text:
Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2017-33
Reference: Telecom Notice of Consultation 2017-33-1
Ottawa, 2 February 2017
File number: 1011-NOC2017-0033
Call for comments
Review of the regulatory framework for text-based message relay services
Deadline for submission of interventions: 3 April 2017
[Submit an intervention or view related documents]
Message relay services (MRS) are text-to-voice services that enable people with a hearing or speech disability to make and receive telephone calls. The Commission currently requires wireline telephone service providers to offer two types of MRS: Teletypewriter (TTY)Footnote 1 and Internet Protocol (IP)Footnote 2 relay services. In this notice, the term "MRS" refers to both TTY and IP relay services.
In this proceeding, the Commission is examining the regulatory framework for MRS. Specifically, the Commission is asking for comments on how MRS could evolve to respond to users' needs in today's market, whether the services remain relevant in light of current trends and innovations, which service providers should be required to provide such services, and how such services should be funded, among other things.
The present call for comments does not concern the provision of Video Relay Service (VRS), which is not based on text, but on sign language.
The Commission has, over the years, taken a number of decisions intended to promote the accessibility of telecommunications services to people with hearing or speech disabilities. The Commission determined that Canadians with disabilities should have equitable opportunities to communicate as other users of telephone services. It also recognized that relay services provide persons with hearing or speech disabilities with the technical means to communicate via a telephone call with other telephone users.
Accordingly, the Commission currently requires wireline telephone service providers to offer both TTY and IP relay services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, wireless service providers (WSPs) are generally not required to provide MRS.
In a TTY relay call, the relay operator communicates with the person with a hearing or speech disability via a TTY and with the person without a hearing or speech disability via voice. The person with a disability accesses the service by using a TTY connected to wireline telephone service. The person without a disability dials a toll-free number to reach the relay operator using any telephone service.
In an IP relay call, the relay operator communicates with the person with a hearing or speech disability via text and the person without a hearing or speech disability via voice. The person with a disability accesses the service by using any device capable of Internet access to reach the relay provider's website and/or text messaging application to reach the relay operator. The person without a disability dials a toll-free number to reach the relay operator using any telephone service.
Wireline telephone service providers can meet their obligation to offer MRS to their retail customers by
providing the services themselves;
purchasing MRS on a wholesale basis from an incumbent telephone service provider (also referred to as "incumbent local exchange carriers" [ILECs]), such as Bell Canada, MTS Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications, or TELUS Communications Company (TCC); or
hiring a third-party call centre to provide the services.
As discussed below, Canada's incumbent telephone service providers are required to offer MRS to their wireline customers on a retail basis and to make MRS available to other (i.e. non-incumbent) telephone service providers on a wholesale basis. To fund the provision of MRS, the incumbent telephone service providers are subject to tariffed retail and wholesale rates that the Commission set during the 1990s and has not adjusted since then.
MRS issues raised in past proceedings
In recent years, several individuals, consumer advocacy groups, and accessibility groups have raised concerns with the Commission regarding the quality of service of MRS.
For example, as part of the proceeding leading to the Commission's decision to mandate the provision of VRS in Canada (the VRS decision),Footnote 3 several interveners expressed concerns regarding the quality of service of MRS. Many similar concerns were echoed on the record of the Commission's proceeding to review basic telecommunications services, initiated in Telecom Notice of Consultation 2015-134, and the MRS information-gathering exercise (described below).
The record of the VRS proceeding also indicated that between 2008 and 2012, aggregate annual revenues collected by the major telecommunications service providers (TSPs)Footnote 4 across Canada for the provision of MRS exceeded the amount required to provide MRS to customers.Footnote 5
The Commission noted in the VRS decision that issues related to MRS were outside the scope of the VRS proceeding, and that it would consider whether a review of MRS was appropriate at a later date.
MRS information-gathering exercise
Following the issuance of the VRS decision, the Commission began an MRS information-gathering exercise, consisting of two parts:
(i) issuing requests for information, in May 2014, February 2015, and June 2015, to the major TSPs that offer wireline telephone service so that the Commission could obtain relevant financial and call data related to the provision of MRS; and
(ii) conducting an online consultation in June 2015 to understand what consumers need and expect from MRS.
In the requests for information, the major TSPs were asked to commence measuring, by 1 September 2014, data for certain indicators related to MRS, such as number of calls, wait times, call duration, calls abandoned, number of users, operator hours, and expenditures. The major TSPs were later asked to submit data for all specified indicators. Notably, the major TSPs' information indicated, among other things, that between 2008 and 2014, overall MRS call volumes declined each year. Specifically, decreases in TTY relay call volumes during that period were not being offset by increases in IP relay call volumes.
Responses to the online consultation revealed concerns with respect to the quality of service provided by relay operators, long waits to reach a relay operator, the technical quality of MRS, the lack of awareness of MRS among consumers of telecommunications services, the lack of mobile platforms for IP relay, the requirement to subscribe to a wireline telephone service to access IP relay; and many businesses/agencies refusing to accept relay calls (mainly due to privacy concerns).
The Commission hereby initiates a proceeding to examine the regulatory framework for MRS. The Commission invites comments, with supporting rationale, on the following issues:
Quality of service of current MRS offerings;
Accessing MRS from wireless devices;
Awareness of MRS;
Future of MRS in Canada;
Appropriateness of the current regulatory framework; and
Appropriateness of the current tariffed rates.
The present call for comments concerns the provision of currently mandated text-based relay services (i.e. MRS) only, and not the following:
other text-based products (e.g. CapTel and Speech-to-Speech relay); or
the provision of VRS. As noted in the VRS decision, a comprehensive review of VRS is to be completed three years after the service became operational.
Quality of service of current MRS offerings
In order to provide the intended benefits to consumers with a hearing or speech disability, as well as to consumers who have no such disabilities (referred to as "voice users"), MRS must be of sufficient quality to meet users' needs.
Questions for individuals with a hearing or speech disability:
Q1: Do current MRS offerings (i.e. TTY and IP relay services) enable you to make the telephone calls you need to make as part of your daily activities?
Q2: Have you experienced any challenges using either TTY relay or IP relay service?
Q3: What has been your experience contacting other businesses (e.g. banks, utility companies, insurance companies, TSPs, lawyers, and doctors), government agencies, and other organizations through MRS?
Questions for voice users:
Q4: Do MRS enable you to communicate effectively with individuals with a hearing or speech disability?
Q5: If you work at a business, government agency, or other organization that engages with clients or customers via telephone, are there any barriers or challenges associated with conducting business through MRS?
Questions for TSPs:
Q6: What safeguards do you currently have in place to ensure a high quality of MRS?
Q7: What measures have you been taking to improve the quality of service of MRS?
Questions for TSPs and individuals (i.e. both voice users and users with a hearing or speech disability):
Q8: Are improvements needed to make MRS easier to use or more useful? What aspects, if any, of MRS should be improved?
Q9: What regulatory measures would be appropriate for improving the quality of MRS? For example, would quality of service standards be an appropriate regulatory measure? If so, propose appropriate standards. Refer to Appendix 1 for standards that exist in the United States.
Q10: How should the Commission monitor compliance with any new regulatory measures? For example, should TSPs report to the Commission on a regular basis? If so, how often?
Accessing MRS from wireless devices
Canadians are reducing their dependency on wireline voice services in favour of mobile wireless and broadband Internet services. Wireless services are now available to 99% of Canadians, and 23.7% of Canadian households rely solely on mobile wireless services.Footnote 6 Currently, WSPs are generally not required to provide MRS.
On 16 December 2016, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States amended its rules to facilitate the transition from TTY to real-time text (RTT)Footnote 7 over IP-based networks.Footnote 8 Large WSPs and manufacturers in that country that provide devices for RTT have a deadline of 31 December 2017 to implement the service.
Question for TSPs and individuals (i.e. both voice users and users with a hearing or speech disability):
Q11: Should all WSPs in Canada be required to provide MRS? Explain why or why not.
Q12: If a consumer wishes to access MRS via IP relay, do you require the consumer to subscribe to wireline telephone service? If so, explain why.
Q13: If a consumer wishes to access MRS via TTY from a wireless device, do you require the consumer to subscribe to wireline telephone service? If so, explain why.
Q14: What efforts have you made to make IP relay service available on a variety of wireless devices and operating systems? What efforts do you plan to make?
Awareness of MRS
Questions for individuals (i.e. both voice users and users with a hearing or speech disability):
Q15: How did you become aware of TTY relay service?
Q16: How did you become aware of IP relay service?
Q17: Is there sufficient awareness and promotion of MRS among (i) the community of Canadians with a hearing or speech disability; (ii) the greater Canadian population, and (iii) businesses or agencies that may receive calls from a relay operator?
Q18: If there is not sufficient awareness or promotion, what measures should be taken to improve it, and who should be responsible for taking such measures?
Q19: How do you promote TTY relay service?
Q20: How do you promote IP relay service?
Future of MRS in Canada
Q21: Do you ever use IP-based services (e.g. VRS, Skype, FaceTime, or Messenger) or texting in place of making telephone calls through TTY or IP relay services?
Q22: Are there circumstances in which you prefer to use or must use TTY or IP relay services to make telephone calls?
Q23: How do you think the growth of wireless services and IP-based services will affect your future use of TTY or IP relay services to make telephone calls?
Recently, the FCC announced that it would continue to explore the appropriateness of using RTT as an alternative to TTY technology in an IP-based wireline voice environment.Footnote 9
Q24: How will the transition from circuit-based public switched telephone networks to IP-based networks in Canada impact the provision of MRS, particularly TTY relay service?
Do you expect TTY relay service to work well over IP networks?
What technical barriers would be associated with supporting TTY relay service transmissions over IP networks?
Q25: How should MRS evolve to meet users' needs?
Q26: When should the Commission conduct its next review of the MRS regulatory framework?
Appropriateness of the current regulatory framework
Questions specific to the retail MRS framework
The Commission currently requires various categories of wireline telephone service providers to offer retail MRS to their customers. These providers comprise all
local exchange carriers (LECs), including ILECs, small ILECs, and wireline and wireless competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs);
resellers of local exchange services; and
providers of voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.
Wireless CLECs are required to offer MRS, but WSPs are not, unless they are registered with the Commission as a wireless (i.e. Type IIFootnote 10) CLEC.
Retail MRS may be provided either directly by the TSP or through a third-party service provider.
Q27: Does it remain appropriate that the above-noted providers (i.e. LECs, resellers of local exchange services, and VoIP providers) continue to be required to offer MRS to their customers? If not, explain why and propose a more appropriate regulatory requirement.
Q28: Does it remain appropriate that retail MRS may be provided through a third-party service provider? If not, explain why and propose a more appropriate regulatory requirement.
Question for WSPs that are not wireless CLECs:
Q29: Does your company currently offer MRS? If not, explain why.
Questions specific to the wholesale MRS framework
The Commission requires ILECs to offer wholesale MRS in their operating territories, which enables LECs, resellers of local exchange services, and VoIP providers to meet their requirement to offer retail MRS to their customers. As is the case with retail MRS, wholesale MRS may be provided either directly by the ILEC or through a third-party service provider.
Question for TSPs:
Q30: Does it remain necessary for the Commission to continue to require all ILECs to offer wholesale MRS in their respective operating territories? If not, how could the provision of MRS by other TSPs be assured in the absence of this obligation?
Appropriateness of the current tariffed rates
Questions specific to retail MRS rates
ILECs' costs for retail MRS are recovered through tariffed rates, most of which have been frozen since 1998. The rates are based on Phase II costs and include a markup of approximately 10%. They are set out in the ILECs' general tariffs and are charged to all wireline telephone service subscribers using the ILECs' networks. However, the rates are embedded in the ILECs' monthly wireline local service rates and therefore do not appear as a line item on subscribers' bills. Although ILECs are subject to tariffs, neither CLECs nor resellers are required to file tariffs for retail MRS.
Information collected as part of the VRS proceeding revealed that between 2008 and 2012, aggregate revenues collected by carriers, primarily ILECs, for the provision of MRS exceeded expenditures by greater than $10 million annually. The figures in the following table take into account the revenues and expenditures associated with the provision of retail and wholesale MRS.
MRS financial data (millions $)
Questions for TSPs and individuals (i.e. voice users and users with a hearing or speech disability:
Q31: In light of the surpluses and the fact that tariffed retail rates for MRS have been frozen, do these rates remain appropriate?
Q32: Should ILECs' provision of retail MRS continue to be funded through tariffed rates? If not, would the VRS funding model be appropriate?
Q33: Provide your views as to whether the Commission, in addition to collecting contributions from wireline subscribers, should also require contributions to be collected from wireless subscribers.
Q34: Should the Commission require Internet service providers to fund MRS?
Questions specific to wholesale MRS rates
As is the case with retail MRS, ILECs' costs for wholesale MRS are recovered through tariffed rates, most of which have been frozen since 1998. These rates are based on Phase II costs, and include a markup of approximately 25%. They are set out in the ILECs' general tariffs and are charged to TSPs that purchase wholesale MRS from the ILECs.
Since 2010, TCC has filed various applications and has obtained Commission approval for special facilities tariffs (SFTs)Footnote 11 for the provision of wholesale MRS to certain ILECs and CLECs. These SFTs allow TCC to bill on a per-second basis, unlike ILECs' general tariff rates, which apply on a per-network-access-service basis. No ILEC besides TCC has applied for SFTs for the provision of wholesale MRS.
Q35: Should wholesale MRS continue to be funded through tariffed rates?
If so, do the rates for wholesale MRS outlined in the ILECs' general tariffs remain appropriate? Should these rates be unfrozen?
Q36: Is it appropriate to allow other ILECs to provide wholesale MRS pursuant to SFTs at a rate that differs from the one specified in their general tariff and that allows it to be billed on a per-second basis, as opposed to on a per-network-access-service basis?
Q37: Should ILECs be permitted to enter into off-tariff agreements for the provision of wholesale MRS?
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Rules of Procedure) apply to this proceeding. The Rules of Procedure set out, among other things, the rules for the content, format, filing, and service of interventions, answers, replies, and requests for information; the procedure for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure; and the conduct of public hearings. Accordingly, the procedure set out below must be read in conjunction with the Rules of Procedure and related documents, which can be found on the Commission's website at www.crtc.gc.ca, under "Statutes and Regulations." The guidelines set out in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin 2010-959 provide information to help interested persons and parties understand the Rules of Procedure so that they can more effectively participate in Commission proceedings.
The companies listed in Appendix 2 to this notice are made parties to this proceeding and may file interventions with the Commission by 3 April 2017.
In order to ensure that the Commission has the factual record necessary to conduct its review, and to assist parties in formulating their interventions, Commission staff have requested information from the LECs listed in Appendix 2 by way of separate letters issued today. Responses to these requests for information are due by 6 March 2017 and will be added to the public record of this proceeding.
Interested persons who wish to become parties to this proceeding must file an intervention with the Commission regarding the above-noted issues by 3 April 2017. The intervention must be filed in accordance with section 26 of the Rules of Procedure.
Parties are permitted to coordinate, organize, and file, in a single submission, interventions by other interested persons who share their position. Information on how to file this type of submission, known as a joint supporting intervention, as well as a template for the accompanying cover letter to be filed by parties, can be found in Telecom Information Bulletin 2011-693.
All documents required to be served on parties to the proceeding must be served using the contact information contained in the interventions.
Parties may comment on the interventions and responses to requests for information filed by other parties with the Commission by 3 May 2017.
All parties may file final submissions with the Commission on any matter within the scope of this proceeding, by 2 June 2017. Final submissions, including an executive summary, are not to exceed 15 pages.
The Commission encourages interested persons and parties to monitor the record of this proceeding, available on the Commission's website at www.crtc.gc.ca, for additional information that they may find useful when preparing their submissions.
Submissions longer than five pages should include a summary. Each paragraph of all submissions should be numbered, and the line ***End of document*** should follow the last paragraph. This will help the Commission verify that the document has not been damaged during electronic transmission.
Pursuant to Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin 2015-242, the Commission expects incorporated entities and associations, and encourages all Canadians, to file submissions for Commission proceedings in accessible formats (for example, text-based file formats that enable text to be enlarged or modified, or read by screen readers). To provide assistance in this regard, the Commission has posted on its website guidelines for preparing documents in accessible formats.
Submissions must be filed by sending them to the Secretary General of the Commission using only one of the following means:
by completing the
[Intervention form]
by mail to
CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2
by fax to
Parties who send documents electronically must ensure that they will be able to prove, upon Commission request, that filing of a particular document was completed. Accordingly, parties must keep proof of the sending and receipt of each document for 180 days after the date on which the document is filed. The Commission advises parties who file and serve documents by electronic means to exercise caution when using email for the service of documents, as it may be difficult to establish that service has occurred.
In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, a document must be received by the Commission and all relevant parties by 5 p.m. Vancouver time (8 p.m. Ottawa time) on the date it is due. Parties are responsible for ensuring the timely delivery of their submissions and will not be notified if their submissions are received after the deadline. Late submissions, including those due to postal delays, will not be considered by the Commission and will not be made part of the public record.
The Commission will not formally acknowledge submissions. It will, however, fully consider all submissions, which will form part of the public record of the proceeding, provided that the procedure for filing set out above has been followed.
The Commission expects to publish a decision on the issues raised in this notice within four months of the close of record.
All information that parties provide as part of this public process, except information designated confidential, whether sent by postal mail, facsimile, email, or through the Commission's website at www.crtc.gc.ca, becomes part of a publicly accessible file and will be posted on the Commission's website. This includes all personal information, such as full names, email addresses, postal/street addresses, and telephone and facsimile numbers.
The personal information that parties provide will be used and may be disclosed for the purpose for which the information was obtained or compiled by the Commission, or for a use consistent with that purpose.
Documents received electronically or otherwise will be posted on the Commission's website in their entirety exactly as received, including any personal information contained therein, in the official language and format in which they are received. Documents not received electronically will be available in PDF format.
The information that parties provide to the Commission as part of this public process is entered into an unsearchable database dedicated to this specific public process. This database is accessible only from the web page of this particular public process. As a result, a general search of the Commission's website with the help of either its search engine or a third-party search engine will not provide access to the information that was provided as part of this public process.
Electronic versions of the interventions and other documents referred to in this notice are available on the Commission's website at www.crtc.gc.ca by using the file number provided at the beginning of this notice or by visiting the "Participate" section of the Commission's website, selecting "Submit Ideas and Comments," then selecting "our open processes." Documents can then be accessed by clicking on the links in the "Subject" and "Related Documents" columns associated with this particular notice.
Documents are also available at the following address, upon request, during normal business hours.
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
Central Building
1 Promenade du Portage, Room 206
Gatineau, Quebec J8X 4B1
Toll-free telephone: 1-877-249-2782
Toll-free TDD: 1-877-909-2782
Filing submissions for Commission proceedings in accessible formats, Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2015-242, 8 June 2015
Review of basic telecommunications services, Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2015-134, 9 April 2015, as amended by Telecom Notices of Consultation CRTC 2015-134-1, 3 June 2015; 2015-134-2, 22 December 2015; 2015-134-3, 14 January 2016; 2015-134-4, 9 March 2016; and 2015-134-5, 28 April 2016
Video relay service, Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2014-187, 22 April 2014
Filing of joint supporting interventions, Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2011-693, 8 November 2011
Guidelines on the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure, Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-959, 23 December 2010
Accessibility of telecommunications and broadcasting services, Broadcasting and Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-430, 21 July 2009, as amended by Broadcasting and Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-430-1, 17 December 2009
Review of regulatory framework, Telecom Decision CRTC 94-19, 16 September 1994
British Columbia Telephone Company – Voice Relay Service Centre, Telecom Decision CRTC 85-29, 23 December 1985
Appendix 1 to Telecom Notice of Consultation 2017-33
FCC's minimum standards for telecommunications relay services (TRS)
TRS providers must offer service that meets certain mandatory minimum standards set by the FCC. For example, the relay operator answering or placing a TRS call must
Be properly trained in the needs of persons with disabilities;
Be a qualified interpreter;
Have appropriate skills (typing, interpretation of typed ASL, language, etc.), and be capable of clear voice communications
Type a minimum of 60 words per minute;
Stay with the call for a minimum of 10 minutes to avoid disruptions to the TRS user;
Answer 85% of all calls within 10 seconds (compliance is measured on a daily basis);
Make best efforts to accommodate a TRS user's requested relay operator gender;
Ensure user confidentiality; and
Be able to handle emergency (9-1-1) calls and relay them to the appropriate emergency services.
TRS providers must submit some compliance data as part of their requests for reimbursement from the Telecommunications Relay Fund.
Companies that are being made parties to this proceeding
LECs:
Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership
Bell Canada
Bragg Communications Incorporated, operating as Eastlink
Cogeco Communications inc.
Freedom Mobile Inc.
MTS Inc.
Northwestel Inc.
Rogers Communications Canada Inc.
Saskatchewan Telecommunications
Shaw Telecom Inc.
Télébec, Limited Partnership
TELUS Communications Company
Videotron G.P.
WSPs that are not registered as CLECs:
Bell Mobility Inc.
CityWest Mobility Corp.
Globalstar Canada Satellite Co.
Gogo Connectivity Ltd.
Ice Wireless Inc.
Inukshuk Wireless Partnership
Lynx Mobility Inc.
Nexicom Mobility Inc.
Sogetel Mobilité inc.
See Telecom Decision 85-29.
See Broadcasting and Telecom Regulatory Policy 2009-430.
See Telecom Regulatory Policy 2014-187.
In this case, "major TSPs" refers to incumbent telephone service providers and large competitive local exchange carriers such as Rogers Communications Canada Inc. and Videotron G.P.
Commission-approved tariffed monthly rates for MRS are based on Phase II costs plus a markup. The markup is approximately 10% for retail MRS and 25% for wholesale MRS.
Based on information in the 2016 CRTC Communications Monitoring Report.
RTT is an IP-based messaging protocol that enables individuals with or without disabilities to communicate directly with one another, using text over a voice line, without the need to buy a stand-alone device like a TTY. With RTT, text can be sent as it is typed, without the need to press "send."
See Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 16-169.
See https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/comm/telecom/eslcclec.htm for definitions of CLEC types.
Return to footnote 10 referrer
In Telecom Decision 94-19, the Commission approved the use of SFTs, which set out customer-specific arrangements for services that involve features or technology that differ from those covered by general tariffs.


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After Nate, Costa Rica looks to measure mental health damage too
by Sebastian Rodriguez | @sebas211297 | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 16 August 2018 10:11 GMT
Children play in the community of Corralillo in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, hard hit by tropical storm Nate in 2017, on June 30, 2018. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Sebastian Rodriguez
As climate change brings worsening storms and other extreme weather, measuring financial losses and deaths may not be enough
By Sebastian Rodriguez
CORRALILLO, Costa Rica, Aug 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When tropical storm Nate hit Costa Rica in 2017, it lashed the Central American nation for three days. Nearly a year later, memories of the storm are still fresh for many - including for Marielos Alvarado.
She is one of thousands of residents of Corralillo, a municipality in country's northwestern Guanacaste region, who spent those anxious days in a shelter.
"On an emotional level it was very stressful. It took a lot for me to overcome certain things," she said.
Nate killed 11 people in Costa Rica, causing landslides and some of the most damaging flooding in the country's history. Some communities trapped by the storm ran out of drinking water and food, and electricity failed.
Such disasters - which are becoming more regular as a result of climate change - often cause mental health issues in those affected, said Jose Francisco Aleman, Corralillo's emergency coordinator.
But that aspect is regularly overlooked in disaster response efforts, he said - though tackling it is vital to help communities recover.
"When the emergency happens, people are in despair for help, scared of illness, desperate for food, etcetera. In the end, these issues - such as food and shelter - are taken care of, but the psychological effect is not," he said.
For Alvarado the flooding brought by Nate meant her family and others ran out of drinking water and food while waiting for help.
"I still can't get the elderly or children vomiting from hunger out of my head," she said.
Nate's intensity, she added, was unprecedented.
"Nobody expected the emergency to be of such magnitude," said Alvarado, who also heads the local disaster committee.
More than nine houses out of 10 in Corralillo were damaged, she said, including her own. When she finally arrived home, more than two weeks after the storm, only the walls of her home were left.
"It was shocking," she said.
Community members in Corralillo, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, talk about mental health issues and resilience to risks at the town's main shelter, June 30, 2018. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Sebastian Rodriguez
TYPES OF DESTRUCTION
Nate brought significant destruction to Costa Rica: more than $385 million in damage as well as the deaths, according to data from the National Emergency Commission (NEC).
But some experts now think damage assessments should go beyond financial losses and include things like impacts on mental health.
A study published last year in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, for example, said "recovery efforts must consider the long-term effects of hurricane exposure on mental health".
The Ministry of Environment has said Costa Rica is working to measure those effects, and how best to combat the damage to mental health as climate change brings stronger storms and other extreme weather.
Costa Rica's National Adaptation Plan (NAP) - its core plan to deal with climate change pressures - will be published later this year, and will feature mental health prominently, officials said.
But, the ministry said, the NAP would look only to teach municipalities how to spot mental health vulnerabilities; tackling them would remain the responsibility of local governments.
Gabriela Mora, a psychologist at the University of Costa Rica, said the NAP was a good start but more is needed - including clarity on how the government will work with local authorities to cut the risks and implement better mental health programs.
And it's not just the direct psychological impact of a disaster that needs to be considered, with many communities needing a broader level of support, said Mora, who is also the coordinator for the Psychosocial Brigade, a group of psychologists who provide help to those who have experienced a disaster.
That includes finding ways to reduce a community's vulnerability to future events, and encouraging people to meet and talk openly about their experiences, she said.
Corralillo is one example, Alvarado said. The community lies on what used to be a wetland and is surrounded by two rivers, the Las Palmas and the Tempisque. Access is difficult, there are few jobs, and there is a lack of emergency planning, she said.
Even though Corralillo had experienced three significant floods last year prior to Nate, the impact of that storm was far beyond what people were prepared for, Alvarado said.
As part of its efforts to deal with Nate's aftermath, the community held a series of workshops with Mora's department to discuss what had happened, and to train their neighbours on risk prevention.
Alvarado said the workshops attracted more people than expected, and allowed residents to talk about what had happened and learn lessons.
"That shows that the community is waking up," she said.
One key aspect of the work is helping people not just work through the damage but find ways to try to cut their risks and feel more security in the future, Mora said.
"The idea is not to remember it as 'the event that hurt me' but, rather, to observe how we have to improve from an event that has already happened," Mora said.
The region's vulnerabilities extend beyond physical aspects, such as the adjacent rivers, Mora said. In Corralillo, job insecurity is a key issue.
"Here they only have sugarcane around them, and the period when they grow cane is very short. After that, they are out of work," Mora said.
The flooded Tiribi river is seen during heavy rains of Tropical Storm Nate that affects the country in San Jose, Costa Rica October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate
Marco Carranza, a workshop organizer, said disaster-affected communities need to ask local authorities for help in order to be considered for it.
The local authority then writes a report listing the damage the community suffered: deaths, injuries and material losses, as well as - in theory - the community's assessment of the mental health impact.
That report gets sent to central government, which examines it and allocates funds.
But, Carranza said, communities are often not aware that they can include mental health "losses" - and many do not know recognize them as a problem until much later, when it is too late to request help.
Marianela Rojas, a member of the Psychosocial Support Technical Advisory Committee, the National Emergency Commission's main source of support for community mental health, said communities need to be trained to ask for such assistance.
But even those communities that do request and get help have may struggle, Carranza said - not least because measuring damage to mental health is inherently difficult.
Rojas said the National Emergency Commission was working on ways to calculate the impact of disasters on mental health. The country's climate change plan also will require every municipality to have mental health and risk programs in place by 2030.
Factoring in mental health considerations is essential in helping communities deal with the impacts of climate change, Rojas said.
Failing to do so, she added, could mean its invisible effects will "end up generating a very high cost to the state".
(Reporting by Sebastian Rodriguez. Editing by Robert Carmichael and Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Capitán Montoya est une localité argentine située dans le département de San Rafael, province de Mendoza.

Histoire
La localité a été fondée à partir d'une gare ferroviaire qui lui a donné des débuts prometteurs, mais avec sa fermeture, la localité a été reléguée. En 2001, les travaux de pose des rails de la ligne secondaire Capitán Montoya - Guadales ont commencé, mais les habitants de la localité les ont empêchés.

Bien qu'en 2001, sa population était inférieure à celle de Costa El Toledano, son importance est plus grande car elle est plus éloignée de San Rafael. Elle possède le bâtiment de la délégation municipale de Las Paredes, un centre de santé et une école fondée en 1958.

Notes et références

Ville dans la province de Mendoza

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Why does the while loop in that bash script stop after the first line I was stepping through a list of files with a bash script.
But: it always stopped after the first loop although the list in "$tempdat" was 10 lines long.
while IFS= read -r zeile; do
 # Zielsteuerung
 quelle=$(awk -F\/ '{print $2}')
 if [[ "$quelle" == "foo" ]]; then
   do that
 else
   do s.th. else
 fi
 rsync somefiles
done < "$tempdat"

After some searching I found the error, the awk was not correct
quelle=$(echo "$zeile"|awk -F\/ '{print $2}')

But: why did that mistake prevent the loop from finishing? Maybe someone with more bash insight could be so nice to enlighten me. :-)

A: The awk is consuming all of the data intended for the read in the condition of the loop.  Instead of using awk to try to parse the line, it seems like you intend to do:
while IFS=/ read -r a quelle b; do

and read the second column of the file into the variable quelle.
You can also write:
quelle=$(echo "$zeile" | awk -F\/ '{print $2}')

but it is generally best practice to let read split the fields for you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Palabras claves: formation, personality, extracurricular activities, tourist activities.
The present study aims to contribute to the improvement and modeling of the adolescents' optional extracurricular activities of physical education and sport through the experimental introduction of a program of tourist activities able to contribute to the formation of their personality. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of tourist activities on the physical, psychical and social accomplishment of the adolescent pupil, we elaborated a program with a specific content that was applied during a research achieved with the participation of two high school classes, during the school year 2004-2005. From the viewpoint of their structure and homogeneity, both the experimental group and the reference group included 28 subjects, boys and girls aged between 16 and 17. The results of the application of the curriculum mentioned above were interpreted based on the initial and final evaluation, based on the parameters that define the psychomotricity at this age, the social climate of the group and of the interpersonal relations during the tourist activities, and a survey concerning their opinion on the role of these activities in the formation of the teenager's personality features. The research underlined the fact that the forms of tourism proposed as part of the extracurricular educative program led to a significant progress of the experimental group, as it showed a better level of the researched parameters in comparison with the reference group. Key words: formation, personality, extracurricular activities, tourist activities.


text:
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Detroit Jews For Justice
Rabbi Alana Alpert
she/hers
Founding Executive Director
A California native, Rabbi Alana Alpert is excited to be reclaiming her Detroit roots (her great-grandfather had a men's wear store on 8 mile). She graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in Community Studies, where she studied resistance and social movements and first learned about faith-based community organizing. She is a graduate of AVODAH: the Jewish Service Corps and ACTIVATE! The Community Organizing Fellowship of Social Justice Leadership. Rabbi Alpert has worked as an organizer at NY Jobs with Justice and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
Clear that her work would be at the intersection of spirituality/faith community and social change, she went to rabbinical school to prepare for the next level of Jewish leadership. During her time at Hebrew College, Rabbi Alpert took leadership around feminism, Israel/Palestine, GLBTIQ rights, and prison reform. She co-founded the Liberatory Minyan, a place for rabbinical students to explore the nexus between prayer and activism. The burnout epidemic, which has led to increasing demand from social change-workers for spiritual counseling, inspired her capstone project "Like a Burning Bush: Jewish Practice for Activists."
She had the opportunity to live in Israel a total of three years and speaks Hebrew fluently. Rabbi Alpert co-founded and directed Project Hayei Sarah, a community of emerging Jewish leaders speaking out about human rights abuses in Hebron, for five years. While in rabbinical school, she worked at Harvard Hillel, Temple Shir Tikva, the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution, and completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education where she served Holocaust survivors.
Rabbi Alpert received ordination from Hebrew College in Boston in 2014. In her spare time, she swims, sings karaoke, and tries to learn to play guitar. In addition to serving as the director of DJJ, Rabbi Alpert is the proud rabbi of Congregation T'chiyah in Oak Park. She is really excited to meet you!
Her partner Justin, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, is a professor of philosophy. Ask him about Karl Marx, esoteric mysticism, and home-brewing.
Rabbi Alpert receives a high volume of email. For questions about our programs or general inquiries, or to contact Rabbi Alpert for speaking engagements, send a message to Valeriya Epshteyn or use our Contact Form. For matters related to Congregation T'chiyah specifically, you can email Community Engagement Associate Jake Ehrlich by clicking here. To reach Rabbi Alpert directly, click here to email her.
Valeriya Epshteyn
v/v's
Organizer for Culture & Resources
Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine and raised in Metro Detroit, Valeriya comes to us most recently from the University of Michigan with a concentration in Environmental Justice and Activism. Radicalized by impending ecosystem collapse, v dove into UM's fossil fuel divestment movement and entered local organizing through Semester in Detroit. Valeriya is a member of the Iyengar Yoga Detroit Collective's Ananda Owner Circle and Congregation T'chiyah. Valeriya is passionate about cooperatives, wealth redistribution, vegetable gardening and fermentation, and gathering people for embodied Jewish ritual such as Shabbat Dinner Murder Mysteries.
Click here to email Valeriya


Enjoy your favorite beverage with this stainless-steel eco-friendly drinking bottle featuring your favorite characters from Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel]. This tumbler is perfect for any season or occasion, and made from stainless steel for long lasting usage. Another great product for Fate fans. This is the Rider version.


text:
Katharine Weber
editor educator writer
New York City, New York, United States
Weber began her career in 1975, when she became an editorial assistant at Harper & Row. That same year she held the position of in-house editor at Richard Meier and Partners Architects. Next year she moved to the American Institute of Graphic Arts to serve as an assistant to director. Weber worked as an archivist at Josef Albers Foundation for 5 years from 1976. During 1985-87 she was a weekly columnist at the company Sunday New Haven Register. At the organization Publishers Weekly she worked at the position of a weekly fiction reviewer from 1988 till 1992. She was a founding member of Residents for Rural Roads and served there during 1980-1984. Weber also served at the Fairfield University as a guest speaker for 2 years from 1988. At Mattatuck Community College she held the post of a teacher in 1992. In addition, Weber was a trustee at the organization Kay Swift Memorial Trust from 1995, as well as a visiting writer in residence at Connecticut College from 1996 to 1997. She was a visiting lecturer at Yale University in 1997. In 2004 Weber worked as an artistic advisor for a restoration recording project with the non-profit label PS Classics which resulted in the release of a CD of the complete score, with Broadway performers and an orchestra conducted by Aaron Gandy, of the 1930 hit Broadway musical Fine and Dandy. In 2012 she was appointed for five-years to the Richard L. Thomas Chair in Creative Writing at Kenyon College. Nowadays Weber is an Editor at Large at The Kenyon Review, and served as final judge for the Kenyon Review 2013 and 2014 Short Fiction Contests. She is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of American Imago.
Gallery of Katharine Weber
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Other photo of Katharine Weber
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Triangle: A Novel
(By the time she dies at age 106, Esther Gottesfeld, the l...)
By the time she dies at age 106, Esther Gottesfeld, the last survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, has told the story of that day many times. But her own role remains mysterious: How did she survive? Are the gaps in her story just common mistakes, or has she concealed a secret over the years? As her granddaughter seeks the real story in the present day, a zealous feminist historian bears down on her with her own set of conclusions, and Esther's voice vies with theirs to reveal the full meaning of the tragedy. A brilliant chronicle of the event that stood for ninety years as New York's most violent disaster, Triangle forces us to consider how we tell our stories, how we hear them, and how history is forged from unverifiable truths.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312426143/?tag=prabook0b-20
The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities
(The Memory of All That is Katharine Weber's memoir of her...)
The Memory of All That is Katharine Weber's memoir of her extraordinary family. Her maternal grandmother, Kay Swift, was known both for her own music (she was the first woman to compose the score to a hit Broadway show, Fine and Dandy) and for her ten-year romance with George Gershwin. Their love affair began during Swift's marriage to James Paul Warburg, the multitalented banker and economist who advised (and feuded with) FDR. Weber creates an intriguing and intimate group portrait of the renowned Warburg family, from her great-great-uncle, the eccentric art historian Aby Warburg, whose madness inspired modern theories of iconography, to her great-grandfather Paul M. Warburg, the architect of the Federal Reserve System whose unheeded warnings about the stock-market crash of 1929 made him "the Cassandra of Wall Street." As she throws new light on her beloved grandmother's life and many amours, Weber also considers the role the psychoanalyst Gregory Zilboorg played in her family history, along with the ways the Warburg family has been as celebrated for its accomplishments as it has been vilified over the years by countless conspiracy theorists (from Henry Ford to Louis Farrakhan), who labeled Paul Warburg the ringleader of the so-called international Jewish banking conspiracy. Her mother, Andrea Swift Warburg, married Sidney Kaufman, but their unlikely union, Weber believes, was a direct consequence of George Gershwin's looming presence in the Warburg family. A notorious womanizer, Weber's father was a peripatetic filmmaker who made propaganda and training films for the OSS during World War II before producing the first movie with smells, the regrettable flop that was AromaRama. He was as much an enigma to his daughter as he was to the FBI, which had him under surveillance for more than forty years, and even noted Katharine's birth in a memo to J. Edgar Hoover. Colorful, evocative, insightful, and very funny, The Memory of All That is an enthralling look at a tremendously influential—and highly eccentric—family, as well as a consideration of how their stories, with their myriad layers of truth and fiction, have both provoked and influenced one of our most prodigiously gifted writers. From the Hardcover edition.
The Music Lesson: A Novel
("She's beautiful," writes Irish-American art historian Pa...)
"She's beautiful," writes Irish-American art historian Patricia Dolan in the first of the journal entries that form The Music Lesson. "I look at my face in the mirror and it seems far away, less real than hers." The woman she describes is the subject of the stolen Vermeer of the novel's title. Patricia is alone with this exquisite painting in a remote Irish cottage by the sea. How she arrived in such an unlikely circumstance is one part of the story Patricia tells us: about her father, a policeman who raised her to believe deeply in the cause of a united Ireland; the art history career that has sustained her since the numbing loss of her daughter; and the arrival of Mickey O'Driscoll, her dangerously charming, young Irish cousin, which has led to her involvement in this high-stakes crime. How her sublime vigil becomes a tale of loss, regret, and transformation is the rest of her story. The silent woman in the priceless painting becomes, for Patricia, a tabula rasa, a presence that at different moments seems to judge, to approve, or to offer wisdom. As Patricia immerses herself in the turbulent passions of her Irish heritage and ponders her aesthetic fidelity to the serene and understated pleasures of Dutch art, she discovers, in her silent communion, a growing awareness of all that has been hidden beneath the surface of her own life. And she discovers that she possesses the knowledge of what she must do to preserve the things she values most. From the Hardcover edition.
Still Life with Monkey
("Stark and compelling . . . Rigorously unsentimental yet ...)
"Stark and compelling . . . Rigorously unsentimental yet suffused with emotion: possibly the best work yet from an always stimulating writer."―Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A brilliantly crafted novel, brimming with heart."―Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage "Rich and compelling . . . Her characters are vividly, achingly real, including the tiny, furry one at the novel's center."―Ann Packer, author of The Dive From Clausen's Pier Duncan Wheeler is a successful architect who savors the quotidian pleasures in life until a car accident leaves him severely paralyzed and haunted by the death of his young assistant. Now, Duncan isn't sure what there is left to live for, when every day has become "a broken series of unsuccessful gestures." Duncan and his wife, Laura, find themselves in conflict as Duncan's will to live falters. Laura grows desperate to help him. An art conservator who has her own relationship to the repair of broken things, Laura brings home a highly trained helper monkey―a tufted capuchin named Ottoline―to assist Duncan with basic tasks. Duncan and Laura fall for this sweet, comical, Nutella-gobbling little creature, and Duncan's life appears to become more tolerable, fuller, and funnier. Yet the question persists: Is it enough? Katharine Weber is a masterful observer of humanity, and Still Life with Monkey, full of tenderness and melancholy, explores the conflict between the will to live and the desire to die.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158988129X/?tag=prabook0b-20
The Little Women
(A delightfully clever contemporary novel inspired by the ...)
A delightfully clever contemporary novel inspired by the Louisa May Alcott classic In Katharine Weber's third novel, The Little Women, three adolescent sisters--Meg, Jo and Amy--are shocked when they discover their mother's affair, but are truly devastated by their father's apparently easy forgiveness of her. Shattered by their parents' failure to live up to the moral standards and values of the family, the two younger sisters leave New York (and their private school) and move to Meg's apartment in New Haven, where Meg is a junior at Yale. They enroll in the local inner-city public high school, and, divorced from their parents, they try to make a life with Meg as their surrogate mother. Written in the form of an autobiographical novel by Joanna, the middle sister, the pages of The Little Women are punctuated by comments from the "real" Meg and Amy. Their notes and Jo's replies form a second narrative, as they argue about the "truth" of the novel. Why do readers insist on searching for the autobiographical elements of fiction? When does a novelist go too far in mulching actual experience for a novel? What rights, if any, does a writer have to grant the people in her life and story? An ingenious combination of classic storytelling in a contemporary mode, The Little Women confirms Katharine Weber's reputation as a writer who "astutely explores the gap between perception and reality." (The New York Times Book Review) A delightfully clever contemporary novel inspired by the Louisa May Alcott classic In Katharine Weber's third novel, The Little Women, three adolescent sisters--Meg, Jo and Amy--are shocked when they discover their mother's affair, but are truly devastated by their father's apparently easy forgiveness of her. Shattered by their parents' failure to live up to the moral standards and values of the family, the two younger sisters leave New York (and their private school) and move to Meg's apartment in New Haven, where Meg is a junior at Yale. They enroll in the local inner-city public high school, and, divorced from their parents, they try to make a life with Meg as their surrogate mother. Written in the form of an autobiographical novel by Joanna, the middle sister, the pages of The Little Women are punctuated by comments from the "real" Meg and Amy. Their notes and Jo's replies form a second narrative, as they argue about the "truth" of the novel. Why do readers insist on searching for the autobiographical elements of fiction? When does a novelist go too far in mulching actual experience for a novel? What rights, if any, does a writer have to grant the people in her life and story? An ingenious combination of classic storytelling in a contemporary mode, The Little Women confirms Katharine Weber's reputation as a writer who "astutely explores the gap between perception and reality." (The New York Times Book Review)
Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: A Novel (Harriet Rose, 26, is an American photographer just winnin...)
True Confections: A Novel (Take chocolate candy, add a family business at war with i...)
Blanche Boyd
Maxim D. Shrayer
Naomi Wallace
Daniel Snell
Cara De Silva
Donley Watt
Katharine Weber Edit Profile
Katharine Weber is an American writer of novels. She is currently serving at the position of the Visiting Richard L. Thomas Chair in Creative Writing at Kenyon College.
Katharine Weber was born on November 12, 1955 in New York City, United States. She is the daughter of Sidney and Andrea Warburg Kaufman. Her maternal grandmother was composer Kay Swift and her grandfather was banker James Warburg.
Weber graduated from the New School for Social Research in 1976, as well as from the Yale College in 1984.
Weber began her career in 1975, when she became an editorial assistant at Harper & Row. That same year she held the position of in-house editor at Richard Meier and Partners Architects. Next year she moved to the American Institute of Graphic Arts to serve as an assistant to director. Weber worked as an archivist at Josef Albers Foundation for 5 years from 1976. During 1985-87 she was a weekly columnist at the company Sunday New Haven Register. At the organization Publishers Weekly she worked at the position of a weekly fiction reviewer from 1988 till 1992. She was a founding member of Residents for Rural Roads and served there during 1980-1984. Weber also served at the Fairfield University as a guest speaker for 2 years from 1988. At Mattatuck Community College she held the post of a teacher in 1992. In addition, Weber was a trustee at the organization Kay Swift Memorial Trust from 1995, as well as a visiting writer in residence at Connecticut College from 1996 to 1997. She was a visiting lecturer at Yale University in 1997.
In 2004 Weber worked as an artistic advisor for a restoration recording project with the non-profit label PS Classics which resulted in the release of a CD of the complete score, with Broadway performers and an orchestra conducted by Aaron Gandy, of the 1930 hit Broadway musical Fine and Dandy.
In 2012 she was appointed for five-years to the Richard L. Thomas Chair in Creative Writing at Kenyon College.
Nowadays Weber is an Editor at Large at The Kenyon Review, and served as final judge for the Kenyon Review 2013 and 2014 Short Fiction Contests.
She is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of American Imago.
During her career Weber received numerous awards.
She became the Best Columnist of the Year, according to New England Women's Press Association in 1986. Also she received Discovery Award from New England Booksellers Association in 1995. Weber had "Discover Great New Writers" Barnes and Noble that same year. She won "New Voices" designation from Borders Books in 1995, as well.
Weber was included among Granta's Best Young American Novelists in 1996.
Her second novel, The Music Lesson has been translated into thirteen foreign languages. Her third novel, The Little Women, a Finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize. Her book Triangle won the 2007 Connecticut Book Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
True Confections: A Novel
(Take chocolate candy, add a family business at war with i...)
Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: A Novel
(Harriet Rose, 26, is an American photographer just winnin...)
Quotations: "I have rarely done things in the usual order. I have no high school diploma, having left after eleventh grade to attend The New School, when I was sixteen, and I have no college degree, though several years of part-time college at The New School and Yale. One way of thinking about this as an asset rather than a liability is to consider my education as being an ongoing activity rather than something that has been completed."
"Though I worked as a journalist and critic for several years, my fiction was never published anywhere until a story of mine was selected off the slush pile for publication in New Yorker in January of 1993. That story was to form part of my first novel.
"I tell this story to encourage all unpublished fiction writers. It can happen."
Weber is a member of National Book Critics Circle, Authors Guild and PEN.
She was a board member.
National Book Critics Circle.
Music, walking, literature
Weber married Nicholas Fox Weber on September 19, 1976. They have 2 children - Lucy Swift and Charlotte Fox.
Sidney Kaufman - film producer
Andrea Warburg Kaufman - photographer
Nicholas Fox Weber
Lucy Swift Weber
Charlotte Fox Weber
New School for Social Research New York, United States
Yale College , Student New Haven, Connecticut, United States
editorial assistant , Harper & Row
in-house editor , Richard Meier and Partners Architects
assistant to director , American Institute of Graphic Arts
archivist , Josef Albers Foundation
Orange, Connecticut, United States
founding member , Residents for Rural Roads
Columnist , Sunday New Haven Register
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
guest speaker , Fairfield University
weekly fiction reviewer , Publishers Weekly
teacher , Mattatuck Community College
Waterbury, Connecticut, United States
trustee , Kay Swift Memorial Trust
lecturer , Connecticut College
New London, Connecticut, United States
Visiting writer in residence , Connecticut College
Visiting lecturer , Yale University
Richard L. Thomas Chair in Creative Writing , Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio, United States
Best Columnist of the Year
Discovery Award
Connecticut Book Award for Fiction


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Father Ciro Benedettini, CP, assistant director of the Holy See Press Office, has denied reports that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments presented proposals to Pope Benedict for changes in the Mass that would touch off a liturgical "reform of the reform." However, his statement leaves room for the possibility that future reforms may be under discussion.
"For the time being there are no institutional proposals for a modification of the liturgical books used at present," Father Benedettini said. That statement does not directly contradict a report by Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale, who reported that the Congregation for Divine Worship had presented the Pontiff with a list of proposals for further discussion. Some of the suggested mentioned in Tornielli's column-- such as the possible return to celebrating Mass ad orientem or the abolition of Communion in the hand-- would not require any "modification of the liturgical books," since they could be done on the authority of individual pastors, bishops, or episcopal conferences, without requiring Vatican action.


We are extremely proud and excited to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Motor Trader Independent Garage of the Year Award 2018 for the 2nd year running.
With all the computers, networks and technology fited to modern cars, the car battery has never been so important.
If you've been past the garage recently, you will probably have noticed we're having some work done! Most of our customers are locals so we wanted to keep you in the loop about the work we are having done and why we are doing it.
More and more buyers are choosing finance to fund their dream cars. There are several types of car finance, each with their pros and cons – read on to work out which is right for you.
We are very excited to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Motor Trader Independent Garage of the Year Award 2017!


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