April Forum – An Armidale Economy of Happiness

Last year, Armidale’s “Progressive Cinema” was one of the first Australian cinemas to show the film “The Economics of Happiness”, which has been described as “taking up the baton dropped by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth and taking it all the way to the finish. “

The film was a major feature of the “Building a Creative Economy” conference held in Sydney last year and attended by SLA member, Cathie Lamont, who has been inspired to host a re-screening and discussion at the next monthly SLA forum on Thursday 5 April.

“Going local” is a powerful strategy to help repair our fractured world” says Helen Norberg-Hodge, the film’s producer, who Cathie met at the conference. “What does that mean in the Armidale locality?” is the question that Cathie and many others at the first screening would like to explore.

The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions.  In one direction, government and Big Business push for a globalized economy based on high technology, increased trade, stress and misery.  In the other, people all over the world are working at grassroots level to nurture smaller scale, ecological, local economies. We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents including Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of Tibet’s government in exile, Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Zac Goldsmith and Australia’s own Clive Hamilton.

The Economics of Happiness restores our faith in humanity, and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.

Join us at Kent House (141 Faulkner St, opposite Central Park) on Thursday 5 April to explore ways we can create an Economy of Happiness in our own back yard.  The film will be screened at 6 pm in time for the forum to start just after 7pm, the usual meeting time.  A donation to cover the film hire and supper would be appreciated.