness either, right, in that kind of situation. So I think the idea is like, what are the things that government can do or businesses can do to, what's the word for it, to nudge? Yeah, so what kind of high quality information can you put into the picture into the equation so that of their own accord, individuals can say this is the right behavior for me to do. This is the right thing for me to do. So staying at home, for example, during COVID-19 becomes a choice that I make because I know that it's the right behavior for me. Rather than I'm doing this so that I won't get caught and arrested and thrown into jail. Yeah, so having the freedom and autonomy, but with the right information with high quality information with the right social nudges from the state from authorities is really, really critical for that to happen. Some argue that as individuals, we may have more information to make decisions than if compared to some by the collective such as by governments or by professionals or even by artificial intelligence for that matter. Some argue that they are in a better position to make better decisions that minimize harm. Would you agree with this? Not necessarily. I wouldn't agree with that. Primarily because I don't think it's about the source of the information or knowledge per se. I think it's more like the quality of information and knowledge per se. So if we want to talk about sustainability, for example, the world is headed towards climate collapse, imminent climate collapse, I might add. What are governments doing about it? I mean, if we believe that governments know better than individuals, governments have been so slow to respond in an adequate fashion to this threat of this climate crisis that we're facing. If we left it to governments, the likelihood is that we would die within the next two generations. That's what scientists are already predicting, right? So would I trust governments to know better than individuals or than communities? No, I wouldn't. Another more recent example would be the example of our women, family and community development ministry making a set of ads around COVID-19 and women's role in preventing the spread of COVID-19. By suggesting that women should mimic the voice of Doraemon when telling their husband to share in the responsibility of managing their shared space. You know, there is such a huge disconnect between women's lived experiences and what the government is saying for a variety of reasons, right? So that's another example of where governments don't know any better than the individual. So I really think it's about the quality of information that we're dealing with. Are governments capable of having high quality information? Yes, they are. They are if they rely on scientists, they rely on evidence-based research. If they rely on representations from diverse stakeholders. So for example, committees that are not just made up of men, but committees that have both men and women and say different racial representations. So yes, they are capable of generating high quality information. I think the important question to ask is what kind of information, what kind of knowledge, how can we garner that kind of knowledge and information? So that we're making decisions that will ensure greater happiness for a greater number of people and better sustainability, not just for the individual, but better sustainability for the planet in the long term. Where does your activism fit in with advancing happiness and sustainability? My activism is about making sure that as citizens in a democracy, we have choice. And that choice is a fair choice. So what do I mean by that? So for the longest time, I was involved in all of the birthday rallies, not just as a journalist, but also as a citizen. And what was important for me was that in the current system, electoral system, one vote, my vote does not equal one vote when we actually vote, right? Because of the gerrymandering and the malapportionment that happens, right? So a lot of my activism with regard to electoral reform is about ensuring that when we vote, that choice that we make has equal weightage across the different constituencies. Because that ensures that whatever result we get, if there was equal weightage, then whatever result we get at the elections, I would be happy with that election result because it was fair. Society in general may be doing alright, but there are certain segments that are still mired in situations of poverty. How can they feel happy? If it's absolute poverty we're talking about, I mean, how can you be happy when you're hungry and not having a place to leave, you know, safety and shelter is not there. So realistically, I think in poverty, people who are poor or in poverty, they probably have some challenges in having this kind of, you know, in experiencing this happiness. Happiness is not a destination, it's a journey. So in the process of this happiness, you know, you do have some kind of, sometime when you feel a bit of, you know, down sadness of anger or dissatisfaction and that's actually part of it. So you cannot be like absolutely happy all the time because I think our life, you know, it's like the process of life is quite dynamic. It depends on what you are experiencing. I probably give this example of people in the war, for example, they don't have food and shelter. But with the connection with the people around them, they still still have this sense of happiness. Is it realistic to ask individuals not to compare themselves with others and to be contented with what they have, assuming of course that their basic necessities are met? No, if you're comparing yourself to others, okay, and if your purpose is actually to get things done in a better way, right? Or you think that there's a possibility for you to actually achieve or do things in a better way or, you know, like wanting to improve not only yourself but others. I think it's realistic to actually, you know, trying to push for what you really want to have. Studies have shown that relative deprivation has kind of led people to join some social movements in getting what they think they have the rights to have and been denied all these resources. What is probably not very healthy is the fact that when people started to compare and, you know, like feel so entitled to many things. You know, like, this is not fair. I've got to do this. People are having this. I'm not having, you know, I'm not having what other people have. So it can be affecting you psychologically because there's a feeling of constant dissatisfaction and these probably will affect your definition of happiness in life. Dr. Zubaira, when we talk about positive thinking, do you think there is an objective limit to positive thinking? I personally think that's a limit to it. I think when you're trying to be positive in all, if you're trying to be positive in everything, that you're trying to make things okay when you're not okay. You know, you have this positive thinking to the extent that you're not acknowledging or be aware of your own sufferings or needs, you know. I think this is when positive thinking can become a trap. Okay. I feel that you should be having helpful thinking. I would like to use the word helpful thinking where it helps you to actually move forward and not so trapped in difficulties in life. But when you ought to be able to be aware and acknowledge some difficulties or sufferings that you have, so be rational and realistic in your positive thinking and not just blindly telling people that you have to have positive all the time, you know. So can we be happy when knowing that our neighbor is sick? Karen, this is a question that requires us to start with some biology. The biology of human beings going back to 300,000 years ago, we've evolved what some people have described to be a selfish gene. Selfishness is a fact of life. It's a fact of life because it's helped us survive through today.  So, Karen, this pandemic today that we're going through right now, COVID-19 and this will not be the last because we'll have more pandemics in the future. It forces us to revisit the question, can we really be healthy and can we really be happy? We're only taking care of ourselves or the small narrow nuclear family that we have. Even if you put up barriers and Malaysia shuts out every foreigner in every country in the world, we will still not be safe. We need to start thinking of the world as one species to remove what has been a useful, until today, a useful trait of survival of the fittest. We need to remove all that so that we think more selflessly about other people because it is in our own selfish interests to think about the selfless needs of other people. Why is that, you may ask Karen? If we don't think about the health of our neighbors, either next door to us or in the next city or in the next state or in the next country or in the next continent, we are failing to see that we're also interconnected in today's world. There's something that happens in New York or Paris or Moscow or Buenos Aires or Tokyo or Sydney or Beijing can very quickly come to Malaysia. We have to think about the health of our neighbors equals to the health of ourselves equals to their happiness equals to our happiness. Therefore, the controversial element over here is that the survival of the fittest that we have taken ourselves to today cannot be fit for purpose anymore. And therefore, Karen and everybody else listening in, we have to consider that selflessness in order to protect ourselves is a new way that we must interact, especially if more pandemics are coming up. How do you think COVID-19 is affecting happiness? It's affecting happiness in very large ways, Karen, in very direct and indirect large ways. COVID-19 has caused unhappiness, fear, panic, uncertainty, xenophobia, racism, nationalism, and all that are very powerful, very primitive emotions. Under normal circumstances when human beings are healthy and they don't have this movement control orders or quarantines or travel restrictions in place, we're free to move and that freedom is essential for our happiness and well-being. What COVID has also done is to restrict our social interactions. Human beings are very social creatures. We are friends, we are family. We want to go out and socialize. We want to see people. We want to see, feel, hear, and touch people. And all those things are now constrained as a result of COVID because we're in a fight for, in a sense, our own survival. We want to make sure that we can beat another species. So COVID has a very significant impact on happiness in at least these two different ways. The psychological stresses, shall we say, that come from having your movements restricted and also having your social interactions restricted. And on top of that, like I've mentioned earlier, some of the emotions that are in play during this pandemic for the whole world right now are not very positive emotions. And when you have emotions like fear or anger at the government or anything of that sort, it doesn't lend itself well to happiness. But you know, you know, Karen, when you reflect about happiness and in the time of pandemic, you also think about how there is maybe not so much happiness, but the idea of fulfillment or the idea of peace or the idea of solidarity. And these concepts of strength and resilience and community and helping other people are not so much happiness, but they are, shall we say, also powerful emotions that are on display. We see people in Malaysia and I'm sure in many other countries as well, thanking the frontliners, the doctors, the nurses, the paramedics, and that sense of gratitude is a very important component of happiness. When you're helping people in the community, when you're helping your friends or your family or somebody who's poor and you're very concerned about the orang-uslies or the native indigenous people in Malaysia or people in marginalized communities, when you put all these things together and you're caring for them, that may not be necessarily happiness, pure and simple, but it lends itself to happiness because you feel useful, you feel helpful, you feel powerful, rather than useless, helpless or powerless, which are very negative emotions as well. During this particular outbreak, not only do we see some negative emotions, but we also see some beautiful messages of strength and resilience from human beings. And these messages of strength and resilience from human beings during World Earth Day here in the middle of April this year is particularly poignant. It's poignant because these are basic fundamental building blocks for what happiness truly is. Dr. Kor, as you look to the future in a post-COVID-19 world, is public health care a necessary condition for happiness? Certainly, yes. A very unequivocal, clear and firm answer that public health or public health care or just health in general is a precondition for happiness. We look at the old adage, the old probe of health is wealth and we can definitely consider that health is also happiness. In a very structural way, as I think through health systems and health policies, the COVID pandemic will cause a lot of national governments and societies to demand more and better investment in health, not to spend endlessly in health care. And when I say health, there is a difference between health and health care. Health care means doctors and medicines and surgeries and doctors. All that is great and beautiful. But health is more than just health care. Health requires you to consider livelihoods, education levels, gender empowerment, social equality, clean air, clean environments, freedoms for people to move around, good working environments in the office, great working hours that you don't feel stressed. Instead of 40 hours a week, maybe 30 hours a week, a clean park that you can go and exercising with your family members so that you can deepen the relationship with them. Good food, clean water, all these things are determinants for health and therefore happiness. But health care, very narrowly in the sense of doctors and medicines and nurses and hospitals and clinics is only one tool to achieve the much broader objective of health. If we want to be happy, we have to be healthy. So Karen, that's a bit of an elaboration of my thought and a short answer. Is health a prerequisite for happiness? It most certainly is. Dr. Koh, a lot of those elements that you say should be part of the health makeup. It seems like a lot of it is beyond the control of individuals alone and that there has to be some form of government or policy makers responsibility in this. What is your view on that? Health in all policies should be the mantra for every government agency and every government ministry. I look forward to the day when we don't have a ministry of health, but we have ministries for health. Because we need the Ministry of Education and Finance and Women's Development, Community Development, Urban Government, Rural Development, Transport Trade. All the ministries in Malaysia play a role in health and certainly all the ministries in every country as well. So to leave the responsibility for health to just the Ministry of Health is, well, if I may say it, frankly criminal.  Because you have to save the health of your citizens by policies of say breakfast and nutrition for children going to school so that they can study better and become fitter and stronger. And that has an impact on their cognitive abilities and also their physical strengths and abilities all going forward in the next 20 to 30 years. So you're very right, Karen. It's not enough that we have the ministries of health being responsible for health. We need health in all government policies. Do you then think that we would be happier if we stay out of this global race to be modern and advanced? I think the answer to that is no. Simply because I think the world needs a sort of a level of competitiveness in order to thrive. Right. I think if we don't have that level of competitiveness that we don't challenge ourselves to create fantastic things around the world. You know, tech is sort of built on that idea of that race, the idea of massive productions and whatnot. I don't think we necessarily become happier, but I think it's necessary for us to sort of continue with the kind of progress that is required for humanity. But to put all our eggs into that one particular basket is also very dangerous because then what we're saying is that momentum of progress is so important for us in order to feel better about ourselves, to view ourselves in a better light, to give ourselves a level of happiness that there is a responsibility for us, I think as humanity to be involved in the creation of these new innovations. But I think we also have to be rooted in something a lot more, how do I say, human, that there are levels of traditional values, for example, for some communities or culture, just as it is. And I think, you know, finding the right balance between the two is incredibly important for humanity to sort of understand that. Yeah, you know, this is what makes us, I'm happy or important or, you know, able to find joy in times where it is important. Dr. Somya, you work very closely with Indigenous communities here in Malaysia. What do you think are the lessons in minimalism or self-sufficiency that we may learn from some of these Indigenous communities? You know, I'm reminded by an experience that I had when I was in the field many years ago, when I was trying to complete my PhD. And I was invited to the wedding of a participant in one of the villages in Sandakan and Sabah. And when I went there, I went to congratulate the father of the bride, and I said, you know, congratulations, you must be very happy. And his response, I think, is something that I sort of reflect upon a lot, even till today. And he tells me, yeah, I suppose this is the time to be happy. And of course, I then ask him and I said, well, you know, shouldn't we be happy all the time? And he says to me, no, you shouldn't.  Because essentially what he was trying to tell me, and in that conversation I learned was that for many Indigenous people in Malaysia, whether you're talking about the Orang Asaul in Sabah, in Sarawa, or you're talking about the Orang Astisiya in the Peninsula, is that, you know, they understand their position as a marginalized group. They know that they are very far away from the senses of power. And of course, these are things that we've, I think, scholars and activists and members of non-governmental organizations have been fighting for, right? You know, that they need, there needs to be a sense of inclusivity when it comes to these national dialogues about progress and sustainability, of course. But the truth is, they're not. They've been sort of sidelined, and for the longest time. And while we do have these avenues to talk about things on the internet to say, you know, give them, you know, let's get their rights back to them, give them their agency, I think a lot of them have internalized this idea that living in the fringes, you have to sort of make do with a lot of things. That conversation I had about happiness was that there's a temporal factor to it. And I think this is the major takeaway, that happiness is sweeter when you don't have it all the time. And it's okay if you don't, right? And for me, that was very, very deep. That was a very deep discussion about happiness that, you know, in a setting in which we were celebrating somebody's wedding. And because of this temporal element, because of the way they understand the peaks and the spikes of happiness, and the acceptance of, you know, being content or the light thereof at the times when you're not happy, is essentially a way of life, right? I think this also goes back to essentially the way they inherit a lot of indigenous knowledge, because if you're working with spaces, whether it's, you know, the forest or the mountains or the sea, is that these terrains possess a kind of mood. There's a relationship and no relationship is constantly happy all the time. That would be really frightening if you only had that degree of happiness over and over and over again. Happiness then becomes dull, it becomes painful even. But because of the kind of relationships that they have with nature, they have with, you know, their traditional values, the indigenous knowledges that they've passed down from one generation to another. The idea that they have about happiness, I think, is perhaps one of the most realistic that I've come to learn about, and I've come to understand that with time, you find ways to, or you find a time to be happy. And when you're in that moment of happiness, you feel it, you're supposed to celebrate it. You have every right to possess happiness at that time, and then you let it go because that's life. And I think, you know, that these sort of approaches to minimalism and self-sufficiency is very tight intertwined with that. If we're able to sort of take away from these major teachings, or what we're able to take away from these major teachings is that when we're chasing success down every corner at every single time, we're not going to be happy at every single time. And the truth is, it's really okay to not be happy all the time because happiness is a momentous. And when it comes, you're supposed to, I suppose, capture it with your whole body and soul, right? And really, these are one of the, I suppose, finer details that come with being Indigenous, I think. Finer details that come... I hope you enjoyed that. I really wish to thank all our speakers. And to conclude, we see that happiness is in fact multi-dimensional. But what is clear is that in periods of crisis, when health, when livelihoods are negatively affected, it is also a time when openness to new ideas and new innovations are extremely important. In other words, an openness to change for the well-being of the many and the well-being of planet Earth. We received many questions and we will post the answers in the summary blog that will be sent to all participants after this webinar. From SDSN Malaysia, we wish to thank you all and we wish you health and happiness. And it now gives me great pleasure to hand over to Cheyenne to introduce the next segment by my colleagues at SDSN Southeast Asia. Thank you.


Candidates are making the rounds. Candidates from all races are making the rounds. And one of those candidates says, Karen Housley, who is running for U.S. Senate. Now, Housley has been making her way around the state, listening and speaking with voters about key issues. Housley has served as a state senator for district 39 and chaired the aging and long-term care policy and was vice chair of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Finance Policy. She says she's focused a large portion of her campaign in greater Minnesota. The greater Minnesota vote is really crucial. We have to get everyone out to vote in greater Minnesota because their voices really do deserve to be heard. I think with the whole Franken and now with Tina Smith, they're very metro-centric and they're not traveling throughout the state. And my husband and I have had a place up here in greater Minnesota since 1990. And this is, we've got strong roots here. So really representing greater Minnesota in Washington, D.C. is very, very important. Karen and her husband, Phil Housley, have had a cabin in the Walker area for the last three decades. Phil Housley, of course, is a former NHL hockey player and current head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. He says he's proud to be on the campaign trail with his wife and is impressed by everything she has accomplished. The thing that I see and when I'm watching her in this campaign and it's been going on for, since January is how hard she works. Her schedule is loaded every day and she's on the move, she's making a difference and that's why I'm really proud of her because she's really put her heart and soul into this campaign. Housley will also be making campaign stops in Grand Rapids and Duluth. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.