Kirsten Stevens-Wood, a lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University explores the different international communities that have created fairer communities where relationships and the environment are given primacy.

Frankie lives in a six-bedroom house on the outskirts of Leeds. She is her own landlord but doesnt own the house. Instead, she is part of a co-operative housing group: together, they have been able to buy the house and then rent it at an affordable price back to themselves as tenants.

Just a few miles away, another group has secured funding to design and build an eco-community of up to 30 households, including what is known as a common house: a shared house with a kitchen, laundry, workshops, a meeting space, guest rooms and gardens.

Much further away in north-east Germany is a 37-acre site where a group of people live and work together sharing food, childcare and resources. They have created a community where relationships and the environment are given primacy.

All three of these are examples of intentional communities: groups of people who have chosen to live together in a way that reflects their shared values.

These communities come in a variety of shapes and forms, from squats and housing co-operatives to communes and co-housing communities.

Intentional communities are by no means a new idea, but they have often been cited as the experimental spaces or testbeds for the future.

They are sometimes considered as utopian experiments where groups and people strive to create a better life.

Many people are looking for antidotes to ever-increasing consumption and feelings of social isolation. There is no single solution, and we will need to look at all aspects of our lives, from the way we consume to day-to-day practices.

But for some, the solution is to be found in communal living and intentional communities. It may be that some of the ideas being tested in these communities can create the blueprints for the towns and cities of tomorrow.

Alternative lifestyles

There is some evidence that intentional communities are formed as responses to the concerns of society at any given time.

Back in the 1970s, many new communities were formed as a backlash to mass urbanisation and industrialisation. Such groups bought up rural property, often with land, and attempted a back to the land lifestyle informed by ideas of self-sufficiency.

Many of these communities failed, but some still function successfully today, often in their original form.

For example, Canon Frome Court collectively manages a 40-acre organic farm in Herefordshire. Together, the community grows much of its own food and keeps cows, sheep and chickens.

It is difficult to estimate the number of intentional communities worldwide, but they are certainly in the thousands.

In the UK alone there are around 300 listed (and many more that are not), with new communities springing up every year.

If we were to use intentional communities as a gauge of social discontent, then the multiple pressures of housing, lack of community, an ageing society and, of course, climate change would be central to this feeling.

Look a little deeper, and these problems are actually part a much wider group of social concerns around consumption, global inequality and planetary limits.

In mainstream society, the solutions to these interlocking ideas are presented as top-down measures made via policy, legislation and global agreements, but also as personal choices made by individuals and groups: driving and flying less, consuming more ethically, eating a more plant-based diet, changing the way we work and live.

Those within intentional communities would say that they have been ahead of the curve on this for many years, with ideas such as vegetarianism and self-sufficiency often central to their way of life.

They often occupy the necessary middle ground between government policy and individual action. The documentary maker Helen Iles named her series of films on intentional communities Living in the future.

Living in the future

So what can we tell about possible directions of wider society from the intentional communities of today?

Some rural communities have embraced low-impact development.

For example, Rhiw Las, a rural eco-community in west Wales, has created a sustainable settlement based on strict ecological guidelines.

Meanwhile, urban-based communities, such as Bunker Housing Co-operative in Brighton, look to create high-quality affordable housing for local people. Such co-operatives are based on the principle of collective control and management of the property.

They enable groups of people who might not have access to secure housing to form a legal entity, which enables them to collectively buy and own property. They also have the capacity to incorporate or support co-operative businesses, such as food or printing co-ops.

Urban housing co-ops are particularly relevant in areas where house prices and rents can be prohibitively high and exclude certain groups, such as precarious workers or younger people.

Housing co-ops can offer secure housing options that also empower people and enable them to live within their means.

The group Radical Routes (a network of radical co-ops) also suggests that when people are freed from excessive rent payments, they are then freer to engage with their communities and participate in social change.

Todays urban communities capitalise on urban cycle networks and public transport. They are also more likely to engage with green transport options such as electric carpooling and on-site workspaces to reduce travel entirely.

Fishponds Co-Build, a prospective community on the edge of Bristol, has created its own sustainability action plan. Together, they have outlined ways they intend to reduce their carbon footprint through communal living.

The ideas fermented in past communities, such as straw-bale building and shared ownership, are being developed in exciting and creative ways to transform rural and urban living.

This can incorporate new building techniques, such as PassiveHaus design in Lancaster Co-Housing, and the development of alternative spaces, such as car-free neighbourhoods.

Intentional communities may not be the solution to all our problems, but they certainly represent an area of experimentation in the ways we share space, shape community and provide a peek at potential ways forward in uncertain times.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

Photo Credit Pixabay

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Communities experimenting with greener and fairer ways of living - Environment Journal

In 1946, George Orwell wrote, But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. These words convey a fundamental truth about the relationship between what we say, the perceptions we hold, and the imagery we evoke through our linguistic choices. Some words or phrases are widely understood to intentionally hurt or provoke, but plenty of others have less obvious insidious and corrupting effects.

The events of the past several weeks have spurred a renewed call to recognize that words matter, particularly in the struggle for racial justice. This has led major media outletsincluding the Associated Press and The New York Timesto capitalize Black, a simple and long overdue signal of respect for the shared identity, history, and experiences of people who identify as Black. For years, other organizations and writers have been advocating for the use of more humanizing language that acknowledges peoples circumstances without defining them by the same.

This awareness has implications for not only how we talk about people, but also the places where they live. Journalists, practitioners, and researchersincluding those of us at Brookingsoften employ short-hand labels such as distressed places, struggling neighborhoods, high-crime areas, or any such combination of deficit plus geography to describe communities impacted by racism, disinvestment, physical destruction, and economic exclusion. But just like the labels we attach to people, such language reduces these communities to only their challenges, while concealing the systemic forces that caused those challenges and the systemic solutions needed to combat them.

At the Bass Center for Transformative Placemakinga center focused on the economic, social, physical, and civic well-being of communitieswe are committing to avoid such labels in our work and employing intentional, systems-informed, and specific language about place. This commitment is not intended to be symbolic, but instead to be more consistent withand true toour efforts to effectively co-design and communicate research and strategies aimed at eradicating systemic inequities and creating more connected, vibrant, and inclusive communities. Our commitment stems from three fundamental truths about how language impacts how we think, and what we do:

Language about place matters, because it can be used to justify actions taken toward people. The United States has a long history of using coded language about place to justify policy and practice decisions that impact people. Take the term blight for example, which transposed the language of disease onto places, with devastating consequences for the people of color living within them. The designation of an area as blighted was used to justify numerous racial injustices throughout the 20th century, including urban renewal, eminent domain, and the displacement of thousands of Black families. Some in power (including our current president) continue to use itoften in combination with terms such as high-crime, inner cities, and other racially coded language as a way to rationalize over-policing in Black neighborhoods, provoke anti-immigrant sentiment, and advocate for policies favoring wealthy investors over long-time residents.

While blighted is at the far end of a continuum of thinly veiled yet harmful language, place language can also produce negative consequences even when its not explicitly infused with racist tropes. Terms such as distressed or disadvantaged further a narrative in which certain placesmostly neighborhoods of colorare seen as un-investable due to their perceived inability to generate profit or political support. These terms paint an image of places beyond repair, where residents ought to move away from or that need to be fixed by outsiders. Such terminology disregards a communitys strengths and assets, as well as the dedicated community leaders that have long been leading strategies to improve neighborhood conditions.

When language about place obscures systemic causes, it impedes systemic solutions. As Urban Institute researchers recently argued, ahistorical and decontextualized language (whether it be about racial disparities, crime, or poverty) focuses on a communitys challenges and minimizes its long-standing injustices. This can lead to ineffective policy solutions that target the symptoms, rather than the root causes, of those injustices.

A robust body of research shows that most contemporary conditions of community distress and disadvantage are not natural conditions or produced by the actions of residents. They are the result of intentional public policies and private actions sustained over generations (including slavery, Jim Crow, discriminatory housing ordinances, federal highway programs, predatory lending, inequitable public education systems, over-policing, and mass incarceration, to name just a few). When we fail to draw the explicit connection between historical and contemporary practices of discrimination shaping the conditions of places, we leave it up to the reader to determine who is to blame for distress, furthering stigma and racism while making it harder to advance structural solutions.

Vague language about place can prevent unique, tailored strategies. Simply naming systemic inequities isnt enough. The term historically disinvested, for instance, accurately calls out a root cause of distress. But it is often used as a catch-all term to describe places grappling with socioeconomic injustices, when in reality, historical disinvestment is just one tool of structural racism that has been implemented in conjunction with an interconnected set of policies and practices aimed at chipping away places economic, social, physical, and civic foundations. Moreover, the challenges wrought by disinvestment cannot be remedied by an infusion of capital alonea strategy often employed with mixed results in communities across the country.

To generate effective solutions, language about place must be specific about the inequities shaping conditions in places, as well as those places unique histories, contemporary circumstances, assets, and strengths. This means resisting the tendency to lump remarkably unique places under a single label. No place is simply just high-povertythat may be a challenge the community is facing, but communities shouldnt be vaguely categorized as poor without meaningfully considering the whole place, the wholeness of the people who live there, and the holistic set of solutions needed to support them.

Shifting language will not repair the decades of harm and stigmatization inflicted on communities, but it should prompt us to be explicit about the systemic sources of their conditions, precise about the systemic solutions needed to combat them, and understanding about how language influence peoples lives. The breadth of a communitys qualities and characteristics cant be captured by one term or stylistic change. But throughout our work, the Bass Center will strive to employ language that embodies the following principles:

We hope other researchers and writers also embrace these principles, so that we can collectively stamp out George Orwells corrupt thought and envision transformative policies, practices, and interventions that holistically support places and the people within them.

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Recognizing that words have the power to harm, we commit to using more just language to describe places - Brookings Institution

Public health experts and advocates have worried about correctional facilities since the beginning of the pandemic. In such close quarters, social distancing is difficult or impossible, and a coronavirus outbreak poses risks to inmates, staff and the surrounding communities.

To mitigate those risks, some governors including those in Indianas neighboring states took steps to reduce the prison population, focused mainly on inmates convicted of low-level offenses near the end of their sentences, or those deemed vulnerable to COVID-19. In April, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear issued orders to release about 1,200 state inmates. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine let out more than 100 people.

But Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has taken no such action, leaving it to local courts to decide whether inmates should be let out early or put on house arrest. Very few have done so even as the number of COVID-19 cases in the prison system surged.

From March through May, just 27 inmates received COVID-related sentence modifications, according to data from the Indiana Department of Correction. That number accounts for just one tenth of 1% of the states total prison population of around 26,000 people.

There are many more people in the department of correction who could be released, says Amy Karozos, the state public defender. That number is very low.

State Public Defender Amy Karozos

The state public defender represents indigent clients appealing their convictions, but during the pandemic, Karozos decided to pursue sentence modifications to see if she could get clients out more quickly.

What purpose does it serve to keep someone in for another couple months when their risk [of contracting COVID-19] is so high? Karozos said. Youve got to weigh the costs and benefits.

On March 27, the Indiana Public Defender Council wrote a letter to Holcomb, co-signed by Karozos. It argued that Holcomb should commute the sentences of thousands of inmates who were imprisoned for non-violent crimes before Indianas sentencing laws were eased in 2014. Had they been sentenced under current law, some would be out of prison already.

Any time would be the right time to commute the sentences of these nonviolent inmates, the letter reads, pointing out that governors in other states granted clemency following similar sentencing reforms. But, in the time of a state of emergency, it is essential to release this class of inmates now.

Holcomb, whose office declined to comment for this story, did not respond to the letter, and he has held fast through similar calls for executive action.

I do not believe in releasing those low-level offenders, Holcomb said in a news conference on April 13. We have got our offenders in a safe place we believe maybe even safer than just letting them out.

Since then, positive COVID-19 cases have grown to include more than 700 prisoners and 320 corrections staff, although testing has been limited. Twenty prisoners and two staff members have died during the pandemic.

Absent action from the governor, inmates struggle to get sentence modifications, which could mean a reduced prison sentence or transition to house arrest.

Weve been really encouraged by some of the response weve had from courts, Karozos says. But Indiana law makes it difficult to get relief.

A request for a sentence modification must be initiated by an inmate or their attorney. Karozoss clients are lucky: Inmates dont have a right to a court-appointed attorney for a sentence modification, so those who cant afford legal assistance must petition the court themselves.

But that can be a big hurdle. On average, prisoners are less educated than the general public and more likely to have a learning disability.

And decisions to grant a modification rest with the judges and attorneys who put the prisoner away. In a case involving a plea agreement, the prosecutor must sign off.

There are a lot of potential sentence modification cases that dont make it to the courts because we cant get the prosecutors to agree, said Karozos.

If a case makes it to a hearing, the judge still has to approve it. Corrections data, which are based on mentions of COVID-19 in sentencing orders, show that few have made it through this gauntlet amid the public health crisis.

We have not released enough. This is not an effective way to try and reduce the prison population, said Karozos. If someone is not a threat, why shouldnt they be able to serve the rest of their sentence at home?

Starke County Judge Kim Hall struggled years ago with the same statute Karozos battles now. Prisoners who petitioned his court for sentence modifications were often cut off by prosecutors, who have final say when convictions are based on plea agreements.

Thats the end of it at that point. The judge doesnt even have authority to do it, he says, I found that to be inconsistent with evidence-based practices.

Starke County Judge Kim Hall

Hall found a way to override the prosecutors. Plea agreements must be approved by a judge, so for low-level offenses, Hall refused to accept an agreement unless it contained a clause allowing the court to modify the sentence at any time.

I need to have the legal authority to at least hold a hearing, he said.

That clause helped him move quickly when the pandemic hit. Hall realized in March that the coronavirus could be devastating in the confined quarters of jails and prisons.

An awful lot of people are confined because of my sentencing orders, he said. It was urgent to identify who could safely be released, and then get them out as soon as possible.

Hall and his staff identified a handful of inmates who had been convicted of non-violent crimes and were close to their release date. In late March, one of the men on Halls list left prison the first in the whole state.

But he gave up on releasing the rest after a corrections official told him that because of corrections procedures, it would take a couple weeks before anyone else could leave.

In my judgment the emergency trumped that protocol, and people needed to get out before they got infected, Hall said. Therein lies the problem.

Starke County had very few coronavirus cases at the time, and in two weeks, he didnt know if the inmates could have contracted the virus and brought it into the community.

Our numbers were so low, I just didnt want to do anything to jeopardize that, he said.

Since then, corrections data show that the process has been faster. Most of the released prisoners got out within a few days.

Indiana received a failing grade for its response to the coronavirus in prisons and jails, according to an analysis from the Prison Policy Initiative. Most other states failed, too.

But Indiana ranked especially low among states in a key metric: how much the state reduced its prison population.

Between March and June, Indianas prison population dropped from 26,891 to 25,876 a reduction of 3.8%. But that doesnt necessarily reflect an intentional effort to depopulate: The coronavirus has hobbled courts, and while inmates are still released when their sentences end, fewer people are entering prisons.

Lauren-Brooke Eisen, a director at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, said the number of people released from Indiana prisons is exceptionally low. States and governors in particular need to do more to reduce prison populations, she added.

These are people who are very vulnerable and very likely to not only get sick, but many of them will die of COVID, she said. That just doesnt need to be the case.

In April, Holcomb encouraged county officials to take steps to reduce their county jail populations, and those efforts seem to have been successful. From early March to mid-May, 91 of Indianas 92 counties reported an overall 27% reduction in the jail populations. Some jails had cut their populations in half, although the total has risen slightly since then.

Bernice Corley, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, said its likely that law enforcement officers have been bringing fewer people into jail, and that courts have been allowing more people to await trial from home instead of behind bars. But its unclear precisely what methods counties are using to reduce their jail populations.

Data is not being collected. Its frustrating, she said. We dont know how to maintain this good result.

State Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, found it odd that Holcomb encouraged local officials to depopulate jails, in light of his refusal to issue an order to reduce the states prison population.

Indiana State Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis.

Hes telling locals to do something that hes not doing, she said.

Pryor, a member of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, has twice written to Holcomb urging him to release non-violent offenders with 60 days or fewer remaining on their sentences. She also highlighted the disproportionate number of Black inmates, and that the coronavirus has hit African Americans especially hard.

Our state has not paid attention, given much assistance to them and that is unfortunate, she said.

In response to the pandemic, a health disparities task force was assembled at the urging of the caucus. Members included representatives from the Indiana State Department of Health and the corrections departments chief medical officer, Dr. Kristen Dauss.

They, too, found that reducing the prison population is a key component of addressing the COVID-19 epidemic.

This story was produced by Side Effects Public Media, a news collaborative covering public health. Jake Harper can be reached at jharper@wfyi.org. Hes on Twitter @jkhrpr.

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Indiana Left It To County Courts To Release Prisoners During The COVID Crisis. Most Of Them Havent. - 89.3 WFPL News Louisville

A few years ago, two graduate students in Michigan State Universitys College of Music both noted a lack of diversity and set out to do something about it. The result was an organization that is elevating and broadcasting musical voices of color.

Professor Rodney Whitaker, the director of Jazz Studies in the college, introduced Jordyn Davis and Jadrian Tarver to each other and suggested they combine efforts. They met in the Union building and that day formed a group called Color Me Music that aims to create a safe space for all members of the college, and brings issues important to students of color to the forefront.

Davis and Tarver have led the group through performances, recitals, block parties and other events. Their original goals have grown to encompass civic engagement and outreach and spread beyond just the walls of the College of Music. They are working with Wharton Center. In June they responded to the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyds death with a list of action items for solidarity.

The MSU College of Music is making strides to change and be more inclusive and diverse, said Tarver. Im on those calls as we speak and there is a lot of stuff in play that they are waiting to announce.

Color Me Music is building on the successes they have had since the end of 2018 when they officially launched. They have mixed performances with the goal of creating a safe space for students of color and allies to form a community where they can talk and connect.

Its also bigger than students of color, said Tarver. We are talking about each department being in their silo and we wanted to bring the College of Music into a community where we are all working together.

They started by sitting down with Whitaker, who became their advisor, and learning about areas they werent aware of and what had been done before. They met with the dean of the College of Music, spoke with students of color and white students, and pulled together a list of goals.

The public first saw them during the annual MLK concert at MSU.

For Tarver, who studies classical voice and is pursuing his doctorate in vocal performance, singing at that concert was an extremely memorable moment for him.

It was outside my area of study, Tarver said. I got to perform with a jazz band and jazz artists.

From there, Color Me Music pulled together a Black History Month recital focusing on Black composers that was as inclusive as they were able to make it.

We included all of the departments from classical strings to jazz, to classical voice to composition, said Tarver. All of the major departments were represented in this Black History Month recital. That started us thinking into bigger ideas who can we get in the university together?

Next, they began planning a convocation/block party. It launched, creating a way for everyone to get together or, as he said, to mix and mingle and get out of their silos.

Tarver said the event was a success, an opportunity to celebrate. He recalled such things as professors line dancing and everyone having fun playing games, dancing, talking and laughing.

We dont get to see that often because we are all so busy, burning both ends of the candlestick, said Tarver.

In the winter of 2020, they did a recital for Black History Month, one of the last performances done in person before everything was canceled. The recital focused on racial battle fatigue.

We wanted to talk about something overlooked when dealing with minorities and Black people, said Tarver. A large audience is not aware of the racial battle fatigue and the microaggressions that students and black people experience. We wanted to talk about what we have endured and how we heal, what we use to process.

They also hosted a forum to amplify the concerns of students of color in dealing with lack of representation on staff, unqualified panelist addressing race issues, the lack of representation of composers and musicians of color in the curriculum and the need to address racist incidents on campus.

Then came the pandemic and plans changed even though their goals of creating diverse communities and communities of belonging have not.

What has changed is how we will accomplish these goals due to coronavirus, said Tarver. How can we effectively bring about change in a more innovative way while keeping our initial goal.

He said many of them have been doing performances virtually and they are working on the idea of webinars where they can continue the discussion and conversations around particular issues.

They are also trying to push ahead on racial justice issues, whether it is within the College of Music, Wharton, or anywhere else in the university.

On June 11, they responded to a College of Music Black Lives Matter statement with a letter of their own in which they wrote that students of color want to have the same great experiences that their fellow white students do. Toward the end of the letter, they wrote:

From your statement, it is clear that the first phase of allyship has been reached. You have acknowledged the need for change. We are in a desperate need to move to phase two where we work together to create change. We want to ensure true diversity and inclusion within the College of Music.

They then included a list of 11 action items that included such things as including composers and musicians of color and women in music history curriculum, hiring more Black faculty, music history and theory classes taught by Black faculty, programming composers of color in upcoming concerts and events, outreach and communication between students of color and Color Me Music and the Diversity and Inclusion committee, and more intentional collaborations across disciplines.

There are a lot of things on the docket, said Tarver. Its just covid is making things move a little slower than planned.

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Music students team up to improve issues of color - Lansing State Journal

Just a couple blocks west of Mill Creek Park the center of recent Black Lives Matter protests near the Country Club Plaza 3DHQ hopes youth tech outreach now can build a more inclusive future for creative problem solvers in Kansas Citys Black and urban communities, said Fabian Conde.

3DHQ

We want to be more intentional about our Black Lives Matter commitment and our partnership with Urban TEC gives us that opportunity to take direct action and invest in the next generation by teaching them 3D technology skills, said Conde, co-founder and CEO of 3DHQ, which launched in Kansas City as Doob in 2018.

A workshop Friday with Urban TEC a nonprofit digital literacy education organization led by Ina P. Montgomery that provides tech and soft skills training for future technology careers sought to introduce and engage a new generation of creators to 3D technology.

Click here to learn more about 3DHQ, which specializes in rapid prototyping and 3D-printed miniature statues.

By focusing on the potential for 3D printing to overcome a wide variety of challenges facing humanity from use cases in apparel, artificial organs and even mid-trip production of items while journeying through space Conde hoped to inspire young people with the opportunities that await in the industry.

Fabian Conde, 3DHQ

3D printing is just a tool that allows us to do cooler things, he told students at Fridays workshop, acknowledging a steep learning curve that ultimately creates an even better outcome. Conde specifically described 3DHQs own effort to craft a 3D-printed mask modeled by staff Friday at the Plaza shop that met the needs of the pandemic era.

It didnt come easily, he said.

You have to get all that stuff out of the way. Its OK to make mistakes as long as you use it as a lesson, Conde said. Then youre solving two problems at the same time.

Are you starting to see how you can make a difference with your ideas? he continued.

3DHQ recently designed and is now selling a Black Lives Matter keychain, proceeds from which go to support Urban TEC.

We are excited about this partnership and the funds that will go toward Urban TECs STEAM in the Streets program. It will be an opportunity for us to deliver our STEAM activities to different neighborhoods throughout greater Kansas City, said Montgomery, founder and executive director of Urban TEC.

Click here to learn more about Urban TEC.

This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

For more information, visit http://www.kauffman.org and connect at http://www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdnandwww.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn

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More than statues: 3D printer on the Plaza showcases Urban TEC opportunity amid BLM movement - Startland News

When Pallavi Payal saw a recent video that was circulating on social media of comedian Sandip Chhetri, she was furious. In the short video, Chhetri is seen impersonating a Madhesi woman, speaking in an exaggerated accent about the recently endorsed amendments regarding the Citizenship Bill, which many people, especially from the Madhesi community, have voiced concerns over.

In the video, he talks about how the amendmentsif brought into effectwill prove to be detrimental to the interests of women, particularly Madhesi women. And while the issues he raises deserve public concern, his insensitive approach in depicting them led to a public uproar on social media in the past week.

The Madhesi community is trying really hard to create awareness about how the citizenship bill could affect Madhesi women disproportionately. By making a mockery of the issue and the community that is already marginalised harms these efforts, says Payal, an independent researcher and artist.

And this is not the first time Chhetri has been condemned for stereotyping Madhesi communities. In his show, What the Flop, which airs on Kantipur Television, he has played the role of Mithai Lal Yadav, a Madhesi person, by employing time-worn, discriminatory tropes, such as using black face paint. He later stopped using blackface makeup on the show after coming under fire for it. Another television show, Corona Birsaune Gaphgaaph on Krishi Television, was also criticised for blackfacing a character.

For decades, regressive cultural tropessuch as using blackface, speaking in exaggerated indigenous accents and reducing characters to just their cultural identity for filler roles or comedy reliefhave been used in Nepali pop culture. And although in recent years, concerns regarding the problematic stereotypical representation of ethnic minorities in mainstream Nepali media has come to the fore, such tropes continue to be used.

According to filmmaker and film educator Abimanyu Dixit, this is because such stereotyping is the foundation on which Nepali films were born. If we trace the history of how films were introduced in our country, most of them were agenda-driven to please and push King Mahendras one language and culture policies, says Dixit, whos also the Posts film critic.

According to Dixit, the trope of Arya Soundarya Chet has been significantly used to differentiate who can or cannot be a hero in Nepali pop culture. There are preconceived features which people associate with heroes and how they should look like, says Dixit. For instance, a hero of a story should be tall, have broad shoulders and long, straight hair and a distinct facial structure, like a sharp nose. If a certain person ticks all of these features, then they are considered heroes, and if they dont, they are considered as others who are always shown as the villains, says Dixit.

Going by this, Pahades, or the people who live on the hills of Nepal (particularly those belonging to the higher caste Brahmins and Chhetris), fit in the role of heroes, whereas other enthic minority groups, the Janajati communities, fit the role of the villains. And this trope has been regularly deployed by filmmakers in Nepal. If we look back at old Nepali movies, they all show Janajati groups as aggressive people who are always the villains of the story, says Daya Hang Rai, a popular actor.

Today, this trope has been slightly altered. Films these days show Janajatis as comedy sidekicks who support the Pahade heroes in their journeys. Actors like Buddhi Tamang, Jayananda Lama, Wilson Bikram Rai, Rear Rai are a few of the handful names who are regularly cast in big banner movies where their roles are limited to comedy roles without proper character development.

Because the Janajatis are now limited to comic characters, the role of menacing villains are now played by Madhesis, says Dixit. Films like the 2019 Saruto, Shatru Gate (2018), Sanrakshan (2017), Bhairav (2015) have shown Madhesi characters as villains. Besides showing Madhesis as antagonists who are selfish, cunning and corrupt, films like Bhairav, Saruto and Sankrashan have also shown the Pahade protagonist to be a hyper-nationalist, who teaches the value of the Nepali soil and nationalism to Madhesi characters.

According to Kalpana Jha, researcher, and writer, this type of stereotypical representation is a byproduct of how cultural minority groups are viewed as by the dominant group whose mentality is informed by casteist, racist attributes.

Such shows are definitely an attempt to demean and degrade certain communities. Its not that they have no understanding of the diversity of the culture, but there is no intention to develop any understanding as such at all, says Jha.

Asmita Shrish, an indigenous filmmaker, also believes that one of the reasons why stereotypes take place in the first place is because of a lack of respect and empathy towards indigenous groups. It also happens because of the lazy working culture among the filmmakers who jump into the bandwagon of simplifying the social world by reducing the amount of processing and thinking they have to do, she says.

We havent yet acknowledged the terms cultural sensitivity or representation. The diversity within various indigenous groups hasnt been recognised yet by formula filmmaking, says Shrish. But Shrish believes that the fault also lies among the audience who have been enjoying this stereotypical representation without asking any questions. There is a consumption/demand for such films or songs or dances meaning the general public still enjoys the stereotypes, they are still not aware or educated. For me, that is the main problem, she says.

Some of the actors who play these stereotypical roles do not see this stereotypical representation as a problem. I am an artist and I should be able to play different roles. For representations sake, I cant go looking for a terrorist because someone needs to play the role of a terrorist, said Deepak Raj Giri to the Post last year, when he was asked about the use of blackface makeup.

Chhetri, however, apologised for his video, saying that his intention was not to hurt anyone. He repeatedly clarified that rather than humiliate anyone, he was trying to represent Madhesi communities. But few are convinced.

If they were really concerned about representation they would hire Madhesi actors and write meaningful roles that will help to break stereotypes and improve social harmony, says Payal. Such programmes are basically cashing in on the existing problematic mindset but at the same time instead of changing it, they are making it stronger.

But it isnt that Nepali films and shows have not evolved at all. In recent years, there have been attempts by the film industry to become more inclusive and it has given opportunities to actors from indigenous communities as well. According to Dixit, Dipendra Lama, Rambabu Gurung, Deepak Rauniyar, Renasha Bantawa Rai are the handful of filmmakers who have somehow shown efforts to break away from writing such roles.

Likewise, actors like Daya Hang Rai, Najir Husen, Rabindra Jha and Ramesh Ranjan Jha have been getting more opportunities in the celluloid to showcase their acting caliber. But it comes with its own set of struggles. Most filmmakers end up boxing their talent by offering them similar roles that confine the characters to their cultural identities only.

I was offered more than half a dozen roles within 15 days of the release of Hostel Returns to play the same kind of role: of a Madhesi student, speaking in an accent, says Husen, who has had to face graver discrimination for coming from a Muslim minority group. There were times when people used to question my nationality. My Instagram would be filled with messages from people who threatened me to leave the movie industry and stop playing movies with their heroines.

Besides affecting the careers of these actors, such representation can add to already existing racism and bias against cultural minorities. Harmful stereotypes create a limited idea of a group, says Payal. This trickles back down into society. For instance, after seeing how Madhesis are represented on TV and films, people will discriminate against them. And the cycle will continue. That is how a random stranger in a microbus has the audacity to tell me that my Nepali is really good for an outsider, she says.

Seeing how powerful a medium television and films can be, a sensitive portrayal of indigenous, ethnic communities can be crucial in highlighting the problems of marginalised communities and also improve social harmony. Pop-culture, if taken in the spirit of culture of the people, can certainly aid in the development of a broader understanding and empathy towards the marginalised communities, says Jha, author of The Madhesh Upsurge and the Contest Idea of Nepal. But the representation has to be more nuanced, with well thought out portrayals of indigenous groups.

We live in intentional oblivion. An inter community dialogue seems very urgent and an effort

towards understanding, empathising and learning about the minority and the marginalised and their way of life is becoming ever more urgent, she says.

Original post:

When it comes to portraying ethnicity, Nepali pop culture still depends on stereotypical tropes - The Kathmandu Post

TheCalifornia Fair Political Practices Commission, the states campaign finance watchdog is moving forward with an investigation of drug company executive Michael Weinsteins AIDS Health Foundation on a complaint by California YIMBY for allegedly failing to report tens of thousands of dollars of campaign spending. AHF is the funder of Proposition 21, a rent control measure on the November 3rd ballot, opposed by affordable housing, veterans, labor and taxpayer groups. The title of Prop. 21 is, Expands Local Governments Authority To Enact Rent Control On Residential Property.

The initiative is a revised version of Proposition 10, Weinsteins 2018 rent control initiative to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Prop. 10 failed to pass, 59% to 40% at the polls, despite $25 million in campaign spending by Weinsteins AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Supporters raised $25.30 million, with 89 percent of funds received from theAIDS Healthcare Foundation, Ballotpedia reported. Five ballot measure committee registered in opposition to Proposition 10Californians for Responsible Housing,Californians For Affordable Housing,No On Prop 10,Issues PAC of Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, andSanta Barbara Housing Providers Against Proposition 10. Together, the committees raised $71.37 million. The committees spent $72.11 million, according to Ballotpedia.

California YIMBY, which stands for Yes In My Back Yard, says yes affordable housing, yes to inclusive, equitable communities, yes to opportunity, and yes to more neighbors!

The FPPC confirmed it is investigating the AIDS Health Foundation for violating multiple state campaign finance laws to oppose Senate Bill 50, a controversial housing bill defeated in the Legislature earlier this year. In the complaint, California YIMBY alleges that AIDS Healthcare Foundation failed to report its spending for radio and social media advertisements, direct mail pieces, a website, and other activities attacking the legislation. Included are controversial and inaccurate mailers from Weinsteins group that were assailed by the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP, and other organizations as racist and offensive.

AHF is aware of the requirements of Californias Political Reform Act and nonetheless disregarded the plain fact these expenses are clearly reportable under California law, the complaint alleges.

According to CaliforniaYIMBY, In recent years, AIDS Healthcare Foundation has established itself through its political disinformation campaigns, running an array of dirty tricks campaigns that deploy aggressive lobbying tactics, and undisclosed political spending to advance its secretive agenda.With an annual budget of $1.5 billion, Weinsteins organization has grown into a powerful political and lobbying group for Weinsteins pet causes with ample resources to ensure compliance with the law.

Weinsteins violations of the lobby disclosure provisions of the Political Reform Act appear to be an intentional attempt to deny the public vital information regarding the organizations lobbying expenditures, California YIMBYs CEO Brian Hanlon said in a statement in February. While were confident this is a violation of state law, were also disturbed by the fact that it goes against the spirit of charitable organizations, a cornerstone of American civil society. Rather than devote resources in accordance with their healthcare mission, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation chose to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars dishonestly attacking both SB 50 and state Senator Scott Wiener for authoring legislation to make California more affordable and inclusive. While it is Michael Weinsteins right to oppose affordable home building, it is not his right to violate political finance law, and to spend charitable dollars for political purposes, possibly in violation of tax law.

In February, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the AIDS Health Foundation was delinquent in its nonprofit status after the group failed to file documents required to meet the requirements to claim charitable standing in the state.

Last August, Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) alsocalled on the Attorney Generalto investigate the AIDS Health Care Foundation, charging thatthe group was fraudulently misusing savings from a federal drug-discount program designed to help low-income patients.

The FPPC finedthe AIDS Healthcare Foundations committee in 2018 for its failure to disclose political campaign spending on Measure S, a housing ballot measure in Los Angeles.

Advocacy at AHF has been pushing the boundaries in the name of basic human rights for over thirty years, AHF says on its website. Its as fundamental to our organization as the care we give our patients. AHF has advocated for reducing drug prices, and has sued numerous pharmaceutical companies over exorbitant drug prices and antitrust and patent violations.

You can read California YIMBYs complaint here.

See the original post here:

FPPC Probing Weinstein's AIDS Health Foundation for Campaign Finance Violations - California Globe

Bellingen is a buzzy little town straddling the gorgeous Waterfall Way, which links the serene beaches of the New South Wales mid-north coast with the escarpments of the Great Dividing Range. Bello to the locals, its had many lives, from timber-mill town and dairy hub to hippie hideout, environmentalist holdout and hipster hangout.

Logging trucks still roll through town past the hemp store, butter factory-turned-craft centre, spiffed-up Victorian and Art Deco shopfronts, and an edgy Japanese restaurant in a ramshackle wooden house. Locals sing in a Gumbaynggirr-language choir at the community centre. Hearthfire Bakery creates breads from local flours and, across the road, second-generation butchers, Thorns Gourmet Meats and Smokehouse, sell some of the countrys finest pork, beef and small goods. Local kids play in the acclaimed Bellingen Youth Orchestra when theyre not rewilding in the bush. And as the sun sets across the lime-green alluvial valley, everyone is invited to join Bellos progressives on Friday nights at the Cedar Bar (at least in pre-Covid-19 times).

Aboriginal elder and Gumbaynggirr language teacher Micklo Jarrett explains how our Dreamtime stories describe the ocean 120km east of where it is now, which proves our people have been in this region for more than 10,000 years. Today, the Gumbaynggirr people have been active in stopping logging for wood chips in the nearby Nambucca state forest. All we want to do is preserve the land for everyone, he says.

Meanwhile, the National Parks Association of NSW is lobbying the government to establish the Great Koala national park nearby, to link protected forests so the dwindling koala population can thrive again.

Journalist Peter Geddes turned up with his family in the 1970s. Hes working on a documentary about Bellingens hippie era, when alternative lifestylers rented houses for $2 a week and used to ride into town on horseback. We made something out of nothing and eventually the old-timers came to accept that Bellingen turned out pretty well with a sustainable lifestyle, he says. Im a little surprised how straight its become, though. People wear clothes now.

Yet, Bello has held on to its free-thinking spirit, and over the years has attracted creative types inspired by the beauty of the surroundings. Peter Carey was living in a Richard Leplastrier-designed treehouse in the Promised Land, across the Bellinger River, when he conceived his Booker prize-winning novel Oscar and Lucinda, which is inspired by the little church in Gleniffer.

Bellingen remains a bubble of progressive politics in National party heartland. Kevin and Lowanna Doye are part of the new wave. After cycling from the UK to Sydney (it took over a year and a cargo ship was involved) to highlight the environmental impact of air travel, they moved into one of Bellos 27 multiple-occupancy intentional communities and opened Kombu Wholefoods in 2004, to sell local organic produce at affordable prices. Bellingen shire ranges from subtropical coastal regions to 1,500 metres elevation on the escarpment so they can source everything from mangoes, bananas, avocados, macadamia nuts and pineapples to all sorts of greens, pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, citrus and stone fruits.

I live in a beautiful place connected with my family doing something I believe in. Our philosophy is all about strengthening the local community.

In times like these, it all makes perfect sense.

The Bellingen Community Markets are held every third Saturday at Bellingen Park. Sample orange Jaffa and caramelised fig and marsala gelato at Bellingen Gelato.

Browse Australian fashion brands, linens and beauty products at the Art Deco HYDE Bellingen, as well as Emporium Bellingen in the 1900s Hammond and Wheatley building.

In normal times, the festival calendar (Camp Creative, the Bellingen fine music festival, The Bellingen readers and writers festival, etc) is brilliant.

Whod have thought Middle Eastern street food and hip Japanese fusion would be the local go-to spots in a NSW country town but this is Bellingen, after all. Qudo dishes up dazzling barramundi teriyaki and sushi rolls infused with greens, while Zaatar cafe offers falafel, hummus plates and lamb kofta in fluffy pita bread. Black Bear cafe is the spot for breakfast on the sunny terrace. And for excellent pizzas, craft beer and a pared-back urban vibe, head to Bellingen Brewery.

Rent a cottage in the Promised Land through Airbnb and other agencies. The best campgrounds are Reflections Holiday Parks beside the Kalang River estuary in Urunga and a free camping site next to the general store in Thora, on the drive up the escarpment to Dorrigo.

Go canoeing on the Bellinger River to spot sea eagles, azure kingfishers, flooded gums and dairy cow river crossings, or drive the loop around the Promised Land and dip your toes in Never Never Creek.

Visit the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre for escarpment vistas of the Gondwana rainforest, or hike into the world heritage-listed rainforest on the two-hour Wonga Walk.

Walk the Urunga boardwalk along the river estuary to the spectacular Hungry Head ocean beach.

Almost halfway between Sydney (5.5 hours drive north) and Brisbane (five hours drive south); Bellingen is around 30 minutes drive south-west from Coffs Harbour airport. While there is some public transport available in the area, having a car is strongly recommended.

Excerpt from:

A visitor's guide to Bellingen: 'Im surprised how straight its become people wear clothes now' - The Guardian

Empathy: The First Step Towards Inclusion was co-written by Dr. Adetoun Yeaman and Dr. Sreyoshi Bhaduri.

Even as the world grapples with the debilitating COVID-19 pandemic, the past few weeks have found many in our communities struggling with the repercussions of another long, vicious pandemic that of racism. Some of us had the privilege to switch off the news and take a break from social media. But for about 25% of the United States, which includes people of color, even stepping away to seek respite and bolster mental health is a privilege that few can afford. In these times, more than ever, empathy is an important skill which can help individuals work towards better inclusion.

Empathy is the ability to see the world through anothers perspective. Casually, empathy is defined as the act of putting oneself in another persons shoes. Through being in another persons shoes, an individual may have the opportunity to gain a deeper or more meaningful understanding of what someone else may have lived and experienced. This ability thus allows individuals to be sensitized to others needs and sufferings. The way past indifference and towards allyship aimed at inclusion is illuminated primarily through empathy. Author Chinua Achebe, in his collection of essays, hints at lack of empathy being a result of an unimaginative brain.

Like any other professional development skill, empathy is one that needs to be developed and once developed, continually honed. For engineers, this skill is twice-blessed; it allows engineers to connect not only with the people they impact but also the individuals they work with, as they work in teams to solve problems, engage in design and innovate on technologies. While empathy is a human ability, possessed by everyone, studies suggest it can be enhanced or diminished in various instances.

In the United States, empathy found prominence in conversations on race and racial disparities through the works of Kenneth Clark in the second quarter of the 20th century. There has been more recent discourse on empathy and its importance in the engineering field in the 21st century. Many intentional efforts are being made to incorporate empathy into engineering curricula and prepare future engineers to be more empathic. Some conceptualizations of empathy relevant to engineering include the framework for empathy in design, which describes empathy as a process of discovery followed by immersion, connection and detachment; and the model of empathy in engineering, which presents empathy as a way of being, a practice orientation and a learnable skill. People can learn to be empathic!

Empathy is a good starting point on the journey to inclusion in engineering. However, empathy alone will likely not be enough, and at times, may be grossly inadequate. The argument against empathy puts forth the rationale that differences in power dynamics disallow individuals to truly put themselves in anothers shoes or understand their lived experiences. These power dynamics are exacerbated when people interact with individuals who have significantly diverse lives because of intersections of race, gender or socio-economic status, among others.

Consider as an example, a manager, M, who needs to decide among two team members, A and B, to lead a high-visibility project. A, although better skilled than B for this project, is also a new parent. M was a new parent once and puts themselves in As shoes. M recalls their own lived experiences as a new parent and remembers how difficult managing time was for them during those days with the new baby. Empathizing with A, M may then decide to give the project to B, intending to not add unnecessary stress for A. However, while this act may arise from empathy-backed intentions, the outcome may not always be for the better. As lived experiences are different from the managers (Ms). Going beyond empathy, and asking A to decide for themselves, while giving them the option to back out, may have been a better solution since it allows more autonomy for the employee who is directly impacted by such decisions.

Thus, empathy alone may often not be enough for inclusive decision-making or working in teams. However, empathy is a good first step sensitizing individuals to struggles that others around them may be facing and informing considerate decision making.

We must be careful to not stop at empathy alone. Empathy helps us get to allyship, where we are sensitized towards and lend support to those who have been systematically marginalized and disadvantaged. However, true inclusion can only happen when we go beyond empathy and extend allyship to accompliceship,where, in the latter, we actively partake in dismantling oppressive structures.

Inclusion can be thought of as a journey of a thousand miles, and empathy its first step.

Are you actively honing your empathic skills today?

Dr. Sreyoshi Bhaduri is a SWE Member and a board member of the SWE New York and Long Island section. Dr. Sreyoshi Bhaduri leads Global People Research & Analytics at McGraw Hill, where she works on research leveraging employee data from across 45 countries to generate data-driven insights for policy decisions impacting organizational effectiveness, culture, and talent. Dr. Bhaduri has interdisciplinary expertise with a Ph.D. in Engineering Education and Masters degrees (M.A. and M.S.) in Statistics and Mechanical Engineering, from Virginia Tech. Her research areas include women in STEM, inclusion, and diversity initiatives within the tech industry, as well as employing innovative, ethical, and inclusive mixed-methods research approaches to uncovering data-driven insights to meet the challenges of the 21st-century workforce. Dr. Bhaduri has been recognized as an Academy for Teaching Excellence fellow and a Diversity scholar at Virginia Tech, and was inducted in the National Bouchet Honor Society at Yale.

Dr. Adetoun Yeaman is an Engineering Education Post-doctoral Fellow at Wake Forest University. She earned her doctorate from Virginia Tech. Her dissertation research focused on how empathy plays out in the experiences of undergraduate engineering students in service-learning courses. She received her M.S. degree in 2013 in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and her B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2011, both from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has a strong interest in the ways that people interact and the role that engineering and technology play in society. To this end, she continues to look for ways to promote social competencies of people, such as empathy, within engineering education and practice. Her research interests include empathy in engineering, design education, spatial visualization and multimedia learning. In her new role as post-doctoral fellow, she will be contributing to the development of an emerging engineering curriculum that incorporates research-based practices on character and human virtues.

Read more:

Empathy: The First Step Towards Inclusion - All Together - Society of Women Engineers