2022 – Page 4 – Prof Jem Bendell

A Positive Song in a World Gone Silly

February 24, 2022February 24, 2022 jembendell

During the pandemic many people appear to have had their capabilities for logic and ethics vaporised in the heat of fear and the distortions of reality from elite interests. Consequently, from a serious public health perspective, the conversations about the pandemic are mostly silly. That does not mean there are really serious and damaging outcomes for individuals and societies. Millions of lives were lost and many might have been saved with smarter actions and more free flowing information. Now millions more lives are being risked due to the impacts of policies on supply chains and the cascading impacts on the poor worldwide. But given how much misinformed piety and pseudo professionalism is on show, it can be helpful at times to simply laugh at the orthodoxy on the pandemic. Here are some examples.

Medical officials ignoring early outpatient treatment from their frontline colleagues? Arrogantly silly.

Bigtech firms suppressing such information that might save lives? Ruthlessly silly.

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We are still humans behind our tweets and capable of dialogue

February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 jembendell

Do you remember when discussion about public health and civil liberties in one’s own country used to be calm and deliberative? A bit boring even? Well now we live in more interesting times. Because the legacy media and establishment pundits do not like open conversation about these subjects, and demonise people with different views, many of us have become shy to speak our minds. In the environmental sector, organisations have been silent on these topics, unless it is about their own civil liberties. Of course such a sectarian embrace of human rights is neither coherent nor effective. Environmental activists facing more and more jail time for nonviolent protest is a clear indicator of that failure.

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Thoughts On Pandemic Response

February 9, 2022February 9, 2022 jembendell

Since April 2020 most media corporations have encouraged hostility towards open scientific dialogue and normal policy scrutiny. That has been accentuated by the way domestic partisan politics in North America has influenced media content globally and provoked censorship from Big Technology platforms. The sad result is that misinformed and emotionally activated people share misinformed and outrage-inviting commentary on the analysis of people who are demanding more open scientific dialogue and normal policy scrutiny. That creates a barrier to people discovering what is actually being said by people like me. Therefore I am listing my key writings on Covid in one place so it is easy to access them.

It’s time for more of a citizen’s response to the pandemic – for a real #PlanB – where I explain how a different agenda to the current orthodoxy could be pursued that allies with our fellow citizens to remove barriers to us all making responsible decisions and how the Left has failed to articulate this agenda due to having lost close connection with the low paid workforce.

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The Benefits of Africa Evading Western Panic

February 9, 2022February 22, 2022 jembendell

Africa has fared far better than the West in the direct impacts of Covid-19. With 16% of the world’s population, Africa has had only around 5% of the world’s Covid cases, with only about 7% of the population double-jabbed against the virus. Half of African countries have Covid mortality rates lower than 1 in 10,000 people – less than one-twentieth the rate in the USA.

So what can people in the West, of any political leaning, learn from the pandemic response in Africa?

Tragically, the impacts of policies against Covid have put tens of millions of people into poverty through their disruption to economies and supply chains. That shows how ‘Western panic’ may be exerting severe collateral damage around the world. So what can people outside the West learn about the dangers of ‘Western panic’?

In an invited contribution to the ‘Existing Otherwise’ art exhibition in Ghana I share reflections during a 15 minute ‘walk and talk’ video.

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Decolonize the World Health Organisation (WHO)

February 7, 2022August 10, 2023 jembendell

There is now much peer-reviewed science on the medicinal benefits of various natural foods. Which is obvious as humans have been healthy and recovering from disease since… um… well… prehistory.

So science is playing catch up with traditional and community knowledge on how to help stay healthy and recover when we get sick. But that wisdom is studiously ignored by medical bureaucracies that have been trained to only accept large clinical trials of the type that (mostly Western) pharmaceutical companies can pay for. It means that esteemed institutions like the World Health Organisation (WHO) mostly ignore what is being done with healing plants in many countries. Worse, their staff devoutly and proudly ignore it as a matter of professional and personal identity as being strictly “scientific.” I know that because I worked as a consultant with them before. And there is evidence that millions are suffering as a result of their conceit.

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Seeking Truth on Disaster Risk – Q&A with UNDRR expert Scott Williams

February 5, 2022February 22, 2022 jembendell

Did you know that the United Nations has a whole agency dedicated to reducing humanity’s exposure and vulnerability to disasters? It is called the UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) agency and it does much the same as what many UN agencies do – convene governments and experts to discuss knowledge of the problems and best practices for addressing them so that multilateral agreements can be reached, and technical assistance provided.

Scott Williams is a lead contributing author to the risk reduction report of the UNDRR. In a Deep Adaptation Q&A Professor Jem Bendell asked Scott the extent to which our organisations of governance are helping or hindering how society responds to existential crises and what could still be done to help. The conversation ranged from discussing those institutions to the limits of our methods to assess risk, to exploring the need for new ways of being ‘professional’ through new forms of dialogue. Scott was frank and honest about his personal assessment that with the seasons certain to break down in the Northern hemisphere in the coming years that humanity faces catastrophic change. That message that is currently not welcomed in official reports or meetings of organisations that exist to try to better manage the existing systems of power.

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Reverend Stephen G Wright on Spirituality and #DeepAdaptation

January 29, 2022February 22, 2022 jembendell

Reverend Stephen G Wright is Spiritual Director and trustee for the Sacred Space Foundation and the the founder of the St. Kentigern School for Contemplatives. Recently he was elected as a member of the Holding Group of the Deep Adaptation Forum.

In this #DeepAdaptation Q&A hosted by Katie Carr, Reverend Wright explores spirituality and the role of the mystic-contemplative in deep adaptation. It includes “the spiritual life as a fierce de-addiction programme”, “Learning to keep your heart open in hell” (#RamDass), and Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There is?”

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Deep Adaptation Q&As in 2022

January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 jembendell3 Comments

Hear from people who are responding to their anticipation or experience of societal disruption in fascinating ways – and ask them questions. These Q&A sessions are hosted by either Professor Jem Bendell or Katie Carr and feature questions from participants in the DA movement. They are free to attend and most are open to anyone. Videos of the Q&As are posted online afterwards and previous ones with guests including Joanna Macy and Charles Eisenstein can be viewed here. Further Q&As will be added to the programme in 2022 – stay up-to-date with the latest additions via the DA Leadership group.

Reverend Stephen G Wright – Interfaith minister and member of the Holding Group of the Deep Adaptation Forum. January 25^th 2022

Join Katie Carr as Stephen discusses engaged spirituality, and the role of the mystic-completive in deep adaptation to societal collapse. Check details and book your place.

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