politics – Pike & Hurricane

The Power of Memes: More than Jokes

Franziska Fink — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 11:00:57 +0000

No one really can explain how they have developed, and everyone will define them differently. Yet, they have altered our discourse within the digital arena fundamentally, and by that subsequently created a whole new way of how (online) communities are formed: Memes. Images, usually accompanied by a brief and well-pointed text, are basically digital jokes, and the uncontested form of humorous communication across all of our social media platforms.

Memes exist in all imaginable formats, serving all kinds of humor and satire in regard to… well, everything and nothing. Which is what is making this entire online phenomenon so particularly hard to explain, especially to non-digital natives. “What are you laughing at?” is a question commonly asked by parents when their kids are scrolling through the latest memes plastered all over their Instagram feed. But when these poor parents then take a look themselves, instead of a smile, bafflement spreads over their face, followed by the innocent question what those “memes” are and why they seem to be so entertaining?

In this lies the whole essence of how memes function and how they create a novel sense of belonging. Because they often serve a particular form of humor, that itself is intertwined with specific events, groups and topics, they are exclusive in the way that not everyone can relate. Not everyone (not just your mom) gets the joke. But if you do laugh, you automatically belong to a community that shares more or less the same perspective of the world or, at least, has the same humor and interests, as general as those might be.

In contrast to what the general public might think, the concept of a meme was not introduced by a 13-year-old Influencer, but by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Dawkins however did not come up with the online memes as we know and love them today, the word “meme” rather originated with his 1976 publication The Selfish Gene, a book about evolution in which Dawkins uses the term to refer to cultural entities. According to his initial definition, a meme is the cultural analog of a gene: “Like genes, memes spread, and, in their spreading, they take on a life of their own. Genes make up organisms and memes make up cultural agglomerations of organisms.”

Funnily enough, Dawkins’ 45-year-old definition also perfectly describes the memes that are nowadays generated, uploaded and shared millionfold in our social media feeds as well as their way of how they contribute to the forming of our identities.

The ancient Greek saying “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are”, means in 2021 “Show me the Instagram accounts you follow and I will tell you who you are” (obviously, there is a corresponding meme for that!).

This observation has not gone unnoticed in academia either. Elizabeth Cantalamessa, a scholar working on memes at the University of Miami states that “memes work with ideas, including complex socio-political ideas […] They can be a way of orienting oneself in the world.” This also includes any form of political orientation. Cantalamessa mentions in this connection the rise of intersectional and feminist meme communities.

The memes that originate from communities like these differentiate themselves by using them not just for internet humor but to address complicated issues of race, class, gender, and politics. The virtual communities consuming these memes then use them to build a sense of belonging and unity among their members. What is crucial to understand however, is that when members create such content, they not only express group identity and experiences, they are much more “creating a polyvocal discourse in which various ideological standpoints are expressed”, as Ryan Milner, an Associate Professor of Communication at the College of Charleston, writes and by that partake in norm formation which also finds application in our analog world.

This transition of norms from the digital to the real world is captivating because it openly challenges the way norms have been traditionally created and spread. Finnemore and Sikkink, scholarly coryphées in the field of international politics, have long held the most popular explanation of how norms emerge and spread. They describe the “life cycle” of an international norm to have three stages: emergence, cascade and internationalization. Finnemore and Sikkink’s theory implies that a norm usually emerges among dominant norm makers and is then distributed within the system until it reaches a universal acceptance.

Memes however are now democratizing this process, dethroning the dominant norm creators and allowing every ordinary person with a smartphone to participate in the process of norm formation. It does not even require them to play an active role and create memes themselves, it suffices if they share them in their network and help them gain popularity and thus, leverage.

Such new and participatory forms of digital technology have hence facilitated a dramatic shift in minorities’ accessibility to public discourse. They have enabled virtual public spaces to become signiﬁcant sites for collective identity formation, on which especially marginalized groups have found a place to voice their interests and to create narratives that deviate from the dominant hegemonic line (Gal and Kampf).

So, memes are definitely more powerful than the average consumer might think. Regardless of their power, they should not be overthought too much. Sometimes, you just need a good laugh and that is what they are here for as well

Related articles:

Information Overload

Hitting the (Pay)wall

Photo Credits:

By Asterfolio on Unsplash

By Leon on Unsplash

By Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

The post The Power of Memes: More than Jokes appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Do we ever learn? About the politics of recurring mistakes

Nina Kolarzik — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 09:25:53 +0000

“…it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.” ― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

A second world war, a second gulf war. Another outbreak of an infectious disease, an environmental crisis that scientists warn about since decades. Black Lives Matter does not only exist since last week and it is by far not the first movement against racism … it does not seem as if humans are capable of learning from mistakes. Or are we? Why are problems approached again, if people have failed before in solving them? And why is it important to make mistakes?

Learning from mistakes

A reason why people continue making mistakes is because we do not like to be wrong. In many cultures, for example in the USA, errors are avoided if possible. In everyday life, we have an internal sense of being right. This does become a dangerous problem, as an individual and a collective.

One reason why we insist on being right is because we might not realise when we are wrong. And another one is that when we realise it, we do not like the feeling of it. Culturally, we have learned dogmas about that successful means not to make mistakes. We learn that the one who does many mistakes is clumsy, lazy, does not work or study hard enough. We deal with this by becoming “perfect” and we are afraid of being wrong because it means in this situation that something is wrong with us, so we insist on being right. One example is Donald Trump: more than other politicians he always claims to be right.

However, being wrong is not a defect but it is something natural and fundamental to us. As humans, we are curious and ambitious and want to find out the truth and how things work. This is what drives us to produce things, to be creative, and it also includes failing from time to time. But insisting of being right can keep us from preventing mistakes.

However, when we realise and admit that we are wrong, we can learn from it. Learning from the aftermath of WWI, when Germans wanted revenge for the punishments they had received, the international community integrated Germany after WWII into the European society and included to build the European Union.

Acknowledging mistakes is an important step towards growth. How often was it said that we need to learn from the examples of 1945? What will the EU learn from the causes of Brexit? We explore mistakes and think about different solutions. It is important to make errors and study them, then we will also lose the fear of failure and embrace it instead. Productive failures enhance the learning eventually and if things do not work out, we come up with another idea. The more certain we were of a wrong answer, the more we remember when being corrected. This is probably because the surprise is bigger and we give more attention to the new information.

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” ― Otto von Bismarck

Mistakes happen to individuals as much as in politics. Take the COP15 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen 2009. Its results back then did not meet up with the expectations, and many tried to explain the failure. Years later, the Paris Agreement was signed and it can be argued that future negotiations have learned from the mistakes made in Copenhagen. Thin and thick learning has been taking place, means adjusting strategic decisions as well as expectations. Especially in international politics, failures are analysed to avoid future mistakes and blame.

From mistakes we learn and by learning we find new tools for another try. That is not to say that everyone will and it is not a promise for that the second try will work out. Or the third or the fourth. Bernie Sanders could tell you about that. Therefore, while it might seem like people do not learn from mistakes and do the same attempts over and over again like Sisyphos, they might actually have made adjustments with every new try.

Just as individuals, politics and foreign affairs, too, develop and change through the processes of making mistakes and learning.

Forget to learn

A part of learning is forgetting. It is a normal process and “necessary part of memory”. Contemporary research is increasingly treating learning, remembering, and forgetting as one process. Forgetting is not that information are actually lost from our memory, but it is not possible for us to access the information and remember it.

We are making memories all the time, intentionally or automatically. When we form a memory, the hypothalamus comes into play. It is one of many parts of the brain that is responsible for memories. It is critical for making the connections. The information that get to our brain through sensory systems (visual, audio etc.) are connected in the hypothalamus and synapses become stronger. A memory is created. The way we learn or experience things, how often we repeat and later actually make use of them, impacts of how safe the information is stored: in the immediate, the short-term, or the long-term memory.

Since this happens constantly, our brains would get literally filled up and overloaded one day. That is where forgetting comes in. After some time and if they are not “used”, the synapses go back to their former, lower level of strength. Information is captured and then the brain has some time to figure out what is worth keeping and what is not. The information that is considered boring or unimportant fades away to clear the mind for new information to be taken in.

The inference theory is a widely accepted explanation for why we forget: memories are interfering with one another. New information interferes with old memories, or previously learned information hinders forming new memories. The “forgetting curve” describes the relationship of forgetting to time. Most information is lost quickly, but if it is stored in the long-term memory, it is quite stable. Information that seems forgotten can be recalled or recognised when the memory is triggered.

What does the discussion of forgetting mean on the grand scale? Humanity needs forgetting to some extent to evolve, I would argue. Sometimes we might need to forget that someone has failed. If we forget it, or the severity of the consequences, then someone will try it again and at some point might succeed. This counts for fighting against social inequalities as much as for fighting a climate crisis.

History is the memory of humanity, as Golo Mann said. But knowing about history does not ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated. This memory might also forget certain things. Therefore, history can repeat itself. And earlier or later, problems are tried again after failure which is necessary to progress and arrive at something new.

by Nina Kolarzik

Photo Credits

Error 404, Aitoff, no attribution required

Earth hour, sumanley, no attribution required

Child, Tumisu, no attribution required

The post Do we ever learn? About the politics of recurring mistakes appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Bordering reality: how the speculative genre extends and reflects on human experience

Filip Zahariev — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 09:14:23 +0000

Speculative fiction has long been held suspect for one cardinal sin – offering escapism from real-world problems. “How can made-up worlds,” the condemnation goes, “reflect on the issues of today? How can reading about fictional societies in secondary worlds give us …” While the popularity of speculative fiction has silenced some of its critics in recent years, the fields of “serious” literary criticism and academia still look down on it, considering it as inconsequential and superfluous. Over the span of this article, I will illustrate how both science fiction and fantasy have navigated through and penetrated real-world issues, offering invaluable insight in the process.

Science Fiction: mapping the unthinkable

Science fiction is, in the words of evolutionary biologist Richard C. Lewontin, “a literature of imagination and logic in which the consequences of radical alterations in the conditions of human existence are deduced.” A sandbox in which the author, taking on the mantle of a social scientist, sets up a vision of society starkly different from our own – this is a core tenet of the genre.

Sometimes, the societies constructed at first appear as utopias, like those in Peter F. Hamilton’s Pandora’s Star and Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos. Seemingly perfected versions of our own capitalist society, these would-be triumphs of human perseverance inevitably reveal the gaps and weaknesses inherent to the system, and proceed to widen them past the breaking point – one trait the futuristic societies of both works share in is that for the technological splendour they live in, the billions upon billions of human beings have grown stagnant, their culture incapable of providing growth, either spiritual or evolutionary.

More commonly, science fiction lingers on the anxieties of tomorrow’s world. The dangers of technology are a motif our own society falls in love with time and again, and none have given voice to these deep-rooted fears with an eloquence comparable to that of Philip K. Dick. His works concern themselves with technology invading even unthinkable aspects of human experience; 1969’s Ubik investigates the effects of a technology which allows humans to preserve the consciousness of their dead and even communicate with them. Beyond the obvious ethic and moral implications is a lingering theme of technology eroding the borders of what is real and asking,”Where does reality end, and the unreal begin?”

The appearance of the Internet has further complicated matters. William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the so-called father of the cyberpunk subgenre, anticipates the Cyberspace and outlines the apprehensions of a society in thrall of a shared cyberspace which acts as a “consensual hallucination”. The path from the neon-stylized 80s imagining of a global network in which any user can be “jacked,” to the 2000’s Matrix movie is short indeed.

Another branch of science fiction questions the exploitation of natural resources – Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest is one such example. In my review of this novel, I wrote that Le Guin imagines a world “dominated by oceans and lush green forests, where a little over two thousand men are working to deforest the world one island at a time, in order to state the unquenchable thirst of an Earth that has exhausted all its natural resources of wood.” The novel is an allegorical tale written in response to the events of the Vietnam War, and Le Guin’s introduction is a poignant reminder as to the times that produced such literature:

“…it was becoming clear that the ethic which approved the defoliation of forests and grainlands and the murder of non-combatants in the name of ‘peace’ was only a corollary of the ethic which permits the despoliation of natural resources for private profit or the GNP, and the murder of the creatures of the Earth in the name of ‘man’. The victory of the ethic of exploitation, in all societies, seemed as inevitable as it was disastrous.”

The end-point of exploitation of the natural world is nothing less than climate disaster – and has any book done more for the popularizing of climate fiction than Frank Herbert’s Dune? This titan of sci-fi brought to attention environment issues and questions of ecological limitations (and how to overcome these) to an entire new generation in the sixties, and continues its relevance over half a century later.

“Alright, alright,” the disproving critic says, “That’s well and good, I concede the point. But how does fantasy come into it?” I’m glad you asked.

Fantasy: holding up a mirror

At its finest, fantasy literature offers not just escapism but poignant commentary on the world that has produced it, sometimes against the author’s issues. Such is the case with The Lord of the Rings; author J. R. R. Tolkien is loath to admit any connection between the narrative of his opus and the events of World War II, but authorial intent is not the end to this equation. The events of the outside world shape authors and what they put into a work, knowingly or otherwise.

Criticism to reality can be found much more often in the fantasy of the last forty years than of much of the genre canon of the fifties, sixties and seventies. A cursory examination at the works of Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie offers societal visions much in the same vein as those in science fiction, though where sci-fi looks forward, fantasy looks back. Abercrombie’s A Little Hatred examines a society in the throes of an Industrial Revolution, while complicating matters further by examining themes relevant to the socio-political environment of the world we live in. A Little Hatred offers a scathing critique to a refugee crisis all too similar to those both in Europe and the United States.

Massive, multi-tome works such as Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Dead offer insight on just about any theme that takes on the human condition, from compassion to fraternity to the horrible cost and nature of war. It is issues such as these that dominate the field of speculative fiction in the twenty-first century, and their expert handling by voices new and old has value far outweighing that of mere escapism. To argue otherwise is to live in a reverie.

by Filip R. Zahariev

Photo Credits

Human Disorder,Tom Overloop, CC BY-NC 4.0

Mars Cities Geo-Block, Alex Mathers, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Binary System, Chris Frewin, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The post Bordering reality: how the speculative genre extends and reflects on human experience appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

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

The post On the Edge appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

A Stark Case of Propaganda

Merle Emrich — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 16:00:20 +0000

When we think of propaganda, we often think of posters urging the nation’s citizens to join the war efforts, or we picture it as a manipulating instrument of totalitarian regimes. But what if propaganda is James Bond’s oldest gadget? What if it is a glitch in Iron Man’s suit?

The lights flicker, then die, and the curtains open. The darkness of the screen is illuminated by the headlights of a car. The image is blurred by falling snow but slowly a dark figure emerges. He waves and the car stops. Two men get out. “Are you the guys from Washington?”, they are asked. They begin to walk away from the car, discussing a huge object that has been discovered in the ice. Once they have reached the site and cut a hole in the surface of the buried object it is ready to be explored from the inside. The blue-tinged light of torches flashes over snow and metal. Then one of the explorers’ torch light falls on something else. He kneels down, wipes away the snow and the frost. And there, under a layer of ice, wearing stars and stripes lies what – or rather who – is described by some, such as director Luc Besson, as a perfect example of modern US propaganda.

It’s A One-Way Street

But before we unleash the argument of whether the pop culture we so love is propaganda, let’s clarify what propaganda is. Usually, the term ‘propaganda’ evokes images of an authoritarian or totalitarian regime, such as the Third Reich, the USSR or North Korea, manipulating its people. Yet, this association is like a film trailer that shows you all the best scenes leaves you with a sensation of disappointment as you walk out of the cinema. It is not entirely wrong, but neither does it show the whole picture. While totalitarianism is, more often than not, accompanied by propaganda, it is by no means a necessary requirement for the use of propagandistic strategies.

Propaganda, in a nutshell, is biased or misleading, if not entirely false, information that is systematically spread to promote a political doctrine, aim or world view. Whether it comes in the form of posters, propaganda films, fake news or memes, propaganda is often aimed at leading the audience into a one-way street of information, or towards one particular opinion that is produced and reproduced again and again through creating a ‘funnel of information’.

How Bowie Brought Down the Berlin Wall

New York Times columnist David Brooks expressed his conviction that art can bring about social and political change through ‘deep spiritual and emotional understanding’, and that the world can be changed ‘by changing people’s hearts and imaginations’. And surely, anybody who ever felt inspired or moved by a novel or a film will agree that pop culture can have a mimetic effect on its audience, and that it is therefore plausible that our entertainment media can provide fertile ground for propaganda of varying subtlety. Yet, while almost everything we do is in some way political or has an effect on politics, not all of our actions are based on political intentions. It is true, there are political elements to the stories of Star Wars, Captain America and the like. But are they a form of propaganda, or is it merely entertainment that borrows from political reality? Well, we will get to that later.

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate pop culture’s propagandistic merit and political impact is by pressing rewind to rewatch the Cold War. The Cold War was without doubt an ideological conflict. Due to its nature it seeped into almost every aspect of life, including books, film and music, enabling culture to be used as an ideological instrument. Sergei Eisenstein’s films burst with Communist propaganda, while Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels propagate anti-Communist ideology and the films, according to novelist and former spy John le Carré, promote Capitalist ‘consumer goods ethic’, and portray the comfort and prosperity of the West in contrast to the debt-infested Soviet Union.

During the 1950s and the 1960s the CIA sponsored artists such as Pollock, Rothko and de Kooning to showcase Capitalism’s freedom and creativity, and the BBC’s adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four was applauded by a number of MPs as a commendable effort of bringing ‘home to the British people the logical and soul-drenching consequences of the surrender of their freedom’. Meanwhile, Whitehall convinced the BBC not to broadcast The War Game, a film about the aftermath of a nuclear attack that showed scenes of British soldiers burning corpses and people clashing with the police during food riots.

Towards the end of the Cold War Western pop culture, and in particular British music had become a symbol of freedom, fun, self-expression and modernity. One event that illustrates this, is a concert that took place in West Berlin in 1987. During a three-day rock festival David Bowie played on a stage right next to the Berlin Wall. Rumor has it that some of the speakers were deliberately turned towards East Berlin. If this is true, we do not know, yet, what we do know, is that during an interview in 2003 Bowie remembered that there ‘were thousands on the other side that had come close to the wall. (…) And we could hear them cheering and chanting from the other side’. In the middle of the concert he addressed the people in East Berlin, saying : ‘We send our best wishes to all our friends who are on the other side of the wall’ which was followed by ‘Heroes’, the birthplace of which was the divided Berlin. Meanwhile, many of the East Berliners had begun to chant ‘The Wall must fall!’. It was the first of many riots of a heightened level of intensity and led to more than 200 arrests.

A Marvel-ous Example of Propaganda

Let’s leave the past in the past, and resume our story. Not long ago director Luc Besson criticised the Marvel and DC franchise of being US propaganda. He depicted Captain America as a tool to show the US’s supremacy and greatness. And while Besson’s assessment was met with a thunder of criticism of Asgardian proportion, it is undeniable that the origin of Captain America resides in the propagandistic endeavour to bolster US support and morale during World War Two. And this is only the prequel to the debate if Marvel and DC are the mouthpiece of propaganda.

It is not uncommon for the Pentagon to support pro-military blockbusters. The opportunity to rent military equipment is given on the condition that the Pentagon approves of the film script, or even has influence over it. Naturally, the films receiving the Pentagon’s support portray the military in a positive light. Among these are all Iron Man films, about which Air Force captain Christian Hodge said that upon release the ‘Air Force is going to come off looking like rock stars’. The Avengers, on the other hand, were considered too silly to be eligible for the privilege to rent equipment from the army, in addition to the Pentagon not approving of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Yet, both in the production but in the story of Iron Man itself we can find content that makes it difficult to dismiss offhand the claim that there is propaganda within the Marvel and DC universe. Not only do we find the creation of an enemy image – in the 1960s Vietnamese Communists, nowadays Middle Eastern terrorists but a fascinatingly consistent reversal of actions that creates a contrast between fiction and reality.

On screen we can watch Tony Stark being captured by members of an Islamist organisation who try to force him to build weapons for them. Tony Stark, however builds an armour suit that allows him to escape and return to the US where he perfects the suit and teams up with the military to beat the evil that threatens the US’s freedom and security. Yet, it was actually the US military that captured al-Qaeda and Taliban members in Afghanistan and exposed them to ‘harsh interrogation techniques’.

Iron Man. That’s kind of catchy.

While the prequel to the discussion about propaganda in the Marvel and DC franchise is still in the making, and the debate continues whether our beloved and admired superheroes are mouthpieces of propaganda or mere innocent pop culture, we cannot dismiss the linkage between pop culture and politics. No matter if pop culture borrows from political reality, acts as social and political criticism, or is (mis)used as propaganda: whether it functions as mimesis and catharsis, or purely is entertainment, we cannot refute its usefulness in passing on propagandistic doctrines, as well as in making moral claims and holding a mirror up to nature. And just as we perhaps should carefully evaluate what we call propaganda, we should approach the entertainment served to us with a sharp and critical mind.

By Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Propaganda, DocChewbacca (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

IRON MAN… or is it?, Chris Blakely (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Iron Man 2 Trailer 2 – 00242, Daniel Sempértegui (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Captain America, Sara Zizza (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

L’Odéon, Alexandre Chassignon (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The post A Stark Case of Propaganda appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

The Box (Poem)

Amanda Bujac — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 15:59:36 +0000

Hello there! We’re glad to see you,Make yourselves comfortable, folks,

It’s us, your old and trusted friends,

The voices from the box.

Together, we’ve been through a lot,

Those football nights and tears of joy,

Your children love the magic box,

So does that silly wife of yours!

It’s been a long day, it’s alright,

Worked at that shitty job till late,

You hate it from the depth of heart,

But those bills ain’t paying themselves.

[Advertisment time:]

♫ ♫ We would like to present you the fruit of innovation –

The telescreen.

Please calm down your exaltation!

You will never again struggle with finding your remote,

‘cause there is only one channel, and you just can’t turn it off! ♫ ♫

We have so much news for you,

Brought from all over the globe,

You don’t have to leave your house,

Just free your mind and listen close:

The world is a dangerous place,

We have foes and we have friends.

Friends have money, foes have bombs,

And sometimes they change their roles.

Our president is best

at explaining who is who,

As he says,“no one knows

the game better than I do”

“China we love. Israel we support.

There is no Iraq, it’s not a country at all.

With Russia we’re cool. North Korea beware.

They keep doing threats on us,

I bomb the hell out of them.

Mexico is not our friend.

Mexico is killing us.

Mexico is raping us.

Therefore I should build a wall,

It better be f***ing tall.

And don’t worry, ‘cause, you see,

No one builds walls better than me.

I’m concerned about the country.

The country simply goes to hell.

The American Dream is dead,

I’m lifting it from the grave.

Know that I will bring it back,

Stronger than it’s ever been,

The country will rebuild itself

So fast your poor heads will spin.

See,

no one is better at the military than I am,

No one knows the system better than me,

No one knows taxes better than me,

No one knows trade better than me,

No one is stronger than me—

We are,

We, people,

We are

–

Knowledge is power.

You have your eyes to see.

Preserve clearness of mind.

Turn off your TV.

By Amanda Bujac

Illustrations

The post The Box (Poem) appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

A Whole New World – With New Horizons to Pursue

Julia Glatthaar — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 17:54:53 +0000

Writing about hope today is not always the easiest of all tasks. In general, people seem to be very pessimistic about the future of the country they are living in, and often rightfully so; they are unhappy with the government they are living under, frustrated with the way the prior government worked and angry about the way their tax money is being spent. Phrases such as “Things used to be so much better” are being passed around and the world does not seem like such a bright or colourful place to be.

But, it is February and you are struggling to keep all of your great New Year’s resolutions. So now is the perfect time to truly start over and really get excited for 2018. This article is for all you grouching, naggering and grumbling folks, it is about inspiring projects and about how 2018 and our future will be a better time.

So, here are my top 2018 hopeful headlines.

A Space Oddity

This is some of the most exciting news I have heard so far this year, and it combines Tesla with SpaceX, bringing us one step closer to human settlements on Mars and becoming a multiplanetary society. It is the perfect follow-up to my last article on SpaceX and the Big F***ing Rocket. The BFR has now finally been launched with a very peculiar payload: The sportscar of Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. The car is complete with a dummy called Starman, who is listening to “Space Oddity” by David Bowie.

“I took a [road]trip on a gemini spacecraft and […] I passed through the shadow of Jupiter” includes some fantastic views, great destinations, David Bowie Music, and a really, really nice car that is flying at a speed of 3.5 km/sec (Check out the video here).

This car not only serves the purpose of getting people interested in space again, it is also the starting point of a long overdue discussion on space pollution.

Macedonia Times Two?

This is quite a confusing thing I found out about recently, when I went on a trip to Skopje, the capital city of what I thought to be Macedonia. However, Macedonia is a department in Northern Greece that shares a border with FYROM—the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the country I went to. Quite a mouthful and very confusing, right?

The name has been a topic of much dispute between the country and the Greek department. The ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, before splitting up, had included both of these parties. Today, millions of Greek people identify as Macedonian and have little in common with their Northern Slavik counterpart. It has been a long conflict about who has the right to name themselves Macedonia, but more importantly it is about who can claim Macedonian cultural heritage to be theirs.

Well, things regarding the name are finally looking up! FYROM’s new prime minister is seen as a very open and calm person, just the thing that is needed. Talks between FYROM and Greece over a new name have just started and most people are rather positive that this time the dispute will finally be settled.

The Canadian Anthem turns Gender Neutral

On 31 January, just in time for the Winter Olympics, the Canadian Senate passed a bill to change the second line of the Canadian anthem from “true patriot love, in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command”. The athletes are said to be practising the revised anthem, that can now be representative of their countries development in gender neutrality. Canada now joins Austria, who also tweaked its anthem to include “sons and daughters”. This movement is truly inspiring and leaves room to wonder which countries will follow suit!

Zuma on the Run

Another country that has some reason to celebrate is South Africa. Especially now, when the country is facing major challenges, such as running out of water to supply the region of Cape Town, the news regarding their controversial head of the state is very much appreciated by some of its citizens.

Jacob Zuma, the now former president, has resigned to give way to Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been waiting since December to finally take over Zuma’s position as President of South Africa and as party leader of the ANC- the African National Congress.

In the eyes of many South Africans, the ANC has lost its reputation and has become a static party, where dynamic discussions of issues and changes have become a feature of a long ago past. The hope is that through their new leader, the party can leave behind scandals and corruption to come out strong in the next elections in 2019. Hope is also prominent among the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that they will be able to replace the ANC in 2019.

The Winter Olympics

North and South Korea will compete under a unification flag in this Winter Olympics, and for the first time ever (in Women’s Ice Hockey) they will form a team together.

And now to the really good news: This Winter Olympics for the first time in history, a team from the African continent is competing in bobsledding.

Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga are three U.S.-based Nigerian athletes, and they will make history in 2018. They practiced with a handcrafted wooden sleigh first, and started this project from scratch through a crowdfunding campaign, showing that literally, anything can be possible in 2018…

By Julia Glatthaar

Pictures:

1. By Official SpaceX Photos, Falcon Heavy Demo Mission, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)

2. By beaumontpete, Canada Day cupcake, Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

3. By GovernmentZA, President Jacob Zuma attends United States of America vs Bafana Bafana soccer match, 17 Nov 2010, Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

The post A Whole New World – With New Horizons to Pursue appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.