An Anticlimactic Cop26

Cop26 pledges to reduce emissions and halt deforestation are a major step forward in the battle to stage a recovery from the impending environmental disaster we are in the midst of. They definitely don’t solve the problem but they do map out a path towards a solution. Unfortunately, there are a lot obstacles littering that path. There are obviously some countries that are adamantly reluctant to give up the money and influence that an emissions heavy and fossil fuel driven world gives them. There are also a lot of countries that don’t have the infrastructure or basic living conditions to adopt a sustainable and environmentally friendly lifestyle. 

Developing countries are jockeying for finance to support them towards becoming carbon neutral. The UN needs to push for funding to support the investment in setting up the infrastructure for renewable energy in developing countries. It also needs to have a framework to ensure that certain countries following through on their pledges to transition away from fossil fuels and environment damaging practices. However, there is little indication that any allocated funding will be actually applied to delivering a sustainable environment and renewable energy platform. The dominance of corruption and poverty in these countries means that the carbon neutral goals may just not be realistic. A lot of the countries have rural areas that are largely lacking in amenities. Even electrification is still an aspirational target in a lot of these places. The requirements to enable them to adopt renewable energy on a mass scale are just not there.

Developing countries are responsible for less than 5% of total global emissions but are disproportionately affected by the impact of global warming. However, it must be acknowledged that a lot of developing countries import and consume a high volume of goods that produced by manufacturing responsible for a large amount of emissions. These economies and conveniences mean that while there is a demand for such commodities certain countries will continue to hesitate to change their manufacturing modalities. We have seen that Russia, China, India and Brazil; primarily amongst others, have dragged their feet towards embracing the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. 

Nigeria, a major oil producer, has done very little to develop solar or wind energy energy production. And this is despite being ideally placed to make strides in developing renewable energy resources. For decades now successive Nigeria governments have not only allowed petroleum companies to damage the environment, but have been complicit in suppressing efforts to halt and repair the damage. The country could have instituted a surcharge on corporate and individual leasing of oil concessions to repair and develop areas damaged by oil exploration. The surcharges could also serve as an investment fund for developing renewable energy solutions. It has not done so because of corruption, an absence of will, and a half hearted approach to tackling climate change. 

Plans to reduce emissions, tackle methane production, phase out coal, curb deforestation and promote renewable energy are an extremely important step forward for the world. However, putting forward plans is not a guarantee that effective action will be taken. Developing countries are the most in need of environmental rehabilitation but they are the least likely to be fully committed making the changes needed. They are making a case for being given financing to enable them implement their plans but it is unlikely that the plans reflect the totality of the problem facing such countries. It is also highly unlikely that any funding won’t be misused or diverted towards other things. 

The onus is on developed countries who are responsible for the greater proportion of global emissions to take decisive action to stop coal usage, phase out fossil fuels and stop profiting from environmental destruction. Unformtunately, developed countries are hardly the good samaritans we need them to be. They are much more the 'big bad wolves' of the world. America is just a few million votes away from another Trumpean apocalypse. Russia and Putin are very focused on doing anything to gain geographical and economic dominance over any nations vulnerable to its sway. China is desparately trying to relive Mao dynastic rule. The U.K. appears to have become pathologically untrustworthy and unreiable. The E.U. is struggling to convince its member states that they can thrive from working as a union without losing any sovereignty. The emerging economies are holding on to the idea of economic success above all else. The prospect of saving the environment seems extremly fraught.

There is a possibility of reducing emissions and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. However, this will require the developed nations doing their part and the whole world holding them to account. Without a concerted effort by all there is no way to achieve the desired goal by 2050. There is also a need to recognise that while reducing emissions will work towards a global rescue; developing countries are currently struggling with not only the effects of global warming but also a failure or inabillity to protect their regions against climate catastrophes. The work to develop strategies, plans and infrastructure needs to already be in full swing. Finance will be needed to get things underway. Governments will also need to be motivated to commit to the work and effectively implement environmentally sustainable practices.

R. Kelly: A Generational Shame

The other day I heard someone blasting an R. Kelly song in their car while driving down the street and it made me think about how we allowed his musical success to prevent us from expressing reservations about his behaviour. There is no doubt that the people around him should have called him aside at some point and told him to stop. Not that it would have made any difference to him. However, there were enough signs for those of us listening to and buying his music to wonder exactly what was going on with him. As it turned out, it wasn’t until years later when the videos leaked that people really started to sit up and take notice. By then it was already too late for his victims, the community and he himself. 

When he released his second album we should have taken note of the themes of female domination and subjugation that were so very clearly front and centre in the songs. And we should have taken the stories about him marrying Aaliyah more seriously. There is no way the signs coming through shouldn’t have alarmed us. And it definitely shouldn’t have taken us so long to look a little closer into what was going on. 

Unfortunately, in today’s celebrity obsessed culture it is not possible to say that this will not happen again. However, Black people have to start taking another look at how we respond to sexual abuse in close knit communities and religious settings. We need to make it safe for children and women to speak out against sexual abuse without being stigmatised and ostracised in their families and communities. Black people are often reluctant to be seen to drag down prominent Black figures in the community. However, speaking out and acting against abuse and assault cannot be shied away from. It is a responsibility we owe to all girls, women, children and society as a whole. We need to listen to victims and act to confront and put a stop to abuse wherever it is happening. Unless we ourselves change our attitudes to abuse nothing will get better. 

Sabina Nessa

The murder of Sabina Nessa is another thread in an all too familiar pattern of women being murdered by men while going about their daily lives. Women and girls are not safe and this has been the case for a very long time. Over time society has adopted norms that make it tolerable for men to murder women and feel able to get away with justifying their actions. Whether it is the French notion of ‘crime of passion’, the murder defence of “violent sex”, or the implication that rape victims somehow did something to provoke their assailants; society finds a way to make violence against women reasonable under certain circumstances. The truth is that males need to learn to respect the rights, choices and bodies of women.

Violent urges are primeval but over time the desire for social acceptance has restrained people from wantonly resorting to it. Unfortunately we are at a point where men seem to feel that giving in to violent urges is liberating and empowering. There are too many instances of people resorting to violence to resolve personal differences. It has become common to find people on social media threatening violence against strangers whom they might be having a difference of opinion with. Social media personalities have taken to promoting and organising boxing matches as a way of amping up rivalries. The US experiences of minorities subjected to violent police interventions have been disturbing and disruptive. And recently the increasing exposure of violent assaults by U.K. law enforcement officers has spotlighted a very worrying trend. 

As a society we need to address and change the culture of violence against women that has become entrenched in our lives. We should be able to rely on law enforcement and government institutions to recognise the dangerous trends and actively work to combat them. Talking about it isn’t enough. Not enough is being done and women are paying the price for this negligence. Keeping women safe is not about finding protectors, it’s about stopping perpetrators. 

Manning Up

Black people face a lot of challenges in today’s world. Advancing themselves and uplifting their communities while dealing with personal demands and institutional prejudice place quite a strain on individuals. Tragically Black males have been frequently known to get involved in criminality, drugs and gender based violence. This comes out of a culture of toxic masculinity that has normalised both misogynistic and anti-social behaviour.

It needs to be acknowledged that too many young Black males are overly invested in living out a ‘gangsta’ fantasy. It is so bad that a majority of them are so committed to it that they can’t see any reason why it isn’t a viable life choice. If you add the lack of any real ambition outside of making quick money, and toxic masculinity to the equation; we are now dealing with a young underclass that cannot see the potential of a big blue sky and instead is settling for a hole in the ground. 

The double whammy of materialism and violence has had a detrimental effect on Black families and women. Not only is the behaviour of Black males devastating domestic family life, it is also tearing apart the community fabric that Black people have been so dependent on for survival. This is not to say that there aren’t negative external pressures that are hurting the Black society. Racism, poverty, discrimination, unemployment, low educational achievement are equally problematic. However Black males have become an issue that we can no longer ignore. 

The corruption of the Black male psyche is a generational issue that has created an endemic problem. It is difficult to expect more when the individuals have very little self worth and awareness. If all they value are material things and machismo then by adulthood we are being left with too many lost causes. The numbers of Black men not in education or employment, involved in the criminal justice system or who have a history of abuse and violence speak for themselves. 

There aren’t any miracle cures for the problem but families have a responsibility to instil good values in their youth. The Black community also needs to do a better job of promoting wholesome role models. People who know the harm that systemic racism has been doing but are still committed to improving themselves and the people around them. Being a better man is not about being a superstar it’s about supporting yourself and those people you come into contact with. 

Fighting Racism Matters

The experience of being discriminated against and abused because of your race in societies that you have been born into and grown up in is unique to people of colour. The longstanding nature of racial discrimination has meant that it has become innate and systemic in most western societies. This doesn’t deny the efforts of some groups to combat and make amends for it. However, it is counterproductive to continue to argue that the existence of systemic racism is not an issue. It means that the history of racial prejudice and discrimination is not taught comprehensively in communities or schools, and it poses a real danger to people of colour and social cohesion. 

As Black people and persons of colour we are not a homogeneous group. This is despite a lot of individuals from majority populations not being able to tell people of colour apart. Whether we are Asian, from the Pacific Islands or African, including by birth or heritage we are all very different people. In fact people from any two different African countries are very likely to be nothing alike and have little in common. However despite all these differences our experience of racism, prejudice and discrimination remains singularly uniiform. If you take a look at America any group of persons of colour may differ in culture, norms or perspectives but will still face the absolute same experience when it comes to discrimination. In fact if a being from outer space landed in America today it is most likely to be more welcomed than a hard working, well spoken and educated person of colour. 

People of colour need to go on a journey of self development that means they are able to support themselves and give back to their communities. We need older people to do more to promote socially aware values that espouse empowerment and self awareness. Young people need to feel inspired to develop themselves and adopt lifestyles that allow them to be independent and enlightened. We cannot wait for reparations before we recognise and repair the rifts in our own communities. Even reparations will not initiate the empowerment and solidarity that people of colour need to uplift their communities in majority White societies. The discussion of reparations might trigger some opportunities to highlight the challenges of striving for racial equality. However, right wing governments and politicians are extremely ready to vigorously deny the space to even have the discussion in a public arena. Any attempt to raise and pursue the issue of historical and systemic racism is seen as a threat rather than an opportunity to work towards a better understanding of the needs and challenges of minority communities. 

The recent racial criticism and abuse of English footballers who participated in the 2021 European Football Championship says a lot for how racial intolerance is very much alive in high society and underbelly of the nation. There might have been any number of players who underperformed during the tournament but it was the Black players who were particularly singled out for abuse. It made no difference that the Black players had represented their country with pride and distinction. The sort of racism they have been subjected to is not isolated or a rare occurrence. It is the sort of prejudice that people of colour experience on the streets, in school, in the workplace and during interactions with public institutions. This speaks to a level of institutionalised racism that needs to be acknowledged in order to be addressed. 

How do you solve a problem like Nigeria?

It is incredible that the current Nigerian government that is widely seen as ineffective and unpopular fails to see the benefits of social media in promoting reform and recovery. In Africa in particular, having a vibrant social media is one way to sustain economic and social development. It does appear that the current government has been mulling over ways to curb the use of social media in the country and Twitter deleting a tweet by the president has given it the excuse to take action. Unfortunately, this seems to be a shortsighted and ill conceived move. 

The Nigerian government may claim to be taking action against Twitter but it’s its own citizenry that it is actually disadvantaging. If the government was unhappy about Twitter’s moderating of content it posted then it should have engaged with Twitter to resolve whatever misunderstanding of its communication and motives it might have deemed to have occurred. Depriving people of using the platform seems like the exact type of overreaction one would expect from a dictatorial and totalitarian government. Certainly it isn’t consistent with the actions and spirit of a modern democracy. 

In spite this being the 21st century Nigeria is still driven by an extremely traditional and deeply conservative culture. In personal interaction age and social status limit the nature and style of communication between individuals. With the growing pervasiveness of the internet and social media some sections of Nigerian society believe the open access has undermined their entitlement and ability to control and restrict the way communication flows between people and institutions. Rather than see the freedom as an opportunity for development for a people who are mired in poverty and deprivation; they consider it as a swamp that festers with disrespect and allows equality. Truth be told, some people in Nigeria do not like to be held accountable and balk at any suggestion of being subjected to scrutiny.

Given Nigeria’s dire economic circumstances the government has been out begging for loans and grants to maintain its revenue requirements. This type of repressive government behaviour is unlikely to be seen as promoting an environment that bodes well for external investment. In fact, the facility to profit from corruption seems to be one of the key factors currently driving consideration of investing in Nigeria. The amount of effort the government is putting into policing Twitter seems significantly greater than what it has done to curb internal insecurity issues. 

It has become clear that until Nigeria starts having honest politicians it will not have good political leadership. After sixty years of independence the country does not have functional institutions that will ensure sustainable economic and social development. The country is becoming increasingly fractured along tribal lines. Unfortunately, there isn’t the leadership to unite and heal all the divisions. If the current government could focus on internal security that at least would be something that everyone could benefit from. 

The View from the Top

© Guardian 

The U.K. government’s commission on race equality produced a report that concluded that institutional racism was no longer a thing in Britain, and Britain is an exemplar nation for race equality and integration.  It should probably be enough to delve into the membership of the commission to roundly discredit its findings and its situational blindness. However, this is not the season for picking low lying fruit. Let’s take a good look at the world according to this group of astute social historians. 

The report asserts that people from minority ethnic groups have an equal chance of success as long as they work hard. Note that it says equal rather than greater chance. This clearly takes no account of generational wealth. It does however, play up to the racist trope that as long as they keep their heads down and do as they are told people of colour will do just fine. The nature of the British honours system serves to further to entrench inequality and exclusion amongst minorities. Titles bestow status and access on holders and these are mostly passed on to cronies and cohorts of the majority White political establishment.

Unfortunately, the reverie about the sweet life minorities are living in the U.K. is broken by studies showing that Black youths are three times as likely to be unemployed than their White compatriots, and the grieving mother of a lost Black boy whose mother has complained that her initial reports of him being missing were not taken seriously by the police before he was found dead. The Windrush scandal still blights the lives of Black Britons.

There are some simple truths that have to be faced no matter what perspective one chooses to look at institutional racism from. In 2021 people of colour are still facing discrimination and violence at the hands of institutions and individuals. The legacy of racism in this country has generational reverberations through Black communities. It has created communities steeped in poverty and deprivation. A consequence of this has been that in some communities of colour people have internalised the racism they have endured. Some people do not see themselves as being able to succeed, or even survive, just by following the rules. So we have low achievement in education, and often a derisory attitude towards regular employment.

Great Britain has not solved the problem that is racism; and it really doesn't have cause to pat itself on the back. There is still a lot to be done, and a lot of people suffering on the margins of society. There is a place for people of colour in the UK and they have made, and continue to make, tremendous contributions to their communities and society as a whole. However, if your knee is on my neck it would be impossible for you to see or recognise my pain and suffering.