Two news bits from the past week or so:
(1) The UN has announced that the proportion of people who are chronically undernourished in the world has fallen by nearly half — from 23.3% to 12.9% — over the last 25 years. Only a handful of countries — Haiti, North Korea, Zambia, Namibia, and the Central African Republic — remain in the high hunger category, which means that over 35% of their populations are chronically hungry.
(2) The Canadian government-appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Justice Murray Sinclair (who is Ojibway), has concluded its six-year report by naming Canada’s many decades-long “residential school” system for indigenous youth a form of “cultural genocide.”
The latter may not sound like good news, but for those who already knew that it was that, official recognition is a significant victory.
Make of those what you will.
not in love with the rather ambiguous term cultural-genocide but the possible raising of a call to duty around the ills that have been (and are being) inflicted on aboriginal people is welcome news indeed.
did you ever read Lear’s Radical Hope book?
No, I didn’t. (But I probably should.) Thanks for the suggestion and the link below.