Tag: world

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Reverend Billy and the end of the world

Reverend Billy, Buy Nothing Day NYC 2005Today is 12-21-12: Doomsday, the end of the world. On this special day, Democracy Now spotlighted the recent efforts of Reverend Billy, the activist-performance artist known best for his “Church of Stop-Shopping.”

“One doesn’t need to look at the Mayan calendar, the words of Nostradamus, the prophetic dreams of Daniel or the revelation made to John to see the world is in dire straits. The sky may not be falling in, but it sure felt like it to the victims of Superstorm Sandy. Along with climate change, gun violence, drones, warfare and other henchmen on the horizon, it’s easy to see why some may think the apocalypse is fast approaching. The word “apocalypse” originated from the Greek term “apocalypsis,” which literally means “uncovering,” in the sense of revealing something previously hidden. Someone known for pulling the covers off is activist and performance artist Reverend Billy, who is holding his “The End of the World” ritual in New York City’s Times Square tonight. Continue reading “Reverend Billy and the end of the world”

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Sandy Hook, Jihad, and The World

“Jihadi atrocities and mass murders in the West do not occur in different worlds,” writes Spengler in today’s Asia Times in a thoughtful consideration of murder-suicides around the globe. The author continues:

“Consider two situations. First, a madman kills 20 schoolchildren in America for unexplained reasons. Second, Muslim terrorists kill 22 children in Israel (at Ma’alot in 1974), or 186 children at Beslan in the Russian Caucusus in 2004, for clearly stated reasons. What do they have in common?London Terrorist Bombings

“The suicidal jihadi is the Doppelganger of the angst-ridden Westerner. The jihadi attempts to reconstruct a faux version of a Continue reading “Sandy Hook, Jihad, and The World”

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Child obesity drops, but not everywhere

Child obesity experts say that this could be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents. This is why this month’s reported drop in child obesity in Philadelphia is important, although recent drops do not represent a nation-wide trend. Reported in the New York Times today, the Philadelphia Inquirer says the study was released in September. The Inquirer’s Peter Rusha writes:

“The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a substantial piece about the news on Sept. 7, the day after the foundation published a Web page on Philadelphia, along with a video interview, crediting the original source, a lengthy article in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

“The rate of obese local public-school students dropped nearly 5 percent between 2006 and 2010, when national obesity rates remained unchanged after tripling since the mid-1970s,” wrote the Inquirer’s Continue reading “Child obesity drops, but not everywhere”

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Australian prime minister warns of apocalypse

Today Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told her nation the world was about to end:

“My dear remaining fellow Australians, the end of the world is coming. It wasn’t Y2K, it wasn’t even the carbon price,” Gillard said, referring to her controversial environmental tax on business. “It turns out that the Mayan calendar was true.”

“Whether the final blow comes from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell-beasts or from the total triumph of K-Pop, if you know one thing about me it is this — I will always fight for you to the very end,” Gillard added in the mock-apocalyptic warning, carried by Australian radio station Triple-J..

But there’s always a silver lining: “And at least this means I won’t have to do [political talk show] Q&A again.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/blog/2012/12/06/Australian-PM-Julia-Gillards-warns-of-zombie-K-pop-induced-apocalypse/2531354802605/#ixzz2EJ7sDjV7

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Climate change stalemate continues

Disagreements seem to continue at the current United Nations climate change meeting in Doha. As Al Jazeera reports, “

“Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has called on world leaders to confront a global warming “crisis” and show “strong political commitment” and compromise in dealing with it.

“Speaking at the annual UN climate talks in Doha, Ban noted that there were “mixed feelings” among delegates who were negotiating deals, but that the situation posed an “existential challenge for the whole human race”. Continue reading “Climate change stalemate continues”

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Facebook, democracy, and world domination

In the Facebook universe the big news is that after signing up half of the world’s population, the company is going for even more subscribers. The smaller story is that Facebook is poised to eliminate democracy (i.e.,voting)  among its users. As the LA times reports,

“ Facebook Inc. is finding out just how messy democracy can be. Continue reading “Facebook, democracy, and world domination”

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Nations of Laws

In most discussions of nation-building, functioning legal systems are seen as useful  indicators of a society’s coherence and long-term stability.

The Asia Times say in a piece today entitled “Asia is short of respect of law”  that

“The rule of law – an essential element of good governance – is prospering best in the countries of northern Europe and worst in Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Cameroon, according to the latest edition of a five-year-old index released here Wednesday by the World Justice Project (WJP). Continue reading “Nations of Laws”

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“Getting to Zero”

On this December 1,  2012, the United Nations GETTING TO ZERO campaign to eradicate HIV/AIDS reports significant progress, while also pointing out limited spending by nations that could be doing more . Getting to Zero reports a 50% drop in new diagnoses in 25 as the world approaches its 1000 day target for certain goals, described by the UN below. For more informaton, see “World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, 2012.

Continue reading ““Getting to Zero””

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U.N. declares contraception a basic human right

This month the United Nations declared access to contraception a basic human right. In its new State of World Population 2012 report titled “By Choice Not By Chance,” the U.N. addressed the issue of family planning and stressed the importance of making contraceptives accessible in developing countries. According to the UN, an estimated 222 million women worldwide at risk of unintended pregnancy.

The report stated that “voluntary family planning should be available to all, not just the wealthy or otherwise privileged.” That concept, of making accessible forms of contraception Continue reading “U.N. declares contraception a basic human right”

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Israel is the world’s most militarized nation

Israel tops the list of the world’s most militarized nations, according to the latest Global Militarisation Index released by the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC). This information is detailed a story in today’s Asia Times entitled “Israel ranked as most militarized,” with brief excerpts below:

“Singapore ranks second, followed by Syria, Russia, Jordan, and Cyprus, according to the Index, which is based on a number of weighted variables, such as the comparison of a country’s military

“Israel’s main regional rival, Iran is far behind at number 34.

Six of the top 10 states, including Israel (1), Syria (4), Jordan (5), Kuwait (7), Bahrain (9), and Saudi Arabia (10) are located in the Middle East, while yet another of Iran’s neighbors, Azerbaijan, made its first entry into the militarized elite at number 8.”

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Worries over aging global boomer bubble

Around the globe advances in population control have had an unintended consequence, as the numbers of aging baby boomers now far exceed their offspring. This raises the question: Who will care for the elderly, especially in the world’s poorer nations?

“China’s new leadership will soon be confronted by an enormous demographic challenge.” Reports Al Jazeera in a story entitled “Defusing China’s Demographic Timebomb.” According to the story, “The country’s ‘one-child policy’ means not enough babies are being born to support its elderly population. Around 12 years ago, there were six workers for every retiree, but by the year 2030 it is estimated that there will be just two. By 2050, one-third of China’s population is expected to be aged over 60.

Al Jazeera’s Laura Kyle, reporting from Beijing, says: “For generations, elderly Chinese have been looked after at home by their children. The ‘one-child policy’ is breaking that tradition – with the burden of care too great for many young adults to handle on their own. Now increasing numbers of elderly parents are being sent to [hospices].”

According to Kyle, “the United Nations urged countries to address the needs of ageing populations after releasing a report entitled Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing.

“Some of the key findings of the report are:

  • The ageing phenomenon is happening faster in poorer countries
  • By 2050, four out of five elderly people will be in developing nations
  • Only Japan currently has more than 30 per cent of its population aged over 60
  • By 2050, there will be more than 60 countries with the same demographic
  • Forty-seven per cent of the world’s older men and 24 per cent of older women are still in the labour force
  • Only a third of countries have comprehensive social protection scheme

The plan is the only global agreement for improving older people’s lives and it recommends that:

  • Governments should fight any kind of discrimination against older people
  • The elderly should be able to work for as long as they want
  • They should have the same access to preventive and curative care, as well as rehabilitation as other age groups
  • Older people should also have access to decent housing, receive support if they are care-givers and be free from neglect, abuse and violence

For more, see Al Jazeera, “Defusing China’s Demographic Timebomb.”

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The world economy is improving

According to a recent report in The Economist, the “global economy looking less fragile than it did just six months ago.” A global purchasing managers’ index compiled by J.P. Morgan has says that and if recent patterns prevail, “industrial production should soon follow. Don’t get carried away; this is no runaway rebound. Nonetheless, it’s encouraging given the uncertainties that still hang over the global economy. See, “A Gentle Wind at the Worlds’ Back.”

According to the report, “three serious worries had been hanging over investors and business: a euro breakup, a hard landing in China, and America heading over its fiscal cliff. I also noted that while the odds of avoiding any one of these were good, the the odds of avoiding all three were pretty low, about one-in-three. How can the economy be Continue reading “The world economy is improving”

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Writing about saving the world

Now we can add Sandy to the list of reasons to worry: about the environment, our bad habits, other people, and where all of it may be leading. And certainly lots of recent evidence seems to suggest that we have plenty of reasons to worry. But let’s be careful here. History shows that panic and fear have a way of infecting human thought, often feeding their own destructive patterns. In a recent essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books, K.C. Cole juxtaposes two works that manifest both the alarmist end-of-days perspective and a more nuanced consideration of the human mind. The essay entitled “How to Save ourselves from Extinction (One System at a Time)” begins thus:

“No one in their right mind would deliberately create the means of their Continue reading “Writing about saving the world”

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Siri refuses to find prostitutes in China

In response to criticism in China that Siri could find local prostitution services, Apple has removed escort services from search results in the region. According to AppleInsider, “Though as of Wednesday Siri can still find local escort services in the U.S., that functionality has apparently been removed in China, according to The Times of India. A customer service representative for Apple explained that the company has blocked information related to ‘escorts’ in response to ‘reports from our users.’ Elsewhere in the world, queries such as ‘Where can I find Continue reading “Siri refuses to find prostitutes in China”

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World opinion on U.S. presidential election

Outside the United States, people favor Obama by a five-to-one margin in the upcoming American presidential election. A  BBC World Service opinion poll has found sharply higher overseas approval ratings for US President Barack Obama than Republican challenger Mitt Romney.An average of 50% favored Mr Obama, with 9% for Mr Romney, in the survey of 21,797 people in 21 countries.Only Pakistan’s respondents said they would prefer to see Mr Romney win November’s election. France was the most strongly pro-Obama (72%). The survey was conducted by GlobeScan/PIPA between 3 July and 3 September.

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Has the gaming bubble burst?

 

By some reports in the financial sector, the meteoric ascent of computer games in the 2000s has officially ended, with sales of titles like Diablo and World of Warcraft dropping 28% in the past two years. The New York Times recently ran a story comparing gaming today to the dot-com phenomenon of the 1990s, as it now “ has found itself teetering at the edge of a financial cliff.”  But closer examination of the situation reveals that while big-name console games have indeed sold less, the number of people playing games on smart-phones and tablet computers continues to surge by as much as 35% in 2012 alone. Excerpted and linked below are two stories on this topic. Continue reading “Has the gaming bubble burst?”

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Fallacy of the term, ‘the Muslim world’

A classic example of “worlding” in it’s imperialistic application is discussed in an essay entitled “The fallacy of the phrase. ‘the Muslim world” by Sarah Kendzior, appearing in Al Jazeera.   As Kendzior writes,  “The day after the attacks on the US diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, the New York Times set out to explain what it called the “anguished relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.’  According to the Times, the ‘Muslim world’ was prone to outbursts of violence, and the reaction to the 14-minute anti-Islam movie trailer The Innocence of Muslims was both baffling and predictable. ‘Once again, Muslims were furious,’ wrote reporter Robert F Worth, ‘and many in the West found themselves asking why Islam seems to routinely answer such desecrations with violence.’ Continue reading “Fallacy of the term, ‘the Muslim world’”

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Ways of worlding

Mind-o-licous by P.J. Rusnak carries useful index of ways the term “worlding” has been used in different disciplines and for varying purposes. Noting the term’s  Heideggerian ontology, Rusnak writes: “Worlding has been appropriated many times over, signifying: economic ontology (Thrift, 2008); imperialist processes and the colonial inscription of textuality (Spivak, 1985, 1990); everyday feminist international politics (Pettman, 1996); violences of heteropatriarchy and heteronormativity (Fadem, 2005); proprioception, kinesthesia and touch (Manning, 2007); geopolitical classifications of first, second, third and fourth worlds (OWNO, 2010); first, second and third waves of societal transformation (Toffler, 1980; Doerr, 2010); globalization (de Beer, 2004); global warring (Fry, 1999); prayer (Detweiler, 1995); secularization (Miller, 2009); enfleshment of God in the world (Hemming, 1998); right reciprocity between nature, humans and more-than-humans (Kohak, 1984; Abram, 1996); the socio-biological complexity of human extinction (Costa, 2010); situated practices of cultural studies (Wilson & Connery, 2007); enculturation of true craftsmanship (Risatti, 2007); Continue reading “Ways of worlding”