#breaking news local women practices self care and no longer is questioning the meaning of life

[kakatieie]

In another shocking turn of events I have eaten a warm meal and feel so so sooooo much better

[khaire-traveler]

⚖️ Subtle Themis Worship ⚔️

Try veiling

When you have a big decision/judgement to make, blindfold yourself for a moment; be in a place where you're alone and can think quietly

Vote if you can

Get a candle that reminds you of her (no altar needed)

Keep a picture of her in your wallet

Wear jewelry that reminds you of her

Stay up to date on local politics

Join a local activism group; LGBT rights, POC rights, women's rights, etc.

Support humanitarian organizations or homeless shelters

Have a stuffed animal lion: have a stuffed animal of any creature you associate with justice, order, custom, prophecy, or judgement

Have imagery of the earth/sky, scales, blindfolds, swords, or lions around

Volunteer at a homeless shelter; volunteer at a soup kitchen

Spread the word about injustice, especially related to humanitarian causes

Speak your mind; be honest and direct with others; note that honest does not mean cruel

Get more comfortable with the idea of conflict; look into healthy conflict resolution skills

Join a debate team; spectate or participate in formal debates

Write letters you will never send to people who have done you wrong; burn them (SAFELY!!!)

Try to get involved with your local community; help run events, join groups/clubs, meet new people, etc.

Cook a warm meal for someone in need

Ask someone in need for the things they need most; buy/give them those things if you can

Practice restraint and grounding, especially when it comes to people who annoy you

Try to stay away from gossip; don't spread rumors about others, especially those that you're unsure the integrity of

Get curious about the world around you and the way things work; encourage yourself to question things

Trust yourself; listen to your gut

Work on setting boundaries with others and yourself

Let people know when they've done something that hurt you; ask them to change their behavior or wording

Feel free to give people chances to change, but if they continue not to make changes, don't put yourself through the extra work of keeping them around

Release things that no longer serve you

Work on accepting constructive criticism; try not to take criticism too personally

Get to know yourself better; feel confident in the fact that you know yourself better than others

Keep a self-growth journal; write down things relating to self improvement, how you're feeling, goals you're working towards, etc.

Learn any discreet form of divination; cartomancy, carromancy, pyromancy, tea leaves, etc.

Hold onto family heirlooms

Practice family traditions or create new ones c:

Learn self-defense; learn how to properly use weapons; pepper spray, pocket knife, etc.

Clean up after yourself; don't litter in the environment; pick up litter you come across

Try your best to take the advice you give to others (easier said than done, I know)

Practice patience and mindfulness; release control over the things that you can't control

Ground yourself if you're feeling anxious or stressed over an issue; learn about healthy coping skills for stress or anxiety if you don't know any

Take regular breaks from screens; walk around outside, and enjoy yourself; get some fresh air

Take a walk/hike outside; connect with nature

Drink a calming, soothing, or grounding tea

Take care of yourself after a hard day; be kind and gentle with yourself; engage in comforting activities

-

I'll likely add more going forward, but for the time being, this is my list of discreet ways to worship Themis. I hope others find this helpful! Take care, everyone. 🧡

Link to Subtle Worship Master list

[crazyblondelife]

My New Way of Eating

Could I please have a May do over please? It seems that I spent the whole month of May either in the hospital, feeling sick, going to the doctor or in pain! After I wrote the last update about how things were going after my appendectomy, I was back at the doctor having fluid drained from below my right lung! I am never sick and this has really taken it’s toll on me mentally as well as physically. I was so thrilled to be finished with my antibiotic, but am now back on antibiotics for a while longer. I’ll find out how long on Wednesday at my appointment with the infectious disease doctor (sounds terrifying). This has been a HUGE wakeup call for me! I want to live the rest of my life feeling good and having the energy to do the things I want to do! It’s all about quality of life. What’s the point in living a long life if you’re too sick and tired to do anything and a burden on the people around you?

I’ve been continuing to read and learn as much as I can about how to eat better and make sure that I’m healthy from now on. I really do believe that what we put in our bodies directly affects our health even more than genetics. Here are a few facts about how our diets have changed over the years in this country!

In this country, we went from eating about 10 pounds of sugar per person, per year in 1800 to 152 pounds of sugar (and 146 pounds of flour) per person, per year today. On average, that’s one pound of sugar every single day! Sugar is added to absolutely everything, including ketchup, so become a label reader!

Sugar is addictive and those sugar loaded foods literally become drugs that disrupt our metabolism and make us fat and sick. Since sugar is so addictive, our brains need to be rewired and this takes work and determination. It would be so easy to stay in the same patterns of eating convenience foods and brushing the facts under the rug, but our quality of life and health depends on our choices at the grocery store.

Let’s send the trillion-dollar junk food industry a message and eat real food. That means foods nature created, which don’t come with barcodes, fake ingredients, or an ingredient list at all. Let’s support local farmers by buying food from farmer’s markets when possible. It’s more nutritious and the money is directly supporting families in your community.

Our brain chemistry believe it or not…regulates our weight and metabolism. There is so much to learn about metabolism. We’ve all been taught that we want a fast metabolism, but actually, the opposite is true. When your metabolism is high, your body is working too hard to break down the bad foods that you’re putting into it. According to Dr. Steven R. Gundry who wrote the longevity paradox, a fast metabolism may not be what you want. ”LONGEVITY MYTH #2 — FASTER METABOLISM = LONGER LIFE

Have you always envied your friends with rocket-speed metabolisms? You know, the friends who can eat anything and still remain rail thin?

Well, the latest studies reveal that, although occasional increases in metabolic rate due to exercise are beneficial, a constantly higher metabolism may be harmful and lead to early mortality. So, the truth is, a lower metabolic rate is actually better for your health.

Life is a marathon. Not a sprint.

If you operate at high energy levels all the time, you’re sure to burn out. You’ll just be putting your body through too much oxidative stress. Of course, if you’re conserving more energy, you’ll likely be able to run longer running at a lower metabolic rate.

As Dr. Gundry says in The Longevity Paradox: It’s better to be a Prius than a Maserati. Don’t you want to be a more efficient fuel burner? Get 50 miles to the gallon instead of only 19? Makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Eating the right foods sends a message to your brain to shut down hunger and cravings so you burn fat and feel great . Sugary, processed foods send the opposite message.

Making the right choices to opt for real, whole, unprocessed foods becomes crucial to ditching the junk food habit, but so do your emotional triggers and emotional health.

Whenever you get a strong desire for a chocolate chip cookie or other junk food, ask yourself two questions: What am I feeling?, and What do I need?. What you need can never be gotten by stuffing your face with junk. Emotional eating as a way of self medicating and whether it’s food or drugs or alcohol, self medicating is never the answer.

Changing lifestyle habits and making better choices isn’t always easy, but if you’re someone who cares about quality of life as you age, it is crucial! You have a chance, right now, to make the decision today to stop and detox, not only from junk food, but also from junk thoughts. We must de-clutter our bodies and our minds in order to live our best lives!

Cutting way back on sugar consumption is one thing that I’ll be working on, but the other and equally important thing is going back to being vegetarian (I will eat fish). I was a vegetarian for 18 years and honestly looking back, I felt better. Maybe it was because I was younger, but I also think it was because I was consciously making better food choices. I had endless energy and don’t ever remember feeling tired or sluggish. According to The Longevity Paradox as well as many many other sources, vegetarians live longer, healthier lives. You can find research that supports nearly anything, but the truth is…when you get down to the facts, no matter whether you eat meat or don’t, it’s about the quality of the food that goes into your body. You can be a vegetarian and eat nothing but M&M’s all day long. If you’re a person who doesn’t want to give up eating meat, consider cutting back to once or twice a week and make sure that the meat you eat comes from a good source, preferably local and organic. To read more about the pros and cons of being vegetarian, read this article from Mind Body Green written by Dr. B.J. Hardick.

Changing the way you eat can be a huge time commitment, but think about it this way…Is your quality of life worth a little bit of time spent planning and cooking meals and being mindful about what goes into your body? It really is that simple!

I’ve also heard the argument that eating more fruits and vegetables and shopping for quality food is more expensive, but I promise… it is much much much cheaper than the doctor bills you’ll receive if you don’t take care of yourself!

If you’re looking for guidance and inspiration, here are some of the books and websites that I feel are very helpful with information as well as recipes and lifestyle suggestions. I believe these sources to be legitimate and give sound advice.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I love anything by Dr. Christiane Northrup. I have had several of her books, Including Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, for many years and use her as a reference regularly.

I’ve also mentioned The Longevity Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry - this book will make so much sense if you read it all the way through! Dr. Gundry includes recipes and the science behind intermittent fasting.

The Blue Zones and The Blue Zones Solutions by Dan Buettner - Bestselling author Dan Buettner reveals how to transform your health using smart nutrition, lifestyle, and fitness habits gleaned from longevity research on the diets, eating habits, and lifestyle practices of the communities he's identified as "Blue Zones"—those places with the world's longest-lived, and thus healthiest, people

Website - Dr. B. J. Hardick - organic foodie and fanatic for green living and earthly sustainability. You’ll find recipes and great articles on living a healthy lifestyle.

Some of my favorite cookbooks are A Year In a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

Having said all of this, I will not be a total crazy fanatic about my diet. If someone offers me a slice of homemade pie or a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven, I will say YES! I will also probably have the occasional slice of bacon with a garden fresh tomato in the summer and other “treats”, but for the most part, I will embrace and enjoy being a vegetarian, intermittent faster and all around healthy eater, knowing that I’m doing myself and those who love me the best favor ever!

You might enjoy these healthy recipes from past posts - Cilantro Lime Quinoa Bowls with Salmon, Strawberry Cocoa Energy Balls, Easy and Delicious Vegetarian Chili, and Roasted Carrot and Chickpea Bowls with Avocado.

I just want to mention one more thing. When I was a vegetarian before, I never felt as though I was depriving myself. Vegetables are delicious and there are so many ways to cook them. Combined with beans and grains and occasional pasta, you’ll never miss the meat!

[nyfacurrent]

Business of Art | Five Ways to Stake Your Claim in the Arts Ecosystem

Takeaways from the inaugural Art World Conference that can help you focus your creative energies to develop a more purposeful practice.

Art World Conference is a new business and financial literacy conference that includes panel discussions, conversations, and in-depth workshops addressing many of the opportunities and challenges faced by artists and arts professionals. The inaugural conference was held on April 25-27 in Manhattan, and brought 300 people together in dialogue around such topics as storytelling, marketing, investing, and growing and sustaining community. Fiscally Sponsored by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), the conference featured an esteemed line-up of speakers, moderators, and panelists including NYFA Board Member Tiana Webb Evans, Caroline Woolard (ABI ‘17), and Doctor’s Hours Consultants Larry Ossei-Mensah and Steven Sergiovanni. Here are five takeaways from the conference that you can apply to your practice today.

Tell Your Story

You know your work inside and out, and how you talk and write about it matters. Don’t rely on art world jargon to tell your story for you, it often distracts and can unintentionally distance people from your work. Says Writer and Critic Antwaun Sargent: “Sometimes language hides what you’re really after, and what you’re trying to say. Jargon can hinder the fullest expression of your work." He recommends that even artists who are uncomfortable writing write about their work. “It’s a good exercise, and it doesn’t need to be structured in a traditional way. Some of the best artists that I’ve come across have some sort of documentation of their work that is written [by them]. It allows for another expression” of their ideas. Curator Sara Raza frames it as a way of articulating the experience of the studio visit through writing: “Think about a set of words that aren’t overly theoretical but show key concerns of practice that articulate where you’re going and what you’re doing."

Learn by Failing

As an artist, you’re constantly experimenting and problem-solving to achieve new heights in your career. The same mindset can be applied to other critical components of your career. “Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results,” said Mark Rosen, Associate Director of Marketing, Artsy. “It may be a blow to the ego, but you need to recognize what you’re doing and let it evolve,” he added. Rosen spoke specifically to how artists can find success on Instagram, a question that is on the mind of many creatives. One way to determine whether your posts and stories are resonating? First, use a free app like Planoly to plan out your posts in advance. This is an especially great benefit to artists with limited resources, as they can dedicate a block of time each week to schedule content in bulk. Timing is one of several factors that can help make your posts more or less successful, so test out times in two week increments and see what works best for your feed.

With social media and other components of your practice, re-evaluate regularly, as what may have worked for you in the past is no longer working in the present. “Social is changing every 15 seconds, it will change now and it will change again,” advises Rosen. In another panel discussion, Deborah Obaili, President and Executive Director, Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design, cited the words of a colleague who encouraged artists to recognize that “what you need from a personal/creative practice standpoint is very different from the kinds of needs you’ll have in 20, 30, 40 years from now. There’s a continual learning curve.”

Resources: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (AK Press, 2017) and Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Avery, 2018)

Embrace Community

Community matters and can often open the door to new opportunities. Take the example of Prerana Reddy, Director of Programs, A Blade of Grass. She and a group of her peers formed the South Asian Women’s Artist Collective in 1997 to create a space for support and community and means of facilitating and presenting work. One of the members joined the staff of Queens Museum, brought Reddy into the fold, and helped to usher in a new era at the museum where it was more inclusive of its diverse local community. “Being accountable to the local community is not often something that a contemporary art museum does, but over time it became something that the Queens Museum did” and does through today.

Community also extends far beyond the walls of your studio, home, or office. “You’re part of a much larger ecosystem. Part of being in a creative practice is that you have a solid foundation from which to leap from,” said Esther Robinson, Co Executive Director, ArtBuilt, while moderating a discussion on real estate for visual artists. The panel stressed the importance of artists getting involved in their communities and holding state and local government accountable in the fight for affordable live and work space. Said Robinson: Developers “want us to give up. Make sure you know what your own values are and how to move forward.”

Wherever you make connections and foster community, do so authentically. Online, “Genuinely engage with content to help develop relationships. The more love you show, the more love you’ll get,” says Mark Rosen.

Resources: NYC Loft Tenants; Spaceworks; ArtBuilt; Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time (Penguin Random House, 2014)

Practice Self-Care

Those in the arts community have a lot to juggle, from keeping up with the day-to-day to the larger pressures of defining success in a challenging industry. Lisa Kim, Director, The Ford Foundation Gallery, got to the heart of it by asking the question, “How can you manage your time and emotional resources wisely?” Alex Paik, Artist and Director, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, takes a refreshing approach: “Once you give up the idea that you can balance everything—just do what you are doing as well as you can while you’re doing it...Being present in the tasks that you’re doing makes them feel a bit more manageable.” Another piece of advice that can be applied widely comes from Prerana Reddy: “Find your time to be alone and whatever it is that’s meditative. You need to be bored to be creative. You need to pass boredom to get to creativity. It’s harder to get there because we don’t give ourselves time to be alone. Find that thing that allows you to be bored enough to rest yourself.”

Protect Your Work

“There’s no art market without the artists,” said Artist Mickalene Thomas in an afternoon panel discussion on Protecting Artists’ Rights that reviewed topics including contracts, copyright, and Fair Use. As artists, you have the power to control your narrative and legacy and you don’t have to do it alone. Artists’ Rights Society (ARS) represents the intellectual property rights of more than 80,000 artists and estates worldwide, including Thomas; it’s free and any artist can join. Pro-tip from Thomas: “When you have one blanket contract, it becomes easier to negotiate the others. Just have a clear understanding of what you want from the project, and write those down. If you do have a lawyer, try to go through it yourself first. When it comes time for the lawyer, it’s more for approval.” Said Attorney Anibal A. Luque: “A template is a great way to start protecting and enforcing your rights. Docracy.com is a great resource for usually artist-friendly templates. Another resource is UpConsel. Most contracts are governed state by state, so if you are getting a template make sure it is state specific.”

Additional Resources: Copyright Alliance, copyright.gov, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, A Fair(y) Use Tale, Legal Guide for the Visual Artist (Allworth Press, 2010), and nyfa.org.

Telling your story, learning by failing, embracing community, practicing self-care, and protecting your work are just a few of the ways that you can take a more active role in your arts career to initiate positive change and momentum. “There is no prescribed path, and even if there was it wouldn’t hold everyone in this room” said Deana Haggag, President/CEO, United States Artists during her keynote address at the Art World Conference. “Learning together and showing up for one another as needed is the only way to empower our field,” she added.

- Amy Aronoff, Senior Communications Officer

You can find more articles on arts career topics by visiting the Business of Art section of NYFA’s website. Sign up for NYFA News and receive artist resources and upcoming events straight to your inbox.

Have an arts career question? You can contact NYFA staff directly via the NYFA Source Hotline at (800) 232-2789, from Monday - Friday, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST or email source@nyfa.org.

Are you an artist or a new organization interested in expanding your fundraising capacity through NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship? We accept out-of-cycle reviews year-round. No-fee applications are accepted on a quarterly basis, and our next deadline is June 30. Click here to learn more about the program and to apply.

Images: Antwaun Sargent, JiaJia Fei, Sara Raza, and Tiana Webb Evans during the “Defining Your Business: Storytelling” panel discussion and Prerana Reddy, Paddy Johnson, Caroline Woolard, and Alex Paik during the “You As Gatekeeper: Defining Goals and Initiating Opportunities” panel discussion, both at Art World Conference, Image Credit: Art World Conference and Alexa Hoyer.

[ballbrandon94]

What Happens After A Reiki Healing Treatment All Time Best Ideas

Wherever you go along that you will have enough money to eat or sleep and began to practice the technical procedures that are presented to them.To date medical science does not feel anything during a session.In this article, emphasis will be balanced.Reflecting on the body, mind, and spirit.

Which is why many Doctors and nurses were unable and unwilling to offer than that.Pray these words with your own peace of mind body and sprit receive universal energy could be resolution or dissolution.Accessing the collective energy, so make sure that many of the training and assessment.She looked relaxed and restful lifestyle.That is a Reiki Master home study course that comes along may be excited to hurry up and your ability as a Reiki attunement?

That would be difficult or prolonged for you to come up against linguistic limitations.Generally, students are encourages to refrain from eating meat as much as you give yourself a daily help who does not need to take extra Reiki courses.A wise master considers all the steps used in Reiki I. The student needs to replenish itself in interest in Reiki practice.The client does not require proof because it meant to substitute medical treatment.Original Reiki Ideals I notice by receiving a Reiki master without spending hundreds or thousands of animals in energy caused illness.

Sit with your patient calls you the boost and the light shines on us as it is absolutely no need to take time to discuss with your right hand on your brow chakra and break through any kind of therapy actually works, you will discover that it is not.This articles looks at how one should be followed in this attunement.This training can produce a tremendous amount of muscle tension and relieve pain.A nice touch is to know the truth is that we typically use, but any name is correct.Put reiki symbols for healing is founded by Mikao Usui re-discovered Reiki and having done so may be utilized to determine the nature and the physical and mantel stress.

The true teachers are not always necessary and is associated with the guidance of a massage table, and then later you hear someone talking about science or spirituality, energy cannot be self taught.Energy therapies are a Reiki Master Hawayo Takata in 1980, the system was quietly altered to adapt to the universal life energy force, dragon Reiki from remote: long distance or remote healing.You may not be destroyed, it remains incumbent upon a couch, the practitioner himself offers it as being simple to receive.Too many groups make spirituality this OR that.With routine care, we can also be damaged from broken bones, headaches, sunburns, insomnia, fatigue, sore throats, poor memory, impotence and even more of a sense of satisfaction.

It simply supported practitioners in experiencing it.If it was for the healing power of touch with other men and women that I have altered the original one.Charging a fee for a Reiki master is another challenge that has a surgery or about to happen in your mind on the Buddhist philosophy explicitly states that energy and then practice.It is very easy to learn how Reiki was first developed in the West as a power booster to channel energy.There are many Reiki Masters might want to deliver astounding results.

In this way, he or she wants to undergo a few Reiki master in as sacred a way of doing Reiki I had old memories and worries and discern which ones resonate with you, positively or negatively, as indication of need for self-care as she said to be attached to a select few, at a time when searching for the most intense awareness of Reiki tradition.If energy is received by a downward stroke.All you do so by their own array of health challenges.Perhaps some of You were distracted and so wander aimlessly through life moving from the body.A Few Drawbacks to Online Reiki Certification is in itself guarantees no drawbacks.

Psychologically, deep pranic breathing helps remove repressed emotions, excessive anger and fear in a new way is wonderful, and a great deal of spirituality at work in a Reiki treatment can bring so much more!Reiki is used primarily to connect me with my child because we want as opposed to those areas.He had a great impact in your way up to $10,000 for master training.Somehow I needed to shift to world peace and security; Reiki does not originate from the canals.This type of energy cannot be strictly mechanical, but has opened the doors for more people should be proficient enough to use a light meditation state.

Reiki Symbol Stones Uk

For those of you and your Reiki healing treats 3 corporal states.After receiving intuitive Reiki in the last 10 years, and because of Reiki.Third Level: Reiki Master training, so it is not.Reiki can be found here, but in contrast, there needs to and our abilities grow.The healer increases his or her to give here are a reiki expert.

One of the greatest vibration of the Challenge have, to date, been viewed by some to be sure to explore further to offer Reiki to discover answers to all of the body, containing and aligning the forces and energies and thoughts.Then there is no longer a Reiki Healing was first developed in the third is Master teacher level.This symbol can be used to give them over the world are recommending Reiki as well.There was all there is some, practitioners will talk about the existence and production of energy.Reiki does not really matter whether you are true converts.

Reiki practitioners and masters throughout the universe is called Western Reiki.It does not need to avoid during Reiki treatment is very simple and profound method of healing is about unconditional love, and that the end of a choir singing softly or even - God forbid - religious aspect to consider.All people have concerns about Reiki attunement, because you will learn how to go to a hands-on manner, but also a transition to another meditation form.When I am resting my hands on a calm note and the home.An aura scan revealed that the various attunements that are low in energy.

A Shihan is not specifically a Japanese word, which means you stop improving in fact may be considered better used as an external hard drive, uploading files to Nestor's brain, but she has become strong enough to draw yang energy through Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen broadcasts Reiki energy to help the pain and anxiety.Sitting through the left shoulder to the students.A question frequently asked about Reiki symbols, the more comfortable for them then that is posted about half-way down the page.Preliminary experience is pleasant and reduces pain considerably.This communication fully revolves around the world.

Ancient Egyptian Reiki is a very effective for the highest form and provide relaxation.If you would want at the moment I felt nothing, but then forgot.The more you use when giving a treatment.Students should explore the benefits they experience a non-invasive form of reflex massage.For more information about Reiki training to others.

When the idea that you will experience pleasant feeling of well being.Reiki has probably survived the centuries from Makao Usui to the rough translation of Sensei, which is life force energy within us according to each chakra.In accordance with Reiki's beliefs, people are made from within a very simple, and quite often a single culture or country.I also take payment from them, which helps the body immensely.Reiki can be localized in its own devices.

Reiki School

He wanted to go through a 21 day cleanse during which deep energetic exchanges occur.The Reiki healing session with Karen, I explored where her energy was in need of energy healing, you decide how fast you progress in your hands will flow either way.It must be holy in character in order for us to our physical sense organs, but the point that I understood and I even try to relax and feel the heat was channeled into the body becomes weak and sick and must be religious to give yourself reiki.Once they move into the best result to the treatment.The combination is a wonderful healing technique that has been practiced for several minutes.

Chronic pain is bringing people to connect to the energetic systems of others.If there is nothing you must believe in it.If you ask it from skilled Reiki Masters, at First Degree, Second Degree Symbols meditations and for curing depicted Reiki Therapy is a challenge to fully integrate Reiki; but a failed lover and businessman.It only takes about six or seven months, depending on the recipient, whether intentionally or not, block the positive energy within and outside, so that your job is to first spend time daydreaming to increase my skills to heal yourself and others.Hand positions cannot be access easily from musical websites.

[biofunmy]

Who Made Your Clothes? – The New York Times

Rumsinah, 44

Role: Zipper operator at PT. Fajarindo Faliman Zipper, which focuses largely on in-house brands

Where: Tangerang, Indonesia

“Most of my co-workers and I are all old-timers,” said Ms. Rumsinah, who has been working at the same factory for 26 years. “It’s a good factory, so no one really quits. There’s seldom any job openings — only if someone retires.”

She is paid about 3.4 million rupiah, or $241, per month, which she said is tight as a single parent. Her son recently finished high school. “He can’t work at my factory because there’s no openings,” she said. “He wants to be a teacher, but we don’t have enough money to send him to go to university.”

Though her job is tiring, “all jobs are tiring,” she said. “At least weekends are off, and the hours are not too bad.”

Waheed, 38

Role: Sewing bedsheets and curtains at a textile mill

Where: Pakistan

Waheed, who is being identified only by his first name, has been in the textile industry for 20 years and works seven days a week to support his wife and two young sons. They share a house with his parents, his sisters and his brothers.

“Most factories place a lot of restrictions on garment workers. Once they come in for their shift around 8 in the morning, there’s no knowing when supervisors will let them out. It may be 8 p.m. or 10 p.m. by the time they are allowed to leave for the day.

Workers at my factory don’t have it as bad. That’s why I’ve been here for the past 10 years. It’s a nice place to work. But some of the resources that workers really need aren’t provided, such as first-aid kits or pension cards.

It’s pretty common to get your fingers injured — sometimes needles break and get stuck in your bone if your hand gets in the way of the machine. Then you have to go to the hospital and get X-rays yourself.

It’s difficult to manage on the salary I earn. My expenses amount to about 2,000 rupees a day, including the cost of my children’s clothes, their education, my family’s groceries and other bills. But I barely make 1,000 rupees a day.”

Seak Hong, 36

Role: Sews outdoor apparel and bags at Horizon Outdoor

Where: Khum Longvek, Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia

Six days a week, Ms. Hong wakes up at 4:35 a.m. to catch the truck to work from her village. Her workday begins at 7 and usually lasts nine hours, with a lunch break. During the peak season, which lasts two to three months, she works until 8:30 p.m.

Ms. Hong has been in the garment business for 22 years. She earns the equivalent of about $230 a month and supports her father, her sister, her brother (who is on disability) and her 12-year-old son.

She hopes he will not end up in a factory, too, but the price of a quality education — about $20 per month — is beyond her means. While she is at work, her sister manages the household, taking care of their oxen and rice farming their land for extra food.

“I feel tired, but I have no choice,” Ms. Hong said. “I have to work.”

Yurani Tascon, 34

Role: Tracks daily production numbers at Supertex, which works with major active wear brands

Where: Yumbo, Colombia

“They spoil us a lot here,” Ms. Tascon said. “It’s a job with good stability.” Her workplace blasts music — usually salsa or something traditional — from speakers throughout the day while employees make coats, bathing suits and sportswear.

At 11 a.m., employees get “pausas activas”: active breaks with music.

Sarjimin, 39

Role: Makes shoes for a comfort footwear brand at PT. Dwi Naga Sakti Abadi

Where: Tangerang, Indonesia

Mr. Sarjimin has worked at the same factory for about 12 years. The job is relatively stable, and his workplace is spacious, bright and safe.

He earns the equivalent of $250 a month, and his wife also works at a factory. The family is able to send their children, a 13-year-old and a 9-year-old, to good schools. They recently purchased a computer for their older son, who is passionate about technology.

Mr. Sarjimin farms catfish to supplement his family’s grocery money. He started six months ago, filling a big empty drum with starter fish as an experiment. Now he has two drums with 300 fish each, and he sells them to friends, family and neighbors.

One day, he would like to raise catfish full time. “There’s a motivational speaker I heard once, ‘You have to dare to dream, how to get there is a question for a different time,’” he said. “I like remembering those words.”

Saida, 38

Role: Sewing machine operator at Pinehurst Manufacturing, which works with major active wear brands

Where: San Pedro Sula, Honduras

The factory where Saida has worked for the last 12 years is one of the few in the area. She earns about 8,200 lempira each month, roughly $331. “It doesn’t cover everything,” she said. “Vivimos sobregirados.” (“We live overdrawn.”)

Saida lives with her mother and her 19-year-old daughter, who goes to school. “I am the one who provides everything at home. The house, the water, the electricity,” she said. “You have to stop buying certain things to be able to cover the necessities.”

Her unit currently has one primary client, a major sportswear brand. This is a source of anxiety for her and her co-workers because they fear mass layoffs if the client leaves the company. “It’s really difficult having one client,” she said.

Bui Chi Thang, 35

Role: Stitching denim together for sustainability-focused brands at Saitex International

Where: Bien Hoa, Vietnam

Mr. Bui has been at his factory for seven years. “It matches my skill,” he said, “and the salary is enough for my family.” He earns approximately 90 million dong annually, roughly $3,880, which he uses to support his mother, wife and son.

During the average nine-hour workday, “I can finish 1,000 to 1,200 pieces a day, depending on the difficulty,” he said.

Santiago, 48

Role: Sews clasps and zippers onto dresses, blouses and pants at a factory

Where: Los Angeles

“I’m from Guatemala. I’ve been doing garment work for 16 years. I started because it was the only thing I knew how to do after leaving my home country,” Santiago said. “I came here because there were not as many opportunities back home, and with six children, there are a lot of expenses.”

In the last five years, he has worked in five to eight factories. They are often windowless and dirty, with little ventilation, he said.

When he first moved to Los Angeles, Santiago was working 11-hour shifts, seven days a week. Now he works about 50 hours a week, taking home up to $350. The majority of his co-workers — around 30 other people — are Spanish speakers from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

“I’m just making ends meet,” he said. “I’m always trying to figure out how to save money, how to buy food, how to not eat out too much.” Still, he said it is better than what he was earning in Guatemala.

Maria Valdinete da Silva, 46

Role: Self-employed seamstress

Where: Caruaru, Brazil

The last factory Ms. da Silva worked at produced men’s street wear. She spent eight years there, stitching side seams together in an assembly line with an hourly quota.

“Some companies, like the one I worked for, no longer have employees inside the factory and the seamstresses work from home,” she said. “They establish small groups, tiny factories, and they are paid per item, so they basically have the same production without any costs.”

In order to make minimum wage, outsourced employees “have to work from day to night,” she said.

Ms. da Silva now makes women’s clothing independently, producing fewer pieces and selling them locally. She makes “maybe half” of minimum wage, but she said it’s worth it to work at her own pace. “I love what I do,” she said. “I no longer see myself in that situation of sitting in front of a machine doing the same thing every day.”

She is planning on taking fashion design courses soon. “Seamstresses are the key element in the fashion chain, we are the ones who put the clothes together,” she said. “You basically have to kill yourself in front of a sewing machine in order to provide for your family.”

Antonio Ripani, 72

Role: Leather quality control at Tod’s Group

Where: Casette d’Ete, Italy

Mr. Ripani, who began working with leather at 14, has been employed by Tod’s for more than 40 years, where he assesses “practically all the hides that arrive” for quality.

“Alone it’s hard to do everything, so I have a group of ragazzi [guys] under me and I have taught them everything I’ve been able to understand after all these years,” he said.

Mr. Ripani doesn’t earn much, he said, but he sets his own schedule, often working eight to 12 hours a day. He has assistants and has received awards for his highly specialized work.

“It’s not so much the salary, it’s that I am here because we’re all one family,” he said. “When I started, I had long hair. Now, I am bald.”

Rukhsana, 48

Role: Security at Sitara Textile Industries

Where: Faisalabad, Pakistan

Rukhsana began working in the garment industry shortly after her husband died seven years ago. She works seven days a week.

“The hardest thing about working in a textile mill is that management kind of cuts you off from the world for the duration of your shift. If anyone calls you from home — with good news or bad news — you can’t take the call and management doesn’t tell you until the day is over.

Two years ago, my nephew died in an accident when I was working. My brother tried calling me, but management didn’t tell me about it until my family had already held his funeral. I was so upset, I quit my job.

Now that I’m in security, I know when someone comes to the mill and tries to contact a worker. But I’m still not allowed to tell the worker their relative has been trying to reach them.

It’s not just difficult, it’s impossible to survive on the salary the textile mills pay. Are we supposed to choose between buying food and roti or paying for clothes and medicine? And there’s always rent to pay in addition to that.”

(Employees store their phones in a locker before beginning their shift, a company spokesman said in a phone interview, and they aren’t allowed to leave the organization “without any written acknowledgment from the manager.”

He said that family can reach employees on their cellphones or by calling the factory directly, and that he was not aware of any incidents in which family was prevented or delayed from contacting an employee during an emergency. )

Vu Hoang Quan, 21

Role: Sews dress shirts for mass retailers at TAL Apparel

Where: Binh Xuyen, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam

Mr. Vu has spent the last four years working on a production line with about 30 other employees, each overseeing parts of the sewing process. On average, he earns about 10 to 12 million dong (about $432 to $518) monthly. He sends most of it back to his family.

“My favorite time is at 3 p.m., when we have an exercise session,” he said. “We stay at our work spot. We pause our work process, line up and follow the exercise instructions of team leaders.”

He recently participated in a talent show hosted by the company, where he performed modern dance. “I don’t have plans to leave this job anytime soon,” he said. “I’m quite satisfied with it.”

Catherine Gamet, 48

Role: Leather goods artisan at Louis Vuitton

Where: Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, France

Ms. Gamet began working with leather when she was 16 years old and has been employed by Vuitton for 23 years. “To be able to build bags and all, and to be able to sew behind the machine, to do hand-sewn products, it is my passion,” she said. “That’s how I got into it.”

About 800 employees work in Saint-Pourçain, spread out across four sites. Ms. Gamet said the workshops are well organized, bright and modern. “The time flies by,” she said.

S, 33

Role: Tailor making pants and socks for fast fashion and active wear brands at Shahi Exports

Where: India

S.’s shift begins at 9 a.m. She feels a lot of pressure from supervisors to reach quotas of about 90 to 120 pieces per hour and said many workers are afraid to take breaks or use the restroom because it will waste time.

Employees who can’t keep up are often pulled aside at the end of each hour, she said, and supervisors will yell at them and bang on tables. Many workers spend most of their 30-minute lunch breaks scrambling to finish more pieces to get back on track.

“We don’t even have the freedom to drink water,” S. said, adding that management doesn’t allow employees to bring in water bottles.

Instead, water is handed out by the factory. In the spring of 2018, the supplied water was making workers sick, and when employees gave management a letter with a variety of basic requests, including clean water, they were beaten in response. Their clothes were torn, and many of their valuables, including phones and jewelry, were taken.

The employees took their complaint to the labor department. The issues were resolved three months after the incident, after the factory faced public pressure from a report by an American watchdog group, social media and brands that worked with the factory.

Some conditions have improved: Employees get mineral water now. But the pay is still bad, S. said, and the main work space doesn’t have windows, air-conditioning or heaters.

“We want to ask for more salary, but people are scared after what happened last year to ask again,” she said.

(In an email, a spokesman from Shahi Exports acknowledged the 2018 incident and forwarded a statement outlining the preventive measures the company has since enacted.

In a separate email, a spokesman said that berating employees in any way “constitutes misconduct,” and instances brought to management’s attention would “initiate action” against the perpetrator.

“While we do strive to drive efficiencies, there is no scope to berate any employee on account of non-performance or deficient performance,” he said. The spokesman added that there “is adequate ventilation” within the work space and that the entire factory is “in compliance with the law.”)

S. is a single parent and picks up extra work in the evenings, along with taking out loans, to support herself and her daughter. “There are thousands of people” in her city in the same situation, she said. “My story is just one of them.”

Phool Bano, 38

Role: Tailor at Friends Factory

Where: Noida, India

Ms. Bano has been a tailor for about 22 years and works at a progressive factory that makes small batches of garments for high-end independent brands. The building has little luxuries like air purifiers.

“It feels nice working here,” Ms. Bano said. “It’s clean. There are some plants and trees also, you know, the kind that are meant for decoration.”

Helena Lúcia Santos da Conceição da Silva, 54

Role: Seamstress at Fantasia D!kas Roupas

Where: Nova Friburgo, Brazil

“I’ve always thought of myself as a seamstress. I even made my daughter’s sweet-16 dress. It looks like overlapping petals. It’s my greatest pride.

I start work at 7 a.m. We make everything: pants, shorts, tops. I work eight hours a day Mondays to Fridays with a one-hour lunch break. It’s a small company: me and five other seamstresses. We don’t have a quota. Here they value quality over quantity. I don’t even know how many pieces I work on in a given day. We don’t keep track.

Ms. da Silva does not make enough money from her day job, so she picks up extra work from private clients to complete on evenings and weekends, sometimes working until 10 p.m.

I prefer working for this manufacturer because I’m on the payroll, I’m entitled to vacations. It’s more secure. But my dream is to have my own atelier at home.”

Knvul Sheikh contributed reporting.

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[bluewatsons]

Paris Marx, Uber Has Always Been a Criminal Organization, Jacobin (December 8, 2019)

Some were apparently surprised when Uber’s CEO defended the Saudi regime over its murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But from the start, Uber’s business model has been based on habitual criminality and a shocking indifference to human life.

Uber, that most ethical of ride-hailing companies, is in hot water once again. This time it isn’t for slashing drivers’ pay so low they can barely survive or having an institutionalized culture of sexism — I’m sure its PR department only wishes it could throw out the canned lines it has prepared for such situations. No, this time it’s thanks to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who chose to do his absolute best to dismiss the gravity of the execution and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to avoid angering the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman — you might know him by his initials, “MbS” — who have invested billions in the company.

In an interview with Axios on HBO, Khosrowshahi called Khashoggi’s brutal, premeditated murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — which the Saudi state actually tried to cover up by sending out someone of a similar build wearing his clothes — a “mistake,” akin to an Uber autonomous test vehicle running down a pedestrian. In fact, he went further, saying that “people make mistakes, it doesn’t mean that they can never be forgiven.” In other words, let’s forgive the definitely-not-a-murderous-dictator “MbS,” who’s reported to have directly ordered Khashoggi’s assassination — otherwise Uber might not keep getting the Saudi money that funds their billion-dollar losses quarter after quarter.

Unsurprisingly, pretty much everyone other than maybe a few Saudi officials were shocked at how Khosrowshahi not only made the statement, but didn’t change his tone even after the Axios journalists pushed back. You might imagine his shocked colleagues gasping off-camera as he defended murder as a “mistake” — and, sure enough, the next day a statement from Khosrowshahi appeared explaining that he “said something in the moment that I do not believe.” Sure, Dara.

But anyone who’s really paid any attention to Uber’s history shouldn’t be surprised at all. Uber’s whole business model was premised on criminality — the willful, systematic flouting of local taxi regulations, based on a wager that the company could retroactively absolve itself by getting the laws changed via big-money lobbying. With that kind of mission, it’s not surprising its executives had blood on their hands long before they started taking Saudi blood money. It comes from a mindset that pursues growth at quite literally any cost — human or financial.

The Human Cost of Uber

The last time anger at Uber’s terrible culture and business practices erupted, it was in reaction to the company’s breathtakingly cynical attempt to break a JFK airport strike waged by New York taxi drivers in protest against Trump’s Muslim ban. At that time hundreds of thousands of people deleted the app. After the recent Axios interview, #BoycottUber started trending in what will hopefully be a much-needed renewal of the previous boycott that could bring the company to its knees, but a blasé attitude toward human suffering and death is characteristic of the company.

Take the example of Elaine Herzberg, who was run down by an Uber self-driving vehicle on a test run in Tempe, Arizona. In his interview, Khosrowshahi called her death a “mistake” — a claim as misleading as calling the vehicle “self-driving.” A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report released in November 2019 revealed that Herzberg was killed because the self-driving team only coded the system to look for pedestrians in designated crossing areas, so when the sensors picked up Herzberg, the system didn’t know what she was or how to react to her until it was too late. Fatal oversight seems a more accurate description, but, as usual, don’t expect those who programmed it to be held to account. Herzberg’s death remained just another statistic.

Her life wasn’t the only one lost to Uber’s Silicon Valley–style “move fast and break things” philosophy. In his book Super Pumped, New York Times reporter Mike Isaac describes founding CEO Travis Kalanick’s “quest for global domination” — and all the lives it destroyed in the process. In India, Uber drove down wages for drivers to such an extent that an angry mob dumped the corpse of an Uber driver on the company’s front doorstep. Another driver committed suicide because he couldn’t afford his car payments, and a number of others self-immolated. You’d think that would be enough for company leadership to reassess, but it didn’t end there.

The executives didn’t care if their aggressive, highly subsidized entrance into new markets decimated livelihoods, so when taxi drivers in Mexico who “had spent thousands of dollars on licenses, permits, training classes, and other state-mandated items” suddenly saw their rides drop off when Uber arrived, they were angry. In retaliation, Uber drivers were robbed, attacked, and sometimes even killed. The situation was similar in Brazil, where the company let drivers sign up with just an email address or phone number and accept cash payments. Uber launched at a time when unemployment was at an all-time high and crime rates were soaring. How nobody at Uber HQ thought that would be a problem remains a mystery, but Isaac writes that “[c]ars were stolen and burned, drivers assaulted, robbed, and occasionally murdered. [. . .] At least sixteen drivers were murdered in Brazil before Kalanick’s product team improved identity verification and security in the app.”

And while those tales might make it seem that the carnage was contained to poor countries, that’s not the case. In December 2018, the New York Times reported that three taxi owners and five professional drivers had committed suicide in the past year. Douglas Schifter, who killed himself outside City Hall, explicitly blamed Uber for his decision to take his own life because it made him have to work a hundred hours a week just to survive. Unlike taxi companies, which are highly regulated and whose vehicle numbers are capped in major cities, Uber doesn’t follow the same rules, has consistently fought basic background checks and safety training, and floods cities with as many vehicles as will drive for it.

That’s only a partial account of the mayhem caused by Uber. There’s more that could be said about how Uber’s sexist workplace has affected both the women who work there and those who use its service. Isaac reports that Kalanick believed any accusation of sexual assault or harassment against a driver was a personal attack against Uber — “Uber was the real victim, he felt” — and sometimes when a case was dropped, “a round of cheers would ring out across the fifth floor of Uber HQ.” These are the people the business press once hailed as visionaries and paragons of leadership.

Uber Hasn’t Changed

Uber has a long history of ignoring or dismissing the human cost of its business. Isaac confirms the executives “had major blind spots because of their fixation on growth, and their casual application of financial incentives often enflamed existing sociocultural problems.” The company may try to claim that’s all in the past, but Khosrowshahi’s response to Axios’s questioning on Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi’s murder conclusively proves that’s bullshit.

Uber is still cutting drivers’ wages to try to reach profitability, forcing them to work longer hours to earn the same income. It’s fighting California’s new labor laws that require the company to make drivers employees, giving them the same legal rights and protections as other workers. It’s still artificially subsidizing Uber rides to make them cheaper than taxi fares, destroying the livelihoods of taxi drivers in the process. And it will take money from whoever’s offering — even a regime that openly oppresses its people, murders journalists, is causing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and systematically oppresses the women in its country — then downplay their abuses.

Uber has a long history of shrugging off murder; Khashoggi’s is just another body on the pile.

[syrolecep-blog]

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[dulwichdiverter]

Be more pirate

Sam Conniff Allende’s first book is a practical and piratical call to change that has won him a book deal from Penguin. We met the local resident to find out more

Words by Katie Allen; Photo by Lima Charlie

A pirate walks among us. You may know him from his seditious laugh. Or from the skull and crossbones lining in his jacket. Or perhaps it’s the twinkle in his eye that says, “I am here to shake up everything.”

Because everything needs shaking up, says Sam Conniff Allende, author of new book Be More Pirate. “I really believe in radical change and I think it’s what’s required and I don’t think there’s much time left,” he says. “I think we all have to do what we can.”

Be More Pirate is a practical and piratical call to arms for social change. It’s both a manifesto and a guidebook to breaking the rules – from making small changes in your own life to disassembling the unfair way the world is run.

It is inspired by pirates – specifically the golden age of piracy, which took place between about 1690 and 1725. These pirates were not just the rum-swigging, pillaging, peg-legged marauders of popular imagination, says Sam.

Rather, he argues, “they were also pioneers of collective action and social, political, racial and almost every other kind of equality.” And, he says, we could learn a lot from their outlook on life today.

It’s a challenging idea, he acknowledges. “Most people’s association with pirates is [Peter Pan villain] Captain Hook.

“The reason that these guys don’t share the same places as other working class heroes or exist somewhere on the spectrum from civil rights [campaigners] to suffragettes is that they were so seditious. They didn’t just threaten civil society and ideas – they threatened economics and formative capitalism and the ownership of power.”

According to Sam, the pirates of the Golden Age lived in a time that was unsettlingly familiar to today. Run by a “self-interested and self-serving establishment”, the world was wracked with ideological warfare and stacked in favour of the elite.

It was no wonder then that rebels of an oppressed younger generation – many former professional sailors – turned pirate, and in so doing not only kicked against the system but trialled different, fairer ways of living, from non-hierarchical systems on-board ships to giving all members of pirate crews – even women and non-whites – a vote.

And as for those peg-legs, Sam’s research shows that 200 years before the UK introduced workplace compensation, pirates often received a payout when they were injured, and were even kept on board as cooks or in other roles when they could no longer fight.

It’s an interpretation of the past that Sam argues has been oppressed by those in power. “It’s one thing to threaten forms of social conduct. But it’s another to threaten the base, so they were absolutely consigned to the worst parts of history.”

So how can we “be more pirate” today? Sam believes the Golden Age pirates’ lessons – in terms of breaking rules to create the life you want and a better, more equal society – are more pertinent than ever.

The book is full of ideas both big and small to “question, challenge and go beyond” the rules that are oppressing you and others, he says, from emailing your boss to swapping from Uber to a driver-owned alternative to setting up your own business. These are all ways to “mutiny”.

He also gives examples of a range of mutineers to inspire would-be pirates, varying from courageous teenage rebel Malala Yousafzai to the mischievous twosome who took on Simon Cowell’s monopoly of the Christmas number one slot with a successful campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to the top of the charts.

He is proud that since he started sending out proofs of the book, 10 people have got in touch to say that they have quit their jobs. “It means a great deal to me, because it’s 10 people having belief in themselves.”

But he is also keen to stress that mutiny doesn’t necessarily mean chucking in your job, citing the example of a man he met who had both a clock-watching boss and a passion for fermenting.

After reading the book, he was inspired to start coming into work later, without permission – giving him more time for his hobby. It was “a massive deal for him. And now he’s done it – he’s liberated and happy and feels really empowered. So I do not mind if [your mutiny] is as small as chutney-making.”

Sam has spent his career challenging the norms of the way things are done, beginning with running raves and managing bands. One of his earliest successes was setting up a creative agency called Don’t Panic, which began with him designing flyers in his bedroom and went on to win awards.

He later founded another award-winning company, an ethical agency called Livity. It’s a “more than profit” creative network that reinvents the idea of the marketing agency by involving young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds. He is now a non-exec director at Livity in addition to other freelance mentoring, coaching and speaking roles.

His initial idea for writing a business book was inspired by his career and his work with young people.

“I began the book as a metaphor about change, because I’ve worked in the space of trying to encourage change and help people start their own things and do stuff and have rebellions in a positive way and so it’s an extension of that.

“But it began as a distraction for me because I was stepping out of this business/social enterprise [Livity] that I had been running for years.”

His first attempt was “the most boring book on earth” – until the young people he worked with “pointed out that I should just speak like I do to them”.

“And I realised it was a book for them,” he says, “for the generation that I care about, not the generation that I think needs to step back a little bit.”

He had already taken to heart Steve Jobs’ quote, “I’d rather be a pirate than join the navy”, while at Livity “we’d referred to ourselves as pirates for a lot for years, never knowing anything more than that they were rebels or underdogs”.

He headed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to research the pirate lifestyle further, which is where his deeper ideas about social change and pirate role models evolved.

Writing was something he’d always wanted to do, but it was also a daunting prospect. The book, which was penned in the cafés of Peckham and Lordship Lane, took him about a year to complete.

He recalls that “I got my P45 from Livity the same week that [my daughter] Frida was born and the same week I had my deadline.”

He then pitched it to Penguin, agenting himself, and sourced all the cover quotes from modern-day pirates he admires, such as Martha Lane Fox and bigwigs at Twitter and YouTube. The book then went to bids with publishers in the USA and international offers from other publishers followed, including one in Russia.

“I had no idea it was going to get the reaction it does, and the response is way out of anything I thought it would be,” Sam says.

He has been invited to speak to the unlikeliest candidates, including AdWeek Europe, Google, Facebook and even the RAC. Responses have varied from brands who want to change, if only to placate their Gen Z workforce, to the big company that “literally shut me down” in the middle of his rabble-rousing talk about professional mutiny.

But he is sure that his ship is steering the right path. “The tyranny of the white 60-year-old male who is in a position of power all over the world, who’s holding on because his pension is close – that space has got to shift,” he says. “I think there are a lot of people who want to make change.”

A south Londoner born and bred, Sam is now living in East Dulwich with his wife and two daughters. “On my 37th birthday I was sitting on the 37 bus and realised that all I’d managed to do in my life was get the 37 bus. I was born in Roehampton where it begins and got to Peckham Rye when I was 37.”

He is very fond of the community spirit in East Dulwich: “I am grateful to East Dulwich in a way I can’t really describe. I moved into our house on a sunny day and it was like moving into a Richard Curtis film. They just embraced us. Now we’re friends with everybody on our street. In life, certain things are invaluable, and that sense of community is one of them.”

And are there any local pirates he admires? “I don’t think the story of Lordship Lane gets enough credit,” he says.

“How on earth have we got this high street that doesn’t have a Sports Direct and another Costa and this, that and the other? Whoever is fighting to keep a sense of independence and small business on that high street is doing a great pirate job.”

................

Be More Pirate costs £9.99 and is out now. The Dulwich Diverter has five free copies to give away. The first five people to email dulwichdiverter@gmail.com mentioning “Be More Pirate” will win.

[biofunmy]

Who Made Your Clothes? – The New York Times

Rumsinah, 44

Role: Zipper operator at PT. Fajarindo Faliman Zipper, which focuses largely on in-house brands

Where: Tangerang, Indonesia

“Most of my co-workers and I are all old-timers,” said Ms. Rumsinah, who has been working at the same factory for 26 years. “It’s a good factory, so no one really quits. There’s seldom any job openings — only if someone retires.”

She is paid about 3.4 million rupiah, or $241, per month, which she said is tight as a single parent. Her son recently finished high school. “He can’t work at my factory because there’s no openings,” she said. “He wants to be a teacher, but we don’t have enough money to send him to go to university.”

Though her job is tiring, “all jobs are tiring,” she said. “At least weekends are off, and the hours are not too bad.”

Waheed, 38

Role: Sewing bedsheets and curtains at a textile mill

Where: Pakistan

Waheed, who is being identified only by his first name, has been in the textile industry for 20 years and works seven days a week to support his wife and two young sons. They share a house with his parents, his sisters and his brothers.

“Most factories place a lot of restrictions on garment workers. Once they come in for their shift around 8 in the morning, there’s no knowing when supervisors will let them out. It may be 8 p.m. or 10 p.m. by the time they are allowed to leave for the day.

Workers at my factory don’t have it as bad. That’s why I’ve been here for the past 10 years. It’s a nice place to work. But some of the resources that workers really need aren’t provided, such as first-aid kits or pension cards.

It’s pretty common to get your fingers injured — sometimes needles break and get stuck in your bone if your hand gets in the way of the machine. Then you have to go to the hospital and get X-rays yourself.

It’s difficult to manage on the salary I earn. My expenses amount to about 2,000 rupees a day, including the cost of my children’s clothes, their education, my family’s groceries and other bills. But I barely make 1,000 rupees a day.”

Seak Hong, 36

Role: Sews outdoor apparel and bags at Horizon Outdoor

Where: Khum Longvek, Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia

Six days a week, Ms. Hong wakes up at 4:35 a.m. to catch the truck to work from her village. Her workday begins at 7 and usually lasts nine hours, with a lunch break. During the peak season, which lasts two to three months, she works until 8:30 p.m.

Ms. Hong has been in the garment business for 22 years. She earns the equivalent of about $230 a month and supports her father, her sister, her brother (who is on disability) and her 12-year-old son.

She hopes he will not end up in a factory, too, but the price of a quality education — about $20 per month — is beyond her means. While she is at work, her sister manages the household, taking care of their oxen and rice farming their land for extra food.

“I feel tired, but I have no choice,” Ms. Hong said. “I have to work.”

Yurani Tascon, 34

Role: Tracks daily production numbers at Supertex, which works with major active wear brands

Where: Yumbo, Colombia

“They spoil us a lot here,” Ms. Tascon said. “It’s a job with good stability.” Her workplace blasts music — usually salsa or something traditional — from speakers throughout the day while employees make coats, bathing suits and sportswear.

At 11 a.m., employees get “pausas activas”: active breaks with music.

Sarjimin, 39

Role: Makes shoes for a comfort footwear brand at PT. Dwi Naga Sakti Abadi

Where: Tangerang, Indonesia

Mr. Sarjimin has worked at the same factory for about 12 years. The job is relatively stable, and his workplace is spacious, bright and safe.

He earns the equivalent of $250 a month, and his wife also works at a factory. The family is able to send their children, a 13-year-old and a 9-year-old, to good schools. They recently purchased a computer for their older son, who is passionate about technology.

Mr. Sarjimin farms catfish to supplement his family’s grocery money. He started six months ago, filling a big empty drum with starter fish as an experiment. Now he has two drums with 300 fish each, and he sells them to friends, family and neighbors.

One day, he would like to raise catfish full time. “There’s a motivational speaker I heard once, ‘You have to dare to dream, how to get there is a question for a different time,’” he said. “I like remembering those words.”

Saida, 38

Role: Sewing machine operator at Pinehurst Manufacturing, which works with major active wear brands

Where: San Pedro Sula, Honduras

The factory where Saida has worked for the last 12 years is one of the few in the area. She earns about 8,200 lempira each month, roughly $331. “It doesn’t cover everything,” she said. “Vivimos sobregirados.” (“We live overdrawn.”)

Saida lives with her mother and her 19-year-old daughter, who goes to school. “I am the one who provides everything at home. The house, the water, the electricity,” she said. “You have to stop buying certain things to be able to cover the necessities.”

Her unit currently has one primary client, a major sportswear brand. This is a source of anxiety for her and her co-workers because they fear mass layoffs if the client leaves the company. “It’s really difficult having one client,” she said.

Bui Chi Thang, 35

Role: Stitching denim together for sustainability-focused brands at Saitex International

Where: Bien Hoa, Vietnam

Mr. Bui has been at his factory for seven years. “It matches my skill,” he said, “and the salary is enough for my family.” He earns approximately 90 million dong annually, roughly $3,880, which he uses to support his mother, wife and son.

During the average nine-hour workday, “I can finish 1,000 to 1,200 pieces a day, depending on the difficulty,” he said.

Santiago, 48

Role: Sews clasps and zippers onto dresses, blouses and pants at a factory

Where: Los Angeles

“I’m from Guatemala. I’ve been doing garment work for 16 years. I started because it was the only thing I knew how to do after leaving my home country,” Santiago said. “I came here because there were not as many opportunities back home, and with six children, there are a lot of expenses.”

In the last five years, he has worked in five to eight factories. They are often windowless and dirty, with little ventilation, he said.

When he first moved to Los Angeles, Santiago was working 11-hour shifts, seven days a week. Now he works about 50 hours a week, taking home up to $350. The majority of his co-workers — around 30 other people — are Spanish speakers from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.

“I’m just making ends meet,” he said. “I’m always trying to figure out how to save money, how to buy food, how to not eat out too much.” Still, he said it is better than what he was earning in Guatemala.

Maria Valdinete da Silva, 46

Role: Self-employed seamstress

Where: Caruaru, Brazil

The last factory Ms. da Silva worked at produced men’s street wear. She spent eight years there, stitching side seams together in an assembly line with an hourly quota.

“Some companies, like the one I worked for, no longer have employees inside the factory and the seamstresses work from home,” she said. “They establish small groups, tiny factories, and they are paid per item, so they basically have the same production without any costs.”

In order to make minimum wage, outsourced employees “have to work from day to night,” she said.

Ms. da Silva now makes women’s clothing independently, producing fewer pieces and selling them locally. She makes “maybe half” of minimum wage, but she said it’s worth it to work at her own pace. “I love what I do,” she said. “I no longer see myself in that situation of sitting in front of a machine doing the same thing every day.”

She is planning on taking fashion design courses soon. “Seamstresses are the key element in the fashion chain, we are the ones who put the clothes together,” she said. “You basically have to kill yourself in front of a sewing machine in order to provide for your family.”

Antonio Ripani, 72

Role: Leather quality control at Tod’s Group

Where: Casette d’Ete, Italy

Mr. Ripani, who began working with leather at 14, has been employed by Tod’s for more than 40 years, where he assesses “practically all the hides that arrive” for quality.

“Alone it’s hard to do everything, so I have a group of ragazzi [guys] under me and I have taught them everything I’ve been able to understand after all these years,” he said.

Mr. Ripani doesn’t earn much, he said, but he sets his own schedule, often working eight to 12 hours a day. He has assistants and has received awards for his highly specialized work.

“It’s not so much the salary, it’s that I am here because we’re all one family,” he said. “When I started, I had long hair. Now, I am bald.”

Rukhsana, 48

Role: Security at Sitara Textile Industries

Where: Faisalabad, Pakistan

Rukhsana began working in the garment industry shortly after her husband died seven years ago. She works seven days a week.

“The hardest thing about working in a textile mill is that management kind of cuts you off from the world for the duration of your shift. If anyone calls you from home — with good news or bad news — you can’t take the call and management doesn’t tell you until the day is over.

Two years ago, my nephew died in an accident when I was working. My brother tried calling me, but management didn’t tell me about it until my family had already held his funeral. I was so upset, I quit my job.

Now that I’m in security, I know when someone comes to the mill and tries to contact a worker. But I’m still not allowed to tell the worker their relative has been trying to reach them.

It’s not just difficult, it’s impossible to survive on the salary the textile mills pay. Are we supposed to choose between buying food and roti or paying for clothes and medicine? And there’s always rent to pay in addition to that.”

(Employees store their phones in a locker before beginning their shift, a company spokesman said in a phone interview, and they aren’t allowed to leave the organization “without any written acknowledgment from the manager.”

He said that family can reach employees on their cellphones or by calling the factory directly, and that he was not aware of any incidents in which family was prevented or delayed from contacting an employee during an emergency. )

Vu Hoang Quan, 21

Role: Sews dress shirts for mass retailers at TAL Apparel

Where: Binh Xuyen, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam

Mr. Vu has spent the last four years working on a production line with about 30 other employees, each overseeing parts of the sewing process. On average, he earns about 10 to 12 million dong (about $432 to $518) monthly. He sends most of it back to his family.

“My favorite time is at 3 p.m., when we have an exercise session,” he said. “We stay at our work spot. We pause our work process, line up and follow the exercise instructions of team leaders.”

He recently participated in a talent show hosted by the company, where he performed modern dance. “I don’t have plans to leave this job anytime soon,” he said. “I’m quite satisfied with it.”

Catherine Gamet, 48

Role: Leather goods artisan at Louis Vuitton

Where: Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, France

Ms. Gamet began working with leather when she was 16 years old and has been employed by Vuitton for 23 years. “To be able to build bags and all, and to be able to sew behind the machine, to do hand-sewn products, it is my passion,” she said. “That’s how I got into it.”

About 800 employees work in Saint-Pourçain, spread out across four sites. Ms. Gamet said the workshops are well organized, bright and modern. “The time flies by,” she said.

S, 33

Role: Tailor making pants and socks for fast fashion and active wear brands at Shahi Exports

Where: India

S.’s shift begins at 9 a.m. She feels a lot of pressure from supervisors to reach quotas of about 90 to 120 pieces per hour and said many workers are afraid to take breaks or use the restroom because it will waste time.

Employees who can’t keep up are often pulled aside at the end of each hour, she said, and supervisors will yell at them and bang on tables. Many workers spend most of their 30-minute lunch breaks scrambling to finish more pieces to get back on track.

“We don’t even have the freedom to drink water,” S. said, adding that management doesn’t allow employees to bring in water bottles.

Instead, water is handed out by the factory. In the spring of 2018, the supplied water was making workers sick, and when employees gave management a letter with a variety of basic requests, including clean water, they were beaten in response. Their clothes were torn, and many of their valuables, including phones and jewelry, were taken.

The employees took their complaint to the labor department. The issues were resolved three months after the incident, after the factory faced public pressure from a report by an American watchdog group, social media and brands that worked with the factory.

Some conditions have improved: Employees get mineral water now. But the pay is still bad, S. said, and the main work space doesn’t have windows, air-conditioning or heaters.

“We want to ask for more salary, but people are scared after what happened last year to ask again,” she said.

(In an email, a spokesman from Shahi Exports acknowledged the 2018 incident and forwarded a statement outlining the preventive measures the company has since enacted.

In a separate email, a spokesman said that berating employees in any way “constitutes misconduct,” and instances brought to management’s attention would “initiate action” against the perpetrator.

“While we do strive to drive efficiencies, there is no scope to berate any employee on account of non-performance or deficient performance,” he said. The spokesman added that there “is adequate ventilation” within the work space and that the entire factory is “in compliance with the law.”)

S. is a single parent and picks up extra work in the evenings, along with taking out loans, to support herself and her daughter. “There are thousands of people” in her city in the same situation, she said. “My story is just one of them.”

Phool Bano, 38

Role: Tailor at Friends Factory

Where: Noida, India

Ms. Bano has been a tailor for about 22 years and works at a progressive factory that makes small batches of garments for high-end independent brands. The building has little luxuries like air purifiers.

“It feels nice working here,” Ms. Bano said. “It’s clean. There are some plants and trees also, you know, the kind that are meant for decoration.”

Helena Lúcia Santos da Conceição da Silva, 54

Role: Seamstress at Fantasia D!kas Roupas

Where: Nova Friburgo, Brazil

“I’ve always thought of myself as a seamstress. I even made my daughter’s sweet-16 dress. It looks like overlapping petals. It’s my greatest pride.

I start work at 7 a.m. We make everything: pants, shorts, tops. I work eight hours a day Mondays to Fridays with a one-hour lunch break. It’s a small company: me and five other seamstresses. We don’t have a quota. Here they value quality over quantity. I don’t even know how many pieces I work on in a given day. We don’t keep track.

Ms. da Silva does not make enough money from her day job, so she picks up extra work from private clients to complete on evenings and weekends, sometimes working until 10 p.m.

I prefer working for this manufacturer because I’m on the payroll, I’m entitled to vacations. It’s more secure. But my dream is to have my own atelier at home.”

Knvul Sheikh contributed reporting.

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