Friday, 7 February 2020

Pistis reclaims a bright, bright spotlight and the value of 'endnotes' (weekending February 8th 2020)



‽istis reclaims a bright, bright spotlight and the value of ‘endnotes’! (weekending February 8th 2020)


 ‽istis picked up the torch and shone a bright, bright spotlight into the dark, dark corners…


‽ perhaps the statistics shock[i]: ‘one in five adults aged 18 to 74 years experienced at least one form of child abuse…  before the age of 16 years (8.5 million people)’, ‘Adults aged 18 to 74 years with a disability were significantly more likely to have experienced abuse before the age of 16 years than those without a disability, at 32% compared with 19%. This was true for all types of abuse asked about…’; or perhaps we have become inured, sceptical, cynical, potentially undermining[ii] or resigned; not knowing which is worse;


‽ possibly the focus on individuals, ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ alike, lets us off the hook of systemic, structural, institutional[iii], contextual, extra- or intra-familial[iv] and social factors that may affect both cause (problem-analysis) and response (solution-focus)[v]; 
  

‽ maybe the emphasis on ‘historic’ and on prosecuted crimes distracts from the likely continuing impact on so many: in the past[vi], highlighted in fiction (thank you Jim Lloyd’[vii]) and in the stark reality of the present for potentially epidemic swathes[viii] of now-adults. 


And ‽istis wondered about the experiences, adverse or otherwise, in childhood[ix] or otherwise - especially of those in power, or with the power to perpetuate, bury, dismiss, ignore or just possibly, perhaps, maybe make a difference…   

© Pistis  



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Thursday, 30 January 2020

Pistis reclaims the state of nations, or reclaims nations in a state (weekending February 1st 2020)



‽istis reclaims the state of nations, or reclaims nations in a state (weekending February 1st 2020)


 ‽istis trod more carefully than a fearful angel among the minefields of relations between nations… 
‽ perhaps a plan that does not embrace a principle of ‘nothing about us without us’[i] let alone the reaffirmed resolution that self-determination is a right[ii], inevitably might have limited success and unintended consequences;


‽ possibly all 193 state heads, governments and subject people might do well to think again about what powers an international body needs to practically 'take action on the issues confronting humanity in the twenty-first century’[iii] when ‘this nation insert as appropriate first’ policies prevail;
      

‽ maybe if we remember that words like ‘nation’, ‘state’, ‘nation-state’, ‘confederation’, ‘multi-national state’, ‘union state’, ‘countries within a country’ seem to be contested terms; are tested (sometimes to breaking point) by other words such as irredentism, revanchism and by actions taken ‘not in all our names’; and are perhaps constructs that require continuing consensus - then how different the discourse might be.


And ‽istis wondered what on earth the state of things would possibly, perhaps, may be like if the vision formed in 1945 (in the wake of a world at war, the most appalling crimes of genocide, so that ‘never again’ may mean exactly that[iv]) of how nations could speak to nations, or how issues causing peace, prosperity and friendship to fail could sometimes be resolved - fades altogether*.
  

© Pistis
  

(*and how any disagreement about the use of an ‘ordinary’, ‘Oxford’ and, even ‘Cambridge’ comma could be concluded!)  

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Thursday, 23 January 2020

Pistis reclaims secure bases and safe havens (weekending January 25th 2020)



‽istis reclaims secure bases and safe havens (weekending January 25th 2020)


 ‽istis contemplated 
‽ the perhaps incalculable impact of the harbour wall on the safety of the fishing boats;


‽ why, after basic hydration and nutrition, possibly love matters more than anything to the development of a new born baby and that secure attachments might just provide the foundations to change the world (thank you again Gerhardt[i] and Bruce Perry[ii]);


‽ how, maybe, the lockdown measures of the authorities in Wuhan[iii] and its c. 11million residents mirror the actions of the good citizens of Eyam some 365 years earlier[iv] but with added closure of the subway, airport and train stations and the disinfection of lifts carrying residents home with the remaining face masks and supplies - to evade the coronavirus and its potentially fiendish mutating ways.


And ‽istis wondered which of the 500 lohan faces would be glimpsed first when Wuhan’s Temple of Original Purity[v] opens again: relief at safety from an infection avoided? inconsolable anguish for the lost? sadness at the c.700,000 Annual Prayer-Giving tourist intercessions uttered elsewhere or not at all this year – including supplications perhaps, possibly, maybe for the millions of people across the world for whom a secure base may not always be the same as a safe haven.  
  

© Pistis   

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Thursday, 16 January 2020

Pistis reclaims vital statistics! (weekending January 18th 2020)



‽istis reclaims vital statistics! (weekending January 18th 2020)


 ‽istis considered the state we are in through the lens of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals reports and webpages (including this week’s Guardian interactive quiz[i]) following links to the world of the ‘2019 Sustainable Development Goals Report’[ii] with its sobering infographics and condemning detail:
‽ that ,perhaps, the world is not on track to end poverty by 2030; there are 3.5million more malaria cases in 2017 compared to 2016; 750million adults still remain illiterate; 18% of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15-49 years have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in the previous 12 months; 785million people reman without even basic drinking water, ‘9 out of 10 urban residents breathe polluted air, etc. 


but ‽istis rejoiced at the good news of apparent progress:


‽ that, possibly, deaths of children under 5yrs has dropped from 9.8million to 5.4million between 2000 and 2017; incidence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa 15-49yr olds has declined by 37%; the income of the bottom 40% of the population has grown by more than the national average in more than half of the 92 countries with data; water quality has improved in 104 of the 220 coastal regions monitored… though ‽istis wondered at the baseline quality of the water measured and whether this meant that the glass was now half full or half empty!


And ‽istis came to rest at the ‘Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017’[iii] regarding the ‘Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ and thought:
      

‽ maybe the ‘perhapses’ and ‘possiblies’ (above) are necessary when ‘many national statistical systems across the globe face serious challenges’ such that ‘accurate and timely information about critical aspects of people’s lives is unknown’ – and this lack of information may relate disproportionately to the poorest, the hungriest, those with the worst health and wellbeing, the least equal, those with least access to quality education or clean water or sanitation, or literacy and numeracy…
  

And ‽istis vowed to revisit the webpages and scrutinise future reports – and to ask whether the story they tell (perhaps, possibly, maybe) should lead to congratulations over some improvements for the ‘us’ we can count – even while we may never be able to quantify fully how different the world is not, for those who most need it to be so.     

© Pistis   

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Thursday, 9 January 2020

Pistis reclaims wonder, literally (weekending January 11th 2020)



‽istis reclaims wonder, literally (weekending January 11th 2020)

As the epiphanous stargazers are removed from their nativity scenes, ‽istis looked out in awe and wonder at the night sky and considered attempts to make the ineffable accessible, bring the sublime down to earth and explain the deeply complex with literal, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin names and initials 

‽ perhaps whilst we may not understand all the content, calling the journal ‘Nature’ may tell us all that we need to know, versus the unlikely-sounding but presumably not randomly chosen (all puns intended) ‘Stochastic: An International Journal of Probability and Stochastical Processes’;

‽ possibly naming the source of apparent new and nearer FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts) as 180916.J0158+65 in a galaxy only half a billion light-years away (see article in said journal[i]) seems less unnerving than the thought of communicating aliens - of the variety that Helen Sharman (the Brit who was first to get nearer to them, after all) vouches for[ii];

‽ maybe the fact that the lead author of said FRB study in said journal is apparently from the Joint Institute for VLBI - Very Long Baseline Interferometry (which incidentally sounds as though it could be an understated ‘safe’ euphemism for measuring allegations of rape and sexual assault currently under scrutiny in a certain high-profile legal case in the States) provides a sense of accessibility; if we can understand two of the words in the institute’s four word title, we might understand half of what they do).

‽istis blamed the earliest astronomers who looked out and up and beyond into the void and called it simply ‘space’…  
And perhaps, possibly, maybe - looking through the ‘Total Perspective Vortex’ (thank you Trin Tragula and Douglas Adams) – if we remembered more often that: ‘In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of perspective’, then how different the world down here might be. 
  
© Pistis   

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Thursday, 2 January 2020

Pistis reclaims resolution (weekending January 4th 2020)



‽istis reclaims resolution (weekending January 4th 2020)


 ‽istis stopped trying to work out the number of fireworks attached to prominent landmarks, the manner of their attachment and the potential infrastructural impact on, say, Europe’s apparently tallest cantilevered observation wheel… and pondered a process whereby hope and wish might just possibly, perhaps, maybe become will - and where will might find a way 
    

‽ perhaps there could be a formula for calculating the point at which ‘just because you can’ becomes ‘doesn’t mean that you should’


‽ possibly someone might work out a way to understand the means by which theory becomes on-the-ground, tangible, make-a-difference-to-lives practice in areas such as ensuring equality, exercising compassion or promoting rights


‽ maybe in 2020, clarity of vision - looking beyond the short-term and the vested interests of ‘people like us’ (or those who have lent a vote) to a wider ‘we’ in a systemic world – might align with political imperative (legitimated through thoroughly considered and scrutinized legislation; adequately and equitably resourced; reparative and restorative; informed by evidence and experts and evaluated for its impact and outcome, not just by input)
    

And ‽istis, newly resolved, decided to try to act – to be the change and to see whether practice, if not making perfect, might yet help to make a difference… 


© Pistis   




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Thursday, 26 December 2019

Pistis reclaims the space between (weekending December 28th 2019)



‽istis reclaims the space between (weekending 28th December 2019)

‽istis, paused and pondered the space between…


‽ perhaps there is a name for those days between Bank Holidays - the shutdown for many between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day? 


‽ possibly for others there may be no space, with the  continuation of work (helping to let others shutdown); with not even the briefest cessation of hostilities (no ‘Silent Night’ miracle moment); when even the time between is filled with fear as the hyper-vigilance of anticipation simply adds toxic stress in the brain to the physical pain?


‽ maybe for others still there is never, and will never be, respite from the undifferentiated continuation of life as grindingly usual…


But just perhaps, possibly, maybe there will come a time when all home care staff are paid for travel between those visits and that ‘having time for a chat’ (especially this time of year) might be assessed as vital as bathing, administering medication, providing breakfast, helping to get to bed safely…   
And maybe, at a time when ancient and modern salvation stories bubble up to public consciousness and public expression, just a few more of those ideas, past and present, might be recognised as constructs not absolutes – for if ‘limbo’ can be re-examined and redefined[i], then just imagine how different the world might be.  


© Pistis   

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