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Thoughts On Pandemic Response

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

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)

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

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

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

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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 25th 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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Et si ça y était ? ¿Es este el momento que esperábamos? Siamo davvero alla frutta?

jembendell

Editorial pour le bulletin d’information du 7 janvier 2022 : Et si ça y était ? Répondre consciemment aux perturbations sociétales.

Editorial para el boletín del 7 de enero de 2022: ¿Es este el momento que esperábamos? Una respuesta consciente a la desintegración social.

Editoriale della newsletter del 7 gennaio 2022. Siamo davvero alla frutta? Come rispondere consapevolmente ai disagi della società.

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Medical Aggression – the new nasty?

jembendell

Could you be experiencing medical aggression?

A friend of mine told me of a conversation with his sister that roughly went like this. 

Sister: Are you still not vaccinated for Covid-19?

Friend: As I am not vulnerable and the jab doesn’t stop me either getting it or passing on the infection, I will not go get the jab. 

Sister: I understand that is your choice. But I am concerned that Mum might not be getting vaccinated because you aren’t. 

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What if this is it? Responding consciously to societal disruption

jembendell

This is the Editorial for Issue 9 of the Deep Adaptation Quarterly. Subscribe to future Quarterlies.

As the initiator of what has become a movement for ‘deep adaptation’ to societal disruption and collapse, I am pleased to have this means to continue to share with you what I think is important as we experience more troubled times. In DA conversations we often speak of ‘societal collapse,’ yet do not often explore what we mean by ’societal.’ For instance, are there norms and values that are fundamental to what we experience as society? Could they be as important for some people as matters of shelter, nutrition, or health? Or should we ditch certain values that have been central to our experience of society, if we think that will keep us safer? Who decides the ‘we’ that matters and the others who matter less? And where would such ideas of attaining safety come from? These are topics explored by signatories to the Scholars Warning on societal disruption. And with such topics in mind, I liked a recent summary of the Deep Adaptation movement in a review of my new book: “Unlike the growing prepper movement that prioritizes personal survival at all costs, Deep Adaptation calls for adaptive responses that spring from solidarity with all life, which requires an expanded sense of self and kinship.”

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Why Pundits ‘Don’t Look Up’ from Progress

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The new film about a total apocalypse of the human race is being slammed by many film reviewers. But when I chat to people who have seen it they think it brilliant. And my Facebook wall is full of friends writing versions of OMG what a film! So what might these extremely different reactions tell us?

When I read the reviews of ‘Don’t Look Up’ they seem to misunderstand the film. Even the reviews from environmentalists who slag off the other reviews miss what is seen as important about the film by me and people who are alive to the very latest climate trends.. So here are my two cents on the film and – like all important art – the lessons from the reactions it has generated.  

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