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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
April 4, 2021
How These Danish Bees Give Hope to Refugees
BY AGOSTINO PETRONI
7 MIN READAPR 2, 2021
(YES!) "It was wonderful before the war,” says Aref Haboo, a 48-year-old agricultural consultant describing Shie, the small village in the Afrin province of northern Syria he called home. There, for 18 years, Haboo had taken care of 50 honeybee colonies spread among olive groves, orange cultivations, and vineyards.
“If I got sad or stressed, I would make some food and coffee and go lie in the shade near the bees to see how they fly, how they collect nectar, and I would listen to them,” Haboo says.
But in December 2013, as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) started taking control of the country, he knew he had to leave. ISIS militants blocked the road to Haboo’s village and threatened to kill him. Haboo sold everything he owned and rented out his house to gather the $12,000 needed to flee the country.
....(snip)....
Since then—and in the face of rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the European Union over the past decade—Bybi has worked to integrate new arrivals to Copenhagen by taking care of honeybees. With some 150 colonies in 30 locations across Copenhagen, Bybi employs marginalized people to plant flowers in windowsills, place beehives on rooftops, and harvest and pack honey. In so doing, the group is bringing the benefits of biodiversity to this urban area.
To further overcome social divides, Maxwell partners with nonprofits, businesses, and municipalities to try to involve as many people as possible in the world of beekeeping. Pia Staalgaard, the sustainability coordinator from the Frederiksberg Municipality, has been working with Bybi since 2016, keeping beehives at one of the municipality’s social institutions for people with severe autism. .............(more)
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2021/04/02/denmark-refugees-honeybees
How These Danish Bees Give Hope to Refugees
How These Danish Bees Give Hope to Refugees
BY AGOSTINO PETRONI
7 MIN READAPR 2, 2021
(YES!) "It was wonderful before the war,” says Aref Haboo, a 48-year-old agricultural consultant describing Shie, the small village in the Afrin province of northern Syria he called home. There, for 18 years, Haboo had taken care of 50 honeybee colonies spread among olive groves, orange cultivations, and vineyards.
“If I got sad or stressed, I would make some food and coffee and go lie in the shade near the bees to see how they fly, how they collect nectar, and I would listen to them,” Haboo says.
But in December 2013, as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) started taking control of the country, he knew he had to leave. ISIS militants blocked the road to Haboo’s village and threatened to kill him. Haboo sold everything he owned and rented out his house to gather the $12,000 needed to flee the country.
....(snip)....
Since then—and in the face of rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the European Union over the past decade—Bybi has worked to integrate new arrivals to Copenhagen by taking care of honeybees. With some 150 colonies in 30 locations across Copenhagen, Bybi employs marginalized people to plant flowers in windowsills, place beehives on rooftops, and harvest and pack honey. In so doing, the group is bringing the benefits of biodiversity to this urban area.
To further overcome social divides, Maxwell partners with nonprofits, businesses, and municipalities to try to involve as many people as possible in the world of beekeeping. Pia Staalgaard, the sustainability coordinator from the Frederiksberg Municipality, has been working with Bybi since 2016, keeping beehives at one of the municipality’s social institutions for people with severe autism. .............(more)
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2021/04/02/denmark-refugees-honeybees
April 3, 2021
President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan injects new hope into the MTA’s long-stalled plan to extend the Second Ave. subway into East Harlem and would help dislodge a backlog of other big-budget transportation projects in New York.
Biden called on Congress to authorize $85 billion to “modernize existing transit and help agencies expand their systems to meet rider demand,” which could help pay for the $6.8 billion extension of the Second Ave. subway line from 96th St. to 125th St. and Lexington Ave.
The extension would be the second of four planned phases of the new subway line, which was first planned in the 1920s but has since resulted in just three stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Sts.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority built several segments intended for the Second Avenue line in the 1970s, including one stretch between E. 110th and E. 120th streets. Construction was halted in 1975 due to the city’s financial crisis, and never restarted. ...........(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/infrastructure/news/21216801/ny-bidens-infrastructure-plan-could-mean-progress-for-nycs-longstalled-second-ave-subway
Biden's infrastructure plan could mean progress for NYC's long-stalled Second Ave. subway
President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan injects new hope into the MTA’s long-stalled plan to extend the Second Ave. subway into East Harlem and would help dislodge a backlog of other big-budget transportation projects in New York.
Biden called on Congress to authorize $85 billion to “modernize existing transit and help agencies expand their systems to meet rider demand,” which could help pay for the $6.8 billion extension of the Second Ave. subway line from 96th St. to 125th St. and Lexington Ave.
The extension would be the second of four planned phases of the new subway line, which was first planned in the 1920s but has since resulted in just three stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Sts.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority built several segments intended for the Second Avenue line in the 1970s, including one stretch between E. 110th and E. 120th streets. Construction was halted in 1975 due to the city’s financial crisis, and never restarted. ...........(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/infrastructure/news/21216801/ny-bidens-infrastructure-plan-could-mean-progress-for-nycs-longstalled-second-ave-subway
April 3, 2021
William F. Buckley and the Birchers: A myth, a history lesson and a moral
William F. Buckley claimed he had banished far-right paranoia from the conservative movement — but look at it now
By CORMAC KELLY
APRIL 3, 2021 1:00PM
(Salon) The story goes like this: in 1962, the leading conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. used his magazine National Review to condemn the far-right John Birch Society. The denunciation isolated the Birchers and their wild conspiracy theories within America's conservative movement and led to their downfall.
The story is a myth, reliant on half-truths and omissions to make it convincing. Yet in articles and books, Buckley repeated it again and again. As the Republican Party grapples with QAnon believers and Trump loyalists, the myth that Buckley saved conservatism from extremists has been repeatedly cited as fact to explain how the party of Lincoln can save itself.
The truth is far more interesting. It shows that extremism in America's conservative movement has ebbed and flowed since the 1950s, yet never disappeared. Buckley claimed to have vanquished the Birchers, acting as the gatekeeper of American conservatism. Yet when Barry Goldwater became the first conservative presidential nominee of a major political party in 1964, it was the Birchers, not Buckley, who played the key role. The Birchers had a profound impact on American conservatism, a fact Buckley wished to expunge. He wanted to make conservatism respectable. To acknowledge the influence of the Birchers would be an admission of failure.
It's true enough that Buckley and the Birchers represented opposite wings of American conservatism. Buckley was the erudite face of conservative intellectualism, a self-described "intellectual revolutionary" against the liberal order. In 1955, he founded National Review, which became the publication for highbrow conservative opinion and carried conservatism into America's mainstream intellectual discourse. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/03/william-f-buckley-and-the-birchers-a-myth-a-history-lesson-and-a-moral/
William F. Buckley and the Birchers: A myth, a history lesson and a moral
William F. Buckley and the Birchers: A myth, a history lesson and a moral
William F. Buckley claimed he had banished far-right paranoia from the conservative movement — but look at it now
By CORMAC KELLY
APRIL 3, 2021 1:00PM
(Salon) The story goes like this: in 1962, the leading conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. used his magazine National Review to condemn the far-right John Birch Society. The denunciation isolated the Birchers and their wild conspiracy theories within America's conservative movement and led to their downfall.
The story is a myth, reliant on half-truths and omissions to make it convincing. Yet in articles and books, Buckley repeated it again and again. As the Republican Party grapples with QAnon believers and Trump loyalists, the myth that Buckley saved conservatism from extremists has been repeatedly cited as fact to explain how the party of Lincoln can save itself.
The truth is far more interesting. It shows that extremism in America's conservative movement has ebbed and flowed since the 1950s, yet never disappeared. Buckley claimed to have vanquished the Birchers, acting as the gatekeeper of American conservatism. Yet when Barry Goldwater became the first conservative presidential nominee of a major political party in 1964, it was the Birchers, not Buckley, who played the key role. The Birchers had a profound impact on American conservatism, a fact Buckley wished to expunge. He wanted to make conservatism respectable. To acknowledge the influence of the Birchers would be an admission of failure.
It's true enough that Buckley and the Birchers represented opposite wings of American conservatism. Buckley was the erudite face of conservative intellectualism, a self-described "intellectual revolutionary" against the liberal order. In 1955, he founded National Review, which became the publication for highbrow conservative opinion and carried conservatism into America's mainstream intellectual discourse. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/03/william-f-buckley-and-the-birchers-a-myth-a-history-lesson-and-a-moral/
April 2, 2021
(Bloomberg) American liberals often look north for a vision of what could be. Canada: land of publicly funded health care, evidence-based gun regulation and immigrant-driven multiculturalism.
These virtues are not exactly myths. The population of Vancouver, where I have been for the past several weeks, is roughly equal parts European Canadian and Asian Canadian, with each representing more than 40% of the total. But Canada is not liberal Valhalla, and Canadians, contrary to the Dudley Do-Right clichés, are not always super nice. As Americans grapple with a Covid-era spike in racist violence against Asian-Americans, there is evidence of a similar wave in Canada.
A new report, funded by the Canadian government, suggests that Canadians of Asian descent have been targeted for abuse by their countrymen. Compiled by civic groups such as the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, the report documents “anti-Asian racism across Canada one year into the Covid-19 pandemic.” From March 10, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021, researchers recorded 1,150 anti-Asian incidents in Canada. They included physical assaults, instances of coughing or spitting on victims, and verbal harassment.
Amy Go, president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, told me that there were more anti-Asian incidents per capita in Canada in the past year than in the U.S. In Vancouver, police documented 98 anti-Asian hate crime incidents last year, up from 12 in 2019. ..............(more)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-02/anti-asian-hate-crimes-in-canada-show-racism-knows-no-borders?srnd=premium
Anti-Asian Racism Is Also Rising in Canada
(Bloomberg) American liberals often look north for a vision of what could be. Canada: land of publicly funded health care, evidence-based gun regulation and immigrant-driven multiculturalism.
These virtues are not exactly myths. The population of Vancouver, where I have been for the past several weeks, is roughly equal parts European Canadian and Asian Canadian, with each representing more than 40% of the total. But Canada is not liberal Valhalla, and Canadians, contrary to the Dudley Do-Right clichés, are not always super nice. As Americans grapple with a Covid-era spike in racist violence against Asian-Americans, there is evidence of a similar wave in Canada.
A new report, funded by the Canadian government, suggests that Canadians of Asian descent have been targeted for abuse by their countrymen. Compiled by civic groups such as the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, the report documents “anti-Asian racism across Canada one year into the Covid-19 pandemic.” From March 10, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021, researchers recorded 1,150 anti-Asian incidents in Canada. They included physical assaults, instances of coughing or spitting on victims, and verbal harassment.
Amy Go, president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, told me that there were more anti-Asian incidents per capita in Canada in the past year than in the U.S. In Vancouver, police documented 98 anti-Asian hate crime incidents last year, up from 12 in 2019. ..............(more)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-02/anti-asian-hate-crimes-in-canada-show-racism-knows-no-borders?srnd=premium
April 1, 2021
How much forest did we lose in 2020? Like, a Netherlands’ worth
Report: Dry, fiery weather is killing the world's trees
(Grist) Despite all the dire warnings, corporate pledges, and tree-planting promises, forests keep falling at an alarming pace. In a report out Wednesday morning, experts tallied up all the acres of the most important forests lost in 2020 and found that it amounts to an area the size of the Netherlands.
“Those dense forests can be hundreds of years old and store significant amounts of carbon. Losing them has irreversible impacts on biodiversity and climate change,” said Rod Taylor, director of the forest program at the nonprofit World Resources Institute, which produced the report with Global Forest Watch. The two organizations have been monitoring the world’s forests for 20 years with satellite images.
These tropical old-growth forests that WRI focused on don’t go through regular cycles of harvesting and regeneration, like those managed by timber companies. In a better world, the 4.2 million hectares of primary tropical forest that fell this year would have remained standing forever. Levelling them resulted in the release of some 2.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide, according to the report, equivalent to twice the annual emissions from automobiles in the United States.
Weather has become a driving force in forest loss. In places where weather was abnormally hot and dry last year, like Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Germany, and Russia, forest fires flared and tree-cover loss spiked. The swampy Pantanal region in west-central Brazil lost nearly a third of its tree cover after a drought. In contrast, the numbers improved in Canada and Indonesia, where the weather was cooler and wetter. ..............(more)
https://grist.org/agriculture/how-much-forest-did-we-lose-in-2020-like-a-netherlands-worth/
How much forest did we lose in 2020? Like, a Netherlands' worth
How much forest did we lose in 2020? Like, a Netherlands’ worth
Report: Dry, fiery weather is killing the world's trees
(Grist) Despite all the dire warnings, corporate pledges, and tree-planting promises, forests keep falling at an alarming pace. In a report out Wednesday morning, experts tallied up all the acres of the most important forests lost in 2020 and found that it amounts to an area the size of the Netherlands.
“Those dense forests can be hundreds of years old and store significant amounts of carbon. Losing them has irreversible impacts on biodiversity and climate change,” said Rod Taylor, director of the forest program at the nonprofit World Resources Institute, which produced the report with Global Forest Watch. The two organizations have been monitoring the world’s forests for 20 years with satellite images.
These tropical old-growth forests that WRI focused on don’t go through regular cycles of harvesting and regeneration, like those managed by timber companies. In a better world, the 4.2 million hectares of primary tropical forest that fell this year would have remained standing forever. Levelling them resulted in the release of some 2.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide, according to the report, equivalent to twice the annual emissions from automobiles in the United States.
Weather has become a driving force in forest loss. In places where weather was abnormally hot and dry last year, like Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Germany, and Russia, forest fires flared and tree-cover loss spiked. The swampy Pantanal region in west-central Brazil lost nearly a third of its tree cover after a drought. In contrast, the numbers improved in Canada and Indonesia, where the weather was cooler and wetter. ..............(more)
https://grist.org/agriculture/how-much-forest-did-we-lose-in-2020-like-a-netherlands-worth/
April 1, 2021
Trumpers on the rehab trail: Does America just want to forget this happened?
Instead of facing disgrace, Trump regime officials are now deemed respectable. That's no way to defeat fascism
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
APRIL 1, 2021 10:10AM
(Salon) Nothing good emerged from Donald Trump's regime, which combined any number of malevolent tendencies: authoritarianism, white supremacy, neofascism and anti-human ideology. Destruction and political sadism were its instruments and its goals. It was also massively corrupt, a carnival of greed, corruption, self-dealing and fraud.
As part of a coordinated campaign of terror, the Trump regime put nonwhite immigrants and migrants in concentration camps where women and girls were sexually abused. Women in some of Trump's camps were also subjected to forced hysterectomies. The regime also stole migrant and refugee children away from their parents, literally disappearing them into a labyrinthine bureaucracy. Many of these children will never be reunited with their families.
Trump and his movement went so far as to attempt a coup to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the infamous assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Trump was impeached for the second time (which is unprecedented in American history) because of his role in these events. Of course, his Republican collaborators and possible co-conspirators in the U.S. Senate refused to convict him.
....(snip)....
The mainstream news media wants a return to "business as usual," which in practice means that they can return to the obsolete habits and norms that helped to encourage and then normalize Trump's neofascist regime and assault on American democracy.
The elite consensus, in other words, is clear: The Age of Trump needs to be disappeared, thrown down the memory hole, so that America and the world can go back to "normal." Organized forgetting is a collective project: most Americans are cooperating because they believe (or at least hope) that it will make the trauma and pain of the Age of Trump go away. ...............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/01/trumpers-on-the-rehab-trail-does-america-just-want-to-forget-this-happened/
Trumpers on the rehab trail: Does America just want to forget this happened?
Trumpers on the rehab trail: Does America just want to forget this happened?
Instead of facing disgrace, Trump regime officials are now deemed respectable. That's no way to defeat fascism
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
APRIL 1, 2021 10:10AM
(Salon) Nothing good emerged from Donald Trump's regime, which combined any number of malevolent tendencies: authoritarianism, white supremacy, neofascism and anti-human ideology. Destruction and political sadism were its instruments and its goals. It was also massively corrupt, a carnival of greed, corruption, self-dealing and fraud.
As part of a coordinated campaign of terror, the Trump regime put nonwhite immigrants and migrants in concentration camps where women and girls were sexually abused. Women in some of Trump's camps were also subjected to forced hysterectomies. The regime also stole migrant and refugee children away from their parents, literally disappearing them into a labyrinthine bureaucracy. Many of these children will never be reunited with their families.
Trump and his movement went so far as to attempt a coup to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the infamous assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Trump was impeached for the second time (which is unprecedented in American history) because of his role in these events. Of course, his Republican collaborators and possible co-conspirators in the U.S. Senate refused to convict him.
....(snip)....
The mainstream news media wants a return to "business as usual," which in practice means that they can return to the obsolete habits and norms that helped to encourage and then normalize Trump's neofascist regime and assault on American democracy.
The elite consensus, in other words, is clear: The Age of Trump needs to be disappeared, thrown down the memory hole, so that America and the world can go back to "normal." Organized forgetting is a collective project: most Americans are cooperating because they believe (or at least hope) that it will make the trauma and pain of the Age of Trump go away. ...............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/01/trumpers-on-the-rehab-trail-does-america-just-want-to-forget-this-happened/
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,080
