#they placed a HEAVY emphasis on donation to the poor

[cath-lic]

i literally do not understand how prosperity gospel and evangelicals have gotten this far. like have u even LOOKED at the bible??? does luke 18:25 mean nothing to you?????

[dwellordream]

“Contemporary medical and religious theories held that women were less capable than men of understanding abstract concepts; women were more emotional and associated with the corporeal or physical, while men were more rational and associated with the spiritual. Therefore, women had information presented to them in ways that reflected their more emotional and less developed natures. One method was to emphasize learning as a submissive activity, such as the silent wife who learned from her more knowledgeable husband. In two courtesy texts written by men for urban women, the poem ‘‘How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter,’’ and a compendium of stories, advice, and moralities, The Book of the Knight of the Tower, parental figures dispense the advice, making the female listeners obedient and servile daughters with respect to the authoritative text.

Sermons set up a similar dynamic, with women passively listening to a cleric expound on Christian doctrine for the good of their souls. Not only were women supposed to be subservient to more knowledgeable and authoritative figures, their subservience should also include passivity and if not silence, at least measured speech. In the post-plague period, medieval society found women’s speech increasingly problematic. The rise of scolding and its attendant concern that women be quiet reflected post-plague desires to reinforce social and gender boundaries in this period of social mobility. Certain types of speech became a measure of gender conformity and status. If outright silence was impossible for secular women to achieve, then at least controlled speech was the ideal.

The poem ‘‘How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter’’ contains a great deal of advice about the speech and public conduct of both unmarried and married women. The mother tells her daughter that fair speech, mild manners, and true words and deeds will keep her from sin. When in public, at the market, church, or on the street, the girl is not to laugh loudly, be wild, or walk quickly down the street with her face up and shoulders back, ‘‘for such behavior comes to an evil end.’’ Once she is married, she is to turn these lessons to the treatment of her husband. She must answer her husband meekly, not be shrewish with him, ‘‘so that you calm his mood, and be his dear darling.’’ The clerical author of this poem clearly equated women’s bold behavior and loud speech with sin. Well-behaved women were to be quiet because silence was virtuous.

In contrast, young men who heard or read ‘‘How the Wiseman Taught His Son,’’ a similar courtesy text for boys, received no such deportment instructions nor were silence and passivity promoted as means of avoiding sin. For a boy, sin came from gambling, heavy drinking, arguing, lack of industry, and bearing false witness. While a girl’s presence in taverns and streets raised concerns, the boy’s did not. He was warned to avoid some forms of behavior associated with these places, but was not admonished to avoid them altogether. Moreover, he was instructed that the ideal wife was not rich, but ‘‘meek, courteous, and wise.’’ While modesty, silence, and humility characterized the demeanor of good Christian women, charity was the central action of a good Christian, man or woman. Charity included giving food and money to those in need, but also being in harmony with one’s neighbors and fellow Christians. 

Charity received a great deal of emphasis in late medieval Christian pedagogy, even if outright donations declined in the late Middle Ages as a consequence of increasing concerns about the unworthy poor. Contemporary concerns notwithstanding, the medieval imagination particularly linked women and charity. According to the Book of Proverbs, charity was among the qualities of a good wife: ‘‘She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hand to the needy’’ (31: 20). So important was charity that a wife did not have to consult her husband to dispense it, charity temporarily qualified women’s subservience to her husband. Thomas Aquinas argued that a wife could give charity without her husband’s permission, provided that she did not reduce the family to penury.

Because charity was an extension of good household management, lessons on the importance of giving charity focused on women’s household activities. The sermon for Sexagesima Sunday (second Sunday before Ash Wednesday) in the Ross Collection includes a story drawn from Jacques de Vitry that argues that managing a house put women in a good position to dispense charity. According to the story, a nobleman, who hated lepers and would not allow them near his house, went hunting. While he was away, a leper approached the man’s house. The nobleman’s wife, full of compassion, invited the leper in for food and drink. The leper insisted on first lying down in the nobleman’s bed. When the nobleman returned home tired from hunting, he went to rest. Upon entering the bedroom, he saw no leper, but rather smelled the sweet odor of sanctity. When his wife explained what had happened, he was so glad of her charity he turned over the management of his affairs to his pious wife.

Although other versions of this story focus on the sexual component of the story—lepers were believed to be especially lascivious—this version explicitly links household management to charity. When the wife prepared food for her husband, she also prepared food for the poor and hungry who passed by her door. Once her husband turned over his affairs to her, she had even greater opportunities for charity. Fundamental to Christian charity were the seven works of mercy. These consist of welcoming strangers (receiving the poor), giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, visiting the sick, comforting the imprisoned, and burying the dead. They grew out of Jesus’ teachings on the Last Judgment and the conditions for salvation.

In accordance with the Gospel of Mathew (25: 35–45), medieval preachers taught that those who performed these acts would inherit the Kingdom of God. The seven works appear individually in many exempla, including the one just discussed, but they are also discussed collectively, such as in the longer of Mirk’s two sermons for the Feast of the Assumption. Mirk first explains that Martha, who prepared food while Jesus preached to her sister Mary, embodied the seven works of mercy (Luke 10: 38–42). Mary represented the contemplative life, the life of monastic men and women who had given up worldly concerns for a life of reading, praying, writing, and contemplation. Martha symbolized the active life, those involved in the business of the world. The world was fraught with temptation, but there was work that should be done for God’s sake. 

Mirk specifically connected the active life to the seven works of mercy: By these two sisters, holy church understands that there are two manners of living, one is active, the other is contemplative. Active in business of the world you may not be without trouble and great business. But it shall be done only for God’s sake, that many may receive the poor, and give to those in need of food, drink, clothing, shelter and help for the sick and succor to those in prison and burial of the dead. This is what is understood by Martha. Late medieval theologians saw the active life not as a rejection of the monastic world, but as an alternate way to please God. The mendicant orders and the religious laity associated with them lived this active religious life. The Dominican constitutions stated that manual labor kept laziness and leisure away, a dangerous state that led to other sins such as gluttony and sexual excitement. Dominican penitent women, such as Catherine of Siena, performed housework and charity as religious acts.

Judy Ford has argued that Mirk shaped his sermons to address the crises England faced in the 1380s. He wrote after the Rising of 1381 and in the face of Lollardy’s growing popularity. His sermons, therefore, tried to provide parishioners with alternatives to rebellion and heresy by making their own circumstances religiously meaningful. Most women hearing his sermons could not have chosen monasticism, but would have remained housewives in the world. The example of Martha thus gave religious significance to their daily activities as housewives. Mirk’s discussion of Mary and Martha provide background for his central discussion of the Virgin Mary on the feast of her Assumption. Mirk argued that the Virgin lived both an active and contemplative life. When the Virgin Mary carried Jesus in her womb, fed him and nursed him, clothed him, comforted him when he was sick, visited him while he was on the cross, and helped to bury him when he had died, she performed the seven works of mercy. She also lived the contemplative life in attending to Jesus’ teachings, thinking about them after his death and resurrection, and, according to medieval legend, teaching the gospel writer St. Luke.

In comparing the Virgin to the two sisters Mary and Martha, Mirk explained that the Virgin Mary was ‘‘the first Martha.’’ Preachers such as Mirk did not intend Mary and Martha to represent women per se, but to promote Christian behavior and values in both men and women. Yet through his comparison of Martha and the Virgin, Mirk implicitly directed medieval parishioners to understand the works of mercy in terms of the experiences of women. It was Martha’s food preparation and Mary’s mothering, both tasks intimately associated with women, that enacted the works. The sermon directed audiences to understand that the tasks and cares of motherhood and household responsibilities could be transformed into the seven works of mercy. In the courtesy book, The Book of the Knight of the Tower, the knight explicitly tells his daughters to emulate Martha, ‘‘Every good woman ought to take her (Martha’s) good example of how it is good to give shelter and feed the servants of God, that is to say the preachers and those who preach the faith and discern good from evil, also the pilgrims and the poor people of God.’’

Promotion of charity as a behavior for women was not without its dangers. The woman who took in the leper defied her husband, decided on the disposition of family resources without consulting him, and threatened her own chastity. Such behavior directly challenged the values and ideals of urban households. Moreover, talking to strangers, visiting prisons and the sick, and touching strangers further compromised the lessons on deportment, passivity, and humility that didactic texts also taught. Murals of the seven works of mercy found in parish churches across Britain explore this tension, and attempt to bring the lessons of charity for women into line with contemporary thinking on the correct behavior for women. Images were an important part of a parish church and central to medieval religious practice. As we have seen, parishioners dressed statues of the saint and carried them in processions. The laity also decorated chapels dedicated to the saints with scenes from their lives. Theologians taught that images aided memory and inspired religious commitment, because viewers would identify with the scenes they were observing. 

The author of the fifteenth-century didactic text Dives and Pauper explained that  [Images] serve three purposes. They move men’s minds to think of Christ’s incarnation and of his passion and of holy saints’ lives. Also they stir man’s affection and his heart to devotion for often man is more moved by sight than hearing and reading. Also they are a token and a book to the lewd people, that they might read in the imagery and painting what the clerks read in books. Parish churches offered many surfaces for adornment. As part of their mandate to maintain the nave, the laity covered the nave walls with paintings and filled windows with stained glass. As perpendicular gothic became the preferred architectural style in the fifteenth century, windows became more prominent and images filled the newly enlarged windows, while smaller decorative paintings and depictions of individual saints filled in between the windows.

The relative cost of wall paintings and windows may have made wall paintings more common than stained-glass windows in most parish churches. Skilled glaziers generally lived in urbanized centers, such as York or London, so importing artisans added to the cost of outfitting a church with windows. Complete glazing schemes were rare even in the late Middle Ages. Poor communities could only have afforded leaded glass with occasional bits of color rather than elaborately painted scenes. Windows also broke easily and many an original artistic program disappeared long before the Reformation. Those that did survive suffered extensively in the hands of reformers. Surviving windows, however, show that they had greater diversity of subjects than wall paintings. Although the laity by and large determined what images would adorn the walls of the nave and fill the windows, they received advice from clerics and the artists, and drew inspiration from sermons and saints’ lives. 

The subject matter of British parish wall paintings and stained-glass windows fall into seven obvious categories: lives of the saints, Last Judgments, biblical scenes, liturgical scenes, decorative and heraldic images, and moralities, such as the seven works of mercy and the seven deadly sins. Usually a Last Judgment scene, called a doom, covered the chancel arch facing the congregation in the nave. St. Christopher typically appeared on the wall opposite the door, often accompanied by St. George, the patron saint of England. Many believed that seeing St. Christopher would protect one from harm the rest of the day. His placement opposite the door facilitated a quick peek at him, without entering the church. Most parish churches also had a Marian Chapel or Lady Altar, often at the east end of the north aisle, decorated with scenes from her life in windows and wall paintings. 

For the laity, images in wall paintings and glass were both explanatory and didactic. The choices that individuals and groups made when they commissioned art for walls and windows reveal that they connected them to their religious interests. In the parish church of Yatton, Somerset, the parishioners instructed their wardens to hire someone to paint a picture of the Virgin Mary. Support for this project appears widespread among both men and women in the parish. When the wardens added a picture of St. Christopher, the parishioners balked. The wardens had to reimburse the parish the cost of the second painting, and the painter had to repaint it. Hoping to influence future parishioners, William Wytteney of the Bristol parish of All Saints’ left £18 for an image of the Dance of Death ‘‘so that every man should remember his own death.’’

Patrons, whether individuals or groups, thought about the composition, location, and meaning of their donations. David Park has observed that pictorial depictions of moralities, such as the good works, the seven deadly sins, and the warning to gossips, appear more often in churches than in manuscripts. While manuscripts were typically directed at individuals, hundreds of people saw wall paintings and windows, which gave them a larger didactic role in communal life. Wall paintings and windows of the seven works of mercy portray both men and women as charity givers, however, comparing differences in representations of the seven works reveals that many surviving images were directed specifically at women. Although the clergy preached that both men and women should practice the seven works, visual renderings presented this lesson in particularly gendered ways. Some versions explicitly tie the seven works to women’s work around the house so that charity would not lead women into sinful situations. 

These images show that modesty and courtesy, so much a part of the vision of piety promoted by urban conduct literature, was not limited to urban audiences who had greater access to them. These virtues were a part of a broader conception of women’s piety in late medieval England. The survival of parish wall paintings is generally a matter of luck. Mariam Gill has identified thirty-nine paintings with the seven works of mercy theme. She has identified the sex of the charity givers in twenty-six of them: ten are of women, ten are of men, and six have both men and women performing the labors. These images are not unusual or regional. They come from twenty-two different British counties. A variety of conventions informed decisions about which sex the charity worker in the paintings should be. 

Latin grammar dictated that the personification of charity should be a woman. As we have also seen, the Book of Proverbs listed charity among the qualities of a good wife. However, the willingness of artists to substitute men for some or all of the works in many versions suggests artists had either lost this knowledge or were responding to local concerns and the personal preferences of those commissioning the painting. The female figures in the partially destroyed mural at Potter Heigham, Norfolk, all wear the same veil and clothing, suggesting it is the same woman, possibly the donor of the painting. Similarly, the male charity giver in the widow at All Saints’, North Street, in York has the same bushy white beard. Some versions made an explicit statement to viewers about the relationship between charity and gender roles.

At Moulton St. Mary and Wickhampton, both in Norfolk, the female figures wear different headdresses and clothing denoting different ages or marital status. They correspond to the three ages of women: maiden, wife, and widow. Gill suggests that this variation was ‘‘a deliberate attempt to promote charitable behaviour by women, not simply through the presentation of a female personification, but through a scheme that demonstrated the appropriateness of charity to every stage of a woman’s life.’’ Use of the ages of women motif directs these paintings particularly to a female audience, because men and women had different ideal life cycles. Although male figures might be called to represent humanity, female figures did not play this role. The ages of women motif did not represent the human life cycle, but the female one.

Paintings with both male and female charity givers make the most obvious statements about gender because the artist or patron assigned certain works to men and others to women. At issue was how to promote charity among women without inadvertently promoting inappropriate behavior. Suggesting that women go out in public and talk and touch strangers directly challenged the lessons that instructed women to be meek and modest. Variations in the assignment of the works show different solutions to this problem. One of the best-preserved paintings of the seven works of mercy is in Trotton, Sussex. Financed by Sir Thomas Camoys (d. 1421), the elaborate murals include morality scenes, depictions of various family members, and several coats-of-arms. The family images emphasized both lineage and family connections. It is on the east wall opposite the door used by the Camoys family to enter the church. The morality scenes, located on the west wall opposite the door the villagers used, promoted Christian behavior among the parishioners.

Women perform all the works except for welcoming of strangers. With the exception of those visiting prisoners, the figures are in half-timbered houses. This arrangement of the figures provides a very specific context for the acts of mercy. The houses frame and protect the female figures, encouraging the viewer to understand the works as an extension of women’s housework and the house as the locus of women’s work. They make a statement about the kind of behavior and movement to which women should aspire. Women could give charity while remaining safely and respectably at home. The details of Trotton’s painting share the sentiments of the poem, ‘‘How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter.’’ The poem admonishes women to avoid talking to strangers: Acquaint yourself not with each man that goes along the street; If any man speak to you; Swiftly greet him And let him go by the way: do not stand by him. According to this poem, it was inappropriate for a woman to talk to strangers. The poem also stresses houses and the work done in them are the proper and respectable place for women’s activities. 

Go not to wrestling, nor to shooting at cock, As if you were a strumpet or a wanton woman: Stay at home, daughter, and love your work much . . . The Trotton painting makes a connection between women’s deportment and piety similar to that in sermons and conduct literature. In the version of the seven works of mercy found at Wickhampton, Norfolk, the artist or patron gendered the works differently than the Trotton painting. Women perform all the works save burying the dead. A priest, a clerk, and a man stand over a shrouded body. In most parishes, the sexton or clerk, a male employee of the parish, buried the dead, making it a work of mercy easily associated with men. In order to reconcile women’s work with burying the dead, the Trotton painting depicts a different moment in the preparation of the dead. Although blurred, the image depicts two or three women surrounding a body. In the middle stands a priest sprinkling holy water with his asperges. This scene depicts women’s traditional responsibility for caring for the dead body, sewing it into a shroud, and readying it for burial. 

The badly preserved version of the seven works at Hardwick, Cambridgeshire, presents yet another alternative. It shows a group of women walking to a funeral, another appropriate way for women to bury the dead. In the now-destroyed mural at Ruabon, Clwyd, Wales, men perform all the works except providing drink. Instead, a woman offers a man a covered tankard. This image juxtaposes a man giving away a coin with a woman giving away drink, making the traditional association of women with brewing and reflecting the economic reality that men had greater access to cash. The paintings at Trotton and Hardwick show women with flagons as well. These charitable alewives have a counterpart in the popular stereotype of the fraudulent and lascivious alewife. Such an alewife appears in the Doom wall paintings at St. Thomas’s, Salisbury, and Holy Trinity, Coventry, where demons carry them off to hell. By choosing to depict an alewife giving charity, the Ruabon painting specifically included women in its audience. 

…The delegation of different works of mercy to different sexes acknowledges the threat that giving charity could pose to women’s virtue. The images deflect this challenge by embedding the seven works in women’s prescribed housekeeping activities. The paintings with both male and female charity givers pay particular attention to the physical location of women’s charity. The women of the Hardwick mural bury the dead in the company of other women by going to a funeral; the husband in the Combs window protects his wife from direct interaction with strangers. Pictures of women performing the seven works of mercy, therefore, express a more intimate connection between women’s work and piety than those pictures of men doing the same actions. Women do not have to seek out charity; charitable opportunities will come to them while they observed proper behavior. 

When artists portrayed men performing the works, they stand out in greater relief from their daily labors as acts of religious charity. Men had to seek out charitable opportunities. These paintings, like the instructions for a pious layman that opened this chapter, all connect women’s piety or charity to housekeeping, but they locate that piety at home. Men can more readily leave their houses to seek out pious actions. The paintings and windows, like the sermons and conduct literature, acknowledge a specifically gendered understanding of spiritual practices operating within late medieval life. These images seem to conform to clerical and male expectations for women’s behavior. They also reflect an idealized vision of the household where women were always home and ready to meet the needs of those who come to them. We should not assume, however, that all who saw them necessarily interpreted them in the same way priests intended. 

The charitable alewife in the Ruabon mural points to the economic and labor opportunities and obligations of most women. The sick person tended by a female figure at Trotton could be a paying lodger. Women may have passed prisoners in either jails, as in the Trotton image, or stocks as at Wickhampton on their way to and from the market. Most women worked at a variety of occupations to help support their families or themselves. Although much of this work did grow out of their domestic labors, it did not keep them at home or away from interactions with strangers. Women viewing these paintings could see them as reflections of a more varied work life than that endorsed by sermons and conduct literature. These paintings are thus ambiguous enough to allow for a number of possible interpretations. 

Because the emphasis of medieval Christian education was on behavior, people living in the late Middle Ages assumed men and women would receive different lessons on Christian piety. Sermons, didactic works, and wall paintings all employed pedagogies designed specifically to reach women. They used examples from women’s daily life to explain theological concepts and employed female role models to exemplify female Christian behavior. By promoting the biblical image of the charitable housewife, preachers affirmed the connections women made between their obligations to their families and housekeeping, and their piety. Yet these messages were not without their dangers. Encouraging charity and promoting the seven works of mercy potentially undermined the expectation that women would remain close to home and avoid strangers. These lessons of charitable behavior needed to be reconfigured so they matched contemporary social norms.”

- Katherine L. French, “A Cross Out of Bread Crumbs: Women’s Piety and Impiety.” in The Good Women of the Parish: Gender and Religion After the Black Death

[sartorialadventure]

1. Akha hilltribe girl, Chiang Mai flower festival, Thailand by Steve Vidler 2. Pamee Akha woman with traditional headdress with silver coins, Thailand by Jim Goodman 3. Akha woman of Laos 4. Tachilek Akha 5. Akha girl in Laos 6. Akha woman and child, Thailand 7.  That Xieng Tung Festival, Muang Sing, Laos. Akha young girls in the welcoming committee. On their arrival, visitors will have a color ribbon pinned to their blouse in exchange for a donation.

The Akha are an indigenous hill tribe who live in small villages at higher elevations in the mountains of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Yunnan Province in China. They made their way from China into Southeast Asia during the early 20th century. Civil war in Burma and Laos resulted in an increased flow of Akha immigrants and there are now some 80,000 living in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, where they constitute one of the largest of the hill tribes. Many of their villages can be visited by tourists on trekking tours from either of these cities.

Due to rapid social and economic changes in the regions the Akha inhabit, particularly the introduction of Western modes of capitalism, attempts to continue many of the traditional aspects of Akha life are increasingly difficult. Despite these challenges, Akha people practice many elements of their traditional culture with much success.

The Akha people are often noted for their very recognizable sartorial practices. Akha women spin cotton into thread with a hand spindle and weave it on a foot-treadle loom. The cloth is hand dyed with indigo. Women wear broad leggings, a short black skirt with a white beaded sporran, a loose fitting black jacket with heavily embroidered cuffs and lapels. Akha women are known for their embroidery skills. While traditional clothes are typically worn for special ceremonies, one is more likely to see Akha villagers in full traditional garb in areas that have heavy volumes of tourists, particularly in Thailand.

The headdresses worn by the women are perhaps the most spectacular and elaborate items of Akha dress. Akha women define their age or marital status with the style of headdress worn. At roughly age 12, the Akha female exchanges her child's cap for that of a girl. A few years later she will begin to don the jejaw, the beaded sash that hangs down the front of her skirt and keeps it from flying up in the breeze. During mid-adolescence she will start wearing the adult woman's headdress. Headdresses are decorated by their owner and each is unique. Silver coins, monkey fur, and dyed chicken feathers are just a few of the things that might decorate the headdress. The headdresses differ by subgroup.

According to an article about the variations in Akha headdress, "High Fashion, Hill Style", the

"Ulo Akha headdress consists of a bamboo cone, covered in beads, silver studs and seeds, edged in coins (silver rupees for the rich, baht for the poor) topped by several dangling chicken feather tassels and maybe a woolen pom-pom. The Pamee Akha wear a trapezoidal colt cap covered in silver studs with coins on the beaded side flaps and long chains of linked silver rings hanging down each side. The Lomi Akha wear a round cap covered in silver studs and framed by silver balls, coins and pendants and the married women attach a trapezoidal inscribed plate at the back."

^Myanmar (Her teeth have been intentionally dyed black, a relatively common practice in parts of east and southeast Asia. The lacquer used prevents tooth decay.)

^Laos

^Laos

^Thailand

^Thailand

^ Ban Mae Chan Tai, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand

Akha society lacks a strict system of social class and is considered egalitarian. Respect is typically accorded with age and experience. Ties of patrilineal kinship and marriage alliance bind the Akha within and between communities. Village structures may vary widely from the strictly traditional to Westernized, depending on their proximity to modern towns. Like many of the hill tribes, the Akha build their villages at higher elevations in the mountains.

Akha dwellings are traditionally constructed of logs, bamboo, and thatch and are of two types: "low houses", built on the ground, and "high houses", built on stilts. The semi-nomadic Akha, at least those who have not been moved to permanent village sites, typically do not build their houses as permanent residences and will often move their villages. Some say that this gives the dwellings a deceptively fragile and flimsy appearance, although they are quite well-built as proved over generations.

Entrances to all Akha villages are fitted with a wooden gate adorned with elaborate carvings on both sides depicting imagery of men and women. It is known as a "spirit gate". It marks the division between the inside of the village, the domain of man and domesticated animals, and the outside, the realm of spirits and wildlife. The gates function to ward off evil spirits and to entice favorable ones. Carvings can be seen on the roofs of the villager's houses as a second measure to control the flow of spirits.

The traditional form of subsistence for the Akha people has been, and remains, agriculture. The Akha grow a variety of crops including soybeans and vegetables. Rice is the most significant crop and is prominent in much of Akha culture and ritual. Most Akha plant dry-land rice, which depends solely on rainfall for moisture, but in some villages irrigation has been built to water paddy fields. Historically, some Akha villages cultivated opium, but production diminished after the Thai government banned its cultivation.

The Akha have traditionally employed slash and burn agriculture, in which new fields are cleared by burning or cutting down forests and woodlands. In such a system, there is usually no market for land. Rights to land are considered traditional and established over many generations. This type of agriculture has contributed to the Akha's semi-nomadic status as villages move to clear new farmland with each successive burn cycle. The Thai government has forbidden this practice, citing its detrimental effects on the environment. The Akha have adapted to new types of subsistence farming, but the quality of their land has suffered as they are no longer allowed to expand onto new plots. In many cases, chemical fertilizers are the only option for re-fertilizing the land.

Akha religion — zahv — is often described as a mixture of animism and ancestor worship that emphasizes the Akha connection with the land and their place in the natural world and cycles. Although Akha beliefs and rituals involve all of these elements, the Akha often reject the casual categorization of their practices as such saying it simplifies and reduces its meaning. The Akha way emphasizes rituals in everyday life and stresses strong family ties. Akha ethnicity is closely tied to the Akha religion. It might be said that to be considered an Akha ethnically by other Akhas is to practice the Akha religion.

The Akha put a heavy emphasis on genealogy. An important tradition involves the recounting by Akha males of their patrilineal genealogy. During the most important ceremonies the list is recited in its entirety back over 50 generations to the first Akha, Sm Mi O. It is said that all Akha males should be able to do so. The recounting of this lineage plays a role in the incest taboo: If a male and female Akha find a common male ancestor within their last six generations, they are not allowed to marry.

Rights, issues, and activism

Being an ethnic minority with little easily accessible legal recourse, Akha everywhere have long been subject to rights abuses.

Perhaps the most important issue facing the Akha pertains to their land. The Akha relationship to land is vitally connected to the continuation of the Akha culture, but they rarely have "official" or state-sanctioned land rights or claims to their land as land rights are considered traditional. These conceptions of land are at odds with those held by the nation states whose land the Akha now occupy. Most Akha are not full-fledged citizens of the country they inhabit and are thus not allowed to legally purchase land, although most Akha villagers are too poor to even consider purchasing land.

It has been reported by rights groups that several land seizures of Akha land have been undertaken in the name of the Queen of Thailand. Originally a semi-nomadic people, the Akha are often relocated by the presiding national government to permanent villages, after which the government allegedly sells to logging companies and other private corporations access to lands formerly occupied by the Akha. The land onto which the Akha are displaced is almost always less fertile than their previous plots. On their new lands, the Akha can rarely produce enough food to sustain themselves and are often forced to leave and seek employment outside the villages, thus disrupting their traditional culture and economy.

In Thailand, laws have been passed that curb people's rights to the forest, including the 2007 Community Forest Act. According to the network of indigenous peoples in Thailand,

"These laws and resolutions have had severe impacts on indigenous peoples' rights to residence and land. Under these laws and resolutions millions of hectares of land have been declared as reserved and conservation forests, or protected areas. Today, 28.78% of Thailand is categorized as protected areas. As a result, thousands of farmers previously living in the forest or relying on the forest for their livelihood have been arrested and imprisoned and their lands seized. Cases have been filed against them for the so-called encroachment on government land."

Despite having signed and ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Thai government has not changed laws to adhere to those recommendations emphasizing respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and their full and effective participation in protected areas management and policy-making.

The reasons given for Akha relocations vary, but a common response on the part of the Thai government is to cite a concern for the preservation of forests and the promotion of more sustainable agricultural techniques than the slash and burn agriculture traditionally used by the Akha.

Despite their numbers, the Akha are the poorest of all the hill tribes. As roads bring accessibility and tourists, they provide relief from the poverty of village life, especially for the younger generations who increasingly find themselves engaged in labor outside the villages. Many villages report a population decrease as many leave to find work in the cities, often for very long periods. Many Akha complain that the younger generations are becoming increasingly less interested in traditional culture and ways and more and more susceptible to outside, mainstream, cultural influences. According to one author, where the village squares were once "filled with the sounds of courtship songs", radios are now more likely to play pop hits.

As it becomes increasingly difficult to remain self-sufficient through agriculture, and as roads open up the villages to the cities, the Akha must contend with the sometimes corrosive effects of the tourist industry. Not all Akha are happy to let tourists come in and observe village life.

Many Akha complain of the missionaries that come to the villages to convert them, sometimes forcibly, to Christianity. Many Akha feel that the missionaries generalize about, or in this particular case, "paganize" the Akha traditional belief system, demeaning their longstanding beliefs. Some of the claims made against missionaries include the kidnapping of Akha children into orphanages and forced labor, the sterilization of Akha women and the forced or underpaid labor of Akha on farms. Many rights groups make the claim that the money spent by missionaries on building churches and furthering Christian education could be better spent on helping the Akha with medical and sanitation improvements that are greatly needed in most villages.

[djsinquarantine]

Subset “40 Hour Workweek”, By Team Awesome

Basic Details: Subset’s 40 Hour Workweek - https://www.twitch.tv/subsetgetsit/ . Stream began at 12pm EST 5/26. Based on info from the website, the stream is recurring over 4 days (5/25 - 5/29) with various activities and events along with daily themes. Some of the links we found through the stream:

https://thenew9to5.live/40hww

https://www.markwoodyard.com/

Visual Experience: Geometric visuals serve as the background while a DJ performs in a frame in the middle or off to the side. The futuristic graphics shift in color and shape in a loop. The stream also makes use of transparent gifs as live visuals. A cutout of a man twirling fire and juggling is looping around the footage of the DJ performer. As songs accelerate, the background visuals become much more dynamic, mirroring the pace of the music.

The DJ, Mark Woodyard, performs in a bedroom, his DJ setup is out of view in front of him. Strapped around his neck, an electric guitar, and to his right, a mic stand that he will reach for every so often to add vocal looping and some singing to his mix. His amp, bed, and tapestry are in view, a non-traditional and bohemian performance space (and setup!), indeed. As he was performing, he revealed that he was streaming live from Canada, from the Vancouver area. In the top left corner, an artist is painting a mural / portrait live. Their Instagram handle also appears below for people to follow. This livestream makes use of nearly all of the space in the frame, while remaining visually engaging. How a stream makes use of their frame would be super interesting to compare. Below the frame, the streamer's information reveals that Subset is a collective based in Seattle. Not only do they host music streams, but craft and skill workshops as well. Performers, moderators, and participants, so far, seem to be mostly white and male. Participants in the Zoom Dance Workshop included three white women and two women of color.

Sonic Experience: I tuned it at 6pm, the start of Mark Woodyard, aka Mikey’s set. Before Mikey, another dj (who I believe is the leader of Subset) was djing house music while a recording of a woman in a pink cowboy costume dancing played over the geometric visuals in the center--the dj cam was much smaller and filled up only a small portion of the lower left corner. Mikey incorporated a DJ setup alongside an electric guitar and added vocal effects/singing in the mix. Mikey is very animated when he performs — he dances, jumps, makes hand gestures as he dances and sings, and looks into his camera (as if he is looking at the audience) making his set all the more effectual. He also made various facial and hand expressions that at times seemed purposefully humorous. He seamlessly transitioned between his tracks and his announcements with vocal tracks manipulated with heavy reverb. He sang about plugging his social media accounts with rich vocal harmonies that, in some instances, doubled the guitar lines.

He plays sort of Calypso and reggae music, as well as pretty loop-heavy contemporary house music with funk influences, definitely with an emphasis on dance. In his set, he has also included remixes of songs by popular artists, including a Bob Marley song and MIA's paper planes. On his website, he is referred to as a “human jukebox,” because he created genre-bending covers that showcase his vocal range and eclectic style across many eras and styles.

Mikey had an hour long set from 6 to 7, and passed it off after one more track that incorporates elements of Acid house with squelching sounds and deep basslines.

Between sets, Subset employs a segment called "Music Roulette" where a guest will come on and play clips of songs they love/are influenced by, and they provide a personal and historical narrative and anecdotes on the song. This segment so far, has taken up 30 minutes of the stream. Viewership noticeably dropped from around 170 to 123 during this time and there was significantly less activity in the chat.

Technology: A lot of his mixes incorporate a very bright and jangly guitar loop of his own making. The guitar Mikey was playing was a Fender Jazzmaster which is popular among jazz guitarists and definitely fit the jazzy/funky style that Mikey was playing. It comes equipped with extra knobs and switches which give the player much more control over the sound of the instrument as opposed to something more straightforward like the Stratocaster which only comes with 2 tone knobs and 1 volume knob. The guitar was connected to his DJ mixing equipment, which allowed him to play short riffs that he could then loop. 

Sound Quality: The sound seems to be very clear and balanced. The sound quality suggests that the equipment must be connected to the computer as an input, rather than it being filtered through a computer microphone. The sound has only cut once due to connectivity, and has otherwise been playing without delay, glitches, or disrupted because of streamer's poor connection.

Social Experience: Below the stream frame, Subset included a link to a breakout Zoom chat room where audience members could engage with other participants through webcams and mics, allowing there to be an enhanced element of liveness through “face-to-face” communication about a momentary event. The Zoom was also used for a live dance workshop from 4 to 5 pm PST, where we first did some cardio exercise and stretching to the beat of a funky house track, then learned a jazz and hip hop fusion dance from a professional dancer from the Seattle area who had extensive experience teaching through Zoom since the lockdown. We also discussed wellness at home through the endorphins of physical activity and had a guided meditation.Given the different segments, the event had a very ‘tv-like’ feel to it giving the impression that a lot was going on today at different times (zoom dance workshop, dj livestream, and music roulette). As far as chat activity goes, it was fairly active with positive reception towards Mickey’s music and the art in the top left corner among other things. People were tuning in from Vegas, Seattle, and Connecticut among other places. Some interaction between chatters as well, such as a couple making jokes about smoking weed. 

Money / Donations: Donations to subset are being encouraged. There is a graphic with their Venmo information in the bottom left corner, @subsetgetsit. Donations and promotion for performers are also being encouraged, with their Venmo and Instagram handles in the bottom right corner.

Every so often, the bot @StreamElements will post in the chat encouraging viewers to donate to Subset through the Venmo link. They also included a separate PayPal link not found anywhere else on the screen. The bot automatically notified the chat whenever someone subscribed to the channel and also periodically reminded viewers to tune in to other events throughout the week. The bot also had certain commands that chat users could use to get information on the stream such as ‘!schedule’ which caused the bot to respond with the week’s stream schedule.

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[judgestarling]

Driving Professor Sydney Brenner

One of my scientific idols, Sydney Brenner (1927–2019), who helped determine the nature of the genetic code—he discovered two termination codons—who co-discovered mRNA, and who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2002 for deciphering the sequence of events leading to the development of a multicellular organism from a fertilized egg into an adult nematode, died on April 5, 2019. He was 92. In my only face-to-face (actually face-to-back) conversation with him, many years ago, I told him that his cigarettes will kill him. And, indeed, they did… at 92.

I met Professor Brenner in 2002 when he was awarded the Dan David Prize in Israel, had a brief correspondence with him via email in 2013, and throughout my entire scientific life, I devoured his papers and commentaries.

The Dan David Prize is a weird institution. It is governed by my former employer, Tel Aviv University, and the Dan David Foundation, a somewhat secretive private charity that supports a variety of academic causes, with a heavy emphasis on archeology. Every year the Dan David Prize grants three awards of $1 million each for outstanding achievements in three categories: Past, Present, and Future. Each year, an academic committee decides the specific topics for each of the categories to be recognized the following year. (The selected fields for 2019, for instance, were Past: Macrohistory, Present: Defending Democracy, and Future: Combating Climate Change).

Prize laureates have to donate 10% of their prize money to doctoral scholarships for outstanding Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholarships for outstanding researchers in their own field from Israel and around the world.

The first awards ceremony took place at Tel Aviv University on May 2002. The theme for the first Future prize was Life Sciences and the prize was split among three laureates: Sydney Brenner, John Sulston, Robert Waterston. (Seven month later, in December 2002, we learned that that Brenner and Sulston were awarded the Nobel Prize together with H. Robert Horvitz for “for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.”)

As expected, the novelty of the million-dollar prizes attracted a lot of attention from the Israeli press. Most of the journalists, however, focused on John Sulston, who had the courage to insist that some scholarships be awarded to Palestinian scholars.  

In 2002, I was the “Gordon Professor of Life Sciences” at Tel Aviv University—a grand title accompanied by no endowment—but in May 2002, for two days, I had an even more impressive title, I was Sydney Brenner’s chauffeur. His assigned chauffeur for the series of lectures and ceremonies simply stood him up, and I volunteered to drive him from the hotel to the University for his scientific lecture to faculty and students. Professor Brenner was not very impressed with my miniature Honda, but he was happy that I did not raised any objections to his chain smoking in my car. My ride with him constituted the first and last time that I enjoyed the traffic congestion in Tel Aviv, as it meant having a long conversation with Prof. Brenner.

Brenner first asked me if I knew Francis Crick. I told him that Crick was a scientific hero of mine, but that I think that his “reverse learning theory of dreams” was an unworthy detour. 

“That’s what I think too,” he replied, “but since Crick was always right in the past, I’ll withhold judgement. People didn’t believe his tRNA, his selfish DNA, and his Central Dogma, but he was always right. I have the nagging feeling that his theory on dreams will also turn out to be true” (1).

“And what about Jim Watson,” I asked.

“Don’t want to talk about that racist arse,” was his quick reply.

When we arrived at the place where he was supposed to give his first talk, I asked him about the slides. 

“I’ll be careful,” I said, “I promise not to drop the slide tray.”

“What slides?” he muttered and rushed to the podium.

He then proceeded to deliver one of the most fascinating lectures I’ve ever listened to. No slides, no notes, just a stream of consciousness by a feverish brilliant mind, who demolished every logical distortion, every sign of mental laziness, and every methodological shortcut.

Genomics? “Enormous factories for generating billions of data points that are a poor substitute for thinking.”

All other -omics? “Forget about them. It’s biochemistry, stupid.”

Universities? “Places where students can Xerox themselves to death” (2)

The human genome project? “A billion-dollar generator of junk-DNA sequences.”

He then proceeded to tell us how he reached the conclusion that sequencing the human genome in its entirety is not the only way to gain insight into the workings of human genetics.

It was the middle 1980s and several people, including Robert Sinsheimer and Renato Dulbecco started pushing for the establishment of a mega project to sequence the human genome. Given the speed of the sequencing technology at the time, a major stumbling block was finding people who would be willing to do such a seemingly boring and tedious task as sequencing the genome. Walter Gilbert advocated a large center, highly integrated, and organized along industrial lines. Sydney Brenner half-jokingly suggested establishing “a penal colony where sentences consisting of large-scale sequencing projects would be carried out.” 

The prospect of becoming involved in an industrial project did not appeal to Brenner. There must be a way to get results without sequencing every piece of junk in the human genome. He came up with two alternatives: sequencing the human exome, i.e., about the 1% of the human genome that was known to perform a selected-effect function, or find a Readers Digest version of the human genome that could be sequenced faster and more cheaply than the human genome, yet would be as scientifically meaningful and rewarding.

Someone—Sydney Brenner did not remember whom—suggested he look into a paper published in the late 1960s in American Naturalist.

“What, I’ll find my answer in a nudie magazine?” said Brenner, playing on the difference between “naturalist” and “naturist.”

And there it was, in a paper by Ralph Hinegardner (Evolution of cellular DNA content in teleost fishes. 1968. Am. Nat. 102:517-523) at the end of Table 1: Tetraodon fluviatilis (green pufferfish) with 0.40 picograms DNA. 

A congeneric species with a smaller genome was subsequently found, Tetraodon nigroviridis (green spotted pufferfish) with 0.35 picograms. For reasons that most probably concerned availability of tissues, Brenner’s choice was another pufferfish, the famous, poisonous, and exorbitantly expensive Japanese delicacy, the fugu (Fugu rubripes) (3). 

In 1993, he reported the initial characterization of the fugu genome (Brenner S, Elgar G, Sanford R, Macrae A, Venkatesh B, Aparicio S. 1993. Characterization of the pufferfish (Fugu) genome as a compact model vertebrate genome. Nature 366:265–268). He found that the fugu haploid genome was 7.5 times smaller than the human genome of which more that 90% was unique. The fugu genome had a similar gene repertoire as the human genome, and according to Brenner and colleagues, “it is the best model genome for the discovery of human genes.”   

Sadly, his suggestion to completely sequence Fugu and only sequence the human exome did not convince the granting agencies, which at this point in time were desperate to find the next “moonshot,” the next big project, that could be sold to the masses as a cure-all for all humanity’s ailments (4). 

A partial fugu genome was published in 2002 with Sydney Brenner as the last author one year after the publication of the human genome. The genome of Tetraodon nigroviridis was published in 2004, three years after the first draft of the human genome. Brenner was not an author on this paper.

After Brenner’s lecture in 2002, I started reading everything Professor Brenner had ever written… with one exception—a seventy-four page methodology paper (Barnett L, Brenner S, Crick FHC, Shulman RG, Watts-Tobin RJ. 1967. Phase-shift and other mutants in the first part of the rII B cistron of bacteriophage T4. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 252:487-560) that Francis Crick predicted no one will read. As far as I am concerned, Crick was right again.

The second time I communicated with Prof. Brenner was eleven years later.

In 2013, as I was fighting the obscene conclusions by the equally obscene ENCODE Project, I discovered that the accepted historical narrative according to which the term “junk DNA” was coined in 1972 by Susumu Ohno as part of his work on the role of gene and genome duplication was inaccurate (see here). The term was used in the literature at least 12 years before Ohno used it. The trail of clues led me to Cambridge in the late 1950s, and following a suggestion by Tim Hunt, another Nobel Prize Laureate, who used the term “junk DNA” independently of Ohno, I contacted Dr. Brenner.

Dr. Brenner was very generous in his answer

October 7, 2013

Dear Dr. Graur

I can confirm that we were using the idea of junk in the genome in the sixties in Cambridge. Indeed in the late fifties we were very much concerned with this big puzzle: Analyses of the nucleotide composition of bacteria showed that the ratios of AT to GC varied in different bacteria from 1:3 to 3:1, whereas the composition of ribosomal RNA (which we thought at the time was the information intermediate) was constant. One possibility was that the coding information only occupied a small fraction of the DNA the rest being junk. [Noboru] Sueoka killed this idea when he showed that the composition of the DNA could be measured by equilibrium sedimentation and that when he sheared the DNA to smaller sizes separation of two kinds of DNA did not occur and the composition was maintained down to small pieces. It was the discovery of messenger and understanding the degeneracy of the code that solved this problem.

All through the sixties we were concerned with the problem of the C paradox in higher organisms. DNA contents varied over enormous amounts which had no relation to biological properties. The development of  CoT analysis by Roy Britten revealed that this could be explained by the fact that "single copy" DNA represented only a minor fraction of the DNA and that large and variable fractions could be represented by repetitive DNA with different annealing rates.

We also had to contend with the fact that the heterogeneous RNA in animal cells (which was the messenger) had a very high molecular weight suggesting that the genes of higher organisms were very large - of course we did not know that there were introns at the time. It was very natural to use the term junk to describe this useless DNA and I was using in Cambridge in the sixties and I gave lectures on this in the Woods Hole Physiology course in 1968 and 1969, where incidentally I read the papers which showed the small DNA content of the puffer fish. Of course we had a lot of difficulty to explain to people why this useless DNA was being maintained and had not already disappeared. This type of “logic” is still part of the psychology of most people and especially of the ENCODE gang.

My distinction between two kinds of rubbish - junk and garbage - which you quoted in your paper, came much later when I discovered that most languages made a distinction between the rubbish you keep and the rubbish you throw away.

I was interested very much in your [ENCODE] paper (could you send me a copy please) and I am still working on the problem.

I think the key is to understand that there are two processes going on in our genomes. One is change in the DNA by mutation or transposition and other is its fixation. I think that the assumption that selection does not work for neutral changes and that they can only be fixed by random drift is wrong. The big driver for fixation of neutral changes is linkage to selected genes - the hitchhiking effect.

You may also be amused by the story that when micro RNAs were discovered somebody wrote to me demanding that I withdraw a statement I had made that 97% of the human genome was junk. I replied saying I was willing to change this figure to 96.8% And another one: when asked what the function of all this extra DNA was our reply was it was there to maintain the viscosity of the nucleus.

Thank you for being so patient.

Sydney Brenner

In December, I got permission to quote his email

I feel most remiss in not replying to your letter more promptly. You are welcome to quote from the letter.

Sydney

Sadly, that’s where the correspondence ended. My follow-up emails went unanswered and his colleague in Singapore, Dr. Byrappa Venkatesh, wrote to inform me that Prof. Brenner “has not been well,” and may not have seen my emails.

Notes

(1) Crick’s publication on the reverse theory of dreams has been cited over a thousand times in the literature, but did not prove popular with psychologists. It did, however, reinforce modern post-Freudian ideas that dreams are meaningless, and the paper by Crick and Graeme Mitchison on reverse learning contributed to the marginalization of dreams in clinical psychological practice.

(2) Brenner was known for his legendary love of wordplay. For example, he instructed students to “neurox” (copy from paper to brain) rather than Xerox (copy from paper to paper. He also invented “Occam’s broom” to complement “Occam’s razor.” The function of Occam’s broom was “to sweep under the carpet what one must in order to leave your hypotheses consistent.” 

(3) In 2013, Tetraodon fluviatilis and Tetraodon nigroviridis were found to be misclassified, and were subsumed into genus Dichotomyctere. As expected, molecular biologists didn’t give a shit about the proper biological nomenclature; since 2014 the name Dichotomyctere nigroviridis was only used 30 times, whereas the invalid name Tetraodon nigroviridis was used more than 4,000 times. The genus Fugu is actually a minor synonym of the valid name Takifugu. The valid name in this case fared better than Dichotomyctere. In the last 10 years, Fugu has been used 3,960 times, while Takifugu was used 9,430 times. 

(4) All subsequent wasteful and boastful megaprojects from ENCODE to the Brain Project can be traced to the decision to reject Brenner’s proposal. And as we all know, the Human Genome Project has indeed eradicated all disease, ended world hunger, stopped global warming, and put an end to the use of Comic Sans in PowerPoint presentations.

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/covid-19-news-live-updates-on-vaccines-variants-and-global-cases/

Covid-19 News: Live Updates on Vaccines, Variants and Global Cases

Here’s what you need to know:

Vaccines were still being administered on Thursday at a community center in the Bronx.Credit…James Estrin/The New York Times

With vast swaths of the United States pelted by heavy winter storms that brought Covid-19 vaccinations to a near-halt over the past week, health officials say a daunting task has become even more difficult.

But not impossible.

“We’re going to just have to make up for it: namely do double time when this thing clears up,” declared Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a top pandemic adviser to President Biden.

Jennifer Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the Biden administration was working closely with manufacturing and shipping partners to assess weather conditions, and would have more updates on delivery issues on Friday.

The brutal winter weather delayed the delivery of hundreds of thousands of doses across the country just as vaccine distribution was beginning to gather steam in the United States. Part of the problems is that the storms affected a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS facility in Louisville, Ky. — both vaccine shipping hubs.

Shipment delays have been reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Washington, among other states, forcing vaccine sites to temporarily shutter and coveted appointments to be rescheduled.

In Texas, where millions of residents lost power during the powerful storm, a delivery of more than 400,000 first doses and 330,000 second doses was delayed. A portion of those shots, roughly 35,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, were sent to North Texas providers on Wednesday, but shipments will continue to depend on safety conditions.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said on Thursday that the state was “asking providers that aren’t able to store vaccine due to power outages to transfer it elsewhere or administer it so it doesn’t spoil.”

On Monday, health officials in Texas scrambled to give people more than 5,000 doses after a power outage in a storage facility where they were being kept. But Mr. Van Deusen said that “reports of vaccine spoiling have been minimal.”

The Houston Health Department said on Thursday it would restart vaccinations for second doses this weekend and schedule additional first- and second-dose appointments next week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said that more than 2,000 vaccine sites were in areas with power outages.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference that “a vast majority of the resupply” the city was expecting for this week had not yet shipped from the factories.

The city has had to hold off on scheduling upward of 35,000 appointments for first vaccine doses because of shipment delays and vaccine shortages. The opening of two new distribution sites was also postponed.

In Los Angeles, the city said that appointments for about 12,500 would be delayed.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said that while 136,000 Pfizer doses had arrived this week, the state had not received its shipment for the week of 200,000 Moderna doses. He said the shipment could be delayed as late as Monday.

“Because the storms we are seeing in the rest of the country, it’s basically sitting in the FedEx warehouse — and I don’t think they can even get into it because of everything,” Mr. DeSantis said at a news conference, encouraging those who had appointments rescheduled to “hang in there, the doses are going to get here.”

Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, called the weather delay “significant.”

“Obviously it’s an issue,” he told MSNBC on Thursday. “It’s been slowed down in some places, going to a grinding halt.”

Dr. Fauci said, “We’re just going to have to make up for it as soon as the weather lifts a bit, the ice melts and we can get the trucks out and the people out.”

As of Thursday, the C.D.C. said that about 41 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, including about 16.2 million people who have been fully vaccinated.

United States › United StatesOn Feb. 18 14-day change New cases 71,874 –44% New deaths 2,620 –39%

World › WorldOn Feb. 18 14-day change New cases 405,130 –24% New deaths 11,497 –17%

U.S. vaccinations ›

After taking office, President Biden directed federal agencies to come up with “a framework for donating surplus vaccines, once there is sufficient supply in the United States, to countries in need.”Credit…Oliver Contreras for The New York Times

An international effort to speed up the manufacture and distribution of coronavirus vaccines around the globe got a boost Thursday on two fronts: White House officials said the Biden administration would make good on a U.S. promise to donate $4 billion to the campaign over the next two years and the pharmaceutical company Novavax committed to eventually sell 1.1 billion doses of its vaccine.

President Biden will make his announcement on Friday during a virtual meeting with other leaders from the Group of 7, where he is also expected to call on other countries to step up their contributions. The $4 billion was approved last year by a Republican-led Senate when President Donald J. Trump was still in office.

Public health experts often say that unless everyone is vaccinated, it is as if no one is vaccinated. One of the officials, who spoke anonymously to preview the president’s announcement, noted that the move to help with efforts abroad to diminish the impact of the pandemic was also in the interest of international security for the United States.

Countries such as India and China are already using the coronavirus vaccine as a diplomatic tool; both are giving away doses to other nations in an effort to expand their global influence. National security experts said the United States should consider doing the same.

But, an official said, the United States will not be able to share vaccines now, while the American vaccination campaign is still continuing to expand.

The international vaccine effort, known as Covax, has been led by the public-private health partnership known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization. It aims to distribute vaccines that have been deemed safe and effective by the W.H.O., with a special emphasis on low- and middle-income countries.

So far, the United States has pledged more than any other nation, according to the White House. Officials there said the money would be delivered in multiple tranches: an initial donation of $500 million right away, followed shortly by an additional $1.5 billion. The remaining $2 billion will delivered by the end of 2022

The Novavax sale will not come immediately; its vaccine has not yet been approved by a government regulatory authority. [An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the company’s planned action as a donation, not a sale.]

Under a memorandum of understanding between Gavi and Novavax, the company agreed to provide “1.1 billion cumulative doses,” though it did not specify a time frame.

Mr. Biden was not the only G-7 member urging greater contribution to the global vaccination effort. President Emmanuel Macron of France said the United States and Europe should allocate up to 5 percent of their vaccine orders to developing countries.

“We are allowing the idea to take hold that hundreds of millions of vaccines are being given in rich countries and that we are not starting in poor countries,” Mr. Macron said in an interview with The Financial Times.

António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, also offered choice words for what he described as a “wildly uneven and unfair” distribution of vaccines. In a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Mr. Guterres called vaccine equity “the biggest moral test before the global community.”

He called on G-7 countries to “create the momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources” at their Friday meeting.

Syed Hussain, 14, serving food at his father’s restaurant in Queens on Wednesday.Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

In the few days since indoor dining resumed in New York City, customers appeared to be trickling in, but usually in modest numbers, and interviews with owners, workers and industry experts suggested that many people were still leery of being inside.

Industry experts also say that allowing restaurants to open their doors to patrons at 25 percent capacity is unlikely to significantly reverse the economic damage that the pandemic has inflicted.

Thousands of New York’s 25,000 restaurants, bars and nightclubs have closed for good. Many others are barely holding on. They are way behind on rent, furloughing or laying off workers and making a fraction of their usual revenues.

The restaurant industry, one of the city’s most vital economic pillars, once employed 325,000 people. It has shed more than 140,000 jobs.

A survey by the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an industry group, found that 92 percent of restaurants reported being unable to afford their rent in December, up from 80 percent in June.

“We have been the eye of this crisis,” said Andrew Rigie, the alliance’s executive director. “When Covid-19 hit, we were told to socially distance, but restaurants are where we come together to socialize. Restaurants are part of not only the economic foundation, but also the social and cultural fabric of New York City.”

The return of indoor dining has renewed public health concerns after a post-holiday spike in infection rates across the city, the emergence of new virus variants and limited vaccine supplies.

W. Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said he would still be cautious about where he dined indoors, despite having been vaccinated. He said he would choose only restaurants that took appropriate safety measures, including spacing tables at least six feet apart, maintaining adequate air flow, installing high-quality air filters and requiring servers to wear masks and gloves.

Not even the draw of a warm seat in the frigid winter could bring some diners inside.

“I’m still not ready to do indoor dining,” said Jennifer Brehm, 37, a teacher who huddled with her 8-month-old daughter, Cassia, at an outdoor cabana at Queen Bar & Restaurant in Brooklyn, noting that Cassia “can’t wear a mask yet.”

Ms. Brehm said she was concerned about new virus variants and had been following the vaccinate efforts. “Until it seems more under control,” she said of local virus caseload, “I won’t be ready to eat indoors.”

The day before Thanksgiving last year at a nearly empty LaGuardia Airport in New York City.Credit…Jonah Markowitz for The New York Times

Air travel has recovered somewhat in recent months, but it remains deeply depressed compared with 2019, and no one knows when business will return to previous levels.

Now and for the next several months at least, airlines are flying whomever they can wherever they can. That often means catering to a small group of people who are undeterred by the pandemic to travel to ski slopes or beaches.

“As a quick strategy, fly where people are,” said Ben Baldanza, a former chief executive of Spirit Airlines, the low-cost carrier. “That’s been a real smart strategy, but that’s not a long-term way for those airlines to make money.”

Such leisure travel offers limited comfort to an industry so thoroughly clobbered. Tourists and people visiting family and friends typically take up most of the seats on planes, but airlines rely disproportionately on revenue from corporate travelers in the front of the cabin.

Before the pandemic, business travel accounted for about 30 percent of trips but 40 to 50 percent of passenger revenue, according to Airlines for America, an industry association. And those customers aren’t expected to return in great numbers anytime soon.

The four largest U.S. airlines — American, Delta, United and Southwest — lost more than $31 billion last year, and the industry over all is shedding more than $150 million each day, according to an estimate from Airlines for America.

The industry spent much of the past year scrimping and saving, trimming older, less efficient planes from their fleets; renegotiating contracts; and encouraging tens of thousands of workers to take buyouts or early retirement packages.

But it hasn’t been enough to offset a drop of nearly two-thirds in air travel as public health experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to discourage travel. Airlines for America does not expect passenger numbers to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023. And airlines might have to wait even longer if the economic recovery falters because of the spread of coronavirus variants or a delay in vaccinations.

Some experts say that corporate travel may never return to peak levels, with many in-person meetings replaced by video conferences and phone calls.

Airlines are more hopeful, perhaps because they rely heavily on corporate travel.

Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive, said on a conference call last month that about 40 percent of Delta’s big corporate customers expected their business travel to be fully recovered by 2022, and an additional 11 percent by 2023. Citing the airline’s internal research, he said 7 percent expected that business travel might never be fully restored, while the rest said they were unsure when things would return to previous levels.

American is “very optimistic” that corporate travel will return as vaccines are distributed, Vasu Raja, the airline’s chief revenue officer, told investors and reporters last month. But, he added, “the rate of that is unclear at best.”

Waiting for passengers arriving on international flights before getting transported to their place of quarantine, at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand in November.Credit…Diego Azubel/EPA, via Shutterstock

BANGKOK — Once again, a Thailand hotel guest who posted complaints online faces the threat of a defamation charge. This time, it centers on the guest’s claim of cockroach legs in his macaroni.

Topp Dunyawit Phadungsaeng, who spent 14 days in coronavirus quarantine at the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel after arriving last month from San Francisco, had plenty of time on his hands to record complaints about the quality of the food, the lack of cleanliness and the presence of bugs.

On Monday, after checking out, he posted on Facebook about his stay, including 46 photographs and four videos that he took of the hotel, a government-designated quarantine facility. His posts were widely shared, especially a photo of what he said were the legs of a cockroach in his stir-fried meal.

“It turned out to be the worst 14 days of my life,” he said in his post. “Don’t call this quarantine. A forced prison stay looks better than this.”

His complaints were widely picked up by the Thai news media. And a day after his post appeared, the hotel issued a statement calling on a “certain group of people” to stop posting “false information” with the intent of damaging the hotel’s reputation. Otherwise, the hotel said, it had the right to pursue civil and criminal charges “to the utmost.”

Because of the coronavirus, anyone coming to Thailand must spend 14 days in quarantine. The government will cover the cost of some hotels, including the Ambassador City Jomtien, which is near Pattaya city. Guests can pay to stay at higher-end hotels, including some with five stars, that are designated quarantine sites.

Mr. Topp said he regretted not paying for better lodging. Among his complaints were that his room had no Wi-Fi but plenty of mosquitoes and cockroaches. Water dripped from the ceiling, bedsheets were moldy, and he was served food that was sometimes inedible, he said.

“I didn’t expect it to be a luxury five-star hotel,” he wrote. “But have you ever been disappointed despite not having any expectations?”

In September, an American hotel guest was arrested and charged with criminal defamation after posting complaints on TripAdvisor about his stay at the Sea View Koh Chang resort on Koh Chang island.

The guest, Wesley Barnes, eventually made a formal apology in exchange for the hotel’s dropping the charges. But the Sea View’s strategy backfired. It was widely criticized on social media, and TripAdvisor posted a notice warning travelers that the hotel was behind the jailing of a guest for harsh reviews.

A spokesman for the defense ministry, which has a role in overseeing quarantine facilities, said he hoped Mr. Topp and the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel resolve their difference.

“In this case, it is the right of the reviewer,” said the spokesman, Kongcheep Tantravanich, “but we would also ask for sympathy for the hotel owners.”

Fran GoldmanCredit…Ruth Goldman, via Associated Press

To get her coronavirus vaccination last weekend, Frances H. Goldman, 90, went to an extraordinary length: six miles. On foot.

It was too snowy to drive at 8 a.m. on Sunday when Ms. Goldman took out her hiking poles, dusted off her snow boots and started out from her home in the Seattle neighborhood of View Ridge. She made her way to the Burke-Gilman Trail on the edge of the city, where she then wended her way alongside a set of old railroad tracks, heading south. Then she traversed the residential streets of Laurelhurst to reach the Seattle Children’s Hospital.

It was a quiet walk, Ms. Goldman said. People were scarce. She caught glimpses of Lake Washington through falling snow. It would have been more difficult, she said, had she not gotten a bad hip replaced last year.

At the hospital, about three miles and an hour from home, she got the jab. Then she bundled up again and walked back the way she had come.

It was an extraordinary effort — but that was not the extent of it. Ms. Goldman, who became eligible for a vaccine last month, had already tried everything she could think of to secure an appointment. She had made repeated phone calls and fruitless visits to the websites of local pharmacies, hospitals and government health departments. She enlisted a daughter in New York and a friend in Arizona to help her find an appointment.

Finally, on Friday, a visit to the Seattle Children’s Hospital website yielded results.

“Lo and behold, a whole list of times popped up,” she said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I went and got my glasses to make sure I was seeing it right.”

Then came the snow, which would ultimately drop more than 10 inches, in one of Seattle’s snowiest weekends on record. Wary of driving on hilly, unplowed roads, Ms. Goldman decided to go to the hospital on foot. She took a test walk part of the way on Saturday to get a sense of how long the trip might take.

And on Sunday, she trekked all the way to the hospital to get her vaccine.

“I hope that it will inspire people to get their shots,” she said. “I think it’s important for the whole country.”

The rollout in Washington State, like many around the country, has been complicated by failures of technology, shortfalls in equity and a persistent imbalance of supply and demand. State officials have struggled to set up the infrastructure necessary to schedule and vaccinate the millions of people who are already eligible.

Ms. Goldman is scheduled to receive her second dose of the vaccine next month. She plans to drive.

Arriving to get vaccinated at the Maccabi Health vaccination centre in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.Credit…Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israel has raced ahead with the fastest Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the world, inoculating nearly half its population with at least one dose. Now its success is making it a case study in setting rules for a partially vaccinated society — raising thorny questions about rights, obligations and the greater good.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted this week to open shopping malls and museums to the public, subject to social distancing rules and mandatory masking. For the first time in many months, gyms, cultural and sports events, hotels and swimming pools will also reopen, but only for some.

Under a new “Green Badge” system that functions as both a carrot and a stick, the government is making leisure activities accessible only to people who are fully vaccinated or recovered starting from Sunday. Two weeks later, restaurants, event halls and conferences will be allowed to operate under those rules. Customers and attendees will have to carry a certificate of vaccination with a QR code.

Israel is one of the first countries grappling in real time with a host of legal, moral and ethical questions as it tries to balance the steps toward resuming public life with sensitive issues such as public safety, discrimination, free choice and privacy.

“Getting vaccinated is a moral duty. It is part of our mutual responsibility,” said the health minister, Yuli Edelstein. He also has a new mantra: “Whoever does not get vaccinated will be left behind.”

Four million Israelis — nearly half the population of nine million — have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and more than 2.6 million have gotten a second dose. But about two million eligible citizens aged 16 or over have not sought vaccines. The average number of new daily infections is hovering around 4,000.

Israel’s central government — eager to bring the country out of its third national lockdown without setting off a new wave of infections — was spurred into action by local initiatives. Chafing under the country’s lockdown regulations, an indoor shopping mall in the working-class Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam threw its doors open last week for customers who could prove that they had been vaccinated or had recovered from Covid-19.

In Karmiel, the mayor made a similar decision to open his city in the northern Galilee region for business. Other mayors want to bar unvaccinated teachers from classrooms while some hoteliers threatened unvaccinated employees with dismissal.

Mr. Edelstein, the health minister, said on Thursday that vaccination would not be compulsory in Israel. But his ministry is now proposing legislation that would oblige unvaccinated employees whose work involves contact with the public to be tested for the virus every two days. And he is promoting a bill that would allow the ministry to identify unvaccinated people to the local authorities.

[olddog60s]

Health

Chaurjahari hospital was started as a Christian Mission Hospital. It serves a vast area. There is a state run hospital in a town about five miles away but the quality of services is poor. That is because Nepal is a poor country with few tax payers.

Chaurjahari has an excellent reputation. It provides simple operations and health care and medicine. There is an emphasis on mothers and babies and many children are born in the hospital each year. Because there are no roads, people have to walk or if they are too ill to walk, be carried by family/friends on stretchers. People walk for days to get to the hospital. The record whilst we were there was a family who had walked six days to get there. Their loved one was treated and recovered.

The hospital runs solely on charitable donations and funds from charitable trusts..Patients who can afford to pay, pay for their treatment. There is a sliding scale of payments and those who can’t afford to pay have all their costs met by the hospital charitable fund. A high number of patients benefit with payment in part or full from this fund for their treatments. 

Care is availabe 24 hours/7 days/ every day. Here is a paragraph from the webiste of the Nepali charity which now runs the hospital. (This is an adapted form of something I wrote for their website when we were in Nepal).

“CHR (Chaurjahari Hospital Rukum) is situated in one of the most remote and rural regions of Nepal. It is located in the centre of three districts (Rukum, Jajarkot, Salyan) in the mid-western region of Nepal. The aim of the hospital is to mainly provide quality and affordable medical services to the underprivileged and marginalized communities of people of Rukum and its surrounding districts.

Rukum was one of the centres from where the conflict flared up, CHR faced many challenges during the 10-year long insurgency.  CHR was initially operated by TEAM but with the rising tension between the government and locals, CHR was completely shut down and could no longer operate due to political unrest. HDCS was requested to manage and operate CHR, the situation was risky but HDCS saw the urgent need for CHR to reopen since it was the only hospital in that region. HDCS successfully reopened CHR and continued serving the people. Even with the end of the conflict, there were many other issues the hospital worked to fight against.

Being in a remote area with limited modern advances, the hospital struggles to change the mentality of people regarding health care. Lack of education has allowed locals to hold on to false beliefs and superstitions. For example, many people seek help from traditional healers for physical ailments and only come to the hospital as a last resort. CHR along with PHP is working to educate communities about health issues and to bring positive social changes.

In this way, CHR efficient services and many life changing procedures has established the hospital as a place where HDCS can give quality care for minimal costs.”

Just to give an idea of the problems Nepal faces because poverty means there are few taxpayers, therefore the government has little money to spend on services, I’ll share this experience.

The Nepali health system has doctors, two grades of nurses (fully qualified and ANMs) and CMAs, who are doctors’ assistants. CMAs assist doctors but are also trained to perform simple operations which don’t need anaesthetics. They can diagnose issues and prescribe treatments and drugs.

On one occasion one of the Nepali administrators (he was a competent English speaker) took me to visit a Government Health Post in the area which was run by one CMA. It took us two hours to walk to the village and when we arrived the CMA was sat outside the health post with a school type exercise book to keep his records. There were swarms of flies in the air. He told us he had had two patients that day. When my colleague told him we were from Chaurjahari hospital the CMA allowed us to look inside the health post. I immediately understood why he was sitting outside and not inside the building. What I saw shocked me. The inside of the building was literally like a ghost town is portrayed in an old Cowboy Western. The rooms were filthy. The shelves and the medicine containers and equipment on them were covered in thick cobwebs. Another picture sprang into my mind...like something out of an early twentieth century Hollywood horror film. The health post literally looked like a film set. It was surreal. That is the tragic situation of a country which doesn’t have a functioning economy. The government provides some services, but in rural areas, they are pretty much services in name only. 

When we were there, Chaurjahari was a 38-bed hospital. There was one doctor, but he left after the first six months and for about another six months there was no doctor. We had one fully trained nurse and five ANMs who were not as highly trained, but in practice performed the same work. There were six CMAs, a couple of which were experienced and highly competent. There was also an X-Ray technician and two trained Lab technicians. They were the medical staff. Belinda’s function was to help with the ongoing training of the nurses and to implement better systems in the hospital.

In reality, she was often called upon to use her skills and experience to intervene in difficult medical situations. Belinda often assisted in the Operating Theatre when there was a doctor there. We also had a highly motivated retired, French doctor who worked for TEAM. He used to come maybe three times a year and stay for 6-8 weeks. During that time, he trained the doctor and other staff and he performed operations each day. 

One incident I remember well was during the time when the French doctor wasn’t there and there was just the Nepali doctor. One night, Belinda and I got woken up by the Security Guard. “The doctor needs Belinda to come to the Operating Theatre straight away, and he wants you to come too.” It was maybe 2 AM. We got up quickly and walked across the volleyball court to the hospital.

The doctor was dealing with a difficult birth. The mother had been in labour for a couple of days. Instead of coming straight to the hospital, her family had secured the help of the local Shaman (traditional healer). Only when his help produced no results did they bring the lady to the hospital as a last resort. The problem was that the family were all at the hospital. They knew the woman was in a life-or-death situation, but there was an expectation that the westerners would save both her and the baby. The doctor told us all this and said he was very worried. He knew he could only save one of them ... and that this was going to create problems with the family. 

He wanted Belinda there to help him with the difficult birth, because he knew she had the required skills and experience. He asked me to come because he wanted me to pray. That was quite a humbling request as the doctor did not have an altogether positive attitude towards faith. He also wanted the moral support of another man. As it turned out, he and Belinda delivered the baby and saved the woman’s life, assisted by the ANM nurse. At the point of delivery, the ANM who was reading the instruments, was told by the doctor to come and assist himself and Belinda in delivering the child. He then told me what to do, but I had to read out the blood pressure and oxygen level reading from the monitor and say them out loud to the doctor. 

The child was delivered but was sadly dead. Then the doctor and Belinda and the ANM made sure the mother was stabilised and she survived. That was my first ‘hands-on’ experience of death. The ANM wrapped the dead baby in a blanket and the doctor asked me to take it and put it on the table whilst they worked on the mother. Holding a dead, new-born baby in my arms was a shocking and humbling experience. But for medical staff, sadly, it is something they often face and just must live with.

Once the mother was stabilised, she was put on the ward. Then the doctor had to break the news of the death of the child to the family. They were understandably upset because there was also an expectation of western medicine being invincible. This led to accusations of the doctor being incompetent being made by the family to local politicians and leaders over the next few days. Thankfully, the two Nepali Hospital Administrators who I was working with, were both well respected in the community and amongst the representatives of all political parties. They managed to smooth this issue over. The reality was that the child died because the family should have brought the mother to the hospital 48 hours earlier, rather than going to the village Shaman (healer) for remedies. The poor doctor carried a heavy weight of expectation. To be the only doctor made that a heavy burden to bear.

And Belinda too had high expectations on her. When there was no doctor, she was looked to as being the last line of defence in difficult medical situations.

[prinzenhasserin]

Fandom5K 2018

Dear Writer!

I had so much fun doing this exchange last year, and please don’t feel obligated to use my prompts. This letter is just in case you might want to poke at some more of my likes. Generally, I’m open to a lot, and will be happy with any rating from gen to explicit.

My AO3 account is here. My prompts are pretty ridiculous in places. That’s just how my mind works! Feel free to play them entirely straight, or subvert them to your hearts desire. I’m not so much a fan of darkfic, exceptions apply for hopeful/happy resolutions.

Feel also free to include other characters or OCs as side-characters, if they are necessary because of plot reasons. ❤️

(If this letter cribs a lot from my other letters, it’s because I’m lazy, and my likes don’t change around that much :D You can find some of my other letters under the exchange letter tag. I hope you have fun creating!)

Likes:

loyalty

odd couples!

found family, dysfunctional families that nevertheless love each other

historical stories for same-sex pairings that aren't unhappy but that fit with the society of the time (so like, spinster ladies living together; bachelors-for-life); I also like homophobia-free societies!

cultural differences! age differences! height differences!

heists, rescue missions

character driven narratives

dragons, fairy tales, magical realism, urban fantasy

Space AUs

competent characters

people not realising they’re the most competent at their job/hobby

people failing their way to success

happy endings, earning your happy ending, open yet hopeful endings

cynical humour

mutual pining

everything is better in suits, corsetry, fancy dresses

crossdressing

Identity shenanigans (secret identities, mistaken identities)

Blatant Lies

Enemies becoming friends and/or lovers

outsider POV

epistolary, poetry, unusual narrative formats

orange/blue morality (that is, not entirely human morality); grey/grey morality

non-verbal expressions of affection

Kinks I’m always down for:

wall sex

shifting power dynamics

semi-public sex

lots of foreplay, drawn out orgasms, edging

desperate sex, drunk sex, we-just-can’t-help-it!sex, sex for life-affirming

sex toys

sex toys in public (though I get embarrassed if someone else notices)

DNWs:

infidelity in mentioned pairings

suicide

permanent character death

Yuri!!!on Ice

Pairing: Lilia Baranovskaya/Okukawa Minako

Freeform Tags: Getting Together, Established Relationship, Interpersonal Drama, Smut, Character Development

How do these two know each other? Did they meet when Minako was a shining new ingenue? Did Lilia feel like her position was threatened, or did she teach her replacement? Was Minako perhaps the reason for Lilia/Yakov's divorce, or was she perhaps Lilia's rebound? (I would love if there was a presence of time and place in this, if the characters background would be a strong drive for whatever they are doing, but PWP would be great too)

…they are my favourite pairing coming from Yuri!!! on Ice, because they seem so utterly competent, and have amazing life journeys, and yet they are only hinted at in the series.

I know I don’t want infidelity, except here I wouldn’t mind if Lilia and Yakov are married still (they could be separated, or just in an open relationship, or on their way to get a divorce, too)

Minako seducing an older, more experienced Lilia? Lilia seducing her bright-eyed ingenue

Minako and Lilia competing for the same roles, and admiring each other’s techniques without being able to admit it.

Or, during canon, applying their rivalry indirectly by competing with their skaters?

Les Trois Mousquetaires | The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Pairing: d’Artagnan/Athos; d’Artagnan/Jussac

Freeforms: Action/Adventure, Getting Together, Canon-Style Plot, AU - Canon Divergence, Fix-it fic

d’Artagnan/Athos

d'Artagnan pays so much attention to Athos, and his many swings of temperament, and he has such a crush on him! It's hard to tell if he wants to be him, or bang him, and I really really want the latter. When Athos says, he's sworn off of women, what he means, he's only interested in men, right? right? that is to say, I'd love canon divergence, where they end up together (and please, with the possibility of longterm happiness) If you want to set this before Milady's appearance, sure! If you want to set this after Milady's appearance, I would love to see the dramatic fallout of Milady flirting with d'Artagnan, or hurt/comfort after Athos kills his wife the second time.

Treville makes them root out the Cardinal’s spies out of his ranks! They have to spend a lot of time close together; or Treville makes them go on duty together, because Athos is very experienced, and that’s not the only thing he’s experienced with ;)

d’Artagnan needs help managing the estate the King grants him, and Athos lends a helping hand 

I like a good helping about catholic guilt, but not just specifically about homosexuality. 

d’Artagnan/Jussac

Then, there's also Jussac--and their rivalry is set up so well! The longstanding Cardinal's Guard against the new impulsive Musketeer? Perfection. And then Jussac disappears, and it made me so sad. So, rival hate!sex? Are they assigned to protect someone and have to arrange themselves with each other? Are they banding together for a greater enemy? Is one of them blackmailed for their sexuality, and they can only go to the other for help, because nobody is going to believe the gossip they have about the other? I'd prefer if the blackmail doesn't put emphasis on homophobia, just that the sexual behaviour was not socially acceptable.

They are wooing the same mistress. Because of reasons, they have to hide in her closet together, and the only reasonable recourse of action is banging each other. 

Foiling an assassination attempt? getting imprisoned together, because they duelled in public?

I'd also be game for a total AU! But please preserve the general fucked up character dynamics, because they are what I like about this canon.

Gokusen (Manga)

Pairing: Sawada Shin/Yamaguchi Kumiko

Freeforms: Canon-Style Plot, Humor, Mystery/Procedural, Smut, Slice of Life

I want to see Yankumi/Shin as a couple so badly--and I would like to see how they interact with the world. Will Shin become a Yakuza member to oppose his father? Will Yankumi be accused of using the highschool as a Yakuza front? Will she still call Shin to come and help her beat up people when he's a fancy lawyer? How will the other groups react to Yamaguchi's boy toy?

How does Shin convince Yankumi to have sex with him? (A wonderful fic I got was with plenty of bad yakuza movies, which :D :D :D but I am always open for more! Maybe Shin speaks to Kumiko’s competitive spirit? Maybe he asks her to spite the police commissioner, by doing it in his house? Maybe there is some heavy kissing because they are trying to escape thugs/police/Kumiko’s students?)  Is he getting kidnapped left and right before they actually get together because all and sundry already think they’ve been doing each other for years?

If they are already in an established relationship, how does Shin deal with Yankumi’s students (especially when one of them develops a crush)?

I’d be also super interested to see how other people view their relationship, like Shin’s father, Kumiko’s grandfather, the other yakuza groups, her students– or simply Kumiko and Shin setting out to fight an up-and-coming group of delinquents, rescuing kittens, or Shirokin, from an overzealous school commissioner?

I have no problems about depicting violence, or graphic criminal activities, but please no major crimes involving children.

Crossover Fandom

Pairings:  Elle Woods (Legally Blonde)/Cher Horowitz (Clueless); Jane Marple (Miss Marple)/Phryne Fischer (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries); John Constantine (Hellblazer)/Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

Freeforms: Canon-Style Plot, Mystery/Procedural, Smut

Elle Woods/Cher Horowitz

I imagine them meeting at a charity dinner, wearing the same dress and insisting that the other wears it better. Or through a sorority donation drive, where Elle lets her car get washed by girls in Bikini, and then they start flirting. Or, if you want to use the other Legally Blonde movie--how about Elle Woods running for Senate, and meeting Cher during a workshop for foreign policy? I'd love to see either one of them running for office, too.

I am here for all the tropes: does one of them have an ex who invited them to their wedding, and they really need a date? high school reunion? stranger at a bar? 

Also excellent would be: Elle does criminal law, Cher is in charity work, and they need to solve this embezzlement case.

But I’m also here for the porn, because that would also be amazing. Or like, buying a house together. Getting married. Deciding to adopt a puppy together.

Jane Marple/Phryne Fisher

Do they meet during the war? We know Phryne was an ambulance driver, but maybe Jane's code division was a euphemism for spy work, and Phryne has to get her across enemy terrain? Would also love a story later in their lives, where they visit each other to solve murders and gossip about life.

teaming up to solve a murder!

teaming up to drive a poor inspector up the wall

teaming up during the war, codebreaking! and seeking comfort with each other

they went to girl’s school together, and now have to relive old glory days!

definitely here for Phryne and Jane being each other’s lesbian experience

John Constantine/Severus Snape

It's a pairing with everything I ever wanted: So much inferiority complex wrapped in a shabby facade with too much bravado and not enough sense of when to back down, and they're both such delightful fuck-ups and it's glorious. I mean, this is definitely not the first evil person who John Constantine wanted to fuck, and it's nice that he sometimes helps out with the more structured magic. AU's are great, as long as they both keep their magic, and their general personality. Would also read a Severus-Snape-Lives!AU in which he's resurrected because the devil didn't want him, or whatever, or he goes to the US to hide with a more Legends of Tomorrow!Constantine. Basically, anything is good.

they’d be so glorious together! I’m here for all the fucked-up-ness this pairing can generate

hatesex? sex pollen? :D i hate repeating myself, but really, anything would be great; I’d love a AU in which John convinces Severus to not join the death eaters because they are all wankers anyway

or a AU in which Severus survives and joins John on madcap adventures trying to survive eldritchs horrors

or like, a one-night-stand that ends in Severus hearing the prophecy and defecting from Lord Voldemort

also, I’d love if they’d bonded up over their chavness, or something. really, anything would be great

Original Work

Freeforms: Smut, Getting Together, Mystery/Procedural, Action/Adventure, Humor

17th Century French King's Male Musketeer/17th Century French Cardinal's Male Guard

The Musketeer/Cardinal’s Guard request comes from my love of 'enemies to lovers' and 'love across enemy lines'. The real life feud between the two corps is a great premise for this! I'm more interested in the adventures they have. How do they resolve it? Do they end up getting new jobs, or succeed in ending the feud, or forever pretend to hate each other? 

(See also my prompts for d’Artagnan/Jussac for a more specific pairing of this dynamic!)

Some interesting prompts:

The King requests that they work together to... guard a diplomat? foil an assassination? root out some bandits?

They start wooing the same woman, but then it turns into some strange kind of one-up-manship, and then it turns into gay chicken, and then it turns into a proper relationship and when they retire they get a cottage in the woods somewhere

they hunt down the thief who stole the King’s jewels and happen to get into a storm. Luckily, there’s an inn not far from where they are, but when they get there, there’s only one bed...

Art Thief/Museum Curator

This is also an excellent request for enemies to lovers! Do they meet during a casing of the joint, all the while the museum curator thinks the art thief is just a normal art appreciator? Or the Thief becomes an art thief because the museum curator is bemoaning that more and more of the art disappears into private collections far away from the public eye?

I’m here for all the identity shenanigans! maybe the curator realises their new lover is a thief, and they deliberately talk about paintings that they’d like to see, and fake incredulity when they’re suddenly rediscovered?

fake dating that turns into real feelings?

I have no preference for gender combination! I’d love this dynamic absolutely anywhere, anytime. Singapore 2018? Paris 1940? New York 1920? Set in space? 

Or like, the museum curator finds them in the act of stealing, and is more upset about how they keep handling the priceless art than the actual stealing (it belongs to the jerkass major who cut funding for the arts, you see)

Master Thief/Put Upon Art Restorer Just Trying To Do Their Job FFS Steal This One Next Week

Basically, the same prompts as above apply! I’m very interested in this rivalry! How does it play out? Does the Thief only steal sanctioned paintings? Does the art restorer understand what kind of power they have?

Is the Thief trying to slowly seduce the art restorer by getting them “new” paintings to restore, and the art restorer is just... very done with this.

perhaps the thief keeps faking these very elaborate paintings, and aging them with all sorts of techniques, and the art restorer is just, like “why would you do this to art?”

Female Mobster/Woman Who Is Running Their Front As A Legitimate Business

I love the dynamic of scary person/person who is not afraid to talk shit about them -- and I can see the endless conflict there could be between the two of them. What is this Front? A restaurant? An orphanage? A charity organisation? Either one would be great, and need a lot of know-how, and the female Mobster can just suck it up and keep hauling in the crates, because they need this, dammit.

One gets kidnapped by rivals, and the other has to go in to save her

the mobster was just looking for someone to run the front-- they don’t need it to make any profit, since it’s just a front, but now it’s evolving into an actual business conglomerate, and all thanks to one woman--success is very attractive

Selkie Pirate Captain

Look, okay, I love Age of Sail, and I love fairytales. I just think the adventures of a pirate captain selkie could be super interesting!

Do they fret about the crew finding out about their secret? I’m very into found family tropes, and it would be very interesting to see how the crew reacts to the reveal. Perhaps they’ve known all along? And tried to protect their captain to the best of their abilities?

The best thing about selkie captains is that they are resistant to sirens, and they can always find the way home, in every storm

I’d read about them going treasure hunting! Or perhaps captain is after a Great White Whale and their life’s mission is to see it dead

would also read a shipfic! (heh)

[thedesperatehousehusband]

It’s the Super Bowel. Or Bowl....

It’s finally time for that most American of events. The Super Bowl. Pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers. I don’t really care who wins but Kansas City hasn’t played in a Super Bowl in 50 years so I’m rooting for them even though that Jimmy Garapolo is very, very, very attractive while Patrick Mahomes doesn’t do much for me.

Let’s talk pre-show. Yolanda Adams was lovely during America the Beautiful. Demi Lovato sang the shit out of the national anthem. She’s a talent and I like that she is very open and vulnerable about her issues and problems.

Shifting to commericals…..

·       Secret – Let’s Fight Inequality. It’s strong. It works. I dig it.

·       McDonald’s – All the favorite orders of celebs was great. Because who doesn’t love McDonald’s? If you don’t love McDonald’s, the commies win.

·       NFL 100 – I don’t know if this was a spot or if this was a pre-game video but whatever it was it was amazing. 100% loved it. That kid who ran onto the field was the HAPPIEST kid in the W-O-R-L-D!

·       Fast & Furious 9 – Who gives a fuck?

·       Quibi – What is Quibi? That spot was heinous. What a fucking waste of money.

·       Tide – The stains can wait. I don’t love it but I am appreciative of the pull through from P&G. It seems to be their Super Bowl thing. They’ve just focused on this idea that the stain can wait the whole game. I love Charlie Day and Emily Hampshire from Schitt’s Creek is a hoot but do people know who they are? I mean run of the mill Americans watching the Super Bowl. It feels a little niche with the casting.

·       Wal-Mart Pickup – I hate to say it because Wal-Mart is the devil but that was a good spot.

·       Black Widow – I’m into it plus it features Florence Pugh and after Little Women I am in love with her.

·       Rocket Mortgage – Clever, clever, clever. I like the Jason Momoa gag and closing with Lisa Bonet was an additional level of meta clever. Maybe too meta?

·       Porsche – Terrible.

·       Snickers – This is my favorite spot so far. Hilarious. Luis Guzman is a riot. A damn riot.

·       Hulu with Tom Brady – Not today, Satan. Not today. What a douche.

·       Mountain Dew Zero Sugar – If there’s no sugar, what’s in it? Crank? Mountain Dew is garbage. Regardless of Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis-Ross, that shit ain’t good.

·       SquareSpace – Winona, MN. We’ve done this whole Fargo send up before. For like 20 years. I’d rather see jokes about Amy Klobuchar bringing a hot dish casserole to a fundraiser potluck.

·       New York Life – I really was into this until it was for New York Life.

·       Fanduel – Bullshit.

·       Hyundai Sonata – John Krasinski, Rachel Dratch and Chris Evans ALL IN ONE PLACE. This is a close second to the Snickers commercial.

·       Cheetos Popcorn – You can’t touch this. So, so, so smart and such a funny spot. New favorite.

·       Olay Regernist – I want to like this one but it was silly AND heavy-handed. That’s hard to accomplish but not in a good way.

·       Michelob Ultra – Gimme a break. They’re giving donations to organic farmers to grow shit for Mich Ultra? Lord….don’t pee off the roof and tell me it’s raining.

·       Avocados from Mexico – Pretty funny and who doesn’t love a moment with Molly Ringwald? No one. Similar to McDonald’s, if you don’t like Molly Ringwald??? The commies win.

·       Hard Rock Hotel – Ugh. What a waste of J. Lo and A-Rod. Why, oh, why did they have to bring in DJ Khalid? I just don’t understand why he’s a thing.

·       Pringles – Rancid.

·       TurboTax – I want to like this but I just don’t think I can. All people are tax people? I dunno. It’s not like anyone wants to pay taxes.

·       Tide – Still with the laundry later. It’s a smart approach.

·       Genesis SUV – John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are quickly become America’s couple, no? I liked it.

·       Coca-Cola Energy – What’s up with Jonah Hill? He looks like shit on a shingle. Martin Scorsese looks fine and he’s nearly 80. The same cannot be said for Jonah Hill.

·       Planter’s – I KNEW IT. I knew the death of Mr. Peanut was a part of something else. Super, super smart. Not sure it’s worth the investment or whether or not it will drive sales but VERY smart.

·       James Bond No Time to Die – Like Black Widow, I’m into it.

·       Google – Fuck me. That poor man trying to remember Loretta. We sobbed.

·       Sabra Hummus – This is how I mus? I don’t think so.

·       Verizon – Awful.

·       Pop Tarts – Jonathan Van Ness hawking Pop Tarts? I don’t get the connection.

·       Hummer – An electric Hummer? If I had a dollar……

·       Minions: The Rise of Gru – I’m NOT into it.

·       Saint Archer – What the fuck?

·       Wal-Mart – The pickup spot was waaaay better. Thank god. I though Wal-Mart was stepping up their marketing. They are not. Still crap.

Halftime show. Folks, I’ve had a on again, off again relationship with J. Lo. Right now, it’s on again. I am really digging her at the moment. Not sure that Shakira actually sang a note but whatevs. It was a solid show with the emphasis on the show. No one is expecting to witness a “Grammy” moment at the Super Bowl. Just do your hits. Bring the fireworks and wheel the set off the field.

This game is actually quite good.

·       Sodastream – Mars Water or Mark’s Water? Funny shit.

·       Hunter’s on Amazon Prime – Ummmmmm. What is this show? We’s a-gonna be watching that. Holy shit.

·       Pepsi Zero Sugar – You know what’s stupid? Pepsi invoking Coke colors and iconography. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

·       Heinz – Pretty OK.

·       Bud Light Seltzer – Post Malone is probably the right spokesperson for this particular product but it sure doesn’t speak to me.

·       Little Caesar’s – Meh.

·       Doritos – No.

·       Kia – Not terrible. Not great. Not the reaction you want after dropping 4 million for 30 seconds.

·       Turkish Airlines – Pretty smart but where can you actually find Turkish Airlines in the US? New York, Atlanta, Chicago? Where else? I’m not ever getting onto a Turkish Airlines plane from Indy.

·       Reese’s Take 5 – I really enjoyed this spot. Funny stuff.

·       Tide – Now with Wonder Woman and Charlie Day. It’s a solid campaign.

·       Alexa – Good stuff with Ellen and Portia. Do you think that everyone understands they’re married? I still wonder if Linda, Donna and Brenda from middle America actually get that they’re a couple and not just friends.

·       Michelob Ultra – The Jimmy Fallon and John Cena spot was pretty funny.

·       Xfinity – Terrible.

·       Nissan Rogue – This is not a new spot. I’ve already seen it. Don’t waste our time on old creative. So stupid.

·       Toyota Highlander – I wanted to like it but it was just too much.

·       Disney+ - All this new Marvel content makes me a little excited.

·       Discover No then Yes – I didn’t hate it but you kind of need to be paying attention. It happened quickly.

·       T-Mobile – Anthony Anderson’s real-life Mama. In the club. With cell service. Not bad but also a bit of cheap joke.

·       Budweiser – Typical American. Cheap.

·       P&G – Why?

·       Microsoft – This is how you extend your creative. They introduced their Katie Sowers spots a few weeks and NOW they’ve cut something new and made it about the Super Bowl. Solid.

·       Jeep Rubicon – SMARTEST AD IN THE SUPER BOWL. Loved it. Billy Murry reenacting Groundhog Day the movie on Groundhog Day the DAY to drive a Jeep over and over? Inspired.

·       Tide – We’ve wrapped it up with a clean shirt, everyone’s older and now with a dirty sweater. What started as not my favorite has turned into a solid outing by Tide.

·       Audi – So stupid. What the fuck was even happening?

Side note. Kyle Shanahan is 40. He also knows how to rock a hat. Hubba hubba. Also, this game continues to be quite exciting.

Great job, Chiefs! Fun, fun game.

[glenmenlow]

How Retail Brands Can Create A Full Price Buyer

In the constant pursuit of increasingly unrealistic targets, the need to shift excess inventory and lack of customer understanding, retail leadership teams are too focused on quick wins such as heavy discounting to achieve short-term results, not realizing the long-term damage they are creating to their brands.

The constant promotional and discount culture, that admittedly works to temporarily increase traffic, drive units and achieve sales targets, not only reduces profit, but ultimately devalues the brand and worst of all, trains the customer to only buy on discount.

Brands used to hold all the cards; they controlled the profit margins, deciding when and how the customer purchased on discount. And those periods were limited to key sales periods; Christmas and Summer. But over time, poor merchandising choices, unrealistic shareholders and disjointed leadership, meant that Christmas sales started earlier and earlier, with some brands now on 50% off by early December.

Throw into the mix longer and more frequent sales, the adoption of promotions such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and layer on the inability to join up bricks with clicks, and you’ve got brands who place more emphasis and effort on promotional calendars than their marketing calendars.

A new collection or product line is launched, and immediately a promotion is layered on top to drive traffic and sales. Running parallel there may be a multi-channel marketing effort; wasted budget when you’re ultimately telling the customer your brand isn’t worth buying at full price. The message is mixed, leaving the customer confused.

Apart from in certain European countries, where the government has strict regulations on when, how and what the brand can promote or discount, a walk down most high streets, main streets or shopping malls will be met with various levels of discounting. Brands look desperate now – and desperation stinks.

Enter Customer Control

Today’s retail landscape means that when a brand launches a new product, the customer is in control. It’s almost got to the point where they decide how much to pay; if they hold out for long enough, that new season dress will be on 20% off next week.

And hands up who hasn’t searched for a discount code?

To achieve break through and actually convert the customer is becoming harder. The daily emails, promoted posts, window posters and BOGOF shelf signage are all so ubiquitous they’re now wallpaper. I went into a store the other day, having missed a 50% off promotion a few days before, and was reluctant to buy an item at 40% off. That’s still a heavy discount, but I’m so used to that brand always promoting their product, I was reluctant to purchase.

Retail discounting is not new, and there’s a reason why; it creates sales, sells units, increases traffic and gets clicks. However, by constantly promoting, retailers are ultimately showing they don’t have the confidence in their brand equity. And by relying on quick wins, they’re ultimately creating a huge value deficit and brand indifference for their confused customers. Confused customers are fickle and we don’t want to buy into a brand we don’t value anymore.

Creating A Full Price Buyer

So, how do you retrain the customer to buy at full price? If you stop discounting product, the customer will eventually acclimate to the change and buy at full price. Surely…? But we all know there’s no one single solution and it’s a long and slow battle that requires steely nerves, cross-functional participation, leadership support and investment.

Small incremental changes can make a difference in the short term; slowly reducing the number of days on promotion (‘going in deep, getting out quick’), understanding the customer responds to the ‘promotion’, not necessarily the level of discount and segmented promotional offerings depending on customer behavior (one size doesn’t fit all).

Likewise, adapting the kind of promotion you execute, creating “healthy” promotions and really responding to your audience will go a long way. Take Patagonia for example, in 2016 they donated 100% of their Black Friday sales to grassroots foundations, creating an ethically appealing promotion their customers responded to.

To do this, brands should focus on consistent customer experience (both on and offline), adding value (surprising and delighting), looking after the core customers (rewarding them), engaging with their audiences (on a personal level, showing they really understand them) and being creative with ALL brand communication (keep blipping on someone’s radar). But most importantly, brands must be present and relevant wherever their customers are.

Retail brands will only be able to turn things around when their leadership ensures there is cross-functional collaboration throughout the business. But they must go further. They must ensure that there is a continued investment in brand, marketing and design. They need to improve efficiencies in the product pipelines. And quite fundamentally – they must have a deep understanding of the customer.

When all of these things are considered (and addressed) as one, then customers will eventually want to invest in buying more products at full price. But only if they truly value the brand behind everything.

Increasingly, this requires an external, objective perspective to challenge a brands’ status quo and rebuild brand equity. In such turbulent times, creating a distinct voice that stands apart in a crowded space is vital. And it’s only going to become even more so as new, younger, more agile players come into a market.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Amy Howarth, Strategic Head of Retail Marketing at We Launch

The Blake Project Can Help You Grow: The Brand Growth Strategy Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

from WordPress https://glenmenlow.wordpress.com/2019/06/26/how-retail-brands-can-create-a-full-price-buyer/ via IFTTT

[joejstrickl]

How Retail Brands Can Create A Full Price Buyer

In the constant pursuit of increasingly unrealistic targets, the need to shift excess inventory and lack of customer understanding, retail leadership teams are too focused on quick wins such as heavy discounting to achieve short-term results, not realizing the long-term damage they are creating to their brands.

The constant promotional and discount culture, that admittedly works to temporarily increase traffic, drive units and achieve sales targets, not only reduces profit, but ultimately devalues the brand and worst of all, trains the customer to only buy on discount.

Brands used to hold all the cards; they controlled the profit margins, deciding when and how the customer purchased on discount. And those periods were limited to key sales periods; Christmas and Summer. But over time, poor merchandising choices, unrealistic shareholders and disjointed leadership, meant that Christmas sales started earlier and earlier, with some brands now on 50% off by early December.

Throw into the mix longer and more frequent sales, the adoption of promotions such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and layer on the inability to join up bricks with clicks, and you’ve got brands who place more emphasis and effort on promotional calendars than their marketing calendars.

A new collection or product line is launched, and immediately a promotion is layered on top to drive traffic and sales. Running parallel there may be a multi-channel marketing effort; wasted budget when you’re ultimately telling the customer your brand isn’t worth buying at full price. The message is mixed, leaving the customer confused.

Apart from in certain European countries, where the government has strict regulations on when, how and what the brand can promote or discount, a walk down most high streets, main streets or shopping malls will be met with various levels of discounting. Brands look desperate now – and desperation stinks.

Enter Customer Control

Today’s retail landscape means that when a brand launches a new product, the customer is in control. It’s almost got to the point where they decide how much to pay; if they hold out for long enough, that new season dress will be on 20% off next week.

And hands up who hasn’t searched for a discount code?

To achieve break through and actually convert the customer is becoming harder. The daily emails, promoted posts, window posters and BOGOF shelf signage are all so ubiquitous they’re now wallpaper. I went into a store the other day, having missed a 50% off promotion a few days before, and was reluctant to buy an item at 40% off. That’s still a heavy discount, but I’m so used to that brand always promoting their product, I was reluctant to purchase.

Retail discounting is not new, and there’s a reason why; it creates sales, sells units, increases traffic and gets clicks. However, by constantly promoting, retailers are ultimately showing they don’t have the confidence in their brand equity. And by relying on quick wins, they’re ultimately creating a huge value deficit and brand indifference for their confused customers. Confused customers are fickle and we don’t want to buy into a brand we don’t value anymore.

Creating A Full Price Buyer

So, how do you retrain the customer to buy at full price? If you stop discounting product, the customer will eventually acclimate to the change and buy at full price. Surely…? But we all know there’s no one single solution and it’s a long and slow battle that requires steely nerves, cross-functional participation, leadership support and investment.

Small incremental changes can make a difference in the short term; slowly reducing the number of days on promotion (‘going in deep, getting out quick’), understanding the customer responds to the ‘promotion’, not necessarily the level of discount and segmented promotional offerings depending on customer behavior (one size doesn’t fit all).

Likewise, adapting the kind of promotion you execute, creating “healthy” promotions and really responding to your audience will go a long way. Take Patagonia for example, in 2016 they donated 100% of their Black Friday sales to grassroots foundations, creating an ethically appealing promotion their customers responded to.

To do this, brands should focus on consistent customer experience (both on and offline), adding value (surprising and delighting), looking after the core customers (rewarding them), engaging with their audiences (on a personal level, showing they really understand them) and being creative with ALL brand communication (keep blipping on someone’s radar). But most importantly, brands must be present and relevant wherever their customers are.

Retail brands will only be able to turn things around when their leadership ensures there is cross-functional collaboration throughout the business. But they must go further. They must ensure that there is a continued investment in brand, marketing and design. They need to improve efficiencies in the product pipelines. And quite fundamentally – they must have a deep understanding of the customer.

When all of these things are considered (and addressed) as one, then customers will eventually want to invest in buying more products at full price. But only if they truly value the brand behind everything.

Increasingly, this requires an external, objective perspective to challenge a brands’ status quo and rebuild brand equity. In such turbulent times, creating a distinct voice that stands apart in a crowded space is vital. And it’s only going to become even more so as new, younger, more agile players come into a market.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Amy Howarth, Strategic Head of Retail Marketing at We Launch

The Blake Project Can Help You Grow: The Brand Growth Strategy Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

World Blood Donation Day: India should make separation of blood elements necessary to cut back wastage

http://tinyurl.com/y4j9spg4 India has lower than one p.c blood reserve. Blood can’t be created or substituted. It is a nationwide disaster that charity alone can’t resolve. Within the weeks main as much as the World Blood Donation Day, Firstpost went undercover to a few hospitals in Delhi – Safdarjung Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. Whereas the previous two are below the purview of the Central Authorities, the administration and operation of the latter is completed by the Authorities of Delhi. Outdoors these three hospitals, there have been touts who provide models of blood at a less expensive charge. Mohan (title modified), who provides blood outdoors GTB in East Delhi, knowledgeable that one unit of blood can vary from Rs 800 to Rs 5,000 in a hospital however for sufferers who want blood models constantly, like these with thalassemia and haemophilia, he can provide blood for Rs 500 a unit. That is the blood requisition type he handed out and promised to rearrange 5 models at a lesser value. Blood requisition type tots use to provide blood at cheaper charge Equally, outdoors the Safdarjung and AIIMS hospitals, it wasn’t exhausting to seek out an agent. India’s black blood market opens itself as much as anyone standing with a blood donation type outdoors a hospital gate. Jeetendra Singh Shunty, a former BJP MLA from Shahdara runs the Shaheed Bhagat Seva Dal fairly near the GTB hospital. His NGO organises free cremations for poor and unclaimed our bodies, and in addition runs a blood donation drive. This World Blood Donation Day, Shunty is donating blood for the 100th time. When requested in regards to the black blood market, he shared that that is one thing practically everyone in Delhi is aware of about however hasn’t change into a precedence for any authorities until now. “Non-public blood banks in hospitals like Apollo, Max and Ganga Ram would possibly cost wherever between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 for blood transfusion. Generally, even when households of the affected person donate the blood, a hefty cost for the transfusion burns a gap in folks’s pockets,” mentioned Shunty, stating that standardisation of value is tough as a result of the provision retains fluctuating. These on the Indian Purple Cross Society’s Blood Financial institution in New Delhi really feel disheartened on the truth that there’s a black blood market. “It’s unhappy to suppose and speak about blood being offered for some cash, however it’s the actuality that blood is being offered illegally. We view this as a humanitarian service,” shared Dr Poonam Walia, connected to the organisation. Dr Walia informs that blood tourism is one other cause why there’s at all times scarcity of blood. This, nonetheless, she provides, isn’t accounted for. Apart from, since donated blood isn’t separated into its varied elements like RBCs, WBCs, plasma and platelets, every of that are used to deal with particular scientific situations, places further burden on the county’s current blood reserves. Usually, a whole unit of blood, instated of a selected element, which is the particular want of the affected person, is given to the affected person. Dr KK Kalra, former CEO of the Nationwide Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Suppliers identified that the notice concerning blood element donation among the many medical fraternity is low. He feels that there is a want for a marketing campaign to preserve and enhance blood reserves on the dimensions of Polio consciousness programme. “If any individual wants platelets or RCBs, whole models of blood are completed off,” he shared. Representational picture. AP Dr Kalra, nonetheless, feels that there is no such thing as a actual want for a centralised physique as a result of each personal and authorities blood banks want to acquire a license from the Central Medication Commonplace Management Organisation (CDSCO) and blood is an instantaneous, localised want. Prasanna Shirol of the Organisation for Uncommon Illnesses India (ORDI), a non-profit nationwide umbrella organisation representing the collective voice and wishes of all uncommon illness sufferers and stakeholders, is of the view that the federal government should arrange tech intensive labs the place elements might be separated. “The problem isn’t simply lack of information. If we have to rationally handle blood reserves, we’d like labs the place plasma or RBCs might be separated from the remainder of blood that also stays usable,” he shared, including that non-public producers have began manufacturing intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for sufferers with major immunodeficiency and it is a key blood element. “On this case, solely the plasma is used. There are a whole lot of sorts of this illness,” Shirol defined. Blood, blood elements and plasma are categorised as a ‘drug’ below Part 3(b) of Medication and Cosmetics Act, 1940 of India. This serves because the authorized framework for regulating the capabilities of blood banks, which give recovered plasma for plasma fractionation to varied fractionating corporations in India (6). In a dense paper on the componentisation of blood titled ‘Indian plasma fractionation industry: challenges and opportunities’ Ranjeet S Ajmani writes, “Blood banking is a comparatively very small stage of operation as in comparison with plasma fractionation, which is a really massive industrial operation with a really heavy emphasis on GMP norms and viral security issues. The problems associated to plasma fractionation trade didn’t come up for critical dialogue at greater stage of deliberation, as there have been hardly any corporations working on this discipline and that’s the reason at that time limit it was very invisible and insignificant from the perspective of public healthcare system. This could possibly be one of many causes that most of the haemophiliacs who acquired contaminated lyophilised cryoprecipitate throughout late 1980s and early 1990s died silently with none massive public outcry and any compensation.” Dr Suresh Hanagwadi’s life exemplifies the wrestle throughout the system. A haemophilia affected person who suffers from the deficiency of ‘issue 9’ is the previous president of the Haemophilia Federation of India and in addition runs a blood financial institution in Davangere, Karnataka. “Clotting issue focus is imported by the Hemophilia Federation of India (HFI), a sufferers’ organisation which has 80 chapters throughout the nation. There’s a have to incentivise and promote manufacturing throughout the nation,” he shared. Improvements within the sector are nonetheless happening in area of interest areas and a collective, national-level consciousness marketing campaign is lacking. Raghu Rajagopal is the co-founder and director of DATRI, India’s largest grownup unrelated Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry. DATRI has over four lakh donors registered with it. “If a affected person wants Purple Blood Cells, then the precise want is catered to. Our donor registry facilitates the provision of particular elements,” he defined. The likelihood of discovering a match throughout the household is lower than 25 p.c. Rajagopal feels that the idea that strangers wherever within the nation can profit one another isn’t a well-known one. Until now, DATRI has matched 591 sufferers to donors. A nationwide consciousness program on componentisation and larger interplay between personal and public blood banks on expertise and reserves may help India handle its extreme blood scarcity. Your information to the most recent cricket World Cup tales, evaluation, studies, opinions, dwell updates and scores on https://www.firstpost.com/firstcricket/series/icc-cricket-world-cup-2019.html. Observe us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Facebook web page for updates all through the continued occasion in England and Wales. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function() {n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)} ; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '259288058299626'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9&appId=1117108234997285"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); window.fbAsyncInit = function () { FB.init({appId: '1117108234997285', version: 2.4, xfbml: true}); // *** here is my code *** if (typeof facebookInit == 'function') { facebookInit(); } }; (function () { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; e.async = true; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); function facebookInit() { console.log('Found FB: Loading comments.'); FB.XFBML.parse(); } Source link