It can sometimes be easy to forget that life goes on in the world, even if you don’t see it on social media or the news. But, for better or worse, events are happening and have constantly been happening, often below most folks' radar.
Someone asked the internet “What’s something going on around the world right now that the public knows nothing about?” and netizens shared their thoughts. From tragedies to dystopian ways of life, people detailed some things they believed should be more widely known. So be sure to upvote the most interesting as you scroll through and comment your thoughts below.
#1
Uyghurs will soon be systematically erased as a culture, and they are really unlucky to have China as their culprit. Any other country doing something similar would be shamed to death right now, but everyone is afraid of China and losing their businesses there so they just chill and pretend "you're not educated on the situation". Their kids will be raised as "default" Chinese, their adults are in reeducation camps, their lands will be flooded with other Chinese and their history will be gone and erased. Seems exaggerated? Go check if Tibet is still really Tibet right now... They carefully engineer their country to maintain good order and hegemony...Black Mirror is nothing compared to reality.
166points
#2
Here in New Zealand our newly elected conservative government recently banned the practise of teaching about sexual consent in schools.
I just cannot fathom an argument being made about how this is a good idea.
160points
#3
The wars in Ukraine and Palestine aren't the only wars happening. They're not even the deadliest conflicts. According to the Geneva Academy, there are currently 110 armed conflicts worldwide. Five of the current conflicts are classified as major wars (over 10,000 combat-related deaths), 17 are wars (9,999 - 1,000 deaths), and an additional 18 are minor wars (999 - 100 deaths). Even more surprising is that the most violent war isn't in Ukraine or Palestine...it's in Myanmar. People generally don't realize how much fighting is happening across the world.
156points
If reading through this left you with a sense of dread, it’s also important to note that, for better or worse, the current era isn’t necessarily worse and is, indeed, probably quite a bit better than the past. After all, reporters and news providers love to share the horrors of the world with us. So after reading all of the ideas here, it can be comforting to turn to a more sober analysis.
American historian Barbara W. Tuchman wrote that “Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists.”
#4
In May, the Ugandan government changed the punishment for being found to be in the LGBTQ community from life imprisonment to the death penalty.
145points
#5
It is legal in America to sign your kids over to be hogtied in the night by strangers, thrown in a van, and carried off to the wilderness to be abused until they obey your every whim. Look at "gooning" and the Troubled Teen Industry.
edit : Gooning also means something about m*sturbating. That obviously isn't what I'm talking about here.
DaJelly:
this happened to me. over 15 years later and i’m still all f**ked up from it. my brain can’t even process or put into words the abuse and gaslighting and how awful it was. i’ve never been to prison but i work with a lot of those that have. these “troubled teen schools” are the perfect storm of prison meets mental institution without all the gross red tape of laws because they are minors and have no rights and the “school” has custody and can do mostly as they wish.the irony is i never did drugs or really anything “troubled” before, but when i turned 18 and was allowed to leave i spent the next decade heavily drinking and doing any drug i could to deal with the trauma. i also was bunked with kids who did do those things that taught me exactly how and why i should. id also already served the time so might as well right. i’m sober now but damn… this is one of the most vile and evil things you could ever do to another human let alone your own children. and you pay for the privilege.
144points
#6
Modern-day slavery rarely makes front-page news.
Hattkake:
Associated Press did a big thing on that some years ago. If you don't read Associated Press then you probably did not see anything about that. But they did month after month after month of reporting on various modern-day slaveries. None of it made it to the headlines.
138points
As she states later in the same passage, many of us read about these sorts of things every day, without encountering them. It’s generally best to keep a sense of rationality. After all, many people still fear air travel, yet, in the US, no one has died in a commercial aircraft accident since 2009. Given the number of flights taken every single day, this is a staggering achievement.
#7
Microplastics are now being found in all food protein sources in significant numbers and found in human organs and human placentas. We have no real idea how they will affect us or the environment and their presence will keep growing unchecked with no solution even proposed.
132points
#8
My grandmother is in elder care. This elder care was funded by her selling her house. It's ridiculously expensive (and yet, the workers are underpaid) so it's often the only way to pay for the nursing home/hospice care. My generation is full of renters, many of whom had to forego having children because children are expensive. What's going to happen when we get too old and sick to work?
Remarkable_Prior_224:
My great aunt had 1 million dollars in her savings for elder care the first day she entered. It barely covered 9ish years there(she needed care after her husband passed). Lucky she was able to afford it by, well, by dying and not having to pay. The cost was about 10k a month. Yeah elder care is absolutely f**ked.
126points
#9
We are blowing past targets for global warming and no one is taking it anywhere near as serious as they should. The oceans are already starting to face massive ecosystem collapse. Meanwhile, half the people in charge won’t admit there’s a problem and the other half thinks all we need to do is get people to go out and buy Teslas. The reality is that our children are so f****d.
121points
#10
While most people are aware of the Ukraine-Russia war, most probably aren’t aware that some 700k children have been “relocated” from occupied Ukraine into the interior of Russia. These numbers are directly from the Russian government. Pretty good chance most of those children will never see their families again.
121points
#11
About 60% of the cocoa used in chocolate production is picked by child slaves. A few years ago kids who had all been picking cocoa for 10+ years brought a case to the US supreme court. The kids were 12, 14, and 15. So they start them as young as 2 years old.
120points
#12
I believe there's essentially a holocaust going on in the Congo right now we hear nothing about.
vluggejapie68:
Congo has been hell on earth for over thirty years. I guess the cobalt keeps coming so nobody is complaining.
119points
#13
Nearly everyone on the Epstein list will be just fine.
114points
#14
The sheer decline of insect populations especially here in the UK in the last few years especially Bees 😢
108points
#15
Medical advances the last 30 years, including statins, better blood pressure medicines, detailed medical imaging, artificial joints, colonoscopies, heart coronary surgery techniques and other technologies, will make out bodies outlast our minds for tens of millions of us. There could be an epidemic of dementia coming soon unless we can develop better brain health.
106points
#16
The "domestic worker" trade where they bring mostly women from African countries like Ghana, Kenya, etc. and send them to countries in the Middle East to work. Unfortunately they are treated like slaves, not people. No phones, no going out, no set work hours, domestic violence, rape, and humiliation. Oh, and their salaries are about $200 - $300 a month.
I am Lebanese. I have seen atrocities committed against these women. They are already deemed "suspicious" before they even step foot in the country because "they learn everything before they come" and their employers think their sole purpose is to come and scam them. They rely on them for childcare, cleaning, taking care of the elderly, etc.
They used to do it to Indians and Sri Lankan women so they stopped coming to Lebanon. Then they moved to Philippino women who also stopped coming. Now it's women from African countries.
There's an even worse one than domestic workers. It's actual sex workers from Eastern Europe. They are brought to Lebanon to work as sex workers and stay holed up in a hotel. They "perform" in a night club and men come, buy a bottle, and get to sit with her until closing time. The next day, he goes to the hotel where she lives and he takes her out to sleep with and brings her back. She is not allowed to go out, not allowed to do anything really except serve customers and stay in the hotel. Many of these women think they are coming to Lebanon to be artists and dancers. Nope. They're sex workers and many of them are humiliated and treated terribly.
Oh, and both groups get their passports confiscated so that they don't run away.
Now, there are of course exceptions. Some of these women are happy, some are treated well, some have many privileges. But the vast majority are not treated that way.
Then you have the Syrian and Iraqi sex workers. Those are heartbreaking. Since they are not white or blonde and extremely poor they are dealing with the poorest men in society. And the ones who treat them like animals. Girls as young as 9 are trafficked. And nobody bats an eye.
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103points
#17
HIGH levels of international student immigration in Canada. Forcing people to live 4-5-6+ people in a single room.
Because colleges/universities rely on that income (some get 90% of their inflated tuition from international students.).
Companies like Walmart (just one example) are also pushing for it because they pay international students minimum wage at best - which keeps wages across the board suppressed and their profits at an all time high.
It’s literally importing slave labour under the guise as education/immigration. Legal slave labour.
500k people a year brought in - during a housing crisis. And food bank use is skyrocketing.
It’s unsustainable and unethical.
All for universities and massive companies to profit from.
99points
#18
Kids in the Congo have been mining cobalt in colonial conditions for the last few decades. This cobalt is used in everything that is supposedly eco-friendly and sustainable.
97points
#19
The public vastly ignores the likelihood of the full on collapse of food chains due to climate change.
If you thought prices were bad now, wait until 85% of the population is fighting over rice and grain in 2030.
Fun fact: Globally, there is approximately two months of food storage. If crops are decimated for even one season, it would be absolutely catastrophic.
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92points
#20
The Paria Diving Incident— TLDR: 5 workers were vacuum sucked into an oil pipe that spanned 125ft. One made it out to save the others and the company refused to help them. 4 days later they were flushed out dead. Some divers report hearing knocking from the pipe 3 days after the first survivor told the company. No justice has been served My input: corporate higher ups got so disconnected that they didn’t value the lives of these 5 men.
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84points