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Category: Global

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Martina Calçada Kohatsu, PhD Candidate in Educational Psychology, McGill University

    In ‘Adolescence,’ a communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity. (Netflix)

    This story contains spoilers about the Netflix series ‘Adolescence.’

    In the Netflix series Adolescence, we have no idea why Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested at the beginning of the first episode. The tension from seeing a helpless 13-year-old boy escorted to a police station and interrogated holds us to the screen. Every minute of the one-hour episode, shot in a single continuous take, makes us feel like we are in the police station with the Miller family, viewing things through his parents’ disorientation.

    As the plot unfolds, we are given clues to explain the inexplicable, but we can’t fully appreciate the show’s magnitude until the very last scene, a dramatic moment where we see the boy’s father (Stephen Graham) cry over his son’s teddy bear while asking it for forgiveness.

    From an educational psychology angle, the show is ripe for analysis. One could comment on the premature sexualization of young girls and boys or the obsolete sense, for parents, that they can assume kids are safe when they’re at home in their rooms.

    However, as a doctoral student in educational psychology, I am mostly concerned with human learning — both the cognitive development that must accompany successful learners, and how children and youth understand the world through relationships.

    The state of Jamie’s cognitive development and of teenagers in general may help us understand his frame of mind — or the “why” that detective Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) pursues.

    For parents, this show raises serious questions about the crisis in parent-child communication and how the internet is shaping children’s behaviour and minds. I suggest turning to the practice of dialogue as a way for parents to strengthen their communication with their children and learn about each other and the world.

    Trailer for ‘Adolescence.’

    Children’s minds

    According to the government of Canada, “any human being below the age of 18” is defined as a child. Children can’t be recruited to join the Armed Forces, sign legal contracts, drive, vote, marry, drink alcohol and so on. As adults, we understand that these prohibitions not only protect them but also us.

    Setting aside ethical reasons why children shouldn’t do any of these things, the major reason is due to the developmental state of their minds.

    To better understand this, we must consider executive function, also called cognitive control. Executive function refers to the unconscious cognitive processes of abstract thinking, inhibition, impulse control and planning that allow us to consciously control and direct our thoughts to goals, actions and emotions.

    Think of executive control as interconnected paths in the brain. In an adolescent’s brain, these paths resemble more of a labyrinth, with difficult and sometimes non-working passages.

    Children and adolescents’ cognitive development are in “sensitive periods” in which their brains are more plastic and susceptible to environmental influences. Besides not having full control of their thought processes, research has also shown that abstract and more “neutral” cognitive skills develop earlier than those that involve motivated or emotionally charged actions.

    Ability to weigh options still developing

    Adolescents might be mature enough to solve complex math problems, but still feel helpless when needing to be polite to someone they believe offended them (not an easy task for adults either). In such a case, one would need to “step back” from the situation, and weigh options to respond.

    An adult might think “maybe I misinterpreted what this person said” or “if I offend them back, I risk losing my job/friendship/reputation.” By dwelling on different course of actions, they don’t act impulsively.

    This is precisely the ability that adolescents are still developing.

    Adolescent brains have not fully matured in ways that enable them to calculate risk.
    (Netflix)

    Virtual selves and threats

    When adolescents engage with social media, they can be exposed to a threatening environment where they must assert their virtual selves and deal with bullying and inappropriate content, while lacking full control of their thought processes.

    Yet, as American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has chronicled, our society has allowed adolescents to take part in this at grave risk. With maturing cognitive capabilities, teens are at risk in an online environment that thrives on extreme views and hijacks emotions.

    As a victim of cyberbullying, Jamie was probably not equipped with the cognitive abilities to step back from the situation and seek help. Instead, he responds to cruelty he experienced with cruelty he knew.

    With unregulated internet use, in terms of both content and unrestricted time spent online, communication with parents atrophies. At its core, Adolescence is a painful wake-up call to the effects of unregulated internet usage in teens, and how the communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity.

    Clueless adults, aware teens

    Nowhere in the show is this distance more evident than when police detectives move cluelessly through Jamie’s school trying to understand his motives, while the students seem cynically aware of what really happened.

    The detective’s son clues him into interpreting signs of incel subculture.
    (Netflix)

    In a typical moment reflecting contemporary intergenerational dynamics in which the Gen Zs explain stuff to their analog parents, Bascombe’s son is the one to enlighten him about incel subculture and what certain emojis represent.

    It becomes clear that pop-cultural references mean different things to a younger generation. For example, “red pill” was appropriated from The Matrix and is now used for those who “see the truth” and reject feminism.

    Generations are comfortable communicating in different ways. Teens, for example, are clever texters. They use images, edit reels and create memes to convey subtle and often complex feelings.

    In contrast, teens’ discomfort with face-to-face conversations is explicit in the last episode of Adolescence, when the Miller family drives to a hardware store. The parents play a song from their prom and reminisce. The oldest daughter is with them, but not present, focused on her phone and only sporadically joining the conversation.

    Why dialogue matters

    Parents and their children may find direction through dialogue. This ancient practice is based on the view of the world as becoming, with infinite internal and external contradictions that must be overcome so that new understandings of reality may emerge.

    Dialogue was famously advanced as an educational practice by philosopher of education, Paulo Freire.

    Freire believed people must come together to share their meanings of the world, and through this push and pull of ideas, reasons and opinions, conceptualize new forms of understanding. For parents, this means that without trying to understand what teens are saying and, importantly, how they are saying it, we can’t possibly create a better future for all of us.

    Open channel needed

    Engaging in dialogue involves two things: asking and answering questions. It is not a matter of merely extracting information (although knowing what children are doing is important), but rather of mutually sharing interests and letting it guide discovery.

    When parents and children find a channel, communication opens and for as long as the mutual interest is there, they can steadily build meaningful connections that transform how they see the world and their relationships.

    With renewed urgency, dialogue that validates the interests and knowledge of both parents and children can offer a way out of the polarization created between them by long hours spent online.

    Martina Calçada Kohatsu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens – https://theconversation.com/adolescence-on-netflix-a-painful-wake-up-call-about-unregulated-internet-use-for-teens-253068

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trips to the playground and jigsaw puzzles: five surprising ways to help children learn to write

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sinéad McCauley Lambe, Assistant Professor, School of Inclusive and Special Education, Dublin City University

    Rachaphak/Shutterstock

    It’s a milestone that leaves parents beaming with pride: the first time their child shakily writes out their own name. And it’s the start of many more key childhood moments, from Christmas lists to writing their own stories.

    If you’re keen to help your child learn to write, you might think about asking them to try to copy shapes, or trace over the dotted outline of a letter. But there’s a lot more that goes into writing. It requires fine motor skills using the hands – and this can be practised through threading beads, rolling playdough and stacking blocks.

    However, while fine motor skills play a central role in getting children ready to write, it doesn’t end there. Handwriting is a complex developmental process, and preparation for handwriting also involves the development of key gross motor skills, as well as visual-perceptual skills.

    I’m a researcher who works on how children learn to write. Below are five ways to help your child to prepare for handwriting that you might not have considered.

    Take them to the playground

    It might not seem that obvious, but a trip to the playground is perfect preparation for handwriting. All that open space and climbing equipment provide ample opportunities for young children to develop their gross motor skills.

    Gross motor skills involve the body’s large muscles and are needed for balance and stability as well as posture and coordination. Think monkey bars – a fantastic and fun way to develop shoulder stability which allows for greater control of the small motor movements of the hands and fingers.

    Another important element of gross motor skills is what’s known as crossing the midline. The midline is an imaginary line that runs down the centre of a child’s body. It plays a central role when developing hand dominance as children learn to reach across their bodies to write. Can your child hang from the monkey bars with their hands crossed? That’s great practice in crossing the midline.

    And all that open space, interspersed with bulky and busy playground equipment, provides the ideal opportunity for children to develop spatial awareness as they duck and dive, swerving to avoid oncoming obstacles. Spatial awareness plays a key role in letter formation, placement and size, as well as spacing and page alignment.

    Lots of blank space

    Through early mark making and scribbling, children explore a range of movements and shapes. This early stage of mark making is essential in laying the foundations for handwriting development as the child develops a growing awareness of space and their place within it.

    Give children space for mark making.
    AnikaNes/Shutterstock

    Look for large blank spaces in and outside of your home that children can use for mark making and drawing. Forget colouring books, and instead think large sticks of chalk on big open pavements, rolls of paper across open floor space, or large sheets of blank paper on an easel.

    Teach them how to look carefully

    Think about asking a young child to copy a shape, or a letter using their pencil. “Just copy the shape” – it’s simple, isn’t it?

    The problem is, it’s not simple. At all.

    It begins with visual perception – the process whereby the brain extracts and organises information, giving meaning to what we see. This makes a collection of lines into a square, for instance. Visual-motor integration is the ability to be able to coordinate fine motor skills and visual-perceptual skills to produce that letter, shape or number in a legible manner.

    The visual component enables children to discriminate between letter shapes to recognise each letter’s specific characteristics, and to identify their orientation. The motor element allows the child to carry out the necessary sequence of movements to form the letter.

    By exposing young children to lots of opportunities to develop their visual-perceptual skills, you can help to prepare them for handwriting. Think richly illustrated picture books, jigsaw puzzles and Where’s Wally books – these help children sort out the meaning in marks and shapes. Picking out shapes, numbers and letters on the street as you walk to the shop together is a good opportunity, too.

    Shapes before letters

    It might be tempting to pick up a colourful ABC practice book with a neat “wipe clean” whiteboard feature to help your child learn to write. But hold off putting it in your shopping basket for now. Before children are ready to write letters formally, they should first be able to copy nine geometric shapes.

    Pre-writing shapes.
    The Conversation

    The ability to copy geometric forms is recognised in research as an indication of writing readiness in a young child. Formal handwriting training should be delayed until a child can successfully copy a vertical line, a horizontal line, a cross, a circle, a right oblique line, a square, a left oblique line, an oblique cross and a triangle.

    Ditch the broken crayons

    There are few things more frustrating for a young child than fading markers, blunt colouring pencils or a box of broken and bruised crayons. My research has found that the quality of writing materials matters when it comes to motivating the reluctant writer to give it a go.

    Providing children with a variety of novel and fun writing materials leads to increased motivation and enjoyment of writing. These could be brightly coloured felt pens, gel pens, highlighters, magic markers and even scented markers and pencils, and don’t forget the finger paints. The messier the better.

    Sinéad McCauley Lambe is the author of Move Write – A Whole-body Sensorimotor Approach to Handwriting programme.

    Move Write is published by Just Rewards Publications.

    – ref. Trips to the playground and jigsaw puzzles: five surprising ways to help children learn to write – https://theconversation.com/trips-to-the-playground-and-jigsaw-puzzles-five-surprising-ways-to-help-children-learn-to-write-250225

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Barry Lyndon at 50: why Kubrick’s most overlooked masterpiece deserves another viewing

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor University

    Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, struggled at the box office when it was released. It remains one of the director’s most under-appreciated films. Unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Shining, which have been endlessly dissected in books and essays, Barry Lyndon has received relatively little scholarly attention – just a single book.

    Perhaps its cool reception can be traced to its slow, contemplative pacing, its meticulously crafted but emotionally restrained storytelling, or its three-hour runtime. It also arrived at an inopportune moment, in the same year as Jaws, a film that would reshape Hollywood forever.

    Yet, Barry Lyndon deserves a second look, not only as one of Kubrick’s most visually striking films but also as an intensely personal project that offers rare insight into the director himself.

    The film follows the rise and fall of Redmond Barry, an ambitious Irishman who reinvents himself as Barry Lyndon in his pursuit of wealth and status. After fleeing his homeland following a duel, Barry navigates the treacherous world of 18th-century Europe.

    He serves as a soldier, a gambler and ultimately marries into aristocracy. However, his social ascent is marred by personal missteps, betrayals and the cold realities of high society.

    The project was born out of failure. Kubrick had spent years preparing for a grand epic about Napoleon, amassing an enormous archive of research and developing meticulous pre-production plans.

    But no studio was willing to finance the project. Unwilling to abandon his obsession with the late 18th century, he turned instead to The Luck of Barry Lyndon, a lesser-known 1844 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.

    The Barry Lyndon trailer.

    The choice of Thackeray was in keeping with his taste for English writers like Arthur C. Clarke (2001) and Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange). But this was a leap.

    Those previous writers were contemporaries and, Paths of Glory and Spartacus apart, nearly all of Kubrick’s previous films took place in the recent past, near present, or the future. Now he would try his hand at what would essentially be a costume drama. He would be recreating the past rather than creating the future.

    Some saw Barry Lyndon as a mere consolation prize. The film critic Alexander Walker called it a project “born on the rebound,” while production designer Ken Adam described it as a “dress rehearsal” for Napoleon. But Kubrick’s fascination with the Napoleonic era was evident in the film’s DNA.

    Thackeray himself had been fascinated by the French emperor, incorporating him into his novel, Vanity Fair, and writing The Second Funeral of Napoleon in 1841. Barry Lyndon draws heavily from the same historical themes, exploring the illusions and brutal realities of social ambition.

    What captivated Kubrick about Thackeray was his ability to expose the cruelty beneath the polished facade of aristocratic life. The rigid etiquette of the 18th century – a period described variously as an age of gentility, sensibility and enlightenment – demanded an emotional detachment that fascinated the director.

    Thackeray was, in many ways, a 19th-century sociologist, dissecting the class system, conspicuous consumption and the mercenary nature of marriage. These themes resonated deeply with Kubrick, whose films often explored power structures, status and manipulation.

    An outsider’s perspective

    Some critics have noticed a similarity between Kubrick and his lead character. As an American Jew living in north London, married to a German woman, Kubrick felt one step removed from the society around him, perhaps even somewhat of a social pariah. Ryan O’Neal’s casting as Barry was largely a commercial necessity – Kubrick needed a bankable star – but it also added a personal layer.

    Like Kubrick, O’Neal’s Barry is an outsider, the lone American in a European cast, a social climber forever out of place. The novel’s narrator observes that “those who’ve never been out of their country…” lack a certain perspective. It was something that Kubrick, a Bronx-born autodidact who had taught himself everything from chess to classical music, could surely relate to.

    The battle scene from Barry Lyndon.

    This theme of the outsider striving for greatness runs through much of Kubrick’s work. In 1960, he spoke admiringly of “the outsider who is passionately committed to action against the social order,” whether criminals, maniacs, revolutionaries, or dreamers.

    From Johnny Clay in The Killing, to Colonel Dax in Paths of Glory, and from Spartacus to Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick’s protagonists are often men on the fringes of society. Barry Lyndon fits this mould perfectly, though his ambitions ultimately lead to his downfall.



    Read more:
    Stanley Kubrick redefined: recent research challenges myths to reveal the man behind the legend

    But Barry Lyndon is also, unexpectedly, one of Kubrick’s most emotional films. For all its detachment, it contains what might be his most heartbreaking scene, namely Barry’s devastation at the death of his son. In this moment, the film’s rigid, painterly compositions soften, revealing a rare vulnerability in Kubrick’s work.

    Ultimately, Barry Lyndon was more than a historical exercise. It was a deeply personal film, pursued at great financial and artistic risk. Kubrick created a film that is as much about social mobility and exile as it is about 18th-century Europe. If 2001 is a space odyssey, Barry Lyndon is a spatial odyssey, a film that turns the past into something mesmerising yet achingly real.

    Nathan Abrams receives and has previously received external funding, including government funding, foundation, charity and research council grants for this and similar work.

    – ref. Barry Lyndon at 50: why Kubrick’s most overlooked masterpiece deserves another viewing – https://theconversation.com/barry-lyndon-at-50-why-kubricks-most-overlooked-masterpiece-deserves-another-viewing-248484

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: William Wordsworth’s last home is up for sale – returning it to a private residence would be a loss for the UK’s cultural heritage

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amy Wilcockson, Research assistant, University of Glasgow

    Until recently, fans of William Wordsworth could visit his final home, Rydal Mount and Gardens, nestled in the heart of England’s green and beautiful Lake District. Renowned as one of the most prominent British poets, the works of Wordsworth (1770-1850) include what is widely regarded as the most famous poem in the English language, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

    So it’s not surprising that his immaculately maintained house and gardens, with breathtaking views of Lake Windermere and Rydal Water, once attracted 45,000 visitors a year.

    However, rising costs, a fall in visitor numbers to 20,000 or fewer per year, and the residual effects of the pandemic have placed the future of the museum in question.

    The current owners have put Rydal Mount on the market for the first time since 1969 for £2.5 million – meaning this important piece of literary heritage, depending on who buys it, could become closed to the public.

    The house was bought by Mary Henderson, Wordsworth’s great-great-granddaughter, in 1969 and opened as a writer’s house museum a year later.

    Rydal Mount was originally a small 16th-century cottage. By 1813, there was enough room for Wordsworth, his wife Mary and three surviving children, plus Wordsworth’s sister-in-law Sara and sister Dorothy – author of the Grasmere Journal, which detailed the household’s life.

    Leaving the cramped conditions of the more famous Dove Cottage behind them, it was at Rydal Mount that Wordsworth truly settled, building a “writing hut” and extensively landscaping the grounds to his own design.

    This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

    Next to Rydal Mount is Dora’s Field, which also has literary significance. Here, the poet is believed to have planted 1,847 daffodils to mark his daughter Dora’s memory, following her death from tuberculosis aged 42. These daffodils still bloom every spring.

    While living at Rydal Mount, Wordsworth revised his epic “The Prelude” and wrote many other popular poems. This too is the house where he died in 1850. It was only when Mary died in 1859 that the family’s tenancy of the house came to an end.

    Visitors get to step into the house where all this happened and see a wealth of rare objects, including a rare portrait of Dorothy and Wordsworth’s letter to Queen Victoria refusing the job of Poet Laureate (which he later accepted).

    Owning England’s heritage

    Visitors go to literary museums to experience the “spirit of the place”, to “encounter” the author and absorb some of their creativity. One recent visitor to Rydal Mount was so disappointed not to meet Wordsworth personally that they wrote a disparaging review, telling of their confusion that the poet “wasn’t in” and “when [they] asked when he would be home, all [they] got was blank stares.”

    Wordworth is so closely connected to the Lake District that marketing strategies have used him to promote the area since the 1800s. Rydal Mount has had an integral role in maintaining these traditions. The estate agent’s advert is keen to stress the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of England’s heritage” and the “superb gardens … designed by Wordsworth himself”.

    In selling the museum as it is, there is a real risk that Rydal Mount could become a private home lost to the public eye – much like Greta Hall, the home of Wordsworth’s fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which has long been privately owned.

    Prospective closure is not uncommon for smaller museums in 2025. A recent report noted that three in five small museums fear closure because of declining revenue and footfall. 2020 was the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth’s birth and should have been a bumper year of events and tourism for the Lake District. Instead, the pandemic ravaged the celebrations and left tourist attractions in financial peril that many have not recovered from.

    William Wordsworth lived at Rydal Mount for 37 years and died there.
    Wikimedia, CC BY

    Critics will argue that even if Rydal Mount does close, there are still three more Wordsworth homes open to visitors (Dove Cottage, the favourite of tourist guides, Wordsworth House and Garden, and Allan Bank). Even Wordsworth’s old school is a museum.

    The closure of Rydal Mount would inevitably boost these other sites’ visitor numbers – particularly Dove Cottage, which is on the same (albeit long) road as Rydal Mount. And the condition of Wordsworth’s last home could potentially be improved by a private owner with ample funds to upkeep the house.

    However, it is also true that public appreciation of museums remains high, with 89% of adults in a 2024 YouGov survey advocating for their importance to UK culture, and 54% registering disappointment if their local museum were to close.

    While the British Museum has experienced its highest visitor numbers since 2015, more needs to be done to save regional museums and writer’s house museums from closure. The sale of Rydal Mount into private hands may prove a severe loss to literary history, leaving the Lake District much the poorer for it.

    Amy Wilcockson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. William Wordsworth’s last home is up for sale – returning it to a private residence would be a loss for the UK’s cultural heritage – https://theconversation.com/william-wordsworths-last-home-is-up-for-sale-returning-it-to-a-private-residence-would-be-a-loss-for-the-uks-cultural-heritage-253561

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How controversial nutritionist John Harvey Kellogg pioneered the path to modern plant-based eating

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lauren Alex O’Hagan, Research Fellow, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, The Open University

    MVelishchuk/Shutterstock

    When you hear the name Kellogg, Corn Flakes might be the first thing that comes to mind. But John Harvey Kellogg is famous for more than just breakfast cereals.

    In many respects, this American doctor, nutritionist, inventor and entrepreneur was ahead of his time. Perhaps the first wellness influencer over a century before Gwyneth Paltrow got in on the act, he advocated startlingly similar treatments and practices.

    But Kellogg was also a divisive figure due to his strong support for eugenics and “racial hygiene”. Driven by concerns about what he termed “race degeneracy”, he founded the Race Betterment Foundation in 1914 – a stance that has since blighted his reputation.

    Kellogg believed that food was medicine. Undoubtedly the pioneer of today’s plant-based movement, he may have been impressed by the explosive growth of the global meat substitute market over the past decade.

    As more people seek ethical, sustainable and health-conscious lifestyles, the demand for plant-based products has skyrocketed. In response, major food corporations have re-branded or developed new offerings to meet this shift in consumer preferences.

    What was once a niche market is now mainstream, with 4,965 products launched worldwide between 2019 and 2021. Today, the global meat substitute market is valued at over US$13 billion (£10 billion), and projections suggest it could reach nearly US$88 billion by 2032.



    Read more:
    A fixation on ‘clean eating’ can be harmful – and perfectionists may be at greater risk of taking it too far

    Kellogg’s game-changing invention

    As director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, Kellogg redefined the connection between food, bodies and health. His philosophy of “biologic living” led him to experiment with a diverse range of health treatments. On the practical end, he championed fresh air, bathing and foods containing live bacteria. On the more eccentric side, he explored bizarre methods including yoghurt enemas, vibrating chairs and even genital mutilation.

    Inspired by the Progressive clean-living movement, Kellogg developed the Battle Creek diet system, which promoted vegetarianism as a way to counter the negative effects of meat on digestion and the nervous system.

    With his wife Ella, he set up an experimental kitchen to explore plant-based alternatives to meat. He was convinced that nuts and grains could provide healthier and more sustainable protein sources.

    In 1896, the US Department of Agriculture approached Kellogg with a request to create a plant-based food product that could serve as a safe, nutritious alternative to meat. Kellogg embraced the challenge and created several innovative products. These included Nuttose, made from ground-up nuts and cereal grains; Granose, a solid-wheat based biscuit; and Protose, a blend of wheat gluten, cereal and ground peanuts.

    Recognising their commercial potential, Kellogg launched the Sanitas Nut Food Company in 1899. By 1912, Sanitas was shipping over 65,000kg of its “vegetable meat” annually across the US. The Chicago Tribune boldly declared that Kellogg had solved “the meat problem”.

    The power of ‘shockvertising’

    Sanitas embarked on a major marketing campaign across popular US press outlets. Its advertisements relied on “shockvertising” to stir fear about meat consumption, often including disturbing images of animal suffering to drive home that message.

    One memorable advert, titled “Why Slay to Eat”, showed a chained, bleeding cow kneeling before a man wielding a mallet. Another took aim at readers, calling them “Pigarians” and claiming that eating pork made a man “piggified” with a “hoggish expression”. Others warned that unsanitary slaughterhouses and food contamination made meat toxic and caused diseases like tapeworm and trichinosis.


    The Vegetarian magazine vol.4 no.11, August 1900. Courtesy of HathiTrust

    Adverts also relied on testimonials from famous sports stars and leading medical figures, praising the health benefits of meat substitutes which were presented as a panacea that could make people fitter, stronger and more youthful. Calls to “return to nature” and eat like our ancestors were also frequent – what food scholars today refer to as “nutritional primitivism”.

    To reassure anxious consumers, the adverts emphasised the products’ similarity in taste and appearance to meat. They also suggested that meat substitutes could make housewives’ lives easier, as they required little preparation and could be served in a variety of ways.

    Meat substitutes today

    Today, many meat substitute products are made by large food corporations that also sell meat. Because of this, marketing has evolved, with meat substitutes often positioned as part of a wider range of dietary choices, rather than simply replacements for meat.

    As a result, the bold, critical ads of the past that attacked meat consumption have become less common. Instead, today’s adverts often focus on environmental concerns and the ethics of eating meat, linking bodily health with the health of the planet.



    Read more:
    Lab–grown and plant–based meat: the science, psychology and future of meat alternatives – podcast

    However, many still highlight how meat substitutes look and taste like real meat. This can unintentionally reinforce the idea that “good” nutrition is based on meat, and diminish the value of meat substitutes in their own right.

    I believe today’s adverts could do more to educate people about the nutritional benefits and variety of meat-free foods, while also raising awareness about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. This shift could help meat substitutes stand on their own as viable food choices, moving them beyond the trend cycle and into mainstream diets.

    Lauren Alex O’Hagan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How controversial nutritionist John Harvey Kellogg pioneered the path to modern plant-based eating – https://theconversation.com/how-controversial-nutritionist-john-harvey-kellogg-pioneered-the-path-to-modern-plant-based-eating-252960

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is the risk of brain injury from contact sports being overstated by the media?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christian Yates, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Biology, University of Bath

    PeopleImages/Shutterstock

    More and more people are worried about the long-term effects of contact sports on the brain. In football (soccer), studies have found that repeatedly heading the ball can lead to memory problems and an increased risk of serious brain diseases. This has led to rules limiting heading the ball in youth leagues and calls to protect professional players in similar ways.

    In American football, research shows a high number of former players have a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This has prompted the National Football League (NFL) to change some rules and introduce better safety equipment.

    Rugby, a sport known for its hard collisions, is also becoming more aware of head injuries. As a result, new rules require players to rest after a concussion – and there are stricter rules about preventing head contact during games.

    Some older players are taking legal action because of the brain injuries they suffered. Lawyers are representing over 500 former players from both rugby union and rugby league, claiming that repetitive head impacts during their careers caused long-lasting brain damage.

    The lawyers argue that the sports’ governing bodies failed to protect these former players from the effects of blows to the head.

    A recent BBC article said that “almost two-thirds of the claimants in a concussion lawsuit against rugby league authorities” had symptoms of CTE. Two-thirds is a lot, but is it really that surprising?

    It’s important to remember that the players in this lawsuit are a self-selecting sample. These people have been chosen for inclusion in the class action lawsuit precisely because they have evidence of brain damage. We should expect a high prevalence of conditions like CTE in this sample. So we must be careful not to infer something about all rugby players that is not supported by the data.

    However, perhaps the BBC article is not so troubling, since the condition for selection – that the players were part of the lawsuit – is clearly stated. More problematic are articles in which the conditions for the selection of the studied sample are not so clearly laid out.

    Another BBC article, published in 2023, summarised the results of studies investigating the prevalence of CTE in the brains of deceased rugby players. It reported that “68% of the brains had traces of the brain condition CTE”. This might suggest to readers that CTE is very common among all rugby players.

    In American football, the problem appears to be even more prevalent. In 2017, the BBC ran an article with the headline: Brain disease affects 99% of NFL players in study. The piece led with the sentence: “A study of American football players’ brains has found that 99% of professional NFL athletes tested had a disease associated with head injuries.”

    This sounds extremely alarming and might lead readers to surmise that nearly all professional NFL players will develop CTE. The study also surveyed the brains of college and high-school students, concluding: “Of the 202 total players, 87% were found to have traces of CTE,” giving the impression that most American football players at all levels might expect to develop CTE.

    Selection bias

    CTE research is difficult because the disease can only be diagnosed by examining samples of a patient’s brain tissue after their death. Consequently, for the NFL study, researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine, who conducted the research, drew their sample from the VA Boston Healthcare System’s “brain bank”.

    The bank, established to better understand the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma, holds hundreds of donated brains potentially damaged through sporting or military activities.

    And herein lies the problem. Many of the brains held in the bank were donated by families who suspected that their loved ones had CTE. The study hugely overrepresented players who were likely to have CTE in comparison to the general American football-playing population.

    To their credit, the scientists who conducted this research were at pains to point out their sample was not representative and should not be used to draw population-level conclusions.

    In particular, the conclusion that many sports fans reading the headlines will have come to – that a huge proportion of American football players will suffer from CTE – is not supported by the study. Somehow, that message got lost between the research article and the media’s reporting of it.

    The eye-catching statistics about the prevalence of CTE in rugby players, derived from a study at the University of Glasgow, are the result of a similar misrepresentation of the underlying research. In this case, the brains that were analysed came from three brain banks (from Scotland, the US and Australia).

    All of these repositories take donations of brains from people who were more likely to have suffered from neurological conditions, and so are unlikely to be representative of the underlying population of ruby players.

    The weight of evidence linking repetitive blows to the head to brain harm (particularly to CTE) is growing stronger. Studies comparing footballers to the general population show the increase in neurological conditions among football players is probably not a statistical fluke.

    However, if we seek to truly understand the risks of undertaking these contact sports, loved by billions, then we need to look beyond the startling headlines. Selection bias, caused by a disparity in the reasons why brains are donated for study, means it’s not enough just to sample from the brains we have available in order to establish an estimate of the prevalence of such diseases.

    Instead, we need to understand who is missing from the studied population, and use that information to infer how a potentially biased sample might cause the statistics we read in the headlines to be unrepresentative.

    Christian Yates does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Is the risk of brain injury from contact sports being overstated by the media? – https://theconversation.com/is-the-risk-of-brain-injury-from-contact-sports-being-overstated-by-the-media-253378

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Activists living in exile could strengthen Canada’s democracy — if given the right support

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Philip Leech-Ngo, Visiting Professor, Ethics and International Development, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

    Mounting threats to Canadian sovereignty, particularly — but not exclusively — from United States President Donald Trump, have sparked renewed calls for national resilience.

    Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico and inflammatory rhetoric have fuelled a wave of patriotism and nationalism.

    However, true independence goes beyond economic concerns. It’s about cultivating, committing to and preserving democratic values, including the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, and ways of governance that ensure every person is valued, represented and belongs.

    Historically, Canada has provided refuge to those who have risked everything to oppose authoritarian regimes, including activists living in exile.

    Activists-in-exile are individuals who have been forced to flee their countries due to their work defending human rights, advocating for democratic governance, rooting out corruption, peacebuilding, demanding environmental protection and practising independent journalism, among other endeavours.

    These individuals bring with them not only their personal stories and attitudes of resilience, but also their expertise in governance, human rights and social justice. As Canada faces growing challenges and uncertainty, they represent a tremendous potential asset to help Canada defend democracy and promote sustainable peace and development.

    A vital force for democracy

    Despite their displacement, activists-in-exile continue to play a crucial role in global democratic movements. Unlike traditional diaspora groups focused on cultural preservation, activists-in-exile engage in direct political advocacy and often work to expose foreign interference, counter disinformation and support democratic movements from afar.

    Our initiative, Voices in Exile, researches activists-in-exile and amplifies their contributions and advocates for policies that recognize their particular roles in defending democracy and social justice. Their efforts combat corruption, foster peace and protect human rights and well-being.

    An introduction to the Voices in Exile project.

    These individuals have championed women’s rights, campaigned against genocide and fought for free expression and accountable governance. Many continue their advocacy in exile, shaping public discourse and influencing policies both in Canada and abroad.

    By welcoming these activists, Canada could strengthen its own institutions — domestically and abroad — and make them more resistant to the forces that undermine democracy, justice and freedom worldwide. Their work is critical in resisting authoritarianism and countering both digital and physical foreign interference.

    Overlooking activists-in-exile

    Despite their potential, activists-in-exile are often overlooked or met with skepticism in Canada.

    Some Canadian politicians, like federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, have framed their views of patriotism as a matter of national security and economic self-sufficiency, warning against foreign influences. Poilievre recently said immigrants should “leave the war behind” when coming to Canada, implying their past struggles should be forgotten upon arrival.

    This is certainly easier said than done, especially in an age where technology can keep people instantly connected across borders. It’s unrealistic and unfair to expect newcomers simply to forget who supported them in their hour of need or the communities that continue to suffer in their absence. They are also unlikely to surrender ongoing interests or their basic values.

    Through our work with Voices in Exile, we have learned that many newcomers involuntarily leave behind family, livelihoods and status, only to face significant hurdles re-establishing themselves in Canada. While some activists-in-exile persist and continue to be impactful, they often do so under unnecessary constraints that limit their full potential.

    If legitimate concerns about professional qualifications and social stability exist, they can be addressed through tailored support systems. While Canada provides resettlement for a limited number of human rights defenders, there is no program to engage with them once they arrive. This needs to change.

    At the same time, activists-in-exile should not be treated solely as victims or as potential risks, particularly in light of growing transnational repression. Instead, their specialized knowledge and skills should be recognized as a force to strengthen democracy both in Canada and their countries of origin.

    A strategic investment

    Recognizing and supporting activists-in-exile would be a strategic investment for Canada, not an act of charity. Many have become educators, researchers and policymakers, shaping debates on governance and security.

    Others have founded organizations, launched media platforms and built networks that support democracy movements globally. As our project Voices in Exile shows, many activists-in-exile also contribute to Canada’s economy, and work in law, social and psycho-social services, and the media landscape.

    Beyond being a matter of principle, welcoming activists-in-exile is a move that would strengthen Canada’s leadership in the global fight for democracy. Their integration into Canadian society aligns with Canada’s longstanding role in promoting democratic ideals on the world stage.

    Yet, despite their vast potential, there is no tailored public policy or dedicated institution to harness this human capital in a way that aligns with Canada’s democratic commitments. The existing guidelines for supporting human rights defenders are insufficient for supporting activists-in-exile.

    Canada should support exiled activists by facilitating collaboration among these individuals and Canadian public, academic, community, government and civil society organizations. In addition, Canada should establish a legal framework that allows activists-in-exile to contribute to the development of foreign policy. A dedicated fund should also be created that offers financial support for their activist efforts.

    As global authoritarianism continues to rise, the question is not whether we should acknowledge activists-in-exile — it is whether we have the wisdom to lead by example and invest in recognizing and supporting them.

    Philip Leech-Ngo receives funding from Open Societies Foundation

    Frederick John Packer has received funding from SSHRC and OSF.

    Nadia Abu-Zahra has received funding from SSHRC and OSF.

    – ref. Activists living in exile could strengthen Canada’s democracy — if given the right support – https://theconversation.com/activists-living-in-exile-could-strengthen-canadas-democracy-if-given-the-right-support-251440

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Dogs see their world through smell – and scientists are starting to translate it like never before

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jacqueline Boyd, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University

    Lorenzooooo/Shutterstock

    Scent is how dogs largely experience the world, a lot like the way we humans rely on sight. We know little about how dogs interpret scent, but thanks to a recent study, we may be getting closer to understanding what a dog’s nose actually knows.

    Dogs are primed to detect smells. The average dog’s nose has more than 10 million scent receptors in their nose, compared to humans, who only have about 6 million.

    This makes the canine nose more than 10, 000 times better at detecting scents than we are. They can detect minute quantities of scent. For example, forensic detection dogs can detect 0.01 microlitres of gasolene. A microlitre is one millionth of a litre.

    Humans have exploited dogs’ olfactory superpowers in a number of ways, which has no doubt contributed to the deep relationship we have developed with our canine companions over 40,000 years living together.

    Dogs still join us as hunting partners, sniffing out food. They work beside us as vital members of crime-fighting teams, finding illicit substances, as medical colleagues for disease detection, and as partners in conservation efforts, finding rare and endangered species.

    Despite the widespread involvement of dogs as natural scent detectors, we remain largely oblivious as to how dogs interpret what they smell and how they perceive the world in which they live.

    We don’t know much about dogs’ experience of smell – but we know they’re good at it.
    Sundays Photography/Shutterstock

    Exploring the brain activity of dogs when they are exposed to specific smells can help identify which of their brain regions are associated with scent detection. This helps scientists understand what the dog is experiencing, which might help us enhance the selection and training of sniffer dogs.

    Until now, scientists needed expensive equipment to study dogs’ brains and research methods that required dogs to stay still. This means we know less about the brains of active working dogs who might struggle to remain motionless for long periods.

    But we can’t simply apply the data from dogs who can cope with sitting still since dog breeds have differences in their training and scenting skills.

    Sensing scents

    The recent study I mentioned at the beginning of this article uses a new, cheap and non-invasive method to explore how the canine brain responds to scent. The researchers think that this method – known as AI speckle pattern analysis – will help us identify how dog brains react to scents and what it means for how dogs perceive and respond to the world around them in future research too.

    The researchers developed an optical sensor to target three brain areas involved in canine scent discrimination: the amygdala, olfactory bulb and hippocampus. The amygdala is responsible for emotional responses to stimuli.

    The olfactory bulb is involved with odour processing and the hippocampus is associated with memory formation.

    The equipment used in the study consisted of a high resolution digital camera linked to a computer, plus a green laser. Laser light, capable of penetrating dog fur and skull bone, was shone on the heads of four relaxed, blindfolded study dogs who were exposed to four different scents: alcohol, marijuana, menthol and garlic. These substances all appear to evoke similar olfactory responses in dogs.

    As laser light was reflected from the three brain areas, the camera detected interference as a distinct “speckle” pattern. The camera made recordings for five seconds, repeated four times for each scent.

    AI analysed differences in the speckle patterns from the different brain regions to create models of how the brain regions of the dogs responded to each scent.

    It’s not just sniffing

    The study results highlighted the importance of the amygdala for canine scent discrimination. This suggests that there could be an emotional component to how dogs sense their environment. Taste and odour detection are also known to be linked to memory formation and emotional state in humans.

    Because dogs appear to experience emotional responses to scents, training methods and experiences might need to take this into consideration. For example, dogs often link the characteristic aroma of the veterinary surgery with less-than-fun situations.

    Dogs in training for scent detection would also probably benefit from being in a positive emotional state when they are exposed to training odours.

    This research could even pave the way to developing specialised equipment for detecting and translating the olfactory responses of dogs. Mobile equipment that works rapidly could allow us to interpret what dogs’ noses are telling them in real time.

    This isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. If you’ve seen the Disney movie Up, you probably remember Dug the dog who wore a bark translation collar. Well, scientists have developed a real collar that claims to tell you what your dog’s vocalisations mean.

    It’s difficult to say how accurate it is without analysing the data the collar’s AI was trained on, but the database is growing as more dogs use the collars. If the collars do prove accurate, it might not be too long before wearable technology can tell us exactly what our dogs are saying and smelling.

    Jacqueline Boyd is affiliated with The Kennel Club (UK) through membership and as advisor to the Health Advisory Group. Jacqueline is a full member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT #01583) and she also writes, consults and coaches on canine matters on an independent basis, in addition to her academic affiliation at Nottingham Trent University.

    – ref. Dogs see their world through smell – and scientists are starting to translate it like never before – https://theconversation.com/dogs-see-their-world-through-smell-and-scientists-are-starting-to-translate-it-like-never-before-252659

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: East Asia is challenging Silicon Valley – by being like Silicon Valley used to be

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Vice Dean, Global Engagement | Associate Professor in Political Economy and Entrepreneurship, King’s College London

    East Asia’s tech scene is enjoying considerable success. imtmphoto / Shutterstock

    Silicon Valley has been a universal symbol of innovation for decades. Because of its reputation, governments around the world have tried to foster their own versions by investing heavily in tech hubs.

    These efforts, which include Silicon Beach in Los Angeles, Silicon Island in Malaysia and Silicon Roundabout in the UK, have not always worked. But some places, particularly parts of east Asia, have seen their own Silicon Valleys flourish.

    China has the world’s second-largest venture capital market, scores of startups, and cutting-edge tech to challenge Silicon Valley. Japan and Korea have also become some of the most active corporate venture capital investors in the world.

    At the same time, these challenger ecosystems possess some of the attributes of Silicon Valley in its heyday. More, in some ways, than Silicon Valley itself does these days.

    The scale of Silicon Valley remains unparalleled, at least for now. In 2024, the region’s market capitalisation (the value of companies’ publicly traded shares) had reached US$14.3 trillion (£11 trillion). This is comparable to the entire GDP of China, the world’s second-largest economy.

    But Silicon Valley is no longer a counter-cultural world of startups in garages, where small, disruptive organisations build world-changing products on a shoestring. It has morphed into a land of Goliaths, not Davids.

    Cups of instant noodles have, for many, been replaced by açaí bowls, and office all-nighters with wellbeing workshops and digital detox retreats. Stalwart investors, such as Sequoia’s Mike Moritz, have complained that Silicon Valley tech workers have become “lazy and entitled”.

    Silicon Valley is a region in northern California that is a global centre for technology and innovation.
    Peter Hermes Furian / Shutterstock

    Meanwhile, the work ethic and laser focus of tech workers elsewhere has advanced. About ten years ago, Chinese tech’s working hours were described as “996” – working from 9am to 9pm six days a week. They are now referred to as “007”, a schedule where employees work from midnight to midnight, seven days a week.

    ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal’

    The history of Silicon Valley is one of hungry challengers disrobing the big, boring incumbents. Apple raised equity investment from Xerox, then a leading print production corporation, and used the access to Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center to take inspiration from the company’s plans for a computer that had a graphical user interface. Apple later refined the software for the Macintosh, giving it its edge.

    In 1996, Jobs famously said: “Picasso had a saying – ‘Good artists copy; great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”

    Today, the Goliaths leading Silicon Valley have huge intellectual property portfolios to defend. And they are outraged when their tech is taken. OpenAI, the American company that made ChatGPT, has even asked the US government to declare Chinese AI firm DeepSeek “state controlled” and to outlaw its use in the US. Huawei and Bytedance’s TikTok have faced similar calls in the past.

    In western media, much of the focus on the moment DeepSeek disrupted the AI landscape has been about how it rattled Silicon Valley. But there has been less coverage on how it has instigated instant rivals within China.

    Days after Deepseek’s release, Chinese tech company Alibaba announced that its AI model was superior. And China recently launched Manus, a fully autonomous AI agent that fully replaces rather than assists humans.

    China’s answer to Silicon Valley is what Taiwanese businessman, Kai-fu Lee, calls “gladiatorial entrepreneurship”. This is where founders constantly innovate because as soon as their product is released, they know it will be copied and reverse engineered. The system as a whole benefits from the intense competition, the way Silicon Valley did in its ascent.

    The students have become the teacher

    Silicon Valley used to be known for its counter culture and its outsized vision of how tech can transform the globe. This is epitomised by Masayoshi Son, a former student of Silicon Valley from east Asia who is the founder and CEO of Japanese firm SoftBank.

    He first came to Silicon Valley in the early 1980s and quickly integrated into the Silicon Valley way of business. Son launched his own startup when he returned to Japan, modelled on what he experienced in the few years he lived in California. With this, Softbank was born as a software distributor.

    SoftBank’s Vision Fund is now the largest venture capital fund in the world, with over US$100 billion (£77.5 billion) in capital. Son’s giant fund and impatient style of investing have contributed to change in Silicon Valley. Ballooning valuations and the use of exploding term sheets (investment offers that expire within a matter of days) are increasingly the norm.

    Son is stylised as a classic outsider. Gambling Man, a recently published book from the former editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, details how Son is not “really Japanese” (he’s ethnically Korean) and has long touted this challenger narrative.

    Now as one of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, he is pushy, confrontational and has a huge vision for how technologies such as AI can change the world. He is the purveyor of that grand vision and an advocate for the risk-taking that is synonymous with “classic” Silicon Valley.

    Meanwhile, China’s AI gladiators innovate constantly in their bid to overtake the once hungry American behemoths who are now forced to call on the state to help shore-up their position. The contrasting trajectories raise questions about who should now become more like whom if they are to win the global technology race.

    Robyn Klingler-Vidra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. East Asia is challenging Silicon Valley – by being like Silicon Valley used to be – https://theconversation.com/east-asia-is-challenging-silicon-valley-by-being-like-silicon-valley-used-to-be-251854

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Salafi Muslims are going into politics instead of trying to change the world through religious education or jihadi violence

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Guy Robert Patrick Eyre, Research Fellow, Alwaleed Centre, University of Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh

    Pseudonyms are used in this article to protect the anonymity of the research participants.

    I met Sheikh Ahmed at a small mosque in central Morocco in October 2016. He told me: “We used to believe that Islam forbids all modern politics. We believed that politics was a western practice that divides Muslims and distracts them from worship.”

    Ahmed is a proponent of Salafism, a form of Islamic “fundamentalism” and one of the most influential religious movements of the past 40 years. He continued: “But from 2011, we began to understand that Islam in fact requires us to enter politics.”

    Salafi attacks perpetrated by al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State (IS) have led to enormous interest in Islamic fundamentalism among western analysts, policymakers and journalists. This commentary has tended to understand Salafism to be a broadly static global ideology, inherently opposed to modern politics and largely detached from what is happening in the neighbourhoods in which its followers live and worship.

    During eight years of in-depth research on Salafi groups in north Africa, I found something significant. In response to the “Arab Uprising” protests that shook north Africa and the wider Arab world between 2010 and 2012, many north African Salafis – including Ahmed – began to rethink their ideological convictions. Many decided their goal of changing the world required neither “apolitical” religious education nor violence. Instead, many began to participate in parliamentary politics.

    Also known as “Wahhabism”, Salafism emerged in Islamic institutions and universities in Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab Gulf by the 1960s. Despite being widely regarded as a Saudi Arabia-centred ideology, Salafism has since been adopted – and, importantly, adapted – by a large number of pious Muslims in north Africa, the wider Muslim world, and the west.

    Salafis share a religious doctrine that calls on Muslims to revive an “authentic” approach to Islam centred on strict monotheism. Salafis have traditionally argued, therefore, that Muslims should reject modern politics. Instead, they must dedicate themselves to applying the beliefs and practices of the first generations of Muslims in all aspects of their lives.

    Nevertheless, Salafis have long disagreed over how exactly to apply this doctrine to society and politics. Should they focus on religious education and preaching in an effort to form an “authentic” Muslim community? Or should they criticise their political rulers or revolt?

    Jihadi Salafis respond to this dilemma by supporting the use of revolutionary violence. They see it as a means of fighting westernisation and unseating “un-Islamic” rulers. By contrast, mainstream “quietist” Salafis reject both politics and violence as “immoral” practices. Instead, they seek to change the world through religious preaching and by offering strict loyalty to political rulers as a matter of faith.

    From the late 1970s until the late 2000s, Salafism gradually spread from the Arab Gulf into North Africa. This took place as Moroccan, Tunisian, Libyan and Egyptian students returned to their countries of origin after studying in Saudi Arabia and the broader Arab Gulf. Back home, many established quietist Salafi movements.

    To different extents, North African regimes thought their “apolitical” beliefs and loyalty to governments made them useful allies. Consequently, quietist Salafis were generally allowed to expand their religious activities. By the late 1990s, they had gained significant local followings.

    In tandem, North African jihadi Salafis returned from the insurgency in Afghanistan (1978-92) and also built followings in their home countries. Jihadi Salafi militants led violent attacks against both local and western targets in north Africa. Consequently, they were harshly repressed by security forces.

    After the Arab Spring: choosing politics

    The Salafi rejection of politics was dramatically upended by the Arab Uprising protests between late 2010 and 2012. Dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt were swiftly deposed. While the Moroccan monarchy was not overthrown, to appease the demonstrators it relinquished some control over the political system and introduced limited reforms.

    Determined to take advantage of these new political openings, many quietist and former jihadi Salafis across North Africa suddenly turned political. They established political parties, ran for political office, and forged new political alliances. Perhaps most spectacularly, a new Salafi party in Egypt captured a quarter of the vote in the 2011-12 parliamentary elections.

    In neighbouring Libya, mounting political instability following the downfall of its former president, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011 saw quietist and former jihadi Salafis win positions within local ministries and establish informal police forces. Quietist and former jihadi Salafis in Morocco and Tunisia also joined, formed alliances with, and established political parties.

    This rapid politicisation of North African Salafism challenges long-held assumptions about Islamic fundamentalism. Salafis are not inherently apolitical, and their approach to politics and violence is not set in stone by a global, Saudi Arabia-influenced religious doctrine.

    Rather, they are pragmatic and flexible. The large political openings in North Africa brought about by the Arab Uprisings pushed them to rethink their core religious beliefs as they sought to expand their influence.

    As such, rather than being an idiosyncratic and uniquely dogmatic movement, Salafis are much like other ideological religious movements. They are savvy political players who can adjust their strategies and “universalist” worldviews according to the current situation, wherever they live.

    Dr. Guy Robert Eyre receives funding for his research on North African Salafism from the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

    – ref. Salafi Muslims are going into politics instead of trying to change the world through religious education or jihadi violence – https://theconversation.com/salafi-muslims-are-going-into-politics-instead-of-trying-to-change-the-world-through-religious-education-or-jihadi-violence-247259

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: When farmers and scientists collaborate, biodiversity and agriculture can thrive – here’s how

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Charles Masquelier, Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Exeter

    The Burren mountains, Ireland. Pusteflower9024/Shutterstock

    The Burren region of County Clare, Ireland, is famous for its distinctive limestone habitat, coastal landscape, rich wildlife and unusual archaeology. Several hundred farmers also manage livestock on this land.

    As social scientists, we’ve been investigating how farmers engage with environmental management and biodiversity renewal in England and Scotland because there is an ongoing nature crisis, with accelerating species extinctions, loss of habitat and harmful pollution.

    Our findings show that giving farmers greater opportunities to draw on their knowledge and experiences encourages better environmental results than conventional farming incentives.

    Many environmental campaigners, including author and Guardian columnist George Monbiot, don’t see farming as a way to help solve the biodiversity crisis.

    But one EU-funded initiative, the BurrenLife project, has revolutionised how farmers and scientists collaborate by tackling reluctance or wariness and shifting mindsets through the practice of “conservation farming”. This developed into an “agri-environment” (nature-friendly farming) initiative called the Burren Life programme which incentivises farmers in Ireland to prioritise nature by boosting endangered bird populations or restoring specific habitats.

    Most (70%) of UK land is used for agriculture. Therefore success in tackling the biodiversity crisis depends on the active involvement of farmers.

    From the 1980s successive UK governments have paid farmers to restore nature and mitigate the effects of climate change in the form of voluntary agri-environment schemes. These schemes, such as Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive, provide financial incentives for farmers to help restore biodiversity by, for example, planting flower-rich hay meadows.

    But despite the billions of pounds invested and significant uptake by farmers, biodiversity continues to decline and more work needs to be done to improve farmers’ participation.

    Research suggests that the lack of effectiveness of those schemes is influenced by their limited capacity to inspire long-term changes in farming practices.

    The clash between local knowledge and scientific expertise concerns us. Existing agri-environment schemes are prescriptive with limited options for farmers. This, combined with polarisation between farmers and conservationists about rewilding for example, means that local knowledge of farmers tends to be excluded from environmental decisions.

    While conservation scientists hold essential knowledge for tackling the biodiversity crisis, farmers know their land best. Often this knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. Historically, however, agri-environmental management in the UK has operated on the basis of prescriptions informed by scientific expertise that don’t consider the land characteristics or specific context of particular farms.

    Wildflower strips along the edges of field provide valuable habitat for pollinators such as bees.
    yanikap/Shutterstock

    By joining an agri-environment scheme, farmers are expected to take actions such as planting crops that can manage soil erosion and improve soil health, or managing hedgerows, which can act as wildlife highways. While farmers can choose which actions to take, such payment-by-action schemes don’t offer much scope to adapt environmental solutions to their knowledge of the land.

    Crucially, the lack of consistent monitoring provides farmers with few opportunities to report back on the success or failure of actions they have taken to recover nature. According to our research, farmers often feel their valuable on-the-ground knowledge is being ignored.

    Unusually, the Burren Life programme relies on environmental targets that are co-designed by scientists and farmers. The co-design process involves farmer and adviser jointly walking the farm. Farmers explain what they’d willingly do to improve the condition of the land. The adviser then maps the activities they think will bring environmental benefits and devises an environmental plan accordingly.

    Every year, farmers are given the opportunity to decide what they’d like to do. The presence of a local office of advisers means that support for management decisions is always available and feedback aimed at improving their environmental plan is consistently encouraged. Farmers are also involved in the monitoring of other farmers’ actions.

    Secrets of success

    Our research undertaken as part of the Renew project, which aims to develop solutions for biodiversity renewal in the UK, shows a strong appetite in the English uplands for the kind of flexible, farmer-centred, results-based approach promoted by the Burren Life programme.

    The Burren Life programme was highly successful in many respects. It delivered major improvements in habitat quality and fostered long-term behaviour change among participating farmers.

    It incentivised farmers to take ownership of their actions for nature conservation and restoration. They were encouraged to share their local knowledge through farm visits, annual programme reviews, feedback opportunities and monitoring exercises. That local knowledge could then be considered alongside scientific expertise by people making management decisions. The Burren Life programme effectively reconciled the farming perspective with the scientific one, in the form of conservation farming.

    It has delivered impressive value for money. The total amount spent on the Burren Life programme totalled €12.3 million (£10.3 million). Over ten years, this has resulted in habitat and landscape improvements worth €32.8 million.

    Despite its success, several Burren farmers still regard environmental programmes as antithetical to farming so co-creation is a key step in inspiring people to get involved in projects like these. And replicating conservation farming beyond the Burren will require a tailored approach that considers the environmental and cultural characteristics of each countryside community.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Charles Masquelier receives funding from the government-funded body know as UKRI. This funding is for the RENEW project, which adopts a ‘people-in-nature’ approach to biodiversity renewal across the UK.

    Carolyn Petersen receives UKRI funding as part of the RENEW project, which adopts a ‘people-in-nature’ approach to biodiversity renewal across the UK. She is also involved in a Defra-funded evaluation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies in England.

    Matt Lobley receives UKRI funding as part of the RENEW project and us involved in evaluations of Defra Environmental Land Management schemes

    – ref. When farmers and scientists collaborate, biodiversity and agriculture can thrive – here’s how – https://theconversation.com/when-farmers-and-scientists-collaborate-biodiversity-and-agriculture-can-thrive-heres-how-250333

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Urban cemeteries are at capacity – here’s how they can be more sustainable

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniela Pianezzi, Associate Professor in Work and Organization Studies, University of Verona

    Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock

    Approximately 170,000 people die every day around the world – that’s around 62 million deaths in 2024 alone. The cumulative effect of this has led to what has been termed a “burial crisis”, with most urban areas where burial remains the norm expected to run out of interment space by the 2050s, some much earlier – as in, now.

    Major cities, including London and Sydney anticipate severe space shortages within the next decade. Smaller community cemeteries, such as Nuneaton cemetery in Warwickshire have already reached full capacity and begun directing families elsewhere. Finding culturally acceptable yet ethically responsible, accessible and sustainable ways of laying to rest, mourning and honouring our loved ones has become an urgent global issue.

    However, the cemetery sector has only recently begun to seriously consider the environmental consequences of how we handle our bodies after death. The sense of urgency coincides with a significant cultural shift, as cremation increasingly replaces traditional burial methods. This is due to societal secularisation, shifts in religious doctrines (including Catholicism lifting past bans) and its affordability compared to burial.

    In the UK, the percentage of cremations has risen from 9% of total burials in 1946 to 80.64% in 2023.

    Yet, cremation is far from a sustainable alternative to burial. It releases substantial amounts of pollutants, notably carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, so regulation is necessary. Technologically advanced techniques, such as water cremation – a process that uses an alkali-water-based solution to reduce a body to bones – have only recently begun to emerge as possible alternatives and remain niche.

    For several years, we have been studying cemeteries in Italy and the UK. Despite the deeply different burial traditions in these two countries (unlike the UK, Italy remains a burial culture) both face the same environmental challenges.

    A tale of two cemeteries

    A few sites do offer environmentally conscious alternatives to traditional burial. One is in Liguria, a densely populated region in northwestern Italy that has suffered significant losses due to climate change, particularly from soil erosion caused by decades of reckless coastal construction.

    Here, a group of environmentally conscious volunteers transformed a woodland called Boschi Vivi (the name means living woods) into a cemetery, creating Italy’s first forest cemetery. Though it involves cremation, this initiative is particularly groundbreaking in a country where cemeteries have historically been conceived as monumental or architectural structures.

    Often, they are heavily reliant on marble, a traditional hallmark of Italian craftsmanship, significantly reducing green spaces in urban areas. The mining of marble also creates huge greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity.

    In contrast, the cimitero bosco (forest cemetery) of Boschi Vivi follows a different philosophy. Instead of traditional tombstones, only a small plaque is placed near each tree where ashes have been scattered, marking the final resting place of the deceased.

    A tree tomb in the woodland of Boschi Vivi, Liguria, Italy.
    Daniela Pianezzi, CC BY-NC-ND

    Currently, this remains a grassroots initiative that’s starting to emerge in the US and Canada too. Hopefully, more Italian public administrations will adopt this model as traditional cemeteries become increasingly financially and environmentally unsustainable.

    For three decades, Oakfield burial ground in Wrabness, Essex, UK has adopted a similar approach. Oakfield wood is a seven-acre natural woodland burial site along the banks of the river Stour in north Essex, managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. Instead of headstones or conventional memorials, a native broadleaf tree is planted for each burial, accompanied by a simple wooden plaque at its base. The site forms part of a larger nature reserve, fostering a rich habitat for wildlife.

    Unlike municipal cemeteries or other burial sites, which are often subject to redevelopment or reuse, Oakfield enjoys long-term protection under the Essex Wildlife Trust. This means that burials here are conducted in perpetuity, ensuring that the site remains undisturbed. The trust plans to manage Oakfield solely as a nature reserve once it reaches full capacity, although this will not be for many decades to come.

    Despite these promising initiatives, sites such as Boschi Vivi and Oakwood risk remaining isolated cases unless a radical rethinking of burial takes place. Whether cemeteries are perceived as eerie, macabre spaces (like in Shakespeare’s Hamlet) or as places of peace and reconciliation, as in the final scene of Forrest Gump, they are still dominated by the idea that graves should be organised as a series of permanent markers of individual lives.

    Our research shows that it’s only by considering human beings as part of nature that the growing burial crisis might be averted. That fundamentally involves moving from a human-centred or “ego-logical” ethos to an ecological one.

    The most viable response to the environmental challenges facing not just Nuneaton cemetery, but burial sites across the world, might be simply a new awareness. One that recognises both life and death as integral parts of nature. So, remembrance is not preserved through permanence, but rather through a return to the natural cycle of life.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Urban cemeteries are at capacity – here’s how they can be more sustainable – https://theconversation.com/urban-cemeteries-are-at-capacity-heres-how-they-can-be-more-sustainable-252711

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why a presidential term limit got written into the Constitution – the story of the 22nd Amendment

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mark Satta, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Law, Wayne State University

    No president other than Franklin D. Roosevelt has held office for more than two terms. Walter Leporati/Getty Images

    Only one person, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has ever served more than two terms as president of the United States. This is for two reasons.

    First, prior to Roosevelt’s election to a third term in 1940 there was a longstanding American tradition that presidents not serve more than two terms.

    This tradition was established by the decisions of early presidents such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison not to seek a third term. This tradition was later adopted by other presidents.

    Second, after Roosevelt died in office in 1945 during his fourth term, Congress and the people of the United States decided to turn the long-standing tradition that presidents should not serve more than two terms into a part of constitutional law.

    This was done through the passage and ratification of the 22nd Amendment, which became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1951.

    Only after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt, who died in 1945 in his fourth term and whose casket is seen here, did the U.S. codify the two-term limit on presidents.
    AP photo

    Intent is clear

    The key provision of the 22nd Amendment reads as follows: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”

    The intent is clear. No one is supposed to serve more than two full terms as president.

    The only way someone can serve more than two terms is if they served less than two years in a previous term in which they weren’t elected president.

    Here’s an example: If a vice president becomes president during the final year of a term because the president died, that vice president could still run for two terms. But that exception is still meant to bar anyone from serving more than a total of 10 years as president.

    It is worth understanding why the two-term tradition was considered so important that it was turned into constitutional law the first time it was violated.

    Starting the tradition

    Commentators often cite George Washington’s decision not to seek a third term as president as establishing the two-term tradition. Political scientist and term limit scholar Michael Korzi gives a lot more credit to the nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson.

    Jefferson was outspoken in favor of the two-term tradition. As Korzi notes, this was, in part, because “Jefferson saw little distinction between a long-serving executive in an elective position and a hereditary monarch.” In other words, a president without term limits is too much like a king.

    John Trumbull’s portrait of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who believed that a president who was willing to break the two-term tradition was too ambitious.
    John Trumbull/GraphicaArtis, Getty Images

    Jefferson saw a president who was willing to break the two-term tradition as power hungry, and he hoped that the American people would not elect such a president. This led him to write in his autobiography in 1821 that “should a President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views.”

    Jefferson also worried that without term limits, presidents would stay in office too long into their old age and after they had lost their ability to govern effectively. This led him to write that without term limits, there was a danger that “the indulgence and attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair after he becomes a dotard.”

    Subsequently, presidents tended to abide by the two-term tradition. And in the few cases where presidents decided to seek a third term, their own parties would not give them the nomination.

    That remained true until Roosevelt ran for, and won, both a third and a fourth term as president during World War II.

    The 22nd Amendment

    Roosevelt’s violation of the two-term tradition prompted Congress and the states to turn the tradition into a formal matter of constitutional law.

    A major concern motivating the amendment was the same one that motivated Jefferson: to prevent a president from becoming a king. Multiple members of Congress identified the same concern during congressional sessions in the 1940s.

    Sen. Chapman Revercomb from West Virginia stated that power given to a president without term limits “would be a definite step in the direction of autocracy, regardless of the name given the office, whether it be president, king, dictator, emperor, or whatever title the office may carry.”

    Similarly, Rep. Edward McCowen from Ohio said that the 22nd Amendment would be “a great step toward preventing a dictatorship or some totalitarian form of government from arising.”

    And Rep. John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee stated that only by adoption of the 22nd Amendment “can the people be assured that we shall never have a dictator in this land.”

    Congress passed the 22nd Amendment on March 21, 1947. It took less than four years for the necessary three-fourths of the states to ratify the amendment, which became law on Feb. 27, 1951.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about getting a third term as president.
    Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

    Tyrants and term limit violations

    In the 1980s, political scientist Juan Linz identified that presidential systems are less stable than other forms of democracy, such as parliamentary systems. The difference seems to be that presidential systems concentrate more power in the hands of a single person, the president. This makes it easier to remove the checks and balances that democracies depend on.

    As scholars have noted, violation of presidential term limits and other methods of increasing executive power are a common form of democratic backsliding – state-led debilitation or elimination of the political institutions that sustain a democracy.

    Law professor Mila Versteeg and her colleagues have shown that in recent years presidents around the globe have used various tactics to try to violate presidential term limits. These tactics include trying to amend their country’s constitution, trying to get the courts to reinterpret the constitution, finding a replacement leader who the former president can control once out of office and attempting to delay elections.

    They note that most of the time when a president’s attempt to violate term limits fails it is “because the attempt encountered widespread popular resistance.” They conclude that this finding implies that “broad resistance movements” may be the best means to prevent violation of presidential term limits.

    Mark Satta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why a presidential term limit got written into the Constitution – the story of the 22nd Amendment – https://theconversation.com/why-a-presidential-term-limit-got-written-into-the-constitution-the-story-of-the-22nd-amendment-253421

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From barriers to belonging: How supporting inclusivity enhances the well-being of people with disabilities

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mohsen Rasoulivalajoozi, PhD candidate, Individualized Program, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University

    To create truly inclusive cities, policy-makers and experts need to go beyond minimum standards and critically examine how our urban spaces continue to exclude people with disabilities. (Shutterstock)

    What does it mean for a city to be accommodating to all its citizens?

    This requires understanding how individuals feel included and valued in the places they live, and responding to their needs by emphasizing genuine inclusivity. For people with mobility challenges, it means feeling no different from others. This applies both to navigating urban spaces and engaging in social interactions.

    Despite efforts to improve accessibility in Canada, many urban spaces still fall short, leaving wheelchair users facing subtle but persistent barriers. We wanted to understand the different challenges and barriers people with disabilities face when using mobility aids.

    To do this, we interviewed 12 experienced physiotherapists in Iran to identify gaps in how mobility aid serve the needs of those who use them, and offer recommendations based on their extensive interactions with users.

    Given the universal needs of mobility aid users — emotional well-being, social integration and functional independence — and the common challenges they face accessing health-care systems around the world, our findings can are relevant for many people around the world, including in Canada.

    Inclusive design

    To create truly inclusive cities, it is vital for policymakers and experts to go beyond minimum standards and critically examine how our urban spaces continue to exclude people with disabilities.

    Marketing professors Vanessa Patrick and Candice Hollenbeck have developed the DARE framework — design, appraisal, response and experience — and propose three levels of inclusive design aimed to make spaces more inclusive for people with disabilities.

    Level 1 ensures accessibility through industry regulations, meeting minimum standards. Level 2 fosters engagement and equity, rooted in social justice principles, by validating user experiences and emphasizing empathy. Level 3 aims to minimize mismatches between users and design, promoting human flourishing through seamless interaction among individuals, the design and their environment.

    Our study outlines how people perceive the inclusivity of mobility aids based on the cost, how they are built and how effective they are in different environments.

    We also considered perceptions of trustworthiness, support and contextual factors, including the social interpretations and representations of these devices. We highlight gaps in users’ needs and provide recommendations to address them. Through this analysis, we identified four key themes that offer valuable insights for enhancing inclusivity.

    Financial burden

    For some, mobility aids can be an added financial burden. Financial constraints may limit access to mobility aids, often forcing users to seek alternatives or delay rehabilitation, potentially worsening their conditions. For example, individuals might resort to second-hand mobility aids which may not be fitted correctly for them.

    Globally, only five to 35 per cent of the 80 million people who need a wheelchair have access to one depending on where they live, with high costs being a primary barrier.

    The high cost of advanced electric wheelchairs further restrict access. This marks a gap at the first level of inclusivity in the DARE framework, where market-driven prices fall short of meeting mobility aid users’ needs.

    Initiatives like the European Union’s Rehabilitation Policy Action Framework have called for increased governmental financial support for mobility aid users. This framework offers 48 options across six domains to translate political goals into action, such as reallocating health-care funds to expand rehabilitation and improve inclusivity.

    Mobility aid users, like all individuals, deserve equal consideration in design and planning.
    (Shutterstock)

    Mismatches between users and mobility aids

    In using mobility aids, a user will typically evaluate two aspects: the design features of the aids themselves and how well they function in their environment.

    If the mobility aid is slightly mismatched with their requirements, the user may find alternative solutions, such as adding padding to a wheelchair to relieve pressure. However, severe mismatches can lead to negative outcomes and result in unmet mobility needs. Furthermore, inadequate anthropometric and ergonomic adjustments can lead to discomfort.

    Similarly, environmental mismatches, such as barriers that disrupt navigation, can reinforce negative stereotypes and condescending attitudes. These barriers can hinder a person’s mobility and ultimately deter them from going out and engaging in social activities.

    New developments and technologies can not only address and mitigate certain mismatches but also positively impact users’ psychological and social needs. However, integrating new technologies requires careful consideration, as assistive devices can also attract social stigma.

    Therefore, it is important to identify which technological or esthetic features of mobility aids evoke positive emotions and minimize stigma.

    Mobility aid users, like everyone, deserve equal consideration in design and planning. Programs like Europe’s Design for All (DfA) and Singapore’s Barrier-Free Accessibility (BFA) promote barrier-free design for all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds.

    Improving trust

    Trustworthiness is a critical factor in the use of mobility aids, particularly in unfamiliar settings where users may feel uncertain.

    To address this, users seek continuous reassurance about the reliability of their aids, often depending on the support of physiotherapists to navigate mismatches between their needs and their surroundings. Such professional support enhances confidence and mental well-being. Physiotherapists, as trusted experts, can remarkably shape users’ perceptions and acceptance of mobility aids.

    Ensuring trustworthy designs is also crucial, as perceived fragility can undermine user trust. Validating experiences, building trust across environments — including trust in physiotherapists and mobility aid products — is essential to alleviating doubts about how effective they might be.

    Sociocultural influences

    Sociocultural context and the causes of a disability play a significant role in shaping perceptions of mobility aids.

    Regardless of users’ personal experiences, others tend to view mobility aids through the lens of prevailing societal attitudes toward disability. For some, mobility aids may reinforce stereotypes about disabilities. This highlights the critical role of esthetics in shaping public perceptions and social interactions.

    For example, incorporating esthetic refinements into the design can help counter negative perceptions. By addressing negative representations and promoting designs that reflect dignity and inclusivity, interventions can align with inclusively goals and enhance positive social engagement.

    Raising public awareness is key to challenging stereotypes and building empathy. To create an inclusive society, design and planning should consider both the physical and social barriers to accessibility. Achieving this requires a multi-disciplinary effort, and the active participation of people who use mobility aids.

    This article was co-authored by Morteza Farhoudi, an inclusive designer specializing in public transportation studies.

    Mohsen Rasoulivalajoozi receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    Carmela Cucuzzella receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. From barriers to belonging: How supporting inclusivity enhances the well-being of people with disabilities – https://theconversation.com/from-barriers-to-belonging-how-supporting-inclusivity-enhances-the-well-being-of-people-with-disabilities-249339

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How do coconuts get their water?

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Gaston Adoyo, Lecturer and researcher, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

    Coconut trees are iconic plants found across the world’s tropical regions. They’re called “nature’s supermarket” or the “tree of life” in several cultures because every part of the coconut tree is used. Its leaves can be used to thatch homes, its heart can be eaten and its roots have medicinal uses.

    The refreshing liquid found within a young green coconut is a highly prized component of the coconut palm. Coconuts are unique in the world of fruits because they have a large internal cavity filled with water. Other fruits typically store water within individual cells or pulp.

    I’m a food scientist who has carried out research on the properties of coconuts.

    All coconut palms produce water, though some, like tall varieties, will produce more than others, like dwarf varieties. The water is sourced from the trees’ immature, green coconuts. As the coconut matures, the developing white flesh absorbs the water, resulting in less liquid in a fully ripe brown coconut.

    So, how is this water reservoir created, and what factors influence it?

    A coconut’s structure

    To better understand how coconut water is formed, it is essential to grasp its anatomical structure. The coconut fruit is classified as a drupe, meaning it has three layers: the exocarp (the smooth, green outer layer seen in unripe coconuts), the mesocarp (a fibrous husk beneath the exocarp), and the endocarp (the hard, woody inner shell that protects the white flesh inside).

    Within the endocarp, there are two components: the flesh (endosperm, a soft, jelly-like material in immature coconut that hardens as it matures) and the clear coconut water that fills the cavity. This water is a nutritive fluid nourishing the developing seed and is formed naturally during the development of the coconut fruit.

    The water is a filtered sap that’s drawn up from the roots and transported through the tree’s vascular system (its water and nutrient transport system), specifically the xylem tissue.

    The coconut tree’s extensive root system, ranging from 1 to 5 metres deep, absorbs groundwater – with dissolved nutrients – from the surrounding soil. The absorbed water is then transported upwards through the trunk and branches and finally to the fruit.

    The fruit retains this water, stored in the cavity of the coconut. The accumulated water, with its rich nutrients, provides food to the developing endosperm (white flesh).

    Therefore, coconut water is neither rainwater nor seawater stored inside, but carefully filtered and nutrient-rich clear liquid formed by the tree itself.

    What is coconut water made of?

    About 95% of coconut water is simply water, making it an excellent hydrating fluid.

    The rest of the water is made up of various components, which are useful for us too.

    Minerals (like sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium) nourish human nerves and muscles; proteins (amino acids and enzymes) can help in metabolism in both the tree and humans; sugars (fructose and glucose) are responsible for the light sweetness and there are trace amounts of vitamins (vitamin C and B vitamins).



    Read more:
    Is coconut water good for you? We asked five experts

    Coconut water levels

    Many factors can influence the amount and quality of water in a coconut.

    The age of the coconut is a critical determining factor. Immature, green coconuts (six to eight months) are usually full of water: between 300 millilitres and 1 litre. Mature coconuts (12 months and older) have low water levels as the liquid is partially absorbed by the endosperm.

    High rainfall encourages greater accumulation of water, while drought conditions reduce the amount of water that can be transported to the fruit.

    Healthy soils packed with minerals lead to high-quality and nutrient-rich coconut water. Poor or salty soils, lacking in minerals that can travel up the coconut tree to the fruit, will lead to low quality water.

    Finally, unhealthy or diseased trees produce smaller-sized coconuts with little water.

    Protecting coconuts

    Coconut trees and coconut water are important to tropical economies across south-east Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean Sea territories, as well as the coastlines of central America and Africa.

    Conserving the trees and their environment is therefore essential.

    Sustainable farming practices, like soil management – including soil testing and organic composting – should be implemented to maintain the proper nutrient profile, which results in high-quality coconut water.



    Read more:
    The end of coconut water? The world’s trendiest nut is under threat of species collapse

    Additionally, protecting freshwater aquifers from saltwater intrusion along coastlines where coconuts grow is crucial for preserving the quality of this refreshing fluid. Drip irrigation and mulching can help maintain soil moisture for the required coconut water production.

    Pest and disease management techniques (like intercropping coconuts with bananas or legumes), as well as integrated pest management, can contribute to healthy trees that produce large coconuts with ample water.

    Gaston Adoyo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How do coconuts get their water? – https://theconversation.com/how-do-coconuts-get-their-water-252673

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Marine Le Pen verdict ‘represents an effort to make democracy better’ in France – interview

    Source: The Conversation – France – By Luc Rouban, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Sciences Po

    Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party and a three-time presidential candidate, has been found guilty of misappropriating public funds and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and five years of ineligibility for public office, with immediate effect. Despite her decision to appeal, the March 31 ruling in a Paris court will probably eliminate her from the 2027 presidential race. Political scientist Luc Rouban analyses this major political development in an interview with The Conversation France.

    The Conversation: Marine Le Pen’s sentence of immediate ineligibility came as a surprise and a shock. Some legal experts had imagined that a heavy sentence would fall but doubted that the judge, under pressure, would take the logic of ineligibility to its conclusion – despite the fact that it is enshrined in the law.

    Luc Rouban: Yes, it’s a surprise and I don’t think the RN was expecting this decision. For the rule of law, it’s a form of revenge on a certain style of political life that, for decades, operated on the basis of arrangements, on the basis of the inner circle. That’s what we were used to during the Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand periods, when there were dangerous links between politicians and certain members of the business class. It also brings to mind – of course – the more recent Nicolas Sarkozy affair. Today we are witnessing a historic turnaround. Marine Le Pen was no doubt expecting a suspended sentence, a slightly symbolic sentence. But this sentence is not symbolic at all. She is no longer part of the old style of political life.

    Is this ruling a good thing for democracy, with a judge who applies the law without trembling? Or is it a problem, as RN president Jordan Bardella, right-wing members of parliament Eric Ciotti and Laurent Wauquiez, and left-wing political leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon have said – and as Elon Musk, Viktor Orban, Geert Wilders, Matteo Salvini and the Kremlin have also said?

    Luc Rouban: This ruling represents an effort to make democracy better. Reaffirming the rule of law is absolutely essential and legitimate. The French democratic system is very fragile, much more so than in other European countries. Public confidence in politicians and the justice system is very low and needs to be restored. One way of doing this is to ensure that the law is applied to public figures who embezzle millions of euros, not just to supermarket cashiers who are fired and prosecuted for stealing a chocolate bar. The conviction of Marine Le Pen is undeniable progress for our democracy: it’s a sign that the relationship with politics is changing, that politics has become a professional activity like any other, subject to regulations and laws.

    Of course, there will be attacks on the judiciary, we will have the Trumpist argument of “government by judges”. But it’s important to remember that judges simply apply the law. We must also remember that the figures, including Marine Le Pen, who are criticising ineligibility penalties, had applauded the Sapin 2 law, which passed unanimously in 2016 following the Cahuzac affair (editor’s note: ex-budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac was ruled guilty of tax fraud in a Paris court).

    What does the future hold for Marine Le Pen and the RN? Is Jordan Bardella capable of replacing her?

    Luc Rouban: Barring the uncertain scenario of a favourable ruling on appeal before the presidential election, Marine Le Pen is likely to hand over her position as RN candidate to Bardella. But is Bardella capable of replacing her? That’s the question.

    Internally, he hasn’t really managed to establish himself within the party, particularly in terms of renewing the leadership and structuring the movement. As soon as Marine Le Pen was absent – which was the case after the death of her father (editor’s note: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front) – the party seemed to collapse.

    What’s more, Bardella is Marine Le Pen’s heir apparent. The party’s “normalisation” could involve a form of “de-lepenalisation”. The Le Pen family has totally structured the party, which is very vertical, very organised around itself and its immediate entourage. This oligarchic model and this verticality are obviously going to be called into question. Will Bardella suffer as a result? Other RN leaders, such as Sébastien Chenu or Jean-Philippe Tanguy, who have established themselves in the media, may try to overtake him in the presidential race. However, this would require a break with Marine Le Pen in a party where dissidents are quickly excluded. The likelihood of such a challenge therefore remains low.

    What about Marion Maréchal? Could she take over?

    Luc Rouban: I don’t believe so because Maréchal (editor’s note: Marine Le Pen’s niece, who was elected to the European Parliament in 2024 on the ticket of the far-right Reconquest party, to which she no longer belongs) plays the Trump card and makes the RN feel uncomfortable. The RN electorate is too attached to France’s sovereignty, and has evolved toward a form of labour rights that is far removed from hard-line liberalism. The Reconquest electorate is more middle-class, older, better educated and wealthier than that of the RN.

    Will the RN benefit from this verdict or lose voters?

    Luc Rouban: It is possible that some abstentionist voters whose backgrounds are similar to those of RN voters will express their dissatisfaction with Marine Le Pen’s conviction by choosing to vote for the future candidate of the RN.

    But among the right-wing, upper middle classes who voted RN in the 2024 legislative elections, the vote could shift back to Les Républicains (editor’s note: the historic French right-wing party).

    Furthermore, for whoever becomes the future candidate of the RN, there will be a problem of support. To win a presidential election, you need to have support in the business world. But dragging around a party whose main leaders have been convicted of criminal offences is not a good look. Fundamentally, the RN was already isolated from the social elites. It could be even more so tomorrow.

    How might public opinion react to this major event, which deprives millions of voters of their candidate? Should we expect large-scale responses, possibly violent ones?

    Luc Rouban: As far as society in general is concerned, there may be hostile reactions for a while, isolated incidents, but I don’t think there will be mass movements like in the 1930s. The lack of enthusiasm for political life is obvious: who is going to take physical risks and engage in violent action to defend a political party and its representative? Not many people, I think.

    David Bornstein conducted this interview.

    Luc Rouban ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

    – ref. Marine Le Pen verdict ‘represents an effort to make democracy better’ in France – interview – https://theconversation.com/marine-le-pen-verdict-represents-an-effort-to-make-democracy-better-in-france-interview-253551

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Adolescence’ on Neflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Martina Calçada Kohatsu, PhD Candidate in Educational Psychology, McGill University

    In ‘Adolescence,’ a communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity. (Netflix)

    This story contains spoilers about the Netflix series ‘Adolescence.’

    In the Netflix series Adolescence, we have no idea why Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested at the beginning of the first episode. The tension from seeing a helpless 13-year-old boy escorted to a police station and interrogated holds us to the screen. Every minute of the one-hour episode, shot in a single continuous take, makes us feel like we are in the police station with the Miller family, viewing things through his parents’ disorientation.

    As the plot unfolds, we are given clues to explain the inexplicable, but we can’t fully appreciate the show’s magnitude until the very last scene, a dramatic moment where we see the boy’s father (Stephen Graham) cry over his son’s teddy bear while asking it for forgiveness.

    From an educational psychology angle, the show is ripe for analysis. One could comment on the premature sexualization of young girls and boys or the obsolete sense, for parents, that they can assume kids are safe when they’re at home in their rooms.

    However, as a doctoral student in educational psychology, I am mostly concerned with human learning — both the cognitive development that must accompany successful learners, and how children and youth understand the world through relationships.

    The state of Jamie’s cognitive development and of teenagers in general may help us understand his frame of mind — or the “why” that detective Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) pursues.

    For parents, this show raises serious questions about the crisis in parent-child communication and how the internet is shaping children’s behaviour and minds. I suggest turning to the practice of dialogue as a way for parents to strengthen their communication with their children and learn about each other and the world.

    Trailer for ‘Adolescence.’

    Children’s minds

    According to the government of Canada, “any human being below the age of 18” is defined as a child. Children can’t be recruited to join the Armed Forces, sign legal contracts, drive, vote, marry, drink alcohol and so on. As adults, we understand that these prohibitions not only protect them but also us.

    Setting aside ethical reasons why children shouldn’t do any of these things, the major reason is due to the developmental state of their minds.

    To better understand this, we must consider executive function, also called cognitive control. Executive function refers to the unconscious cognitive processes of abstract thinking, inhibition, impulse control and planning that allow us to consciously control and direct our thoughts to goals, actions and emotions.

    Think of executive control as interconnected paths in the brain. In an adolescent’s brain, these paths resemble more of a labyrinth, with difficult and sometimes non-working passages.

    Children and adolescents’ cognitive development are in “sensitive periods” in which their brains are more plastic and susceptible to environmental influences. Besides not having full control of their thought processes, research has also shown that abstract and more “neutral” cognitive skills develop earlier than those that involve motivated or emotionally charged actions.

    Ability to weigh options still developing

    Adolescents might be mature enough to solve complex math problems, but still feel helpless when needing to be polite to someone they believe offended them (not an easy task for adults either). In such a case, one would need to “step back” from the situation, and weigh options to respond.

    An adult might think “maybe I misinterpreted what this person said” or “if I offend them back, I risk losing my job/friendship/reputation.” By dwelling on different course of actions, they don’t act impulsively.

    This is precisely the ability that adolescents are still developing.

    Adolescent brains have not fully matured in ways that enable them to calculate risk.
    (Netflix)

    Virtual selves and threats

    When adolescents engage with social media, they can be exposed to a threatening environment where they must assert their virtual selves and deal with bullying and inappropriate content, while lacking full control of their thought processes.

    Yet, as American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has chronicled, our society has allowed adolescents to take part in this at grave risk. With maturing cognitive capabilities, teens are at risk in an online environment that thrives on extreme views and hijacks emotions.

    As a victim of cyberbullying, Jamie was probably not equipped with the cognitive abilities to step back from the situation and seek help. Instead, he responds to cruelty he experienced with cruelty he knew.

    With unregulated internet use, in terms of both content and unrestricted time spent online, communication with parents atrophies. At its core, Adolescence is a painful wake-up call to the effects of unregulated internet usage in teens, and how the communication abyss that separates Gen X from Gen Z gives way to calamity.

    Clueless adults, aware teens

    Nowhere in the show is this distance more evident than when police detectives move cluelessly through Jamie’s school trying to understand his motives, while the students seem cynically aware of what really happened.

    The detective’s son clues him into interpreting signs of incel subculture.
    (Netflix)

    In a typical moment reflecting contemporary intergenerational dynamics in which the Gen Zs explain stuff to their analog parents, Bascombe’s son is the one to enlighten him about incel subculture and what certain emojis represent.

    It becomes clear that pop-cultural references mean different things to a younger generation. For example, “red pill” was appropriated from The Matrix and is now used for those who “see the truth” and reject feminism.

    Generations are comfortable communicating in different ways. Teens, for example, are clever texters. They use images, edit reels and create memes to convey subtle and often complex feelings.

    In contrast, teens’ discomfort with face-to-face conversations is explicit in the last episode of Adolescence, when the Miller family drives to a hardware store. The parents play a song from their prom and reminisce. The oldest daughter is with them, but not present, focused on her phone and only sporadically joining the conversation.

    Why dialogue matters

    Parents and their children may find direction through dialogue. This ancient practice is based on the view of the world as becoming, with infinite internal and external contradictions that must be overcome so that new understandings of reality may emerge.

    Dialogue was famously advanced as an educational practice by philosopher of education, Paulo Freire.

    Freire believed people must come together to share their meanings of the world, and through this push and pull of ideas, reasons and opinions, conceptualize new forms of understanding. For parents, this means that without trying to understand what teens are saying and, importantly, how they are saying it, we can’t possibly create a better future for all of us.

    Open channel needed

    Engaging in dialogue involves two things: asking and answering questions. It is not a matter of merely extracting information (although knowing what children are doing is important), but rather of mutually sharing interests and letting it guide discovery.

    When parents and children find a channel, communication opens and for as long as the mutual interest is there, they can steadily build meaningful connections that transform how they see the world and their relationships.

    With renewed urgency, dialogue that validates the interests and knowledge of both parents and children can offer a way out of the polarization created between them by long hours spent online.

    Martina Calçada Kohatsu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. ‘Adolescence’ on Neflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens – https://theconversation.com/adolescence-on-neflix-a-painful-wake-up-call-about-unregulated-internet-use-for-teens-253068

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nigeria’s illegal gold trade – elites and bandits are working together

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Oluwole Ojewale, Research Fellow, Obafemi Awolowo University, Regional Coordinator, Institute for Security Studies

    Illegal mining activities in Nigeria are devastating the country’s economy, as well as fuelling violence.

    Strategic minerals mined in the country’s north-west region include granite, gypsum, kaolin, laterite, limestone, phosphate, potash, silica sand and gold.

    The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has estimated that the legal mining sector contributed N814.59 billion (US$527 million) in 15 years. Earnings were highest in 2021.

    Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, asserted in late 2024 that powerful individuals engaged in illegal mining were sponsoring banditry in the country. Recently, Edo North senator Adams Oshiomhole also alleged that retired military officers coordinated illegal mining activities nationwide.

    In a recent paper I examined the links between banditry, gold mining, violence and elite collusion in two states in the north-west of Nigeria.

    My research involved qualitative interviews with 17 respondents from 11 gold mining communities of Katsina and Zamfara states. The individuals included miners, community leaders, commercial drivers, residents and security agents.

    They told me that bandits colluded with elites to engage in illegal gold mining and undermine peace. The paper also analysed how the elites weaponised access to mineral resources and the impact this had on violence in the region. I looked at the state’s response to illegal gold mining too and offered some reflections on pathways to durable peace.

    The history

    My study shows that for more than four decades, gold mining has been done by wealthy and influential people in communities. Intense competition between the owners of the mine fields led them to hire bandits to guard their mine fields from their competitors.

    This pattern has become entrenched over the past two decades. My study shows that minefield owners today provide bandits with weapons, arms, drugs, food and logistics. In return, the armed groups protect their gold pits.

    A number of the wealthy mine owners wield influence in local politics. Some research participants also said there were miners who were working for politicians and traditional rulers and that a number of politicians had acquired gold mines.

    Interviewees also said that some individuals were employed by influential figures in government or business. They however did not mention names of the influential government figures for safety reasons.

    Violence arises from competition over mining locations, funding of armed groups’ activities, and taking control from civilians.

    With access to funds, bandits can expand their influence, recruit new members and carry out attacks.

    According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data I drew on, 1,615 incidents and 4,201 deaths were recorded due to banditry from 2010 to 2023 in Katsina and Zamfara states.

    How it works

    Generally, gold trading in Nigeria occurs within a network of buyers, sellers and brokers, forming a small ecosystem compared to other commodities. Most participants in the gold market are familiar with each other.

    My study respondents said criminals involved in illegal mining had strong connections in the gold market, both domestically and internationally. The transnational supply chain of the illicit economy extends through Chad, Niger, Libya and Algeria.

    Foreign networks also operate in the criminal supply chain.

    Bandits sell gold to gold merchants and traders. Some of these traders are business elites from other states in Nigeria who typically sell the gold in the Diffa region in Chad, or in Agadez (Niger), Tripoli (Libya) and Algiers (Algeria). Some gold traders transport the mineral to Benin.

    What can be done

    The government’s handling of the illicit gold trade and banditry has consistently fallen short of what is needed. This is clear from the government’s failure to adequately monitor the actions of miners.

    Mining sites are supposed to be overseen by the government, ensuring that only licensed miners and ancillary service providers are active there. But this isn’t happening.

    Based on my findings, I make the following recommendations if there is to be a lasting solution to banditry and the criminal gold mining economy in Nigeria’s north-west.

    Firstly, it requires enforcing the law and strengthening accountability.

    Large areas of north-west Nigeria are ungoverned. The federal government should enhance border policing and law enforcement capabilities by upgrading security and intelligence gathering infrastructure.

    Nigeria should also introduce advanced contraband-detection technologies, such as spectroscopy, at land borders. These techniques analyse the chemical composition of materials. They can identify specific substances and detect trace amounts of contraband.

    And individuals with ties to illegal gold trade and supporting criminal activities must be identified, apprehended and prosecuted.

    Secondly, it requires reforming the gold mining and security sector. The mainstay of Nigeria’s economy is oil production in the country’s Niger Delta. One of the consequences is that other sectors of the economy have been largely neglected. The mining sector is not well regulated and the state doesn’t show much interest in it.

    Thirdly, any steps taken by the government must involve the participation of people living in the affected communities. The security agencies can foster community partnerships to source human intelligence on the activities of bandits, illegal miners and mineral smugglers.

    Lastly, the government should consider tackling elite collusion through targeted sanctions and asset freezing. This could disrupt their ability to finance and perpetuate violence.

    This approach has been used in Nigeria and in South Africa, among other countries in the world.

    Oluwole Ojewale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Nigeria’s illegal gold trade – elites and bandits are working together – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-illegal-gold-trade-elites-and-bandits-are-working-together-250169

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Zimbabwe’s economy crashed – so how do citizens still cling to myths of urban and economic success?

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Kristina Pikovskaia, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh

    It is common for nations to have myths, or narratives, that form the basis of their nationalism, or their ideas of themselves as a political community. Such popular narratives are often rooted in a romanticised or idealised view of the past. This is certainly the case in Zimbabwe, where national myths about its urban modernity and economic exceptionalism have stood the test of time in contrast with the reality.

    The idea of urban modernity has its roots in colonial times. At the time of independence in 1980, following a liberation war from 1965 to 1979, Zimbabwe’s economy was looking strong. Urban residents, especially, could think of themselves as modern: they had middle- and working-class lifestyles, social protection, social mobility opportunities and fixed working hours. Urban modernity meant order, steady employment, education.

    Zimbabwe’s economy was exceptional in sub-Saharan Africa: diversified and robust.

    However, rapid socio-economic changes followed in the 1990s and 2000s. Zimbabwe was hit by a series of economic, financial and political crises. This led to the collapse of urban middle- and working-class modernity and the rise of visible informal economic activities in the urban space. By 2004, over 80% of people had informal livelihoods in Zimbabwe.

    My PhD thesis (2021) examined Harare’s shift to informality and the impact of this on people’s everyday experiences of citizenship. The respondents in interviews carried out between 2016 and 2018 included vendors, cross-border traders, manufacturers, residents’ associations, informal sector organisations, local authorities and urban planners.

    These interviews also form the basis of my recent research paper. My analysis sought to examine how people deal with the fact that current circumstances don’t support their myths of urban nationalism.

    During a crisis, people rethink old ideas and adjust them to fit their new situation. As they do this, their notions of urban modernity and economic exceptionalism change. At the same time, they remember a past when their country was economically successful. This memory shapes how they think about the country’s future – and it also makes them question the government, which hasn’t lived up to those past ideals.

    So, what do the myths of urban modernity and economic exceptionalism mean in Zimbabwe today? Some people cling to the early postcolonial notions nurtured by the government. Others reluctantly accept economic informality while seeking to upgrade the idea of the informal sector. But there are others who challenge altogether the view that street vending is not modern and formal enough.

    The prevalent informality was seen as a temporary phenomenon which would end soon. Then the country would return to having a modern urban lifestyle and strong economy.

    Grappling with informality

    To many of the respondents in 2016-2018, “working” and “having a job” meant being employed and having regular wages, job security and social protection.

    At the same time, people also reluctantly accepted economic informality and some of the changes it made to their lives, while seeking to upgrade the idea of the informal sector. Some informal sector associations, for example, attempted to teach their members to see their activities as businesses and themselves as business people, as I reported in another paper.



    Read more:
    How informal sector organisations in Zimbabwe shape notions of citizenship

    Some respondents drew a line between economic activities that were acceptable in the city centre and those that were not. These were similar to the early postcolonial notions enforced by the government. They suggested, for example, that street vending had no place in the city centre. It should only occur in limited designated spaces, and in residential areas.

    Some street vendors, though, defied the notion of street vending not being modern and formal enough. They dressed smartly to emphasise that street vending could also be done in a “modern” way and be a part of the mainstream economy.

    The history of the urban modernity myth

    At the beginning of colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the colonisers planned for the cities to remain “white”. Unless Africans lived in their employers’ facilities, they were required to live in dedicated areas.

    At the same time, the colonial administration introduced and enforced the concept of “order” in Salisbury, now Harare, the capital. It punished poor, marginalised and homeless people. The same with economic and social activities it deemed undesirable.

    Today, over 32% of Zimbabweans live in urban areas.

    The establishment in the 1930s of the African middle class was an important part of the urban modernity project. Those who sought to belong to it largely used education as their primary social mobility tool.



    Read more:
    Education in Zimbabwe has lost its value: study asks young people how they feel about that

    After independence in 1980, the cities were deracialised. Everyone was free to enter and use the urban space. But the new government still held tight control and dictated who had the right to the city.

    Numerous operations were conducted from the 1980s to clear the street of “undesirable” people and activities. For example, informal settlements were removed. Many women were arrested on the pretext of clearing the city of prostitution. The most notorious clean-up operation was the 2005 Operation Murambatsvina. It effectively punished all those considered “unproductive” and not deserving to be in the city.



    Read more:
    Dogs in the city: on the scent of Zimbabwe’s urban history

    Those high and, frankly, brutal standards of urban modernity have a long history in Zimbabwe and became a part of its urban nationalism.

    Economic exceptionalism

    Colonial and early postcolonial Zimbabwe had an exceptional and diversified economy with strong mining, agricultural, and industrial sectors. Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector contributed 25% to GDP by 1974.

    Despite the economic decline, it is still a common narrative that Zimbabwe’s industrial sector was second only to South Africa’s in sub-Saharan Africa and that Zimbabwe was “the breadbasket” of Africa.

    However, manufacturing in colonial Zimbabwe benefited a small number of white industrialists. Black Zimbabweans did not have the opportunities. They could not own profitable manufacturing businesses or access finance.

    After independence, the government made considerable efforts to deracialise the economy and public services.

    The present

    The early postcolonial ideas about urban modernity and economic exceptionalism were severely undermined in Zimbabwe. But people try to give new meanings to these ideas in the changed social and economic circumstances. There is ongoing reluctance to accept that informality altered Zimbabwe for good. And many of my respondents wanted to find ways that the myths of modernity and economic exceptionalism could keep their meaning in the changed circumstances.

    Continuity and change in the myths of urban nationalism also raise the questions of legitimacy. In this case, it is about legitimacy of informal economic practices and legitimacy of the government that did not uphold the myths.

    Ideas can be very powerful in explaining people’s understanding of the political community they belong to. And when such ideals cannot be upheld, people will find new meanings in their material reality that let them hold on to old ideas or reinterpret them.

    This research is partly funded by the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2022-055) and University of Oxford.

    – ref. Zimbabwe’s economy crashed – so how do citizens still cling to myths of urban and economic success? – https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-economy-crashed-so-how-do-citizens-still-cling-to-myths-of-urban-and-economic-success-247114

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How memes spread conspiracy theories – and what to consider before sharing one

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emily Godwin, Senior Research Associate in Digital Marketing and Virtual Environments, University of Bristol, and PhD Candidate in Conspiracy Theories, University of Bath

    “I am become meme,” declared Elon Musk at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, just after hoisting a chainsaw – a gift from Argentina’s president, Javier Milei – above his head. The tech billionaire and head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was correct. Within hours, images of the moment had spread across social media, spawning countless edits, humorous remixes and sharp commentary.

    This moment was more than just a spectacle. It exemplified how, in a digital age where the battle for attention is paramount, memes are a key part of political conversation. While memes might seem purely entertaining, my research confirms their influence goes deeper, shaping and intensifying political views and attitudes in significant ways.

    The power of memes lies in their ability to distil complex ideas into instantly recognisable forms. They rely on established visual templates, which eliminate the need for lengthy explanations and communicate to the viewer how they should think about the topic of the meme.

    Distracted boyfriend (in which a man looks over his shoulder at an attractive woman to the annoyance of his girlfriend) is a perfect example. It succinctly communicates the universal experience of being tempted by one option while neglecting another – applicable to everything from consumer preferences to political allegiances.

    Distracted boyfriend meme.
    Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

    However, this simplification can quickly become problematic when memes portray distorted or misleading views of reality.

    Harmful stereotypes, misinformation and conspiracy theories have all found their way into meme format. Memes can transmit dangerous ideas, cloaked in humour that makes them more palatable.

    Conspiracy theories and memes

    Conspiracy theories prove especially adaptable to the meme format. Their narratives rely heavily on simple “us v them” portrayals of enlightened truth-seekers standing up against powerful conspirators and an unaware or passive public.

    My analysis of hundreds of memes from COVID conspiracy communities on Reddit revealed a striking pattern: the same templates appeared repeatedly, reinforcing this simplistic but powerful dichotomy.

    Many memes portrayed conspiracy believers as enlightened truth-seekers. “Lisa Simpson’s Presentation”, showing the comic cartoon character confidently presenting to an audience, was commonly used to share claims that challenged mainstream narratives about science, medicine and the government.

    Other memes portrayed authorities as powerful manipulators. “Daily Struggle/Two Buttons”, showing a character sweating over which of two contradictory buttons to press, was commonly used to suggest that health officials and media outlets deliberately switched between opposing vaccination narratives when convenient.

    Most prevalent were portrayals of an unaware or passive public, with “NPC Wojak” – a grey, expressionless figure named after video game “non-playable characters” – presenting a visual shorthand. Those who followed public health advice and mandates were portrayed as mindless automatons, incapable of critical thinking or independent judgment.

    These kinds of meme did not just reflect existing beliefs – they actively shaped and intensified them. Through repeated exposure, these ideas became normalised and accepted as truth. Memes created a feedback loop where existing suspicions were validated, amplified and spread to others – with real-world effects.

    During the pandemic, conspiracy theories that were shared widely via memes led to real-world action, from vaccine refusal to violent global protests against public health mandates.

    The accessible humour of memes served as an entry point, attracting audiences who might have initially engaged with the content as “just jokes”, but subsequently adopted increasingly extreme perspectives.

    Elon Musk, before ‘becoming meme’.
    Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock

    Think before sharing

    Given their power to influence political views and attitudes and to spread misinformation, it is important to think critically before sharing a meme. Here are some key pointers:

    1. Think about the hidden message

    Memes often use humour or exaggeration, but consider the underlying message. Is it simplifying a complex issue or distorting reality? Remember that memes can disguise the extremity of viewpoints, making them appear more familiar and acceptable.

    2. Identify who’s behind it

    Consider the source or origin of the meme. Who might benefit from spreading this message? Is it associated with extreme or conspiratorial communities? If you are unsure, a quick check on Know Your Meme or a reverse image search can provide helpful context.

    3. Check for implicit assumptions

    Memes often operate through implicit assumptions about society, expertise and evidence that go unstated. Ask yourself: what core beliefs must someone accept for this meme to make sense? For example, a meme mocking people who “trust the science” might contain the unstated assumption that scientific consensus is merely opinion, rather than evidence-based conclusion.

    4. Think about emotional manipulation

    Memes rely heavily on emotional reactions – often humour, anger, or outrage – to encourage rapid sharing. Before clicking “share”, reflect on whether you’re being manipulated emotionally into spreading an idea you wouldn’t openly support.

    5. Consider potential harm

    Ask yourself if sharing the meme could contribute to harm, whether by reinforcing harmful stereotypes, or spreading misinformation or conspiracy theories. Humour can disguise the impact of these ideas, making them seem acceptable when they aren’t.

    6. Remember that context matters

    A meme may seem funny or insightful on its own – but within wider conversations, it can take on new meanings. Consider how it might be interpreted alongside other messages circulating in similar spaces. Could it be contributing to a pattern of misinformation, division or trivialisation?

    Ultimately, becoming mindful of the memes we share isn’t about losing a sense of humour, it’s about gaining control over the ideas we help circulate. Before you click share, take a second to think – every meme you spread can affect how people see the world.

    Emily Godwin receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for her position as a PhD Candidate at the University of Bath.

    – ref. How memes spread conspiracy theories – and what to consider before sharing one – https://theconversation.com/how-memes-spread-conspiracy-theories-and-what-to-consider-before-sharing-one-252780

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to engineer microbes to enable us to live on Mars

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Samuel McKee, Associate Tutor and PhD Candidate in Philosophy of Science, Manchester Metropolitan University

    Alones/Shutterstock

    A field known as synthetic biology has become one of the most highly anticipated in science. Its outputs range from golden rice, which is genetically engineered to provide vitamin A, to advances stemming from the Human Genome Project, which successfully mapped the entire human genome. Prominent voices in biotechnology have heralded it as the next wave of the future of innovation.

    Synthetic biology is the use of genetic engineering and other advances in biotechnology to generate new organisms or manipulate existing ones to produce the effects you desire. It is what the British biologist Jamie A. Davies calls “the creation of new living systems by design”.

    What is perhaps less obvious is that it may even be useful in space exploration. We might eventually use microbes to detoxify Mars – helping humans to one day live on the red planet.

    Synthetic biology has transformed many lines of technological breakthrough in biology already. Thanks to technologies such as the Nobel-winning genomic “scissors” Crispr Cas9, gene editing is now cheap, fast and accurate, as is gene sequencing.

    All this means genomics can be done in the field and even in space thanks to new technology – such as the MinION by Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which allowed Nasa astronaut Kate Rubins to sequence the genomes of microorganisms on the International Space Station with a handheld device.

    Structural biology has also been revolutionised by breakthroughs in cryo-electron microscopy (enabling us to view large molecules in a solution), and more recently by the Nobel prize-winning protein-folding program “AlphaFold” by Google’s DeepMind.

    We can now know the structure and sequence of organisms at speed and with tremendous accuracy – and at low cost. Ultimately, this also presents an opportunity to make accurate changes to sequences and structures.

    This has important implications for space exploration, according to the Mars Society, Nasa and the Royal Society. Specifically, advances in synthetic biology are opening up new avenues for exploring and colonising Mars.

    So, how can we engineer microorganisms to make Mars habitable? Here are a few possibilities.

    Eating radiation

    Microbes could help us with the damaging radiation on Mars. We know there are bacteria and other single-celled organisms known as archaea living in some of the most hostile places on Earth. For example, Thermus Aquaticus thrives in extremely high temperatures, and psychrophiles live in extreme cold.

    The tardigrade genome, for example, is a rich source of information, explaining how these microorganisms can survive in the vacuum of space. Extremophiles that can digest radiation and toxicities are already used to clean up everything from oil spills to the fallout of radioactive sites.

    This means we could engineer microbes that are resistant to freezing temperatures and high levels of radiation. Such synthetic microorganisms could then be put to use on Mars in a variety ways to help shield us and our habitats from these extremes – or to develop crops with resistance.

    The Milnesium tardigrade.
    wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    For example, it is now well known that the Martian soil is full of perchlorates, which are toxic to humans. Nasa has several ideas of how this can be dealt with, including synthetic biology.

    Fixing atmospheric gases

    Long ago on ancient Earth, cyanobacteria flourished. They filled an ecological niche which transformed Earth’s atmosphere by enriching it with oxygen. We owe our existence in large part to this fertile bloom.

    Could they do the same for us on Mars? The atmosphere on the red planet is extremely thin and primarily made of carbon dioxide. The cyanobacteria would need a lot of help, which we could provide with synthetic biology. Theoretically, microorganisms could be engineered to survive the Martian environment and in turn pump out oxygen and nitrogen.

    Warming the surface

    Visions of terraforming the red planet (altering it to make it habitable for humans) often involve putting space mirrors in orbit to heat up Mars and melt its ice. This would cause a runaway greenhouse effect that would transform the planet into a more Earth-like state.

    But synthetic biology could (theoretically) skip this stage, which has been proposed to take at least 200 years at the very best estimate. Some five years ago, scientists proposed planetary engineering using synthetic biology to engineer microbes for ecological transformation.

    Given that microbes helped make Earth habitable, we could use synthetic biology to engineer microbes to speed up a similar process for Mars. Finding organisms that reduce greenhouse gases, remove toxicity and exhale helpful substances could help remove higher levels of greenhouse gases on Earth, too.

    Seeding new life on Mars

    We are not yet sure there is no life on Mars. The question of how ethical it is to engineer new life and then spread it to other bodies in the Solar System for our own ends is deep and complex. But these conversations need to happen.

    However, it certainly seems that synthetic biology may be our best technological bet to becoming an interplanetary species – and a lot of space and biotech agencies are taking it very seriously.

    According to recent research from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia: “From a holistic point of view, the ultimate synthetic biology approach to make the most of plant-based food on Mars would be to develop multi-biofortified crops with improved nutritional properties and enhanced quality traits (e.g., extended shelf life and reduced allergenicity).”

    Among emerging technologies, it may be that using synthetic biology improves our future more than any other factor – on Earth and beyond.

    Samuel McKee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How to engineer microbes to enable us to live on Mars – https://theconversation.com/how-to-engineer-microbes-to-enable-us-to-live-on-mars-253456

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘Putin’s brain’: Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian ultra-nationalist who has endorsed Donald Trump

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kevin Riehle, Lecturer in Intelligence and Security Studies, Brunel University of London

    Aleksandr Dugin, sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain” because of his ideological influence on Russian politics, endorsed the policies of Donald Trump in a CNN interview aired on March 30. Dugin said Trump’s America has a lot more in common with Putin’s Russia than most people think, adding: “Trumpists and the followers of Trump will understand much better what Russia is, who Putin is and the motivations of our politics.”

    Dugin made his name by espousing Russian nationalist and traditionalist – including antisemitic – themes, and publishing extensively on the centrality of Russia in world civilisation. So, this endorsement should be a warning of the disruptive nature of the Trump White House. It implies that Dugin believes Trump’s policies support Russian interests.

    Dugin began his career as an anti-communist activist in the 1980s. This was less because of an ideological antipathy for communism than his rejection of the internationalism that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union espoused. He also criticised the party for breaking from traditional – especially religious – values.

    Dugin proposes what he calls a “fourth political theory”. The first three, he claims, are Marxism, fascism and liberalism – all of which he thinks contain elements of error, especially their rejection of tradition and the subordination of culture to scientific thought.

    Dugin’s fourth political theory takes pieces from all three and discards the elements with which Dugin disagrees, especially the dwindling importance of traditional family and culture. The culmination is a melange of ideas that sometimes appear Marxist and sometimes fascist, but which always centre on the criticality of traditional Russian culture.

    His founding philosophy is traditionalism, which he views as a strength of Russia. Thus, he has become a strong supporter of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, who emphasises traditional Russian values. Dugin and Putin align in their criticism of liberalist anti-religious individualism, which they claim destroys the values and culture on which society is based.

    Dugin has value for Putin because he advances the president’s objectives. Putin’s security goals are in part founded on the principle that political unity is strength and political division is weakness. If Russia can maintain political unity by whatever means necessary, it retains its perception of strength. And if a state opposed to Russia is divided internally, it can be portrayed as weak.

    The Russian government claims complete political unity inside Russia. Its spokespeople reinforce that claim by declaring, for example, the Russian electorate was so unified behind Putin that the 2024 Russian presidential election could have been skipped as an unnecessary expense. They also push a strained claim that the Russian population is unanimously behind the Ukraine war.

    Dugin energises voters behind Putin, basing his support on the philosophy of Russian greatness and cultural superiority, and the perception of Russian unity. His influence has been felt throughout the Russian government and society. He publishes prolifically, and lectures at universities and government agencies about the harms of western liberalism. He also served as an advisor to Sergey Naryshkin, currently director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation.

    Dugin’s views support an expansionist Russia, especially in the direction of Ukraine. He questions the existence of Ukraine and promotes Russia’s war there wholeheartedly. But his support for the war led to an attempt on his life. On August 20 2022, a bomb exploded in a car owned by Dugin, killing his daughter, Darya, who was driving it back from a festival of Russian traditional art.

    Divide and conquer

    Russia applies the same principle of “unity equals strength” to its adversaries, but in reverse. Many Russian political thinkers try to emphasise political divisions in unfriendly states. They work hard to broaden existing disagreements and support disruptive political parties and groups.

    Such operations give the Russian government the ability to denigrate the foreign powers that Russia considers adversaries by making them look weak in the eyes of their own people – and more importantly, in the eyes of the Russian population.

    Dugin lays a philosophical foundation for foreign parties that oppose the European Union and western liberalism, and that disrupt political unity. His views have been adopted by far-right political groups such as the German National Democratic Party, the British National Party, Golden Dawn in Greece, Jobbik in Hungary, and the National Front in France.

    Dugin’s interview in which he endorsed Trump’s policies is likely to have been directly authorised by the Kremlin. He pushes a Kremlin-sponsored endorsement of Trump’s divisive – and thus weakening – effect on US politics.

    But Dugin’s extreme Russian nationalist rhetoric at times clashes with Putin’s attempts to include all peoples of Russia in a strong unified state, rather than only ethnic Russians. As it is a multi-ethnic state, Russian ethnic nationalism can obstruct Putin’s attempts at portraying strength through unity. The label “Putin’s brain” is only accurate sometimes.

    The Russian government uses Dugin when he is useful and separates itself from him when his extremism is inconvenient. Dugin is a tool who says many of the right things and facilitates Kremlin goals. His endorsement of Trump should be seen in its context: Russia attempting to strengthen itself at the expense of the US.

    Kevin Riehle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. ‘Putin’s brain’: Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian ultra-nationalist who has endorsed Donald Trump – https://theconversation.com/putins-brain-aleksandr-dugin-the-russian-ultra-nationalist-who-has-endorsed-donald-trump-253466

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The dark side of psychiatry – how it has been used to control societies

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Caitjan Gainty, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, King’s College London

    In his new book, No More Normal, psychiatrist Alastair Santhouse recalls an experience from the 1980s when he was a university student in the UK helping deliver supplies to “refuseniks” – Soviet citizens who were denied permission to leave the USSR. These people often faced harsh treatment, losing their jobs and becoming targets of harassment. Some were even diagnosed with a psychiatric condition called “sluggish schizophrenia”.

    By the time Santhouse encountered this diagnostic category, sluggish schizophrenia had been kicking around psychiatry in the Soviet Union for some time. It first entered the diagnostic lexicon in the 1930s, coined to describe cases in which adults diagnosed with schizophrenia had displayed no symptoms of the disorder in childhood.

    This notion of a symptomless disorder gave it tremendous value to Soviet officials in the 1970s and 80s, who wielded it ruthlessly against those who suddenly suffered from delusions of wanting a better society or hallucinatory desires to emigrate.

    But they weren’t the only ones to wield psychiatry to repress and control. “Punitive” or “political” psychiatry has proven to be quite a useful tool in many parts of the world. One well-known case is that of Chinese political activist Wang Wanxing, who marked the third anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy student protests in Tiananmen Square by unfurling his own pro-democracy banner on that same spot.

    He was immediately arrested, jailed, and then diagnosed with “political monomania”: a “condition” characterised by the irrational failure to agree with the state. For treatment, he was confined for 13 years in a psychiatric hospital, part of the Ankang (“peace and health”) network of psychiatric institutions where dissidents like him were forcefully medicated and subjected to “treatments” such as electrified acupuncture.

    More recent applications of punitive psychiatry pop up periodically in our news feeds and disappear just as quickly. Some women who removed their headscarves or cut their hair as part of anti-government protests in Iran in 2022 were diagnosed with antisocial behaviour, forcefully institutionalised and subjected to “re-education”.

    Women in Iran who protested against wearing hijabs were sent for re-education.
    Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock

    In 2024, in Russia, an activist’s choice of T-shirt, bearing the slogan “I am against Putin”, was considered so problematic that it required the summoning of a “psychiatric emergency team”.

    As in the Soviet Union, the advantages of punitive psychiatry were not a little Orwellian: diagnosing a citizen with a mental illness made it easier to isolate their ideas, cut them off physically and discourage similar behaviour.

    Not just authoritarian regimes

    While authoritarian regimes certainly seem to wield it with the most abandon, punitive psychiatry has not been absent in the west. Indeed, at the height of the civil rights movement in the US, black activists protesting generations of racial prejudice and injustice were subjected to much the same diagnostic regime.

    One example was the pastor and activist Clennon W. King, Jr. who was arrested and confined to a mental institution in 1958 after he attempted to enrol at the all-white University of Mississippi for a summer course. It was an act so inconceivable that the state of Mississippi thought he must be insane.

    And, according to his FBI record, the militant civil rights leader Malcolm X was a “pre-psychotic paranoid schizophrenic”: a diagnosis made based on his activism and protest speech. As Jonathan Metzl has shown, the descriptors used to “diagnose” Malcolm X were later enshrined in the American Psychiatric Association’s 1968 updated definition of schizophrenia. Dissent in the US was as potentially pathological as dissent anywhere else.

    Though each of these cases undoubtedly constitutes a gross misuse of psychiatry, the practice of making distinctions between what constitutes normal and abnormal behaviour is fundamental to the discipline. And, as Metzl’s account of the shifting definition of schizophrenia implies, psychiatric disorders are especially sensitive to social change.

    Unlike most physical illnesses, psychiatric illnesses often have few physiological signs. Whereas a broken bone on an X-ray can be declared unambiguously broken, psychiatric problems are diagnosed in terms of constellations of symptoms, written on but not in the body, and recounted by patients in conversation with their therapist, or via a listing of these symptoms on one of the many diagnostic questionnaires that make up the psychiatric diagnostic arsenal.

    Psychiatry’s bible

    These are then matched to symptom clusters listed in psychiatry’s bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Though in the everyday practice of mental health, there is much more to this process, in theory, the closeness of this match designates the absence or presence of disease.

    That psychiatric diagnoses are unusually socially responsive is by and large unavoidable. Our mental health is itself socially specific, so much so that some have argued that something as apparently universal as depression, for example, is actually an illness specific to western or even just anglophone cultures.

    Whether that hypothesis is true or not has no bearing on whether depression is in fact real. It only suggests what psychiatry intrinsically acknowledges already: that mental health has a critically significant social component.

    As the use of psychiatry for these punitive purposes makes clear, this necessary malleability lends itself to abuse. The radical psychiatrists of the 1970s certainly believed so when they re-examined the very notion of normal, exposing its role in policing society and enforcing categories of exclusion. It’s how homosexuality ended up as a diagnosable psychiatric illness in the 1952 edition of the DSM – a pathology built by and for the norms of the American mainstream.

    But it’s a malleability that can also lead to change in the opposite direction, where society – we, you and I – revisit and change these boundaries. Homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, not because of any new scientific information, but because of a targeted gay rights activist campaign and, more indirectly, the slow shift over the intervening decades toward greater social inclusion.

    In his book, Santhouse reflects on where we are now in psychiatry, at a time when there is, to quote his clever title, “no more normal”. Though the definition of normal is always in a state of flux, ours is a moment of diagnostic surfeit, in which mental health clinicians have had to cede space to a superabundance of resources that allow us – even encourage us – to diagnose ourselves.

    And that makes this an interesting moment: one in which we explicitly see our vision of mental health being remapped onto the shifting politics of identity and inclusion that permeate now. Insofar as this forces us to reckon with the social aspects of our mental health in a more explicit way than we are used to, perhaps this is no bad thing.

    Caitjan Gainty has received funding from the Wellcome Trust.

    – ref. The dark side of psychiatry – how it has been used to control societies – https://theconversation.com/the-dark-side-of-psychiatry-how-it-has-been-used-to-control-societies-248493

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why being ‘lazy’ at work might actually be a good thing

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Katrien Devolder, Director of Public Philosophy, Professor of Applied Ethics, University of Oxford

    Ground Picture/Shutterstock

    If you’re a young person today, you’ve probably felt the sting of being called lazy, or caught yourself wondering if you are. Do you sometimes feel guilty when not being productive, or find yourself pretending to be busy?

    You’re not alone. Self-doubt about productivity is very common and no wonder: we’re immersed in a culture that expects constant achievement. The perception of Gen Z (and Millennials) being “lazy” or “entitled” persists, making it easy to internalise these criticisms.

    Particularly in the era of working from home, it can be hard to shake the feeling of guilt when not being “productive”. Articles with titles like Am I Depressed or Lazy? reveals how commonly people (even highly successful ones) worry about being lazy.

    Laziness is not only seen as a personal shortcoming but also a moral one. This is the case across different cultures – references to the “badness” of laziness can be found in texts of all major religions. This moral dimension explains why being called “lazy” feels so much worse than being called “distracted” or “slow” — it implies a character flaw.

    But judging someone (or oneself) as lazy also reinforces a harmful myth that emerged from the Protestant work ethic and was further entrenched by capitalist values: that constant effort and productivity are the only paths to achievement and self-worth.

    This sustains a culture where everyone must always be trying harder, leading to anxiety, burnout and discrimination against those who work differently, or can’t keep up.

    Ready to make a change? The Quarter Life Glow-up is a new, six-week newsletter course from The Conversation’s UK and Canada editions.

    Every week, we’ll bring you research-backed advice and tools to help improve your relationships, your career, your free time and your mental health – no supplements or skincare required. Sign up here to start your glow-up at any time.

    These harms don’t affect everyone equally. If you’re from certain ethnic backgrounds, have a chronic health condition, or are struggling with homelessness or unemployment, you’re much more likely to be labelled “lazy”.

    Research shows that children from minority groups are more likely to be thought of as lazy in school, resulting in punishment instead of help. Employees with obesity are promoted less often due to assumptions about their “laziness”, and those who can’t take on extra work because of caring duties are often seen as not committed enough and miss out on professional development.

    What does it mean to be lazy?

    Given the serious consequences of labelling someone as lazy, we’d better make sure we understand what laziness is.

    What often seems implied by the judgement “you’re lazy” is: “You could achieve more if you tried harder”. But we can almost always achieve more by putting in more effort. If not always giving it our all is enough for laziness, then we’re all being lazy most of the time.

    The research I’m conducting aims to better understand and redefine “laziness”. I first explored how people commonly understand laziness, and then used philosophical analysis to identify which everyday understanding makes most sense. In doing so, I drew on various areas of philosophy that discuss the value of effort, virtue, and to what extent we can be blamed for behaving in a certain way due to lack of willpower.

    My analysis reveals that what is crucial for laziness is that you lack a good reason – a justification – for not trying harder, for limiting your effort.

    Consider these scenarios:

    • You do less than your role requires because you can’t be bothered,
    • You spend your weekend doing very little so that you’re ready for the week ahead,
    • You limit how hard you try because of a chronic health condition.

    On my understanding, only the first scenario involves true laziness. In the others, what might appear to be laziness is actually justified effort management: you have good reasons to rest or genuine limitations on how much effort you can exert.

    Laziness or strategy

    In my view, what truly matters isn’t how hard you try, but whether your efforts efficiently achieve what’s important to you. The following scenarios might look lazy, but are actually reasonable strategies for doing just that:

    • You resist pointless tasks to create time for deep thinking,
    • You set boundaries at work to avoid burnout,
    • You say “no” to tasks outside your role to resist the idea that we should always be striving to produce more,
    • You automate repetitive tasks to free up time for creative tasks.

    The tendency to judge others as lazy often stems from overvaluing effort, long hours and constant busyness. What’s really important is that our effort is directed at the right goal, recognising that it is a limited resource.

    What may look like laziness can actually be reframed as justified effort management.
    Rachata Teyparsit/Shutterstock

    Learning to distinguish between truly lazy behaviour and justified effort management can be liberating. It can allow you to more confidently resist the pressure to be constantly productive – and to do so without guilt.

    I’m not suggesting we should only think about what matters to us personally. Fulfilling responsibilities to colleagues, family and community is important. But within those boundaries, you can question the common idea that more productivity and trying harder is always better.

    And before labelling someone as lazy, consider whether there might be good reasons for their approach. Perhaps they’re making strategic choices about their energy, dealing with invisible challenges or prioritising differently.

    Sometimes, taking it easier isn’t laziness — it’s wisdom.

    Katrien Devolder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why being ‘lazy’ at work might actually be a good thing – https://theconversation.com/why-being-lazy-at-work-might-actually-be-a-good-thing-248955

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Planned blackouts are becoming more common − and not having cash on hand could cost you

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor Questrom School of Business, Boston University

    Are you prepared for when the power goes out? To prevent massive wildfires in drought-prone, high-wind areas, electrical companies have begun preemptively shutting off electricity. These planned shutdowns are called public safety power shutoffs, abbreviated to PSPS, and they’re increasingly common. So far this year, we’ve seen them in Texas, New Mexico and California.

    Unlike regular power failures, which on average last only about two hours while a piece of broken equipment is repaired, a PSPS lasts until weather conditions improve, which could be days. And these shutoffs come at a steep price. In 2010 alone, they cost California over US$13 billion. A 2019 analysis of shutoffs in Placer County, California, found that they harmed 70% of local businesses.

    I am a business school professor who studies how people pay for things, including during emergencies. As I point out in my new book “The Power of Cash: Why Using Paper Money is Good for You and Society,” many people have abandoned paper money and switched to electronic payments such as credit cards and mobile apps. This can become a big problem during an emergency, since these systems need electricity to operate. The switch to electronic payments is making the world less resilient in the face of increasing numbers of major natural disasters.

    So if a public safety power shutoff strikes and you don’t have any cash, you may be doubly vulnerable. On the other hand, keeping cash can protect you – and not just you and your family, but also local businesses and your community. After all, keeping the economy moving during shutoffs reduces the financial damage they cause.

    Why do they keep turning off the power, anyway?

    It’s all about risk.

    The world has experienced a number of very destructive wildfires recently. In 2025, large parts of Los Angeles burned to the ground, with over 18,000 buildings destroyed or damaged. In 2023, wildfires in Hawaii killed over 100 people. Massive wildfires have also occurred recently in South Korea, Portugal and Australia.

    Governments, people whose houses burned and insurance companies are all looking for someone to blame and pay for the damage. Climate change, which is increasing the world’s average temperatures and drying out trees and grass, is setting the conditions. Since Mother Nature cannot be sued, utilities make handy scapegoats with deep pockets. Electrical utilities are sued because their power lines, transformers and other equipment often start blazes.

    So to prevent lawsuits as well as fires, power companies are increasingly turning off the power when the conditions are ripe for a catastrophic blaze. There’s no uniform set of standards for when to impose a shutdown, but in general, power companies do it when there are hot, dry and windy conditions. For example, a PSPS is triggered in Hawaii if there’s a drought, wind gusts are over 45 miles per hour and relative humidity is under 45%.

    Power shutoffs are a relatively new idea. They were proposed in California in 2008 and first allowed in 2012.

    Since then, power companies across the entire western U.S. from Texas to Hawaii have adopted these plans. Shutoff plans also stretch from southern border states such as Arizona to northern border states such as Idaho and Montana.

    Shutting off the power is a huge problem, since it causes massive disruption to communities. People depend on power to run medical equipment, work and keep communities safe. Even people with a desperate need for electricity, such as those on medical life support, are not immune to a safety shutoff.

    How to prepare for a PSPS

    As the world warms, the chance of being caught in a preemptive power shutoff increases. What can you do to minimize the impact?

    Having solar panels won’t protect you: Utilities shut off customers with solar panels to block those panels from pushing power onto the grid, since the whole goal is to shut off the grid. The only way for you to still have power is to buy a battery storage system and a transfer switch, which allows you to take your system completely off the grid. But this is very expensive.

    Getting a portable generator is only a partial solution for a multiday shutoff, since most last only six to 18 hours on a single tank of gas. Plus, generators run very hot, which creates its own fire risk.

    Another way to minimize the impact of both a power shutoff and a wildfire is to create a small disaster relief kit, or “go bag.” Creating one is relatively inexpensive. It should contain key items such as water, your medicines, some shelf-stable food – and importantly, some cash. Even some government websites forget to mention this.

    It’s also important to use paper money before a shutoff happens. I have all too frequently seen gas station attendants, supermarket checkout clerks and restaurant servers have no idea how to handle cash.

    Recently at my local supermarket, for example, I paid with a $20 bill. The cashier had to ask another employee which kinds of coins to use to make change. If people don’t know how to handle cash during normal times, it ceases to be useful during emergencies.

    As the world warms, public safety power shutoffs will occur more frequently. The shutoffs clearly highlight the trade-off between economic and social disruption versus preventing dangerous wildfires. These shutoffs show there are no easy solutions – only hard choices.

    There are a few sensible and easy steps to take to reduce the impact of these shutoffs. One is to understand that during one of the very moments you might really need to spend money, modern payment systems fail. Holding and frequently using old-fashioned cash is a simple and low-cost way to protect yourself and your family.

    Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Planned blackouts are becoming more common − and not having cash on hand could cost you – https://theconversation.com/planned-blackouts-are-becoming-more-common-and-not-having-cash-on-hand-could-cost-you-253319

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: GOP lawmakers eye SNAP cuts, which would scale back benefits that help low-income people buy food at a time of high food prices

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Tracy Roof, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond

    A shopper who gets SNAP benefits shops for groceries at a supermarket in Bellflower, Calif., on Feb. 13, 2023. AP Photo/Allison Dinner

    Congress may soon consider whether to cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the main way the government helps low-income Americans put food on the table. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof, a political scientist who has researched the history of government nutrition programs, to explain what’s going on and why the effort to reduce spending on SNAP benefits, which can be used to purchase groceries, could falter.

    Why does it look like the federal government may cut SNAP spending?

    Conservative critics of SNAP believe that the U.S. spends too much on the program, which cost the federal government US$100 billion in the 2024 fiscal year.

    Federal spending on SNAP, however, has been falling since it peaked at $119 billion in 2022, before extra pandemic-related benefits ended.

    Some Republican lawmakers are calling for new changes that would cut spending on the program.

    Is there a SNAP budget?

    No.

    Today, SNAP helps nearly 42 million people put food on the table, including 1 in 5 children. Americans can usually qualify for SNAP benefits if their income is under 130% of the federal poverty line. In 2025, that would be $41,795 for a family of four and they have limited savings. Some eligibility guidelines can vary by state.

    The rules are complex. Most adults under the age of 60 are subject to work requirements if they are “able-bodied” and not caring for a child or incapacitated adult. If adults between the ages of 18 and 54 don’t log at least 20 hours of work or another approved activity, their benefits can be cut off. Immigrants without authorization to reside in the U.S. aren’t eligible for SNAP.

    Despite those restrictions on who can get SNAP benefits, there is no set limit to what the federal government can spend on the program. As more people become eligible due to their low incomes and therefore obtain benefits during economic downturns, this spending automatically increases. When the economy improves, it usually declines.

    States administer the program under federal government guidelines. The federal government covers the full cost of benefits low-income people receive through the program, but the states cover roughly half of the administrative costs.

    How can the federal government try to cut SNAP spending?

    There are two main paths to program cuts.

    One is through the farm bill, a legislative package Congress typically renews every four or five years that sets policies for SNAP and programs that support farmers’ incomes. The most recent farm bill expired in 2023. Congress has passed multiple one-year extensions on the measure because lawmakers have been unable to pass a new one.

    The latest extension will expire on Sept. 30, 2025.

    The other option is through the so-called budget reconciliation process underway in Congress. Right now, the primary Republican plan calls for extending $4.5 trillion in tax cuts passed in the first Trump administration and making up to $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.

    The House took the first step in this process by narrowly passing a budget blueprint on Feb. 25. This plan requires the House Agriculture Committee to cut $230 billion in spending over 10 years. While it does not force the committee to cut SNAP specifically, the program accounts for $1 trillion of the $1.3 trillion spent over a decade that the committee oversees – leaving few alternatives.

    What kinds of changes might cut costs?

    Most Republicans appear to favor changing how benefits are calculated and imposing stricter work requirements.

    Today, the value of SNAP benefits that participants in the program can get are calculated based on the “thrifty food plan,” a blueprint for a low-cost, nutritionally adequate diet. A family of four, for example, can get benefits of up to $939 a month if they have no income.

    The Biden administration updated that plan in 2021 in a way that increased monthly SNAP benefits by 23%, not counting the short-term pandemic adjustments to the program. Republican lawmakers want to prevent future changes to the thrifty food plan that might again sharply increase benefits.

    Another proposal would roll back the 2021 change in the thrifty food plan. This would cut current benefits and save $274 billion over a decade. One hitch is that House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson has promised no cuts to monthly SNAP benefits.

    Many Republicans would like to stiffen the work requirements by requiring work of recipients who are up to age 65 or are the parents of children who are more than six years old. They also could limit the ability of states to make exceptions in places that don’t have enough jobs.

    Other options include limiting states’ flexibility to offer benefits to people with incomes that are a little higher than 130% of the federal poverty level, capping the monthly benefit for larger households to the amount available to a family of six, and shifting more of the program’s costs to the states.

    Other proposals would crack down on fraud and benefit overpayments. Those steps would be likely to achieve a tiny fraction of the spending reductions the GOP seeks.

    How popular do you think these changes would be?

    The food insecurity rate, which reflects the number of people who worry about getting enough to eat or who report skipping meals or buying less nutritious food because of costs, has been high in recent years. Polls show most Americans support increasing SNAP benefits, not cutting them.

    Angry constituents have recently turned out to protest potential benefit cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP at town hall meetings held by members of Congress.

    Food prices are climbing, and there are growing concerns that a recession could be around the corner. As in earlier downturns, that would probably mean that more people would be eligible for SNAP benefits.

    Food banks, already struggling to meet demand and facing federal spending cuts, have warned they will not be able to fill gaps caused by reduced SNAP spending or new limits on benefits.

    What are some of the obstacles in the way of huge cuts?

    Getting the House and the Senate to agree on a budget bill that curbs SNAP spending will be very tricky, to say the least.

    Republicans have a very small majority in the House and they would need almost every vote. There are seven House Republicans from areas where over 20% of all residents get SNAP benefits, making it hard for them to vote for changes that would reduce or restrict the program’s scale.

    Other House Republicans, especially those expressing concerns about the national debt, are likely to insist that this spending be cut. It is unclear who will win this tug-of-war.

    There’s another complication. If substantial SNAP cuts are made in the current budget process, it could make reaching a compromise on a new farm bill even harder than it’s been in recent years. And while the budget can be passed without any votes from Democrats in Congress, the farm bill will require some bipartisan support.

    Tracy Roof has previously received funding from Virginia Humanities and several foundations associated with presidential archives to study the history of the food stamp program.

    – ref. GOP lawmakers eye SNAP cuts, which would scale back benefits that help low-income people buy food at a time of high food prices – https://theconversation.com/gop-lawmakers-eye-snap-cuts-which-would-scale-back-benefits-that-help-low-income-people-buy-food-at-a-time-of-high-food-prices-208556

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: America the secular? What a changing religious landscape means for US politics

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By David Campbell, Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, University of Notre Dame

    Conventional wisdom about nonreligious Americans’ voting misses some important distinctions. Sarah Rice/Getty Images

    After climbing for decades, the percentage of Americans with no religion has leveled off. For the past few years, the share of adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has stood at about 29%, according to a major study the Pew Research Center released Feb. 26, 2025.

    But this hardly means that the “nones,” or their impact on American life, are going away. In fact, their sheer size makes it likely that they will increase in political prominence.

    It will presumably come as no surprise that many secular voters lean to the political left. It may, however, be surprising to learn that a fairly large number of nonreligious voters supported President Donald Trump in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

    If the above paragraph is a head-scratcher, that is because “nonreligious” and “secular” are often treated as two ways of saying the same thing. But as political scientists who study religion – and the lack thereof – we have found that there is a fundamental difference between the two. While conventional wisdom holds that religious voters are Republicans and nonreligious voters are Democrats, the reality is more complicated.

    Nonreligious vs. secular

    So, what is the difference between people who are nonreligious vs. those who are secular?

    The nonreligious tend to define themselves by what they are not: for example, not belonging to a religion, not attending worship services, not believing in God. In our surveys, many people without a religious affiliation do not cite any particular worldview or philosophy when asked what guides their life.

    Secular people, on the other hand, define themselves by what they are: someone who has embraced a humanistic and even scientific worldview. That is, when asked about where they find truth, they turn to sources such as science and philosophy instead of scripture and religious teachings. Often, they identify as atheist, agnostic or humanist.

    There are secular people, however, who also embrace some aspects of faith. Religiosity and secularity are not in a zero-sum relationship: more of one does not necessarily mean less of the other. In our research, we found many cases of people who belong to a religious congregation yet have a secular worldview: This describes many Jews, mainline Protestants and even Catholics, for example.

    4 groups

    To get a better sense of Americans’ views, for over a decade we have worked on developing questions to identify people with a secular outlook, while also asking about religious commitment, such as how often someone attends services. Our findings culminated in the 2021 book “Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics.”

    Based on the results, we can divide the U.S. population into four groups: Religionists, Nonreligionists, Secularists and Religious Secularists.

    The Religionists category includes people of all faiths. At 41%, this is the largest group in the United States, but they do not form a majority.

    Secularists make up 27% of the population – larger than the percentage of any single religious tradition. Evangelical Christians, for example, are 23% of the U.S. population, according to Pew, and Catholics are 19%.

    Another 14% of Americans are what we call Religious Secularists: people who identify with and participate in a religious community, yet have a secular worldview. They might attend worship services but consider their religion more as an expression of their culture than a source of teachings to inform their daily decision-making. Some Religious Secularists may describe themselves as agnostic or even atheist.

    Finally, 18% of Americans are Nonreligionists: These are people we described above as not having any religion in their lives, but neither do they have a secular worldview. They are defined by what they are not, not what they are.

    Political views

    These four groups vary in whether they are politically engaged – and if so, whom they support.

    In our book about America’s “secular surge” we used data from a nationwide survey in 2017. In 2021, we conducted a second wave of that survey.

    According to data from that survey that we analyzed for this article, Religionists and Secularists are about equally likely to get involved in politics: roughly 30% of both groups reported doing something political in the past 12 months, such as attending a rally, volunteering for a candidate or donating money. Nonreligionists were much less likely: only 17%.

    In fact, no matter the form of civic engagement – voting, volunteering – Nonreligionists were consistently the least likely to be involved. Only 30% of Nonreligionists report belonging to any sort of club or organization, while for the rest of the population, it is closer to 50%.

    In the same 2021 survey, we asked people to rate various politicians on a 0-100 scale, with a higher number meaning a more positive view.

    On average, Religionists rated Trump a 61, the highest of the four groups; Secularists give him the lowest score, at 14. Nonreligionists gave Trump 47 points.

    It would be wrong, however, to call the Nonreligionists an ideologically conservative group.

    Consider their ratings of Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democratic Party but describes himself as a democratic socialist. For three of the groups, support for Sanders was the mirror opposite of their feelings toward Trump, a Republican. Secularists, for instance, gave the Vermont senator a relatively high score of 66, on average; Religionists’ feelings toward him are much cooler, at 32 points.

    By contrast, Nonreligionists gave a nearly identical rating to Trump and Sanders. Given that the two men are at opposite ideological poles, how could Nonreligionists rate them the same? We suspect it is because both figures challenge the status quo.

    In 2024, the Trump campaign worked to mobilize “low-propensity voters”: political jargon for people with the low levels of civic engagement often found among Nonreligionists. Not only are they politically disengaged, they are the most likely to combine being young, male, white and without a college degree.

    A ‘secular left’?

    Secularists, too, are disproportionately young and white. But in other ways they are very different from Nonreligionists. Secularists typically have a college degree and are evenly balanced between women and men. Typically, they are also liberal and highly engaged in politics.

    So how will they shape American politics? The answer may depend on whether Secularists cohere into a movement – a secular left to parallel the religious right.

    Today, highly religious conservatives are a vocal group within American politics, the core of the Republican Party. A generation ago, however, they were a disparate group of people from different Christian denominations, from Baptists to Pentecostals. Many of the religious groups that now march in common cause once had sharp disagreements.

    It remains to be seen whether secular voters will organize in a similar way. Either way, it is safe to say America’s religious composition has changed significantly.

    Don’t assume, however, that a turn away from religion necessarily means a sharp turn toward the political left. We’d caution that the story is more complicated. For now, secular voters lean to the left – but nonreligious voters are up for grabs.

    David Campbell and Geoffrey Layman received funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Geoffrey C. Layman and David E. Campbell received funding from the National Science Foundation.

    – ref. America the secular? What a changing religious landscape means for US politics – https://theconversation.com/america-the-secular-what-a-changing-religious-landscape-means-for-us-politics-249892

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Land reparations are possible − and over 225 US communities are already working to make amends for slavery and colonization

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sara Safransky, Associate Professor, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University

    Ever since the United States government’s unfulfilled promise of giving every newly freed Black American “40 acres and a mule” after the Civil War, descendants of the enslaved have repeatedly proposed the idea of redistributing land to redress the nation’s legacies of slavery.

    Land-based reparations are also a form of redress for the territorial theft of colonialism.

    Around the world, politicians tend to dismiss calls for such initiatives as wishful thinking at best and discrimination at worst. Or else, they are swatted away as too complex to implement, legally and practically.

    Yet our research shows a growing number of municipalities and communities across the U.S. are quietly taking up the charge.

    We are geographers who since 2021 have been documenting and analyzing over 225 examples of reparative programs underway in U.S. cities, states and regions. Notably, over half of them center land return.

    These efforts show how working locally to grapple with the complexity of land-based reparations is a necessary and feasible part of the nation’s healing process.

    The Evanston effect

    Evanston, Illinois, launched the country’s first publicly funded housing reparations program in 2019.

    In its current form, Evanston’s Restorative Housing Program has provided disbursements to more than 200 recipients. All are Black residents of Evanston or direct descendants of residents who experienced housing discrimination between 1919 and 1969. Benefits include down payment assistance and mortgage assistance as well as funds to make home repairs and improvements.

    The goal is to redress the harm Evanston caused during these 50-plus years of racial discrimination in public schools, hospitals, buses and segregated residential zoning. During that same period, banks in Evanston, as in other U.S. cities, also refused to give Black residents mortgages, credit or insurance for homes in white neighborhoods.

    “I always said you can keep the mule,” program beneficiary Ron Butler told NBC News in 2024. “Give me the 40 acres in Evanston.”

    Reparations that focus on land, housing and property are about more than making amends for centuries of racial discrimination. They help to restore people’s self-determination, autonomy and freedom.

    Following Evanston’s lead, in 2021 a group of 11 U.S. mayors created Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity, a coalition committed to developing pilot reparations programs. Members include Los Angeles, Austin and Asheville.

    The cities act as sites to generate ideas about how reparation initiatives could be scaled up nationally. Each mayor is advised by committees made up of representatives from local Black-led organizations.

    Colonial reparations

    In recent years the city of Eureka, in Northern California, has been returning some territory to its Native inhabitants.

    Indigenous people often call this process rematriation; it’s part of a broader effort to restore sovereignty and sacred relationships to their ancestral lands.

    In 2019, after years of petitioning by members of the Wiyot people, the Eureka City Council returned 200 acres of Tuluwat Island, a 280-acre island in Humboldt Bay where European settlers in 1860 massacred about 200 Wiyot women and children.

    “It’s a sovereignty issue, a self-governance issue,” said Wiyot tribal administrator Michelle Vassel in a November 2023 radio interview.

    Minneapolis’ sale of city lots to the Red Lake Nation for $1 in 2023 is another example of how city governments can make amends for past Indigenous displacement and removal. Plans to develop the low-cost lots include a cultural center for Red Lake people, an opioid treatment center and potentially housing.

    The Red Lake Reservation once included 3.3 million acres. The 1889 Dawes Act forced the Red Lake Band to cede all but 300,000 acres. The federal government later returned some land, but today the reservation is still only a quarter of its original size.

    Reparations are critical to racial equity

    These initiatives may sound like a drop in the bucket considering the vast harms committed over centuries of slavery and colonization. Yet they prove that governments can craft targeted, achievable and meaningful policies to address colonialism and enslavement.

    The state of Minnesota transferred Upper Sioux Agency State Park back to the Dakota people in 2023 in an effort to make amends for a war and historic slaughter there.
    AP Photo/Trisha Ahmed

    They also tackle a frequent critique of reparations, which is that slavery and colonialism happened centuries ago. Yet their effects continue to harm Black and Native communities generations later. Today, white households in the U.S. have roughly nine times the wealth of typical Black households.

    One explanation for this racial disparity is that Black households earn 20% less than their white counterparts. But a more meaningful driver is what scholars call the “intergenerational transmission chain” – that is, the role that gifts and inheritance play in wealth generation.

    That’s why reparations – with both land and money – are so critical to creating racial equity.

    Still, reparations programs do raise a host of complex, practical questions. Which kinds of historic racial injustice take priority, and what form should repair take? Who qualifies for the benefits?

    Community-based land reparations

    Reparations don’t have to come from the government.

    In recent years, more than a hundred community-based organizations across the U.S. have introduced their own initiatives to redistribute land and wealth to make amends for past injustices.

    Makoce Ikikcupi, in the Minnesota River Valley, is a community reparations program led by Dakota peoples. Since 2009, the group has been collecting funds to buy back portions of the Dakota homeland. One revenue source is voluntary contributions from descendants of Europeans who colonized that land. This fundraising strategy is sometimes called “real rent” or “back rent.”

    The group purchased its first 21-acre parcel of land in 2019, where it is building traditional earth lodges, with plans for several self-sustaining Dakota villages.

    “We consider our donation…‘back rent,’” reads the testimony of one monthly contributor, Josina Manu, on the group’s webpage. He calls the reclamation of Dakota land a “vital” step “towards creating a just world.”

    Fair compensation for eminent domain

    Many communities are also working together to repair the legacies of anti-Black racism.

    In the 1960s, the city of Athens, Georgia, used eminent domain to build dormitories for the University of Georgia. Paying below market value, it demolished an entire Black neighborhood called Linnentown.

    In early 2021, following petitioning from former Linnentown residents who’d lost their homes, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution recognizing their neighborhood’s destruction as “an act of institutionalized white racism and terrorism resulting in intergenerational Black poverty.”

    Because Georgia law prohibits government entities from making payments to individuals, a community group stepped in to organize compensation.

    The result is Athens Reparations Action, a coalition of churches and community organizations. Formed in 2021, it had raised $120,000 by 2024 to distribute among the 10 families who are Linnentown survivors and descendants.

    Backlash

    Our research also tracks legal challenges to the reparations initiatives we are studying.

    Conservative groups such as Judicial Watch have filed dozens of retaliatory lawsuits against several of them, including Evanston’s Restorative Housing Program. A 2024 class action complaint alleges that the program discriminates based on race, violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

    These legal challenges are part of the broader front of conservative-led assaults on voting rights, affirmative action and critical race theory. Like reparations, all are efforts to grapple with the U.S.’s historical mistreatment of Black, Indigenous and other people of color.

    Attacking those initiatives is an attempt to preserve what scholar Laura Pulido calls “white innocence.” We expect more of them under a second Trump term already defined by its assault on antidiscrimination policies and programs.

    So far, none of Trump’s decrees has targeted reparations specifically. For now, reparations are still legal and constitutional – and possible.

    Sara Safransky has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies, however, I have not received funding from these organizations for the research project discussed in this article. The only grant I’ve received to fund this research is an internal grant from Vanderbilt University.

    Elsa Noterman has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the British Academy. However, I have not received funding from these organizations for the research project discussed in this article. The only grant I have received to fund this research is an internal grant from Queen Mary University of London.

    Madeleine Lewis has received research funding from the Society for Community Research and Action. However, that funding is not related to the research project mentioned in the article.

    – ref. Land reparations are possible − and over 225 US communities are already working to make amends for slavery and colonization – https://theconversation.com/land-reparations-are-possible-and-over-225-us-communities-are-already-working-to-make-amends-for-slavery-and-colonization-246106

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Canada a 51st state? Here’s how American annexation could actually favour Canada

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Felix Arndt, Professor and John F. Wood Chair in Entrepreneurship, University of Guelph

    When United States President Donald Trump first floated the idea of annexing Canada, many observers rolled their eyes. The common assumption was that this proposal, like much of Trump’s bombast, amounted to little more than a fleeting soundbite.

    Yet, amid continuing public remarks about Canada becoming the 51st state and suggestions of genuine intent, the idea has become part of a broader conversation about North America’s future.

    The idea of the U.S. merging with Canada outright has not been received well in Canada, especially because Trump’s threats have been accompanied by economic warfare aimed at forcing Canada into submission. After all, the U.S. already has 50 states. Canada, with its population of about 40 million and its immense geographic size, would be an outsized “51st” by any comparison.

    But any serious analysis of this proposition quickly reveals that annexation would be far more complicated — and far less one-sided — than the label “51st state.”

    Our analysis is premised on an assumption that the U.S. remains a democratic system that has not turned into a pseudo-monarchy, in keeping with a Trump social media post in early February proclaiming “long live the King.”

    The most important takeaway from our analysis is that a unified country would need to inaugurate a new president and Parliament. The path towards the integration of the countries would have to start with closer economic integration, not the alienation currently in place.

    A multi-state reality

    As we argue in our newest self-published book Make America Greater? A Scenario of a Friendly Canada-U.S. Merger, Canada would not simply become part of the U.S. as a single state under the provisions of the American Constitution.

    Based on population and the distribution of power in U.S. Congress, Canada’s 10 provinces and three northern territories would almost certainly be carved into multiple states, perhaps nine or more.

    This is no small detail.

    America’s unique electoral arithmetic grants each state two senators, while seats in the House of Representatives depend on population size. With around 40 million new citizens, a unified North America would reshape the balance of power in both the Senate and the House.



    Read more:
    Canada as a 51st state? Republicans would never win another general election

    Critically, the new country formed via unification might end up looking far more like Canada than many Americans imagine.

    Why? Canadian voters lean more centrist — or even centre-left — than the average American does. Over time, that could tilt congressional priorities in favour of policies reflecting Canada’s taste for universal health care, stricter gun control and robust social welfare.

    The longstanding political tug-of-war in the U.S. could see its centre of gravity shift, likely to the chagrin of some more conservative segments of the existing union.

    Tariffs, politics and tensions

    Officials on both sides of the border are already locked in a dance of retaliatory tariffs.

    Each new measure escalates anxieties, threatening to derail one of the world’s largest bilateral trading relationships.

    Some might argue that if tariffs are putting negative pressures on the economy and roiling the markets, perhaps deeper integration — or even full-blown unification — could serve as a release valve. But the path towards a friendly merger is best taken step-by-step and starts with stronger economic integration, not alienation.



    Read more:
    Canada’s response to Trump’s tariffs was strategic, but there is room for improvement

    Forging a genuine union goes well beyond removing trade barriers. Canada and the U.S. differ on far more than just economics: from bilingualism laws to gun regulations, from health care to environmental policy, the two countries embody contrasting visions of how society should function.

    Canadians would expect to preserve elements of their social contract that many regard as superior to American norms — particularly their single-payer health-care system and comparatively strict firearms restrictions.

    A process genuinely aimed at integrating the two countries would take this into account. It would extend the United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal further to strengthen economic integration, elevate the rights of French and Spanish speakers in the U.S. in order to signal compatible cultural values and extend Medicare to show an appreciation of the common denominators of the two societies.

    Trump’s current rhetoric, however, does not seem to indicate a genuine desire for a unification.

    Why a merger could favour Canada

    As surprising as it seems, our analysis suggests that a unified North America could lean Canada’s way over time.

    Even if the American Electoral College were reimagined — or scrapped — Canadian provinces transformed into states would wield significant power, influencing everything from budget allocations to Supreme Court appointments.



    Read more:
    As Joe Biden becomes president, here’s an easy proposal for Electoral College reform

    What’s more, cultural convergence has an asymmetrical pull. Younger Americans show a growing appetite for social safety nets, while Canadians remain broadly wedded to their publicly funded health-care model.

    Over a few election cycles, these forces could converge into a more expansive welfare regime, something that would astonish traditional conservatives across the current 50 states.

    A combined North America would boast one of the largest economies on Earth, including abundant natural resources and technological innovation.

    The promise of frictionless trade, a single currency and vast internal markets might delight big business and certain multinational interests. Yet the path would be fraught.

    Constitutional arrangements, Indigenous rights, linguistic protections and environmental regulations — all areas in which Canadian norms diverge significantly from American precedents — would have to be reconciled.

    Canadians, proud of their universal healthcare, progressive climate policies and lower rates of gun violence, would worry about being subsumed by a more rambunctious, militarized neighbour. Americans, meanwhile, would fear they would be forced to adopt new taxes and policies at odds with their historic emphasis on individual freedoms.

    A country more closely resembling Canada

    Regardless of whether Trump’s annexation talk proves more than just bluster, the notion of a friendly U.S.–Canada merger invites reflection. It reminds us that North America’s two largest nations remain economically interlocked and geographically co-located, though culturally distinct.

    With tariffs in place and cross-border tensions mounting, creative solutions are worth examining, even if a merger can — at best — be seen as a long-term vision.

    A genuine offer of a merger would require that Canadians to be assured that if such a union did transpire, their voices might echo far more loudly than expected in the halls of Washington, D.C.

    And Americans — facing shifting demographics and changing societal values — may discover that the annexation Trump initiated could bring surprises that tilt the new country much closer to its northern neighbour’s ideals than to the status quo below the 49th parallel.

    Felix Arndt is an author of a book referred to in this article.

    Barak Aharonson is an author of a book with a similar topic.

    – ref. Canada a 51st state? Here’s how American annexation could actually favour Canada – https://theconversation.com/canada-a-51st-state-heres-how-american-annexation-could-actually-favour-canada-251547

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Cannabis retail expansion in Canada came with only a small uptick in the number of consumers

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michael J. Armstrong, Associate Professor, Operations Research, Brock University

    Ever since recreational cannabis was legalized across Canada in 2018, researchers have been studying what that decision changed for Canadians.

    We’ve learned, for example, that some patients immediately left the medical cannabis system, presumably to use recreational products instead. Conversely, legalization appeared to have no effect on Canadian alcohol sales.

    We’ve similarly seen how cannabis retailing has evolved since it became legal.

    Retailers suffered from product shortages during legalization’s first six months, but steadily expanded soon after. Canada went from having some 210 stores in April 2019 to 3,500 in April 2023. The ensuing competition pushed prices down 28 per cent during that period.

    Meanwhile, provincial governments have tried various regulatory approaches. Some initially restricted the number of stores to avoid tempting non-users. Québec still has 10 times fewer stores per capita than Ontario does as a result. Other provinces have set minimum prices to discourage people from overindulging. For example, Ontario won’t let wholesale prices drop below $2.28 per gram.

    These developments in business and government policy prompted my latest research. I wanted to understand what effect retail expansion had on cannabis use. To do this, I analyzed consumer responses on government surveys collected between 2019 to 2023. I then compared these responses to the recreational cannabis consumer price index and the numbers of licensed stores in each province.

    Did Canadians consume cannabis more widely, more frequently and at younger ages as it became more accessible and affordable? The answer was mostly no.

    More women and older adult consumers

    The percentage of men who used cannabis stayed around 28 per cent between 2019 and 2023 — despite retailers’ massive store growth and notable price cuts.

    But usage did grow slightly among women — rising from 21 per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2023. My analysis suggests this was related to the increasing affordability of cannabis, not its retail convenience. More women consumed cannabis when prices fell, not when more shops opened.

    A similar contrast appeared between younger and older adults. Cannabis use among Canadians aged 25 and over crept upward from 21 to 23 per cent. That increase again seemed related to falling prices rather than expanding stores. Meanwhile, usage among those aged 16 to 24 varied year-to-year, but remained around 46 per cent.

    The average age of first-time use consequently rose from 19.2 in 2019 to 20.8 years old in 2023. This finding also seemed correlated with both falling prices and expanding stores.

    Same frequency, more edibles

    One thing that didn’t change much was frequency of use. About one-quarter of cannabis consumers used it five or more days per week in both 2019 and 2023.

    However, their product preferences shifted. The percentage who smoked dried cannabis decreased while the percentage of consumers who consumed edibles increased. Some consumers used both types of products, or used other products entirely — such as vapes. Both changes seemed related to prices rather than the number of retail stores. Consumers seemingly traded-up from basic dried cannabis to processed edibles as prices fell.

    So overall, Canada’s substantial retail developments came with only modest usage growth.

    The apparent relationships between usage and price might partly be coincidental. Product selection and quality also improved, so they likely contributed too. But falling prices do seem to be a plausible explanation for the increased cannabis consumption that was seen.

    The lack of relationship between stores and usage might seem surprising. After all, Canada experienced a 16-fold explosion in stores between 2019 and 2023. But this finding correlates with what my previous research found; it showed that between 2018 and 2020, there was a similar non-relationship between retail expansion of cannabis stores and usage.



    Read more:
    Cannabis store openings in Canada only slightly affected the number of users

    So, perhaps the main effect of retail stores was to draw existing users away from illegal dealers, rather than to tempt new ones.

    I suspect retailers probably influenced usage somewhat in their local neighbourhoods. For example, someone who walked by a new store daily on their way to work might have decided to try cannabis. But this effect would have been too small to appear in province-level measurements.

    Price restriction

    The findings from my study suggests some tentative lessons for regulators.

    If opening more stores has minimal impact on usage, there’s little need to limit their numbers. Provinces don’t need to ration store licenses, and municipalities (like Markham and Oakville in Ontario) don’t need to ban them.

    But since price declines tempt more consumers, it’s important for policymakers to prevent prices from getting too low.

    Other countries who are considering legalizing cannabis may want to consider these points, too.

    For example, medical cannabis use is surging in Australia, much like it was in Canada a decade ago. And Australia’s Green Party is campaigning for recreational legalization in the upcoming federal election. If that election produces a coalition government, legalization might be on its agenda. They could look at our policies and hopefully improve on them.

    Meanwhile in Germany, the previous government legalized recreational use, but not sales. So, Germans must grow their own plants or join a club that does. Commercial products are sold only through the country’s medical cannabis system. Unsurprisingly, medical use is soaring there. Based on what my research suggests, Germany will likely see similar usage growth, whether it allows stores or not. But allowing stores would mean consumers could buy products from licensed sources instead of illicit dealers.

    Canada’s cannabis legalization was controversial at the time. But some Canadians say it has become a memorable part of Justin Trudeau’s complicated legacy. Now that he’s no longer prime minister, that’s something he and his biographers can contemplate.

    Michael J. Armstrong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Cannabis retail expansion in Canada came with only a small uptick in the number of consumers – https://theconversation.com/cannabis-retail-expansion-in-canada-came-with-only-a-small-uptick-in-the-number-of-consumers-252008

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –