The protests against the CAA are just one in reaction to a long list of disturbing legislations and moves that are being tabled and passed in the country. These bills have the power to change the very fabric of our lives - forfeiting our privacy, denying us of our basic rights, and enforcing major changes. These are some of the bills that should worry us as Indians.

At first glance, this billseeks to protect the privacy of personal data and regulate the processing of 'sensitive' and 'critical' personal data. What this means however, is that the central government has unrestrained access to bypass allprivacy safeguardsand snoop on any personal information. Such wide-ranging power can be easily abused, and consideringthe snooping and surveillance allegations made by Whatsapp and Google in recent months, it has already begun.

The bill, which passed on August 5th, seeks to provide a mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgender people. However, it met with massive protests as it requires transgender persons to go through a district magistrate and a district screening committee to get certified as a trans person. A revised certificate can only be obtained if the person undergoes surgery to confirm their gender. There are no provisions for an appeal if the individual is denied a certificate.

Crucial amendments were made to the UAPA Act recently, allowing the Centre and states to designate individuals as terrorists and seize their property. This can be done without an FIR, charge sheet, or trial. Opposition members have argued that the amendments are unconstitutional and that they violate an individuals right to liberty.

This law grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who have entered India fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Migrantswho identify themselves with any community other than these won't be eligible for citizenship. That prominently includes Muslims, which is extremely problematic.

This is a register of all the citizens of India, requiring every person to prove through documentary evidence that they belong to this country. This means ID cards, tax receipts and AADHAAR cards are not enough. You have to prove your ancestry through historical documents. It is an extremely difficult proposition as several people, especially from older generations, have no record of their birth certificate.

Around 1.9 million people in Assam were excluded from the states final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in August. Meanwhile, theconstructionof Goalpara Detention Camp has already begun. It is designed to hold 3000 people, and is one of 10 planned detention centres. If those who have been left out of the list are not able to prove their citizenship before the deadline ends, they will be taken to the detention centre.

The original 2005 RTI Ac'seffectiveness hinged on the independence of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and its equivalents in the states. However, the amendment allows the Centre to decide the tenure as well as the salary of the CIC and ICs. It would effectively nullify the independence of the state legislatures, and put total power in the Centre in terms of dismissals as well. Opposition parties have termed it the 'RTI Elimination Bill', and have argued that there was no reason given for doing away with statutorily defined tenures. They claim it was steamrolled through in order to give the Centre more power.

All of these moves have had their supporters and their naysayers, but one can't deny that it is highly worrying. These are legislations and changes that will have a far reaching impact on our lives, even if we don't see them now.

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Not Just CAA, 7 Bills & Plans Of The Government That Should Worry Every Citizen Of The Country - ScoopWhoop

In this op-ed series published exclusively on Out.com, members of the LGBTQ+ community discuss their support for the major contenders in the 2020 presidential primaries. Participating candidates includeBernie Sanders,Elizabeth Warren,Pete Buttigieg,Julin Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, andCory Booker, and one editorial will be published every weekday. The editorials in this series do not reflect the views ofOutmagazine or its editors.

In todays installment,gay coupleJonathan Mintz and John Feinblatt tell us why they believe Michael Bloomberg should be the next president of the United States.

Given the pro-LGBTQ+ policy positions of many Democratic candidates running for president today, it may be surprising to remember that very few elected officials in either party supported marriage equality even 10 years ago. Yet in 2005, Mike Bloomberg, New York Citys mayor at the time, publicly announced his support for marriage equality and played a pivotal role in helping to make same-sex marriage legal in New York state in June 2011.

As two people who have worked with and known Mike for 18 years, we have seen how effective a leader he is. Mikes advocacy for the freedom to marry not only helped advance equality for more than a quarter million couples, but also led to our own wedding one that he personally helped orchestrate.

John Feinblatt:A personal commitment

Lets get a cup of coffee.

I didnt have a choice. The person asking or telling was my boss, the mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg. I stood up from my desk, expecting a routine conversation in the office kitchen.

Just days before, New York had become the sixth state to make marriage equality the law thanks in no small part to Mikes vision and persistence. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the historic bill on a Friday night. The following Sunday, when hundreds of thousands marched down Fifth Avenue in the citys annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade, they not only cheered their hero mayor and governor. They openly wept.

Now Mike had an idea. He didnt know if Jonathan and I were thinking about marrying. But if we were, he told me, he wanted to officiate.

If youd like me to do it, Id really love to, Mike said.

Jonathan and I had been talking about it for a while. Our family had a house in Massachusetts, where equality was already the law. But marrying there didnt feel quite right. We were New Yorkers. And now we could tie the knot at home, finally, just like any other couple.

So, when Mike popped the question, I was ready with the answer. Somewhat begrudgingly, Mike and I agreed that I really ought to ask Jonathan first.

Before we knew it, we had 18 days to plan a wedding.

By that point, for more than a decade, the two of us had a front-row seat to Mikes leadership. Wed watched up close as he did the job of mayor, day in and day out, with steadfast determination, unflappable ethics, and a limitless passion for innovation.

Both of us joined the Bloomberg administration at the start in 2002. I became Mikes policy chief, while Jonathan served as his commissioner of consumer affairs. As mayor, Mike had unfailingly backed our work on gun violence prevention, immigration reform, consumer protection, and financial empowerment, just to name a few of the initiatives wed worked on together.

Across all the years and all our efforts, we found that no issue resonated more personally than Mikes commitment and accomplishments on advancing LGBTQ+ rights.

In 2011, only five states and the District of Columbia had legalized marriage equality, and there were no federal protections in place for same-sex couples. Mike had to travel to the capitol in Albany, with me at his side, and make his case to the holdouts in the state legislature.

Mike didnt appeal to politics. He appealed to lawmakers wavering cores: What is your spouse telling you at home about this? He cajoled, Youre not gonna be able to look in the mirror if you vote no on this. Thinking of his own daughters, he cut right to the heart of the matter. Holiday dinners are gonna be really awkward if your kids know you were on the wrong side of history.

Beyond New York, Mike also put up his own money to back successful equality ballot campaigns in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington state. He became not just an ally, but a champion for LGBTQ+ Americans. The wave of activity in states and courts advancing marriage equality that Mike supported eventually led to the Supreme Courts decision that legalized gay marriage in 2015.

Mike knew we would win. In the long run, civil rights always march forward, hed say, time and again. And march we did, down Fifth Avenue, on that glorious Sunday in June.

Jonathan Mintz:The right thing to do

We were married in New York City at historic Gracie Mansion on July 24, 2011, the very first day that marriage equality took effect in the state. Mike got his wish and served as officiant. At that point in his tenure as mayor, hed only performed two other ceremonies one for his mayoral predecessor and one for his elder daughter. He handled ours like a pro.

Our brief engagement had been in the news, and so we were surrounded by cameras and journalists on our wedding day. Even amid the bright lights, Mike made sure the whole day was about our family and especially our young daughters. They couldnt stop smiling. The ceremony itself was simple and traditional. Our famous officiant was gracious and unassuming.

For Mike, equality isnt a campaign plank or a policy paper. Its personal, and its the right thing to do.

While we have made enormous progress on LGBTQ+ rights, there is still much work to be done. The Trump administration has turned back the clock on many important LGBTQ+ issues, and we need a proven leader who can get us back on track.

Like every fundamental civil right, equality is worth expanding and fighting for. And Mike doesnt stop until the job is done and the fight is won.

Thats the Mike Bloomberg we know. Thats the kind of president we know hell be.

John Feinblatt was the Criminal Justice Coordinator and Chief Policy Advisor for Mike Bloomberg from 2002-2013. Jonathan Mintz is the Founding President and CEO of Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. They have been married since 2011.

RELATED | Op-Ed: Why I Believe Joe Biden Should Be the Next President

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Op-Ed: Why We Believe Michael Bloomberg Should Be the Next President - Out Magazine

Mums the Word | Asian Legal Business Mums the Word Among the biggest hindrances to women advancing in the legal profession in Asia is the challenge of maintaining a balance between raising children and focusing on their careers. Luckily, a number of forward-thinking Asian law rms are stepping up their support by providing family-friendly workplace initiatives.What are some of the key parental-leave, work-life balance and other career-advancement initiatives your firm has in place to assist working mothers?Mikiko Soga and Yuri SuganoPartners, Nishimura & AsahiBesides our baseline parental-leave system that allows temporary leave during working mothers or their partners childbearing and child-rearing, Nishimura & Asahi also provides a Temporary Working Arrangements System for lawyers who need to temporarily reduce their workload for personal reasons, such as childbearing and child-rearing, to continue to maintain opportunities for their career advancement. Colleagues are also very supportive of working mothers. Our Lawyers Moms Manual, produced voluntarily and informally by some female lawyers and updated regularly over the past decade, is useful for us as working mothers to make a pleasant working environment, providing guidance and tips about childbearing, child-rearing and returning to work based on actual experiences of our rms working mother lawyers. Also, our Associate Care Committee has recently started a new networking event for female lawyers, regularly hosting dinner for female lawyers from different practices to share information that helps them to balance work and life. Our rm has been developing a comfortable working environment and promoting a well-dened working style while fostering diversity and inclusion-oriented mindset. While the working environment for mothers has changed drastically in the past number of years in Japan, Nishimura & Asahi is committed to promoting concrete and substantive measures that support women and enhance diversity.Foo Yuet MinDirector, Drew & NapierAt Drew & Napier, we ensure that the environment we have is one that is optimal for our lawyers to build lasting careers in. We consciously look into grooming promising lawyers and ensuring equal opportunities in the route to partnership, regardless of gender or life choices.One of the major obstacles that working mothers and lawyers in general face is the difculty of maintaining work-life balance. Due to the demanding nature of our work, most lawyers have to work late hours and remain accessible almost 24/7. It can be challenging for a working mother to practise law in such circumstances. To assist working mothers, as well as fathers in Drew to juggle professional and personal commitments, we have exible arrangements to help our lawyers do that. These range from sabbaticals, the exibility to work from home fortnightly, and part-time working arrangements, among others. All these are made possible by todays technological advancements and our connectedness with each other, including our clients.Drew & Napier recognises the need that all individuals (whether mothers, fathers or other caregivers) may, from time to time in their career, require flexi-work arrangements and are fully supportive of it. Lawyers in Drew are encouraged to propose alternative work arrangements to their team leaders, if they require. At the end of the day, the structure of the arrangements should be bene-cial for both the employee and the rm. I am a working mother, and there are many others in Drew. While juggling practice and family commitments is never a breeze, with some creativity, supportive colleagues and an ability to adapt, work-life balance is entirely achievable.Yvonne SinHead of Human Resources, Asia,Norton Rose FulbrightAs a global law rm, we work in very diverse markets and having a diverse workforce allows us to better understand and advise our clients on their business needs. The attraction, selection and retention of diverse talent is therefore critical to our success. Our diversity and inclusion strategy is centred on three core pillars: our clients, our people and our culture. Many of our partners joined the rm as trainees and many of our female leaders on the board and management committee have risen through the ranks. These women act as role models for our rising talent, over half of whom are women.To improve the number of women reaching partnership, we are focusing our efforts on active career development though our talent management programmes. Success on the gender diversity front is measured by the retention, development and promotion of female talent, the recruitment of female employees and partners, the success of our exible and agile working programmes and our maternity retention statistics. We constantly measure and monitor the results achieved.We are committed to creating and sustaining a working environment and culture which is supportive, respectful and values difference. In this regard, one of our priorities is life stages. We understand that being a working parent is one of the challenging stages in life and have introduced our Agile Working Programme in Asia which offers every employee and partner choice and empowerment around where and when they work.

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Personal stylist Estelle Pape has a passion for empowering people to live their best lives through her work as an image consultant, life and leadership coach. Born to teach, lead and inspire. Dynamic, warm and curious, she says her commitment to reaching her potential and helping others do the same is in her DNA.

A former Head of Department, Accounting and Commerce at Aucklands Pakuranga College (2003-06), sharing the exact same tenure with the schools inspirational principal, Bali Haque.

Bali took Pakuranga College from good to great, Estelle says. He was an amazing leader and a strategic trailblazer who changed the way we taught.

And, personally, Estelle also celebrates Bali for taking the time to invest in her own career as a leader. I was really moved by that, she says.

Statuesque (at 1.8m, and extremely stylish with a strong twist of individuality), Estelle was born in South Africa where she gained her BComm, a Higher Teaching Diploma and trained as a personal stylist too. She then taught high school in her hometown for two years before embracing her love for flying; a passion inherited from her aviation executive father.

Joining Emirates, she worked as a flight attendant for five years before immigrating to New Zealand in 2003 and taking up her role atthe East Aucklandcollege. But, in 2006, the urge to spread her wings again accelerated when she saw an advertisement from a leading New Zealand airline carrier, wanting to appoint 35 new concierge roles.

Flying long-haul on 777s, the concierge job description read like a flight attendants dream, she recalls.

Applicants needed to be personable, confident, great at making positive first impressions and assisting at passengers with any queries about their flight or destination.

It seemed tailor-made for Estelle. She joined 34 others and underwent two weeks of ridiculously enjoyable training, including being ordered to get lost and found in LA before the fully-fledged concierges took to the skies.

Soon after, Estelle was asked to front an internal super hero campaign for the airlines staff, teaching the epitome of great customer service.

It was an amazing opportunity that seemed to draw on everything Id studied for and loved to do, she says. My training in the airline industry influenced me strongly, especially on the importance of first impressions. I was taught you always dress to the position you aspire to; to always dress business class because you never know when youll get upgraded.

While she loved her work, Estelle says there was still a little voice on her shoulder whispering that there was more potential to reach. She knew it was time to focus on her leadership skills and take the next step to Flight Attendant Number One, the manager role that captains rely on to sort the cabin; her hand went up for promotion.

I think, for a people-person like me, systems and procedures are something you really need to ingrain within yourself. So this was a great opportunity to express my leadership, and become a leader. It was uncomfortable, initially, but then I got into it.

As part of a new training initiative, our cabin crew manager and team flew to New York to meet Simon Sinek, the author of What is Your Why.

Together with Simon we created the content for the customer service and leadership training videos for the airlines cabin leaders and cabin crew. I was lucky enough to be one of the presenters and for me, delivering the programme was life changing, personal and powerful.

Following several more stellar years in the air, Estelle felt it was time to bring her skills back home and help others reach their potential as well I wanted to make an impact in my own way.

Enter The Flying Stylist

Set on her new path, and already an accomplished life and business coach, Estelle took a refresher course in personal styling before launching her own consultancy last year as a personal stylist with a difference.

Drawing on her love for fashion, style and empowerment, she launched The Flying Stylist to help people discover and enhance their own unique style so they could act with confidence and authenticity in the world thats everyones birth-right, Estelle maintains.

Now, through her interactive workshops, people can feel confident and empowered, discover their style personality and have fun in the process.

I really want people to live their best lives, not to be shy and hide, but have the confidence to be themselves.

Concerned that fast fashion is polluting, Estelle plays her part for the environment by re-purposing pre-loved garments such as denim jackets and customising them to her clients taste and style.

She also offers her own concierge service, whereby she selects pieces for time poor clients, items she knows theyll love and relate to.

Its so important to make powerful connections, to be surrounded by people who encourage you and speak to your potential, she says.

Thats the big thing lacking these days. Connectivity is going online and finding things out but thats not connecting. Connecting with the right people in the right way, little by little, means you can positively change a life and thats what I love to do; help people to look and feel their best.

By Jes Magill

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A high flying inspiration - btob

Im a very open and public sex worker and a published writer whose work focuses on issues relating to sex work and sexuality. I loved my 10-plus years working as a sex worker. In fact, I never found it anywhere near as degrading and dehumanizing as my interactions with boyfriends and lovers in my personal life.

While I dont want to negate the reality of some peoples very true experiences with violence and coercion in the sex industry (I myself am a sex trafficking survivor), I found much of my sex working experience to be positive, respectful and defined by clear boundaries and consent.

While I was an active sex worker, I tried to date in my personal life, but for me, it was just too difficult to find a cisgender heterosexual man who would or could understand that sex work is work and not feel threatened about it.

Four years ago, I stopped using drugs and alcohol after many years of struggling with addiction. I was no longer doing sex work and, as part of this new road to healing, I sought a new relationship to men and sex in my personal life through celibacy. So, up until a few months ago, I hadnt had any sex paid or unpaid in four years. I really wanted to focus on choosing healthier, less toxic men in my non-work sex life.

I ended up losing my virginity to a gang member named Michael (all names in this piece have been changed) who had been recently incarcerated. His response to me telling him about my escorting past was, I think I like you even more now, cause you had the balls to be honest ... and honesty is beautiful.

I felt understood and accepted, which unfortunately didnt last long as things usually dont with this particular type of bad boy and I never saw or heard from him again after he got what he wanted from the former hooker. I was bummed I had felt a sort of misfit connection. The escort and the outlaw. We could fight crime.

Next I met Richard. Richard was the total opposite of Michael; the total opposite of really any guy I had ever been out with. He was nerdy, sweet and his apartment was filled with books on ancient Greek and Latin, mathematics and the collected theories of Nietzsche. It was the kind of relationship I instantly knew was good for me precisely because of how strange and unfamiliar it seemed. We bonded over our mutual love of literature, music, psychology and history. When I told him I was a writer before our first date, he seemed immediately excited to read some of my work.

My writing includes details about my life as a sex worker, my history of trauma and abuse, and my experiences as a sex trafficking survivor. Knowing that, I hesitated to send him links he asked for to pieces Id written, but I decided to go ahead, because, I figured, it was better to find out sooner rather than later if he could hang, so to speak.

Even before I reached the bar where we were meeting for our first date, he texted me back, Done! ... wow.

I wasnt entirely sure whether that was a good wow, but hoped for the best. When I got to the bar, his face was white as a ghost and he struggled and stumbled over his words. I chalked it up to nerdy-guy nerves, but when we were in his bed later that night, he couldnt get hard.

Are you nervous or something? I said, slightly offended. He replied no, but that my writing had caught him really off guard. It was just a lot to take in, he said.

I didnt feel any sympathy for him. Yes, I know that reading about the girl youre going out with having been an escort is a lot, but it felt like he expected me to say sorry for inconveniencing his penis with my past.

And yet, I did find myself apologizing to him. In that moment, I felt like I had to apologize for who I was and who I am. I had to apologize that any part of me had inconvenienced or intruded upon his wealthy, white, college-educated manhood. Im sorry I exist and that Im a living, breathing reminder that people who arent cishet men have to make hard choices around survival every day.

Richard ended things and I wasnt surprised. I continued to talk to a number of guys and I started forming a very lovely connection with another man. We both loved literature, and he was also really keen to read my writing, but I was a bit gun-shy after Richard. I finally told him that while I was happy to share the links to my writing, he should know Im a sex worker and thats what a lot of my writing is about. To this day, I have never received a text back from him.

Ive tried telling guys upfront and Ive tried waiting for a right time. Neither approach makes a difference in my experience. If someone is the type to stick around through a disclosure of that nature then timing isnt going to be the deciding factor; what kind of person the individual in question is and their character and integrity thats what matters.

I met another guy named Dylan recently. With him, I could be completely upfront about my time in the sex industry because he was also a part of it and was also in the Seattle kink scene. Concepts like sex positivity, sexual empowerment and intersectional feminism werent things I had to explain to him. But it wasnt long into our initial conversations before it became obvious that these ideas were just that to him.

He asked me in sweet, lilted tones if I would escort for him because he really needed money to buy a car and felt lost without one. Please babe, will you help me, Ill recruit customers for you and help you set up a webcamming site, he went on and on and on.

Sigh. Needless to say that didnt work out and Im back to square one.

It has become clear to me that mens reactions to my disclosure will fall into one of several categories. 1) They recoil out of some combination of disgust, fear of STDs and, lets be honest, a worry that if I were to have sex with them, I would truly know how shitty they are in bed. 2) They think this information means Ill be easy prey to pimp out and make money off of. 3) They stay with me but throw it back in my face every chance they get just to make sure I know I could never hope for anything better.

Im here to say to all the men I have dated and will date, I will never make myself smaller to protect your fragile egos. More than likely, yes, I am more sexually experienced than you. Meaning, if you suck in bed, I will know it. Damn right. Rise to the occasion.

Im not dirty, Im not gross, Im not a means by which you can buy a new car or pay your rent, and I dont have to settle for the kind of man who would ever try to degrade who I am and the experiences that have shaped me. I dont have to apologize for making you feel uncomfortable about all the free and easy rides youve gotten in life just from being a cisgender hetero man.

Youd be damned lucky to have this ho as your wife.

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Written by Osama Manzar | Published: December 19, 2019 5:10:30 am On the World Wide Web, having an address is a must for our existence. (Representational Image)

Dear members of the board, Internet Society (ISOC), and Public Interest Registry (PIR), who manage the dot org domain: This is in the context of your decision to sell all the assets of PIR to a private company. Have you ever met or interacted with homeless people? Those who may not have a home or a physical address? Similarly, on the World Wide Web, having an address is a must for our existence. All human beings, with any activity they do, need a domain on the internet to belong or to identify with a digital address.

Dot Org, besides dot ngo, was one such domain that offered entities that do not work for profit, a digital identity. When I have a web address or email ID with dot org as a suffix, people immediately identify me as someone involved in not-for-profit activities.

In other words, dot org is a space that shelters communities involved in charitable activities, be it human rights,poverty alleviation or disaster mitigation: Initiatives which make the world a just place for all humans. In fact, the entire United Nations and all its bodies have a digital home with an extension of dot org.

I would like to give you a glimpse of my personal association with ISOC and PIR that has empowered millions of people and thousands of organisations. We have been working with the Internet Society for more than a decade, even though we have known each other for longer a couple of decades, especially since 2003, when WSIS (World Summit on Information Society) was announced by the UN in Geneva.

While working directly with ISOC, my organisation, Digital Empowerment Foundation, worked on community networks to enable last mile connectivity.

And, in partnership with PIR when it was applying to get dot ngo, we conducted a massive campaign in India to bring communities, non-profits and social organisations online. DEF has a deep network of grassroots organisations in India and South Asia and, together with PIR, we influenced more than 5,000 grassroots organisations to come online with dot org domain in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and many more countries.

Almost all those organisations were homeless on the world wide web prior to that. Now, they have a home, an identity, a face to be recognised as a brand. They enjoy a trust quotient which helps when it comes to issues such as funding and other support that is necessary for them to continue their work of empowerment and impact.

We also worked to get thousands of signatures from community organisations to support PIR in order to get the dot ngo domain. PIR finally got the dot ngo to offer that domain to NGOs per se.

I am particularly aghast and fail to understand why you took the decision to sell dot org. Because PIR was created by ISOC to manage dot org as a not-for-profit company and yet function as a sustainable business. It is very much designed to price each domain in a way that people can easily buy the dot org as extension. And it always earned enough from domain sales to be able to fund itself, and also ISOC. In that sense it has worked like a cash cow without violating any ethics or business practice.

Selling a not-for-profit company to a profit making company itself is a violation of promise, ethics, trust, and breach of ownership of digital property.

Kindly note that each entity that resides on dot org is in the business of ensuring the greater good where the core objective is community and human rights. By not selling dot org, you would not only have saved an organisation, you would have saved those who are making this world a better place.

The writer is founder & director of Digital Empowerment Foundation

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Homeless On The Internet - The Indian Express

The pop landscape changed significantly during the 2010s. On the one hand, pop as we know it ceased to be the dominant genre in the mainstream, and was instead overthrown by the new wave of trap-leaning hip-hop. Pop music was still, well, popular, but for the most part, pop artists didnt enjoy the same kind of commercial success in the charts as they used to, and when they did, it often came in the form of mind-numbingly asinine singles by artists like Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber (two artists who came together in 2019 for I Dont Care, a song that seemed to epitomize everything that was wrong with contemporary pop). On the other hand, the rising tide of poptimism within the critical sphere led to a much-needed reappraisal of pop music, which was still seen as inferior and less authentic in many ways than more serious genres. It was in this climate that pop artists began to step out of their comfort zone, leading to more experimentation in the genre, and ultimately, more interesting, genuine, and artistically compelling music.

Instead of focusing merely on making great hits, more and more mainstream pop artists utilized the full-length album as a medium for artistic expression and storytelling, which was something quite rare in previous decades. This was especially the case in the latter half of the 2010s, as 8 out of 10 of the albums on this list came out during this period. It might just be recency bias, but 2019 was also a particularly strong year for pop if Id replaced two of these albums with records their respective artists released this year (which I easily could have, considering their quality), 2019 releases would have made up half of the list. Its also worth noting that 9 out of 10 albums were made by female artists, particularly young female artists, which is perhaps reflective of the critical reevaluation that (female) youth culture has undergone in the 2010s.

There was one clear rule I set for myself: only one album per artist. But what made compiling this list difficult wasnt so much picking the right albums as much as deciding what was even eligible, what could be considered pop. Somehow, an album by FKA twigs felt more pop than an album by Lana Del Rey, even though the latter is definitely considered more of a pop star. Perhaps thats because as artists began to push their sound forward (or in strange directions), the boundaries between pop and indie, mainstream and experimental, became increasingly blurred. But thats also exactly what made pop so exciting in the 2010s. From Robyn to Billie Eilish, it felt like the genre had been set free.

Ariana Grande has been, without a doubt, one of the most prominent pop figures of the decade. Some might even call her the last true pop star of her calibre after all, who else with such a traditionalist, Max Martin-backed approach to pop managed to survive the radical changes the mainstream music landscape underwent in the 2010s? Even though shes still just 26 years old, her sound kept growing and maturing with each new release, culminating in her most personal and introspective effort yet, thank u, next. Its the result of a truly tumultuous string of events first, the terrorist attack during the Manchester concert of her 2017 Dangerous Woman tour, her engagement with comedian Pete Davidson, then the tragic death of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, and her subsequent break-up with Davidson. While 2018s Sweetener is undoubtedly an admirable and occasionally great record that features some of Arianas best hits to date, it was still bogged down by too many guest features and occasionally messy production. By contrast, the understated, unfiltered, and dark nature of thank u, next makes it her most liberatingly earnest and consistent. Its a markedly authentic Ariana Grande project, and a great one to finish off the decade with.

After releasing the ubiquitous single Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen seemed to fade from the public spotlight. But her case serves as a great example of how the influence of a mainstream pop artist in the 2010s could be measured by more than just commercial success. Jepsen earned a cult-like following online, where her adoring fans made memes comparing her to Mozart and giving her a sword one even wrote a 149-page thesis analyzing her music. So even though her third album, Emotion, didnt see the kind of chart success major labels might expect, the devotion it received from her fans is a more reliable testament to its lasting impact. And its not hard to see why the albums 80s-inspired, neon-tinged brand of synthpop strays as much from the artists bubblegum roots and the sound of contemporary pop as from those trying to subvert it. Emotion proves that theres a space for unapologetically formulaic, nostalgic pop music made in the post-post-modern age, especially when made by pure pop perfectionists like Jepsen. With lyrics that tuck at the heartstrings, lush instrumentals (nothing can beat that opening saxophone riff on Run Away with Me), and hooks that stick to your head, whats there not to (really, really, really, really) like?

It might be paradoxical to place an album that did its best to defy genre in a best pop albums of the decade list. But in the context of FKA twigs career, MAGDALENE is the album that saw her going from the left-field R&B sounds of LP1 to a markedly more accessible and, yes, pop-sounding approach. Drawing influences from the likes of Kate Bush and Bjrk, twigss varied and revelatory sophomore LP boasts an impressive list of guest contributors from both the art pop and mainstream pop worlds, from experimental artists like Arca and Nicolas Jaar to megaproducer Jack Antonoff and rapper Future. But MAGDALENE is also a devastatingly personal album, as FKA twigs twists and stretches her voice in a remarkably expressive and immediate manner to evoke the shattering pain of heartbreak. From transcendent, expansive cuts like thousand eyes and mary magdalene to heartbreakingly spare ballads like mirrored heart and cellophane, MAGDALENE is the sound of a fallen alien trying to reach out to the people of Earth by means of their most universal art form, just like FKA twigs flirts with the peripheries of commercial pop and ends up becoming one of its leading vanguards.

Of all the albums on this list, none was as much of an artistic detour as Random Access Memories was for Daft Punk. The fourth studio album by the French electronic duo saw them trading EDM synths and samples for session musicians and live instruments in a genuine effort to pay homage to the disco and electronic dance music scenes of the 1970s and 80s. On a purely technical level, Random Access Memories is simply masterful: meticulously crafted, flawlessly engineered, and expertly mixed, its hard to deny the sheer sonic beauty of this album. But whats most remarkable about it is that unlike all the other electronic acts of the decade that artlessly stole musical tropes from that era of pop, RAM feels so much more than just a dire exercise in nostalgia. The songs here are not just catchy theres a reason Get Lucky dominated the airwaves, though its a shame other cuts didnt find the same success but also surprisingly ambitious in concept and narrative: once you dig deeper into the album, tracks like the nearly 10-minute prog-pop epic Gorgio by Moroder, album centrepiece Touch, and touching piano ballad Within turn it into a holistically rewarding listening experience. With RAM, Daft Punk injected humanity into their robotic personas genetic code.

At first glance, Dirty Computer might have seemed like a sub-par release compared to Janelle Mones more expansive and ambitious concept albums, namely 2010s sci-fi odyssey The ArchAndroid and 2013s looser follow-up The Electric Lady. The record finds her stripping away the elaborate, sometimes difficult-to-digest features of her previous releases and tightening her focus to create a straightforward yet flawlessly executed and empoweringly liberating pop album. It has all the elements that make Monas music so uniquely enjoyable, but this time designed for a newfound mainstream audience that was just starting to discover her work following her acting turns in 2016s Oscar-winning Moonlight and Hidden Figures. But at no point does it feel like shes doubling down on her approach: its a fearlessly joyful, uncompromisingly radical, and above all danceable record thats filled to brim with queer sexual energy look no further than the infectious lead singles, the Prince-indebted Make Me Feel and the Grimes-featuring, irresistibly sultry Pynk. Yet its also Monas most personal record as she abandons the persona of Cindi Mayweather and opens up about her own insecurities, unveiling the humanity thats always been behind Monas dense Afrofuturist worlds.

Beyonc had already risen to prominence as a cultural icon at the start of the decade. But although she had multiple great hits under her belt, she was always primarily a singles artist. This changed with her 2015 self-titled album, which took the female empowerment narrative shed built a reputation for and extended it into an ambitiously feminist LP without sacrificing any of her commercial appeal. But its her follow-up record, Lemonade, a bona fide artistic statement and her most fully-fleshed album to date, that earns a spot on this list. In art, the personal has long been political; but before this album, the personal had largely been missing from Beyoncs music. Lemonade is an album about infidelity that only Beyonc could have made: unashamedly angry, relentless, and raw, as much as an album engineered for mainstream popularity can be. What was perhaps more unexpected was the diverse range of genres through which the singer chose to express her frustration, as she drew from rock n roll, blues, and even country alongside her familiar R&B and pop stylings. Theres no doubt Beyonc will find a way to stay on top in the 2020s lets hope it gives birth to more albums like this.

Charli XCXs rise in the pantheon of pop was slow and steady, from her guest spot on Icona Pops massive 2013 hit I Love It to the critical and commercial success of her 2019 album, Charli. But back when she released her first two albums, no one quite expected her music to become as subversive as it eventually did, as she utilized a relatively tried-and-true pop formula. Her 2016 avant-pop Vroom Vroom EP completely tore those expectations apart, signaling the beginning of a new, boundary-pushing phase for Charli. This led to Pop 2, the second of her two 2017 mixtapes, another collaboration with the experimental pop label PC Music. What made the mixtape so uniquely infectious was that instead of completely abandoning familiar pop tropes, Charli twisted them and pushed them to their extreme, giving birth to an abrasive, futuristic approach to the genre. While her 2019 album Charli is perhaps a more cohesive Charli XCX experience and some might reasonably argue a better one Pop 2 earns the spot on this list for being the more influential release. Dont be surprised if the sound of pop in the coming decade can be traced back to this mixtape.

Not since Lordes Pure Heroine has a debut pop album made such a splash as Billie Eilishs When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? The two albums have a lot of things in common: they were both made by teenage songwriters with a distinctive pop vision that felt intimate yet relatable. But where Lorde connected with the millennial generation, Billie Eilish has captured the existential fears and personal vulnerabilities, but also the quirky and referential sense of humour, of Generation Z. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? showcases the singularly post-genre approach Eilish and her brother and close collaborator Finneas have come up with itd be a stretch to argue that they invented all the musical ideas presented here, but its the way they managed to bring together lo-fi production techniques, catchy yet intimately evocative songwriting, as well as Eilishs underrated vocal delivery, and package them in a way that actually resonated with mass audiences, that earns it a spot on this list. It might be too early to tell if it will be as influential as Pure Heroine or Body Talk was, but if I had to guess, this albums sound will no doubt be all over the 2020s.

It might come as a surprise that at the time of its release, Body Talk was perceived by many as kind of a disappointment. But not due to lack of quality Robyn had simply built so much hype around her in 2010, fans expected a full-length album of new material, rather than a compilation of tracks from her previously released mini-albums plus five new songs. But even as a standalone project, Body Talk acted as a surprisingly coherent greatest hits-type album that signaled the Swedish artists rebirth (or, rather, reboot). Body Talk was praised for its sharp and mature electro-pop songwriting, but time has also revealed how influential it came to be. It proved that pop could be forward-thinking yet accessible, danceable yet heartfelt, vulnerable yet triumphant. That it could have personality and attitude without losing its commercial appeal. After all, would there be a Charli XCX or a Janelle Mona if Robyn hadnt sung Fembots have feelings too? Would there be a Lorde without Dancing on My Own or a Carly Rae Jepsen without Call Your Girlfriend? Body Talk has not just withstood the test of time it has left a bigger mark on the shape of dance music than any other album this decade.

When you listen to Melodrama, you can feel its pulsating heart beating through your chest. Lorde broadcasts the fears and anxieties of an entire generation with searing humanity and makes us want to dance to them. Its not just infinitely relatable, but deeply resonant if Pure Heroine was about exploring young adulthood, Melodrama is the definitive soundtrack to growing up. She proves that what society views as generation L.O.V.E.L.E.S.S., young people that are as addicted to ephemeral relationships as they are to their phones, are in fact too cautious about their punctuation use because they simply have more love in them than their heart can handle. Ill love you til my breathing stops, Lorde bellows on Writer in the Dark. Against Jack Antonoffs swooning, evocative production, her delivery goes from fierce to vulnerable, fearless to uncertain, capturing the loneliness of feeling everything in extremes. But feeling heartbroken after a breakup or alone at a party full of people are just parables for something bigger, something more existential. If all we spend our time doing is trying to find perfect places to make us feel more connected to each other, then Melodrama might be the closest thing we have to that. It makes you want to cry your eyes out, sing til your lungs hurt, and share its beating heart with the world and isnt that what pop musics supposed to do, after all?

Read more:

The Top 10 Pop Albums of the Decade - Our Culture - Our Culture Mag

Suzanne Moore says she wants an opposition led by a woman (Let Labours fightback begin with a woman as leader, 17 December).

Positive discrimination is already used by the Labour party, where safe seats in local council elections are earmarked for women only. That does not mean that the best candidates are necessarily selected. Surely the next leader of the Labour party should be chosen on merit?

Jess Phillips, Stella Creasy, and Emily Thornberry are all intelligent, engaging politicians capable of making radical policies sound like crisp common sense, as Moore suggests. However, Keir Starmer, the only male on the current list of possible leadership contenders, is a very able, experienced politician who has gravitas and plenty of voter appeal.

In order to pose a credible challenge to an invigorated Tory party, Labour needs a pragmatic resilient centrist. That may not necessarily be a woman.Rose KavanaghCambridge

Labour needs to take swift action on the leadership and begin the process before Christmas (Rivals poised as battle for Labours future begins, 16 December).

The sooner Boris Johnson faces a leader who is prepared to mix it verbally across the dispatch box, and challenge his lies and character, the sooner Labours reputation will begin to be repaired. It has to be a woman, and about time too.

Angela Rayner has not put a foot wrong as shadow education secretary. She has been totally loyal to the Labour project. Media savvy, with a background and experience to appeal to the north, along with Keir Starmer as deputy, she can give hope back to those left behind by the election result. She can mix it too witness her appearance on C4s 18-30 debate. Rayner is the potential Labour leader the Tories most fear. Lets hope Labour gets it right at this critical time.Adrian QuinnChepstow, Monmouthshire

At last, the perfect opportunity has arisen for the Labour party to resurrect itself. It can present a new image that will be truly transformational, demonstrating that it understands that real democracy requires gender equality and womens empowerment at its centre. It should adapt the Kurdish model of co-chairs, a man and a woman heading every decision-making body. Margaret Owen London

The paramount question that should be asked of any candidate for the Labour leadership is whether they support proportional representation. As far as I am aware, none of those being touted as potential leaders has ever voiced support. Labour, perhaps even more than the Tories, is institutionally and historically wedded to the idea that under first-past-the-post it is possible to win a decent majority with less than 40% of the vote.

Essentially, the political spectrum in England involves two great camps the conservative centre-right and the social-liberal centre-left. The problem for the latter is that while its opponents organise around one political party, the Tories, it is fragmented between Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens. This fragmentation is further compounded in Scotland and Wales. The injustice of the FPTP system is especially acute in Scotland where an overwhelmingly centre-left and heavily anti-Brexit majority is ignored by a dominant English nationalist hegemony.

It is possible, with the loss of its heartlands and the breakdown of personal identification through class, that Labour is now unable to win a majority on its own. A commitment to PR by a new leader would immediately bring hope to the anti-Tory majority.Brian WilsonGlossop, Derbyshire

I have nothing against Rebecca Long-Bailey as a person but politically she is a charisma vacuum with a voice that sends you to sleep. Labour needs a passionate, charismatic personality Jess Phillips is my choice if it is to stand a chance of gaining power.Helen Clutton Bristol

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Should Labours next leader be a woman? - The Guardian

What makes a company culture great? To explore this question, my colleague, Bill Baker and I spent the last three years researching the best places to work in the United States. As a part of our work, we selected 21 organizations known for their lustrous cultures, including Patagonia, The Motley Fool, and Edmunds.com.

To make our final list, these companies had to appear perennially on one or more of the Best Companies to Work for Lists in reputable business publications, such as Fortune and Inc., between 2014 and 2018. In addition, each company had to agree to let us in for a day to interview executives, meet with Human Resources departments, conduct focus groups with employees, and tour the facilities. Our selections included businesses in both the private and public sectors, ranging in size from 250 employees to over 7,000, in industries such as technology, financial services, consumer products, publishing, and pharmaceuticals, among many others.

Our aim in conducting this research was not simply to tabulate all of the interesting things these companies do as can be found in any business magazine. But, instead, we aimed to extract general principles about why what they do is so successful. While no one formula can capture the idiosyncrasies of these companies and the telling ways that they motivate employees, below are some common themes we found. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but for organizations interested in changing their cultures, these will start you down the right path.

The best places to work provide people with life satisfaction as opposed to job satisfaction alone. Almost all of the corporate founders and CEOs we spoke with told us that they built their companies with people in mind. To them, a healthy culture is as important as a healthy balance sheet. Their benefits go far beyond minimum wage.

Take the case of the San Francisco grocer, Bi-Rite Market. In addition to $15.59 an hour and full health insurance coverage, Bi-Rite matches dollars on all employee 401(k) plans up to 4% of their income and pays profit-sharing that ranges from 2-6% of worker salaries. Anyone who works at least 20 hours a week, including part-time workers, have access to these benefits. As a result, many people who work at Bi-Rite have done so for generations. Several children of longtime employees now work there or return to San Francisco each summer to intern as seasonal staffers. During our visit, we learned that two of these interns were on break from school at Harvard and Wellesley. This is what happens when companies invest in people. The generations prosper.

Other companies we talked to went a step further, and offered a robust number of supplemental programs to help employees maintain work-life balance and improve their mental and physical health. Such programs include stress-reduction workshops, nutritional consultations, financial planning, and grievance counseling services. The effects of these holistic experiences are nicely summarized by the comments of two employees at BambooHR: The [financial planning and budgeting] class saved my marriage, and, I have become a better father since I started working here.

Perhaps the most extreme examples, however, were those organizations that made concerted efforts to act on behalf of workers in need. Health Catalyst helped one employee build a controlled living environment for their newborn child who was born with a rare immune deficiency. And when an employee at BAF was in a terrible auto accident, the company moved them from a third-floor apartment to a first-floor one in the same building, placing possessions just as they had been before and providing technology to stay connected during the recuperation process. (The employee had only been working there for a short period of time).

I could go on about the stories of benevolence we have heard from our sample companies: companies that give extra time off when employees need it; companies that pay medical bills to supplement a familys insurance; companies that put a child of a deceased employee through college. When we asked these companies why they do this, the answer is typically along the lines of what Duane Hixon, the founder and CEO of N2 Publishing, told us. Profit is necessary, but it is not the goal. We need air and water to survive, but that isnt our purpose. Our purpose is to help people live better lives.

The companies we studied find ways to rejuvenate employees by helping them identify their calling, or the area of work that provides them with the greatest fulfillment. Doing so not only increases productivity, it makes people feel happy lucky even to be at work. The methods companies used to accomplish this generally differed, but all the organizations we spoke with provided workers with opportunities to pursue their passions.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals serves as a case in point. Their mission is to develop new medicines for patients in need.Many of these medicines may never make large sums of money from these treatments, but their goal is to relieve people in pain without binding qualifications such as ROI. This purity of position makes a big difference to people who work there because they feel a genuine sense of purpose. But perhaps the biggest driver of productivity is the company motto: Follow the science. Rather than exclusively focusing on particular disorders, scientists are pushed to explore the problems for which they have the greatest interest and ability. Many employees told us that they found their dream jobs at Regeneron. Being here is like being back at MIT, one manager said. I have room to satisfy my curiosities.

Other companies find ways to arouse peoples passions through special programs or sabbaticals. Oliver Schabenberger, the COO and CTO of AI and analytics software companySAS, runs a program in which he trains leaders on giving presentations in the vein of TED Talks. Participants are pushed to discuss their best ideas in order to stimulate unconventional thinking, and sometimes, they go on to inspire significant projects. INTUITIVE (Intuitive Research and Technology) similarly challenges workers to come up with innovative solutions to problems through its Creative Incentive Program. Employees are invited to write a prospectus on new product ideas, work- or-non-work related, and if the company likes an idea submitted by an employee, they will provide start-up funding and give half the profits to the creator. PURE Insurance, takes a more external approach through their Passion Program, giving employees $1,500 per year to explore whatever they choose.

In short, the companies we visited had few life-draining dead ends analogous to those barricades at the end of long dark alleyways in horror films. Rather, through developmental funding and frequent job moves, these organizations encourage people to self-examine their interests and to find what they truly excel at. The surest way to improve performance is to give people something they like doing.

The organizations we interviewed realized that their effectiveness relies upon the goodwill and solidarity of groups, so they put quite a bit of effort into bringing people together but not in the traditional ways you might think. Before beginning this project, we considered life events, rituals, and rites of passage such as marriages, birthdays, and anniversaries as trivial to the work environment. But the companies we visited gave us a new perspective. In fact, they made a big deal out of significant dates. Why? Because it is the human, or considerate, thing to do.

Think of it this way: in our personal lives, we understand that it is good practice to celebrate and sympathize; to show regard for others feelings and needs; to uplift, soften, comfort, and aid. When big things happen, we relish in them together, lighten each others loads, and console those we care about. Like good families, good organizations have the same responsibility. If they want to create a real sense of community among their teams, they also need to create shared experiences.

The companies we visited celebrate special occasions together and recognize important life-cycle transitions. BambooHR treats birthdays as paid holidays. Insomniac Games provides new parents with a custom onesie, art books, and toys, as well as a baby briefcase to help them keep their newborns details organized.

Additionally, the companies in our sample are vigorous socializers from day one through retirement. Their social events are not, as one employee at Health Catalyst said, funishments rare and artificial team-building exercises that people are forced to take part in and required to enjoy. Rather, the stuff that builds the joints and connective tissues of teams, which in turn enables members to move nimbly and in unison, occurs regularly and spontaneously. BAF sponsors monthly outings to baseball games, comedy clubs, and off-Broadway shows; encourages employees involvement in clubs such as kickball, sand volleyball, and bowling; and holds colossal family events like their summer amusement jamboree and Halloween pumpkin patch festival. Regeneron has spring flings, summer barbecues, a cheesy-Hawaiian-shirt day, holiday parties, and a multitude of company-wide assemblies that celebrate advances in science.

These social extracurriculars may appear contrary to real work, and to some, as senseless wastes of time. But forming meaningful relationships is real work. The best companies realize that personal affinities and deep social bonds are failsafe measures against team breakdowns and are essential for top team performance.

The executives we interviewed repeatedly told us that they want their employees to think and act like owners. Allowing them to control aspects of their work, we learned, is the key to accomplishing this. Employees who have the leeway to rearrange, modify, and improve their assignments feel possession over them, and once this happens, their mindsets begin to change. Instead of focusing on what cannot be done, they become preoccupied with what can. As a result, they are more easily able to grow, innovate, and push their companies forward.

An example of this kind of ownership mindset is beautifully on display at SAS. Today SAS resembles a college campus both in look and feel. Their offices sit within 900 heavily wooded acres in Cary, North Carolina, three-hundred of which their buildings occupy, along with a network of running paths, bicycle lanes, streams, and side streets (with names like matrix and analytics). Within this preserve, landscapers have their own acreage to tend in any way they think best given the terrain and surrounding architecture. By extension, this is the way things work throughout SAS. The company assigns workers projects that are visible to all, and then frees them to pursue their goals as they see fit. Many turn to peers and management for advice and support when necessary. People outside the company think of us as workplace pioneers, one member of a focus group told us, but they forget that we make things that matter and that people rely on us to deliver. We all feel a great sense of responsibility not just to our clients, but to one another.

Tom Caporaso, the CEO of Clarus Commerce, runs his company in a similar manner. From start to finish, his philosophy resembles that of a winning sports team: hire good people; train, practice, and prepare; coach teammates to back each other up, learn from their mistakes, and accept wins and losses together; get off the field and let the players, play. Once play begins, or people have proven they are capable of tackling projects on their own, there are a limited number of times that a manager will step in. The field of play at Clarus is set by goals and budgets. Within these boundaries, it is up to the workers to execute. This empowerment enables Clarus to move quickly according to conditions on the ground and to diligently meet changing customer needs.

Of course, letting people work within their capabilities, and a little beyond them, also means managers must accept that people will occasionally fail. And for the best companies, failures are a fact of life and necessary for both personal and organizational growth. Thus, the companies we met with normalize the acceptance of periodic failures. In fact, BambooHR has a novel, nonthreatening way of handling mistakes. It created an Oops Email Box as a place for all employees founders included to announce mistakes made, what others should be aware of because of them, and steps taken to correct them.

Employees, of course, realize that they will forever bump up against conventions, others preferences, and miscellaneous confinements that restrict what they can and cannot do at work. But these do not necessarily have to prevent them from acting on their passions and beliefs. In a word, employees within our sample of companies have found a place where they can be their authentic selves. How?

The Motley Fool offers a great example. The company is inspired by a character in Shakespeares As You Like It, who, as a licensed fool is able to live outside of society and speak truthfully about his opinions and beliefs in a way that is not available to others. Practically speaking, the companys founding brothers Tom and David Gardner, dispensed with the fool and instead infused their corporate creation with Foolishness. The Motley Fool, which has no dress code other than to not wear anything that would embarrass your parents, has also enshrined honesty as one of its core values creating a work environment in which people feel comfortable expressing themselves not just physically, but verbally as well.

N2 Publishing, on the other hand, takes a different, but just as effective approach. They find ways to integrate peoples natural talents into the regimen of organizational life. Their employees emphasized how satisfying it is to be able to share a personal piece of themselves with others at work. N2 is a place where you can relax and just be yourself, one person told us. The head of the mailroom is a superb rapper who composed and performed the theme song for N2. The Full Bleeds is a cover band made up of employees from the graphic design department that plays at their monthly all-hands meetings. A part of this meeting is reserved for rewarding exemplary contributions to the company, and during our visit, the entire editorial department was recognized. Amanda, the head that department, is a wonderful visual artist. She had drawn the likenesses of her staff members wearing Marvel-esque superhero outfits and described each of their powers in a wonderful and moving tribute to her team.

These companies showed us that the ability to be authentic at your job is life-affirming: an outward expression of who we are and what we stand for. In this regard, authenticity also has a nonobvious effect. People who behave in accord with their values have stickier work ethics. They are more morally engaged, less deferent to circumstance, and will choose principle over the enticement.

Given our findings, it is safe to say that, today, too many businesses function with only their own interests in mind. If the presumption is that capable, profit-making management should put money before people, then our vision is terribly flawed. These flaws are due not necessarily to a failed exegesis of how markets work, but to gross misconceptions of how people work. The organizations we studied have given themselves the best chance to succeed by recognizing the human as the heart of the workplace, the thing that keeps everything else running.

When we ask leaders merely to perform their duties and to be an instrument within a money-making apparatus, we are asking them to do far too little and giving them an opportunity to avoid asking tough questions about what is most important in life. It is a mistake to let leaders escape the civic responsibilities we have toward one another due to an erroneous belief that, through agnostic business dealings, the good life will trickle down. We can be much more direct by insisting that leaders foster human potential and support human flourishing as obligations of their roles. If we do not have any deeper aims for business, then for whom and for what do we go through all this trouble?

Editors note: Every ranking or index is just one way to analyze and compare companies or places, based on a specific methodology and data set. At HBR, we believe that a well-designed index can provide useful insights, even though by definition it is a snapshot of a bigger picture. We always urge you to read the methodology carefully.

Link:

What the Best Companies to Work For Do Differently - Harvard Business Review

2020 is here and EVERYONE wants to empower you. By definition, empowerment is the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties (Merriam-Webster). Now, I dont know about you, but for my personal life, there is no other authority figure (except The Most High and He empowered me at birth) that can grant me the rights to my own life. I have been endowed (and so have you) by my Creator with all the power, rights, and authority I need to live my best life. Its essential that we all understand this, because if a person can grant you rights and power to your best life, they can also take it away. That means, if youre waiting for or believing in someone else to give you the keys to your life, you may never pass go, or pass go in a meaningful, sustainable way.

Now, let me be clear. Empowerment and motivation or inspiration are not the same. People, places, and things can certainly inspire and motivate you, but empower youI think not. Take a moment and think about how much control must be given to an individual in order for that individual to give you access and authority and power over your own life. THAT is a lot of power. And dont get me wrong, I certainly understand why someone else empowering you is an attractive proposition. Change and forward progression can be scary things because there is so much uncertainty around the risks, decisions, and outcomes. It only seems natural to hand over the power to someone else especially in those transformative spaces. I get it. But this is 2020, and as scary as change and transformation can be, it can only exist in a state of ownership. So, it is time to take back the power and authority you have given away knowingly or unknowingly.

Alice Walker once said The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they dont have any. Im here to tell you, you have ALL the power. So, heres what were going to do. First, there is work to be done and it is work ONLY you can do:

Second, there is work you can do by yourself or with support and collaboration of other powerful individuals to determine what your great looks like:

So, the next time another human suggests they can empower you to for your life, thank them kindly (if youre Southern, you can bless their hearts) and know that your empowerment comes from within.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul. Invictus by William Ernest Henley, 1875

Remember no one can give you authority to your life (and all its potential) except you and that which created you. So, in every day and in every way, own your empowerment in all ways and always.

Excerpt from:

Got Empowerment? - Thrive Global

Editors Note: The Giving and Receiving series features people involved in humanitarian programs as recipients or providers.

To break the silence about domestic violence, Williams-based nonprofit organization Karens House supporters are speaking out and helping those struggling in abusive situations.

We want to keep everybody safe, said Tootie Hackett, founder of Karens House. Anything we can do to prevent another statistic.

According to Hackett, the nonprofit organization advocates on behalf of victims of domestic violence and their children, by providing a safe space that promotes intervention, prevention, awareness and empowerment.

Hackett established Karens House Colusa Countys first domestic violence program in April 2018 after the disappearance and death of Williams native Karen Garcia to offer resources and help to those stuck in abusive situations as Garcia was prior to her death.

Since being established, Karens House has partnered with Colusa County with the hope of expanding services and Hackett said they have been trying to obtain grant money to open a shelter in the near future.

We have gotten one grant already, but its very expensive to open a shelter from scratch, said Hackett.

According to Hackett, the organization is looking for a three bedroom, two bath house or land within the county they can use to get the shelter up and running.

Hackett said the organization, which has assisted 15 individuals and their families since opening, provides support and assistance to get victims away from their abusers by putting them up in hotels for three days, helping to locate and talk to family for help, as well as providing clothes, food and personal hygiene supplies, referrals to local services and help obtaining restraining orders. Hackett said she is also certified to provide counseling services to victims as well.

I am the only person certified right now but as we grow we would like to get more people certified, said Hackett.

Karens House, which is run solely by volunteers, hosts several fundraiser events throughout the year to continuously provide these services, including a rib cook-off at the Williams Pioneer Day event scheduled each year in June, an annual golf tournament, which Hackett said is scheduled for May 1, 2020, at the Arbuckle Golf Club, as well as several paint nights.

These fundraisers are how we keep everything going, said Hackett. We pay our rent and the few bills we have and then put the rest away.

Karens House will be hosted a human trafficking awareness event in Williams Tuesday that was free and open to the public. According to Hackett, guest speaker Roger Freeman, outreach and training specialist for the International Rescue Committee, lead an informative training outlining the warning signs and things to be aware of regarding human trafficking.

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Giving and Receiving: Breaking the silence around abuse - Appeal-Democrat

New Delhi While education and career development are top priorities for women Internet users in India, 40 per cent of them fear irrelevant comments, being trolled and followed on smartphones which has become a preferred choice for them to remain online, a new report said on Tuesday.

While 44 per cent of women in Indian metros access online content in English to improve their soft skills and stay job-ready, this focus is sharper among younger women between the 18-23 age group, said the the Verizon Media survey conducted by Nielsen with 1,300 respondents in 12 cities.

Women users spend time online between 3 pm and 9 pm a signal for brands on when to reach and engage with women audiences, according to the survey.

Across locations, younger women were found to access more content related to education, career growth and skill development, while older women between 29-35 years of age accessed more online video content related to personal well-being.

The internet is empowering a new breed of Indian women who are coming online and preparing to take their place in the workforce. The right platform and support as a community will enable greater inclusion, boosting participation of Indian women at the workplace, said Nikhil Rungta, Country Manager, India, Verizon Media.

Smartphones are the device of choice for women users in India, with 60 per cent of women accessing the Internet only on these devices. This number spikes to over 75 per cent of women in Tier 1 cities.

According to the survey, women in India spend an average time of 145 minutes on their smartphones every day. Interestingly, women in Tier 1 cities spend about 25 minutes more on Internet compared to women in metros.

Of the total women surveyed, nearly 80 per cent users access online content in English as well as local languages.

Given the popularity of video and OTT content in the country, there is a clear preference towards watching videos over reading content online among women Internet users.

More than two-third of women surveyed had watched videos related to career development or social causes or personal well-being in the last one month.

Health and fitness are priority areas for them, especially for women in the 35 and over age group.

Environmental conservation and child abuse-related content were rated as high affinity content apart from education, women empowerment and career development, said the survey.

Excerpt from:

40% Indian women fear online trolls as they embrace Internet - The Siasat Daily

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Feb. 14, 2018, began like any other day for Kai Koerber. He was running late for his early morning AP English class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. When he got there, he was handed the classs biggest assignment of the year and groaned. At the time, I was like, Man, this is going to be the worst part of my day,' says Koerber, now a first-year student majoring in computer science at UC Berkeley.

After English, he had honors chemistry, followed by pre-calculus, then guitar class in the band room. At 2:18 p.m., he asked to use the restroom, but another classmate was out, so his teacher told Kai to wait. Two minutes later, the fire alarm went off. And what followed was a tragedy that his school would become known for one that Kai would decide to speak out about, changing the narrative about the impact of gun violence on youth in the United States.

At Berkeley, in between classes and studying, Kai works to promote his nonprofit and mental health curriculum something that hes become passionate about since surviving one of the deadliest school shootings in the country.

Kai Koerber is a first-year student majoring in computer science at Berkeley. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

[Music: Highride by Blue Dot Sessions]

Narration: It was Feb. 14, 2018. Valentines Day. Like most days, Kai Koerber was running late to AP English. To be fair, the class was at 7:30 in the morning, which, to me, seems absurdly early for a high school class.

Kai at 6 months old with his mom, Alana. Before Kai enrolled in high school, his family moved from New Jersey to Florida so that Kai and his two younger sisters could get a better education. (Photo courtesy of Alana Koerber)

But thats how it was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It was known for rigorous classes that set students up to attend the best colleges. And Kai, whose family had moved from New Jersey so that he and his two younger sisters could get a better education, was determined to make the most of it.

And it paid off. After he graduated, he got into UC Berkeley, where hes now a first-year student majoring in computer science.

What Kai didnt know that day about his high school was that it would also become known for a national tragedy one that he would decide to speak out about, changing the narrative about the impact of gun violence on youth in the United States.

Youre listening to Fiat Vox, a Berkeley News podcast. Im Anne Brice.

Narration: When Kai got to AP English, his teacher handed him the classs biggest assignment of the year a 20-page rhetorical analysis essay.

Kai Koerber: At the time, I was like, Man, this is going to be the worst part of my day. But, you know, as the day went on, obviously that wasnt the case.

Narration: Next, he had honors chemistry, followed by pre-calculus, then guitar class in the band room his most relaxing class of the day.

At 2:18 p.m., he asked his teacher if he could go to the restroom. But one of his classmates was already out, so the teacher told Kai to wait until the student returned.

Kai Koerber: I feel like thats divine intervention, almost. I cant think of any other way to explain that, really.

Narration: Two minutes later, at 2:20 p.m., the fire alarm went off. Kai and all the other students were evacuated to a grassy field. No one was really worried. They figured it was just another emergency drill, like they had from time to time.

[Music: Zither Sprak by Blue Dot Sessions]

But one student, whom Kai says was known as the class hypochondriac, said he heard gunshots. The other students kind of laughed it off and told him to relax.

Turns out, though, that time he was right.

Within minutes, the teachers had gotten word that there was an active shooter somewhere on campus. Everyone ran back inside to take cover.

Kais teacher locked the band rooms steel doors, covered the windows and turned off the lights. Students did their best to hide in closets and behind tables.

Kai Koerber: Nobody really knew where this person was. Nobody really knew what they were armed with, what they were doing, what they were capable of. At the time, we felt like sitting ducks.

Narration: Huddled in a closet, Kai texted his parents.

Kai Koerber: I remember texting them, like, Dont call me, because I dont want them to hear if theyre in the building. If they hear that someones on the phone, that could be it for all of us. I just kept saying, I love you, and Ill see you again later. Things like that.

When Kais mom, Alana, saw that her son sent her a text on Feb. 14, 2018, she didnt think anything of it at first. But when got a moment to read it, her heart sank. (Photo courtesy of Alana Koerber)

Narration: Kais mom, Alana Koerber, was driving on the freeway when she got his text. At first, she assumed it was just one of her sons everyday texts, asking if she was picking him up from school that day.

But when she got a moment to glance at her phone, she froze.

Alana Koerber: It said, Hey, Mom. Something is happening at my school. Im not sure, but I just want to let you know that if anything happens to me, that I love you. Im like, What does he mean, If anything happens to me, just know that I love you? That just made my heart drop.

Narration: By then, she was driving on the highway. Police cars with sirens blaring began to fly past her.

Alana Koerber: And Im like, Oh, my God! I just started shaking, like panicking, just not understanding. Like, Oh, my God, something is happening! What is happening?

Narration: She called the Coral Springs Police Department. They told her there was an active shooter on the schools campus, and that they didnt have any more information.

Alana headed straight for the school, parked and ran across the street to join a group of parents. The sheriff was there. Helicopters were landing on the baseball field. SWAT teams were rolling in, and huge ambulances were racing to the scene.

Alana Koerber: And Im like, Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I dont care. I want to go. Why the hell are you guys all out here? All these cops are out here. You need to be in there where the kids are to save our kids. And then, the parents around me start to receive videos of dead bodies, blood. Theyre passing their phones around. Theyre passing these videos around. And its a group of like 30, 40, 50 parents.

The crowd is growing, and were starting to cry and hug each other because our kids are still in that school. And now we have videos of dead bodies. I was praying to God. I was just saying, God, please, please, please, please God. I dont know what I have to do. I dont know what I have to sacrifice. I dont know what I have to give up. But, Lord, please get my son out of there.

[Music: Lunette by Blue Dot Sessions]

Narration: Back in the band room, Kai was doing his best not to panic. Of course, just like most students in the school, he didnt know what was going on who and where the shooter was, if anyone had been hurt, if that day would be his last.

But he did know how to stay calm through stressful situations.

Kai Koerber: I tried my best to not think the worst. When I was really stressed out in certain situations, my family always told me to picture myself being safe at all times, no matter how dangerous the situation actually is. Its really gotten me through some rough times and kept me safe in a lot of different ways.

Alana Koerber: You know, I taught my son how to metaphysically protect himself, surrounding himself with white light, picturing wings of an angel, just soothing him from harm.

After the shooting, Kai wasnt sure he wanted to do interviews with the media. But after talking it over with him mom, he decided it was important that he speak out about the impact of gun violence on youth. (Photo courtesy of Alana Koerber)

Narration: So, Kai sat perfectly still in a corner of a closet, imagining himself surrounded by a bright protective light.

And Kai and his mom say that it worked that day. He was protected. If Kais teacher had let him go to the bathroom at 2:18 p.m., like hed asked, he would have been in the exact hallway at the exact time the gunman began shooting.

After about three hours, the high school was taken off lockdown, and students were allowed to go home.

It wasnt for another day or so that Kai would learn, along with the rest of world, that 17 people had been killed 14 students and three staff members making it one of the deadliest school shootings in the country. The killer was Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the high school.

[Music: Fifteen Street by Blue Dot Sessions]

Kai would go on to become an influential voice in the fight against gun violence. He did dozens of interviews with national news shows, radio programs and magazines. He attended protests and rallies, where he spoke to reporters whenever they had questions.

It was his responsibility, he says, to share his voice and try his hardest to make a difference in the way that mental health is understood and treated in the U.S.

Kai, 16, stands outside Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, days after the shooting. (Photo courtesy of Alana Koerber)

Narration: After the shooting, Kai wasnt sure he wanted to be in the limelight. Other Parkland students had begun appearing on TV, speaking out against gun violence and pushing for reforms in the country.

But Kai questioned if it was right. He wondered, Should they be putting themselves out there? Was it going to create positive change, or was it sensationalizing the tragedy?

He talked it over with his mom, and decided that he wanted to add his voice to the narrative to take a stand and speak authentically about gun violence and mental health, bringing the perspective of a young black person living in the South.

Kai appeared on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah with four other Stoneman Douglas High School students in March 2018. (Photo courtesy of Alana Koerber)

Here is he on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah with four other Stoneman Douglas High School students:

[Audio from the Daily Show interview:

Trevor Noah: Kai, on your side, giving teachers guns isnt the safe space that you would want to be in. A teacher having a gun doesnt make you feel better. Why?

Kai Koerber: If Im being honest, I dont want to seem like that guy, but me being a minority in the South and having a teacher with a gun does not make me feel comfortable. Even when you have resource officers who are taking matters into their own hands, I dont think lethal weapons should have a place in the school environment. If you need to have a weapon to defend people, I do believe it should be a non-lethal option.]

Narration: Kai soon became committed to promoting mental health curriculum in schools.

In April 2018, he founded Societal Reform Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting mental health programs in schools programs that teach students of all ages to mitigate emotions, relax, learn and grow as human beings.

He teamed up with the Crown Prince of Norway and Berkeley alumnus, Haakon Magnus, who runs a program called Global Dignity. He also partnered with a leading author on mindfulness and personal transformation, Jack Canfield. (Both Magnus and Canfield had seen Kai talk at different events and contacted him about a possible collaboration.)

Kai Koerber: I have found that a lot of people who are tremendously successful or who are in those positions do share a lot of the same beliefs that I do, in terms of how mental health works the power of intention, goal setting and not letting things stand in your way, no matter what they are. It seems to be a universal language to them.

Narration: Using both Magnuss and Canfields curricula, Kai has put together what he calls his Empowerment Curriculum some 400 pages of more than 100 lessons that he says will be a growing library of self-improvement resources.

Kai Koerber: It not only counters the culture of pharmaceutical dependence that America has, in terms of regulating emotional states, but it also teaches people that they dont need to depend on things outside of themselves to live happy and healthy lives.

[Music: Greylock by Blue Dot Sessions]

That was a really big part of my upbringing and I really wanted to share that and create a curriculum that reflected those beliefs.

Narration: A big part of the curriculum teaches mindfulness exercises that help to channel positive energy and mitigate negative emotions.

For one exercise, theres a script, but the idea is that someone might look in the mirror and say something like, I can overcome any obstacle standing in my way. By channeling the power of intention, it becomes a reality.

In Kais Empowerment Curriculum, theres a section that talks about how to use meditation to center yourself in a more positive reality something that Kai tries to do every day. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

Narration: Kai has already donated his curriculum to several school districts in Florida and to some alternative high school programs that help high-risk youth get their GEDs. Broward County Public Schools the sixth largest public school system in the nation is looking to incorporate some of its teachings into next years lesson plans.

As a student at Berkeley, Kai plans to major in computer science. Hes always loved math and finding solutions to problems, and his family has a long history in the field. His grandfather worked on Wall Street as a mathematical statistician. His uncle worked at NASA as a rocket scientist.

Kai Koerber: Its almost a right of passage to take calculus and all those classes. (laughs)

Narration: And when he has time between classes and studying, hes speaking at events across the country about mental health and the impact of gun violence on youth.

Kai says hes always loved math and solving problems. It runs in the family his grandfather was a mathematical statistician on Wall Street and his uncle worked at NASA as a rocket scientist. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

In November, Kai was the keynote speaker at the Florida Gulf Coast University, Children and Youth Mental Health Conference, where he received a standing ovation after leading several exercises from his curriculum with the audience.

And earlier this month, Kai spoke at an informational hearing chaired by California Assembly Member Buffy Wicks in Oakland. He was one of more than a dozen witnesses who testified on the impact of gun violence at the California Assembly Select Committee on Youth Mental Health.

[Music: Dirty Wallpaper by Blue Dot Sessions]

Kai says, ideally, he would like to see some of the lessons in his curriculum be used in high schools right away. The lessons on goal-setting and self-improvement, he says, are essential for students as they enter more challenging chapters of their lives. Eventually, he hopes the curriculum will be incorporated into all levels of education, from elementary school to college.

Kai knows its not going to be easy, but thats never been a roadblock before. When people tell him to consider other options or to think about what could happen if something failed, he says he doesnt have the energy or time to waste.

Kai with friends Mohammed Zareef Mustafa (left), Tijaan Issah Henderson (center) and Sundiata Chaka Teooem (right) at Crossroads Dining Hall, where Kai eats most of his meals. (UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

Kai Koerber: You just keep moving forward. You know, people, theyre very confused by that belief. But I dont know. Its something that I grew up with and its something thats worked for me as a student, as an entrepreneur and as a person. So I think Ill carry it with me for the rest of my life.

Narration: Kai continues to build new partnerships to grow his curriculum. He recently secured partnerships with two neurotechnology companies that create devices for focus, relaxation and guided meditation. He hopes to install neurotech lounges on campus that use real-time biofeedback to promote relaxation and focus.

At only 18, Kai has already accomplished a lot, but I have a feeling, its just the beginning.

For Berkeley News, Im Anne Brice.

To learn more about Kais nonprofit, Societal Reform Corporation, visit societalreform.org/. If you work at a school or for an after-school program and are interested in using the Empowerment Curriculum, email info@societalreform.org.

Subscribe to this podcast, Fiat Vox, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. If you liked this episode, consider sharing it with a friend. And check out our other podcast, Berkeley Talks, that features lectures and conversations at UC Berkeley. You can find all of our podcast episodes on Berkeley News at news.berkeley.edu/podcasts.

(UC Berkeley photo by Brittany Hosea-Small)

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After Parkland shooting, student fights for mental health resources in schools - UC Berkeley

Mike Hertzendorf retired from the U.S. Army in October 2018. He spent 29 years as a helicopter pilot, nearly all of it with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, perhaps better known by its nickname Night Stalkers. In 2014, as a colonel, he became the regiment commander.

After Sept. 11, 2001, he spent part of every year in Afghanistan through 2016, with the exception of 2007, and a number of years in Iraq and other places.

In his last years in the Army, he was commander of the Night Stalkers, then chief of staff of the 82nd Airborne Division, and finally deputy to the chief of staff of the Armys 18th Airborne Corps.

The chance to be near family was one draw for moving back to Upstate New York. It also gave him the opportunity to become NUAIRs president and CEO. NUAIR controls the 50-mile corridor between Syracuse and Rome to develop systems for pilot-less craft (drones) to fly beyond visual line of sight.

NUAIR is an acronym for Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance Inc. UAS stands for unmanned aerial systems.

Tell me about a time you feel your leadership was tested and how you met that test.

It wasnt one seminal event. You're being tested at every level as you progress in the Army. Obviously, in combat, you're always being tested. The stakes are obviously higher. But, really, the basis for success was no different. You had to establish trust with your subordinates and listen to them and take in a lot of opinions. You show that you're human, just like them, and that you have a positive attitude.

What do you wish you had known about leadership before you became a leader?

The Army does prepare you well through formal education. I think I really got the essence of leadership later on in my career. Even as I was progressing up, I was still concerned a little bit about myself.

The Army is a meritocracy, right? I mean, you have to perform to continue to move up. The work I'm doing for everyone else is going to eventually get me promoted, which gives me the ability to do more work at a higher level.

The danger in that and we all have egos is that you're doing the right things for the right reasons, but you're still thinking about yourself and your own advancement in some way.

It's somewhat of a double-edge sword because it is a meritocracy and yet you're really doing the work it takes to advance for the benefit of the team. How you balance that is a challenge.

As we talk about it, there may have been a seminal event.

There was a point after one specific mission that it really clicked for me. We did something that was very important to the nation. And it made me realize that if my career ended that day, I would be OK. That's very freeing in some respect because you get to that point where you're willing to take on more risk informed risk but you're also willing to truly sacrifice yourself for others. You've achieved some point where continuing to go on to higher rank doesn't really matter,

What was that mission?

It was just a mission. Units like the 160th have been continually engaged every night from 9/11 till today hundreds of thousands of missions night after night in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan. It was just a mission, and there have been many more like it, and there'll be many more. So, it's just not important.

What's important is we often don't realize that tonight, last night, tomorrow night, there are still soldiers going down range for our country. After 18 years, it's often forgotten, and it shouldn't be.

Leadership is a lifelong journey, so were you in leadership roles growing up?

I absolutely agree it is lifelong. You're always going to continue to grow as a leader.

I think most of my early roles were as a member of the team. That's where you really learn the basis of leadership being a member of a team.

I played a lot in sports and scouting, but I wasn't the captain of the high school soccer team or anything like that (at Scotia-Glenville High School, class of 1985). But I was a good team player. You cant be a good leader if you are not a good follower.

That really gets to empowerment. We often think about empowerment as a one-way street, that the leader empowers their subordinates. They give them broad guidance. That subordinate feels like: Hey, my boss trusts me. I can take initiative. He's not micromanaging me.

But I think empowerment works two ways. The follower has to look up and say, Hey, you know, what can I do to best support my boss? What can I best do to support the broad efforts of the team?

Being on a team, you learn empowerment both ways. You have to think up. What are the challenges that my boss has? How can I solve one of his or her problems that allows them to continue to look up? At the same time, it'll build trust with me.

Being on teams at early ages builds a lot of characteristics that I think are the basis for leadership.

How does being on a team at an early age build those characteristics?

You have to learn to listen. You have to accept and try to think about the other person's position and why they're doing things and then help them out. Obviously, if there are ways you think things could be done better, you have to be able to approach that person and have a conversation.

Teamwork builds basic communication skills. Your ability to listen, your ability to understand and see things from a different perspective. Those critical skills can be developed in an early age.

Tell me about college and what you studied.

I was a business management major at Ithaca College (Class of 1989). I had always thought about the military. It was the Reagan years, the big buildup years, and theyre offering scholarships. I went off to ROTC basic and earned a scholarship. The Army seemed to be a fit. In ROTC, I was branched aviation and went to flight school for about a year after college.

Tell me about an influential leader in college or early in your career.

Some of my first leaders really had an influence. One was when I got to my first assignment in Korea. His name was CW3 (Chief Warrant Officer 3) Mike Gann. He had been in the Army about 20 years.

Technically, in the rank structure, he was a subordinate. But obviously, thats one of the great challenges in the Army. They pump you out as a second lieutenant. Its your first assignment, and virtually everybody there has more experience in the Army than you do. Thats really where you have to learn to learn.

This warrant officer took me under his wing. He taught me everything about aviation maintenance, training, management, flying. He taught me about leadership and how to lead the warrant officers, how to lead the enlisted, how to communicate with my boss.

He was probably the first, but the Army's business is leadership. Aviation was how I got my job done, but leadership is your business. The Army does a very good job at all levels, formally and informally, training people in leadership.

Every leader's job in the Army is to develop their subordinates. You coach, teach, mentor, and counsel.

You have to really develop your subordinate to take your job. I take that same approach here. You know, a leader's number one job is to develop future leaders.

What's your advice to be effective as a leader?

You have to be willing to listen. You have to be willing to learn. You have to show other people that you care.

You don't need to have all the answers. You need to be able to find them.

I mentioned earlier you need to be team oriented and build that shared consciousness. People talk about situational awareness, situational understanding, but it's really a shared consciousness.

If you look at a lot of the problems today, they're chaotic, complex, dynamic situations. The leader's not going to have all the answers. They're not going to be the technical experts. They have to work as a team with all of the people in the organization to understand the environment, chart a path, and then be able to lead toward a goal.

You have to make sure everybody's moving in the same direction. They have that understanding. That's shared consciousness.

You're the one facilitating the people you serve as a leader. It gets into servant leadership. I think that is important. You have to understand your role is not about the title. It's about the actions. People too often think leadership is that I'm-in-charge-now idea.

There can be a myth, especially about the military, that leadership means barking commands

That could not be further from the truth.

Tell me about that.

I don't know that I ever actually issued a command.

You know, once again, it's really no different than the civilian world. If I walk out the door from this conference room, they know Im the CEO, right?

There's a difference between being in charge and being in control.

Whats the difference?

Being in charge could just be a title. Being in control is having the ability to influence the organization. That could be at any level.

As the leader, you have to garner all those smart people that have their own views, and you all have to look at things through a common lens. Then you have to figure out approaches and Im not saying solutions. We all face problems in today's fast-paced, global, dynamic, volatile world use whatever adjectives you want.

You have to continually evaluate your position and direction. You have to understand the environment. One persons view is not going to be able to fully understand the complexities of the environment. That's where it takes everyone on a team to understand what's out there and to develop those paths.

So, I don't think I ever barked an order, a command.

People knew I was the leader. The leader's responsibility is for mission success. That responsibility is to take care of your soldiers. Taking care of them meant training them so they could survive in combat and progress in their careers. It was not complex, but it was hard.

What qualities do you see in effective leadership, in leaders you admire?

I think the most important leadership characteristic is humility.

A modest view of one's importance.

Leaders are there to serve.

Obviously that humility has to be bounded by confidence.

The other one is kindness and that has to be balanced by toughness.

So, I think it's humility bounded by confidence, kindness bounded by toughness.

There are often times and I loved my soldiers but you love them like a parent. Sometimes you have to make tough calls if they did something wrong.

I generally believe all people are good and want to do good. And when somebody made a mistake, they probably didn't do it from malice. You have to be able to look at them and say: Hey, I know you didn't mean to do this, but here's what happened. How are we going to fix it?

Obviously, there are number of characteristics that at any one time are going to be important. How you communicate. Tact. Loyalty. Perseverance.

I actually think humility is the number one most important leadership characteristic.

What attributes do you see in poor leaders?

People that are self-serving. As a general rule, you have to show your support and that you care about the people youre leading, that you are in it for their good and the greater good of the overall mission.

The one characteristic that will make leaders fail is a feeling of self-importance or arrogance or self-serving. That's just not the point of being a leader. It's to serve others.

John C. Maxwell has great quotes about great leadership. He says: People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

That is absolutely true. When you develop personal relationships with people and this was very much so in the Army that builds trust. Trust is that keystone to leadership.

You can pick numbers of adjectives to describe trust: competence, reliability, motivation, integrity.

People have to believe that you have the ability to do what you say you're going to do, repeatedly for the right reasons in the right way.

I don't think you're going to trust someone if they're not in it for you. Youre not willing to assume personal risk for someone who's not willing to assume personal risk for you. That gets to trust.

It's not hard. It's stuff we learned in kindergarten: Be nice. Be kind. Be humble. Work hard.

What advice do you have for overcoming obstacles and setbacks?

Persistence never quit. I spent the majority of my Army career in a unit whose motto was Night Stalkers Dont Quit. That mentality transfers to all aspects of life. Things will always look better in the morning. Be optimistic, have a great attitude, seek the advice, mentorship, and help of others, and you will create your opportunities.

The weekly CNY Conversation" features Q&A interviews about leadership, success, and innovation. The conversations are condensed and edited. To suggest a leader for a Conversation, contact Stan Linhorst at StanLinhorst@gmail.com. Last week featured Sarah Reckess, director of the Center for Court Innovation.

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Mike Hertzendorf on leadership: The number 1 job is to develop future leaders - syracuse.com

Natura &Co announced yesterday that three new members will join its Board of Directors following the closing of the acquisition of Avon Products, Inc., which is expected in the first quarter of 2020, as part of a new corporate governance structure to lead the worlds fourth-largest pure-play beauty group.

With the designation of the three new members, who are currently part of Avons Board, Natura &Cos Board of Directors will count 13 members, nine of them independent, with broad experience and industry expertise. Natura &Cos 10 other members of its Board of Directors will be the current Board of Directors of Natura Cosmeticos.

The new directors are:

Chan Galbato, Non-Executive Chairman of Avon said: "It was a pleasure being part of Avon Products, Inc. in such a transformative time for the company. We have been focused on delivering the best representative experience, improving our cost structure, increasing financial flexibility, and ultimately Opening Up Avon, positioning the company for long-term growth and success. The Board is confident that the combination with Natura represents a huge opportunity for all stakeholders."

Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman of Natura &Co declared: "With todays announcement, we are taking another decisive step to bring together four iconic beauty companies, united by a better way of living and doing business. I am delighted to welcome the new members of the Board to the Natura &Co family, and I am sure their broad experience and deep knowledge of Avon will empower our entrepreneurs and associates, while helping to grow our high-touch, high-tech direct to consumer businesses. It will be a pleasure to work with such a talented and diverse team to drive further sustainable growth."

About Natura &Co

Natura &Co is a global purpose-driven, multi-channel and multi-brand cosmetics group that is home to Natura, Aesop and The Body Shop, each a trailblazer in the beauty industry. Natura &Co posted net revenues of R$ 13.4 billion in 2018. The three companies are unique in mission and spirit but connected by a common goal of shaping a better world through positive economic, social and environmental impact. Founded in 1969, Natura is a leading Brazilian multinational brand in the cosmetics and personal care sector, and the leader in direct sales. For the past eight years, Natura has been recognized as one of the most ethical companies in the world by Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and developing ethical standards for business conduct. Founded in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick, in Brighton, England, The Body Shop was created with a vision of being a force for social and environmental good. Australian beauty brand, Aesop, was founded in 1987 with a passion for design, literature, and meticulous attention to detail, efficacy and sensory pleasure.

About Avon Products Inc.

For more than 130 years Avon has stood for women: providing innovative, quality beauty products which are primarily sold to women, through women. Millions of independent sales Representatives across the world sell iconic Avon brands such as Avon Color and ANEW through their social networks, building their own beauty businesses on a full- or part-time basis. Avon supports women's empowerment, entrepreneurship and well-being and has donated over $1 billion to women's causes through Avon and the Avon Foundation. Learn more about Avon and its products at http://www.avonworldwide.com. #stand4her

CAUTION ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this communication (or in the documents it incorporates by reference) that are not historical facts or information may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Among other things, these forward looking statements may include statements regarding the proposed transaction involving Natura and Avon; beliefs relating to value creation as a result of a proposed transaction involving Natura and Avon; the expected timetable for completing the transaction; benefits and synergies of the transaction; future opportunities for the combined company; and any other statements regarding Avons and Naturas future beliefs, expectations, plans, intentions, financial condition or performance. In some cases, words such as "estimate," "project," "forecast," "plan," "believe," "may," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "planned," "potential," "can," "expectation," "could," "will," "would" and similar expressions, or the negative of those expressions, may identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Naturas and Avons expectations and beliefs concerning future events and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. These factors are difficult to predict accurately and may be beyond Naturas and Avons control. Forward-looking statements in this communication or elsewhere speak only as of the date made. New uncertainties and risks arise from time to time, and it is impossible for Natura or Avon to predict these events or how they may affect Natura or Avon. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements as predictors of future events. Except as required by law, neither Natura nor Avon has any duty to, and does not intend to, update or revise the forward-looking statements in this communication or elsewhere after the date this communication is issued. In light of these risks and uncertainties, investors should keep in mind that results, events or developments discussed in any forward-looking statement made in this communication may not occur. Uncertainties and risk factors that could affect Naturas and/or Avons future performance and cause results to differ from the forward-looking statements in this communication include, but are not limited to, (a) the parties ability to consummate the transaction or satisfy the conditions to the completion of the transaction, including the receipt of regulatory approvals required for the transaction on the terms expected or on the anticipated schedule; (b) the parties ability to meet expectations regarding the timing, completion and accounting and tax treatments of the transaction; (c) the possibility that any of the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period; (d) the risk that integration of Avons operations with those of Natura will be materially delayed or will be more costly or difficult than expected; (e) the failure of the proposed transaction to close for any other reason; (f) the effect of the announcement of the transaction on customer and consultant relationships and operating results (including, without limitation, difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees or customers); (g) dilution caused by Naturas issuance of additional shares of its common stock in connection with the transaction; (h) the possibility that the transaction may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events; (i) the diversion of management time on transaction-related issues; (j) the possibility that the intended accounting and tax treatments of the proposed transactions are not achieved; (k) those risks described in Section 4 of Naturas Reference Form for 2018, version 15, which was filed with the Brazilian Securities Commission on April 24, 2019; and (l) those risks described in Item 1A of Avons most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191217005861/en/

Contacts

Media Gabriela Kivitzgkivitz@brunswickgroup.com + 55 11 3076-7620

Originally posted here:

Natura &Co Announces Appointment of Three New Members to its Board of Directors - Yahoo Finance

The war in the Labour Party has begun. For one side, Jeremy Corbyn is to blame. For the other, If it wasnt for Brexit.... Fortunately for them, both sides can agree that more tactical voting could have saved the day.

All of these responses to last nights devastating result fail to interrogate the thing they criticise. All treat their preferred scapegoat as an ephemeral phenomenon, as though it can just be herded away, dismissed.

The idea that Corbyns personal popularity was the problem, just like the idea that Ed Milibands personal popularity was the problem, or that Gordon Browns was, fails to take account of how public opinion is formed.

Any Labour leader running against the powerful institutions of the country would be pilloried by the media. The outlets that mocked the Jewish Ed Milliband for looking weird (read foreign) when eating a bacon sandwich, and smeared his refugee father as hating the country, didnt skip a beat when they smelt a whiff of an anti-Semitism scandal around his succesor.

This idea that the solutions to Labours problems lie in a new leader has been prevalent in Scotland for twenty years. Scottish Labour has been through nine in that time, but is yet to stumble upon its Moses.

Of course Corbyn has to resign. Of course, there are things wrong with him: he ended up as leader because he was the last person standing on the only wing of the party that had serious solutions to the problems of the world. Blairism had actively discouraged a younger generation of thinkers and leaders on the left from joining the parliamentary Labour Party, and so Corbyn with his well-rehearsed flaws stepped up when the moment emerged.

A Bernie Sanders would have been better: someone with more charisma and the ability to communicate a core message at every opportunity. But anyone who thinks Blairism would have allowed such a leader to emerge hasnt paid attention to two decades of British politics.

Yes, many people raised Corbyn as the reason they wouldnt vote Labour, just as many raised Miliband and Brown before him. But citing these objections is meaningless if we dont think about the structures of power and culture which shaped them. After all, anyone who has seen David Miliband give a speech knows it is laughable to suggest that he would have been any better than his brother.

Sometimes, if it wasnt for Corbyn really means if Labour wasnt so left wing. This ignores the facts that polls show most Labour policies are outrageously popular and that the 2017 manifesto was widely seen as a hit. The success rate of the much-promoted centrist parties of the era ChangeUK, the Lib Dems, Hillary Clintons Democrats does nothing to back up that argument either.

A more serious way of putting the point would be: If Labour hadnt run against the institutions of power in the country, they might have allowed the party into government. If Labour hadnt pledged to go after the oligarchs who own our media, perhaps they wouldnt have been so harried by them.

Perhaps. But at a time of climate emergency, drastic inequality and soaring poverty, failing to take on big oil, big money and billionaire power means failing. And in any case, this strategy has only worked in moments like 1997 when the Tories were no longer a viable vehicle for the aspirations of the mega-rich.

Corbynism was the English expression of a phenomenon which swept the Western world after the financial crisis. His victory in Labours leadership election was a response to the blatant failures of the free market, post-imperial wars and the staid ideology that had infected the whole ruling class. It was a response to deep feelings of alienation and immiseration.

Brexit was also an English response to this multi-headed crisis. Specifically, it was a rage against the alienation produced by the Blair and Cameron years, by the leave it to us politics of technocracy.

It was a demand for empowerment and it came from the region of Europe with the most centralised government and most privatised economies: that is, as Anthony Barnett has argued, England without London.

When my friends on the left of the Labour Party argue today that they would have won if it wasnt for Brexit, they imply that Brexit is a one-off event, a unique set of circumstances that can be set aside and discounted for the future. Thats a bit like the comforting notions that Labour would have won in 1983 if it wasnt for the Falklands war, or in 2015 if Cameron hadnt whipped up fear of the Scottish National Party. These arguments may even be true, but what they amount to is Labour would have won if it wasnt for Anglo-British nationalism. Which is essentially saying: Labour would have won if it wasnt for the main reason the Tories normally win.

At the root of this nationalism is a deep yearning for collective agency. It is in part a toxic backlash of a nation bitter about losing its empire, in part the legitimate demands of people to have control over their lives.

This alienation was mobilised by the right, who drew firm borders around the national collective and promised Brexit would allow us to take back control. The response from the left should have been to offer genuine collective agency, through a political revolution.

I argued yesterday that Labour struggled because people didnt believe that our political system would deliver the partys manifesto. As I travelled around the north of England interviewing people about the election, I discovered something new had happened. Where people used to often say, Theyre all the same, in a resigned way, the most common reply now is, I dont trust any of them! usually snapped with fury.

In 2014 in Scotland and 2016 across the UK, the Yes campaign and the Leave campaign were able to mobilise sentiment against the political system behind them. In this election campaign, it became clear as I travelled the country that Labour had failed to do this looking to too many like technocrats offering nice things in order to trick you into voting for them.

Its no coincidence that, by my sums, 88% of Tory gains were in seats where turnout was down.

At the core of all of this is the debate about Labours Brexit position, which appears in hindsight to have been the worst of both worlds. By remaining essentially neutral on Brexit over the past three years, Labour allowed Lib Dems and Blairites and other technocrats from the previous era to shape what Remain meant, presenting it as the status-quo option, opposed to the change people are desperate for.

Had Labour consistently argued that a Tory Brexit would be part of the system, highlighting again and again the oligarchs who funded the campaign, the desire to drag the UK towards the US and the race to the bottom this implies; had they used the opportunity to fight for radical change to the British state, the debate now would be very different.

At core, the problem was not Corbyn. Without him and his ideas, Labour would be squabbling with the Lib Dems over a minuscule pool of voters trapped in 2005. Nor was the problem Brexit, because Brexit is just the latest expression of English alienation.

The problem was that Labour ran a campaign with a retail offer when voters wanted empowerment. They asked people to trust the political system to transform their lives after the Tories had been waging war on trust in the political system. They failed to drive a debate about radical change to the British state, to rage against a system designed to ensure elite rule. And so huge numbers didnt believe theyd deliver their otherwise popular policies. Because they have no faith in politics.

Rather than fighting to rip up the rules of our broken politics and hand power to the people, pro-Labour groups spent a huge amount of money reminding people of one broken part of our system, and then telling them to suck it up. I spent much of the election monitoring the various non-party campaign pages.

Leave pages and Leave.EU in particular focussed on political messages, designed to convince, persuade, troll and infame: to drive debate. Leave.EU has spent just 2,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads since October, and has had 822,000 interactions on posts from its page in the past seven days.

Remain pages focussed on tactical voting. The pro-EU campaign Best for Britain has spent nearly 900,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads since October, mostly promoting tactical voting. But it had only 290,000 interactions with posts from its page in the past seven days (not counting 'dark' ads). And its not clear its adverts helped: the main message was that the voting system is broken, but voters just have to accept it. It changed politics from a deep debate about our futures together to an infomercial about arithmetic.

Labours proposals could be summarised as a core argument: we will use politics to make your life better. But if people dont believe in the political system, they wont trust you. Corbyn should have raged against elite rule, and promised a new democracy, by the people, for the people. He should have tapped into the anti-systemic energy. It should have been 'by the many'. He could have won.

Originally posted here:

Don't blame Corbyn or Brexit: Labour failed to rage against the hated political system - Open Democracy

The passing of The CROWN Act in New Jersey will ensure that young students like Andrew Johnson, the 16-year old wrestler from Buena Regional High School in Buena, New Jersey, will not be forced to make a decision of having his locs cut, or forfeiting an earned match, like Andrew was asked to do during the infamous December 19, 2018 incident in which the freedom to wear his hair in a natural protective hairstyle was denied for no justifiable reason.

"In 2019, it is unfortunate we have to pass legislation to further expand the definition of discrimination, to include something as natural and organic as how our hair grows from our heads," said Senator B. Cunningham, District 31, NJ. "This legislation is necessary; it will serve as a protection for those who feel helpless in any situation where they are forced to choose between being employed, and/or being allowed to participate in a sporting event (like our own New Jersey resident Andrew Johnson), or changing their identity to make others feel comfortable."

"This is so exciting that we are really this close to making sure no one in New Jersey will ever legally experience having to cut their hair or change their hair texture in order to play a sport or work at a particular place. I'm so proud of my state for moving this bill along so quickly, " said New Jersey Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D-Hudson). "The fact that this bill passed the General Assembly overwhelmingly with bipartisan support proves that this isn't a partisan issue, but rather a human rights issue that we can all agree upon. I commend my colleagues across the table for standing up for civil rights."

"As the legislative year comes to a close, New Jersey has been hard at work reforming our criminal justice system so that it will treat incarcerated women with dignity, restore voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals, and put a stop to hair discrimination. All New Jerseyans deserve to be treated with decency and respect, and each of these measures will end unequitable and disenfranchising realities that too many have been facing," stated Senator Cory Booker. "Today's passage of the CROWN Act marks a historic step in banning a culture of discrimination against black hair. Hair discrimination is a civil rights violation and we must stop reinforcing racism and biases against Black hair."

"It is our mission at Dove to champion individual beauty and ensure all beauty is respected and welcome in our society. For too long, narrow beauty standards have perpetuated unfair scrutiny and injustice for hairstyles and textures inherent to Black identity. On the anniversary of the infamous and painful wrestling incident, I am proud that New Jersey has passed The CROWN Act to put an end to hair discrimination," said Esi Eggleston Bracey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of North America Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever, the New Jersey-based parent company of Dove.

"The National Urban League is behind this mission and areiscommitted to making an impact with the CROWN Coalition," said Marc Morial, CEO of the National Urban League. "Hair discrimination, whether in schools or in the workforce should simply not be allowed and we will continue to rally policy-makers and our communities to end discriminatory practices that disproportionately affect communities of color. Senator Cunningham and the state of New Jersey have our support to turn this legislation into law."

"Color Of Change is excited to be a part of this movement to end hair discrimination in our nation," said Janaya "Future" Khan, Program Director, Media, Culture and Economic Justice for Color Of Change. "It's incredible to believe that in 2019 we have to fight for legislation that addresses grooming policies that directly affect our people in the workplace and in schools. As members of the CROWN Coalition we will continue to work to put an end to issues that oppress Black people unfairly."

Senator Cory Booker (NJ) and Congressman Cedric Richmond (LA) introduced The CROWN Act of 2019 in both chambers of the U.S. Congress December 5, 2019. Twelve additional states have pre-filed legislation for early 2020.

Jointhe movementthat'screating realchangeand aiding in the efforts to ensureBlack men, women and children feel confident in expressing themselves. Sign the petition atwww.TheCROWNAct.comto help us end discrimination and learn howyou can get involved in bringing anti-hair discrimination legislation to your state.

About The CROWN CoalitionThe CROWN Coalition is a national alliance founded by Dove, National Urban League, Color Of Change, Western Center on Law & Poverty.

The CROWN Coalition is proud to sponsor and/or support the following bills in California, New York, and New Jersey:

These bills address unjust grooming policies that have a disparate impact on Black women, men and children and have drawn attention to cultural and racial discrimination taking place within workplaces and public schools. The CROWN Coalition members believe diversity and inclusion are key drivers of educational, social and economic success.

The CROWN Coalition and The CROWN Act are supported by the following organizations: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; The Links, Inc.; Jack and Jill of America, Inc.; National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL); National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women (NOBEL Women); African American Mayors Association (AAMA); National Action Network (NAN); Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Black Women's Agenda; National Council of Negro Women (NCNW); Black Women's Roundtable, National Women's Law Center, Black Women Organized for Political Action, National Action Network, National Black MBA Association, Inc., National Black Child Development Institute, Inc., The National Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi); U. S. Black Chambers, Inc.; Black Business Association; Black Women for Wellness Action Project; Greater Sacramento Urban League; National Coalition of 100 Black Women-Sacramento Chapter; EMERGE: Natural Beauty Industry Alliance; Beauty and Barber Empowerment Center; Ujima, Inc.; Hip Hop Sisters Foundation; Alliance for Boys and Men of Color; Equal Rights Advocates; Public Health Advocates; American Academy of Pediatrics; Courage Campaign; Greenlining Institute; Anti-Defamation League; Women in Public Policy, Inc.; Professional Beauty Association; California Black Health Network; Black American Political Association of California; California Black Chamber of Commerce; Women's Foundation of California; National Association of Social Workers-California Chapter; California Employment Lawyers Association; California Civil Liberties Advocacy; California Teachers Association; AFSCME California American Federation of State; County and Municipal Employees; ACLU New Jersey; ACLU California; ACLU of Northern California; ACLU of Southern California; ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties; Berkeley City Council; National Lawyers Guild Sacramento Chapter; Los Angeles County Office of Education; Los Angeles Community College District; City and County of San Francisco Department on the Status of Women.

About DoveDove started its life in 1957 in the US, with launch of the Beauty Bar, with its patented blend of mild cleansers and moisturizing cream. Dove's heritage is based on moisturization proof not promises grew Dove from a Beauty Bar into one of the world's most beloved beauty brands.

Women have always been our inspiration and since the beginning, we have been wholly committed to providing superior care to all women and to championing real beauty in our advertising. Dove believes that beauty is for everyone. That beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety. Dove's mission is to inspire women everywhere to develop a positive relationship with the way they look and realize their personal potential for beauty.

For 60 years, Dove has been committed to broadening the narrow definition of beauty in the work they do. With the 'Dove Real Beauty Pledge,' Dove vows to:

About Unilever North AmericaUnilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2.5 billion consumers a day. In the United States and Canada, the portfolio includes brand icons such as: Axe, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Degree, Dollar Shave Club, Dove, Hellmann's, Klondike, Knorr, Lever 2000, Lipton, Love Beauty and Planet, Magnum, Nexxus, Noxzema, Pond's, Popsicle, Pure Leaf, Q-tips, Seventh Generation, Simple, Sir Kensington's, St. Ives, Suave, Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto, TAZO, TIGI, TRESemm and Vaseline. All of the preceding brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Unilever Group of Companies.

Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) underpins the company's strategy and commits to:

The USLP creates value by driving growth and trust, eliminating costs and reducing risks. In 2018, the company's Sustainable Living Brands grew 69% faster than the rest of the business, compared to 46% in 2017.

Since 2010 we have been taking action through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to help more than a billion people improve their health and well-being, halve our environmental footprint and enhance the livelihoods of millions of people as we grow our business. We have already made significant progress and continue to expand our ambition most recently committing to ensure 100% of our plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. While there is still more to do, we are proud to have been recognized in 2018 as sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and as the top ranked company in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders survey, for the eighth-consecutive year.

For more information on Unilever U.S. and its brands visit: http://www.unileverusa.comFor more information on the USLP: http://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/

About National Urban LeagueThe National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its 90 local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people annually nationwide. Visit http://www.nul.org and follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.

About Color Of ChangeColor Of Change is the nation's largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by more than 1.4 million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people and our allies in America. Our campaigns and initiatives win changes that matter. By designing strategies powerful enough to fight racism and injusticein politics and culture, in the work place and the economy, in criminal justice and community life, and wherever they existwe are changing both the written and unwritten rules of society. We mobilize our members to end practices and systems that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward.

About Western Center on Law & PovertyWestern Center fights for justice and system-wide change to secure housing, health care, racial justice and a strong safety net for low-income Californians. Western Center attains real-world policy solutions for our clients through litigation, legislative and policy advocacy, and technical assistance and legal support for the state's legal aid programs. Western Center is California's oldest and largest legal services support center. Visitwclp.org.

http://www.thecrownact.com

CONTACTS:Marcy Polancomarcy@joycollective.com 202.885.5527

SOURCE The CROWN Coalition

http://www.thecrownact.com

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Dove and The CROWN Coalition Announce The Passing Of Legislation To End Hair Discrimination in New Jersey - PRNewswire

Finland is a small country. It has a population of 5.5 million, roughly of the size of the U.S. state of Minnesota. And yet, it serves as a powerful example for the entire United States.

The five political parties that are represented in Finlands current coalition government are all headed by women. But it gets more interesting. Whats more, four out of five of these party leaders are women under 35 years of age. And the newly appointed Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, is 34 years old.

Compare that to the leadership of the U.S. legislative and executive branches on both sides of the political aisle.

It is filled with (predominantly male) septuagenarians and even octogenarians. This includes the President and his three major rivals among the field of potential Democratic nominees (but hey, at least, one of them is a woman).

In other words, the people who currently govern the United States of America still long for their record players, probably dont know how to change settings on their iPhones, grew up when segregation was normal and for most of their lives thought that climate change had something to do with different seasons.

The female political leadership in Finland is the result of a narrowing gender gap. This has been made possible by generous parental leave programs and universal daycare.

As a result of these long-standing policies, it has even been reported that Finnish men are the only men worldwide who spend more time with their children than women.

In the annual Global Gender Gap Index published by the World Economic Forum in 2018 and measured along four sub-indices (economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; political empowerment), Finland ranks 4th, the United States a horrible 51st. That puts the United States below Mexico but, hey, above Peru.

Of course, unlike Finland, the United States does not have universal daycare or parental leave programs. It should also be mentioned that even the best performers such as Finland have not closed the gender gap.

Finland also ranks first in the annual index of 156 countries covered in the World Happiness Report. The United States is 19th. In fact, in the 2019 report on happiness, an entire chapter is dedicated to the United States entitled: The Sad State of Happiness in the United States and the Role of Digital Media.

So, why on earth are Finns so happy? After all, during the countrys long winter, Finns barely get a glimpse at the sun, while many of the far more fortunate Americans, as far as daylight is concerned, suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. This is a type of depression that begins when the days get shorter and only ends when they are once again long and sunny.

Good health is part of personal happiness. The 130-year old Finnish healthcare system covers everybody in Finland, including legal immigrants. It does all that at half the costs of the U.S. system. It is taxpayer-funded and otherwise virtually free for all.

88% of Finns are satisfied with the quality of the system. Consequently, Finland has the sixth-lowest infant mortality among 223 countries and territories. The United States, despite its vast wealth, is 54th.

Finlands life expectancy in 2018 stood at 81.7 years, compared to Americas 78.9 years. Good reasons for Finnish happiness, not so much for Americans.

As for the American Dream, the idea is that you can achieve anything, wherever you come from. The OECD measured in 2016 how many generations it would take country-by-country to rise from low-income families to reach their nations median income. This concept is also referred to as social mobility.

It was shown that it takes all but two generations in Finland to make that move, but five generations in the country of the (presumed) American Dream, the United States.

So, compared to their Finnish brethren, most low-income Americans feel forever trapped, while Finns actually see light at the end of the tunnel.

In fact, the new Finnish Prime Minister came from a low-income family, was raised in a same sex relationship and became the first person in her family to attend university. Happiness spreads when you see a future for yourself.

This takes us to U.S. Republicans favorite issue: Taxes. Of course, Finland has higher effective income taxes than the United States. But fair comparisons of tax rates have always been difficult.

In the United States, you have multiple layers of taxes: Federal, state and local taxes on income; state sales taxes and local property taxes. Many other countries, such as Finland, just collect few local taxes and their vast collection of tax revenue occurs at the federal level.

Finlands fiscal deficit averaged just 2% of GDP between 2009 and 2018. This compares to a U.S. deficit averaging 5.4% of GDP during the same time period.

While it is true that a large part of this average U.S. deficit is the result of the aftermath of the Great Recession, Finland experienced that crisis too. It just went into a smarter deficit spending mode that required fewer resources.

More importantly, contrary to the United States, Finland reduced its deficit to 0.7% in 2018, while the U.S. fiscal deficit under Trump rose after a brief recovery and sharply so to 3.8% in 2018.

Unsurprisingly, Finnish government debt to GDP stands at 58.9% in 2018 compared to U.S. debt of 106.1%.

Add all that up better economic indicators, happy, healthy, educated and socially well-protected people, as well as a young, democratic leadership (rather than a stale and out-of-touch two-party system run by the old and entrenched) and the Finnish laboratory looks like a gem.

In fact, if Finland were Americas 51st state, the famous words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis written in a 1932 opinion would apply. Brandeis then held that a state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

If only the United States could act so wisely. Then we Americans might all live a better, longer, healthier and happier life. Go Finland! Mene Suomeen!

Link:

Finland, World Leader - The Globalist

Dr. Wei Cui, Chief Scientist of Squirrel AI Learning, was invited to attend the IROS 2019 conference and delivered a wonderful speech. Speakers on the same stage also included Toshio Fukuda, General Chairman of IEEE2020, Founder of IROS, Kristen Grauman, AI Research Scientist of Facebook, Professor of Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at Austin, etc.

At the conference, he shared with the top scholars all over the world the technical advantages and achievements in technology driven landing application of Squirrel AI Learning intelligent adaptive teaching system, showed everyone the outstanding achievements made by Chinese enterprises in the field of AI adaptive education, and also allowed the participants know about the development and application of artificial intelligence in the field of education, which attracted great attention from famous experts and scholars in the international industry.

This conference is jointly organized by IEEE, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), etc. It has attracted more than 4,000 professionals and representatives of top research teams in artificial intelligence and other fields around the world.

Squirrel AI Learning is the first artificial intelligence company in China to apply AI adaptive learning technology to the field of K12 education. Squirrel AI Learning has successfully developed the first AI adaptive learning engine with complete independent intellectual property rights and advanced algorithms as the core in China.

Squirrel AI Learning intelligent adaptive learning system is a student-centered intelligent and personalized education, it applies artificial intelligence technology in the process of assessment, learning, practicing, testing and questioning, to achieve the purpose of surpassing the human teaching on the basis of simulating excellent teachers. The product has a high cost-effectiveness performance. It adopts the mode of artificial intelligence + human teachers to teach students according to their aptitude, which can effectively solve the problems of high class cost, few famous teacher resources and low learning efficiency of traditional education.

At the conference, Dr. Wei Cui said: "Artificial intelligence will bring personalized education to every student. Through technical means, we hope that every student in China can enjoy the charm of personalized education that taught according to their aptitude."

IROS 2019 is jointly organized by IEEE, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE) and New Technology Foundation (NTF).

The conference attracted more than 4,000 professionals, representatives of top research teams and business people from all over the world in robotics, automation systems, artificial intelligence and other fields to participate in the exchange, jointly explore the cutting-edge technologies in the field of intelligent robots and systems, share and discuss the latest progress in related fields.

Dr. Wei Cui, who was invited to attend the IROS 2019 conference, is the Chief Scientist of Squirrel AI Learning, and is also the earliest promoter of adaptive education in China. He was selected as the winner of MIT Technology Review 35 under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and is a recognized senior engineer with Shanghai AI senior professional title in 2019, which can be described as a young talent. Through his own efforts, Dr. Wei Cui is working hard to make AI technology change the pattern of education development in China.

Squirrel AI Learning: Intelligent Adaptive Education Technology Changes Education Pattern

At this IROS 2019 conference, Dr. Wei Cui introduced in detail to the participants how the Squirrel AI Learningintelligent adaptive education system can make its own contribution to the industrialization of education through the empowerment of AI technology.

At the technical level, Squirrel AI Learningfully uses more than ten kinds of artificial intelligence algorithm technologies, such as knowledge space theory, Bayesian theory, logistic regression, genetic algorithms and deep learning, and initiates the nanoscale knowledge point decomposition, the decomposition of MCM system (Model of Thinking, Capacity and Methodology), and the deep decomposition of knowledge points, clearly and accurately penetrates the students' knowledge loopholes/weaknesses; the nanoscale knowledge point splitting created originally by Squirrel AI Learning splits the knowledge points in the disciplines into nanoscale knowledge point splitting.

Through the correlation between knowledge points, students' user portraits can be visualized, so as to have a clearer understanding on the grasp of students' knowledge points and accurately detect the weak points of students' knowledge points. On the basis of nanoscale knowledge point decomposition, the learning abilities and learning methods of Squirrel AI Learning for students are split into measurable and teachable learning ability models.

On this basis, Squirrel AI Learningintelligent adaptive learning system can accurately detect the weak points of learning knowledge, accurately give the most suitable learning path for each child, so as to achieve personalized learning program. The association concept algorithms of non-associated knowledge points created by Squirrel AI Learningnot only establishes the relevance of knowledge points based on the knowledge map theory, tracing the source to present, but also establishes the association probability on the non-associated knowledge points, so that the test efficiency and learning efficiency can be improved by 3-10 times respectively than the knowledge map theoretical model of similar products.

It is worth mentioning that Squirrel AI Learningis the first one in the world to put forward the concept of reconstructing knowledge map of fault causes. It sums up the mistakes of every student's knowledge points so as to find the root of problems. And this is also the basis of achieving a real personalized learning program.

In the past, in order to cover the blind area of knowledge points, students often had to carry out the excessive assignments tactics to eliminate illiteracy. Squirrel AI Learningscans the students' knowledge map to accurately locate the blind area of their knowledge. Students do not need to consolidate their knowledge in hundreds of thousands of exam questions. The system will help students quickly according to their weak points of knowledge, so that students' learning efficiency can be maximized, and their performance can be ensured to be improved steadily.

Dr. Wei Cui introduced that at present, in terms of technical characteristics, Squirrel AI Learningis mainly applied to several major AI technologies:

First, evolutionary algorithms, logistic regression and neural networks. The algorithm model takes into account the learning objectives and knowledge state of students, and dynamically adjusts the learning path. The system will gradually draw students' learning habits, interests, methods and other multi-directional student portraits, and continuously optimize the content recommendation logic automatically.

Second, machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing technology. The technology can recommend the most suitable learning content according to different students' personal preferences, learning habits and learning styles. Different students have different degrees of adaptation to different learning atmospheres and difficulties, using natural language processing technology to automatically generate learning content labels; using deep learning technology to analyze student portrait and learning content, and automatically select the suitable learning content for students.

Third, Bayesian theory and Bayesian networks. Look at problems dynamically based on experience and information. The system will render the knowledge points and probability distribution, and predict the learning ability of learners. By comparing the correlation between different knowledge points and the learning degree of students on knowledge points, Squirrel AI Learning intelligent adaptive learning system can infer the correlation between knowledge points without logical relationship.

Fourth, graph theory, knowledge space theory and information entropy theory. Squirrel AI Learning distinguishes between knowledge points according to difficulty, importance and cognitive level, models knowledge system, builds "Knowledge Map", and combs the logic and cognitive correlations between knowledge points.

From the perspective of measurement, information can be quantified. By using the theory of information entropy, we can quickly approach the level of students' knowledge state by detecting some important knowledge points, and then make repeated refined calculations around this basic level, so as to effectively and accurately diagnose students' knowledge loopholes and states.

Fifth, knowledge tracing theory. The system will evaluate the ability level of students at each knowledge point, and analyze the ability level of knowledge points and related knowledge points successively, and finally accurate to the grasp of each nanoscale knowledge point, and update the ability value changes of students in real time after learning, so as to accurately push the most suitable learning path and learning content for the current situation of students. It can not only understand the degree of mastery of students' current knowledge points, but also reflect students' potentiality, which is a kind of prediction.

Sixth, education data mining and learning analysis technology. Education data mining refers to the quantitative analysis of learning process and learning behavior, and collect the learning data of students in the process of learning, including learning time, residence time and test accuracy, etc. Through the processing and analysis of data, different students' learning models are established. Learning analysis technology is mainly used to predict and monitor students' test results, which can provide teachers with detailed student data and information for the system and teachers to improve teaching methods.

Seventh, it is under research that user interaction driven by Dialog-based HUI and VPA engine in the form of dialogue realizes real-time voice interaction between virtual teachers and students. The main technologies are natural language processing, voice recognition and semantic analysis. In the process of learning, students can ask virtual teachers about their learning situation and learning tasks at any time, and give feedback on questions.

Eighth, MIBA is another project working with both SRI and CMU. MIBA refers to the Multi-modal Integrated Behavior Analysis. It collects students' physiological data and behavioral data through cameras, brainwaves measuring rings and other devices, including facial expression data, blood change data under the skin, body movement data and brain wave data. Combined with the learning data generated during the learning process, it analyzes the learning state of students, including the degree of students' concentration and learning input. The teacher terminal system used by teachers can receive early warning signals, and can timely implement personalized intervention to make learning more effective.

Dr. Wei Cui said that just because of the integration of technology, at present, Squirrel AI Learning has established laboratories in cooperation with several top AI research institutes around the world such as CMU, SRI, etc. Squirrel AI Learningintelligent adaptive learning system has opened more than 2,300 learning centers in more than 700 cities and counties in more than 20 provinces, with a total of nearly 2 million registered students.

After understanding the practical application effect of leading algorithms, model and intelligent adaptation technology of Squirrel AI Learning, experts and scholars and participants on site highly praised the achievements of Squirrel AI Learningin research and development and the application of AI technology in the field of education, as well as the behavior that it is committed to bringing fair, efficient and personalized education to every child.

At last, Dr. Wei Cui said that traditional education currently faces many deep-rooted problems: the development of education resources is uneven, high-quality education resources tend to developed areas, while in the underdeveloped areas, the quality of teachers is uneven. Squirrel AI Learning by Yixue Group hopes to achieve the education concept that we have been advocating since ancient times through the empowerment of AI technology: teaching students according to their aptitude, to reform and innovate traditional education.

SOURCE Squirrel AI Learning

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Squirrel AI Learning Shines at the IEEE/IROS 2019 Conference: The Era of AI + Education has Arrived - PRNewswire

As the online dating market and its perpetuation of the chat-meets-ghost cycle reaches a saturation point, NIM ventures into uncharted territory as the first-ever exclusive, members-only appcatered to the single Muslim community. Traditional dating apps such as Tinder pose myriad challenges for observers of a faith that stipulates various rules and restrictions including limited physical contact before marriage and an emphasis on parental approval of a partner. Though its not difficult to stand apart from Tinder and its free-for-all approach, NIM goes much further than even pre-existing Muslim dating apps, such as the similarly named Minder, by leaving no proverbial stone unturned Sharia-compliant, or Halal, features allow users friends and family to discuss potential matches, suggest prospects and even chaperone a chat. NIMs application committee hand-selects a user base of individuals who display some indicators of commitment, be it a side project or a line of study.

We dont go by specifics on financial status or job title, said NIM Founder Snaullah Niazi, whose past tech initiatives include Wieldata Group and virtual learning platform Stud-E-Buddies. Despite a vague explanation of NIMs acceptance process posted to the apps website perhaps emulating the modus-operandi of fellow members-only dating app Raya Niazi is happy to elaborate on the approach to accepting members. Prospective singles submit basic information on age and gender, at least one social media account (Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn) and then undergo a Google search to determine additional information. Overall, were looking for an individual who is committed who has been committed to something in the past, who has done something more than just [his or her] nine to five job. Departing from other so-called exclusive dating apps, NIM readily accepts student members, as pursuing an education counts as commitment to Niazi. Its not just career-based, its also aboutpursuing more than your average joe, he explained.

NIM, which stands for half in Farsi, was born out of Niazis personal frustrations with dating, as well as those voiced by his fellow Muslim friends and family. Its always been a topic brought up multiple times at gatherings, he said. Friends and family members who have been on dating apps expressed frustration with hours of pointless of swiping, hours not finding the right individual not even looks-wise, but more so their standards not being met, he explained.

Niazi hopes to solve the expectations-reality gap with a series of features facilitating Halal dating, such as the aforementioned option to include friends and family in the match process. A member can invite trusted friends and family, single or non-single, to a limited version of NIM. Once they accept the invite, they can chaperone a view-only version of the members chat, see a members matches, suggest matches and then discuss those matches in a group chat. Vetting a potential parter through community is an integral part of traditional Muslim dating, which often sees family members or fellow Mosque members handpick prospects.

Additionally, NIM caters to its female users by requiring them to start a conversation first. That gives them the upper hand, Niazi said. Its the empowerment and control that they deserve in a relationship or the start of something serious. Similar to Bumble, the choice weeds out unsolicited messages that can often verge into inappropriate territory.

Though NIM launched less than 24 hours ago in an impressive roster of locations (U.S., UK, Canada, France, Quatar, Saudi, Dubai, Turkey, Singapore and Malaysia), Niazi already has big plans in store for the future. In-person events for NIM members are on the horizon word of mouth and members who recommend or invite others will be key to growth, he explained as well as a professional networking platform built into the app. Notably, NIM is open to members of all religions. Though the apps faith-specific features cater only to Muslim users, Niazi specifies that, if interest emerges, we are more than happy to follow up and provide for them as well.

When asked about Raya, a seeming competitor (and perhaps the inspiration for NIMs logo), Niazi demurs. Were obviously not going to compete with Raya; were totally different markets, he said. However, he admitted that several design members expressed interest in some of Rayas processes: Weve adapted a few, and theres no shame about thatyou can consider us a Raya, for the Muslim market, he said in a final remark on the subject.

NIM is available now on theApple Store in select countries. Once accepted, members pay $9.99 USD a month or $34.99 USD every six months. NIMs first 100 accepted members will receive their first month free.

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NIM, the First Members-Only Dating App for Muslims, Banks on Commitment - HYPEBAE