text:
I will become President of Nigeria in 2019, says Fayose
written by Samuel Etuk March 9, 2018
Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose, who last year had indicated his interest to run for president in 2019, says he will become the President of Nigeria come 2019.
Governor Fayose who is very critical of the Buhari-led administration, stated this when he spoke at the 2018 International Women's day celebration in his state.
He said, "I want them to hear in the Villa, I will be president of Nigeria Tomorrow. Sometimes, it is difficult for people to believe but when it happens, I want you to know that I've said so before."
Samuel Etuk
Passionate unapologetic Nigerian, highly spontaneous, web content writer cum social media strategist, gidi hustler and Akwa-ibomite in diaspora
Royal wedding: Meghan Markle baptized into the Church of England
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Osinbajo asks n'assembly to re-allocate N135bn in 2017...
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APC registers 2.5 million members in Kano
PDP candidate wins Cross River Assembly by-election


text:
How to Break Free
Getting unstuck requires serious innovation. Here's a snazzy little trick from Oprah's favorite right-brain creativity expert, Daniel H. Pink, to get your creativity flowing.
By Daniel H. Pink
Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation
There are lots of methods to spark creativity, but I like one used by the founders of an Australian software company: They set aside a day for their engineers to work on any problem they want, so long as it's not part of their regular job. These are called FedEx Days, because the participants have to "deliver" something overnight, and they've resulted in an array of software fixes that might otherwise never have emerged. Why shouldn't this idea be picked up by someone who's looking to switch careers or even just redecorate the living room? People underestimate how much a wildly varied group can accomplish in a short time. So enlist your own team with these ground rules: They can work on anything they want, but at the end of 24 hours everyone must deliver something—whether it's a list of fields where your skills might translate or a sketch of how the room could look. Don't worry about making it perfect. Worry about making it, period. And have fun. If you're not laughing during your FedEx Day, you're doing it wrong.
Daniel H. Pink is the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Riverhead), available in paperback.
This story is part of O's Live Your Best Year Toolkit
7 ways to spark your creativity
Quiz: Who are you meant to be?
Discover your hidden talents
From the January 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
From the January 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
How to Fix the Broken Record in Your Head
You Don't Need to Be an Artist to Have Imagination
The Toy That's Inspiring Girls to Become Inventors and Engineers
How to Unleash Your Creativity
What Oprah Knows for Sure About Creativity
What Inspires the Most Creative People We Know
Quiz: What's Your Motivation Style?
Why the Best Way to Get Creative Is to Make Some Rules

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On the afternoon of 2 December 2009, while being operated on an approach to a private airstrip near Boorowa, NSW, a 'Taylor Monoplane' ultralight aircraft, registered 28-3506, collided with terrain after striking power lines. The pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, was fatally injured.
On 6 December 2009, a 'Pipstrel Spider' microlight aircraft, registered 32-4391, being operated on a private flight with two persons on-board, collided with terrain during a local flight near Yarrawonga, Vic. Both occupants sustained fatal injuries.
Recreational Aviation Australia Inc (RA-Aus) is assisting the NSW & Vic. police (respectively) in their investigations of these accidents. Recreational Aviation Australia Inc (RA-Aus) requested assistance from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in the recovery of information from portable Global Positioning System (GPS) units recovered from both accident sites.
To protect the information supplied by RA-Aus to the ATSB and investigative work undertaken to assist RA-Aus, the ATSB initiated an investigation under the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 (TSI Act). The ATSB completed its recovery of data from the Lowrance® Airmap 500 portable GPS receiver (serial No: 50086640) and the Garmin® GPS Map 296 portable GPS receiver (serial No: 10D003804), and provided the data to RA-Aus in the interests of transport safety, under the provisions of section 61 of the TSI Act.


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text:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<title>java.lang.management (Java Platform SE 7 )</title>
<meta name="date" content="2014-12-18">
<meta name="keywords" content="java.lang.management package">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../stylesheet.css" title="Style">

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Overview

Package

Class

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Tree

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Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 7

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Package java.lang.management

Provides the management interfaces for monitoring and management of the
Java virtual machine and other components in the Java runtime.

See: Description

Interface Summary

Interface
Description

BufferPoolMXBean

The management interface for a buffer pool, for example a pool of
 direct or mapped buffers.

ClassLoadingMXBean

The management interface for the class loading system of
 the Java virtual machine.

CompilationMXBean

The management interface for the compilation system of
 the Java virtual machine.

GarbageCollectorMXBean

The management interface for the garbage collection of
 the Java virtual machine.

MemoryManagerMXBean

The management interface for a memory manager.

MemoryMXBean

The management interface for the memory system of
 the Java virtual machine.

MemoryPoolMXBean

The management interface for a memory pool.

OperatingSystemMXBean

The management interface for the operating system on which
 the Java virtual machine is running.

PlatformLoggingMXBean

The management interface for the logging facility.

PlatformManagedObject

A platform managed object is a JMX MXBean
 for monitoring and managing a component in the Java platform.

RuntimeMXBean

The management interface for the runtime system of
 the Java virtual machine.

ThreadMXBean

The management interface for the thread system of
 the Java virtual machine.

Class Summary

Class
Description

LockInfo

Information about a lock.

ManagementFactory

The ManagementFactory class is a factory class for getting
 managed beans for the Java platform.

ManagementPermission

The permission which the SecurityManager will check when code
 that is running with a SecurityManager calls methods defined
 in the management interface for the Java platform.

MemoryNotificationInfo

The information about a memory notification.

MemoryUsage

A <tt>MemoryUsage</tt> object represents a snapshot of memory usage.

MonitorInfo

Information about an object monitor lock.

ThreadInfo

Thread information.

Enum Summary

Enum
Description

MemoryType

Types of memory pools.

Package java.lang.management Description

Provides the management interfaces for monitoring and management of the
Java virtual machine and other components in the Java runtime.
It allows both local and remote
monitoring and management of the running Java virtual machine.

Platform MXBean

A platform MXBean is a managed bean that
conforms to the JMX
Instrumentation Specification and only uses a set of basic data types.
Each platform MXBean is a PlatformManagedObject
with a unique
name.

ManagementFactory

The ManagementFactory class is the management
factory class for the Java platform.  This class provides a set of
static factory methods to obtain the MXBeans for the Java platform
to allow an application to access the MXBeans directly.

A platform MBeanServer can be accessed with the
getPlatformMBeanServer method.  On the first call to this method,
it creates the platform MBeanServer and registers all platform MXBeans
including platform MXBeans.
Each platform MXBean is registered with a unique name defined in
the specification of the management interface.
This is a single MBeanServer that can be shared by different managed
components running within the same Java virtual machine.

Interoperability

A management application and a platform MBeanServer of a running
virtual machine can interoperate
without requiring classes used by the platform MXBean interfaces.
The data types being transmitted between the JMX connector
server and the connector client are JMX
open types and
this allows interoperation across versions.
A data type used by the MXBean interfaces are mapped to an
open type when being accessed via MBeanServer interface.
See the
MXBean specification for details.

Ways to Access MXBeans

An application can monitor the instrumentation of the
Java virtual machine and the runtime in the following ways:

1. Direct access to an MXBean interface

Get an MXBean instance locally in the running Java virtual machine:

   RuntimeMXBean mxbean = ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean();

   // Get the standard attribute "VmVendor"
   String vendor = mxbean.getVmVendor();

Or by calling the
        getPlatformMXBean or
        getPlatformMXBeans method:

   RuntimeMXBean mxbean = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMXBean(RuntimeMXBean.class);

   // Get the standard attribute "VmVendor"
   String vendor = mxbean.getVmVendor();

Construct an MXBean proxy instance that forwards the
    method calls to a given MBeanServer:

   MBeanServerConnection mbs;

   // Connect to a running JVM (or itself) and get MBeanServerConnection
   // that has the JVM MBeans registered in it
   ...

   // Get a MBean proxy for RuntimeMXBean interface
   RuntimeMXBean proxy =
       ManagementFactory.getPlatformMXBean(mbs,
                                           RuntimeMXBean.class);
   // Get standard attribute "VmVendor"
   String vendor = proxy.getVmVendor();

A proxy is typically used to access an MXBean
   in a remote Java virtual machine.
   An alternative way to create an MXBean proxy is:

   RuntimeMXBean proxy =
       ManagementFactory.newPlatformMXBeanProxy(mbs,
                                                ManagementFactory.RUNTIME_MXBEAN_NAME,
                                                RuntimeMXBean.class);

2. Indirect access to an MXBean interface via MBeanServer

Go through the
    platform MBeanServer to access MXBeans locally or
    a specific MBeanServerConnection to access
    MXBeans remotely.
    The attributes and operations of an MXBean use only
    JMX open types which include basic data types,
    CompositeData,
    and TabularData
    defined in OpenType.

   MBeanServerConnection mbs;

   // Connect to a running JVM (or itself) and get MBeanServerConnection
   // that has the JVM MXBeans registered in it
   ...

   try {
       // Assuming the RuntimeMXBean has been registered in mbs
       ObjectName oname = new ObjectName(ManagementFactory.RUNTIME_MXBEAN_NAME);

       // Get standard attribute "VmVendor"
       String vendor = (String) mbs.getAttribute(oname, "VmVendor");
   } catch (....) {
       // Catch the exceptions thrown by ObjectName constructor
       // and MBeanServer.getAttribute method
       ...
   }

Platform Extension

A Java virtual machine implementation may add its platform extension to
the management interface by defining platform-dependent
interfaces that extend the standard management interfaces to include
platform-specific metrics and management operations.
The static factory methods in the <tt>ManagementFactory</tt> class will
return the MXBeans with the platform extension.

It is recommended to name the platform-specific attributes with
a vendor-specific prefix such as the vendor's name to
avoid collisions of the attribute name between the future extension
to the standard management interface and the platform extension.
If the future extension to the standard management interface defines
a new attribute for a management interface and the attribute name
is happened to be same as some vendor-specific attribute's name,
the applications accessing that vendor-specific attribute would have
to be modified to cope with versioning and compatibility issues.

Below is an example showing how to access an attribute
from the platform extension:

1) Direct access to the Oracle-specific MXBean interface

   List<com.sun.management.GarbageCollectorMXBean> mxbeans =
       ManagementFactory.getPlatformMXBeans(com.sun.management.GarbageCollectorMXBean.class);

   for (com.sun.management.GarbageCollectorMXBean gc : mxbeans) {
       // Get the standard attribute "CollectionCount"
       String count = mxbean.getCollectionCount();

       // Get the platform-specific attribute "LastGcInfo"
       GcInfo gcinfo = gc.getLastGcInfo();
       ...
   }

2) Access the Oracle-specific MXBean interface via <tt>MBeanServer</tt>
   through proxy

   MBeanServerConnection mbs;

   // Connect to a running JVM (or itself) and get MBeanServerConnection
   // that has the JVM MXBeans registered in it
   ...

   List<com.sun.management.GarbageCollectorMXBean> mxbeans =
       ManagementFactory.getPlatformMXBeans(mbs, com.sun.management.GarbageCollectorMXBean.class);

   for (com.sun.management.GarbageCollectorMXBean gc : mxbeans) {
       // Get the standard attribute "CollectionCount"
       String count = mxbean.getCollectionCount();

       // Get the platform-specific attribute "LastGcInfo"
       GcInfo gcinfo = gc.getLastGcInfo();
       ...
   }

 Unless otherwise noted, passing a <tt>null</tt> argument to a constructor
or method in any class or interface in this package will cause a NullPointerException to be thrown.

 The java.lang.management API is thread-safe.

Since:

1.5

See Also:

     JMX Specification.

Overview

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 Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.
 Copyright © 1993, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This release is also available in French, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese.
By observing wild orangutans, a research team has found that walking on two legs may have arisen in relatively ancient, tree-dwelling apes, rather than in more recent human ancestors that had already descended to the savannah, as current theory suggests.
These findings appear in the 1 June 2007 issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
Upright walking, or bipedalism, has long been considered a defining feature of humans and our closest ancestors. One of the most popular explanations, known as the savannah hypothesis, suggests that the ancestors to chimps, gorillas and humans descended from the trees and began walking on the ground on all fours.
Over time, this four-legged gait would have evolved into the "knuckle-walking" that chimps and gorillas still use today and then into upright, two-legged walking in humans.
Paleontologists have conventionally used signs of bipedalism as key criteria for distinguishing early human, or "hominin," fossils from those of other apes. But, this distinction is complicated by recent fossil evidence that some early hominins, including Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis), lived in woodland environments, while even earlier forms such as Millennium Man (Orrorin) appear to have lived in the forest canopy and moved on two legs.


text:
from datetime import date

from django.db import models
from django.core.exceptions import ObjectDoesNotExist

from vcms.www.fields import StatusField

class BlogPageManager(models.Manager):
    def get_blog_page_from_string(self, page_name):
        page = self.get(slug=page_name)
        if page :
            return page
        raise ObjectDoesNotExist

class PublishedBlogPageManager(models.Manager):
    def get_blog_page(self, page_name):
        page = self.get(slug=page_name)
        if page and page.status ==  StatusField.PUBLISHED :
            return page
        return None

class BlogPostCategoryManager(models.Manager):
    def get_category_for_page(self, page, counts=True):
        from vcms.simpleblogs.models import BlogPost
        categories_for_page = {}
        for category in self.all():
            posts = BlogPost.objects.get_all_for_page(page, category=category)
            if posts:
                categories_for_page[category.name] = {'model': category
                                            ,'count' : posts.count()
                                            }
        return categories_for_page

class PublishedNewsBlogPostManager(models.Manager):
    def get_published(self, queryset=None):
        query = self
        if queryset:
            query = queryset
        return query.filter(status=StatusField.PUBLISHED)

    def get_unpublished(self):
        return self.filter(status=StatusField.DRAFT)

    def get_category_for_page(self, page):
        query = self.get_for_page(page)
        return query

    def get_latest(self, queryset=None):
        query = self
        if queryset:
            query = queryset
        return query.get_published().order_by("-date_published")

    def get_for_page(self, page, queryset=None):
        query = self
        if queryset:
            query = queryset
        query = self.get_published(queryset=query)
        return query.filter(display_on_page=page)

    def get_for_page_by_date(self, page, category=None, year=None, month=1, day=1, post_id=None):
        query = self.get_latest()
        query = self.get_for_page(page, queryset=query).filter(date_published__year=int(year)).filter(date_published__month=int(month))
        if post_id:
            return query.filter(id=post_id)
        return query

    def get_archive_for_page(self, page, category=None, year=None, month=1, day=1):
        query = self.get_published()
        query = self.get_for_page(page, queryset=query)
        return query.filter(date_published__lt=date(year, month, 1))

    def get_all_for_page(self, page, category=None):
        query = self.get_latest()
        query = self.get_for_page(page, queryset=query)
        if category:
            query = query.filter(category=category)
        return query

    def get_latest_post_for_page(self, page, qty=1, category=None):
        if category:
            return self.get_latest().filter(display_on_page=page).filter(category__slug__contains=category.slug)[:qty]
        return self.get_latest().filter(display_on_page=page)[:qty]


Summer is almost here, so it's time to think about summer camps! As a parent we draw from our personal experiences when choosing a camp for our children. The wide range of camps offered now can make it harder to choose the right summer camp for your child.
The question is how do we choose the right camp for our children? In order to choose wisely we need to know our children, what they like, what will fit their personality and interests. In order to make navigating through the maze of camp offerings easier, below are a few pointers. Answering the questions below can help you narrow down the summer camp options this year.
Day camp or sleep away camp? This decision is based on your child's age and personality. Are they homebodies that want to be able to sleep in their own bed every night or are they ready for an adventure? All sleep away camps have a minimum age requirement, anywhere from 10-12. The only way they will have a good time is if they are ready for this big step. Having a friend attend the same camp, might ease some of the fears, or attending a sleep away camp that is only a couple of hours away, so they feel that parents can pick them up anytime if needed.
General or specialized camp? Are you looking for a camp to keep your child safe but with limited activities, or something specific? If your child likes sports look for a 'multisport camp' or specific sport camps. In multi-sport camps the children will have the opportunity to learn and improve their skills on a wide range of sports, while the sport specific camps focus on that particular sport only. Educational camps work the same way, so finding camps that focus on the interests of your child is a great benefit.
Who is administering the camp? It is very important that redoubtable organizations and /or individuals organize and conduct the camps. Nothing is more important than having your child safe and in a safe environment during the summer. Look up their web site, look up the people who own the organizations and research their backgrounds. Are they qualified to teach and conduct the camps? Just because someone likes a discipline (educational or sports) does not make them experts. These are important questions that need to be answered before you sign your child up for camps.
Safety of the camp? Sometimes people take for granted the location of the camps. A few questions that need answers are: is it in a safe area of the city, is it a fenced in facility for sports, or safe building for educational camps? Your child will be spending most of the day there, and maybe even weeks during the summer, so ensuring that the organization who is conducting the camps has secured a proper location to conduct the camps is very important. Also, is the staff requiring you to sign the children in when you drop them off in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon? Knowing that only the people who you designated are allowed to pick your child up is very important. Safety measures need to be in place and clearly communicated with the parents by the camp staff . Also, for activities that take place outside, does the camp have a shelter or place where in case of inclement weather the children can seek refuge?
Daily schedule of the camps? A well-organized camp has a clearly determined schedule that is communicated with the parents and children ahead of time. As a parent you should know exactly where the children are and what they are doing at all times. This way if there is a doctor's appointment or emergency you can pick up them up. Knowing the daily schedule will make it easier to make the decision if you child is ready to attend that particular camp or not. For some children knowing the exact daily schedule will relieve them of any additional anxiety of the unknown. Are they factoring in water breaks for activities that take place outside? Keeping he children hydrated in the summer is an important factor.
In conclusion, know your child, what he/she likes and wants to learn or improve on and do your homework on who is conducting the camps. You should have your child attend a well-organized camp this summer with staff that is properly trained and dedicated to conduct activities that will enrich the children's lives and empower them to be better students, athletes, and achieve their dreams.
This entry was posted in Ideas and tagged active, Health, kids, parents, sports, summer, summer camp, teens, Tweens. Bookmark the permalink.


With nearly twenty years of stories behind him, Mike Mignola's Hellboy is still moving forward with a voracious appetite, investigating the supernatural issues no one else dares to touch. On this adventure, though, he very well may have bitten off more than he can chew. That's no hyperbole either, as the scale and stakes have never been higher, both for Hellboy and the planet itself. Staring down the Queen of Witches, Hellboy's aim is nothing short of circumventing the end of civilization as we know it. An extinction event on par with the fall of the dinosaurs is nearly upon us, and the only thing standing between it and us is the little red demon with a giant, gloved right hand.
This penultimate chapter for both mini-series and character is heavy on the atmosphere but still exceptionally easy to read. Mike Mignola's writing has come a long way since he teamed with John Byrne back in Hellboy's very first adventure, and the way he calmly lets major events play out without an excess of narration or explanation is just further proof of his graduation from writer-artist to genuine storyteller. It's an extremely well-crafted issue that efficiently covers the full gamut of emotions, then leaves its audience wide-eyed and uncertain about where things can possibly go next. While he may not be providing the artwork any longer, Mignola's writing is still masterfully streamlined and simple, and he trusts his companion implicitly enough to leave the majority of the storytelling to the visuals.
Of course, the real question for any artist who dares to take up the mantle on Hellboy is how their work compares to Mignola's original run with the character. And while no less than a dozen different artists have offered their take on his signature creation, none have stuck around nearly as long as Duncan Fegredo. Since his first run with the series in 2007's Darkness Calls, Fegredo has carved a spot for himself in the Hellboy mythos, and with good reason - his style is an extremely close approximation of Mignola's. Truth be told, aside from their differing takes on common human characters, it's difficult to distinguish the two at all, particularly when it comes to the titular character. Fegredo's work gets lots of room to stretch its legs this month, with a gigantic fight scene spanning most of the issue and macabre gothic accents enlivening the backgrounds, and he responds in fantastic form. It's a genuinely gorgeous issue that takes on a wide variety of emotions, implications and premonitions, while still maintaining that eerie sense of haunted reality that Mignola has always brought to the table. The big man himself couldn't have done it any better.
It's a rarity in the comics world, or truly in any form of entertainment, for promises of "this changes everything" to truly deliver. Either editorial interference, reluctance on the part of the creators or desperate, poorly concocted new directions hamper such examples with very few exceptions. Not so with Hellboy: The Fury. It's a concluding chapter worth remembering, a storytelling decision born not of any perceived need to shake things up. It's the natural progression of a yarn that's been spinning for some time, and an especially effective one at that. Buy it.


For a little context, back in December, leaked Sony emails revealed the salaries of Lawrence and her male co-stars in American Hustle. It turned out she earned considerably less than them, despite her proven box office draw and her significant role in the film.
But then, after seeing the "payroll on the Internet," Lawrence recognized the discrepancy between her own income and those of her male co-stars. "[I] realized every man I was working with definitely didn't worry about being 'difficult' or 'spoiled,'" she said.
Hear that? That's the sound of us clapping. In no more than five paragraphs, Lawrence managed to peel back the psychological and socio-cultural layers that bind us in a state of inequality. Her own self-reflection serves to explain some of the barriers women face in terms of wage equality, and the importance of knocking them down. And most notably, she reveals the double standard women face in Hollywood—and let's be honest—much of the working world, when we speak up and make the same demands men make all the time.
We've always admired Lawrence for her talent, her humor, and her straight-up realness. But this essay also reminds us how much we admire her strength. She's Katniss Everdeen, through and through. And by opening up about her own fears—and challenging them—she's providing more transparency about gender inequality in Hollywood, and more inspiration for other women to stand up and demand exactly what they deserve.


text:
Home / Entire Catalog / Human Architecture / Edited Collection Series / Article / Journal Article — Women of Color and TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families): Issues, Barriers, and Hindrances — by Asjah Monroe
Journal Article — Women of Color and TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families): Issues, Barriers, and Hindrances — by Asjah Monroe
Journal Article — Women of Color and TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families): Issues, Barriers, and Hindrances — by Asjah Monroe quantity
SKU: 16234 Categories: Article, Edited Collection Series, Human Architecture
Women with children who must rely on TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) are faced with obstacles of limits to higher education, asset attainment limits, lack of childcare, and demanding 'work first' policies. Welfare recidivism depends heavily on the trade-offs between family and work that women have to make. The TANF system and conservative proponents of welfare reform focus on work as a norm for women and adopt notions of self-sufficiency through work as a means to eradicate poverty. Despite the value of this goal, this individualism overlooks that women who do not recidivate rely on other forms of subsistence, including their extended kinship networks and community ties. TANF undermines the usage of these community ties that people of low-income communities rely on for survival. Self-determination in these women is produced by promoting asset attainment, higher education, and use of community ties/resources. The conservative idea that work is the norm, work is good for families and work leads to self-sufficiency is not realistic for these women's lives. In this paper, I am advocating for the development of a social welfare system that acknowledges and respects cultural variation and that encourages collectivistic responses to alleviating poverty.
Monroe, Asjah. 2005/2006. "Women of Color and TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families): Issues, Barriers, and Hindrances." Pp. 165-178 in Student Scholarships of Learning (Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Volume IV, Issues 1&2, 2005/2006). Belmont, MA: Okcir Press (an imprint of Ahead Publishing House).
Section url: https://www.okcir.com/product/journal-article-women-of-color-and-tanf-temporary-aid-to-needy-families-issues-barriers-and-hindrances-by-asjah-monroe
The various editions of Student Scholarships of Learning can be ordered from the Okcir Store and are also available for ordering from all major online bookstores worldwide (such as Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and others).
Monroe-human-architecture-scholarships-of-learning
H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006, 165-178 165 H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE ISSN: 1540-5699. © Copyright by Ahead Publishing House (imprint: Okcir Press). All Rights Reserved. HUMAN ARCHITECTURE Journal of the Sociology of Self- A Publication of OKCIR: The Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics) P REFACE "What you gon' do? You're Black, you're poor, you're ugly, you're a woman! You're nothin' at all!" —Danny Glover, The Color Purple The Color Purple has always been a fa- vorite of mine, but it wasn't until I watched it recently that I realized the relevance. This quote resonates with me for the purposes of this project. Most often, the degradation Black women have been exposed to was at the hands of Black men and the rest of soci- ety. But hasn't it always been Black women, old and young, sustaining the community? Haven't we been primarily responsible for childrearing and even the filial responsibil- ity when men have deserted the family? Haven't we creatively and cleverly "made a way out of no way"? And all of this while still managing to raise children who can navigate a dangerously oppressive system while giving the impression that they are in collusion with it? So it was in the spirit of this inquiry that I initially began writing this paper. Asjah Monroe graduated in May 2006 with honors from UMass Boston, majoring in Sociology. She wrote this honors the- sis while enrolled in an independent study course supervised by Emmett Schaefer, Lecturer of Sociology at UMass Boston. Women of Color and TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) Issues, Barriers, and Hindrances Asjah Monroe University of Massachusetts Boston –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– [email protected] Abstract: Women with children who must rely on TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) are faced with obstacles of limits to higher education, asset attainment limits, lack of childcare, and demanding 'work first' policies. Welfare recidivism depends heavily on the trade-offs between family and work that women have to make. The TANF system and conservative proponents of welfare reform focus on work as a norm for women and adopt notions of self-sufficiency through work as a means to eradicate poverty. Despite the value of this goal, this individualism overlooks that women who do not recidivate rely on other forms of subsistence, including their extended kinship networks and community ties. TANF undermines the usage of these commu- nity ties that people of low-income communities rely on for survival. Self-determination in these women is produced by promoting asset attainment, higher education, and use of community ties/resources. The conservative idea that work is the norm, work is good for families and work leads to self-sufficiency is not realistic for these women's lives. In this paper, I am advocating for the development of a social welfare system that acknowledges and respects cultural variation and that encourages collectivistic responses to alleviating poverty. 166 A SJAH M ONROE H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006 I recently had the opportunity to present this research at a conference and that experience made me realize the need to really share this message. As I have said be- fore, this project is all about giving voice to those who wouldn't otherwise find one— letting people tell their own story for once. It is essentially my story and the stories of others just like me. So I wish to depart from that awfully dogmatic and completely dry style of academic presentation, and instead invite you to an exploration with me of self and of a social world that is often obscured. Here, although my thoughts and motiva- tions pertain to black women like myself, these issues pertain, I think, to all low-in- come women who are struggling to ad- vance themselves while maintaining ties to others and their communities. This work in particular is a labor of love. There are so many things that I've al- ways wanted to say, always wanted to ex- press. I really feel like sociologists are drop- ping the ball. There are more than enough studies about investigating the social prob- lems. We know what the problems are al- ready. What are we going to do about them? So I'm hoping that this is only the first step for me. The beginning of a life lived in the service of disenfranchised peo- ple, a life poured out as a living sacrifice to the struggle. I NTRODUCTION Poverty has become a code word for defective and immoral, and the war on poverty is really a war on poor people. The people of low-income communities really do not want to get out of poverty if it means disconnecting from their community of or- igin. Instead, we want to stabilize the com- munity and be eradicating dependency and promoting self-sufficiency. Essentially, we want to improve the community, we don't want to get out of it and leave it be- hind. The government sees the eradication of poverty as putting all unemployed and dependent people to work, any kind of work with any kind of pay. Additionally, governmental efforts often undermine the community ties that people of low-income rely on for survival. Essentially, in this pa- per I am presenting an argument against the implicit "culture of poverty" tenets that underlay previous reform. I do agree that welfare reform is in order but it is the struc- ture that must be changed, not the people who depend on the assistance. Welfare is racialized because the focus seems to be on changing poor blacks into middle and up- per class whites. Instead, I'm advocating for the development of a social welfare sys- tem that acknowledges and accounts for cultural variation by promoting collectivis- tic responses to alleviating poverty. I will begin by reviewing the central perspectives existing today that frame de- bates about women's efforts to cope with poverty and survive with empowerment in the aftermath of change in the welfare sys- tem. Although there is much written about the low wages and the inability to get out of poverty, I wish to emphasize that change must seek to eliminate poverty and offer opportunity—but, to achieve this while women maintain their collectivistic strengths, including kinship and informal ties in the community. Here, although my thoughts and motivations pertain to black women like myself, these issues pertain, I think, to all low-income women, who are struggling to advance themselves while maintaining ties to others and their com- munities. T HE L ITERATURE There has been an overwhelming amount of research conducted about TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families), for- merly known as AFDC (Aid to Families With Dependent Children). Most of this re- search supports one side or the other in a (T EMPORARY A ID TO N EEDY F AMILIES ): 167 H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006 debate about reform of the public welfare system that has been dichotomous. On the one hand, there are the propo- nents of welfare reform who argue that pol- icy change is in order, as there are far too many recipients who are unnecessarily de- pendent (Bok and Simmons 2004, Chilman & Cancian 2001). This line of argument eventually resulted in the reform of AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) during the Clinton administration. Under the new changes, families receiving aid may not receive benefits for additional chil- dren born to parents, and the changes in- clude a lifetime five year time limit and very specific work requirements. As a di- rect result, the nationwide participation rate has been reduced by approximately fif- ty percent. But of course, getting off the rolls is not the same as getting out of pover- ty. Cancian (2001) asserts that the ideologi- cal underpinnings of this prowork rhetoric are that work is the norm, work is good for families, and work leads to self-sufficiency. This is primarily the conservative view- point of welfare reform. On the other hand, the opponents ar- gue that reforms have been ineffective be- cause rigid work requirements in combina- tion with the time limits hinder parents from attaining higher education. Advanced schooling is absolutely essential to acquire jobs that pay a living wage. Furthermore, there are limitations to the instituting a 'work first' approach when endeavoring to improve the well-being and living stan- dards of low-income families (Cancian 2001; Applied Research Center 2000). The origin of the conservative ap- proach is theorized to have developed from historical approaches to poverty relief ef- forts. Originally, widows with children and the elderly were the original beneficiaries of public assistance and out of this devel- oped the social security system. Eventually a shift occurred where participation in the labor market and individual behavior/ ability/responsibility was emphasized. As a result, a sharp distinction between those who were considered to be the needy poor and those who where the undeserving poor arose (Albelda 2002; Mittelstadt 2001). There are various trends within each camp. Research shows that as a result of ac- cess to low-wage jobs that do not offer ben- efits and because of inflexible childcare op- tions, women choose to remain on welfare rather than forego adequate healthcare and the stability of their family. Furthermore, employment does not guarantee success nor does cohabitation improve economic conditions for unwed mothers; in fact, re- search shows that "welfare recipients see little increase in their wages over time" (Blalock, Tiller and Monroe 2004; Loeb 2001; Teitler, Reichman, and Hepomny- aschy 2004; Cancian 2001). There is a whole body of literature on poverty, ranging from cultural explanations to external explana- tions (Kunz 1996; Sherraden 1991). And there are other factors that determine the likelihood of one living in poverty such as residence in the South, residence in a rural area, the availability of jobs in the market, etc. (Harris 1993; Jensen 1997). Community networks and 'othermoth- ering' is noteworthy in the discussion of the additional resources that these women use to sustain themselves. In general, the re- search shows that extensive kinship ties and community networks are utilized to nullify the conditions that are a result of poverty (Stack 1974; Collins 2000). A partic- ularly influential and well-known author in welfare research is Carol Stack, author of All Our Kin (1974) . Her study of the African American community was one of the first that explored these interconnected commu- nal relations in such depth. Unfortunately, her analysis was predicated on the per- ceived otherness of the people she studied and her study only further confounds and reifies race and poverty in America. Yet, her research is of the most widely used and quoted in the field. In much of the litera- ture, there is an interchangeable use of poor 168 A SJAH M ONROE H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006 and black, both explicitly stated and im- plied. The major problem with most of the works that I have reviewed is that they are condescending and none of them are allow- ing the people to tell their own story. There is a gross lack of representation in research. Regarding TANF and asset attainment, there is overwhelming support for the con- clusion that persons receiving public assis- tance and being supported by social wel- fare programs are not able to get out of pov- erty because the system reinforces and even sustains the low-income status of recipi- ents, in part by not allowing them to attain assets (Sherraden 1991; Oliver and Shapiro 1995; Stack 1974; Massey and Denton 1993). Further, this disadvantage is historically in- grained in the fabric of this social institu- tion and is based on the need for a perpetu- al underclass to provide cheap labor to the society. Welfare cannot disrupt the low- wage market activity and the policies are in collusion with this objective (Applied Re- search Center 2002). Therefore, the welfare system itself promotes chronic unemploy- ment and poverty simply through severely limiting the attainment of assets in order to be eligible to receive public assistance. The Welfare Rights Movement has been instrumental in causing the direction of social welfare policy to sway in favor of those who are affected by it. This move- ment has been documented since it's incep- tion in the early 1960s. A particularly note- worthy organization that is on the forefront of policy advocacy is Grass Roots Organiz- ing for Welfare Leadership (GROWL). They are composed of more than 50 organiza- tions and among their policy recommenda- tions have been very influential with con- gress (www.datacenter.org 2002). Howev- er, the movement began with The National Welfare Rights Organization which is pri- marily composed of women of color who were recipients of welfare and these wom- en were primarily spearheading the wel- fare rights movement, and are known for pushing the agenda for their survival needs of themselves and of their children. Out of this movement came many smaller grass- roots organizations that brought about sig- nificant changes in policy mostly at the lo- cal state levels, among them being the pre- vention of welfare offices being shut down, and rallying against the passing of more rigid time requirements (Katz 1986; Man- dell 1990; Sampson 1990). Among those or- ganizations collaborating are welfare agen- cies with child welfare agencies, various smaller national organizations, and social- ist organizations to push the humanistic welfare reform agenda (Naples 1998; Ehrle 2004). The Welfare Rights Movement was an outgrowth of the Civil Rights Movement because women were seeking individual and community empowerment. C OLLECTIVE S TRENGTHS AND C ULTURAL S URVIVAL A CCOMPANYING E CONOMIC C HANGE Welfare reform and policies to promote economic self-sufficiency Welfare reform aims to produce self- determination by promoting asset attain- ment, higher education, and use of commu- nity ties/resources. However, the question "Why can't people get out of poverty?" is an altogether flawed concept. The question, rather, should be "How can people become self-determining?" And the answer, in part, is education. Persons living in poverty are faced with the obstacles of limits to access to higher education and on attaining assets. Education is a way to self-determination and if we can access education, we can self- determine. Welfare will never help that process, but instead often works to under- mine the process of self-determination among low-income communities because it breaks down community solidarity. And (T EMPORARY A ID TO N EEDY F AMILIES ): 169 H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006 community ties and relationships are the very support system that men and women living in poverty rely on for daily survival. Education is the way of breaking out of the cycle of lack of self-determination. Accord- ing to one qualitative study, women receiv- ing public assistance demonstrate a will- ingness to comply with the work require- ments and are optimistic about finding work, but recognize that without the op- portunity to pursue more education or vo- cational training, they will not be able to find decent employment (Scott et al. 2000). Many recipients are eager to work and to improve their conditions by moving on the path of self-determination. Self-determination is embodied in col- lective community organizing, and we find the embodiment of self-determination in the welfare rights movement. In this move- ment, women gathered together and then acted to effect change in policy rather than passively acquiescing to the limitations posed by policy. Instead of asking for char- ity, they demanded rights and thereby de- termined how their needs must be met by the system rather than the system deciding for them. Albelda & Withorn posit that Contrary to popular wisdom, to- day's activism is part of a long tra- dition that includes poor and working class feminists who be- came active to secure equal rights with men, black and white low-in- come women mobilized to fulfill their community-defined gen- dered obligations, which included helping to sustain or improve the standard of living of their families and communities. (2002: 164) According to Seccombe et al., there have been four main theoretical perspec- tives used by more affluent populations to explain the welfare usage: Individualism, social structuralism (also known as the Big Brother theory), the culture of poverty and fatalism (1998: 850). Social Structuralism is perhaps the best fit for explaining the use of welfare by women with children. This per- spective "suggests that social programs and welfare polices, themselves, contribute to poverty and exacerbate welfare use by trapping people in poverty and welfare de- pendency instead of helping them escape" (James 1993: 850-1). This is consistent with my analysis of the system and the obstacles it presents to persons trying to get out of poverty. The idea of endeavoring to eradi- cate dependency is what inspired the re- form. This is reflected in the document it- self under the historical background and need for reform overview: The major goal of Public Law 104- 193 is to reduce the length of wel- fare spells by attacking dependen- cy…[and is] based on the view that the permanent guarantee of bene- fits plays a major role in welfare de- pendency, [therefore] congress is fundamentally altering the nature of the AFDC Program[…]. (Person- al Responsibility and Work Oppor- tunity Reconciliation Act, Sec. 1) However, the major difference is that most structuralists view the system as be- ing responsible because it undermines re- cipient's ability to pull themselves out of poverty, while conservatives view the sys- tem as promoting dependency by allowing people to rely on the system without hav- ing to work to support themselves. Advo- cates and conservatives alike agree that change is in order, but the point of depar- ture of the two views is who is responsible for this change and with whom does the blame lay—with the individual or the fed- eral government. So then, the questions I pose are: 1-What does it take to help wom- en with children get out of poverty?; 2: How do we get them unstuck; and, 3: How does one endeavor to lift themselves out of poverty? While the welfare system is the fo- 170 A SJAH M ONROE H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006 cal point of my analysis of the issue, it is not the main issue . The new welfare law endeavors to end dependence through strengthening the family, promoting marriage, and emphasiz- ing male responsibility (Section 2, Title 1). However, quite ironically, it implements a strategy that includes reducing or denying benefits to teen mothers, denying benefits to mothers who have additional children while on welfare, limiting educational at- tainment to vocational training, and pun- ishing recipients who don't 'establish pa- ternity' by cutting their benefits. In other words, the aim is not to strengthen the fam- ily at all but rather to stop poor people from having babies as quickly as possible and to virtually throw people off of the welfare rolls. There is no real way for these parents to stabilize their families without the pros- pect of gainful employment, and they can- not find such employment without ad- vanced education, which is now impossible with the new work requirements. Among the material I have reviewed, the general understanding, amongst oppo- nents and proponents of welfare legisla- tion, among activists and amongst those who are directly affected by policy, is that reform is in order. The disagreement comes with exactly who and/or what needs to be reformed. Critics of welfare legislation, ac- tivists, scholarly writers and the women themselves assert that the system has changed for the worst and will continue to do so as long as policy that is insensitive to women's care-taking role is continually en- acted. Policy makers contend that people need to work, they need to get a job—any job—and 'take personal responsibility' for caring for themselves and their families. The women's and advocate's response to this is that they do want to work and they do want to care for themselves and their families, but the social welfare system is not enabling them to do so via the enforcement of inflexible (and quite insensible in most cases) rules and regulations, and insensi- tive policies that do not take into account the real issues of these women's lives. In They Think You Ain't Much of Nothin': The So- cial Construction of the Welfare Mother , Sec- combe et. al insist that "recipients are pre- dominantly women, and the needs and concerns embedded in women's real life experiences as caretakers of dependent children are not contextualized within rec- ommendations to reduce or eliminate wel- fare (851)." Community Ties & Their Hindrances Much of what articles discuss is the im- plications of the TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) policy, and in very ab- stract terms. While they discuss very gener- ally the reduction of the numbers on the rolls and make a value judgment about it, they seem to neglect to talk about the other resources that these women who are tossed off the rolls are using. The implication is that the resources the women resort to us- ing are not necessarily better than welfare but they can't possibly be worse if the women are going back to them. But I don't think this is the case. It seems to me that the hassle, the hu- miliation, and the stigmatization that they would suffer are not worth the meager ben- efits that aren't even enough for minimal subsistence. I see the reality of this in my life and in the lives of the women in my family. A friend of mine who is currently re- lying on public assistance as a result of an unplanned pregnancy is utterly disillu- sioned with what she's had to deal with. She is continuously shuffled from case- worker to caseworker and thus is never able to get answers. She also talks about be- ing treated with contempt and with much suspicion as though she is lying in order to collect benefits. She often insists with frus- tration that, "It's just not worth what they put you through to get this little bit of mon- ey." And still, she is forced to supplement her income by doing hair for money, bor- (T EMPORARY A ID TO N EEDY F AMILIES ): 171 H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , IV, 1&2, F ALL 2005/S PRING 2006 rowing from family, and relying on what- ever else comes her way. Many women, according to Hayes (2003), just leave the roles long before their time limits because they're tired of these and other kinds of abuses. When asked to what resources these women resort, the caseworkers just say that they have other sources, though many are illegal (34). In ad- dition, I know that many of these options are far worse and cost them an emotional and/or mental price, if not financial. Some attempt to subsist even in the absence of healthcare for their children, many return to abusive arrangements in exchange for the support of the person who abuses them, drug dealing, prostituting, and a host of others. I know that if the benefits were not available for my friend and if her parents refused to help her, she would be forced to return to an abusive arrangement. In a situ- ation like this, the welfare system under- mines my friend's independence and that of women in similar situations by imposing strict income and asset limits, and by ruling out cohabitation with the father of the chil- dren. They are really stuck between a rock and a hard place, as the expression goes. More often than not, women are penalized for utilizing their community ties for finan- cial support. Unfortunately, the welfare system is not in the business of fostering self-deter- mination. Instead, it insists on a one-on-one relationship of the individual with the bu- reaucracy that is more like a parent-child relationship. Because of the many rules and regulations concerning income guidelines and other restrictions, the result is that the individual's use of connections to the com- munity are considered illegitimate. This process is contrary to self-determination because the only way people have ever got- ten somewhere is by working together, uti- lizing community ties to first make them- selves more stable and then to bring about reform. The reason for the cycle of poverty is that the lack of self-determination is cy- clical and promotes dependence on gov- ernmental resources. This combats the no- tion that these people do not want to be in- dependent and do not want to work. They do, but they are not willing or able to do so at the expense of their children or even at their own emotional and mental well being. Education dually serves as a vehicle for individual and community empowerment. Being forced to work so many hours amounts to less time for school, particular- ly since TANF requirements hinder the flexibility of these mothers in pursuing higher education. In addition to higher ed- ucation, Harris (1993) observes that there are two other productive ways to leave wel- fare through work. Either by obtaining gainful employment or by finding a decent job that will add up to accumulated work experience (323). In order to get their education, these parents rely on support networks because the resources offered by the welfare system itself are insufficient. For example, there have been 4 billion additional dollars allot- ted for the childcare block grant (Section 1, Overview), and indeed this is one of the more positive aspects of the reform. How- ever, the Area Research Center asserts that the grant is used inefficiently and really serves as a hindrance in most cases. Most mothers are not able to find good and ac- ceptable childcare with their vouchers and many childcare establishments will not ac- cept them because welfare does not pay them in time (Applied Research Center 2002). From my experience and that of friends, family, and coworkers, I see that we take care of children to assist mothers who can't care for their children and act as 'othermothers', a term coined by Patricia Hill Collins, signifying the role of women in the collective community who lend sup- port. These are mothers, aunts and friends of parents who provide free childcare, cook for one another, provide transportation, give info, money, and any other required resources. 172 A SJAH M ONROE H UMAN A RCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 By the welfare system allowing indi- viduals to attain education, subsequently, they are not just stabilizing an individual but helping to stabilize entire communities. One of the ways that the interdependence of the community is maintained is through individuals investing their skills back into their community once they obtain their ed- ucation. There is an understood expecta- tion that when these individuals obtain higher education, they always return their skills as a sort of offering to the community to enhance it and make it better. This is what is expected of them and it is under- stood that the only way that the network may continue to support its members is if it receives a return on the investments it has made in individuals. Furthermore, there is a certain sense of pride and fulfillment that comes with being able to help others over- come the same set of circumstances and ob- stacles that you did in order to get to where you are. If they don't do this, they face the possibility of being labeled, ridiculed and treated as a social outsider by the commu- nity and also within their own family. By my estimation, it's a combination of feeling indebted to the community from whence you came and feeling the pressure. Welfare has been racialized over the decades and race has been conflated with poverty (Applied Research Center, 2002). We are all familiar with Ronald Reagan's invocation of the welfare queen archetype with several children who lives off of the system and buying expensive material items on the government's tab. Although it is understood by all that this is not a race neutral idea, but rather, it specifically con- jures up images of Black and Latino wom- en. Oliver and Shapiro (1995) contend that a racialization of the state has developed historically, and is indicated by the massive wealth gap between blacks and whites. They posit that, "segments of the black ur- ban community have come to make up the majority of 'that heterogeneous grouping of families and individuals who are outside the mainstream of the American occupa- tional system' and who are euphemistically called the underclass (304)." However, and quite ironically, the complexity of it extends into intra-racial relations. As a result of this racialization, welfare has become a micro- cosm of the dissension within the black community. What breaks up the unity, particularly of black communities, is this racialization of welfare because low-income blacks who receive welfare are perceived as a discredit to the race and are considered 'bad repre- sentatives' of the entire race which causes a schism to occur across class lines. Blacks who are more financially prosperous, par- ticularly those who more recently experi- enced upward mobility, may feel justified in divorcing themselves from lower-class blacks and feel more in accord with Ameri- can values. However, what is really hap- pening is a value conflict between the col- lective and the individual. Middle class blacks are confronted with the demand to abandon their collectivistic values and re- place them with the private values of mid- dle class. Collins (2000) explains how this happens: Moving into the middle class means adopting the values and lif- estyles of White middle-class fami- lies. While the traditional family ideal is not the norm, the relative isolation of such families from oth- ers is noteworthy. U.S. middle- class family life is based on privati- zation […] [W]orking class Afri- can-Americans who experience so- cial mobility thus may encounter a distinctly different value system. (321) So become isolated, cut off from the community after they leave the working class urban blacks behind in the city. And when they depart to the suburbs they take (TEMPORARY AID TO NEEDY FAMILIES): 173 HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 all of their social capital and resources with them. This results in a direct challenge to the sustenance of these kinship networks that people of color relied on. Collins (2000) goes on to note that the result is that, "the emergence of class-stratified Black neigh- borhoods greatly altered the fabric of Black civil society. African-Americans of diverse social classes found themselves in new res- idential, school and work settings that test- ed this enduring theme of bloodmothers, othermothers, and woman-centered net- works (321)." The welfare system is indi- rectly responsible for this rupturing of the unity. The poignant irony of this dissension among Blacks is demonstrated in how the black middle class perceive welfare blacks in much the same way as a majority of White Americans perceive the black com- munity as a whole. More often than I care to admit, I have participated in conversations where middle class black people refer im- plicitly to low-income blacks with terms such as 'ghetto n——s' and make vast gen- eralizations about them living off of wel- fare, and not wanting anything better for themselves, and with a contemptible tone. I find it to be rather ironic that these same blacks are first generation middle-class people and only experienced upward class mobility through the sheer luck of getting a good-paying job that offered room for ad- vancement and upward social mobility. Through these good jobs, they were later able to access advanced education and ob- tain even more gainful employment. The mainstream media portrays all blacks as a perpetual underclass and con- flates the classes. Yet there is still an addi- tional piece to this value conflict. Those who remain in poverty often reject middle- class blacks and accuse them of forgetting where they come from, because of that ex- pectation that blacks who become success- ful will use their resources to enrich the community and to give back to the commu- nity that produced them. They may be la- beled a 'sell-out', a 'token', or an 'uncle tom', which are colloquial terms used to re- fer to people who are assimilated into white culture and who do not ascribe to blackness as it is defined by the collective. The terms also indicate that such a person is being used by Whites. Financial Obstacles Presented by Welfare Everyone should have a right to wel- fare but 1 in every 10 dollars makes its way to the welfare recipient (Funiciello 1994). The idea is not to force people off of the welfare rolls, but to develop a system for an overwhelming part of the population that actually meets their needs and supports them, not one that punishes them. Howev- er, I think that if the bureaucracy exists, there is a vested interest in keeping it estab- lished: the persons who benefit from cheap labor and those who work in the system of welfare itself don't want to lose a paycheck or clientele. The Applied Research Center (ARC, 2002) reports "a welfare office cul- ture that diverts applicants away from wel- fare and pushes recipients off the roles quickly, sometimes into low wage jobs, sometimes into nothing" (200-201). They also contend that reform has made it in- creasingly difficult to organize because of the "'work first, work all the time' culture that has disabled mothers from having time or energy left over to engage in political ac- tivism" (200-1). However, in the defense of the workers in welfare offices, while there are those who foster counterproductive relationships to their clients, many of them want to work with the clients to help them get out of pov- erty but have found themselves defeated by the inflexibility of the rigid policies that they must enforce. Hayes interviewed case- workers that were dissatisfied within the bureaucracy, and "some even imagined those relentless and unforgiving rules as a 174 ASJAH MONROE HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 series of landmines purposively installed as a test of their courage and fortitude" and she concluded, "Everyone in the welfare of- fice struggled mightily to negotiate a way through (and around) those rules and regu- lations" (Hayes 2003:96). I see another level of communalism arising here, a rather iron- ic one. However, not all caseworkers have their clients' best interests at heart. In addition, racism and cultural bias in- herent in the system serve as a barrier for an overwhelming number of people receiv- ing TANF and these biases have been in- grained in the system historically. Oliver and Shapiro (1995) cogently argue that the AFDC that was originally intended for poor white women with families became increasingly a service to women of color, despite efforts to keep them off the roles. This disproportionate use of AFDC by women of color was a result of the differen- tial in earning power between blacks and whites. They further demonstrate that be- cause of punitive strict low-asset require- ments, women enter welfare on the economic edge. They deplete almost all of their savings in order to become el- igible for a program that will not provide more than a subsistence living. What little savings remain are usually drawn down to meet routine shortfalls and emergencies. The result is that AFDC [became] for many women, especially Afri- can American women, a state- sponsored policy to encourage and maintain asset poverty. (311) The prevailing myth is that the idea of poverty is a race neutral idea but this is not the case. Applied Research Center (2002), in their analysis of racism in the welfare sys- tem, found that White caseworkers would often recommend jobs and other resources to their White clients that they wouldn't to their Black and Latino clients—thereby contributing to the other factors that hin- dered their success in finding employment and getting off welfare. Furthermore, their research and that of other scholars show that legislation becomes more punitive as the number of blacks and Latinos on the rolls increase. The interchangeable use of race and class in discussions of poverty caused any discussion about welfare to be associated with women of color. This racial bias shows up in the case handling of wom- en of color (111-112). The ideology of the family ethic reinforces the differentiation between deserving and undeserving wom- en by defining traditional or 'proper' wom- en's roles and the conflicting demands for women's labor outside the home is the way that the welfare state controls women (Abramovitz 1988). Lack of accommodations being made for the language barriers to second-lan- guage speakers in the welfare office serves as an additional barrier to recipients. Fur- ther, persons are unwilling to sacrifice their culture to go on welfare because of the stig- ma attached to it. Essentially, people are be- ing punished for having an identity that is not normative and the extent that entire groups of people deviate from the norm (white, middle-class, etc.) is the extent to which they will not only feel oppression but also the extent that they will be pun- ished by the welfare system. Race is an ob- vious divider within the welfare system as women of color leave welfare because of discrimination by caseworkers not being offered jobs by welfare-work employers, not being made aware of work resources, etc. (Funiciello 1993; Hayes 2003). And I say, in addition to this, women are denied the opportunity to utilize their resources and forced into the most abject financial cir- cumstances just to obtain the meager bene- fits that the system offers. A primary concern for most women who must chose between work and family is childcare. According to reports from the Applied Research Center (2002), the jobs on (TEMPORARY AID TO NEEDY FAMILIES): 175 HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 the market are not mother-ready, as most jobs do not accommodate women's respon- sibility to care for their children, particular- ly those who are primarily and exclusively responsible for their children. Moreover, the wages offered are far too low to support women and their families. Mother-readi- ness could consist of a number of provi- sions and accommodations for women with children. Among the needs of women would be improved maternity leave. Many women do not want to leave their young in- fant in the care of strangers and cannot find acceptable childcare. An extended paid ma- ternity leave could partially reconcile this problem. Also, most jobs available to low- skill, low-income women offer inflexible hours and after-hour jobs force women to choose between working or caring for their children. Concerning the pay that women re- ceive, this can be a whole other challenge to developing stability for themselves and their families. Referred to as 'a living wage' by Applied Research Center (2002), women must earn enough to pay rent and other liv- ing expenses, buy groceries, obtain reliable transportation, and pay for healthcare and other periphery costs. They assert that "women's poverty in the labor market and their poverty as family caregivers are deep- ly intertwined" (140). They referred to a study that "translated family care giving work into it's labor market components— nursemaid, dietitian, cook, laundress, maintenance worker, chauffeur, food buy- er, cook, dishwasher, seamstress, practical nurse, gardener […]—and the weekly val- ue of family caregivers' work was at least $257.53 or $13391.56 a year (1972 dollars)" (142). So even though they are character- ized as such, women who are primary care- takers and do not work are not lazy! They are just unpaid for their work and the work that they do is undervalued. Applied Re- search Center contends that because this care giving is not perceived as work, wom- en do not have access to a breadwinner's wage, which refers to earnings that are suf- ficient enough to run a household. Further- more, they admonish policy makers to "ad- just our framework theoretically and polit- ically in order to understand the impossible position of poor single mothers." They also assert that the welfare system's recognizing work and offering a caregiver's income would encourage fathers to do more care giving work and also would not cause them to suffer financial losses for giving time to care giving (144). CONCLUSION Above, I have delineated the concerns of the women in low-income and advocate communities by asserting that women who are living in poverty are seeking a way to provide for themselves that is not at the ex- pense of their families or their personal mental and emotional well-being. The wel- fare system should be in a position to help them meet this goal rather than undercut- ting their independence. Furthermore, the system must take into account and recog- nize as valid, the extensive community net- works and resources that these women ac- cess rather than punishing them for using them. Patricia Hill Collins emphasizes the complexity and the crucial nature of ex- tended family networks in the Black com- munity that women utilize to confront and reduce the effects of racial and class oppres- sion (319). The welfare state indirectly attacks the cultural solidarity of women of color and implicitly emphasizes the exchange of their values and beliefs for those of the main- stream is by promoting the EuroAmerican middle-class model in training programs such as family literacy programs (Fitz 2002). The PROWORA denies assistance to unmarried women who have additional children after their enrollment in the TAF- DC program and requires child support from the father of the child/children that 176 ASJAH MONROE HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 would be calculated into their monthly benefits. However this ideal of the two-par- ent dual-income home is not applicable to the situations of these women, despite the efforts of the state to force it on them. Many low-income women desire to be married but the opportunities are not available to them, and furthermore, research shows that cohabitation does not improve eco- nomic conditions because low-income men face lack of available jobs to meet their skill set, chronic unemployment, and still others just abandon their commitment to their re- sponsibilities. Consequently, the women are punished with the denial of benefits as- sistance, essentially as a result of cultural practice and their ascribed socioeconomic status—two things that they have no con- trol over. Harris (1993) noted that women's vary- ing strategies and techniques for survival are what sustain them, but that additional- ly that "jobs [still] play a more prominent role in the economic strategies of poor women than was previously thought" (408- 410). Childcare constraints, lack of gainful employment opportunities, and punitive social welfare programs all hinder upward mobility (presumably because women must focus on short-term needs) and thus contribute to sustaining poverty. Recidi- vism depends heavily on trade-offs be- tween family and work that the women have to make (408-410). Furthermore, nei- ther cohabitation nor employment helps women to move out of poverty because they are still combining multiple income re- sources to subsist. Presumably inflexible childcare hinders the attainment of higher education. Applied Research Center (2002) prima- rily argues "we should redefine welfare as an income owed to non-market, care giving workers-owed to anyone who bears sole or primary responsibility for children (or for other dependent family members)" (143). It further contends that a shift from debating over "reducing welfare dependency to re- ducing poverty and increasing family in- comes" will produce more favorable re- sults. I further argue that we must put more of the decision-making power in the hands of the people who are affected by the re- sults of policy decisions to further promote the process of self-determination. Women of color have employed vary- ing survival strategies over the centuries in the post-slavery era, but always central to their survival was these kinship networks. Their cleverness and the ability to impro- vise have been their greatest assets, yet have been interpreted by society at large as anger and sassiness. Stevens (2002) cogent- ly argues for the sassiness of black women who have been able to utilize these net- works despite the barriers presented by the system, among so many others. She puts this sassiness in a positive context and of- fers a coherent explanation for it: African American girls' [and wom- en's'] genuine predicament is the parallel need for resistance and connection and the social need to develop bicultural competence. They must capitalize on the strengths of sassiness while pre- serving kinship ties and develop- ing and sustaining connections to social ecologies (e.g., schools, churches). The inherent tension here is that outspokenness and boldness may not be seen as strengths. Consequently, negative contextual responses to such be- havior may cause black girls' dis- connection from otherwise sup- portive systems. (86) Therefore, it is abundantly clear how women of color, particularly low-income women who are single parents, have risen to the challenge of raising children and pro- moting resistance while giving the impres- sion that they are in collusion with the sys- tem (Anderson 1996). (TEMPORARY AID TO NEEDY FAMILIES): 177 HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 WORKS CITED Abramovitz, Mimi (1988). "Regulating the lives of Women." Boston: South End Press, Albelda, Randy (1996). "Farewell to Welfare but not to Poverty." Dollars and Sense Novem- ber/December Albelda, Randy; Withorn, Ann, ed. (2002). "Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond." Cambridge: South End Press, Albelda, Randy; Tilly, Chris. "It's a Family Affair: Women, Poverty, and Welfare" Anderson, Karen (1996). "Changing Woman, A History of Racial Women in Modern America" NY: Oxford University Press. Applied Research Center. (2002). "From Pov- erty to Punishment: How Welfare Reform Punishes to the Poor." California: ARC. Blalock, Lydia L; Tiller, Vicky R; Monroe, Pamel A (2004). "They Get You Out of Courage: Persistent Deep Poverty among Former Welfare-Reliant Women" Family Relations 53 2 March 127-137 Bok, Marcia; Simmons, Louise (2004). "Path- ways Out of Poverty: The Challenge of Welfare Policy" The Social Policy Journal, 3, 1, 3-22 Corcoran, M. (1995). "Rags to Rags: Poverty and Mobility in the United States" Annual Review of Sociology. 21 237-267 Data Center (Economic Justice Program). Win- ter 2002. http://www.datacenter.org/ programs/growl-f01.htm Disch, Estelle, ed. (2000). "Reconstructing Gen- der: A Multicultural Anthology." Boston: University of Massachusetts Boston. Bloodmothers, Othermothers, And Women- Centered Networks. Patricia Hill Collins Fitz, Gibbon, Heather. (2002). "Learning to Mother: The Definition of Motherhood by Participants in a Welfare Reform Parenting Class." Paper Presented at the Carework Conference, August 17, Los Angeles Funiciello, Theresa (1993). "Tyranny of Kind- ness: Dismantling the Welfare System to End Poverty in America." New York: Atlanta Monthly Press. Hunter, Andrea. (1997). "Counting on Grand- mothers: Black Mothers' and Fathers' Reliance on Grandmothers for Parenting Support." Journal of Family Issues 18 (3): 251-69 Harris, Kathleen Mullan (1993). "Work and Welfare Among Single Mothers in Pov- erty." The American Journal of Sociology 99 (Sep.) 317-352 Hayes, Sharon (2003). "Flat Broke with Chil- dren: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform." New York: Oxford University Press, James, Stanlie and Abena Busia ed. (1993). "Mothering: A Possible Black Feminist Link to Social Transformation?" In Theo- rizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women" 44-54. New York: Routledge. Jensen L, Chitose Y. (Aug 1997). "Will Workfare work? Job availability for welfare recipi- ents in rural and urban America" Popula- tion Research and Policy Review 16 383-395 Kunz, Jp; Born Ce. "The Relative Importance of Economic and Cultural Factors in Deter- mining Length of AFDC Receipt" Social Work Research 20 (Dec 1996) 196-202 Katz, Michael B. (1986). "In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America." New York: Basic Books Inc. Loeb, S; Corcoran, M. (Winter 2001). "Welfare, Work Experience, and Economic Self-Suf- ficiency" Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 20 Mandell, Betty Reid. (1990). "The National Wel- fare Rights Movement: The Social Protest of Poor Women." Journal of Progressive Human Services, (1) 1 106-116 Martin, Elmer, and Joanne Mitchell Martin. (1978). "The Black Extended Family." Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Massey, Douglas; Denton, Nancy. (1993). "American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass." Cam- bridge, Ma: Harvard University Press Mittelstadt, J. (Summer 2001). "Dependency as a problem to be solved: Rehabilitation and the American liberal Consensus on Welfare in the 1950s" Social Politics 228- 257 Naples, Nancy A. (1998). "Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, community work, and the war on poverty." New York: Rou- tledge Oliver, Melvin; Shapiro, Thomas. (1995). "Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspec- tive on Racial Inequality." Routledge Inc. Peck, J Theodore, N. "Work First: Workfare and the Regulation of contingent Labour Markets" Cambridge Journal of Economics 24 (Jan 2000) 119-138 Sampson, Tim. (1999). "The Welfare rights Movement" Social Policy 30 (2) 51-53 Scott, EK; AS London, K Edin. (2000). Looking to the Future: Welfare-reliant Women talk About Their Job Aspirations in the Con- text of Welfare Reform. Journal of Social Issues 56 (4): 727-746 Winter. 178 ASJAH MONROE HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, IV, 1&2, FALL 2005/SPRING 2006 Seccombe, Karen; Delores James; Kimberly Bat- tle Walters. "They Think You Ain't Much of Nothing: The Social Construction of the Welfare Mother" Journal of Marriage and the Family vol 60 no. 4 Sherraden, Michael. (1991). "Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy." M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Press (London), Stack, Carol D. (1974). "All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community." New York: Harper and Row. Stevens, Joyce West (2002). "Smart and Sassy: The Strengths of Inner-City Black Girls." New york: Oxford University Press, Troester, Rosalie Riegle. (1984). "Turbulence and Tenderness: Mothers, Daughters, and 'Othermothers' in Paule Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones." Sage: A Schol- arly Journal on Black Women 1 (2): 13-16 Teitler, Julien; Reichman, Nancy; Nepomny- aschy, Lenna. (March 2004). "Sources of Support, Child Care, and Hardship Among Unwed Mothers, 1999-2001" Social Service Review 78 125


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Early Diagnosis and Treatment Can Prevent Disability from Leprosy
Health Latest Stories
To mark World Leprosy Day, the World Health Organization is calling for the eradication of this ancient disfiguring disease by combating the stigma and discrimination that discourages people from seeking the help they need.
Leprosy, a hideously disfiguring disease that has blighted the lives of countless millions since Biblical days, is curable. And yet, the World Health Organization reports more than 200,000 people, most in Southeast Asia, are affected with the disease and new cases continue to arise every year.
Leprosy is a chronic bacterial disease with a slow incubation period of about five years. In some cases, symptoms may occur within one year, but can take as long as 20 years to appear.
Leprosy was eliminated globally as a public health problem in 2000, but the disease persists in individuals and communities. WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, tells VOA this is unacceptable, as an effective treatment exists that can fully cure people of leprosy.
"Since '95, WHO has provided this multi-drug therapy free of cost to all leprosy patients in the world," he said. "In 2016, WHO launched global leprosy strategy, 2016-2020, accelerating toward a leprosy-free world. This is basically to revamp the efforts for leprosy control. The strategy focuses on avoiding disabilities, especially among children."
This year's World Leprosy Day focuses on preventing disabilities in children. WHO reports children account for nearly nine percent of all new cases of leprosy, including almost seven percent of those with visible deformities.
The U.N. health agency notes early diagnosis and early treatment can prevent disability. It says disabilities do not occur overnight, but happen after a prolonged period of undiagnosed and untreated disease.
Unfortunately, it notes many people do not seek help until it is too late and deformities already have appeared. This is because of the stigma and discrimination associated with leprosy.
WHO is calling for laws discriminating against people with leprosy to be abolished and replaced with policies promoting inclusion of such people within society.
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Eurovision 2009: Bosnia & Herzegovina's Regina in focus
Charlotte Jensen and Elvir Pelešević / 2nd December 2020 at 20:29 / Eurovision Song Contest / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Regina at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest
With attitude and perhaps a bit of hypnose, Regina stole the hearts of many Eurovision fans back in 2009. The band reached popularity spread over the Balkan countries and has even been warm up band for Rolling Stones.
For the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, local broadcaster BHRT internally selected Regina to represent them. The selection took place after the broadcaster has received more than 50 suggestions from artists interested. Included in those were also Hari Mata Hari (Bosia & Herzegovina 2006).
Regina's Eurovision entry Bistra Voda was presented in a televised show on the 1st of March. The show featured several of the artists, Regina would be up against at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
1 Bistra Voda – opinions from fans
2 Regina – a mini biography
With a third place in the semi-final, Regina easily qualified for the final. Eventually, they finished in 9th position in the final where in particular the country's neighbours loves the song. The maximum 12 points were received from Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia. 10 points came from North Macedonia and Slovenia.
Bistra Voda – opinions from fans
In order to find out what Eurovision fans today think of this Bosnia & Herzegovina entry from 2009, we asked our Eurovision Fan Panel. It includes team members as well as fans from all over the world.
🇧🇦 🇩🇰 Elvir P. – Bistra Voda is my second favorite Bosnian entry after Lejla (2006). It is magnificent, catchy, bombastic, attitude folk rock song with very emotional and beautiful lyrics. The staging in Moscow was perfect and Davor Ebner's vocal was on point. This Bosnian entry should have finished in top 3 if you ask me.
🇷🇸 Milosav T. – Although I am not usually a fan of anthem-like songs or marches, this one is an exception. It's quite a package, with a nice progression, solid vocals and great lyrics. The staging is quite simple, but effective and tasteful, even in that over proportioned stage. In my opinion, it deserved a Top 5 ranking. The instrumental parts are haunting and beautiful and Davor's voice fluctuates between high and low registers with such ease. Probably the best Bosnian entry along with Lejla.
🇧🇪 Enis H. – Bosnia is my favorite eurovision country, I love most of their entries and this one is no exemption. I love everything about this song, the lyrics, the vocals, the instruments, the dance moves… this is another one of Bosnia's masterpieces.
See alsoEurovision 2006: Bosnia & Herzegovina's Hari Mata Hari in focus
🇹🇷 Güneç G. – This one is epic. This makes me hypnotized everytime I listen to it. The singers magical vocals captures me. I love the balkan feeling in the song. Very good.
🇩🇰 Charlotte J. – I am torn when it comes to what to write now. Going into the 2009 contest, this was one of my top favourites. In the video, the song was nothing less than fantastic. Unfortunately, it failed a bit in the live performance. It's still a good song, which I like, but from being in my top 3, it dropped to 6-8th position in the final. As such, it's 9th place is not much off.
🇳🇴 Steinar M. – A nice enough Balkanballad in my opinion. It doesn't have the OTT drama which I think some Balkan ballads suffer from. It has a nice "bandfeel" to it, and also a more "punchy" feel which I like. What I don't like so much is the structure of the verses, which sound somewhat encforced. But the chorus has a nice melodic flow. I still have a feeling a band like this could come up with something more convincing though.
🇬🇧 Michael O. – Alas this is one of the entries I find totally unmemorable. Nothing offensive but to me it's just making up the numbers. Average.
See alsoThe non Eurovision artists fans would love to see in the contest
🇲🇹 Amira M. – This song is a sensual piece full of emotion with a catchy drum beat. The fact that they were wearing white accentuates a sense of peace. Overall I liked it.
🇬🇧 Kat S. – I found the 2009 contest interesting, with only five or six good songs and the rest broadly unappealing. At the time, this fell into the unappealing group for me, particularly down to the weird backing dancers attire and bizarre dance routine. I was fairly shocked to find it won the Marcel Bezençon over Johanna's Is it True?, one of the most under-appreciated songs in ESC history. Upon re-listening over the years it has grown on me, but I think 7th place is fair.
🇨🇴 🇫🇮 Alvaro S. – The instrumental of this song sounds hypnotic. The whole song is very captivating. I like that the drum players have a main role in the performance. I like the peaceful feeling that it gives me.
Enjoy Regina's performance from the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in the embedded video. Below the video, you can read more about them.
Regina – a mini biography
Regina was founded in Sarajevo in 1989. In a very short time, the band became very popular all over Yugoslavia. Nowadays, the band consists of Aleksandar Čović, Bojan Milićević and lead singer Davor Ebner. In 2000 Čović started his solo career. Five years later, Regina reunited with the original members and appeared at a Serbian radio festival organized by Radio S.
They were opening act for The Rolling Stones concert in Budva (Montenegro) in 2007. Regina represented Bosnia & Herzegovina at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest where they finished 9th in the final with the song Bistra Voda.
In 2016, Regina published their biography called Ljubav nije za nas (Love isn't for us). The same year, bassist Denis Čabrić died on holiday in Croatia with his family, at the age of 49. The band has so far released eleven studio albums, one compilation album and two singles.
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Eurovision battle: Spain 2012 vs Georgia 2013
Vasil confirms he will be North Macedonia's 2021 representative
Written by Charlotte Jensen from Denmark
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Written by Elvir Pelešević from Bosnia & Herzegovina / Denmark
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2nd December 2020 in Eurovision Song Contest. Tags: bistra voda, Regina Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina
On the road to… The Netherlands
Following Duncan Laurence's victory, the prepations for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest were in full swing when the contest was sadly cancelled due to Covid-19. The Netherlands are now preparing for their fifth time hosting the contest in 2021. Whether you will attend as a visitor or watch it in front of the TV screen, a fantastic event is awating you. Below we have gathered a collection of articles about the preparations, to keep you updated on what to expect.
What will happen with my Eurovision tickets according to EBU's four scenarios?
Today, EBU revealed a four scenario plan to make Eurovision 2021 happen. They want to ensure all fans that the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Rotterdam no matter what. What will happen with my current Eurovision tickets? Is it still possible to get tickets for next year contest? We try to get answers. Read more
Rotterdam 2021: Eurovision to take place on the 18th, 20th and 22nd of May 2021
It's time to save the date, and perhaps start looking for flights and accommodation too. Just remember to secure yourself in terms of refunding. We know the host city, and the dates for Eurovision 2021, but not yet under which circumstances, it will be held. Read more
Use your Eurovision 2020 tickets for 2021 - or get a refund.... under these circumstances
EBU just confirmed that tickets already bought for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest are valid for next year. Fans will have the opportunity to re-use their tickets for the 2021 event – or to get a refund. But it happens under restrictions. Read more
Hari Mata Hari feels lonely on new single "Ja Sam Sam Što Nemam Tebe"
7th January 2021 at 20:09 Elvir Pelešević
Dino Merlin and Senidah sing about loneliness and anxiety on new single "Dođi"
1st January 2021 at 14:58 Elvir Pelešević
Eurovision 2006: Bosnia & Herzegovina's Hari Mata Hari in focus
8th November 2020 at 13:29 Charlotte Jensen
Dino Merlin releases new song "Mi" about becoming better people after bad times
29th October 2020 at 20:20 Elvir Pelešević
Norway 2021: Get to know the participants in second heat
20th January 2021 at 19:46 Charlotte Jensen
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20th January 2021 at 13:32 Michael Outerson
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