Thursday, 26 November 2020

Pistis reclaims consensus (weekending November 28th 2020)

 

‽istis reclaims consensus (weekending November 28th 2020)

This week ‽istis wonders, when, for example and apparently:

‽ the margin is 51.9% to 48.1%[i] - or - 80,063,589 votes to 73,904,195 votes[ii]

‽ 59% of respondents in the UK 2011 census indicate a Christian belief and 41% claim a belief in another religion or none[iii]

‽ despite the ‘spectrum’ approach of the Democracy Index[iv], it seems that 57% of countries could be considered to be democracies of some kind[v]

‽ the UN reports that just 5% of heads of government around the world are female[vi]

‽ c.2/3rds of the British Cabinet are privately educated (Feb 2020)[vii]

‽ the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet’s population - and the 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa[viii]

‽ the United States spent around 718.69 billion US$ on its military in 2019[ix] and New Zealand planned to spend 3.29 billion US$ even after a 23% increase[x]

..then how is ‘consensus’ created or sustained especially in situations where there may be no written constitution[xi]; where the ‘evidence’ or the science may be contested (for example: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / SARS-CoV-2[xii]), let alone the policies based on it; where a ‘post-modern’ incredulity towards meta-narratives (after Lyotard[xiii]) perhaps asks much of that which is considered accepted/given/non-other in either our ‘histories’ or our various ‘presents’…?

And then ‽istis wonders whether there has ever really been a ‘consensus’… or whether what any ‘we’ calls consensus might be no more or no less than the views of the ‘currently powerful’…

·        perhaps however that power might have been rooted[xiv]: physical strength (and its extension in weaponry and arms small or nuclear) and related ableism; gender; sexual orientation; wealth, ownership of the means of production, heredity; social status or class or caste; education; age; race; religion; etc…

·        possibly, however that power may have been acquired, buttressed, maintained, imposed or manifest…

·        maybe, however that power has been used to claim an understanding of apparent consensus - or the right to decide what may be the accepted, declared or unquestioned sense of consensus…

 

And perhaps in recognising the means of gaining, holding and exercising power- and of defining ‘consensus’ - we possibly begin to recognise the clothes that Emperors anywhere and anywhen may put on to hide their shared nakedness?

 

© Pistis                                                                                   

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:   @Pistis_wonders

 


[i] The UK’s EU Referendum results: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results

[ii] Number of votes for Biden/Trump respectively as reported by The Guardian webpage 26.11.2020: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/nov/26/us-election-results-2020-joe-biden-defeats-donald-trump-to-win-presidency

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Thursday, 19 November 2020

Pistis (re)claims safety for children (weekending November 21st 2020)

 

‽istis (re)claims safety for children (weekending November 21st 2020)

On November 19th 2000, the non-governmental organisation Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF)[i] launched the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse.

The WWSF ’19 days’ campaign this year perhaps reminds us of the breadth of the issue and some of the main sources of danger for children and young people, some twenty years’ on:

·        Armed conflict

·        Sexual abuse and sexual exploitation

·        Bullying

·        Neglect

·        Child labour

·        Physical punishment

·        The sale of children

·        Pornography

·        Trafficking

·        Sex tourism

·        Harmful traditions

·        Information and computer technology

·        Street children

·        Substance Abuse

·        Malnutrition

·        Abduction

In the UK this week, the home page of the website for the NSPCC[ii]/National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (founded in 1884 c. 60 years after the RSPCA/Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has features on:

·        Instagram – the most recorded platform used in child grooming crimes during lockdown’

·        Police record over 10,000 online chid sex crimes in a year for the first time

·        Government is at risk of failing babies and parents during the coronavirus pandemic

·        Contact to the NSPCC helpline about domestic abuse up by nearly 50%.

In England and Wales, for example: perhaps consider visiting the website of IICSA/the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse[iii]; reading the reports generated so far or visiting the Truth Project pages that provide an opportunity for victims and survivors to share their experiences and be respectfully heard and acknowledged, helping to better understand the long term impact of abuse and to inform recommendations about support needs…

Possibly consider visiting the websites of your UK Local Children’s Safeguarding Partnership – or equivalent - one in every area and seeking to cover every square inch of the UK with a web and safety net of statutory, voluntary and community multi-agency protective services; possibly look at the resources, the processes and procedures, read the serious case reviews/safeguarding practice reviews[iv]; learn how to make a referral if you have concerns about the safety and well-being of a child or young person; seek advice and support…

In England, for example: maybe you might like to look at the website of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner[v] and consider the information from the Childhood Local Data on Risks and Needs (CHLDRN) that aims to provide the most complete picture of the numbers of children at risk in England (nationally and locally), making available over 100 indicators across different age ranges and types of risk; perhaps consider reading the recent report: The children who no-one knows what to do with…

And, across the world, ISPCAN[vi] (The International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) has a mission to prevent cruelty to children in every nation, in every form (physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, street children, child fatalities, child prostitution, children of war, emotional abuse and child labour) and to bring together a worldwide cross-section of committed professionals to work towards the prevention and treatment of child abuse, neglect and exploitation globally.

Every five years, each country that has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child[vii]/UNCRC (that’s all the world’s countries barring the USA), is required to report on progress in implementing the UNCRC – the reports are all available…[viii]   

And yet, and yet…  in the UK, The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) 2019 estimated that one in five adults aged 18 to 74 experienced at least one form of child abuse, whether emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or witnessing domestic violence or abuse, before the age of 16 years (that’s c.8.5 million people).[ix]

Wherever you might be, perhaps consider the effectiveness of the prevention of abuse and the response to children and young people at risk or in need, or who have suffered or are likely to suffer significant harm - in your area, country, region… What do your statistics reveal…? And behind the statistics: real children and young people, real adults who were children and young people…  And if you are worried for a child or young person or should you need help and support for yourself, there are many, many services available and the NSPCC helpline is probably a good starting point[x]…

So, in your own country, across the world… do we really believe that children and young people can be safe, that they have a right to be safe? What would the world have to be like for that to be so; what would we have to be like - and what would we have to do - for that to be so…?

© Pistis                                                                                  

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders  


[iv] The national case repository can be found at: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/case-reviews

[vii] https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/ https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/


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Friday, 13 November 2020

Pistis reclaims 'lest we forget' (weekending November 14th 2020)


 ‽istis reclaims ‘lest we forget’ (weekending November 14th 2020)

So ‽istis reclaims and ponders a phrase much heard this week - and posted and tweeted and posted again: ‘lest we forget’. And ‽istis wonders whether you stopped on Wednesday for two minutes and what went through your thoughts, heart or soul:

‽ perhaps the name of a family member, known or only named; near or far in time or in place; on one side or the ‘other’; armed forces, support, civilian; ‘legitimate’ target or ‘collateral’ damage; killed, murdered, gassed, shot, bombed, raped, tortured, violated in every way imaginable and unimaginable to most – save the inflicting and the inflicted; missing in action, perhaps stories as well as bodies gone; wounded or utterly, utterly broken in body, mind, will or spirit, things spoken, unspoken, unspeakable…?

‽ possibly lines of poetry caught on this week’s breeze - surviving their way out of the lines of trenches and dug-outs and broken hearts to maybe remind us again that victory and defeat could be imposters both, and that somehow (through blind-eye or fear or force or fatigue or naïve optimism or belief or delusion or illusion) we may have all lost too much already by the time the smoke begins, by the time we can no longer see everyone in the mirror and by the time it is deemed necessary for there to be a ‘winner’ and a ‘loser’…?

And ‽istis wonders what else we might forget?

…including, perhaps, possibly, maybe what February, March, April and beyond was like:

·        when most were afraid

·        when we discovered that governments could, and planes didn’t have to

·        when we knew who an essential worker was

·        when it seemed as though no-one might be immune

·        when we almost believed that no-one is safe unless we are all safe

and before the lessons (that we thought we were being taught, finally) had perhaps faded again into the ‘not-so-new-normal’.

Yet, if somehow we can just remember, then how different the world might still be…?

© Pistis                                                                                  

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders  

  

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Thursday, 5 November 2020

Pistis reclaims the format (weekending November 7th 2020)

 

‽istis reclaims the format (weekending November 7th 2020)

This week ‽istis has spent perhaps far too long watching the television, listening to the radio, checking the Twitter feed, scouring and scrolling multiple on-line news agencies – sometimes all at once…

And ‽istis wonders whether a format change perhaps, possibly, maybe underway or needed? Here are some offerings (larger, smaller and of varying degrees of consequence and undoubtedly linked to ‽istis’s pre-occupations!) to ponder:

‽ TV shows:

·        ‘The Apprentice’ – where the participants in a revised format can get to say “You’re Fired” to the egotocratic[i] ‘boss’/judge.  

·        ‘Don’t Rock the Boat’[ii] (what a welcome distraction for some in the UK in that pre-evening news slot this week) – where, in a surprise end-of-show revision to the expected format, the eventual winning team are proclaimed – not as the team which notched up the fastest time rowing the length of the UK (and thereby perhaps displaying the possibly necessary but maybe rather ruthless, single-minded, winning is all and winner takes all, zero-sum gain competitiveness of, say, an Olympian), but the team that has been continuously assessed behind the scenes as the one which, together, has generated the highest levels of ‘team spirit’, mutual support, good humour, kindness, courage-to-have-a-go-despite-fears-and-discomfort, entertainment-value, spirit of I-think-I’d-like-you-as-a-friend-through-the-good-times-and-the-bad times, etc. Oh, to see the reaction of participants and viewers alike!

‽ The format of church services (in a week where one of the Anglican Church’s prescribed readings apparently includes the words ‘in former times…’) from in-house; to online; to just much, much more actual service to others…

‽  Museums: with a new published manifesto for ‘learning and engagement’ from the UK’s ‘Museums Association’[iii], considering cultural rights, social justice, activism, community participation, partnerships, democratisation and the decolonisation of collections - and inspiring museums to play a part in processes of civil renewal and social change and be central to rebuilding of our societies[iv].  

‽ The priorities and commitments of ‘Natural England’[v] focussing on restoring nature in a time when ‘biodiversity loss and climate change are two of the greatest challenges facing our world’ and with the ‘now irrefutable’ ‘benefits of a healthy natural environment to our wellbeing’ and where ‘thriving nature is a “win-win-win”…’

‽ The news – with a format no longer dominated by Covid-19, turbulent politics and the latest bluff, bluster and hubris from both sides of the Atlantic

‽ Oh, and maybe a reformatting of the USA’s Electoral College…?[vi]

…to which you may wish to add your own and even find the energy, the time and the support of friends and allies to help re-formatting for a different, dare we say it, better future; just imagine…

© Pistis                                                                                  

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders  

  


[i] This may not yet be a word, but Pistis offers it humbly as a term that could perhaps be used in the future for the Trump presidency?

[iv] https://www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns/learning-and-engagement/manifesto/ see also other campaigns on decolonising museums, advocacy, museums change lives

[v] https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2019/11/05/thriving-nature-for-people-and-planet/ Natural England is the government’s advisory body for the natural environment, helping to protect England’s nature and landscapes for people to enjoy.  


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