#NGO For Elderly

[dignity-foundation]

Dignity Foundation’s Mission to Empower Seniors Through Technology

At Dignity Foundation, we believe in empowering seniors to lead fulfilling and independent lives, and technology plays a crucial role in achieving this mission. Through innovative initiatives and partnerships, we are harnessing the power of senior care technology to enhance the well-being of seniors across India.

Dignity Foundation is a non-profit organization, one of the best NGOs in India, dedicated to promoting the health, happiness, and dignity of seniors. With a focus on productive ageing and social inclusion, we offer a wide range of programmes and services designed to empower seniors to live life to the fullest.

Technology for Seniors:

In today’s digital age, technology has become an integral part of daily life for people of all ages. However, seniors often face unique challenges when it comes to adopting and using technology. At Dignity Foundation, we recognize the potential of technology for seniors to improve their lives and are committed to making it accessible and easy to use for all. That’s why during and after the Covid pandemic, we are offering online loneliness mitigation programmes called online Chai Masti Centres to elders across India. For those who live in different cities or towns, this is a convenient way to spend time productively using simple to use online technology. 

The impact of our senior care technology initiatives extends far beyond the digital realm. By empowering seniors to embrace technology, we have witnessed positive outcomes in various aspects of their lives:

– Improved Social Connections: Seniors are staying connected with family and friends through video calls, social media, and online communities, reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation.

– Enhanced Health and Wellness: With access to telemedicine services and health monitoring tools like safety bands, seniors are proactively managing their health and receiving timely medical care, leading to better health outcomes and improved quality of life.

– Increased Independence: By learning to use technology for seniors for everyday tasks such as banking, shopping, and communication, seniors are gaining confidence and independence, maintaining their autonomy and dignity as they age.

**Join Us in our mission as we empower Seniors Through Technology**

At Dignity Foundation, NGO India we are committed to building a future where every senior has the opportunity to thrive with dignity and independence. Join us in our mission to empower seniors through technology for seniors by supporting our programmes, volunteering your time and expertise, or spreading awareness about the importance of digital inclusion for seniors.

[cerastes]

I saw there are a lot of forest fire in chile right now. are you gonna be okay?

Three days after the fact, yeah, I'll be fine, personally and physically, but it's dire, I'm not going to lie. I've never seen so much fire in my life. When you think about a big fire, your impression might be two or three buildings on fire with some firefighter trucks spraying water at it. This was kilometers upon kilometers of raging blazes. Kilometers. Heads up if you are sensitive to these kinds of posts, this isn't a happy one.

Entire hills on fire. Lush green hills reduced to ash and smoke.

Not to mention the urban parts that got hit badly

The official death toll keeps increasing each passing hour as they clear up the rubble and ruins and find more corpses. People I know lost everything. Some people I know lost their loved ones. Dogs are eating corpses on the street because they haven't picked them up yet, so you have neighbors warding off said dogs. Bodies get picked up too badly burned, eaten, decomposed, or a mix thereof to be identified.

It's a tragedy. It all reeks of smoke, there's ash everywhere.

It was sudden, it was brutal. Seeing elderly survivors wondering "what's next for me? I don't have enough years left among the living to rebuild all I lost, all I worked for throughout my life, gone like that" breaks my heart. The government is offering all sorts of aid, but there's also people whose documents, like ID and other identifying documentation, was lost in the fire, so they have to get re-issued an ID before they can actually start filing for aid. The SML (Servicio Médico Legal) is oversaturated with all that's suddenly on their plate and can't return the bodies of people to their families yet, and these are all people that still need food, shelter, hygiene, and so on after the fact. Seeing the logistical nightmare that becomes life after you lose everything firsthand from other people is sobering and painful. Yeah, they survived, but what comes next? It's a sense of uncertainty that is smothering and asphyxiating, it's hopelessness.

I apologize if I come across as dramatic, especially so as someone who was luckily not affected, but it really, really has been heartbreaking to witness, especially from very up close, as I was there, and it's one thing to know of a tragedy that happened elsewhere, maybe even in your own country, but elsewhere, and it's a whole other beast to have seen it directly as it unfolded.

Keep Chile in your thoughts. If you are able to, please consider donating to Desafío Levantemos Chile, to my knowledge the only drive that accepts Paypal, thus, foreign donations, to help the various efforts to rebuild and aid those affected. Desafío Levantemos Chile dates back to 2010, when Chile got hit by a devastating earthquake, and is an NGO that bases its continued existence in being able to provide aid during catastrophes such as this one.

[laineystein]

How do you make peace with the IDF storming into hospitals and UN schools? How do you make peace with the news that the IDF opened fire on Israeli citizens on October 7th? Why do the Palestinians deserve to be chased out of their homes since 1948? Do you know about Rachel Corrie? Do you know that the IDF has killed a record breaking amount of journalists? I don't understand how you can be so close to this tragedy and act like it is anything other than genocide.

You make peace when you understand international law and learn that the only war crimes being committed are being committed by Hamas. We’re not storming hospitals or schools. International law also states that as soon as a faction begins using an area for military purposes, it is no longer protected. It is no longer a “civilian” area, even if civilians still reside there. So many sources (that notably hate Israel and Jews) have come out confirming that Al Shifa is Hamas HQ. Many sources have come out confirming that Hamas is using schools to store weapons and indoctrinate children *and* that NGOs like the UN have turned a blind eye.

You make peace when you learn to educate yourself instead of falling victim to jihadist propaganda. The “Israelis killed their own people on October 7th” lie has been debunked. No sources could be found confirming that and the IDF and the Israel Police both came out saying that was factually inaccurate. If you know reporting out of those groups you know that when we’ve fucked up, we admit it. This was all a fabrication to excuse terrorism and continue to wrongfully demonize Israel.

You make peace when you deal with actual facts. There was a two-state solution planned before 1948 and then four countries attacked Israel and we defeated them all which lead to what y’all refer to as the Nakba. BUT!!! The Jewish population did not want their Arab neighbors to leave. Arab nations encouraged the Nakba. Arab nations have always used the plight of the Palestinian people to further their agenda of demonizing Israel in an attempt to eradicate it and kill Jews. But if we’re going to talk to about being expelled from your homes - Jewish families were expelled from Gaza in 2005 when we gave the land to the Palestinians. Do you care about that? Where are the Jews in Iraq? Yemen? Afghanistan? Syria? Sudan? Morocco? Feel free to talk about how those people were ethnically cleansed from those countries - but if that doesn’t interest you then your activism might be performative and you might just hate Jews.

I know it is not genocide because I’m so close to it. I spent all of last week ensuring the safe passage of Palestinians out of Gaza, into the South. I had Palestinians thank me. I administered aid to Palestinian children and the elderly. I watched them pray to Allah that Hamas would go away. What happened to my people on October 7th was an attempted genocide - something that Hamas has admitted to. What we are doing in Gaza is working to prevent a genocide, one of Hamas’ own doing.

Please read a book. Please get off social media. Please stop regurgitating lies fed to you by influencers and antisemites that did not care about this conflict before October 7th. You clearly need to be educated and messaging an IDF soldier on anon isn’t the way to do it. I have better shit to do. Yalla bye✌🏼

[duskyvenus]

1207: What you don't see about yourself

This is a general intuitive reading meant for entertainment purposes. Take whatever resonates. Three piles left to right. Photos are not mine. GIF credit in tags

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Pile 1

You have this aura of being very put together. Everything is prim and proper, there isn't anything bold or eye catching, very subtle enhancement of features. "That girl". People think you have perfect skin, perfect taste, perfect nails, perfect life. You probably practice manifestation and law of attraction. I'm seeing crystals too. If you don't relate to this, it's probably because this is your potential and you just need to put in the effort. "Everything you touch turns into gold." Also, you have the power of sweet talk. You also might have the gift of creating beautiful works of art with your hands? Also it seems that people feel happy/ safe around you and think that you have a lot of love in your heart. (I'm seeing that you might act indifferent but you actually care).

Things that might be relevant: pink, ribbons, hearts/ heart shaped objects, flowers (especially lily)

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Pile 2

You have an innocent heart that wants to know many things about the world. Your curiosity is genuine. You are curious about cultures, languages, art, food from across the world. You are also very open minded and accepting. People think that you know how to put yourself in someone else's shoes. There is something very calm and blue about you. You are easy to approach and talk to. Elderly folk might like talking to you or you do. You are capable of making a safe place or community. Conversing with you is never tiring or intimidating, you are open minded and don't beat around the bush. You might be a good teacher? It doesn't have to be at a school or uni, you could even work at an ngo or work with people with special needs. I see that you are good at solving conflicts too.

Things that might be relevant: blue, shoes, beaches, coffee

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Pile 3

You understand your own value and I think that is something others wish they could. You don't dwell on situations that are gone. You are a "go with the flow" person. "Either it ends or it changes" You might have good fashion sense? People who don't know you might think you're really innocent lol. I'm seeing that you don't make yourself easily available to people, you don't want people to waste your time. Honestly, good for you! You are good at pointing out things that others don't see. You have an eye for art as well. Might be an artist? You also appreciate nature and animals. If you have pets or plants at home, they love you and are grateful to have you too :)

Things that might be relevant: black and white, beanies, fashion, jellyfish, pets or animals

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

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Thank you for reading! 😊

[secular-jew]

From one of my Danish friends who works for an NGO in Gaza:

HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS LIE ABOUT THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN GAZA

Every single day we hear from various humanitarian organizations that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic and that there is now only fuel, water or medicine for a day before the famous one diesel generator in Gaza stops, the lights go out and the sick can be treated due to a lack of medicines.

It must be remembered that these organizations have an interest in exaggerating and dramatizing the situation - to put it nicely. In fact, they often lie, and they must know that themselves, because they have their own representatives on site. One must also remember that there is no independent media in Gaza that could check the many exaggerations and lies. Hamas strictly controls what is published, and it is dangerous to question or correct Hamas' censors.

The Israeli defense has a special unit that deals professionally with the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The unit regularly receives information from international organizations that are represented in Gaza, and also builds on knowledge that is generally available. From this we see a more realistic picture of the conditions than what the humanitarian organizations provide:

There is NO shortage of food in Gaza, but sufficient stocks for several weeks' needs. As far as drinking water is concerned, Gaza is 90% self-sufficient. Only 10% comes from Israel through 3 water supply pipes. Israel has recently opened 2 more supply lines.

Hamas has full control over the distribution of medicine and hospital equipment and decides how much the hospitals will receive and when. (Hamas probably needs these things themselves now that they are suffering daily heavy losses given the targeted Israeli attacks on the terrorist organization's numerous military facilities)

Hamas' many rocket attacks against Israel, which continue, have destroyed several of their own electrical lines that supply electricity to Gaza from Israel - moreover, on a larger scale than the generator the media keeps talking about.

All hospitals in Gaza have their own solar powered electrical systems to supplement diesel generators. Other generators scattered across Gaza territory are controlled by Hamas, which also stores large quantities of diesel oil in the underground tunnels. Three weeks have passed since the hospital administrations in Gaza declared that they only had diesel fuel for the next 24 hours. But the hospitals continue to function because Hamas supplies them with fuel.

Hamas is interested in the hospitals functioning because Hamas has their military headquarters inside and under the hospitals, which they have thereby made part of the military infrastructure.

Red Cross employees in the Gaza Strip are from the Red Crescent, they are Palestinians, they protect Hamas. Their monthly salary comes from the organization.

The Red Cross in Denmark, for example, does not talk about the 239 Israeli hostages to which the Red Cross has not had access.

According to international rules/laws, the Red Cross must have access to the hostages, some of whom are babies and small children, others are young and elderly. The Red Cross does not talk about the lack of supervision of the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Wonder why?

[fireheartwraith]

Hello everyone. Climate change and lack of infrastructure has cause severe floods in the south of brazil and thousands of people are displaced or missing. If you can help, please do, especially those who use dollar or euro. You don't know far your money can take us

This tweet has a video showing how absurdly fast the water rose. Image if this was your home, completely taken by water in under three minutes. Imagine if you had children, elderly, disabled people living here. What would you do in this situation? What can you even do?

Most of the state is now underwater, and the parts that aren't don’t have power or water. Getting prescription meds and other necessities like hygiene kits and food is difficult because capitalism sucks. The military police are protecting supermarkets because the people are hungry and taking the food. Mind you, the food will spoil anyway. But god forbid people don't go hungry.

And in the midst of this chaos, public transport still isn't free. People are charging to rescue folks. So people can only be rescued by helicopter because of the currents. There are people debating whether or not they should leave pets to die.

And the government has done basically nothing. It is the government's fault, everyone knows this. The money that was supposed to go to preventing something like this simply doesn't exist. The people organizing rescues are distributing resources are the people themselves. Influencers have been doing more to the cause than the government at this point.

Some people were bringing up Madonna because the flood hit the night of her show, and they were saying the money she received should have gone to the affected people. And so she donated 10 MILLION reais. It is utter madness. There are bodies floating in the water people have to wade through.

If you can do something to help, please do

Here's a link to donate to an ngo that is feeding the displaced people

Paypal: Fathiele14@gmail.com

Edit: Floods are also displacing people in the northeast, literally on the other side of the country. The situation is dire. Remember, you are closer to being a climate refugee than being a billionaire. If I find where you make international donations to help Maranhão I'll share it here

[importantdestinydefendor]

Chapter 133 reaction

SO. It is here. The start of the final. And the chapter did not disappoint!

I love that we start with Kishward. The way that he is ready to just... start fighting his goddamn father-in-law. The fucking horror he must feel right now.

WHY DOES MANUCHER LOOK SO CREEPY AAAAAA

GIEVE AND TUS! Ready to fight as well!

Saam, love of my life, I know that you are having the worst day of YOUR life but

WHY AND HOW IS YOUR CHIN GETTING SQUARER??

Back to being serious though.

I liked that we saw the different weapons from the imposters.

ThE REACTIONS! Zandeh, poor baby!

Love how Hilmes is stepping up! Go, Hilmes, go! Protect the pup!

Aaaaaa, Isfan! Also, Kubad reaction! All the ngo with the flow characters (Gieve, Kubad) are getting serious!

Aaaand immediat change to the Daryun vs. Vahriz fight!

This is not a panel I ever tgought I see... My feelings are all over the place! (Great compasition by the way!)

Daryun fighting for his life while being so confused 😭

Baaabbyyyyyyy 😭

Narsus mind doing backflips with the way he is trying to keep up with all the new info

Look, I am with you Arslan but what is this shade to the elderly?? WHAT HAPPENED TO RESPECT YOUR ELDERS, YOUNG MAN???!!!

Ho god ho god! The fight is making my heart race!.

Arslan shaking in terror and grief 😭

ARAKAWA HOW DARE! HOW DARE YOU NEARLY GIVING ME A HEART ATTACK!

I THOUGH HE LOST AN EYE FOR A SECOND! HOLY SHIT!

When I saw that panel I was just sitting there like, "Sir, why are you T-posing????"

Aaaand back to being creepy we go!

Get this man away from my babies!

SIR, LET IT BE KNOWN THAT THESE ARE THE FINEST WARRIOR PARS HAS TO OFFER. *takes off slipper* Get *slaps* your *slaps* facts *slaps* straight!

That is an ominous chapter titel cover!

Kishward and his horse are fighting for their lifes!

NOOO! NOT THE CITIZENS! (Also they fixed an error from a few chapters ago! See the man in the back telling "Manucher" that Arslan said there to be no fighting amonst Parsers anymore"

NOOOO! NOT THE HORSE! You will be missed!

I'm gonna quote my friend here: "But first of all: it was clear that Ma boy gieve would land the first hit"

Ööhm, Kishward? Please put your cape back on! It had extra shoulder protection!

Oof! Such a cold scene with Tus asking Kishward for permision to kill! He means buisness!

Ugh so cool! I still aodre his design to pieces! Especially his head gear!

There are the clouds - present for two or three chapters now...

Oh Zarawant, you have no idea what chaos is about to unleash...

And there they are - the flying apes! Fucking disgusting! (Shows good creature design)

JESUS! ARAKAWA, HOW DARE YOU MAKE THIS THE LAST PANEL OF THE CHAPTER!

Overall: A very good chapter.

Bonus! My favourit panel of the chapter!

Who could have predicted THIS?! (everyone...)

[coochiequeens]

Older women were protesting war and being taxed more than men to pay for the war and now 30 of them have been abducted by the people they were protesting against.

A group of 30 women were kidnapped by pro-independence rebels nearly four days ago in western Cameroon, which has been bloodied for more than six years by a conflict between separatists from the English-speaking minority and the security forces, according to authorities.

They were "severely tortured and abducted by armed terrorists" in the village of Kedjom Keku, in the North West region, where armed separatist groups frequently kidnap civilians, mainly for ransom, the prefecture of the Mezam department said in a statement Tuesday.

The authorities always use the word "terrorists" to refer to armed rebels demanding independence for the North-West and South-West regions, which they call "Ambazonia", populated mainly by the English-speaking minority of this predominantly French-speaking central African country.

“

A colonel in the army told AFP on Tuesday evening that some 30 women were abducted by separatists on Saturday morning and that they had not yet been found. The communication service of the Ministry of Territorial Administration confirmed to AFP that the authorities had "no news of the hostages" on Tuesday evening.

The day before their abduction, these "elderly" women were organising a "peaceful march to protest (...) against the exactions and criminal activities of the terrorists", the Mezam prefecture said.

The two English-speaking regions have been the scene of a deadly conflict since late 2016 between separatist rebels on one side, who call themselves the "Amba Boys" or "Amba Fighters", and the army and police on the other, both sides being regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of crimes against civilians.

The conflict has left more than 6,000 people dead and forced more than a million people to move, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

- "Taxes"-

The women had "publicly demonstrated" the day before their abduction against "the exploitative activities of the Amba Fighters" and in particular the obligation imposed on civilians by the latter to pay them "monthly taxes of 10,000 CFA francs (15 euros) for men and 5,000 for women (7.50 euros)", explains in a statement the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), an NGO based in Yaoundé which documents human rights violations in Africa.

The rebels claim that they collect these "taxes" to finance their "war effort for independence".

A video is circulating on social networks, purporting to show these women, sitting on the ground and obviously frightened, which AFP was unable to authenticate but which the CHRDA quotes and describes in its statement, ensuring that it was posted by the "Amba Boys".

Armed men insulted and threatened them, saying they were going to kill the women, whom they accused of "complicity with the military", according to the CHRDA, which denounced a "barbaric act" by their kidnappers.

Some armed rebel groups regularly carry out kidnappings for ransom of civilians, sometimes in large groups like the abduction of these 30 women, especially in schools that they accuse of teaching French.

They also regularly commit targeted assassinations against representatives of the authorities but also against civilians whom they accuse of "collaborating with the army".

Their abuses are regularly denounced by international NGOs and the UN, which also regularly accuse the army of committing fatal blunders against civilians, summary executions, acts of torture and even raids and killings in villages.

The conflict broke out at the end of 2016 after the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations by members of English-speaking civil society, some of whom feel ostracised by the French-speaking majority of this country, which has been ruled with an iron fist for more than 40 years by President Paul Biya, 90.

The latter has been intractable, even towards the more moderate who call for a federalist solution to the conflict, and his regime has deployed the elite army and police on a massive scale for more than six years to suppress the rebellion.

Reblog to raise awareness. Because so far CNN as just talked about Desantis, Florida and Disney.

[lais-a-ramos]

random questions <3

tagged by @elizabeth-mitchells 😊 thank you so much for tagging me 🫶🏾

: ̗̀➛ what’s ur fav color: it's changed over time tbh. for a long time, it's been orange, but i guess that, as i got older, i'm fluctuating between red -- particularly wine red -- and blue, sometimes purple bc it's a blend of both.

also, darker shades of green, bc they remind me of trees and that calms my anxiety 😅😊

oh, and light pink like my blog at the moment, which is fun bc i used to be one of those "i hate pink" tomboys lol

still a tomboy for the most part, but light pink has grown on me 😅😊

: ̗̀➛ how long have u been on tumblr for: oh, idk how much, but i guess i made my first blog around 2014, so, more or less 10 years

: ̗̀➛ wheres a place u always wanted to travel to: wow, that's a hard one 😅 i always dreamed of traveling the world as a kid, but idk if i ever had one placed as a main goal, you know???

i guess maybe Greece, bc of my long-time passion for Ancient Greece, or maybe Mexico, bc some Mexican tv shows, like telenovelas or el chavo del ocho, are very popular here in Brazil and i grew up watching Brazilian variety shows making specials about traveling there

: ̗̀➛ what’s ur fav clothing brand(s): clothing brands are a bit expensive here in Brazil, so, i don't have any, i usually go for retail 😅

: ̗̀➛ what’s ur fav singer/band(s): paramore, most definetely.

been this way for around 16 or 17 years and counting lol

to complete the top 5, florence + the machine, of monsters and men, chvrches, and the beatles.

i do love much more stuff tho, it was very hard to pick this top 5 lmao

: ̗̀➛ what’s ur current phone lockscreen: a pic of jinx and isha from arcane (those two now have my heart...something something isha being the opportunity for jinx to give another kid the protection, love and acceptance she herself never received etc etc)

: ̗̀➛ most recent/current hyperfixation: probably yellowjackets, if my blog is any indication lol

: ̗̀➛ what’s ur relationship status: single

: ̗̀➛ what’s ur dream job: when i was a teen, i dreamt of being a musician, but, since i only had the opportunity to study music at 21, it's got a bit hard 😅😐

right now, i wish i could use my degree for something in public policies ig.

like, not as a politician, but, working in an NGO or any civil society organization that works for important causes.

tho that is a bit hard to achieve at the moment, especially even management roles even in this area seems to require ppl to know statistics and programming these days 😭

: ̗̀➛ outside of tumblr, fav social app: ummmm...

yk, after we spent here in Brazil more or less 1 month with twitter blocked, i started to enjoy bluesky a lot.

it's very chill and has great moderation features, so, probably the best place to curate your experience outside of tumblr at the moment

: ̗̀➛ do u have pets (if u do have pets, what kind/how many):

yes :) 1 very cute elderly dog

: ̗̀➛ do u prefer tea or coffee: tea. i love tea. drinking a cup of tea before going to sleep = inner peace

: ̗̀➛ whats ur fav ice cream flavor: chocolate.

i do love other flavors tho, like chocolate chip, or malted chocolate.

ohhh, some flavors that we have here in Brazil that i love are pineapple with coconut and corn.

YES, corn. i can vouch for it, it's amazing. i <3 corn ice cream

: ̗̀➛ tag at least three other tumblr accounts:

@monstrousgourmandizingcats @invisible-pink-toast @frog4278 @periwinklekryptonite @brightpuffinstuff @suprecorp @lovestrucklovesickslut @meganonmain

[dragoneyes618]

This past Last Saturday afternoon, 71-year-old Hagar Gefen was driving through the Jordan Valley when she was waylaid by Palestinian assailants. They pulled her from her car, beat her and stole her vehicle.

Gefen is an anti-Zionist activist affiliated with the radical NGO Looking the Occupation in the Eye. Her group’s modus operandi is to harass Israeli civilians and military forces in Judea and Samaria in order to demonize them. As the organization’s leaders wrote recently, “We initiate direct actions that get in the face of the settlers and challenge the security forces. We work in cooperation with Palestinian colleagues who often stand together with us in the West Bank.”

Gefen was carjacked just after she had just finished such a “direct action”: “Protecting” Palestinian shepherds from Israelis who live in the area. When security forces came to help the elderly woman as she sat beaten on the side of the highway, Gefen refused to file a complaint against her assailants.

Her story is notable because all aspects of it—the carjacking, her efforts as an anti-Israel activist to demonize Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, and her refusal to report on Palestinian violent attacks, even when she is the victim of those attacks—expose the nature of the current international campaign against Israel’s civilian and military presence in Judea and Samaria. This campaign reached its pinnacle on Feb. 1 with an executive order issued by U.S. President Joe Biden, directly targeting Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria as quasi-terrorists.

Galloping Palestinian terrorism

This week, the Israel Defense Forces published its final statistics for 2023 regarding Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria. Last year saw a 350% increase in terrorist attacks over 2022 levels, with 608 attacks last year and 173 in 2022. The IDF reported that 300 of the 608 attacks were shooting attacks—the highest number since the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.

The IDF data only includes incidents that ended with wounded or dead Israelis and others. The full data shows that the dimensions of Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria are much greater.

United Hatzalah’s Rescuers Without Borders serves as the first responders in Judea and Samaria. Its data enumerated 4,099 terror attacks during the first six months of 2023 alone. In the 100 days following Oct. 7, Palestinians carried out another 2,674 attacks on Jews in Judea and Samaria. Rescuers Without Borders includes vehicular stoning attacks in their data. Those average around 10 per day.

Not including stoning attacks, the Oct. 7 massacre or the casualties of the war in Gaza, the Shin Bet tallied 3,436 attacks in Israel, including Judea and Samaria in 2023. A total of 43 Israelis were murdered and another 224 were wounded. Israel Police put the total number of terror attacks in Judea and Samaria during 2023 at 5,600.

While the data varies depending on the source and what is counted, the trends are clear: 2023 saw a massive increase in Palestinian terrorist attacks, and in the number of Israeli victims. The steepest increase came in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Elusive settler violence

This brings us back to Gefen and her bid to “protect” Palestinian shepherds from “settler violence” in the Jordan Valley last Saturday. The level of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis in Judea and Samaria, coupled with the sheer volume of terrorist agitation in the areas, make it difficult for Gefen and her comrades to claim that Israeli Jews are the cause of the dire security situation in the areas.

But they don’t let the absence of evidence stop them in their bid to demonize and criminalize “the occupation.” To advance this line, as Looking the Occupation in the Eye explained, anti-Zionist activists from Israel and abroad working with the Palestinians have developed a pipeline for pumping libelous claims against Israeli Jews into the international discourse, and most importantly, into the U.S. State Department. The process, stunning in its boldness, was first exposed by the Hakol Hayehudi (���The Jewish Voice”) news service early last November in a report on one such NGO, the Hamas-aligned and Muslim Brotherhood-funded International Solidarity Movement (ISM), whose members overlap with members of Gefen’s outfit.

The case first reported by Hakol Hayehudi occurred on Oct. 25. That morning, Israeli and foreign ISM activists began harassing IDF reservists in a guard post outside the Maon Farm in the south Hebron Hills. When the reservists left their post to confront the activists, ISM member Allison Russell filmed them in an unflattering way that made it appear the reservists were instigating an altercation. Russell posted her video on Facebook later that morning.

Shortly after Russell posted the video, Breaking the Silence reposted it on its Twitter feed, presenting it as proof of “settler violence.” Breaking the Silence is an Israeli-registered NGO that runs international political and lawfare campaigns to demonize the IDF.

Breaking the Silence is funded by foreign governments, the United Nations and anti-Israel far-left NGOs aligned with the Democratic Party and the State Department, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Given its connections, once the video was posted on Breaking the Silence’s Twitter feed, it quickly made the rounds in Washington. Around 20 hours after the ISM provocation outside the Maon Farm in the south Hebron Hills, Biden issued his first broadside against Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria. Standing next to visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he condemned “settler violence” and accused “extremist settlers” of “pouring gasoline on a fire.”

Two days later, a coalition of 22 anti-Israel NGOs, mainly funded by foreign governments, including the U.S. government, the New Israel Fund, the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation, published a document titled, “Emergency Call to the International Community: Stop the Forcible Transfer in the West Bank.” Datelined from the south Hebron Hills, they decried what they referred to as “the state-backed wave of settler violence.”

The groups alleged, “For the past three weeks, since Hamas’s atrocities of October 7th, settlers have been exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities.”

The truth was very different both then and since. IDF data showed that violent incidents involving Palestinians and Israeli civilians in October 2023 were down 31% over the corresponding month in 2022. Violent incidents involving Israeli civilians and Palestinians were 55% lower than they were in November 2022.

In other words, as Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis reached a 20-year high, incidents involving Jewish violence were down by half, standing at 201.

Moreover, as veteran investigative reporter Kalman Liebskind demonstrated in the Israeli newspaper Maariv in December 2023, among the 201 reported cases of violence involving Israeli civilians and Palestinians, the IDF could not determine in 136 cases, or 67% of the incidents, who had started the incident. As Liebskind and others showed at the time and since, in the vast majority of those cases, the “settler violence” was simply Israeli civilians trying to defend themselves against Palestinian terrorists and lynch mobs.

As Liebskind reported, in one typical incident designated as “settler violence,” an Israeli motorist driving to his home in Tekoa in Gush Etzion with four teenage passengers was blocked from advancing on the highway by a herd of sheep. He slowed down only to have his vehicle pelted with rocks by a dozen or so Palestinians. Armed, he exited his car and shot two shots at the ground to try to scare them away. His gun jammed, and the Palestinians began beating him with rocks and sticks, and tried to steal his gun. When the teenagers tried to help him, they were also assaulted. Another Israeli driver saw what was happening, and armed, he got out of his car to help. He shot into the air, and the Palestinians began attacking him as well. The first driver was bleeding from his head wound. A military patrol that arrived at the scene was also attacked with rocks. The soldiers opened fire on the assailants, shooting three of them, before rescuing the Israeli drivers and teenagers from the lynch mob that ambushed the first driver.

Since the IDF force arrived after the incident began, it was classified as an act of “Jewish nationalist violence,” rather than a terrorist attack. This misclassification is so routine that even the United Nations acknowledges it is standard practice.

On its website, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs acknowledges that its data on Palestinian casualties of so-called “settler violence” “includes Palestinians killed or injured during attacks or alleged attacks they perpetrated against Israeli settlers.”

The purpose of the slanderous charges of Jewish aggression is obvious. They are leveled against Israeli civilians to assert a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists and their Israeli victims. Particularly after Oct. 7, the case for Palestinian statehood hinges on criminalizing Israeli opponents of Palestinian statehood. And the most easily caricatured and demonized opponents of Palestinian statehood are Israelis who work to maintain Israeli control over Judea and Samaria by farming, herding sheep and living in scattered communities. Israelis in these areas are law-abiding and peaceful. But if they are perceived as such, the U.S. and other Western governments will have no way to justify their policy of forcibly expelling these Israelis, along with the rest of the 500,000 Israeli Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, from their homes and communities, and transferring control over areas where no Jews live to Palestinians who overwhelmingly support the genocide of Jewry and the annihilation of the State of Israel. Demonizing them is key.

The demonization campaign against the Israelis in Judea and Samaria brings U.S. diplomats together with Palestinian terrorists and terrorism boosters. It culminated on Feb. 1 with Biden’s executive order. Titled “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank,” it makes Israeli Jews targets of U.S. economic and travel sanctions. The order reads like a press release from the anti-Israel NGOs it relies on for its false accusations. It asserts that Biden “find(s) that the situation in the West Bank—in particular high levels of settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction—has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel and the broader Middle East region.”

Their ascribed actions, the order goes on, “undermine the foreign-policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of the two-state solution.”

Biden’s order freezes all funds belonging to the targets of the sanctions. The four Israeli farmers named in the order stand accused of no crimes and were never convicted of any crimes. Their families report, however, that they were subjected to daily assaults and provocations by ISM and other anti-Israel activists who have trespassed on their land and have harassed them, and their wives and children, daily for the past four years. They are not U.S. citizens and have no property in the U.S. or accounts in U.S. banks. All the same, after the Treasury Department threatened Israeli banks with sanctions, the men’s bank accounts have all been frozen.

Next target for demonization: The IDF

One of the many distressing aspects of the campaign to criminalize Israeli civilians is that it is already apparent that they are only the first target. The next one is the IDF.

Two months ago, as the administration and its allied anti-Israel NGOs were kicking their post-Oct. 7 demonization campaign against “settler extremists” into high gear, the State Department sent the IDF a list of military operations that its forces in Judea and Samaria had carried out since Oct. 7, demanding detailed explanations and justifications of the operations. The State Department gave the IDF three months to submit its response before the United States began banning weapons transfers to the units involved in the incidents.

For their part, NGOs like Breaking the Silence work with anti-Israel reporters to demonize the IDF war in Gaza as well.

Last week, CNN ran a report featuring videos that IDF forces in Gaza took of themselves and their units blowing up buildings in Gaza. Recognizing the justice of Israel’s war in Gaza, the soldiers are proud of their contribution on the battlefield. The videos posted have gone viral in Israel, and play a key role in boosting and maintaining morale.

Yet spurred by Breaking the Silence’s CEO Avner Gvaryahu, the CNN report presented the videos as sinister admissions of Israeli venality, in general, and of the malicious nature of IDF soldiers specifically. “Israel is under increasing scrutiny over the war in Gaza. These videos may well be adding fuel to that criticism,” the reporter intoned.

The anti-Israel NGOs rejoiced at the report. Looking the Occupation in the Eye tweeted its glee at the thought of war-crimes trials against IDF soldiers.

“Take a look [at the CNN report]. Here are the soldiers that are helping the Government of Israel prepare its report to the [International Court of Justice at the] Hague [where Israel is being tried for genocide]. From anonymous warriors to celebrity bombers. Who wants to go abroad, and can’t? [For fear of war crimes charges, CBG] Raise your hands!”

Today, 92% of Israeli Jews oppose Palestinian statehood. Following Oct. 7, the vast majority of Israelis across the political spectrum recognize that a Palestinian state is as great an existential threat to Israel as Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.

Recognizing that they have no domestic support for their prized program, Israeli anti-Zionists and the State Department have joined forces to extort the government and people to act against their existential interests. The people, army and government of Israel now face a choice: They can stand up to this campaign of extortion through criminalization, even at the cost of an open breach with the Biden administration, or they can accept the destruction of their country.

[yuki-boshi]

Kai no Kiseki - English Summary - Act 3 Rean Route 3

Table of Contents

Shortest Chapter of All Time

Rean Route 3

The chapter opens with Rean and Crow, who are piloting their Tyrfings in stealth mode, accompanied by Altina and Fie in Rean’s cockpit while Towa is situated in Crow’s.

They manage to secure a last-minute reservation at the ryokan operated by Rean’s extended family, leveraging his identity for the booking.

Once there, they indulge in their surroundings, with Crow enjoying a few drinks, and the group takes the opportunity to relax. Following their downtime, they engage in a discussion about their next steps.

While at the inn, a conversation with the receptionist and bodyguard discloses that Rean had been in Longlai approximately a year and a half prior (during Reverie) and that he has become even more impressive since then. An optional cutscene in their upstairs room will further explore what Altina mentioned in Grim Garten if you previously spoke to her about analyzing the data provided by EOS during Rean Route 2. She shares that she has been investigating that data concerning the Empire, specifically the “Sword of the End,” revealing that a Homunculus was discovered, which suggests that Hamilton was also observing the events of CS4. Moreover, she indicates that she has been monitoring everyone for a considerable period.

The group can also encounter Makino, Kyle, and Shannon (NOT THAT ONE; THERE ARE TWO SHANNONS IN THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!) while they are fishing. In Van’s route, Kyle had mentioned the possibility of renting a car to go fishing and witness the rocket launch.

At the Bracer branch, the group learns that due to the involvement of CID and Police in Longlai, the workload for the Bracer Guild in the area is quite manageable. They cross paths with students from Aramis, including Sigurnii (the spelling of which I will never fully grasp), Curtis, Kisara, Julian, and others. The group naturally recognizes Towa as being on a covert mission with Thors and her NGO, and Angie (not Angelica) praises Altina and Fie, referring to them as silver-haired sisters who could easily be mistaken for idols.

The group receives a message from Kilika, who wishes to arrange a meeting.

4SPG: Miyuki Finding Her Son

Miyuki, a distressed woman, is desperate to locate her son, from whom she has been separated since he was a few year sold. She recounts her experience of being pregnant with a child during her first marriage, which ended when her husband passed away, leading her to remarry. The emotional toll from her abusive new husband, coupled with her child’s challenging behavior, ultimately pushed her to divorce and leave them behind. The child remained with his father as a means for the dad to collect support payments.

Miyuki has heard that several months ago, her son escaped from that man’s house and was adopted by someone under specific circumstances. (Could this possibly be Jedd?) She explains that she encountered Jedd in Longlai (who was also in Basel), and upon recognizing her, he fled from her presence.

The group embarks on a search and discovers that the adoptee is Angela. They also locate Mina and Tony, who provide information about Jedd’s whereabouts.

Jedd is in the mountains who is nearly attacked by monsters and after saving him, reconciles with his mom. Angela suggests to the mom that she needs to work hard to be back in her son's life, asking her to take shifts at the bath-house and to move back to Messeldam.

Connect Event: Towa and Altina Rean, Altina, and Towa engage in various activities around Longlai, including crafting a wind chime and having their fortunes told by examining palm lines. When Rean receives his fortune, the elderly woman warns him that he could easily become entangled in matters of the heart.

Altina and Towa attempt to comment on this, but Rean requests that they refrain from trying to decipher it.

Afterward, the group enjoys tea together, but Rean’s old tendency to overthink begins to surface. Towa and Altina remind him that he doesn't have to shoulder everything alone. Additionally, Altina expresses that she wished to partake in these activities so Rean could unwind a little.

Connect Event: Crow and Fie The group indulges in zongzi (known as chimaki in Japanese), onsen tamago, and other delicacies, concluding their meal with onsen manju.

They finally enjoy some tea at the temple while reminiscing about past experiences.

The group encounters Kilika, who is currently housing Former President Rocksmith at the Taito-school dojo, which now appears somewhat dilapidated due to its abandonment. Crow recognizes Kilika as Angelica’s teacher, and she mentions that she has not seen Angelica in three years.

Rean introduces himself to Rocksmith, who acknowledges the group from Operation Mille Mirage and notes that she has known Towa since before that, during their time in Crossbell, specifically in the events of Trails to Azure. Kilika informs Rean and the others that she has heard they had an encounter with Kincaid but emphasizes that they are still political guests and cannot be detained by him. Gien Lu also arrives at the dojo, and the group discusses an unofficial request that has been sent to all neighboring nations, advising them to be on high alert for an impending event. They speculate on what the Republic might be planning to initiate such a request and ponder the true objectives behind the Startaker Project and the Excalibur AF.

Walter and Zin enter the dojo, intending to offer assistance to the group as extra muscle. Zin elaborates that there will be four collaborators, one of whom is named Arnold Evans, the Guildmaster of the Bracers and the mentor to Cassius Bright.

The group sets off for the Kunlun Mountains, using a stealth shard to conceal their movements.

They are confronted by 16 Ikaruga soldiers waiting for them. Kilika and the members of Heiyue support Rean’s group. The Ikaruga soldiers start taunting Heiyue, declaring that the land does not welcome them since they have strayed from the path of Navagraha by forsaking their homeland.

Upon nearing the summit, they encounter Yun Ka-Fai and Kurogane. Rean announces his presence, and Yun Ka-Fai greets him.

The two engage in brief conversation, during which Rean expresses his feeling that Yun Ka-Fai has been avoiding him since he joined Thors. Ka-Fai does not deny this, admitting he has been aware of the challenges Rean has faced. Even before their meeting, he had glimpsed something through his special vision: a sword used by the Eight Leaves from the West, capable of transcending the natural order of the world and serving as a safeguard against the Black God style.

He believed there was a chance that Rean could realize its potential given his many trials, but that chance was slim. Unfortunately, Rean informs Ka-Fai that the chance remains slim, indicating he has not acquired that sword.

Altina becomes angry with Ka-Fai for downplaying Rean’s suffering in that regard. Rean reassures Altina that it is alright, emphasizing that currently, he and Ka-Fai share a Master and Student relationship, and he must demonstrate his worth.

Rean directly inquires if the Excalibur AF is based on Shizuna, and whether the fight against him was intended to gather data to train Excalibur for a specific purpose. Ka-Fai, impressed by their deduction, acknowledges their insight. At precisely 12:45, the Startaker Project is officially announced over the radio communications as the Laeveteinn project. Furthermore, Kurogane reveals his true identity as “Kuuga Ka-Fai,” filling in for Shizuna in the Land of Kaiten.

As Rean pursues Ka-Fai, the others hasten to catch up.

Zin and Walter confront invisible adversaries that are revealed to be Arioch and Ophelia as Remnants.

Rean and Ka-Fai clash with Ka-Fai activating his own Spirit Unification.

When Rean and the others reach the summit, the clock strikes 13:00, coinciding with the Rocket Launch.

Ka-Fai informs the group that this marks the moment when the Heavens Turn and the Fate of the World is determined.

[beardedmrbean]

A woman in her 80s has been pulled from the rubble of her collapsed house in Japan, 72 hours after the New Year's Day earthquake.

Public broadcaster NHK showed video of the woman being lifted out of her home in the town of Wajima.

Rescuers are racing against time in their search for survivors, as a critical three-day window has now shut.

At least 82 people were killed when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the remote Noto peninsula on Monday.

Many people are thought to be trapped under their collapsed homes - mostly in the towns of Suzu and Wajima.

The woman in her 80s had reportedly been trapped on the ground floor of her house since the earthquake hit.

After 72 hours, the chances of finding people alive drops substantially. That window has now closed as the earthquake hit at 16:10 local time (07:10 GMT) on Monday.

Tens of thousands of residents are still without power and water, while hundreds remain isolated from help due to landslides and blocked roads.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier on Thursday that 150 people had been rescued so far, and that rescuers would continue with their full-scale efforts to save as many as possible.

"This is a very difficult situation. But from the viewpoint of protecting lives, I ask that you make every effort to save and rescue as many lives as possible by this evening, when the critical 72 hours of the disaster will have passed," he said.

The tremor on Monday, which was followed by a series of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, according to AFP news agency.

More than 30,000 people in the quake-affected areas are still in shelters, with some towns lacking water, electricity and internet connection.

Meanwhile stories of dramatic rescues have been going viral online. A video posted by Peace Winds Japan, a local NGO that helped with the rescue, show several rescuers ploughing through layers of collapsed furniture to rescue a woman trapped under her home. They then wrapped a thick blanket around her.

The BBC saw extensive destruction on a visit to Wajima on Wednesday, where some homes and vehicles were crushed under crumbling concrete. . Many of the town's old, traditional wooden homes had collapsed.

Japan introduced new regulations to protect buildings from earthquakes in 1981, but many of the wooden homes were built before these were introduced.

Some of the Wajima's residents, many of them elderly, had not carried out the work to upgrade their homes. Data from 2018 showed that more than half the buildings in the town were not in line with the new standards.

With a population of about 23,000, Wajima now resembles a ghost town as most heeded the early warnings to evacuate, when tsunamis were forecast.

But it has still recorded the largest death toll, with 48 confirmed deaths - more than half of the total number of casualties. That number is expected to rise, as some areas surrounding the town are still cut off by ruptured roads and landslides, with help unable to reach people.

Shigeru Sakaguchi, mayor of Wajima, said food and other aid supplies had reached only 2,000 out of 10,000 evacuees from the town so far.

According to the mayor of Suzu, a town with a population of about 13,000, almost none of its houses are standing. Around 90% are completely or almost completely collapsed, Masuhiro Izumiya said.

A small tsunami struck the town one minute after the major quake.

Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, and activity has been increasing around Noto since the end of 2020. There have been more than 500 small and medium earthquakes here over the past three years.

[pinkflowerperson]

In scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the Israeli military blindfolds and strips naked Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia town, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

The Geneva-based NGO says Israeli soldiers seized remaining residents of the town of Beit Lahia. Several Palestinians, who were taking refuge in two UN-affiliated schools, were beaten severely and forced to remove all their clothes except underwear.

A young man called Mohammed Al Rai told the Euro-Med Monitor team that he saw at least seven young men being shot dead by the Israeli forces in separate incidents, due to their refusal to comply with the humiliating orders of the Israeli army, the NGO says.

Diaa Al-Kahlot, a journalist working for Al Araby Al Jadeed, was among those seized, according to the NGO, which says several doctors, academics, journalists, and elderly have also been seized.

Several Israeli papers claimed that the footage showed Hamas suspects who had surrendered in Jabalia and other areas.

Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, however, denied that there had been mass arrests of the group's members and denounced the "abuse of unarmed civilians who have nothing to do with military operations."

TRT World could not independently verify the footage.

[thepoisonroom]

for anyone wondering what i meant by the "scav bothers me" copypasta

scav is this and this

scav bothers me was posted on facebook when i was an undergrad by my then-girlfriend's TA and was this:

"SCAV bothers me. I'm fine with nerds having fun in an overindulgent nerdfest. What really bothers me is the amount of importance this university puts on such a meaningless endeavor. People pretend like this is some celebration of creativity and intellectual originality. No. Wake up. You are not doing anything more significant than those weird geeks with Japanese fetishes who show up at anime conventions in droves having paid hundreds of dollars to create the most accurate Chun Li costume.

When you are at a rich private school that gentrified an entire community of low-income African Americans and eradicated an entire culture of jazz and arts under the name of urban renewal, when that school is currently celebrating a swanky new art center that purports to engage a variety of cultures while cutting its trauma program so that all the gunshot victims in the South Side die on the ambulance ride to Northwestern, you have an obligation to do something meaningful and relevant. UChicago not only is an Ivory Tower and a sheltered and privileged bubble; it celebrates being one. There is a reason this school has so many Nobel laureates and yet very little social relevance.

You want to do something creative? While I was at Harvard I saw student-produced theater that had incredible depth, social relevance and insight, and thoughtful creativity. Your student performances at Logan fall far short of that standard. Start there. Instead of bashing Harvard students for not being intellectual enough, why don't you realize that you need some proper training from real performing artists, people who understand humanity with more breadth and nuance?

You want to do something intellectual? Why not start some conversations about our real world, instead of indulging yourselves in weird abstract geekery that has zero social impact? You bash Harvard for having grade inflation, and you think your Core is oh-so-profound because everyone has to read works by Durkheim, but the average quality of talks, panels, and classroom discussions I've seen here is far lower than that at Harvard, intellectually as well as in social relevance. The real world doesn't exist in an abstraction. The real world is complicated and doesn't quite fit neatly into intellectual arguments, broad or specific. Producing t-shirts that ask "That's all well and good in practice, but how does it work in theory?" is not helpful.

So I guess the real reason SCAV bothers me so much is that it's emblematic of the whole self-indulgent, self-congratulating University of Chicago culture that is completely unaware of its privilege and so detached from reality. You have been given such blessings and resources that many students around the world can only dream of having. There are so many talented teenagers I have met working with under-resourced school districts that would probably look at your scavenger hunt and see the same thing we see when we look at Wall St -- an immense waste of talent and money.

When I host Harvard information sessions, I often talk about the kind of holistic growth that is possible only because you are surrounded by talented individuals and Harvard will give them the resources to do cool stuff -- student research, projects at international NGOs, student activism, student performing arts, student debates, etc etc. A few months ago, an elderly tired-looking woman raised her hand and asked me why I was talking about students having fun and wasting time instead of focusing on academics. I told her that the level of academics at Harvard is top-notch, but academics is just a given -- it's a baseline on which we build more multifaceted, impactful things. I told her it's not a waste of time, because think about it: if we want to solve the massive incarceration problem in the U.S., do you want your policies designed by a social scientist who assiduously studied the problem on paper, or do you want someone who did study the theory but also went to volunteer at a prison rehabilitation program? I cannot say the same thing about the University of Chicago; we do in fact waste ridiculous amounts of time and resources doing crap like SCAV and meaningless academic discussions that don't involve real applicable solutions to real world problems. I told the lady that if you want to solely focus on academics, you should go to the University of Chicago.

People criticize Harvard for graduating so many bankers, traders, and consultants. But I've seen a surprising number of people use those starting jobs as opportunities to learn more about the private sector so that they can create their own companies or do more impactful stuff in the public or non-profit sectors, and statistics from surveys on Harvard alumni back me up. There is a reason Harvard graduates so many CEOs, leaders, and politicians; and it is not just because of pedigree and exclusive elite circles.

I am not saying Harvard graduates are altruistic world-changers. They are self-aggrandizing people who seek personal glory and bullshit about visions while comfortably residing in their privileged sheltered worlds. But at least they have those visions. At least they want to make some sort of impact, and at least they pretend to care about our larger society while pursuing their own successes. When have nerds ever changed our society (outside of the natural sciences) by purely focusing on abstract academic problems? For all the transformative theories that the social scientists at UChicago have come up with, why does this school have far less policy impact than Harvard does? How many new disruptive innovative companies or social projects do we ever see coming out of UChicago? This place has talent and resources. Why are we wasting them on SCAV when we can use that time to do much more meaningful things? Why are we ignoring our social responsibility?"