Daily Archives: July 13, 2020

No effect of COVID- 19 on top brands growth, says Brand Footprint 2020 – M4G Team

Posted: July 13, 2020 at 5:10 pm

No effect of COVID- 19 on top brands growth, says Brand Footprint 2020

By M4G Bureau - July 13, 2020

According to Kantars report -Brand Footprint 2020, Dabur, Vim, Sunfeast, Brooke Bond and Patanjali have joined the Billion CRPs Club this year

Worldpanel division of Kantar, the worlds leading data, insights and consulting company released its report Brand Footprint 2020. The report citied that Parle is the most chosen consumer brand in India. Also, five new brands such as Dabur, Vim, Sunfeast, Brooke Bond and Patanjali have joined the billion consumer reach point (CRPs) club this year. Colgate stands at the highest penetrated brand at 88%, the report said.

Talking about the impact of Covid-19, the report said thatfood and beverage brands get picked up more often except Parle and Tata due to drop in frequency. For example, Amul is chosen over 100,000 additional times during the pandemic months, March to May. While personal and home care brands drop CRPs. However, trip size increases causing top brands to grow volume.

Consumer Reach Points are a great way to measure and rank brands as it is a measure of the number of opportunities a brand has, to interact with a consumer. It is great to see consistent validation for the fact that if you build penetration, frequency and growth follow. This has really been a year of global brands in terms of their higher growth than others. Like these, this years report has a lot of interesting nuggets to derive a lot of information and insights on top the behaviour of consumers towards brands in the last year, said K. Ramakrishnan, MD- South Asia, Worldpanel division, Kantar.

Top 10- Brand Footprint Most Chosen Consumer Brands

RANK

BRAND

CRP(m)

1

Parle

6,029 CRP (mn) +12%

2

Amul

4,632 CRP (mn) +17%

3

Clinic Plus

4,514 CRP (mn) +32%

4

Britannia

4,215 CRP (mn) +29%

5

Ghari

2,438 CRP (mn) +12%

6

Tata

2,212 CRP (mn) +16%

7

Aavin

2,080 CRP (mn) -10%

8

Nandini

2,025 CRP (mn) -2%

9

Colgate

1,868 CRP (mn) +23%

10

Wheel

1,630 CRP (mn) +14%

Key findings:

1) Scoring the highest CRP at 6,029 million with 12% increase, Parle ranks first followed by Amul at 4,632 million CRP with 17% increase, Clinic Plus at 4,514 million CRP with 32% rise, Britannia at 4,215 million CRP with 29% increase and Ghari at 2,438 million CRP with 12% rise.

2) Five new brands joined the Billion CRP Club this year- Dabur, Vim, Sunfeast, Brooke Bond and Patanjali. Total 21 brands made it to this group in 2019 compared to 16 in both 2018 and 2017.

3) Over 2/3rd of the top 50 brands are Indian Origin brands while global stands at 14.

4) Global brands (29 %) show 1.8 times growth compared to Indian origin brands (16%). Global brands are growing almost twice as fast at 29% compared to Indian origin brands at 16%.

5) Consumers make significantly more choices this year leading to a significantly better CRP performance by brands. 57 % brands record growing CRPs.

6) Bigger brands find better growth and follow the golden rule, brands grow faster by growing penetration

7) Colgate stands at the highest penetrated brand at 88%

8) Surf Excel marks a consistent CRP growth rate at 20% upwards scoring 1566 million CRP

9) 58 brands saw a penetration gain of 1% or more. Leading the category is Ponds at 5.8% followed by Harpic (4.8%), Comfort (4.5%). 1% penetration gain adds an extra 2.9 million shoppers to the brand

10) In the foods category Britannia clearly charts out a success story as the second most chosen brand, seventh highest penetrated brand with a household penetration at 67.6%. While Aashirvaad saw a surge with 4% penetration increase and 55% in CRP growth.

11) Within home care, Surf Excel marks 48% CRP growth while recording 3.4% penetration increase, closely followed by Vim at 44% CRP growth and 3.2% penetration.

12) Dabur comes out strong in the personal care and foods category with 34% CRP growth, making it the fifth most chosen beauty and health brand in India with a 70% household penetration.

Also read:Amazon retains top position among 100 most valuable brands in Kantar & WPP report

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A little-known law that could stop you getting a fine and points on your licence – Cambridgeshire Live

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When you see a camera flash or a speed camera van in your rearview mirror it can be an agonising wait to learn if you've been caught for speeding.

Many of us have been guilty of this in our lives but the fines, speed awareness course or points on your licence still sting.

But it may not be too late to avoid a fine - thanks to a rule unearthed by The Money Advice Service.

According to the free and impartial advice service a letter should arrive within 14 days, and then youll need to return the completed Section 172 notice within 28 days, reports the ECHO.

Then youll be sent a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN).

This is where you can plead guilty or not guilty.

However - before you do this put the brakes on and check if a golden rule has been followed by the police.

The Money Advice Service confirm on their website: "If the ticket was issued written up, created outside of 14 days after the speeding incident, then there may be a possibility the ticket could be time barred (cancelled)."

However, they say the rules are more complicated than that.

They say: "All the police need to do is show the ticket should have reached the vehicles registered owner under normal circumstances within 14 days.

"This means the letter could go to an old address if youve not updated your licence, it could go to a hire company or to your work address if the vehicle isnt yours."

Put simply - if it gets to one of these within 14 days, it does not matter if it doesnt reach your address for another fortnight.

It also means delays caused by postal problems dont affect the rule if it was posted in time for a normal service to get the letter to you, a four-day strike wont sway the courts.

And by contesting the ticket, you could end up with abigger fine and more points.

If you get 12 points or more over a period of three years, you could be disqualified from driving.

There are also more severe bands D, E and F, which are used for very serious speeding and driving offences.

The maximum fine is 1,000, rising to 2,500 if you were driving on a motorway.

Of course the most sensible and foolproof way to avoid a speeding ticket is to stick to the laws of the land in the first place.

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A little-known law that could stop you getting a fine and points on your licence - Cambridgeshire Live

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Bad weather may delay 1st UAE Mars mission on Japan rocket – CTV News

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TOKYO -- Final preparations for the launch from Japan of the United Arab Emirates' first Mars mission were underway Monday, but there was a chance of a delay because of bad weather, a Japanese rocket provider said.

The liftoff of the UAE's Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, on a Japanese H-IIA rocket is scheduled for early Wednesday from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, in what would be the Arab world's first interplanetary mission.

A final decision will be made Tuesday before the roll out of the rocket, said Keiji Suzuki, launch site director for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

A seasonal rain front was expected to cause intermittent lightning and rain over the next few days, he said.

"But this thunder is not expected to be severe or lasting, and our assessment is that there will be a chance for a launch," Suzuki told an online briefing Monday from Tanegashima. "We will make a careful decision based on data."

Heavy rain has continued for more than a week in large areas of Japan, triggering mudslides and floods and killing more than 70 people, most of them on the southern main island of Kyushu.

Hope is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation. A successful Hope mission would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space.

Hope carries three instruments to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change and is scheduled to circle the red planet for at least two years.

Emirates Mars Mission Project Director Omran Sharaf, who joined Monday's briefing from Dubai, said the mission is not just a repeat of what other countries have done. It will provide a complete view of the Martian atmosphere during different seasons for the first time, he said.

Two other Mars missions are planned in coming days by the U.S. and China. Japan has its own Martian moon mission planned in 2024.

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Here are the three missions to Mars that are happening this month – CTV News

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TORONTO -- While this summer may be a more subdued one for Earthlings, itll be a different story elsewhere in our solar system.

The population of Mars is on the verge of tripling as three new Mars missions from three different countries are set to launch within the next month, with two new rovers coming to the planet.

Curiosity is about to get some company.

Although Mars has been an object of fascination for years for humans millions of kilometres away on Earth, it is still a planet of vast mystery, and has been only marginally explored.

The Curiosity Rover, a NASA project, has called Mars home since 2012. Over the last few months, scientists have been commanding Curiosity from the comfort of their sofas at home instead of their offices at NASA.

The rover has been alone on the planet ever since Opportunity which was sent to Mars with the Spirit rover in 2003 stopped responding in 2018 following a massive dust storm that swept over the rovers location on Mars. Opportunitys mission was officially deemed complete in 2019 after months of NASA attempting to reconnect and revive the rover.

On July 30, NASA is sending Curiosity a new friend: their fifth Mars rover since the start of the program, called Perseverance.

Perseverances main mission is to look for signs of past life on Mars by studying the geology and taking rock and soil samples to be analyzed on Earth later. Previous explorations including work done by Opportunity have shown evidence that there was once water on Mars surface.

As water is one of the main building blocks of life as we know it, further evidence that Mars didnt always used to be a dry, rocky wasteland could open up our understanding of how life could exist outside of our planet.

NASA has been sending rockets and landing craft to Mars for decades. But Americas martian monopoly is being challenged by China and the United Arab Emirates this summer, with both aiming to join the outer space elite.

Like the Americans, China is landing a rover on Mars this summer, called Tianwen-1, according to a press release from the China National Space Administration.

Although not many details of the mission have been released, the rover is set to launch sometime in July, and is Chinas first Mars exploration mission.

The United Arab Emirates are not landing a rover on the planet, but are instead launching a mission to orbit Mars and observe from space.

The Hope Probe will circle the planet for two years studying weather and atmosphere, and will be the first of the three missions to launch this summer: a countdown on the UAE Space Agency website shows that the mission is launching next week, on July 15.

The mission is aiming to understand the climate dynamics of Mars, the structure of Mars atmosphere and why hydrogen and oxygen are escaping from the upper atmosphere into space.

So why are so many missions to Mars launching in the same month?

Because there is a unique window of opportunity right now. This is when Earth and Mars are closest together something that only happens every two years.

Although these three missions are being operated by different countries, and have different goals, they all serve as important stepping stones towards the ultimate quest: achieving a human expedition to Mars by the end of the century.

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Space Outside, Sexism Inside: Mary Robinette Kowals The Relentless Moon – Den of Geek

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To wit, Kowal put a lot of not only herself, but the other women in her life, into the Lady Astronauts. One of the things that I had realized in writing The Calculating Stars, she told me during Den of Geek and TorCons Books & Brunch panel (see panel highlights in video player), was that part of what was making it work was that I was putting in my own experiences of sexism, but shifting the context. She gifted The Calculating Stars protagonist Elma York with elements of her Southern upbringing and particular insecurities, but also saved some for Nicole.

I am relentlessly, if you will, ambitious, Kowal said of Nicoles defining trait, yet also acknowledged the timeless challenge presented to cis women: Having to constantly walk that line between being acceptably pretty but not too pretty; being forceful but not too forceful, because if you are, then youre a bitch. If I am as direct as one of my male colleagues, it reads totally different. She also drew inspiration from female role models in childhood: My mom was an arts administrator until she retired, so watching her do that dance was really, really informative. She did all of these fundraising things, and I would see her doing those; so that was really informative for Nicole.

Its not unlike how Ilana C. Myer approached the fantasy world for her Harp and Ring Sequence: Sure, she had the option to eradicate sexism from this secondary world that was already so different from our own in terms of magic and underworld creatures. But instead, she gave her female poets and ladies-in-waiting obstacles instantly recognizable to contemporary readers: barred from the same education as their male peers, dismissed for their supposed delicacy or valued only for their sexuality, actively sabotaged and rarely given the opportunity to find mentors or even peers like them.

Sometimes we may be trying to envision a better world, Myer wrote on Den of Geek. And sometimes we are searching for a way to bear the realities of this one.

Despite existing in an alternate past, Nicole nonetheless bears the realities of a woman of her time, much of which parallels our 1960s: A product of Swiss finishing school and some other, less orthodox schools of training, she can flatter her way through a room of dignitaries and sweet-talk her way into an investigation. Yet all that people see is a pretty, middle-aged woman in an evening gown and red lipstick, to be trotted out at appropriate times on the arm of her governor husbanda bauble in his presidential campaign, rather than his equal in strategy and power. While she holds the honor of being among the first class of Lady Astronauts, she is also dismissed by her superiors as old hat and not up to the demands of the next phase of the IACs program.

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The 1975 Imagine Utopia in Their New Dont Worry Video – Rolling Stone

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The 1975 have released the music video for Dont Worry, the latest visual from the Manchester quartets new albumNotes on a Conditional Form.

Done in the same CGI-rendered style as past videos like The Birthday Party, the simple, utopian Dont Worry clip shows a person walking through a shiny cityscape where buildings are surrounded by trees and sources of renewable energy (wind farms, solar panels, etc.). The passerby looks through the upper window of an apartment building and sees a dancer twirling around their plant-filled living room. The two characters eventually make eye contact, smiling and waving at each other at the songs end.

The 1975 releasedNotes on a Conditional Form this past May; the 22-track LP features the songs People, Frail State of Mind, Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America, Me and You Together Song, Guys, If Youre Too Shy (Let Me Know) and others.

In the weeks leading up to the new albums release, the band hosted listening parties for their first three albums every Friday on Twitter and Spotify, culminating in 2018s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. Healy also hosted aspecial podcastin partnership withThe Facewhere he interviewed heroes like Stevie Nicks, Brian Eno and Mike Kinsella.

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Comic-Con@Home: Amazon Sets Panels For The Boys, Upload, Truth Seekers And Utopia; Launches First-Ever Virtual-Con – Deadline

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Amazon Prime Video is not just bringing a roster of horror, comedy and superheroes to Comic-Con@Home, but they are also bringing the first-ever Amazon Virtual-Con which will include virtual experiences and activations that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home. Things are set to kick off on San Diego Comic Cons official YouTube channel and on the Amazon Virtual-Con portal starting at 12 p.m. PST on July 23.

The Amazon series joining this years virtual edition Comic-Con include The Boys, Upload, Truth Seekers and Utopia.Like every Comic-Con, the panels will include cast, creators and crew of the series and will feature fan Q&As, behind-the-scene-stories, breaking news from the aforementioned series.

To further heighten the Comic-Con experience, Amazon Virtual-Con, a virtual convention content hub, will be a destination for fans to access and engage with Amazons full range of Comic-Con activations. Fans will be able to gather as a community to share in the experience of seeing their favorite stars, learn how to draw some of their favorite comic book characters from the industrys leading illustrators, and test their comic book movie knowledge with like-minded fans in a round of trivia.

Virtual-Con will be available free of charge to all fans in front of the Prime Video paywall from July 23-26.

Below are the full details for the panels and Amazon Virtual-Con

COMIC-CON@HOME PANELS

Truth SeekersThursday, July 23 at 12:00 p.m. PSTA new original supernatural horror-comedy by Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz), James Serafinowicz (Sick Note) and Nat Saunders (Sick Note). Join as they discuss the making of the hilarious eight-episode series about a team of part-time paranormal investigators, who team up to uncover and film ghost sightings across the UK, sharing their adventures on an online channel for all to see. Discussion and Q&A moderated by Empire Magazines Chris Hewitt.

UtopiaThursday, July 23 at 1:00 p.m. PSTA twisted, eight-episode thriller about a group of young comic fans who discover the conspiracy in a graphic novel is real, and embark on a high-stakes adventure to save humanity from the end of the world. Join writer and executive producer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) and series stars John Cusack (High Fidelity), Rainn Wilson (The Office), Sasha Lane (American Honey), Ashleigh LaThrop (Fifty Shades Freed), Dan Byrd (Cougar Town), Desmin Borges (Youre The Worst), Javon Wanna Walton (Euphoria), and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) for a Q&A moderated by Entertainment Weeklys Christian Holub.

UploadThursday, July 23 at 2:00 p.m. PSTJoin creator, executive producer and director Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) and stars Robbie Amell (Code 8), Andy Allo (Pitch Perfect 3), Kevin Bigley (Undone), Allegra Edwards (New Girl), and Zainab Johnson (American Koko) as they discuss how they brought this futuristic comedy to life, share behind-the-scenes details from Season One, and tease what fans can expect in Season Two. The panel will be moderated by Engadgets Cherlynn Low. Upload Season One is a ten-episode, half-hour, sci-fi comedy that takes place in the near future, where people can be Uploaded into a virtual afterlife of their choice.

The BoysThursday, July 23 at 3:00 p.m. PSTJoin executive producer Eric Kripke, along with series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara and Aya Cash, with moderator Aisha Tyler, for a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming second season of The Boys. Executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will also make a special appearance. Based on The New York Times best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes who are as popular as celebrities abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. The even more intense, more insane Season Two finds The Boys on the run from the law, hunted by the Supes, and desperately trying to regroup and fight back against Vought.

AMAZON VIRTUAL-CON PROGRAMMING

ComiXologys Comic-Con@Home Panel, Plus Live Artist Drawing Sessions, Creator Interview Series, and Comic Book Movie Trivia NightSaturday, July 25 at 3:00pm PST (Comic-Con@Home panel)Are you currently reading digital comics? Are you familiar with comiXologys exclusive digital content program comiXology Originals? Join comiXologys Head of Content, Chip Mosher and a cast of beloved comic creators and rising-stars including, writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Jason Loo (Afterlift), artist Claudia Aguirre (Lost on Planet Earth), writer Curt Pires (YOUTH), along with some surprise guests, to get the scoop on the latest comiXology Originals series direct from the creators making them! Theyll intrigue you with behind-the-scenes stories about the process of bringing comics from concept to the page and what its like pushing the envelope with digital comics, and beyond.

For the superfan seeking even more comic book content, comiXologys own Kiwi will host live drawing sessions on comiXologys Twitch channel with some of the industrys most renowned illustrators, including GLAAD Media Award-winning illustrator Tula Lotay and three-time New York Times best-selling British artist Jock. In addition to drawing sessions, Kiwi will also host an interview series with creators from comiXologys Originals line of exclusive digital content, including Curt Pires & Dee Cunniffe (YOUTH) and the creators behind two yet to be announced original graphic novels. And if all that isnt enough, comiXology and Eisner Award winner Chip Zdarsky will host Comic Book Movie Trivia Night on Friday, July 24 at 5:00p.m. PST on their Twitch channel.

For the schedule of live drawing sessions and creator interviews, please continue to check amazon.com/virtualcon for updates.

Summer Game Fest is Better on TwitchAmazon Virtual-Con brings fans select programming from Twitchs on-going Summer Game Fest, the biggest gaming event of the year. Twitchs Summer Game Fest is the only place where you can witness the future of gaming and join the conversation live with the largest gaming community on the planet.

Prime Videos The Boys Customizable Promo ItemBringing to life one of the most beloved convention experiences, Amazon Virtual-Con will give fans the opportunity to create their own customizable promo items free of charge. Attendees of Amazon Virtual-Con can choose between two promo items, then customize the design using a variety of preset images inspired by the Amazon Original series, The Boys. Each customized item will ship to guests, free of charge, 10 15 days following the event.

Prime Videos Hanna Unlocked Adventure GameHanna Unlocked is a digital adventure game presented by Amazon Prime Video and powered by The Escape Game. The game will be available to play for free through Amazon Virtual-Con. Hanna Unlocked drops players into the Hanna universe between the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. Players will take on the role of a UTRAX agent and must piece together a sequence of events, gather intel, and ultimately track the whereabouts of their targets, Hanna and Clara, all while receiving communication from top brass, agent John Carmichael, a leading character in Season 2. Once the mission is completed, players are then shown footage that takes them seamlessly into the beginning of season 2.

Audibles Sandman ExperienceTo celebrate Audibles release of The Sandman, based on Neil Gaimans iconic graphic novel, fans are invited to submit a description of a memorable dream at drawnfromthedreaming.com or via U.S. mobile phone at 515-SANDMAN (515-726-3626), a hotline narrated by creator Neil Gaiman, who serves as fans guide through the Drawn from The Dreaming experience. Selected fan-submitted dreams will be illustrated by a top DC artist, possibly one of the original artists from the graphic novels. Dream drawings will be featured in an Instagram dream gallery, @DrawnFromTheDreaming, and fans will be tagged in their customized artwork. Everyone who submits a dream will be rewarded with an exclusive free audio episode from The Sandman, including a brief overview of the story so far, told by Neil Gaiman himself, only on Audible.

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Catholic police chief helped Camden disband its force, reduce crime – CatholicPhilly.com

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By Peter Feuerherd Catholic News Service Posted July 13, 2020

NEW YORK (CNS) In 2013, as police chief of Camden, New Jersey, J. Scott Thomson gave Camden Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan a tour of the city.

That was when Camden was experiencing homicides at a higher rate than Honduras, then known as the murder capital of the world. Camden was competing for the crime capital of America and, by most accounts, was a winner of the dubious title.

Bishop Sullivan reached into his pocket and presented the chief with a rosary blessed by the pope.

You will need this more than I will, Thomson remembers the bishop saying.

Thomson left the Camden force last year and is now an executive fellow with the National Police Foundation and director of security for Holtec International, a supplier of equipment for energy companies.

Amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, which has prompted many to call for a defunding of police, Thompson shared the story of a turnaround in the Camden police force with the National Catholic Reporter, a national newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Camden went further than defunding police. In 2013, it disbanded its entire force, which had a reputation for corruption, brutality and high absenteeism. The city force was fired, replaced by a county-run operation led by Thomson, a Camden native who was the chief of the old city force. He was joined by about half of the former force who were rehired and supplemented by new recruits. The old police union contract was thrown out.

Because of budget cuts, some 46% of the force had been disbanded in a single day in 2011. Radical action to create a new force, agreed to by local Democratic politicians and New Jerseys then-Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, didnt materialize immediately. Far from it.

In this 2015 file photo, John Scott Thomson, Camden County police chief, listens to President Barack Obama deliver remarks after meeting with local youth and law enforcement officials at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, N.J. (CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

In 2012, Camden hit its nadir, with a murder rate more than 18 times the U.S. average, Thomson wrote in a recent op-ed in The Washington Post daily newspaper. The city had more murders than the states of Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Wyoming combined, he noted, citing FBI statistics.

The next year, the chief of the new, embattled force gave new recruits a speech.

You will have an identity that will be more Peace Corps than Special Forces, he said. Recruits attracted to the job by the opportunity to crack heads or bully others would be fired immediately, he told them.

Today, Thomson is a frequently sought-after interview subject to recount the Camden police changes, called on for more than 300 interviews from around the world, including The New York Times, National Public Radio and media outlets as far away as China and New Zealand.

He cautions that the Camden story is not a miracle, but the result of a conscious change in policing strategy intended to make the police more visible while enlisting the support of the embattled citizenry.

For every action, theres a reaction, he told NCR in a recent interview, careful not to overstate Camdens story. Nobody is saying that Camden is a utopia or that the Police Department is without sin. Its not a success. Its progress.

Camden still has a story to tell to a nation torn apart by issues of crime and police violence. Effective crime fighting, said Thomson, involves both community support and police presence. He told his cops to get out into the streets, play ball with the kids, get to know the neighborhoods. Broadway, one of the citys main thoroughfares, was flooded with police, and the most blatant forms of open-air daylight drug dealing were pushed underground.

Meanwhile, the police instituted ice cream trucks and block parties and officers made a point of knocking on doors to introduce themselves.

We pivoted. There are moments to celebrate, said Thomson.

The count of 67 murders in 2012 a figure memorialized at Camdens Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in an annual year-end vigil dropped to 25 last year, according to the Uniform Crime Reports of the New Jersey State Police.

The results are seen not only in the numbers but in the vibe of the city, which is 94% racial minority with more than a third of households living in poverty, according to Data USA.

People in Camden didnt want to eliminate police, they wanted to change them. What they wanted was not fewer police, but they wanted us to behave differently, Thompson said.

The newly formed Camden police were told not to focus on arrests or tickets. Instead, they were asked to be a visible presence in the neighborhoods.

Thomson said the approach reinforced the presence of people in the community who were more willing to venture out into the streets. In turn, they became the eyes and ears of the police, willing to talk to officers they knew.

Gone were massive dragnets of young men when a violent incident occurred, actions that often generated resentment and standoffishness toward the authorities.

Thomson described it as fishing with a spear rather than a net. Murders in Camden were once resolved at a 16% rate, he said, and they now are resolved over 60% of the time. The people were telling us things. That made us much smarter.

Much of the drug trade was moved underground. For Thomson, curbing the open-air drug dealing may be the most police can be expected to achieve.

A visit from President Barack Obama in 2015 highlighted Camdens successes. Now there is massive international media attention, attracted by the hope that the citys police have unlocked the key to curtailing crime while earning the communitys respect.

Amid all this attention, Thomson said he keeps in mind the role of his Catholic faith. Police work, he said, is his vocation, a helping profession. When he worked for the police department, he often consulted with chaplain Msgr. Michael Mannion.

The spirituality aspect of the work was extremely important to keep a reminder of why you do what you do every day, he said.

Thomson combined community policing with his own faith, once acting as a godfather for a Camden boy blinded after a shootout between drug dealers.

He is the product of Catholic schools from elementary school to college and said his faith is an essential part of his police vocation.

The work is stressful, he said, adding: You fail more than you succeed. When you see little kids murdered, it will take a toll on you if you dont have a strong faith to rely on.

A national police study he contributed to included a main principle right out of Catholic social teaching on the sanctity of human life, he said.

Msgr. Michael Doyle, the longtime pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Camden, is proud to note that the former chief still has a picture of his kindergarten graduation at the parish school, a picture the two reenacted 40 years later.

The priest came to Sacred Heart in 1968, an era when he was active in civil rights and anti-war efforts. He listened as Robert Kennedy campaigned there in part to highlight the plight of troubled urban centers. Msgr. Doyle has been identified with Camden ever since being profiled for his ministry for an early edition of televisions 60 Minutes.

Thomson offered a breath of fresh air to the city, said Msgr. Doyle. He changed the whole tone of police behavior, he said, noting that Camden police began creating an ethos of respect for others that helped cut the citys crime rate.

For Thomson, the proof of success is in the small things. Parents being able to sit on the stoops of their houses watching their children play, is a big victory. And the fact that Camden has remained relatively calm during the current period of unrest is also testimony to improved police-community relations.

No one would say that battered Camden is a verdant utopia. Thomson keeps his papal rosary handy. But change is worth celebrating, he said.

***

This story first appeared in the National Catholic Reporter, and is used here with permission. It has been edited for length. Feuerherd is news editor of National Catholic Reporter. He was director of communications for the Camden Diocese from 2010-2015.

In this 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama meets with local students and law enforcement officers at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, N.J. (CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

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Catholic police chief helped Camden disband its force, reduce crime - CatholicPhilly.com

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My month in the garden: it’s time to think about plant protection and a good supply of veg for winter – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: at 5:08 pm

Late last summer, I took my mother, who was sadly in the last stages of a terminal illness, to The Pig Hotel, near Bath. We had both wanted to see their gardens. We ate al fresco, enjoying magnificent views on a fabulously sunny day. The place waspacked.

The head gardener kindly took us on a tour of the gardens, which thankfully are wheelchair-friendly. The magnificent walled kitchen garden was brimming with a good range of vegetables and in a small greenhouse I spied a 3m tall herb with small scented white flowers. The gardener did not know what it was but said it made a highly popular, most flavoursome herbal tea, similar to the better known Aloysia triphylla (lemon verbena) butfar superior. She kindly let me have some cuttings, which rooted fairly quickly.

I finally managed to track down its correct name, with the help of the renowned botanist, Jamie Compton. It is Aloysia polystachya, from Argentina, widely grown there to make T de Burro, or donkeys tea. In Argentina it is well known for its antidepressant and relaxing qualities, perhaps the perfect lockdown tea? No wonder there was so much bonhomie that day! It appears hardy to -7C (19F), but Ill keep some inside over winter just in case. Jekkas now sells this (jekkas.com).

I always enjoy going back to visit gardens we have worked on, and last week it was a real treat to visit MaryBerry in her new garden. Westarted to help Mary with the designin early2017, when she had herprevious, much larger garden at what had been the family home for many years.

I spent a day with her and husband Paul and sketched out possibilities. Mary and Paul have now been bedded down in their new garden for about a year. Everyone I work with who downsizes and leaves a garden that they have developed and cherished for years, always takes on their new plot with relish. I think the idea of refining all your gardening knowledge and ideas into a new Utopia must be hugely satisfying, and Mary is noexception.

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My month in the garden: it's time to think about plant protection and a good supply of veg for winter - Telegraph.co.uk

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Was This Ancient Taoist the First Philosopher of Disability? – The New York Times

Posted: at 5:08 pm

Zhuangzi is a creative and flexible author, so it is no surprise that later in the same work, Confucius is ironically appropriated as the spokesman of Zhuangzis own position. This Confucius says he wants to become the disciple of an amputee, Royal Nag, because he looks at the way things are one [or whole] and does not see what theyre missing. He looks at losing a foot like shaking off dust. Royal Nag (and Zhuangzi) saw, long before contemporary epistemologists, that similarity and difference are standpoint dependent: Looked at from their differences, liver and gall are as far apart as the states of Chu and Yue. Looked at from their sameness, the ten thousand things are all one. In short, the common assumption that it is bad to be disabled makes sense only if we project our parochial and historically contingent human values onto the fabric of the universe.

One response to this critique would be that disabilities are bad, not because they are violations of the objective teleological structure of the universe, but because they are inefficient. Those who are disabled are simply less functional, less able to achieve their goals, than those who are normal. This leads easily to the conclusion that eliminating disabilities would be better, not just for society but for the disabled themselves. Contemporary technology seems to have put this almost in our grasp. With the advent of both genetic screening technologies and Crispr gene editing, we are approaching an age in which we may be able to design the human body; perhaps soon the new normal for the American family will be designer babies. We may be approaching a world in which illness is eradicated, a world of physical and mental harmony and homogeneity among all peoples. This, many would argue, is surely the stuff of a utopia a brave new world.

The seductiveness of this argument illustrates the danger of the hegemony of instrumental reasoning reasoning employed to find the most efficient way to a given goal. It is an important aspect of wisdom, but it also carries the temptation, especially in modern capitalist society, to reduce all of rationality to means-end efficiency. In some cases, means-end efficiency results in an inappropriate and inhuman standard.

To think that we have moved beyond this pitfall would be nice, but we havent. It is still very much with us. As the coronavirus pandemic began to overwhelm medical capacity in the United States in March, the disability activist and writer Ari Neeman argued that the triage guidelines that certain states were putting into use indicated that it was preferable to let a disabled person die simply because it would require more resources to keep that person alive. The principle of granting equal value of human lives, Neeman wrote, would then be sacrificed in the name of efficiency.

We do not mean, in this brief essay, to dismiss all of philosophy outside of Zhuangzi. The sayings of Confucius include a passage in which the master is a respectful and congenial host to a blind music master (Analects, 15.42), and the later Confucian tradition includes the stirring admonition, All under Heaven who are tired, crippled, exhausted, sick, brotherless, childless, widows or widowers all are my siblings who are helpless and have no one else to appeal to. Readers of the New Testament will recognize this as a core value in the teachings of Jesus. In fact, many figures and institutions in the Abrahamic traditions have been at the forefront of caring for the disabled, precisely by appealing to the Platonic view that humans ultimate value lies in their immaterial souls rather than their contingent material embodiments.

But in this time of rampant sickness and social inequality, and given our fundamental duty to extend equal treatment, compassion and care for others, we think Zhuangzi is an important and insightful guide, a Taoist gadfly, if you will, to challenge our conventional notions of flourishing and health. With the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act approaching, this ancient Chinese Taoist reminds us that it is the material conditions of a society that determine and define disability. We have the power to change both those material conditions and the definition of disability.

John Altmann (@iron_intellect) writes about philosophy for general audiences and is a contributor to the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series of books. Bryan W. Van Norden (@bryanvannorden) holds a chair in philosophy at Vassar College and is the author most recently of Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto.

Now in print: Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments and The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments, with essays from the series, edited by Peter Catapano and Simon Critchley, published by Liveright Books.

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Was This Ancient Taoist the First Philosopher of Disability? - The New York Times

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