#we hold people accountable for their actions in this household while also treating them with care and dignity

[helluvabunch]

"it's a trauma response" and "it's a shitty way to treat someone" are not mutually exclusive btw ✨

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Strength in numbers

Accountancy is more likely to be mocked than celebrated (or condemned), but accountants, far more than poets, are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

Though "bean counters" are employed by firms, they are notionally bound by a professional code of ethics every bit as serious as the Hippocratic Oath: "count things honestly." Without an accurate accounting of quantities, you can't make good decisions on quality.

Though accountancy concerns itself with counting things, it is inextricably bound up with the realm of ideas, and accounting conventions (how you account for things) are philosophical matters, not empirical ones.

It's no coincidence that Modern Monetary Theory owes more to accountancy than it does to economics. Economic accounts of the economy have an unfortunate tendency to proceed from first principles, creating models based on pure reason, without checking in on the actual world.

For example, neoclassical econ's "homo economicus," the rational value-maximizing actor who populated so many models; or economists' insistence on targeting inflation with interest rates; or treating national "debts" like they were household debts.

It's telling that the greatest economics revolution of my lifetime was "behavioral economics," which could also be called "checking to see whether real people act like we've assumed they acted."

If it seems weird that economists would spend generations operating on the incorrect assumption that people behave in a certain way without ever checking, consider that Aristotle assumed women had fewer teeth than men, - and never bothered to count.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aristotles-error/

Accountants check, and what they find is…gnarly. In "An Accounting Model of the UK Exchequer," Andrew Berkeley, Richard Tye & Neil Wilson offer a mindbending account (heh) of where money comes from (hint: not taxes), and where it goes ("poof").

https://gimms.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/An-Accounting-Model-of-the-UK-Exchequer-Google-Docs.pdf

The authors did a two-part MMT Podcast interview describing the paper's findings, and it is the most extraordinary 2.5h audio you're likely to find: not just the realities of money, but the deliberate obfuscation thereof.

https://pileusmmt.libsyn.com/84-andrew-berkeley-richard-tye-neil-wilson-an-accounting-model-of-the-uk-exchequer-part-1

https://pileusmmt.libsyn.com/86-andrew-berkeley-richard-tye-neil-wilson-an-accounting-model-of-the-uk-exchequer-part-2

One thing the Exchequer paper reveals is that accountants bat for both teams: team clarity and team obscurity. As many finance scandals and finance dramas have reminded us, accounting can be turned to obscuring and dazzling rather than revelation.

After all, somewhere in HM Exchequer is a team of accountants who know *exactly* how money works - and know that it's nothing like the account produced by economists or politicians. They know it because they are in charge of it. They do money, all day long.

When accountants go rogue, things get bad. And thanks to neoclassical economics - and its emphasis on the "efficiency" of monopolies - we are living through a golden age of ghastly accounting fraud.

Just four companies - EY, KPMG, PWC and Deloitte - audit the books of 97% of the 350 largest UK companies; but they make far more selling these companies consulting services, and have made a habit of lying about those books in order to boost their consulting income.

Accountancy is meant to be a profession that understands that conflicts of interest are a moral hazard. But just as doctors convince themselves they won't get addicted to their own painkillers, accountants talk themselves into believing that conflicts won't corrupt them.

That's how the Big Four accounting companies came to sign off Carillion's fraudulent books. The company hid £7b worth of debts, took on management of vital government services up and down the country, then collapsed, leaving the nation stranded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillion#Financial_difficulties

For the Big Four, Carillion's collapse was a feature, not a bug. After all, the only accounting firms large enough to oversee its bankruptcy were...the Big Four, who billed millions for cleaning up the mess left behind by their own fraud.

Accounting fraud is a fascinating potential fracture line in economic reform. After all, fraudulent accountants may help *some* plutes get rich - like, say Bernie Madoff, or Donald Trump - but they often do so at the expense of *other* plutes.

Like Exxon, which lied to its investors for 11 years about the value of its shale-gas holdings, which it purchased at the peak of the fracking bubble and whose revenues and liabilities it has buried in its financial statements ever since.

https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/02/02/whistleblower-sec-complaint-alleges-exxon-fraud-overvalue-fracking-assets

The company is finally writing down $19.3b worth of those assets, but the true figure is more like $50b. And yes, Exxon's big investors include a lot of passive funds that invest pension savings, meaning this hurts Main Street as well as Wall Street.

But as ever, those pension-savers are the Lucky Duckies here, because - joke's on us - Americans have basically no pension savings, thanks to the wage stagnation and asset inflation that left almost all working Americans facing penury in old age.

Hey, at least they're not getting ripped off by Exxon! The real victims of this decade-long, multibillion-dollar fraud are the same people who got snookered into buying into shitty Trump casinos and luxury buildings: rich people.

By definition, rich people deal in quantities that exceed their ability to personally count so they are especially vulnerable to scam accounting. It's only when the frauds tank a company we all suffer, as jobs and businesses disappear, screwing workers  and cities.

The absence of a neutral ref and scorekeeper is a really big deal in online business and policy circles. The ad-tech duopoly isn't merely content to price-gouge advertisers - they also lie about what those sky-high prices are paying for:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#wannamakers-ghost

But each member of the duopoly has a different scam. Google's frauds are complex, behind-the-scenes market manipulations, an abstruse, mathematical grift that leverages complexity and monopoly to fleece its customers.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3500919

Facebook is much more straightforward. It just lies. Back in 2016, FB lied about how many people were watching videos, and encouraged hundreds of media company to beggar themselves to chase fraudulent video dollars:

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-lawsuit-pivot-to-video-mistake/

Accounting fraud is in Facebook's DNA. After all, this is a company whose primary sales-pitch is, "We will count everything you do and then charge people to help them sell you stuff."

This proposition is intrinsically hard to evaluate. How can a customer know if their FB ad generated a sale, or whether it was an ad elsewhere, or random chance, or even that elusive beast, customer loyalty?

The main source for the belief in Facebook's efficacy is...Facebook. It's not a neutral party, and the accountants who sign off on its books have repeatedly shown themselves to be untrustworthy.

Here's the latest scandal: since 2018, FB's been defending a class-action suit brought by its customers who claim that FB lied about "potential reach" - that is, how many users would see their ads.

https://www.ft.com/content/c144b3e0-a502-440b-8565-53a4ce5470a5

And while FB strenuously denies that the inaccuracies in "potential reach" metrics were just normal, unpredictable variations in user behaviors, a whistleblowing FB product manager has produced emails in which they warn execs that they're committing fraud.

The execs who got these memos rejected them, telling the product manager that acting on them would have "significant revenue impact" - that is, "Our customers wouldn't buy our products if we were truthful about them."

The fraudulent reach figures begat fraudulent revenues, and those revenues were fraudulently reported to investors. Those investors will now take a haircut if FB loses in court.

Accounting fraud's pathology is bimodal: it abets the wage-theft and austerity that harms the poorest and most vulnerable - but also the reporting scams that harpoon finance's biggest whales.

It's a curious alliance of interests. For now, it seems like Big Tech is going to be antitrust and anti-corruption's harbinger, but I wouldn't count accountancy out - it's got exactly the right kinds of enemies to fire sustained political will.

[merrybrides]

28 Marriage Deal Breakers to Avoid

There's a certain degree of give and take required for a marriage to last, and we each have our own individual level of tolerance. For some people, it doesn’t take much in the way of bad behavior to want out. For others, they routinely handle bad behavior with little apparent impact until it inevitably boils over. Either way, there is a point where bad behaviors become a marriage deal breaker. If you want to keep your marriage as strong and healthy as possible, do your best to avoid everything on this list.

Read on for 28 marriage deal breakers.

A Spouse Who Doesn't Have Your Back

Does your brother treat you like dirt in front of your husband and he says nothing? Does your mother criticize your husband and you allow it to continue? It’s always your job to have your spouse’s back.

A Spouse Who Doesn't Take Responsibility

Whether it’s a refusal to change a diaper, take the trash out, or say “I’m sorry” when one is clearly in the wrong, each spouse has to be able to take responsibility for their actions (or lack thereof).

A Spouse Who Can't Be Vulnerable

As husband and wife, you should both feel safe enough to share deep thoughts and emotions with each other in order to truly have your needs met. Allowing ourselves to be emotionally vulnerable is also a tremendous source of strength and the only way we can truly connect in our most personal relationships.

A Spouse Who Doesn't Make an Effort to Make You Feel Special

We all want to be cared for by the one we love. If your husband washes the dishes but doesn’t wipe down the countertop, thank him for washing the dishes. Don’t criticize because he didn’t wipe down the countertop. If your wife works a full-time job and still contributes to taking care of the home and kids, let her know her efforts are appreciated. At the end of the day, we all want to feel like we are seen, heard, and we matter.

A Spouse Whose Behavior Causes You Doubt

Does he say he’ll fix that leaking faucet but, three months later, it is still leaking? Does she say she’ll try harder to show an interest in sex but after time, she is still withholding? It’s the seemingly small behaviors that promote the growth of major mistrust in a marriage—don’t let the small things take root.

A Spouse Who Doesn't Account for Their Whereabouts

There is no need to check in every hour on the hour, but if you’re going to be two hours late getting home from work, let your spouse know. It's common courtesy to stay in communication and not cause one another unnecessary worry.

A Spouse Who Can't Hold a Job

If you live in a household that requires two incomes to thrive, like the majority of households these days, you and your partner both need to find a steady way to earn income. Do your part and contribute.

A Spouse Who Consistently Lies

You stopped off for a few beers with the guys on the way home from work, but you told her the boss asked you to work late. She went shopping and spent way too much money and hid her purchases in the trunk to keep you from knowing. Small lies eventually come out, and when a spouse deals with one lie after another, don’t be surprised when you find yourself married to someone who doubts everything you say. Trust is fragile. Secrets and lies jeopardize trust and can damage us and our relationships—sometimes irreparably.

A Spouse Who Takes the Other Side

In a partnership, it's important to make the other person feel like they are heard and their feelings matter. If they are upset over the actions of another person, it’s your spouse’s feelings you should be concerned about, and vice versa. Neither of you should ever feel ganged-up on.

A Spouse Who Keeps Breaking Promises

If you promise your spouse something, keep your promise. It's that simple. Don't claim you never made one to get out of something, and don't put up with those kinds of excuses from your spouse, either.

A Spouse Who Brings Outside Influences Into the Marriage

Keep outside influences where they belong—out of your marriage. It's unfair to bring friends or family into the picture to show the other how wrong they are.

A Spouse Who Disrespects Your Property

Just because one of your prized possessions is inconsequential to the other, doesn’t mean it should be treated that way. Always be respectful.

A Spouse Who Refuses to Socialize With Your Friends and Family

If friends and family hold a special place in one's life, the other person should at least make the occasional effort to connect with them on some level.

A Spouse Who Is Jealous of Friends and Family

Jealousy over a partner's relationships or time spent with close loved ones is typically a sign of feeling threatened and insecure. It's important to know that it is considered unhealthy and abusive behavior to actively try to keep someone away from them.

If jealously is an issue you can't seem to work through, considering talking with a therapist.

Work on yourself. Work on building your confidence in yourself and your relationship.

A Spouse Who Constantly Talks About Their Ex

If a spouse is still angry over an ex, they are not emotionally divorced from their ex. It shouldn't be anyone's job to play therapist or attempt to fix past relationship issues. Everyone deserves a spouse who is adult enough to let go of anger and focus on the relationship they are in now.

A Spouse Who Walks Away From Arguments

Problems don’t get solved if your spouse is unable to engage in conflict and work with you to find a solution. It’s a bad sign when one is unwilling to stand their ground and fight for the relationship.

A Spouse Who Cheats

Cheating is one of the most common causes for a break-up. Unless you’ve agreed, together, to have an open marriage, cheating can definitely cause irreversible pain and damage the trust that is crucial to a strong relationship.

A Spouse Who Hits

The first time a hand is lifted to harm another should be the last time. No questions asked. If you are on the receiving end of physical harm, confide in someone you trust and seek whatever support you can to walk away from the marriage before it's too late.

A Spouse Who Screams, Yells, and Curses

Verbal abuse is as serious and destructive as physical abuse. Verbal abuse doesn’t leave physical bruises, but it does eventually break the other person and, ultimately, the marriage bond. It is always important to pay attention to how the other person makes you feel. If you're on the receiving end of this behavior, confide in someone you trust and seek help.

A Spouse Who Doesn't Respect Your Personal Boundaries

We all have personal boundaries and deserve to have those respected by a spouse. It can be a small thing, but never ignore the other's request. When you establish your boundaries and are respectful of your partner’s boundaries, you can both feel safe and secure and will more likely experience love toward each other.

A Spouse Who Doesn't Stay Out of Your Business

Privacy is an important need and boundary that should be mutually respected. As adults, we should all be able to fight our own battles and clean up our own messes. There is no need for the other to insert themselves into unnecessary drama that does not directly concern them.

A Spouse Who Forgets Birthdays, Anniversaries, or Special Holidays

Each partner should make the effort to show the other that special milestones are just that–special. Putting just a little thought into those dates can really go a long way.

A Spouse Who Is Addicted to Drama

Some people live and die by how much drama is going on in their lives. If there isn’t any drama, they will manufacture it. Remember that marriage is a marathon, not a sprint. Focusing on what's working instead of stirring the pot is the best bet for relationship longevity.

A Spouse Who Threatens Divorce Often

A spouse who constantly threatens divorce needs to bolster their conflict resolution skills. There is no place for threats, ultimatums, and intimidation tactics in a healthy marriage.

A Spouse Who Drinks Too Much

Alcoholism can definitely put a huge strain on a marriage. It is a destructive behavior that requires outside counsel. If the alcoholic refuses to seek help, it may be time to reevaluate the marriage.

A Spouse With Low Sex Drive

It is common to experience dry spells when daily life gets demanding and exhausting, especially when children are in the mix. If sex dwindles to nearly nothing, it is the couple's responsibility to make an effort to spark that fire again. Never underestimate the basic intimate needs of your partner; everyone deserves to have a satisfying sex life.

A Spouse Who Has Poor Hygiene

A common mistake is "letting yourself go" after tying the knot. As hard as it is, try to resist the urge to live in sweatpants and stop bathing. Make the effort to go on regular date nights and occasionally dress up for your partner the way you did in the early days. It's essential for keeping the passion alive.

A Spouse Who Dismisses Your Thoughts and Desires

Marriage is a partnership; treat it as one. If your husband tells you, “No we can’t afford a new car,” take his concern over finances seriously. If your wife says, “I need you to chip in and help with the kids while I cook dinner,” just do it. Acknowledging your partner's feelings and desires is a basic form of respect.

[capfish8]

Leading 10 Finest Dublin Removals For 2020

Man With A Van Dublin

Content

Cost Of Moving Residence

Part Lots Removals.

I Required A Removal Company However My Relocate Is Truly Short Notice.

Elements That Influence Your Moving Prices.

Abouthouse Movers.

Rated 5 Out Of 5 Stars By Clients On Removal Evaluations

Top Removals

What'S The Ordinary Price To Hire Movers Far Away?

We Provide Cost Effective Removal Services In Dublin:

While it's an expense that many individuals would rather not bother with, it can be a life saver if unanticipated damages do occur. Depending upon the cover you need for the worth of your valuables, insurance policy can set you back anywhere from $200 to $1,000. We provide a series of services to improve business relocations and give more value for your organization. That being stated, moving in your own vehicle isn't a choice for most individuals.

How do you pack a messy house?

How to Move a Messy Room 1. 1) Organize your home before you pack up. Place your clothes and items into three piles: “Keep,” “Throw Away” and “Donate.” You don't need all that old junk dragging you down, so downsizing can be refreshing. 2. 2) Pack a separate “essentials” bag. 3. 3) Label your packing boxes. 4. 4) Try a moving app.

house removals dublin "/>

Is Mayflower moving expensive?

Mayflower is a full-service, long-distance moving company. Mayflower Moving Costs.Home TypeWeight of Household ItemsAvg. Cost 1,000-Mile Move3-Bedroom House7,500-10,000 lbs.$5,000-$7,5004-Bedroom House12,000-15,000 lbs.$8,000-$10,0005-Bedroom House17,000-20,000 lbs.$11,000-$15,0003 more rows•6 May 2020

It will certainly cost someplace in between $50 and $100 for a complete set of boxes, depending upon how many things you possess. HireaHelper is a marketplace where you can work with movers to aid you on a per hour basis. This is a fantastic alternative if you're just trying to find some added hands to load a rental truck or pack a moving container.

Cost Of Moving Home

You likewise need to think of buying things like bubble cover, sealing tape, mattress covers, and locks. You definitely don't desire your possessions damaging en route!

They were on time as well as with 2 shipment factors they paid attention and prepared their packing of the vehicle accordingly. Many thanks to David and Anthony who were the removal group on the day. The logistics of the relocation had some difficulties but the guys handled it exceptionally well. Moving overseas includes transferring your possessions to a port, having them loaded into a container, unpacking the container at the new area and carrying your valuables to your brand-new house. Therefore, you'll require to get quotes from global removalists to find out just how much it will certainly cost to move your belongings overseas.

Removalists will charge in 15 min increments, so you won't need to pay for a full hr if they take 15 mins or half an hour much longer to complete the job. When you market a residence, moving can be among those concealed prices of offering you fail to remember to think of. It depends on a variety of variables, however it's an expense you don't wish to forget to consider. Relying on your scenarios, moving can be extra pricey than you might picture. But for a 3-bedroom house, you would probably not expect to pay a lot less than $1400.

You can upload anything from a plant you want to transfer to your canine to an excavator. So if you were seeking somebody to deliver your bulldozer throughout the nation, you've located the ideal system in uShip. Obviously, you're most likely to move something like a furniture piece or some boxes. Cargo vans are the suitable alternative for those that desire a Do It Yourself relocation without requiring the room of a moving truck. Making it through traffic and also auto parking is significantly easier in a cargo van than in a moving vehicle.

You need to tip your moving companies $4-5 for every hr they aided you. So if your action just took 4 hrs and you were impressed with the solution, tipping $16-$ 20 to every mover is thought about a suitable total up to pointer.

While it holds true that they are earning money to assist you move, a tiny sum to reveal your admiration for their hard work will certainly make their day. A few of our clients have actually informed us that discovering a moderately valued residence with all the services you have in your current home, plus all the new space you desire in a community you enjoy can be a tricky proposition. Although picking to move or remodel is greater than simply an economic choice, the solution is clear -adding onto the existing home beats out moving from a bucks and also cents viewpoint. If you like your community, and also you don't already have the most significant or most pricey home on the block, you're better off monetarily if you redesign your house to suit your demands as well as stay.

How much do removals companies cost?

For local moves, removal companies charge an average of £50-£60 per hour for 2 men and a van with a 2-hour minimum charge. For long distance moves, removals charge a fixed price anywhere between £450 for a 1 bed flat and £1000 for a 4 bedroom house.

There's man with a van in moving in a vehicle that you're currently acquainted with. You need to locate a way to get your items to the terminal as well as from the arrival terminal. Like a moving truck, you will certainly be charged by mileage and you will certainly be called for to do every one of the training as well as filling on your own.

As you can see, preparing and also carrying out a step for a stone, brick, or block home is a huge offer that requires time, organization, and also money. Nonetheless, the benefits of moving a house, in our experience, constantly exceed the downsides.

Component Lots Removals.

The sector is fraught with dubious moving companies and scammers. If you have the means and aren't interested in doing any of the hefty training, moving companies are your best option. Full-service moving companies will deal with all the loading, driving, as well as discharging. They can even go as far as to pack your boxes for you, however the majority of people opt to do it themselves.

Our group shares a crave quality and also for completing a task right the first time. The average expense for a long-distance moving solution will run you around $4,000. This article is for the house owner with a coming close to move who intends to make certain that their moving team receives a proper idea for their solutions.

Nevertheless, if the action was an all the time venture, tipping a max of $40 each is an excellent general rule. Unless you received absolutely horrendous solution, it is constantly respectful to tip your movers.

One point that a great deal of people neglect to consider is the rate of transferring pets. If you do have area in your auto for your pets, this might not be an issue. Yet if you do not desire your pet cat shouting at you for numerous days, paying to deliver your family pets may be a far better option. Moving your family pets by auto or air will cost someplace in between $200 and also $400.

You can conserve cash by doing some work, but you require to set time apart to do them. Eventually this is for you and also your removalist to figure out. A fair price is not likely to be way too much less than the priced estimate cost, however. Usually removalists. are accountable for moving items from one location to an additional. They're not usually employed to clean up the place you're moving from, or arrange the area that you're moving to.

Penske, Budget Plan, and U-Haul all will certainly price match versus each other, so get quotes from all 3 even if you favor a specific company. The boys called the evening before asking if they might start a little bit earlier prior to the warmth of the day truly kicked in and recommended that they would call half an hour out.

If you are intending on packing on your own, you will require to get packing boxes. These can set you back anywhere from $4 to $17 depending on the dimension and also style of box you desire.

One of the major benefits of this sort of action besides saving cash, is you are moving your vehicle as well as your items. It's also a real advantage that the obligation is your very own.

I Required A Removal Company But My Move Is Actually Short Notification.

Simply provide us a call or contact us online today for more details-- our friendly group are always satisfied to help with any kind of query.

As previously stated, many moving companies have evaluation coverage that can be acquired at an added cost.

If you have homeowners insurance, your ownerships may be covered when they're in transit-- yet you need to check with your insurance coverage carrier.

Regardless of what your factor for moving, our extensive list of services will satisfy any of your removal requires.

This is a good strategy for those who don't have the moment to dedicate to the routine of packaging, or for those who have useful items that should be treated with specialist treatment.

Actually, employing moving companies is one option amongst several as well as probably the most expensive choice.

Just because you're moving, doesn't mean you need to work with a moving company to move your things.

So if you intend to save cash on your action, then take a look at these alternative means to move that can save you money and sometimes, could be the only means you can get your things from your old home to the new place.

This need to cover replacements for any kind of things that are harmed or shed while en route.

Usually you may need to pay a fair little bit extra, particularly if you're proposing than 50 kilometres away, and even interstate. The price will always depend upon the size of the work, the determination of the removalists to supply various rates, and also the variety of moving companies you'll be hiring. Yet a common cost is about $100 per hour for two removalists If you're hiring 3 removalists, expect to pay closer to $140 per hour. Generally, removalists will operate any place you are prepared to pay them to go.

Few people will want to pay the original price plus the cost of the improvements for your residence. It can be a battle to exercise interstate moving costs.

Don't seem like hiking half-way across the country with an automobile packed with valuables? This saves you from long, exhausting days embeded an auto, and will get you to your location a lot quicker. Depending on where you are moving to, it will cost anywhere in between $1,000 and $3,000 to fly a household of 4 interstate. This will certainly transform of course depending on the airline that you choose and if you are lucky adequate to score a deal when flights go on sale. Don't wish to risk having your treasured properties harmed during the relocation?

Factors That Influence Your Moving Costs.

You're likewise probably finest off working with someone else to make all the connections - such as gas, electricity, as well as web - at your brand-new location. Primarily, your choice will hinge on the dimension and quantity of the items that need moving. As well as if there's a fair bit that requires to be moved, there's a great chance it'll be worth it to pay someone else to do the task.

Abouthouse Movers.

How can I get free boxes from Walmart?

Go to the fruits and vegetables department and ask a store employee if there are any extra boxes in the back that you can have. Grocery store's especially, as well as places like Walmart, Target, Costco, Sam's Club, etc will all usually have a large supply of empty boxes folded up in the back from inventory shipments.

Take a look at our checklist of the best moving container companies and make use of the moving expense calculator to examine container prices. The most inexpensive container prices for delivering cross countries are usually going to originate from the companies with locations near you on both ends of your step. If a company is nearby in your area yet doesn't have an area nearby in the state you're relocating to, that will add a whole lot to your expense. Budget Alternatives 2020 Best Moving Containers & Storage space Companies We invested 260 hours researching moving container and also storage companies to discover the most effective prices, best customer service, and also fastest deliveries so you don't need to. For those that have more than just boxes, you have actually got a lot of choices when it concerns moving your furnishings as well as individual products.

Rated 5 Out Of 5 Stars By Customers On Removal Reviews

With these tips, you'll be much better geared up to make your plans and then enjoy your residence in its new, excellent location. Even in rural setups, communities and also neighborhoods have their own rules and also regulations about the sorts of structures allowed on buildings, as well as they typically rely on whole lot size and zoning. Before moving your residence, you have to make certain that you won't be breaking any kind of building codes or guidelines by moving it to a brand-new location.

Top Removals

How much does it cost to build a house in California?

Residential Construction Costs by StateStateAverage Cost RangeArizona$200,000 - $625,000California$200,600 - $600,000Colorado$300,000 - $500,000Connecticut$300,000 - $800,00020 more rows

You wish to make certain you have actually selected a reliable removalist that uses insurance policy and has a credibility for delivering on time as well as not harmful personal belongings. Removalists charge by the hour, yet also factor in the problem of the relocation. Prices can vary from $35 to $50 per hour each, yet other charges may use. Transfer prices, insurance and other expenses may not be included in the hourly prices, so be sure to request for the complete price of moving.

Do I get my mortgage deposit back?

Do you get your mortgage deposit back? If the purchase has gone through, then no (unless you want to borrow it and release some of the equity). This is obviously not possible for those with negative equity, but if you sell the property at a profit, you can recoup some of the capital you put down.

What'S The Average Cost To Work With Moving Companies Far Away?

A removalist company will certainly offer a range of services for you to choose from to make your action as easy as you want it to be. A removalist can load as well as unload all your valuables, established your new house for you, and some might even assist with the clean-up process of your old residence. Employing a professional moving company aids alleviate a lot of the stress and anxiety and discomfort related to moving. By choosing a removalist with economical prices, you guarantee your action goes as efficiently as possible-- without breaking the financial institution. When you get quotes, be sure they are itemised so you recognize what you're paying for.

If you have any inquiries or need a fast quote please offer Peter a phone call at. If he does not respond to, don't stress, he is probably filling or unloading a truck somewhere, simply leave a message and he will get back to you in no time at all.

Whether you're moving house or need business moving solutions, we can assist. Contact WridgWays currently to figure out your interstate moving costs. Although these are only price quotes, ideally this will certainly provide you a better suggestion of what your interstate moving prices will be. At any kind of point during the planning procedure, or during your relocation, you can speak to our moving experts to obtain the answers you require.

Yet numerous removalists will certainly not do jobs that need them to take a trip interstate, or multiple hours' range from where you'll live. For that sort of work, you'll probably need to employ a removalist that markets interstate or inter-regional services. Over the years we've honed our collective expertise and also skillset and also made innovation process adjustments that have elevated our company to the be one of the best companies in our field.

The price may be higher if you're relocating to a more remote area. If you're relocating to Darwin, for example, you could pay up to $5550 to relocate from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or Brisbane. These costs are approximate and also will certainly rely on your place, the range you relocate, the solution you choose and also numerous other factors. Some removalists supply special solutions such as pianos and also various other big, delicate objects. Removalists provide a variety of solutions, yet give you the option of doing a few of the job on your own.

Obtain quotes from at least two of the companies to get an excellent idea of what it'll set you back. If you do not have furnishings to move, consider this budget plan alternative. Obtain the items you're moving to the bus incurable and also you're good to go. It's one of the most budget friendly option for a small move out of state. uShip is a marketplace platform especially for moving.

A lot of removalists bill by the hr and will quote you based on the sort of services you call for and the amount of items that require to be removed. The prices will certainly additionally differ based upon the day the removal occurs, i.e. Expert moving companies recognize how to pack the moving truck efficiently to guarantee marginal opportunity of damage during transportation. They likewise know exactly how to appropriately lift hefty products without causing injury. You're additionally able to insure your products in the event something fails.

We Offer Inexpensive Removal Services In Dublin:

It can be complicated to exercise what you need to spend for as well as what you do not. We make it easy for you by listing all the significant expenses of moving interstate, so you will be prepared for all the variables. Specialist moving companies make moving easy, yet the difficult component is finding a great company.

[laurendormanblog]

Blog #8: Coronavirus Updates - March

This comes from a post from simplepolitics on Instagram, released throughout the month of March.

3 March: Boris Johnson has set out a 4 point plan to contain the spread of the virus - contain, delay, research and mitigate (make (something bad) less severe, serious, or painful.) It detailed measures that the government aren’t taking right now, but could take ‘at the right time and on the basis of scientific advice’. These could include:

Encouraging home working and discouraging unnecessary travel.

Consideration of school closures and reducing large-scale gatherings.

Using the Ministry of Defence for support. 

Government departments having a coronavirus lead. 

Helping businesses with short-term cash-flow problems. 

Using more volunteers in hospitals and recalling recently retired staff. 

“Our ability to test and treat is going to get us through the coronavirus and get through it in good shape.”

4 March: NHS and Coronavirus. 

‘I’ve heard the NHS declared a level 4 incident?’ It’s been level 4 since January. All that means is that we’re co-ordinating nationally.

‘So, what’s happening right now?’ Worst case scenario planning. Reviewing hospital beds, use of video consultations and setting up 24/7 incident teams. 

‘And if it gets worse?’ If cases rise, action plans come into play. Extra staff might come from NHS leavers and retirees. Using volunteers like St John’s ambulance has also been raised. Some non-urgent care could be delayed. 

‘Will the NHS get more funding to cope?’ Jeremy Corbyn asked in Parliament today. The PM said he’d ‘give them everything they need’ to cope, but wasn’t more specific.

5 March: Plans to fight Coronavirus may limit personal rights (travel, gathering, education etc.) To what extent is that justified?

10 March: Fighting the virus. Individual events may be cancelled, but the UK is resisting ‘lockdowns’ or bans on public gatherings. We’re at stage one - contain - of the government’s 4 point plan to tackle Coronavirus. Is it the right policy?

YES - STAY AT CONTAIN

Those with any symptoms have already been asked to self-isolate. A leading expert said, “Many outdoor events, particularly, are relatively safe.”If measures are introduced too early, they may not be as effective in the long run. There’s the huge practical and economic disruption of closing schools/offices.

NO - MOVE TO DELAY

On average, people take 5 days to show symptoms - they might not self-isolate even though they are carrying the virus. We haven’t yet reached our ‘peak’ so we still have time to act preventatively. We need to protect the most vulnerable. The markets are already volatile - we shouldn’t delay to avoid economic impact.

11 March: As we get deeper into this virus thing, people will become poorly. Some of them you will like. Some you will love. Others might be people with whom you disagree. Maybe disagree a whole lot. Let’s find a way to treat everyone with respect and humanity, whatever their ideology. Abusing people for being ill is as nonsensical as it is ugly.

11 March: 

The World Health Organisation has changed the state of Coronavirus to a pandemic. A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease. The virus is now in 114 countries. This change of language may change how countries choose to deal with it. WHO Director Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was keen to give reassurance. He said, “There’s been so much attention on one word. But these words matter much more:

Prevention

Preparedness

Public health

Political leadership

People.”

13 March: Boris Johnson didn’t announce closures to schools yesterday. Schools will only close if specifically told to - if a student or staff member contracts the virus.

WOO

Children won’t be missing out on education.

Different countries are at different stages - we shouldn’t feel pressure to follow measures.

Children who are off school could spend more time with vulnerable grandparents.

NHS staff may also not have childcare - and therefore be unavailable for work.

BOO

Online learning is a viable alternative.

Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Denmark have all announced the temporary closure of schools. 

We don’t fully understand the role children play in spreading the virus.

While children may seem to have mild symptoms, teachers and support staff could be at risk.

14 March: Updated virus advice - symptoms. A new continuous cough and/or a high temperature. Sneezing and a runny nose are NOT symptoms. What to do:

Stay at home for seven days.

Sleep alone (if possible).

Ask friends to go to the shops (and leave things on doorstep).

You do NOT need to tell the authorities.

Do NOT call 111 (unless symptoms are getting worse or aren’t better after 7 days).

For now, people you live with don’t need to stay home, but you should stay 2 meters away from them.

16 March: New UK measures to tackle the virus include:

Avoid unnecessary social contact - that means pubs, clubs, theatres and other social venues.

Avoid non-essential travel.

‘Whole household’ 14 day isolation if anyone you live with shows symptoms.

Work from home if you can.

Starting tomorrow, emergency services will no longer support mass gatherings. Schools to stay open. This will be reviewed.

17 March: Health and Social Care Committee. Commons Committees are cross party. Made up of MPs who are passionate about health, they examine policy, spending and legislation to hold the government to account. 

The Health Committee meets later to hear from a selection of experts. They want to know how prepared the UK is to deal with coronavirus - it’s called an inquiry.

They’ll examine areas such as rises in cases, preventative measures, further options and NHS plans. Jeremy Hunt (Conservative) is in the chair. They’ll hear from:

Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser.

Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England. 

Professor Keith Willett, Director for Acute Care at NHS England and other colleagues. 

Results of inquiries are public and many require a government response.

17 March: Travel advice - advice now against ‘all but essential travel’ outside the UK for 30 days. From Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

17 March: Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has given MPs his expert opinion. He expects the number of new cases to start coming down in two to three weeks. He keeps thinking overall UK deaths under 20,000 would be a good outcome. (Although obviously a horrible one.) He thinks we need a big increase in testing. Without people going to hospital. A community based test.

17 March: 

Financial measures:

Businesses to have access to government backed loans (totalling £330bn) available from next week. 

Extending 12 month business rate ‘holiday’ to all businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure. 

Retail, hospitality and leisure sector - for small businesses who may not have insurance - cash grants of up to £25k/business.

Mortgage lenders will offer three month mortgage holiday to those who need it.

Other announcements:

NHS will postpone all non-urgent operations from 15 April for 3 months.

Foreign Office advise no non-essential foreign travel for 30 days.

18 March: Emergency Coronavirus Bill.

‘What’s the issue?’

Changes to the law are needed to give public bodies necessary powers to respond to the crisis. The legislation lasts 2 years. The four UK governments can switch the new powers on and off when needed.

‘What will this Bill do?’

Measures are wide-ranging but include:

Recently retired NHS staff will be able to return to work without pension penalties.

Volunteers will be helped to take Emergency Volunteer Leave.

Use of video and audio links in court proceedings will increase.

Port and airport operators could be asked to temporarily close if Border Force staff shortages result in a threat to security. 

Police and immigration officers will have strengthened quarantine powers - including power to detain people to protect public health. 

Statutory sick pay will be paid to those self-isolating from day one. 

‘What’s next?’ The Bill will be labeled in Parliament tomorrow.

18 March: Wales and Scotland confirm schools to shut on Friday.

18 March: Schools in England, Scotland and Wales will close on Friday afternoon. Schools in Northern Ireland are already closed.

18 March: 

Schools update:

Schools in England to close on Friday to all but children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, delivery drivers) and vulnerable children.

Nurseries and private schools will be asked to do the same.

Exams will not take place in May/June.

Schools in Northern Ireland will close to pupils from tonight.

Scotland and Wales had already announced closures. 

Other points:

Everyone encouraged to follow previously given advice on self-isolation and social distancing.

Testing being ‘scaled up’ - moving to 25,000 a day.

19 March: 

PM gave June as an optimistic time frame.

He said we can ‘turn the tide’ within the next 12 weeks - if we take the steps already outlined.

Government in negotiations to buy an antibody test - to assess whether people have had Coronavirus.

First patient has entered a clinical drugs trial.

Ask businesses to ‘stand by their workers’ - ‘as we will stand by you’.

20 March: Kids questions.

1. What does Coronavirus do? It can cause fever, a cough and difficulty breathing. Medical experts say 99% of people will make a full recovery.

2. I’ve heard about social distancing - what is it? It means making sure there’s enough space between people who are well and those who might not be well. It helps stop the disease spreading.

3. Can I help? Yes, by regularly washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. When you could or sneeze, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue (not your hand!)

4. What’s happening to stop it? Doctors around the world are working hard to find a vaccine that will protect people.

20 March: Boris Johnson ‘tells’ pubs, restaurants, clubs, theatres, cafes, etc. to close tonight and not reopen tomorrow.

20 March:  The ‘Coronavirus job retention scheme’ means employers will be able to access a grant to cover 80% of retained workers salaries up to £2,500/month. VAT payments deferred until the end of June. Universal Credit standard allowance increased for 12 months by £1000. Working Tax Credit will be raised by the same amount. Self employed with zero income can access Universal Credit at rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay. Next self-assessment income payments also deferred until 2021. Local Housing Allowance will be changed so it covers at least 30% of market rents in a claimant’s area. Cafes, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, clubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms, leisure centres to close as of this evening. Takeouts unaffected.

21 March: Updated virus advice. In general: Stay home. All the time (except key workers who can’t bring their ‘A’ game from home). Only shop for essentials and keep distance from others. Buy only what you need (and leave stuff for others). Symptoms: A new continuous cough and/or a high temperature. What to do if you have the symptoms: Everyone in your home needs to stay home for 14 days. Sleep alone (if possible). Ask friends to go to the shops (and leave things on doorstep). Try to keep distance from others around the home. Visit 111.NHS.UK if you need help.

21 March: Government urge people to be responsible when they shop and think of others. It will be left to retailers to limit items and that the government shouldn’t be involved. There is more than enough food to go round and the food supply chain can expand. Curfew on deliveries to stores and delivery driver hours relaxed. Competition rules suspended to allow collaboration between supermarkets. Plastic bag charge suspended.

22 March: Government explicitly confirm ‘you can go for walks. You can go to the playground.’ Exercise is ‘probably the right thing to do’. Obviously don’t get into contact with other people, though.

22 March: Now taking special steps to shield the most clinically vulnerable. The NHS has identified up to 1.5 million people who will be contacted and urged to stay at home for at least 12 weeks. They have been identified as high risk. Others in the same household will not be required to stay at home - but should still follow social distancing. Care will continue. Carers can still visit - as long as they follow guidelines. Support networks will be created for those without help. Advised people to look out for neighbours. Reiterated staying 2m apart - even in outdoor spaces.

23 March: All McDonald’s restaurants in the UK will close by 7pm tonight.

23 March: If Boris Johnson falls ill with the virus, Dominic Raab (Foreign Secretary) will stand in. If Raab is also ill, another minister will step up.

23 March: The PM is ‘making a statement to the country’ at 8.30 this evening. It’s post COBRA, prime time TV, at a time when the Coronavirus Bill is in Parliament so can easily be added to, while many people are calling for the government to go further. Expect a big announcement.

23 March: The PM tells the nation ‘you must stay at home’. You may leave the home to shop for necessities. 1 form of exercise a day. A medical need. Traveling to and from work, if absolutely necessary. If you don’t follow instructions, the police will have powers to stop you.

23 March: Very clear message is “You must stay at home.” Only go out for:

Shopping for essentials

One form of exercise a day

Medical need/caring for a vulnerable person

Travelling to/from work - where this is absolutely necessary and you can’t work from home.

Do not meet up with friends or family members you don’t live with.

Closure of all shops selling non-essential goods.

Closure of libraries, outdoor gyms, places of worship.

No gatherings of more than 2 people in public, apart from those you live with.

The police will have the power to enforce rules - this includes fines and dispersing gatherings.

No social gatherings including weddings. Funerals are not included in these measures. 

Measures will be reviewed in three weeks. 

24 March: One clarification from last night - the government has confirmed that children whose parents live apart are allowed to travel between their houses. 

24 March: Coronavirus - help for the self-employed? ‘What’s the issue?’ On Friday, the government announced it’s financial package to protect workers. It was a huge intervention, but concentrated on the 85% of people in the employment using the PAYE system. There was no wage guarantee for the self-employed. Since then, MPs on both sides of the House have raised the issue.

  ‘What’s the latest?’ Today, the Treasury Committee urged the Chancellor to take more action - following an ‘unprecedented response’ to their call for evidence. Help has been promised - but Rishi Sunak was keen to stress how complex it is. He said, “The issue is one of finding a way to target help… rather than having something that provides blanket cash subsidies to 5 million people.”

 The message is help is coming - but nothing firmer for now.

24 March: 

The government is seeking 250,000 NHS volunteers to help during the crisis, through a new volunteer scheme.

5,500 final year medical students and 1,800 final year student nurses will be going into work early.

A new NHS ‘Nightingale’ hospital is opening in the ExCel centre in London. It can hold 4,000 patients.

Hancock paid tribute to NHS staff.On overcrowded tubes, said Transport for London should run enough carriages so that people can obey 2 metre rule.

Journalists were not in the room, but submitted questions via Zoom.

25 March: Beware! Fake news - the self employed amendment. People are sharing, a lot, an amendment that would offer self-employed people up to £2,500 per month. An amendment is a change that is suggested to any new bill  (new law). At specific times in the process, MPs/Members of the HoL can vote to include/refuse them. This amendment does exist. However, MPs didn’t accept the text. It was so one sided, there wasn’t even a vote. Having been through the Commons, it is in the Lords today. Supporters of the amendment will try again. They will fail. Those looking for self-employed help need to wait for the announcement this week, probably on Friday.

25 March: Parliament will finish for its Easter Break today - a return on 21 April will be under review.

25 March: In 24 hours 405,000 people have responded to the call to be NHS volunteers. Care message - stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives. Confirmed we will hear from the Chancellor tomorrow on additional help for the self-employed. An antibody test, which would test if you have already had the virus - is being evaluated - reiterated accuracy of testing is key. Rollout would be staged. In other news, the Coronavirus Bill has passed the House of Lords without amendment.

26 March: Off-licences have been added to the list of essential shops. They can now stay open for the duration of whatever this is. Other essential shops include supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, laundrettes and more.

26 March: New Self Employed Income Support scheme will be worth up to £2,500 per month. This will cover 80% of wages, against average profit over the past three years.

26 March: To the self-employed - ‘You have not been forgotten.’ Launching a new self-employed income support scheme. Offering a taxable grant worth 80% of average profits over the last three years, up to a maximum of £2,500. Open to those that make the majority of their earnings from self-employment - with trading profits up to £50,000. Open for three months but it will be extended for longer if necessary. Only those with a tax return for 2019 are eligible. Anyone who missed the deadline for submission has an extra four weeks. It will be up and running by the beginning of June. Reiterated other support available, such as Universal Credit.

27 March: The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has tested positive for the Coronavirus. He is currently experiencing minor symptoms, but Dominic Raab is set to take over if needed.

27 March: The rate of infection has been doubling every 3-4 days. Figures are a powerful reminder to act. Confirmed that the Prime Minister has tested positive for Coronavirus. PM is continuing to lead the UK’s response via video conferencing. PM has brought together businesses, universities and research institutes to boost testing capacity to the front line. Hundreds of tests to take place by the end of the weekend. Confirmed approval for two new temporary hospitals in Birmingham and Manchester. Matt Hancock, Health Secretary has also tested positive. Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, is self-isolating after having symptoms.

28 March: Frontline NHS staff will begin to receive tests this weekend. Critical care doctors and nurses with symptoms, or who have people at home with symptoms, will be tested. If they’re negative, they can go back to work. Loads more tests coming next week. It won’t apparently, be long until ambulance crews, paramedics and GPs also get tested. Social workers are on the list too.

28 March: Grants will be with over a million businesses as soon as possible. Administrative barriers to be removed on manufacturing and supplying of face masks and hand sanitiser. Employers - where work can’t be done from home - should follow safety guidelines. If that’s not happening, authorities should be informed. Hospitals in London are not at capacity. Capacity is being expanded. 500 beds will be available at Nightingale/Excel Centre next week.

29 March: Letter issued to the public from the Prime Minister.

29 March: All parts of the country are on an emergency footing. Merging police, fire, ambulance, NHS etc. Groups are creating coordinated local responses. National Supply Distribution, supported by the military are delivering Personal Protective Equipment to NHS Trusts and Healthcare settings. A new web-page and phone number launched to support the most vulnerable. Once registered, prescriptions and food can be delivered. After reviews in the next few weeks, over 3-6+ months, social restrictions are expected to gradually lift. 

30 March: We’ve got a new thing to help us breathe. Problem? We struggled to supply enough ventilators. Also, the patient needs sedation and is almost always in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Solution? A new form of a machine (CPAP) is easier to produce and could keep 50-60% of CPAP using patients out of ICU. What next? The CPAP has been given the nod by the first set of regulators and is in testing. It could be in our hospitals in ten days or so. Mercedes F1 can, apparently, knock out hundreds of these a day. There are concerns that the seal around the mouth can be a little leaky. This could create an infection problem. Manufacturers say that if Personal Protective Equipment is used, the risk to carers is minimal.

30 March: 

So far today…

Morrisons has committed £10m of food and other bits to foodbanks.

EasyJet have grounded their fleet for at least two months.

Dominic Cummings - the PM’s advisors - is self isolating with virus symptoms.

While we, apparently, have the capacity to test up to 10,000 people a day, yesterday we tested only 7,000.

30 March: Just under 200 prisoners are expected to be released temporarily from Northern Ireland’s jails. It’s due to staff shortages due to the crisis. They will be subject to conditions and release will be under constant review.

30 March: 

Unprecedented numbers of UK residents trying to get home. Government are working with other countries to get Britons home.

They have a new arrangement worth £75 million with a list of ‘partner’ airlines - to target flights from priority countries where commercial flights are not running.

Reductions in traffic/footfall show that people are following advice.

Priority is trying to keep the number of severe cases below intensive care capacity.

Chief Scientific Adviser, Patrick Vallance said it was “premature to put an absolute time on how long this goes on for.”

31 March: 

Yesterday saw the highest single daily increase in the number of deaths from COVID-19.

Government are sourcing more ventilators from a group of businesses such as Rolls Royce and Dyson. The first of 1000s of new ventilators will be produced this weekend.

Conducting rapid trials on drugs, including anti-malarials, which may be able to reduce impact.

Social contact has been reducing. There is a ‘bit of a plateau’ in the number of new UK cases.

Despite these ‘green shoots’ - warned against complacency and taking ‘our foot off the pedal.’

Home Office confirm they will extend NHS visas, free of charge, for about 2,800 NHS staff whose visas are due to expire before 1 October.

That’s it for March! I will upload updates for April (so far) soon!

All credit goes to simplepolitics on Instagram.

[autorobotcollectorx]

Another Furby Fandom Issue

Hey everyone i want to address a few things and i have been holding out on doing this because i am just so sick of this hate and drama against me.I am going to discuss some personal happenings in my life since i don’t think there is any other way of defending myself unless i am %100 truthful on why these things happen.I’m going to address my sales first then the harassment.

TRIGGER WARNING : Talk about suicidal feelings and actions(no gory detail but implied) Mental Health,Child Abuse Neglect,Depression,Sexual abuse.

I am selling some furbies and at good prices at that because i want people who can’t afford furbies to have a chance of owning some.I have explained to people or atleast tried to explain why shipments are late or photos are as well.Here are some answers to questions and concerns people might have had. 

Why is my shipment taking so long? Sometimes i ship next day and sometimes i cannot.This is due to my lack of mobility since i am not able to drive i don’t have a say in what time of day i do go out and by then the post office is closed.I also can’t spare the money to use uber because i don’t have a job and am unable to work. My fiance comes to see me everyday but he usually gets off at 8:00pm and by then all the post offices are closed.So usually we set up a day i can go out and ship the items.Please don’t forget about my shipping days i have no problem discussing that with you.A few people who also had delays were due to me being hospitalized(I made up other excuses because i did not want to put emotional baggage on these people)These amazing people were very kind to me and got their furbies shipped to then when i could.Due to my living conditions i get very depressed and yes suicidal and i had hurt myself that time pretty badly.I hurt myself allot in non physical ways but that time was different and i am driven to such feelings often.

There was also a problem i got with one of my costumers when he sent a payment and i was getting so many payments for furbies that i did not notice his until a week later when he contacted me asking if i had sent the furby yet.It really got me anxious that something like that slipped by me and i hope he has no hard feelings for that.Things like this also happen because allot does slip my mind when i am under allot of stress.

Does My Furby Work?Is It In Good Condition? If this question crosses your mind please ask for me to test the furby and to take outdoor photos i have no issue doing that.Please never be afraid to ask for a refund if the furby you got is not what you wanted upon arrival.No one has contacted me after but it seems like a person was not pleased with the quality of a furby they got from me?Yet they NEVER contacted me again so i assumed the transaction was a success.You have to remember furbies are over twenty years old and unless they are fresh out of the box most will not be in mint condition that is out of my control.The furby i sold i had named Dusty and was bought from a smokers home i just had not got around to washing him.

I Don’t Feel Comfortable Buying Using Friends And Family!! If this is the case please state that up front i have no issue taking payments threw goods and services.I have been scolded for it and now i am not accepting payments unless its threw goods and services from now on i did not realize i was causing an issue and i am sorry if i made anyone feel uneasy.I had paypal accounts in the past where the money was held for two weeks not even using ebay and this happened.I try to get furbs out to people as soon as i can and i sometimes worry that i will upset someone.

You Lie About What You Use The Money For This is the furthest from the truth!I have needed money for several different things at different times like everyone who makes money will do.Once i had it that i needed money for a con and why should that be a bad thing?I hardly go anywhere and cons don’t happen often for me.I am allowed to treat myself sometimes its none of you’re concern if i use my money to get a furby or a coffee even though most of my money goes to getting food for me and my animals.

I’m sorry if i have cause any issues to anyone nothing i have done was to spite anyone,anger anyone or to scam people.

IF ANYONE HAS ANYTHING TO ADD PLEASE PM ME AND I WILL ADDRESS IT!!

You REALLY wanna know why i need the money?!

Currently i am trying to save $500 or more to get out of a household that is toxic for me.Thats not much money to many but i am solely selling furbies because i have ran out of personal items that have value to sell.My living environment is currently living in a small room with hardly any space little to no air conditioning and called a slob because i am unable to clean the mess my parakeets make.They don’t have a vacuum and my parakeets eat these small seeds that when they fly around their cage the husks of the shells fly out of the cage and onto the carpet.This room is also full of my grandmothers items because they are hoarders (in their own words).As well as all the drama causing me to be so depressed that i have had no motivation to clean.I am misgendered on a daily basis and told “Oh but you are too pretty to be a boy” and more inappropriately comments on my female chest and body.Told to shave and how much better i would look as a girl.As well as told i am fat because i have stretch marks and how i need to eat less.I have PCOS and since i have lived here i have lost over fifty pounds because i usually (If i am lucky) eat once a day or twice.Things such as an avacado and a noodle pack.Thats why i am so stressed on money that and i need to keep my animals fed and healthy usually putting them before myself.

Since i have been living here my family has stolen $400 i made by selling an aibo that was special to me,my phone was stolen and one of my most therapeutic pets was taken,I was then told i killed him and gas lighted for about a month in a half about what i had done even though in reality my mother had stolen him from me.She was upset because i had made some friends and was out at the park with them.It was easy because i have no lock on my door or privacy.I ended up stealing him back and i had the cops called on me.My narcissistic mother and abusive step dad came over to defend my mom saying i stole their animal and since i was ftm the cops (which i already had issues with before because of my identity) had me hand over my snake and taken to a mental hospital.While demanding i hand my snake to my mom i started to cry and shake my snake was VERY underweight and sick looking and i was afraid for his safety.When my step dad saw me crying he started laughing at me loudly then whispered to my mother who was smiling over at me as well and saying out loud “I love you” to me.When i was trying to explain more to the cop he said “If you don’t give them back their snake i will arrest you” while he put his hand on his belt near the gun.(if you want to hear the story in more detail i can send you a link)

I have always been told since i was a child that i am an issue and that i am taking up space,now i am an adult and i am always made to feel like i  am not welcomed anywhere i live and that i need to leave or will be kicked out.This is currently the case where i live and again i feel like i am a burden on everyone i associate with.If i am kicked out now i would have to live with a “friend” of mines again and have no choice but to let him use me again.This first time this happened when i was nineteen he was forty eight and had no wheres to go and i had no other option other then to go to him or rid myself so i wont cause anymore inconvenience.I come from a broken family and narcissistic parents so being an outcast is nothing i am not use to but still makes me want to hurt myself and hate myself more.I was always the black sheep,escape goat and nothing i did was good enough or mattered to my mother.The reason i am unable to drive is because of the physical abuse i faced as a child and denial of medical care after the fact.I just want to fit in and for people to like me.

Not to mention i have childhood schizophrenia and sometimes don’t respond correctly to people or situations. 

I just wish i felt welcomed in a community for once.All i have going for me right now that helps me is the furby and furry fandom.Furbies make me calm and feel safe because they remind me of my childhood before my mother changed and before i lived with my abusive step dad.I know i may seem childish but i’m not sure what to tell you i am the way i am because of my upbringing and sometimes doing silly things,using ^^,uwu,ect collecting and carrying a furby with me when i am in public makes me just feel a little bit more okay.Just feels like everyone is working against me and wants me gone like everyone else has.

Please if anything please stop sending me asks such as “Please leave you are so toxic” “just reported you~” and others calling me an idiot,stupid,scammer,ect.This is not what i joined the fandom for and you should really be shamed for treating me like this over simple mistakes that i did not even mean to make.Can everyone just please leave me alone if you have nothing nice to say keep it to yourself.

I HATE that i have to talk about all of this but i just want to get away from my family and i wanted to start a new life offline and online with people who like the same things i do because i have never had that kind of acceptance in a community in my life.I want to be with my fiance and safe from myself and my family.I want to be a good person and be here for people and treat people right.Funny thing the things i have said are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my abuse and neglect i rather not spill everything.

I am sick of defending myself at every turn here is what happened if you missed it. https://autorobotcollectorx.tumblr.com/post/186489467324/i-saw-the-post-reblogged-from-autorobotcollectorx

Again PM me if you have a complaint instead of re-blogging this and causing me further stress i really can’t handle more right now. I might as well sell all my furbies and rid myself at thispoint.

Edit: 5am and still awake..well guess i wont be sleeping tonight either.I slept good last night but the night before i did not sleep either.I’m just a restless hungry mess.

[blakelywintersfield]

what do you think about cancel culture?

So it took me a while to answer this ask ‘cause I have... a lot to say about the subject.

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to cancel culture. Its roots I like to believe are well intended -- a means to alert vulnerable groups about individuals that have a history of hurting them. But people have taken it... way too far.

I think it’s important to hold people accountable for their actions. There’s a lot of people who get away with horrible things, simply because they produce likeable material (makeup, music, movies, entertainment, etc.). People like Jeffree Star, PewDiePie, and Kat Von D have gotten away with their horrific treatment of others for years because people enjoy their content -- and two out of three of them still are wildly successful. What pushes people over the limit? Often times it’s a matter of what white people take major issue in. In Kat’s case, being anti-vax. Is being anti-vax bad? Hell yeah it is. As someone who’s immuno-compromised it literally could lead to an early, painful, slow death for me. And don’t get me wrong, I wanna die, but not from something that takes months of suffering. But people blatantly ignored her other awful acts -- such as her antisemitic actions (telling her former boss to “burn in hell jewbag” (sic) in the form of writing on a photo she left for him and drawing a Nazi symbol on it), complacency in victim blaming (her neo-Nazi husband blames his daughter’s rape on his daughter), denying and viciously responding to criticisms about her pedophilic makeup names (”Underage Red”, “Lolita”, second not in reference to the Japanese style but the book), and actively killing her pets (she killed one cat by leaving a house full of burning candles -- cat knocked down the candles, house went up in flames, cat died; she also was found forcing a vegan diet onto her cats -- I’m unsure if this has continued but I believe one of her cats died from it). All of these are huge reasons to “cancel” her -- to boycott her products. But people didn’t actively hate her until she came out as anti-vax, something that effects the majority. And that’s part of the issue with cancel culture: people pick and choose what’s acceptable depending on how badly it effects them personally.

Let’s focus on the other two mentioned: Jeffree and Felix. Jeffree has a very, very, veryyyyy long past of being a racist piece of shit. Not even lowkey ignorant white person racist (i.e. ”I didn’t know making fun of AAE and viewing dreadlocks as trashy was racist”). I’m talking straight up using the n-slur, with the hard -er too, towards a black woman. And this was recent, too. There just haven’t been any physical references beforehand, only personal accounts. But people have defended him -- and still defend him -- on these actions, because he apologized. But then he’ll do it again a month later. And there’ll be definitive proof of it. He’ll keep doing it over, and over, and over again. And people will continue to excuse him because he keeps apologizing! That’s not how apologies work! As someone who’s been abused, apologies mean nothing if you don’t actively work on fixing what you’re apologizing for!! My abusers would apologize and then do the exact same thing again so many times that I lost count long ago! And of course, Shane Dawson hasn’t helped because he’s head over heels for the guy, so he’s been using his popularity to try and clear his name -- which is ironic, considering he’s been under fire for being racist in the past too. The only difference is he actually cleaned his act up, until now, of course. Because now, instead of creating racist content himself, he’s defending a chronically racist shitbag. And people continue to defend him, because his shitty actions effects mainly black women -- a minority in comparison to the amount of white people in the states. Jeffree continues to be wildly successful because his problematic behavior only effects a minority, and that’s... not okay.

Felix has a very similar history to Jeffree, but with antisemitism, and in my opinion he’s even worse because he’ll apologize then do something nice like donate to a charity. And that would be fantastic if he wouldn’t continue to do antisemitic things like actively support white supremacists. People continue to defend him because he does charitable things, but I constantly remind people that abusive people aren’t abusive 24/7 -- that’s literally how they get away with abuse. They abuse, then take you out for a fancy date, kiss you gently and tell you how beautiful you are. Then they do something abusive. It’s an endless cycle. And that’s honestly what Felix does. Apologize, do something really fucking nice, and then repeat his shitty action. And he has other extremely influential people defend him -- it’s why I had to stop following JackSepticEye and Markiplier. They continuously vouched for him. They continuously defended him. And they did it in the form of saying “he’s a really good person, I know him personally, he’s really fucking sweet and nice”. That’s what people say about the partner of someone really close to me! Their friends defend them all the time, but they’ve never seen how they treat my friend. They don’t know about how they are in a relationship. And that’s all we ever hear about abusers. No one wants to accept that their longtime friend is shitty. But Mark and Sean contribute to the toxic ideology of “defend your friends to the end”. And it disenfranchises those effected because 1) they’re not Jewish, they have absolutely no say in the matter, and 2) they’re abusing their popularity to keep their friend from being properly criticized. I don’t think either of them are shitty people, per se, but they’re being extremely toxic by not letting their friend see that they’re a repeat offender and need to either work on their shit or face the music. Mark and Sean both have the power to make Felix change if they just give him the ultimatum of “us or this”.

But I digress. The main issue highlighted here is that people who actually do bad things and continue to do bad things aren’t being held accountable because people don’t care to acknowledge what doesn’t directly effect them. This is the first main issue with cancel culture.

Let’s focus on another man under scrutiny: John Lennon. Now, let me put out there for disclaimer purposes that this man is far from perfect and has problematic parts to him as well. He’s done some shitty things. But cancel culture looooooooves to dig at this man. To put it crudely, they really enjoy beating this dead... man. And mainly over one really bad thing he did, which was hit his wife. However, people love to 1) over-exaggerate it, and 2) completely ignore how he handled the aftermath. Cancel culture often refers to him as a “wife beater”, as though this were a chronic habit or that he severely brutalized his wife. But they conveniently ignore that he apologized, both to her and publicly, taught himself about domestic abuse and spoke up for women’s rights, and even wrote multiple songs about how he fucked up and he shouldn’t be excuse for what he did. And, most importantly, his wife forgave him. The victim in this situation forgave him, and people still dig into this one thing and use it as their reason to hate him and his band to this day. Genuine criticism of him and what he’s done have gone to the wayside because of this one fact with no context, and it’s a huge phenomena because people, for whatever reason, love to hate popular things. Like I said, he’s done shitty things! He wasn’t perfect! But to use one issue that was literally resolved to hate him is just a lazy excuse to hate what’s popular, and that comes to our second issue with cancel culture: people want to hate what’s popular and will go to any lengths to excuse their hatred, even if issues that have been resolved.

The last main issue I have is that cancel culture is often set up in very black and white terms. Person does bad thing, they’re bad, end of discussion. But that’s... not how life works. Not at all. I know religion isn’t universal, especially Christianity, but there’s one point in Christianity that is universal: humans are flawed. No human being to have ever existed is perfect. And with the rise of technology and social media, a lot of mistakes have a permanent proof out there. Be it through tweets, tumblr or Facebook posts, Instagram or Snapchat stories, whatever it is, there is proof. And people like to take it way too far.

For example... well, I’ll use myself. There’s good things to not being tumblr famous, and I’m blessed with that, because I used to be a major shithead. Well. Okay, I still am, but I was bigoted, uninformed, and had a lot of internalized issues. For anyone that doesn’t know, I was raised in a conservative Christian household where my father was Southern Baptist and my mother had been raised Catholic (her personal religious views are much more lax though, thankfully). Both came from small towns in Illinois and Missouri respectively, and their parents, the same. I was aggressively homophobic and transphobic (ironic, eh?), covertly racist and sexist, and just overall a really shitty person. And while I didn’t join tumblr until after I’d finally started to grow, a lot of people on here are younger -- some even lying about their age and joining before they’re 13. And like me, many of these kids are in close-minded households. And for the longest time I refused to listen to other people because of the good ol’ backfire effect, but once I began to accept I was wrong, I learned. Of course I still have learning to do -- I always do. I always will. And that’s okay. But if I were 12 year old me on tumblr today, I would, well. I would’ve probably killed myself by now, because of all the bullying and hate for being a shithead child. A shithead, yes. But a child. Someone that’s going to be ignorant to a lot of things because they haven’t been alive for as long. And not everyone has informed parents that make it a point to teach them. Adults are a little harder to forgive, I’ll admit, but children have a lot more potential to learn and grow, and we often treat them just like adults.

The final issue with cancel culture is that it gives no room for improvement and no assumption of someone’s innocence. While it hurts to be on the victim end, we as a whole are obligated to correct the issue. I personally would like it to be those not effected doing that (i.e. someone making a transphobic comment having other cis people explain why it’s transphobic and isn’t okay), but regardless, we need to assume innocent until guilty with these kinds of things. It’s not easy, sure, but if I had been on tumblr while I was a shitty kid parroting my dad’s awful world views, cancel culture would’ve labeled me a piece of shit with no chance of redemption, and if I didn’t kill myself there’s no fucking way in hell I would’ve learned, because that kind of treatment would’ve stuck with me and made it harder for me to listen to the other side’s reasoning, even if they were right. We need to approach people in a manner of calm education, instead of ready to kill. In no way am I saying this is an easy thing to do, but unless they’ve refused to open themselves up in any way whatsoever, immediately chalking someone up as a lost cause is just... counter-productive. We have to acknowledge that people are flawed, and can learn and grow. We need to give people space to improve. It’s not all or nothing.

All in all, cancel culture has a good base, but its execution has become irrational and a means to justify hating those that really don’t deserve it, while turning a blind eye to those that actually are problematic. There’s a lot to be improved on.

[reverseswing]

FROM RAGS TO RECOGNITION : SWaCH LEADS THE TRANSFORMATION

Garbage. A word that’s more abhorred than adored for quite obvious reasons. While all of us, in one way or the other, contribute in creating garbage on a daily basis, we are averse of its presence around us – whether at home, neighbourhood or streets. We want to get rid of the filth every day so that we don’t have to bear the stench from the piled up waste.

While every city administration employs staff and officials who collect garbage on daily basis and take it to the landfills, the role and efforts of the rag pickers are always ignored and overlooked. They are perhaps one of the most marginalised sections of the society and therefore never talked about. Forget dignity, they find themselves being treated like ‘garbage’, even when they willingly dirty their hands by scouring through the filth that’s not even generated by them. If not for livelihood, would anyone spend a better part of his / her day, every day, amidst nightmarish working conditions?

A new era dawns in Pune (India)

Circa 1993. The waste pickers of Pune in Maharashtra, one of the largest states in India, scripted their exit out of the rubbish heaps and landfills to transform their lives forever. They unionized themselves to define legitimate workspace for themselves in municipal solid waste management that improved their working conditions. Thus was formed the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtkari Panchayat (KKPKP), a movement that spearheaded the battle of waste pickers, waste buyers and waste collectors to be recognised as workers.

What KKPKP said was very simple. Waste pickers need to be treated with dignity and given their due status in the society because they recovered materials for recycling, reduced municipal solid waste handling costs, generated employment downstream, and contributed to public health and environment. They occupy an important place in the waste management and recycling value chain and contribute substantially to the manufacturing economy.

Surprised!! Take a breather, rethink over what’s aforesaid, and you can’t help but agree that rag pickers indeed need to be taken much more seriously than they have been since time immemorial.

Well, this argument was well understood by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which in the year 2008, entered into an MOU with an offshoot of KKPKP christened Solid Waste Collection Handling - SWaCH.

SWaCH. A Higher Level of Self-Reliance.

A wholly worker-owned cooperative of waste pickers, waste buyers and waste collectors, SWaCH is conceived as an autonomous social enterprise. SWaCH Seva Sahakari Sanstha Maryadit, as it is formally known, provides front-end waste management services to Pune city with support from PMC.

Throwing light on the birth of SWaCH, Aparna Sasurla, Director of SWaCH says, “The organisation works on a well-defined model which was tested for two years (2005-2007) before being presented to PMC for support, approval and recognition. It was only after the success of this pilot project which established the workability and the potential of SWaCH beyond doubt, that PMC gave its nod to be integrated into the mainstream solid waste management system (SWM) of the city of Pune.”

Acceptance by PMC was like winning a long battle for SWaCH. In the crucial early years, the Corporation played a positive and enabling role in promoting SWaCH. It acknowledged that SWaCH model was indeed a cost-saving, sustainable and environmentally beneficial system which added value to the already existing but faltering solid waste management system of the Corporation. With passage of time, it became clear that the model of SWaCH had the required ability and the dynamism to bring about a fundamental change in the SWM system of Pune.

A Unique Model

SWaCH is an inclusive model that recognises the contribution of ‘invisible’ workers who play crucial role in keeping the Pune city clean. Different from the PMC model, SWaCH follows a green model of waste collection that is not heavily dependent on fossil fuel or electricity.

Talking about the significance of SWaCH in the SWM system of Pune City, Aparna says, “The importance of SWaCH is multidimensional and affects various people at different levels. To the residents, SWaCH is important because they get reliable service at reasonable cost and with accountability. To the waste pickers it is important because it gives their work a dignity while integrating them into the formal sector along with upgrading their livelihoods as well as standard of living.  To the municipality it is important because the waste is collected in a more systematic manner and segregated at such nominal cost.”

Women constitute over 78% of SWaCH membership. While this holds for most age groups, the presence of men is higher in the youngest age group and among the aging. Most SWaCH members used to work as waste pickers or itinerant waste buyers. Housekeeping and cleaning workers constitute another significant group.

The SWaCH model is very unique in itself. Two workers collect source-segregated waste from 200-300 households, offices, shops and other establishments using manual pushcarts or motorized vehicles if the terrain is difficult. The waste pickers have the right over recyclables and retain income from the sale of scrap. This ensures maximum recycling and retrieval. Waste pickers separate the waste into wet and dry. Wet, organic and non-recyclable waste is handed over to the PMC. In some cases it is composted on site. Dry waste is sorted into categories like plastic, paper, metal, glass, leather etc. and then further fine sorted. Whatever has the market is sold.

The earnings of SWaCH members are derived from user fees and sale of recyclables. SWaCH members have relatively more stable income than other waste pickers in India. Their working hours vary from four to six hours including collection and sorting. Most also enjoy weekly holiday too.

Trials and Tribulations

As with every innovative idea, SWaCH too faces challenges from various quarters. From being slammed for being too transparent a model to being criticised as something that unnecessarily creates a parallel system, SWaCH has to deal with multitude of problems while still performing at its best.

“Other challenges notwithstanding,, the model being a user-fee based one is often met with resistance from the residents,” says Aparna. “Usually, we charge Rs. 10 to 30 per household per month in non-slum areas and in slum areas we charge Rs. 15 per household per month. We insist on user fees because SWaCH waste collectors are not paid by PMC for door to door collection. The service therefore needs to be supported by user fees paid by citizens. The fees facilitate a direct accountable relationship between the service user and the service provider.”

SWaCH+

As the primary collection system got established and began running in auto-pilot mode, the management of SWaCH decided to foray into allied activities to add more value and dimensions to their core endeavour. Calling it SWaCH+, the organisation began to offer services such as collection of unwanted household goods, collection of e-waste, garden waste, housekeeping and trading in recyclables. Under SWaCH+ the members are trained to handle mechanical composters and do manual composting. Members also work in bio-methanation plants established by PMC on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis.

Innovations by SWaCH

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. SWaCH too found it necessary to go in for innovation, both to sustain its operations and also create newer sustainable livelihood options for more waste pickers. The out-of-the-box thinking of SWaCH has not only helped the organisation to explore its hidden strengths but also upgrade its image in the eyes of its partners, stakeholders and everyone associated with the mission. A range of financial, social, environmental and other benefits for PMC, waste pickers, citizens, and Pune city as a whole are being achieved by the innovative steps taken by SWaCH.

V-Collect Programme

SWaCH collects old electronic, electrical items, furniture, bicycles, kitchen utensils, repair and re-use what can be, while dismantle and recycle the rest. By organizing V-Collect events, SWaCH channelizes most of these items towards recycling and re-use, away from dumps.

SWaCH collects old newspapers from households and use them to produce ST Dispo bags and carry bags. Members are trained in making ST Dispo bags with recycled paper, glue, and thread. As it looks distinct, it goes into a separate waste stream. The waste pickers are saved the indignity of handling soiled sanitary napkins directly. The bags are made available at local stores in different areas of Pune.

SWaCH collects clean, useable clothes, sort them out according to size, gender age and style and sell those at nominal prices to waste pickers and other urban poor. Torn fabrics are recycled into cloth products like bags, coasters and dusters.

Green School Programme  

SWaCH in association with Parisar and CEE, has launched the Green School Programme which aims to widen the horizon of the school going children. The programme entails enhancing the children’s perspective on environment, sustainability and related issues. It helps students and teachers to carry out action-based projects to leading to environment conservation. It guides the school in setting up and implement best practices of solid waste and e-waste management. Throught he medium of hands-on activities the GSP covers topics like water, waste, energy, biodiversity, heritage, culture, traffic and transportation.

 Nirmalya Project : Over the past 7 years, by diverting huge amounts of waste – both organic and biodegradable – from Pune’s rivers, SWaCH members has significantly reduced the pollution of rivers and dumping of nirmalaya on ghats. Last year itself, SWaCH diverted 177 tonnes of Nirmalaya. This has encouraged responsible citizens of Pune to be more eco-conscious. After receiving the Nirmalaya, SWaCH members segregate it into various categories such as fruit, flowers, clothes etc., send the flowers to composting units for conversion into natural manure, distribute good fruits for consumption and the rest for composting, take materials like paper, plastic and thermocol for recycling.

Composting : The PMC has made it mandatory for all societies formed after the year 2000 to compost organic waste. Towards this end, SWaCH helps to set up a composting system which takes care of the wet waste efficiently. For a small cost, a trained waste collector maintains and manages the compost every day. A supervisor also makes periodic visits to the composting site to ensure that all is well.

 E-Waste Disposal : SWaCH has been authorised by the PMC to collect and channel e-waste according to the rules laid down by the government. SWaCH ensures the collection and correct disposal of e-waste at authorised PMC centres. Last year, over 7 metric tonnes of e-waste was diverted from the grey market and sold in the open market by SWaCH.

Success of SWaCH

In its eight years of existence, SWaCH has touched lives and livelihoods of the workers in ways that have made them more self-reliant, economically more stable and created a platform that promises to secure the future of the next generation.

Compared to their incomes as free-roaming waste pickers, the earnings of SWaCH members have increased manifolds since the launch of the initiative. Depending on the locality from where the collection is done, their income range from Rs. 1,500 per month to Rs. 15,000 per month. This has brought in stability into their lives which was absent in the days prior to SWaCH. It has helped them make plans for family’s future, educate their children and also save for the rainy day. Such has been the faith of the worker members in SWaCH that their well-educated children too have joined the organisation to serve the noble cause.

In a community which traditionally had little access to education and decent work, it is a matter of pride to see their children become the face of SWaCH’s future. Moreover, by branching out into waste related activities many waste pickers are upgrading their work standard, and in effect creating upward mobility in an occupation which was once considered lowest of the low.

The SWaCH initiative has come to represent the biggest effort to integrate waste pickers in India. The hitherto ‘faceless and nuisance-causing people’ are now people who interact with fellow residents on an equal footing. Surekha Gaekwad is a high school graduate and team leader of eight waste pickers. She and her team has diversified into housekeeping and composting. Sharing her transformation story Surekha says, “Five years ago, I spent my day at garbage bins. I ended up dirty and stinking by evening. I was looked upon with apathy and disgust. But now I have earned people’s respect. Today, when I go to collect my money, the lady there asks me to sit on the sofa. If she is drinking tea, she will order another cup for me.”  

Mangal, another SWaCH member expresses her happiness in these words. “The residents in the area who used to frown at me, now call me by my name and greet me too. A resident gave me a second hand bicycle. I ride to work on the bicycle. Today I am literate and am the treasurer of a credit co-operative.” The twinkle in her eyes and the broad smile speak another thousand words which, though unheard, do not go unheeded.

Towards a Swach Future

Good work never goes unnoticed. In 2014 series of Satyamev Jayte, Bollywood super star Aamir Khan invited SWaCH to share their story and experiences, giving the organisation a national platform. It underlines that the efforts and the endeavours of SWaCh are slowly and steadily gaining recognition as more and more people become aware of SWaCH and its impact on the lives of over 3000 waste pickers who form the SWaCH Cooperative. The future of an organisation like SWaCH is indeed bright and with the support from the authorities, educated civilians and those good Samaritans, SWaCH will accomplish what it set out to achieve – taking waste pickers from rags to recognition.

[therebelsthemartyrsthesurvivors]

Changing the Narrative

While confronting the Holocaust in Germany and Poland, visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka II, the memorial sites, I had an epiphany: the victims of the Holocaust are always labeled as victims and the perpetrators are always infamously talked about, as if they should be the main focus in our history books. These people, these “victims” were fighters and martyrs who knew about sacrifice and the possibility of death. Some survived death when they were only a few feet away from it, and not even this scare turned them away from returning to dreadful places like the Warsaw Ghetto to warn others of the fate that was awaiting them in death camps like Treblinka II. We do not give credit where credit is due. We do not talk about people like Emanuel Ringelblum, we talk about people like Heinrich Himmler. We do not talk about people like Jan Karski, we talk about people like Rudolf Höss. Because of course we have to mention the evil behind it all, but we give credit where credit is not deserved, and we see this at memorial sites, we see this at museums, we see this in poor representations of the Holocaust in film, media, in museum tours, and literature. We focus on the perpetrators and the bystanders, the people at fault, but we never focus on the fact that there was a resistance, there was hope, there were uprisings fueled by hope and the unity of persecuted peoples.

This paper is meant to ethically represent the Holocaust— the survivors, the resistance, and the rebels— those who rebelled against the odds and fought a fate decided for them by the infamous perpetrators and the bystanders. This paper is meant to highlight the stories we do not always talk about. In this paper I will be focusing on three specific groups of the many peoples targeted in the Holocaust, specifically Jews, women and children (including the unborn), and the LGBT community. This paper is a written self-reflection based on my experiences confronting the Holocaust as a survivor of assault. I want to change the narrative and focus on the stories that matter, reflect on the truth of the Holocaust, and discuss what can be done differently to respectfully and ethically commemorate the survivors and “victims” of the Holocaust. In this paper, I will argue and defend the fact that the so-called “victims” were martyrs, and the survivors were the greatest resistance of all.

THE HEAD, NOT THE TAIL

Dating back to 1930s Europe, the persecution of Jews had started much earlier than is recognized. Propaganda was used to divide communities, and successfully turned the backs of non-Jewish neighbors on their Jewish neighbors (as we see in several pogroms that occurred throughout the war— before, during, and after), however men were targeted before women and children. German Jewish men were being deported and interned far before German Jewish women were because women clearly were not even remotely viewed as a threat. In reference to Between Dignity and Despair, a historical account written by Marion Kaplan, German Jewish women were vital to the survival of German Jewish men deported and interned prior to the creation of ghettos and the decision to exterminate all Jews. Men “were forced to flee promptly” (Kaplan 24). Wives and mothers were responsible for saving their husbands from permanent internment in camps. These women learned several languages to be able to locate their husbands and fathers, and they managed to hold down the household, all at once. German Jewish women had “the burden of keeping their households and communities together.” (Kaplan 6) Men were only set free because their female relatives located them and provided them with the identification papers necessary to be released. It was their female relatives who tracked them down and released them from internment. They newly learned how to financially support their families, how to get by with the few resources they had, and they learned how to use these few resources to accomplish finding a site of refuge. We never hear these stories though, and we need to change the narrative.

The Greatest Crime. Jewish and Roma women were a persecuted minority. Jewish women more exclusively because they had the ability to procreate Jewish children, and of course, Jewish lineage is passed on through the mother. This was viewed as a political threat to the Third Reich.

At Auschwitz and Ravensbrück, Jewish and Roma women were subject to forced sterilization methods to test which methods would be most cost effective. Other “undesirables” were also exposed to forced sterilization at these camps. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, visibly pregnant Jewish women and Jewish women with small children were sent directly to the gas chambers to be killed. The story of Jewish women and children entering Auschwitz-Birkenau is a painful one. Dr. Josef Mengele, infamously known for conducting medical experiments on twins at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was responsible for the decision that declared that Jewish women with small children entering the camp would be gassed. His logic was that the small Jewish children had nowhere to go because all Jews were imprisoned in the camps, they could not work, and there weren’t any facilities on the camp where they could live and develop “normally”. He also claimed it would not be humane if he sent the children on their own to the “ovens” without allowing the mother to be there to witness the child’s death, so the mother and child would be sent together. We hear about Dr. Josef Mengele every time we talk about Auschwitz, but someone we never talk about who is incredibly vital to the survival of Jews in Auschwitz was Dr. Gisella Perl.

A Hero in Hell. Dr. Perl was a Hungarian gynecologist who was interned as a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz, yet was also the head women’s doctor. Dr. Perl once spoke that the greatest crime at Auschwitz was being pregnant. She worked under Dr. Mengele and was ordered to notify him of any pregnant women that were living onsite at the camp. Dr. Mengele claimed that these women were going to be sent to a different camp to receive better nutrition. Women quickly came forward on their own, but it was soon learned these women were being experimented on and were sent thereafter to the crematoriums. Dr. Perl made it her mission to save as many women as possible while she could. She performed secret abortions on the dirty, excrement-infested floors in the barracks with her bare hands. She explained to the expecting mothers that two lives would be lost if they went through with their pregnancy because becoming pregnant in the camps meant a death sentence was awaiting them.

Fertility = Sabotage = Resistance. Interestingly enough, pregnancy was not at all uncommon on these cursed grounds where pregnancy was supposedly “not allowed”. However, brothels were common and contraceptives were clearly not available to women. Male prisoners would often seek out sexual favors in exchange of goods that would help a woman survive at the camp. There were barracks specifically used by the SS to molest and rape Jewish women. “Their actions and feelings towards Jewish women created inner conflicts for the SS officers, leading to violence against the women, who were blamed for seducing the officers” (Holland, par. 5). Age was not a restriction either. Thousands of babies were born at Auschwitz but were almost all immediately executed upon exiting the womb. Dr. Perl saved many women from instant death with the hope that they would one day have a family of their own, outside of the hell they were living in. There are only two known infants who were born in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and survived. A one year old weighed in at six pounds and was so weak that she could never cry, which is how she survived. She was easy to hide because no one ever heard a sound coming from her. Her mother was dying due to starvation when she gave birth to her. We never hear these stories though, and we need to change the narrative.

IDENTITY

We seldom hear about the LGBT community when we talk about the Holocaust. I could even use the word ‘never’ if I wanted to because if we are being honest, the LGBT community is not commonly included in the narrative. Members of the LGBT community faced harsh, brutal treatment in concentration camps and were treated far worse than political prisoners, Jehovah’s witnesses, the Roma, criminals, and asocials. Lesbians were subject to black triangles and labeled as “asocials” instead of receiving the pink triangle which was meant to label a person as being gay. These pink triangles assigned to gay men were commonly used as shooting targets for the SS. Compared to gay men, lesbians were hardly viewed as a threat, but they were raped and “forced” to verbally change their sexual orientation. SS men found that lesbians were the easiest to sexually convert. Gay men in Germany were forcibly castrated. Boiling water was used to literally boil off their testicles. They were called in to local police stations where they were sodomized with the ends of broken broomsticks and the torture would not end until they bled. Gay men in the Holocaust were considered the “lowest of the low” but this is often omitted from history books and Holocaust literature.

Homosexuals are not Cowards. Willem Arondéus was an openly gay, anti-fascist resistance fighter. Arondéus was one of the very first to join the Dutch resistance and his underground organization provided Jews with fake identities. In 1943, he was responsible for the bombing of a public records office that contained a catalog with the names of hundreds of thousands of Dutch people residing in Amsterdam. This was important specifically in the case of Dutch Jews because Nazis were using the catalog to look into fake identities. He planned the attack on the records office with the help of other resistance fighters, many of them also openly gay. We do not mention the fact that he dressed as a German Army captain and walked fifteen men past guards to enter the records office. We do not mention the fact that Frieda Belinfante, a classical cellist, talented conductor, and open lesbian, was one of his main resistance fighters. The rebels marched into the building, they drugged the rest of the guards, and set up the explosives. They destroyed nearly a quarter of the public records office.

We need to talk about the fact that this moment, this decision, kept thousands of Jews from being deported and identified. Unfortunately, someone within the underground organization betrayed them and turned them all in. Arondéus said he acted alone in the bombing, but the Nazis executed him and the other thirteen resistance fighters anyway. The rest of the rebels managed to flee the country. Arondéus’ last words, spoken through his lawyer, were Homosexuals are not cowards. I have to write this in bold. I have to emphasize what was meant to be emphasized by Willem Arondéus. Homosexuals are not cowards. It is a rare opportunity that we get to hear these stories of justice, resistance, rebellion, and we need to change the narrative.

THE REBELS            

There is one last person I feel an intense need to talk about, and that person is Emanuel Ringelblum. I mentioned him earlier as someone we do not typically talk about and I want to end that. I feel it is important to address that there was a Jewish resistance and Emanuel Ringelblum was a huge part of it. Many people believe that Jews could have risen up against the Nazis and that they could have “actually done something”. Here is another ounce of proof that Jews resisted and rebelled and survived and actually did something.

The Archives. Ringelblum is responsible for the Oneg Shabbat Archives, better known now as Ringelblum’s Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto, which I will refer to as “the archives”. He was the inspiration behind the secret Oneg Shabbat Archives, which translates to “Sabbath pleasure”. Naming the archives “Oneg Shabbat” was technically code because Ringelblum and other archivists would meet late afternoons on the Sabbath, which is why the archives are named as such. During the day they would take in as much information as possible and write notes on what happened at night. The idea was to document the atrocities of the Nazis in the ghetto, and the archives played a huge role in memorializing those who passed on from starvation, those who were transported to Treblinka II. The archives have kept memory alive, stories, testimonials; they are living words that have survived. These stories, these documents are proof that the Holocaust happened, that there was a resistance, that people knew they might more than likely die, but they wrote anyway. If they were caught writing the archives, they would undoubtedly be killed, and they knew that. Most of the archivists who contributed to the Oneg Shabbat Archives passed away during the war, many of them deported to Treblinka II. This form of resistance is so significant and powerful because they did not resist with violence, yet these archives were a huge slap in the face for any Nazi, any bystander, anyone who was complicit with Nazi crimes because these archives proved that people knew they might die, it proved that people were not just dying because they were weaker or lesser or incapable; they were not dumb, they were not cowards. It proved that Jews were persecuted and it proved that they fought back in every way they could think of. If anything was going to survive persecution and death, it would be the truth. The Truth Meant Survival and Resistance. The one thing the Third Reich wanted to disappear more than the Jews was any memory of the Jews. Any memory of them resisting, rebelling, fighting back; any memory of them, any record of them living, any suitcase, pocket watch, or hairbrush that belonged to them. Anti-semites tried to strip Jews of everything they were, everything they had, every bit of their identity. There are two sides to the story of Jews during the Holocaust, and only two: Hope and Resistance. If Jews were so sure they were going to die, why would they try to fit their lives in little suitcases? Because they had hope. If Jews didn’t think and know they might die, they wouldn’t leave behind three milk cans worth of archives to keep their memory and stories alive. Keeping the truth alive was resistance. Ringelblum is important because he stripped the Nazis of their superficial identities. He stripped away the false importance that the Nazis gave themselves and he revealed the atrocities committed. All of the archivists revealed the cowards hiding behind the curtain, a curtain called “propaganda”. “The archive materials and Ringelblum's own written chronicles constitute the most comprehensive and valuable source of information we have” (“Emanuel Ringelblum”, 2018). Had Ringelblum not initiated the secret archives, we would not know a whole lot of what we do know now because of these documents. We probably wouldn’t know much of anything that transpired in the Warsaw Ghetto without these documents. We would not know a whole lot of what occurred in occupied-Poland. We would not know a whole lot of the truth without the Oneg Shabbat Archives. We never hear these stories though, and we need to change the narrative.

LACK OF ETHICAL REPRESENTATION AND MEMORIALIZATION      

We never hear these stories because people and governments feel threatened by the truth, they feel accused, they might feel ridiculed, they might be in denial. In Germany and Poland, I witnessed the way “homosexuals” who were persecuted during the Holocaust still are not ethically represented at memorial sites, at museums, by the tour guide at Auschwitz who spoke the words “homosexual rape” back to back in the same sentence to try to describe how one prisoner at Auschwitz sodomized and simply raped another man, neither known for being gay. I witnessed the way “homosexuals” are represented by a small concrete box, hidden off in a park, with a sweet video that truly does no justice to the people who were considered the lowest of the low in concentration camps and were treated as such; treated like target practice and science experiments. I witnessed the way an information panel at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp incorrectly included all members of the LGBT community under the same word, homosexual, when there was a photo of a young transgender woman pictured clearly right in front of me, but unless you have been to these places, you would not know of these stories, and I need to change the narrative.

Neglect.  I witnessed the way women were neglected at memorial sites. I witnessed the way the unborn were neglected at memorial sites. I witnessed the way it was common to hear that there were brothels at concentration camps, and I’ve read so many stories of women who saved lives in the concentration camps, yet we do not memorialize women as we do others. We categorize them under other groups of people, we steal parts of their identity that we do not want to ethically represent because “other people suffered too” and it “wasn’t just a war on women”, yet we have women being raped, being used for sexual favors, being killed upon arrival at concentration camps because being pregnant is a crime if you are considered an “undesirable”. Even German women were targets and were often forced to procreate to snowball the production of Aryan children, the opposite situation compared to that of a Jewish woman. I witnessed the way children were neglected at memorials. In the war, they were treated like adults, even though they were far from transitioning into adulthood. They were raped, beaten, abused, experimented on, and then discarded. If they were too young to work, they died in gas chambers. Some children worked in the camps at an age as early as five years old if they looked older enough, lying their way through the selection process to survive. Treated like adults then, barely memorialized now.

Knowing these stories that we do not talk about, I felt a moral obligation to address these issues and how a lot of these issues are still relevant to today. In Germany, memorial sites were neglected— blown-out speakers, waterproof lighting issues— not to mention, Nazi-era laws are still in place in the country to this day. In Poland, I met and spoke to locals who support the new Polish laws that are completely anti-semitic and are a sad example of Holocaust denial. I will not even begin to readdress what I mentioned about the tour guide at Auschwitz who referred to rape as “homosexual rape”. Ultimately, I think what made me feel uncomfortable in some of the cities I visited in Germany and Poland was the fact that there is still a lingering presence of what happened, yet people try to suppress it. It is almost as though there is no aftermath, and we are stuck in the past like it is still happening. It appears to be believed at memorial sites that so long as there is some contribution made to the memorialization of persecuted minorities that all is well, yet the memory of persecuted homosexuals is kept boxed in, closeted. There is no visible effort to protect the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. People sit on the memorial, have picnics at the memorial site, on the concrete blocks that are a part of the memorial. There are signs promoting “Hitler’s [recreated] Bunker” in Berlin that surround the area where the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is located. In regards to the educational tours, at least there is some contribution being made to spread the knowledge and awareness of what happened, but to call Auschwitz I “Auschwitz Muzeum” is unethical, uncomfortable, and desensitizing. In Oranienburg, Germany, one of the original meeting places for SS officers/commanders was repurposed as a city tax office. Their new police academy building is also repurposed SS property, and sits right in front of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Sachsenhausen is uncomfortably referred to as a museum as well. I understand that these are now historical sites and that there are exhibits at some of these camps, but I will never understand why we cannot just refer to them for what they were. When I visit these locations, I know exactly what happened and I do not view these places like they are museums, no matter how many exhibits there are in front of me. Real human hair is not an exhibit. Shoes that belonged to people is not an exhibit. The suitcases, the kitchenware, the glasses, the pocket watches. None of this belongs behind the wall of a glass case.

People died.

‘Museum’ is not the term used to represent a location where hundreds of thousands of real people died. Where human beings died.

CONCLUSION        

The truth cannot die. These stories cannot be made to disappear. No law can change the past, alter the past, nor can it convince me to ignore the past. I have seen what denial looks like at memorial sites. I have seen what denial looks like at museums. Because of this, I cannot ignore the truth, but I can change the narrative. I can share what I have learned, I can raise awareness, I can share the stories. I know that homosexuals are not cowards. I know that lesbians, women, children, Jews, European Roma, the resistance, the archivists… are not cowards. History knows this. History has seen this. Children and newborns survived Auschwitz when they shouldn’t have. Jewish women remained fertile when they shouldn’t have. Members of the LGBT community survived when they shouldn’t have. Jews survived when they shouldn’t have. Jewish lineage was passed on when it was meant to be cut off. History knows that the “victims” were martyrs, and the survivors were the greatest resistance of all. It is vital to share the stories of people like Dr. Gisella Perl, Willem Arondéus, and Emanuel Ringelblum. Spreading awareness is vital. Making note of unethical representation and memorialization is vital, correcting it is vital.

Memory will live on, as will the stories and the journal entries. Traditions will live on, lineage will be passed on, and the rebels will never really die. We cannot forget the stories that matter, the legacies that matter, and the people who changed the course of the Holocaust. There was a resistance. There was hope. We cannot let the truth die. We must preserve the truth, identity, history. Because if we do not defend history, it will be rewritten over and over again and the truth will be at risk. The Holocaust has truly nothing to do with the perpetrators and everything to do with the difference makers. It has everything to do with the survivors and the martyrs. It has everything to do with resistance and hope.

But this is never how the story goes, and we need to change the narrative. 

[bon-voyage-dear-friend]

miss-soso-25 ha risposto al tuo post “Despite still thinking that Endeavour is trash and everything, I do...”

And please keep in mind that some abuse survivors - like the Todoroki family and others in real life - freely choose to not have their redeemed abusive parents face legal punishment. That doesn't mean they're allowing them to "get away" with their past abuse. That's an unfair thing to say.

Yeah, people are allowed to like what they want, the problem is when the discourse get polluted with people finding any kind of way to present their faves as better that they actually are. It reached the point where people think that nothing bad should happen to Endeavor because he is good now, and that he should be forgiven and be happy with his family. Mind you, I’m not talking about what is happening in story, I think the way the author is handling things is not bad, I’m specifically talking about how the fandom is treating the the entire thing. Is like one of those scenarios where everyone starts to stain a villain because their Sad Past™, where every time people try to hold characters accountable for their actions fans start to use the sob story to tell everyone how they’re just misunderstood or some other BS, but in this case the sad past is the redemption arc and everyone who hate Endeavour and doesn’t particularly want to sympathize with them, for a reason or another, is called out for hating character development. It’s like now that he wants to redeem himself he is invulnerable to anything bad ever, even when is something he brought to himself with his behaviour.

Talking about the scar on his face, the fact is, while yes, it is a karmic punishment, it is not a substitute for real consequences. I see karma as some sort of poetic justice, but it is not a real punishment for bad actions, especially if what happened had nothing to do with what the person previously did. Endeavour got his scar while working as a hero, not because he was being punished for being abusive. Like, if I stabbed a person one day, and the next day a totally unrelated person run over me with their car, that would be karma, but it wouldn’t mean that I’m facing the consequences of stabbing the previous guy. That said, is not like I really, really, really, really want Endeavour to face Hell on Earth as punishment for his sins, I’m just saying that the fandom should stop acting as the idea of him facing a possible punishment in the future that is directly caused by his years of abuse is somewhat unwarranted and undeserved just because he is trying to be a good guy now.

About Dabi, just because you don’t like the idea of that happening doesn’t mean is lazy writing, also, I would expect some standards where Enji is not the only perspective we see; we could explore how the abuse shaped Dabi’s alignment to Stain, how the rest of the family reacts to the situation, especially Natsuo, the one who mostly hates his father etc. Horikoshi has do some good stuff with old shounen tropes until now, so I don’t particularly understand how the idea of him doing something decent with the possibility of Dabi being a Todoroki is so foreign to you guys.

Also, my entire post was about how the fandom was treating Endeavour redemption arc as “get out of jail” card, I never said anything about the story in particular or about real life abuse. I don’t live in an abusive household myself so I can’t say anything about how abused people react to the possibility of their abused changing their ways. Yes, I did say that if Enji was not facing legal consequences then changing for the best was the least I could ask, but it was related story wise, so please, don’t bring up how some real life abused people just don’t pursue legal actions, since most of the time things tend to be way more complicated than just the victims forgiving them. Please, don’t use in real life abuse for the sake of proving a point, especially when a lot of irl survivals have been silenced for expressing their dislike in being forced to sympathize with a character that remind them of their own perpetrators. 

[loudlytransparenttrash]

One of my followers is a lefty, but unlike most left-wingers today, she's an actual liberal. Not the kind that hates conservatives because our ideology is different. But she seems to think that us right-wingers hate black people and the only difference is we're more honest about it than the left. I wanna give her a convincing argument against this notion but I'm not Ben Shapiro or the right-wing equivalent of Jordan Peterson, so what do I say to her, exactly?

Lol you don’t need to be either of them to know that’s simply not true. I think it’s senseless to suggest either side hates black people. I’d love to talk to your follower and find out what reasons she has to believe majority of the country hates blacks considering she believes both sides hates blacks just one is more honest about it than the other. I think she’s confusing the black civil rights leaders who would say the only difference between a liberal and conservative is liberals pose as black’s benefactor while conservatives are more honest about not being blacks’ benefactor. That’s very different to hating black people.

I don’t disagree with the sentiment either, as conservatives openly have no interest in being the benefactors for anyone. Conservatives don’t want us dependent on the government, they’re against creating a socialist welfare state and they’re against creating policies which enforce special treatment to entire groups. They believe in individualism, self-sufficiency and productivity. And this is why they’re considered racists today. They refuse to treat blacks differently and they don’t encourage blacks to be dependent on them, so that clearly must mean they hate black people.

Blacks had always overwhelmingly voted Republican as they once valued family, freedom, independence and personal responsibility. It also helped that Democrats were the party of slavery, KKK, Jim Crow, lynching, segregation and anti-civil rights. Only after the black vote started to count, Democrats rebranded themselves as the sympathizers, defenders and saviors of black Americans, telling blacks they will give them the free ride they are owed, they’ll give them reparations and entitlements and welfare in return for their vote. Unfortunately, they fell for it, and Democrat policies and Democrats elected in black-majority cities have turned out to be disastrous for blacks. 

Racism and “the legacy of slavery” is the go-to explanation for the struggles faced by black Americans, and if only the government righted the historical wrongs of whites and promise to coddle blacks and provide for them, and if only we have Democrat/black leaders (despite having a black Democratic president and largely black administration for eight years), well only then can black people succeed. This is the winning formula for the Democrats hooking the black vote, but what would happen if blacks regained their conservative values and stopped asking what the government can do for them and instead go back to asking what they can do for themselves.

Before blacks latched onto welfare and reparation programs and believed success was owed rather than earned, black high schools were doing better than many other majority-white schools, blacks had higher rates of workers than whites, blacks had a lower rate of teenage unemployment, blacks were rising into professional and other high-level positions at greater rates, the large majority of black couples were married, most black babies were born to married parents, the number of teenage pregnancies had been decreasing, both poverty and dependency were declining and black income was rising at equal rates to white income. There was also far less black crime and less black homicide.

Fast forward to the implementation of Democratic welfare and “we owe you” programs and rewarding single mothers, black workers and black teenage employment decreased in half, less than half of black students graduated from high school in 2005, 75 percent of blacks aren’t married, almost every black baby is born to a single mom and raised by a single parent, teenage pregnancy has accelerated, blacks today commit the overwhelming largest rates of murder and violent crime, in many cities blacks constitute majority of shooters even when they’re a minority and black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanic males of the same age combined. But let me guess, racism is worse today than it was pre-1960? Or the legacy of slavery is more prevalent today than two generations ago?

You may not think black married families is important, but when you consider almost no black married family live in poverty while the large majority of unmarried, single black mother households do live in poverty, it’s probably something we should be treating more seriously. Imagine what could be possible if we took the values blacks once believed in such as marriage, education, nuclear family, high expectations, holding everyone to the same standards, being self-empowered, respect for law, and combined them with the ceaseless rights, opportunities and freedom we enjoy today. It’s never been done and it probably never be will for as long as conservative values are racist and our rights, opportunity and freedom only exist for white guys…

This is the problem with feeding blacks the idea their lives are hopeless, threatened and oppressed. It makes them feel powerless which is great for Democrats as they become black’s only hope to provide for them like wounded pets but it’s proven to be a massive setback for blacks because once you give up your self-determination and independence, productivity and progress can never exist. Black Americans continue to sit at the bottom and in many ways have fallen backwards more today than 50-100 years ago. No group has ever successfully improved their circumstances by clinging to a counterproductive culture that is supposedly “authentic” in the name of group pride or identity. The only way up is to work for it, the excuses and blame have to stop. We have to reach out, forgive and move on. Walking on eggshells out of fear or guilt or throwing money at the problem solves nothing. 

Apart from the myths about oppression and victimization which push more blacks into welfare, crime, broken homes, poverty, drugs and self-destruction, I despise the well-intentioned, sympathetic liberal view on black people. Have you seen the video where young liberals all agree blacks shouldn’t have to hold an ID to vote because most blacks are either too broke or don’t know how to use the internet to find their local DMV? Or that it’s not black people’s fault for being unhealthy because all they can afford is fried chicken or they don’t know how to find healthier places to shop… I sure as hell believe this liberal shit is more offensive than expecting blacks to be held to the same standards, rules and accountability as everyone else. 

It’s also why they vote for affirmative action and racial quotas, rather than wanting blacks to be better educated or be employed based on skill and merit, they rather just lower the bar altogether and admit based on skin color where they will ultimately fail and drop out or come out of college less educated than before holding an expensive degree in Fuck Trump studies. Just look at the black student who was accepted into a top university just for writing lines of ‘black lives matter.’ Professors are told to not correct the spelling of black students as their broken english is their “own language” and now they want to do away with tests altogether as the results discriminate against blacks. 

We can add the bigotry of low expectations to the list of Democrats screwing over black Americans. Ask your follower if she can come up with a list of examples of Republicans or conservatives “hating blacks” that can out-do the left. She might want to leave out the inevitable incarceration rates though as they perfectly match the black homicide and violent crime rates, plus older blacks support the no-sense approach as they’re just as fed up with young blacks terrorizing their neighborhoods and shooting each other daily. She might also want to read up on Black Lives Matter, their violence, agenda and the facts surrounding their founding martyrs before claiming the right unfairly criticizes the movement. And she sure as heck can’t point to pro-lifers as the majority of aborted babies are black, probably not something racists would protest.

None of this not to say the right doesn’t have its racists or major faults, but if they’re as so honestly and openly racist as your follower believes, surely she could prove it? Thanks :) xx

[benvizy]

Everyone’s a Mirror

「Poignant Self-Reflection in David Sedaris’ Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim」

When I was growing up, I often fought with my brother.  He was three years younger than me, and I would often notice him making the same “mistakes” I thought I had made when I was going through his stage in life.  At one point, during a moment of clarity, I realized that my annoyance at him, in addition to annoyance I felt toward many others, stemmed from irritation at my own historical tendency to exhibit the same qualities.

This theme was featured prominently in David Sedaris’ Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, the first essay collection of his I have read.  I’ve been meaning to get to him a while, and after blazing through this collection in the span of three days, I will certainly return.  I totally get the appeal—Sedaris stays consciously aware that many of the faults he finds in others and in the world are reflected in himself, and he uses his wit to point out universal truths through sharp self-criticism.

I.  The Self

Sedaris starts the book with a piece that is almost completely self-critical, “Us and Them”.  At ten years old, Sedaris is asked for candy by trick-or-treating neighbors one day after Halloween.  Unprepared for belated candy-grubbers, the matron of the Sedaris household asks that her children go choose a piece of candy from their own collection.  Unable to choose, Sedaris begins to shove his face with his own candy as fast as he can, just so the neighbors don’t make off with what he himself had ‘earned’.  

After entering his room, Sedaris’ mother asks him to take a long look at himself.  He doesn't want to, but it’s hard not to see what he describes as “a boy, sitting on a bed, his mouth smeared with chocolate.  He’s a human being, but also he’s a pig, surrounded by trash and gorging himself so that others may be denied” (12).  His motives and thought processes are clearly outlined in the piece.  By the end, I could understand exactly why he did what he did.  But his actions, once examined, are clearly irrational.  This example of understandably committing irrational actions, though immediately concerning Sedaris himself, opens the door to the reader’s own honest self-criticism.

II.  Other People

In other stories, Sedaris mentions his desire to critique others.  In “Put a Lid on It,” for example, he describes his sister’s dirty habits—clutter all over her apartment, a floor stripped of any tile or linoleum—and his horror at her living in such a state.  At one point in the story, she tries to show him her paintings, but his mind is still on cleaning up for her.  He observes this reaction, thinking, “she’d wanted to show me her artwork—something that truly interests her, something she’s good at—and instead, like my father, I’m suggesting she become an entirely different person” (202).  Though his intentions were purely to improve her lifestyle, he realizes that he is assuming what the best lifestyle for her is.

This perspective is extremely potent, considering the sister’s habits would be off-putting to the majority of us.  I certainly think many of my messier friends would benefit from a bit of organization in their lives.  On the other hand, as Sedaris muses, “I can’t seem to fathom that the things important to me are not important to other people as well” (202).  Though he wants to help his sister, he reflects that sometimes it just isn’t useful to do so.  In fact, it can come at the expense of a relationship.  Once again, he leads the reader into a situation where he or she may be tempted to act the same way, then reflects on how this reaction could be problematic in its own right.

III.  Society

In other sections, Sedaris zooms out entirely and begins to critique society—once again, however, his righteous irritation is nicely balanced with self-inspection.  In “Chicken in the Henhouse,” for example, Sedaris reflects on his life after the Catholic Church Sex Scandal broke in a big way.  He remembers hearing people criticize homosexuals in particular, as though they were all pedophiles.  As a homosexual himself, Sedaris helps a boy carry coffee to his parents to prove he can still be an upstanding member of society.

It’s a noble goal—Sedaris wants to disprove a harmful and growing stereotype about gay men.  Once he gets in the elevator, however, he begins to get sweaty and uncomfortable, and starts to reflect on how he appears to others.  He then begins to reflect on his entire motivation:  “yes, I am a homosexual; yes, I am soaking wet…but still I can safely see a ten-year-old back to his room.  It bothered me that I needed to prove something this elementary” (223).  Instead of using his platform to offer another scathing polemic at society, he once again brings up understandable irritation, an understandable reaction, and then a poignant reflection on the actual benefit of that reaction.  His quest for righteousness, though relatable, ends up seeming relatively futile and petty.  It brings to mind a deeper question—should we care what others say at all?  Is it worth anyone’s effort to “prove” themselves to others?

Through criticizing both the situation and his reaction to the situation, Sedaris provides one of the most honest accounts I’ve ever read of life.  It’s draining to read someone’s laundry list of grievances toward the world.  It’s sad (and somewhat suspect) to read a wholly self-deprecating perspective.  Sedaris balances both—yes, there are problems with other people.  Yes, there are problems in the world.  How we react to those problems, however, is rarely perfect.  By holding a mirror up to himself, Sedaris helped me think of how to do the same.  Now I think about criticizing myself—and I love myself way more than I love you. ;)

Source:  Sedaris, David.  Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.  New York, NY: Back Bay Books, 2005.  Print.

[nonprofitarchitect]

How to Truly Cross Things Off of Your To-Do List

We always seem to have so many things to get done, a never-ending to-do list. These open cycles are draining our physical, mental, and spiritual energy. How do we actually get these things, big and small, off of our lists for good? Make a list of all your open cycles. These could be friendships, work tasks, household chores, plans for the future, or things you've promised to take care of for other people. This list divides itself into things ranging from very important to small action required. You will find that you will be able to close, about a third of these open cycles, simply by allotting the time in your schedule and putting forth a little effort. Another third can be closed relatively quickly, but this will require much more effort and humility. To close the next category of open cycles, we may need to, as the same goes, eat crow or put our pride away. We may need to be humble and transparent with those to whom we have made promises or perhaps even apologize to them. If it is a client and we do not feel that we have delivered what was promised, despite good efforts and intentions, be completely honest with them and find a way to make things fair. Then bring them into a place of abundance. Again, there is some effort, but the cycles can be closed in a relatively short amount of time. Closing the last third of our open cycles may prove to be much more difficult. These are the open cycles that carry a lot of weight. They may have been opened years ago and even if we have consciously tried to convince ourselves to let them go, subconsciously in ways on us the stress finds its way to our pillows each night. To close these remaining cycles, we may need to forgive ourselves from a past event or situation. We may also have to forgive others who have wronged us or those close to us. Our unwillingness to forgive them has left us with an open cycle which in turn gives them the ability to still affect us. More ways to complete tasks and prevent cycles from re-opening. Delegate. Either pass a task to a subordinate, work with a family member to get it complete, or pay someone to get it done for you. If you can hire someone $10/hour to complete a task while you're earning more, it makes sense to maintain productivity and continue dollar-producing activities while someone else completes the tasks that don't increase your wealth. VAs (virtual assistants can do nearly everything including, hiring someone to cut your grass). Automate. If you find yourself doing recurring tasks or answering the same questions over and over again, you can set up an online FAQ (frequently asked questions) or update policy to take the ambiguous area and make it clear. For online tasks, Zapier and IFTTT (If this then that), can remove most of the drudgery or recurring online clicks. Eliminate. Some things simply don't need to be done. If you get a new boss in and they don't ask for something the old boss demanded, consider not doing it (safety concerns considered). Most of the things we do, including worry, don't really need to be done. figure out which things simply don't matter. Which relationships drain you? Get rid of them. No amount of shared DNA gives people the freedom to treat you poorly, hold them accountable.

Check out this episode!

[moonlitgleek]

@honeybubblepop reblogged your post and added:

Ok fact Rhaegar was NOT fighting for his father at all at the trident he fought Robert for the throne! Rhaegar already had plans to over throw the mad king before he ran off with Lyanna (there are so many clues in the book and tv show, but Rhaegar wanted a peaceful solution to the problem not a war) Also Rhaegar was fighting to protect his family both of them from whatever harm could have come and he failed because it was his death that brought on the sack of kings landing by house Lannister…There’s nothing that would suggest Rhaegar meant for his father to keep the throne Rhaegar himself wanted Aerys to go into retirement which was what he was trying to do at the tourney of harrenhal. He fought for his house but in the end he failed …Also pretty sure she didn’t give a fuck at the time and could distinguish between the man whose child she was having and what he stood for as a person(after all they did spend almost a year together) and his father who at the time was insane.

Regardless of what his personal opinion on the matter was, Rhaegar returning from Dorne to take up arms against the rebels is him fighting in his father’s name. You can’t say that he was not fighting for Aerys when it was Aerys who sat the throne and whom the royalists were fighting in the name of. Rhaegar did not condemn his father’s brutality or try to communicate to the rebels that he saw the murder of over half a dozen nobles as a crime that irrevocably delegitimized the king for he broke the feudal contract their society is built on. He did not move against Aerys with the understanding that his actions were a gross offense that needed to be rectified immediately. Instead he declared for his father and took the field against the rebels which amounts to a very public statement on whose side he was on and who he thought worth defending. His disapproval of Aerys’ actions was only voiced to Jaime Lannister and was immediately belied by his actions - by riding to meet the people injured by his father’s crimes on the field and treating the loss of life that decision resulted in as an acceptable price for keeping the throne. Rhaegar’s personal opinion is worthless in that context; the fact remains that in his capacity as crown prince, Rhaegar took a very clear political stance on the rebellion and followed it with the decisive action of fighting in Aerys’ name. Leading his father’s forces meant that Rhaegar was declaring his position which was that this rebellion deserved to be condemned and fought against, that the rebels were traitors to the crown and that his father’s actions were to be defended. Rhaegar actively supported Aerys on the field, sending a message to the rebels that he unequivocally supported his father’s actions, from executing nobles without a trial to the death sentence for Ned and Robert to his demand of Jon Arryn to break guest right. It’s made worse by the fact that Aerys committed murder over the course of refusing to hold Rhaegar accountable for his own violations so the image they presented to the rebels was that of the king and crown prince breaking every code of conduct and every law in the land to defend each other’s right to do whatever they wanted - a circle jerk that communicated one message: “the law does not apply to House Targaryen. We can do whatever we want to you without any recompense because you don’t have the right to object to our actions. Kick rocks.”

So Rhaegar having a personal opinion that what Aerys did was ill done? It isn’t good enough. It isn’t enough, period. His actions are what matter because they are what represent his dearly held beliefs and his priorities. And Rhaegar’s priority was the throne, even if he stepped on thousands of corpses to ensure he did not lose it. The lives that were lost was little more than collateral damage to him, a necessary evil so that he could keep his royal power. That’s selfish. That’s borderline tyrannical. That’s a man caught up in the illusions of a grand destiny that he lost sight of the people he claimed the right to rule. Saving lives shouldn’t be a worthy cause only when there are ice zombies and dragons involved, and the thousands that died because of Rhaegar’s decisions matter just as much as those currently under siege by the Others.

Another thing that was no way near enough was Rhaegar’s plans to overthrow Aerys. I’m honestly so tired of giving him credit for that since it’s his own inaction that caused everything that happened. Aerys’ sanity had been deteriorating for years, he’d had two noble houses completely eradicated just a few years earlier, he was a pyromaniac that was growing close to the Alchemist’s Guild and Rossart. Rhaegar knew all of that but he failed to take any decisive action to amend any of it. Oh he had plans - plans that he threw away for absolutely no reason when he chose to vanish with Lyanna. Rhaegar squandered his responsibility as crown prince when he watched an unfit king with glaring mental health issues be a menace and danger to the realm for years but did nothing.  He knew his father shouldn’t be on the throne, had some plans that we don’t know the extent of but that sound solid enough to be viable, but he failed to act on those plans.... until apparently half the continent was in open rebellion that happened, in no small part, due to Rhaegar’s own inaction and political ineptitude. He was only prepared to do something about it in the same scene he was gearing up to go defend his father’s right to burn people alive. He made it very clear that he was ready and willing to kill a few thousand people for the throne, including the very same people whose families his father brutalized, including the brother of the girl he left pregnant back in Dorne. And say what you will about Robert Baratheon but he’d done nothing to deserve to be killed to satisfy Aerys’ paranoia or to make way for Rhaegar’s kingship. That says a whole lot about Rhaegar and his conceptions of justice, morality and responsibility, whether personal or political. I’m sorry but I’m done giving Rhaegar credit for having plans or opinions that his actions went squarely against, especially when it was him that made the situation even worse and effectively undermined his own plans by his stunt with Lyanna.

Also Rhaegar was fighting to protect his family both of them from whatever harm could have come and he failed because it was his death that brought on the sack of kings landing by house Lannister.

There is a difference between fighting for his family and fighting for his throne. Rhaegar was the one who put his family in danger with his actions so I’m not at all convinced or moved by the argument that he was fighting to protect his family. For one, Rhaegar did not even think that his family was in danger as his words to Jaime imply. “When the battle’s done I mean to call a council”. He did not even entertain the thought of losing and what that could mean to his family. But far more importantly, it was Rhaegar himself who put his family in that awful position by his failure to move against Aerys, by his disappearance with Lyanna for months, leaving his mentally unstable father to deal with the fallout and forcing the Starks into a confrontation with Aerys which led to the rebellion, by leaving Elia and her children under his father’s thumb. The entire situation was of Rhaegar’s creation; his actions with Lyanna are what made that first domino piece fall. He vanished with Lyanna -> Brandon rode to King’s Landing -> Aerys killed Brandon, Rickard and their companions, sent the order for Robert and Ned’s head and at one point recalled Elia and the children from Dragonstone -> the rebellion happened -> Rhaegar returned to continue the conflict -> Robert was acclaimed -> Rhaegar lost and the sack happened. Take out Rhaegar’s stunt with Lyanna and his family would be sitting on Dragonstone safe and sound and the rebellion doesn’t happen. To make it worse, Rhaegar willfully left Elia and her children vulnerable to his father while he gallivanted to Dorne to impregnate a 15-year-old, he left them again as glorified hostages in the Red Keep knowing what he knew of his father’s paranoia and racism. Let’s not paint him as the sacrificing family man who had no recourse but to go to war. Rhaegar had options but he did not care to follow any of them.

Also pretty sure she didn’t give a fuck at the time and could distinguish between the man whose child she was having and what he stood for as a person(after all they did spend almost a year together) and his father who at the time was insane.

Didn’t give a fuck about who exactly. About Ned who was in the field to bring justice for their murdered family and to defend his own life since Aerys had a pesky death sentence issued for him? About Robert who she might not have liked but that does not mean she wanted him dead when he’d done nothing wrong? About all the Northmen who rose in the name of her family and to avenge her murdered father and brother? About her friend Howland Reed, or about Martyn Cassel and Old Nan’s sons who were probably a part of the Stark household? No, please, do tell me who it is that Lyanna did not give a fuck about, the same Lyanna who stood up for Howland Reed simply because he was her father’s man, the same Lyanna who loved her family, was protective of her people and sensitive to injustice. Are you trying to tell me that Lyanna just simply shrugged when she learned that Rhaegar was going to war against her own brother in the name of the guy who murdered her father and other brother?

Oh but Rhaegar disagreed with Aerys. I’m sure this would have meant the world for the families of those who died because of him. It would have meant everything to Lyanna, Benjen, Catelyn and as-of-yet unborn Robb if Ned had fallen at the Trident. It would have meant everything to Jon Arryn whose nephew was killed in King’s Landing and whose foster sons could have died and would have died in the case of Targaryen victory. Sure, Rhaegar was going to lead an army against the rebels, forcibly subjugate them, dismiss their rights and basic justice, handwave his own complicity in the whole matter while affirming that a king can do whatever he wants to whoever he wants which pushes the realm into absolute monarchy, but for some reason everyone and their cat should really appreciate that he didn’t like what Aerys had done, even when he was upholding and compounding his father’s crimes.

[lorieninksong]

My Journey through PTSD

A more thorough explanation.  I wrote this for Deviantart and wanted to share it here, too.

Warning: The following includes descriptions of abuse against animals, children, hospital patients and suicide mentions.  If this is not safe for you to read please turn back now or skip to the TL;DR section.

 For the first time in a long time I am confident that I'm going to survive and recover from my PTSD.  I'm out of the suicide risk zone, and though my body is still struggling it's no longer life threatening.  Every day I still hurt but its significantly less, and I'm hoping with more recovery time and work I'll be able to not hurt at all one day.  As it turns out the reason my complex PTSD (info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_… ) was so severe is that I've actually had it for ~20 years.  I grew up in an abusive household, and was essentially raised to believe I was worthless.  My father employed tactics of fear (stomping around the house, shouting at us, insulting us, and even abusing my pets on rare occasion) and my mother groomed me to be her, expressing derision when I tried to be anything different.  She also once threw a vase or bouquet at my head (I can't remember which) as a toddler.  The abuse of one of my parakeets by my father, though she thankfully didn't receive injury, lead into years of nightmares about my birds being hurt in a similar manner.  These were my first PTSD symptoms.  All of these things I was told were my fault, and I deserved it.  I didn't.  No child could.   By the time I was diagnosed I had already been partially mauled by the medical system.  I was prescribed medications based on what was in patent (so more money could be made from me) even though they were less understood and significantly less safe.  My first psych med prescription landed me in the ER twice in 12 hours.  The first time I was dismissed as someone seeking drugs, despite not having any record criminal or otherwise.  When I came back in they had to test me for heart damage.  Things didn't improve with a diagnosis; it took two years and three psychiatrists to start any kind of appropriate treatment.  My first psychiatrist didn't do any kind of evaluation, handed me a list of drugs to chose from, and then abandoned me and all of his other patients with no warning or instruction.  The next psychiatrist I found was obsessed with his own methods, scorning mainstream 'modern' medicine for an endless trial of quackery, lifestyle changes, and medications that did little to help me or caused harm.  He also would have my spouse, who is not medically trained, research and present medications to him for me to try.  This is part of how I ended up in the ER several times over this last winter.     And let me tell you, the ER is an unkind place to the mentally ill.  Also to people with chronic pain issues, and to anyone who happens to have a uterus or identifies as female.  (I'm not a transwoman but I've heard plenty about how the medical industry treats them, not to mention women of color.)  When I tried to kill myself by jumping off a bridge (I was stopped before I jumped) last summer I was taken by ambulance to an ER.  I came in crying, terrified, and having one hell of a panic attack.  Their response was to treat me like a violent criminal.  The staff got aggressive quickly as I cried in a corner of the room I was escorted to, and forced me under threat of being forcibly stripped by a group of strangers (including armed men) to surrender most of my clothing in lieu of scrubs.  Because "You could be hiding a bomb in there".  That is what I was told by a nurse.  They then trapped me in that room for the next twelve hours, and refused to treat the extreme physical pain that came from the physical symptoms of my PTSD.  Additionally they took all of the medicine I had with me so I couldn't take care of myself, and someone helped themselves to some of my pills before they were returned.   This was certainly the most egregious example of abuse I endured in various hospitals and clinics, but it was hardly an isolated incident.  To make matters worse when the hospital I was going to couldn't find an easy explanation for the the severe pain I was experiencing after a few tests they just dumped me back out onto the street.  Even after I was kept overnight for observation hooked up with a special heart monitor because my pulse was high and irregular.  My current psychiatrist (who used to be a manager at a Providence hospital) is still concerned about my heart, and I may need to see a cardiologist.  Even though I still was struggling to eat or sleep, and was still in agony.  I have learned not to go to the hospital unless I think I may die.  It's not worth it otherwise.   Having to fight the medical system alongside the PTSD (and my insurance company constantly harassing me) was bad enough, but I also had to fight my family and friends.  I received very little support from them, regardless of how close we were or how I had supported them in the past.  And reaching out to them was an exercise in frustration at best.  No one wanted to listen.  And recently I found out a couple of family members/friends had labeled my PTSD and related issues as 'drama'.  That they 'didn't have time for'.  These were the same family members that when I wrote about how I was abused at the ER on my blog called me to tell me to delete the post.  If that wasn't bad enough I recently found out that part of their motivation was a belief that I was lying, just exaggerating and being 'dramatic' about what happened.  I'm baffled.  I'm not a dishonest person.  Worst of all nobody asked if I was okay.  After that I stopped expressing myself even online, and became extremely socially isolated.  Trying to reach out to people or express myself was too stressful.  Outside of healthcare providers I didn't see anyone outside of my spouse and his parents, and only had one remaining friend (an online pen-pal) to talk to.   This journal is not a call to action.  I'm explaining what happened to me as a way of striking out at the voice inside of me, formed from the years of abuse, that tells me I deserve this abuse.  Because I didn't deserve this.  No one deserves this.   No child deserves to be blamed for the decisions their parents made for them.  No child deserves being raised by parents who made their resentment known to them about the financial burden of their upbringing.  No child should come to feel guilty for the crime of being born, a miracle of survival that shouldn't be turned into a screwed up curse.  I no longer speak to my parents.  That line was drawn for my own safety, the safety of my new family, of my pets and my husband.  Speaking up about the abuse they inflicted on me is my way of holding them accountable for their decisions.     No family member deserves to have others in the family believe their illness to be a lie, to be told that their experiences aren't true.  Family shouldn't gaslight (info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight…) family.  It's classified as abuse for a reason.  I've needed to come out about what happened to me to process it and make it through, and for the past several months I've been too anxious to do so.  Partly because of how some of the members of my new family (who I also thought were my friends) have gaslighted me, but also because I have a severe anxiety disorder that required medical intervention beyond my old psychiatrist's insistence I increase my magnesium supplement intake.  Fortunately after I dumped him I found a competent, but difficult psychiatrist.  She knows her medicines well, is frank about what she thinks of each medication, and recommended me the tried and true standard for treating depression and anxiety disorders.  Yep, Prozac.  Between that and continued therapy (EMDR specifically, which you can read about here www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/ ) I'm starting to recover in earnest.  My pain issues thankfully are being addressed between a specialty pain clinic and my medications.  Fortunately they were able to stumble upon what was actually hurting me; muscle spasms, a common PTSD symptom. I'm working on physical therapy to recover and prevent further pain.  These treatments and my own endurance have gotten me to this point, and I'm proud to say that.  But I'm crushed that I had to fight through friends and family to get here, alongside the medical industry as a whole.  When I first realized I was sick and made a journal about it, someone asked me if I'd write about my experiences in the medical health system.  I didn't realize at the time why.  Now I do. They asked my opinion, so here it is: the mental health system is broken.  I was made significantly worse, to the point of nearly having a stroke (to quote my psychiatrist after I described my last trip to the ER) and likely nearly having died several times.  And having tried to take my life several times.  All of it was unnecessary.  A large part of my suicidal ideation issues were merely the result of a lack of medical treatment.  This part of why I'm working with deathstroke50 to leave the USA and move to Britain.  Its hardly a perfect place, but we think we'll be happier there.  And as it turns out the UK not only has a very informative website about PTSD (www.ptsduk.org/) but their standard treatment to try upon diagnosis is EMDR therapy alongside Prozac.  Great.  Only took me two hellish years and several near death experiences to get there.   TL;DR I've been through some shit.  Honestly I'm surprised I'm alive, after being repeatedly kicked while I was down by the medical system and a few of my family and friends.  But I'm making changes in my life and getting better quickly.  Also I'm trying to move to the UK.  With me luck please~

[shirlleycoyle]

How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body

Late in 1980, Henry Getson of Cherry Hill, New Jersey wrote in to his favorite computer hobbyist magazine, Softalk. Getson described himself as a computer user of “less than expert status,” and expressed his appreciation for Softalk’s introductory tone and accessible articles, especially for someone like him, who had recently bought a personal computer and was just learning to program. His letter closed with a short question, a stray thread dangled from the hem of heaping praise: “P.S. Have any remedies for tired eyes?”

Softalk’s editors knew exactly what Getson meant, and responded at length to this “problem that many computerists share.” 

“Some relief comes from double folding a washcloth, saturating it with warm water, and holding it against your eyes for several minutes,” they wrote. In later issues, fellow readers volunteered their own tips for dealing with eye strain. A reader from Texas recommended Getson modify his screen with a piece of plexiglass covered in “the sun screen material found in auto stores.” Another reader, from Malibu, California, suggested buying light green theatrical gel sheets, the kind used to color stage lights, and taping one over the monitor. We don’t know how Getson resolved to treat his tired eyes, but certainly he had no lack of homespun options volunteered by computer users negotiating similar issues.

What Getson was discovering, like all the rest of the personal computer early adopters of the 1980s, was just how much using computers hurt. Turns out, monitors caused eye strain. Or, to put it more accurately: living with computers routinely strained eyes. Vision problems were the embodied human residue of natural interactions between light, glass, plastic, color, and other properties of the surrounding environment. 

Visual Display Terminals, 1980

When overhead lighting, strong task lighting, or daylight cast from behind a user hit the curve of a CRT monitor, the result was a glare, or reflection, over the display’s specular surface. The 20th century’s tradition of strong overhead lighting—optimal for paperwork, accounting, reading, all the traditional tasks of office labor—produced a variety of lighting issues that negatively affected human vision when that human sat down in front of the dark glass of a computer monitor. 

Decades before “Zoom fatigue” broke our spirits, the so-called computer revolution brought with it a world of pain previously unknown to humankind. There was really no precedent in our history of media interaction for what the combination of sitting and looking at a computer monitor did to the human body. Unlike television viewing, which is done at greater distance and lacks interaction, monitor use requires a short depth of field and repetitive eye motions. And whereas television has long accommodated a variety of postures, seating types, and distances from the screen, personal computing typically requires less than 2-3 feet of proximity from monitor, with arms extended for using a keyboard or mouse. The kind of pain Getson experienced was unique to a life lived on screen, and would become a more common complaint as desktop computers increasingly entered American homes over the course of the 1990s and into the early 21st century.

Forty years later, what started with simple complaints about tired eyes has become common place experience for anyone whose work or school life revolves around a screen. The aches and pains of computer use now play an outsized role in our physical (and increasingly, our mental) health, as the demands of remote work force us into constant accommodation. We stretch our wrists and adjust our screens, pour money into monitor arms and ergonomic chairs, even outfit our offices with motorized desks that can follow us from sitting to standing to sitting again. Entire industries have built their profits on our slowly curving backs, while physical therapists and chiropractors do their best to stem a tide of bodily dysfunction that none of us opted into. These are, at best, partial measures, and those who can’t afford extensive medical interventions or pricey furniture remain cramped over coffee tables or fashioning makeshift laptop raisers. Our bodies, quite literally, were never meant to work this way.

To consider the history of computing through the lens of computer pain is to center bodies, users, and actions over and above hardware, software, and inventors

Of course, computer-related pain existed prior to the arrival of the first consumer-grade personal computers in the late 1970s. Mid-century mainframes and large-scale minicomputers, with their high energy consumption and cooling needs, whirling tape drives, and clackety teletypes and teleprinters, were known to cause stress on the auditory system. Given the proportionally small number of people who worked directly with computing installations prior to the 1970s, such information is largely anecdotal. However, trace evidence can be found in a New York Times article from November 23, 1969 titled "Noise is a Slow Agent of Death,” which listed "computers and typewriters and tabulators" as just a few of the myriad machines polluting the noisescape of New York City. In the summer of 1970, computer magazine Datamation reported that the National Bureau of Standards released a report on the dangers of hearing loss and computer centers.

Yet as we see with Getson’s later, and later research into human factors, the locus of health concerns would shift from auditory to visual once computing systems began converging with CRT monitors in the 1970s. Replacing crisp type on paper with the fuzzy resolution of a screen prone to glare, the so-called “glass teletypes,” “teletype terminals,” “dumb terminals” (because they contained little to no processing power of their own) or even just “computing terminals” compounded the occupational health deficits of repeated use.

The DEC VT52 computer terminal. SUCH TERMINALS ALLOWED USERS TO ACCESS THE CENTRAL PROCESSING CAPACITIES OF NETWORKED MINICOMPUTER SYSTEMS; LACKING INDEPENDENT PROCESSING CAPACITIES, THEY WERE NOT “PERSONAL COMPUTERS” AS WE UNDERSTAND THEM TODAY. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

With the advent of microprocessors, early microcomputing designers began experimenting with computer designs that converged a central processing unit, monitor, and keyboard into a single consumer good. Steve Wozniak’s 1976 Apple 1 circuit board was one of the first manufactured microcomputers to include a video display adapter as part of its design, as did Processor Technology’s SOL-20, released that same year. 

Advertisement for Apple’s first computer, released in 1976. It came with no peripherals, but included onboard adapters for a video terminal and keyboard. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

While the Apple 1 did not come with a monitor or keyboard as part of its purchase price, the fact that adapters for such peripherals were built into the board was a technological innovation compared to prior hobbyist computing systems like the Altair 8800. 

The SOL-20, however, did include a keyboard as part of the computer, all manufactured in a single metal and wood case. The indebtedness of this form factor to glass teletype terminals is attested to in the fact that these microcomputers were sometimes known as “terminal computers” or “intelligent terminals.” 

By 1977, the standardization of a keyboard and monitor as essential peripherals to a central computing unit was set in stone by the concurrent release of the first wave of truly mainstream consumer microcomputers—the Apple II, the TRS-80, and the Commodore PET. 

The TRS-80, Apple II, and the Commodore PET. Images: Wikimedia Commons

It was at this moment, at the tail end of the 1970s, that computer usage became identified with “desktop” computers, and took on the bodily postures we associate with it today: the constant bend of wrist over a keyboard, the staring at a monitor, and slightly later, the nudging of a mouse. As both desktop computers and networked terminals proliferated in offices, schools, and homes over the 1980s, chronic pain became their unanticipated remainder: wrist pain, vision problems, and back soreness grew exponentially. Desktop computing required dramatic affordances among the population at large, whether those be changes to household and office lighting, tolerating chronic discomfort, or the circulation of new domestic and occupational imaginaries.

So while Getson’s small query might be easily overlooked in the hundreds of letters and articles that cycled through 1980s computer magazines, the question of “tired eyes” offers an alternate terrain for mapping the dramas of computational life in the late 20th century Western world. To consider the history of computing through the lens of computer pain is to center bodies, users, and actions over and above hardware, software, and inventors. This perspective demands computer history to engage with a world beyond the charismatic object of computers themselves, with material culture, with design history, with workplace ethnography, with leisure studies. For all those computerists with “tired eyes,” computer culture was not what happened on-screen or in-box, but rather what happened everywhere else: with, on and around keyboards, televisions, joysticks, desks, offices, kitchens, tables, beds, hands, glasses, lightbulbs, windows, back supports, surge protectors, power supplies…and on and on.

But this is not just a move about getting away from the usual suspects of computer history. It is also about going towards something—in our case, an expanded knowledge of the relationship between the body and the many constructed environments it occupies, between who had the freedom to build their world and who was saddled with enduring it. 

As is so often the case, those who did the enduring were women, and in many cases, specifically, women of color. Despite a history of invention that has rendered the ascent of computing as a uniquely white male activity, women were there, everywhere—for it was their bodies that would be on the frontlines of the dramatic transformations in workplace automation wrought by computing terminals in the 1970s and personal computers in the 1980s. Unlike hobbyist and leisure users of home and personal computers like Henry Getson, both white women’s and women of color’s use of computing typically happened in a workplace context, as computing technology was pushed upon the clerical and administrative labor traditionally siloed to pink-collar workers doing clerical work, data entry, word processing, book-keeping, and other administrative tasks.

By turning away from the computer to the body, the assemblage of computer history changes. There is no grand narrative here, just fragments and scraps from a decentralized archive, but ones that might, through juxtaposition, elucidate something about how we learned to live with computers. This is not the history of killer apps, wild hacks, and the coding wizards who stayed up late, but something far quieter and harder to trace, histories as intimate as they are “unhistoric”: histories of habit, use, and making do. That pain in your neck, the numbness in your fingers, has a history far more widespread and impactful than any individual computer or computing innovator. No single computer changed the world, but computer pain has changed us all.

Documenting Computer Pain

In 1981—just 16 months prior to Time magazine declaring the personal computer 1982’s Machine of the Year—the journal Human Factors published an entire issue dedicated to the issue of computers in the workplace, noting that “the number of workers using display terminals [computer monitors] is large and is increasing rapidly.” (Throughout the issue, the term “video display terminal,” or "VDT," is used as a synonym for what we would today call a computer monitor.) Prior to the 1980s, computing terminals had never been in wide enough circulation within a worker population to generate such complaints; this research paper offers a window in time upon the workers who first negotiated the arrival of computers into their offices. 

Included in this collection is the research paper “An Investigation of Health Complaints and Job Stress in Video Display Operations,” which focused on the relationship health complaints and the use of display terminals in clerical work. 

To conduct their analysis, the researchers held interviews with and distributed questionnaires to both “professional” and “clerical” workers at several companies where video display terminals were used. To produce a control group, the researchers also held interviews and distributed the same questionnaire to workers who were engaged in the same kind of work but did it manually, using typewriters and traditional indexing. Aside from gathering basic demographic data and asking a range of questions related to job stress, the questionnaires asked the participants to document an exhaustive range of visual, musculoskeletal, and emotional health complaints. Of those employees who reported their sex, 47 percent were women—though when considering clerical workers apart from professional, white-collar VDT workers, women comprised 67 percent of the employment base. Furthermore, clerical VDT workers were disproportionately women of color (46 percent of all clerical workers who reported demographic data). The distinction between professional and clerical VDT workers is significant, as clerical workers had less control over the type of work they did or the management of their time on the terminal.

In analyzing their data, the researchers found “Clerical VDT operators showed much higher levels of visual, musculoskeletal, and emotional health complaints, as well as higher job stress levels, than did control subjects and professionals using VDTs.” In every category of health complaint—from fainting to stomach pain to neck pressure to hand cramps—the percentage of complaints went up among clerical workers stationed at computer terminals, often doubling, tripling, or quadrupling in number. 

TABLE 8 FROM "AN INVESTIGATION OF HEALTH COMPLAINTS AND JOB STRESS IN VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINALS," DOCUMENTING THE REMARKABLE INCREASE IN HEALTH COMPLAINTS FROM CLERICAL WORKERS USING VDTs.

Blurred vision, blurring eyes, and eyestrain were reported by 70 percent to 90 percent of the sample, and some of the strong disparities between the clerical workers and the control subjects—such as with changes in color perception or stiff or sore wrists—were clear indicators of the impact of the soft repetitive strain of computer terminal use. As the workers with the least degree of autonomy over their labor, the bodies of these women found themselves most directly impacted by the physical toll of computer technology.

Yet there was another component to health complaints and stress that the social scientists documented in their research, but didn’t quite know what to do with. In assessing levels of stress and job satisfaction between clerical workers placed at a computing terminal and those in the control group doing tasks by hand, the researchers determined that clerical employees using computer terminals reported higher degrees of monotony and fatigue and general job dissatisfaction versus those performing the same kind of work by hand. As they put it, “stress problems reported that were by the clerical VDT operators are not solely related to the VDT viewing, but are related to the whole VDT work system.” Tasked with boring, repetitive labor, clerical VDT workers reported “low ratings of job involvement and job autonomy,” and felt they had little control over their job requirements. For the women pressed onto VDTs for clerical work, the problem was not simply the computer, but the way the computer’s so-called productivity diminished the satisfaction they took in their labor.

But what was it, precisely, about computers that caused work to hurt so much more? What these researchers were encountering in their data was the kind of residue that quantitative analysis isn’t well-suited to explain. Answers would have to wait until the publication of Shoshana Zuboff’s landmark 1988 monograph In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, an ethnographic account of the impact of computer usage in work environments in the early 1980s. 

What Zuboff’s investigations revealed were the psycho-physical costs that shadowed the computer’s entry into the workplace. In her grimly titled fourth chapter, “Office Technology as Exile and Integration,” Zuboff documents the time she spent time observing two administrative office sites where computers had just become integrated into clerical work practice (while Zuboff doesn’t offer quantitative statistics on the employees she studied, she does note they were predominantly women). Prior to the arrival of computer terminals, the women who handled these tasks described having a very material relationship to their work. They retrieved actual files and filled out physical pieces of paper; they moved folders back and forth between filing cabinets, they updated files by hand and left notes for themselves, and manipulated the intricacies these files based on their personal knowledge of their clients, their accumulated know-how on the job, and through consultation with their fellow clerks and managers. The arrival of computing terminals onto the desks of these workers was done so with the intention of streamlining and speeding up the work these women engaged in by evaporating all of the small physical habits associated with their work—the walking and talking, the shuffling of paper, the flipping of pages, the personalized practices self-annotation. 

But in this effort to “simplify” these routines by making the office paperless, Zuboff found that the implementation of computers wound up eradicating the basis of the clerks’ situated knowledge. Suddenly, making changes to a client’s account meant simply inputting data in an order that was constrained by the computer itself. Work became a process of filling in blanks; there was no longer anywhere for the clerks to experience decision-making in their jobs. What Zuboff observed was that as intellectual engagement with the work went down, the necessity of concentration and attention went up. What the computer did was make the work so routine, so boring, so mindless, clerical workers had to physically exert themselves to be able to focus on what they were even doing. This transition, from work being about the application of knowledge to work being about the application of attention, turned out to have profound physical and psychological impact on the clerical workers themselves. 

Zuboff was able to track the extent of this toll by asking the clerical workers to draw pictures of themselves at work before and after the computer. These images reveal themselves, embodying a kind of juvenile terror in their simple lines and stark contrasts. The workers depicted themselves as happy in the times before the computer, and frequently in the company of others. 

Figure 4.8 from Age of the Smart Machine, pg 145

What the computer brings to them as a kind of desolation: a worker who has become nothing more than the back of her head; hair, ripped from the scalp; a deep sense of being alone. One of the most detailed drawings is accompanied by the caption: “no talking, no looking, no walking. I have a cork in my mouth, blinders for my eyes, chains on my arms. With the radiation I’ve lost my hair. The only way you can make your production goals is give up your freedom.” The side of the desk is marked by the ascending arrow of a productivity chart. Another image depicts the worker in the striped uniform of a convict. A phone ring ring rings on the desk and a flower in a vase droops beside the computer. The calendar is empty, and her supervisor watches from above. A sign, intended to be inspirational—“keep up the MPH”—suggests the new emphasis on speed that the clerical workers have been asked to internalize. 

Figure 4.12 from Age of the Smart Machine, pg 147

These images betray what sat at the heart of the computer's arrival into the office: premises of efficiency, productivity, the old chestnut of automation. If computers could change how much data a worker could process, then the human body no longer intervened on profitability with its pesky physiological limits.

Working Against Computer Pain

Keeping computing profitable, however, meant finding ways to mitigate, negotiate, and address rising complaints of physical pain from its users. Beginning in the mid-1980s, specialists in ergonomics, human factors, and physical health began turning their attention to desktop computer use. This is testified to by the publication of books like Zap!: How Your Computer Can Hurt You and What You Can Do About It, which presents the office or home office as an ecology, in which relations between monitors, keyboards, lighting, chairs, air quality, and work schedules had to be endlessly manipulated to acquire one’s “perfect workstation” for safer computing. Even physical fitness specialists could cash in on America’s new attention to the ailing bodies of its workers—merely consider Denise Austin’s late 1980s Tone Up at the Terminals: An Exercise Guide for High-Tech Automated Office Workers. Austin, a popular fitness personality with a workout show on ESPN, promoted an entire corporate fitness program, for which this free instructional booklet, published in a partnership between the New York State Library and Denise Austin Fitness Systems, served as both a government resource on ergonomics in the workplace as well as a marketing tease.

Denise Austin's Tone up at the Terminals, late 1980s.

Denise Austin's Tone up at the Terminals, late 1980s.

Austin’s role, and her own booklet, is to serve as an enthusiastic guide for the reader, modeling how “high-tech automated office workers” can reduce tension and “nervous fatigue.” Shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, waist, back, legs, ankles, feet, and posture are all addressed through a series of increasingly absurdist positions Austin manages to maintain while remaining seated in a knee-length tweed skirt. Austin never stands; surely employers did not want to see images of workers stretching their hamstrings on a walk to the water cooler. In Austin’s feminine decorum, we are reminded of the women from Zuboff’s study: the emphasis on being nondisruptive, on not taking up space, of maintaining the possibility of continuous work. And, of course, you end with a hug—after all, “YOU DESERVE IT!”

Denise Austin's Tone up at the Terminals, late 1980s.

And we know whose bodies such a document was designed to discipline. Just as Zuboff documented in her ethnographic work, the arrival of computers into offices was often done as part of an initiative to automate clerical, feminized labor like data entry and word processing. Furthermore, knowing how to type, which was a prerequisite skill for using a computer, had been the domain of clerical work throughout the 20th century; it was a skill taught to women in school, but not to men (anyone who has ever seen an older male programmer do “hunt-and-peck” with their index fingers has seen these histories in action). Typing was seen as fundamentally secretarial—not something a male manager or executive should be doing on a computer. As computing historians such as Paul Atkinson and Jesse Adams Stein have noted, advertising reflected these anxieties about gendered occupational roles throughout the 1980s: women were depicted typing on computers, while men pointed at screens, looked over a woman’s shoulder, or merely posed with a computer on their desk. It was not until the mainstreaming of the mouse in the late 1980s that these tensions began to ease. With a mouse, a male executive could operate the computer without adopting the presumably demeaning posture of his secretary. 

Ad for the Cummins KeyScan System. Prior to the personal computer, women were routinely depicted as the primary users of many business-facing computing systems. This reflects the influx of computing in the automation of clerical and administrative work. Datamation June 1976 pg 91

Advertisement for the Apple Macintosh. The male executive sits leisurely beside his computer, touching neither mouse nor keyboard, avoiding feminized associations with secretarial work.

Advertisement for the Apple Macintosh. The male executive sits leisurely beside his computer, touching neither mouse nor keyboard, avoiding feminized associations with secretarial work.

What all of this adds up to is a decades-long drama between body and machine which, once uniquely gendered, has spiraled out to the populace at large. Probably not since the automobile has there been a technology that is so insistently reorganized how we use our bodies in day-to-day practice—and the long arc of these transformations are still being played out. As those reading this essay are among the first generation of humans to come of age on the computer, the toll of this is persistently being felt in the now commonplace reality of chronic pain and eye strain. 

The Multitasking of Pain Management Today

Yet like Denise Austin’s office workout routine, many of the interventions we’re asked to adopt demand we internalize responsibility for our physical well-being, while never becoming a burden on the workplace or lowering our productivity. Our pain feeds whole new industries, blossoming in the form of standing desks, walking desks, adjustable keyboards and ergonomic mice of every stripe; our aggrieved bodies have been a boon for voice recognition software (this entire essay was written with voice recognition software). And we’ve sought help beyond our desks too. One of the most popular yoga YouTube personalities, Adriene Mishler, offers multiple videos that conjure Austin’s legacy, including “Yoga at Your Desk,” “Office Break Yoga,” and “Yoga for Text Neck” (more on “text neck” below). Similar topics are popular among many YouTube channels, ranging from mid-tier health and wellness personalities like AskDoctorJo and ModernHealthMonk, to established institutions such as the Mayo Clinic. The fact that so many of these videos were produced pre-pandemic is a clear indicator that however aggravated our bodies may feel working from home, the root causes long precede the need to take Zoom calls at our dining room table. These practices have become critical parts of the way we have long been expected to take work with us—spending our offline, off-work hours repairing the damage done by our jobs. 

And the lure of computer technology hasn’t ceased to bend us to its will in new ways—with the emergence of “text neck” as a new vogue ailment. A quick Google of the term “text neck” brings up an array of links to quasi-medical advice websites, including physio-pedia.org, healthline.com, and spine-health.com. The Text Neck Institute (which appears to be a doctor's office in Plantation, Florida) identified text neck as a “global epidemic” as early as 2015 (www.text-neck.com). At www.textneck.com, you are redirected to www.teknekk.com, the “ultimate parental remote-control app” that allows parents to manage screen time while also enforcing behavioral changes around smartphone posture.

The smartphone’s insatiable demand on our attention is just the latest in a long dance between our psychic and emotional health and the computer. The posture of the head tilt is an index to the encumbrance of multitasking, a term now synonymous with what it even means to use a computer device—to slide between applications, to flick attention from one priority to the next with no delay for contextual readjustment, the seemingly seamless movement we now engage between our personal and our occupational lives. Multitasking was once something that belonged solely to the realm of the computer; it was a technical term, referring to the capacity for timesharing systems to concurrently process the operations of multiple users by switching back and forth rapidly between jobs. It was only over the course of the late 1980s and 90s, with the rise of the graphical user interface and the increasing gig-ification of the U.S. workforce, that the term multitasking came to be applied to human labor, to the idealized state of being able to work on multiple tasks more or less simultaneously. The doldrum of Zuboff’s clerical workers has become the endless noise of habituated computer use. 

So the next time you experience “tired eyes,” wrists tingling, neck cramps, or even the twinge of text neck, let it serve as a denaturalizing reminder that the function of technology has never been to make our lives easier, but only to complicate us in new ways. Computer-related pain, and the astounding efforts humans went to (and continue to, go to), to alleviate it, manage it, and negotiate it, provide one thread through the question of how the computer became personal. The introduction of computers into everyday routines, both at work and at home, was a historic site of vast cultural anxiety around the body. To locate a history of computing that might be otherwise—one embodied, habituated and distinctly spatial—we would do well to think about Getson’s letter, and consider what kind of histories of computing might be lying around the computer, rather than inside of it.

An extended version of this article will appear in Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society, edited by Janet Abate and Stephanie Dick, forthcoming from John Hopkins University Press, 2022.

How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/