As an army brat, I grew up without any roots. I was born in Georgia but only lived there for a year. My brothers and I all have different birth cities. My dad’s family is from the New England area, and my mom’s family is from Kentucky, but the majority of my “growing” (middle and high school) has been in upstate NY and rural Virginia. On one hand, I can call a lot of places home, but on the other hand, I can’t pinpoint a hometown.

As a middle child, it’s easy for me to blend in and get along with a variety of people. I fit into several social groups in high school — from academics to athletics, from church groups to partiers. Some people would consider these seamless transitions “fake,” but I never saw it that way. I viewed myself as someone who enjoyed the ride, no matter what that ride was. When I got to college and joined a sorority, I continued this mindset, fitting into different cliques and hobbies as best as I could. However, this chameleon life couldn’t last forever — I’d have no real friends! It was in college when I knew I had to claim a space somewhere, and I did (or at least tried to).

That space that I thought I claimed didn’t last long. After college, I didn’t settle down like some of my friends. I decided to continue moving every year even as I developed a career in teaching. Yes, you read that correctly — I have moved every year as a teacher, starting over at a new school for the past 6 years. My coworkers know me as transient and gypsy-like, and oftentimes they admire my freedom. I’m now at the point where I’m exhausted with all this freedom, and I want to dig my boots in and make a foundation somewhere.

Why did I move so much? Other than the act of moving being naturally to me, I was always moving away from something or going towards something. I would think to myself, “I’ll have a better chance finding a soulmate there” or “There would be more to do if I moved there.” None of these assumptions have come to fruition. I repeat, the grass was never greener. The grass has always been the exact same shade of green.

What are the pros of moving every year?

I have experiences that not everyone has. I bring a fresh outlook on a lot of situations, which makes me an asset to a lot of people. I can relate to and sometimes bond with a broad stream of people because my living experiences have cast a wide net. I can check certain places off my list, especially places I have no desire to revisit. In the workplace, being the new teacher allows me to get away with more — I know this is not necessarily a good thing, but it has taken a lot of pressure off of me over the years. Above all, I can introduce myself as ‘new’ everywhere I go, opening the door for others to take me under their wing and show me the ropes. This is ideal if you are Type B.

What are the cons of moving every year?

I do not have a home. I have a physical house that has been decorated to my liking and several items accumulated from my travels, and not to mention an at-home gym (my proudest accomplishment this year), but I know this house is not my home. I know I will be moving again next year or the year after. I have lost touch with many good friends, not because of any fall-outs, but because of the physical distance. I have maintained the closest bonds with a few high school friends and a couple of college friends, created simply because I was in the same place for 4 consecutive years. As a teacher, I have to start at the bottom of the totem pole every year, get to know new staff, and become acquainted with new school regulations. This is tiresome.

I’ll always be thankful for the life experiences that I’ve had and the choices that I’ve made. I may have closed myself off to deep connections because of my fly-by-night ways, but I’m sure the universe will present a reason to me. I try hard to imagine myself staying in one place for more than 2–3 years, and it’s something that’s hard to envision solely because it’s never happened before. However, I want a family and I want stability, and I know I need to retire my wings eventually. I think it’s probably time I find the meaning of home and relinquish my flighty ways. Being on the pursuit of happiness can be a long and confusing ride, but sometimes staying put for a while is comfort enough.

Photo Credit

Photo is from pixabay

Guest Author Bio
Mary Beth Britten

I’m a high school English teacher by day and writer by night. I live with my 90-lb fur baby in Richmond, Virginia, hoping to call this place home.

Blog / Website: MB Writes

The impact of the crisis for India is expected to be much more severe than imagined. The economy which was already shrinking is now further compounded with other problems like malnutrition, unemployment, rural distress, public health and so on. Informal sector labor which is at least 422 million in number are at great risk.

Gateway of India , Hotel Taj and ,Oberoi Hotels , Mumbai, Mahrashtra, India

Good news is that the government has started a special train as a most humanitarian gesture but it has a severe implication for a country where cases are witnessing a significant rise everyday despite the lockdown. Firstly, they can spread coronavirus from areas where they worked to rural areas, which do not have enough hospitals, quarantine and testing facilities. Secondly, India’s growth largely depends on the service of migrant workers and bringing them back after the crisis would be a real challenge. Given the unprecedented hardship faced by the workers, most of them are scared to return to the urban sectors of work.  Although in some sectors, operations resumed after 20th April but still some companies are reporting continuous labor shortage. Thirdly, returning migrants to their home also has a direct effect on the state education and health system. This represents an important concern for states like Bihar which is home to India’s second highest migration population and is anticipated to be hit badly due to reverse migration.  

Future Roadmap

The pandemic has brought a sharp impact on the “Digital Underclass” or the informal workers. This includes delivery workers, grocery workers, construction workers, farmers, sanitation workers, etc. Clearly, it’s time to treat the current problem beyond economic crisis and understand that problem has a long-lasting impact on the survival of different industries and migration of labor. The government is required to adopt innovative policies which must be seen as a mix of debt relief, rent moratorium and temporary work assignments for newly jobless workers.  Access to social welfare programmes by unregulated workers can serve a purpose to reduce the level of current stress and build some sense of confidence in workers. The government must ensure that relief packages reach non-registered citizens through social security schemes. In this way, the Centre’s recent step of online registration of informal workers seems crucial to extend the safety net to the uncovered workers.  The Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, while addressing the current pandemic issues, also offered a wide range of suggestions for the country to absorb the shock. He asserted for “putting money in people’s hands so that they can buy goods is the easiest way to revive the demand and economy. Because then MSME people get money to spend and it has a usual Keynesian Chain reaction.”

The government should focus on developing strategies which can solve four key issues simultaneously. The four key dimensions are:

1) Supporting Enterprise and SME.

2) Generating employment, income & jobs.

3) Protecting current workers and

4) Increasing the interaction between government, employers and workers.

For decades, technologies have always come up as a boon to us. During this crisis, many countries are effectively using digital tools like mobile applications and artificial intelligence to trace the infection. However, to better prepare ourselves for the future, the Centre should concentrate on developing innovative solutions, particularly in the health and education systems. Collaboration with international agencies in the area of revolution of technology can foster the recovery from the virus.  Last but not the least, it’s high time to recognize the contribution of the “Invisible Segment” in making a “Visible India.” We all need to understand that the choices we make will affect the way the crisis unfolds. Only with the right measures, can we limit the impact.

Continued from – “Digital Underclass” at risk: Plight of Informal Labours – Part 2

Photo Credit

Photo is Wikimedia Creative Commons

Guest Author Bio
Dr. Neha Nainwal

Dr. Neha Nainwal is an Assistant Professor at University of Delhi. She has teaching experience of more than seven years. She received her P.HD in commerce from Delhi school of economics, University of Delhi. Her primary specialization was Development economics and her secondary specialization involves financial inclusion, Agriculture and labor. She also authored more than ten research papers and presented papers in many international and national conferences. She also worked as a content writer for than 20 modules for HRD Ministry project “E- PG pathsala”. She has also authored various article for many national level magazine.

The latest report of ILO is extremely alarming in the sense that it estimated a wipe-out of 7.2 per cent of working hours or reduction of 25 million full-time workers in Asia and the Pacific region. According to the report, the pandemic can take away the job of two billion workers in the informal sector, mostly from developing countries which are at high risk. The report also anticipated that four out of five people in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by the full or partial closure of business. Moreover, as the unemployment impacted us on a greater magnitude than estimated, ILO in continuation warned that the extent of the crisis will depend upon the evolution of the pandemic and the action taken to contain it.

Government response through COVID 19 Relief package

The lockdown which has left millions of low-income workers most vulnerable prompted the Center to take supportive measures. As a quick response, on 27th March 2020, a relief package of 1.70 lakh crore (22 billion dollars) was ordered to blunt the impact of COVID 19. Several other packages have been also announced by the state government to shield the marginal farmer and labor. In continuation to deal with the deadly crisis, a programme to credit 24 per cent as Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Contribution, for the establishment having up to 100 workers and where 90% workers are earning less than 15000, was announced. The scheme called “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana” is expected to work via direct cash transfer and food security measures. The programme intends to provide an additional 5kg rice/wheat and 1 kg pluses. Though the government is working hard, its inadequacy compared to the enormous scale of a problem is imposing a great challenge.

Further to relieve 3.2 crores registered construction workers whose lives are now drastically impacted with the virus, on 24 March 2020, Centre had advised the state to “adequately” transfer direct money to their bank account out of the Cess fund collected by the Construction Welfare Board (CWB).  According to the Labor Ministry, around 31000 crores was lying with Building and other construction worker welfare (BoCW). As per the BoCW Act of 1996, all construction activities are bound to pay at least 1 per cent of Cess if the cost of the project is more than 10 lakh (13000 dollars). The construction cess is under the State’s domain and the state can utilize it for social security and welfare of registered workers. As a result, after receiving the directives from the Centre, many states have transferred amounts ranging from 1000 to 5000 rupees to the bank account of construction workers. Though the right path was chosen, many issues are restricting the portability of  the welfare benefit. Instances of selective registration, no up-gradation of identity card, enrollment of non-construction workers as beneficiary and most importantly corruption are a few among them. Recently to address the issue, Ministry of labour has prepared a new guideline under which the state government is directed to start online registration of workers.

Inequitable access to Employment and Healthcare protection measures

To restrict the spread of the virus, on 25th March 2020, the prime minister imposed the world’s biggest and strictest lockdown, ordering residents to stay at home. Surely, the lockdown has left millions of migrant laborers unemployed but immediately thereafter, the heart-wrenching pictures and video of migrant laborers, walking a hundred miles to reach their village were not very uncommon. Regrettably, this section is more vulnerable as most of the activities are shut down leaving them with no money at all. Again, due to the ban on non-essential travel, they are forced to live in crowded places under substandard conditions. And hence facing a great risk of infection. The situation is grimmer as no medical covers are available for them. Poor hygiene practices, no access to safe water, and unhygienic settlements further increased their chances of transmission. 

Moreover, the workers who were walking back to their home faced police harassment, beating and even criminalization. Those who are lucky enough to reach their destination just before or during the continuing lockdown are experiencing unequal access to health care, quarantine facilities and are struggling with the social stigma associated with the risk of spread. Strangely, some of them who still manage to have work are reluctant to report the cases, either for the fear of not being paid or the chance that they will be thrown out of the job. Also, the advice of self-isolation which means not being paid for the next 14 days is simply an infeasible option for them. Furthermore, the pace and extent of spread rumors are not new to the times of pandemic but the speedy spread of misinformation concerning false responses and treatment have put workers safety and lives of millions at more risk.

Continued from – “Digital Underclass” at risk: Plight of Informal Labours – Part 1

Concludes in part 3 – “Digital Underclass” at risk: Plight of Informal Labours – Part 3

Photo Credit

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Guest Author Bio
Dr. Neha Nainwal

Dr. Neha Nainwal is an Assistant Professor at University of Delhi. She has teaching experience of more than seven years. She received her P.HD in commerce from Delhi school of economics, University of Delhi. Her primary specialization was Development economics and her secondary specialization involves financial inclusion, Agriculture and labor. She also authored more than ten research papers and presented papers in many international and national conferences. She also worked as a content writer for than 20 modules for HRD Ministry project “E- PG pathsala”. She has also authored various article for many national level magazine.

Devastating impact on the “Gig Economy”

The pandemic has a crumbling impact on the economy and has left the government with very hard choices to contain the spread.  Undoubtedly, prioritizing national health through complete lockdown comes at the huge cost of economic crisis.  While certainly, there are some doubts about how badly India will be affected by the virus but surely there is a certainty that the lockdown will hit the poor badly. Many organizations and institutions are making working from home mandatory and are continuously involved in creating policies to support their employees. Though the incentive of various enterprises is highly appreciable, the same security can’t be claimed for the workers who can’t perform their job digitally. Furthermore, the policy which has been initiated to curb the spread of the virus, imposes a serious threat to the life of agriculture, construction and many other casual workers by severely skewering their everyday livelihood and pushing them towards subsistence. 

Despite the government taking carious measures to protect different stakeholders, the continuing restrictions have brought enormous downturn impacts for the whole economy. However, the farm economy is one of the sectors where the impact is immediate. Moreover, the national lockdown arrived amid harvesting time of Rabi crop and the unexpected migration of labor to their native places severely impacted the harvesting.  This is also a time when farm produce reaches mandi’s for assured procurement but couldn’t, or reached with utmost difficulty, due to the lockdown imposed. Meanwhile, the poultry farmers have been hit badly due to misinformation on social media that chicken and other poultry products are the carriers of COVID 19.

Similar disrupting impact of COVID 19 can be seen for Supply Chain Management. The supply chain completely depends on manpower and is the backbone of logistics. However, as the lockdown is mandated by the government, there is a dearth of labor in factories, warehouses, in transportation and distribution. With the lockdown, as well as increasing instances of return and fear among the workers, the entire supply chain came to a halt. Orders are lying pending with the companies as there is a shortage of blue-collar workers to pick and deliver the order and hence weakened the smooth flow of trade.

Undoubtedly, the epidemic has affected all the walks of life but hit the poor hardest. The scenario is worse for the employees who don’t have regular salaries. For example, as International travel restrictions remain imposed and visas banned by the government for some time the Tourism and Hospitality Industry remain in a dire state. Most of the tourism workers are either employed on a short-term contract or even without them as daily wage. Apart from Tour guides, it includes drivers, parking contractor, cleaners, the waiters in the restaurants proximate to touristic sites, vegetable supplier, flower suppliers and other staff in the hotel, etc. And with no future possibility of having tourists before mid-September 2020, there is a big question on the survival of drivers and guides whose minimum wages and tips have now collapsed.

The impact is somehow similar for Construction Industries also. Construction workers constitute a major chunk of the India’s informal workforce. They are the most vulnerable as they were one of the first ones to be laid-off after the lockdown. There is a projection that projects worth Rs. 59 lakh crores ( 782 billion US dollars ) are under construction and may be badly affected due to COVID 19. The breakdown of the supply-demand ecosystem and the non-availability of raw material supplies further adds to a problem and seems a herculean task for the builders to manage. Unfortunately, the future of 4.9 crore (49 million) construction workers are at risk which is further going to have a multiplier impact on the workers of 250 allied industries. The problem of Infrastructure Companies is further aggravated as monsoons will arrive soon, which have a grim impact on construction productivity.

It’s a tough time for all the business but especially the pandemic and lockdown has been a horrifying time for all small businesses and SMEs whose future is clouded with utmost uncertainty. Over the years, SMEs have been a strong pillar to Indian economy and represented 60-70 per cent of the jobs of the developing country. However, they simply are not able to survive if the step to boost an industry is not taken on an urgent basis. At present, the risk for small businesses is bigger, as most of them are facing a liquidity crisis which is going to wipe out the whole segment very soon. Plunging demand and delayed payment for orders further have pushed them to a vulnerable situation.  Also due to low cash reserves, their ability to pay their employees is tremendously affected leading to retrenchments and distress in the lives of millions of workers.  

Continues in part 2: “Digital Underclass” at risk: Plight of Informal Labours – Part 2

Photo Credit

Image by Jörg Peter from Pixabay

Guest Author Bio
Dr. Neha Nainwal

Dr. Neha Nainwal is an Assistant Professor at University of Delhi. She has teaching experience of more than seven years. She received her P.HD in commerce from Delhi school of economics, University of Delhi. Her primary specialization was Development economics and her secondary specialization involves financial inclusion, Agriculture and labor. She also authored more than ten research papers and presented papers in many international and national conferences. She also worked as a content writer for than 20 modules for HRD Ministry project “E- PG pathsala”. She has also authored various article for many national level magazine.

The delta-winged Arrow was the fastest in the world (Mach 3) at 70,000 feet; could go from standing at idle to almost Mach 1 in 4.5 seconds; used a world-first computerized flight control and weapon systems; could be completely refueled and re-armed for takeoff in less than six minutes; and had a projected range of 750 miles compared to the 350 miles of the Bormarc missiles that were to replace it…and that was 1958!

The Avro Arrow – Canadian Pride

As a kid, I created a special hook shot when playing basketball that saw me sinking soaring baskets from centre court. I called it the “Avro Arrow” shot. Such was the impact on my own little world.

Then it was gone! Black Friday, February 20, 1959: The high-tech Arrow program was cancelled along with the loss of 30,000 Canadian jobs; our entire jet aviation industry devastated; and a “brain drain” of our brightest engineers and scientists – lost to NASA.

Saying it wasn’t cost-effective – but not waiting two weeks for its worldwide marketing debut – the Arrows were literary cut into pieces… despite the National Post’s position that 65% of all funding was returned to the government in taxation.

The real miscalculation: “The cancellation of the Arrow program, and the replacement Bormarc Missile System, still failing in testing, Canada was left essentially defenseless…” – Avro Museum

Money was then wasted buying used US jets – the equivalent of 130 new Arrows. Penny wise and pound foolish?

“You take what you need
And you leave the rest/
But they should never
Have taken the very best”
  ~ The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band

Can it happen again with Canada’s commercial jet aviation industry?

American Boeing has filed a NAFTA free trade ‘America First’ complaint against its Canadian commercial jet rival, Bombardier; yet, wants to sell Canada new military jets. Should they have it both ways?

As Retired Major General Lewis MacKenzie proposed, let’s investigate a renewed Arrow program, saving 100’s of millions of dollars buying US jets, and re-invest it in our own economy.

A former employee said, “The real crime of the Avro Arrow cancellation lies not in the economic calamity it unleashed, nasty though that was. The lasting tragedy is that confidence and hope for the future were also demolished for so many of our residents on that Black Friday in 1959 – taken apart, like so many Arrows in a hangar.” Journalist June Callwood called it a “soul-theft.”

Death row – destruction of the five flying avro arrow aircraft. 1959

Quoting Sir John A. Macdonald – his statue being featured as part of the ‘Prime Ministers Path’ at Baden Ontario’s Castle Kilbride, “We are a great country, and shall become one of the greatest in the universe if we preserve it. We shall sink into insignificance and adversity if we suffer it to be broken.”

Maybe there’ll come a time when we won’t need weapons of war. We can only hope and pray – even as we search for peace. But another “Black Friday?” Oh, Canada!

Photo Credit
Canadian Pride – Wikimedia creative commons
Death row – insuaga.com

Guest Author Bio
Fred Parry
Fred Parry lives in Southern Ontario. He is a lover of people and a collector of stories, music, wisdom, and grandchildren. His newspaper column, Music in Me, can be found in ‘The New Hamburg Independent’ Metroland Media. His book, ‘The Music In Me’ (2013) Friesen Press is Available from Amazon and Indigo / Chapters.

Blog / Website: www.fredparry.ca

When I first saw the news on the morning of June 12, 2016, it registered first as yet another sad example of gun violence in our society.  The tragic events at Virginia Tech where 32 were killed, Sandy Hook Elementary where 27 were killed, shootings in Fort Hood, Texas and Binghamton, New York that each claimed 13 lives are examples from the last decade that illustrate the swift and permanent impact of gun violence in our modern world. People did these things.  Individuals whose motives are as shrouded in mystery as they are diverse.  We are left to speculate from the wreckage they leave behind.

Oh my god…

As the morning of June 12th went on, I felt unsettled but also unable to focus on what had happened in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.  I knew the basics as reported by the news media.  Nearly 100 people had been killed or injured at a popular gathering spot for the gay community by a man who had taken the time to phone the media and declare his allegiance to Islamic extremists before opening fire on unsuspecting and defenseless people.  The initial reports suggested that it was perhaps the shooter’s religious faith that motivated his actions.

Although I have abandoned any belief in a god at this point in my life, I was raised as a Christian and I must admit to being largely ignorant of the beliefs and religious tenets of the Islamic faith. In the days following the shooting, I tried to better understand what would motivate a young Muslim man to do something like this.  I listened to Muslims and Muslim clerics on YouTube, I read more about the Islamic beliefs regarding homosexuality, and I tried to understand how those beliefs could translate into violence.  With more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, I would expect far more acts like these if these beliefs were central to the Islamic faith.  Apparently, much like my experience with Christianity, much is open to interpretation.  The acts of one individual do not necessarily represent the beliefs of other Muslims.

I said in the beginning this piece that I am not just a “straight, white man” and I think it is unfair to stop any description of the Orlando shooter at “a young, Muslim man.”  His religious beliefs may have played a significant role in this tragedy.  But devout Muslims and Muslim leaders around the world were swift and emphatic in their condemnation of the shooting.  While this young man may be associated with Islam, Islam did not in any institutional sense publicly praise or endorse his acts.  In fact, I read with astonishment reports of Christian leaders praising the shooting. To me it seems that this was one man acting on his personal beliefs, not on behalf of any ideology.

Carefully chosen targets

The fact that this tragedy occurred in a nightclub popular with the gay community hit me particularly hard.  I have been fortunate to call many gay and lesbian people “friend” over the years. Many of the people I dearly love have a same-sex orientation and it is through those relationships that I have come to understand the many challenges that gay and lesbian people face on a day to day basis in our society.  I have watched for the last 40 years, sometimes in anger and sometimes in joy, as our society has adapted and become more accepting of those with same-sex orientation. And so the fact that such violence was done to individuals who have more than their share of adversity was particularly upsetting for me.

I am grateful that we live in a culture that allows people of similar interests to gather freely.  Whether it is a gay nightclub or retail store for those who enjoy hunting and fishing, our society is supposed to provide for peaceful and safe places for people to gather.  The fact that this one gunman could enter that nightclub armed as he was is deeply troubling.  Not only could one of my gay or lesbian loved ones have been in that club, I could have been in there with them.  I have been invited to go out with gay friends before and they have always been accepting of me as a “straight.” This was not just an assault on the gay community, it was an assault on gathering places of all kinds.  In a very real sense, it made me feel that none of us are as safe as we might think.

The Orlando shooter may have targeted a gay nightclub for his own reasons but this is not just a “gay issue” for me.  I don’t feel separate from the gay people in my life.  My life is intertwined with theirs.  Where they go, I go.  Their interests are my interests on many levels.  How can I not feel a sense of being targeted when those I love are targeted by hate?  I think we have come too far as a society to try to separate ourselves now.  This was not just an attack on the gay community; it was an attack on us all.

Gunpoint

Guns make me profoundly uncomfortable.  I have never owned one and on the very few occasions where I have had the opportunity to fire one recreationally, the immense power of these weapons terrified me.  Once the trigger is pulled, there is no taking it back.  We are at a point in our culture where the availability of guns is just a reality.  They are simply there.  Whenever I am out in public, I have to be aware that there may be one or more guns being carried by any of the people around me and that, at any time for their own reasons, one of those people could choose to use that gun.  But would more strict gun control laws have prevented the Orlando shooting?  I don’t think so.  It’s more complicated than that.

Technology moves forward with our human evolution.  Guns are just another technology.  In my view, it is not the technology that is the problem so much as it is the application of that technology that we should be concerning ourselves with.  Gun rights activists often make the argument that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and I agree with that sentiment.  Unfortunately, guns do make it remarkably easy and efficient to kill people.  Much like other technologies, guns seem to get better at their job as time goes on.  But I don’t see the value in blaming the tool instead of how it it used.  Why are people shooting people?  It’s a big question but it is much closer to the center of the problem, I think, than just taking the guns away.

I wish it were simple

Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen a lot of discussion about the Orlando shooting.  There has been endless finger-pointing – “It is the Muslims.”  “It is the Gays.”  “It is the Gun advocates.”  “The FBI messed up.”  “The police should have done something.”  “Where were his parents.” and more.  It isn’t just one of those things and yet it is all of those things.  It’s hard to process for me.

I am an atheist.  As such, I don’t believe in a life for me beyond this one.  This life is what I have and I have to make the best of it that I can.  I treasure the people that share this life with me; the black, brown, gay, straight, nerds, rednecks – all of them.  It terrifies me that any one of them could be taken from me in an instant because someone chooses to treat them as a label instead of a human being with a life and loved ones.

Perhaps most terrifying of all is that it could be me.  After all, I am among the “godless ones” that some find abhorrent.  Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, had his reasons for killing and maiming the people he did.  Who is to say that someone else might not find a reason to do the same to me.  Or you.  It is just so mind-bogglingly big and complicated that it’s hard to come to terms with.  But I don’t think that excuses any of us from making the effort.  If we don’t think about these things and try to find solutions, it never gets better.  And I think it has to get better.  For all of our sakes.  I don’t think we can afford to let it be “someone else’s problem” any longer.

As the shades of denial and disbelief arose and then fell away, the questions, tinged with judgment, arose. How could they do this? What would possess someone to take such steps? Why do we do such abusive things to the planet?

From there, my mind wandered into associations, including how it looked like a golf course. I have long had an intense dislike for golf, largely because of the way in which the land is tamed and often poisoned in the making and maintaining of the game course. Golf also seems to be the game of the power elite, the courses the breeding ground for many of the political and corporate deals that lead to widespread human suffering and destruction of the planet.

Finally, after all of that, I was left with nothing but silence and seeing; just witnessing what someone else (or a group of folks) had done to a particular place, sometime in recent history. It was a surprising, almost stunning, experience. Only so because of the extremes present.

Our modern landscape is riddled with this kind of stuff. Not only absurdities like the place described above, but also grand-scale absurdities like giant parking lots, stripped mountains, miles-wide oil fields, abandoned coal pits collapsed upon themselves, poisoned rivers and lakes – the list goes on.

Below the surface of the land, and beyond our vision, fuel pipelines snake through the soil, breaking the natural order and rhythm of life. So, too, do buried and abandoned piles of human-produced garbage and toxic waste, threatening the health and wellbeing of everything trying to live around it. In fact, a lot of the modern-built world is absurd. It represents actions far more about destroying life than enhancing it.

Humans are not superior to other species. We are of the earth, not above it. If we truly want to address climate change and environmental crisis, we’ll not only need to resist corporate plunder of the earth, but also collectively transform the way we see and build the places we call home.

Photo Credits

Photo from Flickr – some rights reserved

When I researched the game it became obvious to me that this game was one of a submissive positioning, but why on physical entities? Scanning through the images on the internet, the faces of the ‘game’ players were of a numbed, docile and submissive array of societal experience and expression. In a world where most of us have succumbed to the concepts of capitalism and consumerism, have we become submissive? Are we expressing our chains to it through our subtle insertions of games like this? Are the objects we are planking on, and over, now our owners and our own undoing?

American consumerism is at an all-time high, leaving many families with insurmountable amounts of debt. We have submitted to capitalistic ideals and cannot find an escape route. Lying down on the objects creates an almost surreal confession of the power they have over us. Finding obscurity while planking is simply a way to express the relative experience of the new world of buy and pay. We are bought, and we are planked to these objects like no other generation before us. We have consumed our planet to the point of animal extinction, polluted oceans and global warming.

I looked up the history of planking and soon discovered images of early slave ships showing people chained down in the same submissive position, unable to escape and to be free from the hateful ownership of history. As society inserts an obvious connection to a human history of racism, have we also unknowingly projected our own experience onto what is now a universal one – materialism and product consumption through spending? 
 
This is where history inserts itself into the present and societal norms are questioned – as they should be. Is it normal to want to live a life filled with products and objectification? Racism has now become a platform for politics in the US and if we don’t look more closely at why cynicism relies on us being divided, we will never find a cure for hate. We will indeed be planked to the past and smothered with consumerism if we don’t finally look at why we need to be submissive.

The whole functioning of the ‘haves’ is to make sure anyone who doesn’t have, doesn’t get. We become almost systematically mesmerized with the accumulation of ‘stuff’ and are losing our moral compass and compassion. Think of the Black Friday sales where people are pushing and shoving to buy one more thing to bring home and yes, to be planked to.

And if people do not have, they will find an escape route to get it, as history proves over and over again. As American politicians rally for support for votes, they are also cynically bribing the population without wealth, blaming the minority populations for the lack of it, and for the taking of it – planking people once again to hate, all in the name of consumerism.

It’s a long, painful history that continues to repeat itself. The greatest thing we can do as a human population is to finally break the chains that our minds have been tightened with; release our intellect to combat the immoral and unethical need to submit one’s self to anyone or any ideal. Then and only then will we be a true democracy. Then and only then will the game of planking end and the world will stop looking for scapegoats. Change is only possible through awareness.

Photo Credits

Photo by Melinda Cochrane – all rights reserved

Watching her out the window, Mom said to Dad: “She’s gonna fall.” Dad responded with: “Probably.” Mom asked, “Do you think we should go out there?” As they continue to tell the story, more than 20 years later, they shrugged at each other and watched as my sister did indeed fall off the beams.

Bad parents? Not at all. Why? One: my sister bounced right back up and kept going. Two: she learned early, as did all three of us, that there was nothing to fear in taking a risk like that. Sure, she could have gotten hurt — she didn’t — but my parents also could have run out there, screaming, and stifled an adventurous spirit.

It’s Not Cute

I don’t have kids, and probably never will, but I still find myself surrounded by little girls. Many of my friends have them, and my sister has one who will be five later this year. They are cute.

What isn’t cute is when the collective world encourages “the cuteness” of their fear of something. Anything. From picking up a bug or even being near one to a fear of playing a sport. I’m not saying these little ladies’ fears aren’t legit. I fear standing on chairs and driving across bridges, but my parents have never told me it was cute to be afraid.

Author and former San Francisco firefighter Caroline Paul recently wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times about why we teach girls it’s cute to fear. Paul points out that when we encourage girls that it’s cute to be afraid, we are discouraging them from taking calculated risks.

I don’t mean engage in risky behaviors that will jeopardize health or welfare, and it’s obvious that Paul doesn’t mean that either. That’s not cute. Paul and I mean self-esteem boosting risks like picking up and moving across the country or around the world or leaving a cushy job for something unknown and exciting.

When fear is encouraged by those around us, like our parents and caregivers, our self-esteem is hampered both automatically and because we cannot recognize the good risks from the bad ones.

It’s a Fear of Failure

Teaching fear is teaching complacency. This in turn teaches kids that it’s not okay to fail. Perhaps that sounds backwards, but think about it: if kids are afraid, they won’t try something. When we try things, there is a chance we could fail.

Dr. Laura Miele-Pascoe, a professor with Ohio University’s Masters in Coaching Education, extolled the virtues of teaching kids the positives of failure in an article for Psychology Today last year. Going further than Paul, Miele-Pascoe encourages parents, coaches, and educators to discontinue the practice of Everybody Wins.

When I was a sports reporter and then an educator, I disliked this practice. It may encourage a certain level of camaraderie, but it also teaches kids failure is not an option. Miele-Pascoe states correctly that “children will be exponentially more distraught when they inevitably face them later in life.” The earlier children are taught that failure is not a bad thing, the more they will draw from it.

In her article, Miele-Pascoe uses her daughter’s softball play as an example. Thrown out between second and third base, her daughter used that failure as motivation to run harder during her next base-running opportunity, thus leading to success.

The older we grow, the more we begin to see failures as opportunities for success. One of the habits of truly successful people is using failure as inspiration for innovation. Both Paul and Miele-Pascoe note that teaching fear and discouraging failure only discourages girls from seeking out such ambition.

Don’t Fear Success

In today’s world, so many women are taught to fear success. We are discouraged from ambition. It starts at a very young age when we are taught that we should fear riding our bikes down that giant hill or when we are told that hunting is a boy thing.

We need to stop encouraging fear in our girls. Then we will start encouraging them to be adventurous in all they do, in work and life.

Photo Credit

Photo by AmberStroce on flickr – Some Rights Reserved

Guest Author Bio

H. E. James, MBA
Hattie is a writer and researcher living in Boise, Idaho. She has a varied background, including education and sports journalism. She is a former electronic content manager and analyst for a government agency. She recently completed her MBA and enjoys local ciders.

Follow Hattie: Twitter | Linkedin

It is such a delight to be able to say that we have achieved that. While folks have been grateful right from go, we have had so many notes of thanks this year and this is a huge encouragement to us.

We are now closing in on 4300 articles from over 800 contributors and are read world-wide. On most days, at least 500 of our articles are read and on some, as many as 800. A huge thank you to all of you who continue to read and share our publication.

As always, I want to thank the authors, artists and photographers for all of their great contributions. As well, an enormous thank you to our Associate Editors for everything they do and for their friendship and support which keeps me going. It’s a privilege to work with all of you!

We will continue to expand our content on topics such as food, cooking, wine, sciences and philosophy. That said, we are always open to your thoughts and ideas if you feel there are topics that we should cover. Of course, you are also very welcome to contribute

Thank you for your support over the last six years.

Here’s to number 7!

Photo Credit

Happy Birthday – Creative Commons via www.tOrange.us