Keeping a keen eye on world events can be painful

digging deeper to understand global issues and trends that show up can cause severe headaches

heartache and sorrow

despair

cynicism

apathy

depression …

What to do with all of that?

Of course i can always close my eyes and focus on my own little world

my island of happiness

and try to do the best i can

to lead a decent life there

That’s definitely good & respectable

but the facts of the world still remain

and they don’t really seem to get better

Recently i found myself in the middle of such dilemma

because the things i perceive in the world

have really blown some of my fuses

March 15 was such a day:

I actually looked very much forward to that day.

Because this was the day when schoolchildren, students, kids all over the world had self-organized the first worldwide walkout-of-class-strike-to-demand-action-on-climate-change

And what a bittersweet awesome happening it was!!!

www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/climate/climate-school-strikes

www.dw.com/en/student-climate-strikes-go-global

www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery

The bitter part of it obviously is, that it needs this young people to stand up and tell the grown-ups that they are fucking up the future, if no action is done, and done quickly!!!

And the saddest part of it is, that almost nobody from the ruling class – the powers to be – responded in any significant way.

Not even statements, not even promises, no meetings, no discussions, no “yes we take your anxieties seriously”.

A lot of cute photos in the papers, thoughtful editorials in the New York Times, the Guardian and probably many thoughtful people proclaimed solidarity.

But really … did Trump wake up? Did any of the fossil-fuel-industry bosses think of their children and grandchildren’s future a little bit deeper???

I fear they did not, probably for them it was nothing more than a bleep on the TV screen.

Because the news circle had already moved on with a vehemence.

www.dw.com/en/christchurch-terror-attacks

Because in peaceful and far away New Zealand something much more “shocking” had happened the same day:

A young white man had killed 50 Muslim worshippers during Friday Prayers, old, young and children in cold blood with automatic weapons.

A self proclaimed white suprematist who believes – like so many others – that the white man shall rule the earth. And that everyone shall have the right to own military-style assault weapons.

 And he life-streamed the killings from his GoPro helmet camera on to Facebook, where it was shared & promoted and re-uploaded on FB & Twitter thousand and thousands of times by sympathizers or just by people who “like” to share violent videos.

Probably a new trend has been created – mass-shooting-porn.

After police ordered those videos to be taken down, it took those all-powerful media platforms many hours to delete only a fraction of those videos.

www.cnbc.com/facebook-youtube-and-twitter-struggle-to-remove-mosque-shooting

Which brings me to another “lowlight”.

Facebook, Twitter and Co. The enablers and amplifiers of all kind of mind numbing shit (and a few useful use cases too).

I am sure what i say might offend some of you who love to watch funny cat movies and upload your newest selfies, but seriously, i can not understand why anyone in the right mind would still entrust Facebook with any personal picture, text or video!

I don’t get it, honestly.

They share your data for all kinds of purposes, advertisement and worse, mostly to make immense profits.

And to go for monopoly, global dominance.

Facebook is not the only platform doing this.

mfamediagroup.com/facebook-under-criminal-investigation-for-illegal-data-sharing

And then, almost like the top-of-the-pop of unbelievable stories:

The Catholic Church’s not-handling of priests who sexually molest children.

www.nytimes.com/george-pell-sentence

Finally a higher-up goes to jail.

But many, many priests have done the same and much worse.

And the Holy Catholic Church still thinks she is above the law.

And that pedophile priests should be protected and just quietly be sent to other parishes instead of handed over to law enforcement….

What the f…!

I know, i know, this has been a tour-de-force of disgusting facts, almost absurd and surreal because of the scope of it.

But still the questions looms in my mind.

How to deal with it all, how to respond.

How to not close down.

Well, this is not my approach : )

Maybe i should find myself a therapist to get it all out of my system ;  )

But for now I rather deal with it in the way of Vipassana Meditation Practice:

– I let it all into my consciousness, observe it all with high level awareness.

– I observe and notice all my emotional reactions and mental responses.

– I return to my breath and the here-and-now again and again.

– I assume my center, my original point of awareness.

– I relax into the changeless, ever changing Tao : )

For me this turned out to be a healthy approach:

Acknowledging outer reality

Respecting my psychological reality

Resting in the ultimate reality

Om Tat Sat