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#CultConvos

Updated: Nov 15, 2021

With the pandemic having created havoc throughout the entire world,

infodemic is what threatens the globe next.

Infodemic is a fake information pandemic when your mind is bombarded by

appealing headlines which though, turn out to be a massive disappointment

later.

COVID-19 death tolls have been continuing for almost half a year now after it

spread in last November from the suspicious Wuhan. While pandemic is

something, we must keep ourselves safe from at this hour, when India has

seen massive rises in the figures of death tolls, staying safe from blunt and

provocative information is equally important.

Politicians have a major role to play in spreading false information and

advertising wrong campaigns throughout the globe, creating havoc.

Talking about Brazil, President Jair Bolsenaro is least worried about his

people. He feels like he’s on his way to contest the Presidential elections

sooner.



In an advert move to save himself and his family from the accusations that

have been brought against him, he has been trying to lure his supporters by

moving out on the streets without a mask, maintaining no social distancing

and disregarding the norms specified by top health organisations across the

globe.(1)

He necessarily isn’t afraid of catching COVID-19 himself, because the

accusations that have been brought against him are deeply rooted and are

bound to bring his presidentship down.

At this hour, he feels it is more important to keep the supporters engaged and

as the President of one of the largest South American Countries, he

organises protests against his own governmental policies of creating

awareness for COVID.


What has been the consequence?

Last week, Brazil media sources reported of lakhs of graves being dug up

and thousands of dead bodies being put into it, maximum being those who

responded with affirmation and supported the President’s Political

propaganda.

In the United States similarly, when the death toll takes massive accession,

the President calls himself a war time President and asks his people to use

an untested Hydroxychloroquine for their COVID treatment, claiming that it

can heal anyone affected.

He also claimed, in front of the media, that he himself was on a regular

Hydroxy treatment. (2)

However, after the drug caused widespread deaths in the United States, the

President withdrew his claims saying he’d never been on hydroxy! He’s one

of the worst presidents the United States has ever seen. With almost no

claims that have truthful evidences, Trump is a complete ludicrous person.

Earlier he claimed that taking in dettol and Lysol , two disinfectants, could

help cure COVID-19. When people began consuming the same, Dettol itself

had to release guidelines on the same, labelling the president’s demands as

baseless and utter lies. (3)

Talking about a UFO issue that Sehaj has talked about in the earlier blog, with

a video attached, there was an official declaration by the Pentagon regarding

the sightings with which came this video, attached. (4)

Was it all a propaganda to turn away the attention from the hospitals turning

into morgues or is it Trump’s Election mandate 2020, where he desires to

revitalise the white supremacy once again?!

Amid the chaos, Iran has performed something exasperating! They’ve used

spurious liquor on advice of the diocese.

They poured in gallons of spurious liquors , mixed with ethyl, into people,

making them believe that this would cure Coronavirus. Such a rubbish

information led to several hundreds of deaths in the country. (5)

Talking about our own India, there have been reports from various sources

across Bengal, Orissa and Bihar that people have taken to putting mud and

gobar on their forehead to combat the virus. (6)

Amazing, right?

In this aeon of globalisation and industrialisation, when internet and correct

information is just a click away, these people are still fooled when their

government gives them certain directions.

Such mayhem is because they never keep themselves aware of the

happenings around the globe and neither do they have any information about

what to do and what to not.

It is very important to remember that COVID is a virus. It does not

differentiate between a president and a common man.

However, we must make ourselves self aware of such happenings and

whatever the government says, should try to keep ourselves protected

individually, if we fail to do it as a community. Only then can such ridiculous

happenings cease to take place.



(The views expressed in the article are the author’s own. Indian Youth Cafe neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)





References:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/may/18/bolsonaro-greets-anti-

lockdown-protesters-as-coronavirus-cases-rise-in-brazil-video

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52717161

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/04/24/dettol-and-lysol-maker-

warns-against-drinking-and-injecting-disinfectant-after-trump-

suggestion/#43847d8746a5

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/27/heres-why-the-

pentagon-officially-released-ufo-video-footage/#11757f921a6a

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/iran-700-dead-drinking-alcohol-

cure-coronavirus-200427163529629.html

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/coronavirus-

effect-cow-dung-urine-sell-for-rs-500/articleshow/74669478.cms?from=mdr



Updated: Nov 15, 2021


The specific environmental challenge that we address is the Global Water crisis. The people are facing huge issues with water scarcity all over the world. In recent days, due to climate change and global warming, the summer period extended and the raining season reduced to a shorter duration. But the amount of rainfall reaching earth is the same or more rainfall is accounted for. But storage facilities for storing that huge amount of resource is not available.


Many government bodies, NGOs are working on restoring water bodies to save nature. But, I don’t think they are properly restoring in a just and sustainable way. Many improved water resource management techniques are available to do in a sustainable manner. But, very few techniques are implemented. And also lack of public participation in this kind of activity adds up to the existing troubles. There is no proper management.


In olden days, people usually interact with water like they will bath, work around water bodies. So they keep water bodes as clean. Due to modernization, the participation of people with water bodies got reduced and even we polluting more a lot and we don’t care about it. After the restoration of water bodies, People only responsible for protecting, consumption, and usage of water and water bodies productively. It’s high time educators need to educate people towards participatory approach in all activities. They need to change their mindsets towards natural resources, prevent wastage, and optimize usage. Every single person can be a part of making a small difference in nature it leads to a drastic change in the environment. Environment nature-based solutions need to be implemented in the future. So it will create more impact on the environment and also the mindsets of people.



(The views expressed in the article are the author’s own. Indian Youth Cafe neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)



Updated: Nov 15, 2021

Stability among the Chaos: Tapping into our irrationality!

While we are facing pandemic, we are also facing a top-flight infodemic bombaring our thought process and mindset constantly in the form of news on coronavirus to communities posting about UFO sightings to fake videos of flying chariots to depict god’s resurrection to seemingly educational business webinars that end up being a franchise sales pitch when you attend one.

We as humanity need to understand that we are living in an age where anyone can become a creator. Now it all boils down to how many good creators are there who do the research, work on their interests to the deepest levels with integrity and honesty and post the content. The answer is indeed a miniscule number of creators! Majority of content that we see online ( >80%) is either replicated from a valid source,or a plain hoax! While the minority works hard to create content, there also lies a huge bulge of creators who often do not have anything unique to share, so they either end up copying the content, or polish the downloaded content to their target audience. But this is not the issue. The real issue at mass scale often happens because of mischievous ones who go to extremities to create fake content or ridicule with our emotions or in some cases incite violence in society.

When we see an economic and social catastrophe hitting our planet and halting most activity in the past few weeks; it is also admissible that the answers we are all looking for are not available with organisations such as the United Nations and other global civil society and medical agencies. This surely becomes a sweet spot for malevolent entities to take over with fabricated answers to our cluelessness and thus, play with our minds. Once we find a case where someone has a proof and shows something to us in the situation of chaos and unorder, our brains feel a bit of ease, and anything that comes that can provide order to our uneasy thought process trying to find answers is taken as a validation and we start believing it, in some cases at mass scale.

How is it all circulating?

Multi level missings: Recently a “Dettol drinking” case came into limelight on social media. It was believed that a pastor in South- Africa made his followers drink disinfectant to cure and avoid them from getting diagnosed with Covid-19 ever in life.This later could not be authenticated and the rumors of 59 deaths which also could not be verified by verifiable sources from news agencies there. So it is clear that misinformation thrives on multiple levels as in one it manipulates a person on understanding that something might be a good/ bad thing to do and secondly on creating a second -level wrong evidence based on the first level missing and so on.

  • Drinking Dettol saves you from coronavirus: Misinformation Level I

  • 59 people dead after drinking Dettol: Misinformation Level II

The curious case of Dettol

The risks of infodemic get multiplied as when the first level info is often wrong and it has the potential of hurting people individually but it can also lead to manifesting violence and unrest on a mass scale based on fake news being spread on the basis of the first layer of fake unverifiable news.

Why should we be more careful than ever?

The risks of infodemic is much worse when the leaders of the biggest democracies in the World often leads people to befool them into taking certain steps which are often not approved and leads to chaos such as in the case of USA president recently admitting to taking hydroxychloroquine tablets to treat himself and others around him. This only fuels more power to fake news agencies as the tablet until now has not been approved by any medical agency for the cure or treatment of covid19.

What should young people do?
  • Use a magnifying lens on content: We know how much we adore the people we follow, but during these times of less valid information being available; we need to be extra careful to understand better what our leaders and other agencies say. Maybe a reflection of thoughts and opinions and solutions is the need of the hour.

  • Use Google Wisely: Imagine going to a web page titled: DailyNews_coronatiktokfans page and finding answers for your anxiety might not be the correct thing to do. During these times, it is even more effort that we have to take as individuals to understand news and solutions coming from even big media houses as in many cases it has been found that even they lack valid and relevant info in many cases. Further, also teaching how to browse good news sources to our elders who are often not good with technology is something that can help us all during the period of near ending quarantine.

  • Controlling our emotions: Practicing emotional and social learning lessons is also the need of the hour. There are many IT cells working round the clock to incite our emotions and making us share content which is invalid and in some cases can lead to mass unrest, hatred and violence in our society.

  • Practicing Kindness: This helps everyone no matter what. Be kind to others during these times as a small gesture can do wonders in our society. Peace!



(The views expressed in the article are the author’s own. Indian Youth Cafe neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)


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