#or is that just. too advanced to export to northern europe
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just ate 16 olives lads
#dinner!#i miss olives in g*rmany ://#@ habitable eurozone mutuals is it not customary over there to put lemon juice in the brine for green olives#or is that just. too advanced to export to northern europe#ait
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Could you enlighten me about the 18th century Norway? I have such a hard time finding meaningful information about that period (or maybe it's just my lack of skills), when it comes to culture/politics. I would be so thankful, your posts are a blessing.
Thank you so much! 🥰 And apologies in advance for the essay that follows 🙏
Reading up on Norway during the 1700s, I agree with you that it’s not easy to find stuff 😓At least not in the middle of the century. But after some digging around, I think I’ve got a good grasp on it, and I’ll do the entire century, so I’ll try to be brief on each topic. To start off, the most important political event for the Nordics in this century:
Den store Nordiske Krig or Great Northern War, which lasted from 1700 to 1721. Sweden was getting too powerful of a nation in Northern Europe, something that prompted Denmark-Norway and Russia to start a war, claiming/reclaiming some territories etc. Norwegians were of course a big part of the Danish-Norwegian army, and it’s during this war we see the rise of the Norwegian war hero Peter Wessel Tordenskjold (Thunder shield), whose expertise in naval warfare rendered the Swedish useless at sea, winning battle after battle. After Sweden lost territories east of the Baltic Sea, they tried to invade Norway twice, fist in 1716, and then again in 1718 – proving catastrophic as their King was shot, and about 3 000 Swedes and Finns froze to death during a retreat over the Tydal-mountains.
The War was not great on Norway though, with being raided by the Swedish army, increase in taxes as well as surprise taxes, supplying their own army and more and more young men being drafted to fight. I think around this time Norway was one of the most militarized countries in Europe, and the number of young men dying resulted in a high number of widows and unmarried women and lack of labour force.
However, from the 1720s, the Denmark-Norway made the decision to stay out of the continental wars – something that made a huge difference in Norway’s conditions. Norway had a lot of natural resources to offer the other nations, and Norway expanded a lot of cobber mines (especially around Røros), did log driving, and produced iron – something they exported to the rest of Europe so they could have their wars. This all resulted in Norway becoming more organized and individual people acquiring more wealth and becoming more patriotic with a wish for a bank of their own and university, looking on distain at the centralization around Copenhagen in Denmark.
During the 1700s Denmark-Norway also took part in the Atlantic slave trade and had established trading fortresses in cooperation with local rulers in Ghana. Weapons, gunpowder, and alcohol were traded against ivory, gold, and slaves, which were brought to the plantations on the Virgin Islands for cotton, sugar, and tobacco. Towards the end of the 1700s people grew displeased with this though – having the slave trade abolished in 1792 as the first country in Europe to do so.
To finish off the century we have Tyttebærkrigen (1788-1790), The Lingonberry War, where Norwegian forces were ordered to attack Sweden as a distraction from battles with Russia, but it was a failure as they had bad uniforms, little food, bad weather, and no success in getting resources from the locals. About a third of them died due to sickness because of the bad conditions.
I think that sums up the 1700s all right? Norway saw a rise in wealth, larger export of natural resources, and made a lot of money on shipping and seafarers, and growing more and more unhappy about the way things were ruled from Denmark - which again ulitmately leads up to the independence in 1814.
#historical hetalia#hetalia#aph norway#hws norway#thank you for the ask!! I love your drawings as well#and just a sidenote: his outfit is from early 1800s#this is because most of the clothing references I found were that of a very upperclass#and I wanted something closer to the local big farmer instead#and based on the reference I thought this outfit had many similarities with the general clothing style in the 1700s#and I don't imagine the small farmers' fashion changing that much during that time :P#this got way lengthier than I thought it would....#summing up a century is not easy
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How to lose $1 million and risk it all again
When Abbas Dayekh was 18 several years aged, he walked confidently to the reception of Sussex Location, London Enterprise University’s primary campus, and asked: “Where can I enrol?” Safety advised him he would have to wait a several years. Dayekh was in the wrong spot. He was in search of Regent’s University London, exactly where his parents experienced sent him to check a BA (Hons) in Worldwide Enterprise with French. Dayekh, ethnically Lebanese, is from Nigeria, the grandson of the textiles’ industrialist. He was sent to the united kingdom to achieve knowledge, then return and insert benefit inside the loved ones business.
Dayekh, CEO and founder of OyaNow, an application-primarily based shipping and delivery service in Nigeria, chuckles within the memory. It’s not the first time he has taken a detour in his life, and it possibly was one of many additional pleasant – and less expensive - events. With no doubt, one of the most tricky was having to notify his mom he experienced shed all her price savings – about $600,000 – that she invested in him to put in place a Beirut branch of distinctive Parisian couture model CLVII in 2012. “It absolutely was a buddy’s store. The purchasers are certainly top quality; elite footballers and these kinds of. It’s obtained a particular image.
“I ran CLVII notion capital for about a year, and afterwards the Syrian civil war escalated. Bombs started heading off in Beirut. The Saudis and Emirati holidaymakers – my buyers – they went household and didn’t return. I used to be trapped with a great deal of expensive couture and no funds”
I ran CLVII for around a year, and afterwards the Syrian civil war escalated. Bombs started off going off in Beirut. The Saudis and Emirati travellers – my prospects – they went residence and didn’t come back. I was stuck which has a large amount of pricey couture and no dollars. Involving my mom’s price savings, a buddy’s financial commitment of about $two hundred,000 and the money I’d expended in that two-year period, I’d managed to lose $one million.
‘Not a tech dude’
While Dayekh, from Kano in Nigeria’s northern province, felt upset that he’d Enable down his mom, his initial – and biggest – entrepreneurial flop did nothing at all to dampen his enthusiasm for the entrepreneurial route and his zeal to triumph. In actual fact, he reflects that it spurred him on to at some point found OyaNow, an application-primarily based logistics enterprise aiding enterprises to achieve Nigeria’s progressively related populace of just about 200 million by trustworthy and rapidly previous-mile shipping and delivery.
This Regardless of the simple fact Dayekh promises to generally be “by no means a tech man”. He laughs: “I'm able to’t code.” Dayekh has gained the Persons’s Decision Award while in the George Bernard Shaw Unreasonable Individual category at this calendar year’s Serious Innovation Awards (RIA) in recognition of his dogged perseverance to succeed Even with there becoming no fantastic rationale that he should really.
When he had The theory for OyaNow, he was pretty much broke, acquiring returned from Shanghai the place for 9 months he had been performing being an outsourcing broker for just a number of Nigerian clientele he’d managed to secure. “They had been tiny contracts and Therefore the Fee was little,” he claims. “I had return to Abuja for being with my mom and determine what I had been gonna do with my life. I barely experienced any revenue, but I nonetheless realized I used to be about to do my own factor.”
It transpired to him that buyer self esteem in Nigeria was zero. “There was no rely on in the market in Nigeria and not Considerably purchaser treatment possibly. I thought of the accomplishment of foods shipping expert services in Europe and The us like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Nigeria is probably one of many final nations around the world on this planet with such a big inhabitants that remains so underdeveloped. I observed that hole as a huge possibility.”
But who was about to buy the coders? And to the bikes? In fact – this was Africa, not Europe. Banks don’t give financial loans to people with no property. Dayekh was fortuitous to have a network of Intercontinental experts and traders he cultivated from having long gone to one of the better boarding schools in the world in Switzerland. A friend came by with a few seed income Which paid out for creating the app and the main motorbikes.
Ideal time, right solution, proper place
“I realized This may be a really diverse proposition from Deliveroo and Uber Eats. For 1, we would want to supply total pastoral care to our riders – whom we contact Entrepreneurs – mainly because they could be coming from all around the country. We would have to give them a destination to Are living. They would be the brand. I needed to be sure that I did all the things I could to empower them for being entirely engaged in OyaNow and assist the manufacturer to accomplish its key performance indicators of reliability, usefulness and high quality of assistance usually.
“My uncles felt I were born which has a silver spoon in my mouth Which I'd volume to nothing exterior the relatives small business. I'd a burning desire to establish them Improper and clearly show the entire world I could allow it to be by myself”
OyaNow is definitely an abbreviation of the phrase indicating “we've been coming” in Nigerian slang English. It really is widely recognized throughout ethnic teams and tribes and was a great match with the operating product and to the cultural context. It soft released in Abuja, in advance of launching in Kano after which Lagos.
Starting up off to be a foods shipping service about 3 many years ago, OyaNow obtained an sudden fillip within the Covid-19 pandemic which noticed desire for its very last-mile supply provider go with the roof. Now, it delivers Pretty much anything at all that may be shipped and OyaNow has business associations with lots of factories across the country.
The organization now has about eighty five bikes and vans as well as other vehicles, microinvestors which is eyeing the subsequent stage of enlargement in other nations in Africa, but Dayekh can’t say too a great deal more at this time. The serial innovator also has enterprise passions in medical marijuana and hemp in Malawi by way of a Swiss-based startup called House Africa. Previously this yr, Malawi legalised the expanding, promoting and exporting of cannabis for professional medical use.
“Winning this award – the George Bernard Shaw Unreasonable Individual Award – I love it! It pleases me in excess of if I had been to generally be manufactured President of America! It appears that evidently I do new points on a regular basis. But, the truth is, there is a pattern. Africa is often a tough area to know if You aren't from listed here. Western organizations see likely during the economies here but are nervous to generate a transfer due to perception of danger and a lack of certainty.
I've realised that I may be that bridge that inbound links Africa With all the West. It is a fairly distinctive situation to be in and I am just getting started.”
six tips about entrepreneurship from OyaNow founder Abbas Dayekh
Being an entrepreneur seriously isn’t straightforward. You require conviction and dedication. It’s probably a cliche but You can not succeed devoid of it. It’s a lonely highway. You may get dangers. You will upset the established order, and people don’t like that. Men and women like it any time you fall short. Personally, when I turn into devoted to a thing, no one can cease me.
The most important enterprise lesson I've discovered was the four Ps: value, products, promotion and spot. They're the key elements for achievement. OyaNow delivers all 4 together beautifully.
Failure is Studying and almost nothing to become ashamed of. Be honest with your self about what went Mistaken and go forward, striving not to generate precisely the same mistakes once more.
Entrepreneurship can be difficult on your own mental health and fitness. You can find every day considerations about cashflow, and regardless of whether you'll have enough funds to pay your charges; to pay your employees. Even now, I put up with panic assaults. It might be very difficult to repeatedly need to project a façade of strength for your personnel, buyers and the market when deep down you don’t know wherever your following tranche of cash will originate from to maintain heading. Be sincere with oneself about whether or not you can handle this strain.
Any time you expand, empower your personnel. They can be your small business. They will be the distinction between accomplishment and failure ultimately. Be humble as a pacesetter and hear your staff. Apologise for the mistakes. They must invest in into your eyesight. Empower them to co-create that eyesight mainly because it evolves.
Use a disproportionate number of Gals in the management staff. Females tend to be a lot less self-centred and aggressive. Coming from the patriarchal household business enterprise dominated by warring factions, I wish to be surrounded by Girls, who often carry balance and direct for your greater great rather then individual acquire.
The Real Innovation Awards is undoubtedly an once-a-year ceremony celebrating business innovation all over the world, hosted via the London Business Faculty’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE). To determine this year’s celebration occurring on ten December 2020 and hear insights on ‘Innovating in Adversity’ sign up below.
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Johnson's deal: The reality of what is being proposed
By Ian Dunt
Politics is in a frenzy. It is witnessing a scale of political activity you hardly ever see. Loyalties are fluid, the stakes are impossibly high and the deadline is pulverising. MPs have until tomorrow to decide whether they'll back Boris Johnson's deal, which could define the way this country operates for a generation. Everything is very loud and very fast.
The talk is mostly on the numbers in parliament. Occasionally it veers into the provisions for a dual customs system in Northern Ireland and the reliability of the level playing field concession. That makes sense - it's where the votes will make or break.
But it is extraordinary that we are not talking about the real issue of what is happening here, the actual underlying reality of what this decision involves. It is more than an elephant in the room. It is a monster, filling up all the space, breathing fire on us, and yet we are somehow managing to pretend it isn't there while our hair sets alight.
The issue is: What would Johnson's deal actually do to the economy of this country?
That's not about Brexit. You can leave the EU and stay close to its trade regime. This is about how you do Brexit.
The Johnson deal is the hardest of hard Brexits. It pulls Britain completely out of the customs union and single market and envisions a very minor free trade agreement to replace it.
It's not fashionable to talk about this now. These arguments were made after the referendum. As Brexit bored on, we all desperately searched out new areas of debate and focused on the aspects which caused most division in parliament. And somehow we ended up in this place, where the fundamental choice we are about to make is barely discussed. You could watch dozens of hours of TV news without even a mention of it. So it's worth, one last time, providing a reminder of what's actually going on before we decide to do it.
Taken together, the single market and customs union are the most advanced examples of international economic cooperation in the history of mankind. They do two things. The customs union harmonises tariffs so that goods pay no tax and experience no country-of-origin checks inside their territory. The single market aligns regulations, so that goods can move freely without worries about whether they're against the rules in one country or another.
This project massively increases trade and improves the economic well being of the countries who are members of it. It means that investors from countries like Japan use Britain as a beachhead to Europe. It means services, a core and criminally under-discussed part of the British economy, can sell their products all over a continent of well-off consumers.
It means you get infinitely more than any trade deal, because it does not involve the country-of-origin checks which make exports complicated and laborious. It means just-in-time supply chains can operate with lightning efficiency, because they know there will be no blockages.
It keeps you locked in to one of the most advanced regulatory climates on earth, with high standards for food safety, agricultural rules, worker safety and environmental protection. It gives the UK access to major trade deals with countries like Japan and Canada, on terms negotiated using the leverage of the massive European consumer market, and secured using some of the most impressive trade negotiators in the world.
It allows lots of medium-sized economies to club together so that they can go toe-to-toe with larger economies. China and the US can bully almost anyone. They're big enough. But they can't bully the EU. In a world that is slowly degenerating into a dog-eat-dog system without the old rules-based order, it offers strength and protection.
Outside of that system, Britain is going to hurt. A recent report by UK in a Changing Europe projected a reduction in UK GDP per capita after ten years of between 2.3% and seven per cent under Johnson's plan. The gap will be defined by whether we try to make up the loss by bringing in lots of immigrants and find a way to improve productivity. The best case scenario is a £16 billion hit to public finances per year. It's £49 billion hit in the worst case.
This will not be made up for by securing new free trade deals overseas. These agreements are tiny and inconsequential next to the European project. The government's own analysis suggests that even at peak British negotiating success they would amount to an increase in GDP after 15 years of somewhere between 0.1% and 0.2%.
People's lives will be damaged. They will be poorer. They will be £2,250 a year worse off by 2034. The nation's finances will be hurt. There will, in the end, be more austerity. And this will be done just as the world is most uncertain, amid a bitter trade war between China and the US, when the WTO is being brought to its knees by Donald Trump.
These arguments are treated with scorn nowadays. We're told that people who still care about economics have lost sight that this is a debate about identity and sovereignty. That's fine. It's about those things too. But when you experience hardship, everyone cares about economics. A man without bread is not concerned with where the regulatory decisions are made on lawnmower levels.
We are about to sabotage our relationship with the most successful economic project in the modern world. It is the biggest decision we'll take in our lifetime and one which, if we do it, we'll regret for a long time to come. It's worth mentioning that - the actual reality of what is happening - at least one more time before MPs vote tomorrow.
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Are we watching a real-time extinction of southern resident killer whales?
Randy Shore - October 9, 2018
Images of the orca J35 Tahlequah carrying her dead newborn for a heartbreaking 17 days over 1,600 kilometres were seen around the world. Canadian and American veterinarians and biologists then joined forces in dramatic fashion to diagnose and treat the ailing three-year-old J50 Scarlet from the same pod, but failed to save her life. Three deaths this summer — including the young male L92 Crewser, which disappeared in June — have focused the world’s attention on the difficulties facing southern resident killer whales like never before.
Now, the world will watch as we bring the 74 remaining community members back from the brink, or witness their extinction. Biologists and conservationists hope the celebrity of the Salish Sea’s orcas can be used to save them.
“They are a symbol for a lot of species that share their ecosystem and some of them are doing poorly, too,” said Vancouver Aquarium veterinarian Marty Haulena. Sea stars, chinook and sockeye salmon and rockfish populations are all in distress, but considerably less photogenic than orcas.
“Hopefully the southern residents have the star power to get some attention,” said Haulena. Orcas have strong family bonds, they play, and apparently grieve their losses, making them uniquely relatable.
“That is why we take their deaths so hard,” said Mark Leiren-Young, director of The Hundred Year Old Whale and author of The Killer Whale Who Changed the World.
“The photos of a baby orca leaping through the air that went viral — captioned ‘learning to fly’ — that was J50 Scarlet,” he said. “She was the symbol of a baby boom, the symbol of hope. And this is the whale that we just watched die.”
Scientists who study the West Coast’s killer whales identify individuals by their dorsal fins and a unique white saddle patch. Each gets a number and then a name, and hence a public persona. Vets and biologists are now gearing up to provide personalized medical attention to the southern residents.
Veterinary researcher Joe Gaydos of UC Davis, working with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has created individualized health records for every member, like you and I have with our family doctor.
“We need to know a lot more about the individual health of these animals,” said Haulena. “We can’t treat them as a population anymore. We have so few left that we need to know why every individual has died. And we don’t.”
Gaydos has adapted an approach developed for a closely monitored group of mountain gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda.
“(The gorillas) each have a health record, they are all vaccinated, and they are treated medically when something goes wrong,” Haulena said.
American researchers are able to collect feces, breath samples and “snot” from the southern residents, and use darts to collect samples of skin and blubber, according to Lynne Barre, southern resident killer whale recovery co-ordinator for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“We slice and dice these samples and cross-reference it with other data in every way we can think of to get a full picture,” she said.
The physical condition of the whales is assessed from photographs and video taken from the water’s surface and from aerial drones.
“So we watch and listen and sometimes even smell their breath,” she said.
Blubber samples in particular reveal the presence of toxins, from long-banned DDT and PCBs to newer threats such as PBDE flame retardants.
“Some of these are endocrine disrupters that are persistent in the environment and accumulate over time, affecting reproduction and the immune system,” said Barre.
A study published last week in the journal Science found that southern residents are moderately affected by PCBs compared to killer whale groups in Brazil and Europe, yet the contamination is predicted to negatively affect their ability to reproduce.
PCBs accumulate and concentrate in fish-eating fish such as chinook.
One sign of hope is that the whales continue to mate and conceive.
Females from J, K and L pods are showing signs of pregnancy and in mid-September the southern residents from all three pods merged into a super-pod near Race Rocks on Vancouver Island.
“We heard that there was a lot of social activity going on,” said Barre.
Time for action
The southern residents that make their summer home in the Salish Sea between the Fraser River and Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island haven’t successfully produced a calf in three years.
Three members died just this summer, including the male L92 Crewser, who was declared missing in June. He was just 23 and in his prime.
Just a decade ago, surviving calves were being born at a rate of three, four or five per year. But since November of 2015, not a single one has survived.
Forty surviving calves have been born to the group since 1998. Over the same period, 73 southern residents have died.
Most cetaceans have a higher mortality rate in the first year of life, said Haulena.
But many of the other 17 orcas that perished since 2012 were in their prime — 13, 18, 20 and 23 years old.
“Orcas in their prime absolutely should be surviving,” he said.
A 27-year-old male, K25, has recently showed signs of decline in aerial photos, which Barre characterized as a “warning signal.”
Evidence points to a lack of food — mainly chinook salmon — as a threat to the orcas’ survival. Underwater noise from shipping, ferries, commercial and recreational fishing boats, and whale watchers interferes with their ability to locate what little prey is available.
Six groups, including the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation, asked the courts on Sept. 5 to compel the federal government to issue an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act to protect the southern residents and their main food source, chinook salmon.
The chinook are themselves in deep crisis. The Columbia River chinook are listed as endangered in the U.S., and last week Fisheries and Oceans Canada released data showing this season’s chinook returns in the Fraser River were well below the historical average.
The southern residents, too, are listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act. The next status after endangered is “extirpated,” meaning they are reproductively non-viable, or dead. Ottawa is taking public input on the Species at Risk Act recovery strategy for northern and southern resident killer whales until Nov. 3.
Earlier this year the litigating groups asked Ottawa to curtail sport fishing and whale watching in critical feeding areas. The government responded by reducing the chinook catch by 25 to 35 per cent and increasing the buffer zone for whale watching to 200 metres.
Parts of the most important foraging areas in the Gulf Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca were closed to all fishing and partial closures were implemented at the mouth of the Fraser River.
“Since the death of three whales, including J50, we have upped our ask,” said Misty MacDuffee, a biologist for Raincoast. “Now we want the closure of all marine-based commercial and sport chinook fisheries.”
The groups are also calling for a full ban on whale watching for the southern residents.
Up to two dozen whale-watching vessels follow the group daily in their main feeding areas on the Salish Sea, she said.
Whales or oil?
The plight of the southern residents is now central to the progress of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
In overturning the pipeline approval, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the National Energy Board should have considered the impact of increased tanker traffic on southern resident killer whales.
Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson hinted this week that further protections for killer whales could come before cabinet decides whether to approve the pipeline again, after the National Energy Board’s do-over review is complete.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would increase the number of large vessels entering the Port of Vancouver by about six per week. The port currently serves 3,200 vessels a year.
Ottawa’s $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan — created in advance of Trans Mountain’s original approval — included plans to improve prey availability for the whales and to reduce underwater noise that interferes with the their ability to communicate and locate prey.
The government will invest an additional $167 million over five years in the Whales Initiative, supporting research, enforcement and education, and adding fisheries officers to ensure compliance to new regulations by anglers. Aerial surveillance over critical habitat has been increased by 30 per cent, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is spending $9.5 million on chinook habitat restoration on the Fraser, Thompson and Skeena Rivers and salmon streams on Vancouver Island, much of it in collaboration with First Nations.
A $150-million industry-funded oil spill protection plan was suspended when the pipeline approval was overturned.
A recent study published in the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology suggests that a major oil spill near the orcas’ summer feeding grounds could affect up to 80 per cent of their critical habitat.
Animals such as orcas that spend a lot of time at the water’s surface are most likely to suffer from contact and ingestion of diluted bitumen, the main product to be exported by the proposed pipeline expansion, the authors said.
The port has implemented two programs aimed at reducing the impact of shipping on the southern residents.
Vessels travelling through the Strait of Juan de Fuca have been asked to shift their route as far south as possible within the shipping lane to create more distance between the ships and foraging areas.
In its fourth year, Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation is a voluntary program in which ships are asked to reduce their speed through the Haro Strait to reduce underwater noise.
Underwater microphones installed in the Haro Strait found that noise created by slower vessels was “significantly” reduced, by about 6 to 11 decibels.
“We asked vessels to slow down to 11 knots,” said Carrie Brown, the port’s director of environmental programs. “We’ve had 87 per cent participation by ships in the current slowdown period.”
The program doesn’t have a specific threshold or goal for the level of underwater noise; instead it operates on the notion that any reduction in noise will be of benefit.
American authorities are considering dramatic action to improve chinook stocks and there is real public pressure to demolish four Lower Snake River dams.
Washington Governor Jay Inlee’s Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force has just released draft recommendations that include expanding hatchery programs, real-time orca monitoring to close active fisheries when the southern residents are in the area and removing barriers from a river system that has 14 hydroelectric dams.
After the removal of a dam on the Elwha River in 2014, chinook are returning to spawning areas above the former dam site, according to the Klallam Nation.
A massive increase in local populations of harbour seals and sea lions is also contributing to prey scarcity, because they also selectively eat chinook, according to recent research published by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
The report also contemplates “management actions” to control the number of harbour seals in Puget Sound. Earlier this summer, the U.S. federal government authorized a cull of sea lions in the Columbia River.
“If we don’t increase the availability of chinook and lessen the toxic load in the chinook population then we are watching (the southern residents) vanish,” said Leiren-Young.
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What Your Sons and Daughters Will Learn at University
Universities in the 20th century were dedicated to the advancement of knowledge. Scholarship and research were pursued, and diverse opinions were exchanged and argued in the “marketplace of ideas.”
This is no longer the case. Particularly in the social sciences, humanities, education, social work, and law, a single political ideology has replaced scholarship and research, because the ideology presents fixed answers to all questions. And, although the most important thing in universities today is the diversity of race, gender, sexual practice, ethnicity, economic class, and physical and mental capability, there is no longer diversity of opinion. Only those committed to the ideology are admitted to academic staff or administration.
Universities have been transformed by the near-universal adoption of three interrelated theories: postmodernism, postcolonialism, and social justice. These theories and their implications will be explored here.
There Is No Truth; Nothing Is Good or Bad
Postmodernism: In the past, academics were trained to seek truth. Today, academics deny that there is such a thing as objective Truth. Instead, they argue that no one can be objective, that everyone is inevitably subjective, and consequently everyone has their own truth. The correct point of view, they urge, is relativism. This means not only that truth is relative to the subjectivity of each individual, but also that ethics and morality are relative to the individual and the culture, so there is no such thing as Good and Evil, or even Right and Wrong. So too with the ways of knowing; your children will learn that there is no objective basis for preferring chemistry over alchemy, astronomy over astrology, or medical doctors over witch doctors. They will learn that facts do not exist; only interpretations do.
All Cultures Are Equally Good; Diversity Is Our Strength
Our social understanding has also been transformed by postmodern relativism. Because moral and ethical principles are deemed to be no more than the collective subjectivity of our culture, it is now regarded as inappropriate to judge the principles and actions of other cultures. This doctrine is called “cultural relativism.” For example, while racism is held to be the highest sin in the West, and slavery the greatest of our historical sins, your children will learn that we are not allowed to criticize contemporary racism and slavery in Africa, the Middle East, and the equivalents in South Asia.
The political manifestation of cultural relativism is multiculturalism, an incoherent concept that projects the integration of multiple incompatible cultures. Diversity is lauded as a virtue in itself. Imagine a country with fifty different languages, each derived from a different culture. That would not be a society, but a tower of babble. How would it work if there were multiple codes of law requiring and forbidding contrary behaviors: driving on the left and driving on the right; monogamy and polygamy; male dominance and gender equality; arranged marriage and individual choice? Your children will learn that our culture is nothing special and that other cultures are awesome.
The West Is Evil; The Rest Are Virtuous
Postcolonialism, the dominant theory in the social sciences today, is inspired by the Marxist-Leninist theory of imperialism, in which the conflict between the capitalist and proletariat classes is allegedly exported to the exploitation of colonized countries. By this means, the theory goes, oppression and poverty take place in colonies instead of in relation to the metropolitan working class. Postcolonialism posits that all of the problems in societies around the world today are the result of the relatively short Western imperial dominance and colonization. For example, British imperialism is blamed for what are in fact indigenous cultures, such as the South Asian caste system and the African tribal system. So too, problems of backwardness and corruption in countries once, decades ago, colonies continue to be blamed on past Western imperialism. The West is thus the continuing focus on anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist sentiment. Your children will learn that our society is evil, and the cause of all the evil in the wider world.
Only the West Was Imperialist and Colonialist
This ahistorical approach of postcolonialism ignores the hundreds of empires and their colonies throughout history, as well as ignoring contemporary empires, such as the Arab Muslim Empire that conquered all of the central Middle East, North Africa, southern Europe, Persia, Central Asia, and northern India, and occupied them minimally for hundreds of years, but 1400 years in the central Middle East and North Africa, and occupy them today. China, once the Communists took power, invaded Inner Mongolia to the north, Chinese Turkestan to the west, and Tibet to the south. Once in control, the government flooded these colonies with Han Chinese, in effect ethnically cleansing them. Postcolonialists have nothing to say about any of this; they wish to condemn exclusively the West. Your children will learn to reject history and comparisons with other societies, lest the claimed unique sins of the West be challenged.
Western Imperialism Was a Racist Project
Postcolonialists like to stress the racial dimension of Western imperialism: as an illustration of racism. But postmodernists are not interested in Arab slave raiding in “black” Africa, or Ottoman slaving among the whites in the Balkans, or the North Africans slave raiding of whites in Europe, from Ireland through Italy and beyond. Your children will learn that only whites are racist.
Israeli Colonialists Are White Supremacists
A remarkable example of this line of thinking is the characterization of Israel as a settler colonialist, white supremacist, apartheid society Allegedly white Israelis are oppressing Palestinian people of color. The (non-postmodern) facts make this a difficult argument to sustain. As is well established by all evidence, Jewish tribes and kingdoms occupied Judea and Samaria for a thousand years before the Romans invaded and fought war after imperial war against the indigenous Jews, and then enslaved or exiled most of them, renaming the land “Palestine.” Then, five centuries later, the Arabs from Arabia invaded and conquered Palestine, going on to conquer half of the world. The Jews returned to “Palestine” after 1400 years; most were refugees or stateless, so not colonists from a metropolis. Almost half of Israelis are Jewish Arabs thrown out of Arab countries, not to mention the Ethiopian and Indian Jews. Furthermore, Arab Muslims and Christians make up 21% of Israeli citizens. So to characterize multicolored Israelis as “whites” oppressing “Palestinian people of color’ is an imaginary distinction.
Canadian? You Have No Right to Stolen Native Land
If indigenous Jews are deemed to have no claim to their ancient homeland, then Euro-Canadians, Asian Canadians, African Canadians, and Latin Canadians are colonialist settlers without even an excuse. You have stolen Native land. The only moral course, according to postcolonialism, is to give everything back. At the very least, in order for “decolonization” to be implemented, the First Nations must be ranked above the interloping settlers, must be given special preference in all benefits, the law must make special exceptions for them. First nations must receive ongoing grants, pay no taxes, be given special reserved places in universities and government offices, and they have a veto over any public policy and be ceremonially bowed to at every public event.
As we are guided by postcolonialism rather than by human rights, we can disregard the human right of equal treatment before the law. That is just a rule of foreign settlers anyway. And the cities and industries and institutions built by the settlers, so the decolonialization story goes, really should belong to the natives, even though they lived in simple settlements or were nomads, depending upon simple shelters, with limited hunting or cultivating subsistence economies. There was no civil peace among the many Native bands and tribes, with raiding, enslavement, torture, and slaughter common.
White Men Are Evil; Women of Color Are Virtuous
Social justice theory teaches that the world is divided between oppressors and victims. Some categories of people are oppressors and other are victims: males are oppressors, and females are victims; whites are oppressors, and people of color are victims; heterosexuals are oppressors, and gays, lesbians, bisexual, etc. are victims; Christians and Jews are oppressors, and Muslims are victims. Your sons will learn that they are stigmatized by their toxic masculinity.
Individuals Are Not Important; Only Category Membership Is
Social justice theory has taken university life by storm. It is the result of the relentless working of Marxist theory, adopted by youngsters during the American cultural revolution of the 1960s, then brought to universities as many of those youngsters became college professors. Marxism as an academic theory was explicitly followed by some in the 1970s and 1980s, but it did not sweep everything else away, because the idea economic class conflict was not popular in the prosperous general North American population. The cultural Marxist innovation that brought social justice theory to dominance was the extension of class conflict from economics to gender, race, sexual practice, ethnicity, religion, and other mass categories. We see this in sociology, which is no longer defined as the study of society but has for decades been defined as the study of inequality. For social justice theory, equality is not the equality of opportunity that is the partner of merit, but rather equality of result, which ensures the members of each category at equality of representation irrespective of merit. Your sons will learn that they should “step aside” to give more space and power to females. Your daughters, if white, will learn that they must defer to members of racial minorities.
Justice Is Equal Representation According to Percentages of the Population
As there is allegedly structural discrimination against all members of victim categories, in order for equality of result to prevail, representation according to percentages of populations must be mandated in all organizations, in all books assigned or references cited, in all awards and benefits. Ideas such as merit and excellence are dismissed as white-male supremacist dog whistles; they are to be replaced by “diversity” of gender, race, sexual preference, ethnicity, economic class, religion, and so on. (Note that “diversity” does not include “diversity of opinion”; for only social justice ideology is acceptable. Any criticism or opposition is regarded as “hate speech.”) Academic committees now twist themselves into pretzels trying to explain that “diversity is excellence.”
Members of Oppressor Categories Must Be Suppressed
Of course, the requirement of representation according to population applies only one way: to members of victim classes. If whites, men, heterosexuals, Christians, etc. are underrepresented, that is fine; the fewer the better. For example, females now make up 60% of university graduates, although in the general age cohort males are 51%. There is no social justice clamoring for males to be fully represented. Members of disfavored oppressor categories are disparaged. The classics of Western civilization should be ignored because they are the work, almost exclusively, of “dead white men.” Only works of females, people of color and non-Western authors should be considered virtuous. So too in political history. The American Constitution should be discarded because its writers were slaveholders.
Victims of The World Unite!
“intersectionality” is an idea invented by a feminist law professor. It argues that some individuals fall into several victim categories, for example, black, female lesbians have three points in the victim stakes, as opposed to male members of the First Nations who receive only one point. Further, on the action front, members of each victim category are urged to unite and ally with members of other victim categories, because sharing the victim designation is the most important status in the world. This leads to some anomalies. Black victims of racism are urged to unite with Arab victims of colonialism, even though Arabs have been and still are holders of black slaves.
Female victims of sexism are urged to support Palestinian victims of “white” colonialism, even though Palestinian women have always been and continue to be subordinated to men, and are subjected to a wide range of abuse. Your children will learn that to be accepted, they must assume victim status or become champions of victims, and ally with other victims.
Being Educated Is About Being on The Right Side
As Karl Marx said, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” The objective of a university education today is to ensure that students chose “the right side” in changing the world. The idea that it probably makes sense to try to understand the world before attempting to change it, is rejected as outmoded, modernist empiricism and realism, now superseded by postmodernism and social justice. If there is no Truth, and whatever one feels or believes is one’s truth, then trying to gain an objective understanding of the world is futile. Anyway, Marxist social justice offers all the answers anyone needs, so no inquiry or serious research is required. Be confident that at university your children will learn “the right side” to be on, if little else.
Source: https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2018/09/04/what-your-sons-and-daughters-will-learn-at-university/
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German Translation Services
There are around 120 million speakers of German in 8 countries around the globe. German isn't only native to Germany: it is the official or co-official language in Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol in Italy, part of Belgium, and Luxembourg. It is the main language of around 95 million individuals and the most broadly spoken language in the European Union.
German is likewise a standout amongst the most generally shown foreign languages in the world.
The various types of German
With such a large number of speakers spread crosswise over eight countries around the globe, the usage of German will undoubtedly fluctuate making it a pluricentric language.
In the event that one has known about High and Low German, one must understand that it doesn't allude to any social order: this grouping alludes to the geographical part of Germany where the adaptation of the language was/is spoken.
Low German (Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch) is spoken in the low-lying region of northern Germany. It is an old form of German in utilize even today. Low German likewise advanced over the seas to the USA, Canada, and Brazil with the Mennonites when they left Germany to keep away from religious pressure.
High or Upper German (Oberdeutsch or Hochdeutsch) was originally utilized in the southern highlands of Germany. It was promoted due to the interpretation of the Bible into German by Martin Luther in the sixteenth century.
This kind of German turned into the present Standard German.
Standard German is a blend of High German and distinctive tongues, 'falsely' made by poets, philosophers, and scholars. When we discuss German today, Standard German is the thing that we allude to, and this is what is instructed in all language schools.
Germany: England's nearby cousin
German and English are part of the West Germanic language family and are firmly related.
King George I of Great Britain was a German import from Hanover and, even today, the British Royal family has Teutonic (read German) heritage.
English To German Translation are connected languages however far apart as to require interpretation. With English being a dominant world language, it isn't surprising that translators and interpretation administrations are expected to travel openly between the two languages.
Deutsch nach Englisch: What is the requirement for interpretation into English and the other way around?
Germany: the economic powerhouse
The conspicuous answer is that Germany is a capacity to figure with even today when the world has come to mean the United States of America to a great many people.
Simply consider that Hitler had conveyed Germany to decimation-financially and morally-toward the finish of World War II in 1945. Today, Germany is the biggest national economy in Europe with the fifth biggest GDP in the world. It has risen like the Phoenix from the fiery remains of WW II.
In 2016, Germany had the most elevated exchange surplus in the world worth $310 billion. This makes the country an export mammoth. Germany, truth be told, exports $1.27 trillion in merchandise and ventures each year.
Business and exchange with Germany are very attractive. All economic activity requires contracts, correspondence, documentation and legal activity: in short, every one of the wheels of commerce must be lubed to cut the arrangements. This is absurd if communication is a hindrance. Professional interpretation administrations of the most noteworthy quality are, in this manner, in great demand.
Germany: the focal point of culture
German philosophers like Kant, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, have molded western theory.
Mozart and Beethoven were German goliaths who walked the western established music scene. Today, Germany is the biggest music advertise in Europe and the third biggest in the world.
10% of all books distributed worldwide are in the German Language.
German cinema, media, workmanship and design, are no less famous.
Man does not live by bread alone: the finer crafts of life are what place people as the most astounding form of Nature's manifestations. Without German to English interpretation, we stand to lose all that Germany brings to the table in such manner.
Germany: the innovator in Science, Engineering and Technology
Germany has been home to the most prominent of researchers and analysts, generating more Nobel laureates than some other country. Einstein was a German: need more be said?
Germany is a world head in innovation. Leading colleges and research institutes initiate way breaking work in innovation and science and work in close collaboration with manufacturing and major engineering mammoths.
On the off chance that the Arts are important to a raised life, the sciences and engineering innovation are important to life itself.
The allowed forward and backward stream of learning and information is unthinkable without German to English interpretation. Such interpretation must be exact, proficient, and very much explored: just a specialist is able to do such an errand.
Germany: home to mammoth producers
Germany is a gigantic manufacturing center point. Who hasn't known about German-made vehicles? Mercedes Benz, Daimler, Porsche, Volkswagen, and BMW are brands that make your heart beat quicker.
Pharmaceutical companies like Bayer and Siemens, sporting hotshot Adidas, and Faber-Castell stationery are the very tip of the German manufacturing chunk of ice, however hot properties in the global scene too.
Need to exchange with the Germans? Being two-tongued takes on new meaning.
In conclusion, it must be expressed that the world needs to interact with Germany as well as needs to. We can't divorce the ubiquity of a language from the favorable global impression of the country of its birth. At the end of the day, German is a looked for after language globally in light of the fact that its Vaterland is a favored country.
A global opinion survey by the BBC uncovered that Germany is the second most regarded country in the world among FIFTY countries and that it has had the best influence in the world since 2011.
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“Dried kesar or saffron has high carbohydrate content and is rich in vitamins and minerals. Owing to its high nutritional content and medicinal properties, the spice is used in food as seasoning or flavouring and to treat several ailments and health problems.”
Five Health Benefits of Kesar
Kesar is used to treat common ailments
Kesar helps to treat asthma
Kesar treats stress and insomnia
Kesar treats flatulence
Kesar treats Alzheimer’s
Five Beauty Benefits of Kesar
Kesar boosts ageless beauty
Kesar for glowing skin
Kesar treats acne
Kesar rids scars and wounds
Kesar treats dry skin
(via Kesar: Taste the incredible benefits of wonder spice saffron for great health and beauty | News Nation)
Saffron (color)
“Saffron is an orange color, resembling the color of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived.
The color has some significance in Buddhism; it is worn by the monks of the Theravada tradition. It is also an important symbolic color in India, where it was chosen in 1947 as one of the three colors of the Indian flag after the nation gained its independence.
The color saffron is associated with the goddess of dawn (Eos in Greek mythology and Aurora in Roman mythology) in classical literature.
In the Pokémon games, there is a city named Saffron City.”
History of Saffron
“[T]he ancient Greeks knew it as "Thera". These frescoes likely date from the 16th or 17th century BC but may have been produced anywhere between 3000 and 1100 BC. They portray a Minoan goddess supervising the plucking of flowers and the gleaning of stigmas for use in the manufacture of what is possibly a therapeutic drug. A fresco from the same site also depicts a woman using saffron to treat her bleeding foot.”
“Ancient Greek legends tell of brazen sailors embarking on long and perilous voyages to the remote land of Cilicia, where they traveled to procure what they believed was the world's most valuable saffron. The best-known Hellenic saffron legend is that of Crocus and Smilax: The handsome youth Crocus sets out in pursuit of the nymph Smilax in the woods near Athens; in a brief dallying interlude of idyllic love, Smilax is flattered by his amorous advances, but all too soon tires of his attentions. He continues his pursuit; she resists. She bewitches Crocus: he is transformed—into a saffron crocus. Its radiant orange stigmas were held as a relict glow of an undying and unrequited passion.”
Cleopatra of late Ptolemaic Egypt used a quarter-cup of saffron in her warm baths, as she prized its colouring and cosmetic properties. She used it before encounters with men, trusting that saffron would render lovemaking yet more pleasurable...In Greco-Roman times saffron was widely traded across the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians. Their customers ranged from the perfumers of Rosetta, in Egypt, to physicians in Gaza to townsfolk in Rhodes, who wore pouches of saffron in order to mask the presence of malodorous fellow citizens during outings to the theatre.”
“The ancient Greeks and Romans prized saffron as a perfume or deodoriser and scattered it about their public spaces: royal halls, courts, and amphitheatres alike. When Nero entered Rome they spread saffron along the streets; wealthy Romans partook of daily saffron baths. They used it as mascara, stirred saffron threads into their wines, cast it aloft in their halls and streets as a potpourri, and offered it to their deities. Roman colonists took saffron with them when they settled in southern Roman Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until the AD 271 barbarian invasion of Italy.”
The History of Saffron
“Persian saffron was heavily used by Alexander and his forces during their Asian campaigns. They mixed saffron into teas and dined on saffron rice. Alexander personally used saffron sprinkled in warm bath water, taking after Cyrus the Great...he believed it would heal his many wounds, and his faith in saffron grew with each treatment. He even recommended saffron baths for the ordinary men under him. The Greek soldiers, taken with saffron’s perceived curative properties, continued the practice after they returned to Macedonia.
Saffron cultivation in Europe declined steeply following the fall of the Roman Empire. For several centuries thereafter, saffron cultivation was rare or non-existent throughout Europe. This was reversed when Moorish civilization spread from North Africa to settle the Iberian Peninsula as well as parts of France and southern Italy. One theory states that Moors reintroduced saffron corms to the region around Poitiers after they lost the Battle of Tours to Charles Martel in AD 732.”
“The merchants of Venice continued their rule of the Mediterranean sea trade, trafficking varieties from Sicily, France and Spain, Austria, Crete and Greece, and the Ottoman Empire. Adulterated goods also made the rounds: those soaked in honey, mixed with marigold petals, or kept in damp cellars—all to add quick and cheap bulk. Irritated Nuremberg authorities passed the Safranschou code to de-louse the saffron trade. Adulterators were thus fined, imprisoned, and executed—by immolation.”
“Puritanical partisans favoured increasingly austere, unadorned, and unspiced foods. Saffron was also a labor-intensive crop, which became an increasing disadvantage as wages and time opportunity costs rose. And finally, an influx of more exotic spices from the far East due to the resurgent spice trade meant that the English, as well as other Europeans, had many more—and cheaper—seasonings to dally over...In addition, the elite who traditionally comprised the bulk of the saffron market were now growing increasingly interested in such intriguing new arrivals as chocolate, coffee, tea, and vanilla. Only in the south of France or in Italy and Spain, where the saffron harvest was culturally primal, did significant cultivation prevail.”
(via The History of Saffron | Cyrus Saffron blog)
Santucci’s legacy: the saffron plains of Abruzzo
“Just eight hectares of land are dedicated to saffron production in Abruzzo, but the harvested stems are widely regarded as the best in the world. And it’s all thanks to...
[T]he spice is made from the stems of the Crocus Sativus flower, which have to be gently picked by hand, and it takes roughly 500 hours to harvest a kilogram of saffron from 100,000 flowers. It’s this labour-intensive process that makes the spice more expensive than gold, gram for gram – and chefs can’t get enough of it. But how did this luxurious spice, originally from the Middle East, find its way to the central Italian region of Abruzzo?”
”The answer, of course, is steeped in myth and legend – as any Italian food worth its salt should be. The story goes that a Dominican monk belonging to the Santucci family...brought the spice back to Abruzzo after spending time in Iberia. During this time Iberia was under the rule of the Moors, and so the priest had experienced first-hand the heady, fragrant flavours associated with Middle Eastern cooking. Saffron was one of them.
The monk fled Iberia during the Inquisition, returning home to Abruzzo with the seeds of the Crocus Sativus flower. He...believed he could grow the spice back home due to the similar climate. The monk was correct – the flowers started growing, and saffron production in Italy was born.”
“Wealthy Italian families supposedly loved how it gave food a rich golden hue, and it became an essential ingredient in dishes such as risotto alla Milanese. Cakes and liqueurs relied on it for flavour and colour, as did painters who used it to create dyes. Soon enough demand saw the delicate little stems exported all over Italy, and the little town of Navelli – where the Santucci monk first planted his seeds – became famous across the country. The large nearby city of L’Aquila (now the region’s capital) also grew rapidly, funded by saffron money.”
“Today, saffron production in Abruzzo is certainly a specialist area of farming. While there were over 400 hectares of saffron fields in the region around 1900, that has shrunk to just eight. That’s because saffron grown in the Middle East – particularly Iran – is much cheaper to produce...Another aspect of Abruzzese saffron that sets it apart is how the stems are roasted once harvested. This is done over smouldering logs, which intensifies the flavour and colour of the spice and gives it a longer shelf life.
Saffron...from Italy...is a beautiful ingredient...the spice grown and painstakingly harvested...is something else entirely. It’s a product that sheds light on Italy’s history, helped shape a region and continues to attract worldwide attention...might be expensive, but it’s certainly worth it.”
(via Santucci’s legacy: the saffron plains of Abruzzo | Great Italian Chefs)
Finding Cathay
“Around the year 1300, a book took Europe by storm. It was Marco Polo's account of his travels to a fabulous country called Cathay, and all of the wonders he had seen there. He described black stones that burned like wood (coal), saffron-robed Buddhist monks, and money made out of paper.Of course, Cathay was actually China, which at that time was under Mongol rule. Marco Polo served in the court of Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty, and grandson of Genghis Khan.”
“The name "Cathay" is a European variation of "Khitai," which Central Asian tribes used to describe parts of northern China once dominated by the Khitan people. The Mongols had since crushed the Khitan clans and absorbed their people, erasing them as a separate ethnic identity, but their name lived on as a geographical designation. Since Marco Polo and his party approached China via Central Asia, along the Silk Road, they naturally heard the name Khitai used for the empire they sought.”
”Between about 1583 and 1598, the Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci, developed the theory that China was actually Cathay. He was well acquainted with Marco Polo's account and noticed striking similarities between Polo's observations of Cathay and his own of China. For one thing, Marco Polo had noted that Cathay was directly south of "Tartary," or Mongolia, and Ricci knew that Mongolia lay on the northern border of China...Ricci observed many of the same phenomena that Polo had noted, as well, such as people burning coal for fuel and using paper as money. The final straw, for Ricci, was when he met Muslim traders from the west in Beijing in 1598. They assured him that he was indeed living in the fabled country of Cathay.”
(via Finding Cathay | ThoughtCo.)
American-Grown Saffron Could Change the Spice Trade
“The goal is to discover the best cultivation method that results in a good crop of high-quality saffron.The results from this year’s experimental crop hints at the potential for domestically grown U.S. saffron. As a niche, “shoulder-season” crop that can be grown after the fall harvest, and with a high resale value—saffron fetches as much as $29,000 per kilogram (roughly $13,000 per pound)—it could be a boon for small farmers looking for another source of revenue. But all that would require the establishment of a market for premium, locally grown saffron.
Some research predicts the global saffron industry will be worth $2 billion by 2025. About 90 percent of the world’s saffron—including most of the 20 tons imported to the U.S. each year—comes from Iran; Spain and Italy are other significant producers.”
“Its most familiar usage is as a culinary spice; its distinctive aroma, flavor, and bright yellow color are often used in recipes for Spanish paella and Italian risotto and it’s also a classic ingredient in the French fish soup, Bouillabaisse. And saffron is also used as a fabric dye and is reputed to have nutritional and medicinal benefits for ailments including heart disease and depression. But it’s probably best known for its prices: as much as $29,000 per kilogram. Hence its nickname, “red gold.”
It’s the classic catch-22 of marketing: There has to be enough product for a market, and enough of a market to justify growing the product and supporting local production. Saffron’s reputation as exotic and expensive is something of a barrier for consumers, though there is small but steady demand for it.”
(via American-Grown Saffron Could Change the Spice Trade | Civil Eats)
Saffron
“Almost all saffron grows in a belt from Spain in the west to Kashmir in the east...Microscale production of saffron can be found in Australia (mainly the state of Tasmania), Canada, Central Africa, China, Egypt, parts of England, France, Israel, Italy (Basilicata), Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden (Gotland), Turkey (mainly around the town of Safranbolu), the United States (California and Pennsylvania).”
#kesar#italiansaffron#abruzzesesaffron#marcopolo#khitan#cathay#saffron#redgold#worthmorethangold#prettyexpensive#todyeforcolors#spicyshortflower#pokemonsaffroncity#californiasaffron
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Hang Seng Index Tops 30,000 for First Time in a Decade
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Hang Seng Index Tops 30,000 for First Time in a Decade
Global stocks were on track for weekly gains Friday as Chinese markets showed signs of stabilizing after a selloff, and data pointed to an acceleration in the eurozone economy. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.4% following a mostly upbeat session in Asia, while futures pointed to a 0.2% opening advance for the S&P 500 after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Data released Friday largely pointed to a better-than-expected pickup in the eurozone economy this month. German government bond yields rose to 0.361% from 0.347% late Thursday and the euro edged up slightly to $1.1858 after the German Ifo index hit a record in November. The data suggested recent political uncertainty in Germany has so far had limited impact on business confidence, although most survey responses were submitted before political talks to form a governing coalition collapsed.
[bs-quote quote=”There is no business in America that would be prevented from taking results into account when making personnel decisions.” style=”style-5″ align=”right” author_name=”Michael Bloomberg” author_job=”CEO of Bloomberg L.P.” author_avatar=”https://thebiafrastar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/newswatch-quote-avatar.jpg”]
When it comes to European political risks, “the make-or-break thing for markets is whether there’s a real risk of euro breakup,” said Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, head of multiasset at NN Investment Partners. “If that’s not the case, the market doesn’t care too much.” The Ifo index followed better-than-expected eurozone purchasing managers’ surveys for November released Thursday, with the composite PMI unexpectedly hitting a 79-month high.
The eurozone economy has continued to pick up this year, echoing an acceleration in growth across the globe that has helped send stock markets to multiyear or record highs. “The question for 2018 is how to balance between the strong fundamental story and the strong investor consensus around it,” Mr. van Nieuwenhuijzen said.
In European stocks Friday, banks were the best performers as they tend to benefit from higher government bond yields. Spain’s IBEX 35 index and Italy’s FTSE MIB both rose 0.9%, and Germany’s DAX rose 0.8%, but the U.K.’s export-heavy FTSE 100 index lagged behind. Stocks in the U.S., Europe and Japan were all on track to end the week with modest gains, although trading volume is likely to be muted with many market participants away from their desks.
The focus next week is expected to shift toward the start of the Christmas holiday shopping season. Sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday are often taken as a harbinger of the overall holiday period for retailers, but it has become harder to discern trends since such sales now tend to span more than two days, according to strategists at Scotiabank. In Asian trading, the Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.1% after falling 2.3% Thursday in its biggest one-day drop in nearly a year.
Thursday’s decline was the biggest drop of the year for the Shanghai benchmark.
Thursday’s decline was the biggest drop of the year for the Shanghai benchmark. PHOTO: LONG WEI/ZUMA PRESS
The steep declines followed signs of Beijing’s determination to clamp down on market speculation and the country’s high debt levels. Weakness in China’s bond market also contributed to the downbeat tone as the 10-year yield recently hit three-year highs of just over 4%.
The sudden stock weakness wasn’t a cause for alarm, said Iris Pang, greater China economist at ING, adding that it could happen again in the short term as fund managers reposition and reallocate money between bonds and stocks. With ING anticipating strong Chinese economic growth through at least next year and companies there posting double-digit earnings jumps, Ms. Pang said the bank doesn’t see a top for Chinese stocks—which have lagged behind others in the region this year.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which slid Thursday along with its mainland counterparts, rose 0.5% on Friday, ending the week 2.3% higher. Japan’s Nikkei finished the day up 0.1% and ended the week up 0.7% following a Thursday holiday.
Some would argue that this isn’t true energy independence, since we would still import oil in that situation. If that’s the standard, then we will never truly be independent, because there will always be economic reasons to import oil even if at the same time we export oil and finished products. For example, some Canadian crudes may always have a logistical advantage over U.S. crudes for certain refineries in the northern U.S.
But a long-term solution to U.S. energy dependence will also require significant demand-side reductions. A shift to electric vehicles, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and widespread adoption of ride-sharing could feasibly shave off several million BPD of demand over the next decade giving us, by every measure, the energy security that has driven U.S. energy policy for decades.
Until the oil-price collapse that began in 2014, the U.S. was on a trajectory to achieve zero net imports by 2019. At present, we are still about four million BPD away from that goal, but U.S. oil production is once again rising. Energy independence could be achieved in as little as four years if oil production returns to the growth trajectory of 2008 to 2014.
At the time of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, the U.S. still produced about two-thirds of the oil we used, but our energy security weakened significantly in the decades after that, to the point where only one-third of our consumption was met by domestic oil.
The situation has changed dramatically over the past decade. The successful combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling ushered in the shale oil and gas boom. Meanwhile, higher oil prices helped curb demand. The combined effect dropped net U.S. imports of crude oil and finished products from a high of 12.5 million barrels per day in 2005 to less than 5 million BPD in 2015. The U.S. actually became a net exporter of finished products (e.g., diesel, gasoline, etc.) in 2011 for the first time since 1949.
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Energy Markets Need Winter, and Climate Change Is Taking It Away
(Bloomberg) — Even before the deadly virus struck, another menace confronted the global energy industry: the warmest winter anyone can remember.
Russia’s winter was so balmy that snow was trucked into downtown Moscow for New Year, and bears came out of hibernation. In Japan, ski competitions were canceled and the Sapporo Snow Festival had to borrow snow.
On the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago residents watched playgrounds and beaches disappear under the waves as warm weather swelled the water level. Norwegians basked in T-shirts in January. London’s spring daffodils have already flowered.
For global energy markets it’s a disaster—and as the world continues to get hotter it’s something producers, traders and government treasuries will have to live with long after the acute dislocation of the coronavirus has passed. The industry relies on cold weather across the northern hemisphere to drive demand for oil and gas to heat homes and workplaces in the world’s most advanced economies.
Climate activists might find a certain poetic justice in energy markets suffering from the global warming caused by fossil fuels. Burning natural gas, oil and other fuels to heat homes and businesses accounts for as much as 12% of the greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for raising the world’s temperatures.
The loss in global oil demand due to mild temperatures is probably about 800,000 barrels a day in January, according to Gary Ross, chief investment officer of Black Gold Investors LLC and founder of oil consultant PIRA Energy. That’s the equivalent of knocking out Turkey’s entire consumption. The natural gas market has taken a similar hit.
“The oversupply keeps coming and winter so far hasn’t really showed up,” said Ron Ozer, chief investment officer of Statar Capital LLC, an energy-focused hedge fund in New York.
Last month was the hottest January ever in Europe, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported. Surface temperatures were 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average.
Northern Europe was particularly hot, with some areas from Norway to Russia more than 6 degrees above the 1981-2010 January average. Temperatures in Tokyo took until Feb. 6 to hit freezing point, the latest date on record. Globally, the last five years have been the hottest for centuries, as greenhouse gases change the Earth’s ecosystem.
Natural gas prices have collapsed globally as the weather crimped the need for heating. U.S. futures are trading at the lowest levels for this time of the year since the 1990s. Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas have crashed to a record low as demand slumps in the world’s three biggest importers—Japan, South Korea and China.
Based on weather-driven demand data, the U.S. and Asia are having their warmest winters on record and Europe is having its second warmest, according to Joe Woznicki, a meteorologist for Commodity Weather Group LLC. A key measure of heating demand, known as heating degree days, is 12% below the 10-year average in the U.S., 14% lower in Asia and 13% in Europe.
And it’s not just markets that are reeling. It’s also an issue for government treasuries. Russia, for example, relies on its oil and gas companies for around 40% of budget revenues.
Oil exports have been holding steady, but gas exports are dropping. Sergei Kapitonov, gas analyst at Moscow-based Skolkovo Energy Center, estimates Gazprom’s exports to Europe and Turkey fell in January by about a quarter from a year earlier. Gazprom stock is down 11% this year.
The collapse in oil prices—spurred by the coronavirus but pushed along by the warm weather—prompted Saudi Arabia to press its OPEC+ allies for a production curb this week. Three days of wrangling in Vienna didn’t produce a clear result, but it’s a reminder that the kingdom can’t run its state finances with oil prices in freefall. From Algeria to Venezuela, similar dynamics are in play.
This year’s especially warm winter was triggered by events in the Arctic. An intense weather pattern there kept the cold locked in the Arctic region, leaving North America and Eurasia relatively mild.
“When the winds are stronger they act as a barrier to keep Arctic air focused over the pole and keeps them from spilling southward,” said Bradley Harvey, a meteorologist with Maxar in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “That is likely to continue for the balance of the month and even into March.”
Rain patterns have also been unusual—and that’s added to volatility too. In Norway, the biggest source of electricity comes from running water through turbines. The wettest January since records began turned a deficit of water in reservoirs in December to a huge surplus in January—and sent prices crashing in the Nordic power market.
The abnormal winter could hardly have come at a worse time for the U.S. gas market, which is already suffering a glut. U.S. shale drillers have delivered two years of unprecedented production growth and in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico there’s so much gas—the byproduct of drilling for oil—that producers are even paying to get rid of it.
Europe and Asia were set to become important export outlets for American gas. Then the weather changed.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re making all this LNG that’s not worth very much around the world,” Corey Grindal, senior vice president of supply at Cheniere Energy Inc., said.
The post Energy Markets Need Winter, and Climate Change Is Taking It Away appeared first on Businessliveme.com.
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The Groundbreaking Distiller Blending Biochemistry and Tradition on Mexico’s Mezcal Frontier
At the Lagrimas de Dolores mezcal distillery in Durango, Mexico, distiller Fabiola Ávila pours a sip of mezcal that tastes remarkably like a shot of espresso mixed with cenizo, or Agave durangensis, the state’s native agave. It’s a unique take on a pechuga mezcal, typically distilled with local fruits and poultry, but, in this case, made with coffee beans.
“The best toy Fabiola ever got is that 20-liter still that she uses for experimental mezcal,” says Germán Gutiérrez, whose family owns and operates Lagrimas de Dolores.
Ávila is a scientist, mother of three, and Lagrimas de Dolores’s maestra vinatera, or head mezcal distiller. Drawn to distilled spirits through biochemical engineering, Ávila’s path is atypical for an industry where knowledge is usually passed down from one maestro to the next generation.
“My parents were agriculturalists, I don’t have ancestors that made mezcal — although I did recently discover that my grandmother made pulque,” she says. Even more rare is for the maestro to be a maestra, or female. But Lagrimas de Dolores is pioneering a wave of young mezcal companies approaching the international market. To succeed, they know they’re going to need to do things differently.
Fabiola Ávila, head mezcal distiller at Lagrimas de Dolores in Durango, Mexico.
In 2018, 92 percent of mezcal was produced in the state of Oaxaca, according to the Consejo Regular de Mezcal (CRM). Almost all the mezcal we see in the U.S. is from Oaxaca, even though there are nine other states within mezcal’s official Denomination of Origin. Continuous production over centuries, and a well-developed infrastructure for production and sales, have put Oaxaca ahead of the pack.
Durango, a northern state located about 600 miles due south of El Paso, Texas, has a long mezcal history. Four hundred years ago, it quenched the thirst of miners who came for the area’s abundant minerals. Durango’s terrain ranges from towering paddle cactus and jagged cliffs, which provided the desert backdrop for 1960s Hollywood westerns, to the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, lush with pine and oak forests.
That abundant landscape lends itself to delicious mezcal. Durango’s biodiversity of agaves is one of the largest in the country, and elements like volcanic rock and the local mesquite and Encino oak used to cook the piñas influence the flavors as well.
The Gutiérrez family’s ranch and nature preserve plants 50,000 agaves per year.
Distilleries are mostly tucked away in remote areas, producing spirits for local consumption just a few months a year. Up until about five years ago, many urbanites in Durango City, particularly the middle and upper classes, dismissed mezcal as a blue-collar, working man’s drink.
“When my dad started making mezcal people would ask why he wasn’t investing in tequila, but he wasn’t planning on investing in an alcohol company, he was investing in keeping a tradition,” Gutiérrez says.
Gutiérrez’s grandfather always had an affinity for mezcal, but his father was so inspired by the agaves crawling their family cattle ranch that he decided to produce his own. A mutual friend introduced him to Ávila. “I was an undergraduate at the time and was fascinated with all types of fermented beverages, but being from Durango I was attracted to the culture of mezcal,” says Ávila.
Meanwhile, Gutiérrez was living in the U.K., toting bottles from home to drink with friends, and watching the influx of Oaxacan mezcal hit Europe. His father and Ávila got to work converting a 17th-century hacienda into a distillery, and began selling Lagrimas de Dolores locally in 2011. The brand is named for the Hacienda’s patron saint, Our Lady of Sorrows, or La Virgin Dolorosa. When Gutiérrez returned from Durango five years ago, they revamped the branding and started pushing bottles in Mexico City, Europe, and, just a year and a half ago, across the U.S.
German Gutiérrez, director of Lagrimas de Dolores, is also the president of a progressive group of companies that promote mezcal from Durango.
Gutiérrez is focused on supporting other vinateros, or distillers, throughout the state, and Lagrimas de Dolores is the first brand to bottle and export a variety of indigenous Durango agave expressions. “It was a really a big leap to be an extremely local product to being in some of the nicest bars in New York,” says Gutiérrez. (Lagrimas de Dolores currently can be found in some of the city’s top Mexican restaurants like Cosme and Claro.)
That leap is exciting for mezcal aficionados and for Durango producers, who are reviving a homegrown tradition while entering an eager market. But the state’s mezcal boom also risks putting pressure on the regional ecosystem and mezcal-producing communities, which could become dependent on entrepreneurs eyeing mezcal like it is Durango’s next gold rush. In just five years, the number of brands in Durango has gone from eight to 60, although about half are officially certified by the CRM, and fewer than 10 are exporting. Leaders like Lagrimas de Dolores are now in a position where the business decisions they make about environmental sustainability and their own business cultures could shape not just the future of local mezcal, but influence how other emerging mezcal regions share their spirits with the world.
“I just did my first lot of sotol, but first I needed to get to know the plant: its aromas, when it’s happy, when it’s not,” says Ávila, who blends a scientific approach with traditional knowledge to best honor her materials. In this case, she was focusing on dasylirion, the desert plant used to produce sotol, one of Mexico’s other treasured spirits. “It’s necessary to have that connection, not just to reflect the plant correctly, but so that the death of the plant isn’t made in vain,” she says.
Ávila has also been experimenting with sotol, another Mexican heritage spirit.
Ávila points to the complexity of working with plants that take years to grow before they’re ready to be harvested for distilling, which contributes to cycles of agave shortages and increasing concerns about sustainability in tequila and mezcal.
“Our cenizo duranguense takes nine to 15 years to mature,” Gutiérrez says, warning that “there aren’t nearly enough plantations as there are new local mezcal brands.” Years before launching the brand, the Lagrimas de Dolores team was replanting agaves on their ranch nearly the size of Manhattan, semi-cultivating about 50,000 plants a year without clearing native vegetation. This helps avoid erosion in an area prone to desertification.
“Here in Durango we have vast expansions of land that you can easily use for planting agave and you can do it in a very sustainable way; there’s actually no excuse not to,” he says.
Gutiérrez is also the president of a progressive group of companies that promote mezcal from Durango. “If we just worked individually, we knew our brands would always be presented as the rarity, as the other besides Oaxaca,” he says. Their rising-tide-shifts-all-boats mentality created Espiritus de Durango, a network of seven of the most advanced mezcal companies sharing resources and promoting the distinctive qualities of Durango mezcal. Espiritus de Durango’s roster includes two women CEOs, another rarity in male-dominated mezcal.
“Besides for Fabiola, who was already on a path, I think we’re opening some doors,” says Espiritus de Durango member Emily Garcia Montiel, CEO of 618 Mezcal, a semi-industrial, low-ABV mezcal geared toward young cocktail-drinking Duranguenses. “Just by showing other women that I am a woman leading a brand, and that there’s a space for us in the male-dominated sector.”
Ávila and Gutiérrez’s father converted a 17th-century hacienda in Durango into Lagrimas de Dolores’s distillery, and began selling spirits locally in 2011.
As the mezcal industry seeks to balance its rapid ascent while preserving centuries-old cultural traditions, the scene at the Lagrimas de Dolores distillery seems like a snapshot of the spirit’s transitional moment. “In the beginning I was only 23 and I was giving instructions to men twice my age, and it often didn’t compute. I had to prove that I knew what I was doing,” Ávila says, adding that “now there’s a lot of mutual respect.” Her husband, who also has a background in biochemical engineering, plays a leadership role at Lagrimas de Dolores, too, specializing in quality control with the brand’s offsite vinateros (“He fell in love with his boss,” Gutierrez explains).
“I’m passionate about my job and I’m passionate about Lagrimas de Dolores, and obviously I love having a family and being a mom,” Ávila says. “It’s a challenge to maintain the balance, but it’s interesting.”
The article The Groundbreaking Distiller Blending Biochemistry and Tradition on Mexico’s Mezcal Frontier appeared first on VinePair.
source https://vinepair.com/articles/the-ground-breaking-distiller-blending-biochemistry-and-tradition-on-mexicos-mezcal-frontier/
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Demolishing Peter Lilley's WTO Brexit nonsense
By L Alan Winters
Earlier this month Peter Lilley, a former UK trade and industry secretary, published an article in The Times entitled: 'Even a no-deal Brexit is better than status quo'. This is just not true, and for reasons that Lilley ought to understand.
I do not want to pick on him particularly - other advocates of 'WTO terms' make similar claims, if a little less directly expressed. But since we hear that the European Reform Group is preparing a paper in which 'WTO terms' will be advanced as an acceptable option, it seems kindest to save them some effort by clearing up the main misapprehensions now.
It is often argued that because EU trade conducted under WTO rules is growing faster than trade between members, the WTO must somehow offer better terms. Colleagues in UKTPO have already shown that this is a total fallacy. That leaves me free here to deal with the rules themselves.
Lilley wrote:
"WTO terms are designed to provide a safety net ensuring all members can trade without discrimination. The EU will have to offer us the Most Favoured Nation terms its other major trading partners enjoy."
The WTO's Most Favoured Nation obligation does indeed avoid the worst discrimination, but in fact most EU trading partners receive better than that. Nearly 70 countries avoid almost all tariffs because they have free trade agreements (FTAs) with the EU. Low and lower-middle income countries avoid most of them via EU development-oriented preferences. Some of the FTAs go a bit further than tariffs to cover areas like services trade and mutual recognition of testing procedures.
The EU is close to completing several further trade deals – for instance with Japan and Vietnam – and the European Commission states that following these, only 24 countries will trade face 'WTO terms'. Even among these, some are trying to negotiate better terms, including Australia.
Since the WTO came into being, 243 new Free Trade Agreements have come into operation. Every country has at least one. None of this suggests that 'WTO terms' are viewed generally as a satisfactory option.
"Non-tariff border costs add just 0.1%, according to the Swiss."
The trouble with this argument is that the Swiss align almost perfectly with the EU. Every other estimate of EU non-tariff barriers is far higher, often exceeding 20%. And even though the UK is likely to be able to avoid some barriers, others – for example, having to submit documents and get certification that you meet EU regulations - will certainly apply.
"[Non-tariff barriers] are dwarfed by the 15% boost to our exporters' competitiveness from movement of the pound since the referendum."
Devaluation may help exporters be more competitive abroad, but it reinforces the price-increasing effects of tariffs and other barriers that the UK will have to levy on imports from the EU. So in reality it further reduces ordinary people's real incomes and increases British costs of production. Devaluation is no antidote to 'WTO terms'.
"Applying EU tariffs to our imports from Europe would yield £13 billion."
Tariffs may help the government's coffers, but they are taxes on those people and firms in the UK who consume imports. They are our money already. Tariffs distort the economy and reduce welfare, not the opposite. Lilley, who negotiated the Uruguay Round tariff cuts for the UK, used to believe this. It is unclear what has changed.
"We will be free to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership".
The trouble with this idea is that the partnership does not exist. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership does. It accounts for about 14% of world income compared to the EU's 22%, is thousands of miles away, does not remove all tariffs and would still require the UK to adhere to certain rules, for example on digital trade.
"Without a trade deal, parliament will reject any withdrawal agreement offering the EU £40 billion. …. That leaves Britain £40 billion better off."
Not better off – just less badly off. Trading on WTO terms will reduce the UK's income in the long run by far more than avoiding a one-off payment of £40 billion will increase it. Moreover, having conceded, at least implicitly, that the £40 billion is a reflection of our future obligations to the EU, walking away from them will undermine any hope of cooperation in other dimensions. Security, flying rights and UK citizens' status in the EU, for instance, would all be vulnerable to worsening conditions without a withdrawal agreement.
"The unjustified Irish border 'backstop' commitment disappears. HMRC says Britain will not 'require any infrastructure at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland under any circumstances' – tariffs can be collected alongside VAT returns."
Of course the backstop disappears – but so, too, might peace in Northern Ireland. Plenty of people - including implicitly the UK government, given they've pledged to maintain open borders - accept free commerce is part of the peace process.
"How we control imports is in our hands. Lorries laden with fresh food will not be queuing for hours at Dover since Dover sees no need for new physical checks …. HMRC will avoid delays by waving lorries through."
Lilley's plan entails that we'd have no checks on meat imports for food safety. Currently the EU inspects about 50% of poultry from non-EU sources. What about checks for chemicals safety? It is as if he thinks the EU is such a fine place that we do not need to inspect what they send to us. Waving lorries through hardly seems like taking back control.
"If the French slow down Calais, the Dutch and Belgian ports want the business and will offer speedier service."
This proposal seems to involve moving the Channel Tunnel. This should not need saying, but no other port can supply the UK at the same speed and cost.
"The hostile non-cooperation envisaged by Remainers would be not only impractical but triply illegal. It contravenes the EU's constitution, which requires it 'to establish an area of good neighbourliness' with neighbouring countries; the WTO treaty which forbids discrimination against trading partners; and the new trade facilitation treaty which commits members to facilitate trade not obstruct it."
This paragraph is nonsensical. Neighbourliness is perfectly compatible with having tariffs and inspections at the border. It certainly does not entail the EU abdicating responsibility for its own safety and customs duties. Non-discrimination works the opposite way from what Lilley suggests: the EU is obliged by the WTO to treat the UK as it treats other third countries. That is, with many more frictions than the UK faces at present as a member of the EU.
The Trade Facilitation Agreement is often cited by other advocates of WTO Terms – for example, Owen Patterson. However, as Patrick Minford of the Brexit-backing Economists for Free Trade and I have agreed in private correspondence, developed countries' current practices are already compatible with it, so the EU will treat imports from the UK as it currently treats those from Canada. The Canadian government's view of this treatment is as follows: "You will need to deal with a lot of documents when exporting goods to the EU market. To make exporting easier, you may wish to use freight forwarders and customs brokers."
From here, Lilley just gets carried away.
"Portray[ing] leaving the EU as costly…. demonstrates that membership has no significant benefits… Doing so parallels the Berlin Wall… The British people … will [never] cave in before such threats."
This is a bit of a Catch22. If we don't point out the costs, there are none. But if we do point them out, there are none.
The WTO is not useless. Its rules are an essential part of the architecture for a peaceful and prosperous world. But they are lowest common denominator rules for trade between 164 separate and sometimes mutually hostile states, not the rules for deeply integrated, highly cooperative, sophisticated allies.
No-deal will not destroy all UK-EU trade or sink the UK economy beneath the waves. But it will involve a serious and permanent loss of income. Those who believe that the sacrifice is worth it for political reasons should be open about it. And they should be prepared to suffer their share of the losses.
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5 Amazing Facts for Every Embroidery Lover!
In the event that you are a weaving lover, similar to me, you should be keen to find out about it. Where it originated from? How the procedures developed, what occurred en route and what brought about present-day strategies?
On the off chance that it’s you, you’ll be unquestionably enchanted by these little known intriguing certainties about your energy.
1. An Ancient Art
People have been rehearsing the specialty of weaving for ages. The early man figured out how to create simple needles from ivory and bone and furthermore figured out how to make tough, sturdy strings from plant fiber or creature ligament.
Antiquated humans found the specialty of sewing to deliver pieces of clothing and recognized that a similar sort of sewing could upgrade and enhance its excellence. They presented bones, stones, and dabs into examples and patterns.
An archeological uncovering in Sungir, Vladimir in Russia uncovered the remaining parts of a Cro-Magnon (accepted to have been alive around 30,000 BC) in the year 1964. His cap, hide, and boots were enlivened with parallel lines of ivory dots. This demonstrates this craftsmanship is more established than 30,000 BC!
2. Cloud Origins
It isn’t known which explicit human advancement or timespan imagined the lovely specialty. Crude occasions have been found over the globe from China, Northern Europe, and Egypt. Contacts of weaved specialties have been seen in enduring works from the Iron Age (1300 BC-600 BC).
Antiquated Chinese examples (as old as 1045 BC-246 BC) from the Zhou Dynasty that incorporate a silk dressing reflects glossy silk line weaving done in silk string is a model too. Mosaics from the old Greek city of Byzantium delineate people enhanced in weaved textures from important stones, pearls, and silk strings. Indian, Persian, Japanese, and other
European societies have likewise held the craftsmanship in high respect and connected it on religious and garments things. The beginning remains a conundrum to its darlings, yet it has amazed social orders and countries over the range of time.
3. Ascend in the Middle-East
Weaving turned into a portrayal of one’s status in the public arena and class. It picked up prevalence and was decorated by rich Muslims. In flourishing focuses, for example, Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul, the act of weaving enhanced the perfection of things.
These things included shoes, robes, banners, calligraphy, hankies, pockets, cowhide belts, outfits and significantly more. Bungalow ventures initiated under such interest and enrolled eight hundred individuals.
4. World’s Largest Embroidery
The prestigious Bayeux Tapestry is the greatest bit of weaved work and is arranged at the Bretagne Museum in the northern area of France. It is fifty centimeters in tallness and is more than two hundred and thirty feet long.
Finished around the 1070s, it is a material fabric that portrays the story of William the Conqueror’s obtaining of Britain in the Battle of Hastings.
Charles Dickens, the acclaimed creator, commented that it was “crafted by novices; weak novices toward the start and lax some of them as well.” Unfortunately, he didn’t appear to be excessively awed with the nature of the embroidery! Notwithstanding, explorers from everywhere throughout the world dare to see this great show-stopper.
5. At that point Comes The Machine Embroidery
Generation at an epic size of weaving started around the 1800s. This modern procedure was accomplished with the ideal blend of machine looms and a group of productive ladies who made weaving designs by hand. Josue Heilmann, a Frenchman, built up the direct machine in the year 1828.
It encouraged creation by permitting 4 craftspeople to work at a quick rate. An intriguing certainty is that it was seen as a danger by the business at the time and Heilmann was just ready to sell two units in Switzerland. Be that as it may, the advancement commenced what’s to come.
Isaac Groebli, a Swiss national, structured a machine that had a pontoon molded transport that made the sponsorship join. Along these lines, it came to be known as the Schiffli machine. His oldest child improved the administration it given via robotizing it further.
The result was so dazzling and of high caliber that watchers as often as possible trusted it had been finished by hand. This machine helped families to dispatch private ventures as the machine could fit in a room of sensible size. The dad would lead the task of the machine while the spouse and youngsters would string the bobbins and care for the string.
The Singer Sewing Company defined a multi-head sewing machine in 1911 and further changed machine weaving creation. From the 1950s, deals blasted and changed the manner in which specialty was accomplished for good.
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By Rossi Thomson
22 November 2018
Had it not been for the sunny sky, I could have sworn that I was in Great Britain.
The high street was teeming with people, Union Jack flags were flapping in the wind, a slight aroma of fried cod tinged the air and the queens were waving to their starstruck subjects – Queen Elizabeth II from a gleaming car and her great-great-grandmother Victoria from underneath a lacy black parasol.
Schio has always been known as ‘the Manchester of Italy’
The time and space continuum seemed to have been broken, thus bringing two of the most formidable British queens together in the same, rather unexpected place. For instead of London, I was in a small Northern Italian town called Schio (pronounced 'ski-o').
This was British Day Schio – a weekend extravaganza dedicated to Great Britain during which the citizens of Schio declare themselves British. They dress up as British characters from past and modern times and even publish a newspaper (the headline of which this year proudly stated: La Citta' Piu' Britannica d'Italia!, ‘The Most British City in Italy!’).
“Schio has always been known as ‘the Manchester of Italy’,” said Claudio Canova, 51, a digital marketing specialist who conceived the idea for British Day Schio six years ago.
View image of British Day Schio is an annual celebration during which the residents of Schio, Italy, declare themselves British (Credit: Credit: Rossi Thomson)
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The reason behind Schio's moniker lies in the town's industrial history. Just like Manchester, Schio was once a major wool and textile production centre.
New wool-spinning and weaving technologies imported from England by the Venetian patrician Nicolò Tron led to the creation in 1718 of an important wool mill in Schio. Tron was an entrepreneur, friend of British mathematician Isaac Newton and former ambassador of the Republic of Venice to the court of King George I. His attempts to introduce the English know-how to Venice were rebuffed by the Republic’s influential textile corporations. So, Tron headed to Schio in the northern confines of the Republic. The town was a centuries-old wool-producing centre with cheap skilled labour, abundant raw materials and a license given to it by the Republic of Venice in 1701 to manufacture fine textiles independently of Venice’s textile corporations. He employed nine English technicians who relocated to Schio with their families to work in Tron’s new wool mill.
Several decades later, Tron brought another English invention to the small Italian town: the flying shuttle.
Invented by Lancashire-born machinist John Kay, the flying shuttle significantly sped up the weaving process, which increased productivity and reduced costs. It could also be mechanised, paving the way for the automatic looms.
Schio soon became synonymous with high-quality textiles, which were exported all over Europe and beyond.
View image of Schio’s connection to Manchester stems from its history as a major textile production centre (Credit: Credit: De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images)
In the 19th Century, father-and-son duo Francesco and Alessandro Rossi (no relation to me) took Schio's textile production to new heights. Schio’s Fabbrica Alta, built in 1862 by Alessandro, who was inspired by the vertical woollen mills found in Manchester and throughout Great Britain, was the largest industrial plant in 19th-Century Italy. Today it is considered the imposing symbol of Italy's first industrial revolution.
Although now permanently closed, the Fabbrica Alta, with its tall body symmetrically dotted with 330 windows, is a testament to the close technological connection Schio has had with Manchester throughout the centuries, despite being almost 2,000km away.
“Add to this Schio's rainy weather and the grumpy character of its citizens, and you have the most British town in Italy,” Canova said.
View image of Built in 1862, Schio’s Fabbrica Alta was the largest industrial plant in 19th-Century Italy (Credit: Credit: Rossi Thomson)
British Day Schio evolved from SchioLife, a British rock-themed music festival spearheaded by Canova. “Since 2007, we have been organising concerts and had the opportunity to get in touch with many legendary musicians like Steve Hackett from Genesis, Sir Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, Rick Wakeman [the keyboardist of Yes] and Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.”
“I realised that we live in the most British town of Italy and then we had to do something to highlight these characteristics,” Canova continued. “I think that after six years we have succeeded.”
Under the slogan of ‘Spicy. Independent. Original.’ – which according to Canova reflects the character of the citizens of Schio – British Day Schio has been enjoying an ever-increasing popularity since its inception. Held on the second weekend of October, the festival attracted more than 30,000 people in 2017. That year paid tribute to Oasis; the 2018 edition was in homage to Peter Gabriel.
Add to this Schio's rainy weather and the grumpy character of its citizens, and you have the most British town in Italy
“We choose the artists to whom we dedicate British Day Schio each year based on the social values they transmit. Peter Gabriel is one of the champions for peace in the world and his message is important for everyone. The first three editions of the festival were dedicated, respectively, to The Beatles, The Phantom of the Opera and Pink Floyd,” Canova explained.
“Who are you going to pay homage to next year?” I asked, only too eager to throw some names in the hat. You know, the best of British. Like Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode…
Instead, the 2019 festival will be dedicated to Alessandro Rossi as it will be 200 years since his birth.
View image of The 2019 British Day Schio festival will be dedicated to Alessandro Rossi (Credit: Credit: Rossi Thomson)
I arrived in Schio in the early afternoon on the day of the festival this past October. The central streets of the town were lined with grand buildings in shades of ochre, toffee and burnt orange. Ladies and gents strolled the pavements dressed in their best British-inspired costumes.
The window displays of the local shops sported copious amounts of British paraphernalia: biscuit tins in the Union Jack colours, British stamps, leaflets for the London Eye, postcards of the Queen, little flags with Harry and Meghan's happy faces. Throughout town, famous locations like Abbey Road and Carnaby Street had been recreated. Even the local gelateria had slapped a large sign saying ‘Ice Cream’ on its window.
“From the youngest to the oldest, the citizens of Schio love this event,” Canova told me. “British Day Schio attracts thousands of people, dressed up in British-style attire or as famous characters such as Harry Potter, James Bond, Dr Who, Sherlock Holmes. They talk in English on the streets as if it were normal. They enter the shops and ask for things in English, greet people with ‘Hi!’, ‘Hello!’, and ‘Good morning!’.”
And it is all done without irony – a genuine expression both of an appreciation for Great Britain and Schio's own industrial past.
View image of British Day Schio takes place every autumn and includes street performances and a British-themed parade (Credit: Credit: Rossi Thomson)
“What will happen with British Day Schio after Brexit? Will you continue organising it?” I asked Canova.
“Certamente!” he replied. “Of course, we will continue to organise it. Indeed, with even bigger resolve.”
Manchester doesn’t know about British Day Schio yet. Canova’s plan is to contact the British city in the near future and build a relationship based on the historical link between the two cities.
“Will Brexit change how Schio feels about Britain?” I pressed.
“No, absolutely no,” he replied earnestly. “I think that the British citizens are historically always ahead compared to the rest of Europe and perhaps the world. I believe that the British people only want to defend their state from economic [and] financial invasions and not from the European citizens.”
View image of During British Day Schio, gelato shops advertise ‘ice cream’ and vendors dish up fish and chips (Credit: Credit: Rossi Thomson)
Later that day, I headed to the large terrace in front of Schio's St Pietro Cathedral. From there I could see the main piazza below me filled with hundreds of people waiting for the festival’s centrepiece – the British Day Schio parade – to begin. Beyond the rooftops, I could see the cragged peaks of the Little Dolomites.
A rousing rendition of Scotland the Brave filled the air. There was nothing to betray that the musicians – dressed in kilts and skilfully handling their bagpipes – were not from Scotland but from the nearby Italian city of Vicenza. A long procession of historic British cars followed. They were beautiful and shiny, representing the British technological and design advances through the decades.
I think that the British citizens are historically always ahead compared to the rest of Europe and perhaps the world
Suddenly the crowd surged forward, eager to see something that was beyond my line of sight. Straining my neck, I glimpsed a gleaming open-top vehicle surrounded by four guards with bearskin hats.
“It's the Queen!” I shouted in delight.
Resplendent and with a posy in hand, 'Queen Elizabeth II' was taking in the adoration of the crowd, bestowing upon us one of her trademark waves every now and then.
View image of During British Day Schio, actors dress as key British figures, including Queen Elizabeth II (Credit: Credit: Rossi Thomson)
You had to hand it to the organisers of British Day Schio. They’d managed to make even me – a Bulgarian totally uninterested in all things royal – giddy with excitement at the sight of the Queen.
While there is no shortage of festivals in Italy, British Day Schio is in a league of its own. Residents had adopted little bits and pieces of British culture and somehow managed to put them together in a red, white and blue puzzle held together by the pride in their own Italian town and its industrial history.
Most remarkably, the citizens of Schio had managed to master the notoriously hard-to-grasp British humour. You just had to look at the British Day Schio's newspaper where, in small red letters, it said: “The parade is to be held even in good weather!”.
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Why The IWC Portugieser Is The Natural Choice For An Heirloom Watch
http://fashion-trendin.com/why-the-iwc-portugieser-is-the-natural-choice-for-an-heirloom-watch/
Why The IWC Portugieser Is The Natural Choice For An Heirloom Watch
Things weren’t looking so great for the watch industry at the beginning of the 1930s. The export business declined dramatically between 1929-1932 thanks to the devastating effects of the Great Depression. For watch brands that meant adapt or die.
To avoid the latter, by the late 1930s IWC was desperately trying to find other European markets to distribute its watches. Enter the now-legendary Rodrigues and Antonio Teixera from Portugal with a very specific request – apparently Portuguese men were expressing a rather fashion-forward desire for a large wristwatch with all the timekeeping precision of a pocket-watch.
To answer their – and in turn many other’s – calls, IWC’s watchmakers came up with the Mod.228 (which was later renamed the Portuguese, before being renamed again to Portugieser). Now one of IWC’s most lauded collections alongside its pilot watches, the Portugieser family offers up some of the most incredibly elegant, sophisticated takes on the sports watch money can buy. Looking for a new heirloom piece? Step this way, sir.
The IWC Portugieser Back Story
Almost over as quickly as it started, Portugieser (the name change from Portuguese to Portugieser occurred in 2015, but all the watches have now retrospectively adopted the German moniker) production was disrupted by World War II and distribution to Portugal was halted. One of IWC’s main markets became Eastern Europe, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that its new line of watches fully found its intended audience in Portugal. However, when it finally got there it wasn’t a huge success, and by the 1970s it was already being phased out.
“IWC has always been ahead of the game,” says Justin Koullapis, watch restorer and partner at London’s The Watch Club, a renowned dealer in vintage and rare watches. “However at the time [it was introduced] the Portugieser was way bigger than people were used to and it took a while for the market to catch up with this group of people who were really pioneering.”
IWC Portuguese 1954 Ref.325
The Ref.325, as it was still being called had a couple of reboot near-misses in the 1970s, but the quartz crisis of the 1980s almost led IWC to quit the wristwatch business altogether to become a niche pocket watch maker instead.
“You have to remember,” explains Koullapis, “that in the 1960s and 1970s it was all about refinement, which meant small watches. Then, by the time you get to the 1980s, movement production is down massively so brands were relying on generic movements and making watches that were commensurate to their size.” So essentially, it was wrong time, wrong place for the Portugieser.
Then in 1993, for the 125th anniversary of the luxury watch brand, it was brought back to life. Aside from the numerical font, this was the same watch that the Teixera brothers first requested back in the 1930s; it even contained a movement – calibre 9828 – that was based on the pocket-watch original. To say it’d be more popular this time around would be an understatement.
Modern Iterations
After the anniversary edition in 1993, two years later saw the Portugieser gain a minute repeater and team up with a rattrapante chronograph. Then in 1998 IWC launched the Portugieser Chronograph Ref. 3714. Considered by many to be the definitive and most coveted of the range, it is one of the most successful post-Quartz Crisis designs.
IWC Portugieser Chronographs
However, it didn’t become a coherent collection until 2000 with the release of the Portugieser 2000. This watch, or more specifically the Calibre 5000 under the bonnet, marked the reboot of IWC’s in-house watch movement development. It also brought back IWC’s legendary Pellaton winding system. Patented in 1946 and completed by 1950, it was invented by the then-technical director Albert Pellaton and uses pawls (a lever with a beak, which, when activated by a spring, engages with the teeth of a wheel) – rather than direct gearing between the rotor and barrel. For the millennium revamp, a second pawl was added to help ‘pull’ the massive mainspring barrel needed for the 8-day power reserve.
In 2015, the entire collection was reworked and nearly a dozen new models were added, as were three new movements. Several of the designs also featured a new domed sapphire crystal, while in 2018 to celebrate the brand’s 150th anniversary a constant-force tourbillon was launched and the Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon, Perpetual Calendar, Chronograph and Hand-Wound 8-Days were given the birthday treatments with new movements and complication configurations.
Portugieser Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition ‘150 Years’
The Design
Originally the defining features of the Portugieser were a pared-back dial, Arabic numerals in an Art Deco-esque font, an oversized sub-dial at six o’clock and a thin bezel. However, the Ref. 325 had multiple iterations. Dials could be black or silver, numerals Roman or Arabic and the design moved from Art Deco to a more Bauhaus look.
Now its defining characteristics are Deco-style Arabic numerals, slim feuille hands and a railway track-style chapter ring. Dials always feel capacious even when housing multiple complications and the case is never anything other than oversized.
How To Wear It
IWC has made no bones about positioning itself as the only brand a man needs. For dressy occasions you have the Portofino; the Ingenieur is your tool watch, the Aquatimer is there for all your diving watch needs and the Portugieser is the everyday classic, which does mean there really is no wrong way to wear it.
It should be a timepiece that effortlessly elevates your outfits from the pedestrian. Yet its understated design ensures it’ll never dominate a look or draw unwanted attention from passersby. That said we probably wouldn’t pair it with swim shorts – save your Aquatimer for that.
Portugieser Iterations
IWC’s instantly recognisable model has spawned numerous iterations over the years, ranging from simple time-only pieces through to highly complex tourbillons and even an incredibly rare piece that displays the night sky on its caseback. Here are the best.
Automatic
This is the original Portugieser. Its dial has echoes of the 1930s original; it has the railway-track chapter ring, the appliquéd Arabic numerals, feuille hands – if we were playing IWC Portugieser bingo we’d be yelling ‘house’ right now.
It’s even got the Pellaton winding system, translating to a 7-day power reserve, which can be see through the sapphire caseback. If you want the ultimate example not only of this collection but of everything right about IWC then look no further than this 42.3mm puck of loveliness.
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Chronograph
The watch generally considered to be the best design to come out of a post-quartz crisis Switzerland, this is also the most refined Portugieser in the collection. It’s a modest 40.9mm in diameter, making it ideal for more slender wrists; has a beautifully laid-out dial and is definitely at the more dress end of the sports-watch spectrum.
There are other options but you’d be a fool not to opt for the blue dial; it’s the last word in everyday elegance.
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Chronograph Classic
This is a sports watch at its most chic. Having the chronograph counter at 12 is an interesting touch, while the in-house calibre 89361 that powers it allows stopped times of up to 12 hours to be read. The classic combination of blued numerals and hands against the smooth silver-plated dial is perennially stylish, making this the perfect everyday watch.
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Yacht Club Chrono
The sportiest of the Portugiesers, this is a watch that manages to be both practical and good-looking. Alongside a flyback chronograph, it also has a quarter-second scale so you can measure short stop times as well as an analogue sub-dial display for longer stop times. It is the only iteration to have luminescent hands and indices and, just to emphasise its sporty credentials, it comes on a rubber strap rather than the more traditional leather.
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Annual Calendar
For some, the decision to show the month, date and day in three separate windows would result in a watch that feels top heavy and a little clunky design wise. However, IWC has managed to pull it off and it’s not just a beauty, it has brains too.
Its advance mechanism automatically takes the length of individual months into account and therefore only requires manual correction via the crown once a year at the end of February. The curved lugs mean it sits close to the wrist and the sapphire case back allows you to admire the in-house 52850 calibre in all its glory.
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Perpetual Calendar
The first thing you notice about this perpetual calendar is the almost Bauhaus-inspired moon phase. It is a double moon display that diverges by just one day in 577.5 years and shows the celestial body’s state in both the northern and southern hemispheres. We’d be quite happy with that complication on its own but IWC has added a perpetual calendar as well and still managed to make the dial feel comparatively uncluttered.
Thanks to the movement, which is from the 52000 family, it runs for seven days and comes with the lauded Pellaton winding system. Other colours are available but the slate-grey dial combined with red-gold case looks delivers the highest levels of retro sophistication.
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Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month
A little busier dial-wise than the usual Portugieser, this complication-packed version still doesn’t feel cluttered thanks to the extra three millimetres added to the case diameter meaning that, at 45mm, it might not be for everyone’s wrist.
Packed into this more substantial frame is a perpetual calendar that doesn’t require correction until 2100, a flyback chronograph, and a large digital date and leap year display. As this is all powered by the in-house 89801 movement you also get the legendary double-pawl system as well.
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Tourbillon Hand-Wound
If you’re going to have something disturb the placid symmetry of a Portugieser dial then it might as well be a tourbillon. Unusually set at 9 o’clock, it is a reminder that IWC has some serious watchmaking nous in its ranks. It comes with a white dial and red gold case but the sartorial choice is this grey and white gold version. An added bonus is the Santoni leather strap that comes as standard.
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Minute Repeater
Given its slightly fancy nature, a minute repeater isn’t usually found in such a contemporary case design; even the repeating slide, seen on the case between 10 and 8, is an exercise in elegant simplicity. It’s powered by the 98950 calibre, which is a hunter pocket-watch movement IWC first debuted in the 1930s.
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Tourbillon Mystère Rétrograde
Despite its reputation for simplicity, the Portugieser is also the place where IWC get to show off their watchmaking chops, which explains this amazing piece. At its heart, or rather at 12 o’clock, is a flying tourbillon, comprising a staggering 82 parts, that appears to float untethered in its space.
The retrograde date is a whimsical touch, while the seven-day power reserve means there shouldn’t be any faffing getting it date accurate when you put it on again.
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Grande Complication
As the name suggests this watch is packed with horological clout. There’s the perpetual calendar that is accurate until 2499 (with only three adjustments needed in 2100, 2200 and 2300), a minute repeater, a moon phase and a chronograph with 659 mechanical parts making a total of 20 functions possible. All this happens thanks to the calibre 79091.
Launched in 1991, it has a base Valjoux 7750, which is given some extra oomph by an in-house calendar and minute-repeater modules.
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Sidérale Scafusia
To be honest, you probably aren’t going to be in the market for this member of the Portugieser family but that doesn’t mean you can’t marvel at it, because it really is IWC putting all its toys into one watch.
Along with a constant-force tourbillon and 96-hour power reserve, it also shows sidereal time – time reckoned from the motion of the earth in relation to other distant stars rather than the Sun. However, it’s the reverse that’s really special.
Using a location specified by the owner, IWC makes a rotating night-sky disc showing more than 500 stars and constellations correlating to what would be seen in real life. Making the necessary allowances for summer time and winter time, the watch also displays the times of sunrise and sunset, sidereal time and a perpetual calendar with the leap years. It is less a watch and more a work of art.
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Find out more at iwc.com
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Migrants Are on the Rise Around the World, and Myths About Them Are Shaping Attitudes
There has been significant increases in migration worldwide due to economic, political, and climate change factors, and research shows that most people perceive that there are more immigrants in their own country than there really are, and an overestimate their dependence on welfare and criminal behaviors. The media is blamed for the negative portrayals of migrants. If you were a media executive, what would you do, if anything, to correct these misperceptions? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?
[Note: Article contains data in several diagrams]
Immigration is reshaping societies around the globe. Barriers erected by wealthier nations have been unable to keep out those from the global South — typically poor, and often desperate — who come searching for work and a better life. While immigrants have often delivered economic benefits to the countries taking them in, they have also shaken the prevailing order and upended the politics of the industrialized world — where the native-born often exaggerate both their numbers and their needs.
Donald J. Trump’s promise to build a wall to keep Mexicans and Central Americans from crossing the United States’ southern border was central to his successful campaign for the presidency. Antipathy toward immigrants is spreading through Europe, fueling Britons’ desire to leave the European Union, upending Italy’s political establishment and giving the populist Hungarian government of Viktor Orban a fourth term.
Fear of immigrants takes different forms. Immigration from the Middle East and North Africa has led to calls in Europe to prevent its so-called Islamization. In the United States, despite a long history of cultural, religious and ethnic mixing, several studies have concluded that alongside their anger over lost jobs and stagnant wages, many of the non-Hispanic white voters who tipped the presidency to Mr. Trump were motivated by fears that they were losing demographic groundto other groups.
While it is far from a consensus, on both sides of the Atlantic the proposition that immigration amounts to a large-scale threat is gaining ground on the right of the political spectrum.
People perceive there are more immigrants than there really are
A study based on surveys in the United States and a variety of European countries by the economists Alberto Alesina, Armando Miano and Stefanie Stantcheva found that people across the board vastly overstate their immigrant populations.
The overestimates are largest among particular groups: the least educated, workers in low-skill occupations with lots of immigrants, and those on the political right. They overstate the share of immigrants who are Muslim and understate the share of Christians. They underestimate immigrants’ education and overestimate both their poverty rate and their dependence on welfare. Almost a quarter of French respondents, as well as nearly one in five Swedes and about one in seven Americans, think the average immigrant gets twice as much government aid as native residents do. In no country is this true.
“People who are are against immigration generate a sense of crisis,” Professor Alesina said. “They create a sense that ‘This is a huge problem; we need a wall.’”
In any event, the sentiment is eroding support for Europe’s social democratic model as well as for the United States’ more limited social safety net. “Just making people think about immigrants generates a strongly negative reaction in terms of redistribution,” Professors Alesina, Miano and Stantcheva write. This raises a fundamental question. If immigration from the South continues apace, will support for the liberal market democracies with robust social safety nets, which have prevailed in northern countries since the middle of the 20th century, hold in the 21st?
The flow of migration varies around the world
Immigration is unlikely to slow down. All over the world, migration has grown sharply over the last quarter-century. In 1990, fewer than seven million Indians lived abroad, according to calculations from the United Nations. By last year, nearly 17 million lived outside of India. The Mexican diaspora increased to 13 million from 4.4 million over the period. China’s rose to 10 million from 4.2 million.
Most migrants from poor countries never make it to the United States or Western Europe, instead moving to other developing countries nearby. A little over half of emigrants from Africa settle in other African countries, while 60 percent of Asian migrants relocate elsewhere in Asia.
Migration increased the most from Latin America
Immigrant populations have risen sharply in most advanced nations
The economic pressures pushing migrants from their homes is unlikely to abate soon. But the patterns of migration from the poor South of people seeking a better life in the rich North is likely to change.
Economic and other forces are driving immigration
While instability in Central America continues to drive people north, the vast traffic of low-skilled immigrants into the United States across the southern border has slowed. The demographic bulge of Mexican men in their teens and early 20s who flocked illegally to the United States from the 1990s until the Great Recession has petered out, in part a consequence of declining Mexican fertility since the 1970s. Today, Mexicans are older, on average. Fewer are willing to take the risk. And Mexico’s economy is in better shape than in the 1980s and 1990s, when repeated crises drove many Mexicans from their homes.
There were fewer undocumented immigrants living in the United States in 2016 than in 2007. Apprehensions along the border with Mexico plummeted last year to their lowest level since 1971. Things may change if, say, Mr. Trump decides to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement, setting off another economic crisis in Mexico. Still, the United States seems more likely to suffer from a lack of immigrants than from a continued surge.
Although immigration into the United States might have passed its high-water mark, other parts of the rich world — Europe, notably — are likely to experience more immigration than they have before.
Consider Africa. As Gordon Hanson and Craig McIntosh of the University of California, San Diego, have noted, immigration across the Mediterranean may soon come to look like the vast flows of people who in the 1990s streamed across the Rio Grande.
The number of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa jumped 25 percent over the first decade of this century and surged 31 percent from 2010 to 2017, according to the Pew Research Center. Persistently high fertility rates across Africa have produced a demographic bulge of young people eager to make a better life across the Mediterranean.
Demand for immigrant labor will probably rise in Europe as its population ages. The number of working-age people is already shrinking in many countries. What’s more, migration from many poor African countries is likely to keep rising even as their economies develop: They will remain poor enough for many of their people to crave a better life elsewhere but will become rich enough for more of them to afford the journey.
Migration peaks in lower-income countries
Research by Michael Clemens of the Center for Global Development finds that incomes per capita in the countries with the largest diaspora populations range roughly from $7,000 to $20,000. Some big African countries -- like Nigeria -- have entered that range.
Then there is the wild card, which could well intensify patterns of migration everywhere: climate change.
Global warming is driving migration
Rising average temperatures are already pushing people from their homes in many middle-income countries, according to research by Cristina Cattaneo and Giovanni Peri, increasing migration from rural areas to urban centers and across borders to other nations. As warming continues in the coming decades, it will probably push people from agricultural areas to urban areas and from the global South to the richer global North.
How will the North’s political systems respond to the challenge? Alongside studies suggesting that ethnic diversity can reduce trust and support for social insurance, there is a body of scholarship suggesting that direct contact between people of different ethnicities, nationalities and cultures can breed trust: It’s easier to fear an abstract immigrant you have never seen than one who lives down the block, sends children to the same school as yours and shops at the same store.
The research by Professors Stantcheva, Miano and Alesina suggests that Americans who know an immigrant have more positive perceptions about immigrants’ work ethic, education, dependence on welfare and other behavior. Across the countries in their study, people exposed to positive images of immigrants -- say, about their strong commitment to work -- become much less negative in general about immigration.
Natives’ views can also be manipulated in a negative direction, though, something currently reflected in the politics of many countries. Professor Stantcheva argues that negative portrayals of immigrants in the media could help explain the biased and erroneous views about immigrants’ behavior. And as Professor Alesina notes, “Anti-immigration parties foster these misperceptions in a variety of ways strategically to gain support for their anti-immigration stands.”
But there are already plenty of walls, and they have done little to stop immigration. If rich countries want fewer immigrants, their best shot might be to help poor countries become rich, so that fewer people feel the urge to leave. That would include helping them adapt to climate change, and simply opening up their own markets to developing countries’ exports. “If you want to have fewer immigrants, you would want poorer countries to take advantage of trade,” Professor Alesina said. “The idea that because there is too much immigration you should restrict trade makes no sense.”
What’s more, as Mr. Clemens argues, rich countries should probably start writing new rules and creating new institutions to manage the large immigration flows of the future. They could work to promote new destinations and develop mutually beneficial forms of migration (say, varieties of temporary work visas). They could establish mechanisms to assist vulnerable native-born people, whose jobs might be at stake.
If properly handled, Mr. Clemens says, immigration is an opportunity.
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