Daily Archives: February 19, 2022

Centre-State Relations: Has The Concurrent List Outlived Its Utility? – Outlook India

Posted: February 19, 2022 at 10:04 pm

On February 2, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sparked outrage when he slammed the BJP, claiming that the party cannot see India as its kingdom because it is a union of states. Gandhi emphasised the necessity of cooperative federalism, claiming that India has only been ruled through dialogue for decades. Amit Malviya, the in-charge of the BJPs national information and technology department, took to Twitter shortly after, to say that the Congress MPs claim that it was not a nation but a union of states was very problematic and dangerous. He claimed that the Congress leader hasnt comprehended the Constitution.

The furore over federalism has also reignited an old debate around the distribution of legislative, executive and administrative powers between the Centre and states and the much-contested Concurrent List in the backdrop of the farm laws, NEET exams and health sector, among others. It is pertinent to mention that the Concurrent List includes subjects of common interest to both the Union and state governments. Education, including technical, medical, universities, population control and family planning, criminal law, animal cruelty prevention, wildlife, animal protection, and forests, are topics on the Concurrent List. The Concurrent List lists 52 items found in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Union List, State List, and Concurrent List are the three lists that make up the legislative sector. However, education was earlier the states responsibility and put in the Concurrent List only during the Emergency (1975-1977).The NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test conducted for granting admission in medical UG seats of India) has once again taken centre stage in Tamil Nadu with a high-pitched campaign for the urban local body elections centred around the Concurrent List. NEET has been a sensitive issue in the southern state since 2013 when all medical entrance tests were merged into a single national-level examination. The Tamil Nadu government had formed the Justice A.K. Rajan Committee to investigate the impact of NEET on medical admissions in the state. According to the report, NEET has obviously damaged socio-economic representation in MBBS and further medical studies, favouring primarily the wealthy.

The findings of the report also says that NEET harms Tamil-medium and students from rural backgrounds, government schools, students whose parents annual income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh. Also adversely affected are students from the Most Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. Tamil Nadus healthcare system will be seriously damaged if NEET is not abolished, and there may not be enough doctors to be posted at primary health centres or government hospitals. The rural and urban poor may not be able to enrol in medical courses, the report mentions.

NEET became a burning electoral issue in Tamil Nadu after Governor R.N. Ravi returned the governments Bill in the assembly to abolish NEET from the state earlier this month. One of the main focuses of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) campaign is the continuation of the NEET exam against the DMKs assurance of nixing it. During his virtual campaigns, chief minister M.K. Stalin has been spending quite some time refuting the claim made by leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami that NEET was implemented by the UPA government of which DMK was a part. Can Palaniswami show me one exam centre in Tamil Nadu where NEET was held during the previous DMK rule? Stalin asked, noting that the examination was only introduced in the state when Palaniswami was the chief minister. Former chief minister and AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam has said that NEET is a problem that the DMK cannot solve. The Bill is merely a token gesture.

Commenting on the issue, Professor Faizan Mustafa, vice chancellor of Nalsar University of Law, says that the Bill on exemption of NEET by the Tamil Nadu government is merely a political statement and that practically it cannot pass the scrutiny of law. Constitutionally, education is on the Concurrent list, both the state and central government can form laws around it. However, if there is a dispute between the laws, the Centre can override the state law under Article 254, Mustafa tells Outlook.

Nevertheless, the Constitution also gives powers to the state under section 254(2) to bypass the Centre. It states that if the central legislation and a state statute are both on the same Concurrent List subject and have contradictory provisions, the President may approve the state law. In this case, even if the governor forwards the states Bill to the President, he will not approve it in consultation with the central government; hence the Bill passed by Tamil Nadu against NEET exams is merely a political statement, Prof. Mustafa adds.Earlier, the year-long farmers protest against three controversial laws introduced by the central government had also stoked a debate around the legal validity of the legislations. The laws were challenged in the Supreme Court before the government succumbed to pressure from the agitation and withdrew the three laws.

National parties want to strengthen the Concurrent List so that the Centre has a maximum hold over states. But in my view, there should be no Concurrent List, says KCR.

Earlier, there was talk about a Central government proposal to put agriculture under the purview of the Concurrent list before the Parliament passed the farm laws. On May 5, 2015, the government had told the Lok Sabha that the National Commission of Farmers (Swaminathan Commission) had recommended agricultural market to be added to the Concurrent List. However, the proposals had made it clear that foodstuffs under Entry 33 of the Concurrent List do not provide Parliament with the jurisdiction to legislate on agricultural markets. Nevertheless, the government told the Lok Sabha on March 27, 2018, that it had no plans to add the term agricultural market to the Concurrent List. Later, In September 2020, the President approved the contentious farm bills that the Parliament approved into laws.

More recently, there have also been talks about bringing health under the Concurrent List. In 2020, a high-level group constituted for the health sector by the 15th Finance Commission has recommended that health be moved from the State List to the Concurrent List. In a report given to the Finance Commission, the panel stated that health should also be on the concurrent list because medical education and family planning matters fall under the same.

Public health and related matters, such as dispensaries and hospitals, are currently the responsibility of the states under the Indian Constitutions Seventh Schedule. Preventing infectious and contagious diseases from spreading from one state to another, on the other hand, is included in the concurrent list. In practice, the Centre has always taken an active role in influencing public health policies. The Centre establishes national standards and a governance framework for issues, which are later implemented by the states.

In March 2021, the 15th Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh said that health should be moved to the Concurrent List under the Constitution, and a developmental finance institution (DFI) specialised in healthcare investments should be established. Singh said that increasing government expenditure on health to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025 should be a fundamental commitment of all States, with primary healthcare receiving at least two-thirds of such investment. The demand for health to be put under concurrent list gained momentum in the aftermath of the second wave of Covid-19 in 2021, when the health system crumbled in the country and states allegedly failed in dealing with the pandemic.

Amid all this, there are also demands from a section of politicians to abolish the Concurrent List altogether. After being re-elected as chief minister of Telangana in 2018, K. Chandrashekar Rao made it clear that his partys victory meant working for a new non-Congress, a non-BJP national consortium of regional parties. And that he would push for further state autonomy, suggesting complete abolition of the Concurrent List. National parties want to strengthen the Concurrent List so that the Centre has a maximum hold over states. But, in my view, there should be no Concurrent List, and state governments should be able to decide what is best for their states, he had said.

However, experts believe that doing away with the Concurrent List would not strengthen the states but cause chaos. Venkatesh Nayak, a transparency activist and legal expert with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, believes that the states and the Centre work together on many subjects. And its not just about making or implementing legislation but also about generating enough resources to implement them. What KCR said after his victory in 2018 is not very new. Similar demands have existed since non-Congress governments were formed in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Then N.T. Ramarao, Ramakrishna Hegde and others had floated a front for decentralising power. What KCR is suggesting does not seem very practical. There are issues and subjects where states and the Centre work together. All states cannot generate enough resources to implement the infrastructure for everything without support from the central government, Nayak explains.

(This appeared in the print edition as "The Sacred List")

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Centre-State Relations: Has The Concurrent List Outlived Its Utility? - Outlook India

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How Regional Parties Are Becoming The Voice Of Small Communities – Outlook India

Posted: at 10:04 pm

In 1991, when the then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was wiped out by the BJP in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, many political analysts had started writing the political obituary of the patriarch. But the seasoned and wily politician that he is, Mulayam Singh bounced back spectacularly. He formed his own outfit, the Samajwadi Party, in 1992 and a year later, contested elections in alliance with BSP to oust the BJP from power. Mulayam forming his own outfit was not an isolated incidentthe writing on the wall was clear. We needed to go beyond the established communities, says C.P. Rai, the then general secretary of SP. In the Indian federal structure, the time has arrived when smaller groups will manifest their power.

The SP leaders social engineering ensured a rainbow coalition as he wooed leaders of diverse castes and communities, recalls Rai. One such leader was Gulab Sehraa Congress leader, a two-term Dalit MLA and the leader of opposition. When Mulayam asked Sehra to join SP, Rai was the man who persuaded the Dalit leader to switch sides. And when Mulayam became the CM, he took Sehra on his official plane to Agra. The awakening after the Mandal Commission was harvested mainly by Yadavs and Kurmis in UP. But federalism had space for other smaller groups and castes. I persuaded Mulayam to appoint Sunder Singh Baghel as Ferozabad unit president of SP. He later went on to become minister. Today, Baghel is a very enlightened community in the Agra region, Rai adds.

ALSO READ: State Of The Union: How Centre-State Ties Have Fractured Over Time

The churning in Indian politics and society and the caste arithmetic of leaders like Mulayamand Laloo Prasad Yadav in Biharhad seen the emergence of smaller population groups to assert their claims over the political space. This in turn gave birth to smaller regional parties, sometimes representing minuscule communities often ignored or subsumed by larger political groupings. Though their populations varied from a meagre one to seven per cent, these groups were driven by the simple thumb rulethey may not win, but no one will without their support. Election Commission data show that the number of smaller parties had reached over 300 in 2017 compared to a double-digit number in 1989.

Mohammad Sajjad, a Professor at Aligarh Muslim University, sums up the trend succinctly. Formation of smaller parties which are community- and sub-region-based is a direct manifestation of the unique federal structure of India. This reflects division of power. When these social groups do not get the desired result from larger parties, they turn towards formation of their own party, he says. Numbers are important in a federal structure. Each vote counts and in government-formation, the number of MLAs/MPs becomes crucial. Due to the federal structure, these groups have significance in small regions owing to their proportionate numbers. But often their aspirations are not fulfilled as their leaders turn it into dynasty politics, so they turn towards another party, headed by another leader among them, he adds. However, Sajjad is also of the opinion that the same federal structure which gives rise to smaller parties, will soon see the next stage of class solidarity depending on the economic status of the regionthe demand for smaller states or autonomous areas.

ALSO READ: Is Indian Federalism Reeling Under Burden Of One-Party Dominance?

Professor Afroz Alam of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, has another theory for the emergence and success of regional parties. As we know, federalism is all about division of power between the Centre and states. This division of power is articulated prominently when the states are ruled by regional parties. In recent years, the creative manipulation of national parties to centralise power and dictate the terms to states has increased. The arbitrary style of working of national ruling parties while sidelining the local/regional interests is creating more fault lines for federalism to succeed, he says. As a result, India is witnessing thousands of minor/regional parties getting involved in the electoral process, putting serious competitive pressure on the dominant national parties and on occasion, influencing electoral outcomes with their consolidated social bases.

ALSO READ: Federalism And The Idea Of Regionalism

He points to the realignment of social groups for the ongoing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, reflected in the pre-electoral alliances between mainstream parties and constituency-specific minor parties. For instance, the BJP has allied with Apna Dal and Nishad Party while the SP allied with SBSP, RLD etc. Similar is the case in other states, he adds.

The arbitrary style of working of national ruling parties while sidelining regional interests is creating more fault lines for federalism to succeed. Afroz Alam, Professor Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad

Social transformation

The birth of caste-centric small parties also has much social impact. The backward castes and even Dalits had their share of tall leaders in the past. Many of them enjoyed influence in bigger parties. However, often the party projected them just as a face of a particular group without devolution of power. It was assumed that highlighting these faces was equivalent to giving representation to a particular community.

ALSO READ: Punjab Haunted By The Past It Wants To Forget

A more visible and rapid social transformation began after 1989 when the Congress was ousted from power in Uttar Pradesh. The leaders who had influence over their communities started expanding their bases. This is also due to a social awakening among their community and educated youth articulating their grievances more forcefully. The bigger parties realised that the time for dialogue had arrived. One of the best examples is of former bandit Phoolan Devi, who was taken into Samajwadi Party by Mulayam Singh Yadav and later given the party ticket for contesting the Lok Sabha polls. As she became an MP, her backward Mallah community rallied behind her in a big way. Such was her influence that she was invited as a guest to Akhilesh Yadavs marriage with Dimple, where she blessed the couple. On her death, even Mulayam Singh and late Amar Singh were present during her funeral. After her death, some of her supporters formed the Phoolan Sena to galvanise the community. Till date, she remains an icon for her community.

Another example of a community asserting itself is the emergence of the Nishads as a political force. Once represented by the Nishad Army headed by Arvind alias Raja Nishad, the community now has political representation through the NISHAD party headed by Dr Sanjay Nishad in UP and the Vikassheel Insan Party headed by Mukesh Sahni in Bihar. Political and social awareness has come to most of the communities. We see it as a good thing. All communities should have their leaders and parties. Ours is a social organisation, we aim at good representation and raising the voice of our community. We are no more ornamental pieces, Raja Nishad says.

ALSO READ: Size Matters: Why Tiny Goa Needs To Be Heard More Often

The glass ceiling has broken. These communities which were satisfied by getting representation in bigger political parties do not shy away from talking directly to these parties. They have dialogue, their demands and want their share of the bigger political pie. The NISHAD party is presently an ally of BJP in UP. Social media too has a role in projecting these smaller parties. The youths are now armed with smartphones and openly highlight the achievements of their community, even if it is about someone becoming a high-ranking official, a celebrity or a political leader. The awareness and the medium to spread words has been instrumental in making these communities aware of the importance of their votes.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Small Is Powerful")

Renegotiating Indias Federal Compact

Right In The Centre: The New Power Structure In Dilli Durbar

Centre-State Relations: Has The Concurrent List Outlived Its Utility

Mumbai Muddle: Why Maharashtra And Delhi Are Frequently At Loggerheads

How Dravidian Politics Acts As Bulwark Against Centralism

Constitutional Federalism: State Of Exception In The Paradise Of Kashmir

Ladakh Battling Centralisation To Save Identity Culture

Manipurs Love-Hate Relations With Delhi

The Coalition Instinct: Bihars Manual Of Survival

Shifting The Goalposts: A Young Politicians Battle To Save Goa And Its Way Of Life

(The writer is a Lucknow-based senior journalist)

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How Regional Parties Are Becoming The Voice Of Small Communities - Outlook India

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Government accused of dragging its feet on ethnicity pay gap – The London Economic

Posted: at 10:02 pm

A cross-party group of MPs has urged the government to implement compulsory reporting of the pay gap among different ethnicities, hitting out at the lack of prompt progress on the matter.

The House of Commons women and equalities committee (WEC) revealed in a report published earlier this month that companies should be required by law to publish data on employee salaries that goes beyond the gender pay gap reporting.

WEC argued addressing pay differences between employees of different ethnic backgrounds would add 24 billion a year to the UKs economy, and urged the government to make reporting a legal requirement from 2023, according to The Guardian.

Caroline Nokes, Tory MP and WEC chair, said: The governments failure to move forwards on ethnicity pay gap reporting is perplexing.

We already have the systems in place to start reporting on the ethnicity pay gap, as well as a clear impetus: tackling inequality benefits not only marginalised groups, but the whole economy.

The government has no excuse. All that is lacking, it seems, is the will and attention of the current administration.

The government has not yet published any proposals in relation to a wage reporting consultation which was concluded in January 2019 and has also provided no concrete responses to a petition which gathered over 130,000 signatures.

Wilf Sullivan, of the Trades Union Congress, said: The government is dragging its feet.

The government still seems reluctant and has not said why they are not taking action on a consultation that happened two years ago.

A government spokesperson said: We want to ensure everyone, whatever their background, has equal opportunity to succeed and achieve on merit.

We are considering the findings of the Commission onRaceand Ethnic Disparities independent report, which included recommendations on ethnicity pay reporting, alongside feedback to our consultation on this issue. We will set out our response to this as well as the Women and Equalities Committee report in due course.

Meanwhile, a group campaigning for migrants rights has warned that Romanian citizens in the UK are being victims of modern slavery in the light of Brexit.

Migrants At Work said the government must put a stop to UK migration law and labour law being used to create homegrown slavery.

It comes as the group was allegedly informed by a Romanian community leader that Romanian citizens who applied to keep their rights in the UK after Brexit but have not yet heard back from the Home Office are denied permanent work contracts.

This is despiteHome Office guidancestating that a CoA confirming a valid EUSS application made on or after 1 July can be verified with the Home Office Employer Checking Service, and gives EU citizens the right to new employment whilst waiting for an application outcome.

Related: REVEALED: The share of European female inventors surpasses UKs

Redistricting commissioners close in on a deal – Politico

Posted: at 10:02 pm

Good Friday morning!

Could we see a Brian Stack vs. Nick Sacco Democraticprimarynext year?

Its possible. Even likely.The scenario emerged Tuesday into Wednesday as the redistricting commission met and hammered out a compromise deal between the two sides something tiebreaker Philip Carchman has been getting the partisan commissioners to work towards. It would also allow him to be in the unenviable position that congressional tiebreaker John Wallace found himself in and ridiculed for his reasoning when he selected the Democratic congressional map.

By the time I went to bed late last night, the two sides had largely finalized a consensus map and, last I checked, werewaiting for Carchman to review it. Theres a commission meeting scheduled in the Statehouse today to formalize the maps adoption, though there are several backup meetings scheduled for next week as well.

Stack vs. Sacco would be a hell of a primary if it comes to it.The two neighbors interests have often butted up against each other. They both run formidable political machines. And Democratic politics in Hudson County are, notoriously brutal. This would be an outcome of Democrats abandonment splitting Jersey City three ways, which limited their options in fast-growing Hudson County.

Theres also a district that pits Sen. Nia Gill vs. Dick Codey. Thats a tough one for Democrats. Codeys popular and has been around (almost) literally forever, but does a party that boasts of diversity back a white man against a Black woman?

If this winds up being the map,many of the states competitive districts would probably inch more favorably toward Republicans, giving them a shot at a majority if they have a very good year. For Democrats, that means working a little harder to hold their majorities. For Republicans, it may not be an automatic ticket to the majority, but it would presumably be a better map than the one they currently have.

While a deal was close last night, there were some angry lawmakers out there. So things can always change. Stay tuned.

Read more from me here and from Joey Fox, whos done a great job covering redistricting for New Jersey Globe.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The utter lack of any detail at all makes these reports useless and toothless. ACLU-NJ Attorney Karen Thompson on how the state reports major police disciplinary cases.

DAYS SINCE MURPHY REFUSED TO SAY WHETHER HIS WIFES NON-PROFIT SHOULD DISCLOSE DONORS: 4

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NJEA's Brian Rock, LD38 aide Jason Bergman. Saturday for Assemblymember Sadaf Jaffer. Sunday for Jewish Federation of MetroWest's CEO Dov Ben-Shimon

WHERES MURPHY? No public schedule

TIPS? FEEDBACK? HATE MAIL? Email me at [emailprotected]

MORE THAN 30 YEARS LATER, THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR COP ROCK CONTINUE TO GO UNPUNISHED Nearly 400 New Jersey cops faced major discipline last year, by New Jersey Monitors Dana DeFilippo, Nikita Biryukov and Sophie Nieto-Munoz: Burlington County Correctional Sgt. Matthew Peer channeled his inner Hulk Hogan when he leaped off a metal table onto inmates to break up a jail fight. Newark Police Officer Tigee Pagan let a civilian drive his police car 'in an unsafe manner' and posted a video of the illicit joy ride to Instagram. Jersey City Police Officer Marvin Leggitts left his loaded gun in a McDonalds bathroom in Hillside. The three were among 389 law enforcement officers who faced major discipline in New Jersey last year, according to data the Office of the Attorney General released Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of those disciplined, including the three officers above, werent fired for their misconduct and instead got suspensions, demotions, or other punishment a trend reformers say shows why more transparency is needed At least 15 officers were punished for drunk driving. At least 20 officers were repeat offenders, racking up more than one major discipline offense last year. At least seven officers were disciplined for domestic violence offenses.

NJ LEADS Youve got mail and a lead pipeline, by POLITICOs Ry Rivard: Nearly 200,000 New Jersey residents will soon get warning letters that their home is served by a lead pipeline. The notices, to be sent out by state water suppliers, come as a result of a 2021 law that required about 600 of the states largest public water systems to figure out how many pipelines made with the toxic metal were still in the ground. The state's water systems have identified 186,830 pipelines likely to have lead in them and another 1,084,258 pipelines of unknown make. The pipelines involved are known as service lines, the smaller pipes that bring water onto customers property and into their homes from water mains.

N.J. POLITICIANS ALREADY FACE A PAPER BAG BAN Murphy open to stock trading regulations for state politicians, by New Jersey Globes Joey Fox: As the United States Congress debates whether to enact a ban on stock trading among its members, Gov. Phil Murphy said [Wednesday] that while he has no specific proposal to do something similar in New Jersey, he isnt opposed to the idea. Would I be open minded to something like that? The answer is probably yes, Murphy said. It seems to me like Congress is going in the right direction, it feels like thats the right thing to do. The proposed congressional ban comes partially in response to reports of a number of congresspeople among them Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) who failed to properly disclose their stock trading activity.

Assembly Speaker: Weve fought for New Jerseys middle-class families for 1,500 days

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NURSING HOMES Residents lives at extreme risk, feds say, as they threaten to essentially shut down troubled N.J. nursing home, by NJ Advance Medias Ted Sherman: Federal regulators are threatening to cut off the troubled Woodland Behavioral Health and Nursing Center in Andover from all Medicaid and Medicare funding in two weeks, in the wake of a damning report citing the nursing home for health care violations that threatened the lives and safety of the more than 450 residents who live there. Those violations placed residents in immediate jeopardy for what was called a substandard quality of care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, based on multiple deficiencies that officials said were at the most serious level of findings. In a Feb. 9th letter to nursing home administrators, CMS officials said the facility was not in compliance with federal requirements to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid program, giving them three weeks to correct the problems A termination of federal funding would effectively shut down the facility in Sussex County, one of the largest nursing homes in New Jersey.

DUNN SHUNS RUN Dunn decides against congressional run, by New Jersey Globes David Wildstein: Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-Mendham), who had been publicly considering a campaign for Congress for the last month, announced today that she will not run for the 11th congressional district against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) this year. I will not be a candidate for Congress in 2022, Dunn said in a statement. The enormity of support and encouragement for me to enter the race for CD-11 has been incredibly humbling and inspiring. I weighed this decision heavily, as I do with every action I take as a public servant and the assemblywoman for District 25. Dunn added that while she would have relished the opportunity to speak truth to power in Washington D.C., she felt her voice was also important in the state legislature.

SALT IN THE WOUND A lingering piece of bad news for 2022 Democrats, by InsiderNJs Fred Snowflack: There was a sense of deja vu, but then again political issues have a tendency to linger. The six Republicans seeking the partys nod in CD-11 were assembled Wednesday night before a group of Chatham Republicans in nearby Long Hill Township and the talk turned to affordability and taxes. That swung things around to the need to eliminate the $10,000 federal income tax cap on state and local tax deductions, or SALT. All six candidates agreed. The discussion was quite similar to gatherings of a different type four years ago. Around this time in the run-up to the 2018 midterm election, multiple Democrats seeking the partys congressional nod took turns lambasting the SALT cap and calling for its removal. Now its 2022 and the cap is still around.

Robert Menendez, Jr. briefed on Greece, Cyprus in congressional campaign

NOT WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE Black teen restrained by police in NJ mall fight video hires George Floyd's family lawyer, by MyCentralJerseys Suzanne Russell: A nationally recognized civil rights attorney who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin has been retained to represent the family of Z'Kye Husain, a Black teen who was detained by police at the Bridgewater Commons last weekend. Ben Crump, who has gained prominence representing the families of Black men and women killed by police throughout the United States, has agreed to represent Husain, a Black eighth grade student who was forcefully detained by Bridgewater police last weekend following a fight with another teen at the mall that was captured on a now viral video Crump said the video has prompted questions about the officers' actions in pinning the Black teen but not using any force on the white teen who was also involved in the incident. Z'Kye was defending a younger friend in the 7th grade who was being bullied by a much older 11th grader when this incident unfolded. Z'Kye, an 8th grader, was noble to defend his friend from bullies; however, it is evident that officers immediately assumed that because of the color of Z'Kye's skin, him acting nobly was not event in the realm of possibility. This video says it all, Crump said in the press release.

LARUE S**TLIST Council candidates rally for Trenton clerks dismissal, by The Trentonians Isaac Avilucea:Matthew Conlon had three strikes, and now Jeannine LaRues baseball cap was on backward. The lobbyist and mother of Mercer County commissioner Sam Frisby said her longtime partner put her hat on backward whenever she meant business. To the council in the city of Trenton, my cap is turned around, said the diminutive LaRue, also a domestic violence survivor along with her son. LaRue was joined by about a half-dozen speakers, many of them council candidates running in the upcoming election, who gathered outside of the clerks office to demand that officials oust Conlon from his $122K position, following allegations of sexual misconduct and toxic workplace.

LITERAL CANCEL CULTURE NJ mayor cancels Netflix actors reading time for kids at public library, by NJ 101.5s Dan Alexander: Actor Timothy Ware-Hill said he was uninvited from reading virtually to children for Black History Month at a Bergen County public library because of pressure from the public and police union. Police, however, denied that they pressured public officials to uninvite the actor. The mayor has since taken responsibility for getting the actor's appearance canceled, calling it a distraction. The Peabody Award winner said on the podcast Higher Learning that the Montvale Diversity and Inclusion Committee extended an invitation for him to read a children's book called The Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson. It's about two young black girls to see a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

MASKNESS Paterson schools to keep COVID mask mandate after statewide requirement ends, by The Paterson Press Joe Malinconico: The Paterson school districts 25,000 students and 4,000 employees will be required to continue wearing masks at least until early May, city education officials announced Wednesday night. The decision will extend the mandate two months beyond the March 7 date on which Gov. Phil Murphy has decided to lift his statewide requirement Shafer said Patersons municipal health office recommended that the mask mandate stay in effect. The superintendent also cited a district survey taken this week in which 2,208 employees and parents or 63% of those who responded said they wanted masks to be mandatory.

MODERN-DAY SLAVERY Moorestown couple face forced-labor charges, by The Courier-Posts Jim Walsh: Moorestown woman is accused of taking the passports from two people who were in the country illegally, then coercing them to provide labor and other services. Bolaji Bolarinwa, 47, allegedly knew that both victims had entered the United States illegally and harbored them from detection for her own financial gain, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey. Bolarinwa also 'abused and threatened abuse of legal process' against the alleged victims, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. It also alleged her spouse, 65-year-old Isiaka Bolarinwa, participated in the scheme and financially benefited from the victims forced labor.

Archdiocese to end mask mandate at more than 70 N.J. Catholic schools

Jersey City MUA says they will replace all the citys lead service lines in the next 10 years

With Fisher lawsuit lingering, Hoboken council votes to increase union donation limits, again

[Atlantic City] cop found not guilty in K-9 attack case that resulted in $3 million civil settlement

'Your business is not welcome here': Hunterdon residents oppose marijuana farm proposal

Two undersheriffs leave Bergen County Sheriff's Office, signaling leadership shakeup

UFCW LOCAL 420 N.J. weed workers moving full steam ahead to unionize despite delay in cannabis market, by NJ Advance Medias Suzette Parmley: Union fever is spreading like wildfire among the states cannabis workers even though the adult use recreational market has yet to open up. The workers prepping for that day say they want careers, not just jobs, and thats spurring union drives throughout New Jersey. Earlier this month nearly two dozen budtenders at Ascend Montclair Dispensary signed a new three-year contract offering health benefits and wage increases. But they wont be the only ones for long, predict those who are leading the charge to get cannabis workers unionized. From budtenders to cultivators, to trimmers cannabis workers will be pursuing union representation not only in New Jersey, but around the nation, said Hugh Giordano, cannabis representative of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360, which represents a large majority of cultivation and dispensary workers in the state.

Judges side with transgender man in protecting privacy of name changes

WHYY has lost at least half its journalists. Many complain about pay, morale and lack of innovation

Travel nurses have rescued N.J. hospitals. But have they come at too high a price?

Police rule out foul play in death of N.J. college student who fell down trash chute

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Redistricting commissioners close in on a deal - Politico

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People News: UFI, VISIT DENVER, Association Forum and More Select New Leaders, Expand Teams – TSNN Trade Show News

Posted: at 10:02 pm

The rush to rebuild staff and grow leadership teams at trade show and event-related organizations continues full speed ahead as companies, associations and CVBs anticipate a more robust 2022. Take a look!

UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, appointed international event management veteran Adeline Vancauwelaert as COO, effective Feb. 22. Working out of the organizations Paris headquarters, she joins UFI from France-based global exhibition organizer Comexposium, where she served as event director and played a leading role in strategic positioning, team management and the international development of the SIAL show.

Prior to Comexposium, Vancauwelaert worked at international communication and marketing agency Sopexa as director of companies and international exhibitions, responsible for promoting and supporting the visibility of French food and beverage brands across international markets.

VISIT DENVER hired Flavia Light as its new vice president of tourism, responsible for leading international sales and marketing efforts while serving as a connector for Denvers cultural community. She is also responsible for overseeing VISIT DENVER visitor centers and assisting with new tourism event generation.

Relocating to Denver from Orlando, Light most recently worked for GoPegasus, a tour operator, DMC and transportation company, where she served as director of strategic growth marketing and sales, overseeing international business development for the leisure and group segments. Prior to that, she spent nine years as marketing and sales director with Walt Disney World, Disney Destinations.

Twenty-year association veteran Artesha C. Moore has been appointed president and CEO of Association Forum, effective Feb. 14. She brings strong financial acumen, a deep understanding of technology strategy, an impressive history of growing membership, the successful amplification of DEI programming and the ability to drive innovation to her new role, according to Association Forum officials.

Moore previously served as vice president, affiliation, engagement and membership of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). In addition to creating meaningful engagement opportunities for members and the broader earth and space sciences community, she focused on developing strategic plans to guide major program overhauls and realignment initiatives.

Exhibit Concepts, Inc. promoted Bradley Livesay to director of NEXT Lab, a creative team dedicated to the strategy and alignment of unique digital and virtual experiences. In his new role, Livesay will be tasked with leading the NEXT Lab teams strategy and alignment with trade shows, museums, education spaces, marketing initiatives and interior permanent environments.

Since joining Exhibit Concepts in 2016, he has held the roles of senior digital producer for NEXT Lab and digital content manager. He previously served as digital marketing manager for Autosoft.

Global events leader Freeman recently appointed Jason Megson as the new managing director of Freeman EMEA. Bringing more than 20 years of experience leading independent and global agencies to his new role, Megson previously worked as managing director of U.K. & Nordics at full-service experience marketing agency George P Johnson. An active sustainability advocate, he was also instrumental in the establishment and launch of event industry body Isla, a nonprofit organization founded by event professionals and industry leaders focusing on a sustainable future.

In addition, Freeman promoted Martin Moggre to chief client officer, responsible for all client solutions and sales for events and exhibit services and audiovisual and event technology. Since coming to Freeman in 1988, Moggre has served as executive vice president client solutions and sales, as well as in additional sales and management roles.

The Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) recently welcomed a national sales manager and promoted two longtime team members.

As national sales manager, Danielle Appley-Epstein is responsible for selling and marketing Atlanta as a premier destination for group meetings requiring 251-1,200 rooms on peak, focusing on East Coast markets and representing ACVB at events and trade shows. In her previous role as national sales manager at Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center, she managed Midwest markets, working with major trade associations for some of the largest meetings and conventions in the U.S.

Amanda Dyson has been promoted to director, membership, corporate events and visitor services, responsible for leading recruitment and retention programs for current and prospective members. She will also manage industry event planning and is responsible for the daily operations of the visitor information center in downtown Atlantas Centennial Olympic Park. Her tenure with ACVB began in 2004 as marketing manager before holding roles in international and domestic tourism and joining membership in 2017.

As manager, facilities, Janine Douglas will oversee all ACVB facilities, including the visitor information center at Centennial Olympic Park, and manage vendor relations. She joined ACVB in 2009 as administrative assistant, corporate events and development as well as community and governmental affairs, supporting three vice presidents. She was promoted to coordinator in 2005 and has provided support to some of ACVBs major events.

International Market Centers (IMC) hired Caroline Russell as its new design services manager, focused on driving Open Daily and at-market attendance of designers and home retailers to Atlantas AmericasMart, and providing on-site customer service. Besides serving as the direct liaison between the gift, apparel and home dcor marketplace and the local design community, with a specific focus on Open Year Round showrooms, she will also serve as concierge to AmericasMart visitors in the Designer Workspace.

Russell joins IMC with two prior years of experience as a client services representative at Ferguson Enterprises, where she assisted interior designers in selecting lighting, appliances and plumbing.

Switzerland-based Konduko, a pioneer of Intelligent Trade Shows, has appointed two new senior leaders: Ade Allenby as global senior vice president of customer success and innovation and Jeff DEntremont as vice president for business development in North America.

Before joining Konduko, Allenby was global head of data and digital innovation at RX. He brings an extensive knowledge of event technology and technological innovation in businesses as well as delivering on customer success. Allenby has previously worked for brands including United Utilities, Centrica and TalkTalk.

Prior to joining Konduko, DEntremont spent the past 10 years working at U.S.-based Adstrategies, where he oversaw media sales and sponsorship for a consumer event portfolio of more than 100 events. He has worked on a multitude of events during his career and spent 15 years as both a B2B and B2C show producer for Advanstar Communications (now Informa Markets) and Marketplace Events.

Helen Sheppard has been named RXs global sustainability director, a newly created role in which she will focus on RXs commitment to the UFI Net Carbon Zero Event pledge, signed in November 2021. She joins the global show organizer on an 18-month secondment from RELX, where for 10 years she has served on the companys corporate responsibility team, most recently as global corporate responsibility and inclusion manager.

At RELX, Sheppard launched a flagship women in technology mentoring program to improve diversity in the growing technology workforce. She leads RELXs modern slavery statement commitments, including living wage assessments, and is conducting human rights due diligence for the business. Previously she managed RELXs global community program.

Destination DC (DDC) appointed William Adams as its new director of convention sales, responsible for driving convention business and developing sales policies and programs to bring meetings of all sizes to Washington, D.C. Working alongside DDCs vice president of convention sales and services, Melissa A. Riley, he will also oversee the CVBs convention sales team.

Bringing more than 15 years of experience in the attraction, tourism and hospitality industry, as well as a successful career in convention sales to his new role, Adams most recently was national sales manager with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), where he oversaw 800 active accounts and spearheaded the CVAs events, sales missions, site inspections and fly-ins.

His previous roles include national sales manager for Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau, where he focused on associations, and leading sales efforts for conventions, meetings and group accounts with the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Global experience agency WRG, a division of The Creative Engagement Group, recently unveiled its new leadership team.

Tim Collett has been promoted to managing director after previously serving as global head of live events, responsible for several groundbreaking events and supporting the rapid expansion of WRGs virtual event offering. In his new role, Collett will focus the agency around five priorities: innovation, experience design, sustainability, talent development and DE&I. Prior to joining WRG in 2017, he served as vice president executive producer at Jack Morton Worldwide.

Within the agencys leadership team, Collett will be supported by Head of Environments Mark Jackson, who is focused on leading the growth of WRGs live and virtual environments capabilities. Jackson has been at WRG for 20 years and has overseen some of its award-winning exhibitions.

Additional new members include Gemma Burke, leading the global hybrid and virtual events team; Saira Dickinson, co-head of event production, and David Jones, head of event technical delivery, in the U.K.; and the newly-appointed Rob Fisher as head of hybrid and virtual events and event technical delivery in North America.

Melbourne, Australia-based Delegate Connect, a leading end-to-end hybrid and virtual events platform, made two key appointments: Chris Davies as COO and James Law as chief people officer.

Bringing more than 20 years of experience in customer, digital technology and operations leadership in both growth and more established organizations to his new role, Davies previously led sales, design and customer service at mobile phone and internet provider Belong. He also served as head of operations delivery for Jetstar and brings strategic capability from his time at Boston Consulting Group.

Law brings diverse experience in human resources roles in start-up and scale-up businesses, having served as chief people officer and an executive board member at the construction industry digital platform EstimateOne for nearly four years. Before that, he was chief people officer at Envato; director, human resources, for the betting exchange Betfair; head of human resources at realestate.com; and head of human resources at the online employment site SEEK.

Mark Cascio has joined IMS Technology Services, provider of event staging and systems integration solutions, as director of production management. His primary role will focus on production management for large-scale association meetings and events, with a special emphasis on medical associations.

Bringing extensive technical knowledge and more than a decade of experience with large citywide events and conferences to his new position, Cascio began his career in the live events industry in 2006 as a computer technician and evolved into roles managing large-scale events as a computer and I.T. project manager as well as a meeting room project manager.

VisitPITTSBURGH has named Susan Klein its new chief marketing officer, effective Feb. 14. Bringing more than two decades of brand building and management to her new role, she joins VisitPITTSBURGH after four years as the head of content marketing for marketing and branding agency Doublespace, Inc.

Prior to Doublespace, Klein spent eight years in San Francisco, most recently serving as head of marketing communications and visitor services for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and before that, founded Oculus Marketing, where she served as its chief marketing officer. She has also held marketing and branding roles with Morrison & Foerster LLP, Citibank Consumer Assets Division, Morgan Stanley and Mastercard.

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Curious Kids: Could we change other planets in the solar system so we could live on them? – The Indian Express

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Of the eight planets in the Solar System, we live on Earth, and for good reasons. It has the perfect conditions for life.

Right now, though, we are sculpting Earths surface by deforestation, and changing its atmosphere by adding carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. These changes have resulted in global warming, which might lead us to worry that in the future, Earth may not be such a good place for us to live.

Perhaps this ability to change a planet could make somewhere else in the Solar System suitable for us to live. This planet engineering is called terraforming.

In our Solar System, the most similar planets to Earth are Mars, which is a bit further from the Sun, and Venus, which is a bit closer to the Sun. However, they are still very different to Earth.

There are a lot of ways in which these planets are different to Earth. One is the gases that are in the atmosphere. Both the atmosphere of Mars and that of Venus are mainly made of carbon dioxide. Neither planets atmosphere contains any amounts of oxygen to speak of, which means that right now, we wouldnt be able to breathe on either planet.

Mars is generally considered the most promising planet to terraform. However, as well as being made mostly of carbon dioxide, the atmosphere on Mars is very thin. It doesnt press down on the planet with the same weight that the atmosphere on Earth does.

This pressure from the atmosphere is what keeps water on Earth liquid so we can drink it, and plants can use it to grow. Nearly all of the water on Mars is ice, except for a bit of water vapour in the atmosphere.

In order to create an atmosphere that we could breathe in, and to create enough pressure to keep water liquid, we would need to pump a lot of air into Mars atmosphere a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen until the atmosphere was about as heavy as Earths.

It might be possible to find this nitrogen and oxygen on Mars, which has soil that has been found to contain significant amounts of nitrate a molecule of one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms.

But there would be problems with doing this, including taking nutrients out of the soil that might be needed to grow plants.

Mars is also a very cold place, with an average temperature of about -60 degrees Celsius.

To change this, we would need to help its atmosphere trap heat. This is called the greenhouse effect. We could do this by pumping more carbon dioxide and methane into it (methane has been found on Mars). This would warm Mars and melt much of its ice, creating a water cycle like in Earths climate. Mars would have seas, rivers and rainfall like Earth.

Alternatively, we could think about terraforming Venus. The gravity of Venus is quite similar to that on Earth, but for reasons not fully understood it has an atmosphere almost a hundred times heavier than Earths. The weight of the atmosphere pressing down on us would crush us.

To reduce the weight of the atmosphere on Venus to be more like Earths atmosphere, we would need to remove the carbon dioxide and some of the nitrogen.

Unfortunately, if we knew how to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on such massive scale, we would be better off doing that on Earth in order to slow down global warming.

Mars and Venus have reached a natural state that differs from Earths. If we turn them into Earth-like planets it means taking them out of balance. Left alone, they would change again. A terraformed Mars or Venus would require constant effort to maintain.

It would be far simpler and easier to build an artificial space colony, big enough to hold a whole ecosystem made up of plants, animals and other forms of life. We could then even possibly travel to another star system, where we might find a planet more like Earth. But we do not have the ability to do this, yet.

Until then, the best kind of terraforming would be to reduce humankinds imprint on Earth.

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Curious Kids: Could we change other planets in the solar system so we could live on them? - The Indian Express

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‘Attack on Titan’ Echoes ‘Game of Thrones’ Death Rattle – Vulture

Posted: at 10:00 pm

Photo: FUNimation Entertainment; HBO

Spoilers follow for every season of Attack on Titan and Game of Thrones.

The ultimatum is out. At the end of Attack on Titans 80th episode, From You, 2,000 Years Ago, and nine years since since the shows debut, protagonist Eren Yeager initiates his plan to exterminate the vast majority of the human race by rumbling the weapons of mass destruction at his disposal: an army of brainless humanoid giants eager to trample the human race underfoot. Erens stated goal is to punish the world that has historically persecuted his people, the Eldians, by using the Titan powers that are both the Eldians curse and their genetic heritage.

Its a break-bad moment that, in both the anime and creator Hajime Isayamas original manga, frames his face like that of a menacing gargoyle, carved from stone and intransigent as he becomes the villain of his own story. You dont come back from mass murder.

Attack on Titans path to this point has been about as wobbly and disconcerting as its titular, grotesquely caricatured behemoths. For most of the fantasy seriess early seasons, the audience is told that humanity lives solely within giant walls erected to protect them from the rampant Titan threat. The world outside? A no-mans-land. Eren and his friends join the military and help hunt down the Titans right as he discovers he can turn into one at will. We learn over time that Titans arent beasts but Eldians who have been changed; that, in fact, there is a whole world beyond the walls; and that the Eldians are trapped in exile behind the walls, robbed of their memories by a conspiracy involving their royal family. Attack on Titan is a story about 2,000 years of violence and misery begetting increasingly more of the same. When the Eldians first discovered the Titan power, their enemies fought them until they managed to persecute the Eldians, ghettoize them, and steal the powers for themselves.

Erens mission is, in its indefensibly twisted way, a corrective to that history of violence. And its not a bluff, as his old comrades reckon with in the next episode, Thaw, which follows the aftermath of his declaration. He really means it when he says, The Wall Titans will trample every inch of the world beyond this island until every last life beyond our shores is wiped out.

That declaration, the explosiveness of these episodes, and the overall arc of this season of Attack on Titan collectively bring to mind another final-season heel turn: that of Daenerys Targaryen, who vowed, I will take what is mine with fire and blood, rode a black dragon into a city full of civilians, and indiscriminately torched it in the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, a series I often fall back on when struggling to explain this highly divisive, dopamine-pumping anime to non-anime watchers. The shows share common references to Norse mythology, including magical trees, ancient creatures linked to those trees, and warriors who lose arms in tragic struggle. They were both adapted from sprawling fantasy texts George R.R. Martins A Song of Ice and Fire novels and Isayamas manga that are split into diverging, often conflicting points of view. They share an interest in shock value, viscera, decapitations, and (often problematic) allegory. They have a fair number of incestuous couplings: Jaime and Cersei, Jon and Dany, and Eren and Mikasa, who are in love despite having grown up in the same house as brother and sister. Their production schedules ran across years of high anticipation after shockingly brutal first seasons. They both led fans to petition for a change to the endings of their respective stories. They even share a few minor character designs because Isayama is apparently a Thrones fan. And their protagonists start out likable but grow so corrupted by power that the true heroes rally to stop them.

Game of Thrones has been criticized for ending in a cynical, nihilistic way, framing Danys actions in The Bells as the result of an inherent, genetic madness rather than a choice that felt earned. Erens final-season pivot is framed just as nihilistically, if not more so, spinning out of the revelation of a causal loop he created. In season four, as Eren and his brother, Zeke, explore the memories of their father, Grisha, they uncover the night he murdered the Eldian royal family and its children and took the power of their Founding Titan for himself. Attack on Titan reveals it was Eren who, by looking at this moment, managed to traverse time and goad his father to kill them, setting in motion the events of the entire series since Erens father gave him those same Titan powers that first manifested in season one. Put more simply: After four seasons of events that occurred only after Erens dad killed the royal family, stole their Titan powers, and passed them on to Eren, Eren went back in time to tell his dad who didnt want to kill children to kill the royal family and steal the Titan powers. Erens Back to the Future moment leads, eventually, to genocide.

Time-travel paradoxes can be plenty of fun in films like Looper or even weepily compelling in one like Interstellar, but this one feels literally created ex nihilo, or out of nothing, a phrase that comes up a lot when you read about paradoxes. Though it is foreshadowed in season three that a form of time travel (or, in this case, a kind of time omnipresence) will take place, making Eren responsible for both the start of his arc and his ultimate turn to villainy robs the evolution of its meaning, leaving behind an empty void for both Eren and the viewer. It feels like a moment out of Albert Camuss play Caligula, in which Caligula is crushed by his own nihilism. As the Roman emperor chokes Caesonia, his words echo Erens state of mind: I live, I kill, I exercise the rapturous power of a destroyer, compared with which the power of a creator is merest childs play.

Its not that Erens rage isnt justified. In From You, 2,000 Years Ago, we are shown the backstory of Ymir, the first Titan child, who lived 2,000 years before the events of the series. Her subjugation is horrifying; despite the fact that she became a military asset for the early Eldians, nothing could save her from being dehumanized in life and condemned to an eternity of servitude in death or save her descendants from centuries of pain. But rather than use his power to mete out some strategic advantage for his comrades or broker a peace compromise with the nations of the world, Eren would rather succumb to the hate, watch the rest burn, and make enemies of his loved ones.

Theres a whiplash to this. Narratively, arcs like those of Caligula, Daenerys, and Eren are more satisfying as cautionary tales. No one with a conscience roots for mass murder. But as Game of Thrones finale showed us, once youve let an audience fall in love with reprehensible characters, dramatizing their deaths often isnt enough. If you spend season after season valorizing characters only to rip the mask off at the end, audiences will crave a cogent, well-established reasoning for it, a counterargument for the time and sympathy theyve invested. The characters nihilism, ironically, needs to say something concrete. As audiences judged Game of Thrones, over time well ultimately judge Attack on Titan not by the onscreen cruelty it portrayed but by what it said about that cruelty once the dust is settled.

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Education: Handling the student/ Sisyphus Convolution – Rising Kashmir

Posted: at 10:00 pm

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.Chinese Proverb

Posted on Feb 20, 2022 | Author HAMNA MUNIR

We all must be knackered by the repetitive deliberations and discussions on the subjects of Education, Academic Institutions, Student life, etc. But how many of us have reflected upon it with serious concern. It is as if we are ready to make amends in whatever seems redeemable but then give up due to indolence. What really is education? To some, it is a good degree in hand, a creditable post in an office of work; all in all, to live life well. Unfortunately, education has become more of a burden than a blessing in this day and age. We necessitate ourselves in this particular institution not as if by choice but a salient convention merely to be followed. Education maketh a man. This assertion is apodeictic and needs universal comprehension. However, what should also be understood is that not everyone comes through the same. Life is a staircase of certainty and disbelief, and the acceptance of both should be the sine qua non, to which everyone must adhere. One needs support regardless of what one wants to pursue, and the execution of ones performance in a particular field at a specific period should in no way be taken as a benchmark to ascertain their worth.

It has nearly been over two years now, and the global pandemic COVID-19 has positioned a threat to everything ubiquitously. Education has reached a fatal standstill, and efforts in this direction seem ineffectual. It appears that students are on a mere Sisyphus Climb reaching out for a better upcoming hopelessly. Albert Camus has veritably stated that, what is the point of living and not living in a universe devoid of order and meaning. That is precisely how the students perceive the world now. They are being predisposed towards nihilism rendering everything and anything unavailing. So how come one be brought out of it? It is a question of immense understanding. If you ask me, I will acknowledge the declaration that rectifying any problem we face is a human approach. Our etiquettes make us who we are and what impact we leave on others. We cannot change what is out there with immediate effect, but we can perceive things constructively.

A good outlook on education doesnt necessarily, as a matter of course, require one to indulge in esteemed colleges and universities and procure felicitous degrees. Although these are admirable but whats more fundamental is that one needs to be content with whatsoever one is engaged in. Above all, if you are satisfied with what you are doing, your perspective on life will be pragmatic, and eventually, you will pave the way to a world of better understanding. Unfortunately, the majority of the students are stuck in a quandary pursuing degrees they dont even relate to either by obligation or to meet up the ostensible standards of society. Nowadays, they are engaged in an infinite loop of online and offline adventures. Just as Estragon and Vladimir wait for Godot to come likewise, students wait for better days. Nevertheless, this continuance will come to a stop sometime someday as Jacques Derrida has truly verbalized that everything is a matter of deconstruction and demands questioning and analysis.

On the whole, my main motive to indite this write up is that we need to be less captious and more considerate. Not everything can be deliberated in terms of philistinism. One must aspire to keep their conscience content to live a blissful life. As Camus says, A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.

One must always imagine Sisyphus Happy.

(The Author has done PG in English Language and Literature from IUST and is currently pursuing B.ED from Kashmir University)

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Education: Handling the student/ Sisyphus Convolution - Rising Kashmir

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Second Thoughts? How the Anti-Government Protests in Canada Affect Americans Who Might Want to Move There – Justia Verdict

Posted: at 10:00 pm

The world is in turmoil, and even our calm and friendly neighbors to the north might no longer be immune to the strains of totalitarian right-wing lawlessness that have infected other countries, most prominently the United States. Is Canadas recent anti-government uprising an indication that there truly are no remaining safe havens from reactionary populist violence and nihilism?

In two recent columns on Verdict (here and here) and a companion column on Dorf on Law (here), I noted that more Americans than ever are considering leaving their country in search of a safer alternative. With large numbers of Republican politicians excusing violence, and with open talk of a civil war, it is understandable that people might think this is the time to move elsewhere.

I noted in those earlier columns that I am unlikely to join this migration, but I did refer to myself as someone for whom this is a viable option. Most people in non-professional jobs, and even the vast majority of those in the professions, simply lack the resources to consider emigrating, while others have children in school or non-transportable economic relationships that essentially require that they stay in the United States, for better or (more likely, unfortunately) worse. The pool of potential emigrants is thus not large as a percentage of the population, but it could still involve enough people to become a very important phenomenon if things continue to spiral downward in the US.

In those earlier columns, I concluded that Canada was a fairly definitive first-best answer to the question: Where to move? But is that answer likely to change, now that the Great White North has seen Trumpish disruptions that could be the harbinger of worse things to come? Although the future is yet to be written, the signs are still good that Canada and some other countries will continue to be relatively safe places for those who increasingly fear living in this country and who might be willing and able to bug out.

Before I address the changed political situation in Canada, there is a related question that I ought to address up front. After my first column was published, one very nice reader contacted me to ask about the legal barriers to moving to Canada. Because my focus in that column was on the where and the why, I had not talked about the how. Even if a person wanted to move to Country X, this reader asked, what is the legal process?

That is an important question, and it was especially pertinent to that particular reader, because he and his husband have actively been investigating a possible move to Canada. They are finding that the process is (unsurprisingly) complicated and expensive, and it is possible that even countries such as Canada that have relatively welcoming societies might nonetheless have laws in place that would rule them out as destinations for Americans who do not meet various entry criteria.

At a fundamental level, however, providing that kind of granular information is simply not what columns like this one are about. That is not my best value-added, as economists would say, because I am not an immigration lawyer. Fortunately, not only are there many good immigration lawyers out there, but the internet exists, and there is a treasure trove of information about the logistics of migration at our fingertips. Among other things, the governments of the countries to which I have referred in these columns all have extremely good official websites (offered in English, even in countries with other official languages).

In my Verdict columns last month, I noted in passing that a surge of Americans trying to move to Canada could quickly overwhelm their immigration system. Even short of that, there is no question that relocating across national borders is a unique challenge in the best of times, and it might not be possible at all.

I also noted, however, that an American who moved to Canada decades ago had sent me an email saying that someone in my situation (a mid-career academic with extensive international experience) would have an easy time meeting the Canadian immigration standards. His word, not mine. Going into any further detail would have turned the column into something far too specific, so I left it at that.

Rather than ignore the logistics entirely, however, it does make sense for me to write a future column in which I analyze the various criteria that countries have set in place to sort among potential entrants into their countries. Even though the focus of my analysis is still on why and whether to move, not how, I will summarize in that future column a few basic facts about Canadas criteria as well as similar key information about the rules for immigrating into a few other plausible destinations, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, and Australia.

Again, however, the purpose of these columns is very much not to provide nuts-and-bolts advice. It is to analyze the growing threats of authoritarian and even fascist takeovers in what are thought of as stable democracies and to compare and contrast recent developments in the constituent nations of what has long been known as the free world.

Several weeks ago, a fringe group of big-rig truck drivers in Canada decided to protest a new rule that required truckers crossing the border into the United States to be fully vaccinated. This was a rule promulgated by the US government, mirroring a Canadian rule (that only applies to non-Canadians driving trucks into Canada), which surely seemed risk-free to the Biden administration, because Canadian truckers cannot vote in the American midterm elections.

The kindest thing one can say about the Canadian protests against the new American rule is that they were an attempt to petition their government to use its influence to convince the United States to change its vaccination laws. There is strong reason to doubt that such a nuanced thought process was ever a part of this outbreak of lawlessness, but even if it might once have been defensible in that way, the on-the-ground reality is a different story entirely.

The protest quickly became an occupation of the central area of the seat of Canadas national government in Ottawa, Ontario. The list of grievances became more and more unhinged, including demands that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau immediately resign or be removed from office.

Notably, the Canadian Teamsters union has been clear that it opposes this action. That is, this is not a truckers versus the government story but a tiny subgroup of truck drivers joining with other anti-government extremists to push a quasi-anarchist agenda. The protesters have been receiving money and lavish amounts of attention from American right-wing media and Republican politicians. It should, given all of that, come as no surprise that some of the protesters have been carrying Confederate battle flags around Ottawa.

Moreover, the protests have gone far beyond the familiar bounds of marching and rallying to seek redress. For weeks, the capital city has been enduring nonstop truck airhorns, diesel fuel-fouled air and noise from revving engines, and other disruptions. The people who live in those areas, many of whom are (because of Canadas welcoming culture) non-White, are being harassed with racist slurs and physical intimidation. And because hatred comes as a packaged deal, there is a great deal of misogyny as well.

What might once have been called peaceful protests have become illegal blockades, not only in one large city but on key border crossings into the US. The supposed defenders of regular guys thus ended up putting auto workers and those in related industries on both sides of the border out of work. But American opportunists like Senator Rand Paul are cheering this on, calling on American truckers to clog cities here in the US.

As we saw in the January 6 insurrection last year, government responses to lawlessness are much gentler when the protesters are White than when the gatherings are mostly others. Even so, Prime Minister Trudeau did finally take action, with the editorial board of The Washington Post praising him and saying that his government is right to proceed with caution to restore order. I am not, of course, saying that Trudeau should have acted rashly, but it does seem that he put up with far worse behavior from White protesters than even Canadians would have tolerated had this been a progressive, multiracial protest.

There is plenty to worry about in this situation, even for those who would never consider moving to Canada. But for those who might have been thinking about it, what has changed, if anything? In my January 20 Verdict column, I referred to the obvious choice for any American who thinks for even a moment about leaving this country: Canada. Is the choice less obvious now?

No, at least not based on what we currently know. One good sign is that, [a]ccording to a poll released Monday, 3 in 4 Canadians are fed up and want an end to the protest. Trudeaus popularity is apparently now sky-high, and the political situation in Canada is still very much opposed to Trumpish tactics and goals.

One of the Canadian scholars whom I have cited as being very worried about the deteriorating situation in the US is Stephen Marche. Is he worried about Canada going in the same direction? Given his clear-eyed pessimism about the degradation of democracy and the threats that right-wing populism pose to stable republics, I was relieved to hear him say the other night that the situation there is not spinning out of control.

Indeed, Marche pointed out that even Canadas conservative politicians are shunning these protesters, saying that the very few conservatives who have sort of flirted with supporting the trucker convoy have all backed away. Canadian conservatives have really kept their integrity and kept their decency, and they do not want disorder for disorders sake. He concludes: Canadian conservatives are opposed to this in a broad sense, and I think that that is something that is very important for our country. (Marche also wrote about this in an article in The Atlantic this past weekend.)

A member of the Canadian comedy troupe Kids in the Hall had a famous quip that a Canadian is like an American, but without a gun. Thus, it should not be surprising that there is a subset of Canadians who are like a subset of Americans in their extreme anti-government views. But the without a gun part of the story is very real, and it is no joke. Canada allows more gun ownership than many other countries do, but their country is not awash in military-grade weapons in the hands of unlicensed and untrained civilians.

Police in Alberta did announce the other day that they had seized a large cache of guns and ammunition from a group that was plotting to use violence in the ever-escalating trucker standoff, so domestic terrorism is a threat there, as it is everywhere.

Still, if one were thinking purely in terms of personal safety, the recent news from Canada would not come close to tipping the balance back toward the United States. And even short of the violent aspect of the recent unrest, knowing that all but the most extreme Canadian politicians are refusing to try to foment and escalate the lawlessness is reason to feel some confidence in Canadas future tranquility.

Again, this column is not a how-to guide to emigration. It is, instead, an observation that the sense of foreboding that many people in this country feel is being mirrored by unfortunate developments in even the most placid foreign countries. As it stands, however, the last few weeks in Canada serve less as a warning of trouble brewing and more as confirmation that their inclusive political system and welcoming society continue to be quite inhospitable to the kinds of tear-it-all-down extremism that have become sadly mainstream in Americas Republican Party.

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Second Thoughts? How the Anti-Government Protests in Canada Affect Americans Who Might Want to Move There - Justia Verdict

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FilmWatch Weekly: ‘Out of the Blue’ and ‘Strawberry Mansion’ – Oregon ArtsWatch

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Plenty of movies capture the punk rock attitude and aesthetic as it exploded in the late 1970s and early 80s: Repo Man, D.O.A., The Great Rock & Roll Swindle, The Decline of Western Civilization, even Sid and Nancy. But perhaps no movie captures the nihilistic pull of punk in the shadow of the 60s countercultures collapse than Dennis Hoppers nearly lost Out of the Blue, which opens in a gloriously restored edition at the Hollywood Theatre this weekend.

Hopper, who rocketed to directorial prominence with 1969s Easy Rider, was just as suddenly cast into the wilderness after the debacle of his followup, 1971s The Last Movie. Nearly a decade later, he was cast in Out of the Blue as Don, the father to the films teenaged protagonist, CeBe, played by Linda Manz. The story goes that, a couple of weeks into production, Hopper took over the directing chores, rewrote the screenplay, and ended up producing a stunningly potent drama that doesnt come by its nihilism cheaply.

Truth be told, there are two geniuses to thank for Out of the Blue, and Manz is the other. From her screen debut in Terence Malicks Days of Heaven, Manz exuded a unique, genuine combination of spunk and vulnerability. Her CeBe is a paradigm of lost youth, worshipping Elvis and the Sex Pistols in equal measure while pining for her pop, whos in prison after drunkenly driving his semi into a school bus full of children. Left in the care of her drug-addicted mother (Sharon Farrell), CeBe runs away to join the punk scene in Vancouver, B.C. Theres a fantastic sequence, in which she attends a show by a band called Pointed Sticks and gets to sit in for the drummer briefly, that captures the thrill of collective rebellion and unfettered expression beautifully.

Alas, CeBes escape is only temporary, and shortly after shes returned home, Don is paroled. (Six years for multiple vehicular homicide seems light, but this is Canada) He gets a job at the local garbage dump, and theres the barest hint of redemption in the air. But Don is, it turns out, irredeemable. His coming-home party devolves into drunken, rage-filled mayhem. CeBe, who has preserved an image of her father in her mind all these years, finally comes face to face with his true, despicable nature.

The movie gets its title from Neil Youngs My My Hey Hey, which reprises repeatedly throughout and seems to have inspired the character of CeBe. (The king is gone but hes not forgotten; this is the story of Johnny Rotten.) And, as Young sings, the only way out of the blue is into the black, so thats the path CeBe takes. If Hopper thought that Out of the Blue was his chance at a directorial comeback, he certainly didnt compromise in order to make it more commercial.

Out of the Blue premiered at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, but despite good reviews from Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby, it didnt get a (token) U.S. release until a couple years later. It then basically vanished, although Sean Penn liked it enough to hire Hopper to direct Colors, the film that did jumpstart his filmmaking career, later in the decade. This new 4k digital restoration, presented by indie stalwarts Natasha Lyonne and Chloe Sevigny, looks amazing, especially considering the movies minimal budget.

Hopper was always unfairly tagged as a sort of hippie auteur, but what made him and his work so complicated was his appreciation for the dark side of the counterculture. With Out of the Blue, he holds an unflattering mirror to the disillusionment and psychic hangover of the post-Vietnam years, a mirror that reflects both its specific time and a universal, generational rage. (Opens Friday, Feb. 18, at the Hollywood Theatre.)

Strawberry Mansion: The character actor Kentucker Audley has maintained a thriving parallel career as a director of no-budget films, and this, his latest, is his most ambitious. Its set in the year 2035, and centers on James Preble (Audley), an ordinary tax auditor. Ordinary, that is, except for the fact that what he audits are dreamsin this future, were all taxed on any products that appear in our dreams. He arrives at the home of an elderly, eccentric artist (Penny Fuller), who hasnt paid her taxes in years. To audit her dreams, which are preserved on thousands of VHS tapes, he must watch them all using a sort of deep-sea-diver helmet contraption.

Wait, it gets weirder. As Preble investigates the womans dreams, he finds himself drawn to the younger version of her (Grace Glowicki) he meets there. He also comes across a devilish, capitalistic conspiracy designed to bring advertising into our subconscious minds. Theres also a saxophone-playing waiter with the head of a frog, sailors with rat heads, and a lot of fried chicken. In other words, its a gloriously weird cult classic in the making.

Strawberry Mansion, which Audley co-wrote and co-directed with Albert Birney (who plays Frog Waiter), is a masterpiece of inexpensive ingenuity, using handmade practical effects and convincing, lo-fi digital work to conjure a vision thats somewhere between Michel Gondry and David Lynch. And the message at its core is one that a filmmaker such as Audley can surely appreciate: never let the people with money tell you what to dream. (Opens Friday, Feb. 18, at the Living Room Theatres. Many of Audleys previous films are available to stream through Amazon Prime.)

Breaking Bread: The latest culinary documentary to come down the pike combines mouth-watering foodie fare with a positive political message. It follows Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, the first Arab winner of Isreals Master Chef, who starts a festival where Arab and Israeli chefs collaborate on dishes that honor their respective traditions. Maybe resolving this regions age-old problems involves more than just not being hangry, but its a good place to start. (Opens Friday, Feb. 18, at the Living Room Theaters)

TAG! Queer Short Festival: The 2022 edition of this fest is streaming-only, but is presented by the Hollywood Theatre. It features dozens of short films from around the globe, exclusively directed by queer and trans folk. The movies are organized into six themed blocks, one of which will debut online each day between Feb. 21 and Feb. 26. Purchasing a ticket to a given block will allow access through March 6. For more information, go here.

Marc Mohan moved to Portland from Wisconsin in 1991, and has been exploring and contributing to the citys film culture almost ever since. As the former manager of the landmark independent video store Trilogy, and later the owner of Portlands first DVD-only rental spot, Video Vrit, he immersed himself in the cinematic education that led to his position as a freelance film critic forThe Oregonianfor nearly twenty years. Once it became apparent that newspaper film critic was no longer a sustainable career option, Mohan pursued a new path, enrolling in the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in the fall of 2017. He cant quite seem to break the habit, though, of loving and writing about movies.

Daily Archives: February 19, 2022

Centre-State Relations: Has The Concurrent List Outlived Its Utility? – Outlook India

How Regional Parties Are Becoming The Voice Of Small Communities – Outlook India

Government accused of dragging its feet on ethnicity pay gap – The London Economic

Redistricting commissioners close in on a deal – Politico

People News: UFI, VISIT DENVER, Association Forum and More Select New Leaders, Expand Teams – TSNN Trade Show News

Curious Kids: Could we change other planets in the solar system so we could live on them? – The Indian Express

‘Attack on Titan’ Echoes ‘Game of Thrones’ Death Rattle – Vulture

Education: Handling the student/ Sisyphus Convolution – Rising Kashmir

Second Thoughts? How the Anti-Government Protests in Canada Affect Americans Who Might Want to Move There – Justia Verdict

FilmWatch Weekly: ‘Out of the Blue’ and ‘Strawberry Mansion’ – Oregon ArtsWatch

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