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rafat · 4 years

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The Challenges In Building An Inclusive Organization Even As A Minority Founder

I’ve created two companies that have employed a couple hundred people during the past 15 years. Much through that time, I’ve shared thoughts and lessons on that journey here and in my other essays. Today, I’d like to share a few more because I believe all founders and CEOs in America have an important opportunity and responsibility in this moment. The reckoning is real, even for minority founders and their well-intentioned teams.

What is that collision — and tension — between being a minority and being a founder? Exactly two decades since I came here as an immigrant to America, I have been thinking through these existential questions. Today, we finally are having a larger conversation around diversity and inclusion in our society and workplaces, including ours.

Everyone on the leadership team at my current company is thinking deeply right now about our responsibilities around diversity and inclusion. We’re prompted by the larger conversation America is having, and feedback we got from our team on a lot of work still left to be done to improve the way our company shepherds both diversity and inclusion. Like many companies, we should constantly be aware of unconscious bias and structural racism at our organization and in our industry.

We’re throwing ourselves into this. Even as we are in survival mode as a business during this pandemic, we’re moving quickly to define areas for improvement, assembling cross-company teams to identify options and recommend immediate and long-term courses of action, and we’ve set out a schedule to get our initial improvements in place as rapidly as possible. We’re treating this work as seriously as we treat our service to readers and customers. And it’s being done alongside other business improvements prompted by sweeping changes to the sectors we exist in.

Here are the challenges we’ve faced, mistakes made, and lessons learned so far:

We overreached on our promises to the team. In hindsight we were naive about what it took to shape a culture. I believed the intensity and quality of our work were all that mattered, and I believed that our culture would organically spring from that. I realize now there’s no way a small and mostly bootstrapped company, with no real systems in place in early days, can keep everyone happy or intentionally create its intended culture without help.

I started this company after a two-year journey that took me to 15 countries. I saw first hand the fault lines and inequities of the world; experienced world events as a minority; and then threw myself into self-education and expression around it. When I returned to the U.S., I first found my voice on social media, my personal blog, and by writing and speaking about diversity and inclusion through media outlets. I pursued the topic at times to the point of exhaustion — after 9/11, the Othering of Muslims happened in America in large and small ways, and a chance run-in with Glenn Beck in late 2011 went viral when I confronted him about being a racist bigot tearing away at the fabric of our country.

Finally I decided to create a company that would forever improve travel, one of the world’s largest business sectors. It would be a global media business, and the team at its heart would look like the changing and diverse world of the travelers criss-crossing the globe — even though the travel industry itself was not at all reflective of that… and still isn’t. We would be a refuge among the decimated media businesses that surrounded us. Our hiring motto in every job posting said: “Our goal for our team and culture is to reflect the diversity of the globe of travelers.”

Investors had other ideas — we could not raise venture money beyond seed stage, despite hundreds of pitches. Among other reasons, it was clear there was a subtext of overt and covert inequities at work — especially ageism against older founders (I had turned 40) and white male founder privilege(one investor told me “jokingly” he could invest only if I was the “right religion”).

Nevertheless, we promised potential team members:

Joining Skift will be a transformational move for your career. You will do the best work you have ever done while you are at Skift. You will be the happiest you have ever been at work while at Skift. You will be set for life, your success beyond Skift means everything to us.

I believed our good intentions on this would carry the day. After all, I was a minority putting everything into this as transparently as possible. I was out there, very online, with beliefs about every injustice and progressive movement in the world — from the Arab Spring onwards — and that would create a progressive company. Because everyone else would see it that way too, right? Wrong.

In hindsight this was very naive and by overreaching on the promises, we were setting ourselves up for failure.

We didn’t put enough resources against our diversity goals.Diversity requires putting extra effort into the normal hiring process — and with no recruiting help, we weren’t able to access enough candidates to achieve true diversity. We didn’t have enough time to do it ourselves while also building other aspects of the company, and our personal professional networks weren’t diverse enough.

We’ve succeeded in stretches. At one point, and for almost two years, no one voluntarily left the company. We became obsessed with keeping that going, learning later that holding on to an impossible ideal was a growing-up folly, too. We succeeded in becoming a female majority company three years ago. But we have a lot more work to do — we’ve hired Asian, Indian, Black, Hispanic and LGBQT+ people as well as people across the age spectrum, but it hasn’t been enough — and I’ve shared those challenges along the way, internally and externally.

We didn’t transition our operations from a start-up to a more mature, early-stage company soon enough. Although we were well-intentioned, we were not well-equipped to achieve all of our ambitious goals. Two examples stand out:

We should have brought on professional recruiting and HR sooner.Other startup founders and investors I talked to along the way said to hire our first full-time recruiting and HR professionals once we crossed 50 employees. That advice may be relevant for well-funded startups that hired 50 people in their first year or two, but for a boutique, thinly-capitalized, and seemingly always overstretched company, those 50 people took seven years.

If you are a founder and have never worked with a business coach in your journey, get one as soon as your company grows beyond the start-up stage. What brings you success at the beginning may not get you to the next phase of your business or culture. This transition from early-stage full-hands-on, push-and-probe-to-get-the-best-results-from-people founder to a more mature, systems-in-place style happens with every founder, and every founder hopes they will avoid the pain that comes with it. Few do.

I started working with a coach two years ago and I still have a lot of learning to do. The founder in me intersected with my own life as an immigrant in America, the very-true cliche about having to hustle twice as hard to get the same results, resulting in a demanding work environment. I originally saw a very direct working style as a proxy to transparency. The coaching helped me realize that at a certain point, my personal intensity and company power dynamics overpowered any good intentions.

Diversity isn’t enough. Leading a successful company means creating real and consistent inclusion. As a Brown Muslim in America for the past 20 years, I’d experienced much of my personal and professional life through a lens of exclusion, but the real lesson we had to learn was inclusion. We became so focused on building a diverse team that we didn’t focus on the even harder part — creating a supportive culture once this diverse group was inside the company. From retaining employees with different needs to being cognizant of and celebrating differences; from creating safe spaces for people with different frames of reference to mentoring and finding ways to support professional and personal growth paths in the ways larger companies with greater resources can.

We have been well intentioned but not well equipped to carry out the intentions, intentionally. We finally brought on a very experienced HR leader last year. We could not be doing this important work without her.

There will be more insights and learnings — and probably mistakes — as this work continues. When we learn more things that could be helpful to other founders and CEOs, I’ll continue to share them here.

This is a critical and existential time for our company in so many ways. The travel industry was hit hard by the pandemic. We lost 80 percent of our revenues in March and April, and May and June have only slightly better with somewhat more clarity on business outlook ahead. We had to scramble to cut every non-employee cost we could.

We are surviving because of the sacrifices of our amazing team — including furloughs and pay cuts starting at 10 percent (I took a 100% pay cut and my leadership team has taken pay cuts of up to 50%). We have given up our New York and London offices and are going fully remote as a company — a decision that saved many jobs. Unfortunately, we still had to reduce our team size by one-third last month.

For now, as we create our next phase, we will continue to improve our business, and we have committed ourselves to creating a better company — to listen, to learn, and to act — and we will continue to reshape our culture for meaningful and lasting change.

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vileart · 7 years

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Dramaturgies of Hope and Resistance: Bonie Fechters @ Edfringe 2017

BONNIE FECHTERS – SONGS & STORIES OF HOPE & RESISTANCE

FRI 18 – SUN 20, FRI 25 & SAT 26 AUG SCOTTISH STORYTELLING CENTRE, 43-45 HIGH STREET, EH1 1 SR

VENUE 30

A ONE-WOMAN SHOW CELEBRATING WOMEN OF COURAGE ACROSS THE CENTURIES

Previous sell-out success at Edinburgh International Radical Book Fringe & the Scottish Storytelling Centre

Bonnie Fechters is an inspiring collection of stories and songs about women’s activism and struggle throughout the world and over the centuries. Devised, performed and directed by Morna Burdon* ( see below), the show journeys from the jute mills of Dundee to the Vietnam war, from late 19th century Syrian refugees welcomed into the USA to a modern Scottish woman who rode horseback in Mongolia with her 6-year-old daughter to record the lives of women there.

Discover the Scottish women targeted as witches, hear tales of the girls who survived the Magdalene institutions for “fallen women”, explore the 1976 ‘Strikers in Saris’ protest and many more inspiring females who may never have been heard of but were there.

Burdon states:

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Courageous women & songs they sang to survive or give then strength or songs that were sang about women such as they. Also, a call out for free fringe shows 2 years ago by that lovely, supportive Edinburgh venue, Woodland Creatures

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

This one is! Great after show discussions where that has been feasible & also written comments from audiences. Folk have gone off and done research about people in their own families and different generations have sat in the same room talking to each other about their backgrounds, their battles, their lives.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I did Highland dancing when I was wee & loved it. A little theatre company came to my rural primary school and created magic in our gym hall. I was auditioned for a small part in a class show & apparently did a great stretch & yawn !

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

Allowing myself to go with what inspires me. Might be an idea. Might be an actor's way of moving ( if I am directing). Always remembering that the show is for the audience - not ( sorry) for the critics. If I did not remember that, I would never create anything - my own internal critic is massive!!!

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Not really in that I perform & direct my own one woman show which is new to me.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Inspiration - I hope they experience knowing that in the midst of terrible tragedy, prejudice & what seem like impossible odds, we human beings are capable of courage, dignity and hope.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Was I going on too long? Was I being false at any stage? Was I remembering this show is "their" show - the women of courage - not " mine" & remembering it is not about me - it is about "them" (the women of courage) and "them" the audience - who will undoubtedly include people of courage. I am just a conduit & I need to use what I know about theatre to get out of the way & let the story & the audience connect.

‘A bonnie fechter is someone who stands up for what they believe in. The aim of my work is to inspire audiences by using words, song, music and performance to tell the stories of real people – especially women – whose courage, love, inventiveness and human spirit have stood up to injustice and oppression over continents and centuries.

‘My research showed me that whatever the circumstances of these women, somewhere there was hope, courage, resilience and – more often than not – there was song. This show is a celebration of these women, a celebration of song – and it’s for everyone. Each production has its own focus and theme but the aim is simply allowing the stories of brave people to take centre stage. Depending on the setting or production, there can be space for the audience to tell their stories of inspiration – and their stories are amazing too.’

Bonnie Fechters – Songs & Stories of Hope & Resistance

Fri 18 – Sun 20, Fri 25 & Sat 26 Aug 1.30pm (50mins) | Ages 14+

£9 (£7) (£28 family of 4) (£6.50 Storytelling Centre Supporter)

Box Office:

http://ift.tt/2vs623P.co.uk 0131 556 9579

www.edfringe.com 0131 226 0000

*Morna Burdon is a director, writer, performer & singer whose work has focused strongly on telling the stories of the disenfranchised and those whose lives are hidden & voices unheard. This has inevitably often meant a focus on women - from " Twa Mock Weddings & A Henna Night" for Dundee Rep about similar ( & outrageous) wedding preparations in the Scottish, Chinese & Asian communities to " Mother, Daughters & Wild Wild Women - an international project using trapeze, sword-fighting & live painting on stage.

For ten years she was a member of the creative team at Edinburgh’s ground-breaking Theatre Workshop ( set up by 2 women, and for many years a Fringe venue - now sadly being redeveloped). She was also a member of the women's ensemble theatre company, Witch where bricks were thrown at the company as they left the theatre - not because of the quality of the show ( "We preferred to think..") but because a women's company was bound to be full of "lezzies" - it was " an exhilarating experience - we were having an impact"!!!

She has also undertaken commissions and collaborations with Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Dundee Rep, Perth Theatre, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, Royal Court London; Dance Base, 7.84 Theatre Company and Drake Music Scotland. Morna has also previously been invited to direct at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire.

Pre theatre she was the first National Information & Education Worker for Scottish Womens Aid & Joint National Co-ordinator. Work here included negotiating the building for the first Asian Womens Refuge in Scotland and briefing Donald Dewar on the passage of the Matrimonial Homes (Scotland) Act through Parliament. She has recently been involved in "Speaking Out" marking 40 years of Women's Aid in Scotland.

Scottish Storytelling Centre is a home for Scotland’s culture in the heart of the capital city. A finalist in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2017 for Best Performing Arts Venue, it presents a seasonal programme of live storytelling, theatre, music, exhibitions, workshops, family events, and festivals. The Centre strives to ensure local talent is given a platform at the world’s leading open access arts

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2hqmool

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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tripsterguru · 4 years

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35 best museums in Moscow - part 1

New Post has been published on https://tripsterguru.com/35-best-museums-in-moscow-part-1/

35 best museums in Moscow - part 1

Wandering around the 35 best museums in Moscow is a story about the beauty of white stone, which was first mentioned in annals from 1147. Moscow is a city of museums, ancient and modern. Visiting them, you understand how rich and diverse the history of the Russian capital was.

Conflicting feelings arise in the soul when you see the innumerable treasures of the Russian tsars and standing at their throne. Gratitude for the fact that they were able to leave such a wealth as inheritance to other generations, and indignation at the degree of permissibility to them.

But the feeling of gratitude wins because each of the visitors can now see exhibits of incredible beauty. The expositions reflect the history not only of the city, but of the whole of Russia. So, we offer an overview and a list of the best museums in Moscow that you must visit.

Diamond fund

The main treasury of the Russian state, located in the Kremlin in the museum of the same name, the most visited place in Moscow. All year round there are lines of people who want to look at a collection of unique jewelry. Even Peter the Great issued a decree on the strict preservation of the precious luxury goods of royal families for the state. At first, everything related to the treasures was stored in the Diamond Office of the Winter Palace.

During the First World War, they were transported to the Kremlin, where they spent 8 years before the examination conducted by a special commission. She determined the true value of the items and made a decision on the inviolability of the collection and the need to include it in the USSR Gokhran. The rules for visiting the Diamond Fund provide for a pass through a metal detector, so you should not come here with unauthorized items. All exhibits are placed in glass cases; excursions are usually accompanied by a guide who briefly talks about the history of a precious exhibit.

In the center of the hall, in 4 showcases, gold (100) and platinum (20) nuggets of amazing sizes and shapes resembling outlandish animals or mythical creatures are presented. One of them is called the “Devil” for its external resemblance. Among the gold nuggets there is a real giant “Big Triangle”, weighing 36 kg and which is by far the largest nugget in the world.

The hall of royal relics shakes with brilliant magnificence of its exhibits: royal regalia, awards, gifts. General admiration here is the Great Imperial Crown, made on the occasion of the coronation of Catherine the Great. The silver crown is decorated with 4936 diamonds and large selected pearls arranged in 2 rows. The crown is crowned with a silver cross, the pedestal of which is the magic “spinel” – a noble red stone.

His choice is not accidental: it is believed that this stone brings great happiness and love to the owner. If this interpretation is attributed to the illustrious Russian empress, then this statement can be believed. The large imperial crown is an unsurpassed example of jewelry art, a true masterpiece in a series of similar products. One cannot but admire the Small Imperial Crown, the scepter, among the jewelry of which is the world-famous diamond “Orlov” (there are many versions of its origin).

The Shah diamond donated by the Iranian shah to Nicholas I as a sign of reconciliation after the murder of A. S. Griboedov, the Russian ambassador, is known throughout the world as a unique stone. There are so many “precious miracles” in the “Diamond Fund” that it is impossible to describe everything, it’s better to look at them. Address: Moscow, 9, Kremlin.

State Darwin Museum

One of the most ambitious zoological museums in Europe. According to visitors’ reviews, it is also the most interesting, especially for schoolchildren. It opened more than a century ago as an institution that was designed to satisfy the desire of people to learn more about nature, about the existence of living organisms in it. Literally from the first minutes of visiting everybody expects a complete mystery of immersion in the stages of life on planet Earth through a demonstration of a film designed directly on the walls of the hall.

It seems that those present are direct participants in terrible cataclysms with explosions, the death of dinosaurs, the emergence of new civilizations. In the main hall, you will meet with numerous representatives of the fauna, ranging from stuffed mammoths to tiny animals. Here is an intriguing model of the very first bathyscaphe, entering which you can see from the porthole a huge walrus, outlandish fish, fancy shells and fantastic algae. Even on the floor there are portholes here through which something interesting is visible.

The expositions are widely acquainted with the animal world of the Moscow Region and Central Russia, developing the interest of the young generation in local history. Even for the smallest, amusing rides-stands with buttons that let out bird voices or the formidable roar of a lion, etc., are thought out here. Everyone, regardless of age, leaves an unforgettable experience after a visit. Address: Vavilova St., 57.

Museum of Automotive Stories

To get to know the city, you need to understand how it lives. And what was the life of the people who over the years shaped his culture. The Soviet period greatly influenced our mentality and culture. One of the amazing locations that can immerse you in the atmosphere of Soviet reality is the Automobile History Museum, located at ul. Koptevskaya, house 71 (metro Voykovskaya). Here, a unique collection of Soviet-made pedal cars is assembled, numerous interactive and information stands, a cinema and a photo exhibition “The World Through the Eyes of a Soviet Man” with works by classics of Soviet photojournalism are available to visitors.

Also, for children aged 3 to 7 years, the opportunity to ride a real rare pedal car in a specially equipped car park is provided.

Address: st. Koptevskaya, house 71 (metro Voykovskaya).

Bunker-42 on Taganka – a symbol of the Cold War

Underground bunker-42, covering an area of 7 thousand square meters. m at a depth exceeding 60 m, was equipped in the 50s of the 20th century as a reliable refuge from the danger of nuclear bombing during the Cold War between the USA and the USSR. The construction was carried out in strict secrecy, the object was referred to as a subway substation, and in fact, the bunker tunnels have access to the Taganskaya ring metro station.

After the secret facility was adopted (1956), officers and employees of the Long-Range Aviation Headquarters were on duty around the clock. Each year, the bunker was replenished with fresh water and food in case of a nuclear war. Only in 2000, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the bunker was declassified, and now it is a museum and entertainment complex (since 2006).

Visiting this peculiar museum, you once again think about how much effort and finance you have to invest in protecting people from each other. Unfortunately, the current political situation convinces us that the need for this has not disappeared so far. The outer part of the bunker is presented in the form of an ordinary brick building, which includes visitors to the complex. Amazing massive thick doors leading into the dungeon. They are a metal box 40 cm thick, poured inside with concrete.

The main halls of the bunker are located at the level of the 18th floor underground – you have to go down to them along the 65-meter staircase leading down. Labyrinths of corridors with numerous turns create a mysterious mystery of the situation and suggest that such a structure could protect against any catastrophe. The spacious rooms are equipped with a command post, communications, ventilation installations, warehouses with weapons and military equipment. An element of an unusual excursion is a demonstration of a documentary film on the Cold War.

Those who wish can make a symbolic launch of the rocket or find themselves in a situation of nuclear danger, when the lights go out, the siren turns on. Those present put on gas masks and go to the hall indicated by the guides. Here you can try on special uniforms and arm yourself with protective equipment, you can take a picture for memory in such a “outfit” and in the end wish that all this is not useful in real life. Address: Moscow, 5th Kotelnichesky per., 11.

Historical Museum

Located on the legendary Red Square – the heart of the Russian capital. The magnificent building with its architecture resembles a fabulous tower of Russian folk tales. Brick patterned walls, numerous aisles with domes and spiers correspond to the medieval style, although the magnificent building was erected in the late 19th century under Alexander II. Outstanding architects Sherwood and Semyonov sought to capture the Russian identity in the exterior of the building. Now this is a wonderful building, the pride of Russia – a historical and architectural monument, protected by the state and UNESCO.

Entering inside, you understand that this is the Temple of the historical fate of Russia, starting from ancient Slavic times to the present. Fates are difficult, bloody and at the same time bright, creative and great. The impression of the temple is enhanced by highly artistic paintings of walls and ceilings by the brilliant painters Repin, Vasnetsov, Aivazovsky, Korovin and other famous brush masters. Restoration of the 90s “revived” the picturesque frescoes with religious subjects after “whitening” them in the Soviet years.

Thematic halls have priceless rarities in their expositions illustrating the course of the historical development of Russia. Fossil mammoth tusks, genuine stone tools, an oak shuttle, the Kolikho dolmen, an idol bronze statue are far from a complete list of unique relics found during archaeological excavations in different regions of the country. It presents the full diversity of the political, economic, cultural and spiritual life of Russian society in the era of stagnation and prosperity. Address: Moscow, pl. Red, 1.

Moscow Kremlin

The primordial residence of Russian rulers – the Moscow Kremlin on Borovitsky Hill – is a model of the museum and architectural complex, the center of socio-political, spiritual and cultural life of the country. The boundaries of the artistic and historical complex, outlined by Yuri Dolgoruky and Ivan III, remained unchanged due to the strength of the Kremlin’s ancient cathedrals erected around the perimeter. Subsequent eras left behind many more monuments, recreating the appearance of the irresistibly beautiful Kremlin ensemble, which several times rose from the ashes, like the mythical Phoenix.

High (from 5 to 19 m) walls (total length 2 km 235 m) and Kremlin towers (20) were erected at the end of the 15th century in the form of an irregular triangle. Of these, 3 round corners and 17 square, the Trinity Tower (80 m) is the highest. From childhood, everyone knows the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell – miraculous casting monuments located on Ivanovskaya Square. The greatest architectural monument is the Arsenal building, created by the famous architect Kazakov; the powerful cannons of Ancient Russia located nearby, military trophies of 1812 are unique rarities. The Palace Square is decorated with a magnificent architectural ensemble of the main residence of the emperors of Russia – the Grand Kremlin Palace, familiar to all from the celebrations that are regularly held in it. Address: Moscow, Kremlin.

Armouries

The Armory, which is part of the Kremlin Palace ensemble, is located in a separate magnificent building, designed by the famous architect Konstantin Ton. The treasury of Russia contains symbols of the tsarist autocratic power; church robes; jewelry made of silver, gold; carriages, magnificent horse harness, a huge number of luxurious outfits of Russian empresses. It received its name from the arms storage – the Armory Order of the Moscow Kremlin (1547).

The famous exhibit of the Armory is the Monomakh hat made of sable fur, decorated with numerous precious stones, more than once mentioned in winged phrases of works of art and films. No less famous is the dress of Empress Elizabeth, the decoration of which took kilograms of pearls and diamonds. The exhibits of 9 halls dazzle with unprecedented luxury of household items, utensils, clothes, fabrics, ceremonial uniforms, armor, and various accessories. 4000 pieces of decorative and applied art of Russian masters, East and Europe, over 16 centuries of existence, are amazing in skill and beauty. Address: Moscow, Krasnaya pl., D. 1.

Interactive Museum “Mars-Tefo”

A fascinating corner of Martian reality was created on the 4th floor of the Moscow planetarium “Mars-Tefo”, a kind of educational and cognitive interactive center. Here, only the dead can not be delighted with what they saw and what is happening, and the children are immersed in the imitation of a space Martian station, the inhabitants of which they become using computer technology. Area – 1000 square meters. m., consisting of 11 “compartments”, each of which has its own program and an interesting “highlight”.

In a playful way, here they will help to master survival skills at different points of the solar system, to feel like a scientist-researcher or engineer creating new space structures. You can take on the role of a geologist looking for chemical elements and minerals that are vital to life on Mars. A visit to the “space station” stimulates adolescents to make the right decisions, and teaches them how to navigate in unfamiliar situations. Address: st. Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, 5, p. 1.

Museum of retro cars on Rogozhsky shaft

This is the largest in area and number of vintage cars from all Moscow car malls. It is housed in the buildings of the former factory and impresses visitors with the number of respectable retro-foreign cars, unique home-made products of Russian craftsmen and samples of the domestic automobile industry of past years. The permanent exhibition contains more than 260 copies of various vehicles, including passenger, freight and passenger vehicles. There are models of motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles and special vehicles – the whole panorama of ground vehicles on wheels.

In the first hall, where foreign cars are mainly presented, eyes are scattered from the Cadillacs, Lincoln, Mercedes, Ford, different years and modifications. Famous brands of Russian cars lined up in another hall. Here nostalgic memories evoke Muscovites, Victory, Volga, Oise and military vehicles from the 30s to the 80s.

There are more modern models that have not become objects of mass production – “Gas-3111”, for example. Some models of foreign cars cause a surprised question, how did they get here. Many executive cars were donated to the general secretaries by foreign rulers, many were purchased by motorists. There is even an American sheriff’s car, Santa Claus’s car and other cars unexpected in their purpose. A lot of positive emotions awaits everyone who visits this gigantic retro auto show. Address: st. Rogozhsky Val, 9/2.

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marilynngmesalo · 5 years

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2 killed as Venezuelan aid convoys meet fierce resistance

2 killed as Venezuelan aid convoys meet fierce resistance 2 killed as Venezuelan aid convoys meet fierce resistance https://ift.tt/2EuotsZ

CUCUTA, Colombia — A U.S.-backed campaign to force President Nicolas Maduro from power met strong resistance Saturday from Venezuelan security forces who fired tear gas on protesters trying to deliver humanitarian aid from Colombia and Brazil, leaving two people dead and some 300 injured.

Throughout the turbulent day, as police and protesters squared off on two bridges connecting Venezuela to Colombia, opposition leader Juan Guaido made repeated calls for the military to join him in the fight against Maduro’s “dictatorship.” Colombian authorities said more than 60 soldiers answered his call, deserting their posts in often-gripping fashion, though most were lower in rank and didn’t appear to dent the higher command’s continued loyalty to Maduro’s socialist government.

In one dramatic high point, a group of activists led by exiled lawmakers managed to escort three flatbed trucks of aid past the halfway point into Venezuela when they were repelled by security forces. In a flash the cargo caught fire, with some eyewitnesses claiming the National Guardsmen doused a tarp covering the boxes with gas before setting it on fire. As a black cloud rose above, the activists — protecting their faces from the fumes with vinegar-soaked cloths — unloaded the boxes by hand in a human chain stretching back to the Colombian side of the bridge.

Officers of the Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Police take cover behind their shields from a shower of rocks as they block the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in La Parada near Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019.

“They burned the aid and fired on their own people,” said 39-year-old David Hernandez, who was hit in the forehead with a tear gas canister that left a bloody wound and growing welt. “That’s the definition of dictatorship.”

For weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and its regional allies have been amassing emergency food and medical supplies on three of Venezuela’s borders with the aim of launching a “humanitarian avalanche.” It comes exactly one month after Guaido, in a direct challenge to Maduro’s rule, declared himself interim president at an outdoor rally.

Even as the 35-year-old lawmaker has won the backing of more than 50 governments around the world, he’s so far been unable to cause a major rift inside the military — Maduro’s last-remaining plank of support in a country ravaged by hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

Amid the standoff, Guaido was turning to diplomatic actions.

As night fell, he refrained from asking supporters to continue risking their lives and make another attempt to break the government’s barricades. Instead, he said he would meet U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on Monday in Colombia’s capital at an emergency meeting of mostly conservative Latin American governments to discuss Venezuela’s crisis.

But he did make one last appeal to troops.

“How many of you national guardsmen have a sick mother? How many have kids in school without food,” he said, standing alongside a warehouse in the Colombian city of Cucuta where 600 tons of mostly U.S.-supplied boxes of food and medicine have been stockpiled. “You don’t owe any obedience to a sadist…who celebrates the denial of humanitarian aid the country needs.”

Guaido later tweeted that he had decided to “propose in a formal manner to the international community that we keep all options open to liberate this country which struggles and will keep on struggling.”

A demonstrator is given first aid after he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister fired from the Venezuelan side of the border by the Bolivarian National Police, at the Tienditas International Bridge near Cucuta, Colombia, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, on the border with Venezuela.

Earlier, Maduro struck a defiant tone, breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia, accusing its “fascist” government of serving as a staging ground for a U.S.-led effort to oust him from power and possibly a military invasion.

“My patience has run out,” Maduro said, speaking at a massive rally of red-shirted supporters in Caracas and giving Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country.

Clashes started Saturday well before Guaido straddled a semi-truck and waved to supporters in a ceremonial send-off of the aid convoy from Cucuta. In the Venezuelan border town of Urena, residents began removing yellow metal barricades and barbed wire blocking the Santander bridge. Some were masked youth who threw rocks and later commandeered a city bus and set it afire.

“We’re tired. There’s no work, nothing,” Andreina Montanez, 31, said as she sat on a curb recovering from the sting of tear gas used to disperse the crowd.

The single mom said she lost her job as a seamstress in December and had to console her 10-year-old daughter’s fears that she would be left orphaned when she decided to join Saturday’s protest.

“I told her I had to go out on the streets because there’s no bread,” she said. “But still, these soldiers are scary. It’s like they’re hunting us.”

At the Simon Bolivar bridge, a group of aid volunteers in blue vests calmly walked up to a police line and shook officers’ hands, appealing for them to join their fight.

But the goodwill was fleeting and a few hours later the volunteers were driven back with tear gas, triggering a stampede.

At least 60 members of security forces, most of them lower-ranked soldiers, deserted and took refuge inside Colombia, according to migration officials. One was a National Guard major. Colombian officials said 285 people were injured, most left with wounds caused by tear gas and metal pellets that Venezuelan security forces fired.

A video provided by Colombian authorities shows three soldiers at the Simon Bolivar bridge wading through a crowd with their assault rifles and pistols held above their heads in a sign of surrender. The young soldiers were then ordered to lie face down on the ground as migration officials urged angry onlookers to keep a safe distance.

“I’ve spent days thinking about this,” said one of the soldiers, whose identity was not immediately known. He called on his comrades to join him: “There is a lot of discontent inside the forces, but also lots of fear.”

Guaido, who has offered amnesty to soldiers who join the opposition’s fight, applauded their bravery, saying it was a sign that support for Maduro was crumbling. Later, he greeted five of the military members, who in turn offered a salute, calling the opposition leader Venezuela’s “constitutional president” and their commander in chief.

“They aren’t deserters,” Guaido said. “They’ve decided to put themselves on the side of the people and the constitution. … The arrival of liberty and democracy to Venezuela can’t be detained.”

Analysts warn that there may be no clear victor and humanitarian groups have criticized the opposition as using the aid as a political weapon.

“Today marked a further blow to the Maduro regime, but perhaps not the final blow that Guaido, the U.S. and Colombia were hoping for,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. “Threats and ultimatums from Washington directed to the generals may not be the best way to get them to flip. In fact, they are likely to have the opposite effect.”

International leaders including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are appealing for the sides to avoid violence. But at least two people were killed and another 21 injured in the town of Santa Elena de Uairen, near the border with Brazil, according to local health officials.

The opposition planned to hold three simultaneous aid pushes on Saturday. Aside from Colombia, they also had hoped to deliver humanitarian assistance by sea and through Venezuela’s remote border with Brazil, which Maduro ordered closed.

A man covers his face with a cap as he walks past a fire during a protest at the border between Brazil and Venezuela, Saturday, Feb.23, 2019.

Amid the sometimes-chaotic and hard-to-verify flow of information, opposition lawmakers and Guaido said the first shipment of humanitarian aid had crossed into Venezuela from Brazil — although reports from the ground revealed that two trucks carrying the aid had only inched up to the border itself.

Dueling demonstrations also took place in the capital. Government opponents, waving American flags and one of them dressed like Captain America in a nod to the Trump administration’s prominent role cornering Maduro, headed toward an air base. With the opposition mostly mobilized along the border, a much larger mass of red-shirted government supporters, some of them on motorcycles, filled streets downtown.

Venezuela’s military has served as the traditional arbiter of political disputes in the South American country, and in recent weeks, top leaders have pledged their unwavering loyalty to Maduro.

But that hasn’t discouraged young protesters like Juan David Candiales.

The 17-year-old said he sneaked out of his family’s home in Venezuela last week to help bring in the aid. Despite being shot four times in the leg with metal pellets, he raced back to the burned aid trucks late Saturday to square off with National Guardsmen one more time.

“I have to keep going back — because this is the country where I was born and it pains me,” he said. “If we can be here all night we will be here all night. I’m not going home until humanitarian aid is let into Venezuela.”

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burntt00thbrush · 5 years

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Day 20

“Given the degree of brokenness of the broken world (and the expense of fixing it), we need all maintainers to apply their diverse disciplinary methods and practical skills to the collective project of repair. Jackson proposes that repair-thinking be considered a distinct epistemology. Fixers, he says, “know and see different things — indeed, different worlds — than the better-known figures of ‘designer’ or ‘user.’” Breakdown has “world-disclosing properties.” 8 Similarly, Stephen Graham and Nigel Thrift identify breakdown and failure as “the means by which societies learn to reproduce,” because the repair of broken systems always involves elements of “adaptation and improvisation.” 9”So two days (four days) ago, I delved into my first questions regarding maintenance , and I have come across Shannon Mattern’s journal article on care and maintenance [https://placesjournal.org/article/maintenance-and-care] “A working guide to the repair of rust, dust, cracks, and corrupted code in our cities, our homes, and our social relations. “ Moments that have stood out to me have been: A) “Modern urban dwellers are surrounded by the hum of continuous repair and maintenance,” Thrift observes. We hear the chatter of pneumatic drills, the drone of street sweepers, and, in the city’s peripheral zones, the clang and hydraulic hiss of auto repair and waste management. 13 Even the cacophony of a construction site — a new building going up on a vacant lot — can be a sign of repair. Planner Douglas Kelbaugh proposes that we think of infill construction as a mending of the urban fabric. 14 I have been thinking to attempt playing around with sounds for some of my ‘outputs’ … outputs that might put into the foreground things that do indeed, become peripheral—chatter—-drone—hiss…background. I think that somehow this sonic presence, if brought into foreground, might be a medium to relay relevant questions about why these things are in the background in the first place? I hear this pneumatic drill so fuckin’ often that it’s become part of the connundrum- but what is it doing? What is it building? What is it drilling? Is it public, is it private? Is my tax money paying for it? Whose building it? I’m not sure if when I speak of ecology, or when I speak of my interpretation thereof…. I am attempting to speak of it - in a way that relates to Morton’s ‘ambient poetics, Morton’s ecomimesis… In that - the environment - NATURE- is very much about how we inhabit space — how we occupy it and the consequences/FOLLOW-UPS that that has from a micro-level (when I am JAY walking, am I aware that I am practicing disobedience? an act of resistance? rational resistance? does that make any sense?), to a systemic macro-level (beautify lawns, beautify legs, say yes to neighbourhood recycling, say no,) I was going to say something else about my understanding but I am just going to move on, because this could get sticky I suppose. So this sound business- this cacophony business - I this links back to day 4 or something when I was trying to scream out the components of cement drowned out by the sounds of a construction site (10 hours of— on youtube - meta - who knows where that came from?). I am slowly beginning to realise that this a lot to do with transport infrastructure, what with not only the “pneumatic drills, the drone of street sweepers etc.” but of cars, trucks, beeping and moving etc. Of traffic lights - sensors - When I was working on some research on the Manhattan grid last semester, environmental psychologist, Richard Wener told me that the grid scheme in America is very much in response to the advent of cars. B)

Mattern also points out that the lack of civic responsibility by some patrons clearly sustains “the oppressions of marginalised and underserved populations.” This ties in with aspects of civic and democratic responsibilities/aspects of environmental justice — not only do underserved populations suffer from the first waves of the consequences of pollution - but also because of lack of maintenance. Amongst the article’s resources there is an article called Care and Repair and the Politics of Urban Kindness:

In the face of some pretty grim baseline social facts – seven billion of us and growing fast, catastrophic environmental degradation, an economic system that damages many more than it allows to prosper, schismatic tensions running along a chain of global interconnections, violent exclusion and wasted lives, ‘half of us live in cities, often brutalized; 85 per cent of us own noth-ing’ (2013: 490) – Plummer invites the reader to join him in the sort of thinking that might nudge us towards a better world. If some sociologists today are too much given to misanthropic thinking, then we need a sociology of hope, and even a sociology of better worlds, able to envision and examine both imagined and real utopias. The corruptions that can occupy this space are many. Here is an article from 2011 delineating how five men from a company that was meant to be testing concrete was falsifying documents that tested concrete. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/nyregion/6-charged-with-falsifying-concrete-testing-results.html I have found refuge in words and in these questions…it has gotten late: What is maintaining/repairing? —> INVESTIGATING —> STANDARDISING —> LINKING —> FILLING —> RELIEVING —> CATEGORISING —> COMMUNICATING (similar to linking?) —> CARING —> PRESERVING —> CONSERVING What is repairing and maintenance needed for? —> SAFETY —> ORGANISATION —> COMFORT —> FUNCTIONALITY —> COEXISTENCE —> CARE C) A lot of the notions/themes that arise from this article really point us towards a philosophy of care and maintenance that is reminiscent of what a circular economy model. Time ago, I proposed a performance that was result of my discovery of a specific e-waste dump in near Ghana’s capital- Agbogbloshie — and I had only really concentrated on the misery that inhabiting a place like this could be….. Mattern highlights the “maker” culture, the social relations, the performances etc. that are borne of this waste stream…. When those machines have lived out their second domestic lives in Ghanaian cafés or homes, they move out into the city, where scrap collectors, processors, and traders — most of them first-generation immigrants — spirit the machines away, accelerating their decomposition into copper, aluminum, iron, and circuit boards. These processes of transformation typically occur in the city’s marginal zones and, as we see in many National Geographic-style photo essays, present serious health risks. The constituent parts are then redistributed — some domestically, some to Nigeria or China — and reassembled into new objects. This “ecosystem of distribution, repair, and disposal” is, Burrell argues, a “fact of life in everyday places marked by scarcity.” 55 I think I will look more into circular economy in the coming days….. D) “ 2 We should also remember that the preservation of our world — the human one — is sometimes at odds with caring for the ecological context. Perhaps not every road should be repaired. Geographer Caitlin DeSilvey encourages us to embrace entropy within the built world, to ask ourselves for whom we engage in preservation, and to consider cultivating an acceptance of “curated decay” where appropriate. 43” The metaphor I pull/ am interested in today is ‘concrete cancer’ …. concrete spalling… or ‘rebar’ which happens when reinforced concrete is built with steel/metal rods or wire as its skeleton. If the cement inside the concrete hasn’t been mixed properly, or if the steel hasn’t been treated properly…. the concrete begins to corrode. I am very much interested in the idea that this process is even called ‘concrete cancer’ in the first place - much of it has to do with the pace with which this process happens: “Concrete cancer does have some similarities with its human counterpart. · It usually develops slowly over an extended period, and obvious signs may not be seen until the condition is advanced. · In its early stages, concrete cancer is often caused by a mutation of the concrete itself. As noted, concrete ‘cancer’ deterioration will usually result from a number of factors; but one key common element is the movement of moisture vapour and moisture-borne contaminants within the concrete’s own porosity. These can set up reactive processes in the concrete itself (e.g. ASR), resulting in expansive forces which drive cracking. Further, the contaminants (e.g. chlorides) can destroy the natural protection of the steel and encourage corrosion.” https://www.markhamglobal.com/concrete-cancer-silent-killer/ https://freyssinet.co.uk/concrete-cancer-can-prevented-concrete-repairs/ https://www.cement.org/learn/concrete-technology/durability/corrosion-of-embedded-materials https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/suppliers/remedial-technology-pty-ltd/concrete-cancer-repair-what-are-your-options PROMPT: ** Find a process of maintenance in your own micro, daily life, such as re-organising the files in your computer, screen record this process, and perhaps, record the sound as well. Write down thoughts following the process and then write instructions for somebody who might want to do the same without being explicit about what the literal action of maintenance that you are performing is.

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investmart007 · 6 years

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RALEIGH, N.C. | Surge, wind, rain, floods: Hurricane Florence could hit hard

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/raleigh-n-c-surge-wind-rain-floods-hurricane-florence-could-hit-hard/169066/

RALEIGH, N.C. | Surge, wind, rain, floods: Hurricane Florence could hit hard

RALEIGH, N.C. — Hurricane Florence churned Tuesday toward the Eastern Seaboard as a storm of “staggering” size, forcing a million people to evacuate the coast. Many more were left to wonder where they might be safe if days of torrential rains unleash floods from the mountains to the sea.

“This one really scares me,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned.

Florence is so wide that a life-threatening storm surge was being pushed 300 miles ahead of its eye, swirling clouds that could deluge states from South Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania as it slows and then stalls over land.

“You’re going to get heavy rain, catastrophic life-threatening storm surge, and also the winds,” Graham said.

There was little change in Florence’s track during the 11 a.m. forecast from the National Hurricane Center. Sustained winds were 130 mph (215 kph) Tuesday morning, but it remains a Category 4 storm and is expected to intensify to near Category 5 status as it slows over very warm coastal waters.

The storm is currently around 400 miles south of Bermuda and is moving at 16 mph (26 kph).

The eye of the massive storm is forecast to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday along a stretch of coastline already saturated by rising seas, and then meander for days. Seven-day rainfall totals are forecast to reach 10 to 20 inches over much of North Carolina and Virginia, and even 30 inches in some places.

Combined with high tides, the storm surge could swell as high as 12 feet.

“The water could overtake some of these barrier islands and keep on going. With time, the wind pushes the water into every nook and cranny you can think of,” Graham said. “All you have to do is look up at your ceiling, and think about 12 feet (of water). That, folks, is extremely life-threatening.”

States of emergency were declared by Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser for the nation’s capital; requested by Virginia’s governor; and approved by President Donald Trump for North and South Carolina.

Trump says the federal government is “absolutely, totally prepared.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said his state is “in the bull’s-eye” and urged people to “get ready now.”

The very center of that bull’s-eye may be Camp Lejeune, the sprawling Marine Corps training base, where authorities were opening emergency operation centers, staging equipment and urging families on the base to build survival kits with food and equipment needed to sustain themselves for 72 hours.

Mandatory coastal evacuations were in effect for civilians in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but the military base posted on Facebook that different chains-of-command would decide whether to release non-essential personnel, and some relatives vented fears that they wouldn’t be able to evacuate in time.

Florence could hit the Carolinas harder than any hurricane since Hazel packed 130 mph (209 kph) winds in 1954. That Category 4 storm destroyed 15,000 buildings and killed 19 people in North Carolina. In the six decades since then, many thousands of people have moved to the coast.

Ahead of Florence’s arrival, barrier islands were already seeing dangerous rip currents and seawater flowed over a state highway — the harbinger of a storm surge that could wipe out dunes and submerge entire communities.

Watches in effect Tuesday forecast a storm surge of up to 12 feet at high tide from Cape Fear to Cape Lookout in North Carolina. A hurricane watch was in effect for Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Virginia’s southern border, with the first hurricane-force winds arriving late Thursday.

For many people, the challenge could be finding a safe refuge: If Florence slows to a crawl, it could bring torrential rains into the Appalachian mountains, causing flash floods and mudslides across a region getting lots of rain recently.

“This is going to produce heavy rainfall, and it may not move very fast. The threat will be inland, so I’m afraid, based on my experience at FEMA, that the public is probably not as prepared as everybody would like,” said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Florence’s projected path includes half a dozen nuclear power plants, pits holding coal-ash and other industrial waste, and numerous hog farms that store animal waste in massive open-air lagoons. Duke Energy spokesman Ryan Mosier said operators would begin shutting down nuclear plants at least two hours before hurricane-force winds arrive.

All signs pointed to a stronger, slower, wider and wetter hurricane in the days ahead, forecasters said.

A warm ocean gives hurricanes their fuel, and Florence is moving over an area with water temperatures nearing 85 degrees (30 Celsius), hurricane specialist Eric Blake wrote. With little wind shear to pull the storm apart, hurricane-strength winds have been expanding to 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the eye of the storm, and tropical-storm-force winds 150 miles from the center. Information gathered Tuesday by a hurricane-hunting aircraft suggests it will intensify again as it nears the coast, approaching the 157 mph (253 kph) threshold for a worst-case Category 5 scenario.

Two other storms were spinning in the Atlantic as the 2018 hurricane season reaches its peak. Isaac became a tropical storm again approaching the Caribbean, while Hurricane Helene was veering northward, no threat to land.

In the Pacific, Olivia became a tropical storm again, on a path to hit the Hawaiian islands early Wednesday.

Airlines, including American, Southwest, Delta and JetBlue, have begun letting affected passengers change travel plans without the usual fees.

Liz Browning Fox was planning to ride out the storm on the Outer Banks, defying evacuation orders. She said it was built in 2009 in Buxton, North Carolina, up on a ridge, and made to withstand a hurricane. But even the most secure homes could be surrounded by water, or penetrated by wind-launched debris.

“You never know, there could be tree missiles coming from any direction,” she said. “There is no way to be completely safe,” but going inland might not be much safer. “I don’t know where to go from here,” she said. ___ Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington; Jennifer Kay in Miami; Jeffrey Collins and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.

By JONATHAN DREW, Associated Press

#Floods #Hurricane Florence #million people #north carolina news #Rain #raleigh #surge #TodayNews #torrential rains #wind

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