42nd Edition – Future – Pike & Hurricane

Empowering Society

Emilie Yung — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:48 +0000

Women are not the problem, it’s men

As a feminist and a young woman, I was both horrified and excited when the #MeToo movement began last October. Horrified, not because I was surprised that these things were happening every day, but because of the sheer number of women who bravely shared their experience with sexual assault. And excited, because I felt a spark of hope inside me – we were heading for change.

Last year, I’ve spent many hours thinking about how we reach that ‘change’ which we are so desperately in need of worldwide. I felt frustrated that once again, we (and by “we” I mean women) were given the task to make people care about and understand just how comprehensive the problem really is. In particular, I was looking for more men to participate in the conversation, but -from my viewpoint- they seemed to be missing (out).

Sexual violence in statistics

Global estimates published by the World Health Organisation indicate that 1 in 3 women worldwide have been exposed to either physical and/or sexual violence throughout their life.

An extensive survey from 2012 conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights highlighted the sexual violence women face and experience within the 28 European member states. With 52% of women having experienced physical or sexual violence, Denmark takes the number one spot followed by Finland and Sweden.

In other places around the world, such as in Vietnam, the percentages are significantly higher. Research by International Charity ActionAid in 2016 found 87% of women have experienced sexual harassment at least once in their lifetimes. Conclusion: Sexual violence is everywhere.

But exactly who commits these assaults? In America, according to a 2010 survey by National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence, more than 90 percent of perpetrators of sexual violence against women are men. Interestingly, 93 percent of the perpetrators of sexual violence against men are in fact also men. Taking these facts into account, we must address the elephant in the room – one gender is more prominent than the other in these statistics. If men are at the center of the problem, then, they are integral to the solution.

So why do men struggle to engage themselves in the conversation?

Taking the lead

Wade Davis, a former National Football League player is now an activist and educator. At a conference on gender and workplace, he said , “Here’s what men don’t get about the #MeToo movement: It is not about women, it’s about us.” Suffice it to say, by “us” he meant men.

Educator, filmmaker and author, Jackson Katz, hosted a TEDxFiDiWomen talk where he stated that sexual violence is not a “women’s issue”, but instead a “men’s issue” due to a number of reasons. The primary reason is indeed, calling it a “women’s issue”. “This gives men an excuse to not pay attention.” He then illustrates that using the passive voice in relation to men excludes them from the conversation. With an exercise made by the linguist and author, Julia Penelope, he shows exactly how:

“John beat Mary.”

“Mary was beaten by John.”

“Mary was beaten.”

“Mary was battered.”

“Mary is a battered woman.”

Already in the third sentence ‘John’, the perpetrator, has left the picture and ‘Mary’ is now the focus. Katz says it illustrates structurally how we think and literally how language conspires to keep our attention off men. The goal, he explains, is to get men who are not a part of the abusive culture to challenge those who are, and use the bystander approach to interrupt and to create a peer culture climate where the abusive behavior will be seen as unacceptable.

“There’s been an awful lot of silence in male culture about this ongoing tragedy of men’s violence against women and children, hasn’t there? […] We need to break that silence, and we need more men to do that.”

This article is not a battle of genders. The problem is more so the structure of society that is off. How we speak about these issues is essential to cultivating a conversation where men are actively participating. It is also essential to furthering men’s willingness to take on their part of the responsibility. If we are to see a change in the future, we need to start challenging men to be leaders in these conversations and encourage them to be allies against a system of patriarchy.

I therefore invite all men to take a step towards change.

by Emilie Yung Meiling

Photo credits

Statstic, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2012

UN Women’s HeforShe Campaign, UN Women, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Azul Exclusive Auction Dress for 2lei, Bea Serendipity, CC BY 2.0

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Food for Thought

Oliver Ösmark — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:43 +0000

“The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Salt of the Earth

Human activity has become a geological event. At present, some 12% of the world’s land surface is used in crop production, which is over one-third of the land estimated to be suitable for agriculture. Inefficient modern agricultural practices leave large swaths of land barren, and most of this is due to a misunderstanding of the relationship between how plants and herbivores evolved together.

An estimable 25 to 35 million bison once roamed the North American grasslands. They would migrate within an area that covered most of central North America and stretched from Mexico to Saskatchewan. Before their population was decimated to less than 100 back in the late 1880’s, the relationship between the bison and the grass on which they grazed was so beneficial for the soil, that the grass grew to 1.5–3 meters in height and the nutrient-rich soil that supported the grass was estimated to be several meters deep. Most herbivores and plants have coevolved together for the benefit of all species. However, human activity—considered to be the latest addition to the five previous global mass extinction events—has disrupted nature’s balance.

Today, much fertile soil is lost due to overexploitation and erosion. It takes approximately 500 years to replace 25 millimeters of “topsoil”, and, from this perspective, productive fertile soil can be considered a nonrenewable, endangered ecosystem. Topsoil is the upper layer of soil—the “skin” of the earth—that has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms. Without it, little to no plant life is possible and the earth becomes infertile. Also, when soil—which contains three times more carbon than the atmosphere—is overworked and consequently erodes, its stores of carbon, trapped underground through chemical reactions with minerals, are exposed to the air and react with oxygen to create vast amounts of carbon dioxide gas. Soil carbon losses to the atmosphere may represent 10-20% of the total 450 billion tons of CO2 emitted by human activity since the Industrial Revolution.

Land of Milk and Honey

The methodology of modern industrial agriculture has been using up topsoil at an unsustainable rate for decades. Humans eat, on average, 450 kg of food per year, and it takes about 10 tons of soil to produce that amount of food; “10 kilos of topsoil, 800 liters of water, 1.3 liters of diesel, 0.3g of pesticide and 3.5 kilos of carbon dioxide – that’s what it takes to deliver one meal, for just one person.” With each person eating approximately 1,000 meals per year multiplied by a steadily increasing world population of 7.7 billion (as of October 2018), it becomes quite clear that food is fast becoming the challenge of our time.

Most of the crops grown are not reserved for human consumption. Worldwide, ca. 50% of grain produce is fed to farm animals and, in 2016, an estimated 74.1 billion animals (88% of which were chickens) were slaughtered—an average of 2,352 animals per second; not including male chicks and sea animals—in the global meat industry; an industry that is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all planes, cars and ships combined. It might not come as much of a surprise then, that the world’s biggest farms pollute more than any of the big oil companies.

The world currently loses 75 billion tons of soil per year, a UN report warns that global demand for water could exceed supply by 40% by the 2030’s, and, without intervention, problems will get worse. In “Surviving the 21st Century”, author Julian Cribb writes, “In coming decades, there will be a boom in local food production both in the cultivation of thousands of novel crops, in the recycling of water and nutrients in cities, in urban agriculture […] in the design of novel foods and diets. Food production will have to move indoors because of global climate disruption – heat waves, droughts, floods and fires. If key governments backslide on their climate commitments, global temperatures will hit 2.5 to 5 degrees Celsius above the levels that traditional farming can tolerate. With water and fertilizer running low, food production will have to shift back into the cities, to use recycled water and nutrients. Megacities that do not plan for this may starve. All this sounds like a big threat – and it is. But only if we are unprepared for it. Reinventing food will in fact create vast new industries, jobs and opportunities for communities around the world – and the smart ones will be leaders in this.”

Permaculture & Regenerative Farming

At Ridgedale farm in Värmland, Sweden, a new approach to farming is in practice. Richard Perkins (Director and Co-owner) founded the “Permaculture” farm to produce food locally and to serve as an education center for a new generation of farmers. Farming today is vastly different from what it was only a generation ago and most agriculture schools don’t include the importance of soil life and care, or how to work along with the ecosystem in their curricula.

While on most farms cattle that are bothered by flies and pests and are inoculated with drugs to alleviate symptoms, on Ridgedale they synchronize the hatching of fly larvae with allowing their chickens to peck and feed on the pastures for the insects. The small 10-hectare farm, which is expanding, runs like a well-oiled machine and is one of the most productive farms per square meter in Europe. Soil building is fundamental to regenerate and put nutrition back into the soil. They use special plows that don’t disturb the topsoil but blast the deeper ground open, and till in patterns likened to those of rice terraces for optimal groundwater distribution. They also plant perennial, rather than annual, crops that can live for many years and don’t require tilled soil to grow.

Their model works by allowing animals and ecosystems to express their true functions and behaviours according to the co-evolutionary properties of the animals and their environments; e.g. by rotational grazing, using pigs to effectively “recycle” organic material, etc. The rule of thumb is simple: if you’re doing something that is far-removed from how it is done in nature, then it is counterproductive. By allowing the processes of nature to work with them, Ridgedale farmers have automated much of their workload. It is all very efficient, and very profitable.

Eco-center Alôsnys near Curgy, France

“The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”

Local and regenerative farming will be important for the future. Increased pressure is going to be placed on industry to feed an increasing population on less land. A functional model is needed. One that goes beyond sustainable and organic farming—farming that still subscribes to the modern industrial model of agriculture to alleviate symptoms rather than address the core disabilities of a failing system—and is economical, productive, and works with ecosystems rather than against them. History has shown that civilizations that failed to replenish and care for the soil of their arable lands became destabilized and suffered famines and wars. The world is changing and local farmers are going to be in high demand in the not too distant future. Innovation starts with the producers. The questions are whether we will have modified our habits of consumption before we’ll have to adapt by necessity, and whether or not the transition will be desperate.

Related Articles:

Vertical Farming – the Future of Agriculture?

Meat the Problem

Photo credits:

Wheat Harvest Wasco County, Jim Choate, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

JH-ZA070828_0172 World Bank, World Bank Photo Collection, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Jardin permaculture pédagogique, Alôsnys, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Going around in circles: Headed towards yet another financial crisis

Merle Emrich — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:39 +0000

Ten years ago, Lehman brothers collapsed. The shock waves of the financial crisis of 2008 could be felt throughout North America and Europe. One consequence was that trade finance trickled away and between 2008 and 2009 global trade and the stock market value decreased with a velocity not even observed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. To prevent another crisis of the same scale as the 2008 financial crash, provisions, i.e. mechanisms to monitor banks, were taken. The question, however, is: Are they sufficient?

What Awaits

Generally, the global economy was back on the path of recovery in 2012. Due to international cooperation, it is argued, international trade and foreign direct investment was improving. But while it may seem as if our economy is almost out of the metaphorical woods, with unemployment rates below the level of 2008 and the US economy being fairly strong, the next crisis is already looming on the horizon. And the structures we have in place might be far from helpful to prevent it or even soften the blow, not helped by an incomplete implementation of reforms decided upon after the Great Recession.

Inflation has, with nearly three percent, reached the highest level of the last six years, corporate debt is rising and with it the interest on that debt. In fact, global debt has reached a level three times higher than the global GDP and the Federal Reserve has already raised interest rates eight times since 2015. China is targeted by the US government’s trade war, as the dollar gets stronger it becomes increasingly difficult for emerging markets to repay their dollar debts (if there even is any chance of repayment at all). Pakistan requested a bail-out from the IMF, Turkey and Argentina are plunging head first into financial troubles, in 2018 the stock markets have recorded a decline due to US monetary policy and Brexit has left the UK vulnerable to a financial crisis. The list goes on.

And as if that was not enough, there are now ten banks that own more than fifty percent of the top hundred commercial banks’ assets. And the bigger the bank, the harder it falls when it falls. These ten biggest banks are so called ‘too-big-to-fail banks’. Their fall would send shudders through the economic world exceeding the seismographic scale, surpassing the extent of the Great Recession. And who will be left to clean up the rubble we have already seen in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis?

Economy and Populism

Unfortunately, financial troubles for banks, states, corporations and citizens are not the only consequence of the 2008 economic crisis. Not only has the crisis been linked to rise of suicide rates among the affected population, but to an increase of nationalist populism. In 2015 the Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute (CESifo) published a study showing that financial crises usually play into the hands of far-right parties, based on data of 100 financial crises and roughly 800 national elections in 20 democratic states since 1870.

Indeed, we can observe the surge of right-wing populism in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Since 2014, India has a nationalist government and recently Poland had to face repeated criticism by the European Union concerning their right-wing policies. Austria is governed by a coalition of the conservative party ÖVP and the right-wing populist FPÖ and only by a hair’s breadth elected Green Party politician Van der Bellen as president instead of right-wing candidate Hofer. Trump is the President of the United States, the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats (SD) have made it into parliament with almost 18% in the 2018 general elections. And while in German cities such as, perhaps most heard about, Chemnitz, the counter-protests are considerably bigger than the Nazi protests; the fact that these protests happened speaks for itself.

Tell Me Why

But why do financial crises lead to a surge of right-wing populism? One explanation might be that crises do not appear out of nowhere. Usually people made of flesh and blood can be found to have made mistakes or miscalculations leading to the crisis. In the case of the most recent financial crisis, that would be the political and economic elites. This opens the door for right-wing populists using a people versus elites rhetoric based on portraying identification with the disillusioned voter and a simple, familiarity-creating language, and promising stability, and law and order.

One might assume that elite-skeptic left-wing parties would gain votes as well. Yet they do not. In contrast to left-wing parties, right-wing politicians are more willing to use foreigners and minorities as their scapegoat, providing seemingly easy answers, and making use of and feeding people’s fears. The availability and skill to use television and social media to spread their ideology and creating polarisation plays into the hands of populist parties.

While voting patterns usually swing back to their pre-crisis status quo after about five years, that was not the case after 2008. The financial crash of 2008 was not only a great shock with effects exceeding their average duration, but it was merely one stumbling block in a ten years long series. And as if that was not enough, populists were able to utilise terrorist attacks and refugee flows to drive their wedge into society.

What Happens After the Next Crisis

As populist parties gain votes, government majorities decrease making it harder to make decisions and effective policies in parliament, and also making it more challenging to deal well with a possible future financial crisis. The consequences of the 2008 crisis could have been much worse, had it not been for international cooperation. The increase of right-wing populism, however, is likely to lead us on the path of protectionism, complicating international cooperation. And another financial crisis itself would be likely to trigger an even higher increase of far-right populism.

In an interview with the Economist philosopher Slavoj Žižek goes even further. He claims that “populism is simply a new way to imagine capitalism without its (…) socially disruptive effects” and explains modern populism as a reaction to experts’ expertise not working. As an example he gives the 2008 financial crisis that appeared to catch even experts off guard. This loss of trust in not only political elites but so-called experts has lead to the return of the “traditional authoritarian master”.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

That was supposed to be going up, wasn’t it?, Rafael Matsunaga, CC BY 2.0

Occupy Wall Street -45, Esther Lee, CC BY 2.0

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Divided We Fall

Maya Diekmann — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:34 +0000

On November 21, 2013, Senate Democrats confirmed Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Not literally, of course, yet the essence of Kavanaugh’s successful confirmation to the highest federal court of the United States can be traced back to the elimination of the filibuster, which took place on said November day.

“Filibuster Out”

What actually happened that day in 2013 was a historic amendment of Senate rules by the Democrat majority. Democrats, under Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, eliminated the filibuster on executive and judicial nominations, with the exception of Supreme Court nominations, in response to a partisan gridlock caused by Senate Republicans repeatedly drawing on their right to indefinitely extend debate.

While filibustering itself is a long established tool in the Senate, its use has “skyrocketed to unprecedented levels during the Obama Administration” – 27 cloture votes have been invoked on executive appointments made by President Barack Obama. That is more than under the ten presidents before him. Combined.

Unsurprisingly, the move had caused great dissent among Republicans, who were convinced that “Democrats would ultimately reap what they sowed”. They eventually did: First, in 2017, with Republicans eliminating exceptions of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to move forward with the confirmation of President Trump’s appointee Neil Gorsuch.

And again, with the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh just a few days ago.

An Impartial Supreme Court?

One can see why Democrats thought it necessary to put an end to the filibuster’s unproductive political repercussions. Yet, eliminating such a powerful political minority tool can be considered a bold move. Especially, when the Executive and Legislative Branches are controlled by the same political party, overreaching into the Judicial Branch is now much easier than before. And we may be witnessing this first hand.

With Kavanaugh – appointed and confirmed by the Republican Party – replacing swing vote Anthony Kennedy, the court is now dominated by conservative justices, aligning with Republican ideology. The great partisan animosity carried by Kavanaugh places the Supreme Court in an equivocal position. Created to offer checks on the Legislative and Executive Branches, the supposingly apolitical court has suddenly become a part of what New York Times author Charlie Savage accurately titles Senators’ “tit-for-tat escalation of partisan warfare”.

Legitimacy of the Supreme Court rests with the faith of the American people and a potential shift of the Supreme Court towards a more conservative interpretation of the law is not unlikely to result in a loss of said faith among liberals, which, according to a 2017 poll, make up 46% of the American people. For the Supreme Court, losing back-up from almost half of the American population will have consequences of inconceivable magnitude.

The Future of Justice

So where do we go from here? The filibuster is dead and the consequences of this are real. If there is one positive effect of the dissension around Kavanaugh’s appointment, it is the reignited call for reform of the Supreme Court.

A popular proposal is the abolition of lifetime tenure and its replacement with single, staggered 18-year-terms. Not only would a faster turnover de-intensify confirmation battles in the Senate, it would also allow every president to appoint two justices per term, with a minimized risk of one party appointing a majority of the court. Rather than Supreme Court openings being “lotteries to be won by lucky presidents”, a guaranteed set of appointments per president adds a more democratic character to the nomination of justices.

Another widespread idea revolves around “packing” of the court. Rather than trying to run from its fate, according to Jacob Hale Russel, the Supreme Court should embrace the inevitable: politicization. A larger judicial body would increase representation and diversity, and generally be more productive. Justices would be less likely to get stuck on a bloc-voting pattern and coalitions would form more easily regardless of partisan divide.

Yay or Nay?

How likely is an actual reform of the Supreme Court? In theory, the Supreme Court as we know it today can be – more or less easily – reformed. The number of judges on the court is not defined in the Constitution but rather by a congressional act, correspondingly simple would be a change in terms of membership – also through a congressional act. Somewhat more complicated, but by no means impossible, is the introduction of limited terms, since lifetime tenure is indirectly provided for in the Constitution. A change in tenure would require an amendment to the Constitution, which certainly is significantly more time-consuming than an Act of Congress.

In practice, however, a reform of the Supreme Court may alter the legal framework but the core issue of politicization is likely to remain untouched. Washington Post’s Robert Barnes reminds us that, by definition, only those issues most difficult to resolve end up before the Supreme Court. That includes hot-button issues like gun control, abortion rights, death penalty – issues that have done a great deal in separating the people along partisan lines. Barnes is convinced that an honest judge should not only separate interpretation of the law from his personal political views but moreover judges in accordance to what’s best for the country. A deeply divided population cannot be considered to be in anyone’s best interest, yet Kavanaugh’s confirmation itself has further entrenched the gap between Republicans and Democrats. It will be in the hands of the Supreme Court to reverse the crisis Kavanaugh may have triggered for the judicial branch. After all, according to Barnes, a happy ending is in everyone’s best interest. Let’s just hope he is right.

By Maya Diekmann

Photo Credits:

The End Of The Government Shutdown 2013, Stephen Melkisethian, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Justitia, Tim Reckmann, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Filibuster Gorsuch, Master Steve Rapport, CC BY 2.0

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2048

Amanda Bujac — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:31 +0000

“Dear customers, the shopping center will close in 5 minutes.”

I smile at my last customer as I disconnect her device. “There you go, enjoy your listening!”. She thanks me and as she turns around, the smile on my face fades away. I watch her leave.

She joins the group of people waiting in front of the elevator.

I’m tired.

My eyelids drop heavily on my eyes, erasing their existence and replacing it with nothingness, but it’s the same. I open them. Now, she’s on the other side of the glass. They descend slowly as if going to hell.

Suddenly, I find myself in empty silence. It is so comforting I close my eyes again. Five minutes ago these walls were vibrating and now I am completely alone, I’m resting.

A sound makes me startle and open my eyes. I see an old humpbacked man standing right in front of me.

“I am sorry, sir, we are closed.”

“I know, son”, the old man replies, “but I’m in an urgent need of something. Look…”

His hand reaches into his pocket. He reveals a small bottle and puts it on the table. He takes off the cap and motions me to lean closer.

I look inside with curiosity. My eyes sink into the depths of a black viscous liquid.

“It is ink”, says the old man.

“Where did you get it?” I ask with bare surprise.

“It doesn’t matter, you see, the problem is I cannot use it. I need a pen, that is why I came to you.”

I am stupefied. Not only do I not sell pens, but I also can’t remember seeing one in the last fifteen years.

“Sorry, sir, I’m afraid I can’t help you. We sell only e-books and audiobooks in this store.”

All at once, the man’s face looks bitter. Now he seems even older, almost dead. I look at the little black ocean again and feel a hot stream rushing through my veins. I run to the other corner of the room and start searching through the drawers. After I find what I was looking for, I run back to the man.

“Try this”, I say in quick breath as I give him a digital stylus.

He looks doubtfully at the heavy metal stick. He then reaches for a piece of paper and deepens the stylus’ tip in the black liquid. When he starts drawing letters on the white surface, I feel hypnotized by the movement of his hand.

In a flash, the man’s face brightens up and he laughs:

“If only she knew what I have used to write this letter…”

I raise my eyebrows.

“So, you want to send a letter to a friend? I could have helped you write them an e-mail!”

“We can’t”, the old man says with a note of sorrow. “I heard they read e-mails. They will have some questions if they see I have written it in Swedish…”

My heart stops for an instance and I feel my knees weaken. I look to both sides with alarm, hoping there is no one around. Or maybe I just misheard?

“Excuse me, sir, I think I heard you wrong, I…”

“You heard me right, son”, he says with a grave tone now. “I want to send a letter to my country.”

“What do you mean?” I ask with despair wondering if he is a mad man. “We are all born in the same country!”

“Countries always existed and always will exist”, he says firmly.

“No!”, I cry while feeling deeply offended. “If countries exist, then war and hatred exists. We have a better world now!”

“Who lied to you, son?” the man says harshly. “Open your eyes! You think this is a better world we are living in? They have opened all borders saying this would bring people closer, but that was their bloodiest mistake. Back in the time, people were speaking different languages and could still be kind to each other. Now, they have established one universal language and no one understands a thing they say!”

“We are all friends now”, I scream to his face, “because we are all equal!”

“Who is your friend?” he asks me in a mocking tone. “You are as lonely as a sparrow in the rain! We all became strangers to each other. In the company of others, every man is alone.”

I look him right in the eye, full of anger. Who is this man and why did he come to me?

He continues:

“The emptiness of not having a land, a nation, a culture, we try to fill with material things. We buy them at any cost, because someone promised us these things would make us happy, but belonging to no country is unhappiness itself.

You are also from the North, I can see it in your blue eyes. I bet you grew up there as well, so you must know what I am talking about…”

“Shut up!”, I cry. “Shut your mouth!”

With both hands I cover my eyes full of tears. The hoarse voice is replaced with the sound of my heartbeat. Open your eyes, open your eyes, I keep hearing in the back of my head. Open your eyes.

I open them.

The old man is not there anymore. He is not in the hall nor in the elevator. He is gone.

I look at my hands and see they are soaked in coal-black ink. I look at the piece of paper on my desk and read out loud:

“Kära mamma, jag saknar dig. De kan inte förbjuda oss att älska vårt hemland.”

by Amanda Bujac

Illustration

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Such a big world and still not enough space to live?

Eligija Rukšytė — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:26 +0000

‘By 2050 more than two-thirds of the world’s population is projected to be living in urban areas.’- say the United Nations ( UN). They claim that it becomes harder for cities to adapt to growing density and to provide people with living facilities.

Building communities

If you take a look at history, people started living in groups in one place 12 thousand years ago and since then, the number of people living in one area only grew. Desire to live in a sedentistic culture came as people from nomadic pastoralism began growing their own crops and animal husbandry. Several years later some villages turned into towns and bigger cities, some of which eventually became metropolises through increasing industrialisation.

Towards the end of the 17th-Century large manufacturing companies started to appear which required a large work force. That caused people, who wanted to earn money, to move to the cities with their families. To live in urbanized areas also meant quick access to services which were not accessible for people who lived outside the city. Today people move to urbanized areas for similar reasons, industries are still growing, more opportunities can be reached, and most, if not all daily needs are provided for within walking distance.

Apartment in metropolitan area may seem like a privilege

Today, the world’s population is exponentially growing. Not only are there already 7.6 billion people on earth, future predictions state that by 2050 there will be 9.8 billion inhabitants.. The Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto projects that by then 8 cities in the world will have more than 30 million people living in them. The densest cities are in India, as 3 of the 8 predicted largest cities by population are Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. With that being said, metropolises are struggling to find living space for their excessively, fast growing population. Due to lack of space and high demand, people start living in small apartments with rents still being incredibly high. For example, Hong Kong – one of the most populated cities in the world- is having a hard time coping with this problem. With a population of nearly 7,5 million, it is also one of the most expensive. In other words, even a small apartment is too expensive for most people.

As a result the concept of ‘caged dogs’ appeared. People started to live in cages stacked one next to another in an old building. For this 6 feet long and about 2,5-3 feet wide ‘apartment’ they still have to pay HK$1,500 a year and the government cannot figure out a different solution, as they argue that it is difficult to find more land around the city area which would be appropriate to build living spaces. And this is just one example of many densely populated cities in the world.

Innovative housing approaches

Lack of living space in urban areas is a fast growing problem which gathers municipalities, architects, and private investors to find new ways of housing. One of the options is capsule homes which are gaining popularity in China and Japan. A first example of capsule apartment arrangements called Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in Shimbashi, Tokyo in just 30 days. It is a complete building made out of 140 capsules and each one of them was used as a tiny apartment, office, or a storage space. Today, only a few people live there, but the building constructed in 1972 spread the idea that it is possible to have micro-apartments which look like capsules and now it seems like a realistic future.

Since some urban cities do not have appropriate land to build new apartments, another idea to create housing spaces is to build underground cities. In Beijing, approximately one million people already live underground. However, to live in basements or former bomb shelters is illegal since originally they were not designed for living. Technically it is possible to build living spaces underground since Finland already did that by creating a possible shelter city underneath the city of Helsinki. It is suitable for living, has all necessary facilities, even shopping malls, and a swimming pool.

Growing population in already overpopulated cities is a severe problem which calls for action from the municipality. New housing solutions should be innovative, complex and satisfy the needs of a modern city citizen. If urbanized areas would adapt the idea of building living areas underground, suitable for people’s everyday life, this could help solve housing problems that the biggest cities in the world face today.

by Eligija Rukšytė

Photo Credits

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0

Crawd, James Cridland, CC BY 2.0

Mumbai Chawls, Adam Cohn, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Keeping the Enemy Closer

Nikhil Gupta — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:21 +0000

You’re in the middle of your Godfather marathon when suddenly, your attention is diverted to your shadow. You find yourself getting sucked into a portal that takes you into the anti-world. It’s a lot like the world we live in – except the economy is the black market, a normal job involves stealing, murder and violence; and actors that form the foundation of the system are institutions of organized crime. Such a world has existed in parallel to our conventional political system for centuries!

I’ve always thought that the relationship between the two worlds is like a Star Wars franchise, where there is a clearly defined good and evil. In reality, though, their relationship mirrors more of a Dark Knight dynamic. In other words, the trend today suggests that the lines between conventional politics and organized crime are blurred.

I don’t like violence, Tom, I’m a businessman

While there isn’t a set definition for the term, organized crime is essentially a network of enterprises set up for the purpose of engaging in activities such as drugs, prostitution, loan sharking etc. They may be illegal, but have continued to have a large public demand only since the birth of any form of political order. Especially today, with the emergence of sophisticated technological advancements, these syndicates are challenging conventional concepts such as rule of law, power and order.

And its not as if states haven’t identified the issue. Indeed, recent research from the United Nations University shows that wherever there is armed conflict, there are usually links to organized crime. Why, then, does this continue to exist? The short answer is that it’s trickier than you think.

It should be clear that organized crime poses as a threat to peace and security globally. The problem, though, is that organized crime networks are intertwined with the global economy. The fact that some of the world’s top criminal organizations currently generate more revenue than select nation states is astounding!

Fortune’s list of the top five organized crime groups estimates the “Solntsevskaya Bratva” (Russian mafia) creating a revenue of $8.5 billion and “Yamaguchi Gumi” (aka the Yakuza from Japan) a revenue of $6.6 billion in a year. This massive revenue is then laundered into legal businesses that pay taxes which – in the larger scheme of things – contribute to the country’s economy.

Like it or not, sometimes organised crime groups tend to complement states by getting their hands dirty for activities that “white knight” governments can’t acceptably do. That extends to trafficking drugs and arms, assassinations, extortion, money laundering, and strategic offshore investment — including in foreign politicians. Consequently, there is oftentimes a tendency for organized crime groups and governments to scratch each other’s backs.

Rise of the Mafia State?

The elephant in the room needs to be addressed. The current president of the most powerful country in the world is under investigation for collusion with the Russian mob during the election campaign. Journalist Craig Unger, in his House of Trump, House of Putin goes in detail to illustrate that Trump’s ties with Russian organized crime isn’t new and has a 30 year history. This is a watershed case to highlight that the relationship between the Russian government and its mob is symbiotic.

But this game has had many players. For instance, the release of previously confidential U.S. government materials on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy seem to confirm that the CIA worked with the American mafia to try to assassinate Fidel Castro. It’s sort of like a priest hiring a consulting firm to engage in blasphemy on his behalf.

It’s a no-brainer, then, that the sins of organised crime can’t be put to justice overnight. But what does the crystal ball say?

Leave the gun, take the Cannoli

The UN University predicts that collusion between political and criminal actors will only increase in the future, playing an even bigger role in national and global governance over the next three decades.

This is unsurprising, for the betting man would double down after seeing trends such as the migration crisis today, where government policies leave loopholes for the illegal transport of refugees. Additionally, economic and political vulnerability has always been good for business which can exploited more efficiently today in a world of globalization. However, a growth in anti-state activities would lead to the growth of the state executive. The car wash scandal- possibly the biggest corruption scandal in history shows that at some point, complex networks can be dissolved.

This compels me to disagree with the romanticized notion that the mafia and the state would be interchangeable concepts in the future. Institutions of organized crime are agents of the anti-state, i.e. the potential of their power is determined by the state as a point of reference. Thus, even with the imminent growth of organized crime in the future, there’s always going to be an equilibrium between the conventional world and the anti-world.

By Nikhil Gupta

Photo Credits:

Crime Hmm, Tobyas Reaper– CC BY 2.0

Putin is coming, Yuri Akopov– CC BY NC-2.0

Gun, hands back, weapon, Skitterphoto

Agent Dangerous, Open Clipart-Vectors

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On the Edge

Merle Emrich — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:09:17 +0000

Between clouds in time lapse

A glimpse of a distant memory

Of the future

Of soldiers – wanting souvenirs

As if they were on holiday

Experiments on climate change

On the small scale

And patient despair

I stomp on the edge of reason

Scream into the abyss of sanity

Hard warnings

And acts of kindness

Perhaps we don’t know

We’re making history

In our ignorance

But still I have hope

For all the weird kids

Still I can see laughter

In your eyes

Why not change it

Challenge it

Disconnect from it

On all levels

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Edvard Munch, (23), pixelsniper, CC BY 2.0

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Back to OUR future: “Your future is whatever you make it”

Nina Kolarzik — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:04:57 +0000

Listen to the past? No, the future!

Since children and young people are humanity’s future, they should in theory be thought of as the most important humans. But do you feel like that? They are the most vulnerable persons and often suffer the most in conflicts and catastrophes. Everyone knows what parents used to say: “You still have to learn and grow up first before you can make an important decision.” This is also what children hear when it comes to politics. They are not taken as seriously as adults. Or they are only seen as victims, but not as actors.

The future is about and for us, the young, so why should we not engage in it? There are many ways of exercising influence and no shortage of examples of young people doing so. This article wants to show some of their ways, to remind you that we all have a voice and possibilities we can use.

Active in the Real World – Protest, Petitions and Speaking up

The most direct way to raise political attention about the youth’s problems is through active engagement in politics and civil society, by participating in youth organisations of political parties, starting petitions or political activism.

The generation gap between the elderly and the young population is an issue with multiple effects on the demographic landscape of politics. When the generation divide is too oppositional, political activism of the youth arises. This has become increasingly visible all around the globe: in the US not only adults but high school students march against the lose gun laws, young people participated in the radical political protests during the Arab Spring, and there is much dissatisfaction with the generation clash of the Brexit referendum.

Children’s voices can be powerful and loud. Even though not everyone will change the world completely, small steps are important. Some voices got heard worldwide and have a long lasting influence on the recognition of children’s issues. Malala Yousafzai and Severn Suzuki addressed issues of the future, such as education and climate, which are often neglected in the high political debates.

Learn politics: youth parliaments and conferences

There are also ways for young people to learn for their future in politics. Youth Parliaments exist on different levels, nationally and internationally. Slightly different are political simulations as for example the Model United Nations (MUN). They take place all around the world. International guests come together to get an impression of how decision-making works. They aim at educating and empowering the youth, and giving them a possibility to express their opinions, ideas and solutions.

The question is, how much power to invoke change do political simulations actually provide? The organisers state that they can be influential in the sense, that the participants learn about their own capabilities and possibilities, but also that they can communicate their messages through meetings and media to the public and politicians.

Personal criticisms can be found on platforms like the questions-and-answer website Quora, where former participants exchange their experiences. It is possible to make a detailed analysis of the opinions expressed, but you can also quickly get a general impression. There are positive, enthusiastic comments that express the unique chance MUN conferences offer to test skills in communicating, negotiating and presenting in an environment you would never have at university. It taught them, how much research and effort you need to put into decision-making. But there are also many disappointed voices who see the MUN’s being used as for acting cool and important, winning prices and taking it as a step on the career ladder – not as something that you could take seriously as an effective means for facilitating change.

As you can imagine, these personal experiences depend a lot on when, where, and with what participants and organisers people attended the conferences. But when you read through the statements, the impression is that those who participate regularly at such conferences see it as an elitist club of which they are part of. The expression “MUN careers” is used which makes me wonder if the unspoken purpose is to select and train the next generation of aligned, political leaders.

In front of our eyes – MUNmö 2018

One conference is taking place at Malmö University: the MUNmö in mid-november. This gave me the chance to talk to Liana Shabbar, one of our fellow GPS students, regarding the conferences’ purpose and goals. She is the Human Resource Manager at MUNmö 2018 and has also participated in MUNmö before, so she can provide an inside view most of us do not have.

“I think the purpose of it is really to get the Youth involved in world politics, because the Youth can be detached from what is happening in politics right now.”

Shabbar said, the Model UN can be useful for everyone who wants to work in international organisations or in the field of politics, even if they do not like the UN institutions, because it gives an inside look into the power they actually have and what processes, formalities and bureaucracy they work with. Even though it is a simulation, it shows the entire process and involves the youth in it.

“I think it gives people the opportunity to research subjects that maybe they would not have done otherwise and see them in a more diplomatic sense than just doing plain research.”

According to Shabbar, MUN provides a chance for students to prepare for the future, since it teaches to find solutions and look at problems not only in theory, but also realistically.

The Road Ahead

Age can be an obstacle but it is no excuse when you want to create change. The possibilities that juveniles have to influence politics are in the end the same as those that adults have. I remember Hannah Stanton’s speech at last year’s MUNmö. She told us that we have the chance to make the world a bit better every day – if only we start doing something. No matter whether it is uncomfortable or something small – we do not need to start the world revolution today – but we can start acting. And I remember her saying that MUN conferences are not about having a fancy dinner or pretending to be a diplomat but that it is about the exchange and improvement of ideas we have for our future.

by Nina Kolarzik

Photo Credit:

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