#local newspaper called all offices and had a list of cities where they allow your kid to be named belzebub or geralt

[ilhoonftw]

nct poland they will rename mark to marek

[salted-barbed-wire]

Gangster (pt. 1)

A/N: So I found this prompt on either Pinterest or Insta from this writing prompt account. I fell in love with it and one of the first people I thought of when I saw it, was Samoa Joe. So hopefully this is good. It’s got kind of a slow build so bare with me, the juicy bits will come. This is going to be 3 or 4 part series.

Summary: OC, (Y/N), is a recently divorced, up and coming journalist who thinks she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time when she gets held up in a bank heist. That is, until the criminals recognize her and immediately retreat with fear that their Boss will come down on them because she is on his “No Harm” list. Why, she doesn’t know. As the web hunt begins to figure out who this “Joe” is, (Y/N)’s high school sweet heart, Joel Seanoa, shows up unannounced but with a big revelation.  Featuring: Samoa Joe (Nuufolau Joel Seanoa), Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, Nikki Cross, Killian Dane ..... more to come soon! Warnings: None. Rated F for FLUFF-ish Word Count: 3100+

Enjoy or don’t!

Click, click, click.

The sound of my heels on the pavement were all I wanted to focus on. I didn’t want to get distracted from my task and there was too much going on.

Horns honking, dogs barking, cars whizzing past- if I let myself absorb my surroundings too much, I’d talk myself out of it.

You just must do it, (Y/N). I told myself internally. This is what cuts him off from you completely. It’s time to get away.

I approached the bank, clutching the file folder in my hand. Its contents were papers from the court offices, acknowledging the fact that I was recently divorced from my venomous, mooch of an ex-husband. I needed them only to remove him from accessing my bank account, so he couldn’t pay for one of his little sluts’ new pair of tits.

An exasperated sigh escaped my lips as I reminisced on the last four, horrific years. John and I had met at my work and fell in love instantly. Fresh out of high school, I had just become an intern at a local newspaper’s office and hoped to have a solid job as a journalist at the company by the end of the year. John worked in the mail room when we first started dating. I should’ve seen the signs then- no real drive to amount to anything, no goals, flirting around with any girl that looked his general direction. Soon, we were married, he began bouncing from job to job, while I moved up from being an intern to a secretary to working on a small editorial section. John definitely had way more free time than I did, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with his three other girlfriends.

The railing was cold against the brisk winter air as I brushed my fingers along it to walk up the steps. Perhaps if I had been paying attention to the signs that John was no good for me, I would’ve never said yes to marrying him in Vegas, I would’ve never allowed him to cheat on me, then use me as a meal ticket.

I pushed passed the revolving doors to my bank, the tile hard beneath my heels.

Perhaps if I paid attention at all, I would’ve heard the men behind me carrying guns and bags.

“Everyone, freeze!” A deep voice boomed from behind me.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“On the ground! Now!” He shouted again.

Lowering myself to my knees, I watched as everyone tried their best not to panic. Fantastic. I thought to myself, what a day to have to go to the bank.

“Cell phones! Give them up!” A different voice shouted.

From the sound of their footsteps, there was about three or four of them. I felt cool metal press against the side of my head as one of the men held out a basket for me to drop my phone in. I did so, without hesitation.

“Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the inconvenience but we have a job to do, everyone does as we ask and no one gets hurt.” A hand touched the back of my head, stroking my hair. I didn’t want to look up to see the eyes of my capture, too terrified to move. “Don’t,” he continued, “and I’ll pick you off one by one and make an example of you. Everyone understand?”

There was no response.  

The robber growled, “I asked you a question.” Click. “Do you understand?” And suddenly there was a defining sound of bullets being shot into the air above me. I covered my ears and screamed as glass from the lights fell around my body. I could hear other screams from the hostages too.

“Good.” The man said. “Boys, get to work.”

Three black, clothed figures walked around me carrying dangerous looking weapons. One appeared to be a woman, short but held herself as if she was ready to pounce on anyone that got out of line. Then two more men, one larger than the other. All of them wearing ski masks, all of them moving quickly to finish whatever job they needed to do.

“Did I scare you sweetheart?”

It was the man who had been giving the orders earlier, he knelt to level himself with my face.

I shook my head ‘no’ but couldn’t hide the fact that the rest of me was terrified.

“You got a nasty cut on your cheek, darlin’. Lemme take a look-see.” His gloved hand gently took my chin and he observed the cut on my face. It was stinging from where the glass had sliced my skin open. I could feel blood dripping onto my hand.

“Say, sweetheart. You look familiar…” his blue eyes squinted over my features. “Wish I could say where I knew your pretty face from.”

I didn’t like the way he was touching me or trying to be nice to me. Not at all. So, I did what any rational thinking girl would do when faced with a possibly dangerous man that made her uncomfortable; I bit him.

Just in the right spot too. My teeth clenched down over the exposed skin on his wrist. The masked man screamed as I broke the skin, tasting blood in my mouth.

“Fucking, bitch!” He screamed.

I spit his blood onto the floor, “Don’t touch me!” My voice shouted back at him.

“Oh, I’m going to do much more than that, you little cunt!” His hand struck my face, causing my head to reel.

“E!” One of the men interrupted him. “Stop!” He walked over to us, putting his body in between our fight.

“You heard the boss, Wolfe, if anyone gives us trouble-”

“Yeah but do you recognize her?”

They both stared down at me for a few heart beats while I glared at them, head aching all the while.

“It’s her!” The man called ‘E’ gasped.

“Yeah, we need to go, NOW!” Wolfe pleaded.

“He’s going to want to know,” E scratched the top of his mask. “He’s going to kill me for touching her.”

“Who’s ‘he’?” I spoke up finally, “Why do you guys look so scared suddenly?”

E crouched down again, “He is our boss. And He isn’t to be messed with. We’ll let him know we ran into you.”

“Come on boys, let’s go!” Wolfe called out for the other two who came around the corner with two full duffle bags.

I watched the four men go, but not before E turned around to address everyone in the bank. “Goodnight ladies and gents. Thank you for letting us steal from you, hope you’ve had a pleasant experience and have a wonderful day!”

----

I had never felt so happy to take a shower in my life. After spending all afternoon and most of the evening at the police station, being forced to run through the robbery repeatedly was maddening. The detective had asked me over and over again why the group of robbers had been talking to me, because, of course, the other witnesses swore that they saw us having a “long chat”.

The water poured over my skin and I played through everything that I had heard from the men working the case. Detective Rollins and his two partners Ambrose and Reigns had been looking into these men for some time. They seemed to think they were part of a crime organization and the four criminals were just henchmen.

“Sanity,” Detective Rollins had told me, “that’s what they call themselves. We’re not sure who exactly they’re working for, but we know it’s for one of the big bosses in town.”

“Big bosses?”

Detective Ambrose nodded, “There’s quite the underground network going on in our city. Most of the bosses have gotten away with keeping they’re identities as secrets, the rest of them are closely monitored by yours truly.” His smile was wolfish as he stared down at me.

“We just need anything you might be able to remember to identify these men,” Detective Reigns pushed his way in between Ambrose and I. “Features, names, anything.”

I pursed my lips together, trying to remember. “The shorter man was called ‘E’ but he did call one of the other guys ‘Wolf’ I think. There was a girl there, but I didn’t catch her name, nor did she speak to me. Then there was a larger man, he was terrifying.”

Rollins nodded, “Wolf, huh?”

“Does that mean something?” I asked.

“It might. Please, ma’am, just sit tight. We’ll have you out of here short amount of time.”

They walked off and they thought I was earshot. I bit my lip and listened the best I could to the quiet muttering on the other side.

“You think it’s him?” Reigns asked.

“He supposedly left town, Seth. We haven’t seen or heard from him in over a year.” Ambrose muttered.

Seth was quiet, I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head as the other men talked through everything.

Reigns’ voice sounded strained, “Is it worth checking into?”

“The thug we picked up the other day was muttering something about a return of the king,” Rollins mused. “He’s not part of the family, Ro, but have you heard any whispers.”

“Not from our family.” He said. “My father seems to think Joe is dead.”

Joe.

Such a popular name but something told me I needed to look into it. Getting out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around me and took one last deep intake of the steam that filled the bathroom before opening the door. I opened my laptop up to load up google.

Hours later, I was still at square one. All I knew was the name Joe as a previous mob boss in the city. There were plenty of articles written about crimes attached to his name. But there was no last name, no history on the man. It’s like he came from nothing and then disappeared when he was being investigated.

The last few articles prior to his disappearance kept referencing a turf war between his people and another mob who was ran by someone who was referred to as “The Demon Head”. There was nothing on this “Demon” either.

Fed up and exhausted I slammed my laptop shut and forced a nightshirt over my head only to slide under the covers to my bed. People on Facebook were sending me messages all day after seeing my face on tv earlier in the day at the bank robbery. I scrolled through them and read a few, until I passed out, phone in hand and my bedside lamp still on.

---

I sipped on my coffee as I sat inside my haven called the Java Spot. I had brought my laptop, hoping to be able to do more research on this ‘Joe’ but hadn’t gotten very far. Instead, I decided to respond to my facebook messages. Luckily, my boss had called me this morning and practically begged me to stay home for a few days. Michael promised I’d get paid time off that wouldn’t affect my vacation hours that I had been saving for a rainy day.

Most of the messages read the same; ‘Hope you’re doing okay!’, ‘Saw you on TV!’, ‘Thoughts and prayers’. Blah, blah, blah. Most of them seemed half-hearted or impassive. Hell, even my ex-husband messaged me asking if I was okay. I don’t think I’ve ever hit the ‘delete’ button so fast.

I pinched the bridge of my nose together, begging for a sign, for a lead, for anything pointing me in the direction I needed to go to find this man.

“Well, well, well,” I deep, soothing voice resounded through my ears. I looked up to see a familiar face with dark eyes in front of me. “(Y/N)(Y/L/N), it’s been a while.”

“Joel?” I smiled, jaw nearly on the floor. I damn near jumped out of my chair to wrap my arms around his neck and hug him. “Oh my God! It’s been 4 years since we graduated, and I thought you’d left town! It’s so good to see you.”

“Believe me, darling, the pleasure is all mine,” he pulled back to meet my eyes. His expression was soft, intimate, like we were the only two people in that coffee shop; maybe in the world.

Nuufolau Joel Seanoa, I hadn’t seen him since my high school graduation. He always went by Joel, unless you were family. Joel was the all state wrestling champ, salutatorian, and my ex-boyfriend. Our relationship was strange but comfortable. Seanoa managed to keep me from meeting his family for our whole three-year relationship, yet, my parents loved him. I never got over how supportive of me he was when I was working on the school paper and he was always the greatest listener and the way he touched me…

I cleared my throat, taking a step back from his embrace. “Sorry, I- uh…”

“Is this seat taken?” He asked interrupting me holding a hand out to the empty chair in front of me. He was wearing a black business suit with a paisley silver tie. He looked like he was heading into a very big meeting that would make him a lot of money.

“No, please! Sit!”

He glanced at my screen just before I shut it, “light reading?”

“Urm, you could say that. I was doing research for an article I’m writing.” It was only a small fib. Besides, who knows if I could actually write a story about this one day.

“How have you been, (Y/N)? I haven’t seen you since-“

“We broke up?” I asked with more spite in my voice than I intended.

Joel pretended not to notice but simply smiled, “Yes, well I was going to say, ‘Since we graduated’.”

I swallowed a bit, feeling guilty, “I- I didn’t mean…”

He held his hand up, “Please, (Y/n), I deserve it. There were… sensitive matters that I didn’t want to involve you in and it was incredibly selfish of me. Especially since you’re growing up even more beautiful than I could’ve even imagined.”

“Sensitive matters?”

Joel’s face never wavered, he held the same smirk on his face. “Yes, and I’m sorry I left you.” His dark brown eyes traced along my figure and his tongue flicked out against his lips, “Very sorry,” he muttered.

A shiver ran down my spine. A sudden desire to cover every inch of exposed skin came over me.

“You’re a journalist now?” He asked, breaking the silence. “I remember how much you loved being apart of the school newspaper when we were in high school. You wrote quite a few amazing works back then, I’ll bet you’re practically Louis Lane now.”

“God, I miss that stuffy journalism room in high school. Now I’m in an office and it’s crowded and full of people that constantly judge you. My boss, Michael Cole, he’s awesome though.”

Joel chuckled, “I remember how fond you were of that room.” His eyes met mine again, this time full of mischief. “We used to sneak off to that supply closet a few times a day.”

I bit my lip and blushed. Joel and I dated all through high school, up until the day after we graduated. We were inseparable, always next to each other. He was on the varsity wrestling team and I came to every match. When I was writing, he’d sit there patiently and watch as I worked, or proof read for me.

“You’re blushing an awful lot, beautiful,” He noted.

“It just feels like ages since then. We were quite naughty sneaking around the school and making out. Just a couple of horny teenagers.”

“You never let me get passed second base,” his smile was teasing.

“I was a prude back then.”

I got a raised eyebrow in response, “So not anymore?”

A nervous giggle slipped out, I bit my lip again to force the rest of it back.

“Don’t bite your lip,” he tilted his head. “I’d rather do that for you.”

This time I laughed, a full laugh. “That’s a sorry excuse for a pick-up line.”

“It was only plan A.” I felt his knee bump mine under the table.

I bumped it back, “So what, pray tell, is plan B?”

“To kidnap you.”

Gulp

There was silence between us that was tense. His hand reached out and brushed mine, “I do have to say, there is an ulterior motive behind me coming to see you.” Another pause, “I saw the news yesterday.”

I sighed, “Just please don’t say you’re sorry, or that you feel bad for me.”

His eyebrows knitted together, “I wouldn’t do that.”

My eyes rolled, “and why is that?”

“Because, someone who has been through so much doesn’t want sympathy, they want answers, they want justice. If I knew who this Eric fellow was that cut you… So reckless.” He squeezed my hand in attempt to comfort.

My heart slammed into my chest, “Eric?” Something flashed in front of his eyes, his smile grew. “I never gave a name to anyone but the cops, and it wasn’t Eric. Who’s Eric?” My head was screaming at me into a horrific realization. “E? Is E Eric?”

“Boss!” Another familiar voice interrupted us. A man charged in, mostly bald and thickly bearded. Our gazes met, and I froze. Blue eyes; the same ones from yesterday. He shook his head and turned his attention back to Joel. “Joe, we need to go. Now!”

I turned back to the man in front of me, “Joe? Joel, these are your… employees?”

He stood and adjusted his tie, “Darling, it’s time we have a talk.”

Panic slammed into my chest, my first reaction was to scream.

Joel- JOE held his hand up, “Don’t scream. We need to talk, but we have to go somewhere safe.”

My lips parted, I sucked in air.

“Do. Not. Scream.” He commanded, irises fading to black. My mouth snapped shut. “Now, I will escort you outside, we’ll get into my car, and we are going to go have a talk. This is Mr. Young, he will not hurt you, will you Eric?” He turned a glare to the man.

Eric quickly shook his head, “No sir, she’s in safe hands.”

“And if I don’t?” I asked Joe.

His face was emotionless. “Then I suppose I’ll have to drag you out of this coffee shop, kicking and screaming.”

“Thought you didn’t want to make a scene?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“No, but I’m sure I can find a way to... persuade these wonderful people to refrain from calling the cops.”

“You’d pay them off?” I spat the question, “Not all of these people would take your money. There are good people in the world, Joe!”

His hands slammed down on the table, “As a journalist, you should know better than that. You should also know there are other ways to ensure silence from these folks.”

I felt the air catch my chest. My eyes darted around the room. How many of these people were good, honest people? Would Joe really hurt them or their families? A feeling of dread choked my heart, I would be to blame. My attention snapped back to Joe.

“Fine.”

“Come with me,” he said, placing his hand at the small of my back, guiding me towards the door. “I don’t want to make anymore of a scene, it’s time you know the truth.”

We walked out to the car, an all black Buick, Joe’s hand still lightly pressed against my blouse. I could feel his warmth, it prickled my flesh sending shivers through me. It was a confusing mix of emotions; comfort in an old friend’s touch and fear of the gangster looming over me.

—

TAGGING: @rainbowbox @wrecklessint @theprogresskid @bettergetusetoit @empress-with-the-crown @thirstiswet @styleslee @lip-sync @poisonarrow24 @sophvas1 @hoes4joe @newjapan @crookedmoonsaultpunk @were--goingnowhere

Please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in the next installment to know what happens next!

[notbemoved-blog]

Appreciation - Meredith C. Anding, Jr. (1941 – 2021) and the Tougaloo Nine

Upon first meeting, many a visitor may have been tempted to consider Meredith Coleman Anding, Jr., a reticent, almost opaque, man. Soft spoken, terse yet amiable, sphinxlike, enigmatic. Instead, he was the epitome of John Wayne’s character in The Quiet Man—with a preternatural calm on the surface, but with a fierce, almost primal determination to get what was his due: freedom and the respect that came with it. For this, he will be remembered down through the ages.

For it is Meredith Anding’s name, thanks to its alphabetical primacy, that leads the list of quiet Mississippi freedom fighters that we now know as the Tougaloo Nine. These courageous (and, by their own later admission, a bit naive) college students from nearby Tougaloo College, “stepped into history” (as Tougaloo’s former President Beverly Hogan often said of them) on Monday morning, March 27, 1961, when they calmly entered the Whites-only municipal library in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. It was the first student-led civil rights demonstration in the state, all the more remarkable because it was carried off in the Magnolia State’s capital city, under the noses of the most powerful White supremacist politicians, police force, and spy agency in the country and in an environment of intense racial segregation that had been hardening ever since the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. 

Meredith  Anding’s Tougaloo Nine mug shot on 3/27/1961. [Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH)]

Secretly assisted and urged on by the NAACP’s “Man in Mississippi,” Medgar Evers, Anding and his cohort created shock waves of horror throughout the White community by the simple act of entering a library, selecting books from the shelves, and calmly sitting down to read. Their actions made a mockery of Jackson’s Mayor, Allen C. Thompson, who as President of the American Municipal Association had gone on a nationwide tour to tout his city’s racial amity despite its harsh segregationist strictures.

For their crime, Anding and his four male and four female colleagues were arrested for “Breach of Peace”—a newly coined law in many Southern states that allowed police to intervene if individuals were creating a situation that put someone’s peace of mind in jeopardy. When the police first arrived, they tried to persuade the students to leave on their own volition, hoping to avoid a showdown in court. But Meredith and his fellow Tougalooans ignored the pleas of the cops. Once told they were under arrest, however, all of them stood and began to march out to the waiting police cars, ignoring the police and the rowdy crowd that had gathered to sneer and shout racial epithets at them. 

All Tougaloo Nine participants posed for a celebratory photo once safely back on campus. Pictured from l-r: Joseph Jackson, Geraldine Edwards, James (Sam) Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith Anding, Janice Jackson, Alfred Cook. [Signed photo courtesy of MDAH]

This coordinated action ensured that the group would not be charged with resisting arrest and instead their case would be appealed by the NAACP all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the validity of such “breach of peace” statutes.  Although the case was thrown out on a technicality, nevertheless, the Tougaloo Nine, Meredith Anding among them, would forever stand in dramatic opposition to the false narrative of White Mississippi perpetrated by Thompson and others that “all of our nigras are happy.” Two months later, the Freedom Rides would come to Mississippi and the state would become ground zero for the Movement for Black Equality.

Meredith C. Anding, Jr., was born in 1941 in the small enclave of Myles, Mississippi, about 40 miles southwest of Jackson. The first-born of the Adings lived among extended family for a few years, where he was dubbed with the nickname “Junior Man.” His parents moved to the state capital when Meredith was just five years old. He attended a variety of segregated schools in Jackson, including Adams Economy—a small church school—Sally Reynolds Elementary, and Isable Middle School, and graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1958. Anding attended Jackson State College, not far from his family’s home, for one year and then transferred to Tougaloo in the fall of 1959 to begin his sophomore year.

Meredith’s civil rights bona fides were something of a family affair. Though his mother Nellie was unassuming and reserved—a trait the quiet Junior Man adopted—her sister, Meredith’s aunt A.M.E. Logan, was a forceful personality who involved herself in every conceivable method of citizen activism throughout the 1950s and 1960s. When the Jackson Branch of the NAACP reconstituted itself in the late 1950s after a long period of dormancy, Logan served as the elected secretary of the group and went door to door, even while pregnant, to drum up new members for what was considered by most White Mississippians as a radical Communist agitation group. Later she served as the chapter’s hospitality chair, welcoming various dignitaries—including the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.—to her home. Anding, who lived nearby, was present at many early Mississippi civil rights gatherings.

Meredith Anding pointing to his image in a floor-to-ceiling mural of the Tougaloo Nine leaving the Jackson Municipal Library with police escort. The mural was installed in the Bennie G. Thompson Academic and Civil Rights Research Center on Tougaloo College Campus. [Photo: M.J. O’Brien]

It was Anding’s father, impressed with his sister-in-law’s activism, who signed young Meredith and his sister up for membership in the newly forming West Jackson Youth Council, the youth arm of the NAACP. The group would meet at the Masonic Temple on Lynch Street in the conference room adjacent to the office of Mississippi’s civil rights leader. “Medgar would come over and talk to us every meeting when he was around,” Anding recalled in an oral history interview. As for his own budding role, Anding saw his participation “as kind of a duty,” he said. “I felt obligated to go to meetings and to participate because most of the kids my age weren’t willing to.”

The young activist benefitted from his closeness with both his aunt and with Evers. On several occasions he was chosen to represent the West Jackson Youth Council at gatherings of NAACP youth from throughout the South. It was at these sessions that he became aware of the possibilities that real activism held. “Most other kids from other states had already participated in some kind of protest activities,” he recalled. “It was there that we started thinking, ‘OK, we really have to do something as Mississippians.’”

Indeed, upon returning from one of these week-long sessions, Anding and his cousin, A.M.E.’s son Willis Logan—serving as president of the Youth Council—decided in the summer of 1960 that some form of protest needed to occur in Jackson. They headed over to the Jackson Zoo and sat on a bench reserved for Whites only. The police were called, but nothing came of the infraction. The youth were just scolded and told to go home. The incident didn’t even make it into the newspapers. But Meredith had had his first taste of dissent against the established segregationist order—and his first scrape with the police, as well. Thus, he was not intimidated when the call came to participate the following March in the library sit-in.

Many of the Tougaloo Nine returned in August 2017 to Jackson for the unveiling of the Mississippi Freedom Trail marker commemorating their historic “read-in.” Pictured L-R: Beverly Hogan, then-President of Tougaloo College; Meredith Anding; Alfred Cook; Geralding Edwards Hollis; Ethel Sawyer Adolphe; Janice Jackson; Albert Lassiter; and James Bradford. (Gentleman at far right, unidentified.) [Anding family photo]

Like his other eight colleagues, Anding endured more than 30 hours in jail after his arrest for the library protest, including an arduous interrogation by detectives intent on pinning the lawless “read-in” on Medgar Evers. Despite repeated and harsh questioning, neither Anding nor his accomplices ever gave up any information that might incriminate their leader. Anding’s steely reserve and inbred confidence was something of a shock to the White detectives.  “Your mother would be ashamed of you!” the cops admonished him. “No, she wouldn’t,” Anding calmly volleyed.  “Why not?” they persisted. “Because my father pays taxes and I have a right to go to the library.”

Because of his participation in Mississippi’s first student-led civil rights demonstration, Anding lost his funding for college, which was being provided by a local church group, and was forced to suspend his education. Undeterred, he moved to Chicago for a year, then volunteered to serve in the Air Force security force. After four years, mostly spent in Turkey, Anding returned to Tougaloo and completed his Bachelor of Science degree with a specialty in Mathematics. He also gained acceptance into graduate school at the State University of New York at Buffalo for an advanced degree in Math. He met his wife Maurice while in grad school and the two forged a lifelong partnership. They stayed in Buffalo and made careers teaching mathematics and designing teaching protocols to help youth learn higher mathematics principles.

For their efforts, each of the Tougaloo Nine were awarded keys to the City of Jackson on October 14, 2006, 45 years after their historic nonviolent protest. [Key in Meredith Anding Collection]

Meredith Anding died on Friday, January 8, of complications from leukemia. Maurice survives him, as does the Andings’ son Armaan and several grandchildren. Their son Gordon, who had cerebral palsey, died in 2018.

In summing up his breakthrough activism, the example of which would lead many more of Mississippi’s young Blacks to challenge the segregationist system, Anding was, as usual, understated but eloquent. “We were the first to show resistance,” Anding said about the legacy of the Tougaloo Nine. “We were the pace setters. We seized a moment of time that had arrived for the state of Mississippi to move forward.”

Author M.J. O’Brien and Meredith Anding outside of the Anding’s home along the Niagara River in Grand Island, New York. Just like Anding, the seemingly quiet river disguises a powerful undercurrent below the surface. About 10 miles downriver, the placid Niagara River becomes Niagara Falls. 

M. J. O’Brien is the author of the award-winning “We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth’s Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired.” He is currently at work on a book-length narrative study of the Tougaloo Nine and their legacy.

[luanmoretti]

Delivered to Oz

My Lord Montague,

Please find below my detailed report containing all the information I have uncovered regarding Miss Luan Moretti, as requested.

@ozmontague

(mentions of @dylan-nobody & @lilith-aurora-capulet)

I must confess I am rather intrigued by your interest in her as she seems to be a wholly unremarkable creature, it is not my place to question your motivations however so I have uncovered as much as I can about her.

The original newspaper article made reference to the Verona Park Orphanage so that is where I began my search.  Unhelpfully, the staff there had no memory of Miss Moretti.  They did however have an archive of all former residents which they allowed me to look through and this allowed me to make great progress in uncovering more information.

The above image was enclosed within the file and the date stamped to the back suggests it is from very early in her residency at the orphanage, should you require more information into the girl prior to this time the photograph may be useful in jogging memories.  I however, focused on what occured after her arrival at the orphanage.

In short: Nothing.  Miss Moretti had a perfectly clean record, she was never on the receiving end of discipline, there are no records of rule breaking or causes for concern.  Interestingly, there are also no major successes listed either.  Her grading from the internal tutoring scheme ranks her as “average” with grades “within the norm” for all classes.

I managed to have a short telephone conversation with one of the named tutors who did have a vague memory of Miss Moretti and he described her as “the silent loner type”.  Similarly there was a resident who remembered the girl but said over the years they lived in the same block he never heard her speak.  He thought she was mute.

This is not the case as there is a single note in her portfolio regarding an interview which took place after the disappearance of one Dylan Nessuno.  Miss Moretti claimed to know nothing of the other child’s whereabouts but the file states she was “unconvincing”.  This is the only evidence of her potentially having formed a bond with another person and I shall explore the avenue of Miss Nessuno should it become necessary.

There are a large number of visitor notes within Miss Moretti’s file stating an officer of the Watch by the name of Ribic made frequent visits in the early years of her residency but the frequency dropped to nothing as the years passed.  He may be someone your contact in the Watch can get in touch with for a more complete picture of this girl.

The last item of note within the file is this photograph

This is now the most up to date likeness I have and will be using it to continue my investigations.  The exact date Miss Moretti left the orphanage is not known.  I assume she was so unnoticed while here that her absence took a while to pick up on but that is purely my opinion and if I may project my own feelings even further, I too would run away from this establishment if the opportunity arose.  It is… flawed in both its purpose and management.

My search continued down many avenues nearly all of which lead to a dead end so I shall not bore you with the details of those particular endeavours.  I found success using one of my contacts at the mayor’s office who is able to access footage from all the city’s security cameras.  Using the photograph we were able to find numerous potential matches which I began investigating one by one, most of which were unsuccessful.  There was one potential match for an individual repeatedly being spotted in the poorest area of the Porta Nuova district so I focused my efforts there and whilst I would love to say it was skill which lead me to the correct place it was in fact pure luck.

I was asking locals if anyone had seen the girl in the photograph when a grimy little street urchin who smelled like he hadn’t bathed in months said he lived with her.  Obviously I was sceptical but it was the only lead I had so I went with it.  The street rat said it would cost me €5 which he seemed to consider a large amount so I was happy to humour him.

This child lead me to a very dilapidated looking building which I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a ‘marked for demolition’ sign adorning the side but no such sign existed.  Upon knocking on the door a password was demanded from me, which of course I didn’t have but a simple negotiation soon had the door opening and I was allowed entry.

Further negotiating was required when the “security” on the door noticed my picture was not on the so called ‘authorised wall’ but this individual appeared to be just another street urchin and simply offering to show him my gun was enough to placate him completely.  There was something very interesting on the wall of photographs though.

This photograph was enough to convince me I was in the right place and had finally tracked down the target.  Above her photograph was a room number and area which I made my next destination.  This house has been converted into a kind of rudimentary homeless shelter but with no management or rules.  Each resident is given their own personal area within a room, these areas are no more than 2 meters square each and there can be upwards of 20 people all in one room.

During my short time in the building I witnessed 3 fights break out, 1 over use of a shower, 1 over apparent theft of food and 1 over unfair distribution if illegal narcotics.  It is certainly an interesting place and I admit I did start to question where our Miss Moretti could possibly fit into such a place.

Upon reaching the room that Miss Moretti was assigned to I was met with some distrust from the other occupants but a swift discussion into shoplifting tactics soon had them telling me all I needed to know about the target.

Most of what was said was very much ‘more of the same’.  She is utterly silent unless substantially provoked and to my surprise she doesn’t indulge in the drug use, illegal activities or the regular room swaps for one night stands.  It was revealed she even has a place of employment though these street urchins didn’t know where it was as they didn’t care.  Interestingly she also has an agreement that she has 2 shower times per day, which apparently is scandalous to these disgusting creatures.

Needless to say the image of a homeless, unwashed, drug addicted petty criminal I had forming in my mind for this girl was incorrect.  I believe she may live here as she truly has nowhere else to go and no means of escaping her current situation.

I was shown to Miss Moretti’s designated area and found it mainly bare apart from a single blanket which was full of holes.  When I probed her neighbours about this I learned she keeps all her possessions in a single backpack and takes them with her wherever she goes.  She has a grand total of 7 items of clothing which she rotates and wears in different combinations to look different on a day to day basis and often brings home food to exchange for essential toiletries from other female residents.

This lead me to believe her place of employment must be a food establishment of some kind but the kind of background checks and proof of identity that would be needed for reputable places wouldn’t be available for Miss Moretti so it must be a more underground, potentially illegitimate sort of place.

These suspicions were confirmed by the presence of a napkin for the Della Ragione restaurant being present under the blanket along with numerous pencils which were too small to be used any more.  It seems Miss Moretti is some kind of artist and if her roommates are to be believed, a rather talented one.  

If I remember correctly the Della Ragione restaurant is part of my Lord’s distribution network so I am sorry to report that the target may well have been right under your nose for a number of years.  The restaurant is my next destination to confirm or deny this.

I have visited this restaurant on numerous occasions and not always while under your contract but I must confess to never having seen this girl there before.  I was warmly welcomed into the establishment as always and entered into a dialogue with the owner whom I fear I may have made feel uncomfortable with my line of questioning at first.  Once I explained how important finding this girl was for you and that there would be no repercussions for anything said he was far more forthcoming with whatever details he had, which admittedly weren’t many.

I do now firmly believe this girl is the target.  Her name is Luan, though her surname has neither been given nor asked for.  She was hired due to her ability to remain quiet and as suspected there were no background checks completed.  She is paid cash in hand, below the legal minimum wage which she accepts without question.  Her role is a dishwasher and she only leaves the kitchen so she isn’t present for ‘complicated business transactions’, which explains her lack of presence during my previous visits.  It has also been mentioned that she often appears at work in the same items of clothing which tallies with previously collected information.

At the time of my arrival she had not yet arrived as her shift had not begun so I remained in the restaurant to await her arrival and question her personally.

I confess it came as a very big surprise when Miss Moretti was delivered to her work place by one Lilith Capulet, the actress with whom I am sure you are familiar.  How Miss Capulet fits in to the equation I currently have no idea however I can investigate this further should you wish for me to do so.

My initial observations of Miss Moretti are as follows:  She is almost childlike in height and size, barely more than 5ft by my estimations.  She has the emaciated look of someone without a home and without the means to provide regular meals for herself though she does appear clean and well maintained with her hair cut in a very simple style to aid with this.

Upon being told that I was here to see her she gave me a look of pure horror, the fear of me clear in her facial expressions and demeanour despite my pleasant and welcoming smile.  I had given her no reason for apprehension yet she was still scared of me.

I introduced myself using an alias and advised her I was working on behalf of the owner of the establishment as he was curious who his staff were.  When she shook my offered hand I could feel her trembling with fear.

I went on to ask her some generic questions about the colour scheme and layout of the restaurant and all her answers were said so quietly they were hardly spoken at all.  She said very little and never once made eye contact with me as she was constantly playing with a salt shaker which was on the table.

When I suggested she join a group of staff to come and meet the owner she looked like I had just threatened to kill her there and then.  In my line of work I am very accustomed to expressions of fear but I have never experienced such fright over simply meeting another human being.  Miss Moretti then made her excuses, during which I noticed she speaks with a moderate stammer and she made her way into the kitchen to start her duties.

I spoke to the manager once more, hoping for an explanation into her behaviour and he confirmed it is a perfectly standard reaction from the girl.  He joked that he wasn’t sure what she was more afraid of, her own shadow or other people and he also reconfirmed how that made her the perfect employee for maintaining discretion.

During my visit I was able to get this photograph from Miss Moretti’s employee ID card so that you are aware of who to look out for.

I regret that I have failed in my assignment to bring Miss Moretti into your presence but I feel in order to do so it would require physical force as I do not believe she will come willingly.  I am of course happy to complete the assignment in this manner should you wish it done.

I can’t see how this girl could pose any kind of threat to you or your work however if you would like her taken care of she would be all too easy to make disappear on a permanent basis.  Should you wish for me to attempt to make contact once again I can complete this task as well.

I await your instructions.

Éric Badalucco

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Batteries/Chargers

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Device Set

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Lavatory paper/Paper Towels

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Cleansing Supplies

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Relocating List

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Program ahead

The greatest idea for packing? Start early. You don't intend to receive captured discovering you haven't carried out good enough stuffing leading up to relocate day, especially when agents are on the way. Produce a think about packaging, go room-by-room, and tackle a bit of the process day-by-day leading up to the action.

Don't mix up items from various areas

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Keep your things secured

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Tag whatever

One thing that could seem to be simple at the surface is really one of the most important steps of packing. Make sure to efficiently as well as clearly tag each carton while packing to make sure that moving companies understand where to place all of them in your brand new property, and also you recognize what is actually inside as you unbox.

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[getlostinasia]

Ikigai: A Japanese concept to improve work and life For Japanese workers in big cities, a typical work day begins with a state called sushi-zume, a term which likens commuters squeezed into a crowded train car to tightly packed grains of rice in sushi. Essentially, ikigai is the reason why you get up in the morning The stress doesn’t stop there. The country’s notorious work culture ensures most people put in long hours at the office, governed by strict hierarchical rules. Overwork is not uncommon and the last trains home on weekdays around midnight are filled with people in suits. How do they manage? The secret may have to do with what Japanese call ikigai. There is no direct English translation, but it’s a term that embodies the idea of happiness in living. Essentially, ikigai is the reason why you get up in the morning. You may also like: Can you work yourself to death? Is this the secret to Swedish success? ‘We had to give them bonuses’ to leave early To those in the West who are more familiar with the concept of ikigai, it’s often associated with a Venn diagram with four overlapping qualities: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. For Japanese however, the idea is slightly different. One’s ikigai may have nothing to do with income. In fact, in a survey of 2,000 Japanese men and women conducted by Central Research Services in 2010, just 31% of recipients considered work as their ikigai. Someone’s value in life can be work – but is certainly not limited to that. A closer look In a 2001 research paper on ikigai, co-author Akihiro Hasegawa, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at Toyo Eiwa University, placed the word ikigai as part of everyday Japanese language. It is composed of two words: iki, which means life and gai, whichdescribes value or worth. According to Hasegawa, the origin of the word ikigai goes back to the Heian period (794 to 1185). “Gai comes from the word kai (“shell” in Japanese) which were deemed highly valuable, and from there ikigai derived as a word that means value in living.” There are other words that use kai: yarigai or hatarakigai which mean the value of doing and the value of working. Ikigai can be thought of as a comprehensive concept that incorporates such values in life. There are many books in Japan devoted to ikigai, but one in particular is considered definitive: Ikigai-ni-tsuite (About Ikigai), published in 1966. The book’s author, psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya, explains that as a word, ikigai is similar to “happiness” but has a subtle difference in its nuance. Ikigai is what allows you to look forward to the future even if you’re miserable right now. Japanese people believe that the sum of small joys in everyday life results in more fulfilling life as a whole Hasegawa points out that in English, the word life means both lifetime and everyday life. So, ikigai translated as life’s purpose sounds very grand. “But in Japan we have jinsei, which means lifetime and seikatsu, which means everyday life,” he says. The concept of ikigai aligns more to seikatsu and, through his research, Hasegawa discovered that Japanese people believe that the sum of small joys in everyday life results in more fulfilling life as a whole. A concept for longevity? Japan has some of the longest-living citizens in the world – 87 years for women and 81 for men, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Could this concept of ikigai contribute to longevity? Author Dan Buettner believes it does. He's the author of Blue Zones: Lessons on Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, and has travelled the globe exploring long-lived communities around the world, which he calls “blue zones”. One such zone is Okinawa, a remote island with a remarkably high number of centenarians. While a unique diet likely has a lot to do with residents’ longevity, Buettner says ikigai also plays a part. “Older people are celebrated, they feel obligated to pass on their wisdom to younger generations,” he says. This gives them a purpose in life outside of themselves, in service to their communities. According to Buettner, the concept of ikigai is not exclusive to Okinawans: “there might not be a word for it but in all four blue zones such as Sardinia and Nicoya Peninsula, the same concept exists among people living long lives.” Buettner suggests making three lists: your values, things you like to do, and things you are good at. The cross section of the three lists is your ikigai. But, knowing your ikigai alone is not enough. Simply put, you need an outlet. Ikigai is “purpose in action,” he says. For 92-year-old Tomi Menaka, her ikigai is to dance and sing with her peers in the KBG84 dance troupe, she told the Mainichi newspaper. For others, it might be work itself. Take action In a culture where the value of the team supercedes the individual, Japanese workers are driven by being useful to others, being thanked, and being esteemed by their colleagues, says Toshimitsu Sowa, CEO of HR consulting firm Jinzai Kenkyusho. CEO of executive recruiting firm Probity Global Search Yuko Takato spends her days with highly qualified people who consider work as their ikigai and, according to Takato, they all have one thing in common: they are motivated and quick to take action. “If you want to start a company but you are scared to dive into the unknown, go and see someone who is already doing something similar to what you have in mind.” By seeing your plans in action, Takato says, “it will give you confidence that you can do it too”. Think smaller That’s not to say that working harder and longer are key tenets of the ikigai philosophy – nearly a quarter of Japanese employees work more than 80 hours of overtime a month, and with tragic outcomes – the phenomenon of karoshi (death from overwork) claims more than 2,000 lives a year. Ikigai is about feeling your work makes a difference in people’s lives Rather, ikigai is about feeling your work makes a difference in people’s lives. How people find meaning in their work is a topic of much interest to management experts. One research paper by Wharton management professor Adam Grant explained that what motivates employees is “doing work that affects the well-being of others” and to “see or meet the people affected by their work.” In one experiment, cold callers at the University of Michigan who spent time with a recipient of the scholarship they were trying to raise money for brought in 171% more money when compared with those who were merely working the phone. The simple act of meeting a student beneficiary provided meaning to the fundraisers and boosted their performance. This applies to life in general. Instead of trying to tackle world hunger, you can start small by helping someone around you, like a local volunteering group. Diversify your ikigai Retirement can bring a huge sense of loss and emptiness for those who find their ikigai in work. This can be especially true for athletes, who have relatively shorter careers. Champion hurdler Dai Tamesue, who retired in 2012, said in a recent interview that the fundamental question he asked after he retired was: “what was it that I wanted to achieve by playing sports?” “For me, what I wanted to achieve through competing in track and field was to change people’s perceptions”. After retiring, he started a company that supports sports-related business. Tamesue’s story shows the malleable nature of ikigai and how it can be applied. When retirement comes, it is helpful to have a clear understanding of why you do what you do beyond collecting a payslip. By being mindful of this concept, it might just help you live a more fulfilling life. To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us onTwitter. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

[cnfhumss12a-blog]

Receipts of Binondo

By Ingrid Deldgado

When I was a child, I used to spend my nights helping my father in his home office just a floor below our family bedroom. Night after night, I would pull out handwritten receipts, all crumpled and stained with blood, from his old Seiko wallet and read it aloud to him. These receipts were from the meat supply business my family that has been passing on since my great grandfather started the business almost a hundred years ago. I would always goggle at these tiny scraps of paper, trying to decipher my father’s unique handwriting, as they lay carelessly scattered around the house. It didn’t take too long for me to recognize each scrawled word and memorize certain institutions that regularly appeared in the address line. The names Ha Yuan, Toho, and Sa Lido in particular remained stuck in my head because I always found them funny when reading out loud. It wasn’t until recently did I found out that Ha Yuan, Toho, and Sa Lido were not just names of old Chinese businessmen. It was, as a matter of fact, Chinese restaurants named after the old Chinese businessmen (close enough, though) along the business districts of Binondo.

 As someone born and raised in Manila, the Binondo district wasn’t a stranger in my stream of consciousness. For one, I’ve known it as the birthplace of my former school’s Mother Foundress (Venerable Ignacia of the Religious of the Virgin Mary, potentially the first Filipina saint if her canonization pushes through). It was also my parents’ go-to place for furniture needs (a nice Chandelier? Soler Street has tons; new sofa? T. Pinpin has an array; plumbing needs? Sta. Elena has a gallery of toilets). And of course, I have always known it as a delivery hotspot for my father’s pork and meat supply.

When the task of finally visiting Binondo personally came at hand, my father was naturally the first person that came into my mind. It seemed that he was just as enthused at the idea as I was because he didn’t just allow me to be dropped off but also had an itinerary in mind. The day was going to be our date as we both explored the hidden charms of the old business district.

Amidst the blinding sun of high noon, my father and I rode a single motorcycle to – in his words – give me an “immersive experience” of the bustling city. Scooped up in my father’s back, I was not protected from the stench of the esteros nor from the deafening shrieks of cars parading along Ongpin Street. Of the things I wasn’t shielded from was also the pulse of the streets’ energy as people hurriedly cross from one street to the next and sidewalk vendors call out for their next customers. Binondo’s streets boast of colors against the polluted Manila skylines, with red lanterns and Feng Shui hangings hovering overhead the idle traffic and tiny shops selling colorful treats tucked in narrow eskenitas. Though Chinese New Year had well passed, traces of the celebration still loomed in the side streets. Piles of Tikoy were still on display, as were the lucky charms and crystals that blessed the streets of Binondo.

First in my Dad’s agenda was lunch at the old Toho restaurant. Toho is the home of my favorite Spicy Squid, a dish unique to Toho as it was adapted from visiting an Indonesian local’s recipe that was shared to the family owner. It married the rich taste of ginger with 3 types of bell peppers and large squids, breaded and spiced with their “secret recipe”, and sautéed in garlic, butter, and atsuete oil. There wasn’t anything grand about the restaurant aside from the fact that it was one of the oldest restaurants still standing in Binondo. As a matter of fact, it looked more like an eatery than a proper restaurant per se with its scratched walls, worn out light fixtures, and darkened tiles. Of course, I was too polite to say these while the restaurant’s current owner, Mr. Al Wong, was with us during our visit. Surprisingly, however, he shared the same sentiments as mine. He spoke of his disappointments on the gradual decline of the restaurant that he had been with his family for more than seven decades. He lamented on the fact that every day, he only sa the same faces eating at his diner. He referred to the group behind our table as the same construction workers and laborers who routinely spend their hour-long breaks drinking cheap beer and eating warm Asado as pulutan. I listened closely as he talked to my father about renovating the space, saying that he was in talks with the architect of Mary Grace Cafes in hopes of modernizing the restaurant into something millennials could enjoy and rave about, maybe even get it trending online.

           After a hearty lunch, he allowed me to take a look at the exclusive kitchen where the magic happens. The place itself wasn’t as magical since it looked even older from the inside. What – or who, rather – left me enchanted were the people working inside. I met Mang Ben, an elderly cook of the kitchen, who specializes in their trademark Pork Asado. I was fortunate to catch him in his element as he was just tossing ingredients inside a dark, large pan when I walked in. One couldn’t immediately tell that he was a chef in charge of the kitchen. He wasn’t in uniform unlike the employees visible to the customers. Instead, he was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and paint-stained shorts. He has been working in the restaurant for almost three decades, and was able to work with my now passed Lolo who used to manage the meat shop when it was still a small stall in Quiapo.

           My little tour of the kitchen ended with me watching how my favorite Spicy Squid was cooked. I also brought home some takeaway for me to munch on for dinner later. I took one last look at the gloomy restaurant, knowing that it might be the last time I see it in its original architecture from seventy years ago.

           I rode my father’s scooter once again, still fully fueled from our stopover in Toho. We decided to roam around Ongpin for a while and visit small stores selling all sorts of minerals and stones that promise calm and peace and prosperity. It’s funny how their staff must have been already immune to the charms’ effects, seeing how they can be unnecessarily rude to the street children who happen to wander carelessly into their store.

           The distasteful trip to the old charm store was followed by a stopover at Lord Stow’s which I am most excited about. I had my first Lord Stow’s egg tarts in a quick trip to Macau and since then, I would always be on the lookout for branches here in Manila. The bakery is internationally famed for its luscious, melt-in-your-mouth egg tarts. Fortunately, their small bakery in Ongpin St. was accessible and just as tasty as the ones I found abroad. The egg tarts were just as smooth and fluffy, with sweetness and saltiness waging a war as the cream filling melted in my mouth. I ordered a box of four for takeout as I made a mental note to save it for a movie I have to watch later that night.

           The final box in our itinerary list is one of Dad’s customers, hidden away at the second floor of a commercial building hosting a jewelry shop at the ground floor. With signs barely visible, I unknowingly climbed the crusty stairs of the time-worn Sa Lido restaurant. We were welcomed by the shocking sight of old Chinese men sleeping on their own tables, one with his mouth open and others asleep above a newspaper they were supposed to be reading. My dad was greeted by the gracious staff. They knew Dad by his name as he was often there to deliver rations or to collect payment. “Panganay ko” he introduced me as I was curiously smiled at by baristas manning the old drip coffee machines. We were still full from our lunch earlier which was why we just opted to take a few pictures of the restaurant. With one look, the place is easily recognizable as an authentic Chinese restaurant due to its antique furniture and Feng Shui marks around. One of the staff whose name I cannot recall (sorry, Ate!) but who Dad knew well pointed out that it is their authentic brewed coffee that garnered such a loyal following from the Chinese residents of Binondo. These patrons come back so often that they have their own mugs stored at the cafe. She showed us samples of these mugs to show how some of these even have pictures of their owners. We didn’t stay too long as not to disturbed the few but loyal clients they have at the moment and once again rode the scooter to head home.

           As I settled on the back of my father’s scooter, I began recounting the day’s events, trying to relish every detail of the day’s trip. I finally saw Toho and Sa Lido in real life. They were no longer funny names in the receipts that I gathered from my father’s worn wallet. I met the owners and the staff that allowed to have a glimpse of the life my father has been leading. I saw the friendships he had to build in order to build us a life of satisfaction – a life where I couldn’t ask for more.

Beads of sweat formed in my temples as we rode away under the scorching sun. I hadn’t realized how tired I was until I got home and fell asleep almost immediately while my father drove away to supply more of his rations. I was so tired after a day’s worth of roaming under the sun, and I began to imagine what it must have been like to do just the same for longer than I have lived, and do so always with much joy. This was his life and I am glad that I got to see this part of him through the streets of Binondo.

Gallery: https://cnfhumss12a.tumblr.com/tagged/Ingrid

[foodtellsastory]

Ben Carson and the Fate of Soul Food

Ben Carson and the Fate of Soul Food

70. Dr. Ben Carson, a brilliant pediatric neurosurgeon, is now the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), because he’s….Well, I suspect the internal discussion went something like this: The U in HUD stands for “urban,” and, as Paul Ryan showed us, “urban” is a code word for “black.” So, let’s make Ben the head of HUD. A match made in Heaven or wherever, quod erat demonstrandum.

(By the way, this post will be about food. I promise.)

Anyway, back on March 6, 2017, his first day in office, Dr. Carson spoke to his HUD employees, declaring: “That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”

Let’s just say that the world of social media noticed. The Food Network’s Sunny Anderson had one of the more restrained reactions:

Carson’s statement did seem odd. When we think of “immigrants” coming to America, we probably don’t picture it like this:

Later in the day, on his first attempt to talk his way out of it, Dr. Carson appealed to a linguistic technicality: An immigrant might be defined as an individual member of a migration. Some migrations are voluntary, and some are not. (Ask the Cherokee people about the “not” version.) And so, it was as he first said: The enslaved were “involuntary” immigrants.

Well, ok. Some still objected. Jelani Cobb noted that calling an enslaved person an “immigrant” is like calling a kidnapping victim a “house guest.” At the time, slaveholders insisted that they were merely importing farm equipment, like a farmer today might import a Volvo tractor. The enslaved were considered property, not tourists. (Except when it came to seats in Congress. Then the slaveholders wanted their “property” to count the same as them. That’s where the infamous 3/5ths rule came in as a compromise.)

But even if we’re charitable and grant Dr. Ben that technical definition, it still wouldn’t explain his characterization that the enslaved had “worked even longer, even harder for less” in order to win the American Dream for their descendants.

On the face of it, it sounds like a backhanded argument against raising the minimum wage. Can’t make it on $7.25/hr? Stop whining, and work 16 hours instead of 8.

If that’s your politics, fine. But don’t compare it to life under enslavement. If we say they were working “for less” instead of “for free,” then we’re assuming that the enslaved at least got “paid” in free room and board, so it was ok. I mean, a hovel and a cup of cornmeal is worth something, right? There’s no free lunch.

And the rest of your “compensation”? Whippings were thrown in for free. Character-builders, I guess. Maybe Frederick Douglass wouldn’t have gotten up the gumption to escape and become an abolitionist hero if he hadn’t been beaten up so much.

Fact fact (not an “alternative fact”): Many of the enslaved who escaped made their way to Canada. What do we make of that? Carson said the African immigrants dreamed that their descendants “might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.” But for many, “this land” was Canada, not America. So were they just un-American ingrates who didn’t realize how good they had it here? (See painting above….)

And while we’re at it, the enslaved weren’t quite allowed to have dreams for their descendants, because those descendants automatically inherited their enslaved status, simply by being born. They were, legally, the property of another person from birth. The tragic reality was something more like this newspaper clipping found by Michelle Munyikwa:

Before the day was over, the good Doctor was in full retreat. Carson insisted that he knows the difference between slavery and immigration. But that’s not so obvious. As Tera Hunter pointed out, this wasn’t the first time that Carson has waded into this swamp. He has compared Obamacare to slavery. He has compared reproductive freedom to slavery.

2014: One of the good ones had the guts to speak up

That rhetoric plays well on the right. Some insist on minimizing the horribleness of American enslavement, like Bill O’Reilly’s ridiculous comments last summer about “well-fed slaves.” We just don’t expect to hear it from a guy with ancestors who were, we assume, enslaved.

Bill O’Reilly, between lawsuits, pronounced slavery not so bad

But let’s turn the clock ahead to the early 20th century. Now, talk of “immigrants” (or more accurately, “migrants”) dreaming of a better life might be more plausible. We’re referring to the period known as “The Great Migration,” lasting from World War I into the 1960s, when millions of African Americans managed to leave the southern states for the north and west.

In this case, we certainly have the element of free choice. Indeed, as Carol Anderson summarizes in the second chapter of her book, White Rage, the southern white power structure used every tool at its disposal, short of starting another Civil War, to prevent African Americans from leaving. By that measure, it was the opposite of a forced migration.

We also have the motives that traditionally lured Europeans to America. Some went northward in search of better economic opportunities than were available in the segregated economy of the south. Others were running for their lives, seeking to dodge the renewed outbreak of lynchings and violence encouraged during the Woodrow Wilson administration.

In this sense, one might compare the experience of African American migrants in the north to the experience of foreign immigrant groups across our history, from the Germans, Irish, Scandinavians, Chinese, Italians, Mexicans, Koreans, and Vietnamese, to the Somalians, Ethiopians, and other more recent arrivals.

Food. Talk about Food…

For many reasons, migrants often seek out the food they ate back home. Opening small operations, such as cafes, food stands, pushcarts, and catering businesses has been a first step available for many minority groups in the face of racism, bigotry, and restriction.

Then, two things happen. First, the original “ethnic” dishes begin to take on the flavor of their surroundings. That was certainly the case for African American migrants. Some of the ingredients that were common and cheap down south were either unavailable in the north or their seasonality was more restricted. Much of today’s debate over yellow cornbread vs. white cornbread, for example, stems from the simple reality that up north, yellow cornmeal is what’s more likely to be on the grocery shelves. Northern wheat flour is different too.

We see this in the various menus of the Sweet Home Cafe at the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture. What we probably think of as “soul food” is well-represented by the “Agricultural South” menu, with items like fried chicken, collard greens, mac and cheese, Hoppin’ John, and so on. The “Creole Coast” menu, representing the Low Country and Louisiana traditions, still sounds like soul food, with items like fried catfish (as a Po’Boy sandwich), and candied yams.

But as we move into the “North States” and “Western Range” menus, we run into items that don’t sound like “soul food” at all, like smoked Haddock, Yankee Baked Beans, “Son of a gun” Stew (with beef short ribs), and BBQ Buffalo brisket.

Sweet Home Cafe: soul food surrounded by history (NMAAHC photo)

These menus remind us that “soul food” is more than a particular list of dishes or ingredients. As a general rule, “soul food” dishes are characterized by close attention to seasoning, no matter what the dish is. There’s also that more esoteric quality of putting “love” or “soul” into the cooking. That’s impossible to pin down scientifically, but we know whether it’s there or not.

Both distinctions are important. Sometimes, we make “soul food” shorthand for “what black people eat.” By that measure, a Big Mac is soul food. In some areas, food redlining, like housing redlining, has helped create or reinforce segregated neighborhoods where people without sufficient money, transportation, or free time often end up going to the ubiquitous fast food places to grab cheap items made from government-subsidized ingredients. A Big Mac may not be a nutritionist’s dream food, but it is an economical way to get a lot of calories in a hurry.

No offense to the good folks at McDonald’s, but Big Macs are the antithesis of “soul food.” They’re not particularly well-seasoned, and it’s hard to put that indefinable element of “love” into food designed to be mass-produced quickly with minimal human intervention. There’s also no sense of down-home regionality in a Big Mac. Franchising’s raison d’être is that sandwich you buy in Bangor, Maine should taste like the one you buy in Pensacola, Chicago, Topeka, Sioux Falls, Salt Lake City,  Oakland, or whatever McDonald’s in DC is closest to the NMAAHC.

Just don’t call it soul food

On the positive side, the historic regional flexibility and adaptability of African American cuisine offers a key to its survival. Fair or not (and in this blog, we say Not), many criticize the traditional soul food menu as unhealthy. But there’s no reason why soul food restaurants can’t include lower fat, less sweet items or vegetarian/vegan items and still be made with love and good flavor. The African roots of soul food point to an emphasis on vegetables over meat, and developing flavors beyond what we can get from fats and sugar. “Soul food” was inherently adaptive, and still can be.

The other thing that happens to migrant foods is more challenging: As migrant groups become more fixed in the community, people from outside that group start frequenting the local eateries, and over time, the food itself changes to meet the tastes of the new customer base. Americanized versions of Chinese, Italian, or Mexican dishes are typically unrecognizable to visitors from those nations. The taco you buy at a Taco Bell in Minneapolis is not like the taco you might buy from a food truck in Los Angeles, let alone one from Mexico.

Midwesterners have discovered this with the influx of Latin American immigrants in the last twenty years. Here in Sioux City, when we’re sorting out dinner plans, “Let’s have Mexican!’ is inevitably followed by “You mean real Mexican or Taco Bell?” Many local Mexican restaurants cater to both tastes. For instance, you can usually order a taco “American style” (i.e., with cheese, ground beef, and no cilantro).

One meme put the issue succinctly. Don’t look up chingadera. Use your imagination.

Even the “real Mexican” menu is an invention. There is plenty of regional diversity in Mexican cuisine, and most restaurants pick and choose. Some “real Mexican” restaurants around here include Dominican or Guatemalan dishes, in an attempt to cater to the needs of as many groups as possible.

How far can “authentic” soul food be stretched before it becomes something else? I’ve heard it said that “southern” cooking is nothing more than soul food dumbed down in taste, fancied up in looks, and boosted up in price. I can order fried catfish and a side of collards at the Cracker Barrel, and it’s ok…but it’s not quite soul food either.

In real estate, “gentrification” describes the phenomenon of young white professionals moving into older, predominantly African American neighborhoods in search of cheaper rents or home prices. They fix up their houses, and open up coffee shops and such. In the process, property values increase, rents go up. Then, those without the incomes to support the new requirements find themselves being driven out.

In 2015, “Saturday Night Live” doctored up a real-life business in Bushwick to create their “Martha’s Mayonnaise” spoof of what happens under gentrification in Brooklyn.

Recently, this phenomenon of “gentrification” has been applied to soul food.

Two things happen with gentrification: First, we risk losing the historical significance of soul food. Think of it this way: There’s nothing more All-American than hamburgers and hot dogs, but we never think of their German roots. What was the “Hamburg” style of meat? Do we ever stop to think that “wiener” refers to Vienna? Does eating a chicken and roadkill hot dog oozing with white filler move us to seek out the rich sausages of the Central European tradition? Likewise, if soul food survives by the gentrification route, would it get disconnected from its soul?

Gentrified German soul food

Second, with gentrification, the people who created soul food may well be left out in the cold. On the eater’s side, Eboni Harris noted the phenomenon of how “‘ethnic’ foods are ‘discovered’ by well-meaning foodies – often white – who then raise the price of these meals until the original purveyors and consumers can no longer afford to eat them.”

Once upon a time, for instance, oxtails were considered so useless that some butchers gave them away for the asking. Today, oxtails are expensive, especially considering the small amount of meat on them. Barbecue aficionados have noted the same when it comes to brisket.

This is significant for soul food because one of the historic keys to soul food was in the ability of African American cooks to apply the legacy of West African cuisine to make less desirable foods, like neckbones or collards, taste great. But it’s hard for the average person to practice cooking and perfecting traditional dishes if the ingredients break the budget. (When I wanted to make oxtails, I practiced on cheaper stew meat before I dared invest in actual oxtails.)

On the cook’s side, we run into appropriation, aggravated by the multitude of ways in which institutionalized racism hinders African Americans from being able to capitalize on their food heritage. The difficulties faced by trained African American cooks in becoming chefs are quantifiable. We can work our way through the lists of the annual James Beard award winners. We can count up the black chefs that make it onto Chopped episodes, or check cookbook sales.

Last fall, there was a minor media fluff over Neiman-Marcus selling collard greens. We titled our reaction, “Greens for People Better Than You.” The gist of the piece was to wonder why anyone would pay so much for frozen greens rather than go to a local soul food restaurant and by some fresh greens for a fraction of the cost, and probably with superior flavor to boot.

Robert Irvine no doubt makes fine collard greens. Does it matter if his face becomes the face of collards, and his seasoning sets the standard?

For some, this is when “gentrification” begins to sound more like flat-out appropriation: white folks coming in and taking over, obscuring the history, and making money off of other people’s food traditions and hard work, while using the tools of contemporary segregation, such as equal access to capital, to shut out or shut down competitors.

It’s a double injustice. Many southern/soul food dishes were created or perfected by enslaved cooks paid nothing, or by underpaid cooks working under Jim Crow. Spin the clock ahead to 2017, and their descendants are feeling cheated again. Many soul food places are closing down just at a time when southern cuisine and barbecue are coming to national attention and popularity.

At that point, the broader quest for social and economic justice will have an impact on the fate of soul food. If the arc of the moral universe really does bend toward justice, the impact will be positive. The restaurant business is always challenging, but people who want to cook soul food, or include soul food dishes, will benefit from increased opportunities to follow their dreams.

Those of us who like to eat and/or cook soul food have a moral obligation to those who passed it down to us to invest ourselves not just in groceries but in the broader quest for justice. That requires, in the first place, knowledge. We should learn the history behind the cuisine, and also understand the current situation. More on that in a moment.

Soul food may also benefit from a renewed interest in home cooking. Some watch food programming on TV just for its entertainment value, but others get curious enough to try their own hand at things. I can tell from the new options on the grocery shelves at my neighborhood Walmart that people’s kitchen horizons must be broadening.

For some, cooking is a lost art. I’ve had the disconcerting experience of being asked to give advice, tips, or soul food recipes to younger African American women. I’m always flattered, but it just feels weird that they’re asking an old white guy for something that would be better learned from their parents or grandparents. What do I know? I’m just a student myself, and a pretty elementary one at that. I feel like John the Baptist meeting Jesus: “You want me to baptize you? Dude, you should be baptizing me!”

Cooking takes time and practice, a willingness to learn by trial-and-error, screw up a dish, apologize to your family…and then come back and try it again. The current level of interest in cuisines and cooking may give soul food a boost, both in terms of learning to cook them the old-fashioned way, and in adapting the classics to meet our interest in healthier options.

Hopefully, this hands-on practice in the kitchen may also get more people interested in the history behind the soul food. It’s in the nature of that cuisine that some of us are curious about what has gone into the “soul” part.

We know how this works in music. When Chuck Berry died in March, many of us on the downhill half of life’s mountain climb paused to reflect on the music of our childhood.

Chuck Berry in London, 1965. His music ended up teaching me more than music.

Like a lot of white teenagers in the 70s, I discovered Chuck Berry retroactively. I had learned his songs first from the covers done by the Beatles and the Stones. But then I got interested in going back and finding Berry’s originals, and that, in turn, led me to dig back even further into the roots of rock and roll in the r&b and jazz of the 1930s and ’40s. It wasn’t just the music either. Learning how the Delta blues became the Chicago blues, for instance, led to my introduction to the topic of the moment: the Great Migration.

The same has been true in exploring soul food. It prompted me to go back and learn a lot of history that I was never taught in school, and then to think about how that history continues to impact us. This blog reflects some of that journey. I’m sure some react to putting food and history together the same way that some react to putting pineapples on pizza. But I like it.

So, the question of authenticity may solve itself. Some will surely try to capitalize on dumbing-down soul food dishes for a broader audience, but others will respond by offering something more faithful to the living traditions.

Bottom line? Food is always in transition. Techniques, equipment, ingredients, and tastes change. “Soul food” isn’t a museum piece. It’s a living cuisine, and it would be inauthentic to try and somehow freeze it in time. Even the name may change. “Soul food,” after all, was a 1960s invention. The great Edna Lewis, it will be remembered, called it “country cooking.” But my educated guess is that it, whatever “it” is, will survive.

[sheminecrafts]

Blavity has a big opportunity with Black millennials, despite struggling to fit the VC formula

Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history, according to four different polls cited recently by the New York Times that suggest anywhere from 15 million to 26 million people in the U.S. have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others since Floyd’s death in late May.

Blavity, a six-year-old, L.A.-based media company that’s focused on Black culture, could hardly be better positioned to help outraged Americans better understand what’s really been going on. Blavity founder Morgan DeBaun says the outfit receives at least a handful of videos each week that feature egregious acts against Black Americans, and the same has been true since DeBaun, working at the time at Intuit, founded the company in 2014 after unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown was gunned down by a police office in her native Missouri.

Blavity tells the stories that the mainstream media has largely been missing, but that’s only part of the story. The company has also become a go-to destination for a growing number of Black millennials interested in fresh takes on culture and politics; in Black Hollywood and travel (via two other properties it runs); and in its sizable networking events, one of which attracted 10,000 people last year.

Last week, we talked with DeBaun about Blavity — which has raised a comparatively conservative $11 million to date, including from GV, Comcast Ventures, and Plexo Capital — to learn more about how the company seizes this moment, and whether investors see the opportunity. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity (you can hear the full discussion here).

TC: You started Blavity in part to address a need you were feeling to connect with others after Michael Brown’s death. What were you reading at the time?

MD: The unfortunate answer is I wasn’t reading anything. I hadn’t really felt the need to stay connected to local or regional or Black issues until I moved out of my community and found myself wondering [from California], what is going on.

Historically in the Black community, we’ve had our own networks and platforms and brands: the African American newspapers in various cities, Essence, Jet, Ebony, and more recently, The Root. [But] a significant amount of media publications are still focused on entertainment and Hollywood and not necessarily on news. And so there was a huge gap of information that I felt wanting to understand.

This was before Twitter really became a source of information and truth for so many people, so there was a gap of information from what I saw happening on the ground in St. Louis and in text messages and as part of an email list with friends who were on the ground, and what I saw in the mainstream media. And to me, that was a huge miss, because we needed to be connected at that point more than ever so we could help impact change.

TC: There’s a lot of social injustice covered by Blavity. Two of the most popular stories on the site as we speak are about Sacramento police officer who placed a plastic bag on a 12-year-old’s head, and a cop who was arrested and charged after tasing a pregnant woman on her stomach. Are these stories central to making Blavity a resource to its readers?

MD: We tend to be a reflection of the pulse of the reality and the Black experience, and we do share stories and news that people might not find other places. I get the question more recently about: Does this time feel different? Are we covering different things? And unfortunately, the answer is that we’ve been covering these stories weekly since Michael Brown happened. It’s been a critical part of our publication and ethos to ensure that we’re sharing the stories of our community and bringing light to the injustices that are happening.

We also share joy and happiness and celebrations and moments of great accomplishments and local stories of heroes. But certainly right now, we’re making sure that we’re doing our diligence and covering the stories that are very important for this moment in time.

TC: You recently told Forbes that advertisers and marketers do not want to spend money next to Black death and violence. You have to cover these stories because it’s core to what you do, but it’s a double-edged sword for you, it sounds like.

MD: Blavity as an organization has five different brands. So we have a diversified revenue stream where we don’t just rely on display advertising against our news business, because if we did, we would wind up very much similar to what we’ve seen happen [to other struggling media companies]. There was a time when our Facebook page was even blocked because [stories] have gotten flagged as being too violent. And it’s like, well yeah, violence against Black bodies is real. It’s the truth; it’s real news.

So we do have this weird kind of balance that we strike in terms of really making sure that we’re telling the truth and that we are pushing back against our clients, our advertisers, and even Facebook to ensure that Blavity can continue to distribute content. But overall, the news business isn’t our highest revenue-generating business. It’s our conference business and our display ads business across all of our brands, some of which are lifestyle brands.

We also have an ad network that we don’t advertise publicly much, but essentially, we run ads and sales operations for other publishers of color who maybe don’t have the scale to necessarily have their own sales team and ad tech and engineers and things of that nature. We’re fighting for deals against a Vice or a Refinery 29 that also have ad networks, so we wanted to make sure that we could also win those deals and we needed that huge inventory and [that business has] allowed us the flexibility to reinvest [in the rest of the business].

TC: I understand that you’re also starting a paid-for membership-only professional network.

MD: We have an exciting announcement that’ll come out in a few weeks about a new platform that will specifically be a place for young Black professionals to come together to have discussions to learn; to get jobs, because that’s one of our core competencies through [our conference business]; but most importantly, to have discussions around the issues and topics that are trending and that matter. We already do daily conversations through Facebook Live and YouTube and Instagram Live. So we’re trying to build a place where we can have a more private space for those conversations that feels safe and also is a place where people can connect on a deeper level.

TC: Have you noticed a real change in Silicon Valley in the last month or so among investors? Are you seeing interest from firms that previously hadn’t reached out to you?

MD: There are a lot of VCs that perhaps are paying attention, but the bias is so deep that I don’t even think they know how to get out. It.

Have I seen more requests for conversations? Yes. Do I think that that’s going to result in more investments and wires and checks? No. I’m very skeptical of this kind of like performative ‘we care’ flag. The most important metric of success for VCs are returns on their investments. [Venture money] is not a donation; it’s not charity. [VCs look for companies that] meet the metrics of success. And my metrics may be different because I’ve been chronically underfunded despite how much we’ve done.

TC: Can you elaborate?

I think the argument that [later-stage] investors make is, ‘Well, there are just not that many Series A Series B companies to invest in. [But] there are enough companies to invest in, that have your revenue criteria and your goal criteria in terms of a potential exit, but that may not call themselves startups. They may look different. And so you need to do more work to go get them.

There are certainly a lot more people raising funds and having really success in terms of raising their first fund, or that are now on their second fund as a result of this [focus on diversity] and that’s very encouraging and that’s really going to help the seed- and early-stage founders.

I wish I was a founder right now who was raising a seed [round], because I could raise $10 million, there’s so much money going around.

TC: It’s incredible that you could be at a disadvantage because you’re now running a real business with multiple properties, particularly given the opportunity ahead. As you’ve mentioned in the past, there will be a majority minority population in this country in 10 years or so. Are you developing products for other communities, including the Afro-Latino community?

MD: We’ve thought a lot about the sub communities that have huge audiences, are growing quickly, but perhaps don’t have a space or a place to connect. And originally, one of our ideas was to build out our tech platform, then change the UI to accommodate all these [ideas] and become a true house with brands that serve people and communities on a niche level — so Gen Z, Black, LGBT,  Afro Latina, for the many Caribbean folks who are in the U.S. and Nigerian Americans; there are so many sub communities within the diaspora.

What we realized is that the overhead and operations of doing that over and over would not be a good idea and that we should figure out how to a build the operations side instead. That’s why we invested in our own ad network, because we can say, ‘Hey, creator in Brooklyn who’s amazing, you have a million monthly unique visitors, which is better than half the publications out there. You don’t have ad sales team. Let’s partner with each other.’ That was the first solution.

The second is this social networking platform that we’ve built. Part of the frustration and tension I felt when I started the company was feeling like there was no one like me. I couldn’t find other Black women who wanted to build a huge company and change the world and do it through tech. There was no one walking around Mountain View who looked like that, and I didn’t know where to go. We want to solve that through technology and through a platform that makes it easy for people to find each other. Hopefully then, once people are more connected, they can build their own companies and come up with their own organizations.

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Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history, according to four different polls cited recently by the New York Times that suggest anywhere from 15 million to 26 million people in the U.S. have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others since Floyd’s death in late May.

Blavity, a six-year-old, L.A.-based media company that’s focused on Black culture, could hardly be better positioned to help outraged Americans better understand what’s really been going on. Blavity founder Morgan DeBaun says the outfit receives at least a handful of videos each week that feature egregious acts against Black Americans, and the same has been true since DeBaun, working at the time at Intuit, founded the company in 2014 after unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown was gunned down by a police office in her native Missouri.

Blavity tells the stories that the mainstream media has largely been missing, but that’s only part of the story. The company has also become a go-to destination for a growing number of Black millennials interested in fresh takes on culture and politics; in Black Hollywood and travel (via two other properties it runs); and in its sizable networking events, one of which attracted 10,000 people last year.

Last week, we talked with DeBaun about Blavity — which has raised a comparatively conservative $11 million to date, including from GV, Comcast Ventures, and Plexo Capital — to learn more about how the company seizes this moment, and whether investors see the opportunity. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity (you can hear the full discussion here).

TC: You started Blavity in part to address a need you were feeling to connect with others after Michael Brown’s death. What were you reading at the time?

MD: The unfortunate answer is I wasn’t reading anything. I hadn’t really felt the need to stay connected to local or regional or Black issues until I moved out of my community and found myself wondering [from California], what is going on.

Historically in the Black community, we’ve had our own networks and platforms and brands: the African American newspapers in various cities, Essence, Jet, Ebony, and more recently, The Root. [But] a significant amount of media publications are still focused on entertainment and Hollywood and not necessarily on news. And so there was a huge gap of information that I felt wanting to understand.

This was before Twitter really became a source of information and truth for so many people, so there was a gap of information from what I saw happening on the ground in St. Louis and in text messages and as part of an email list with friends who were on the ground, and what I saw in the mainstream media. And to me, that was a huge miss, because we needed to be connected at that point more than ever so we could help impact change.

TC: There’s a lot of social injustice covered by Blavity. Two of the most popular stories on the site as we speak are about Sacramento police officer who placed a plastic bag on a 12-year-old’s head, and a cop who was arrested and charged after tasing a pregnant woman on her stomach. Are these stories central to making Blavity a resource to its readers?

MD: We tend to be a reflection of the pulse of the reality and the Black experience, and we do share stories and news that people might not find other places. I get the question more recently about: Does this time feel different? Are we covering different things? And unfortunately, the answer is that we’ve been covering these stories weekly since Michael Brown happened. It’s been a critical part of our publication and ethos to ensure that we’re sharing the stories of our community and bringing light to the injustices that are happening.

We also share joy and happiness and celebrations and moments of great accomplishments and local stories of heroes. But certainly right now, we’re making sure that we’re doing our diligence and covering the stories that are very important for this moment in time.

TC: You recently told Forbes that advertisers and marketers do not want to spend money next to Black death and violence. You have to cover these stories because it’s core to what you do, but it’s a double-edged sword for you, it sounds like.

MD: Blavity as an organization has five different brands. So we have a diversified revenue stream where we don’t just rely on display advertising against our news business, because if we did, we would wind up very much similar to what we’ve seen happen [to other struggling media companies]. There was a time when our Facebook page was even blocked because [stories] have gotten flagged as being too violent. And it’s like, well yeah, violence against Black bodies is real. It’s the truth; it’s real news.

So we do have this weird kind of balance that we strike in terms of really making sure that we’re telling the truth and that we are pushing back against our clients, our advertisers, and even Facebook to ensure that Blavity can continue to distribute content. But overall, the news business isn’t our highest revenue-generating business. It’s our conference business and our display ads business across all of our brands, some of which are lifestyle brands.

We also have an ad network that we don’t advertise publicly much, but essentially, we run ads and sales operations for other publishers of color who maybe don’t have the scale to necessarily have their own sales team and ad tech and engineers and things of that nature. We’re fighting for deals against a Vice or a Refinery 29 that also have ad networks, so we wanted to make sure that we could also win those deals and we needed that huge inventory and [that business has] allowed us the flexibility to reinvest [in the rest of the business].

TC: I understand that you’re also starting a paid-for membership-only professional network.

MD: We have an exciting announcement that’ll come out in a few weeks about a new platform that will specifically be a place for young Black professionals to come together to have discussions to learn; to get jobs, because that’s one of our core competencies through [our conference business]; but most importantly, to have discussions around the issues and topics that are trending and that matter. We already do daily conversations through Facebook Live and YouTube and Instagram Live. So we’re trying to build a place where we can have a more private space for those conversations that feels safe and also is a place where people can connect on a deeper level.

TC: Have you noticed a real change in Silicon Valley in the last month or so among investors? Are you seeing interest from firms that previously hadn’t reached out to you?

MD: There are a lot of VCs that perhaps are paying attention, but the bias is so deep that I don’t even think they know how to get out. It.

Have I seen more requests for conversations? Yes. Do I think that that’s going to result in more investments and wires and checks? No. I’m very skeptical of this kind of like performative ‘we care’ flag. The most important metric of success for VCs are returns on their investments. [Venture money] is not a donation; it’s not charity. [VCs look for companies that] meet the metrics of success. And my metrics may be different because I’ve been chronically underfunded despite how much we’ve done.

TC: Can you elaborate?

I think the argument that [later-stage] investors make is, ‘Well, there are just not that many Series A Series B companies to invest in. [But] there are enough companies to invest in, that have your revenue criteria and your goal criteria in terms of a potential exit, but that may not call themselves startups. They may look different. And so you need to do more work to go get them.

There are certainly a lot more people raising funds and having really success in terms of raising their first fund, or that are now on their second fund as a result of this [focus on diversity] and that’s very encouraging and that’s really going to help the seed- and early-stage founders.

I wish I was a founder right now who was raising a seed [round], because I could raise $10 million, there’s so much money going around.

TC: It’s incredible that you could be at a disadvantage because you’re now running a real business with multiple properties, particularly given the opportunity ahead. As you’ve mentioned in the past, there will be a majority minority population in this country in 10 years or so. Are you developing products for other communities, including the Afro-Latino community?

MD: We’ve thought a lot about the sub communities that have huge audiences, are growing quickly, but perhaps don’t have a space or a place to connect. And originally, one of our ideas was to build out our tech platform, then change the UI to accommodate all these [ideas] and become a true house with brands that serve people and communities on a niche level — so Gen Z, Black, LGBT,  Afro Latina, for the many Caribbean folks who are in the U.S. and Nigerian Americans; there are so many sub communities within the diaspora.

What we realized is that the overhead and operations of doing that over and over would not be a good idea and that we should figure out how to a build the operations side instead. That’s why we invested in our own ad network, because we can say, ‘Hey, creator in Brooklyn who’s amazing, you have a million monthly unique visitors, which is better than half the publications out there. You don’t have ad sales team. Let’s partner with each other.’ That was the first solution.

The second is this social networking platform that we’ve built. Part of the frustration and tension I felt when I started the company was feeling like there was no one like me. I couldn’t find other Black women who wanted to build a huge company and change the world and do it through tech. There was no one walking around Mountain View who looked like that, and I didn’t know where to go. We want to solve that through technology and through a platform that makes it easy for people to find each other. Hopefully then, once people are more connected, they can build their own companies and come up with their own organizations.

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Trump Threw Weighty Refugee Decisions to Local Government, With Painful Results

EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. — In a gray-walled, institutional hall usually reserved for prosaic debates over traffic and town budgets, Mohamoud Abdirahman rose from the audience last month and approached a panel of five town councilmen sitting in judgment.

Civil war had forced his family to flee their native Somalia in 1991, when he was a child. The Abdirahmans traveled for two days by cargo ship to Kenya, where they stayed for a year and a half before securing refuge in the United States. Now, it was his turn to fight for those trying to follow his footsteps to this town abutting Springfield and the Connecticut border.

“A lot of people like me just want a second chance at life,” an emotional Mr. Abdirahman pleaded.

A similar refrain is echoing across the country in town councils, county commissions, mayors’ offices and governors’ mansions after an executive order signed by President Trump in September granted local politicians a veto over the placement of refugees in their communities.

That order has carried the national tension over the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration agenda from the halls of Washington and detention camps along the southwestern border to places like East Longmeadow, population 16,000, and turned refugees and those who work to resettle them into lobbyists of sorts.

The anxiety among resettlement officials here has grown in recent weeks after the mayor of neighboring Springfield, one of the largest cities in Western Massachusetts, became one of the first politicians in the country to announce that he would not allow refugee resettlement. That was amplified by the decision of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas last month to block resettlement for the entire state, which has welcomed more refugees than any other state in the past five years. And on Friday, Mr. Trump put refugees who have lived in Western Massachusetts for years at risk of continuing to stay separated from their relatives abroad when he added Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania to a list of countries facing stringent travel restrictions.

“This goes against everything we know,” said Maxine Stein, the chief executive of the Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, a refugee resettlement agency.

The vetoes issued so far in Texas, Springfield and counties in Minnesota and Virginia were suspended in recent weeks by a federal judge who issued a temporary injunction against the executive order. The ruling delayed a Jan. 21 deadline for resettlement agencies to submit funding requests — along with letters of consent from governors and local officials — to the State Department.

But the resettlement agencies say there is still an urgent need for the resettlement approvals. Judges issued similar temporary injunctions for Mr. Trump’s other immigration polices, only to have the Supreme Court side with the administration.

It is also, the resettlement agencies say, about education. Some local officials were wholly unfamiliar with refugee policy before Mr. Trump tasked them with deciding whether resettlement should continue in their communities. Under the executive order, if a town board, county official or mayor declines — or neglects — to make a decision, silence equates to a veto.

“What we’ve seen in the courts is that the deadline may be pushed back, but it often doesn’t go away,” said Sara Bedford, who works with refugee families for the Jewish Family Service. “As long as the Springfield mayor doesn’t opt in, I think refugee communities will feel just a little bit less welcome.”

The vague wording of the executive order also caused confusion among refugee resettlement officials, who questioned which local official had the power to consent to the State Department.

Under the order, consent is required from governors and “localities,” which in many places was interpreted as the county leadership. But some Western Massachusetts towns are not represented by a county government, so the decision in Springfield fell to Domenic J. Sarno, the son of Italian immigrants and the longest-serving mayor of one of the poorest cities in the state.

Mr. Sarno, a Democrat, issued his veto even after Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts formally consented to allow refugees into the state and the Springfield City Council unanimously voted to allow them into the city.

“You cannot continue to concentrate poverty on top of poverty,” Mr. Sarno wrote in Springfield’s newspaper, The Republican. He demanded that more affluent communities “step up to the plate and put their money where their mouth is — to take on their fair share of social justice responsibilities.”

Mr. Sarno’s words echoed those of Mr. Trump, who has said the country is “full” and has threatened to send immigrants by the busload to Democratic cities and towns that have denounced his policies. Michael A. Fenton, the Springfield councilman who introduced the resolution to welcome refugees, said he had been fielding calls from residents demanding the city “let them go to the suburbs.” Mr. Abbott argued, “Texas has carried more than its share.”

But most government officials who responded to the executive order have decided to accept refugees into their states and counties, including those dominated by Republicans. At least 42 governors and more than 110 local governments have consented.

They include Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas and former under secretary of homeland security, who in 2015 opposed allowing Syrian refugees into the state, citing security concerns. Last month, Mr. Hutchinson testified before his State Legislature to defend allowing refugees into Arkansas, taking with him a Congolese business owner and an Afghan refugee who assisted the American military.

Gary Stubblefield, an Arkansas state senator, pressed his fellow Republican, lamenting, “Every morning when I wake up and turn on the national news, sometimes I ask myself a question: ‘Am I still in the United States of America?’”

Mr. Hutchinson held his ground: “You’ve got a choice to make. You can create fear, or you can help resolve fear. I challenge you to help resolve fear.”

In a twist, Mr. Hutchinson said in an interview that he was encouraged to allow refugees into Arkansas since a limited number would most likely be resettled in the state after Mr. Trump capped the number for 2020 at 18,000, down from 30,000 in the previous year. President Barack Obama set the cap at 110,000 his last year in office.

Still, Mr. Hutchinson’s staff spent the first days after his decision fielding angry calls from constituents, an uncomfortable task that Mr. Fenton in Springfield knows well. By signing the executive order, Mr. Trump has put municipal leaders in an unfair position, Mr. Fenton said.

“Municipal officials in the Northeast, we deal with snow, we deal with potholes, we deal with property taxes, trash pickup,” he said. “We do not deal with the complications associated with refugee immigration policy.”

He worries that the mayor’s decision will have a lasting effect on Springfield’s reputation.

“Those active and contributing members of our society don’t feel good about themselves in the place that they live when people say they’re not welcome,” Mr. Fenton said.

Mr. Sarno’s rejection of refugees surprised Fikiri Amisi and Jacqueline Asumani, Congolese immigrants who came to Springfield last year after spending more than 12 years in a refugee camp in Zimbabwe. When he first came to Springfield, Mr. Amisi said, it felt as though he had been saved. Both work full time, Ms. Asumani at a hotel and Mr. Amisi at a factory that manufactures medical supplies. Mr. Amisi is also studying for his associate degree. They have three children and plan to buy a house next year.

The couple wonders what they have done wrong.

“They don’t want more refugees here,” Ms. Asumani told her husband. “It shows they don’t love us.”

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Amisi looked through a photo album and stopped at an image showing the refugee camp where he used to wait in limbo. A friend called him to express concern over the mayor’s decision. He has been waiting for a ticket to the United States for four years, though long ago he cleared the refugee screening process.

The resettlement officials at Jewish Family Service have tried to meet with officials on a near daily basis. Municipal leaders often ask about costs to the school system and whether the local government will need to provide housing for the refugees. The staff reassures them that the onus is on the resettlement agency, which helps families find work and pay for the first three months of housing.

While a veto by a local official cannot prevent a refugee from moving to a city from within the United States, it prohibits the resettlement organizations from providing that initial financial support and could harm their overall funding, according to Ms. Stein.

“When you’re sleeping on relatives’ floors or extra beds, and you’re all jammed into the kitchen, and it’s chaotic in the morning to get to school so you just don’t get to school, it’s just not a good scene,” Ms. Stein said.

She made that case to the East Longmeadow Town Council, hoping councilors would open the door to refugees shut out of Springfield. Some seemed moved by the testimonies, including the story of Mr. Abdirahman, who now holds a master’s degree and works as the assistant director of behavioral health services at Jewish Family Service.

“To our residents who took the time to speak from your heart, thank you for doing that,” said Kathleen G. Hill, the Town Council president. “And come visit anytime.”

But the Council already voted to take no action on Mr. Trump’s executive order in November, weeks after it was signed. Local government rules stipulated that they could not take the matter up for another six months.

Their hands were tied. And under Mr. Trump’s policy, doing nothing meant turning the refugees away.

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Daily News Briefs: Aug. 8

New Post has been published on http://doggietrainingclasses.com/daily-news-briefs-aug-8/

Daily News Briefs: Aug. 8

Deputies find dog on meth while searching suspect’s home

CLINTON — Authorities say they encountered an aggressive dog on methamphetamine while searching a North Carolina property where a suspect stashed a stolen boat, chain saws and a motorcycle.

The Sampson County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying the case began Tuesday when deputies stopped a suspect towing a lawn mower that was reported stolen from a police department. Authorities say they found oxycodone in Matthew Denton Pope’s vehicle.

Investigators then searched Pope’s home and found more stolen items, the release says. Animal Control officers were called because a dog there was acting aggressively and strangely. Authorities say the dog tested positive for methamphetamine.

Pope was being held Thursday on charges including drug possession and possessing stolen goods. A woman answering a phone listing for him declined to speak to a reporter.

Folwell stopping fight for now with hospitals over pricing

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s state treasurer is cutting bait for now on efforts to bring on board dozens of additional hospitals to accept a new payment model for medical services incurred by state employees, teachers and retirees.

Treasurer Dale Folwell said Thursday that the 725,000 participants in the state employee insurance health plan will still receive in-network hospital coverage through the current provider network offered through Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

But they’ll also have similar preferred benefits with providers who agreed to the new pricing model Folwell pushed for the past year. He says that model would lead to lower and more transparent plan expenses.

A second deadline passed this week with only five hospitals agreeing to the new model. Time was running out to act with fall open enrollment approaching.

Changes to reading program Senate leader backs gets final OK

RALEIGH — North Carolina lawmakers have given final approval to provisions aimed at improving a public school literacy program that’s yet to meet expectations.

The House approved a compromise measure Thursday, the day after a favorable Senate vote.

The bill adjusts the 2013 “Read to Achieve” program, which is championed by Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and is aimed at ensuring that students are reading-proficient by third grade.

The measure directs teachers to create tailored individual reading plans for at-risk children. It also seeks more training for teachers and gives them incentives to work in summer reading camps.

Gov. Roy Cooper must now sign the bill to make it law. Some fellow Democrats were unhappy that an amendment allowing local school boards to decide on reading diagnostic tools was omitted.

Man arrested in 1980 rape, murder of N Carolina teenager

DOBSON — North Carolina authorities say a man arrested for the 1980 rape and murder of a teenager had been questioned several times over the course of the investigation.

Media outlets report 62-year-old Robert James Adkins of Dobson was arrested Aug. 2 on charges of raping and killing 14-year-old Ronda Blaylock. Her body was found in Surry County on Aug. 29, 1980, three days after she and a friend voluntarily got into a truck for a ride.

Surry County sheriff’s Capt. Scott Hudson declined to say at a news conference Wednesday what led to Adkins’ arrest but said authorities spoke with him several times during the investigation. A task force was formed in 2015 to investigate new leads.

It wasn’t clear Thursday if Adkins has an attorney to speak on his behalf.

Parole approved for woman who plotted husband’s murder

RALEIGH — North Carolina officials have approved parole for a woman serving a life sentence for plotting the murder of her husband.

The state parole commission said Thursday that it had approved parole for 67-year-old Donna Westbrooks.

Westbrooks was convicted in 1993 of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder.

The Guilford County woman enlisted two friends to kill James Westbrooks Jr. by promising to share the payout from his life insurance policy.

James Westbrooks, who worked for a beer distributing company, died after being stabbed 30 times at his Colfax home.

North Carolina lawyer accused of threatening to kill judges

FAYETTEVILLE — Authorities in North Carolina say a lawyer with a suspended license has been arrested on charges he threatened to kill county judges.

News outlets report Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies arrested 48-year-old Dee Wayne Bray Jr. Tuesday on a felony charge of threatening an executive, legislative or court officer.

The Fayetteville Observer says records show the North Carolina State Bar suspended the defense attorney’s license in 2017, because he couldn’t represent his clients due to health reasons. A state bar fund reimbursed his clients more than $165,000.

The newspaper reports court documents say Bray’s acquaintances notified law enforcement after he told them a week ago that he wanted to kill judges in the Cumberland County Courthouse.

Bray is in county custody with a $100,000 bail awaiting a first appearance this week.

Small biz insurance strategy nearing legislative finish line

RALEIGH — A method designed to help North Carolina small businesses offer more affordable health insurance is one vote away from final legislative approval.

The measure developing the rules for “Association Health Plans” will return to the Senate after clearing the House this week.

The plans could be formed by trade groups and organizations with common interests so small companies, sole proprietorships and independent contractors could obtain insurance. State insurance regulators would subject plans to financial and coverage standards, such as treating pre-existing conditions.

The idea has been pushed by groups such as the NC Realtors and the state Retail Merchants Association.

Almost 20 House Democrats joined all Republicans in voting Wednesday for the legislation. If the Senate agrees to changes, the measure would head next to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk.

Lawsuit: Deputy fired for not training woman due to faith

SANFORD — A former sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina is suing over his firing, saying he lost his job because his religious beliefs prevented him from training a woman.

The Sanford Herald reports that Lee County Deputy Manuel Torres is claiming religious discrimination in the lawsuit he filed July 31 in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit says the 51-year-old Torres believes the Bible prohibits him from being alone with a woman who’s not his wife for extended periods of time. It says he requested a religious accommodation in July 2017 when he was told to train a female deputy.

It says he was fired about two months later.

The newspaper reports Sheriff Tracy Carter declined comment. Torres is seeking reinstatement to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, along with compensatory and punitive damages.

Information from: The Sanford Herald, http://www.sanfordherald.com

NC town awarded for promoting monarch butterfly population

WAKE FOREST — A North Carolina town is being recognized for its commitment to preserving monarch butterflies.

Wake Forest announced Wednesday that it the recognition was awarded by Monarch City USA, a nonprofit organization that promotes the species and recognizes areas that work on recovering butterfly populations.

The nonprofit group says that the butterflies rely on milkweed and nectar plants. The butterfly’s population has declined as the plants have dwindled.

Wake Forest, which is northeast of Raleigh, features the plants that attract the butterflies at E. Carroll Joyner Park.

The town has installed signs that identify the butterfly habitat and one noting Wake Forest’s designation as a “Monarch Town USA.” The nonprofit says it’s the first in the state to receive the designation.

NC virtual school teachers no longer face temporary layoffs

RALEIGH — A payroll change has saved roughly 220 North Carolina Virtual Public School teachers from being temporarily laid off this fall.

The Office of State Human Resources tells news outlets that officials met Tuesday to find a solution and ultimately decided to change who handles the teachers’ payroll. The payroll has been handled by Temporary Solutions, which requires teachers take a 31-day break in service to satisfy state laws for temporary workers.

It will now be managed by the Department of Public Instruction and paid directly through the state’s payroll system. The Office of State Human Resources communications director, Jill Warren Lucas, says in a statement that none of the teachers will miss a paycheck.

The layoffs would have prevented nearly 7,300 students from using state-run online program.

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INDIA Biometric SYSTEM

ASIA

India's Biometric ID System Has Led To Starvation For Some Poor, Advocates Say

October 1, 20182:06 PM ETHeard on

All Things Considered

LAUREN FRAYER

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FURKAN LATIF KHAN

Ashok Kumar (foreground) works at a food ration distribution shop in Jharkhand. He uses a small machine to scan people's fingerprints and check them against Aadhaar ID numbers.

Lauren Frayer/NPR

India has 1.3 billion people, and no equivalent of the Social Security number. About 4 in 10 births go unregistered. Less than 2 percent of the population pays income tax.

Many more are eligible for welfare benefits but may never have collected them, either because they can't figure out how or a middleman stole their share.

To try to address these issues, the Indian government rolled out the biggest biometric ID system in the world. It's voluntary, but in just eight years, India has managed to collect the fingerprints, photos and iris scans of more than 1.2 billion people.

ASIA

For India's Undocumented Citizens, An ID At Last

The government says this system, called Aadhaar — "foundation" in Hindi — has helped to distribute welfare to the country's neediest; streamline the civil service; purge hundreds of thousands of names from voter rolls; and allow for people to move between states without losing benefits.

But privacy advocates are alarmed that the government has collected so much personal data. And advocates for the poor say some technical glitches have actually led to denial of benefits — even costing lives.

Collecting biometrics

Here's how Aadhaar works: An applicant goes to an Indian post office or ID enrollment center and shows proof of address and identity. (In cases where people don't have a fixed address, or any ID, another Indian can legally vouch for them.)

An Aadhaar enrollment worker scans applicants' irises, takes their fingerprints and photos, and assigns them a unique 12-digit number. The biometric data are stored on government servers. Several weeks later, an ID card arrives in the mail.

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The rollout was accompanied by a big patriotic PR campaign, with TV ads showing smiling elderly people using Aadhaar to collect state pensions and villagers using it to collect food rations.

It was geared especially to India's poor.

Helping the poor

"In India, you're nothing without Aadhaar," says Manisha Kamble, 17, who is homeless.

Kamble is from the Dalit community — formerly known as untouchables. She, her widowed mother and about 25 other street children sleep every night on the asphalt in a circle, under a highway overpass in Mumbai.

She had no address and no birth certificate. She was basically invisible to the state, until the charity Save the Children helped her enroll in Aadhaar.

GOATS AND SODA

India Aims For The World's Biggest Health Care Overhaul

It has helped her get into a decent school. She is looking forward to turning 18, when she can use her Aadhaar to register to vote.

Kamble says she is proud to be counted, to become official, to feel equal to other Indian citizens, regardless of caste.

"I want to study and make sure that there are no more Manishas like me, who have to struggle like I did — and I want to take care of my mom," she says.

Kamble studies at night under streetlights and got the highest marks in her class last spring.

Uses for Aadhaar

Aadhaar can be used to verify your identity when you do anything involving the government — get married, pay taxes or draw welfare — and also when you open a bank account, sign up for a cellphone contract, or set up an e-wallet online. It's mandatory for some state health benefits.

GOATS AND SODA

India Wants To Go Cashless. But It's Easier Said Than Done

The system is designed to cut fraud — after all, it's hard to counterfeit your irises.

But it requires electricity to scan people's biometrics, and Internet access to check them against government databases. You'll find those in India's big cities. In poorer places, you often don't.

Technical difficulties

In Jharkhand, one of India's poorest states, Aadhaar is mandatory for food rations. A long line forms outside a tiny stucco booth, painted lavender, with a corrugated metal roof. It's a government food ration shop. Inside, the distributor scoops out rice, weighs it and delivers it to customers.

More than half of Indians are eligible for free or subsidized food. In rural Jharkhand, the figure is 86 percent.

The government says Aadhaar has helped eliminate nearly 30 million fake or duplicate food ration cards.

Ashok Kumar distributes government food rations to customer Leela Devi at his shop near Ramgarh, in India's Jharkhand state.

Furkan Latif Khan/NPR

At this ration shop, Ashok Kumar, 57, scans people's fingerprints with something that looks like a credit card machine. It runs on batteries and needs a 3G or 4G cellphone signal.

But the network is shaky. Kumar walks across the street, lifting his machine up overhead, until he finally gets a signal. He sets up shop instead on the steps of a Hindu temple.

One by one, he types people's Aadhaar numbers into the machine and then asks them to place their fingers on a small scanner. The machine checks their numbers against biometric data on government servers and prints out a receipt for food rations — bags of rice.

But one customer isn't so lucky. Karu Bhuiya, 48, has done manual labor all his life. His fingertips are worn. Kumar tries to scan them five times, but gets an error message.

The machine here is rudimentary, and only scans fingerprints — not irises. So Bhuiya is turned away. He goes home without food.

Pushed to starvation

Technical difficulties like this are blamed for pushing some of India's poorest into starvation. Jean Dreze, a Belgian-born economist who lives in Jharkhand, says he has counted a dozen such deaths in recent months. He provided NPR with a detailed list of their names and circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Women harvest rice in rural Jharkhand, one of India's poorest states, where at least a dozen people have died from starvation amid glitches in welfare distribution.

Lauren Frayer/NPR

"I would actually prefer to call these destitution deaths, because they're all cases of people who went hungry for days, who would have survived if they had had some resources," Dreze says. "See, this is the unfortunate thing: that the most vulnerable people are those who are also more likely to be excluded by this system."

When Aadhaar scanners break down, there's supposed to be a backup system on paper. But at the ration shop NPR visited, near the town of Ramgarh, the paper log was blank — unused.

Aadhaar's architect

"Nobody should be denied benefits — either for lack of Aadhaar, or for lack of authentication," says Nandan Nilekani, the key architect of the nation's Aadhaar system. "There have been some challenges, but that doesn't take away from the enormous benefit of empowerment, mobility and savings this project has given India."

Nilekani is the former CEO of Infosys, a big Indian IT and consulting company. He is a tech billionaire who left the private sector to create Aadhaar for the Indian government.

In an interview in May, Nilekani told NPR that the benefits of Aadhaar far outweigh any glitches.

POLITICS

Facial Scanning Now Arriving At U.S. Airports

"Our whole goal is to give people control. They should be able to get their digital footprint from their smartphone, from their payments, from whatever," Nilekani said. "I'm using my own data to make my life better. That's a fundamental inversion of how you think about data."

Nilekani is from Bangalore, India's version of Silicon Valley. His critics questionwhether a private sector "move fast and break things" approach is appropriate for a government program like Aadhaar. They argue the fundamental job of government is different — to protect the most vulnerable citizens, rather than race to be the most high-tech.

That debate was underway when suddenly reports of data breaches began.

Data privacy

In January, investigative journalist Rachna Khaira discovered that the laptops of some Aadhaar enrollment workers — those who scan irises and take fingerprints — had been hacked. Khaira managed to buy access to up to 1 billion people's Aadhaar data — for less than $7.

After her report, the government agency behind Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Authority of India, took legal action against Khaira, accusing her of cybercrime.

"I am not against Aadhaar," Khaira says. "My only concern was this: that if we implement this project, it should be foolproof. We should not be scared. We should not be feeling jittery about giving out our Aadhaar numbers."

PARALLELS

Facial Recognition In China Is Big Business As Local Governments Boost Surveillance

Keeping people's Aadhaar data secure is not just a job for the Indian government, though. One of the ways it managed to enroll so many people was by partnering with banks, utilities and cellphone providers, many of which require Aadhaar.

So now people's data reside with all those companies as well. It's impossible to know how many data breaches have occurred. In India, the newspapers carry reports of them almost daily.

"When it comes to Aadhaar, it's the Wild West out there in India. Millions and millions of people have been compromised by the process," says Nikhil Pahwa, a privacy activist and founder of the digital news site MediaNama. "I see this as a major national security risk."

Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker, has also criticized Aadhaar, calling it a mass surveillance system that will lead to "civil death" for Indians.

Supreme Court weighs in

Data privacy advocates have taken their concerns all the way to India's Supreme Court. Last year, the court ruled that privacy is a fundamental right.

Then last week, it ruled that private companies can no longer ask for people's Aadhaar data. It also said schools can no longer require biometrics for admission.

THE TWO-WAY

Indian Supreme Court Declares Privacy A Fundamental Right

But the information is already out there, being used by marketing companies — and possibly by political parties.

In August, the Unique Identification Authority of Indiaintroduced new directives to enhance security, including two-factor identification using facial recognition.

A small number of residents of India, including the economist Dreze, have nevertheless refused to enroll in Aadhaar.

In India, though, data privacy is still mostly a concern of the educated, urban class. People in the food ration line may not be as worried about their digital footprint. They have more dire concerns.

Those most vulnerable

Not far from the ration shop NPR visited in rural Jharkhand, migrant workers huddle in sagging thatch huts covered with blue tarps, during the monsoon rains. They are members of India's tribal Adivasi community, who are among the country's poorest citizens. They often migrate between states, with no fixed addresses.

In June, one of the men in their community, Chintaman Malhar, died at age 50. Relatives say he hadn't eaten in days. Based on his field work, Dreze, the economist, concluded that Malhar had lived in a "state of semi-starvation."

Nisha Devi lives in a rudimentary hut covered with a tarp near Ramgarh, in India's Jharkhand state. She believes hunger led to her uncle's recent death before he could get an Aadhaar card. The rest of the family has scrambled to enroll since his death, but Devi has been unable to draw welfare benefits so far.

Lauren Frayer/NPR

Malhar died before he could get an Aadhaar card. After his death, his relatives and neighbors all rushed to try to enroll.

"A local official came and advised us all to enroll in Aadhaar," says Malhar's niece, Nisha Devi, cradling her toddler. "He told us it would help us get residency, and finally have an official address, and get benefits."

She believes hunger killed her uncle, and she wants to avoid a similar fate.

Devi hasn't yet been able to collect any food rations. She is still mired in bureaucracy.

But she hopes that Aadhaar — perhaps the world's most sophisticated biometric system — might one day help her.

PLANET MONEY

Episode 770: When India's Cash Disappeared, Part One

PLANET MONEY

[newstfionline]

Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras

By Paul Mozur, NY Times, July 8, 2018

ZHENGZHOU, China--In the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a police officer wearing facial recognition glasses spotted a heroin smuggler at a train station.

In Qingdao, a city famous for its German colonial heritage, cameras powered by artificial intelligence helped the police snatch two dozen criminal suspects in the midst of a big annual beer festival.

In Wuhu, a fugitive murder suspect was identified by a camera as he bought food from a street vendor.

With millions of cameras and billions of lines of code, China is building a high-tech authoritarian future. Beijing is embracing technologies like facial recognition and artificial intelligence to identify and track 1.4 billion people. It wants to assemble a vast and unprecedented national surveillance system, with crucial help from its thriving technology industry.

“In the past, it was all about instinct,” said Shan Jun, the deputy chief of the police at the railway station in Zhengzhou, where the heroin smuggler was caught. “If you missed something, you missed it.”

In some cities, cameras scan train stations for China’s most wanted. Billboard-size displays show the faces of jaywalkers and list the names of people who don’t pay their debts. Facial recognition scanners guard the entrances to housing complexes. Already, China has an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras--four times as many as the United States.

Such efforts supplement other systems that track internet use and communications, hotel stays, train and plane trips and even car travel in some places.

Even so, China’s ambitions outstrip its abilities. Technology in place at one train station or crosswalk may be lacking in another city, or even the next block over. Bureaucratic inefficiencies prevent the creation of a nationwide network.

For the Communist Party, that may not matter. Far from hiding their efforts, Chinese authorities regularly state, and overstate, their capabilities. In China, even the perception of surveillance can keep the public in line.

Some places are further along than others. Invasive mass-surveillance software has been set up in the west to track members of the Uighur Muslim minority and map their relations with friends and family, according to software viewed by The New York Times.

The intersection south of Changhong Bridge in the city of Xiangyang used to be a nightmare. Cars drove fast and jaywalkers darted into the street.

Then last summer, the police put up cameras linked to facial recognition technology and a big, outdoor screen. Photos of lawbreakers were displayed alongside their names and government I.D. numbers. People were initially excited to see their faces on the board, said Guan Yue, a spokeswoman, until propaganda outlets told them it was punishment.

“If you are captured by the system and you don’t see it, your neighbors or colleagues will, and they will gossip about it,” she said. “That’s too embarrassing for people to take.”

China’s new surveillance is based on an old idea: Only strong authority can bring order to a turbulent country. Mao Zedong took that philosophy to devastating ends.

His successors also craved order but feared the consequences of totalitarian rule. They formed a new understanding with the Chinese people. In exchange for political impotence, they would be mostly left alone and allowed to get rich.

It worked. Censorship and police powers remained strong, but China’s people still found more freedom. That new attitude helped usher in decades of breakneck economic growth.

Today, that unwritten agreement is breaking down.

China’s economy isn’t growing at the same pace. It suffers from a severe wealth gap. After four decades of fatter paychecks and better living, its people have higher expectations.

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, has moved to solidify his power. Changes to Chinese law mean he could rule longer than any leader since Mao. And he has undertaken a broad corruption crackdown that could make him plenty of enemies.

For support, he has turned to the Mao-era beliefs in the importance of a cult of personality and the role of the Communist Party in everyday life. Technology gives him the power to make it happen.

“Reform and opening has already failed, but no one dares to say it,” said Chinese historian Zhang Lifan, citing China’s four-decade post-Mao policy. “The current system has created severe social and economic segregation. So now the rulers use the taxpayers’ money to monitor the taxpayers.”

Mr. Xi has launched a major upgrade of the Chinese surveillance state. China has become the world’s biggest market for security and surveillance technology, with analysts estimating the country will have almost 300 million cameras installed by 2020. Chinese buyers will snap up more than three-quarters of all servers designed to scan video footage for faces, predicts IHS Markit, a research firm. China’s police will spend an additional $30 billion in the coming years on techno-enabled snooping, according to one expert quoted in state media.

Government contracts are fueling research and development into technologies that track faces, clothing and even a person’s gait. Experimental gadgets, like facial-recognition glasses, have begun to appear.

Judging public Chinese reaction can be difficult in a country where the news media is controlled by the government. Still, so far the average Chinese citizen appears to show little concern. Erratic enforcement of laws against everything from speeding to assault means the long arm of China’s authoritarian government can feel remote from everyday life. As a result, many cheer on new attempts at law and order.

In China, snooping is becoming big business. As the country spends heavily on surveillance, a new generation of start-ups have risen to meet the demand.

Chinese companies are developing globally competitive applications like image and voice recognition. Yitu took first place in a 2017 open contest for facial recognition algorithms held by the United States government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence. A number of other Chinese companies also scored well.

A technology boom in China is helping the government’s surveillance ambitions. In sheer scale and investment, China already rivals Silicon Valley. Between the government and eager investors, surveillance start-ups have access to plenty of money and other resources.

In May, the upstart A.I. company SenseTime raised $620 million, giving it a valuation of about $4.5 billion. Yitu raised $200 million last month. Another rival, Megvii, raised $460 million from investors that included a state-backed fund created by China’s top leadership.

At a conference in May at an upscale hotel in Beijing, China’s security-industrial complex offered its vision of the future. Companies big and small showed off facial-recognition security gates and systems that track cars around cities to local government officials, tech executives and investors.

Private companies see big potential in China’s surveillance build-out. China’s public security market was valued at more than $80 billion last year but could be worth even more as the country builds its capabilities, said Shen Xinyang, a former Google data scientist who is now chief technology officer of Eyecool, a start-up.

“Artificial intelligence for public security is actually still a very insignificant portion of the whole market,” he said, pointing out that most equipment currently in use was “nonintelligent.”

Many of these businesses are already providing data to the government.

Mr. Shen told the group that his company had surveillance systems at more than 20 airports and train stations, which had helped catch 1,000 criminals. Eyecool, he said, is also handing over two million facial images each day to a burgeoning big-data police system called Skynet.

At a building complex in Xiangyang, a facial-recognition system set up to let residents quickly through security gates adds to the police’s collection of photos of local residents, according to local Chinese Communist Party officials.

China’s surveillance companies are also looking to test the appetite for high-tech surveillance abroad. Yitu says it has been expanding overseas, with plans to increase business in regions like Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

At home, China is preparing its people for next-level surveillance technology. A recent state-media propaganda film called “Amazing China” showed off a similar virtual map that provided police with records of utility use, saying it could be used for predictive policing.

“If there are anomalies, the system sends an alert,” a narrator says, as Chinese police officers pay a visit to an apartment with a record of erratic utility use. The film then quotes one of the officers: “No matter which corner you escape to, we’ll bring you to justice.”

For technology to be effective, it doesn’t always have to work. Take China’s facial-recognition glasses.

Police in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou recently showed off the specs at a high-speed rail station for state media and others. They snapped photos of a policewoman peering from behind the shaded lenses.

But the glasses work only if the target stands still for several seconds. They have been used mostly to check travelers for fake identifications.

China’s propagandists are fond of stories in which police use facial recognition to spot wanted criminals at events. An article in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, covered a series of arrests made with the aid of facial recognition at concerts of the pop star Jackie Cheung. The piece referenced some of the singer’s lyrics: “You are a boundless net of love that easily trapped me.”

In many places, it works. At the intersection in Xiangyang, jaywalking has decreased. At the building complex where Number 1 Community’s facial-recognition gate system has been installed, a problem with bike theft ceased entirely, according to building management.

“The whole point is that people don’t know if they’re being monitored, and that uncertainty makes people more obedient,” said Mr. Chorzempa, the Peterson Institute fellow.

He described the approach as a panopticon, the idea that people will follow the rules precisely because they don’t know whether they are being watched.

[fan-of-mulligan]

FOM BLOG: BRADFORD CITY 1 - 0 GILLINGHAM

My Thoughts On Bradford City V Gillingham……………………….

I left my house at 7.10AM In The Morning, and I made sure that I had the following things on me,,,,,,,, (Money, Keys, My Bradford City Ticket, My Sony Xperia XA1, My USB / Plug Charger, My Gillingham Jacket, Spare Lids, My Gillingham Scarf, My Gillingham Bag, Match-Day Programmes, A Packet Of Polo’s, A 500ML Bottle Of Coca Cola, A Can Of Lynx and Pad and Pens) - And I double checked that I had everything on me before leaving the house, before making the ten minute walk from my house to the bus stop Next To The Cricketers Pub where I would wait for The Kings Ferry Coach to arrive, Once The Kings Ferry Coach Arrived, I got on the coach, sat behind Nicholas on the coach, AND THERE WERE NO PLUG CHARGERS!!!!!!!!!! There was no plug charger on the coach for Wigan Athletic, and it was exactly the case for Shrewsbury Town Away, surely for these long away trips there needs to be USB / Plug Chargers on the coach, and it is going to have to be the case of charging up our mobile phone’s whenever we get the chance to stop off at the services, or a local cafe in Bradford.

Nicholas had brought a power-pack with him and there is a good chance that Ann will bring her own power-packs with her as well, but it is infuriating not to have USB or plug chargers on the coach, especially when your going to be traveling to and from matches for a lengthy period of time, and everyone has got there own ways of passing the time traveling to and from matches, Reading A Book Or Newspaper, Listening To Music, Watching Films Or Playing On A Games Console, Or using your mobile phone to look up any news of the up and coming fixture between Bradford City and Gillingham, but the majority of those options mentioned take up a lot of power, especially watching films on a good resolution screen.

I didn’t watch The Netherlands V England Friendly - Great Result By England to win 1-0 away from home - But the one clip I did see which I thought was very amusing was The Netherlands Mascot gesturing The V Sign into the camera LINK IS HERE: https://twitter.com/Rosey_8/status/977272153828741120 - I then spoke with Nicholas about The Hollands & Blair Home Game Against Glebe On Wednesday Night, and Hollands & Blair won 2-1 against Glebe and there was a two footed lunge in The Second Half which should of seen Glebe go down to ten men, but only a yellow card was shown instead, If Wednesday Night’s Hollands & Blair V Glebe Match was being played on Football Manager, You would be playing A Direct Style Of Play, Defenders would be set to limited defensive roles, and passes would consist of long balls over the top, I know that on Football Manager, you can use the extended database to download the regional league’s in England, and I am sure that is a real challenge, And it’s things like downloading The Regional League’s and the scale of Football Manager, which is why I prefer Football Manager compared to FIFA.

Our next pick up point was out-side Priestfield Stadium, And Diane and Ann got on the coach and I mentioned to both of them that there were no chargers on the coach and Diane could not believe that there were no chargers on the coach for yet another long away trip, because there were no chargers on the coach for Wigan Athletic or Shrewsbury Town, and surely for any length of travel that exceeds 150 miles one way, there should be chargers on the coach, Ann mentioned that she has brought two power-packs with her, and we may have to do that for every away game from now on and just take as many power-packs as possible, just to make sure that even if there are no USB / Plug Chargers on the coach that we at least have enough power supply to last the entire day.

I mentioned to Diane that on Tuesday, I went to Priestfield Stadium to buy my tickets for Bradford City and Southend United Away, and as I was heading to Priestfield Stadium from Chatham Train Station, I saw Gemma, who mentioned to me that she was going to Southend United, and at the time, Gemma hadn’t brought her ticket for Southend United, and I mentioned at the time and I also sent another message On Facebook pointing out that Southend United V Gillingham will sell out, especially on Easter Monday, Diane also sent a message to Gemma mentioning that Gemma needs to make sure she books on the coach with Peter and not through Gillingham’s Ticket Office, because sometimes the booking list from the club does not match up with the booking list on the coach - Diane sent Gemma another message, to make absolutely sure that she had booked on, on the coach.

As for our own travel preparations, Kings Ferry are leaving from Priestfield Stadium at mid-day, and because it’s Easter Weekend and we know how bad Dartford Crossing is going to be, we may well leave as early as 9.30AM, because it could take us an hour just to get over Dartford Crossing and then you need to find somewhere to park, and I think there will be quite a few supporters who will travel via car and split the fuel costs three or four ways, and maybe make an entire day out of it and go somewhere else after The Southend United V Gillingham Game.

Once everyone was on the coach who was getting on the coach at Priestfield Stadium, we were on our way to the following pick up points, The Bus Stop next to The Strand, And Our Final Pick-Up Point was out-side Strood Sports Centre, and once everyone was on the coach, Peter went through all the formalities of the rules and regulations, and The Coach Prices for Adults and Children and no alcohol allowed on the coach - not that anyone would carry alcohol on the coach - and the travel costs were £31 for Adults, and thankfully there were two drivers on the coach which means that The Driving Hours Regulations will not affect us severely, because I think Drivers are allowed to drive for four hours non stop before having a break, and with two drivers, they can simply rotate to ensure that The Driving Regulation Rules are not broken.

We were only going to stop off at Peterborough Services before traveling non stop to Bradford, the plans might change depending on how good or how bad the traffic is going to be on the way up to Bradford City, and for supporters who are going to pay on the day, ticket prices increase by £5, which is another reason I like to buy my tickets in advance, When we traveled to Wigan Athletic via coach, every seat was taken, But For Bradford City, There is more room and we can spread out a bit, Also, With Southend United Away On Easter Monday, I can see a lot of supporters saving there money for the trip to Roots Hall, Diane asked me if Stephen was going to go to that game, I mentioned that Stephen is going to Oldham Athletic and that game will be the final away match he will be looking to go to this season.

I Re-Tweeted Gills Debate and Gills In The Blood’s Tweets for the score prediction options out of win, lose, score draw or goal-less draw, and I had predicted score draws in both polls and I had Bradford City V Gillingham down as A Draw In The NoirCat Prediction League as well, While Gillingham Football Club have tweeted about making sure we check for travel information and a safe trip for the supporters traveling to the game as well, Hopefully, we won’t hit too many traffic problems on the way up to Bradford City.

However, we did hit some traffic problems on The M25, because of an accident, we hit this traffic jam at 9.44AM, and it was 10.04AM when we had gone past where the accident was and thankfully, no-one was seriously injured and The M25 is always difficult to navigate at the best of times, Hopefully, that accident isn’t a sign of things to come and we experience travel difficulties getting to Bradford City, I have missed kick off two times for away games and come far too close to missing kick off on a number of occasions as well, Bradford City Away was one of the two grounds I went to where I missed kick off, AFC Bournemouth on the opening day of The 2008 / 2009 season was another of the grounds where I missed kick off, For Stockport County In The 2010 / 2011 Season, I remember we arrived at Stockport County at 2.55PM and arrived inside Edgeley Park just as Stockport County and Gillingham Kicked Off - Gillingham won 5-1 on that day.

Having got up at 5.30AM In The Morning, I decided to try and get some sleep on the coach on the way up to Bradford City, and when I woke up again, we had just arrived at Peterborough Services at 10.25AM, and we were going to stop here for thirty five minutes before we got back on the road again at 11AM, and once the coach had parked in the coach bay in Peterborough Services, we got off the coach and we could stretch our legs and move about a bit, Some Fans were going to buy some food and drink from McDonalds, I thought it was too early to get anything to eat.

I got talking with Louis about The Hollands & Blair Game On Wednesday Night and Hollands & Blair took both of there goals before half time really well before being pegged back to 2-1, and it was a case of can Hollands & Blair hold out for the win, despite some nervous moments in the closing stages of the match, Hollands & Blair held out for the win, I mentioned to Louis that I tried to find A Local Non League Game when Gillingham V Blackburn Rovers was called off, But I decided to go to Hollands & Blair because they are the closest football team from my house and when I was checking The Kent Football Fixtures in mid-week, I saw that Hollands & Blair were at home and I went along to Star Meadow and saw Hollands & Blair pick up three massive points.

I brought one 500ML Bottle Of Coca Cola for £2 from The NewsAgents before catching up with Diane and Ann, who found the one plug charger in Peterborough Services, and as we had plenty of time to spare before we had to get back on to the coach again, I thought it would be a good idea to charge my mobile phone up while we were waiting around, and once it got to 10.55AM, Diane, Ann and myself headed back to the coach, and once everyone was back on the coach again, we continued our journey from Peterborough Services towards Bradford City.

Ann checked how long it would take for us to get to Bradford City, and providing that there are no traffic problems, we should arrive at Bradford City around 1.15PM, and Peter came round to collect our travel money, and it was £31 pounds each, and I had the exact amount of money so that Peter didn’t have to give me nine pound in change for two twenty pound notes, and Ann messaged Peter at 6AM in the morning to double check what time the coach was leaving, because Diane messaged me to say that she was getting the coach at 7.30AM, Diane mentioned that she had 7.30AM stuck in her head, I added that I got up earlier, just in-case the coach was 7AM for me.

Peter jokingly added that Diane might be running her own cab service, as we will be traveling to Southend United and Bristol Rovers via car, But Oldham Athletic Away we will be on the coach, Peter added that there should be two coaches for Southend United, but quite a few supporters may well be planning to make there own journey to Roots Hall, Southend United Away should see a decent attendance, especially with Gillingham traveling to Southend United On Easter Monday.

As for how Gillingham will line up against Bradford City, I have predicted the following,,,,,,, Tomas Holy, Luke O’Neill, Max Ehmer, Gabriel Zakuani, Connor Ogilvie, Mark Byrne, Jake Hessenthaler, Callum Reilly, Lee Martin, Conor Wilkinson, Tom Eaves SUBS: Tom Hadler (GK), Ben Nugent, Bradley Garmston, Franck Moussa, Scott Wagstaff, Elliott List and Rhys Murphy - With Josh Parker on International Duty With Antigua & Barbuda, And Josh Parker Was Named Captain and scored for Antigua & Barbuda in there 3-2 win against Bermuda, Myles Weston was also on the score-sheet and Former Gillingham Right Back Mahlon Romeo also played in that match, while one of our youngsters, TJ Bramble also made his International Debut For Antigua & Barbuda.

There is the option of playing five in midfield and playing with a lone striker, But I would like to see Conor Wilkinson and Tom Eaves line up alongside each other in attack, Bradford City are not in the greatest of form and I think Gillingham’s Attack can cause Bradford City problems defensively, I think we will see how Gillingham will line up precisely once the team sheet is named, But Steve Lovell isn’t going to go with a defensive set up, of course, Gillingham will be organised defensively and we will be very structured and Gillingham will have a game plan, But we are going into matches willing to take the game to the opposition, and it is this approach from Steve Lovell which has seen Gillingham’s Form remarkably turnaround over the past five months.

Diane asked if Josh Parker was going to be back in time for The MK Dons Match On Thursday Night, and I said yes, because Antigua & Barbuda play against Jamaica on Sunday, Although, Josh Parker may well be named on the bench for The MK Dons Match as he will have done a lot of traveling playing for The Antigua & Barbuda National Team Against Bermuda and then Jamaica, As for who will be named on the bench, you can really flip a coin between Liam Nash and Rhys Murphy, while there is also the possibility that both strikers will be named amongst the substitutes bench.

Luke was the first person to tweet that he had arrived at Valley Parade at 12.40PM, and I saw some very good news regarding Hartlepool United Football Club, As Hartlepool Council have agreed to loan Hartlepool United £77,500 so that Hartlepool United can pay an up and coming salary bill, Gillingham also sent A Tweet From There Official Twitter Account to say that they have arrived at Bradford City at 1PM, just as we were approaching Bradford, and it took us thirty minutes to get through Bradford City Centre and we arrived out-side Valley Parade at 13.30PM, and once The Kings Ferry Coach had parked up and Peter said where the coach was going to be parked after the game, I double checked that I had everything I wanted to take with me on me before I got off the coach.

It looks like The Away Turnstiles are not open just yet, and I waited for Diane and Ann so that we can walk up the step hill so that we can go and get something to eat and drink, and while we walked up the hill and we were by The Players Entrance, Me, Diane and Ann got speaking with Max and his friend, and to move about out-side Valley Parade is difficult with the step hills around the ground, so it must be ten times worse for Max, who will be situated behind the goal while the away supporters will be down the side of the pitch, So Max will need to be careful not to celebrate too enthusiastically If / When Gillingham Score, Over the past few season’s, Gillingham Supporters have been situated behind the goal in The TL Dallas Stand, This Time However, Gillingham have been allocated the end few blocks in The Northern Commercials Stand.

Diane, Ann and Myself said c ya to Max, and we wished him luck navigating that steep hill, While we decided to go to the cafe to get something to eat and drink, and when we arrived at the cafe, inside was completely packed, and Diane and Ann decided to go to Tesco’s Express to get something to eat and drink instead, while I queued up inside the cafe, I am very surprised that the high street that is within touching distance of Bradford City Football Club hasn’t got cafe’s, restaurants and other businesses that would get a consistent level of trade off the back of Bradford City playing on a match day, especially with the 20,000+ crowds that Bradford City have been getting at Valley Parade in recent season’s.

Diane and Ann were heading back to Valley Parade, While I queued up and ordered A Bacon and Sausage Sandwich, A Small Portion Of Chip and A Can Of Coca Cola For £5.40, I sat down on the table closest to the counter and I got speaking with A Bradford City Supporter who is hoping that Simon Grayson leaves at the end of the season and someone else comes in and is appointed as Bradford City Manager, Simon Grayson’s Connections With Leeds United As A Player and A Manager was something this Bradford City Supporter could not overlook, He mentioned that there are rival matches with Doncaster Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town, But It Is Bradford City V Leeds United which is the biggest derby in Yorkshire, and Bradford V Leeds is huge in Rugby as well.

I mentioned that Gillingham do not have that level of rivalry because Gillingham are The Only Football League Team In Kent, If Maidstone United Played Gillingham In The Football League Again then those matches would be keenly contested, Gillingham V Charlton Athletic is probably the closest rivalry we have got, and while clubs like Southend United, Brentford, Leyton Orient, Millwall and Colchester United are close and there not far to travel to, playing against these team’s are not derby games in the same-way that Bradford City V Leeds United Is A Yorkshire Derby.

The Bradford City Supporter I spoke to then spoke about the players who have moved on in the summer, Stephen Darby, Billy Clarke, Rory McArdle, Mark Marshall and James Meredith, Players who Bradford City could do with in the squad now to try and turn there season around, Good Experienced Players Like James Hanson and Jon Stead were also mentioned and perhaps Bradford City have moved away from what made them a very good side who were consistently challenging for a playoff spot in League One, Last Season, Bradford City had an exceptional home form, while there home form has just not been good enough at all this season, Stuart McCall was and still is a legend at Bradford City, And The Bradford City Supporter I was speaking to was sad to see him go.

After I had finished my meal, I double checked I had everything on me before making my way towards Valley Parade, and as I was walking down the hill again, I spotted A Match-Day Programme Seller, And I brought One Match-Day Programme for £3, before continuing to walk down the hill and I made my way to where the away supporters entrance was in The Northern Commercials Stand, and one of the stewards checked my bag before I was allowed through, and I then went through the turnstiles before walking up the stairs to the away concourse, and I was inside the ground at 2.20PM.

I then spoke with Jim About The Hollands & Blair V Glebe Game On Wednesday Night and Jim went to Lordswood on Wednesday Night before watching Tonbridge Angels beat Billericay Town, And Jim mentioned that Hollands & Blair really needed the three points and how important that win was for them, James McDonald and Kush Campbell were on the score-sheet and although Glebe got a goal back in the second half, Hollands & Blair held on for all three points.

I then queued up to buy two 500ML Bottle’s Of Coca Cola for £4.40, before making my way pitch-side, and I have got to say that the playing surface at Valley Parade is truly awful, at least the game is on and there has been no talk of a possible postponement, But for anyone moaning about the pitch at Priestfield Stadium, Well, The Playing Surface At Priestfield Stadium is like Wembley Stadium compared to how awful the playing surface is at Bradford City, Bury’s Playing Surface At Gigg Lane was also dreadful and with The Football League not allowing AstroTurf Playing Surfaces, I think that stance needs to be withdrawn, Because Sutton United, Bromley and Maidstone United have all spoken about the community aspect that there playing surfaces provide them that A Grass Playing Surface cannot match, the revenue that these pitches bring to Sutton United, Bromley and Maidstone United have seen these clubs become more self sufficient, and also, more importantly, Home Matches cannot get postponed because of A Water-Logged Pitch, If Sutton United get promoted, they could get relegated into The Conference South because they do not have A Grass Playing Surface, At the very least, allow clubs in League’s One and Two to have all weather football pitches and give clubs the option to have Grass or AstroTurf.

Me, Diane and Ann headed up towards the back of the away end, and Ben caught up with me, and I spoke about The Hollands & Blair V Glebe Match, Ben went to Tonbridge Angels on Saturday and it was freezing, I tried to find another match to go to when Gillingham V Blackburn Rovers was postponed, but I then saw Hollands & Blair V Glebe on the fixtures list and I decided to go along to that game, As for any players who Gillingham need to have a look out for, The Gap Between The Southern Counties East Football League and League One is huge, to put this in context, Liam Nash was playing for Maldon & Tiptree In The Ryman Football League Division North, Which is two levels higher then the level that Hollands & Blair are playing at.

Eventually, We Saw Gillingham’s Team News On Twitter, And Gillingham Lined Up As Follows,,,,,,,,, Tomas Holy, Luke O’Neill, Max Ehmer, Gabriel Zakuani, Bradley Garmston, Jake Hessenthaler, Mark Byrne, Scott Wagstaff, Lee Martin, Callum Reilly, Conor Wilkinson SUBS: Tom Hadler (GK), Ben Nugent, Connor Ogilvie, Franck Moussa, Navid Nasseri, Liam Nash and Tom Eaves - Steve Lovell has decided to line up with A 4.2.3.1 Formation and opted to plug the midfield rather then line up with Tom Eaves and Conor Wilkinson in attack, Liam Nash is chosen instead of Rhys Murphy to be named amongst the substitutes bench, and Bradley Garmston is picked instead of Connor Ogilvie at Left Back.

I wasn’t expecting the change in formation from Steve Lovell, who, despite changing the formation a lot during his time as Gillingham Manager, has often picked systems that has seen two strikers start for Gillingham from the get go, perhaps, Josh Parker being called up for International Duty has seen those plans change and Steve Lovell had his mind made up as soon as he knew that Josh Parker was not going to be in the squad for The Bradford City Match, But looking at who starts for Bradford City, and there are still players of exceptional quality in there starting line up, Nicky Law, Dominic Poleon, Matthew Kilgallon, Romain Vincelot, and Stephen Warnock, and Bradford City have certainly got the personal to cause Gillingham a lot of problems defensively, despite there poor run of form, this is still a very good Bradford City Side, I had this match down as a draw and I would take a point if offered to me now, But all three points is what we are looking for here.

And Gillingham have got a good run of results at Valley Parade, Two wins and four draws from our previous six matches, our last defeat at Valley Parade was The 1-0 when Lance Cronin was in goal for Gillingham and Zesh Rehman was on the substitutes bench for Bradford City that day, Gillingham almost lost to Bradford City in The 2014 / 2015 Season, But Antonio German equalised for Gillingham with the last kick of the match to rescue a point - I am still convinced that Jermaine McGlashan scored for Gillingham that day - But when you consider that Gillingham have often struggled away from home in some season’s compared to others, to be six matches unbeaten at one football stadium is quite an impressive run of results.

Brad then caught up with me, and I mentioned that we left from Priestfield Stadium at 8AM and other then the traffic difficulties on The M25, we have had a good trip up to Bradford City, Brad then mentioned that at least we made it in time for kick off and that was the most important thing, We were confident that Gillingham can get something out of the game against Bradford City, but not over-confident, because we know that this is still a very decent and very strong Bradford City Side that Gillingham are up against, Every game between now and the end of the season is going to be difficult, Bradford City are hoping to get a result against Gillingham to keep there playoff hopes alive, MK Dons are in The League One Relegation Zone, Southend United have improved under Chris Powell’s Management, and Doncaster Rovers will be a very difficult test, after these four matches, we will know precisely what Gillingham will be competing for at the end of the season.

Both teams came out of the tunnel ready for kick off and the atmosphere raises in volume inside Valley Parade as both team’s line up in-front of The Co-Operative Stand for the pre-match warm up, and after the pre-match warm up was concluded, Gillingham came over to where the away supporters were situated inside Valley Parade and the players were applauded before kick off, Gillingham will be kicking towards The Kop In The First Half, and Bradford City were kicking towards The T L Dallas Stand, both team’s were ready for kick off, and hopefully, Gillingham can build on that impressive 3-1 win against Portsmouth with a draw or a win against Bradford City this afternoon - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FIRST HALF:

And It’s Gillingham who create the first half decent goal-scoring opportunity of the match within the first minute of the game, Conor Wilkinson shows great strength in attack to retain possession of the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Bradley Garmston down the left side of the pitch, And Bradley Garmston uses his pace to take on Stephen Warnock, and Bradley Garmston has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross which is routinely saved by Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle, Bradley Garmston is playing further forward as A Left Winger, With Callum Reilly lining up at Left Back.

However, In The Second Minute Of The Match, And Bradford City could of scored in fortuitous circumstances, Tomas Holy has completely mis-kicked the ball up into the air and there is a chance for Bradford City to create a goal-scoring opportunity out of nothing as the ball bounces in Dominic Poleon’s direction, And Dominic Poleon tries to take on Max Ehmer, who manages to get himself in-between the ball and Dominic Poleon and Max Ehmer manages to shield the ball out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick - That mis-kicked clearance from Tomas Holy is a warning sign that Gillingham need to be very careful when the ball bounces inside our penalty area, because the playing surface at Valley Parade is dreadful, But the playing surface closest to The T L Dallas Stand is a lot worse compared to what the playing surface is like towards The Kop.

The first foul of the match was awarded in Bradford City’s Favour, As Lee Martin is controversially penalised for his challenge on Tony McMahon, And From The Resulting Free Kick, Nicky Law has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the far post which is too long, and Jake Hessenthaler chests the ball under control right near the byline, and Jake Hessenthaler takes a touch to control the ball before playing a short pass forwards to Luke O’Neill, and Luke O’Neill clears the ball long down the line and Lee Martin’s persistence chasing the loose ball forces Nathaniel Knight-Percival to kick the ball into touch at the expense of conceding a throw on for Gillingham - I think with how bad the playing surface is at Valley Parade, then kicking the ball long into the channels and trying to win throw on’s in Bradford City’s Final Third may have to be the way Gillingham have to manage the dreadful playing conditions.

And From The Resulting Throw On, Gillingham create a half decent goal-scoring opportunity, Mark Byrne almost picks out Max Ehmer with an dangerous long throw hurled into Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Nathaniel Knight-Percival has managed to header the ball clear and Nicky Law has managed to help the ball further away from Bradford City’s Goal, and there was the possibility of an counter attacking breaking in Bradford City’s Favour, But Callum Reilly has got to the ball first and fired the ball from left to the right side of the pitch, and Scott Wagstaff on the stretch manages to pass the ball through to Max Ehmer, who was flagged for standing in an offside position and there was no second guessing required, Max Ehmer was offside.

Six Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham create another half chance to try and break the deadlock, Gillingham Have A Throw On Down The Left Side Of The Pitch, And Callum Reilly has thrown the ball square to Jake Hessenthaler, who takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Bradley Garmston, who runs forward in possession of the ball before threading the ball through to Lee Martin on the over-lap, And Lee Martin has managed to get himself through down by the byline on the left side of the pitch, and Lee Martin’s Pull Back has deflected off Romain Vincelot, and the deflection runs kindly through to Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle.

And From Here, Colin Doyle has kicked the ball long down the left side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Right and Max Ehmer takes no chances and headers the ball out of play for A Bradford City Throw On, And From The Resulting Throw On, Alex Gilliead throws the ball short to Shay McCartan, And Shay McCartan plays a one touch layoff out-wide to Alex Gillead, who has fired in an early low cross which is easily collected by Tomas Holy, And From Here, Tomas Holy has kicked the ball long down-field towards Conor Wilkinson and the ball just about runs all the way through to Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle.

Nine Minutes Into The Match, And Dominic Poleon is penalised for his challenge on Gabriel Zakuani In Gillingham’s Final Third, And It’s one of those free kick’s where Gabriel Zakuani isn’t going anywhere and Bradford City Supporters were infuriated with the free kick decision awarded in Gillingham’s Favour, And In The Same Minute, Gillingham create a half decent goal-scoring opportunity, As Bradley Garmston cuts inside into an central position on the pitch, and from twenty five yards out, Bradley Garmston has dragged his shot wide of Colin Doyle’s Right Hand Post, Bradley Garmston playing on the left wing has given Bradford City one or two problems as Bradley Garmston is up against Stephen Warnock down the left side of the pitch.

A Minute Later, And Conor Wilkinson does brilliantly to skilfully go past two Bradford City Players and that piece of skill allowed Conor Wilkinson to run through on goal, and Conor Wilkinson’s Driven Effort Towards Goal Is Blocked and deflected out of play off Romain Vincelot For A Gillingham Throw On Down The Right Side Of The Pitch In Bradford City’s Final Third, And From The Resulting Throw On, Mark Byrne throws a short throw down the line towards Scott Wagstaff and the ball takes a nick off A Bradford City Player, and Scott Wagstaff was shielding the ball out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, But Referee Ross Joyce points for A Goal-Kick, When Scott Wagstaff was convinced that Gillingham should have been awarded a corner kick.

Bradford City are causing Gillingham Problems In The Thirteenth Minute, As Max Ehmer on two separate occasions has blocked two efforts on goal from Shay McCartan, and from the second shot from Shay McCartan, the ball ricochets into Callum Guy’s Path, And Callum Guy’s Low Cross / Shot from the left side of Gillingham’s Penalty Area is charged down by Callum Reilly and Bradford City have been awarded a corner kick, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Alex Gillead has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross which Max Ehmer has managed to header clear and away from danger, and Lee Martin has tracked back down the left side of the pitch to get on to the defensive clearance from Max Ehmer, and Lee Martin’s short pass is under-hit and cut out by Callum Guy, who is on to the loose ball and passes the ball out-wide to Alex Gillead, and Alex Gillead has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross which is partially cleared away from danger by Gabriel Zakuani, Both Jake Hessenthaler and Mark Byrne close down the loose ball on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, and Nicky Law passes the ball out-wide to Stephen Warnock, who kicks the ball against Luke O’Neill to win Bradford City A Throw On, And From The Resulting Throw On, Max Ehmer has got on to the loose ball first and kicked the ball long down-field, but the pressure is just relentless from Bradford City, as Romain Vincelot has time and space to bring the ball under his control and Romain Vincelot passes the ball out-wide to Stephen Warnock down the right side of the pitch, and Stephen Warnock has whipped in an early in-swinging cross which almost picks out Alex Gillead at the back post, and there was Jake Hessenthaler to header the ball clear and away from danger - but only just.

Fifteen Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham should have been awarded a throw on, But Bradford City are awarded a free kick instead, as Callum Reilly is penalised for his challenge on Alex Gillead, And Bradford City have been awarded a free kick down the right side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Final Third, And From The Resulting Free Kick, Alex Gillead has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Nathaniel Knight-Percival climbs highest to direct a looping header on goal which is comfortable for Tomas Holy to save, And From Here, Gillingham Turn Defence Into Attack, As Tomas Holy throws the ball out-wide to Bradley Garmston down the right side of the pitch, And Bradley Garmston manages to keep the ball in play and run down the right flank before running slightly into an central position as Bradley Garmston gets closer to Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Bradley Garmston cuts inside to evade the challenge from Nicky Law before firing a driven effort towards goal which clears Bradford City’s Crossbar by some considerable distance, But it is at least a half chance for Gillingham and something for The Gills to build on.

And something to build on is precisely what happened, Because Gillingham had a half chance in The Seventeenth Minute Of The Match to try and break the deadlock, Tomas Holy has kicked the ball long down-field for Gillingham and Tony McMahon and Nathaniel Knight-Percival both challenge for the high ball with Conor Wilkinson, and although Tony McMahon wins the initial aerial challenge, the second ball drops to Conor Wilkinson, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Conor Wilkinson plays the ball through to Lee Martin on the over-lap, and Conor Wilkinson’s pass was slightly over-hit through to Lee Martin, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Lee Martin is trying some fancy foot-work to whip in a cross, pretending to whip in a cross on the first occasion, before whipping in a low in-swinging cross and Tony McMahon has sliced the ball up into the air and the ball does deflect out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick and that deflection could have easily gone into the back of the net - Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle, and Scott Wagstaff were both looking to challenge for the loose ball, But the ball had already gone out of play for a corner kick.

And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Bradley Garmston has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Max Ehmer gets a faint touch to flick the ball on and the ball ricochets off Callum Reilly on to Romain Vincelot and the ball narrowly deflects behind for another Gillingham Corner Kick, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Bradley Garmston has whipped in a high and hanging cross towards the back-stick to try and pick out Luke O’Neill and Alex Gillead has managed to header the ball clear and out of play for A Gillingham Throw On, And From The Resulting Throw On, Mark Byrne has hurled in an dangerous long throw and Romain Vincelot has managed to win the first aerial challenge and Callum Guy then wins the second aerial challenge and Jake Hessenthaler beats Nicky Law to the loose ball to play the ball out-wide to Mark Byrne, who plays a first time pass back to Callum Reilly, And Callum Reilly takes a touch to control the ball before cutting inside into an more central position on the pitch, and Callum Reilly goes for goal with a driven effort towards goal from twenty yards out, And Callum Reilly’s Driven Effort towards goal only just about clears Bradford City’s Crossbar and that was another decent goal-scoring opportunity for The Gills.

Twenty Minutes Into The Match, And Shay McCartan is penalised for his challenge on Gabriel Zakuani, And From Here, Gillingham win themselves another corner kick, Tomas Holy kicks the resulting free kick down the line towards Scott Wagstaff, who is looking to take on Alex Gilliead, and Scott Wagstaff forces The Bradford City Defender to concede a corner kick, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Bradley Garmston has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and the ball is cleared back into Bradley Garmston’s direction, and rather then let the ball go out of play for A Gillingham Throw On In Bradford City’s Final Third, Bradley Garmston takes one touch to control the ball and another touch to whip in a fantastic cross and Gabriel Zakuani climbs highest to header the ball just wide of Colin Doyle’s right hand post, and Nathaniel Knight-Percival may have just done enough to prevent Gabriel Zakuani from heading the ball on target, I actually thought that Colin Doyle had made the save at the time, but it is more likely that Colin Doyle stopped the ball from going out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, rather then being forced to make a save.

Twenty Two Minutes Into The Match, And Conor Wilkinson has been picked out by Callum Reilly with a long pass down the left side of the pitch, and Conor Wilkinson takes one touch to control the ball before running down towards the byline, and Conor Wilkinson has pulled the ball back across the face of goal and there was no Gillingham Player in the penalty area to get on the end of Conor Wilkinson’s low cross and this perhaps shows the disadvantage of playing one up-front, even though Gillingham have been very solid throughout the match to date so far.

And in the same minute, Luke O’Neill shows some fancy foot-work to evade two challenges before being brought to the floor from Callum Guy’s challenge, And Gillingham have the chance to create a decent goal-scoring opportunity from the resulting free kick, unfortunately, Lee Martin and Luke O’Neill were not on the same wavelength, as Luke O’Neill was looking to play the ball down the line towards Lee Martin, and Lee Martin was perhaps expecting Luke O’Neill to whip in a cross, and the ball has gone out of play for A Bradford City Goal-Kick.

Twenty Three Minutes Into The Match, And Gabriel Zakuani has had to shield a long ball towards Dominic Poleon out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick, and Gabriel Zakuani also had to time his challenge to perfection on Nicky Law and clear the ball out of play for A Bradford City Throw On, Gabriel Zakuani is one of many players who are out of contract at the end of the season, and I really do hope that we will get to see Gabriel Zakuani tied down to A Two Year Contract Extension and we will hear an announcement regarding Gabriel Zakuani’s Contract Extension over the next few weeks.

Despite Gillingham putting Bradford City under some considerable pressure defensively with Gabriel Zakuani heading Bradley Garmston’s Corner Kick Wide, And Callum Reilly firing over from distance, Bradford City are starting to ask questions of Gillingham Defensively, As Alex Gilliead uses his pace to take on Callum Reilly down the right side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Left - And Alex Gilliead has whipped in an fantastic low cross which Max Ehmer has managed to block, and the ball ricochets back into Alex Gilliead’s Path, But Mark Byrne was able to intercept the loose ball and clear the ball long down-field.

But that clearance from Mark Byrne is only a temporary reprieve for The Gills, Because Bradford City get themselves on the front-foot in the second stage of the same attack, Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle has possession of the ball, and Colin Doyle has thrown the ball forwards to Nathaniel Knight-Percival, who has run forward in possession of the ball up to the halfway line, and Nathaniel Knight-Percival has passed the ball forwards to Dominic Poleon, who controls the ball on the half-turn and runs forward towards Gillingham’s Goal, And Dominic Poleon passes the ball square to Shay McCartan, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Shay McCartan flicks the ball over Gabriel Zakuani and Max Ehmer and Shay McCartan passes the ball out-wide to Stephen Warnock, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Stephen Warnock is waiting for some movement before passing the ball short to Nicky Law, who is being closely marked by Mark Byrne, And Nicky Law lays the ball off to Stephen Warnock, And Stephen Warnock takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball square to Shay McCartan on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Shay McCartan has flicked the ball over Max Ehmer’s Head first time towards Dominic Poleon, who gets himself in-between the ball and Gabriel Zakuani, And Dominic Poleoen takes one touch to control the ball, and another to hit a shot on the turn which Gabriel Zakuani has managed to block, but the ball runs all the way through to Tomas Holy, who has been forced to make a routine save.

After Tomas Holy has been forced to make a routine save, Tomas Holy kicks the ball forward towards Conor Wilkinson, who does brilliantly to retain possession of the ball, and Conor Wilkinson does brilliantly to flick the ball over two Bradford City Players and although Alex Gilliead has managed to time his challenge to perfection on Conor Wilkinson on the halfway line, Alex Gilliead’s challenge has been diverted out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, and you have got to say that Conor Wilkinson has done brilliantly to win Gillingham A Corner Kick Out Of Nothing, and from the resulting corner kick, Bradley Garmston has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Nathaniel Knight-Percival has managed to header the ball partially clear down towards the left side in Bradford City’s Final Third, And Jake Hessenthaler is penalised for his challenge on

Alex Gilliead, and Bradford City have been awarded a defensive free kick in there own half of the pitch.

And From The Resulting Free Kick, Colin Doyle has kicked the ball long down-field and Max Ehmer has won the initial aerial challenge to header the ball forwards up towards the halfway line and Conor Wilkinson losses out to Matthew Kilgallon challenging for the ball in the air on the halfway line, and Alex Gilliead hooks the ball over his shoulder to kick the ball long down the right flank and Shay McCartan wins the initial aerial challenge and Mark Byrne headers the ball away from goal and Matthew Kilgallon plays a short pass down the line towards Alex Gilliead, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Alex Gilliead looks to pick out Dominic Poleon with a threaded through-ball, But Mark Byrne has made a crucial block and Gabriel Zakuani kicks the ball clear towards the halfway line, But Romain Vincelot has won the aerial challenge and headed the ball back to where Gabriel Zakuani has cleared the ball from, and Callum Guy gets on to the loose ball, turns past Callum Reilly and runs towards goal in possession of the ball, And Callum Reilly has clipped Callum Guy and Bradford City have been awarded a free kick which I thought looked soft at the time, but looking at the highlights, Callum Reilly’s challenge deserved to be penalised for a foul, And From The Resulting Free Kick, Tony McMahon has curled the ball over Gillingham’s Defensive Wall and into the side netting by Tomas Holy’s Left Hand Post - I think Tomas Holy had that effort on goal from Tony McMahon covered, but I have got to say that Tomas Holy dived very late, and had Tony McMahon’s effort on goal been on target, then Bradford City could have taken the lead.

Thirty One Minutes Into The Match, And Nathaniel Knight-Percival picks out Dominic Poleon with a long ball over the top and had Dominic Poleon not trod on the ball then The Bradford City Striker would have been in on goal one on one with Tomas Holy, But Dominic Poleon still manages to get a shot away on goal which is blocked and charged down by Jake Hessenthaler, and Mark Byrne gets to the loose ball and plays the ball forward to Max Ehmer, And Max Ehmer takes no chances and kicks the ball out of play for A Bradford City Throw On, And it is a case of anywhere will do for Gillingham and getting the ball clear is better then allowing Bradford City to create A Goal-Scoring Opportunity.

However, Bradford City did create a goal-scoring opportunity from the resulting throw on, as Nathaniel Knight-Percival throws a long throw down the line and Luke O’Neill and Shay McCartan both miss the ball, but the ball runs through to Stephen Warnock, who just about gets to the loose ball ahead of Scott Wagstaff, But Scott Wagstaff does time his challenge on Shay McCartan to perfection, but the loose ball runs all the way through to Nathaniel Knight-Percival, And Nathaniel Knight-Percival clips a long pass down the line and Stephen Warnock flicks the ball first time into Dominic Poleon’s Path, And Dominic Poleon gets to the loose ball ahead of Gabriel Zakuani, And Dominic Poleon headers the ball out-wide to Stephen Warnock, who plays a first time pass centrally towards Nicky Law, who manages to flick the ball over Gabriel Zakuani’s head to try and pick out Dominic Poleon, And Callum Reilly is in the right place at the right time to stop Dominic Poleon from getting a shot off towards goal, but the chance is still there for Bradford City, as Alex Gilliead tee’s up Shay McCartan, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Shay McCartan see’s his first time driven effort towards goal blocked by Bradley Garmston, and the loose ball ricochets into Dominic Poleon’s path, who spins past Jake Hessenthaler and fires a fiercely struck shot wide - A Very Scrappy Goal-Scoring Opportunity, But Bradford City are starting to show sign’s of dominance after an impressive start to this match from The Gills, that effort from Dominic Poleon is a warning sign for Gillingham to try and step things up and try and get on the front-foot between now and half time.

Thirty Four Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham win themselves a free kick in a promising position on the pitch, Conor Wilkinson has possession of the ball for Gillingham down the right side of the pitch in Bradford City’s Final Third, And Conor Wilkinson passes the ball back to Luke O’Neill, And Luke O’Neill whips in an dangerous first time cross and Matthew Kilgallon has managed to clear the ball away from danger and Max Ehmer gets to the loose ball first and headers the ball forward towards Bradford City’s Penalty Area, and Conor Wilkinson wins the aerial challenge to try and flick the ball on towards Lee Martin, But Romain Vincelot was there to make the block, And Matthew Kilgallon has kicked the ball long down-field and although Dominic Poleon has managed to get to the loose ball first, a poor first touch from The Bradford City Striker, allows Luke O’Neill to get to the loose ball, and Luke O’Neill passes the ball down the line towards Scott Wagstaff, who skilfully manages to take on Nathaniel Knight-Percival and The Bradford City Centre Back is penalised for a clumsy foul on Scott Wagstaff, And Gillingham are awarded a free kick in a promising position on the pitch, and from the resulting free kick, Bradley Garmston and Lee Martin are both standing over the loose ball, and Lee Martin has whipped in an fantastic in-swinging cross and Conor Wilkinson does well to get to the ball first and try and header the ball into the right corner of the net, But Colin Doyle dives to his left to make a very good save and gather the ball at the first attempt - A Chance For Gillingham to potentially open the scoring there.

And From Here, Bradford City turn defence into attack very quickly, Goalkeeper Colin Doyle rolls the ball out to Romain Vincelot, and Romain Vincelot takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball forward to Nicky Law, and Nicky Law squares the ball to Callum Guy on the halfway line in a left from central position on the pitch, And Callum Guy is allowed to run forward in possession of the ball, and Callum Guy has tried to pick out the bottom right corner of the net with a curling effort which only just narrowly went wide of Tomas Holy’s Left Hand Post, and that was a huge goal-scoring opportunity for Bradford City, and Gillingham cannot just sit off and allow Bradford City to try there luck from distance.

A Minute Later, And Nathaniel Knight-Percival is penalised for his challenge on Mark Byrne, And from the resulting free kick, Max Ehmer’s quick pass through to Scott Wagstaff is intercepted by Callum Guy and the loose ball runs into Tony McMahon’s Path, And Tony McMahon takes a touch to control the ball before squaring the ball to Matthew Kilgallon, and Matthew Kilgallon just about retains possession of the ball despite Bradley Garmston’s Challenge, and Jake Hessenthaler then challenges The Bradford City Centre Back and Bradley Garmston and Alex Gilliead are competing for the ball on the touchline as the ball goes out of play, and Gillingham are awarded the throw on, And Bradley Garmston quickly throws the ball to Lee Martin in an central position on the pitch, And Lee Martin takes a touch to control the ball, and Lee Martin takes another few touches in possession of the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Scott Wagstaff down the right side of the pitch in Bradford City’s Final Third, And Scott Wagstaff takes a touch to control the ball before looking to take on Nathaniel Knight-Percival, And Scott Wagstaff cuts inside into an more central position before curling the ball just wide of the top left corner of the net - And Scott Wagstaff wasn’t far away from opening the scoring for Gillingham and that was a decent goal-scoring opportunity for The Gills.

And From Here, Gillingham created two decent goal-scoring opportunities in quick succession, the first opportunity see’s a long ball from Max Ehmer almost pick out Lee Martin with a long ball over the top and Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle has to dive on to the loose ball to ensure that Lee Martin does not open the scoring for Gillingham, But It Is The Goal-Scoring Opportunity In The Thirty Eighth Minute Of The Match Where Gillingham should have at least hit the target, And From Here, Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle has kicked the ball long down the right side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Left - And Gabriel Zakauni has managed to make a crucial interception and Jake Hessenthaler has got on to the loose ball and poked the ball down the left flank towards Bradley Garmston, who has managed to keep the ball in play by heading the ball down the line and Bradley Garmston then has the pace to get on the end of his own headed pass, and Bradley Garmston uses his pace to run down the left wing before cutting inside on to the edge of Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Bradley Garmston picks out Scott Wagstaff with a pass across Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Scott Wagstaff takes a touch to control the ball before dragging his shot wide of Colin Doyle’s Right Hand Post - I thought that Scott Wagstaff should of gone for goal with a first time effort, and that is another goal-scoring opportunity for The Gills.

Forty One Minutes Into The Match, And Gabriel Zakuani does brilliantly to stop Dominic Poleon getting on the end of Nicky Law’s through-ball, and Gabriel Zakuani shields the ball out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick, And In The Forty Third Minute Of The Match, Stephen Warnock has taken Scott Wagstaff out down the right side of the pitch and Gillingham are awarded a free kick and Stephen Warnock is the first player to be booked by Referee Ross Joyce, And Gillingham have been awarded a free kick in a very promising position on the pitch, But before that free kick can be taken, Callum Reilly is down on the deck and requires treatment, and with not long until half time, Callum Reilly can always get some treatment at half time and continue playing in the second half, But Callum Reilly’s injury is serious enough for him to be substituted straightaway and Connor Ogilvie comes on to replace Callum Reilly, And From The Resulting Free Kick, Luke O’Neill has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back-stick, and although Max Ehmer has managed to get the ball under control, The Linesman Down The Near Side has his flag raised for offside.

Bradley Garmston is penalised for his challenge on Romain Vincelot, But Gillingham have a penalty appeal turned down just as we approach the first minute of stoppage time, Luke O’Neill has picked out Scott Wagstaff with a long pass down the line and Scott Wagstaff takes a touch to control the ball before threading the ball through to Conor Wilkinson, who has gone to ground inside Bradford City’s Penalty Area and the questions are being asked whether that was or wasn’t a penalty kick, I wasn’t sure if that was a penalty kick to be honest, It didn’t look clear cut at the time and there has been no highlights of the incident that I can look at which suggests whether this was or wasn’t a penalty kick for Gillingham.

And The Final Noteworthy Moment Of The First Half Is Gabriel Zakuani making sure that Dominic Poleon doesn’t get on the end of Matthew Kilgallon’s long ball down-field and Gabriel Zakuani has shielded the ball out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick, and after two minutes of stoppage time, Referee Ross Joyce blows the half time whistle and both Bradford City and Gillingham go in at the break with the score-line still goal-less.

HALF TIME: BRADFORD CITY 0 - 0 GILLINGHAM

I sent the following two tweets at half time ONE: HALF TIME: BRADFORD CITY 0-0 GILLINGHAM - Wagstaff and Garmston have switched flanks in the first half and Reilly was playing at LB, Reilly saw his header saved by Doyle and Wagstaff has had two fantastic goal-scoring opportunities, second chance should have been hit first time AND TWO: Bradford City have managed to get in and behind once or twice but the playing surface at Valley Parade is terrible, If Gillingham can step it up in the second half, there is a very good chance that Gillingham can go on and win this match, Eaves may well come on around 60 mins.

I also shared the tweets pre-match about Adam Barrett getting a decent reception from Southend United Supporters before kick off, and Ben Chapman was starting for Faversham Town, Adam Barrett was out-standing for Gillingham in our League Two Championship Winning Season and Adam Barrett played a crucial role in helping Gillingham retain our League One Status the following season as well, As For Ben Chapman, It was great to see Ben Chapman start for Faversham Town, and we are obviously hoping that the young midfielder starts for Faversham Town on a regular basis while he is out on loan.

Because Of Callum Reilly’s Enforced Substitution, I cannot see Steve Lovell making a second change at half time, But Tom Eaves can always come on around the hour mark if we need a goal to break the deadlock, But the one thing Gillingham have to be wary about is not throwing the game away, because Gillingham have created plenty of goal-scoring opportunities, even though Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle hasn’t been seriously tested in-between the sticks, But Bradford City are not going to be second best all game, they are going to have a spell in this match where they are on top, and Gillingham have to keep the score-line level when Bradford City are in the ascendency.

Also, I think kicking towards The Kop must be a big motivating factor for Bradford City, because The Kop is two tiered and I can see Bradford City Supporters behind the goal playing there part in rallying there side on to pick up all three points, It’s the same whenever Gillingham kick towards The Rainham End In The Second Half, that always gets the best out of The Gills whenever we’re having a disappointing first half, Hopefully, It’s Gillingham and not Bradford City who put in the performance levels to give there supporters something to cheer about at the full time whistle.

Both teams came out on to the pitch ready for the second half, Connor Ogilvie was out on the pitch much earlier then his team mates to warm up at half time to make sure he was warmed up for the second half, Bradford City Manager Simon Grayson hasn’t made any changes to the team he named at the very start of the match, But If Bradford City do need to make any changes, then I am sure that Simon Grayson has got one or two players on the bench who can come on and make an impact.

SECOND HALF:

The first noteworthy moment of The Second Half was Romain Vincelot being penalised for his challenge on Lee Martin, and Gillingham have been awarded a free kick down the right side of the pitch on the halfway line, and from the resulting free kick, Max Ehmer has kicked a high and diagonal ball from right to left and Matthew Kilgallon was in the right place at the right time to header the ball clear and away from danger, With Gillingham now kicking towards The TL Dallas Stand, the playing surface down this end of the pitch is a lot worse then the playing surface closest to The Kop Stand, And this could well see Gillingham change every so slightly the way we create goal-scoring opportunities, because the playing surface at Valley Parade is dreadful.

However, In The Forty Eighth Minute Of The Match, Bradford City open the scoring and take the lead, Matthew Kilgallon has possession of the ball for Bradford City on the halfway line, And Matthew Kilgallon takes a touch to control the ball before attempting to pick out Dominic Poleon with a long pass down the line, But Luke O’Neill is in the right place at the right time to intercept the ball, and Luke O’Neill takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball down the right side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Half To Scott Wagstaff, who tries to spin past Nathaniel Knight-Percival, and The Bradford City Defender manages to intercept the ball, but it looks like for a moment that the loose ball would run through to Conor Wilkinson, But Nathaniel Knight-Percival times his challenge to perfection on The Gillingham Striker and Nathaniel Knight-Percival also times his challenge on Mark Byrne to perfection as well, and the loose ball falls to Nicky Law, who just about beats Conor Wilkinson to the loose ball and Dominic Poleon passes the ball back to Tony McMahon, who takes a touch to control the ball before clipping the ball out-wide to Stephen Warnock, who takes a touch to control the ball down the left side of the pitch in Gillingham’s Final Third, And Stephen Warnock passes the ball to Dominic Poleon in an central position on the pitch on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, And Dominic Poleon gets the ball under control before shifting the ball on to his right foot and Dominic Poleon has fired the ball into the bottom left corner of the net and there was absolutely nothing that Tomas Holy could have done about that - great strike, and a great goal from Dominic Poleon.

That goal was frustrating to concede because Gillingham were slightly on top in The First Half, But the old saying is that you have to score when you are the more dominate side in the game, and Gillingham failed to score in the first half, and Bradford City have opened the scoring with the first goal-scoring opportunity in The Second Half, What was especially annoying about that goal was the number of challenges that Gillingham put in from Mark Byrne, Conor Wilkinson and Scott Wagstaff trying to go past Nathaniel Knight-Percival, and the ball just would not bounce in Gillingham’s Favour, And Now, Gillingham have got a lot of work to do to try and get something out of this match, the only consolation conceding early on in The Second Half is that there is plenty of time remaining for Gillingham to get something out of this match, I predicted A Draw In The NoirCat Prediction League, and given that Gillingham are a goal down, I would gladly take a draw now.

Forty Nine Minutes Into The Match, And Romain Vincelot is penalised for his challenge on Bradley Garmston, But it is in the same minute where Bradford City manage to create another decent goal-scoring opportunity, as Gillingham are looking to get themselves back on to level terms immediately, Max Ehmer kicks the ball long down-field and Conor Wilkinson has chested the ball under control before playing the ball out-wide to Scott Wagstaff down the right side of the pitch in Bradford City’s Final Third, And Scott Wagstaff turns back on himself to retain possession of the ball, And Scott Wagstaff passes the ball back to Mark Byrne, who takes a touch to control possession of the ball, And Mark Byrne tries to pick Luke O’Neill out with a clipped pass over the top, But Nathaniel Knight-Percival is in the right place at the right time to header the ball clear, And Dominic Poleon has managed to keep the ball in play, And Dominic Poleon runs down the left flank in possession of the ball, And Dominic Poleon runs from Bradford City’s Final Third up towards the halfway line in possession of the ball, And Dominic Poleon passes the ball out-wide to Stephen Warnock, who has made a supporting run alongside Dominic Poleon, And Stephen Warnock just about gets to the loose ball ahead of Max Ehmer and passes the ball inside centrally to Callum Guy, who takes two touches to control the ball, And Callum Guy tries his luck from twenty five yards out, But Callum Guy’s Shot lacks any power and rolls comfortably into Tomas Holy’s Grasp - A Routine Save From Tomas Holy, But A Save That The Gillingham Goalkeeper has still had to make.

Fifty Two Minutes Into The Match, And Jake Hessenthaler is down on the deck requiring treatment, Bradford City Supporters were furious because they believed they should have been awarded a free kick, and after getting some treatment from physio Gary Hemens, Jake Hessenthaler was back on his feat and OK to continue playing, and once play can resume, Dominic Poleon has managed to get through down by the byline and Dominic Poleon kicks the ball against Gabriel Zakuani to win A Throw On For Bradford City right in the far corner, And From The Resulting Throw On, Alex Gilliead throws the ball short to Callum Guy, who takes one touch to control the ball, and another touch to try and whip in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the near post which has been charged down by Connor Ogilvie at the expense of conceding a corner kick for Bradford City, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Nicky Law has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the near post which is headed clear by Connor Ogilvie straight back to Nicky Law, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Nicky Law has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross with plenty of pace which is flicked on by Shay McCartan, and Shay McCartan’s flick on ricochets off Max Ehmer and just wide for another corner kick for Bradford City.

And From the Resulting Corner Kick, Nicky Law has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back-stick and Luke O’Neill has done really well to flick the ball away from goal with a decent defensive header, but the loose ball falls kindly into Nathaniel Knight-Percival’s Path, And Nathaniel Knight-Percival has whipped in a very disappointing cross from Bradford City’s Point Of View, and the ball has gone out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick, and the pressure on to Gillingham’s Goal has been relieved for now, as long as the score-line remains at 1-0, then Gillingham have still got a chance of getting something out of this match.

Fifty Eight Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham have the opportunity to try and get themselves back on to level terms, Conor Wilkinson is fouled by Callum Guy twenty five yards from goal, But Referee Ross Joyce waves play on as Bradley Garmston has possession of the ball, and Bradley Garmston has fired an driven effort well wide of Bradford City’s Goal by some considerable distance and every Gillingham Supporter thought there was going to be some retrospective punishment for Callum Guy, who had fouled Conor Wilkinson, But Referee Ross Joyce has decided not to book The Bradford City Midfielder, And A Minute Later, Max Ehmer has kicked a diagonal cross-field pass towards Bradley Garmston and Romain Vincelot has headed the ball out of play for A Gillingham Throw On In Bradford City’s Final Third, And From The Resulting Throw On, Mark Byrne has thrown the ball short to Bradley Garmston, who takes a touch to control the ball before firing in an dangerous low cross which ricochets off Romain Vincelot, and the ball deflects out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, and the atmosphere raises in volume from the back of the away end, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Scott Wagstaff passes the ball short to Bradley Garmston, who fires in a first time cross which is blocked and cleared by Matthew Kilgallon, and Matthew Kilgallon’s clearance only just runs through to Tomas Holy, who tricks Dominic Poleon with a nice bit of skill and passing the ball forwards to Mark Byrne.

Sixty One Minutes Into The Match, And Scott Wagstaff passes the ball out-wide to Mark Byrne down the right side of the pitch in Bradford City’s Final Third, And Mark Byrne takes a touch to control the ball before whipping in an dangerous in-swinging cross which was comfortable for Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle to save with ease, Scott Wagstaff was anticipating a give and go and Scott Wagstaff was in a decent position to get on the end of a return pass from Mark Byrne.

And having gathered Mark Byrne’s Dangerous In-Swinging Cross, Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle kicks the ball down the right side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Left - And Dominic Poleon uses a neat bit of skill to go past Gabriel Zakuani, who falls to floor, But Gabriel Zakuani saves the ball and pulls the ball back into his grasps and Gabriel Zakuani has taken one for the team and stopped Dominic Poleon from running through on goal, and Gabriel Zakuani is correctly shown A Yellow Card And Bradford City have been awarded a free kick, And From The Resulting Free Kick, Nicky Law has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Conor Wilkinson has headed the ball clear and away from danger at the near post, and the loose ball falls kindly to Shay McCartan, who has possession of the ball for Bradford City, and how or why Referee Ross Joyce has penalised Max Ehmer for a foul was an absolute joke, and Bradford City have been awarded a free kick for a nothing decision, and from the resulting free kick, Alex Gilliead whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Gabriel Zakuani headers the ball clear and away from danger for A Bradford City Corner Kick.

And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Nicky Law has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the far post which is too long for anyone in A Bradford City Shirt to header on target or back across the face of goal, But Shay McCartan managed to keep the ball in play and Shay McCartan passes the ball back to Stephen Warnock, who takes a touch to control the ball, before whipping in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Tomas Holy gathers the ball with ease.

Referee Ross Joyce is then the source of our frustration, as he awards a foul against Scott Wagstaff when Matthew Kilgallon wasn’t going anywhere in possession of the ball, and than hand-ball decision against Conor Wilkinson which was equally just as bad, I just hope that we’re not constantly talking about Referee Ross Joyce’s Performance at the full time whistle, these free kick decision’s, whilst are very irritating, at least haven’t contributed to Bradford City scoring a second goal.

But In The Sixty Seventh Minute Of The Match, Gillingham make there second substitution of the match, As Tom Eaves comes on for Mark Byrne, And With Mark Byrne on nine yellow card’s and this match being the final match before the cut off point, then it makes sense to substitute Mark Byrne, Tom Eaves coming on to play alongside Conor Wilkinson in attack will hopefully provide Gillingham with more of an attacking threat with Twenty Three Minutes And Stoppage Time Remaining.

And Tom Eaves coming on as substitute see’s Gillingham create a decent goal-scoring opportunity,  Romain Vincelot just about manages to kick the ball long down-field despite pressure from Jake Hessenthaler and Max Ehmer wins the aerial challenge up against Shay McCartan and plays the ball through to Lee Martin, who misses the ball completely and because of the awkward bounce, Tony McMahon cannot get the ball under control either and Scott Wagstaff passes the ball through to Conor Wilkinson, who takes a touch to control the ball, And Conor Wilkinson passes the ball down the line for Scott Wagstaff to run on to, And Scott Wagstaff cannot get to the ball first as Stephen Warnock manages to kick the ball away from Scott Wagstaff, but the loose ball falls kindly into Luke O’Neill’s Path, And Luke O’Neill takes a touch to control the ball before whipping in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the near post, and Matthew Kilgallon manages to header the ball clear and Lee Martin and Tony McMahon both miss the aerial challenge on the edge of the penalty area and Jake Hessenthaler beats Nicky Law to the ball, and Jake Hessenthaler picks out Bradley Garmston with a pass, and Bradley Garmston is taken out by Romain Vincelot and the ball spins up into the air and Tom Eaves flicks the ball on and Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle makes the save - That looked liked a foul on Bradley Garmston to me - and that challenge from Romain Vincelot on Bradley Garmston was a challenge that I thought was a foul, and considering that the challenge on Bradley Garmston was inside Bradford City’s Penalty Area, then had a foul been given, then Gillingham would have been awarded a penalty kick.

And In The Sixty Eighth Minute Of The Match, Gillingham win themselves a corner kick, as Tom Eaves cross / shot down the left side of the pitch is charged down by Matthew Kilgallon and the atmosphere raises in volume from the back of the away end, and from the resulting corner kick, Luke O’Neill has whipped in a very poor cross and Lee Martin losses possession of the ball down the right side of the pitch, and Lee Martin is lucky not to be booked for pulling Alex Gilliead back and there was a slight possibility of an counter attack for Bradford City, thankfully, Alex Gilliead’s long pass down the line goes out of play for A Gillingham Throw On.

Seventy One Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham create a half decent goal-scoring opportunity, Conor Wilkinson has possession of the ball for Gillingham down the left side of the pitch in Bradford City’s Final Third, And Conor Wilkinson has tried to pick out Tom Eaves with an dangerous in-swinging cross and Tom Eaves cannot get on the end of Conor Wilkinson’s cross and it looked liked the ball was going to go out for A Bradford City Throw On, But Scott Wagstaff has managed to keep the ball in play and take a few touches in possession of the ball, And Scott Wagstaff has whipped in an dangerous low in-swinging cross which was inches away from picking out Conor Wilkinson, and the ball goes out of play for A Bradford City Goal-Kick.

And once the ball had gone out of play, Bradford City make there first substitution of the match, As Kai Brunker comes on to replace Shay McCartan, And in the aftermath of that substitution, Gillingham are still pressing Bradford City for the goal that will bring Gillingham back on to level terms, Colin Doyle has kicked the ball long down-field and Max Ehmer wins the aerial challenge up against Dominic Poleon, And Jake Hessenthaler gets to the loose ball first and passes the ball square to Bradley Garmston just inside Bradford City’s Half Of The Pitch, And Bradley Garmston takes a touch to control the ball before looking to pick out Conor Wilkinson with a clipped pass down the line, And Romain Vincelot comes across to header the ball out of play for A Gillingham Throw On, Deep In Bradford City’s Final Third right in-front of where The Gillingham Supporters are situated inside Valley Parade.

And From The Resulting Throw On, Bradley Garmston throws the ball short to Lee Martin, who takes two touches in possession of the ball, and Lee Martin threads the ball through to Bradley Garmston down the left side of Bradford City’s Penalty Area, and Bradley Garmston takes on Matthew Kilgallon, But Bradley Garmston has ran out of room and over-ran the ball out of play for A Bradford City Goal-Kick.

Steve Lovell has one substitute remaining, and looking at our various options, Liam Nash can come on to play alongside Tom Eaves and Conor Wilkinson in attack, Or, Ben Nugent can come on to play up-front just to give Bradford City something to think about defensively, I cannot see Franck Moussa or Navid Nasseri coming on, Gillingham need to try and get back on level terms, and we either bring on Liam Nash who can provide Gillingham with something different in attack, or, we bring Ben Nugent on and go route one to try and find that equaliser.

Seventy Four Minutes Into The Match, And Tony McMahon’s foul on Jake Hessenthaler wasn’t given, much to the irritation from every Gillingham Supporter In The Away End, And In The Seventy Fifth Minute Of The Match, Bradford City had the opportunity to double there lead and make the three points safe, Colin Doyle kicks the ball long down-field for Bradford City and Conor Wilkinson wins the aerial challenge on the halfway line to herder the ball towards Tom Eaves, And Tony McMahon gets to the loose ball first and kicks the ball long down the left side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Right - And Max Ehmer has time to get the ball under control and pass the ball down the line towards Luke O’Neill, who tries a first time flick to play the ball towards Lee Martin, But Nathaniel Knight-Percival is on to the loose ball, and Nathaniel Knight-Percival takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball through to Kai Brunker, And Kai Brunker takes a touch to control the ball before cutting inside and passing the ball square to Dominic Poleon, who was roughly twenty five yards out from Gillingham’s Goal, And Dominic Poleon plays a first time return pass through to Kai Brunker who goes for goal first time with a low effort on goal which is straight at Tomas Holy, And Tomas Holy was able to gather the ball with ease - But that was another goal-scoring opportunity for Bradford City.

Seventy Five Minutes Into The Match, And Conor Wilkinson is penalised for his challenge on Stephen Warnock, But Gillingham create a decent goal-scoring opportunity a minute later, Tony McMahon manages to intercept a pass towards Tom Eaves, And Tony McMahon takes another touch to control the ball before losing possession of the ball to Lee Martin momentarily, and because of the poor playing surface, the ball bounced back towards Tony McMahon, and Tony McMahon passes the ball back to Romain Vincelot, who passes a first time pass through to Callum Guy, And Callum Guy takes a touch to control the ball before running down the right side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Left - And Callum Guy tries to take on Connor Ogilvie, who has read the situation very well, and Connor Ogilvie gets himself in-between Callum Guy and the ball and Connor Ogilvie manages to pass the ball down the line towards Bradley Garmston, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Bradley Garmston runs forward in possession of the ball drawing two players out of position, And Bradley Garmston back-heals the ball back to Tom Eaves, who runs into an more central position on the pitch, and Tom Eaves continue’s running into an central position before unleashing a fiercely driven shot towards goal which bounced right in-front of Colin Doyle, And Colin Doyle has saved and gathered the ball at the second attempt before Lee Martin can tap in the re-bound - A Very Good Goal-Scoring Opportunity For The Gills.

Seventy Seven Minutes Into The Match, And Luke O’Neill has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Romain Vincelot manages to get the ball partially clear and away from danger, And Tom Eaves is penalised for his challenge on Tony McMahon, And In The Same Minute, Conor Wilkinson manages to pick out Tom Eaves with an fantastic through-ball and The Linesman down the far side of the pitch had his flag raised for offside when we all thought that Tom Eaves was onside.

But It Is In The Eighty First Minute Of The Match Where Gillingham should have equalised and level the game up at 1-1, Tony McMahon kicks the ball long down-field for Bradford City and Jake Hessenthaler headers the ball forwards for Gillingham and Nathaniel Knight-Percival beats Scott Wagstaff to the loose ball to header the ball away from The Gillingham Midfielder and Jake Hessenthaler wins the aerial challenge up against Nicky Law and Scott Wagstaff plays a short pass out-wide to Luke O’Neill, who manages to keep the ball in play, And Luke O’Neill passes the ball back to Jake Hessenthaler, who takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball centrally to Scott Wagstaff, and Scott Wagstaff takes a touch to control the ball before running from the right / centre to the centre of the pitch, And Scott Wagstaff squares the ball to Connor Ogilvie, who takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Bradley Garmston, And Bradley Garmston uses his pace to take on Alex Gilliead, and Bradley Garmston gets himself to the byline and stands the ball up towards the back post and Conor Wilkinson cannot direct his header on target AND THAT WAS THE CHANCE FOR GILLINGHAM TO EQUALISE!!!!!!!!!! - Maybe Nathaniel Knight-Percival had put Conor Wilkinson off, but there will not be many better goal-scoring opportunities (if any) that are better then the opportunity that Conor Wilkinson just had to score for Gillingham.

Eighty Two Minutes Into The Match, And Bradford City were awarded a throw on down the right side of the pitch, when the throw on should have been awarded to Gillingham, thankfully, Alex Gilliead’s Throw Down The Line Towards Dominic Poleon was poor and the ball runs out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick, But Gillingham are not exactly getting decision’s in there favour from The Match Official’s at the moment.

Once the ball goes out of play, Defender Daniel Devine comes on to replace Midfielder Nicky Law In The Eighty Fourth Minute, As Bradford City are just looking to try and shore things up defensively and see out the rest of this match, But the foul count keeps rising against Gillingham, and in-particular, against Tom Eaves, The first foul awarded against Tom Eaves was for a soft challenge against Tony McMahon, but the second foul awarded against Tom Eaves was an absolute joke, Max Ehmer has played a long diagonal cross-field pass towards Tom Eaves, who does brilliantly to chest the ball under control, and Tom Eaves flicks the ball past Romain Vincelot and somehow Referee Ross Joyce has penalised Tom Eaves for a foul, and every single Gillingham Supporter was furious with Referee Ross Joyce, ABSOLUTE JOKE REF!!!! Was My response, And your just waiting for Tom Eaves to be shown A Yellow Card From Referee Ross Joyce, which would be Tom Eaves tenth booking of the season and that would mean that Tom Eaves would pick up a two match suspension.

In the aftermath of that decision, Steve Lovell makes Gillingham’s Third And Final Substitution, As Liam Nash comes on for Jake Hessenthaler, and Gillingham are throwing everything forward to try and get something out of this match, But the soft free kick’s are constantly being awarded against Gillingham, because it is Gabriel Zakuani who is now penalised for his challenge on

Kai Brunker, and I am not sure what was said to Referee Ross Joyce at half time, but he has gone from refereeing the game consistently, to constantly awarding free kick’s to Bradford City, and Bradford City then make there third and final substitution, as Omari Patrick comes on to replace goal-scorer Dominic Poleon in The Eighty Ninth Minute, and Bradford City have also used all of there substitutions, And Bradford City using all of there substitutions is very relevant, because Alex Gilliead has gone down requiring treatment and Bradford City will have to go down to ten men for the rest of the match if Alex Gilliead was unable to continue, But Alex Gilliead was OK to play on for Bradford City.

And The Fourth Official has put his board up to show FIVE ADDITIONAL MINUTES OF ADDED TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - COME ON GILLS!!!!!!!! And just as we approached The Ninetieth Minute Of The Match, Gillingham are awarded a free kick, Colin Doyle kicks the ball long down-field for Bradford City and Gabriel Zakuani wins the aerial battle to try and header the ball forwards towards Liam Nash, But Romain Vincelot was in the right place at the right time to header the ball clear, and Max Ehmer beats Omar Patrick to the loose ball and pass the ball out-wide to Luke O’Neill, And Luke O’Neill takes a few touches in possession of the ball, skilfully evades Omar Patrick’s attempted challenge, And Luke O’Neill kicks the ball long down-field to try and pick out Tom Eaves and Romain Vincelot just about makes a crucial last ditch interception and the ball falls to Scott Wagstaff on the edge of the penalty area, and Daniel Devine is penalised for his challenge on Scott Wagstaff and shown A Yellow Card, and when Gillingham were awarded a free kick, the loudest most sarcastic cheer erupted from the back of the away end, Because Gillingham have been on the end of some controversial refereeing decision’s throughout the second half.

And From The Resulting Free Kick, Max Ehmer, Conor Wilkinson and Luke O’Neill all stand over the loose ball, and I thought that Luke O’Neill was going to take it, But Max Ehmer tee’s up Conor Wilkinson to drive a fiercely struck effort towards goal which takes a huge deflection off Romain Vincelot and the ball ricochets out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, At Least the free kick wasn’t hit wayward and off target, and Gillingham can still cause Bradford City problems from the resulting corner kick, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Lee Martin passes the ball short to Bradley Garmston who passes the ball short back to Lee Martin, And Lee Martin whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross And Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle punches the ball clear to the edge of the penalty area, And Liam Nash takes one touch to control the ball and the loose ball falls into Bradley Garmston’s path, and Bradley Garmston runs down the left side of Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Bradley Garmston pulls the ball back across the face of goal, And Connor Ogilvie hits a first time volley towards goal which is accidentally blocked by Conor Wilkinson and the poor bounce means that Tom Eaves cannot direct the ball towards goal, had the ball bounced up off the turf, then Tom Eaves would have had a simple tap in, and you do wonder if it is going to be Gillingham’s Day.

Ninety Four Minutes Into The Match, And Liam Nash was penalised for a soft challenge on Tony McMahon, And Kai Brunker was penalised and shown A Yellow Card for his challenge on Scott Wagstaff and Gillingham have been awarded a free kick, And Gillingham have the chance from this free kick to cause Bradford City problems defensively, and from the resulting free kick, Luke O’Neill passes the ball short to Connor Ogilvie, who passes the ball down the line towards Bradley Garmston, And Bradley Garmston passes the ball inside to Lee Martin, right by the byline down the left side of the pitch, and Lee Martin passes the ball back to Bradley Garmston, who takes a touch to control the ball before firing in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Conor Wilkinson cannot jump high enough to get a telling connection on the ball, but the ball does fall kindly to Liam Nash inside Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Liam Nash takes a touch to control the ball before trying to pick out the top left corner of the net with a driven effort towards goal which sadly doesn’t hit the target, And that may well be it, It would have been great to see Liam Nash come on and make an impact from the substitutes bench by scoring his first ever Football League Goal.

But there was still time remaining for one final goal-scoring opportunity, All be it, after surviving a real scare, As Luke O’Neill’s Back-Pass puts Tomas Holy under a lot of pressure, and Tomas Holy shows coolness under pressure by calmly passing the ball out-wide to Connor Ogilvie, who turns back on himself, passes the ball back to Tomas Holy, And Tomas Holy takes a few touches in possession of the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Luke O’Neill down the right side of the pitch, And Luke O’Neill runs forwards in possession of the ball up towards the halfway line, And Luke O’Neill kicks the ball high and long towards the edge of Bradford City’s Penalty Area, And Max Ehmer flicks the ball on towards Lee Martin who’s shot towards goal from an acute angle wasn’t powerful enough to beat Colin Doyle - and that was the final noteworthy moment of The Second Half, And Bradford City held on for the 1-0 win, And The Gillingham Players collapse to the deck and need to be picked up on to there feat again.

FULL TIME: BRADFORD CITY 1 - 0 GILLINGHAM

Despite our best efforts to try and get something out of the match in the closing stages, It just wasn’t to be and Bradford City ended there winless run with a hard fought 1-0 win against Gillingham and I think that Gillingham’s Efforts throughout the ninety minutes deserved a draw, and I thought that Gillingham were going to battle back from a goal down and get an equaliser, and we had our chances at the end of this match to get something out of the game, but it just wasn’t to be.

The Players Applauded The Supporters after the full time whistle, and The Gillingham Players were applauded for giving it everything, and that’s one thing you can say about Gillingham under Steve Lovell’s Management, even when we have lost games, Like Bury 2-1 at Gigg Lane and Wigan Athletic 2-0 at The DW Stadium, Gillingham have been in every match and still with a chance of getting something from the match at the full time whistle, Gillingham have not been thrashed, and you can see that by looking at Gillingham’s Defensive Record and how Gillingham have one of the best defensive records in League One This Season.

I spoke with Ben and Colin after the game against Bradford City in The Concourse and It was a real shame that Ben had seen Gillingham go down to a 1-0 defeat against Bradford City, especially as Gillingham’s Form Under Steve Lovell has generally been magnificent and I do believe that a draw would have been a fair reflection of what we have seen over the course of the entire ninety minutes, But with that result against Bradford City, even though other results have generally gone in Gillingham’s Favour, The League One Playoff Places are unattainable now, I think most of us generally accepted that The League One Playoffs were going to be a long shot, but if someone offered us this scenario back when Steve Lovell first took over initially as Caretaker Manager before being appointed as Gillingham Manager, then we would have snapped there hand off.

And as I was walking back to The Kings Ferry Coach after exiting the ground, you look at the number of Bradford City Supporters Walking Around Valley Parade and Bradford City must be the heart of the community and to get 20,000+ Attendances In League One really is commendable, our last two away games against Portsmouth at Fratton Park and Bradford City at Valley Parade have seen 18,000+ / 20,000+ attendances in League One, and these are the type of matches you want to see Gillingham playing in, also, that win against Portsmouth was fantastic, our first ever visit to Fratton Park and Gillingham pick up all three points.

I got on the coach and sat down in my seat and I mentioned to Nicholas that any lingering hopes of Gillingham challenging for the playoffs is over now, Nicholas agreed, and looking at The League One Table, Gillingham are eight points behind Peterborough United (Nine Points if you include goal difference) with nine games to play, But realistically, your talking about Gillingham winning eight of our remaining nine matches to stand a chance of reaching the playoffs, and that type of run is going to be a very tall order, And Also, Gillingham still have to play against Rotherham United, Blackburn Rovers, and Plymouth Argyle, and those matches are going to be very difficult.

Once everyone was back on the coach, we were on our way back home, and I took to Twitter to help pass the time on the journey back to Kent, And I sent the following tweet, FULL TIME: BRADFORD CITY 1-0 GILLINGHAM Poleon's goal was the difference between both sides, Ref Ross Joyce gave so many soft fouls against Gillingham and I was waiting for Eaves to get a two match suspension with this ref, Wilkinson heading Garmston's Cross was our best chance.

There was also some very good news In The Kent Non League Scene, As Bromley drew 1-1 against Gateshead and won 4-2 on aggregate to reach The FA Trophy Final which will be played At Wembley Stadium, and so far, there has been no date confirmed of The FA Trophy Final, But that may well be a game to have a look at going to, If The FA Trophy Final is played after The Football League Season has finished.

I then sent the following Tweet On Twitter,,, BRADFORD CITY 1-0 GILLINGHAM - Gillingham unfortunately could not build on our impressive 3-1 away win against Portsmouth with a result against Bradford City, Feel free to ask me any questions you have about today's match….. I then re-tweeted a few tweets, include Matt’s Video Tweet which showed Bradford City’s Opening Goal, And I included as many Gillingham Supporters into that tweet as possible, And Hendon winning 4-1 against Billiericay Town was a fantastic result, and you start to wonder if Billericay Town’s prospects of getting promoted into The Conference South are going to happen, Glenn Tamplin has to surely be the most disliked manager in Non League Football.

Looking At The League One Table, Gillingham drop to Thirteenth In The Table and Plymouth Argyle did lose 2-0 against Charlton Athletic, I always thought that The League One Playoff Positions were going to be a tall order and Gillingham had a very slim chance at best of securing a top six finish, But all the while the playoff positions are mathematically possible, we wanted to see Gillingham push as hard as we can to try and secure an unlikely playoff position, because the last thing we want to see is Gillingham lose four or five games on the bounce and this season completely petters out into nothing.

Other results In Non League Football caught my eye, Chatham Town drew 1-1 with Sheppey United, and of course, Bromley reached The FA Trophy Final was an out-standing achievement and you have to say congratulations to Bromley Football Club, And while I was checking my notifications, Nicola asked me the following question, I moan about Josh Parker quite a bit... Do you think it could have been different had he played today? and I responded with the following answer, I think we all would love to have Parker available for selection today, But Gillingham's overall performance deserved a point, and Wilkinson had the best chance when he headed Garmston's Cross over the crossbar with ten minutes to go.

Nicholas had responded to one of my tweets I sent at half time, and I sent the following response back,,, The Ref constantly awarding free kicks against Eaves was frustrating, And I was just waiting for The Referee to book Eaves which would have meant that Tom Eaves would have picked up a two match suspension, Eaves made an impact when he came on, as Gills switched to two up-front, Nicholas replied back by mentioning that, Agreed, at least we've managed to get to the 37 game mark without Eaves and Byrne getting another booking. They can't get suspended for 10 yellow cards now.

Gillingham’s Away Attendance was 298 and Diane and Ann thought that our away attendance was much higher then that, It took a while before Gillingham finally confirmed the away attendance, And Gillingham did confirm that the attendance was 298 and I shared that tweet from Gillingham’s Official Twitter Account with as many people as possible, Nicholas needed Gillingham’s Attendance  For The Prediction League, and if no away attendance was officially announced, then that would have been very irritating.

Whilst looking on My Twitter Feed, Gillingham Town were top of The Dorset Premier League and Gillingham Town won 3-1 Away From Home Against Hamworthy Recreation (It took me a lot of searching to try and find the score from Gillingham Town’s Match) I have always looked out for Gillingham Town’s scores and checked on how well they are doing, Hopefully, We will get the chance to watch Gillingham Town play at home before Yeovil Town V Gillingham, Because Yeovil Town are the closest club to Gillingham Town.

Bradford City tweeted a photo of where The Gillingham Supporters were situated In The Northern Commercials Stand, And I shared that photo with as many Gillingham Supporters On Twitter and We’re starting to see tweets from Glen Johnson and Bradley Garmston on Twitter, And there was a quote from Steve Lovell, which means that we should start to see Steve Lovell’s Post Match Comments Very Soon Online, Ann had just finished charging up her mobile phone with her Power-Pack, And Ann asked if I wanted to borrow The Power-Pack, and as The Battery Life On My Mobile Phone was at 40%, I borrowed the power-pack and thanked Ann for allowing me to have The Power-Pack, for away journeys as long as Bradford City, there really needs to be plug charger / USB Chargers On The Coach.

Luke had posted an interesting comment before kick off which I had only just seen as we were traveling back home on the coach, Colin Doyle had played in goal for The Republic Of Ireland against Turkey On Friday Night, before playing in goal for Bradford City against Gillingham, That level of commitment has to be commended, And there is a good chance that Republic Of Ireland kicked off at 7.45PM / 8PM On Friday Night, So Colin Doyle will have played in two competitive matches in less then Twenty Four Hours.

Louis had tweeted how The Playoff Places In League One were out of reach, but he still wants Gillingham to end this season on a good note, And I replied back with the following response,,,, If Gills end this season in the top half of League One, Then Gills will be seeded In The League Cup 1st Round Draw and we would avoid The Championship Clubs In Round 1, It is important that we end this season with some momentum, So that Gills can take that form into next season.

I then saw Steve’s Fantastic Tweet, and Steve sent the following,,,, Any #Gills fan disappointed about not getting in the playoffs needs to cast their mind back to Pompey at home in October on Sky. I thought that day we were down. The fact that a top half finish is on with zero investment in the squad is a great achievement from Lovell. UTG, I responded back with the following,,, If someone offered me Twentieth Position In League One when Steve Lovell took over as Gillingham Manager, I would have taken that with both hands, Gillingham had seven points from twelve games when Lovell took over, Gills are now thirteenth In League One with Forty Nine Points, Matt also responded to our messages with the following, a win and a few draws, And I would be happy to draw a line under this season.

I then saw Brad’s Tweet where Brad mentioned that Gillingham rarely lose at Valley Parade, Bradford City’s form is awful, Gillingham’s away form is mega, only one result, Bradford City 1-0 Gillingham, And I responded back with the following,,,, Well, You did call it Brad, Seven Points out of twelve from Doncaster Rovers, Rotherham United, Scunthorpe United and Bradford City is not too bad - I think those are the four closest clubs to you in League One.

Also, Kentish Football finally tweeted the date of The FA Trophy Final, which is The Twentieth of May, I remember when Me And Rob went to The FA Vase Final when Tunbridge Wells lost 2-1 against Spennymoor Town, and Rob is clapping Josh Stanford’s Equaliser, and there I was proper celebrating like Gillingham had scored, I brought The DVD of The FA Vase Final which has got ninety minutes of highlights and full match commentary as well.

Gabriel Zakuani was the next Gillingham Player / Staff Member to tweet there thoughts on The Bradford Game, Matt had posted another video clip from Bradford City V Gillingham With Bradley Garmston setting up Scott Wagstaff in the first half when Scott Wagstaff dragged his shot wide, and that was the goal-scoring opportunity where I thought that Scott Wagstaff should have gone for goal with a first time effort, rather then taking a touch to control the ball.

We arrived at Peterborough Services at 8PM and once the coach had parked up, everyone got off the coach, And Me and Louis spoke about how The League One Playoffs are very unlikely, although we want to see Gillingham finish this season strongly, and of course, being seeded in The First Round Of The League Cup gives Gillingham something to play for, because if Gillingham are seeded in The League Cup, that would mean that Gillingham would avoid all The Championship Clubs in The First Round.

I brought Large Fries and Nine Chicken Nuggets From McDonalds, Diane and Ann then told me that they got speaking with A Rotherham United Supporter and this Rotherham United Supporter mentioned that Bradford City ground-share Valley Parade With A Rugby Club, and as we had some time to spare before we had to get back on to the coach, I decided to look this up, and I looked up Bradford Bulls and where they played there home matches, And Bradford Buls play there home matches at Odsal Stadium, which has got a 27,000 Capacity, Interestingly, Odsal Stadium has a higher stadium capacity then Valley Parade, As Valley Parade has a 25,136 Stadium Capacity.

Once I collected my order, Me, Diane and Ann decided to head back to The Kings Ferry Coach, and I sat down on the coach to eat my meal, rather then try and rush our meals sitting down in the services and dash back onto the coach, and once I was back on the coach, I sat down and eat my meal, and once I had finished me meal, I put the rubbish in the rubbish sack and Diane asked me why I don’t bring a packed lunch with me for away games, I used to do that, but I much prefer to buy what I am going to eat, rather then pack a lunch, and find that I don’t eat much of the food I take with me, It’s Drink you tend to need more then food for a long away trip, as you often get dehydrated throughout the day, and it doesn’t help that the air conditioning is not working on the coach as well.

I then checked on Twitter to see that Faversham Town lost 1-2 against Hastings United, Stuart Nelson was named in The League Two Team Of The Week Last Week after saving a penalty for Yeovil Town, and I saw this tweet from Tony who supports Bradford City, And Tony Tweeted The Following Message To Gabriel Zakuani,,,,, Hi Gabriel, Bradford City fan here, unlucky today, I thought you had a terrific game. My son is an U13 centre back, playing tomorrow, we watched your performance specifically and called it out as a great barometer and education for him, you did the basics immensely and much more.,,,, Hopefully, Gabriel Zakuani can sign an extended contract with Gillingham Football Club over the next few weeks.

Mark Byrne was the next Gillingham Player to tweet about The Bradford City Match, And Gabriel Sutton Posted This Article About The Bradford City V Gillingham Game LINK IS HERE - http://www.thesackrace.com/news/24th-march-2018/bradford-city-record-first-win-under-simon-grayson - Gabriel thanked me for sharing his article and sent me the following reply,,,,, Appreciate the shout-out, How far do you reckon this Gills side is from a top six push next year? This was a really good question and I had to think for a minute or two before responding back with my own answer, and I responded back with the following,,,, We need to offer contracts to Martin, Zakuani and Byrne, Youngsters Hadler, O'Mara, Simpson, Oldaker (who is highly rated) Chapman, List and Mbo are players I can see offered new deals as well. Lovell needs to sign the two year contract extension - our most important signing, Gabriel responded back with the following response, Zakuani, I was really impressed with., and I replied back mentioning that, I really do hope that Zakuani signs a new deal, Max Ehmer has signed A Two Year Contract Extension and Steve Lovell is planning contract negotiations with players he wants to hang on to, I hope Zakuani is also tied down for the next two seasons at Gillingham Football Club.

As for players Gillingham need to sign to be in contention for A Playoff Place, A 1st Choice Left Back, A Central Attacking Midfielder who is very creative, If Lovell sticks with a diamond midfield formation, then more strength in the middle of the park, possibly another striker, I have also expanded on this over the past week, as I have mentioned the following,,,, This Coming Summer is huge For Gillingham, Plenty of players are out of contact and who we retain will give us an idea on what formation(s) Gills will line up with next season, Lovell has mostly lined up with a 4.4.2 diamond or 3.5.2, Last two games have seen a 4.2.3.1 formation, Who we hang on to will give us some idea on how Gillingham might line up next season, But who Steve Lovell will add to the squad in the off season will give us a much clearer picture, Steve Lovell will need to add more squad depth to the squad out-side The Starting Line Up, and try and add a few players of quality to the side, If we’re to try and push for a playoff place next season.

And the big news of the night was Scunthorpe United Sacking Graham Alexandra, Scunthorpe United are in The League One Playoff Positions, and for Scunthorpe United to sack Graham Alexandra is completely unexpected and something must have gone on behind the scenes for The Chairman to consider making a managerial change, And Scunthorpe United must have A Manager Lined Up, otherwise why make the managerial change in the first place ???

Peter came round to take bookings for up and coming away games, Diane, Ann and Myself were traveling via car to Southend United and we are going to leave very early because of The Dartford Crossing, and we can see a lot of Gillingham Supporters looking to make a day of it, although, a lot will depend on the weather, and I am not sure if the trains are going to be running properly on Easter Monday, Oldham Athletic we will be traveling via coach, and Peter mentioned the pick up times for Oldham Athletic Away, And Bristol Rovers we will be traveling to via car, and those three matches are the final three away matches of The 2017 / 2018 Season.

We arrived back in Kent and started to drop people off, Our First Drop Off Point was out-wide Strood Sports Centre before we headed along to the bus stop on The Strood Side Of Rochester Bridge where we dropped off Two Gillingham Supporters before we headed back towards Priestfield Stadium, And Diane, Ann, Nicholas, Louis and quite a few Gillingham Supporters got off the coach, Diane and Ann double checked that they had everything on them, and I mentioned that I will see them on Thursday, for what will be our first home game in four, five or even six weeks, because Gillingham’s Last Home Game was a goal-less draw against Walsall, and Gillingham will play against MK Dons at Home On Thursday Night.

I Said C Ya To Nicholas, Diane, Ann and Louis as they got off the coach, and I started to double check that I had everything on me, and after Peter was dropped off, the next drop off point was out-side The White Horse, and Me and Gary thanked the drivers, and after we had got off the coach, Me and Gary spoke about the pitch, which has to be one of the worst playing surfaces we have seen for a long time, Gigg Lane was bad, But Bradford City’s Pitch made Priestfield Stadium’s Playing Surface looked like Wembley Stadium in comparison, We both agreed that any lingering hopes of Gillingham challenging for the playoffs are now gone with that result, and it was always going to be a big ask to try and push for a top six position, But that defeat against Bradford City has ended A Playoff Challenge for The Gills, Because it is going to take eight wins from nine games to try and secure sixth spot.

But at least Gillingham are in mid-table, we’re not hovering above the relegation zone, We’re not Twenty Third In League One, which is where Gillingham were in the table when Steve Lovell first took charge when Gillingham won 1-0 away from home against Peterborough United at London Road, and we haven’t been smashed by any team through Steve Lovell’s Reign As Gillingham Manager, I said C Ya To Gary before making the ten minute walk back home, and I was back home at 22.30PM, And having got up at 5.30AM in the morning and leaving my house at 7.10AM, it has been a long day which has been unrewarded as Gillingham fail to pick up the point I think Gillingham’s Efforts Deserved, Hopefully, Gillingham can recover from this set back with results against MK Dons and Southend United over The Easter Weekend, Four Points From Both Matches would be excellent, But back to back wins and Gillingham picking up six points out of six would be out-standing, Hopefully, Gillingham can recover from this set back against Bradford City with two results against MK Dons and Southend United - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mindthump]

I’ve Sent Out 1,018 Open Records Requests, and This is What I’ve Learned http://ift.tt/2ETECpR

If you want to know how much money the city of Chicago spends on holiday parade security in a given year, you can file an open records request with the city for the details.

If you want to know how a college president spends his or her time, you can ask for his or her official calendar through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

FOIA allows anyone to request information from the government. In my first six months at ProPublica Illinois, I’ve sent over 1,018 requests for information, to everyone from the Department of Transportation to the state lottery.

As a data reporter, I need to understand what information government bodies across the state keep, how they keep those records and what they don’t retain in documents or databases. To do that, I need to know different state and local agencies, and maintain a list of contacts throughout the state.

Finding your way through some of the records systems is like walking in the dark — and getting information can take a lot of time. While I’ve sent requests all over the country, I’ve learned Illinois has its own quirks.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about FOIA in Illinois that might help you get the information you want.

Tip 1: Do your research and know the law. Be patient and diligent about follow-ups.

Filing records requests takes time, persistence and putting a bit of pressure on officials to have them produce information on time. Illinois law requires agencies to respond to requests within five business days, so typically I give them a call if I don’t hear back when the deadline passes.

With every request, I think about how agencies might respond and where they might raise objections. Here’s a sample denial letter, as well as a sample grant of request, I like to reference.

Compared to other places where I've filed FOIAs, agencies in Illinois seem more likely to immediately ask for an extension and they often cite the same reason.

Then there are agencies that try to scare you away by suggesting that fulfilling a request will take a ridiculously long time. Unfortunately, this tactic is not unique to Illinois.

In this case, the agency initially claimed it would take 542 days to comply with my request. Once I explained how they could more easily do the work, 542 days turned into three.

Sending out these requests also requires me to know the exemptions to the law that allow agencies to withhold information from a request. For example, I know I can’t get law enforcement records that interfere with an open case; business trade secrets or personal information (social security numbers, for instance) that could identify a person. Other exemptions include information that, if disclosed, could compromise national security or endanger someone’s life or physical safety.

If you believe a request has been wrongly denied, you should be prepared to appeal. Anyone can request review from the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor (PAC), which helps to resolve open records requests, within 60 days of a denial of a request. I find that it also helps to keep diligent notes about your dealings with employees and any correspondence with the agency.

If I didn’t have a system for tracking my records requests, I would run the risk of letting them slip. So I keep a spreadsheet that includes notes on each request, which FOIA officer is handling it and the date of the initial response.

The state requires every agency to display and make a directory available designating who its FOIA officers are on its website and how requests should be sent (electronically or through mail). I’ve had to think about alternative ways of finding records officers, especially in smaller towns where there are often just four or five municipal employees, and there’s no official website. Sometimes, the only way I can get a phone number or a name of the FOIA officer is to do some deep diving on social media or in newspaper clippings. Here’s a list of some FOIA officers in Illinois.

And perhaps the most important point about knowing how to make a request: If the records are available on the agency’s website, don’t ask for them. It’s only going to show them you’re not doing your research.

Tip 2: Many agencies still keep their records on paper. That means requesting them is not always easy.

Some agencies only allow inspection of documents in person because the time it will take them to scan the documents is “too burdensome,” a common exemption used in FOIA. Others might tell you that since they have the data in paper records, they can’t answer a specific question about the data for you in a timely manner. For example, an agency might have to hand-enter staffing data from paper records just to be able to provide you with the total number of employees in a certain department.

Some agencies send documents only on floppy disks, CDs or flash drives. Others send a large manila envelope of documents complete with a rubber band bow for you to hand enter or scan into electronic format.

And some agencies send you the records exactly as you ask for them. Sometimes, they send it the same day or even hours after you file your request. (Thank you!)

As a data reporter, roughly 80 percent of my job is cleaning and wrangling data from inconvenient formats (like paper) into databases. When agencies send Excel spreadsheets printed and scanned in with hand-written notes, I have to spend time extracting the data using special software or hand-entering the data. So even though an agency is complying with the law and giving us the information we have asked for, it’s a given that we’ll have to do more work to even use the information and deduce any sort of finding.

Tip 3: Remember, there’s a human being behind every record and document. So play nice.

Some FOIA officers try to discourage people, especially reporters like me who pester them for records. And sometimes, you even see their complaints about your requests.

4/ It can take a lot of pestering and patience to get open records. And sometimes #FOIA officers accidentally tell you how annoying you are: http://pic.twitter.com/qJuisbAwp7

— Sandhya Kambhampati (@sandhya__k) October 19, 2017

I try to remember that there are countless other people asking for records and the agency I’m dealing with might be juggling many other requests. I like to get to know FOIA officers, understand what irritates them, how they prefer I communicate — via email or phone — and what times are most convenient to reach them. I save all this information in a spreadsheet.

Because I send so many FOIA requests, I need a game plan for tackling each department. If I make consecutive requests to the same department several days in a row, I could tick off some employees. So I keep a log of all the information I’d like to request, call the FOIA officer to see what they have on their plate, and begin negotiating. For example, for our Documenting Hate project, I’ve sent requests to police departments all over the state and asked for several years of hate crime data. Rather than ask for all 10 years of data at once, I work out a schedule that is convenient for me as well as the records departments, especially in small jurisdictions.

I also follow up on my requests at the same time and same day every week, so the FOIA officer knows I’m diligent. It also puts a bit of pressure on them, I think. Illinois FOIA officers seem to appreciate the reminders, though I can imagine some find my badgering them for records annoying.

In my experience, Illinois FOIA officers have generally been helpful in leading me to other agencies that may have records I’m seeking if their agencies don’t have them. Show that you value their time, and sometimes they’ll come through for you.

Perhaps the best tactic is to actually go the agency, meet records officers and ask them to show you how they do their work. It’s easier to understand the process when you find out the agency keeps its documents in a closet or a musty old basement filled with boxes of files. One agency I visited had lost data because a pipe burst in the records closet. Their workers were forced to enter handwritten notes and tally up information from water-damaged paper records.

These visits also let you see the programs and software an agency uses, which is especially useful when they tell you they can’t export your records because they use some obscure government computer program. Also you’ll see if they do, in fact, get 15 calls a day for records and have to go through various hoops to find the data, wrangle it and redact it.

The time you’ll spend on these visits is worth it when you get information that had been sitting on a bunch of floppy disks, just begging for someone to analyze and report on it.

Tip 4: Always FOIA the FOIA requests and know how they keep their data.

You’re probably wondering what have I asked for in my thousand-plus records requests? Well, out of all my requests, I’ve received 803, or 79 percent of them. Some of them were FOIAs on the FOIAs — so asking for what other people have asked for. If you know what records have already been granted, you can request the same records and not have to wait months for your data. So ask for the agency’s FOIA logs.

I’ve also asked for the record retention schedules for state agencies, which help me understand how and where the agencies keep their records and how often they shred them. The record retention schedules are an index, with codes for each department and each kind of document the agency keeps. When I get them, I add their shredding calendars to a master calendar. That allows me to know when they are going to purge their records, so I can request them before they disappear.

I’ve also digitized these schedules, so our reporters can search them. This is helpful when we’re requesting documents; the more specific we can be, the faster and easier it will be to get what we need.

These skills have helped me navigate the systems of Illinois, but I know there’s much more to learn.

My hope is that with each FOIA request, I can shine a light on information we can use to tell a larger story and encourage government to be more transparent.

I’ll be tracking my FOIA requests at #PPILFOIA on Twitter. That's where you can find my current tally of fulfilled, late and newly requested documents. If you have a tip or recommendation of what I should FOIA, tweet me @sandhya__k or email me sandhya@propublica.org.