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Global foreign investment falls by 42% | Govit-19 – haveeruonline
Posted: January 27, 2021 at 5:32 pm
Infectious foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 42% globally by 2020, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCDAT) announced on Sunday, which does not predict a recovery before 2022.
Foreign investment, which totaled $ 1.5 billion (2 1.2 billion) in 2019, fell to $ 859 billion (70 706 billion) last year, down from at least 30% in 2009 during the global financial crisis.
This year, the company maintains earlier forecasts of a 5% to 10% drop in foreign investment, underlining James John, Director of Companies and UNCTADs Investments, at a press conference to present these data.
Foreign direct investment is likely to recover in a U format, which is slower than foreign trade and GDP. [produto interno bruto] Globally, the V is expected to recover, as international investment plans are reacting somewhat too late to the crisis.
The contraction of foreign direct investment, especially in developed countries, has fallen to 69% its worst in 25 years and in developing economies to fall to only 12%.
This random trend has increased the share of investment in developing countries to 72% worldwide ($ 616 billion or 50 506 billion), the highest rate ever.
According to the regions, the European Union (EU) is one of the worst-hit areas, down about 70% to a total of $ 110 billion (90 90 billion).
Of the 27 EU economies, 17 foreign investment fell, including in Germany, Austria, France and Italy, while in Sweden it doubled and in Spain it grew by 52%, John said.
In the Spanish case, the director of companies and investments at UNCDAT said that this was due to the fact that Spanish companies were bought by a large number of foreign competitors.
An example of this is the acquisition of 86% of Operator Masma (owner of Portuguese operator Novo) by a consortium of US funds Providence, KKR and Sinven for $ 2800 million (00 2300 million).
Latin America was the growing region most affected by the health crisis in terms of investment, as FDI inflows fell by 37% to $ 101 billion (83 83 billion) by 2020, according to John.
In Brazil, foreign investment fell by 46% and in Peru by 76%. Colombia is down 49%, Argentina foreign direct investment is down 47% and Chile is down 21%.
In this region, Mexico is the country that recorded the lowest fall in foreign direct investment at 8%.
In Africa, the fall in foreign direct investment was 18% lower, while Asia was the best-resisting region, down only 4% last year, more than half of foreign investment ($ 476 billion). Or 39 391 billion).
China is also one of the few major economies to grow by 2020-23%, even increasing its investment by 4% to $ 163 billion (4 134 billion) compared to 2019.
This was due, among other factors, to policies that supported the entry of foreign capital recognized after imprisonment, which lasted less than other latitudes in this country.
In India, investment grew by 17% to US $ 57 billion ($ 46 billion), with the country benefiting from capital inflows into the digital economy.
In the United States, the index fell 49% to $ 134 billion ($ 110 billion), hit by a drop in investments by key partners such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
Investments Greenfield [primeira entrada de uma empresa num pas estrangeiro]This is a good indicator of future prospects, which totaled $ 547 billion (44 449 billion) last year, down one-third (35%) compared to 2019.
John concluded this year that investors will be cautious, indicating that the gradual recovery of the indicator depends on factors such as vaccination campaigns, new waves of Govt-19, state crisis recovery plans and the current weak situation. Large emerging markets.
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Big Ben-sized space rock among FIVE headed this way, as scientist proposes humans COLONIZE asteroid belt itself – RT
Posted: at 5:31 pm
While NASA warns of another five space rocks headed towards the Earth, one Finnish astrophysicist is proposing human colonization of the asteroid belt itself within the next 15 years.
As the Earth lurches out of month one of 2021, NASA has issued a brief, advising that five more asteroids that are potentially between 25 and 100 meters (82 and 98 feet) in diameter are due for close flybys before the month is up.
On Tuesday, the 25-meter asteroid 2021 BD3, with a diameter roughly half that of the Arc de Triomphes height, will pass the planet at a safe distance of 3.9 million km (3.9 million miles). A short time later, an object dubbed 2021 AL, which measures 40m in diameter or roughly five London buses end-to-end, will whizz past at a distance of 4.1 million km.
Next up, on Thursday January 28, will be the 40-meter space rock 2021 BZ, which will shoot past at 2.1 million km.
To round up a rocky start to the year, on January 29, asteroids 2021 AG7, which could be up to 100m in diameter or the same size as Londons Big Ben, and the 30-meter 2021 AF7 will pass the Earth at 4.2 million km and 6.8 million km, respectively.
Meanwhile, one forward-thinking astrophysicist proposes that, rather than asteroids coming to us, humans should instead colonize the asteroid belt, in as little as 15 years.
Dr. Pekka Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, has proposed the construction of habitable floating mega-satellites orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres, some 523 million kilometers from Earth, among the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Like something plucked straight from modern science fiction series, these disk-shaped settlements, linked by powerful magnets, would boast thousands of cylindrical structures which could house a total of 50,000 people who would all benefit from artificial gravity generated via floating cities slow rotation.
Janhunen also proposes space mining from Ceres as a means by which to set up an economy and make colonization profitable and sustainable, making use of space elevators to carry resources back to the pods and potentially back to Earth for processing.
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Big Ben-sized space rock among FIVE headed this way, as scientist proposes humans COLONIZE asteroid belt itself - RT
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Top Executives Like Elon Musk And Steve Jobs Are 64% More Likely To Set This Type Of Goal – Forbes
Posted: at 5:31 pm
getty
Its goal-setting season for companies and individuals alike, but not all goals are created equal. Some goals are far more likely to propel people into senior executive roles, and some goals are far more likely to turn average executives into legends.
In the study Are SMART Goals Dumb?, my firm Leadership IQ studied more than 16,000 people to discover what types of goals lead to breakthrough performance. And among the dozens of findings, heres one that will immediately impact your career trajectory.
Top Executives Are 64% More Likely To Set Difficult Or Audacious Goals
What separates the people who become top executives from everyone else? Is it luck? Or talent? Or ambition? The answer varies based on the exact circumstances, but theres one factor that seems to have a big impact, and its the extent to which someone sets really difficult goals vs. more achievable and realistic goals (e.g., SMART Goals).
As you can see in the chart below, when we analyze goal-setting behaviors by a persons level in the organization, we discovered that 54% of top executives set difficult or audacious goals, while that was true for only 33% of frontline employees. In other words, top executives are about 64% more likely to set difficult or audacious goals.
Data from the study "Are SMART Goals Dumb"
Now, its no guarantee that setting difficult or audacious goals will propel someone into the senior executive ranks. But the linear relationship between ones rung on the career ladder and difficult goals is striking. And for anyone interested in discovering the secrets to becoming a top executive, this is critical data.
Top Executives Are 91% More Likely To Enjoy Leaving Their Comfort Zone
Its not just difficult goals that are strongly correlated with being a top executive. Using an online test called Do You Set HARD Goals or SMART Goals?, the study revealed that top executives are far more likely to enjoy learning new skills and leaving their comfort zone.
The 12,801 people who took the online test were asked to choose between the statements, I dont like to leave my comfort zone, or, I will leave my comfort zone on occasion, or, I like to leave my comfort zone. And the data revealed that top executives are 91% more likely to enjoy leaving their comfort zone in pursuit of their goals.
There is a very strong linear relationship between how high a person ranks in the company and how much they are willing to leave their comfort zone in pursuit of their goals. Frontline employees and junior managers are more likely to enjoy the traditional status quo. By contrast, top executives are far more likely to enjoy leaving their comfort zone.
Steve Jobs And Elon Musk Set Really Difficult Goals
In a 1985 Playboy interview, Steve Jobs uttered his famous dent in the universe line. While his exact words have been misquoted countless times, what he actually said in reference to the types of people that Apple was hiring is still pretty difficult and audacious:
At Apple, people are putting in 18-hour days. We attract a different type of person: a person who doesnt want to wait five or ten years to have someone take a giant risk on him or her. Someone who really wants to get in a little over his head and make a little dent in the universe. We are aware that we are doing something significant. We are here at the beginning of it and were able to shape how it goes. Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.
Imagine instead that Steve had said, Were working eighteen-hour days because we think that we can reduce the fees you pay at the ATM from three dollars to two dollars. Does that statement rise to the level of making a little dent in the universe? Would that goal count as difficult and audacious? Probably not.
Elon Musk is considered by many people as one of Silicon Valleys most adventurous entrepreneurs, and he exemplifies setting difficult goals and leaving his comfort zone. From building a superhighway to the Moon to colonizing Mars, Elon doesnt set his sights on average goals. Tell him that something is a safe bet, and its a safe bet that he wont want to do it. Blogging about Teslas founding, Elon wrote:
I thought our chances of success were so low that I didnt want to risk anyones funds in the beginning but my own. The list of successful car company startups is short. As of 2016, the number of American car companies that havent gone bankrupt is a grand total of two: Ford and Tesla. Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared.
Its not everyone who will invest their own millions into an endeavor that has a strong track record of failure. But when you consider that Elons definition of success, then you begin to understand the drive to set difficult goals and leave his comfort zone.
Heres How You Can Get Started
Name the most significant and meaningful accomplishments in your life. Achievements that may have been professional or personal, or whatever. For example: When I started a new business, or The day I ran the Boston Marathon (and all the training that led up to it), or Standing in the starting gate at the Olympics, or That breakthrough product I invented, or When I nursed my sick child back to health, or When I got my college degree. Remember, its no ones call but yours to name the victories that have been the most important to you.
Now I want you to take whatever response you gave and ask yourself the following question; Is my goal for 2021 as difficult and audacious as those goals were?
If your 2021 goal passes the test, congratulations. But if it doesnt, then make your goal more difficult and extend past your comfort zone a bit more. And remember that youve actually pursued and accomplished these types of difficult and audacious goals before.
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The Expanse Drummer Actor On The Show’s Respectful Polyamory Representation – Screen Rant
Posted: at 5:31 pm
Amazon's The Expanse star Cara Gee talks about portraying polyamory, LGBTQ+ representation, and Camina Drummer's emotional journey.
Cara Gee, who plays Camina Drummer onThe Expanse, spoke highly of the shows representation of polyamorous characters. The critically acclaimed sci-fi drama was picked up for season 5 by Amazon after being canceled by Syfy in 2018. Based on the fiction novel series of the same name by James S. A. Corey, The Expanse takes place in a dystopian future in which the human race has colonized the solar system and Earth and Mars are in the midst of a cold war.
Cara Gee plays the character Camina Drummer, a leader of the Belters. Throughout the series Drummer became incredibly close with Naomi, played by Dominique Tipper, while working together on the warship the Behemoth, causing fans to point out their sexual tension and potential compatibility as a romantic couple. However, Naomi eventually returns to her previous ship, the Rocinante, and the two characters part ways. Season 5 finds Drummer, the leader of a polyamorous, queer family operating a tight-knit pirate fleet, consisting of the ships Dewalt (of which she is the captain) and Mowteng. Falsely believing Naomi to be dead, throughout the season, Drummer becomes close with Oksana, a crewmember of the Dewalt, played by Sandrine Holt, who helps Drummer deal with yet another devastating personal loss.
Related: The Expanse: Who Are The Belters? Origin, Purpose, & Real Meaning Explained
In a recent interview with Screenrant, the Canadian actress opened up about the importance, not only for the character of Drummer but also for the shows audience, of exploring Drummers sexuality and romantic life from a place of love.
Drummer's dynamic with Oksana is so warm, and of course with the whole crew, who have this very caring communal love. Can you talk about Drummer finding this connection?
Cara Gee: Thank you for asking. I was so excited that we got to represent this polyamorous Belter family. I think that respectful representation of polyamory is nowhere to be seen in the television landscape, and I'm so proud that we did that. I think that for our queer fans to see Drummer finally get hers is so satisfying.
Nobody shipped Drummer and Naomi harder than me and Dominique. But that was brutal. It's brutal to have the girl get away again, the heartache of being in love with a straight girl is a trope that we've seen. So, to finally see her - I wouldn't say happy under the circumstances of the show - but happy with the relationship, is really beautiful. The relationship between all of those polyamorous characters is so tender and vulnerable. And I'm so delighted with how it's coming across how it's turned out.
Although polyamory is not new to The Expanse's world-buildingit has been mentioned in the backstory of other charactersit has a much stronger representation in this current season with Drummers story. Gee fully embraces the fan community uplifted by the shows representation of LGBTQ+ characters and polyamory, evidenced, in part, by her frequent use of the hashtag #PolyamBelterFam to discuss the show on Twitter.
The Expanse joins the ranks of many current television shows aiming to showcase relationships with LGBTQ+ characters or relationships that are otherwise underrepresented and/or marginalized. Whats even more revolutionary is their ability to do so without exoticizing these relationships or portraying them as anything other than normal. While much more unpredictable drama is likely in store for Camina Drummer, audiences finally get to see her, if for a brief moment, in a loving relationship. One can only hope it lasts!
More: The Expanse Season 5 Has Majorly Improved A Book Character
Shadow & Bone Images: First Look At Ben Barnes As The Darkling
Nadira Goffe is a movie/TV news writer for Screen Rant. She got her masters in Media Studies at the University of Leeds in 2019. Additionally, Nadira is a podcast host, writer, and occasional baker. She is based out of her hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Szijjarto arrives on working visit in Kyiv | KyivPost – Ukraine’s Global Voice – Kyiv Post
Posted: at 5:30 pm
Published Jan. 27 at 12:05 pm
(L) Pter Szijjrt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary and (R) Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine met to discuss the relationships between the two countries including the protection of rights of the Hungarian national minority in Kyiv on Feb. 7, 2020.
Photo by kmu.gov.ua
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said that he would discuss with Minister of Foreign Economy and Foreign Affairs of Hungary Peter Szijjarto, who is on a working visit to Ukraine, how to develop trust in relations between Ukraine and Hungary, move forward in the spirit of mutual respect and good neighborliness.
I am glad to welcome Minister of Foreign Economy and Foreign Affairs of Hungary Peter Szijjarto during his visit to Ukraine at my invitation. Lets talk frankly about how to develop trust in relations between Ukraine and Hungary, move forward in a spirit of mutual respect and good neighborliness, Kuleba wrote on Twitter on Jan. 27.
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Szijjarto arrives on working visit in Kyiv | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice - Kyiv Post
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Galleries Made More Connections with New and Young Collectors in 2020 – Artsy
Posted: at 5:30 pm
Predictably, online outreach was crucial for making sales in 2020, as digital storefronts replaced physical ones. Walk-ins to brick-and-mortar spaces and fair participation had been the second- and third-biggest contributors to sales for galleries, respectively, in 2019; last year, they were fourth and sixth. Galleries cited their own websites as the second-most important channels for making sales in 2020, followed by social media. Amid those shifts brought on by the pandemic, the most important sales channel remained consistent from 2019 to 2020: direct outreach to existing clients, which accounted for 28% of galleries total sales for the year.
Third-party online marketplaces like Artsy held steady from 2019 as the fifth-most important channel for sales in 2020, though the percentage of respondents who said they used an online marketplace dropped from 86% in 2019 to 75% last year. This may reflect a significantly larger survey pool (up from 1,008 respondents in 2019), but also the reality of many galleries launching their own bespoke online sales platforms amid the pandemic shutdown. More than one-third (34%) reported participating in an online viewing room, 31% took part in a virtual exhibition, and 30% hosted a virtual walkthrough or artist talk.
In addition to digital engagement, another key factor in galleries making sales in 2020 was price availability. Among galleries that reported not making a single sale in 2020, 65% said they never displayed prices for artworks. Many galleries did prioritize visible pricing in 2020, and the number of artworks with prices available overall ticked up year over year, from 63% to 69%. This may be partly due to the fact that many fairs strongly encouraged galleries participating in their online editions to publicly post prices or price ranges.
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Oil Rig Spaceports. What on Earth could SpaceX be doing | by Samantha Falcucci | ILLUMINATION | Jan, 2021 – Medium
Posted: at 5:30 pm
Two old oil rigs have been spotted in South Texas sporting giant name tags of Mars moons. Who other than SpaceX and Elon Musk would be behind such an acquisition?
SpaceX is refurbishing two former oil drilling rigs near their Brownsville, TX site. Aptly named Deimos and Phobos after Mars two moons, these future spaceports may be our terminals to deep space. Musk first revealed his vision for offshore launch and landing facilities in 2017 in its Earth to Earth plan a captivating video showcasing passengers boarding a Starship from the NYC coastline and landing in Shanghai in 39 minutes. Starship has since evolved into the spacecraft synonymous with Mars colonization as the worlds most powerful launch vehicle able to carry over 100 metric tons to Earth orbit. However, these futuristic plans are logistically dependent on a whirlwind launch schedule to support Starship refueling and launch-landing operations. This will require a lot of sites certainly more than Cape Canaveral and Boca Chica. Consider how efficient and frequent the airline system would be if the United States only had HOU and MCO airports.
But rockets are loud. Super Heavy Starships with over forty Raptor engines are really loud. Unless Zillow plans to add proximity-to-spaceport and sonic boom noise pollution to real estate listings, the launch pads may need to be located elsewhere. Placing spaceports farther in an unpopulated landscape offshore helps to combat noise levels, establish a wider perimeter of safety, and leverage a vast aquatic surface area for more launch pad facilities.
SpaceX is building floating, super heavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth Elon Musk, June 2020
Photos spotting the rigs earlier this week show Deimos already emblazoned with its name on lifeboats and heliport. The two oil rigs will require extensive adjustments before the vision is realized and SpaceX has quite a bit still to prove with Starships viability to not only carry humans but launch and land in one piece. Last month, SpaceX completed a high-altitude flight of its SN8 prototype by sending it about 40,000 feet above the Texas coastline. Despite a crash landing, it provided valuable data for the team to iterate on and was deemed successful. SN9 is rolled out on the pad and has been undergoing static fire tests over the last few days, and space fans have been eagerly tracking Boca Chica airspace and local road closures. Though on Thursday evening, amidst very thick fog, another off-nominal static test fire occurred.
No country or private company has launched deep space missions from oceanic platforms but thats certainly never stopped SpaceX from anything. Over the weekend, they kicked off 2021 by launching another set of Starlink satellites and elegantly landed the Falcon 9's first stage on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean for a record 8th time. Theyve certainly got landing on water down so the only way left is up.
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Empathize with Trump voters? A Progressive and a Libertarian agree to disagree – KUOW News and Information
Posted: at 5:24 pm
Two multiracial Biden voters meet through Curiosity Club and learn that a political disagreement can be the start of a conversation instead of the end of one.
Jerome Hunter and Mellina White met at a virtual Curiosity Club dinner party on November 19, 2020, shortly after the 2020 presidential election.
To watch a 6-minute film from Mellina and Jerome's Curiosity Club dinner, go here.
Curiosity Club is KUOWs bookless book club testing the possibility that a shared meal and public radio stories can transform a group of strangers into a community. I'm the producer and facilitator of this nerdy experiment.
The night Jerome and Mellina met, there were fourteen of us gathered for our virtual dinner party. We talked about pandemic roller skating, the #MeToo movement, Black joy, and, of course, the election.
Days later, I was still thinking about an interaction that got a little tense between Mellina and Jerome towards the end of the dinner. And so, in the spirit of Curiosity Club, I invited both of them back to Zoom for a follow up.
Fearlessly facing the possibility of an awkward conversation, they both agreed, and the three of us came together to find out if a political disagreement could be the start of a conversation, instead of the end of one.
At the heart of their disagreement was Mellinas insistence that in order to move forward, the Left and the Center have to do a better job of understanding and connecting with Trump voters.
Jerome still wasnt convinced by the end of our conversation. However, there was empathy and laughter along the way anyway as the pair explored the perks and challenges of being both mixed race and surprisingly optimistic in America.
Producer Kristin Leong talks with Jerome Hunter and Mellina White to explore the perks and challenges of being multiracial, while agreeing to disagree about what will bridge the divide in America following the fraught 2020 election. (13 min)
To learn more about Curiosity Club and to find stories from our nerdy supper club experiment, visit KUOW.org/CuriosityClub.
To find answers to FAQs about Curiosity Club, go here.
To be the first to know when the application cycle opens for the next cohort of Curiosity Club, follow our Community Engagement team on Twitter @KUOWengage, and sign up for our monthly KUOW Conversations newsletter here.
KUOW is committed to ongoing feedback and conversation with our community and we invite your participation. If you are willing to share your thoughts or have ideas for a conversation KUOW could pursue regarding this story (or any other) you can email us at engage@kuow.org, leave a voicemail at 206-221-1926, or text the word feedback to 206-926-9955 to leave a text response.
We may be in touch with you for further conversation, or about publishing what you tell us as part of a potential follow-up piece on community response. Please make sure you leave your name and your contact info.
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STATE: Constitution, Green parties no longer recognized in North Carolina – The Stanly News & Press | The Stanly News & Press – Stanly News…
Posted: at 5:24 pm
RALEIGH, N.C. The Constitution Party and the Green Party are no longer recognized political parties in North Carolina.
Both parties failed to turn out the required 2 percent of the total vote for their candidate for governor or for presidential electors in the 2020 general election. Voters who register or update their registrations will no longer be able to affiliate with either party.
The State Board of Elections will meet on Feb. 23 to decide when to change the affiliation of voters registered with the Constitution and Green parties to unaffiliated status. State law says the State Board shall not make this change until at least 90 days after the general election.
The Constitution Party and the Green Party did not meet the threshold to continue as recognized political parties in North Carolina, said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. The parties may be recognized once again if they meet the requirements for a political party as specified in state statute.
The Constitution Party of North Carolina was first recognized as a political party in June 2018; it had about 4,600 members for the 2020 election. The Green Party was recognized in March 2018; it had about 3,600 members statewide.
There are 17 voters registered with the Green Party and 49 voters registered with the Constitution Party in the county, according to Stanly County Board of Elections Director Kimberly Blackwelder.
Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party requested to continue as a recognized political party because its candidate for president was on the ballot in at least 35 states, meeting the 70 percent threshold required by law.
The State Board of Elections is expected to consider the continued certification of the Libertarian Party at a meeting on Feb. 23. Currently, about 45,000 N.C. voters are registered Libertarians.
Per state law, a recognized political party is:
Any group of voters which, at the most recent general election, polled for its candidate for governor, or for presidential electors, at least 2 percent of the entire vote cast for governor or presidential electors.
Any group of voters that files with the State Board of Elections petitions for the creation of a new political party signed by 0.25 percent of the total number of voters in the most recent election for governor. Also, the petition must be signed by at least 200 registered voters from three N.C. congressional districts.
Any group of voters that files documentation that the group of voters had a candidate nominated on the general election ballot of at 70 percent of the states in the most recent presidential election.
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Book Review: When A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, nobody wins (except the reader) – NPI’s Cascadia Advocate
Posted: at 5:24 pm
In his book, A Libertarian Walks into a Bear, the journalist Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling details the turbulent, in some ways tragic history of the ambitious political project to turn a small, New Hampshire town into a free market, capitalist paradise. In the process, he relates how those pursuing the project ran into the complications caused by nature, the people already living there, and eachother.
And I dont have enough good things to say aboutit.
A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate An American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling (Hardcover, PublicAffairs)
From the entry point of interviewing a disabled veteran about her troubles getting the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover the expenses of making her rural home actually accessible to her, Hongoltz-Hetling felt the need to delve into U.S. history, political extremism, environmentalism, philosophy, government, class, parasitism, religion, and fire safety.
Across two hundred and fifty-three pages that often read as much like a novel as a work of nonfiction with its intrigue and frequent credible threats of gun violence, he paints a series of surprisingly sympathetic portraits of figures who its also clear most would not willingly share a community with given their strong political opinions on what obligations, but mostly lack thereof, members of a community actually owe one another.
Starting in 2004, several hundred people from around the United Stateslargely white, largely male but exceedingly diverse in their eccentricitiesmoved to the about 1,100-person city of Grafton, N.H., as part of the Free Town Project.
A small core had picked it specifically thinking the people there were already predisposed to liberty and anti-government sentiment and would welcome the changes brought by this unannounced influx.
Largely, this was not existing residents feelings toward the new arrivals.
If youre a reader of the Cascadia Advocate, there wont be a surprise in Hongoltz-Hetlings descriptions chapter by chapter, person by person, of the corrosive, compounding effect had on society through a concerted effort to keep taxes low by avoiding investment in any public resources or services.
Even the roads worsened, but the town also refused to take ownership of any new public spaces, such as an old church offered by the previous congregation for free. They frequently voted down funding for such needs as the volunteer fire department, and therefore regularly had need of the resources of the surrounding communities which did fund their own departments sufficiently.
One of the major points of division between local Libertarians was overfires.
One of the existing residents and, by most standards, fringe political figures John Babiarz had helped kick off everything by inviting outside Libertarians to come take over the town, but he also was the Grafton Volunteer Fire Chief and took fire safety quite seriously.
This makes sense to the rest of us as fires are not a threat that can be privatized; actions on ones own sovereign property affects everyone around them as well. But this is also dangerous logic if naturally extended to, well, any other subject, so Babiarz found himself on the outs when he came to put out dangerous campfires during dry seasons, thereby representing the repressive government jackboot he claimed to oppose, or at least this is what he represented to even more extreme members of the community.
The book, subtitled, The Utopian Plot To Liberate An American Town (And Some Bears) does keep coming back to that problem of overly familiar to the point of aggressive bears showing no real fear of people and even willing to invade isolated peopleshomes.
Like with fires like with many things the fundamental assumption of those in the community that what I do with my property is my business does not hold up against the reality that some people living in unzoned camps and no garbage collection service will provide a lot of food for bears; some people covering their trash in cayenne pepper to try to keep bears away; some stringing up electric fences; some shooting at them; and at least one woman going out of her way to buy doughnuts because she thought they looked awfully thin, is very confusing for the bears! The conditions a person creates on one sovereign property does not stop magically at the boundary line of sovereignty.
All sorts of utopian projects run into challenges, and perhaps its not fair to blame these Libertarians for not having foreseen the troublesome effects of inconsistent bear policies when they chose a location.
But if the last year of pandemic has taught us anything, its that this sort of political and philosophical orientation isnt something thats just a weird quirk or harmless bit of polite, abstract disagreement.
The philosophy boils down to, If I have the power to do something, I have the right to do it, and not only the right to do it, it is good for me to do so and an increase in liberty, regardless of what impact there is on anyoneelse.
It is a real danger.
We see it has a real cost, socially, publicly, universally. The tyranny of this sort of liberty has meant many of us with what would be called underlying conditions on our death certificates have in our homes for coming up on ayear.
You cant tell me I have to wear a mask, or close my business, or not travel, or get vaccinated. Or tell me not to bring my gun anyway I want to defend myself with it, even when Im instigating confrontations and taking umbrage at perceived slights.
Multiple times, the author relates how he is implicitly and explicitly threatened by the people hes interviewing, usually for just being a journalist, asking questions. Yeah, strict constitutionalists respect the First Amendment, but what does it say in the Second about the right to bear arms
In a pivotal chapter, just before he tells the story of how, in 2012 after many threatening could-have-beens, a bear actually came to attack a middle-aged, single woman inside her own rural home, nearly killing her among that would-be Libertarian utopia, Hongoltz-Hetling includes this short passage from theBible:
While Elisha was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead! And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of theboys.
2 Kings 2:2324
This story is one of the most infamous passages in the entirety of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, and deservedlyso.
Traditionally, Jewish commenters have characterized the prophet Elishas behavior in negative terms, drunk with his newfound power, left alone after his master Elijah went up to heaven in a chariot but newly blessed with a double portion of Elijahs spirit. For early rabbis, the debate was not over whether it was OK to use miraculous powers to murder dozens of young lads (it was not); the debate was over how many miracles were included as described; was it just the bears or the appearance of a forest, too? The related phrase neither bears nor forest (lo dubim ve lo yaar) even became idiomatic for something that never happened.
For some Christians, particularly white evangelicals, the takeaway from the story is quite different. They tend to tie themselves into knots to explain how actually, the 42 dead lads might have been young men as old and as thirty.
And actually,baldhead was a terrible sort of insult, and meaning they were insulting Elijah and God, not Elisha. And anyway, they shouldnt have jeered a man as powerful as a prophet of God, so actually,they had it coming.
Right-wing Libertarians are disproportionately Protestant, but even when atheist or otherwise religiously unaffiliated, cultural Protestantism predominatesCalvinism without any gods but Mammon superseding.
Following the attack, a gang of the Libertarians in Grafton eventually expressed their understanding of freedom by ambushing multiple hibernating bears and blowing them away in a hail of gunfire as they slept in theirdens.
This was good, in their minds, because it wasnt the government, and they and their guns had the power to do so. In the long run, it ended up not solving the problem but just hurting a lot of people and animals under the maximal pursuit of narrow selfishness, but whatever.
Thats the price of freedom.
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