Pistis reclaims The Moment Before (weekending 2nd November 2019)

‽istis reclaims The Moment Before (weekending  2nd November 2019)

‽istis waited, breath-held - a moment caught exquisitely, Grecian-urn-like, as leaves try to hang on forever despite colouring-up gloriously for their fall and as the eternal lovers (with their never-fading beauty) oh so nearly kiss. And  ‽istis wondered what would happen when the moment passed: 

   

‽ when 95% of the universe had perhaps succumbed to the gaze of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

‽ when the Bake-off contestants stopped holding hands and the announcer’s pause had (finally) come to an end; when Lord Sugar’s finger had moved from poised to pointed; and when the flourished score paddle revealed a number 

                                                        

‽ when the ballot boxes were opened after their dark, uncustomary and wintry journey to the Town Hall

‽ when we had eventually left – or not

‽ when one of the two-teams left standing (or rucking and mauling, tackling and scrummaging, running and kicking) had crumpled to the floor and the other had roared…  

And after that moment, the moment that Erwin’s cat might break its silence, what else could be?; possibly, perhaps, maybe…

© Pistis

Pistis reclaims Ratification (weekending 26th October 2019)

‽istis reclaims Ratification (weekending 26^th October 2019)

‽istis filed in to the council chamber/the division lobby/the voting booth (delete as appropriate) and pondered forms and processes of ratification: 

‽ monist: international law and treatises apparently automatically incorporated into national law (possibly negotiated and agreed by a leader on behalf of us all, though maybe not elected by very many of us, and maybe acting ‘not in my name’…)

‽ dualist: international law and treatises apparently requiring translation - quite literally as well figuratively - into national law (perhaps approved through a mist of motivations by representatives selected by anyone who once cared to vote)

But ‽istis wondered whether a new term was needed:

‽ ‘trilist’: international law and treatises requiring not just negotiation, translation and representative approval but also final affirmation by all of us (well, at least half-plus-one of those who could care to vote, again!)

   

And, as the result was announced, ‽istis considered the mysteries of spelling and whether ‘moanist’, ‘duelist’ and ‘trialist’ might not suit the spirit of the age rather better - especially when so many involved are ‘rat’-ified and vilified: by each other in the very chambers and corridors of power; in rants aimed at the TV or radio (does someone ranting make a noise even if no-one is there to hear it?); in the pub or at the bus stop; in the press; outside their homes or in the streets; online - and even sometimes with vile abuse and terrifying death threats… 


© Pistis
  

Pistis reclaims a Good Night's Sleep (weekending October 19th 2019)

‽istis reclaims a Good Night’s Sleep (w/e October 19^th 2019)

‽istis yawned one of those deep, deep muscle-clenching, torso-spasming, mouth-can-go-no-wider yawns and stretched as dawn bird song cut through the noise within and without. And ‽istis wondered whether: 

‽ the VAT experts had, just perhaps, found in the through-the-night talks a way to beat the cross-border bankers at a million-to-one, last minute deal or no deal…

‽ there had been, just possibly, even the briefest of moments in the darkest of hours when no tank had rolled and no guns had fired into the vacuum of the most dangerous of ‘safety zones’…                                                              

‽ minute by minute, as a new day crept around the globe and some of us passed forever - but more arrived, miraculously, for a precious brief time – there was, just maybe when all is added up, a bigger stock of hope…

And, just possibly, perhaps, maybe, if a few more of us could claim a good night’s sleep, think how refreshed the world might be.


© Pistis 

Pistis reclaims Internationalism and Keeping the Peace (weekending October 12th 2019)

‽istis reclaims Internationalism and Keeping the Peace (w/e 12^th October 2019)

‽istis sat, head in hands, and lamented the funding problems for the United Nations regular programme reaching its deepest deficit of the decade (1) but grateful that the Dominican Republic, Malawi and Estonia topped the list of the 31 countries who had paid their contribution within the due period (2)


But ‽istis cowered, flinched, hid and wept at the relative cost of keeping the peace: 

‽        the total UN Global Peacekeeping budget: $6.5bn this financial year, perhaps less than half of one per cent of world military expenditures (estimated at $1,747bn in 2013) (3)

‽        the probable UK Ministry of Defence budget 2019-2020: £39.5bn (4)

‽        the £6.3bn to prepare for 'Brexit' this financial year (4) which, maybe luckily (!), looks to be about the same as the UK sales of arms to Saudi-led forces in the first four years of the Yemen bombing campaign (5)

And ‽istis wondered at arms races and the human race, the ‘us’ and ‘them’ of nation states and perhaps, possibly, maybe how different the world might be if just a fraction of the cost of a bomb smartly targeted on a specific area and people was spent on health, education, community projects, infrastructure, peace and capacity-building - smartly targeted on exactly that same area and people.         

© Pistis

References/further reading…

1) https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1048782

2) https://www.un.org/en/ga/contributions/honourroll.shtml

3) https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/how-we-are-funded

4) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-round-2019-document/spending-round-2019)    

5) https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/britain-arms-deals-saudi-forces-yemen-bombing-campaign-495410

Pistis reclaims Defecation (weekending October 5th 2019)

‽istis reclaims Defecation (weekending October 5th 2019)

 
‽istis squatted and wondered about toilets and… 

‽ why a well-known ‘world in figures’ 2019 publication (1) can maybe use a ‘Big Mac Index’ to make currency exchange comparisons, can rank the average cost of a cinema ticket across the globe, or show which countries are the top five coarse grains producers – but does not seem to have information on access to a toilet and clean sanitation (can tell us about ‘brain drains’ but not household drains)…?

‽ despite apparent disputes about actual delivery or methods of enforcement, how ambitious is the claim that India has possibly ended open defecation and that more than 100 million toilets have been built in 5 years through the Swachh Bharat/Clean India mission - before which perhaps over 500 million people did not have access to safe sanitation…? (2)                                                                                

‽ that inadequate sanitation is still estimated to cause maybe 432,000 diarrhoeal deaths annually across the world, and that the countries where open defecation is most widespread have the highest number of deaths of children under 5, the highest levels of malnutrition and poverty, and big disparities of wealth… (3)

…And if no home could have more than one toilet until all homes have at least one toilet, then just imagine how clean and level the playing fields might be.



(PS: ‽istis struggled to avoid any reference to defecatory matter meeting air circulatory equipment in the UK and Europe as October 31^st looms)

© Pistis

References/further reading…

1) The Economist: ‘Pocket World in Figures’ 2019 ed. (p. 37, 101, 48, 60)


2)  Narendra Modi to face down critics by hailing Clean India scheme a success (Guardian 30.9.2019) https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/sep/30/narendra-modi-to-face-down-critics-by-hailing-clean-india-scheme-a-success


3) WHO: Sanitation key facts 14.6.2019: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation