#so now my WATER and GAS PRIVILEGES ARE BEING RESTRICTED

[mxwhore]

can i get a fucking Break

[rivermask]

Image: Standing Rock Protest

An open letter from Kurt Dongoske, from the January 27, 2017 Newsletter of The Archaeological Division of the American Anthropological Association:  “For most people, the beginning of a new year offers a renewed sense of hope, happiness, and prosperity for the future. For me, as the Zuni Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and an archaeologist working in cultural resource management in the Southwest for 40 years, the dawning of 2017 brings anxiety born out of a feeling of foreboding that our future is in jeopardy. I am referring both to the future of careers in cultural resource management and the future of our environment. Normally, I'm a pretty optimistic fellow, but the results of the recent presidential election left me feeling more than pessimistic. My sense of foreboding is based, in part, on the campaign platform of the President-elect in which he promised to diminish or abolish regulations, underscored by anti-science, anti-climate change, and fact-denying rhetoric. Moreover, his recent appointments for key administrative positions heighten my apprehension.  Once the President-elect is in office, I fully expect an executive and legislative branch assault on all environmental and historic preservation legislation and regulation that 'industry' currently views as unnecessary impediments to so-called 'development.' The incoming administration most likely will move quickly to effectively promote and encourage gas, oil, and coal extraction on federal lands and couple this with a move toward seriously reducing compliance with environmental protection legislation and strong-arm tactics to any push back by environmental or professional organizations.  Closer to home, I anticipate that the incoming administration will act to fundamentally undermine the preservation community's commitment to protect, preserve, and interpret historical properties and cultural resources. Now more than ever, as the natural resource extraction industry is afforded unique privileges by the federal government, archaeological sites, sacred sites, traditional cultural properties and landscapes may be threatened with destruction without appropriate consideration or treatment. Any effort by the new administration to exempt categories of development projects from Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review—including reform of NEPA and the Section 106 process—will have a deleterious effect on cultural resource management.  It is not just archaeological sites, historic properties, places, landscapes and the environment that will be threatened. A highly partisan Congress may entertain bills that seek to restrict the types of research funded under the National Science Foundation (NSF). This will cause negative reverberations throughout the academy. Even more importantly, such a change would damage historically and geographically marginalized communities that rely on the academy to make their voices, concerns, and struggles more public and to hold responsible entities more accountable.  While the new Republican-held Congress is anticipated to work toward diminishing environmental and historic preservation regulations, they will concomitantly attempt to curtail federally required Tribal consultation by reversing previous Executive Orders on tribal consultation. Should this occur, it will have a profoundly negative effect on the ability of Tribal Nations to put forth meaningful and effective voices in the protection of their places of sacred and traditional cultural importance. One need only look at the Dakota Access Pipeline, the resistance by the Standing Rock Sioux, and the militarized response by the oil industry as an example of what may be in store for Native peoples. The othering of immigrant Mexicans and Muslims by the President-elect can be anticipated to be extended to Native Americans as a form of delegitimizing and dismissing their claims of primacy-of-association-to-landscape and to natural and cultural resources. If all of this occurs, not only will archaeological sites, traditional cultural properties and landscapes be threatened if not completely disregarded, but also it may result in the violation of basic human rights for Native Americans and their ability to secure the protection of their sacred places, cultural identities and living heritage.  As anthropologists and archaeologists, we should be deeply troubled with the President-elect's past and current turgidity toward dismantling or decreasing legislation that provides for the consideration and protection of clean air, clean water, and healthy ecosystems. We have a professional ethical responsibility to work collaboratively and effectively to advocate for and protect archaeological and cultural resources and to speak out and work against any and all efforts that threaten these important places. Moreover, as anthropologists we have a profound ethical responsibility to advocate on behalf of indigenous people when they are being disenfranchised from a regulatory process that has been altered to privilege oil, gas, and coal extraction efforts on their ancestral lands.  The American Anthropological Association (AAA), the Society for American Archaeology, and the Register of Professional Archaeologists all have ethical principals or codes of conduct that define our responsibilities to the archaeological record. For example, the Society for American Archaeology's ethical principle No. 1 calls upon all members of the Society to be "both caretakers of and advocates for the archaeological record for the benefit of all people," and "to use the specialized knowledge they gain to promote public understanding and support for its long-term preservation." Recently, the Society for American Archaeology's Board of Directors issued direction to the membership (Our Ethical Principles, Our Actions: Member Responsibilities in a Time of Change) in response to what is viewed as a pending time of change. They added the following directions to the membership regarding ethical principle No. 1:  As members, we will therefore oppose any initiatives to weaken the present legal protections of archaeological sites and materials, be these through legislative process, rewriting of agency regulations, or other means. Moreover, our stewardship responsibilities require that we support and defend initiatives aimed at mitigating the impacts on cultural heritage of accelerating climate disruptions.  The AAA's code of ethics speaks to our professional responsibilities to support and defend the rights of indigenous peoples and this is important for us, as anthropologists, to never forget and to be compelled to action by embracing this code. The AAA represents all anthropologists and archaeologists working in the United States and our collective economic viability and our ability to secure federal funding for academic research and cultural resource management projects likely will be under assault. It seems to me that every archaeological, anthropological, historic preservation and environmental professional organization has a dog in this fight and must be willing to speak out and lobby against any efforts to abolish or decrease environmental protection and historic preservation legislation.  As members of professional organizations, I urge you to encourage and support our organizations to establish strong lobbying coalitions with fellow environmental organizations in order to actively and effectively thwart any legislative or executive efforts to weaken current legal protections for the environment and historic properties, places, and landscapes. As individuals, I encourage each and every one of us to act locally, at the state level and nationally by contacting your congressional representatives and senators and expressing your concerns regarding the movement to rollback regulations, for those regulations not only help to protect our collective cultural heritage and a healthy environment for generations to come, but are the backbone of providing appropriate consideration for and attention to many places that are central to the identity and ongoing traditional practices and benefits of indigenous and traditional communities.”  TL;DR: The Trump Administration’s actions to restrict regulations in order to allow the development of energy extraction on federal lands puts at risk both natural and heritage resources, many of them nonrenewable. In cutting off federal funding and curtailing public education, it also threatens the livelihoods and free speech of scientists in many fields. The Trump Administration also presents a threat to the civil rights of Tribal Nations in cases where economic interests ignore Tribal sovereignty over matters within their own lands. It is important that the scientific community, the Tribal community, and their allies stand up to these efforts of the Trump administration (see the final paragraph of the letter for concrete actions). 

[ibilenews]

Cooped up in small homes and lacking awareness, Jakarta’s urban poor find it tough amid partial lockdown

JAKARTA: Siti Patonah and her third-grader daughter, who live in a slum in South Jakarta, spend most of their time crouching together in front of her handphone these days.

With schools closed since Mar 16 to curb the spread of COVID-19, her daughter’s teachers have been sending videos to the parents for the students to watch.

Homework, usually some written tasks, has to be completed, and photos of the completed sheets are then sent back to the teachers for marking.

“I have to accompany my child every day because I need to explain the lessons and homework to her.

“It is very hard because I am not a teacher. I have to make sure that my child understands, with my own method, that’s the problem,” Patonah, 44, said.

She accesses all the materials on her handphone, and occasionally browses the Internet for additional information.

While network connection is not an issue, she said her usual 3GB monthly plan is simply not enough and she has to fork out money to buy twice as much data so her daughter can continue studying at home.

They do not have broadband connection at home.

The city’s education department has yet to announce when will schools open again. Last Friday (Apr 10), a partial lockdown known as large-scale social restrictions kicked in, further reducing the movement of people in the capital of Indonesia.

Jakarta is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, accounting for close to half of the country’s 5,136 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday.

Patonah’s small family is part of about 1.2 million poor citizens in the megacity of 10 million people, according to data from the Jakarta government.

Her husband Endang Sopian, 45, has been sitting idly at home since Mar 26 after his employer, a restaurant in one of Central Jakarta’s high-end malls, shut down to heed the Indonesian government’s call for people to stay home.

He received his March salary but was unsure if he would still get his paycheck in April. He also stopped working as a part-time e-hailing rider out of fear that he might get infected.

Sopian said he would have to resume working as a rider should they run out of savings.

“I’m just here at home. I sleep a lot. My daughter actually asked me, ‘Why are you always sleeping?’” he said.

Their house is about 40 sq m, enough for the three of them to live in, but there is no balcony or yard.

“So in the morning, I go out of the house to sunbathe to keep my body healthy,” Sopian said.

NINE PEOPLE IN A SMALL HOUSE

Social distancing is a privilege the poor cannot afford, as illustrated in the case of Mila Karmila and Wati, who live together in a rickety house in a small alley in Jakarta.

A foul stench lingered in the air as the sisters opened up about their daily struggles amid the large-scale social restrictions.

They are aware that Jakarta is plagued with a disease and that it has affected their lives, but they have no idea what the restrictions entail.

“The television is broken, how are we supposed to know?” said Wati, 45, who goes by one name.

A total of nine people - including their husbands and children, as well as an older brother - live together in the 20 sq m house, so the sisters prefer to spend their time outside the house for some fresh air.

Wati is a housewife while her husband is an informal parking attendant who earns tips from drivers.

However, after the large-scale social restrictions came into effect, there are almost no cars on the roads and he is staying at home with no income.

Karmila, 40, earns one million rupiah (US$64) per month by washing and ironing clothes for people living nearby.

Her husband is a public minivan driver, who usually earns 100,000 rupiah a day.

Since the pandemic, he only earns about 20,000 rupiah which he has to spend on gas, leaving basically nothing behind for the family’s basic necessities.

“We don’t even have rice to eat,” Karmila said.

As the two were chatting, their older sister Suhana dropped by. The 46-year-old lives in a different sub-district in South Jakarta and came visiting on Tuesday despite the large-scale social restrictions.

“I’m bored at home. I want to meet my sisters,” she said. “But I will go straight home after this.”

“If the police catch me, I will just say I want to visit my family because I don’t have money and I need to borrow money from them. It’s not that I am violating the regulation,” she said.

‘I TRY NOT TO WORRY THAT MUCH’

Just a few metres away, Ila Sanilah, 44, still operates her coconut water stall in front of the shack she shares with her husband and 22-year-old son. Business has been badly hit by the social restrictions.

“Usually we sell about 100 glasses of coconut water per day, but it will now probably take us a week to sell the same.”

“I can’t save with my current income. Nowadays I’m just thankful that we can still eat,” she said, adding that one glass is sold at 5,000 rupiah. 

After closing her stall, Sanilah then spends the afternoon taking care of a neighbour’s preschool daughter who likes to play on the street.

Sometimes she is joined by some other housewives on the roadside kerb, as the children play together.

​​​​​​​This ritual has not changed even though the large-scale social restrictions regulation has come into force.

Being forced to stay home also meant running out of topics of conversation for many.

Patonah, the housewife who has to guide her daughter to study at home, said she did not know what to talk to her husband about these days.

“Usually he would tell me about his day at work, and I would tell him things I encounter while picking up our daughter from school. Now we got nothing to talk about,” she said.

They used to watch television together, usually the daily COVID-19 press conference by the government. As that can be a source of stress, Sopian now watches movies at night while Patonah prepares study materials for their daughter.

In the meantime, he tries not to worry that much.

“Before the outbreak, we always say, wouldn’t it be nice if we can get some time off work? Sleep a bit more, especially since I only come home at 11 pm most of the time.

“Now I get the chance to sleep and rest. Just try to look on the bright side and let’s pray this soon will be over,” he said.

[olwog]

George sent me a note, “We’re walking from Clay Bank to Lordstones” tomorrow, “…are you available?” This is one my favourite walks so he was ‘leaning against an open door’ but they wanted to walk ‘there-and-back’ and I was short of time so with a little bit of deft planning, George had Peter lined up to pick me up at Lordstones so that my car was in the right place when the rest of the group were at the half way point; I love this group!

                                    We travel along the back road to Chop Gate through glorious Raisdale, Chop Gate has nothing to do with chopping but is derived from the Old English ‘ceap’ meaning ‘pedlar’ suggesting that this tiny hamlet was once a centre of trading ie. Pedlars Gate. It’s also known for its pronunciation with a soft ‘g’ and flat vowel i.e. Chop yat.

As car parks go, the one at Clay Bank takes some beating for value, no fee but no facilities either. It does; however, have astonishing views over the Cleveland Plain. On a good day, you can see Roseberry Topping and Captain Cook’s Monument together with various man-made structures across the Tees estuary. 

    We make our way towards Hasty Bank and onwards to Wainstones but that’s after a serious ascent and it’s different. George observes that the trees have been harvested since our last walk here and it has made a huge difference in both light and perception. We can see what we are about to ascend and at any point on the track we can now see a wider panorama although it could be argued that the trees were preferable. I’m good with what we’ve got and within 10 minutes we’re looking back towards Urra Moor and across the Vale of Mowbray towards Teesport and beyond to the windmill farm off the coast of Redcar.

  At the top, we recount a lovely meeting with a mother and daughter who were doing the Wainstones walk last summer. The day was blue-sky and warm and we had our ‘photos taken sitting on a rock overhanging the valley below. Today is a little bit different in as much as the weather is grey and the Pennines in the distance are hazy due to the haar. The oilseed-rape crops stand out though. It’s like the yellow glow has been ‘switched on’ overnight and the soft glow diffused in the mist.

On top of Cold Moor looking over the Broughton Plantation Ridge, the wind is blowing into our faces and we can see the whole of the Vale of Mowbray but disappointingly, in mist. The heather is throwing up green shoots and showing the promise of an astonishing display of colour in another two or three of months and there are pools of vivid blue in the woods below as bluebells announce the arrival of early summer.

We reach Wainstones in just over half-an-hour and enjoy the banter as we find our various routes down through the huge boulders. On a summers day or evening you’d be well advised to walk here and enjoy this wonderful and natural spectacle. Bring your kids; last year, as we passed there was a group of ten being shown climbing techniques by outward-bounds specialists and they were loving it.

    As we emerge from our various routes through the rocks a group of Cleveland Way walkers (I think from Hull – if you read this please confirm) who are full of enthusiasm and all smiles. They tell us of extremely restricted visibility on the tops yesterday due to cloud and illustrate it by pointing at a huge rock only a couple of yards away and tell us that it would not have been visible. It’s a stark reminder that weather changes very rapidly up here and being prepared is not just for scouts. They stayed at High Paradise last night, one of our favourite watering holes in the summer, just along from Sutton Bank and looked after by a lady who is slightly eccentric and very easy on the eye. The food is good too, what’s not to like?

    A quick photo later and we’re on or way down into Garfit Gap and girding ourselves for the next ascent to the ridge of the aptly named Cold Moor and it’s fair to say, we’ve never been here when it’s been warm and, ironically, each time we’ve reached the top, we’ve never been cold!

We’re out of breath but the view is always worth it. In mountain terms, it’s just a big hill but always a challenge to get up to the top without stopping and we decided long ago that it was better to stop occasionally if only for the views. We’re at about 1300 feet (400 metres) but the multi-coloured Vale of Mowbray, even when it’s misty, is beautiful. 

    We’re on the flat for a couple of hundred yards then it’s down again, on a zig-zag track for 300 feet (100 metres) into the opening of Raisdale where we pause to remove a layer or two as we survey the track up Crinkle Moor. It’s the steepest so far and also the most picturesque. There has been a huge amount of work to ensure that the Cleveland Way is not eroded and the evidence is the stones that we’re encouraged to walk on. Some of them have words carved into them and may have been gravestones, others are natural and quite rough; however, all of them have been carried to where they now lie and have been carefully set on some kind of foundation as we rarely find any that are lose or unstable. Thank you all you volunteers and rangers who maintain them, we certainly appreciate your efforts and laud your praise whenever we can.

This is the third climb in a little over an hour and requires more than one stop. Each break is accompanied by a drink and, more importantly, a look around. There is some pleasure in reviewing our progress and the track winding into the distance and up the side of Cold Moor is clear evidence of what we’ve done.

    There is also the chance to exercise our other senses when we stop. Our eyes are always on the alert but quite often they’re looking for the next footstep or avoiding a hazard so the preoccupation precludes taking in the surrounding beauty. 

Our hearing is analogue but can be inhibited by the wind and taking a short break allows us to tilt our head or even cup a hand over the ear to listen to birdsong from the skylarks that are always busy with continuous chatter above us or pheasant and grouse scaring the crap out of us when we step near their roosting or nesting area. 

Our ability to smell is never switched off but we have to think about what we’re sensing now and then or it can pass us by without notice. There is the odd fresh pat of cow-shit that steams and invades our nose from time to time and we don’t miss that but a pause at the side of a field of oil-seed-rape (a relative of wallflowers) or a lilac bush can transport me into a memory that’s long since been filed in a dark recess and it’s evoked in an instant by the smell. I don’t know what smell is. Does it have a physical form? Is it fine droplets of liquid or a gas? I’m not sure but I do know that it is so evocative as to be more powerful than all of the other senses and I love to dream. 

/* StartWobblyScene

Lilac reminds me of working in Czechoslovakia as Communism was dying when we were given excellent accommodation in a residential block a 20-minute walk from the university. We were glorying in the title of Visiting Professors which was all rather grand but professor is interchangeable with the word ‘teacher’ in Europe so when it came to our CV’s it was ‘Visiting Professor’ that went down and we reveled in the moment – am I shallow/supercilious or what? I’ve learned a lot since then and no longer need a label – I’m happy being me.  

We’d got some European money and sought permission from the Americans to take a small network of computers to teach the professors about modern machines and the first day or two was quite stressful as we gauged their level of proficiency. It turned out to be way better than our assumptions. They demolished the 6 seeks work that I intended to leave them when we returned to the UK and they did this on top of the work done in our lectures and hands-on sessions whilst we were there. The star of the show was a gentleman called Premsyl Tichy who linked our system into the university system within hours of us being there. Easily done now (If you have the security privileges) but circa 1990 it was challenging).

The early morning walk through the woods in warm sunshine to the main teaching blocks was both glorious and stress relieving and the thing that triggers this beautiful moment is the smell of lilac and this was generated by a tiny lilac bush growing wild out of the crack of a drystone wall and all but invisible save for the beautiful smell.

EndWobblyScene */

Part way up Cringle we stop and talk. George is drawing attention to the fact that we would stop a half dozen times when we first did this walk and I observed the fact that the height was an issue for me, but not now; exposure is a great desensitiser and we’ve both come a long way over the years.

At the top, the wind is blowing the cloud away from the ridge and the mist is clearing, we’ve even got evidence of blue sky and sunshine as the haar recedes back towards the coast. We can see Chris at the stone lookout towards the far end of the path, he’s been off like a rocket today and good luck to him, he’s worked hard for it.

    We take few minutes to enjoy yet more of the cliffs, hills, forests and vale; all now in sunshine but still a bit windy and a few photos later and we’re taking the downward track to Lordstones and a well-earned sausage sandwich.

We use Lordstones regularly and find them welcoming and reasonable, they’ve also been very generous in allowing us to leave a car there when doing a linear walk – it’s much appreciated, thanks Lordstones people.

Enjoy the snaps…G..x

Clay Bank to Lordstones George sent me a note, “We’re walking from Clay Bank to Lordstones” tomorrow, “…are you available?” This is one my favourite walks so he was ‘leaning against an open door’ but they wanted to walk ‘there-and-back’ and I was short of time so with a little bit of deft planning, George had Peter lined up to pick me up at Lordstones so that my car was in the right place when the rest of the group were at the half way point; I love this group!

[hamrink]

Welfare Food Challenge: Day 7 and Post Reflection

Day 7… I couldn’t be happier that this day is here.

My day started off by sleeping in till super late, once I was up I made some eggs and bread. Since I had to finish up on the bread, cause it really makes me bloated I wanted to use it for my meals today.

Lunch or I should say basically dinner I ate some of the left over chicken breast I made a few days ago, with broccoli. This gave me a boost of energy and helped me concentrate on studying and not about my hunger.

Dinner was toast again. I just stop eating the KD and soup, it wasn’t making me feel good, more so bloated and tired. So this was the final day of the food challenge, I really wish there were more markets in Red Deer so I could have a variety of veggies and fruit filled challenge vs full of carbs.

Now time for the reflections.

This challenge really was a CHALLENGE. Living in Alberta $21 is very low for welfare, nutritious food is too expensive to buy under $21. As I was shopping last Sunday, all the junk food (chips, candies, pastas, canned products) were super cheap, if I wanted I could have bought a lot of flavored filled products for $21. But when it comes to real unprocessed foods, I was limited. The two broccoli crowns I purchased were $3.20 approx. That would last me only a few days during a regular week. It just really saddens me that the government thinks that it is affordable lifestyle to live by. I really wish they would try out this challenge and see when how fast they would cheat. This amount of money is what leads individuals and families to have poor food choices leading them to heart disease, high BP, obesity.. the list can go on.

This challenge made me realize how much food can affect my mood and energy levels. Day 1 I was doing okay and surviving, but all the days after that it was down hill, I was grumpy and wanted the day to be over, I had no energy especially for the days I went to the gym and worked. The hardest part was having energy after a long day at school and coming home to study, there was no motivation.

I am use to preparing food on a daily base, I usually meal plan. So planning a few days ahead isn’t hard for me, but for someone on welfare it can be difficult since this is their diet they are tired all the time, have no motivation to eat healthy so choose other options like eating out and getting Mc Donald’s, since its fast and delicious.

Living on a welfare is difficult, since your so restricted to a certain amount of income, being able to socially interact with others is hard. For me it was on Wednesday, most Wednesday I go hang out with my friends at Bp’s or The Brew house for wings. On this challenge I was restricted since I did not have enough money to spend. This can really effect a individuals self esteem, this restriction is made for them, which may cause them to always want to be left alone and not socialize with others.

On Sunday I drove my self to Superstore to buy all the groceries I needed and then on Monday I drove to a Mc Donald’s to participate in their free coffee event, I was able to transport myself there and back to my home. Someone on welfare is limited, even though it is a free event that they would want to participate in they may not have the money to catch a bus or a cab or even pay for enough gas. All these limitations take place for a person on welfare. I was lucky enough to have a stove, microwave, dishes to cook in and eat out of, fridge to keep my food, along with clean water. Someone one welfare may have a few of these things or none of it at all.

This challenge really made me think outside the box, I am so grateful that I was able to take part in this challenge. But living like this on a daily base hurts me that people don’t have the privilege or chance to be more healthy since they are only limited to such little. I really hope the government sees that $21 is not a weekly amount to live by.

Now this post is super long, I’ll post the picture of my food from today!