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'We'll see what happens': For Russian immigrants, closure of Seattle consulate means frustration, uncertainty
Originally published March 26, 2018 at 7:06 pm Updated March 27, 2018 at 1:51 pm
Even before the Trump administration ordered the Russian consulate in Seattle to close, getting a passport renewed was an ordeal that took months. Now, it becomes more complicated for thousands of Russians on the West Coast — and beyond.
Nina Shapiro
Sasha Senderovich was not planning on picking up his Russian passport Monday. It had been ready for months, and he kept forgetting about it.
Then he heard the Trump administration had just ordered the Russian consulate in Seattle to close by April 2. The dual Russian-American citizen figured he better go right away.
"We'll see what happens," he said, talking by phone in the midafternoon as he was getting on a bus near the University of Washington, where he teaches Russian literature and Jewish studies, and heading to the consulate's downtown office. He wasn't sure if the consulate would already be closed.
Senderovich wasn't the only one rushing to get there. Andrew Fomichev, a Microsoft software engineer who belongs to an email distribution list at the company of about 800 Russian-speakers, said he knew of others making their way to the consulate from the Eastside.
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Meanwhile, Russian immigrants up and down the West Coast, and beyond, were considering the closure's impact on them.
After April, there will only be three Russian consulates left open across the country: in Houston, New York City and Washington, D.C. The Trump administration forced the only other West Coast consulate, in San Francisco, to close last year.
The closures hit an area of the country with sizable Russian populations. Washington has the fourth-largest number of Russian immigrants — 26,000, according to census data. About 40 percent of those live in King County.
California has nearly 90,000 Russian-born residents, many clustered around Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento.
Even with the Seattle consulate open, getting services has been a struggle, Fomichev said. To get a passport renewed, one had to first make an appointment to drop off documents. Online slots filled quickly, according to Fomichev, who heard of people waking up at 6 a.m. to get one.
And that was usually for an appointment several months away. Then one had to wait several more months before the passport was ready, and it had to be picked up in person.
"Now it becomes even more complicated," Fomichev said. "People are frustrated."
He said he hoped remaining consulates might start handling renewals online so that people didn't have to travel thousands of miles, twice, to accomplish the task.
In California, Mark Farhad Yusupov, chair of the Russian Advisory Board, which provides input to the West Hollywood City Council on issues and services related to local Russians, said he suspected many people will turn to private companies that specialize in helping people get passports and visas.
Then, maybe, only one trip would be needed, though who knows where to — Houston or Washington, D.C., perhaps, if those consulates remain open. The situation was changing rapidly, Fomichev said, referring to the tit-for-tat actions by Russian and the United States.
"All normal business was paralyzed today. All we do is answer concerns," said Vadim Pechersky, executive director of one such private company in West Hollywood, the Russian Documentation Center.
He said the Seattle consulate's closure will be particularly hard for people with large families who now have to travel to Houston or the East Coast. "Some people will not be able to afford it," he said.
It is also a worrying development for a couple he is working with who have to make an emergency trip to Russia because of a family member who suffered a heart attack. A representative of his company intended to deliver the couple's documents to the Seattle consulate Monday, but it was turning away such people.
The potential consequences aren't as big for Senderovich. He has an American passport and uses his Russian passport only when he travels to see relatives or do research.
"I don't mind being a small casualty," Senderovich said. "Something needed to have been done much earlier." He referred not only to the alleged Russian poisoning of a former spy in Britain, but meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
Still, Senderovich noted, "the people that get affected aren't the ones involved in these larger political machinations."
For him, it worked out. When he reached the consulate, he found that it was letting people through who were just picking up passports. He was buzzed in, past a sign on the door that said the consulate was closed, and got his.
Nina Shapiro: 206-464-3303 or nshapiro@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @NinaShapiro.
Seattle Times staff reporter Justin Mayo contributed to this story.


Need a swing for your spring garden? Join us at Bricks & Minifigs Eugene to build (and keep!) one of these custom-designed LEGO models. Build the swing, then decorate with plants, flowers, and a selection of cute LEGO animals. Reservations required.


While this series of articles is in construction some tiny versions of the eventual photos will be seen in the relevant places, even before we are authorized to publish them. Unusual practice, but as we are in the process of contacting every copyright owner, it helps in explaining what we are trying to achieve (someone already asked if it was an encyclopedia of eggplants). Should any one feel offended by this process we apologize and will remove any picture that we are specifically told to remove PROMPTLY. We hope to raise the interest level of all people contacted by having these tiny gifs there as appetizers. We certainly are not in the business of exploiting or taking advantage of anyone. Education is our game and not only does it not pay but it costs us far too much. We in turn do not feel exploited however, for we find it too hard to stop our compulsive urge to share knowledge. Moreover we learn as much as our readers in the process, so perhaps we are just selfish and trying to satisfy a deep need. Hum! a psych. thesis in perspective.
Overall Disclaimer The information in these articles is offered in good faith, without warranty. Although the compiling has been done with extreme care it is not possible to guarantee the accuracy of all the data. It is meant to be used with a fair degree of common sense and logic. Neither the author Michel H. Porcher, nor any publisher of this article will have any liability whatsoever to any person or organisation in respect to any alleged loss, damage or liability incurred from the use of the information presented.
Opinions expressed on these pages are the author's own and do not represent the views of the The University of Melbourne, the I.S.T.A, USDA - ARS - GRIN or their respective staff, neither is it meant to represent or support any view expressed elsewhere by all the authors quoted, the companies and organizations referred to.
This is just an appetizer, keep clicking.
Links to illustrated pages 2, 3, 4.
This series of articles entitled "Know your …" is born out of my frustrations of the last 2 decades during my work on the MMPND, when I observed the demarcation between the world of taxonomy on one hand and what I call the trade on the other, that is the seed industry, the nursery industry, and all their associated professionals as well as gardeners, farmers, cooks and chefs. The two groups tend to ignore each other as if they belonged to two different worlds. It has been slowly changing in the last 4 or 5 years and hopefully, starting with these articles on eggplants I will stimulate a few more people towards more cooperation. I must have been very inspired when I got involved with flickr because I can see the tremendous potential of all these photographers craving for recognition. I know also that academics in general, taxonomists in particular are always short of nice photos to illustrate their work. Here is a match if ever I saw one. So I am showing the way. I am also attempting to involve seed companies a second time, this time with a lot of "baggage". The first time, back in the mid eighties when I really began the MMPND project, I was not very successful because I could not explain clearly enough what I wanted to achieve and I was looked upon as a threat (as the late Georges Brassens would have put it "un empêcheur de tourner en rond") more than a well intentioned fool… well! I was told far too often "Who in his right mind would attempt such a project". Well folks this is it, this is the beginning of the crowning of the project, these articles reflect what I wanted to achieve. It appears that I was alone in understanding the amount of work that had to be invested and I was pretty much the only person willing and able to spend the time doing the task. I probably won't live long enough to cover all the main crops but I'll give it a darn good go starting with our beloved eggplants.
Since its importation many decades ago (18th century?) the eggplant, as we know it in the west has mostly been a food plant producing the vital ingredient to many traditional and regional dishes such as the Greek Moussaka. In the garden it is a plant with simply huge dark boring uninspiring fruits. In its original imported state (from India and other exotic places) it had a fruit that was truly egg-shaped, hence its English name, translated in French by "La plante aux oeufs" in the great catalogues of the past. There is a little disagreement on the colour of it but whether it was white, black or anything in between, like many of its cousins the tomato or the nightshades, it was a curiosity, an ornament in the garden with suspected poisonous overtones in those times. In recent decades, following worldwide searches in the centres of diversity a tremendous number of new varieties and species have been uncovered and exploited by the seed industry. Unfortunately the horticultural industry the market gardeners and the providers of this vegetable have not taken advantage of this diversity pretexting a lack of interest by their customers. Although this is true to a certain extent, it is also a fact that if a corporation wishes to impose a new taste on the unsuspecting public a few good ads strategically placed can work wonders. It has been left to gardeners however to do the promotion of exciting varieties of eggplants. These articles are simply part of this worldwide movement, the push for diversity in our food plants. How does that fit into the loss of bio-diversity debate? In order to answer this question we first have to look at the science of plant classification and its shortcomings.
Please note that I have taken the habit of writing the significant botanical Latin words, which by convention should be in italic, in bold. This practice began with the original online publishing of the MMPND for screen effect. Today as we update our files we try to combine both.
# USDA ARS GRIN < http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?101312 >.
# International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Acta Horticulturae 647.
International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants - Code International pour la Nomenclature des Plantes Cultivées.
I can hear "at a price of € 55 it is no wonder that non-professionals do not bother buying it. These publications of International value should be available on line via a registration form but free of charge. Then the content might be taken into consideration more often in daily life" Well! It is < http://www.actahort.org/books/647/ >.
The above names albeit botanically correct do not match the standards (see ISHS) which are meant to be used for cultivated plants. The denomination "var. for variety" should only be used for wild plants. It is a level of classification used in taxonomy and should not be confused with a variety in common language to designate a cultivated variety or a cultivar in taxonomy. A cultivar is indicated by single quotation marks (ex: 'Gretel'). In turn a cultivar name which as a formal status is different from a commonly given name such as "Thai round green eggplant". These names often begin their life as literal translations or transliterations, especially when dealing with scripted names, and are taken advantage of for commercial reasons. The groups as in (Group name) are collections of cultivars. In botanical context these are almost the same as the "convar." label.
The above names including "var." should be considered as synonyms (from an older system) of the names included in modern nomenclature such as those using the "Group name" appellation.
This group will include all cultivars with cylindrical fruits.
We have a varietal name from the old system - a synonym of the name from the new system.
The universal name used in all catalogues for eggplants is Solanum melongena L. Flora Europea gives 2 synonyms for this: Solanum ovigerum Dunal & Solanum esculentum Dunal. Strictly speaking the later is a "basionym" the other a synonym of a different group Solanum melongena L. (Ovigerum Group) .
In the literature we are often told that Solanum integrifolium is a synonym of Solanum aethiopicum. It is not strictly correct.
Solanum integrifolium Poiret is a synonym of Solanum aethiopicum L. (Aculeatum Group) but neither a synonym of the Kumba Group nor the Gilo Group etc. Similarly Solanum dasyphyllum Thonn. ex Schum. is a synonym of Solanum macrocarpon Poir. (Semi wild Group) but neither a synonym of the Mokono Group nor the Nabingo Group etc.
Finally a complex example: Solanum indicum L.
Solanum ferox Burm. f. (tolerated) = Solanum ferox L. ?
Solanum indicum L. (dubious) = (Not accepted) "nom. rej., a rejected name (nomen utique rejiciendum) under Vienna ICBN Art. 56 & App. V that is unavailable for use." (USDA-ARS GRIN).
All the names on the left, apart from the last, are tolerated as synonyms by taxonomists.
So following a considerable researching time one finds all these synonyms. No wonder that the name Solanum indicum L. has been declared "unusable" or words to that effect. The point is that unless one adds the authority names at the end of either Solanum ferox or Solanum indicum one is never sure which species is taken into consideration for whatever work, mine happens to be translation. Many dictionaries will associate common names to any of those botanical names without precisely pinpointing what it is. It is likely that the lexicographers of the past would not have been aware of the taxonomic intricacies so they cannot really be blamed for the numerous mistakes and omissions found in the dictionaries. Today however computers and the internet allow us to be far more aware and accurate … and less blameless.
Generally speaking in terms of bio-diversity the species is the unit that is counted when assessing the losses. A specific name (species) is made up of two words (a binomial) a generic name (genus) and a specific epithet. Normally it should also have the abbreviated version of an authoritative expert's name - a taxonomist (a botanist specialised in plant classification). Already there are problems with this.
1. Because the authority name is almost always omitted in horticultural literature it leads to grave mistakes of identification. As demonstrated above Solanum indicum is a perfect example of how this process can get totally out of control.
2. When it comes to food plant diversity at the specific level we only consider the "tip of the iceberg" because if a species is lost all the subspecies, the varieties, the forms, the hundreds of cultivars (cultivated varieties) and their regional selections (as well as other types of selections - usually simply market driven) are lost. In other words one loss can in reality equal thousands. This would not be an overstatement in many cases. This may not be called "plant bio-diversity" but it is a loss of diversity nevertheless. What is lost is the patient work of selection by generations of gardeners and farmers from every corner of the globe. The "new world order" can be both an accelerator of the problem via the concentration of the heritage in a few "corporations hands" (facilitated by governments) or part of the solution via the inter-connected networks of seed savers, the slow food movement, the revival of regional cooking and related terroirs, etc. This however is increasingly under threat due to various laws related to "official lists", quarantine restrictions, patenting, and business laws.
Let us now consider the state of eggplants - Almost in great shape in fact, compared to some other food plants.
See Pt1 - African Eggplants for African lexique.
See Pt2 - Asian Eggplants for Asian lexiques.
ARABIC : باذنجان Bādhimjān, الباذنجان Badinjan (al baðinjān).
BENGALI : বেগুন Begun, বার্তাকু Baingan.
BULGARIAN : Патладжан Patladzsan .
CHINESE : 茄 Qie, 茄子 Qie zi, Ai gua / ngai gwa (Cantonese name).
CROATIAN : Патлиџан Patlidžan .
CZECH : Lilek, Lilek baklažán, Lilek vejcoplodý.
DUTCH : Aubergine, Eierplant, Eiervrucht, Melanzaanappel.
ENGLISH : Aubergine (UK.), Eggplant (USA), Brinjal (India), Large-fruited eggplant, Melongen (Caribbean Trinidad).
FINNISH : Aubergiini, Munahedelmä, Munakoiso.
FRENCH : Albergínia (Catalan), Aubergine, Bringelle, Mélongène.
GUJARATI : રીંગણ Ringan, Ringna, વેંગણ Vengan.
HEBREW : חציל Hatzil, חָצִיל Hatzil.
HINDI : औबरजाइन्स Aubarajā'insa, बैंगन Baigan, Baijani, बैंगन Baingan.
HUNGARIAN : Padlizsán , Padlizsános, Tojàsgyümölcs.
ITALIAN : Maranziana, Melanzana, Mulignana, Petonciano, Petrociana.
JAPANESE : ダ イマルナス Daimaru nasu, 大丸なす Daimaru nasu, 大丸茄子 Daimaru nasu, エッ グプラント Eggupuranto, 茄子 Nasu, なす Nasu, ナス Nasu.
KHMER : Trâb vèèng, Trâb put lonhoong.
LAOTIAN : Khüa ham maaz, Khüa hlèèz, Khüa poom.
MALAY : Terong, Terung (Indonesia), Encung (Indonesia), Tiung (Sumatra).
MALAYALAM : Valutananna, Vazhudhanaikkai, വഴുതന Vazhuthana, Vazhuthananga.
PERSIAN : بادنجان Bâdenjân, بادنجان Bâdinjân.
POLISH : Bakłazan, Gruszka miłosna, Oberżyna, Oberżynowy.
PUNJABI : ਵੈੰਗਣ , ਬੈਂਗਨ Baingana.
ROMANIAN : Patlagea vanata, Pătlăgea vânătă, Pătlăgele vinete , Vanata, Vânătă, Vinete.
RUSSIAN : Баклажан Baklazhan (Baklažan).
SANSKRIT : Bhantaki , Nattingan, वातिगगम Vaatigagama (vātiga-gama), वृन्ताकम् ,Vatinganah, Varttaka.
SERBIAN : Плави патлиџан Plavi patlidžan, Патлиџан Patlidžan.
SLOVENIAN : Jajčevec, Patlidžan jajcevec.
SPANISH : Berenjena, Albergínia (Catalan).
SWEDISH : Äggplanta, Äggört, Aubergine.
TAMIL : Kathiri , Kathirikai, கத்திரி Kattiri, கத்தரி .
TELUGU : వంగ Vanga, వంకాయ Vankāya, బ్రింజాల్ , ఎగ్గ్ ప్లాంట్ , ఆబర్జీన్ , వార్తాకము.
THAI : มะเขือ Makhua, มะเขือยาว Ma khuea yao (Ma khuea yaao, Makhua yao, Makhua yow) , Makhua chan, มะเขือขาว Ma khuea khao (Má kĕua kăao, Makhua khao, Ma khua kow, Ma kuah kow).
TURKISH : پاتلیجان (patlıcan), Patlıcan.
VIETNAMESE : Cà tim, Cà bat, Cà tin, Quả cà.
I wish to acknowledge the kind cooperation of many colleagues mentioned throughout this article and mostly all my flickr contacts who have provided useful comments and many of those beautiful photos. Thanks to all.
***** This is a sign of a great reference.
AllPenang.com, 2007, Multilingual List of Vegetables available in the Penang Wet Market. < http://malaysian-cuisine.com/touristinfo/wet_market-vegetables.htm >.
Bukenya, Z. R. and J. B. Hall. 1987. Six cultivars of Solanum macrocarpon (Solanaceae) in Ghana. Euphytica 17(1): 91-5.
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences - Cornell University. Interesting evaluations of most eggplants cultivars on the market by subscribers. < http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/mainSearch/showAll.php?ID=23&sortBy=overallrating&order=DESC&searchIn=1 >.
DNP, 2005, Solanum trilobatum. National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. Thailand. < http://www.dnp.go.th/MFCD20/heab-5.htm >.
Elizabeth Byanjeru Rubaihayo, Conservation and use of traditional vegetables in Uganda < http://www.bioversityinternational.org/publications/Web_version/500/ch15.htm >.
Ethiopian Plant Names < http://www.ethiopic.com/aplants.htm >.
Flora Europaea: Database of European Plants (ESFEDS).
Guillet Dominique, 2007, Semences de Kokopelli, 7th Edition. Edition La Voix des Semences. pp. 452 - 463.
International ECPGR Eggplant Database. Botanical and Experimental Garden, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. EGGNET (EGGplant genetic resources NETwork), a project funded by the European Union. The project is coordinated by Ms. Marie-Christine Daunay, Unité de génétique & amélioration des fruits et légumes, INRA, Montfavet, France. < http://www.bgard.science.ru.nl/eggnetdb2/ >.
International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Acta Horticulturae 647.
International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants - Code International pour la Nomenclature des Plantes Cultivées. < http://www.actahort.org/books/647/ >.
Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops.
MARTIN F. W. & RHODES A. M. 1978, SUBSPECIFIC GROUPING OF CULTIVARS EGGPLANT. Euphytica 28 (1979) 367 383.
Mayaguez Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Florida Area, Southern Region. Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00708 & Department of Horticulture, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Medicinal Plants of Myanmar. < http://www.tuninst.net/MyanMedPlants/TIL/famS/Solanaceae.htm#Solanum-spp >.
M.M.P.N.D. For all nomenclatural details we refer you to our page on Eggplants.
Natural History Museum. Solanaceae Source - A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family. < http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/solanaceaesource/taxonomy/list.jsp >.
PROTABASE: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa's (PROTA's) online resource. < http://database.prota.org/ >.
Bukenya-Ziraba, R., 2004. Solanum anguivi Lam. [Internet] Record from Protabase. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l'Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. < http://database.prota.org/search.htm>. Accessed 18 April 2009.
Lester, R.N. & Seck, A., 2004. Solanum aethiopicum L. [Internet] Record from Protabase. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l'Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. < http://database.prota.org/search.htm>. Accessed 18 April 2009.
Bukenya-Ziraba, R. & Bonsu, K.O., 2004. Solanum macrocarpon L. [Internet] Record from Protabase. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l'Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. < http://database.prota.org/search.htm>. Accessed 18 April 2009.
Schippers, R.R., 2004. Solanum torvum Sw. [Internet] Record from Protabase. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l'Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. < http://database.prota.org/search.htm>. Accessed 18 April 2009.
Scientific-Consulting Center (SCC ), 2001-2009, Agriculture Consulting Ltd. (Official Ukrainian and Moldavian Distributor of Seminis). Russian & English versions of every page.
Solanaceae: A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family.
USDA ARS GRIN < http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?101312 >.
See also this section on all related pages.
Annadana, "Brinjal: Seed Production" . Tips on saving seeds from an Indian branch of Kokopelli.
FOTOSEARCH - Stock Photography and Stock Footage.
EEC. The 2008 official EEC European seed list for eggplants. This is the hated list at the center of the landmark court case Graines Baumaux vs Kokopelli. I have just learnt that Sweden is actually exempted from adhering to the list because their extremely cold conditions require locally adapted cultivars. Thanks Søren for this piece of information. Unfortunately this list does not tell us which cultivar is open pollinated or hybrid but it is still worth looking at.
Seeds of India. A useful glossary of food ingredients in 7 popular languages from India.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault - Global Crop Diversity Trust - NordGen . You may have heard of it already, if not it is worth exploring the site itself. It is also worth browsing the many positive and negative comments on this project. There are interesting questions posed such as: where is the financial backing coming from? Who exactly has access to the germplasm? Can germplasm stored this way in such "gianormous" quantities be renewed often enough to ensure viability of the seeds? How much information is revealed via the interface with the general public? etc.
College of Agriculture & Life Sciences , Cornell University , Cornell Cooperative Extension , Cornell Garden-Based Learning Institute.
University of California Cooperative Extension, Santa Clara County Master Gardener Program, McClellan Ranch Project. Co-Leaders Magie Klughertz and Tom Jow. Fred Schulenburg provided some excellent photos that may or may not be viewable depending on your browser. We will incorporate them into our files soon with permission. Eggplant trial 2004. Photos: < http://www.mastergardeners.org/projects/mcclellan/2004/eggplant_photos.html >.
Note1: I understand that using the same Botanical-Latin word in both the group name and its matching botanical synonym is discouraged by taxonomists. My view, based on considerable experience in nomenclature, is that the alternative is invariably to use English word(s) instead for the group name, and I do not like it for the following reasons.
One: English may be the most international language of all but it is not the preferred language of all people. It is presently the easiest to use in the electronic medium but with improving technology this is changing very fast indeed.
Two: assuming that English is for ever the adopted standard, with none of Nostradamus forecasting powers, I can safely predict that either most cultivar names will be replaced with numbers, or the number of cultivar names will be multiplied by an inestimable enormous factor. This is because, say for argument sake, that one wanted to call a Japanese or an Indian cultivar by its English equivalent. Which standard of translation / transcription / transliteration is going to be used? any number out of 30 possibilities. A bonanza for the merchants who like to disguise a known entity under various alias. What a travesti of real bio-diversity that would be.
Computer are fantastic machines but I doubt that they could keep a record of all synonymy, leaving aside all the accession numbers from various databases around the world.
Three: Botanical-Latin words have been and are recognized more and more by the general public in any country in any language - this is not by choice but by economic necessity. My view is why change those words again for something that will be as obscure to some people as Botanical-Latin? There may be millions of English readers but there are billions that cannot read English. Which English anyway? American, British, Australian, Indian, Australian? The use of group names is meant to be a simplification of the complicated "subvar." and "convar." of the past so let's keep it as simple and stable as possible.


How long after having s_x (c_ming inside) can you do a HPT?
But can it detect it before you miss your period?
some say they can 4-5 days before missed period, but that's about it. Not even sure how well they work. Should wait until missed period!


text:
Our updated 2019 WordPress wish list
Last November, we published a WordPress wish list for 2019, detailing 5 new features we wanted to see come to the WordPress platform this year. Now that we're just over halfway through 2019, how has our list changed and what else would we love to see WordPress include this year? Let's take a look.
1. Schedule updates to content
Our most-desired feature at the end of last year was to allow users to schedule updates to existing content, much like new posts can be scheduled now. And 8 or so months later, it's still our most desired feature — by far.
As of the time of this publication, WordPress has not incorporated this feature into core or made any indication of a plan to do so. A plugin exists for scheduling content updates, but frankly, it's a clunky solution and a first-party feature release would likely be a much more elegant solution. For now, we'll have to hold out hope that this feature comes along some day.
2. Move site stats from Jetpack to core
A standalone, self-hosted WordPress site offers a lot of extra features that are unavailable on a free WordPress.com blog, but WordPress.com also has several unique features bundled into it that aren't a part of the core of WordPress. As such, the Jetpack plugin offers the ability to add any of these extra features to self-hosted WordPress. It's a great way to ensure self-hosted WordPress sites aren't missing out on extra features, but some of them make so much sense that they should probably be built into WordPress. Site stats is one example. We mentioned last November that we'd love to see site stats moved to WordPress core, and it would still be a handy addition so stats are available to all WordPress sites, not just those using Jetpack. Of course, since Jetpack offers premium upgrades and that makes money for Automattic, it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to do this from a business standpoint, but we can dream.
3. Simplify the process for automatically updating WordPress
As of now, WordPress automatically installs minor core updates, but theme updates, plugin updates, and major core updates must all be installed manually. While websites can be hacked in several different ways and there are several things you can do to help you protect your site from hackers, the majority of the hacked sites we've seen have been because an outdated plugin or theme was hacked. Possibly the most important thing you can do to protect your site is to simply keep it updated. Automatic theme, plugin, and major core updates would help simplify this process dramatically, but the process for enabling these automatic updates is currently complex and requires writing manual code. For people who don't have coding skills, they're either left to someone to do the job or try to remember to keep their site updated manually, neither of which is an optimal option.
Thankfully, this may change in 2019. In Matt Mullenweg's 9 Projects for 2019, he outlines the need for users to be able to opt into automatic theme, plugin, and major core updates. Though this bulleted list is without any detail, one can assume this opt-in could take place through a check box either on the Settings or Updates tab of the WordPress Dashboard. Either way, this much-needed change would be especially helpful for people who don't often make changes to their sites, and therefore don't notice when components need to be updated.
Another similar change potentially coming to WordPress in the future is the ability for plugins and themes to be considered "unmanaged," meaning they're prone to elevated security risks. While not guaranteed to be implemented into WordPress in the future, this idea is being discussed.
4. Better compatibility checking
Sometimes two plugins should not be installed together on the same site because their features overlap. If you have two plugins trying to accomplish the same thing and give them different settings, it can lead to unpredictable results. WordPress should work to include compatibility checking to ensure a desired plugin will not overlap features with another plugin already installed on a website.
5. Merge widgets and blocks
Before WordPress 5.0, widgets functioned similarly to how blocks do now, although in much more limited fashion. Constrained to primarily sidebars and footers except for a few exceptions, the limitations of widgets render them virtually useless when compared to Gutenberg blocks. Therefore, it only makes sense for WordPress to allow blocks and widgets to become one in the same, bringing more power to widgets and allowing blocks to be used in more places on a WordPress site.
Thankfully, Matt Mullenweg has also hinted at such a change in his 9 Projects for 2019, suggesting that widgets will be "ported" to blocks. We don't yet have a specific timeline on this change, but developers are discussing it as a likely addition to WordPress 5.3. Look for it to come to WordPress soon!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In 1942 in the Philippines, things are going badly for U.S. forces in the Pacific. Corregidor is tenuously held by American and Filipino troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. To his fury, President Roosevelt removes him from his post.


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Trump announced Friday that he plans to hold a Make America Great Again rally in Columbia, Missouri next week.
Trump's rally will take place at the Columbia Regional Airport on Thursday, Nov. 1. The rally begins at 6:30 p.m. and doors open at 3:30 p.m.
You can register for tickets at Trump's campaign website .
Trump was in Topeka, Kansas earlier this month for a MAGA rally at the Kansas Expocentre . Thousands attended the event and huge crowds gathered at the airport to see the president arrive.


Branson has plenty of lodging options to choose from. Need a quiet retreat in a condo? We list several. Find the inn, resort, or hotel you need and call it your home away from home! This Ozark's tourist capital is worth a visit.
The Fall Creek Inn & Suites in Branson, MO is the perfect hotel to call your home away from home on your next vacation; the hotel is full of great amenities, a friendly staff, and many features to ensure that you are comfortable during your stay.


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Win Your Very Own Private Comedy Hypnosis Show!
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First the Caribbean, then Las Vegas and now, he could be performing in your living room!
All you need to do is to come up with a few words that say why you should win…and the location or occasion that you you would like the private show for and you could be in with a chance of winning this once-in-a-lifetime prize!
After wowing crowds with Viva Hypnosis at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Simon Warner is here at the Liverpool Comedy Festival with the UK's first and (currently the world's!) only full-production, interactive comedy hypnosis show!
Described by The British Comedy Guide as "redefining comedy hypnotism", Viva Hypnosis is returning to Liverpool for the 3rd time in less than 12 months – due to popular demand!
And tell us why YOU should win!
Don't forget to tell us where you would like your show and for what occasion!
The competition closes at midday on Saturday 24th September and the winner will be announced live at the show on Saturday 24th September at the Epstein Theatre as part of Liverpool Comedy Festival.
PreviousViva Hypnosis Gives Edinburgh Festival Fringe Audiences The Trance Of A Lifetime To Win A Trip To Fabulous Las Vegas!
NextDumfries Woman Wins All Expenses Paid Trip for Two to Las Vegas, All Thanks To Attending 'Viva Hypnosis' At The Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The Scores Are In! Viva Hypnosis scores a massive 8.5/10 = Excellent Review on Writebase!
HYPNOFLASH! Viva Hypnosis Gives Edinburgh Festival Fringe Audiences The Trance Of A Lifetime To Be The Stars Of The Show!


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Hamas says it won't accept Israel dragging feet on lifting Gaza blockade
Senior official Khalil al-Hayya also defends participation of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the funeral of slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani
By Adam Rasgon	16 January 2020, 8:49 pm 3 Edit
Adam Rasgon is the Palestinian affairs reporter at The Times of Israel
Hamas senior political leader Khalil al-Hayya during a press conference at the end of two days of closed-door talks attended by representatives of 13 leading political parties held in the Egyptian capital Cairo on November 22, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED)
A senior official in Hamas is warning that the terror group will not abide Israel continuing to restrict the movement of people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip in 2020.
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's deputy chief in Gaza, made the comment in an interview with the terror group's official website that was published Thursday.
"Hamas will not accept 2020 being like the previous year," he said. "It will not accept the occupation evading and being indecisive about breaking the siege."
Israel has maintained many limitations on the movement of people and goods into and out of the territory, since shortly after Hamas took over Gaza in 2007.
Israeli officials have argued that the restrictions seek to prevent Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza from smuggling weapons or the means to build them into the coastal enclave.
For more than the past 14 months, however, Egypt and other international parties have brokered various informal ceasefire understandings between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli trucks carrying diesel fuel enter the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, October 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
The understandings have largely entailed Israel lifting restrictions on the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza, in exchange for Hamas maintaining relative quiet in the border region between the coastal enclave and the Jewish state.
Hamas has frequently accused Israel of trying to avoid implementing the understandings, and Israeli officials have often been loath to even publicly acknowledge their existence.
The publication of Hayya's comment on Thursday came after four projectiles were fired into southern Israel on Wednesday, breaking weeks of calm. The Israel Defense Forces responded by striking what it described as a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in Gaza as well as a military compound there.
Wednesday and Thursday have also seen suspected balloon-borne explosive devices land in southern Israel.
Hayya also defended the participation of a Hamas delegation including its chief Ismail Haniyeh in the funeral of slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike at the beginning of January.
"He extended support to us, he was a man who loved Palestine, he believed in the necessity of liberating it from the occupation and he was a supporter of the Palestinian resistance and people," he said.
"Therefore, when the American administration assassinated him and then announced that — Israel also previously tried to assassinate him– it was a matter of loyalty [for us] to participate in his funeral, visit his family and recall him in a positive way," he added.
Haniyeh and a number of Hamas officials attended a funeral procession on January 6 for Soleimani, who was the head of the elite Quds Force, the body in Iran's Revolutionary Guard responsible for Tehran's military campaigns and expeditions abroad.
The Hamas chief also delivered a speech at the funeral in which he called the Iranian general "the martyr of Jerusalem."
The Arabic-language Dar al-Hayat news site reported on January 7 that Egypt was displeased with Haniyeh over his participation in the funeral, citing "trusted Egyptian sources."
Haniyeh, whose home is in the Gaza Strip, had been permitted by Egyptian authorities to travel beyond the coastal enclave and Egypt for the first since he was elected to the top post in Hamas in 2017 on the condition that he not visit Iran, the Egyptian sources told Dar al-Hayat.
Hayya also indicated that Hamas's ties with Saudi Arabia were weak and seemed to suggest that Riyadh was asking the terror group to cut its ties with Iran.
In this photo, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh speaks at the funeral of Qassem Soleimani, in Tehran, Iran, January 6, 2020. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader)
"Today, there… perhaps is a rupture of relations that the brothers of Saudi Arabia have imposed," he said.
"We do not accept anyone forcing us to establish relations with this state and boycott this other state. Hamas does not accept that as the people throughout history have not done so," he added.
Hamas announced in a statement in September that Saudi Arabia had arrested 81-year-old Mohammed al-Khoudari, a Palestinian man who used to manage its relations with Riyadh.
The statement also said Saudi authorities nabbed Khoudari's son, Hani, along with other Palestinians based in the Gulf kingdom.
It did not clarify whether Hani or the other Palestinians it said were arrested belong to its ranks.
ceasefires
Khalil al-Hayya


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What is Indigenous spirituality?
November 24, 2022 Culture, Indigenous Science, Relationshipsanimism, attachment, ceremony, culture, earth, identity, indigenous, land, relationships, spiritualValerie Ringland
A friend brought this question to me, and I thought it a good one to take on. For some, being 'spiritual' is like the U.S. Supreme Court decision about porn – 'I know it when I see it'. For some it's intertwined with religious rites. For me, spirit is an animating energy exhibited through an act or a relational dynamic that connects all of us beings on Earth. For example, the spirit of my relationship with my daughter is characterised by a lot of joy, and the spirit of my relationship with my dog is primarily one of companionship. Spirituality is cultural, and mine is Indigenous, based on an animistic understanding of the world. I see all beings on Earth, including rocks and even manmade plastic toys, as having spirit, some kind of animating energy.
(Typical image of 'spirituality' from here)
Spirit with a capital S to me refers to a big creative and destructive energy that is more than any identity I can hold, of which I am a small part. Some say Great Spirit, some say God. Spirits plural to me refers to beings that I see in dreams or visions, or experience through the four invisible clair-senses (clairvoyance – seeing, clairsentience – feeling, clairaudience – hearing, claircognisance – knowing – described by Diné Elder Wally Brown as the counterparts to our five physical senses represented by our five fingers and the four spaces between them.)
So if this is what spiritual, Spirit, and spirits mean to me, what does it mean to 'be spiritual'? First, it means acknowledging some energies/forces/beings that are too vast to be encompassed by an individual, or even our collective, human identity. Second, it means openness and awareness of the invisible clair-senses, and to experiences that are not explainable, or sometimes even experienceable, in materialist, physical terms.
My view is that children naturally see the world in an animistic way, and that through teachings begin to close their mind (and obscure their clair-senses) to other inputs. Recently a four year old asked me to read her a story about werewolves, then asked me if they were real. I said, I don't know, what do you think? Have you seen one before? But her mother quickly jumped in to say that no, they're not real. Of course she is entitled to teach her daughter that and presumably she believes that to be true. I have not personally encountered a werewolf in my dreams or visions (or the material world) but I tend to think that if such beings loom large in our collective human psyche, and even across cultures, that there is likely something to it.
How do we know the difference between a spiritual experience and our imagination? I have seen a lot of people struggle with this – with their minds tricking them into thinking they have encountered a Spirit, for example. For me the difference is in embodiment. And when in doubt, see if and how changes occur in your everyday life as a result of the insight or guidance you got. (Image from here)
That spiritual experiences are grounded in the land and embodied in everyday life is a foundation of Indigenous spirituality. In an Indigenous worldview, an identity is commonly seen as a collection of relational dynamics, including relationships with humans and non-humans. This interdependence is often honoured through totemic relationships and responsibilities to do rituals and ceremonies. If I see my identity and my very existence as tied to the water in a river nearby and the fish in it, then it makes sense to fight for their survival and even put my own life on the line. See this recent example from California regarding the centrality of salmon to Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley tribes.
This may seem extreme to Westerners, even environmentalists willing to put their lives on the line for Mother Earth, because it's not just about how humans need water or fish to survive, it's the particular patch of earth (or sea or sky) and relational responsibilities there that matter to your very existence. If those fish die, you die; there is no supermarket to run to for other food. If you have to leave your land, you may get killed by others when you go onto their lands, or you may die not knowing how to survive there and live in a sustainable healthy way there.
(Art by Cheryl Davison, Yuin woman, of the pregnant mother spirit of Gulaga mountain, protector of the land we are now grateful to call home, from this site)
(A photo of me in front of Gulaga taken a few years ago by Lukas before we knew we would be moving onto her country)
Western counsellors talk a lot about attachment theory. Right now when my baby cries (or is about to cry) I feel such pain inside, and such an urge to help her, I have to respond. Imagine feeling pain like that when a sacred site you're responsible for is threatened with mining, and the urge to prevent it. Imagine the pain when it's blown up and doesn't exist in physical form anymore, just spirit and memory. Maybe you don't need to imagine that – maybe you have tapped into that well of pain most of us are carrying in our ancestral roots. Maybe on your traditional lands, or like me, on lands you are spiritually adopting and feel are adopting you and your family too.
Warriorship
January 27, 2022 Decolonising, Indigenous Science, Spiritual Skillsancestral healing, culture, decolonising, exercise, healing, identity, philosophy, relationships, warriorValerie Ringland
Blog by Lukas
Are the most prescient ideas and images that come to mind when you think of the word "warrior" all about physical strength, toughness, and violent conflict? I doubt you're alone. To borrow a trick from Valerie, if you online image search the word "warrior" the first things that come up are virtually all men and related to physical violence, specifically some new television show that evidently involves a lot of arse kicking. The story is similar if you try "female warrior".
The technical definition of a warrior in the English language supports this narrow view, being rooted in a French word guerroieor meaning "one who wages war". Most definitions of warrior relate to waging armed conflict, specifically those who have some kind of specialised role in doing so. (Image from here)
The etymology of the word "war", however, is much more interesting, seemingly originating with broader concepts that include difficulty, dispute, and hostility. According to etymonline.com, if you follow the known Proto-Germanic cognates as far back as they go, you arrive at a word that means "to bring into confusion".
This is fascinating to me on a number of levels. Not least of all because virtually all first-person accounts of war I have read describe some manner of confusion and chaos to a degree that was unexpected to the writer. My flailing fist fights over the years confirm this; and as "Iron" Mike Tyson said:
So if war is to some degree about confusion and chaos, perhaps the true warrior is someone who uses their power to bring these things back into a calmer balance? This then is about a warrior responding to and resolving conflict rather than instigating it, even if it is they who strike first. Without doubt there is a rightful place for violence in this, but also many other elements. Sticking to the realm of the physical, another version of the warrior could be a woman in labour finding her strength and power and calmly birthing just when things were at their most chaotic and the pain most intense. (Image from here)
But if we are to use this warrior concept to its fullest extent, literally and metaphorically, perhaps the most important thing is to apply it across the medicine wheel. So this gives us emotional, spiritual, and mental warriors; any and all ways in which a being can use their strength and power to bring conflict and disorder back into balance.
Note that this bigger version of warriorship does NOT just mean these other aspects of warriorship being in service of physical violence, such as mental energy being devoted to better weapons technology, or emotional quieting and centring that improves fighting ability. It means recognising their deep value to our being in and of themselves and together in balance.
This topic came to me when thinking about men and masculinity in the context of healing and reconciliation between Anglo-Celtic Australians and Aboriginal Australians. If we restrict our thinking about and valuing of warriorship to literal, physical combat, this makes such healing hard, such was the intense lopsidedness of the physical contest.
I don't think it is controversial to say that in the world of Aboriginal Australians, weapons and warfare were just one part of what made men and warriors in those cultures whole and powerful. The weapons they had been using for millennia more than did the job they were needed for. Europeans, on the other hand, were by 1788 riding a wave of centuries of escalating prowess in using violence, supercharged by technology and in service of greed. Warriorship caused more conflict and trauma than it resolved.
With this fuller version of warriorship comes some understanding of what I as an Anglo-Celtic colonist lack, and what I need for healing. I don't yet value my heart and spiritual warriorship enough.
On both the oppressor/colonist side, and the survivor/colonised side of this ledger is ample reason to grow through helping each other to see warriorship more fully. When we do this we'll need no self-shaming to see the deep value of the balanced warriorship of Aboriginal masculine culture. We colonists can learn what being a whole mature warrior means, and Aboriginal men can learn to value who they are more fully. Then we can do ceremony to bring the conflict and disorder back into balance. (Image from here)
Exercise: Taking a strengths-based stance, think about how your sacred masculine (regardless of your gender) displays warriorship across the Medicine Wheel.
Exercise for Australians: If you are doing an Acknowledgement of Country (especially when there are only men present), try acknowledging the Aboriginal warriors as well as Elders.
January 5, 2022 Healing, Indigenous Science, Relationships, Spiritual Skillsancestral healing, cosmology, culture, exercise, healing, identity, indigenous, soul loss, trauma healingValerie Ringland
Blog by Valerie Cloud Clearer
As some of you know, I have been writing a book (or it's being written through/with me may be more accurate language ), so I have felt less inclined to blog. Today I thought I'd adapt a chapter from the book into a blog, since I haven't written directly about the Indigenous science of trauma in blog form before. It was my PhD topic (and much of my lived experience), so it has taken many years to be able to succinctly express some of the ideas. I hope it resonates with you.
Trauma's meaning, causes and methods of healing differ by culture and cosmology. In Western science, trauma is typically defined as profound wounding that damages a person's ability to trust in life and self, resulting in existential crises[1]. Trauma is encoded in brain pathways rooted in fear/terror and disgust/ aversion. Feeling fear is intended to protect us from life-threatening danger, so our nervous systems rev up and prepare for crisis. Trauma causes our nervous systems to activate stress hormones when danger isn't present, creating flashbacks, emotional volatility, strained relationships, re-traumatising experiences, and severe stress[2]. Primary trauma occurs for a person who directly experienced it, and secondary trauma for family and friends. There's also intergenerational trauma. A typical Western healing approach is individual counselling, with some alternative approaches including other family members, or integrating art therapy, body work, or EMDR[3]. The underlying idea is that by surviving trauma, we can become more resilient individuals.
In Indigenous science, all disease including trauma is indicative of "disruption in the natural order of humans' interactions with the spirit world," such as failure to honour the spiritual realm, failure to honour one's ancestors, neglecting cultural rituals or religious ceremonies, or losing faith in the Creator[4]. Where Western scientists seek cures of diseases and treatments for trauma, Indigenous scientists view trauma and diseases as potential gifts of healing that can offer important insights about how to live well and bring new wise leadership into a community. Where Western science views a personality or ego as the centre of an individual being, an Indigenous medicine person or 'shaman' views a person's eternal spirit as the centre of being. That is why the heart is at the centre of a medicine wheel, to remind us that we are connected to ourselves, each other, and all of Creation.
In Indigenous science, to try to make trauma 'go away' through suppression, denial, or taking drugs (legal or illegal) is denying an important spiritual initiation needed by an individual and their community[5]. Experiencing and healing trauma includes all our relations, human and non-human. Through my Ph.D. studies on Indigenous scientific approaches to healing trauma (which included Indigenous healing ceremonies and apprenticeships as well as Western scientific research), I found four underlying causes of trauma in Indigenous science:
Disconnection from the Earth;
Unhealed ancestral trauma;
Soul loss; and
Shaman's illness.
Reconnecting to the Earth, healing ancestral trauma, and Shaman's illness have been covered in previous blogs, so let's discuss soul loss. In Indigenous science, traumatic experiences propel us into terror and dissociation, creating "soul loss," meaning that we are no longer fully present in ordinary reality because parts of our spirit have split off, fled, or gotten lost. "Soul" is understood to mean 'consciousness'.[6] To live with soul loss means we are not consciously whole in the moment, that parts of us are frozen in an unresolved past, causing us to lose energy and feel disorientated, weak, anxious and depressed, and to exhibit signs of mental and emotional illness. We may have internalised punishment or protectively hidden parts of ourselves that were unsafe to express, or internalised poisonous emotions like anger, bitterness, envy, fear, greed, hate, intolerance, pride, rage, resentment and vanity that need to be released [7].
Our task as healers is to allow alchemy to occur so that sh*t we are carrying in our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits can instead turn into fertiliser for ourselves and others. By consciously choosing to move into terror and aversion/disgust when we are in a safe space, we can reconnect with lost soul parts. In doing so, we gain knowledge that expands our individual and collective understanding of ourselves and our world. This is seen as the sacred calling underlying a 'shaman's illness'. Trauma is seen as a spiritual offering of a huge amount of energy that can redirect us into a new identity like a phoenix rising out of ashes. Indigenous healers are called 'medicine people' or 'shamans' because through healing trauma we embody medicine by living in a wiser way and offering support to others who are struggling through similar wounds.
We heal by consciously going into our traumatic states in a safe space. We are born being able to express few sounds, and similarly much of the traumatic energy of re-birthing ourselves is preverbal. Indigenous traumatic healing requires us to access profound, primal energies, to re-member ourselves by moving through layers of pain, being with and expressing chaotic, violent, pre-conscious and unconscious energies through visions, bodily sensations and movements, and dream-like states of consciousness outside of a Western cosmology.[8] Trauma gives us the ability to enter into altered states of consciousness, and by transforming that gift from sh*tty triggered experiences of traumatic dissociation into a skilful powerful method of connecting with the ethereal, spiritual, sub- and un-conscious realms, we gain access to profound wisdom and aspects of life that others do not experience.
Exercise: Reflect on a traumatic experience you have had. How did it change your understanding of yourself? Your place in the world? Of life itself? See if you can reflect on a deeper level of consciousness through relaxing into a drum journey.
[1] See e.g. Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York, NY: Basic Books.
[2] See e.g. Kirmayer, L., Lemelson, R., & Barad, M. (Eds.). (2007). Understanding trauma: Integrating biological, clinical, and cultural perspectives, pp. 118-141. Cambridge University Press.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing
[4] Monteiro, N. & Wall, D. (2011). African dance as healing modality throughout the diaspora: the use of ritual and movement to work through trauma. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(6), 234-52.
[5] See e.g. Kopacz, D. & Rael, J. (2016). Walking the medicine wheel: Healing PTSD. Tulsa, OK: Millchap Books.
[6] See e.g. Cervantes, J. & McNeill, B. (Eds.) Latina/o healing practices: Mestizo and indigenous perspectives, pp. 139-174. New York, NY: Routledge.
[7] Nuñez, S. (2008). Brazil's ultimate healing resource: The power of spirit. In Cervantes, J. & McNeill, B. (Eds.) Latina/o healing practices: Mestizo and indigenous perspectives, pp. 139-174. New York, NY: Routledge.
[8] See e.g. Culbertson, R. (1995). Embodied memory, transcendence, and telling: Recounting trauma, re-establishing the self. New Literary History, 26(1), 169-195.
November 22, 2021 Culture, Decolonising, Indigenous Scienceancestral healing, culture, exercise, healing, identity, Indigenous Science, politics, relationships, traumaValerie Ringland
At the heart of the Earth Ethos Indigenous Science Dialogues earlier this year was the issue of identity politics. The dialogue of that name was with my friend Shannon Field, a Walbunja woman of the Yuin nation, a traditional owner of the land where Lukas and I currently live, the land his first settler ancestor claimed for himself through the crown of England and in whose name the Australian government is still run today.
With identity politics at the centre, all dialogues touched on that issue. Anglo-Celtic Australian man Lukas Ringland spoke for the PHYSICAL, sharing his experiences of settler trauma, including the pain of being part of a corrupt social majority. On the Crown's genocidal survival strategy for ex-convicts, he explained: "The more wild the land was, the more likely it was to be given to an ex-convict, like, 'you go to war against the Indigenous people.' So you had this battle for life being fought between newly freed convicts and Indigenous people, and then closer to the centre of the colony you had the higher-ups who didn't have to participate in that." (Image from here)
Filipino Australian Ellis Bien Ilas spoke for the SPIRITUAL about the trauma of leaving the Philippines for Australia as a child, and his subsequent complex journey of ancestral healing: "I was literally shaken by an event on July 2, 2015…in the ER with an undiagnosed cardiac condition…I was having symptoms medical professionals can't explain, and…it was looking back…[realising the date of my event] was my grandfather's death anniversary, and I [] carry his name…That event was a huge catalyst for my spiritual awakening which occurred here in Sydney, Australia."
Jewish Pakeha (non-Maori New Zealander) woman Sara Hudson spoke for the MENTAL about the close-mindedness in Aboriginal governmental policy: "When [the government] could verify [some Indigenous knowledge], they were like 'Ooh! Okay, maybe there is something to this, because it matched what we found 'scientifically,' so therefore maybe we will listen now to these Indigenous knowledge-holders around water.' This is the crazy stuff – 'I only listen to you once we have it verified by our Western scientific methods.'" (Image from the ABC, link unknown)
Shona (Zimbabwean) Australian woman Dr. Virginia Mapedzahama spoke for the EMOTIONAL, about her experiences navigating whiteness trauma as an African migrant, the absurdity of Australia's racial labels (Anglo-Celtic, Indigenous, and CALD – culturally and linguistically diverse), and how invisible she feels because "we have never dealt with the race issue with our Indigenous Australians…[but] the WHOLE THING is based on a system of whiteness…[and] we're not looking at ourselves and the system that led us to do these things…[and now the definition of CALD is] so broad that the only people not captured by that category are Indigenous Australians!"
At the HEART centre, Walbunja Australian woman Shannon Field spoke about "cultural mining", how "non-Aboriginal people mine our knowledge, mine our experiences in order to form up views, opinions, politics, positions…but in doing so, not providing us with a legitimate and/or authentic opportunity to have influence on what those outcomes actually are….So basically taking the authority and control of our knowledge into White hands." She also explained, "For me, what identity politics is, that isn't always a comfortable topic…as an Aboriginal person with fairer skin…I don't know if it is called a colour privilege, but certainly there are some biases that are applied in terms of palatability of lived experience for White people taking on a Blak story or Blak history…that fits a narrative of what White people want to see….That's something as I've gotten older I've become more aware of…[And] while I feel like I personally have had a fairly benign experience as an Aboriginal person, your life as an Aboriginal person is not unpoliticised…your mere existence [is under constant political scrutiny and attack]."
This "mere existence" of Aboriginal people as humans worthy of dignity collapses the entire 'legal' foundation of the Australian nation. The High Court overturned terra nullius and declared that the Australian lands were inhabited at colonisation, but no treaties have been signed, and the Native Title system designed to return Crown land to Aboriginal control (which often takes decades to do so) is fatally flawed. My heart bled last week when I read these words from Gamilaroi-Irish woman Aimee Mehan: "[O]ur Native Title Act does not give Indigenous Australians the right to refuse development on our ancestral lands…imagine that you are told about the impending trauma to a relative [your land/home]. Now you, together with your extended family, must 'negotiate' [the] event. You cannot prevent [it]…you must not only endure the trauma…you must sit month after month at the table to negotiate the future occurrence of it with a tribunal. [Then] imagine watching your close relative's perpetrator being promoted by the Australian government on the world stage in Glasgow." Gamiliroi Man Wollumbi Waters added: "All of which triggers the trauma and pain we carry as Aboriginal people, the true caretakers of our sacred lands. We walk with our ancestors every day, as the earth is our body and the water is our blood, and the trees and rocks our brothers and sisters, and this is what we hold on to." Aimee describes this trauma as part of the #metoo movement from an Indigenous science perspective, with non-consensual boundary-breaking rapes and related actions that violate the vitality of the Sacred Mother, the land. (Image source)
When I hear transhumanists like Jeff Bezos talk about 'using up' the resources of Mother Earth (i.e. destroying our home and source of life) necessitating the colonising of Mars, I cannot understand how we continue to give that insane and destructive a person so much power and control over so many resources. I pray for transformation of our rotting, greedy and destructive collective psychosis towards fulfilling the wisdom of Sioux scholar Vine Deloria Jr. instead: "The future of humankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things. Who will listen to the trees, the animals and birds, the voices of the places of the land? As the long forgotten peoples of the respective continents rise and begin to reclaim their ancient heritage, they will discover the meaning of the lands of their ancestors" (Quote source, Image source).
Exercise: Reflect on your own lived experience of Identity politics. You may want to listen to the Indigenous Science Dialogues and share to inspire rich, healing conversations with loved ones.
Estrangement
October 20, 2021 Healing, Relationshipsculture, estrangement, family, healing, identity, relationshipsValerie Ringland
Estrangement is something we rarely talk about, and to be out of active relationship with one's family of origin feels very stigmatised and taboo. Even after many years of accepting this reality for myself, I still feel vulnerable to social judgment and shaming about it. It's a common and innocent question to ask someone about their family, and it's often easier for me to say a little about them and not mention I'm estranged if I don't know the person well. But it hurts, and it contributes to feeling the absence of my family constantly, which is especially hard during holidays and important life events.
It may help if I share a bit about my experience. When I came out to my family as an adult about being sexually abused by an uncle, that entire side of my family rallied around him. Some stopped speaking to me, others sent me nasty messages saying that I must be mentally ill, one tried to act like I hadn't said anything then lost touch when I wasn't willing to be invisibled anymore, and after five years of silence one wrote me to say the family had treated me unfairly, then didn't respond to my reply and request for a relationship. The other side of my family was already very fractured before I came out about the abuse. A couple tried to pretend nothing had happened, one told me they'd be there for me on my healing journey but instead distanced themselves and one eventually admitted that it was too painful to be in relationship with me and ended it. Another blamed someone outside the family for abusing me, and when I wasn't having that, started denying that I had been abused, lying to me and behaving increasingly hostile and aggressively, causing me to end things. That was the only relationship I ended myself, and even though it was an abusive lost cause, it still felt devastating and wrong to walk away from the last remaining family member in my life. (Image from here)
I was raised to hold family sacred, and so processing the initial childhood betrayals, followed by the adult estrangements, has been incredibly painful. It felt like a sudden orphaning that was out of my control, a genocidal loss of everyone I deeply knew, had learned to rely on and share my life with. I am still in touch with one friend from childhood, one from middle school, and my nanny's daughter who knew me as a baby. Though I am not close with them, it feels quite precious to me that they are still in my life and knew me when I was young. My husband and a few friends have walked with me through my estrangement and have met some of my family members, but hearing stories and seeing photos isn't the same as having witnessed me as a child in the context of my family and seeing how far I've come as an adult.
In every culture there are structures of kinship linking us with an extended family, and in Indigenous cultures, our kinship networks include humans and non-humans. Western kinship networks were severely weakened after the fall of the Roman empire when the Catholic Church greedily: (1) expanded the definition of incest marriage prohibitions to include even your sixth cousins (!), (2) criminalised polygamy, and (3) discouraged remarriage and adoption – all of which resulted in redirecting property and inheritance away from families and into the Church's coffers. This devolution of kinship and focus on the nuclear family arguably created the foundation for individualism, civil society, and democracy (reference). European languages changed as well, so that separate terms for paternal and maternal relatives disappeared, as did different ways of referring to blood relatives, in-laws, and 'spiritual kinship' created by baptisms and sacraments (e.g. godparents) (reference). My understanding is that Indigenous pagan Germanic cultures like the Frisians encouraged cousin marriages, which wove families together within a tribe – a group of people connected by kinship through marriage and interbreeding (reference). It is also my understanding that a man's brother was meant to be a second father to a man's daughter in pagan Germanic cultures, and so on a spiritual level, that man abusing me feels even more devastating. In most cultures there is a sacred reciprocity within the cycle of a parent raising a child, and then a child supporting a parent in their old age. I feel I have been denied this experience, and I feel a loss and grief about it, which I put into spiritually supporting my family in a way that feels okay to me. (Image from here)
It is a big deal to estrange, and I have counselled people who have told me they were considering it that it's like the guy who got stuck in a crevice while rock-climbing and had to saw off his arm to survive – it's drastic and changes your life forever, and sometimes just has to be done. There's little accurate Western scientific research about estrangement, with studies in the US citing 10-40% of people having experienced it. Estrangement has certainly given me a lot of resilience, space, strength, independence, fierce boundaries and some humility. In terms of humility, I have a limited threshold for projections of family expectations and game-playing, which has resulted in separating myself from my husband's family. I don't expect people who know and care about me much less than my own family to dig as deeply into themselves and reflect on their behaviours as I need in order for them to be 'family' to me.
As with any loss, my experience of estrangement has created opportunities for a lot of self-knowledge and spiritual growth. It has given me the time and desire to do gift economy work supporting people's healing, as well as community-building, knowledge-sharing, and our other humble activities through Earth Ethos. If I had family obligations and relationships taking up my time and energy, I would not be able to serve in this way. So you can thank my family for estranging from me, as it has gifted these insights to you today. And if you know anyone who is estranged, don't assume that their situation can, will, or should change.
June 26, 2021 Healing, Valuesancestral healing, culture, identity, narcissism, trustValerie Ringland
In social environments, it seems to feel proportionally less safe to be oneself the farther we identify from collective norms and ideals. There is a concept in mathematics called 'regression to the mean'. It is basically the idea that when you put some ice into a glass of water, the ice will tend to melt and take the form of the water; in essence, it is about assimilating into a collective norm. Yet assimilation is a dirty word for many people, because we want to celebrate our uniqueness as well as being part of a peoples. (Image from here)
Feeling safe to celebrate our difference depends on culture and context. These social wounds keep us trapped and unable to trust ourselves, each other, non-humans, and Spirit/God/oneness. Our capacities to heal and seek retribution are also based on cultural values and intergenerational traumas. Cultures that are more welcoming of outsiders seem to encourage healing and embracing collective wounds for transformation, whereas cultures that are more exclusionary seem to 'other' people and tend towards separation and seeking retribution. Fear of retribution can keep us trapped and unable to trust. It is as if there is a collective trauma belief that says, 'if we let them in, they will hurt us.' In my experience with Judaism, and what I am learning are my deeper Sumerian cultural roots, there seems to be a collective belief that 'we can't trust anybody.' My own grandmother told me that as a child, and I asked her incredulously if I couldn't even trust her. She didn't answer, just stared at me in silence. Living in this social environment, I never felt safe. In fact, I felt terrified to even take up space. One wrong move could find me terribly punished, kicked out of the group, or worse, judged irredeemable by God. Despite constantly striving to be 'a good person', it never felt like what I did was good enough. I got used to feeling terrified that threats of judgment, punishment and retribution were always imminent. I worked hard to learn the rules I might break and the triggers I might set off that would result in my being punished. But I wasn't in control. My brother had a habit of breaking rules and refusing to admit it, so we would both be punished. This was scary, too, because I didn't know when the punishment would happen, or how intense it would. It felt safer at times to intensely control and punish myself so that I maintained a sense of autonomy. It also seemed safest to play the part of Narcissus's lover Echo, to hide my own voice rather than put myself into danger, because I depended on dangerous people and their approval for my survival. It wasn't safe to be different, much less to celebrate it. (Image: Echo & Narcissus by painter John William Waterhouse)
For most of my life I felt terrified to take up space. I felt like no space was 'mine' existentially or practically. For example, growing up, I wasn't allowed to lock my bedroom door. I used to get dressed in my walk-in closet so I had some privacy and warning if my mother was coming into my bedroom. It took many years into adulthood – and practically ending many formational familial relationships that were untrustworthy just as my grandmother had told me – for me to become trustworthy to myself, be authentic and celebrate my difference, and surround myself with trustworthy and authentic people. By trustworthy, I mean people who say what they mean and do what they say, and when they can't follow through on something, own it, apologise, forgive themselves, and make amends if needed. By authentic, I mean people who know their core values and practice embodying them in everyday life.
It is still unsafe for me in many spaces where my values conflict with the collective. But I don't feel a need to constantly strive towards some central ideal, nor do I feel like it's me against the world at war. I feel peace in myself for accepting who I am and doing my best to navigate the collective morass, and for cultivating spaces where I, and others, are free to be. In this way, I can embody the knowing that we are enough. (Or 'good enough', whatever that means.) (Image from here)
Indigenous Science Dialogues
April 27, 2021 Decolonising, Indigenous Science, Relationshipsancestral healing, culture, Earth Ethos, event, healing, identity, Indigenous Science, knowledge, traumaValerie Ringland
Update: All dialogues are now available online on the Earth Ethos YouTube Channel.
You are invited to join Earth Ethos in honouring each element of the medicine wheel (earth/physical, air/mental, fire/spiritual, water/emotional) and the heart centre through five dialogues between Indigenous scientists this May.
All dialogues will be facilitated by Dr Valerie Cloud Clearer Ringland, an East Frisian (Indigenous to northern Germany) and Jewish-American woman living of Yuin country with lived experience and a PhD in Indigenous trauma healing.
May 3, Fire/Spiritual: Ancestral Healing with Ellis Bien Ilas, a Filipino-Australian ancestral healer living of Eora country.
May 5, Earth/Physical: Settler Trauma with Lukas Ringland, an Anglo-Celtic Australian (and Valerie's life partner) healing and living of Yuin country.
May 7, Air/Mental: Weaving Knowledges with Sara Hudson, a Jewish-Pākehā woman living of Darug country using Indigenous and Western knowledges in evaluation and academic work.
May 11, Heart/Cultural: Identity Politics with Shannon Field, a Yuin woman living on country and working in Aboriginal policy.
May 13, Water/Emotional: Confronting Whiteness with Dr Virginia Mapedzahama, a Shona (Indigenous to Zimbabwe) with African Women Australia Inc. living of Wangal land.
Sign up at the Eventbrite page to get the Zoom link or use the Earth Ethos Calendar to click on the Zoom link to participate. All dialogues will be available next day on the Earth Ethos Facebook page.
Please pass on information about this dialogue series with others who may be interested!
Stories, beliefs & their shadows
August 7, 2020 Healing, Spiritual Skillsbelief, healing, identity, knowledge, myth, philosophy, power, relationships, shadow, storyValerie Ringland
"The story owns the storyteller."–Traditional wisdom shared by the Nhunggabarra people (western NSW, Australia)
Like all biased humans, I am predisposed to see certain things whether they are strongly there or not. For example, I was raised with a deep belief that 'people are good' which came into conflict with evil/inhumane, abusive/betraying and neglectful/denial behaviours I experienced from adults around me. I turned 'seeing the good' into an art form of magnification of certain elements of someone's character and minimisation of others so my life could fit that story, because the story was so foundational to my sense of self, safety, path in life, etc. A related one was 'Family is always there for each other', referring to family by blood or marriage, and it too proved very destructive for me.
In general, stories grounded in absolutes are dangerous. They can create self-hating fanatics like me who feel worthless and resentful and get abused and mistreated again and again because I was convinced that the 'good' was there if only I worked harder to see it and it was my family so I couldn't leave anyway. What a trick to intertwine my existence with stories keeping me stuck in situations trying to teach me the shadow of the story and show me that it wasn't true. And what a trick it would've been to convince myself of the opposite in reaction – that people are untrustworthy and you can't have faith in anything good ever happening. Thankfully I didn't oscillate into a cynicism trap, but many of us do. (Image from here.)
What I find to be New Age trickery is the idea that if a character trait isn't present you can just 'see it anyway' and manifest it, and what I find to be Western scientific/atheistic trickery is the idea that if it isn't there it never will be and you better accept that and take a pill to replace it or become dependent on some kind of therapy for the rest of your life. For example, I was told by Western doctors that I would need to be on thyroid hormone all my life (I was on a swine substitute for 3 years) and that I'd never be able to eat gluten again (I was off it 15 years until I woke up one day knowing my body had healed). But my mother, brother, aunt, cousin, grandmother, etc. have all been taking thyroid replacement hormone for many years. Of course we are each unique, but a belief that we need a pill can prevent something from healing that might shift our need for the medicine. It's important to discern when we are and aren't helpless, and in my opinion it's rarely wise to believe in Western medicine, though using its tools may be a wise option. (Image from here.)
Maybe you know of Louise Hay's famous book You Can Heal Your Life. Her diagnosis for stomach pain, which I used to have a lot of in my life, is: Holds nourishment. Digests ideas. Dread. Fear of the new. Inability to assimilate the new. I definitely got some value in approaching underlying beliefs that were creating psychological, spiritual and emotional blocks connected with my stomach; the metaphor of digesting ideas and feeling nourished resonated with me at a time I was deep in pain and seeking non-physical empowering approaches to healing. However, I also used her positive psychology 'self-love' approach to try to brainwash myself into believing I could manifest my own safety when I actually was in a lot of physical danger. I remember driving around repeating the phrases she suggested in her book for hours, how much work it was to keep up the story and its resulting facade of safety, and how the facade ultimately cracked and I really crashed. (Image below from wikipedia page on belief).
When such stories have owned me, I've often suffered accordingly. But that isn't to say that we should give up our beliefs. Beliefs can be incredibly enriching, create cultures and communities, and bring deep meaning into our lives. I think we need self-awareness of our beliefs to help us carry wise ones and to let go of those based in trauma and denial/lies. Today I listened to a story of a woman who felt deep shame about her grandfather's actions during WWII which no one in her family would discuss. She went to Germany and read archives to learn he had been an S.S. officer and what he had done. She made a list of people he'd hurt and went into the Polish countryside to visit some of the places and people, and said:
A turning point in the work arrived when one of my grandfather's victims, a ten-year-old child back then, looked me in the eye and told me that it wasn't my fault, I hadn't done anything. In that moment, the door of my room of shame opened a crack to let in a slim ray of light that showed me the way out…Survivors have sometimes told me about the enduring shame that comes from continuing to live when close family perished in the Nazi death machine. In turn, their descendants relate the impact of silence generated by the previous generation's feeling of shame.
She said confronting the shame of her grandfather's past and her families' denial of wrongdoing has transformed her into carrying the past with honour and compassion as a responsibility instead of with shame and guilt as a burden. She also said it helped her heal an eating disorder. This woman's experience aligns well with my own. What she didn't say was that it probably also helped her eating disorder to heal by eating foods that felt better in her body or something else more physical and pragmatic as well.
When we consider our beliefs and how they create biases, blind spots and shadows, we are wise to reflect on the entire medicine wheel, seek wise counsel in material, spirit and visionary forms, and be self-aware. These days I carry a belief that 'life is always here for me'. This came to me some years ago and I choose to continue to believe it because of the trust, faith, safety, and security it gives me. I realise it biases me towards moving into traumas, pains, etc that I might try to avoid if I had a different belief, but I feel that such experiences are inevitable and that this belief is highly protective and predisposes me to resilience rather than feeling victimised or hard done by. I find it helps me avoid the 'why me?' question many of us ask when 'something bad happens'.
I find the trick of being able to heal one's life is resolved by allowing healing thorough brutal self-honesty and fierce embodiment of one's truth so as to release conflicting relationships; then, from a space of self-acceptance when I perceive others to be sitting in denial, for example, compassion naturally emerges in me. Ultimately I don't think that we're not nearly as helpless nor as powerful as we are often led to believe…
The Archetypes of Bullying
June 11, 2020 Healing, Relationshipsarchetype, bullying, bullying research, culture, Earth Ethos, exercise, identity, indigenous, relationships, school bullyingValerie Ringland
In her PhD Justice is Healing: An Indigenous Approach to Sexual Trauma, Valerie describes three main roles in violence: victim, offender, and bystander. In my view, it is vital for us to look at where we play these roles in various aspects of our life, with special attention given to looking at how these energies manifest internally. Internal versions of these energies may manifest in concert with each other, for examples as our psyche offends against itself in its own presence as a bystander.
Often, too, there are pairs of internal-external energies, for example one's internal bully manifesting as a tendency to blame others externally, or a tendency to blame oneself internally manifesting as a tendency to offend against others. In this way I would see the bystander role as a dissociative state internally, that could manifest as any one of the three on the outside with dissociation from the impact.
These roles are also evident across social strata, where whole groups of people play different roles, internally and externally, resulting in cultural forms of violence like oppression, domination, submissiveness, and lateral-violence, which is when an oppressed group turns against itself.
This blog came together by thinking about what we can learn from looking at victim-offender-bystander triad on an individual or small group level that might be useful for some of the larger and more intractable societal and cultural issues.
Through lived experience I am deeply familiar with the dynamics of schoolyard bullying so I chose this the small group context to explore. In this case the victim/offender/bystander triad are a substrate — kind of like building blocks but without defined boundaries — from which the archetypical personas emerge.
The archetypes are as follows:
1. The Ringleader.
This is the person with the most social power, both within their group and across groups. The Ringleader commonly lacks classic "excuses" for their behaviour, and usually comes from a relatively "good" and "stable" home. They often evade punishment if teachers don't go for a full root and branch investigation of bullying, as they are masters at having others do the dirty work. They are primarily driven by a deep-seated greed for power and control, their inner victim being the delusion that this brings fulfilling or lasting joy to life. (Image from here.)
2. The Casual Bully
The Casual Bully has a fairly safe (on the surface!) social existence that enables them to live above the fray most of the time. They'll participate in the bullying sporadically, usually on those more "zero sum" occasions when to not do so would be testament to supporting the victim. They are usually friends with the Ringleader and have a fear driven desire to remain that way, as it makes them "cool". Their inner world is similar to the Ringleader, but for whatever reason they are not as desirous for that level of power, or don't posses the social skills to get it.
3. The Bystanders
Similar to the Casual Bully but they aren't necessarily friends with the Ringleader, or anywhere near as greedy. They are content with a degree of social safety that puts them above the fray, and will stand back almost all of the time. They'll seldom harass the victims overtly, but may do so in more subtle and insidious ways when it suits them. They won't support victims (which of course contributes to the victim's sense of isolation) because this would risk their social standing.
Their inner world can be highly varied, possessing varying degrees of envy of Ringleaders, contempt for Bully Victims, and perhaps even some shame at their own passive support of the social hierarchy.
4. The Henchman
Henchmen are critical to the Ringleader's power. They are often recognisably disadvantaged. Maybe they came from a struggling home and wear tattered clothing, or maybe they are a bit overweight or have acne. The Henchman will receive an almost constant mild, though carefully executed, stream of bullying from Ringleaders and Casual Bullies. The "carefully executed" part is because a good Henchman will usually posses a weapon even the Ringleader wants to avoid. Maybe they are big and capable of violence, or maybe they just generally have a crazy streak to them that needs careful taming.
The Henchmen are the bane of any true bullying victim's life, dishing out most of the torment at the behest or with the support of the Ringleader. They are often quite dissociated emotionally and act without shame, which is both part of their resilience, and what makes them very dangerous.
Sometimes there is a sense of the Ringleader archetype being totally absent, leaving a hierarchy of Henchmen, where you might have a chief Henchman acting as a Ringleader of sorts. In this case you might think of the true Ringleader being forces outside the school. (Image from here.)
5. The Bully Victim
This archetype has a lot of overlap with the Henchman, but there are some key differences. Henchman are outwardly tougher than Bully Victims, often because their early childhood years or home life were rough. A Bully Victim on the other hand does not have this kind of resilience, weapons, or obvious "excuses". They often feel intense shame about their predicament.
Bully Victims are often the group those higher up the chain take the most joy from belittling and humiliating. It does not come with the guilt of bullying a Victim, as the Bully Victim is often seen as "having it coming".
It can be hard not to see the Bully/Victim as the most pathetic specimen of all. Most people have trouble having compassion for them, including the teachers. They get bullied almost constantly, but have this delusion that there might be a way for them to get on the good side of the Ringleader and rise back up the social
ladder. Unfortunately this delusion has them humiliating themselves in various ways for the sadistic entertainment of Ringleaders and co. or by bullying someone else, either another Bully Victim or a Victim (see below). The balance of offender and victim energies will often vary over time, giving them moments of seemingly more power and intense falls from social graces. (Image from here.)
6. The Victim
The true Victim has little social power (within the hierarchy) and knows it. They are under few delusions. In your typical school the Victim might come from a minority group or have some kind of obvious physical disability or hardship. Life is hard for the Victim, but on the flip side, their clear-eyed appraisal of their situation means they are likely to form protective bonds with other Victims. With just a little support from teachers (increasingly the case in the modern world), they can be protected, which most schools these days at least have the intention to do. The flip side of a Victim accepting their fate of course can be a willingness to put off the fight when perhaps it was needed, or rely on Helpers (see below) too much for protection.
The Ringleaders are increasingly careful in a modern school yard not to give Victims direct attention as it is riskier (teachers notice more), and besides, the Victim's acceptance of their situation means they don't provide much entertainment. Instead it is the social dynamic setup below the Ringleader that does the job for them.
On some occasions and perhaps increasingly so, a canny Ringleader will publicly shame a Henchmen or Bully Victim for bullying a Victim as a means of virtue signalling, and deflect attention away from their own sadistic behaviour.
Victims usually have the most contempt and/or pity for Bully Victims, and fear of Henchmen. Wiser victims do know that the root of their ills are people higher up the ladder, but they often don't know what do about that. Seeing a Bully Victim or Henchman get punished can quench that thirst and give a sense of justice but leave long term insidious patterns inherent within the hierarchy unaddressed.
7. The Helpers
The Helpers are the school yard saviours and are an increasingly common archetype. The Helpers make it their mission to defend Victims from Henchman and love to pick on Bully Victims, who due to their relatively privileged background compared to a Henchman, are low hanging fruit for punishment. Bully Victims are susceptible to intense shame, and often clash with Helpers.
A Helper likes to convert Casual Bullies and recruit people they see as Bystanders, and it is usually from the ranks of these groups that they emerge. They might even poke the bear of the Ringleader once in while though not often, as even this can be beyond their fear threshold. Helpers are often blind to the hierarchies within their ranks, and to the ways in which their righteous defense of Victims can be a form of bullying. They are hard on themselves inside, which is of course one of their main motivations for doing what they do. (Image from here.)
8. The Forgotten
Very similar to a Victim, but not as visible. Their predicament often goes unnoticed by everyone, and manifests more as isolation and invisibling.
I spent most of my early high-school years between the age of 12 and 15 primarily as a Bully Victim. I have learnt a lot about my internal world by reflecting on the fact that I can so clearly recall the times when I bullied people, whereas much of the time I spent on the receiving end disappears into a minimising morass. This tells me that I have tended to bully myself inside, terribly, and thus take some of this out on others, but also accept my being bullied as somehow being what I deserve. The more I bullied others, the more I felt "deserving" of punishment, which reinforced my internal bullying, and round and round it went/goes. What I did have was a natural inclination to look holistically at things, which has been both a blessing and an incredible burden in my life. And whilst it did lead to my Ringleaders-in-Chief getting a few literal black eyes, I always received a lot of attention. I was never quiet, whether bullying or being bullied.
Many research papers over the years have sought to understand the impact of school yard bullying on mental health. Some more recent ones showed clearly that compared with people who are more purely offenders and victims, the Bully Victim has the highest correlation with depression, anxiety and ADHD[1] (me on all counts), as well as suicidal ideation[2]. Bullies (Ringleaders, Casual Bullies and Henchmen) and victims also had poorer mental health than people considered "not involved", but not as bad a Bully Victims. Bystanders, or witnesses to bullying also fared worse than those who supposedly had not witnessed anything, showing that even peripheral exposure to violence can be traumatizing. It also shows me again the extent to which the Helper persona is a self—protection mechanism as much as it is something that comes from deep inner power and benevolence.
The conclusion of the papers was of course for anti-bullying efforts to ensure they give attention to the wellbeing of bullies as well as victims. When it comes to compassion for "offenders", this is part of a trend where society seems to be starting with the low hanging fruit of children even if we can't yet manage it for adults.
In closing, I have found it really enlightening, and indeed fun to apply these archetypes to the various groups and social strata in society, particularly a modern Western colonial one. It is critical to remember that people can embody more than one of these different archetypes as well as the substrate energies (victim, offender bystander) both internally and externally, both visibly and invisibly. (Image from here.)
Exercise: What do you think? Did I miss any school bullying archetypes? What societal groups would you align with which school yard bullying archetypes?


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