Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

The most insidious tactic of COVID-19 is to get a persons body to attack itself. In the worst cases, the bodys autoimmune system essentially goes haywire as it tries to fight off infection. Thiscytokine stormcan lead to serious inflammation in the lungs and ultimately to major organ failure.

COVID-19 seems to have had a similar effect on the international system. Instead of working together, the global community started to attack itself. The mechanisms designed to facilitate international cooperation borders, trade began to work against this cooperation. In the worst cases, countries began to fight over the very medical supplies that, shared equitably,could save the largest number of people.

This geopolitical cytokine storm will have long-lasting consequences. One of its casualties may ultimately be the European Union.

In an ideal world, the outbreak of COVID-19 in China would have precipitated a uniform international response. Every country would have implemented the same protocols the World Health Organization developedafter the SARS epidemic, and a global team of experts would have helped China contain the crisis. Then perhaps the world could have dodged the latest pandemic threat and avoided going into the current health and economic tailspin. Absent a coordinated global response, different regions of the world could still have banded together to fight the infectious disease.

In Asia, each country approached the challenge its own way, virtually all of them better than the US response. Taiwan, despite its proximity to mainland China, haskept the number of infectionsin the triple digits. South Korea has deployed a sophisticated technological response to flatten the curve after an initial outbreak.

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What Asian countries didnt do, however, was pull together as a region. Even putative allies Japan and South Korea took the opportunity to amplify their longstanding feud by trading accusations and imposing mutual travel restrictions. Only recently have China, Japan and South Koreabegun to coordinatetheir pandemic response.

Latin America, riven by numerous ideological splits, has hadwildly divergent responsesto COVID-19, from the denialism of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua to a strict quarantine in Peru. Having beaten back several outbreaks of Ebola, African countries have shown a bit more of a cooperative spirit, thanks to institutions like theRegional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement project.

Given Donald Trumps erratic behavior during this crisis, forget about a coordinated North American strategy. In fact, there hasnt even been a coordinated US strategy coming out of Washington. Europe should have been different. For decades, the European Union has built up institutional cooperation across economy, politics and culture. Surely, it would take on an external threat like the coronavirus in a unified manner. It didnt.

Italy was the first hotspot to emerge in the European Union. Within a few days of its first reported case of infection in Lombardy on February 20, COVID-19 was putting an enormous strain on the hospitals of northern Italy. The EUs response was largely bureaucratic more consultations. When it came to concrete assistance, the EU had little to offer Italy.

On March 10, only a couple weeks after the appearance of its first case, Italys permanent representative to the European Union, Maurizio Massari,wrotein no uncertain terms inPolitico: Italy has already asked to activate the European Union Mechanism of Civil Protection for the supply of medical equipment for individual protection. But, unfortunately, not a single EU country responded to the Commissions call. Only China responded bilaterally. Certainly, this is not a good sign of European solidarity.

Worse, a number of European countries like France and Germanyactually imposed export limitson critical medical supplies for fear that they would need them in the coming days. The eventual intervention of the European Commission to impose region-wide export restrictions in exchange for EU members rescinding their national bans might have alleviated some shortages within the bloc butat the expenseof poorer countries outside of it. In early April, Italy is stillnowhere near securing the 90 million masksit needs.

For many Italians, the failure of European solidarity was nothing new.Writes Luigi Scazzeriat the Centre for European Reform:

Over the past decade, Italy has gone from being one of the most enthusiastic supporters of greater European integration to one of the most eurosceptic member-states. Many Italians felt that Italy did not receive much European solidarity during the eurozone crisis, and that the Union served as an enforcer of damaging austerity policies. The damage to Italians view of the EU was then compounded by the blocs response to the migration crisis. Italy took in 650,000 migrants between 2014 and 2018, and efforts to distribute these among other EU countries were largely symbolic.

Okay, so the EU screwed up its response to COVID-19. It certainly isnt alone in misjudging the extent of the crisis and failing to act in the best interests of all. It now has a second chance to make good as a bloc in addressing the economic crisis developing in the wake of COVID-19. Yet it seems on the verge of repeating an earlier set of mistakes.

When Europe was in the depths of its sovereign debt crisis a decade ago, some countries called for eurobonds. This common debt instrument, floated by the eurozone as a whole, could have provided access to cheaper credit for all members, but especially those hardest hit by the financial crisis. The most indebted nations like Greece and Italy supported the idea. The Germans and the Dutch, worried about subsidizing what they considered bad economic behavior, nixed the idea.

Virtually the same argument has reemerged today as eurobonds have become corona bonds, with the same countries in favor and the same countries against. Infuriated at the opposition to such corona bonds, Bloomberg reported, some Italian politicianspaid for a full-page adin a German newspaper accusing the Dutch of a lack of ethics and solidarity, and unsubtly reminding the Germans of the solidarity Europe showed them after [World War II], when Germanys debts were forgiven or restructured at a conference in 1953.

The EU has taken some dramatic measures in response to the economic shock of the shutdowns. It has relaxed the rules on government spending to permit large-scale stimulus packages. The European Central Bank has made$820 billion availableto buy up European bonds, which will reduce the cost of borrowing for the worst hit countries. The Eurozone has its European Stability Mechanism, designed to help countries in trouble with 400 billion ($438 billion) at its disposal. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen alsoannounced last weekthat the EU will allocate up to 100 billion euros ($110 billion) to the hardest hit countries, starting from Italy, to compensate for the reduction in the wages of those working on shorter hours.

There are other proposals including aEurope-wide stimulus package, which would come on top of the bailouts that each of the national governments has enacted, and aEuropean Guarantee Fundthat could reach 200 billion. Thats a lot of money available to members of the club. Perhaps its enough money to buy er, guarantee the loyalty of even the most euroskeptical.

So, why are Italy, Spain and other countries still pushing for corona bonds? They want debt mutualized i.e., shared rather than dumped on the shoulders of the most adversely affected. And theyre worried that the other deals come with strings attached that will resemble what was required of them during the last financial crisis. What the Germans and Dutch prefer, which would indeed include some conditionality, might seem to make economic sense. But it also might deepen the fissures already present in the EU and push the eurozone, if not the larger bloc, to breaking point.

Before the coronavirus struck, it looked as if Europe was spinning off in many different directions. The United Kingdom was on its way out. Hungary and several other East European countries were heading in a distinctly authoritarian direction. Italy was flirting with right-wing populism. On the economic front, Germany remained a powerhouse, Greece had not made up for all the ground it lost in the 2009 crisis, and the countries of Eastern Europe had not yet closed the gap with the Western half of the continent.

The far right, which was gaining strength in the European Parliament, had decided not to follow the example of Brexit but instead work within the system to transform the EU. The coronavirus could very well be their best ally in this struggle to devolve power from Brussels to the individual member states.

First came the reimposition of national border checkpoints within the Schengen Area, with Germany the last tofollow suiton March 16. Ten days later, Europe was supposed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Schengens abolition of border controls. Instead, there arenew gates and road barrierswhere not long before travelers could pass between countries without even knowing it. Its not clear when these intra-European travel restrictions will be lifted.

Then came the more restrictive policies toward migrants still desperate to get into Europe. On March 17, the EU closed its borders to non-nationals. Greece hadalready sent troopsto its border with Turkey to stop refugees from crossing over by land. But people are still attempting to reach Europe by sea. Of the800 who left Libyain March, 43 made it to Italy and 155 landed in Malta. The Libyan coast guard gathered up the rest and returned them to Libya. Now that the first cases of infection areappearing in refugee campsin Greece, the containment efforts are turning inward.

By contrast, Portugalhas boldly givenall migrants and asylum-seekers full citizenship rights on a temporary basis so that they can access health care during the pandemic.

Throughout Europe, national policies are trumping region-wide rules and regulations. The most extreme case is Hungary, where Viktor Orban has declared a state of emergency that gives himnearly unlimited powerfor an unknown period of time. Other states like Spain and the UK have declared states of emergency but without comparable flouting of the rule of law. And some countries, like Romania, Estonia and Latvia, haveinvoked Article 15of the European Convention on Human Rights that permits states of emergency in times of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation.

Hungarys authoritarianism, Portugals generosity, Italys call for solidarity, Germanys tightfistedness: European responses to the current crisis are literally all over the map. This does not bode well for the future of the European Union. As Nathalie Tocci, a former adviser to the EU foreign policy chief,toldThe Guardian: This is definitely a make-it-or-break-it moment for the European project. If it goes badly this really risks being the end of the union. It fuels all the nationalist-populism.

Right now, Europe is in the midst of a cytokine storm. The doctors are hooking the patient up to the ventilators of economic bailout. Its uncertain whether this strategy will save the patient or just prolong the agony. For sure, however, if the EU survives its intubation, it will emerge on the other side a different, and possibly much weaker, survivor.

*[This article was originally published by Foreign Policy in Focus.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

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Will the EU Survive the Coronavirus? - Fair Observer

Nearly seventy-fiveyears ago in August 1945, at least 150,000 people may have been killed in Hiroshima when the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Although another 75,000 were killed in Nagasaki when the second atomic bomb was dropped there just days later, it should be remembered that another 120,000 people survived the two blasts.

Among them was Tsutomu Yamaguchi, whosurvived both atomic bombs. He was thus both the unluckiest and luckiest man to survive the Second World War.

Consider it a case of being in the wrong place at the worst possible time twice!

On August 6, 1945, Tsutomu was working on a 5,000-ton oil tanker for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and here is where his unique mix of bad luck turned out to be good luck. He had been on the job for three months but on that sunny summer day had forgotten his "inkan," a personal stamp for use on documents. Instead of boarding a bus or streetcar (reports vary) to go to work, he returned to his rented room to retrieve it.

As he walked along the road he witnessed an American B-29 overhead. That plane was the Enola Gay, and it dropped the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy."

According to his accounts, Tsutomu was less than two miles away from ground zero and while some accounts say he saw a flash of light, it is generally agreed that his navy air-raid training kicked in and he dove into an irrigation ditch, covered his eyes and plugged his ears.

The blast was powerful enough to send him flying several feet through the air, and when he opened his eyes he saw only blackness. He wasn't blinded from the flash, but rather it kicked up an enormous cloud of dust. As the sky cleared he saw the infamous "mushroom cloud" over the city.

Tens of thousands were dead, but Tsutomu lived. His arms and face were badly burned and his eardrums were ruptured.

With the city in ruins, Tsutomu spent a fitful night in a shelter, before heading to the train station, which had been located on the edge of the city and survived. He was able to then take a several-hour journey to his home to reunite with his wife and young children. His hometown was Nagasaki.

When he reached his house his wife and young daughter didn't recognize him at first as he had been so badly burned.

On August 9, just a day after making it to Nagasaki and three days after the first atomic bomb had been dropped, Tsutomu reported to work to inform his superiors at Mitsubishi on what he had seen. When he told of the massive weapona single bomb that could wipe out an entire citythey didn't believe him.

But then during that meeting, the sky was once again lit up with a brightness that rivaled the sun. The building was destroyed, and another Japanese city was instantly raised to the ground. The B-29 Bockscar had dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb, killing some 35,000 to 40,000 people outright while at least 75,000 would die in total including from long-term health effects.

However, Tsutomu wasn't among them. In just three days he survived two atomic bomb blasts. Fortunately for Tsutomu, his family also survived, and Japan surrendered six days later.

While heslowly recovered from his wounds and was deaf in one ear, he lived until the age of ninety-three. He passed away peacefully in the city of his birth, Nagasaki. In the years between the bombings and his death he worked for American occupation forces, became a teacher and even returned to work at Mitsubishi.

He became a vocal supporter of nuclear disarmament, and at the age of ninetypleaded for the abolition of nuclear weapons to the UN.

According to reports there may have been as many 165 twice-bombed peopleknown as "nijyuu hibakusha"but Tsutomu is the only one to be officially acknowledged. He may have been among the

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and website. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Wikipedia.

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The Man Who Survived the Atomic Bombings of BOTH Hiroshima and Nagasaki - The National Interest

The coronavirus has spread to 184 countries, according to Johns Hopkins University, but while the COVID-19 virus is something nearly every country in the world shares, national responses to the pandemic have had wildly disparate outcomes. Comparing these responses suggest best-path approaches for suppressing the spread of the virus, while simultaneously highlighting systemic weaknesses on both the national and international level. But while nation-states are composed of overlapping economies, social institutions and bureaucracies, they also embody a national identity, made of its collective people and their thoughts.

Without recognition in the international ordersometimes without even geographical territorythe world's micronations are made almost entirely of this intangible spirit. Their response to the coronavirus pandemic can't be waged with medical resources, PPE supply lines and police-enforced social distancing. Instead, they have each other, and the identity they've built collectively. Through diplomatic channels (email), we reached out to micronations founded in the United States, to see how they're weathering the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and to hear what good tidings they bring to the people of the country that surrounds them.

Each had their own purpose behind founding their own country, and they weren't always what you might expect. While often the creations of eccentrics who have built for themselves a fantastic excuse for colorful costumes and elaborate titles, micronations aren't just for individualists and property-rights political gadflies, demonstrating instead a thoughtful and international inclination.

With territorial holdings within the states of California and Nevada, the 11-acre Republic of Molossia has its own currency (the Valora, which is valued against the price of chocolate chip cookie dough), postal service, national parks, volcanological institute, connection to Arthurian legend, national musical instrument (the kazoo-like molossaphone), rockets program and railroad.

President Kevin Baugh has been the leader of Molossia since 1999, except for a few days in 2010 when the country was overthrown and renamed Kickassia (Baugh subverted the short-lived dictatorship in his disguise as advisor Baron Fritz von Baugh). While embodying a light spirit and a certain brand of political satire, Molossia nurtures a surprisingly robust civic life and emulatesin miniaturemany of the functions of the modern state, with outreach via an online radio show, newsletter and state visits with fellow micronations.

Molossia does, however, rely on the larger surrounding nation for health care and other resources, paid back in "foreign aid," i.e. taxes"They need it - have you seen their roads?" a Molossian government website says. As in the surrounding United States, Molossians are adhering to standard practices in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Currently most resident Molossians are on a form of lockdown, with only a couple traveling to their place of employment outside our nation to work. Thus far we have not had any Molossians fall victim to the virus, which is excellent news and shows that our basic plan of lockdown and social distancing is working." President Kevin Baugh of the Republic of Molossia told Newsweek. "Hopefully it stays that way, not just for us here in Molossia, but over the border in the U.S. and all over the world."

Azul from Talossa!

The Greater Talossan Area roughly overlaps with the East Side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the Kingdom itselffounded in 1979, when 14-year-old Robert Ben Madison, first in a line of elected kings and queens, declared his bedroom a sovereign stateis one of the earliest and most successful examples of a primarily online micronation, with more than a hundred active citizens around the world. Since 1995, Talossa has developed an elaborate government and culture, with a two-chamber legislature, cabinet ministers, political parties and its idiosyncratic invented language.

"We are like any other micronation out there in that what we do is very tongue-in-cheek and gives our participants a chance to make a difference in a unique societal framework," Talossian Jeffrey Ragsdale told Newsweek.

According to Talossan Prime Minister Daphne Lawless, Talossans haven't had an in-person meet up for several months, ensuring that "community transmission of COVID-19 in Talossa is zero."

"Talossans are pioneers at social distancing," Prime Minister Daphne Lawless told Newsweek, citing the exclusively online nature of their government and civic life. "For our Big Neighbour, the United States of America, I wish nothing but the best of health and welfare."

The Prime Minister ended our email correspondence with a Talossan proverb: "Voastra soleu ispu da srvivon, c' despasar acest malignh crisomileu din la Cas Bianc."

Using their online lexicon, their proverb translates loosely to, "Your only hope for survival is to get rid of that orange goblin in the White House."

"I come before you in a time of great uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic, now upon us, has touched every continent in the world, except for Antarctica," Grand Duke Travis McHenry said in a video address to the citizens of Westarctica, the micronation he founded in 2001. "However, this does not mean we are not affected, for Westarctica is a global community, with citizens in every corner of the Earth."

Westarctica claims as its sovereign territory a 620,000 square mile slice of West Antarctica called Marie Byrd Land (named for the wife of Antarctic explorer Richard Byrd), which is still considered by most nations to be the largest unclaimed territory on the planet.

Its leader sporting a uniform somewhere in the nebulous zone between Napoleonic and tinpot dictator, Westarctica emphasizes martial valor, heraldry and pomp, but aims it all at service-driven ends, particularly combating climate change. Citing its self-interest as an Antarctic country (if so far uninhabited), Westarctica pursues environmental causes via a scholarship grant, initiatives encouraging reduced meat consumption and the Westarctican Civilian Corps, which structures on-the-ground ecological work with military-style honors and awards. By creating their nation in Antarctica and a flag to rally around, Westarctica sees itself as providing a voice for a fragile ecosystem and bringing attention to the state of the Western Antarctic ice sheet.

As for their response to coronavirus, Grand Duke Travis suggested his citizens follow the recommendations of local health services, while emphasizing Westarctica's service-oriented national character.

"Our Foreign Minister, based in Germany, has been activated by the German military to assist with medical operations," Grand Duke Travis told Newsweek. "Aside from a bit of fatigue from the long hours, he's in good spirits."

Westarctica has also appointed the head of their national orchestra, Jon Langer, to the position of Kapellmeister, who will now have the duty of creating Westarctican music for the enjoyment of those sheltering in place.

While COVID-19 has yet to spread to Antarctica and no Westarctican yet lives on the southernmost continent, Grand Duke Travis expressed hope that "scientists at research stations across the continent are taking proper precautions."

The unusual nature of The Ambulatory Free States of Obsidia have made coronavirus precautions a cinch for the microstate. The nation's founder, Grand Marshal Caro Yagjian, took concrete steps against the pandemic, closing "the national briefcase" days before U.S. states began instituting shelter in place ordersthe landmass comprising The Ambulatory Free States of Obsidia consists of a medium-sized volcanic rock, broken into two chunks. Weighing about the size of a large pineapple, the transportable nation is sometimes displayed alongside a sign that reads, "Please feel free to touch country."

"Obsidia sees the U.S. federal response as a complete disaster," Grand Marshal Yagjian told Newsweek. "It is truly a failure of the American system in every way."

Her nation is calling for the United States to provide healthcare, hazard pay, PTO and sick leave for all frontline workers, including agricultural workers and those working at grocery stores and other ongoing food services.

"In times like this micronation activities can feel frivolous," Grand Marshal Yagjian said. "Many of our members are affected by job losses or having to put themselves at risk because they work the low-paying jobs that were not deemed essential until a few weeks ago."

While bordered on all sides by Oakland, California, the Ambulatory Free States were formed as a matriarchal "anti-state," Obsidia models LGBTQ and feminist-led alternatives to capitalism by promoting self-expression in pursuit of new concepts for ideal governance. An artistic collective in spirit, Obsidia citizens have made their own responses to coronavirus, including this guide to sewing your own face mask"

"My only hope is that we will come out of this with an energy that says working people will not tolerate abuse any longer," Grand Marshal Yagjian said. "Our embassy is closed, but our spirit of mutual aid and strength remain the same."

"The whole Zaqistan thing is not necessarily to talk to you here and pretend it's a 100 percent functioning country," New York artist and Republic of Zaqistan founder Zaq Landsberg told Newsweek. "It's a tool to make people question what is a 'real' country."

The Republic of Zaqistan is one of Landsberg's many large-scale creations, which often present as playfully interactive while subtly (or not-so-subtly, as with the NYPD mobile surveillance tower Landsberg transformed into a menacing spider) highlighting internationalist struggles or critiquing American militarism. Zaqistan is populated by robot sentinels, who stand guard over the Victory Arch, a monument to an unspecified victory ("When it happens, we'll have it ready," Landsberg said).

Landsberg created Zaqistan to explore how national sovereignty, and particularly diplomatic recognition, can be used as a tool to delegitimize people and populations. While initially inspired by how the sovereign status of Taiwan has been systematically delegitimizedincluding by the United Nationsthe creation of Zaqistan raised questions about his own relationship with the United States. Landsberg recalled a sense of shame hanging over his first visit to the land that would become a new micronation, which coincided with the George W. Bush administration's failure to adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina.

"Who decides what American is? If American stuff is happening and we don't agree with it, can we go someplace else? Can we disavow that?" Landsberg said. "Can I create my own country and my own identity?

In some ways, an uninhabitable micronation out in the desert, surrounded by the United States, highlights the absurdity of believing it's possible to fully separate our identities from our national origins"If you and I are born in America, everything we write and do is going to be American," Landsberg said.

But Landsberg came to believe it was possible to consciously transform a national identity, with Zaqistan as a model in miniature of how this process of self-conceiving operates. As he issued Zaqistan passports to a widening circle of friends and traveling companions, Landsberg found surprising power in the assertion of a joint sovereignty independent from modern nation-states. While in India, Landsberg extended Zaqistani citizenship to stateless Tibetan exile friends, who found their new citizenship in the micronation darkly hilarious.

"They travel on Indian residency cards. Literally to this day, Zaqistanwhich is kind of a joke countryis the only country they hold citizenship too," Landsberg said. "That change did it for me, because at first it was a tongue-in-cheek thing, but that made it turn. There was an actual thing that affected their lives, that was a little hard to describe or even for Americans to think about, because there aren't many stateless people in the United States."

Together, they were creating Zaqistani art, "joke or not," and collectively building a Zaqistani worldview. This same worldview informed Landsberg's response to the coronavirus pandemic, who largely dismissed the status of his micronation and instead explored how concepts of nationalism, both micro- and macro- could either become a great strength or a great impediment to how humanity weathers the COVID-19 virus.

"Zaqistan is in the middle of the Utah desert and there's a couple of robot sentinels out there," Landsberg told Newsweek. "In that sense the virus doesn't affect the land, but there are hundreds of Zaqistani citizens throughout the world and I worry about how they are."

Landsberg pointed out how national identity can play a surprising role in how effectively we as a country can combat the virus. For example, undocumented immigrants are more at risk for having less access to healthcare and employment opportunities, but the decision to keep them in this relegated status endangers everyonea problem created by our conception of national identity.

"The virus doesn't discriminate, it just attacks human hosts," Landsberg said. "When it's 'my country or yours' it can make both countries sicker in the long run."

Just as advocates for policies like Medicare for All have held up the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as evidence of the need for universal healthcare that won't endanger or bankrupt the millions of American workers freshly unemployed and without insurance, Landsberg sees in COVID-19 the failures of nationalism and the potential benefits in constructing more fruitful and open identities.

"These are problems of nationality and countries working together," Landsberg said. "Not even in a kumbaya sense, but how as humans we need to figure this problem out. The more we work together, the better it's going to be for everybody. Sectioning and dividing ourselves off could potentially make things worse."

Rather than the abolition of nationalist affiliations, Landsberg sees in micronations the potential for people to self-select identities that can bring them together. While nations in their composition, micronations lack a monopoly on force, making them voluntary associations capable of embodying a collective will. Rather than throwing out national identity, in the micronation model we can see the possibility of improving and better coordinating separate collectives, an activity which has become surprisingly literal in our atomized, shelter-in-place isolation.

"What if everybody starts coming up with a flag and ruling from their quarantine zone and their little identities?" Landsberg asked.

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Micronations in the United States Prepare for Coronavirus, Send Messages of Goodwill to the American People - Newsweek

Actress Janina Melehova with daughter Anna-Maria in the mode of self-isolation since March 16. From the day when was signed the decree that closed the theatres cancelled performances, stop a shooting. At the same time announced that the gathering of more than 50 people is impossible.

this was announced some 15 hours, and within minutes, my body workaholic took a break. Im sick. And it is strong, with a high temperature. So in isolation I didnt do baby, as she me.

Seven-year-old daughter of actress Anna Maria grows very sympathetic and caring girl. Seeing mom exhausted, she nearly cried, but quickly pulled myself together. According to the memoirs of Janina, she doesnt remember her body so much had gone wrong.

. I couldnt get out: we needed something to feed the baby. Hardly understand how I ever will. Annie saw me in this state said, mom, dont worry, Ill prepare myself. And left. From the kitchen came the sound of the cartoon and the thunder of dishes. Well, let plays I thought. Like 15 minutes later she came to me with the shapers, which was covered with the dough. In her hands there were two kinds of cupcakes with sea-buckthorn jam and chocolate. However, she still apologized when the jam broke in the test. And came to me not for help, and for permission to go to neighbor our friend to put the cupcakes in the oven. We have no oven. The dessert was very tasty. Asked: how you did that. What Annie was surprised, and said, Well, what of it? Took flour, milk, sugar, mixed to the consistency of liquid sour cream, I went and baked. Since then, the baking of the cupcakes was for my daughters most favorite pastime in quarantine.

the Cold Melekhova not passed and she passed the test coronavirus. Fortunately, he turned out to be negative and the whole family gasped. Then the actress with a calm soul had sent our daughter to a country house to his parents. Itself completely isolated themselves from them so as not to infect. With his girka continues his studies, deals on-line, playing in the yard in the fresh air. And seeing as my mother is sick and worried about the abolition of work, Anna began to do for her so-called antistress or dampers.

Take balloons and fill them with sand, pebbles, beads. While I can see it all on video calls, but I feel that when we meet, I will stress for the year ahead laughed Janina.

the Famous designer Mila Marcel wished everyone good health, warmth and love. She firmly believes that we need to be together for some time in their homes and apartments, where you can always find something to their liking, and thus help it to stop this process.

During the quarantine, we of children and adults turned into a full family of seven people: three children Anna, Sasha and Masha, and four adults: me, husband, my mom and our helper says Mila. A large family required strict rules. First, we live on the regular schedule and not on vacation. The children get up at 8 in the morning, brush my teeth, eat Breakfast and sit down for lessons. My husband has also organized a working day mode, to remotely run and dont turn into pajama animals. Second, a strict rule: in order to avoid panic at the family table are not discussing any topics related to the coronavirus. My husband and I read only the official press, the orders relating to the work and also with the forecasts in the business.

In school, son Sasha, canceled even deleted lessons, so my parents had to educate ourselves. Mom found a lot of interesting activities online, which makes now not only the son, but the eldest daughter, and the younger one tries to join.

We all love to cook, but it was so busy that doing it once. Now found and remembered lots of interesting recipes that everyone likes, and cook them together. For example, the children kneaded the dough, cut circles with glass, adult thingsUte meat. Of course, all help each other. Then sculpt the whole family dumplings. Its very common. I try to introduce low-calorie recipes in food for the whole family. For example, Mary loves cows milk as I know how in adulthood, it is poorly absorbed by the body, translating it into almond and coconut. Wheat flour for the dumplings model on a buckwheat and almond.

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The star told how not to become a pajama animals - The KXAN 36 News

Raise your hand if you expected The Orb to put out a kaleidoscopic set of music released under the banner of radical anti-monarchism. Because I dont think it was many of us, to be honest. Thats not an unwarranted surprise, either; for most, The Orb brings to mind the radical expansion of house music in the 90s that came in parallel to the first big push of IDM, exploring the headiness of danceable grooves and ambient chill-outs the same way that major IDM figures like Aphex Twin, Autechre and more were mapping the contorted mind that lingers somewhere between cocaine use and the autistic mind (speaking from experience there). Records like The Orbs Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and U.F.Orb are still considered high water marks of the genre, blending breakbeat, minimal techno, and heady dub into the worlds of house music and dub. What came after was no less compelling even if it did seem to penetrate other spaces less; they even released a collaborative space prog record called Metallic Spheres with David Gilmour as well as a full dub album called The Orbserver in the Star House with Lee Scratch Perry.

On paper, that should have acted perhaps as preparation for the vast range the group displays on Abolition of the Royal Familia, but its still hard not to be pleasantly surprised when the revamped 90s lounge techno-pop vibes dissolve into straight-up jazz before evolving by the records end into relaxed and euphoric dub. The sequencing helps here; the group has released rangey LPs before, but part of what would hold them back was a sense of each track being self-contained, not always creating that album-flow level of connective tissue that makes a full LP set compelling beyond just how much you like the individual songs. Abolition is paced phenomenally, each track feeling like a discrete development on the previous before seeding in new moods and emotional spaces for the next track to dive into.

The album peak is late-record epic The Weekend It Rained Forever, a beautiful and moving programmatic piece that seems to follow a descent into loneliness and isolation, but played as a positivist moment, one where the illusory shells and masks of the world fall away and we bear witness to the bare soul, radiant and unadorned. The restrained piano and guitars kissed with warm cavernous reverb against the sounds of rain and collected samples of thunder and news broadcasts feels at first like heartbreak, the way adulthood sees friend groups and time with loved ones winnowing away toward the abyssal years of senescence, before late in the piece strains of jazz break through like beams of light through storm clouds, offering some inward solace in the midst of isolation and pain. I cant deny that present conditions make that especially powerful, render me remarkably susceptible to those notions where maybe before they would have struck me as too on-the-nose with their cinematic conceit to really work. The Orb recorded this before COVID-19, of course, and couldnt have known the conditions under which this work was going to enter the world, but it feels eerily and necessarily prescient in a manner that benefits rather than robs the work.

Ill admit that this record has been a buoy of comfort for me in the past week. To get briefly autobiographical, I have a recurring lung issue that generates a lot of the symptoms of COVID but at functionally none of the risk; it once drove me to the emergency clinic on the verge of not being able to breathe only to learn it was functionally just severe allergy-induced asthma. Present conditions render that ailment a nightmare, an obscuring cloud over symptoms indicative of a killing plague. On top of that, I lost my job in the past week due to industry contractions from COVID, this coming after two weeks of me prodding at what our long-term plans and protocols were to no response. The entire atmosphere felt suffocating and defeating and honestly it has been near impossible to write, everything feeling useless and myself in particular feeling powerless and without value.

But I would put on this record to review my notes and soon I would find myself leaning back in my chair, staring up at the ceiling, not even trying to write but just absorbing it. Letting it make me cry. Feeling comforted and swaddled. That, I think, is the truer testament to this record; it will be seared in my brain as an album from times of plague, one that feels bloodily enjoined with them in the way that post-9/11 music did once or, for the British, art about the Falklands War. This is ultimately what ambient music is best at, these inward tunnelings, breaking down the emotional, rational barriers we place on ourselves to better navigate the world and instead opening us up to experience without judgment the stray fish that swim within us, lifting them up by the tails and naming them. The Orb have spent three decades and worked with absolute masters of the worlds of electronica, post-punk, prog, space rock, and dub; its no wonder they are so accomplished at this by now.

Label: Cooking VinylYear: 2020

Similar Albums:Aphex Twin CollapseDJ Koze Knock KnockUnderworld Drift Series 1

Apr 6, 2020Jeff Terich

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The Orb : Abolition of the Royal Familia - Treble

Contrary to popular opinion, slavery did not end with abolition in the 19th century. The practice still continues today in one form or another in every country in the world. It is easy to assume that slavery only exists today within war-torn, impoverished countries, but that could not be further from the truth.

The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed annually on the 2nd of December to focus on the elimination of human trafficking, child labour and other forms of modern-day slavery. Slavery has evolved and manifested itself in different guises in the modern world. The UN human rights bodies have documented the persistent old forms of slavery that are embedded in traditional beliefs and customs. These forms of slavery are the result of long-standing discrimination against the most vulnerable groups in societies, such as those regarded as being of low caste, tribal minorities and indigenous peoples.

RELATED: Sex Trafficking Is Still an Issue in 2015

The focus of this day is on eradicating these contemporary forms of slavery. Modern slavery involves one person possessing or controlling another person in such a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. It contributes to the production of at least 122 goods from 58 countries worldwide. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates the illicit profits of forced labour to be $150 billion a year. From women forced into prostitution, children and adults forced to work in agriculture, domestic work, or factories and sweatshops producing goods for global supply chains, entire families forced to work for nothing to pay off generational debts; or girls forced to marry older men, the illegal practice still blights the contemporary world.

The 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI) has been published by the Walk Free Foundation, a global human rights organization with a mission to end modern slavery in a generation. The report looks at prevalence (the percentage of a countrys population that is enslaved) as well as the total number of people living in modern slavery in each country. It estimates that over 23.5 million people in Asia are living in modern slavery.

While Indias economy is booming in various industries and sectors, it is also home to more than 14 million victims of slavery, ranging from bonded labor to prostitution. The index found India had by far the greatest number of slaves of the 167 countries surveyed.

This report by ILO reinforces the GSIs findings:

Indias modern slavery challenges are immense. Across Indias population of over 1.2 billion people, all forms of modern slavery, including inter-generational bonded labour, trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced marriage, existThere are reports of women and children from India being recruited with promises of non-existent jobs and later sold for sexual exploitation, or forced into sham marriages. In some religious groups, pre-pubescent girls are sold for sexual servitude in temples. Recent reports suggest that one child goes missing every eight minutes; it is feared that some are sold into forced begging, domestic work, and commercial sexual exploitation.

Most of us are aware of the exploitation that exists today, but we either turn a blind eye or dont see how we can help. The truth is, we have more power than we know. Here are some ways people have been doing their part to help abolish modern slavery in India.

Criminal Justice Reforms

Criminal justice reforms specific to human trafficking are the strongest component of Indias response to modern slavery. In 2013, the government amended the Indian Penal Code to include specific anti-trafficking provisions. In 2014, the government expanded the number of police anti-human trafficking units across the country to 215 units, aiming to establish a unit in 650 districts. The judiciary and over 20,000 law enforcement have received training on victim identification, the new legal framework, and victim-centered investigations.

Free The Slaves

Free The Slaves is an NGO organisation that works on global advocacy for victims of modern slavery found in Asia, Africa and South America. One of the means of banishing slavery emphasised upon the is a need for rights education. Educating those in bondage about their rights, and showing them how others in similar circumstances have successfully reclaimed their freedom, is the first step.

Jagrutha Mahila Sanghatan Empowering Dalit Women

Jagrutha Mahila Sanghatan is a Dalit (Dalit, meaning oppressed in South Asia, the self-chosen political name of castes formerly considered untouchable) Womens Collective NGO that aims to empower Dalit women and children through leadership building. Dalit Womens Collective also focuses on community building to increase social consciousness and secure education rights for children as part of their list of objectives and successful campaigns.

International Dalit Solidarity Network

International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) addresses caste discrimination as a critical human rights issue. Their network produces crucial input in the form of documentation, strategic interventions and lobby action and also supports lobby activities on a national level. They provide international support for the work of national advocacy platforms as they promote Dalit rights and call upon the Indian government to live up to their obligations under national and international law.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi

Some of you may recall when young human rights activist Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan shared her Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi. Satyarthi was jointly awarded the prize for his remarkable efforts in fighting for the rights of all children to obtain an education and lobbying against the suppression of children and young people, over the past three decades. The grassroots movement founded by him, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Children Movement) has liberated more than 84 000 children from exploitation.

These are just some of the many networks that strive to eradicate the dated traditions of forced work and servitude in India. The police and legislation often do not take cases reported by Dalits and the NGOs that serve them of importance and many rescue missions implemented end up thwarted by red tape causing the perpetrators to reclaim their workers and unleash punishment on them for daring to complain. With local and global organisations as well as dedicated people like Yousafzai and Satyarthi, the world is finally starting to recognise that slavery isnt just a thing of the past.

Petals in The Dust: The Endangered Indian Girls

Featured Image:Randy Adamsvia Creative Commons

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International Day for the Abolition of Slavery: Modern Day Slavery in India - Wear Your Voice

Note: Spoilers ahead.

To flip an old clich on its head, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness may not be the television series we need, but its proving to be the one we want.

There isnt a single sympathetic major character in this seven-part Netflix extravaganza; every last one is involved in the abuse of animals, of humans or of both. The conscience of the series, if you can call her that, may have killed her second husband and fed him to the tigers. Or stuffed him down a septic tank. Or something.

Call it television for the pandemic. Were home, surrounded by death and disease in the news and, perhaps, in our own lives. Were scared of getting sick, scared of losing our jobs, scared because weve lost our jobs. Our cruel, incompetent president has been botching matters since early January and is yelling at us every evening about governors who have dissed him, journalists who have angered him and unproven elixirs he wants us to take because, as he likes to say, What do you have to lose?

Emerging from this vortex of insanity is the Tiger King, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, a.k.a. Joseph Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joseph Schreibvogel, the gay, wildly extroverted, garishly adorned, country music-singing, political office-seeking, assault weapon-toting proprietor of the G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma a private reservation where adults and children can play with adorable tiger cubs, where underpaid, overworked employees are fed discarded cold cuts from Walmart, and where, as we learn, big cats that are no longer useful are shot and buried out back.

Maldonado-Passage is both paranoid and out of control and he is obsessed with a woman named Carole Baskin, who, along with her worshipful third husband, runs a sanctuary for big cats in Florida and who crusades to put Maldonado-Passage and others like him out of business. Preening before the cameras, Baskin is as self-obsessed as her nemesis, though lacking his talent for self-destruction. As for the destruction of others well, there is the matter of her second husband, whose 1997 disappearance has yet to be solved.

The filmmakers, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chailkin, present a veritable bestiary of other odd characters as well, including Maldonado-Passages three husbands (one of whom blows his brains out while on meth), an employee who returned to work just a week after a tiger bit her arm off and the owners of other big-cat exhibits all of whom come off as far more sinister and calculating than the star of the show.

The end game comes into view during the last three episodes, when a career criminal whod taken over the zoo, a would-be hitman and a government informant tell federal authorities that Maldonado-Passage had paid $3,000 to have Baskin killed. (One is reminded of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers threatening to destroy the world unless he is paid one million dollars!) Maldonado-Passage is convicted of attempted murder and animal abuse.

Did he do it? Theres no question that he often bragged on camera about wanting to kill Baskin, and he dramatized his wishes, as one does, by shooting mannequins and holding up a jar that appeared to contain her severed head. It seems likely that he was enticed into going further than he would have on his own at the instigation of his erstwhile business partner, who wanted him out of the way. But that certainly doesnt mean he was framed, as he claims.

Needless to say, the appeal of Tiger King is entirely voyeuristic. My wife and I watched the first part on our sons recommendation. She dropped out because she couldnt stand the animal cruelty (not really shown but ever-present as a background theme) and then came back for the last part because she wanted to see Maldonado-Passage behind bars. I stuck with it against my better judgment because it was like the proverbial car crash I couldnt look away.

Human suffering is dangled before the viewer like raw meat, writes the critic Doreen St. Flix in The New Yorker, adding later on: The documentary is a kaleidoscope of terrible taste.

Why do we watch stuff like this? Human nature being what it is, we want people we can feel superior to, who get whats coming to them, whose success is built on evil until, one day, it all comes crashing down. And I think we need even more of that sort of thing during a terrifying time like the one were living in.

We are now hearing that, because of Tiger King, the authorities are pursuing new leads in the disappearance of Carole Baskins second husband, and that, with Maldonado-Passages help, other big-cat exhibits around the country are being shut down. See? Some good is coming out of this freak show.

Perhaps. But I am reminded of a book that New Yorks Daily News published upon its 50th anniversary some years ago that included the famous 1928 front-page photo of Ruth Snyder being killed in the electric chair for the murder of her husband. The book piously claimed that publication of the picture led to the abolition of the death penalty in New York.

Maybe it did. But it also sold a hell of a lot of papers.

WGBH News contributor Dan Kennedys blog, Media Nation, is online at dankennedy.net.

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Bad Television For Bad Times: Why 'Tiger King' Resonates In The Age Of Pandemic - wgbh.org

The Orb

Abolition of the Royal Familia (Cooking Vinyl)

For 32 years, Englands The Orb have been at the forefront of ambient electronic music. The lineup has long been fluid founding member and former Killing Joke roadie Alex Paterson is the only mainstay but the albums have rarely dipped under the self-set quality bar.

Of course, its easy to recall the glory years. The debutThe Orbs Adventures Beyond the Ultraworldalbum (opening with the genre-defining Little Fluffy Clouds) is the sole release from Paterson alongside former KLF brain Jimmy Cauty. For excellent sophomore effortU.F.Orb, Paterson was working with uber producer Kris Weston. From 1995 to present, Thomas Fehlmann has been in the ranks, though additional collaborators have come and gone.

Abolition of the Royal Familia is the projects 16th studio album in total, and it lands right in the middle of global chaos. To be honest, its impossible to listen to new music at the moment without contemplating the context of world events. With that in mind,Abolition is a wonderfully, terrifying, odd and soothing soundtrack to 2020.

Opening song Daze, with the prophetic refrain You can listen for daze, features a contribution from Patersons dog Ruby. Elsewhere, guests include Youth, Roger Eno, and Steve Hillageand Miquette Giraudy from Gong and System 7. All add to the overall sense of sensory stimulation and soaring, cinematic brilliance. Even Ruby.

As with previous Orb efforts,Abolition is a piece of work that needs to be heard in its entirety for full immersion. That said, Afros, Afghans and Angels, right on the middle of the album, is a clear highlight. Reminiscent of a sci-fi movie score, with a surprising hint ofQueens far-reaching Flash Gordon.

But again, you have to experience the whole thing. Just lie down while chaos reigns outside, close your eyes and allow The Orb to drip from the walls.

(Cooking Vinyl)

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Album of the Week: The Orb's Abolition of the Royal Familia - L.A. Weekly

Published: 4/3/2020 7:00:22 AM

Modified: 4/3/2020 7:00:10 AM

With coronavirus expected to peak in New Hampshire in late April or early May, the state is doing its best to ready itself for shortages in hospital space and ventilators. New Hampshire has a total of 1,000 ventilators and has ordered 45 more. Hotels and universities are offering to bridge the gap in needed hospital space.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has requested $44.5 billion for nuclear weapons in 2021. Thats an increase of $7.3 billion from 2020 and $9.4 billion more than was spent in 2019.

Lawmakers have defended massive expenditure on nuclear weapons for decades, touting the safety and security they are supposed to bring to the American people. But in the midst of a global pandemic it becomes painfully clear how hollow are promises of security based on threats to use weapons of mass destruction. A virus doesnt care how many nuclear weapons your country has. Every dime wasted on nuclear weapons could be better spent giving the American people a fighting chance against COVID-19.

This is not just a rhetorical argument. We did the math. Diverting U.S. spending on nuclear weapons for only one year would meet reported gaps in health care supplies and save lives.

Last year, the United States spent $35.1 billion in taxpayer dollars building and maintaining its nuclear warheads and missiles, planes and submarines. What could we have bought instead?

At an average cost of $37,500 a piece, the United States could get 35,000 more ventilators. At $25,000 per intensive care unit bed, the United States buys 300,000 more beds, meeting the reported nationwide gap. Doctors and nurses across the country are over-worked and exhausted. Instead of buying nuclear weapons, we could hire 150,000 nurses at an average salary of $75,000 and 75,000 doctors at an average salary of $200,000.

Thirty-five thousand ventilators plus 300,000 ICU beds plus 150,000 nurses plus 75,000 doctors is what we dont get due to a single year of spending on the nuclear arsenal. If these new supplies were distributed evenly across states, that translates to 700 additional ventilators, 6,000 more ICU beds, 3,000 additional nurses and 1,500 additional doctors for the state of New Hampshire. Which way do you want your tax dollars spent?

It is always shortsighted to waste billions of dollars on weapons of mass destruction that more than two-thirds of the worlds countries see as a threat to global security. But it is undeniably foolish to throw away money for needed resources to save American lives. COVID-19 is not the first and will not be last pandemic we face. We cant prevent all global diseases. But what we can do is spend our money wisely to prepare for them.

Doctors around the world see no place for nuclear weapons in this world neither do most countries. In 2017, 122 countries adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which bans the use, production and possession of nuclear weapons. The treaty will officially take effect once an additional 14 countries ratify it. Already, nine New Hampshire towns and cities have called on the U.S. government to step back from the brink and work toward worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons, including by joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons New London, Alstead, Dover, Durham, Lee, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Warner and most recently Barrington in addition to cities around the country like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Concord, as New Hampshires capital, must join them in calling for an end to nuclear weapons and investment in what really keeps the Granite State safe.

(Alicia Sanders-Zakre is a 2013 graduate of Concord High School and the policy and research coordinator of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.)

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My Turn: What one year of nuclear weapons spending buys in COVID-19 supplies for New Hampshire - Concord Monitor

The Verkhovna Rada has registered another draft resolution on the abolition of the decision of the Parliament of March 31 on the adoption of the law on the introduction of the land market.

According to the parliament's website, corresponding draft resolution No. 2178-10-P4 was registered by MPs from the Batkivschyna faction, Ivan Kyrylenko and Vadym Ivchenko. Thus, at the moment, five draft resolutions have already been registered in the Rada on canceling the decision to adopt a law on amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine on the turnover of agricultural land, three of which were initiated by members of the Batkivschyna faction.

According to the established procedure, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada cannot sign the adopted bill until the deputies consider the draft resolutions on the abolition of the vote and decide on them.

As reported, on the night of March 31, the Verkhovna Rada at an extraordinary meeting adopted a law on opening the land market from July 1, 2021 with the restriction of its work in the first three years only to land plots owned by individuals with a maximum ownership of 100 hectares per capita.

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Five draft resolutions on abolition of adoption of land market law registered in Rada - Interfax Ukraine