The word ‘recess’ has several meanings – a dark cavity in a wall, a break or time-out. The response to the economic recess-ion does not seem to have reflected upon the deeper meanings of the word. There is certainly a frenetic scramble to get back to the prosperity that we had without a consciousness that it has not worked! In terms of the individuals at the top of banks and other financial institutions, no evidence of a deeper reflection and consequential taking responsibility for their reckless actions has emerged. This is true too for many politicians.

The Irish-French world-cup play off resulted in a torrent of outrage regarding the integrity of FIFA, French football and Thierry Henry himself. Integrity is about being authentic, real, honest and about taking responsibility for one’s actions – be this for an individual person or heads of sports or other organisations. Certainly, FIFA representatives talk frequently about the integrity of the game of football, but somehow their actions fall far short of their words and not just in regard to the Irish-French match. For example, and most pertinent to the present controversy, there is quite an amazing shortfall in the refereeing of international football matches. Why FIFA have not adopted the use of technology, which has been so effectively used by rugby organisations, 

The ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘when’ questions of the young child are critical indicators that the child is on the mature course to attempting to understand and manage the world (s)he presently occupies. It is essential that parents and other significant adults are not only patient with what can often be an incessant flow of questions but also that they share the child’s adventure of learning. Of course, parents can be tired and stressed but these feelings need to be managed in ways that do no jeopardise either the unconditional relationship with the child or the child’s eagerness to learn. Parents and teachers passing on responsibility to children for their own struggles in living can mean that children stop asking questions because they perceive that the questions are ‘driving my Mum mad’ or ‘she’s not interested’ or, even more worryingly, that ‘I don’t matter.’

Mark Twain’s wonderful observation ‘when I was eighteen I believed my parents knew nothing and when I was twenty I couldn’t believe how much they had learned in two years’ is the ideal introduction to this article. In their late teens young people are utterly convinced that they know it all and that adults just don’t have all the answers and that they are going to save the world. Some authors believe this is an idealistic phase that young people on the brink of their adult years go through. However, I believe there is more to it than that and given that I believe human behaviour always makes sense, then there has to be more to this very poignant illusion. What has often struck me when I speak to an individual teenager or a group of teenagers is how absolutely unready they are for the responsibilities, demands, upsets and roller-coaster ride of being an adult. It appears to me to be very wise and clever of teenagers to create unconsciously the illusion that they know everything in the face of what are overwhelming responsibilities. 

According to figures from the British Office of National Statistics eleven years is the average staying time for couples who get divorced. According to a new book on couple relationships, marriage should be seen as an economic arrangement which couples should leave when the emotional and economic benefits begin to decline. The book is called Changing Relationships and is based on five years of research into family life by the British Economic and Social Research Council. The major belief expressed in the book is that ‘people come together and stay together only when it is to their advantage! What is astounding is that the author takes no account of the stark fact that the economic reductionism model being proposed has shown itself to be a complete failure even within the very narrow sphere of economics and it does seem particularly crazy that this approach be suggested for marriage.