future – Pike & Hurricane

A Society of Control: The actuality of Gilles Deleuze’s thoughts in the 21st century

Franziska Fink — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 18:19:33 +0000

Eighty-eight years ago, in 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote his infamous dystopian novel, Brave New World. Huxley tells the story of a futuristic World State in which all citizens are constantly happy, as well as content with the social order. They have been conditioned from birth by an overarching powerful state apparatus to accept the role they have been assigned to. Injustices such as owning less than others or having to do dull work are thus not perceived as discriminatory, but rather joyfully accepted. Moreover, the citizens’ entire perception of reality and truth is generated and controlled by the state. Of course, the mechanisms of control are hidden away from the general public and are only known by a small elite of so-called World Controllers. They govern, respectively dictate, with the best intent, namely for the purpose of creating social stability by brainwashing everyone into happiness: “Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.”

Huxley’s World State shares many features with what Michel Foucault has termed a “disciplinary society”. Initiated by the systemic organization of vast spaces of enclosure, members of disciplinary societies can be constantly controlled as they move in between easily observable locations: from their home to school, to factories, possibly to hospitals and prison—all institutions that are placed under the state’s surveillance and, thus, subjects within those become easy targets to control. Foucault placed this kind of society in the 18th and 19th century, during a simpler time, when an ordinary person’s life probably did not entail more than going to school and later in life to work in a factory.

“I imagine Foucault terrified if he saw what kind of society we are living in nowadays.”

To people that have been brought up in a liberal democracy which cherishes plurality of opinions and ideas, this form of societal and political organization seems, unsurprisingly, repellent in its entirety. Not being able to express, not even being given the chance to develop, one’s own understanding and opinion of how our society should look, appears a drastic deprivation of fundamental rights.

I imagine Foucault terrified if he saw what kind of society we are living in nowadays. A society so complex and so intertwined with technology, yet nonetheless so young in regard to the proliferation of that technological hegemony, that there are simply no mechanisms in place that has the capacity to control these novelties. Yet, quite the opposite seems to be the case: We live in a society of technological control, so far-reaching that not even the godfather of this theory, Gilles Deleuze, could have imagined it.

“In contrast to Huxley’s World State members, people in our post-modern society of control are not controlled through psychologically conditioned beliefs, but rather trough the mechanisms of the “bubble” in which they move.”

While the individual in a disciplinary society was placed in different institutions of control, the contemporary individual living in a control society is in constant modulation, Deleuze states. With our phones, laptops, and tablets always within a short distance, we are constantly coerced in various forms of communication. On the one hand, this has triggered a new form of global interconnectedness and awareness. The revolution in information and communication technology spread power to the masses by creating a unique global space for human development. Local events can now instantly trigger global consequences, grassroots movements like Fridays for Future are only one telling example. Nevertheless, this new space can also be used for destruction.

In contrast to Huxley’s World State members, people in our post-modern society of control are not controlled through psychologically conditioned beliefs but rather through the mechanisms of the “bubble” in which they move. These are characterized and nourished by determinants such as our social environment, socioeconomic status and educational background, but also by our virtual interactions.

Our own personal truth and material reality is subsequently generated by algorithms which constantly provide us with the type of news we would like to see; disinformation and fake news determine election outcomes and people become more prone to conspiracy theories and dangerous movements.

“What is already clear, is that we will not end up with the benefits which the members of Huxley’s World State enjoy.”

What is unique about our contemporary society of technological control is that it appears as if there is no all-encompassing political agenda behind all of this. Of course, the technology is used by different political groups to realize their interests, whether this is done through the spreading of fake news about their opponents or through the hacking of foreign elections. But the ones who essentially developed—and are in charge of managing powerful and influential platforms like Facebook or Twitter—the actual puppet-players, seemingly have commercial benefits as their basis of interest, in contrast to sound political goals. The World Controllers imagined by Huxley or the ruling elites of disciplinary societies, exercised control predominantly for control’s sake. Yet, nowadays, thanks to the egalitarian mechanisms of the internet, everyone has the potential to become a powerful player and to use this control in their own interests. This automatically creates a kind of virtual anarchy, in which the means for control does not resonate with its ends.

Since this development is still so young, it is too early to predict how it will unfold. What is already clear, is that we will not end up with the benefits which the members of Huxley’s World State enjoy. Facilitated by a totalitarian state, they gain social stability, a great sense of community and a strong group identity. But they nonetheless pay for it with their rights of individual development and active political participation. In contrast, the post-modern version of Deleuze’s society of (technological) control in which we find ourselves, accelerated exactly these facets; it also makes us pay for it, in turn, with data, privacy and the complete dependency on our phones and laptops.

Neither of these alternatives sound too attractive to live with. What to do? After having discovered the perversion of the system in which he lives, one of the protagonists of Brave New World dealt with his newly gained knowledge by leaving civilization behind and fleeing into the woods. Sounds intriguing? Yes, but let’s all promise not to do a live-Instagram story of the beautiful sunsets we will find.

Related Articles

The Social Network of Ethnic Conflict

Photo credits

Artificial Intelligence – Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Artificial Intelligence 2 – Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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The Risks of Space Trash

Gerard Rodon — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 19:14:18 +0000

Have you ever wondered what the earth will look like from space in 100 years?

Perhaps you imagine a Pale Blue Dot, or an Earthrise. I would bet that for most of us, the Earth looks pretty much as it is today. The solitary home of all humankind, half suspended in the darkness of it’s own shadow.

I bet you don’t imagine it will look like a house-of-mirrors version of Saturn, with rings made of supersonic space trash spinning on different axes around our collective home. But according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), this may be the Earth’s fate.

In fact, the world is already beginning to look like this. There are 4857 satellites in Earth’s orbit according the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (probably the coolest UN department on the planet. (pun very much intended)). Of these 4857 satellites, 2877 are now non-operational. And therein lies the issue. There are 2877 large and extremely expensive pieces of trash going roughly 7 kilometers per second around the earth.

The only reason you can read this is because of the ever growing network of satellites, whizzing miles above your head and making the modern world of Emojis, GPS, time zones, and talk shows possible. The underlying infrastructure of the digital world just so happens to be suspended in space where it might just crash into now defunct parts of itself. What’s worse, when it does inevitably crash, it makes a real mess.

Thousands of tiny particles of ex-satellite go off in every direction and continue to move at supersonic speeds. This summer, an astronaut aboard on the International Space Station (ISS) had to plug a hole that was created by small particles of space debris from leaking air with his finger before using more advanced methods involving duct tape.

Growing Interest and Risk

The number of satellites launched each year keep increasing. But the good news is that there has been research and legislation on this problem for decades. NASA has recognized this as far back as 1995 when it published the first Orbital debris mitigation guidelines. This led to some governmental interest first by the US, then other countries like Japan, Russia and France, and the European Space Agency, eventually leading to adoption of protocols on debris mitigation by the UN in 2008. These days any states or companies that want to launch a satellite have to have a plan for bringing down the satellite within 25 years. But all the while, space is getting more profitable as private companies see huge opportunities. Investment in the sector totalled $8 Billion between 2012 & 2017.

Smaller states like Laos, Ghana, and Finland are also joining the party. Space launches are a source of international prestige, as well as a good way of fostering interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. So as demand for satellites keeps going up, supply of available space keeps getting smaller. Before 2009, all recorded orbital collisions had been between satellites and these small pieces of debris, but then a deactivated Russian Military Satellite crashed into an active US communications satellite above Siberia, creating 2000 new pieces of debris to fly off into random orbits. Even small particles can cause a lot of damage when they move at 7 kilometers per second. And collisions only create more particles, which create more collisions…you see where I’m going with this.

So along with those 2877 intact but defunct satellites, there are 21,000 objects measuring 10cm in length, and half a million particles less than a centimeter in length. None of this you want to touch anything valuable or expensive, like a functioning satellite. It is a wonder of engineering, navigation, and luck that we can get anything at all off the ground and into space through this terrifying killer cloud of space trash. The problem is only going to get worse as more satellites are launched into an increasingly congested and perilous place for satellites to be, making the likelihood of collisions ever higher. This problem was given a name back in 1978; Kessler Syndrome. The increase of objects sharing low earth orbit could eventually reach a threshold that sparks a domino effect of orbital collisions.

Worst case scenario: we trap ourselves on earth, unable to safely launch anything into space, not to mention collectively finding ourselves suddenly back in 1959, technologically speaking. The implications are hard to even imagine, a sudden collapse of the global communications system could ignite who-knows-what kinds of geopolitical trouble.

Space Trash Disposal

Currently, disposal happens by nudging defunct satellites back down towards earth which either burn up in the process or land in the satellite graveyard, a remote area of the South Pacific in between New Zealand and Chile. Alternatively, satellites can be pushed higher up into an unused orbit. But this only deals with the intact satellites that can be remotely controlled. We still need to deal with the cloud of deadly particles, so scientists are thinking up solutions to clean up space, involving all the most science-y stuff (Lazers, magnets, Space harpoons…).

Orbital Weapons systems, like those promoted by Reagan and Trump are also a terrible idea if you want to keep space tidy due to their enormous size. It is also pretty obvious that if we started a shooting war above the atmosphere, it would make a big mess. In 2007 China drew international condemnation by creating thousands of pieces of debris by blowing up one of its own satellites to demonstrate its anti-satellite weapon system. With the likely growth of space tourism within a decade, it is becoming evident in the infant private space sector that it is in everyone’s interest to have space be safe and debris free.

Space has always given me a childlike excitement. I share the hopes of the late great Stephen Hawking that humanity can, and must, spread out from its home. Going into the unknown, achieving more and creating a better future. This is the has been the hope at the edge of all frontiers. But time and again it has been short sightedness, tribalism, and the tragic greed that lead to failure, cruelty, and injustice.

If space is too deadly or expensive or big to explore, I wont mind. But if we lock ourselves on earth by basically littering, then it’s just too sad to be funny.

by Gerard Rodan

Photo Credits

NASA Johnson, iss046e043433: CC BY-NC 2.0

NASA

iss027e008683, NASA Johnson, CC BY-NC 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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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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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

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Atlantis Submerging – Building a Future in the Pacific

Anna Bernard — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:00:11 +0000

“In those histories, half tradition,

With their mythic thread of gold,

We shall find the name and story

Of thy cities fair and old.

[—]

Every heart has such a country,

Some Atlantis loved and lost;

Where upon the gleaming sand-bars

Once life’s fitful ocean tossed.

[—]

Now above this lost Atlantis

Roll the restless seas of Time.”

The Lost Atlantis, Edith Willis Linn Forbes

The impacts of climate change are revealing themselves at a varying pace around the world. The inevitable changes in the world the way we have known it will produce a multitude of responses amongst nations. We are witnessing the shaping of a new world order very different to what we have imagined. In this article I will examine the case of climate refugees in the context of the Pacific Islands, where low-lying nations are forced to consider such seemingly far-fetched adaptation strategies as buying land on foreign soil in order to secure territory for the relocation of the population when their home islands will unavoidably submerge as sea levels continue to rise. The story unfolding is that of countries loved and lost, resembling the mythical tale of Atlantis. I will specifically look at the case of Kiribati and its climate evacuation plans.

Climate refugees

According to various security experts, the risks related to unchecked climate change include extreme risks to food security, elevated risk of terrorism as states fail, and unprecedented migration that would overwhelm international assistance, among other factors compromising human and national security. In accordance, climate change has been called the greatest security threat of the 21st century.

According to worst-case scenarios, over 200 million people could easily become displaced by climate change. Numerically and geographically, South and East Asia, including the Pacific small island states are particularly vulnerable to events leading to large-scale forced migration. This is because sea level rise will have a disproportionate effect on the vast masses living in low-lying areas.

This forced migration triggered by climate events would affect development negatively in various ways. There would be an increasing pressure on urban infrastructure and services, which would undermine economic growth and increase the risk of conflict. Forced migration would result in worsened health, educational and social indicators among climate migrants themselves.

The restless seas rolling over Kiribati

The Pacific Island nation of Kiribati is one of the first countries in danger of becoming completely uninhabitable due to climate change. Kiribati is composed of 33 atolls, which are ring-shaped coral reefs encircling a lagoon. Atolls are by nature low-lying, and have a high ratio of coastline to land area, which makes them extremely vulnerable to various problems related to climate change, such as sea-level rise, shore erosion, fresh water contamination and disastrous storm surges. Kiribati has already experienced some of its islets vanishing into the Pacific. In addition, Kiribati is threatened by the rising sea temperatures which forms a severe risk to the coral reefs sustaining the atolls and their islands.

There have been several other attempts at implementing adaptation strategies, at varying, often poor, degrees of success. These strategies have included the construction of sea walls and water management plants, as well as installing rainwater-harvesting systems. However, such measures are not financially realistic for resource-poor and aid-dependent countries like Kiribati. To implement a reliable climate adaptation strategy would require consistent, long-term funding for which development aid is insufficient.

Thus, the government of Kiribati has promoted the concept of “migration with dignity”, in which residents are guided towards the option of considering moving abroad if they are equipped with employable skills. The Kiribati government has in fact launched a programme called the Education for Migration programme intended to make the Kiribati population more attractive as immigrants by focusing on enforcing their skill sets. Another novel idea has surfaced in which international refugee law is applied for climate refugees who are forced from their homes due to the consequences of climate change.

The more radical step has been in preparation for an extreme humanitarian evacuation: Kiribati bought approximately 20 km2 of land in Fiji, as a potential refuge. Fiji’s higher elevation and more stable shoreline make it less vulnerable than the islands of Kiribati. The former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, who was in charge of the Fiji purchase, intended it to be a signal for the rest of the world in the form of a cry for attention regarding the predicament the Pacific island states are in.

A lost Utopia or climate extinction?
As the effects of climate change are revealed, nations like Kiribati are forced to prepare for the ultimate fight for survival. According to scientists’ predictions a significant portion of Kiribati will be uninhabitable within only a few decades. The question is not merely about safely relocating the biomass of the nation – its population – but there should be an existential urgency regarding the preservation of their national identity, culture and traditions. As we continue this haphazard and blasé approach towards climate change, climate migration and climate evacuation, we are possibly turning a blind eye towards the dawning era of de facto human climate extinction regarding cultures and communities. In the case of Kiribati and the other low-lying Pacific island states, only time will show if the future generations of the Pacific will have mere wistful myths and a restless sea of time rolling over their beloved countries and nations.

Anna Bernard

Photo 1: 2012. Kiribati Grunge Flag by Nicolas Raymond, Attribution 3.0 Generic (CC BY 3.0);Photo 2: 2009. Millenium atoll by The TerraMar Project, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0); Photo 3: 2011. As an extremely low-lying country, surrounded by vast oceans, Kiribati is at risk from the negative effects of climate change, such as sea-level rise and storm surges, by Erin Magee / DFAT, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

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