Look Outside The Boxes July 23, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Community, Spirituality, Sustainability , add a comment
Someone asked me recently to describe what the world would be like if we didn’t heed the warnings to do something about climate change and the unsustainable exploitation of the earth’s resources. So this is my vision:
Populations of the poor and uneducated will be pushed to the high ground as the sea levels rise. There the already denuded and desertified lands will face increased pressure. In the less prepared countries where governments are not equipped to deal with the influx, law and order will soon collapse and marauding gangs will soon rise and become the law of the land. Just as the Difaqane wars displaced the peoples of southern Africa, so will we have waves of displaced people escaping the gangs. Murder and starvation will prevail. I have a vision of a small nomadic family fighting its way through a sandstorm, dragging their prize possession, a goat. Out of the miasma comes a group on horseback (or in a vehicle, if there’s any fuel to be obtained). They are strong and consist of men. They take the goat and kill the father and son for good measure. They rape the women and move on. Sound familiar? Could be Zimbabwe or it could be Darfur right now. Most people in Africa know what desperation feels like. It is a visceral rather than cerebral knowledge, born out of immediate and personal experience.
Jung and the Wilderness July 17, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Spirituality , add a comment
Most people have heard of Sigmund Freud, who is valued as the father of modern psychology. Although Victorian in his outlook (he claimed that human behavior could be explained by repressed sexuality) his major contribution was to bring the idea of the unconscious mind in the mainstream. Freud’s work attracted much attention in its time and provided a foundation for the furtherance of the science.
One of Freud’s friends, Carl Jung, has had an even greater impact of the life of the modern. The Swiss psychologist took the idea of the unconscious mind further and said that the libido (in the true sense of the word i.e. life force) lived therein. He believed that if modern man was to retrieve his sense of meaning it was his task to bring aspects of the unconscious to light, as best as he was able.
Bushmen Forced Removals: The Other Side of the Story July 30, 2007
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : African Peoples, Conservation, Spirituality , add a comment
The plight of the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Botswana has long been in the media limelight thanks to Survival International, the human rights organization. As with so much in life, the issue is far from simple and the 25th May 2007 Survival International Report gives clues as to the dilemma the Government of Botswana faces in this sensitive matter.
