Daily Archives: February 5, 2022

Community has become the king of buzzwords lately.

I doubt you can scroll Twitter right now and not see a single tweet thread talking about community. But its an emerging trend for a reason, as more companies are seeing the power of community, and more products are built around community being a core pillar of the experience.

As Lead Community Manager at Morning Brew, focused on our Educational experiences of Learning @ Morning Brew, here are my four major tips for someone trying to create and sustain a community.

Community is more than a Slack channel

Whether its your third Slack, fifth Discord, or the people you just met at a party all joining a group chat to plan a trip to Mexico, weve all seen communities form and then fizzle out as fast as they started.

Community isnt just throwing people together in Slackits what happens after you do that. In fact, if its easy to do, it probably isnt a community yet: Community has friction because human relationships have friction.

So before you get super excited and deem your group a community, be thoughtful about the elements youll need to sustain. Ask yourself:

Only having a solid answer and gameplan for these questions will allow a community to succeed, just having the latest video platform or group chat app wont.

Dont automate the humanity out of your community

Scaling community is a challenge and it can seem oxymoronic. The attributes that make a community special (intentional, personal, relational) are the same things that are difficult to replicate at scale. However, if community is to be a valuable business asset, some elements of it will have to scale.

In the first cohort of MB/A, we made individual acceptance videos for every professional that got into the program. These were highly successful, but an incredible time sinksomething that really couldnt scale. As we grew, we switched from personalized videos to personalized copy: Still a lot of effort, but something that can be done much more quickly than video production.

Find the elements of personalization that are integral to the success of your community, and safeguard these from the depersonalization that can come from scaling. It can be tempting because its easier to scalebut its the hard things that are still done manually that come to define the community.

Community managers are architects, not stars

Community managers should think of themselves as architects.

A community should be like a properly designed building: People understand why they are there, navigation is intuitive based upon proper signage and indicators, and the different rooms inside create different environments.

Just like an architect, you should spend a lot of time thinking about how the design of your community will elicit the types of interactions you want. And most importantly, just like an architect leaving the building once it is complete, a great community is one that can carry on if the community manager leaves.

Feedback is incredibly powerful: Show its valuable

How many times have you filled out a feedback form, only to never know if someone read it because you never saw the changes you want implemented?

Community is powerful for many reasons, especially because it gives you a direct line to your customers and all the feedback they have for your business, product, or experience. However, this feedback will immediately dry up if you dont recognize the effort it took to share it, plus show some signs of implementation based upon it.

For MB/A, we messaged nearly every individual that filled out feedback surveys telling them we appreciated their feedback and why we were (or werent) going to make changes.

Advice: Do the same for your community. They will feel heard, which will add to their sense of belonging; youll get incredible ideas that you are able to ship immediately, which will make the product/experience better; and youll engender a sense that everyone is collectively building the community together, which increases affinity for all involved.

Read more from the original source:

4 tips on creating & sustaining a community - Morning Brew

In this new season, we go to Arden, Delaware, an artist colony. Its a wonderful place full of green space, very creative people. And they interestingly lease their land that they build their homes on. Its a very intentional community.

SHOW EXCERPT, UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: There are three separate communities: Arden, that was founded in 1900. Ardentown, which was founded in 1922, and Ardencroft, which was founded in 1950. Weve heard it all. Weve heard Arden is made up of hippies, of communists, of nudists. There might be some precedent for a lot of those things, but were not as crazy as it seems.

That was a clip from the new season of Movers and Makers. And what did you find so interesting about Arden, Delaware?

I think just how architecture has really integrated into nature, how that really creates a whole new creative environment and culture today. Because of the pandemic, we spend so much time outdoors and we can appreciate it. But, you know, 100 years ago, when it was being developed, to really have that deliberate relationship with the foliage, the kind of neighborliness that creates was really interesting to see.

At one point in this season, we revisit the dismantling of the Frank Rizzo mural in the citys Italian Market section. That dismantling occurred just after the uprising in Philadelphia after the murder of George Floyd. This monument to Frank Rizzo, former mayor, former police commissioner of Philadelphia he died in the early 90s, known for his strong-fisted enforcement of the law, especially in Black communities. Hes been called a racist. His family argues he is not a racist. What do we get out of this segment? Its not just about the mural coming down.

There are so many cultural heroes in this region. We are not for lack of an opportunity to celebrate really amazing people. Theres a Harriet Tubman statue at City Hall right now, for example. And so, you know, the intent is really that the community wants heroes, right? So when we find out that we have potentially been honoring somebody whose story is checkered, I want to hear more about those new heroes, those overlooked heroes. And I think thats something we did a really great job of in this episode.Anne Ishii, executive director of the Asian Arts Initiative, holds a poster designed by Philadelphia poet and musician Moor Mother for the Unity at the Initiative exhibit. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Anne, youre a publisher, a writer, a book promoter. Youve written about gender and sexuality, about specialized Japanese comics. You grew up outside of L.A. in the 80s, a time of very intense cultural, racial, and economic circumstances. Your father is Japanese, your mother, Korean. Tell us about the writer Anne Ishii.

I think everything you just named has contributed to my identity as a writer. The English language always felt a little bit unfamiliar. Growing up, I learned it simultaneously with Japanese. I think for anybody who identifies as part of an immigrant diaspora, writing becomes a really powerful, emancipatory tool to prove that you matter and that you belong in a community. I write to include myself in a larger story.

You recently wrote about anti-Asian hate, and I wonder how as a leader in the arts community in Philadelphia, how you have processed actions against Asian Americans, against Asians, that picked up during the pandemic.

As an arts leader and a writer and an artist, my priorities are always around craft and creating space for more visibility and culture. But during social crises, my responsibilities are exclusively toward my community. I think the most important thing I was able to do in the last couple of years was really to remind everybody in the Asian diaspora and the Asian community that youre allowed to be whoever you need to be. These social crises arent what dictates what kind of identity we need to establish as victims, as survivors, as leaders, as recluses. I mean, if you decide to opt out of the conversation, thats OK, too.

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Anne Ishii on her role as new host of 'Movers & Makers' - WHYY

The Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal verdict Nov. 20, 2021, came as no surprise to legal experts, but out on the street the protest signs (highlighted by news media) called for a revolution.

Colin Kaepernick responded to the verdict with a tweet: This only further validates the need to abolish our current system. White supremacy cannot be reformed.

And three days later, numerous headlines proclaimed Milwaukee BLM militant (activist Vaun Mayes) says Waukesha Christmas parade attack may be start of revolution.

Our country has been rocked with protests, riots, lootings, murders, lying, vandalism, violence and every kind of chaos imaginable over the past two years.

It all started on May 25, 2020, with the death of George Floyd, and wound its way from the streets of Minneapolis through the streets of Portland, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and even Nevada City, into the streets of Waukesha.

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I think most people agree that what happened in Minneapolis was not acceptable. But a revolution?

According to Wikipedia, a revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression or political incompetence.

On the other hand, also according to Wikipedia, Areform movementis a type ofsocial movementthat aims to bring asocialor also apolitical systemcloser to the communitys ideal.

I reflect on my years living in Zimbabwe a classic example of a fairly prosperous country totally ruined by a revolution.

Rhodesia, its name before the revolution, was known as the breadbasket of Africa. It was under Ian Smiths British white-minority rule when Robert Mugabe, the nationalist leader, took charge of the country in 1980a t a cost of 30,000 lives. It took only a few years for Mugabe to totally ruin that beautiful country, leaving Zimbabwe politically and economically destitute. It never recovered.

On the other hand, our civil rights movement from the 50s and 60s shows how we achievedreform. Our government remained intact, but we progressed forward.

Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent reform movement that eventually resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which outlawed discrimination.

King convinced more people through his peaceful, active protests and eloquent and persuasive wordst han through violence.

Violence alienates people a lesson ignored by many angry, violent protesters today.

As a baby boomer, I lived through the hippie movement, the civil rights movement, and a myriad of other movements revolving around the Vietnam War, environmental protections, womens rights, homosexual rights and anti-nuclear protests.

The movements still continue today. The communes of the hippie era have been replaced by todays intentional communities. The environmental protection movement of the 70s, predicting a coming ice age, morphed into global warming. And the civil rights protests of the 50s and 60s turned into todays racial injustice protests.

You can also add to todays list transgender rights, defund the police, back the blue, gun control, womens rights, abortion, immigration, taxes and government mandates.

In spite of all these protest issues, I do not believe that the majority of people want a revolution.

Common sense should answer the question: Why are millions of immigrants, legal and illegal, trying to get into the USA? Why arent people scrambling to exit the USA?

Because America is a great country, offering freedom and opportunity for all! So why would anyone want to leave or overthrow what so many desire and risk their lives for?

Also remember what the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told Katie Couric in a 2016 interview: That those who kneel during the anthem were showing contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.

I also do not believe there will be reformation anytime soon.

Reform requires a leader who can garner the cooperation of the masses. We are currently too divided as a nation to work toward a common goal. Our current president promised to heal this nation, yet he calls reporters stupid sons of bitches. No, there is no room for reform on todays agenda.

All we have left at the end of the day are ordinary citizens, willing to march most of them peacefully, tired of the violence by the fringes. The people just want to be heard, hoping to influence those in power, many of whom just want more power.

But, wait! Theres a new day dawning. We the people get to vote for people who will listen. We the people hold that ultimate power.

Thea Hood lives in Nevada County.

View original post here:

Thea Hood: A new day is dawning - The Union

MADISON, Wis. Today marks the first day of Black History Month in 2022 a month in which we honor and reckon with the history of Black Americans, while also building a future that recognizes and uplifts the invaluable contributions and countless investments made by Black leaders in our local communities, both across the nation and right here in Wisconsin.

Over the next 28 days, many of us will explore and reflect on Blackhistory but to make the Badger state a safer, better place for Black Wisconsinites, its important to take it a step further by investing in thepresentandfuture. Not just in February, but all year long.

You can take action for tangible change by supporting, listening to, and amplifying Black leaders around you, and by having tough but necessary conversations with your friends, family, and community. You can be intentional about the way you spend your time, your money, and your vote this year.

Part of building a better future is having a well-rounded education on the past, and thats why your vote holds a lot of power this Black History Month and beyond, commented Chris Walloch, executive director of A Better Wisconsin Together. A handful of Wisconsin Republicans want to keep our countrys true history away from our kids. These GOP politicians want to ban schools from teaching the real, yet hard truths of Americas past.

If the right-wing legislators succeed, it would be illegal to teach students in Wisconsin about the harms of racism and would give Republicans the power to remove vital funding from school districts who teach about race in our nations history.

Together, by voting in local elections like the primary on February 15, we can jumpstart progressive movement on the issues and make it clear to our elected leaders that we must not erase Black history from our schools, Walloch said. Black history isnt just the past. Its our present, its our future, and its going to take more than the 28 days in February to fight for racial equity, set intentional goals, and hold ourselves accountable.

Read this article:

A Better Wisconsin Together: Celebrate Black History Month by being intentional all year long - WisPolitics.com

A leading voice for two-year institutions says they can make a comeback by being more active and attuned to students.

Dr. Michael Baston has been fairly intentional about driving change in higher educations most challenged sector since becoming president of Rockland Community College five years ago. He has led new diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, forged workforce-driven pathways for students, raised more than $30 million in capital campaigns and been a national voice on completion and program design.

He never stops tinkering or thinking about the next potential partnership. But what he is most focused on is students and getting them what he calls real-world ready. He understands his colleges unique position in serving a very diverse population of learners and knows that the statistics the past two years havent very been positive: 700,000 students lost alone at two-year institutions, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

So he is on a mission to get them backand attract many more.

We have doubled down in making sure students have experiences that prepare them for the world of work, Baston says. That has not always been our emphasis. We focused on preparing students for their next stepand the presumption was that was going to be a transfer, and not necessarily into entrepreneurial or workplace opportunities. Thats shifted because of the expectations of our students and the needs of our region and nation.

Rocklands demographics also have changed significantly, from 25% students of color 30 years ago to 52% today. Those students have a lot more options, including a variety of education paths, certificate options and the enticing jump straight into jobs. So Rockland and others are working hard to show them the benefits of higher ed through support, partnerships and new curriculato remain on the radar.

Were not in competition with other educational actors, were in competition with students not going to college at all, he says. When people look at the community colleges and ask, why is there so much contraction, what people dont realize is that in the last major economic downturn, we did not have the rise of the convenience or gig economy. About 65 million people are now freelancers in the country. By 2028, it will probably be up to 90 million. More people will want to flex their muscles in the entrepreneurial space.

MorePresident Seriesstories from UB

University Business sat down with Baston, Co-Chair of Jobs For The Futures Policy Leadership Trust, member of the National Advisory Board of Center for Community College Student Engagement and leader on the national Education Design Labs Designers in Residence, to learn more about his colleges many unique supports and innovations.

How do institutions like yours convince students that getting an education has potentially more value than entering the gig economy?

We must help students with wraparound support services, like child care, and give them more flexible schedules so they dont make short-term dollars the goal. So its getting higher education to get into shorter-term credentials that lead to that first rung on the ladder of opportunity. Saying to students, if you cant wrap your head around investing 2, 4 or 6 years in an educational program, lets get you for 6 months or 18 months. Lets get you a nationally recognized certification where you can earn a living, and give you credit for further advancement. Were putting you in the best position on those pathways so you dont have to take lots of loans, so you have a competitive advantage when you go for higher-level opportunities. There are colleges like mine that are thinking about stackable credentials, credits for prior learning and pathways that pay a family-supporting wage. Lets get you on the path to the life you deserve.

What is Rockland CC doing specifically to attract and retain those who may not fit the idea of a traditional student?

All college students here are treated the same. They will always have wraparound support services. Through educational partners, we provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week access to tutoring and virtual support. We are becoming more on-demand. We have a very robust program where students can bring their children into the same space within learning, and someone is working with their children while theyre getting tutoring and support through our connection center. We offer different learning modalities, and thats going to continue, to provide experiences that help students feel comfortable, capable and confident moving forward.

You didnt follow the traditional path through academia. You were a public interest lawyer. Now youre here in the presidents chair and even teaching a class. How has that past experience helped you at Rockland CC?

If youre going to be a president, you have to start with passion. What are you passionate about? When I was a public interest lawyer, I was passionate about helping clients lift their voice and seeing the possibility in their lives and then looking at the rules, regulations, policies, procedures and laws that often limited opportunity. It is that same critical eye that I brought to higher education. Moving into administration, because I had that experience of helping people advocate for themselves, it informs how I do my work as a college president.

Im what you call a practitioner president. I teach in the School of Business and Professional Studies. This semester, I taught a course on civil liberties and multiculturalism. What a wonderful thing to teach to students who are sociology students as we are dealing with DEI issues that theyre going to face in the real world. Im able to say I understand what you are experiencing. This semester, I taught synchronously online on purpose because I wanted to understand what kind of engagement it requires, the resources that faculty and students need and the upsides and downsides. I can bring those experiences into making decisions and allocating resources.

What are the linchpins to the success of good DEI programs and strategies on campuses?

We have something called Steps Beyond Statements. Its not enough to make great statements or resolutions that say were going to be against bigotry in all forms. What are you going to do to address the systems that perpetuate disparate outcomes? Any institution serious about equity, diversity and inclusion has to analyze the systems that produced the inequities. We have looked at four specific milestones in the student experience and four critical junctures in the employee experience. Weve looked at the systems that are connected to those junctures to see if they are causing inequitable outcomes. So for the students, where are we recruiting? What programs are we recruiting them into? Are we recruiting in such a way that we lock off opportunities to programs that lead to high wages and high-opportunity jobs? What do the materials look like in brochures that give people an indication of whether theyre welcome or not? For employees, where are we advertising? What does the composition of the search team look like? Do we have extra expectations beyond whats in the job description?

What can community colleges do to stem the massive downturn in enrollments?

The critical piece for colleges is the strength of partnerships. Look for the low-hanging fruit. I sat down with the hospitals and urgent cares to talk about the critical shortages of employees. What are shorter-term programs I could offer to give you a ready workforce? What guarantees can I get that youll hire people? When we work together, we can solve community problems. Many corporations and communities also have foundations connected to them. Were also working with school districts, giving students career exploration courses and college credit. Im in favor of co-creation. You cant just sit passively and say, Im going to send you a list of all the courses we have; let us know which ones your people might be interested in. If thats the approach, then passivity is the problem. We have to be active. We have to not come off arrogantly.

Continued here:

President Series: Is this is a time of opportunity for community colleges? | - University Business

An Afghan refugee leaves the registration office of Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) in Peshawar, Afghanistan, in December 2006.FE/Arshad Arbab

Digitalization in Pakistan and its promise of cross-sector socio-economic development are centered around the countrys national identity system. Initially a paper-based form of identification, the National Identity Card was computerized in 2001 by the newly-formed National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). This federal body transformed the digital ID landscape by incorporating new markers of identity, such as biometrics, within a digital citizen database.

However, the national identity system is failing to cater to the needs of various marginalized communities, and is also a potential threat to citizens right to privacy because it is centralized under one authority.

In addition to revealing an individuals full name, date of birth, and addresses, the Computarized National Identity Card (CNIC) includes a unique 13-digit ID number which is made up of the individuals domicile, followed by a family number that forms each individuals family tree, after which an odd or even number is assigned denoting the individuals sex. The presence of the gender marker within the identity number is particularly sensitive for transgender communities since it will always reveal the gender they were assigned at birth, even though their chosen gender is already marked in a separate category on the card.

Each ID card was associated with the individuals father, which women were obligated to replace with their husbands name upon marriage. The consequences of such a patrilineal identification system are especially challenging in cases of divorce or single-parenthood, where the absence of a husband or a father poses barriers for women and children in all bureaucratic processes where their identity must be verified.

This requirement of the fathers name also raises concerns for orphaned children, those adopted by single mothers, or those conceived using a sperm donor. Although NADRA has created policies for registering children in orphanages under the head of the orphanages, it has not yet accounted for those orphaned children who are not in orphanages and are with or without known parentage. In fact, NADRA has revealed that it assigns a random name from within the citizen database as the childs father in order to issue an ID card because the field cannot be left blank.

These nuances expose the limitations in the design of the digital ID system in place, in that the markers of identity fed into the system are so rigid that they fail to cater to the many ways one might fall outside of the makers of the system might be considered for the average citizen.

Exclusion from the digital ID system of Pakistan is not just a consequence of a poor design; it is sometimes intentional. Already vulnerable communities are pushed further into the margins when their CNICs are forcefully suspended or blocked, on the suspicion of their being an alien. The Afghan refugee community is usually targeted with the suspicion of possessing illegal CNICs, because of which the Pashtun community is also subjected to increased profiling.

The process of re-verification that follows a blocked or suspended family tree is made even more difficult by the requirement of documentation as proof of citizenship. Bihari and Bengali-speaking individuals often face similar issues in being denied the acquisition or renewal of citizenship despite having the documents to show that they have been residing in Pakistan since before 1978, as required by law. This denial of citizenship renders these communities as stateless and bars them from the centralized digital landscape.

The CNIC numberas the most widely applicable form of digital identityis linked to a number of public and private services, including banking, telecommunication, housing, vehicle registration, utility billing, travel, education, employment, and healthcare. This means that exclusion from the system brings an individuals life to a halt, and has been particularly detrimental in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, since testing and vaccination, along with relief programs are all contingent on the existence of a valid identity card.

A centralized digital ID system is characterized by data sharing within different institutions involved in the system. In Pakistan, NADRAs citizen database is at the heart of the operations of many other public departments such as the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the Federal Investigation Agency, and even the Federal Board of Revenue. Despite its centrality to the digital framework, the citizen database has been subject to data leaks more than once.

Yet NADRA either denied any occurrence or shirked accountability for leaks that do not occur directly from their servers, shifting the onus of responsibility onto the institutions that they have shared citizens data with, such as the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB). This incident not only demonstrates how NADRAs irresponsible data sharing is linked to the sale of citizens data online. It also highlights that NADRA is indifferent to citizens right to privacy by absolving itself of all responsibility for data leaks that occur. An absence of any legislation on data protection only further allows NADRA to escape accountability.

By virtue of maintaining a data warehouse that is so critical to the functioning of e-governance initiatives being introduced, NADRA as an institution is central to Pakistans digital ID landscape. This gives NADRA a lot of power over matters pertaining to the citizen and the state, which it has been criticized for in its arbitrary deployment of this power in the suspension of citizenship, which the Islamabad High Court (IHC) recently ruled to be unconstitutional

But there still remains very little discussion in the public domain regarding the undemocratic nature of NADRAs practices. The IHCs judgement should have opened up a wider discussion questioning NADRAs authority through dialogue with the communities that are impacted the most by its exclusionary policies. The issues raised by these communities must be addressed immediately by the relevant policy-makers.

The overall problematic nature of the digital ID landscape, however, would require fundamental changes in its design. The centralized system not only makes the citizen database more vulnerable to leaks and breaches, it also restricts access to various public and private services to those citizens who possess an ID card. A more accessible and citizen-friendly digital ID system would perhaps be more decentralized, and involve multiple ID systems within a larger digital framework.

Original post:

Privacy and digital identity: The case of Pakistan's NADRA - OpenGlobalRights

This article was originally published onWaging Nonviolence.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, along with systemic inequalities that have come to the fore, there has been increased attention to the role of mutual aid, community solidarity and alternative social structures. Many of these practices already exist around the world from intentional communities to activist encampments.

One such example can be found in the territories occupied by Brazils landless worker movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST, which recently had one of its 20-year-old camps set on fire by Brazilian police. As a result, hundreds of people were evicted from their homes and school in Minas Gerais state.

The first time I visited Brazil was at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2002. I was deeply impressed by the strong, radical and sophisticated resistance of activists in South America, MST in particular. Since then I have been returning regularly, learning about the ways these activists are engaging in constructive resistance to reimagine a better society.

During my last visit in June 2019 along with my colleague and friend Professor Kurt Schock from Rutgers University and research assistant Carolina Munis we encountered both a new and an old MST community in southern Brazil.

The land occupation Marielle

Our first visit was to the 14-month old ongoing land occupation of Accampamento Marielle, two hours outside of Sao Paulo. Comprising about 1,000 families organized in 33 base groups, the camp has a secretariat, an unarmed security team guarding the camp, a Saturday school for kids, a soccer field and a communal kitchen, where food comes in through donations. A second-hand clothing store sells clothes and shoes for a small price; other shops, like that of a car mechanic, coexist with communal gardens.

The activists work in different committees, including education, health, sport and culture, infrastructure and LGBT support. They have gender quotas for groups, make all decisions together and in equal fashion, and they have a zero-waste plan. All community members also have a duty to participate in these different thematic committees and a right to have representatives from the base groups take part in joint decisions.

Perhaps the most precarious aspect of the Marielle occupation was its little health center, which exists in one small room of an old, half-collapsed house. At this health center, two women in white clothes, who were newly trained health workers, did their best to help people with different medical problems. Having learned some basics from a conventionally-trained nurse, they created a medical handbook with advice for common health problems.

The health center had only simple equipment for checking fever and blood pressure, but also many local herbs for remedies including one mixture that was made from an old family formula. The two health workers try to use natural medicine and traditional knowledge whenever possible, while still being clear that conventional medicine is needed on occasion. In those instances, they refer to their collection of common medications, collected from inhabitants of the occupation. However, when anyone gets seriously ill, they call the ambulance or organize transportation to the nearest hospital.

When arriving at the hospital, they often have to give a false address, since staying in the camp makes them technically homeless and therefore liable to be denied treatment. These two health workers were acutely aware of how little resources they had and were embarrassed about their meager health service. Nevertheless, they took great pride in what they had built together with their comrades, despite all of the difficulties.

The settlement Contestado

After two days at this land occupation, we traveled to the established MST settlement Assentamento Contestado in the southern state of Parana. There we found the main educational center for Agroecology on the continent Escola Latino Americana de Agroecologia, or ELAA with thriving farm lands, nice and comfortable family houses, a small processing factory for vegetables and a newly-built health clinic. Consisting of a large one-floor building, this health center had space for visiting medical doctors and dentists, as well as an educational facility where community members could take a year-long class learning to treat people with natural medicine and traditional methods.

Resembling the little health clinic in Marielle perhaps only in spirit, this new shining center run by trained professionals gives free health services both in natural and conventional medicine to everyone in the local area, including those who are not part of MST. Its a profound realization what MST is capable of achieving.

Constructive resistance

MST is engaging in resistance by building a new society through resistance. It is fully integrated; contemporary resistance and the creation of the future. You cannot understand their resistance if you do not see how they are recreating community, agriculture, education, health, their relations to nature and each other, politics or gender relations. And, you cannot understand their creation of this new society if you do not see how the resistance is what makes it possible.

Their resistance creates the possibility of breaking the chains of the exploitative capitalist modernity that entraps them in poverty, injustice, repression and isolation from each other. Resistance is what makes the re-creation of communities possible, and the building of community is what makes resistance possible. It is an integrated form of constructive resistance.

In this occupying community of Marielle, I met with an experienced land activist. He told me about a previous occupation that he was involved with. His story is a hopeful one about a similar situation where they lived in shacks, resisted and created community together. Now the settlement has been formalized with legal titles to their land. He said,

Over seven years we were evicted 13 times. We would have to leave, occupy a different land and come back, leave and come back but in the end, we got the land.

Although I had heard such stories before, I still found it astonishing. The difference this time was that I was hearing his story after seeing what this kind of resistance and community-building looked like first hand so I could appreciate his story on a deeper level.

Every time the bulldozers and the police came, the state destroyed their decorated shack homes, the small gardens with vegetables and flowers growing, their assembled furniture, the meeting spaces with wooden benches and roofs, the soccer field where their kids played, their humble but proud health center and communal food area, their water collection system and their simple cafs and shops. Every time, after the bulldozers and police left, they had to rebuild either in the same place or on a new nearby piece of land.

They had to do it 13 times, again and again. That kind of endurance, persistence and resilience is what resistance is about. They rebuild and rebuild, re-creating their community again and again. It is also how nature works. It adapts; it comes back with new life every spring, even after a fire, and with time, if left alone, the vegetation will flourish.

When the forces of state repression come, this land reclaiming group of the poorest move away and take hold somewhere else. When the brutal blow of the states armed fist hits them, they move like water, absorbing the violence by flowing away. Like a swarm of bees or birds, they disperse when attacked, then quickly reintegrate again. Over time, the state does not have the energy to repress them anymore: land occupations start to pop up everywhere, counter-forces to the state mobilize, and urban support groups of journalists, lawyers, social workers and some politicians put pressure on the state.

When the poor eventually win their rights in courts and receive support from the general population, the state tends to give up. Therefore, at the end of the day, they often get the legal titles to their piece of land. And then, finally, they can build their permanent structures, solid meeting houses with real facilities, proper and large gardens, effective water systems, cultural centers, schools and proper health clinics.

Fulfilling Gandhis dream

The landless workers movement has achieved something Mohandas K. Gandhi never was able to do: integrate both the yes and the no of the struggle. In other words, MST has been able to combine the building up of new constructive alternatives which constitute a new society with the mobilization of a broad-based resistance to the dominant system that oppresses ordinary and poor people.

Clearly, Gandhi thought it was important to have a constructive program, and he emphasized and mobilized for that vision. He could rightly be seen as the foremost proponent of a kind of resistance that focuses on building a new autonomous society. On the other hand, he had serious trouble getting other anti-colonial activists to understand its importance for the liberation of India from British colonial rule. So the constructive element never gained significant attention as the peaceful mass resistance for which he became so famous.

More importantly, mass resistance campaigns against British colonialism did not integrate the constructive program. Instead they were separated, they took place in different places, and were sometimes not even organized by resistance-oriented activists, but people specialized in this more constructive work, like teachers and journalists.

In contrast, resistance and constructive work by MST are integrated. It is nearly impossible to understand the land occupations by MST without seeing how them are experiments in creating a new community and a new way of living. It is also impossible to make sense of and understand how they are able to create a New Brazil on their settlements if you do not see this in relation to their resistance through land occupations. The resistance and the construction are part of the same work.

I am not claiming that MST is perfect. There are many problems and weaknesses, as well as failures, which still exist. For example, MST was slow in showing support to LGBTQ persons within the movement though they now do that and they are struggling to make their peasant way of life in rural Brazil relevant for youth that often long for an urban life. Still, they are onto something, and they show us a promising path of social change that we all could follow.

By combining resistance with constructive work, they avoid the fundamental weaknesses of each approach. For resistance, that weakness is to just be against, to protest, critique and obstruct what is unjust and wrong, and to demand that others often the state correct it. For constructive work, the fundamental weakness is to only build up what is already tolerated, legal and fits into the existing system, like adding new alternatives for us to choose from in a market.

Resistance will always face repression if it is strong and poses a real challenge to the elites and the privileged. It will need resources and a community to survive and endure. Meanwhile, constructive work will always be co-opted if it becomes popular enough that corporations exploit and steal it to make a profit. Resolve and struggle are needed to maintain the foundational values and principles of constructive work, in order to push the limits and break the rules that otherwise force it to conform to existing systems.

A way forward for social change

This particular combination shows a way forward for social change that is truly transformative. That is what is so hopeful about the landless workers in Brazil, and what we can learn from them. Without copying what they do, we can and should apply the same combination of constructive resistance in our own struggles.

One key explanation behind the innovative thinking and success of MST is its emphasis on popular education. They organize their own basic and critical education from kindergarten to high school, as well as adult literacy training, forming it along the liberation pedagogics of the Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. And MST even has its own autonomous activist university, Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes, outside of Sao Paulo, educating both MST militantes and other movements for free. At the same time, others learn from MST. During my visit I met with a network of educators who assist movements in Brazil to deal with issues of direct action, civil disobedience and security/safety issues.

I am already longing for the next visit to Brazil, knowing very well that they need all our solidarity and support. The new fascist Bolsonaro regime has declared MST a main enemy of the state, and they are determined to crush the movement. We cannot let that happen. Now is a time when international solidarity will be vital.

Teaser photo credit:Blockade of BR-367 by the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento Sem Terra, MST) against the arrest of former President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva in Eunpolis, Bahia, Brazil. Author HVL. This file is licensed under theCreative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bloqueio_da_BR-367_pelo_MST_contra_pris%C3%A3o_de_Lula,_Eun%C3%A1polis_BA.JPG

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A radical land occupation in Brazil shows how to reimagine our societies for the better - Resilience

The most popular sport in the world is growing in East Texas, both in number and diversity.

TYLER, Texas In 2021, soccer surpassed the NHL as the fourth most popular sport in the United States.

Dallas-Fort Worth has grown into one of the most robust soccer markets in the country. Their Major league soccer team, FC Dallas, is developing junior programs in many different regions including right here in East Texas.

"I really feel like we're in startup phase when it comes to the growth of soccer not just in North America, but particularly Texas," said Gina Miller, VP of FC Dallas communications.

"I think soccer is unique because you're seeing a lot of parents putting their children in soccer," Miller said. "Now, we've heard that for the past 20 years, but we're seeing more of that over the course of the past decade and some of those young athletes looking to participate in other sports, where there may not be as many serious injuries."

Then theres the East Texas football club which started four years ago with only seven teams, but right now they have a total of 19 teams.

Team captain Reese Rowe has had a front row seat to the expansion.

"When I first started, you could play a team over and over again within your season," Rowe explained. "Now you can play many different teams are out there."

We see the growth in numbers, but how about diversity?

In December, Kendell Howard became the first black male in Tyler high school history to sign a division one soccer scholarship to play at the next level. Although this makes him the first, hopefully he's not the last.

"As I was growing up, I didn't know any black soccer players, Howard said. "Now I have a teammate over there, and I have one of my football coaches and his younger sons, they look up to me and everything. Just being a pioneer for starting such things is amazing."

For Kendells mom Olivia, the lack of African American representation in the sport locally wasnt the driving force.

"Well, I needed something to kind of get rid of the amount of energy that he had," Olivia said. "And at three, that was all that was available to me. And so that's where it started with me because I had no idea about soccer. I had friends who played, you know, in high school, but none of them looked like us. I didn't care about any of that; I needed what I needed. He needed what he needed, and soccer provided that for us."

Not everyone has the resources like the Howard's had, which is why with FC Dallas, the diversity is also intentional.

"We're holding soccer clinics in underserved communities so that we can introduce members of these communities to the sport that is really so easy and affordable to play," Miller said. "So we're really looking at it holistically, not just on the soccer field, but in the community in the business community as well to expand and hit those communities that might not be gravitating towards soccer or might not be on the soccer radar at this particular time."

What if I told you that the most watched sporting event in the world could be coming to Dallas in the year 2026? Were talking the Mecca of the sport, the Crem de la Crem, the 2026 World Cup.

FC Dallas President and Chairman of the Dallas 2026 Host City bid, Dan Hunt, is working to make DFW a host city for the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

"The majesty of the World Cup and the drama that goes in this tournament and the number of matches that are played, by the time it's played in the United States, Mexico and Canada, the World Cup of 2026 will have 80 matches in the tournament," Hunt said. "The economic impact, it's like the Super Bowl on steroids. People come to your market and they stay longer. They spend, you know, typically more money."

More money in a booming economy with room to grow as expansion and popularity in soccer continues to grow in East Texas.

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The Big Business of Soccer in East Texas - CBS19.tv KYTX

Community coalitions in Sacramento on Wednesday kicked off a targeted effort to get children ages 5 to 11 vaccinated for COVID-19. "There is more intentional focus on making sure we are reaching our hardest hit, hardest-to-reach families and youth," explained Mai Vang, Sacramento city councilwoman representing District 8. Sacramento County, Kaiser Permanente and La Familia Counseling Center joined forces this week to increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine in communities with lower-than-average vaccination rates, particularly for children 5 to 11 years old and within communities of color. In Sacramento County, more than 68% of children ages 5 to 11 are still not vaccinated. La Familia hosted a vaccination clinic at its Maple Neighborhood Center on Wednesday encouraging shots for kids. "We know that the LatinX community has one of the lowest vaccination rates here," said Rachel Rios, executive director of La Familia Counseling Center. "We have pockets of communities, mostly our underserved communities and folks who dont speak English, that we still have yet to reach."Rios added that many in the community were also essential workers who could not easily take time off to get their children vaccinated. "We know COVID-19 doesn't discriminate, but our current system does," Vang said. " who has access to health care, who has access to vaccines."Medical experts continue to emphasize the importance of vaccinations to beat COVID-19."There's this underappreciation of just how serious COVID can be in children," said Dr. Dean Blumberg, head of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis. "I see children young children hospitalized for COVID. Just because it's milder doesn't mean it can't be more serious."Blumberg added there have been more than 1,000 known deaths in the United States among children and almost 50 pediatric deaths in California.Vaccines opened up for kids 5 to 11 two months ago, but vaccination rates remain low. New data from Kaiser shows just 28% of eligible children nationwide have gotten their first dose. About 19% are fully vaccinated. In California, about 24% of eligible kids are fully vaccinated."We encourage parents to reach out to trusted sources a pediatrician or someone else who believes in mainstream science," Blumberg said."We know the way out is by vaccinating our families so we can spend time together again and lead healthy lives," said Rios. La Familia will host additional vaccination clinics on Feb. 8 and 23. More information can be found on their website.

Community coalitions in Sacramento on Wednesday kicked off a targeted effort to get children ages 5 to 11 vaccinated for COVID-19.

"There is more intentional focus on making sure we are reaching our hardest hit, hardest-to-reach families and youth," explained Mai Vang, Sacramento city councilwoman representing District 8.

Sacramento County, Kaiser Permanente and La Familia Counseling Center joined forces this week to increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine in communities with lower-than-average vaccination rates, particularly for children 5 to 11 years old and within communities of color.

In Sacramento County, more than 68% of children ages 5 to 11 are still not vaccinated. La Familia hosted a vaccination clinic at its Maple Neighborhood Center on Wednesday encouraging shots for kids.

"We know that the LatinX community has one of the lowest vaccination rates here," said Rachel Rios, executive director of La Familia Counseling Center. "We have pockets of communities, mostly our underserved communities and folks who dont speak English, that we still have yet to reach."

Rios added that many in the community were also essential workers who could not easily take time off to get their children vaccinated.

"We know COVID-19 doesn't discriminate, but our current system does," Vang said. "[It affects] who has access to health care, who has access to vaccines."

Medical experts continue to emphasize the importance of vaccinations to beat COVID-19.

"There's this underappreciation of just how serious COVID can be in children," said Dr. Dean Blumberg, head of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis. "I see children young children hospitalized for COVID. Just because it's milder doesn't mean it can't be more serious."

Blumberg added there have been more than 1,000 known deaths in the United States among children and almost 50 pediatric deaths in California.

Vaccines opened up for kids 5 to 11 two months ago, but vaccination rates remain low. New data from Kaiser shows just 28% of eligible children nationwide have gotten their first dose. About 19% are fully vaccinated. In California, about 24% of eligible kids are fully vaccinated.

"We encourage parents to reach out to trusted sources a pediatrician or someone else who believes in mainstream science," Blumberg said.

"We know the way out is by vaccinating our families so we can spend time together again and lead healthy lives," said Rios.

La Familia will host additional vaccination clinics on Feb. 8 and 23. More information can be found on their website.

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Most eligible children still not vaccinated for COVID-19. Groups in Sacramento are working to change that - KCRA Sacramento

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, students, faculty and administrators faced challenges amid the urgent pivot to emergency remote instruction. The pandemic and resulting quarantines are large-scale crises unlike anything we have ever faced. During the spring of 2020, more than 4,000 U.S. higher education institutions were forced to mobilize emergency remote instruction for more than 20million students. Moving courses en masse into a crisis-responsive form of distance learning protected the health of our communities and preserved academic continuity for students. Faculty members and support staff displayed heroic levels of creativity, commitment and courage to make it all happen.

Entering 2022, the Omicron variant created unprecedented surges in the numbers of infected individuals. Once again, many colleges and universities have chosen to start the term using remote instruction to address this emergency. With the return of what was seen as a temporary measure to preserve the health of students, faculty and staff, our organizations feel the time is right to have a conversation on the national level about some widespread misconceptions that have arisen.

Chief among those is the inaccurate use of terminology that has led to confusion for students, their families, faculty, administrators, policy makers, members of the press and the public at large. Notably, people conflate remote learning with online learning. Quite simply, the difference between the two lies in planning and preparation:

In distinguishing between the two, we sometimes use the lifeboat analogythe lifeboat is great if the ship is sinking, but the onboard experience cannot be compared to that of a luxury cruise liner.

Through emergency remote instruction, what many students experience is not the high-quality online learning that has been developed and delivered by countless institutions for the past several decades. Nor has that emergency instruction been guided by the pedagogies and best practices supported by online learning research. For example, purposefully designed, quality online learning considers online presence and multiple forms of interaction, includes digitally accessible materials, and is well organized in an online course site to guide students along their learning pathway. But as Charles Hodges and his co-authors noted in their important article in the Educause Review,"The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning," which explored this topic in depth, for people unfamiliar with online learning the distinction between quality online courses and emergency remote instruction was, and still is, unclear.

Letter to the EditorA reader has submitteda response to this essay.You canview the letter here,and find all our Letters tothe Editorhere.

Emergency remote instruction is not on par with the online learning that those of us who have long worked in the field strive to provide. We at the National Council for Online Education believe students deserve the best possible experience for their educationand institutional leaders must be committed to delivering top-quality, rigorous and engaging learning experiences, regardless of modality. In fact, some accrediting agencies are explicit in expecting that quality be the same for all modalities or even have additionalmore stringentrequirements for online instruction.

High-quality online learning is the result of faculty trained and supported in online pedagogy, intentional instructional design and a host of other important ingredients that we have been fine-tuning for more than 25 years. This work has been guided over the years by research-supported practices, online course and program design guidelines (such as the Quality Matters Rubric, the OLC Quality Scorecards and the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership), and tools crafted to support faculty in designing quality courses.

As described in Every Learner Everywheres book Optimizing High-Quality Digital Learning Experiences: A Playbook for Faculty, high-quality digital learning experiences are well-organized and thoughtfully designed. These experiences rely on instructional design principles and strategies to align learning outcomes with learning assignments, activities and assessment practice not only through strategic design, but also through integrating intentional opportunities for community-building and interaction in the digital environment.

Research shows that, when done correctly, quality online courses are as effective as face-to-face classes and, in fact, often lead to greater student success. But while faculty teaching remote classes are trying their best, they simply have not had the necessary development time. And the process to build those courses, and to prepare instructors to teach them effectively, does take timea resource not afforded by the rush to respond to COVID-19. At the onset of the pandemic, 97percent of U.S. institutions reported having assigned faculty members with no prior online teaching experience to remote courses. In addition, many students faced difficulties accessing the technology and internet connectivity needed to succeed, especially when separated from on-campus computer labs and other vital resources. The pervasive stress of a global pandemic only intensified those difficulties.

According to the U.S. Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics, before the pandemic, one out of six postsecondary students were fully online students who had already realized the flexibility that learning modality gave them to navigate full-time jobs, family obligations or other needs. Then, during the pandemic, the flexibility provided by using online learning tools in transitioning to remote instruction enabled a significant portion of postsecondary learners a chance to learn without risking themselves, their loved ones or their communities.

We all learned many lessons during the pandemic, including that students wantand needthe flexibility afforded by online learning. Even as students returned to campus, many asked for continued online optionsand not just for health-related reasons. They have asked for flexibility in the modality, duration and scheduling of learning that best serves their educational needs. Many students have full-time jobs, are caregivers and were affected by the pandemic in ways that will continue to influence and challenge them. We also learned the importance of preparedness and saw that institutions that had invested in building a foundation of online quality prior to the pandemicsuch as basic faculty training for online teaching, student orientation for online learning and necessary technology and institutional infrastructurereaped dividends for that work. Institutions lacking online experience struggled with their pandemic response, as they did not have a core of faculty, instructional designers and leadership to support the transition to remote emergency mode.

For this and other reasons, the National Council for Online Education and institutions of higher education owe it to our learning communities to continue to advance high-quality, intentionally designed online learning through which institutions can contribute to student outcomes in new and profound ways. By empowering our faculty members to teach even more skillfully online, we will make courses more engaging and learning more effective. By re-envisioning ad hoc and remote teaching materials, we can offer students new online courses that both adhere to well-established frameworks of quality and expand the opportunities that have made online learning a meaningful experience for millions of learners.

We certainly do not expect all courses to be online in the future, but institutions would do well to support all faculty in leveraging digital learning tools and best practices. We are hearing of more interest in incorporating digital technologies as supplements to face-to-face courses, in blended courses or in new fully online courses. To best employ such tools in serving students, institutions will need to rely on thoughtful technology selection, faculty development, instructional design and application of proven frameworks to best ensure quality online learning.

As colleges and universities offer more online options in response to student demands, they are also challenged to adequately describe the student experience, and ensure quality learning, for each course. Students need to know what learning environment to expect for each, such as how much time is spent face-to-face or online. They also need to know what technologies will be used, including how their instructor and institutional support services will assist them. Those communications with students are made more difficult when people conflate the terms remote and online learning. Therefore, we call on institutions, researchers and the press to be more reflective and accurate with terminology when discussing or examining a given educational experience

Finally, the pandemic reinforced why online learning is so vital to the future of higher education: through digital tools, students were able to continue learning. Digital tools enabled a new wave of students and educators in realizing the advantages and opportunities of online learning. As online education leaders, we pledge to use these lessons to continually adapt and evolve so that we can meet the needs of future students, even as we help shepherd our communities through unpredictable future emergencies.

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Remote instruction and online learning aren't the same thing (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed