Amazon Aurora Parallel Query is a feature of the Amazon Aurora database that provides faster analytical queries over your current data, without having to copy the data into a separate system. It can speed up queries by up to 2 orders of magnitude, while maintaining high throughput for your core transactional workload.
While some databases can parallelize query processing across CPUs in one or a handful of servers, Parallel Query takes advantage of Aurora's unique architecture to push down and parallelize query processing across thousands of CPUs in the Aurora storage layer. By offloading analytical query processing to the Aurora storage layer, Parallel Query reduces network, CPU, and buffer pool contention with the transactional workload.
In a traditional database, running analytical queries directly on the database means accepting slower query performance and risking a slowdown of your transactional workload, even when running light queries. Queries can run for several minutes to hours, depending on the size of the tables and database server instances. Queries are also slowed down by network latency, since the storage layer may have to transfer entire tables to the database server for processing.
With Parallel Query, query processing is pushed down to the Aurora storage layer. The query gains a large amount of computing power, and it needs to transfer far less data over the network. In the meantime, the Aurora database instance can continue serving transactions with much less interruption. This way, you can run transactional and analytical workloads alongside each other in the same Aurora database, while maintaining high performance.
Many analytical workloads require both fresh data and good query performance. For example, operational systems such as network monitoring, cybersecurity or fraud detection rely on fresh, real-time data from a transactional database, and can't wait for it to be extracted to a analytics system.
By running your queries in the same database that you use for transaction processing, without degrading transaction performance, Amazon Aurora Parallel Query enables smarter operational decisions with no additional software and no changes to your queries.
Parallel Query is available for Amazon Aurora with MySQL compatibility. It's easy to get started: simply enable Parallel Query when creating your Aurora cluster.
The Aurora query optimizer automatically decides whether to use Parallel Query for every specific query, based on expected performance gains. As with other Aurora configurations, you pay for the actual I/O used.


Honda Jade sounds something new on board for regulars, but uttering crisps like Concept S may remind them clues of 2012 Beijing event. Well, let us only explain the whole gist; "Honda Jade" is termed for the production spec of Concept S that bowed last year at China (in Beijing) alongside Concept C, looking forward to foray in many markets and also to some of the replacements in existing product range, while Jade is now clamped down at 2013 Shanghai Auto Show to capture those dreamt arenas.
Lest of all, the Japanese may have clearly heard the voices of spectators at show and henceforth they have decided to put the same metal in production spec this time.
Looking at the images, it is learn that, Jade hasn't drawn similar cues for front from the conceptual form, and a new smaller radiator grille with chrome streaks scores it full point for designers at Honda's drawing board, whilst of more resembling cues at rear borrowed from the previewed model.
Nothing much to say on this hit, but it is learnt that, Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co. Ltd will be utilized for producing the first lot which is figured to be sold in China only, then later on followed by various markets of the world.
September 2013 seems suitable for the launch of Jade in Chinese locality.
Right now we don't have any inclinations for India on this model plate but we hope soon to get something from the clout of 2013 Shanghai paddock, where we do also do think that if launched in India then Jade may put an end to the long vying list of Toyota Innova which had bored us to an extent of attempt to death, isn't it?


We are a specialist organisation focused on making introductions to compatible Sikhs. We pride ourselves on introducing lifelong marriage partners we are not a dating agency.
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Implementation Advisory Committee
Thursday, February 9, 2023 9:00 AM
SWFC Recreation Committee
Thursday, February 23, 2023 2:00 PM
Thursday, March 9, 2023 9:00 AM
Thursday, March 23, 2023 2:00 PM
Thursday, April 13, 2023 9:00 AM
Thursday, April 27, 2023 2:00 PM
Introducing our newest board member
GOATS would like to introduce our newest board member, Larry Cornelius. Larry is stepping into a recently vacated board position.
Larry, his wife Melody, and their two sons Andrew and Evan moved to Westfir in 2014. Larry is currently employed by Lane Community College in the landscaping department and has over 20 years of landscaping experience. He is also employed part time by the City of Westfir. Larry has already been a regular volunteer at trail work parties, often bringing his son Andrew with him. He has also been attending the monthly GOATS meetings. This is one busy guy! When asked about his reason for volunteering Larry responded that his family enjoyed hiking and biking the local trails and the camaraderie of good company, so what better group to join than GOATS? He stated that the positive attitudes, integrity of work and diversity of members makes him eager to be involved in the care and restoration of our beloved trail system. GOATS would like to say thank you, Larry, for your kind words, positive attitude and generous giving of your time to help make our trail system better for all trail users.
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The Swiss Direct Air Capture company Climeworks AG have announced some encouraging results from their latest demonstrator plant. The portable system which houses an example of Climeworks' technology, has shown that its process, driven by heat energy of less than 100°C can produce a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide with a purity of more than 99.3%. The remaining 0.7% simply being air.
"This is a great breakthrough" said Climeworks' co-CEO Christoph Gebald, "our analyses showed that removing CO2 from the air with a process driven by heat is possible, and it's great to see results that confirm that". Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks added: "Our long term vision, as well as removing CO2 from the air, is delivering CO2 for the production of synthetic fuels (synfuels) from renewable energy sources and water. This would enable the efficient storage of renewable energies and a carbon-neutral fuel supply for the transportation sector. We're working hard to translate these encouraging results into designs for full scale commercial systems, and to show that Direct Air Capture technologies such as ours can be used as a negative-emissions technology, and also to provide efficient ways of creating low carbon, sustainable and renewable hydrocarbons in the future".
Removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere: Climeworks co-CEOs Christoph Gebald (left) and Jan Wuzbacher (right) in front of their Direct Air Capture pilot system. Photo: Tomas Dikk.
"Direct Air Capture solutions have the potential to be a valuable cleantech systems in an array of sectors. Our interest is in the potential for them to one day be a scalable and sustainable way of taking carbon out of the air and keeping it out. Ways of removing greenhouse gases, from the responsible management of terrestrial ecosystems, through to these industrial processes, vary greatly in their nature, they are never an excuse for business as usual, they can and must work alongside deep mitigation efforts, and more work and data are needed to understand the potential each approach has. But groups around the world like Climeworks and our other finalists are doing the hard work to provide that data; and the initial results are very encouraging" said David Addison, manager of the Virgin Earth Challenge.
Founded in 2009, Climeworks is a company spun out of ETH Zurich. Since then they have received over EUR1.1m in grant funding, raised EUR 1.9m of Series A financing in 2011, have won several renowned business competitions and now have 8 full time employees.
Climeworks' technology focusses around a novel, renewable sorbent material, and was designed from the beginning as an adsorption process to capture CO2 from the air. As well as showing the purity of CO2 that can be achieved, the energy required by the process can be sourced as heat, at temperatures lower than 100°C, this would open up Direct Air Capture systems to a range of processes that have waste heat, such as solar power systems, or fuel synthesis processes.
To learn more about Climeworks, visit their page and their website. And for more information on Direct Air Capture, see the VEC approaches and links pages.


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Q: How to generate model classes in python from sqlite3 file I want to generate the model for my application from a .sqlite3 file. Is there a quick and painless way to scaffold the file and generate automatically the classes from the tables?

A: You can use inspectdb management command for this:
python manage.py inspectdb

Note you need to tell django which database it should use by specify DATABASES setting.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Diploma of Business Administration has been developed as a highly practical industry relevant course that will give you the skills to start your career in Business Administration. Even if you haven't studied in a long time or maybe studied a different field or industry, our program has been designed to give you the extra support and encouragement to get you over the line and create further educational and employment opportunities.
Oversee operations that are too diverse to be classified into one area of management or administration. Responsibilities may include formulating policies, managing daily operations, and planning the use of materials and human resources. They make staff schedules, assign work, and ensure projects are completed. In some organizations, the tasks of chief executive officers may overlap with those of general and operations managers.
Administration manager has excellent communication and organizational skills. The ideal candidate will be well-versed in departmental procedures and policies and will be able to actively discover new ways to do the job more efficiently.
Executive Administrative Assistant provides personalised secretarial and administrative support in a well-organised and timely manner.
It would be good to know the price of this course?
Hey, give us a buzz on 1800 765 295 and we'll walk you through it. We offer a Best Price Guarantee meaning, you know you will have the quality of service of Australia's leading RPL provider at the best price.
How long does it take to get this done on average?
Generally we give our students up to 6 weeks to collect and submit their evidence and be assessed by one of our expert assessors. Most students get this done much quicker.
I have a overseas diploma in marketing and more tha t years of experience as a contract administrator, can I get a dioma in business with that?
We'll touch base to clarify your experience. We just need to clarify how long, and whether the experience was gained in Australia.


Lexington Catholic wanted to get it and go, but Grayson County wanted to take it slow in the quarterfinals of the Republic Bank Holiday Classic.
After a snail-paced first quarter, Lexington Catholic's speed-up strategy won out, and it rolled to a 58-43 home-court victory.
The Knights, two-time defending champs of their own tournament, advanced to face McCreary Central in Tuesday's semifinals.
"We were able to get a couple of runs and make Grayson County play a little faster," Lexington Catholic Coach Brandon Salsman said. "We got them out of their comfort level, and that was the key."
Grayson County was led by Hunter Gary's 14 points.
Louisville Trinity 56, Highlands 44: After winning the King of the Bluegrass last week, Trinity's momentum has carried it into Tuesday's Holiday Classic semifinals.
The Shamrocks weren't at their best, but they were good enough to grind out a win over Highlands. Taylor Epley hit four of six three-pointers and had 14 points to pace Trinity. Josh Sewell added 12 points. Charles Foster, a 6-foot sophomore guard, had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Highlands was within striking distance midway through the fourth quarter, but the Bluebirds crashed after that. They were whistled for an intentional foul, and Trinity got four points out of it — two free throws by Foster and a layup by Daniel Corbett — to make it an 11-point spread.
The Bluebirds were led by Jack Stewart's 13 points and six rebounds.
McCreary Central 55, Seneca 50: The Raiders notched their biggest win of the season, handing Seneca only its second loss. The Redhawks were coming off a runner-up finish to Trinity in the King of the Bluegrass last week.
Seneca got off to a hot start, building leads of 9-0 and 15-3. But McCreary Central kept its poise and rallied to within 24-21 at halftime.
The Raiders edged ahead a couple of times in the third quarter, then went ahead to stay after a 12-0 run midway through the fourth quarter.
Jacob Dixon's 17 points led the winners. Aaron Watts contributed 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Zack Roark chipped in with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Seneca was led by Aaron Nance's 19 points and six rebounds.
GRAYSON CO. (6-5) — Johnston 7, Gary 14, Meredith 3, Tinsley 2, Clemons 9, Saltsman 7, Thomas 1.
LEXINGTON CATHOLIC (8-2) — Martin 16, S. Beckham 9, J. Beckham 8, Schuette 12, Peurach 7, Conrad 6.
HIGHLANDS (5-4) — Watson 5, Stewart 13, Dill 4, Smith-Keller 6, Kowolonek 7, Lother 4, Grote 3, Gordon 2.
Louisville TRINITY (8-2) — Sewell 12, Epley 14, Corbett 3, Foster 11, Perito 2, Diedudonne 2, Armstrong 6, Kupper 6.
SENECA (9-2) — Nance 19, McElwain 2, Shaw 6, Fluellen 2, Alexander 4, Jacobs 8, Harris 9.
MCCREARY CENTRAL (9-3) — Watts 16, Dixon 17, Roark 11, Privett 6, Wright 5.
SCOTT (4-5) — Haynes 5, Smith 6, Niederegger 14, O'Connor 8, Stivers 3, Jones 10, Roberts 2.
HAZARD (5-3) — Back 8, Combs 8, Olinger 7, Whitaker 10, Fugate 12, Miller 2, Meehan 4, Spencer 2.
ST. XAVIER (6-5) — Lohr 13, Goral 10, Ising 9, Just 2, Spalding 5, Raque 2, Butcher 7, Ratterman 4, Lilly 7, Pendergast 3, Rizenbergs 8.
MERCER CO. (7-5) — McRay 5, Lee 9, T. Compton 4, Cinnamon 5, Mayes 4, Banks 2, Honchel 3, L. Compton 7. J. Taylor 14, N. Taylor 1.
BOONE CO. (8-2) — Popp 11, Gabbard 7, Brown 11, Downs 4, Schulze 2, Montgomery 1, Cotton 10, Earls 6, McQueary 4, Lay 6.
MUHLENBERG CO. (8-5) — T. Warford 5, Broady 2, Hawkins 3, Civils 8, G. Warford 5, Carver 3, Gregory 2, Farley 6, Johnson 3, Gabbard 4.
WEST JESSAMINE (7-4) — Sherrow 19, Polson 13, Mefford 6, Bartholomew 7, Moberly 1, Elliott 6, Donaldson , Pohl 5, Dunn 6.
PERRY CENTRAL (7-2) — Amis 11, Martin 12, Mullins 15, Salyers 9, Cornett 2, Noble 13.


Norway pledged nearly $1 billion (USD) this March for a network of 10 two-lane, cross-country bike highways that will enable cyclists to travel up to 25 mph between inner city and outer suburbs. The new bike paths are part of the country's plan to halve overall transportation emissions and become fully carbon neutral by 2050. The plan includes a zero growth target for car use between now and 2030, with a vehicle tax hike in the mix. The government also plans to buy greenhouse credits to offset its emissions. By 2030, the authorities want 10 to 20 percent of all journeys to be made by bike.


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Tag: aircooled
1Apr By Automotive History94 Comments
Classifieds, This Day
April 1, 1932 – Franklin introduces its V12
Franklin V12 Founded in Syracuse, New York, at the turn of the 20th Century, Franklin is best known for its unwavering commitment to the air-cooled engine. From its very first car in 1902 – a runabout boasting a transverse, overhead-valve engine, wooden frame, and fully elliptic springs – Franklin showed incredible promise and engineering acumen. About a dozen Franklins left the factory in the first year, and orders quickly multiplied as the company got off the ground. Such popularity was undoubtedly helped by their record-shattering 1904 transcontinental run, completed in under 16 days. This slashed previous record runs by Winton and Packard nearly in half. Franklin rapidly developed a reputation for quality, refinement, and durability, with legions of fiercely loyal owners. Frankl...


For Approved! Accountants: Bringing clients on board with Expensify and setting up Policies. This is a place to discuss your initial client setup.
Syncing QuickBooks Online - Do old reports export automatically?
Why am i getting duplicate expenses importing over to QBO?
Why is Concierge approving reports on its own?


British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday began the mammoth struggle of persuading a deeply divided parliament to back her Brexit deal after an EU summit granted her more time but little to help change minds at home, VOA news reports.
FILE – British Prime Minister Theresa May reacts after tellers announced the results of the vote Brexit deal in Parliament in London, Britain, March 12, 2019, in this screen grab taken from video.
FILE – European Council President Donald Tusk speaks during a media conference on Brexit at the Europa building in Brussels, March 20, 2019.
FILE – British Labor party leader Jeremy Corbyn talks to journalists outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 27, 2018.


For all those people who are interested in the Eurovision Song Contest, here are the results for 1984.
The 1984 Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Theatre Municipal in Luxembourg on Saturday 5 May 1984. Presented by Desiree Nosbusch.


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IRS plans new version of its $700M digital platform contract
FCC chair proposes updating data breach reporting requirements
House FISMA draft codifies federal CISO role, looks to shared services
NGA looks to tech to support unclassified workforce
Report: 45% of all federal employees teleworked in fiscal 2020
Unmanaged Devices and Fusion of Asset Visibility
The Business of Federal Technology
Fed 100 Nominations
When government websites fail
By Lauren C. Williams,
By Lauren C. Williams
| August 15, 2018
The FCC's site went down last year not because of a DDoS attack, but because it couldn't handle the traffic spike. So who's responsible for making sure that doesn't happen?
Between May 7 and May 8, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission's comment system buckled under a deluge of comments on its proposal to undo the net neutrality rules.
At the time, agency tech officials assured FCC leadership that the crash of the commenting system was caused by a cyberattack -- specifically a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack caused by bots overrunning the application programming interface that allows for bulk submission to the agency's commenting system.
But a June 20 FCC inspector general report released publicly in August found no evidence to support those claims and made the case that the failure of the FCC's commenting system was due to the volume of incoming comments sparked by a segment on the HBO program hosted by John Oliver.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai placed the blame on tech officials, saying he was "surprised and disappointed" that the OIG findings clashed with the record offered by former CIO David Bray and his senior staff.
Congress is looking into the matter. An Aug. 16 Senate Commerce Committee hearing is expected to touch on the controversy. Four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Pai on Aug. 14 demanding answers on when he learned that the claims of a DDoS attack were inaccurate.
But beyond the political contretemps and finger pointing is the question of what happens when a government system can't do what it was built for.
Daniel Castro, vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and its Center for Data Innovation director, said system failures are common in the public and private sectors and are often a failure of design and lack of upkeep.
"You have these large spikes in traffic," he said, referring to the IRS system failure crash on tax day this year. "They know going into it that there is going to be a period of time where everyone is going to file their taxes."
And as predictable as the behavior was, the system couldn't handle it.
"It's not that they haven't tried to update their sites," Castro said, "Trying to adjust for large volumes is difficult. You have multiple potential points of failure -- overloaded servers, browsers -- and have to create enough resiliency in them."
Those challenges are exacerbated for government agencies, many of which have systems that weren't designed or tested for significant traffic surges.
The federal government has more than 4,500 websites and 400 domains, according to a November 2017 ITIF report. And 91 percent failed to perform in either mobile-friendliness, speed, security or accessibility.
While the FCC's site was down, commenters had alternatives, such as paper filing, but the truth is the commenting function wasn't initially built to handle several million filings -- presenting a perfect opportunity for commercial cloud use, Castro suggested.
"When the system was designed, volume wasn't considered," Castro pointed out, adding that the FCC is a smaller agency that routinely churns out rulings that often go unnoticed by the general public and late-night TV comedians.
People v. Technology
The FCC isn't alone in scaling challenges. In addition to the agency's 2014 system failure for the same policy issue and the IRS crash, the Securities and Exchange Commission's site crumbled in 2010 due to a flash software failure, and the NASDAQ's public filing system snagged Facebook's initial public offering in 2012.
But for Rebecca Piazza, vice president of program delivery at Nava and former executive director for 18F, the root of system failures goes back to government's investment -- or lack thereof -- in the workforce.
"If systems aren't able to perform the functions needed, it undermines the public's trust in government and in democracy," Piazza said. "It's bigger than the technology itself."
Piazza said system failures "present as technology issues" but can be traced back to personnel.
"We really need to be looking at whether we're giving the people in government the tools they need to build and buy the right systems," she said. "I don't see a single source of these failures. It's everything from procurement, to the way budgets are allocated, team structures."
So who's accountable?
Castro said that while the government is ultimately responsible for system function and performance, the IG report missed an opportunity to scrutinize contractors.
"The IG report is unfortunate because it doesn't give the details of the contractors used, where performance is tied to particular contractors, to have accountability," he said. "Poor performance because of design specifications is different than poor performance because of delivery."
But accountability for smooth-running government IT must also sit with Congress and agency heads, Castro said, simply because "bad government websites are unacceptable."
"Every site should have a lifecycle," Castro said, with initial authority to operate by CIO or agency head for a three-year maximum, after which it is taken down or renewed and updated for content, security, mobile-friendliness and usability.
But eventually, government IT has to maintained and sustained in a way that allows for quick, creative solutions to prevent failure.
Government agencies often can't afford to "fail fast" because their systems serve millions, Piazza said, but incentivizing risk so employees can buy and build scalable and resilient technology could be a solution.
"I think there's a lot of fear" surrounding trying different approaches to procurement, so "if something that goes wrong, there are the consequences of failure," she said. "Start small, a subcomponent of a larger system where you can demonstrate success but doesn't put the core mission at risk."
NEXT STORY: 4 House Intel members offer election security bill
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Hill proposal would give feds a 5.1% average pay raise in 2023
Biden's CX order puts new momentum behind longtime efforts, leaders say
Defense officials press lawmakers for a 2022 appropriation
DHS launches new program to recruit, train climate professionals
Why self-sufficiency is key to fostering data literacy in the Air Force
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It was hard to think of a way to thank my friends who worked on the quilts in my book, but I tried--with a launch party full of holiday cheer.
Don't let the title fool you - Idiot's Guides: Quilting is a book for both beginning and intermediate quilters. Whether you're brand new to quilting or looking to improve your quilting skills, you'll find step-by-step photos that lead you through every aspect of the quilting process. I'm partial of course <grin>, but I think this book is a great reference guide that you'll be glad to have on your quilting bookshelf.
Really? What's in this thing?
Finally, you'll learn everything you need to know to finish a quilt, either by hand or by machine.
OK, sounds interesting but I'm not a beginner.
That's okay. As an experienced or intermediate beginner, you won't need to reference the basic quilting techniques covered in the book unless you want a refresher. But if you ever want to learn some quilting technique you've never tried before such as English paper piecing, foundation paper piecing, or turned-edge fusible machine applique, this book will show you how. Also, there's a cool section on advanced piecing techniques and methods for getting your quilt to lie flat and even. Every task, such as curved piecing, is illustrated with a photo for every step, so the steps are easy to follow.
Well, maybe. Tell me more.
If you're like me, you buy books just for the patterns. There are 17 patterns in the book ranging from beginner to intermediate, and they are quite lovely if I do say so myself. <blush> Here are a few examples just to whet your appetite. If you want to see them all, click here.


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Benjamin Kiprotich Korir (* 1976) ist ein kenianischer Marathonläufer.

2004 gewann er die Maratona di Sant'Antonio und den Florenz-Marathon. 2007 wurde er Dritter beim Brescia-Marathon und siegte beim Athen-Marathon. 2008 folgte einem 13. Platz beim Rom-Marathon ein fünfter beim Mailand-Marathon, und 2009 wurde er Siebter beim Ruhrmarathon.

Benjamin Kiprotich Korir trainiert in Kaptagat in einer Gruppe, die von Amos Korir betreut wird.

Persönliche Bestzeiten

 Halbmarathon: 1:02:24 h, 6. Mai 2001, Setúbal
 Marathon: 2:10:44 h, 25. April 2004, Padua

Weblinks

 Athletenporträt auf marathoninfo.free.fr

Fußnoten

Marathonläufer (Kenia)
Leichtathlet (Kenia)
Kenianer
Mann
Geboren 1976

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Our Dreams Are Valid
Oyunga Pala
Download PDFPrint Article
On March 1, 2018, two weeks after its release, Black Panther movie was approaching a billion dollars in ticket sales. 10 days in, the movie leapt past the $400 million mark in domestic box office in the USA and over $700 million across the world. That is Stars Wars territory but with an All Black Cast to boot in a Marvel feature. This is the movie equivalent to the US Dream Team, at the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona. Never before had a finer group of talented basketballers come together and when they did, they took the world by storm. Black Panther is having its dream team moment as the showcase for black excellence and representation in cinema.
Black Panther is a beautifully shot film. The fictional country Wakanda is rich in detail. The central story is about belonging and heritage. Ryan Coolger, the 31-year-old African American director looks at Africa with a different set of eyes and response to this film in Kenya has been tremendous. A film is big when people pack theatres weekend after weekend and even during the weekdays to experience the magic of the big screen despite our home entertainment movie culture.
Black Panther is a tale told by Africans about a place far away that they call home. In some respects, an African dream inspired by Marcus Garvey's rallying call to the African diaspora, " Look to Africa, where a black king shall be crowned for the day of deliverance is at hand". Ryan Coolger said in a Rolling Stone interview that Black Panther explored what it meant to be African.
From the inside looking out, Black Panther checked some heavily referenced "Poor Africa" stereotypes typical of the outsider perspective. Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wanaina in his popular essay "How To Write About Africa" offered some satirical advice.
"In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country.
Readers will be put off if you don't mention the light in Africa. And sunsets, the African sunset is a must. It is always big and red. There is always a big sky.
Black Panther gives a lot of prominence to the word tribe to describe the different people of Wakanda. The term tribe was used as a tool in the colonial policy of divide and rule. The enlightened way to describe native micronations in Africa is by their name, the Igbo, the Xhosa, the Turkana, the Shona. It is unnecessary to qualify African ancestry with the word tribe.
The Hollywood attempt at standardizing an African accent has to be resisted. Regional accents serve as a better representation of diversity. Accents can be assigned regionally as say speaking English with a Xhosa inflection. Then of course, every authentic African themed movie must end with a sunset scene and the Black Panther did not disappoint.
Away from the nitpicking, it is easy to forget that Black Panther is a film written for 10-year-olds and an adaptation of a comic character introduced in 1966, the same year that the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was founded in America. The politics of the movie was bound to stir debate on racial dignity and self-determination. This is a picture frothing on the brim in its commitment to celebrate African heritage. A counter superhero story brewed in an African pot. Black Panther has provoked an identity discussion about what it means to be African and it happening between Africans in the continent and in the diaspora. I have gotten swept up by the pages of analysis and reviews, drawn into debates about the representations of race in American cinema and the complexity of a black African identity.
I started going to the cinema in the 80s back when Nairobi had a vibrant movie theatre scenes. The cinema halls Kenya, 20th Century, Nairobi, Odeon, Cameo, Casino were within a 100m radius of each other in downtown Nairobi. They were two drive-in cinemas, Fox Drive on Thika Road and Bellevue Drive-in off Mombasa road. The 80s were rough years. Structural Adjustment Programmes and austerity set off an exodus to the West and with the rise of an authoritarian regime in Kenya, we looked to cinema for that much-needed escape from the frustration of the daily life pounding our parents. There was hardly ever any black representation on the big screen and when black people were shown they were typically in subordinate roles to the white lead. The big movie depictions of Africa were afflicted by Tarzan's jungle fever. Africa and her people were backdrop props to foreign stories. The big African themed movies of my 80s were "Out of Africa, Gorillas in The Mist, Sheena, Queen of the jungle ( A blonde haired white woman riding a zebra through the savanna). Africa was a vast space where majestic game roamed free, peppered with noble savages and subservient labourers in pressed white khaki uniforms pledging loyalty to the benevolence of their white masters.
The first movie I encountered that challenged this stereotype was " Coming To America" and it stood apart in the 80s for its leading men Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and James Earl Jones. Coming To America is a romantic comedy about an African prince from the fabulously wealthy kingdom of Zamunda flying across the Atlantic in search of love. The prosperity of the fictional Zamunda kingdom was contrasted with the squalor that characterised the black underclass in Queens, New York. It parodied the African American ignorance of the African experience and introduced the radical idea then of sophisticated Africans appalled by the backwardness of American culture. There was an underlining satirical element to Coming To America. Africa in the Afro American consciousness was a place of poverty and primitive existence but within it existed oases of affluence, prosperity hiding in the open. In the kingdom of Zamunda and Wakanda, a glorious Africa thrived yet its story remained unknown in the Western worlds.
In the 80s, VCRs, video cassette recorders were all the rage and we started getting access to what was then the blaxploitation genre, with it stereotypical crime and violence themes. Spike's Lee ( Do The Right Thing) and John Singleton's ( Boyz N The Hood) became my most influential movies in this space and they helped raise awareness of systemic racism in America.
One time, I went to a video hall that screened martial arts and combat movies and settled to watch the legendary Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon. I remember the crowd cheered when Jim Kelly with his Afro came into the scene as if to say, finally our own black kung fu master. They were hardly any black people in major roles and had no access to African cinema.
From then, I started consciously seeking out Afro conscious characters in the 90s who had multi-dimensional lead roles, among them Wesley Snipes (New Jack City), Denzel Washington (Malcolm X), Will Smith (Men In Black), Samuel Jackson ( A Time To Kill), Laurence Fishburne ( Just Cause), Whoopi Goldberg ( Sarafina) and Angela Basset (Waiting to Exhale).
The excellence of these pioneer cast of black leading men and women were crucial counter-narratives to the childhood images I was exposed to on the big screen of an African race defined by tragedy and backwardness. In the first decade of my life, Nelson Mandela was in jail. Apartheid was alive in South Africa. Steve Biko was brutally murdered in police custody. Samora Machel was assassinated. Thomas Sankara met the same fate within a year. There was civil war and coups in one half of Africa, brutal dictators in the other including Kenya and a devastating drought in Ethiopia. In America is where we sought black excellence. Collin Powell was making history as the first African American Joint Head of Staff, Jesse Jackson was running for President and the Oprah Winfrey show was nationally syndicated. These were our little black spots of brilliance in a world of global excellence that was lily white.
Compare these depictions to the past decade(post-2007), for the African child growing up in the continent. The president of the United States was a black man. The most beautiful woman in the world at least according to the People's magazine in the world is black. The most recognizable liberation icon, is a black South African. Among America's top TV hosts is a black South African. The top sports stars, from athletics, through to tennis and formula one are black. A biracial woman born of a black mother is about to marry an English royal. The biggest movie of the time, has an entirely Black cast with multidimensional and strong female characters and is dedicated to a theme of blackness. The dreams of one generation have become the reality of another.
Movies have served as crucibles for the dreams of black excellence. Black Panther is a movie that celebrates dreams and speaks to the power of re-imagining of black heritage in all its shades. At the centre of this black renaissance in American cinema is a cast of strong, dark-skinned African sisters. Which brings me to the influence of Lupita Nyong'o who plays a Wakandan spy and the king's love interest named Nakia. The strongest appeal for someone born in the 70s of the Black Panther was its African representation. It is this same pride that I felt when Kenyan actors started to be cast in big-budget Hollywood features. Edi Gathegi (Twilight), Benjamin Otieno (Tears of The Sun) and Charles Gitonga Maina (Air Up There).
In 2013, Lupita Nyong'o strut into the global limelight when she won an Oscar for the supporting role, at the 86th Oscars for her performance in 12 Years A Slave. She delivered full bodied tributes to her mentors and crowned it off with the quotable line,
"No matter where you are from, your dreams are valid".
Indeed, she was living the dream of any actress who cut her teeth in Kenya. In 2009, I met Lupita at the Story Moja literary festival at Impala Club in Nairobi. She was an unknown in the local art scene, save for local prominence of a family name as the daughter of a well-known politician, Professor Anyang Nyong'o'. Lupita was presenting a small documentary, titled "In My Genes" about living with Albinism in Kenya. It was certainly not the biggest thing happening at the festival. She was one among many young Africans hustling hard in an industry that did not give too many breaks. She had previously worked as a production crew member for Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener and Mira Nair's The Namesake. Lupita was superb as Ayira in the television series Shuga and there was little doubt that she was an exceptional talent with her stand out role in the series. It seemed then, a tall order that a girl of her dark complexion would crack the black ceiling of American cinema. Perhaps, her look was only good for a representation role as the latest exotic African beauty on a fashion runway.
Then came along, Steve MC Queen's historical drama 12 years A Slave and we say the rest is history. In one moment, Lupita became the first African, Kenyan and Mexican (Afro Mexicans exist) to win an Academy Award. Back home, we argued with movie-loving friends whether Lupita would inherit the curse of black success. The Kenyan public relishes in cutting tall poppies down to size, something that celebrated TV host Jeff Koinange once described as the PHD syndrome, Pull Him or Her Down. When success descends after hard labour, especially the nature that involves international accolades, one is advised to keep their head bowed. You might be big in Hollywood but back in Nairobi, one must not forget their humble beginnings.
Lupita's body of work in the last 5 years since she won the Academy Awards is impressive. She has had a very good run in Hollywood so far and progressively risen in stature. For the pioneers in the arts like her, she cannot afford to lose focus because the pressure of excellence is not negotiable. It is important to the dreams of millions that she succeeds in line of work.
It is part of the deal with black excellence in the arts and twice as hard for women. Big dreams come bearing huge responsibilities and you can only get used to it. Be prepared to be celebrated and then eviscerated the moment you slip from grace.
Still, the significance of Black Panther is in its representation. Ryan Coolger talks of his own personal dream of representing black people in screens around the world. President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige said this about Coolger in an Entertainment Weekly interview, "He's making this movie for his 8-year-old self,".
The entire Black Panther cast breathes new life into the connections between Africans and African Americans, the coming together of a black Diaspora scattered by forces of imperialism to dream up a counterculture reality, as Wakandans. The African diaspora ensemble includes Lupita from Kenya, Danai Giriria from Zimbabwe, Daniel Kaluuya from Uganda, Florence Kasumba who is German-Ugandan, Winston Duke from Trinidad and Tobago, John Kani and his son Atandwa Kani from South Africa, Letitia Wright born in Guyana and Isaac de Bankolé from Cote d'Ivoire.
Daniel Kaluuya, who plays W'Kabi in the film (and who was born in England to Ugandan parents) talks about coming home to Uganda and getting transformed by the subtle reality of seeing blackness in new light, from the president down to the cleaner. This seemingly simple act of representation has been consistent in inspiring prominent African American personalities for decades. Legendary standup comedian Richard Pryor talked about how a trip to Africa changed his perspective in 1979.
"I went to Kenya, and while I was there something inside of me said, "Look around you, Richard. What do you see? I saw people. African people. I saw people from other countries, too, and they were all kinds of colors, but I didn't see any "niggers."
Barack Obama talks about a sense of belonging on his first trip to Kenya in 1987, in his memoirs "Dreams of My Father" upon an encounter with a total stranger at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport who recognized his surname.
"For the first time in my life, I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide, how it could carry an entire history in other people's memories, so that they might nod and say knowingly, "Oh, you are so and so's son." No one here in Kenya would ask how to spell my name, or mangle it with an unfamiliar tongue. My name belonged and so I belonged, drawn into a web of relationships, alliances, and grudges that I did not yet understand."
But perhaps no one said it more poignantly than Malcolm X after an extensive trip to Africa in 1964,
"I, for one, would like to impress, especially upon those who call themselves leaders, the importance of realizing the direct connection between the struggle of the Afro-American in this country and the struggle of our people all over the world. As long as we think—as one of my good brothers mentioned out of the side of his mouth here a couple of Sundays ago—that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, you'll never get Mississippi straightened out."
The central question of what it means to be African for Africans dislocated from their roots is what the characters of Black Panther grapple with. The plot line draws out the connection between the struggle for identity, representation and dignity for black people all over the world. It is a movie that challenges its viewers to imagine and rediscover the cultural heritage of black ancestry. It insists on the participation of black people in their own ideas for the future.
What is Wakanda, other than the dreams of Zion while in Babylon, dreams of Canaan while caught in captivity in Egypt or Heaven bound while enduring earthly suffering? Africa is a continent that has consistently stood aside and watched, Bob Marley prophesized, as its dream weavers were killed. The shared story in the birth of modern African nations, is one of stillborn dreams. Africa is in need of dreamers and in Black Panther's Wakanda, a generation of young Africans is inspired to imagine and color a future on their own terms. That dream of a Pan African utopia must remain valid.
By Oyunga Pala
Oyunga Pala is a Kenyan journalist, editor and a curator at The Elephant.
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LESSONS FROM WAKANDA: Pan-Africanism as the antidote to robotisation
THE BLACK PANTHER PHENOMENON: Bridging the rift between Continental Africans and Black Americans
Living on the Edge: From the Favelas of Rio to Life in Mathare
Both Mathare and Alemão are full of human endeavour and misfortune in equal measure, and in both places young men, specifically, are at high risk of coming to a violent end.
Damian Platt
Photo: Flickr/Rachel Strohm
Lethal violence is fact in Mathare. On the day I first visit the community, tweets hashtagged #CopRashidCorruptDeals appear on my Twitter feed. I already knew of Rashid, having watched the BBC documentary about him and his team. I follow the hashtag and find this tweet from a local journalist: "Rashid has wiped all thugs around Eastleigh, Mathare and Huruma. To us residents he is a nice guy." The journalist in question has twenty-three thousand followers.
I've only been in Mathare a matter of minutes when an invisible hand runs gently over the dome of my head. It's a familiar, yet strange, feeling. I quickly realise that this is because it is neither my own hand, nor that of Inés, my wife. The hand actually belongs to a man standing behind me. Feeling vulnerable, I move away quickly, saying "COVID" in justification for my abruptness. "19", he responds, completing my words. It's a funny moment and I relax.
My new acquaintance is one of the many addicts who share a rubbish dump with a large number of highly energetic and boisterous children. The children have transformed a corner of the tip into a gymnasium. The gym includes a climbing frame/assault course (improvised from an abandoned wooden structure) and a springboard — a large black tyre — from which the tiny gymnasts gracefully launch themselves. The kids are well organised. They stand in a nice queue. There are fast ones, skilful ones and learners. After a quick sprint they hit the tyre with both feet. It projects them and they spin defiantly, airborne above the garbage for a split second, before landing on the piece of carpet that serves as a crash mat. Fans gathered to watch the spectacle make approving sounds for the best leaps and twists. The contrast between the shiny-eyed bounce of the children and the glazed stagger of the addicts is stark and saddening.
I'm in Mathare to visit members of the Mathare Empire collective. The enterprising young members of this group have recently occupied and redecorated an abandoned building at one end of the trash pile. Their porch provides front-row seats from which to watch the young athletes practice their somersaults. It is fittingly decorated with a painting of a child with huge boxing gloves and a stop-corona mask. This is one of several large and handsome murals depicting faces that gaze patiently over the dump.
Despite the distracting vivacity of the young gymnasts, the garbage heap is treacherous. It almost swallowed up a little girl recently. The piles and layers of trash hide pools of rainwater, transforming the junk into something akin to a deadly swamp. The girl, running to greet her father, sunk into one such concealed crevice and began to go under. Quick-witted bystanders saved the day, plucking her out before she disappeared.
The purpose of my visit is to present and discuss projects in Rio de Janeiro, where I lived until recently. In Rio I first worked for Amnesty International, documenting and campaigning against human rights violations in some of the city's 1000+ world-famous and, sadly, ultra-violent favelas. I later became involved in grassroots cultural and youth initiatives aiming to empower and raise the self-esteem of Rio's young people and communities. This work is documented in a book titled Culture is Our Weapon and included a project by JR — a TED prize-winning French artist — called Women are Heroes. Most recently, in 2019, I helped to organise the construction of a skatepark in Maré, a neighbourhood made up of sixteen favelas originally constructed on swampland.
We have lots to talk about. While sharing ideas and stories with the group, I discover they have recently taken part in a video call with Raull Santiago, a prominent human rights defender from the Alemão (German) complex, one of Rio's most violence-hit communities. The issues faced by the residents of Mathare and Alemão are similar yet different. Both are very big, but Mathare is much more densely populated and much poorer. While both places suffer violence, Alemão is a war zone. Both are built in a valley and are full of human endeavour and misfortune in equal measure. In both places young men, specifically, are at high risk of coming to a violent end.
We go for a walkabout. My guides show me how and where they have staked out green spaces, planted trees and painted structures with bright murals, (part of their work for the Mathare Green Movement). These actions bring levity and freshness into the often airless and monochromatic environment. I'm struck by their colourful imaginings of other universes on the walls of public toilets. Just one of these strong-smelling units can cater for the needs of five thousand Mathare residents. I also learn that the toilets are centres of socialisation — children's friendship networks in Mathare are built around who shares the facility nearest your house. Kids playing in front of several of the vibrantly decorated loos that we visit demonstrate this. The pictures on the walls imagine other possibilities — outer space or lush tropical forests — while others remind users of their current terrestrial responsibilities: don't forget your mask!
I suffer from sensory overload walking around Mathare. As in Rio, there are myriad sights, sounds and smells to take in all at once. Because of COVID-19, school is out when I visit. Children are everywhere. The community is spread across a gentle valley, not the steep escarpments of many favelas in Rio. Corrugated iron shacks — so close together that visually they form a vast iron sheet of rusted red, grey and brown — cover the slopes. The poverty is grinding. Narrow paths zigzag between lean-tos and rank smelling drains. Most of the shacks are low and many look as if they might fall down should you push them.
In contrast, residents are mostly well dressed and clean. Commerce, licit and illicit, crowds the pathways and thoroughfares. Cheap, ripe fruit and vegetables abound. I taste sweet pineapple and see watermelon, avocados, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and onions. Vendors hawk pastries, eggs and sausages. Cooks stir delicious smelling dishes over wood fires. In Rio, obesity in low-income communities is a serious issue. Here I'm impressed — most people in Mathare look healthy and strong.
We pass a wealth of legal, illegal, social, spiritual and commercial activities — khat stalls, illicit hooch making stills, drug dealing areas, NGOs, schools, churches, mosques and markets. Public soap dispensers and water for handwashing remind us that COVID-19 is ever-present, even though social distancing is impossible. Besides the sale of food there is plentiful commerce—mobile phone businesses, hardware shops, beauty salons, charcoal vendors, boda boda riders and stalls selling new and second-hand clothes. Authentic second-hand garments are considered infinitely more stylish than bogus new ones, I am informed. Fake clothes in Mathare = a serious fashion crime! It's the same in Rio, where favela residents take pride in their appearance. However, Brazil does not have such an abundance of second-hand imports. And so in Rio, the emphasis is more often on an item's newness, not necessarily its authenticity.
Yet despite the trading, hustle and bustle and a resilient-looking population, the overwhelming sensation I have in Mathare is that of risky living. I can only try and imagine the heat inside the shanties in high summer or what happens during the rains, when sewers flood and the metal shanties become dangerous because of electric shocks from exposed wiring. But although Mathare is economically poorer and less developed than similar communities in Rio, I do not feel suffocated by the inescapable threat of violence. In Rio's battle-scarred favelas, gun-toting teenagers patrol the alleyways. Bullet holes in the masonry all around inform you that the weapons are not just for show. Violence is real and present and you are constantly reminded of this.
When I ask my guides about the tweet concerning Rashid they tell a very different story from that of the journalist who described him as "hero". For young men in Mathare, Rashid is the grim reaper in human form and something of a shape shifter, known for his ability to camouflage himself and merge with the surroundings. He carries pictures of targets on his phone. Businesses pay him to go after miscreants. However, innocents, friends, associates or just the unlucky often end up dead.
The guys I am with are mostly in their early twenties. Statistically, they are the group most at risk from police violence. The presence of killer cops does not make them safer or protect them from crime. Local thieves, they tell me, refer to after dark as "office hours" and can even rob someone they know because those are "the rules and young thieves will take everything you have—even your girlfriend. They take drugs that make them fearless and immune to pain." These include pills called "cosmos", sold by local dealers. Cosmos pills come in different colours according to strength and stain the user's lips. The tablets are apparently prescription medicine for mental illness, stolen from the public health system.
Law-abiding young men in Mathare live between a rock and a very hard place. When they talk about problems, conversation revolves around work and danger. While dignified employment is scarce, even for the well-educated, the threat of violence is permanent. Rashid — seen as something of an executioner-in-chief — exercises the power of life and death through his actions and their multiplication in the public imagination.
The youth in the favelas of Rio favela suffer from precisely the same issue. Police killings (extrajudicial executions by any other name) in the city are among the highest — if not the highest — in the world. The slaughter takes place in the context of a so-called drug war whereby society overlooks illegal police action in return for perceived security. Young men in favelas are also at risk from gangs inside their communities who also kill without pity. Fierce and chaotic gun battles between police and lawbreakers very often leave behind victims of stray bullets. By the end of 2019, Rio's police force had shot and killed 1,810 alleged suspects in supposed confrontations, the highest annual number on record and almost twice the 1,003 victims of police violence for the entire US that year. In 2020 lethal police violence and operations in favelas in Rio continue at full steam; they did not abate even under COVID-19 lockdown.
As in Nairobi, where some locals describe Rashid as a hero, the Brazilian media and public have long tolerated and encouraged extrajudicial executions as purported crime fighting. Typical practice is to execute a victim in a fake shoot-out. In just a few hours in February 2019, during a single operation in a favela, Rio police shot and killed 13 suspects. These included nine young men in a house, who, according to witnesses, were trying to give themselves up. However, sometimes they don't even try to pretend — as was the case in a Rio suburb in 2005, when off-duty police in cars shot and killed 29 civilians in a single evening.
Widespread public consent for criminal state violence in Brazil is encapsulated in the popular saying "a good thug is a dead thug", first adopted by police death squads operating in the 1960s at the beginning of the country's 20-year military dictatorship. In 2018, future president Bolsonaro took the dictum to extremes by pledging to unleash waves of violence across the country when elected, saying, "if a policeman kills 10, 15 or 20 with 30 bullets each he must be decorated, not charged". Other politicians followed suit, campaigning on explicit platforms of lethal violence. Despite the extremely high numbers of police killings, individual cases of which are rarely scrutinised, Bolsonaro committed to the introduction of new legal mechanisms to further protect killer police from investigation.
In Brazil, killer cops, drug traffickers and death squads have long terrorised low-income communities across the nation. In rural areas, local police and hired gunmen provide such a service. In cities and their peripheries, the absence of the state and lack of regulation in poor neighbourhoods and favelas offer a wealth of illicit opportunity. Whoever provides security in these areas can step in to control the local economy, provision of services and crucially, access to the electorate. Paramilitary groups, known in Rio de Janeiro as militia, have lately appropriated this model — a fusion of traditional politics, organised crime and territorial control. Usually linked to police, prison and fire services, today the militia operate in more than half of the city's neighbourhoods.
Cameroonian political scientist Achille Mbembe has identified this process — the political management of vulnerable populations through their exposure to death — as "necropolitics". Necropolitics clearly regulates life in Mathare as much as it governs Rio's favelas. Police like Rashid are not there to fight crime. They defend a status quo.
When I am about to leave Mathare after my first visit, I have an indication of what the maintenance of this status quo entails. Two very burly policemen brandishing enormous sticks barge their way along the street and disappear behind some huts. People double their speed to get far away from them. Doors close and the street empties. Twilight falls. A palpable tension replaces the relaxed late Saturday afternoon coming and going. Onlookers inform me that the police are there to extort payment from vendors who sell glue and "jet fuel" — ultra-cheap ethanol for inhaling — to the crushed adults who converge on the garbage dump.
Thankfully, the next time I visit, there is a much more pleasant atmosphere in this corner of Mathare. The area outside the bungalow, as the Mathare Empire members call their HQ, is swept clean. Local and guest artists perform on a brightly coloured stage, made from pallets painted purple, red, yellow and green, to a hyped crowd who occupy the kids' gymnasium at the edge of the dump. They talk, sing and rap about police violence and issues of the day, like COVID-19. But the event is not a political lecture and nor is it gloomy. The group had spontaneously decided that what was originally going to be a concert would instead be the first ever "Mathare Futurism Day" – a gathering of local painters, artists and musicians to celebrate community, address current issues and reimagine Mathare. "Moments like this", Wyban Mwangi says, "remind people about the beauty of self-dignity and the constant need to struggle for a better, healthier and safer place to live". In communities governed by necropolitics, such resistance provides vital hope, freedom and breathing space.
I'm Black, I'm Proud. Still
You can't feed into the darkness. You can't demand anyone to know what you know, to understand what you understand. People come to truth when they come to it and not a second before.
Fitzgerald Brown
Photo: Unsplash/Oladimeji Odunsi
Growing up down south in the aftermath of the 1960s Negro Revolution in America was truly the best. During that period, three out of every four Black children in America were born in a two-parent home. By the 80s, that number would drop to one in every four.
Education and opportunity were becoming more accessible to black and brown communities everywhere. It would be the force that would get us out of the hole history had placed us in.
We were moving forward and everybody could feel it, but as much as I liked going to school and learning new things, my favourite memories are of when, after school, I got to spend time with my brothers and cousins. There was just something magical that happened when we were together.
We would meet over at grandma's house in that part of the city we called the village. The village was a straight, two-block walk from school, down King Street, past the Piggly Wiggly store parking lot and then to the stoplight where you take a right turn onto Rommey Street, and another right on to what looks like a parking lot on the side of the church, and just at the bridge, before you crossed the old train track or you would have missed it, the entrance to the court. Thirty or so homes behind the old Methodist Church on a road invisible from the street laid out in the form of a horseshoe.
I cannot talk about the village without talking about the city and the state. Charleston, South Carolina is a peninsula city located on the South Carolina coastline. It was one of the thirteen original colonies and the very first state to break away from the Union, and one of the founding states of the Confederacy.
The village was a housing initiative following the 1964 Civil Rights Act aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty by moving Black families out of the old housing slums and projects and into new affordable homes.
The difference between the projects in the South and the projects up north is the space and design. In most cases, southern projects were designed to be communal properties, different from the stacked high-rises up north or in the Midwest.
The projects down south were simple properties where people learned to share. They shared the backyard when the sun got too high and the front when people just wanted to be outside and catch a breeze. Everybody knew one another and called each other by name. Family arguments, celebrations and losses spilled into neighbouring apartments causing people to act like one big extended family. And even though everybody was poor, they would have been hard-pressed to admit it. Poverty was a state of mind. The community spirit emphasised generosity and everything was shared. If you were hungry and didn't have food, you could always ask next door.
Having lived in the projects for decades, my grandparents were one of the very first people to be offered a house in the village. I can remember the move like it was yesterday, everyone was so excited.
The year was 1973, I was eight years old. For the first time Black families in Charleston would have the chance of a normal life.
My grandparents, long into retirement, coupled with our large, extended family of cousins, uncles, aunts and three brothers – two older and one younger – were a great source of pride and joy until I learned that the American egalitarian beliefs which I thought were as perfect a foundation as there could be, were but an illusion, a well thought out scheme. We weren't freed, we were just moving boxes.
Although everyone got their own private home, some did build fences around theirs but others opted against this, allowing for yards to overlap, creating a more open and vibrant community.
My grandparents had a high chain-linked fence, but there was still this sense of togetherness. When something went wrong in the village, the elders would be the first out to deal with it.
My exploration of the real workings of America would begin from within this village in 1976, the year that America celebrated its 200th anniversary of independence from British rule.
That year, I began to see that the ideals that gave birth to the idea of "We the People," did not include people like me.
I remember a young militant uncle, oozing Black pride, spilling the beans and pointing out to me that neither he nor I, nor any of the millions of other Blacks had reason to celebrate America's success.
As my White and Black classmates and a nation prepared for the grand July 4th spectacle that would include a freedom train, a scheduled stop in our city, marching bands, hotdogs, cotton candy and fireworks, I began my own re-education, reading keenly to understand the origins and the construct of the first Americans.
In the 200 years since the Protestant Christians invaded America they've enslaved millions, massacred the Indians, and everything we've suffered – the chains, the church bombings, our leaders assassinated, brothers lynched – all of it has been part of an elaborate scheme to keep Blacks subjugated.
In June 1740, the British Parliament passed the Naturalization Act of 1740 – the "Plantation Act" – into law.
In this decree, any White European Protestant alien who had been living in any of the thirteen colonies for seven years without being absent from that colony for more than two months, was deemed to be a natural-born citizen of the United Kingdom.
The Plantation Act of 1740 was a direct response to the September 1739 Stono River Slave Rebellion in South Carolina. The Stono Rebellion was the largest slave insurrection in British North America that culminated in the deaths of 25 colonists and about 50 Africans. It was led by an Angolan known as Jemmy and a band of about twenty slaves, who broke into a store, armed themselves and demanded their freedom. They marshalled a group of 60 slaves in an attempt to reach St Augustine in Florida, where the Spanish guaranteed freedom and land to any fugitive slave. The rebellion was crushed at Edisto River, 80 kms away from where the rebellion had started.
The 1740 law criminalised the Black experience itself, restricting the right of free movement, the right to free assembly, and the right to be educated or to earn money. These punitive and discriminatory laws created by men who claimed to be good Christians, legislated the right of plantations owners to even kill rebellious slaves.
Most colonialists considered themselves British until the year 1776 when resentment began to fester among the settlers. Frustrated by taxation and a lack of representation in the British Parliament, these new Americans declared war on their own government demanding independence.
That same year, the British-born political activist, pamphleteer and immigrant to the colonies, Thomas Paine, published a pamphlet titled Common Sense in which he argued the case for a new "America".
"Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe."
The American War of Independence was fought from 1776 to 1783. Seven years later, the Naturalization Act of 1790, the first naturalization law of the new republic legislating who could be granted United States citizenship, was passed into law.
All Free White Persons of "good character" who had been residing in the United States for two years or longer could apply for US citizenship. In effect, the law's use of the phrase, "free white person" excluded blacks and immigrants of other races from being eligible for citizenship, and most importantly, for protection under the laws of the court.
As a child I had drank the Kool-Aid and believed that it was peaceful cooperation between the pilgrims and the native Indians that had established the widely practiced Thanksgiving holiday tradition.
I recall summers spent playing cowboys and Indians with my brothers. We took turns at who got to play the Indian. I felt no shame striking the Indians down with my rifle. They were always the bad guys, raiding the poor settlers' forts, attacking their caravans. But I was baffled by the contradictions. Why would the Indians save the pilgrims who were dying from the cold and hunger only to try to escape from them later? It just didn't make much sense.
Then it came to me: the Native Americans were fighting to protect their land. We weren't playing a game; what we were doing was re-enacting a massacre. Over five million Native Americans were killed before the West was conquered.
Regardless the age at which one arrives at truth and understanding, it is always disorienting and disheartening. I've found that whether one accepts it or not, the only thing we can be certain of in this world of uncertainty is change.
I spoke with many people after the first 2020 Presidential Debate between President Trump and the Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden that took place in the midst of heightened racial tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic. I got many mixed views regarding the outcome of the debate; some were shocked by the childish display while others dug in, taking sides and displaying party loyalty like it was a football game. Of the many reactions I got, one zoom call from home with my older brother really got me thinking.
"Can you believe that man?"
My older brother is now 60.
I had noticed him wiping his eyes.
I asked, "What 's wrong?"
At first he didn't (want to) speak, he just kept brushing the tears away, then he began,
"Little brother, we grew up together," he said.
"We pretty much had the same childhood, but I'll tell you, I have never had any white person call me a nigger or spit on me like these guys up here in Philadelphia tell me they have. I have had White teachers down south who were some of the nicest people you'd want to meet. But, looking at that debate last night and the President of the United States refusing to denounce white supremacy as racist, I just never, you know, thought White people hated us that much."
I empathised with him because I knew the pain of sacrifice, service, abandonment, rejection and betrayal.
I joined the US Military at seventeen to prove my allegiance to the ideals that made America great in my mind, but war in a foreign land far away from the ones I loved taught me the truth about service and the value of my life.
My brother and I grew up five years apart in a changing post-civil rights America. We were kids of the Kool-Aid generation, the first of our kind. We had opportunities our parents could only have dreamt of. We were the hope of a brighter future, a brighter America. A post-civil rights America.
In the 1960s, the far right party was a party bent on preserving the privileges of natural-born Whites in America, Jim Crow's America. However, during the 1960s a new consciousness emerged as young White Americans took to the streets to say that they had seen the attack dogs set on peaceful protesters and wanted a better America. In January 1961, a young President-elect of Irish descent and a wealthy practicing Catholic would become the embodiment of the American dream and challenge the good American Christians to look into their hearts and minds and begin anew to create a better nation where the rights of every American, White and non-White, were protected under the laws of the land.
With a rousing inauguration day speech, JFK inspired Americans to think better of themselves, to think higher of themselves: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." He had spoken and the people spoke back. My parents gave me his middle name because they believed life for Blacks in America would be different.
But, in November of 1963, the 46-year-old president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was gunned down by a lone gunmen while out in Texas promoting his ideas of equality to the American people.
My brother was crying because it was hard for him to accept people could be so calculating and one so naive. He, like so many others, wanted badly to believe in a land blessed by God.
I was twelve years old when my big brother left home. He moved up north straight out of high school, where he built a career and retired as a professional chef. He found love, family and set up a home up north. But in the Trump years, the scales fell from his eyes.
"I never had a racist moment down south, not like the kind of racist moments these guys tell me they've encountered here in Philly. I mean I just never believed White people hated us that much."
I knew the anguish, the shock. We Blacks down south don't complain, we see but at the same time we've learnt not to see.
My grandma in the village used to say, "You can't feed into the darkness. You can't demand anyone to know what you know, to understand what you understand. People see what they want to see. People come to truth when they come to it and not a second before."
But what you don't do is stop living.
Gold and Gemstone Policy in Kenya: The Devil Is in the Detail
Small-scale artisanal gold and gemstone mining is decades-old but lack of knowledge and expertise, and limited support from the government have hampered the sector's development.
Augustine Masiga
The evergreen town of Kakamega is a picture of the hustle and bustle typical of any Kenyan town, with many hundreds of folks going about their daily business. But as you leave the town behind, the environment changes, a lush countryside of cultivated fields and densely planted trees giving no hint of the gold mining taking place in the nearby locality of Ikolomani.
Across the country, 432 miles to the southeast of Kakamega is the beautiful transit town of Voi, the largest town in Taita Taveta County which lies at the foothills of the Sagalla massif. But the much smaller town of Mwatate is the county capital, and the source of gemstones that Kenyans from other parts of the country know little about. Mwatate has rubies, red garnet, emeralds, moonstones, tsavorite, okenorite, and many more.
Small-scale artisanal gold and gemstone mining has been going on for decades in both Kakamega and Taita Taveta counties, undertaken mainly by local artisanal miners and by a few non-locals and foreign nationals.
The Mining Act 2016 recognises three levels of mining rights: artisanal mining permits, small-scale mining permits and large-scale mining licences. The small-scale permits and large-scale mining licences are issued at the national level through the Kenya Mineral Rights Board (MRB), while the artisanal mining permits are issued through the county artisanal mining committees. The Mineral Rights Board and the county Artisanal Mining Committees are administratively governed by the State Department of Mining under the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining. The Director of Mines and his representatives in the various counties are in charge of overseeing the implementation of the ministry's policy frameworks. The Ministry of Petroleum and Mining has key mining regulations in place to govern this process.
But even though the Mineral Rights Board is in place, the process of setting up the county Artisanal Mining Committees (AMCs) has been long drawn out and there seems to be no hurry to implement the mining regulations that were commissioned in 2017. Kakamega County's AMC was gazetted on 27 March 2020 and the team commissioned on 20 July 2020. However, the AMC has yet to begin its work as the key governmental mechanisms necessary to run the committee are still pending and so no mining permits have been issued to artisanal miners in Kakamega County since the gazettement.
Artisanal miners in Taita Taveta County are in a different situation altogether. The list of members of the county AMC constituted through their appointing authorities has been forwarded to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining but the AMC has yet to be gazetted. When contacted on this issue, one of the reasons cited by the ministry officials was that factions within the mining fraternity have disputed the list of people proposed to be part of the AMC.
Applications for small-scale mining permits are submitted to the Mineral Rights Board through the Mining Cadastre Portal. The platform is meant to bring these services close to the miners but they complain of the slow response from the Ministry of Mining. They must travel to the ministry to submit the paperwork even after uploading it onto the portal. Access to a stable internet connection is also a challenge in the remote areas of Taita Taveta and Kakamega while some of the small-scale miners lack the capacity to use the online system. Most have to travel to the Ministry's offices for assistance or else hire someone with the skills to undertake the work for them, rendering the application process both tedious and time-consuming.
The ministry has not undertaken any capacity building and shows a lack of commitment to make the system more efficient and user-friendly. The biggest hindrance, however, is the low budgetary allocation made to the Ministry of Mining, which leaves the staff with limited options in their efforts to serve small-scale miners.
The stated goal of the Mining Cadastre Portal is "to provide an electronic platform for all stakeholders in the mining sector in Kenya to engage directly with the Ministry of Mining." Existing mineral rights holders (those with mining permits and licenses for mining) or those with pending applications can download, complete and upload the requisite documents. Prospective mineral rights holders can also submit their particulars and other supporting documents through the portal.
The portal is also a one-stop shop for information on mining activities in Kenya. It has a cadastre map of the key areas with mineral resources, as well as details of licence holders, and on-going applications; a click on any part of the map automatically displays the existing information about that specific geographical location.
For artisanal and small-scale miners (ASMs) in Kakamega and Taita Taveta, the portal has had a significant impact on access to public information on mining in Kenya. But the portal also has its limitations. Mining is a highly skilled sector that requires high levels of expert knowledge. Some of the requirements on the portal are beyond the scope of knowledge of most gold and gemstone miners in Kakamega and Taita Taveta. For instance, the portal requires a miner to take the coordinates of the area for which they are applying for a permit. This requires equipment that is typically used by geologists and land surveyors and that is expensive to hire or purchase. A sketch of the area or locality where the miner intends to undertake extraction is another requirement, a very sophisticated process that miners in general cannot undertake on their own.
Lack of knowledge and expertise coupled with lack of access to the internet, or even computers, therefore leaves the small-scale gold and gemstone miners unable to fully exploit the portal.
Aside from these limitations, however, the Kenya Mining Cadastre Portal has been a game changer when it comes to eliminating brokers from the mining sector and it has proven to be a more efficient system than the manual issuing of permits and licences
For instance, unlike the manual system that had no clear guidelines regarding payments, all fees due to the ministry are clearly indicated on the portal and paid directly to the ministry through a cashless system. Moreover, as the portal has centralised all the country's mining information, cases of loss or manipulation of files or documents have reduced significantly.
The gold and gemstones that are mined in Kakamega and Taita Taveta are exported out of the country with or without any value addition under the provisions of the Mining Act of 2016 which require an export permit from the Cabinet Secretary the application for which is made on the Mining Cadastre Portal.
But while the law on the issuance of mineral export permits is sufficiently detailed, its implementation is the biggest challenge and I have no doubt at all that gold and gemstones are imported into and exported out of Kenya without any form of declaration. There are many routes along the porous Kenyan boarders through which the minerals can slip in or out of the country.
For instance, most of the gold that is mined in Kakamega is taken to Uganda by road undeclared. How can this be remedied, especially for gold and gemstone miners who want to run a clean business? Also, the process of implementing the gold refinery centre in Kakamega and the gemstone value addition centre in Voi remains pending. If the sector is streamlined, then the issue of traceability of gold and gemstones will be resolved and the mineral export licence will be of value to the artisanal and small-scale miners in the sector.
The article is done with support from Diakonia Kenya Country Office under the Madini Yetu Wajibu Wetu (Our Minerals, Our Responsibility) Project. Views expressed in the article are those of the author.


In the publication, "LIRR FREIGHT STATIONS & PRIVATE SIDINGS 1966" , on page 20 there is listed with a track plan, "JAMAICA FREIGHT FACILITIES".
Siding # 22 is listed as belonging to a freight facility named LION. Would anyone know just what type of industry / freight facility, LION was ?


When we lived in Buffalo (MN, not NY lol) the Monarch's would migrate through our backyard each year. There was a clearing between a row of shrubs/trees and the creek... you could stand there and actually HEAR them :) Well, it's been a lot of years since I've been able to experience anything quite like that.
Update: Before posting this to my blog I took Chase out to look at the caterpillar's and now we could only find 3... don't know where the other went?!
Imagine taking a deep breath, letting it out, and being able to hang on to that relaxed, peaceful feeling for TWO WHOLE DAYS! That's exactly the result we had... Thank you God for your beautiful creation!


The 'best mode requirement' in the United States is an additional requirement complementing the 'sufficiency of disclosure' requirement. That is, the disclosure must also contain the inventor's "best mode" of making or practicing the invention. The "best mode requirement" only applies to what the inventor knows at the time the application was filed, not as to what was subsequently discovered.
"The best mode requirement creates a statutory bargained-for-exchange by which a patentee obtains the right to exclude others from practicing the claimed invention for a certain time period, and the public receives knowledge of the preferred embodiments for practicing the claimed invention." Eli Lilly & Co v. Barr Laboratories Inc, 251 F.3d 955, 963, 58 USPQ2d 1865, 1874 (Fed.Cir.2001).
The best mode requirement is a safeguard against the desire on the part of some people to obtain patent protection without making a full disclosure as required by the statute. The best mode requirement does not permit inventors to disclose only what they know to be their second-best embodiment, while retaining the best for themselves. In re Nelson, 280 F.2d 172, 126 USPQ 242 (CCPA 1960).
Determining compliance with the best mode requirement requires a two-prong inquiry. First, it must be determined whether, at the time the application was filed, the inventor possessed a best mode for practicing the invention. This is a subjective inquiry which focuses on the inventor's state of mind at the time of filing. Second, if the inventor did possess a best mode, it must be determined whether the written description disclosed the best mode such that a person skilled in the art could practice it. This is an objective inquiry, focusing on the scope of the claimed invention and the level of skill in the art. Eli Lilly & Co. v. Barr Laboratories Inc., 251 F.3d 955, 963, 58 USPQ2d 1865, 1874 (Fed. Cir. 2001).
Where an inventor knows of a specific material that will make possible the successful reproduction of the effects claimed by the patent, but does not disclose it, speaking instead in terms of broad categories, the best mode requirement has not been satisfied. Union Carbide Corp. v. Borg-Warner, 550 F.2d 555, 193 USPQ 1 (6th Cir. 1977).
Northern Telecom Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 215 F.3d 1281, 55 USPQ2d 1065 (Fed. Cir. 2000) - Unclaimed matter that is unrelated to the operation of the claimed invention does not trigger the best mode requirement.
Eli Lilly & Co. v. Barr Laboratories Inc., 251 F.3d 955, 966, 58 USPQ2d 1865, 1877 (Fed. Cir. 2001) - Patentee's failure to disclose an unclaimed preferred mode for accomplishing a routine detail does not violate best mode requirement because one skilled in the art is aware of alternative means for accomplishing the routine detail that would still produce the best mode of the claimed invention.
The best mode requirement is a separate and distinct requirement from the enablement requirement of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112. In re Newton, 414 F.2d 1400, 163 USPQ 34 (CCPA 1969).
The enablement requirement looks to placing the subject matter of the claims generally in the possession of the public. If, however, the applicant develops specific instrumentalities or techniques which are recognized by the applicant at the time of filing as the best way of carrying out the invention, then the best mode requirement imposes an obligation to disclose that information to the public as well. Spectra-Physics, Inc. v. Coherent, Inc., 827 F.2d 1524, 3 USPQ 2d 1737 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 954 (1987).
In one case, even though the inventor had more information in his possession concerning the contemplated best mode than was disclosed (a known computer program) the specification was held to delineate the best mode in a manner sufficient to require only the application of routine skill to produce a workable digital computer program. In re Sherwood, 613 F.2d 809, 204 USPQ 537 (CCPA 1980).
There was held to be no violation of the best mode requirement even though the inventor did not disclose the only mode of calculating the stretch rate for plastic rods that he used because that mode would have been employed by those of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed. W.L. Gore & Assoc., Inc. v. Garlock Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 220 USPQ 303 (Fed. Cir. 1983).
High Concrete Structures Inc. v. New Enter. Stone & Lime Co., 377 F.3d 1379, 1384, 71 USPQ2d 1948, 1951 (Fed. Cir. 2004). The unintentional failure to disclose in the specification the use of a crane to support the patented frame in order to carry out the method of loading and tilting the frame was held not to defeat the best mode requirement because one of ordinary skill in the art would understand and use a crane to move heavy loads. "The best mode requirement of [35 U.S.C.] § 112 is not violated by unintentional omission of information that would be readily known to persons in the field of the invention."
Where an organism was created by the insertion of genetic material into a cell obtained from generally available sources, all that was required to satisfy the best mode requirement was an adequate description of the means for carrying out the invention, not deposit of the cells. As to the observation that no scientist could ever duplicate exactly the cell used by applicants, the court observed that the issue is whether the disclosure is adequate, not that an exact duplication is necessary. Amgen, Inc. v. Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., 927 F.2d 1200, 18 USPQ 2d 1016 (Fed. Cir. 1991).
The court concluded that no withholding could be inferred from general statements of increased selectivity and narrower spectrum of potency for these novel analogs, conclusions which could be drawn from the elementary pharmacological testing of the analogs. In re Bundy, 642 F.2d 430, 435, 209 USPQ 48, 52 (CCPA 1981).
The best mode requirement was held to be violated where inventors of a laser failed to disclose details of their preferred TiCuSil brazing method which were not contained in the prior art and were contrary to criteria for the use of TiCuSil as contained in the literature. Spectra-Physics, Inc. v. Coherent, Inc., 827 F.2d 1524, 3 USPQ 2d 1737 (Fed. Cir. 1987).
The best mode requirement was violated because an inventor failed to disclose whether to use a specific surface treatment that he knew was necessary to the satisfactory performance of his invention, even though how to perform the treatment itself was known in the art. The argument that the best mode requirement may be met solely by reference to what was known in the prior art was rejected as incorrect. Dana Corp. v. IPC Ltd. Partnership, 860 F.2d 415, 8 USPQ2d 1692 (Fed. Cir. 1988).


Recently collated statistics from Perthshire Solicitors Property Centre (PSPC) reveal that 2015 was a strong and steady year for the local market, and a year which performed almost identically to 2014. Member firms sold almost exactly the same value of homes, with the combined total for 2015 once again sitting at just over £164M.
The average sale price throughout 2015 was a welcome increase on 2014, with the typical 2015 property selling for £178,281 compared to the 2014 average of £165,583. The third quarter of 2015 performed particularly well, with 271 homes selling, a welcome increase on the same quarter in 2014. The top sales month of 2015 was October, with 108 homes selling, more than twice the amount which sold during January 2015.
Villas sold particularly well, as did bungalows, and the number of flats selling throughout 2015 was on a par with 2014, as was the typical value of flats throughout 2015.
Anne Begg, Manager, PSPC commented, "When it comes to such a crucial sector as property, stability is key and that's exactly what we have saw throughout 2015. While sales dropped by a handful, people are generally achieving a little more for their sale which can only be good news. The major peaks and troughs which we saw in years gone by are unsustainable but an ongoing, stable picture points to a certain degree of safety, reassuring words for anyone selling up in 2016.


text:
Neighbors concerned about 'back door deal' in Sandia Ranch resolution
by: Courtney Allen
Posted: Dec 11, 2019 / 10:32 PM MST / Updated: Dec 12, 2019 / 09:40 AM MST
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – People in the North Valley are up in arms after they say a county commissioner pulled a fast one on them when it comes to a prime piece of property.
County commissioners unanimously approved $1.5 million in funding to develop phase one and two of Sandia Ranch. Neighbors do not have a problem with that, but they are concerned about the fine print.
The land north of Osuna on Edith has a lot of history, and some neighbors have been around almost every step of the way.
"Forty years we have been working on this project," neighbor Chris Christy said. "We have time to wait and do things by the rules."
Chris Christy said she worked with Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation for years developing the land for agricultural uses.
"We were trucking along with Parks and Rec and making progress and then the county commissioner throws in the school, and all bets are off," Christy said.
Neighbors said they found out in February that Commissioner Debbie O'Malley hoped to bring an Albuquerque Sign Language Academy to the property.
Neighbors argued at Wednesday's commission meeting that was never the plan. They fear the school will bring traffic and take away from the agricultural appeal.
"We find that it is very incongruent as to what we were sold, and what we are being steamrolled to accept," Christy said.
The resolution does not say anything about the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy, but it does include in the financial analysis the possibility of four or more acres being sold.
"I do not think that's a legal process," Christy said. "I don't think that's a transparent process."
O'Malley confirmed to KRQE News 13 Wednesday that is intended for the ASLA school and that the land will not be put on the market publicly.
"The school is a good community use," O'Malley said. "It will compliment what is there, so I do not see any conflict at all with looking at a school."
O'Malley did not say exactly how many acres or how much it would be sold for.
"Is it a silent deal," Christy asked. "Does the county have this reach and this authority to do cozy deals?"
O'Malley argued that she has followed protocol and been transparent.
"We have had many meetings about it," O'Malley said. "There are some people who don't like it. They will continue to not like it, but it isn't that we haven't been honest about what we are pursuing or doing there."
Although the resolution was approved, O'Malley said there is no agreement between the county and the school. However, she hopes to have something in the works in the next few months.
If it does go through, O'Malley said the money from the sale would benefit the remainder of the Sandia Ranch property.
The county bought the probably for around $2 million in 2015.


Eugenito Tarantino, Martinia Borfiga, Marta Martín y Francesca Vercelino, colaboradores en el diseño y la ejecución. Y a la Bicicrítica de Moratalaz.
A cardboard mountain with the shaped of a Christmas tree, which objective is to visualize overconsumption. The tree was illuminated by pedaling in several bikes of CiclaLab.
The TreeTrash was exhibited from 22 December 2015 to 4 January 2016 in Madrid City Council.
In Madrid tons of cardboard are discarded daily. The streets of the city, especially the most commercial areas, are filled with cardboard every day when stores closed. Cardboard is the maximum symbol of consumption. Almost every imaginable material: toys, clothes, household and electrical appliances… are transported in cardboard boxes from all over the world.
One of these giant cardboard accumulations became the Christmas tree of Madrid City Council in 2015. An icon of consumption built with the remains of consumption. We built the tree during 3 days with the cardboard collected after a Trash Safari in the streets of the city. The tree dimensions were over 9 meters high and 5 meters in his base. The construction was made together with volunteers during an open to participation workshop.
In the following video you can see the collection and construction process .
Instalación realizada en el marco de "Navidad a pedales". Proyecto ideado por CiclaLab. Un icono navideño iluminado con tu energía.
Rio Janeiro, Brasil. Madrid, España.
Batumi and its self constructed outdoor itinerant cinema.


text:
Q: check Server is Reachable before each api call? [Integrate with API] I have an api module class. it looks like this
// General api to acces data from web
import ApiConstants from './ApiConstants';
export default function api(path,params,method){

    let options;
        options = Object.assign({headers: {
            'Accept': 'application/json',
            'Content-Type': 'application/json'
        }},{ method: method }, params ? { body: JSON.stringify(params) } : null );

    return fetch(ApiConstants.BASE_URL+path, options)
        .then(resp => resp.json())
        .then( json => json)
        .catch((error) => error);
    });
}

I know we can use the following snippet to check whether my backend server is reachable.
 const isAvailable = () => {
    const timeout = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(reject, 300, 'Request timed out');
    });

    const request = fetch('https://httpbin.org/delay/5');

    return Promise
        .race([timeout, request])
        .then(response => alert('It worked :)'))
        .catch(error => alert('It timed out :('));
}

isAvailable();

But how can i combine this two calls in an efficient manner?. I would like to check whether server is reachable before each call?

PS: My API Server is available only using vpn even though network is available. So the api call can only be made after checking the server reachability.

Fetch in React Native will not timeout if the server is unreachable (Timeout not working)

Edit: As @jevakallio mentioned in his answer .. adding the server code will only make the code more complex. Even though the timeout is much higher in react native the best way is to use the logic mentioned below(@jevakallio) rather than using a timeout.

A: Do you really need to check that your server is available?
Instead, you could just try to fire the actual request every time, and if the request fails, check the error code to deduct if the issue was due to server availability or some other error.
Something like:
const NO_RESPONSE_CODE = 0;

return fetch(ApiConstants.BASE_URL+path, options)
    .then(resp => {
      if (resp.ok) {
        return resp.json();
      } else {

        if (resp.status === NO_RESPONSE_CODE) {
          // server unavailable
          return Promise.reject(new Error('Server unavailable'));
        } else {
          // handle other API errors here, implementation
          // depends on your response format
        }
      }
    })
    .then( json => json)
    .catch((error) => error);

The reasons this mechanism is preferrable is:

*

*Avoid unnecessary network calls

*Reduce the time it takes to get a successful response by eliminating the pre-check

*The result is more reliable. Even if you check that server is available by making a pre-check request, there is no guarantee that the server is still available when you make the actual follow-up request. Mobile networks can be surprisingly fickle, and your device radio can drop off a network between the requests.

A: Maybe this could help
const isAvailable = () => {
    const timeout = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(reject, 300, 'Request timed out');
    });

    const request = fetch('https://httpbin.org/delay/5');

    return Promise
        .race([timeout, request])
        .then(response => alert('It worked :)'))
        .catch(error => alert('It timed out :('));
}

/ General api to acces data from web
import ApiConstants from './ApiConstants';
export default function api(path,params,method, sssid){

    let options;
        options = Object.assign({headers: {
            'Accept': 'application/json',
            'Content-Type': 'application/json'
        }},{ method: method }, params ? { body: JSON.stringify(params) } : null );

    return isAvailable().then(() => fetch(ApiConstants.BASE_URL+path, options))
        .then(resp => resp.json())
        .then( json => json)
        .catch((error) => error);
    });
}

calling isAvailable always before calling fetch. once isAvailable resolves you can call fetch api and return its promise in then.