Category Archives: New Utopia

BY KIM REEDER

CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVER

LEE COUNTY

As I look over how many intakes we have encountered at the Lee County Humane Society (LCHS), just in this past week, I find myself wondering, How can I help? What can I do? What will ignite a difference maker? The recurring answer for me is simply, I dont know. My heart wants to save and rescue every single animal. My magical, endless bank account wants to build massive shelters everywhere shelters with a well-paid staff, high-end amenities, industrial washers and dryers and grassy knolls. This magical dream is pursued by each and every volunteer and staff member at LCHS. The passion and hope for this animal shelter utopia is what each and every one of us strives to achieve. If you have the wonderful opportunity to talk and listen to an animal shelter employee and/or volunteer, you will find that our hearts work day in and day out in the hopes to build this magical place.

Sounds amazing, right? Of course it does. However, our minds at LCHS are aware that our dream of saving all animals, having state-of-the-art technology and most importantly, space to provide a safe and loving home for our animal friends simply isnt realistic. Our animal shelter utopia is just a pipe dream. This knowledge of it being just a dream doesnt stop our drive and passion from trying to make it happen. It doesnt stop our volunteers from working tirelessly to make it happen. So back to the questions at hand: How can I help? What can I do? How can I be a difference maker?

ADOPT. RESCUE. FOSTER. TRANSPORT. SPONSOR. DONATE. VOLUNTEER. EDUCATE. CARE.

In hopes to bring a focus to an immediate need for how you can help, I would like to reintroduce our Shelter Jewels Program, our Diamonds In The Ruff. This elite group of animal friends has taken up residency at LCHS for quite a long while. They have been with us the longest. Think of a teenager stuck in foster care their entire life, the child thats never known a forever home, one that is too old for that family to adopt, the anxious couples missing piece of their family, yet they feel that this isnt the one. The one that is overlooked with thoughts of them being too much of an undertaking, too risky, too hard, too mature or too grown. Just like this aged-out teenager longing for family dinners and game nights, our Diamonds have similar longings. They long for a family, a yard, belly rubs and ear scratches. They long to provide the best welcome home each and every time you leave the house. This is their utopia. This is their dream a dream that isnt far-fetched. You could be their forever family. If forever isnt an option for you, becoming a foster just might be.

Having a prolonged residency in a shelter does come with some speed bumps. With patience and time, our Diamonds In The Ruff will love you with such gratitude, youll wish you would have rescued them earlier. If you are familiar with how a diamond is formed, you will understand our special gems, our Diamonds.

The formation of a diamond takes patience, pressure (stress/strain), a fiery temperature and time. It requires all of these things and then some for these carbon atoms to even begin to become a gem, a diamond. Same applies to our Diamonds. It will take patience, time, pressure (stress/strain) and a fiery soul, but wow, in time, what a gem. A Shelter Jewel.

With any precious jewel, special care is required and recommended. You wouldnt ordinarily give a 3-year-old a 3-carat diamond to play withand neither will we. You wouldnt choose a pipe cleaner for your ring setting with that same 3-carat diamond. If LCHS was a jeweler (we kind of are) we certainly wouldnt insure your pipe cleaner setting. In LCHS terms, we make sure our 3-carat diamond will have a perfect setting, one fitting for such a gem. We take tremendous pride along with tremendous love and care for our Diamonds, and we dont want their integrity compromised. To ensure quality and longevity of our Diamonds, we provide training, toys, wire crates, blankets, food, bowls, medicine (if needed) and a free photo session with our media specialist. There is also a virtual, four-week training session via GoodPup when certain LCHS Shelter Pets are adopted.

Puppies are beautiful, and they deserve forever homes, but when referencing our Diamonds, puppies are the cubic zirconia. They are cute their own diamonds in the making but they arent Diamonds. Some people are the family heirloom types Shelter Jewels people while others are the new, bright and shiny like diamond people: puppy people. And then there are so many of us all that fall in between. Thats the great thing about it. Just like diamonds, we are all unique, and none of us are the exact same. It is what gets us closer and closer to that inner animal shelter utopia. It is what helps us rescue, adopt and foster our animal friends. Simply magnificent. If you are unable to adopt, rescue or foster, please remember you can volunteer, transport, donate, sponsor, educate and most importantly, care.

Are you ready to meet our Diamonds In The Ruff? Visit us at leecountyhumane.org to find out more.

Original post:

'It Is In The Shelter Of Each Other That People Live.' Irish Proverb | The Observer - Opelika Observer

The artist couple Ilya and Emilia Kabakov live and create at a home and studio on Long Island, New York. The Art Newspaper met with them there and spoke to Emilia about the often prophetic nature of art and Russias invasion of Ukraine, where both artists were born.

The Art Newspaper: One of Ilyas drawings of ships, which has "go fuck yourself" written in Russian in the background, has become a sort of meme during the war in Ukraine. It has been used to represent the famous incident at Snake Island in the Black Sea in February in which defiant Ukrainian sailors declared: Russian warship, go fuck yourself. Ilya's image, created decades ago, began to circulate widely online after a recording of the standoff went viral. Can you tell us about that?

Emilia Kabakov: Ilya's drawing was created in 1984, and there is a whole story there. It is an album, with drawings depicting cows, rabbits, all kinds of flowers and birds. The idea is that there are childrens drawings, but there are always these bad words hidden behind them.

Ilya Kabakov's Ships. Go fuck yourself (1993) Ilya & Emilia Kabakov The Lithuanian National Museum of Art, 2022

We have a few stories about this set of drawings. A father went to the store, brought back a colouring book, and the mother saw the bad words in it. They went to the militia and there was an entire investigation into the enemies of the Soviet Union who planted such bad words in a childrens colouring book.

Ilya made these drawings in 1984, and in the 1990s we made prints, without anything like war in mind. Now it has been dug up and taken on a whole different meaning. It turns out Ilya hit the nail on the head. [Russian collector and gallerist] Marat Guelman helped get this meme started. I immediately got a call from the Lithuanian National Museum of Art [who have a collection of works by Ilya] asking for permission to publish it. We agreed, sent them the image, and they made postcards.

You have shown us a number of your works today and shared the stories of their creation. It seems like many of them are taking on a new life in connection with current events?

They have turned out to be multi-layered and many of them live on in the present day. The Red Pavilion was made for the 1993 Venice Biennale [It was designed to show that the Soviet Union never truly disappeared]. Yes, at the time Perestroika [the attempt launched by Mikhail Gorbachev to reform the Soviet system] was still happening in Russia. Everything was changing. But as the former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin once said: We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.

The Red Pavilion in Venice Courtesy of the artists

It turned out that everything that Russia managed to build and change in the past 30 years disappeared overnight, and everything is returning to the same old system of repression. Im not even mentioning the military operation [in Ukraine], which is in fact the most frightening of wars because since it seems possible that it could lead to all-out nuclear war. Everyone is on edge. The entire world has turned upside down. Why this happened, and to what end, no one knows.

The Red Pavilion has returned. We were told at the time that it would never return, that it is nonsense and we are stuck in the past. But it turns out we werent stuck in the past. We were looking into the future. We didnt want this, but this is as fate would have it.

There was a time when contemporary art seemed to be accepted by the Putin regime. Do you think that was the case?

It never became an official form of art. That is an illusion. It was accepted only conditionally. Ilya and I were talking today about why they didnt simply kill all of the underground artists in Soviet times. Almost all of them had official jobs. Half of them were members of the Union of Artists. [Erik] Bulatov, [Oleg] Vassiliev, and Ilya were all members. That is how they survived.

At the same time, they all did what they wanted. None of them were political artists. The political ones were another circle of artists. These werent. But each of their works was multilayered, and it turned out that many years later their work took on a different role. For example, it seems to me that some of Bulatovs paintings from those years can now be interpreted as a glorification of Soviet images, rather than being against them. Paintings such as Bulatovs portrait of Brezhnev have suddenly started transmitting a different message.

Ilya's works are completely different, like a prediction of the future. Those childrens ships ended up being the [Russian] military ship that was cursed at [by Ukrainian sailors]. Thats not what he had in mind. When we made The Red Pavilion, we thought that the USSR would return, but we did hope that it would not happen. Thirty years later it is here again. It was a fantasy, but also a fear of the return of the USSR, of the totalitarian regime.

We dont believe that its possible to build a democratic future there. Utopia is a word that cannot be brought to life, especially in such a country as Russia, because there is a certain kind of inertia. On the one hand there are many incredibly talented people. On the other hand this is a country that time and again, after certain intervals, tosses out or destroys these talents. This happened with the revolution. It happened in 1937 and after the Second World War when a huge number of people remained in the West, left the Soviet Union, died, or were imprisoned again. And this is happening now.

It seemed like things had relaxed and that something new had begun. Bridges of friendship were built, museums exchanged knowledge and practices, Russians went to work abroad, specialists came to Russia. Something was being done. And now suddenly it all falls into an abyss. For a very long period of time Russia will become an aggressor, the enemy of humanity. For what? When one country completely destroys another, with no regard for victims, it also suffers and dies. That is what is happening now. Both Ukraine and Russia have been destroyed.

There are many painful discussions on social media right now between Ukrainian and Russian curators about whether Russian art has the right to speak after the invasion of Ukraine. How is this dividing the art world?

On the one hand I understand [the Ukrainian perspective]. I was recently told that I am not speaking enough about the suffering in Ukraine. For me, any warany killing of men, women and childrenis unacceptable in any country, whether it is Israel, Palestine, Iraq or Afghanistan. Russia and Ukraine all the more, the two countries in which I have lived, from which I am from. But I came from a country, the Soviet Union, in which everyone pretended to get along. Im not referring to the totalitarian system, which is the reason I left, never returned and would never return. I wouldnt return for any reason, whatever I may be offered, because unconsciously I always feared everything could repeat itself. And thats exactly what is happening now.

Inside the Kabakov's New York studio Photo courtesy of Sophia Kishkovsky

Art must unite people. Art does not belong to Ukraine or to Russia. Culture must be protected by everyone. Cultural memory and cultural heritage are what distinguish us from animals. Now it is being destroyed from both sides. It is physically being destroyed by Russians in Ukraine. Id like to say that its not Russians but some mercenaries, but Im afraid that Russians are also actively participating in those massacres. The cultural heritage of another nation is being destroyed. No one wants to understand this, but those who do are leaving Russia today. Many people in Russia dont want to believe or understand what is going on.

What will happen with the Russian art world?

I read that apartment exhibitions are being held again in small cities around Russia. Artists bring their paintings and invite people to see them for free. Weve returned to Moscow of the 1960s and 70s. Things have come full circle. It means unofficial art will appear again. We will get a new unofficial world of Kabakovs, Bulatovs, Vassilievs, Komars and Melamids and many others.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov's The Ship of Tolerance (2005-ongoing) in Miami in 2011. The project involves collaborating with schoolchildren, who make paintings based on the meaning of tolerance that are then combined to make the sail of a ship Courtesy of the artists

I received a very interesting email today from a Moscow artist who has two sons and will probably be forced to leave Russia because he has put together an exhibition of portraits of people who were arrested. He asked me what to do. I said he has to think of his children as they will suffer. He said hes read all of the interviews Ilya and I have given and everything weve written because he wants to understand how to create multi-level works in which its not always possible to recognise whats insidefor them not to be obviously anti-government. My answer is that art must always be like this. It cant be direct or unilinear, it must be complex. People are not so simple. There is no black and white. We are very multi-layered people. That is what makes us people.

The problem is that all of the truly talented artists have left. They are all known here, but they are not there. A very interesting article came out recently in a Russian publication about 100 living Russian artists you should know. It says Ilya Kabakov still holds the title of number one Russian artist". I think they might have rushed to claim him as a Russian artist so that Ukraine doesnt lay claim to him.

But I would like to repeat what I said before: We consider ourselves international artists, born in the Soviet Union and living in the United States of America.

Read the original:

'Art will go back underground': artist Emilia Kabakov on the war in Ukraine and the fate of the Russian art world - Art Newspaper

I went outside to discover that my beautiful bees were swarming. I heard the loud buzz of rebellion, and saw the sky turn black. My brain buzzed in return as I stared, unsure of what to do first. My friend, and beekeeper extraordinaire, Martin, had once told me to bang pots and pans if they swarmed. For some reason, the bees will stop their flight and settle in the nearest tree instead of disappearing into the distance.

So I grabbed the pots, and Isaac and Thomas joined me, clinking and clanking, and what do you know? The bees flew over our fence and settled on a little tree just on the other side. Unfortunately, the other side of the fence had construction workers toiling away. I ran around the block and in a gasp told them, Be not afraid! They are very gentle when theyre swarming!

They stood in a row, stepping backwards, mouths and eyes wide, unconvinced. So, I suited up, and with the help of my kids, scooped those bees out of the tree and into a box. I cannot describe the feeling of holding bowlfuls of bees, while tens of thousands fly about your head and climb up your arms. It was like a vibrating dish of weightless water that turned into marbles as they poured out of my hands and into the waiting box.

People have asked me why bees swarm. Sometimes they swarm if there is something wrong in the hive: mites, hive beetles, or chemicals. Usually they swarm because they have become so crowded that the workers can no longer smell the queens pheromones, so she lays some new queen eggs, and when they are ready to hatch, she takes half of the hive and says farewell. Off they go to look for a new kingdom to rule. And sometimes, despite all measures taken, bees swarm simply because it is in their nature to do so.

Once upon a time, beekeepers took pride in the swarms of their bees. It meant healthy queens, and new hives of honey. Nowadays, there can be a certain sense of shame in having your hive swarm. It means you werent paying enough attention. You didnt take the right steps to prevent it. And as much as people tote Save the Bees bumper stickers, swarms cause a certain, understandable terror in our over-sterilized society. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can tame the spirit of the bee. You cannot feel too much shame when the bees are just acting according to their make-up. Its not like they obey commands for biscuits.

Nature cannot be tamed, at least not as much as we believe it can. There is no utopia, no perfect communion with the beasts of the earth. Remember the people who lived with their beloved pet lions? Rest in peace. Ahem.

I once watched an amazing documentary on a real-life farm that had promised to only work with nature as they overcame problems. After seven years of struggles, they amazingly found many ways to farm without the use of predator traps or pesticides. It was brilliant! And when they nearly reached their utopia, a forest fire burned them down. Nature cannot be tamed. It is fierce and beautiful, and a sign of God, but its instinct is survival at all costs. That is why the Morning Glory survives, while the strawberries struggle; Morning Glory chokes them out.

Human nature, while pulled to the same survival, is called to something more, something above. God calls man into the seventh day with him, to rest and become like him. But we are tempted back into day six of creation, the day of the beasts, where impulses, instincts, and strength reign. Alas, the shame for us is real when we simply act according to our broken and beastly human nature, instead of reaching for our made in Gods image human nature.

Caryll Houselander writes in The Reed of God, not one of us, by Himself, could imitate Christ: we are a handful of dust held together by seventy-five percent of liquid, with souls that were stained at birth, and which are weighted all through our lives with a heavy downward lurch towards sin.

Imitating Christ is not the meaning of Christianity, she writes. What we are asked to do is to be made onewith Christ, to allow Him to abide in us, to make His home in us and through that oneness, to become Christs. And when we are one with him, we will become like him. That is the nature, Gods image, that we were created for.

When I watch with such great wonder the magnificence of the beehive, I am still filled with awe. But I am filled with something else: a great sense of awe that the God who made them, also made me, and invites me to join and share in his love, to be one with him. That is the beauty of humanity, and something worth banging pots for.

Read the original post:

Our human nature is to be one with Christ - The B.C. Catholic

Speaking to the founders of Nashiks Utopia Farmstay, husband and wife duo Adwait and Uttara Kher, one learns a lot. They both worked in the hospitality industry and met when employed at the Taj. They were also both working as models, with Uttara being crowned Miss India World in 1982. But what stands out most, even during the Zoom interview, is the couples warmth as they shared details about their work with this writer.

Its with this familiarity and curiosity that they greet each new visitor to their farm stay, located five minutes away from the Sula Vineyards, Nashik, it is flanked by the Gangapur Lake and the Sahyadri mountains on the other.

Leaving the harsh weather and concrete jungles of Mumbai, the couple had first moved to Nashik to raise their daughters Saiyami and Saunskruti in a small town amid nature. The mountains, treks and especially the waterfalls during the monsoons are factors that gravitated me away from Mumbai, says Adwait. They soon opened three restaurants in Nashik Aangan, Tandoor and The Bombay Talkies.

Much later, they started work on the farm stay and opened Utopia Farmstay in February 2018.

Adwait spent months visiting nearby villages on his motorcycle to learn about rural architecture and then spent two months planning out the project before starting work. But they soon ran into their biggest challenge. They were using black cotton soil, which expands during the monsoon and contracts during summers, leading to a pull and push to the construction every time, and requires a solid foundation to stand. Because of this, no architect was willing to take on the project. That was motivating enough for me to do it myself, he says, about the property thats still standing strong.

Besides being the 2-acre propertys architect, Adwait also served as a carpenter, working with one other professional to build all the furniture.

With every aspect from the foundation stone to the bricks and from the soil to the interiors, this farm stay is built with the intention of being as eco-friendly as possible. We have a basaltic rock foundation and have used fly ash bricks. Weve used very little cement and our plaster is a cow dung recipe of the past, says Adwait.

Fly ash bricks dont erode the topsoil and need lesser cement and water for binding. Compared to cement bricks, theyre also less prone to breakage and therefore create lesser waste. These bricks also absorb less heat which keeps the room cool, so carbon-emitting ACs are not a necessity. Using only a negligible amount of poisonous latex-oil paints, rooms have primarily been coated with a mix of cow dung and mud, an age-old, sustainable technique. Also, the building boasts only mud tiles and none of the ceramic tiles that require high kiln temperatures with higher carbon footprints.

Used Bisleri bottles wrapped in gunny sacks are supplemented as lampshades. The property also boasts old, reclaimed pieces like windows (jharokhas) sourced from Adwaits travels over the past 30 years. He collected these from Rajasthan, Cochin, Maharashtra, and more. Weve been collecting a lot of stuff from all over the country which we could incorporate into our designs, he says.

Theres a well for the farm and a bore well for drinking and bathing water. The grey water from the farm stay is used in the fields. The farm stay also runs on solar power. Everything is as eco-friendly as possible and we intend on keeping it that way, says Adwait.

The farm itself grows a variety of vegetables and fruits that are harvested and fed to the guests, including onions, garlic, bananas, coconuts, mangos, drumsticks, and spinach, among others. Right now, part of the farm is blooming with sunflowers that were planted primarily to attract birds.

Today, over 42 species of birds flutter around the property and the sunflowers give about 100 litres of sunflower oil. I will use it for food because I do the cooking at the farm stay. We will also sell the cold-pressed sunflower oil, says Uttara.

All of this is aided by the fact that the couple has been longtime crusaders for the environment, from filing PILs to clean the Godavari to making sure trees arent being cut down around Nashik. We managed to save nearly 3,000 trees from being cut down because they were randomly cutting trees to widen roads, says Uttara.

On their farm stay, which charges between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 per night, Uttara and Adwait offer a variety of activities, including yoga workshops and clay moulding classes. Adwait teaches carpentry workshops, leads monsoon treks and hikes, walks around the property, and organises architectural appreciation walks and old city walks of Nashik.

Enjoying these pleasures is an eclectic and wide-ranging bunch of guests. There are small children from big cities whove never seen vegetables growing on trees, so we teach them a bit of gardening, says Uttara with a laugh.

One of their guest, a 72-year-old, wanted to go running, and they pointed him to the 2-kilometre distance to Sula. He was an ultra-marathoner who was once a scientist at NASA. Another guest was working on electromagnets at CERN, Switzerland.

Its so life-enriching to talk to these guests from across the globe, says Adwait. Theres always a nice mix of people that they meet in the evenings in the common area, says the couple who doesnt live on the property but visits often. They exchange ideas with people from different walks of life and learn new things every day. People who stay in farm stays or homestays are people who dont like the 5-star culture, says Uttara. When they come to us they dont have their guard up. Theyre just simple people, she adds.

Most of the guests are now like family to the couple. They keep in touch and receive regular updates about the big moments in the lives of their former guests. Its been a nice experience for us, adds Uttara.

As the couple continue their journey of constant growth and innovation, theyre now looking at ways of teaching and inspiring villagers to imitate their model and earn better incomes. And with their sustainable model, one wouldnt mind if several more homestays bloomed across the country.

Location: Nashik, MaharashtraBeds and baths: Four cottage suites, each with two bedrooms and two bathroomsSize: 2 acresTime it took to build: Seven months

Learn more about Utopia Farmstay on their website.

Edited by Yoshita Rao

Read this article:

Mumbai Couple Use Traditional Knowledge to Build Eco-friendly Farm Stay of Dreams - The Better India

Since the end of Roe v. Wade, numerous European political leaders have lamented the decision. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson labeled the Dobbs decision a big step backwards, and French President Emmanuel Macron said abortion must be protected, as his country prepared to place a nationwide right to abortion in its constitution.

In response, conservatives have cried hypocrisy, both to deflect criticism and to cast doubt on European institutions in general. Many of the leaders who criticized the United States for the decision have laws that are either comparable to the Mississippi law at the center of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health, which outlawed abortion past the 15th week of pregnancy, Charles Hilu writes at National Review. Americans should be very skeptical of the opinions of leaders across the pond.

But this is not true on multiple levels. Though there are some moderate restrictions on abortion access in most European countries (and strict ones in a few), in practice almost all of Europe had far greater access to all aspects of reproductive freedom than Americans did even before Roe was overturned, and vastly greater freedom now.

More from Ryan Cooper

Let me start with abortion rights. As Politico Europe points out, every major European country except the U.K., Poland, and Finland allows abortion on demand for at least part of the pregnancy term, typically the first trimester, and the U.K. and Poland have wide latitude in their rules. (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, and San Marino have stricter rules, but they are tiny.)

As the Center for Reproductive Rights elaborates, there are some moderately burdensome requirements in some countries, like waiting periods in Eastern Europe or mandatory counseling in Germany. In countries like Italy, it can be hard to find a doctor willing to perform one. But none of these countries are anything like Mississippi, where a restrictive abortion law is combined with systematic legal harassment that had closed down every abortion clinic but one by 2004.

Moreover, outside of Poland, major European health care systems render these restrictions far less meaningful than they might sound. The overwhelming majority of people who want an abortion will get one as soon as possible, and thanks to the fact of universal health care in most European countries it is a relatively simple matter to get an appointment and arrange payment. Pregnancy is a difficult, dangerous, and often quite unpleasant experience, and doubly so if the pregnancy is unwanted; very few normal people will procrastinate about ending one if they can help it. Almost all abortions happen either very soon after becoming pregnant, or after learning of some terrible medical problem later in the term, in which case it is widely acceptable across Europe.

Unfortunately for Americans, our awesomely horrible health care system often means tremendous obstacles to even the simplest medical needs. About 9 percent of Americans are uninsured, and a further quarter are underinsuredand thanks to the Hyde Amendment, Medicaid will not cover abortions except in case of rape, incest, or if the mothers life is in danger.

American reactionaries barely even pretend to care about the massive anti-family coercion created by our atrocious welfare state.

The theoretical expansive access provided by Roe did not actually translate into reality for many: In the 2014 Guttmacher Institute Abortion Patient Survey (the most recent one), 53 percent paid for theirs out of pocket. It also found half of abortion patients below the poverty line, and another quarter below twice the poverty line; it can take weeks or months for such a person to scrape up even a few hundred dollars if they can do it at all. And now, of course, outright bans are either enacted or coming soon in something like 26 states.

Second, the punishments for European abortion regulations are almost always far less punitive than ones written by American reactionaries (again, except in Poland). Criminal penalties of any kind are relatively rare, and nowhere is there anything like the deranged bounty hunter law Texas cooked up.

On the other hand, there is the positive aspect of reproductive freedomthat is, the freedom to choose to have children. For workers living on wages (that is, most people), having a child is a problem for three reasons. First, ones childbearing years come early in life, when ones income is typically at its lowest point. Second, one must take time off work to care for the child, especially when it is first born. Third, children cost tons of money to raise, which creates enormous inequality between families based on how many kids they have.

Hence the European welfare state for families, which addresses these problems through paid leave for new parents, a child benefit to help with expenses, public provision of child care, and public school. Though institutional details vary considerably across the continent, on these terms Europe is simply blowing America out of the water.

The Nordic countries set the highest bar; their systems are incomprehensibly generous by American standards. Norway, for instance, has one year of parental leave that can be split up in various ways, and both public day care facilities and subsidies for private options, a child allowance of about $170 per month for children under six and $107 per month for children six and over, and public school (along with several other smaller benefits).

The U.S., by contrast, has no national paid leave (one of only two countries on Earth without it) and no public child care. For a year, we had a jerry-rigged child allowance that all parents were theoretically eligible for (though incompetent design left out many of the poor), but Joe Manchin killed that, and today the poorest parents with little or no work income once again get nothing from the Child Tax Credit. We managed to sneak through public school, though not universal pre-K.

American reactionaries barely even pretend to care about the massive anti-family coercion created by our atrocious welfare state. A 2004 Guttmacher survey of abortion patients found fully 73 percent including an inability to afford another child among their reasons for terminating a pregnancy, yet the best movement gurus like Chris Rufo can come up with are addle-brained schemes to provide a pitiful three months of paid leave by pushing back parents retirement age. The belief expressed by eternally optimistic people like Ross Douthat or Peggy Noonan, that now will be the moment that conservatives combine their concern for the life of a fetus with support for parents who have to take care of the child after birth, is so ludicrous that it gets laughed at routinely in polite company.

In right-wing utopia, all Americans will find abortions difficult or impossible to obtain, even in cases of medical necessity, and then those new parents (the ones who survive giving birth, that is) will get very little government help raising the child they didnt want. Almost no Europeans live like this and they are right to be proud of that fact.

Read more:

Europeans Have Far More Reproductive Freedom Than Americans - The American Prospect

Chanel 4 Simon Pegg in The Undeclared War - Chanel 4Thursday 30 June

The Undeclared War

Channel 4, 9pm

Every now and then Channel 4 comes up with a humdinger of a drama series (Its a Sin, Humans and Utopia, among others) that insists upon itself because there is simply nothing else like it. Peter Kosminskys razor-sharp cyber thriller takes us into the future of 2024, to look at the world of the British intelligence malware analysts working at GCHQ, fighting the informational good fight against an onslaught of potentially catastrophic cyber attacks emanating, mostly, from Russia. Were grabbed from the outset, plunged straight into the mindscape of Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a new intern whose first day throws her in the deep end of the battle against an invisible enemy.

Kosminsky avoids a surfeit of tech geekery by expanding the drama into the world of global realpolitik, with a superb cast including Adrian Lester as Britains prime minister (said to have deposed Boris Johnson 15 months previously), Hattie Morahan, Ed Stoppard and Alex Jennings as various Cabinet ministers, and Simon Pegg as the GCHQ boss torn between the demands of his political masters. All episodes are on All 4 from today and it will take some restraint to not binge one of 2022s most compelling dramas. GO

Golf: John Deere Classic

Sky Golf, 6pm

Traditionally played one week before The Open, this PGA event has often struggled to attract a stellar field. This year, however, it has moved back a week, so expect to see the worlds best sharpening their game ahead of a trip to St Andrews in mid July. GO

Sarah Beenys Little House, Big Plans

Channel 4, 8pm

A pair of novice DIYers in Poole want to make more space in their pokey 1930s semi by creating an open-plan kitchen-diner but money is very tight; and in Plymouth a couple set about supersizing their three-bed bungalow into a seven-bedroom, three-floor home with the help of a modular building company. GO

Who Do You Think You Are?

BBC One, 9pm

One of the better editions of the current run sees Death in Paradise star Ralf Little track back though both sides of his family to find evidence of some wealthy antecedents from his hometown of Manchester, and to get to the bottom of rumours of former sporting glory in his football-mad genes. GO

The Murder of Logan Mwangi

ITV, 9pm; Wales, 10.45pm

Another shocking true-life tale of appalling child neglect, abuse and murder follows the rock solid police investigation, and subsequent trial and convictions, that followed the tragic discovery, in July of last year, of the body of five-year-old Logan Mwangi in a river 300 metres from his home in Bridgend, south Wales. GO

The Hotel Inspector

Channel 5, 9pm

Alex Polizzi tackles the Grade II listed Caer Beris Manor in the Brecon Beacons. This family run establishment has 22 bedrooms, a 30-seat restaurant and two very ambitious owners who are reaching for the (Michelin) stars. But first, they may do well to tackle the dodgy decor and employ a professional chef. Polizzi has the unenviable task of levelling their enthusiasm in order to go back to basics. GO

The Lazarus Project

Sky Max, 9pm

Skys time-bending thriller may be a little creaky around the edges at times but it is helped by a charismatic central performance by leading man Paapa Essiedu as George. Tonight, George ignores Archies (Anjli Mohindra) instructions to step back and, as he turns for help to the projects sworn enemy, Rebrov (Tom Burke), he gets a glimpse of a far darker side to the organisation than he ever suspected. GO

Bradford on Duty

BBC Two, 9.30pm

An episode entitled The Greater Good explores the ambitious 800 million project which intends to regenerate Bradford city centre, along with the street-level effort being made to make it a more pleasant, safer place to live, as seen through the eyes of some of the citys 150-plus community support officers. GO

Arctic (2018)

Great! Movies Action, 7.05pm

Joe Pennas Arctic delivers what might be called Max Mads: a heady, sustained and sinew-stiffening hit of the Danish actor, ideal for Mikkelsen fans. This is a snowbound endurance thriller featuring the star of Another Round and Hannibal at his most icily charismatic, as the sole survivor (or so he thinks) of a plane crash, north of the 66th parallel. But as the story unfolds, his suffering reaches sadistic heights.

The Full Monty (1974)

5STAR, 9pm

Youll never look at Tom Wilkinson in the same way again after youve seen him gyrate on stage as a male stripper in Peter Cattaneos lovable comedy. The film follows six Sheffield men (including Robert Carlyle, Hugo Speer and Mark Addy) who, depressed and out of work, form a male dance troupe in order to raise some funds. And theyre willing to reveal all to surprising acclaim. Disney+ is reviving this as a new series with the original cast.

Joan of Arc (1948)

BBC Four, 10.40pm

Ingrid Bergman received a Best Actress Academy-Award nomination for her performance in Victor Flemings (Gone with the Wind) pseudo-historical epic about the still-popular French farm girl turned saint. Flemings adaptation, from Maxwell Andersons Broadway stage hit Joan of Lorraine, is low on action but heavy on the dialogue. Some eyebrows were also raised at Bergman playing the role of a 15-year-old while aged 33, but it works.

Stranger Things

Netflix

After a compelling first volume of season four, with momentous events in both Hawkins, Indiana and the Upside Down, the second volume drops in two lengthy episodes (85 minutes and a whopping two hours, 30 minutes) to complete the series. Released in May, volume one became Netflixs most watched show, and as an added extra even managed to put Kate Bush back at the top of the charts after her 1985 song Running Up That Hill was featured prominently.

The shows creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have intimated that not all of its beloved characters will necessarily make it to the fifth and final season, which is expected to come in 2023. Most of the fan speculation concerns the fate of Steve (Joe Keery) but the brothers have thrown googlies before and might do so again. More pressing in these two episodes is whether Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett German) can rescue Hopper (David Harbour) from the Russians, despite the Demogorgon guarding their way out. Will Nancy (Natalia Dyer) manage to escape the Upside Down, where she is held in the clutches of super-baddie Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower)? And is Hawkins High School counsellor Ms Kelly (Regina Ting Chen) really as lovely as she first appears? VL

Cycling: Tour de France 2022

Eurosport1/ITV4, 12.45pm/2.45pm

For the first time in its 118 years, the Tour de France will set off from Denmark, with todays Grand Dpart a 13 km individual time trial in Copenhagen. Following two more stages in Scandinavia, the Tour moves to northern France on July 5, before ending in Paris on July 24, via sojourns in Belgium and Switzerland. A wonderfully varied route will take in cobblestones, Alpe dHuez, Carcassonne and La Planche des Belles Filles. Geraint Thomas is in good nick following his Tour de Suisse win, but it is hard to look beyond the mighty Tadej Pogaar. VL

The Terminal List

Amazon Prime Video

Chris Pratt stars in this eight-part psychological drama adapted from Jack Carrs novel. He plays James Reece, leader of a platoon of US Navy Seals who are killed while on a covert mission; returning home, he is questioned but his memories differ from the official records. One for conspiracy fans. VL

Queer As Folk

StarzPlay

Stephen Dunn relocates Russell T Daviess seminal gay drama series, shown on Channel 4 in 1999, to present-day New Orleans. Its brash and lively, with transgender and gender-fluid characters now part of the colourful mix, but it cant match the originals superlatively exuberant taboo-breaking. Kim Cattrall plays the mother of the central character, commitment-phobe Brodie (Devin Way). VL

One Question

Channel 4, 8pm

Claudia Winkleman hosts as more contestants sit on the comfy sofa in this deceptively simple game show. Each pair is given the answer to a question (this weeks set includes What is square?) but then have to eliminate 19 incorrect questions to find the right one, with Winkleman offering clues that will cost them part of the 100,000 prize. VL

Worlds Most Scenic Railway Journeys

Channel 5, 8pm

All aboard the luxury Rocky Mountaineer, starting in Denver, Colorado, journeying through the Rockies in what was once the Wild West to Moab, Utah. Bill Nighy narrates as we learn about the mid 19th-century Gold Rush, and the USAs continental divide (geological in this case, not political) and that train manager Zac takes it as a personal affront if anyone ends their journey hungry. The views are majestic. VL

British Planes That Won the War With Rob Bell

Channel 5, 9pm

The documentary series about military aviation continues by examining the fearsome Lancaster bomber, which was used in the Dambusters raid. Historians including this papers former editor, Max Hastings and aviation experts talk about the planes central importance to the Allies in the Second World War. VL

Rig 45: Murder at Sea

More4, 9pm

Shown as part of the Walter Presents strand, this suspenseful Swedish crime thriller with a multinational cast follows a damage regulator, Andrea Burell (Catherine Walker), who investigates a fatal accident on an oil rig shut for maintenance over Christmas. Theres only a skeleton crew, but everyone has a secret. VL

King Richard (2021)

Sky Cinema Premiere, 8pm

Will Smith stars in this sports biopic as Richard Williams, father and early coach of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. Reinaldo Marcus Greens film follows the Williams family from Compton, Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s to the Florida tennis academy where the sisters trained under Rick Macci (a very funny Jon Bernthal), until the beginnings of Venuss professional career in 1994. Its a satisfying, if sanitised, image of parental drive.

The Festival (2018)

E4, 9pm

The Inbetweeners Joe Thomas stars as Nick, a drippy and freshly single graduate, in this spiritual sequel to that franchise from Iain Morris, who co-created it with Damon Beesley. With its reliance on the same gross-out scatology and cringeworthy encounters, The Festival could almost be a post-uni catch-up with Thomass lovelorn Simon, older but none the wiser when it comes to sensing when his romantic chances are zip.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

BBC One, 11.40pm

After the amateur heroics on display in 2010s Kick-Ass, a new generation of crime fighters have risen up to don ridiculous costumes and patrol the streets. But Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has returned from the dead and re-branded himself with an unprintable moniker. Hes killing off the heroes, so Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) must team up with Chlo Grace Moretzs Hit-Girl and Jim Carreys Colonel Stars and Stripes to save the day.

Jack Taylor (JT), Veronica Lee (VL),Gerard ODonovan (GO), Vicki Power (VP), Gabriel Tate (GT) and Chris Bennion (CB)

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What's on TV tonight: The Undeclared War, The Hotel Inspector, and more - msnNOW

Manchester, UK, 27 June 2022: BGF the UK & Irelands most active growth capital investor has led on deals with a total enterprise value (EV) of 450 million in the North West in six months.

In the same period, BGFs North West team has delivered a stand-out run of exits which has seen 150 million of capital returned from 72 million invested. Highlights include: the sale of Liverpool-based Sentric to Swiss music fintech company, Utopia Music; PTSGs acquisition of NSS; and CurrentBodys sale to eComplete.

This is in addition to the outstanding exit of Kids Planet, having accelerated the nursery groups rollout from 17 to more than 80 sites during its investment period. BGF also retained minority stakes in Kids Planet and Utopia Music as it continues as a long-term partner to both companies.

BGF completed a total 42 million of investment in growing businesses based in the North West in six months. These entrepreneur-led companies span several sectors including tech, manufacturing, professional services, healthcare and training, and are based across all corners of the region.

The North West team backed apprenticeship training provider, Apprentify, with a 5 million investment to execute an ambitious buy and build strategy in the apprenticeship and adult education market. Wigan-headquartered manufacturer, Evolution Aqua, received a 12 million BGF investment to capitalise on growth opportunities in core markets and drive international expansion. Alongside Gresham House Ventures, BGF also announced a 10 million investment into Panthera Biosciences to further grow its network of dedicated clinical trial sites across the UK and Western Europe.

The combined EV across these investments and exits at the time of completion reached 450 million.

Neil Inskip, Head of BGF in the North West and Midlands, said: We consistently meet quality business owners in the region looking to scale their businesses and work towards long-term growth and a successful exit. Our recent run of investments has unlocked opportunities for innovation and product development, international and vertical market expansion, investment in tech and talent, as well as boosting balance sheets for management teams looking to capitalise on growth opportunities such as M&A.

Alongside positive new investments, were also seeing a strong performance across our portfolio in the region as we continue to work with management teams to deliver growth. Weve experienced an exceptional period of returns from recent exits in the region, which is testament to the strength of the businesses we back in the North West and BGFs investment model.

This news comes on the back of recently published annual results for BGF in the UK and Ireland which marked a record-breaking year for the business as a whole in 2021. As well as maintaining its position as the most active investor in UK and Irish growth economy companies, BGF backed 67 new companies, investing a total of 600 million. 165 million of this was follow-on funding to support further growth for portfolio companies, which is a key part of its longer term offer to entrepreneurs. Nationally, BGF exited investments in 39 businesses, delivering a total return of 571 million from exits in 2021 (up from 233m in 2020), a 2x money multiple and a 23.4% gross IRR.

BGF is a long-term patient investor, making initial investments between 1 million to 15 million for a minority equity stake. It backs ambitious teams across a range of sectors and funds a variety of growth plans.

See the rest here:

BGF's North West team leads on deals with an EV of 450m - Business Manchester

Spurred by digital transformation and the's industry obsession with seamlessness, branding and brand experiences have grown entirely boring, argues Wolff Olins' global principal of creative Wayne Deakin. It's high time to shake things up and ditch the minimalism for something more real.

The Sex Pistols are back in the public eye with the launch of Pistol Danny Boyles streaming series and the debate about the future of the monarchy reignited by the Queens Platinum Jubilee. All this got me thinking: why is so much modern branding so boring especially online?

Just look around and see whats happened over the course of the decade since digital took off. Today, we live in an era of not just digital ubiquity but digital saturation.

As individuals, we no longer go online we live our lives online, and no brand owner can afford to ignore this fact. Many brand owners have spent so much of the past few years adapting to this reality, evidenced by the widespread digital optimization of brands.

Get the best of The Drum by choosing from a series of great email briefings, whether thats daily news, weekly recaps or deep dives into media or creativity.

For proof, look no further than the path now being followed by so many if not pretty much all brands: the cult of three clicks. This approach to digital- and experience-design, predicated on the notion that users are frustrated by the expectation to click or swipe too often, is about designing out friction by designing in seamless, efficient experiences.

But theres a problem: as a result of this shift, most brand interactions in the digital space which are typically powered by the same technology have become repetitive and boring. And as such, most brands have become uniform and bland.

Some of the worst examples can be seen in the fashion and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, where too many brand owners build digital presences using the same technology platforms, and too many customer-brand interactions end up constrained within monotonous, formalistic three-click constraints.

Advised by experts on what is and isnt best practice, too many brand owners have drunk the UX Kool-Aid, and, as a result, have lost sight of what makes their brand different, individual and special in their misguided race for a service utopia.

This leaves brands catering for the logical at the cost of the emotional; they are swimming in a sea of sameness, their senses dulled to their purpose, their soul, their driving force. Instead, they shore themselves up with brand content, advertising and promotions to offset customer indifference and disloyalty.

This brings me back to The Sex Pistols. Today, as we move away from the worst of the pandemic, but see so much of our daily lives still conducted online, what branding most needs now is a counterculture revolution.

In short, whats required is a culture with values and norms of behavior that differ so substantially from those of mainstream branding that, punk-like, stick two fingers up to three-click culture and overwrite the scourge that is simple brand design.

Brand owners must ask themselves: "Is my brand propped up by investment in content and advertising? Or is it standing on its own two feet before any promotion comes into play?" And if the answer to the first question is yes, which it probably is, it's time to stand up and do something about it or face the reality of being irrelevant.

Think beyond minimalism. By this I mean know your brand and what it stands for then, rather than strip it back for digital with a minimalist approach, expand it through a more human approach to brand design to create real personality. Be it B2B or B2C, think human-first, not frictionless-first, by default.

At the same time, enable customers to customize their relationship with a brand by giving them greater ownership of the relationship. For example, build points of friction into the UX where it best aligns with a particular part of the brand story.

Ikea asks customers to build their own furniture for a reason it wants them to be part of the process. Even Apple has now pivoted, wanting customers to be able to personalize more of the brand experience.

By not doing any of this, brand owners are missing a massive opportunity.

If I go to McDonalds for a coffee, I want the convenience of an instant, in-and-out, frictionless experience. But when I go out for dinner to a Michelin restaurant, the last thing I want is a functional-focused UX with my meal before me in 30 seconds.

Great experiences stand out when things are done differently. Its a human thing. Because as humans, we respond positively to efforts to treat us so and, even better, interactions designed to meet our emotional needs.

The same applies to great brands. The brands most willing to try new things, push the boundaries and take the counterculture path will more effectively leapfrog their competition, building greater customer experience. They will makes employee culture stronger, too. They will achieve all this without needing to lean so heavily on pricey promotion undertaken with the goal of offsetting declining brand relevance. The end result? Loyalty, recognition and value.

Wayne Deakin is global principal of creative at Wolff Olins.

Continued here:

The World Of Branding Demands A Counterculture Movement - The Drum

I didnt know much about American Arcadia before now, but after the new trailer from Summer Game Fest Im hooked. The 2.5D, 70s style intrigues me, and while we dont have a date yet, or even a confirmation of which consoles the game will be on, it looks like a unique experience I want to take in. Check out the info below, along with said new trailer!

STOCKHOLM June 9, 2022 Out of the Blue, developers of the critically acclaimed Call of the Sea, and Raw Furyhave revealed the first extended trailer ofAmerican Arcadiaduring todays Summer Game Fest. The world premiere gives players the first detailed look at this upcoming 2.5D platformer and first-person puzzler, where players explore the unique stories of two characters each with their own distinct gameplay whose lives and fates are intertwined.

Welcome to Arcadia, a 70s-style, retro-futuristic metropolis promising a life of luxury and comfort for everyone. Only, citizens dont realize theyre playing roles inAmerican Arcadia, the worlds most popular reality show thats been broadcasting live, 24/7, for decades, and their supposed utopia is not all it seems. Under the eyes of countless viewers, popular citizens lead a carefree life, but those who fall out of the audiences favor risk a more dangerous outcome

Trevor is just an average person living a mundane life, enjoying his daily routine and the small little things that make him happy, says Tatiana Delgado, co-founder and Creative Director at Out of the Blue. In the real world that wouldnt be a problem, but in Arcadia, not being popular enough means trouble. But hes found help from a mysterious voice promising to guide him throughAmerican Arcadias backstage to his freedom. Is this offer real, or merely a gimmick to raise audience ratings?

American ArcadiaFeatures:

Escape a 70s Televised Utopia: Discover a gripping story presented uniquely as a documentary, with character interviews and interrogations as you progress.

Two Experiences in One Game: Control two characters with completely distinct play styles: one a 2.5D side-scroller with challenging platforming action, breathtaking chases, stealth and puzzles, the other a full 3D first-person game with hacking, exploration, stealth elements and puzzles.

Rich Characters & Performances: Exceptional voice talent, including Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man,Prince of Persia,Call of the Sea), Krizia Bajos (Cyberpunk 2077,League of Legends) and Cissy Jones (Firewatch,Life is Strange,Call of the Sea), breathe life into a world of compelling characters.

Stay tuned to Gaming Trend for more American Arcadia news and info!

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Dive into a "blissful" utopia with the new trailer for American Arcadia - Gaming Trend

Leopoldstadt, Tom Stoppards much-heralded and uncharacteristically personal play about an early-20th-century Jewish family in Vienna, is coming to Broadway in September, bringing an unusually large cast and a pointed reminder of the perils of antisemitism to the New York stage.

Stoppard, 84, is one of the great dramatists of recent decades; his four best play Tony Awards, for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing and The Coast of Utopia, are the most of any playwright in Tonys history. Leopoldstadt will be the 19th production of a Stoppard play on Broadway since 1967.

Leopoldstadt, which begins in 1899 and continues through, and past, the two World Wars, chronicles 50 years in the life of one family. It is inspired by, but does not depict, Stoppards own family history; he was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, but fled to Asia with his family when he was a toddler, has spent much of his life in Britain, and only learned some details of his heritage in the 1990s.

Its two extraordinary hours where you go through this time and this exploration of a family: what they have to face, and how they come out the other side and deal with their past, cope with their present and think about their future, said Sonia Friedman, a lead producer. Being Stoppard its complex, but also incredibly emotional.

The Broadway production, with a cast of 38, is scheduled to begin previews Sept. 14 and to open Oct. 2 at the Longacre Theater. Friedman, who produced the Tony-winning best plays of the last three seasons before the pandemic, is producing Leopoldstadt with Roy Furman, another Broadway veteran, and Lorne Michaels, the Saturday Night Live creator.

Leopoldstadt began its life with a production in Londons West End in 2020 directed by Patrick Marber, which won praise from the New York Times critic Ben Brantley; that run, which was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, won the Olivier Award for best new play. The play then returned to the West End last year for a brief but profitable run.

In New York it is again being directed by Marber, who also directed the last Broadway production of a Stoppard work, a 2018 revival of Travesties. In a phone interview, Marber said that he was looking forward to a third go at the material, following the London runs.

Its a surprisingly enjoyable play to direct even though its very painful and sad, its also full of lightness and laughter, he said. Its fundamentally about memory, and time and love. But its also about fascism and immigrants and refugees. Its about everything its Stoppard.

Marber said that Stoppard has continued revising the play for New York, where he said he expects the play to resonate differently because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. With any play, whats happening in the real world affects the way you watch it, he said. Different things will pop out.

See the rest here:

Tom Stoppards Leopoldstadt Will Open on Broadway This Fall - The New York Times