Pistis reclaims goodwill and messages of peace (weekending April 30th 2022)

 

‽istis reclaims goodwill and messages of peace (weekending April 30th 2022)

This week ends on a day that has been designated ‘International Jazz Day’ by UNESCO (1): ‘to focus global attention on the role that jazz has played in breaking down race and gender barriers around the world, promoting co-operation mutual understanding and communication - and peace and freedom.’ (2).

‽istis begins to ponder jazz and recalls earlier thoughts on ‘extemporising’ back in August 2020 when we were trying to find our way through the score-destroying uncertainty of a response to a potential existential threatening pandemic (3).

But then, on reading that the initiative leading to ‘International Jazz Day’ came from ‘American Jazz pianist, composer and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogues’, ‽istis riffed away to consider the people who are, or have been ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ - who are they? What is their role? Has  anyone evaluated their impact? Has the stock of ‘goodwill’ across the world increased and how, on earth, could we ever tell?

Considering these questions took ‽istis down what might be considered a ‘rabbit hole’ (4) leading to a maze of tunnels and corridors opened up by the internet and the mysterious algorithmic magic of search engines. A complex network is found - the structure of the United Nations (5): 

‽ six main organs (6)

‽ four pillars (7)

‽ fifteen ‘specialised organisations’ including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (8)

‽ a number of a number of UN offices, programmes and funds — such as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) — working to improve the economic and social condition of people around the world. (9)

And, ‽istis discovers that there are both ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ and ‘Messengers of Peace’ (10): ‘distinguished individuals, carefully selected from the fields of art, literature, science, entertainment, sports or other fields of public life, who have agreed to help focus worldwide attention on the work of the United Nations. Backed by the highest honour bestowed by the Secretary-General on a global citizen, these prominent personalities volunteer their time, talent and passion to raise awareness of United Nations efforts to improve the lives of billions of people everywhere.’ (11)

Links and files available from the webpage https://ask.un.org/faq/14597 lead to a list, a gallery and further individual pages for the 13 current ‘Messengers of Peace’. Another link takes this rabbit-hole explorer to the initialised world of: UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP, UNAIDS FAO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, World Food Programme (WFP, surely?), UN WOMEN, UNODC, IFAD & UNCDF…  all of which seem to have Goodwill Ambassadors, Advocates or Special Ambassadors.

Wondering about evaluation and impact matters, ‽istis follows (from https://ask.un.org/faq/14597) another link and finds a report from 2006: ‘Goodwill Ambassadors in the United Nations System’ by Papa Louis Fall and Guangting Tang (Joint Inspection Unit, Geneva) (12) - an  evaluation  of  the  Goodwill  Ambassadors programmes in the United Nations system from March to May 2006. Several recommendations are made including this: ‘Executive heads should:  (a) Develop systems to track and report regularly on the impact of the activities of the Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace;  (b) Conduct periodic evaluations of the programmes to improve their efficiency.

So, tunnelling on, ‽istis types in ‘UN Evaluation of the impact of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace’ to a popular search engine. An article emerges by Mark Wheeler emerges in the journal ‘Celebrity Studies’ (2011) (13) and, with it, ‘a mixed picture’ - but an acknowledgement that ‘the UN experience demonstrates that celebrities have promoted new or alternative discourses, and by occupying a public space have affected credible diplomatic interventions across the international community.’

Finally, ‽istis comes up for air, pops out of the rabbit hole and looks again at the world around...

And ‽istis is left wondering what messages of goodwill and peace are being proclaimed this week and today by the 153 Goodwill Ambassadors (14) and 13 Messengers of Peace (15)?, how and to whom?, whether we are listening? and if it will make a difference‽

© 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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

1. UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization
2. https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/jazz-day
3. https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2020/08/pistis-reclaims-extemporising.html when ‽istis hoped that ‘the required extemporisation is indeed based and built on sound and shared principles, experience and expertise; presented by people in harmony, united and sharing an understanding of ‘what works’; acknowledging, referencing, citing, adopting and adapting the best of past and contemporary exponents and of acclaimed and proven forebears and peers…’ Hmm, that went well?
4. After Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)?
5. https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/mun-guide-general-assembly
6. Economic and Social Council; General Assembly; International Court of Justice; Secretariat; Security Council; Trusteeship Council
7. Peace and Security; Human Rights; The Rule of Law; Development. ‘These four pillars are all interconnected. You can’t fully achieve one without achieving all of them.’ Hmm, that’s going well?  https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/4-pillars-united-nations
8. & 9) https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/un-family-organizations

 

10. and 11.  https://ask.un.org/faq/14597 : ‘The United Nations Secretary-General appoints Messengers of Peace. Goodwill Ambassadors, on the other hand, are designated by the heads of United Nations Funds, Programmes and specialized Agencies, e.g., UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNHCR. Goodwill Ambassadors are subsequently endorsed by the Secretary-General. In 2010, in response to a General Assembly request to mark the International Year of Biodiversity, for the first time the Secretary-General appointed a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.

 

12. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/593164?ln=en  the objective of the evaluation was to ‘Assess the level of financial and human resources needed to meet established objectives effectively and to achieve a return on investment.  Identify  best  practices  and  performance  indicators  for  the  use  and  administration  of  Goodwill Ambassador programmes. Recommend  where  necessary  general  guidelines  for  improvement,  rationalization  and harmonization of current practices within the system.’

Eleven recommendations are noted including: Recommendation 8 Executive heads should:  (a) Develop systems to track and report regularly on the impact of the activities of the Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace;  (b) Conduct periodic evaluations of the programmes to improve their efficiency.

 

13. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232831254_Celebrity_diplomacy_United_Nations'_Goodwill_Ambassadors_and_Messengers_of_Peace and concludes: ‘a mixed picture has emerged… Undoubtedly, Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace have lent weight to the public campaigns waged by the UN in a commercially driven global news media. They have provided a definable focus for public engagement and have utilised their star power to affect pressure upon diplomats, international policy-makers and national leaders but, …there are dangers in over-simplifying complex forms of international diplomacy and utilising emotional responses. However, the UN experience demonstrates that celebrities have promoted new or alternative discourses, and by occupying a public space have affected credible diplomatic interventions across the international community.’

14.  UNESCO (55), UNEP (9), UNDP (10), UNAIDS (8), UNFPA (6), FAO (3), UNHCR (6), UNICEF (30), World Food Programme (4), WHO (9), UN WOMEN (5), UNODC (5), IFAD (2), UNCDF (1).

15. HRH Princess Haya , Daniel Barenboim , Paulo Coelho, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Stevie Wonder, Malala Yousafzai.

Pistis begins to ponder learning and school subjects (weekending April 23rd 2022)

 

‽istis just begins to ponder learning and school subjects (weekending April 23rd 2022)

Earlier this month a British newspaper headline read: ‘Schools being ‘silenced’ by new political impartiality guidance from Government, teachers say’ (1) following, it seems, the publication in February of the Department for Education’s guidance: ‘Political Impartiality in Schools’ (2) and the foreword by Nadhim Zahawi MP Secretary of State for Education, includes:

‘Importantly, I hope this guidance helps all parties to understand how schools should go about meeting their legal duties, allowing issues to be resolved through constructive dialogue and agreement…

…nothing in this guidance limits schools’ freedom to teach about sensitive, challenging, and controversial political issues…

Schools should also continue to reinforce important shared principles that underpin our society, whether that be upholding democratic rights or more generally promoting respect and tolerance.’

And this week, a new GCSE subject is proposed: ‘Natural History’ (3) part of the Department for Education’s  Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy - which prompted ‽istis to reflect on other subjects that might be introduced, or given a makeover - here’s a cautious first sketch of a first draft only as mind-map images beginning to form: of a coherent and connected curriculum from foundational core themes, topics and subjects branching outward to specialisms through life-long education, learning and training opportunities and related organisational arrangements (to be continued).

So, in no particular order or hierarchy and as a starter for ten only and with general apologies:

‽ Learning and thinking: critical thinking and analysis: from constructs to deconstruction; from making and presenting a case to dialogue and debate; from heuristics and rhetoric; using assistive technology; sources and resources; ‘facts’ and ‘truth/s’ - knowns, unknowns and unknown unknowns!

‽ Applied Social Sciences: psychology (understanding what may lie within us/what makes us tick?), social psychology (understanding what may lie between us/?), sociology (understanding what may lie outside of us and may influence us?) - and related topics: emotional intelligence and relationships: personal, family, communities, social organisation; human and other rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and the law; diversity matters; inclusion and exclusion; civics and society: institutions, power, politics, economics, systems, organisations; peace and reconciliation; building consensus, creating the future, etc.

‽ Health and well-being… understanding mental health, physical health - recreation and sport; emotional well-being of self and others; healthy people and places

‽ Language, languages (with specific options), communication and the media

‽ Histories: many and varied perspectives on the past - dominant and otherwise, records and sources, archives and collections, narratives and stories

‽ Geography and the natural, altered and 'made' world: people, places, landscapes and environments - past, present and future

‽ Belief and faiths in theory and practice: sacred and secular, religious and humanistic

‽ Everyday mathematics and then options: on to ‘pure’ mathematics, etc.

‽ Recycle and repair, DIY and maintenance, electrics, plumbing and building etc.

‽ Everyday science and then options - on to specifics: physics; chemistry; biology; engineering; natural history and sustainability

‽ The arts and cultures: understanding, appreciating and creating - on to specific areas: literature - poetry and lyrics; plays and prose; visual arts; sound and music-making; music production; architecture and the built environment, etc.

And, as ever, you might care to have a go at sketching out your vision or adapting this very first draft - with so much more work to be done, not least to address, ‽istis is sure, the many omissions and biases (conscious or unconscious!)…

Perhaps, possibly, maybe let us at least consider that it could be important to find fresh ways to kindle the flames (4) of learning and achievement for us all; to re-think learning and curricula, assessment and qualifications and their delivery and organisation - including the role and nature of playgroups, nurseries, home-learning, schools, universities, work-based learning and opportunities for life-long learning; to consider what are the outcomes that we wish for - and to imagine how different the world could be‽

Afterwords:

a) In a spirit of dialectics and Hegelian ‘absoluter gegenstoss’ (5), if you wish to call someone ‘woke’ then perhaps you are somehow acknowledging that there may be others who essentially ‘asleep’ or ‘unconscious’ - possibly even to their biases, howsoever and wheresoever these may have been taught or learned: at home, in a community, in school or perhaps, possibly, maybe within a dominating and even inherently ‘othering’ hegemony‽

b) Further to the issuing of the DfE Guidance and in the spirit of the foreword by Secretary of State for Education, ‽istis looks forward to renewed outbreaks of: ‘issues… resolved through constructive dialogue and agreement’; reinforcing ‘important shared principles’; ‘upholding democratic rights’ and ‘more generally promoting respect and tolerance’ - on the playing fields of Eton (6), the playing fields left across other schools (7), in the Department for Education and in Parliament.

© 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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

1. https://inews.co.uk/news/education/school-classrooms-silenced-political-impartiality-guidance-government-teachers-british-empire-1568560
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools
3. References include: http://www.curlewmedia.com/gcse-natural-history, the website of Mary Colwell (producer and writer specialising in nature’) who proposed such a topic several years’ ago. See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/61141330 & https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/17/new-natural-history-gcse-to-focus-on-protecting-the-planet & https://teach.ocr.org.uk/naturalhistory
4. Which may or may not have been proposed by William Butler Yeats: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/28/mind-fire/
5. References include:   https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2015/03/worst-all-worlds-late-capitalist-materialism-and-unending-cycles-slavoj-i-ek which includes:  “the radical coincidence of opposites in which the action appears as its own counteraction…’ & ‘…an action becomes the result (rather than the cause) of its counteraction. To take the best-known example in Hegel, the master discovers that the slave is not his other but the condition of his status as master – that he is the master only by virtue of his dependence on (or enslavement to) the slave.’
6. References include: https://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/57740288322/misquotation-the-battle-of-waterloo-was-won-on#:~:text=Misquotation%3A%20%E2%80%9CThe%20battle%20of%20Waterloo,wars%20have%20been%20lost%20there.
7.  Is this accurate‽ :‘The Conservative government between 1979 and 1997 sold off around 10,000 playing fields. The Labour government between 1997 and 2010 sold off 226 fields.’ https://www.itv.com/news/update/2012-08-17/how-previous-governments-compare-on-selling-off-playing-fields/ & ‘236 playing field sales have been signed off under the Conservatives since 2010.’ https://schoolsweek.co.uk/school-playing-field-sales-hit-3-year-high-as-johnson-pledges-50m-football-pitch-investment/

Pistis wonders about chickens and eggs (weekending April 16th 2022)

 

‽istis wonders about chickens and eggs (weekending April 16^th 2022)

This weekending, for many across ‘Western Christendom’ this Easter weekending - when:

a) the sinking of RMS Titanic 110 years’ ago is commemorated and the debris of metaphors for hubris perhaps rises to the surface again

b) when the violent and warring aggression of one state to another is described as genocide (1) and perhaps we try to begin to imagine the appalling experiences that might represent ‘proof’ required by legal strictures and complex processes: rape, execution, targeting of civilians, the pounding to dust of the infrastructure of ordinary life

c) a sitting Prime Minister can indeed claim an ‘all-other-UK-Prime-Minister-beating’ (if not world-beating) law-breaking first (2) and accepts ‘in all sincerity, that people have the right to expect better…’ (though presumably only in relation to this limited matter)

d) an immigration policy initiative proposes to transport people (‘migrants and refugees (who) make perilous journeys across borders and even oceans in search of safety and economic opportunity, running away from armed conflicts, famine, climate change and other hardships they have encountered in their home countries…’ 3), to Rwanda (4) ‘to consider their claims for asylum… and arranging for the settlement in Rwanda of those recognised as refugees or otherwise requiring protection’ (from the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’) and the financial arrangements are perhaps unclear (‘19.1 The Participants will make financial arrangements in support of the relocation of individuals under this Memorandum of Understanding.’)

e) ‽istis walks past a church with one of many services ‘celebrating’ Easter underway

…‽istis ponders whether perhaps, possibly, maybe any proposed ‘solution’ tells us quite a lot about the perception of what the ‘problem’ is:

a) Icebergs?

b) War as any kind of solution; disregard for human rights – at the most fundamental: the right to life; orders given; a brutalising strategy encouraged or at least systemically allowed, or at least blind-eyes turned?

c) The interpretation and judgement of the police?

d) People, adults and children seeking safety, a better life for them and their families? The ‘pull’ factors? (5)

e) Sinful humanity in need of redemption? 

As for the latter – redemption and the saving of the world - ‽istis thinks that at best this may still be a work in progress…

Some might question the effectiveness of that apparent God-becomes-Man sacrificial/penal-substitutionary supernatural gesture. But then how bad might the past 2,000 years have been without it - or do we need to wait until after death (by drowning or freezing; by soldier’s gun, knife or sheer brutality; by bomb and missile; by Covid19’s huge death toll in this country including those who died without the comfort of family members who did not party and who followed lockdown rules; by machete, by death in custody) to reap the eternal benefit‽

‽istis wonders whether we might consider that other views could be available, that there can be other framings of the problems and that then, just perhaps, possibly, maybe other solutions could be imagined…

© 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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

1) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/joe-biden-russia-genocide-accusation-ukraine-vladimir-putin-war-rcna24176

2)  https://inews.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-first-sitting-prime-minister-break-law-pm-fine-signficance-explained-1570984

3) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-mou-between-the-uk-and-rwanda

4) Rwanda: https://factpackers.com/interesting-facts-about-rwanda/ & a country where: ‘As many as 800,000 people were murdered by the Hutus from April to June 1994… Systematic rape was used in addition to the brutal mass killings. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped and killed during the Rwanda genocide; thousands of women were kept as sex slaves.’ (https://borgenproject.org/15-facts-about-the-rwanda-genocide/)

5) See blog entry: ‘‽istis reclaims tears (weekending October 31^st 2020)’

Pistis wonders: music (weekending April 9th 2022)

‽istis wonders: music (weekending April 9th 2022)

In a week when the shape of your arrangement of 12 notes is contested and a copyright challenge is decided (1), when Andriy Khlyvnyuk, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney rise up to collaborate on a song (2), ‽istis wonders - while listening to Mousse Radio (3) - at, and about, ‘music’:

‽ ‘vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony; the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity’ (4)

‽  “Music — what a powerful instrument, what a mighty weapon!” – Maria August von Trapp (…and the following quotations: 5)

‽ “Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

‽ “You have to take a deep breath. and allow the music to flow through you. Revel in it, allow yourself to awe. When you play allow the music to break your heart with its beauty.” – Kelly White

‽ “Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.” – Maya Angelou

‽ “How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our fears, our highest aspirations?” Jane Swan

‽ “Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.” – Emory Austin

‽ Music is the tool to express life – and all that makes a difference.” Herbie Hancock

‽ “Wake up, live your life and sing the melody of your soul.” – Amit Ray

Close to home, the cautious writing of a song is attempted (a sort of ‘chant’ for four voice parts, some ‘airy whistling’ and with lines of melody and harmony that have perhaps not obviously, possibly miraculously, maybe unwittingly been arranged quite like this before). A song for the spirit, for the soul, for a group of people, for those who may be flound’ring not waving, for the memory of tragedy, for those seeking safe haven… 

• Safe haven, a port in a storm, shelter near. Safe haven, a port in a storm, shelter here?

• Safe haven, a port in a storm, shelter here.  Safe haven, a port in a storm, shelter near?

• So rough we are flound’ring. So calm, we are waving. In a boat we’ve not chosen. Seek a port, seek a port.

• Harbour lights. Red and Green. Shining clear. Calming fear? 

And ‽istis ponders that perhaps, possibly, maybe words alone might not always be enough...‽

© 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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

1. References found include: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61006984 ‘There's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That's 22 million songs a year and there's only 12 notes that are available.’

2. https://www.nme.com/news/music/pink-floyd-to-release-first-new-music-in-decades-to-support-ukraine-3200427 

3. Mousse Radio, broadcasting from Kyiv, found on the Radio Garden App.

4. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/music  

5. https://www.musicnotes.com/now/omg/50-inspirational-quotes-about-music/ and comes across a quotation for future ponderance: “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” – John Cage

Pistis reclaims power (weekending April 2nd 2022)

 

‽istis reclaims power (weekending April 2nd 2022)

This week, ‽istis ponders power, again – through some found quotations (1): 

‽ 'The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.' Edmund Burke 

‽ 'Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.' Leonardo da Vinci

‽ 'The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.' Alice Walker 

‽ 'Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power.' William Gaddis

‽ 'Silence and invisibility go hand in hand with powerlessness.' Audre Lorde

‽ 'The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.' Vaclav Havel

‽  'Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.' Paulo Freire 

‽ 'What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?' Tony Benn (2)

And, as these are relatively easily accessible, offered by search engines and algorithms, perhaps that is because of the working out of some sort of power: of ideas; of assertion; of claimed or given authority; of recognition, resonance and relevance; possibly even because they provide some sort of tried and tested ‘truth’?

It may be helpful to ponder different sources of power - references to 7, 10, 8 or 4 types are easily found with a quick browse (3) - but let’s go this week with the seven presented on the apparently powerful and influential Forbes website (4):

• Titular (formal, legitimate, holding a position) 

• Coercive (the power to punish)

• Reward (the power to reward) 

• Referent (being well liked, referred to) 

• Connection (it may indeed be who you know or are known to?)

• Informational (having insight or information that others do not have) 

• Expert (being able to do things better or when you have a particular expertise)

‽istis ponders on and wonders whether ultimately power in many forms and guises and from many sources perhaps generally provides influence - to get things done, to not have to cede or concede‽ 

And ‽istis is left wondering how different the world could potentially be if more and others' words about power (especially perhaps from more usually powerless voices) were to be heard and could influence (4), if others' 'truths' could possibly be spoken to power and to the powerful... 

And ‽istis tries to imagine what they might say. What do you think‽

© 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. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

1) These taken from: https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/topics/top-10-power-quotes & https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/powerlessness.html - plenty of other quotations and sources are available; what can you find?

2) References found include: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tony-benn-dead-five-questions-power-other-memorable-quotes-1440277 

3) https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/powerlessness.html 

4) https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2017/03/19/you-need-to-know-the-7-types-of-power-if-you-want-to-succeed/ 

5) E.g: 'I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.'  Malala Yousafzai   https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a4056/empowering-female-quotes/