#while having less than five percent of the world population

[free-luigi-mangione]

“if he gets convicted on terrorism charges, they'll ship him to ADX where he will essentially be kept drugged up for the rest of his life”

Why are they allowed to drug him against his will outside of a mental institution?? Why does he need to be sedated if he’s in a MAXIMUM security prison??

anon, i would request you to look up stuff about US prisons. the prison authorities or the authorities in general are not allowed to do that. it is illegal. but they do. that is how US prisons work. they're infamous for working that way. i will not be able to direct you to a specific source right now, but i can assure you that you will find loads of sources that explicitly details how terrible the US prison system is as a whole, including situations you asked about. it is very inhumane that all of this happens but because everybody pays no attention to the issue of inhumane treatment of inmates in prisons, nothing ever changes. there are human rights organisations working on these issues and they're very open about how brutal prisons actually are in USA.

[reasonsforhope]

1. More children are surviving today than ever before.

Close to 8 million more children in the world survive to see their fifth birthday than in 1990 — a 60 percent decline in annual under-five child mortality. 

UNICEF and partners have contributed to this remarkable achievement through proven, sustainable solutions for improving maternal and child health care services and strengthening disease prevention — and delivering those solutions at scale...

2. Vaccines have saved 154 million lives in the last 50 years.

As the world’s largest vaccine supplier, UNICEF procures and distributes enough vaccines annually to immunize 45 percent of the world's children. In 2023, UNICEF supplied 2.8 billion vaccine doses to 105 countries, up from just over 2 billion to 102 countries in 2020. Through widespread immunizations, polio is on the brink of eradication.

3. Safe water is available to over 2.1 billion more people compared to 20 years ago.

Consistent access to a sufficient supply of safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene is the foundation for child survival, healthier lives, stronger economies and more sustainable societies. With support from UNICEF and partners, more than a quarter of the world's population gained access to safe and clean drinking water in the past two decades.

UNICEF-supported programs help ensure access to safe water for 35 million people around the world every year. UNICEF also leads coordinated emergency response efforts related to safe water access in roughly 85 percent of countries affected by crises. In 2023, over 42 million people in 73 countries were reached with emergency water services, helping to prevent outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

To help build community resilience to climate shocks, UNICEF has also supported the installation of more than 8,900 solar-powered water systems in 56 countries — an important climate adaption measure that also reduces the use of fossil fuels.

4. The number of children with stunted growth due to malnutrition has declined by 40 percent since 2000.

For more than two decades, UNICEF has been the world’s largest procurer of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), procuring up to 80 percent of global demand, ensuring children suffering from severe malnutrition can be treated successfully.

5. Over 68 million child marriages have been averted in the last 25 years, giving girls their childhoods back.

In the late 1990s, 1 in 4 young women aged 20 to 24 were married as children. Today, it's 1 in 5. UNICEF has played an important role in global efforts to end child marriage, supporting 35 countries in implementing action plans, and working at the community level and across the health, education and other sectors to increase knowledge and change attitudes around the practice.

In 2023, UNICEF reached 11 million adolescent girls with prevention and care interventions empowering them to delay marriage and choose their own futures. 

6. Fewer kids are out of school.

The world stands on the cusp of realizing primary education as a basic right of every child. A world where more children learn is a world that is healthier, more prosperous and more resilient.

In the early 1950s, roughly half of all primary school-aged children were out of school. Now it's less than 10 percent. And every year, 23 million more girls are completing secondary school compared to a decade ago...

7. The world is on track to eliminate open defecation by 2030.

In the last two decades, 2.5 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation, while the number of people practicing open defecation has also declined by two-thirds — from 1.3 billion in 2000 to 419 million in 2022 — putting the world on track to eliminate the practice entirely. 

Ending open defecation drastically lowers the risks of diseases and malnutrition among children in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Child deaths from diarrhea — a leading killer of young children — have already decreased by 60 percent...

8. Birth registration rates are way up.

Today, 77 percent of children under 5 are registered, up from 60 percent in the early 2000s — a major leap towards ensuring every child has a legal identity and can access health, education and other essential services...

Countries that prioritize birth registration see rapid progress. In Côte d’Ivoire, birth registration prevalence rose steadily from 65 percent in 2012 to 96 percent by 2021, proving that change at scale is possible.

9. A future free from HIV seems possible, one baby at a time.

An estimated 1.9 million deaths and 4 million HIV infections have been averted among pregnant women and children in the past 25 years...

10. In times of crisis and emergency, UNICEF is there — helping to save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization.

[Note: Okay, I think they're cheating listing this one, but the article header said 10 things, so if I included only 9 it would be weird. Obviously this is an article from UNICEF, but UNICEF's data, reporting, and statistics are considered to be of high quality.]

-via UNICEF, February 25, 2025

[theresattrpgforthat]

do you have any recommendations for games with interesting superpower mechanics? bonus points for a clear love of superhero comics as a genre

THEME: Superpowers

Oh gosh do I have some recommendations for you. I have likely spoken about pretty much all of these games before, but I feel very strongly about them and I can’t help myself from talking about them again!

Exceptionals, by Bramble Wolf Games.

Exceptionals is a game inspired by X-Men about and for the spaces and communities marginalized peoples make for themselves. Play as a Geno, one of little less than 0.5% percent of the population that has gone through a mysterious process called Claremont-Simonson mutation, as you try to navigate a world that won’t make room for you. Exceptionals is a game about what the mutant metaphor means to you and the different lenses through which we view it. Punch back and build something of worth together in this narrative tag-driven tabletop role playing game.

What Exceptionals does differently than the other games mentioned here is that it ties all of your character abilities to descriptive words or phrases. You’re not just heavily armoured, you have bone spikes and you’re exceptionally good at resisting extreme temperatures. Your powers can just as easily be things that slow you down and get in your way as they can be handy weapons or powerful resources. Not only that, but your character is also defined by their role in the community. Are you excellent at socializing and often called on to provide a distraction? Or are you good at noticing details, and therefore asked to investigate local mysteries? Each answer gives you a tag you can use to improve your chances of success.

If you have some experience with Fate, you might find Exceptionals to feel pretty familiar, with the biggest difference being in the dice used. The system itself uses 2d10, with modifiers applied through tags, the environment around you, and social bonds. Your bonds are crucial to improving your chances, and that is why Exceptionals champions community. If you want a game that cares deeply about the media it’s drawing from, then I recommend Exceptionals.

Spectaculars, by Scratchpad Publishing.

Spectaculars is a tabletop roleplaying game where players create their own comic book universe, craft heroes and villains to populate that universe, and then play through full-length campaigns to tell incredible stories of heroism and villainy in a world of their own creation.

Spectaculars has different decks of superpowers depending on the kind of genre you’d like to play in, but you can also mix and match if you’d like. Your superpower options are dealt to you randomly, with five basic superpowers always available if you don’t like the options you’ve been given. You get five unique cards, out of which you can choose up to three. I really like this because it prevents analysis paralysis, while still giving you a good number of unique options!

Your superpower ability is usually tied to a percentile - 80 being your best power, 70 being the second best, and 60 being the tertiary (should you choose to take all three). Rolling under that number means you succeed, and you can also roll advantage or disadvantage dice to determine extra details - like whether your move sets up another superhero really well. Each superpower could have up to two different effects, using situational limitations or time tokens to debuff anything that is extraordinarily powerful.

So for example, the Corrosion power gives you the ability to reroll any advantage dice you roll once, as long as you are trying to corrode non-living matter. However for Light Manipulation, you can make whatever light effect you evoke last for longer if you put two time tokens on your card, and you can allow yourself to use your power and do something else at the end of the round by adding four time tokens to the card. At the beginning of your turn every round, you get to remove a time token. This is a great game for folks who love tactile play, as the tokens, dice and power cards give you a lot to handle.

If you want a more in-depth review of Spectaculars, you can check out this summary by Deeper in the Game.

MASKS, by Brendan Conway, at Magpie Games.

Halcyon City has had more than its fair share of superheroes, superteams, supervillains, and everything in between.

Your team of young supers must forge your own path amidst the pressures of a world full of people telling you what to do and who to be, and kick some butt along the way!

Masks: A New Generation is a superhero tabletop roleplaying game full of action, youthful angst, and dazzling bravery. Take on the roles of members of the latest generation of superheroes, young adults trying to figure out who they are and what kind of heroes they want to be.

I am remiss if I don’t talk about MASKS, the first game I would turn to if I wanted to replicate Young Justice, Teen Titans, or anything from the Spiderverse series. This game is often cited as one of the definitive examples of what a Powered by the Apocalypse game can do, and for good reason. The superhero powers are present as picklists tied to each playbook, while what separates the playbooks is the inherent struggle of the character. Are they trying to hide their mundane identity? Are they struggling with feeling like a freak? Do they have a legacy to live up to?

I think these thematic elements show a deep love for the superhero genre, and I also love that the chances of success aren’t tied to what your abilities are, but rather your reasons for using them. If you are trying to protect someone, you’re rolling Savior, but if you’re trying to do damage, you roll Danger. In either situation you could be using your powers, but it’s intent that matters - and then you describe how you want to do it in order to give us an idea of what success or failure would look like.

FASERIP, by Gurbintroll Games.

FASERIP is a neo-clone game of super heroes, based on a classic 1980s role-playing game. The game contains a flexible yet streamlined super power system, and a completely new character generation system which keeps the fun and unpredictability of the original game’s random character generation but tempers it with an emphasis on balance and player choice.

This is a retro-clone from another superhero game that has since gone out of print - I think perhaps Marvel Super Heroes? Unfortunately I’m not familiar with the source material, but I can tell you that this version is free!

FASERIP is pretty granular in your ability level, ranking characters and difficulty levels from Zero to Infinite. Your superpowers in this game have a few important factors - source (how you got the power), rank (how effective it is), and boosts (how flexible your abilities are. Powers are determined randomly in FASERIP, with roll tables used to determine what kinds of powers you get and how many boosts you get. If you’re a fan of older rules systems and random power generation, I recommend checking out FASERIP.

Those of Us Who Know Better, by C.J. Linton.

Those of Us Who Know Better is a tabletop roleplaying game about transgender superheroes whose powers come at a price. Civilians by day, in community every other Thursday evening, and heroes by night, the players use their powers to problem solve and offer protection and support around town. These powers must be used sparingly, however, because every use of a superpower demands a specific and costly remuneration.

For some reason or other, your characters are under a contract that gives them powers. How that contract came to be and how it functions is up to you, but the result is this: every time you activate your superpower, you must pay a price. If you do not pay this price, your character is immediately subjected to intense physical pain.

The book has a short list of some common superpowers, such as flight, fire manipulation, and super senses. It also has a short list of consequences - with options such as get an animal to bite you, run for five minutes, and take a shot of alcohol. The book has some basic guidelines for what to consider when creating your own powers and prices, so I think the world is your oyster with a game like this.

[beardedmrbean]

Some Gen Zers have grown critical of capitalism in recent years.

Rather than dismiss the whole system, many are embracing an idea one researcher calls "safety capitalism."

Gen Zers are less likely to take certain risks, which could be one reason they want more of a social safety net. 

When someone loses their job or can't work for health reasons, how much government support should they receive? If you ask many Gen Zers that question, they'll say the current social safety net is insufficient.

Christina Elson, executive director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University, told Business Insider that many young people have embraced an idea she calls "safety capitalism."

The theory behind safety capitalism is that a successful capitalist system can and should provide sufficient protection — or safety — for those who need support following circumstances like a job loss or illness. One of the key questions facing any economic system is, "What should failure look like," Elson asked.

While many Americans receive support from a variety of social programs such as unemployment, food stamps, or disability, some of these have been scaled back since the height of the pandemic. As things stand, many Gen Zers think the US's social safety net is inadequate.

Sixty-five percent of Gen Zers think the government should provide a job to anyone who wants one, according to a Wake Forest survey of 2,000 Gen Zers and millennials conducted with YouGov in 2022. Forty-five percent said they had a positive impression of universal basic income policies. In a 2023 survey conducted by the same group, 65% percent of Gen Zers said unemployment payments should match one's salary.

Most Gen Zers still support capitalist ideas like private home ownership and entrepreneurship, Elson said. But many are frustrated with how the high costs of things like healthcare, housing, and education have taken a financial toll on Americans — and think these systems could benefit from more government intervention.

"You hear about 'billionaires should be outlawed' — that really isn't the issue," Elson previously told BI regarding Gen Zer's concerns. "The issue is the bottom. What is the appropriate bottom living standard for an American citizen, and what role should the government have in ensuring that people don't fall below that?"

Some are even turning away from capitalism altogether. In a Business Insider survey conducted last July of over 1,800 Americans, 28% of Gen Z respondents said they somewhat or strongly preferred the economic system of socialism over capitalism, the most of any generation. Twenty-nine percent of Gen Zers preferred capitalism — the rest didn't have a preference or weren't sure.

Why Gen Z wants an expanded safety net

Compared to past generations, young people today are less likely to drive, drink, have sex, and more likely to live at home, per some surveys. Elson said these examples point to a level of risk aversion that may be unique to Gen Zers.

"Gen Z are 'younger for longer,' — they go out into the world slower," she said, adding, "What is it that this generation needs in order to feel that they're able to go out there and take risks?"

Elson said many Gen Zers seek a "redesign of social safety" to enhance what some feel is an outdated system. For example, unemployment insurance and Social Security were introduced nearly 90 years ago during the Great Depression.

The financial challenges currently facing the Social Security system — due in part to the US's aging population — are arguably further evidence of a system that's in need of reform.

"All of this network has been designed for another time and place," Elson said.

Exactly what, if any, changes the US should make to its social safety net is up for debate. Some young people may look to Europe, where countries generally have a larger social safety net than the US.

In Germany, eligible unemployed individuals receive between 60% and 67% of their previous salary for up to a year. Policies like universal health insurance and guaranteed sick leave are also more common in Europe. Before temporary changes were enacted during the pandemic, most US states offered six months of unemployment benefits, with Americans collecting an average of $372 a week, per PBS.

Regardless, Elson said it's important that the US's entrepreneurial culture — which can reward risk-taking and drive economic progress — remains intact.

Most businesses fail, but as prominent investor Charlie Munger once said — and Elson referenced in a recent post — a level of failure may be necessary to have a thriving economy.

"Capitalism without failure is like religion without hell," Munger said.

[stephobrien]

I’m coming from my vent account because I don’t want to get found out as a Jew on my main. Please, please stop posting in the antisemitism tag. You’re clogging it up and taking away a safe space for Jews by trying to delegitimise Jew hatred. Now, I don’t know if you’re good faith or not, but I’m leaning on no. You keep on going onto posts about Jew hatred from Jews, saying what boils down to ‘wow! I’ve learned so much from this!’ and then you go back to posting inflammatory things again. I mean, you posted something from Caitlin Johnstone, I can’t believe that you give a single shit about Jews (or Ukrainians) after that

As for your most recent post on how poor you just can’t believe lying Jews when we talk about discrimination because you’re scared we’re deceiving you, you put in a comment ‘If I'd seen said Arab nations' governments massacring thousands of civilians, while painting every single criticism of said massacre as Islamophobic, yes, I would have’. This is… I don’t even know how to tackle this, do you genuinely not know all of the horrific shit so many of the Arab states have done? Qatar is known as one of the biggest countries of modern slavery. The Houthis in Yemen sex traffic Ethiopian women, and also reintroduced slavery into Yemen. Just look at the atrocities so many of these countries have committed against Shia Muslims! Is your brain mush, how can you say this when there is so, so much evidence of the horrors that these nations have committed?! And if you think these states graciously accept criticism of those horrors… you’re being ignorant on purpose. And it’s still not okay to say that you don’t believe an Arab when they talk about anti Arab racism that they’ve experienced, I think we can at least agree on that. So why’s it not the same for Jews?

For a more personal example to Jews, look up the Mizrachi expulsion. The Arab states violently expelled almost a million Jews from their countries ‘because Israel’, which they only care about because it ruined their dream of pan Arabism, not because of any solidarity with the Arabs in the mandate btw. My family was lucky, we came from Iran, which is not Arab, so the violence was coming from the people rather than the state itself. But I’ve had to heard accounts from people talking about how they watched their family get shot in the head while their homes were repossessed for no reason other than the fact they were Jews. Is that bad enough for you? Does it even make a dent in your image of the Arab states? Or is it okay because it happened to Jews?

I know I sound very angry in this, and that’s because I am very angry. And that anger is completely justified! My life, and the lives of almost every Jew on this disgusting website, have been beyond horrible for five months. The number of times I’ve had to read about a new Jew hating shooting or stabbing in the world is too many too count. And then, non Jews like you decide to play the ‘oops, I just caaaan’t believe those Jews about Jew hatred because they could be zionists!’ (Which are around eighty percent of the Jewish population, but I don’t think you’re ready for that conversation yet, it’s reserved for people who actually want to learn). All of us are so unimaginably angry. All of us are at our fucking breaking point, or we’ve completely snapped already! The people you have interacted with have been some of the kindest, most levelheaded people here, but you’d better not get used to it, because we’re all tired of this bullshit

Thank you for taking the time to call me out. Between you and the several other people who contacted me about this, I’ve come to realize that that post was a terrible mistake.

It was meant to be a vent post about people who deliberately blur the lines around what’s actually antisemitism, and about my lack of certainty about my own ability to independently assess the less obvious instances of that (which is clearly still very lacking, as the response to that post made clear to me).

But it apparently caught a lot of innocent Jews in the crossfire, making them feel unsafe, unheard, and delegitimized. That wasn’t the intention, but it was clearly the effect. I screwed up badly, and I’m sorry.

I admittedly don’t know all the details about the horrific shit Arab nations have done. I was aware of Iraq’s government mass murdering protesters, and Saudi Arabia’s horrifically sexist laws, but some of the info you shared in this post is stuff I hadn’t previously heard of.

As for why I mentioned false accusations of antisemitism specifically, it’s because that’s the one I’ve seen several times a day lately, sometimes in the form of stuff like telling people who protest child murder that “You just don’t like it when Jews defend themselves.”

That said, you and the other people who responded have made it clear to me that that focus was based on an overly narrow view on my part. I’ve been more active in pro-Palestine circles than in circles that focus on the other situations you mentioned, so naturally that resulted in me seeing more antisemitism accusations than accusations focused on groups that aren’t directly involved in that conflict. So that resulted in a less than balanced viewpoint.

While my vent post was meant to be about one specific phenomenon I’d personally seen a lot of, the fact that I didn’t mention similar behavior on the part of groups I hadn’t personally seen as much of that behavior from did result in it being unjustly targeted, in a way I didn’t intend but should’ve assessed better.

What happened to you and other Jews at the hands of Arab nations (and pretty much every nation) was absolutely not okay. The effect my post had on you and other Jews who saw it was not okay. The treatment you’ve endured on Tumblr is not okay. And I’m sorry for the pain I caused you.

You have every right to be angry at me. I won’t ask you to forgive me or trust me, because I know I earned your anger with that poorly thought out post. I shouldn’t have made my own insecurities and frustrations other people’s problem like that. I screwed up badly, and I’m sorry.

[vegantinatalist]

One thing that I've noticed, that is hilariously tumblr-coded, are the mass of posts with paragraphs of self-victimisation and the notes begging for enablers. It's ALWAYS "well I'm not rich enough to learn basic cooking (life) skills with vegetables, beans, grains, tofu, legumes, fruit, nuts, you name it (all cheaper than the standard vegan diet...), but as I'm (enter any demographic whatsoever) you couldn't possibly suggest that I engage with ideas, literature and options outside of my close circle, unless you're a facist."

I used to think it's bizarre, but I've come to understand as I'm older, that Tumblr really is rife with the Oppression Card and Anti-Intellectualism stereotypes. I only engage with cat memes and fandom stuff now, while I have words like "opinion" and "PSA" just straight blacklisted, because these people will forever be locked into self-victimising, enabler, self-absorbed loop. And I'm saying this a POOR vegan woman of five years!!!! Who's also healthy!!! Lmao

If there's any sensical blogs about nice vegan food and activism that you know of, tag 'em, because the non-stop circlejerk of "I'm the REAL victim for xyz, give me notes, no I won't include any alternative perspective" is getting boring as hell.

SERIOUSLY.

I am physically disabled and neurodivergent in a way that gives me constant severe daily struggle, I am highkey suicidal with a plan and timeline for when I will take myself out, I have shitloads of secondhand trauma from witnessing all kinds of things happen to the people around me growing up, including kidnapping/trafficking and death, I've been actual dirt poor for years lengths of time multiple times. BELIEVE me when I say I hate toxic positivity and unreasonable expectations and calloused attitudes towards the suffering, but being a "pushy vegan" is not the same as telling an adhd person to get over their study anxiety. Its not the same as telling a homeless person to get a job. Because BEING A PERPETRATOR IS UNACCEPTABLE! OPPOSING PERPETRATORS IS IMPERATIVE! It's closer to telling a pedo they cant fuck kids and face no judgement just because they were preyed on as a kid, they have a developmental disability, they have poor impulse control, etc. I don't fucking care. You can't fuck kids and if you cant stop yourself you should be killed. i just hate everybody who would farm/torture/kill to sustain themselves and then think this is a good world and their life is good and a net positive some fucking how. and then on top of that create more fucking babies who will do the same thing. and some people think they can get out of having to think about veganism because "well im super smart, i know that life is bad, therefore i dont have to be the change or kill myself cause none of this is my fault or my responsibility" (pedos and killers love having this attitude too) i swear never trust an efilist/antinatalist who isnt also vegan especially if its a man. they dont actually truly care or understand that the world is bad. 9 times out of 10 theyre just an asshole coping with being an asshole. and the vegans who arent antinatalists are always at least 20 percent delusional (far less than the general population but still annoying to deal with if youre a sane person) anyway if you really wanna do activism go on fb groups for animal rights activism in your area. pick someone in there and talk to them and use them as your guide. someone in there will be willing to send you updates, show you how they do things when they get together etc. shut your ego off, dont be looking to make a close friend, dont pitch a fit when/if they or the people in the group might have some views you disagree with. focus on getting together for the sake of the cause you agree on. theyll usually show you ways of doing online activism that are relevant to your area like political stuff going on in your state or county that you can support.

[rjzimmerman]

Earth’s wildlife populations have disappeared at a ‘catastrophic’ rate in the past half-century, new analysis says. (Washington Post)

This Washington Post article summarizes the "Living Planet Report 2024," recently published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund). I'm providing you with a link to the report, hoping that you'll go there and wander through the report, including its various infographics. Adding this report to the recent weather/climate developments around the world (thinking hurricanes smacking into the US) just adds to my personal anxiety about the future of our species and our creature and botanical friends that support us.

In a very simple nutshell, this is what the report is telling us:

If you prefer a video introduction to the report, here you go:

Excerpt from this Washington Post story:

Earth’s wildlife populations have fallen on average by a “catastrophic” rate of 73 percent in the past half-century, according to a new analysis the World Wildlife Fund released Wednesday.

The WWF and the Zoological Society of London track 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles around the world through the Living Planet Index, and the database shows the extent to which human activity is decimating them. Freshwater populations fell by an average of 85 percent, according to the new Living Planet report, while terrestrial populations by 69 percent and marine populations by 56 percent in the five decades between 1970 and 2020.

“It really does indicate to us that the fabric of nature is unraveling,” Rebecca Shaw, WWF’s chief scientist said of the report’s findings.

Shaw added that the global decline of these animal populations is likely to have cascading effects.

“Vertebrate populations underpin ecosystem health and the services we get from ecosystems like stable climate, abundant and clean water, healthy soils to grow food, productive fisheries that supply people with protein,” she said. “If you have that kind of decline in vertebrate populations around the globe, you’re going to have troubles supporting and sustaining human health and well-being over time.”

The worst declines were in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a 95 percent average drop, followed by Africa, 76 percent, and Asia and the Pacific, 60 percent. But the report said that is at least partly because in Europe, Central Asia and North America — whose animal populations declined by more than a third — people living there had already wiped out nature on a wide scale by 1970.

Habitat destruction and loss — driven primarily by human food production, including clearing rainforest to make way for cattle ranches — ranks as the top cause of population declines. About 40 percent of all habitable land on Earth is used for food production, the report notes.

“To maintain a living planet where people and nature thrive, we need action that meets the scale of the challenge,” the report says. It calls for “nothing less than a transformation of our food, energy and finance systems.”

Individuals can also help make a difference in their food choices, Shaw said, particularly around food waste and eating less animal protein, because raising plants uses less land.

Humans are decimating animal populations in other ways, including through overexploitation, invasive species, disease, climate change and pollution. The report called for renewed focus on and funding for existing international goals, such as to conserve and protect 30 percent of lands, oceans, coastal areas and inland waters by 2030.

Both individuals and governments should take responsibility for how their actions play a role in whether we can save nature, Ritchie said. The report noted that while Europe and Central Asia had the lowest rate of wildlife population decline, those regions rely on imports from more nature-rich parts of the world and have the highest “ecological footprint of consumption.”

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

1. There are 300,000 items in the average American home (LA Times).

2. The average size of the American home has nearly tripled in size over the past 50 years (NPR).l

3. And still, 1 out of every 10 Americans rent offsite storage—the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry over the past four decades. (New York Times Magazine).

4. While 25% of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park cars inside them and 32% only have room for one vehicle. (U.S. Department of Energy).

5. The United States has upward of 50,000 storage facilities, more than five times the number of Starbucks. Currently, there is 7.3 square feet of self storage space for every man, woman and child in the nation. Thus, it is physically possible that every American could stand—all at the same time—under the total canopy of self storage roofing (SSA).

6. British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily (The Telegraph).

7. 3.1% of the world’s children live in America, but they own 40% of the toys consumed globally (UCLA).

8. The average American woman owns 30 outfits—one for every day of the month. In 1930, that figure was nine (Forbes).

9. The average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually (Forbes).

10. While the average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing per year (Huffington Post).

11. Nearly half of American households don’t save any money (Business Insider).

12. But our homes have more television sets than people. And those television sets are turned on for more than a third of the day—eight hours, 14 minutes (USA Today).

13. Some reports indicate we consume twice as many material goods today as we did 50 years ago (The Story of Stuff).

14. Currently, the 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe account for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent (Worldwatch Institute).

15. Americans donate 1.9% of their income to charitable causes (NCCS/IRS). While 6 billion people worldwide live on less than $13,000/year (National Geographic).

16. Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education (Psychology Today).

17. Shopping malls outnumber high schools. And 93% of teenage girls rank shopping as their favorite pastime (Affluenza).

18. Women will spend more than eight years of their lives shopping (The Daily Mail).

19. Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items. The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list (The Daily Mail).

20. Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on nonessential goods—in other words, items they do not need (The Wall Street Journal).

21. The $8 billion home organization industry has more than doubled in size since the early 2000’s—growing at a staggering rate of 10% each year.

becomingminimalist.com

[mariacallous]

International negotiations often follow a similar pattern: Global north countries promise bold action, summits come and go, and resources fail to materialize. In June, the ambitiously titled “Summit for a New Global Financing Pact” ultimately generated a road map of future meetings and announcements that rich countries would meet commitments they were supposed to have fulfilled years ago.

This pattern has only hardened the assumption that global north countries are unlikely to prioritize the needs of the global south. When global south countries complain, global north governments tell them to be realistic. For instance, last year, then-Executive Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans told African governments that “many of our citizens in Europe will not buy” the argument that Europeans hold outsize responsibility for addressing the climate crisis because they have emitted disproportionately. “Their worries are linked to their own existence in this energy crisis, in this food crisis, in this inflation crisis,” he said.

This hard-headed framing assumes that global north populations will naturally oppose the increased redistribution of money and power for the benefit of people abroad who they’ve never met. But what if this widely held assumption is not true?

According to conventional wisdom, globally redistributive policies—or policies that pull resources from wealthy countries and distribute them to poorer countries—go against the interests of the global north and will therefore never be implemented. But encouragingly for supporters of global justice, global north populations don’t seem to buy this argument.

A working paper from the World Inequality Lab, authored by Adrien Fabre, Thomas Douenne, and Linus Mattauch, suggests that global redistribution and cooperation are actually quite popular among the populations of rich countries. The paper, “International Attitudes Toward Global Policies,” is based on a survey of more than 40,000 people from 20 high- and middle-income countries. The respondents constitute a representative sample, both in terms of demographics and partisanship. While the results are surprising, existing research suggests that the paper’s findings are not an anomaly.

In every country but France, more than 65 percent of respondents said countries that have emitted less carbon in recent decades should get a larger share of the world’s remaining carbon budget than countries with higher emissions. (And although France was the least supportive, 57 percent of French respondents thought so, too.)

In a world where the average American emits seven times more than the average Indian, this would require rich countries to take on far more ambitious emissions reductions than poorer countries, yet Westerners say they favor it anyway. Beyond climate, the paper finds that 78 percent of Spaniards and 72 percent of British people support allocating voting shares at international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in proportion to population—a change that would cut Spain’s voting share at the IMF in third and the United Kingdom’s share by nearly five.

If populations in the global north express high levels of support for globally redistributive policies, why do their governments so regularly resist them? For example, in global climate negotiations, rich countries led by the United States fought to water down the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which demands more ambitious climate action from high-emitting rich countries—the same dynamic that the World Inequality Lab paper found Western populations largely support.

As this clash between global north public opinion and global north policies highlights, abstract public opinion only counts for so much in politics. Expressing support for a policy does not mean that someone will pressure their government to implement it, and many voters often don’t even know what current government policy is.

Right now, despite its immense global political and economic significance, global justice isn’t a politically salient issue in global north domestic politics. Global north populations have a relatively warm predisposition to global fairness, but they know little about it. This reality cuts both ways. The upside is that global north governments could advance globally redistributive policies without suffering the political costs that they fear. But as the status quo demonstrates, going against public opinion and resisting these policies does not yet bring sufficient political consequences.

It’s time for these governments to let go of a false premise: Globally redistributive policies are not anathema to their electorates. But until governments come around, it’s up to supporters of global justice to make them do it.

As many global north voters recognize, globally redistributive policies are often an investment in a better future for everyone: These policies could enable countries in the global south to combat problems with international effects, such as climate change and pandemics. Global development creates new trading partners and prevents the waste of talent, and redistributive policies build good will toward countries in the global north.

Public support for global justice in the global north is not without its limits. For example, when Americans draw up their ideal budget from scratch, they dedicate 3.7 percent to economic aid to other countries—more than a tripling of current levels, but still a small share of the budget. Research shows that residents of rich countries are sensitive to the costs of global policies even when they support the policies’ goals, but strategic policy design can help mitigate these concerns.

They are more likely to support investing money in global initiatives when others pick up the tab—whether by ensuring the burden is shared with other countries or by placing the costs on better-off people. In an example of the latter approach, one of the most popular policies in the recent World Inequality Lab working paper—with more than 67 percent support in every country surveyed—was a global tax on millionaires to provide finance to low-income countries.

There is a dire need for these types of policies. As it stands, half the world lives on less than $3,000 per year, resulting in a scarcely comprehensible level of daily struggling and stunted human capital. Developing countries face growing climate impacts, caused by a stock of carbon in the atmosphere that was mostly put there by rich countries. Mitigating climate change also cannot be achieved without developing countries: They now produce a majority of global emissions, even if this share of emissions is significantly less than their share of the population.

It is hard to see how this status quo meaningfully changes without large-scale supportive action from global north governments, backed by significant public resources. Worldwide economic and environmental action passes through global institutions where these governments hold decisive power, as would reforms to the structure of those institutions. The global monetary system runs on the U.S. dollar.

To meet the Paris climate agreement, developing countries collectively need at least $1 trillion per year in external finance, and yet they face far higher costs to investing in renewable energy than richer countries, as discussions at the first ever Africa Climate Summit hosted in September by Kenya highlighted. They simply don’t have enough money, especially in the face of high interest rates and debt. But global north countries do.

It is therefore very good news that global north populations tend to support more ambitious policies of global redistribution and cooperation than their leaders currently enact. Global northerners sometimes value altruism above traditional conceptions of the national interest. In a 2021 poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Americans thought combating world hunger was a slightly more important foreign-policy goal than maintaining global military superiority or limiting China’s international influence.

A 2022 paper by Gautam Nair and Kyle Peyton found that Americans thought it was more important to allocate COVID-19 vaccines on the basis of need than to distribute them in ways that would increase U.S. strategic influence.

However, this public sentiment will not change government policy on its own. Take the example of COVID-19. Supporting global vaccination efforts should have been a no-brainer—circulation of the virus anywhere creates a risk of more dangerous mutations everywhere. According to one leading estimate early in the pandemic, a $50 billion investment in global vaccination could have brought $9 trillion in benefits to the global economy. But even now, nearly two-thirds of people in low-income countries are yet to receive a shot.

As this missed opportunity highlights, the central barrier to getting global north publics to mobilize in support of progressive international policies is that—even when these policies are highly consequential for their own lives—the causal chain between global policies and their impacts is not directly visible. When access to vaccines expands domestically, people hear their friends and neighbors talk about getting vaccinated. They see schools reopen.

But apart from the minority of northerners with personal ties to global south countries, a brief news snippet or a charity appeal was all most were likely to hear about the state of global vaccination. Following the alphabet soup of vaccine policy debates—COVAX, TRIPS, MPP—was entirely beyond them. Northerners directly experienced new variants, but few realized how their governments’ failures to invest in global vaccine access made the positive COVID-19 tests in front of them more likely.

As a result, there was not a commensurate opposition to overcome the typical barriers to globally redistributive policies: policy inertia, inaccurate government perceptions of public sentiment, and the influence of concentrated interest groups—in this case, the pharmaceutical industry.

Although global north citizens often hold abstract support for global justice, their limited knowledge about inequality means that they struggle to understand when that justice is at stake. When the World Inequality Lab paper asked whether voting shares in international institutions should be allocated proportionately to population, large shares of global northerners agreed. However, these citizens know little about international institutions—less than half of Americans have even heard of the IMF, and even fewer know that voting power is based far more on a country’s wealth than its population.

If reforms to align IMF voting shares with population were on the table, many global northerners could be susceptible to opposition arguments calling the reforms giveaways to China and India, countries that global northerners tend to have little trust in, rather than understanding these reforms as advancing the principles of democracy and fairness with which they agree.

Advocacy and organizing groups can help citizens make sense of when their interests and values are at stake. While public sentiment is largely friendly to increased global cooperation and redistribution, there is a dire need for organized efforts to channel that sentiment into policy. Right now, the first resort for individuals who want to address unmet needs in the global south is to donate money to aid nonprofits; it is far more difficult for them to figure out how to use their votes and their time to influence the political dynamics that dictate why there are so many unmet needs in the first place.

Providing easily understandable information, accessible political action opportunities, and supportive organizing communities can help move people from latent and relatively uninformed supporters of global justice to active drivers of political change. Donors should take note: Because public resources are so much larger than charitable giving, funding advocacy and organizing can generate outsize impacts.

When there is a shortage of constituencies pressuring governments over their policies toward global south countries, policy failures such as the failure to advance global COVID-19 vaccination do not produce sufficient political costs. Officials have faced few public protests and attack ads over vaccine hoarding or shortchanging global climate funds. At the end of the day, that type of political backlash is more politically persuasive than significant human suffering or even global economic and public health challenges that rebound to their own countries.

In a perfectly fair world, the residents of the global north would demand that their governments embark on a program of global equity on a scale akin to a wartime mobilization. In a perfectly rational, informed, and self-interested world, they would push their governments to make large-scale investments in global public goods. In the world we have, if organized supporters of global justice and cooperation give the publics of the global north a hand, they could get their governments to do a whole lot more than they do now.

[nursingwriter]

Birth Control and Population According to Paul Ehrlich cited in the article "Too Many People," population issues in underdeveloped countries (UDCs) encompass rapid growth rates, birth rates vastly exceeding the death rate because of high percentages of young people, inadequate living standards, and serious problems with high urban concentrations. The consequences include resource depletion, ecosystem destruction, mass starvation, and a further deterioration of living stands. And, although not directly articulated, Ehrlich hits at political instability because rising expectations based on the knowledge of affluence in overdeveloped countries (ODCs) can't be realized. The conclusion Ehrlich reaches is that the overpopulation crisis justifies the imposition of mandatory birth control measures in UDCs that will result in zero population growth. While this view may initially seem undemocratic in nature, the reality is that his proposal is the only way to cope with the situation. To illustrate this point, this paper explores questions related to the mandatory birth control measures and provides answers that affirm the validity of them. So, is it fair to just target UDCs? The answer has to be yes because they are the ones with the largest problem. As Ehrlich explains, double times for populations in the UDCs range around twenty to thirty-five years. In contrast, doubling times for the populations of the ODCs tend to be dramatically higher, in the fifty to as much as two hundred year range. To put this in perspective, five developing countries today are responsible for more than fifty percent of the world's increase in population: India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Simply put, it makes sense to target the problem where the problem is occurring. Most ODCs can adequately nourish their population; most UDCs cannot. Economic inequality is unfortunate, but it is a reality for which a solution must be applied to. Why can't we simply raise the living standards of UDCs and preserve procreation as a basic human right? While it's true that as industrialization progressed in ODCs, the number of children decreased, there's no hard evidence that economics was the main driver of the decrease in family size or, at the least, surely not the only driver. Ehrlich acknowledges that certain economic factors such as reduced reliance on child labor and the expense to raise and educate children may have played a part in birth reduction in maturing ODCs, but concludes that there may have been a reduction in the desire to have lots of children. However, the author does a poor job of describing factors that cause people to have many children and his argument could have been greatly strengthened by drawing in non-economic considerations such as cultural, social and religious reasons. For example, raising the standard of living may not overcome belief systems that value a woman by how many children she has or that encourage early marriages that lead to larger than average families. Shouldn't we tackle the problem of overpopulation from a consumption perspective, given that ODCs are the ones that consume a disproportionate amount of the world's resources and are the major polluters? This utilitarian ideal sounds great, but it's not realistic. The "Haves" will continue to consume more than their share because they can afford to do so. It's a basic economic tenet that the most relevant determinant of consumption is income. Certainly, a goal should be the wise use of resources and environmentally sound policies, but conservation alone can't solve the world's overpopulation problems. Further, it's entirely possible to consum less resources as is the case with UDCs, but to still generate a disproportionate amount of pollution and resource waste. Costlier environmental conservation may increasingly become the purview of ODCs that are in a better economic position to institute and follow conservation policies and regulations. Isn't it immoral to take away procreation rights? The answer to this is obviously a highly subjective one. It's only fair to concede that this is a difficult decision that does place constraints on what ideally should be basic human rights. But, the immorality of continued overpopulation outweighs the negatives of enforcing birth control. In the case of overpopulation, individual rights come at the expense of society. Watching children starve to death because they don't have enough to eat or witnessing the impacts of global warming on our environment are more painful than telling people they can't have more children. And, taking away procreation rights isn't exactly a fair characterization of mandatory birth control. Couples would still be allowed to have some number of acceptable children, they just wouldn't be allowed to have more than they and the world's resources can support. When considering the mandatory birth control issue, there is one final question that needs to be asked. What is the real alternative to this proposal? Ehrlich eloquently puts the answer to this question in black and white when he says, "Demographically, the whole problem is quite simple. A population will continue to grow as long as the birth rate exceeds the death rate-if immigration and migration are not occurring." This implies that overpopulation must be controlled either on the birth side or the death side. As unappealing as forced birth control sounds, it's unarguable a better choice than mass extermination. A third option could be added, the development of technology that will eliminate the problems associated with overpopulation by increasing the world's food supply, producing alternatives to natural resources and limiting pollution caused by people and businesses. However, there are two problems with this proposition. First, there's the real danger demand for technology will continue to outpace its supply. Secondly, UDCs do not have the resources or financial backing to develop or purchase emerging technologies that will help them solve their problems. In time, technology may hold more promise, but the urgent nature of problems the world is facing call for solutions that are available today. Doing nothing and betting on the future is a risky strategy. In summary, the imposition of mandatory birth control measures in UDCs that will result in zero population growth is absolutely justified. Overpopulation in UDCs is out of control and its consequences are devastating. Trying to focus on any area other than population growth in UDCs will only prove futile. Mandatory birth control does make a tradeoff between individual rights and social rights. It's a difficult decision, but the only real alternative. Consumption can't be easily controlled. Options such as death control are even more unacceptable and technology cannot be counted on to solve this problem in the foreseeable future. For all these reasons, mandatory population control policies must move forward as quickly as possible. Goldfarb, "Too Many People." "Population Dynamics By Country, Religion, or Ethnicity." Available: http://www.overpopulation.org/culture.html (Accessed 20 May 2005). Goldfarb, "Too Many People." Read the full article

[ceekbee]

To find a stellar reason, among many, of why we don’t want to be the 51st U.S. state, consider Peter Marocco, a U.S. state appointed “official” who, according to media reports, told 1,000 employes of the U.S. Agency for International Development that they had “…lost the confidence of the president, and we need to fix it,” as reported by an attendee of the virtual meeting.

That is how the government functions in an authoritarian dictatorship, as President Trump so obviously wants for the U.S., in contrast to the reverse, the government, up to and including the leader, serving the will, and the interests, of the people. An elected politician is a servant, as are the bureaucrats, which is why they are called “public servants”. Both are honorable roles. The people fund the politicians and government agencies through payment of taxes that are investments in the country’s overall well-being.

Marocco also lectured the USAID workers, telling them that foreign aid would “deliver results for the American people”. The American people are not foreign; the “American people” require domestic aid delivered through various agencies that are also being dismantled, thus removing aid from the American people, and doing so with an abruptness that does not allow those people to adjust or make arrangements.

As David Tilford, of the Sierra Club, has pointed out, with only five percent of the world’s population the U.S., uses a third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper. “Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water,” he reportedly said, “dwarfs that of people living in the developing world.”

But foreign aid – even if you consider it “giving back” to countries whose resources feed Americans’ unquenchable appetite for living and non-living “resources” – is less than two percent of the federal outlay, and much of that simply circulates from one set of American bank accounts, into others. The U.S. always puts itself first as a supplier, which is why American farmers will be financially hurt when their produce is not bought to feed undernourished kids in what President Trump calls shithole countries. The kids, of course, will die. Of course “foreign aid” also includes weaponry, again to the benefit of American businesses owned by the oligarchs now so supportive of Trump.

As reported in the American magazine, Scientific American, between 1900 and 1989 the U.S. population tripled while its use of raw materials increased by a factor of 17, and still the Musk-Trump presidency wants more. When you are the richest man in the world and your greed is not yet sated, what does it mean?

A lot of Americans don’t get that we have less poverty per capita in Canada than there is in the U.S., even though the latter is a much richer country. How come? Simple. The money is more fairly distributed in Canada than it is in the U.S., thus a larger percentage of Americans go hungry, or bankrupt, or lose their home, even though they live where there is, in fact, much more money than in countries, like ours, where citizens are better off.

I have had many problems with American hegemony through the years, but I was always heartened by the fact that most of the criticism of American abuse of power came from Americans themselves with the freedom to speak out and the urge to do better. As much as I detest the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, I’ve been a huge fan of the First, and the freedom it gives Americans to speak out. But they are losing that freedom rapidly, and already the agencies that enforce laws are under control of the breakers of those laws. I guess when you elect a criminal as head of state, that is what happens. There are signs of mainstream, or legacy, media fighting back, finally…but wins in court don’t necessarily change things when enforcement of court rulings is controlled by those ruled against. We’ll have to wait and see.

[darkmaga-returns]

By Eve Ottenberg

If there’s one thing the recent BRICS summit in Kazan revealed, it’s that when you divide the world into the West and the Rest, the Rest is a lot bigger and quite alienated from the western oligarchy. Much of the Rest also wants to join BRICS. After all, it’s a good deal: A way to forge economic and political connections and to adopt sane economic policies, without a bully like Washington meddling in your affairs. What’s not to like? At a time when Europe has forgotten Bismark’s motto – that the secret to success in politics is a good treaty with Russia – and no one in Washington ever heard of it, going back generations to archaic American lies about bolshevism, while this is the case in the west, much of the Rest has learned the value of such a treaty. And not just with Russia, with China and India as well.

After Kazan, BRICS now boasts nine members and 13 partner countries, all dedicated to multipolarity. Another key aim, according to Geopolitical Economy October 26, is fostering “alternative economic institutions that are more representative and democratic, not dominated by the western powers.” In other words, the Global South is sick of IMF and World Bank debt traps and sees BRICS as a convenient exit from what Bolivian president Luis Arce described in Kazan as “the tyranny of the dollar.” BRICS provides this hope because its members contain over 40 percent of Earth’s population, 30 percent of global oil production, and over one-third of world GDP (in purchasing power parity), reports Geopolitical Economy. G7 nations are much smaller, with “less than 10 percent of the world population and under 30 percent of GDP.” BRICS nations have apparently tired of the global aristocracy.

BRICS’ original five members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Its four new members are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. It recently accepted 13 partners – Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Argentina, under center-left president Alberto Fernandez 2023, accepted joining BRICS, but reactionary ruler Javier Milei was too busy destroying Argentina’s economy, which he has accomplished with remarkable speed, and he canceled the BRICS accession bid tout de suite. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, doubtless under intense pressure from Washington to spurn BRICS, remains firmly on the fence.

[news365timesindia]

by Subhash Chandra Agrawal Presently India is placed at poor 126th place in World Happiness Index out of 143 countries of the world, which is a cause of serious concern where even war-ridden Ukraine, Pakistan and other neighboring countries of India are placed better than in India. Main aspect for such poor ranking is where proverb “Justice delayed is Justice Denied” very well fits for helpless Indians seen crowded in courts for want of justice. The oldest pending The Berhampore Bank case filed on 31.01.1951 could finally be settled in January 2023 after long 72 years. There are about five crore cases pending in Indian courts. With average house-hold size taken as about 4.5 members per family, a substantial percentage of total Indian population is leading a highly tensed life flushing time and money like water in courts and advocates. It is noteworthy that number of court-cases in developed countries is far less and thus accounting for a brilliant World Happiness Index. Main cause for such large number of court-cases is Perjury where it has become a usual tradition to speak lie in Indian courts and to file false affidavits with extremely low conviction-rate making wrong-doers worriless with no fear of law leading to a high crime-rate. On the contrary, conviction-rate in developed countries exceeds even 90-percent with Japan touching an ideal 99-percent thus having very low crime-rate. System should be so reformed that lawyers themselves may not take cases which are apparently based on lies. Necessary changes should be done in recently introduced three new Acts namely Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam whereby judges at all levels from lower courts to Supreme Court may themselves be empowered to take cognizance and action on false documents submitted in the courts apart from ordering punishment for those having attested documents without proper verification. Litigants should be fearful while lying in courts. If some stringent law on Perjury is legislated in India, more and more litigants will resort to plea-bargaining thus drastically cutting down number of court cases say to about 20-percent of the existing court-cases with ensured fast justice say even within a year. A cooling period of say three months can be provided to litigants and advocates to withdraw false documents already filed in courts. Supreme Court in the matter “Swaran Singh versus State of Punjab” {(2000) 5 SCC 668) observed “Perjury has also become a way of life in the law courts. A trial Judge knows that the witness is telling a lie and is going back on his previous statement, yet he does not wish to punish him or even file a complaint against him. This deters him from filing the complaint…” A stringent law on Perjury can be beneficial for lawyers too where legal profession will gain enhanced reputation and trust amongst the commoners. Only serious aspirants will join law-courses creating demand for quality lawyers due to higher stakes with introduction of success fees as in advanced countries. There will be shift of young lawyers from court-rooms to business-houses for ensuring legal compliances which will further reduce court-cases. Rajasthan High Court had to once direct action against two Oath Commissioners having attested an affidavit while the applicant was out of the country. Such an illegal practice is quite common when usually Oath Commissioners and Notary Public fulfill formality of attesting documents without verifying the person or signature whose signatures are to be attested. Time has come to abolish the totally outdated and useless practice of having Oath-Commissioners and Notary Public who are mostly in malpractice of charging fees much in excess than fixed by the government. Many fake Oath Commissioners and Notary Public have also emerged who sign after putting rubber-stamp in name of Oath Commissioner and Notary Public without noting details in the register which is mandatory to be kept by them.

Instead power of attestation should be given to every registered lawyer. This will induce at least some accountability on lawyers too when they will be attesting for their clients. Power of attestation should also be given to layers, chartered-accountants, medical-practitioners, officers of government and public-sector-undertakings and other such responsible categories of persons. Station-House-Officers (SHOs) of police-stations who presently do not have such powers, may be authorized and duty-bound to free-of-cost attest documents of those who do not have easy access to authorities mentioned above. It is high time that a study may be conducted on judicial-system of developed countries where case-disposal rate is exemplary high, and necessary reforms may be urgently undertaken to ensure justice within a year or so. Adjournments in court-cases may be exception rather than a practice as at present. This is despite the fact that several Division Benches of Supreme Court including the one comprising of Justices RV Ravindran and JM Panchal in January 2009 have observed and rightly too of the bitter reality that at times those having taken ex-party stay-orders seeking frequent adjournments ultimately lose the cases. Even the then Vice President Hamid Ansari once also desired liberal adjournments in courts need to be taken seriously by the judiciary for reforms within. Supreme Court also in the case Shiv Cotex vs Tirgun Auto observed that it is sad, but true, that the litigants seek and the courts grant adjournments at the drop of the hat further adding that adjournments have grown like cancer corroding the entire body of the justice delivery system. It should be made compulsory for all judges from Supreme Court to trial-courts to record reason for recusal from the case on the file. Moreover, any such recusal should be informed immediately on setting up the bench or listing of such a case before a judge so that a new bench may be there for hearing without requiring any postponement of the hearing. A judge of Delhi High Court once recused herself from hearing a case where she herself issued notice to former President Pranab Mukerji after admitting a writ filed by some individual urging some contents of the book authored by the former President to be deleted. At times judges of higher courts have written to sitting Chief Justice of India about pressure and influence especially also from politicians. Making it compulsory to give reasons for recusal will prevent pressure and influence on judges. This system apart from being a crucial judicial reform, will further tend to reduce litigation-period due to adjournment because of recusal by any judge. Long summer vacations in courts were designed by erstwhile British rulers to save British judges in India from severe hot weather of this country and also to facilitate them to visit their homeland in England. This costly facility unfortunately continues in free India even after 77 years of independence, that too with long pendency of court-cases. Long-pending recommendation of Law Commission for scrapping long court-vacations should be implemented. Courts should adopt normal government-calendars for holidays abolishing system of week-long vacations for religious festivals apart from long winter and summer vacations. Bringing court-vacations at par with government-offices will further reduce pending court-cases in India. Writer is Guinness World Record Holder for writing most letters and RTI Consultant

[news365times]

by Subhash Chandra Agrawal Presently India is placed at poor 126th place in World Happiness Index out of 143 countries of the world, which is a cause of serious concern where even war-ridden Ukraine, Pakistan and other neighboring countries of India are placed better than in India. Main aspect for such poor ranking is where proverb “Justice delayed is Justice Denied” very well fits for helpless Indians seen crowded in courts for want of justice. The oldest pending The Berhampore Bank case filed on 31.01.1951 could finally be settled in January 2023 after long 72 years. There are about five crore cases pending in Indian courts. With average house-hold size taken as about 4.5 members per family, a substantial percentage of total Indian population is leading a highly tensed life flushing time and money like water in courts and advocates. It is noteworthy that number of court-cases in developed countries is far less and thus accounting for a brilliant World Happiness Index. Main cause for such large number of court-cases is Perjury where it has become a usual tradition to speak lie in Indian courts and to file false affidavits with extremely low conviction-rate making wrong-doers worriless with no fear of law leading to a high crime-rate. On the contrary, conviction-rate in developed countries exceeds even 90-percent with Japan touching an ideal 99-percent thus having very low crime-rate. System should be so reformed that lawyers themselves may not take cases which are apparently based on lies. Necessary changes should be done in recently introduced three new Acts namely Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam whereby judges at all levels from lower courts to Supreme Court may themselves be empowered to take cognizance and action on false documents submitted in the courts apart from ordering punishment for those having attested documents without proper verification. Litigants should be fearful while lying in courts. If some stringent law on Perjury is legislated in India, more and more litigants will resort to plea-bargaining thus drastically cutting down number of court cases say to about 20-percent of the existing court-cases with ensured fast justice say even within a year. A cooling period of say three months can be provided to litigants and advocates to withdraw false documents already filed in courts. Supreme Court in the matter “Swaran Singh versus State of Punjab” {(2000) 5 SCC 668) observed “Perjury has also become a way of life in the law courts. A trial Judge knows that the witness is telling a lie and is going back on his previous statement, yet he does not wish to punish him or even file a complaint against him. This deters him from filing the complaint…” A stringent law on Perjury can be beneficial for lawyers too where legal profession will gain enhanced reputation and trust amongst the commoners. Only serious aspirants will join law-courses creating demand for quality lawyers due to higher stakes with introduction of success fees as in advanced countries. There will be shift of young lawyers from court-rooms to business-houses for ensuring legal compliances which will further reduce court-cases. Rajasthan High Court had to once direct action against two Oath Commissioners having attested an affidavit while the applicant was out of the country. Such an illegal practice is quite common when usually Oath Commissioners and Notary Public fulfill formality of attesting documents without verifying the person or signature whose signatures are to be attested. Time has come to abolish the totally outdated and useless practice of having Oath-Commissioners and Notary Public who are mostly in malpractice of charging fees much in excess than fixed by the government. Many fake Oath Commissioners and Notary Public have also emerged who sign after putting rubber-stamp in name of Oath Commissioner and Notary Public without noting details in the register which is mandatory to be kept by them.

Instead power of attestation should be given to every registered lawyer. This will induce at least some accountability on lawyers too when they will be attesting for their clients. Power of attestation should also be given to layers, chartered-accountants, medical-practitioners, officers of government and public-sector-undertakings and other such responsible categories of persons. Station-House-Officers (SHOs) of police-stations who presently do not have such powers, may be authorized and duty-bound to free-of-cost attest documents of those who do not have easy access to authorities mentioned above. It is high time that a study may be conducted on judicial-system of developed countries where case-disposal rate is exemplary high, and necessary reforms may be urgently undertaken to ensure justice within a year or so. Adjournments in court-cases may be exception rather than a practice as at present. This is despite the fact that several Division Benches of Supreme Court including the one comprising of Justices RV Ravindran and JM Panchal in January 2009 have observed and rightly too of the bitter reality that at times those having taken ex-party stay-orders seeking frequent adjournments ultimately lose the cases. Even the then Vice President Hamid Ansari once also desired liberal adjournments in courts need to be taken seriously by the judiciary for reforms within. Supreme Court also in the case Shiv Cotex vs Tirgun Auto observed that it is sad, but true, that the litigants seek and the courts grant adjournments at the drop of the hat further adding that adjournments have grown like cancer corroding the entire body of the justice delivery system. It should be made compulsory for all judges from Supreme Court to trial-courts to record reason for recusal from the case on the file. Moreover, any such recusal should be informed immediately on setting up the bench or listing of such a case before a judge so that a new bench may be there for hearing without requiring any postponement of the hearing. A judge of Delhi High Court once recused herself from hearing a case where she herself issued notice to former President Pranab Mukerji after admitting a writ filed by some individual urging some contents of the book authored by the former President to be deleted. At times judges of higher courts have written to sitting Chief Justice of India about pressure and influence especially also from politicians. Making it compulsory to give reasons for recusal will prevent pressure and influence on judges. This system apart from being a crucial judicial reform, will further tend to reduce litigation-period due to adjournment because of recusal by any judge. Long summer vacations in courts were designed by erstwhile British rulers to save British judges in India from severe hot weather of this country and also to facilitate them to visit their homeland in England. This costly facility unfortunately continues in free India even after 77 years of independence, that too with long pendency of court-cases. Long-pending recommendation of Law Commission for scrapping long court-vacations should be implemented. Courts should adopt normal government-calendars for holidays abolishing system of week-long vacations for religious festivals apart from long winter and summer vacations. Bringing court-vacations at par with government-offices will further reduce pending court-cases in India. Writer is Guinness World Record Holder for writing most letters and RTI Consultant

[molsons112000]

Another reason why the Asian population is doing so well in the United States is because there's a balance between males and females.. there are enough Asian females for every Asian male, and for every Asian female, there are enough Asian males. The Asian population is split equally at 50%. Male 50 percent female...

This is also why they have the lowest rate of l g b t q!!!!

Pew Research Center

https://www.pewresearch.org › not...

Gender composition among nothing in particulars by race ...

White, 53%, 47% ; Black, 55%, 45% ; Asian, 50%, 50% ; Latino, 55%, 45%

So this is why you have this high rate of lgbtq in the united states, and one of the highest in the world is because there's not enough of the opposite sex to fill the sexual needs....

Which country has the highest Lgbtq population?

The Philippines, the United States and Israel had the highest share of people identifying as LGBT+, at 11 percent each, while Thailand and Canada came in a close joint second place with 10 percent of adults, followed by Sweden, Brazil and Australia, each with 9 percent.May 16, 2024

https://www.statista.com › chart › re...

Infographic: Where It's Most & Least Common To Be LGBT+ - Statista

Anyways, this is why asian Americans are doing extremely well.... this is why they have extremely high longevities... they have solid marriages. They have low rates of abortion. They have extremely low rates of l g b t q, they have low rates of imprisonment, and they have a high economic income...

Pew Research Center

https://www.pewresearch.org › the...

The State of the Asian American Middle Class

May 31, 2024 — Among married Asian Americans, nearly a third (31%) were in the upper-income tier and 21% were lower income in 2022.

Missing: couples ‎| Show results with: couples



Economic Policy Institute

https://www.epi.org › blog › asian...

A closer look at Asian-American income

Feb 24, 2012 — Asian American women earn about $11,000 less than Asian American men, and white women earn about $13,000 less than Asian

Obviously, you see in the image that all the Asian American groups, almost every single one have a higher income than the average American... I have nothing against them. They earned it... I am just pointing out the dysfunction that's going on in America.In the other races in comparison! Can you see this in the black community and Latino communities? They have the highest disparity between males and females... then whites are the third highest disparity, five percent more males, then females!!!

The government has done a horrible job with immigration in balancing the sexual needs out in america....

Like in Miami, Florida, there used to be even more disparity... females are less likely to immigrate... so this caused the l g b t q boom around the united states, these pockets of high disparities between male and female!!!

Miami Sex Ratio

Female218,34749.21%Male225,31850.79%

https://worldpopulationreview.com › ...

Miami, Florida Population 2024

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › D...

Demographics of Miami

In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Miami's population as 45.3% Hispanic ... Sex Ratio, 97.8, 99.2, 98.9, 93.5, 88.0. Ages 0–17, 16.5%, 18.4%, 21.7%, 23.0%, 21.4 ...

So this has been the problem that females are less likely to migrate. They stay in those countries, and those countries end up getting inappropriate rates of male to female ratios, and we get too many men in the united states, and that has caused a severe problem.... so the government hasn't been doing things correctly with immigration...

Gender norms about the inappropriateness of women migrating autonomously, the constraining effects of their traditional family roles, and women's lack of social and economic independence, all hinder women's participation in international migration. When females migrate like my ex Jennifer Kim's parents, they migrate with a male they migrate as a couple.. men migrate as single males. My family came over as a male-female couple.... and for future migration, we should be accepting fewer males and only males with a female, and we need females for certain areas of the United States...

https://www.un.org › docs

PDF

WOMEN AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION - the United Nations

[gerarddougherty]

The Role of Mass Media in Financial Literacy

Ramsey Solutions has noted that approximately 80 percent of American workers live paycheck to paycheck, while approximately 40 percent of the population is unable to cover emergencies exceeding $400. Similarly, 75 percent of Americans have an existing debt obligation, while about 40 percent of Americans devote over half of their monthly income on settling debt obligations. Looking at these facts, it’s hard not to conclude that a large percentage of Americans are not financially literate. Mass media including radio, podcasts, and social media have been noted to significantly contribute to financial literacy, reducing the cycle of financial ignorance.

Today, there is an increase in social media platforms dedicated to having financial conversations. These platforms make discussing common financial topics relatable and simple. They ensure that conversations are not relegated to abstract concepts - rather, they discuss practical issues. In the past, most people could not afford financial advisors. However, social media is filling that gap and opening up access to financial advice for everyone.

The decentralization of financial advice through mass media has resulted in about 62 percent of Americans feeling empowered and having access to these resources. Similarly, 50 percent of Americans believe they have optimized their finances as a result of financial advice that they have received from social media.

Personal finance information spread through mass media, particularly social media, is heavily utilized by younger adults, particularly Gen Zs. This segment of the population is less likely to hire a finance coach or wealth manager. Rather, they make their financial decisions based largely on infographics, short and sweet posts, podcasts, and easy-to-digest videos.

Mass media has also been instrumental in fostering positive financial behaviors like savings and investment. For example, the use of mass media platforms like radio and television has been instrumental in creating financial education for workers’ pension preparedness. Similarly, there are radio shows that serve as spending habit monitors. For instance, a radio station might dedicate five to 10 minutes of airtime to educate low-income earners on how to segment or apportion their daily income. This has been instrumental in helping low-income households to shift detrimental financial habits. Some of these shows also advise people against predatory financial practices like Ponzi schemes and gambling.

Also, there is an increasing amount of business-focused media that allows a wide range of readers to monitor the markets and have access to world and business news. Platforms like WSJ, Morning Brew, and CNBC create content that seeks to simplify financial knowledge. For example, WSJ has a 5-Week Investing Challenge, Morning Brew publishes the Money Scoop newsletter, and CNBC, in conjunction with Acorns, publishes the financial newsletter Money 101.

Similarly, podcasts have been instrumental to the growth of financial literacy. An increasing amount of financial podcasts help listeners break down abstract and complex financial concepts. Podcasts often often go into much greater detail in their coverage of personal finance than other media, enabling the average listener to make well-informed decisions. Podcasts are also distinct from other media because of their flexibility, as listeners are able to garner financial insights at their convenience.