#philantropy

[readersmagnet]

Dr. Susan Aurelia Gitelson, President of International Consultants, Inc. She has extensive experience in consulting international business, cultural, and financial institutions. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College and completed her M.I.A. and Ph.D. at Columbia University. Dr. Gitelson has served as a trainee at the Rockefeller Foundation and an assistant professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is also a board member of the National Institute of Social Studies and an honorary trustee.

Visit https://www.susanaureliagitelson.com/ to learn more about the author and her other works.

[olaide-pro]

Help us turn our dream of parenthood into reality! We're thrilled to start our adoption journey and invite you to be part of it. Your donation, big or small, brings us closer to welcoming our new family member.

https://gofund.me/977d373e

[chetuinc]

The Akshaya Patra School will be honored at a special event today, April 2, 2024, at the United Nations for its mission to end child hunger in India. We are pleased to have Atal Bansal, CEO of @Chetu, and Shaili Bansal, co-founder of The Chetu Foundation, as guests.

Recently, The Chetu Foundation donated $60,000 to The Akshaya Patra Foundation to feed school-aged children in India. Over 200 million children in India face hunger during school hours, which results in poor attendance, a lack of focus, and low academic performance. To address this issue, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has initiated a program that provides free, nutritious mid-day meals to government school students throughout India.

To read the complete press release, click here: https://tinyurl.com/mr3yt5fz.

[bidonicart]

Is this anything

where else to find me

[typicalopposite]

you want prompts?? ok - how about

a lil Southern Philanthropy (Liam/Pez)

and "how is he so pretty?"

(I know Liam/Pez wasn't an option you mentioned so you can change it up to any you did if need be lolz)

Melz! I love you! <3 lol and I GOTCHUUU!

<3<3<3

The Texas heat is miserable. Absolutely atrocious, actually; and if Pez has said he is about to pack up his bags, and hop on his jet to escape it once… he has said it a thousand times. 

But now? Now, leaving Texas is the absolute furthest thought from his mind. He stands at the massive back window to Hen and Alex’s house and stares out at the lake. At Liam standing at the lake. 

His faded blue jeans are hugging him just tight enough Pez is graced with an eye full. His chest is bare, exposing his sun-kissed skin. His off white cowboy hat is casting a shadow across his face, but he keeps turning it towards the house to smile up at Pez, and in those moments the sun illuminates his gorgeous features. It is honestly taking Pez’s breath away. “How is he so pretty,” he truly doesn’t mean to say out loud. 

There's a soft chuckle from behind him and Pez turns to roll his eyes at Henry. “I ask myself that same question all the time,” he says, stopping at Pez’s side and also stares out the window. Alex is at Liam’s side, the two laughing over their conversation oblivious to—or unbothered by—the fact they are being watched.  

“Perhaps we stop being a couple of peeping Tom’s, then,”  Pez says, nodding towards the door. “—and go tell them just how pretty we think they are?”  “I think that’s a fantastic idea,” Henry laughs, holding the door as Pez steps out into the Texas heat, completely unbothered by it as he quickly makes his way down to the lake.

[freytful]

Facts:

1. Of the two of them, Solid is somehow "inferior" to Liquid despite their entirely identical physical conditions. One of them got the "dominant genes"

2. Solid is the only one of the four Snakes who does not seem to look for positions of leadership and power. Big Boss is . the Big Boss, Solidus is The President and became a terrorist when that wasn't powerful enough, and Liquid is power hungry as shit

3. He seems to become very aimless and unhappy when not given a directive - see his Alaska Era.

Conclusion: Liquid misunderstood - neither of the two of them are truly inferior, as they are instead built for different purposes. Solid Snake is the perfect soldier because he isn't "dominant", because he follows orders. Because he needs someone else to tell him what to do, whether thats Campbell in the military or Otacon in philanthropy. He doesn't really initiate things on his own, or have strong character motivations.

Conclusion 2: Solid Snake is genetically a sub

[ester-galls]

Philantropy

I totally missed the otasune week, this was supposed to be my entry for day 4 orz

@mgsevents

[frownyalfred]

Counter offer.

Bruce has a morality kink.

My back up for this is that his main love interests: Talia a woman who treats his injuries of her own accord when they're kidnapped by the same bad guy and who's studying medicine in college in spite of her family's legacy of bloodshed and her other options as princess to a league of assassins. Selina who doesn't kill but only steals from the rich, and Wonder Woman who is WONDER WOMAN. Also I imagine he meets most of his civilian squeezes at charity galas or as a result of Wayne Enterprises philantropy like Vicki Vale doing investigative work to make sure his company's on the straight and narrow. Not to mention Lois Lane.

He sees Clark go out of his way to be reassuring to a misguided supervillain/henchman on the way to lock up and he goes. Oh. I need to kiss him. I need to kiss him right now.

Bruce Wayne, a man who hates himself more than anyone else, despite being a somewhat decent guy by the end of the day, seeing a shred of a moral code: I need them to get me pregnant

[valcarcel]

I know that a white (close to be a billionaire) celebrity decided to come on her huge platform (platform that was provided by the public that believed she was an humanitarian) to cry and center herself and her emotions in the conversation of many FREAKING GENOCIDES and say that she's gonna log off of social media because it's "too much" for her and that she can't do anything (she can open her freaking wallet and donate to the people that need it the most, she can also educate her 430M of followers about what's happening and provide links where they can donate) and she also though it was a good idea to tell you that your voice don't matter, that your post and boycotting won't do sht to stop the horrible things that are happening on the world, and I want you to know that that's not true, your voice matter, your post can help educate people on what's happening, Palestinians, Congoloness, Armenians and every population that is suffering keeps asking us to listen to them, to share their voices and to NOT IGNORE THEM, there's a reason why Israel cut off all types of communication from Palestine, because thanks to the people that keeps talking about it and sharing what's happening, more and more people keeps helping them and being on the side of the Palestinians, don't lose hope, don't let a white celebrity tell you that what you're doing is useless, cause is not, a lot of people have been able to realize that what is happening is wrong, and that's thanks to the post that miss "philantropy" thinks won't work, keep sharing, keep posting, keep talking about it and keep boycotting, those people that are suffering don't have the privilegde of turn off their phones and go travel with her billionaire besties on her private jets while polluting the air and be ok, they have to live through hell, the least we can do is to share their voices, don't let stupid celebrities tell you to shut up about it cause it makes them sad, you have more power than what you think, DO NOT IGNORE THE ATROCITIES THAT ARE HAPPENING IN THE WORLD!!!

[gegengestalt]

Posting here my Katerina/Grushenka alternate universe (?) two years after in which they move in to live together (explanation below)

The idea behind it is that the escape plan made by Katerina and Ivan succeeded, but not completely; denying Mitya and Grushenka the possibility of going to America and forcing them to live inside Russia as fugitives. They get married and their first daughter is born a year after, but having to live dangerously leads to Mitya's death (I thought of him dying at the hands of bandits, a heroic death he may like to compensate him for dying for yuri, but it doesn't matter that much).

Grushenka is left widowed and impoverished, and her wandering leads her to a village where she lives badly. Eventually, Katerina, aged 22, visits the village and they run into each other and catch up. After the events of the book, Katerina let Ivan go, realizing he won't accept her hand after all she's hurt him. She decides to spend some time taking care of herself and doing philantropy, and that led her to that village. Much has changed, but there's still tension between them.

Katerina ends up offering Grushenka to come live with her. Grushenka knows Katerina and is aware that she's doing it to feel magnanimous being the saviour of her former rival, but she accepts her offer for her little daughter (who I call Lukyasha). She's a proud woman, but she can't pass the opportunity to give Lukyasha a good life.

So the two young women end up living together in Katerina's current residence, a nice dacha with a garden left to her by a dead aunt, and end up growing closer, for better or worse. Their friendship blooms into something more that they are not ready to accept at first, but they also have to face their past resentment and the internalized misogyny they project onto each other. They first realize their attraction to each other when Grushenka, after having flirted with a servant for some time to make Katerina paranoid and restless because she offended her in an argument, confesses she did that just so Katerina wouldn't stop thinking about her. And they seek comfort in each other.

I could go on thinking of ideas of future conflicts such as Katerina still thinking of getting married while she's in a secret relationship with Grushenka and how Grushenka's attachment issues clash with Katerina's narcissism, or something more wholesome such as Katerina being called "mama" by Lukyasha as well, but this is getting longer than I expected lmao. Maybe another day.

[marvelstars]

The Jedi Stans engaging in mental gymnastics *yet again*. There are so many assumptions in @pheonixyfriend post it almost hurts.

First of all, we don't know how the financial and taxation system worked on Naboo, and we don't know if the monarch actually had the ability to raise taxes or whether that fell to another branch of government entirely.

They just hear the word "Queen" and assume Padme was some monarch with absolute power. She wasn't. The Queen of Naboo was a temporary, elected office more akin to President than that of a monarch.

That actually makes it more likely the Queen did not have much power over laws and taxes, because you don't want to entrust your entire government, legal and financial system to someone who is only gonna be in power for a few years and doesn't have much experience.

So no, Padme could not just raise taxes to buy back Shmi. What about using her own money? Well that raises its own issues. I mean its possible she could do it as a personal project - but its unlikely she could get official government endorsement.

Now say she does do it as a personal project: why is she buying a slave? Slavery is meant to be illegal. A Senator involved in the purchase of a slave on Tattooine? Involved in slavery? Huge scandal and her reputation destroyed if anyone found out.

Makes much more sense for the the religious organization with care of the child to do it. Call it an act of philantropy, free a few other slaves too just so it doesn't look like favouritism. Even say you're setting up a charitable foundation on Tatooine for the relief of slave children and their families. A religious organization had more reason to do that then a politician. Especially when said organization had a slave child in thier care.

Yes to all this, we don´t know how taxes on Naboo and Tatooine work, sure they are close in location but their governments are extremely different.

Naboo has temporal Queens and Kings with a Congress and a galactic Senator representing them on the Republic.

Tatooine doesn´t have any representation on the Republic and doesn´t have a government, it´s been ruled by the Hutt Clan for centuries and their word is law there, as well as their money. They don´t answer to the Republic or anyone else, they are very much a mafia.

That said I don´t see the need to use taxes, anybody be it Padme, Qui-Gon or the Jedi Council, could have asked Watto for Shmi and ask his price, they could even have given him a star ship in exchange for her, just like the money for Anakin was taken from winning the boonta eve classic, if Cliegg could save enough money to free Shmi then so could anyone else but the matter wasn´t even discussed, it isn´t there, it´s just wasn´t a priority.

It´s canon the only ones interested in freeing slaves were Anakin, Shmi, Beru, Cliegg and Owen in movie and novels, in novel Anakin gave his friends Kitster and Wald his money to help them buy their freedom and his self-made detector of slave chip to his Mother. Shmi and Beru and Owen became active in freeing slaves on Tatooine secretly, all on their own. Qui-Gon was the only Jedi in canon to free a slave but he didn´t do it because it was the right thing to do but because he wanted to take him to the temple.

The total absence of dicussion over the matter of slavery from almost everybody except those directly affected isn´t an accident, it´s a character clue Lucas included to picture the kind of Republic and Jedi order the Prequel Trilogy had. In fact he made the casual comment when he and Filoni were doing the clone wars that only Anakin cared for Shmi´s death.

A republic that would allow an entire planet be taken hostage can´t be expected to enforce it´s anti-slavery laws, a Jedi whose only comment over slavery was "We didn´t come here to free slaves" in the main canon can´t be expected to free slaves unless they happen to be force sensitive and on Shmi case, from the Jedi pov, the less contact between her and Anakin the better.

This Republic is going to become the Empire and this Jedi Order had become blind to what the Sith were doing given their dettachment from the galaxy besides the matters talked at the Senate.

Of all of them I blame Padme the less because she gave Anakin refuge when he didn´t have anything on Coruscant and if Anakin was rejected by the Jedi Padme would have given him refuge on Naboo until she could arrange for someone to free Shmi or adopt Anakin into a temporal family. Padme could have done something for Shmi but I don´t blame her for believing the guardians of peace and justice when they said they would take care of her friend when they took in Shmi child and she had a recently destroyed planet to rebuilt and people to free and heal from their own concentrations camps, that´s a herculean task even for an adult politician, let alone a 14 year old.

This is my take on this.

[maxwell-grant]

From Shadow Magazine #39: Road of Crime

I want more of you to appreciate how often part of The Shadow's plan to uncover in-depth crucial information about a case or it's suspects boils down to "send Harry Vincent somewhere and let him make new friends", and the fact that it works.

For further context: Graham Wellerton is a very smart, very cagey and very bitter ex-criminal currently trying to turn over a new leaf and redeem himself through extensive philantropy with his evil bastard uncle's inheritance (he is the main character and the story is about his redemption). Wellerton spends much of the book trying to ignore the people after him that forced him into criminality, but he's so paranoid that, just before the climax, he ends up viciously and venomously turning on the people that pulled him out of jail and overlooked his past and housed him and inspired him to try and better himself, even spouting how stupid he was to trust anybody.

I was right when I was crooked. I trusted no one then. I refused your friendship because I suspected everyone who ever pretended to be my friend.

That same guy also repeteadly let a stranger from Michigan into his home for chat with never the slightest bit of suspicion, not even when Harry's visit is interrupted by Wellerton's wife (the person that basically forced him into crime). That same guy has also spent this whole book scared of The Shadow, terrified that The Shadow will pick up his trail again and come for him, regardless of his attempt to reform (completely unaware that, not only has The Shadow never once lost his trail, but has been working silently to ensure he stays reformed).

That guy? Never once suspected Harry. Nobody ever does unless they're villains. Harry Vincent is just The Most Trustable Man Alive.

[sparrow-in-boots]

AC fandom stop treating the Medici (ESPECIALLY LORENZO) as some corrupt tyrants who would be the rennaissance equivalent of snooty entitled rich people?

begging you all to pick up a fucking history book or just, any Renaissance Humanism 101 video on youtube. i promise its not some difficult content hard to get your hands on. i promise your eyes won't fall off to learn that, surprisingly, rich people of the past from mercantilism times ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY comparable to rich people of today.

Lorenzo wouldn't even make it the top 100 richest people list by today's standards. and he believed it was his moral and political OBLIGATION to devote his wealth for the good of the people. you can't even call what he did as philantropy cus the word has taken such a slimy connotation these days.

P L E A S E

[chetuinc]

Promoting childhood well-being has always been a cornerstone of The Chetu Foundation. Recently, the foundation donated $60,000 to The Akshaya Patra Foundation to feed school-aged children in India. Over 200 million children in India face hunger during school hours, which results in poor attendance, a lack of focus, and low academic performance. To address this issue, the Akshaya Patra Foundation has initiated a program that provides free, nutritious mid-day meals to government school students throughout India.

To read the complete press release, click here: http://tinyurl.com/385z6846.

[margoteve]

Character Thoughts on Lawrence Limburger.

I had some thoughts about Lawrence Limburger from Biker Mice from Mars. I have finished watching first season and IDK it got me thinking how vile the man is.

So he's a really good business man and politician in the worst way possible. If he was human villain he would be quoting Sun Tzu or some modern age Steve Jobs I bet. Because all those pretentious villains do.

His schemes most of the time appear to be acts of good will and philantropy which is the worst kind of villain. To public he is benevolent if not awfully stinky and ridiculous man. His company most likely has an excellent working conditions as he tries to maintain a certain image with the human public. Plus the constant destruction of his tower he HAS to have great bonuses to keep people from quitting. Like in the episode introducing the Loogi Brothers, he took time to personally answer the calls from angry office workers. Illusions of good persona are so importat to him, otherwise how else will you steal Earth right from under humanity's nose?

I mean I am certain he must have bribed his way into ruining Chicago to the state it is now to a certain degree but I doubt anyone would be able to track it to him directly or if they did they probably got disposed of. I would have loved an episode with a news reporter doing an investigation on some suspicious activity and finding Limburger got his fingers in it and then running into Mice while running for their life.

I bet while some in Chi-Town, those who worked with Biker Mice in the past, would see them as heroes those who don't see them as menaces most likely, frequent destruction of property is certainly a reason to dislike them. I bet construction companies love them tho lol. The constant rebuilding of Limburger Tower must be making them a bank.

I think it's interesting how the show must look to the regular Chicago person from the outside. We only see Mice as heroes bc that's how the show presents it.

Great Cheese is cunning, two face and slimy, villain that if not for the rules of the genre of the show would be a serious threat which explains and gives chilling insight on just how easily Mars got stripped mined in the first place. Just look at all the social projects evil schemes he presented to the public:

solar power plant in exchange of the outdated (?) sewage system/cleaning plant

free services for evacuating the city during earthquakes

free cleanup from a toxic spill (nevermind it was destroying the park in the process and the toxins were his inventions - the public didn't know that or other options of how to deal with it)

a new subway tunnel

This is what the public knows of him. We have the knowledge of Limburger being a land stealing intergalactic oligarch (regular American businessman LOL) because the show wants us to know this. To a regular person who only hears about him from the news he's next best thing in the world. No surprise he managed to stay on top in Chicago until Biker Mice came bc they are the only ones with first hand experience of his "benevolence" always having a flip side. If not for his cartoonish looks and behaviour in the show he could have been on Xanatos level of villain but he is played more for gags rather than serious tone of Gargoyles.

But he keeps losing (thankfully). The difference here between the villain and heroes is the most classic one. His closest employees have no loyalty to him unlike Biker Mice who rely heavily on their loyalty to each other and trust each other (the famous Power of Friendship and unspeakable voilence lmao). Like the Great Cheese himself often states - "it's so hard to find good help these days".

To sum it up - Limburger is skilled politician/business man and if the show had any other tone than parody he would have destroyed Earth in like a month (exaggerating here). Fortunately for the show's world Mice are the Mongols to Limburger's Roman Empire and firmly thwarth all of his schemes.

Because Friendship and unspeakbable violence LOL.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Also I am really curious how the Ryan Reynolds reboot gonna portray the Stinky Cheese.

[rosesnink]

Meet Det. Neera Rose

ABOUT NEERA

Full Name: Neera Elena Rose

Meaning behind the name: Neera- Devastating ; Elena- Bright, shining

Birthday: 23rd of October, 1992

Status: Alive, taken

Nickname: Rose, Detective

Age: 30

Parents: Jimmy Rose, Carolina Rose, neé Sánchez Montero

Sibling(s): None

Further Family: Tommy Rose, uncle ; Nerea Rose, cousin

How old they appear: 30 years old

Weight: 68kg

Height: 1.72m

Skin Type: Light brown

Religion: Atheist

Sexuality: Lesbian

Hair color and lenght: Light brown hair, in a bun with bangs in book one, bob short in book two

Taste in clothes: Neera likes practical and comfortable clothes, though thanks to Marguerite, she appreciates from time to time some finesse

Music: Neera listens to 80s and 90s music, totally oblivious to the modern and latest music

Good habits: Smart, perceptive, witty, brave and intuitive

Bad habits: Closed off, prickly, reserved and apathetic

Guilty pleasure: She loves ridiculous dramas, such as Mexican telenovelas

Hobbies: Neera currently struggles to find a hobby unrelated to work

Deepest fears: Losing Trystan the way she lost her father

Love Interest: Princess Trystan Thorne of Drakovia

Child(ren): None

Actual Residence: New York City, USA

Allies: Marguerite Thorne, Mafalda Ginovesi, Luke Watanabe, Tommy Rose, Capt. Thompson (sorta...)

Enemies: Many

Goals: Avenge her father's death one day by putting behind bars the person who did it

BACKSTORY

Neera grew up among policemen and strong women, like her mother, and thus had a peculiar childhood. She was trained to fight, see beyond the white lies and uncover secrets and puzzles, which made her academically gifted during middle school and the majority of high school, until her father's murder in front of her eyes made her go through a huge burnout, her grades dropping to the point where doctors feared for her life... and a possible attempt to take it.

But, like a phoenix, she recovered after weekly therapy sessions and set her eyes on criminology, following into her father's footsteps. The year she got into university, her mother voluntarily went to a mental hospital to treat her own wounds, knowing that Tommy would take good care of her Neera. She'd die there three years later of a stroke.

She graduated top of her class, valedictorian and with a personal title bestowed by the dean for her philantropy and academic achievements, and was soon accepted in the police force, where she'd see that her father's world was nothing like she had pictured.

She soon caught wind of the corruption, favouritism and oppression within, especially within the big spheres, and soon started her private investigation of every corrupt cop and high standing character who backed it up, and brought it to the captain... to be shut down and kicked out of the police.

Again on the verge of an existential crisis, finding herself again on the stadium where her father was murdered's rooftop, she was about to do something regrettable when someone convinced her to stay: it was Mafalda Ginovesi, who had been keeping an eye on her. She avoided her second attempt on her life, bought her coffee and told her the perks of being a P.I. and crashed at her place, not ready to tell Uncle Tommy she had tried it again. The next day, she was recruited by Ginovesi's agency and started doing light work: missing teenagers, cheating partners and the kind, nothing big really happening, until she was given the Dormer case.

DURING THE SERIES

From the start, Sonja's disappearance was iffy to say the least, but it was the job and main breadwinner of the house. She wouldn't count on the company of an over-confident and annoyingly charming Drakovian princess, Trystan Thorne.

She was not thrilled at all, wanting for this to be over with, but when they found Sonja's body, it just spiralled further. Now partners with the intriguing princess, she begrudgingly brought her along, not fully knowing what she was getting into.

Undercover balls, late night break-ins and all that tryst, somewhere along the line, made her slowly fall for Trystan. From being annoyed at her advances to wanting more, the moment Trystan was shot by the killer and nearly died, she knew she wanted, nay, needed her in her life. They spent a passionate night together, where she was happy to nurse Trystan and, during those hours, discovered who the killer was.

They caught him successfully, but Marguerite's abduction caught them off-guard. Now, with a life on the line, they were forced to take the serial killer out of prison and into the mastermind's lair within thirty minutes.

They went into the greenhouse, where the whole plot was discovered before Neera's very own eyes: the old, sassy woman, Eleanor St-Claire, had been behind the true Hand of Mahra, ordering her pupil Tony Kowalski to kill three different kinds of women to satisfy their Gaulic triple goddess, Mahra, to 'ascend' and 'be the Chosen' of the goddess.

The fight against Eleanor and Tony nearly cost the life of Neera, and Eleanor perished in the fight, but Tony did not. They arrested him, and now they had one elephant in the room: Trystan was called back to Drakovia for her dead fiancé's shady death. The princess finally refused to leave Neera behind and both started getting back on track after putting behind the Heartache Killer.

Until Trystan was forced back to Drakovia, and Neera followed behind her, not aware of the danger she'd face ahead.

[MORE WILL BE ADDED AS I PLAY COP2]

AFTER THE SERIES

[MORE WILL BE ADDED AFTER COP ENDS]

@choicesbookclub @choicesoctober @choicesficwriterscreations