Marking the Web’s 35th Birthday: An Open Letter from Tim Berners-Lee https://medium.com/@timberners_lee/marking-the-webs-35th-birthday-an-open-letter-ebb410cc7d42 Mar 12, 2024
Underlying its whole infrastructure was the intention to allow for collaboration, foster compassion and generate creativity
the web was decentralised with a long-tail of content and options, it created small, more localised communities, provided individual empowerment and fostered huge value.
when the web turned 30, I called out some of the dysfunction caused by the web being dominated by the self-interest of several corporations
..in the past decade..From the centralisation of platforms to the AI revolution, the web serves as the foundational layer of our online ecosystem ..
The first is the extent of power concentration, which contradicts the decentralised spirit I originally envisioned. This has segmented the web, with a fight to keep users hooked on one platform to optimise profit through the passive observation of content.
Compounding this issue is the second, the personal data market that has exploited people’s time and data with the creation of deep profiles that allow for targeted advertising and ultimately control over the information people are fed.
Part of the solution is the Solid Protocol, https://solidproject.org/ a specification and a movement to provide each person with their own ‘personal online data store’, known as a POD.
But over the years, this zero-investment natural farming, with minimal environmental impact, has begun to falter. And along with the healthy fishes, the number of traditional fishermen like Gopi is also dwindling. Gopi is losing faith in the traditional method. He says, “Fungal and bacterial infection keeps killing the fishes.”
https://thewire.in/environment/something-fishy-medicine-treats-bacteria-tricks-and-cycle-repeats
Though modern medicines offer solutions to treat infections, lately that solution is backfiring. Drugs like antimicrobials (antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals) which treat diseases by attacking microbes (bacteria, virus and fungus), are not able to kill the pathogens.
Microbes are ubiquitous, but not all of them lead to diseases, instead they make life possible as we know it. But when microbes are constantly exposed to antimicrobials, they can self-mutate in response to the stressful environment, and develop resistance to the antimicrobials – a process called antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Overuse, misuse and the improper disposal of drugs like antibiotics in hospitals, livestock farms, fisheries and households, has allowed AMR pathogens to proliferate to far off spaces. And with the changing climate, more farm diseases are hitting production, resulting in the need to use more antibiotics.
In 2017, Kerala recognised the threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in farming (with changing climate more farm diseases hit production and need more antibiotics), and set up the Kerala Antimicrobial Resistance Strategic Action Plan (KARSAP). Kerala, where Gopi practices fishing, is one of the few states in India, (apart from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh) which has an action plan to fight against AMR.
AMR has a domino effect, impacting every form of life. Research shows that more and more microbes around the world are becoming resistant to drugs. In 2019, directly and indirectly, 4.95 million people in 204 countries died because drugs could not treat microbial infections.
28/06/2024
Arundhati Roy Wins PEN Pinter Prize 2024 for a 'Writer of Courage' https://thewire.in/books/arundhati-roy-wins-pen-pinter-prize-2024-for-a-writer-of-courage
Chair of English PEN Ruth Borthwick, who was on the jury, said that “Roy tells urgent stories of injustice with wit and beauty. While India remains an important focus, she is truly an internationalist thinker, and her powerful voice is not to be silenced.”
Another judge, actor and activist Khalid Abdalla, said, “Arundhati Roy is a luminous voice of freedom and justice whose words have come with fierce clarity and determination for almost thirty years now.