Future-Proofing Our Communities: A Framework For The (Immediate) Future

I stared at the painting. I squinted my eyes, and tilted my head, but could not figure out why the painting did not look right. I like to think of myself as a painter, but when I try to take flavours from my favorite feminist painter, Frida, I struggle.

- Jamus Jerome Lim Fengru Lin Karen Loon Durreen Shahnaz Kenichi Yoshida

JUST AS A GREEN CANVAS NEEDS A SPLASH OF ORANGE, CLIMATE CHANGE IS A FEMINIST ISSUE,

SAYS DURREEN SHAHNAZ

Frida could effortlessly blend with oil, her political views, agony, and love as spirited attempts to express her own reality. I chewed on the end of my paintbrush, wondering how she did so time and again. The answer stared back at me from in between the interplay of green and blue textures. Aha, it was Orange! The painting needed a pop of exuberance to make the green and blue more appreciable. I threw that canvas and began anew.

My painting experience is no different from what we are experiencing in the world today. If we could, we would just throw away all that hasn’t worked and start afresh, but fixing the world is slightly more challenging than fixing a painting.

The planet has begun to face noticeable effects of climate change. As erratic weather events, first-of-their-kind epidemics, and struggling economies become more commonplace, those in the global south are pushed deeper into poverty and face resultant losses to basic amenities, livelihoods, and life itself. To add to this, Covid-19 has further exacerbated income inequalities and set back the progress we made towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).