Category Archives: New Utopia

No, they were not all talking at the same time. Screenshots from Tuesdays meeting (clockwise from top left): First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell, Fourth District Supervisor Virginia Bass, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson, Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman and Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone.

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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday had some major money-management decisions to make, including how best to spend the latest influx of Measure Z revenues, and also which strategies are needed to address exploding pension liabilities.

And, of course, there was more talk about the pandemic.

Dr. Ian Hoffman, Humboldt Countys health officer, struck a tone of cautious optimism with emphasis on the caution during his latest update on local conditions surrounding COVID-19.

Reading from prepared remarks, Hoffman said that while theres a lot to rejoice for in this wonderful season of spring and rebirth, local case counts have begun to rise again, more than doubling from a rate of just two per 100,000 residents last week to four-and-a-half per 100,000 this week.

Most of the new cases are popping up in young people, and Hoffman theorized that precautionary measures that have been established in schools and on playing fields arent necessarily being followed once kids are on their own.

He also spent a good deal of time encouraging people to get vaccinated.

Vaccine opens up opportunity, Hoffman said, though he reminded people that youre not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after the last dose in your series (meaning the second dose of either Pfizer or Moderna or the one-and-only shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).

Fully vaccinated people should continue to wear facial coverings and social distance in public, but theyre free to travel without getting tested or quarantining afterwards, he said. And fully vaccinated people can safely visit among themselves indoors, no masks or distancing required.

However, Hoffman added, even if youre vaccinated, you should avoid medium- to large-size gatherings, and you should continue to mask and distance in public and at work.

Regarding last weeks announcement that 10 local residents have tested positive despite being fully vaccinated, Hoffman noted that this was fully expected, and they represent a tiny fraction just 0.03 percent of the 30,000-plus local residents whove been fully vaccinated. All 10 were either asymptomatic or extremely mild cases, he added.

Hoffman took a few moments to paint a picture of the joyous experiences awaiting the fully vaccinated:

So imagine: crisp Humboldt evening, Crabs Stadium on the night that all those in attendance show proof of vaccination. You could be at full capacity within that vaccinated section, cheering alongside your friends and neighbors without having to sit six feet apart.

A fully vaccinated section of Van Duzer Auditorium in Arcata or [the] Fortuna High School gymnasium could increase the capacity to 50 percent in the orange tier and 75 percent in the yellow tier again, allowing you to sit in close proximity with your neighbors and friends whove been distanced from for the past year.

This means seeing your favorite bands, theater, comedy, high school drama, middle school bands, youth sports with your family, friends and neighbors sitting alongside.

Its all possible with the vaccine.

How does one reach this utopia? Well, if youre not already vaccinated, you should be keeping your eye on two websites, Hoffman said. One is MyTurn, a state-run website that Humboldt County Public Health recently started using to book its mass-vaccination clinics. Those clinics have administered more than 6,300 vaccine doses. Thats more than 5 percent of the eligible population of the county vaccinated at our mass vaccine site in the past two weeks alone, Huffman said.

The other website to use is the federal governments VaccineFinder, which connects patients to local pharmacies and clinics receiving their vaccine supply through federal COVID programs.

Hoffman noted that some people have experienced glitches with the MyTurn site, and he encouraged folks to list their location as simply Humboldt County, rather that entering a specific zip code, to get a full list of available clinics.

Humboldt County Public Health is starting up a mobilization unit to get out to our homebound or hard-to-reach rural areas, Hoffman said. Open Door and United Indian Health Services have also been doing mobile outreach to the homebound, homeless and hard-to-reach populations over the past few weeks and will continue to expand in the coming weeks .

Meanwhile, society continues to reopen, with more and more businesses resuming or expanding operations and local residents planning weddings, conferences, sporting events, graduations and morewith increasingly detailed guidance from the state.

In the meantime, we must remember that COVID-19 is still out there, Hoffman warned. Variants of concern are spreading, and most of our population is still not protected with the vaccine. Case counts could continue to climb if people dont follow safety precautions, and such trends could jeopardize the statewide goal of removing the Blueprint framework of tiered restrictions come June 15.

Wear a mask, distance in public and get vaccinated as soon as you can get an appointment, Hoffman urged. If you are vaccinated, encourage [your] family, friends, neighbors and coworkers to do the same thing so you can join together.

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Next, the Board looked at the latest set of funding recommendations from the Citizens Advisory Committee on Measure Z Expenditures. Measure Z, as you no doubt recall, is the half-percent countywide sales tax measure passed by voters in 2014 as a means of boosting funding for public safety and other essential services.

Generally speaking, there has been less money available to be doled out each year as more and more of the revenue is absorbed by ongoing expenditures mostly staff costs tied to previously approved projects. For the upcoming 2021-22 fiscal year there was a bit more than $12.5 million in revenue available for allocation, though $8 million of that is already spoken for, as explained above.

That left about $4.5 million to be disbursed not nearly enough to cover the $7,308,985 in requests that came via 30 applications from various county departments and outside agencies. And so, over the course of five public meetings, the Citizens Advisory Committee developed a ranked list of funding recommendations, which it delivered to the board via a letter, which you can read by clicking here.

Glenn Ziemer, the chair of the committee, said public interaction was way lower this year than in the past, a phenomenon he blamed on meetings being held via Zoom thanks to COVID. Nicholas Kohl, the Fourth District representative on the committee, echoed that sentiment, saying,I was very concerned that [the public is] starting to miss part of the process and were not getting a full view of what our citizens want to prioritize.

But the committee still managed to come up with its ranked list, with the top-ranked suggestion being nearly $2 million to the Humboldt County Fire ChiefsAssociation and Southern Trinity VolunteerFire Department to cover equipment, dispatchservices, insurance costs and more.

Second on the list was $440,565.91 to the Kima:w Medical Center for rural ambulance and emergency services, followed by $390,000 to the Eureka Police Department for various public safety and homeless service initiatives.

Other agencies slated to receive Measure Z funds next fiscal year include the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office, the police departments from Arcata, Fortuna and Rio Dell, the countys public works department and the Eureka Broadcasting Company. (Read the letter linked above for details.)

After some discussion, including the observation that Measure Z funds are insufficient to even put a dent in the countys road-maintenance needs, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson made a motion to direct staff to take the recommendations of the Measure Z Citizens Advisory Committee forward in the budgeting process. First District Supervisor Rex Bohn seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

The countys 2021-22 budget will be finalized at a future meeting, though these approved expenditures will likely remain in place.

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Lastly, in the snooze-inducing conclusion to the morning session, the board received a lengthy presentation on pension funding policy. While the topic may be boring as you delve into the details, Deputy County Administrative Officer Sean Quincey explained at the outset how big the stakes are.

Over the last 20 years, the countys annual contributions towards pension costs have grown exponentially, and without a strategy going forward these costs will threaten the countys ability to provide many vital local services, Quincey said.

Indeed, the county currently has more than $330 million in unfunded pension liability. Over the past 11 years, the countys required pension expenditures have ballooned from 18 percent of total payroll costs to nearly a third of payroll costs.

Quincey noted that the board has taken various steps in recent years to curb this exponential growth, and today the board was asked to approve a policy allowing employee salary deductions to beplaced in a pension account. The board was also asked whether the county should pursue a short- or long-term funding strategy for a federally authorized post-retirement account called the Section 115 Pension Trust.

A trio of public investment professionals delivered presentations explaining how this public sector debt has grown in recent years think the dot-com crash at the turn of the century, the Great Recession, increased life expectancy and lower-than-expected investment returns. They also delved into what the county is doing about it while looking toward the future.

Dan Matusiewicz, from a consulting firm called Government Resource Group, said there has been a shortfall due to underperforming investments, and the discussion of the year, in the government realm, is whether or not to take on more risk.

After Matusiewiczs presentation, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn commented, Were not in great shape, but were not in bad shape. Would that be a good way to Cliff Note it?

Matusiewicz allowed that Bohns summary was apt.

The board members all agreed that adopting a long-term funding strategy is the right move, and in a unanimous vote they directed staff to adopt the pension funding policy in question.

Thrilling stuff.

See original here:

TODAY in SUPES: Cautious Optimism on Local COVID Conditions, Plus the Latest Measure Z Awards and a Bracing Dose of Pension Funding Policy Talk - Lost...

New York City mayoral candidate and UBI proponent Andrew Yang. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ... [+] Images)

Andrew Yang, when he ran for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination last year, pushed the idea of a universal basic income (UBI). The scheme to give every American a government stipend regardless of need went nowhere (as did Yangs candidacy) despite considerable UBI boosting from a number of journalists and prominent tech barons.Now Yang is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for New York Citys mayor.Though his platform has a lot of worthy elements and his candidacy has appeal on several levels, he continues to push a form of UBI, which remains a bad idea on several levels. It is the same for new UBI experiments in upstate New York as well as in Stockton, California and that states wildly affluent Marin County a universally bad idea.

Candidate Yang has certainly toned down his UBI ambitions. As a presidential candidate, he wanted to give $12,000 a year to everyone in the country for an estimated annual cost of $2.8 trillion. For New York City, he wants $2,000 a year for citizens in extreme poverty, a lower price tag than last years proposal certainly but perhaps less manageable for New York City than the trillions would have been for the federal government. Candidate Yang says that he knows where he can get the money by ending the tax-exemptions enjoyed by operations such as Madison Square Garden. Even if there are enough such entities to raise the required funds, there are many better ways for the city to spend the money than on UBI, by improving the subways, perhaps or cleaning the streets, filling potholes and fulfilling many more of the citys primary obligations better than presently.

Whether at a city or a national level, UBI could not, as some more libertarian boosters claim, substitute for other entitlements programs. Certainly, Yangs proposed $2,000 a year, even concentrated at the most needy, would fail to cover the needs of New York Citys disadvantaged. An enlarged stipend would still fail to acknowledge other important facts of life. Substituting a UBI for welfare or, as some have suggested, using a broad UBI to substitute for Social Security at the national level, would certainly encounter political resistance. A broad UBI as a substitute for Social Security and Medicare would constitute a partial transfer from the old to the young, and using it as a substitute for disability insurance would constitute a partial transfer from the disabled to the able bodied. Such considerations, once widely understood, might well dissolve any public support for UBI, except perhaps among undergraduates who would simply see in it more beer.

The vulnerabilities of the disadvantaged would also thwart the feasibility of using UBI even as Yang now proposes in New York, much less as a substitute for family support. Many of these people have trouble managing their finances. The predominance of payday loan operations in poor neighborhoods, along with furniture leasing outlets and the like, speaks not only to the cash-short nature of residents, but also to their susceptibility to hucksters. Noteworthy in this regard are Census Bureau statistics that estimate how 11 million American adults barely have basic literacy skills and some 30 million have difficulty completing basic financial forms. Without the guidance and strictures of present welfare arrangements, many less fortunate recipients of these stipends would find themselves either bilked out of them or would spend them too quickly. Surely, a Mayor Yang would balk at telling financial incompetents who have spent their allowance too fast to tighten their collective belts and await the next check.

If these considerations were not sufficient reason to question the wisdom of a UBI scheme, the evidence from various trials is not especially encouraging. A Bureau of Labor Statistics study of people on unemployment discovered, for instance, that they spent more time in front of the television and sleeping than upgrading their working skills, as some UBI proponents say it would do. A similar study on disability recipients revealed similar patterns. Statistics from earlier federal pilot programs on negative income tax, a variant of UBI, are equally discouraging. Between 1968 and 1980, Washington made four controlled trials of negative income tax, involving thousands of people across six states. Hours of work desired by all recipients fell some 9% below to those not in the program. They fell some 20% for married women and 25% among single women heads of household.Desired work among single men fell some 43% below non-recipients. If those receiving the negative income tax lost their job, the spell of unemployment lasted two months longer on average than with non-recipients and 12 months longer for married women.

There is an additional consideration, less quantifiable but perhaps more significant than any of these others. Even in a scarcity-free utopia, where a UBI would presumably be easy to grant, the transfer would do people harm.Simply giving people the means to acquire necessities and the material pleasures of life would effectively make every citizen a ward of the state or whatever entity does the giving. That is fine for children. It binds them to dutiful parents. But it would undermine the independence of adults and in so doing steal the sense of responsibility for themselves that undergirds self-respect. It would create a nation (or city) of sheep and do people and the society considerable harm, perhaps even destroy them.

Originally posted here:

A New Try With UBI: As Wrongheaded As Before - Forbes

It is a surprising 28 years since Groundhog Day passed into common English usage as shorthand for an apparently endless repetition of events with no escape though it seems like only yesterday.

I got the same feeling on reading last weeks UK and EU statements about their latest talks on the Northern Ireland Protocol, referring to difficult outstanding issues and the need to intensify efforts in coming weeks. To complete the sense of dj vu, we are again a matter of days away from an already postponed end-of-April deadline for the European Parliaments ratification of the wider Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which it has made contingent on the Protocol being made to work.

We are, in addition, still grappling with new EU export health certificate requirements entering into force this week, not to mention preparing for the delayed introduction of UK border controls later this year. My point is that we are still a long way from any semblance of normality to borrow a term from the Covid recovery lexicon when it comes to trading with our nearest and biggest partners.

While headline export figures for February do appear to show a significant bounce back from January (a rise of 46.6% compared with an earlier fall of 42%) simple arithmetic tells us this still only 85% of where we were. But most of this rebound was in sectors like machinery, cars and chemicals, none of which face the extra costs, delays and complexities of SPS checks and controls, or their knock-on effects on transport rates. Dairy, meat and fish in particular are nowhere near pre-Brexit levels, evenif you allow for the drop-offs from other factors such as the closure of hospitality.

In short, inconsistency and uncertainty have become the hallmarks of moving goods to market, undermining the predictability vital to any business operation. But the missing word for everyone is margin. Getting volumes and values back up may prove to be the easier part of the challenge.

Trade is also a two-way street. For every new export opportunity outside the EU, someone will be seeking reciprocal access to our market. It is not yet clear where that balance of advantage is going to lie for UK food and farming.

One other fictional title that has passed into everyday speech is Utopia. We are still a long way off that, too.

Here is the original post:

Brexit uncertainty and inconsistency means UK-EU food trade is still in limbo - The Grocer

21/04/2021 Blog / By ZAM Reporter

This group show investigates everyday objects and aspects of our daily lives that inspire the emergence of creativity as well as the unexpected mediums that serve as canvases.

Including artworks that are derived from, or stand in place of, everyday utilitarian objects, the exhibition includes such unlikely mediums as walking-sticks, motorbikes, ceramic tableware, and unique couture.

Featuring Nyambo MasaMara, Laylaa Jacobs, Kevin Collins, Razia Myers, Hanna Noor Mohamed, Jeanius Exchange, Petrus Sekele, Petra Vonk, Ziyanda Majozi, and Coast and Koi.

The artists perpetually upend the distinction between an aesthetic and a utilitarian decision. Challenging the viewer to examine gender identities, dystopian and fictional realities, as well as everyday innuendos in a whole new way.

'Beyond Borders' by Nyambo MasaMara, an acclaimed fashion designer, who debuted as a visual artist last year, is inspired by his solo migration at age 13 from Rwanda as a refugee to South Africa. With his Pan-African futurist vision his photos and sculptures conjure up images of a profoundly spiritual and tenacious journey. Laylaa Jacobs body of work, entitled 'The taste of the fruit' is a metaphor on ethnic and cultural assimilation. Her vibrant prayer mats are a personal anecdote about sexuality, religion, and belonging as a Muslim woman in Western society.

Kevin Collins ceramic plates, are fashioned into a whimsical portrait, composed of metaphors, symbols, and inflections. Hanna Noor Mohamed employs reanimated objects and media to emphasize both global and subjective lived experience, history, and reality. Her work, which grapples with the psyche, physicality, and metaphysics surrounding these encounters, aims to illustrate them through satire and the construction of relationships between object and meaning-making. She borrows from pervasive television and film culture, transforming still images into witty abstract vignettes. Razia Myers also plays with popular culture. 'Utopia', draws from her observation of fashion runway performances and is invigorating in its vibrancy and exuberance. Nature, vitality, sensuality, fantasy, and an outlook on a future of hope and optimism are at the core for Myers.

Petrus Sekele's carved figurative walking sticks continue in the footsteps of his woodcarving heritage. Sekele, incorporates satirical contemporary iconography in vividly painted compositions. For mosaicist Ziyanda Majozi, her chosen medium is a fighting and talking tool. She focuses on issues that affect women and LGBTQI+ communities. Petra Vonk,Coast and Koi and Jeanius Exchange use unapologetic maximalism, but also gender-inclusive ethos at the intersections of fashion and art. As Oscar Wilde stated, "one should either be a work of art or wear a work of art".

Artists have always pushed the boundaries and challenged our preconceptions. Over time, the purpose of art has been represented as expressing feelings or emotions, reinforcing a sense of splendor, designating experience, or exploring new ideas for their own sake.

The Covid-19 pandemic altered our engagement with art and how we interact with it in our daily lives. Digitization and augmented reality have provided us with new cultural experiences. When our normal escapes or utopias were cut off, our ordinary possessions magnified. Homes were converted into art studios, libraries, restaurants, and classrooms.

OPENING: Satuday 17 April @ 11AM - 2PMLOCATION: Jaffer Modern Art Gallery, Vib Hotel, 7th Floor, 181 Main Road, Green Point, Cape Town, South Africa

See the original post:

17.04.2129.05.21, Cape Town | Art of Everyday Things - ZAM - ZAM Magazine

After downsizing and going digital in 2020, Earth Day events remain small and digital this year due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

But events ranging from beach cleanups to book discussions are planned locally for the internationally-recognized day Thursday, as well as into the weekend of what has become known as Earth Day Week.

In order to ensure groups remain small, registration is required for in-person events hosted by Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group and the Port of Anacortes.

Heres the event lineup:

PORT OF ANACORTES BEACH CLEANUPS

The Port of Anacortes is organizing cleanups Thursday at three local beaches. They will be held 1 to 3 p.m. at Railroad Avenue, N Avenue and Ship Harbor beaches.

We are expanding our efforts to three locations to ensure social distancing and maximum benefit to the beaches, the event announcement states. We will follow current pandemic guidelines.

Masks are required. The port will provide gloves, trash bags and trash pickers for volunteers, as well as a thank you gift at the conclusion of the event.

LA CONNER BOOK DISCUSSION

Seaport Books in La Conner will host an outdoor meet-the-authors event featuring Jack Hartt and Maribeth Crandell.

The duo will share the stories behind their works, including Hartts Exploring Deception Pass and Two Hands and a Shovel, Crandells Flip Flop on the Appalachian Trail, and their collaborative book Hiking Close to Home that features Fidalgo, Whidbey and Guemes island trails.

The bookstore offers meet the author events each month. This months event will begin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday outside the bookstore at Gilkey Square along the La Conner waterfront.

The Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, in partnership with Samish Island Camp and the Samish Indian Nation, is inviting volunteers to help free the trees at Scotts Point from invasive English ivy.

English ivy climbs the native trees and eventually causes them to die, removing important coastal erosion buffers, the event notice states. By removing the ivy well give these trees a new lease on life!

Registration is required in order to manage group size. Two shifts are being offered, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Each shift will be limited to 25 people, who will work in groups of five.

Masks are required and it is recommended volunteers bring gardening gloves. Additional gloves and tools will be provided on site.

The Skagit Land Trust owns and manages hundreds of acres of conservation lands throughout Skagit County, and this Earth Day is launching an effort to encourage more visits to those properties.

At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, the land trust will host an online event over Zoom to introduce community members to iNaturalist, a free-to-use website and mobile app.

This year instead of gathering together on the land, we are inviting you to visit our properties and make some discoveries! the event announcement states.

Your observations will help create an ecological survey for each Skagit Land Trust property, the event notice states. These surveys will help guide stewardship and management efforts throughout Skagit County.

The land trust recommends visiting the Barr Creek, Cumberland Creek, Day Creek, Guemes Mountain, Hurn Field, Tope Ryan or Utopia conservation areas.

See the article here:

Local events planned in honor of Earth Day - goskagit.com

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Absolutely frivolous, thats how the Supreme Court termed Waseem Rizvispetitionto remove26versesoftheQuran. While dismissing the petition,the Court also imposed a fineof Rs50,000 on the petitioner.Rizvi had alleged that these verses promoted enmity and violence against non-Muslims.

Waseem Rizvi should have taken his case to where it belonged the Islamic scholars, both traditional and modern,not the Supreme Court of India for a reinterpretation, not deletion of the verses.A review of Islamic theology and shaping of a new mode of religious thinking is long overdue among Muslims.

TheQuranneeds a new meaning, and a new interpretive classicism, to carry forward the achievements of modernity and enlightenment, not a rehashing of antiquated commentaries.

But Waseem Rizvi has been a man in such hurry for political celebrity as not to pauseanddraft a legally sustainable and intellectually tenable case. So riddled has been his petition with such elementary mistakes as quoting chapters and versesthatdont even exist in theQuran, and building a case on the basis of pedestrian canards, sectarian stereotypes and motivated gossips that it had been really liberal of the Supreme Court to admit it.

That such a petition could be admitted has been a cause of consternation since the Supreme Court adjudicates matters pertaining to the Constitution, not scriptures. If one were to draw on Stephan Jay Goulds schema of science and religion asNon-OverlappingMagisteria, the Constitution and theQuran one being a rational human document and another a result of mystical inspiration exist in their separate domains without impinging on the other.

Also read: Waseem Rizvi: Meet the most anti-Muslim Muslim man in India

Scriptures dont change. Their readers do. With changing times and values, new insights are brought into the reading of scriptures, and ever new meanings are discovered in them. Islams doctor maximus,Ibn al-Arabi(d. 1240), insisted that every time a Muslim recited a verse from theQuran, it should mean something different tothem.

Scriptural interpretation doesnt seek to revive a mythical utopia.It reinventsthe scripture to make it speak to our contemporary predicaments.

All religious scriptureshave mattersthatdont accord with modern sensibilities. Violence, misogyny and xenophobia are rife in them, yet they are considered sources of numinous elevation and consolation.

Most religious scriptures have once been a source of law. But their communities no longer regard them as such. Scriptures bring them intimations of the transcendent, not the legislation for the contemporary society.

Readers of other religions have stopped deriving law from scripturesand given it an interpretationthataccordswith contemporary sensibilities by reading down the offensive parts. Similarly,Muslims can read modern values into Islam too.

Muslims, however, continue to regard theQuranas the supreme source of law.So,a conflict is created between the laws of the secularState and the idealised Shariah, which gets accentuated on issuessuchas the treatment of minorities, gender justice and the commitment to democracy and secularism.

Insofar as other communities dont derive laws from their respective scriptures, dont claim to be inspired by them in their worldly affairs, and dont try to restore their utopian past, the anachronistic verses of their religious books are not dug out to make a case against them.

TheQuranuses many self-descriptors for itself such as the Recitation, the Book, the Reminder, the Warner, and the Bearer of Glad Tidings, but nowhere does it use an epithetthatcould remotely be considered an equivalent of law.

TheQuran, in its own words, is free from discrepancies (4:82, 39:23). But the reductionism involved in extracting laws for everyday life was bound to throw up myriad contradictions given the multitudinous diversity of human affairs.

Also read: Islams crisis doesnt need Reformation. It calls for relocation

The Fuqaha (Islamic jurists) were not equal to the spiritual and mystical dimensions of theQuran. Instead of reconciling these contradictions in the spirit of Coincidentia Oppositorum(the unity of opposites),they took an easy recourse to voiding those versesthatdidnt fit in their juristic model. This methodology is known asNaskh(Abrogation), wherein one verse overrides another, effectively rendering it juristically and normatively redundant without actually expunging it.

Asunnat, anhadees, or theijma(consensus of Islamic jurists) is also employed forreading downversesthatdont cohere with their jurisprudence. The famous jurist and exegete, Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201), named no less than 247 abrogated verses. On the lower side of the scale, Shah Waliullah of Delhi (d. 1762) kept the number to a meagre five.Naskhis the domain of Islamic theologians and jurists. The court of law of a secularState such as the Supreme Court of India is not the right forum for it.

Another hermeneutic and methodological tool of Islamic jurisprudence, theology and Quranic commentary is the concept ofSabab Nazul the occasion or the context of the revelation of a particular verse. Besides shedding light on the historicity of a verse, it also weighs the rationale for its trans-contextual extrapolation. Thus, if a particular verse,such as theSword Verse (9:5),could be understood only in its immediate context of revelation, its relevance would be purely historical and academic, not prescriptive and emulative.

Also read: Indian madrasas are thought-influencers. Their funding, modernisation should be priority

TheQuranis a book of some bulk consisting of as many as 6,236 verses. A few of them are taken out of their historical and textual context in isolation from the preceding and succeeding verses to impute malice to it. The blame for this disingenuous method, however, has to be placed on the shoulders of the conventional interpretive stylethathas been thriving on random quotation of a verse, or a part of it, to clinch an argument. Such has been the validity of this tradition that the ideological superstructure of the political Islam has been built without this methodology being brought into question with no more than 10-15 verses culled arbitrarily from here and there. So much so that the phrase,aqeem us-salat, whose standard translation is, be constant in prayers,was interpreted to mean a mandate for the establishment ofanIslamic state. Such instrumental use of theQuranmakes it vulnerable to a similar misuse by its detractors.

Till the time violence and obscurantism keep deriving legitimacy from theQuranand its classical interpretations, Islam will remain exposed to calumny.Mainstreaming a modern mode of Islamic thinking, an advance over the modern principles of liberty and justice, is an ineluctable exigency.

Najmul Hoda is an IPS officer. Views are personal.

(Edited by Neera Majumdar)

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Liz Henry knew she was moving her family of four into a very small space in 2013. The blue cottage between two larger houses stands out on the block, due to its lack of size.

But it wasnt until after the lease was signed that she discovered 48 Cortland Ave. in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco was the Shelby Mustang or Stradivarius of tiny houses: one of dozens of surviving 1906 earthquake shacks that are still scattered around the city. Some are lived in by people who dont realize their celebrity status.

It was very exciting, Henry says. I got into reading the history of how they were built. I remember going to look at the property records online and just seeing the official record listed as refugee shack.

There were once 5,610 refugee shacks in 11 San Francisco parks, assembled with lightning speed in the months after the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. Today, there are fewer than 50 identified in the city. But those that remain are a symbol of civic vision, built in a bureaucracy-free utopia that included a partnership among city officials, labor unions and the U.S. Army. Theyre also a symbol of post-crisis rebirth, designed to house the displaced workers who built back San Francisco better than ever.

And today, 115 years after the disaster, theyre the most visible reminder of the citys most defining event preserved by a shifting collection of regular citizens and nonprofit history organizations, advocates so dedicated to the shacks that they feel like a religious order.

14 Elsie Street, a surviving 1906 earthquake refugee cottage, is seen in San Francisco, California Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (Stephen Lam / The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Shack historian John Blackburn with the Bernal History Project volunteer research group sent The Chronicle a file that includes data sets, images and a 426-slide PowerPoint presentation. Asked what inspires him to spend so much time cataloging the small homes, when hes never lived in one, the retired private investigator answers, Everything.

They were simple, elegant, functional and timely, says Blackburn, a longtime Bernal resident. They served a need, and they are still serving a need all these years later. They are in essence the beginning of the tiny house movement, which today is all the rage.

The house builders werent being trendy when they started mass-producing shacks months after the earthquake and fire. Half of San Francisco had burned to the ground, and refugees moved to tent cities in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and other green spots. But the shelters were a ticking clock. Relief leaders feared they would become waterlogged and disease-ridden when heavy rains arrived later in 1906.

A tent camp in Golden Gate Park, April 1906, after the Earthquake and fire. (Chronicle Archive 1906 | San Francisco Chronicle)

Using redwood and fir lumber sent from Washington state and Oregon, the cottages were built in tight clusters in the parks with cooperation among the San Francisco Parks Commission, headed by John McLaren, the San Francisco Relief Corporation and the Army. Tenants paid $2 monthly rent on cottages valued at $50, with the option to own. And in 1907, many shack owners hauled their new property using literal horse power, becoming starter homes in empty lots across San Francisco and beyond.

They served the purpose while the city rebuilt, Blackburn says. They housed the working San Franciscans who helped put this city back on track after the 1906 earthquake. And then they were scattered about. Daly City, Manteca and all the places they went to. Even Santa Cruz has one.

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

Photo: Chronicle Archives

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

San Franciscans still live in 1906 earthquake shacks. Heres why they matter more than ever

Thats where the utopian vision ends and San Francisco NIMBYism begins. As early as 1907, newspapers report Glen Park residents fighting earthquake shack families from moving in because their property was being injured.

But the homes and their working class residents were welcome in Bernal Heights, where a large camp of cottages existed in Precita Park, and the great majority of the surviving San Francisco shacks stand today.

(Blackburn and the Western Neighborhoods Project, a nonprofit that recently saved $180,000 worth of Cliff House artifacts at auction, list more than 40 shacks in various databases. A couple dozen are deemed certified, and many are hidden from the public eye. Blackburn believes more are yet to be discovered.)

One of four restored earthquake refugee shacks from Kirkham Avenue in San Francisco is moved for display on Market Street in 2006.

LisaRuth Elliott, a community historian and textile artist who has worked in international disaster recovery, says living in the earthquake shack she occupied until recently near Powhattan Avenue in San Francisco was a wonderful adventure.

It was very much like living on a boat, Id say. Very small, she says. We have a fascination in our culture of living in tiny houses. I really got a sense of what it meant to be in an efficient space.

The great majority of earthquake shacks were 10 by 14 feet, or 14 by 18 feet, with a stove but no kitchen or plumbing. Most were altered to add a bathroom and expand the living space often by linking multiple shacks together like houses in the board game Monopoly. (They were even painted the same color park-bench green.) Elliott thought her space was two shacks, only to discover her bedroom was a converted chicken coop built some time in the first half of the 20th century.

Liz Henrys family relaxes inside the Cortland Avenue home in Bernal Heights where she used to live. The structure was a modified 1906 earthquake shack.

Henry says her familys main living area at 48 Cortland Ave. was almost comically small; even with two bedrooms added on, the house is just 600 square feet. From the outside, the Cortland house resembles the one from the movie Up, in a valley between two much larger structures. But, Henry says, her now-grown children appreciate their memories of the space, which was like living in a log cabin.

It meant we all had to know how to get along, she says, and how to respect each others privacy and boundaries.

Elliott says she lived with space challenges, including food storage in a mini-fridge meant for a hotel room. The original shacks had pegs on the wall to hang clothes, and some of the survivors dont have much more. But all the shack-dwellers salute the sturdiness of the structures, betting that the redwood frames and simple peaked roofs could last a couple more centuries.

And of course, when you live in an earthquake shack in San Francisco, you also feel like youre already sort of one step ahead of the game if theres a bigger earthquake, Elliott says.

LisaRuth Elliott takes a photo inside the Bernal Heights home where she used to live, which was a modified 1906 earthquake shack. (Courtesy LisaRuth Elliott | San Francisco Chronicle)

Ultimately, rising property values, not the elements or natural disasters, have been the biggest threat to the shacks survival. As values climbed across the city, shacks were frequently razed and replaced by structures with 10 or 20 times the square footage. In the 1980s, a race began to save as many as possible from being demolished and replaced.

Jane F. Cryan is the godmother of shack-tivism. She moved into a cottage at 1227 24th Ave. in the Sunset District in 1982 and began collecting data on shacks, lobbying for preservation and eventually getting her rental home registered as City Landmark #171. Blackburn and San Francisco History Association member Vicky Walker (who once lived in the 48 Cortland Ave. shack) have shepherded this history into the present.

Cryan moved out more than a decade ago, priced out of San Francisco and now living in Wisconsin. But in an email interview, her memories of first setting eyes on the shack still read like poetry.

I knew instantly it was a monument to my dreams, a replica of the little houses surrounded by white picket fences I had treasured in childhood magazines and books, Cryan says.

Landmark no. 171 is actually an assemblage of four shacks. Cryan says golden light filtered through the 26 windows in the front and 16 windows in the rear shack. A recent inhabitant started an Instagram account about living in the landmark at 1227 24th Ave.

The Western Neighborhoods Project got its start in 2002 saving four earthquake shacks on Kirkham Avenue in the Sunset one of which found a home at the San Francisco Zoos Conservation Corner. Another pair, the so-called Goldie Shacks, were rescued with help from Cryan and can be publicly viewed behind the Old Post Hospital in the Presidio.

But many shacks have met other fates. Blackburn talks in more somber tones about 281 Nevada St. in San Francisco, a home that once had an entire earthquake shack within it, like a Russian nesting doll of real estate.

It was in the dining room, Blackburn says. The guy who used to own the house just didnt want to tear the shack down.

Sold in 2015, the property was recently demolished to build a new home.

(There are reportedly five shacks in the backyard of one Pacific Heights residence, although Blackburn says the owners prefer to stay out of the public eye.)

Perhaps more than the physical spaces, preservationists love the shacks for their design perfection and what they symbolize. Theyre living reminders of San Francisco at its very best, a community setting aside obstacles to build many small things, for the greater good of the entire city.

San Francisco natives Marsha and Bryan Britt stand on the sidewalk as they visit 1227 24th Avenue, a San Francisco City Landmark and a home made up of three Type A and one Type B 1906 earthquake refugee cottages after reading about its existence in San Francisco, California Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (Stephen Lam / The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Blackburns giddy passion about earthquake shacks goes to a darker place when he thinks about the pandemic, and the struggle to house people whose lives are at stake. The cottages, he says, are a reminder of the challenges that our modern society is too fractured, too stubborn or too unambitious to conquer.

It is phenomenal what human beings can do when they have the will to do it in the midst of a crisis, Blackburn says. People do not learn from the past. They have allowed themselves to be bullied into submission.

Elliott says that living in a piece of surviving history makes her think about the kind of world shed like to live in.

Maybe (the modern version of the shack) is not a structure. Maybe its a system, she says.

Elliott has seen ambitious earthquake shack-style thinking during the 2020-21 pandemic, but at the neighborhood level by organizations such as the Mission Food Hub food bank and the Free Farm Stand.

Elliott and Henry both moved out of their earthquake shacks within the past year. Elliott needed a bigger space for her art, and Henry moved to a new home in Bernal just a few blocks away.

Blackburn, who winters in Tucson, Ariz., and admits hes behind in his cataloging, says he hopes interest in the shacks outlives him, just as it has for previous generations. The lessons of the shacks, he says, are timeless.

They banged these things out in a day. And people ended up having great lives in them and raising their kids and the city became whole, Blackburn says. It could happen again.

Peter Hartlaub is the San Francisco Chronicle culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

Originally posted here:

San Franciscans still live in 1906 earthquake shacks. Here's why they matter more than ever - San Francisco Chronicle

The pandemic suddenly forced millions of workers out of the offices to work from home. Before the pandemic, flexible-office companies like WeWork made up a growing sliver of real estate 2.3% of leasable space in the US as of the first quarter of 2020, according to JLL research, and the sector has grown an average of 23% per year since 2010.

Now, insiders predict a short-term pinch for the industry, as employees fear returning to people filled floors and as some of the small businesses that relied on these spaces have reduced their headcount. Addressing these concerns will be of paramount importance for co-working space providers.

Addressing the elephant in the room

Given the current situation, anyone is bound to think twice before deciding to work out of a co-working space. Addressing these concerns that weigh down on everyones mind will be critical for co-working space providers such as Spacemade and WeWork. How will the companies make sure that users are comfortable enough to return back to coworking spaces?

To make this happen, Jonathan Rosenblatt, co-founder and co-CEO at Spacemade notes that establishing trust is of paramount importance. Businesses dont want to think about building compliance, air quality, sanitisers, extra cleaning and more, but they do want all of that to be taken care of. Thus, the trust rests with flexible workspace operators.

Spacemade is a first-of-its-kind operational partner for landlords looking to provide a bespoke flexible workspace offer directly to their customers. The group has over 100,000 sq ft of flexible office space under operation in London, Leeds and Bristol. The business was founded by Jonny Rosenblatt and Dan Silverman. Recently, the startup also bagged 1 million funding to grow its flexible workspaces in the UK.

WeWork, the most controversial name in this space, failed to become public, last year and got battered hard. Industry experts believed that it was time for the co-working player to make peace with the sunset, but a year and a pandemic later, the office-sharing firm is still standing strong.

UKTN also had a chat with Mathieu Proust, General Manager from WeWork UK and he emphasises how the company is working really hard to make sure their spaces are as safe as possible. The company has invested heavily in doubling up on sanitisation, installing HVAC systems for constant air filtration and regularly sanitising frequently used elements like door handles and lifts.

Additionally, it even changed the layout for some of its offices to enable a roomier environment and to shape users behaviour within a space. WeWork also obtained third-party certification from Bureau Veritas, which ensures that they are actually living up to the high standards of sanitisation.

Overall, establishing trust with consumers, having mitigations in place and delivering on promises of sanitising their spaces will be crucial for coworking spaces to thrive again.

Moving towards the flexible new normal

Both WeWork and Spacemade have numerous buildings available across London. While some of their spaces follow the modern dynamic workspaces landscape, others are collaboration hubs. These hubs are geared towards enabling idea exchanges with no traditional desk or chairs layout and a lot of whiteboards.

WeWork also recently launched All Access, which is its monthly membership. It is different from its standard subscription as one receives their badge, which grants access to any of the companys buildings around the world. Essentially, it makes the entire city your campus. One can open the app and decide if they dont want to work in the same location as yesterday. If they have a client meeting in Victoria, for example, they can work in a location nearby, Proust explains.

WeWorks Growth Campus

WeWork also recently announced an allocation of 15 million for subsiding rents for struggling SMEs. Additionally, in London and other cities, it will provide free mentoring and education opportunities to help SMEs recover.

It is no surprise that the work from home scenario has changed our lives forever. However, it is something that will be difficult to support indefinitely because it hampers collaboration and in turn, innovation. For smaller and even medium-sized companies, collaboration serves as an important tool to fuel innovation. WeWork aims to deliver it through Growth Campus.

Additionally, Growth Campus will also enable a new generation of entrepreneurs to come into the limelight. Proust calls them the COVID generation of entrepreneurs, which is something WeWork wants to be a part of. In the UK, specifically, we witnessed the rise of new entrepreneurs. Last year, new business formations stood at 13% and thats why we created Growth Campus, to do our part and give something back to the SMEs and the entrepreneurial attitude, Proust adds.

WeWork will consider any company under the new program if their employee headcount is below 20 and if they have a vision to scale within the UK or internationally.

Changes for co-working spaces in a post-pandemic world

Rosenblatt predicts that in a post-pandemic world, where almost everything is changing, the short-term outlook will be highly competitive. This is expected to create notably attractive pricing propositions for the customers. If this turns out to be true, it will be good news for end customers as it makes returning to the office even more attractive.

Talking about mid-to-long term changes, he says there will be a pretty seismic shift to a more flexible and hybrid work approach as flexibility also means one can repurpose their office. Flexibility is key and we see most businesses moving towards using space on demand with requirements such as different spaces for different uses throughout the week. This can be difficult for businesses to deliver without professional support from specialist co-working providers, Rosenblatt adds.

The future for coworking spaces

It can be difficult to accurately predict whats going to happen next in any sector at the moment. However, Proust opines that the future for co-working spaces is all about flexibility.

Proust notes, Now that places are reopening, were going back to a new normal. But what is the new normal? This could look something like enabling members to choose how many days they want to work and what can we set up for them. Do they want an exciting office? And those are the kind of problems we are solving.

Rosenblatts thoughts align similarly as well. He says, The question we need to ask is; if youre a team of 10, on the days that youre in the office, would you rather have a small leased space with no amenity, or would you rather have access to thousands of sq ft of the hospitality-driven workspace where you can be surrounded by new people to interact with?

New coworking spaces in the works

For current and future plans, Both WeWork and Spacemade are opening more co-working spaces across London and the UK. SpaceMade recently launched a new space, Neighbourhood Works at London Fields a few weeks ago and many new spaces are said to be in the pipeline.

As for WeWork, it recently opened up a new space in Shoreditch. It is also in the process of curating new workplaces all around the UK.

Read the rest here:

From dystopia to utopia: How UK co-working spaces are redefining the new normal - UKTN (UK Technology News

Friday April 2nd, the Hollywood Signs O was filled with a cow face painted on an overhanging sheet. To the bafflement of many, there seemed to be no accompanying meaning or promotion behind the stunt. Just a cow. When three of the alleged cow-vandals were arrested, they told the officers at the scene that there was: No political cause whatsoever.

One of the people arrested that day was 21-year-old artist Danny Cole. While he couldnt speak of his alleged vandalism, he did post process photos on his Instagram in the weekend following. Everyone keeps asking what the meaning of the cow is but the whole purpose is for everyone else to make it whatever they wanted it to be, he told Observer.

Cole is an American painter and interdisciplinary artist based in New York. Hes self-taught, getting kicked out of art class in high school and moving to New York at age 18 with the hope of creating a utopian world. One that I can invite people to and where people are able to explore and imagine protected from harms way, he elaborates.

Up to today, the young artist has mostly focused on painting as his medium, creating colorful large-scale paintings and the occasional piece of street art live experiences and community projects.

Speaking to Cole about his work and process can leave you baffled as the cow-painting without context. Building a career around portraying imaginary worlds, its not hard to see how his signature creatures (the figures in his paintings) manifest in his head. He speaks highly conceptually, with his mind in his clouds and his work following suit.

These creatures arent the only creatures in the universe but theyre the ones that I have felt personally connected to, he says. Theres one, in particular, thats been in my mind for two years and Ive been trying to wrap my head around this overwhelming divinity where the first time I met this creature. The exchange, he says, took place at the front door of this palace. Her skin, she adds, was white and shiny and each of her body was divided into sections.

Coles interest in the imaginary stems from his interest in what is real. He says hes often pondering about shared reality and how many people need to believe something for it to become real. Could it just be one person [who decides something exists]? Everything in the world is truly just in our perception, he told Observer. I think it is a phenomenal thing to assess what can reality be and ask ourselves what do I want reality to be and how can I make that a reality right now?

While it can be hard to bring Cole back down to earth for long enough to get a solid answer about his future plans. He will continue to work with his friend Greg Aram from LA-based musical duo Junior Varsity, who was also allegedly involved in the cow incident (along with photographer Landon Yost) and uses cow imagery in their latest release. This, they say, doesnt mean the Hollywood incident was a PR stunt.

Instead, when talking about his future work, Cole swears that hes currently building a spaceship. When asked if the spaceship is metaphorical or another art piece, he laughed then urged persistently: It is a spaceship.

Im very determined that Im going to have a spaceship that will get me closer to being able to more immersively explore and participate in all of these seemingly far away, phenomenal things and define the places in the universe that we are in right now, he says. The spaceship is already under construction and its around 65% done. Meaning youll be seeing it shockingly soon. This timeline, he says, equates to roughly the upcoming summertime in New York.

If youre looking for answers about the cow piece, Cole has very few. In fact, hes establishing himself as the type of artist to come up with a bunch of questions. With this in mind, its natural to expect the same bizarre elements in the next spaceship release and beyond. With work that can leave us all scratching our heads, Coles mission as an artist is complete. After all, hes working to take us on a journey through the imaginary and leave us questioning what is real, and if something even needs to be real to matter or make an impact.

See the article here:

Artist Danny Cole on Dreams of A Utopia of Creatures and Vandalism - Observer

If your 2021 biking goals include tackling a national park, youre in luck: Acadia National Park, New Englands only national park, offers one of the most epic national park bike rides in America, according to Bicycling magazine.

The carriage roads at Acadia National Park are among the 13 best national park rides in America, according to the publication, which called the spot a utopia for cyclists of all ages and levels.

Each park is a national treasure in its own right, and though there are plenty of ways to explore, from hiking to running to scenic tours, were partial to thinking that riding through them on a bike is the best way to reap the great rewards of discovery, history, beauty, and awe, the publication wrote about the list.

Heres what Bicycling magazine had to say about Acadia National Park:

Acadia National Park is a utopia for all ages and levels of cyclistslargely due to the 45-mile network of crushed-rock carriage roads that are closed to motor vehicles. The park comprises most of Mount Desert Island in Maine and offers incredible panoramic views of the Atlantic Coast from the top of Cadillac Mountain, which is famous for being one of the first places in the U.S. where the sunrise is visible each morning. The climb up is smooth and gradual with stunning views. Ride it in the summer when the wind chill at the top isnt so badyoull want to linger and soak in the views.

Check out the entire list of 13 best national park rides.

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New England has one of the most epic national park bike rides in America, according to Bicycling magazine - Boston.com