For Gender Equality in Ancestral Property, the Journey from 1956 Has Been a Long One – The Wire

This week, the Supreme Court declared that a daughters right in coparcenary property the ancestral property of a Hindu undivided family is equal to a sons, and that these rights can be claimed by the daughter even if her father had died before September 9, 2005, which is the datean amendment to the Hindu Succession Actcame into effect granting daughters an equal share.

Sisters who have been deprived of an equal share of their deceased fathers ancestral property will now have the right to claim their due. Since a coparcenary only ascertains who its members are and does not fix the shares, a preliminary decree can be altered to now ensure equal shares for all daughters.

The matter started with a married daughter, Vineeta Sharma, asking for her share as a coparcener before the Delhi high court. Since there were conflicting views in the Supreme Court in Phulwati and Mangammal, the court said the daughter could claim her share only if her father was alive on September 9, 2005, while in Danamma, the court said the fact of her birth was enough to vest her with rights regardless of whether her father was alive or not the matter was referred to a larger bench that is the author ofthe latest judgment.

If you look at the history of the reforms of Hindu law, this is not an intrepid or path-breaking decision but a logical extension of the changes that have come so far.

Also Read: Its High Time Hindu Undivided Family Ceased to Be a Tax Entity

In his Essays in Classical and Modern Hindu Law, Duncan Derrett commends that the best studies of property as a concept are by ancient Indians, and that they are largely unknown because they are in manuscripts. A text that he chooses from says that property is not an objective entity sui generis. It is a settled impression dependent upon consciousness of acquisition, or rather of having acquired, which in turn implies understanding of the permitted methods of acquisition.

If we are firmly impressed that women have no right to property, the personal laws of property will naturally be what they are until they are brought in line with the constitution. Coparcenary property is a concept that is essentially patriarchal in nature and the Hindu Succession Act has taken its time to do away with it. The process began in 1956 but has reached a logical conclusion only now

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, was the most crucial of reforms since it had to do with property, which a key to gender equality and empowerment. The original draft of this Act attempted to scrap the concept of coparcenary property. This was vehemently resisted. During the discussions in parliament, Sita Ram Jajjoo of Madhya Bharat said, Here we feel the pinch because it touches our pockets. We, male members of this house are in a huge majority. I do not wish that the tyranny of the majority may be imposed on the minority, the female members of this House. But no one agreed with him.

According to Nehru, the passage of legislation relating to Hindus is not in any way revolutionary in the changes they bring about and yet there is something revolutionary about them. They have opened a barrier and cleared the way somewhat for our women folk to progress.

Somewhat is a very suitable term, for under the 1956 Act there was no equality with regard to coparcenary property or agricultural holdings. Courts were willing to extend the rules applicable to coparcenary property, which is essentially a male domain, to properties of female members of the devadasi community, essentially a female domain (Chalakonda Alasani v.Chalakonda Ramachalam 1867(2) Mad.H.C.R.P.56). But the sharing of property about which one had the settled impression that it could be enjoyed only by male members, has happened slowly.

In the present case, it was argued that the 2005 amendment recognising women as coparceners can only be prospective that unless the father was alive on the date of the enforcement of the amendment Act, there could be no recognition of the daughters right; that the amendment was not intended to unsettle matters; that if a preliminary decree was passed, all that was left to be done was to demarcate shares by metes and bounds and hence it cannot be altered. The crux of these arguments was that the amendment operated prospectively and not retrospectively.

However, the Supreme Court has now held that the amendment has a retroactive effect. It explained:

The prospective statute operates from the date of its enactment conferring new rights. The retrospective statute operates backward and takes away or impairs vested rights acquired under existing laws. A retroactive statute is one that does not operate retrospectively. It operates in futuro. However, its operation is based upon the character or status that arose earlier.

Until the 2005 amendment, only the male members of a Hindu family had coparcenary rights. And coparcenary property is a right that comes with birth. Now, female members have the same right. It is quite simple. It is a right recognised from the time the daughter is born just as if she were a son. This status therefore operates from the time she is born. Coparcener right is by birth. Thus, it is not at all necessary that the father of the daughter should be living as on the date of the amendment, as she has not been conferred the rights of a coparcener by obstructed heritage.

Also Read: Triple Talaq: Why Just Muslims, Lets Criminalise the Abandonment of All Wives

The Supreme Court said the injustice of inequality has now been done away with by amending the provisions [of the Hindu Succession Act] in consonance with the spirit of the constitution. Any transaction that is genuine and has become final is saved and is not vulnerable to attack and cannot be re-opened. But sham transactions which are bound to be trotted up shall not stop the coparcener daughter from getting her share.

In 2019, I revisited the four-decade-old case of Tulsamma v. Sesha Reddi for the journal, Seminar. The case had to do with the limited womens right to property blossoming into a full one as per S. 14(1) of the Hindu Succession Act. I called it a beacon light, for it understood that the dark corners in the space of womens property rights had to be illumined by law. The judgment was given in 1977, and even in 1991 there were attempts to reopen it, but the Supreme Court refused to take the retrograde step to reopen Tulsammas ratio. It is not easy to let go of property rights, nor to recognise rights not recognised hitherto.

The change has taken many decades from 1956 to now. I am glad Vineeta Sharma asserted her right.

Prabha Sridevan is a former judge of the Madras high court

Continued here:

For Gender Equality in Ancestral Property, the Journey from 1956 Has Been a Long One - The Wire

Youth Receive Leadership Badges Readying for the New Normal Free Press of Jacksonville – Jacksonville Free Press

This past weekend, Youth In Motion, Inc., acknowledged youth participants for earning their Level II-Bronze Star Insignia and Cooking Merit Badges. The bagdes were obtained from an eight week course where participants completed required leadership and life skills development exercises.

The badges were presented during the Youth Summer Empowerment Forum (YSEF) to recognize and honor students for their achievements.

Participants KaMiya Allen was honored with a special plaque for being the first participant to complete the Level II-Bronze Star challenge. Other challenges to follow were the Silver Star, Gold Star, Platinum Star, and the Red Sun Diamond along with other skill merit badges. Each star earned serves as a stepping stone for future leadership and personal growth opportunities. The program culminated with a well deserved luncheon prepared by the participants.

Shown l-r are YIMI youth Members and Officers: Asia Hughes-Sgt-at-Arms/COPP, Christa Lang-Vice President, Daisha Hughes-President/COPP, Terrell Fuller-Chair of Council of Past Presidents (COPP), LaeLonnie Bethea- Mascot, KaMiya Allen-Secretary/COPP, and Quandesha Rodgers-Activities Coordinator

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Youth Receive Leadership Badges Readying for the New Normal Free Press of Jacksonville - Jacksonville Free Press

ITC and Twill byMearsk offer specialized coaching to help women entrepreneurs in Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico and India scale up – Marketscreener.com

A new one-on-one coaching programme for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico and India looking to enter international trade has been launched by ITC's SheTrades initiative and Twill by Maersk.

While more than 95% of all companies are SMEs, only one-in-five exporting businesses are owned by women, and they are more likely to face obstacles to trade according to ITC research.

ITC and Twill by Maersk, a freight logistics service, have joined forces to offer highly specialized coaching to help women entrepreneurs overcome these obstacles.

During a four-week pilot phase in April 2020, four Twill employees based in the Netherlands were paired with four women-owned businesses from Nigeria and Kenya.

The programme is now open to women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico and India. They are encouraged to apply through this form by 19 August 2020.

Before participating in the coaching sessions, Caroline Chepkemboi Tormoi, owner of Eldo Tea Enterprises Ltd., Kenya, found it challenging to establish favourable rates for her customers.

Twill coach Matt Gielkens helped Caroline use Twill's platform to find favourable rates for her customers transparently and cost-effectively.

'Having a logistics partner with an international presence gives us a credible image and more trust by our customers,' Caroline said.In the future, those who have been coached will be able to become coaches themselves to share new knowledge and good practices that will help empower other women entrepreneurs in their communities.

With female empowerment at the core of her social enterprise, Hyelni Hassan, owner of Enterprises Limited, Nigeria, not only wished to boost her sales but also her vision and impact.

Sheelda's Steak Seasoning/Yajin Kulikuli (Suya Spice) is made by rural women, helping to support local communities and empower women to become drivers of socio-economic change and agents of resilience.

Hyelni and her Twill coach, Daisy Zhang, broke down ways of using different sales channels to enter the international market successfully. Hyelni will now re-brand, re-vamp and renew her business to adapt it to the global market and the 'new normal' in the international economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hyelni said she had gained confidence and clarity in the possibility of making more sales, which would lead to more women becoming empowered through the Sheelda initiative.

'I am now 100% convinced that with the right mentorship, Sheelda can do more and be more,' she said.

Communications was a key focus area for Adetoun Ajeigbe, owner of Joel Lani, Nigeria. Her company manufactures handmade leather fashion accessories.

Adetoun's coaching sessions meant a return to the drawing board to map out the specific brand values of Joel Lani, and in turn, a company strategy.

From speeding up the company website to harnessing social media channels, Adetoun and her Twill Coach, Menno Veen, identified the importance of maintaining effective communications with customers during the COVID-19 pandemic and adapting the business to a post-COVID world.

Like many business owners at this time, Adetoun has strived to seek new opportunities during the pandemic by shifting her focus to e-commerce. She believes this new strategy will make Joel Lani more internationally competitive.

'I have learned that you can never stop learning. I can keep pushing myself to get better results for my company and also for my personal growth and improvement,' she said.

As a driven and independent woman entrepreneur, Aisha Achonu, owner of Aisha Abu Bakr, Nigeria, had previously found it challenging to spend time expanding her team and delegating tasks to other people. Addressing this formed much of the work she undertook with her Twill Coach, Esteve Hartensveld.

Aisha has now successfully hired a remote team with the right expertise. Like for many, the COVID-19 pandemic has also shown Aisha that several tasks previously done on the ground can be done perfectly well remotely, and are less costly to her business.

SheTrades aims to connect three million women to market by 2021, while integrated logistics giant Maersk has a mission to connect 100,000 SMEs, including women-operated business, to international trade by 2025.

Become a member of ITC SheTrades at http://www.shetrades.com and send an email to womenandtrade@intracen.org if you have any questions.

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ITC and Twill byMearsk offer specialized coaching to help women entrepreneurs in Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico and India scale up - Marketscreener.com

11. The Amway Dream – Business Insider – Business Insider

Amway is a multi-level marketing company: the structure is triangular, but don't call it a pyramid scheme. The Federal Trade Commission already tried and failed. Now, hundreds of MLMs like Amway are embedded in America's towns and cities, and in the highest offices in government. So how did this happen?

Produced by Anna Mazarakis and Clare Rawlinson, with Dan Bobkoff, Amy Pedulla, and Sarah Wyman, with reporting from The Dream's Jane Marie and Dann Gallucci.

Note: This transcript may contain errors.

DAN BOBKOFF: Jane Marie grew up in a small town near Flint, Michigan called Owosso. And back then, in the 70s and 80s, General Motors was the obvious place to work. But not for everyone.

JANE MARIE: My great grandma was an Avon lady. I grew up going to Tupperware parties with my mom and then my aunts and my grandmother and my uncle. And for me it's like an everyday part of my life.

DB: The thing about Michigan is that it is like a mecca for multi-level marketing companies like Avon, Tupperware, and Mary Kay. It's an MLM Heartland.

JM: Kind of everyone from back home has some connection, if not working as a distributor for one of these companies, you know going to parties.

DB: Jane was surrounded by MLMs, but skeptical of them. Except for one moment, when she had a brief flirtation with an MLM.

JM: I'd forgotten this, blocked it from my memory. But I remember right when I was 20 I hosted one at my house once.

DANN GALLUCCI: I didn't even know that.

DB: That's Jane's partner, Dan.

JM: I told you. (laughs) It was a lingerie one.

DB: Oh.

JM: And they brought in like a rolling wardrobe rack and then there were like prizes. And if you - if you modeled it in front of everyone, it was all ladies, but if you'd come out of the bathroom and like show the night gown or whatever you would get like extra prizes. So I got a lot of extra prizes because I have no humility, no shame.

DB: What were the prizes?

JM: Just like an extra pair of panties or you know a candle or it was gross, like don't get me wrong it was totally gross. But it was fun. I had a good time.

DB: How old were you?

JM: Twenty. Yeah yeah.

DB: And did you like have a conception of MLMs and all these reputations and all that back then?

JM: Me? Yes. I've never joined one myself.

DB: But she still couldn't fully avoid them.

When Jane moved to Los Angeles, she'd see Facebook posts from friends back home trying to recruit new distributors to this or that MLM and she'd wonder: how is this Ok? How is this not a pyramid scheme?

For the last year, she and Dann have been answering those questions.

And, to understand how this $200 billion industry exists, you have to start with one name

CLIP: Amway may be the answer.

From Business Insider and Stitcher, this is Household Name: brands you know, stories you don't. I'm Dan Bobkoff.

On this show, we look at how famous companies affect our lives and culture - sometimes on a national scale, sometimes just on a very personal level. And you might be surprised at how much Amway has shaped American life in the last half century.

Amway is the godfather of all multilevel marketing.

Amway is the oldest.

Amway is the biggest.

The most powerful MLM of them all.

About forty years ago Amway convinced a judge that it's not some illegal pyramid scheme.

That one moment emboldened an entire industry, leading to an explosion of MLMs.

Maybe your friends have tried to get you to buy some yoga pants or skin creams. Maybe they've tried to get you to sell them too.

So today, we're teaming up with Jane and Dann to find out how any of this is legal? Why do people sign up? And who's actually making the money here?

Stay with us.

ACT I

BERNIE SANDERS: Thank you Mr. Chairman and Mrs. DeVos...and thanks for being with us and dropping into the office a few days ago...

DB: It's early 2017. Senators are grilling Betsy DeVos on her way to becoming education secretary. She's a controversial pick. She didn't have much experience in education, but she's donated a lot of money to charter schools. Betsy DeVos is rich and Senator Bernie Sanders has a question about that.

BS: Would you be so kind as to tell us how much money your family has contributed to the Republican party over the past 30 years?

BETSY DEVOS: Senator thank you first of all for the question, I was pleased to meet you in your office last week. I wish I could give you that number, I don't know.

BS: I have heard the number is 200 million. Is that the ballpark?

BD: Collectively? My entire family? Yes that's possible

DB: It's possible because of Betsy's father in law, Rich DeVos, and the company he co-founded in 1959: Amway.

RICH DEVOS: I was 23 - All I know is this business - I spent my life at it - went pretty good but wasn't always easy.

DB: You could say Amway sells products. But really what Amway sells is something more quintessentially American the idea that anyone can be an entrepreneur and make a fortune.

If you don't know what multilevel marketing is, here's the short version. First it recruits regular people to sell its products. Those people then recruit more salespeople, and they earn commission from all the salespeople beneath them. They're called the "downline."

The early recruits come out the best because they earn commissions on what their recruits sell, and commissions on their recruit's recruits, and their recruits' recruits' recruits all the way down the line.

The higher you are on the chain, the better it is for you.

If all this sounds like a pyramid scheme, well. you're not far off. It is in the shape of a triangle, but legally, there is a line between a pyramid scheme and multi-level marketing.

Which brings us back to Jane Marie and Dann Gallucci. They both live in Los Angeles now. For the past year, they've been making a podcast that confronts head-on the world of multilevel marketing in America.

Jane was a reporter for This American Life, and Dann was a rock musician - until they became partners at their own production studio.

DB: What kind of partners are you? Professional romantic?

JM: Yeah. So we're both. As partners partners like sitting around Netflixing and chilling we were like 'We should have a recording studio. We should make the thing that we want, we should make the place where we want to work.'

DB: Nice.

JM: So we did.

DB: And last week, they launched a new show called The Dream. Here's a bit of their trailer.

TRAILER: Pyramid schemes are agains the law, ok? But this is not one of them.

In this area I was encountering women that didn't have bank accounts, that had their credit cards shut off.

People that failed were told, 'You failed because you didn't work hard enough.'

They know that what they're setting up is taking advantage of people.

No authority in the country right now will openly acknowledge this for what it is.

JM: you know all of those annoying Facebook ads you see. 'We have an incredible business opportunity for you. How would you like to earn a living working ten hours a week and only selling candles,' like that kind of thing.

DB: I don't get those ads.

JM: You don't get those ads?

DB: No but I get ads for Ziprecruiter telling me that they're sponsoring podcasts. So I think I've been very very typecast.

JM: You don't have enough cousins in rural Michigan. Female female cousins in rural Michigan who who really like make-up and that's all. That's my whole feed on Facebook. So we have this thread going throughout the series of my personal experience and my family and my hometown and how these companies flourish there and then you know our big question was why? Why are they flourishing? Why when we see the numbers and we know that people aren't making money, how is this a thing? And Dann discovered that the reason was Amway. So he's going to tell the story of all of that. Of the history of MLMs, of the history of Amway, and what happened to Amway and the industry of multilevel marketing after Amway beat the FTC.

DB: Okay so before I talked to Jane and Dann, I was only vaguely aware of Amway. I knew it sold a lot of things but I couldn't tell you what they were. So let's get a little Amway 101.

DG: Amway was started in 1959 by two people who - Rich de Vos and Jay van Andell. They had themselves started out as sales people for a company called Nutrilite which is arguably the first multi-level marketing company.

They had tried and failed at several different businesses and then became Nutrilite distributors and performed well because they got in really early. But one of the problems with Nutrilite was that they sold dietary supplements and at that time the FDA was cracking down on dietary supplements in a major way, and felt like Nutrilite's science was not really backing up their claims.

So Van Andel and De Vos decided that they shouldn't be in the supplement game and decided to sell a soap called Friske and that was their first product.

DB: So this is the birth of Amway. Soap!

But it's a lot more than that now. Today, Amway sells more than 450 products - beauty products, skincare, electronics, kitchen products and along the way, Rich Devos and Jay van Andel got over their fear of selling dietary supplements. Amway actually bought Nutrilite in the '70s..

NUTRILITE AD: Nutrilite pioneered nutrient supplements in 1934...

DB: Now it's the company's biggest seller.

DB: What made you so obsessed with Amway?

DG: The reason I became obsessed with them was specifically because as I would talk to various people who were experts on MLMs. And what people kept saying to me was there was a case that happened in 1979 and it was the FTC v. Amway where the government had been successfully prosecuting MLMs for the prior decade.

It seemed as though the government had decided that multilevel marketing was a fraudulent business model - for about ten years they were taking down several of the biggest companies and very high profile cases.

DB: Perhaps the most high profile takedown of an alleged pyramid scheme by Federal Trade Commission's was its case against a company called Holiday Magic in 1974. This was an MLM that sold scented cosmetics, and some kind of personal empowerment.

HOLIDAY MAGIC: Today, I am earning more money each week than 96% of the American people earn a year. Soon, my earnings per day will be likewise. This money will continue as long as I desire it to...Wealth comes from giving something of value to other persons who are willing to pay for this value...

DB: The FTC charged Holiday Magic with deceptive trade practices. It became a success story for the opponents of MLMs. In this moment it seemed the FTC was about to take down the whole industry.

DG: And then it changed with that Amway case, they used the same evidence and the same tactics going into this Amway case but they lost. And because of that loss, a lot of people feel like the industry was emboldened that they would be able to operate more freely.

DB: Amway insists it's not a pyramid scheme...it says it's possible to make more money than people above you on the chain. Amway even made a YouTube video explaining why it's not one.

YOUTUBE AMWAY CLIP: Unfortunately, people, companies and even countries get stuck with labels that aren't true. Those labels can ruin reputations. Amway has one of those untrue labels: pyramid scheme. So lets better understand that label, so we can remove it...

DB: The video goes on to explain the ways Amway avoids meeting the legal definition of a pyramid scheme. And it essentially lists the same reasons the judge gave in 1979 when he ruled Amway wasn't one.

Here are the main reasons.

To sell for Amway, you become what it calls an Independent Business Owner, or IBO. It costs almost nothing to become an IBO. Like $100 or less. And then consumers actually want the Amway products those IBOs are selling to their friends and family. Maybe many of them really do like the shampoo and knife sets. Amway always emphasizes this point. They did so again when we contacted them for comment, , writing that quote "Amway has long been recognized as a legitimate direct selling business, primarily because Amway business owners sell quality products to consumers and no one earns income unless products are sold." And if those products don't sell, Amway allows the IBOs to return the leftovers for a refund.

But then you read the company's business reference guide - which is this 56-page PDF that explains how IBOs actually make money - and it's not very enticing.

First of all, it said in 2016, less than half of Amway's Independent Business owners were active. Active means they did something Amway-related: like selling something or at least trying to sell a product. Or maybe they met with someone they're trying to recruit. And then for those who are active, Amway says the average income for its IBOs is less than $2500. Per year. That's like $200 a month. And that doesn't include a lot of expenses to run the business. Amway even admits, often those expenses a higher than what people earn...and there isn't an estimate of how much money people are losing, if they're not active every month of the year...which Amways says "of course some people choose not to be."

All that's in the fine print.

We asked Amway about this and the company wrote saying: "Amway is a low-cost, low-risk option for people to supplement their income. While most conduct their Amway businesses part-time, which is common in our industry, some grow their business beyond that."

The ways each MLM works is a little different. But if this is the picture we get just from looking at Amway, how do any of these schemes manage to attract people?

DG: Well the promises are that you can make - it's entirely up to you. But if you work hard enough, commit yourself to this, if you do everything that they tell you to do, and that's a long list, then you have the chance to make millions. One of my favorite quotes is a guy named Robert Fitzpatrick who is one of the experts that we talked to, was at an Amway meeting and someone spoke up and said 'you know well I'm a schoolteacher. I mean how is it - like how is this going to affect me?' Or whatever. And someone said 'well that's a loser job, being a schoolteacher. You don't want that, not for you or for your family. You know you want this. You want to be rich, you want to prove to everyone in your community, everyone in your family that you can do this, that you can provide for them, not only what you need but all of your dreams what you want.' I mean everything about the way these companies operates involves heightened emotion. And one of the reasons for that as well is that the last thing that they want anyone to do ever is to look at the actual numbers.

JM: And be rational.

DG: That's not what the conversation should be ever. Because if you were to look at those numbers, first of all, it takes so long and people will get bored and walk away. But ultimately you would find that it's next to impossible to be successful

DB: Is that true for Amway too? Are they all about emotion?

DG: Absolutely. Opportunity meetings. Yes.

ARCHIVAL: We didn't know when we would become financially successful but we knew it was coming soon because we have a system no different than you.

When we spout off to our friend we are putting stakes in the ground, and here's out company - they look at us - and if they don't see us making headway, we care creating doubt in them.

DG: They all follow the same line which is you know you're reaching out emotionally to people.

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11. The Amway Dream - Business Insider - Business Insider

How Community and Sports Play a Critical Role in the Mental Health Recovery Process – James Moore

A new study, published in the Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health, explores the importance of social inclusion in the process of recovery from mental health and or substance abuse challenges. The study authors, led by Esther Ogundipe from the University of South-Eastern Norway, highlight the importance of social recovery in a street football (soccer) program the leveraged the community and camaraderie of sports toward improved mental health.

Social recovery takes into account a persons social contexts. Thus, the impact of culture and the structural elements of our socio-economic-political system is seen as relevant. The concept of social recovery demands for health services, policymakers, and practitioners to look beyond the person, and consider issues of social justice and social inclusion, Ogundipe and colleagues explain.

While the understanding of recovery has shifted over time, a dominant narrative remains that centers individual responsibility and minimizes social processes. However, a growing trend is moving away from individualistic ideas and toward an understanding of recovery that is about living a life of meaningful participation and belonging in the community. The authors write:

Another way of understanding social recovery is by referring to what is essential to us all as human beings; being loved, being with others, loving someone, and having fun. Central in social recovery is that the person is first and foremost seen and understood as a citizen, living in the community and being an active agent in his or her life processes as opposed to a victim of a disease.

A prominent focus of social recovery in the current literature is through sport, particularly street football (or soccer). The authors of the present article highlight previous studies that have drawn links between street football and the five concepts of recovery: Connectedness, Hope and optimism, Identity, Meaning and purpose, and Empowerment (CHIME).

The Football Association in Norway is an example of a social inclusion program where anyone with a mental health and or substance abuse problem can join. Their goal is to facilitate a meaningful everyday life for the players. The teams provide players with meaning and the opportunity to develop new coping skills.

While these types of community efforts are gaining traction, more research is needed to understand the connection between street football teams and the recovery process. Ogundipe and the study authors aimed to explore the relationship between the recovery process for those who experience mental health and or substance abuse challenges and their participation in street football teams.

In their study, Ogundipe and colleagues utilized the method of focus groups to explore their research questions. Eight focus groups were conducted between May and September 2018, which included over 50 participants. All participants were involved in the street football teams and were experiencing mental health and or substance abuse challenges. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis.

Findings of the qualitative study produced three themes: (1) The spirit of the football team, (2) More than just a pitch, and (3) The countrys best follow-up system.

In conclusion, the street football teams do not work as an island for recovery, instead, they connect individuals with others, give them a sense of meaning, and help them access services to make long term changes in their lives. While street football teams are just one example of social recovery, the concept is promising for those dealing with difficult life situations.

The study authors conclude with a quote from Pat Deegan in Realizing recovery:

What matters in recovery is not whether were using services or not using services; using medications or not using medications. What matters in terms of a recovery orientation is, are we living the life we want to be living? Are we achieving our personal goals? Do we have friends? Do we have connections with the community? Are we contributing or giving back in some way?

****

Ogundipe, E., Borg, M., Thompson, T., Knutsen, T., Johansen, C., & Karlsson, B. (2020). Recovery on the Pitch: Street Football as a Means of Social Inclusion.Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-020-00185-6 (Link)

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How Community and Sports Play a Critical Role in the Mental Health Recovery Process - James Moore

Eclecticism is the key to the electric energy of Jordin Sparks – Red Bull

"I don't have a box," declares US singer Jordin Sparks in the latest instalment of RedBull Studio Sessions. Sparks isn't in the throes of moving house. Instead, back in the studio to write and record her new six-track EP, Sounds Like Me (listen to it here), Sparks is talking about attempts to pigeonhole her musically and how determined she is to stick to her own wide-open path. "When you do something scary, that's how you know that's what youre supposed to be doing."Her adventurous approach to music-making is captured throughout her edition of RedBull Studio Sessions a filmed, fly-on-the-wall document of how Sounds Like Me was made. Working with guest producers, songwriters, rappers and singers, Sparks is just as comfortable collaborating with Lord Quest a producer best-known for working with hip-hop golden boys ScHoolboy Q, Raekown and Juice Wrld as she is with electronic-pop artist Sad Alex and the other stylistically varied talents (Zak Waters, Jordyn Dodd, P. Wright and Rami Jrade) invited to help make Sounds Like over three days in LA. Sparks is not, it seems, afraid of the unexpected.

Watch RedBull Studio Sessions: The Jordin Sparks Edition

The Jordin Sparks Edition

Sparks's approach is fuelled by an eclectic, electric energy she was able to harness early on. She's an artist who has absorbed influences from all corners of the musical spectrum, utilising her love of all music to power an impressive career that began, of course, when she won the sixth season of American Idol at just 17-years-old.

The ever-evolving production techniques that have propelled R'n'B through so many changes over the past four decades have played a big part in this. "I grew up in the '90s and '90s R'n'B is my favourite Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Babyface," Sparks told an interviewer a few years ago, citing Brandy and country pop star Martina McBride as major inspirations early on, too.

"It was kind of weird to have such a big voice and it was weird to try to figure out if that was normal or not. When I heard Mariah and Whitney, I was like, 'Oh, these girls have big voices like me, it's okay'."

US soul-pop star, Jordin Sparks

Aldo Chacon/RedBull Content Pool

Then there's her undying love of Motown, which inspired not just her singing, but helped kick-off her acting career, too, when, in 2012, she starred in Sparkle, a film about three singing teenage sisters from Detroit who form a girl group in the late 1960s. It was the final film role for her hero Whitney Houston before her death.

Lyrically, she's doing her own thing, too, shifting the focus away from self-centred braggadocio. "I really want some happiness, because my life is really good," she says during her episode of RedBull Studio Sessions, referencing her love of personal, confessional songwriting. Wearing her heart on her sleeve, Sparks discusses her desire to reflect her family life in her music and is overcome with emotion during a concept presentation of one track, with Sad Alex on piano, as she makes connections between its lyrics and her own life.

"It's so beautiful, so pretty and so many people go through this, too," she says, through tears. "Do you choose to stay or do you just give up? Thats the whole point you choose that person, you choose them every single day, no matter what you feel."

Watch how Jordin Sparks wrote and recorded Red Sangria:

The making of Red Sangria with Jordin Sparks

There's a defiance that reverberates through Sparks's music, including on this new EP, that is, in part, informed by her experience of loss. Her step-sister died aged just 16 of sickle cell anaemia ("She inspired me so much, she was such a fighter," Sparks said in an interview last year) and she's seen close friends pass away.

But her positive, seize-every-moment outlook also stems from her belief in the power of sisterhood and her fight for female empowerment a topic that she sang so openly about on her 2011 track I Am Woman. "It's all about the amazingness of a woman," she said at the time. Which is something you'll know all about after watching Sparks at work in RedBull Studio Sessions.

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Eclecticism is the key to the electric energy of Jordin Sparks - Red Bull

It’s Time to Find Your Sense of Self – PsychCentral.com

Having a strong sense of self provides us with emotional fortitude and personal empowerment. Life is better when we experience life as sovereign beings. Having a sense of self allows us to navigate the world with confidence and autonomy.

What if we have yet to find our true self? Can we gain a sense of self while surrounded by global turbulence? Can we find our center and take charge of our spiritual journey when the world is spinning?

Many of us are feeling anxiety, despair, and hopelessness because we are energetically connected to each other and to the world. Our collective consciousness is reflecting our fears, attitudes, opinions, and disbelief. As the stress builds, our collective consciousness responds in kind. We find ourselves trapped in a pattern that is very difficult to escape and we can find ourselves in a tailspin. We have our independent tailspin and we are part of the collective tailspin. This is where many of us find ourselves now.

There is good news, however. We are at a place now between worlds, between eras where the next Golden Age awaits us. We each have an opportunity to heal our pain and step into the truth of who we are. Healed of the human experience and with a sense of our self, we can contribute to the new world.

This is the spiritual journey we signed on for at this exact time in our human evolution.

The goal is to attain spiritual growth and ascension by living a soul conscious life. We are born to have an embodied soul experience here on Earth. We are part of the new destiny creating heaven on Earth. We intuitively know is it our divine birthright.

The human experience is one that allows us free will and free choice. Our soul group, angels and guides can offer gentle guidance, but they cannot interfere with our free will. This is cosmic law. The free will choices we make independently and unconsciously can often produce less than desirable results leaving an imprint of karmic wounds that will require reconciliation before they can be released. The lessons are never intended to be punitive, but they are intended to teach us to choose better as we mature.

Karmic reconciliation does not have to be done in real time and physically experienced. Your intention to heal, supported by the gifts of a skilled healer and powerful modalities, will aid you to identify, release, and heal the wounds of karma. This will set you on your path enabling you to give to the collective from your healed heart. Your soul group and the cosmic hierarchy will celebrate your win and welcome you to the path of light worker, able to be in service to others.

A best use of free will and free choice is to heal your life. You come into this world contracted with your soul, your soul group, and individual souls to learn, grow, and ascend on the ladder of evolution. This truly is the time for humanity to change the course of their lives, evolve, and experience heaven on Earth.

The key is simple, but not necessarily easy. We all need help to make the journey. A guide, mentor, healer, mystic and/or shaman can awaken our intuition and natural self-healing abilities that may be dormant having atrophied over time.

The connection we have with each other allows us to join our intentions and receive healing and support through a remote connection. We are joined on this planet during this time to collectively create a better world. We dont need to travel physically to contribute or receive love, grace and healing. We can be together remotely and joined outside of time and space simultaneously. It is the high vibrational, healing remote connections that will take us forward.

My experience as a healer gives me absolute faith that all will be well. We are on the threshold of a new beginning. We will know peace, love, and joy. To be here now, to experience renewal with beautiful souls, and to celebrate our collective success will be a miracle come true.

This post courtesy of Spirituality & Health.

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It's Time to Find Your Sense of Self - PsychCentral.com

Celebrities have literally stripped ’empowerment’ of all meaning – The Big Smoke Australia

The origins of this trend were unclear some claimed it was inspired by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortezs speech in US Congress about misogyny (AOC notably didnottake up the challenge) while others claimed the source was a movement protesting the high rates of femicide in Turkey.

However, very few of the millions of #challengeaccepted photos on Instagram contain the original Turkish hashtag#istanbulszlemesiyaatr, which demands enforcement of a human rights convention to fight violence against women.

Without any call to action, all that these photos have succeed in achieving is diluting the #challengeaccepted hashtag so that pictures of murdered women in Turkey now appear alongside pouting shots of Cindy Crawford and Eva Longoria.

Aside from the question of whether one can be challenged to do something that isnt remotely challenging (challenge: a stimulating task or problem), I would also ask what is empowering about posting a photo on a platform that is designed precisely for this function.

empowerment| im-pau(-)r-mnt: the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties

In the era of social media marketing via buzzwords and hashtags, empowerment is frequently co-opted by advertising campaigns particularly those aimed at women. Consumerism now thrives on selling female empowerment back to women:Want to be empowered, ladies? Use this shampoo, buy this car, join this weight loss program, wear this lipstick!

As a concept, female empowerment has been reduced to signifying literally anything that a woman does.

Take Khloe Kardashian signing up to be a brand ambassador for a protein shake to empower young women by showing their ex what he is missing. It shouldnt need pointing out, but apparently it does, but there is nothing particularly powerful about women drinking protein shakes instead of eating so they lose weight for the sake of a man who dumped them.

Khloe Kardashians passionate advocacy for female empowerment has not stopped there. Her denim clothing line too isall about empowerment making the women feel great about themselves.As if gender inequities can somehow be addressed by wearing the right pair of expensive jeans.

Meanwhile, when her sister Kim broke the internet by posting a nude selfie for International Womens Day, she spurred a debate about whether or not this was an act of female empowerment.Kim Kardashian herself said: I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin I hope that through this platform, I can encourage the same empowerment for girls and women all over the world.

She has since createda womens empowerment add-on for her personal emoji collection successfully monetising feminism and turning it into yet another Kardashian product. I personally couldnt care less whether Kim Kardashian posts nude selfies, but she is a woman of immense power and she is simply exercising that power, not reclaiming it for girls and women around the world who are powerless.

It might look like I blame the Kardashians, but whatever other talents they lack, they are truly masterful in marketing themselves (and the brands that pay them a fortune to do so) in the modern age. They understand that the appeal of social media lies in its simplicity in flattening the world to pretty pictures and aspirational hashtags. In doing so, it voids terms like empowerment of any actual meaning and transforms them into tools for capitalism.

According to its dictionary definition, empowerment refers to the act of placing power in the hands of those who have been excluded from it. So what does posting a selfie on social media do to empower women? Very little, unless they live in a country where women are specifically banned from posting black-and-white photos of themselves on Instagram.

When a woman does something, it is not inherently empowering just because a woman is doing it despite what the hashtags would have you believe. It only becomes a form of empowerment if the woman has been denied the right to perform this action by existing power structures.

So by all means, post your selfies and drink your protein shakes just dont call it female empowerment. Much like the millions of black tiles shared on Instagram in performative support of the Black Lives Matter movement, it only serves to make us feel like were doing something of any substance.

But no matter how many products we buy or pictures we post that are supposed to empower us as women, we still havent closed the gender pay gap or given women worldwide the right to control their own bodies. Women still cant live without fear of sexual harassment or abuse. And the women in Turkey continue to be murdered, their faces appearing in black and white media images.

Nowthatis the real challenge.

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Celebrities have literally stripped 'empowerment' of all meaning - The Big Smoke Australia

Culture: beyond parties and perks | NCET Biz Tips – Reno Gazette Journal

Kay Salerno and Shila Morris Published 8:52 a.m. PT Aug. 10, 2020

NCET helps you explores business and technology.

Kay Salerno and Shila Morris(Photo: Provided by NCET)

When we think about workplace culture we often picture the motivational poster on the wall or the annual holiday party, but culture that actually motivates employees to stay longer goes far beyond these things, and isnt as "fluffy"as you may imagine.

Being restaurant owners in these times has put us on the small business frontlinesof the pandemic, and what we know is this: Businesses are navigating brand-new waters in a brand new social landscape, and key team members who have the energy and stamina to keep up and stay positive are essential to keep business running.

The challenge then becomes:How do we keep those people, without begging, bribing or bullying them, and how do we find more of them?

What weve found, and what research shows, is that company culture is the way.

Culture, as defined by Merriam-Webster is "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization."

The key word that we as leaders often miss is "shared."

Our personal attitude, values, goals and practices make up our own character, but designing a company character, aka company culture, means that these things are shared by the individuals within the organization.

So how do we do that especially with a younger workforce that cares less about bottom line results and more about social impact?

With systems of culture that promote: empowerment, character development, communication, safety and trust.

In other words, we create an environment that tells them, "We want more for you than fromyou."

We can do this in a variety of ways, from personal and professional growth investments to recognizing significant personal milestones. But if youre on a tight budget and want to start steering your culture in a new direction, consider shifting something that doesnt cost any money, wont require any additional time, and will help you achieve your desired results without a motivational poster: intentional language shifts.

Its so simple it doesnt seem like it would have that much impact, but small language shifts are the little hinges that swing open the big doors of employee engagement and retention.

Here areour top threelanguage shifts you can start using right away:

1. "But: vs. "and":Consider the following two sentences: I like that idea, but I dont think it will work. I like that idea, and I think its worth considering.

2. Problem vs. opportunity. Do you have a problem with a young employees email etiquette, or an opportunity to grow professionally?

3. Help me understand. One of the best phrases you can use when you need to give reprimands or feedback. Help me understand why you responded the way you did. Help me understand why this continues to be an issue for you.

These language shifts indicate to an employee that youre on their side, that you are assuming they have good intent, and that you want to help them succeed.

As you begin to communicate like this, youll see employees start to be more engaged and empowered. Theyll feel more emotionally safe and better understood, and with that comes more trust, and with trust comes loyalty.

Intentional communication is the first step in building the company culture that goes beyond parties and perks and creates that loyalty and engagement that will help us not only keep our employees but keep them happy.

Learn about Cracking the Culture Code at NCETs Biz Cafe Online on Aug.19. NCET is a member-supported nonprofit organization that produces educational and networking events to help people explore business and technology. More info at http://www.NCETcafe.org.

Kay Salerno and Shila Morris are the sister co-owners of the Squeeze In restaurants (squeezein.com) and are Northern Nevada natives who are energized by adding value to other entrepreneurs and family businesses.

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Culture: beyond parties and perks | NCET Biz Tips - Reno Gazette Journal

Education Professor, Ph.D. Student Recognized for Counseling Research – The Local Voice

Ole Miss

Published on August 10th, 2020 | by TLV News

Amanda Winburn, associate professor of counselor education at the University of Mississippi, has been awarded the Outstanding Contributor Research Professional Award from theMississippi Counseling Association.

Michael Russo, a doctoral candidate in the counselor education and supervision program, also was awarded the Outstanding Contributor Research Student Award.

The Outstanding Contributor Research Award encourages counselors to carry out organized research in their respective fields in both the professional and student categories. The selection criteria include research applicability to counseling, originality, validity and presentation.

Faculty and students who contribute to research do so in a way that eventually bridges research to practice and impacts services in counseling and education, said Rick Balkin, UM professor of leadership and counselor education. Dr. Winburn is the real deal with exemplary contributions in all areas of teaching, research and service, and Michael Russo has had a very successful doctoral program experience with state and national recognitions and publications.

Winburns research areas include advocacy in school counseling, bullying, wellness and, more specifically, play therapy. Her research has recently been featured in journals including the International Journal of Play Therapy and Professional School Counseling.

I am interested in this line of research because I believe that advocacy is at the heart of everything that we do as school counselors and play therapists, Winburn said. Learning how to become stronger, more effective advocates for our profession or our programming ultimately impacts our students and clients in very positive ways.

Winburn also won the School of Educations 2019 Outstanding Teacher Award. She has been involved with play therapy at UM both in a clinical setting and by actively conducting research.

I think conducting research is just a natural extension of my passion for school counseling, Winburn said. When you believe in something as strongly as I do, you want to explore the field and try and answer as many questions as possible.

Russo, a Dayton Beach, Florida, native, came to Ole Miss in 2018 to join the doctoral program. He was recognized with the student award based on his overall research agenda, which focuses on neuroscience-informed counseling.

Much of my published work is focused around the integration of neuroscience into counseling as well as the empowerment of individuals to reduce symptoms associated with anxiety and trauma through neurofeedback, Russo said. Through counseling processes, such as neurofeedback, individuals can reduce clinical symptoms associated with mental health diagnoses.

Russo recently co-authored an article with Balkin that was published in Counseling Outcome, Research and Evaluation. Together, they evaluated adolescent male perceptions of working alliance, problem severity, well-being and crisis stabilization throughout a 10-week course of residential treatment.

To be blunt, this award isnt about me, Russo said. This award is about the clients that I have had the honor to watch grow and have had the courage to challenge stigma, sign up for a research study and reclaim control of their brain to promote greater regulation within their lives.

The MCA is a branch of theAmerican Counseling Association. It works in Mississippi to encourage the personal and professional development of counselors, influence decisions that affect the counseling profession, and promote the progress of counseling.

The MCA will honor Winburn and Russo at a virtual conference on November 11th.

By Meaghan Flores

Tags: Amanda Winburn, education, Michael Russo

TLV News The Local Voice is a bimonthly entertainment guide and newspaper based in Oxford, Mississippi, covering and distributed in North Central Mississippi, including Oxford, Ole Miss, Taylor, Abbeville, Water Valley, Lafayette County, Yalobusha County, and parts of Panola County, Marshall County, and Tupelo . The Local Voice is distributed free to over 255 locations in North Mississippi and also available as a full color PDF download worldwide on the internet.

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Education Professor, Ph.D. Student Recognized for Counseling Research - The Local Voice

15 Engrossing Artist Biographies and Memoirs to Read Now – AnOther Magazine

August 10, 2020

Summer is upon us and this year, more than ever, it feels pertinent to pick holiday reads that will uplift and inspire. Where better to turn to, then, than artists memoirs and biographies filled as they are with tales of overcoming lifes hardships, fights for justice and recognition in and outside of the art world, the quest to forge a legacy through art, and, more often than not, a juicy scandal or two to keep the readers interest piqued. Here, weve selected 15 of our favourites for your perusal, spanning the empowering, the ephemeral, the political and the downright provocative (Diego Rivera, were looking at you).

Faith Ringgold is one of Americas most renowned artists and activists, whose inherently political, exquisitely executed work from story quilts to paintings tackle civil rights and gender inequality head on. But Ringgold has had to fight hard for her successes, a story she shares in her stunning, illustrated memoir We Flew over the Bridge. In it, Ringgold details the many prejudices shes battled and the challenges shes faced in balancing her thriving artistic career with motherhood, sharing words of advice and empowerment along the way. It makes for magical reading; in the words of Maya Angelou: Faith Ringgold has already won my heart as an artist, as a woman, as an African American, and now with her entry into the world of autobiography (where I dwell), she has taken my heart again. She writes so beautifully.

Amazing Grace paints a poignant picture of the celebrated African American artist Beauford Delaney, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and later following a move to Paris in the 1950s a noted abstract expressionist. Delaneys tale is both remarkable and heartbreaking: he was a much loved character, who counted Henry Miller and James Baldwin among his close friends, yet he often felt isolated and underappreciated, struggling with mental illness throughout his life. His wonderfully vibrant paintings boast an extraordinary psychological depth, betraying the hardships he faced and his determination to keep going no matter what. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and the outer darkness, Baldwin once wrote.

A memoir quite unlike any other, this book by American photographer Sally Mann weaves together words and images to form a vivid personal history, revealing the ways in which Manns ancestry has informed the themes that dominate her work (namely family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South). Mann decided to write the book after unearthing a whole host of unexpected family secrets deceit and scandal ... clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land ... racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder while sorting through boxes of old family papers and photographs. In gripping prose, she allows us to follow her on her resulting journey of self-discovery, shedding pertinent light on her image-making practice at every turn.

David Wojnarowiczs beloved collection of creative essays, Close to the Knives, remains a vital work a scathing, sexy, sublimely humorous and honest personal testimony to the Fear of Diversity in America (as per its inside flap). Its an intensely powerful memoir that guides the reader across the American artists life from his violent suburban childhood through a period of homelessness in New York City to his ascent to fame (and infamy) as one of Americas most provocative creators and queer icons inciting action and self-examination on every page. In the words of Publishers Weekly: What Kerouac was to a generation of alienated youth, what Genet was to the gay demimonde in postwar Europe, Wojnarowicz may well be to a new cadre of artists compelled by circumstance to speak out in behalf of personal freedom.

Patricia Bosworths fantasticDiane Arbus biography takes a deep dive into the turbulent life of the seminal American imagemaker, whose unflinching photographs of marginalised groups sought to challenge preconceived notions of normality and abnormality with extraordinary results. Through Bosworths shrewd investigation, and interviews with Arbus friends, colleagues and family members, we learn of the ideas and inspirations that drove her, the fears and anguish that plagued her, her pampered childhood and passionate marriage, and the tragic turn her life took in spite of growing artistic acclaim resulting in her suicide in 1971.

This book is the brilliant tale of five brilliant women artists: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler, who burst onto the male-dominated New York art scene in the 1950s, smashing down gender barriers along the way. Each was an indomitable force in their own right Krasner, an assertive leader and hellraiser; de Kooning, a great thinker; Hartigan, a fiercely determined housewife-turned-painter; Mitchell, a vulnerable soul with a steely exterior and prodigious talent; Frankenthaler, a well-schooled New Yorker, who shunned a traditional career path to follow her dreams. But together, from their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, they changed the face of postwar American art and society forever.

Gordon Parks autobiography Voices in the Mirror is a compelling and empowering read. It traces the American photographers difficult early life in Minnesota where he became homeless, following his mothers death through his groundbreaking and meteoric rise as an image-maker (the first Black photographer at Vogue and Life, no less) and thereafter as a Hollywood screenwriter, director and novelist. Parks was a man of great compassion and courageous vision, whose work spanned intimate portrayals of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini; of the Muslim and African American icons Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Muhammad Ali; of the young militants of the civil rights and black power movements; and of the tragic experiences of the less famous, like the Brazilian youngster Flavio. Suffice to say that incredible stories andwords of wisdom abound.

Ai Weiweihas spent his entire career creating very beautiful, deeply political works that challenge and confront his countrys totalitarian regime to global acclaim. But rising the ranks to become Chinas most famous living artist and activist has come at a price. In April of 2011, just six months after his vast, thought-provoking sculpture Sunflower Seeds was installed in Tate Moderns Turbine Hall, Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing Capital International Airport and detained illegally for over two months in dire conditions. Shortly after his release, Barnaby Martin travelled to Beijing to interview the artist about his imprisonment and to discover more about what is really going on behind the scenes in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party. Hanging Man is the result a highly informative and stirring account of Weiweis life, art, and activism, as well as a meditation on the creative process, and on the history of art in modern China.

In Gluck, author Diana Souhami examines the radical life and work of British painter Hannah Gluckstein (1895-1978), who took on the name Gluck, with no prefix, suffix, or quotes, in her twenties to reflect her gender non-conforming identity. Famed for her masculine, undeniably chic style of dress, her passionate affairs with society women, and her emotive portraits, flower paintings and landscapes, Gluck was provocative and tender, fierce and gifted in equal measure and decades ahead of her time. This excellent biography captures this paradoxical ... woman in all her complexity, to page-turning effect.

As its title suggests, this book is not a biography as such, but a series of nine interviews with the inimitable figurative painter, Francis Bacon. They were conducted by the late art critic and curator David Sylvester over the course of 25 years, from 1962 to 1986, and thereafter compiled into what has long been heralded a classic, offering an illuminating glimpse into one of the great creative minds of the 20th century. In it, the British painter contemplates the fundamental problems involved in making art, as well as his own obsessive thinking about how to remake the human form in paint (to quote the books back cover), revealing a great deal about his radical practice and storied past in the process. Cited by David Bowie as one of his all-time favourite books, it is essential reading not just for Bacon fans, but for anyone in search of creative impetus.

My Art, My Life by Diego Rivera is a wild read, offering juicy first-person insight into the world of the larger-than-life Mexican painter. Rivera recounted his lifes story to the young American writer Gladys March over the course of 13 years, leading up to his death in 1957. The book sheds fascinating light on Riveras radical approach to modern mural painting, his strong political ideology and his equally unerring devotion to women (he marriedFrida Kahlo not once but twice, youll remember). In the words of the San Francisco Chronicle:There is no lack of exciting material. A lover at nine, a cannibal at 18, by his own account, Rivera was prodigiously productive of art and controversy.

First published in French in 1994, and since expanded and printed in English, True Stories, by the French conceptual artist Sophie Calle, is a real gem. Calles idiosyncratic oeuvre comprises controversial explorations of the tensions between the observed, the reported, the secret and the unsaid, in the words of the books cover, spanning photography, film, and text. Many of her pieces revolve around the documentation of other peoples lives, and the insertion of herself into them (think: her 1980 work Suite Vnitienne, where she followed a stranger from Venice to Paris), but True Stories is entirely focused on Calle herself. Through a montage of typically poetic and fragmented autobiographical texts, and photographs, the artist offers up her own story childhood, marriage, sex, death with brilliant humour, insight and pleasure.

This book centres on the late Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa best known for her breathtaking hanging-wire sculptures and bold, urban installations and fountains. Asawa survived an adolescence spent in World War Two Japanese-American internment camps, before securing a place at the revolutionary art school Black Mountain College. There she discovered her signature medium as a lyrical means of challenging the conventions of material and form. Later, Asawa would become a pioneering advocate for arts education in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, while raising six children, battling lupus and continuing to work. By incorporating Asawas own writing and sketches, photographs, and interviews with her loved ones, Marilyn Chase conjures up a fully rounded image of a visionary creator, who wielded imagination and hope in the face of intolerance and transformed everything she touched into art.

German Dadaist and collage artist Hannah Hchs esteemed career spanned two world wars and most of the 20th century, and by the age of 83, she was ready to reflect. The result was her final, largest photo-collage, Life Portrait (1972-3), comprising 38 sections and measuring nearly four by five feet. It is a self portrait-cum-memoir, alluding to the different periods of Hchs life and work, while ironically and poetically commenting on key political, social and artistic events from the previous 50 years. It also includes imagery of her favoured themes and inspirations (fashion imagery, news photographs, African art and pictures of plants and animals) as well as multiple pictures of herself, identifiable by her signature bob haircut. This unique book presents the collage section by section, alongside relevant quotes and explanatory texts by Alma-Elisa Kittner, acting as a brilliant meditation on Hchs final masterpiece, and the lifes work it represents.

Roxana Robinsons acclaimedGeorgia OKeeffe biography is a sensitive and enthralling investigation into the life and work of the so-called mother of American Modernism. It takes an in-depth look at OKeeffes influences, from abstraction and photography to Asian art, and how she assimilated these into her singular painting practice the red hills, the magnified flowers, the great crosses and white bones. It also shines a light on the many intense relationships the artist forged throughout her life, from her marriage to the revered photographer Alfred Stieglitz to her scandalous relationship with Juan Hamilton, a man six decades her junior. Best of all, it includes plenty of OKeeffes own words in the form of her letters and writings allowing the artist herself to play a key role in the telling of her own multifaceted, infinitely inspiring story.

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15 Engrossing Artist Biographies and Memoirs to Read Now - AnOther Magazine

Guest Commentary: Denver schools shouldnt be pitted against each other, but parents still need school performance information – The Denver Post

Later this month, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education is scheduled to decide the future of Denvers school quality measurement tool. The School Performance Framework was launched in 2008 using a color-coded system that rates schools from distinguished or blue, to accredited on probation or red. Critics, myself included, argue that this framework is not reflective of what is really happening in schools and has become weaponized. It became the currency by which DPS determined which schools would be shuttered, and the framework dis-incentivized collaboration and sharing of resources.

A committee met this past year to reimagine the framework for measuring school quality. I served on the committee and we came to an agreement on three recommendations.

First, replace the existing School Performance Framework (SPF) and cede to an already existing school rating framework run by the state to fulfill the state and federal requirements regarding school accountability.

Second, create an online dashboard to inform the public about whole child measures, including school climate, culture and additional academic measures not captured in the states framework.

And third, launch a continuous improvement cycle to support schools.

In May I was alarmed to see a small but vocal faction urge the board to vote against recommendations two and three.

While I understand that there is a lack of trust with DPS, I felt this group grossly misrepresented this truly community-led, district supported effort. Those same voices have perhaps not yet comprehended that passing only the first recommendation would tragically put the district back where it started: having a color-coded system of rankings based on test scores. Beyond that, it would derail the communitys call for equity by depriving Denver families of the types of information and empowerment they have demanded for years.

A recent study led by University of Colorado professor and researchers Antwan Jefferson and Plashan McCune found that Denver families of color rely upon a range of sources when seeking the best educational fit for their children, including information from the district and schools, but also from personal experience and their community. The research concluded families of color find the information DPS provides is insufficient they want to know more. What is the school like? And how does it reflect our community context?

Over the course of the next school year, the Denver community will be invited to engage in designing the dashboard and the improvement process for schools, an endeavor that will naturally be informed by the work done on the next Denver Plan. Examples of measures the committee suggested for the dashboard include: the amount of teacher and parent voice in school-based decision making, district support regarding mental health staffing, ICAP completion rates, and staff diversity and experience.

The dashboard will shed light on institutionalized racism by providing the community access to data showing the rate of suspensions for Black and Latinx students, schools successes and failures at supporting teachers of color, and data from students of color on how safe and supported they feel in their school environment.

The recommendations for a dashboard and improvement cycle are intended to paint a more robust picture of each school. These are not intended to be punitive or add parameters for triggering state and local accountability requirements. Rather than fuel competition, our hope is that it will promote collaboration and mutual responsibility between schools, the district, the superintendent and board. The dashboard will repudiate the rankings of schools that fed the mindset that we are better and they are less.

To ensure this, the Board of Education can put guardrails into their board resolution by creating stipulations that this new information shall not be weaponized. One of the most powerful pieces of the new dashboard would be the school narrative which would provide schools the unprecedented opportunity to provide context for their data.

Its clear that Denver doesnt want its school quality measures to be mechanisms of shame. Its also clear Denver parents dont want to return to an era where it was impossible to know how well schools were serving all kids. We can create something all of Denver can endorse. Lets get to work.

Karen Mortimer is a Denver Public School parent who served on the Reimagine the SPF committee. She is also a parent leader with Together Colorado.

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Guest Commentary: Denver schools shouldnt be pitted against each other, but parents still need school performance information - The Denver Post

Personal trainer shares images of her body to show why ‘transformation’ pictures AREN’T real – Brinkwire

An Australian personal trainer has shunned the use of transformation pictures to show bodily changes because they can be taken seconds apart, as evidenced by her latest upload to Instagram.

Madalin Giorgetta, who lives in PerthinWestern Australia, gained 865,000 Instagram followers by posting her own transformation images to social media, but now recognises this is not a show of empowerment.

She has also noticed thinner people trying normalise body rolls and cellulite in their photos, saying that its not fair on those who carry more weight and cant just pose away their stomach.

Plenty of influencers use these images to relate to their audience by insisting they have normal flaws like everyone else.

Ive been seeing these types of photos everywhere recently and I always engage with them. Its addictive to see what most people try to hide, the 31-year-old captioned her photo.

What effect does this have on our body image? Am I learning to accept my body through these images or am I merely being entertained? I dont feel worse or better about my body after viewing this type of content.

After spending four years taking mirror selfies to flaunt her famous curves Madalin is keenly aware of how easy it is to distort an image with angles, clothing placement and body organisation.

In the left image she showcased, the owner of Work It with MG has placed her underwear on her hips, showing how the folds of her skin spill over the top.

The second picture has her underwear up much higher to thin out her waist, her legs placed in a more elongated position, and in the final shot she has pushed her thighs forward so they appear larger than they actually are.

Im wondering how other people feel when they see these images, do you feel empowered or frustrated? Empowered because you can accept your slim but flawed body or frustrated because you cant love your larger body out of oppression? Madalin wrote.

Do transformation photos motivate you or frustrate you?

Do transformation photos motivate you or frustrate you?

Now share your opinion

Those in marginalised bodies cant pose and change how their body is perceived but do we disregard the experience and feelings of slim but normalised and accepted bodies? Are they not important too?

Madalin acknowledged there was more acceptance of slim bodies that fit the typical standards of beauty and health, like her own.

I always eye roll when its an extremely thin or fit woman doing this because for larger people, even when posing the correct way, their bodies will still not look that way, one of her followers remarked.

The thin woman is basically saying see, were all the same! When in reality she benefits from thin privilege and wont experience body image the same way larger people do.

Actual fat women will always have rolls and cellulite and love handles, and sometimes these posed versus unposed photos drive a deeper wedge between us, said another.

A third added: The instagram vs reality have always been frustrating to me because almost always its from thin cis women.

Madalin lost 130,000 social media followers after she stopped posting fat burning workouts and weight loss tips, and instead focused on moderation.

Its possible to be part of the fitness industry and not do that, though it will be tougher to build your following and grow your business, I wont lie, she said in April.

But Im doing it while being true to myself and that means the world to me.

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Personal trainer shares images of her body to show why 'transformation' pictures AREN'T real - Brinkwire

Soul Love Now And the Legacy of Black Fire Records’ Jazz – bandcamp.com

FEATURES Soul Love Now And the Legacy of Black Fire Records Jazz By Daniel White August 10, 2020

On the night of October 28th, 1975, Howard Universitys Cramton Auditorium was packed. Oneness of Juju had made the drive from Richmond to play this show, which was no ordinary gig: this was Howard University in the 70s, the Mecca of Black culture and thought. Oneness of Jujus bandleader, James Plunky Branch, was going to give the crowd a show to remember.

The most spiritual music in the ancient African days was the music that made you move. Plunky tells the audience before the band launches into African Rhythms, the lead track from their newest album of the same name. We created this piece so we would have a piece of music that was spiritual, informative, and at the same time, something you could get off to.

A recording of that concert, released for the first time, is included on Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story 1975-1993, a 10-song compilation out this September via Strut Records that celebrates the foundational black-owned record label founded by Plunky and local DJ and record promoter Jimmy Gray. Much of the Black Fire catalogue was birthed during the mid 70s, when Black America was living with the results of the Civil Rights movement. This makes Soul Love Now all the more poignant in the presentthe compilation is an unearthed gem of long-forgotten affirmations of Blackness.

Its one thing to practice four hours a day and do it at home; its another thing when you have the tribe, that audience, Plunky says, calling from his home in Richmond. As he tells the story, he first met Jimmy in late 1974, after discovering a copy of Black Fire, a magazine that featured a Juju album on its cover. Plunky called his record label at the time, New York Citys Strata-East, to inquire about Black Fire. It turned out Jimmy was Strata-Easts third-party promotions person for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Black Fire, the magazine, was his project. After assisting Strata-East with distribution for Gil Scott-Herons Winter In America, along with its hit single The Bottle, Jimmy got the idea to start a label of his own, using the Black Fire moniker hed employed on other projects.

The two became fast friends and, eventually, business partners, as Jimmys knack for distribution and personal philosophy meshed well with Plunkys musical inclination towards Black empowerment, and his desire to learn more about the record business. Black Fire adopted the Strata-East cooperative model; the artist would press the first 1000 copies of the album, and the label assumed distribution costsprovided the record performed well. Artists on Black Fire also enjoyed an extremely favorable royalty rate.

The whole idea was to empower [the artists on the label] to do their own thing, says Strut Records founder Quinton Scott. Its an amazing thing they did with those labels back then because, you know, you forget thatback in the 70s, it was very very hard to get that music on the radio. So it was always a fight economicallyit was very hard to run these things.

By the late 70s, like some of their Black-owned independent Jazz contemporaries, Black Fire wasnt doing well financially. Jimmy and Plunky were pooling together as much money as possible to fund the recordings, but after releasing just five full-lengths and a few singles, the label went dormant for 13 years beginning in 1980. The reality was that, apart from Plunky, most of the roster never made enough noise to fund their first 1000 albums.

I think the shame about Black Fire is that it only ran really for sort-of two or three years before it became a financially difficult thing to run, says Scott. Given that, I think the quality of the music and the bands they had there were phenomenal. Its just a small catalogue, but its dynamite, its brilliant.

For Scott, Black Fire represents an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle in decoding Black indie-labels history. While Strata-East and Tribe were more about serious jazz, Black Firein part thanks to Plunkys inputreleased more R&B-oriented jazz and soul, often the kind of music you could get off to.

One standout from the catalog is the first release from Experience Unlimited, 1977s Free Yourself. The band would eventually develop into a more funk-oriented group, later introducing the world to the Washington D.C. funk offshoot Go-Go with their song Da Butt, which appeared in Spike Lees 1988 film School Daze. You can hear by the way they play it, that its the blueprint for whats coming, says Scott. I love that. Literally, a few years later, everyone is on that same rhythm, and go-go has cemented itself as a sound.

That willingness to cross genres is present all over Soul Love Now, from upbeat songs like Wayne Davis Look At The People! to more Afrocentric numbers like Nia by Juju and Byard Lancasters Drummers From Ibadan. Inspired by his time spent in San Francisco in the late 1960s playing with a South African ex-pat, Plunky instilled a fluidity to the label that prioritized a performances energy and the beauty of the artists intention over more strict genre restrictions. I love dancing in that nuance, where [the genre] is not definitive. And in that place, as a musician and as an audience, we revel in thatthats freedom. That we can float, we can feel this together, without the rigidity of rules, concludes Plunky.

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Soul Love Now And the Legacy of Black Fire Records' Jazz - bandcamp.com

How to get started if you’ve never had a bank account – Las Vegas Sun

Managing your money without a bank account is doable. But it can pose challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic has only added more.

Your economic impact payment mightve arrived weeks or months after others did, in the form of a check or prepaid debit card, because you couldnt choose the faster delivery option of direct deposit into a bank account. And if youve gone to the store lately, you may have been asked to pay with a debit or credit card or in exact change due to a nationwide shortage of coins and concerns over germ transmission.

A bank account can make life easier in these situations, among others. To avoid future issues, consider opening one or try again if youve been rejected in the past. Heres a guide to getting started.

ASSESS YOUR MONEY NEEDS

If youre one of the 14 million adults without a bank account in the U.S., you might have a system that works for you. Maybe that includes using alternative products such as prepaid debit cards and check cashing services. Financial counselor Brandy Baxter has worked with clients who used check cashing services for practical reasons.

They preferred to walk in, walk out with cash in hand, says Baxter, an accredited financial counselor and financial coach who runs the firm Living Abundantly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Check cashing stores like Check n Go and ACE Cash Express may operate for longer hours than banks and have easy approval processes to get cash quickly. But this comes with a steep fee, which can range from 1% to 6%, or more, of the check amount.

Bank accounts can fulfill money needs beyond what prepaid cards and check cashing services can. For example, their fraud protections can limit what you pay if youre victimized, and many accounts let you lock debit cards remotely when stolen.

And once youve begun a relationship with a bank, other doors open: Credit cards, auto or small business loans and cheaper alternatives to payday loans may eventually be within reach.

Checking accounts dont just help you save costs; theyre the stepping stones to use other financial products, says David Rothstein, principal at Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, who manages BankOn, a national platform that promotes financial inclusion.

FIND A BANK THAT FITS YOU

If you find banks intimidating or have had issues getting an account before, community banks and credit unions tend to be more accommodating than national banks and are often mission-driven for example, focusing on the financial health of their surrounding communities.

Were very lenient at giving someone a second chance, says Pedro Murillo, area branch manager in the San Francisco Bay Area for Self-Help Federal Credit Union. If an employee comes in to apply for a loan and doesnt have pay stubs, what else (can they) show us? A letter from (their) employer? We dont want to give up.

Like other credit unions, Self-Help requires a person to open a savings account to become a member; the minimum to open an account is typically a few bucks. Then members can apply for other products, like a credit builder loan.

You can search online for the term CDFI which stands for community development financial institution to find credit unions like Self-Help near you. Many require those who join to be in the same area or state where the credit union or bank has branches.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT APPLYING

To open an account, youll generally need your Social Security number, one or two forms of identification and money for the first deposit.

Its common to apply for two bank accounts at the same time: a checking and a savings account. The checking account grants access to a debit card, bill payment system and other services, while the savings account lets you set money aside and, ideally, grow by earning interest.

Banks usually screen applicants on ChexSystems, a national reporting agency that keeps records of accounts closed against a persons will. If you have lost access to a bank account in the past, you might be rejected by other banks until you settle your ChexSystems record. This can mean paying off debt to a bank or disputing errors on the record.

Once youre cleared, consider what banks often call a second chance checking account or a BankOn-approved checking account. Many of these dont charge overdraft fees, which kick in if you try paying for something that would put your balance in the negative.

Finding and opening the right bank account involves some effort. But once youre approved, having a safe place for your money and a better chance to get affordable loans can make it worthwhile.

To have a checking account is the cornerstone of any financial empowerment effort, Rothstein says.

This article originally appeared on the personal finance website NerdWallet. Spencer Tierney is a writer atNerdWallet.

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How to get started if you've never had a bank account - Las Vegas Sun

In defence of self-help – Cherwell Online

Self-help is a maligned genre. And, for a long time, I was one of its detractors.

I convinced myself that self-help was a guilty pleasure: such books deserved to be buried deep inside my bedside drawers, rather than proudly displayed on my shelves. Whenever I picked up a self-help book Id find myself thinking, Pull yourself together and read somereal literature! If you need insight into the human conditionthatbadly then for the love of God woman, just read Dostoevsky!

Training myself out of the shame associated with self-help is an ongoing process. Im not exaggerating when I say that Id sooner be caught on the bus readingFifty Shades of Greythan a volume entitled,Get your Shit together and Stop Being Insecure(FYI this is not a real book, but if you fancy writing it, then Ill be the first to buy a copy). Both genres erotica and self-help feel uncomfortably personal, as well as inextricably linked to self-gratification. God forbid that some rampant narcissist might combine the two and read a self-help bookaboutsex! (of which there are, incidentally, many good ones).

In my mind, self-help had become synonymous with self-indulgence, and this belief was making it harder for me to benefit from the help these books had to offer. I decided that it was time to unpack my relationship with the genre.

Beyond the fact that reading them involves confronting personal problems, Ive worked out that my discomfort with self-help books boils down to two things: the elitist assumption that they are lowbrow and the sexist idea that self-help which focuses on any subject beyond material success is for women.

First, elitism. To understand the snobbery directed at self-help, its worth considering where the modern self-help movement originated. Forms of self-help literature have been around for millennia, from ancient Greece to Tang Dynasty China. However, it was in 1859 that Scotsman Samuel Smiles publishedSelf-Help: the book to which the commercial genre of today owes its title.

Comprised of lectures that Smiles had delivered to working men in Leeds,Self-Helpwas a primer for the poor in self-education and upward mobility. Smiles certainly believed that he was empowering the working classes; but the book spun a pernicious narrative. Its emphasis on the individual responsibility of the poor to transcend their circumstances, minimised the duty of the state and fuelled a harmful distinction between the deserving versus undeserving poor. No wonder that, over a century later, Margaret Thatcher wanted to give a copy ofSelf-Helpto every schoolchild in the country

It makes sense that self-help is deemed lowbrow. The genres very name comes from a manual for the lower classes: literature designed for theaspirers rather than for theaspired towards. It was inevitable that those who could afford to lounge around reading Ovid in their private libraries would look down upon self-help. The genre was notfor them, and I think that this downward-looking perception of self-help has been absorbed into our cultural milieu, which has always been defined by the tastes of the elite.

In an ideal world, self-help would not be necessary. Some even argue that its existence perpetuates a system whereby the government offloads its welfare responsibilities onto individual citizens a phenomenon that has become more apparent than ever in the time of Covid-19. But we should not ridicule something that has served not only as a means of therapy, but of survival for people when the state fails to uphold their interests for them.

This is what the self-care movement of the late 20thcentury was all about: survival. In her 1988 essay,A Burst of Life, Audre Lorde penned the now famous phrase: Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare. As a self-described black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet, Lorde recognised that she could not rely on a white patriarchal society to promote her basic health and wellbeing, let alone her prosperity. Self-care was adopted by various black civil rights, queer and feminist groups who made the same realisation and sought to rally against their systematic disempowerment.

Given the influence of feminist activists like Lorde on the self-help and self-care literature of today, it is all the more disconcerting that the genre is often mocked and belittled as a womens thing. Though, of course, its not for all women: only thedesperate women, thesadwomen, and worst of all, theunstablewomen the ones who are somehow failing to thrive in todays society.

Was I just imagining the pitying expression of the bookseller when I picked up a copy of Chidera EggeruesWhat a Time to be Alonethe other week? Its for a friend, I wanted to lie. Bad breakup. Shes feeling very *whispers*unstable. Ah yes, the bookseller would grimace back at me, we get a lot of those inthissection.

Something that occurred to me while reading another self-help book (Florence GivensWomen Dont Owe You Pretty) is that people often attack self-help because its something that others use to empower themselves, to proactively tackle the challenges that they face. The best way to stop this process of empowerment in its tracks and preserve the status quo is to ridicule and invalidate the tools that people use to care for and better themselves.

As long as self-help is portrayed as an inherently feminine and superfluous genre, there will be no winners not even men! Laughing at guys who use self-help as a means of exploring their emotions, dismissing their attempts as girly, simply fuels the stigma surrounding mens mental health. Men are likely to restrict themselves to the self-help stereotype that isThe 7 Habits of Highly Efficient People rather than considering self-help books that could help them to look inwards. Meanwhile, women who read self-help books about material success are at worst, shamed, and, at best, shoehorned into the one-dimensional trope of the strong, independent woman.

I should have prefaced this article by pointing out that there is a lot of self-help out there that is complete and utter bullshit, and that there are certainly exploitative patterns within what has become a huge money-making industry. Self-help is not a replacement for therapy or for the care owed to us by the state, and we should be wary of anyone who tries to tell us otherwise. The purpose of this article has been, quite simply, to decode the mockery of self-help books, to considerwhywe are laughing andwhowe are laughing at.

It took my own experience of trauma to recognise that maligning self-help can contribute to disempowerment, and to think non-judgmentally about the traumas which might have led other people to seek self-help and self-care. For now, my self-help books are still stowaways in the bedside drawer and you certainly wont find me reading them brazenly on the bus. However, I can say that Ive learnt to admire individuals who, for whatever reason, choose to take their wellbeing into their own hands. So, think twice before judging someone who uses self-help, because there may come a time when you, too, could benefit from it.

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In defence of self-help - Cherwell Online

Letters to the Editor for Aug. 9, 2020 | Opinion | thepilot.com – Southern Pines Pilot

Publishers Note: The following letters were submitted by readers. The Pilot welcomes letters from readers on its Opinion pages, which serve as a public forum. The Pilot is not in the business of suppressing public opinion. We are a forum for community debate, and publish almost every letter we receive. For information on how to submit a letter to the editor, click here.

Im as excited as anyone to have professional sports back. But shouldnt we be providing these quick result tests to those on the front lines, nurses, EMTs, police?

If its too expensive, then send my stimulus check to them. But regardless, they should get them first.

Rich Tompkins, Carthage

Another Look at the Numbers

The president claims that we have more COVID-19 infections because we are testing more. He implies, but does not state, that there are more deaths because we are testing more. Testing does not cause deaths.

Lets ignore testing numbers and look only at COVID-19 deaths. The CDC expresses deaths per 100,000 population, but I want to bring that down to a more intimate level. If you divide the U.S. population by the total number of COVID-19 deaths, you have a rate of one death per population group.

I have tracked the death rate for the U.S., Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia since May. Norway: 1 death per 22,314; Finland: 1 death per 16,871; Denmark: 1 death per 9,715; Sweden: 1 death per 2,501; U.S.: 1 death per 3,296. While the rest of Scandinavia went into mandated lockdown, Sweden did not. We were similar to Sweden.

As of Aug. 4, the rest of Scandinavia remains close to the rates in May. Italy, which was an epicenter in May, has retained a near-flat death rate of 1 per 1,720 during July. We are steadily approaching Swedens and Italys death rates.

To put that in a local perspective, if you live in Pinehurst, eight of your neighbors would have died of COVID-19. If the CDC is correct in estimating 250,000 deaths, that would be a rate of 1 per 1316, or 13 of your neighbors. Please consider that before you decide to socialize without a mask.

Matt Farina, Southern Pines

Please, homeowners: Stop pesticide companies from destroying our environment. They want to sell us insect-spraying packages to rid our yards of supposedly bad bugs. There are bad and good bugs.

Companies make us believe our yards are infested with insects, which is far from the truth. By wholesale spraying of industrial-strength insecticides, they kill off the honeybees, which are already in serious decline due to colony collapse; damel- and dragonflies, which eat mosquitos; ladybugs, which eat aphids and rose rust; and the thousands of insects our beautiful Carolina birds and the geckos eat daily.

Weve been eating from our vegetable garden since April, and have no insects. I plant flowers that attract honeybees and dill for Monarch butterflies to mature in. I also compost and prepare my soil well. The success of my garden this year proves its value.

I think we can all do our part in keeping these pesticide companies, which seem to be mostly owned by the corporate lawn care companies, from destroying our bees, driving our birds away, and polluting our local watercourses with toxic runoff. Apparently our birds are struggling to find sufficient food so we have started feeding them again. Wouldnt it be sad if we dont see our cardinals, a brilliant red flash against the dark green of our pines?

Fern Sinnott, Pinehurst

One persons art is another persons eye sore. I was born and raised in Southern Pines. I love the quaint feel of the towns architecture.

The natural look of brick or stone or wood is so much prettier than some type of painting on a building, even if its ivy-covered.

Elsie Dutton, Akerson

There are 3,525 Medal of Honor winners. Pick one and move on.

Consider an enlisted soldier such as Mary Edwards Walker or Robert Augustus Sweeney, who won two Medals of Honor.

Beth Hill in a recent editorial said mail-in ballots will not work in the upcoming election? Oregon is doing that and we have time to get our ducks in a row until the November timeframe, dont we.

Or is the system riddled with fraud or other inside difficulties? Do we not have proper election officials to mandate the rules on how to carry this out if we do go to mail in voting?

I heard on the radio that the state was going to spend a massive amount of money on masks for the election judges, money we do not have. Most people by now, if they are out in public, should possess a face covering. Why do I have to pay for something that a person is going to wear on the job?

Let us dwell on this but not too long, and who knows how long this virus will last, so we have to prepare for the worst.

Jonathan Paris, Whispering Pines

It seems there cannot be enough repeated mail concerning the subject of masks to make a difference, but I remain hopeful because it is so important.

He goes on to say just what I have wanted to write in a letter to the editor for a long while.

Bonnie Becker-Jones, Pinehurst

History repeats itself in patterns that are like stencils. The riots over George Floyd replicate the riots in 1992 in Los Angeles over the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers for the Rodney King beating.

The looting of over 2,300 Korean American stores resulted in empowerment by that group in succeeding years. Both riots involved looting of Asian, Latino and African American stores as well as national chain stores. What did both riots accomplish? An increase in political empowerment by those affected by the looting. Though police violence is the sound-bite hot point on television broadcasts, police violence is only one component of a dangerous economic issue among emerging cultural and ethnic groups in a diversified America.

Occasional Pilot columnist Marvin Covault was appointed by President George Bush in 1992 to lead the Joint Task Force Los Angeles to end the riots by military and allied force. He was appointed because he was in command of Fort Ord in Northern California.

I would prefer that Gen. Covault writes about what he learned from that tragic Los Angeles riot and how it resonates with the riots today.

Kevin Lewis, Carthage

I immediately wondered if he was referring to the millions Trump has received from the U.S. taxpayers for his own personal gain, or why he tries to ignore the Constitution by not counting everyone for the census.

Imagine my surprise when Mr. Smiths column referred to Confederate statues. He begins by excusing Gens. Bragg and Lee while attacking Gen. Sherman. He does not mention Sherman received approval from President Lincoln and Gen. Grant.

Im assuming he considers the bombing of Dresden and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki similarly. After all, collectively their purpose was to end the war.

Mr. Smith mentions Lees oath of allegiance. In it, Lee says, I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Union of the States. Of course, that was after he lost the war.

If the criteria is someone who once did good things for our country, I eagerly await Mr. Smiths next column, Why Benedict Arnold Deserves a Statue.

Bob Curtis, Pinehurst

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Letters to the Editor for Aug. 9, 2020 | Opinion | thepilot.com - Southern Pines Pilot

Nonprofit aims to fill elementaries with diverse books – The Columbus Dispatch

Julia Hanna founded Harpers Corner as a way to promote diversity and inclusion by donating related childrens literature to central Ohio elementary schools.

Julia Hannas soon-to-be 5-year-old daughter, Harper, wont be heading off to kindergarten for another year, but when she arrives at school she wont see many people who look like her.

Harper, who is half-Black, is part of the Upper Arlington School District that draws students from a suburb that is 91 percent white, according to U.S Census data. This reality has always weighed heavily on Hanna, who is white, but it became even more prominent within the past few months.

As Black Lives Matter protests grew in the wake of George Floyds May 25 death while in the custody of Minneapolis police, Hanna was moved to take action.

"I feel that particularly in these less-diverse communities, we need to start having a different conversation," Hanna, 41, said. "When youre not around diversity, you just keep going about life like theres no problem."

On May 31, she posted on Facebook about her desire to collect childrens books that address diversity and inclusion, and donate them to local school districts.

She could never have predicted how much the mission would resonate with others: Within a week, she had received dozens of books and monetary contributions totaling nearly $9,000.

"It resonated with people, and it told me this was a much bigger mission," Hanna said. "It had me think of how I could become a better ally for Harper and other children."

Hanna went on to establish Harpers Corner Foundation (@harperscornerbooks on Instagram), whose nonprofit status was officially approved by the IRS in late July, she said.

Hanna, who works in merchandising at a national retail company, recruited friends and colleagues to leadership positions on the organizations board. Many of them had their own personal reasons for joining the cause.

Worthington resident Kat DePizzo, who serves as vice president of Harpers Corner, said the oldest of her two daughters ages 6 and 15 came out as a member of the LGBTQ community when she was in sixth grade.

"Its so important to me for so many reasons that were all treated equally," DePizzo said. "It doesnt solve everything, but what a great way to jump in and make change."

Knowing that childrens attitudes and behaviors are molded when theyre very young, board member Erin Kendrick Chaney, who is Black, was motivated by a desire to create a more accepting and loving world for her 3-year-old son.

"Kids mimic what they see, what they hear," said Kendrick Chaney, an Olde Towne East resident. "To be able to start with young school-aged kids in having these conversations about diversity and inclusion and being accepting of others who are different than you is really important."

The Harpers Corner team partnered with Cover to Cover Childrens Books in Upper Arlington to curate a reading list of 150 books that are diverse in both content and authorship. The store agreed to offer a discount to the nonprofit as well, said General Manager Bryan Loar.

The list available to local school administrators via a private link includes mostly recent publications addressing womens empowerment ("You Are Awesome" by Susann Hoffmann), the LGBTQ community ("They She He Me: Free to Be!" by Maya Christina Gonzalez and Matthew Sg) and Black representation ("Black is a Rainbow Color" by Angela Joy and Ekua Holmes).

"If its well-written and you identify with those characters, if you can both see yourself but also see others and create the empathy, it really is transformative," Loar said. "We think that creating more empathy, more kindness, more understanding across all cultures is paramount in this day and age."

This fall, Harpers Corner will have a presence in 11 elementary schools in central Ohio five in Upper Arlington, three in Bexley and three in Worthington. The organization has now raised about $15,000 and is donating more than 800 books between those schools.

School media specialists at the chosen elementary schools used Cover to Covers guide to create a custom wish list for Harpers Corner to supplement the schools existing collections. The books, which will be stamped with the nonprofits seal, will be displayed in a special section of school libraries, with elementary school teachers using the selection to bolster their curriculum.

"We always talk about books being windows into other peoples lives that might be different from yours," said Carla Wilson, principal at Barrington Elementary School in Upper Arlington. "Just having books that represent people who might be different than a child is super important to building empathy."

As Harpers Corner continues to grow, the goal is for all 15 school districts in central Ohio and their 171 elementary schools to be a part of it. Hanna is encouraging the wealthier districts to undertake a pay-it-forward mentality in donating funds or books to districts with lower budgets.

"How the confidence builds when kids see themselves is tremendous, so thats really at the heart of what were doing," Hanna said. "We want it to feel like a place thats inviting to kids and a place where kids can find books theyre curious about."

elagatta@dispatch.com

@EricLagatta

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Nonprofit aims to fill elementaries with diverse books - The Columbus Dispatch

Stand Out In Todays Crowded Job Market – Forbes

Portrait of confident businesswoman with arms crossed. Smiling mid adult female professional is ... [+] wearing smart casuals. She is leaning on glass wall in corridor at creative office.

Unemployment is soaring, companies are folding, and the future of the economy is unclear at best. For senior-level and executive professionals who are looking for a new job, this means that what worked for a month ago simply will not make the cut today. Todays hiring climate demands not just patience and persistence, but a fundamental shift in job searching strategies. Key among them is ensuring that you dont just make a good impression, you make a lasting impression. Standing out and sticking in peoples memories is going to be more critical, and more difficult than ever before. As an executive, its more important than ever to zero-in on your expertise and take a strategic approach to your job search efforts. Here are a few steps that you can take to make sure you present yourself as a candidate that companies need to hire.

Update and Upgrade Your Marketing Assets

Your guiding word for your job search should be targeted. In order to have a finely-tuned search, you need to have finely tuned personal marketing materials. This includes your resume, but also any other assets that show off your brand, your achievements, and your experience. Before you begin your search, take a moment to write down what you bring to the table from an employers perspective, not from your own. For example, you want to change I lead cross-functional, international teams to I ensure that companies cross-functional teams around the world are highly coordinated and effective, driving revenue and innovation. Once you define your core offering, evaluate all of your materials to make sure they each drive a consistent message.

While youre working on your marketing, remember to highlight your soft skills alongside your achievements. Soft skills are the key to implementing a vision and being a successful manager. Highlighting such skills on your resume can truly set you apart from the other candidates. When building your resume remember to weave soft skill examples into accomplishments and job responsibilities. Even if its not something you realized at the time, you likely used soft skills such as communication, empowerment, and decision-making every day. When it comes to your resume, just remember to highlight how each played a part in your success. The pandemic has served to make companies more empathetic to individual needs and you want to show that youre a capable and personable leader.

Need to Pivot? Work From the Inside Out.

Business man working on computer while sitting at desk.

Shifting industries at the senior or executive level is challenging, but it can be done. If, in particular, the opportunities in your own sector have been hard hit by the pandemic you may feel that your only option is to pivot. This requires an extra level of finesse for professionals at your level. This is where your core competencies that youve identified earlier will be essential. If you have 20 years of experience as an international hotel chain executive, for example, identify what core skills youve developed in this industry that could be relevant in other, adjacent industries. For example, perhaps youre experienced in identifying new potential markets, building teams from the ground up, and ensuring company standards are upheld across global locations. These skills and experiences could be highly useful for other industries which have a global view, even if they arent the exact field youve established yourself in.

Address Soft Skills That Are Important to Remote Workforces.

Think about the onboarding process for companies that are newly remote. HR departments are struggling to bridge communication breakdowns and encourage employee engagement; managers have trouble training new hires, monitoring their progress, and connecting team members.

When you interview for a position, or do any kind of outreach, show that you can anticipate these obstacles and make the process easier for the hiring manager. Highlight your soft communication skills and give examples in your work and the way you conduct yourself.

Target the Right Employers.

For executives and upper-level employees, the job search is more than just a numbers game. Because hiring is a large investment, businesses want to find the right fit. Target employers and tailor your application to their specific needs. Companies that are still developing their product (and therefore have a lean payroll) are most likely to hire outside talent during a crisis.Also consider looking at businesses with in-demand digital services that need to increase productivity. The video game sector, for example, has seen revenue increases since the lockdown. At your level, you need to remember the key word: targeted. Focus on cultivating connections to 15-20 people at different companies, no more. You want to conduct highly-targeted, respectful, and engaging outreach that always focuses on demonstrating value to them rather than why they should want to be connected to you.

Turn the Tables by Interviewing Potential Employers.

A creative way to connect with potential employers and simultaneously strengthen your professional network is to start a small content series that interviews leaders in your industry. Your goal is always understanding their business, their needs, and focusing on them. However, be sure to present why youre in a unique position to do so, and what you can do to help them grow.

Its easy to find a platform for sharing professional content such as LinkedIn Pulse or Medium, and its not too complicated to set up a personal website with a blog. With a platform in place, start by creating a few thoughtful articles on important topics relevant to your industry. Then identify leadership at companies that present interesting employment opportunities and reach out with a request to interview them for your next article. This will act as a soft way to engage with potential employers, generate interesting conversation related to your industry, and demonstrate your expertise and thoughtfulness within your field.

Not only could this start some interesting conversations, but the process will also help you build out a strong online presence that will aid your application to other jobs.

Network Extensively Within Your Sector.

More jobs are found through networking than by responding to job postings at all times, especially for senior-level professionals. Thats especially true in times like these. Take two steps in networking. First, get in touch with your existing network. Reach out for Zoom chats or virtual coffee hours. Let your network know you are furloughed and job searching.

Second,grow your networkwith Zoom chats and virtual coffee hours. Consider getting in touch with professionals youve long admired for informational interviews,

Businessman networking on the phone sitting at the laptop.

mentorship, and advice. Join new professional associations.

Throughout your networking, remember to offer support, information, and advice to your network as well as seeking it. Reciprocity is key to successful networking.

Use LinkedIns messaging features to strike up connections with relevant contacts. Remember, at your level this is probably not the HR professional but rather the leaders in the departments that are relevant to you. Remember though, if the other side is wary or dismissive, be respectful and take the hint. You dont want to burn any bridges before youve built them, and you never know when someone may remember that you reached out to them and that they could use a connection like you.

Check Out Remote Conferences.

Many conferences have pivoted to provide an alternative remote version of the events that were canceled this year. This is one smart way to connect with people within your industry and with those who hold similar interests.

Keep a keen eye on the attendee lists and look for ways to connect with those people directly through social media or email. Some online events even have an open chat function to get things started.

Make it Easy To Learn More About You.

An online portfolio or website that highlights your accomplishments and experience is a smart way to stand out from other applicants. Most people do not take the time to do this, but it will leave a more lasting impression than a PDF resume or standard submission form. It will also give employers a better impression when they google your name (which they will do) and your own, personalized website is at the top of the results. This is also a great way to highlight the work youve done earlier of creating thought leadership pieces or interacting with other companies and leaders.

Final Thoughts

The market today simply isnt like it was six months ago, and your executive job search cant be the same either. In todays challenging market, you need to take the extra time and effort to ensure that youve got a highly-focused strategy for showing potential employers how you are going to be the key to them making it through and succeeding in these times. Your efforts should always be focused on their needs not yours.

No matter what tactic you take to making a strong impression, the most important thing is to put a strong show of your best qualities and accomplishments. Give hiring managers and employers the opportunity to connect to you, your story, and your mission and youll stand out as a stronger candidate in your field. Not every approach will feel right for every person, but by choosing a few of these strategies and applying your own special spin on them youll be far from another face in the crowd. Ultimately, you want it to be crystal clear how you fit into the puzzle of their needs, that you understand what their pain points are and you have the skills and experience to overcome them. Focus on what your target employers need, and theyll be more likely to see that youre the missing piece.

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Stand Out In Todays Crowded Job Market - Forbes

NBA team bosses to fund black empowerment $300M over 10 years – TRT World

NBA's 30 teams will provide $1 million annually to fund the NBA Foundation, which is being launched by the league's board of governors and the players' union.

National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners are to contribute a total of $300 million over the next 10 years to a charitable foundation aimed at accelerating economic growth in the Black community.

The league said on Wednesday each of the NBA's 30 teams will provide $1 million annually during that time to fund the NBA Foundation, which is being launched by the league's board of governors and the players' union.

"The creation of this foundation is an important step in developing more opportunities for the Black community," said National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) President Chris Paul.

"I am proud of our league and our players for their commitment to this long-term fight for equality and justice, and I know we will continue to find ways to keep pushing for meaningful institutional change," Paul said.

READ MORE: NBA League to paint 'Black Lives Matter' on courts

Empowerment for Black communities

The foundation aims to drive economic empowerment for Black communities through employment and career advancement, increasing access and support for high school, college-age and career-ready Black men and women.

It will also work toward deepening the NBA's commitment to racial equality and social justice, movements that have gathered momentum after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed in police custody in May.

Anti-racism protests have been at the forefront of the NBA's restart at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, with games being played on courts that have "Black Lives Matter" painted on them and players wearing jerseys with social-justice messages.

"We are dedicated to using the collective resources of the 30 teams, the players and the league to drive meaningful economic opportunities for Black Americans," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

"We believe that through focused programs in our team markets and nationally... we can advance our shared goals of creating substantial economic mobility within the Black community."

READ MORE:After long awaited return, NBA will feature 89 international players

Foundation's mission

It will also assist national and local organisations that provide skills training, mentorship, coaching and personal development in NBA communities across the United States and Canada.

Part of the foundation's mission regarding employment will be on obtaining a first job, securing employment after high school or college and career advancement once employed.

"All NBA team governors recognise our unique position to effect change and we are committed to supporting and empowering young black men and women in each of our team markets as well as communities across the US and Canada," said NBA board of governors chairman Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the ownership group for the reigning NBA champion Toronto Raptors.

FourNBAclub owners, three players and executives from the NBPA and a member of the league office will serve on the foundation board of directors.

"We're dedicated to using the collective resources of the 30 teams, the players and the league to drive meaningful economic opportunities for black Americans," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.

"We believe that through focused programs in our team markets and nationally, together with clear and specific performance measures, we can advance our shared goals of creating substantial economic mobility within the Black community."

READ MORE:More militarised federal agents sent to fight #BLM protesters in Portland

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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NBA team bosses to fund black empowerment $300M over 10 years - TRT World