‽istis looks up (weekending August
6th 2023)
On one level, a pretty quiet week…
domestic stuff, some passable DIY perhaps to reinforce the stereotype,
family matters, lots of rain (both welcome and unwelcome), a dry outdoor
theatre performance, washing, walking the dog, taking the cat to the vets, practising
some music, putting the bins out…
But then ‽istis
looked up and raised a gaze beyond the horizon of what is known directly,
personally and locally.
In the mainstream media – the images
and words that wash around in the news slots between the songs, the Proms, the
quiz shows, the drama, the soaps, the properties located and made over, the cookery
and the antiques:
·
Some
fine football beamed in early from way across the world
·
News
of a President’s another-appearance in court
·
Cost
of living, interest rates, mortgage rates, strikes continuing
·
A
not-so-green light for more fossil fuel extraction, spinning ministers
· One of the UK's Prime Minster's houses swathed to look like oil
·
Wars
and conflict: international, between potential two-states, and civil -
continuing
Then ‽istis looked and listened a
bit more closely, clicked on an app or two, followed some links on the one with
a bird that is now an ‘X’ bird‽:
(‘Bereft of life, 'e rests in
peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked
the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined
the bleedin' choir invisible!![i])
…and opened the UN News app[ii]:
·
The
start of a ceasefire in Colombia
·
Deadly
clashes at a Palestine refugee camp in Lebanon
·
Escalating
food crisis in Sudan and ‘the eerie silence of starvation’ - a report
highlighting that over 250m people suffered acute hunger in 2022
·
Record
crossings of the perilous Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama
·
Human
rights concerns in elections in Cambodia
·
Nearly
four million people displaced by the Sudan conflict
·
Crisis
in Niger and insecurity threatened for the wider region
·
Ukraine:
war and needs intensify
·
A
call for urgent action against human trafficking
·
A
humanitarian ‘doom loop’ warning
·
Executions
in Kuwait and Singapore
·
Extremist
violence in Burkina Faso
·
Hottest
July ever signalling an ‘era of global boiling’
·
Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) off-track even more
·
Children
missing out on cancer treatment
And whilst ‽istis can only know directly about the domestic stuff, some passable DIY perhaps to reinforce the stereotype, family matters, lots of rain (both welcome and unwelcome), a dry outdoor theatre performance, washing, walking the dog, taking the cat to the vets, practising some music, putting the bins out…
yet:
·
the questions we ask
·
the checking we do
·
what we choose to believe or reject
may
be of critical importance if we look up between the songs, the Proms, the quiz
shows, the drama, the soaps, the properties located and made over, the cookery
and the antiques…
For
many, many people this week the ‘domestic stuff’ has not been some
passable DIY perhaps to reinforce the stereotype, family matters, lots of rain
(both welcome and unwelcome), a dry outdoor theatre performance, washing,
walking the dog, taking the cat to the vets, practising some music, putting the
bins out…
So, what if the only thing that separates us is an accident of time and place of
birth and where any one of us is right now‽
What if you and I believed that? Then just imagine how different the world possibly,
perhaps, may be‽
‽istis
ponders on…
©‽istis
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. Twitter ‘follows’
and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
