Commentary: European newspapers offer life lessons
Awhile ago, I visited London.
I was struck by the range of London newspapers. Some are really easy and fun to read. Celebrities. Murders. Missing people. Funny things about the queen, the prime minister and the mayor.
But not really that informative.
By contrast, the Irish Times was a little tougher to read, but amazingly informative.
I finally realized that the Irish Times was using a system to evaluate public events, projects and problems which, if you think about it, is fairly obvious. It goes something like this:
What, exactly, is going on?
Who does this hurt?
Who does this help?
What, according to law, tradition, or public benefit should be going on?
Who is responsible for making that happen?
What are they doing to fix the situation?
If they are ineffective, what steps can the public take to straighten things out?
This is a simple system which, once you get the basics, can be applied to almost any situation the public, or any individual, is concerned about. It’s very active and intelligent, and, in its own way, kind of fun.
Here are the three basic steps to evaluating a situation:
What is going on? (This is the current reality.)
What ought to be going on? (This is the ideal.)
- What can I do to narrow the gap between the real and the ideal? (This is the personal initiative.)
Though we can’t change the weather, everything else is up for investigation and negotiation!
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STEVE DAVIDSON lives in Newport Beach.