#11june

[apureniallsource]

capitalofficial: 14 year old me is crying rn 😭catch #CapitalSTB on @globalplayer 🔊

[dzinahk]

#TomHiddleston out and about in London 7June Get ready for #SoccerAid2023 on 11June at Old Trafford Manchester

#HalfTime entertainment will include #SoccerAid Founder #RobbieWilliams

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 11June – Saint Bardo of Mainz (c981-c1053), Archbishop, “The Chrysostom” of his time

Saint of the Day – 11June – Saint Bardo of Mainz (c981-c1053) Archbishop of Mainz from 1031 until 1051, the Abbot of Werden from 1030 until 1031 and the Abbot of Hersfeld in 1031. Ascetic, renowned for his piety and devotion, for his care and love of the poor, renowned Preacher, called “The Chrysostom” of his time. Born in c981 in Oppershofen, Germany and died on 10 or 11 June in 1051 or 1053…

[xtruss]

Forbidden Fruit! Inside Mexico’s Anti-Avocado Militias Michoacán

The Spread of the Avocado is a Story of Greed, Ambition, Corruption, Water Shortages, Cartel Battles and, in a Number of Towns and Villages, a Fierce Fightback

— By Alexander Sammon | Tuesday 11June 2024 | The Guardian USA | Harper’s Magazine

An Avocado Farm in Yoricostio, Michoacán. All photographs from Mexico, August 2023, By Balazs Gardi for Harper’s Magazine © The artist

Phone Service Was Down. A fuse had blown in the cell tower during a recent storm. Even though my arrival had been cleared with the government of Cherán in advance, the armed guard at the highway checkpoint, decked out in full fatigues, the wrong shade to pass for Mexican military uniform, refused to wave me through. My guide, Uli Escamilla, assured him that we had an appointment and that we could prove it if only we could call or text our envoy. The officer gripped his rifle with both hands and peered into the windows of our rental car. We tried to explain ourselves: we were journalists writing about the town’s war with the avocado, and had plans to meet with the local council. We finally managed to recall the first name of our point person on the council – Marcos – and after repeating it a number of times, we were let through.

To reach Cherán’s militarised outskirts, we had driven for hours on the two-lane highway that laces through the cool, mountainous highlands of Michoacán, in south-central Mexico. We passed through clumps of pine, rows of corn and patches of raspberry bushes. But mostly we saw avocado trees: squat and stocky, with rust-flecked leaves, sagging beneath the weight of their dark fruit and studding the hillsides right up to the edge of the road. In the small towns along the way, there, too, were avocados: painted on concrete walls and road signs, atop storefronts and on advertisements for distributors, seeds and fertilisers.

Michoacán, where about four in five of all avocados consumed in the United States are grown, is the most important avocado-producing region in the world, accounting for nearly a third of the global supply. This cultivation requires a huge quantity of land – much of it found beneath native pine forests – and an even more startling quantity of water. It is often said that it takes about 12 times as much water to grow an avocado as it does a tomato. Recently, competition for control of the avocado, and of the resources needed to produce it, has grown increasingly violent, often at the hands of cartels. A few years ago, in nearby Uruapan, the second-largest city in the state, 19 people were found hanging from an overpass, piled beneath a pedestrian bridge, or dumped on the roadside in various states of undress and dismemberment – a particularly gory incident that some experts believe emerged from cartel clashes over the multibillion-dollar trade.

A Sculpture of an Avocado at the Town's Entrance in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán. Photograph: Marco Ugarte/AP

In Cherán, however, there was no such violence. Nor were there any avocados. Thirteen years ago, the town’s residents prevented corrupt officials and a local cartel from illegally cutting down native forests to make way for the crop. A group of locals took loggers hostage while others incinerated their trucks. Soon, townspeople had kicked out the police and local government, cancelled elections, and locked down the whole area. A revolutionary experiment was under way. Months later, Cherán reopened with an entirely new state apparatus in place. Political parties were banned, and a governing council had been elected; a reforestation campaign was undertaken to replenish the barren hills; a military force was chartered to protect the trees and the town’s water supply; some of the country’s most advanced water filtration and recycling programmes were created. And the avocado was outlawed.

Citing the Mexican constitution, which guarantees Indigenous communities the right to autonomy, Cherán petitioned the state for independence. In 2014, the courts recognised the municipality, and it now receives millions of dollars a year in state funding. Today, it is an independent zone where the purples and yellows of the Purépecha flag, representing the Indigenous nation in the region, is as common as the Mexican standard. What started as a public safety initiative has become a radical oddity, a small arcadia governed by militant environmentalism in the heart of avocado country.

But the environmental threats posed by the fruit have grown only more pressing since then. In the US, avocado consumption has roughly doubled, while domestic production – mostly confined to drought-stricken corners of central and southern California – has begun to collapse. The resulting cost increases have encouraged further expansion in Mexico, attracting upstarts that are sometimes backed by cartels, whose members tear up fields and burn down native trees to make way for lucrative new groves. Some landholders and corporations are getting very rich. I had come to Cherán to see whether this breakaway eco-democracy could endure in the face of a booming industry.

As We Drove into the Centre of Town, home to 20,000 people, the narrow streets hummed with activity. Colourful murals commemorated various anniversaries of the uprising. Exhortations to protect the earth adorned white stucco walls. Vendors sold mushrooms, vegetables and grilled corn. Stray dogs traipsed through the plaza. We parked in a gravel lot down a sidestreet and began asking around for Marcos. Eventually, a man wearing a parka emerged from a nearby building. As we shook hands, Uli joked about our holdup at the checkpoint, but Marcos didn’t laugh. He scanned the square suspiciously, as though worried we’d been tailed.

A Member of the Community Police Force in Cherán, a town in Michoacán. Photograph: Andrea Murcia/The Guardian

Marcos led us into the town hall, and I followed him up a staircase and came face-to-face with a floor-to-ceiling portrait of Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary and champion of land reform. Above the doorways of offices hung photos of Cherán’s own armed comuneros next to photos of pine saplings. In the modest legislative chamber, I took a seat in front of a U-shaped banquet table, where the elected council meets. Half of its dozen members were seated, attending to paperwork. When they saw me, they began a second interrogation, asking what my motivations were and what exactly I was there to see. They squinted at the business card in a plastic sleeve that I was passing off as a press credential, handing it back and forth. Another lifesize portrait of Zapata frowned at me from the wall.

I understood their suspicion. Just weeks prior, the neighbouring state of Jalisco had sent its first-ever shipment of avocados to the US. Violence in the sector was increasing, with reports of drone-bombed fields. A few months earlier, inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture, which verifies the fruit’s quality for export, had received threatening messages. And there were plenty of reasons for avocado groups to size up Cherán: its fertile soil, its abundant water. Besides, what revolutionary regime isn’t a little paranoid?

But the council eventually agreed to show me the full sweep of its operations. I was told to report by 7am for rounds with the patrol unit that surveys the region and wards off threats. Together we would head to the frontlines.

The Avocado has Been Grown and Eaten in Mexico for Centuries. The glyph representing the Maya calendar’s 14th month features the fruit, and Aztec nobles often received it as tribute. “Looks like an orange, and when it is ready for eating turns yellowish,” observed the Spanish coloniser Martín Fernández de Enciso in 1519. “So good and pleasing to the palate.”

For the better part of the 20th century, however, the fruit failed to catch on. Among the challenges faced by marketers were the fruit’s many names: alligator pear, aguacate, avocado, Calavo – the last a portmanteau of California and avocado. (The name in Nahuatl, an Indigenous language, ahuacatl, is slang for testicle, and was never really an option.) Money was poured into advertising to fix the problem, and California funded research on farming techniques, though these still didn’t solve for the novel taste. Growing ranks of producers, and the small consumer base, led to ruinous drops in price while costs kept increasing. Water and land got more expensive as new housing developments demanded more and more.

By the late 1960s, only farms that produced more than 5,000lbs (2,270kg) of the fruit an acre each year were profitable. Agribusiness began to look south of the border in the 70s. The California Avocado Society, a collective founded by growers, deployed multiple research missions to Michoacán, where envoys made careful note of the region’s plentiful water. “In this area, water is free,” marvelled their report from a trip in 1970. Local avocado growers’ only concern was “how to divert the water into channels on their property and to get the water to the trees”. At that point, imports of fresh avocados from Mexico to the US were prohibited by federal regulation (established in 1914 to protect California farmers), but the large avocado firms began investing in the region anyway, with designs on selling the fruit elsewhere.

Avocado Orchards in the Mountains of Michoacán. Photograph: Marco Ugarte/AP

The North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), when it went into effect in 1994, largely kept the ban in place, but crippling droughts and exorbitant land and water costs eventually pushed California’s industries into accepting a slow repeal of protections. Many small domestic growers were facing bankruptcy; the larger firms that weren’t had already invested in Mexico. After decades of malaise, the avocado became a surprise winner, and a cipher of the promise of free trade – “Nafta’s shining star”, as one consultant later put it.

After achieving notoriety as one of the most spectacular commercial food failures of the 20th century, the avocado finally entered the mainstream. Guacamole and avocado toast became two of the most successful gustatory trends of the 21st century, pushed with prime-time Super Bowl ads. Michoacán’s avocado production went from about 800,000 tonnes in 2003 to more than 1.8m tonnes in 2022. Over the same period, the US’s avocado consumption quadrupled.

Today, groundwater in Michoacán is disappearing and its bodies of water are drying up. Lake Zirahuén is polluted by agricultural runoff. Nearly 85% of the country was experiencing a drought in 2021, and experts project that the state’s Lake Cuitzeo, the second largest in all of Mexico, could disappear within a decade. In part because of the conversion from pine to avocado trees, the rainy season has shrunk from around six months to three. So profound is the drain on the region’s aquifers that small earthquakes have newly become commonplace. The 100-mile avocado corridor has, in effect, become the only live theatre of what is often referred to as “California’s water wars”.

It’s unclear whether the avocado can survive this changing climate. But in Michoacán, the more pressing question is whether its residents can survive the avocado.

At 6:45 the Next Morning, Uli and I reported to the town jail, where we’d been told we would find the ronda tradicional comunal, the community police. The ronda – by some counts the town’s largest agency, and the only one for which jobs do not rotate every three years – is tasked with all security, manning the checkpoints, guarding against poachers and even punishing public drunkenness. Through the darkness I could make out a commander meting out orders to officers wearing flak jackets, helmets and fatigues. It was almost time for a shift change. An unfamiliar truck by the sand mine would need to be investigated; everyone was reminded to keep their weapons on them at all times.

The ronda is most heavily armed while guarding the forest. The job is to monitor the entire 27,000-hectare region of Cherán, ensuring that there is no illegal logging, no burning, and no planting of avocado trees. I was assigned to join a unit of four people, each carrying a rifle and handgun. We were headed to the north-east border, where a new avocado grove had recently appeared. But 30 minutes into our drive, the crew were diverted to a new job, which would involve confronting some loggers laying claim to a different patch of forest. Any local loggers could be backed by monied avocado interests, or cartels, the crew told us, and it didn’t take much for bullets to start flying. Our safety couldn’t be ensured, they said, and our seats in the truck would be needed to transport reinforcements. They deposited us back at the jail, where we waited to be assigned to another patrol group.

After a few hours, a second pickup arrived, staffed by a team of three. We loaded back in and headed out of town on a sunken dirt road, up into the mountains. As the truck lurched over potholes, we passed spindly pines – some replanted, others old-growth – as well as another sign, this one in red: the community in general is prohibited from planting avocados.

Avocados in an Orchard in Uruapan. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

The truck’s driver, Edgar, had spent eight years in the ronda, enlisting not long after the uprising. He’d done construction work in South Carolina before getting deported. I asked if he’d encountered illegal avocados in Cherán. He said he had. Everyone knows the rules, he told me, “but there is still tension here, even now”. When avocados are discovered, patrols dig up the trees and destroy them. The offending planter will be sent to the town jail, where he’ll be forced to issue a formal apology and pay a fee. A repeat offender can have his land requisitioned by the government.

We drove until the road ran out, then parked above a sweeping hillside. A barbed-wire fence ran along a dirt trench, marking the division with the neighbouring municipality of Zacapu. At our backs were a wall of pines; in front of us, rows of juvenile avocados. The trees grew right to the edge of the muddy border. All of this had been old-growth forest until four years ago, Edgar told me. He pointed to a barren hillside in the distance. Eight months prior it had been full of pines, but it had recently been clearcut, marking the next stage of the forward march. Soon, it too would be covered with avocados.

There Was Something Else Edgar Wanted Me to See if I was willing to venture with him into the woods. We returned to the truck and drove cautiously through deeper and deeper puddles until the trail was completely washed out. We parked, left some nonessentials, and began our trek with three militants in full protective gear.

As we passed into denser forest, the patrolmen sometimes paused to rustle the pine needles blanketing the forest floor, exposing the mushrooms that grow naturally in the area. On occasion, one of them would find a bright orange lobster mushroom, which I was told tasted just like pork. Those were pocketed for dinner. Finally, we emerged into a blackened clearing, which abruptly gave way to a ravine. All around us, the trees and shrubs were charred.

A few months earlier, Edgar explained, this area had combusted. Loggers had been fast at work clearcutting the forest, in anticipation, I was told, of avocados. To expedite the process, they set fire to some stumps, which can be especially flammable in the dry season. The blaze quickly jumped the town line of pine trees and took off in Cherán’s forest. Edgar, along with volunteers and dozens of members of the ronda – 80 people in all – attempted to quell the conflagration.

They dug a perimeter right below where we stood. Having no ready water source, they tossed dirt on to the flames with shovels. Edgar spent three days and two nights on the fire line, long enough for the containment effort to succeed. But the losses continued to mount, as many of the rescued trees succumbed to blight in the weeks that followed. Eventually, the sickly trees were cleared. Four hectares of pines were lost.

Wildfires are a major concern in the region, and an estimated 40% of them are now purposefully set to clear the way for avocado groves. Forests are set ablaze or levelled by chainsaws, quickly and indiscriminately; planters then suture avocado saplings on to the barren earth. Reforestation has since become a critical component of Cherán’s economic strategy. In only a decade, the town has managed to reforest much of the town’s 20,000 hectares with native pines. It underwrites these efforts by selling juvenile pines, bred in a nursery, to nearby landscapers and farmers, and by harvesting pine resin that is used in everything from turpentine to oil to chewing gum. At the town’s mill, dead and diseased trees are turned into two-by-fours for construction, or fitted into wood pallets to be sold to trucking companies.

An Avocado Vendor at a Market in Mexico City. Photograph: Nick Wagner/AP

The reforestation campaign is also a water policy. Recent studies have suggested that the vapours released by pine trees can help seed clouds, substantiating in some sense the folksier notion – which I heard repeatedly – that trees bring rain. The deeper root structure of tall pines also helps convert precipitation into groundwater, providing a pathway for rain to travel to the water table during the rainy season. Avocado trees, short and appetent, are a drain on the water table throughout the entire year. A mature avocado tree demands as much water as 14 adult pines. The forestry strategy, I was told by Edgar and others, was one of the chief reasons that Cherán had been able to escape the water problems that afflict the rest of the region. “You see, the clouds are only in our town,” Edgar half-joked as the afternoon sky darkened.

The Uprising in Cherán Became an Inspiration, and led to a wave of copycat outbursts across Michoacán in what became known as the autodefensas movement. Vigilante groups took up arms and notched a number of victories, succeeding where the state had proven inept or corrupt. Community policing initiatives followed. For a time, this approach even enjoyed the tacit support of then-president Enrique Peña Nieto.

But the movement quickly dissolved. Many autodefensa organisations were infiltrated by former cartel members; some began selling drugs to raise money for weapons. Others were bankrolled by wealthy avocado interests sick of paying bribes or seeing shipments robbed. By 2018, the autodefensa system had, in many ways, become indistinguishable from cartel control.

Take one especially perverse example: in 2020, a group of avocado farmers formed a group called Pueblos Unidos, claiming to be protecting their livelihood against cartel extortion. The group’s membership ballooned to around 3,000 in a short amount of time, even scoring some international media coverage for their attempts to clean up the avocado supply chain. They lacked Cherán’s environmental commitments from the get-go, and were soon linked to the Knights Templar Cartel. On the day I left Michoacán, they were involved in a standoff with authorities that resulted in the kidnapping of national guardsmen, the torching of a car and more than 100 arrests. According to Mexican officials, it was one of the biggest cartel busts ever.

The Cherán council told me that dozens of other localities in Michoacán have adopted its model of governance, forming an archipelago of radical environmental resistance. While each town has its own method of implementation, the charter remains basically the same: a democratically elected council, a militarised commitment to environmental protection, and no political parties or avocados.

Council Members in Cherán Town Hall

Twenty minutes from Cherán is the town of Arantepacua, which achieved official independence in 2018. When we drove over, a small team of labourers was at work building a checkpoint. No one stopped our car for questioning.

The town square was flanked by a crumbling church and a peach-coloured municipal building. I was trying to get in touch with the mayor, Alberto Martinez, but he wasn’t responding on WhatsApp. I asked a woman if she knew where I might find him. “He’s right there,” she pointed, “the small one in green.”

Standing on the corner was an excitable man, his hair neatly combed, wearing a pressed polo shirt tucked into khakis. He shook my hand vigorously before I’d even spit out an introduction, and pulled me into the administrative building behind him, where a portrait of Zapata again loomed above the entrance.

Sitting at one of the two desks in Martinez’s corner office, bottle-feeding her four-month-old child, was Maria Elena Soria Morales, a 33-year-old school teacher who is now serving a two-year term as the head of security, elected alongside another woman. She oversees the kuariches, the town’s version of Cherán’s ronda.

But Arantepacua’s adoption of the Cherán model, Maria told me, had little to do with environmental despoliation, at least at first. On 5 April 2017, Michoacán state troopers came to retrieve what they said were stolen vehicles. The town had had a longstanding feud with the state government because of territorial disputes and what I was told was overzealous policing.

Officers with shotguns kicked down the door of the house that Maria had taken shelter in, she told me, one shooting at her and another pointing a gun at her sister. A helicopter circled overhead. A terrified schoolboy in a red sweater, running toward the forest, was shot, his body flying through the air “like a kite”, Maria said, fighting tears. Four people were killed.

Left: A member of the community police at Cherán's entry checkpoint. Right: Cherán

The next day, the town set up a makeshift checkpoint at its highway exit to prevent the police from returning. Then they began to overhaul the government. “After that, we got organised to elect our own authorities,” she told me. “If we don’t organise ourselves, this will never stop. We have to do it like Cherán.”

Arantepacua’s new government made environmental protection a priority, and outlawed avocado cultivation on communal forest land. “It harms the soil,” Maria told me. “When we drive on the road to Uruapan, we can feel the chemicals in the air and we know how bad it is. So we don’t allow it.”

Now one of her top concerns is the water supply. In recent years, the water level in the town’s well has sunk lower and lower, while the neighbouring town of Capácuaro cuts down its forests, and nearby Turícuaro expands its avocado operation. “We hear that they’re doing it on the top of the mountains,” she said. Still, she told me, the town was doing its best. Her baby burst into tears, and she whisked him away for a nap.

I Wanted to See What Life was Like in the Thick of the Avocado Corridor, a stretch of fertile soil and clement weather that yields an astonishing year-round harvest. I headed to the outskirts of Yoricostio, 55 miles south-east of Cherán, where I visited a farming hamlet full of avocado orchards.

I pulled into a parking lot in front of a church, where two farmers were leaning against a pickup truck. They took me on a tour of the groves, which, by every indication, made them a handsome profit, and then to the home of Ernesto, a local avocado farmer who was hosting a number of his neighbours. Avocados weren’t the only thing being farmed on Ernesto’s holdings; there were also pepper plants, beans and pumpkins.

Left: Frutas Finas, an avocado packing plant in Tancítaro, Michoacán Right: An Engineer at Frutas Finas monitors avocados on the packaging line

Three decades ago, he didn’t grow avocados at all. “I remember 31 years ago when Ernesto planted the first tree,” Marilu, his wife, told me. “His father told us there was no point.” But the decision paid off, and they had expanded their footprint steadily. Now they were selling avocados for export to the US and had hired additional workers to harvest the crop. Theirs was a midsize operation, and the money seemed to be good enough – their pickup truck was new and their two-storey home beautiful. They had plans for renovations. But there were problems of late. The year prior, for the first time, they had to dig retaining ponds and set up rain barrels to secure enough water for a desiccated avocado harvest. The other crops, too, needed to be watered by hand. “The climate has changed,” Marilu told me. “It’s hotter, drier. We used to water all our plants just with the rain. Not any more.”

Above the town was a small dam, and a reservoir to draw from in case of drought. That winter a work crew, armed with expensive heavy machinery, had begun laying a pipe at the foot of the dam. They claimed to be acting on behalf of the local water authority, but their story kept changing. Some of the farmers complained to the local government, to no avail. Others alleged corruption.

“You don’t have to be very smart to figure out where the water is going,” said Noemi Mondragon, a local farmer. The unfinished pipeline seemed to be pointed toward a new 200-hectare avocado grove. “People say that the avocado is the devil,” Noemi told me. “That isn’t true. There are ways to raise it sustainably.” As she saw it, the biggest problem with the avocado was that “it brought greed, which brings ambition, which brings scarcity”. Water levels at the dam had already reached new lows. “Look at the size of the pipe,” she added. “If they get that water, the dam will be empty in two weeks.”

The farmers told me that they had scared off the construction crew the day before Christmas, with a shovel-wielding Marilu at the front. Staring down a menacing foreman and a line of tractors, she told me, she’d filled in the basin where the pipe was being laid. Noemi and other neighbours joined, shoulder to shoulder, until the group grew large enough to drive the workers away.

Given the exceptional amount of avocado-related violence in the region, the story struck me as surprisingly tame. Earlier that year, a prominent anti-avocado activist had been kidnapped and beaten in another part of the state. Months later, I expressed some confusion about the account, and found out that the farmers had also been stockpiling guns, many of which were illegal. They’d left that detail out.

Left: Avocados for sale in Cherán. Center: The forest near Cherán. Right: A donkey pulls wood collected in a nearby forest

Still, the situation reminded me of Cherán’s path: the alleged corruption, the threatened water supply, the uprising. It seemed like the town might be open to a radical environmental overhaul, to save their community and some elements of their way of life. It wasn’t hard to envision a near future in which that was one of very few viable outcomes.

Farm workers pick tomatoes in the countryside near the town of Foggia, southern Italy, September 24, 2009. Every year thousands of immigrants, many of them from Africa, flock to the fields and orchards of southern Italy to eke out a living as seasonal workers picking grapes, olives, tomatoes and oranges. Broadly tolerated by authorities because of their role in the economy, they endure long hours of backbreaking work for as little as 15-20 euros ($22-$29) a day and live in squalid makeshift camps without running water or electricity. Picture taken September 24, 2009.

But when I mentioned Cherán, no one praised it as an inspiration; no one seemed to know what it was at all. And there were critical differences. Cherán had been a relatively poor, Indigenous community, cut off from the green-gold rush.

The farmers of Yoricostio had managed to tap into a global flow of water and wealth. Was there a way forward for these farmers that wasn’t also a step down? If the climate or the industry abandoned them, which way would they point their guns?

Later that afternoon, the farmers gathered around a grill, where Ernesto was searing pieces of beef. They placed a big bowl of guacamole at the centre of a long picnic table and passed around a jug of mezcal, encouraging me to pour myself a drink, and then another. The clouds gathered overhead and light rain began to fall. Then it stopped.

— A Longer Version of this Piece First Appeared in Harper’s

[ministryoftheword]

MOW:TS-No PEACE for the wicked.

https://youtu.be/-0nh5dkpVHg Ministry Of the Word(MOW), Acts 6:4:  True Spirituality (TS) Prayer for NIGERIA (5): No PEACE for the wicked(Isaiah 48:22) Bro Ben Bassey, Minister of the Word (Good News Gospel) http://www.ministry653.com http://www.ministryoftheword.org John 14:6. Thank you Jesus Pls note that I have no copy right to the background music. 11June 2023

[motivationalgurujee]

#11JUNE #2023

#रामप्रसादबिस्मिल

#RAMPRASADBISMIL

#motivationalgurujee @motivationalgurujee #SLOGAN #OM #SHORT #ENGLISH जीवन में उत्साह भरने के लिए हमारे सभी वीडियो को देखें ! जिससे आपको मोटिवेशन मिलेगा #सुविचार #प्रेरणा #हिंदी #इंग्लिश #भाषा

[01711261733]

11June, 2021 @ Sylhet (at Sylhet City) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnGv2I2PNKP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[wenshow]

[#BanHèndel]▪︎Political Animal 🇪🇺 🌎 🇨🇼 “.. The man was given the moral capacity to distinguish the good from the lesser good. But it was also given the desire to communicate with others, to cooperate, to connect and to design. Within the purpose, we realize that our key on a constant base is to stay true to ourselves, have faith and engage in dialogue with mutual respect. Because even-though many of us with this calling know that within our elected function we must always be willing to place the interest of a larger community above any self-advantageous purpose or claim. It is given to see how overblown the excessive amount of pride, ambition, and egotistical personalities can tarnish the ethos of the common good. Universal truths are nothing but illusions, but one should never dismiss the honesty by clouding the vision of the mind. One gains knowledge by promoting respect, integrity and virtue, not with tricks of lies and deception. Men must be free, the most purest form of love. May the language of our path be sustainable and strong to build long lasting institutions made of values and hope. Reaffirming each day that politics is not my career, but it is my purpose! …” ― Gwendell Mercelina Jr. @wenshow © ________________ 📸 @europeanparliament · · · 📶 • #EuropeanParliament • #Leadership • #PNP2021 • #11June • #June11 • #Politics • #Politician • #Curaçao • #DutchKingdom • #BanHendelKuGwendell • #MemberOfParliament • #Politico • #Parlamentario • #Politika • #GlobalCitizen • #PurposeDriven • #TaMiHendenan • #GwendellMercelina • #wenshow • #tenemiskèrpi • #curacao🇨🇼 • #gnius • #keepmesharp (at European Parliament) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRL_1GDrsQ4/?utm_medium=tumblr

[apureniallsource]

Niall performing Heartbreak Weather in Philadelphia - 06/11

[omgevolvefoundationworld]

World Population Day is observed on 11 July with an idea to draw focus on population issues & the importance of family planning. The day was established on 1987 when our population reached 5 Billion.

The world population increases by 100 million approximately every 14 months.

As we increase in numbers, natural resources get depleted faster.

Global warming is directly related to rising global populations.

[the-fashionstaler]

[Gift]. If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere. If you don’t let’s hope there’s WiFi..... . TUESDAY . Still not liking/commenting unfortunately and today I’ve had a mild allergic reaction to some moisturiser that I used last night. All in all having a good week! However, loving this dress from @bonprixuk which would be perfect for a summers evening. BBQ anyone? . . . Photo Not me today Dress ~ gifted @bonprixuk . . . . . #bonprixuk #bonprixitsme #maxidress #stylebook #printedmaxidress #fashion #ootd #womensfashion #june11th #lookbook #summerstyle #summerwardrobe #ss19fashion #11june #fashionstyle #ootdshare #outfitlook #rapeseedfield #tuesdaystyle #shotonacanon #over40fashion #over40style #styleover40 #fashionover40 #tuesdaystylelove @inlovewith_clothesbootscoats @lk_lipsticknlaces @shopaholicsbestfriend #tuesdayfashiontrends @suburbsstyle @busymamastyle #stylingmycurves @im_an_80s_lady @thefashionstylefile #neverknowinglyunderdressed @beautifuleveryday_uk @spanishaprilx (at Ravenshead) https://www.instagram.com/p/BylQM3hlc4N/?igshid=16ld1lw7x49om

[vincencious]

sudah 27 tahun lahir di bumi. belum selesai merealisasikan mimpi. 'hal yang kita anggap besar waktu masih kecil, akan menjadi hal kecil waktu kita sudah besar' #goldenage #goldenattack #27th #welcome27th #27thclub #11 #11june #june #gemini #geminis #geminiboy

[ltwilliammowett]

The Royal Prince and other Vessels at the Four Days Battle, 1–4 June 1666, by  Abraham Storck, c. 1670

Fought from 1 June to 4 June (11June to 14 June, new calender) 1666, in the southern North Sea, it began off the Flemish coast and ended near the English coast. It remains one of the longest naval engagements in history.

The Dutch inflicted significant damage on the English fleet, which lost ten ships in total, with over 1,000 men killed, including two vice-admirals, Sir Christopher Myngs and Sir William Berkeley, and almost 2,000 English were taken prisoner including a third vice-admiral, George Ayscue. Dutch losses were four ships destroyed by fire and over 1,550 men killed, including Lieutenant Admiral Cornelis Evertsen, Vice Admiral Abraham van der Hulst and Rear Admiral Frederik Stachouwer.

Although the result was a clear Dutch victory, it did not render the English fleet incapable of further action, as it was able to prevent a Dutch attempt to attack and destroy it at anchor in the Thames estuary in early July. After quickly refitting, the English fleet defeated the Dutch fleet off the North Foreland on 25 July in the St. James's Day Battle.

[prettyoddfever]

the makeup styles Ryan Ross wore in summer 2006:

All four guys in P!ATD started wearing makeup at the beginning of the summer tour with Lucent Dossier (but to varying degrees ha). Dream Rockwell was originally doing their makeup each night, which is why so many of the looks were close to what the Lucent Dossier performers often wore. Dream said that Ryan eventually bought some makeup of his own and asked her to teach him more so he could do it himself... and pretty soon M.A.C. was sponsoring him :)

I REALLY loved the costumes & makeup in the last half of 2006, but I promise I’ll try not to ramble as much as usual here. Basically, fans had fun watching Ryan’s makeup evolve because he’d usually start a theme/idea and then do variations of it for several shows... it was just cool to watch the ideas grow and build on each other. I’ll highlight what I thought were some of the more memorable makeup moments this summer (so I’m skipping over some days, but you can see where they’d fit in):

JUNE 9, 10, 11

JUNE 13-18

most of the looks in early June stuck to basic lines & shapes with some color... I’m not sure when Dream stopped doing Ryan’s makeup because the looks that he did later this summer still drew inspiration from what the Lucent Dossier performers did. (and ok I know 95% of these dates are accurate, but there are 2 pictures where I’m just going with one fan’s word... but even if it’s off, it’s still from the same general time so we’re good).

JUNE 20-25

By this point some fans had started using the “Ry-coon” name for his makeup. He was usually doing dark shapes around both eyes now that had something swooping down onto at least his right cheek. (the first show on June 6th was kind of like a more simplified version of this dark shape idea + the early line designs). wow I’m truly horrible at trying to explain shapes haha I want to use my hands and point to things but instead I’m reduced to “that one line... with the color.” this is going to be entertaining. bear with me.

JUNE 27-29

So the previous theme continued... by the end of June he was going back to a lighter colored eyeshadow base sometimes. The only thing I really want to point out is the two poky spiky things at the corner of his right eye in the last picture because that design + the swooping spiral on his cheek stuck around for a long time. Those elements are similar to part of a look that Roger from Lucent Dossier did, but Ryan made it his own and created so many new looks from that idea. 

(I’ll have to keep referencing that swooping spiral on his cheek with the 2 lines extending from his eye, so I’m just going to call the whole thing “the Tim Burton spiral” to save time... I just made that up btw – it’s not anything legit).

EARLY JULY

the Tim Burton spiral thing continued for most shows in early July. Ryan was also trying a wider range of colors for the eyeshadow base... and then he blended it right across his nose to connect both eyes. 

THE RED STRIP BEGINS...

There were a couple looks in a row that used the red strip. A lot of the fan pictures of Ryan wearing the look pictured above are from the Cleveland show on July 12th. I’m still not 100% sure whether or not Autumn de Wilde did this look that she used in her Spin magazine photos of Ryan (Spin magazine was with the band around July 11th–13th). Roger from Lucent Dossier said that Autumn did Ryan’s makeup look with the birds and Ryan loved it so much that he continued doing it himself. The bird does start in the look above (by Ryan’s ear), but I think by “the birds” he could’ve easily meant the next look. Anyways, the middle picture above is one that the band shared with us... Ryan seemed to really love the whole idea of the strip across his eyes.

THE BIRDS

Speaking of looks Ryan loved... lol he did this for at least 7 shows in mid-July. The pictures above are from July 13-16 in order. Sometimes there was also a different design on the other side of his face, so this look got pretty complex & dramatic. He also started blending other colors into the strip a bit more too... these pictures are a better example.

JULY 22-25

The Denver show on the 22nd was the end of the bird theme. I used the black & white footage because it was easier to see both sides of his face, but it’s hard to tell that the red strip turned into black on the left... the blending in July got pretty dramatic sometimes. 

The middle picture from July 24th was the start of a theme that carried on for several weeks. This look went back to the whole Tim Burton spiral thing Ryan was doing before, but that was on both sides of his face now like Roger’s makeup (in the far right picture above). Roger also did white/silver dots or dashes on his black swooping spiral designs sometimes, but I’m not sure who added that first. It looks like a continuation of the silver details Ryan had started playing with.

JULY 26, 27, & 31

I thought it was fun how you could see the aspects from previous looks that he liked enough to bring back & turn into something new. (The middle picture also has the same design on the right cheek as usual btw).

AUGUST 1 & 2

The regular Tim Burton spiral design grew a bit smaller on his left cheek on August 1st and then disappeared for the final show in the summer tour so the design was only on the right side of his face. He was still blending a bit of darker color into the strip, but it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as July. Here’s more detail from the start of August:

I suppose August is still summer, so I’ll include the rest of the variations that Ryan did on just this one theme...

AUGUST 4 (LOLLAPALOOZA)

The same look continued, except he had simplified the design to only be on one cheek at this point. The blending on the strip across his eyes was also a bit lighter and less dramatic than previous looks. I like how he put the straight edge of the spiral on top this time around... it looked really cool.

LATE AUGUST: 18, 19, 22

Ryan tried several new looks for some of the European shows in late August, but the 3 dates above still used some kind of version of the blended strip across his eyes with the Tim Burton spiral design.

[skippyv20]

Skip, Julie here. I personally believe they were not legally married. We all saw the Gathering but I am still not convinced. We will never be told what happened but an annulment is no doubt already being dealt with. My view this will be over by Spring. Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne 6 February 1952. The date her father died. Her Majesty always stays at Sandringham until after this date.

Then there are a number of dates during the first 6 months of the year that they wouldn’t want to announce an annulment.

However, around 24 April 2020 looks like a great day to announce such an event and its before the two year anniversary of the Gathering.

HRH Princess Beatrice is getting married this year. I am hoping it’s either 22nd 23rd, 29th 30th May or 5th or 6th June as they appear to be free of other family celebrations. I haven’t added official Royal events as yet.

9 February 2002. Princess Margaret died.

19 February 1960. Prince Andrew birthday so will be 60 this year.

10 March 1964. Prince Edward was birthday so he is 56 this year

23 March 1990. HRH Princess Eugenie was born. So she is 30 this year.

30 March 2002. Queen Elizabeth’s mother died.

9 April 2005 Marriage of Prince Charles Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. So 15th wedding anniversary.

21 April 1926. Queen Elizabeth was born on this day.

24 April 1986. Wallis Simpson died.

29 April 2011. Prince William Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

2 May 2015. Princess Charlotte birthday so she is 5 this year.

8 May 1945 was Victory in Europe day so 75th anniversary this year.

6 May 2019. Announcement that a child called Archie was born.

15 May 1981. Zara Phillips birthday.

17 May 2008. Peter Phillips married Autumn Kelly

19 May 2018. Prince Harry Meghan Markle attend Windsor Castle.

2 June 1953. Queen Elizabeth Coronation date.

10 June 1921. Prince Phillips birthdate so he is 99 this year.

10-11June 2020. Beating Retreat on both these evenings.

13 June 2020. Grouping the Colour.

16 - 20 June 2020. Royal Ascot.

19 June 1999. Prince Edward Sophie Countess of Wessex married.

21 June 1982. Prince William birthday so he is 38 this year.

To be honest I really don’t care when it’s announced as long as the media let HRH Princess Beatrice have the most wonderful wedding day given that many have done as much as possible to try and ruin her happiness to date. HRH Princess Eugenie had to endure the look at me I am pregnant announcement at her beautiful wedding.

HRH Prince Harry is not going anywhere. He has done an amazing job for the last three years and although he was key to MM getting inside the BRF I am convinced the backers have been at this for many years trying to compromise one Royal or another. HRH Prince Harry will come out of all this as a changed man and will have his brothers back. I don’t even question his loyalty. His work ethic at times I certainly have questioned but all will be fine in the end. We need to Trust Her Majesty. We all need to stand up for what we Believe. We either believe or we don’t. I fully believe in PHs loyalty to his Queen, his Country, his Military. Only time will tell.

Thank you Julie! This is wonderful!😊❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[ghca]

A World Cup cap stunt for Saqlain Mushtaq, as Pakistan whipped Zimbabwe by 148 runs in the Super Six match at The Oval. Given the men he excused, it's one he may recall timidly: Henry Olonga (one-day universal normal: 4.36), Adam Huckle (2.25), and Pommie Mbangwa (4.71) were never at risk for doing a lot of tail-swaying. I n any case, a World Cup cap stunt is a World Cup cap stunt: this was just the second, and Saqqy additionally turned into the subsequent man (Wasim Akram was the first) to take two cap deceives in ODIs. Follow @ghca_goldenhand for amazing updates like this #ghca7777 #goldenhandcricketanalytics #goldehand #cricket #cricketer #icc #bcci #ipl #indiancricket #msdians #cricketworld #cricketmerijaan #cricketfever #cricketlife #indiacricket #instacricket #rohit #cricketfans #hitman #cric8 #viratian #testcricket #viratkohli #msdhoni #odi #bleedblue #Captaincool #IPL2020 #11june (at Delhi) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBS8EO_gDaV/?igshid=1iel7rbefe1x1