April is a special month–the first month of our financial year. As we come to the end of it and of 15months of dealing with a globally developing virus, I’d like to do some positive, associative thought provocation using a chronological sample of April’s International Days…
#Conscience day – Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual’s moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sensory perceptions and reflexive responses, as in sympathetic central nervous system responses. In common terms, conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a person commits an act that conflicts with their moral values.
#Sport for Development & Peace day – Sport is a powerful tool to promote peace, tolerance and understanding, bringing people together across boundaries, cultures and religions. Its intrinsic values such as teamwork, fairness, discipline and respect are understood all over the world and can be utilised in the advancement of solidarity and social cohesion. A philosophical perspective on sports incorporates its metaphysical relationships with art and play, ethical issues of virtue and fairness and more broadly sociopolitics.
#Autism day – Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental condition that involves persistent challenges in social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviours. The effects of ASD and the severity of symptoms are different in each person/group.
#Mother Earth day – The movement’s mission is “to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.” According to the United Nations, International Mother Earth Day is celebrated to remind each of us that the Earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance.
#Multilateralism & Diplomacy4Peace day – Multilateralism is the process of organising relations between sets of three or more groups. Beyond that basic quantitative aspect, multilateralism is generally considered to comprise certain qualitative elements or principles that shape the character of the arrangement or institution.
#Safety&Health at work ( and Chernobyl remembrance) day – Regulations and procedures intended to prevent accident or injury in workplaces or public environments.
#Jazz day! – Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognised as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music, linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage. The origin of the word jazz is believed to be “jasm,” a slang term dating back to 1860 meaning “pep, energy”. The earliest written record of the word is in a 1912 article in the Los Angeles Times in which a minor league baseball pitcher described a pitch which he called a “jazz ball” “because it wobbles and you simply can’t do anything with it”.
For me, this last description prompts speculation on the growing con-/restrictions that are becoming more apparent in a “wobbly” Life (TO WHICH “you simply can’t do anything”), especially since 2008. As rational humans we attempt to forcibly organise/ systematise/ structure our way out of communal problems&issues. That’s great in its way, but only as far as it goes.[mfn] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brain-typically-overlooks-this-brilliant-problem-solving-strategy/[/mfn] Common sense (=heart?) would suggest an even more important requirement: to not forget the Findhorn gardening adage of keeping available an important amount of free/organic/natural/fallow time&space for Mother Nature/Earth and the Universal Intelligence/ Providence/ Spirit/ God to “do their mysterious thing”. Let us gift ourselves with enough time&space (thank you for the training, lockdown) to focus on allowing the intelligence of Nature to flow through/ with/ in us — and so to find a blockade-free, inspired channel. Thus clothed, and armed with wisdom and compassion, we can take up the right duties. In the words of Charles Eisenstein: “A true sovereign does not run in fear from life or from death. A true sovereign does not dominate and conquer (that is a shadow archetype, the Tyrant). The true sovereign serves the people, serves life, and respects the sovereignty of all people. The coronation marks the emergence of the unconscious into consciousness, the crystallization of chaos into order, the transcendence of compulsion into choice. We become the rulers of that which had ruled us.”
Sure; me&you are clever (=ratio): look how far our civilisation has advanced in the last 2,000 years! Hurrah!! However let’s — equally readily — remember that Mother Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years[mfn]Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date. In northwestern Canada, they discovered rocks about 4.03 billion years old.[/mfn]… She must be pretty clever too — to have become so old…
Perhaps our human networks & groups can align/attune our cleverness even more with Mother Earth’s age-old and still unfathomed capabilities!
Peace[mfn]…positive peace refers to the absence of both violent conflict and structural violence and offers optimal conditions for development. Positive peace-building involves helping groups to develop more just and democratic systems in which poverty, illiteracy, and other root causes of conflict are eliminated. The closer groups and communities come to attaining this state, the more likely they are to be successful in safeguarding human rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Ideally, this means addressing societal tensions and the structural causes of violence before they escalate into full-blown conflicts. In a development context, this can mean:
• ensuring basic human needs are met,
• strengthening civil society and its institutions,
• fostering more democratic and transparent governance,
• ensuring a fair and impartial justice system,
• reducing poverty, and
• finding ways to break down barriers and build cohesion among different ethno-cultural groups — across political lines, between citizens and newcomers, and among the rich and poor.[/mfn] on Earth to all people of good will! Let’s consciously choose to TOGETHER really be in harmony.
Source:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks
