#asian parents boasting about their kid do be like that sometimes

[xyrarei]

viren is so not ready for another kid...

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Dueling versions of reality define 1st week of fall campaign (AP) On the campaign trail with President Donald Trump, the pandemic is largely over, the economy is roaring back, and murderous mobs are infiltrating America’s suburbs. With Democrat Joe Biden, the pandemic is raging, the economy isn’t lifting the working class, and systemic racism threatens Black lives across America. The first week of the fall sprint to Election Day crystallized dizzyingly different versions of reality as the Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger trekked from Washington and Delaware to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and back, each man on an urgent mission to sell his particular message to anxious voters. All the conflicting messages carry at least a sliver of truth, some much more than others, as the candidates fight to navigate one of the most turbulent election seasons in modern history.

Love or hate them, pandemic learning pods are here to stay (Washington Post) Some love them. Some hate them. But nobody working in education today can escape pandemic learning pods: the increasingly popular phenomenon in which families band together and hire a private tutor to offer in-person learning to a small group of children. Teachers throughout the nation are sketching out schedules and pondering whether they can squeeze in pod tutoring after virtual school. They are weighing health risks, deciding on ground rules—should all pod students wear masks?—and asking parents how much they will pay. (A lot, it turns out.) Sometimes, they are quitting their jobs to lead pods instead. That is what Kendra Newton is doing: The 24-year-old first-grade teacher resigned from her job with Orange County Public Schools in Florida after learning she would have to teach in-person this fall. She is moving across the country to Oregon, where she will lead a pod of eight students—for a higher salary than she earned in Florida. “It gave me a way to feel safe working,” Newton said. “I will have guaranteed money coming in and a stable idea of what my life will be like because there won’t be a school district changing its mind every two seconds. For my mental health, it’s just a better option.”

Americans see skepticism of news media as healthy, say public trust in the institution can improve (Pew Research Center) Many Americans remain skeptical toward the news media, questioning not only the quality of journalists’ work but the intentions behind it. For instance, no more than half of U.S. adults have confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public, and Americans are more likely than not to say that news organizations do not care about the people they report on. Yet three-quarters also are open to the possibility that Americans’ trust in the media could improve.

With office life dormant, white-collar Washington is adrift (Washington Post) Greg Crist is a D.C. lobbyist who used to wear suits, and go to lunch, and spend his days taking meetings on the Hill, or in his nicely appointed office at 701 Pennsylvania Ave. Now that his office is closed because of the pandemic, Crist is a man who commutes a few hundred feet from his Alexandria, Va., home to his silver Audi, where he spends much of the day taking calls in the only place where the important people on the other end of the line cannot hear his toddler son scream. Much of white-collar Washington has accepted the reality that it may be a long time before it returns to the office, or the office-adjacent customs of the city’s glad-handing classes: the power lunches, the networking receptions, the comped sports tickets and day trips to New York on the Acela. “Initially I thought, ‘Well, I’ll be back at work by Easter,’ ” says Crist, the chief advocacy officer and head of external affairs at AdvaMed, a medical technology trade association. Easter turned into June, which turned into Labor Day, which turned into a big question mark. The politicos and super-connecters are achy, stuck at home, stranded on the other side of the work-life divide. The lobbyists are without their lobbies. The conference denizens haven’t donned a lanyard in months. That infamous D.C. conversation-starter, “What do you do?,” has a new answer: I sit at home, stare at my screen, fend off my kids, try to keep it together. You?

Mexico states run out of death certificates (AP) The coronavirus pandemic has hit Mexico so hard that the governments of several states ran out of death certificates. Officials said Friday the federal forms started running out about 15 to 20 days ago in at least three states—Baja California, the State of Mexico and Mexico City. Authorities say a million new forms have been printed and are being distributed. The certificates are printed with special characteristics because falsification has been a problem in the past. Mexico has suffered the fourth-highest level of COVID-19 deaths in the world.

Washington firm ran fake Facebook accounts in Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico, report finds (Washington Post) When Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the nation’s legitimate president in January 2019, an Instagram account, @FrenteLibreVzla, posted a video declaring him a “new leader” who would bring freedom to the embattled nation, according to a research report published Friday. Those watching the video had no way of knowing the account was based not in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, but downtown Washington, managed by a strategic communications firm with clients across Latin America. The firm, CLS Strategies, this week became the latest communications company to be chastised by Facebook for using fake accounts—including on Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary—to secretly manipulate politics in another country, in violation of Facebook’s prohibition on foreign interference. Facebook announced Tuesday it had closed 55 accounts, 42 pages and 36 Instagram accounts linked to CLS Strategies that targeted politics in Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico. The effort spent $3.6 million in advertising across all three countries, a sum that Facebook executives said was notable for its size and reflective of what happens when actors with deep pockets mount a disinformation operation. The pages had amassed more than 500,000 followers. The operation by the public relations company is an example, the report says, of how Americans sow disinformation in foreign countries.

Coronavirus Crisis Shatters India’s Big Dreams (NYT) The hit that India’s dreams have taken from the coronavirus pandemic can be found in the hushed streets of Surat’s industrial zone. You can see it in textile mills that took generations to build but are now sputtering, eking out about a tenth of the fabric they used to make. You can see it in the lean faces of the families who used to sew the finishing touches on saris but, with so little business, are now cutting back on vegetables and milk. Not so long ago, India’s future looked entirely different. It boasted a sizzling economy that was lifting millions out of poverty, building modern megacities and amassing serious geopolitical firepower. It aimed to give its people a middle-class lifestyle, update its woefully vintage military and become a regional political and economic superpower that could someday rival China, Asia’s biggest success story. But the economic devastation in Surat and across the country is imperiling many of India’s aspirations. The Indian economy has shrunk faster than any other major nation’s. As many as 200 million people could slip back into poverty, according to some estimates. Many of its normally vibrant streets are empty, with people too frightened of the outbreak to venture far.

India and China agree to ease tension on border (Reuters) India and China said on Saturday they had agreed to work towards reducing tensions along their contested border, following a meeting of the defense ministers of the nuclear-armed Asian giants. Both sides deployed additional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas after a clash in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting. China has not released casualty figures for its troops. In the highest level face-to-face political contact between India and China since tensions first flared along the border in May, defense ministers Rajnath Singh of India and General Wei Fenghe of China met late on Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Moscow. Both countries agreed that “neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas,” India’s defense ministry said in a statement.

Super Typhoon Haishen aims for calamitous strike on Japan, S. Korea (Washington Post) Super Typhoon Haishen is roiling the unusually warm waters of the Western Pacific Ocean. The storm rapidly intensified on Thursday Eastern time, vaulting from Category 2 to super typhoon status with sustained winds of 150 mph or greater in about 24 hours. Super Typhoon Haishen is poised to strike the same areas as Typhoon Maysak, which hit South Korea early Thursday local time, to become the second typhoon to make landfall there and in southwestern Japan in just one week. The back-to-back typhoon strikes may worsen the damage, since infrastructure has been weakened by strong winds, heavy rains and storm-surge flooding, only to be hit again.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with secular Israeli officials over coronavirus measures (Washington Post) Israel’s rapidly escalating coronavirus crisis is aggravating a religious divide in the Jewish state, with ultra-Orthodox leaders accusing mostly secular health officials of discrimination and fostering anti-Semitism by focusing on outbreaks in highly observant communities. As the government struggles to contain the outbreak, ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis, cabinet ministers and parliament members have resisted attempts to curtail activities in ultra-Orthodox areas, including many that have emerged as covid-19 hot spots. Facing particular ire has been Ronni Gamzu, the pugnacious former hospital administrator appointed last month as the government’s “corona czar.” Gamzu has clashed with religious leaders over his efforts to impose targeted lockdowns on neighborhoods with high infection rates, block a yearly pilgrimage to the grave of a revered Hasidic rabbi in Ukraine and compel virus testing for thousands of foreign students who have recently arrived to attend religious schools, or yeshivas. Gamzu said last week that 80 percent of the most recent coronavirus cases occurred in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. The government expects to enact targeted restrictions Monday in 10 hot spot communities, many of them ultra-Orthodox. The tensions have riven Israel’s coronavirus cabinet, the government body that sets policy. On Friday, one day after Israel recorded 3,141 new cases—the largest single day per capita increase in any country since the pandemic began—cabinet discussions grew heated over proposed lockdowns during the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur later this month.

Sudan declares state of emergency over deadly floods (AP) Sudanese authorities declared their country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after rising floodwaters and heavy rainfall killed around 100 people and inundated over 100,000 houses since late July. Flooding caused by seasonal heavy rainfall, mostly in neighboring Ethiopia, led the Nile River to rise about 17.5 meters late in August, the highest level it has reached in about a century according to the Sudanese Irrigation Ministry.

[ablanariwho]

English Medium, Indian Middle Class And The Story Of A Blast Furnace - Part III

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“ On your first day in school, I and your father went to drop you. You stood in the prayer assembly with 300 odd children from different grades. The students were all singing the school prayer song. There was a lump in my throat. Tears wanted to roll down my eyes. I felt happy and sad at the same time. I was thinking, you were no more a small kid. You had grown up. You had left my lap forever to join the big, bad world. But I was happy that finally, you started your primary school. Ten years later, you would walk out of this school with flying colours for higher studies.” That is how my mother still recalls her feelings on the first day of my school. Years after years, all parents, rich or poor, feel the same. It is a complex emotion. A mother experiences heartache as her baby grows up and leave her lap to take part in his/her role in the game of life. A sense of separation and not being needed by her child all the time pains her. But at the same time, she nurtures some dreams and aspires her child would fulfil that. She wants to see her child grow up and move on in life, study and learn, become successful.

The first and the most important parental decision Schooling is the first, most testing parental decision. Here an individual steps out into the world for the first time. Like many children, my baby steps into the big, bad world also started at my school. I don’t know who gave this beautiful world the tag of “Big Bad World’. Bringing the element of good or bad to this beautiful world always has been a human act.

Illustration by: Amit Shanklya

I not only suffered due to the social stigma of studying in a vernacular medium school, a ‘bad’, created by us humans. I faced other forms of harassment too. But I learnt a lot many things about life. I am sharing it here to create awareness among parents, both present and would-be. I want to talk about how the choice of a school can affect and influence a child’s life in various ways. I know parents cannot control everything about their children's well-being. But they need to be mindful of the exposures schooling causes, both good and bad. It would help them to understand their children better. They would know how to guide and support them towards wholesome grooming. During the initial years, my father and one of my classmate's fathers would ferry us to school and back, turn by turn. Later, during my adolescent years, I started walking down to school. My school did not provide any bus service. In my high school years, I used to travel by public transport. This exposed me, a growing and adolescent girl to the local eve-teasing ruffians. They were the sons and male relatives of factory workers and small-time local dons. Travelling by public transport also exposed me to groping and unsuitable male attention. It was difficult to manage such situations for a naïve, teenage girl. It was unsafe for a kid in that hormone-driven age to be exposed to such elements. Adolescents do not have the worldly wisdom to deal with such nuisance. This did not happen much with other convent going girls of my neighbourhood. They had the facility of a company school bus as their school was far in the city. Moreover, their mothers would escort them to and from the bus stand, where they were picked up and dropped.

The two sides of every life experience They say every experience in life has two sides. I experienced it through my schooling. I suffered due to bullying, shaming, and eve-teasing. But I learnt my mother tongue well. Funnily, sharing it is feeling like delivering the iconic dialogue by Shashi Kapoor from the movie Deewar. - “Mere Pass Maa Hai” in reply to Amitabh Bachhan’s dialogue - “Aaj mere paas paisa hai, bangla hai, gaadi hai, naukar hai, bank balance hai, aur tumhare paas kya hai?”

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Many of my English medium, convent school-going, Bengali contemporaries missed out on this. I would have been the most unfortunate person in the world if I had lived my life without knowing my mother tongue. I would have missed studying the treasure it has to offer in the world of literature. Bengali is one of the richest Indian languages and boasts of a rich literary heritage. It is famously represented by the first Indo-Asian Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore and a whole galaxy of amazing authors and poets. Tagore’s work opened up a vast horizon of human experiences to me. It enabled me to delve deeper into the human mind. It guided my spiritual inclinations. It stoked the literary strains in me. It gave me a sense of pride in my identity and I didn’t have to ape or fake a foreign culture to camouflage mine. I am proud to belong to an endangered clan of Bengalis or Indians, who know well both their mother tongue and English. I am lucky that I read Tagore as well as Shakespeare. I had the unique opportunity of knowing the best of both the literary worlds of Bengali and English. Later, in my adult life, I could earn a few bucks by my mastery of both these languages.

Secondly, I got a broader perspective of society and life. The opportunity to study and spend 10 years with children from so-called lower economic strata in my school made me more grounded. It gave me a broader perspective of society and life. It taught me acceptance and being open-minded. It saved me from being a snob. Today, I am very proud of those classmates. Many of them are successful academicians, entrepreneurs, corporate or Army personnel. I admire their efforts to break free of the limitations their vernacular medium schooling might have imposed on them.

I am also grateful to a few of my teachers. They gave us high quality, healthy doses of learning, defying the limitations of the Bihar Board curriculum of my school.

Lemons are sour, but they make lemonade too

Despite the pain and hurt, eventually, every experience in life enriches us, makes us better and more mature human beings. Finally, it’s up to us, how we look at it, what we make out of it. Today, the pains and hurt have faded. Whenever I look back and revisit those experiences, it only makes me aware of the vulnerabilities of human beings. I understand how social and economic pressures influence people's mindsets. It causes a common prevalence of false vanity. It creates a lack of self-esteem and critical thinking.

Today, what matters to me are the fond memories of my school days and all those bitter-sweet lessons I learnt. And finally, I am grateful to my parents. They apparently, did a mistake by putting me in a so-called non-elite, janta class, vernacular medium school. By doing so they unknowingly put me in a lot of trouble. But they didn’t know how much they helped me to grow as a grounded and mellower person. They didn’t know that they gave me the best gift in the form of the opportunity to learn my mother tongue. It aided my ability to express my deeper thoughts, sometimes in poetic exuberance. At that point, they didn’t plan or envision all these. But they played instrumental in the hands of destiny to give my mind-space a panoramic view of life.

Parents are no God. They are the Archers in God's hands

Parenting is the toughest job, that tests and challenges their own growing up. There is no syllabus, no crash course or degree in the world to prepare us for parenting. it’s an on-the-job learning process from the day their baby is born till they live like their parents. No one can judge a parent unless and until they have passed their share of the tests and challenges, without a single blot. Parents need to keep their minds open to learning through their experience of raising children. They should not adopt a sanctimonious attitude. In the same way, children too should not develop God-complex about their parents. They can learn a lot from their parents. Parent's selfless service as well as their mistakes can teach us life lessons. Their weaknesses, flaws, compromises and failures make them human. Both parents and children need to see each other's constant, silent inner struggle. We need to recognize that. We all seek the higher meaning of humanity in a larger perspective. Parents and children help each other to become better human beings, through both their successes and failures.

Today, I am writing this, sitting in a big city. I have left the life at that industrial township, much smaller than the city I live in today, far behind. But I am still carrying the life lessons the icon of that industrial city - the blast furnace taught me. Life is like the blast furnace of the factory in our township. The raw iron ore of the human mind melts in the blast furnace of life along with coke and limestone of culture and society. Then it turns the hot metal of human intelligence into strong, shining steel!

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[travelworldnetwork]

Club Med Les Arcs Panorama France is hidden away from the other settlements in the buzzing ski area. Photo: Supplied

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Perched by its lonesome, flanked by snow-drenched slopes and giant Christmassy-looking trees, Club Med's newest resort appears, from an eagle's-eye perspective, a bit like a James Bond villain's lair masquerading as a top-secret science lab or medical facility. It's nothing of the sort, of course, but for snow bunnies and alpine enthusiasts, Les Arcs Panorama has a real licence to thrill.

More than three years in the making, this is a cool, cutting-edge, all-inclusive alternative to the traditional chalet-like resorts that sprinkle the French Alps. With 433 stylish rooms and suites, a clutch of bars, restaurants, pools, a spa and gym, it's also a beacon of 21st-century architecture, sporting a harmonious stone, timber and glass frontage, sleek curves and sloping roofs, and an interior full of nature-inspired sculptures and furnishings, high-tech features and lots of natural light. The resort is hidden away from the other settlements in the buzzing Les Arcs ski area, but still boasts direct ski-in, ski-out access to one of the world's finest winter playgrounds.

On top of boundless tasty food and drink and quirky apres-ski entertainment, a stay at Les Arcs Panorama includes a ski pass for the entire Paradiski region, which snakes across the stunningly photogenic Tarentaise Valley in France's Savoy department and comprises Les Arcs and neighbouring resorts Peisey-Vallandry and La Plagne. Linked by chair lifts, cable cars and funiculars are a staggering 425 kilometres of pistes (ski runs), 70 per cent of which are above 2000 metres in altitude. Generous amounts of white powder are common from December onwards and many pistes have inspiring vistas of Mont Blanc, Europe's loftiest peak.

A six-day Paradiski pass would normally cost €305 ($484) per adult, and €244 ($387) per child – something to bear in mind when weighing up accommodation options. Club Med does charge extra for equipment hire – skis, boards, boots and helmets – but guests are offered complementary skiing and snowboarding lessons for all levels, led by the charismatic English-speaking instructors of the ESF (French Ski School). Children as young as four can have free ski classes – one of the myriad kid-friendly features in a resort that strives to attract multi-generational families as well as active couples and solo travellers. I'm more of a "40 Year Old (Ski) Virgin" than 007, so the grade-A beginner lessons – which see me waddling like a duck and learning the essential "snow plough" braking manoeuvre – are a godsend.

It feels like a mini-triumph when I ascend the resort's "magic carpet" travelator and glide down its adjacent nursery slope without tumbling over. I gain confidence with every lesson, although, in fairness, there are more suitable places in the French Alps for complete beginners due to the lack of green (easy) pistes nearby. There are heaps of blue (average) slopes, however, some of which are green-ish in standard, plus red (difficult) and black (very difficult) runs for daredevils. In the resort's Arolla bar, where each night there are live bands, DJs, theatre shows and cocktail-sipping and partying, you'll hear guests chatting about Aiguille Rouge, a mountain run that drops 2000 metres over seven kilometres to the village of Villaroger.

My other half, Celine, who grew up skiing in the French Alps, refreshes her skills in the intermediate classes, before whooshing down some of the steeper pistes. At the end of every session, she returns with rosy red cheeks and a beaming smile. Boosting the resort's bonhomie are the apres-ski drinks, including genepi – a popular local herbal liqueur – and the GOs (Gentils Organisateurs), the multilingual staff who help fuel Club Med's famously fun, warm-spirited atmosphere.You might not want to ski – or snowboard – all day, and sometimes the weather will make that decision for you.

Conditions can be temperamental and fast-changing at these altitudes, with snow, sleet and mist quickly replacing sunny blue skies. Thankfully, there's plenty to savour inside the resort, which was unveiled in mid-December and typifies the upscale direction in which Club Med is heading. Founded in France in 1950, the company was bought by a Chinese consortium in 2015, with ambitious plans to add premium new resorts to the near-80 seaside and mountain "holiday villages" dotted across 26 countries.

There's an increased focus on five-star spaces – or, in Club Med parlance, 5-Trident (the company's logo is a trident). While Les Arcs Panorama is a 4T resort, it has a fancier 5T section, with 24 suites – each 70-74 square metres in size and handy for four people – and La Belvedere, an exclusive lounge for suite guests. Its main draw is the "free" champagne and the 400-square-metre terrace, which has a Jacuzzi, and a wonderful 180-degree view over the Tarentaise Valley. Suite guests also have their own private ski locker room.The resort's regular "superior" and "deluxe" rooms – and the cosy lounge-like public areas – are rather chic, too.

Accessed with digital bracelets, our "superior" room – A1754, 24 square metres – has scenic mountain vistas and a vibrant feel, with curtains, cushions and blankets shaded in pink and gold – a colourful contrast to the white walls and bedding, and the walnut wood furniture. There's a separate toilet and bathroom with branded "joy-inducing" soap, gels and shampoo. Some rooms have balconies and many are separate but can be interconnected – convenient for families who wish to holiday together yet still have some privacy.

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Adults are free to do their own thing by day as there's a range of dedicated kids' clubs, from four months to 17 years old (fees apply, though, for under-fours). Included is a special family-oriented restaurant, Bread&Co, in which children "invite" their parents to dinner, take their orders and play interactive food-themed games. For most meals, the majority of guests flock to the White Stone, the enormous main restaurant, where there's a variety of seating, from snug booths and outdoor terrace spots to huge round tables, and a buffet that is always extensive and enticing. Expect everything from healthy salads and fishy temptations to pan-Asian cuisine and authentic Savoyard produce such as cured meats and deer stew, as well as Gallic favourites such as Charolais beef and foie gras. Most dishes go down a treat with the complimentary wine, which is mostly from the Savoy, Rhone and Provence regions.

Desserts include more than a dozen flavours of ice-cream, delectable tarts and a chocolate fountain that is virtually impossible to walk past without poking in a marshmallow on a stick. For a la carte dining and table service, make a reservation at 1790 Gourmet Lounge, a refined speciality eatery where you can also enjoy late breakfasts and lunches buffet-style. In truth, it's easy to overindulge on all the wining and dining here, but unlike many all-inclusive resorts, at Club Med Les Arcs Panorama, you really feel like you've earned the right to tuck in – especially if you've been on the pistes all day.

FIVE MORE THINGS TO DO OFF-PISTE

GET FIT

From stretching and zumba to yoga and pilates, guests can enjoy instructor-led classes, and also make use of the gym's cardio and weights equipment and heated indoor and outdoor pools.

TAKE TO THE SPA

Not part of the all-inclusive deal, the resort's branch of Cinq Mondes, the prestigious Parisian spa, offers a plethora of treatments, from 20-minute massages to five-day pampering packages.

WALK AND HIKE

While snow-shoeing is an exciting winter option, Nordic walking and hiking is brilliant in summer (June-August) once the snow has mostly melted to leave the resort's surrounding landscapes lush and green.

VISIT BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE

Take the funicular down to this charming historic town, which has aromatic fresh produce markets and typically quaint Savoy architecture. See savoie-mont-blanc.com/en

TASTE CHEESE

Nestled on Bourg-Saint-Maurice's outskirts, Cooperative Laitiere de Haute Tarentaise is a pungent factory offering educational tours plus tastings of Beaufort, a delicious alpine cheese made with cow's milk. See fromagebeaufort.fr

TRIP NOTES

Steve McKenna was a guest of Club Med

MORE

traveller.com.au/france

paradiski.com

GO

Air France flies to Paris from Sydney and Melbourne, code-share with Qantas or Etihad. See qantas.com and etihad.com Trains from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice take about five hours. See en.oui.sncf

STAY

A seven-night all-inclusive winter stay (December-April) at Les Arcs Panorama is priced from $2365 per person. A summer stay is priced from $1700. At Club Med, all children under four stay free. Weekly hire of skis and boots are priced from €179 ($287) for adults, and €110 for children. For snowboards it's €189 and €124. Book the Easy Arrival package (no extra charge) and your equipment will be waiting for you in your locker. The nearest airports to the resort are Lyon and Geneva – both about a two-and-a-half hour transfer by road. See clubmed.com

from traveller.com.au

[nycreligion]

  John Wesley United Methodist Church. Photo: Tony Carnes/A Journey through NYC religions

  Bible studies in a bar, car shows in the church parking lot, reconnecting by tele-visiting the incarcerated – these are some of the pathways to survival being forged by churches in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Leaders at Mount Lebanon Baptist Church sought out new connections with their younger neighbors in the Therapy Wine Bar. Less than a mile away, Antioch Baptist Church has set up an annual car show on Greene Avenue designed to bring men and boys into mentoring relationships. John Wesley United Methodist Church is trying to reconnect kids with their parents through remote television hook-ups. In Central Bed-Stuy, Mount Pisgah Baptist Church has fuelled its congregation by inviting veterans to a dramatic re-telling of the origins of Memorial day.

  Car connections for Antioch Baptist Church. Photo: A Journey through NYC religions

  African American church leaders are faced with members aging out of church activities or moving away from a gentrifying flood that has hit Bed-Stuy. The glory years of the local African American churches are writ by their peaks of spectacular architecture, but the pews are not as full as they used to be.

Bed-Stuy, especially, was the home to a large number of African American churches for the better part of the last century, and, in the 19th Century, a haven for fugitive slaves. African American Christians sustained the long growth of religious activism in Brooklyn that made it heralded as “the borough of churches.” History professor Clarence Taylor grew up in Brooklyn hearing about the many famous preachers and wrote a remembrance of their huge role in faith and politics in his book The Black Churches of Brooklyn.

  A Journey through NYC religions

  The author observes that Bed-Stuy still has some of the most prominent African American churches and pastors in the country. A Journey through NYC Religions estimates that there are “well over 300” churches in the neighborhood. Some of the churches are still flourishing.

However, the population of African American residents has rapidly dropped in Bed-Stuy.

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  A shrinking community of African Americans in NYC

In 2010, the United States Census found that the neighbourhood had about 107,000 African American residents, 70% of the 153,985 residents. By 2016, the proportion of African Americans had dropped below the 50% mark for the first time in decades. African Americans numbered about 73,000 out of the 148,237 residents in Bed-Stuy, according to the estimate by the American Community Survey. These demographic shifts, along with a dip in religiosity among African-Americans, have led to dwindling African American congregations, says Taylor.

Imagine Bed-Stuy as an African-American city-state larger than Syracuse, New York. New settlers are concentrated on the periphery of the community but rivulets of their settlements are working their way toward the center.

The non-Hispanic African Americans are made up of two groups of people. On the one hand, there are large swaths of the neighborhood settled by educated, highly employed residents. For example, in some of the most heavily African American areas, 85-97% of the men and women are employed. The highly employed African Americans offer a cultural milieu into which newly arrived young professionals could join.

However, even for the affluent African American, the situation is deteriorating. A story by the real estate blog Yimby NY reports that a Center for NYC Neighborhoods study found that home ownership for African Americans in Brooklyn is dropping because of “shady loans,” high taxes and repair costs, the “soaring prices and a tight lending environment.”

There are also poor neighborhoods in which employment is scarce. This condition seems to impact most the African American males in the areas where their employment rate shrinks to 25%. Usually, the lowest employment rates for African American males are for those who live in public housing projects like the Brevoort Houses.

Such concentrations are probably not conducive to building the social networks and economic savvy necessary for moving up economically. The disappearance of the working and lower middle classes in the city also means that there is no ladder to go up. These classes are unrecognized keys to fighting poverty.

However, it would be a large misunderstanding to see the poor unemployed as problem to get rid of. An asset-based approach would ask a different question, how well are the faith-based groups that ring the housing projects connecting up and drawing upon the strengths of the poor, particularly of the unemployed males?

Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics (of all races) are increasing their numbers in Bed-Stuy. Collectively, they now form over 43% of the neighborhood, almost on par with the population of African Americans. Hispanic Christians have founded several flourishing congregations.

The non-Hispanic Whites include large numbers of younger professionals and Hasidic Jews. Some members of the Hasidic community have been actively buying property in the center of Bed-Stuy to build new multi-story residences, schools, and worship sites. Only a small number of Asian Americans have moved into the neighborhood.

In some areas along the border of South BedStuy, African immigrants have concentrated to such an extent that they sometimes make up 20% of the residents on the blocks. At home, the Africans may speak English, Amharic (Ethiopian), Ibo, Twi, Yoruba, Banta, Swahili, Somali, Arabic, or French. However, most live further south, just over the community district border running along Atlantic Avenue. In Bed-Stuy, their religious sites tend to be scattered in the cheaper Eastern section. Some of their growing congregations are facing the constraints of disappearing community space in the hot real estate market.

  Mural at Antioch Baptist Church, “And you have made us kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:10. Photo: A Journey through NYC religions

  The impact on African American churches

Westminster-Bethany United Presbyterian Church now sees a maximum of only 10 congregants at weekly services in its 10,400 square feet property. Its leaders rent out part of their premises to another African American church, Grace & Truth Gospel Temple, which sees about 100 worshippers on Sundays. Members of the public can also book its basement for ad-hoc activities, like birthday parties. Mr Aubrey Holder, an elder at Westminster-Bethany, says half of its members are in their 70s. “Sometimes you would wonder, ‘How does the church even exist?’ But we believe this property is here for a purpose,” says the 82-year-old.

Mount Lebanon Baptist Church is a 113-year old sprawling Romanesque Revival-styled landmark – complete with an arched entrance, conical turrets, and a red terra cotta roof. It set up a museum to celebrate its 100th anniversary. According to members, the church used to pack a thousand people on Sundays. But now it sees only 300 congregants each Sunday, about the same number as it did five years ago. Many of them are in the advanced years. “We need to find new ways of doing church without detracting from our mission,” says its pastor, Reverend Shaun J Lee, 40. Hence, the effort at doing Bible studies in a bar. A former pastor reached out by sitting on the stoop offering to play chess with locals. African American leaders have tried many ways to reverse the receding tide of church attendance.

  Mount Lebanon Baptist Church. Photo: A Journey through NYC religions

  Mount Lebanon’s mission twins the promotion of a gospel-friendliness in the church with compassion for those in need outside the church. More recently, it has been throwing back-to-school barbecue parties in its courtyard for children in the neighborhood.

In an effort to better utilize its 21,000 square feet premises, John Wesley United Methodist Church along Quincy Street — which saw its congregation halve to about 70 from 135 during the last six years — recently partnered with community organization NuLeadership to hold youth-centered activities, including a mentorship program and a tele-visiting service for children to maintain contact with their incarcerated parents.

Rev Ebenezer Aduku, who has been leading the church since 2012, stresses the need to “inject a shot of energy into this building.” The church, which was established in 1988, also boasts steep peaked roofs and broad Gothic arches. Nowadays, it sees only a tenth of the chapel occupied during its weekly services.

While he acknowledged that maintaining the sprawling premises is financially challenging with a smaller congregation, Aduku is adamant about holding onto the property. “Even though we own the property, insurance alone is a huge price tag. But we are here not for money. We want to constantly be in contact with the community, to serve them physically and spiritually,” says the 65-year-old.

  Up for sale

Other congregations, like Living Stone Baptist Church along Pulaski Street and Greater Works Deliverance Church along Tompkins Avenue, have put up their properties for sale.

Jack Lerner, who advises religious leaders how to optimize the use of their premises, says many traditional churches also wrestle with infrastructure that are not elderly-friendly. He pointed to the lack of elevators as an example.

The religious property guru, who co-founded Ecclesiastical Realty Advisory Services, adds, “Many sit on a large parcel of land but two-thirds of the church is empty. For some, we advise them to make use of that vacant excess land by selling air rights. Others sell their entire properties. Yet others decide not to do anything because not every church has a need for millions of dollars.”

    Unlike most churches buildings here which have subdued brown or reddish hues, Mt Pisgah Baptist Church on Tompkins Avenue dons a colorful exterior awash in terra cotta and mosaic detailing. The building is also not weighed down by any debt. “We have completely paid off this building,” says Reverend Joel R.Youngblood, assistant to the church’s lead pastor. It has revamped its weekly services to include “vibrant elements” like dance and drama. Yet, the excitement under the steeple has been constrained. “Because it is almost 120 years old, maintaining it is as much as footing a mortgage,” Youngblood observes.

  Rev Johnny Youngblood. innovative and tireless senior pastor of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. Photo: Tony Carnes/A Journey through NYC religions

  The church will be relocating to a smaller and more affordable venue in Jamaica, Queens within three years, says Youngblood. This year, the church sold its property to a Hasidic Jewish group, a sort of New Testament – Old Testament partnership to keep faith alive in Bed-Stuy.

  Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. Photo: Tony Carnes/A Journey through NYC religions

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Bibles in a Bar? Bed-Stuy’s African Americans reinvent, consolidate, & move churches

Bible studies in a bar, car shows in the church parking lot, reconnecting by tele-visiting the incarcerated – these are some of the pathways to survival being forged by churches in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Bibles in a Bar? Bed-Stuy’s African Americans reinvent, consolidate, & move churches Bible studies in a bar, car shows in the church parking lot, reconnecting by tele-visiting the incarcerated – these are some of the pathways to survival being forged by churches in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

[boloorsportsmania]

#632 A tribute to a very special person who is turning 75 today  ...Our very own Man of Steel..Titanium Star Radhakrishna Rao...:-)

Till 1992, we always thought that Radhakrishna Rao ( my dad) was born on 25-Dec-1943. Even dad had the feeling that this was his birth date as it was in all his records. My grandfather had a family book where DOB of all Boloorians were kept as record. We all of a sudden realized in 1992 that he was born on 29-Oct-1943. He was a Scorpion like mom. Mom was born on 31-Oct-1950. We saw it as 2 days difference between their birthdays. Dad had another jovial angle to describe it. He used to say mom was born 2 years after independence. He had a wicked sense of humor sometimes!!

Today that great man is turning 75 !! Time has flown too fast for this Bsc Maths rank holder, engineering student in prestigious IIsc , retired AGM of VISL (a subsidiary of SAIL) , stocks champion, “Can talk on any topic !!“  master, a thorough gentlemen , a self-proclaimed YOGA guru and sweet-loving guy. By sweet loving, I really meant sweets. He can’t live a day without eating a sweet which he totally adores !!. He might still manage to live without sweets but don’t think he can without yoga and stocks study. He has been investing in stocks since 1981 (if I am not wrong !! ) . He never shows his excitement or anger when stocks jump or dips !!. Probably his body language gives an indication. Just for the love of stocks, he learnt to use Microsoft XLS at the age of 60, tablet at the age of 72 , laptop at the age of 74 and even boasts a google finance account which he monitors through his mobile (bought a smart phone just for this !!).  His past time always goes in calculating capital gains and analyzing what stocks or MF to buy !! . I am completely opposite to him. I do like finance but not to the extent this freak does !! (I do call him freak sometimes). Once newspaper comes in the morning,  he detaches the sports edition and hands over to me.  He calls me an Urdu sports freak sometimes!!!  In all newspaper, sports edition is there in last few pages.  I always read the newspaper from last page to first. So the name Urdu Sports freak !!

It’s impossible to list down moments with dad which I cherished as there are so many.  One of the most memorable one was the day Seema won 2nd prize in Hindi debate (2nd in entire Karnataka) . He was so happy that day that his eyes was glowing.  He was immensely proud. Each time Seema would win a competition ( I felt she was born talented. She would win most competitions, was a charm in plays and was always topper in studies. It was a deadly combo and I always felt she was a magician), dad looked very happy proud.  Her multi talent is evident in her career too. She was a BSC Zoology student, worked in IMRB for IA Flying returns and now running a host of sessions on story telling very successfully. That’s as varied set of talent a human can get.  Seema was always dad’s pet due to this rare talent. He would proudly tell about her deeds to his friends. I was a kid who was born other side of planet probably. I hardly won any events, was an above average student (thanks to mom for that!! ) and was a sports fanatic. I owe my passion for sports partly to dad’s interests as well. 2 instances was the real trigger for that.

1982 Asian games and 1983 world cup were 2 key calendar years for India. Dad had literally got TV imported from north India just to watch these events (at least I always felt that he bought TV for these events !! ). It looked like a magic box for me. None of our neighbors had TV . Even our rich landlord was watching our TV. How cool was that !!  1982 Asian games was held in India for the first time. It was a grand spectacle. Best was 1983 world cup which India won as underdogs. Host of dad’s cousins had come from native to watch the finals. Our house was small . TV was kept in hall. There was a huge window which was opened to allow neighbors to watch TV. Atleast 30-40 people watched the finals. Snacks would come from all the houses. I just can’t imagine watching a match like that in current generation.  Crackers was burst across Bangalore when India won the finals. I was all but 6 by then. That day was the first instance which triggered the sports madness in me. Post that I got bat and ball from dad.  

2nd instance which triggered another nerve of sports madness in me was when I first watched tennis.  It was era of Martina and Mconroe. I hardly knew a thing about tennis. It was dad who taught me on how points worked in tennis. In mid 80s, only Wimbledon was telecasted in DD post SF matches. We used to wait for that weekend with eagerness. The first finals which I saw was Martina vs Evert. Martina won the match after losing her first set. It was her 6th Wimbledon title and 12th slam overall. In men’s tennis, a new 17 year old kid had made great stride to reach finals where he faced Kevin Curren. It was a tight 4 setter but Becker won in 4 sets. It was amazing to see him serve with so much power, dive around the net with ease and play with such soft and silk touch around the nets. He was named BOOM BOOM Becker after this win !! He was in all sports headlines that week.

If people blame me for being crazy for sports, dad had a great hand in that!! In mid 90s, when I started watching golf, he started staring me with a look “ Its game for retired people!!..Why are you watching it?? “ . Moving on, other than sports he has inspired me in a lot of other things. Money management, time management and health focus being key of them. I can’t recall a phase in his career when he had a tummy which is crazy. Half my life, I have stared at my tummy when I bend my head down !!! He never visited a gym but ensured he walks, jogs or does yoga throughout his life. He had slip disc when he was in mid-40s but that didn’t stop him from exercising. He couldn’t jog anymore. So he did loads of walking and yoga. He was so addicted to walking that he once walked at 330 AM in the morning thinking it is 530 AM. His alarm had rung 2 hours early. He reached home asking why sun was not rising !!. Mom gave him a stare and told that it was not even 430 AM !!  

In Pre TV era, all he made us do was walking which we sorely miss in today’s life. After dinner, we would walk for 30 min , chat all along and then come back home and sleep.  Gone are those days !! My son Shreyas can’t believe we lived such a life !! Another thing which I owe to dad is love for food. Irrespective of how the situation of his purse was, he ensured that he took us out for dinner in regular intervals. In mid 80s, when we were in Bhadravathi, a new restaurant had started which served North Indian food. It was first of its kind in the small town of Bhadravathi. We made regular visit there. Eating Manchurians, naan and various sabji was just a treat to my tummy. I have always been a fast eater. It helped me immensely when I visited hotel with my parents.  Once I finished my share of food, dad and mom would some share of theirs too to my plate !!. The era of fast-eating-by-Mr-Sandeep has not stopped since then. I enjoy eating fast now and just can’t eat or drink anything slowly !! The secret behind that is revealed now !!.

Dad’s work ethics is 2nd to none. Since he has got retired, he virtually plans what work he needs to do each day. His usual work starts with a watch of NASDAQ stock numbers before 8 AM. That gives an idea of how Indian markets would fare. He would then walk along to Geojit office to get some analysis of some stocks. He does further study of that stocks fare over a period of time. Based on the analysis, he does day trading of few stocks here and there. It is not the amount of stocks sold or bought that counts but the process. One can do for 1 day or at the max for 50 days. But has done this for 90% of the days since 2001 (when he moved to Bangalore post retirement). That’s some discipline.  If I am able to achieve even 50% of the discipline which he has, I would pat my back.

Even 7.5 years is not enough to write about “Man of Steel “ Dad. For now, I need to logically end this blog which is a tribute for his 75th birthday. Titan like Mr Radhakrishna Rao deserves a great Titanium anniversary. Hope this blog bring him an inch of happiness which would make my day. Having said that, mom is turning 69 two days later as well. A year later, another blog would be presented. For now, Happy Diwali and keep reading #BOLOORSPORTSMANIA like you have till now!! Cheers !!