Category Archives: World

“Don’t Say It…or Else”: Blasphemy in the 2020s

February 16, 2022 humanistfreedoms Leave a comment

Up to recently, news coverage in the 2020’s has been overwhelmingly dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the many considerations, concerns and controversies it has led to. Not least of these has been recurring concerns over the nature of public discourse about COVID-19, mRNA vaccines, the roles of big pharmaceutical companies, media corporations, government, churches and community organizations. One hopes that the world is emerging from active concern over the uncertainties of a global pandemic.

But our experience so far in these 2020’s out to make one think about the nature of the freedom of expression and about the various kinds of laws designed to curtail it. And it makes us think….so what is the state of blasphemy these days?

Well, as always, the Pew Research Center, has some information. A recent headline on the Pew website states that 40% of countries wordwide still have a blasphemy law on the books. That’s 79 countries. 22 countries have a law against apostasy.

A map showing that eighteen countries in the Middle East-North Africa region had blasphemy laws in 2019 — Image Courtesy of Pew Research Center

As the infographic implies, most of the countries where this is a fact are in Africa and the Middle-East. With that, there’s more than a billion people on the planet for whom blasphemy, in its more original speaking-against-god(s)-and-religious-authoritarians context, is still a clear and present restriction of their fundamental human right to the freedom of expression.

Do a modest internet search at any given time, and you’ll still read such headlines as:

A list of headlines (and the situations they describe) is not, unfortunately, exhaustive, authoritative and final. There’s certainly more going on in the world of “Don’t Say it….or else” than this. But with all the pandemic distractions in mainstream media, maybe the fact that some ideologues don’t intend to tolerate ideas they don’t agree with has been escaping our collective notice? Maybe.

Maybe it’s time to catch up on some reading.

Citations, References And Other Reading

Featured Photo Courtesy of: https://end-blasphemy-laws.org/

Citations, References And Other Reading

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

World

UNESCO Releases Judiciary Toolkit for Freedom of Expression

February 8, 2022 humanistfreedoms

In our search for interesting, challenging and critical perspectives on contemporary humanism, we locate articles and information published via other venues that we think HumanistFreedoms.com readers may enjoy. The following information is drawn from UNESCO’s website.

On February 7, 2022, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched the Training Manual for Judges on International Standards on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, a comprehensive toolkit for supporting judges to take into account international human rights standards on freedom of expression in their decisions, has been launched. The toolkit was prepared by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) in collaboration with International Media Support (IMS), UNESCO and the Judicial Institute of Jordan, and piloted at a training of judges in Amman, Jordan in September/October 2021.The toolkit is divided into six main modules, namely: International and National Guarantees of Freedom of Expression, The Legitimate Scope of Criminal and Civil Law Restrictions on the Right to Freedom of Expression, Legal Resolution of Attacks on Freedom of Expression, The Right to Access Public Information, Media Regulation to Promote Free, Independent and Diverse Media, and Regulating Freedom of Expression in the Digital Era. It also has a number of annexes addressing common questions and answers, and containing exercises to support the training and additional resources.

The 126-page toolkit contains six modules, covering International and National Guarantees of Freedom of Expression, The Legitimate Scope of Criminal and Civil Law Restrictions on the Right to Freedom of Expression, Legal Resolution of Attacks on Freedom of Expression, The Right to Access Public Information, Media Regulation to Promote Free, Independent and Diverse Media, and Regulating Freedom of Expression in the Digital Era.

The key objective of the toolkit is to promote freedom of expression by helping judges integrate international standards on this fundamental human right into their domestic decisions. It builds on work in this area by UNESCO in Latin America and Africa but is specifically tailored to freedom of expression issues that are commonly found in the Arab World.

The launch of the tool followed a recent Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) conducted by UNESCO and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford.

Close to 5,000 judicial actors, including judges, prosecutors, lawyers and representatives of judicial training academies, as well as civil society representatives from around the world were trained on international standards and regional jurisprudence on freedom of expression. The highest numbers of participants joined the MOOC from the Philippines, Kenya, United States, Brazil, India, Thailand, Zimbabwe and Zambia.The 5-week course, from 10 May until 07 June 2021, was unique in its global scope on freedom of expression issues, and particularly targeted judges and members of the judiciary, given their essential role in the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression. The course strengthened the knowledge and capacities of judicial actors on regional and international human rights standards through five Modules, including, (1) the general principles and scope of freedom of expression; (2) the limitations on the right to freedom of expression; (3) the right of access to information; (4) the question of the safety of journalists; and, (5) challenges created by the digital world .Notably, the course raised awareness of judicial actors on the legal protection and rights of journalists under international law, particularly addressing the threats, attacks and killings of journalists, the specific nature of threats against women journalists, as well as the importance to protect the secrecy of sources for journalists.

Since 2013, UNESCO’s Judges’ Initiative has trained judicial actors and representatives of civil society on the international and regional standards on freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists in Latin America, Africa and the Arab region. Following the global MOOC on freedom of expression, a total number of 23,000 judicial actors and civil society representatives from 150 countries have been trained on these fundamental issues. While the first global MOOC was in English, subsequent editions will be rolled-out in additional languages in the future. The course received support from the Multi Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists.

In continuity with these efforts to raise awareness on issues related to freedom of expression, UNESCO has also developed an explainer video on the role of the judiciary in ending impunity for crimes against journalists, available in 6 UN languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.

Citations, References And Other Reading

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

World

What Does a Humanist Need to Know About Global Risks in 2022?

January 12, 2022 humanistfreedoms Leave a comment

Following is a collection of information pertaining to global risks in 2022

What Do You Have to Say?

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What does the World Economic Forum Have to Say?

Based in Geneva, the World Economic Forum describes itself as the premier organization fostering cooperation between the public and private sectors of the economy. WEF claims to be independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests; it also claims to adhere to a stakeholder principle which requires organizations to be accountable to all parts of society. The 50th annual meeting of the WEF was held in 2020 and was titled “The Great Reset” and which garnered some attention and concern regarding the idea and agenda that it advocated.

On January 11, 2022 – the WEF has published the 17th iteration of its Global Risks Report. It may be reasonable to adopt a critical eye when studying a document of this type, but it is also reasonable to consider the 117 pages a valuable source for informing a humanist perspective on the world and our human events. If wading through 117 pages is a bit much, WEF provides a key findings page. Or here’s a few infographics.

As a big picture overview, WEF enumerates the following existential risks as a kind of top-ten. In pondering this list, it is necessary to remember that this is the World Economic Forum’s report as opposed to the “World Something-Else Forum”. What might this list look like for a World Humanist Forum?

Climate changes concerns and issues takes up a considerable and leading place in the WEF’s 2022 report. In the below infographic, WEF provides global temperature scenarios for the coming 80-years. Should this inform a humanist’s priorities?

The report also provides a series of chapter-ending, what-if-styled “Shocks to Reflect Upon” that may be worth more than casual consideration:

Identifying, assessing and addressing risk is, of course, an inherently “what if” exercise. Anybody undertaking risk assessment may be vulnerable to accusations of doom-saying (or whatever term one may care to adopt) – but that des not mean that it isn’t an important exercise.

WEF also provides a “top five” risk for each national economy based executive opinion:

Canada’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

China’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

United States of America’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

Russian Federation’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

Turkey’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

Nigeria’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

India’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

Brazil’s Top 5 Risks per the WEF

Noteworthy: Maybe the editor’s old eyes couldn’t find it, but there didn’t seem to be an entry for Afghanistan, Syria, in the chart of Top 5 national risks. What does that omission imply?

What Does Export Development Canada Have to Say?

Export Development Canada is a Canadian crown corporation “dedicated to helping Canadian companies of all sizes succeed on the world stage. We equip them with the tools they need – the trade knowledge, financial solutions, equity, insurance, and connections – to grow their business with confidence. This in turn, creates jobs and increases prosperity at home.“

In 2020, the EDC stated the top global risks as:

A prolonged COVID 19 pandemic
USA-China competition
Global protectionism
Rapid increase of “sovereign” debt
Surge in corporate debt
A global depression
American political paralysis
US Isolationism
Social unrest
Cyberwar

What Does the Global Challenges Foundation Have to Say?

The Global Challenges Foundation was founded in 2012 “by the Swedish financial analyst and author Laszlo Szombatfalvy. Its goal is to stimulate ideas on how to develop new decision-making models, able to better and more equitably reduce the major global catastrophic risks that threaten humanity, or even eliminate them. The foundation’s work is made possible by a donation from Laszlo Szombatfalvy of SEK 500 million (approximately USD 53 million).“

According to GCF, their mission is to “prevent, or at least reduce the probability, of a catastrophe that would cause the death of over 10% of humanity, or cause damage on a similar scale. This is known as a global catastrophic risk.” The top risks identified by this organization are:

climate change
weapons of mass destruction
ecological collapse
artificial intelligence,
asteroid impact
pandemics
solar geoengineering
supervolcanic eruption
unknown risks

Citations, References And Other Reading

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

Asia, World

World Humanist Forum – Asia

August 18, 2021 humanistfreedoms Leave a comment

In our search for interesting, challenging and critical perspectives on contemporary humanism, we occasionally find articles published via other venues that we think humanistfreedoms.com readers may enjoy. The following article was found on Pressenza on August 16, 2021.

Pressenza is a space open to the expression of the social base. We endorse a universalist humanist perspective…(more about Pressenza at the bottom of this article).

By: Karina Lagdameo-Santillan

A Filipina from Manila, Philippines. A longtime Humanist. A Creative Director and Advertising Communications professional for many years, she has been active in the Community for Human Development, facilitating workshops for personal and social change to help build a culture of peace, nondiscrimination and nonviolence. She is currently a freelance writer and a volunteer editor-writer for Pressenza in Asia.

August 15, 2021. The World Humanist Forum- Asia was officially launched with the participation of over 105 individuals, many representing humanist organisms and other NGOs/groups, all sharing the same vision of a non-violent and non-discriminatory humane world, and working in their different fields towards that vision—humanizing the earth. The Forum connected and linked participants coming from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Japan, Australia, also from Africa, Europe, North and South America.

Sudhir Gandhotra facilitated so that the participants could discuss, interchange and be inspired by each other to continue with their actions and to reach more people in the region, to address crucial issues of violence and discrimination that all face in their personal and social lives.

To start the forum, he defined that the humanist is someone or anyone who believes in non-violence and is against discrimination and violent action. He quoted from Silo, founder of New Humanism and the Humanist Movement:

“Namer of a thousand names, maker of meanings, transformer of the world, your parents and the parents of your parents continue in you. You are not a fallen star but a brilliant arrow flying toward the heavens. You are the meaning of the world, and when you clarify your meaning you illuminate the earth. When you lose your meaning, the earth becomes darkened and the abyss opens.

I will tell you the meaning of your life here: It is to humanize the earth. And what does it mean to humanize the earth? It is to surpass pain and suffering; it is to learn without limits; it is to love the reality you build.

I cannot ask you to go further, but neither should it offend if I declare, “Love the reality you build, and not even death will halt your flight!”

You will not fulfill your mission if you do not apply your energies to vanquishing pain and suffering in those around you. And if through your action they, in turn, take up the task of humanizing the world, you will have opened their destiny toward a new life.”

The opening remarks given by Antonio Carvallo set the tone further:

Dear Dr. Mathai, dear Mr. Rajagopal, dear Ms. Sudha Soni, dear Sudhir, dear Ajeet. Dear friends representing the organisms of the Humanist Movement and Silo’s Message, dear friends who accompany this occasion.

I am delighted to be celebrating the launching of the Asian Humanist Forum, with all of you. Our aim is to communicate to the world Silo’s message of Humanization with the goal to construct a Universal Human Nation. What better a day than today, the anniversary of Indian independence so strongly associated with the memory of Mahatma Gandhi and his universal call for non-violence.

The Forum aspires to send a renewed and powerful appeal to overcome suffering, capable of sounding meaningful and providing direction to every individual.

That message is a message of faith, of compassion, of recognition and trust in our own inner force, capable of guiding us through the most difficult circumstances. A message that persuades us to treat others as we like to be treated.

A message that helps everyone to connect with themselves, to access the profound and sacred that lies in our hearts and minds.

In times of big instability and confusion, like the present one, when even nature appears unpredictable and threatening, we need to hold together and find support in our center of gravity.

We think that the world is changing for the better and that we are at a turning point in our civilization, in the process of transforming into a universal human nation. This is new and unprecedented; we are facing the need for a profound change both socially and individually. The human being must be the central value in this change. We must learn to eradicate violence from our minds and our societies, since both are inextricably intertwined. This task needs to be undertaken now by every one of us.

This is in summary the message the Humanist Forum should aspire to deliver everywhere and to everyone. Because it is good, because it is just and because it is urgent.

To make it possible we all need to work together.”

After this, a tapestry of missions and visions, of actions and campaigns strung together with the thread that humanizes, commenced. Participants heard from Ghandians about their peace and non-violence programs, from grassroots NGOs addressing the different needs of the communities and sectors of society they work in, be they Muslims or young women who need education, about foot marches across India being planned from September 21, Day of Peace to October 2, Gandhi’s birthday, which is the International Day of Non-violence. And more…

Representatives from the five organisms of the Humanist Movement talked about what they do and stand for. The Community for Human Development works in the social field, helping “to raise the level of consciousness”. The Humanist Party is in the political field which greatly affects everyone, aiming to restore real power to the people and not resting on the interests of a handful. The Convergence of Cultures organism espouses the need for all the cultures to coordinate, coexist and learn from each other, acknowledging and respecting cultural diversity. Aspiring towards no borders, World without Wars and Violence, the organization that launched the Global March in all continents in 2009 calling for an end of nuclear arms and disarmament, is launching another World March. Now, it is expanding its scope from war and armaments to all forms of violence and aiming to educate the youth, the next generation, on the principles of peace. The World Center of Humanist Studies analyzing the crucial issues affecting the world today, looking for proposals and solutions. And, as all human beings have a spiritual part within, the messengers inspired by the book, The Message of Silo, works to carry peace within themselves to others.

The forum was spirited and lively, even going beyond the foreseen time as everyone shared and started connecting with each other. After an Asking to strengthen the resolve to carry on with the Forum’s mission, closing remarks pointed out that the internet was and is able to create and forge links. Thanks to this, it is helping to connect like-minded people within the environment of the World Humanist Forum which was just officially launched and will help it to go forward into the envisioned future. The website can play a big role to connect people across countries as organizations and individuals can join the Forum, inform, get in touch and collaborate with others. (https://www.whfasia.org/)

Everyone left, greatly inspired to expand this Humanist Work even to other Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan. As a participant, Pradeepan Madathil, commented, “ This is the voice of the times. The unity of non-violent peoples around the world, the togetherness of the volunteers, and the current global community waiting for such unity”

Here is the link to the recorded video of the Forum inauguration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kQa-2oITco&t=5445s

About Pressenza

cooperation agreements and partnerships with other agencies, as well as reciprocal links with portals, platforms, news and communications media of specific communities and cultures. Pressenza is part of an extensive network of new media that achieves global reach for local proposals while they are supplied information with the material provided by the agency. Pressenza consists of volunteers with extensive experience in communication, social activism, cultural and academic fields. The agency is independent from any economic interest, the basic condition for its autonomy. We are columnists, reporters, photographers, graphic designers, videographers and translators on five continents who contribute our professional work without financial compensation. First established in Milan, Italy, in 2009, Pressenza is legally registered as an international agency in Quito, Ecuador since 2014 (Memo # SNC-DAL-2014-0011-O # 037 Agreement of June 4^th, 2014 of the National Ministry of Communications) and we are organised into decentralized teams and newsrooms. With a presence in 24 countries, we issue our daily news service in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Greek and Catalan.

Citations, References And Other Reading

Featured Photo Courtesy of: https://www.pressenza.com/2021/08/world-humanist-forum-asia-connecting-for-collaboration-and-action/
https://www.whfasia.org/

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

Europe, World

Roadrunner: Anthony Bourdain and How Humanism Infuses Everything

July 15, 2021 humanistfreedoms

Featured in the trailer for Roadrunner, a documentary about chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain, is a comment which argues that, “It was almost never about food…he was about totally learning to be a better person.”

Whether by design and intent or not, this singular comment provides a measured, rich and delicious metaphor for how a deeply-lived humanism infuses everything.

Human connection and humanism rarely separate us from our world. Humanism tends to deepen our care for all of the people, things and processes that surround us.

In Emily Zemler’s interview (Inside the Hurt and Humanism of Anthony Bourdain Doc ‘Roadrunner’), Morgan Neville, the film-maker says, “For somebody like Keith Richards or Iggy Pop, they’ve survived because they don’t care about anything, in a way that is enlightened. They don’t care what people say about them. They don’t care how they come off. They care about the people in their lives and, as Iggy says in the people, the people who love him. They are family people. But they have a relaxed way of being in the world. It’s carefree, which is enviable. And Tony was the opposite. He cared about everything. Every tweet. Every review. Every episode. As much as he tried to walk the walk, constitutionally he was not a Dionysian figure.“

Anthony Bourdain’s suicide evokes a great sadness. But a person’s life is not entirely understood by cutting consideration of the person down to nothing more than the nature of their death. When has it been more necessary than today to understand that none of us are entirely defined by our best moments, our worst moments or even our final moments?

Morgan Neville said, “He was such an humanist, but also so fucking funny — and dark.” Considering Anthony Boudain’s humanism and considering all others via a humanist perspective opens inquiry and curiosity rather than shuttering it with a grieving-veil of emotional taboo.

In the essay Why People Loved Bourdain, Jaron Gilinski argued that “Tony stood for more than mere writing, travelling, and eating. In pursuing those three actions with gusto, perhaps to his chagrin, he became a cultural icon for the 3 ism’s of humanism, pluralism, and globalism, values held sacred to many across the planet. Anthony Bourdain had a trademark formula for human connection that is so simple, so replicable, and yet so lost in today’s world. His ingenious discovery was that when you sit down and share a meal with someone, anyone, you have a better chance of understanding them. you ask the right questions over intoxicating aromas, a real connection can be made.“

Olivia Durif (Pouring One out for Anthony Bourdain) was inspired by Bourdain to write, “Eating, for Bourdain, was ultimately a humanist act. It is a good thing, he believed, to care about strangers, especially if you cannot imagine how they live their lives. It is also good to eat in many different kinds of places: at a restaurant, on the street, at the home of a friend, with a stranger.“

This is a lesson of humanism. Whether one experiences life as a chef, a teacher, a corporate executive a dentist or any other occupation that you care to mention – human connection can, if you open up to it, infuse every part of that experience.

Citations, References And Other Reading

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

Americas, World

Human Solidarity and Nature Conservation

May 21, 2021 humanistfreedoms

In our search for interesting, challenging and critical perspectives on contemporary humanism, we occasionally find articles published in other venues that we think humanistfreedoms.com readers may enjoy. The following article was published on Manuel Garcia, Jr.’s personal website on April 11, 2021.

By: Manuel Garcia, Jr.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” Carl Gustav Jung [1]

Life is the actualization of potentialities embedded within the biochemical processes that form the mechanisms of genetics and evolution. Does life have a purpose, or is it entirely a statistically random fluke made possible by the astronomical number of possibilities available for the expression of molecular chemistry in the wide array of physical conditions interspersed throughout the vastness of space? To believe that life has a consciously intended purpose is to believe that life is an intentional creation by a conscious supernatural entity or entities. If so, what is that purpose?

We know that the most elementary organisms of proto-life, like the SARS-CoV-2 virus that infects people with the deadly COVID-19 disease, have no purpose beyond the mindless mechanical continuation of their genetic formats, by feeding their metabolisms through parasitism. But, what of more conscious organisms, like: plants, animals, us?

We humans pride ourselves as presumably having the most highly developed conscious minds of all life-forms on Planet Earth (though very deep ecologists and naturalists disagree with this presumptuousness). From this human-centric point of view, the various levels of consciousness of living organisms are all evolutionary adaptations enhancing the survivability of individuals, to thus enhance the likelihood of the propagation and continuation of their species as environmental conditions change.

For believers in the supernatural there is an imposed obligation, or supra-natural goal, or “higher purpose” to human consciousness, which can be most generally characterized as finding union with God. For non-believers, the fully conscious experience of being alive is the totality of that higher purpose. In either case, the realization of that purpose is to be had by the combination of human solidarity and nature conservation.

Homo sapiens are social animals, and their full development as individuals — their realization of purpose — requires social connection and connection with Nature.

TALES BY LIGHT

“Tales by Light” [2] is an Australian television series (in 3 seasons) about the use of photography and videography to tell stories visually so as to change society for the better: activism. Here, I am only writing about episodes from Season 3. By its very nature this series is visually “beautiful” — in terms of the technical perfection of the image composition, capture and presentation — even when abysmally grim and ugly situations are being shown in order to advance the complete story. This is about emotional punch delivered visually. And of course, incredibly happy bursts of emotion are delivered in the same way by the presentation of images of lushly colorful nature, and joyful and inspiring scenes of human warmth, kindness and sheer exuberance. The three stories (each given in two parts) that affected me were:

1, CHILDREN IN NEED: This story, by Simon Lister, is about the children of Dhaka, Bangladesh, who scrounge through the most disgusting, unsafe and unsanitary heaps of rubbish to find scraps of material that can be recycled locally — like plastic forks and containers — in the abysmal poverty of their society; or who do difficult work in unsafe and toxic conditions to support their families. There are millions of these kids in Bangladesh.

Many Bangladeshi kids work in primitive workshops with zero health and safety codes, procedures and equipment, for example to produce pans and bowls by hands pressing sheet metal against spinning mandrels, again with no protective shields from whirling machinery gears and belts right at hand; nor any proper ventilation and filtration to protect them from toxic metal dust, or fumes in workshops using solvents and chemicals.

The story of such child laborers in the poorest societies on Earth is being documented as part of a UNICEF program to bring world (rich world) attention to the problem of child labor, and to generate financial resources to then provide safe and sanitary spaces for such children to be able to get food, education, rest, shelter for the night off the streets, and the joyful companionship of other children. But, since the money these children gain from their difficult and hazardous work is always the lifeline for the support of their families, often of single mothers, such a labor force is considered “normal” in their societies, and lamentably economically essential for these individuals.

The ultimate “solution” for eliminating this heartbreaking situation would be a worldwide awakening to an actual commitment to species-wide human solidarity. That that idea becomes self-evident through the medium of photography testifies to its power as an art-form.

2, PARADISE IN PERIL: This story, by Shawn Heinrichs, is of the conservation of the ocean biodiversity and habitat of the Raja Ampat Islands. Here, the art of photography is being used to present the story of the value of an amazing tropical coral reef and mangrove forest environment in New Guinea (Indonesia).

That story is told in two directions, first “upscale” to the societies of the wealthy industrialized and developed economies, to generate financial resources needed to establish locally manned, maintained, patrolled, owned — and in selected zones sustainably fished — marine reserves, and to ensure their continued operation and ongoing scientific study.

That story is also told “downscale,” in video presentations in their own language to the actual people living in the environments that are being protected, so that new generations of conservationists grow out of the youth of that indigenous population, now fired up with a greater understanding of the positive impact their healthy local environment has on their own lives as well as on the global environment.

The emotional impetus to these conservation efforts, both locally and remotely, is sparked by the visual impact of the photos and videos of the stunning and vibrant beauty of life moving in that magical submerged translucent habitat. The Raja Ampat Islands is one of the few places on Earth where all measures of biodiversity and ecological health are improving right now, even despite advancing global climate change; and this is entirely because of cooperative human intentionality.

3, PRESERVING INDIGENOUS CULTURE: This story by Dylan River, an Australian filmmaker with an Aboriginal grandmother, is of the recording for posterity of Aboriginal ways and languages slowly being lost with the passing away of elders, of the stories behind some of their ancient rock art, of ways of living off the land and sea while being intimately connected to the natural environment, and of community as the essence of being.

On a visit to Arnhem Land, Dylan is immersed into a welcoming ritual by the Yoingu people, whose spokesman at the event states that though Dylan is from far away he is “part of the family” as is everybody in spirit. The entirety of this brief and simple greeting conveys a fundamental truth that is more clearly and wisely stated, and lived by the Yoingu, than with any of the fatuous self-satisfied pronouncements by our many supposedly powerful and always hypocritical political leaders, who collectively oversee and exacerbate the poisonous fractiousness and sociological cannibalism of our national and world societies.

The basic truth here is that every human being “is something Nature is doing” — as Alan Watts put it — and that Nature is integral, it is a harmoniously self-entangling network of life. And that is what healthy human community should be.

I recommend this series to you because of its many simultaneous dimensions of beauty.

To my mind, the financial investments made by the executives of Canon Incorporated, National Geographic (a subscription television network in Australia and New Zealand that features documentaries, and is owned by The Walt Disney Company), and Netflix, to produce and broadcast this series were very worthy, even as I know there would necessarily also have been a component of profit motive in those investment decisions.

What is needed in our world is ever the same: more human solidarity and nature conservation. The wider broadcast of these three stories from the series Tales By Light could help awaken more people to that realization, or at a minimum give some comfort to those who already know.

Acknowledgment: Gretchen Hennig perceptively brought Tales by Light to my attention.

Here is a musical ornamentation to all the above; about a child, really any child: “Chihiro.”
https://soundcloud.com/ellasolanagarcia/chihiro

Notes

[1] “Our age has shifted all emphasis to the here and now, and thus brought about a daemonization of man and his world. The phenomenon of dictators and all the misery they have wrought springs from the fact that man has been robbed of transcendence by the shortsightedness of the super-intellectuals. Like them, he has fallen a victim to unconsciousness. But man’s task is the exact opposite: to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious. Neither should he persist in his unconsciousness, nor remain identical with the unconscious elements of his being, thus evading his destiny, which is to create more and more consciousness. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious.”

C. G. Jung (1875-1961), from the closing chapter of his autobiography “Memories, Dreams, Reflections,” entitled “Life and Death,” written between 1957 and 1961. This excerpt is highlighted and discussed at
https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/03/13/memories-dreams-reflections/

[2] Tales by Light (on Netflix)
https://www.netflix.com/title/80133187

Tales by Light (official website)
https://www.canon.com.au/explore/tales-by-light

Tales by Light (series described)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_by_Light

Manuel Garcia, Jr. is a retired physicist who blogs at https://manuelgarciajr.com on “energy, nature, society,” like on global warming; plus idiosyncratic poetry. During his working career he designed many experiments in high power, high energy and explosive energy physics. His orientation is rationalist, leftist, Zen and humanist.

Citations, References And Other Reading

Featured Photo Courtesy of:
https://manuelgarciajr.com/
https://www.un.org/ungifts/content/sphere-within-sphere

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

World

2021 World Happiness Report

March 28, 2021 humanistfreedoms

The following content is drawn directly from the WHR website. HumanistFreedoms.com makes no claim to copyright, authorship or accuracy of the mater. We recommend that you visit WHR to review and consider the World Happiness Report’s full 212-pages of observations and analysis.

In observance of the U.N. International Day of Happiness on March 20, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University (CSD), and partners of the World Happiness Report (WHR) hosted a launch of the 2021 World Happiness Report. As we are living through an exceptional time dealing with the widespread effects of the pandemic, this year’s World Happiness Report discussed world happiness during COVID-19. This is the ninth report from WHR.

This year’s report focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on happiness and how countries have differed in their success in reducing the deaths and maintaining connected and healthy societies. The effects of the pandemic on happiness, mental health, social connections, and the workplace are covered in Chapters 2, 5, 6, and 7 respectively. The choice of strategies for dealing with COVID-19 are covered in Chapters 2,3,4, and 8. The countries that performed best in minimising the direct death toll from COVID-19 were also able to do better on other fronts, including income, employment, and the mental and physical health of the rest of the population.

The rankings in Figure 2.1 of World Happiness Report 2021 use data that come from the Gallup World Poll surveys from 2018 to 2020. They are based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll. This is called the Cantril ladder: it asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The rankings are from nationally representative samples, for the years 2018-2020. They are based entirely on the survey scores, using the Gallup weights to make the estimates representative. The sub-bars in Figure 2.1 show the estimated extent to which each of six factors – levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom, and corruption – are estimated to contribute to making life evaluations higher in each country than they are in Dystopia, a hypothetical country that has values equal to the world’s lowest national averages for each of the six factors (see FAQs: What is Dystopia?). The sub-bars have no impact on the total score reported for each country, but instead are just a way of explaining for each country the implications of the model estimated in Table 2.1. People often ask why some countries rank higher than others – the sub-bars (including the residuals, which show what is not explained) are an attempt to provide an answer to that question.

We use the most recent years in order to provide an up-to-date measure, and to measure changes over time. We combine data from the years 2018-2020 to make the sample size large enough to reduce the random sampling errors. (The horizontal lines at the right-hand end of each of the main bars show the 95% confidence interval for the estimate.) The typical annual sample for each country is 1,000 people. If a country had surveys in each year, then the sample size would be 3,000 people. However, there are many countries that have not had annual surveys, in which case the sample size is smaller than 3,000. Tables 1-3 of the online Statistical Appendix 1 show the sample size for each country in each year. Because of our interest in exploring how COVID-19 has influenced happiness for people in different countries and circumstances, we have done much of our analysis (as reported in Tables 2.2, 2.4, and 2.4).

WHR Figure 2.1 Part 3

At HumanistFreedoms.com we can’t help but wish for a comparative analysis of the WHR’s findings and the establishment of secular conditions around the globe.

Citations, References And Other Reading

Featured Photo Courtesy of : https://worldhappiness.report/
https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2016/05/29/religion-and-politics-the-limitations-of-secularism-and-liberal-discourse-in-the-non-west/

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

World

Books: The Sirens of Mars – Searching For Life on Another World By Sarah Stewart Johnson

March 5, 2021 humanistfreedoms

On February 18, 2021 NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars. Perseverance is the largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world. It travelled 472 million kilometers over 203 days and the intact landing was broadcast live via the internet for anyone with an internet connection to witness.

Humanity is deep into exploration of another planet. If that doesn’t whet your appetite to know more about the possibilities of planetary exploration and planetary biology – including all of the philosophical and metaphysical implications they bring…we’re not sure what will!

The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World ... — Sarah Stewart Johnson’s The Sirens of Mars

In 2020, Sarah Steward Johnson‘s publishers released The Sirens of Mars – Search for Life on Another World. At a little-over 200 pages in hardcover, the publisher’s categorize the book as “biography and memoir” given the frequent inclusion of personal anecdotes and reflections of the author’s life and relationship to the subject.

Sarah Stewart Johnson is an assistant professor of planetary science at Georgetown University. A former Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow, she received her PhD from MIT and has worked on NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers. She is also a visiting scientist with the Planetary Environments Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Stewart Johnson’s writing style is very approachable and relatable. It is a meaningful and worthwhile trend that scientists publish books which reflect their individual humanity as well as the humanistic principles that are deeply embedded in the work that they do.

The book includes a history of Mars exploration beginning with Plato,
Galileo and Isaac Newton through to both NASA’s and Russia’s programs as well as informative glimpses of the science behind one of humanity’s most astounding projects. The book is aimed at a broad and general audience but it isn’t a “picture book”, so if you’re looking to be inspired by photos of the red planet, the internet is a better source.

At the end of the book, Stewart Johnson writes, “In writing this book, I’ve come to understand better the meaning I find in searching for life. I’ve also come to appreciate all the people who came down this path before me and the astonishing lives they led, as well as the remarkable colleagues with whom I have the privilege of working today. In my final acknowledgements, I wish to extend my gratitude to all of those people, throughout the generations and across the disciplines, who have created and continue to deepen this field. If we find life on Mars, we will have done it together. In the meantime, we have this great human project, and we have one another.”

The book is worth the time and resources you may spend in its acquisition and study.

Citations, References And Other Reading

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

World

The Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism

March 2, 2021 humanistfreedoms

In a 2015 article on gartner.com, Christy Pettey wrote an important article titled Embracing Digital Humanism. The article states, ” By 2020, our planet will be home to 30 billion things with embedded intelligence combined with nearly 8 billion smart devices. That means by 2020, there will be a ratio of approximately six intelligent devices/things for every human on the planet. In a world of digital business, IT leaders will need to orchestrate all these new devices, new data streams and new experiences to create value. But what principles will these IT leaders apply? The emerging digital world requires human-centric digital leadership.” That last sentence is an important concept to have formulated and launched and bears significant attention and therefore repetition:

The emerging digital world requires human-centric digital leadership.

Pettey then continued by providing a definition of digital humanism as “the notion that people are the central focus in the manifestation of digital businesses and digital workplaces.” As we will see, the concept has broadened since 2015, but this was an important conceptual milestone for humanism and for humanity. For those interested in the ethical and philosophical advancement of humanist ideas, digital humanism is a significant developing field for exploration.

Before we get to the manifesto, let’s also detour to Martin Recke’s article on the NEXT website wherein Recke suggests that digital humanism “stands for the shift away from computer-literate people to people-literate technology.” Recke also provides some useful differentiation between digital humanism and digital humanities; the latter seems to be most easily reduced to humanities practiced and/or studied via digital technologies and media.

Recke finished his primer on digital humanism by writing “Seen this way, Digital Humanism refers to the age-old concern to put humankind, in all its aspects, at the centre of our work. The early, 14th century humanists started a cultural revolution that peaked in the Renaissance era. Maybe it is time for a new cultural revolution, a new Renaissance. Or is it already happening?“

Digital Humanism: Informatics in Times of COVID-19, one of Dighum’s many online seminars on their YouTube Channel.

And now we arrive a Vienna, May 2019 when the Vienna Manifesto for Digital Humanism was published. Below, we reproduce the manifesto as we found it on the Dighum website. The bolded text is original to the Dighum site while the underlined text is our emphasis.

Are you a current or aspiring digital humanism journalist, academic or professional? We want your articles on humanistfreedoms.com.

“The system is failing” – stated by the founder of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee – emphasizes that while digitalization opens unprecedented opportunities, it also raises serious concerns: the monopolization of the Web, the rise of extremist opinions and behavior orchestrated by social media, the formation of filter bubbles and echo chambers as islands of disjoint truths, the loss of privacy, and the spread of digital surveillance. Digital technologies are disrupting societies and questioning our understanding of what it means to be human. The stakes are high and the challenge of building a just and democratic society with humans at the center of technological progress needs to be addressed with determination as well as scientific ingenuity. Technological innovation demands social innovation, and social innovation requires broad societal engagement.

This manifesto is a call to deliberate and to act on current and future technological development. We encourage our academic communities, as well as industrial leaders, politicians, policy makers, and professional societies all around the globe, to actively participate in policy formation. Our demands are the result of an emerging process that unites scientists and practitioners across fields and topics, brought together by concerns and hopes for the future. We are aware of our joint responsibility for the current situation and the future – both as professionals and citizens.

Today, we experience the co-evolution of technology and humankind. The flood of data, algorithms, and computational power is disrupting the very fabric of society by changing human interactions, societal institutions, economies, and political structures. Science and the humanities are not exempt. This disruption simultaneously creates and threatens jobs, produces and destroys wealth, and improves and damages our ecology. It shifts power structures, thereby blurring the human and the machine.

Computer Scientists Create Most Accurate Digital Human ...

The quest is for enlightenment and humanism. The capability to automate human cognitive activities is a revolutionary aspect of computer science / informatics. For many tasks, machines surpass already what humans can accomplish in speed, precision, and even analytic deduction. The time is right to bring together humanistic ideals with critical thoughts about technological progress. We therefore link this manifesto to the intellectual tradition of humanism and similar movements striving for an enlightened humanity.

Like all technologies, digital technologies do not emerge from nowhere. They are shaped by implicit and explicit choices and thus incorporate a set of values, norms, economic interests, and assumptions about how the world around us is or should be. Many of these choices remain hidden in software programs implementing algorithms that remain invisible. In line with the renowned Vienna Circle and its contributions to modern thinking, we want to espouse critical rational reasoning and the interdisciplinarity needed to shape the future.

We must shape technologies in accordance with human values and needs, instead of allowing technologies to shape humans. Our task is not only to rein in the downsides of information and communication technologies, but to encourage human-centered innovation. We call for a Digital Humanism that describes, analyzes, and, most importantly, influences the complex interplay of technology and humankind, for a better society and life, fully respecting universal human rights.

In conclusion, we proclaim the following core principles:

Digital technologies should be designed to promote democracy and inclusion. This will require special efforts to overcome current inequalities and to use the emancipatory potential of digital technologies to make our societies more inclusive.
Privacy and freedom of speech are essential values for democracy and should be at the center of our activities. Therefore, artifacts such as social media or online platforms need to be altered to better safeguard the free expression of opinion, the dissemination of information, and the protection of privacy.
Effective regulations, rules and laws, based on a broad public discourse, must be established. They should ensure prediction accuracy, fairness and equality, accountability, and transparency of software programs and algorithms.
Regulators need to intervene with tech monopolies. It is necessary to restore market competitiveness as tech monopolies concentrate market power and stifle innovation. Governments should not leave all decisions to markets.
Decisions with consequences that have the potential to affect individual or collective human rights must continue to be made by humans. Decision makers must be responsible and accountable for their decisions. Automated decision making systems should only support human decision making, not replace it.
Scientific approaches crossing different disciplines are a prerequisite for tackling the challenges ahead. Technological disciplines such as computer science / informatics must collaborate with social sciences, humanities, and other sciences, breaking disciplinary silos.
Universities are the place where new knowledge is produced and critical thought is cultivated. Hence, they have a special responsibility and have to be aware of that.
Academic and industrial researchers must engage openly with wider society and reflect upon their approaches. This needs to be embedded in the practice of producing new knowledge and technologies, while at the same time defending the freedom of thought and science.
Practitioners everywhere ought to acknowledge their shared responsibility for the impact of information technologies. They need to understand that no technology is neutral and be sensitized to see both potential benefits and possible downsides.
A vision is needed for new educational curricula, combining knowledge from the humanities, the social sciences, and engineering studies. In the age of automated decision making and AI, creativity and attention to human aspects are crucial to the education of future engineers and technologists.
Education on computer science / informatics and its societal impact must start as early as possible. Students should learn to combine information-technology skills with awareness of the ethical and societal issues at stake.

We are at a crossroads to the future; we must go into action and take the right direction!

Citations, References And Other Reading

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

Americas, Canada, World

Books: Tom Rand’s The Case For Climate Capitalism

August 19, 2020 humanistfreedoms

Tom Rand is on carbon mitigation venture capitalist, business-owner, author and speaker. He is Managing Partner of ArcTern Ventures and sits on the board of a number of clean energy companies and organizations. He also developed Planet Traveler, a low-carbon hotel project in downtown Toronto. His first book Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit (2010) was winner of the 2011 Whitepine Non-Fiction award; his second – Waking the Frog – became a bestseller in Spring 2014; his third – Climate Capitalism: Economic Solutions for a Planet in Crisis is out now.

And yeah, it is worth reading.

Particularly as federal elections in both Canada and the United States seem to be rapidly approaching. And particularly if you could benefit from a pragmatic, mostly-positive and capable exposition of the economics and politics of carbon pricing. It is in the title, after all – Climate Capitalism.

First, – about pragmatism. It is rare to see the word so fondly,

Buy The Case For Climate Capitalism by Tom Rand With Free ...

deliberately and repeatedly used in books dealing with climate change, economics or politics. Perhaps it should not be a surprise since Rand holds a BSc in electrical engineering (U of Waterloo), an MSc in philosophy of science (University of London and LSE) and an MA and PhD in philosophy (U of Toronto). Rand is, no doubt, fully up-to-speed regarding the origins of pragmatism with Charles Sanders Peirce and all that this origin implies.

Indeed, Rand seems to be fully up-to-speed on all areas of the book: economics, climate science, politics, business ownership and being a thinking human faced with a planet with finite resources and a seriously-damaged environment. In the preface, Rand, a new father, states, “The prospect of hitting catastrophic tipping points in the next few decades bring more than sleepless nights – it makes having a kid a complex moral question. First, there’s the issue of bringing yet another person to our profligate emissions party. It’s uncomfortable (to put it mildly) to say climate change is as much a population issue as an environmental one. Having kids is no longer as morally benign – or even good – as it was in previous generations.“

Rand’s thesis is that carbon pricing is a good thing. That the planet needs it. And even if – all of us from economists and politicians and from billionaires to minimum-wage earners – we manage to take the pragmatic step of implementing sensible carbon pricing strategies, humans are still in for some tough environmental situations in the future. That sounds a bit glum – but the book’s subtitle is Economic Solutions for a Planet in Crisis. Rand delivers information that can be put to use now and in the near-future. Overall, Rand’s 200+ page book comes across as having an appropriate attitude.

Not coincidentally, having the an appropriate attitude is a perspective that Rand seems to want to recommend. Addressing climate change, and we might emphasize global population issues, are an issue of attitude. Rand’s book approaches the topic with a pragmatic, solutions-oriented and appropriate attitude. Rand says that climate capitalism is “about coordinating an accelerated response across the globe. How we might move from the level of independent (often bickering) sovereign political entities to something larger…” Note that Rand includes individuals in his consideration of “sovereign political entities” and sovereignty which he defines as making one’s own rules in one’s own interests.

Recommended Soundtrack for this post and reading Tom Rand’s The Case For Climate Capitalism.

Wondering about politicians who may be open to investigating solutions to a planet in crisis? Have a look at our page on Andrew West – one of several contenders for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada in 2020.

Citations and References

The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.

Featured Photo Courtesy of https://www.tomrand.net/