Update: On October 8-9, 2018, Belarus for the first time presented its report on the execution of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) at the 124th Session of the UN Human Right Committee in Geneva. Belarusian human rights defenders, however, presented an alternative report where they expressed concern about the situation with freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, capital punishment, discrimination, torture, and other issues. In addition, they provided a range of recommendations to improve the current situation, which were supported by the Committee almost in full. Also on October 4, 2018, the European Parliament stated in a resolution that the situation of media freedom continued to deteriorate in Belarus.
The legislation of the Republic of Belarus and current law enforcement practices are not conducive to the development of not-for-profit organizations (NPOs); in contrast to the country's Constitution and international obligations, they significantly restrict the freedom of association. Belarusian law bans the activity of unregistered associations and establishes criminal responsibility for the illegal organization of such associations and participation in their activities (Article 193.1, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus). The law lists numerous grounds for denying registration and liquidating a public association. Also, Belarusian legislation complicates the ongoing activity of NPOs by restricting access to funding. In 2011, Belarus adopted another package of changes to relevant legislation, including criminal responsibility for violating the procedure for receiving foreign grants.
Belarus is not a signatory of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but has ratified the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Multiple claims have been brought against the Government of Belarus for violating Article 22 (the freedom of association) of the ICCPR. Belarus has not, however, complied with any of the UN Human Rights Committee's concluding observations relating to Belarus's violations of Article 22 (e.g., see Communication No. 1383/2005, Katsora et al. v. Belarus). These observations do not appear in media reports in Belarus.
Isolated positive changes in NPO legislation occur occasionally. For example, the amendments to the Law on Public Associations passed on November 4, 2013 introduced some technical changes to ease registration of national associations, decrease the number of documents required for registration of associations and streamline the processes for registration of international organizations and foreign branches. However, these minor improvements do not address the most serious existing barriers to registration, operational activity and funding of CSOs in Belarus. Recent examples of restrictions are described in the report in 2015 by the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus, Miklos Haraszti, which was presented at the 29th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
More recently, on October 8-9, 2018, Belarus also for the first time presented its report on the execution of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) at the 124th Session of the UN Human Right Committee in Geneva. Belarusian human rights defenders, however, presented an alternative report where they expressed concern about the situation with freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, capital punishment, discrimination, torture, and other issues. In addition, they provided a range of recommendations to improve the current situation, which were supported by the Committee almost in full.
As of January 1, 2016, there were 15 political parties, 37 trade unions (33 national, 1 territorial, and 3 trade unions within organizations), and 2,665 public associations (225 international, 716 national, and 1724 local) registered in Belarus. There are 34 unions (coalitions) of public associations and 164 foundations (15 international, 5 national, and 144 local) registered in Belarus.
Barriers to Entry Prohibition against unregistered associations; high minimum membership requirements; high registration fees; limits on eligible founders; burdensome documentation requirements; limited rights to appeal.
Barriers to Activities Supervisory power allowing for interference with internal affairs of public associations and NPOs; restrictions on educational activity; broad grounds for suspension and liquidation.
Barriers to Speech and/or Advocacy Administrative and criminal liability for holding assemblies without permission.
Barriers to International Contact Increased number of rejections of Belarusian visas to foreigners and cases of rejected entry at the border for foreigners who do not require visas.
Barriers to Resources Foreign funding must be registered and approved in advance by the government; prohibition against independent entrepreneurial activity by NPOs.
Barriers to Assembly Non-citizens of Belarus, citizens not permanently resident in the country, and minors are restricted from organizing certain assemblies; notification to the authorities is required 15 days in advance of all public actions or mass events; there are wide-ranging legal restrictions on where assemblies may be held, and local authorities often use their power to force assemblies to be held on the outskirts of a city or in places far from the target audience; and excessive force is used on protests of the political opposition.
Article 4. Democracy in the Republic of Belarus shall be exercised on the basis of diversity of political institutions, ideologies and views. The ideology of political parties, religious or other public associations or social groups may not be made mandatory for citizens.
Article 5. Political parties and other public associations acting within the framework of the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Belarus shall contribute towards ascertaining and expressing the political will of the citizens and participate in elections.
Political parties and other public associations shall have the right to use state mass media under the procedure determined by legislation.
The creation and activities of political parties and other public associations that aim to change the constitutional system by force, or conduct propaganda of war, social, ethnic, religious and racial hatred shall be prohibited.
Article 22. All shall be equal before the law and entitled without discrimination to equal protection of their rights and legitimate interests.
Article 23. Restriction of personal rights and liberties shall be permitted only in the instances specified in law, in the interest of national security, public order, the protection of the morals and health of the population as well as the rights and liberties of other persons. No one may enjoy advantages and privileges that are contrary to the law.
Article 33. Everyone is guaranteed freedom of thought and beliefs and their free expression. No one shall be forced to express one's beliefs or to deny them. No monopolization of the mass media by the State, public associations or individual citizens and no censorship shall be permitted.
Article 34. Citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall be guaranteed the right to receive, store and disseminate complete, reliable and timely information of the activities of state bodies and public associations, on political, economic, cultural and international life, and on the state of the environment. State bodies, public associations and officials shall afford citizens of the Republic of Belarus an opportunity to familiarize themselves with material that affects their rights and legitimate interests. The use of information may be restricted by legislation with the purpose to safeguard the honor, dignity, personal and family life of the citizens and the full implementation of their rights.
Article 35. The freedom to hold assemblies, rallies, street marches, demonstrations and pickets that do not disturb law and order or violate the rights of other citizens of the Republic of Belarus, shall be guaranteed by the State. The procedure for conducting the above events shall be determined by the law.
Article 36. Everyone shall be entitled to freedom of association. Judges, employees of the Procurator's Office, the staff of bodies of internal affairs, the State Supervisory Committee and security bodies, as well as servicemen may not be members of political parties or other public associations that pursue political goals.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus (with the changes and additions adopted at the nationwide referendums of November 24, 1996 and October 17, 2004).
The Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus of December 7, 1998, #218-Z (with changes and additions).
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 9, 1999, #275-Z (with changes and additions).
The Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus of April 21, 2003, #194-Z (with changes and additions).
The Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus of December 29, 2009, #71-Z (with changes and additions).
The Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus of July 26, 1999, #296-Z (with changes and additions).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Public Associations of October 4, 1994, #3254-XІІ (with changes and additions as at November 4, 2013).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Political Parties of October 5, 1994, #3266-XІІ (with changes and additions as at June 4, 2015).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Trade Unions of April 22, 1992, #1605-XІІ.
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations of December 17, 1992, #2054-XІІ (with changes and additions as at December 22, 2011).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Consumer Cooperation (Consumer Societies and Their Unions) in the Republic of Belarus of February 25, 2002, #93-Z (with changes and additions as of July 10, 2012).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Republican State-Public Associations of July 19, 2006, #150-Z (with changes and additions as of May 4, 2012).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Courts of Arbitration of July 18, 2011, #301-Z (with changes and additions as at December 13, 2011).
Decree #302 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On Certain Measures to Regularize the Activities of Foundations of July 1, 2005 (with changes and additions as at June 11, 2009).
Decree #50 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On Certain Measures to Regularize the Activity of Gardening Societies of January 28, 2008 (with changes and additions as of June 4, 2013).
Resolution #408 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On the Procedure of Opening Representative Offices of Foreign Organizations in the Republic of Belarus and their Activity of May 30, 2018).
Decree #2 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On Certain Measures to Regularize the Activities of Political Parties, Trade Unions and Other Public Associations of January 26, 1999 (with changes and additions as at June 2, 2015).
Decree #1 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On State Registration and Liquidation (Termination of the Activity) of Business Entities of January 16, 2009 (with changes and additions as of February 21, 2013).
Resolution #49 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus of September 13, 2005 On Certain Issues of Creating Public Associations and Their Unions (Coalitions).
Resolution #48 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus On the Adoption of Normative Legal Acts on the Issue of Executing and Reviewing Documents Related to the State Registration of Political Parties, Trade Unions, Other Public Associations, Their Unions (Coalitions), and State Registration and Exclusion from the State Registrations Register, Registration and De-registration of Their Structural Units, of August 30, 2005 (with changes and additions as at February 3, 2014).
Resolution #272 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus On Certain Issues Related to State Registration of Standing Arbitration Tribunals of February 18, 2014.
Resolution #1445 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On the Publishing by Printed Mass Media of Information About the State Registration, Change of Name, and Dissolution of Standing Arbitration Tribunals Established as Non-Commercial Organizations of November 5, 2009 (with changes and additions as at February 18, 2014).
Resolution #42 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus On Approving the Form of Documents Related to State Registration of Foundations of August 3, 2005 (with changes and additions as at November 14, 2007).
Resolution #8 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus of January 27 2009 On Certain Measures to Implement Decree #1 of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated January 16, 2009 (with changes and additions as of August 8, 2017).
Resolution #154 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On the Adoption of the Provision on the Procedure of Approving the Names of Commercial and Non-Commercial Organizations of February 5, 2009 (with changes and additions as of August 22, 2014).
Resolution #20 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus On Approving the Names of Legal Entities of March 5, 2009 (with changes and additions as of January 21, 2014).
Decree #425 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On Using the Words 'National' and 'Belarusian' in the Names of Legal Entities and Mass Media of September 8, 2005 (with changes and additions as of September 13, 2013).
Law of the Republic of Belarus #384-3 On Official Heraldics (May 26, 2012).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Mass Events in the Republic of Belarus of December 30, 1997, #114-Z (with changes and additions as at November 8, 2011).
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On Accounting and Reporting of July 12, 2013 (#57-3).
Resolution #43 of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus On the Procedure of Publishing and the Content of Information to Be Reflected in a Foundation's Property Use Report of August 3, 2005.
Decree #300 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On the Provision and Use of Gratuitous (Sponsor) Aid of July 1, 2005 (with changes and additions as of November 29, 2013).
Decree #5 of the President of the Republic of Belarus on Foreign Gratuitous Aid of August 31, 2015 (comes into force March 2016).
Resolution #779 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On Approving the Model Form of an Agreement on the Provision and Use of Gratuitous (Sponsor) Aid of July 13, 2005.
Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus on Approving the Provision on the Procedure of Exercising Control Over the Target Use of Gratuitous Foreign Aid of November 28, 2003 (with changes and additions as of March 14, 2013).
Decree Resolution #9 of the General Affairs Office of the President of the Republic of Belarus on the Procedure of Registration, Receipt and Use of Gratuitous Foreign Aid of September 17, 2010 (with changes and additions as of June 13, 2012).
Resolution #9 of the General Affairs Office of the President of the Republic of Belarus On the Procedure of Registration, Receipt and Use of Gratuitous Foreign Aid of September 17, 2010 (with changes and additions as of June 13, 2012).
Resolution #150 of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic On Approving the Instruction on the Reporting Target Use of Gratuitous Foreign Aid Provided as Cash (with changes and additions as at November 14, 2008).
Resolution #590 of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus on Certain Changes and Amendments in some Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of July 13, 2015.
Resolution #1522 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of November 21, 2003 On Certain Measures to Implement Decree #460 of the President of the Republic of Belarus of October 22, 2003 (with changes and additions as at March 27, 2010).
Resolution #1513 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On Approving the Provision on the Procedure of Evaluation of the Progress and Effectiveness of International Technical Assistance Projects (Programs) of November 26, 2004.
Resolution #86 of the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Belarus On the Preparation by International Foreign Assistance Recipients of Project Proposals and Descriptions of Projects (Programs) of Said Assistance dated May 11, 2005.
Resolution #86 of the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Belarus On Instituting the Form of an Application to Register an International Technical Assistance Project (Program) and Invalidate Resolutions of the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Belarus.
Resolution #82 of the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Belarus On the Form of a Listing of Goods (Property, Including Funds), Works and Services Provided for the Implementation of International Technical Assistance Projects (Programs) dated May 4, 2010.
Decree #374 of the President of the Republic of Belarus of July 9, 2001 On Exempting the Union of Public Associations "The Belarusian Confederation of Creative Unions," and the Creative Unions of the Republic of Belarus and Foundations Thereof from Profit and Value-Added Taxes (with changes and additions as at January 21, 2010).
Decree 191 of the President of the Republic of Belarus On Supporting Physical Culture and Sports Organizations of April 15, 2013.
The Law of the Republic of Belarus On State Support of Youth and Children's Public Associations in the Republic of Belarus of November 9, 1999, #305-Z.
Resolution of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus On Approving the Instruction on the Procedure of Forming the Republican Register of State-Supported Youth and Children's Public Associations of November 30, 2005, #101 (with changes and additions as at May 11, 2009).
Decree #510 of the President of the Republic of Belarus of March 29, 2012 On Certain Issues of Renting and Free Use of Property.
Resolution #550 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus On Approving the List of Public Organizations (Associations) and Their Structural Units, Foundations, and Associations of Legal Entities and/or Individual Entrepreneurs (Associations and Unions) Entitled to 0.1 Reduction of the Base Rental Rate for Real Property of April 9, 2010 (with changes and additions as at June 22, 2011).
1. The Department for Humanitarian Activities at the President's Administration of the Republic of Belarus carried out a consultation of draft amendments to the Regulation on Foreign Gratuitous Aid in November 2017. However, the proposed changes do not remove barriers to foreign funding. The draft amendments include minor improvements, such as waiving the obligation to register membership fees from founders and members residing abroad, removing limitations on the allocation of gratuitous aid to personnel costs (currently maximum 20% of received support), and allowing for the reallocation of unspent funding without the mandatory approval by the Department.
2. On July 17, 2018, the Parliament adopted the amendments to the Law on Mass Events (Belarusian). The amendments introduce notification (instead of advance authorization) for mass events if held in a few select pre-approved non-central locations. Otherwise, authorization continues to be required for all events except for those that are organized by public authorities. The amendments also restrict individuals who are serving a suspended sentence from submitting applications to be organizers of mass events, which will prevent politically persecuted activists from initiating events. People who violated the Law on Mass Events in the previous year or who have committed crimes against peace, public order, and morality against the state order also cannot serve as organizers of mass events. The law will come into effect on January 26, 2019.
3. The Chamber of Representatives approved in the first reading a draft law on the Change of Several Codes of the Republic of Belarus, including the repeal of criminal liability for acting on behalf of an unregistered organization (Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code).
National state-public associations are membership-based NPOs, their purpose being to implement tasks of state significance.
Associations of legal entities (coalitions and unions) are membership-based NPOs founded under an agreement by and between commercial organizations and/or individual entrepreneurs to coordinate their business activities, as well as to represent and protect common property interests or to unite NPOs or commercial and non-commercial organizations.
Foundations are property-based associations without membership, founded by one or more citizens and/or legal entities (or one legal entity) on the basis of voluntary property contributions. They pursue social, charitable, cultural, educational and scientific goals, the development of physical culture and sports, or other socially useful goals specified in their charters.
Institutions are organizations set up by a proprietor in order to exercise managerial, socio-cultural or other non-commercial functions, funded by the proprietor in part or in full.
Consumer cooperatives are voluntary, membership-based or property-based associations of citizens or citizens and legal entities for the purpose of fulfilling material (property) and other needs of their members.
The Civil Code listing of organizational and legal forms of NPOs is not exhaustive. For example, the Law on Local Government and Self-Government in the Republic of Belarus of January 4, 2010, #108-Z (amended as of December 22, 2011) provides that a collegial body for territorial public self-government is also an NPO. Under the Law on Courts of Arbitration, a standing court of arbitration can be an NPO or a detached subdivision (subdivision) of a legal entity.
An NPO seeking registration must correspond to one of the organizational forms included in the Civil Code or other laws. NPOs cannot operate without being registered.
According to the new amendments to the Law on Public Associations a common registry for NPOs and political parties will be created within the next three years.
The Ministry of Justice and chief directorates of Justice at the oblast executive committees and Minsk Executive Committee register the following types of NPOs: public associations, political parties, trade unions, foundations, their unions (coalitions), national state-public associations, and courts of arbitration. Justice directorates are also the competent authority for state registration of structural units of political parties; oblast and inter-oblast structural units of public associations; and inter-oblast, oblast, and the city of Minsk structural units of trade unions, if the governing body of the structural unit is located within the jurisdiction of the justice directorate.
Oblast executive committees and the Minsk Executive Committee have the right to delegate a portion of their state registration authority to local executive and administrative bodies. Local executive and administrative bodies may register the following types of organizations: institutions, consumer cooperatives, gardening societies, unions (associations) of not-for-profit and/or for-profit organizations, individual entrepreneurs, and religious communities. Local executive and administrative bodies are authorized to consider applications from structural units of the associations, the registration of which is not within the competence of regional directorates of justice.
The National Department for Religious Affairs is responsible for the state registration of religious associations, monasteries and monastic communities, religious brotherhoods and sisterhoods, religious missions, and seminaries.
As of January 1, 2016, there were 15 political parties, 37 trade unions (33 national, 1 territorial, and 3 trade unions within organizations), and as of November 2017 - 2,824 public associations registered in Belarus. There are 34 unions (coalitions) of public associations and 164 foundations (15 international, 5 national, and 144 local) registered in Belarus.
No further data is available from the Ministry of Justice for other organizational and legal forms of NPOs.
Belarusian law does not recognize concepts such as "socially oriented," "charitable" or "public benefit" organizations. Tax benefits are extended to organizations based on their type of activity. For example, Presidential Decree #497 of November 3, 2011 on Supporting Physical Culture and Sports Organizations lists a number of such organizations that are entitled to government support, including tax benefits.
Prohibition of unregistered associations. Unregistered associations are banned from all activity in Belarus. Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus establishes criminal responsibility for organizing or participating in the activity of a political party or other public association, religious organization, or foundation regarding which there is an effective decision of a competent state body to liquidate or suspend their activity, and for organizing or participating in the activity of a political party or other public association, religious organization, or foundation which has not registered with appropriate state authorities in accordance with established procedure. Such activity is punishable by a fine, arrest for up to six months, or imprisonment for up to two years.
Initial capital requirements.To set up a foundation, the founders must have capital. Local foundations must have 100 basic amounts (one basic amount equals 23 Belarusian rubles or 11.6 USD in equivalent) or USD 1,160. International or nationwide foundations must possess 1,000 basic amounts or USD 10,400.
Registration fees. State registration of local public associations and foundations costs the same as for commercial organizations. A national or international association or foundation, however, is required to pay twice the fee of the national commercial entity (approximately USD 145). In general, Belarusian legislation discriminates against public associations and foundations in comparison with for-profit and some other not-for-profit organizations, which effectively only need to apply to get registered.
Limits on eligible founders. Citizens under the age of 18 cannot be founders of legal entities in Belarus with the exception of children and youth public associations that can be founded by citizens from the age of 16. Foreign citizens cannot be founders of public associations, with the exception of international public associations established in Belarus. By law it is not possible for natural persons to create associations with legal persons, with the exception of consumer cooperatives; by contrast, both associations of natural persons and associations of legal persons are allowed.
Documentation requirements. Public associations and foundations must prepare and submit a formidable package of documents for registration. If the documents meet the requirements, the entity will be registered within one month from the submission. The responsible authorities have broad powers to check the documents and have them examined by experts. A public association may be denied registration for insignificant breaches of the legislation in its charter as well as for submitting other documents and/or information that do not meet the requirements of applicable legislation, including forged or invalid documents. Since the legislation regulates even the font size in the registration documents and demands that every founder indicate their place of employment and home and business telephone numbers, it is not uncommon for a public association to be refused registration because of minor mistakes.
Limited rights of appeal. If denied registration, the governing body of a public association may go to court. Since 2001, however, no court has allowed a claim of this kind. Furthermore, national and international public associations and foundations have no right to appeal against the decision of a court of first appearance because in their case the Supreme Court of Belarus is prescribed as the court of first appearance.
Foreign organizations. A foreign-based organization may not operate in the Republic of Belarus before it has registered its branch with the Voblast Executive Committee (or Minsk Executive Committee).
Limits on educational activity. Since the Education Code of the Republic of Belarus took effect on September 1, 2011, the ability of NPOs to pursue educational activity has been open to question. This legislation classifies a very broad range of activities as educational (including training programs, thematic seminars, popular lectures courses, and personal empowerment workshops) and limits the list of entities allowed to carry out educational activity to those explicitly granted that right by law. With the exception of educational institutions, NPOs are not included in that list.
Interference in internal affairs. The Law on Public Associations provides that interference of state bodies and officials into the activity of public associations is not allowed. However, such interference takes place even at the registration stage, as the registration official may modify the goals, tasks, methods of activity, and the internal structure of public associations.
The same law authorizes registration officials to participate in any activities conducted by foundations, public associations, their structural units or unions for statutory purposes, as well as to demand and obtain information related to an organization's statutory activity and examine their documents and decisions.
A foundation, public association or union must notify the registering body about an upcoming meeting of its highest level governing body not less than seven days in advance.
Reporting requirements. The law also requires foundations, associations, and unions to submit mandatory annual reports to registering bodies, including information about their continuing operation and the location of the governance body; statutory activities in the past year; the membership of the public association and its structural units; its composition; and lists of the members of elective bodies, with minutes of the election attached. In case of non-compliance with the reporting requirements in three subsequent years, the organization can be liquidated. Foundations must also publish reports in nationwide print media on an annual basis. The report shall include information on number of founders; assets and property, including property transferred by founders; income from events, income from economic activities, and other income; expenditures on public benefit activities as provided by the organization's statute; the number of for-profit organizations created by the foundation or where the foundation participates to carry out economic activities.
Sanctions, suspension, liquidation. Registering bodies may impose sanctions on public associations, including written warnings, suspension of activity, and liquidation.
The activity of a public association or union may be suspended for one to six months by a court decision based on an application of the appropriate registering body. First, the registering body must issue a written warning. Then the public association or union has an opportunity to eliminate the violations within the established deadline and inform the registering office in writing with documented proof. When a public association or union is suspended for a term specified by a court decision, the public association or union is forbidden from carrying out any activity, except for those aimed at eliminating the violations. In practice, registering bodies rarely initiate the suspension procedure.
the organization is suspended and fails to correct the violations within deadlines set by the relevant court decision.
In accordance with the recent amendments to the law on public associations, in case of failing to submit the reporting documents to the registering body for three years in sequence, the organization can be liquidated.
A public association or union can also be liquidated by a court decision for a single violation of the Law on Mass Events, as well as for violations of the requirements established by applicable law for use of gratuitous foreign aid. A public association may also be liquidated for unlicensed or prohibited activity or other repeated or gross violations of applicable laws (this usually gives grounds for the liquidation of an "undesirable" organization).
As a rule, courts take the side of the registering body and the petition to liquidate. Forced liquidations of public associations were carried out in Belarus en masse in 2001-2004.
Tax sanctions may be used against NPOs as well. For example, the Helsinki Committee of Belarus is supposed to pay more than 205 million Belarusian rubles in taxes and fines for using European Community (EC) grants received in 2002-2003, which are tax-exempt under international agreements. Notably, tax sanctions were imposed on only two of the more than 30 NPOs that received EC technical assistance funding.
NPO leaders and members are also subject to pressure from the state. In 2011, the leader of the Advocacy Center Vyasna and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR), Ales Bialiatski, was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. Under significant international pressure Bialiatski was released on June 21, 2014 before the end of his sentence.
GONGOs. The Belarusian government has set up its own NPOs (GONGOs), such as the Public Association Belarusian Republican Union of Youth and the Republican Public Association Belaya Rus.
The ability to engage in free expression and advocacy is severely curtailed in Belarus. As evidence, there is only one advocacy-based public association with national status registered in Belarus. There are effectively no independent media organizations.
Permission is necessary to hold any mass event, which includes, but is not limited to, any mass gathering of citizens in a pre-determined public place (including outdoors) at a set time, with the intention to commit a pre-determined act, organized (including online organizations or other information networks) for public expression of their social and political attitudes or to protest.
In the majority of cases, NPOs are excluded from the decision-making process and have no input on government policies and lawmaking. The Law on Normative Legal Acts in the Republic of Belarus #361-Z of January 10, 2000 (amended as of July 2, 2009) provides for nothing but the right of public associations to submit their proposals during the legislative drafting process. Significantly, the adoption of amendments to the Law on Public Associations in 2013 was carried out without discussions with NPOs. NPOs' request for parliamentary hearings was disregarded; as a result, NPOs held their own consultations and provided the Ministry of Justice with recommendations for improvements.
In a positive development for NPOs, Presidential Directive #4 of December 31, 2010 introduced mandatory public review of draft legislation that may impact significantly on the conditions of entrepreneurial activity. The directive instructs national-level state administration bodies and other state organizations subordinate to the Government of the Republic of Belarus, oblast executive committees, and the executive committee of the city of Minsk to establish public-consultative and/or expert councils. The councils should include representatives of businesses and their associations and unions and are required to publish relevant draft legislation on their official websites and/or the mass media. This directive, however, has limited application.
The Belarusian authorities hinder NPOs' communication with organizations abroad. Since 2011, the number of representatives from foreign advocacy organizations who were denied entry to the country increased. The prohibition was extended even to those foreign nationals who do not require an entry visa under Belarus' international agreements, including even citizens of its Allied State, the Russian Federation.
Funding from abroad must be registered with the Department for Humanitarian Activities at the President's Administration of the Republic of Belarus. The Department reviews and approves or denies various forms of foreign funding, including gratuitous funding for CSOs and technical assistance for public authorities, as regulated by Decree #5 of the President of the Republic of Belarus on Foreign Gratuitous Aid , and the Cabinet of Ministers' R egulation #590 on technical assistance.
(3) The list of objectives for which foreign funding can be used has expanded to embrace new activities, e.g. development of arts and culture, environmental protection, prevention of crime and promotion of a law-abiding lifestyle, strengthening the material-technical base of government agencies, and reconstruction of social facilities.
Decree #5 bans the use of foreign aid in three cases: extremist activities, political campaigns and seminars, and "other political propaganda work with the population". These prohibitions are so vaguely worded as to raise concerns regarding subjective and arbitrary implementation. The Department of Humanitarian Affairs also has more oversight over the distribution of foreign funding and its schedule and objectives. Under Decree #5, legal entities that are beneficiaries of the humanitarian assistance are required to report to the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on the use of the received funding. The v iolation of legal rules on gratuitous foreign aid triggers administrative and criminal responsibility. For example, in 2013, the pensioners' organization "Our Generation" was fined 5 million Belarusian roubles (500 USD) for illegal use of foreign aid.
In July 2015, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a new edition of the regulation on technical assistance, Resolution #590 of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus on Certain Changes and Amendments in Some Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. As a result of this new resolution , the number of documents for registration has been reduced. The requirement for receiving permits from local authorities on holding seminars and meetings under technical assistance projects has been waived. The R esolution established a new Coordination Council on Technical Assistance at the Cabinet of Ministers. The Council now consists of representatives of public authorities and NPOs as well as donors. More information is available from the FAQ page of the Department for Humanitarian Activities at the President's Administration of the Republic of Belarus.
The legislation of the Republic of Belarus lists the purposes for which NPOs may receive aid from Belarusian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. A violation of the procedure of rendering and using such aid triggers administrative responsibility.
Belarus lacks an open and transparent system of funding NPOs from the state budget and of informing the public about such funding.
Belarusian law forbids public associations and unions (coalitions) of public associations from engaging in independent entrepreneurial activity. They may do so only by participating in or founding a for-profit entity. Consumer societies and sports societies entered in a special list are exceptions to this rule.
There are no tax benefits for donations to NPOs.
Article 35. The freedom to hold assemblies, meetings, street marches, demonstrations and pickets, which do not disturb law and order or violate the rights of other citizens of the Republic of Belarus, shall be guaranteed by the State. The procedure of holding the above-mentioned events shall be determined by law.
The specific law governing assemblies is the Law on Mass Events (LoME) No. 114-3 of December 30, 1997, with amendments. The law defines several types of "mass events," such as: (a) assembly, (b) meeting, (c) street rally, (d) demonstration, (e) picketing, and (f) other mass event.
On July 17, 2018, the Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Mass Events (Belarusian). The amendments introduce notification (instead of advance authorization) for mass events if held in a few select pre-approved non-central locations. Otherwise, authorization continues to be required for all events except for those that are organized by public authorities. The amendments also restrict individuals who are serving a suspended sentence from submitting applications to be organizers of mass events, which will prevent politically persecuted activists from initiating events. People who violated the Law on Mass Events in the previous year or who have committed crimes against peace, public order, and morality against the state order also cannot serve as organizers of mass events. The law will come into effect on January 26, 2019.
Citizens of the Republic of Belarus permanently resident on its territory, of 18 years of age and over, and eligible to vote, and organizations registered in the prescribed manner, excluding organizations whose activities were terminated by legislative acts, may be organizers of an assembly of no more than 1000 participants.
Thus, non-citizens of Belarus, citizens not permanently resident in the country, and minors are restricted from organizing certain assemblies.
public expression by a citizen or a group of citizens of socio-political group, personal or other interests, or a protest (without rally) on problems, including a hunger strike, with or without using posters, streamers, or other means. The joint mass presence of citizens in a public place set in advance (including open space), at a specific time, for conducting a planned action, organized (including through global computer Internet network or other information networks) in order to publicly express social and political interests or a protest, equals to picketing.
Article 5 of the LoME states that all public actions or mass events, including single pickets, require an application for permission to be submitted to the local authorities 15 days in advance. Article 15 requires that the application contain, among other details, the "source of funding of the mass event." Attached to the application must be a written pledge on organizing and holding the mass event from the organizer(s) or people responsible for organizing and holding the mass event.
Notably, the prohibition does not apply to events organized by state authorities.
Local authorities create additional 'place restrictions' by using their authority to prohibit mass events in certain places and therefore forcing organizers to hold mass events in designated areas, such as on the outskirts of a city or in places far from the target audience.
(a) mass events held five or less days prior to the elections, referendum, and deputy recall are permitted only in specially designated places for holding mass events, excluding mass events organized by state authorities.
(b) holding assemblies, meetings, street rallies, demonstrations and picketing is prohibited between 10pm and 8am.
(c) set up tents or other temporal structures.
The LoME also includes media restrictions. Prior to receiving authorization to hold the mass event the organizer(s) or other individuals shall not be entitled to announce the date, place and time of the event in the media, on the Internet global computer network or on other information networks, or to produce and disseminate leaflets, placards, or other materials for this purpose. Liability is a fine or arrest for up to 15 days.
Belarusian police have frequently used excessive force during mass events organized by the political opposition. Violent crackdowns on demonstrators are also common during and immediately after electoral campaigns. For example, during the protests that followed the presidential elections in December 2010, more than 600 people were arrested.
Article 42 of Criminal Code on "Organization and Participation in Actions Rudely Violating Public Order" places criminal responsibility on organizers of and participants in mass events that "rudely" violate public order. Responsibility also comes when participants in the event cause disruptions to transport, enterprises, organizations and establishments. The punishment includes a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years. This article has been used repeatedly against participants and organizers of opposition meetings.
In accordance with Article 293 of the Criminal Code on "Mass Disorder," violators may face punishment of imprisonment for up to 8 years. This article was used to convict several presidential candidates in the wake of the protests in December 2010.
Anais Marin has been appointed as a new Special Rapporteur on the situation with human rights in Belarus at the UN Human Rights Council. Her candidature was recommended for this post by the UN Human Rigts Council chairman Vojislav Šuc. Marin, born in France in 1977, is a political scientist who cooperated with the Finish Institute of International Relations. Apart from Belarusian, which she understands and can read, Anais is fluent in French, English and Russian.
A wave of raids and arbitrary arrests targeting independent publishers and journalists in Belarus highlights oppressive new rules against internet media in the country, says the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti.
The Minsk offices of tut.by and belapan.by, Belarus's biggest independent websites, have been searched by police. The police raid is reportedly linked to a criminal investigation into alleged unauthorized access to paid services of the government-owned BelTA news agency.
The Dialogue allowed for an extensive exchange of views on the situation with human rights both in Belarus and in the European Union, focusing in particular on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association; electoral rights; the death penalty; penitentiary reform; anti-discrimination policy; gender equality; and the fight against violence in the family.
The resolution supports the EU's critical engagement with Belarus, as long as it is conditioned on the Belarusian authorities' complete respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights. The document urges continued EU support to civil society organizations and human rights defenders.
Belarus has a "devastating" record on human rights which has worsened over two decades as the president has consolidated his grip on absolute power, a UN human rights expert has told the General Assembly in New York.
Three out of six Young Front activists earlier accused of preparing riots during the March 25 demonstration in Minsk have been freed from criminal charges. Zmitser Dashkevich, Siarhei Palcheuski and Raman Vasiliyeu have received letters from the KGB, saying that their criminal case under part 3 of Article 293 was closed 'due to lack of evidence'. The Young Front activists were arrested on March 22-23, but soon released on own recognizance.
This is a documentary by Al Jazeera on March protest in Belarus.
Read this call to the UNHRC by international NGOs for a renewal of the Special Rapporteur's mandate for Belarus.
Read this overview of the situatuion with human rights in Belarus in May 2017.
The Belarus government has returned to a policy of large-scale repression, causing a dramatic deterioration in human rights, according to a report published on Monday for submission to next month's session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
United Nations-appointed independent expert on the human rights situation in Belarus has expressed dismay over the Government's return to the policy of violent mass repression against peaceful demonstrators, non-governmental organizations, journalists and political opponents, and is calling on the authorities there to stop harassment and violence.
Armed riot police were deployed in cities across Belarus and the internet was shut down across the country on a day of protest and human rights marches. People were reported to be still attempting to demonstrate in the capital, Minsk, as well as in Brest and Grodno, on what was the National Freedom Day. There were sporadic outbreaks of violence as masked police closed down key roads and charged at marchers to stop crowds from forming. Witnesses claimed it was the most determined crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko in what has been two months of protests and opposition to his 23-year rule.
On 23rd December, Minsk hosted the eighth Civil Society Champions award ceremony. Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs marked the most outstanding and interesting events in the public sector for the current year.
A human rights activist said that the lifting of the EU sanctions in February 2016 became a deterrent to reprisals against civil society. However, the pressure on political activists continues. "For example, the number of persons punished this year for holding peaceful assemblies, according to our estimates, has tripled. Fines of $300-500 are a strain on their incomes," Bialiatski said.
The Investigative Committee have initiated criminal cases under article 130 (inciting hatred) against Yury Paulavets and Dzmitry Alimkin, the official statement confirms on December 8. The criminal cases have been initiated upon the application of the Information Ministry, with the assessment of the blogs by the National Expert Commission on Extremism. The articles concerned were published on websites Regnum, Lenta.ru, EADaily and authored by Yury Paulavets (pennames Mikalay Radau and Pavel Yuryntsau) and Dzmitry Alimkin (penname Alla Bron).
TUT.BY issues a rating of activists according to the number and amount of fines discharged. All data is taken from open sources, media and human rights defenders. For 1,5 years, the total fines amounted to almost USD 55,000; the list headed by Ales Makaev, a leader of entrepreneurs with a fine of USD 9,700.
Study of the Centre for European Transformation presents an analytical paper on the donor assistance system for Belarus, with a focus on the financing the civil society and the EU member states' contribution. In 2006-2014, Belarus received donor support in the amount of over USD 1 billion with a historical maximum in 2010 (USD 147.9 mill). The total EU's assistance for civil society was about 20%.
Read the European Parliament's Resolution on situation in Belarus.
The UN special rapporteur for Belarus, up for renewal this week, is still banned from entering the country. But the monitoring mechanism is needed now more than ever.
The Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) made a statement where it calls on the Belarusan authorities to initiate talks with representatives of the Belarusan National Platform of the EaP CSF (BNP) on the establishment of a Belarusan Council of National Dialog.
Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs and Legal Transformation Center of Belarus prepared the annual Freedom of Associations and Legal Conditions for Non-Profit Organizations in Belarus review for 2015.


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USS Falgout (DER-324) Areas With Asbestos Exposure
The USS Falgout (DER-324) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort laid down on May 24, 1943, and launched on July 24, the same year. It was commissioned on November 15, 1943, under Lt. Comdr. H. A. Meyer's command with the hull number DE-324 and served in the U.S. Navy for 26 years until it was decommissioned on October 10, 1969. During its activities, the ship carried a complement of 209 people on board and had its main missions in Bermuda, New York, Norfolk, Algiers, Costa Rica, Seattle, Charleston, North Africa, Pearl Harbor, and Florida. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on June 1, 1975, and used as a target ship during training exercises in 1977. For the services brought to the country during World War II, the USS Falgout received one battle star. The asbestos-containing products used onboard ships served to insulate and to provide fireproof alternatives to previous materials. Some applications included pipe covering to insulate turbines, engines, hot steam pipes, hot water lines, fuel lines, and other equipment that reaches extreme temperatures. Asbestos could also be found on ships in brakes, boilers, gaskets, valves, adhesives, flooring, and lagging.
Everyone who served on the USS Falgout (DER-324) inhaled the asbestos fibers and is at risk for developing lung disease
Shipmates on USS Falgout (DER-324)
charles e. allen
william arnold allen
robert joseph arft
james owen besheer
charles rudolph cain
allen l. dale
john c. dichard
herman l. gilmer jr
robert mccowin
james ronald moore
nick napzok
robert d. schimmel
michael vecchio
w. j. wysocki

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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john foggin in Uncategorized September 6, 2019 2,415 Words
Bridges and troubled waters. Gráinne Tobin [1]
(This last appeared as a post in The Wider Web on the Write Out Loud poetry site)
I've reached a point where I can hardly bear to listen to or watch news programmes, when politicians lie effortlessly and without shame, and when total strangers spew bile at each other on what we call, without apparent irony, 'social media'.
So I thought it appropriate to devote two posts to a poet I met in the most divided community I've ever spent time in, because right now I need all the hope I can get.
There's a Bob Neuwirth song that I can't get out of my head . Venice beach.It doesn't stand up as poetry. It's sentimental, in the way of good Americana. But I've always loved it, especially the second verse:
Broken promise on the beach, empty feeling heading home
with that sense of being free that's only all alone,
and as the water reached my feet, I looked down into the foam,
and lying just beyond my reach lay a perfect heart-shaped stone.
It does that thing that a good song does, of matching a mood, and putting a tune to it that won't leave you. It's how I felt when I woke upa couple of years ago to find that I wouldn't be a European anymore, and nor would my grandchildren. And if this sounds sentimental, I'm not apologising.
So what's that to do with the image of a squaddie patting down a guy on a shopping street where no one seems to find it unusual or a matter for concern? Well, this was Belfast in the early 80's, where for the first time in my life I was stopped by two young squaddies who jumped out of an armoured car and pointed loaded weapons at me, and demanded 'Eye dee'.
I was a visiting tutor for a week at Stranmillis College, and I was walking back from the theatre on my own. I've never got over the culture shock of that week, the business of routinely having bags searched at shop doors, the barbed wire, the breeze-block defended pub doorways, and, above all, the way everyone went about their business as if it was normal.
This is where social and religious and political division will take you.
The course I was tutoring on was in-service for all the heads of English in Northern Ireland. One afternoon I ran an optional poetry workshop (badly enough, but I didn't know better then) and met today's guest poet, Graínne Tobin, who was even younger than me, and who wrote a draft that has always stayed with me. It was about the small town where she lived. It's a Protestant town, and then she was one of the few Catholics in the community. And she was married to an Englishman. The Orange Lodge boys had come round to say they'd be hanging their bunting in the street and on her house. When she told then they couldn't, she was subject to a campaign of menace. Eventually, the bunting was hung up. It was unnerving to finally read a finished version of that draft, earlier this year, 30 years later. The poem is 'Rural retreat' from Banjaxed [2002]. Here's the town.
It's a beautiful place at the foot of the Mournes. What's not on this photo is the graffiti telling Bobby Sands to get on with his dying, or the boys who followed a careful distance behind us, whistling The Sash. I was more scared there than in the middle of Belfast. It stuck hard did that visit to Annalong with Graínne in 1981.That's what nationalism and sectarianism does.
But I didn't have to live there, and I came home. I kept in touch with Graínne for a time as she set up a N.I. branch of N.A.T.E., and then life got complicated, as it does, and that was it until three years ago when I met her again in the largely wonderful virtual world of Facebook. She sent me her two poetry collections, and the bilingual anthology she collaborated on, and told me all the amazing things she'd been doing. I fell for the poems, and asked her to be a Cobweb Polished Gem. And here she is to speak for herself, as she always has.
"Gráinne Tobin (she writes) is believed to be mostly harmless. She was born in 1951 in Portadown, in a maternity home which later became the local HQ of the Orange Order.. She was brought up as Catholic but has been an atheist for the last 49 years. She and her parents belonged to the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement in its innocent early days.
At university in Canterbury, she met an English student, Andy Carden, when they were both part of a social action group visiting the high security Borstal in Dover. He became her husband and moved to Ireland with her, against the 1970s flow of people fleeing Northern Ireland for the safety of Britain. Both worked in the education service – Gráinne taught in further and adult education and then in Shimna Integrated College – and are now retired. They have been closely involved in the movement for integrated education and have helped to set up two integrated state schools.
In the 1980s when they had a young child and another on the way, they ran into sectarian trouble in their idyllic-looking fishing village and were under some threat in their home (which is when we met)They have lived since then in Newcastle, Co Down .
She was a member of the Word of Mouth Poetry Collective which offered encouragement to female poets locally through readings and poetry parties; it ran for 25+ years, until it affectionately decided to wind itself up in June 2016.
Most members went on to publish individual collections. The group made a connection with some Russian women poets which led to collaborative translation projects, and readings in St Petersburg and Belfast.
Gráinne Tobin's books are Banjaxedand The Nervous Flyer's Companion(Summer Palace Press) and she contributed to the Word of Mouth Poetry Collective's anthology of translations from five St Petersburg women poets, When the Neva Rushes Backwards(Lagan Press).
Her poems have been published in anthologies, and in literary magazines such as Poetry Ireland Review and Magma.. She has won the Segora Poetry competition in France, was long-listed for the UK's National Poetry Competition and the Fish Poetry Prize, ….and a lot more.
Her poem, Learning to Whistlewas made into a sculpture and is on display in Down Arts Centre.
I would happily sit and read poem after poem to you, relishing their clear-eyed honesty, their range, their verbal and rhythmical sure-footedness. Hearing the voice, like the one in Scabies 1970 (from The nervous flyer's companion)..
The whole town knew someone in the prison –
pinpoints of blood on the children's sheets
were not from hives or the strawberry harvest.
How's that for an opening line? And how's that for the resonances of 'hives' and 'strawberry'…there are two words that really pull their weight. I'm also envious of the way that Graínne can look steadily at atrocity, and its dazed survivors in poems like Bad news from home. (from Banjaxed)
There's an emptiness in the scattered street
where women wander, talking to the wind,
blood on their faces, looking for each other.
If you're looking for the image that fixes the moment that makes a poem a poem, how about this from Mortal sin…..
Grown to the age of reason and her first confession
she runs into clean air like a sheet
drying in the wind of absolution.
It's moments like this that always make me think the Irish have the unfair advantages (in poetry) of accent and of Catholicism. But enough. You've waited patiently, and here comes Graínne's selection of her poems..and, which is nice for me, her commentarires on them. Which means I can now put up my feet and just enjoy myself. First up, the seaside.
Happy Days in Sunny Newcastle
The air's washed now,
last night's sad leavings
swept up and away.
Van drivers park outside the bakery
with fried eggs held in breakfast soda farls .
Arcades of slot machines
lie berthed between spent streams
that slip downhill to a tideline flagged with pebbles,
faded wood, wrecked loot, rubber gloves, broken glass
abraded to droplets by the tumbling waves.
The daily walker on his coatless course
between youth and age,
observing wading birds and children's games.
Up for a trip, out for a drive,
dandering down the promenade.
Loudhailer hymns, crusaders' tracts
warn of strange temptations
offered to ice- cream lickers,
candy-floss lovers.
In the chip-shops' wake the street
opens to the sea
which is the reason for everything,
shingle bank,
shops and houses,
foundations sunk in marsh,
confined by a shadowed arm
where mountains lift out of the water,
growing darkness like moss
over the forest where the young
roost with beer and campfires.
Heron pacing the harbour at twilight
stiff-collared in clerical grey,
squinting at coloured lights
edging the bay.
Far out, the lighthouse signalling
Good – night
chil – dren.
(Happy Days in Sunny Newcastle was a banner above a local seaside joke and souvenir shop. There is a local eccentric everyone knows, who walks the roads every day in a tweed jacket. And when our son was tiny I used to tell him the lighthouse was flashing goodnight to him though his bedroom window. )
[Me…I love the 'sea that is the reason for everything', the business of protestant tracts, the textures…at the same time there's something slightly disturbing going on. And even more so in the next]
Tell me a really story. Tell me what it was like
when you were small, which way you walked to school,
the garden where you tried to dig to the other side of the world,
your uncle's rows of leafy plants to eat,
the orchard tree you climbed to hide,
the old lady waving from the window, the bags of coloured sweets
and the house you were told you'd inherit.
Apricots and lemons.
If you go there, pick some for me.
Tierhogar, Spelga, Qatamon.
The names are spells.
When you shovelled soil aside with your scaled-down spade,
did you know you'd come out where you are now?
That your children would save cereal boxes
to reconstruct your home in sticky-tape and cardboard?
Tell me what happened. Exactly.
(This was written in 2006 well before the current refugee crisis. It was prompted by going to an art exhibition while on a teacher fellowship in Oxford – two women photographers, Israeli and Palestinian Arab. One photographed the family lemon orchard a friend could no longer visit because of travel restrictions on Palestinians. So Qatamon stands for such places. Tierhogar was sold and demolished, my mother's lost cottage of childhood, for which she always longed. And Spelga is a drowned reservoir-valley near us in Co Down).
The next one nails it for me in one couplet:In her neat suburb of the dead / you'll need no A to Zed
The Catholic Graveyard in Armagh
Push away the feather quilt,
alert for the small hours review.
Here comes the siren, whoo, whoo,
to rattle your dazed heart.
Now the compulsory tour
of the raw trench where you left her,
wearing her navy dress as waked at home
among chrysanthemums, china cups
and a murmur of rosaries in her own back room.
Neighbours in sequence are addressed
as if they live here: Mrs So-and-So?
Third on the right.The sister and the father
under their slab in the new vernacular,
polished black marble, inscribed in gold,
carried from China for twelve weeks by sea.
She's two plots away from the tidiest grave in town.
Fresh flowers always, though it took a year
to find a lad his executioners hid.
In her neat suburb of the dead
you'll need no A to Zed,
killers and killed housed side by side
when booby trap or bullet
levelled their last breath.
Weeds came up over her while your back was turned.
Geraniums from Cemetery Sunday,
candles in plastic holders and a varnished cross
maintain old decency until granite
can name her true and final death.
(My mother's death left me reeling, and recalibrating everything. I am the only one of 7 siblings in Ireland. The rest are in England and Wales. So the day-to-day elder-care, and the funeral and grave arrangements, mostly fell to me. Cruse Bereavement Care helped me to hold on to sanity at the point when I wrote this poem. The title does stick its tongue out at Lowell. That graveyard has the neighbouring corpses of my best friend's police constable dad and his INLA murderers. Plus everyone else on the Catholic side of the town. It was the subject of a nasty snobby chapter in Kate Adie's memoir in which she misses several vital points. Cemetery Sunday is when there is a three-line whip on families to clean and decorate graves and stand beside them for an open-air Mass. Ugh! I used to bring my father to attend, beside my mother's grave in which he would remark that he would also be buried, and after both parents died, my sister heroically came over from England to relieve me of it. Oul' dacencies can get too much at times.)
It's not all dark, though it's always serious. The last one takes you on a busride you weren't quite expecting. Fingers crossed that WordPress will let me keep the layout as it should be. (of course it didn't. So let's see what converting to a jpeg will manage. Yayy. It works )
(This was partly prompted by a poet friend's objection to current Irish poems which ignore modernity in favour of bogs and swans. There is a backlash against all this rural Oirishry, which amuses me, since so many of us really are still rural, but I'm also drawn to the idea of a debunking nature poem.)
So, there we are. Next week we'll get up to date on what Graínne did next. See you then.
Poetry that really matters: Ann Gray (Part Two)
A loss you can't imagine: young men and suicide


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Motley Fool Australia » Investing » 4 ways to beat complexity and uncertainty in your portfolio
4 ways to beat complexity and uncertainty in your portfolio
Mike King | June 27, 2012
Atul Gawande -- surgeon and author of The Checklist Manifesto -- recently delivered a speech at Williams College in the US. Gawande related how, as a young buck, he was impressed with the intricate skills of surgeons and that drove him to become a surgeon himself.
However, once he was in his surgical residency, he learned that those fine motor skills weren't the key to being a top-notch surgeon. "Instead," he said, "the critical skills of the best surgeons I saw involved the ability to handle complexity and uncertainty."
Atul Gawande — surgeon and author of The Checklist Manifesto — recently delivered a speech at Williams College in the US. Gawande related how, as a young buck, he was impressed with the intricate skills of surgeons and that drove him to become a surgeon himself.
However, once he was in his surgical residency, he learned that those fine motor skills weren't the key to being a top-notch surgeon. "Instead," he said, "the critical skills of the best surgeons I saw involved the ability to handle complexity and uncertainty."
If there are two things that investors eternally grapple with, it's those twin demons of complexity and uncertainty. The speech got me thinking: How do I deal with complexity and uncertainty in my investing? Here are four strategies that I use.
1. Look for signposts
It'd be nice to claim a full, nuanced grasp of all the moving parts of one of the most well-known US companies, Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire is a company with huge, complex insurance operations that span everything from plain-vanilla auto insurance to massive specialty catastrophe coverage. Fully understanding that alone would be an impressive feat. But Berkshire is also the owner of one of the U.S.' largest rail systems, a multibillion-dollar portfolio, a regulated power company, and a wide array of individual businesses including Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, and See's Candy.
There's some serious complexity for you.
A complete understanding of all of the complexities of a company like Berkshire may be out of the question, but what we can do is look for signposts of a successful company. For financial companies like Berkshire, for instance, book value is a key measure. For the decade ending in 2011, Berkshire grew its book value at an average annual rate of 11% per year, an attractive rate for a company that size. For other companies you may look at metrics like return on equity,revenue growth, profit margins, or balance sheet strength.
Investors have heard over and over again, "Past performance does not guarantee future results," but by looking for signals of a successful company — even if they don't guarantee future success — investors can gravitate toward the best companies even in the face of considerable complexity.
2. Invest in businesses you understand
No. 1 above isn't enough by itself. For proof of that, just ask bank investors. Macquarie Group Limited (ASX: MQG) for instance, appeared to be a solid-performing, high-quality bank based on its 2007 return on equity of over 22%. But then… well, we all know how that has played out.
(As a clue, Macquarie's share price hit a high of over $97 in 2007. It's currently trading around $25.)
Many investors may have understood the risks that they were running by investing in a bank with a high proportion of its income from its so-called satellite funds and corporate transactions. However, some may have been caught completely by surprise as they assumed that the outward performance measures told the entire story.
So while you may not be able to fully unpack the complexity of a given company, it's imperative that you have enough of an understanding to know what you don't know and appreciate the risks you're taking.
3. Accept uncertainty
The first step to combating a problem is admitting that you have one, right? Well, if you're going to be an investor, you better get comfortable with the fact that there's always uncertainty. Always.
Uncertainty means that unexpected, bad things can happen to good companies. And because we're talking about predicting the future here, even when there's nothing wildly unexpected, sometimes investors are just plain wrong.
The old saw "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket" not only suggests that you have multiple baskets, but it also assumes that you have multiple eggs. An investor who's accepted uncertainty and wants to safeguard his or her retirement collects a bunch of eggs from a bunch of different birds and divvies them up into multiple baskets, combining stocks,bonds, real estate, commodities, and cash.
For stocks in particular, that could mean finding multiple attractive individual stocks, or going with Exchange Traded Index Trackers such as State Street Global Advisors' SPDR S&P/ASX200 Fund (ASX: STW), which seeks to closely match the returns of the S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO).
4. Use time arbitrage
That is, buying when short-term concerns are weighing down the stock and profiting by hanging on for the long term.
This is a great strategy for not only dealing with, but profiting from, uncertainty. BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) is a global resources company with significant exposure to China — which is more than enough to create significant near-term uncertainty. But for investors that are looking at BHP as a long-term bet, the stock currently has a dividend yield of more than 3% and an earnings yield (the inverse of the price-to-earnings ratio) of more than 13%.
In other words, having a long time horizon can help investors not only deal with uncertainty, but profit from it.
Speaking of long term
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Spain's problems are swept under the rug…for now
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Motley Fool contributor Mike King owns shares in BHP Billiton. The Motley Fool's purpose is to help the world invest, better. Take Stock is The Motley Fool's free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Click here now to request your free subscription, whilst it's still available. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.
A version of this article, written by Matt Koppenheffer, originally appeared on fool.com


The general public has numerous misconceptions and a lack of awareness and understanding regarding some of the prevalence, characteristics, and treatments of autism. As a result, education and awareness activities to increase the general public's understanding and awareness of autism are important. This study was conducted throughout Utah to inform public education and awareness efforts being planned as part of Utah's State Plan for Improving Outcomes for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Development Disorders.
Originally identified as an ornithischian dinosaur, Crosbysaurus harrisae has been found in New Mexico, Arizona, and its type locality in Texas, as well as in North Carolina. The genus has been reassessed by other workers in light of reinterpretations about the postcrania of another putative Triassic ornithischian, Revueltosaurus. The understanding of Triassic dental faunas has become more complicated by the extreme convergence between pseudosuchian archosaurs and ornithischian dinosaur dental morphologies. We report here on a new specimen of Crosbysaurus (MNA V10666) from the Chinle Formation at Comb Ridge in southeastern Utah. This new specimen is assigned to Crosbysaurus sp. on the basis of the unique compound posterior denticles, labiolingual width, and curvature. While MNA V10666 does not help resolve the affinities of Crosbysaurus, it does represent the extension of the geographic range of this taxon for approximately 250 kilometers. This is the first record of the genus Crosbysaurus in Utah and as such it represents the northernmost known record of this taxon. This indicates that Crosbysaurus was not limited to the southern area of the Chinle/Dockum deposition but instead was widespread across the Late Triassic paleoriver systems of western Pangea. The reported specimen was found in close association with a typical Late Triassic Chinle fauna, including phytosaurs, metoposaurs, and dinosauromorphs.
By voting repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) over the past 4 years, Republicans have risked being identified as a party without a positive health policy agenda. On January 27, 2014, however, three Republican senators - Orrin Hatch (UT), Tom Coburn (OK), and Richard Burr (NC) - unveiled a proposal that would not only repeal the ACA, but also replace it with comprehensive legislation based on Republican health policy principles.(1) Although the proposal recycles long-standing Republican prescriptions, it also offers new ideas. The proposal would not entirely repeal the ACA. Republicans seem to be coming to terms with . . .
Healthy dietary patterns may protect against age-related cognitive decline, but results of studies have been inconsistent.
We described newly discovered baenid specimens from the Uintan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA), in the Uinta Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah. These specimens include a partial skull and several previously undescribed postcranial elements of Baena arenosa, and numerous well-preserved shells of B. arenosa and Chisternon undatum. Baenids from the Uintan NALMA (46.5-40 Ma) are critical in that they provide valuable insight into the morphology and evolution of the diverse and speciose baenid family near the end of its extensive radiation, just prior to the disappearance of this clade from the fossil record. These Uintan specimens greatly increase the known variation in these late-surviving taxa and indicate that several characters thought to define these species should be reassessed. The partial cranium of B. arenosa, including portions of the basicranium, neurocranium, face, and lower jaw, was recently recovered from Uinta B sediments. While its morphology is consistent with known specimens of B. arenosa, we observed several distinct differences: a crescent-shaped condylus occipitalis that is concave dorsally, tuberculum basioccipitale that flare out laterally, and a distinct frontal-nasal suture. The current sample of plastral and carapacial morphology considerably expands the documented variation in the hypodigms of B. arenosa and C. undatum. Novel shell characters observed include sigmoidal extragular-humeral sulci, and small, subtriangular gular scutes. Subadult specimens reveal ontogenetic processes in both taxa, and demonstrate that diagnostic morphological differences between them were present from an early developmental age.


text:
from django.conf import settings
from django.test.simple import DjangoTestSuiteRunner

try: # pragma: no cover
    from xmlrunner import XMLTestRunner as runner
except: # pragma: no cover
    runner = False

class TestSuiteRunner(DjangoTestSuiteRunner): # pragma: no cover
    use_runner = runner

    def run_suite(self, suite, **kwargs):
        if self.use_runner and self.verbosity >= 2: # cooler switch for xml
            return self.use_runner(
                output=getattr(settings, 'JUNIT_OUTPUT_DIR', '.')
            ).run(suite)
        else:
            return super(TestSuiteRunner, self).run_suite(suite, **kwargs)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Amongst the spaces produced for this end, we will focus in them in shopping to center and the closed condominium for already being sufficiently spread and already having acquired enormous visibility in the city contemporary. Frgoli if relates to these spaces, increased to the enterprise centers, as ' ' processes modernizadores more recentes' ' , for being enclaves that they reject the sphere public or they search to recriar it its in accordance with private interests. Ahead of these processes of privatization the public scene would tend if to become a mere simulation. (FRUGOLI cf. ABRAHO, 2005:129) the intention to reproduce the public in the private one does not possess as reason only the fear of the violence, is part of ampler process of subordination of the space and the time to the necessities of the market, conferring to them value of merchandise (CARLOS, 2003:85). Therefore the speech of the violence and concern with well-being loads obtains other on values to the consumerism, the intention of social segregation and the desire to get or to keep prestige in the society. In this context, the process of production of the urban space follows a logic that it searchs to take care of the necessities of accumulation in the market through the constant creation of new necessities, transformation of use elements and ways of life in merchandises to be consumed.


Greener GP Martini action 12G single barrel shotgun.
12G Greener GP Martini action single barrel shotgun with 30 inch full choke barrel, 2.75 inch chamber, 14.5 inch stock, weighing 6lbs 8oz in excellent little used condition but does have some 'button' marks on the right hand side if the stock (which I think could be removed). Please ring 07860 720386 anytime 8am-8pm Mon to Sun inclusive. Stock number 3074.


In this SuperfastCPA review, Jared shares how he used SuperfastCPA to pass his CPA exams after struggling with the amount of information in his review course.
"Hi, guys. My name is Jared. I'm a CPA. And I pretty much had every bit of that thanks to SuperfastCPA. About two years ago, I finished my master's degree and decided I would apply to sit for the CPA exam. I was accepted as a candidate and I started studying. I started with FAR because I heard that you should start with what you do on a daily basis because that's typically going to be the easiest. About a month and a half into studying, I took a review test and realized that I didn't remember anything from a month ago and with two months of studying left to go, I figured this is going to be pretty much impossible, so I gave up.
About a year after that, I accepted a position with another company with one condition being that I had to finish my CPA in 12 months. I asked if I could have 18 so I could have six months to get used to the job and then another 12 months to study for the test because most people can pass within a year. Well, my about four months came up and I realized, okay, I better start getting serious and start studying.
So, I started studying for FAR again and I realized after watching the videos, actually hand writing notes, reading the textbooks that came with the study software and everything like that, that I could not remember anything I had studied in a month and a half ago and that I was probably going to fail this test. So, I've got kind of, not depressed but kind of down on myself and realized this is going to be very hard, this a better job, higher pay, higher level, I really don't want to lose it because I can't pass this test.
So, one day I was browsing through Facebook and I see an ad pop up saying, "I passed my CPA exam in three months" and I thought, well, I highly doubt that but, worse that can happen is get some spyware on my phone. So, I clicked on the link and I followed through it and I read the introduction and Nate actually show you his scores showing that he did, in fact, pass all three tests in three months. And in fact, he shows he failed the first one and then managed to take two within another month and a half or so.
So, I thought, "Okay. This might not be such a bad idea." So, I ended up buying the study program and it was absolutely worth every penny. His methods allowed me to finish all four tests in about nine months and two tests actually delayed a month because of family problems that arose, and I didn't study at all during that month. I was still able to come back and pass those on the first try. So, I did fail one test and that's because that morning I had a terrible morning, kind of went in with a bad attitude, but just studied for it again and passed it with flying colors.


text:
A Look At Life From Many Angles
← The Coming War Over the Supreme Court
Losers And Suckers →
He Lied and People Died
Posted: September 10, 2020 | Author: Tom | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: "Rage", 1918 Flu Pandemic, Bob Woodward, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Pandemic |1 Comment
"This is deadly stuff."
Donald J. Trump on 7 February 2020 to journalist Bob Woodward
In the course of writing his book Rage, Bob Woodward talked directly with the president eighteen times and recorded those conversations with Mr. Trump's permission and knowledge. The tapes and available excerpts from the book clearly show that Mr. Trump knew from the beginning that the coronavirus was deadly and yet he continually took no action and played down the threat through much of January, February and March. In important ways he still ignores the severity of the crisis.
Mr. Trump clearly is not responsible for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his belated and inconsistent response cost tens of thousands of Americans their lives.
The timeline of Mr. Trump's private statements to Mr. Woodward, matched up with his public statements about the state of the pandemic, demonstrates his callous disregard for American lives and his deliberate deception to prevent coherent actions in the early days of the crisis.
For example, Mr. Trump was briefed by his National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien that "this will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency. This is going to be the roughest thing you face." His Deputy added that this was going to be at least as bad as the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million people worldwide.
The briefing was given to him on 28 January 2020. On 7 February he told Mr. Woodward,
"You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu. This is deadly stuff."
Meanwhile on 26 February he compared the coronavirus to the flu and talked about how much worse the flu was in our country. He downplayed the threat and again compared it favorably to the flu on 9 March.
On 19 March he told Mr. Woodward,
"Now it's turning out it's just not old people, Bob. Just today and yesterday some startling facts came out. It's not just old — it's plenty of young people."
On 24 March, 6 May and 5 August he downplayed the threat to young people and focused primarily on the threat to senior citizens. In fact, during an interview in August he said,
"If you look at children, children are almost — and I would almost say definitely — but almost immune from this disease. They don't have a problem. They just don't have a problem."
There is more, but you get the idea. I suppose it should not be surprising that a president that lied over 20,000 times while in office continually lies about the pandemic. But the brazen, uncaring, callous way he treated our society is breathtaking. In the excerpts of the tapes that I have heard, I am struck most of all by the nonchalance and indifference in his voice. He truly does not care.
His avowed reason for lying to all of us (he calls it "downplaying" the impact) is that he did not want the public to "panic." That would be hilarious if the results were not so horrifying. This from a president that creates fear and campaigns on panic be it "MS-13 caravans" flooding the border, or "destroying the suburbs" or a hundred other things he has injected into our lives.
The only panic he was trying to prevent was a panic in the markets on Wall Street. He tied his reelection to the economy and he was afraid that if he told the truth, if they took the required precautions early, that there would be an economic impact. He thought he could ride it out and therefore took no action.
Put this in perspective. According to a Columbia University study, if social distancing efforts had been put in place even just one week earlier (8 March instead of 15 March) 36,000 lives in the U.S. would have been saved and there would have been 700,000 fewer infections.
That is still a month after Mr. Trump told Mr. Woodward that "this is deadly stuff."
Remember, since he was briefed in January about how the coronavirus spreads, Mr. Trump conducted campaign rallies, belittled people that wore masks, pushed for restaurants and bars to open, recommended injecting bleach into bodies, pushed hydroxychloroquine and generally brushed off all of the known precautions to stop its spread.
Based on his words and actions in pushing to reopen the economy, millions of Americans forswore masks and social distancing, gathered in bars, partied hearty, and otherwise facilitated the spread of the disease and the consequences we still feel over seven months after Mr. Trump knew the dangers inherent in this new disease.
Every American, Trump supporter or not, should be outraged. It is not hyperbole to say that his actions and inactions, with full knowledge of the threat, resulted in the loss of life.
Just as bad, his staff and advisers had the same information and said nothing. Shame on them all. They are just as guilty.
Mr. Trump failed in his primary duty as president. The president first and foremost must put the health, safety and security of all of us above all else. He still refuses to do so. His enablers continue to lie for him, cover up for him, and allow him to put himself above all. He insults us by saying he was just trying to be a "cheerleader" for our country. His enablers say he was just doing what any good leader does by projecting a calm demeanor. They even dare to compare him to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hogwash.
Their words and actions are despicable. Tell that to the families and friends of the nearly 200,000 dead Americans.
He lied and people died.
One Comment on "He Lied and People Died"
elhabels@aol.com says:
"But in case signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no captain can go very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy." -- Admiral Horatio Nelson
A Shameful Day In America
The Cult Trying To Steal Our Country
Lighting The Match At The Reichstag
elhabels on The Big Lie
Mike West on A Shameful Day In America
elhabels on Looney Tunes
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text:
Unacademy-run edtech platform Relevel lays off 20% of its workforce
The laid-off employees will receive the same benefits that were given to current employees in November. The remaining 80% will be transferred to other departments in the Unacademy group.
Relevel, an ed-tech platform run by Unacademy, has laid off 20 per cent of its workforce. This means almost 40 employees of the company are fired.
This decision comes as the focus of the company shifts from the education business to testing products and a new app called NextLevel.
Unacademy's co-founder and CEO, Gaurav Munjal, said in an internal memo that the remaining 80 per cent of Relevel's team will be transferred to other departments of the Unacademy Group.
Munjal wrote, "We will have to let go of around 20 per cent (around 40 people) of the team because of the lack of availability of roles for them."
The laid-off employees will receive the same benefits that were given to current employees in November. The package includes severance pay equivalent to the notice period and an additional two months of pay, accelerated vesting of benefits, medical insurance coverage, and support in finding a new job.
In November 2022, Unacademy laid off 350 employees, which is nearly 10 per cent of its workforce.
Munjal further said that the company, Relevel, will be shifting its focus from the education business in the upcoming months to focus completely on its test product and the newly launched app called NextLevel.
The existing 'learner cohorts' won't be impacted, and Relevel's team will continue to provide high-quality learning experiences and outcomes to the learners enrolled in those, according to Munjal's statement.
The CEO also said that the core team of Relevel will focus on building NextLevel.
eight + 17 =
20&
lay off
Unacadamy
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HRK News Bureau - February 10, 2020
Notice of voluntary retirement, once accepted, cannot be withdrawn


If you do want the full logs, they are available at the source links below.
As you can see, it's mostly bug fixes and updates, but some of the changes like faster face recognition and the navigation button tweaks can add up to a good chunk of saved time. Keep in mind that this new faster face recognition option is also less secure. So if you're worried about that sort of thing, you may wish to keep that disabled to stay on the older, slower method.
The navigation bar update is pretty simple, the single tap of the lock/unlock button to prevent nav bar changes is now a double-tap. What's left are bug fixes and app-updates. The biggest offender probably being the problems with Bluetooth audio which cropped-up after receiving a call. Having that fixed should save a bit of frustration behind the wheel.
It's not as big a deal as the recent Pixel update, but Galaxy S8 and S8+ users on big red should keep an eye out for it, as it should be landing soon. If you don't see an OTA, you can check in Settings -> About phone -> Software updates -> Check for Updates, and if one is available you should be prompted to download it. Just make sure you're on Wi-Fi, or that you have the data to pull it down. Though we don't know the file size, updates can be pretty big.