THE MESSAGE:

What does it take to achieve true success and happiness?

Your expectations, more than anything else in life, determine your reality and hence your happiness. Self confidence is the key to setting and achieving goals. If you do not believe in yourself, no-one else will.

In today's world of partisan politics, greed, corruption and violence, a surprising number of people are blinded to the truth that life is not a gift on a silver platter that everyone has a right to expect. Looking at others' lives is not a measure of whether or not we are successful and deserving of happiness. People who compare their existence to that of others need to give their head a shake. When something unfortunate happens, looking for someone else to get you back on your feet is never the answer. Sometimes there isn’t any consolation prize for finishing in third place. What you receive from life is entirely up to yourself.

Why are there so many victims of scams? Why do people buy lottery tickets or gamble at Casinos?Why do sports fans believe that their favourite teams owe them a championship?

One of the most important things to grasp is that if we limit ourselves to what’s given to us, we are at the mercy of other people. We must have the self-confidence to plan and seek out our own journey towards happiness. In setting goals we must think of the necessary steps required, what obstacles are in the way and what is the required action to eliminate these hurdles. Constant self evaluation is also required. What mistakes am I making that take me away from my goals rather than toward them?

Parental guidance, education and society in general must realize the importance of developing self-discipline in our youth. Also the importance of teaching the values of responsibility and accepting consequences must go along with allowing youth to make free choices.

People have hang-ups or obvious physical, mental or cultural flaws. Many school-aged children are bullied at school and disliked by others because of these perceptions by insensitive types. It seems like such an obvious expectation that everyone should like you. As a result some people live and grow with hurt feelings when they shouldn’t. Only a dog needs to be loved by everyone. When you depend on the need to feel that people are going to like you, you invent excuses and engage in activities that are counterproductive to your happiness. As an example you become upset with others that disagree with your theories or ideas. Or you may alter your ideas because you want to please a popular contemporary. Or you might join a protest movement, in which you really don't believe, simply to belong or feel accepted.

OPTING OUT OF SEEKING HAPPINESS

CANADA SUICIDE FACTS
Nearly 4,000 Canadians die each year by suicide, an average of 10 suicides per day.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of premature death in Canada.

Canadians are about seven times more likely to die from suicide than to be the victim of a homicide

In 1998, suicide was the leading cause of death for men between the ages of 25-29 and 40-44; for women it was the leading cause of death for ages 30-34

Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among youth

One in ten adolescents thinks about suicide

For each death by suicide there are as many as 100 suicide attempts

More than 1000 people in Ontario die by suicide each year (C.I.H.I. 1998-99)

On average, 3 people in Ontario die by suicide every day (C.I.H.I.)

3.5% of people in Ontario report thoughts of suicide in the past 12 months (Stats Canada 2002)

9,344 hospitalizations in Ontario due to suicide attempts with an average length of stay of 6.7 days (2001-02 C.I.H.I)

Average cost per suicide is $849,878.00 (New Brunswick Study 1996)

5 of the 10 leading causes of disability are related to mental disorders (World Health Organization)

ALBERTA'S SUICIDE RATE SPIKES AS UNEMPLOYMENT SOARS

THE MOST PRO-CAPITAL PLACE IN N.AMERICA

Alberta's suicide rate has grown almost 30 per cent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year.

Alberta's suicide rate has always been slightly higher than the national average — the most recent data from 2011 puts the province at 13.3 suicides per 100,000 people, while the country was at 10.1. But the sharp increase may be due to the high levels of joblessness in the province.

"It says something really about the horrible human impact of what's happening in the economy with the recession," counsellor David Kirby told CBC News. Kirby noted that demand for the Calgary Distress Centre's counselling services have gone up almost 80 per cent.

Career counsellor Dr. Laura Hambley says the key to staying healthy and happy during a difficult time of unemployment is to find meaning outside of work and remember that the difficult times are temporary.

ATTAWAPISKAT RESERVE

The epidemic of youth suicides is an example of what is left when there is no hope for future happiness. This 'first nations' reservation in Northern Ontario is isolated and rife with greed and a lack of purpose for a younger generation that sees no possibility of a bright future in their world. Government monetary handouts to this community have not and will not fix this problem.

BRUSSELS

Najim Laachraoui

He attended Catholic school and studied electrical engineering. His immigrant family valued education and discipline. His brother carries the Belgian flag as a national martial arts champion. His family and surroundings provided him a more than reasonable opportunity to draw on the technical skills which could have provided him a bright future in Western societies. Instead he was drawn to the Islamic State, where he built the bombs that, authorities suspect, were used in the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Mr. Laachraoui wheeled his handiwork into Brussels Airport on March 22 and, at age 24, blew himself up along with 15 bystanders. After finding his DNA at the scene, authorities concluded that Najim was the perpetrator.

Another attacker exploded a bomb nearby, and a third man detonated explosives on a subway, killing 17. Authorities suspect that these bombs had also been made by Mr. Laachraoui.

Why the bomb maker would himself become a suicide bomber remains one of the essential mysteries surrounding him and, much like his radicalization, this defies simple explanation. In such cases, experts say, the environmental and circumstantial components can be pieced together. But the personal and psychological ones remain obscure.

NEW YORK

A Bronx woman who researched methods to kill her children on the Internet, tried to poison them and ultimately drowned her infant daughter and 4-year-old son in a bathtub. The mother, Lisette Bamenga, 32, was convicted in a nonjury trial and is awaiting sentencing.

HER REASON FOR OPTING OUT OF BEING A MOTHER.

According to prosecutors, Ms. Bamenga killed her children after she suspected that her husband had fathered a child with someone else. In court, prosecutors outlined the horrifying series of events that played out on July 5, 2012, when Ms. Bamenga, a teacher, made several cold and calculating attempts to kill her son, Trevor, and her daughter, 4-month-old Violet.

According to Ms. Bamenga’s lawyer, Michael G. Dowd, his client had bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis. He brought this forward at the trial.

The father of the children, Noel Trevor, is an NYPD officer, and was said to have come home from his shift to find his children dead and his wife in hospital.

Lisette had laced the children's grape juice with windshield washer fluid. When the toxic brew failed to kill them, she drowned the children in the bathtub of the family’s apartment on Noble Avenue in the Parkchester neighbourhood. Then she locked the bodies of the children in the kitchen and turned on the gas on the stove. The day ended with Ms. Bamenga cutting her wrists and drinking the same wiper fluid she gave her children in a failed suicide attempt.

“The killing of these young children is a horrendous tragedy, and their mother has been held accountable for her actions,” Darcel D. Clark, the Bronx district attorney, said in a statement.

THE QUESTION:

What caused Najim to opt out of his environment? What did he find as hopeless? Was it the state of a world in conflict? Did he believe he was changing the world for the better by choosing to become radicalized? Or did he suffer from some sort of mental illness?

THE LEMON:

Awarded to Mohamed Abrini, (the man in the hat), for his role in the Brussels airport bombing. Apparently he panicked when his bomb failed to explode and he fled the airport.