What is the connection between religion and population growth? The answer might surprise you: absolutely nothing. Well, according to Hans Rosling.
In his April 2012 TED-Talk, Rosling graphs the relationship between religion, income and children between zero and fifteen years olds. He shows that there is no connection between religion and babies, and that there is a much closer connection between:
1 - mortality rates and babies born ie the more likely a baby is to die, the more babies a mother
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May 24, 2012 | Categories: Peace | Tags: overpopulation, peace, population, religion | 3 Comments »
Books on climate change tend to finish with a list of things we can do to help: buy a green bag, ride instead of drive, hang up your washing rather than using the dryer, turn off the lights, decrease consumption ... The thing is, when it comes to the big scheme of things, comparing our individual actions to the actions of corporations, government and military: what difference does it actually make?
I want to know where I should be putting my effort: is more effective for me to cut my personal
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Dec 28, 2011 | Categories: Peace | Tags: Ecology, environment, peace | Leave A Comment »
Hans Rosling gives an illuminating TedTalks presentation on one of my greatest ecological concerns: over-population.
Let each box = 1 billion people.
In 1960 it was relatively accurate to divide the world into the "First World" and "Third World", the "rich" and the "poor", the "developed world" and "developing world" or the Centre and Periphery.
In 1960 we were 3 billion people. The blue was the 1 billion at the top of the pyramid, dreaming of buying a car and a dishwasher. The green
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Aug 11, 2011 | Categories: Peace | Tags: climate change, Ecology, overpopulation, peace, population, TED, The Pyramid | Leave A Comment »
Content in living out your life: work, money, weekends, holidays, home, kids... and then something happens: a cataclysmic event changes everything.
Be it a sudden illness or a natural disaster like the flooding Brisbane is now facing, everything you know - everything you care about, everything you have dedicated your life to, everything you imagined for your future - can disappear in an instant.
As I write, Brisbane faces 12 people dead, 43 missing, 20,000 homes, and 3000 businesses under water.
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Jan 12, 2011 | Categories: Adventure, Peace, Random Life Stuff | Tags: climate change, Life in Oz, Narratology, peace, Politics, The Pyramid | Leave A Comment »
"Things are the way they are because they have been designed to be this way," a friend of mine said. "It's all about preserving The Pyramid."
What's The Pyramid? Let me tell you...
"The Pyramid" (according to my friend) is a method of social, economic and political organisation that is at the core of every human civilisation from the Egyptians to Hindus to Monarchies to Capitalism.
All the big political conflicts come down to one thing: The Pyramid.
Conflicts are either initiated by
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Dec 17, 2010 | Categories: Academic, Featured Posts, Truth | Tags: peace, political theory, Politics, poverty, power, social construction, Structural Violence, The Pyramid | 3 Comments »
What makes more sense?
1. That God selected ONE species to be his “chosen” species, abandoning all His other creations to nothingness.
OR
2. That God values ALL of his creations. The idea that humans are the only creations with souls, is a narrative created by humans not God.
What makes more sense?
1. That God selected ONE group of people to be His “chosen people, to help them conquer other groups of people (as long as they obeyed Him) and to punish all other people in the world who strive
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Jul 30, 2010 | Categories: Featured Posts, Truth | Tags: Conformity, Fundamentalism, God, peace, religion | Leave A Comment »
I knew I would leave India with a new perspective of life – but the upturning of my worldview has happened in a far different way than I expected. I thought I would arrive home more passionate about social justice, more inspired to make a difference to the lives of “poor” people. Instead I am leaving India with a hardened heart, more humility, and an increased concern for the future of humanity as a whole. Why? Because the population problem, the elephant in the room, is far too big a problem
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Jun 28, 2010 | Categories: Peace | Tags: Ecology, elephant in the room, India, over-population, peace, Politics, population, world population | 6 Comments »
So yesterday I enjoyed a little rant about the game our governments, supported by the people’s consumer-driven values, are playing with military pawns, strategically placed towers, and other oil-powered weaponry. We established the difficulty in knowing what sources we can trust, but decided that either way whatever moral and immoral tactics the governments are using with their present day “war of wants”, it is the westerners that gain the lifestyle benefits of cheap clothes and food and transport
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Apr 13, 2010 | Categories: Peace | Tags: Ecology, peace, Politics, power, Social Change, Structural Violence | 4 Comments »
"War is like a chess game - operated by a few key people, everyone else doing what they are told." "In war, who is the real enemy? The real enemy is war itself." War is "preserving democracy, not practicing it." Crimson Tide
I was talking with some army boys at a party on the weekend. You know, a casual debate about whether or not Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin Laden were once on the CIA payroll. Academic Scholarship vs Military Intelligence. Justice vs Defence. Peace vs Violence. It got just a
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Apr 12, 2010 | Categories: Featured Posts, Peace | Tags: peace, Politics, power | 2 Comments »
'I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.' George Bernard Shaw.
The following snippets of youtube videos are inspired by an initiative called "Awakening The Dreamer" which involves a half-day seminar that uses these video
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Mar 29, 2010 | Categories: Peace | Tags: climate change, Ecology, peace, poverty, Worldview | 2 Comments »
Yesterday at 5pm my Opa (that's dutch for grandfather), passed away at the ripe old age of 93. Born 20th February 1916 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Willem Frederik Van Leeuwen lived a long and inspiring life. He was a wonderful, caring father and grand-father. Me and my Opa were "house-mates" (as he used to say), and he was my very good friend.
My Opa changed my life. My Masters degree is his Masters degree. My book to soon be published is his book as much as mine. I couldn’t
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Nov 24, 2009 | Categories: Random Life Stuff, Truth | Tags: Being-towards-death, Love / Life, Meaning of life, peace | Leave A Comment »
Empowering women has been said to be the "silver bullet" to ending poverty.
Studies have shown that an increase in the income of women directly correlates with increases in the education and nutrition of children. These children will lead longer and more fulfilling lives, and an upward spiral will begin as they can provide better education and nutrition to their children.
Increases in the income of men have no correlation with children's education and nutrition, but instead correlate with increases
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Sep 27, 2009 | Categories: Featured Posts, Peace | Tags: Gender, peace, poverty, Structural Violence, women | 7 Comments »
As I go through my studies, learning about the world and the peace and conflict that exists on different levels, and even as travel through my own life's little challenges, I find I coming back to one question: HOW CAN I FIND PEACE?
Is peace something that CAN be "found"? Does it already exist, sitting there waiting to be uncovered? Or is it, like happiness, A CHOICE we must make? Is it a choice I can make myself, or do we ALL have to make it in order for me to experience it not only inside
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Sep 24, 2009 | Categories: Peace | Tags: Conflict, peace | 3 Comments »
Creativism... the beginnings of a new philosophy, with positive implications on social, political and economic theories.
Ok – with that amazing very creative photograph that won “Portrait of the Year 2009” by Sydney photographer Pippin Schembri – I now divert your attention to something close to my heart - for now I’m calling it “Creativism”, but it seems that "Potentialism" also fills the bill. (Click here to see Potentialist version of below)
I think you’ll find there’s
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Sep 10, 2009 | Categories: Featured Posts, Truth | Tags: Creativism, Life philosophy, peace, Potentialism | 9 Comments »
