In the year 2015, the United Nations launched the 17
goals to promote sustainable development. They are a set of global objectives
for equitable and sustainable health at every level, from the global biosphere
to local communities. To address the overwhelming empirical and
scientific evidence that the world needs a significantly more sustainable
approach, the Goals were formally endorsed by all United Nations member states
in 2015 for the period of 2016–30.
Though each goal has a set of targets and indicators
to be achieved by 2030, they are all interlinked with one another to achieve
the desired results. For example, the first SDG is No Poverty which aims on
eliminating poverty of all kinds and forms can be connected with the second SDG
which is Zero Hunger as malnutrition is often associated with poverty forming a
viscous circle. With an emphasis that every country must act if progress is to
be realised, the SDGs are both bigger in scope, more collaborative in action,
and even more specific in content. The goals can be grouped into five areas
namely People, Planet, Peace, Prosperity, and Partnership, also known as the
5P’s (BBC,2021).
Culture Jamming and The Beautiful Trouble
Toolbox
Culture jamming is a type of activism that tries to
undermine the dominant messages that the media and other artistic organisations
present to the public, frequently by subverting, satirising, or parodying their
methods. To advance their social purpose, culture jammers use a variety of
strategies, such as fabricating news items and advertisements. Computer hacking
and public performances are just two examples of the subcultures that culture
jamming embraces (Raine, 2023). This
brings us to the Beautiful Trouble Toolbox which demonstrates the connections
between creative imagination and astute political. The key strategies, values,
techniques, ideas, and narratives that have motivated centuries of
people-powered successes are illustrated in the Beautiful Trouble toolbox. The
toolbox is a mix of prankster manifesto, direct action guidebook, and training
manual for mass organising and collective liberation, written by over 175
frontline activists. (Beautiful Trouble Toolbox).
The Toolbox has a set of theories along with the
tactics, principles, and stories. The theory I found interesting is the Meme
Theory as it could be relatable to the present generation. Memes are a great
medium of culture jamming in parodying the status quo urging to bring a social
change. They have become a great source of entertainment and information
spreading medium in the era of technology and social media. Memes have become a
part of our lives because of they stay relevant and relatable on so many levels.
My parents and the generation before them used to watch the news to stay
relevant, whereas in today’s generation we have the internet and memes to stay
up to date on anything and everything. According to Shiftman, the best way to
understand memes is as cultural information that spreads from person to person
but eventually becomes a widespread societal phenomenon. Memes proliferate on a
micro level, yet their effects are macro: They influence social groups'
attitudes, ways of acting, and course of activity (2013).
Personal Experience
When the SDGs were launched in 2015 by the UN, I was
in my 8th grade, and I remember we had this poster in every
classroom of the 17 SDG’s and their importance. We had a class called
Environmental Science which no one knew why it existed or neither were
interested in because it was all about "Don't use plastic" and "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" which we were tired of hearing at that point of time. It was
more of a free period for us as none of us gave any importance to that class. We
were taught about the 17 Sustainable development goals in the class along with activities
which we used to dread and programmes on the importance of environmental
protection, menstrual health, gender equality etc conducted by our school. At
that time most of us did not understand the importance of the SDGs as we had the misconception that it was all about environment but looking at it today I comprehend it has much more to it in promoting environmental, social and economic growth regionally, nationally and internationally
The SDG I want to focus on in relation to my country India is the 10th goal – Reduced Inequality. Inequality exists in all forms and notions across the world be it age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, class etc. I want to mention about one specific type of discrimination I've seen which according to me is totally pointless and needs to be eliminated at all costs. It is the discrimination based on caste system in India, where there is a division of people into formally graded classes, which becomes a person's identity at birth. There are the "upper caste people" and "lower caste people", in the earlier times, the people from lower caste were deemed untouchables and discriminated by upper caste people. Caste has nothing to do with the social status, because you can be rich and educated yet if you don’t belong to upper caste you are considered an outcast. Though today the situation has become so much better due to activists and social reformers, the caste discrimination still exists in many parts of the country. The lower caste people who are called the Dalits are still fighting for their rights for so many years in order to get equality and respect which every human deserves.
In September 2020, a 19-year-old girl belonging to the Dalit community was brutally raped by men belonging to the upper class and the investigations were not properly conducted nor did the media help in spreading awareness on Dalit deaths which are most of the times unreported (Sarkar,2021). The Dalit community is vulnerable to all forms of violence, abuse, and discrimination additionally the Dalit women are doubly oppressed because of their caste and gender making them victims of abuse and humiliation. The community is dehumanized and are subject to hatred only because they belong to a particular community which they did not choose. I believe that every person should be treated equally as fellow humans with respect and dignity. The Dalit community is still oppressed as their voices are silenced , they are pushed to the margins only because they are born in a certain community which itself is a human construct. One of the targets of the SDG is to promote the economic, social, and political inclusion of all, which India is struggling to achieve especially in terms of Dalit rights.
REFERENCES
Boyd, A., & Mitchell, D. O. (2013). Beautiful
trouble: A Toolbox For Revolution (Pocket Edition).
Morton,
S., Pencheon, D., & Squires, N. (2017). Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), and their implementation. British Medical Bulletin, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldx031
Raine, S. (2023). What is Culture Jamming? Perlego Knowledge Base.
https://www.perlego.com/knowledge/study-guides/what-is-culture-jamming/
Sarkar, M. (2021, September 14). A 9-year-old girl was
raped and murdered in India. Her death is part of a bigger problem facing Dalit
women. CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/13/world/india-dalit-women-idnty-cmd-intl/index.html
Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a
Conceptual Troublemaker. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(3),
362–377. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013
Hathras
case: Dalit women are among the most oppressed in the world - BBC News
Sustainable Development Goals - Sustainable solutions to unequal development - CCEA - GCSE Geography Revision - CCEA. (n.d.). BBC Bitesize. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zcr2w6f/revision/1
Toolbox beautiful trouble. (n.d.). Beautiful Trouble. https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool/activate-international-mechanisms/
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development.
(n.d.). https://sdgs.un.org/goals
UN sustainable development goals. (2021). BBC Bitesize. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z3b86sg/articles/z7rkcmn
