text:
Banning hijab in schools
Submitted by AWL on 18 September, 2019 - 10:17 Author: David Pendletone
See other articles in this debate here
I will be moving a motion for a ban on the hijab in schools up to Key Stage 3 at the Workers' Liberty conference in December. I want to explain why.
The hijab isn't just a piece of clothing, or even just a piece of religious clothing. It has strong political connotations with religious conservatism. It is closely associated with the notion of modesty, a sexist modesty which means women have to cover up to avoid arousing men. Martin Thomas correctly wrote in 2003, during a previous discussion within Workers' Liberty:
"Whatever it is in an individual's mind, socially and historically the hijab is not just a token of religious ideas.
"It represents and embodies women's oppression. It defines the woman or girl who wears it as the property of the men (father, brothers, husband) to whom the right to see her unveiled is reserved. Wherever it becomes the norm, it is inseparable from the segregation and subordination of women."
And this representation and embodiment of women's oppression, defining women and girls as the property of men, is increasingly being worn by girls in primary school. The notion that girls under 11 must dress modestly or else risk arousing men is particularly abhorrent. The notion that any problem here is the woman or girl's fault is a version of "she was asking for it" argument.
The hijab is not equivalent to a mini-skirt (no matter what the sexist societal pressures that maybe on women to bare their legs), let alone a hoodie. It is a political symbol. We cannot accept the hijab becoming the norm in our schools and thus allowing within them 'the segregation and subordination of women' (and girls).
As socialists we recognise there is much wrong with the education system and schools as they exist. However, we also recognise the immense potentially liberating power of schools. We fight for them to allow the pupils and students within them to find other potentials than the ones that their family and their communities see as the only possibilities for them.
We also fight to make schools spaces free from oppression. We recognise that often this means pressurising the government to intervene into schools. Recently we have seen this in the partial victory of the long running campaign to improve Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) in schools and to include LGBT+ education as part of this.
In terms of the hijab, we should make propaganda and campaign for the government to ban it in schools up to Key Stage 3 (up to age 14).
We should not campaign for individual school workers or individual schools to pursue a ban on the hijab. That would open doors to abuse and reaction. We are for governments, even bourgeois governments, acting to protect children against oppression and in favour of allowing them to be fully able to partake in education.
The argument has been made that some radical young women from Muslim backgrounds choose to wear the hijab as an act of rebellion/solidarity. This is exaggerated. It does happen, but normally it is women over 14. Young people who choose to align themselves with reaction in the misguided belief it is rebellion must be dissuaded. Where their decision has an effect on others, as the wearing of the hijab clearly does, they must be stopped.
Another argument made is that the effect of the ban would be that these girls and women would leave non-faith schools and go to Muslim schools where they can wear the hijab. Many of the reforms we fight for require additional actions to ensure they are effective. For instance, tax the rich will not work without capital controls and increased attempts to stop the bosses avoiding tax.
More tellingly, if we accepted this argument we would face the same argument when reactionaries opposed their children doing sport, Religious Education, science or RSE. When we now consider this argument in the light of the protests over the new RSE curriculum it clearly falls apart.
I hope no one would suggest sacrificing RSE to avoid school withdrawals.
Daniel Randall replies here.
Banning hijab
Submitted by Elizabeth Kitching (not verified) on Sun, 22/09/2019 - 13:34
This is not a socialist position at all. To pick on an oppressed group in Britain, isolate them for a headscarf is not socialist. This is a right wing position inline with Tories and Nigel The Far Right Rager. France?! This will lead to young women and girls being attacked - as they are now for cultural expression. I know many leading socialists who are Muslim and who wear the headscarf. Your reasons are also Islamophobic and therefore racist. You cannot assume that it is men that force this headscarf. If you do, you are showing your ignorance about Islam. If there was a state ban on the hijab - we socialists would call a mass demonstration where we all where it.
A ban on the hijab at school is racist, with a helping of sexism
Submitted by Julie Webster (not verified) on Sun, 22/09/2019 - 13:45
Preventing muslim school girls from wearing a hijab is racist. In cases where the parents are deciding what a child can wear - well ALL parents do that. You are singling out Muslim girls and their families.
This is paternalistic racism with a dash of sexism.
The far right would be proud of you.
This motion is a disgrace.
Hijab in schools
Submitted by Dermot Smyth (not verified) on Sun, 22/09/2019 - 17:11
A woman's right to choose her clothes overrides anything said by AWL. At any age, a girl or woman is showing solidarity with their racially oppressed community when they start wearing head or face coverings.
All oppressed people must fight back in their own fashion. Encouragement and support from all anti- racists can help. What they don't need is a really, really small political sect giving them public lectures.
Criticise religion, no to state bans
Submitted by AWL on Mon, 23/09/2019 - 11:29
The analysis of hijab, Islamic religious clothing based on codes of female modesty, which David Pendletone asserts in his article in Solidarity 517 is commonplace amongst many Muslim-background feminists, amongst whom the issue of state bans is highly contested.
Iranian writer Chadhortt Djavan, who does support state bans on hijab for young girls, wrote in her pamphlet 'Bas les Voiles' (Down with Veils): "What does veiling do to a girl child? It turns her into a sexual object [...] it defines her essentially by and for men's eyes." Algerian socialist-feminist Marieme Helie Lucas, who has opposed state bans of the French type, has written extensively of how hijab and veiling has developed into a cultural-political practise posed in religious terms, asserted by Islamists to promote a conservative interpretation of Islamic cultural-political identity.
Such views are not commonplace on the left. During the past two decades, various tendencies on the left, most prominently the Socialist Workers Party, have adopted a view of Islamic religiosity that sees it almost necessarily as an expression of a progressive anti-imperialism. The argument runs that, since Muslims are discriminated against in the west and since the "Muslim world" is in a secondary position relative to US imperialism, the practise of Islam itself becomes a form of resistance.
Those who took our politics to their highest ever peak would abhor such a view: the Bolsheviks conducted vigorous campaigns against religious obscurantism in general and against veiling and hijab in particular, despite the very much oppressed position Muslim-majority national and ethnic groups occupied within the Tsarist Empire the Bolsheviks sought to dismantle.
They managed to combine a militant hostility to the patriarchal oppression inherent in conservative religious practise with a militant commitment to the democratic, national, and civil rights of the Muslim-majority peoples Tsarism had colonised.
Reconnecting to those traditions of militant secularism, which have deteriorated significantly under the influence not only of a vulgar "anti-imperialism" but also a post-modernist cultural relativism, would be a very good thing indeed.
It does not at all follow, however, that the way to do this is for socialists to advocate state bans on hijab or other religious practises connected to gender oppression.
Such bans - or, more likely, the campaigns for them - will inevitably be exploited by those who oppose Islam not on the basis of a secularist or feminist critique of religion but on the basis of an ethnonationalist hostility to Muslim immigrants.
Context and agency matter, and David makes his argument in the context of a vicious and ongoing campaign of demonisation of Muslims in the tabloid press, given license by the dogwhistles of senior politicians.
Should the state, under the administration of such people, move to ban hijab from any sphere of public life it would certainly not be doing so on the basis of a commitment to secularism and women's rights, but as a means of protecting its right flank and playing to the nationalist gallery whipped into an anti-migrant frenzy by the context of Brexit.
David's argument also relies on an unsubstantiated assertion that the wearing of hijab amongst primary-school-aged girls is increasing, with the implication that state action is necessary to protect the rights of children whose ability to meaningfully consent to participation in gendered religious or cultural practises is more complicated than with older girls
or women.
Other than the National Secular Society's 2017 study into compulsory hijab for primary-aged children in specifically Islamic religious schools (a slightly different context), I am not aware of any definitive statistical research on the matter. If David knows of some, he should provide it. To advocate a state ban on the basis of impressionistic evidence is not good
To advocate one only on hijab, and not on the perhaps less visible but similarly oppressive cultural practises of other conservative faith groups, such as ultra-Orthodox Jews, risks feeding into a sense of discrimination and singling out.
I have no doubt that David, who undoubtedly had in mind the context of what has been a specific and live issue in the British education system as recently as last year, with the furore over headteacher Neena Lall's attempt to ban hijab in her east London primary school, does not intend this. Nevertheless, the risk is there.
The practise of hijab can be targeted by a ban because of its nature as a physical item. But all religions, especially in their conservative and orthodox forms, are patriarchal and oppressive, at the level of ideas. We cannot simply call on the state to "ban" such oppression; we can only look to build an assertive secularist, feminist, and LGBT+ liberation movement
that can confront it at its ideological root.
The agency that will push back oppressive religious or cultural customs is primarily feminist and secularist movements within faith communities. Those of us outside such communities can contribute best by supporting and amplifying their struggles, not by calling for bans.
Some Muslim-background feminists do call for a ban on the hijab in primary schools. In February 2018, Iranian-British comedian and writer Shappi Khorshandi spoke up in defence of Neena Lall, saying: "Let little girls have the freedom to feel the wind in their hair as they tear around the playground with their friends." The argument is compelling and should be respected and engaged with without simply being denounced, and certainly Lall should have been defended from the vicious campaign against her that decried her as a racist and compared her to Hitler. But ultimately a ban is too blunt an instrument in this case, and in this context.
David is right that lines have to be drawn somewhere. The protests against LGBT+ education in primary schools pose the question: to what extent should socialists advocate the state intervene into schools against the "right" of parents to educate their children in their own religious ideas?
I am certainly for compulsory RSE, including LGBT+ education, and against the right of religious parents to withdraw their children from science or PE classes. And schools should certainly encourage an atmosphere of freedom and choice in which girls and young women who want to question and potentially reject the strictures of their parents' religion are able to do so.
I do not believe a state ban on hijab would do this. More likely it will have the affect of increasing the sense of social siege under which Muslim communities as a whole feel, making the development of dissenting politics harder, not easier. The left has to combine a vigorous defence of Muslim communities against racism, from both the press, the far right, and the state, with a vigorous campaign for secularism and feminism, including secularist and feminist education, primarily in solidarity with those asserting such ideas and critiques within Muslim and other faith communities.
Daniel Randall
AWL 2004 policy
Policy passed in 2004
1. We oppose the hijab as a social mechanism of female subordination, and we oppose pressure on girls wear the hijab. Our priority is to help and support secularists and leftists in the mainly-Muslim communities who fight that pressure.
2. We are for universal secular education. We should seek to launch a counter-campaign in Britain against faith schools, the intrusion of religion in ordinary state schools, and the toleration, in the name of multi-culturalism, of Muslim girls being excluded by parental pressure from parts of education.
3. We do not support the new French law [banning the hijab in schools]. It will probably be counter-productive. It fails to allow the necessary space for dealing sensitively and respectfully with teenagers' desires to experiment in dealing with the world around them.
Editorial note for commentators
Submitted by AWL on Tue, 24/09/2019 - 20:27
This is a debate we are conducting in the AWL in the run up to our conference.
Our existing policy decided in relation to the French ban on the hijab/veil in schools is printed above. It opposes that ban.
Indeed our existing policy is not to support bans on the hijab in any context.
This is not a debate about policies for the whole of society, or for adult society, but about schools.
Therefore comments about what *women* chose to wear, or not wear, are irrelevant to this discussion. As are comments about general bans.
Again on the hijab in primary schools
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Against the school hijab ban demand
Ben Tausz contributes to the debate on the hijab in schools.
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Religion and schools Women's rights and Feminism IslamismSolidarity 517, 18 September 2019


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They reveal how seemingly careless the president was about sensitive information this weekend.
President Donald Trump was photographed on Saturday night at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, as he reviewed intelligence reports on a North Korean missile launch with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an outdoor patio table.
Richard DeAgazio, a relatively new member of the Mar-a-Lago club, took a number of the photos and posted them on his Facebook page ― including two photos of a presidential aide carrying the "nuclear football," the nickname of a briefcase containing nuclear launch codes that is kept within reach of the president of the United States at all times.
The photos, which DeAgazio shared publicly, spread like wildfire over social media on Monday. Before long, the investor removed his Facebook account, but not before The Huffington Post captured screen shots of Trump and first lady Melania Trump enjoying the evening.
DeAgazio also took photos of Trump and Abe reviewing proposed responses to North Korea's test under the moonlight as staffers used their cell phones to make the intelligence recommendations readable.
Trump's willingness to discuss a sensitive global security issue like the North Korean test in an unsecured location represented an extraordinary break with diplomatic and security protocol, which demands that sensitive intelligence matters be discussed only in rooms that are designated as Secure Compartmentalized Information Facilities, known as SCIFs (pronounced "skiffs").
For American president to hold a conversation with serious national security implications outside of a SCIF, as Trump appears to have done, is unprecedented in modern times.
North Korea's missile test involved a new type of medium-to-long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The weapon, called the Pukguksong-2, reportedly landed in the Sea of Japan. Trump and Abe subsequently issued a joint response to the test, which disrupted an evening the president had planned to spend wining and dining Abe and his wife at his sprawling tropical estate.
Built by heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in the early part of the 20th century, Mar-a-Lago was purchased by Trump in the 1980s and transformed into a very profitable private club.
Former Obama administration officials were quick to draw a contrast between how President Barack Obama made his most significant national security decisions ― hunkered down inside a SCIF with top military aides ― and how Trump appears to be making them.
Below is a tweet from Obama's first-term speechwriter, Jon Favreau.


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text:
New York Mayor Eric Adams visits the border, calls for more federal help to manage migrant arrivals
Mayor Adams in El Paso, Texas, for a first-hand look at the migrant crisis
New York Mayor Eric Adams traveled to the Texas border town of El Paso this weekend to implore the federal government to provide additional funding and support to US cities hosting tens of thousands of migrants seeking refuge from economic crises and political turmoil in Latin America.
During the trip, his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border as mayor, Adams said cities like New York and El Paso were on the "frontline" of an unprecedented migration crisis that recently prompted the administration Biden to adopt a new strategy aimed at discouraging illegal border crossings.
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On the ground in El Paso last night. This is a national crisis and we need a national solution. mayors love @OscarLeeser and I are on the front lines and we need federal support. pic.twitter.com/MkD8xZelNf
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMaire) January 15, 2023
Since a few months, El Paso struggled cope with a sharp increase in migrant arrivals, mainly from countries in crisis such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The Democratic-run city in Texas has converted a convention center and two vacant colleges into makeshift migrant housing to relieve overwhelmed city shelters. Many migrants still found themselves sleeping on the streets of El Paso.
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For several months last year, city officials from El Paso also sent dozens of migrant buses to New York. But its operation was designed to reduce overcrowding in local shelters, not to send a political message.
Since last year, Adams has warned that New York would face serious fiscal and operational challenges without increased state and federal assistance to welcome migrants. The city has set up 74 shelters and four treatment centers to accommodate new arrivals, including in refurbished hotels. In total, New York has provided around 40,000 migrants with shelter, food and other services, a project by city officials that will cost more than $1 billion.
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"We're at our breaking point," Adams said. "Based on our projections, we anticipate not being able to continue to house arriving asylum seekers on their own and have submitted an emergency mutual aid request to New York State beginning this weekend. end."
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One of the main frustrations expressed by Adams is that migrants arriving in New York cannot work legally due to a federal law that prevents them from obtaining work permits before their asylum applications have been pending since. several months. Although he asked the federal government to lift the requirement, it can only be changed by Congress, which hasn't passed major immigration legislation since the 1990s.
Other Democrats joined Adams in calling for additional federal action to help cities welcome migrants who have been allowed by border officials to stay in the country while their asylum claims are adjudicated.
On Sunday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she "wholeheartedly" agreed with Adams' call for increased federal support. While appreciating the Biden administration's efforts to address the humanitarian crisis along the southern border, she said additional steps must be taken to help meet the "urgent needs" of migrants arriving in Chicago, where Texas state officials have also transported migrants.
"Months and thousands of migrants later, we continue to face the challenge of how to cope with the increase in the number of asylum seekers and the escalating costs associated, which have been mainly left to cities to manage", Lightfoot wrote on Twitter.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration unveiled its most comprehensive strategy yet to deal with the unprecedented number of migrant arrivals along the southern border. He announced he would expand deportations of migrants who entered the United States illegally, while expanding opportunities for some migrants to enter the country legally, including through a program for those with financial sponsors based in the USA.
Biden administration officials have insisted the federal government is helping local communities welcome migrants, including providing grant funding through a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program. ).
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers politics and immigration policy.
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Activist killed and state trooper injured in shooting during protests at Atlanta's 'Copy City' training center

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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That looks suspiciously like a church van in the background, indicating this is some bible camp event and notice, I'm not smiling.
On a Burlington Northern freight between Portland and Seattle.


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Published Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 | 10:05 a.m.
Updated Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 | 10:58 a.m.
Alabama was the only team priced as more likely to win the national championship than Ohio State and USC at the onset of the season.
The odds would have been astronomical that both the Buckeyes, 3-to-1 in August at the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook, and the Trojans, 7-to-1, would win their conferences but get left out of the College Football Playoff. But that's how the season played out, much to the Cotton Bowl's benefit.
The two power programs will square off Friday evening in Arlington, Texas, in the first major bowl game of the year. The Trojans and the Buckeyes taking the same field will feel like a signal that the preliminaries are over; it's time for the major games.
They'll usher in a three-day weekend where not only the national semifinals will play out, but also the other two New Year's Six showdowns.
Talking Points will pick all of it, looking to continue streaking after going 14-7 against the spread in the early portion of bowl season. The blog's record picking all the biggest games on the year now stands at 120-107-7. Read below to find picks for Thursday's and Friday's action, and come back shortly to catch Saturday's games.
Can't get much more even than this pair of 6-6 teams, with Navy about a yard per play better on offense and Virginia about a yard per play better on defense. By S&P ratings, Virginia is the 77th best team in the nation and Navy is 78th. They're so closely contested that the pick partially comes down motivation, where it seems the Cavaliers would have an edge in reaching their first bowl game in six years.
The Hokies have a pair of defensive backs with NFL potential — Brandon Facyson and Adonis Alexander — to go with one of the best pass-rushing middle linebackers in the nation — Tremaine Edmunds. That makes for a defense ranked sixth in the nation by S&P, and should be more than enough to limit Mason Rudolph's high-scoring Cowboys.
Another perfect line that doesn't appear too offer any value, but it's usually advisable to take points in those situations. Stanford improved dramatically as the season went on, after it settled with sophomore K.J. Costello at quarterback. TCU stagnated in losing three of its final six, including a 24-point beatdown in the Big 12 Championship Game against Oklahoma whereas Stanford narrowly fell by three points in the Pac-12 Championship Game to USC.
There are rumblings of an injury to Washington State quarterback Luke Falk, but no indications he won't play. Falk is one of the most decorated quarterbacks in college football as the Pac-12's all-time leading passer, so it's a surprise that Michigan State is one of the most popular bets on the board. If worse comes to worst, backup Tyler Hilinski is at least capable and has logged significant experience.
The Demon Deacons were already more efficient than the Aggies on both sides of the ball, and now they've also added an edge in stability. There's no telling how Texas A&M responds to a one-off game under interim coach in Jeff Banks.
The Wolf Pack were reliable as underdogs this season. Not so much as favorites, as they went 1-6 against the spread when giving points. Trends like that are ultimately close to meaningless, but in a game like this where the number seems to be right, it's startling to see 80 percent of the action come in on an undependable team.
Northwestern laid more than a field goal on only three occasions this season — against UNR, Bowling Green and Illinois. Kentucky has its flaws — mostly on defense — but it's a lot better than those three teams. Having more than a month to prepare should help an offense that sputtered down the stretch, but soared at times earlier in the season behind quarterback Stephen Johnson.
Do bettors side with the excitement that comes out of New Mexico State's first bowl appearance in 57 years or the experience that comes out of Utah State's sixth bowl appearance in the last seven years? The likely answer is neither, as most gamblers will be distracted by the higher-profile games taking place Friday to even notice this one, where the spread has stayed reasonably deflated.
Based on preseason projections, both USC and Ohio State were disappointments with two-loss seasons. Based on power ratings, Ohio State were the team that really underachieved. Most oddsmakers would still rate the Buckeyes as the second-best team in the nation, with the Trojans significantly farther down. Ohio State's 31-0 blowout loss to Clemson in last year's Fiest Bowl remains the exception, not the rule. Coach Urban Meyer's teams typically play much better with extended preparation time. The Buckeyes have significant advantages in both coaching and talent.
Louisville finished stronger than Mississippi State — going 3-0 straight-up and against the spread versus the Bulldogs' 1-2 in both categories — but on the season as a whole, these teams shape up incredibly evenly. Mississippi State is playing under an interim coach in Greg Knox, but Louisville has seen its own staff shake-up in defensive coordinator Todd Grantham departing to take the same position at Florida.
The Cyclones were a great story this season, but were unquestionably aided by good fortune. They lead the nation in recovering 72.2 percent of fumbles, including not losing one of their own the entire year. Having to battle with quarterback Riley Feguson and Memphis at home, where the Tigers went 4-2-1 against the spread this season, seems worth a couple extra points that aren't reflected on the spread.
Penn State was the higher-profile team this season; Washington might have very well been the better team this season. The Huskies' gained 2.2 more yards per play than they surrendered, above the Nittany Lions' net of 1.9 yards per play. The Nittany Lions excelled in creating big plays with Heisman fourth-place finisher Saquon Barkley, but the Huskies were fifth in the nation defensively in limiting explosiveness by S&P. The line should be pick'em at minimum, with public perception the only reason it's not.
Point spread has trimmed more than any other major bowl game after opening as high as minus-7. The shift has made what would have a tough decision a bit easier, as Wisconsin is clearly the more efficient team and now has value on its side. The Hurricanes were mediocre against the run the season — ranking No. 42 in rush defense by S&P — and now must take on an offense that calls running plays on 62 percent of its snaps. Wisconsin freshman running back Jonathan Taylor was one of the most underrated players in the nation this season, gaining nearly 7 yards per carry.


House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, center, arrives for a meeting with House Republicans, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Nearly two dozen House Republicans on Thursday pressed Speaker Paul Ryan to act quickly on legislation that would protect some 800,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children.
The lawmakers said efforts to grant such deportation protection would easily pass the House, with dozens in the GOP set to join Democrats in backing any bill.
These immigrants are facing an uncertain future after President Donald Trump's decision to end Obama-era temporary protections. Trump has given Congress until March to come up with a fix.
Democrats, the minority party in the House, repeatedly have pressed for a legislative solution. Now, this show of support from Republicans, including some from competitive House districts, reflects a political shift.
Ryan, responding minutes later, said "active discussions are underway with members" about the issue, but he saw no need to act before Trump's deadline. "I don't think we should put artificial deadlines inside the one we already have," Ryan said.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reiterated on Thursday that her intention is to have legislation this year.
"We're not kicking the can down to March," she said.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, predicted widespread backing in the 435-member House.
"When the bill comes to the floor, whatever bill it is, I predict it will have a huge vote. Well over 300 votes to send this bill to the Senate," Barton said.
Trump and Republican senators agreed last week not to deal with a needed fix for young immigrants in the year-end spending legislation, according to some GOP lawmakers who visited the White House. Instead, they said, a solution probably would wait until next year.
While Ryan held his weekly press conference, hundreds of immigrants walked out from nine schools in the Washington area and then rallied in front of Congress demanding quick legislation.
Democrats have indicated they want to use that spending bill to force action on behalf of the young immigrants, commonly referred to as "Dreamers," based on proposals called the DREAM Act that would have provided similar protections.
Democratic votes will likely be needed to pass spending legislation to keep the government running, so the stance by Trump and the GOP may not end up prevailing.
"It's more likely than not to be part of a January-February time frame," Cornyn said.
Immigrant advocates have been pushing for action. In September, Democratic leaders said they had a deal with Trump to enshrine protections for the immigrants in exchange for border security measures short of a border wall. But the supposed deal immediately came into dispute and now appears to have totally unraveled if it existed at all.


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Home In the Church Global Nature William Taylor, Reconsidered
William Taylor, Reconsidered
Last of four parts on money and relationships in the UMC
by David W. Scott
Over the past few weeks, I have been raising the question of how United Methodists can face the problem of vast economic inequality in the church in a way that preserves relationship between rich and poor without turning those relationships into ones of dependence solidifying inequalities of power. After looking at asset-based approaches to sharing resources and reducing the amount of structure poorer branches of the church need to pay for, this post will look at means by which poorer United Methodists can generate their own resources, thus reducing long-term dependency of the poor upon the rich.
As it turns out, United Methodists have one of the best exemplars of such an approach to church economics in our own history: Bishop William Taylor. You may never have heard of William Taylor. Yet he was one of the most influential architects of nineteenth century Methodist mission and the global nature of the church that is with us today.
William Taylor
Methodist Bishop William Taylor
Taylor came to prominence as a frontier preacher in California, global evangelist, and originator of Methodist mission in many countries around the world. He was also well-noted as a proponent of what he called self-supporting mission. Taylor thought that Westerners should not pay for missionaries or new churches around the world. They should be financed through local resources. Essentially, Taylor favored implementing the self-financing pillar of three-self mission theory from the very beginning, not when new churches had reached a certain level of development. Self-support for Taylor was about more than giving by congregations on the mission field, though. It also involved entrepreneurial approaches to church and church-run businesses, so-called tent-making.
Taylor based his theory of self-supporting mission both on the tent-making apostle Paul and on his own life experiences. Neither Taylor nor the dozens of missionaries he recruited and deployed ever practiced this theory in a pure form, but Taylor was the most significant proponent of this approach in his day. He and his missionaries influenced the development of Methodism in India, Southeast Asia, Angola, the Congo, and South America.
There are risks to this approach. The participation of the church in the economy may create moral hazards – opportunities for the church to end up on the wrong side of business ethics. Businesses can and do fail, and church-run businesses are no different. Successful church-run businesses require a good deal of expertise and effort that could go into other aspects of the church. Moreover, this approach requires the local economy to be sufficiently developed to provide sufficient resources and opportunities for successful tent-making businesses. Some of Taylor's own missions failed for lack of sufficient tent-making business opportunities.
Yet this self-supporting approach undoubtedly gives churches that take it greater autonomy than would be offered by outside funding. The independence of Taylor and his missionaries often created headaches for the mission board, which wanted to exercise tighter control over its missions, but in a post-colonial world in which we seek greater equality between branches of the church, that independence and autonomy are positives. Autonomy need not be antithetical to accountability to the broader church, even as it is opposed to control by outsiders.
Taylor's ideas and approach were largely marginalized and forgotten in Methodism after his death. They lived on in the approach to mission taken by faith missions. Faith missions, however, became increasingly associated with evangelical and fundamentalist Protestantism. Current business-as-mission models, popular in many evangelical circles, are in part heirs of Taylor.
Yet West African United Methodists today are creating some projects that would undoubtedly make Taylor proud. Through church-run office buildings and agricultural projects, these churches are seeking to generate revenues for themselves and reduce their dependence on Western partners. And although such UMC countries as Liberia are poor by global standards, the economy in much of sub-Saharan Africa is growing quickly, meaning there are economic opportunities that the church could seize if it were able.
Where does this financial model leave wealthy Westerners who want to partner with their poorer fellow United Methodists? How can they support other's efforts at self-support in ways that don't undermine that very self-determination? Providing financing, including microcredit, and business consulting are certainly two important ways to do so. These must be done, however, in ways that leave the initiative, ownership, and control with locals and ways that respect locals' own business skills and knowledge and don't presume that Americans know business best.
Beyond direct support of tent-making endeavors, this approach also suggests the importance of supporting peace-building efforts and infrastructure development as an approach to mission partnerships, as these create the bases for sustained local economic growth. Again, locals must take the lead, but there are still opportunities for the rich who are willing to listen and be led by the poor.
Indeed, a willingness by the rich to listen to and be led by the poor must be at the heart of any attempt to deal with the problem of economic inequality in The United Methodist Church. Yet if the rich are willing to do so, they will find that the rewards include not just a more equitable global church but spiritual blessings for themselves as well.
UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott serves Director of Mission Theology for the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions expressed here are his own and do not represent official positions of Global Ministries. This post is republished with permission from UM & Global.
Bishop William Taylor Christian economics economic inequality self-supporting missions global missions
Money Matters That Make Sense
Long before I retired, I thought it was foolish for the annual conference to plan an annual budget. I thought such a budget should be bi-annual, that is every other year. During the off year, it was my feeling that the conference should strike a strong blow with a conference-wide stewardship education program. I said, the well is running dry and we are doing nothing to stem the flow, then or now. For a connectional church, we are slow to learn.
Billy Cox more than 3 years ago
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Solo: A Star Wars Movie Teaser – What Do You Think?
I know many do not care about a Han Solo prequel movie, but I have been figuratively dying to see a movie based on our favorite Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder! Growing up, all my friends wanted to be a Sith Lord or a Jedi Knight. I wanted to be the scoundrel. I love Han Solo! So I'm super stoked about this movie. What do you think?
Luke and Han Solo – A Bromance I never Knew!
I cannot believe that I never really thought of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker as having bromantic thing going on. Granted, there are not a lot of women in the Star Wars universe, and before Leia was revealed to be Luke's twin sister, both Luke and Han were fighting for her attention. Maybe because of my naivete I just never considered Luke as being a sexual person in the slightest. In today's media, it is almost unheard of for the main protagonist to NOT have a love interest in a series. In fact, it's almost impossible for that to happen. But never did it occur to me that Han and Luke have shippers out there that would love to see more than a brotherly relationship. Until NOW!
I have seen every Star Wars movie multiple, multiple, multiple times and I have also seen about every deleted scene that has been released to the public. There are supposedly some other scenes that were never released, but I will not go into rumors about those right now. However, re-watching the cut scene from Return of the Jedi where Luke is saying good bye to Han on Tatooine after rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt, I never noticed how Luke has his had waver as he lets go of Han's hand.
It is such a minor thing to see and I know the scene was cut because of a need to reduce the length of the movie, but it seems very important to show Han and Luke's friendship. Of course I know Lucas had no intention of showing any type of implications of Luke and Han being more than buddies, but still the thought does come up to those that are looking more closely at any subtext. I know this must totally come from out of no where, but wow, I would totally like to have seen Han and Luke have a thing go on. Maybe not so much sexual, just something much deeper than friendship. Which it could be argued that they did have a much deeper bond than what is shown on screen. It would not be that out of the ordinary to see two men in a Intergalactic Rebellion to find love and comfort with each other in different regions of the Universe.
It should be worth mentioning, the book Star Wars: Aftermath depicts the first gay males in the Star Wars universe and is cannon in the movie verse as well. This story takes place after Return of the Jedi and has been met with bigoted/homophobic criticism because it is not catering to exclusively heterosexual males as every past Star Wars stories have done. And even though the focus of this story is not even on the gay characters, but the significance is that there are gay men in the Star Wars universe. It took over 35 years for one to come out, but at least it happened. I need to buy this book and review it.
Back to Han and Luke. I have briefly done some searches on fan fics with these heroes and I should not be, but I was surprised at how many stories exist with the two of them as a couple. Of course many of the stories are written by women, but there are some males out there as well that want to see the two of them as more than platonic life partners. For instance, FanFiction.com has dozens of stories about these two. So there is a large culture out there that enjoy thinking of these two characters casting away sexual orientations and enjoy each other. For that I am happy. You can watch the deleted clip that I was referencing below (at the 3:10 mark). What do you think? Do you ship Han and Luke?


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Enjoy the wonderful collection of Venice Souvenirs and Gifts, celebrating the spirit of Venice, one of the most romantic city in Italy! We hope you will enjoy giving or receiving our wonderful Venice gifts and souvenirs from Italy! Most of our wonderful Venice souvenirs from Italy come with FREE Venice Postcards from Italy... a great way to surprise your friends and family!
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Performances & Tickets
Gala of the Stars
The Firebird
The Nutcracker for Schools
Southland Ballet Academy Student Recitals
Guest Artist Roster
Nutcracker Luncheon
Production Activities
Community Performances
Ballet to Schools
Children's Invitation to Ballet
Southland Ballet Academy
SBA Students Receive Top Awards At YAGP Regionals
The Youth America Grand Prix is the world's largest global network of dance. Over the years, many Southland Ballet Academy students have participated and won at YAGP competitions, which are held all over the world. This year SBA students competed in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, as well as upcoming San Francisco and Phoenix Regionals. These [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:37+00:00January 29th, 2018|
Festival Ballet Theatre Collaborated with SOCO and the OC Mix on a Nutcracker Holiday
What happens when you put together Orange County's premier professional ballet company with the OC's premier shopping destination? A beautiful collaboration, wonderful images, and performances. In 2017, Festival Ballet Theatre partnered with SOCO and the OC Mix on a series of photo shoots and activations including pop-up performances, ticket giveaways, and even a billboard on [...]
Spotlight: Vitor Luiz, Frances Chung and Maria Kochetkova
You don't have to travel to San Francisco to see stars from the San Francisco Ballet perform in The Nutcracker because Festival Ballet Theatre is proud to present not one, not two but three guest artists from the company. Vitor Luiz returns to the Irvine Barclay Theatre to dance with Festival Ballet dancer Tara Ghassemieh [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:38+00:00December 8th, 2017|
Meet Clara in the Nutcracker Ballet
Dancing the role of Clara in the Nutcracker Ballet is a goal for many young ballerinas. In the classic holiday story, Clara is the young girl who receives a Nutcracker as a gift and later falls asleep and dreams about a prince. Every December, Festival Ballet Theatre produces a full-length production of the classical ballet. [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:38+00:00December 1st, 2017|
Spotlight: Beckanne Sisk and Fabrice Calmels
Beckanne Sisk and Fabrice Calmels return to the Festival Ballet Theatre stage to perform the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier pas de deux. They were our guest artists in 2013. Born in Texas, Beckanne studied at Longview Ballet Theater until she was fourteen. She competed at Youth America Grand Prix from 2007-2010. She joined Ballet [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:38+00:00November 28th, 2017|
International Ballet Stars Dance in Festival Ballet Theatre's The Nutcracker
Create holiday memories for your family by sharing the magic of the cherished classic, The Nutcracker. Fountain Valley, CA | (October 31, 2017) — Festival Ballet Theatre (FBT), Orange County's resident professional ballet company, will present the family favorite production of The Nutcracker, December 9 - 24, 2017 at Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California. Festival [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:38+00:00November 2nd, 2017|
Why Volunteer for Festival Ballet Theatre
Teri Schmidt is a tireless volunteer and an amazing dance mom to Festival Ballet Theatre company dancer Skye Schmidt. In this post, she writes about the difference between Festival Ballet Theatre and Southland Ballet Academy and the importance of volunteering. Skye Schmidt as the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland poses with her [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:38+00:00October 27th, 2017|
Alice In Wonderland Dances Her Way Into Orange County
Have you heard the exciting news? Alice and the entire colorful and quirky cast of characters will be coming to Irvine Barclay Theatre this weekend in Festival Ballet Theatre's production of Lewis Carroll's classic Alice In Wonderland. In celebration of this enchanting production, our main character Alice, along with the mischievous March Hare and the mixed-up [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:38+00:00October 9th, 2017|
Alice in Wonderland Comes to Orange County in Festival Ballet Theatre's Whimsical Presentation
Fountain Valley, CA | Sept 28, 2017 - Festival Ballet Theatre is delighted to present Lewis Carroll's classic tale Alice In Wonderland at Irvine Barclay Theatre on October 14-15, 2017. In this captivating tale of curiosity and adventure, we follow Alice as she takes a journey down the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland Garden and through [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:39+00:00October 3rd, 2017|
Festival Ballet Theatre Announces a 2017-2018 Season of Enchantment at Irvine Barclay Theatre
Fountain Valley, Calif., August 18, 2017 — Festival Ballet Theatre (FBT), Orange County's resident professional ballet company, is pleased to announce its 2017-18 season. The year of classic ballet favorites will begin with Alice In Wonderland on October 14 & 15, followed by The Nutcracker from December 9-24, Coppélia on March 24 & 25, concluding [...]
By admin|2018-12-17T22:24:39+00:00September 20th, 2017|
Southland Students to Attend Ballet Summer Intensives Around the World
The Heart of a Volunteer
Ballet Summer Intensive Auditions
Andi Schermoly's Plume: New Ballet Promotes Environmental Awareness
Watch the U.S. Premiere of Juliano Nunes' new work
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For a long time now it's been no secret that Spain is a land of wonderful wines. But it's probably less well known that on a remote mountain-top in the middle of all the natural beauty of Andalusia there's a unique, tiny wine-house. It's called Sedella, like the small nearby village. We went to discover this hidden ultra-modern architectural pearl, and to enjoy and sample its wares.
In Budapest, the restaurant absolutely everyone's talking about is the Onyx, synonymous with pure luxury and classic gastronomy. Everywhere in Onyx, tradition strengthens evolution under Head Chef Támas Széll. Tamás has just won the prestigious 2016 Bocuse d'Or Europe. So all things considered you immediately sense the restaurant's ambition to earn a second Michelin Star.
There's no shortage of plaudits in the reviews of the Boury restaurant in Roeselare. Everyone clearly agrees that top quality is guaranteed with Chef Tim Boury and his Hostess Inge Waeles. Boury soon won its first Michelin Star and the restaurant scored an excellent 17 out of 20 with Gault & Millau. All the same, it's equally clear that the pair have greater ambitions, so early in 2016 they moved to new larger premises on the Rumbeeksesteenweg. There they could offer their customers greater comfort and take the creativity and quality of their cooking a notch or two higher. So, we thought, high time to go and try it!


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Спожи́вчий ко́шик — набір товарів, що характеризує типовий рівень і структуру місячного (річного) споживання людини або сім'ї.
 Продовольчий кошик — набір їжі (тільки їжі), що характеризує типовий рівень і структуру місячного (річного) споживання людиною або сім'єю.

Соціальне призначення

Використовується для розрахунку мінімального споживчого бюджету (прожиткового мінімуму), виходячи із вартості споживчого кошика в актуальних цінах. Застосовується як база для порівняння розрахункових і реальних рівнів споживання.

На основі даних по споживчому кошику та споживчому бюджеті розраховуються такі показники, як мінімальна зарплата і мінімальні пенсії.
Поняття споживчого кошика існує у багатьох країнах світу. Проте ці «кошики» мають певні національні особливості: споживчий кошик американця нараховує 300 продуктів і послуг, француза — 250, англійця — 350, німця — 475. Український споживчий кошик був розширений до 297 найменувань продуктів.

В різних країнах

Наприклад, у споживчому кошику британця передбачені витрати на підключення до інтернету, покупку мр-3-плеєра та гітару, а також послуги садівника. Навіть найменш забезпечені німці мають право на цифровий фотоапарат та відеокамеру, сканер та принтер, а також тонометр. Французи закладають у споживчий кошик послуги перукаря, косметичні засоби та харчі для котів та собак. «Стурбовані» здоровим способом життя американці мають у кошику тютюнові та горілчані напої, а також витрати на мобільний та комп'ютерний зв'язок.

Крім того, експерти вважають, що найраціональнішою є така структура споживання, коли на харчі витрачається до третини доходів, непродовольчі товари (одяг, меблі) — 47 %, і решта — на послуги.

В Україні

В українському ж споживчому кошику левова частка доходів (понад 65 %) витрачається на харчі, а деякі непродовольчі товари та послуги не згадуються взагалі. Наприклад, вважається, що пенсіонерам не потрібні ані плавки, ані купальники, школярі можуть обійтися двома підручниками на рік, а студенти взагалі мають обходитися без підручників. Платна медицина та платна вища освіта взагалі не згадуються, бо, згідно із Конституцією, вони в Україні мають надаватися безкоштовно.

Судові спори щодо незаконності "споживчого кошика" в Україні
1. Постановою Окружного адміністративного суду міста Києва від 17.09.2015 у справі 826/6362/15 за позовом керівника неурядового Проєкту "Відкритий Суд" Батрина Станіслава Віталійовича до Кабінету Міністрів України вирішено:

 визнати протиправними дії Кабінету Міністрів України із встановлення розміру прожиткового мінімуму в Україні на 2015 рік без проведення і врахування результатів науково - громадської експертизи сформованих набору продуктів харчування, набору непродовольчих товарів і набору послуг для встановлення прожиткового мінімуму;
 визнати протиправними дії Кабінету Міністрів України із встановлення розміру прожиткового мінімуму в Україні на 2015 рік без проведення і врахування результатів перегляду вмісту наборів непродовольчих товарів, продуктів харчування та послуг для основних соціально-демографічних груп населення;
 визнати протиправною бездіяльність Кабінету Міністрів України в частині не вжиття заходів для встановлення прожиткового мінімуму в Україні на 2015 рік в порядку та на підставі положень Закону України «Про прожитковий мінімум»;
 зобов'язати Кабінет Міністрів України вжити передбачені законодавством заходи та реалізувати наявну компетенцію з метою: 1) провести науково - громадську експертизу набору продуктів харчування, набору непродовольчих товарів і набору послуг для встановлення прожиткового мінімуму в Україні; 2) провести перегляд вмісту наборів непродовольчих товарів, продуктів харчування та послуг для основних соціально-демографічних груп населення;
 зобов'язати Кабінет Міністрів України встановити розмір прожиткового мінімуму в Україні на 2015 рік в порядку та на підставі положень Закону України «Про прожитковий мінімум».

Зазначене судове рішення було залишене без змін постановою Київського апеляційного адміністративного суду від 17.09.2015, а на підставі виконавчого листа за даним рішенням, - 09.12.2015 головним державним виконавцем відділу примусового виконання рішень Департаменту державної виконавчої служби Мін'юсту Біловолом В.О. відкрито виконавче провадження ВП № 49613423 та встановлено уряду строк на виконання рішення суду: до 15.12.2015 року включно. Уряд не виконав дане рішення суду

2. Постановою Київського апеляційного адміністративного суду від 11.09.2018 року у справі № 826/5661/16 за позовом Батрина Станіслава Віталійовича до Кабінету Міністрів України про визнання протиправними дій Кабінету Міністрів України визнано протиправними дії уряду із встановлення розміру прожиткового мінімуму в Україні на 2016 рік без проведення і врахування результатів науково-громадської експертизи сформованих набору продуктів харчування, набору продовольчих продуктів і набору послуг для встановлення прожиткового мінімуму всупереч вимогам ст. 4 Закону України «Про прожитковий мінімум». При цьому, важливо підкреслити, що у своєму рішенні суд апеляційної інстанції встановив:

 «Колегія суддів зазначає, що набори продуктів харчування, набори непродовольчих товарів та набори послуг для основних соціальних і демографічних груп населення, затверджених постановою Кабінету Міністрів України від 14 квітня 2000 року № 656, втратили свою актуальність у 2005 році, оскільки ст. 3 Закону України «Про прожитковий мінімум» передбачала їх визначення не рідше одного разу на п'ять років»;
 «Колегія суддів доходить висновку, що при встановленні відповідачем прожиткового мінімуму на 2016 рік та в подальшому при його затвердженні Верховною Радою України у Законі України «Про Державний бюджет України на 2016 рік», Кабінетом Міністрів України не було проведено та враховано науково-громадську експертизу сформованих набору продуктів харчування, набору непродовольчих товарів і набору послуг, всупереч ст. 4 Закону України «Про прожитковий мінімум».

3. Рішенням Окружного адміністративного суду міста Києва від 25.04.2018, постановою Київського апеляційного адміністративного суду від 10.07.2018, постановою Верховного Суду у справі № 826/3639/17 за позовом Батрина Станіслава Віталійовича до Кабінету Міністрів України, визнано незаконною та нечинною постанову Кабінету Міністрів України № 780 від 11.10.2016 «Про затвердження наборів продуктів харчування, наборів непродовольчих товарів та наборів послуг для основних соціальних і демографічних груп населення», на основі якої урядом розраховувався та встановлювався прожитковий мінімум.

Див. також
 Субсидія
 Фізіологічний мінімум
 Прожитковий мінімум
 Норми споживання
 Борщовий набір та «індекс борщу»
 Індекс БігМака

Примітки

Джерела
 Сайт Міністерства соціальної політики України
 Сайт Міністерства фінансів України

Посилання
 Споживчий кошик  //
 BBC Ukrainian — Бізнес — Дієта «споживчий кошик українця»

Субсидія
Рівень життя
Економічна термінологія
Макроекономіка

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Corinne Giuliani joined Our Lady of Consolation Nursing center.
Gary B. Schreiner joined Rivkin Radler as a partner.
John Grillo is the NS Child & Family Guidance Center board president.
Ellen Cea has been hired by Rechler Equity Partners.
Robert Allen received ACIT's Commitment to Excellence Award.
TD Insurance hired Peter Kane as VP and regional market producer.
Joan Enright is the group's membership director.


Thanks to Hedy Elliott and Diane Vespa, there is an excellent opportunity for people in the Peoria community to help Haitian Hearts. These two busy, very philanthropically minded ladies are organizing a Walkathon for Haitian Hearts on Monday, May 18 at 4 pm at the Dunlap Public Library District in Dunlap.
There is a Facebook page dedicated to the event and more details can be found there. There will likely be other opportunities to walk during the day so check the page frequently for updates.
This is a great opportunity for people in central Illinois to join together and walk to raise awareness and funds for our Haitian neighbors who suffer from disease and neglect.


The sofa is uniquely made out of 100% recycled paper. By inflating the paper bags you are given a comfortable cushion that can be easily deflated for easy transport and/or storage. Furniture that is compact and practical is in rare supply as materials form a driving a desire in the consumer base. Without sacrificing comfort, this environmentally-concious seat offers more than conventional pieces of furniture.


I remember asking, and then begging, my parents to let me get a job. I promised to keep my room clean and my grades up, to ride my bike and not ask for rides and to set my alarm and get myself up on time. I made so many promises and begged just to be able to apply for that job because a job meant freedom for me.
My family struggled financially growing up, but we just about always had what we needed thanks to help from other family members. And my mom would do just about anything she could to get us our wants when she was able.
When I was 12, my parents were in a car accident. A drunk driver hit them driving the wrong way on the freeway. A two-income household turned into zero income and a ton of debt.
I got the job and I loved working. And I loved earning money. I worked at a small family-owned farm market with some awesome people who taught me so many invaluable life lessons, and the money meant I could buy the things I thought would make me happy: clothes, makeup, new purses. It meant that I didn't have to look poor.
I worked there all through high school and into college. From that point forward, I was never without a job, and I often had multiple jobs, even when I was in school. I loved the interaction and feeling like I was accomplishing something. I felt like I was working my way up and out of where I came from.
Then in 2009, I was without a job for the first time in my adult life. I was 24. This was also my first medical leave and the beginning of what has become a long journey of being chronically ill.
At the time, I was working for a company that provided residential services for individuals with developmental disabilities. I remember starting to feel tired and run down more often and thought I was just working too much. Then one day I woke up, got out of bed and fell over. This was the beginning of many doctor's appointments and symptoms, and I was eventually being diagnosed with narcolepsy, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.
I was off work for a total of 10 months and every minute of it was like torture to me. I hated not being able to work, not being able to support myself and feeling useless and without a sense of purpose. My situation and being diagnosed with some pretty serious illnesses led to a major depressive episode. When I did go back to work, I started off part-time, quickly ended up working two jobs and promised myself I would never be off work again. Now that I had answers, I thought I could manage my health and build my career.
I kept working over the next few years, but managing my health wasn't as easy as I had imagined it to be. I was able to avoid extended medical leaves, especially for few surgeries. I tried to be strategic with vacation and sick days, so I could rest and take care of myself while still working. When my job as a manager with another company working with people with disabilities became too much because I was on-call a lot, I found a job in a medical clinic without an on-call responsibility. I was determined to do whatever I could to keep working this time.
In November 2015, I came down with what I thought was just a case of pink eye. Boy, was I wrong. I had uveitis and optic neuritis, which caused a temporarily loss of vision in one eye and was off work for six weeks.
Again, I found myself in a situation where I felt I couldn't continue at my job. This time, it was because of stress and fatigue. It was becoming harder and harder for me to stay healthy with the level of stress at that job. So while I was off, I found a job working from home (another adaptation to try to stay in the workforce).
I worked at home job for a few months before I became sick again. This time, I had kidney stones that would require invasive surgery, and once again I was unable to work, even though I had been working from home. Even still, I was planning on going back after surgery. But two surgeries turned into six, and due to extended healing time and continuous flares from other pre-existing conditions, it's now December and I haven't been back, nor do I plan to.
Deciding not to go back to work permanently was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life, and it was not made lightly. It meant more than just not working. It meant giving up the security of a paycheck and dealing with the feelings of being inadequate and being unable to support myself.
I've felt shame and guilt. I've grieved over losing my capability to produce and the last source of socialization with my working peers. It has added stressors over money, has had an effect on my mental health and self-worth and has made me cry more time than I can count. But in the end, I have to come to accept that this choice is the best one for my overall health.


Amazon Web Services (AWS) will open a region in Paris next year, allowing French customers to run applications and store data in the country.
The region will become AWS' fourth in Europe, after existing regions in Frankfurt and Ireland, and the planned opening of a UK region, expected to be before February.
A cloud region within France will help customers work faster with Amazon and keep customer data within French borders, helping navigate any data residency issues.
No further information about the location has been disclosed about the location beyond the fact it will be located in the suburbs of the French capital.
There are currently 35 'Availability Zones' in 13 regions with five more regions now planned to launch within the next year. These are Canada, China, Ohio (USA), the UK, and now, France.
AWS is not the only provider expanding its cloud footprint. Microsoft Azure has opened its own data centres in the UK in a bid to improve performance and satisfy compliancy issues, especially in the wake of the invalidation of Safe Harbour last year.
Many firms in regulated industries need to have data sovereignty if they are to make use of cloud platforms.
Think you know all about Amazon Web Services? Try our quiz!


Today it is fourteen years since AAH and I moved to Iceland.
I was terrified to move back. 'Back' being an anomaly, because from the age of five I hadn't really lived here. I'd moved back with my mother for three years when I was seven and would happily have stayed, but it wasn't to be. I moved back again when I was 22, in a fit of intense rebellion, when I'd come face to face with the fact that my life in Canada had been founded on a ruse. At that time I only lasted for ten months; I was an emotional mess and couldn't cope with the adjustment, so I returned to Canada.
From there, I drifted to the UK, then Spain, then Germany. I guess I was looking for a place to fit in – from early childhood I'd been constantly on the move and had never lived in any one place for long. One of my boyfriends – when we were breaking up – told me that I was like someone perpetually moving from bank to bank to borrow money to pay for the previous loan. I hated him for saying it, but today I know he was right. I was on the fast track to emotional and spiritual bankruptcy.
By the time I made the decision to move to Iceland, I was backed into a corner. I was a single parent with a small child. I no longer had the option of returning to Canada because I had been away longer than my landed immigrant status permitted. I reached out to my mother for help, hoping to return [she was a Canadian citizen, and would have had to sponsor me] so that I could finish a degree in journalism. She refused. I had a highly restrictive work permit in Germany, which allowed me only to work at a specific language school, which was mostly evening and weekend work and which wasn't possible with a small child. Welfare was the only option.
I felt incredibly trapped and became deeply depressed, partly exacerbated by the fact that I had a baby, was very socially isolated, and had absolutely no support. There was a time when AAH was having trouble sleeping – she would wake up at least twice every night and cry for about an hour each time. This went on for six weeks. I was suffering from intense sleep deprivation and sank further and further into despair. I felt as though I had no one to whom I could turn.
But, just when I thought the darkness would swallow me up, several amazing people came into my life and just … carried me. My friend Munda, who was in her sixties and took me and AAH under her wing. The psychologist I started seeing, who came to my house when I was at the risk of hurting myself, stayed with me for hours and even did my dishes. The amazing Frau Seelig from the Kinderschutzbund, who 'found me a grandmother' to take AAH for a long weekend, because one look at me told her that I needed time away from my child in order to sleep [and who helped me in other innumerable ways because she believed in me, for which I am eternally eternally grateful].
In the midst of all this, my grandparents in Iceland died, five weeks apart. One of their apartments was free, and I had an idea that perhaps I could stay there while I got my bearings in Iceland. Some negotiation ensued, during which I worked very systematically with Annekatrin, my psychologist, who was a rock, and eventually I was given the go-ahead. This time I worked hard to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for the move, and it worked. I was ready.
When AAH and I arrived in Reykjavík, on 3 March 1994, there was approximately as much snow on the ground as there is now. Back in my grandparent's apartment – which had been my home when I was a small child – I felt safe and at peace. I spent four months there; they were intense, and scary, and very, very healing. I had no money, no job, no child care, no car and no friends … but for the first time ever I had a powerful conviction that the force was with me. That was enough.
The sun was out, and it was pretty cold. In the afternoon the light was more diffused and everything grew very civilized. AAH and I met up after she finished school and went for coffee and cake to commemorate the occasion. Right now it is -6°C [21F] and we had sunrise at 8.27 am, sunset at 6.53 pm.


Environmentally friendly product. 100% guarantee of quality and origin. Directly from Canada.
The Native Americans were the first to recognize the sap as a source of energy and nutrition. They would use their tomahawks to make V-shaped incisions in the trees. Then, they would insert reeds or concave pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets made from birch bark. Due to the lack of proper equipment, the sap was slightly concentrated either by throwing hot stones in the bucket, or by leaving it overnight and disposing with the layer of ice out which had formed on top. It was drunk as a sweet drink or used in cooking. It is possible that maple-cured bacon began with this process.
The original Canadian maple syrup consists essentially of sucrose and water, organic acids. It also contains amino acids, a wide variety of volatile organic compounds. Still, however, is not known exactly which compounds give the characteristic taste of maple syrup.
The original Canadian maple syrup is a natural food product made by heating the concentrated pure maple resin.
The original Canadian maple syrup contains: potassium, calcium, magnesium and manganese.
Potassium helps maintain energy volume of cells and provides permanent protection of the heart.
Calcium is essential for bone health.
Original Canadian maple syrup contains: Niacin; vitamins B5, B2, B6; folic acid, biotin and vitamin A.
Using original Canadian maple syrup is not limited in these situations. Use your imagination and thus you will find that it improves the taste of many foods.
The maple syrup is used in nutrition to cleanse the body and reduce the weight. It is an ingredient of the famous "Maple syrup diet".
The original Canadian maple syrup has the same calcium content as whole milk.
The original Canadian maple syrup can be freezing-unfreezing without losing its properties.
Only a few places in the world have the right climate for the production of maple syrup and maple products: The southern part of Quebec and Ontrio - Canada, New England, New York and Michigan.
This product is fully labeled in Bulgarian. Our products have all the necessary documents and certificates and can be offered in Bulgaria and the European Union.
Why is maple syrup useful for health?
The original Canadian maple syrup contains many minerals that are vital to the human bio-tone, activating the metabolic processes.
With the help of the original Canadian maple syrup, you can clear your body of toxins, stabilize your immune system, and lift your lifestyle.
Rubbing of original Canadian maple syrup into the skin leads to nourishing and cleansing the skin of the whole body. Here are some recipes with original Canadian maple syrup.
Maple syrup - can be used by diabetics?
Maple syrup has a glycemic load of about 43 corn syrup is 80 and glucose - 100. natural products such as honey has a glycemic load of 45.
The combination of elderberry and maple syrup improves overall health and is an excellent tool in the fight against flu, colds and coughs. It can be taken by children and adults.
If you ask who is the most popular weight loss method practiced by women and men, the answer is Maple Syrup Diet It is ideal for both weight loss and cleansing of the body.
Many experts argue flashover many diseases start from the colon. Zdravnitza offers you a simple and reliable way to cleanse the colon, which takes no more than 10 days.


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text:
Stijn Max Hendrikse is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, team and executive coach. He is the founder of Amy, a customer service software for Small Businesses, and Kalungi, a global Growth-as-a-Service provider, focused on B2B SaaS companies. As a C-level executive, he has contributed to the success of many SaaS startups, including Acumatica, MightyCall, and Atera.

Before focusing on startups, Hendrikse was at Microsoft where he led global SMB Marketing, the global standardization of the OOXML ISO 29500 open standard for document formats, and Product Marketing for Microsoft Office in the Public Sector and the Small Business segment.

Early life
Hendrikse grew up in Enschede in The Netherlands. An early interest in computers led to becoming a self-taught coder and software developer, which in turn led to spending the first half of his career at Microsoft.

Career

After leading consulting and sales in the Netherlands for Microsoft, the software giant brought Hendrikse to its HQ in Redmond in 2004 to lead several global marketing teams.

Over the next 12 years, Hendrikse held a series of C-level positions including Chief Revenue Officer of ERP software maker Acumatica, CEO of SaaS contact center MightyCall, and supporting the initial global Go-to-Market for Atera, a B2B SaaS Unicorn. Stijn also supported some companies as a B2B SaaS Fractional Executive.

He currently leads revenue growth for Browzwear and serves on the board of directors of several tech companies, as well as on that of Kalungi, the B2B SaaS marketing agency he founded in June 2018.

In addition, he founded Amy, an AI-powered conversation platform.

Works
To help entrepreneurs and SaaS startups learn from his experience, Hendrikse authored T2D3: How some software startups scale, where many fail.

Since T2D3's publication, Hendrikse has been leading workshops and serving as a coach/mentor to investors, entrepreneurs, executives, marketing teams, and others.

See also
 Marketing
 Software as a service
 Marketing strategy
 Acumatica
 Microsoft

References

Living people
1971 births
21st-century Dutch businesspeople
People from Enschede
Microsoft people
Microsoft employees


Ion: We also have Incursions which are a new feature that are reminiscent to some extent of Legion Assaults that we had back in patch 7.2 during Legion, or instead of the demons raining from the sky, they're going to be situations where an alliance landing force has arrived in Tiragarde Sound, and they have carved out an area of control, they have ships with forces pouring in.
This will turn off world quest response on the area and enable a new set of content with a wrap that can be completed once you've done enough of it. Very similar to how the Legion assaults were structured.
Also this will be available– these world quests will be available for any leveling alts that have already unlocked world quests, again, as a way to sort of boost your leveling, vary the experience from the zones you may have already played through.
We also have a number of new world quests just added to the rotation throughout the world. Additional variety. Additional depth to that existing system that Battle for Azeroth launched with. Also excited to continue some existing storylines and introduce brand new ones.
In Battle for Azeroth, we delved into Jaina's backstory and what it meant for her to return to her homeland after this period of effective exile. We saw a little bit about what might have happened to the spirit of Vol'jin, but there's much more to tell in all of these fronts.
We're going to be looking very closely at Saurfang whom (as members of the Horde) we last saw languishing in the Stormwind Stockades lamenting lost honor. Tyrande… what does she feel, and what is she doing? What are she and Malfurion doing in the aftermath of seeing their homeland, of seeing Teldrassil burned before their eyes?
And yes, what does everyone's favorite Urn up to? And what has become of Vol'jin, and is there a future for him? This and more are going to be explored in Tides of Vengeance, the coming content update.


text:
Tag: Sean McMullen
Birthday Reviews: Sean McMullen's "Electrica"
Friday, December 21, 2018 Steven H Silver Comments 4 comments
Cover by David G. Hardy
Sean McMullen was born on December 21, 1948 in Victoria, Australia.
McMullen has won the Ditmar Award 8 times, including five William Atheling, Jr. Awards for Criticism or Review, for short fiction ("While the Gate Is Open" and "Alone In His Chariot") and for long fiction for Mirrorsun Rising. His novels The Centurion's Empire and The Miocene Arrow as well as his short story "Walk to the Full Moon" have won the Aurealis Award. He has been nominated one time each for the Hugo Award, the British SF Association Award, the Sidewise Award, and the WSFA Small Press Award. McMullen has published under the pseudonym Roger Wilcox and has collaborated with Paul Collins, Steven Paulsen, Van Ikin, and Russell Blackford.
"Electrica" was first published in the March-April 2012 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Gordon van Gelder. The next year McMullen included it in his short story collection Ghosts of Engines Past and David G. Hartwell selected the story for inclusion in Year's Best SF 18.
McMullen offers a secret history of the Napoleonic Wars by looking at the career of Lieutenant Michael Fletcher, whose work in intelligence has gotten him transferred back to England to investigate the claims of Sir Charles Calder, who claims that he has used electricity to create a device that can send signals over vast distances, somewhat akin to the later telegraph, but without wires. Calder has even created a form of Morse code to use with the messages.
Fletcher arrives at Sir Charles's manor to discover a contingent of soldiers guarding it, Sir Charles's experiments, and Lady Monica, whose voracious sexual appetite appears to focus on any male who isn't her husband, who she finds boring. As far as Fletcher can tell, Sir Charles feels the same way about Lady Monica. Allowing himself to be seduced by Monica in order to gain access to Sir Charles's locked laboratory leads to a duel with one of the soldiers and sidelines Fletcher for several weeks while Monica is supposed to be in London. Upon his return to the manor, he learned that Lady Monica never made it to London and Sir Charles's experiments have taken a dark turn.


text:
16 July 2019 / Updates
The Dock Vision
This update has been in the making for quite some time and is intended to provide a deep dive into the evolution of Dock and our exciting vision moving forward.
Our Start and Motivation
Dock was founded with a mission to solve inefficiencies in existing data solutions: untrusted and inaccurate information, data silos and gatekeepers, incompatibilities, and lack of control for users.
Our team spent several months on R&D working with data providers, consumers and users exploring how we could best solve these problems and create a system that could scale to make an impact. After exhaustive research, the solution: standards-compliant, verifiable digital credentials.
What are digital credentials? They represent important data about an individual: work experiences, skills, certificates, degrees, course completion, learnings, achievements and more which ultimately lead to capabilities.
We believe the future of work and the global economy will be powered by digital credentials and blockchain will enable transformational automation through machine readable and universally verifiable data.
Issuing Credentials
Billions of credentials are issued annually across a wide variety of industries using a range of methods and technologies. The vast majority aren't using common web standards or blockchain, making them non-compatible with other systems and creating unnecessary silos and gatekeepers for verification processes which could otherwise be automated.
Credentials should be properly produced at their origin for maximum integrity and interoperability but there are large barriers for issuers today.
Problems Issuers Face
It's not economical or scalable for organizations to utilize blockchain today for credential issuing. We have met with some of the largest publicly traded companies in the world who have tried and after months of work find themselves with expensive, slow and unscalable solutions. Setting up infrastructure, maintenance and upgrades, needing blockchain expertise, and rapidly evolving technology and ecosystems make it nearly impossible to be economically efficient on their own.
Example Issuers
There are two categories we bundle issuers:
Issuer: direct organization issuing a credential.
Examples: universities, employers, trade associations, governments, e-learning
Proxy issuer: systems and products built enabling organizations to manage their issuing process, templates, recipients, etc.
Examples: credential issuing platforms, digital badge platforms, human resource systems, learning management systems, association management systems
Dock is primary focused on enabling proxy issuers and large scale issuers, providing the production layer for scale.
Solution: Dock Network
A decentralized autonomous network for high performance credential production.
In order for Dock to reach it's potential the network needs maximum participation and widespread adoption. This is achieved through a non-profit, decentralized, open network of governance and collaboration.
Dock Network will bring the best resources and brightest minds in the world together to produce the highest performing blockchain credentialing solutions at the lowest possible costs.
For organizations looking for scalable blockchain credentialing solutions, it's as simple as plugging into API's, placing orders for your credential issuing needs, and choosing the best technologies available at the lowest production costs.
Introducing: Dock Blockchain
Creating a scalable, cost-effective, user-friendly and decentralized network requires Dock to build its own blockchain. We spent the better part of a year experimenting with Ethereum and trying to create scalable solutions with seamless user experiences and it's just not possible today.
Many new technologies have come to market which we have thoroughly researched, outlined in a recent Governance Proposal (DGP-2). Building the Dock blockchain using the Substrate framework sets up the future of Dock to be interoperable with other blockchains and seamlessly integrate with the Polkadot network in the future. There are many other advantages outlined in DGP-2.
Partners and Contributors
Participation from contributors is important to decentralize governance and create widespread adoption. Dock is seeking participation from the following areas and would love to connect.
Issuers: companies serving digital badging, digital credentials, education, workforce development, human resource systems, governments.
Operators: blockchain capable operators interested in running implementations or building your own.
Authority and validators: high trust operators who can help secure the network.
Open Source Developers: we're always looking for quality folks to contribute.
Reach out to us at contribute @ dock.io
We've compiled a list of commonly asked questions and will continue to add and adjust with your feedback.
Nick Macario
Cofounder @ Dock
Dock wins a grant from the Web3 Foundation
As Dock pushes forward our vision for an internet of trust enabled through verifiable data, we are excited to announce our grant approval from the Web3 Foundation. This grant serves as a validation of our team and solution and is an opportunity to be a significant contributor to Polkadots ecosystem.
June '19 Updates
The team has been hard at work over the past few weeks improving the credential platform for both recipients & organizations while also preparing for the voting outcome of DGP-2. The major changes to the voting process mentioned in June's mid-month update also went live last week.