By Soraya Kassim, Executive Director Palms International Volunteering
This January has been one of the most disrupted and disturbing that we have had for some time: flagrant breaches of international (and domestic) human rights, and challenges to the ‘international rules-based order’ and to essential security guarantees by the country which used to call itself ‘the leader of the free world’; debate over hate speech, the right to public protest and gun reform in the wake of Australia’s worst domestic terrorism event; nation states struggling to regulate the impact of technofeudalism and the personal excesses of AI; not to mention the ongoing simmering intergenerational and class-based discontent around the shifting equity social contract and housing.
So how do we respond to this ? Professionally, for most there seems little option but to race to keep up, with the latest tech or trend – or risk being left behind. Personally, though, there are a myriad of options – from protest and advocacy, to technology ’opt out’ action in order to safeguard ones own privacy or consumer sovereignty.
My wondering is how we might apply our Palms lens to this situation? What might we priortise? Beyond Family, perhaps it might be Community ? Or underlying Values we see embedded in our chosen Culture? Or perhaps stewardship of Land ?
So my invitation to you, dear BrainsTrust, is to share how you are anchoring yourself now – in this current maelstrom of social, political, economic, spiritual and cultural challenge – to the values which you hold dear ? How are you remaining, even intensifying, your engagement with Community, without enslaving yourselves to social media ? How are you cultivating Simplicity in the face of the complexities of the zeitgeist ? How are you maintaining a healthy and balanced life with the many competing claims on your time ?
Please feel free to email us back your ideas and we will share them in our next Palms Post – and if you can’t wait for that – in our Returnees WhatsApp chat. (And just a plug for that- if you want to join the chat, please just email us and we will add you – we are hoping that it can be a place for the Palms Family to share links to cultural events, inspirational ideas relevant to the Palms mission, and maintain connection with each other).