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Mystic River Chorale presents "Beatitude Mass: For the Homeless" by Henry Mollicone
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The Mystic River Chorale will present the Beatitude Mass: For the Homeless on Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. at Harkness Chapel at Connecticut College in New London.
This lyrical and compelling piece, by Los Angeles-based composer Henry Mollicone, weaves the Beatitudes, the text of the Mass ordinary, and words that tell the story of homeless men and women. The program also includes works by Dominick DiOrio, Ola Gjello, Michael Horvit, and Joseph Gentry Stephens. The concert will be inspiring and uplifting.
The performance will be conducted by the Chorale's Artistic Director, Frank Martingnetti, and will feature a chamber ensemble and soloists Richard Weidlich, baritone, and local favorite Eden Casteel, soprano. This new work has been performed only once before in Connecticut, in Middletown.
The composer, Henry Mollicone, and lyricist, William Luce, interviewed homeless people living in homeless shelters. The chorale sings the Latin mass with the soloists weaving in the tapestry of experiences and emotions of the homeless in English.
Mystic River Chorale is celebrating its 35th anniversary and its 11th season under the direction of Dr. Martignetti, who was a national finalist for the 2015 American Prize in choral conducting for his work the Chorale. He also serves as Director of Music & Performing Arts at the University of Bridgeport and Director of Music at Advent Lutheran Church, Manhattan.
Tickets are $25 adults/$20 seniors & active military/$15 students. For more information and tickets, call 860-460-1487 or visit www.mysticriverchorale.org Tickets will also be available at the door.
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Starting this weekend, there have been a number of articles published with inaccurate information regarding our upcoming accreditation in China. Speculation exists that there is some kind of banned list being driven by the Chinese government. This is not true. There is no banned list. There are no restrictions to registering a .xyz domain, with the exception of Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, which all new domain extensions are bound to.
The Wall Street Journal even went as far as to claim that domains like liberty.xyz and statueofliberty.xyz are being blocked due to a "deal" that I made with the Chinese government. This is completely untrue. By doing a basic WHOIS lookup or visiting the websites, anyone can easily see that both of these domains are actually registered and live on the internet.
This speculation began when a few lines of technical documentation filed with ICANN were misinterpreted. To clear the air, this technical document addressed the proactive abuse mitigation we will take to shut down phishing, pharming, malware, and other abuse in China. This is consistent with how we currently suspend abusive domains everywhere else in the world. So it is worth repeating again — THERE IS NO BANNED LIST.
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I am using WinSCP and SSIS to stage files to a Secure FTP Server. I would like to provide the "Arguments" as a SSIS Variable and am not sure of the syntax.
Do I need to enclose the whole thing in quotes within SSIS and the Execute Process Task and the Argument?
I am hoping for a SQL Server SSIS User response for building a WinSCP Argument using SSIS Variables.


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#amwriting: Physician to The Vampire
John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was an English writer and physician. He was best known for his involvement in the Romantic movement, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. He is considered by many as the originator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most successful work was the short story "The Vampyre" (1819), which was the first published, modern vampire story.
Perhaps because John Polidori was a physician, he was able to bring all the disparate elements of 19th-century vampirism mythology into a coherent, compelling short story. With just that one short story, he spawned an entire literary genre.
How did this come about? The story had its genesis in the summer of 1816, the Year Without a Summer when Europe and parts of North America underwent a severe climate abnormality.
Lord Byron and his young, twenty-year-old physician, John Polidori were staying at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva.
On the run from creditors and Shelley's ailing, understandably jealous wife, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (who later became Mary Shelley) and Claire Clairmont, Mary's stepsister, visited them.
The group was kept indoors by the incessant rain of that cold, wet, unpleasant summer during a three-day stretch in June. Bored at being cooped up, the five turned to telling fantastic tales, and which inspired them to write their own.
Reportedly, they were fueled by ghost stories such as the Fantasmagoriana, William Beckford's Vathek, and laudanum, to which Byron was addicted. Mary Shelley, in collaboration with Percy Bysshe Shelley, produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus.
Polidori was the outsider, the man who was only included as he was in the employ of Byron. Lord Byron made him the butt of many jokes at dinner parties, taking great pleasure in humiliating him. This cruel treatment of anyone in his power was well documented by his contemporaries.
Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's, Fragment of a Novel (1816), which is also known as "A Fragment" and "The Burial: A Fragment." Over the course of several mornings, he wrote "The Vampyre." The manuscript was overlooked for three years when it was discovered by a disreputable publisher, Henry Colburn. He published it in his New Monthly Magazine under the title "The Vampyre: A Tale by Lord Byron." It was received with acclaim, much to Polidori's surprise and chagrin.
Polidori struggled to assert his rights to the work, and Lord Byron did have the grace to declare promptly the work was Polidori's and not his. Despite that assertion, proper credit for authorship of the story was muddy for many years.
Still, Byron was firm that he was not the author. Apparently, Byron felt that the destruction of a man's soul was no great thing, but theft of his intellectual property was a crime.
Polidori's work had an immense impact on his contemporary readers. Numerous editions and translations of the tale were published. The influence of The Vampyre as described by Polidori has continued into the twenty-first century, as until recently, his work was frequently considered the primary source of what is accepted as "canon" when writing about vampirism.
What are the traditional tropes of vampire fantasy? First of all, we must think Lord Byron. He was an arrogant, self-centered, charismatic, sociopath with a gift for writing brilliant poetry. From birth, Byron suffered from a deformity of his right foot and by the time he hired Polidori, he was addicted to laudanum which had been prescribed for the pain. He treated the young Polidori atrociously, engendering deep antipathy for his patient in the young doctor.
Within the pages of Polidori's diary, I see "The Vampyre" as an allegory of Byron's abuse of John Polidori himself. It is easy to visualize Byron as a man possessed of the power to drain one of their soul when seen through the eyes of the man he had in his power, and whom he treated abominably as an employer.
Byron was described as the devourer of souls in the book, Glenarvon, by Lady Caroline Lamb, one of Byron's former lovers. "Ruthven" is the name Lady Caroline Lamb referred to Byron as in her novel. Polidori had read Glenarvon that summer, and blatantly used Lamb's protagonist's name for his vampire, and Byron proudly admitted he was the role model.
The Public Domain Review article, The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire, says this about the rocky relationship between Polidori and Byron:
"It was no great leap for Polidori to believe that Byron was sucking the life from him, just as others had accused Byron of possessing a charismatic power that eclipsed their own identities. Amelia Opie, one of the many women Byron had charmed, described him as having "such a voice as the devil tempted Eve with; you feared its fascination the moment you heard it," a mesmeric quality that critics also found in his verse, which had, according to the critic Thomas Jones de Powis, "the facility of…bringing the minds of his readers into a state of vassalage or subjection."
So we know vampires are charismatic and seductive. Their bite would enslave their victims. Folktales from hundreds of years ago tell us they can take the form of bats and fly through the windows of even the tallest buildings. Historically, vampires are powerful, but unable to withstand the light of day, which would burn them, and destroy them forever.
However, that which was once canon regarding vampires is no longer set in stone.
Modern vampires are often able to stay outside during the day, and some even sparkle. Many are model citizens who get their blood from robbing blood banks.
I love Stephen Swartz's medical take on vampirism in his book, A Dry Patch of Skin.
But underneath it all, I still have a fondness for the mad, bad, dangerous to know Lord Byron style of vampire.
Filed under History, Literature, vampires, writing
Tagged as John William Polidori, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, mythology, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Romantic Movement, The Vampyre
7 responses to "#amwriting: Physician to The Vampire"
alisondeluca
Love this column! I'm fascinated by The Year without a Summer, and this is a wonderful voyage back to that time.
conniejjasperson
@Alison–I have always been interested in those five people and that particular summer too.
shannonblood
Hmmm. This quote about Amelia Opie as "one of the many women Byron had charmed, described him as having "such a voice as the devil tempted Eve with; you feared its fascination the moment you heard it," a mesmeric quality that critics also found in his verse, which had, according to the critic Thomas Jones de Powis, "the facility of…bringing the minds of his readers into a state of vassalage or subjection." makes me ponder my strange fascination for Tom Hiddleston's delectable voice . . . 🙂
@Shannon, Well…you must understand–he IS Loki. Lord Byron was only a reflection of the Hiddleston's majesty.
Of course, legends from a certain region of southeastern Europe predated Polidori's inspiration, we mustn't forget. There, the dead are not so suave nor such fashion trend-setters!
@Stephen, I agree that legends abound in Europe and the Mediterranean, and have done for a thousand years at least. Of course, no respectable vampire hunter would ignore them. Those legends are the disparate roots Polidori pulled together in his work!
David P. Cantrell
Interesting read, Connie. I love learning new things.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Innovation has become synonymous with modern brewing. Your beer gear should be the same. Stainless-steel pint glasses not only look cool but they're also durable and shatterproof. The matching growler has an airtight seal so your favorite beer stays fresh and cool until you're ready to enjoy it. The growler and glasses come engraved with the initial, name, and date of your choice. It's a great gift for groomsman, dads, or anyone who needs to upgrade their beer drinking. Each of the stainless-steel pint glasses measure 5.75" x 3.5" and hold 16 ounces. The growler measures 11" x 4" and holds 64 ounces.
https://www.homewetbar.com/wax-seal-custom-stainless-steel-pint-glasses-and-growler-set-p-7449.html 5489 Wax Seal Custom Stainless Steel Pint Glasses and Growler Set https://www.homewetbar.com/media/catalog/product/7/4/7449-wax-seal-beer-growler-and-pint-set.jpg 74.95 74.9500 USD InStock /Great Gift Ideas/Gifts for Men/Gifts for Brother /Unique Personalized Gifts/Personalized Beer Glasses & Mugs /Great Gift Ideas/Gifts for Men/Beer Gifts for Men /Drinkware & Glasses/Cool Beer Glasses/Beer Growlers & Pitchers /Christmas Gift Ideas/Christmas Gifts for Dad /Christmas Gift Ideas/Gifts $50 and Up /Christmas Gift Ideas/Top Christmas Gifts Innovation has become synonymous with modern brewing. Your beer gear should be the same. Stainless-steel pint glasses not only look cool but they're also durable and shatterproof. The matching growler has an airtight seal so your favorite beer stays fresh and cool until you're ready to enjoy it. The growler and glasses come engraved with the initial, name, and date of your choice. It's a great gift for groomsman, dads, or anyone who needs to upgrade their beer drinking. Each of the stainless-steel pint glasses measure 5.75" x 3.5" and hold 16 ounces. The growler measures 11" x 4" and holds 64 ounces.


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Wildlife of New Zealand
New Zealand is a true paradise for those travelers hoping to spot some unique forms of wildlife. From the flightless kiwis to the New Zealand fur seal, the country hosts a suburb selection of native species.
Before colonization, New Zealand was home to a large host of flightless birds who lived a relatively safe and peaceful existence. When humans brought in rats, possums, and other invasive predators, things changed: the flightless birds formed an easy prey, and many of them were eaten. Up until today, the Kiwi government still tries to prevent these foreign pests from threatening their native species. At a very young age, children are taught possums 'don't belong' by funny children's books such as Donna Blaber's Bruce Goes Home, in which a homesick Australian possum is happy to be catapulted back to Aussie by his bird friends.
In this New Zealand Wildlife Spotters Guide, we'll tell you about New Zealand's fabulous animals, and where to spot them.
New Zealand fur seals resting on a rock (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
The kiwi is by far New Zealand's most famous flightless bird. Kiwis are endemic to New Zealand, and they are recognized as a symbol of the country. The term 'Kiwi' is even used as the colloquial demonym for New Zealanders. The kiwi is a descendant of the large, flightless birds that lived in the past. Nowadays it is the smallest living ratite, looking up at its distant family members the ostriches, emus, and cassowaries.
Spotting a kiwi in the wild can be difficult, as the little bird only comes out at night. Still, when following the advice of the locals, and with a bit of luck, you might just spot one visiting the forested areas in the North Island, such as Fiordland and Stewart Island. If every attempt to spot a wild kiwi fails, you can always see them in Rainbow Springs, the wildlife park in Rotorua.
There's definitely no shortage of kiwi plushies in New Zealand (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
The New Zealand kea is the world's only alpine parrot. The parrots are used to living in a harsh mountain environment, and can easily be spotted on your way to and inside the Fiordland National Park. Kea's are intelligent and curious, but can also be aggressive. Be careful with carrying eatables when you are around them, as the birds might attack you in order to get to the food.
Takahē
The South Island takahē is another one of New Zealand's endemic flightless birds. Its round body, blue feathers, and short beak make it instantly recognizable, though seeing one in the wild is rare. The New Zealand Department of Conservation set up programs to maintain the species in several locations on the South Island. The Murchison Mountains at Lake Te Anau serve as a sanctuary for the birds, and in the nearby Te Anau Bird Sanctuary you can still see a few birds as well. Takah? look similar to the equally blue pukeko's, but are larger and more brightly colored.
Meet the flightless South Island takahē (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
Moving away from the flightless birds, we get to the tui. The tui is also one of New Zealand's endemic birds. Tui boast a complex variety of songs and calls. They are easily recognized by their song and can be found throughout New Zealand. Though tui looks black from a distance, they actually feature a multicolored iridescent sheen and have distinctive white throat tufts. In M?ori culture, the tui act as spiritual messengers to the gods.
Tomtits
This little bird is endemic to New Zealand and can be found on both North Island and South Island. There's much to love about tomtits: with their large heads and small beaks they look irresistibly cute. The male tomtits on South Island boast a beautiful yellow chest. You'll have a good chance of spotting one of these cuties while hiking the Routeburn Track in the Fiordland National Park.
A tomtit on Routeburn Track (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
Sheep and Alpacas
Home to 3 million people and 60 million sheep, New Zealand features a large amount of livestock. Aside from sheep, alpacas have also made the island nation their home. The New Zealand climate is similar to that of the alpacas' home in the Andes. Clothing, rugs and even alpaca plushies using authentic, soft alpaca wool can be found in every souvenir shop on South Island.
There are many livestock farms featuring sheep and alpacas in New Zealand, but you'll find more sheep up in North Island, and more alpacas down south. This is because the popular Romney sheep are better suited for farming on the North Island, while the climate of South Island is more catered to the needs of alpacas.
Alpacas grazing in Queenstown (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
Glow worms
For a starry night sky in the middle of the day, head for one of New Zealand's stunning glow worm caves. The New Zealand glowworm is native to New Zealand and can be found on both North Island and South Island. Glow worms are insect larvae that glow through bioluminescence, lighting up the dark, water-filled caves they live in. Their light is meant to attract other insects, who get caught in the glowworms' sticky web-like lines. To get to know these wonderful luminescent creatures, head to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves in South Island, or visit the caves around Lake McLaren or the Waitomo on North Island.
New Zealand fur seals
The most famous resident of the South Island coastal town Kaikōura is the New Zealand fur seal. Hiking the Kaikōura Peninsula Walkway will be the highlight of any trip to New Zealand. The walkway threads one of the most mesmerizing coastlines in the world. The peninsula's shore itself is inhabited by thousands upon thousands of fur seals. It is a spectacle to observe how they interact, play in the water, and enjoy the comfort of their own private swimming pools that have formed on the shore's rocks – water slides and rapids included!
A playful New Zealand fur seals hiding under a rock (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
New Zealand counts several species of dolphins. Along the west coast of North Island, you can find Māui dolphins. Māuidolphins are quite rare and endemic to New Zealand. Unfortunately, the Māuidolphins are on the brink of extinction: there are less than seventy adults left in the island's waters. Other dolphin species found around New Zealand are grey bottlenose dolphins, round-finned Hector's Dolphins, and bluish-black-finned dusky dolphins.
Orcas, also known as killer whales, are the largest members of the dolphin family. Their beautiful smooth black and white pattern makes them instantly recognizable. Orcas generally eat small fish, shrimp, and cuttlefish, but they also prey on larger species, such as seals and dolphins. Orcas can often be spotted along the Kaikōura coastline on South Island between November and March.
The Kaikōura coastline is abundant with sea life. The South Island's east coast is one of the few places in the world where sperm whales can be seen all year round. The whales gather near the Kaikōura Canyon, which runs up against the east coast and offers a rich food supply. Kaikōura only features male sperm whales, gathered in so-called 'bachelor pods'. Female whales can only be found in warmer tropical waters.
Sperm whales surface approximately every 1-2 hours to fill their lungs with fresh air, and sometimes provide some spectacular breaches. If you are lucky you can spot them from the shore, but you can also get up close with these gentle giants through a whale watching tour.
A sperm whale diving near Kaikōura (Credit: The Bite-Sized Backpacker)
The migrating humpback whales of Kaikōura are known to majestically breach the surface when coming up for air. They can dive for up to 30 minutes, but usually come up for air every 15 minutes or so. When they dive again, they show off their beautiful white tails. Humpback whales pass by the east coast during Kiwi winter, which is between June and August. The whales are often playful and each individual is easily recognized, as their dorsal fins are all similarly unique to the fingerprints on humans.
Finally, New Zealand also has its own species of penguins: the little blue penguin and the yellow-eyed penguin. New Zealand's penguins can be found all over the country, but on South Island, you'll have the best chance to spot the little blue penguin. The little penguins live around the Otago Penisula and the Akaroa Peninsula. In the Catlins, a remote and untouched area near Invercargill, it is possible to spot the rare yellow-eyed penguin.
More articles on New Zealand
Fluffy in New Zealand: Highlights
The Best Places to Visit in New Zealand
Backpacking in New Zealand: a Travel Guide
Posted in: New Zealand, Oceania, Travel, Wildlife
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US Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks to federal, state and local law enforcement about efforts to combat violent crime and restore public safety at Federal Plaza on April 28, 2017 in Central Islip, New York. (Kena Betancur, AFP/Getty Images)
Sessions-driven DOJ memo will likely revive aggressive prosecution, mandatory minimum sentences
Published: May 9, 2017, 12:50 pm • Updated: May 10, 2017, 3:36 pm
By Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials have been weighing new guidance that would encourage prosecutors to charge suspects with the most serious offenses they can prove, a departure from Obama-era policies that aimed to reduce the federal prison population and reshape the criminal justice system.
The guidance is taking shape in the form of a memo that ultimately will be shared with the nation's federal prosecutors, but the timeframe for release is unclear. Drafts of the memo have been circulating for weeks and have undergone revisions, so the final language is not yet certain.
A person involved in the discussions described one version to The Associated Press speaking only on condition of anonymity because the guidance has not been publicly announced. As outlined, that version would encourage prosecutors to charge people with the most serious, provable offenses — something more likely to trigger mandatory minimum sentences. Those rules limit a judge's discretion and are typically dictated, for example, by the quantity of drugs involved in a crime.
According to The Washington Post, Sessions also may allow prosecutors to use more "enhancements" to make sentences even longer. Under what's referred to as "Section 851" of the Controlled Substances Act, a defendant charged with a federal drug, firearm or immigration crime may face enhancements if he or she has previously been convicted of a felony drug offense.
Such a policy shift has been expected since Attorney General Jeff Sessions was appointed and is in keeping with his tough-on-crime public posture, resistance to proposals he sees as overly lenient and repeated statements about running a Justice Department that enforces laws as they're written. In 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft enacted a similar policy that directed prosecutors to "pursue the most serious, readily provable offense in all federal prosecutions."
Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told AP that Sessions has called for a review of all department policies " to focus on keeping Americans safe and will be issuing further guidance and support to our prosecutors executing this priority — including an updated memorandum on charging for all criminal cases."
The new policy statement is likely to represent a major departure from a 2013 initiative known as "Smart on Crime," in which then-Attorney General Eric Holder discouraged harsh sentences for low-level, nonviolent offenders, which advocates say contributed to a national rethinking of how America's drug criminals should be prosecuted.
Holder's guidance was aimed at reducing costs of a crowded federal prison system, encouraging shorter sentences for drug offenders not seen as threat to public safety and preserving Justice Department resources for more serious and violent criminals.
The Obama policy shift coincided with U.S. Sentencing Commission changes that made tens of thousands of federal drug prisoners eligible for early release, and an Obama administration clemency initiative that freed convicts deemed deserving of a second chance. Combined, those changes led to a steep decline in a federal prison population that now stands at just under 190,000, down from nearly 220,000 in 2013. Nearly half of those inmates are in custody for drug crimes, records show.
Obama administration officials cited that decline and a drop in the overall number of drug prosecutions as evidence that policies were working as intended. They argued prosecutors were getting pickier about the cases they were bringing and were seeking mandatory minimum sentences less often. Efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system secured bipartisan support in recent years as Republicans embraced its cost-cutting potential while Democrats saw a chance to correct what they consider unduly harsh sentences.
Still, some prosecutors felt constrained by the Holder directive and expressed concern that they'd lose plea bargaining leverage — and a key inducement for cooperation — without the ability to more freely pursue years-long mandatory minimum punishments.
Sessions himself has long signaled his opposition to the "Smart on Crime" policies, and has repeatedly warned that eliminating mandatory minimums weakens the ability of law enforcement to protect the public.
In the Senate, he was among a group of GOP lawmakers last year who opposed legislation that would have allowed judges to reduce prison time for some drug offenders. He warned that the bill would release thousands of violent felons and endanger lives, at a time when crime in some large cities was rising.
After becoming attorney general, he promised in March there would be new guidance on criminal charges. He also directed the nation's federal prosecutors to intensify their focus on the worst violent offenders.
"My vision of a smart way to do this is, let's take that arrest, lets hammer that criminal who's distributing drugs that have been imported in our country," Sessions said in a speech that month to law enforcement officials that some advocates viewed as a harbinger of his intent to revise Holder's policies.
Holder's former spokesman Matthew Miller told The Washington Post the Trump administration "couldn't be making it more clear who it cares about and who it doesn't."
"If you are addicted to opiates, you'll get White House attention and increased treatment options," Miller said. "If you get picked up with crack in your pocket, you'll get jail time and a mandatory minimum.
Topics: barack obama, criminal justice system, federal prosecution, Jeff Sessions, mandatory sentences, sentencing reform, Trump administration


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Flight of the Conchords officially done at HBO, release statement ending their TV series
Posted by Sean L. McCarthy | Dec 10, 2009 | TV, Uncategorized | 1 |
Flight of the Conchords, the Grammy-winning musical comedy duo from New Zealand, announced today that they would not be continuing their HBO series for a third season.
Here's the statement from Bret and Jemaine:
Bret, Jemaine and James (co-creator/director) said "we've noticed the
less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk
about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing
that we won't be returning for a 3rd season. We're very proud of the
two seasons we made and we like the way the show ended. We'd like to
thank everyone who helped make the show and also everyone who watched
it. While the characters Bret and Jemaine will no longer be around, the
real Bret and Jemaine will continue to exist.
The quirky musical sitcom had a cult following and also gave some juicy supporting roles to comedians Kristen Schaal, Arj Barker, Eugene Mirman, Todd Barry and Demetri Martin, among many others. It will be missed.
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becca	on December 12, 2009 at 2:26 am
What a piss poor idea, HBO!!!


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Q: Need some help with python string / slicing operations This is a very newbie question and i will probably get downvoted for it, but i quite honestly couldn't find the answer after at least an hour googling. I learned how to slice strings based on "exact locations" where you have to know exactly where the word ends. But i did not find any article that explained how do it on "non static" strings that could change.
Also i do not want to use string.split() in this case as its a little overkill for what i need.
I basically have a string like this:
myString = "!save python Python is a high-level object oriented language created by Guido van Rossum."
# the format is !save [singleword] [definition]

i need to "slice" this string but i cant figure out a proper way to do it.
i need to save a to variable the title (python in this case) and the definition of this string. Somethig like:
title = myString[1]
definition = myString[everything after string[1]

I'm not exactly sure how to do this when you have a dynamic string where you dont know where each word ends.
I would greatly appreciate some pointers on what functions/methods should i read on to archieve this. Thank you in advance.

A: If you have spaces between your command, title, and definition you could:
wordList = myString.split()
cmd = wordList[0] # !save
title = wordList[1] # python
definition = ' '.join(wordList[2:])  # Python is a high-level object oriented language created by Guido van Rossum.

If you really would rather not use split you could use regular expressions:
import re
m = re.match('(/S+)/s*(/S+)/s*(.*)')
cmd = m.group(1)
title = m.group(2)
definition = m.group(3)

A: Why is split overkill?
verb, title, definition = myString.split (' ', 2)

A: The selected answer (after PEP8ing):
verb, title, definition = my_string.split(' ', 2)

splits on a single space. It's likely a better choice to split on runs of whitespace, just in case there are tabs or multiple spaces on either side of the title:
verb, title, definition = my_string.split(None, 2)

Also consider normalising the whitespace in the definition:
definition = ' '.join(definition.split())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
NTF-ELCAC's continuing reprisal suit vs rights defenders a form of judicial harassment
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., also vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), took the witness stand yesterday, December 20, 2021, at the trial on his perjury charges against officials of human rights group Karapatan, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), and Gabriela at the Quezon City Municipal Trial Court Branch 139.
"We hope that the court will see these charges for what they really are — a form of reprisal on our efforts to seek legal protection and redress from threats to our lives, security and liberties and a means to harass and intimidate us from doing our work as human rights defenders," said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, who was recently awarded by the French and German governments as one of this year's laureates of the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
Palabay mentioned the case as a "form of judicial harassment" in her acceptance speech in a ceremony last December 15, 2021. On July 2, 2019, after Karapatan officials and those of RMP and Gabriela filed a petition for the writ of amparo and habeas data before the Supreme Court, Esperon filed a perjury complaint against the ten human rights defenders who served as petitioners.
In January 2020, a Quezon City prosecutor dismissed the complaint against eight of them, but Esperon filed for a motion for reconsideration, which was acted upon by the senior city prosecutor resulting in the issuance of arrest warrants against Palabay and seven others cited as respondents in the case. Palabay was then in Switzerland participating in the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions, while the six others filed for bail. Upon her return to Manila, she also filed for bail, but in July 2020, she was still served with an arrest warrant on the case by police personnel who posed as couriers of a private delivery service company. The hearings on the case continue, with the prosecution presenting their evidence and witnesses, primarily Esperon.
Palabay said that "the recent decision of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 on the trumped-up murder charges against peasant leaders and peace consultants driven by the NTF-ELCAC, whose principal witnesses include Esperon, would bear out the truth — that the claims against those who speak out against human rights violations and social injustices are baseless and malicious."
On December 16, 2021 a Manila Regional Trial Court judge granted the demurrer to evidence filed by eight of those impleaded in the case, while dismissing charges against seven respondents. "Simply, the Court merely declares that the prosecution, with the nature of the testimonies of its witnesses and the pieces evidence they presented, failed to pass the exacting standard of moral certainty to discharge its burden of establishing the guilt of accused-movants to secure their conviction for the crimes charged and overcome their constitutional presumption of innocence," said the judge in her decision.
"NSA Esperon and the NTF-ELCAC apparently want human rights defenders and political dissidents in jail through these legal cases, steeped in perjured testimonies and/or planted evidence. We appeal to officers of the court, especially judges, to exercise probity and independence, to see through these fabricated lies and dismiss these trumped-up charges," Palabay concluded.


text:
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Bugle Call Rag
Roy Eldridge, Roy Eldridge And His Central Plaza Dixielanders	Buy This Song
Roy Eldridge
David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the smooth and lyrical style of earlier jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop. more »
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Written by: BILLY MEYERS, ELMER SCHOEBEL, JOHN PETTIS
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
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Little Jazz: The Best of the Verve Years
Let Me off Uptown
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Wessex is becoming increasingly an unbalanced region. The east is well known for frantic over-development, with house prices soaring way out of reach of local people. The west is equally well known for low pay, high unemployment and chronic out-migration offset by the retired and second home owners. Towns face huge environmental and social challenges. The countryside is under threat from agricultural intensification, inappropriate sprawling development and waste disposal. The numbers of job opportunities, shops, and schools within these local communities have fallen markedly in recent years, while services such as public transport have also shrunk considerably.
Economic development cannot be viewed in isolation, as it so often is. Rather, it is vital that the effects on the environment and on community life have to be taken into account as well as the number of jobs created or lost. The economy must be developed in a sustainable way, to create the foundation for both a strong, thriving and self-reliant community and an ecologically-sound economy. In order to maintain and revitalise our communities we will encourage small rural industries where these can be demonstrated to benefit the local economy without adding unacceptably to traffic and environmental problems. Wherever possible these firms should make use of and foster local skills and use local produce. Adding value onto goods at source and the creation of local distribution networks is a priority in the creation of a sustainable economy for Wessex.
Wessex Regionalists believe that economic regeneration in Wessex should be based upon the development of indigenous enterprise, with any inward investment carefully scrutinised for its effects on the environment and community life. Strong local economies meeting the majority of local needs are less vulnerable to recession and shifts in global markets. The Wessex economy should be developed to enable it increasingly to meet Wessex needs. A long-term aim would be regional self-sufficiency in food, energy and all essential manufactured goods.
Keeping the value-adding processes inside Wessex not only increases local economic activity and benefits local people; it reduces the use of finite resources and cuts down on the import of goods over long distances. It is a nonsense that goods should be imported into Wessex when they can just as well be produced locally.
In order to support the small businesses already in Wessex and attract environmentally and socially acceptable inward investment, Wessex must have its own economic development institutions. In particular, we need a Wessex Development Agency (WDA) to replace those for the 'South West' and 'South East'. The whole region faces a number of critical problems that the current division of responsibility is poorly equipped to address. These include the transformation of traditional sectors such as agriculture, tourism and defence-based engineering to face a changing world. Accompanying the WDA, there needs to be a region-wide training agency working in partnership with the education sector and the predominantly small and medium sized businesses of Wessex to develop the skills needed for a sustainable economic future.
The WDA will only be accounted a success if it is part and parcel of a series of long overdue reforms. It must be appointed by – and answerable to – a directly-elected regional assembly. It must have the will to say 'NO' to the wrong kinds of development: those that would damage our environment and our communities. It must have the powers and resources to promote new industries that will help to solve our problems, not make them worse. With these institutions and policies in place, Wessex will have some of the tools needed to confront the global economy in the century ahead. Without them, it will become a patchwork of disoriented, polarised communities overwhelmed by the pace of growth and leisure backwaters that have seen better days, a region faced with an increasingly tawdry and ruined environment and a lost heritage.
invest in green sciences, including large-scale energy conservation programmes and schemes for recycling, repair and re-use: environmentally necessary but also labour-intensive, creating jobs in every locality.
support region-wide marketing initiatives that make Wessex a recognisable brand with a reputation for quality and innovation.


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text:
Rethinking how social innovation organisations can better design for scalable impact
BY Benni Schulz
"Investing in women is smart business and key to poverty alleviation at scale," says Ajaita Shah, Founder and CEO of Frontier Markets, a rural marketing, sales, and service distribution company providing access to affordable and quality clean energy solutions and appliances to low-income households in India by building a network of rural entrepreneurs.
Ajaita Shah
This interview with Ajaita Shah was published in The Beam #8 – Subscribe now for more.
An advocate for women-led, transformational leadership and rethinking how market based approaches and social innovation organisations can better design for scalable impact, Ajaita has been a leader in driving socially conscious business models through partnerships, and pushing 'bottom up leadership', keeping the rural consumer in mind. She has committed to empowering rural women across the developing world through market based business models, clean energy, technology, and inspiring women to push themselves beyond their societal boundaries.
We talked to Ajaita about the challenges of bringing clean electricity to rural India, why it is essential to work with the local population, and the importance of investing in women as a key to poverty alleviation and change.
"If I learned anything from my time in microfinance it was that if you give women the right enabling environment, women are highly entrepreneurial."
I understand you started Frontier Markets because you saw the need to build a new model for energy access, focusing on women entrepreneurs, market insights, after-sales service and scale. But what brought you to this understanding? What's your story?
I was born and raised in New York, USA, (my parents are originally from India). My parents moved to the U.S. in the early '80s with their Jaipur, Jain, Jewelry Community, which I refer to as "J-cubed," to grow their family business and seek a more prosperous life in America. I was my parents' first-U.S. born child, which meant balancing two very different cultures at the same time. My American culture taught me to discover, explore, assimilate, embrace diversity, dream big to do big things in life, become a global citizen. My Indian culture reinforced the opposite — stay within your limits, "act like a girl," retain my Indian identity and the one single dream I was supposed to have for myself: to marry a good Indian boy, and become a homemaker. "Remember," they'd say, "you're a girl, act like one."
Naturally, this came with conflict, so I sought out ways to 'have it all'. Whether that was studying abroad, taking internships, or becoming a national debate champion, I knew to balance my reality, I'd need to get good at negotiating, mediation and conflict resolution. While in college, I had the opportunity to 'learn by doing' — I travelled to Europe to study European Relations with the U.S. during the Iraq War, I went through Mediation and Conflict Resolution training in the Hague, I studied abroad in Spain for six months and in Washington DC where I worked at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars — I realised that if I wanted to be a global citizen or a change maker, I would need to embrace my understanding of culture and history and focus on South Asia as my career.
So, interning in America, and getting a chance to meet Indian counterparts helped me understand that rural India is a space that needs to be addressed further. I realised the problem was not so simple — India had a rural reality — 70% of India required the grid and better infrastructure. That struck me a lot — the opportunity to explore social business and tackling the deep challenges of rural India, and using a model that was commercial.
So I packed my bags, and this 22-year-old discovered India through Microfinance. And boy did it open my eyes. One year became five years of village hopping, living, and learning about the realities, the struggles of rural women and rural households, the pains, the stereotypes.
During my visit to different villages, I realised that many of these women were married at 14, had zero exposure to the outside world, were told that marriage is the only future, and that being homemaker is the only option. For many of them, by the time they turned 30, they already have five children. When I connected with them, over and over again, they would say: "had I had the education, had I had the skills, had I had the opportunity to explore, I would have been different."
This is when I got angry. Why is this the path? Who decides that daughters are not as valuable as sons? What are our societal destinies based on? Clearly not capability, right?
And that's when I had my "aha" moment.
I understood these women's realities and I understood their pain. But unlike them, I have the ability to negotiate my reality, I have the education and most importantly, I had the responsibility to be something more than what was expected of 'just a girl'. And that's what lead to this journey of wanting to serve rural households to the best of my ability. To give women the opportunity, to give them the access, and to help them fight the societal norms.
So I went back to New York and explained to my parents my vision, my passion, and my destiny. To which they responded, "Are you nuts?" So I agreed to an unsuccessful arranged marriage in exchange for my dream, and they took the deal. Thus, Frontier Markets was born.
Ajaita with Frontier Markets products
So what is exactly this dream of yours?
Based in Rajasthan, India, Frontier Markets (FM) focuses on making the lives of rural households less challenging by creating access to clean energy products that improve their lives. In order to get these products to rural households, FM has established a network of rockstar rural entrepreneurs (men and women) who are at the centre of change as rural distributor for these products, while earning income for themselves and their families.
"My optimism comes from the stories I've heard, and the families I've met and the Sahelis of course who tell me their motivation to make this happen for all villages quickly."
Using a 'customer-centric' approach, we have learned that the best way to serve all types of rural households is support three distinct channels: agri-retail network, women entrepreneurs, and institutional partners. Each are supported through a market based approach — where mapping, customer insights, help us understand product, marketing campaigns, and how to support the network. This has allowed us to reach over 80% of the entire village-level population. Truly touching the last mile.
Core to our work is FM's Solar Saheli program. If I learned anything from my time in microfinance it was that if you give women the right enabling environment, women are highly entrepreneurial. And yet, they are held back due to a severe financing and skills gap that often marginalises them, to the detriment of their families and communities.
Solar Sahelis are more than just 'sales agents', they are market connectors, service providers, and changemakers. Sahelis touch the hardest to reach communities, and collect insights about rural households, as well as conduct larger awareness campaigns to help households adopt solutions, and they also are directly involved in installations and repairs for all solutions in their village. They are the centre of trust for the community, and help Frontier Markets truly understand the rural household.
They earn multiple streams of income — from activities and sales of products. This is the first time they are earning their own income — building confidence and control. Our Sahelis invest their money in their own bank accounts and use it for their children's education, and family stability.
Through insights gathered from our Sahelis, we've learned a lot about what our customers want and have been able to introduce amazing new solutions to rural households (designed with them, made in India), and leveraging our distribution network, we have also introduced other partner's innovations that can help address all facets of energy challenges, and connectivity.
What would you say are the main challenges of bringing clean energy solutions to rural customers in India?
Serving rural customers in India is like being on a rollercoaster ride — there are highs and lows, and each decision impacts something else — and every time you think you've seen it all, something else surprises you. For me, I learned that the places where were work is massively chaotic and unpredictable. When Acumen coined the phrase 'patient capital', they weren't kidding.
Solar Saheli
Working in rural India brings unknown disasters whether its floods that wipe out our families' crops for the year, or prevent you from reaching your customers.
Economic challenges include significant downturn in economic activity or bad monsoons impacting employment and farmer earnings which would have a corresponding negative impact on demand for solar and other consumer products in rural regions.
Some of the political challenges include changes in government policy, changes in incentives being provided, local areas dynamics such as forced disruption of operation through protests, violence etc.
And then there are other external challenges like natural hazards, non-availability of timely, reliable, and cost effective transportation facilities, and delay in road transportation.
However, Frontier Markets has systematically identified all risks and challenges that could possibly impact our current operations and future operations in states of expansion. Both external and internal challenges are identified and are constantly monitored.
Why is this so important?
Most importantly, because above all, we have a responsibility for our community, we have built a network of trust, and cannot walk away. We remind ourselves that millions of people now turn to us for help. The work cannot end because of challenges along the way.
And of course, we have survived…. mainly because of the people in this community.
Frontier Markets Rakshak Torch (Product)
You decided to work with a network of digitised rural entrepreneurs. What would you say are the main benefits of working with the local population?
It's essential for having access to local market data. We use these market data to understand our customers. Supplied by our digitised rural entrepreneurs, we have access to more up to date information on household profiling and village information to inform market entry decisions.
Another critical aspect is the co-creation. We have an integrated model with rural households co-creating products that impact them the most. The insights provided by our rural entrepreneurs inform our design process which we heavily iterate to ensure our end product is not only practical but also useful.
It's also imperative to work on customer testing. We seek to understand quality, functionality, usability and insights so our digitised rural entrepreneurs conduct product testing with our end customers. This approach ensures that we remain fully connected to their needs and insights before we take a decision to stock, or distribute a particular product.
Finally, for distribution we use multiple modes of last mile distribution to support access in all markets i.e. Sahelis, retailers etc.
All of the above is possible because there is a trust between the rural entrepreneurs and their local community. Working with these digitised rural entrepreneurs helps us give access to their communities' trust and support.
We know that women are disproportionately affected by energy challenges, and that they are typically excluded from commercial value chains. Some women are also socially marginalised. Can you expand on why investing in women is a key to poverty alleviation and change?
Of the 1.3 billion people in India, 450 million lack access to reliable grid-based electricity denying them access to lighting, appliances, internet connectivity, market access and more. And women are at the centre of that challenge. Current incomes levels are US$1-$5/day lacking further income generation opportunities to address life challenges. Solutions exist, but penetration of reliable solutions to last mile has been only 5–7%.
While some efforts of lighting has happened, households want power, appliances as well as quick service. Over 51% of this community are women who currently contribute to not even 7% of the country's GDP. Training these women and giving them an opportunity to earn income has been the biggest success factor — women understand the need for energy because they deal with realities in every way more than anyone else. 70% of Frontier Market's users are women and most are in the last to last mile. FM has proven that women are the best suited to gain the household's trust to capture, analyse and apply customer insights to build and capitalise on the rural market opportunity.
FM has a proven model operating in Rajasthan reaching over 3 million people through a network of 2,500 women entrepreneurs. We have partnered with organisations across new states who identify with our Saheli Program as an opportunity for economic empowerment for women and addressing products and service need for rural agriculture-based families.
What are the main challenges that women face with regards to access to capital and investment? Also you are advocating for the access to digital and technical training, and to working capital for women. Can you please explain how this contributes to drive sustainable impact across the value chain?
Like I mentioned, give women access to digital and technical training, give them access to working capital, and build their skills to manage other entrepreneurs to drive sustainable impact across the value chain. To succeed, we need to change our mindset and understand the investment better. Banks have capital and intent but aren't structured to provide low interest loans to women without collaterals or credit history. Investment vehicles have capital but aren't ready to take the risk for investing in women that might face larger challenges or longer time to help household adopt to electricity sustainably. Our experience proves she's the right investment.
Our entrepreneurs are now leaders managing new Sahelis, collecting data through mobile phones which includes needs assessments, village information, and monitoring activities on the ground; we provided basic working capital to these women who increased their outreach and conversion by 33%.
What would you say are the top three best practices for unlocking access to sustainable energy finance and technology in India?
Women's opportunities are limited due to access to capital challenges. It is estimated that only USD 60 million is being allocated to supporting women, a fraction of India's USD 10 trillion economy. Learning from microfinance — a 20 billion USD industry — women have proven to be the best re-payers. But when it comes time for them to access the mainstream sector — 90% of loans are rejected — mainly due to lack of credit history or collateral. The rural women of India need to gain financial control. To develop products and services to power this critical shift, we can look at the following three practices:
* Financial inclusion: the government self-help groups (SHGs) and banking institutions provide access to bank accounts
* Financial empowerment: Frontier Markets provides income-generating opportunities to give access to start savings
* Financial control: Financial Institutions can develop products for both entrepreneur and end consumer to catalyse better and faster economic growth by creating credit worthy women who have financial control and wealth.
Using technology interface and catalytic financing vehicles we seek to simultaneously deliver in a largely cashless transaction process, while gathering real time data on consumer financial thresholds and use of available funds to inform further market driven solutions with more credible data form rural last mile communities.
Reliable and stable power is a necessity to work and study properly and the lack of clean energy access is a formidable barrier for inclusive economic growth. Yet, most of low-income rural agriculture household earn US$1-$4 a day. How can they afford clean energy products?
Affordability of sustainable products is a challenge. However, access to consumer finance drives high volume conversions, increasing energy access to households and income generation for women entrepreneurs. At the same time, there is an evolution that is happening. Households are asking for more than lighting, they want power and appliances, they want quick service, they want access to finance to make it happen, and in order scale, we need to invest further in our women. Give them access to digital and technical training, give them access to working capital, and build their skills to manage other entrepreneurs to drive sustainable impact across the value chain.
We have conducted several pilots with key partnerships with philanthropic organisations, non-profits, and corporate partners testing the outcomes of blended capital, access to mobile phone and Internet, and investing in training. And it works!
Our network of SHGs currently has access to subsidised finance for consumption and savings, which is facilitated by our network of women entrepreneurs. We are also looking at rotational capital that will be specifically used for helping finance products that FM distributes alongside an additional top-up loan so that the finance available is not just on the product.
You said that it was sometimes difficult for the Solar Sahelis to convince the population to switch to clean energy solutions instead of coal because for decades, rural India has been flooded with poor quality solar products, most of which have ended up in landfill. Can you explain a little bit about what happened at that time and how are things different today?
It's very simple — selling, and specially pushing products to the end customer without making them realise the value benefit will always result in a downfall. To add to that, poor quality Chinese energy solutions were or are being sold in the domestic market at a discount.
For the Solar Sahelis, their first hurdle was to create awareness and help people to overcome their skepticism, that renewables are a failed technology. We invest a lot on our disruptive marketing and training and have always believed in a pull-based strategy.
Upon completion of the training, women are equipped with solar demo kits and digital technology (smartphone and relevant applications) to kickstart their micro-enterprises, with support from an extensive ground partner network and local infrastructure for their day-to-day operations. As micro-entrepreneurs, the women visit households and community group meetings in their communities to conduct product demonstrations and offer customers the opportunity to try products before they buy. During these visits, they collect data on customers for market insights, earning them a base income that supplements their variable commission income from solar product sales. Together with local coordinators, micro-entrepreneurs also engage in promotional and marketing activities (e.g. melas, puppet shows, etc.).
That's how we not only generate awareness, but also create interests and need amongst rural customers.
What would you say differentiates your model the most from other companies who bring clean energy technology in rural areas?
Frontier Markets' team has a combined experience of 100 years working in rural India in microfinance, agriculture, digital marketing, solar, and enterprise development, which has allowed us to take a disruptive approach to energy access and enterprise development. We have heavily invested in a customer-centric approach model, focusing on in-depth understanding of the rural consumer, as well as investing in a pull-market model to build long term relationships with rural customers. We have built a network of digitised rural women entrepreneurs that uses a customer-centric approach to drive clean energy access to agri families in India, using fintech, digital literacy, solar lighting and appliances to empower women. FM has 5,000 micro-entrepreneurs (50% are women) who are trained and have access to technology, marketing, and technical repair, and provide innovative solar solutions to sell to rural households. These entrepreneurs have an 80% productivity and 100% retention rate penetrating 30% of Rajasthan's market, and setting up value for replication into new states. Our women have earned over 65,000 Indian Rupees per year which is higher than most initiatives. We have become a Government Gold Rated Company, and also the first social business to partner to now the scale our program through government e-commerce partnerships.
How optimistic are you about the successful application of the energy transition in rural communities in India?
I am very optimistic — we have been seeing it happen with our own eyes — the sheer adoption, and the impact of the adoption; rural households are recognising the value of embracing off-grid/ clean energy solutions for a few key reasons:
* they own their systems — hence having 100% control over their power consumption;
* they understand the reliability is based on the sun, not distributed connections or politics, hence having more control;
* they are seeing the outcome of their investment: saving on kerosene expenses that are linked to both kerosene as a cost, and the sheer amount of health scares that are linked to it;
* in terms of productivity, people are keeping their shops open for longer hours, they are working on additional income opportunities at night, they are seeing their children study safely, they are applying it to machinery that they require for their occupations;
* when it comes to safety, the fact that families don't have to worry about kerosene fires, or disasters is huge, and the fact they have control over darkness is huge.
My optimism comes from the stories I've heard, and the families I've met and the Sahelis of course who tell me their motivation to make this happen for all villages quickly. I believe the energy transition will lead to a new rural consumer, a new rural economy, because we're providing an opportunity of infrastructure that creates a fair level of productivity for farmers to earn more and be heard.
What can we see you and the Solar Sahelis accomplish in the future?
I am incredibly excited for the future. Frontier Markets is targeting a network of over 20,000 women to become Solar Sahelis, to address a customer base of over five million households across eight states of India by 2023.
Those who used to be voiceless, who now step up in meetings and demand to be heard; now they have the same power to negotiate. These women are now bringing access to new solutions like internet, finance, and mobile solutions to their villages because they believe they have the same ability and rights as any urban Indian.
"Give women access to digital and technical training, give them access to working capital, and build their skills to manage other entrepreneurs to drive sustainable impact across the value chain."
I'll leave you with one of the many stories of our Solar Sahelis. This is the story of Kamlesh. Kamlesh is from Dholpur, Rajasthan. She is 29 years old, and has four kids. As a Solar Saheli, she's successfully helped over 300 households access solar lighting solutions, and she has taught over 3,000 people how to use a smart phone and connect to the internet. We invited her to Jaipur last year at the Literature Festival to meet the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. She was brilliant. She told her about her village, the electricity challenge, and asked how the Chief Minister was planning on supporting Frontier Markets to scale the program to help the whole state. After the meeting, she started crying — I asked her what happened? She said, "Didi, what do I say to you? Look at what I am doing here, and it's so sad to hear the things people are saying in my village." When Kamlesh left her village to come to Jaipur, her brother-in-law spread a rumour that she was coming to the city for prostitution, because in her village, women only leave for Jaipur for that reason. I took a picture, framed it, and gave it to her to show her brother-in-law the work that she did. When she reached the village with that photo, her father-in-law took her in front of the village heads, held her hand high, and said, "see, this is my daughter-in-law, she has done what none you can ever achieve in your dreams, she is the future." At that moment, Kamlesh asked her father-in-law if she could have one reward, he said, of course, anything you want: "can you please let me decide when my daughter gets married, I've saved money, and I want her to go to school, earn income, earn a name, and then get married when she is ready. She can do much more than me, I want to give her a chance." This is how Kamlesh saved her daughter from child marriage, and started a project to help all Sahelis in her village save their daughters from child marriages.
If not for her, and all the women like her: who else?
My mantra is: "investing in women is the smartest business and a key to poverty alleviation and scale."
Ajaita Shah is the Founder/CEO of Frontier Markets, a company providing access to affordable clean energy solutions to low-income households in India by building a network of rural entrepreneurs. She also serves on the board of Frontier Innovations Foundation, a non-profit focused on last-mile distribution support for clean energy companies. Twitter: @Ajaita_Shah
Learn more about Frontier Markets: frontiermkts.com
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Posted in UncategorizedTagged Social Innovation
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