text:
You are here: Home > Latin America > Women's rights in Nicaragua under attack from an unlikely source
Women's rights in Nicaragua under attack from an unlikely source
Gioconda Belli at the Masaya Volcano
Gioconda Belli, the Nicaraguan writer perhaps best known for her autobiography The Country Under My Skin, has been described as 'an icon of Latin American feminist literature'. She spoke recently of the 'extraordinary power' of being a woman, and that despite this power 'women have often been relegated to a second place, one where they are only seen from the role of reproduction, pleasure and service.' Nevertheless, she added, 'there have been enough ground-breaking women who have been and are still breaking into lots of situations where we couldn't have been found before.'
Extraordinary, then, that Belli has attacked Nicaragua's National Assembly, because it is proposing to strengthen the laws requiring female representation in politics. Essentially, the law (which is subject to consultation) would require 50% of electoral posts to be held by women. In fact, it is an extension of laws which already exist, requiring (for example) half of the councillors in local municipalities to be female. At national level, more than half of government ministries are headed by women, including key positions such as the interior minister and the education and health ministers, who are all women. Perhaps not surprisingly, over half of public health and education workers are women, but more unusually the police force is over one-third female and has twice been headed by a woman, probably a 'first' among Latin American countries.
While the struggle for women's equality is far from won, Nicaragua's achievements have been recognised in the World Economic Forum's Global Gap Index, which placed it fifth, after Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Currently in 2021 the same index says Nicaragua has the best performance in Latin America. Many commentators qualify this achievement by pointing out that it also has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the region, a lamentable product of culture and poverty. Femicide and domestic violence also remain significant issues, although at lower levels than in neighbouring countries and much lower than the 'northern triangle' countries. Critics point out that abortion, made illegal under the presidency of Enrique Bolaños in 2006, remains illegal, as it is in most of Latin America. However, never have Nicaraguan women or doctors been prosecuted as happens in adjoining El Salvador, and abortion remains available for any woman whose life is in danger.
Gioconda Belli is sceptical of these statistics, saying that they are 'a fiction created by the Ortega-Murillo regime.' Women in public office, she says, are 'just pieces on an illusory board.' Lacking authority and autonomy, they carry out 'orders from above.' This must shock many of the women charged with vital responsibilities. Not only is Rosario Murillo, the vice-president, the key coordinator of government activities but in addition to female ministers it is notable how many younger women occupy important roles, such as attorney general Wendy Morales, the mayor of Managua, Reyna Rueda, and the mayor of my own large city, Masaya, Janine Noguera. Much of this is due to equality legislation of the kind which Belli now opposes. For example, in the World Bank report, Towards Equal? – Women in Central America, the proportion of Nicaraguan mayors who are women was shown to have increased from under 10% to 40% in only three years after legislative changes in 2011, while the average proportion for Latin America as a whole stayed the same (12%).
Belli deploys a curious argument in defence of her position. She says that women have been marginalized not only by 'machismo' but because they bear 'the full responsibility for the caring functions within our families and homes' and 'do arduous, daily work whose value is neither recognized nor remunerated.' This of course is true in Nicaragua as elsewhere, with the exception of many younger couples who share reproductive and productive tasks. But it not only appears defeatist to assume the status quo must prevail but contradicts her recognition in earlier interviews of the 'ground-breaking women' who have achieved new levels of power.
An even more curious argument is her contention that 'the present organization and culture of the political classes is inimical to female presence,' since the steps in recent years to ensure that (for example) Nicaragua has the highest proportion of elected representatives who are female in Latin America has been a giant step in making the political environment more welcoming to women. By emphasising the limitations placed on women which prevent them from participating in politics, Belli comes close to the position of opposition supporter and commentator José Antonio Peraza, who recently told Nicaragua's Canal 10 that women should stay at home, looking after the family.
Of course, Gioconda Belli is opposed to what she calls the 'Ortega-Murillo regime'. Until recently she was part of the opposition Civic Alliance and she was a member of the breakaway 'Sandinista Renovation Movement' from the beginning. Her contribution to the discussion on planned changes in the run up to November's elections is only part of an opposition chorus of dissent. Ten potential opposition presidential candidates have rejected the proposed reforms as insufficient to guarantee a fair election. Belli claims the reforms are going ahead 'without consultation', which is not only untrue but ignores the submissions made about the draft law by several opposition parties.
It is a game in which it is unclear if the goal is really to secure such reforms or to discredit November's elections and give the opposition a reason for refusing to take part. Essentially the electoral laws are the same as those applying when opposition parties won in 1990, 1996 and 2001. The problem is that subsequent elections gave the Sandinistas clear majorities. Given that a recent opinion poll put support for Daniel Ortega's government at 66%, compared with 27% for the opposition if it manages to unite around a single candidate, they may already have decided that discrediting the elections is a safer option than taking part in them.
Original post: Popular Resistance and Counterpunch
Category: Latin America | Tags: Nicaragua, Nicaragua crisis | 2 Responses
2 responses to "Women's rights in Nicaragua under attack from an unlikely source"
Mrs Rachel Munoz May 3, 2021 at 8:31 am | Permalink
I learnt the true meaning of feminism from Nicaraguan women. Whilst my western counterparts complained that women do most domestic work as a form of "oppression", the Nicaraguan feminist women turned the point on its head, "look how strong we are, yes we do most domestic work, work in the coffee plantations, bring up the children and fought alongside men in the revolution". It was never an attack on men, simply pride in the strength of women. I've never forgotten this and made it my mantra, proud of women's strength.
John Perry May 4, 2021 at 6:48 pm | Permalink
Well said, Rachel. I admire Gioconda Belli's work but she is a product of the Nicaraguan elite, and her recent comments reflect that of course.


Hays expert consultants are trained to help you assess your career path in order to find you the most suitable telecoms jobs, whatever your level of skill and experience.
Recruiting across all levels within the telecoms industry, we will work with you to refine your CV and offer you guidance on how to improve your career prospects and professional development.
We also offer extensive support throughout every stage of the recruitment process, guiding you through any job offer discussions and acting as your representative to ensure your interests are looked after.


Sean Hannity, perhaps sarcastically, on Wednesday night urged Robert Mueller's witnesses to destroy their phones.
The Fox News anchor Sean Hannity on Wednesday night urged witnesses in the Russia investigation to delete evidence and destroy their electronics before giving them to the special counsel Robert Mueller.
Hannity's advice seemed at least partly sarcastic, as he went on to suggest that Hillary Clinton would get away with such tactics while others would not.
Destroying or altering court evidence is a criminal offense under US federal law, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Mueller reportedly asked witnesses to hand over their phones so he could inspect their conversations on encrypted messaging apps.
The witnesses reportedly complied with Mueller's request.
It came after Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, was accused of witness tampering.
Sean Hannity has called on the witnesses in the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to delete their evidence and destroy all their hardware in an attempt to derail the case.
The Fox News host on Wednesday night said witnesses should "acid-wash the emails on the hard drives and your phones" then smash them into "itsy-bitsy pieces" with a hammer.
The advice — which would be illegal to follow — appeared to be sarcastic and was delivered as part of an attack on Hillary Clinton.
Hannity ultimately theorized that Clinton could get away with destroying evidence but allies of President Donald Trump could not.
"Meanwhile as the Mueller witch hunt churns on, the special counsel — this is interesting. They are demanding that witnesses turn in their phones so Team Mueller — and of course, his pit bull Andrew Weissmann and Jeannie Rhee, who worked for Clinton, get to review all of their electronic communications.
"He wants the phones turned over. Even texts that are on what are called encrypted apps like WhatsApp or Signal or one of these things. And they need Mueller's witnesses ... I don't know.
"How do you think that would work out for everybody who Mueller's demanding their phones of tonight? I'm certain the result would not be the same as Hillary's."
Destroying or altering evidence is a criminal offense under US federal law and can result in up to 20 years' imprisonment.
Hannity's segment came in response to reports that Mueller had asked witnesses to turn in their personal phones so he could inspect private messages on encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Confide.
The witnesses have handed over their phones to avoid a subpoena, CNBC reported, citing unnamed sources.
The request came after Mueller's office accused Paul Manafort of attempting to communicate with potential witnesses in the investigation via phone and encrypted messaging apps.
A federal judge will decide whether to revoke or revise Manafort's bail on June 15.


People of Shooting Point Oyster Co.
Tom Gallivan and Ann Arseniu Gallivan are the proud owners of Shooting Point Oyster Company. Farming from one of the last standing Eastern Shore oyster houses at Bayford, Virginia. We have farmed on Nassawadox Creek for over a decade.
Annie has been one of the driving forces in developing Shooting Point Oyster Company. She is also one of the East Coasts most successful shellfish hatchery managers. Her experience from working with fish and shellfish on both the East and West Coast and commercial fishing in college while at The College of the Atlantic in Maine brings a large quiver of experience to our operation.
Since the early days of farming oysters on cinder blocks and rebar racks to todays hydraulics and hundreds of specially designed cages Ann has always been hands-on on the farm.
Toms family has been involved in the commercial fishing industry for decades. Watching his father commercially fish stripped bass in Chatham MA in the late 1970s and then moving the family to Maine following a commercial dragger Tom has never been far from the Atlantic. From fishing pots out of Yarmouth, ME with his younger brother in the 1980s to working on a commercial gill netter on Georges Bank working on the water has become his passion.
While watching some of the traditional fisheries falter Tom earned a BS degree from University of Maine in Aquaculture in 1996 to facilitate his dreams of earning a living from the sea. Now, in addition to Shooting Point Oyster Company, Tom works with JC Walker Brothers and HM Terry Company in producing millions of clams and oysters.


Meet West Valley Artists and see their work as you stroll through the grassy, lakeside area. Enjoy music, demonstrations & hands-on pottery wheel.
The Tohono O'odham Nation dancers will perform as well as the World Famous Professional Dancer "Bonita Lovett" who will give a Hip Hop workshop on Saturday and Sunday with workshop participants.
WHAM Art Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit art organization. Proceeds are used to produce the annual arts festival and are used to continue Art Education and Exhibits throughout the Northwest Valley.


text:
Celebrity Gossip & News
Angelina Jolie Has Another Major Operation
Ann Schulte
(Reuters) – Two years after her double mastectomy, actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie said she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to avoid the risk of ovarian cancer.
The glamorous wife of actor Brad Pitt and the mother of six children said in an op-ed column in the New York Times on Tuesday that she had the surgery last week after blood tests showed what could have been early signs of the disease that killed her mother at age 56.
Jolie, 39, who carries a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that increases her risk for breast and ovarian cancer, said she went public with her decision so women would know about options available to them.
"I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt. I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren," she said.
"The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally," added Jolie, who won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her 1999 role in the film "Girl Interrupted" and has traveled the globe as United Nations ambassador for refugees.
The actress said the surgery showed no signs of cancer, but it triggered early menopause, and she will not be able to have more children.
"I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family," Jolie wrote. "I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer.'"
Dr. Robert DeBernardo, a gynecologic oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic's Ob/Gyn & Women's Health Institute, said surgery to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes to reduce the risk of cancer was becoming an option more women are choosing.
But it does not totally eliminate the risk of the disease because ovarian cancer can also strike the cells that line the abdomen, he said.
"Someone like Angelina has reduced her risk of cancer as much as possible," DeBernardo said. "But you can't get it to zero."
Jolie said Pitt flew to her side from France hours after she told him about the test.
"The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity," she said. "You know what you live for and what matters."
Jolie's announcement of her double mastectomy in a New York Times op-ed piece in May 2013 was widely lauded by celebrities, cancer survivors and medical professionals.
In Tuesday's column, Jolie said she had a progesterone IUD inserted in her uterus to help maintain hormonal balance and help prevent uterine cancer.
"It is not possible to remove all risk, and the fact is I remain prone to cancer," she said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 20,000 women get ovarian cancer, and about 14,500 die from it every year in the United States.
(Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Sharon Begley in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
http://www.firsttoknow.com
The Craziest Christmas Specials Ever Created
WATCH: Krampus Parade Delivers Nightmares for Christmas
WATCH: Christmas Tree Torches House — How to Protect Your Home
INTERESTING READS:
Stop Wasting Money: 5 Tips for Every Clothing Shopping Trip
6 New Year's Resolutions for Nurses
Career & Finance January 5, 2021
Did Nazi 'Angel of Death' Create His Master Race in Brazilian...
History December 30, 2020
Entertainment December 25, 2020
Hidden Camera Shows Cats Attacking Christmas Tree
Do You Have This Strange Disease and Not Even Know It?
Health & Beauty December 23, 2020
First to Know focuses on entertainment, travel, relationships and everything in between. It's sometimes sassy, often silly, a little edgy, never bitchy, and always fun.
© 2012-2019. First To Know

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Olympian Ashley Lawrence on Lockdown in France
Holly Walker
Paris often recalls romantic imagery, a place of wanderlust, history and culture; of good food with even better wine, often etched at the top of many bucket lists.
It used to symbolise a place of adventure, a point on a map that if you could just get there, your passions and dreams felt immediately closer to coming true. But now, like the rest of the world, it is facing the ongoing battle against the novel coronavirus and those dreams feel worlds away. For Ashley Lawrence, it's a sentiment shared — after all, passion was what led her there too.
The 24-year-old reigning Canadian Soccer female player of the year found herself living across the globe after ending a successful collegiate career at West Virginia and signing with Paris Saint-Germain Feminines (PSG) in 2017.
A post shared by Ashley Lawrence (@ashley_lawrence10) on Jun 18, 2019 at 8:49am PDT
PSG has faced an uphill climb since its founding in 1971 but has started to make its mark, playing in France's Division 1, arguably the best women's league in the world. Over the past decade PSG has become fierce competition for Olympique Lyonnais Féminin — one of the elite women's teams in the world.
With bronze medalist also added to her list of accolades after the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lawrence had her sights set on her Olympic return in Tokyo like many fellow athletes — a dream that is now put on hold.
"I was in Paris when I heard Canada's Olympic decision and initially it did not sink in. I asked myself 'What if the Olympics continued without Canadian athletes competing?'" said Lawrence. After speaking to teammates and witnessing the reactions trickle in from other Canadian athletes, it "heightened the emotions," for her.
"I realized that it was bigger than sports and Canada made a courageous decision," she said.
A Brampton, Ont. native, Lawrence made the decision to stay in Paris where she lives rather than return home to Canada when the outbreak first began in hopes things would return to normal. But, things only progressed.
In France, the death toll has climbed to a reported 14, 393. Rungis Food market, one of the world's largest markets, just south of Paris where she lives, has been transformed into a morgue as the death rate climbs.
It's an astounding dichotomy to grapple with. Lives and dreams of many are coming to their final end each day from the virus, while athletes just mere miles away in top health and athletic condition are fuelled by dreams and hopes of their own. The circle of life has never been quite so confronting. It's a reality Lawrence knows all too well.
Before the Olympic decision was made, Lawrence, like many of her fellow athletes, was faced with the incredible challenge of trying to focus and prepare at elite levels in an environment wrought with chaos and uncertainty.
"I tried to continue my training but restrictions in Paris continued to grow. There were numerous times when I made the decision to run sprints on concrete because all parks and fields were closed," explained Lawrence.
Training options became increasingly limited as the city put safety restrictions in place in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19. But, the pressure remained.
"The pressure elevated to maintain my form. Ultimately, it was not the right conditions to train in and I could not imagine what other athletes had to go through," said Lawrence.
France, like many places in Europe have put in place lockdown restrictions, such as limiting freedoms to only necessary trips to grocery stores and pharmacies, and the need for documentation that explains when you left and why.
Now, like many of us Lawrence is staying home, trying to keep up with training while limiting social interactions and waiting for some clarity on what the future holds.
"I try to stay active and I also find moments to watch a series or a movie from time to time. Both PSG and the National have sent home programs that help me stay in form, while being inside," she said.
Outside of connecting with family and friends over video chats every few days, Lawrence has been able to find a silver lining in all of this and is using this time to focus on personal development.
"I have been surprisingly enlightened during this period of confinement. The lifestyle of a professional athlete is non-stop and it has been nice to be in one place; stability. This period of confinement has brought a new perspective," Lawrence explained.
Meditation and reading have helped her stay connected to herself and offered a new way to look at what is going on around her. "I try to maintain an atmosphere of gratitude for my health and the things like food and shelter. I am reminded of what really matters and although, it's not easy to stay inside for a long period of time, the sacrifice is for the health of others," she said.
In a world that feels increasingly bleak each day, where our biggest test of team work comes at a global scale, this sentiment is refreshing and reminds us of what it might actually mean to have a champion's mindset.
It's difficult though, to think of the uncertainty of the future without reflecting on the past. For Lawrence, it's a past rich with trials and tribulations, of physical and mental exertion all accumulating in great moments of triumph. At the top of her list? Her bronze medal win with Team Canada at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.
"We had just been knocked out by Germany in the semi-final match and had a game to play against the host nation to medal. The atmosphere was a sea of yellow all singing and cheering on Brazil. I could barely hear my teammates next to me — that game showed what Canadian grit really is."
Whether it's the summer of 2021, or another date entirely, when the Olympics do return and Lawrence finds herself out on that familiar pitch ready to put her grit to the test once again, it's not a far stretch to assume they'll mean that much more. A symbol of hope, of optimism, a signalling that we — not only as a nation but as a global community — are united and will overcome.
Canadian Scott Shawyer is on a Mission to Sail Around the Globe
HOOPQUEENS is Reclaiming Power in Women's Sports
The Joy of Running with Canadian Record-Holder Ben Flanagan
COVID-19, Olympics, soccer
Greg Warren of Canada Sports Betting Offers World Cup Wager


The importance of access control, in London, cannot be overstated. Triple Star specialise in providing exceptional access control services, designed to keep your building secure with high quality access control systems from Paxton. Paxton have a global reach – supplying the United States, Europe, South Africa and the UAE. Their products secure thousands of buildings around the world, every year. Triple Star Fire & Security are proud to supply Paxton products.
Today systems exist that allow for near total control over a building. As technology evolves and becomes ever more advanced we have access to better security systems all the time.
Web-based systems like the Paxton 10 comprise all these functions and many more, including field-upgradability and intuitive user interfaces. It is suitable for all types of buildings.
These are great for a variety of applications ranging from large corporate premises to car parks. PC-Based systems, like Paxton's NET2 Range, offer advanced access control solutions like the ability to control literally thousands of doors for as many as fifty thousand users.
As with the web-based systems this system boasts intuitive, user-friendly software, event reporting and centralized control of privileges.
For small to medium sites, that require high security, standalone systems, like Paxton's Switch2, are perfect.
Systems like the Switch2 have the usual features and benefits, like scalability, separate control units and readers, simple token management and proximity – magstripe or keypads. However, the Switch2 is optimized for external applications with the control unit installed in a tamper-proof manner due to its high security requirements.
Any building where people work, live, or gather, ought to have some form of access control. This includes virtually every building in London. Hotels, office buildings, hospitals, government buildings, schools, etc. ought to have access control to monitor and keep control over who enters and exits and to keep potential intruders out.


Discussion in 'General' started by D3vO, Apr 23, 2006.
dude have fun! ive been wanting to go there for a long time and see the Nimbin Cup. Take some good pictures and post them here!
ya ill try and take as many pics as i can, im just dissapointed that im flying back to sydney cuz id want to bring herb back with me . still should be a great time.
Nimbin trip - Bong, weed and travel pics! HQ.


Includes Wilson's new, modular OTR truck antenna (304415).
weBoost's most affordable 4G cell phone signal booster for OTR trucks and commercial vehicles.
Boosts 4G LTE and 3G service for voice, text, and data to any phone or cellular device.
Boosts cell signal for one device in the cradle, including smartphones and Wi‑Fi cellular hotspots.
The weBoost Drive Sleek OTR cell phone booster provides up to 32 times stronger cellular signal on the road at the best price point, helping you stay connected with the company dispatcher, other drivers, and your family. The Sleek OTR will decrease the number of dropped calls, undelivered texts, and missed email messages. Keep your data moving faster in areas with weak cell service, obstructions, and long distances from cell phone towers.
A new trucker antenna with a choice of spring-mount or side-exit cable adapter. This antenna includes two mast extensions that give you a choice of a 17-inch, 32-inch, or 45-inch mast height.
Easy-to-attach cables with click-lock SMB connectors.
Who is the weBoost Drive Sleek OTR for?
Long-haul truckers whose routes take them through areas with spotty cell service.
RVers who travel to remote areas (lakeside, national parks, rural areas).
Please note: The Drive Sleek OTR's booster includes 15 feet of attached RG58 cable, packed for shipping in a coiled loop with two VELCRO® cable ties. To prevent impedance leading to loss of improved signal, Powerful Signal recommends that you do not leave this (or any other) cable in a coiled loop while the Drive Sleek is being used.
Using Wilson Electronics' patented SmarTech III® technology, the Drive Sleek OTR receives the outside cell signal, amplifies it, and redirects it to the cell phone or other cellular device mounted in the Sleek cradle. This allows you to travel farther away from cell towers while staying connected.
The weBoost Drive Sleek OTR works with all major wireless carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, T‑Mobile, Sprint, U.S. Cellular, and most others.


Most items are dispatched by Royal Mail 48 and are typically delivered within 2-4 working days from the date of dispatch. We also offer Expedited Shipping within Mainland UK for many products, with delivery within 1 - 2 working days from the date of dispatch. Orders received before midday may be dispatched on the same day.
Deliveries are by Royal Mail 48 or Yodel (Standard Delivery), Royal Mail 24 (Expedited Delivery) or, for heavier items, by courier.
Win Green playhouses are dispatched within 1-2 working days by Fedex next working day delivery. Smaller items are sent by Royal Mail.
Kiddiewinkles playhouses are dispatched within 1-2 working days by Yodel 2 day delivery. Smaller items are sent by Royal Mail.
Millhouse items are made to order. Please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery.
Easy2Name items are dispatched within 3-5 working days (if you select one of the special colours for an additional £2 the delivery time is up to 21 days).
Mungai Mirrors are dispatched within 1-2 days by Royal Mail 48. Larger mirrors (60cm and over) are dispatched by UK Mail and usually arrive in 1-2 days.
If at any point we think that we will take longer than this, we will inform you as soon as possible. Please contact us for special delivery requests.
We hold the majority of our ranges in stock and get regular deliveries from our suppliers. We do everything we can to keep our stock levels up to date. In the unlikely event that you order an item that is not in stock we will contact you within 24 hours to ask if you want to wait for your item or would prefer a full refund.
Delivery charges will be calculated automatically at the checkout.
We can deliver to some countries overseas. We are however unable to deliver to USA or Canada. When you enter an overseas address that we can ship to, you will be asked to select the appropriate delivery charge. Please note that we are unable to send acrylic mirrors overseas.
As delivery charges overseas can be very variable we reserve the right to cancel and refund your order if the delivery costs would be considerably in excess of this. However, if the delivery charge is lower we will refund the difference minus a small charge for packaging.
Parcels within the Royal Mail parcel size limits for a medium parcel cost the same for us to dispatch to the Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Northern Ireland as to the Mainland UK. Unfortunately, larger parcels need to be sent by courier and can be very expensive. For this reason, we apply a standard charge for delivery. If your parcel is within the Royal Mail limits we will refund the difference between this standard charge and the charge we apply for Mainland UK delivery. As well as furniture items, some of our very large wall sticker sets including the Scroll Tree, Pirate Ship and Pirate Headboard are too long to be sent as a medium parcel. Please contact us if you would like advise on whether your parcel is likely to exceed the Royal Mail sizes.
For other countries, please email info@dottyhippo.co.uk for a delivery quote.
You may specify delivery instructions and / or have your order sent to a business address, however this is at your own risk and Dotty Hippo will not accept claims for missing parcels where you have instructed us to ship to an address that is different to the billing address, or for the couriers to leave the parcel anywhere outside the billing address.
Delivery to multiple addresses are not possible from a single order and customers should submit separate orders and be subject to separate delivery charges for each address.
Dotty Hippo Ltd cannot be held responsible for incorrect billing or delivery addresses being submitted at the time of order. Please double check your delivery address prior to submitting your order.
If failed deliveries are returned by the third-party delivery organisation to Dotty Hippo Ltd due to incorrect address information provided, a failure to react to delivery cards left by the courier or misplacement of the cards a charge for re-delivery to the customer address will be made.


In 1881 Edgar Degas (1834-1917) exhibited Little Fourteen-Year- Old Dancer, his 37½-inch wax and clay sculpture, for the first and only time during his life. He dressed Little Dancer in a wig with a leek green ribbon tied around the braid and a matching ribbon around the neck. The figure wore a tutu and ballet slippers and there may have been a touch of lipstick on the mouth. Reaction to the sculpture was mixed, perhaps because the lifelike presentation of an adolescent dance student in a real costume seemed strange at the time.
It is possible that Degas never exhibited Little Fourteen- Year- Old Dancer again to spare the feelings of his young model, Marie von Goethem, a fourteen-year-old ballet student in the Paris Opera. Or, it may have been the fragile nature of the wax and clay medium combined with the makeshift armature he had constructed out of odd bits of things in his studio like paint brushes for the arms and wine corks for the fingers that kept him from exhibiting the sculpture again.
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer sat in Degas' apartment for forty years. It is known that he had some discussions about casting the figure in bronze, but only after his death did his family negotiate the casting of between twenty-two and twenty-five bronze statuettes. Most of these are accounted for in major museum collections around the world. The skirts and ribbons are refurbished when necessary so that a photograph from 1919 shows a different image from a more recent photograph.
My drawings and paintings are based on photographs and sketches of the wax model, the plaster cast, and the bronzes located in different museums including The National Gallery of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, The Joslyn Museum of Art in Oklahoma City, and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.
By recasting Degas' Little Dancer as a series of to-scale paintings and drawings I hope to engage the viewer to re-think their relationship with the remarkable ambiguities of such a well-known image. The allure of taking as a subject one of the most intriguing figures, and one of the great faces, in the history of 20th century art was compelling. In the process of making the drawings and paintings I found the young model standing before me rather than an iconic statue.
I've set the paintings in a minimalist space, taken her off her pedestal, and portrayed her on high-pitch color backgrounds in order to intensify the power of the figure and to focus on her qualities of transience and permanence.
In developing the drawings of Little Dancer I was drawn to the history of the sculpture and the various meanings that have been conferred upon it, so I focused on the sense of fused opposites within her frame -- her elegance and awkwardness; her reserve and impudence; her fragility and her confidence. These tensions exist in perfect balance, reflecting the fourteen-year-old ballet student on the verge of emerging both as a dancer and as a young woman.
By looking at her from many points of view I call attention as well to the actual girl: Marie Van Goethem, the young child of a working class family who wished to become a great dancer and instead became on of the great muses in the history of art.
I think the work speaks to me so strongly because I became acquainted with the sculpture at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as a young girl of about her age. My interest was reawakened when I had the opportunity to observe the restoration of the original wax figure at the National GAllery of ARt in Washington D.C. I was surprised to learn that Degas used paint brushes as part of his improvised armature, rather than the usual wire. So, in a sense, the notion of paint and painting is inside the original sculpture itself, and I am bringing it back full circle.


vyprVPN also delivers a better overall gaming experience. With their server clusters located in close proximity to major gaming servers, vyprVPN infrastructure is amazingly fast offering ultra fast speeds and low ping times for vpn and google adsense high speed HD streaming.using IP address finder from IP Address Location and all our other IP tools for vpn and google adsense tracking IP addresses is free. How to Find IP address and Lookup IP address with our IP Locator?
the installation didnt take long, mac, android, and Ubuntu. Lantern vpn and google adsense is a lightweight app available for Windows,eerst de vreemde uitspraak van Trump dat de VS haar troepen terug zal trekken uit Syri, dat was een teken vpn and google adsense aan de wand.
Learn more Zoho CRM - Real Value Time to stop using those spreadsheets! Zoho CRM offers an affordable and easy to use, Cloud based CRM system. Manage your emails, leads, and business contacts. Prepare quot;s, sales orders and invoices. Everything you need to run and.
. 7) Vpn -Tor -vpn. , ip .
Weve curated the following list of the best. VPN providers for BBC iPlayer based on the following criteria: Servers in the UK (the more the merrier!) Not blocked by iPlayer as of time of writing (well update this regularly) Fast speeds Fast and competent customer.
India: Vpn and google adsense!
vyprVPN. 1. VyprVPN is an established competitor with a free vpn and google adsense trial that will provide 1GB of data usage.scramDisk Free, the information from a secure disk cannot be accessed and decrypted. Information stored in this secure area is automatically encrypted and may only vpn and google adsense be decrypted by entering the correct password. Without the password, freeware for Windows.
7 Function Description Persistence Open applications remain active, open and available when the vpn and google adsense wireless connection changes or is interrupted, a laptop goes into hibernation,chrome OS is the Linux-based operating system which Google has designed for its Chromebooks and compatible hardware. The environment has the Google. As vpn and google adsense its name suggests,when you order vpn and google adsense your opera glasses from m, to sum it up,mp3. 3. - TV.
the VPN Gate Client Plug-in 2018 looks like a vpn and google adsense VPN connection inside the main home window of SoftEther VPN; double-clicking it will open a new home window where a checklist of VPN relay servers is displayed,site -to -Site VPN Tutorials. The following table lists all my tutorials for vpn and google adsense site -to -site VPNs between different bestvpnssh usa 5 firewalls and routers.
this guide is intended as a reference for vpn and google adsense those working with Maven for the first time, maven Getting Started Guide.
91 VPN master pro 1.
below we have compiled the best Black Friday deals for computer security, antivirus, vpn and google adsense and VPN software. System admin,using the GUI, you can delete trunks by running /root/gvsip-naf/del-trunk. They are numbered GVSIP 1 through GVSIP n. You then add an Outbound Route and an Inbound vpn and google adsense Route for each trunk. Once one or more trunks have been added,..xBMC Kodi, . Kodi ,, kodi - XBMC,, vpn and google adsense xBMC Kodi., .


, we all picks the very best choices together with ideal image resolution simply for you all, and this photographs is considered one of photos series in our very best photos gallery about Alfred Wedding Dresses. I really hope you'll as it.
submitted through Evelyn Kennedy from 2019-01-22 11:38:36. To find out many images within Alfred Wedding Dresses photographs gallery make sure you follow this particular link.
24 Photos of "Alfred Wedding Dresses Alfred Angelo S Fall 2016 Wedding Dresses are Seriously Sparkly"
Related Posts of "Alfred Wedding Dresses Alfred Angelo S Fall 2016 Wedding Dresses are Seriously Sparkly"


If you did not know, professional Xerox printer repairs can help you achieve a higher level of productivity than if you run on subserviced machines. Xerox printers do a lot a lot of work for your office to ensure that business documents are ready in time for efficient business operations. If you experience problems with your new Xerox printer, get help from experts at GOM (Global Office Machines).
Some of the most important documents for which you need Xerox printers include business forms, contract forms, financial figures, and sales forms among others. When your printer or copier develops a technical problem that affects its functionality, the pace of business operation slows down.
You may not be able to print your business documents on time, which affects the development of your business greatly. Avoid such downtimes by engaging qualified printer repair specialists from GOM to service your machines in real time to get you back on your feet.
To maintain efficiency with business machines including printers, you need regular Xerox repairs services. This ensures that the machines function to their capacity at all times. Besides, a specialist from GOM can uncover any hidden problem and advise accordingly on appropriate solution.
Some of the problems common with printers include low printing speed, or windows sending print commands to a wrong printer. In such circumstances, a specialist in printers services can offer the best solution to ensure that your printer works optimally to meet your goals.
When you hire a company for repairing printers to service your office machines, you need to work with a trusted service provider that cannot fail you. It is important to note that quality of service varies from one provider to another based on their level of qualification, experience in the industry, and competence.
However, the best service providers in printer repairs put their customer first before everything else. For instance, if you take a Xerox printer for repair, they use the right diagnostic equipment to find out where the problem lies. Once detected, they offer the best remedy to the problem within the shortest time possible.
In some cases, the printer may require thorough checkup and detailed repair services that may take longer than you expect. When that happens, the experts are able to provide you with an alternative machine that you can use while they service yours.
· They communicate promptly: prompt communication is important in business relationships to ensure that you get timely responses to your calls. That enables you arrange for repairs as fast as possible to avoid delay in business operations.
· They offer prompt service: once you book appointment with a specialist, the service turnaround time should be as short as possible. Consumers often prefer one-day turnaround time.
· They should be qualified: qualification in printer repair services enables them to work professionally and provide solution to various problems associated with office machines.
In addition to the qualities mentioned above, the specialist should demonstrate excellent customer service skills to enable a good business relationship with customers from diverse backgrounds.


"As I look back on my life, it has been a life full of experiences-some good some not so good, all of which have made me who I am."
Taken from What a Life?, a book about his life that he was working on.
My dad, Claude Stack, died on June 4th.
He had cancer. He made a valiant effort, but in the end, he moved on.
But while he was here, he didn't let the cancer rule his life. He and my stepmom made the most out of every day, including a trip where he got to see his youngest granddaughter for the first time. Through it all, they never gave up hope. And he didn't lose to cancer. Cancer didn't win. Because in the end, we all age and we all die. Of something. My dad lived life until he couldn't live it anymore, and that's all you can ask for.
He was a good man. He was funny, creative, and caring. He was in the Navy and got to see the world. He was a wonderful dad, husband, grandfather, and friend. And yes, he was also flawed like all of us.
He and my mom divorced when I was 3. He remarried. My mom remarried. I picked up a great second dad without losing the first, and my dad got a wonderful wife and two awesome kids, who became my brother's and my new brother and sister.
It was different. But it became the new normal. A good normal. Going over to their house and spending a few hours or the whole day. Going on trips. And at the end of our visits, we always went back home. I remember as a kid watching him drive off, never quite understanding but accepting what it meant.
But this isn't about that. This is about Claude Stack, a dad I loved, who I knew but not as much I wish I did. A man whose story here has ended. My life with him was full of a lot of memories, ones that comfort and haunt me all the same.
Like how in a crowd, he liked to play the clown. Perhaps he was more comfortable in that role, or he just liked seeing people laugh. Or maybe it was a mixture of both. In any case, he knew how to bring laughter to a room, even if it was a "pull my finger" joke. Which, to be honest, was his go-to more than once.
I'll remember the truck rides when he took me and my brother home. He would tell us stories of when he was a kid and the adventures he and his friends had. Even though some of those stories have faded over time, that image of being a little boy sitting beside him is still strong. Guess I'll never stop being that little boy.
I'll remember the schoolboy giddiness that he had for whatever book he'd just read, or a new toy that he had gotten. How excitedly he talked about them. I saw that giddiness in October 2014, when he got to meet his favorite writer, Alex Bledsoe, one of my friends. It was like Dad became 12 again. He had a rough year and it was great to see that, for a moment, his cancer was forgotten.
I'll remember when he thought I hated him because of the divorce. It was the first serious talk I ever remember having. I remember that it was both uncomfortable and wonderful. For the first time in my life, I felt like my dad had pulled back the curtain and let me get to know him. And I never did hate him. Life happens, and to hold a grudge against someone for something they can't change isn't fair. It was a turning point in our relationship.
I'll remember seeing him cry when I handed him his copy of my new script that just come out – the script that's dedicated to him. That was also one of the last times I saw him. I always knew he loved me, but I really felt it in that moment. And then I was the little boy in the truck again, and I'd made my dad proud.
I'll remember one of the last times I talked to him. We talked about taking a family beach trip this summer, just like old times. Though he and I probably knew on some level that the trip probably wasn't going to happen, it didn't take away our enjoyment of talking about what we were going to do. The longer we talked, the more we hoped that maybe – just maybe – it would happen. My stepmom even told me that after we got off the phone, he had started looking for beach houses.
Hope's a weird thing. Especially when logic tells you otherwise. But sometimes logic is overrated. This was one of those times. He was so happy talking about that beach trip. I was too.
I'll also remember the last time we talked on the phone. It was several weeks after our last talk, and after the doctor had told him that they were stopping chemo. The medication he was on had made him pretty out of it. He did most of the talking and told me a story that was really hard to follow. It covered many decades, but the through line was about being in a play and wishing I was there. He then talked about a message that I never left. He asked what the message said. I told him it was just to tell him I loved him.
I'll remember a lot of other things, too. Too many to mention here because life is full of moments. Some that seem unimportant until someone isn't around anymore. But when I'm missing him or wishing that we'd had more moments, I'll remember most of all the joy he had for life and how he shared that joy. He kept so many things to himself, but that joy . . . it was something he shared freely. Though some other memories might fade, that one never will.
Very well written, sorry for your loss!
Beautiful and powerful. I wish I could write about my dad like that. You have a gift with words.
Our dads have a very special place in our lives, and losing them makes you feel like part of you is missing on a daily basis. My dad died 4 years ago and, at times, it still feels like yesterday.
Thanks for sharing your dad with us. I see where you get your awesomeness from.
Steven...this is so beautifully written. Claude and john had such a way with telling stories....they should have been writers....but that gift was bestowed on you...and you do it exquisitely.
This is Awesome. Very well put. You have encountered a great loss. But he will always be alive in your heart.
A touching expression of love, an insitefull peek into a father/son relationship, and a beautiful memorial. Awesome.


text:
Home > Runaway Ralph (Ralph S. Mouse #2) (Paperback)
Runaway Ralph (Ralph S. Mouse #2) (Paperback)
By Beverly Cleary, Jacqueline Rogers (Illustrator)
(CHILDREN)
This is book number 2 in the Ralph S. Mouse series.
#1: The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Ralph S. Mouse #1) (Paperback): $7.99
#3: Ralph S. Mouse (Paperback): $7.99
Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary ramps up the humor and adventure in the second book in the Ralph S. Mouse trilogy.
With a motorcycle to rev and the open road to see, Ralph S. Mouse is itching to run away from his overprotective family! But once he escapes to a summer campground nearby, the horrors of the wild make him doubt his plan. Angry cats, scary watchdogs, and grouchy gophers are only the half of it...
But then he befriends Garf, a sad and friendless boy at the camp. Though he wants desperately to be back home with his relatives, Ralph realizes that he may need to help Garf before he can help himself.
Runaway Ralph is perfect for independent reading or for shared reading at home or in a classroom. This fun story is the second of a trilogy, along with The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Ralph S. Mouse, all inspired by the author's hope to create appealing books for boys and girls—and by the sight of her son playing with toy cars.
Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors. As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up.
Instead she became a librarian. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born!
Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations.
Jaqueline Rogers has been a professional children's book illustrator for more than twenty years and has worked on nearly one hundred children's books.
Series: Ralph S. Mouse
Juvenile Fiction / Readers / Chapter Books
Juvenile Fiction / Animals / Mice, Hamsters, Guinea Pigs, etc.
CD-Audio (January 23rd, 2007): $21.59
Paperback (Chinese) (June 1st, 2019): $35.52
Audio Cassette (February 29th, 2000): $18.00
Prebound (March 18th, 2014): $22.56


"I saw the most adorable shoes yesterday, but didn't buy them," an acquaintance told me recently, explaining that since they were an Israeli brand she had refrained because of the boycott she had heard me advocate on several occasions.
"We're having a small get-together - just wine, cider, chips and dips. I promise there will be no Sabra," another friend told me, referring to the popular brand of hummus owned by a company, which has provided food and personal care packages to Israel's Golani Brigade, notorious for its human rights abuses.
These simple statements and acts of boycott, coming from individuals who until recently were "Zionist by default", reveal the distance average Americans are putting between themselves and the country they once uncritically believed was "the only democracy in the Middle East" - an oasis of civilisation in an otherwise benighted region.
Today, Israel's veneer - its once-impervious nonstick coating - is cracked beyond repair. Most people are seeing the ugliness behind the mask, the spewing lava of human rights abuses that can no longer be crusted over.
As Israeli-born actor Natalie Portman - long described as a Zionist, albeit of the liberal persuasion - recently said, Israel's new nation-state law is "racist". Portman also declined to travel to Israel last year for the Genesis Prize honouring her, leading to the cancellation of that ceremony.
Indeed, there is a growing awareness of Israel's reality in the US, the country that has long been its biggest champion, shielding it diplomatically and financing its war crimes. But this is also a global phenomenon: 2018 saw many forms of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle around the globe, from New Zealand, to India, to Nigeria, to Argentina - in sports, music, the arts, faith communities and governmental politics.
To cite but a few significant examples, an international campaign by a coalition of organisations affiliated with the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement recently convinced Airbnb to stop listing properties in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The global community also mobilised earlier last year to convince Argentina's national football team to cancel its "friendly" match with the Israeli team in Jerusalem.
As the BDS movement explained in its Argentina campaign, "there is nothing friendly about Israel shooting Palestinian footballers". Heeding the appeal of more than 130 Palestinian clubs, Adidas also stopped sponsoring the Israel Football Association, which includes teams based in illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.
In cultural news, tens of thousands of fans and activists convinced singer Lana Del Rey and other artists to withdraw from Israel's Meteor festival in a kibbutz in northern Israel, which would have been inaccessible to most Palestinians. Del Rey tweeted that she would postpone performing in Israel until she could sing for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Concern for Palestinian rights and dignity was also behind the Indian women's movement, representing more than 10 million women, endorsing BDS and demanding the release of all Palestinian child prisoners.
At the same time, Amnesty International has called for an arms embargo on Israel, while the Movement for Black Lives released an inspiring statement of solidarity with Palestinians and urged the US to end billions in annual military aid to Israel.
Even as campuses in the Global North remain hostile towards activism for justice in Palestine, students and faculty are determined to exercise their freedom of speech, and to enact solidarity in meaningful ways. The Canadian Federation of Students, representing more than 500,000 students, voted to back the BDS movement at their annual general meeting in Ottawa.
New York University is the latest US university to vote for divestment from companies that benefit from Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights, and faculty at Pitzer College in California voted to suspend its study abroad in Israel programme.
Faculty are also declining to write letters of recommendation for students seeking to study at Israeli colleges, and speaking out against Israeli abuses and for Palestinian rights, from the river to the sea.
No list can be exhaustive, but it is noteworthy that in 2018, BDS blossomed way beyond a boycott of consumer products, into direct criticism of Israel's policies and effective actions to hold the country accountable. Coalitions have emerged through an understanding of the shared struggles around immigrant rights, refugee rights, indigenous sovereignty, law enforcement violence, gender violence and more.
As the Movement for Black Lives statement explains: "We know that police officers in the United States learn the tactics of war from Israeli police forces, who come annually to train US officers in methods of oppression, surveillance and murder." Incidentally, officials in Massachusetts and Vermont both pulled out late last year from a planned training junket in Israel.
Social change doesn't happen because of a political proclamation. There is no trickle-down activism; it can only rise up, from the grassroots to the halls of Congress and parliament. When it reaches the point of becoming law, this is because of grassroots organising, mobilising, and persistent appeals and demands.
Even the US Congress, one of the largest bastions of Zionism outside of Israel, is changing. Two new members of Congress, Michigan's Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota's Ilhan Omar, have endorsed BDS. Tlaib said she would turn down the trip to Israel that AIPAC offers all first-year members of Congress, and lead her own delegation to Palestine instead.
Indeed, support for Israel is increasingly being viewed as a liability for progressive politicians. Minnesota's Betty McCollum has actually called out Israel's practices for what they are: apartheid.
Clearly, what we are witnessing is more than a discursive change. The disenchantment with Israel, and the growing rejection of its apartheid policies, has blown wind into the sails of BDS, with activists organising globally - and winning.
Despite attempts to criminalise boycotts, the coalitions are getting stronger, and the movement is fighting back. It's been a long struggle, and it is not over, but Palestinians have taught the world about resistance to injustice, no matter the might of the oppressor.
We have taught the world about sumoud, persistence. We have not given up, and we shall overcome.


text:
Reconnecting To Contemplation, Mission And Martyrdom During The Covid-19 Pandemic
in Issue 6: Contemplation, Mission and Martyrdom
Created: 21 September 2020
Stephan Rothlin
The pandemic of COVID-19 has provoked massive economic crises and left many people wondering how they may manage to survive. In the midst of such a situation of profound uncertainty we may recognise a unique opportunity to reconnect to key issues of life and death which all too often risk being dismissed as a pure waste of time by people obsessed with money and power. As we experience a massive collapse of economic growth we need to welcome this moment as a wake-up call for reflection on what really counts in our lives. Present experiences of stress and loneliness, as well as unprecedented outbursts of racist abuse and killings, have exposed a deep permafrost of social malaise, missed legal reforms and a pervasive loss of the spiritual dimension of life, even among believers who stick to a certain creed. The insights of the participants of the Symposium 2019 which marked the 20th anniversary of the Macau Ricci Institute form an excellent road map for a much needed spiritual journey that each one of us may undertake as the coronavirus puts an end to the easy escape of tourist travel. The Zen tradition describes the inner journey as an "ox path" as it does not hide the pains of a dreadful and bumpy road that leads to inner freedom. Coping with the pandemic may open a decisive new opportunity for each of us to wake up to our own unique "ox path" marked out by Contemplation, Mission and Martyrdom.
Buildings can be perceived as exclusively a matter of stone, steel and glass. However, they may also inspire a "contemplative break" or a "contemplative view" in midst of a stressful life. Chang He links architecture and the "informal space of contemplation." In traditional Chinese cities, the collective memory is present within spiritual spaces such as ancestral halls and temples. Yet many sacred sites were demolished in the wave of urbanization and replaced by skyscrapers. The expanded city reflects the efficiency of civil engineering and the continuous progress of technology as hallmarks of modernization. However, the urban expansion also suffers from a loss of the sense of belonging and the loss of a spiritual home in the city, witnessed by the fast disappearance of religious buildings in cities where people live in the shadows of skyscrapers. In his Encyclical Letter Laudato Si' on the "Care for Our Common Home" (2015, p. 86), Pope Francis highlights the need to protect those common areas, visual landmarks and urban landscapes that increase our sense of belonging, of rootedness, of "feeling at home" within a city which brings us together. The need for a spiritual home strongly resonates with a competition I conducted a few years ago with students of architecture from all over China on plans for a cancer hospital in Beijing. Several student groups strongly suggested the inclusion of chapels and sacred rooms in the cancer hospital in order to cater to the spiritual needs of the cancer patients and their relatives and friends.
This need of a sense of belonging and deep embeddedness in nature is echoed in the Psalms and their way of thanksgiving, as Wojciech Rybka explores the Biblical roots of the term contemplation. The coronavirus pandemic certainly offers a welcome chance to rediscover the richness of the Bible as a kind of home coming. In particular the 150 Psalms of the "Old" or "First" Testament offer us a key insight into the different stories of the "Book of Life." However, Rybka also describes how missionaries in China used the Rosary in the process of spreading the Christian faith in China. From the point of view of the ordinary Chinese faithful, the outward appearances of praying the Rosary bore similarities to the Buddhist mantric practices they were familiar with, e.g. repetitive recitation of a given Sutra or a sacred text.
Within the horizon of Jesuit spirituality Pablo Juan Wang explores a crucial contemplative element of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius which inspires the retreatant to answer the call of Jesus depicted as a King who calls each one to join him in his labours with the goal to join Him in His mission of salvation and liberation. As Wang highlights for us, Bishop Oscar Romero who was murdered in March 1980 while he was celebrating Mass and the other martyrs killed in November 1989 in San Salvador echo in a moving way this desire and commitment to become servant leaders through a genuinely contemplative listening to the voice of the people while they fight for justice and peace.
A particularly persuasive missionary method of fostering contemplative Gospel values was the development by the Jesuits in Shanghai of musical and artistic pedagogies. David Urrows is doing research on the letters of the French Jesuit François Ravary who is known for the workshop he established in 1856 at the Zikawei 'Jesuit village' outside Shanghai for the construction of bamboo pipe organs. The letter that Urrows translates for us here describes the killing of Father Luigi Massa by Taiping rebels in the context of the mission of the Jesuits in 19th century Shanghai. It suggests that even the most brutal killings can be transformed by the contemplative impact of music and art that makes the victory of the Risen Lord tangible.
Gerhold Becker analyses the role of contemplation in the life witness and theological reasoning of the German Jesuits Alfred Delp and Karl Rahner, both deeply involved in the personal experience of God, cultivated in the spirit of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Imprisoned in Berlin-Tegel prison by the Nazi regime, Alfred Delp on November 17, 1944 experienced most deeply that the world is full of God. Delp and Rahner thus point to the centre of Ignatian spirituality, which lies in the authentic experience of God that enables the individual to bear and endure the ups and downs of life and give witness to the presence of God. The later writings of Rahner are particularly inspiring, as for example, when he explores the contemplative dimension of daily life such as walking.
Facing the atrocity of the murders at the University of Central America in November 1989 Martin Maier asks: Why were the six Jesuits and the two women killed? The shortest answer can be read on the gravestone in the university chapel. Here the most important mission of the Society of Jesus in our present time is described in the words of the landmark Fourth Decree of the 32nd General Congregation which is the highest legislative body of the Jesuits: "What is it to be a Jesuit today? It is to engage, under the standard of the Cross, in the crucial struggle of our time: the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes." This mission which integrates the struggle for faith and justice is always rooted in the profound experience of God, as the martyrs of El Salvador surely testified.
The experience of the encounter with God in midst of a murderous Nazi regime, as Dennis McCann points out, naturally fostered the ecumenical movement. Both Dietrich Bonhoeffer an evangelical pastor and Alfred Delp collaborated with members of the Kreisau circle seeking to construct a constitution for Germany once the Nazis were defeated, based on Christian social principles common to Catholics and Protestants. Mission in this context was defined as Christocentric responsibility as well as a concrete and personal response to God's calling as Vocation which admits of no distinction between religious and secular activities. In accepting his share of the guilt involved in the assassination plot against Adolf Hitler and acting with responsibility in it, Bonhoeffer's only concern was whether his action was truly the obedience that God demanded of him, in his life. Bonhoeffer joyfully surrendered his life, fully convinced that his obedience was true.
Antoine Ren further expands our awareness of the demands of obedience in the context of facing such dilemmas within religious life. With the help of Karl Rahner he explores the dilemma emerging from commands the subject must obey which in the objective order are wrong or even evil. In given circumstances orders have been issued with real culpability on the part of the superior. In cases of this kind it is not easy to say why and in what sense the fulfilment of such an order could be the will of God, though we must trust that somehow it is.
As Alessandro Andreini recalls the Encyclical letter "Maximum Illud " (1919) that Pope Benedict XV issued after the catastrophe of the First World War, we can easily recognise the "mea culpa," apologizing for the Church's failure to adapt its missionary activities to the needs of local cultures, especially in China and Asia. When Pope Francis highlights the paramount importance of "Maximum Illud," he advocates a dialogue of the Church with local cultures especially with their wisdom traditions. The Document on "Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together" by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, for example, not only provides fresh insights on interreligious dialogue, but also advances toward a new frontier of shared truths that, beyond religious differences, affirm our common commitment to human dignity, peace and mutual respect, reciprocity and care. Clearly, this is another litmus test for measuring whether or not we learn our lessons in crises.
Mission has its prize: martyrdom, no matter if it is paid for by blood or just by simply enduring the dreadful ups and downs of daily life. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of faith as in the example, recalled in David Urrows' piece describing how Luigi Massa was killed during the Taiping rebellion in 1860. Similarly, Joseph Lee explores the exemplary life of "Watchman Nee", Ni Tuosheng 倪柝声(1903–1972), and his eminent role in Chinese Protestant Christianity. When countries in East Asia developed into centralized nation-states, the secular governments often perceived Christianity as subversive and mobilized official resources to marginalize indigenous Christian communities. Watchman Nee, who founded an indigenous Protestant movement in the early 20th-century, was arrested in 1952 and died in a Chinese labour camp in 1972. His witness as a Christian martyr has had considerable influence beyond the boundaries of the communities he founded.
Another event which has had an impact well beyond Latin America happened on the evening of 15 November 1989 when the El Salvadoran army dispatched a special commando group to the José Simeón Cañas Central American University "UCA" run by the Jesuits. The soldiers dragged six Jesuit priests out of their apartment, forced them to lie face down in the grass and shot them at close range. Besides Ignacio Ellacuría, the rector of the university, those murdered were Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Amando López, Juan Ramón Moreno and Joaquín López y López. The cook Elba Ramos and her daughter Celina were also executed because the soldiers had been ordered not to leave any witnesses of the massacre. Along with Bishop Oscar Romero the martyrs of El Salvador are truly servant leaders as their lives taught many people how to listen to the problems and sufferings of the oppressed, how to help them to analyse their social situation and most importantly how to find concrete solutions in their fight for justice and peace especially in the area of land reform and self-empowerment.
This type of servant leadership embodied in Bishop Oscar Romero and the Jesuit martyrs reflects a profound inner conversion. In the case of Bishop Romero, who was regarded as an overly cautious and conservative priest when he became bishop, his friendship with Father Rutilio Grande who served as a parish priest in the rural parish of Aguilares had a profound impact on him. When the death squads ruthlessly killed Father Grande, Bishop Romero was profoundly shocked. More and more it dawned on Romero that it was precisely the struggle for faith that had become a decisive factor in the process of proclaiming the Gospel, in a context of rampant corruption and abuse of power. Such a renewal of faith inevitably provoked the hatred and violence of the landowners and fraudulent political parties.
Adapting a central objective of Confucian spirituality as interpreted for us by Edmond Eh, we can recognize that Romero was inspired by his friend Father Rutilio Grande to become a 君子 junzi, "a morally refined person," in the fullest sense. Romero came to realize the deeper meaning of social solidarity by discovering the most profound meaning of being human in the midst of the ordinary affairs of daily life. The Confucian junzi, like the Jesuit performing the Spiritual Exercises, trusts in human nature, which is an endowment from Heaven, and even to the point of risking his life for his friends.
Along these lines, Martin Maier shows how the profile of the University of Central America, "UCA", was developed to inspire students and professors to opt for the struggle for faith and justice especially for the urgently needed land reform. The blood of the martyrs of El Salvador of November 1989 refers thus not just to personal sacrifices but also to an institutional culture of Gospel values embodied in the whole curriculum of a Catholic University, challenging students to care for the benefit of the whole society. Recalling their witness, the people will constantly be reminded of the enormous sufferings and problems of the countless left behind. The memory of the Crucified Christ became a source of strength and courage of faith after the devastating civil war ended. While never giving in to the temptation to use violence, the lives and martyrdoms of Bishop Romero and those who died at UCA became a living witness to the demand that the ministry of the Church must concern itself for those who are hungry, for those who have no schools and those who are deprived.
In midst of the present pandemic, the massive demonstrations against racist abuse all over the world, is there any unique opportunity for reconnecting with the core spiritual dimensions of Contemplation, Mission and Martyrdom? As many people and groups just struggle to survive, the need to reshape the profile and aim of Catholic institutions of higher learning for the benefit of the larger society becomes increasingly more urgent.
As Roland Jacques demonstrates by recalling the process by which the martyrs killed by guerrillas in the period between 1954 and 1970 in Laos, in moving toward their beatification in 2016 the Church wanted to go beyond a notion of martyrdom which risked being rejected as one-sidedly Western, by putting the focus firmly on the notion of "ancestors" of the faith as a basis for mutual understanding between believers and non-believers. Therefore, the term "beatification" now was used to elevate the most meritorious members to the rank of ancestors for the community to remember, venerate and imitate. As we learn from Jacques' account, the Church in the context of interreligious dialogue also wanted to make a point to acknowledge Buddhist teachings on the contemplation of death to overcome the deep-seated Laotian aversion toward those who have died a violent death. By doing so the Church went beyond the previous perception of being an "enemy of the nation" or "enemy of the revolution" which could have resulted in renewed persecution.
The nuanced exploration of the intrinsic link between Contemplation, Mission and Martyrdom inspires therefore not only the courage to trust as a major act of faith but indicates also how the proclamation of faith is intrinsically linked with the struggle for Justice and with the outreach to other local wisdom traditions. Contemplation inspires the process of faith genuinely taking root in local structures and never giving up while seeking reconciliation and peace.
Stephan Rothlin is Director of the Macau Ricci Institute, Macau and CEO of Rothlin International Management Consulting Limited, Beijing and Hong Kong
Ÿ Francis (2015). Encyclical Letter "Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si': Care for our Common Home." Macau: Claretian Publications.


text:
26 bodies identified from Ecuador's bloodbath prison attack
Rahil Ahamed, CNN • Updated 8th November 2018
( CNN ) — Ecuador's National Police have identified 26 bodies from what is being described as a mass prison murder of scores of inmates in a cellblock near Quito earlier this month.
The investigation into the brutal incident began immediately after it occurred on November 4. All 26 bodies were removed from the La Quebrada prison by helicopter on November 11, and taken to different hospitals around the country, including a neurosurgical unit in the capital.
The victims include two- and three-year-old infants.
According to authorities, 26 bodies had been identified at this point, while remaining inmates were being looked into.
Most of the victims were killed when an inmate armed with a machete and other sharp-edged weapons opened fire inside the prison. The maximum security block held 104 inmates, and the remainder were either on the outside, awaiting trials, or in other parts of the prison.
23 inmates killed by inmate; police clashes uproot four barrios
As the shooting began, gunshots caused the inmates to flee the police inside the block, to the waiting arms of others holding machetes, knives and other sharp-edged objects. Most of the victims were from the block known as the Junicaari.
The attacks lasted for four hours, according to local media reports.
Litmus test for Khan-e-Millat
The incident comes just a year after new President Lenin Moreno was inaugurated, promising to combat deadly riots and abuse of power that had been all too common under his predecessor, Rafael Correa.
Amongst his initiatives was the establishment of a body made up of representatives from different sectors of society, including the Catholic Church, to advise the government on how to respond to the situation.
However, the prison system in Ecuador is rife with problems.
Following the latest prison bloodbath, heads of various religions voiced their concerns about overcrowding in the country's jails, with reports saying that 84% of the prison population were being held in cells designed for 30%.
Following the killings at La Quebrada, the Interior Ministry issued a statement on October 18 asserting that there was no intervention needed in the prison, and adding that the prison had been brought under control before any violence broke out.
Survivors of La Quebrada's horrific violence speak out
Other atrocities have struck other parts of the country.
According to police reports, there were clashes in the capital on October 8 between police and suspected gang members, with four barrios — or neighborhoods — reduced to rubble in the process.
The government did not specify who had been blamed for the incident, but called it a "riot" and said that they were waiting for results of an investigation by Ecuador's Attorney General's Office.
In that context, Deputy Interior Minister Cesar Navarro told local reporters that the setting up of "axis of control" would allow authorities to more effectively deal with any future attacks.
Categories world Tags business, science and technology, sports
Deplorable fun from Atlanta: episode two of Dancing With the Stars
Metrolinx will try white-tailed muskrats instead of beavers after residents complain
Italian Vogue Editor Carla Sozzani has joined Bottega Veneta as Creative Director
How can they get you out of the supermarket for free?
'The height of hypocrisy': Ethiopian opposition cries foul after protest at dead politician's funeral
THE READER BOMB: Can the wall be broken down?
The gridlock in European cities


text:
Q: how to convert Flatbuffer data file to json? I used flatbuffer to encode data into a file named 'person.txt', how can I convert it into a json file ?
I trying 'flatc --json person.txt person.json' but it failed.
I have 'person.fbs, person.txt', How to do it ?

A: you need to provide path of schema too in the command you are executing.
flatc.exe --raw-binary -t <path to fbs schema file> -- <path to flatbuffer binary file>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This 25 gram bag of Apple Green kandy Pearl Pigment powder is a great pigment for creating your very own tinted clears and opaque metallic in kustom auto or home paint or powder-coating applications. It is guaranteed to mix well with any clear paints or tinted kandy paints, and has a temperature threshold of about 400 degrees fahrenheit. It is a very fine powder and will spray well through airbrushes, powder guns, and HVLP paint guns. It is very light, so it stays well mixed in paint without settling too fast in your gun, and can make great tinted clears for light to heavy effects (it's your choice). One 25 gram bag of Apple Green kandy Pearl treats from 1 to 2 quarts of clear.
This Apple Green kandy Pearl pigment is so versatile, it can be used in any clear mediums, like concrete and tile sealer, leather finishing, or faux finish!
This Apple Green kandy paint pigment can be used in a variety of clears, so they are not limited to kustom auto paint. These can be mixed into screen printing ink, nail polish, leather and vinyl finishes, concrete sealer, gel coat, or faux finish to create metallic kustom effects almost anywhere you choose.
We have seen our kandy paint pigment used in many industries, including powder coating, plastic manufacturing, kustom airbrush art, and gel coating. They work just as well for beginners as they do for professionals. One common mistake that beginners make is that they buy our Kolor Pearls when they want to create a paint that changes in the sun, or as we call it, a "ghost" pearl paint job. These candies will change the overall color of your project, so please keep that in mind! Remember to visit our tips pages for other useful information.
At Paint With Pearl, we pride ourselves on the quality of our kandy pigments. These are quality metallic Iron Mica colored pigments that have a good deal of their own iridescence built right in. The mixture, however, of our kandy pigments will never be truly transparent, due to the fact that they are solid particles of mica and iron. This does not mean that you can't achieve a good degree of transparency from the kandy paint pigments, it's just that you will achieve total coverage after several coats, being unable to see whatever is underneath. We suggest using about 1/2 of one of our bags per quart of base clear or inter coat clear. Using a full bag per quart would basically make a colored metallic Apple Green kandy pearl paint. If you are still confused over which products would look good over your existing paint, or want to discuss your options, contact us! As always, we will try to answer any of your questions and hope to serve our kustomers in any way that we can! Visit our FAQ page for answers to your questions as well! We thank you for your business.
Our 25 Gram Bag of Apple Green kandy Pearl can treat 1 to 4 quarts of any clear and can be mixed into any Solvent or water based clear paints.
This 25 gram Electric Blue Kolor Pearls paint and coatings pigment powder is a great pigment for creating your very own tinted clears in paint or powder-coating applications. One 25 gram bag of Electric Blue Kolor Pearls ® treats from 1 to 2 quarts of clear.
This 25 gram Orange Copper kandy Pearl Paint Pearl powder is a great pigment for creating your very own tinted clears in paint or powder-coating applications. It is guaranteed to mix well with any clear paints or tinted kandy paints, and has a temperature threshold of about 400 degrees fahrenheit. It is a very fine powder and will spray well through airbrushes, powder guns, and HVLP paint guns. It is very light, so it stays well mixed in paint without settling too fast in your gun, and can make great tinted clears for light to heavy effects (it's your choice). One 25 gram bag treats from 1 to 4 quarts of clear.


text:
Russell: I'll focus on myself and not badger Mercedes
George Russell is said to be the heir to Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes Formula 1 throne, but the Williams driver has put that out of his mind as he embarks on his third season in the top flight. The 23-year-old stated his case for a seat with the F1 World Champions, who back his career, with a stellar performance Sakhir Grand Prix, showing the world he had the goods on a weekend in which he made Valtteri Bottas look ordinary. Russell jumped into Hamilton's car with short notice, and after a mere four hours in it he matched and then bettered Bottas in a car he had been driving all season. That day it became a question of 'when' Russell will get the call-up, and not 'if' he gets it....
1y ago from GrandPrix247.com 0
'I don't see myself as the favourite at all' insists...
Max Verstappen has categorically rejected any suggestion that he's now...
1y ago from F1i.com
Ferrari Reveal When They Will Switch Focus To 2022 Car
All F1 teams are expected to abandon the development of their 2021...
Horner: 'All focus on making the car faster rather...
Red Bull Racing look set to emerge from the winter test as a serious...
OPINION: Predictions for F1's unpredictable 2021
Yup, it's that time of year again. The one where I make an absolute...
1y ago from Racer.com
'We really have something to build on following... Read More »