These articles represent a PROUT analysis of important current issues, written by PROUT activists

Sarkar on Afghanistan and the Status of Women

It has been heartbreaking to watch over the past few weeks scenes of desperation amongst ordinary Afghan civilians who are horrified to see the Taliban back in power in their beloved country. The younger generation in the capital city Kabul had grown up with freedom of movement, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of dress and the right to an

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Ethical and moral tests to help leaders stay on track

Happy societies are dependent on the degree of ethics present. The more a society tolerates corruption, the more unhappy it is (1).  Societies with a good ethical base have leaders and systems that promote ethical behaviour and therefore can achieve greater happiness. Morals and ethics are related to the standard of behaviour that is allowed within a particular group or by a particular

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Population Myths – Islamophobia and Depopulating World

By G. Surender Reddy Population Bomb Myth: The family planning initiative during the Emergency of 1976 by the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was at the behest of IMF and World Bank, which viewed with alarm the rise in India’s population levels. During the Emergency, suspension of democratic rights encouraged the regime to launch forced sterilization to appease the global

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“AmaZen” is not a solution to Amazon’s worker exploitation

Amazon recently announced the idea of equipping its workspaces with ‘AmaZen’ – small, enclosed cubes in which employees can enjoy quiet and peace to “focus on their mental wellbeing”. These pods come with interactive kiosks inside, where workers can watch videos on mental health and mindfulness. Amazon, a company which catapulted its founder, and soon-to-be ex-CEO Jeff Bezos to the

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Beyond Covid-19: The transition to Gaian leadership

In late February 2020, with my colleague, futurist and epidemiologist Peter Black, we, wrote a piece on COVID-19 scenarios and implications. We started as our departure point asking the question, was this a black swan or predictable event? Our conclusion was that the emergence of this zoonotic disease with planetary political, financial, and health implications was not just utterly predictable

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SCIENCE WITH INCLUSIVE STORIES:

A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN MANAGING THE PANDEMIC Ivana Milojevic and Sohail Inayatullah THE NARRATIVE CONTEXT During the global financial crisis over a decade ago, the Financial Times (Yergin: 2009) reported that at its heart this was a narrative crisis. How one creates national policy and strategy depends on the story one uses. Depending on the narrative used –

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On Patent Waivers

U.S. President Joe Biden has signalled his support for the suspension of patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines, predictably angering pharmaceutical companies, which have seen rising profits during the crisis. Reuters reports that the industry’s biggest lobby group warned that Biden’s step would undermine the companies’ response to the pandemic and compromise safety. However, a report issued by the People’s Vaccine

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Towards a cashless society

“You cannot get a new economy without a new society.” – Alvin Toffler Barter Trade: After several thousands of years of hunter-gatherer living, humanity settled down on the banks of rivers, tending to agriculture and domestication of animals, around ten thousand years ago. They resorted to ‘barter’ in their economic transactions as of necessity. Early coins, primarily Roman and Greek,

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