#How DEI supports fundamental human rights

[kakief]

Beyond Buzzwords: Why DEI Matters for Everyone, Not Just Some

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) often get dismissed as corporate jargon or initiatives that only benefit certain groups. But DEI is more than a buzzword—it’s about building workplaces and communities where everyone can thrive. When done right, DEI fosters innovation, strengthens teams, and creates opportunities that lift all of us.   So, who truly benefits, and what’s at stake when we…

[wtfamievendoinghere]

I have sympathy for Trump voters. I know a lot of people on the left can’t feel that right now, and it’s okay to be really fucking angry at them, but losing all empathy for a group of people is dangerous. I have watched some clips from Trump’s speeches, and they were the things I had ignored before the election because I knew they were lies, but his speeches were not just him spewing racist hatred. He tried to brand himself as the anti-war candidate and succeeded with a lot of people. He and his cronies talked about the exploitation of people trying to immigrate illegally, and some believed that the best way to protect those people was to make it clear that America had a secure border. Some people believed him when he said that democrats were trying to make infanticide legal or that DEI meant hiring unqualified candidates simply because they were in a certain group.

Trump exploited human nature to get power, and he was able to do it because a lot of the people he manipulated were unaware of their human nature or thought that those tricks couldn’t possibly work on them. Even the people who bought into his racist rhetoric thought that they were just basing their opinions on facts and logic because they were lied to so many times. We are all products of how we started and everything that happened since, and we are all vulnerable to some degree to the tactics that Trump uses. Thinking that we are an entirely different type of people to Trump supporters means that we will eventually fall into the same traps. When the rest of the world convinced themselves that they were fundamentally different than the Nazis, it meant that Trump supporters didn’t consider that the same form of manipulative radicalization might be happening to them.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Bret Stephens

Precisely the same logic applies to Israel’s other conflicts, above all with Hezbollah. The brilliance of the pager/walkie-talkie strike in Lebanon has done more to restore Israel’s regional reputation than 11 months of relative restraint and tit-for-tat reprisals against enemies to the north. A similar lesson will also have to be given to the Houthis, especially since the Biden administration seems incapable of doing so. “Who Dares, Wins,” the motto (borrowed from the British) of Israel’s special forces, should be the motto for the Jewish state as a whole. The path out of loneliness is always a path of action.

What about American Jews?

The resurgence of anti-Semitism in the United States has begun to force a fundamental rethink of the way in which at least some American Jews contemplate their place in society: I call them “October 8 Jews”—those who woke up the day after the attack with a clear understanding of who our friends are not. Those Jews include the donors who revolted at the idea of continuing to give money to Harvard, Penn, Brown, or Columbia; who are investing heavily in new educational institutions that adhere to classically liberal values; who are calling out the DEI/anti-racism com- plex for being the anti-Semitism incubator that it is; who are breaking out of the stale orthodoxies of traditional media; who are investing all of their philanthropic energies in strengthening Jewish life.

They are the vanguard, but we are only at the beginning. So many institutions in American life that were once welcoming places for American Jews have turned bad: elite private schools; human-rights organizations; the literary world; social work; Mideast-studies departments; public-school curriculums—the list is long. In every one of these fields or institutions, October 8 Jews have a clear choice: Reject, reform, or reinvent them. What’s no longer possible is to pretend that what we have now is acceptable, or that indifference and inaction are viable options.

Just as the Bush administration spoke of a “whole of government effort” after September 11, 2001, we need a “whole of American Jewry” effort after October 7: to make high-quality Jewish day-school education available and affordable to every Jewish family that wants one; to cut off all giving to colleges and universities that are hostile to open and vibrant Jewish life and Zionist expression; to create a new ecosystem of literary prizes, faculty chairs, “genius awards,” and grants that reward and celebrate true merit; to fund and tell stories on large and small screens that richly and empathically explore the Jewish experience; to deepen American ties to Israel through corporate and academic partnerships; to expose and shut down the opaque and potentially illicit networks that fund and support the anti-Israel student protests.

This is a partial list, but you get the point. If we don’t want to wind up alone, we cannot afford to stand still, think small, or look back. The questions are no longer “Who betrayed us?” or “Why is the world this way?” They are “What do we do now?” and “How soon can we get it done?”

Israel and the Jewish people aren’t alone—yet. Ensuring that we never wind up alone is going to take courage, work, nerve. And a demand for respect.

[bllsbailey]

Stop Freaking Out And Focus On Winning

Could you doomsayers please give us a break? Can you stop panicking like little girls and male-identifying Democrats when they see a spider? Yes, Kamala Harris has capitalized on the relief of the Democrats over trading in that shambling, perverted, zombie-like husk for someone who is merely an idiot who was too dumb to pass the California Bar Exam. That’s progress, well, at least a kind of progress, but it’s enough for their voters to come back in off the sidelines. There were a lot of Biden supporters out there, people who were never going to vote for Trump but who just couldn’t vote for someone who was manifestly senile. Well, Kamala is not manifestly senile; she’s just dumb. But that’s an improvement over Joe Biden, and that’s enough for them. Now they’re back in the game and the head-to-head poll numbers have improved for the Democrats. But Trump hasn’t fallen behind. He’s probably still slightly ahead. So, could you please stop whining about how we Republicans are doomed?

Probably not. Oh no, JD Vance is a disaster! If only we had picked somebody squishier, the Democrats would’ve been nice to him. Oh, Kamala Harris is so exciting and popular! She’s so brat! We can’t ever compete against that! Oh, they’re just going to steal the election anyway! Boo-hoo.

Geez, could you sissies shut up for a minute and stop embarrassing yourselves? We are in a better position than we’ve been in a presidential race in 20 years, and all some people can do is find that cloud behind the silver lining.

There is something within the emotional makeup of Republicans that makes them always assume that disaster lurks right around the corner. Maybe it’s conservatism’s realistic view of the fallen nature of man, as opposed to the Democrats’ bizarre notion of human perfectibility through the power of Marxism, that leads us to dwell in the Eyorean swamps of depression. But this is self-inflicted emotional gaslighting. It has nothing to do with the facts. The key fact is that Trump is doing better now than Trump did in either of his previous campaigns. And while we don’t have the advantage of a regime media actually doing its job – which it did for about 15 minutes when it became undeniable that Joe Biden was demented and it became necessary to crowbar him out of the Oval Office – the fundamentals are still in our favor. We are still in the lead or tied in the battleground states, the economy is tanking, and let’s face it – Kamala Harris is a moron.

Yeah, they’re going to try to bury her in the basement for the next three months. The regime media is obediently ignoring the fact that she refuses to come out and give extemporaneous remarks or answer hard questions, though they’ll never ask any. But normal people see it. Normal people see a lot about her. There are her myriad policy problems. She’s a communist. Until it was disappeared by the Orwellians of the Internet, she had been listed as the most liberal member of the Senate. There are all sorts of devastating video clips of Kamala out there, wanting to take your AR15s by force, border czaring anywhere but at the border, wanting to take your health insurance and for you into socialize medicine with a bunch of illegal aliens, as well as damming us for daring to wish each other Merry Christmas. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, and you can tell the Democrats don’t like it because any time we mention any of it, they call us racist harder than usual. 

Apparently, talking about anything she does or believes is racist. That includes her racial identity du jour, which she seems unable to settle on. Nervous conservative commentators are very upset that Donald Trump pointed out, accurately, that she sometimes presents herself as Indian and sometimes presents herself as black and that she denies that she’s a DEI hire even though she asserts DEI is awesome. Trump, of course, saw how this demonstrates her inauthenticity and drove right in. When he highlights what the Democrats try to hand wave away as “code switching” normal people read it as her being a shameless chameleon, appearing as whatever she needs to appear as for the audience in front of her. This includes adopting a comedy gold southern/black accent that rivals Hillary’s ridiculous “I don’t feel no ways tired” thing.

Some of my conservative friends wish Donald Trump wouldn’t point this out, preferring to focus solely on policy. I guess if we were having a reasoned debate at a debating society – before debating societies got swallowed up by wokeness – that would make sense. But this is an election. It’s not just about facts – which are certainly in our favor – but about emotions. Facts are only part of persuasion and often not the most important part – but hey, what would a trial lawyer know about that?

To win voters, we need to persuade them not merely objectively but subjectively as well. We need to define her so that the voters feel repelled whenever they see her cackling visage appear on their screens. Democrats and the regime media minions are portraying Kamala as exciting, vibrant, and cool, and we have to present the truth that she is not exciting, vibrant, or cool. And you don’t undermine somebody’s image as the hot new thing solely by droning on about tax policy. You slam them for being terrible, and pointing out their terrible policies support that effort. Objective policy arguments are not a substitute for subjectively defining her as a dangerous pinko clown.

And that’s what Trump is doing – defining her as a shifty half-wit commie. That kind of definition is what Trump does. And Kamala knows she’s vulnerable, which is why she’s hiding. She’s a terrible person. She’s an idiot – I want to emphasize that she failed the California Bar Exam, another thing I’m not supposed to talk about because it has nothing to do with policy. But I’m going to because it shows she’s dumb. And her racial shenanigans show that she’s inauthentic. You know, Trump does not need to talk about her inability to be authentic all the time, but after eight years, perhaps we ought to credit Donald Trump with knowing a little something about how to communicate a message. While it may scandalize the National Review crew that Donald Trump is making fun of her inability to be honest about her ethnicity, normal people see what she’s doing, and they find her repellent and manipulative. It’s not because she’s biracial. It’s because she’s a phony.

Regardless, we need to accept the fact that we are not losing, though we can lose. The fact is this was always going to be a hard fight. America is a 50-50 country, and unfortunately, 50% of Americans are freaking idiots. And the freaking idiots have chosen one of their own – without voting on it, but that’s the Democrats’ problem – as their standard bearer. This race is going to be a matter of points regardless. Victory is not assured – it never was. If you get your name on the ballot for one of the two major parties, you have a chance to win. Donald Trump was supposed to lose in 2016 something like nine times out of ten. But you know what happens one time out of ten? The underdog wins. Kamala Harris can certainly win this election, and she absolutely will win this election if we sit around demoralizing ourselves because it’s going to be hard. Yeah, it’s going to be hard. Do you know what other things are hard? All the things worth doing are hard. If they were not hard, everyone would do them all the time.

No one will just give us this election. We have to go take it. Trump’s 2024 campaign has been the most professional and effective of his three. Its advertising attacking her border failures has been deadly, and they have a lot more policy ammunition to expand. They managed to gather enough money to do it, even though the Democrats thought we were going to be impoverished. Yes, Donald Trump is not exercising what some would call “message discipline” and focusing solely on policy. But you know what? Donald Trump doesn’t have “message discipline.” Donald Trump has gut instincts. And most of the time, his instincts are right. 

We are more likely than not going to win this, but we will lose this by being depressed. We will lose this by being black-pilled. We will lose this by failing to work. If you’re not writing checks, dialing the phone, or being out there urging people to vote, you are helping us lose; get it together to bring it in for the Big Win. Stop with the pessimism. I don’t want to hear a damn thing about “Oh well, they’re just going to steal it anyway.” They’re not going to just steal it anyway;  you’re going to let them steal it by sitting this election out. We need to work hard and win beyond the margin of fraud. So, stop moaning and start campaigning.

Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get the newest volume in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, the bestselling Amazon #1 Military Thriller, Overlord! And get his new novel about terrorism in America, The Attack!

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[pashterlengkap]

Joe Biden scolds GOP for using budget negotiations to target LGBTQ+ people

In a searing statement, the White House slammed an anti-LGBTQ+ provision included in the new federal spending bill signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday. In a victory for LGBTQ+ people, the bill contains almost none of the over 50 anti-LGBTQ+ “policy riders” that far-right Republicans wanted. The single anti-LGBTQ+ provision remaining in the bill prevents Pride flags from being flown over U.S. embassies in foreign countries. Related: Will Democrats save Mike Johnson’s job as speaker of the House? Democrats may want to think twice about saving the man who will preside over certifying the 2024 election results. “President Biden believes it was inappropriate to abuse the process that was essential to keep the government open by including this policy targeting LGBTQI+ Americans,” said the White House statement. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Daily * Weekly * Good News * “While it will have no impact on the ability of members of the LGBTQI+ community to serve openly in our embassies or to celebrate Pride, the Administration fought against the inclusion of this policy and we will continue to work with members of Congress to find an opportunity to repeal it.” Out White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reaffirmed on X that President Biden is “committed to fighting for LGBTQI+ equality at home and abroad.” We successfully defeated 50+ other policies attacking the LGBTQI+ community that Republicans attempted to insert in this legislation. @POTUS is committed to fighting for LGBTQI+ equality at home and abroad.— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) March 24, 2024 Sources told the press that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) bragged about the anti-LGBTQ+ provision and used it as a way to convince other Republicans to vote for the bill. Many have mocked the GOP for considering it a win, however, since there are ways around the rule. “The flag provision would continue to allow pride flags to be present in almost all cases at embassies, except flown *over* the exterior of the building,” wrote the Human Rights Campaign’s National Press Secretary, Brandon Wolf. “It doesn’t limit a flag on, in front of, inside, at workspaces, etc. Trying to sell that as your big win is pathetic.” Wolf added that Johnson’s brag is a “spin from a man desperate to appease a base whose agenda is a unmitigated disaster.” FWIW, the flag provision would continue to allow pride flags to be present in almost all cases at embassies, except flown *over* the exterior of the building. It doesn't limit a flag on, in front of, inside, at workspaces, etc. Trying to sell that as your big win is pathetic.— Brandon Wolf (@bjoewolf) March 22, 2024 Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus had tried to use budget negotiations to end government funding of any entity that “promotes transgenderism” or provides gender-affirming care; any federal agencies pursuing policies to expand diversity, equality, and inclusivity (DEI); any legal consequences for federal contractors who discriminate against LGBTQ+ people but claim their religion made them do it; and any implementation of the Department of Education’s rules requiring schools to accommodate trans students. In a February 2023 letter to Johnson, the House Freedom Caucus said its members would vote against the spending bill and shut down the government unless these riders were included. “Rather than working to address the problems facing Americans and supporting working families, anti-equality members of Congress [had] attempt[ed] to hijack the appropriations process to restrict the rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTQI+ people,” the Congressional Equality Caucus and 163 representatives wrote in a November 2023 letter to Biden. “The majority of Americans —Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — support nondiscrimination protections… http://dlvr.it/T4bJxT

[faresramettas]

share the love con panels

thought i’d write down some interesting answers from the cast (there were many more, but i have a bad memory and i took only a few notes)

first of all, before the panels even started the staff told us not to ask questions about season four, we know they are filming it, but they can’t talk about it. so yeah, our hopes and dreams of an announcement or besse making a surprise appearance (🤡) didn’t come true. they never talked about it, when you mentioned it to them they raised their hands or zipped their mouths or were like “idk what u’re talking about 👀😇😬” so obviously they contractually have to keep their mouths shut. but it’s happening y’all!

the only one who slipped, at the very last panel, was rocco and i was the culprit lol. i asked them if they’d imagined the fandom would support them and fight so hard during the cancellation months and bea said no, seeing our hashtags trending almost every day and receiving so much love was touching and incredible. she made rocco talk (mentioned how “he became saint rocco”) and rocco also said he couldn’t imagine the amount of support, and that “the power is all in your hands, and it was worth it-“ and then realized he spoke too much dhshdhfvk the others side-eyed him and he was like “ops” but we all laughed and moved on.

pietro had a lgbtq+ themed panel with an italian youtuber called shanti. they talked a lot about representation, how it changed for the better in the last 20 years or so, how for example right now there’s attention being given to trans* storylines too, and pietro made some really good points about how a show like skam italia should give hope and a positive representation to a young audience, without unnecessary violence or struggles inserted just for tragedy’s sake. how it may seem that martino lives an “easy” and relatively painless experience coming out and being gay, at least in his season, but young queer people should hope and know that that’s possible for them too. he said that he and filippo are different, and it’s good and precious that they are. we don’t know if filippo is an activist, like pietro is, but sometimes sharing one’s personal experience is enough to help. even if filo is not shown as an activist, he is so aware of his identity, he shares his own experience and point of view with marti and it gives marti courage. and that’s enough. finally, i asked what his favorite lgbtq+ tv shows are and he said queer as folk (he realized he was gay thanks to qaf), he absolutely loved euphoria, and thinks sense8 is a masterpiece (but he didn’t finish it smh). he said elite is just cute (😤) and he also told another fan he finished and loved fleabag!!

i also asked pietro what he, besse, rocco and fede were doing in the carrefour parking lot that night in august and he said that supermarket is open 24h and close to his house and he had to go buy groceries so he caught two birds with one stone, called them up and they drank and ate tramezzini (cold sandwiches, besse got a burrito he said) in the parking lot... and yes, they were organizing the revolution.

fede said what he likes the most about martino is his devotion to the people he loves. what he doesn’t like is how sometimes he shuts out the rest of the world, but it’s a problem he has learned to solve.

rocco said he’s thankful that skam italia has given him more awareness on some topics he used to treat superficially. he also talked about how much he relied on ludo and his research to portray bpd respectfully, and he’s glad that people found themselves represented in nico and that he could help them. it’s the greatest compliment. his eyes shine when he talks about nico, he loves his character so much.

a fan asked what was their favorite line to say. rocco’s is “non è figo il mio tipo?”, greta’s is “gli dei sono immortali”, nicholas’s is “sei frocio?”, pietro’s is “l’acqua solo se mi prende fuoco camera” from season 3, fede said “does it have to be my line? cause i like no zì sbagliato” but for his own it’s “minuto per minuto”. i can’t remember bea’s 😭

greta said the girls tend to stick to the script a lot more than the boys, she said ludovico tersigni literally never says a line how it’s written. nicholas confirmed that the boys (contrabbandieri) tend to improvise more and use the script sort of as a base, and that they piss besse off because he says it looks like they go on set just to goof around and gossip and not to do their jobs lol

i asked nicholas if they ate luchino’s pizza crusts. he said he had like 7 kilos of them because they had to retake that scene many many times, cause they wouldn’t stop laughing, as we can see in the bloopers (he also said it was the most fun scene to shoot) and bessegato would just keep adding mustard, ketchup and mayo on them. he felt sick the day after and “tasted mustard for a week”. fyi, nicholas and luchino are literally the same person. there’s no line between the character and the person, i love him so much. he also said he was having the time of his life in bracciano, with the light summer breeze, while the others were dying in their clothes and blankets.

marti’s spirit animal is the fox, fede’s is a golden retriever (debatable but okay). i think rocco said a cat, greta said besse once told her silvia is a goldfish, bea feels like a tiger but thinks sana is an eagle and i didn’t get the rest cause it was all very confusing lol

federico’s panel on sunday was actually very interesting, he is actually quite eloquent and deep when he wants to. he talked about how he really took the “minuto per minuto” philosophy to heart. how he doesn’t set long-term goals for himself, because he wants the freedom to change. how he chose to study medicine because after high school he knew he wanted to keep studying, and a bit like acting, there’s a fundamental human aspect to it that he’s always been interested in.

a fan reminded him it was marti and nico’s anniversary and he said “how are they celebrating? patatine e marmellata or sushi? in nicco’s new house? have our heroes moved there?” and we were all like Bitch u tell us... ofc he didn’t. but he said he imagines marti and nico celebrating their anniversary at a sushi restaurant in porto fluviale, in ostiense (rome). also, fede says their anniversary is bracciano (dec 1st) and rocco says it’s nel mio letto (nov 1st), i’m afraid we have to go with fede on this one.

i think the best question out of every panel was about marti’s interest in gio: was it real, or was it just a fixation? he said it was real interest, that stayed over the summer too. he and ludo had to find a way to show the shift in martino, and it was hard because they switched seasons and so there was no time for it to be gradually shown. however, where they imagined that shift to happen, is in ep1 when gio sleeps in marti’s bed. marti feels uneasy because of his feelings for him, but at the same time, he is uneasy because of the guilt. when he talks with eva on the phone and sees how giovanni reacts to that, how he’s still so clearly into her, he decides he has to move on from him, and gives up any hope or idea to have a relationship with him.

at rocco and fede’s sunday panel, rocco said he admires federico’s dedication to his work and his professionalism. fede and him bantered and bickered a lot, it was adorable, especially when rocco said some nonsense metaphor and fede was like “basta!” and fede kept asking for more compliments. but the question was about what marti and nico liked the most about each other, and federico said “it’s the kind of love where you like someone so much and you don’t even know why” as in, because you like everything about them, so that was beautiful.

a fan asked if there was any embarrassment between them, they said of course initially there was a lil bit of awkwardness, but they warmed up to each other immediately. one of the very first scenes they shot was an intimate one, rocco said the first kiss they shot was nel mio letto and they’d never rehearsed kissing before. amazing.

fede’s favorite color is blue (nicholas’ too).

rocco and nicholas sat in the crowd at the end of fede’s panel and rocco was like “tell us the story of bambi” and fede called him “er lucertola” and said it all started because of a tossico (junkie/drunk), i love them. nicholas made fun of him for his role in “i cesaroni” but fede said he’s only jealous cause they auditioned for the same role but fede got it, and nicholas has him saved as “andy dei cesaroni” in his phone. 

some anecdotes from other moments (m&g, dinners) i found on twitter: federico said when they shot la grotta, there was this whole solemn atmosphere, and then he broke it cause when they finished shooting he realized he had rocco’s snot on his face and he was like “MA CHE CAZZO È, CHE SCHIFO (what the fuck, gross)” and said rocco was always crying on him (i guess referring to the martino e niccolò clip) and rocco was like yes there was a significant exchange of bodily fluids. okay rocchì.

apparently fede likes his beard so much he said he doesn’t recognize himself without it. 

some fans adopted two giraffes in the bioparco di roma in their name as a gift!

rocco cried on the phone with bessegato when skam italia was cancelled. we been knew but it hurts to get the confirmation.

maxence and lukas are two rays of sunshine. not an anecdote, but i felt like saying it.

last but not least, rocco, nicholas and fede went absolutely batshit over @crazybee‘s “alt er besse” shirt. their reactions were priceless. rocco and nicholas took pics of them, nicholas was the one who sent them to besse and he reposted it on ig. forever blessed.

[maddalenafragnito]

OBOT - Our residency at Hangar Barcelona next November

We are writing after 12 days of quarantine, in a moment when Covid-19 is pushing our country’s national health system to a breaking point...

More precisely we are in Milan, Lombardy (Northern Italy) which, according to Financial Times, “has one of the best-resourced regional health systems in Italy”. This comes despite the fact that for many years the Governor of Lombardy worked to dismantle the public health system in favour of the private sector. On 21 February 2019, Roberto Formigoni was recognised guilty of corruption and sentenced to a definitive jail term of almost 6 years by the Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest court in Italy. One of the accusations was to have made available, together with other defendants, its function for a systematic corruption in which the entire chain of command of the Region has been bent to transfer millions of euros. Indeed, Formigoni received bribes from private clinics from the area of an Italian catholic movement founded in the ‘50s called "Communion and Liberation", to guarantee them the reception of most of a regional fund created with the aim of discretionary distributing support to private hospitals offering additional services to public ones.

Two years ago, the Italian National Health System (SSN) celebrated its first 40 years. Exactly in 1978, Law 883 established a fundamental step for the development of Italian public health based on three cardinal principles: Universality, Equality and Equity. This approach still stands out in Europe and in the world for its unconditional character, an approach which finds its roots in article 32 of the Italian Constitution. Law 883 is revolutionary in two aspects: health is an inviolable and absolute individual right and an asset of collective relevance. From that moment forward, health becomes a citizen's right rather than a worker privilege, as it was considered before. Therefore, although Italy was the first in Europe to recognize the right to health in its Constitution in 1948, it took 30 years to fully realize the right for everyone to health.

Prof. Tina ANSELMI, Minister of Health, with Dr Sergio Paderni, General Manager of the Ministry. Subsequent delivery to Ambassador Carlo CALENDA of the Gold Medal for public health merit.

Today, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, it is becoming clear to most, the key role of the Italian National Health System. At the end of this emergency, what should also become clearer is that our global community needs to move towards more holistic and preventive approaches. Indeed, the emerging health challenges require different perspectives and a multi-disciplinary approach to be solved. On one hand, it is necessary to recognize that humans, animals and environmental health are interdependent; on the other, it is necessary to face how our unhealthy lifestyles are strictly connected with the organization of the global economy. Indeed, unlimited production, working conditions, unsustainable mobility, air pollution and exploitation of soil and animals within the agri-food industry, are all related aspects of a global breakpoint that is asking to be addressed. Perhaps, the possibility that this extreme situation is giving us is to bring out these contradictions, making visible the fragile and interconnected nature of the world-system and move into action.

Last year we published “Rebelling with Care” reflecting on how the Digital Social Innovation paradigm, revolving around key concepts such as open codes and data, co-design, collaboration and social impact, could have traction specifically in the field of health and care practices. In those two years of research, we realised how these new approaches could work side by side to a public health system, renovated and boosted by capillary alliances on the territory. During the last 5/10 years, citizen science has successfully explored the engagement of people in data gathering around environmental issues, by raising awareness and obtaining meaningful data. The advance of a collective scientific understanding has the aim to give to people more awareness, responsibility and self-determination. How could we imagine a citizen science approach when applied to our bodies by using open digital technologies?

Therefore, when the Biofriction call for residency was launched last year, Zoe Romano and I decided to apply with a project focused on womxn health. We called it OBOT, Our Bodies Our Tech, to give homage to the 70s “Our Bodies, Ourselves” publication. Our aim is to accelerate the reflection and experimentation of open and shared technologies around bodies, within and beyond their biological sex determination.

OBOT wants to implement a citizen science approach into the investigation of the womxn body, specifically, around three conditions of life: teenagehood, fertility and menopause. The project wants to identify a toolbox of processes and practices to design a replicable blueprint for a neighbourhood-based wet-lab. Thus, the aim is to engage womxn in the unknown place of a laboratory by building awareness on health-tracking practices; and to talk about our bodies and health conditions by gathering collective intelligence through DIT analysis.

Up until now, most of the biohacking labs have been focused on experimentation, art and making by attracting mostly middle class highly educated men. With OBOT we want to challenge the complexity of the topic and lower the barriers for a more diverse crowd, through the creation of contents and experiences with which people can relate to.

In conclusion, OBOT aims to explore new open-source approaches with practices of collaboration, co-creation and citizen science, by fostering an inclusive environment around womxn’s care, starting from a neighbourhood level. Moreover, we want to position OBOT as a collective advocacy-awareness by monitoring the boom of commercial startups that are occupying the market of fertility and hormones measurements.

During our residency period at Hangar in Barcelona, with the support of activists and scientists, we will draft a blueprint for a neighbourhood-based DIT lab on reproductive health. Whereupon, we aim to move this research to KIN, a Lab that we will soon open in the San Siro’s district of Milan.

Stay Tuned and get in touch to collaborate!

Maddalena Fragnito & Zoe Romano

See other winners here!

Learn more about Biofriction here

ITA

Scriviamo questo post al dodicesimo giorno di quarantena, nel momento in cui l’epidemia causata da Sars-Cov-2 sta spingendo al limite il sistema sanitario nazionale italiano. Ci troviamo a Milano in Lombardia (nord Italia), luogo che secondo il Financial Times “ha uno dei migliori e più equipaggiati sistemi sanitari regionali in Italia”. Questo, nonostante il fatto che negli ultimi anni il presidente della Regione abbia lavorato alacremente nel suo smantellamento, privatizzando numerosi settori. Il 21 febbraio 2019, Roberto Formigoni è stato infatti riconosciuto colpevole di corruzione e condannato a circa 6 anni di reclusione dalla Cassazione, la più alta corte legale in Italia. Una delle accuse è di aver attivato, attraverso la sua carica politica e quella di altri funzionari regionali, un sistematico processo di corruzione per l’ammontare di milioni di euro. Formigoni, infatti, riceveva tangenti da cliniche private del giro del movimento cattolico italiano fondato negli anni ‘50 “Comunione e Liberazione” affinché garantisse loro la ricezione di gran parte di un fondo regionale nato con lo scopo di distribuire discrezionalmente sostegno alle strutture ospedaliere private che offrono servizi aggiuntivi a quelli pubblici.

Due anni fa, il Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) ha celebrato i suoi primi 40 anni. Nel 1978, infatti, la legge n. 883 (Istituzione del servizio sanitario nazionale) produce un passo fondamentale per lo sviluppo della sanità pubblica italiana che si basa su tre principi cardinali: Universalità, Uguaglianza ed Equità. Questi principi si distinguono ancora in Europa e nel mondo per il loro carattere di incondizionatezza, un approccio che trova le sue radici nel articolo 32 della Costituzione Italiana. La legge n. 883 è rivoluzionaria per due aspetti: da una parte, perché definisce la salute come un diritto inviolabile e assoluto della persona, dall’altra, perché la riconosce come una risorsa di rilevanza collettiva. Da quel momento in avanti, la salute diventa un diritto di tutt* e non solo un privilegio dei lavoratori e delle lavoratrici. Infatti, anche se il diritto alla salute fu proclamato nel 1948 attraverso la Costituzione, ci sono voluti ben 30 anni per realizzare un effettivo accesso alla salute per ognun*.

Oggi ci troviamo all'interno di uno degli epicentri di maggior contagio di Coronavirus nel mondo, e  il ruolo chiave del Servizio Sanitario Nazionale italiano sta diventando evidente per molt*. Alla fine di questa emergenza, un’altra evidenza è necessario far emergere, ossia   come la comunità globale si debba attrezzare con un approccio più olistico e preventivo. Infatti, le nuove e complesse scommesse nel campo della salute pubblica richiedono di essere lette attraverso un approccio interdisciplinare. Da una parte, bisogna cominciare a riconoscere come la salute umana, animale e ambientale siano strettamente interdipendenti; dall’altra, rifuggendo una colpevolizzazione meramente individuale, bisogna svelare come ogni nostro comportamento sia strettamente connesso con l'organizzazione dell’economia su scala globale. Produzione senza limiti, condizioni di lavoro disumane, mobilità insostenibile, l’inquinamento atmosferico, lo sfruttamento di terre e animali dell’industria agro-alimentare e molto altro, sono tutti aspetti correlati che ci stanno parlando di un limite collettivo che dobbiamo cominciare a prendere in considerazione. Può essere che questa situazione estrema sia capace di svelare tutte queste contraddizioni con più forza, dandoci la possibilità di vedere chiaramente la fragilità della vita e le interconnessioni del sistema-mondo e passare all’azione.

Lo scorso anno, abbiamo pubblicato “Cure Ribelli”, una riflessione su come il paradigma dell’Innovazione Sociale Digitale, intorno concetti chiave come codici e dati aperti, co-design, collaborazione e impatto sociale, potrebbe avere un ruolo specifico nel campo delle pratiche sanitarie e assistenziali. In due anni di ricerca, ci siamo rese conto di quanto questo nuovo approccio, o questo campo di nuovi approcci, potrebbe lavorare affiancando il servizio sanitario pubblico, per rinnovarlo e ampliarlo attraverso una capillare alleanza di pratiche sui territori. Durante l’ultimo decennio, infatti, la “citizen science” ha esplorato con successo la capacità delle persone di collaborare nella raccolta di dati importanti intorno alle questioni ambientali, promuovendo la diffusione di maggior connsapevolezza. Implementare una maggior comprensione scientifica collettiva ha la capacità di dare alle persone più consapevolezza, responsabilità e autodeterminazione. Ci chiediamo cosa possa succedere laddove questo approccio sia applicato ai saperi scientifici intorno al corpo, attraverso l’uso di tecnologie digitali e aperte.

Per questo motivo, quando è uscita la call per residenze di Biofriction, abbiamo deciso di applicare con un progetto focalizzato sulla salute delle donne*. Il progetto si chiama OBOT, Our Bodies Our Tech, un omaggio alla prima pubblicazione sulla salute femminile scritta da donne negli anni ‘70, “Our Bodies, Ourselves”. Il nostro obiettivo è quello di accelerare la riflessione e la sperimentazione di tecnologie aperte e condivise sui corpi, oltre la loro determinazione biologica del sesso. OBOT, attraverso un approccio “citizen science”, vuole  aprire un'indagine sul corpo femminile*, in particolare, intorno a tre momenti di vita: adolescenza, fertilità e menopausa. Il progetto vuole creare una cassetta di processi e pratiche capace di generare bio-laboratori di quartiere replicabili. Pertanto, l'obiettivo è quello di coinvolgere le donne* all’interno dello spazio misterioso di un bio-laboratorio sviluppando sia consapevolezza sulle pratiche di monitoraggio della salute, sia un discorso su corpi e le condizioni di salute, attraverso la collettivizzazione di saperi e pratiche di analisi DIT (do-it-together).

Fino ad ora, la maggior parte dei laboratori di biohacking si sono concentrati sulla sperimentazione, l'arte e la produzione, attirando per lo più uomini altamente istruiti della classe media bianca. Con OBOT vogliamo sfidare la complessità dell'argomento e, insieme, abbassare le barriere d’accesso per una partecipazione più diversificata, attraverso la creazione di contenuti ed esperienze con cui le persone possono relazionarsi.

In conclusione, OBOT mira a esplorare nuovi approcci open source con pratiche di collaborazione, co-creazione e scienza dei cittadini, promuovendo un ambiente inclusivo intorno alle cure delle donne*, a partire dalla dimensione di quartiere. Inoltre, ci auspichiamo che OBOT sia anche luogo di aperto monitoraggio collettivo sul boom delle startup commerciali che stanno occupando il mercato della fertilità e delle misurazioni degli ormoni.

Durante il nostro periodo di residenza all'Hangar di Barcellona, con il supporto di attivist* e scienziat*, progetteremo quindi un laboratorio di quartiere DIT sulla salute riproduttiva. Dopo questo primo step, ci proponiamo di spostare i risultati della ricerca presso KIN, uno spazio che presto apriremo nel quartiere di San Siro a Milano.

Resta sintonizzat* e contattaci per collaborare!

Maddalena Fragnito e Zoe Romano

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