#Silent Conference In Nepal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aliceaddellheidde · 3 years

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Fatum

A/N: This is for @the-ss-horniest-book-club Lucky in love. March 6 - Dominance

WORDS: 1562

WARNINGS: swearing, death, violence

PAIRING: Bucky Barnes x reader (eventually) {Soulmates AU}

DISCLAIMERS: Endgame happened, but only Thanos and his peasants died. English isn´t my first language so sorry for mistakes.

Moi, Rai and Parca are genderless & are using they/their pronouns.

This is soulmates au. When you get tattoo, your soulmate gets it as well on same spot. It glows when you touch.

Bucky and reader have dominance fight on mission and everything goes wrong.

This is multi-chapters story. 4/19

Gif from here

Divider by @rainbowkisses31

Two weeks ago Steve sent Sam to monitoring Hydra facility in Nepal. It was unusual country for them and they were found by lucky accident by Stark´s satellite. Since then your team was preparing for big mission. Right now you were at gym, punching boxing bag after morning run with super soldiers and shooting with Natasha. Your body hurt and screamed for a break, but you were stubborn. Not even Bucky was able to stop you. After two hours of boxing you moved to gymnastics because you wanted to be both – strong and flexible. Steve found you hardly balancing on beam and took you to your room. You were hitting his back and murmuring something but once your head touched the pillow, you were sleeping.

Next day you asked Natasha and Clint to help you with your flexibility. They were great teachers. Although you were afraid for your neck and spine a little bit. They twisted you in all different positions and you swore that all your joints cracked. One thing was evil tho. Natasha tried to teach you how to fight like ballerina. But walking on your toes was impossible. You saw how Steve was watching her, his soulmate, in awe when he came to tell you the news.

„Sam said they are moving some freights from mountains to Military Barrack near the airport. I´m afraid they already got Nepali army´s trust. Hopefully not and it´s the only place where they are operating. That's all for now.” He left and you went outside with Clint to train archery.

Team was ready at the end of the week. You were sitting in conference room next to Bucky, who wasn't in good mood lately. Steve walked in with Pepper and put map on interactive whiteboard. „Their positions are here, here and here.” he was showing red points on the map. Sam said they have mostly weapons, but he saw some barrels with chemicals probably. We interrogated people from last mission of Y/N and Bucky. They were talking about experiments on humans. That's why you will have best gas masks we have. Our mission is clear. Stop their transmissions, confiscate their tech, weapons, secure dangerous material, catch them and make sure everything is ready to be demolished. You will work in pairs. Nat and Clint, Wanda and Tony and Y/N and Bucky. We already identified few of soldiers of Hydra and Nepal. You have permission to shoot Hydra´s men but only disarm Nepali. We don’t want international conflict. You will use brand new contact lenses. They will tell you who is who and other stuff. Departure in ten minutes. Good luck.” He then took Nat in the corner of the room and wash whispering something to her.

You landed after 14 hours flight near Lamjung Kailas. „Gosh, I hate snow.” Bucky growled as he stepped out. You had extra layer of thermal clothes and you still shivered. You could see which way to go thanks to special lens in your eye. Bucky was few steps ahead. Snow creaked under your heavy boots, but apart from that, there was no other sound. Until you came near your destination. There were four soldiers, two of Hydra, two of Nepal. You shot Hydra, Bucky took down Nepali in hand-to-hand combat. You got in with their card and found yourself in huge tunnel. „You think they don’t know about us?” you whisper-asked Bucky. „They don’t or it´s a trap.” You nod as you both moved cautiously forward. 500 metres later you found another door with only one guard. Behind those door was real life threatening situation. Once you stepped into round hall, you were under firing from all directions. Thanks to Tony and his nano-tech suits they couldn’t hurt you. You proceeded onward, easily eliminating enemies, until they were all unable to harm you. „Sam, we are in. All clear for now.” He turned to you. „We should split up. Check whole Hell hole.” „It´s safer to stay together.” you argued. „Yes, but then it will takes longer. You saw Sam pics. This place is huge. And you would slow me down.” „Excuse me?!” „We need to focus on mission and you are too distracting.” „Geez, that's really nice way to say I sucks.” you rolled your eyes. „You on the right. I´m taking left. We are meeting here. Clear?” „Fuck you.”

You were walking for almost hour and only finished one floor. „Buck, I´m moving on next floor.” you whispered. As an answer you heard grunts, profanities and painful whining. You assumed he was fighting some guards and with raised gun stepped up on floor 2. It was darker and you had creepy feeling that someone or something was watching you. Your imagination was active on 100% and you got scared from your own shadow as shivers and cold sweat ran down your spine.

Just when you were about to open the door of room, voice spoke on your right side. „Rōka! Yahām̐ timī kē garirahēkō?” <Stop! What are you doing here?> You turned that way and saw Nepali soldiers with guns aimed at you. „Shit.” You ran to them and effectively disarmed them. But more came from the other side, so you had to run up the stairs. „Floor 3!” you screamed for Bucky and was almost hit by a bullet directed on your head. You shot Hydra agents, threw electric disks on Nepali and run the hell out of there.

You found yourself in room with computers and hid behind one of the desk. What you didn't know was that Parca had different idea. Behind you, silently as a mouse, woke up androids. Only when one of them caught you under neck and threw you on the other side of the room you realised another danger. Your back was hurting and head was spinning yet you managed to decapitate three of them and use electric disks on other two. Then you had to run away. But when you went back into corridor you were again under fire. „F.R.I.D.A.Y. mode Actiorione.” Two more arms appeared from your waist, ready to fight. You fired few missiles at the enemy and whole floor shook. „Floor four!” Bucky screamed in your ear and you wanted to use stairs but more soldiers were rushing up to you. „There are too many of them Buck. I´m trapped!” „Hold on, I´m coming.” You couldn’t answer because you were running in hope to find stairs or elevator. Although there was no way out of this. You took deep breath and threw grenade on your left and turned face to face with coming soldiers from your right. You bravely struck back their attack until none were threatening any more and ran away, when suddenly you were flying and your body collided with hard wall and then, after few meters fall, with floor.

„Y/N!” You heard Bucky´s voice but was unable to move. You saw him fighting with big monster. It looked like Hulk. You tried stand up but was shot by strong electric shock in your lower back. Your left elbow met something for sure because pain stopped and thud was heard next to you. With shaky body you aimed at Bucky's opponent and shoot it in the head. It made only small scratch. Worse was that now it was glaring at you. Floor shook as it landed in front of you and you built your shield. It was hitting non-stop and you felt yourself falling into unconsciousness. Your defence halted and seconds later huge fist met your weakened frame and sent you to the wall behind you. Last thing you saw was Bucky jumping from floor four with machete and stabbing it deep into monster´s back.

„What were you thinking?!” Rai were screaming at Parca and they were hiding behind the column. „I thought they will have some action together. Fighting crime together might help their relationship. Or not?” Parca looked at Moi for help but she was literally in flames. „I'm not talking to you until you make this right.” And with that they walked away. „I'm sorry. I didn't meant to hurt you or them.” Parca said and disappeared in silver mist. Rai went to calm Rai down before she would cause some bad decisions.

„Sam, I need help immediately!” Bucky shouted as he was holding his position next to you. „We are on the way. Are you still under attack?” „Yes. And Y/N is hurt badly. She needs a doctor. Hurry up.” He shot five soldiers and ten more appeared. He cursed and shot them as well. How many are there still? To his surprise only one came out and Bucky shot him too. He had few seconds to breath before androids encircled him. He held his machete and cut one of them in half. Thanks Wakanda.

„Need help?” Sam joked and cut two androids as he was landing. „Shut up. Where are the others?” „On the way. And Wanda is putting stuff in Quinjets. What happened here?” „We were outnumbered. And they had monster big as Hulk.” He pointed to dead body. „Whoa. What the fuck?” „Exactly. Take Y/N to safety. I´m gonna fetch some junk from this Hell hole.” Sam nodded and Bucky went back to floor four. Laboratories.

You woke up for brief moment. There was beeping and then dark again.

#hbc lucky in love #the ss horniest book club #bucky barnes #soulmate au bucky barnes

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imhereforbvcky · 4 years

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Watch Me Run - Part 14

Masterlist - Series Masterpage - Part 15

Summary: You inherit a family relic that gives you the gift of foresight but there are others who are interested for more nefarious reasons. You turn to the Avengers for help. (Bucky x reader) Chapter: Bucky makes you breakfast and you have a new dream. Meanwhile, Natasha gets some answers.

Word Count: 3557

A/N: I make up so much shit related to infinity stones in this chapter. I have no excuse other than that idga(nymore)f. The rest is just mushy mush mush! Enjoy!

The last warm rays stretched long golden fingers through the trees. A breathless chill seeped into the air on the claws of shadow that crawled over the cabin earlier and earlier with each passing day. Even the sun hid its face from winter’s harsh touch in this barren place.

Glimmering ice lingered in every shadow: a frosty warning of the coming storm. Even sheltered inside, your nose had grown cold to the touch on that first morning when you woke to the unmistakable crunch of fresh snow.

You’d dreamed of that sound your whole life, if such horrors could be considered dreams. That grinding, biting, crunch of snow and ice under heavy boots had been knit into your bones, burned in your blood. It was the sound of a world too cold and too sharp to yield to the will of any man in it.

As a child it had been the sound of rescue, of paramedics come to haul your small shivering body from the wreckage of your mother’s car. Lately, the sound of otherworldly golden boots wading through snow and blood hunted you across dream and daylight alike.

Hiding from the unwelcome sound, your eyes pinched tighter shut, and you burrowed deeper beneath the heavy Italian wool blanket. Waiting. It smelled of the raw cedar linen chest. Its rough weave scratched against your cheek as you waited for the sound of relief.

In the long hours here in this small quiet cabin, in this wide open and silent wood, every noise – even Bucky’s hushed ones – had become intimately comforting. First, the deadbolt gliding into place with a swish-thunk. Then, the swift zip of his jacket, and finally the heavy one-two of his boots stomping off the mud, or today… the snow.

You’d learned long ago that while sleep was a necessity, it was not the relief for Bucky, that it was for you. True rest came with great difficulty, and when it did finally claim him, he often woke early, shoving away that unknowable darkness in favor of controllable, definable protocol.

Today had been no different. Dry logs clattered in the fire, crumbling their bark on the stone floor of the hearth. The stiff crumple of newspapers came next, then the sharp fwick of a match. While you’d been hiding from the cold and the steady march of time, he’d already checked his snares and trips, scouted the area for unexpected tracks, and returned with a sled full of bright smelling pine for the fire.

You shuffled to the doorway, dragging the scratchy wool blanket over your shoulders and paused at the entry. Sleep might not bear rest for Bucky, but just now, he looked about as peaceful as you’d seen him. Confident in his sweep, warming by the fire he’d just built, muscles a little sore from the work and a little stiff from the chill in the air, he sat on his feet, kneeling before the bright flames.

Relaxed by his ease, by the very nature of his constancy, you watched for a moment. The warm glow brightened the dark brown of his hair, softened the steel blue of his eyes until he let them fall closed and his head fall back on his shoulders with a sigh. He rarely looked so at ease.

The smile crept across your face unbidden. A slow curl of your lips accompanied a contented tilt of your head. When had running for your life become so pleasant?

“Sleeping Beauty wakes,” he teased, smiling to himself, but otherwise unmoving as he soaked up the fire’s warmth.

“Does that make you my fairy godmother?” you tossed back as you stepped into the room, laughing away the heat rising in your cheeks. “You know, swooping me off to the forest to protect me.”

He laughed, turning to watch you arrange the blanket as you sat beside him in front of the fire. “Not how I’m usually cast, but I’ll take what I can get.”

“Who would you rather be?”

Again, he laughed, this time shaking his head, with his eyes firmly on his feet.

“Hey, I’ve got something for you,” he changed the subject. Or tried.

“Fauna, did you make me a cake?! It’s not even my birthday!”

“What?” he frowned, clearly the cabin hadn’t been stocked with Disney movies. “No. Not a cake.”

Natasha stood on the sidewalk looking up at the lavish building with a scoff on her lips. Stately carved stone pillars stood in perfect lines, dividing the deep red brick. Row after row of delicately wrought iron balconets guarded lavishly shrouded windows. At the center of the steeply pitched copper roof, green with age and weather, stood the unmistakable round window. It was intricately latticed and appeared as an exact twin to the one she’d just left behind in Nepal.

She checked the paper in her hands one last time, the one the Sorcerer Supreme had given her.

“Flew half way across the world and I could’ve just taken a cab down 6th,” she grumbled, shoving the paper in her pocket before bounding up the stairs.

She froze when she raised a softly closed fist to knock and the cheery fall morning around her melted into a dim, musky hall filled with ancient looking relics, knick-knacks, books and museum-quality furniture. Immediately on edge, she tried to keep her stomach from flipping again.

“You don’t have the stone.” The voice echoed off the richly stained wood cases.

“Seemed unwise until we know why everyone wants it,” she answered coolly, eyeing the man who seemed to float down the wide staircase. He reminded her vaguely of Tony. Dark hair tinged with grey, carefully kept facial hair, a sharp intelligent eye, and an even sharper tongue. “Why you want it.”

“I need to see to the stone-keeper.”

“And I need answers.”

“There’s no time for mincing words, Ms. Romanoff,” he complained, sweeping past her and pointing a sharply angled hand at the door. “You brought a homicidal Asguardian fugitive to my doorstep who is hunting infinity stones. That stone protects your reality. My job is to protect this realm, and that means the stone. It’s always been safest with The Seers, but if the chain has been broken…”

“The Seers?” Natasha interrupted. “Who are they? What makes them equipped to protect it over your order? Over us?”

Strange sighed. Irritation sagged in the frown of his lips and the roll of his eyes as he reached for a heavy tome. It flew to his waiting hand from a shelf across the room and when he dropped it on the table, thundered open to a page depicting a family tree in minute detail.

Natasha recognized it immediately as a perfect copy of the one she’d seen that day you first crashed into their lives with a story that seemed too crazy to be true. A story of visions and time-bending and stones. And yet, here she stood in the sanctum of a practitioner of the mystic arts, staring at the exact same family tree that had been scribbled into the back of the family album your grandfather had mailed to you. The one that had held the time stone itself.

“They’re a family,” he explained, pointing to the page. He studied Natasha as she worked to school her shock. “An ancient line of sorcerers. Gifted in our arts, they go as far back as we have written record.” He pointed to a name high on the list. “Suresh The Philosopher: authored many of our foundational texts and spells.” He indicated another name. “Mina The Guardian: appointed the first masters of the mystic arts to maintain the sanctums. Nobis The Wise created the Order of Seers. And so on and so on for generations. Decades.”

“She knows none of this,” Natasha breathed, drawing light fingers over the names on the page and recalling that day in Tony’s office. “She had no idea what that album meant. What she could be.”

“Who she is.” Strange corrected. “She must be told. I can’t allow the stone to remain unprotected. I can help, but you have to take me to the stone-keeper. Now. Loki is not the only one in the universe who seeks that power.”

Natasha sighed, finally in concession. “That’s impossible. I don’t know where she is.” And it was true. She had nothing. No stone, no stone-keeper. Just a word with a man who had a phone number.

“Nothing’s impossible.”

His word was curt and final. Before Natasha’s frown could dawn into an argument, he’d spun a gleaming orange rope, sparking and snapping as it opened a hole in the reality of space and they stepped into a conference room in Stark Tower.

“You might want to lock down the next room.” He calmly suggested before nodding through the glass to an empty office.

The sparking gold ring had just begun to fade as Loki stumbled into the vacant office as if out of thin air.

“Maybe you should let me do the cooking,” you grinned, sliding your elbows over the counter.

Bucky spared a quick glance for you from the overflowing pan. Over his shoulder, you could just see the corner of his mouth quirked up and that glint in his eye. It was like a lightning strike, sending a fresh heat zipping through your entire nervous system.

“You haven’t even tried it yet,” he argued.

“What is… it exactly?”

His smirk only grew as he reached for two plates.

“Garbage eggs,” he said with absolutely no further explanation.

Your excitement turned to a scowl while he scooped the concoction onto two plates and slid one to you.

Bucky had a very different definition of cooking than yours. You had argued about it once, early on. Well, argue isn’t the right word. It was playful prodding really and the conversation ended in a shrug when he offered one of those grins. The kind that invariably forced all the sensible words out of your head.

He was far more likely to heat up a can of beans over the stove – still in the can. Or take a fork straight into a rehydrated sleeve of rice and beef goo, made for camping and efficiency. It wasn’t that he didn’t like good cooking, only that he didn’t require it. Not on mission, anyway. He’d been trained by the US Military and then by HYDRA into the perfect soldier. Anything that tasted good was simply a waste of precious energy.

You, on the other hand, were certain your insides had turned to molten imitation cheese weeks ago from all the frozen or rehydrated food.

“You said you were sick of junk food,” he shrugged, strangely unwilling to meet your eye.

“So you made garbage instead?” you teased.

“Yup.” He shoveled a massive bite into into his mouth and grinned. Still, though he smiled, he wouldn’t look up. Instead he stirred the plate around. “It’s eggs and potatoes and whatever is almost ready for the garbage.”

“An empty-the-cupboard breakfast,” you surmised.

“Mhmm. Try it,” he stabbed a piece of potato.

You eyed him warily as you scooped up a bite. As you did, he finally lifted his eyes. Not his head, though. He looked like a puppy waiting to be kicked. It wasn’t a five-star meal, but you’d take anything over a microwaved gas station breakfast sandwich. This, at least, was fresh-cooked and warm, and damn it all if it wasn’t alright.

“Not bad?” This time, he grinned a little. His brows lifted slightly, waiting and anxious.

It was then you realized he’d done this for you. When you’d complained about all the food-in-a-bag, when he’d denied you the chance at the hospital café and you’d griped, he’d heard. Not only had he heard you, here he sat offering what you asked for, or as best as he could manage given the circumstances.

“’S good,” you beamed up at him, warmed head to toe by this one small, intimate act. “Nice and salty.”

He nodded, pleased and relieved. He glanced back at the pan, still warm on the stove. “You um,” he stumbled, “You were tired of the instant meals, so.”

Your face burned at the memory of complaining about the food at the hospital, at the recollection of Bucky’s hand closed around yours. How comfortable, how easy it had been done, and how something from that instant had shifted. Something you couldn’t – wouldn’t – name. If you gave it a name it had a shape and that shape might not fit in this tiny cabin, on this dangerous assignment. Or worse, it might not fit in the shapeless world after the danger passed, when the boundaries were lifted.

“You know what this needs?” you asked. Taking another grateful bite and smiling wide, you swallowed the garbage eggs with the anxiety. “Hot sauce!”

You could see the wheels turning, as he eyed you, measuring your suggestion.

“It does,” he finally agreed, turning back to the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” you laughed, knowing full well there was no hot sauce to be found in the efficient little cabin. Only dehydrated chicken and rice, canned beans and more potatoes.

Without a word, he reached deep into a cupboard and set a can on the counter with a loud clank. He peeled back the lid on a stew of hot chilies.

Your eyes lit up before you dove into the can with a spoon, drizzling the sauce all over your eggs and potatoes. Bucky did the same. When you both reached into the can simultaneously, you jumped back, a laugh on your lips at your own eagerness.

Bucky looked at you with an expression warm and gentle, like leaves falling quietly in golden afternoon sun. It quickly grew into a laugh of his own.

“You’ve uh,” he chuckled. “You’ve got something…” he motioned to your cheek. The brick red sauce had flung from your spoon when you’d withdrawn so quickly and now splattered your face.

Heat rose in your face again; you tried to laugh it off. You swiped at your cheek with the heel of your hand.

“Did I get it?”

Another chuckle as he shook his head. His lips rolled between his teeth for a fraction of a second.

“Now?”

“Here.” He reached a hand across the counter between you. Without even thinking, you leaned forward, pushing up on your toes to close the distance.

It wasn’t until his thumb swept high over your cheek that your heart began to race. As if, with that touch, that brush of skin, the unspoken shift had been not named, but marked. Without meaning to, he’d brought the feeling to life, shoved it into that golden light.

He’d swept the sauce away but lingered close, fingers hovering just barely over the span of your cheek. Frozen, mesmerized by this newness, you waited, drawn tight as a bow. He never broke eye contact, never pulled away. So finally, you leaned into his hand, just a small tilt of your head.

In an instant you were spinning. The copper relic at your neck burst into green radiance. A sharp intake of breath served as the only notice something was not right.

Bucky pulled away and watched as you stumbled back, completely lost to the power of the stone.

Somewhere in the blend of present and future before your eyes, you knew what you must look like. You knew your eyes had glazed over, had become distant and unseeing Your face had fallen slack with the force of the change, fingers dancing over the cool metal of the necklace. You mirrored your grandfather.

Without his control, however. The dreams took hold when they would, and you fell, powerless to their urging.

In the dream Bucky’s hand still lay on your cheek as it had in waking. His touch remained gentle and warm. He smiled at you with an ease you’d never seen before. It settled over you like a glowing fire. Familiarity, comfort, safety.

The coarse scratch of his growing beard made a pleasant swishing sound as it moved over the soft white fabric on his pillow.

“Do you know you smile when you’re dreaming?” he asked, voice rough and quiet. He must have just woken. You loved when his voice sounded this way. It meant he’d slept well, rested, safe and at home beside you.

Your own voice mumbled out an answer, heavy with contentment and sleep. “Only when I dream of you.”

Your fingers curled around Bucky’s wrist, holding him close while you turned your head slightly to kiss his open palm.

He rolled his eyes, a silent joke, always teasing. But there was a smile there too, the soft content kind that let you know there would be no interruptions today. No missions. No fear. Just this. The cotton sheets ruffled quietly as he shifted closer and pressed the gentlest kiss to your forehead, then your nose.

“What was I doing?” he asked while the tips of your fingers traced the strong curve of his shoulder. “In the dream.”

“You know how when you’re mad, you clench your jaw?”

“I do not,” he argued.

You laughed and burrowed tightly against his chest, legs tangling as you scooted closer.

“And you sigh.”

He took a breath and paused, holding back the inevitable sigh, before letting out a small chuckle. “Well you got me there.”

“I brought home an elephant, and you were doing the jaw thing,” you traced the line of his jaw. “And then you sighed when I said I wanted to keep it.”

“I’d do a lot more than that if you brought home a 6-ton pet.”

“But I saved it from a circus, so you let me keep it anyway,” you continued.

He hummed, smoothing a hand over your hair and pressing his lips to the top of your head. “That big bleeding heart o’ yours,” he kissed you again. “Always gettin’ us into trouble.”

“No more than your stubborn streak,” you countered, tipping your head to kiss his neck, up, and up to the edge of his chin.

“Who’s stubborn?” He slid strong unrelenting arms around you, pinning your own to your sides. Your entire body locked immobile against his.

“Bucky!” You tried to sound outraged when you were anything but. Your giggles drifted on the breeze beside the gossamer curtains on out the open window. The soft rumble of his happiness tickled and scratched at your ear, it warmed your skin and rippled down to your belly until you stilled again in his arms.

Just as quickly as the dream had fallen upon you, taking hold of all your senses, it lifted. Worried grey eyes roved over you, glancing furtively at the ornament hanging over your chest, its green light dimming slowly.

You sat on the floor, leaning against the couch. That was unusual. Normally when the dreams struck, the force of it overtook you, left you in a heap on the floor. But this time, you hadn’t woken with so much as an ache. Not one bruise.

You noticed Bucky’s hands just then. One curled over your shoulder, the other cradled your head with fingers curling behind your neck. “I’ve got you,” he kept muttering quietly while looking you over again and again, worry pitched in every syllable. He must’ve caught you, guided you to safety, and stayed, watching helplessly as you’d slipped into another time.

“You okay?”

You only nodded, swallowing thickly and dodging his probing gaze.

“What was it?” he pressed. He was anxious and that was unusual. “What did you see?”

“I—Nothing,” you hedged. Your skin had begun to burn at the memory, at the way he was holding you now, so like the dream and yet so unlike. “It was nothing. We’re not in any danger.”

Except you were. You were in very real danger of leaning forward to kiss those almost-familiar lips that had whispered such sweet words in your dream.

“That thing has lit up every time you’ve had one of those dreams,” he urged. His fingers dug into your shoulder. “And every time it does, Loki has been close. Close enough to take it from you. You need to tell me what you saw.”

“It wasn’t Loki,” you managed. “It was you.”

His eyes flashed wide for a moment, before a frown deepened across his dark features. “Me? I did someth--”

“Not like that,” you stumbled. “You wouldn’t have hurt me. It was after, I think. After all of this. I wasn’t worried about Loki, or the stone, or any of this.”

Bucky stared at you, frown as firm as before. He was unsure and critical. Finally, his gaze tore away from you at the sound of a sharp repetitive beep. You watched the color drain from his face before he leapt to his feet, reaching for the pager on the table. The pager he’d bought for Tony Stark to call if anything came up between check-in calls.

He glanced at it, then stared at you for a long moment, trying to work out the puzzle. If you’d withheld anything from him.

Meanwhile, your heart was hammering like ocean waves in your ears. So loud you wondered if he could hear it too. The longer his silence stretched, the more you began to dread what he might say.

“We have to go.”

Part 15 >>

#bucky x reader #bucky x reader angst #bucky x reader fluff #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky bodyguard fic #watch me run 14 #wmr 14

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ark3750 · 3 years

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हिन्दी दिवस (Hindi Day)

Sep 14, 2021

हिन्दी दिवस (Hindī Day) is celebrated every year on 14 September, marking the declaration of the Hindi language as one of the official languages of Union Government of India. On 14 September 1949, Hindi was adopted as one of the official languages of India.

11 Interesting facts about Hindi: 1. While September 14 is celebrated as हिन्दी दिवस (National Hindi Day) in India, January 10 is celebrated as विश्व हिंदी दिवस or World Hindi Day every year, with an aim to promote the use of the Hindi language worldwide! 2. On January 10, 1975, the First World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur, Maharashtra. In 2006, January 10 was declared as विश्व हिंदी दिवस (World Hindi Day)!

3. Hindi got its name from the persian word 'Hind' meaning "land of the Indus River" 4. Hindi is taught as a subject in 176 universities around the world, including 45 American universities! 5. Hindi nouns have genders, unlike the English language. Be it either masculine or feminine, verbs and adjectives change as per gender.

6. Unlike English, Hindi is completely Phonetic! In Hindi, every word is spelt EXACTLY the way it's pronounced! There are no silent letters or weird pronunciations alien to their spellings 👏🏽👏🏽 This is why Hindi is far more scientific, logical n superior than English!👍🏾👍🏾 7. The English language has borrowed many, many words from Hindi, such as,-Aadhaar, Atoll, Avatar, Bandana, Bangle, Bhelpuri, Blighty, Bungalow, Calico, Cashmere, Catamaran, Cheetah, Cheroot, Chintz, Chit, Choky, Churidar, Chutney, Coir, Cot, Cowrie, Cummerbund, Cushy, Curry, Dal, Dinghy, Dharma, Doolally, Dungarees, Godown, Gymkhana, Gunny, Guru, Jodhpurs, Jungle, Jute, Karma, Khaki, Kedgeree, Lacquer, Langur, Lilac, Loot, Mandarin, Mantra, Mogul, Mongoose, Mulligatawny, Myna, Nirvana, Palanquin, Pashmina, Patchouli, Polo, Pukka, Punch, Pundit, Purdah, Pyjamas, Raita, Roti, Sharbat, Shawl, Shampoo, Tank, Teak, Tiffin, Thug, Veranda, Yaar, Yoga, Swadeshi, Swami n Surya Namaskar🙏🏽 etc. 8. Hindi, today is the second most spoken language in the world! Global Hindi language speaking population is more than 460 mn! 9. The Hindi language is spoken in more than 20 countries outside India. Hindi-speaking countries include, the US, England, Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, Yemen, Uganda, Singapore, Pakistan, Nepal and New Zealand 10. The world’s first Hindi typewriters were made in the 1930s 11. To capture the subtle variations in pronunciations, the Hindi language has 50 alphabets comprising of 13 vowels n 37 consonants. That's nearly twice as many as in English which has a mere 26 alphabets comprising of 5 vowels n 21 consonants!

हिन्दी वर्णमाला (Hindi Alphabets) = 50 13 Vowels अ, आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ऋ ए, ऐ, ओ, औ, अं, अ: 37 Consonants क, ख, ग, घ, ङ च, छ, ज, झ, ञ ट, ठ, ड, ढ, ण त, थ, द, ध, न प, फ, ब, भ, म य, र, ल, व श, स, ष, ह क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ, श्र

हिंदी हैं हम !! हिंदी दिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं। जय हिन्द!!

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nitewrighter · 6 years

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Could you do a Aden x Rei prompt

*whispers* I’m so proud of my weird clone son.

Okay, so here’s a meet-cute. There’s… probably going to be a part 2 where everything falls to shit, though.

—-

The crowds made Oasis hotter, safer feeling, but hotter. Mercy furrowed her brow at a conference flier as the three of them sat on a bench in the city center. The crowd itself was an odd enough bunch for them to blend in. The heat sinks in Genji’s shoulders steamed as he fanned himself with his own flier. Rei had peeled off one of her gladiator sandals and was circling her foot at the ankle, touching at the not-yet-a-blister-but-definitely-will-be forming just below her medial malleolus.

“Well with Efi’s Q&A and the Shambali panel over, I suppose the rest of the conference is fair game,” said Mercy, not really looking up from the flier, “Pharah did say Helix tends to put out a good floor show of their drones…”

“I wanted to see the gardens,” said Rei, looking up from her foot, “The tour guide on the tram said all the wintering birds would be there.”

“The gardens?” Mercy gave a glance back to the flier, “Those aren’t really a part of the conference,” she said.

“We could split up,” said Rei, “I have my comm.”

Mercy’s mouth drew to a thin line. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said.

“Ugh,” Rei slumped against the wall behind their bench, “I’m not a baby,” she muttered.

“Neither were Rajeev and Samir,” said Mercy, “Oasis looks glamorous, Sunneschii, but—”

“But it’s dangerous,” said Rei, with a sigh, “Everything’s always dangerous and if it’s not Talon, it’s the Shimada Clan, and if it’s not the Shimada clan, it’s Vishkar, and if it’s not Vishkar, it’s Junkers and if it’s not Junkers, it’s Talon and on and on and on.”

Mercy and Genji exchanged glances.

“What’s the point of all that training if I can’t go off alone?” said Rei.

“You’re on your own plenty—” Mercy started.

“Well yeah, in Gibraltar, but everywhere else…” Rei huffed, “Let’s just get to that Helix floor show,” she said bitterly.

Genji looked at Mercy. “Well… she does have her comm…” said Genji slowly, he made eye contact with Rei, “..and training.”

Rei’s eyes lit up.

“…and it’s not like we’ll be too far,” said Genji.

“True,” Mercy said quietly, but doubt still tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“But—” Genji added, looking at Rei, “She would have to promise that if she sees anything–if she even gets a bad feeling, she needs to get out of there and call us immediately. We’re not letting anything happen like back in Nepal,” he looked at Rei, “Do you understand?”

Rei nodded.

Mercy took a breath. “Fine,” she said, looking at Rei, “You can go to the gardens. But you have to promise.”

“Promise!” said Rei, springing to her feet, “No fighting Doomfist. No stupid stunts. No big scenes. Things get bad and I run and call you. Promise.”

With that she ran off. For a moment Mercy thought she heard Rei give a second yell of “Promise!” but it was hard to tell against the din of the crowd. She exhaled, and then felt a hand on her shoulder. She glanced over at Genji.

“She can handle herself,” Genji said with a smile, “Don’t worry.”

“I’ll try not to…” Mercy said quietly.

“Well,” Genji chuckled and shrugged, “What’s—”

“Please don’t say ‘what’s the worst that can happen,’” said Mercy.

—

A voice spoke over the speakers spread around the Abu Hassoun gardens as Rei took photos of lotuses floating around one of the irrigation creeks that ran through the gardens in a carefully planned, mathematically sound delta. The voice on the speakers would speak in Arabic, then Kurdish, then Chinese, then Spanish, then English, then Hindu, and so on. The long march through various languages led to Rei tuning it out, maybe catching the word ‘Conservation’ here in English, ‘Hydroponics’ in Japanese there, as she took a picture of a eurasian teal and her ducklings heading through the irrigation creek. There were only a few people in the gardens, what few there were were only moving through, getting to the speedrail tram or their cars, or to the shuttles back to the hotels.

Wintering birds in and of themselves were an all right excuse, but the truth was, Rei just wanted to go to where the crowds were thinned. She would have called it ‘fresh air’ but she wondered if such a thing existed in Oasis’s heat. She pulled the wide-brimmed straw hat from her head and ran her hand through her thick dark hair, doing her best to try and evenly distribute the sweat and oil she could feel gathering at the brim of her hat with her fingers. Something pale darted out of sight in the corner of her eye and instinctively she turned toward the movement, but saw only the narrow, spiky-grass-like leaves of an iris plant.

“Hm,” she shook her hair out before putting her hat back on and stepped toward the iris plant, waited for a few beats. Nothing. She turned her attention to her yellow sundress now, pinching at the back of its bodice with her thumbs and forefingers and unsticking it from her sweaty back. The sprinkler system misted overhead as she straightened the flouncy straps of her dress–then the Iris nearby rustled once again. She turned sharply towards it this time, now positive that there was something there and it wasn’t a trick of the light or heat. She reached a hand and jostled the blades of the iris plant. She craned her neck slightly and saw a white shape, then a red eye blinked at her. A nose twitched. A rabbit. Too portly to be one of the wild hares around here, and an albino at that.

“Someone must have lost you, huh?” said Rei.

The rabbit shot out from behind the plant and sprinted past her ankles.

“Hey!” Rei ran after it. While it was a devil to keep up with, its white fur made it easy to track, visually. She sprinted after it, running through garden paths, dodging through crowds, leaping over irrigation beds and bounding over garden blocks, before the rabbit made a sharp turn onto a sidewalk, then ran under a velvet rope into a building.

“Oh for—” Rei skidded to a halt in front of the velvet rope and glanced up at a sign over the building’s doorway. The sign was in Arabic, of course, but it didn’t seem particularly foreboding. After all, it was ‘velvet rope’ off-limits, not ‘barbed wire’ off-limits. She stepped over the rope and continued her pursuit of the rabbit. Just grab the rabbit, get out, get the rabbit to a shelter, easy enough. The interior of the building was considerably dimmer than outside, but Rei found it a welcome change not to be squinting in Oasis’s sun. The very floor beneath her was lit pale blue, casting the whole building, with its silver and cobalt walls, in a cool, computer-glow-like light. Any signs saying what the building was for and who was in it were in arabic, though A few steps into the building and the air conditioning hit her and seemed to fill her lungs with real air, and she took a breath before seeing movement in the corner of her eye once again and turning to see the rabbit now at the end of the hall. The rabbit was staring at her with those pink-red eyes and Rei slowed to a walk to approach it. “Okay,” she said softly.

“Moving closer,” said Rei, stepping forward.

The rabbit didn’t move.

“This is me being non-threatening,” said Rei, slowly moving closer.

The rabbit continued to not move.

“Just…moving toward you… non-threateningly,” Rei spoke gently.

The rabbit still did not move. Rei was now about an arm’s length from it.

“Okay,” said Rei, lowering herself slightly, “Okay–”

The rabbit took off in a shot again.

“Seriously!?” said Rei hurrying after it down another hall.

“Hey!” she heard a shout behind her, and noticed two security guards on her tail, bickering with each other in arabic as they ran after her.

“Don’t make a scene,” Rei muttered to herself, “Sorry, mom…” she said, as she picked up speed.

“It’s okay!” She shouted over her shoulder to them, “I’m just–I just need to grab a rabbit!”

“What?” one of them shouted after her.

The guards turned a corner of the halls after her only to find an empty hall.

“!كانت هنا فقط” said one.

“…السياح الغبيون” said the other, “.وقالت انها يجب أن اتخذت الطريق الآخر”

The two guards turned around and headed down an opposite hall. A few seconds passed before Rei silently dropped down from where she had wedged herself between wall and ceiling. “Technically not making a scene,” she thought. She rolled her shoulders, straightened out her sundress, and continued her pursuit, turning the corner to see the rabbit had apparently taken a moment to scratch an itch. Without hesitation she leapt, stumbled, scooped it up into a tight grip in her arms, and returned to a standing position. “Gotcha,” she said with a grin. The rabbit didn’t seem to fight her that much, apparently being used to being handled by humans. “All right… who do you belong to?” she said, getting a more secure and supportive grip on the rabbit. The rabbit’s head suddenly perked up, ears pricking up.

“Hey it’s okay I’m not—” Rei started but then she heard it. Singing. She couldn’t really make out the lyrics, but she glanced down to the rabbit, then walked toward the source of the music. And then the lyrics came through, fragmentary at first, but considering how little english you heard Oasis, it was unmistakeable

“I still don’t know what I was waiting forAnd my time was running wildA million dead-end streets”

Rei’s brow furrowed as she kept walking toward the source of the music.

“Every time I thought I’d got it madeIt seemed the taste was not so sweet—”

Rei pushed through the door and the song hit her full on, as she walked into a lab. It had a clean, almost home-y antiseptic smell, and the walls were full of monitors featuring models of double helixes and cells dividing over and over and over again. and she saw a narrow figure partially hidden by large panes of glass.

“So I turned myself to face meBut Iii’ve never caught a glimpse…”

The figure stepped, or rather danced into full view from behind the glass pane, revealing himself to be a rail-thin redheaded boy in a labcoat sporting a massive pair of headphones on his head. He bobbed and strutted and pelvic-thrusted to music she could not hear, while carrying a tray of what looked to be picotiter plates. He set the tray on the lab counter before pivoting on his heel with a jerk of his hips to a beat contained to his headphones, continuing to sing.

“Of how the oth-ers must seeee the fakerI’m much too fast to take that test–”

It probably would have been a good idea to hide, but the thought didn’t really occur to Rei as she stood there, holding the rabbit. She watched as the boy, clearly in some kind of scientific rockstar fantasy world of his own making, grabbed a micropipette from one of the lab counters and used it as an impromptu microphone for the chorus, craning his neck back and full on belting out the song at this point.

“Ch-ch-ch-changes! Turn and face the strange!Ch-ch-change–AUGH!” He twirled and caught her in the corner of his eye and his song turned to a squawk as he flinched hard, fumbling with the micropipette and only barely manage to snatch it spinning from the air as he straightened up his posture and stared at her. Rei wondered, for a beat, if this was one of the situations that called for running.

“Who are–” the boy started awkwardly loudly, then caught himself, grabbed his music player off his hip and pressed a button on it before pulling his headphones off and speaking in a normal volume, “How did you get in here?”

“I–I um–” Rei glanced down at the rabbit.

“Wh–why do you have Creggan?” said the boy.

“What’s a ‘Creggan?’” said Rei.

“That’s my rabbit–” the boy started when the door opened behind Rei and the two security guards Rei had shaken off.

“There you are–!” said one of the guards, stepping forward and grabbing Rei’s arm, before looking up at the boy and speaking to him, “,اعتذارنا يا سيدي”

“,لا بأس” The boy blurted out and the guards gave him an odd look, “,إنها صديق” the boy assured them, “.انها خطأي، كان ينبغي أن أعطيت لها إزالة”

The guard holding Rei’s arm released it and muttered something under his breath to the other guard and they both walked off.

“..what did you say to them?” said Rei.

“That you’re a friend,” said the boy.

Rei’s eyebrows raised.

“I mean.. not to presume just–You went through the trouble of bringing me back Creggan—”

“What kind of name is ‘Creggan?’” said Rei.

“That’s his name,” said the boy, holding his arms out towards the rabbit.

Rei gave a wary glance to one of the monitors where one microbe seemed to be devouring another. “He’s not one of your lab animals, is he?”

“No, he’s practically family,” said the boy.

Rei gave a glance down to the rabbit, who seemed unafraid of the boy and quite relaxed, then warily handed the rabbit over.

“He’s good, most of the time,” said the boy, turning on his heel and walking over to a large hutch and securing the rabbit in it, “He has a bad habit of… exploring, where he ought not to, though.”

“Maybe your singing scared him off,” said Rei.

“Ah-heh-…uh… how much of that did you hear?” said the boy, rubbing the back of his head, his freckles nearly disappearing with his reddening face.

“Enough,” said Rei with a smile, “I’m kidding. It’s–it’s good. Really.”

“Right…You’re…” he chuckled a little, “You’re really good at sneaking up on people, aren’t you?”

“Ninja,” said Rei with a grin, doing a slight chopping motion with her hand.

“Of course you are,” said the boy, with a snicker. He stuck his hand out. “Aedan,” he said.

Rei shook his hand. “Rei,” she said. She looked around the lab, “I didn’t…mess anything up, did I?” she said, looking at the monitors.

Aedan waved his hand. “No, it’s fine. Just clearing up for the next group coming in. Most of my work is just… a lot of sequencing grunt work and running simulations.”

“So you’re a scientist?” said Rei,

“More like an intern,” said Aedan.

“But you’re… what, seventeen?” said Rei.

“Yes, something along those lines,” said Aedan.

“’Something along those lines?’” repeated Rei.

Aedan shrugged and smiled.

“You’re weird,” said Rei, grinning.

“Most people don’t come to Oasis unless they like weird, just a little,” returned Aedan. He turned his attention back to the various trays on the laboratory counter. “You’re here for the conference, I take it?” he asked, organizing various trays and glassware.

“You could say Efi’s a family friend,” said Rei.

“Friends in high places,” said Aedan, arranging several beakers just so, “You could do very well here.”

“Pfft. I doubt that,” said Rei.

“What? That little scuff with the security guards?” said Aedan, “Something tells me you’ve handled much worse trouble than that.”

“Something along those lines,” said Rei, folding her arms.

“Oh, so now you get to be weird and cryptic,” said Aedan with a grin before setting down one last tray of test tubes, “Well, my point is, maybe you could do with someone showing you the city.”

“And you’re the person to do that?” Rei arched an eyebrow.

“Something tells me you could use someone who can talk you out of trouble with security,” said Aedan, “And I happen to be just that sort of person.” His stomach growled, “…also I’ve been sequencing anemic capuchin monkey DNA for three hours straight and I could really, really go for some kibbeh,”

“Kibbeh?” said Rei.

“It’s like… this meat…” he made a lemon shape with his hands, “Thing? There’s a stand for it nearby. Are you hungry?”

“Sure,” said Rei with a shrug.

“Come on,” he said, shrugging off his labcoat and hanging it up to reveal a fitted white shirt with black stars around the neckline and faded black skinny jeans, “I’m starving.” He headed to the exit of the lab.

“Right behind you,” said Rei, moving to walk after him. She paused in front of one of the many monitors of the lab, displaying those selfsame cells endlessly doubling themselves through mitosis. She felt a nagging at the back of her head, that Ziegler-Shimada streak in her that said everything was always dangerous and nothing was ever simple, that nothing came easy and there was always something to fight. She shook her head. It couldn’t always be like that, could it? And even if it was always like that, it wasn’t like it was anything she couldn’t handle. She broke her eyes away from the screen and followed after Aedan.

#follow for more gency kid facts #Moiraspawn #Reidan

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covid19updater · 4 years

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COVID19 Updates: 10/10/2020

Germany: Germany: 4,721 new cases. 84% increase on last Saturday (2,563)

US: 'It is a slaughter': Public health champion asks CDC director to expose White House, orchestrate his own firing LINK

Czech Republic: Czech Republic: 8,617 new cases. 127% increase on last week (3,796)

UK: Prime minister Boris Johnson is to make a statement to MPs on Monday giving details of new restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus in England. Under the new restrictions, pubs and restaurants could be closed in parts of northern England and the Midlands - where some of the highest number of cases are occurring - while a ban on overnight stays is also being considered.

France: France covid hospitalized weekly change 09/04: 4,671 09/11: 5,155 (+484) 09/18: 5,819 (+664) 09/25: 6,129 (+310) 10/02: 6,758 (+629) 10/09: 7,864 (+1106)

Nebraska/Iowa: There are only 25 ICU beds left in 6 counties bordering Nebraska, Iowa LINK

World: A study is using umbilical cord stem cells to try to treat severe COVID-19 patients LINK

UK: Mayor of Liverpool City Region says he’s been told by govt Liverpool will be placed in tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday. Detailed negotiations are still going on and he will have a call with No 10 immediately after press conference to say financial support not enough.

US: Only 13 States with an RT Below 1.0 this week LINK

Europe: Belgium: 5,385 new cases. 70% increase on last Saturday (3,175); Romania: 3,517 new cases. 70% increase on last Saturday (2,064); Netherlands: 6,499 new cases. 64% increase on last Saturday (3,967); Poland: 5,300 new cases. 124% increase on last Saturday (2,367)

Hungary: Hungary increased by 1,374 and 20 patients died

World: Global Study Of Hospitalized Patients Confirms Coronavirus Is Nothing Like The Flu LINK

Germany: Coronavirus: Berlin's first curfew in 70 years kicks in LINK

France: Parisian ICU beds reaching saturation under strain of Covid-19 LINK

Colorado: CSU Coronavirus Quarantine Dorms Full, Students Housed In Local Hotels LINK

Russia: Kremlin rues "anti-record" as Russia's new COVID-19 cases jump to all-time high LINK

North Korea: Kim Jong Un says not a single person in North Korea has contracted coronavirus, wishes South a fast recovery - Yonhap

US: Dr. Birx warns of "silent" coronavirus spread in the Northeast LINK

Iowa: Iowa 24 hour new cases 1325

Italy: Italy: 5,724 new cases. 101% increase on last Saturday (2,844)

Indiana: #Indiana with a new record today (1,918 cases); Hospitalizations are growing (up ~50% in 3 weeks). They are the rare state that seemed to open up further when things were just getting bad.

Netherlands: Dutch official and head of ICU union says government's half-measures are not working: "I am very much in favor of going in [total] lockdown as soon as possible"

World: WHO creates group to study re-infection with coronavirus LINK

Texas: Covid-19 patient with no respiratory symptoms suffers brain damage LINK

World: Nepal: 5,006 new cases. 136% increase on last Saturday (2,120); Myanmar: 2,158 new cases.121% increase on last Saturday (978); Slovakia: 1,887 new cases.168% increase on last Saturday (704)

France: 11% positivity of # COVID19 tests in #France this # 10 October. This is double the level of a month ago (5.6% on September 10) and an increase of 3 points in one week. The rise is accelerating.

Italy: Italy reports 5,724 new coronavirus cases, biggest one-day increase since March - In hospital: 4,336 (+250) - ICU: 390 (+3) - Deaths: +29

Ireland: NEW: Ireland reports 1,012 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase since April - In hospital: 199 (+5) - ICU: 31 (+1) - Deaths: +3

Texas: FORT WORTH STOCK SHOW RODEO CANCELED LINK

Sweden: The spread of infection is gaining new momentum in Sweden, and in healthcare there is an increase in the number of patients being treated for covid-19. "The situation is very, very serious", says Karin Tegmark Wisell at the Swedish Public Health Agency.

France: FRENCH HEALTH MINISTRY REPORTS 26.896 NEW CONFIRMED CORONAVIRUS CASES IN PAST 24 HOURS

UK: 15,166 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the UK in the latest 24 hour period.

Texas: CORONAVIRUS CASES TRENDING UP IN NORTH TEXAS LINK

Texas: MORE NORTH TEXAS HIGH SCHOOLS CANCEL FOOTBALL GAMES LINK

Ohio: KENT STATE QUARANTINES 110 STUDENTS DUE TO SUSPECTED OUTBREAK IN DORM LINK

World: Mom loses hearing in one ear after mild COVID-19 infection LINK

Iowa: ISU to randomly select students for testing to identify asymptomatic cases LINK

Missouri: More than 5K new COVID-19 cases in Missouri sets record LINK

Florida: Florida says it is not releasing its daily coronavirus update because a lab submitted 400,000 previously-reported test results

RUMINT: My neighbor on the corner tested positive for COVID19. She works for a school and said there are so many kids sick, positive for COVID19, infecting teachers and the media won't report on it.

US: Local food banks prep as nationwide food shortage looms LINK

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degreeprojectjg · 4 years

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Photographs Reflection

As I’m about to enter competitions and various open calls. I thought it was time to organise a small collection of photographs that were the strongest in terms of creating a narrative and showcase the project cohesively and individually. I don’t want to just pick the best images but I want photographs that communicate the most appropriate message for the project.

I didn’t want to sequence the images chronologically, since I wanted to leave the work to be ambiguous in it’s narrative. For me, what was more important was that the photographs should be able to create a narrative arc that carries the reader from the first page to the last. I wanted the collection to have a thematic sense of my identity, it would inform the audience of my identity but also be mindful in it’s approach to not being too obvious.

Gurkha Beret

For the opening image, the photo above is a striking and compelling image as it informs you of the project. It’s a metaphorical image such as the Gurkha hat hanging on the bed post is more appropriate as it provides an enigmatic introduction to the project. As the observer progresses through the project the meaning will become less ambiguous and narrative clearer.

Taku, Gorkha

For my landscape images, I picked the photographs, see above and below. For the image above (Taku, Gorkha), I thin the photograph works as an effective image near the start of the collection since it informs you of the setting, it’s an establishing shot which informs you of where the project is based and what the landscape means to the project. The photograph is quite hazy and soft which is a running look of the project which suggests a dream like sense of nostalgic experiences.

I picked the image above as it suggests a metaphorical and subject change in the project which hints at migration, moving away from the place previously shown. The sea represents UK, as Nepal is a landlocked country. The image departs from my homeland into a new horizon. The discolouration of the sea also adds a layer of ambiguity. A further intrigue in the image is that in the distance is that you could see a ship which suggests the physical distance of myself and for what it could be my homeland in the metaphorical sense.

Aama in the garden

Mother= Aama

The two photographs above and below are the two strongest photograph of my mother. They both are visually striking and compelling. The use of black and white worked really well as it shows the figure of my mother, making her seem prominent in the photographs. Although the photographs seem straightforward, they are photographs with a strong framework of exploration of my mother’s identity and my very own, of my home and what it means with careful examination of it.

Mero Aaama

My mother= Mero aama

The image feels quite nostalgic. It’s a representation of how I see my other or how I’ve seen her throughout the years. My mother is a prominent figure in my identity, she has transcended the ideas of Nepalese identity throughout my life. The photographs seems like romanticised ideas of my mother, it’s how I see her, striking and dominant whilst also it depicts a soft, delicate overview.

The portraits of my mother evoke the questioning of home, my very own sense of belonging and identity since I began my life with her. My identity started from her. Photographing my mother is a way of confronting my identity and it’s a way to build it as well. It’s this strong urge to preserve my Nepalese identity that drives me as I attempt to rekindle my relationship. The whole project has been a way of creating a sense of attachment to my Nepalese identity but also my separation from them.

Ex Soldier

The ‘Gurkha Beret’ image introduces you to the theme of the project whilst the photographs (see above and below) hones in on the owner of the hat. I picked these two photographs as they reflect a sense of nostalgia as my father wears his beret which he hasn’t worn in a long time, which just about still fits him.

Baba

Father= Baba

I picked the photograph above as my father appear prominent as his figure is authoritative and bold. Whilst the previous photograph offers a closer insight on my father, this photograph makes my father appear more physical and dominant which suggests his involvement in the project and my life.

These images of my father are quite important in the project as I explore the notion of being a ‘Nepalese man’. In the project, there are some universal themes of having a sense of belonging and questioning of identity. Through the portraits, I’m confronting the notion of being a Nepalese man, they’re my ideas of a Nepalese man.

Aama ra Baba

Mother and father= Aama ra Baba

Since the collection / sequence didn’t two subjects in one. I included the image above as it suggests togetherness and it’s quite informative in the sense of adding a narrative to the project. The image depicts the two prominent figures of my life where they are seen to be wearing traditional Nepalese / Gurung dress against the backdrop of my homeland. My father is not wearing the full Gurung dress which can suggests the influence of eastern lifestyle as he wears his jumper and jeans.

Baje

Grandfather= Baje

For more variety in the sequence, I decided to include my grand father in the project which is a major influence in the project. He’s a very important figure in both my life and my parents. I chose the image above as it doesn’t give too much away, it’s very simple the image seems off with it’s off kilter composition. My grandfather appears striking yet grounded which suggests his character. By choosing a simple photograph, I want the viewers to interpret themselves my relationship with this man and others.

Boy in the hill

I wanted to sequence to be playful with it’s subject matter. I chose the image above as it’s anonymous, I have captioned the image as ‘Boy in the hill’ which plays with that idea. It may hint at the viewer that it’s a self portrait, it’s very ambiguous in that sense. I really like the warm tones of the image, it’s quite revealing in that sense yet feels distant as the subjects are far away. The boy in the distance overlooking the hill can suggest a nostalgic viewpoint.

Ghar

House= Ghar

The reason I chose the image above is that it depicts our home in the UK which is quite reminiscent of Nepal with it’s evergreen nature of the garden and the love for which suggests affiliation with nature which is prominent in the landscapes of Nepal. The image has a soft evening light, hinting a peaceful time which is accentuated by the use of soft, pastel colours with warm tones. The image balances and warms the sequence.

Aaam ko Maala

Mother’s necklace= Aama ko Maala

The images above, below and beneath it suggests a nostalgic view upon the Nepalese culture, the images gives you soft glimpses of the objects in my house in UK which informs and reminds you of my identity despite the migration. The images works effectively in the sense that it acts as a memorophilia.

Puja

(Place to) Worship= Puja

Nepalese Calender

Homeland

I chose the image in the sense which it acts as a metaphorical image in which it depicts a reflective outlook on the project, it doesn’t provide with you any setting or clues to where the place might be. It just silently offers you a glimpse of my life and my introspective moment, thus the image balances the sequence, taking you back to a reflective standpoint.

Overview

As most competitions that I wanted to enter required maximum photographs of 15, I compiled 15 of the photographs that not only were strong images but they were images that worked effectively together to create a narrative around my identity.

Personal Intake

The project explores intimacy, distance, and often tensions between my torn identity. I wanted to bring out these themes in the sequence. I also wanted to sequence it visually with similar colours, subject and form but I didn’t focus too much on this as it would detract the audience from the narrative. Although the photographs are quire straightforward in terms of creating a narrative, the photographs remain ambiguous and metaphorical. There isn’t one way to sequence images. It’s entirely subjective, the project comes from me and is about me, I have a story and this is what I want to tell, this was my approach to the sequencing. It’s not the best (aesthetic) images that communicate the most appropriate message. I simply hope to make my audience understand the context in which the work will be viewed.

Reference

Magnum Photos. 2020. The Language Of Pictures: Exploring Sequencing With Mark Power • Magnum Photos. [online] Available at: <https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/mark-power-the-language-of-pictures-exploring-sequencing/> [Accessed 17 April 2020].

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silent123456 · 5 months

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cnbnews · 5 years

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作者：本尼迪克罗杰斯

2019年3月25日，老挝万象市班农坪小学，一名中国志愿者教师与当地学生互动。班农坪小学于2013年在中国的帮助下成立。（新华社/王精强/MAXPP）

中共正在发动一场全球宣传战，试图平息海外批评人士的声音，而与此同时，中国已经对国内异议人士发起了自30年前天安门大屠杀以来最具镇压力的镇压。

它的士兵包括中国国家媒体记者、外交官和留学生，这些人都是被征募来参加中国共产党的投标的。最近的一个例子是伦敦经济学院在中国学生的压力下决定调整雕塑上对台湾的描绘。

它的武器包括政治渗透和影响力、全球媒体机构、对国外积极分子的威胁和侵略、企图劫持和破坏联合国人权议程的企图，以及——正如一些人慢慢意识到的那样——部署数百个植入大学的听起来无害的语言和文化机构。还有学校。

中国的孔子学院表面上看起来只是英国文化委员会、美国中心、法国联盟或德国的歌德学院的一部分，现在在154个国家至少有548所大学和1193所学校。中国的预算为3.14亿美元，教师4.62万人，学生170万人，计划到2020年拥有1000所孔子学院，这就是所谓的“孔子革命”。

韩国于2004年开设了世界上第一所孔子学院，目前拥有23所孔子学院，其中亚洲最多。泰国是该地区的第二大孔子学院，有16所孔子学院，而日本有15所孔子学院。印度尼西亚有七个，印度、巴基斯坦、菲律宾和马来西亚有四个，但孔子学院也存在于新加坡、阿富汗、斯里兰卡、尼泊尔、蒙古、香港、柬埔寨、Laos和越南。

英国在爱丁堡、利物浦、曼彻斯特、纽卡斯尔、诺丁汉、加的夫和伦敦大学学院等主要大学至少有29所孔子课堂，是世界上仅次于美国的第二大孔子课堂。

孔子学院的宗旨是教授汉语和文化，这当然是受欢迎的。随着中国成为世界超级大国，我们需要了解它的历史和文化，我们需要更多的人来讲这门语言。但是刮擦表面，你会发现这并不是他们所做的一切。它们也对教育机构和民主国家的学术自由和言论自由构成潜在威胁。

大约12年前，当时的中国共产党宣传部长李长春（音译）将孔子学院描述为“中国海外宣传机构的重要组成部分”。2010年，中国教育部汉办（Hanban）一个部门的总干事徐林（音译）证实，中国共产党希望扩大其影响力，孔子学院是中国的一个重要组成部分。中国软实力的重要组成部分。

孔子学院由汉办直接控制、资助和管理，汉办目前由中共中央政治局委员孙春兰主持，孙春兰曾领导过中共主要宣传机构统一战线工作部。

中国宣传部长刘云山2010年表示，“海外宣传要全面、多层次、宽领域······要搞好海外文化中心和孔子学院的建设和运营。”即使是国家主席胡锦涛，也赞同这些学院是“培养和准备”的一种方式。一群人（或军队），以确保中国共产党在未来能够掌权······并增加中国共产党在世界各地的影响力。”

今年早些时候，英国保守党人权委员会根据对孔子学院的调查发表了一份报告。它借鉴了专家和以孔子名义拍摄的纪录片中的证据，得出的结论是，孔子学院威胁学术自由和言论自由，正如中国共产党自己所说，它代表了中国政权在其边界之外传播宣传和镇压批评者的努力。

这一结论与美国国会、美国中央情报局（CIA）以及加拿大和比利时的情报机构得出的结论一致。2018年，中情局警告说，不要以学术审查换取中国对大学的资助，联邦调查局局长告诉参议院情报委员会，孔子学院正在接受调查。

国会已经通过立法，加强对大学外国资金透明度的要求，要求孔子学院在司法部注册成为中国政府的代理人。加拿大前亚太地区情报局局长迈克尔·朱诺·卡苏亚（Michael Juneau Katsuya）声称，孔子学院与中国的情报机构有联系，“对我们的社会来说，这是一个明确而不可否认的威胁。”

孔子学院有一个共同的主题：从“天安门”、“西藏”和“台湾”开始，全面压制三个主题的讨论。

美国国家学者协会（National Association of Acaders）政策主任雷切尔·彼得森（Rachelle Peterson）表示，孔子学院代表着“由中国政府监督的颠覆性政治议程”，而诺丁汉特伦特大学（Nottingham Trent University）讲师陶章（Tao Zhang）则表示，它们“在战略上位于多所外国大学，允许中国人授权。”争取在中国研究中获得控制权的优先权。”

她补充说，这是“中国教育体系的延伸，由国家直接控制，与中国的学校和大学具有相同的思想和宣传作用。”

许多大学在来自中国的压力下撤回对有争议的演讲人的邀请，或删除某些出版物。

2014年，在葡萄牙举行的欧洲汉语学习协会会议上，汉办主任徐林没收了所有印刷的节目，并下令删除台湾共同赞助机构的广告页。同样，孔子学院出版的一本书在中国专家伊莎贝尔·希尔顿的一章中对中国持不同政见者吴立红的环保行动进行了全面审查。对达赖喇嘛的邀请已被撤回或移出校园。

对个人信仰的歧视

也许最令人毛骨悚然的是所谓的孔子学院雇佣行为的歧视。根据全国学者协会的说法，汉办对孔子学院教师的资格标准包括他们应该“没有参加法轮功的记录”。

索尼娅·赵，一位从事佛学精神运动法轮功的中国教师，受雇于汉办，被派往加拿大麦克马斯特大学孔子学院。在去加拿大之前，她在北京接受了为期三个月的培训。”她说：“我们被告知要告诉学生只有一个中国，台湾是中国的一部分，······西藏是中国的一部分······我们被告知不要谈论台湾和西藏等问题。”

“我们还必须签署一份合同。合同上写着“我们不能做法轮功的实践者”······这一合同在所有国家的孔子学院生效。这项合同显示了对教师个人信仰的歧视，这就是他们如何侵犯世界各地的信仰自由。”

2011年，赵松雅向麦克马斯特大学通报了这些担忧。她害怕，如果她承认自己是法轮功从业者，她会受到惩罚。由于她的投诉，麦克马斯特大学终止了与汉办的关系，关闭了孔子学院。从那时起，其他人也开始效仿。至少30所大学和一个学校董事会已经或将与孔子学院断绝关系。

孔子学院绝不是中国唯一的软实力工具。但与中国学生、学者协会相结合，对学术自由构成了强大的威胁。他们还关注在国外留学的中国学生，否则他们可能会觉得思想和表达的自由很有吸引力。

正如伦敦经济学院（London School of Economics）的克里斯托弗休斯（Christopher Hughes）教授在一篇关于这一主题的论文中所说，当伦敦经济学院（LSE）2006年开办孔子学院时，“中国学生······表示，他们对来到外国大学感到失望，结果却发现他们自己的政府在校园内建立了一个组织，这让他们觉得这是一种深思熟虑。H他们仍然在中国生活的监视之下。”一个学生告诉休斯教授，孔子学院感觉像是闭路电视，“有可能吓跑我的批判性思维。”

那么应该怎么做呢？显然，我们不能脱离中国。但正如英国下议院外交事务委员会（HouseofCommons ForeignAffairs Committee）上周发表的报告所言，我们需要重新调整我们的关系，把国家安全放在首位。

作为重新调整的一部分，我们不仅应该重新审视贸易与人权的平衡，华为的安全问题，以及最近英国皇家联合服务学院（Royal United Services Institute）的报告和克莱夫·汉密尔顿（Clive Hamilton）在澳大利亚的优秀著作《无声入侵》（The Silent Investion）中详述的政治影响问题，还应该重新审视孔子学院。

“我知道压力和恐惧，”赵松雅说。没有人值得这样做。我希望孔子学院能够关闭，这样老师可以自由地教授汉语，学生可以了解真正的中国和中国文化，而不是中国共产党人的文化。”

如果我们现在还不愿意关闭孔子学院，我们至少应该考虑类似于美国立法的措施——进行彻底的审查，暂停与孔子学院的任何新交易，直到审查完成，并确保采取措施确保学术自由和言论自由，不被剥夺。对资金来源的定罪和完全透明。

我们应该记住退休的英国外交官罗杰·加赛德的话，他说：“允许中国共产党控制的国家机构在任何学校或大学建立教学机构，学术自由从本质上受到了损害。”

或者，正如雷切尔·彼得森所说，“现在不仅对我们学校的诚信构成威胁，更重要的是对高等教育的未来和所有自由国家的未来构成威胁。”这当然是采取行动的理由。

本尼迪克特·罗杰斯是保守党人权委员会副主席。他也是东亚人权组织CSW和香港观察主席的东亚组长。

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Propaganda in the name of Confucius

China is using educational institutes in154 countries to spread its influence and threaten academic freedom

Benedict Rogers

China

April24,2019

A Chinese volunteer teacher interacts with local students at Ban Nongping Elementary School in Vientiane, Laos, March25,2019. Ban Nongping Elementary School was established in2013 with aid from China.(Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang/MaxPPP)

China is waging a global propaganda war in an attempt to silence overseas critics at a time when it has unleashed the most repressive crackdown on internal dissent since the Tiananmen Square massacre30 years ago.

Its soldiers include Chinese state media reporters, diplomats and students studying overseas, recruited to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party(CCP). The most recent example has been the decision by the London School of Economics to adjust the depiction of Taiwan on a sculpture after pressure from Chinese students.

Its weapons include political infiltration and influence, a global media outfit, threats and aggression towards activists abroad, an attempt to hijack and derail the human rights agenda at the United Nations, and— as some are slowly realizing— deploying hundreds of innocuous-sounding language and culture institutions embedded in universities and schools.

China's Confucius Institutes, which on the surface appear to be simply an equivalent of the British Council, American Center, Alliance Francaise or Germany's Goethe Institutes, are now present in at least548 universities and1,193 schools in154 countries. With a US$314 million budget,46,200 teachers and1.7 million students, China aims to have1,000 Confucius Institutes by2020 in what it calls a"Confucius revolution."

South Korea opened the world's first Confucius Institute in2004, and it now has23, the most in Asia. Thailand, second in the region, has16 Confucius Institutes, while Japan has15. Indonesia has seven and India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Malaysia have four, but Confucius Institutes also exist in Singapore, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Britain has at least29, the second-largest number in the world after the United States, in major universities such as Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Cardiff and University College London, along with148 Confucius"classrooms" in schools around the country.

Confucius Institutes purport to teach Chinese language and culture, which is surely welcome. As China takes its place as a world superpower, we need to understand its history and culture, and we need more people to speak the language. But scratch the surface and you find that it is not all they do. They also represent a potential threat to academic freedom and freedom of expression in educational institutions and democracies.

About12 years ago, the CCP's propaganda chief at the time, Li Changchun, described Confucius Institutes as"an important part of China's overseas propaganda set-up." In2010, Xu Lin, director-general of a unit of China's education ministry known as the Hanban, confirmed that the party wanted to expand its influence and Confucius Institutes were an important part of China's soft power.

Confucius Institutes are directly controlled, funded and staffed by the Hanban, which is currently chaired by Sun Chunlan, a Politburo member who previously headed the United Front Work Department, the party's principal propaganda outfit.

China's propaganda minister Liu Yunshan said in2010 that"overseas propaganda should be comprehensive, multi-level and wide-ranging··· We should do well in establishing and operating overseas cultural centers and Confucius Institutes." Even President Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping's predecessor, endorsed the institutes as a way"to cultivate and prepare a group(or army) of people to make sure the CCP will be in power in the future··· and increase our CCP influence around the world."

Earlier this year Britain's Conservative Party Human Rights Commission published a report based on an inquiry into Confucius Institutes. It draws on evidence from experts, and from the documentary film In the Name of Confucius, and its conclusion is that Confucius Institutes threaten academic freedom and freedom of expression, and represent— as the CCP itself says— an endeavor by the Chinese regime to spread its propaganda and suppress its critics beyond its borders.

This conclusion is consistent with that reached by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) and intelligence agencies in Canada and Belgium. In2018, the CIA cautioned against Chinese funding to universities in exchange for academic censorship, and the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Confucius Institutes are under investigation.

Congress has introduced legislation strengthening requirements for transparency of foreign funding for universities, requiring Confucius Institutes to register with the Department of Justice as agents of the Chinese government. And Canada's former Asia-Pacific intelligence chief Michael Juneau-Katsuya claims that Confucius Institutes are linked to China's intelligence services and"represent a clear and undeniable menace to our society."

Confucius Institutes have one common theme: the total suppression of discussion of three topics beginning with'T'— Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan.

Rachelle Peterson, policy director of the U.S.-based National Association of Scholars, says that Confucius Institutes represent a"subversive political agenda overseen by the Chinese government," while Nottingham Trent University lecturer Tao Zhang says that they"are strategically located in various foreign universities, allowing the Chinese authorities to gain a foothold for the exercise of control over the study of China."

They are, she adds,"an extension of the Chinese education system, directly controlled by the state and having the same ideological and propaganda roles as schools and universities in China."

Examples abound of universities withdrawing invitations to controversial speakers under pressure from China, or removing certain publications.

In2014, at a European Association for Chinese Studies conference in Portugal, Hanban director-general Xu Lin confiscated all the printed programs and ordered pages advertising a Taiwanese co-sponsor to be removed. Similarly, a book published by a Confucius Institute completely censored an entire section about Chinese dissident Wu Lihong's environmental activism in a chapter by China expert Isabel Hilton. Invitations to the Dalai Lama have been withdrawn or moved off campus.

Discrimination against personal beliefs

Perhaps most chilling is the alleged discrimination in hiring practices in Confucius Institutes. According to the National Association of Scholars, Hanban eligibility criteria for Confucius Institute teachers has included that they should"have no record of participation in Falun Gong."

Sonia Zhao, a Chinese teacher who practiced Falun Gong, a Buddha-school spiritual movement, was employed by Hanban and sent to the Confucius Institute at McMaster University in Canada. Prior to going to Canada, she was given a three-month training course in Beijing."We were told to tell the students that there is only one China, Taiwan is part of China,··· Tibet is part of China··· We were told not to talk about issues like Taiwan and Tibet," she says.

"We also had to sign a contract. In the contract it says that'we can't be Falun Gong practitioners'··· This contract takes effect in all Confucius Institutes in all countries. This contract shows discrimination against teachers' personal beliefs and this is how they violated freedom of belief worldwide."

In2011, Sonia Zhao alerted McMaster University to these concerns. She was afraid that, if she admitted to being a Falun Gong practitioner, she would be punished. As a result of her complaint, McMaster University terminated its relationship with the Hanban and closed its Confucius Institute. Since then, others have followed suit. At least30 universities and one school board have or will cut ties with Confucius Institutes.

Confucius Institutes are by no means China's only soft power tool. But when combined with the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations, they represent a powerful menace to academic freedom. They also serve to keep an eye on Chinese students studying abroad, who might otherwise find freedom of thought and expression appealing.

As Prof. Christopher Hughes of the London School of Economics says in a paper on the subject, when the LSE opened a Confucius Institute in2006,"Chinese students··· revealed that they were disappointed to arrive at a foreign university only to discover that their own government had established an organization on campus that made it feel as though they were still under the kind of surveillance that they had to live with in China." One student told Prof. Hughes that the Confucius Institute felt like closed-circuit television and"has the potential to scare away my critical thinking.".

So what should be done? Clearly, we cannot disengage with China. But as the UK's House of Commons foreign affairs committee report published last week argues, we need to recalibrate our relationship and put national security first.

As part of that recalibration, we should be re-examining not only the balance of trade versus human rights, and the security concerns around Huawei, and the questions of political influence detailed in a recent Royal United Services Institute report and in Clive Hamilton's excellent book in the Australian context, Silent Invasion, but also the question of Confucius Institutes.

"I know the pressure and fear," says Sonia Zhao."No one deserves that. I hope Confucius Institutes can be closed so that teachers can teach Chinese language freely and students can learn about the real China and Chinese culture, not the Chinese communists' culture."

If we are unwilling to go as far as to close Confucius Institutes just yet, we should at least consider measures similar to the U.S. legislation— conduct a thorough review, suspend any new deals with Confucius Institutes until a review is complete, and ensure measures are in place to guarantee academic freedom and freedom of expression, non-discrimination and complete transparency of funding sources.

We would do well to remember the words of retired British diplomat Roger Garside, who says that"academic freedom is inherently compromised by permitting a state agency controlled by the Communist Party of China to establish a teaching operation in any school or university."

Or, as Rachelle Peterson says,"there is a threat not only to the integrity of our institutions today but more importantly to the future of higher education and the future of all free countries." That, surely, is reason to act.

Benedict Rogers is deputy chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission. He is also East Asia team leader at international human rights organization CSW and chairman of Hong Kong Watch.[博讯来稿]

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原文链接：中国正利用154个国家的教育机构来传播其影响并威胁学术自由 - 新闻评论

本文标签：中国, 中国共产党, 共产党, 国家, 学术, 学术自由, 学院, 教育, 法轮功

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glancenews · 6 years

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India-Nepal like family, misunderstandings over: Modi

IANS (23:42)

Kathmandu, May 11 (IANS) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said all misunderstandings with Nepal are over and the bilateral ties are heading to a new high. Stressing that the recent election and its outcome would be written in golden words in Nepal's history, the Indian Prime Minister said ties between India and Nepal are special and "I am visiting at a special time". He made the remarks after the delegation-level talks with his Nepali counterpart K.P. Oli. "India stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Nepal. India-Nepal ties are above inter-governmental relations. It is more like a family," said Modi. "I, the Indian government and the Indian people heartily felicitate the Nepali people for the progress made under federal democratic setup." In a bid to reach out to the new communist government in Nepal, Modi held an extensive discussion with his counterpart and senior government officials to better the bilateral ties that are all set to reset after New Delhi's repeated attempt to cultivate Oli-led government in Nepal in the recent months. After the talks, Modi and Oli categorically reached some understandings. Meeting Oli twice in less than two months, Modi assured him that all genuine and necessary grievances of Nepal would be addressed in a time-bound manner. In this respect, Nepal and India have reached half dozen major understandings during the two-day state visit of Modi that is expected to give momentum in bilateral ties in future. However, India remained silent on exchanging banned Indian notes parked in various financial and banking institutions and held by general people, and on Nepal's request to add four additional air routes via India. Modi and Oli held one-one-one and delegation-level talks where both sides agreed to resolve outstanding issues before September 19 that marks Nepal's Constitution Day. India is ready to partner with Nepal for cross-border connectivity and agreed to commence survey to link Kathmandu with the Indian Railways' survey soon. A team of India experts will begin the survey for the feasibility of the rail linkages and India is also sending a team of experts to conduct feasibility survey for inland water navigation from Nepal to India. "We are connected with Nepal through rail, water, transmission line, petroleum pipeline," Modi told the media. He also announced a gift of India-made indigenous radiotherapy machine for the Bhaktapur-based cancer hospital. Both sides also agreed to dispatch a joint technical team to resolve the recurrent inundation problem along the Nepal-India border. Both Prime Ministers agreed on expansion on cooperation in agriculture. The first meeting of agriculture ministers from Nepal and India would be held soon to chart out a roadmap on agriculture research and development, education and organic farming. The two leaders also agreed for an early meeting for the construction of 46,00mw Pancheshwor Multipurpose Project jointly by India and Nepal. "We have evaluated the partnership between Nepal and India. Some of the projects have gained progress and some are in the process of achieving good progress. We have agreed to review comprehensively the trade and transit treaty," said Modi. "We are connecting through waterways, railways, roadways, transmission line and oil line, and will cooperate in areas of security and defence." The much-awaited 900-megawatt Arun III Hydropower Project was inaugurated amidst a joint press conference organised at Battisputali-based Hotel Dwarika's in the Capital. The Investment Board Nepal (IBN) on Thursday had granted an electricity generation licence to SJVN Arun III Power Development Company to generate power from the Arun III project located in eastern Nepal. Earlier, in the day Modi was conferred with the guard of honour at a ceremonial function at Nepal Army Pavilion. The Nepal Army cannon offered a 21-gun salute in the honour of Indian Prime Minister.

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halsteadproperty · 7 years

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Five Decades of Earth Day

By: Madeleine Dale, Lic. Associate R.E. Broker in the West Side Office

On April 22, 2017, Earth Day, the world’s largest secular holiday, will be celebrated by a billion people in 192 countries. Earth Day started as a modest seed planted by an anti-war activist that culminated in a defining event held in New York City in 1970. Since inception, Earth Day combines protest with party, pagan rites with scientific knowledge, peace with controversy, and the contradiction of celebrating the planet’s riches while mourning nature’s destruction. The message still inspires the nation and the global community, in fact, over the decades, the urgency has increased along with the controversy. In the lead-up to the events on Saturday April 22, 2017, Eco-Logic posts will cover a series of topics: Earth Day’s history, a report on the status of NYC’s decarbonization, a personal sustainability check-list, a guide to this year’s April 22nd and ways to support the cause.

FIVE DECADES OF EARTH DAY Earth Day originated in the San Francisco based “Minutes for Peace” started by John McConnell in 1960. McConnell, also ran “Meals for Millions” to feed Vietnamese refugees, an example of local activism which flourished in the decade. In the United States, environmental issues have yet to shed the scarlet brand of “subversive,” perhaps because the origination coincided with the 1960s Civil Rights and anti-war protests.

Environmental science first entered public awareness with the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, named for the chapter on declining bird populations. Carson, a marine biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, connected the dots between DDT and carcinogens and the endangered American Eagle. Over the course of the decade, groups protesting oil spills, pollution, logging old forests, toxic dumps, freeways and the loss of wilderness, found common cause with the anti-establishment, back to nature culture of the anti-war movement.

In the 1969 UNESCO Conference, John McConnellproposed a day to honor the Earth and promote peace. Sanctioned in a United Nations proclamation, the first Earth Day was celebrated on March 21, 1970, to mark the beginning of spring. From inception, Earth Day went global, however March 21 was not the date that went down in history. A month later, on April 22, 1970, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson co-opted the idea and staged a second Earth Day, conceived as an environmental teach-in. The second date honors the birthday of John Muir, the 19th century wilderness conservation advocate who founded the Sierra Club. Ironically, it was not the wilderness, but New Yorkers that imprinted the event on cultural memory.

EARTH DAY NEW YORK 1970

Credit for putting April 22nd on the calendar goes to Denis Hayes, an activist hired by Senator Nelson. Hayes inspired a group of Columbia University students with a mission, they rented an office, recruited volunteers across the country and convinced Mayor Lindsay to shut down Fifth Avenue and open Central Park. The media memorialized the event’s success. According to Time Magazine, “Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic for two hours. 100,000 New Yorkers marched up and down in an eerie quiet silence.” National networks televised coverage of 1 million people dancing in Central Park. The park festivities, competing with the gravity of the silent marchers, illustrates the inherent yin and yang of the holiday – half celebration/half warning.

Earth Day NY 1970 also drew the lines of opposition between environmentalists and citizens who viewed them as part of a radical fringe. Since the April 22, 1970 coincided with Lenin’s 100thbirthday, a suspicious J. Edgar Hoover sent FBI agents to cover events (think Men-in-Black meet the flower people). An amusing entry on the Wikipedia Earth Day page quotes an irate member of Daughters of the American Revolution: “subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them.”

The national effort coordinated by enthusiastic New Yorkers and the thousands of supporters who came out on April 22, 1970 launched a movement. With smog alerts and undrinkable water warnings, the time was ripe. In a rare alignment, Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, executives, labor and farmers, all jumped on the environmental train. By the end of that year, the broad social consensus led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the passage of the Clean Air Act. The 1970s also brought the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and Clean Drinking Water Act of 1974. In subsequent decades, the momentum continued with regulations that tackled chlorofluorocarbons, fuel emissions, catalytic converters, chemical waste, phosphates, sewage, pesticides, and superfund sites.

Earth Day defined the concept of environmental pollution as a matter of public safety but, as things like Acid Rain, Love Canal, Ozone layer depletion and rivers on fire became distant memories, public involvement lapsed. Though Earth Day lapsed for twenty years, scientific knowledge on environmental threats was accumulating and would eventually shift the mandate from safety to survival.

EARTH DAY 1990 In the 1970s, James Lovelock and Lyn Margolis began work on the Gaia principle. They described how the interaction of microscopic organisms and inorganic matter forms a synergisticself-regulating, complex system to maintain the temperature and atmosphere necessary for life on Earth. The more science learned about the little things like the single-celled phytoplankton in the ocean that absorb carbon, the more they came to understand the delicate balance of Earth’s biotic systems. Still it would take decades, to appreciate the disruptive human impact on carbon cycles, nitrogen cycles, water cycles and biodiversity.

Dormant until 1990, thousands turned out for an Earth Day birthday. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator for the original 1970 Earth Day, staged a revival in the United States and coordinated events in 141 nations. Earth Day 1990 focused on recycling, but concerns had expanded beyond harmful chemicals and pollution to recognize the need to avoid ecosystem destruction. While the storm around global warming simmered just below the threshold of public awareness, the collapse of fisheries, coral reef die-offs and the near extinction of iconic species like the Panda and the American Eagle gave warning about human threats to the self-regulating systems responsible for supporting life on the planet.

EARTH DAY 2000 The correlation between atmospheric temperature and CO2 emerged before 1900, the phrase “Global Warming” first appeared in 1952 and the first scientific proof dates to the 1960s. In 1958, Charles David Keeling invented a machine to measure CO2 in the atmosphere with an accuracy in parts per million. Based on data collected at the Mauna Loa observatory, his Keeling Curve confirmed theories about the connection between fossil fuel emissions and average global temperature rise. During the 1980s, Climate Scientists studied the chain of repercussions resulting from interference with self-regulating systems and reverberations between systems to conclude that what happened in the atmosphere did not stay in the atmosphere. On June 23, 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen gave testimony to the Senate, "global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and the observed warming." In the 1990s, Al Gore’s lectures, film and book “The Inconvenient Truth” based on Hansen’s research, graphically publicized the dangers of anthropogenic sources of warming with predictions of sea level rise, extinctions, droughts and severe storms. Earth Day 2000 put global warming on the national agenda, though the international community took the lead on the road to a remedy.

EARTH DAY 2016

The long haul towards reaching international consensus on fossil fuel divestment started with the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. Under the auspices of the United Nations, twenty-one international conferences convened to gather data and forge agreement. By 2015, against insurmountable odds, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established a goal to limit average global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius in order to stabilize the atmospheric content of CO2 at 450 ppm. (UNFCCC co-chairs described negotiations as more difficult than nuclear arms proliferation.) The Paris Climate Agreement contains no enforcement mechanisms.

Implementation is voluntary, but the US and China, (the two countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions), rose to the challenge and issued a bi-lateral agreement targeting lower emissions. Acknowledging Earth Day as inspiration for the historic international policy, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon invited every world leader to the signing ceremony in NYC on April 22, 2016. A billion global citizens came out to support the diplomats attending events like bike-a-thons in India, 55,000 trees planted on a Carribbean island, litter clean up on China’s Great Wall and The People’s March down Central Park West.

EARTH DAY 2017 Earth Day 2017 approaches with the US threatening to pull out of the Paris Agreement, eliminate emissions regulations and slash the EPA budget by over 30%. This year, scientists have taken the lead staging a March for Science in Washington and cities around the country to broadcast the vital role of science. Now it is not only the planet that is threatened, it is accumulated knowledge about our world.

I write this from Kathmandu Nepal where I should see snowcapped Himalayas in distance but the air is so thick with smog that I breathe thru a mask. The night here rings with barking dogs and coughing humans. Growing up in Ohio in the 1960s, I remember frequently being kept indoors on summer days due to smog alerts. Though smog alerts in Ohio never came close to air quality in Kathmandu, this visit serves as a reminder that without the environmental movement, the U.S. might not have escaped the fate of less fortunate nations.

To connect with Madeleine you can contact her over email, or visit her agent website.

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Thoughts and opinions presented in this post are those of Madeleine Dale and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Halstead Property, LLC.

#Earth Day #Eco Logic #Madeleine Dale #New York City #Manhattan

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mymindsmischief · 7 years

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Daily Devotional

“You direct me on the path that leads to a beautiful life. As I walk with You, the pleasures are never-ending, and I know true joy and contentment.” Psalm 16:11 (VOICE) The woman sitting beside me in the airport held a faded leather backpack that appeared to had weathered a lifetime of stories. And the hiking boots laced to her ankles bore the scars of a thousand miles. And, to be honest, I was surprised by the discontent that stirred deep in my soul as I wondered what adventures the traveler next to me had lived. I’d like to scale a mountain bigger than the laundry piles in my basement, I silently pouted while I counted the eyelets on those dusty boots. I’d been serving at a ministry conference all weekend and would soon catch a flight back to the small town I call home. And though I was excited to be reunited with my husband and five children, I wasn’t eager to return to my daily grind of carpooling and homework-helping, cooking and cleaning. “Where are you headed?” the wearer of those boots asked, interrupting my pity party. “Home,” I replied as I lifted my eyes to meet her kind smile and reciprocate the question. Turns out our destinations were the same, but we had little else in common. She worked for an international relief organization, serving people in need all over the world. I worked from home serving the six people who live beneath my roof. During the past week, while I’d watched ballgames and grumbled about cooking dinner again, she’d watched the sun rise over the Himalayas and delivered food to hungry children in Nepal. Her feet had trekked through jungles and climbed rugged mountains, while mine had wandered grocery store aisles and played endless rounds of backyard soccer. The more we talked, the more I wondered why this world traveler was waiting to catch a flight to my pedestrian little town. When I asked that question, her eyes sparkled. She told me she was on her way to visit her only sister who was “raising kids and cattle” on the family farm where they’d both been born. I tried to imagine the dramatically different lives these two sisters had lived — one sprouting wings and traveling the world, the other sinking roots and rarely venturing beyond state lines. “So have you always been the brave one?” I queried with a wink. The woman fiddled with the leather strap on that old backpack, then met my gaze. “Actually, my sister’s the brave one.” My expression must have broadcast my confusion, because that boot-clad traveler flashed me a knowing smile and continued, “I’ve spent a lifetime finding joy all over the world. But my sister wakes up in the same place every day and chooses to find joy right where she’s at.” A lump of conviction welled in my throat. “I think that’s brave,” the woman beside me murmured with quiet reverence. In today’s key verse, King David reminds us the secret to living a beautiful life isn’t dependent on where our feet tread but in WHOM our feet follow. A life of joy isn’t found in chasing adventure but in chasing our Savior. And, according to Psalm 16:11, when we choose to keep company with Jesus — prayerfully seeking Him first and obeying His directions — we find true contentment right where we are. The overhead speaker crackled with our flight’s first boarding call. And as the woman beside me excused herself to make a phone call to that brave sister of hers, my eyes seeped silently with tears. I pictured the ordinary life waiting for me at home — the demands and the delights, the giggles and the grumbles, and suddenly, I couldn’t wait to hop on that plane and return to my beautiful life. And maybe, once I hugged those five kids who call me Mom and scaled those mountains of laundry that grew tall in my absence, I’d dig out my old hiking boots and set them by the door. ‘Cause sometimes we just need a simple reminder to keep looking for joy on the path beneath our feet. Dear Lord, I want to find joy in the life You’ve planned for me. Give me strength to follow and obey. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. TRUTH FOR TODAY: 1 Timothy 6:6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (NIV) Philippians 4:12b, “… I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation …” (NIV)

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