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noona-clock · 6 years

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Study: Jung Chanwoo

In which we dig deeper under the surface of our favorite KPOP idols.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the gifs used in this post. I am not an astrologer nor am I a professional psychologist. These are my opinions based on the research I have done personally/as a hobby. If you disagree with any of these statements, please do so respectfully.

-Admin B

Sun Sign: Aquarius (Air)

So... almost half of iKON are Aquarians. Honestly, that makes a lot of sense. iKON is a pretty weird group, and Aquarians are weird. But, like, we’re proud of it! (I’m also an Aquarius, so I have to refer to Aquarians as ‘we’ - deal with it). We are very authentic to who we are, and we don’t apologize for being ourselves. I can definitely see this in Chanwoo because he doesn’t hide what he likes - baseball and video games. He doesn’t ever apologize for playing video games for hours on end or for watching baseball games while he’s getting his hair and makeup done. He also isn’t afraid to be sassy and savage to his hyungs; he doesn’t act like a typical maknae. He’s truly himself, and that’s a sign of a genuine Aquarius.

Aquarians are also known for being big humanitarians. We like to help people, and we are very focused on making the world a better place. We’re usually very involved with charities, fundraisers, food drives, or anything which brings awareness to the worlds’ problems. Chanwoo participated in the ice bucket challenge, and I feel he truly wants to use his talents to make people happy - not only because he has a passion for entertaining.

On the other hand, Aquarians are known for being very reserved when it comes to showing our emotions, and Chanwoo has said before he’ll leave a room when he needs to cry. He doesn’t like crying or showing a lot of emotion in front of people. I can totally see Chanwoo’s Aquarius traits coming through in the personality he’s shown us on iKON TV, variety shows, and his Instagram.

Moon Sign: Capricorn (Earth)

So not only is there a lot of Aquarius in iKON (Jinhwan, Yunhyeong, and Chanwoo), but there’s also a lot of Capricorn (Jinhwan is a Capricorn Moon, just like Chanwoo, and Donghyuk is a Capricorn Sun). Overall, iKON is a totally good mix of all the signs. There’s lots of Air, lots of Earth, some Fire, and even a little water sprinkled in. They’re so well-rounded!

I view Capricorns as being the most conservative Earth sign. They’re very practical, logical, and they can be kind of know-it-alls. We will see in Chanwoo’s MBTI, he’s a Thinker, so the logical aspect of Capricorn definitely applies to him. Out of all the members, he’s the only Thinker, so his Capricorn Moon really shines when he steps up with the “now, wait a minute, let’s think about this.” Like in the hidden camera episode of iKON TV when he was very wary about investing in that fake scheme.

Capricorns are also known for being honest, sometimes brutally so. This is Chanwoo’s savage side, and we all know he has one. They don’t sugarcoat things, and, as I said earlier, they think they know everything. So if a Capricorn thinks you’re wrong, you’ll hear about it. They’re not extremely arrogant or presumptuous, though! As any earth sign, Capricorns are extremely down-to-earth.

Capricorns are also known to be extremely loyal and very family-oriented. They put their loved ones first. I think we definitely saw this in Chanwoo during one of the first episodes of iKON TV when he was totally humoring Yunhyeong. He was trying to help him and make him feel better and giving in to his cheesy requests. It was so sweet, and it was so Capricorn of him.

Chinese Astrology: Fire Ox

In Chinese astrology, the Ox is seen as a ‘hard and detailed worker who performs all tasks in a determined and disciplined manner.’ They know what they want in life, and they will not let any setbacks stop them from achieving their dreams. While I think this describes just about every kpop idol, I definitely think it really applies to Chanwoo because he was the last addition to the group. The other iKON members didn’t even want a seventh person to join, but Chanwoo worked his way in - literally. He worked hard on his dancing and singing because he was previously only an actor, and look where he is now! I know all of iKON and all of iKONics are so proud of him!

The Ox is somewhat of a deep thinker and can be quite serious. Chanwoo is definitely a thinker, and while he’s not a deep thinker like Junhoe, a fellow Fire Ox, he’s more of a logical, rational deep thinker. He takes his time thinking about decisions before he makes them.

The fire Ox, in particular, is known to be an influential and firm person as well as a durable and thorough worker. They tend to have very strong views and opinions; they do not have patience when things don’t go their way. These traits definitely apply to Chanwoo’s savage side. He’s totally the definition of Evil Maknae, and the members have even described him as ‘Cheeky.’ This, to me, shows he has strong views and is impatient.

Numerology: Life Path 9

In numerology, 9 is seen as the most evolved with the strongest vibrations because it’s basically all of the other numbers wrapped up together. Life path numbers are only single digit, so it’s the highest number possible when it comes to this sort of numerology; therefore, it’s seen to be the oldest and wisest. I feel like this totally makes sense with Chanwoo because, even though he’s the youngest, he doesn’t really act like the youngest. He acts like he’s one of the oldest, to be quiet honest. This, I feel, is totally both his Capricorn moon and Life Path 9 coming through.

Those born with the life path number 9 are, in turn, seen to be old souls. We’re here to really develop spirituality, integrity, and wisdom in every aspect of our lives (I’m also a 9, so I use possessive pronouns here, too!). I feel like Chanwoo actually is working on developing his spirituality by involving himself in the activities he likes: video games and baseball. This might seem weird to some people, but spirituality really has nothing to do with religion. It’s about concerning yourself with your own soul/spirit, and what could make your soul more healthy than doing what you love, right? The fact he devotes so much time to doing what makes him happy is, in my humble opinion, a clear sign he is developing his spirituality.

Probably the most important piece of advice for a 9 is to go with the flow. Don’t get stuck in the past and learn to live in the present and embrace the future. Chanwoo needs to make sure he doesn’t get stuck on the fact he was the last member just kind of thrown into the group; even though he wasn’t a trainee for as long as everyone else, that doesn’t mean he’s not as valuable or doesn’t work as hard! He needs to focus on how hard he is working now and what he brings to the group now.

MBTI: ISTJ

Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging

Chanwoo is Introverted which means he gains energy from being either alone or with a small group of friends. I think the fact he likes playing video games is a clear sign he’s definitely an Introvert. He also likes baseball which is a pretty individualistic team sport, and he can spend a lot of time watching it alone.

Chanwoo is Sensing which means he learns through experience and using his senses. He looks at the details more than the big picture, and it’s difficult for him to imagine the possibilities of a situation. I know I keep bringing up video games and baseball, but they totally fit into his personality!! Video games and sports are very sensory, so it just makes sense why he’s so into them.

Chanwoo is Thinking which means he makes decisions more with his head instead of his heart. He is more logical and rational, and he is likely to make choices which make the most sense - not choices which necessarily make him feel better.

Chanwoo is Judging which means he prefers to live his life in a more organized manner. He’s probably not as spontaneous as other - think Junhoe - and he values structure. It also means he shows his Thinking trait the most to the world.

The ISTJ personality type is known as The Logistician. They are no-nonsense types who take time to analyze their surroundings and are known for their integrity, practical logic, and tireless dedication to duty.

Other Studies: Kim Hanbin, Kim Jinhwan, Song Yunhyeong, Kim Jiwon, Kim Donghyuk, Koo Junhwe

Master list // RULES // Submit a Request! // Read About the Admins

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sonofhistory · 7 years

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mediocre jobs are ok and did robert gould shaw get good grades or no?

Robert Gould Shaw’s education:

When Robert Gould Shaw was a boy, he studied and attended school in West Roxbury where he was influenced by the humanitarianism of Brook Farm intellects. He no longer attended school there by the time he turned nine as he family moved and settled in the north end town of West new Brighton. During this age, it became time for Robert to advance to more challenging studies, his uncle Coolidge Shaw talked his parents, Francis and Sarah into sending the boy to the preparatory school of St. John’ College in Forham, New York. Coolidge felt that a Catholic schooling would be good for his nephew.

However, Robert’s first letter home in June of 1850 reflects a very different take on what he was experiencing. “I wish you hadn’t sent me here … for I hate it like everything.” In September, Robert continued in his rage “I hate Fordham” and added a note about his professor: “My old teacher scolded me today because I didn’t do something he didn’t tell me to do, I hate him.” He confided that his homesickness embarrassed him when he cried in front of his classmates. There is no evidence he was punished by “Father Regnier” or known as the one “who ships the boys” but he did run away twice and told his parents in October, “I’d rather do anything than stay here.”

Nevertheless, he remained at Fordham for the entire semester studying French, Spanish, Latin and Greek while also continuing his lessons on the violin. While Robert attended to his schooling, his parents planned an extended tour of Europe for the entire family. In January, 1851, Robert thankfully said goodbye to Fordham forever and sailed from the New York harbor.

For the next five years, Robert studied, and developed a “wanderlust” he never lost, and lived through the years of thirteen and eighteen while there. Beginning in October of that year, he was sent to the boarding school of Monster and Madame Roulet in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Still, while he enjoyed his time here, he usually homesick tendencies caught up to him and he began to miss his parents. He was pleased that “M and Mme. Roulet are very kind … “ but wrote “I hate to be here. I keep thinking what you are all doing.” During his time there he built a close relationship with Mr. Roulet whom he regarded as a friend.

Roulet administered a rigorous curriculum. Weekly, Robert studied geometry, algebra, and geology as well as six languages–he concentrated on French and German. He took parts in student theater productions and kept up his usually lessons on the violin and piano. In good weather, he would be taking with his teacher on tours in France and Switzerland. Roulet nurtured his students though he fostered a nasty temper occasionally. Shaw told his mother, “Roulet hardly ever gets mad about the lessons, but only when we break some of the rules, or are impolite. But when he does get angry he’s just like the wolf.” Robert never saw him punish anyone and rather, “he only scolds.” Robert resented having to explain where and when and why every time he wanted to go for a walk or take a horseback ride or visit town. After a year of explanations, Robert remarked, “I shall be very glad to have more freedom when I leave here.”

During his next two years in the city, Robert struggled. He had grown up around ardent abolitionist but now he began to evaluate whether he could live up to the level of his parent’ dedication to the social reform. Robert read while in the school Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Robert questioned his parents on comparative studies and statistics concerning number of blacks and whites in the South. Shaw responded after finding out of the “Fugitive Slave Law” that he hoped Russian would read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and that is will “help them set their slaves free.” He inquired into whether the royalists of Rome would ban the book because of its republican principals. He resigned himself for the time with a frank sentence, “I don’t see how one man could do much against slavery.”

Robert also questioned religion. He received a letter from one of his St. John’s teacher priests who feared for his education at Roulet’s and expressed hope that Robert would go to school in Italy. Robert scoffed back that “He meant that he’s afraid I won’t be converted to Catholicism, because he hopes I’d be left in the clothes of the Jesuits at Rome, and would become catholic right off.” Roulet attempted to convince Robert that he should take religion classes and attend church regularly, but he fired back angrily to his parents that it was not Roulet’s business if he were “good or bad” and that those students who do go are not “any better than me and that’s what I told them.” Robert never ended up devoting himself to religion or a church.

Robert also began to take up career goals. He did not want to be a reformer. He did not mention gaining an education at Harvard and instead, to his parents, in one verse while most likely caused them a little concern, said: “I think I should like to go to West Point.” HIs mother replied of her disapproval and he commented, insisting that “I think I should like it and what else can I do? I can’t think of any thing else, for I don’t want to be a Merchant, or Doctor, or Minister, or any thing like that.”

During the summer of 1855, Shaw traveled with Roulet throughout Switzerland and bid farewell as school began again in September. He spent the next ten months with his family at their rented house in Sorrento on the Malfi peninsula south of Naples. The family also toured Rome, Florence and Heidelberg. After celebrating the Fourth of July with his family, Robert took a trip with his father to Hanover, Germany where he continued his education for two years via private tutors. The first time of freedom in his life caused him to be rather reckless as he was not homesick and commented to his mother “how big inside I’ve got since I’ve been here. I’m at least five years older then when I came.” In his impulsiveness, he spent all of his allowance and had to ask his mother for more. In an arrogant statement he said, “I have no taste for anything excepting amusing myself!” and that he’d rather be a chimneysweep then a merchant.

Despite this, he kept up his studies. From nine in the morning the two in the after family he studied with an occasional late afternoon class. Most nights he was in place for the seven in the evening curtain at the theater, opera or concert. He loved literature and music. He also became a regular at “fancy-balls where he made friends. Sometimes he drank too much champagne and said “its almost impossible not to drink a good deal, because there is so much good wine here.” He took a trip to Norway by himself as well with other students he knew and only informed his parents once he returned. Often he said that his purse was “getting hollow cheeks again.” He sugar coated it, however, and thought his mother’s scoldings were a bit too harsh as he commented to his father.

Robert finally decided on Harvard and reassured his parents that his studies were going well. Over confident, he thought he would have no trouble passing the entrance examinations in the fall of 1856. He hoped he might be able to enter as a junior but would enter no lower than a sophomore. His parents suggested his might want a tutor to push him through his intensive studies in the summer before examinations. Robert returned to America in may of 1856 and passed the Harvard entrance examinations which he rated as “very easy.” Spoiled by his elaborate European education, he found everything “horridly stupid here and just like a school.” He said he had to again “ask if he wanted to go anywhere.”

By October he discovered he had not prepared well for Harvard’s academic demands and threatened to leave school to “go into a store” if “at the end of the year I stand very low.” His dislike of discipline transferred over, “I hate Cambridge,” he said. He considered switching to Columbia or New York University but did not. Robert stayed in school but never pulled himself academically to the top half of his class. He reported the Class of 1860 to the staff was “the latest class they have had for a long while.”

He excelled, however, in extracurricular activities. he enjoyed playing “football” but with fifty to seventy men on a team all engaged at once, he was beaten up regularly by older players. In his second year he joined about club and participated in rowing raced with other clubs. He took boxing lessons and played the violin well enough to join a musical group, the Pierians, who played twice a week. he was always inclined to music. He lavished in the social hour and other societies sponsored. His best friend at Harvard was his cousin Harry Russell. Shaw roomed with the football and rowing champion, Caspar Croninshield. He would also skip school on the weekends to sneak off with his friend’s uncle.

#thatgirlgrace97 #flood pressles box

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bestzodiacsigns · 8 years

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Zodiac Signs: Astrology Basics

There are four parts to astrology which include the planets, the signs, the houses and the aspects. We will look at each of these individually to get a better understanding of how everything comes together when studying astrology.

For the purposes of astrology, there are still nine planets — even though whether or not Pluto is actually a planet has been up for debate over the past decade. Most recently, it was deemed a dwarf planet. Regardless, astrologers would have still used the same data regarding the planets and their relevance to astrology for centuries.

Let’s start with the sun and move through the planets, touching on the rules and how often it changes signs:

1. The sun rules your basic personality and changes between the signs on a monthly basis.

2. The moon rules moods and emotion. Even though the moon passes through phases throughout the month, it actually changes astrological signs every two to three days.

3. Mercury rules mind and one’s ability to communicate. You’ll see Mercury changing signs about every three to four weeks.

4. Next up is Venus. Naturally the planet, also named for a Roman goddess, rules love and attraction. She changes signs every four to five weeks.

5. Mars rules over your drive and energy and switches signs every six to seven weeks.

6. Jupiter presides over luck, growth and wisdom. There is a huge jump in time and Jupiter changes signs every twelve to thirteen months.

7. Saturn rules over discipline, challenges and fears. The planet passes through one sign every two to three years.

8. Uranus rules change and originality, which switches signs every seven years. Neptune is the planet for dreams and healing. It changes signs every ten to twelve years.

9. Finally, we get to the dwarf planet, Pluto. It’s responsible for power and transformation and changes signs every twelve to fifteen years, though this can vary somewhat.

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The further you get away from the sun, the slower the planets rotate around it, which is why those that are way out there only changes signs every few years. As you can see, each of the planets (as well as the sun and the moon) in their respective sign and house at any given time can have a major impact on your life. For instance, have you ever noticed how your mood or emotion can be affected by whether the sun is waxing or waning?

Personally, as a Pisces, the moon has a rather large impact on my mood and I’ve found I’m much more emotional when the moon is full. I’m also far more inspired to write, so even though it can be an emotional time, it is also great for creativity! Let’s consider that a win.

Now that we’ve covered the planets (the energies), let’s talk about the houses in which they reside. There are twelve houses, one for each astrological sign. Unlike the actual astrological signs, the houses are simply numbered and have no name. On the astrological chart or wheel, the houses are arranged in a circle. It is not the same as the well-known zodiac wheel, however. The zodiac wheel correlates to the Earth’s rotation around the sun. The wheel of houses is directly related to the twenty-four hours it takes the earth to rotate on its axis. This is where the explanation can get a little tricky!

The zodiac wheel and the wheel of houses join together. Picture them as two cogwheels. Separately, they can spin on their own, but when they are joined and turn in unison, they rotate the zodiac signs through the houses. A good example of this is two Pisces. According to most astrologers, all signs are compatible with four signs in total, including their own. Technically, those two Pisces should get along, have similar personalities and matching moods throughout the cycle. This is not necessarily true, however. If Pisces number one was born under the fish sign in the twelfth house, and Pisces number two was born in the first house, this would have created two incredibly different people.

This example circles back to the mention of daily horoscopes being too general. Those are written under the assumption that everyone under that sign was born in the same house. It just doesn’t happen that way. This is not meant to knock daily horoscopes. I get them delivered to my inbox every day and still read them. Some days, they seem pretty accurate. Others, not so much.

Because each house contains a lot of detail, we are going to briefly cover them. It is important to note here that of the twelve houses, there are four that are considered the most important. They are the first, fourth, seventh and tenth.

1. The first astrological house represents the self. This is one of the most important houses because it has everything to do with you. It can include the physical body, appearance, self-image and self-identity. The planets in this house have a great influence on personality and how others see you.

2. The second house is all about what you value. From money to possessions and talent to self-esteem. The second house kind of piggybacks off the first in that it is about you, but it is self-value over personality. Possessions in the second house include anything you might own from clothes to houses. The second house also presides over how you spend and gain money. It also deals with your own attitude toward possessions, wealth and how you accumulate it.

3. The third house is that of communication in your environment. This can include coworkers, family and friends. The third house covers all forms of communication within your environment, which encompasses phone, messages, writing and even gossip.

4. House number four, also one of the most substantial of the twelve, deals with all things associated with your home. This involves both the childhood and the present home. It also encompasses family, morals, and your roots. The fourth house is said to determine where you will go at the end of your life.

What’s amazing about this house is that it also rules where you come from. It touches on reincarnation and past lives, meaning if you believe in that, the fourth house will carry any karmic baggage left over from any one or all of your previous lives. Whether or not you believe in past lives has little to do with the effects of the fourth house. It deals in your emotions, subconscious and home life. It is said the fourth house can also have an effect on your parental relationships.

5. In the fifth astrological house, we see creativity, pleasure and children. This includes love, hobbies, drama and even gambling. This is where everything is all about you and enjoying every aspect of your life. This house is not considered one of the most essential houses, but it is where romance, love and sexual relationships rule. Oddly enough, marriage is not considered in the fifth house, but in the seventh. When the wheel was created, marriages were contracts, not a sign of love and devotion to another person, which is why it falls in the seventh, which we’ll discuss shortly.

6. Day to day routines, diet, health and sickness fall under the sixth house. This includes your job, taking care of family and the mundane daily tasks like cleaning house. This house covers the quality of your work and how much you put into these routines.

7. On to the seventh house. Remember, this is one of those considered to be especially significant. As we touched on in the fifth house, the seventh is where marriage and personal relationships flourish or diminish. Lucky number seven has to do with cooperation in relationships, business partnerships, and marriage. It can also be where divorce, law suits, enemies and quarrels take place.

Where the fifth house refers to love, the seventh is where we build long lasting or permanent relationships. Once a couple has married, for instance, we can safely say that they’ve moved from the fifth to the seventh house. Here, you will see cooperative relationships, sharing and clues as to any issues that may arise in marriage or any other relationship.

8. Remember how we talked about the second house ruling individual possessions? The eighth house is the polar opposite of the second. This is where joint possessions come into play. For example, joint bank accounts, homes owned by a couple, etcetera. This house is also quite confusing. It seems everything that resides within it has nothing in common with each other, or everything within it is negative.

This house governs taxes, wills, death, sexual intercourse, bankruptcy, personal sacrifice and clairvoyance. It’s quite a ragtag group of things we’ve listed. On the plus side, this house is also about transformation and healing. It could be recovering from the death of a loved one or a personal sickness. It is a house of transformation, so while many of the things listed in this house are daunting or flat out depressing, it is where we can become more powerful and it should not be taken for granted or feared.

9. From the transformative eighth house, we move into the ninth house which deals with religion, learning, morals, philosophy, travel, dreams, visions and the higher mind. This is where we find wisdom, publish books, participate in ceremonies and rituals. Number nine is where big ideas and thoughts happen. Ultimately, this house is the things we encounter when searching for meaning in life or things that occur within it.

10. Of the twelve houses, number ten is the last of the four, highly essential houses. Why, you ask? Because this is where honor, status, reputation, professional careers and prestige reside. This isn’t about gaining material things, but more for the success of social status and honor. Ten is where your sense of duty, respect for authority figures and social responsibilities lives. This covers the public aspects of your life as opposed to the daily mundane routines as discussed in the sixth house.

11. The eleventh house is that of larger groups like communities and memberships. This is where hopes, goals, and humanitarian efforts thrive.

12. Finally, we’ve come to the twelfth house. Here we see (or not) the hidden self that includes the subconscious, our unconscious mind, habits from the past, karmic debt, spiritual realization and even mental illness. The twelfth house is also considered humanity’s collective unconscious.

Within the houses we see our astrological or zodiac signs. We’ll cover them in depth throughout the rest of this book.

Before we delve into the awesomeness that is each astrological sign, we will talk a little bit about the aspects, which is the flow of force between the planets. Aspects are important when it comes to the interpretation of an astrological chart. What the aspects are going to tell us are whether or not we will struggle or if we will be at ease.

There are other, much more detailed things to discuss when it comes to aspects. In simple terms, they are the connection between two or more planets. Aspects also cover degrees of angularity, conjunctions, sextiles, squares, trines and oppositions. These are the things an astrologer will be able to explain in greater detail. For all intents and purposes what we need to know is that aspects have a major effect on an astrological reading and are key players in astrology as a science.

#Zodiac Signs #Zodiac Sign #Zodiac Signs Tumblr #Birthday Horoscope #birthday personality

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theinkcast · 7 years

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An Open Letter to OSIRG 2017

Hola amigos (it seems like Spanish has become our default language)!

A few nights ago, I was rambling away to Dana about my latest outrage on the human rights situation in Palestine. When I finally paused for breath, she quietly said “why aren’t you saying any of this in our group whatsapp chat? I am Palestinian so I know this, but they don't”. The thing is, I don’t know how to explain a situation that is so removed from the life most of us know (or at least the life I knew).

Instead, I post my highlight reels of mosaic ruins, shisha bars, and the Mediterranean coastline on Instagram because how can I describe to you the frustration of getting off a bus to stand in line at yet another “security checkpoint” only to re-board the same bus hours later? Would you understand if I told you about the uneasiness that accompanies every passing of checkpoint gates which resemble a cross between a prison and a slaughterhouse… and the shame of feeling relieved to have reached the other side? Or what it’s like to be treated like a criminal simply for travelling home from work and never knowing when you will be pulled out of line to be questioned by soldiers with fingers pressed tightly over the triggers of their guns? For that matter, what right do I have as a non-Palestinian to voice my resentments? When my friends back home ask me what Palestine is like, the best I can come up with is “indescribable” but of course it’s not indescribable. Dana has helped me see that I have a responsibility to put into words what I’ve learned here.

I won’t go into the politics, laws, or historical debate behind the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but I can share a little of the “facts on the ground” as I’ve seen them. I think that these examples of injustice, mistreatment, and violence also underlie each of your work, if in a different context.

The prevailing narrative in the West is that Israel is a vulnerable state and has been forced to impose severe security measures because it is surrounded by hostile Arab states. We hear about Hamas launching rocket attacks into Israel and read news stories of Palestinians stabbing Israeli soldiers. In time, even if we don’t agree with Israel’s policies, we unconsciously begin to sympathize with the Israeli government’s motivations. The moment you step into Palestine though, you realize that the power dynamics are in fact very much reversed. Like the annexation wall, Israel’s military control of Palestine and its oppression of the Palestinian people are inescapable at every turn. A population under occupation cannot live in dignity because it is always subject to discrimination and an undercurrent of fear. Generations of Palestinians have been dispossessed of their homes, denied opportunities to study, work, move, or practice their religion freely, killed extra-judicially and callously, and intentionally deprived of basic necessities such as access to medical care, electricity and water. The Palestinian government itself is also riddled with corruption and responsible for serious human rights perversions. For Palestinians, human rights exist like clouds in the sky - you can see them but you can never seem to reach them.

In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve learned to tell the difference between the sound of gunfire and fireworks. I’ve read judgments in which the Israeli courts perform the most fantastic legal acrobatics to justify forcibly removing Palestinians from their lands. I’ve breathed in the toxic fumes and witnessed the seepage from an Israeli chemical plant which has devastated a Palestinian town and made its people sick. I’ve come to understand the magnetism of religious martyrdom, as both a means to escape an intolerable reality and demand for a justice sought but never known. I’ve heard my colleagues explain again and again to villagers who have experienced settler violence that the only thing we can do is get their stories out to the international community, because in a country under occupation, there is no realistic avenue of legal recourse. I’ve seen that six-year-olds can be torn from their parents and detained without charges, children can die from falling off tractors because neighboring settlement hospitals won’t open their doors to Palestinians, and a half million-dollar humanitarian aid project can be demolished in just one day on the pretext that it was erected without a building permit. I’ve long since stopped asking “but why?” because occupation, colonization, and apartheid don't give reasons.

Out of everything I’ve come across however, the most striking is the resilience and generosity of the people who have been the most harmed in this conflict. Their spirit and gratitude for what remains is a powerful statement that however desperate a situation seems, as long as there is hope, tomorrow can be better.

I participated in OSIRG because I was curious about the world. I wanted to understand whether there was a collective psychology to humankind that might explain the wars, exploitation, and human rights abuse that have always been a part of our history. I see now that the question is more complex and maybe the answer doesn’t lie in the human condition. In fact, it is dangerous to categorize any person or situation from such a definitive standpoint lest we forget that those on the other side are also human beings, and in so doing, lose our own humanity and compassion. While solutions must end with accountability, they begin with understanding… so I try to remember Aya’s infamous line: maybe “conservatives just need a hug” sometimes.

We are all in different places and championing different causes. Some of us are working on issues close to our hearts and others are working in new fields. Yet, in spite of the diversity of our experiences, I feel more connected to you now than ever before. I share deeply your indignation towards inequality and unfairness and your determination to break these shackles of abuse. At the end of the day, I don’t imagine that 20 years of cruelty and ridicule faced by a transgender woman is any more or less traumatic than a little boy who is slowly starving because his government is pursuing a war in the name of religious rhetoric or a young father who has been mistakenly shot because of institutionalized racial profiling.

Like Marko said “Although we were all strangers in that rooftop terrace more than a month ago, today, we are together. I hope that we keep this bond strong.”

#palestine #occupied palestinian territories #west bank #open society foundations #osirg #human rights #international humanitarian law #armed conflict #resistance is existence #nakba #open society internship for rights and governance #central european university #budapest #falastin #annexation wall

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armeniaitn · 3 years

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Honoring the life of Aurora Co-Founder Vartan Gregorian

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/society/honoring-the-life-of-aurora-co-founder-vartan-gregorian-74565-07-06-2021/

Honoring the life of Aurora Co-Founder Vartan Gregorian

On June 5, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative held an Aurora Dialogues Online event titled “Vartan Gregorian. The Aurora Co-Founder,” focused on Vartan Gregorian’s extraordinary life as humanitarian, educator and mentor. The tribute was moderated by David Ignatius, Associate Editor and Columnist for the Washington Post, with speakers including Aurora Co-Founders, Aurora Prize Selection Committee members and Aurora Prize Laureates. The viewers also had a chance to watch several videos featuring Vartan Gregorian over the years and hear him speak about the issues closest to his heart.

To kick-of the event, David Ignatius greeted all participants and the audience. “[We are here] to pay tribute to the late Aurora Humanitarian Initiative Co-Founder and my dear friend, the incomparable Vartan Gregorian, who was an inspiration to us all and a man whose intellectual and moral legacy will live on and influence generations of thinkers and scholars,” said Mr. Ignatius, turning the floor over to Aurora Co-Founder Noubar Afeyan.

Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative and Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, set the tone for the tribute: “Over many years that I knew Vartan, I always felt he was looking over my shoulder and over the shoulder of all those he knew. What’s even more impressive though is that through his life’s work Vartan also looked over the shoulders of many thousands, if not millions more, most of whom he didn’t know.”

It was hard for Lord Ara Darzi, Chair of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee and Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, to remain composed and not overwhelmed with emotion as he spoke about Vartan Gregorian. “He was authentic, he was selfless, he was generous to many, including me. He was poetic, he was a romantic, he was a legend. Also, his wit, his infectious smile and the twinkle in his eyes made him a superb member [of the Selection Committee]. I’ve learned a lot, watching him in action for a number of years,” said Lord Darzi.

One of the people who have experienced Vartan’s life-changing touch was Dr. Tom Catena, Chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate and Medical Director of Mother of Mercy Hospital, Nuba Mountains: “He was the guy who grew up in different cultures, around people of different religions and different beliefs. And I think this really made him the man he was. He was a guy who could really get along with anybody and I think everybody felt that he was their friend.”

This sentiment was echoed by Marguerite Barankitse, 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate and Founder of Maison Shalom, who said: “He was a symbol of hope, a symbol of love, of humility, of compassion. He was a holy man. He’s a saint. He has achieved what is written in the Holy Bible. He changed the world into a paradise.”

Other speakers were also eager to list Vartan Gregorian’s achievements while simultaneously highlighting his unwavering modesty. Samantha Power, USAID Administrator, former US Ambassador to the United Nations and former Aurora Prize Selection Committee member, referred to Vartan Gregorian as her “hero friend”. “The loss is immeasurable, but the fact that he had Aurora and the energy that it gave him was incredible. <…> His own courage, his own fortitude, his own resilience are so self-evident. He is the embodiment of a self-made American man, but for any of us who’ve had the privilege of Vartan telling his own story, you would think that he had almost nothing to do with it,” said Ms. Power.

Vartan Gregorian truly lived by the principles he was striving to instill in others, noted Ernesto Zedillo, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member, Director at Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former President of Mexico: “When I tried to distinguish one element of Vartan’s interaction with the world, with humanity, with the people he had contact with throughout his life, the common element was generosity. And I think it was that generosity that led him to such incredible achievements. And generosity means love, love with which he did everything, and I think that is what made it possible.”

It was his unique personality that had Mary Robinson, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member, Chair of The Elders, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights captivated the moment she met Vartan Gregorian when he was still President of the Brown University – and not only captivated her, but also her husband, as she warmly remembered. “From the beginning, we were absolutely enchanted with this incredible President of the University – his humor, his knowledge. When I worked from New York for 8 years, we had a lot of long discussions about human rights and other issues,” she reminisced.

Shirin Ebadi, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member, Nobel Laureate, Iranian lawyer and a human rights activist and Founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, talked about Vartan’s unrelenting quest for tolerance, understanding and peaceful coexistence, quoting an ancient Persian tale about the common source of all religions – humanity. “If a group spreads hatred in the name of religion or ideology and considers violence permissible, be certain that they have made a mistake and have gone astray. <…> I would like to pay tribute to Vartan Gregorian, my mentor, and to remember his efforts to spread knowledge, thanks to which he paved the way for peaceful coexistence,” said Shirin Ebadi.

This was a cause the next speaker, Mirza Dinnayi, 2019 Aurora Prize Laureate and Co-Founder and Director of Luftbrücke Irak (Air Bridge Iraq), could certainly get behind as someone who has seen his people persecuted for years and continues to fight for their lives today: “When I remember Vartan, I see an Armenian single mother who brought this great man and hero to the world, as a gift to the humanitarian family of the world. So we should also spread this ideology of humanism, of peace, of coexistence.”

Vartan’s high spirits were a guiding light for many, as were his compassion and commitment, noted Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member and Founder and President of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa: “An eternal optimist, I never ever think that there’s no hope in the world I live in, because not having hope is not having life. <…> Vartan was someone who showed me, in those very short six years, that indeed, remaining indifferent to the suffering of others was not something that he did. He treated you like you mattered. He treated everyone like they mattered.”

There was a certain light in Vartan that shone not only though his words, but most importantly, his actions, added John Prendergast, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Member, human rights activist and Co-Founder of The Sentry: “He believed in the things most of us could not yet see and he worked to make them happen. The concept of “bari luys,” good light, was very important to him. He saw it as hope for a better future. <…> He was transcendent in his ability to live in hope for a better future and in working to see that better future come to pass.”

As Vice President of International Program and Program Director for Russia and Eurasia at Carnegie Corporation of New York and Aurora Creative Council Member, Deana Arsenian has probably spent more time at Vartan’s side than, perhaps, all of the other speakers combined. She expressed her gratitude for the event and a little sadness due to the inability to “compress my 30-year relationship with a person who can only be described as a force of nature into one moment,” so she could share it with others. She did try, however, telling the audience a touching story of Vartan finding time in his busy schedule to talk to two five-year-old’s he met on the street during his trip to Yerevan in 2016, adding that it showed his “warm and fuzzy inner personality.”

In conclusion of the event, Ruben Vardanyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative; Co-Founder of Noôdome, thanked everyone and revealed his certainty that the cause that was so crucial for Vartan Gregorian will still go on, honoring his legacy. “Vartan had an important role in doing many projects in his life, but this was a unique project for him because he was one of the Co-Founders of Aurora, together with us. For him, it was critical that we continue, because Aurora for him was important not only as a humanitarian issue. He liked that we found a way to keep this global agenda connected to the Armenian world,” said Mr. Vardanyan.

Read original article here.

#Yerevan #Society

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how2to18 · 6 years

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RAPE JOKES aren’t funny. What to make, then, of Vanessa Place’s new book, You Had to Be There, which collects such jokes but is not a joke book?

Place is a poet, performance artist, and criminal defense appellate attorney representing convicted sex offenders who can’t afford a lawyer. She has previously written about her work in The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality, and Law (2010). Culled, according to Place, from 4chan, Sickipedia, and other musty online corners, the jokes she has woven together here — and, in some cases, written herself — unspool over 130-plus pages with no editorial commentary aside from a foreword (by Dave Hickey), an afterword (by Natasha Stagg), and a brief artist’s statement. Though there’s an undeniable logic and rhythm to the unspooling, readers will be forced to navigate Place’s text (or “verbal artifact”) on their own, without the usual niceties. This is a potentially terrifying, but perhaps also liberating, experience for readers coddled by the gatekeepers of predictability — one that makes commentary of either stripe seem perfunctory, a failure “to go beyond either condemnation or understanding.”

“The structure of a joke, according to Freud, is that it is a sudden discharge of repression, often sexual, often kind of obscene,” Place has written. “And so, in that way, the joke itself ends up being structured, or ends up having the same structure, as a rape — a violent discharge of repressed sexuality.” Laughter is implicative, and you almost have to laugh or stifle your discharge. But these are not jokes that rely on laughter to complete them. When she performs the piece, Place neither greets nor thanks the audience, training the spotlight on the crowd while she remains in the shadows. “So … joke’s on you.” It’s an apt analogy for a book in which readers are both in control of turning the pages and forced to participate in their own discomfort as they do so, particularly in an era in which “aren’t we all complicit?” has become a dinner party cliché. It reminds one of the kind of incisive critique Conceptualism is still capable of — as a cultural intervention, a mirror for examining parts we’d prefer not to see.

I queried Place via email, and she responded graciously. We spoke about comedy, consent, the worship of mastery, and the audience as a potential witness rooted, as Place puts it, in “the gorgeous muck of their desire.”

DAN ELKIND: I can imagine that some people browsing the Humor section won’t be amused to find this book shelved next to Jeff Foxworthy or whatever. Is there an appropriate section? Where would you shelve it?

VANESSA PLACE: Museum bookshops and home toilets.

This piece was inspired by the debate about rape jokes in stand-up comedy. What was your initial reaction? Did you take it as a challenge?

The hivemind response — and we could take some time to think about why this is currently a term of approbation — was that rape jokes are categorically not funny. I thought that this was wrong: they are funny, but funny contextually. The more interesting question became: Why, and under what conditions? If one rape joke is told by way of shock or solidarity, what happens if 250 jokes are told, and told publicly, in a voice that is not supposed to tell?

The book’s disclaimer states that this is a text version of a live performance — “art performance, not stand-up comedy.” What would you say is the fundamental difference between the two?

Stand-up comedy is meant to get a laugh; art may get a laugh, but that’s not a predicate for the practice. Stand-up comedy is typically performed as a kind of intimacy, the performer doing a bit of prefatory audience-banter, couching the gags conversationally, as if speaking, as if telling something about themselves, as if revealing. Art performance is formalized as a performance: for me, I do not speak to the audience, neither greeting nor thanking them for their attention. The material is read from a text, recited without affect, and is more or less obviously impersonal material. Representatively, as a matter of disciplinary practice. After all, I’m wearing a suit, and sometimes a nice tie.

You’ve said that this piece allows you to observe the audience. What has the response been like? Have you noticed anything that surprised you?

I’m never surprised, except by love.

Your performance seems to say that honest emotional responses are mysterious. The laugh you’re going for is the involuntary kind. I’m a Jew and found myself laughing most at the Jewish pedophile jokes, and then nervously laughing about that.

What’s the question, then?

Touché. You’ve also said that there’s no such thing as rape culture: “It’s just culture.” I imagine you mean everything from catcalling to “conjugal debt.” Can you elaborate on that?

I’d be even broader, so to speak, in my claim. Structurally, at least here, at least now, at least in our insufferable present, we are enthralled by mastery. Even if we don’t like a particular master, we believe ourselves, or our preferred designees, capable of being some better master. Mastery itself is not questioned, meaning the real question of domination and submission is not questioned. It’s like the cops: you may think you hate the cops but simultaneously think they should be on the scene of what you consider a crime, and will self-deputize to police others, such as with call-out culture.

This suggests that we want these structures, and again, the question then becomes why. A culture that loves mastery will have many masters, some in balaclavas, some in blue suits, some with a lot of online followers. Of course, we are predisposed to recognize certain demographics as embodying mastery more than others, and may rail against the particular manifestations of this, but that’s debating interior design, not architecture. As an easy example, many people ask me whether I’ve ever been raped, and those more psychoanalytically affined ask if I want to be, but no one asks me if I am, or want to be, a rapist. That’s just culture.

For a long time the law defined rape as nonconsensual intercourse with a female that was not one’s spouse. As a practicing defense attorney, how do you see this gap between social and cultural mores and the legal code?

Rape is not a thing, rape is a verdict: there has been some judicial determination that a sexual encounter was nonconsensual. This can lead to the woman being raped — i.e., having had an encounter that she did not consent to — and the man not being a rapist — i.e., he did not know or understand that there was no consent. The gap appears when we level the categories, such that every unwanted encounter is deemed rape, regardless of its indeterminacy. Put another way, I could consent to something in the moment, then reconsider, realizing that my then-consent was the result of various pressures, prejudices, fears, et cetera, and decide, or understand, at least to myself, that the encounter was nonconsensual. This is a subjective historical process rather than a retroactive historical fact.

Put still another way, it would perhaps be better if Americans were less Protestant in our thinking about sex: rather than insisting on a kind of subjective purity on both sides, marked by virginal intent, we could operate from a colder, dumber objective politeness. If I am scrupulous in treating you with respect, do you care very much if I think you’re a fuckwit? Or if you mean nothing to me? Mores are not morals, nor should they be.

I recently read something Kurt Tucholsky said about Soviet Russia: that the “November 7 demonstration on Red Square […] reminded him of an Easter procession in Rome, a kind of state religion in which a humanitarian ideal had been turned into a new tyranny.” Do you think political correctness or whatever you want to call it has become a humanitarian ideal turned orthodoxy? Does laughter constitute heresy?

Laughter signifies nothing but ideology: we laugh because we agree, wholeheartedly, or because we agree, ironically, with the ideological donnée. The right is nostalgic for the past, the left is nostalgic for the future. What’s funny about that? Everything.

Besides provoking an honest reaction, is there anything that you would like readers to take away from this experience?

I would be happy if they didn’t take anything away, if they could simply stay in the gorgeous muck of their desire.

Daniel Elkind is a writer and translator living in San Francisco.

The post Her Dark Materials: A Conversation with Vanessa Place appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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domakethinksay · 6 years

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Run for your life!

Let us all unite: A scratch paper for a movement

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Throwback Idomeni

3 Meta-Analysis: The psychology of war

4 Materialism and Marketing

5 Spirituality: The Road

6 The Situation/ Plot (problematic/ controversial)

7 On a mission

8 Transfer: Cycling in Eritrea

9 Catchphrases

10 Sountrack

11 About me: All the way, Marathonna 2014

1 Introduction

The plan is to go to crisis regions around the world and run through devastated areas with the idea of raising awareness on the one hand and get connected with the locals on the other hand.

The idea stroke my mind when I was in the refugee camp in Idomeni in 2016. The inofficial refugee camp next to the greek-/ macedonian border raised a lot of attention back then and was widely broadcasted in the western media. That was, when the so called Balkan route reached it's peak before it got closed down eventually by the states of the European Union.

When I was in Idomeni I thought a lot of doing some jogging as both some kind of activity and an equalizer to the sometimes physically and above all mentally challenging humanitarian work.

2 Throwback Idomeni

Additionally, there were so many mostly young guys who had a lot of energy and no idea how to get rid of it. Many volunteers spent a lot of time thinking about constructive ways of canalizing that energy. Well, the truth is, that the majority of the present volunteers mainly thought about how we could take care of women and children. Actually nobody really dealt with the male and their daily activities.

While sport in general is a good way to kill time, team sports involve some certain issues you have when many people are highly frustrated and when there is an acute lack of resources. When the tensions are high, team sports could be a vent and end up in an outburst of agression and violence. Also the different nationalities, cultural habits, languages and religions lead to a rise of the already high conflict potential between the different refugee groups.

For further information visit:

3 Meta-Analysis: The psychology of war

I've been asking myself why there is war for pretty much my entire life. I'm also currently writing on an essay about war which I personally would decribe as the ultimate level of knowledge after a process of more than two decades. So the next paragraphs are a bit of an intrduction.

When I was like 17 years old, I found a paper on Emule (a former peer to peer file sharing plattform).which was a correspondence between two of the most influential intellectuals of our time: Sigmund Freund, the inventor of and door opener for modern psychology and Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist and developer of the theory of relativity. The title of their correspondence was simply called: WHY WAR? Even though I didn’t read much of what they wrote, I’ve been asking myself that existential question ever since. So why is it? Why, in god’s name, is it possible that there has always been war as some kind of principle of human existence.

The excitement of war and the search for a substitute. Since war can be stimulating in the most intense ways, we better try to think of a ‘equivalent’ substitute. Furthermore, after two world wars, the predominant question got to be, how we can canalize the competitive element in our deeper selfes. By all means, we mustn't fight the existential fights/ wars that could potentially kill us all if we stay on that path.

When I was in the refugee camps, I felt a lot of dark and destructive energy. Even though there was also optimism in the air, if you scratched the surface one could feel how much hate, anger and rage some refugees were carrying around with them. It’s pretty obvious, that if you fleed from a war-torn country like syria, you can’t just simply let go as soon as you leave the place.

2016 was the year when I lost faith. It was the year, when the Utopia of a unified world collapsed after what I experienced whilst the refugee crisis. The dream I’ve lived ever since I was backpacker was over and I was devastated. I was asking myself a lot how to get out of that black hole again and how I could still push things forward and stop becoming a cynic.

I was almost desperately looking for a common ground on any level. To whitness how pretty much all the refugee groups put on the differences while denying the fact that they’re obviously all literally sitting in the same boat was quite depressing. To an extent, it was dog eat dog and pretty much all the minorities got extremely discriminated by the rest.

While I often refer to football as being the only global mainstream culture and basically the designated substitute for war, it wasn’t really possible to try that in a wild refugee camp. The simple reason is that the war the people left behind was still too close and too present in their minds. It wouldn’t have taken long and there would have been a massive brawl because of some rather irrelevant foul on the pitch. The tolerance for aggression and violence was just to low to try any kind of team sport (in a camp with 15.000 refugees).

This is where it comes to running. The good thing about running is that virtually everybody can do it. You basically don’t even need any equipment. One could doubt that Philippides, who ran from Marathon to Athens 500 B.C. was wearing any shoes at all. So basically the only thing you gotta do is do get going. Just like Forrest Gumb did in the famous movie with the same name.

4 Materialism and Marketing: The demand for “sport’s shoes”

When I was participating in a shoe distribution in the refugee camp in Idomeni, it became obvious that a lot of the refugees desperately wanted some (Nike) sport's sneakers. It felt that they were some kind of symbol for them. Brand sneakers, preferably Nike somehow stand for the material prosperity of the states of the Okzident. So having fancy sneakers were like some kind of status symbol for the refugees, which was one reason why the wanted to make it to Western Europe. Obviously, there’s a lot of marketing potential for all them brands out there.

It might sound bizarre that it wasn’t possible to successfully distribute pretty much the best hiking boots one could get because the refugees were only striving for “sport’s shoes”. I remember a pair of Meindl boots next to a pair of brand new pair of Doc Martens. We just couldn’t get rid of them, even though there were still plenty of refugees walking around in completely ragged shoes.

Regarding how little some of the refugees in the camp actually knew about their destination of choice, Germany, it became obvious that their whole journey was less about the (rational) facts but about the pilgrimage to some kind of promised land. It was rather a spiritual journey and an odyssee than something that could've been well planned in advance.

5 Spirituality: The Road

The perfect metapher of something that is nothing less than a philosophy of life. We’re all on the road, on way or another. This metapher could be pretty handy to emphasize on the spiritual component of our physical existence that simply gets lost among all the wealth and material commodities we live in (in the Western societies).

The road also became like the central theme of my facebook page, 'The Road to Idomeni'. As far as I am concerned, the road is a, if not the crucial metapher of our humble existence. Literally all of us may have been through bad times but kept moving forward. Personally jogging always gave me strength and made me believe in myself and the mysterious path I'm own. It always gave me faith in myself and the confidence that I will always walk on, no matter how desperate I might be and that it ain’t over yet.

6 The Situation/ Plot (problematic/ controversial >>>do it!)

Disclaimer: The following paragraph reflects my personal view of the status quo in Syria. Since we better don't get involved into politics, this view is controversial and shouldn't be relevant for the actual project. The idea is to give people faith, thus you better frame things as positive and constructive as possible.

Insert: Written in the course of 2017...

One of the main reasons why there was this surge of refugees that hit the road was the war in Syria. Torwards the end of 2016 there was the battle of Aleppo. Eventually, Assads troops won with the help of Russia, which will soon seen to be the decisive step to end and a war that is now going on for already 8 years. Russia's decision to intervene in Syria was thereby the game changer. However the whole conflict virtually disappeared in the western media (...). That is something that really bothers me. I can't believe the double standards and hipocrisy of the West. After I've talked to a lot of refugees, I know that a lot of people have supported Assad all the way during the the war. Also there are a lot of minorites like the Christians who live in Syria, who get protected by Assad. Months ago I've signed a petition that got already launched last year (2016*). It was initiated by pretty much all the the Christian groups there are in Syria but unfortunately got completely left behind by the Western media. In the petition, they were demanding to end the sanctions against Syria. While the German government is still pretending to deal with the reasons why the people left Syria, the sanctions of the western states have been one of the reasons why the population struggled to fight shortages in the first place.

A few months ago the alliance of Syrian, Russian and Iranian troops made it to expel ISIS out of East-Ghouta, which was widely considered to be the definite last stronghold of something you practically can't define as a state of its own anymore. That is a huge victory and the end of the war in Syria in terms of military interventions. Nonethless, the western media barely took notice of that, nor seem the western governments urged to actually think about helping Syria to recover from the devastations of the war. At the moment the only western country that is rebuilding the infrastructure of a war torn country and reinstalling basic needs like a constant supply with water is the Russian Federation. This is a huge scandal and that circumstance needs awareness.

Obviously there are more conflicts in the world, but the one in Syria is the one that got only a short time ago extensively covered by the western media and now seems to be forgotten. Furthermore, since the plan was to go jogging, you still need to be able to do that in a region that is considerably safe, which means there mustn't be any fights. For me it's not only the risk itself of being there, but also the authorities and the military that could simply get confused. So there's no way to realize that kind of project in an actual warzone. Another reason is that the people got to have the capacities to get involved into any kind of sport. Even though that seems to be inappropiate in an area, where the main focus lies on the reconstruction of the infrastructure, it's always good to find a balance to a seemingly grey existence. When I think of something hypothetical like the first marathon in Aleppo, it's also something that reminds of a quote by Oscar Wilde:

„At the end of the day, reality is just a construction of the mind, our conscience is selective and human being will always be able to celebrate the irony of their destiny, no matter what“.

Update: As far as I could tell, from my point of view, i.e. the information you receive from the common channels in Germany, the Middle-East conflict with Israel as it's focal point is the most represented conflict in the media. Admittedly, my attention might be biased, however, if you think about the broadcasting companies around the world, it's still the conflict, that is the most polarizing and in a way, dividing the Okzident from the Orient.

There's got to be a way. Given that, one could think of a both literal and figurative way. The first is the one to cross the border physically, the second is the question how to get rid of all the blockades in the mind. The thing is, that you got to be able to find a force, that is stronger than all the hatred, plus the fault/ responsibilities, the Palestinians can externalize to the ones on the other side. What you usually don't see in the Western media are the human rights violations in the Gaza Stripe. The whole (media) attention is usually concentrated to the border zone. Thus the border zone functions to distract both the media and the people.

7 On a mission

You need to find something that canalizes all the hate and stimulates the people to an extent that they get distracted from the conflict and it's mere existence. It's got to be the force.

To be honest, the peace process (between Israel and Palestine) has failed completely. Thus we need to do better by finding a completely new approach.

One person to cross the border, to break the ice, so to say, or just to go, i.e. to run, where nobody else dares to go. It's got to be a riskful voyage, there's no doubt. I also recommend to run by yourself and independently first. The promotion aspect comes second and shouldn't catch the locals attention straight away. I'm not saying that there's gonna be an illegal border crossing, but if you actually jog from one side to the other with your passport in your hand, the heavily armed border police will look at you in the most peculiar way the least.

VISUALIZATION: You would get extreme pictures in a devastated area. You take a normal camera that virtually comes with your smartphone these days. This camera can you also use to get in contact with your sourroundings. Secondly, you can use a body camera (Go Pro) for the first person view. A friend of mine from Syria posted this video when the Syrian Troops attacked the rebel/ terrorist stronghold of East-Ghouta.

The third camera is a drone that makes videos from a bird's eye view to capture the whole scenario.

8 Transfer: Cycling in Eritrea

Back then in 2014 I've met a bunch of Eritreans in a refugee asylum in my hometown in Bavaria. When they told me, that they're from Eritrea, I shrugged because I had never heard of the country before in my entire life.

After that, I did some research and watched a few documentaries about the small country between Ethiopia and the Red Sea. The Italians imported cycling as a recreational activity whilst once back then when they were colonializing Eritrea. It's popularity hasn't decreased ever since. There’s even the Tour of Eritrea, introduced by Italian community of Eritrea and once called Primo Giro dell’Eritrea (The Tigrynian writing is: ዙር ኤርትራ). The Tour of Eritrea is a multistage bicycle race held annually throughout the country.

One could refer to Eritrea as a bluepringt how to kick off a sport for the masses in a development country. Obviously, you better don’t do this explicitly, because of the oppression that came with the colonialization by the Kingdom of Italy back then.

9 Catchphrases

Gegenschmerz/ Counterpain

Unify! UNITED

Freedom for all

The Pilgrimage

...

10 Soundtrack

Chuck Ragan – I believe

Xavier Rudd – Bow down

Bruce Springsteen – Born to run (controversial)

Hilltop Hoods – Tomorrow will do (Chorus as “Outro“)

Hilltop Hoods – The Hard Road (Restrung, beginning as „Intro“)

and many more …

11 ABOUT ME

Running for me is a rather spiritual thing. It gives me the feeling that I'm on track. That I'm on the road to somewhere. However the road itself is the destination. Everytime when I go for a run I got time to reflect and think about myself, i.e. the decisions I made, and the path I'm on and the way I go (i.e. the decision I will make).

It gives the feeling, that I'm connected with destiny, having an inner dialogue with the super-ego (i.e. god).

Thus running is for me like praying. Like some people go to the church, I like to get in touch with nature and the elements. I actually started to literally pray when I'm running.

When I go for a run I suffer for my sins. I pay a physical price for the mistakes I made, i.e. the decisions I regret. Running a marathon is comparable with a pilgrimage. The marathon I did in 2014 was like walking to Santiago de Compostela (or Mekka). Altogether, it took me five years to fulfil that dream. Doing the marathon also was like a pain therapy. Pain is crucial, since it gives me the feeling that I'm alive. The contact with the Elements is also highly important, because they give me the feeling that I'm connected with creation. Last winter I went for a run when it was -10 degrees outside. That was good! I mean, what doesn't kill you …

In 2014 I was frustrated with Uni life. I tried hard to put the focus on what was happening in the Ucraine. Also there was the Ebola virus rampant in the South Western African States. I wanted to do something and act, rather than just observe everything that was happening through the media. The plan was to either go to East Ucraine with a convoi to supply the area with humanitarian aid or alternatively help out the red cross to inform the people about the Ebola virus. Unfortunately, I broke my ancle when I just finished off my last paper for university in the last quarter of 2014.

In 2016 I went to Greece and Turkey for altogether 5 times. I went to the inofficial refugee camp in Idomeni for the times and came again to work as an idenpendent volunteer in the official refugee that were ran by the Greek military. I was a volunteer, an activist and freelancer journalist. Furthermore I was doing public relations and trying to connect the people via my facebook page „Wir machen was: The road to Idomeni“.

It pretty much started in 2010 when I found a pair of dirty Nike Air Sneakers in a shelve in a hostel in the middle of nowhere in New South Wales, Australia. Actually, I already started when I was still in Sydney because it was a good way to do some free activity and have a look at the city while detoxing from last night. Gosh, there are just so many reasons to go running!

Back in the day when I went for a run while I was working at Skybury Farm at the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland

Back then I had just quit my first job in Goolgowi, New South Wales, where I was planting trees for about 3.5 weeks for a miserable company. After that I spent roughly a week in a working hostel in the next big town called Griffith. I found the shoes left behind in the corner of a shelve, full of mud and without shoelaces. However, they were in a superb condition after I’d put them into laundry machine. Before I had found them, I went jogging with my Adidas Samba, but without proper shoes it felt like having stones in my legs for a couple of days after the run.

The Nikes were one of the treasures you may find on your travels because some fellow backpacker just couldn’t be bothered to take them with him on his further journey. Probably they just didn’t fit into his backpack anymore.

After I eventually flew from Sydney to Townsville shortly afterwards, I was sitting in a working hostel in Ayr, Queensland. I didn‘t have much to do on that afternoon because there was no work in the first couple of days after my arrival. Because I got bored, I decided to go for a bit of a run. I eventually ran all the way from Ayr to the next village Home Hill. The initial plan was to visit a girl I‘ve recently met, who was staying at a working hostel in Home Hill. When I arrived in Home Hill, I decided to not try to visit her and concluded, that it might not be the best ‚set up‘ for a visit. So I just turned around and ran my way back to Ayr again.

On the way there were massive Bushfires because the local farmers burn down the sugar canes because it makes it easier for them to extract the sugar. It was a rather spectacular scenario and felt a bit like running through flames. After that run which was years before there running apps, I looked up the distance on Google maps and it said that I ran 23.6 kilometres. That was the initial spark for making the decision to run a marathon one day. The plan also was to do them my super vintage Nike Sneakers. Unfortunately my whole backpack got stolen when I was on Ibiza in 2013.

I made it: My first marathon in 2014 at the VVO Oberelbe-Marathon in Dresden, Germany.

Entering a world of pain: The last kilometres before the finish line.

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Stanislav Stremidlovskij, January 23, 2017, 13:46- REGNUM

the themes of MEDIA publications of the Vatican, Catholic dioceses and organizations during the week of 16-22 January steel: dad Francis greeted Trump with the assumption of Office; the Vatican’s diplomatic activities have increased considerably; Christians in the Middle East should assume political responsibility; history of the Orthodox community in Austria starts with the Habsburgs and more.

Pope Francis sent a congratulatory letter to Donald Trump on his assumption of the post of the President of the United States, passes Radio Vaticana (Vatican). “I give you my best wishes and assure the prayers to the Almighty God that he gave you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office, writes the Pontiff — at a time when our human family suffers from serious humanitarian crises that require a visionary and unified political responses, I ask that your decisions were dictated by rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people and the country’s commitment to the promotion of human dignity and freedom throughout the world”. Francis expressed the wish that under the leadership of Donald Trump America’s prosperity is measured first and foremost care about the poor, the downtrodden and the needy, who, like Lazarus, waiting in front of our doors. ” At the conclusion of his message the Pope vznosit prayer to God, that he blessed the newly elected President, his family and the entire American people gifts of peace, harmony, material and spiritual well-being.

the expectations of Catholic community from Trump’s historian, Professor of theology at the University of Villanova (United States) Massimo Fadzholi. He noted that during the election campaign the majority of American bishops have focused on the issue of abortion, which he said is the main marker “of American politics from a religious point of view. So the Church in the United States was considering a presidential election a bit vicariously, in terms of nominations, where the head of State will nominate to the Supreme Court. Because during the election campaign, Republican candidate confirmed the intention to delegate lawyers configured against abortion, Trump drew sympathy for myself most American Bishops. Fadzholi noted that the new President would be “unpredictable.” But it is hoped that a greater role than usual, becomes Vice President Michael Pence, a former Catholic who knows “religious landscape is much better than Trump. While Professor of theology warn that the President has demonstrated during the election campaign the ability to find contact with the audience without intermediaries “and” gatekeepers “. Including, without the Catholic Bishops. Fadzholi stressed that the bishops at the national level usually engaged in the protection of Church positions, while the Vatican is Realpolitik. But in the United States, said the historian, the Holy See should work on those two fronts at once, in particular to take into account the views of the Pope on matters such as migration and refugees, bringing American bishops “are still unwilling to make. What Francis can get closer with Trump, so in regards to globalization, which criticized the two men for contempt of the development of national labour markets.

continues the theme of L’Osservatore Romano (Vatican). Trump said in Washington just 18 minutes: very briefly for the inauguration speech, but enough to President postulated break with the recent past American policy. But not with the story. His call for America to export not “lifestyles” and be an example to others, brings to mind the Monroe doctrine. Another question that an isolationist policy in the twenty-first century — not what the centuries XIX and XX even. Yes, in recent years the world are accustomed to treat globalization as a kind of absolute truth, which was intended to determine the fate of Nations and peoples. The problem is that globalization is what we know so far, the least interest in establishing rules and those that are, mostly mute, all focused on maximizing profits with minimal cost. Hence, moving production to countries with very low labour costs and the consequent impoverishment of entire regions. When Trump declares “buy American and employ Americans, he is responsible for the request for those people who see only the negative aspects of globalization, leading to a marked decline in living standards. And when the President said that after his election, the power goes out to meet people, it becomes clear that the entire ruling class United States (but this can be extended to any other country) has so far been unable to manage globalization to the benefit of people, not just capital. Time will tell whether the recipe is formulated Trump really effective. In an increasingly interconnected planet erecting barriers, even commercial, may be anachronistic. It’s hard to believe that a nation, albeit the most powerful, can do it alone. Recall the words of the head of China XI Jinping, the unofficial “champion of globalization”, which the Forum in Davos, said that the trade war there will be no winners, but only losers. The new President of the United States could not ignore requests that arrive from other world powers. Trump said that America will seek new alliances, upomjanStreet of historical ties with Britain. But the President must not forget the great tradition of American solidarity. A country that has built its strength on this, should not forget their heritage.

After 20 January, Trump appears an opportunity to chart a new course in relations between the United States and the Vatican, writes National Catholic Register (Ajrondjejl, United States). Cooperation between Washington and the Holy See over the past eight years was unsustainable. On the one hand, their adherence to the policy has drawn on climate change and the prevention of trafficking. But there was also hostility from the Obama administration on issues of abortion, the sanctity of marriage and religious freedom. Catholics embarrassed initiated by the White House in the year 2013 office move of the Embassy to the Holy See of Vatican City in Rome at the Embassy building in Italy. President Obama minimized the importance of United States relations with the Holy See? Five former us ambassadors Vatican disagreed with this policy. Well, and now experts are already discussing a list of potential candidates for the post of u.s. Ambassador to the Holy See. The current, Ken Hackett, resigned. In its place should come a man who understands priorities Trump, as well as teaching and mission of the Catholic Church. Called the following names: former speaker of the House of representatives Newt Gingrich, a businessman and member of the order of Malta, William e. Simon Jr., Builder Joseph Fordzhone, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. The new Ambassador may play a key role in strengthening u.s.-Vatican relations.

the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Paralin participated in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, tells Radio Vaticana . Monsignor noticed that thanks to Pope Vatican diplomacy Quote have increased considerably. The Pontiff acknowledged as a global leader that often stressed during visits to the Vatican delegations of various countries and organizations. According to the Cardinal, Francis challenged the Vatican diplomacy three objectives: to fight poverty, build bridges and promote peace throughout the world. Parolin emphasized that the role of the Holy See is not the proclamation of principles and concrete assistance to people in difficult situations. He recalled the assistance that the Catholic Church is assisting countries in which there is, including giving advice on overcoming the difficulties. One of the main objectives of the Vatican diplomatic activities is the protection of religious freedom. If it is protected, protected by other human rights, believes the Secretary of State. At the same time, he said, the Holy See is working for freedom, not only Catholics, but the Church and the faithful of all religions. Talking about the protection of the human person. “I would like to emphasize in a special way, that there is a dimension that cannot be ignored if we want to save humanity today: this transcendental dimension of personality. Personality cannot be reduced only to materiality, “the Monsignor. Parolin said that the European Union is going through a crisis period now. He appealed to “give Europe a soul” through the execution of ideas of the founding fathers of the EU, which wanted to ensure that Europe had the general idea, and not just the markets and the economy. “In this sense, I should like to stress the importance of religion: it cannot be confined to the private sphere, religion has something to say in the public arena,” said the cardinal. The Secretary also gave an assessment of the facts of the operation of God’s name to justify violence and terrorist acts. He called this phenomenon the apparent manipulation of religion.

the Chairman of the Department for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) gave an interview L’Agenzia Servizio Informazione Religiosa (Rome, Italy). Monsignor talked about his impression of the Pope, which met six times from 2013 onwards. “He is a very humble man. And he was always well informed. I don’t need to inform him in detail about this or that issue under discussion, because dad is knowledgeable about many things, “the Metropolitan said. Decr Chairman admitted the possibility of another meeting of Francis and the Moscow Patriarch Kirill (previous was held in Cuba last year), while current plans do not, as well as on the agenda is the question of the Pontiff’s arrival in Russia. Relations between the Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate Monsignor described as “very good and constructive, dialogue is not interrupted. He recalled the joint projects after the meeting of the heads of the Orthodox and Catholic churches in support of people in difficult life situations, especially in Syria. Metropolitan noticed that although the Pope and Patriarch speak separately, their messages were a single character. In Europe, many claim continues Edition that secularization opened entrance to Islamic fundamentalists. In response, the President reminded Decr Chairman Pontifical Council for promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch: “we should not fear a strong Islam, and weak Christianity.” Than secular organizations society, characteristic of many European countries can be characterized as a weak society spiritually. But if we are not willing to sacrifice his life, battle played. When we recognize our Christian roots and our Christian identity, only then we will be strong enough to confront the challenges of our time.

the number of Christians in the Middle East is decreasing not only because of the conflicts and violence, but also because of the reluctance of (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

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