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Opinion: During Ramadan, Passover and Easter, Let Us Learn from God’s Compassion – Times of San Diego

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

A Ramadan lantern, traditional symbol of the holiday. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

In a rare confluence of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious calendars, we are heading into a time when all the worlds monotheists are observing major periods of holy time. For Jews, it is the week of Passover; for Christians it Easter, and for Muslims, the Holy Month of Ramadan.

This should be a time to be in awe; and to celebrate the many ways that the One God has communicated His love and his messages to humanity. Instead, it is a fraught time that has the potential of violence from heightened religious fervor.

What shame some have brought to our faiths by distorting the message of love and fellowship that is at the heart of all three of those religions, which purport to worship the same God.

I am a rabbi. I cannot tell my fellow non-Jewish monotheists what their holy times are all about. That would be presumptuous. But when it comes to religious observances, theres always a message in the rites and rituals; some-take away that is meant to motivate and inspire the faithful, through proscribed rituals and the memories they invoke. We are meant to take that inspiration and those memories into our lives and try to cleave more closely to the way we ought to be living in order to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Christian really, a good person.

When Jews gather around their Seder tables to begin the Passover observance, the central memory we will invoke is what happened when the Israelites fled Egypt and stood at the shore of the sea with the Egyptians chasing after them. Two miracles occurred: first, the sea parted, so the Israelites could escape; and second, as the Israelites emerged safely on the other side, the sea closed upon the Egyptian chariots following them.

Why do we tap into those miracles; and how does our Bible guide us in remembering them? The Bible gives us two stories that center around remembering these miracles. The first is the story of King Josiah.

King Josiahs reign spans the years 640609 B.C.E. He is best known for finding a book during a Temple renovation that inspired him to reform much of the Jewish tradition as it had come to be practiced. Scholars believe that Josiah found what we call the Book of Deuteronomy. In that book, he made a startling discovery: there was an astonishing gap between the religious life they were living and what that book commanded.

They had forgotten to observe Passover! In 2 Kings 23:22 we read: And the king commanded all the people, saying: Keep the Passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. For there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah

Passover hadnt been observed for hundreds of years! During Biblical times, they disobeyed the bible! As you could imagine, that was troubling, and Josiah wanted to close the gap. A major part of King Josiahs religious reforms was to renew the observance of Passover.

At the time of this religious Reform, the kingdoms of Assyria and Egypt were ascending after a period of decline. Thats when Pharaoh decided to wage war against Assyria. To get to Assyria his army would move up the coast through the area now called Tel Aviv, and turn right around Megiddo. This route meant the Egyptians would go through one small corner of Israel. Josiah made a fateful decision at that time: to go to war against Egypt right there.

It was an amazingly foolish decision to go to war against the king of Egypt. The Egyptian leader tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Josiah (see 2 Chronicles 35:21). As a consequence of his decision, Josiah was killed and the independence of Judah was finished. The King of Egypt routed Israel, went into Assyria and then returned to conquer Judah. He installed a son of Josiah to be his governor. Josiah was the last sovereign king of Judah.

Why did Josiah go to war against a military giant? Why enter a war that wasnt originally about him or Israel? Passover reminded Josiah of that time when the Israelites stood in front of the sea with nowhere to go. The people were distraught, but Moses assures them that God will take care of them. God will make the impossible possible. You dont need to do anything: God will take care of this. God will fight for you. God is on your side. So, jump into the sea!

Thats what Josiah, the king who revived Passover, remembers a time when Israel was at war with Egypt at the time of the Exodus and God fought the battle for them. Surely God would be on his side when he led Israel into battle against Egypt. For Josiah, remembering the miracles of the Exodus became inspiration to engage in an irresponsible war. Why not? After all, Gods on our side.

The Bible offers another way to think about how to deal with the memory of miracles performed on your behalf. For that, we look to Moses. How does Moses invoke the miracles Israels redemption?

After Gods direct revelation of the Ten Commandments, the Israelites ask Moses to bring Gods words to them. Hearing them directly from God was too much. Immediately after the Ten Commandments, Moses explains the laws about owning Israelite slaves. It says in Exodus 21:2: If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

Moses is the hero of the Book of Exodus. In Deuteronomy he is the teller of the story. He not only repeats the Ten Commandments, but he directly ties the Israelite redemption from slavery to the commandment to release ones slaves: And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing to-day. (Deuteronomy 15:15)

The 10 Commandments began with an introduction of God to the Israelites: I am the God who liberated you. And then we get the first commandment after that revelation. The Israelites are to liberate their slaves. This commandment teaches, Because God liberated me, Im commanded to liberate others. The meaning of being liberated is to become a liberator. The memory of what happened to you in the Exodus becomes something you are supposed to make happen for others.

Moses and Josiah both tap into memory of the miracles of the Exodus, but with a fundamental difference. For Josiah the memory is one of the Israelites waiting for God to fight their fight and intervene on their behalf. For Moses the memory is about emulating God. The miracle of Passover is not a sign of something to happen; its a norm we have to emulate.

In Deuteronomy, when Moses is the story teller, he emphasizes the compassion that God had on the Israelites. He uses that memory to give meaning to the miracles God performed for Israel: that they should be compassionate towards others and never perpetuate the kind of injustices and indignities they suffered from on others. Dont ever do unto others what was done unto you!

On Passover, we do not remember miracles to tell us that Gods on our side. Rather, we remember miracles to learn not to rely on God to do the justice work were supposed to do. Just as we were liberated; we are to be liberators. Just as we were saved from oppressors, so should we save others from oppression.

In 1994, the Jewish religious extremist Baruch Goldstein was inspired by miracles in his faith as motivation to massacre Muslims at prayer in Hebron. At Easter services Christians have heard messages that inspired them to engage in pogroms against Jews. And Ramadan has inspired its share of terror. All of us have perverted the memory of what God has done for us and the result has been human misery, not glory to God!

I hope that in the days ahead, when we gather in our homes, or in our mosques or churches or synagogues, we remember miracles and Gods love to inspire us to be as loving and compassionate as the God we all say we believe in.

Michael Berk is Rabbi Emeritus ofCongregation Beth Israel, the largest Jewish congregation in San Diego and the oldest in Southern California.

UK inflation hits 7%; Yellen warns of global growth hit as it happened – The Guardian

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

05:29Full story: inflation hits 7% in March as Britains cost of living soars

Households in Britain have come under renewed pressure from the soaring cost of living after the official inflation rate reached 7% last month amid a record increase in petrol and diesel prices.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the latest rise in the consumer prices index was the fastest in three decades, coming a month after the barometer for rising living costs jumped by 6.2% in February.

With broad-based price rises across the economy, the biggest increase came in the cost of filling up at the pump after Russias invasion of Ukraine sent the global oil price close to record levels amid concerns over supply disruption and sanctions.

Average petrol and diesel prices soared to record highs of 160.2p and 170.5p a litre respectively, rising by more than 30% over the past year the biggest annual increase since 1989.

Restaurants and hotel prices also rose steeply in March, having been unavailable last year during lockdown, while there were also rises across a number of different types of food as the cost of a weekly shop increases.

Heres the full story:

Updated at 05.35EDT

Time to wrap up... here are todays main stories, first on inflation:

...Russia...

And also:

Goodnight. GW

Updated at 13.12EDT

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellens warning to countries not to undermine sanctions against Russia came hours after data showed Chinas trade with Russia jumped by more than 12% in March from a year earlier.

That outpaced the increase in Beijings trade with the rest of the world, according to Chinese customs data.

My colleague Phillip Inman explains:

Shipments to and from Russia increased 12.76% in March to $11.67bn, Chinese customs data showed on Wednesday, slowing from 25.7% growth in February, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The decline in trade with Russia was less severe than the decline with other countries, fuelling concerns that China has maintained strong links with Moscow despite the atrocities perpetrated by the Russian military in Ukraine.

Growth in trade during March with the rest of the world was only 7.75%, after it increased to $505bn.

Beijing has refused to call Russias action an invasion and has repeatedly criticised what it says are illegal western sanctions to punish Moscow.

European stock markets have closed little changed on the day, as concerns over rising inflation and slowing growth occupy investors minds.

The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares finished just 4 points higher at 7,580, with airline group IAG (+3.8%) leading the risers.

Michael Hewson of CMC Markets explains:

British Airways owner IAG shares are doing well after optimistic outlooks from its US peers Delta Airlines and American Airlines. Delta said it had seen record bookings amidst optimism that it would be profitable in each remaining quarter of the current financial year.

Supermarket shares slipped, though, with Tesco down 2% after it warned that rising prices would hit its profits, and rival Sainsbury off 2.4%.

Major housebuilders lost around 2%, after the government announced that more than 35 homebuilders have agreed to put 2bn towards fixing unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings in England identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Michael OShea, construction partner at the law firm Gowling WLG, says the deal is a significant step in re-dressing the overall issue.

It will be interesting to see how measures around other fire safety defects - such as defective compartmentation, fire doors and other non-cladding defects which allow smoke and flames to spread are pro-actively approached by the industry moving forwards.

Whether the insurance industry now follow suits is also a key factor - ensuring that the cause and effect nature of the entire process is fully appreciated is a significant dynamic here.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended the day flat, with Italys FTSE MIB 0.2% higher, but Germanys DAX slipping 0.35% as forecasters predicted a sharp recession if Germany introduced an immediate ban on Russian energy.

Updated at 13.48EDT

Annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 17.49% as of April 8, its highest since February 2002 and up from 16.70% a week earlier, the economy ministry says, following the latest rise in prices last week:

Consumer prices in Russia have jumped almost 11% so far this year, new inflation data shows.

Thats despite a softening in inflationary pressures last week, as the rouble recovered from its slump when the Ukraine war began, as Reuters explains:

Weekly inflation in Russia slowed to 0.66% in the week to April 8 from 0.99% a week earlier, taking the year-to-date increase in consumer prices to 10.83%, data from statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday.

In the same period a year ago, consumer prices rose 2.72%.

That follows a 7.6% jump in prices in March along, the biggest monthly increase since 1999.

Russias central bank said last Friday that inflationary pressures had eased, as it cut interest rate from 20% to 17%.

But price pressures are still intense.

Earlier today Alexei Kudrin, the head of Russias audit chamber, predicted that inflation could reach between 17% and 20% this year.

Analysts polled by Reuters late last month forecast 2022 inflation to accelerate to around 23.7%, its highest since 1999.

The Dutch bank ABN Amro has apologised for its predecessors role in the slave trade, after it commissioned an investigation into the untold suffering it caused.

The investigation, by academics at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), an Amsterdam archive, found that two of ABN Amros predecessor companies were involved in either financing the operation of slave plantations directly, or underwriting the trade in products produced by slaves.

The global Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in the US in 2020 prompted many historical institutions to re-examine their own links to slavery and the slave trade.

Heres the full story:

The heads of the World Bank, the IMF, the World Food Programme and the World Trade Organisation have called for urgent coordinated action on food security.

As the Ukraine war threatens to push millions more people into poverty, David Malpass, Kristalina Georgieva, David Beasley and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala say the surge in the prices of staple foods, and supply shortages, are increasing pressure on households worldwide.

They urge the international community to help vulnerable countries, including though emergency food supplies, financial support to households and countries, and grants to cover urgent financial neeeds, as well as increasing agricultural production and ensuring open trade.

In a joint statement, Malpass, Georgieva, Beasley and Okonjo-Iweala say:

The threat is highest for the poorest countries with a large share of consumption from food imports, but vulnerability is increasing rapidly in middle-income countries, which host the majority of the worlds poor. World Bank estimates warn that for each one percentage point increase in food prices, 10 million people are thrown into extreme poverty worldwide.

The rise in food prices is exacerbated by a dramatic increase in the cost of natural gas, a key ingredient of nitrogenous fertilizer. Surging fertilizer prices along with significant cuts in global supplies have important implications for food production in most countries, including major producers and exporters, who rely heavily on fertilizer imports. The increase in food prices and supply shocks can fuel social tensions in many of the affected countries, especially those that are already fragile or affected by conflict.

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has also warned that global economic growth will take a hit from Russias war in Ukraine.

Yellen noted that it had sent prices for food, energy and some metals sharply higher, fueling existing inflationary pressures (as weve seen in the UK today).

Reuters has more details:

It is likely to be a hit to global growth, Yellen told an event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank, adding that she worried more about recession prospects in Europe, which was most vulnerable to disruptions in energy supplies from Russia.

The United States had a very strong economy, and a very strong labor market, Yellen said, but also faced strong, strong wage pressures, inflation and the potential for further supply chain pressures due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will convene a meeting of top international financial officials next week to address the global food security crisis, following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Yellen says she was deeply concerned about the impact of Russias war in Ukraine on global food prices and supply, as soaring prices threaten many millions of people with severe hunger.

Yellen said she would convene other leaders during next weeks Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to discuss possible solutions to help the poorest, who spend a larger share of their income on food.

Yellen also issued a warning to countries who havent cut financial ties with Russia or are seeking to undermine sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine.

In prepared remarks delivered at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council, she said:

While many countries have taken a unified stand against Russias actions and many companies have quickly and voluntarily severed business relationships with Russia, some countries and companies have not.

Let me now say a few words to those countries who are currently sitting on the fence, perhaps seeing an opportunity to gain by preserving their relationship with Russia and backfilling the void left by others. Such motivations are short-sighted.

And in a call to China to help end the Ukraine war, she said:

The worlds attitude towards China and its willingness to embrace further economic integration may well be affected by Chinas reaction to our call for resolute action on Russia.

Updated at 11.24EDT

The IMF is worried about the risks posed by decentralized finance (DeFi), the crypto-based financial networks that operate without a central intermediary.

In a new blogpost, IMF staff warn that the fast-moving fintech sector is creating challenges for effective regulation and supervision.

It cites decentralized finance, which uses secure distributed ledgers to handle transactions. Such networks have been targeted by cybercriminals, and the lack of deposit protection means customers often rush to take their money out when a cyberattack occurs.

The IMF says:

Also known as DeFi, it offers the potential of delivering more innovative, inclusive, and transparent financial services thanks to greater efficiency and accessibility.

However, DeFi also involves the buildup of leverage, and is particularly vulnerable to market, liquidity, and cyber risks. Cyberattacks, which can be severe for traditional banks, are often lethal for these platforms, stealing financial assets and undermining user trust.

The lack of deposit insurance in DeFi adds to the perception of all deposits being at risk. Historically, large customer withdrawals often follow news of cyberattacks on providers.

The IMG also points out that FinTech can push banks to innovate to remain relevant to customers, by disrupting core financial services.

For consumers, it means potentially wider access to better services. Such changes also raise the stakes for regulators and supervisorswhile most individual FinTech firms are still small, they can scale up very rapidly across both riskier clients and business segments than traditional lenders.

Read the rest here:

UK inflation hits 7%; Yellen warns of global growth hit as it happened - The Guardian

The fight for democracy: Five reasons to focus on the states – The Fulcrum

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Toscano is a former minority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates. He is the author of Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives.

The 2020 election again showed that we are in the fight of our lives. Donald Trump was dispatched, but not without efforts to overturn a democratic result while undermining the legitimacy of elections themselves. Democrats won the presidency, but actually lost seats in state legislatures. Some new officeholders openly embraced the stop the steal narrative. A recent NPR/Ipsos poll reports that 64% of Americans believe U.S. democracy is "in crisis and at risk of failing." And the public remains focused on a federal system that appears dysfunctional and mired in partisan gridlock.

But as the publics gaze remains fixed on Washington, major decisions affecting control of the nation and the quality of our lives are being made in each of the 50 states. Democracy is up for grabs. Voting rights are under attack in many states, and hyperpartisan redistricting continues to manufacture majorities by shaping state legislatures and congressional delegations. But state policies influence us in so many other ways.

Here are five:

A democratic society cannot survive without an informed and educated citizenry. Wonder why some topics are taught in schools and others are not? Why some schools are modern, and others are physically deteriorating? Why some children score better on tests than others? The answers are found in state policy.

Exploring the history of racial discrimination, paying teachers more than the national average, and reinvesting in the buildings within which learning occurs are uniquely state functions. Less than 8 percent of K-12 school funding comes from the federal government; most is provided by the states. The choices of state lawmakers affect our childrens performance much more than decisions made by policymakers in D.C.

Lately, disputes over the teaching of slavery and discrimination have reemerged as statehouse flashpoints. Five state legislatures recently considered denying education funding to school divisions that included materials from The New York Times 1619 Project about the role of slavery in their curricula. Nine state legislatures and state school boards in four others have banned critical race theory from schools altogether. The first official act of Virginias new governor was to sign an executive order to prevent CRT from being taught in schools, even as there is no evidence of it.

In addition, state legislatures are now considering laws to compel the removal of controversial books from schools and libraries. To complicate matters, some states are considering making school board elections partisan contests, a change that will further polarize our schools.

While we should be mindful about exposing our youngsters to inappropriate materials, access to information and critical inquiry are essential to democracy. And efforts to rewrite American history, whether it involves eliminating examples of our idealism and compassion or whitewashing the darker sides of our ignorance and heartlessness, only undermines the publics ability to understand our past and build a better future. Strong democracies embrace the truth. Enhancing democracy begins in our schools, and the states will be key in supporting curricula that protect democratic values.

The pandemic created huge challenges for democracy, most of which were affected by state policy. When Trump was asked about federal responses to the virus early in the crisis, he said, I would leave it to the governors. State executives responded by using legal authority not available to the president to impose a wide array of mandates and policies designed to combat the virus.

For almost a year, these executive orders went generally unchallenged. But as the pandemic continued and became politicized, many legislatures became uneasy with this exercise of power and moved to end it, even in places where the virus surged. Legislatures began to push back, arguing that emergencies are, by definition, temporary, and one person should not be permitted to control too much of our daily lives.

The spread of the delta and omicron variants further intensified debates over mask and vaccination mandates. Despite low vaccination rates and soaring infections, many states, mostly in the South and under the control of Republican legislatures or governors, fought mask and inoculation requirements. Many of these states initially reported the highest Covid infection rates.

This continued into 2022.

In early March, data showed that of the 10 states with the highest Covid deaths per 100,000 population, only two had a Democratic governor and all of them were controlled by Republican legislatures. Couple this with generally underfunded state public infrastructure, and you have a recipe for different health outcomes depending on the state in which you live.

Public legitimacy is a key underpinning of a democracy. And if people do not believe the system is just, its legitimacy is undermined. The murder of George Floyd sent shock waves through our nation and compelled the U.S. to reexamine the relationship between criminal justice and democracy.

Our nations high incarceration rates are largely due to state policies. Most offenders are incarcerated in state facilities becauscre they broke state laws and were sentenced in state courts; the numbers of state criminal cases far exceed those in federal courts. State pardon and parole policies dictate when the incarcerated can be released, even if they are model prisoners.

These policies are traceable to the law and order attitude of the late 2000s, and a reexamination is now underway, led by a coalition of liberals and conservatives concerned both about monetary costs of the system and the social impacts of housing so many prisoners, especially those from minority communities. Some states are reforming their criminal justice system, especially in the treatment of juveniles. Finding the proper balance between punishment for wrongdoing, the costs of incarceration, fairness in sentencing, and the effectiveness of rehabilitation is always a challenge. The major decisions on these issues will be made not in Congress, but in statehouses.

Wonder why your city council cannot require the payment of a living wage or impose a mask mandate? The answer is found in state policy doctrines called the Dillon Rule and preemption.

The Dillon Rule is a concept applied in more than one-half of our states and prohibits localities from acting unless the state has provided the authority to do so. Hence, many localities are forced to request legislation that will provide them explicit approval to make change; legislators call this enabling legislation. Requiring localities to seek state permission often limits their ability to innovate and respond to uniquely local challenges. Even in states where constitutions grant localities more flexibility to act (called home rule jurisdictions), legislatures can still preempt changes from occurring.

In other words, states rule.

Conservative lawmakers have historically used these tools to prevent liberal localities from enacting policies with which they disagree, thereby exerting control over populations that they may not directly represent.

The pandemic only exacerbated the conflicts between state and local governments. As school began in fall 2021, 12 states and the District of Columbia required everyone to wear masks, eight states prohibited any such requirement, and another 29 states left the decision with local school districts. But governors and legislatures then began to intervene.

By early 2021, 17 states had enacted legislation to bar localities from imposing mask mandates in schools. In Texas, Gov. Gregg Abbott sued to prevent the states four most populous counties and various school divisions from imposing mask requirements, and issued executive orders to bar private businesses from compelling employees or customers to be vaccinated.

As Florida became the state with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order that required schools to allow parents to determine whether their children wear masks in school, and the state then imposed a $3.57 million fine on Leon County because it required its employees to be vaccinated. Even as Covid abates, the conflicts between state and local control will continue, and many issues of life and liberty will be determined based on their resolution.

Increasingly, states are willing to tackle issues that the federal government either will not or cannot address. And these policies often become models for other states or federal approaches.

Almost two decades ago, Massachusetts embarked on an experiment to provide health insurance for all its citizens. In 2006, it embraced the concept called the individual mandate. Everyone in the state was required to have health insurance, with subsidies provided to those who could not afford to pay. Four years later, this served as the model for the Affordable Care Act.

Today, states are innovating in other areas. Eleven states have now joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a state consortium seeking to reduce emissions through market-based practices. And the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana has been led by the states through the use of a specific tool permitted in some state constitutions called initiative petition. Twenty-four states have some variation of this direct democracy, where citizens collect enough signatures to place a policy or constitutional change directly before the voters or the legislature. Initially, cannabis legalization was not the result of legislative action, but instead through citizen ballot initiatives. Today, eighteen states have legalized recreational use of the drug.

Policies to protect democracy and enhance economic opportunity dont just happen. They are created by elected officials who understand the issues and by an engaged citizenry who participate, prod and push for change, not just in national elections but in statewide contests as well. Decisions being made right now in statehouses across the nation will influence not only electoral results in 2022 but, more importantly, the direction of the nation, the strength of our democracy and the quality of our lives in the years ahead.

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Pharaoh, Putin and why this Pesach is different from all others – The Times of Israel

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

We all ask the famous question at the Seder of ma nishtana (why is this night different from all others)? But, in light of the last six weeks of war, and certainly for those in Poland whose neighbor, Ukraine, is undergoing untold atrocities and unjustified aggression, we should really acknowledge that this Pesach will indeed be like no others we have experienced. Well, at least most of us have not experienced, since there are still some Holocaust survivors who have those memories. The rest of us, however, have grown up in relative peace and freedom.

And so, when we celebrate Pesach this year, as bombs continue to pulverize cities in Ukraine and refugees continue to escape imminent danger by the thousands, we realize that just as our lives in Poland have changed due to this war, so too will our commemoration of the Pesach seder. Yes, we are, thank God, one step removed from the fire, as we are fortunately in the position to offer support, refuge, and a semblance of normalcy for many refugees, but we cannot help but feel like the themes of the holiday slavery and redemption, tragedy and triumph reverberate ever so loudly in our hearts and minds.

One of the important mitzvot of Pesach is to tell the story of Pesach at the seder and the rabbis instructed us that the story must have an embarrassing beginning, but a praiseworthy ending: matchil begnut umesayem beshevach.

If I were to tell the Pesach story happening in modern times, 500 miles to the east, I would note that in the first half of the story the shameful beginning I see great symmetry in the personalities of the two villains, Pharaoh and Putin: Both kings had total control over their nations, both brainwashed their citizens to do their bidding by separating their people from the outside world, and both hatched a plan to get rid of their enemy by exploiting their own people. Pharaoh together with his ministers secretly planned to turn the Israelites into pariahs, to demonize them and ultimately dehumanize them. Putin made the same plan for his western neighboring country, a people who were very similar to Russians but had some different thoughts about life and society, which Putin perceived as a threat.

By using the tactics of lies and fearmongering, Pharaoh managed to brainwash an entire nation into doing unspeakable acts against an innocent people ultimately to the point of murdering children. Putins fabricated propaganda sowed the seeds of hate and mistrust between the two peoples and his unprovoked attack on Ukraine reflects his willingness to stop at nothing to achieve his maleficent goals.

But here is where we depart from the Biblical tale and engage in our own modern-day Exodus narrative. The second half of the story relates to a certain praise, a description of the hero who saves the day and redeems the nation. In the Torah, it is crystal clear who that personality is God Himself. In fact, time and again the Torah speaks of God fighting against Pharaoh, God striking down Egypt, God slaying the firstborn, and splitting the sea. Moses role was only as a physical messenger to warn Pharaoh of his wickedness. In fact, to punctuate the point, Moses name is not mentioned on the Seder night at all! Thus, due to the impotence of the victim the Israelites and the cowardice of the neighboring countries to confront Pharaoh, God Himself had to wage this war and defend the vulnerable.

History tends to repeat itself and bullies have continued to persecute with impunity while often the weak have suffered alone. Yet, though no other country has stood up to Putin and fought alongside Ukrainians in this war, nevertheless countries all over the world have fought against this injustice in less conventional ways soundly condemning Putin in the halls of international justice, banning trade with Russia and putting a stranglehold on their financial solvency, supplying Ukraine with much-needed provisions, militarily and humanitarian, and (to continue the Exodus parallel) opening up their borders to allow the Ukrainians to flee from danger to freedom.

Poland has risen to the occasion and mobilized both on the national level and more significantly on the individual level. Having been to the border many times I have marveled at the sight of Poles sacrificing their time, money and jobs, in order to work 24/7 to extricate Ukrainians from harms way and care for them during their journey to freedom. Some Poles have turned their community centers into humanitarian outposts, providing all types of services day and night; others have opened their homes and invited strangers to come in and find comfort; many millions of others have donated, rallied, shown true solidarity and welcomed the millions of refugees into their land.

Indeed, it is here that we depart from the standard Pesach story, for it is not God (alone) but individual people from all over the world who have earned praise in these last six weeks. And Polish people in particular many of whom have had a difficult time confronting their past, and who have sometimes struggled to stand up for the vulnerable in recent history it is they, now, who stand up to tyranny and for the weak, impoverished, persecuted and lonely.

Our Pesach seder is different this year not because there is no longer evil, unfortunately, that has yet to be eradicated; rather, it is because those who have not been indifferent to the suffering of others, can stand proud, knowing that history does not have to always repeat itself.

The Pesach story of old is not an absolute joyous celebrationit is fraught with horrible memories of destruction, slavery, and oppression. Indeed, we eat maror, the bitter herbs, to acknowledge that there is intense sadness even amidst the celebration of victory. Similarly, our story is filled with multiple narratives: joyous tales of camaraderie and love as well as tragic stories of war and loss while at the time of this writing, the war continues, and revelations of atrocities begin to emerge.

Let us hope and pray that just as the redemption of the ancient Israelites took place in the blink of an eye, on one night, in a shocking twist of fate, so too, this war will change its course in a flash and peace will reign supreme even before we sit down for the seder. And just as the Exodus of the past ultimately led to Israel returning to their promised land, so too, this current war will cease, the enemies will be repulsed, and Ukrainian citizens will be able to finally return home to begin rebuilding their homeland.

Rabbi Avi Baumol is serving the Jewish community of Krakow as it undergoes a revitalization as part of a resurgence of Jewish awareness in Poland. He graduated Yeshiva University and Bernard Revel Graduate School with an MA in Medieval JH. He is a musmach of RIETS and studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shevut. He served as a rabbi in Vancouver British Columbia for five years. Rabbi Baumol is the author of "The Poetry of Prayer" Gefen Publishing, 2010, and author of "Komentarz to Tory" (Polish), a Modern Orthodox Commentary on the Torah. He also co-authored a book on Torah with his daughter, Techelet called 'Torat Bitecha'. As well, he is the Editor of the book of Psalms for The Israel Bible--https://theisraelbible.com/bible/psalms. In summer 2019 Rabbi Baumol published "In My Grandfather's Footsteps: A Rabbi's Notes from the Frontlines of Poland's Jewish Revival".

Pharaoh, Putin and why this Pesach is different from all others - The Times of Israel

Waiting on the French Left to Decolonize Itself – Jewish Currents

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Claire Schwartz: How would you describe the current political landscape as represented by the field of presidential candidates?

Franoise Vergs: On the far right you have Marine Le Pen [the National Rally candidate] and ric Zemmour [the journalist and pundit who has long cultivated relationships with far-right politicians]. And then you have Valrie Pcresse [the candidate of the center-right party The Republicans] and Emmanuel Macron. Macron is the candidate of the right, the candidate of the dominant classes and of business. He is a neoliberal who wants to roll back the social protections that were won through the struggles of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s: retirement pensions, minimum wage, everything. He is extremely dangerous.

Houria Bouteldja: On the left, we havent had a good candidate in a long time, and now we have one in Jean-Luc Mlenchon [a former member of the Socialist Party, running as the candidate of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, which he founded]. The French left is very Islamophobic, and a few years ago Mlenchon, too, spoke about Muslims in very problematic ways. But in the past three years, hes really changed. Now he recognizes that the French police are becoming more and more fascist. And he has moved, too, on international issues. For example, in November [when France sent police to the overseas department of Guadeloupe to stamp out uprisings over Covid-19 measures and high fuel prices] he denounced the state repression of the Guadeloupean people. Im not saying that Mlenchon is a revolutionary, not at all. But in the framework of the French system, he has become very radical.

FV: On the left (in quotes because one wonders where is the left in that left), you have the Socialist Party candidate, Anne Hidalgo, the perfect figure of socialist betrayaltotally in tune with liberalism. Her policies are anti-migrant. Shes never said a [meaningful] word about police violence. The disappearance of that Socialist Party would not be a loss. Nathalie Arthaud for Lutte Ouvrire, a Trotskyist organization, and Phillipe Poutou for the New Anticapitalist Party, also Trotskyist. The Green Party defends a white bourgeois ecology. The Communist Party has nothing much left of communism. Another candidate of the far left did not receive enough signatures to get on the ballot.

I agree with Hourias analysis of Mlenchon. It is extremely important that Mlenchon has brought back the idea of a non-aligned position with regard to the war in Ukraine. That Western media and politicians do not understand what it means, or pretend not to, is not surprising. A short reminder. The idea for a movement of the non-aligned emerged during the 1955 Bandung conference [a gathering of people from Asian and African nations]. It concerned states that did not want to formally align themselves with either the United States or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain independent or neutral. The objectives, as described in the Treaty of the Non-Aligned Movement, were to create an independent path in world politics that would not result in member States becoming pawns in the struggles between the major powers. It was neither Washington nor Moscow, making room for opinions on global matters and wars from the South.

By endorsing a non-aligned positionrefusing the supposedly unanimous position (see the position of African and Asian states) that is not just pro-Ukraine, but also pro-NATOMlenchon is reconnecting with that history. Our task, then, is to bring content to this non-aligned movement and to refuse to let it stand in for some kind of passive pacifism, where we are against war in some general, abstract way, and not against NATO, against imperialism, against the increasing militarization of Europe. Still, I do not take a public position on the elections out of principle, because even though Mlenchon has supported the strike in Guadeloupe and protested against the repression of the Guadeloupean people, I still think his position on the overseas territories needs to be amended. Im waiting for a left that would really move forward with the processes of its own decolonization.

All the same, there is something really at stake in this election, and it is crucial that Mlenchon wins a lot of votes. It will say that something else is possible. And then we will have to work.

CS: You pointed to an anti-racist shift in Mlenchons position over the past three years. It strikes me that in that same period Macron has become increasingly explicitly Islamophobic. Can you speak to the social contexts of those changes?

HB: If you look back, youll realize that Macron was not always as Islamophobic on the face of it. He ran a campaignthe first one, in 2017where he distinguished himself by the fact that he didnt appear Islamophobic. But as head of state, he was entrapped by the states racial logic. In fact, it only took one uprisingthe gilets jaunes protests [which were sparked in 2018 by a planned rise in taxes on diesel and petrol and soon transformed into a wider anti-government movement]for him to become Islamophobic. Why? The gilets jaunes was not simply an uprising of poor whites; it was an uprising of poor whites who didnt consider Islamophobia a priority. Even if many who participated in the uprisings were themselves racistas by and large French people aretheir priority wasnt to rage against nonwhites; it was to target the state, to make social demands. And in an attempt to reconstruct unity on the basis of whitenessto reconstruct a unity between poor whites, the bourgeoisie, and the statethe bourgeois state imposed an Islamophobic agenda. In other words: The state turned poor white people against Muslims in order to prevent unity of the working classes.

FV: The anti-migrant politics do not have the vast support in France that the media suggests. French people, the youth, say to themselves: Okay, we are told we are French, i.e. white, but we are poor. We cannot find jobs. Our children cannot find jobs. In some parts of the countryside, you have to go 200 kilometers before finding a hospital. The gilets jaunes repopulated the language of the French Revolution: The people against the aristocrats. Suddenly there was a real fear among the bourgeoisie that people would turn against the state, so the state has wielded the specter of immigration to remind the French people that Frenchness is really about not being Muslim. There is a perpetual reconstitution of what it means to be French by way of these colonial and racist tropes. It very often takes place on the Muslim body, especially the body of the Muslim woman. A woman wears a burkini, andoop!the French nation-state reconstitutes itself. It is a constant process in which media, TV, films, books, declarations, manifestos, petitions, play an important role. The violent reactions of the state and the dominant classes show a deep fear of losing their position.

CS: Where have you seen movements to contest these attempts toward reconstituting Frenchness by way of a racialized other?

HB: After George Floyd was murdered, there was a mobilization. The movement in the US was refracted in France through the struggle for justice for Adama [Traor, a Black man who died in French police custody after having been violently restrained]. Thirty thousand peoplemostly Black and Arab people, who came to France in postcolonial contextsmarched in the streets. This mass mobilization against racism, plus the gilets jaunes? For the powers that be, it was a nightmare.

The first chance that presented itself for the state to break up these mobilizations and reassert its identity was the murder of Samuel Paty [a French secondary school teacher who was beheaded, allegedly because of a lesson about free speech in which he shared cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad naked]. That moment was really a tipping point. After Patys murder, there was a general ambiance of sacred unity around the new martyrwho had died, as it was being figured, at the hands of Islam. What Mlenchon did at that moment was critical. He said, I stand by my values, which is that we need a unity of the popular classes. Against every expectation, he refused the division and separation sown by the bourgeois state. This is why Mlenchoneven as there are many things one must critique him forplayed an absolutely vital role, one that fundamentally distinguishes him from the other candidates. He is the only one who understands the function of Islamophobia as a counterrevolutionary tool. Its not that were trying to figure out whether hes a revolutionaryhes not. Still, I really do think hes something remarkable in France, where were going on 20 years of incessant Islamophobia.

CS: Where do you see these insurrectionary energies coming from?

HB: On the one hand, I attribute them to our antiracist struggles, and on the other, to the fact that the French government is becoming more and more right wing. The far right is becoming stronger and stronger.

FV: What we are seeing is really the return of the 19th-century bourgeoisievery conservative, racist, colonial, Catholic, antisemitic, anti-migrant, terrified of the proletariat. Macron is really a child of that conservative French bourgeoisie, but he is able to mask it behind his youth, his cosmopolitanism, etc. He wants to appear as the young president who will close the chapter on colonial historyso he asked historians to write reports on the war in Algeria, on the stolen objects in the museum, etc. He wants colonialism to be memorysomething people put behind themso it wont be political history, which can be activated in the present. His form of ceremonial reconciliation is aimed at erasing the radical dimensions of reparation and restitution, and representing Frenchness as a new form of humanitarianism. He says, We recognize the crime, slavery was bad, colonialism was bad, objects were stolen, etc., while at the same time carrying out an incredible repression of real reckoning. There are tremendous attacks on decolonial theory in schools and universities, for example.

We are certainly seeing a rise in new forms of fascismstate feminism, corporate feminism, attacks on the university, attacks on decolonial theorybut there is a lot of emerging discussion and debate. In the womens movement, feminists against mainstream feminism are becoming stronger. Likewise, though the repression of the gilets jaunes was really brutal, this brutalitythe police doing to white people what they have always done to people of colorshowed that, if you turn against the state, whiteness will not always protect you. This also showed the possibilitythe necessityof constructing an alliance between the poor white proletariat and decolonial movements.

HB: Peoplepoor people, including nonwhite peopleare angry, and they are expressing their anger by demonstrating in the streets.

FV: But we still have a lot of work to do to connect antiracism and antifascism. Not all antifascists have been connected with antiracist movements.

CS: The ongoingness of colonial histories finds vexed expression in the figure of ric Zemmour, an Algerian Jew who takes no pains to couch his Islamophobic and anti-migrant racism. As far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Penthe father of current presidential candidate Marine Le Pentold the French newspaper Le Monde: The only difference between ric and me is that hes Jewish. Its hard to call him a Nazi or a fascist. This gives him greater freedom. In opposition to the historical idea of the Jew as Frances other, we now see this figure of the Jew as, in a manner of speaking, the fullest realization of French nationalism. How might we understand Zemmour in historical context?

HB: I think you can consider Zemmour from a psychoanalytic anglebut psychoanalysis tied to political history. His neuroses are really a product of republican integration. Hes a good student, in a manner of speaking. That is to say, his parents accepted the narrative of integration. They came from Algeria. They were Jews, but not too much. They were first and foremost French. I imagine that when one is a Jew from Algeria in a France that is simultaneously Arabophobic and antisemitic, one is very worried about structural racism, and that worry shaped their route to integration, which is the only thing France offers everyone. In fact, I think Zemmour is tortured by this journey that he wants to complete. He wants to disappear the Jew in him, and he cant stand to see Muslims or other Jews who want to maintain a sense of their identity. And, in fact, this completely delirious Islamophobia is in response to a Muslim world that accepts itself and doesnt hidewhere people observe Ramadan, go to the mosque, have Muslim or Arab names. He wants all victims of racism to stop resisting and dissolve into the sea of whiteness. He wants to make it all disappear because people who resist remind him of his own cowardice. In other words, he wants everyone to make the same sacrifice he made.

His attempts to rehabilitate Marshal Ptain [chief of state of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944], who participated in the final solution, are the logical conclusion of his journey. In undertaking this process of hysterical assimilation, Zemmour is saying, in a certain way: I want the French to exterminate meculturally, if not physically. Hes saying, in fact: I want the whites to finish their work.

France produced this creature. Hes a creature of colonialism because hes Algerian. Hes a creature of the relationship of France to nonwhites in general and to Jews in particular.

FV: It is important to remember, too, that even if Ptain is widely recognized as a collaborationist of Nazism, many Vichy-era judges, magistrates, police chiefs, army officers and civil servants remained in their posts after the war, or found careers in the overseas departments and then back in France again. The full circulation of their violence is not often discussed.

One of the most infamous figures is Maurice Papon, who was the secretary general for the police in Bordeaux [during World War II], where he participated in the deportation of Jewish children. And then he became the prefect of Constantine [during the Algerian War], where he repressed and tortured Algerians. In 1961, as a prefect in Paris, he orchestrated the October 17th massacre of Algerians demonstrating against the curfew that was imposed on them. So, at the state level, there is profound complicity between colonial repression and antisemitism. When Papon was on trial for the deportation of Jewish children, the 1961 massacre was not included in the accusation. But colonialism and the making of antisemitic France are deeply connected.

CS: Even as these circuits of violence expose how antisemitism and colonialism have both been mechanisms for reconstituting French nationalism, theres also a way that the Holocaustthat urtext of antisemitic violenceis repeatedly called up in conversations at the highest level of the state. Whats the role of the memory of the Holocaust in particular in the construction of contemporary Frenchness?

FV: Its part now of the national narrative. We atone for that. Vichy was bad. And so now we can be past that. But it allows for the weaponization of the specter of antisemitism. There are Islamophobic Jewish organizations in France, condemning BDS, and anything that appears pro-Palestinian.

CS: After the election, what comes next for the left and for decolonial struggle in France?

HB: After the elections, the conversation about decolonialism will die down among the white left. We are in a dialectical relationship with them. In a certain sense, the left vampirizes us, taking over the management of our questions. That is to say, in order for the left in France to represent itself in a certain way, it is necessary to make us disappear. Their movement is not our movement. Even if Mlenchon is more interesting than the other candidates on the question of Islamophobia, and more sympathetic to our struggles against police violence, he is not us.

The elections are cyclical, but the struggle is continuous. We will continue to pursue our project of building an international decolonial movement. We began one important iteration of this project in May 2018, when we convened the first Bandung du Nord conference, an international gathering of nonwhite movements and people in Paris, in a historical filiation with the 1955 Bandung. Whereas the original conference gathered nonwhite people in alliance with all of the colonized South, we called our reworking the Bandung of the North because our task is to create an alliance of nonwhite people living in the Northto think together about the coarticulation of anti-imperialism and anti-racism. And inside of these articulations, were thinking about questions of gender, ecology, economy, capitalism, etc.but always on the condition that our anti-racism is formulated in terms of an anti-imperialist struggle. In France, any struggle that is anti-racist without attending to anti-imperialism will produce an integrationist politicbecause that would mean that were looking to improve our situation only within the imperial borders of the Republic. We are not.

We believe that the South leads its own struggle. If one needs to fight against Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, African autocrats, or whoever, we are in solidarity with people who lead those struggles, but we do not lead them. Our best mode of solidarity with the global South is to fight against our own imperialismright now, against Macron, against NATOand therefore to liberate the South, in a certain sense, from us.

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Waiting on the French Left to Decolonize Itself - Jewish Currents

Regenerative Agriculture Has a Big Race and Equity Issue, and Its Not Going Away Anytime Soon – Well+Good

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

This Earth Month, join us as we explore the personal steps and global movements that will work in tandem to keep our planet healthy. Because, as we know, the Earths well-being directly impacts our own. Read more

Take a close look at the packaged foods that line the shelves of your local supermarket, and you'll likely notice a promising uptick in labels that nod to the environmental efforts put forth by the product's manufacturer. While plenty of the marketing claims used are familiar (if nebulous) words like natural, sustainable, and climate-friendly to tout the brands commitment to addressing the impact the food industry has on the planet, you may also spot a newer term on both processed foods and produce: regenerative. This is a nod to the significant increase in interest America has seen in the past three years in the regenerative agriculture movement, with even huge corporations like Cargill and Nestl publicly touting their support for a move to regenerative food systems.

In essence, the term 'regenerative agriculture' means using agricultural practices that helprather than hurtthe environment, according to Ryland Engelhart, co-founder of Kiss the Ground, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring participation in regenerative agriculture. It presents a promising way to combat the climate crisis by capturing carbon emissions from the atmosphere and rebuilding soil health. And though the discussions of regenerative agriculture as a potential solution for carbon sequestration, improving water and air quality, and increasing biodiversity are valid, they dont take into account where these practices originated from, nor the social or racial injustices that are still at play within the agricultural system. This is a huge problem, and one that is only going to continue to grow alongside the burgeoning movement.

To understand why the regenerative agriculture movement is rooted in inequitable practices, we must first take a closer look at what's involved. Regenerative agriculture aims to prioritize soil health and use land management practices that emulate nature and rehabilitate the land, thereby offering a potential solution for feeding our population without depleting the planet's resources in the process. This is extremely important, as todays agricultural practices are responsible for an estimated one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Clearly, there is tremendous promise in regenerative agriculture. However, as the movement grows and the term becomes more widely used, a key issue is being swept aside in the frenzy to jump on the latest sustainability bandwagon: This "new" way of doing things is actually just a compilation of farming methods long-practiced by Indigenous populations. Regenerative agriculture cannot be perceived as a 'rising trend' for fixing the climate crisis; it is a return to an old way of land stewardship. Until we have a consensus on what regenerative agriculture actually means, where it comes from, and we recognize the human dimension of the agricultural system, regenerative agriculture isn't just at risk of becoming just another greenwashed marketing termit's at risk of becoming a movement blinded by whitewashing.

Regenerative agriculture is not a new concept.

Perhaps the biggest fallacy about regenerative agriculture is that it is an innovative way of growing food. When you trace the origins of the practices that are now being deemed "new" and "revolutionary," you find that many (including regenerative agriculture, biodynamics, and permaculture, to name a few) have been practiced in Indigenous cultures for thousands of years. Celebrated practices such as seed preservation, eating seasonally, and planting native species draw directly from the methods of marginalized communities.

According to Nicole Civita, vice president of strategic initiatives at Sterling College in Vermont and a food systems transformation agent, ethicist, and educator, few in this newly-minted regenerative agriculture movement prioritize concern for the well-being of those who labor in the food system. (Think farm workers, not farm owners or managers). Many so-called regenerative farmers are fighting to maintain outdated, racist laws that exclude agricultural workers from basic workplace protections, Civita says. "Agriculture cannot be truly 'regenerative' if it hinges on the exploitative degeneration of the human lives that power it." Organic, regeneratively grown veggies sold at the farmers' market still fall short if they were picked by workers making below minimum wage without overtime, working without access to water and shade in the heat of summer.

In fact, Civita says that many of the practices that are currently being dubbed regenerative are the same as practices that biotech proponents and international development organizations have tried to get small farmers to abandon in favor of more industrial farming methods. In a turnabout that is simultaneously stunning and predictable, these same practices are being labeled regenerative by largely white celebrity farmers, Civita says. The same multinational corporations that developed their power through conventional agriculture are now the ones hoping to benefit from advancing these new regenerative practices.

Truly regenerative agriculture is about so much more than just creating carbon sinks and improving soil health, says Devon Pea, a Chicano farmer in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, founder and president of the Acequia Institute, and professor of American ethnic studies, anthropology, and environmental studies at the University of Washington. Actual environmental wellness goes far beyond ideal production practicesin fact, this singular focus perpetuates an agricultural system that has long been devoid of social and racial justice. A just and inclusive regenerative food system must include robust discussion and action on issues such as community health, cultural resilience, and basic human rights, says Pea. He says that the current industrial farming system is based on an individualistic approach that doesnt reward this type of collective action, and therefore doesnt drive toward equity.

Denying the roots of the regenerative agriculture movement perpetuates the complicated history of structural racism on which much of our food system is based. According to Pea, the invisibility of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) farmers within the regenerative agriculture movement is unjust. It is very easy to go from dispossession of land to erasure, he says. "BIPOC farmers and Indigenous populations need to be acknowledged both for their role in the overall agricultural system and for the role they have played for centuries in the regenerative movement. They must not be brushed aside in the quest for the next trend in agriculture and alternative food culture."

Both Civita and Pea agree that in order to be able to champion the promise of the regenerative agriculture movement,we need a collective change in mentality. You can't get to the solutions by just focusing on ecology, or on agro-ecological factors, says Pea. You also have to focus on the human dimension, community dimension, andeven more importantlythe institutional dimension that applies to all the institutions that will need to support sustainable regenerative agriculture. That means improving labor practices and providing credit to (and access to land for) BIPOC farmers. We need collective action that takes care of the people at the core of our food system.

We should be suspicious about any solutions that reduce our intertwined eco-social crises down to just one component, adds Civita. The current concern over CO2 levels, while justifiable given the severity of the climate crisis, has led the regenerative agriculture movement in a myopic direction that continues to reward the same people that the current system does. This further perpetuates the invisibility of the BIPOC farmers that the entire structure is based upon, both in terms of origination of principles as well as labor. Real change will require taking smallholder agriculture and smallholder wisdom seriously when practicing regenerative agriculture. It also involves interrogating why and how so much land wound up in the hands of so few wealthy white landowners and their multinationals. And it means taking political action to support to undo the legacy of colonialism, displacement, slavery, and centuries of discriminatory practices within the United States Department of Agriculture.

Additionally, we need a clear definition of what regenerative agriculture is, because there is currently no agreed-upon meaning of the term. In fact, a study done at The University of Colorado Boulder found that across 229 academic journal articles and 25 practitioner websites, definitions of 'regenerative agriculture' varied tremendously. "I get concerned when self-interested actors fabulize the term 'regenerative agriculture.' As the phrase gets buzzier, we're seeing many poorly definedor wholly undefinedways of using it," says Civita, who also worked on the study. She cautions that this lack of clarity is about much more than mere semantics. "Speaking about regenerative agriculture in such a loose way masks how little some of these so-called 'regenerative' initiatives actually do to improve the health of ecosystems and well-being of communities." Without a clear set of principles that outline what the intended ecological, social, and cultural outcomes are (and who the movement is intended to benefit), there is no clear path forward. There is currently one regenerative agriculture certification program, Regenerative Organic Certified, with others likely on their way, but it will take widespread acceptance and adoption by food growers and manufacturers for these programs to have an impact.

Change also requires that the powerful companies and individuals who have consistently profited from environmental and climate harms that have resulted from large-scale agricultural practices are held accountable through the legal, regulatory, and tax systems. While many large companies do participate in carbon credit programs, these systems essentially just allow companies to continue to emit carbon if they are willing to pay to pollute. While this may cap carbon emissions to a certain point or help sequester some of the carbon into the ground, it does nothing for fixing problematic practices and driving change in the long-term.

These recommended actions may seem beyond an individual readers sphere of influence on the regenerative agriculture movement. But as Civita says, The way we get policy change involves voting whenever we are able, as well as actively defending the voting rights of others who have been on the losing end of these extractive systems, and keeping the pressure on elected officials between elections with calls, emails and demonstrations. Getting involved with alliances and networks like the HEAL Food Alliance, A Growing Culture, EcoGather, the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, and the Food Chain Workers Allianceor any of their more local member organizationsis a great place to start.

Until we are willing to be as open to the idea of talking about power and privilege as we are to cover crops and tilling methods, the transformational potential of regenerative agriculture will be limited at best. But if we can tap into the collective wisdom of BIPOC communities, advocate for the small stakeholders (and those who have been traditionally oppressed by large-scale, industrial agriculture), and take care of the people at the root of our food system... well, then we might just have hope of regeneration, after all.

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Regenerative Agriculture Has a Big Race and Equity Issue, and Its Not Going Away Anytime Soon - Well+Good

– High Seas Alliance

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

The final round of negotiations on the UN Treaty for Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ)is taking place in New York, March 7-18.

Since its founding in 2011, the High Seas Alliance (HSA) with its 40+ non-governmental members and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has been working towards protecting the 50% of the planet that is the high seas. As the region of the global ocean that is beyond national jurisdiction, the high seas includes some of the most biologically important, least protected, and most critically threatened ecosystems in the world.

HSA members work together to inspire, inform and engage the public, decision-makers and experts to support and strengthen high seas governance and conservation, as well as cooperating towards the establishment of high seas protected areas.

Our current priority is to ensure that an intergovernmental conference taking place at the United Nations from 2018-2021 for the development of a new legally binding treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea results in robust protection for marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The next two years are a particularly critical time as States from around the world negotiate the content of the treaty.

Currently, there are no legally binding mechanisms for establishing marine protected areas outside States territorial seas, or for undertaking environmental impact assessments. Yet increasing impacts from overfishing, climate change, deep-seabed mining and shipping continue to negatively affect biodiversity on the high seas.

HSA is working to ensure that treaty negotiations result in robust and effective conservation measures that address gaps in current ocean governance.

We are now in the conclusive stages of the negotiations, with the fourth and final intergovernmental conference (IGC4) scheduled for August 2021. The need for a strong final push and elevated political will from States is required now more than ever if we are to adopt a new high seas treaty at IGC4 and ensure the protections the high seas so desperately deserves. The treaty is a once in a generation opportunity to shift the status quo of high seas governance and management and protect nearly half the planet.

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- High Seas Alliance

International waters – Wikipedia

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Water outside of national jurisdiction

The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems (aquifers), and wetlands.[1]

"International waters" is not a defined term in international law. It is an informal term, which most often refers to waters beyond the "territorial sea" of any country.[2] In other words, "international waters" is often used as an informal synonym for the more formal term high seas or, in Latin, mare liberum (meaning free sea).

International waters (high seas) do not belong to any state's jurisdiction, known under the doctrine of 'mare liberum'. States have the right to fishing, navigation, overflight, laying cables and pipelines, as well as scientific research.

The Convention on the High Seas, signed in 1958, which has 63 signatories, defined "high seas" to mean "all parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State" and where "no State may validly purport tosubject any part of them to its sovereignty."[3] The Convention on the High Seas was used as a foundation for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed in 1982, which recognized exclusive economic zones extending 200 nautical miles (230mi; 370km) from the baseline, where coastal states have sovereign rights to the water column and sea floor as well as the natural resources found there.[4]

The high seas make up 50% of the surface area of the planet and cover over two-thirds of the ocean.[5]

Ships sailing the high seas are generally under the jurisdiction of the flag state (if there is one);[6] however when a ship is involved in certain criminal acts, such as piracy,[7] any nation can exercise jurisdiction under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction. International waters can be contrasted with internal waters, territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.

UNCLOS also contains, in its part XII, special provisions for the protection of the marine environment, which, in certain cases, allow port States to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction over foreign ships on the high seas if they violate international environmental rules (adopted by the IMO), such as the MARPOL Convention.[8]

Several international treaties have established freedom of navigation on semi-enclosed seas.

Other international treaties have opened up rivers, which are not traditionally international waterways.

Current unresolved disputes over whether particular waters are "International waters" include:

In addition to formal disputes, the government of Somalia exercises little control de facto over Somali territorial waters. Consequently, much piracy, illegal dumping of waste and fishing without permit has occurred.

restrictions on national jurisdiction and sovereignty

At least ten conventions are included within the Regional Seas Program of UNEP,[19] including:

Addressing regional freshwater issues is the 1992 Helsinki Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE/Helsinki Water Convention)[23]

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International waters - Wikipedia

Naval Service on the offensive to enlist more personnel – Irish Examiner

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

As it welcomed its latest batch of recruits who have qualified to serve in its ranks, the Naval Service has insisted it has jobs for everybody as it tries to get more young people onboard.

The force has about 200 vacancies across multiple roles at present and wants to emphasise it is a career that offers quality on-the-job training in a myriad of fields.

Lieutenant Commander Michael Brunicardi, the Naval Services press officer, readily admits that the force is suffering from personnel shortages and now has a full-time team visiting schools, colleges and shopping centres in an effort to recruit more people.

The recruiters will be in the Marina Market in Cork City on Easter Saturday trying to promote a career on the high seas.

It was a love of the sea that attracted Adam Mahony, 25, from Midleton, Co Cork, to join up. His family watched on proudly as he and 12 other recruits took part in their passing out parade at Naval Service headquarters at Haulbowline Island, in Cork harbour.

I always loved the sea. I grew up on fishing boats and I did coastal rowing with the East Ferry club. Mr Mahony said.

He said initially he was nervous joining up, but the camaraderie amongst his fellow recruits was a major plus and we gelled as a class".

He previously worked as a mechanic and wants to become an engine room fitter, which will be good news for his employers as they're short of such technicians.

Patrick Gilbert, 26, from Lixnaw, Co Kerry, is also considering the same type of job.

Prior to joining up he worked as a machine driver in different parts of Ireland as well as in Scotland and London.

I was earning decent money doing that. But I felt it really wasnt for me. I always wanted to join the navy since I was young. There are endless opportunities. You wouldnt have on-the-job training like this anywhere else, Mr Gilbert said said.

The 13 recruits, aged 18-27 (the upper age limit) hail from Cork, Waterford, Meath, Dublin, Kerry, Kildare, Antrim and Tyrone.

Weather forecast: Showers and rough seas – Dominican Today

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Onamet (file photo).

Santo Domingo.- The National Meteorological Office (Onamet), reported Wednesday that moderate downpours with thunderstorms and possible wind gusts will continue, especially in the afternoon until the early evening hours, while seas will remain rough.

Forecasters predicted that these rains will be more prevalent in the northwest, north, northeast, and southeast (especially in Greater Santo Domingo), the Central Cordillera, and the border area. This is due to a frontal system to the northeast of the country and a constant movement of clouds over the territory caused by prevailing winds from the east/northeast.

The meteorological service is forecasting high wave activity at sea and advises fragile and small boats to sail close to the coastline without venturing out to sea.

Meanwhile, for tomorrow, Thursday, conditions will be favorable for persistent downpours, thunderstorms, and occasional wind gusts, mainly in the afternoon until the early evening towards the northwest, northeast, southeast, Cibao Valley, Central Cordillera, and the border area, as a result of moisture and instability left by the frontal system and a trough that is approaching the country.

Groove Cruise, The World’s Largest Floating Dance Music Festival, Announces Its Upcoming Excursion Aboard Newly Remodeled and Award-Winning Ship – PR…

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

MIAMI (PRWEB) April 13, 2022

After a tumultuous couple of years of rough waters, Whet Travel is back for an incredible 19th season and 35th sailing of Groove Cruise as the worlds original and largest floating electronic music festival shines as a beacon of hope that things are getting back to normal. Between January 19th and 23rd, 2023, the award-winning luxury cruise ship, Celebrity Summit, will welcome aboard party captains as it sets sail for the trip of a lifetime, from Miami to Labadee.

After pivoting to successful virtual cruises during the pandemic, Groove Cruise returned to the high seas in supremely safe fashion this past January at the height of Omicron. Last time out, there was not a single onboard case of Covid, thanks to our rigorous safety measures. The cruises theme will be hope, as a way of noting that, finally, the pandemic is sailing away, and we are back to enjoying the freedoms we love.

Once onboard, captains will be treated to 96-hours of non-stop electronic music from over 50 of the world's best electronic music artists on 9 stages hosted by the most cutting edge brands, record labels, and industry leaders, all with immersive and mind-blowing production.

Celebrity Summit is an award-winning luxury cruise ship that has recently been revolutionized completely to become one of the first cruise ships powered by environmentally-friendly gas turbines. Featuring high seas luxury, around-the-clock entertainment, and world-class dining in a safe environment, the ship is now one of the most technologically advanced globally after the fleet has had more than $500-million in luxurious upgrades, including:

Extravagantly transformed Suites, Restaurants, Bars, Boutiques, and Casino Travel Weeklys Magellan Gold Awards for The Spa by Canyon Ranch and Penthouse Suite Design All-New Craft Social Featuring over 40 Craft Beers and Creative Cocktails The Retreat Sundeck & Lounge envisioned by world-renowned designer Kelly Hoppen, MBE, plus exclusive Luminae Restaurant with Signature Dishes from Michelin-Starred Chef, Daniel Boulud

Whether you like to indulge in food, sport, relaxation, games, or education, there are endless cruise activities. From health & wellness to contemporary art collections, hot glass classes to casino games and slots, croquet or bocce at the Lawn Club, pool volleyball, theatre shows, and so much more.

As always, there will be eight costume parties that have become a favorite feature of the floating festival, along with a wealth of exclusive artist and fan activities that get you up close and personal with the stars.

Touching down at the Labadee private paradise party in Haiti, Captains will gravitate towards awe-inspiring activities like:

The Dragons Breath Flight Line: the worlds longest zip line over water at 500 feet up The Dragons Tail Roller Coaster: coast down Labadees mountainside at 30 mph Private Cabanas: unwind on one of the Caribbeans sparkling beaches Boat and Island Tours Parasailing Jet skis and Kayaks The Dragons Cafe: a local eatery featuring Labadees signature drink, the Labodoozie

Tickets for Groove Cruise Miami 2023 go on sale April 13 at 12pm EST and will sell out, so navigate over to GrooveCruise.com and book this bucket list adventure now.

About Whet TravelFor the past 18 years, Whet Travel has curated and produced more half-and full-ship music cruises than any other independent company. Partnering with some of the cruise industrys most recognized and trusted brands, the revolutionary company has executed more than 50 wildly successful events including Groove Cruise, Shiprocked, Motorboat, Zen Cruise, Salsa Cruise, Aventura Dance Cruise, and Groove Island, among others. Innovators since their launch in 2004, Whet Travel was named Inc. Magazines No. 4 fastest-growing travel company in the country, has won the prestigious Charter Partner of the Year award from Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines, and has been featured in USA Today, Billboard, Travel Channel, NBC, Forbes, and more.

About Groove CruiseKnown as the world's first and largest floating dance music festival, Groove Cruise is the only music cruise to sail from both East and West coasts. It is a non-stop experience comprising four straight days of beach, pool and theme parties, numerous delectable restaurants, 24/7 electronic dance music, art installations, and exotic destination experiences. In addition to the standard cruise amenities, there are also artist activities, Whet Oasis Zen Experience, world-class production, and various onboard events that rival the best dance music festivals in the world. Groove Cruise is produced by Whet Travel.

About Whet FoundationThe Whet Foundation is a Florida based 501c3 organization that offers grass roots disaster relief for those experiencing hardships and creates exciting experiences for underprivileged children in South Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico. Through our Community Captains and Destination Donation programs, we strive to excite the lives of those less fortunate in a fun and engaging way while positively affecting an entire generation. In 2020, the Whet Foundation launched its COVID-19 Relief Fund through the Groove Cruise Virtual Sail Aways live streams on twitch and have since accumulated over 9 million minutes watched and 1 million live views; this massive support raised over $50,000 for those facing hardships due to COVID-19 and was able to send over 250 relief grants and donate hundreds of face shields to multiple hospitals in South Florida.

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Groove Cruise, The World's Largest Floating Dance Music Festival, Announces Its Upcoming Excursion Aboard Newly Remodeled and Award-Winning Ship - PR...

Meet the Iron Duke-Class: The Most Powerful Battleship of World War I? – 19FortyFive

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

There were many powerful battleships during the 2oth century. Where does the Iron Duke rank?HMSIron Dukewas the second battleship named after the Duke of Wellington. The first, scrapped in 1906, had the distinction of ramming and sinking HMSVanguard, anotherRoyal Navy battleship. The secondIron Dukewas the name ship of the last class of dreadnoughts to enter Royal Navy service prior to the beginning of World War I.

It and its sisters were considered super-dreadnoughts, an ill-defined term that distinguishes the second generation of dreadnought battleships from the first. Generally speaking, super-dreadnoughtsavoided wing turrets, carrying guns in the centerline with super-firing turrets. Most super-dreadnoughts carried weapons heavier than twelve inches (although this varied from country to country), and had more advanced armor schemes. However, no one has successfully established a clear definition for the distinction.

Laid down in 1912,Iron Dukewas commissioned in March 1914. It displaced twenty-five thousand tons, and carried ten 13.5-inch guns in five twin turrets. Its secondary armament, deployed in singlecasemates, consisted of twelve six-inch guns. Like mostRoyal Navy battleshipsof the era, it could make twenty-one knots.Iron Dukewas a well-designed ship, capable of outgunning its German (if not its American) counterparts, and serving as the basis for the even more heavily armed Chilean battleshipAlmiranteLatorre. The Iron Dukes were the third four-ship class of super-dreadnought (following the Orions and the King George Vs), and represented a staggering acceleration of peacetime naval construction on the part of the United Kingdom. The Royal Navy, mindful of its competition with Germany, would commission twenty-two super-dreadnoughts between 1912 and 1917, plus another half-dozenbattlecruisers. OnlyU.S. aircraft-carrier construction in World War IIcan compare with this level of productivity.

HMSIron Dukebecame flagship of the Grand Fleet upon its creation in August 1914.Iron Dukecarried the flag of Adm. John Jellicoe, who had been promoted by Winston Churchill to command at the beginning of the war. Jellicoes job was to not lose the war, and the way to do that was to avoid being destroyed by the German High Seas Fleet. Given that the German fleet was smaller than the Grand Fleet and was limited geographically, this was an achievable task. Jellicoe understood that numerical superiority was key to victory in modern naval engagements, and steadfastly refused to allow the Royal Navy to meet the High Seas Fleet in detail. Consequently, the Grand Fleet spent most of its time conducting gunnery and seamanship drills, punctuated by the occasional sortie to try to catch the High Seas Fleet in the open.

The only genuinely productive sortie of this sort came in late May 1916, whenIron Dukeserved as Jellicoes flagship at the Battle of Jutland. At the head of the British line, it inflicted serious damage on the German battleship SMSKonig, as well as several smaller ships. The German prey escaped in the night, however, andIron Dukereturned to Scapa Flow as the Navy became mired in controversy. The failure to destroy the High Seas Fleet, despite obvious British advantages, took a severe toll on public and elite impressions of Admiral Jellicoe. Jellicoe was eventually promoted out of the command of the Grand Fleet, and replaced by David Beatty. The crew ofIron Dukedidnt care for the new admiral, so Beatty moved his flag toQueen Elizabeth. The rest ofIron Dukes World War I career was uneventful.

The Washington Naval Treaty culled the worlds battleship fleets, butIron Dukesurvived the first cut of 1922. It served extensively in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean, helping to manage the fallout of the Russian Civil War and the Greco-Turkish War. The Royal Navy investigated a modernization scheme in the late 1920s, but expected the pending London Naval Treaty of 1930 to further reduce the number of allowable battleships. Instead of a modernization,Iron Dukewas demilitarized, losing most of its armor and much of its armament. It served as a gunnery training ship for the rest of the 1930s, and was an accommodation ship at the beginning of World War II. In October 1939, long-range German bombers struck Scapa Flow, and damaged it badly enough to force a grounding. A March 1940 raid inflicted additional damage, andIron Dukewould remain in place for the balance of the war. In 1948Iron Dukewas sent to the breakers.

HMSIron Dukeand its sisters perfectly captured the super dreadnought concept; their large guns, tripod masts and balanced appearance made them look both stout and deadly.Iron Dukeseemed singularly well named for its role as flagship of the Grand Fleet, although it is odd that the greatest collection of Royal Navy capital ships was led by a ship that took the name of a British Army commander. Its type was of so little use by World War II that the Royal Navy made no effort to restore it to frontline service, as it would have suffered badly under the guns of modern German, Japanese and Italian warships.

Robert Farleyis a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School at the University of Kentucky.

Editors Note: The original picture was removed and replaced as it was mislabeled at the source.

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Meet the Iron Duke-Class: The Most Powerful Battleship of World War I? - 19FortyFive

MAIB: Crew’s Comfort With Rough Weather May Have Caused Container Loss – The Maritime Executive

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Rough North Sea weather in the Orkney Islands (Oliver Dixon / CC BY SA 2.0)

PublishedApr 13, 2022 6:47 PM by The Maritime Executive

Container loss incidents have drawn increasing scrutiny from regulators because of the potential for pollution from containerized cargoes, particularly plastics. In a new report, the UK MAIB warned that crew complacency may have played a role in a container loss casualty off Scotland's Orkney Islands.

On October 31, 2020, the Dutch feederFrancisca was under way off Duncansby Head in the UK North Sea, bound for the Netherlands. A heavy storm was passing through the region, and Francisca encountered high waves.

While pitching into the swells, Francisca shipped water over the bulwarks, and containers on deck were hit by the seas. This caused a stack collapse, and 34 containers were lost over the side. All but one were empties, and only a small amount of cargo washed ashore. The ship and her crew were unharmed and were able to head for sheltered waters.

According to MAIB's initial assessment, Francisca lost some speed and heading control when she hit each wave, exposing the deck cargo to green seas. This was enough to overload the lashings and topple the boxes.

The agency suggested that the ship's crew may havebecome accustomed to the routine foul weather on the route between Iceland and the Netherlands, and they may not have appreciated the risk of the situation their ship was in. In addition, corrosion of the cargo lashing arrangements and the absence of a breakwater at the bow may have contributed to the loss, MAIB said.

"Everything is well established and we have worked completely according to the rules," said Erik van der Wiel, director of ship manager VMS, speaking to RTV Noord after the casualty. "A storm caused high waves. As a result, water probably washed over the deck and the containers were knocked overboard. Fortunately, the crew was unharmed and the ship itself was not badly damaged. It is a bad situation, with a good outcome for the time being."

Top image: Storm at Row Head, Orkney(Oliver Dixon / CC BY SA 2.0)

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MAIB: Crew's Comfort With Rough Weather May Have Caused Container Loss - The Maritime Executive

Costa Rica Directs its Efforts Towards Protecting the Ocean : – The Tico Times

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Costa Rica began 2022 implementing ocean diplomacy in favor of the protection of marine resources in different areas. The country is determined to continue executing all the required actions to protect the different ecosystems and oceans are no exception.

By organizing the High Seas Dialogues, together with Belgium and Monaco, Costa Rica has maintained its leadership position on issues of conservation and sustainable use of marine resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Costa Rica has also joined the group of countries leading the initiative for an international treaty on marine plastic pollution.

For the rest of the year, will seek a resolution that achieves the creation of a committee to open a negotiation for a binding instrument. Costa Rica is developing national and regional action plans to achieve the reduction of marine waste, given the high quantity of plastics and microplastics that end up in the ocean.

As a member of the Council of the International Seabed Authority, the country has focused on promoting the inclusion of environmental safeguards that guarantee the effective protection of the marine environment in the Code on Exploration and Mining of the Seabed. It has also been demanding transparency in decision-making processes and promoting a fair and equitable financial mechanism and benefit-sharing scheme.

Also, during the COP 26 celebrated during October 2021, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Colombia announced the strengthening of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) and their intention for this area to become a Transboundary Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO. This enhances Costa Ricas commitment to a better and greener world.

The actions implemented are part of a Blue Smart Strategy endorsed by Costa Rica to promote the creation of synergies, particularly among Latin American and Caribbean countries and extra-regional partners, to guide environmentally positive actions. The nation hopes to encourage the expansion of protected areas between countries and create opportunities for dialogue, cooperation, investment and trade.

Along with France and the United Kingdom, the country has highlighted the importance of adopting the 30X30 target (to protect 30% of the planets surface). This was discussed in the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, noting the relevance of involving indigenous peoples and local communities in determining the areas to be protected.

The protection of 30% of the global marine area is in itself a nature-based solution, which will allow the recovery of ecosystems essential for biodiversity and the strengthening of the carbon absorption capacity of the oceans.

Finally, Costa Rica believes the negotiation of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ) agreement is an essential tool in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss; which is precisely why the country advocates for the incorporation of clauses that allow the creation, monitoring and reviewing of marine protected areas.

Moreover, the country believes in the inclusion of strong environmental safeguards for economic activities that may be developed in the high seas and in the addition of Environmental Impact Assessments for activities generated in the high seas.

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Costa Rica Directs its Efforts Towards Protecting the Ocean : - The Tico Times

Sanctioned and Sailing Through Chinese Waters: The Case of the UN-Blacklisted Hoe Ryong – The Diplomat

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

The U.N.-designated North Korean vessel Hoe Ryong left a stretch of Chinese coastline south of Shanghai and headed back to North Korean waters in late March. That was just one of several such journeys the sanctioned ship has made in recent years, with apparently little or no effort made to hide its voyages through Chinese territorial waters.

Although the vessels tracking Auto Identification System (AIS) broadcasts are occasionally patchy common practice among North Koreas fleet of smugglers the U.N., U.S., U.K., and EU sanctioned ship seems to be less concerned with hiding its location than many of its peers.

But the Hoe Ryong is careful in one regard: It does not visit or broadcast visits to Chinese ports. Seeing as the vessel is subject to a U.N.-mandated asset freeze, any such visit would place mandatory seizure requirements on Beijing. Being at sea just a short distance away seems to appease regulators and gives China enough wiggle room to justify its apparent lack of action.

A recently released report from the U.N. Panel of Experts (PoE) tasked with monitoring North Korean sanctions evasion notes that such North Korean ship journeys to Zhoushan, along the coast of Chinas Zhejiang province, are not rare. That said, the Hoe Ryongs U.N. blacklisted status does make the vessel stand out among most of its smuggling peers and could potentially place additional obligations on Beijing.

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The Hoe Ryongs recorded journeys since January 1 2020. Image: Pole Star Space Applications.

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Into the Breach

The North Korea-registered Hoe Ryong has made numerous journeys around the Korean Peninsula in recent years, apparently transporting materials between North Korean coastlines via stops in waters close to Shanghai.

The Zhoushan Port Area near Shanghai is a favored hot spot for sanctions busting ship-to-ship transfers, with numerous reports noting how North Korean vessels transit to the area to exchange designated cargos like coal and oil.

Yet while most North Korean vessels take measures to conceal their movements through Chinese waters, the Hoe Ryong seems less cautious, broadcasting its location relatively consistently as it sails around the network waterways made by several large islands in the area.

Since the start of 2020, the Hoe Ryong has stopped of in the Zhoushan area five times, despite North Koreas apparently strict COVID-19 measures, which impacted both sea- and land-borne trade.

During such visits, the sanctioned North Korean ship appears to loiter near one or more of the islands in the area for several days before setting sail once again for North Korean shores, behavior consistent with North Korean ships engaged in ship-to-ship transfers.

The Hoe Ryongs route near two islands off the coast of Shanghai in 2020. Image: Pole Star Space Applications.

The latest such voyage coming in late March differed slightly and showed the North Korean ship apparently arriving and departing somewhere near the Chinese mainland coastline, to the south of Shanghai.

The Hoe Ryongs route towards the Chinese mainland coastline in late March. Image: Pole Star Space Applications.

In their most recent report published on April 1, the PoE included photographs of another of the Hoe Ryongs journeys, which took place in 2021. The PoE noted that the sanctioned ship was riding low in water when it arrived in Ningbo-Zhoushan but was later observed riding high in water, indicating it had offloaded DPRK-origin coal during that period of time.

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Image: U.N. Panel of Experts.

In all visits to Chinese waters, the sanctioned ship appears to keep away from actually docking in any Chinese ports, or at least advertising any such visits. Such an action would impose interdiction requirements on Beijing. According to the U.N. Panel of Experts, when asked about the Hoe Ryongs visit, Beijing replied there is no record of port calls in China, highlighting that the Chinese government believes that its U.N. obligations terminate at its shoreline.

Asset Freeze

As Pyongyangs sanctions evasion machine has grown in scope and complexity, the wording of U.N. resolutions has become harder to parse. The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) attempted to remedy this in the last resolution passed in 2017 by clearly defining how member states should behave with regards to the maritime interdiction of cargo vessels.

According to 2017s Resolution 2397, U.N. member states must interdict any vessel in a port that is carrying out sanctioned activity or transporting sanctioned cargo and may do so for such activity within the member states territorial waters.

Within the lexicon of U.N. sanctions terminology, the word may does a lot of heavy lifting or no lifting at all depending on how its interpreted. It theoretically allows for member states that hold a tough stance on North Korea to investigate suspicious cargo passing through their waters, though it also allows for nations friendlier to Pyongyang to take no action and not technically breach the wording of the resolution.

Yet the story does not end there. The Hoe Ryong was listed as an asset of notorious North Korean arms dealer Ocean Maritime Management (OMM) in U.N. Resolution 2270, which clearly notes that the Hoe Ryong is subject to asset freeze.

The U.N.s resolutions contain additional provisions for designated entities, with 2006s Resolution 1718 mandating that member states freeze economic assets like designated vessels within their territories. Seeing as China lays claim to vast swathes of the ocean around its borders, it is not a stretch to suppose that waters immediately surrounding Chinese islands may be considered the countrys territory.

An additional provision in the subsequent Resolution 2397 also adds that if a Member State has information regarding the number, name, and registry of vessels encountered in its territory or on the high seas that are designated by the Security Council then the Member State shall notify the Committee of this information and what measures were taken to carry out an inspection, an asset freeze and impoundment or other appropriate action as authorized by the relevant provisions of resolutions.

The key phrase in the paragraph relates to the number, name, and registry of the vessel, a measure likely included in the resolution as North Korean vessels tend to shuffle their identities and associated identifiers in order to evade sanctions. But notably, with designated vessels, the U.N. resolution does not consider a member states jurisdiction ending in its ports, using the wider terms territory and high seas.

With the Hoe Ryong broadcasting its location within Chinese waters, along with its name, IMO number, MMSI number, North Korean registration, and callsign to open sources freely available to anyone with an internet connection, it seems that a case could be made that China does indeed have such information.

Beijing may have also recently worsened its case by passing a data security law that limits foreign companies from accessing AIS ship tracking data from terrestrial Chinese receiving stations. Although some services still appear to have some access to the data, others report a 90 percent drop off.

If this data contains information on U.N. designated vessels moving through Chinese territorial waters which it almost certainly does then Beijing would likely be violating the wording of Resolution 2397 by not reporting such information to the U.N. and what action it took concerning it.

While the Chinese government and the U.N. Security Council have no obligation to make their communications public, the U.N. Panel of Experts reports do provide a window into how China typically answers U.N. investigators when pressed about clear sanctions violations in its waters, with replies usually truculent or inconclusive. To date, there has been no published information on any Chinese interdictions of suspected North Korean smuggling activity within its waters.

The microcosm of North Korean sanctions enforcement seems especially relevant in recent months with numerous countries joining forces in sanctioning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. How China chooses to interpret the wording of U.N. resolutions in order minimize its enforcement obligations should serve as a reminder of the potential limits of sanctions policy, highlighting that countries friendly to those designated are often able to find a way to circumvent them, if the political will is present to do so.

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Sanctioned and Sailing Through Chinese Waters: The Case of the UN-Blacklisted Hoe Ryong - The Diplomat

World Sailing Speed Record Looks To Be Obliterated By The SP80 Sailboat – Boss Hunting

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

When designers put their heads together to make something that looks fast, it generally turns out that it goes pretty fast too. The reverse is equally true, which is exactly what weve got with the SP80 sailboat, which looks like it was imagined by the team at Star Wars and is designed to break the world sailing speed record next year.

As with so many precision engineering and manufacturing companies, be it watchmaking or bicycle production, SP80 is a team based in Switzerland. Since the company was founded in 2018, theyve been hard at work designing the worlds fastest sailing boat, which looks less like the galleys that launched after Helen of Troy, and more like an SR-71 Blackbird jet.

SP80 have designed its sailboat to achieve the eye-watering speeds of 80 knots (150km/h), which if can be actualised in a real-world setting, would shatter the current world record of 65.45 knots (121.1 km/h) that was set in 2012 by the Vestas Sailrocket 2. The vessel itself measures around 10 metres long, with a pair of stabilizing fin-like pontoons that measures seven metres from tip to tip.

RELATED: The Cutting-Edge Material That Makes Richard Mille Watches So Exclusive

In order to keep it as sleek and aerodynamic as possible, the sailboat doesnt actually have a mast or traditional sail, instead propelled by a kite blowing ahead of the vessel. Because of this unconventional design, the vessel requires two pilots, one of whom will steer the boat while the other pilots the kite.

As youd expect in what is effectively an F1 racecar of the high seas, the cockpit of the vessel has been designed with reinforced kevlar elements that can withstand 50G of accelerating force. Boasting bucket seats, six-point harnesses, and helmets for both pilots safety, it will also be the first sailing boat with deployable oxygen masks in case of an emergency.

2023 will be a decisive year, with the final preparations to break the 80 knots record and make sailing history, explained Mayeul van den Broek, co-founder and project manager of SP80.

We are currently looking for the last financial and technical partnerships to take the adventure to the finish line. The whole team is so proud to see this concept becoming a reality and we cant wait to finally unveil and test our final design on the water!

SP80 has already attracted the sponsorship of the watchmaker Richard Mille, a sophisticated manufacturer that actually uses high-end sail making technology to create its extremely robust watch cases. Its a natural fit for both Swiss companies, as SP80 seeks to lock in its final sponsorship partners.

The final SP80 sailboat is expected to be fully built and launched by the end of 2022, with the first attempts at the world sailing speed records to take place near the middle of 2023 in the south of France.

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World Sailing Speed Record Looks To Be Obliterated By The SP80 Sailboat - Boss Hunting

Sea Girl Carbon Theatre – The Reviews Hub

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Writer: Isla van Tricht

Director: Fay Lomas

Just how young can you be before you can start searching for your dreams? Does age factor into it at all or is perhaps sailing the high seas better left to the grownups? Sea Girl, an interactive choose-your-own-adventure rigs the mast and brings the worlds oceans to homes across the globe where audiences can dive with dolphins, explore the Caribbean and take care of one bad-tempered kitten. Taking inspiration from the extraordinary life of the worlds youngest solo explorer Laura Dekker,Sea Girlfinds sisters Naomi and Ellen desperate to undergo their own adventure.

As a piece of interactive media, particularly for children Sea Girlis exceptionally user-friendly, bucking the trend where usual productions struggle with links and loading pages to further the story. It makes for a dynamic shift in pacing, where when required, the story can duck and weave between light-heartened, and even a tad grimmer for audiences never verging on dark or intimidating, but enough to communicate the severity of the situation.

Fay Lomas frames Isal van Trichts story simply, fixing set paths but enabling audiences to make choices and mistakes with ease, offering a snippet of time to choose the characters next actions at each chapters end.

Particularly worth investigating is the inclusive nature of the production, with an experience accompanied by a diverse exploration of sensory textures but thanks toRahana Bananas illustrations (with Jack Leighs animation and Tim Baxters video production)Sea Girlis a splendiferousvisual extravaganza with a softness to the colour palette, not too striking or vivid, furthering the natural accessibility of the piece.

Though performance elements primarily occur via voice-over of the Golden era storybook aesthetics of interactive imagery, the brief live-action moments are handled well where, thankfully, any sibling irritations concerning age are played off as minor grievances rather than the more obtuse and damaging attitudes we are familiar with. The pairs voice-over artists (differing from their live-action portrayal), Helen Crevel and Natalya Martin, capture a necessary sense of maturity when speaking with younger audiences on the dangers of sea travel and the climate pollution crisis.

It all aids in securing Trichts writing, pushing it away from areas of preaching, and instead naturally encourages questions surrounding plastic and wildlife conservation. Both Crevel and Martin bring a delicacy to their role, conveying emotion effortlessly, and tempering their voices for a younger audience. The brief live-action skits find Oilvea Puci and Zahra-Rose Cooke bringing a physicality to the sisters, directed well by Fay Lomas, their parts within the story may be limited but theres a charm to their sisterly connection.

With a multitude of avenues to explore, from the safe to the more exhilarating, Carbon Theatre produces a tightly compact piece that focuses its attention on a widespread audience. An encouraging production, which plays to the strengths of digital theatre rather than falls into the limitations, Sea Girl will keep audiences engaged and active long after theyve had their maiden voyage.

Sea Girl runs here until 30 April 2022

The Reviews Hub Score

Vivid, delightfully interactive

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Sea Girl Carbon Theatre - The Reviews Hub

Hawke’s Bay rain starts but less forecast than in original warnings – New Zealand Herald

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

First port in a storm for trawlers moored at West Quay Napier on Tuesday afternoon ahead of gales and heavy seas forecast off the coast of Hawke's Bay. Photo / Paul Taylor.

Rainfall of almost 20mm was recorded in some parts of Hawke's Bay in the first few hours of a forecast deluge brought-on by ex-Tropical Cyclone Fili.

The initial heaviest rainfalls on Wednesday had been from Napier up State Highway 5 towards Taupo, according to Hawke's Bay Regional Council on-line rainfall recordings about 9am.

The latest forecast, for areas outside of Wairoa, is suggesting that rain warnings are downgrading to 'rain watch' scenarios.

There had been 27.6mm at Te Pohue in the few hours to 9am, 19mm on the Upper Mohaka River at Te Haroto, 21mm at Glengarry, and 18mm at the Council's own site near the Napier CBD.

In the Wairoa area there had been 13.2mm in the Ruakituri area, scene of some of the greatest devastation in the rain over the last half of March.

There had been 16.5mm on the Wairoa River at Marumaru, south of the Ruakituri Valley, just 9mm at the railway bridge in town, and in Te Urewera there had been 27mm at Aniwaniwa.

On the Napier-Taupo highway, also forecast to take some impact from the weather, driver Rob Johnson reported about 7am on the SH5 Napier-Taupo Issues facebook page that the worst of the rain at that stage had been "along the plains to Waipunga then again at Titiokura to Te Pohue."

Ruakituri Valley farmer Nukuhia Hadfield, whose was bracing for more heavy rain barely having started the recovery from damage caused on Mangaroa Station northwest of Wairoa since 1100mm of rain fell between March 21 and April 1, said mid-morning: "It's good just now, coming and going. It hadn't been something to wake you up (in the night) and go 'Oh god, not again'."

National weather agency updated its heavy rain warning for the Wairoa district just before 10am, saying that for the 19 hours 9am to 4am tomorrow, a further 100-150mm of rain could accumulate on top of that already recorded, but 150-250mm was being forecast in the area of the "Whareratas" on State Highway 2 between Wairoa and Gisborne.

The Wairoa district is on high alert after rain totalling more than 1000mm in some areas in barely a week last month.

Possibilities of 250-350mm had been flagged in a warning 24 hours earlier and in a new forecast for the rest of Hawke's Bay, for the 15 hours from 9am, MetService said "warnable amounts" of rain were no longer expected, a "Watch " would be maintained.

Warnings of gales and heavy seas also impacted in the fishing industry, with trawlers berthed in places three-wide at West Quay in Napier by late afternoon on Tuesday.

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Hawke's Bay rain starts but less forecast than in original warnings - New Zealand Herald

Parliament protest: Jacinda Ardern came into contact with Covid-infected cops while thanking them – New Zealand Herald

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Defence force Hercules takes off, Ruapehu in its most active state in roughly 15-years and borders open to Australians, all in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

The Prime Minister was exposed to Covid-19 when she personally thanked police officers during the Parliament protests in February, internal emails have revealed.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern publicly distanced herself from the operational matters of police activity throughout the Parliament protest, which came to a fiery end last month after a 23-day occupation.

Emails provided to the Herald under the Official Information Act state that a group of police officers were visited by the Prime Minister in their allocated "muster" room in Parliament, while she was "doing the rounds of Police contingents to thank them for their work."

The information was provided to public health officials because five of the police officers later tested positive for Covid-19, and had been infectious on February 16 when they were visited by the Prime Minister.

The exposure was later deemed to be a "casual contact".

A police spokesperson confirmed 92 police staff involved in work relating to the protest tested positive for Covid-19 during this period, although it is not possible to determine exactly where they contracted the virus.

An email on behalf of the Covid-IMT response manager on February 20 said Ardern was in the muster room with the infectious police officers for around 15 minutes, and "the extent of her interaction with the cases is being confirmed."

He also stressed the need for "keeping an air of calm about this event, especially re the nature of the contact with the PM".

The email read that positive test results were returned on February 19 for five police staff, with a sixth awaiting PCR results after a positive RAT.

The officers were part of a contingent that had flown from Auckland to Wellington to assist with the protest on February 14.

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Inquiries had indicated three of the staff were infectious prior to departing Auckland and two others had likely been infected by their colleagues.

The email also stated "the group interacted with crowds at the protest during their infectious period."

A earlier email from Regional Public Health Response manager Scott Martin said there had been no specific QR code for the room that could identify officers exposed, and there had been "initial reports of intermittent mask use".

"Mask use has since been reinforced and QR codes will be created for each room (in addition to entry to Parliament buildings)," the email read.

But he said when the Prime Minister visited, "mask use was adhered to and no case had close contact with the officials present."

An email later that afternoon from Regional Public Health said interviews with the positive cases had determined them only to be "casual contacts" with the Prime Minister.

A police spokesperson said staff associated with the protests were tested at approximately 72-hour intervals, or before returning to their usual districts.

"While a sustainable supply of RATs for all Police staff was secured, the distribution of RATs was prioritised for staff delivering priority essential work functions, major event staff and close contacts for critical workers," they said.

Throughout the 23-day occupation, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern disassociated herself from the police operation to manage protest activity.

On February 14, she said told Morning Report police "ultimately need to be able to make all of those operational decisions."

"It is absolutely for the police to determine how they manage any form of occupation or protests. And you can understand why that is a convention we will hold strongly to.

"I would hate to see in the future a situation where you have politicians seen to be instructing the police on how to manage any type of protest - and that extends to not passing judgement on operational decisions that are for them."

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister told the Herald Ardern had thanked frontline police twice during the parliamentary occupation once on February 16 and again on March 3, the day after the operation ended.

"On both occasions the purpose of the visit was to pass on her appreciation for their service and to check in with how police were holding up."

"Her comments were in line with that."

After the protest the Prime minister and Labour team bought blocks of Whittaker's chocolate as a thank you for police, but Ardern did not distribute this to them directly.

The spokesperson said thanking frontline officers for their service in no way impacts on the operational independence of Police.

"It is not uncommon for the Prime Minister, or other Members of Parliament, to thank and acknowledge frontline Police, for example she did so after the March 15 terrorist attack and post Whakaari/White Island as well."

Ardern was also deemed a close contact of a positive Covid-19 case and forced to self-isolate after an exposure event during a flight from Kerikeri to Auckland in January.

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Parliament protest: Jacinda Ardern came into contact with Covid-infected cops while thanking them - New Zealand Herald

Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon’s letters to each other revealed – New Zealand Herald

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Danzig

Ukrainian foreign minister makes a plea for support before attacks, retailers hike prices after most fail to meet targets and the number of vehicles towed from Parliament protest revealed in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

Nearly four years ago, a successful chief executive partnered with the Prime Minister to help solve some of New Zealand's economic problems like infrastructure, training and excessive regulation.

The Prime Minister was "delighted" with the executive's appointment, and the pair appeared to get on well. Four years later, that chief executive, Air New Zealand's Christopher Luxon, is vying for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's job, while she tries to argue the advice she once welcomed would, in fact, be bad for the country.

Luxon and Ardern corresponded regularly before he became a politician. In 2018, he was appointed to lead the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council, a post he resigned when he left Air New Zealand a year later, expressing an interest to enter politics.

Two years of that correspondence has been released to the Herald under the Official Information Act.

The result is mostly what you'd expect. Ardern's correspondence is warm and occasionally effusive in its praise. Luxon's is dry and to the point - at one point he attaches a 68-page report from management consultancy McKinsey on "harnessing automation for a more productive and skilled New Zealand".

Writing to Luxon in October 2018, appointing him to the council, Ardern praised him for offering his "time and energy", writing "I look forward to exchanging ideas and working together on policies that will help us transform the New Zealand economy."

Less than a year later, after Luxon left the council, Ardern wrote again, addressing Luxon with a more familiar "Dear Chris", having previously written to him as "Christopher" (a small mistake on her part, Luxon expresses no public preference against "Chris" but he's "Christopher" to his family and those close to him).

"I would like to thank you and your colleagues from Air New Zealand for the enormous effort you have put into establishing and chairing the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council in its first year of operation.

"I have very much appreciated the enthusiasm and engagement of Council members on policy issues affecting businesses both small and large in New Zealand," Ardern wrote.

She added a handwritten "Thanks again, Chris!" to her letter.

The council's concerns ran the gamut of business concerns with government, from excessive regulation to New Zealand's infrastructure deficit.

As chairman, Luxon was responsible for feeding these concerns back to the Government (writing to Ardern, he adopted the more formal "Dear Prime Minister").

On infrastructure, Luxon said the system that "sits beneath effective and sustainable infrastructure development in our country is fundamentally broken".

"We also have a proclivity as a nation to focus on the short term and on individual projects as a means of addressing our challenges rather than addressing the system itself".

Luxon told Ardern the country was at an "infrastructure crisis point", but said it "is not ... the fault of the current Government".

"These issues are multi-generational and systemic. However, we believe your Government has the opportunity to begin resetting our systems and to address this crisis."

As for fixes, Luxon said he wanted to encourage the Government to "be bolder and think bigger".

Luxon, who has been critical of growing the size of the public service since becoming leader (he told the Herald he has a "major issue with the cost that's going into our civil service at the moment. I think we're adding a huge amount of centralisation, a massive amount of bureaucracy and we're not getting better outcomes"), proposed to create a whole new ministry for planning and cities.

"New Zealand should establish a Ministry of Cities, Urban Development and Population," Luxon wrote.

"This new portfolio could incentivise locally developed, long-term and tangible strategies and execution through to the administration of City Deals. This would include allowing local authorities to capture part of the value created through their own successful strategies and initiatives," Luxon told Ardern.

He also suggested the establishment of "a civil service academy for local and central government" to build "needed capacity in commissioning and managing projects of national significance".

Luxon said the Government should review the Resource Management Act (RMA), the Local Government Act (LGA) and the Land Transport Act (LTA), perhaps through a commission of inquiry. The Government did review the RMA, and has proposed rolling functions of the LGA and LTA into legislation that will replace the RMA.

When it came to just how these infrastructure projects should be paid for, Luxon hewed to the centre. His advice noted there would be a need for "debt-funded" infrastructure, but also urged a "philosophical shift" to embrace "public private partnerships" (PPPs).

"Government needs to ask itself whether there is any great social benefit in the state owning certain assets, especially when that comes at the expense of other government priorities and responsibilities," Luxon wrote.

Labour is open to the use of PPPs in transport (but not in health or education), however its experience with Transmission Gully has meant no transport PPPs have been greenlit under its watch.

Luxon suggested the Government should immediately greenlight the 12 road projects, known as Roads of National Significance the Government had iced when it shifted transport funding away from highways in 2018.

Luxon said that projects should be "opened to private investment" and progressed.

"New Zealand cannot simply rely on the market to deliver projects of scale that are of national significance," Luxon wrote, suggesting the Government should draw up a "national master plan", or "New Zealand Prospectus", of what it wanted to build.

Despite being critical of the cancelled roads, Luxon was supportive of the idea of multi-modal transport, which is where the Government decided to direct its attention after axing those 12 roads.

"... our transport infrastructure solution is not a binary choice between rail or roads, but a comprehensive scaled-up solution of rail and roads and coastal shipping and other modes," Luxon wrote.

"Our system must be totally integrated and agnostic as to mode of transport as each region will have different needs."

He suggested the Government amalgamate the way it funded road, rail, and shipping - which the Government has subsequently done in part.

He said the fund that pays for transport projects with fuel tax and road user charge revenue should be supplemented with general tax revenue "to pay for social and environmental outcomes from investment in rail, walking and cycling".

A list of ten policy priorities from Infrastructure NZ was attached to that letter. One of the priorities included was to establish national three waters entities, taking water services from councils - a policy National now firmly opposes. It is not clear from the correspondence, whether Luxon endorsed every part of the Infrastructure NZ advice he was sending to Ardern.

It is not clear either, whether the Prime Minister ever had the time to drill into the 68 page McKinsey report, however one person who did was then-Economic Development Minister David Parker, whose passion for dry economic literature, particularly Thomas Piketty, is well-known in Parliament.

In June of 2019, he wrote back to Luxon saying the Government was developing an "Industry Strategy" for 10 different sectors of the economy.

He said this was in part thanks to the advice of the Council and the McKinsey report it had sent the Government.

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Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon's letters to each other revealed - New Zealand Herald

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