#there's a huge lack of regulation that should and needs to be put in place

[ripplestitchskein]

I didn’t watch the video and I won’t because I don’t enjoy their takes or the way they present their content so I may be missing some in video context but someone mentioned something that really struck me this morning in the tags. I don’t add on to posts as a general rule unless I really feel the need, and this is in no way meant as a call out for either source but I do want to address the general idea presented.

Stolas was never triggered by Stella yelling at him so he should not have been triggered by Blitz yelling at him.

There are a few very glaring things about this idea.

First the entire premise that a person wouldn’t have different reactions to different people in their life doing similar things is kind of silly on its face. There are a number of reasons why you would have a disproportionate reaction to being yelled at by one person over another.

Being yelled at by a stranger in a public confrontation is much different than being yelled at by someone you know in a space you consider safe, for example. Being yelled at by someone you consider physically intimidating is much different than being yelled at by someone you don’t. Being yelled at in a professional space is much different than being yelled at in a personal one. Etc. etc. etc. They all produce very different emotions and very different responses.

There are a number of contextual circumstances that will change how someone reacts to a similar situation as well. The most obvious to apply here is the relationship dynamic between the individuals.

On the one side we have Stella who Stolas in no way wants to be with, who he has been forced to be with for 17+ years, and who has seemed fairly consistent in her treatment of him over that time period. Where we see Stolas in the narrative is after many years of putting up with her behavior. Not only would Stella’s yelling be something Stolas is probably a bit inured to after dealing with it for so long, but he has also trained himself to change his behavior to keep the peace as it were. On top of that he has spent the past 17 years pushing down his own emotions and reactions to provide a family environment for his daughter. And we do see Stolas react negatively to her abuse, he flinches, he drinks excessively, he takes medication to regulate his mood, he backs away from her, he modulates his behavior to placate her.

Blitz on the other hand is someone Stolas is emotionally invested in. He cares for Blitz and while Blitz is abrasive and crude we don’t have examples of him outright yelling in anger at Stolas. He has also mentioned multiple times that Blitz is the one who broke him out of this repression. Of course he would react differently to Blitz versus Stella, they are literally the two opposites ends of a core character conflict he has.

We must also consider the power dynamic. Up until this point Blitz went out of his way to maintain their relationship, he deliberately avoided confrontation. He states this directly in his part of the duet, we see it in his text messages or the lack there of, we have evidence of it with the sex chest and his little shopping spree. So from Stolas’s point of view this person yelling at him now has only ever accommodated him or avoided him before, which, while also being a huge issue in their relationship, also escalates the moment when Blitz does push back and break down.

Stella has none of this baggage, her yelling does not reveal hard truths Stolas has to also deal with and confront. Stolas can justify his behavior with her because she never cared for him anyway, he did not hurt her with his actions. Stella’s yelling does not come from a place of hurt and betrayal regarding Stolas as she never cared for him or their marriage anyway. He did hurt Blitz however, and that hurt is being presented to him in a very aggressive way, and he had hoped up until this point that Blitz cared for him as well. So not only does he now realize Blitz doesn’t care for him (or that’s how he interprets it) but that he also views him in this really horrible way, as someone who takes advantage of those lesser than him, that he is pompous and unfeeling and cruel. He is the monster he feared being.

Which leads me to the next glaring difference. Stolas spent however long preparing for this moment where he revealed his feelings, he was hopeful and excited and nervous. He is then, in his mind, rejected. He is experiencing a range of emotions during this confrontation that all come to a boiling point.

With Stella her yelling is not a building confrontation of emotional ups and downs, it’s an environmental constant. In just a matter of minutes with Blitz he goes from nervous hope to rejection to realizing the person he cares for thinks really terrible things about him and the manner in which that is revealed is extremely charged. There is a world of difference between something you expect to happen (Stella yelling) and something you didn’t. Stolas has no idea Blitz had these feelings inside him, that’s part of the problem, and they were revealed to him in a very crushing and intense way.

We also have to consider that these are not real people reacting to the situation as real people might. This is a story being told to us and the writers and animators are presenting what is relevant to that narrative and these characters in a very concentrated way. They only have so long to get a point across and they must continue the story by contriving reactions we would not see in reality. In this episode and in the story overall so far we are given all the information we need to see it from both points of view and see why each of them reacted in the ways we did.

With storytelling of this nature you are not in the character’s heads so you much rely on actions, dialogue (which can be reliable or not) and environmental cues to get these points across. They did a phenomenal job in my opinion.

We have both of their mental headspace’s at the beginning presented in song, we get an idea of where they are at when the confrontation begins, and where they end up is a natural conclusion to the high emotions on display. The atmosphere is tense and dark, it’s a building anticipation with the music and the silence and the lightning being used, how the shots are framed. We get a sense of Blitz chasing him down, weaving through hallways and kicking open doors. It’s cinematic, because it’s a visual medium. Stolas HAD to remove Blitz from the situation in order to continue the narrative, he has magic in this story so he sends him away. In the real world there would be a lot of “Get out.” “No.” “I said get out” etc etc but that’s not interesting for the audience and in this world we have magic so whoosh, out he goes, the conflict continues into the next episode.

There are a number of things I could discuss related to domestic violence, or emotional triggers, or trauma responses but I don’t think that’s necessary here. Not only are these not real people and we are not privy to all of the baggage they have, how their individual brains process it and how they respond to it but the storytelling method is not conducive to those kind of real world considerations. What we do know is people react to different things in different circumstances with different people and the narrative absolutely justified Stolas’s response to Blitz and its contrast to his responses to Stella.

That is actually kind of the whole point?

[goldentreecannabis]

The Smart Shopper’s Guide to Cannabis Retail Near Me in Brampton

Let’s be real — finding a good cannabis store can be overwhelming, especially with so many new ones popping up around town. Whether you’re new to cannabis or a seasoned consumer, knowing how to choose the right place makes a huge difference. If you’ve ever typed “cannabis retail near me” into Google and felt lost in the search results, you’re not alone.

What Makes a Good Cannabis Store?

A great cannabis store should feel like a mix between a boutique and your favorite local shop. It’s clean, well-organized, and the staff are approachable. You should feel comfortable asking questions and browsing without pressure. A quality store also prioritizes education and transparency, helping you make informed choices, not just quick sales.

Why Brampton?

Brampton has become a hotspot for legal cannabis, and it’s no wonder why. The city is growing fast, with a diverse population and a progressive mindset. More importantly, Brampton supports regulated cannabis access, which has led to a steady rise in high-quality weed stores across the city. For residents and visitors alike, it’s a great place to explore new products and reliable service.

Understanding Cannabis Retail Dispensaries

A cannabis retail dispensary is a licensed store where adults can legally buy cannabis and cannabis-related products. Unlike shady corner stores of the past, these establishments are regulated by the province and adhere to strict safety standards. Products sold are lab-tested, labeled with potency and ingredients, and staff are usually trained to provide guidance for both recreational and medicinal users.

Legal vs Illegal — What You Need to Know

Not every store selling cannabis is operating legally. Legal dispensaries in Brampton are approved by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), ensuring that the cannabis sold is safe and properly regulated. Illegal stores can’t offer the same guarantees, which puts your health and safety at risk.

If you’re unsure about a shop, ask if they’re licensed or check online listings through Ontario’s official cannabis retailer portal.

How to Search “Cannabis Retail Near Me” Effectively

When you search “cannabis retail near me,” you’ll likely get dozens of results — but don’t just click on the first one. Take a few minutes to research each option. Consider their Google reviews, business hours, product selection, and location. Try looking at their website or Instagram page to get a feel for the store’s vibe. This quick research can save you time and help you find a spot that suits your needs.

The Importance of Knowledgeable Staff

Product Range: Beyond Just Bud

These days, walking into a weed store brampton is like stepping into an adult version of a candy store. Beyond dried flower, you’ll find a wide range of products:

Edibles (gummies, chocolates, baked goods)

Oils and tinctures

CBD-only options

Pre-rolls and concentrates

Vape pens and cartridges

This variety makes it easier to find what suits your lifestyle — whether you want to relax after work or manage chronic pain.

Shopping Experience and Atmosphere

The look and feel of a cannabis store can shape your entire shopping experience. Some stores go for a sleek, modern aesthetic, while others embrace a cozy, down-to-earth vibe. Clean displays, easy-to-read menus, and relaxed music help customers feel at ease. If a place makes you feel welcome from the moment you walk in, you’re more likely to return.

Price vs Quality — What Should Matter More?

We all love a deal — but with cannabis, quality should never take a back seat. That doesn’t mean you need to buy the most expensive strain on the shelf, but be cautious of deals that seem too good to be true. Cheaper products may have lower potency, undesirable effects, or lack consistency. Focus on value: fair prices for trusted brands and well-reviewed items.

Top Features of a Great Weed Store in Brampton

Here’s a quick hit list of what makes a cannabis store stand out:

Valid AGCO license

Friendly, trained staff

Diverse product inventory

Inviting store layout

Easy online ordering

Consistently positive customer feedback

If a store checks these boxes, chances are you’re in the right place.

Common Myths About Cannabis Dispensaries

Despite legalization, some old stereotypes still hang around. One common myth is that dispensaries are dark or shady places. In reality, legal cannabis stores are brightly lit, clean, and very professional. Another myth is that they only cater to heavy users. But you’ll find products designed for wellness, creativity, and even sleep — many aimed at first-timers or casual users.

Online Cannabis Stores — Are They Worth It?

If you’re the type who enjoys browsing in your pajamas, online cannabis stores might be perfect for you. Many dispensaries in Brampton offer online ordering, either for pickup or home delivery. The menus are usually well-organized, and some sites even let you filter by effects, THC/CBD levels, or product type. Just make sure you’re ordering from a licensed retailer.

Cannabis Store Etiquette

Not sure what’s considered polite in a cannabis store? Follow these simple tips:

Bring valid government-issued ID — no exceptions.

Don’t open packages or handle product without permission.

Ask questions — staff are there to help.

Avoid using your phone excessively inside.

Respect privacy — some customers may want discretion.

Treat the store like any other professional setting, and your visit will be smooth.

Reviews and Recommendations

Final Thoughts: Your Cannabis Journey Begins

Choosing the right cannabis store in Brampton is about more than convenience — it’s about feeling safe, respected, and informed. As the cannabis world grows, so do the options and possibilities. Whether you’re shopping for fun, wellness, or curiosity, Brampton has something for everyone.

Don’t be afraid to explore different stores, ask for advice, and discover what works best for your lifestyle. Your perfect cannabis experience is just around the corner.

FAQs

1. Is it legal to buy cannabis in Brampton? Yes, as long as you’re 19 or older and purchasing from a licensed cannabis retail dispensary.

2. What ID do I need to enter a cannabis store? You’ll need a valid, government-issued photo ID to verify your age.

3. Can I get cannabis delivered in Brampton? Yes. Many cannabis stores in Brampton offer delivery or click-and-collect services through their websites.

4. What’s the difference between THC and CBD products? THC is the psychoactive part that gives you a “high,” while CBD is non-intoxicating and often used for relaxation or pain relief.

5. How do I find a good cannabis retail near me? Use Google to search with keywords like “weed store Brampton” or “cannabis retail near me.” Then, read reviews and check if the store is licensed.

[nursingwriter]

¶ … health law and administrative law, according to Jost (2004), are law domains that are representative of the various approaches to classification. By definition, "health law encompasses law as it affects a particular industry -- the health-care industry" (Jost 2004). This particular kind of classification, therefore, regulates the relationship between the various healthcare industry stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the government, patients, health-care professionals, and health-care providers. Administrative law on the other hand is defined by the Black's Law Dictionary as "the law governing the organization and operation of the executive branch of government (including independent agencies) and the relations of administrative agencies with the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and the public" (Jost 2004). The agencies I select in an attempt to define how such agencies interact with the health care industry are The Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Justice. To begin with, being an independent federal agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerns itself with the protection of consumers in an attempt to create a market that is not only competitive but also strong. This it does via the enforcement of a variety of laws -- particularly antitrust laws and consumer protection laws. It is important to note that the relevance of competition in the healthcare market cannot be overstated. This is more so the case given that it has some inherent benefits to consumers via the containment of costs, quality enhancement, and enhanced innovation. FTC ensures that firms in the health care industry do not engage in anticompetitive behavior that could be detrimental to consumers. One of the antitrust enforcement policies issued by FTC regards mergers and seeks to protect consumers against activities that are anticompetitive in nature. It should be noted that while this particular agency lacks the powers to enforce its rulings directly, it has the courts at its disposal for enforcement purposes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on the other hand, concerns itself with the regulation of the release of health-related products as well as foods items that are new in to market. In so doing, it seeks to protect members of the public from ingesting, making use of, or consuming cosmetic products, drugs, and foods that could be unsafe or impure. One of the areas where the agency is most renowned for its involvement is in the regulation of new drugs - particularly in their development stage. To fulfill its mandate, the agency has in place rules specifying mandatory new-drug clinical trials. It is for this reason that FDA closely follows the testing of numerous drugs that are pending release in an attempt to highlight how they affect their intended user. The influence FDA, therefore, has in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry is huge. On being established, the law, according to FDA (2015), "authorized FDA to demand evidence of safety of new drugs issue standards for food, and conduct factory inspections." Next, we have the Department of Justice, or simply put, DOJ. This particular agency of the federal government is critical when it comes to not only the enforcement of federal laws, but also the allotment of justice for those found guilty of various crimes, and the enhancement of an impartial and fair justice system. Without this key agency, the federal government would lack the much needed arm to handle its legal work. There are many administrative units under DOJ that facilitate the enforcement of federal laws. For instance, DOJ has an initiative commonly referred to as HEAT -- Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team - whose mandate is to fast-track the prevention as well as prosecution of health care fraud. Part 2 Discrimination in Providing Health Care Services When seeking healthcare services, many people could encounter some form of discrimination on the basis of their race, gender, or even sexual orientation. It is important to note that although people are not always aware of this; there are various laws that seek to protect patients from differential treatment when seeking health care services. Specifically, patients are protected by Federal law from just about any kind of discrimination. Examples of the said protections: Health insurers are prohibited, under the Affordable Care Act, from varying rates on the basis of an individual's health status or gender. An example: Patient A and Patient B should pay the same if they are comparable, regardless of the fact that one of the patients is a woman who on the basis of her gender could seek gynecological services from time to time. There is also the Age Discrimination Act (1975) which expressly prohibits discrimination by health care providers, particularly those who receive funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, on the basis of age. For instance: Patient an ought not to be denied organ transplant, if he or she is a prime candidate for the same, on the basis of his or her advanced age. The sixth title of the 1964 Civil Rights Act also expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of the nationality, color, race, or even age of an individual. In essence, this particular law largely applies to recipients of federal funds, including but not limited to Medicaid and Medicare. However, family health centers, day care facilities, adoption centers, and nursing homes are also covered by this law. An example: Patient A should not be provided with benefits or services that are NOT consistent with those offered to Patient B and C under a specific health care program. References FDA (2015). Regulatory Information: Legislation. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Legislation/ Jost, T.S. (2004). Health Law and Administrative Law: A Marriage Most Convenient. 49 St. Louis U.L.J. 1, 1-34 Read the full article

[maevegrey1]

6 Mistakes to Avoid in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Medical negligence often causes financial and emotional damages that have life-altering consequences. In extreme cases, medical negligence causes wrongful death, leaving the victim’s family with heavy financial burdens.

A medical malpractice lawsuit is the ideal weapon that medical negligence victim uses to get justice as they can seek compensation for any damages sustained. Furthermore, a medical malpractice lawsuit is a punitive measure that helps regulate medical practitioners’ conduct.

There is a laid-out process to be followed when making a medical malpractice claim, which, if not adhered to, can nullify your medical malpractice claim during trial.

In this article, we will discuss six of the most common mistakes you should avoid before and during a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Ignoring an Instance of Medical Negligence

It calls for a lot of concentration and attention to details for a medical practitioner to offer quality healthcare services. 

Despite all the regulatory measures put in place to ensure that medical practitioners deliver a certain standard of service, errors are still bound to occur. Even the slightest of errors could cause immense health injuries, most of which would require huge monetary commitment to rectify.

Sadly, most people are still unaware of the kind of medical malpractice lawsuits to file, and have ended up bearing the cost of another person’s negligence.

Most healthcare facilities are aware of the fact that most people have no idea what medical malpractice entails. As such, they use these facts to shield themselves against malpractice claims.

Ensure to consult a medical malpractice lawyer immediately you notice that your health is further deteriorating after a procedure, or you have a strong belief that a wrongful death occurred as a result of medical negligence.

Handing Out Your Only Sources of Evidence

Medical reports are important pieces of evidence in a medical malpractice lawsuit. As such, it is unwise to hand out the only copies you have during deposition or discovery. Consequently, losing your only source of evidence means that you will have no merit to back up your claim. 

Whenever the need to share such documents arises, ensure that you make duplicate copies and hold on to the original copies.

Self-representing in a Lawsuit

The biggest mistake you can make when seeking monetary compensation for injuries and damages caused by medical negligence is self-representation. In fact, consider working without a lawyer as jumping off a cliff without strapping cords.

As discussed above, your lack of medical and legal knowledge reduces your odds of filing a successful medical malpractice claim, let alone receiving monetary reparations from the negligent medical practitioner.

Therefore, it is crucial to hire a medical malpractice lawyer Michigan who will not only help gather evidence for your case, but also ensure that you file the correct medical malpractice claim.

Essentially, your medical malpractice lawyer does all the heavy technical lifting involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Lack of Proper Documentation

Every litigation requires impeccable evidence to make a case. As such, it is essential that you have properly documented medical reports and tests in order to help your medical malpractice lawyer establish causation.

Additionally, properly documented medical bills and proof of other expenses (such as payment invoices and receipts) will help estimate the amount of damages you have sustained. Lack of proper documentation leaves a lot of loopholes with which the defendant can raise refuting arguments. 

Eventually, insufficient evidence creates reasonable doubt, leading to your lawsuit being dismissed. The defendant only needs reasonable doubt to sway the jury's decision.

Oversharing Evidence

The conflicting parties are required to share their evidence and key witness lists with each another during the discovery phases of a medical malpractice claim.

However, refrain from oversharing (sharing everything you have against the defendant) before trial; an element of surprise is a crucial disarming tool during the trial.

Disclosing Your Case Details on Social Media

In the modern world, sharing our grievances on social media is one of the easiest ways of getting your voice heard, especially when justice is being delayed.

However, sharing important details, such as medical reports, can do you more harm than good in a medical malpractice claim since it gives the defendant an opportunity to properly prepare for trial.

Conclusion

Making a good medical malpractice lawsuit requires you to master the dos and the don’ts. Avoid medical malpractice lawsuit mistakes highlighted above to avoid unnecessary exposure during trial.

[projectarchitecture]

Health and wellbeing in Buildings

Part 1 - The situation Indoors

There is a huge problem with where the construction industry is headed and, personally as an architectural engineering student, want to be a part of a change in this bare minimum design movement that is ruining the experience of being in the indoor and even the outdoor space. The decline in architectural development (for the better at least) has halted, especially when it comes to the average persons home, which mean that unless you can afford to spend you time in costly buildings, you’ll have a very unfulfilling experience being in your own home. This also applies to the other places that we tend to spend the most time in, our offices, classrooms, even our hospitals are unhealthily miserable, which is a danger to every patient. In every crucial, commonly used space, not only is there minimal access to greenery and nature and light, there are also hideous buildings, built only to accommodate their function and not to be enjoyable or good for you in any way. While researching the topic of health and wellbeing in built environments, I was surprised to learn about the estimation that an entire 68% of the developed world will be urbanised by 2050. Imagine that ugly scenery with the architecture of today (function over quality, aesthetics and all of the above). A world of concrete, bricks and plaster would cause such a detachment from the natural world, which is already bad enough in today’s day and age. The pandemic of 2020 has also caused an increase in the time spent indoors, especially for the youth, which was again, bad enough before. As of today we spend 62% of our waking time just at home, where the air quality is extremely damaging to our health and wellbeing. Air pollution is actually the number one environmental threat to human health causing approximately seven million deaths each year. That’s over 11% of the yearly deaths in the world! Exposure to polluted air increases risks of a stroke, heart disease, pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and respiratory infections. Indoor air pollution, which affects 90% of people, is primarily caused by solid fuel combustion, gas appliances, and the release of harmful gases and chemicals from materials. These pollutants can cause respiratory conditions like asthma and lead to respiratory issues like nausea, headaches, and allergies. Biological contaminants, such as mould and fungi growth, can also cause indoor air pollution. Outdoor air pollution, caused by transport, agriculture, and waste, is a significant health risk for people within buildings. Causes of ambient air pollution related to the built environment include the use of highly polluting brick kilns, which contribute to up to 20% of global black carbon emissions, and the concentration of 90% of global brick production in central Asia. Addressing these sources is crucial to protect human health and wellbeing. The ventilation and windows do not make up for this lack of fresh air and light, hence the regulations around health and wellbeing getting stricter and stricter every year. But these minuscule restriction hardly make any difference to improve our lives and our time inside. We, of course do not even put in effort to help our own case - we don’t leave the house enough, look away from our screens enough, low our eduction and jobs to take place anywhere but enclosed in the unhealthy space that is indoors. There are very few of us that spend the amount of time we should be spending outside and it is honestly getting more difficult and, unfortunately rare. The whole world restricted by nursery, school, college,university, their daily responsibilities, and there is no clear answer as to how to achieve the ability to restore our connection with nature. There is no possible change to our lifestyles that could be significant enough to give us the result we need for our health. The answer lies within the four walls that stand between us and nature.

Sources:

[thatpunnyperson]

I absolutely love what both you have said here, and I think the problem lies in the distinction between "regulations" and "laws" from the OceanGate side of this week's tragedies. There are so many regulations and best-practices in the industry of maritime travel, but the lack of concrete laws means the regulations are not properly (if at all, in a lot of casee) being enforced. And the best-practices certifications and authorizations and sign-offs are all "nice to have" instead of "need to have," which allows companies to simply have potential clients/customers sign huge waivers and non-disclosure agreements "accepting" the risks inherent to shoddily designed and implemented ideas.

I'm going to put the rest under a Read More, because it's about to get LONG

There legitimately are not proper laws in place to prevent something like the OceanGate sub disaster from happening, for the same reason as it being legal in a lot of places here in the US for homeowners to make dramatic changes to their houses without having to file for a permit to make those changes.

For example, you do not have to be a licensed electrical engineer in the US to make changes to your home's electrical system, even if what you want to do might be incredibly dangerous and possibly kill you and/or light your house on fire. You do not HAVE TO file for a permit with the city to change the electrical system of your house, even with the aforementioned danger of killing yourself and/or lighting your house on fire.

You CAN and most agree that you SHOULD get the permits and hire the proper licensed electrical engineers to make any changes to your house, because a licensed electrical engineer knows how to NOT kill themselves or light your house on fire, and because the permit requires an inspector to come to your house and verify that the electrical engineer did everything properly so YOU won't accidentally kill yourself or light your house on fire.

The OceanGate disaster happened because there were many checks and balances in place to prevent well-meaning but overexcited companies from cutting corners and sacrificing basic safety in their quest to reach their goal. The problem was that OceanGate, its CEO, and many of the people high up in the company

actively did NOT want to seek out the certifications and authorizations

actively ignored people in the industry offering warning and help

actively chose to instead class their craft as a "submersible" instead of a "submarine" because submersibles don't have to be depth tested (among other things)

deliberately chose to make it out of experimental materials proven to perform poorly in the exact circumstances into which they were going to put the craft

actively ignored published tried-and-tested science about every aspect of their craft

And this ultimately led to the massive waiver the passengers had to sign, waiving liability from OceanGate in the event of exactly what happened, so the obvious-to-everyone-else consequences would only affect the people in the sub when it imploded.

Everything they did was technically legal, and it's because OceanGate as a company carefully thread the needles of legality versus regulations vs best-practices, and because they knew that they would face no legal ramifications for their choices if they made some Very Specific Choices at Very Specific Points In The Process.

OceanGate decided to figuratively invite people over to help them remodel their house, and it really did end with them killing themselves due to their own refusal to hire the figurative licensed electrical engineer and get the figurative permit.

It is VERY hard to stop people from doing stupid stuff that actively endangers the lives of others, but when it comes to the wealthy doing stupid stuff because they think they can or because they simply want to, laws which inflict hefty fines when broken is a proven effective way to keep the wealthy in check. The fines just have to be high enough to really hurt, so the wealthy either follow the safe path or call the whole endeavor off.

According to NBC here in the US, the missing titanic sub has been found. As debris. Off the bow of the Titanic wreckage.

And it looks like the sub suffered what we all suspected, and what was undoubtedly the more merciful of the two options: a catastrophic implosion from the pressure.

Also, more info has come to light about the fishing trawler with the hundreds of migrants that sank cataclysmically off the coast of Greece, indicating that the greek coast guard knew about the vessel AND how much trouble the vessel was in, and were towing it at a speed that made it capsize, at which point they unhooked the tow line and watched the trawler sink without helping the passengers to safety. Despite a bunch of other ships trying to help as well throughout the whole ordeal.

So a lot of people are dead, all because of regulations (and the lack thereof) regarding sea-faring vessels and rescue protocols. People shouldnt be allowed to make a business charging a ton of money for a ride on an uncertified, unsafe, un-seaworthy ship going deep into the ocean with no distress beacon or tether to the mothership. People also shouldnt be allowed to enact laws that criminalize the ferrying of refugees, which then force the refugees to hitch rides on fishing trawlers, and which also prevent people from helping those fishing trawlers full of refugees due to fear of legal consequences.

Hopefully BOTH of these events spark changes on an international scale in terms of what is legally allowed to be sailed, who is legally allowed to be the passengers, and what the rescue protocols are in the event of disaster for any seafaring vessel, illegal or not. It shouldnt be just the global 1% who get 24/7 search parties and remote-operated submersibles helping rescue them.

[inavagrant-a]

Interesting...

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Monopolists are winning the repair wars

In 2018, dozens of states introduced Right to Repair bills. These bills are wildly popular among voters, but wildly unpopular among monopolists ranging from Apple to Microsoft to Google to GM to John Deere to Wahl. Every one of these bills was defeated.

Repair advocates regrouped for 2021. 27 R2R bills have been introduced at the state level. Every single one that came up for a vote was defeated, thanks to aggressive lobbying by an unholy alliance of the country’s largest, most profitable, least taxpaying corporations.

In 2014, a pair of American political scientists published a groundbreaking peer-reviewed paper analyzing 30 years’ worth of US policy-making that compared policy outcomes to public polling results.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#authors-details

They concluded that general public sentiment had almost no impact on US policy making — but the political preferences of wealthy people and large corporations were hugely predictive of what laws and regulations we’d get.

Or, in poli-sci jargon, “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”

The Right to Repair fight is a hell of a proof of this principle. It’s really hard to overstate the popularity of the idea that you should be able to fix your own stuff, or choose where you get your stuff fixed.

Take auto-repair. As auto-manufacturing has grown more concentrated, car makers have squeezed independent mechanics — as close to a folk-hero as the American imagination can produce! — to the margins.

After all, forcing car owners to use official service depots has huge advantages: manufacturers can gouge on service prices, they can force drivers to buy expensive original parts, and they get to unilaterally decide when a car is beyond repair and force you to buy a new one.

Drivers have a good intuitive sense that this is going on. That’s why, when Bay Staters voted on Massachusetts Question 1 (an automotive R2R ballot initiative) in 2012, it passed with an 86% majority!

Mass Question 1 is a really good example of how monopolists can arm-twist politicians into frustrating the will of the people. Immediately after the 2012 initiative, auto-makers set about retooling their cars to escape the new right to repair rule.

The 2012 rule forced automakers to give mechanics access to diagnostic info from cars’ wired internal networks, so Big Car moved all the useful diagnostic data to their cars’ wireless networks. Hence the 2020 Massachusetts R2R ballot initiative, which closed this loophole.

The 2020 fight over the Mass. R2R ballot initiative was fuckin’ wild. The car-makers ran some seriously freaky scare-ads, in which the ability of auto mechanics to read wireless diagnostic data led directly to women being stalked and murdered.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

I’m not making this up. The underlying premise was, “We turned your car into a hyper-aggressive mobile surveillance platform that incidentally gets you places. If we let other people see the data we’re nonconsensually extracting from you, it will put you in terrible danger.”

Thankfully, Bay Staters saw through this bullshit and passed 2020’s Question 1 with a 75% majority.

The thing is, people completely understand that they should be in charge of deciding who fixes their stuff.

They understand that the risk of poor repairs should be addressed through consumer protection laws (which also bind monopolists’ own authorized repair depots), not by having the repair market privately regulated by monopolists who have vast conflicts of interest.

This understanding has only deepened through the pandemic year, as authorized repair depots shuttered and vital equipment languished thanks to anti-repair laws and technological countermeasures.

For example, Medtronic’s workhorse PB840 ventilators couldn’t be refurbed without using a grey-market activation dongle that a single Polish med-tech homebrewed, encasing them in cases harvested from busted clock-radios and guitar pedals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Medtronic — a med-tech monopolist that effected the largest corporate inversion in history to escape US taxes — argues that letting independent med-techs fix its products puts patients at risk, but this argument is every bit as flimsy as the auto-makers’ Mass. scare-ads.

It ignores three important facts:

I. Med-techs have always done this kind of repair. The change isn’t that med-techs are demanding the right to do something new — it’s that Medtronic leveraged its monopoly to foreclose on the industry-standard practice

II. Medtronic’s own security track-record is comically terrible. This is the company that makes pacemakers that can be wirelessly hacked from across a room to kill its user, whose software update system doesn’t even use cryptographic signatures.

If Medtronic is an expert on any aspect of patient safety, that expertise is certainly hard-won, derived from its long history of lethal patient endangerment.

III. If there is a problem with indie technicians struggling to fix Medtronic products, the obvious answer is to provide service manuals, parts and diagnostic codes.

The case for Right to Repair is incredibly strong. Not only does R2R protect consumers from ripoffs, it also provides local jobs — 1–4% of US GDP comes from the independent repair sector, almost entirely in independent small/medium businesses.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/02/euthanize-rentiers/#r2r

Repair is an important environmental, labor and human rights story. As leaked internal memos demonstrate, Apple’s aggressively landfilling of devices (so customers buy more) is environmentally devastating and creates demand for conflict minerals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/31/hall-of-famer/#e-waste-apple

The average American family loses $330/year because of the lack of access to independent repair, a $40b annual drag on the economy thanks to monopoly rents collected by monopoly firms.

To say nothing of the impact on jobs: landfilling a kiloton of ewaste creates <1 job; recycling that waste creates 15 jobs, while repairing it creates 200 good, local jobs that can’t be offshored (you don’t send a phone overseas for repair).

https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair/Jobs-Revolution

Then there’s the food security story: John Deere is an agribusiness monopolist that outraged farmers by claiming that they didn’t own the tractors they paid six figures for, merely “licensed” them on terms that forbade them from fixing their own machines.

Deere leads Big Ag’s anti-repair, forcing farmers to use official parts, preventing modifications that would allow third-party attachments, and collecting outrageous service call fees for a technician whose job is to unlock the tractor after the farmer replaces a part.

This policy means that farmers who fix  their own tractors still can’t use them even if there’s a hail-storm coming and they need to bring in the crop. Farmers — who’ve been fixing their own gear since the first farmer built a forge next to their farmhouse — are desperate.

Some farmers download anonymously maintained Ukrainian firmware and overwrite the Deere software, creating unknowable risk of remote attack. Others have to maintain “backup tractors” they use for weeks while waiting for Deere to fix their equipment.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000400896/standoff-between-farmers-and-tractor-makers-intensifies-over-repair-issues

Just like Medtronic and GM, Deere claims that allowing independent service creates infosec risk — but just like its anti-repair comrades, Deere’s own infosec is a dumpster-fire, with tractors across America at risk of mass-scale cyber-attacks:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

The common thread joining these firms is monopoly: a lack of competition that allows them to extract billions from the public, and a cozy cohort of business leaders who can mobilize that loot to ensure that politicians and regulators don’t give the public what it demands.

American industry is experiencing a wave of monopolism not seen since the Gilded Age, and it affects every sector. Take hair-clippers — a category that exploded during the lockdown thanks to the newly created need for home haircuts.

The clipper market is monopolized by a single firm, Wahl. As I discovered — the hard way — Wahl has designed its newest clippers so they disintegrate if you try to take them apart to sharpen them.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1380554358824136706

Instead of sharpening these devices, you’re expected to buy a new $40 blade (for a shaver that costs $60 all in!), and throw out the old one — or, less realistically, you can mail them your razor for factory sharpening.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Wahl is part of the war on repair, sending letters to state legislators warning that letting people sharpen their own clipper blades could lead to fatal housefires.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4446374-Wahl-Opposition-Illinois.html

Two years ago, the FTC convened an inquiry on independent repair called “Nixing the Fix.” The Nixing the Fix report was released earlier this month, and it affirms everything that repair advocates have said all along.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro-act-class-war/#we-fixit

The FTC calls bullshit on manufacturers’ claims about cyber-risk, housefires, and whether getting your car fixed by your family’s beloved mechanic will lead to your murder. It broadly and firmly endorses Right to Repair.

Which brings me back to 2021, were every one of the 27 R2R bills that has been brought before a state legislature for a vote has been defeated, thanks to heavy corporate lobbying by monopolists.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/microsoft-and-apple-wage-war-on-gadget-right-to-repair-laws

These bills were voted down after heartbreaking testimony from ed-tech repair specialists who described the devastating impact that a broken laptop has on poor families whose kids are doing remote learning.

They were voted down despite the record, the public support, the climate questions, the food security issue, the human rights issues — voted down to preserve the monopoly profits of a tiny number of firms whose claim to being “American” is tenuous at best.

These tax-dodging, offshoring companies view the American public as an all-you-can-eat buffet, and disclaim any responsibility to the country — while still expecting its lawmakers to defend their interests, at the expense of the voters.

Image: Jcaravanos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E-waste_workers.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[alexalbonbon]

Drive to Survive is less documentary and more Keeping Up With The Formula 1 Drivers. And that needs to change

When Netflix first announced Drive To Survive in March 2018, the show was promoted as an “attempt to immerse the audience inside the cockpits, the paddock, and the lives of the key players in Formula 1 racing. The series will have exclusive access to the world’s fastest drivers, team principals and owners, as well as Formula 1’s own management team.”

The announcement was a clear statement from new owners Liberty Media: attract new fans to Formula 1. And what better way to do this than by collaborating with the biggest streaming platform in the world? Drive To Survive was supposed to become a 10-episode documentary series for both new and established Formula 1 fans and would cover the 2018 season.

The show did a decent job in its first season, it did give a fresh look behind the scenes of the sport, with some drivers also allowing the camera crews in their personal lives. It introduced us to (most of) the teams, drivers, and team principals and gave an insight into the traveling, multi million dollar circus that is Formula 1.

But how are you going to cover a racing championship if you’re not allowed access to the two major teams fighting for that championship? You can’t, and the producers decided to take a page out of the Keeping Up With The Kardashians manual and thought it would be fun to give a show that was supposed to be a documentary show about the pinnacle of motorsport a reality series makeover in post production instead.

While we did see some of Daniel Ricciardo’s family and life off-track, this was completely overshadowed by the producers’ excessive need to dramatize his inter-team rivalry with then-teammate Max Verstappen. Any person who followed Formula 1 and especially Red Bull at the time knew that, although Daniel indeed was struggling with his position within the team, the two were not the enemies the show makes them out to be and are actually good friends. And rather than learn from the first season and the feedback given by both fans and drivers, the producers decided to up the drama even more for the next two seasons. Meanwhile, all of us are sitting here wondering why. If you spend some time following the sport, there’s plenty of drama already.

Going forward with seasons two and three, it was apparently decided that the show needed more of a Hollywood feeling and plenty of episodes were given the hero versus villain treatment. This reached its peak in the Red Bull focused episodes in both seasons two and three. Take the difficult (to say the least) work environment of the “big” team, mix it with some weird crap said by Christian Horner and top it off with the commentary by Will Buxton literally nobody asked for and you have yourself a Pierre Gasly versus Alex Albon rivalry. Where in season two Gasly was portrayed as the person keeping Red Bull back in the World Championship and Albon came in to save the day, season three decided to reverse Uno that narrative and made Albon (one of the only three people of color on the grid) the one in this role, while Gasly thrives at AlphaTauri. Albon is made look weak, stupid and slow. All things people who have looked beyond his Red Bull stint know are not true. Not once is it suggested that Albon was put under immense pressure by being moved to the “big team” in what was only his first season of Formula 1. Nor would Horner ever take responsibility for the clear favouritism shown to Verstappen.

And then there is what might be the biggest crime in the entire show: the lack of presence of record race winner, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in season three. There are no good words for whoever was in charge of production and decided that this man, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Formula 1 drivers of all time, was not worthy of an entire episode dedicated to his story, his racecraft, and his activism. The only black driver on the grid, Drive To Survive gave him five minutes at the end of the very last episode to touch on the Black Lives Matter movement Hamilton has been a vocal supporter of for years. His record equalling 91st win at the Eifel Grand Prix was briefly touched upon, but his record equalling seventh World Championship in Turkey was apparently too much of an effort to include. It only enhances the fact that the We Race As One campaign Formula One Management ran last year was nothing more than a PR stunt. It is time to take Lewis Hamilton seriously, he has a platform and he wants to use it and Netflix not giving him that opportunity is shameful. Yes, a big part of the demographic of Formula 1 consists of straight, white men who absolutely refuse to look at the world outside of their bubble. But Netflix promotes inclusivity, so why should this show be any different? It is a Netflix original show, which gives them no way to point at anyone else being the final part of production responsible. By showing the (graphic) clip of George Floyd’s death and letting Hamilton say three sentences about the BLM movement, you’re not promoting the inclusivity the streaming service wants to stand for. Formula 1, Netflix, and Box To Box Productions all need to do better, and they need to start doing better now.

So how does the show move forward? Let’s start by throwing out the terrible “scripts”, including those terrible one-liners Lance Stroll throws out in the first couple of season three episodes (I like Lance, but this made me cringe so hard, my eye is still twitching). Several drivers, including Max Verstappen, and more recently George Russell have spoken out against the framing the show chooses. This should be a clear sign that things need to change, especially if one of the drivers above called the show “cringey” in front of the Netflix cameras. Is there absolutely nobody in the producing team who has any real knowledge of the sport and the regulations itself? We need less Christian Horner, less Will Buxton and less forced drama and rivalry. If you put twenty men who get paid hundreds of thousands of euros in a paddock and drive around the fastest cars in the world for a living, the drama will write itself. 

Formula 1 loves reminding people that it’s the “pinnacle of motorsport”, so why not show that? Why not show that the world of Formula 1 has some of the brightest minds out there that came together in the fight against COVID-19 in Project Pitlane? Or how they were one of the first major sports that returned to their competition, setting up a huge logistical challenge and managing to create a calendar with seventeen races in twelve different countries, while keeping COVID infections to a relative low? But they also should focus on the parts the teams may not always want to show. Why does Red Bull seem to have a curse on that second seat? Why does Haas have to take on a driver who didn’t manage to finish in the top 3 of the Formula 2 championship, while the vice-champion was left without a seat? Why did we have to say goodbye to the Williams family and why weren’t they given a proper sendoff in the show? Especially with Williams having the only female team principal in the paddock. And why aren’t we shining a light on what’s important: a black man standing alone in his fight for equality.

Drive to Survive should give us what it promised: an exclusive behind the scenes look of one of the most exciting sports out there. The drama will write itself, we just want the good, the bad, and the ugly. And these are things the Netflix crew can achieve, even with the current COVID restrictions still in place in the paddock.

[lofitojii]

PART [I] Guardian Angel

*★*――――*★**★*――――*★**★*――――*★*

Summary: You are a new sidekick to the number two hero of Tokyo, Hawks. You team up with another sidekick, Bakugou, in an ongoing investigation on a serial killer. Unexpected interactions happen that flip the whole case around causing new, confusing feelings which alter your relationships in ways you never saw coming. 

Word Count: 4.6k

Warning: Minor Swearing 

A/N: It’s HERE!!! The new series I’ve been working on for the last month is finally planned out and I’m super excited about it! Please let me know what you think, there will be posts made for discussions before the new part is released. 

NOTE: This is not following the current story at all. The League of Villains do not play any part in this at all, only Dabi. 

Guardian Angel Master List

*★*――――*★**★*――――*★**★*――――*★*

The fall air was crisp, every inhaled breath chilling your body from the inside out. The leaves looked as if they were on fire, the deep crimson, the burnt orange, lighting up the grey world they resided in. This was your favorite time of year, when you could visibly see the seasons change. Despite the fact the darkest part of the year was right around the corner, you were looking forward to all of it. This year was going to be different, you could feel it ridden within you.

It was your first day at your new job, completely unaware and new to the area. You had moved in the weekend prior, receiving the job through a simple phone call interview. You had no idea who or what your new boss looked like. All you knew is that you were hand picked from a group of qualifying sidekicks to the number 2 hero, Hawks. Apparently he is a very busy man, and the only thing you knew about him was that his quirk was similar to yours. Except he can’t put his wings away. 

How can you not know who the number 2 hero is? Well, coming from a rather small town where you worked 7 days a week kind of took up most of your free time, and when you did get a moment to yourself, you were either reading or spending time with the locals. You didn’t care much for TV or the news or social media. You enjoyed quality time and company, something most people didn’t really understand. 

Your quirk was known as the ‘Angel Quirk�� meaning you had white wings that grew in size under your control, whenever you pleased. You also had a healing factor to your quirk, using your feathers as a type of medicine as well. You were a Pro Hero’s sidekick back in your home town but received an email one morning that read: 

Dear Y/N,

After doing intense research and speaking to your most recent employer and university teachers, you have been chosen to accompany Japan’s number 2 hero, Hawks, as his personal sidekick with the goal of becoming one of Japan’s very own perosnal Pro Heroes. According to your employer, he has said he feels you have greater potential that you can’t utilize in your small town. Please give us a call or email us back. Thank you!

-Hawks Agency

You had no idea your previous employer had reached out until you received that letter. You didn’t mind doing small hero work here and there in your small town but when your boss stressed to you that you could be and do more, you decided to reach out. You didn’t know what you were expecting but you had received the job within the first 10 minutes of your interviewl. 

So that’s where you are now, downtown Tokyo, trying your best to understand how the train systems worked. Yeah, you could’ve just flown there but you didn’t want to make a scene before debuting with your new boss. It was just something you had decided, thinking that maybe an article would be released about a new hero coming to town rather than being seen with Hawks himself first. You didn’t want to come off as rude or arrogant, even though you knew you were probably overthinking the situation. 

You just wanted to make a good impression, regardless of what your old boss had said about you. They already have this idea of you, and you wanted to live up to that idea. Your boss did speak highly of you, you didn’t want to let anyone down, mainly yourself. 

“Damn, this city is huge,” you cursed out loud, looking up from the city map you had picked up at the subway stop before you hopped on. “So if that’s the coffee shop, then I still have about a good mile or two before I get to the agency building. Maybe I should use my wings to get the- OOF!” you were hit in the back, causing you to choke on your words and stumble over onto the cement. 

“Sorry!” You looked up to see a man, his red wings casting a long shadow over you. “Didn’t see ya there! Sometimes I’m too fast for my own damn good.” He reached his hand out, letting you tightly grip it as he helped you up. 

“You’re good, I was the one standing there like a mindless idiot,” you joked, reaching down to pick up the things you had dropped due to your collision. When you stood up, you noticed that he was already gone. Wow, so much for being polite. He said sorry but what does that mean when he just flies off without saying anything else? Whatever, you had to get to work so you just decided to brush it off. 

You expanded your white wings, trying your best to fly higher than the city clouds in order to keep people from seeing you. You thought to yourself that maybe this was the best route to work, clear yet cold skys. Not to mention you would cut your full trip in half. You landed in front of the office building, retracting your wings back to its original, small size before entering the building. You approached the girl that was sitting behind a desk, tapping away at her keyboard. You cleared your throat before interrupting. “Hi, I’m the new sidekick Y/N. Just wondering where I need to go?” You asked the front receptionist you guided you towards the elevators. 

“It’s the top floor,” she smiled. “Good luck, Miss Y/N.” You let out a sigh of relief as you stood in the elevator alone. Your day had just barely started and yet you could feel yourself already growing tired of everything. Your temper was rather short today, that man setting something off in you when he left without saying anything. Thank god you didn’t have to worry about him anymore. Tokyo was a rather large city, what are the chances of running into him a second time? You tried your best to shake off the incident that took place this morning, not wanting it to ruin your full day ahead of you. 

You walked up to the giant wooden doors, knocking twice before opening them. You were greeted with a huge open window, a single desk sitting in the middle of the room with a beautiful view behind it. There were bookshelves lined with literature you had read or had planned to read. “Similar tastes,” you whispered as you traced along the backbone of the books. The room was empty, leaving you alone to examine the things you found interesting to you. 

“You like what you see?” Wait a second… That voice... “You must be the new sidekick. How’s it going? I’m Hawks.” You turned around and were faced with the man that had knocked you over earlier. For some reason, dread took over, your actions visible to the man standing in front of you. “Why the long face?” 

“You’re kidding me, right?” you scoffed, the man giving you a blank look. “You literally knocked me off my feet earlier? I dropped everything?” He was still giving you that stupid blank look. “You’re joking…” 

“OH! I remember now. Yeah sorry about that,” he scratched the back of his head nervously. “I was in a hurry.” Wow...

“Obviously.” You rolled your eyes at his comment, unimpressed with the lack of remorse that came through his tone. You felt as if this relationship would be decided here, right now, just based on the way you were feeling as he stood there, a stupid grin plastard on his face. You let out a deep sigh, trying to regulate your breathing so you wouldn’t lash out on your new boss who was standing inches away from you. “I guess I’ll introduce myself since we’ll be working together. My name is Y/N L/N, I’m from a small town about 4 hours out of Tokyo. My quirk is known as the ‘Angel Quirk’ meaning I can do anything you can but better.” 

“Woah, woah,” he stopped you, waving his hands in the air. “That’s a pretty bold statement, newby. What do you mean ‘better’?” 

“I mean I can hide my wings if I want to, and also can expand them when I choose. They regenerate within the hour, I can use them to heal both internal and external wounds depending on how severe the injury is. I can also use them as weapons, hardening them as I please.” 

“Okay but can you use them to listen to things? Do you have the ability to use them as an extension of you? As in, can you use them to listen or to track?” He was grilling you with questions, almost as if you struck a nerve with him. It was quite amusing to see him all flustered like this.

“I can use them to track things within a certain radius, the further away from the feather, the harder it is for me to make things out.” He furrowed his brows, crossing his arms over his chest with a huff. 

“Okay yeah, your quirk is better in some parts but that doesn’t make you better than me.” 

“I never said I was better than you, I only said my quirk was better. You’re the number 2 hero for a reason, I have no doubt in your skill at all.” He really got his feelings hurt that bad by your comment? Talk about a fragile ego. 

He let out a sigh, sounding a little grumpy in his words as he went through the paperwork with you. “Oh and take this,” He handed you a bag, his cheeks flushed red. “I don’t know what it looks like but the design team came up with it since we do have similar quirks.” 

“A new costume?” You raised an eyebrow, looking at the fabric with the paper bag. It was a body suit, like an actual teddy style body suit, a pair of sheer tights, and some knee high boots. There was also a pair of yellow goggles, matching the ones Hawks were wearing. “What if people think we’re dating?” You didn’t really think about it much until Hawks gave you your new costume that was almost identical in color to his. It was balck and gold, just like his shirt, the cropped jacket being a deeper shade of brown, just like his jacket. 

“And? So what if they do? I wouldn’t mind faking it,” he smirked, winking directly at you. He began to laugh as you reached your hand to hide your crimson cheeks. They were warm, you knew his comment made you blush, and so did he.

“Shut the hell up,” you responded, biting your lip. “I’m going to request a new jacket at least. I’m sorry but this color is hideous with the black.” 

“You really think so?” he asked, looking at his own jacket. “Well in that case, I’ll ask for them to give us black ones.” 

“White,” you stopped him. “I want a white one.” 

“White it is, m’lady,” he bowed, getting up from his seat. He leaned over his desk, transitioning from his bowed state, coming face to face with you. He was so close you could smell the lingering fragrance of mint coming from his breath. “I’m excited to work with you.” You quickly got up, bowing in response all in one quick motion, knocking your head with his. It was loud, painful, and embarrassing all within the 30 seconds that it took place. “Ow ow ow ow ow,” he rubbed his forehead, exposing the red bump that was getting ready to form. 

You were quick to pluck two white feathers from the right side of your back, leaning over the desk and pressing it to his forehead. “Hold still,” you struggled to get out as Hawks winced in pain. You let out a deep breath, focusing on the feather in your hand. It was quick to dissolve, leaving Hawks in awe with what had just happened. He sat back down, watching you apply the same treatment to yourself. 

“Wow,” he breathed, still in shock from what just took place. “Your quirk really is cool.” 

“The only downside to my healing is that it’s only possible with the right side of my wings. The left side doesn’t have the same ability,” you admitted while sitting back down, your wings returning to their smaller size so you were able to sit more comfortably. Hawks just sat there, gobsmacked with the events that just occurred. “To be honest, we gotta get this whole bumping into each other thing under control.” 

“You’re telling me,” he whispered, leaning back in his own seat. He finally snapped back into reality after being lost within himself. “Go change into your new costume and I’ll put the order in for the white coat. You’re going on patrol today with one of my other sidekicks. He’s newer to the team so it will be good for you two to get comfortable with each other. I will warn you though, he’s a bit of a hot head. Short temper, super egotistical. Great guy though, you’ll love him.” 

“He sounds wonderful,” you noted sarcastically. You were soon interrupted by the sound of the door opening, being greeted with a blonde haired man with quite the aggressive scowl. 

“What the hell did you say, you damn bird?” You turned your head, taking notice to his rather large grenade equipment covering his forearms. Those have to be super heavy, the look like they weigh more than the man himself. 

“There you are! Bakugou, I’d like you to meet your new partner, Y/N! You guys are going to be working together from here on out. You’re still my sidekicks, so we’re still a team here but when it comes to the more lowkey stuff, like investigations and patrolling, you guys will be working together.” Did he really just say ‘lowkey’? How old is this guy? He’s got to be older than you, having started his own agency, right? 

“Yeah, whatever,” Bakugou growled. Hawks wasn’t kidding when he said this guy was a hot head, the vibe he was giving off really intimidated you. But then again, you weren’t one to take shit, not even from some punk coworker with a short temper. “I’m leaving in 10. Better hurry you noob.” 

“Noob?” You questioned, grabbing your things and following Bakugou out the room. You stopped before you reached the door, turning around and bowing towards Hawks. “Thank you!” 

“Good luck, kid!” He waved back, his smile sweet and reassuring. You had experienced something rather unpleasant that morning with Hawks, only to find out he was your new boss. He seemed to be quite the air head, or at least spacey in some aspect. He was interesting to you, and for some reason you wanted to know more about him. The fact he had asked for you specifically out of all the other applicants was even more interesting to you. Did he choose you for another reason? Was it because you had a similar quirk to his? As time goes on, you can only hope that you’ll uncover these hidden secrets you were so focused on. He didn’t need to tell you he was hiding anything, you could just feel something in his aura. 

You followed Bakugou who led you to the women's locker room, telling you he would wait outside the door for you to be finished. He actually told you to ‘hurry the fuck up’ but you just rolled your eyes at his demand. You thought to yourself that if anyone else would have been paired up with this guy, you were sure they would resign due to his attitude. You weren’t one to give up, though. You were here for a reason, having a set goal that wasn’t about to be ruined due to some smart asses comments. Not to mention, the children in the foster home you grew up in were mean as hell. 

When you put on the outfit, you were flustered by how revealing it was. You did mention that you needed flexibility in your costume but you didn’t think it was going to be some kind of lingerie set. Hopefully the coat you requested is available soon, thinking that maybe it would help cover up some of the more revealing parts. 

You exited the locker room, only things on you being your Hero License and your outfit. Bakugou handed you an ear piece, letting you know it’s used for the both of you, two other side kicks and Hawks himself. “So what exactly are we doing today?” You asked, exiting the building with Bakugou by your side. 

“We’ve been asked to investigate the west side of town. Rumor has it that some dick head guy has been spotted frequently in the area who has been linked to a chain of murdered victims. All the bodies have similar burn marks, as if it’s this guys sick way of marking his work. Our job is to try and see if we can narrow down his exact location.” You had read over the file prior to moving to the city, being asked by the agency so that way you weren’t too behind on what was going on. 

Description: Black hair, scars covering majority of his body, black coat, black shoes, distressed jeans. Last known location: West Tokyo. Number of bodies linked to crime: 12. 

“Well then,” you started, letting your wings grow to their full capability. You reached your hand out towards Bakugou, signaling for him to grab on. 

“What the hell? What are you doing? I don’t need your fucking help.” 

“I get that but if you let me carry you, we could cut our trip time in half and with it being fall, almost winter, it’s going to get dark soon. I have no doubt that you can get there by yourself but if we want to play it smart and more efficient,” you sang, reaching your hand out again for him to take, letting your actions finish your statment. He wasn’t happy about the idea but he knew you were right, making it obvious by his aggressive huff. 

You wrapped Bakugou up in your arms, taking off the second you knew you had a secure grip on him. With flying to the west side of town, it really did cut the travel time in half, leaving you an extra hour or so to investigate, much longer than what the estimated time stated. “Land there!” Bakugou yelled, pointing at the roof of a mini mart that was placed in between two rather tall buildings. You released your grip on him, his immediate reaction being annoyed and bothered by the ‘wind’ and you ‘flying too damn fast’. You just ignored his remarks, letting him take the lead on the investigation so he would stop complaining. 

“How long have you worked for Hawks?” You asked, taking a seat next to Bakugou. He lowered his glasses that matched both yours and Hawks’, using them to enhance his sight towards the ground below. 

“Why do you care?” He growled, avoiding any sort of eye contact with you. 

“Well I don’t but if we’re going to be working together, I think it’s important that we have a bearable relationship, don’t you agree?” 

“No I don’t. I don’t care who you are or where you come from. We’re co workers, that’s it.” You didn’t expect Bakugou’s words to hurt as much as they did. You barely met the guy and he’s already made his decision on how the relationship was going to be. A part of you wanted to just let it go, to just accept the fact that he didn’t care for personal relationships, but the other part, the part of you that always got you into trouble, wanted to know and be more with him. 

“Well I care,” you finally blurted out, causing Bakugou to finally look over at you. “I’m not saying that we have to be friends but if we want to be a strong team, we have to get to know each other on a more personal level. I can see you’re very strong and I also know that we could be really good together. So ignore me all you want but I’m not going to stop asking.” He looked puzzled, as if no one had ever bothered to speak to him like this. It was as if he was thrown into foreign territory and had to figure out how to navigate to the sudden outburst. 

“3 months,” he answered, immitadly turning away from you. You couldn’t help but smile at the small achievement you had accomplished. It wasn’t something drastic or something to celebrate, but you took it as a win regardless.  

After sitting on the roof for a good half hour, you had decided to take street view, letting Bakugou keep the high ground. You were told that the suspect wore a black coat, had dark features, but the main identifier being his scars. He wore the black coat to hide his arms and body and wore a face mask to hide the scars that are suspected to be on his face. 

After mindlessly walking for what felt like forever, Bakugou finally came through the ear piece. “Angel, there’s a man fitting our description on the other side of the street, walking towards your direction.” You were quick to react, trying to spot any signs of a man in a dark coat. You thought you were going to lose him in the crowd, having to make your way through groups of people walking in your opposite direction. 

“Bakugou, I don’t-” You were suddenly cut off, being pushed back by the force of colliding with another person. You lost your balance, falling straight onto the concrete sidewalk below you. “Ouch…” You winced in pain, the collision of your bum hitting the hard concrete rattling you a bit. You looked up to see what it was that you had bumped into, Bakugou screaming in your ear before you could put the pieces together. 

“THAT’S HIM!” You made eye contact, complete shock written across your facial features as you stared directly at the man you had been looking for. 

“Here,” he reached his hand out, offering to help you up from your fall. “Sorry about that. It’s easy to get caught up in these crowds.” You were hesitant to take his hand but did it anyways, knowing that you had to diminish any sort of suspicion. His hand was rough to the touch, as if it was scared more so than dry skin. You noticed his stitches that held his scars together, slightly grazing over them as you released. “Oh uhh.. I got these cause my quirk is too strong for me to really handle.” The man seemed to be around your age, his whole appearance matching the description you were given. 

What do I do? 

“Oh I wasn’t meaning to stare,” you hesitantly assured him, trying to awkwardly laugh off the situation. 

“I haven’t seen you around here before,” he finally changed the subject, the new topic being just as stressful as the last. 

“Oh yeah I’m new to town! Just doing an internship so I’m still kind of new to all of this. I’m just out patrolling the area, making sure nothing bad happens. Ya know, the normal hero stuff.” You awkwardly scratched the back of your head, avoiding eye contact as best as you could. In all honesty, you wanted to cut this conversation short and let Bakugou track him to wherever he was planning on going, but your mind had gone blank. You were unable to think of an out so instead, you had to let the conversation carry on until you found an opening. 

“Well I bet people will feel better having such a pretty hero like you around to keep them safe.” Woah woah woah… Did he really just call you pretty? And are you actually blushing right now at his comment?? Get it together Y/N! 

“Eh- haha. I mean I’m just doing my job, just like any other hero.” Please leave. Please go away. Please give me an opening to get out of here.

“I guess I’ll be seeing a lot more of you then?” His smile was everything but welcoming. You could see that this man wasn’t someone who found heroes pleasant to begin with. The uneasy feeling you had when you made eye contact the first time started to grow, causing you to internally panic. “Cute wings. Reminds me of another Pro Hero I see flying around here sometimes.”

“Uh… Who?” You asked, trying your best to play dumb. He furrowed his brows, your response coming off more suspicious than before. “I’m sorry. Like I said, I’m new here and I don’t even know who I work for. I was just sent here as soon as I got there so I haven’t really met anyone.” 

“Huh. Well I’m sure you’ll meet him soon. Especially if you have wings like that,” he said, pointing to your enlarged wings. “He’s a pretty big fan of people who have similar quirks to his.” 

“I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out then. Sounds like we’d get along.” 

“The names Dabi, by the way. And you are?” Did he really just tell you his name? Was the whole ‘play dumb’ act really working? Could this be some kind of message that he wants to send to Hawks since he was the one who mentioned him? 

“You can call me Angel,” you responded, knowing it was better to offer your hero name rather than your real one. You chose the hero name ‘Angel’ because it could be taken as either a hero name or even a birth given name. 

“Angel,” he repeated, barely above a whisper. “Fitting.” You didn’t respond this time, wanting to let the conversation end there which Dabi caught onto. “Well I’ll let you get back to work Angel. I hope I see you again.” And with that, he was gone, disappearing from your view into the crowd of people.

You were quick to make your way around the block so that way you could communicate with Bakugou without having to worry about Dabi overhearing anything if he had happened to still be in ear shot distance. “Angel what happened!? Did you get anything?” 

“I’ll come find you! Just keep tracking him! I’m on my way!” you told Bakugou before lifting off above the city. You were quick to spot Bakugou who was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, keeping a steady pace and decent distance between him and the suspect. Once Bakugou stopped, you took that as a sign to land on the closest building and follow Bakugou’s actions so that way you could keep a low profile since the suspect now knew who you were. You mentally kicked yourself in the butt, knowing that you should’ve just left after he helped you up. 

“What did he say?” Bakugou barked, his vision focused on the cluster of buildings in front of him. 

“Well I got his name.” 

“And?” He looked over at you, his expression completely unreadable. Were you going to get in trouble for making contact? And on the first day too? 

“Dabi.” Bakugou’s face went white, his expression telling you that maybe they knew more about the suspect than they were telling you. “Bakugou, who’s Dabi?” 

“I pinpointed the location. Let’s get back to the agency and report to Hawks what we found.” 

“I’m not taking us anywhere until you tell me who this Dabi guy is!” 

“Suit yourself you dumb bird.” He was quick to blast off, making his way back in the direction of the agency. You were in shock by his sudden outburst, creating quite the distance between you two. What is going on? You were so confused, only being left more in the dark as Bakugou ignored your multiple questions. 

Snap out of it Y/N! Follow him! 

“What- Bakugou!!”

[a-room-of-my-own]

A bit of reading : orwomen.()scot/did-you-know/?fbclid=IwAR0H7TqxQNqemZcAGFtvR_HLkbkxmZ4FY6srcgrULWxGPyWuc6QPTmDQfVI

Did you know…

…that 80-95% of people who say they are trans choose to have no medical treatment at all – no surgery, no drugs, not even therapy? Transwomen are just male people who subjectively believe that they are female. That’s it. That is all that’s required.

Despite some commentators describing an “epidemic of violence against trans people“, transwomen are no more likely to be murdered than anyone else, and the best data available shows it’s half as likely. In Scotland, zero have been killed. In fact, transwomen are almost twice as likely to be the perpetrator of a murder than to be murdered in the UK, which is not surprising since a male pattern of violence is retained regardless of any transition or cross-dressing.

The 48% of trans youth have attempted suicide statistic is nonsense too. It was based on just 27 trans people (aged 26 and under), from a self-selecting online survey – which made the data worthless. Yet that hasn’t stopped the TIE Campaign peddling similar in Scottish schools (or is it 27%, they seem confused?), contrary to Samaritans advice on avoiding attributing the cause to any one incident. The NHS Gender Identity Development Service actually says “suicide is extremely rare” and rates of self-harm, distress and suicide ideation are similar to other children seen by CAMHS.

Did you know that 1 in 50 males in prison now self-id as trans according to Ministry of Justice figures? If it is so dangerous to be trans why do so many choose to come out when in jail?

Were you aware that 95% of prisoners are men, and 5% women? That most women in prison are there for financial crime, and most men are in for violent offending. Did you know that men commit 98% of sex offences? That 48% of transwomen prisoners are sex offenders (compared to less than 20% in the general male estate) and would swamp the female estate if they all transferred.

What makes these convicted sex offenders, who were born male, women? Why should female prisoners be locked up with rapists if they say “I am a woman”? Are you willing to be in a prison cell with a male rapist on that basis? And if not, do you think other women should be? Are you aware that women have already been sexually assaulted and raped, in several countries, because of this policy?

Did you know that Scotland already has a policy significantly more liberal than England’s, stating that transgender prisoners must normally be housed according to the “social gender” with which they self-identify? And that this policy was brought in by a senior prison officer, himself now a convicted sex offender? A policy put in place without even talking to women’s groups or considering that there would be any impact on female prisoners at all. Despite warnings of abuse, including from former women’s prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss, the promised policy review has not been forthcoming.

What about women’s refuges, have you considered what it could do to a woman fleeing male violence to encounter a male in that refuge? Read why the CEO of a domestic violence charity, Karen Ingala Smith, considers it imperative that refuges remain women-only, and her speech at the Scottish Parliament.

Did you know that a woman was asked to leave a shelter because, as a rape survivor, she couldn’t sleep in the same room as a strange male, regardless of how he identified? Are you aware that a man used self-id to access a women’s shelter where he sexually assaulted vulnerable women? Are you aware that a rape relief shelter in Canada lost all public funding for insisting they remain women-only, and had a dead rat nailed to their door?

Are you aware that the Scottish Government imposes a transwomen inclusive policy on Scottish Women’s Aid as a condition of funding and that Rape Crisis Scotland refused to guarantee a female counsellor for a traumatised teenager? We know from private meetings that they erroneously believe they cannot provide a single-sex service due to a lack of ‘case law’, despite having previously done so for many years. Did you know there is a male manager of a rape crisis centre, who failed to disclose his sex at interview, and which still claims to be women-led?

Are you aware that despite less than half of changing rooms in swimming pools and sports centres being mixed sex, 90% of sexual assaults have happened in them? Yet mixed-sex, ‘gender-neutral’ facilities are constantly pushed, including in schools – contrary to law and building regulations requiring separate sex provision – when it would be more responsible to increase third space unisex provision for the comfort of those who need it.

That’s before you even get into the issue of how to keep out predatory men who aren’t trans, if you say that any man who ‘identifies as a woman’ can use communal changing/showering areas at will. A man exposing himself in a park commits a crime. A man doing so in a women’s changing room, where you’re also naked, who need not have even told staff he identifies as a woman, may no longer be committing an offence.

Did you know that the Scottish Government funded LGBT Youth Scotland, a spin-off group from Stonewall, to write guidance for schools that breaches children’s rights in at least eleven ways? This includes the unscientific belief in gender identity, which even the Justice Minister is at a loss to define, the promotion of harmful breast binding and the removal of all single-sex spaces and sports. No-one should be surprised at this as Stonewall have long campaigned for the removal of women’s rights, although single issue political pressure groups should have been no-where near schoolchildren.

It took the Government until June 2019 to commit to replacing this guidance, having privately received advice that it was “not legal“. Yet, this new legally compliant guidance is seven months overdue and the Education Minister is refusing to withdraw LGBTYS’s guidance in the interim.

Why should we accept smear tests from any male who feels they have a womanly gender identity – what does that even mean (let’s ask the Justice Minister again)? And yes, it is happening. A rape survivor who wanted a woman to carry out her breast screening found her letter used as an example in hospital trans guidance as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘highly discriminatory’. And a woman in a psychiatric ward who was terrified at being locked in a ward with an “extremely male-bodied” fellow patient was regarded as a transphobic bigot. The truth is that women in mixed-sex hospital wards, particularly psych, have very real reasons to fear men.

Did you know that 35 clinicians have resigned from the Tavistock (children’s gender clinic in London) over their failings, including the Governor? Who later wrote a damning account of the abject failure to heed evidence that their affirmation-only policy is harmful to children, especially to the huge influx in girls who may suffer other complex problems, such as trauma, autism, a history of sexual abuse or discomfort with their developing sexuality. A staggering 48% of children referred to Tavistock have ASD traits, and a BBC Newsnight investigation revealed significant numbers of children seeking transition treatment based on their family’s homophobia.

Are you aware that studies show that puberty blockers result in 100% of children progressing to cross-sex hormones – whereas, if left unmedicated, the Tavistocks’s own research shows over 90%, if supported by counselling, are happy with their sex once they emerge from puberty. Did you know hormone blockers may cause sterility, a large decrease in IQ, bone density loss, and more? An investigation by the Health Review Authority concluded that blockers are really the start of irreversible physical transition and recommended that “Researchers and clinical staff should…avoid referring to puberty suppression as providing a ‘breathing space’, to avoid risk of misunderstanding.” This led to a major overhaul of the NHS UK website which no longer considers blockers to be fully reversible and confirms long-term effects are unknown.

The young person’s gender clinic at Sandyford, Glasgow has recently withdrawn their information booklet and we trust it will be similarly updated. Do you think all the government funded trans organisations will be scrupulous in updating their information too – including LGBT Youth guidance in Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Trans/NHS guidance, and Stonewall advice, among many more, including of course the already deemed “not legal” school guidance by LGBT Youth?

Are you aware that the number of children referred to Sandyford is rising at a faster rate than the rest of the UK? Yet they don’t actually know how many girls have been referred as children can select what sex they want recorded on medical records – although unofficially, clinicians report similar concerns as elsewhere about the huge proportional rise in young girls seeking to transition. Did you know that bias, and not evidence, dominates the WPATH transgender standard of care followed in Scotland? And it is woefully out-of-date considering the fundamental change in patient make up since it was written in 2011.

Read the speech given by Dr David Bell at the Scottish Parliament and consider why, if his report about issues at the Tavistock prompted the Director to resign, was it not enough for the Health Minister, Jeane Freeman, to instigate an enquiry into identical practices at Sandyford? Perhaps the Government will listen to the outcome of a Judicial Review that is being sought by Keira Bell, a detransitioning woman, who wants to protect other troubled young girls from similar treatment.

Are you aware that women with our views are threatened with violence, rape and death, almost as an everyday occurrence? We are told TERF is not a slur, but I challenge you to find any instances of it being used without abuse or threats attached to it. Do you think it’s in any way acceptable for lesbians to be on the receiving end of these menaces for asserting, or even just trying to be proud of, their right to be same-sex attracted? Do you really think there’s such a thing as a lesbian with a penis?

All that hate is from transactivists, and is aimed at women with our views. I challenge you to find anything remotely equivalent from here, from our recorded talks, or indeed anywhere else. This is NOT a case of two sides as bad as each other. And it’s notable that the hate is not aimed at genuinely transphobic, aggressive men. It’s aimed at women. It’s aimed at us.

And JK Rowling. Read the tweets she posted and look at the replies. Read the essay further explaining her thoughts and ask how anyone could possibly think she deserved such atrocious abuse, or how transactivists thought it in any way acceptable to post penis images in retaliation (don’t worry, it’s been edited!) on a child’s thread about Ickabog art.

Did you know women can be, and often are, fired for believing sex is real, that humans cannot change sex, and women and girls are entitled to privacy when undressing or otherwise vulnerable? And yet poll, after poll, after poll, after poll show that this is the majority view, by at least 80%. You may well wonder why then, is the Scottish Government proposing to bring in Hate Crime legislation that would see even JK Rowling imprisoned for up to seven years for expressing views deemed abusive by transactivists, yet affords women no such protection in law, based on their sex.

Innate gender identity is a belief system. There’s no evidence one exists. If our Government cannot even define it, then it should not be presented as fact to our children. It should not over-ride women’s hard fought for rights.

Do you know that the very word ‘woman’ will change definition, if the trans lobby succeed? If we can’t define what a woman is, how can we accurately capture data? How can we record male violence, the pay gap, our representation in government, business, finance, law, media…anywhere? Police Scotland already record incidences on the basis of gender identity, but can’t seem to recall when, or why that happened, and the census looks to be going the same way, despite the importance of recognising sex being shown quite dramatically by COVID-19.

An influential lobby loudly insisting that they won’t be erased (when trans organisations are heavily state funded and train all major businesses, branches of government, school teachers, universities and NHS boards) are actively campaigning to erase the very definition of what a woman is – best archive it, just in case! Have you noticed how easy it is to define a woman when we’re being aborted, subjected to FGM, married off, denied the vote, raped, murdered, paid less, represented less in every single sector of government and industry, expected to perform most of the world’s unpaid labour, and constituting 71% of the world’s modern slaves? The only places that seem unsure on what a woman is are the places feminism was starting to make inroads. It’s almost like there must be some sort of a connection, isn’t it?

We don’t have any fear, resentment or hatred for trans people. We agree there should be protection in law against discrimination and violence. We just don’t agree that our rights need to be railroaded over in the process. We don’t agree that male people should access women’s spaces, or benefit from women’s provision, at will, without our consent. Our name is WOMEN and our rights matter.

Don’t you agree…?

[dreamdefencesquad]

Mexican L’manburg vs Dream & Eret

(The things being said here are explicitly towards the characters and lore that the DSMP members are acting out for us. This goes over the fiasco on the Mexburg vs Eret and Dream situation)

First we start off with a brief summary of events.

Mexberg planned on staging a coup against Eret's kingship because george wants kingship again and quackity is power-hungry and doesn't want to be a puppet under Dream.

They eventually set up a plan where Karl had to sacrifice a canon death by getting blown up by TNT in front of eret's fortress so they could frame eret.

This didn't turn out well for them as the plan was far too obvious and DSMP had many evidence of Mexberg having been the ones to cause Karl’s death such as george running in from the right side.

DSMP then chased down the Mexbergians when they heard they ran to Mexberg. Dream, being the all knowing knew exactly who was at fault here and by the time Mexbergians got there Dream was already blowing up Mexberg land. All is fair in a grief war especially when you go against the king appointed by Dream.

The Mexbergians had invisibility on and decided to run to the holy lands. While the DSMP worked on further destroying Mexberg. They then chased the Mexbergians to the Holy Land.

Dream began a convo with Quackity and they had a very long argument/debate on what happened and what Quackity is trying to play the story as.

Quackity had a very hard time convincing Dream that he was in the right and that Dream knows that what Quackity and co did was a terrorist act.

They eventually bring Eret into the convo and Quackity again tries to spin the story. Obviously, the story is dumb and Eret knows that Quackity is lying through his teeth.

Eventually a deal was settled with the terms of Quackity owing an apology and Mexberg had to fix Eret's place and on Eret’s end, he had to recognize Mexberg. Quackity refuses to apologize to Dream which Dream is exasperated but fine with.

Quackity somehow thinks that Mexberg has won but in reality, they lost way more than they gained cause Mexberg is now forced to recognize Eret's kingship

So the main points to address here involve:

Quackity’s plans

Dream and Quackity’s Debate

Quackity’s goals

Quackity’s stream starts off with him telling chat that “no one respects Mexican L’manburg” [TODAY MEXICAN L'MANBURG GOES TO WAR IN DREAMSMP; 00:07:10]. However, I must redirect you to the fact that when Mexican L’manberg was first introduced to Tubbo, he introduced it in a way that can easily make it hard for Tubbo or anyone to realize that it is an independent nation. The first few things Quackity said was that he “had a child last night.” Tubbo was obviously in disbelief because as Tubbo said, Quackity “had a baby, he got to 9 months and then he had it all in one night” [Tubbo’s Stream: MEETING WITH DREAM starting from 0:08:00] (though back before the Manburg vs Pogtopia war, Quackity has mentioned that he was pregnant).

This causes a huge suspense in disbelief and is quite clear that it is a diversion tactic from the fact that Mexican L’manberg is going to be its own independent nation.  

“In order to increase the land, price and value of L’manburg, I’ve decided to have a baby.” [00:08:38]. Quackity here sells the existence of Mexican L’manburg out to be a beneficial addition to L’manburg which, if you are to create your own nation, wouldn’t really be something you say.

Quackity also calls Mexican L’manburg a DLC [Tubbo Stream: 00:09:34]. When he also calmly says that he’ll allow ads on his baby, all of these make Mexican L’manburg a joke. It is clear with the way that he presented Mexican L’manburg as a joke that it would be hard to take Mexican L’manburg seriously. Of course either way, Tubbo was okay with it. In fact, Quackity even made Tubbo the Secretary of State of Mexican L’manburg [Tubbo Stream: 00:10:50]. So by all means, Tubbo had a right to stand on top of Mexican L’manburg which was one of the points that Quackity in his stream brought up when he said that people weren’t respecting Mexican L’manburg.  

On Quackity’s stream at [00:07:44], Quackity clarified to chat that Mexican L’manburg has no affiliation with L’manburg, that is clearly not how he phrased it to Tubbo. He also made Tubbo, who was the president of L’manburg, the Secretary of State of Mexican L’manburg so why would he state that there is no affiliation when the leaders of the nations are clearly in affiliation? In addition, if you are in a government position, you must define your loyalties. Most nations do not allow for dual citizenship and if you happen to get yourself into a position of power for one country, then you must revoke your citizenship in the other [https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2017/07/31/mikheil-saakashvili-and-the-problem-of-dual-citizenship/?sh=78e953f92c76]. Tubbo and Quackity really need to have a talk about their government systems and set up exact boundaries between Mexican L’manburg and L’manburg.

At Quackity’s stream [00:19:50], Quackity begins detailing the plan to George and Karl. Quackity’s main goal to this is that he wants to put Mexican L’manburg on the map by causing “conflict and chaos” [00:20:47]. This, to be fair, is a valid way to get attention from everywhere else as many countries have been recognized officially during or after a war. Dream however, has already acknowledged presence of Mexican L’manberg as after the exile, Mexican L’manburg was included in the line “As long as L’manburg and Mexican L’manburg don’t cause trouble, we’ll be fine.”[tubbo/quackity tommy exile stream].

This plan of quackity’s involve staging an assassination which kills the people striking Eret’s kingship. At first, Quackity reassures that the ones that are striking won’t die as well as George not being one of the ones that can be striking. Then when Sapnap is told the plan, Sapnap says that he wants to “kill them all”. The goal with this assassination is that they will “frame Eret for murder” [00:24:23]. That they plan on framing Eret as a tyrant and a violent warmonger. They thought that this plan would force Dream to give the throne back to George. As they talk, they also convince Karl that his death won’t be in vain. Those of Mexican L’manburg are willing to SACRIFICE the life of one of their own. And let us not forget that Karl is still Sapnap and Quackity’s FIANCE. For those who have watched the stream or have watched clips of it, it is clear that this plan didn’t exactly turn out well. Not only did Karl lose a canonic life, but part of Eret’s castle was blown up and stolen which counts as griefing (Quackity actively said that they will be griefing the castles at [00:37:21]). Mexican L’manburg retreated in which they first ran back to Mexican L’manburg. Once there however, they find that Dream has already started blowing up the land which forces them to retreat to the Holy Lands which are “neutral” territory and one cannot be killed in the Holy Lands.

Funnily enough, at [01:04:48], you can see a message from George asking Dream for food. Which in a way has a huge, “excuse me?” In what right does George have that makes him think that Dream should give him any food when he clearly is doing everything against Dream.

In the holy lands, Quackity tells the rest of them that everything went “exactly as he planned” and that they are “on the map.” [01:05:05].  

So Quackity and Dream have a very long conversation that will be transcripted below. Some of the most repeated terms that they use is the word tyrant. Now what exactly does tyrant mean? From the merriam-webster dictionary a tyrant would be along the lines of an absolute ruler who uses his power to be cruel and oppressive (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyrant). Is Dream an absolute ruler? By default of the way that the SMP works, yes, he is the leader of the Dream SMP just like how the creator of a discord server can be seen as the leader of the discord server. Is he oppressive? Well think about it, would you call the person who set up the rules of a discord server to be oppressive? Is he cruel? He has more often than not played the mediator and ensured that the rules are followed (we will be going back to older vods to further nitpick actions that Dream has done but this will take time). If these rules are not followed, then it is expected following the guidelines of the main three rules "No stealing, no griefing, and no murder." [https://dreamteam.fandom.com/wiki/The_Courthouse#The_First_Trial]. And of course, those who griefed would be griefed back as appropriate. (By this point, a majority of the people has stolen and killed which is a rule that is very difficult to regulate). Is Dream humanitarian? His goal is for the SMP to thrive this is a humanitarian action as a humanitarian as defined by the merriam-webster dictionary is someone who “promotes human welfare and social reform” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humanitarian). The process of how he goes about it can lead to more scrutiny but his overall goal has always been for the SMP to do well.  

Another issue to be brought up is, what exactly was Quackity’s goals throughout all of this? As we have seen, Quackity has shown to have a large issue with those who are in power ahead of him after Schlatt’s death. Dream being one of the biggest thorns in his side. This was clearly shown in his reactions to whenever Dream would speak as well as his admiration for Tommy.

If his goal was to show that yes, it is possible to fight against Dream? Then it could be said that yes, he has somewhat succeeded in that even if minisculely. This is most clear at the lack of apology that Quackity is willing to give Dream. However, if this was the goal, then it was one with more losses then gain. Karl lost a canon life, Dream gained actual allies in the monarchy of Dream SMP and Mexican L’manburg was blown up. In addition, if Quackity is the only one who has this knowledge, then there is a huge lack of communication between him and the rest of Mexican L’manburg. If his goal was to actually just put Mexican L’manburg on the map, then well, he could have just done it peacefully instead of committing violence because Dream is someone who is willing to negotiate.

Quackity Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/828406003

Tubbo Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/823374754

-extra thoughts on Manipulation of the younger members of the DSMP Lore

The overall manipulation of children by the adults. As we all well know, many people have been calling Dream a manipulative bastard. Which we will not deny that he does manipulate things to his benefit. He is not the only adult on the server (if you can even truly call him an adult if we go by the timeline we have developed for the SMP) who have manipulated the teens. No one has said anything of Wilbur who not only brought Tommy into a drug cartel development but also has brought Tommy up on a pedestal as a hero. No one has talked about Fundy who has been leading Ranboo around the SMP trying to cause havoc amongst the citizens. Heck even Quackity and Fundy together has spoken over Tubbo, undermining Tubbo’s authority as PRESIDENT OF L’MANBURG. So if Dream is being called a manipulative bastard, then so should the other adults because THEY AREN’T ANY BETTER .

The following is a loose dialogue script of the Dream vs Quackity debate. (Goddamn these men do not chill)

Quackity: We are doing a peaceful protest- Dream cuts in: I don't think raiding a castle and taking- literally ripping off (unintelligible due to Quackity and the others taking over)

Quackity: We were doing a peaceful protest and Eret for whatever reason decided to attack Karl and Sapnap so I don’t know what's going on here

Karl: I lost a life because of Eret!

Sapnap: He killed Karl, Dream

Dream: You guys- You guys are raiding the castle-

(Karl, George, Sapnap, and Quackity start speaking simultaneously)

Quackity: We raided the castle in retaliation, you did not see what he did to us. He killed Karl. He literally killed Karl

George: Karl and Sapnap were having a peaceful protest on the castle property and Eret killed him.

Quackity: Easy as that.

Dream: Listen- Listen Quackity, you- you taking-

Quackity cuts in: What we want- What we want- Listen I don't understand, this should be against Eret and me, I don’t know why you are getting involved. Listen we will give back the throne-

Dream: It’s- you just- you just took the throne

Quackity: We will give back the throne- We will give back the throne-

Dream: Then give it back otherwise Mexican L’Manburg is not existing, ever again.

Quackity: Ever again. Ever again.

(Karl hits Dream once and starts to call names such as Terrorist and Traitor, Quackity tells him to chill)

Quackity: Dream listen, we were doing a peaceful protest and whatever Eret did is what Eret did. You understand, okay. We are willing- We are willing to give it back, but we are not giving it back without a little bit of negotiation, because Karl lost a life-

Dream: No no listen Quackity you're not-

Quackity: Karl lost a life!

Dream: Like- who do you think you are to be in negotiation power? (hear Dream raises his voice a bit) We could kill you, all of us easily, without even a-

(Once again everyone talks over each other and are loud ending in unintelligible dialogue)

Dream goes on to say how they’ll have to leave the holy lands to be killed, saying that if they don’t they have become hostages, that when they are killed they’ll lose all their stuff as they will burn it.

Dream: If you guys wanna destroy, grief a kingdom, that is called a terrorist (here Karl starts to scream over Dream, who responds saying he doesn’t give a crap if Karl died since that is his own fault)

Quackity: We were having a peaceful protest, why aren’t you punishing Eret for this? Why aren’t you punishing Eret for this?

Dream: Eret for what? For killing Karl?!

Quackity: For killing Karl! For trying to kill a peaceful protest! What is that- is that what we're gonna base off of now? That the entire server can be run by one goddamned person, we can't even, we are not allowed to voice our opinions now what’s going on?! As far as I remember you’ve been taking all the shots in anything, no one has free speech anymore!

Dream: You’re becoming like a terrorist- I’m not even kidding, you are right now as of this moment your character is a terrorist

Quackity: I disagree. You are out of your mind, you are out of your mind, you are out of your mind.

Dream: Quackity, what are you a citizen of? What are you a citizen of? (at this point everyone is trying to talk over each other again)

Quackity: I am a citizen of Mexican L’manburg

Dream: okay and of L’manburg-

Quackity: which was destroyed by you

Dream: correct, so why are you, “peacefully protesting” a Dream SMP member, not even a member but the King of the Dream SMP.

Quackity: because we are peacefully protesting and injustice (Dream: You are a terrorist Quackity) No! It is injustice!

Karl: Can I step in? Can I step in?! Let me step in. let me step in (Quackity: That's what we're doing.) I got this. Dream, Georgenotfound when he got his kingship taken for absolutely no reason, so he joined Mexican L’manburg, and we as Mexican l’Manburg (Dream: Oh no he is part of mexican L’Manburg Karl-) WAIT! We as mexican L’Manburg stick together, okay? And when he says he wants to be king again, we want him King again. We were doing a peaceful protest, Eret killed me for no reason, we didn’t grief anything, he started it.

Dream: Karl I- I think you forget that I designated- (unintelligible due to low volume)

Karl: Oh so you're gonna- That’s a tyranny (Quackity: so you’re gonna kill us?) You are a tyrant

Quackity: Great! Great. You’re breaking the rules again as you always do.

Dream: you are under Quackity, who is griefing a castle with a king.

Karl: You're an absolute tyrant (Quackity: go check how much damage we did and something unintelligible) if you think it's acceptable to kill us here.

Dream: No I think it's acceptable to kill you anywhere because guess what? You're in the Dream SMP and if you’re part of mexican L’Manburg then be a part of mexican L’Manburg. I have no problem with Tubbo, who’s leading his country gracefully, you are a terrorist. (Quackity: I am not. I am not.) I will take care of you (Quackity: I am absolutely not.)

Karl: Explain- Explain what’s not graceful about a peaceful protest, what’s not graceful?

Dream: I wasn’t here. I have no idea, all I know is that what’s not graceful is even- literally- no matter what happened, unless we went and bombed your land, destroying the throne is not something you can ever do without being a literal terrorist by the definition.

Quackity: Really? (he draws the word out) Really. What you don’t understand- yeah, yeah Karl?

Here Karl ask Quackity to retreat to inside the Church to talk for a second in another VC, before doing so both Quackity and Karl and say this Karl: He doesn’t even know what happened

Quackity: Let us talk for a second, let us talk for a second.

In the other VC with Quackity, Karl, Sapnap, and George:

Quackity: No one admit to anything.

Sapnap: You know what Quackity, step aside (here he takes out his firework loaded crossbow and aims it at Dream) Step aside, I am bloodthirsty (Quackity: You’re gonna fuck this up for us. You’re gonna fuck this up for all of us. Don’t do it Sapnap, don’t fucking do it) I almost defeated him in a fight I can do it again.

Quackity: What we gotta do- What we gotta do is talk this through, okay? No one has any evidence at all that it was us. Nobody. The explosion went off. We just pin it on Eret, okay? At the end of the day remember we are doing- this is politics Sapnap, okay? What you’re doing here that is actual terrorism. If you pull that fucking thing that is actually terrorism, Sapnap. We’re playing the politics game, that’s what we’re doing right now, now everyone calm down. This is easy, this is easy, okay? We have- We have an upper hand here, the throne is in the ender chest okay? Dream is a politician too. Dream owns the Dream SMP, okay? This is a power game, this is what we’re trying to do, so relax, relax alright Sapnap? George, you got dethroned very unfairly so- so let’s just push that narrative okay?

Sapnap: Dream- He’s never on our side anymore, you know i just think, George I just think we’re better off without him. He’s not- he’s not with us anymore. I say- I say we disown him.

Quackity: You know what, you know what at the end of the day- at the end of the day they destroyed all our land, that means we did something so you know what let’s play this easy, let’s ask him what he wants, let’s ask him what he wants

Sapnap: He wants the throne Quackity, but if we him the throne we lose all our leverage

They once again join a VC with Dream:

Quackity: Alright Dream, listen, listen what do you want from us, we were doing peaceful protest that’s all we were doing what is it that you want from us

Dream: Quackity, all I hear- you're not doing peaceful protests when all I hear is ‘hey, the throne- the castle- the Dream SMP castle has been sieged, the throne has been taken.’

Quackity: It hasn't been sieged that is not entirely fine.

Dream: It has been sieged, it was griefed. You did as much as you could before you were caught. That you still were griefing it, that you stole the throne, look I- you’re trying to paint me as this tyrant when I'm just trying to maintain peace. If Eret killed you’re right, if Eret killed karl then you can come and present that to me. I removed George from kingship because he was being too political. If you think Eret is being too political, come and talk to me. Don’t go and raid my castle and my throne. (Sap and Karl: your throne?  Quackity: Your castle?)

Dream: Yes! Yes

Karl: Dream’s an absolute tyrant.

Dream: No! No, I'm not. I'm trying- Karl: Or you’re not a tyrant? Are we forgetting the fact that Dream literally said that it's his holy land, that he could take the no-kill policy.

Dream: I 100% percent could cause I’m the one who designated it the first place, the only reason-

Karl: That doesn’t make you a tyrant?!

Dream: the only reason it’s a no-kill policy in the first place is because I wanted it to be that way and it’s enforced by me.

Karl: Sounds like a tyrant.

Dream: It’s not a tyrant (Sapnap, Dream, and Karl start talking)

Dream: if anything I’m a humanitarian.

Sapnap: Dream if you're a tyrant, you are removing your own rules for your agenda.

Dream: It's not for my agenda it’s for the- my agenda, always since the very beginning has always been for the SMP to thrive. That has been my agenda. So if you’re saying for my agenda, it- it makes me a tyrant no it doesn’t. It makes me want the server to thrive and I want to be peaceful. Listen Quackity, you raided the castle, regardless of what you want to say-

Quackity: Because of an injustice, because Karl got killed.

Dream: that doesn’t- just because someone gets killed that’s not- that’s like- you can’t raid a castle, take the throne, and commit acts of terrorism. That doesn’t make it okay.

Karl: Dream, Dream, we care about human lives more than a throne

(I believe Dream hits Karl back since he did get in his face)

Quackity: Okay you know what, it’s as easy as this, it’s as easy as this Dream, we are willing to give back the throne, we’re willing- we’re willing to say-

Dream: I don’t- I honestly- I literally don’t care about the throne because the throne means nothing. It’s the place of the throne, it’s the fact that you attacked the throne that means something. You can keep the throne, it's a bunch of gold blocks.

Quackity: Okay. Then what is it? What are you going after? What are you going after?

Dream: You stopping. Otherwise, I will kill you, I will burn all your items, I will pillage your goods and I will destroy your entire land.

Sapnap: Sounds like a tyrant to me.

Dream: Sounds like somebody who doesn’t like terrorists to me.

Karl: Terrorist.

Dream: You are a terrorist-

(here Dream’s voice is drowned out by Karl who raises his own, and Quackity.)

Quackity: Dream, Dream, listen to me, listen to me. We have a society up there called Mexican L’manburg, okay?

Dream: No you’re not a society, you made a war with the Dream SMP essentially, we are way way way more powerful

Quackity: Then why did you go and destroy it. Why did you go and destroy part of land we have? We just want to be seen as a society, Dream. Dream: Well you are not. You’re not seen as anything, you know in my mind Mexican l’manburg does not exist in any way whatsoever. And you know what I’ll talk to Tubbo about it, I'll make sure he sees it doesn't exist either.

Quackity: Then what do we do? What do we do- How is that fair?

Karl: Dream said the same thing about L’manburg back in the day

Dream: No I didn't, I didn't actually.

Quackity: Can no one set new countries? Can no one set up new countries? We just want a country up there. We want to be recognized as a country. That’s all we want. Dream: Well you don't get to be recognized as a country by being a terrorist Quackity.

Quackity: That’s the only time you have ever stepped forward and actually tried to recognize all of us as something. You removed George and he’s gone. Sapnap, Sapnap doesn't identify with any country right now and Karl, Karl is never around. So how about this, just recognized that-

Dream: Karl identifies himself in the side that’s the easiest to choose. He was on Schlatt’s side, do you forget? And then when Schlatt lost-

Karl: No, no I was on L’manburgs side

Dream: oh yeah, you tried to act like that Karl but you weren’t. Listen, you can try and paint me as the bad guy because I know you’re griefing and being a terrorist.

Quackity: No, nono We are not painting you as the bad guy, that’s not what we are trying to do here.

Dream: yes, you are. You are 100%. You’re calling me a tyrant by saying ‘hey you need to not be a terrorist and go and blow shit up.

Quacity: I have not in any moment called you a tyrant. You on the other hand called me a terrorist. You have told me that I’m not abiding by the rules.

Karl: By the definition, you are an absolute tyrant.

Dream: What’s the definition of tyrant, what’s the definition of tyrant?

Quackity: Dream, Dream, let us have our society let’s be done with it.

Dream: A cruel and oppressive ruler. You think a cruel ruler is somebody who says ‘hey don't blow up and try to attack the king of this nation. You think that’s what a cruel ruler does?

(...and once again everyone starts talking simultaneously, Karl and Dream try to out talk each other. Dream is heard clearly saying “By definition, I am not a tyrant, by definition you are a terrorist. If anything I am a reasonable ruler.”)

Quackity: can I speak to you, can I speak to you, can I speak to you privately? Can I just speak to you privately?

In the end they enter a private VC, Quackity explains to Dream that all they wanted was for Mexburg (Mexican L’manburg) to be recognized as a society. Dream responds that he could’ve done so, should they have come to talk to him first, instead of doing a terrorist act against a Dream SMP member, especially to the current king. Then they get Eret into the Vc, Quackity trying to push his lie of how Eret killed Karl without prompting. Dream asks for Eret’s side of the story where the truth is revealed. Dream asks for an apology from Quackity to Eret and him. Quackity coincides but only says he’ll apologize to Eret but not Dream who responds saying “Fair”

In the end Quackity apologizes to Eret, Mexburg is renamed to El Rapids to start as a “Clean slate” due the violence Mexburg was involved in, and is officially recognized as a society of the Dream SMP by Eret.

{Can you tell how Moon just gave up in the end, they talked for so long, this was painful, listen this was taxing, sorry}

[studentstime]

GENDER BAISNESS IN LEADERSHIP FORMATION IN BANGLADESH

written by

Israfil Hossain

INTRODUCTION:

Bangladesh is undergoing phenomenal changes/reforms in its economy, governance, women empowerment, human resource development, poverty reduction, health, education, etc. Its economy is moving at quite a good pace, given the spurt in export earnings, mainly due to private entrepreneurs, and high remittance earnings mainly coming from the Bangladeshis working in the Middle East, Europe and America. Bangladesh has huge potentials, as the experts predict, even to reach to the middle income group of countries, given some more momentum in terms of improving governance, eradicating corruption and ensuring political stability. As is known, Bangladesh is often battered by natural calamities which cause substantial damage to its infrastructure, and its effort to eradicate poverty, not to speak of the loss to human lives. Bangladesh has certain advantages like homogeneity in terms of ethnicity, religion and a culture of tolerance which play a great impacting role in its integration process. It has a huge population, which may be called a comparative advantage that can be converted into competitive advantage like turning them into human resources. If the huge population can be turned into more literate, skilled, semi-skilled manpower, and utilized domestically and exported to developed countries then the country would greatly benefit economically and socially. Given the limited space of Bangladesh that finds it difficult to sustain such a huge population, this is one of the most feasible and pragmatic options left for Bangladesh. Otherwise Bangladesh’s human security will be in jeopardy.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP TRAITS

Transformational Leadership is the latest and most promising phase in the leadership spectrum. “Here the focus is on leader behavior during periods of organizational transition and on processes such as creating visions of desired future state and obtaining employee commitment to change.” Transformational Leadership is a kind of leadership that can transcend the normal boundary management of an environment. It aims to walk an extra mile, or take a bit more risk, or take more responsibilities instead of passing the buck in undertaking a task. It should be able to improvise, if required, to reengineer or reinvent. Stagnancy or maintaining status quo is the job of a routine manager or a transactional leader but creating a new context in order to be more productive is the goal of a transformational leader. It should be able to take the team along who strongly upholds the visions, values and objectives of the leader to be their own and inspires them in such a way that they would carry out the tasks enthusiastically even at the peril of their life. They would not necessarily turn into rabble rouser. They should, as far as possible, reflect charisma, be able to inspire the subordinates and should be able to intellectually stimulate the subordinates or the stakeholders.

Charisma entails providing vision and mission to the stakeholders so that the team moves along the path the leader has foreseen. He should be able to instill pride and gain respect and trust from the subordinates or his constituency. Charisma reflects his personality, knowledge, wisdom, sense of justice and commitment. One may argue this is a born quality- a gift from God. This argument is largely not tenable since - many scholars term it as a myth – such qualities can be acquired through rigorous exercise, given a deep commitment. Next point is about inspiring the stakeholders in undertaking even the arduous jobs. The leadership is about understanding the environment, adapting to the environment and be able to communicate the contingencies commensurate with the environment to the stakeholders. Now the leader should be able to communicate the high expectations expected of the team members in a simple and understandable language. He may use different symbols at his disposal. Gandhi and Mao Tse Tung inspired the whole nation to fight for freedom and emancipation in such a way that hundreds and thousands of them were even ready to die for the cause at their every beck and call. However, such historical examples may not appropriately apply to every level, tier or environment of leadership. But one can always draw lessons from such examples.

A leader should be able to intellectually stimulate his team members. He should understand the context, environment, rationality of his cause or vision, and that would need deep intellectual exercise. He should be able to provide careful and creative problem solving techniques to his team members. All great leaders of the world are generally men of knowledge and wisdom. Henry Kissinger called Mao Tse Tung one of the greatest teachers of mankind. A leader must pursue knowledge-based critical thinking, especially in this globalized intelligent world. Practical knowledge has no substitute for a leader in order to inspire his subordinates with ideas, values, attitudes, perceptions, visions, missions and objectives. The subordinates are unlikely to accept one as leader if he cannot provide rational and creative problem solving techniques. Without such course, a leader might become redundant in the society.

The last point the author would like to make is personal touch a leader provides to his subordinates. This aspect of leadership practice is seriously lacking in Bangladesh environment. A leader has to give personal attention, and treat all his subordinates individually. He has to counsel and mentor his members, if possible. A leader has to care about the welfare, mental or health state, family problems of his subordinates. This works marvel in Bangladesh environment. Mere patting makes a lot of difference to an employee in the Bangladesh environment. Maslow’s Theory of Needs does indicate such directions in order to upgrade the motivation levels of the employees.

A leader should be an innovator apart from being an administrator only. He should be able to inspire trust than merely relying on control. A leader, depending on the tier he is holding in the hierarchy, should generally have a long range perspective and an eye on the horizon apart from having an eye on the bottom line. A leader should not ask how and when an event took place; he, however, would do better if he asks what and why of the incident. He challenges the system or status quo, of course not unsettling the environment. Conflict management is a good technique but that should not destabilize the system one is holding. In a nutshell, transformational leaders are seen as change agents, courageous, believing in people, having a strong set of values, life-long learners, capable of coping with complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity and visionaries.

BANGLADESH BUREAUCRACY IN PERSPECTIVE:

Max Weber, the chief architect of bureaucracy, provides certain features of bureaucracy like hierarchy, promotion based on professional merit, development of a career service, reliance on and use of rules and regulations and impersonality of relationships among career professionals in the bureaucracy and with their clientele. To a commoner, taking cue from Max Weber, bureaucracy would appear to be something to do with red tapism, inefficiency and abuse of power in the context of official-client relationship. It develops a system of authority, which is indestructible and an entrenched bureaucracy that can serve any interest. It shows allegiance only to the authority above it even if political changes have taken place. Webster’s New International Dictionary defines bureaucracy as a system that is narrow, rigid and formal, depends on precedent, and lacks initiative and resourcefulness. The essence of traditional public administration tends to be rigid, rule-bound, centralized, insular, self-protective and profoundly antidemocratic; and such traits often collide with the contemporary paradigm of bureaucracy that “allows qualified voters an efficient instrument through which the will of the people may be expressed; makes officers both responsive and responsible,” and thereby ensures common welfare.

Theorists and practitioners would like to emphasize bureaucratic paradigms like fairness, representation, participation, accountability, responsiveness, political neutrality, efficiency, rationality, and expertise. But the very nature of public administration poses problem to such value. The bureaucrats have a tendency to rely more on expertise and knowledge than over accountability, participation and democratic control. Now, therefore, a pertinent question arises: are the bureaucratic traits legitimate in terms of democratic principles. In this regard, David Rosenbloom opines that the legitimacy of bureaucracy occurs when bureaucratic policy making is subject to direct popular control. If bureaucracy is isolated from public accountability, bureaucracy can in no way be responsible to public interests and desires.

Again Merton, an American sociologist, goes deeper into the pitfalls of bureaucratic system. Bureaucracy’s adherence to rules originally conceived as a means, turns into an end-in-itself, thereby resulting in the displacement of goals. “In Bangladesh, the bureaucracy, to a large extent, conforms to the Weberian model....... Bureaucrats are not always assigned specific positions on the basis of their specialization or expertise but rather on the basis of belonging to a particular civil service cadre. Rationality is conceived in a narrow sense. It is primarily equated with administrative efficiency and economy both of which are considered ends in themselves rather than means to an end- the effective delivery of public service.”

Bureaucracy’s strict adherence to regulations induces timidity, conservatism and technicism. Bureaucracy’s avowed norm of impersonality and its dependence on abstract rules put it in conflict with the personalized consideration the members of public and clientele would expect. Bureaucracy’s entrenched corporate interests, which may be called espirit de corp, totally negates the concept of transformational leadership traits.

Given the traits as shown, bureaucracy, theoretically speaking, goes against the grain of transformational leadership. However, such theoretical branding may not always find true reflection in the practical application by an individual bureaucrat. He may have the charisma, vision or personalized consideration like that of a transformational leader and he may exert to establish his leadership, but the environment of the boundary around which he is operating may not permit him to realize his full potentials. Initiative of an individual bureaucrat is greatly circumscribed in decision making process; there may be ten tiers, in the Central Government, to be crossed, when the final decision is made. However, in most of the cases, all the ten tiers may not have to be crossed. Anyway, a kind of timidity thus sets in such a process. Initiative, dynamism, and creative and innovative thinking, the sine quo nonefor transformational leadership that should be undertaken by a bureaucrat are lost, at best diluted. Risk-taking is one of the hallmarks of real leadership. In a scenario like this, a bureaucrat will not take any risks since he has somebody above him.

It is reportedly known that a Secretary to the government puts forward a file to his Cabinet Minister seeking sanction of a paltry sum of Tk. 25,000 (equivalent to US$350) to be disbursed for the repair/maintenance of a small building in a remote village of Bangladesh. Now this brings to the fore another predicament where the authority is so much centralized that such a simple decision has to be taken by the Central Government located in Dhaka. ADB Country Governance Assessment (Draft), Bangladesh, May 2004, under heading ‘Centralization’ observes, “An additional constraint to good governance at the local level is the extremely centralized form of government now in place. Union Parishads (UPs) derive their authority and a substantial portion of their funds from national ministries whose effective reach to the level is constrained by intervening levels of government. For example, Union Parishads (UPs) must submit their budgets and work plans for review and follow-up action by several appointed officials at the Upazilla and district levels. As a result, the UNO and the Chairman of the Upazilla Development Committee have more de facto power over development projects in Unions than do the UPs themselves.”

Although Bangladesh is a unitary system, there are three administrative tiers and local government structure which could have easily taken care of such problem. Even for posting of foundation level officers like lecturer/teacher of a college/high school or a medical officer at Upazilla (Sub-district), the Central Government, where again so many tiers may have to be crossed, gets involved. Here again, timidity sets in and that delays the decision making process. This also gives rise to more probability of corruption and sufferings of the employees. Motivation, which is conditioned more by intrinsic factors than extrinsic ones, gets badly affected and the overall productivity of the government definitely suffers. However, the probability of corruption still remains valid even if decentralization in relatively important decision making is done at the administrative levels. Federalism is, however, a far-fetched idea at the moment since basic structure of the Constitution has to be amended and for that political consensus has to be reached.

Even if an individual bureaucrat would like to exert his dynamism, creativity or initiative, the system would not permit it. The system constraint has become a serious problem in transforming the officers. Delay in the system is unwarranted and is a recurrent phenomenon. This author learnt about a case where a simple clarification on a point, pending for last about six years, asked from the higher office of the Republic to a functioning ministry took about six months, that too after several reminders. Such delays are caused both vertically and horizontally. Horizontal delays (reasons for vertical delays are already pointed out) are caused mainly because of consultation or opinion seeking with the other line ministries. In the horizontal plane also files have to again move up and down the tiers as mentioned. And if there is a disagreement, the matters get further complicated. It further delays the decision making process. This author was shocked to learn a state of affair where an important appointment case remained pending in a functioning ministry for three years. The case could have been processed to the appropriate authority for his approval. As a matter of fact, the incumbent continued functioning presumably without lawful authority for three years. When, on the eve of a ceremony, it was discovered that the appointment was not validated and hence the subsequent actions that followed could be questioned, the Pandora’s Box was opened. How and why it happened was not looked into. The accountability and transparency, which are so much essential for good governance, were totally lacking in this case. The matter was, probably, somehow patched up. Even in a transactional leadership spectrum, the status quo is at least maintained. In this case, even the status quo or routine functioning was not maintained, let alone challenging and changing the status quo. So the creative or innovative ideas cannot be expected that are so critical in this globalized, intelligent 21st century world.

Transformational leaders are supposed to be intellectually sound, so that they can transmit to their followers their wisdom; and it results in two-way traffic. A leader has to command the respect through his personality, values, wisdom, and long-range view and make them think the way he thinks. Only then can the leader take the team along with him. He has to capture some of their styles or traits in order to be successful in his domain. And his own domain is to have contemporary and up-to-date knowledge and the ability to apply those in the field he is handling. If he is handling WTO matters, he should be a reasonable expert on the subject so that he can communicate, negotiate and be able to enter into agreements, keeping the country’s interests above everything, with his expert counterparts coming from both developed and developing worlds. This is a knowledge-based world, but sad enough Bangladesh has turned out be a knowledge starved society.

If our bureaucrats could be armed with more technical and appropriate knowledge, then the Government would not probably have signed the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with the International Oil Companies (IOCs) where 72% of the revenue earnings are given to the IOCs in foreign currencies. Gas is stored in the territories of Bangladesh but it only gets a paltry 28% percent of revenue earnings. Again, because of the lack of adequate technical and appropriate knowledge or realizing the urgency Bangladesh, as yet, could not place its case before the United Nations regarding the maritime demarcation of the Bay of Bengal, although it ratified the UNCLOS in 2001. Bangladesh has not yet carried out necessary survey to decide about the extent of its continental shelf. The control points of its base line, both in the western and eastern sectors, have been contested by both India and Myanmar. Bangladesh is likely to get ‘zone/sea locked’ and if serious negotiations are not undertaken immediately with the actors concerned, mostly applying the equity theory as against equidistance theory, much of Bangladesh’s life sustenance resources and maritime freedom might get jeopardized. It is to be especially mentioned here that the neighboring countries like India, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have settled their scores of maritime boundary demarcation.

There is a big question: is Bangladesh prepared for such serious negotiations with its neighbours in order to protect its interests? Or it is going to surrender its interests as it did during the last Hong Kong round of WTO negotiations because the Bangladesh team did not carry out enough home work for such negotiations? There can be a further question: is the person who is supposed to carry out his homework has the requisite ability and the right attitude to do so? There is a concern about it. The answer is simple: the person may not have the requisite expertise and the positive attitude that would take care of the national interest.

This author learnt about a case where a summary for an appointment to a very high office was placed in the higher office in such a way that the constitutional provision apparently got violated. When someone pointed out such violation, the reply given to him was that there was such a precedent earlier. To that officer, what was important was the precedent not the Constitution. It also shows lack of knowledge of the Constitution both by him and his predecessor. It could be also attitudinal tendencies to show what they did was right, not what the Constitution stipulates. It can be surmised that it was more of a lack of adequate knowledge of the Constitution. Superficial knowledge on such critical issues could be disastrous for the nation and on occasions national interests might get violated. Even a transactional leader is expected to have enough knowledge on a subject he handles in order to maintain the status quo; otherwise atrophy would take over. In a globalized interdependent world, specialist knowledge by the bureaucrats in their respective field of activities is essential even if we presume they are not transformational leaders. Intellectual stimulation is sine quo non for someone to be a transformational leader.

It is generally believed that the bureaucrats, especially officers from the Administrative Cadre, probably, acted as a pressure group (there could be other pressure groups also) to block the separation and independence of the judiciary and Anti-Corruption Commission. It also did not work favorably to institutionalize the local government system of Bangladesh. The Supreme Court, through its twelve point directive in 1999, asked the Government to completely separate the judiciary, especially the lower judiciary, from the executive. But the successive governments started dilly-dallying the process, presumably also at the behest of the bureaucrats. Bureaucrats might have apprehended that their power could get greatly curtailed by such action. This could also be true in the case of the local governments, as already pointed out. However, the local political leaders also had their vested interests in not institutionalizing and strengthening the local government structures.

Be that as it may, bureaucrats would not like to part with the control and superintendence they have on different aspects of the local government. Bureaucrats both at the local tiers and also at the central level have varying degrees of control over the local governments. It is a well nigh difficult task to meaningfully direct, control and monitor the activities of the local governments, from the capital city, spread in every nook and corner of the country. Personalized consideration would be totally lacking in such a scenario which goes against the concept of transformational leadership. Innovativeness, creativity and emotional attachment are essential in transformational leadership styles but sad enough such inputs may be absent in a scenario like this.

RESPONSE:

A thorough overhauling of the bureaucratic structure, span of control, style of work, motivation, values, attitudes, and mindset may be necessary in the context and environment of Bangladesh. There may be a necessity of strategic planning for this. Donor assistance, both in terms of money and expertise, may be necessary.

Firstly, flatter organization system, which generally goes with the modern management concepts, as against many-tiered vertical organization in the bureaucratic hierarchy of the Central Government, may be thought of. It could be brought down to four to five tiers that would facilitate better and faster decision making. However, the number of streams, dealing with limited subjects, within a Ministry/Division may be increased. This will help in faster decision making and specialization.

Secondly, similar types of Ministries/Divisions could be clustered together within which the officers/employees would generally rotate. Example could be the Ministries/Divisions of Finance, Planning, Commerce, External Resources Division, Expatriate Welfare Division could be clustered together, something like Strategic Business Units (SBUs), as practised in the business world, where the officers from their foundation level to even up to highest level would rotate during their stint of staff appointments. Another example could be the Ministries/Divisions like Foreign, Home, Defence, Disaster Management, Chittagong Hill Tracts, etc could be clustered together. The specialization that would accrue in such clustering would better take care of areas like WTO, maritime or land boundary demarcation, counter-terrorism, etc. where there are tendencies of faltering. This is given merely as a suggestion; one may not be sacrosanct about it. In a similar vein, Zafarullah’s categorization of ministries/divisions merits consideration, may be with certain adjustment. Those could be categorized, as he prescribes, like Executive (President’s Office, Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Division), Regulatory (Establishment, Finance, IRD, Local Government, Commerce, Home, Jute, Civil Aviation and Tourism, Shipping, Lands, etc), Service-orientated/Welfare (Relief, Special Affairs, Health and Family Welfare, Railways, Post and Telecommunication, Social Welfare, Women’s Affairs), Food, Labour and Manpower Developmental (Agriculture, Rural Development and Cooperative, Irrigation, Water Development and Flood Control, Roads and Road Transport, Industries, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Works, Fisheries and Livestock, Jute and Textile), Promotional (Primary and Mass Education, Education, Science and Technology, Environment and Forest, Information, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports, Religious Affairs), Advisory (Armed Forces Division, Planning, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Parliament Secretariat), Research (Statistical and Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division), and International (Foreign Affairs and Economic Relations).

Thirdly, Strategic Management Planning, along with Management by Objectives (MBO) technique, as practised in the business world, dovetailed to the culture of public service may be adopted for the Bangladesh Civil Service. Vision/Mission, long term objectives, strategies, yearly objectives, policies, feedback system for each Ministry/Division, Corporation and Department should be clearly spelt out in a realistic, achievable, time bound benchmark. This is not to say that broad objectives are not spelt out in the yearly /three yearly/five yearly planning processes. Bangladesh has a good macro level planning, but what it lacks is the micro level planning and implementation. It also lacks feed back loop which helps in further planning. Objectives are not set out in a realistic and achievable manner; as such Bangladesh generally falters in implementing the Annual Development Plans or in utilizing the foreign assistance. Strategic planning involves all segments, spectrum, activities, cohesion, top down and bottom up approaches, etc. It also involves participatory planning. All stakeholders should be consulted before deciding about an objective. Each Department/Tier/Local Government should be given their yearly achievable, tangible and intangible (to be quantified as much as possible) objectives that would, in totality, meet the yearly objectives of a particular Ministry/Division. Our foreign missions, as part of economic diplomacy, could be given the yearly objectives like export to the target country be increased by say 10% or so many skilled/non skilled manpower be exported to that country. Such objectives could be decided realistically based on past experiences and future trends. Management by objectives, although an American concept not fitting into our culture, may be followed at least in its spirit. Now any player who fails to meet a reasonable expectation of the objectives may be made answerable. Such lapses may be reflected in his yearly performance appraisal in clear terms which would ultimately impact on his career advancement. An independent team has to work out the details of modalities, in case the Government decides to implement the concept.

Fourthly, in order to attract the better graduates of the universities (private sector is now a better destination), their pay, perks and privileges should be greatly enhanced. ADB Country Governance Assessment Bangladesh (Draft), May 2004 acknowledges that the Civil Service no longer attracts the same calibre of entry- level officials that it did in the past. It prescribes salary reform, “mindful of the need to balance the prospect of competitive salary increases with the corollary need to reduce the overall costs of public administration”. If necessary, a portion of the Annual Development Plan may have to be diverted to the Revenue Budget in order to cater for the extra expenditure involved in salary increases. In the long term, it would prove to be more cost-effective. If the actors are not efficient, output would be always problematic. One cannot be expected to be efficient, if his/her physiological needs are not adequately met, when he is de-motivated.

Fifthly, since the quality of Bangladesh University education has deteriorated to a great extent, especially in relation to communication skill in English and latest developments around the world, there is a dire need for an exhaustive, realistic, up-to-date training package programme to be developed in the training institutions. This is borne out by the observations made by Shawkat Ali, a former career civil servant, “various studies have drawn attention to the deficiencies in the training of civil servants, specially post-entry and pre-entry training. Some of these deficiencies are as follows: lack of qualified and well trained staff arising out of posting unwilling civil servants in the training institutes and such postings do not take into account the qualification and experience of the civil servants which result in low quality of training and lack of motivation; the post-entry training and in-service training courses are not well integrated and scheduled to provide and continuously update the level of training and knowledge of civil servants. …Questions have already been raised about relevance of training, utilization of training and incentives for training. Training should be both class room and field based. Exhaustive training programme generally for greater duration than what is done today, especially at the foundation level would pay rich dividends in the long run. Training in the form of case studies, seminars, group projects especially at the field levels, presentations, research papers, In Basket Exercises, visits and orientation with varied types of installations, institutions, corporate world, NGOs, local government, industries, etc may be given more emphasis. Field trips and exercises, something similar to military system, could be given a consideration. For such extensive training system foreign advisory team from countries like Singapore, Japan, UK, and Australia as also from the Bangladesh Armed Forces may be sought.

Sixthly, for career advancement, successful field level appointments like Upazilla Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and Deputy Commissioner (DC), an independent assignment in a foreign mission may be given more credence. One who performs poorly in such appointments may not be given further enhancement in career. Based on the performance reflected in the Annual Confidential Reports, the officers in the promotion chain, at different tiers, may be required to go through the Assessment Centers where they would undergo various group exercises and individual tasks as well as psychometrics and interviews. Only the successful candidates would qualify for further promotion. This practice is followed in the U.K. Civil Service. This has relevance to military system of promotion as well. It is heartening to note that Bangladesh Government is already thinking of introducing similar system.

Seventhly, there is generally a degeneration of values in Bangladesh. Corruption is rampant in all segments of the society. Such situation should be arrested through greater transparency and accountability. Parliamentary standing committees may be more assertive to make the bureaucrats more accountable. Even the courts of law may, if not already doing, attempt to go into greater details of a case that involves the government projects and functionaries and make the public servants accountable. Higher bureaucracy may regularly visit the field level projects and offices to ensure better accountability and transparency.

Eighthly, E-governance or Digital Governance should be given especial priority. E-Governance has to be seen as a tool for good governance and human development. Good Governance occurs when Electronic Governance is able to enhance the “Public Value” of information supplied. The Civil Service members may be made aware of the necessity of E-Governance and be thoroughly armed with necessary competencies. Chandra Babu Naidu, a former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, India, could be a role model for our system.

Lastly, as long as necessary expertise, required of a particular Ministry/Division, is not developed, a core committee of experts drawn mainly from the civil society, universities and research institutes may be formed, as a stop gap measure, to assist the concerned Ministry/Division in handling the technical/complicated matters that involve vital national interests. Of course, this has been done many a time. This now needs to be made more structured with definite terms of reference.

CONCLUTION:

In conculation, we presented a proposition of the transformational stage in the administration, bureaucracy, and state. In fact, it is emphasized here that all other organs and structure of the state are poised for change. Partisan polity in the transitional stage is about to introduce reforms after a huge paradigm shift. The quality of leadership in all spheres – politics, business, profession, bureaucracy – is in question and calls deeply for reform.

In the current reformist and transformational scenario, the bureaucracy has a critical role in enabling an orderly transition to provide the prerequisites for democracy and development. For achieving this, the bureaucracy may help establish the rule of law. Without this, the arbitrary and capricious decision making of the past could reappear.

Leadership in Bangladesh is definitely at a critical juncture and, needless to say, standing at the threshold of the 21st century, Bangladesh has to discard the old perception of it. In this regard, the author considers this phase of history as transitional and transformational. Whether we like it or not, the coming generations will complete the full circle of change that is needed to move from one level of development to the next and thank us for “beginning the beginning”.

[my-darling-luna]

Glitch Chapter 1

Summary- After three years at Hogwarts, Scarlett Dean thought that she was ready to take on another year. I mean how hard could it be, right? Wrong. So very wrong. Things turn sour when secrets are spilled and friends are made with those who she was told to stay away from.

Glitch Masterlist 

Scarlett walked through the courtyard of the Hogwarts grounds during her free period, her cold ears barley being covered up by her thick knitted hat made of the colors blue and bronze as she watched the students of all ages scatter through the large space. The first years were challenging some third years to a snowball fight the muggle way, but it had turned rather quickly to the use of magic which made the the first years at a disadvantage, but when a few people from other years found the unfairness of the teams to be too much, they joined and began to help the first years to absolutely pummel the third years. Some fifth years and seventh years raced between studying and trying to catch the eye of a possible foreign partner. Meanwhile there were some like Scarlett, just walking through to either make it from one side of the castle to the other quicker than usual or to just enjoy a nice walk while people still had their sanity left. Scarlett was the latter, using this time to see Hogwarts as it was: bright and happy. The second task of the Triwizard Tournament wasn't for two more months so people had happily decided to relax from going head to head with the two other schools and allowed to become friends with them. Blue and red clothing mixed with the sea of black cloaks, but there seemed to be a lack of Beauxbatons students throwing snowballs while on the contrary, the Durmstrang students were happy to join in with the fight.

"Scar?" Lyra's soft voice pulled the younger girl out of her train of thought and back to the world in front of her. She hummed as the two started to walk together back into the castle. "Do you feel the bad energy in the air? It feels like something is coming."

"If I didn't know any better, I would think that Trelawney used polyjuice potion to change into you." Lyra snorted in a way that would make her mother scold her which made her recoil impulsively.

"Don't think I'm crazy-"

"I don't have to think-"

"But," Lyra purposely ignored her best friend and kept on with her thought, "I think that since the Triwizard Tournament has killed before, why is this year different?" Scarlett opened her mouth, but shut it almost as quickly once she realized that Lyra wasn't looking for a reason. "I mean, even with all of the regulations that Dumbledore and the Ministry have put on, I doubt that all fatalities are going to disappear."

     "I reckon that if the Ministry hears you say that then you're going to be written down as an anarchist. Plus, I know that the Ministry has done really bad things in the past, but surely they can't do it again."

     "I think that you have too much trust in the Ministry." The two girls made their way into their dormitory to meet up with the rest of their friends for class.

***

"I don't think that I'm ever going to get a date." Mandy whined while pulling her shiny black hair into a bun.

Lisa shoved her quill, ink, and homework into her bag before pushing Padma out of the way of the mirror.

     "You've still got one more week, but if all goes downhill, I reckon that Flitwick will love to dance with you. He had some pretty smooth moves at the practice that we did." The girls giggled as Lyra's joke as Mandy's cheeks turned a dusty red.

     "At least you're not going with Snape." Padma shuttered at the words that came out of her mouth.

     "Or Moody. Could you imagine his eye turnin' all over the place as he waltzes with you?" Scarlett grabbed Lyra's left arm, turning it over to glance at the watch. "We should get going. I don't know about you, but I'm starving." The girls pulled their messenger bags onto their shoulders and made their way out of their dorms and to the Great Hall.

     "Do you guys remember what we have first?" Lisa asked while forcefully stabbing a sausage on her plate.

     Lyra looked down in disgust as she watched Lisa eat the sausage. "Potions." The girls groaned at the thought of meeting up with Professor Snape at nine-thirty in the morning.

     "You just know that Snape isn't going to relax with the homework just because it's Christmas break."

     "I think that he needs to fall in love." Mandy grumbled at the chance of another two foot essay.

***

     And two feet it was. Not to mention the six inch essay on the repercussions on angering a Red Cap or eight inches on the properties of wormwood.

     "I can't wait until all of these kids leave tomorrow." Scarlett mumbled to her friends as she tried to weave her way through all of the excited third years and below.

    "I wonder who under the fourth year was invited."

    "I heard Cho say that she heard that Neville is taking Ginny." Scarlett told her friends as the five open the door to the library.

     "That's cute, I guess. Don't you think that-" the group was cut off before even sitting down.

     "Hi uh can I speak to Lisa?" A Hufflepuff boy asked the group, but looked more at the blonde at the end.

    "Yes," she squeaked as Padma pushed her forward, "of course." The two started to walk over to a corner bookshelf.

     "Well I guess we'll be over here." Everyone took a seat at one of the secluded tables in the back as they waited for Lisa.

"He's gonna ask her to the dance. Two knuts on it." Lyra held out her hand as everyone shook their heads.

"I'm not going to pay you anything because he definitely is going to ask her." Scarlett pushed Lyra's hand down before pulling out her homework. The four of them worked for about a minute and a half while occasionally looking up to the couple by the books. Lisa casually walked back to the table, but everyone knew that she was almost bursting at the seams with excitement.

     "He did it! He asked me out to the Yule Ball and on top of that, he asked me to the next Hogsmead weekend!" Her pink lips split open with a huge smile. Her friends smiled and congratulated her, showing their support but deep down, they felt jealous with their lack of a date.

[architectnews]

English Planning System: New British Homes

New British Homes, English planning system, Building Houses in England, Virtual Committees

English Planning System Relaxation

5 May 2021

UK Government Scraps Virtual Planning Committees

Architect reacts to government decision to scrap virtual planning committees

Pete Ladhams, Managing Director, Assael Architecture, commented: “The Covid-19 crisis acted as an unlikely catalyst to finally cause change to the UK’s outdated planning system at pace. However, the decision not to extend powers enabling virtual planning committees will be a hugely backwards step.

“Whilst these measures were initially intended to be temporary, the feedback since implemented across the industry was overwhelmingly positive, with many recognising the advantages of a digitised planning process.

“The onus is now on the government to make sure we leverage the momentum created by this pandemic to reform the planning system fully and not miss this opportunity.”

Assael Architecture is an award-winning London-based practice that provides a cohesive suite of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and visualisation services both in the UK and abroad. They work across a range of sectors, including hospitality, commercial and master planning, and specialise in residentially-led mixed-use schemes.

Assael designs homes across all tenures, from private-for-sale, private-for-rent, including ‘Build to Rent’ through low-cost, shared-equity and social-rented affordable homes. They approach all projects from the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable design and often integrate uses from the leisure, retail and cultural industries to help deliver thriving communities.

3 August 2020

New UK Housing Delivery

Following housing secretary Robert Jenrick announcing in the Sunday Telegraph that Britain will get a new zonal planning system please find comment from Ken Dytor, founder of Urban Catalyst, the developer behind the £1bn regeneration of Purfleet-on-Thames town centre.

Ken Dytor previously held roles at the Crown Estate, British Land and British Property Federation and was recently appointed to the Thames Estuary Growth Board, which aims to add £115bn to UK GDP annually.

New planning rules risk infrastructure and housing delivery

Ken Dytor, founder and executive chairman of Urban Catalyst, said: “It’s encouraging that the government has put social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals alongside housing in its plans to speed up development.

“While the housing secretary is right the uninspiring design of some developments fuels NIMBYism, concerns over additional pressure on existing public services are typically another major driver behind local opposition to new development.

“Similarly encouraging is the drive to harness greater community participation in the planning process by embracing a more 21st century tech-savvy approach. This should hopefully lead to a wider range of voices being heard, resulting in more inclusive, balanced developments.

“However, if the government’s ‘build build build’ agenda is to align with its ‘levelling up’ promise we need to see regionally driven infrastructure linked to housing delivery to kick start both national and local growth.

“A great example are the strategies focused on unlocking the potential of the Thames Estuary region, such as the Thames Estuary Growth Board’s Green Blue plan and Thames Production Corridor, which seek to marry private and public sector expertise and tap into the growing power of industries such as the artistic, creative and media sectors.”

21 July 2020

New UK Planning Rules Relaxation

New planning rules risk creating substandard homes on high streets

Following the government’s move to relax permitted development rights and allow retail to residential conversions, please see a comment below from Rory O’Hagan, director at London-based practice Assael Architecture, on why the changes could be detrimental to our high streets and town centres.

Rory has significant expertise in working on converting complicated and constrained sites into mixed-use schemes. Assael’s notable projects include Essential Living’s Union Wharf scheme, Blackhorse Mills with Legal & General, and Pontoon Dock with Grainger and Linkcity.

Rory O’Hagan, director at Assael Architecture, said:

“The government’s relaxation of permitted development rights could do much for the revitalisation of our high streets and town centres. But there must be a cohesive government strategy and clear regulations in place to monitor the standard of homes and ensure it is done well. The need to reinvent the high street shouldn’t just be driven by an urge to reverse the decline of retail or to fast-track housing.

It should be about ensuring that town centres are places where people want to spend time, create new experiences, and live with high-quality, complementary housing. There needs to be a considered drive towards more mixed and blended developments, where retail uses are supported by additional purpose-built homes. By doing this, the onus is on creating desirable, amenity-rich locations with high-quality housing options for all.”

6 July 2020

Is ‘build build build’ best for England’s planning system?

Alister Scott, Professor of Environmental Geography and an expert in urban planning and infrastructure, writes for The Conversation on proposals to change the UK’s planning system.

Is ‘build build build’ really the best way forward for England’s planning system?

“Rip up planning red tape to spur house building,” says housing secretary Robert Jenrick, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson argues for a radical shake-up to the planning system to deliver on his “build build build” mantra. There’s a clear political message that England’s planning system is broken and needs change.

Such change should not be based on simply building more, but on an accurate diagnosis of the problems the planning system is experiencing and trying to solve. If it isn’t, there is a risk of a future prime minister saying again that the planning system is broken and in need of urgent reform.

After all, David Cameron in 2011 attacked the planning system as “the enemy of enterprise” and similarly embarked on a package of reforms to speed up housing delivery and economic growth and cut red tape. Yet consistently over 80% of planning applications are approved, challenging any simplistic presumptions that planning inhibits growth.

Political change has been a constant in England’s planning system. Since the landmark 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, some 360 pieces of planning legislation have been enacted. What’s more, since 1997 there have been 18 housing ministers, hindering policy consistency.

Managing change has been made more difficult with significant cuts to planning departments under austerity, compounded by incremental legislative changes that create the very complexity and delays that the government now complains about.

Today, calls for reform have been fuelled by a report by the right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange. With the country needing to build many more houses, the argument goes that replacing our plan-led system that assesses every application with a zoning system would reduce bureaucracy and help speed up decision-making.

There have already been some moves in this direction, with enterprise zones and brownfield “permission in principle” orders. Permitted development rights have enabled the government to fast-track more commercial-to-residential developments and housing extensions. Boris Johnson has just announced further loosening of the rules on converting other commercial establishments, shops and redundant premises into homes.

But these changes have already been criticised due to the growth of poor quality houses and flats with no windows, isolated from key services and infrastructure. Such homes would never have been given approval in the regular planning system, and also conflict with other policy considerations such as those of the advisory Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission.

Diagnosing the planning challenges

“Build build build” is the wrong starting point. Planning is dominated by a target of building 300,000 homes each year, and the prime minister’s rhetoric reinforces that narrative. But one simple quantity metric on housing is dangerous and limiting when planning encompasses so much more.

The planning system should instead be designed to address the long-term challenges and opportunities our society faces. And that means a more integrated quality-based approach based on a shared vision of the kind of places we want to live in. Let’s identify these challenges in more detail:

There is a housing challenge. Plenty of luxury flats are built but not enough affordable family homes. The key national priorities do not match the types of housing now being built and wanted by developers.

There is a climate challenge. We are not doing anything like enough to meet the 1.5℃ Paris target, with 3℃ or more of warming now more likely. The planning system needs to have strong policies that help the transition to a greener lower carbon future with higher priority given to retrofitting of existing housing stock.

There is a biodiversity challenge. The state of UK nature is declining year on year with many species on the brink of extinction. Biodiversity forms the backbone of viable ecosystems on which we depend on for basic necessities, security and health. This diversity makes us more resilient to change and uncertainty in much the same way as investing in a diverse range of stocks protects a financial portfolio from uncertainty.

There is a health challenge. Poor housing stock and noise and air pollution, along with a lack of access to key services, all affect physical and mental health.

There is a poverty and social justice challenge. The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening. Here child poverty is a major issue. The planning system was founded on the need for improved social justice, yet in recent years this has been conspicuously absent from policy.

There is a public engagement challenge. Ordinary people should be able to understand and engage with planning more effectively and help co-produce the kinds of sustainable places they want to live, work and play in. The current system is too complex and too adversarial. A key opportunity is for the public to be more involved in planning processes which should be based on modern interactive “e-planning” and not dense and static PDF files.

These challenges are all interlinked and collectively should form the key principles on which a better and more joined-up planning system should be built. However, what that planning system looks like is not for me or anyone to dictate in a top-down fashion. We urgently need better diagnoses of these challenges and integrated interventions, so that then we can then design better governance and delivery frameworks that are less complex and fragmented.

I fear that the government will continue on its present trajectory, based on the populist but fallacious presumption that planning is restricting housebuilding, and impose yet more change on a public sector ill-equipped to deal with it. In effect, the country lurches from one crisis to another. And that is definitely not good planning.

This article was originally published by The Conversation.

Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. Find out more about at www.northumbria.ac.uk

Related material

How to design and build better green environments in our towns and cities May 24, 2019 13:11 BST

The latest edition of the influential journal Town & Country Planning has been edited by a leading Environmental expert from Northumbria University, Newcastle. How can we put the green back into our urban spaces? Nov 06, 2017 16:47 GMT

The question of how to encourage city planners and developers to incorporate green spaces and infrastructure in our towns and cities is the subject of a £226,000 research project being run by Northumbria University.

English Planning System: New British Homes image / inforation from Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, a research-rich, business-focussed, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence

Previously on e-architect:

UK Housebuilding Policy

UK Architects welcome landmark ARCO Report

image courtesy of architects

New UK Housing for an ageing population

UK Housing Shortage photograph © swns.com

New UK Housing – British Housebuilding news

British Houses

UK Housing Links:

Housing Crisis

New London Housing

British Homes

British House Designs

English Architecture:

English Architecture Designs – chronological list

Location: UK

Contemporary British Homes

Recent British Housing Designs

Fleet Street Hill Housing Design: Peter Barber Architects image from architect Fleet Street Hill Housing

Murray Grove Housing Stadthaus photo : Will Pryce Murray Grove Housing

Recent British Home Designs

Black House, Kent, South East England Architect: AR Design Studio image courtesy of architects Black House in Kent

A House for Essex, Essex, South East England Design: FAT Architecture and Grayson Perry photograph : Jack Hobhouse A House for Essex

Balancing Barn, Suffolk, South East England Design: MVRDV photo : Living Architecture Balancing Barn Suffolk

Hurst House, Buckinghamshire, Southern England Design: John Pardey Architects with Ström Architects photo : Andy Matthews Buckinghamshire Property

Comments / photos for the English Planning System: New British Homes page welcome

The post English Planning System: New British Homes appeared first on e-architect.

[mallorytaylorblog]

My journey to self acceptance starts now. Officially.

17th February, 2021.

I’m realising now, more and more as I get older, the only thing holding me back from anything in my life is my ability to accept myself. I understand the concept of self acceptance but putting it into practice is another thing. And that’s exactly what it is - a practice. It’s the small daily habits, positive self talk, emotional vulnerability and communication... Things I am still working on. Not to mention the conditioning I have that tells me to put others feelings and comfort above my own. I have spent years sheltering others from my “burdensome” emotions that acceptance of them as anything other than “wrong” is a hurdle I’m still trying to jump.

I feel so much expectation. From myself, from society, from my conditioning. I am only useful, wanted, needed if I am productive and achieving something. This idea that my worth is predicated by my output and my ability to remain calm and partial cripples my self-esteem - who am I if I’m not doing, being, achieving? Who am I if I’m not able to do things with a logical, rational, calm head screwed onto my shoulders? My ability to accept myself, good and bad, high and low, exactly as I am, determines how successful I am - regardless of what success looks and feels like to others.

I must lean in to self acceptance. Like, lean in so far I may as well be lying down.

The reason being is that I’m 31 years old, and today I spent the day watching Netflix, playing video games, and crying on the couch about the choices I’ve made that have landed me here. A loser, a victim of her life and circumstance, paralysed by fear. I mean, that’s a bit dramatic but that’s where my thoughts go sometimes. Today I just struggled to envision my future because I’m lacking clarity on the direction of my life. I don’t know where my sense of purpose comes from without working a full time job; without having a socially acceptable identity to cling to, a label for people to tell me how much they should respect me. For that, I point to my workaholic father and the capitalism we are subjected to.

And all my low moments - that is, all the moments where I’m not calm and happy - are the times I feel most vulnerable. I’ve never been shy about sharing my perspective on the childhood events and happenings that shaped me, and it’s no secret that emotional expression didn’t feel safe for me. I learned very early on that others needs were more important than my own. Anger especially is an emotion I’m focused on regulating right now, so that’s a huge one. I’m learning how to express myself concisely and authentically, a dance I’m still kind of fumbling over. For that, I point to my mother for not being more emotionally literate herself (although I cannot blame her, she didn’t choose her childhood).

With that being said, it’s my responsibility to get myself out of this state. This privileged, hardly surviving but not really thriving, state. And therein lies the expectation that weighs on me. Conditioning aside most of this is my own doing. I have to take responsibility for the choices I’ve made, regardless of how my experiences were framed. However I can’t shake this feeling that by now I should have achieved something. It’s not marriage or a relationship, because I’m happily in relationship with my best friend and marriage isn’t something that interests me. But my purpose, my work... what does that look like for me? What do I want? Why can’t I figure it out?

At the core of it I know self acceptance is the fuel that will get this engine running. To be able to accept myself and know that I am worthy of happiness, love, respect and success, even during my most emotional moments, will change the game. I’ve noticed when I’m feeling depressy and need that extra bit of connection I push others away. I prioritise their comfort over my own. I do anything and everything I can to pre-empt my being a burden to them with my feelings and tell them to go back to whatever they were doing, or I minimise my upset. What a pattern to get into - imagine asking for help then doing everything you can to prevent yourself from receiving it.

The irony with self acceptance is that it must comes from the self. Everyone knows self esteem doesn’t increase via input from outside sources. Recently I’ve become painfully aware of my desire for acceptance from someone who doesn’t even like me. The fear of rejection has kept me in the same small spot for years and it’s honestly exhausting. I’ve truly had enough. Letting go of this relationship is the precursor to more self acceptance for me, so this is the current challenge. I’ve had enough of talking about it, of feeling about it. Whatever I’ve made this relationship mean needs an overhaul, because it’s clearly not serving me and it keeps me stuck in a childlike emotional state. That’s what conditioning does, it’s keeps you stuck. Well, time to move on. I’m not a tree, I’m not stuck.

I don’t know how to reach this place of self acceptance but I know I’ll get there slowly. My emotions don’t make me burdensome, they enrich my experience of life. It’s up to me to choose to see it that way.