après nous, le déluge

Though the breach did not result in any loss of the seeds stored within and scientists are working to make the structure more secure, the fact that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault built in 2008 and designed to weather an eternity of assault is already showing signs that it’s not able to withstand catastrophic, run-away climate change is a depressing prospect. The integrity and diversity of seed banks has already been demonstrated as vital to rehabilitating civilisation and there are multiple repositories all over the world, and while it is frightening enough to find this ark prone to flooding due to melting permafrost, it’s an even more arresting thought that there will be no place where these food crops might be grown because of radical changes in temperatures and long-term weather patterns.

vote of conscience or supermajority

There is a movement afoot, as TYWKIDBI informs, to effectively eliminate the US Electoral College without the need for a constitutional amendment—though we’ve heard that that process might be becoming less burdensome—called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Still working within the system of electoral votes and the critical-mass of those metrics, states pledge to throw their support behind the presidential candidate who has secured the popular vote, foregoing a process that was meant to democratise the ballot (conceived under rules that stipulated that the senate be prince-electors and not left in the hands of common voters—important matters rarely are) but through gerrymandering and redistricting has turned into something very asymmetrical and unbalanced with only a few “swing” states deigned worthy of attention to the peril of “safe” states and public opinion more broadly and rife for disenfranchisement. I wonder if such a strategy might work—regardless of the outcome, perhaps there are more protections afforded for the minority after each ballot. The articles that define how the executive branch is constituted specifically prohibit a collusion among states, whether expressly designed to curtail the constitution or otherwise, without the leave of the federal legislature, and the ruling party (or the one that is sure is waiting in the wings to take control) would not allow its power to be undermined.

paroled

Days after the release of Chelsea Manning from the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, having served the longest sentence in US history for whistle-blowing, Sweden revoked its European arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange which has kept him within the confines of Ecuador’s London embassy compound, claiming asylum, fearful that appearing in court might lead to his apprehension and extradition back to the United States to face espionage and possibly treasons charges. While Assange has been hostelled in relative comfort by his hosts for the past five years and was even able to release further tranches of incriminating documents, Manning’s seven-year imprisonment was on the other hand physically and mentally abusive and she was denied access to the online world in any form. Her commutation by President Obama fell short of the pardon that Assange had asked for as a plea-bargain that might see him repatriated, but Assange may willingly come to the US if guaranteed a fair trial.

fengsel or recidivism-rate

Recognising that for some, the loss of liberty is punishment enough, one progressive incarceration facility on a Norwegian island, garnering the reputation of the world’s nicest, is demonstrating itself as one of the most effective for rehabilitating criminals and has the lowest rate of re-offending.
The experimental prison on the island of Bastøy is just off the coast from Oslo and was once infamous for a violent uprising in an earlier incarnation as a juvenile detention colony in 1915 but since 1982 has embodied a model that is diametrically opposed to its roots—with inmates accommodated in cottages instead of cells, work the prison garden and are afforded other amenities, including high-quality education and skills-building programmes and guards that are trained social workers. The penal system of the Scandinavian countries is the exclusive bailiwick of expert criminologists and not the emotionally-charged plaything of politicians. Inasmuch as confinement is its own indignity (violence only begets violence) and can be reforming—for some victims of criminals, and there are murderers and rapists at this minimum security facility, no amount of punishment meted out could ever be enough. What do you think? Bastøy’s success rate suggests that taking vengeance out of the equation and replacing it with respect and redemption might be the best way to fight crime.