Saturday, 2 November 2024

Post No. 2,920 - Reflections on the past week, and some interesting reading/viewing

As a first point, I have been removing the reminder posts for the “Hope, Peace, Love and Prosperity Ritual” each month, but I see there have been a fair few hits on that post. Given the importance of that work to me, I have decided to start leaving those posts up - unnumbered, and a little dated in presentation compared to what I now do perhaps, but they will be there still. 

This week has been marked by increasing tension and fear over the USA’s “fire alarm” presidential (and other) elections next week - specifically, the candidate who is an untrustworthy,  misogynistic, rapist, racist/transphobic, democracy  threatening, fascist and is calling to similar ilk (see ‘We want to make America hate again’). Some people are courageously recognising the significance of this, and working against that evil. 

I’m tempted to describe next week’s election as the closest those alive will come to a D-Day, but it is more preventing those alive having to go through a D-Day in  a few years’ time ... 

(Incidentally, it turns out that academics had predicted the destabilising problems caused by billionaires/“an excess of rich people”. And here’s a thought to ponder: what happens to the tech [hardware and software [“apps”] out of or based in or using the USA and the data it contains that so many people rely on in the modern world under a vengeful Trump?) 

Closer to my home, there has also been concern amongst some of us about the right wing election result in human-rights-abusing Queensland and the city-country divide it shows, anti-progressive measures elsewhere (which have led to a ban on one hater for interference with the operation of democracy), the continuation of disturbing forms of class based discrimination. 

Fear is an issue in both locations (and elsewhere), and a survey in the USA showed the number of fears shared by more than 50% in the USA is now ten, up from one with the first survey in 2019, and they include corrupt government officials, the US becoming involved in a third world war, t_rr_r_sm, and personal hardships such as seeing loved ones die or become ill and having enough money for the future. Just behind those was the climate crisis “that is primarily being driven by the burning of fossil fuels and has supercharged destructive hurricanes like Helene and Milton, which recently devastated swaths of the south-east US”, at 48%.

However, contrary to the slant of article, my opinion is that these fears are valid - especially regarding the climate crisis, and not some flippant outcome of social media that means the issues can be ignored.

On the other hand, “despite warnings of a spike in Islamophobia amid Israel’s war in Gaza, only 8.7% of the Chapman survey’s respondents reported being fearful of Muslims – making that the lowest of the 85 concerns asked about.   Hardly any of the survey’s respondents reported being afraid of immigrants (12.2%) or of American whites no longer being the US’s racial majority (16.2%) despite the racist rhetoric surrounding both topics that has seeped its way into mainstream rightwing politics.”   

Also, “The survey’s researchers also made it a point to say that people’s fears often do not align with reality. For instance, large numbers of Americans report being murdered or raped by strangers – 33.3% and 29.5%, respectively. But, according to the Pew Research Center, violence in the US has been declining in recent years.   Such misperceptions can translate into real-world effects, such as by convincing officials to prioritize neutralising serial killers rather than domestic abusers, who are much more common. “We are so focused on stranger danger that it leads us to spend resources in the wrong way,” Bader said in a statement.”   

Another issue that is real, has major effects, but is under-considered when formulating policy, is inequality, which is clearly shown by the information presented visually at https://wid.world/world/#sptinc_p90p100_z/US;FR;DE;CN;ZA;GB;WO/last/eu/k/p/yearly/s/false/23.477000000000004/100/curve/false/country  

Denial in response to reality is also an issue, as shown by the decades of homophobia in NSW's police - who have now finally committed to changing their culture ... which will only work if they commit to changing personalities, as I have written about elsewhere - and this suggests they may need to broaden that work ... (and that is also very evidently needed in my home state ... and WA - and this is an example of the benefits of such change ... and in the UK) And this also shows Australia as a whole needs to change our culture to eradicate “the stain of racism” ...

And the world has another opportunity to accept real evidence and make a real response to it, with a women’s group warning of genocide in central Sudan (where many victims of rape are dying by suicide). 

Sadly, the world’s record on this - there is also an opportunity with a call to extend action in Haiti to a full peacekeeping mission - is not good ... but   Israel’s “defence minister says 'painful concessions' needed to free Gaza hostages”, which MIGHT be the Israeli government laying the groundwork to prepare Israelis for a negotiated end to the war in Gaza, perhaps? Or a failure to secure the release/freedom of the hostages ...

Russia is also continuing to lay the groundwork to prepare the world for its potential use of nuclear weapons - but the world has a poor history when it comes to Putin (of consistent disbelief/underestimation), although at least some have now learned to take those threats seriously ... so the question is: have enough key people learned that? (North Korea is also going to be part of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, and has demonstrated troubling new missile capabilities.)

On learning, mismanagement of data can also be an issue in this world - especially politics, as it can lead to the problem of policies aimed at a few key voters rather than what is for greatest good ...

However, on a more hopeful note, this is an example of legislation for the greater good, this  court case also an example of action for the greater good, this is an example of (belated) accountability (and the need to “do more than declare a conflict of interest”) - as is this (for racism), and Botswana has just set an example for much of the rest of Africa (and the world) with a peaceful transfer of power after six decades of having had the same election results. 

Overall, I consider the world needs to look at the CHARACTER - specifically, the overt and unconscious  bigotries and BIASES - of people with decision making roles, and start weeding out those authoritarian types who have been destroying this planet and all sentient life on it. 

Then we can more efficiently overcome the evil of social status and get some real equity and equality ... 

And we might have less of this and what led to this. 

But the current violent crime around illegal tobacco shows the challenges of legislating, and the NEED TO ADAPT LAWS OVER TIME TO SUIT CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES.

I am also finding Anne Applebaum’s “Autocracy, Inc.” (Penguin, 2024, ISBN 978-1-802-06213-7; reviews by NPR, Foreign Affairs magazine, Good Reading; purchase at Penguin, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon) a very powerful read - even just the introduction, with its description of how authoritarians have created a parallel/shadow international order/economic order to enable mutual support, has been incredibly thought provoking. 

And this news article also raises some thought provoking issues:   “Not one government has paid into fund for victims of Uganda warlord, says ICC”   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/nov/01/not-one-government-has-paid-into-uganda-warlord-dominic-ongwen-victim-reparations-icc-says   ““The biggest issue is that states say: ‘Why should we pay for what Ongwen did? Why should we be covering this?’” said Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, the TFV’s executive director. “The answer to that is: states created the ICC with a notion of justice that includes the victims, and not being able to deliver on reparations puts the legitimacy of the court at risk.””     


 

Here are some llinks that might of interest or value:

  • “What Is STRONGWILLED?”   https://strongwilled.substack.com/about   “STRONGWILLED is a multimedia project that focuses on the personal and political impacts of Religious Authoritarian Parenting”      
  • “How language barriers influence global climate literacy”   https://theconversation.com/how-language-barriers-influence-global-climate-literacy-241867   “... The other form of inequality has to do with social injustice. Scientific literature is almost exclusively written in English. But this language is virtually unknown by most people, especially in developing countries. And so, societies who suffer more from climate change are precisely those where access to scientific literature about it is severely limited.”      
  • “What It Means To Be A Witch: The Rise of Witchcraft, The “Witch” Label, Religion & MORE”   https://youtu.be/RaWLiBCi2nc   An excellent, VERY interesting discussion - especially regarding excessive dramatisation and the impact of that on newbies (and a lot of that can be attributed, in my opinion/wording, to the evil of social status)       
  • also from YouTube:

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Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here. 

(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)   

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).
 
 
Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/   

 



 

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