#and everywhere i turn people i care about are having health issues crop up

[gwaindrifter]

fuck

[aleatoryalarmalligator]

Hello,

So, it's funny because i was depressed right? and then as we all know the world kinda got scary, and now it's like i almost have a reason to feel validated in my feelings of hopelessness, which doesn't make me feel great, but does seem to kind of level me in this strange way.

I spend too much fucking time on reddit. I live in Portland, and basically i worked for this really extremely poorly run restaurant/brewery pub called Laurelwood. It's a long story, but the place has the worst management. Some of the people weren't like, bad people, but the way it was managed was really bad in ways i would have to spend hours explaining. They recently did a deal with Ninkasi a little over a year ago and now you can find their beer everywhere, and i guess if you are into beer most people seem to like it, so it's not really a diss on their alcohol itself though i am more of a hard liquor/hard cider fan and beer isn't typically my thing unless it's some desserty imperial stout. They expected a lot from their employees - and because of their poor management they also kind of let a lot of us get away with stuff. So we kind of, as employees created a very strong personal work ethic and friendship amongst one another in turn, we within reason broke rules and had a system of doing it to where we remained competent and managed ourselves, as our management was failing and self centered. If it wasn't the really cool friends i made there - some of the closest friends i have ever had and a ton of first time unique experiences - i learned a ton about myself and grew a lot in that position, i probably would have hated it. the owner was the kind of boomer who wanted to pull in hype of like, young trendy Portland kids, but they really made it look like a bad wannabe applebees and never really valued the fact that we were basically keeping the place open for him, so the aesthetic was kinda lazy and the demeanor between us and our top heavy upper management was pretty separated.

Anyway, since of course i worked in this field when the whole pandemic thing happened, I was naturally laid off. They didn't pay us. They sent us a message saying they just didn't have the money, and it's clear that they hoped to just, kinda, take the money they had left and bounce. The message was vague and demeaning, and everyone in the last three weeks is essentially working for nothing. So, one of the brewers, a pretty nice dude named Brandon that i didn't know too well, went on reddit and was respectful and clear, about how this really messed him up. They not only cannot pay us for the last two pay periods, but they also had a lot of their previous checks bounce. This on top of the financial collapse. To me, it's bad, but i sort of expect a lot of bad stuff now. I mean, this kind of collapse was a long time coming. I imagine it's going to take literally years for Portland to bounce back. I hear horror stories from long time Portlanders about how pretty decent people just became homeless during the recession of 2008, and i have a feeling this is going to be even worse. I feel like thus far in my life, though i've had a lot of really bad luck with relationships and family stuff, and sometimes my health, I've never had to really worry about something like this so directly impacting me. When 2008 happened, i was 19, I had never worked and lived with my parents on bare minimum, but my life had always been that way so i never felt that bad about it, though on retrospect it was kind of neglect. I lived in a factory town that had particular staples and products that never were that hit by the market crash, so that particular town in Idaho never saw a real drop in unemployment. I read about the collapse a lot, watched the Big Short and stuff, so i have my fairly strong opinions about it, but it's never actually caused me to go without. My mother is a nurse at a nursing home, and my father worked at a bullet factory. And like i said, i was relatively unaffected.

The message from Brandon took off, on reddit, thousands of people are seeing it and are disgusted, and they are being turned in for not paying us, because that is theft, that is illegal. I am willing to sign whatever documents neccesary when it comes down to it, if i don't get paid eventually. I was already personally very bad off, and i have this bitter realization that after the damage of this pandemic takes it's toll, I'm gonna have to struggle hard. I am not even mad at this point in a personal way. I just think companies need to know you don't fucking treat people this way. That the principle of the matter is that we are not just cogs for businesses to step on. We need to make the wealthy, even the vaguely wealthy people know that they need to appreciate fully those who work for them and under them, and when something bad happens, and they better intend on taking care of those people, or whatever their business model is is going to fail. It goes without saying that this pandemic has exposed a lot of what was already there. I think some people are naive enough to believe this corruption or this problem was unexpected. Lawmakers, and people who are privileged should have worked to make sure that hospitals had enough for the worst case scenario, and that there needs to be a safety net for people. None of these issues are new. I mean, it's not, at all. This is the rich doing the same old shit they have always done, and i imagine, trying so hard not to be pessimistic, but imagining just the same that this is only going to get worse. There are so many homeless drug addicted and mentally ill people in Portland already it's crazy. There was already rent that was impossible for full time employees to pay. It's funny because all these 'luxury suites' are being built throughout town in Portland, and i wonder now who they think is going to move in. Most of them were empty anyway. It's a mystery to me, because in a way it is classic gentrification the way they tore down old buildings and built these giant fancy expensive apartment buildings everywhere, but kind of weird because they were mostly empty. I mean, how could that have been worth it to investors or business owners?

I guess there is a lot I don't know about the stockmarket, banks, finance, housing and such, but it stands to reason that if you spend hundreds of millions to build something and nobody can afford to live there or pay your inflated rent, why are you bothering? I was told that a lot of these places were because of the Portland's population grew so much and these buildings were just now being built from people who had hoped to ride the 'rich Californian movers' era. The rent has just become kind of unmanageable. It's normal to live in a house with four or five people, all working full time just to maintain a single bedroom in a house of half-strangers. Meanwhile, studios that don't even come with a separate bedroom are nearly 2000 dollars, and things that should be there to help the homeless like tiny houses are marketed to rich minimalists who are so bored and guilt ridden by their own privilege they have to pretend to be quaint little peasants in order to feel unique in their own position, that they literally make it expensive to live in something not unlike a camper. But Portland is now just kind of at a steady growth. They came to late, and now with what's happened, what comes next.

Anyway, i am not leaving this city. I hated Idaho. It was a sad place for me, and i see a lot of beauty in Portland. I feel like i have a personal relationship with a good portion of the city. I tried to walk ten miles a day the first year i lived here. I lost a lot of weight here, fell in love here, I had a lot of meaningful experiences, met new people, gained new perspective. I've been afraid for my life here, drank more here, lost and found myself i mean, it's been an adventure in and of itself that becomes clearer to me now the more i have been here. I really do love Portland. It's sad but a lot of places i really loved and appreciated here in Portland won't be here anymore when this is over. A lot of small businesses i really appreciated. The kind of stuff that makes Portland really interesting, or reaching for something new. I hope that culture will crop up again, but we shall see.

I have a dry cough, and i wonder if i am catching Covid 19. My throat tingles a little, and I've already had two fever/colds in the last month, so something tells me this is it. Like a pregnant woman waiting to give birth or something. I am self quarantining. I'm a little nervous because a friend of a friend has a cousin in the FBI who has heard word from his superiors that they are considering the possibility of a full on quarantine, closing even the grocery stores. I didn't want to give in to early hysteria, like the toilet paper thing baffled me. I remember people getting really scared about Pigflu and Birdflu in the past years, but it didn't seem to really spread too far, though i did catch the Pigflu. My foodstamps refill on the 7th, so i hope if this does happen, they don't close by then. I just need to get in and get some bare essentials, because it now is looking like it might be smart to stock up now.

It's funny too, because i am not a homebody. I naturally am inclined to be depressed if i stay in one place too long. I have a somewhat mild case of ADHD, and i love to move, and i enjoy working. If i won the lottery, i'd still work in some fashion for 20 hours a week because i realize i don't feel satisfied living for myself. I like having a civilian duty, even if it's just cleaning off tables. I like feeling useful and connected to people. But i have a leg injury that's not going to heal on it's own, so walking has hurt me for the last eight months, and now this, and i have a health condition that makes it pretty easy for me to gain weight. So i am trapped in the house, snacking and trying to find things that make me laugh or inspire me. I did get inspired to start making paper mache masks. I think i can make the most of my quarantine time. I just hope they don't close the grocery stores before i get my money.

I am worried about both my parents. I have a lot of family, so it's not that unlikely i could lose someone to this virus. I am not concerned with myself that much. I could die, but the chances are relatively low. I am reading a lot of informed reddit posts, about the aftermath of this whole thing, and i'm a little bit nervous.

[trainingfaith]

Here’s why Alberta’s ban on vets performing ear cropping, tail docking and dewclaw removal matters.

(written by Kayla Baxter)

Here’s why Alberta’s ban on vets performing ear cropping, tail docking and dewclaw removal matters. It’s never just about the issue at hand, it’s how that issue came to be, the forces tied to it, and what it means for the future. In a time when animal rights extremists are everywhere and Adopt Don’t Shop is being shoved down everyone’s throat, let’s take a second to look at what’s actually going on here.

You have greyhound racing banned in Florida, and the average pet owner cheers that those poor dogs aren’t being forced to run anymore.

You have timed dog sports like agility and lure coursing banned and the average pet owner cheers because those poor dogs don’t have to perform for peoples’ entertainment anymore.

You have states banning hunting and field trials and the average pet owner cheers that those poor dogs aren’t being forced to work with cruel hunters anymore.

You have a province trying to ban certain training tools and training styles and the average pet owner cheers because they would never use those cruel methods on their pet.

You have every province except for one that’s banned crop and dock and the average pet owner cheers because dogs shouldn’t be mutilated to suit owner’s preference.

You have places trying to impose mandatory spay and neuter by six months old and the average pet owner cheers because breeding shouldn’t be happening and adopt don’t shop.

You have PETA showing up at dog shows putting dogs in danger, but the average pet owner cheers because those poor dogs shouldn’t be forced to participate in beauty pageants and have no life.

The average pet owner isn’t going to care when the AR extremists push for dog sports to be banned because we’re making dogs compete for our entertainment. They won’t care when dog sledding is banned because those poor dogs have to pull that sled so far in the snow. They won’t care when service dogs are banned because those dogs are forced to work all day. They won’t care when it’s next to impossible for a responsible breeder to produce a litter because of regulation, because people should be adopting instead of shopping.

They might start to notice when all that’s left are poor representations of the breeds, the ones being produced from the backyard breeders who don’t care about the regulations and restrictions that pushed ethical breeders away. When these puppies grow up to be sickly dogs riddled with the health issues the ethical breeders would have tested for, or lack the correct temperament that the ethical breeders worked so hard for by working and showing their dogs.

They might start to notice when their only option for adding a dog to their family is a shelter dog with more baggage than they are prepared to handle.

By the time the AR extremists start pushing to end pet ownership (which is absolutely PETA’s goal) and the average pet owner takes notice and is shocked and appalled because they love their dog so much, there will be nobody left to fight for them. All of the breeders, hunters, dog sport competitors, mushers, service dog handlers, breed preservationists, etc are already gone because the average pet owner turned their back on them.

So no, Alberta banning ear cropping, tail docking and dew claw removal may not have any impact at all on the life of the average pet owner, and they may support it, but it’s never just about one issue. Maybe the average pet owner needs to look down at the labrador, golden retriever or German Shepherd at their feet and think about what went into developing the breed the love. The herding and hunting and working that AR extremists want to end. It all ties together and is a slippery slope and it’s going to end with you, average pet owner.

A photo of my purposely bred dog whom I can’t imagine my life without.

[alwaysbewoke]

7 Instant Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint...

1. Stop Eating (or Eat Less) Meat

The single most effective action you can take to combat climate change is to stop eating meat. Just limiting your meat consumption can make a huge difference. Greenhouse gas emissions from agribusiness are an even bigger problem than fossil fuels. So while we often talk about cutting our reliance on fossil fuels – and this is still critically important – we rarely discuss the worst culprit. Red meat is particularly to blame, consuming 11 times more water and producing 5 times more emissions than its poultry counterparts. You don’t have to become a vegetarian, but eating meat less frequently (the average American eats 8.5 ounces of meat per day!) will significantly help the environment. To get a single pound of beef, it takes over 5,000 gallons of water – as the number one consumer of freshwater in the world, animal agriculture is drastically increasing the problem of water scarcity. Don’t forget to inform others: many people simply don’t know about the connection between meat and climate change.

2. Unplug Your Devices

You might be surprised to learn that all electronics suck energy when they’re plugged in, EVEN IF they’re powered down. In the U.S. alone, “vampire power” is responsible for draining up to $19 billion in energy every year. Anytime a cord is plugged into a socket, it’s drawing energy – so although your device isn’t charging, you’re still contributing to your carbon footprint. Simple solution? Leave your electronics unplugged at all times, unless you’re actually using them.

3. Drive Less

Choose to walk, bike, or take the bus – leave the car at home, and you’ll be making an easy decision with immediate results. Many people are opting to bike to work, especially with bike lanes becoming more prevalent. Cities are finally investing in the necessary infrastructure to make it easier not to own a car. There are over 65 million cyclists in the United States, a number that has risen dramatically over the past five years. Increasing populations have made effective public transportation more necessary than ever, and options like subways, trains, buses, and rapid transit continue to grow. Many new bus routes are even turning to hybrids, solar power, and other eco-friendly alternatives. In the U.S., public transportation saves 37 million tons of carbon emissions every year. Cities are also increasing walkability, with architects incorporating more outdoor and green spaces, and new buildings focused on green infrastructure and community engagement.

4. Don’t Buy “Fast Fashion”

Many major clothing retailers practice what is known as “fast fashion” – selling an endless cycle of must-have trends at extremely low prices. Have you ever wondered how it’s possible to pay only $4 for that t-shirt? In this consumer society, we think of fashion as disposable – after all, if I only pay $4 I might not think twice about throwing it away. Heaps and heaps of clothing ends up in the landfill, often to justify buying the latest styles. We’re talking over 15 million tons of textile waste – with quantity over quality, fast fashion retailers can charge next to nothing for items that are mass-produced. They push these garments to sell by creating more fashion “cycles” or “seasons” – where there used to be 4 per year, there’s now often 12 to 15. There’s also the issue of contamination: almost half of our clothing is made with cotton, and unless it’s labeled as “organic” cotton, there’s a high chance that it’s genetically modified cotton sprayed with lots of pesticides (including known carcinogens). This can be damaging to neighboring non-GMO crops, cause water contamination, reduce biodiversity, and have negative impacts on human health. Don’t forget that anything made overseas has a huge environmental impact – from the physical act of shipping a product across the ocean, to the chemical runoff from garment factories (leather tanneries are particularly bad). As if that’s not enough, fast fashion is an industry still largely propped up by child labor. Toxic to the environment, detrimental to human rights – who needs it? Try alternatives like re-purposing old clothing, choosing locally handmade garments, buying vintage, or participating in clothing swaps with family and friends.

5. Plant a Garden

Whether you live in a house or an apartment, planting some greens is a quick and easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. We all know plants absorb carbon dioxide – a beneficial relationship for humans, that we should all be seeking to nurture. Plant some bee-friendly flowers, a few trees, or a vegetable garden. Balcony gardens are great for urban dwellings. Cities often need to reduce the “urban heat island” effect – basically, cities tend to be hotter than rural areas because of vast pavement areas, concrete buildings, and increased human activity. Creating more spaces for plants, grasses, and trees can mitigate this effect and lead to better cooling, which will be a necessity with worsening climate change. Help avoid the “heat island” effect by planting trees for shade, or maybe try a green roof or community garden.

6. Eat Local (and Organic)

Whenever possible, try to eat local, in-season produce. Sticking to foods that are grown locally, in your own city or surrounding area, helps to reduce the carbon footprint created by shipping foods from elsewhere. A general rule for where something is grown? The closer to you, the better. When a fruit or vegetable can be grown in your own backyard, or a local farm, the environmental cost is significantly reduced. Just imagine the journey that food from a distant country has to take – by plane, ship, train, or truck, the produce must stay cooled, so it doesn’t spoil, and has usually been picked way too early (resulting in not-so-great quality, and fewer nutrients). Small farms are more likely to adopt beneficial soil-care practices and maintain borders for local wildlife, and eating locally-grown food supports your local economy and promotes food security. It’s equally important to eat organic produce, which hasn’t been sprayed with toxic pesticides and other environmentally detrimental chemicals. Don’t forget to avoid processed foods: processed and packaged foods are often bad for your health, not just the environment. Processing plants are major polluters, and their products contribute to health epidemics like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Choose whole foods that are better for the planet, and better for your own longevity.

7. Line-Dry Your Clothes

New is not always better – the traditional method of line-drying your clothing is much better for the environment. One dryer load uses 5 times more electricity than washing – by simply line-drying your clothes, you can save 1/3 of their carbon footprint. Unfortunately, line-drying seems to be America’s least favorite way to save energy – despite the fact that running a clothes dryer is equivalent to turning on 225 light bulbs for an hour. Europeans, on the other hand, are excellent at this (95 percent of Italians don’t even own a dryer) – it might be time to follow their lead, especially considering the tumble dryer is one of the top energy-consuming appliances (not to mention the leading cause of appliance-related house fires).

Anyone can make these simple changes: they’re easy to implement, and are immediately effective in reducing your carbon footprint. Our actions and choices ultimately make a difference, and we all share the responsibility to do whatever we can to address climate change, big or small.

i’m going my part. i have meatless days and walk just about everywhere.

[theramblingonesie]

I love you but I don’t like you right now: The Passion Project Diaries

I remember years ago when I was nannying for a beautiful family, experiencing the joys and not-joys of their daughter coming into toddlerhood. She was such a precious dumpling as a baby, and somehow she had sprung into an agent of chaos, destruction, loss of hearing (mine), and potty-training nightmares. I had a day where I remember sitting at the kitchen table hoping for five minutes of peace (that never arrived) and feeling overwhelmed by the guilty thought of, “omg. I don’t like you.” Bothered by this, having established that I did feel unconditional love for this child, I asked one of my friends who is a mother to two young children if she ever experienced similar feelings. She laughed and threw her hands up exclaiming, “OH GAWD YES! There are days where I completely dislike my children. You don’t tell them that, obviously, but that’s a well-kept secret among mothers. We all talk about it. You’d be surprised how common that is, especially when they’re toddlers.”

PHEW. Great, I wasn’t a monster. Or if I was, I was at least in good company.

Producing and directing The Scarlet Tongue Project has brought out similar feelings for me over the course of the past three or four years. I remember the gestation period, feeling scared and excited, dreaming about what her personality was going to be, how I would be as an art mommy, imagining all the playdates with other artists and art parents in town. Then I went into labor, breathing and screaming through the pain of contractions, feeling frustration and fear of the nurses- some helpful and some harmful. I remember the vulnerability of not wanting anyone else to touch my baby, of just wanting to hold her to my chest where she would feel safe and bonded. I remember how deeply and fiercely I fell in love when she began opening her eyes and making sounds. She was the most precious thing in the world to me, and I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her. The rest of the world disappeared, and it was so hard for me to focus or find equivalent joy in anything else. Then the insecurities of being a new art mommy set in. I doubted my abilities, and my exhaustion from trying to navigate this new territory had me questioning everything. Everywhere I turned there was information telling me that I was doing it all wrong; that if I made the slightest error I would damage my art baby for life, and maybe even lose her. I constantly reached out to loved ones asking for assistance, afraid to be left alone with this tiny, vulnerable creature. When you have a new project and you’re a new producer, suddenly everyone around you is an expert and wants to tell you how to do your job; particularly folks who have never been producers before. You begin to wonder if you made a mistake, and if you should give your project up for adoption to someone more competent. Other times, you pour yourself a glass of wine and tell them to eff right off because it’s your kid and they can go mind their own beeswax. I was in awe as I watched my art baby grow. She began to take on her own personality, making friends, forming opinions, and developing a stubborn side that I couldn’t budge for the life of me. I adored that about her. I was so deeply in love. But every once in a while, I would wonder if I made a mistake. She was so hungry, and the bigger she gets the hungrier she is. She developed her own voice, and while there are so many laughs and moments of deep wisdom that make me think she’s an old soul, she also loves to scream. Her favorite thing to do is scream, just to know she can. What and who she loves one day she hates the next. Sometimes she decides that what was previously her favorite food is disgusting, and will go on a hunger strike until I guess what she likes, because she won’t actually tell me. Sometimes I’ll put her in the bath and then run downstairs to grab a book quickly, and when I come back up she’s turned the water all the way up, screaming because it’s too hot and the tub is overflowing all over the floor and leaking through the kitchen ceiling below. Sometimes I think she’s getting dressed to go run errands with me, but instead she’s put on her roller skates and is three blocks down the street by herself with nothing but her lightning bolt undies on. In winter. On those days, I don’t like her. I don’t want to be an art mommy.

When my health issues crop up, physically or mentally, I don’t want to be an art mom that day. When I have no clue how to delegate because the beginning stages of this project left me with massive trust issues, and now I’ve taken on way too much for one person, I don’t want to be an art mom. When I receive yet another rejection letter from the millionth grant or residency program I’ve applied to, I want to quit. Everytime someone says, “so wait, I don’t really get what you’re doing, it’s so confusing” or “so like, is Scarlet Tongue even happening anymore?” I just want to go full-Britney, shave my head, and start smashing the street up with my umbrella.

Everytime someone says “oh, my sister is into feminism and stuff and she likes to draw. You should interview her”, I want to crumble into a pile of feral cats and scatter into oncoming traffic.

There are days when I ask myself why I took on a project that isn’t as flashy or “fun” as my other artist friends. Why am I so heavy? Why am I such a downer? Why am I so weird, but not in a way that’s cool?

There are days when I don’t know whether to punch or charge money for the next person who tells me that anger is bad, and why don’t I focus on a project that brings love and joy?

There are days when my heart breaks, because everyone likes the idea of womxn’s anger in theory, but when actually confronted by it they simply regurgitate the same toxic oppressive mentality that’s left us in this place to begin with. I’ve lost track of how many times “yes I believe in this, PLEASE LET ME HELP” has turned into “you’re a bad mommy. How dare you be angry with me.”

There are days when I feel lost, because I am holding the weight of so many people’s heaviest emotions and darkest secrets, and I feel pressured to keep smiling and do a flashy dance to make it all seem sexy, because sex seems like the only thing that sells if “womxn” is mentioned in your mission statement. Either that, or a complete exploitation of my artists’ trauma, which is a hard no.

There are days when money issues are gutting me, and I’m afraid to ask for help because I fear I’ve overtapped my resources.

There are days when it looks like for one every step forward I end up taking ten steps back.

Some days I’m not sure if I’m actually a better person since doing this work or not.

Those days, I turn my face away and mutter “I don’t fucking like you” under my breath, and secretly look up boarding schools in the middle of the night. When I’m around a small handful of friends I really trust, I’ll confess that I don’t like this project anymore and am ready for it to end.

But then, something beautiful happens. The act of saying how I feel out loud invites a feeling of surrender, and that surrender creates space for me to look at this project with fresh eyes and see her wholeness. Sure, maybe in certain moments I’m ready to tap out. But in a way, that’s good. It means I care, and I welcome emotions in this project. Sure, there are parts of this project I’m ready to wrap up, and not being able to complete that on my desired timeline makes me cranky. Not because I think they suck, but because that is the healthiest choice to keep things moving forward. I’m not going to start feeding my child solid foods because I resent their baby years; I’m going to feed them solid foods because it’s time to grow and move to the next step. Despite my hair-pulling moments, the reality is that when I really dig in and try to visualize not having this project, or never having started it, I feel panic and then a full-body resistance. For all of the frustrations, ups and downs, I believe in this work so hard, and I am completely dedicated to the path. I have visited parts of the US and the world that I’m not sure I would have ever seen otherwise. I’ve had the absolute fortune and blessing to gain both wisdom and knowledge, collaborate with, and share space with absolutely brilliant creative minds, both past and present. I’ve lost track of how many “holy shit, this is my life??” moments I’ve had, and that number only continues to grow. For every moment I’ve doubted myself, just as many people have taken time to tell me how much this project and this work means to them, and how it’s influenced their lives, whether as contributors or observers. On a personal level, the work I’ve done to heal a lot of my own trauma and anger issues has been profound, and the effects of that have had incalculable influence on my personal relationships and in my blood family. This project has shown me, through peace and through fire, how tirelessly obsessed and dedicated I am to making something happen if I really want it. Hearing “no” might bum me out for a minute, but you find solutions and move on. Being bummed out isn’t a death sentence.

Two years ago I was sitting with friends in Mexico, chatting with them about their experiences as mothers, contemplating if I wanted to have children of my own one day. One thing they said really stuck with me-- as a parent, you don’t own your children and they’re not extensions of you. They are their own people who will develop into who they need to be, and they will ultimately inform you about who they are. A parent’s job is mainly to love them, provide resources, and keep them safe.

This is a regular reminder for The Scarlet Tongue Project. I brought her into the world, gave her some form, and now she’s taken on a life of her own. Rather than being the owner or queen of this work, my job is far more service than glory. I’m trying to be better at asking her, “who are you today? What do you need to thrive?” Sometimes I have no clue what she’s trying to tell me. Sometimes we need to explore that a little bit to figure it out. Sometimes we take one or two wrong turns before getting back on track. But I trust the friends and caregivers she’s called forward to help on this journey. It’s a constant balance of appreciating growth while remaining present, and frequently reminding my ego to step out of the way. In moments of absolute frustration, I simply ask myself, “have you tried absolutely everything?” and the answer is always no. There is always more to do and more to learn. I can’t justify giving up when there is still infinite potential available.

Our relationships always flow in cycles. One day you’ll be super in sync with a friend or loved one, and the next you can’t seem to jive with their energy. Life will happen, circumstances will change, and then days, weeks, months or years later, you’ll fall back in harmony. In longterm romantic relationships, you cycle through periods of absolute infatuation, then wanting to murder each other, and sometimes being platonic roommate besties. I don’t have actual children, but I do believe there are so many different ways to live the archetype of Parent. It’s no secret that with parenthood comes doubt and overwhelm, along with joy and love. One minute you can’t get enough of your babies, and the next you’re hoping someone will take them away for a month so you can get some sleep and remember who you are outside of them.  While love remains, inspiration and interest come in cycles. Life, death and rebirth apply to the creative process as much as they do to the larger natural world. Winter in the creative process is crucial for letting things rest, assessing our previous work, and contemplating where we want to go before implementing a plan in the creative spring.

The work my team puts into this project continues to stun and humble me in gratitude. Every single person who takes a moment to tell me how this project has helped or inspired me has given me fresh life. Watching this whole thing come to life is surpassing my wildest dreams, even with the path being full of twists and turns. I don’t have to always like this project, and it’s liberating to admit that. But I love her on both an intellectual and soul level, and that’s what allows me to push through. This project is all about rawness, authenticity, and speaking your truth. It would be hypocritical if I encouraged everyone else but myself to be in that energy.

I wish you all creative spring through your moments of wanting to light it all on fire and send the ashes out on trash day <3

[livingcorner]

Your Ultimate Guide to Square Foot Gardening | Gardener’s Path@|how to square foot garden@|https://gardenerspath.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/square-foot-garden-FB.jpg@|21

It’s been a buzzword in the gardening world for decades: the square foot garden, a revolution in small space gardening everywhere.

It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what this basic concept entails.

[external_link_head]

It involves carefully measuring gardening plots. Careful planning can have a huge impact on how much food you grow, and how much waste you can avoid.

But for traditional gardeners and acolytes of other styles (like myself), we may need a bit more of a formal intro!

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What is square foot gardening, and where did it come from? What’s so great about it? Why do people still use the method in gardens today, and why is it so popular?

Sure, it involves the clever use of square foot measurements to get the most out of your growing space. But nowadays, with a burgeoning local food movement and a passion for home growing, knowing all the ins and outs of this ideology means a whole lot more.

Without further ado, let’s dig in and take a look!

So, what is square foot gardening anyway, and where did it come from?

In essence, it is an approach to growing food that incorporates companion planting, intensive spacing, and getting the most food possible out of a small space.

It all started in 1981 as a concept developed and coined by civil engineer Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening.

Square Foot Gardening, available on Amazon

In his experiences as an urban planner, Bartholomew brought attention to less efficient and productive methods of traditional single-row gardening. A hobby gardener himself, he combined his city design and planning skills with his green thumb to come up with the ever-practical square foot garden – and thus, his book was born.

The book quickly caught fire as an exciting new way to grow more food in small spaces, not only for the average gardener but to also improve health, ergonomics, space use, and even food security among populations in need around the world.

Its first edition is known as one of America’s bestselling gardening books of all time, with over a million copies sold.

Decades later, the book continued to be top-tier among gardening guides – so continuously purchased, used, and enjoyed, that a long-awaited update of the book was released in 2006 as The All New Square Foot Gardening, followed by a second edition in 2013. You’ll find it on Amazon.

All New Square Foot Gardening II: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More in Less Space

Even now, Bartholomew sporadically updates his concept with new techniques and information to be more informed with modern gardening methods and fads that befit today’s gardeners.

A book that is so persistent as a horticultural classic must contain some kernel of truth, right? That’s exactly the point: this method of gardening is timeless, a classic that’s still relevant at a time when food issues are at the forefront of household concerns.

This led him to release yet another wave of square foot gardening books. Bartholomew’s second edition of All New Square Foot Gardening was published in 2013. It explores many of today’s hot gardening trends including vertical gardening, pest control, and gardening with your kids.

A book that is so persistent as a horticultural classic must contain some kernel of truth, right? That’s exactly the point: this method of gardening is timeless, a classic that’s still relevant at a time when food issues are at the forefront of household concerns.

Even though it was conceived decades ago, the essence of its greatness still shows in space-saving, DIY food production techniques for the home that aren’t at all difficult to adopt.

Can you learn them yourself? Of course! Let’s take a look at how you can make these methods yours.

First of all – what exactly are the benefits of square foot gardening? Why is it a worthwhile approach to gardening in the first place?

For the backyard gardener, or even the newbie to urban homesteading, this perennial method is your perfect food-growing option for more than just a few reasons:

Grow as much food within a small space as you would with some traditional row-planted gardens

Compact 4-by-4 foot raised bed garden makes for easy access

No need for a big yard – grow food on patio, balcony, or smaller plot

No weeding at all (with the right setup using weed-free soil mix)

Less work and strain on the body

No negative effects or damage to the yard

Incredibly easy – ideal for new gardeners

Save money with minimal management by sourcing your own food

That’s right: with this clever gardening approach, you are essentially sourcing your own food from tiny spaces, saving yourself money and hardly having to put any work into it!

And no – you don’t need that huge backyard or tiller you once assumed you might to get started.

Due to the tight, compact, yet healthy spacing implemented using this method, you can competitively produce as much food as you might in a larger space that was planted using less-space efficient row crop methods. Due to the tight, compact, yet healthy spacing implemented using this method, you can competitively produce as much food as you might in a larger space that was planted using less-space efficient row crop methods.

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Sure, traditional row-cropping guarantees healthy plants with ample spacing between rows, but square foot gardening begs the question: couldn’t more plants be used in those spaces as well?

Plus, in a 4×4 foot raised bed structure (the method’s standard raised bed dimensions), you don’t have to do anywhere near the amount of work required for the in-ground planting of a larger plot.

With the purchase or construction of such a bed (whether wood, plastic, fabric, or even DIY from makeshift cinder blocks) and the addition of a bottom lining, you can keep your bed completely weed free – thus eliminating out a good chunk of the gardening work entirely.

Adding a lining to your 4-by-4 foot raised bed growing space ensures that it stays weed-free, and reduces the amount of work you have to do.

This is especially true if you add a seed-free soil mix rather than planting in soil from your own yard, an important aspect of Bartholomew’s method.

The method’s standard 4-by-4-foot total raised bed growing space is also the perfect size for reaching across to get to just about any spot in the bed, whether for weeding, planting, amending – you name it. This is quite the ergonomic option!

Plus, the techniques for setting up and planting are incredibly easy to learn, and can even provide the perfect medium for a beginner who is just starting out on their first adventures in edible gardening.

Of course, anything truly great tends to draw at least a little heat! Some critics of the method state that, in spite of its space- and work-saving techniques, startup can be expensive – the purchase or construction of a raised bed may be costly, as can getting your hands on completely weed-free, nutrient-rich potting soil or compost.

My comeback to that? Sure, you might ring up startup costs in the $100 range (though the initial cost tends to be much lower if you’re a smart bargain-hunter or handyperson), but think about the ultimate impact on your food budget (and self-confidence that will be gained in growing your own food) over time!

That’s right: over time, you’ll save money on your food budget by growing your own food (while feeling good and healthy about it!)

Sourcing your own food straight from your backyard with this method is also an excellent way to feel proactive about changing your part of the food system for the better.

By growing an edible garden organically and by using this method in your own backyard, you’re getting produce straight from your own soil at much smaller environmental and health costs, in comparison to the average grocery store produce.

The Basic Setup

Square foot gardening has a time-honored, well-tested place in the gardening world, with many noticeable benefits to gardening and lifestyle.

But what are the special techniques that bring about such awesome results?

At their foundation, they are very basic and ridiculously simple to learn:

1. Get Your Grow Space

First, build (or buy) a 4-by-4 foot raised bed box (lined with weed barrier landscaping fabric if you want less weeds and you’re building on top of other soil).

2. Put In Your Preferred Soil

Fill it with fertile potting soil (part peat moss, compost, and vermiculite, or another mix of your choice – preferably weed free).

3. Lay Out Your Grid

Overlay a square foot grid atop your box for plant spacing, then plant your seeds.

4. Get Growing!

Water, grow, and presto!

All of these steps seem pretty simple, right? Nothing new to most of you green thumbs out there.

But you might have noticed the obvious thing that makes this method different from other techniques: the square foot grid.

According to Bartholomew’s canon, this grid is typically an easy-to-make, homemade measuring tool crafted from long, thin slats of wood (particularly lath) that are then cross-hatched and fashioned into square foot-sized squares.

This grid is then fastened atop one’s 4-by-4 foot wooden beds, and used to measure and designate specific 1-by-1-foot planting areas for various herbs, veggies, and more.

If you’re not the handyman (or handywoman) type, these grids can be found for purchase on Amazon, primarily made of fiberglass material.

Mr. Garden Grid Kit

Or, you can build your own with wooden lath, though I have also seen gardeners and farmers use a temporary string-and-post setup to cast their measurements instead of wood.

Growing on the Grid

It’s these grids that create the magic of the whole concept, and which in turn help to make the whole endeavor of gardening this way so easy.

It’s simple: certain vegetables are planted in certain amounts (the number depending on the plant) within each square, at their ideal distances from one another. This then maximizes each plant’s space and nutrient use while crowding out weeds as a living mulch, allowing you to grow more veggies in a small space, and even boosting plant health through companion planting (which we’ll get to later).

Depending on the type of vegetable, herb, or even fruit that you are planting, one only plants so many seeds or seedlings within each square in a continuous grid-like spacing – while the actual grid itself helps to measure and keeps your rows looking neat!

Simply put, all you really have to do is consider the number of plants you need per square, plant them, and make sure to space them at healthy distances in a grid formation within the larger grid.

It’s wonderfully easy – no doubt one of the reasons why it’s a technique that’s caught on like wildfire!

Below, we share the general number and spacing rules for the most common vegetables you might like to plant in your square foot garden.

1-Per-Square Plantings

Simply form one hole in the center of the 1-by-1-foot square of your choice, and plant your seeds (or transplant your seedling), keeping in mind the seeding techniques and layout guidelines that you’ll find later in this article.

Celery

Corn

Eggplant

Kale

Lettuce (head)

Okra

Oregano

Parsley

Peppers

Potatoes

Rosemary

Sweet potatoes

Tomatoes (staked)

2-Per-Square Plantings

Plant these seeds side by side within the square, at the recommended seeding distance with an appropriate support trellis.

Cantaloupe

Cucumbers

Pumpkins

Watermelons

Winter squash

(Up to) 4-Per-Square Plantings

Plant these in a square with each seed or plant forming one of the four corners. They should be placed at equal distances from each other and from the border of the grid, with one hole close to each corner of the square space.

As noted, some of these veggies do not necessarily have to be planted 4 per square. If you want to grow a little less food, you may do so.

Basil

Garlic (for growing larger bulbs)

Kohlrabi

Leeks (for growing larger plants)

Lettuce (leaf)

Onions (for growing larger bulbs)

Winter radishes

Rutabaga

Summer squash (with cage)

Swiss chard

Tomatoes (with cage)

Zucchini (with cage)

(Up to) 8- or 9-Per-Square Plantings

Plant these in a grid- or square-like pattern within the square space (i.e. 3 plants long by 3 plants wide, forming either a square or a square-shaped ring border, simply making sure that they are equidistant from one another and the border of the grid.

Like with 4-per-square plantings, don’t feel pressured to plant that many of each vegetable if you don’t necessarily want that much food!

Green beans (bush or pole)

Beets

Cilantro

Garlic (smaller bulbs harvested, but more plants)

Leeks (smaller but more plants)

Onions (smaller but more plants)

Peas

Spinach

Tomatoes (with no supports)

Turnips

(Up to) 16-Per-Square Plantings

Plant these in a grid or square pattern within each square space (i.e. a maximum of 4 plants long by 4 plants wide). Make sure they are equidistant from each another and the border of the grid to avoid crowding.

If you don’t plan to thin or pick any of these vegetables for quite awhile, plant less if you like – you might prefer to use the 8- or 9-per-square spacing method. This will allow their root size to grow larger without leading to bolting or disease.

Carrots

Parsnips

Radishes

(Up to) 2-Per-4 Planting Squares

The veggies in this category need LOTS of space to flourish, and a more complex arrangement of the square grid method is required than for other crops.

Depending on the number you wish to plant, just make sure they have ample space from one another and the sides of the grid.

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

What About Perennial Vegetables?

Unfortunately, some vegetables simply aren’t ideal for the square foot garden, namely perennials that require more space to grow. The foliage of these plants grows too large and creates too much overshadowing to grow in a companion planting style close to other veggies in a garden.

These include:

Artichokes

Asparagus

Rhubarb

The ferns of full-grown asparagus would fall over onto other plants, as would the growth of artichokes and rhubarb. You’ll have to keep these separate!

Another unique aspect of this gardening technique is found in the way you plan your growing space – or more specifically, where every plant and veggie is going to go within that space, in order to get the maximum benefits out of your small garden.

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Techniques like companion planting are a big part of this, too – namely, the mutually beneficial inter-planting of different species with one another for natural perks like insect resistance and disease prevention.

Within your 4-by-4-foot space, carefully selecting the type of plants that you plant together – and even where you plant them within your container, and within each space of the grid – is very important.

You can use the following tips in combination with the grid setup guidelines described above to plan which squares will be best for which plants, especially if you’re planting many different things.

Making a mock-up and getting all of your arrangement ideas down on paper is a great idea for this part of the planning process!

Below is a list of the best companion planting layout tips for your square foot garden – so you can produce the most productive, happy, disease-free, and harmonious harvest possible!

The exact placement of these companion plantings in your square foot garden is important.

Companion Planting Tips

Not all plants get along. Some compete with one another for nutrients, or attract harmful pests that can be detrimental to certain plant neighbors.

On the other hand, some special pairings do exactly the opposite: they bring out the very best in each other, attract the right insects or pollinators, and create the perfect healthy balance.

Before planting your seeds (or transplanting your seedlings) into your raised bed, do the necessary research to determine what you should plant together within each square.

Stay tuned for a deep dive into companion planting in the very near future.

Adopt and adhere to these very straightforward guidelines for the best results – especially if you’re companion planting in your bed (and you should be)!

No Monoculture

Always plant your square foot garden with a variety of mutually benefitting plants, since one variety planted closely together will attract more pests and disease.

Keep Height in Mind

If planting short sun- and heat-loving plants with taller ones, make sure to plant taller veggies (e.g. tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants) on the north side of your bed to allow shorter ones (like basil, bush beans, celery) to get their share of the sun’s rays.

On the other hand: If mixing tall plants with a blend of shade- and heat-loving plants, plant your tall ones right in the middle. Plant shade-lovers on the north side of them, and heat-lovers on the south side.

Border with Veggie Protectors!

Border your growing space with alliums (i.e. onions, garlic, leeks, shallots) since these repel insects and pests (but keep them far from beans).

Add a Flourish of Color (and Pest Control)

Planting certain herbs and flowers – such as sage with brassicas, or marigolds with nightshades – helps to repel certain insects like egg-laying butterflies and nematodes.

Starting Out

So you’ve decided which veggies you want to grow in your little garden – and now you know exactly how many to put into each square.

Here’s the next step: getting them started from seed!

In the same vein as planting using a grid, square foot gardening employs its own unique approach to seed starting. This involves thinning out weak seedlings so you only give nourishment to the strongest, most (potentially) successful ones for the most productive garden.

When planting seeds:

1. Form Holes for Each Seed

First, form holes in each square using your finger or another tool, correlating to the number of plants you will be growing (which depends on the type – reference the list provided above).

Make sure holes are set up in an equidistant, grid-like fashion within each square, so that plants are equally spaced apart in their correct number – this arrangement will differ depending on the total number (either 1, 2, 4, 9, or 16).

2. Place and Plant Your Seeds

Plant 2 to 3 seeds of your chosen vegetable in each hole. Cover lightly with soil, then water.

3. Watch Them Grow

Once sprouted, choose the strongest-looking seedling from each set of 2-3 seeds that you have planted and remove the others to give it clearance. This will become your final, full-grown vegetable or herb!

Some may choose to direct seed straight into their bed, as the instructions above demonstrate. However, lovers of the seed-starting and transplanting tradition don’t have to change their ways to make this gardening method work.

Planting appropriate veggies (i.e. those that do well with transplanting) in smaller containers first, then sizing them up before transplanting into their final space, works just as well if you enjoy that method – and especially if you want to get started earlier on your garden indoors during cold seasons!

Setting the Pace

Once your seedlings and sprouts are well on their way in your square foot garden – well, you know the rest!

Water regularly, harvest, and enjoy. You’ll be amazed by how much food you can cultivate in such a small space, and with so little work required once your seedlings have sprouted. And once you’ve harvested everything you can eat, it’s shockingly simple to plant another succession and have delicious veggies again in no time.

If some seedlings don’t do so well, just plant new seeds in their place. However, it’s wise in more crowded squares (such as in 8-, 9-, and 16-plant spacings) to wait for other successful veggies in the same plot to reach maturity and harvest first, so they don’t overshadow and crowd out your tiny new plant introductions.

Not only will you have a flourishing, quaint food garden with minimal effort in comparison to what it takes to manage a full-sized one, you’ll also see significant savings in terms of your food budget.

Who doesn’t want fresh, homegrown produce straight from their own yard (and the fruit of their own labors) and from their very own hands? Nothing beats veggies you grow yourself.

You can also practice this method with practically no change, potential negative consequences, or damage to your space. There’s no need to dig up your garden soil – you can set up your square foot garden on your patio, balcony, or lawn without breaking any soil (or even a sweat)!

Of course, keep in mind that not all raised beds may be appropriate for all surfaces. With any bed you build or buy, look into the details on where the best setup should take place without creating drainage problems, rot, or damage to the surface blow, depending on your product or design.

About Adrian White

Adrian White is a certified herbalist, organic farmer, and health/food writer and expert. She aims to bridge the world of natural, holistic health and nutrition to the realm of organic foods, herbalism, gardening, and sustainability – or “Food as Medicine” – throughout her writing.

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[globalpeacefoundationindia]

Topic-

Up to what extent women can open up about their problems they face in the day to day life.

• Women in India have to face a lot of issues. They have to go through gender discrimination, harassment, sexual abuse, lack of education, dowry-related harassment, gender pay gap and much more.

• We must come together to empower women. They must be given equal educational opportunities. Furthermore, they must be paid equally. Moreover, laws must be made more stringent for crimes against women.

The lack of respect for caregiving Women in the United States who are caregivers—for children, parents, spouses, siblings or extended family members—have two full-time jobs, while trying to compete with men who have one. And over half of us are the primary breadwinners in our households. The standard response is to persuade men to “help” more. But we need a sea-change, one that can happen only with a normative revolution around the value of care.

Navigating career and motherhood According to the World Health Organization, 830 women die every day from “preventable causes related to pregnancy.” These statistics are even more staggering in developing countries and among women of color in the United States. Black women in particular are the most affected, dying at a ratio of 25.1 deaths per 100,000.

The economy is not working for women

Women are the primary or joint breadwinners for a majority of American households. But right now, this economy and our government is not working for them and their families.

Women play a very significant role in the overall development of any society and Kashmir is no exception. But what is ironic is that despite her equal share in the human development she remains at the mercy of men at least in our part of the world.

The silver lining however is the recent surge in women led protest movements across India.

She is out there to challenge the well established gender biased norms and deeply entrenched patriarchal stranglehold over the fairer sex.

Woman is a very strong character than a man as she not only has to take care of herself but whole family as a daughter, granddaughter, sister, daughter-in-law, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, etc. No mean task by any stretch of imagination. Add to this her role as an active member of the society as a working lady in different spheres of life. Woman has come of age.

Earlier women in India were facing problems like child marriage, sati pratha, parda pratha, restriction to widow remarriage, widow exploitation, devadasi system, etc. However, almost all such old practices have almost vanished. But that doesn’t mean an end to the challenges women face. New and modern day challenges have cropped up making life uneasy for women.

Issues facing women still consume the attention of researchers in social sciences, governments, planning groups, social workers and reformers. Approaches to the study of women’s problems range from the study of gerontology to psychiatry and criminology. But one important problem relating to women which has been vastly ignored is the problem of violence against women.

Firstly, violence against women is a very grave issue faced by women in India. It is happening almost every day in various forms. People turn a blind eye to it instead of doing

something. Domestic violence happens more often than you think. Further, there is also dowry-related harassment, marital rape, genital mutilation and more.

Next up, we also have the issues of gender discrimination. Women are not considered equal to men. They face discrimination in almost every place, whether at the workplace or at home. Even the little girls become a victim of this discrimination. The patriarchy dictates a woman’s life unjustly.

Moreover, there is also a lack of female education and the gender pay gap. Women in rural areas are still denied education for being a female. Similarly, women do not get equal pay as men for doing the same work. On top of that, they also face workplace harassment and exploitation.

• Not enough women at the table Kamala Harris is a Democratic U.S. senator from California. She is running for president in 2020.

I don’t think it’s possible to name just one challenge—from the economy to climate change to criminal justice reform to national security, all issues are women’s issues—but I believe a key to tackling the challenges we face is ensuring women are at the table, making decisions.

••Trauma-centers

The threat of harm is a human constant, but by any reasonable measure, American women

are among the safest, freest, healthiest, most opportunity-rich women on Earth. In many ways, we are not just doing as well as men, we are surpassing them. But everywhere, especially on college campuses, young women are being taught that they are vulnerable, fragile and in imminent danger. A new trauma-centered feminism has taken hold.

Access to equal opportunity

Education, these mothers believed, would provide their daughters with opportunities they, because of their gender, were denied. Unfortunately, even with adequate education, women here in the United States as well as women across much of the world still lack equal access to opportunity.

Ways to overcome women related issues

1. Raise your voice

Voice amplifies, directs and changes the conversation. Don’t sit silent in meetings or conversations with friends when you have something to contribute to the conversation.

2. Support one another

Recognize inherent dignity in oneself and all other human beings through acceptance of identities different from one’s own.

3. Share the workload

Share the responsibility of creating safe environments for vulnerability to be freely expressed.

4. Get involved

Acknowledge that your actions are crucial to the creation of fairness and accountability.

Identify your commitments. Speak about them, and act on them.

5. Educate the next generation

Listen actively and seek understanding. Share experience and knowledge to grow wisdom.

6. Know your rights

Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights. At their most basic, human rights concern reciprocity in human relationships that extend to all humanity and beyond.

7. Join the online conversation

Human beings express their identities and their aspirations through what they say. Join the

IWD Conversation #TimeIsNow and #IWD2018. Social media amplifies women’s voices and emboldens their collective agency.

8. Give to the cause

It takes time and effort for the gender equality conversation to reach everyone. Consider giving to the cause by donating money or time

In short we can say that following steps helps in achieving our goal:

Enabling the political empowerment of women

Uplifting the role of women in society through entrepreneurship. Educating women.Contributing to the education and skills development of women. Education and skills development is one of the most important and sustainable interventions needed to effectively assist women in restoring their lives and positively influencing the future of young girls.

Developing women as entrepreneurs and mentoring them.

Businesses operating internationally have an ethical responsibility to contribute to the empowerment of people, so that they at least live above the breadline. Multinational companies are better positioned to mobilize greater resources in the form of financial aid, proper governance, project management and expertise to bring entrepreneurial programmes to women in conflict or post-conflict regions. However, local companies must also bear some of the responsibility.

- Pooja

[lanamemories]

#001 CHARACTER SHEET:

Full Name: Lana Rose Jameson Meaning of Name: The Greek and American meaning is ‘light’, whereas the English meaning is ‘fair/good looking’. Nickname: None. Birth Date: June 18th, 1996. Astrological Sign and Details: Gemini. Common star sign traits are ‘quick-witted’, ‘expressive’ and ‘sociable’. Lana firmly believes that a person’s star sign speaks volumes about the content of their character and is always suspicious of anyone that she meets that’s a Taurus. Birth Place: Her mother went into labour backstage at the rock concert of one of the bands Lana’s father manages. She was born in New York Presbyterian.  Age: 21.

Nationality: American. Race: Caucasian. Hair Color: Auburn. Hair Style: Long and wavy.  Distinct Features of Face: Plump lips and thick eyebrows. Glasses or Contacts: None. Eye Color: Hazel. Skin Tone: She vacations a lot during summer, so she has a sun-kissed glow that lasts for a long while into winter. Scars or Distinguishing Marks: A heart shaped freckle on the inside of her right thigh, subtle freckles over the bridge of her nose and cheeks. Disabilities: None. Build or Body Type: Naturally slim, maintained by ballet. Height: 5″9′. Weight: i searched for so long n i can’t find bridgets weight anywhere bt... essentially she’s skinny Speech Patterns: Talks a mile a minute, especially when nervous. Laughs at everything and nothing. Uses a lot of filler words because she’s constantly thinking aloud so her sentence is never planned out before she says it. Tag Words: Says “like”, “totally”, “anyways” and “um” a lot.  Gestures: Almost always wildly flinging her hands around. Most of the time she finds any excuse to have some form of physical contact with the person she’s speaking to, e.g. playing with their hair, dusting lint from their shoulder. 

FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD

Mother: Victoria Jameson. Father: Richard Jameson. Mother’s Occupation: Former model, presently operating as a socialite and doing charity work. Father’s Occupation: CEO of Jameson Records. Family Finances: Wealthy. Birth Order: Caleb Jameson is the oldest, Lana the youngest. Brothers: One, Caleb Jameson. Sisters: None. Other Close Family: None particularly, save for a handful of cousins they see during holidays. Best Friend: Frankie Vigo. Other Friends: Teddy Lawrence, Ophelia Knox, Gabe Leitner, Imogen Bauer, Elias Elliot, A.J. Sullivan, Melody Forbes, Jude Hayward. Probably more that I’m missing. Lana’s quite a social butterfly. Enemies: None. Pets: None. Home Life During Childhood: Lana was often treated like she didn’t exist. She could go for days on end without her parents ever saying one word to her. She’d often have to sort out her own meals because they’d forget about her and she was so touch starved growing up, it’s likely that’s one of the main contributors towards her sex addiction today. One of her most vivid memories as a child was reaching to hold her mother’s hand when she got nervous crossing the road, only to have her slap her off her and turn her head the other way. What Did His, Her or Their Bedroom Look Like: An explosion of pink. Picture every teenage girls room from a chick flick in the early 00′s. Very Jennifer Check, posters everywhere, giant fluffy cushions, the works. Any Sports or Clubs: She used to be a cheerleader in high school and she’s always done ballet from being tiny.  Schooling: She went to high school further into the city (New York) and obviously is now enrolled at Lockwood to complete her diploma.  Favorite Subject: Growing up, she used to love art and also debate as well as dance. Now it’s probably just dance. Popular or Loner: Popular. Important Experiences or Events: Caleb shipping off to the army as well as Caleb being discharged on grounds of PTSD after his unit were attacked, seeing him losing his best friend right in front of him. He was never the same after that and therefore the one person that Lana actually thought she mattered to in the world was essentially gone. Health Problems: ADHD and sex addiction. Religion and beliefs: Atheist.

PERSONAL

Bad Habits: Sleeping with people to avoid dealing with her feelings, biting her lip when she’s nervous, playing with her hair and generally fidgeting when people speak to her. Good Habits: Obsessively always keeping a pack of gum on her because she hates bad breath, sending good morning texts and practising her ballet. Best Characteristic: Her ability to start up a conversation with just about anyone. Worst Characteristic: Her inability to open up and have a serious conversation about her emotions. Worst Memory: Her mother finding out that she got blackout drunk and had a threesome with two of her father’s close associates. She didn’t seem to take into account the fact that it was vastly inappropriate for them to be talking to Lana in the way they had which lead to the encounter, or the fact that she was drunk when it happened. She told Lana she was disgusting and didn’t look at her in the face again after for three months. Best Memory: Having a childish bicker with Caleb at the park and throwing his whole loaf of bread into the duck pond in protest. When he was mad at her, she attempted to reach out and fish it back only to fall in, herself. She’d never seen him laugh that hard before and eventually she was joining in, too. It was the last time she can remember him smiling. Proud of: Nothing in particular. Embarrassed by: The fact that her parents don’t love her and she can’t work out why. Driving Style: Wild, anxious and erratic. Screams a lot, particularly when navigating busy junctions or highways. Strong Points: Exuberant, good-willed for the majority, quick-witted, sociable, charming, imaginative and resilient. Temperament: Ridiculously animated and sunshine bright, usually. Attitude: Same as above, except she can sometimes be unintentionally rude in the name of humour and not realise just how insensitive she’s being. Weakness: Her stubborn refusal to let anyone hear what she’s actually thinking in terms of serious matters. Considering she talks so much, it’s amazing just how little she actually says. Fears: Loneliness. Irrelevancy. The death of a loved one.  Phobias: Pigeons and blood. Secrets: Her sex addiction. Regrets: Letting Caleb sign up to the army without putting up more of a fight. Feels Vulnerable When: Someone asks her something personal about herself. Pet Peeves: Bad breath, poor sense of personal hygiene, making a commitment. Sexuality: Pan-sexual. Exercise Routine: She has a lot of ballet rehearsals and training weekly, so that along with a vigorous (to put it lightly) sex life keep her well in shape. Day or Night Person: Both. Introvert or Extrovert: Extrovert.  Optimist or Pessimist: Optimist. 

LIKES AND PREFERENCES

Music: Synth-pop and disco, mostly. She also loves early 2000′s classics, e.g. Britney, Robyn. She also selectively listens to classic rock records as a result of her father’s influence. Books: Lana isn’t particularly a huge reader, although she used to be obsessive over the Twilight books during her early teens. Magazines: Any trashy celebrity magazine, Lana loves to flip through. She’s a fiend for salacious gossip and anything that discusses the wild escapades of Lindsay Lohan. Foods: Lana eats anything and everything. She particularly loves Greek yogurt mixed in with honey, though, as well as any kind of candy. She has a big sweet tooth. Drinks: Again, she’s pretty flexible in this department. She really likes cherry cola, though. Animals: Lana’s a big dog person. She also has always had an affinity for sloths because she loves how slow they move and how long their arms are. Sports: Dance. Gymnastics, briefly, when she was younger, as well as cheer, but currently she only actively pursues dance, ballet in particular. Social Issues: She thinks Trump is ugly and is a big advocate for trans-sectional feminism. Favorite Saying: Country booooyyeee, ah luuuurve yew... Color: Red. Clothing: Seventies style, Penny Lane inspired jackets with fur fringed cuffs. Any kind of boldly coloured fur coat, actually. Glittery boots. Spaghetti strap mini’s. Shrunken cartoon t-shirts that wear like a crop. Anything flamboyant and colourful, Lana loves. She dresses a lot like Cher from Clueless, Rachel Green from the early Friends seasons and Brittany Murphy’s character in Uptown Girls. Jewelry: None in particular. Games: She used to always play Saints Row when she was younger. Websites: Twitter, Tumblr, Vine and PornHub. TV Shows: Girlboss and Sex in the City. Movies: Almost Famous, Heathers and Stand By Me. Greatest Want: To be the centre of someone’s world. Greatest Need: For somebody to show that they care.

LIFESTYLE

Home: Currently lives in her sorority house. Household furnishings: Her room has lots of fluffy cushions, a hamburger on-the-cord phone like Ellen Page’s in Juno, a holographic vinyl record player from Urban Outfitters. She also has a whole bunch of fairy lights and a neon mood light. Lots of feather boa’s and strange costume pieces strewn around as well as scantily clad lingerie. Very aesthetically pleasing, very messy, very Tumblr. Favorite Possession: A stack of polaroids her and Frankie have amassed over their many wild adventures. Neighborhood: Rochester. Town or City Name: New York. Married Before: No. Significant Other Before: She’s had a whole string of exes, each one equally awful. Lana settles for pretty much anyone, as long as they pay her attention. She doesn’t really believe she deserves much more. Children: N/A. Relationship with Family: Strained. Her parents do their best never to talk to her. She does her best to keep in contact with Caleb, but he prefers to isolate himself and self destruct rather than seek her help. Car: None, although she keeps test driving a vintage Cadillac and has her eye on buying it, despite the impracticality of the purchase. Pets: None. Career: Student. Salary: N/A. Other Income: N/A. Dream Career: Professional ballet dancer. She dreams of performing as the black swan. Dream Life: One furnished with close friends and family, all of which actually value her presence. She wouldn’t have to struggle with a sex addiction in an ideal world, either. Sex could be something treasured and intimate, not something she feels a compulsion to tick off a list. Love Life: On the rocks with Teddy and battling a whole fistful of crushes on just about everyone she’s close to. In other words, a mess. Sexual Turn Ons: Assertiveness, teasing, exhibitionism. Sexual Turn Offs: Constantly asking if she’s enjoying herself, awkwardness, any amount of romance. Hobbies: Ballet, cruising Craigslist for sex ads with strangers, aimlessly tapping through Omegle chats, shopping, going to parties. Guilty Pleasure: She knows all of the words and choreography to the Hoedown Throwdown by Hannah Montana. Sports or Clubs: Ballet. Talents or Skills: Ballet, networking. Intelligence Level: While she isn’t particularly book smart, Lana is thoroughly creative and a great people person. 

[asfeedin]

“Let the Hate Flow Through You”: Cooking Tasks That Fill Us With Dread

[Photographs: Vicky Wasik unless otherwise noted]

It should come as no surprise to any of our readers that everyone on the Serious Eats staff loves to cook. Many of us are even die-hard defenders of the proposition that anything homemade is preferable to store-bought, from English muffins and cake (bye, Betty Crocker!) to even condiments like mayonnaise and chili crisp, where the store-bought versions are totally fine to use.

That doesn’t mean we all love everything about cooking! Some kitchen tasks are incredibly annoying. Washing spinach? Picking thyme leaves? Touching corn starch? Yup, all of those are bad. Usually, we’d say about such tasks, “Life’s too short. No one has time for that.” And yet, now, for all of us, everywhere, cooking more of our meals at home, we all do, in fact, have time for even the most-time-consuming kitchen chores. But that doesn’t mean we have to like them any better than in the time before coronavirus.

We asked our staff to identify one thing they hate to do in the kitchen above all others, and their answers are included below, from peeling garlic and deveining shrimp to “baking” (nice one, Niki!). We found talking about the cooking activities we hate to be cathartic, so if you’d like to take a minute out of your day and gripe about anything kitchen-related—for fun, for your mental health, or just because making chicken cutlets really does blow chunks—say it loud and say it proud in the comments.

So Much Hand-Washing

Cooking and baking are inherently messy activities that require thoughtful cleaning and prepping to mitigate the risks of cross contamination and food-borne illnesses. Now that hand-washing is finally getting the attention it deserves inside and outside of the kitchen, I feel some shame in admitting that it is not my favorite task. Please don’t report me to the CDC! I still practice it carefully as needed! You can still come over for dinner when social distancing is over! I just have painful eczema on my hands, which is exacerbated by soap and hot water.

I try to obsessively plan out my kitchen tasks to reduce hand washing. That means prepping in order from the cleanest to dirtiest ingredient, dry to wet, water-based to oil-based. There is a special type of dread that comes when both of my hands are greasy, sticky, and unusable. My personal purgatory would involve dredging fried chicken while the oven timer goes off, my phone with the recipe on it goes to sleep, and the doorbell rings at the same time. —Maggie Lee, designer

Bones to Pick

The only two single-use tools I own are a cherry pitter and fish tweezers, for deboning fish. Pitting cherries is a tedious task, but at least you get to eat cherries as you work. Deboning fish is grunt work. When I can’t get my fishmonger to do it, I have to dig through my utensil drawer to find the oddly shaped tweezers. Though plucking each pin bone out of fish fillets offers some gratification, not unlike plucking an errant eyebrow hair, it’s an annoying layer of prep work that gets in the way of cooking. It’s not satisfying like chopping or dicing, it’s not a skill that I seem to get better or faster at, and it’s something that, if you forget to do it, markedly decreases the enjoyment of the meal. I hate it! —Daniela Galarza, features editor

Garlic Prep

This most mundane of tasks is the one I can’t stand the most. Not because it’s particularly difficult, but because it’s a daily nuisance. There’s hardly a recipe that doesn’t require fiddling with garlic’s papery skins, and of course garlic is wonderful so I’m never willing to skip it, which just…pisses me off! Look, I know every trick in the book, from smashing the garlic with a knife and rattling the cloves around in metal mixing bowls to giving each clove a gentle twist between my fingers to pry the skins loose, but none of them work well enough or consistently enough to ease my mind of the inevitable dread whenever it’s time to peel yet more garlic.

There is a flip side to this, though, which is the deep appreciation I feel when a fresh crop of garlic rolls into the market and for a few months I get to enjoy those easy-to-peel skins before they dry out and become so damned annoying again. —Daniel Gritzer, managing culinary director

Minty Fresh Aggravation

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

Whenever I have the energy, I like to add tons of fresh herbs to almost anything I’m cooking, and I especially love the summery freshness of mint. But the prep is such a fussy nightmare! First you have to carefully wash, then dry the whole plants, and then painstakingly pick off leaves one at a time. With things like parsley and cilantro I tend to just chop everything up, but mint stalks are so woody and fibrous there’s really no getting around individually picking off the leaves.” —Daniel Dyssegaard Kallick, developer

A Tough Nut to Crack

No matter what I do or whatever method I use (toaster oven, small sauté pan), the nuts I am attempting to toast always burn. It drives me nuts and burns me up. Burnt nuts aren’t really usable for anything. I am awaiting the development of the single-use nut toaster that automatically turns off when the nuts are a nice toasty golden brown. Until then I’ll continue to suffer, though no longer in silence. —Ed Levine, overlord

Berry Annoyed

When it comes to washing produce, my laziness knows no bounds. This is especially true with washing berries. They’re delicate, so I don’t want to mush them up; they’re more absorbent than anything with peels or a skin; and they require a careful picking through to take out any unwanted debris. I’ve begrudgingly come around to washing most fruits and veggies that come through my kitchen (as one should), but berries still get to me. —Jina Stanfill, social media editor

I Like My Fingers, Thanks

It’s time to get hyper-specific: I was hired because of my abilities to cut footage, not produce, so my chopping skills leave a lot to be desired. My mandoline has helped hide that fact whenever I’m prepping a dish that requires razor-thin shavings of anything. I’ve had no issues with anything I’ve sliced except shallots. I’m not sure if it’s the tear-inducing onion fumes or their slick layers that makes shallots super-slippery, but thinly sliced shallots are my arch nemesis. The only silver lining is that if I ever need fried shallots to snack on while going on the lam without fingerprints, I’ve got the perfect solution. —Joel Russo, video producer

Grating Cheese Really Grates

I am a perfectionist in the kitchen and prefer to do everything myself, but if there’s one task I delegate it’s grating cheese, an awkward motion that seems designed to induce repetitive stress injury. My great-grandfather had no rotational function in his forearm owing to a war injury, and so, I’m told, he built his own cheese-grating system operated by foot pedal. I am looking into a similar solution. —John Mattia, video editor

Golden Fried No-Thank-You

Like most people, I appreciate a perfect piece of fried food—from donuts and chicken to deep-fried pickles. However, despite how much I enjoy fried food, I absolutely dislike deep frying anything at home. I basically avoid it at this point. From having to make sure I have oil on hand (I never do, and I never have the right oil, to boot), to checking that the oil is hot enough and maintaining its temperature (which is a guessing game for me, even with a thermometer), and then to cleaning up the mess and the oil itself (which, to be honest, I’ve sometimes left for my husband to deal with), is just a recipe for more work than I’m willing to put in. On top of that, the fry smell permeates everything in my apartment for at least a week. I’ll leave the business of fried food to places that have commercial deep fryers and will continue to frequent them whenever I’m craving fried food perfection. —Kristina Razon, operations manager

Sharpen My Knife? Yeah, Right

As I look at this list of the cooking tasks my work colleagues dread, I’m pretty surprised. A lot of these tasks I actually really enjoy. Peeling garlic, picking mint leaves…those are things I relish and even find relaxing. You can’t mess up peeling garlic or picking leaves. But you can absolutely mess up sharpening a knife. Despite the fact that we have a really useful guide to knife sharpening, I can’t get myself to do it. I’m terrified I’m going to cut myself or mess up my blades. What looks like a really cool, meditative process on video just fills me with fear. And I know that dull knives can also be very dangerous! So the lesser of two evils is to use an electric sharpener. Don’t tell my colleagues! I don’t want them to be disappointed. —Ariel Kanter, director of commerce and content marketing

Baking

Look, I’m not a complete monster—I love to eat baked goods (though I’d argue that cake is seriously overrated). But with rare exceptions, like these insanely easy ricotta-brown butter cookies, this damn fine cherry pie, and these truly phenomenal lemon bars, I’ll go to great lengths to avoid making them from scratch. I’d say my resistance is a 70-30 ratio of “fear of discovering at the very end that I’ve messed up the dessert/bread and all my hard, finicky work was for naught and everyone will be disappointed and I will be judged” and “unpleasant mess.” But really, it’s so, so many reasons. Allow me to elaborate:

Too many bowls: It’s just too many bowls, period. Do I even have that many bowls? What if they’re reactive? And then after I’ve made the damn dessert I also need to clean them all?? Hard pass.

Whisking dry ingredients together: This is a task I thought I had under control until I found out Stella recommends doing it for AT LEAST ONE MINUTE—which might as well be a year.

Sifting: Sometimes the recipe asks you to sift stuff. The sheer amount of powder that winds up on my work surfaces, clothing, and floor is unacceptable. Especially when it’s cocoa powder that gets damp and is suddenly chocolate.

Using a stand mixer: I love my stand mixer for making fresh pasta. But when I have to actually use the bowl, it’s infuriating. Scraping the sides of your mixing bowl is just an endless game of turning the machine on and off, sticking your arm in at weird angles only to almost always miss a spot.

Too many leftovers: When I take on a baking project, I’m faced with indivisible recipes that yield far greater than two servings. Yes, you can freeze pie or cookie dough, but my freezer is incredibly small. Because I have zero self-control, this almost always results in a severe stomachache. For this reason, I almost only bake for company, which leads me to perhaps my greatest pet peeve…

Not being able to taste as you go! The idea that my baked good could look amazing on the outside, but I won’t know if I messed up until I serve and slice into the thing, is profoundly disincentivizing. As the EIC of a prominent food site, I put a lot of pressure on myself when cooking for company, and while I never second guess the quality of a Stella recipe, that doesn’t mean I can’t introduce untold human errors into the process.

The only way to get better at baking is to keep…doing it. Enough said.

Finally, to anyone thinking, so your real issue is being tidy, organized, patient, and detail-oriented…I guess you’re right. Shame on me! Thankfully, those traits don’t present in every area of my life. —Niki Achitoff-Gray, editor-in-chief

Sticky Cilantro

I love cilantro (sorry if it tastes like soap to you), so I don’t actively shy away from this task, but I loathe the seemingly special ability it has to stick to anything and everything once chopped—the cutting board, the knife, my hands, whatever you use to try and scrap the knife clean. —Paul Cline, president

Cutlets!

I hate making breaded chicken cutlets. I hate everything about it. It is, for me, the manifestation of cooking hell on Earth. Why does something so delicious have to be such a pain in the neck to make? Because that’s really the rub; there’s a lot of cooking tasks I dislike—washing fresh spinach 10 million times only to discover there’s still grit in the washing water; crumbling up cold leftover rice with my hands; touching powdered plant starch of any kind—but there’s only one that I dislike and yet feel compelled to regularly repeat, since I don’t know if life is worth living if you can’t eat good chicken cutlets at least once every two weeks.

Part of it is the mess, sure. But a lot of cooking tasks are messy. Any and all baking projects make me make a mess of my kitchen. And even if making cutlets means I have to clean a cutting board, a meat mallet, at least two half sheet pans (one for the breaded cutlets to rest, another for cooling), a cooling rack, a quarter sheet pan (for breading), and two 1/8 sheet pans (for the flour and egg wash dredging), a skillet, the stovetop (of oil splatters), the counter (for spills), the floor (for random flour and bits of panko), and my hands 10 billion times to prevent immediate food poisoning and belated food poisoning via cross-contamination, that isn’t the whole picture of my hate for these stupidly delicious things.

Part of it is you can’t do anything else while cooking them. They’re quick to cook, sure, but you can only cook a few at a time in even a 12-inch skillet, and you need to watch them, tend the temperature of the oil as you would a baby’s first toddling steps, and you need to salt each one right out of the fryer otherwise they’re crap, and then you have to cook like six more because who, really, makes just two freaking cutlets at a time except for heathens and (some very diligent) line cooks? That’s a solid block of kitchen time spent just frying things; you can’t clean as you go, you can’t prep other food, you’re just cooking cutlets for however long it takes to cook them all.

Another part of it is: No one likes a badly cooked cutlet, and cooking 10 cutlets, say, requires you pay careful attention to cooking the cutlets for a sustained period of time. It’s outrageous! And then, inevitably, when my attention flags, or I have to do literally anything else that might be necessary, like talking to my child, or paying attention to my wife, or thinking even for a moment, “man, I absolutely hate making chicken cutlets,” a cutlet will burn or get unevenly colored or overcooked because I haven’t been swirling the oil, or checking on its underside crust, or maybe I’m just at the end of the process and rather than “wasting” more cooking oil and topping off the fat in the pan, I try (for the 100 billionth time) to make do with less oil than is obviously necessary and all the burning bits of panko from the other 16 cutlets I’ve made start sticking to the crust of the final three, mottling their appearance and generally messing them up.

The only way I’ve found to deal with cutlet madness is to make them at least an hour before I have to eat them, because otherwise I find any flaw in any cutlet an indictment not just of my skills as a cook but of the entire cutlet-making operation.

But, of course, even the badly cooked cutlets taste really good, even when eaten as a cold leftover, provided you salted them properly and salt them again out of the fridge, and so the process will begin again solely on the strength of how good the things are to eat, any time of day, prepared in any stupid way.—Sho Spaeth, editor and writer and lover of cutlets

Cleaning Shrimp

There were a lot of time-consuming prep tasks that I used to dread when I cooked in restaurants. The combination of the sheer volume of prep required to get through service (picking a full pint of thyme leaves or thinly slicing a quart of chives to dole out to all the cooks on the line is a major pain in the ass when you also need to get purées cooked and blended, whole fish broken down, lobster meat picked, and so on), and the constant breakneck push and anxiety to get the endless list of tasks done by the time the first wave of guests are sat in a dining room can take the joy out of menial kitchen tasks. But these days, I don’t dread having to clean a big haul of produce that I picked up from the farmers market—in fact, I find the process very enjoyable and soothing.

That doesn’t mean that I suddenly enjoy every prep project under the sun, though. There’s one that I will always despise, and it’s peeling and deveining shrimp.

There is nothing enjoyable about the process—it’s tedious, time-consuming, not very appetizing, and over the years I’ve come to realize that the irritation I feel when handling raw shrimp is physical as well as mental (my hands get super-itchy when shelling shrimp without gloves). But when I want shrimp for dinner, like for a recent riff on aglio e olio pasta, I can’t bring myself to purchase already peeled and deveined ones. Shrimp shells are packed with so much flavor, it’d be a shame to miss out on that potential.

So, I begrudgingly set up a shrimp processing station instead, and get to work excising those giant digestive tracts, cursing myself the whole time for not just making shell-on salt and pepper shrimp instead. However, that would involve deep-frying, another cooking project that I don’t love tackling at home. —Sasha Marx, senior culinary editor

Dirty, Dirty Greens

It’s a running joke in the Serious Eats office that my refrigerator is usually a barren wasteland. I just don’t tend to keep a lot of food around; it inevitably goes bad because I’m so full from snacking all day at work in the test kitchen that I rarely feel like cooking when I get home. But once in a while you’ll find a pie plate in there with my favorite recipe on the site: spanakopita. The one thing I’ve learned from the dozen or so times I’ve made this recipe is that washing and drying leafy greens and herbs SUCKS. It is just the absolute worst, especially when you have a smaller salad spinner. —Vicky Wasik, visual director

Rice, Rice, Baby

I’m well aware that making rice is one of the simpler tasks to take on in the kitchen, and I’m slightly fearful of the backlash I might receive when my colleagues read this. It’s hard for me to pinpoint just what it is about making rice that I don’t like. Maybe it’s the pesky grains that try to escape when you wash them (I’ve only recently invested in a fine-mesh strainer, which has made me hate the process just a little less); or maybe it’s the water-to-rice ratio that, without fail, I always have to look up to make sure I’m getting just right. Whatever it is, I dread it. So whenever I’m cooking and I need to serve a dish with rice, I just nominate whoever is around me to do it instead. —Yasmine Maggio, social media intern

So now you know our dirty secrets. What tasks do you dread these days?

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Tags: cooking, Dread, Fill, Flow, hate, Tasks

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[musingsofableedingheart]

Cropped image of a poster created by the National Union of Australian University Students in reaction to the hanging of Ronald Ryan, from the records of the Howard League for Penal Reform, 1923 – 1967, Accession number MS 11553 Box 4/2, from the State Library of Victoria’s Manuscripts Collection / Photographer: Nik McGrath I SAY NO TO REMAINING SILENT On 16 April 1963 Martin Luther King wrote an open letter from a Birmingham Jail to his fellow clergymen, his message was: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. How far has democracy come in half a century? As an archivist writing a blog for GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) professionals and readers everywhere, I believe it is our responsibility to speak out against the atrocities that are threatening democracy, the freedoms that Martin Luther King and many others before us fought and died for. The US President Donald Trump is one of our greatest threats, because of the injustices he has already committed in a short time as President, such as breaching the constitution, claiming lies are ‘alternative facts’, banning American women from receiving funding for abortions and health care, reintroducing torture as an interrogation technique, and signing an executive order to keep out ‘radical Islamic terrorists’, which thankfully has been overturned by a Federal Judge. I also want to explore the concept of trust, as I write this post for my sisters and brothers who are writing about what trust means to them for our GLAM Blog Club this month. I have always questioned everything that anyone has ever told me. My questioning nature began when I was a child, and was later affirmed in my university training which taught be to fiercely question everything. I have lost my trust, if I ever had any, in the effectiveness and indeed the motives of our politicians in Australia. Why does our government stay silent about Trump? Why are politicians like Pauline Hanson given political air to breath? Who can we trust in politics? I’m an idealist in my beliefs, I see no signs of our government making smart decisions when it comes to protecting our environment, providing clean energy, acting against climate change, funding for better education programs across the board, investing in research, health care, leading in human rights issues, and providing safe sanctuary to refugees. These are only some of our failings. I am a believer that we need to learn from our past to build a better future. Fifty years ago Ronald Ryan was the last person executed in Australia on 3 February 1967. The State Library of Victoria, in partnership with Supreme Court of Victoria, hosted a panel discussion, The last man hanged in Australia, with anthropologist Sally Warhaft as chair, Dr Mike Richards author of 'The hanged man: the life and death of Ronald Ryan', Peter Norden AO former Pentridge Prison chaplain, and Justice Lasry AM from the Supreme Court of Victoria. I attended this panel discussion earlier this week. All three members of the panel are activists against capital punishment. Justice Lasry stated, “Killing citizens…is grotesque”. The discussion then turned to parole and services post release from prison, Peter Norden, from years of experience working with prisoners, maintained society must improve the treatment of prisoners to begin rehabilitation. Norden advised that ‘if we look after mental assessments, drug and alcohol treatment, employment services and finance, among other services, especially in the first three to six months post release, the risk of reoffending is greatly reduced’. Norden is a great believer that ‘people generally come out worse than when they came in; prison isn’t a place that brings about rehabilitation’. The panel then discussed tough sentencing and non-parole sentences, which Justice Lasry believes is not a deterrent to those who may commit a crime, in his view ‘crime is usually committed in the emotion of the moment, the person committing a crime isn’t thinking of the sentence of a similar case’. He went on to say that: ‘We need to have a discussion in society about the injustice that sometimes occurs to prisoners’. Dr Mike Richards has a background in journalism, and when asked by the chair on his views about the role of the media in this debate, stated: 'The Herald Sun has a punishing perspective about crime and punishment, rather than reporting on the reasons behind crime, such as criminals who are victims of domestic abuse, they focus on portraying the shocking aspects of a crime". “No crime should have a non-parole period, the government shouldn’t make a blanket rule”, stated Lasry. “Give prisoners something to hope for, otherwise they become more dangerous upon release”. I think as a society we all need to be able to trust in the system that should be there to protect us, our voices must be heard and politicians need to act on the best interests of society as a whole. Norden believes that the harsh treatment of prisoners is dangerous for society: “There are two responses to isolation – anger or withdrawal – it’s unpredictable what will happen when the prisoner is released as we don’t know what’s going on in the prisoners mind. In Scandinavian prisons they put someone in isolation for an hour, then start processing what happened, and engaging with the prisoner”. Warhaft then brought the discussion back to Ryan, and questioned Dr Richards about how the execution personally affected the witnesses. He said it had a long-lasting influence, haunting witnesses, who he interviewed when writing his book. One person he was never been able to identify was Ryan’s executioner. According to the records, the executioner signed in as Jones, the traditional name given to an executioner. Dr Richards said that he has contacted the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), and was told that ‘the records about Ryan’s execution are uncatalogued and unclassified, so that it is almost impossible to find information about Ryan’s executioner in the archives’. I would argue that the cabinet papers and all records relating to Ryan’s execution should be given priority for cataloguing, as this information should be readily available for the public to access upon request. Norden believes in a ‘restorative justice system, which allows a healing process’. ‘Our system encourages denial rather than making criminals confront what they did’. Although the discussion was rather one-sided, not providing an argument pro capital punishment, but rather against capital punishment, it certainly raised many important points, which must be explored in the public forum in greater depth. In the years to come, in a ‘post-truth world’, it is our responsibility as citizens to question our government fiercely, to speak out against the tyranny of Trump and his supporters, and to speak up for the vulnerable members of our society who are not given a voice in the political arena. GLAM professionals have an important role to play in the political debate. We stand for knowledge, authoritative information and we must take a side. We cannot be silent – those who remain silent are as bad, if not worse, than those who voice hate speech for the media to lap up. The more people who use their influence to speak reason and truth through whatever means available to them, the more I will regain my trust in humanity.

[footballghana]

Kwame Dwomoh Agyeman writes: Contribution of football to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

In the last 72 hours, I have come across a news item of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), appointing Dr. Ransford Abbey and two others to put together a Strategic Business plan for the association on the contribution of football to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In these very difficult times where COVID-19 has stung the entire country to the core, issues like these attract my attention.

The other day I enjoyed banter as to why football desperately needed to make a return as it affected the livelihoods of many and how its continued absence would hit loads of people really hard. Interesting as it sounded, one critical issue that was very profound was whether the government attached any meaningful importance to football and to a large extent sports in Ghana and in these times. For those who backed the notion of football coming back pretty shortly, they simply could not wrap their heads around why the sport was not getting any look in at Jubilee House. That the President was projecting the opening the Airport and not even a projection on when the sport made a return further irked them. I would attempt to throw out how relevant the sport is to our GDP and possibly put in numerical terms why that leather ball being kicked around by grown men is so key to our GDP.

The write up is set in a very tough neighborhood in Accra where every little kid desperately aspires to make it big and get to the very top. Mane after years of blood sweat and tears, manages to make the grade and signs for a decent European club. He is on wages of €50,000 a month after tax.(GHC 342,500.00 at todays exchange rate of €1=GHC 6.85.Knowing where he comes from like our elders say, he sends a good part of the money he makes in Europe home to take care of the glaring challenges of his family, friends and the community at large. The money is then invested and the returns are pretty imminent

ECONOMIC.

One of the biggest challenges Governments the world over faces is creating employment opportunities for its population. The situation is more profound in Africa where governments have consistently struggled to provide jobs both in the formal and informal sector. These have led to all kinds of challenges for sitting governments who have ended up being voted out. Now this is the thing. With the money generated by this kid earning decent wages in Europe over a relatively long period, the funds that have been invested from his wages into all kinds of businesses would obviously create a good number of jobs. Assuming this lad invests in the hospitality industry which grows to become a chain he could well be employing hundreds of individuals from chefs to labourers. Now that is surely taking of a good number of unemployed people off the streets. People that the government could not find jobs for. Again, in times where the cliché of private sector being the engine of growth, most of these jobs would be provided by individuals with the means to create them. Our banks borrow at huge interests’ rates and demand so much paperwork it’s almost impossible to secure a loan and get something going right after school. That kid passes for that private businessman who can turn around the lives of many. In a part of the world where footballers, are fast becoming like a cash crop, the returns from the sport cannot be overlooked. If we have all these footballers earning decent wages investing in our economy in the short, medium and long term, governments and successive ones as such would be more than happy to be a big part of this success story of job creation.

Again, in part of the world where the extended family system is still very much practiced, some of these financial support finds its way to people we have not even met. Now that makes a different. The practical part, is very much experienced on matchdays/ weekends. Enter Mr Tagoe who operates a restaurant at the Accra Sports Stadium. This gentleman’s business over the years has been heavily supported by fans on matchdays. The businessman has evolved leading to the employment of additional hands. The value chain of this spectacle cannot be overlooked especially in these covid times. The production of food has dropped as demands by Tagoe, the waakye seller, and all the other catering services at the various match venues would have dropped. These guys would not be ordering the quantities they ordered before as consumption continues to fall. What that means is that Tagoe and all the other food providers may be compelled to lay some staff of as profits and the very existence of the business would have been hit. We can the imagine the numbers that live off all these service providers on matchdays. With increase unemployment your guess is as good as mine for any sitting government and the vices they come with.

EDUCATION

The bills must be paid to afford quality education. The revenues coming in from the footballers all over the globe vis-à-vis that of the locals in here caters for a large part of the youth and adults. The Free Senior High school concept has been great but that is not good enough to compete on the job front. A first degree appears not to be good enough these days. Even a Masters may not land the job you crave for. These funds would come in handy.  A country with a very high level of education competes strongly even without natural resources. The stories of the Singapore’s, Koreas and co are telling. With these funds not readily available, there is extreme pressure on government to provide jobs that are not existent. The wages from football can make a difference when high numbers are doing well to send some monies home to take care of the bills. In a part of the world where capital flight is the norm from foreign investors, we cannot overlook at the importance of the football space with respect to the contribution of football to the nations GDP as these highly skilled workers can turn around their brains both locally and internationally to affect the economy.

HEALTH 

In a country with all its health challenges, the impact of football cannot be overlooked. There are appears to be very little opportunities again for the youth. One of the challenges of this issue is when the youth turn to drugs supposedly for solace when there is little to be done. In very difficult environments especially in the slums, this is a common phenomenon. Though there is everything wrong with taking to drugs, an occupied hand may barely fall to this canker. In the absence of nothing though, everything is possible. If the numbers appear disturbing and nationwide, government would have to spend hard earned cash to import drugs to fight the menace. Again, statistics have continually shown that sports is key to maintaining a healthy population with emphasis on youth and to an extent adults. If a good number of a country’s population take to football and even if they don’t make it to a high level, again government would save money to be invested in the growth of other sectors of the economy.

TOURISM

I have had the opportunity to cover many national team assignments and there is always this emotional link to the country. There is always the talk of Ghana about how we have excelled at the youth level and how the Black Stars have excelled at the various AFCONS and the World Cup. All the positive noises about Brazil is definitely not for the publicity surrounding construction firm Odebrecht. It is to do with its exports in the football space. With many fanatic and business minds(agents et al) desperate to find the next Neymar, Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Zico or Pele, it is destination Brazil. Such is the demand for their players on the back of their performances when given the opportunity. In one breadth it is providing thousands of jobs. In another breadth it is serving as destination for talent and with the fine beaches from Rio to Fortaleza comes a good tourism destination away from the hustle of discovering. Tourism in turn brings in huge money from the individuals making the travel to there. In the last twenty by courtesy of our performances, we have had thousands of people coming over to have a closer look at our talent and exporting them thus becoming a tourism hub which brings in the funds.

HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

This ties in perfectly with the earlier point raised about football boosting both international and local tourism in Ghana. With these exploits by our various national teams, it naturally draws in some attention of the passionate followers who come over to so our talent and help take them abroad. The more they come, with or without success, they rack some bills at our hotels, restaurants and tourist sites. If they like it here, there is every chance that they would come again. The Ghanaian Hospitality is positive energy everywhere. Their forex spend is important to our forex reserve which is key to our GDP.

On the local scene, it gets even better. There are 18 Premier League clubs and as many as 48 Division One League clubs who travel across the country on matchdays and get accommodated in our various hotels. I wonder how these hotels who benefit from close to 40 weeks of weekend slots in-season and another 6 weeks of pre-season slots are coping right now. That revenue has disappeared from their books. That revenue could be a gamechanger to a particular hotels revenue streams and in the area of expansion and the creation of more jobs if they were being patronized. And oh, the tax man regularly pays a visit to these hotels as well you know.

TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

There are 18 Premier League clubs and as many as 48 Division One League clubs who travel across the country on matchdays. These clubs sometimes rely on the services of transport companies to get their teams around for close to 40 weeks of weekend slots in-season and another 6 weeks of pre-season slots. Beyond the clubs, as many fans accompany their teams back and forth on these trips. This goes a long way in providing much needed revenue for these companies and also ensures a good sustainability project. With football being played literally around the clock on, much needed revenue is assured which in turns provide employment, decent spending power on all manner of services and a healthy business for the economy. This cannot be overlooked as it feeds strongly into the Gross Domestic Product and Per capita income conversations.

BRANDING & ADVERTISING

Brand association and sporting connectivity is impossible to overlook these days. Huge global entities look at football to project their brands and make some huge profits. The Nikes, Reeboks, Adidas, Pumas, the beverages, financial entities and more attach their brands to football to project them as they are assured of huge eyeballs on a consistent basis. When these brands are doing well and their profit margin increases through sales, they are more likely to produce more, thereby hiring more people and again taking the burden away from government to provide jobs. Again, with their profit margins on the increase, they pay huge taxes to governments who use them to develop the state. There are obviously other options for brand association but none comes closer to sports and how quickly the numbers spiral. With jobs being created and with wages guaranteed, peoples spending power improves which in turn positively impacts the economy. Higher and decent standards of living helps the human mind emotionally and with output from staff most often on the increase. This cannot be overlooked.

CREATIVE ARTS INDUSTRY

Here in Ghana, Legon Cities Football Club and Kotoko in the past readily come to mind. Our artists have been given huge platforms to sell themselves and demonstrate their artistry. By these opportunities on matchdays, they connect with their bases and show the world what they can do. Opportunities and other gigs find their way to them from this medium. They make some good money, spend some good money, others benefit from their spend as retailers in all kinds of services also benefit from their work.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Football activity all year rounds means business to the financial sector. When deals are done, both on and off the pitch they are facilitated by this sector. Our funds end up in these entities who trade with them. Our funds and assets are used for collateral for loans, while revenue from our talents all over the globe are traded through this same sector. They largely help in keeping them afloat as the transactions are huge both on the domestic and international fronts. These banks benefit from charges on transactions which are most often overlooked. That clearly adds up to their profit margins that helps in the payment of good salaries and improves the standing of the banks and the financial welfare of the society at large. The government is happy to see this chain as it means an increase in taxes, wealth creation and employment. Think about that.

SPORTS BETTING

Has anyone per chance counted the number of betting companies on their streets and what happens in there? Well, this it. People from all walks of lives are making huge revenue from the actors on the pitch and not just for emotional satisfaction as was the case in the past. These days, people’s income are being inflated by their wins on football games and Ghana is not an exception. They win sums of money that these footballers can only sometime dream off. What is the spill over effect? Again, there is the employment conversation, the tax conversation, the income conversation and the construction conversation with these betting companies on a massive expansion drive all over the country. These companies are sponsoring the football clubs and paying good money for that translating into decent income for the players. There is the tax component from the companies themselves and from the spend of staff and players alike which is massive economic booster.

In concluding from the above inferences, sports and its relationship to the GDP of a country like Ghana cannot be overlooked. I am sure Dr Abbey and his team would help with the figures. This is something government cannot overlook and its my belief that a lot more attention and importance would be placed on the football industry like the Kenyans have done with Athletics as the Egyptians, Nigerians and several African countries have done with football.

Thanks for reading. We shall overcome.

  The writer Kwame Dwomoh-Agyemang is with the Sports Team at Imax Group (Max FM/Maximum FM/Max TV/StarTimes) and also serves as the Communications Director of Legon Cities Football Club and an Adjunct Communications Lecturer at the Pentecost and Knutsford Universities.

source: https://footballghana.com/

[soccernetghana]

Kwame Dwomoh Agyeman writes: Contribution of football to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

In the last 72 hours, I have come across a news item of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), appointing Dr. Ransford Abbey and two others to put together a Strategic Business plan for the association on the contribution of football to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In these very difficult times where COVID-19 has stung the entire country to the core, issues like these attract my attention. The other day I enjoyed banter as to why football desperately needed to make a return as it affected the livelihoods of many and how its continued absence would hit loads of people really hard. Interesting as it sounded, one critical issue that was very profound was whether the government attached any meaningful importance to football and to a large extent sports in Ghana and in these times. For those who backed the notion of football coming back pretty shortly, they simply could not wrap their heads around why the sport was not getting any look in at Jubilee House. That the President was projecting the opening the Airport and not even a projection on when the sport made a return further irked them. I would attempt to throw out how relevant the sport is to our GDP and possibly put in numerical terms why that leather ball being kicked around by grown men is so key to our GDP. The write up is set in a very tough neighborhood in Accra where every little kid desperately aspires to make it big and get to the very top. Mane after years of blood sweat and tears, manages to make the grade and signs for a decent European club. He is on wages of €50,000 a month after tax.(GHC 342,500.00 at todays exchange rate of €1=GHC 6.85.Knowing where he comes from like our elders say, he sends a good part of the money he makes in Europe home to take care of the glaring challenges of his family, friends and the community at large. The money is then invested and the returns are pretty imminent ECONOMIC. One of the biggest challenges Governments the world over faces is creating employment opportunities for its population. The situation is more profound in Africa where governments have consistently struggled to provide jobs both in the formal and informal sector. These have led to all kinds of challenges for sitting governments who have ended up being voted out. Now this is the thing. With the money generated by this kid earning decent wages in Europe over a relatively long period, the funds that have been invested from his wages into all kinds of businesses would obviously create a good number of jobs. Assuming this lad invests in the hospitality industry which grows to become a chain he could well be employing hundreds of individuals from chefs to labourers. Now that is surely taking of a good number of unemployed people off the streets. People that the government could not find jobs for. Again, in times where the cliché of private sector being the engine of growth, most of these jobs would be provided by individuals with the means to create them. Our banks borrow at huge interests’ rates and demand so much paperwork it’s almost impossible to secure a loan and get something going right after school. That kid passes for that private businessman who can turn around the lives of many. In a part of the world where footballers, are fast becoming like a cash crop, the returns from the sport cannot be overlooked. If we have all these footballers earning decent wages investing in our economy in the short, medium and long term, governments and successive ones as such would be more than happy to be a big part of this success story of job creation. Again, in part of the world where the extended family system is still very much practiced, some of these financial support finds its way to people we have not even met. Now that makes a different. The practical part, is very much experienced on matchdays/ weekends. Enter Mr Tagoe who operates a restaurant at the Accra Sports Stadium. This gentleman’s business over the years has been heavily supported by fans on matchdays. The businessman has evolved leading to the employment of additional hands. The value chain of this spectacle cannot be overlooked especially in these covid times. The production of food has dropped as demands by Tagoe, the waakye seller, and all the other catering services at the various match venues would have dropped. These guys would not be ordering the quantities they ordered before as consumption continues to fall. What that means is that Tagoe and all the other food providers may be compelled to lay some staff of as profits and the very existence of the business would have been hit. We can the imagine the numbers that live off all these service providers on matchdays. With increase unemployment your guess is as good as mine for any sitting government and the vices they come with. EDUCATION The bills must be paid to afford quality education. The revenues coming in from the footballers all over the globe vis-à-vis that of the locals in here caters for a large part of the youth and adults. The Free Senior High school concept has been great but that is not good enough to compete on the job front. A first degree appears not to be good enough these days. Even a Masters may not land the job you crave for. These funds would come in handy.  A country with a very high level of education competes strongly even without natural resources. The stories of the Singapore’s, Koreas and co are telling. With these funds not readily available, there is extreme pressure on government to provide jobs that are not existent. The wages from football can make a difference when high numbers are doing well to send some monies home to take care of the bills. In a part of the world where capital flight is the norm from foreign investors, we cannot overlook at the importance of the football space with respect to the contribution of football to the nations GDP as these highly skilled workers can turn around their brains both locally and internationally to affect the economy.   HEALTH  In a country with all its health challenges, the impact of football cannot be overlooked. There are appears to be very little opportunities again for the youth. One of the challenges of this issue is when the youth turn to drugs supposedly for solace when there is little to be done. In very difficult environments especially in the slums, this is a common phenomenon. Though there is everything wrong with taking to drugs, an occupied hand may barely fall to this canker. In the absence of nothing though, everything is possible. If the numbers appear disturbing and nationwide, government would have to spend hard earned cash to import drugs to fight the menace. Again, statistics have continually shown that sports is key to maintaining a healthy population with emphasis on youth and to an extent adults. If a good number of a country’s population take to football and even if they don’t make it to a high level, again government would save money to be invested in the growth of other sectors of the economy. TOURISM I have had the opportunity to cover many national team assignments and there is always this emotional link to the country. There is always the talk of Ghana about how we have excelled at the youth level and how the Black Stars have excelled at the various AFCONS and the World Cup. All the positive noises about Brazil is definitely not for the publicity surrounding construction firm Odebrecht. It is to do with its exports in the football space. With many fanatic and business minds(agents et al) desperate to find the next Neymar, Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Zico or Pele, it is destination Brazil. Such is the demand for their players on the back of their performances when given the opportunity. In one breadth it is providing thousands of jobs. In another breadth it is serving as destination for talent and with the fine beaches from Rio to Fortaleza comes a good tourism destination away from the hustle of discovering. Tourism in turn brings in huge money from the individuals making the travel to there. In the last twenty by courtesy of our performances, we have had thousands of people coming over to have a closer look at our talent and exporting them thus becoming a tourism hub which brings in the funds. HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY This ties in perfectly with the earlier point raised about football boosting both international and local tourism in Ghana. With these exploits by our various national teams, it naturally draws in some attention of the passionate followers who come over to so our talent and help take them abroad. The more they come, with or without success, they rack some bills at our hotels, restaurants and tourist sites. If they like it here, there is every chance that they would come again. The Ghanaian Hospitality is positive energy everywhere. Their forex spend is important to our forex reserve which is key to our GDP. On the local scene, it gets even better. There are 18 Premier League clubs and as many as 48 Division One League clubs who travel across the country on matchdays and get accommodated in our various hotels. I wonder how these hotels who benefit from close to 40 weeks of weekend slots in-season and another 6 weeks of pre-season slots are coping right now. That revenue has disappeared from their books. That revenue could be a gamechanger to a particular hotels revenue streams and in the area of expansion and the creation of more jobs if they were being patronized. And oh, the tax man regularly pays a visit to these hotels as well you know. TRANSPORT INDUSTRY There are 18 Premier League clubs and as many as 48 Division One League clubs who travel across the country on matchdays. These clubs sometimes rely on the services of transport companies to get their teams around for close to 40 weeks of weekend slots in-season and another 6 weeks of pre-season slots. Beyond the clubs, as many fans accompany their teams back and forth on these trips. This goes a long way in providing much needed revenue for these companies and also ensures a good sustainability project. With football being played literally around the clock on, much needed revenue is assured which in turns provide employment, decent spending power on all manner of services and a healthy business for the economy. This cannot be overlooked as it feeds strongly into the Gross Domestic Product and Per capita income conversations. BRANDING & ADVERTISING Brand association and sporting connectivity is impossible to overlook these days. Huge global entities look at football to project their brands and make some huge profits. The Nikes, Reeboks, Adidas, Pumas, the beverages, financial entities and more attach their brands to football to project them as they are assured of huge eyeballs on a consistent basis. When these brands are doing well and their profit margin increases through sales, they are more likely to produce more, thereby hiring more people and again taking the burden away from government to provide jobs. Again, with their profit margins on the increase, they pay huge taxes to governments who use them to develop the state. There are obviously other options for brand association but none comes closer to sports and how quickly the numbers spiral. With jobs being created and with wages guaranteed, peoples spending power improves which in turn positively impacts the economy. Higher and decent standards of living helps the human mind emotionally and with output from staff most often on the increase. This cannot be overlooked.   CREATIVE ARTS INDUSTRY Here in Ghana, Legon Cities Football Club and Kotoko in the past readily come to mind. Our artists have been given huge platforms to sell themselves and demonstrate their artistry. By these opportunities on matchdays, they connect with their bases and show the world what they can do. Opportunities and other gigs find their way to them from this medium. They make some good money, spend some good money, others benefit from their spend as retailers in all kinds of services also benefit from their work. FINANCIAL SERVICES Football activity all year rounds means business to the financial sector. When deals are done, both on and off the pitch they are facilitated by this sector. Our funds end up in these entities who trade with them. Our funds and assets are used for collateral for loans, while revenue from our talents all over the globe are traded through this same sector. They largely help in keeping them afloat as the transactions are huge both on the domestic and international fronts. These banks benefit from charges on transactions which are most often overlooked. That clearly adds up to their profit margins that helps in the payment of good salaries and improves the standing of the banks and the financial welfare of the society at large. The government is happy to see this chain as it means an increase in taxes, wealth creation and employment. Think about that. SPORTS BETTING Has anyone per chance counted the number of betting companies on their streets and what happens in there? Well, this it. People from all walks of lives are making huge revenue from the actors on the pitch and not just for emotional satisfaction as was the case in the past. These days, people’s income are being inflated by their wins on football games and Ghana is not an exception. They win sums of money that these footballers can only sometime dream off. What is the spill over effect? Again, there is the employment conversation, the tax conversation, the income conversation and the construction conversation with these betting companies on a massive expansion drive all over the country. These companies are sponsoring the football clubs and paying good money for that translating into decent income for the players. There is the tax component from the companies themselves and from the spend of staff and players alike which is massive economic booster. In concluding from the above inferences, sports and its relationship to the GDP of a country like Ghana cannot be overlooked. I am sure Dr Abbey and his team would help with the figures. This is something government cannot overlook and its my belief that a lot more attention and importance would be placed on the football industry like the Kenyans have done with Athletics as the Egyptians, Nigerians and several African countries have done with football. Thanks for reading. We shall overcome.   The writer Kwame Dwomoh-Agyemang is with the Sports Team at Imax Group (Max FM/Maximum FM/Max TV/StarTimes) and also serves as the Communications Director of Legon Cities Football Club and an Adjunct Communications Lecturer at the Pentecost and Knutsford Universities.   source: https://ghanasoccernet.com/

[nemesis-nexus]

Lugnasadh Sermon 2018 Hail NINGIZHEDA most distinguished Guardian, Protector and Imparter of Wisdom, we call to you this Lugnasadh! Now is the time of the First Harvest and the celebration of the life of the Godess Tailtiu, Mother of Lugh, who Legend says died of exhaustion while clearing Ireland's plains during the Harvest Season! This sort of selfless devotion is demonstrated even to this day by the farmers of the world who work tirelessly tilling, sewing, watering and weeding endless fields of crops and tending to endless herds of cattle, chicken, pigs, goats and other such animals whose lives are sacrificed every day to feed humans everywhere and whose bodies are often utilized in various forms of ritual and other acknowledgements of their contributions! There are many ways that humans celebrate this time of year; some engage in sports, others climb hills or mountains, some find it a good time to make business deals and still others find love or at the very least go looking for it. There is a custom that has been observed that I feel could do a world of good were it to be used by people nowadays and that is what's known as a "trial marriage" whereby a couple considering spending their lives together would join hands through a hole in a wooden door. These two would then be 'married' but that "trial-marriage" would last one year and one day, at the end of that time frame they would decide if they wanted to remain Fasted or if they wished to part company without any consequences. I feel this would be a good practice for people especially since the divorce rate these days is nearly 50% if it hasn't surpassed that percentage! I think one of the biggest problems with people getting hitched in this day and age is that no one has the patience to work at it anymore, they are so used to the idea of instant gratification that the idea of having to invest time in something doesn't compute so instead of working things out, they just allow the problem to fester and grow to the point where neither party cares anymore so they just abandon ship. What usually leads up to this is that most people are in such a rush to BE married that they don't take the time to actually get to know the person they are getting married to! It's gotten so bad especially in recent years that TV has decided to take advantage and introduced a few different programs, for example, there is one called Married at First Sight and another one called Love After Lockup! Married at First Sight shows a couple who has never seen each other ever, knows absolutely nothing about the other but they're getting married because they want to be married not because they actually give a damn about the other person! This is all too common these days and it is the reason why no one feels the need to put in the effort to make it work! It's not surprising because when you don't know who the person is that you're getting legally bound to, you don't feel any emotional connection and therefore no obligation to them! Love After Lockup is much worse because not only do these women know that the men they're getting married to are in fact incarcerated for various reasons, they're so desperate to get hitched they're willing to overlook whatever the prison sentence or record is and that right there puts people's lives in danger! How the network ever got the go ahead to even put this show together let alone get it on the air is beyond me and yet it doesn't surprise me in the least... This superficial and devaluing take on relationships of all kinds has also increased dramatically with the invention of the internet which allows people from all over the world to get quite familiar - with a screen name. Sound cynical? Good, because it is. While my own sister met her husband on a dating site and they're still married with 3 kids 13 years later, their situation is not typical! They lasted this long because they didn't throw in the towel every time they didn't agree on something! The "trial marriage" is a great idea for anyone in this particular situation because not only do you get a chance to really get to know your potential future spouse, you also have the opportunity to part ways if you decide that it won't work out without the hassle of divorce lawyers and such. In ancient Sumer, there was no legal interference, people married each other because they wanted to be with each other and if they ever got tired or aggravated beyond salvation of the relationship they simply stopped being together. There were no divorce proceedings, there is no you get half of whatever the other person has, whatever you came in with is what you're going out with, end of story. I feel personally that if we went back to that people would seriously think twice before getting involved; because the idea that you could be let go just as quickly as you hooked up, I like to think, would have people wanting to put in the effort to make things work out instead of taking the other person for granted. Farmers markets are usually in full swing this time of year as well with the harvested fruits, vegetables, meats and assorted crafts being sold by local farmers who work the land for their livelihood. The despicable thing is that companies like Bayer - who bought out Monsanto and ceased using the Monsanto name due to legal issues - uses chemical compounds to increase their crops and genetically modified organisms to bolster their sales while simultaneously suing Farmers (for doing nothing except what they've always done; growing crops and raising cattle) and throwing the very ecosystem out of whack, but do they care? Of course not! Why should they care so long as THEY meet THEIR bottom line? The bigger problem with this thorn in Nature's side is the government that allows it to happen! There are several countries all over the world that have outlawed GMOs but for whatever reason the US government has yet to do it! When you take into consideration the government also poisons the Air via chemtrails which can be seen simply by looking UP and the Water by the toxic dumping from companies such as Bayer, fracking and oil and other things such as the disposing of expired medication via flushing it, it's really no wonder. Every government needs to have a population that is either unable or unwilling to fight back so that they can do whatever they please and there is virtually no one there to stop them. Once you have the Sheep grazing in the field you can release the predators who will go in and take whatever they want en masse and no one will stop them because they will lack the mental capacity or desire to... This is where the people need to rise up and stop this mass mental slavery and some of the ways we can stop them is by growing our own vegetables like our ancestors did! We don't need to stage a coup, in fact the most effective way to push back against corporations who are more concerned about their shareholders than they are about their customers is by reading every label on every product we buy and by educating ourselves on what ingredients to avoid. For example if a word in the ingredients list takes a Rosetta Stone to decipher or is a chemical compound you never heard of chances are you should avoid that product and any other product that contains that particular ingredient. There's a lot of things on the shelves that contain carcinogens but they are sold anyway because the companies that make them have lawyers who cry "Free Enterprise" and have a slew of 'medical experts' that claim that these agents are "harmless", then they want to turn around and blame the consumer for getting sick! It's no different for the (non-salary/managerial) people that work for these companies except that the health insurance that is offered by most of these companies (if a worker even has or gets health insurance from that company especially in recent years) do not cover the kind of bills that accrue for many debilitating illnesses such as cancer or diabetes. This is even worse if you have a previous existing condition that went undiagnosed that happens to show up because then their insurance companies can say that whatever your issue is is the result of that undiagnosed ailment. You would think that the primary focus of any business would be to keep us Workforce healthy and vital, unfortunately that appears to not be the case in many situations! You would think that one of the primary focuses of the government would be to make sure that these businesses or taking care of its Workforce but again that is unfortunately not always the case! You would also think that another of the government’s primary focuses would also be to make sure that any and all drugs put on the shelves do not in fact cause more harm than the disease they’re supposed to be fighting, again this is hardly ever the case anymore! In this day and age one of the saddest things is that people care less and less about their neighbor and focus ONLY on what works for them ALONE, this is usually learned behavior resulting from socioeconomic status, it can also be chemically induced if one consumes enough poison of any kind. We place so much value on money or currency that we forget that all it is is paper produced by the cutting down of trees which without them paper currency wouldn't exist! They say "Kill the Planet, Kill Yourself" and while what they meant is kill the ECOSYSTEM because the planet will live long after we're gone, the essence of this phrase still rings true! If we cut down all the trees there will be no oxygen created to breathe but that's not the only thing, if we allow the modification of organisms to persist then we are disrupting the entire ecosystem and nothing will renew itself as it used to because Nature never intended for these organisms to intersect in the first place! Nature creates what is needed to sustain the life that is in existence, but humans through their greed and arrogance, have decided that Nature doesn't know what's doing and therefore needs our help! Of course nothing could be further from the truth, the fact is that both Nature and the planet will be here long after the human race is gone and for all our "helping" the only thing we are really doing is expediting the human extinction process! During this Lughnasadh observance stop and take a look around you, at the world as it is and take the time to appreciate what you have, even if it's not much in a materialistic sense because there is so much more to be grateful for! The Air we breathe, the Fire that warms us, the Water that cleanses, the Earth that shelters us and the love and protection of our blessed Father Enki and his Son Ningizheda! The reason that Tailtiu died of exhaustion is because she was the only one who was clearing the plains at the time or at the very least the one doing most of the work. Her Spirit lives on however in all those who tend the land year after year, those who till the soil, plant the seeds, water the crops, weed the vegetation, feed the beasts and after all that take care of their own families so that they can do it all over again the next year and the year after that. These people run themselves ragged doing this work not to make hand over fist in cash but to feed their families and to take care of their communities. Farmers and Gardeners may not be rich monetarily speaking but they are extremely rich in what matters and that is Spirit and Spiritual Connection with the Earth, that which dwells within it, upon it and everything else in the Multiverse! Companies like Bayer/Monsanto have lost sight of what is really important and that is the Spirit of LIFE which they are KILLING producing all of these UNnatural products, performing all these UNnatural practices and then coming up with pesticides that kill vegetation and helpful insects like bees and spiders! They remind me of a character named Hexxus in a movie called FernGully who for all intents and purposes is the Spirit of Desolation that is the result of deforestation, chemical dumping, so forth and on. He was created as a result of the arrogance of the human race and exists only to destroy that which is around him and he doesn't care, it is quite infuriating that I must use him as a metaphor for how the human race is treating the planet and what they are willfully doing to it and not caring about because they have this idea that the ONLY reason anything is here is so that they can use and abuse it at their discretion and leisure, it is however also nauseatingly accurate! Blessed Father Enki please hear us call! Remind those who have forgotten about all the aspects of Nature and why it is imperative for them to be left alone to continue the cycle of life for all species not just humans! Remind them why even though we are capable of sending people to the moon and deep under the sea that there are many other life forms that are superior to us! Educate those who are ignorant on the Ancient Ways so that they can better the future by learning from our Collective past! Let it be known that the adages "The Earth Does Not Belong To Us, We Belong To The Earth" and "We Do Not Inherit The Earth From Our Ancestors, We Borrow It From Our Children" are not only true, they are the very reason we are able to exist at all! When Nature tires of petty humans and our selfish ways, she will let us all know and when that happens it will already be too late! The time to remember is NOW! The time to act is NOW! The time to show the love that the Earth is damn well warranted is NOW! The time to remember that we are responsible for all that which we allow to happen both detrimental and beneficial upon this Earth is NOW! During this time it is also a good idea to meditate and as such the following is one of my favorite songs by Enya, enjoy and be well! AVÉ ENKI/EA! AVÉ NINGIZHEDA! AVÉ LUGH! AVÉ THE ANNUNAKI! "Let me sail, let me sail, let the Orinoco flow! Let me reach, let me beach on the shores of Tripoli! Let me sail, let me sail, let me crash upon your shore! Let me reach, let me beach far beyond the Yellow Sea! De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! From Bissau to Palau in the shade of Avalon! From Fiji to Tiree and the Isles of Ebony! From Peru to Cebu feel the power of Babylon! From Bali to Cali far beneath the Coral Sea! De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de De-da, da-da-de Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up-up, adieu! Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up-up, adieu! Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up-up, adieu! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! From the North to the South, Ebudae unto Khartoum! From the deep Sea of Clouds to the Island of the Moon! Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been! Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never seen! We can sail, we can sail with the Orinoco flow! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! We can steer, we can near with Rob Dickins at the wheel! We can sigh, say Goodbye Ross and his dependencies! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! We can reach, we can beach On the shores of Tripoli! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! From Bali to Cali far beneath the Coral Sea! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! From Bissau to Palau in the shade of Avalon! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! We can reach, we can beach far beyond the Yellow Sea! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! From Peru to Cebu feel the power of Babylon! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! We can sail, we can sail! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Sail away, sail away, sail away! Ah, ah-ah Ah, ah-ah Ah - Enya ("Orinoco Flow") ZI ANA KANPA! ZI KIA KANPA! MAY THE DEAD RISE AND SMELL THE INSENCE! Etiamsi MULTA Et Nos UNUM Sumus Nos Sto Validus Ut Nos Sto Una! Semper Veritas, Semper Fideles, In Diabolus Nomen Nos Fides! AVE SATANÍ! (We Are ONE Even Though We Are MANY And We Stand STRONGEST When We Stand TOGETHER! Always TRUTHFUL, Always FAITHFUL, In Satan's Name We Trust! HAIL SATAN!) Ave URURU! Ave ENKI/EA! Ave NINGIZHEDA! Ave AZIMUA! Ave DIMUZI! Ave ININNI! Ave ERESHKIGAL! Ave NERGAL! Ave GILGAMESH! Ave ENKIDU! Ave TIAMAT! Ave ABSU! Ave MARDUK! Ave SARPANITUM! Ave SATANÍ! HAIL SATAN! -HPS Meg "Nemesis Nexus" Prentiss

[cleopatrarps]

A Booming Economy With a Tragic Price

REgional Australia, PArt 1 of 2

Australia is a breadbasket to the world and a globalization success story. So why are its farmers killing themselves?

The grave of James Guy at a cemetery in the Australian state of Victoria. Mr. Guy hanged himself on the dairy farm that he owned with his wife, Mary.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

SIMPSON, Australia — James Guy had been a dairy farmer since he was 15, and at 55, he thought he’d be preparing for retirement. Instead, he struggled to make the payments on a bank loan after the price of milk fell and never recovered.

One night in November 2016, his wife, Mary, who was working part-time as a nurse to help make ends meet, came home to find he had hanged himself.

“When a farmer is looking down the barrel of having to sell his farm or lose his farm or give up the profession he’d done all his life, it’s devastating,” Ms. Guy said, her voice wavering, from her farmhouse in Simpson, a town in Australia’s dairy heartland of Victoria. “They just lose their identity.”

Family farms like Mr. Guy’s have been the producers of Australia’s agricultural bounty, and the bedrock of its self-image as a nation of proudly self-reliant types, carving a living from a vast continent. But as Australia’s rural economy has boomed on the back of growing exports, small farmers have not always shared in the bounty, with many forced into borrowing money or selling their farms.

The emotional cost of these losses has become visible in a slowly unfolding mental health crisis in rural regions, seen most tragically in a rising number of suicides.

[One rural town found success by welcoming immigrants. Read our second story on regional Australia tomorrow at nytimes.com/au.]

Nationwide, people living in remote Australia now take their own lives at twice the rate of those in the city: Every year, there are about 20 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in isolated rural areas, compared with 10 in urban communities, according to independent studies of local health figures.

Image

Jim Whelan, a cattle farmer, at his mother’s property near Charters Towers, in northern Queensland, Australia. Mr. Whelan has struggled with depression and the difficulties of farming through drought. His son, also a farmer, killed himself in 2013.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

In very remote parts of the country, the figure is closer to 23, the studies say.

The horrific potential of this mental health crisis burst into public view this month in the tiny town of Osmington, south of Perth, where a grandfather is believed to have killed six members of his family and then himself after they reportedly fell into economic difficulties.

But most of the tragedies involve someone quietly taking his own life. Research shows that farmers are among those at the highest risk of suicide.

In the state of Queensland, studies have shown that farmers are more than twice as likely as the general population to take their own lives. In remote parts of the state, the suicide rate for farmers was up to five times that of nonfarmers.

“There’s a mental health crisis in rural Australia,” said Hugh van Cuylenburg, the founding director of the Resilience Project, an organization that promotes mental health across Australia. He added that it had reached “epidemic proportions.”

──── “There’s a mental health crisis in rural Australia” ────

The problem of rural suicides is not unique to Australia. Countries as diverse as India and France also face problems of farmers killing themselves. In the United States, suicides have been increasing since 1999, as an opioid epidemic has also disproportionately struck poor and rural areas.

But in Australia, the crisis seems to be worsening at a time when, at least on paper, the rural economy is quite robust.

Residents of Clermont, Australia, at a men-only gathering in October to discuss suicide and mental health problems in rural communities. The vast majority of rural Australians who take their own lives are men.CreditDavid Maurice Smith for The New York Times

It is also an epidemic that few Australians fully recognize, even in rural areas.

Experts say social stigmas prevent many people from talking about mental or emotional difficulties. This is particularly true in rural Australia, where the majority of farmers are men, who are expected to display an image of rugged individualism.

Men represent the vast majority of rural Australians who kill themselves. according to experts.

The problem is compounded by the difficulty of getting help. With just a small number of mental health centers and trained professionals scattered across Australia’s vast rural areas, residents are only able to access mental health services at a fifth of the rate of city dwellers, according to a 2015 report by the Center for International Economics in Canberra.

Mr. Cuylenburg of the Resilience Project, who travels around Australia giving talks on ways to improve mental health, says he finds the biggest need in rural areas.

On a recent trip to Clermont — a remote town of about 2,000 people that’s an 11-hour drive north of the city of Brisbane — he said hundreds of people showed up to hear him speak. Many came up afterward to share their stories about suicide attempts, their own or those of friends.

“There are always issues around mental health everywhere I go,” Mr. Cuylenburg said. “No one talks more about suicide, no one seems to be more affected by the numbers of suicide, than in the rural parts of Australia.”

Andrew Fernie on his farm outside of Clermont. Mr. Fernie has suffered for years from depression and other health issues, for which he has been treated with medication and therapy.CreditDavid Maurice Smith for The New York Times

The problem has become so severe that rural communities have gone on suicide watch. In some towns, residents have compiled lists of warning signs such as sudden withdrawal from society.

Despite such community-based steps, many cases require professional care.

“If prevention and treatment services got to them earlier we’d see less deaths,” said Martin Laverty, chief executive of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, one government-backed effort to improve access to health care in rural areas.

The service relies on small planes to cover some three million square miles of the most rural parts of Australia, flying in doctors and other professionals who offer basic and emergency care.

──── “If prevention and treatment services got to them earlier we’d see less deaths” ────

But Mr. Laverty said the service is spread too thin. Last year, it provided almost 25,000 people with mental health counseling.

New federal funding will allow it to triple that number next year, a sign of how dire the situation has become. But Mr. Laverty said even that will barely scratch the surface of the problem.

“There’s no more important topic,” Mr. Laverty said. “We need to make city folk aware that the food bowl of Australia — the area in which our crops are grown, and our milk and meat is provided — needs their support.”

Dairy farmer Phil Vines milks cattle on a farm near Simpson, Australia. Mr. Vines rents the farm from Ms. Guy, whose husband hanged himself after milk prices dropped. The low prices also prevent Mr. Vines from turning a profit.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

The causes of rural Australia’s crisis vary. Some farming areas have been pummeled by drought, which many blame on global warming. Other communities, like Pyramid Hill, Victoria, have desperately needed workers and are turning to immigrants for help.

But economists and mental health experts say a common thread is the changes unleashed by a globalizing economy.

There is a painful irony here, they say, since Australia has embraced free trade in farm goods, and even pressed other nations to liberalize their markets, in the belief that agriculture is one of its most competitive industries.

And Australian farm exports are growing: Last year, they totaled 44.8 billion Australian dollars, or $33.5 billion, up more than a fifth from just six years earlier, according to the National Farmers Federation.

But many experts say the biggest beneficiaries are larger corporate farms. Family farms are less able to ride out fluctuations in far-flung global markets that can drive down prices of their crops while raising the cost of tractor fuel.

Brian Sporne, a cattle farmer in Clermont, said people in the area had been working themselves “into a frazzle.”

“Everything is so competitive now,” said Mr. Sporne, a strong man with worn hands who raises his herd on a dry landscape of low scrubs and sandy orange earth. Mr. Sporne said he himself has suffered from depression. “Everything’s more expensive — land’s more expensive, then you’ve got to have bigger debt.”

“This is happening to more and more people, and it’s not their fault,” said Mary Guy, who still lives on the property where her husband took his life. CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

Farms are forced into debt to make ends meet. Across Australia, total borrowing from banks by farmers has ballooned to about 70 billion Australian dollars, or about $53 billion, seven times the level in the early 1990s, according to the Australian Farm Institute.

When they can no longer make the payments, many farmers go bankrupt. Across Australia, the total number of farmers declined by about 40 percent over the 30-year period ending in 2011 — a loss, on average, of 294 farmers every month.

Losing a farm is more than just losing a place of work. The properties are also homes that have been in families for generations.

Farmers speak of losing their sense of purpose, even their will to live.

Faced with the prospect of losing his farm, something inside James Guy simply broke, his widow said.

“This is happening to more and more people and it’s not their fault,” said Ms. Guy, who now rents out part of the farm but still lives on the property. “People are slowly disappearing because we’re being squeezed out.”

“Everything’s more expensive — land’s more expensive, then you’ve got to have bigger debt,” said Brian Sporne, a Clermont cattle farmer. People have been working themselves “into a frazzle,” he said.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

The post A Booming Economy With a Tragic Price appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2rUznl0 via News of World

[dani-qrt]

A Booming Economy With a Tragic Price

REgional Australia, PArt 1 of 2

Australia is a breadbasket to the world and a globalization success story. So why are its farmers killing themselves?

The grave of James Guy at a cemetery in the Australian state of Victoria. Mr. Guy hanged himself on the dairy farm that he owned with his wife, Mary.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

SIMPSON, Australia — James Guy had been a dairy farmer since he was 15, and at 55, he thought he’d be preparing for retirement. Instead, he struggled to make the payments on a bank loan after the price of milk fell and never recovered.

One night in November 2016, his wife, Mary, who was working part-time as a nurse to help make ends meet, came home to find he had hanged himself.

“When a farmer is looking down the barrel of having to sell his farm or lose his farm or give up the profession he’d done all his life, it’s devastating,” Ms. Guy said, her voice wavering, from her farmhouse in Simpson, a town in Australia’s dairy heartland of Victoria. “They just lose their identity.”

Family farms like Mr. Guy’s have been the producers of Australia’s agricultural bounty, and the bedrock of its self-image as a nation of proudly self-reliant types, carving a living from a vast continent. But as Australia’s rural economy has boomed on the back of growing exports, small farmers have not always shared in the bounty, with many forced into borrowing money or selling their farms.

The emotional cost of these losses has become visible in a slowly unfolding mental health crisis in rural regions, seen most tragically in a rising number of suicides.

[One rural town found success by welcoming immigrants. Read our second story on regional Australia tomorrow at nytimes.com/au.]

Nationwide, people living in remote Australia now take their own lives at twice the rate of those in the city: Every year, there are about 20 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in isolated rural areas, compared with 10 in urban communities, according to independent studies of local health figures.

Image

Jim Whelan, a cattle farmer, at his mother’s property near Charters Towers, in northern Queensland, Australia. Mr. Whelan has struggled with depression and the difficulties of farming through drought. His son, also a farmer, killed himself in 2013.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

In very remote parts of the country, the figure is closer to 23, the studies say.

The horrific potential of this mental health crisis burst into public view this month in the tiny town of Osmington, south of Perth, where a grandfather is believed to have killed six members of his family and then himself after they reportedly fell into economic difficulties.

But most of the tragedies involve someone quietly taking his own life. Research shows that farmers are among those at the highest risk of suicide.

In the state of Queensland, studies have shown that farmers are more than twice as likely as the general population to take their own lives. In remote parts of the state, the suicide rate for farmers was up to five times that of nonfarmers.

“There’s a mental health crisis in rural Australia,” said Hugh van Cuylenburg, the founding director of the Resilience Project, an organization that promotes mental health across Australia. He added that it had reached “epidemic proportions.”

──── “There’s a mental health crisis in rural Australia” ────

The problem of rural suicides is not unique to Australia. Countries as diverse as India and France also face problems of farmers killing themselves. In the United States, suicides have been increasing since 1999, as an opioid epidemic has also disproportionately struck poor and rural areas.

But in Australia, the crisis seems to be worsening at a time when, at least on paper, the rural economy is quite robust.

Residents of Clermont, Australia, at a men-only gathering in October to discuss suicide and mental health problems in rural communities. The vast majority of rural Australians who take their own lives are men.CreditDavid Maurice Smith for The New York Times

It is also an epidemic that few Australians fully recognize, even in rural areas.

Experts say social stigmas prevent many people from talking about mental or emotional difficulties. This is particularly true in rural Australia, where the majority of farmers are men, who are expected to display an image of rugged individualism.

Men represent the vast majority of rural Australians who kill themselves. according to experts.

The problem is compounded by the difficulty of getting help. With just a small number of mental health centers and trained professionals scattered across Australia’s vast rural areas, residents are only able to access mental health services at a fifth of the rate of city dwellers, according to a 2015 report by the Center for International Economics in Canberra.

Mr. Cuylenburg of the Resilience Project, who travels around Australia giving talks on ways to improve mental health, says he finds the biggest need in rural areas.

On a recent trip to Clermont — a remote town of about 2,000 people that’s an 11-hour drive north of the city of Brisbane — he said hundreds of people showed up to hear him speak. Many came up afterward to share their stories about suicide attempts, their own or those of friends.

“There are always issues around mental health everywhere I go,” Mr. Cuylenburg said. “No one talks more about suicide, no one seems to be more affected by the numbers of suicide, than in the rural parts of Australia.”

Andrew Fernie on his farm outside of Clermont. Mr. Fernie has suffered for years from depression and other health issues, for which he has been treated with medication and therapy.CreditDavid Maurice Smith for The New York Times

The problem has become so severe that rural communities have gone on suicide watch. In some towns, residents have compiled lists of warning signs such as sudden withdrawal from society.

Despite such community-based steps, many cases require professional care.

“If prevention and treatment services got to them earlier we’d see less deaths,” said Martin Laverty, chief executive of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, one government-backed effort to improve access to health care in rural areas.

The service relies on small planes to cover some three million square miles of the most rural parts of Australia, flying in doctors and other professionals who offer basic and emergency care.

──── “If prevention and treatment services got to them earlier we’d see less deaths” ────

But Mr. Laverty said the service is spread too thin. Last year, it provided almost 25,000 people with mental health counseling.

New federal funding will allow it to triple that number next year, a sign of how dire the situation has become. But Mr. Laverty said even that will barely scratch the surface of the problem.

“There’s no more important topic,” Mr. Laverty said. “We need to make city folk aware that the food bowl of Australia — the area in which our crops are grown, and our milk and meat is provided — needs their support.”

Dairy farmer Phil Vines milks cattle on a farm near Simpson, Australia. Mr. Vines rents the farm from Ms. Guy, whose husband hanged himself after milk prices dropped. The low prices also prevent Mr. Vines from turning a profit.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

The causes of rural Australia’s crisis vary. Some farming areas have been pummeled by drought, which many blame on global warming. Other communities, like Pyramid Hill, Victoria, have desperately needed workers and are turning to immigrants for help.

But economists and mental health experts say a common thread is the changes unleashed by a globalizing economy.

There is a painful irony here, they say, since Australia has embraced free trade in farm goods, and even pressed other nations to liberalize their markets, in the belief that agriculture is one of its most competitive industries.

And Australian farm exports are growing: Last year, they totaled 44.8 billion Australian dollars, or $33.5 billion, up more than a fifth from just six years earlier, according to the National Farmers Federation.

But many experts say the biggest beneficiaries are larger corporate farms. Family farms are less able to ride out fluctuations in far-flung global markets that can drive down prices of their crops while raising the cost of tractor fuel.

Brian Sporne, a cattle farmer in Clermont, said people in the area had been working themselves “into a frazzle.”

“Everything is so competitive now,” said Mr. Sporne, a strong man with worn hands who raises his herd on a dry landscape of low scrubs and sandy orange earth. Mr. Sporne said he himself has suffered from depression. “Everything’s more expensive — land’s more expensive, then you’ve got to have bigger debt.”

“This is happening to more and more people, and it’s not their fault,” said Mary Guy, who still lives on the property where her husband took his life. CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

Farms are forced into debt to make ends meet. Across Australia, total borrowing from banks by farmers has ballooned to about 70 billion Australian dollars, or about $53 billion, seven times the level in the early 1990s, according to the Australian Farm Institute.

When they can no longer make the payments, many farmers go bankrupt. Across Australia, the total number of farmers declined by about 40 percent over the 30-year period ending in 2011 — a loss, on average, of 294 farmers every month.

Losing a farm is more than just losing a place of work. The properties are also homes that have been in families for generations.

Farmers speak of losing their sense of purpose, even their will to live.

Faced with the prospect of losing his farm, something inside James Guy simply broke, his widow said.

“This is happening to more and more people and it’s not their fault,” said Ms. Guy, who now rents out part of the farm but still lives on the property. “People are slowly disappearing because we’re being squeezed out.”

“Everything’s more expensive — land’s more expensive, then you’ve got to have bigger debt,” said Brian Sporne, a Clermont cattle farmer. People have been working themselves “into a frazzle,” he said.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

The post A Booming Economy With a Tragic Price appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2rUznl0 via Online News

[newestbalance]

A Booming Economy With a Tragic Price

REgional Australia, PArt 1 of 2

Australia is a breadbasket to the world and a globalization success story. So why are its farmers killing themselves?

The grave of James Guy at a cemetery in the Australian state of Victoria. Mr. Guy hanged himself on the dairy farm that he owned with his wife, Mary.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

SIMPSON, Australia — James Guy had been a dairy farmer since he was 15, and at 55, he thought he’d be preparing for retirement. Instead, he struggled to make the payments on a bank loan after the price of milk fell and never recovered.

One night in November 2016, his wife, Mary, who was working part-time as a nurse to help make ends meet, came home to find he had hanged himself.

“When a farmer is looking down the barrel of having to sell his farm or lose his farm or give up the profession he’d done all his life, it’s devastating,” Ms. Guy said, her voice wavering, from her farmhouse in Simpson, a town in Australia’s dairy heartland of Victoria. “They just lose their identity.”

Family farms like Mr. Guy’s have been the producers of Australia’s agricultural bounty, and the bedrock of its self-image as a nation of proudly self-reliant types, carving a living from a vast continent. But as Australia’s rural economy has boomed on the back of growing exports, small farmers have not always shared in the bounty, with many forced into borrowing money or selling their farms.

The emotional cost of these losses has become visible in a slowly unfolding mental health crisis in rural regions, seen most tragically in a rising number of suicides.

[One rural town found success by welcoming immigrants. Read our second story on regional Australia tomorrow at nytimes.com/au.]

Nationwide, people living in remote Australia now take their own lives at twice the rate of those in the city: Every year, there are about 20 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in isolated rural areas, compared with 10 in urban communities, according to independent studies of local health figures.

Image

Jim Whelan, a cattle farmer, at his mother’s property near Charters Towers, in northern Queensland, Australia. Mr. Whelan has struggled with depression and the difficulties of farming through drought. His son, also a farmer, killed himself in 2013.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

In very remote parts of the country, the figure is closer to 23, the studies say.

The horrific potential of this mental health crisis burst into public view this month in the tiny town of Osmington, south of Perth, where a grandfather is believed to have killed six members of his family and then himself after they reportedly fell into economic difficulties.

But most of the tragedies involve someone quietly taking his own life. Research shows that farmers are among those at the highest risk of suicide.

In the state of Queensland, studies have shown that farmers are more than twice as likely as the general population to take their own lives. In remote parts of the state, the suicide rate for farmers was up to five times that of nonfarmers.

“There’s a mental health crisis in rural Australia,” said Hugh van Cuylenburg, the founding director of the Resilience Project, an organization that promotes mental health across Australia. He added that it had reached “epidemic proportions.”

──── “There’s a mental health crisis in rural Australia” ────

The problem of rural suicides is not unique to Australia. Countries as diverse as India and France also face problems of farmers killing themselves. In the United States, suicides have been increasing since 1999, as an opioid epidemic has also disproportionately struck poor and rural areas.

But in Australia, the crisis seems to be worsening at a time when, at least on paper, the rural economy is quite robust.

Residents of Clermont, Australia, at a men-only gathering in October to discuss suicide and mental health problems in rural communities. The vast majority of rural Australians who take their own lives are men.CreditDavid Maurice Smith for The New York Times

It is also an epidemic that few Australians fully recognize, even in rural areas.

Experts say social stigmas prevent many people from talking about mental or emotional difficulties. This is particularly true in rural Australia, where the majority of farmers are men, who are expected to display an image of rugged individualism.

Men represent the vast majority of rural Australians who kill themselves. according to experts.

The problem is compounded by the difficulty of getting help. With just a small number of mental health centers and trained professionals scattered across Australia’s vast rural areas, residents are only able to access mental health services at a fifth of the rate of city dwellers, according to a 2015 report by the Center for International Economics in Canberra.

Mr. Cuylenburg of the Resilience Project, who travels around Australia giving talks on ways to improve mental health, says he finds the biggest need in rural areas.

On a recent trip to Clermont — a remote town of about 2,000 people that’s an 11-hour drive north of the city of Brisbane — he said hundreds of people showed up to hear him speak. Many came up afterward to share their stories about suicide attempts, their own or those of friends.

“There are always issues around mental health everywhere I go,” Mr. Cuylenburg said. “No one talks more about suicide, no one seems to be more affected by the numbers of suicide, than in the rural parts of Australia.”

Andrew Fernie on his farm outside of Clermont. Mr. Fernie has suffered for years from depression and other health issues, for which he has been treated with medication and therapy.CreditDavid Maurice Smith for The New York Times

The problem has become so severe that rural communities have gone on suicide watch. In some towns, residents have compiled lists of warning signs such as sudden withdrawal from society.

Despite such community-based steps, many cases require professional care.

“If prevention and treatment services got to them earlier we’d see less deaths,” said Martin Laverty, chief executive of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, one government-backed effort to improve access to health care in rural areas.

The service relies on small planes to cover some three million square miles of the most rural parts of Australia, flying in doctors and other professionals who offer basic and emergency care.

──── “If prevention and treatment services got to them earlier we’d see less deaths” ────

But Mr. Laverty said the service is spread too thin. Last year, it provided almost 25,000 people with mental health counseling.

New federal funding will allow it to triple that number next year, a sign of how dire the situation has become. But Mr. Laverty said even that will barely scratch the surface of the problem.

“There’s no more important topic,” Mr. Laverty said. “We need to make city folk aware that the food bowl of Australia — the area in which our crops are grown, and our milk and meat is provided — needs their support.”

Dairy farmer Phil Vines milks cattle on a farm near Simpson, Australia. Mr. Vines rents the farm from Ms. Guy, whose husband hanged himself after milk prices dropped. The low prices also prevent Mr. Vines from turning a profit.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

The causes of rural Australia’s crisis vary. Some farming areas have been pummeled by drought, which many blame on global warming. Other communities, like Pyramid Hill, Victoria, have desperately needed workers and are turning to immigrants for help.

But economists and mental health experts say a common thread is the changes unleashed by a globalizing economy.

There is a painful irony here, they say, since Australia has embraced free trade in farm goods, and even pressed other nations to liberalize their markets, in the belief that agriculture is one of its most competitive industries.

And Australian farm exports are growing: Last year, they totaled 44.8 billion Australian dollars, or $33.5 billion, up more than a fifth from just six years earlier, according to the National Farmers Federation.

But many experts say the biggest beneficiaries are larger corporate farms. Family farms are less able to ride out fluctuations in far-flung global markets that can drive down prices of their crops while raising the cost of tractor fuel.

Brian Sporne, a cattle farmer in Clermont, said people in the area had been working themselves “into a frazzle.”

“Everything is so competitive now,” said Mr. Sporne, a strong man with worn hands who raises his herd on a dry landscape of low scrubs and sandy orange earth. Mr. Sporne said he himself has suffered from depression. “Everything’s more expensive — land’s more expensive, then you’ve got to have bigger debt.”

“This is happening to more and more people, and it’s not their fault,” said Mary Guy, who still lives on the property where her husband took his life. CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

Farms are forced into debt to make ends meet. Across Australia, total borrowing from banks by farmers has ballooned to about 70 billion Australian dollars, or about $53 billion, seven times the level in the early 1990s, according to the Australian Farm Institute.

When they can no longer make the payments, many farmers go bankrupt. Across Australia, the total number of farmers declined by about 40 percent over the 30-year period ending in 2011 — a loss, on average, of 294 farmers every month.

Losing a farm is more than just losing a place of work. The properties are also homes that have been in families for generations.

Farmers speak of losing their sense of purpose, even their will to live.

Faced with the prospect of losing his farm, something inside James Guy simply broke, his widow said.

“This is happening to more and more people and it’s not their fault,” said Ms. Guy, who now rents out part of the farm but still lives on the property. “People are slowly disappearing because we’re being squeezed out.”

“Everything’s more expensive — land’s more expensive, then you’ve got to have bigger debt,” said Brian Sporne, a Clermont cattle farmer. People have been working themselves “into a frazzle,” he said.CreditAdam Ferguson for The New York Times

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