Showing posts with label ageing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ageing. Show all posts

Friday, 20 December 2024

Post No. 2,967 - Personal: life damage - spiritual/psychic ageing

I have had a realisation: in somewhat the same way that I am too old to ever have again the physical capabilities of my youth, I am too spiritually/psychically broken to ever be as good, in some ways, as I was spiritually/psychically when I was younger – which I blame that on the amathiac unfairness, dishonesty, and lack of integrity & caring of modern societies.

However, my poem “Not Broken Enough” still applies (as does “A Life at War”), and in other ways my life experiences have made me stronger and/or better spiritually/psychically.



If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram. 

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).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and   candles for Viva La Résistance à Tr_ mp!   and may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical  BPM  

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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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:

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram. 

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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Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Post No. 1,334: Cross Posting: An ageing world and other myths

This was originally posted at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/05/an-aging-world-and-other-myths.html
*****
When I came back to Victoria in the mid-1980s, the water industry had an infrastructure replacement fund - in the jargon of today's world, where people give an old concept a new world so they can pretend it's new (like calling "Whole of Catchment Cycle Plan" an "Integrated Water Management Plan"), that would probably be called "asset replacement fund". It was a certain amount of money put aside each year so that when an asset reached the end of its life, you had money to replace or, at the very least, repair it.
Ignoring inflation for the moment, say a pipe was going to last 50 years; you would save 2% of the cost of the pipe each year so that when it was about to fail significantly, you had the money to replace it, or do enough repairs to keep it going.
In the field of public infrastructure, it makes good sense - if the world had followed that practice, we wouldn't now be facing an "infrastructure cliff" (not my term) of assets built for the baby boomer era that are now all going to fail, while we don't have enough (any?) money to deal with the problem.
You could consider it, in a sense, a retirement scheme for pipes, roads and other public infrastructure, except that it is unemotional replacement, not impractical retirement of an object meant to provide an active service for the public good.
Retirement . . . that also raises another matter: that of our proportionally ageing population - that is, we proportionally have more older people. In the arena of economic thought, where money is supposed to be "active", pensions are supposed to be paid by the rest of the population, rather than out of money set aside for a known, coming expense. Governments seem to have a habit of wanting that money to come from other sources, rather than the government equivalent of the everyday person's practice of setting aside money for a rainy day, and for clearly known coming expenses.
Thus, we have had superannuation schemes introduced to attempt to ensure that retirees have enough money to live on comfortably (they often don't, partly because of fallacious assumptions about home ownership, but that is another matter) without taxes on younger people that may reach a level that causes the younger people to vote for someone else - sorry, that are "unsustainable".
Now, effectively, the saving is being pushed from the public sector to the private sector. There are efficiencies in that, as the public sector quite rightly is obliged to focus on rules of accountability to ensure there is no waste, corruption, etc, but this would result in a reduced rate of return of saved money, whereas the private (superannuation) sector focuses on rates of return . . . and loses a lot of money when things like the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 occur . . .
I'm not quite sure why the government fund couldn't be invested in a superannuation fund or similar, or even used to provide funding for public projects (there are often what are called "internal rates of return", which are effectively what most people would consider interest rates).
Another aspect of public finances is that of opportunity income - things like what was covered by the "mineral resource rent tax" introduced by the Gillard government. That tax was, in my opinion, a completely reasonable thing - to choose an equivalent from an everyday person's life, it is like winning lotto, and setting a side a portion to make sure you can spend the rest of your life living comfortably, before you go wild with travel and parties, etc (incidentally, most lotto winners lose all their savings within two years).
To continue the analogies with everyday life for a moment, the infrastructure replacement fund would be the equivalent of making sure you had enough money set aside to cover replacing fridges etc when they reach the end of their life without having to get a loan (and credit cards are loans). 

There are a few other points I'd like to make here, in passing:
  • until the Andrews government, decades of governments have been reducing spending on infrastructure because (a) they thought there would be votes in reduced taxes, (b) for ideological reasons, as with the neoliberals - including the neoliberals who seem to infest world financial organisations and infect the ideologies of same, or (c) both the preceding; 
  • in the 1980s, it was accepted that governments would take out loans to pay for infrastructure. This was shot down by the infesting ideologues of the neoliberal movement, but it also did (while it existed) create a true, intergenerational version of "user pays". The neoliberals I was working for back then prattled on about "user pays", but what they really meant was "current users pay for all now".
A lot of battles have been lost - then, and since, on the provision of infrastructure, and the management of public money. If I could, I would love to reinstitute the practice of saving to replace infrastructure, but that does seem to put a burden on the current generation to pay for future generations' infrastructure, except it doesn't really, as it only provides money to replace the current infrastructure: at the time it is replaced, there will need to be additional expenditure to expand the infrastructure for population growth, and the demands of new working conditions (e.g., replacing a pipe in an open area costs a certain amount, but replacing it after that area subsequently becomes developed costs a lot more).
Perhaps more importantly, as we move into the climate crisis, is ensuring we spend sufficient money to maintain assets properly. I've done some work in my day job on this, and proper maintenance was one of the main aspects of ensuring infrastructure resilience. Personally, I would like to see every grant for an asset such as a country road include an ongoing allowance for maintenance (or an amount set aside for that purpose in the grant), but the ideologues often work on the basis that "we'll pay to build it, but you must pay to maintain it", which often ignores the arguments of broader social benefit that underlay the construction grant in the first place.
In terms of how we change from the current situation, I consider that Norway has the best approach: they outsourced responsibility for thinking about such matters to a philosopher. Either the Norwegian government or the state oil company (they won't answer any emails, so I can't find details other than passing references in the media) hired a philosopher to advise on how to achieve the greatest good with income from their oil revenue, and the philosopher advised them to start . . . setting some money aside.
Here's to our Chief Scientist, Chief Veterinarian and Chief Medical Officer being joined by our Chief Philosopher :)
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Friday, 28 September 2012

Post No. 405 - The challenge of time

Nothing metaphysical in this post, I'm afraid. No, I've just been exercising, and thinking about the challenges of fitting everything in that we're meant to, in our daily life.
Now, there are people who cannot exercise, or must exercise carefully, for very valid reasons (e.g. health reasons such as arthritis or heart complaints, or the parents of young children). For those who can exercise, the time required to exercise properly becomes a problem.
The standard advice we've been hearing for many years is that three 20 minutes periods of aerobic activity will get people fit. I've been fit (for competitive dinghy and small boat sailing), and consider that utter  nonsense. For a start, it makes no allowance for proper warm up and cool down (I refuse to use the fashionable term of "warm down", out of cantankerousness, nor the term "resistance training" for weight training, as it is so stupid and inappropriate [such a term should be used for isometric exercises!!!] as to be work of a cretin), and that becomes more and more essential as one ages. My experience, as a 50+ age person, based on the training I did for competing in the sailing in the Sydney 2002 Gay Games as a 40+ age person, is that training properly and effectively requires between one and two hours, including the preliminaries and afters, at least 4 or 5 times a week. In fact, I have long considered that a good part of what gets written off as the inevitable effects of ageing, is actually simple lack of exercise/physical activity.
As an example, I do a lot of joint circling (I was started on that by a Chinese doctor - a GP - I saw when I injured my back as a 20 year old, and developed that further when I started working with Tai Chi), and I find it is very good at combating stiffness - as is stretching, even just simple things like the now more fashionable idea of officeworkers getting up and stretching, which I have been doing for years.
And now is where the issue of time starts to become a problem.
If I do:
  • 2 hours of physical exercise
    (the best guide to exercise for most people that I have come across is the 10,000 steps per day notion: I normally do around 2,000 steps in the course of daily living, so 8,000 steps at 1 step per second is just over two hours [1 step = two paces, i.e. right foot, then left foot, that's one, you don't count for paces with both feet], or, at 1 step [4 paces] per second, which is close to running, that's 4,000 seconds, which is still a touch over an hour, which has 3,600 seconds; parents of young children probably do in excess of 20,000 steps per day - often at a frantic pace ... )    ; 
  • 1 hour of psychic exercise
    (colour visualisation, practice techniques such as flaming, do breathing exercises - which take at least 30 minutes on their own, and meditation); 
  • work 8 hours, plus lunch and a minimum of 1 hour commuting each way; and 
  • sleep for 8 hours;
then I am left with 3 hours for house work, showering, cooking and cleaning, and spending time with my family.
Given that, I think it is no wonder that people seek to minimise the time they spend exercising to three 20 minutes sessions each week ... and art of the myth of ageing continues, because it is easier. Mind you, some of it is not - I take longer to recover, and am slower, etc, but I still consider exercise - particularly exercise aimed at keeping muscle bulk - will help offset those effects.
I like Jim Butcher's inclusion of this aspect in the Dresden Files [1] , which is set in a version of reality where wizards can live for several hundred years, but I've also observed family members as they've aged, particularly my father. The effects of inactivity and being looked after is one reason I fight tooth and nail NOT to be looked after by others :)
PS - this issue of time constraints is why I personally consider homes should be set up so that housework can be done with minimum time / effort / cost - for instance, I personally prefer sofas that are raised, so they can be swept or vacuumed underneath without having to make a big production of things by moving them whenever you clean the floor. Of course, the vision of such sofas causes me no grief whatsoever: it does to some others, I know, but maybe they need - ESPECIALLY if they are trying to do serious spiritual / psychic work - to learn to accept such minor constraints (and they are minor, in many cases) so they will have more time and energy for such work. I also believe in minimal effort cooking, but that is not a minor matter - many people see good nutrition and other meal aspects as being important, and also being part of their spirituality. That's quite alright for them, but it does not hold the same importance for me. That leads me to two of my biggest gripes: assuming others will have the same tastes and preferences as oneself, and lack of respect for other people's possessions, especially their books and tools.

I can remember one young person from around ten or so years ago breaking the back of one my paperbacks, and then arguing with me about the fact that the cretin had damaged my property (I physically took the book back, and refused to allow him access to any of my books thereafter). I've had a lot of my possessions damaged or destroyed by others in this life, and, as a result, am no longer anywhere near as generous as I used to be - I simply cannot afford, for financial reasons, to be as generous as I used to be. Then there is the issue of idiots thinking they can touch other people's working tools (crystals, wands, robes, etc). In one temple I was in a few years ago, this was so bad that we actually had to issue a formal warning against handling other people's working tools - and this was a Temple, a place Where people were learning about energy, and should either know better - never mind having at least enough basic MANNERS not to do so!

I found out recently that, when I was a herbwoman in Portugal in the 1500s, I wound up being killed when one young woman who had been sent to look after and help me, tried to grab some energetically sensitive bags and, in trying to save them from being ruined by her touch, I fell (over a moderate cliff face) and was fatally injured. So the topic is one of particular sensitivity to me personally, but it applies to everyone. As the old guide says, if it isn't yours, don't touch it. (And as I would add to that, people have the right to do with their stuff as they wish: hence if you borrow something, you (a) are quite possibly unwise at best, and (b) maintain it as they tell you, even if they treat it differently - it is THEIRS, NOT yours, and you have no right to even have an opinion about that, in my view.)

Actually, it is the being ignored when I speak up that is most aggravating in such situations. For many decades I refused to make a song and dance about strong views, and the people I was speaking to at such times were unfortunately too stupid to notice that what I was saying was important - such as the idiot who ruined my book. (There is another idiot who comes to mind as I write this, and that is someone who used a boat of mine without my permission: I warned him that I would have him charged if he ever touched my boat again, and the club committee backed me up on this, but he was so untrustworthy that I literally had to chain my boat to the rack, and I have never ever stored a small boat in a sailing club since then: if I can't trail it behind or on my car, I won't have it.)


[1] Please see my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia.
[2] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")
My "blogiography" is here. I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
 A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
The International Labour Organisation's definition of "full employment" is wrong, useless and misleading.
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." on one side, and perspicacity on the other.
 Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
 The only prejudice should be against prejudice. 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. EDMUND BURKE
Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN
We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
 Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW
Tags: about me, ageing, attitudes, exercises, health, society,
First published: Frysdagr, 28th September, 2012

Last edited: Wednesday, 23rd Jabuary, 2013
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