Saturday, 6 January 2024

FROM this week’s news ON: human rights and humanitarian aid [Note: Content Warning - links to distressing reports on this topic including CSA. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

From this week’s news on human rights and humanitarian aid (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published), noting that many issues have probably not made it into the news that I see: 



  • a YouTube short“” on signing that can save lives   https://m.youtube.com/shorts/LaXd48bdj0U   Note: this would be US sign language - sign languages vary across the globe (see here, here, and here), so check with a suitable organisation in your nation  


My links for activism post may aid any activism  you may decide to do on any/all of these. 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

 

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FROM this week’s news ON: the war in West Asia [Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence including SA & CSA/abuse/war, genocide, language. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

Reporting on recent and currently ongoing tragic events in West Asia, in Israel, Gaza, and adjoining nations, includes the following: 

 

on peace/ceasefires:   

on human rights and human suffering (on both sides) aspects:    

on military aspects:    

regionally:    

internationally:

 

Note: as with other mass murderers/serial killers/and the like, violent extremists crave publicity, so I refuse to give that to them - I will avoid using their names (which is a policy adopted by good law enforcement and media for other mass murderers), and I will not give them the satisfaction of being described with the T word. 

Note also that the genocidal intent of the VEs I refuse to name is clear, according to this from experts in that topic.

My links for activism post may aid any activism  you may decide to do on any/all of these.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

 

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FROM this week’s news ON: politics & democracy, and international affairs

[Note: Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]  

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

From this week’s news on politics & democracy, and international affairs (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published), and noting the conflicts, listed here, for instance, and other global; issues, such as those listed here, that may not have made it into this weeks news: 

  • “Sudan is the Worst Crisis in the World That Receives The Least Amount of Attention”   Global Dispatches   “As we enter 2024, the conflict in Sudan is shaping up to be one of the worst crises in the world. Nearly 7 million people have been displaced, hunger is widespread and a hallmark of this civil war has been ethnic cleansing that may have crossed the threshold to genocide. Despite being a calamitous catastrophe, Sudan has not received much media attention, nor sustained high level engagement by policy makers, particularly in the West.  To begin 2024, I am bringing you my conversation with Kholood Khair, the founder and managing director of Confluence Advisory, a think and do tank formerly based in Khartoum. We kick off discussing her analysis of why conflict broke out in April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. We then discuss how this conflict evolved to the point where the Rapid Support Forces appear to very much have the upper hand and why international diplomacy has thus far failed to end this civil war.”    Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/global-dispatches-world-news-that-matters/id593535863?i=1000640332436  

 

  • a series of YouTube shorts show the problems of the USA by comparison with life in Germany:     “School Safety: USA v. Germany”   https://m.youtube.com/shorts/IEQFpi2K0WQ   Obviously Germany, as with most (not all - consider war zones) of the rest of the world, is better     and     “Studying USA Propaganda in Germany”   https://m.youtube.com/shorts/A3iV1kNX3MI   This covered current propaganda such as US (alleged) “exceptionalism”, the “American dream”, and “how US citizens have been led to have a lack of self-critical awareness to how their ideals have failed”. Details of the textbook used are included     and     “Money Saved by Immigrating to Germany as a U.S. American”   https://m.youtube.com/shorts/krIjX1ma4Hs   This highlights how backwards and third rate the US approach to health care and workers is  




From ACLED: 

For week   2nd - 8th December (note that this is several weeks behind current events owing to the time required to collect and analyse data):  

Large decrease in violence:  Venezuela,   Ghana,   Burkina Faso,   Niger,   Nigeria,   Cameroon,   CAR,   Ethiopia,   Madagascar,   Afghanistan,   Pakistan,   India,   Burma/Myanmar,   Indonesia,  

Moderate increase in violence:   Somalia,  

Large increase in violence:  Russia,   Türkiye,   Sudan,   


From the Early (mass atrocity) Warning Project:

Currently experiencing mass killing:   Nigeria,   CAR,   Sudan,   South Sudan,   Ethiopia,   Somalia,   DRC,   Syria,   Iraq,   Pakistan,   India,   Burma/Myanmar, 

Highest risk (2022-23):    Chad, Yemen,


My links for activism post may aid any activism  you may decide to do on any/all of these.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

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Friday, 5 January 2024

The problem of going into management without having started at the groundfloor ...

My recent reading included noting that US* General Francis Barlow started the US Civil War as a private, and ended as a General. 

That reminded me that, for a lot of my life, I have thought there are advantages in managers etc knowing what the experience of workers they are managing/supervising/leading is like - in fact, I still consider that essential: the issue is, how does one get that?

Direct experience of the type mentioned above is one, and has the advantage of being personal, but has the disadvantage that not everyone's experience in a given situation will be the same. 

In a factory situation, a single, childless, white cishet male’s experience - especially around doing an occassional bit of unscheduled overtime - will be different to that of a parent who is going to be slugged with fees for collecting their child late from child care. 

In an office, a neurotypical’s experience will be different to that of a neurodivergent’s experience. 

But in any case, that personal experience will be enough to give some confidence in countering rubbish spouted by a management lecturer/consultant/“expert” - and, in my experience of such management lecturers/consultants/“experts”, they can woefully underestimate the amount of time that is required to complete a task. 

(Especially if they are so incompetent/amathiac as to think everything is taught in graduate University degrees ... )

A similar problem is the fallacy that project managers do not need to know anything about the technical details of work they are managing. 

If they don’t, they can be misled, or they can issue instructions to resolve problems that are actually harmful. 

My experience of too many project managers is that they have basically been hired to facilitate meeting the KPIs of others who are too gutless and/or incompetent to take on doing the project management that they should.

There are, of course, some excellent exceptions - Project Managers who deserve the respect of capitalisation.

So ... there can be problems all round, although I still consider personal experience of the field/work you are trying to manage is far more likely to be helpful than not. 

What to do? 

Listen. 

I’ll “say” that again, in case you didn’t hear it the first time: 

LISTEN

In fact, actively engage and seek feedback - and not only in the formal surveys most companies do, but by NOT selling the company message/position/optimism, forming a human-to-human connection, and then listening to get a FEELING of what it is like. 

That is inherently going to be difficult, as you are in a position of power, and no matter how much you try to be friendly, that will ALWAYS influence what is being said to you (by most people: I think many - not all - managers hated my bluntness and refusal to just play along with the neurotypical “be a team player” game). 

People may try to give you advice about how to minimise the filtering, but you are ALWAYS going to have to exercise your skills and judgment and adjust what you are hearing accordingly. 

If you think you can delete the filtering entirely, you are both wrong and unfit to be in the position you have. 

I have heard quite a few times of managers and people further up the hierarchy being surprised when they find out after someone leaves that they weren’t actually friends.

Don’t set yourself up for that, but do set yourself up for better outcomes by acknowledging that your qualifications are in a particular area, and those actually doing the work may have infinitely more relevant qualifications - especially the qualification of lived experience - and need to be listened to carefully. 

 

 * Descriptions of the sides in the US Civil War are often characterised as Union vs. confederate, but the truth is that the  “Union” side was actually the United States, and the “confederates” were rebelling against the USA as they wanted to leave so they could continue their slavery (which is also why Texas rebelled against Mexico - so Texas could join the USA and continue their slavery, which Mexico had just banned). Thus “Union General” can and should be US General.


PS - I actually consider the disadvantage of lack of experience so severe that I considered describing it as a disability, rather than a problem, in the title. That’s going too far, detracts from disability activism, and is just quite simply wrong in so many ways, so I decided not to, but the fact that I considered it should be kept in mind when contemplating the seriousness of this problem. 

Also this goes both ways: workers without skills in management should not consider they are free to comment the other way, and for the same reasons I have been writing about in this post: they do not know.


Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

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Tuesday, 2 January 2024

Reflections on society

I’ve written some reflections on some troubling aspects of societies’ responses to problems on my main blog that I consider worth a look. 

If you’re interested, the details are:

“Post No. 2,679 - The oversimplification of societies’ responses to issues”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2024/01/post-no-2679-oversimplification-of.html   

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

 

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