They or Them or whatever..

 

In most cases, whenever we are disclosing something or we want to sound knowable, we use them or they. Who are they? Who is this enormous group of pundits and anonymous experts that have gotten a place in the collective cultural medium? We "quote" them all the time. " Well, they say if you this you can get that" or They say its good for you or bad, depending on the apparent wisdom we are trying to convey. Being that Them is a reference to all and none, we can´t even blame Them for anything since we don´t know who these people are.

 

If we follow Bourdieus' core ideas, then They are the status quo upholders. A bunch of people who sound clever but don´t add anything nor inform anyone. We see them all the time on our Television screens and sometimes we actually like what someone said, usually because it is unexpected and it interrupts the passive unemotional tone. So, no good "Thems" there.

 

Occasionally in a conversation with friends, we meet Them for time to time and we tend to feel like there is some good information there that we seldom put into question or ask, is that what they really said? Who said that? Sometimes the answer is, my Doctor or my person in the position of some form of authority that is considered above most of us ignorant children.

 

However, They can be wrong. And They are many times. In my opinion, They are the mask of poor research and substance. They are an escape route to potentially win an argument with some condescension and perhaps some added insecurity. Basically, it’s a lose-lose game where good information exchange gets lost.

 

And now in COVID normalcy, Where are They? Every day, They say something new or different or opposite to what They said the week before, like ibuprofen. Recently the view on it has shifted from a possible virus enhancer to a symptom destroyer. They are crazy and making us all anxious daily. Are They so afraid to come out and say, " We don´t know? Do your research. Become a worthy Us?!

 Hey but you know what they say..

Right, me neither.

Words are not enough.

It has been said that nothing can prepare us for fatherhood. It could have been just another cliché. Another meaningless tautology spread across an unwise and superficial river of cultural indoctrination. But it is not. It is very true. 

 

In the last days of pregnancy, I kept thinking about logistics and how I could help my wife in facilitating the delivery or what have you. It occupies the worried mind, but to no end. I woke up at 5 am with my wife saying her water had broken and then I knew. I knew I was going to be more than who I had been until then. By the end of that final journey, I was going to see my daughter, I was going to utter the words, I am a father.

 

The go bag was done, the masks and gloves at the ready and a towel for my wife to sit on was also part of the scenario of going to the hospital via black cab for perhaps a sense of false security due to the separating glass between driver and client. But who knows if it is really safe or virus free.. but we had to go so, needs must.

 

We get to the hospital after calling in three or four times to check if the distance between contractions was short enough to warrant coming in. We arrive at Labour Ward. We get into the room where my daughter would come to the world and we wait. And we wait some more. Midwives coming in, midwives are replaced as per shift. An epidural is scheduled. A ruthless nurse keeps prodding my wife's vein with a huge needle. She fails, my wife makes a face. The face of, get her out of here! The nurse backs down and an anesthetist comes in. First needle in. 

 

Twelve hours after broken waters, the epidural is given after several attempts and light scoliosis. But it went. As a useless assistant, I just kept asking if my wife wanted some water because there was no point in asking how she was feeling. Contractions are now closer together and still painful. Drugs aren't in effect yet.

 

Dilation is still below the requirement so, we wait. I eat snacks and drink the water that my wife forgot to ask. I am daydreaming about my capability to withstand the birth, momentarily forgetting that I am not going through anything, my wife is. And she is scared and nervous and anxious and I am all she knows. So I play it cool and make smiling fake reassuring faces, even though I know that she is going to be overwhelmed and so utterly scared in some hours' time.

 

New midwives come in and tell us their shift ends at 8 am. So they became our midwives. It was with them that my adventure would be starting soon. Sumaya and Lisa. Words are not enough. But thank you, really, thank you and I hoped you enjoyed the box of chocolate we gave you, because who doesn't love chocolate.?!

 

1 am. Full dilation. My wife, me and our new best friends. Push. Push more and keep pushing. Now breath, waiting for the next contraction and push some more. Baby do you want some water? Ridiculous isn't it? But she said yes. And I had a function. I was part of it. And push. And even more so. At this point my wife became my hero, she stopped following guidelines and advice and just pushed and pushed like someone's life depended on it. And between guts and blood and stools and fear and pain, I saw my daughter's face. I could tell she was happy to stay in the womb. She had that expression of, just what the hell is this? I was sleeping! 

 

She comes out and goes to meet her mother and I was happy. I was someone else. But it didn't hit me. I was still concerned with logistics and for my wife's well-being. I was still a protector doing my rounds and my visual routines to check how she was doing. I heard my baby cry and still, I was on guard duty. I was still being strong trying hard not to let the most overwhelming powerful feeling creep in and forever stay inside of me. 

 

I held on until the maternity ward, some hours after birth. I was holding my daughter in my arms without my wife in the room and it was dark and I couldn't see her breathing. Finally, my wife came in and opened the curtains and I saw it was just me being scared. Me being vulnerable. And that was it. I cried and I cried from too many things to be able to find a way to communicate them. I now realised I was relieved. And I didn't have to hold on anymore. And I let it flow. I saw it come in. I knew what it was. 

 

I can say that this feeling has words like, I love you, or, I would do anything for you, or, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. All those are true. But it's more than that. It is a feeling. One that is beyond the realm of signifiers or collective understanding. I can say that there is a peaceful handshake between this feeling and this knowing. They both agree that after last week I am not the same. But the words are not enough.

  

Just who can we Trust?!

Just who can we Trust?!

Recently it was announced on Facebook that users will start receiving a notification whenever they share or post fake news.

This phenomenon of propaganda is not new, although it got much more traction due to social media and its spreading power. However, now we seem to have more trouble figuring out just what is true, or pertinent though not mainstream. Media companies and journalists have agendas, and their news stories are spun according to proprietors, political inclinations, disinformation, and sometimes just the laziness of copy/paste without at least double source checking. Again this is nothing new; it's just business as usual. It is accepted albeit not the most ethical enterprise. 

However, things begin to have a different tone when we are faced with a global pandemic that brings out the above mentioned phenomena and exposes the worst aspects of who we are. We are desperate, we are angry, we are vulnerable, we are in search for an objective explanation and we are in a hurry. Compromised that we become, we then stop caring where a story comes from, and what was a need for an explanation, transforms into a perpetuation of bias or creed or institutional disbelief. And we share it.

We keep our online friends "informed" but we hardly to our homework around what we share and for those of us who try, it sometimes feels like an impossible task, since the algorithm of our search engine is already oblique, for lack of a better word. 

The job of real information has to start with the writers. There should be no need for fact checking published stories. It is somewhat disgraceful that news need to be fact checked because they aren't fact based. The narratives that are upheld supersede the facts, and we the public, fall into judge a book by its tainted cover. And we share it.

Furthermore when did Facebook become the judge of what is or isn't fake news? Does anyone know their methodology? or agenda or ideology? It is extremely hard to accept at face value that social media companies are impartial and impervious to bias. Yet they are the gatekeepers of the current flow of information. They are the virtual space where all kinds of news converge and we have no idea what they consider true or fake. Will information be suppressed or will Facebook protect us from idiocy? I hope the latter but I think the former.

Universal Basic Income

UBI

Yet another 3 letter acronym that seems to have found renewed relevance within the context of this "new normal" world. It stands for the idea of giving money to people without any exchange of labour or any other condition aside from being alive. 

It is not a new idea, it dates as far as the 18th century with proponents such as Condorcet as a measure to fight inequality. The proponents of today are people like Elon Musk or David Yang and their core motivator for UBI is automation and it will force many industries to adapt from the use of human labour into a robotic framework.

Whether it is for inequality or automation that is not the focus of this article. There are also political ideologies that can be tied to this idea but that too will be left out. Instead, it is better to explore the feasibility of UBI.

Among the reasons that have been put forward against it is the loss of purpose since most people who go to their jobs every day would be left without a reason to wake up in the morning. However, the great majority of people who would benefit from UBI are stuck in jobs with no career prospect and their sole purpose is to be able to pay bills and feed themselves, so the argument doesn't stand.

Others argue that people would just spend it all at once and would go broke right after the first check.  That may be true, although most bills would still be there and one still needs to eat. There isn't any mention that with the UBI suddenly everything else is free of charge so people would have to consider that before going out on a binge and spend crazy.

The real feasibility factor is the volatility of the standard of living. It is a concept that changes from culture to culture and in the case of western culture, it is deeply rooted in archetypes that are not aligned with the UBI. In essence, people are prone to want more. There is a debate to be made as to why and how, whether it is a consequence of capitalism and advertising or post-war society models, the fact is that there and it needs to be taken into account.

People want more and better and different and they want to feel better with the new and bright as a source of joy, accomplishment, status, superiority, and or recognition. As much as we can discuss as to how our human condition levels the natural Plainfield, the social/financial conditions and geographies change all that.

As such either the incomes would have to reflect the particularities of a country, since the value of goods and services aren't the same everywhere, or it risks being a naive approach to solving inequality and automation.

Put simply, the UBI can only work if it is an integral part of a system that allows it to exist. A system that knows where to get the money without risking further debt and can calculate just how much is enough. This last part is tricky. and what does it even mean is yet another conundrum. On the one hand, people are not inclined to care enough for others and either decrease their expectations as to the meaning of success and abundance, and on the other whenever they have been forced to the result is usually a disaster and bears closeness to negative ill efficient models. 

For the universal basic income to have a real chance to work, the overall purpose of life has to be repurposed, the standard of living needs a refresh and the model of society needs to change. Therefore, for the time being, it is a nice idea, one that could even benefit the people in the poverty line but ultimately on a massive scale, it won't work. The world isn't ready for it.

 

Unforeseen Circumstances

As this pandemic/quarantine drags on several habits have changed which have led to many dynamics that used to be everyday routine, suddenly need to adapt. Adaptation is a hard thing to do especially when rooted habits such, as leaving the house in the morning and coming back late, are taken away and time seems to in excess. Our lives were so programmed as if there an OCD mastermind had been tasked to guide us into filling our days with rules and regulations that informed us of what to do from the moment we wake up until we go to bed. That is all suspended now.

As part of these unforeseen circumstances that this entropy has caused there is a familiar/unfamiliar life at home. Our habits of leaving our homes every day to be able to pay them at the end of the month, have been replaced by staying at home and be unsure we will be able to afford it in the near future. In turn, these anxieties create other types of possible chaos, such as communication around couples and or families. In the old world, we had a sort of a schedule for these things that had almost a perfect fit, since they were all inter dependable. We had x amount of time to sit on the couch until it was time to make dinner or send the kids to bed and be able to talk about our day with our partners. Having little time for anything had become a safe environment to keep the structures of everything the way they were without rocking the boat too much. In essence, it made us keep going without thinking too much and questioning more existential issues that might surface when we have more time.

Consequently, we gain time to either reevaluate our lives and relationships and either keep and embrace them or realize we don't want them anymore. One only needs to browse the word divorce and coronavirus and voilà, surprise surprise! The divorce rate has soared and is making headlines everywhere. The reasons behind it aren't hard to grasp and stem from tensions and fears that this whole pandemic has brought up to the forefront of our lives. We are less in control of showing our untamed sides that routine had kept at bay. Our mental health is more prone to make us more defensive in the face of the limitations of confinement and the possibility of contamination by a loved one that may become someone we have to distance ourselves. Disagreements on the measures to be put in place may go overboard and our little fragile egos can get in the way of stability and order in the household.

The same applies to domestic violence. More cases might arise and old cases may continue as victims are forced to live with their predators. Our governments are indeed aware of this and some initiatives have been put in place. However, shame and fear of sharing are still prevalent within the patterns of victimology and many cases will still fly under the radar.

Without going too much into the world of empty idiomatic expressions and cultural sayings that have lost its meaning and seem to be used when arguments fail to their jobs, we have an opportunity here. We can choose to reconnect with our relationships, try to create new rituals with our partners that bring them closer again. Have new conversations, try new intimacies, and for the ones that are lucky enough to have children, perhaps use this time to be more childish as well and play without self-censorship and expectations. Your children will appreciate it and may fuel back some good spirits into our otherwise anxieties. 

Stay safe, but don't be stupid

Uncertainty

Uncertainty is the word of these days. In its name and through its meaning we all seem to be dancing to its tune. Every day "new" pseudo-information, based on projections or conspiracies, comes to light. This is by far the most important backdrop of this pandemic. How, due to the fragility of the system, we all feel this nagging sense of despair and a not so secret fear that we try not talk about because we need hope. Hope brings us the prospect of freedom to finally go out and be mundane and not care about caring too much. Hope makes us think a cure is imminent and the technological advances will help speed up the process. We go to sleep in a groundhog day fashion, hoping the next day our news outlets feed us with an article, a study or even just a headline that supplies the light at the end of the tunnel. That is how desperate we all are.

It would seem that staying at home with our households, our castles, our headquarters, our loved ones, pets and everything that we don't get to enjoy in our rat race daily lives, would be something to look forward to. Maybe even use our phones to Face Time someone. And we do, but it only scratches the itch so far.

Restrictions are everywhere and depending where you are in the world right now they can go from a hefty fine to a straight beat down in countries like India. Shop hoarding and stockpiling are among the current lexicon as well. In Trump country gun stores are considered essential goods. Among the many conspiracies that this article will not digress on are, a book written in 1981, Nostradamus writings, depopulation, america trying to weaken china, coronavirus hoax, and the gradual loss of privacy with apps that track our every move in order to inform us that we may be near an infected person. This last one isn't actually a conspiracy.

There are also the economic consequences behind the power of uncertainty, from company lay offs to government bailouts and even to new business opportunities such as the rise of home food deliveries or virtual PT sessions. Just how long will these bailouts and lay offs are sustainable is anyone's guess, and there lies another problem which the economic projections and words like recession looming about.

It is impossible to write this article without mentioning the gallantry of the doctors, nurses firemen and police who stand fast and risk their own lives even more than usual in order to help us and in some cases force us to go and stay home for our own safety, as if we were irresponsible children neglecting the real danger of this pandemic. Surprise, we are.

For the moment, times are indeed changing and it remains to be seen that what is currently temporary may become permanent. To cough is now a bodily function that might  equate to social scare, hugging will be an act of courage, and kissing will be revolutionary. The generalised fear will make sure masks and rubber gloves will probably become norm and probably there will be a whole fashion industry telling us what colour will look better.

Let's stay home and safe

Oh climate my warming..

Oh climate my warming


In the beginning there was global warming, a political and media discourse about the rising temperature of the planet, one that according to "some" scientists is a phenomena that is happening since the 19th century and only from 1960's the greenhouse effect is tied to it. Nevertheless the overall increase is of 1º C.

If one would want to browse documents and scientific papers, there is a high enough probability that the findings would steer the viewer towards an opposite direction and cry out that the end is nigh and CO2 emissions are to blame, men is destroying the planet and let's throw money into it and solve all the world's problems just like that.

And then, just like atmospheric physicist Richard Lindzen points out, there is another group of people that are the centre of this controversy. The politicians and the ever more irresponsible media. Both are out for the same thing which is power, money and notoriety.

Is mankind polluting this planet? For sure. Should we stop and look for more efficient and sustainable ways of doing anything to avoid a disaster? Another easy answer. Are we increasing the risk of mixing up so many different angles that in the name of simplification, we will miss out on the truth? It is beginning to seem a lot like that.

Climate change/ global warming has been a discourse that blames everything and every turn without a certainty. However, in the name of fear, greed and power hunger, the CO2 tax was created even though the absolute proof of harm isn't anywhere to be found. And here is the real problem, one that is present in almost everything these days and one only need to look at the recent hysteria of the Covid-19 in order to see it.

Poor and unreliable information and no demand for it. The bandwagon of fear is a the top before knowledge and research that is deserving of its name.

We are in 2020 and there is still a war on the truth with both sides of the barricade claiming to know more than the other. It would seem better for all of us if were actually more concerned in finding out what is going on instead of screaming that we already do, when it is clear that it isn't the case. But we need to. We need to know. We need to want to know. And we need to demand it, or else we are doomed to be divided in Facebook videos that regurgitate our "facts" at the behest of our poor informed biases.

And greed wins.

Corona Nuts

If taken by the continuous headlines, it seems the Coronavirus has taken all of us by storm and the apocalypse is near as we are all doomed.

It is currently present in 40 countries and according to the latest fear selling news, it has killed more than 2,000 people and counting. However, according to CDC, the number of deaths caused by the flu between 2019/2020 is in the range of 14,000, with more than 250,000 cases of people being hospitalised. But since it is a normal disease unworthy of headlines, it falls down into media oblivion.

Another example of pure mass histeria is the millions in loss that, according to The Evening Standard, the makers of the Corona beer are now suffering. the actual number is £132 millions. They predict to lose another 10% in the next quarter. One would think that this is due to more than just the similarity of the name.

In yet another Coronavirus twist, local sales are up due to the decrease in goods being imported from China. According to the BBC, a factory in Leicester that produces knitwear and cardigans has seen orders and inquires go up after a long period of low manufacture due to the low prices that the Chinese markets usually have.

The impact that the spread of headlines such as "Coronavirus is present in 50 countries and is only getting worse" in the Economist to the "Most Coronavirus cases are mild" in the New York Times, is severe and a shoddy job for real information that is greatly needed and possibly appreciated.

But no, fear sells and life is fast.

Low Skilled Workers

Low Skilled Workers


Today, February the 19th 2020 a piece of news made the headlines everywhere in the UK. It is the ban on low skilled workers and non English speakers from coming in to the UK. Aside from the possible backlash of left wing discourse or possible injustices with this system, it is worth thinking on its efficacy and criteria.

Let´s start with the latter, Criteria. Whilst browsing through the article The Guardian  there is a list that can be seen with elements of a point based system, of which anyone wanting to come in, has to adhere to and have a minimum of 70 points (Brooks, O'Carrol, Walker 2020).

If the criteria of speaking English seems to be a no brainer, the explanation as to what consists an accepted level of English is left out and will lead to confusion and interpretation, which is never a good thing in a selection process.

Next is the sponsor and job offer. Where would a person go to in order to find these sponsors? Why is this measure put in place without additional information to support it? How efficient is a system like this if is not made accessible to everyone regarding everything, from sponsors to job offers that are within a sponsor´s reach?

More can be said about the criteria but let´s turn to efficacy related to sectors. Currently the Construction, Hospitality and Food and Drinks are connoted with foreign work. One only needs to to a site, restaurant, or try to hire a housekeeper or nanny to find that whether this is a fact. If so, then what will happen to these jobs in the future? Who is coming to fill these possible vacancies? Are we to rely on British born workers to pick up the would be slack?

Seems like this move will need serious and thorough debate at to what it really is about. If Brexit has taught us anything is how messy it is and how filled with misconceptions and flat out lies.

Let's see what happens..



Source: Brooks, O'Carrol, Walker 2020. The Guardian. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/18/uk-to-close-door-to-non-english-speakers-and-unskilled-workers

Hope or Fishing for Likes?

Hope or Fishing for Likes?

Recently as the past week, an article about a possible cure for cancer was published by the University of Cardiff in the journal Nature Immunology and consequently spread on social media and news outlets. It talks about a possible cure for all cancers through a unique T-cell inside everyone´s bloodstream. According to the article, its uniqueness is its receptor that recognises and gets rid of cancerous cells while leaving the healthy tissues unharmed.

However, this breakthrough with “great potential” has not been tested in humans as of yet. The article, which was shared and turned into a news bit by the BBC among others, only mentions this last part near the end of that same news bit. It begs the question of why.

 It seems to follow a trend of articles that apparently talk about a cure for this disease or a revolutionary discovery of some kind, only to find out that we are still very far away from an actual “smoking gun”.

To the many cancer sufferers, it seems to offer hope of some kind that in the end isn't rooted in anything that a human being can really trust. No successful clinical trials have been made, no tangible results exist. It looks like a new product is being sold that has no substance to it although it has charts and data and even medical jargon.

In the fast world of social media, click bait and deceitful headlines, this type of news, no-news, has spread like a virus with a speed of a bullet. We the fast people who don´t seem to have the time or inclination to wait for an actual result, are left with the trap that offers hope but lets us down.

There are many examples out there of this type of journalism, one that is much more interested in “likes” it gets, rather than offer useful information.

Instead it “sells” hope and doesn't deliver it. It is the eagerness to produce content that creates its undoing. It is the marketing strategies ruling over people´s interest. The pressure to sell is winning over the actual job of informing and information deserving of its name.

 We all deserve better.

PTSD vs SnowFlakism

PTSD vs SnowFlakism

Fergal Keane, a war journalist for the BBC has recently quit his job due to PTSD. After witnessing first-hand theatres such as the Rwanda genocide, the Iraq invasion and places with similar casualties, Keane has had enough. His mental health has been affected in a way that in which he is no longer able to do his job after decades of conflict coverage (Topping 2020).

PTSD is a common issue around soldiers coming back from wars, in this sense albeit a serious condition, it is not new. However, the discussion should be extended to other areas besides warfare. Indeed the “war” has many shapes and forms and can affect human beings as they face endless situations that can lead to trauma.

According to a study published in 2016, by the NCBI, adults that suffered physical or emotional abuse growing up are very likely to have experienced PTSD.  Victims of domestic violence are also very prone to suffer from this condition. The commonality seems to be the consequence of being exposed to violence.

This issue also varies in relation to gender. According to Greenberg Ph.D. (2018), 12% of women are likely to endure chronic PTSD whilst only 6% of men may experience the same. Greenberg suggests that what causes this disparity is  the fact that women are less inclined to report their sufferings especially around cases of sexual assault. It is the shame factor, and how hard it is to tell someone and having to relive the experience all over again.

The straightforwardness in which society accepts PTSD from war survivors is not the same as other causes. Willard Foxton, a card-carrying Tory, and freelance television producer is also a PTSD sufferer. In an article written in 2018, he mentions Piers Morgan's speech in which he says that if you are not a soldier you do not suffer PTSD. He later had to recant it. However, the stigma remains and non-combatant sufferers can easily be talked down as snowflakes who can’t handle what life throws at them.

It is fairly obvious where this type of culture will and has led to. It isolates people and interrupts an otherwise stable development that turns into depression and anxiety. More needs to be done. The ever fast society that doesn’t seem to stop for anyone has to tone down its quick judgements and listen to the sufferers. They are not victims of a snowflake culture. They are survivors of other life’s battles.

Sources

Bradley B., Etkin A., Gyurak A., Jovanovic T, Powers A. 2016. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Association Between Childhood Abuse Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and implicit Emotion Regulation Deficits: Evidence From a Low-Income Inner-City Population. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4705548/

Foxton, W. 2018.  New Statesman.Trigger warnings vs pathetic snowflakes: how PTSD sufferers became political pawns.  Available from:https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2018/10/trigger-warnings-vs-pathetic-snowflakes-how-ptsd-sufferers-became-political

Greenberg. M Ph.D. 2018. Psychology Today. Why Women Have Higher Rates of PTSD Than Men. Available from:

 https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2018/10/trigger-warnings-vs-pathetic-snowflakes-how-ptsd-sufferers-became-political

Topping A. 2020 The Guardian: BBC’s Fergal Keane to step down after revealing he has PTSD. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/24/bbc-fergal-keane-to-step-down-after-revealing-he-has-ptsd