Italy plans to reopen its borders June 3 with no travel restrictions – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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VENICE, ITALY >> The Italian government announced today that it will throw open its borders next month, effectively ending Europes longest and strictest coronavirus lockdown just as the summer tourism season gets under way.

Both regional and international borders will open June 3, with the government eliminating a 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving from abroad. Many hope the move will revive a decimated tourist industry, which is worth 13% of Italys gross domestic product.

Such an opening is exactly what tourism operators have been waiting for even if European neighbors so far appeared be wary of the unilateral Italian announcement.

We hope to work with the neighboring countries, those who can travel by car, said Gianni Serandrei, the owner of the 4-star Hotel Saturnia near St. Marks Square.

The hotels last guest a determined couple of honeymooners from Argentina checked out around March 11, days after Italys lockdown. And when phones have rung in recent months, it has been with cancellations, with only a few reservations for 2021 trickling in.

Serandrei said that Saturnias clients are overwhelmingly foreign, making open borders and an eventual resumption of air traffic key to a successful season. With no clear indication of when more regular air traffic will resume, he is looking forward to further signals before committing to a June 3 opening. The caution may be merited.

Germany whose border is about a 4-hour drive from Venice through Austria is instructing citizens not to travel abroad for tourism until at least June 15. And officials in neighboring France made clear that they had sought a coordinated European effort on border openings, indicating Italy had jumped the gun.

During a visit to a Normandy beach, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Saturday that European countries should work together in solidarity and held out the possibility of France acting to protect its citizens.

Italys national hotel federation said that by April the sector had already shed 106,000 jobs, with occupancy dropping by 99% for foreigners and 96% for Italians. Another half a million jobs are at risk if the summer season does not take off, according to the association.

Judged by last years turnover, the virus lockdown and suspension of touristic activities cost the country 10 billion euros ($10.8 billion), the amount spent by foreigners in Italy from March to May 2019, according to a study by the national statistics agency ISTAT.

To illustrate the importance of arrivals from nearby countries, Eurostat figures show that French overnight stays in Italy hit 14 million last year, while those from Germany came in at 13.6 million, edging Italians themselves at 13.5 million. Spaniards were the top with 14.6 million.

Italy is hoping also to encourage domestic tourism, offering vouchers to lower income families to spend in Italian hotels, campgrounds and other establishments before the end of the year.

Not everyone is satisfied with the guidelines set out overnight by the government, which foresees the opening Monday of bars, restaurants, shops, hairdressers and beauticians.

Restaurant owners in Milan protested in front of the main train station Saturday, saying that the rules remain unclear and that the entire sector needs more concrete help, including an abolition of taxes. Many worry they will reopen only to have to close again because of lack of business.

And the head of the hotel federation in Florence said Saturday that mask requirements in open spaces seemed redundant if keeping a physical distance.

We dont understand why a tourist would have to stay on the terrace or in the garden of a hotel with a mask, Francesco Bechi said. We are very attentive to health and prevention. Clear and precise rules can guarantee services to guests.

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Italy plans to reopen its borders June 3 with no travel restrictions - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Today marks the 141st anniversary of Girmitiyas arrival to Fiji – Fijivillage

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As we celebrate the 141st anniversary of the Girmitiyas arrival to Fiji today, the Fiji Girmit Council is calling on Fijians to learn from the hard work, pains and sufferings of the indentured labourers, and persevere to fight through the current crisis.

On 14th May, 1879, Fiji saw the arrival of the Leonidas, a ship that had travelled many thousands of kilometres from British India, a more than three-month journey that endured crashing sea waves, disease and even death, to finally anchor in Levuka.

The Executive Secretary of the Fiji Girmit Council, Selwa Nandan says the indentured labourers who were brought to Fiji from India faced great difficulties however they worked hard to contribute to the country, and in the end many also decided to stay back and make Fiji their home.

Nandan says the Council had planned to hold major celebrations this year but will not be able to do so because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

He says this year also marks 100 years since the abolition of the indenture system.

[image: girmit.org]

Some 60,500 Indians were transported to Fiji between 1879 and 1916 when the transportation of indentured Indian labourers was finally stopped.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has shared stories of Girmitiyas.

Bainimarama says that we must never forget the sacrifices that so many ordinary people made.

He adds it is in the stories of individual Girmitiyas that we gain the best insight into what life was like for them.[image: girmit.org]

In the early 1970s, some of the survivors of the era gave interviews to the academic and author, Dr Ahmed Ali. Here are some of the accounts they gave from his book, Girmit. The Indian Indenture Experience in Fiji:

The Story of Lakhpat

[image: girmit.org]

I asked where I would be sent. On being told that it would be Fiji, I Inquired of its whereabouts. I was told that it was close to Calcutta and I could go there willingly. Since it was not a jail I could return when I wanted to. I was scared least these people were merely luring us someplace where they might kill us.

There was a great deal of weeping when we embarked on the ship. People wept because they were leaving their families or their homes. Many of the women were upset because they had been lured away from marketplaces where the recruiters had misled them. I cried because I was leaving everything behind and didnt know where I was going . Nobody knew where Fiji was. These recruiters had misled us and bluffed us into going. I, for instance, had quite a good home. There was no need for me to leave.

From Calcutta we went to Madras and then past Singapore. It took us a month before we reached Fiji. Life was very painful on board ship. For a fortnight I was well, then I became ill and parts of my body began to swell up. When we arrived in Fiji we were all herded into a punt like pigs and taken to Nukulau where we stayed for a fortnight. We were given rice that was full of worms. We were kept and fed like animals.

The Story of Abdul Aziz

[image: girmit.org]

I left India because I was told I would receive a shilling a day for work in Fiji. I went to Naitasiri to serve my Girimit. For a month I spent my time crying. When I got to Naitasiri I thought that I would never see my parents again. But after shedding tears for a month, I decided I must work despite my despair.

On our sugar estate, some who did not learn about cane cultivation were given a thorough beating. Our state was bad enough, but there were others far worse where people were disgraced completely. I did not like the work at all. But I told myself that if I did not work I would die of starvation. There were only two alternatives, work or a thrashing.

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Today marks the 141st anniversary of Girmitiyas arrival to Fiji - Fijivillage

If Europe is forged in crisis, Italy has something to say – Open Democracy

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People will say What is this great journey that you [the EU] are offering? These people wont protect you in a crisis, nor in its aftermath, they have no solidarity with you When immigrants arrive in your country, they tell you to keep them. When you have an epidemic, they tell you to deal with it. Oh, theyre really nice. Theyre in favour of Europe when it means exporting to you the goods they produce. Theyre for Europe when it means having your labour come over and produce the car parts we no longer make at home. But theyre not for Europe when it means sharing the burden.

Not many would have imagined these words would be uttered by the man deemed the potential saviour of the troubled European project. Not anti-EU propaganda by Matteo Salvini or Viktor Orban too busy taking full power at home to engage in intellectual discussions about the future of Europe but a statement given by the French President, Emmanuel Macron. His words, a warning of the sentiment upon which euro-scepticism will flourish if countries fail to give a common European response to COVID-19, signal the current point of inflection posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreaks ripple effects intensify wherever the social order heavily depends on the unequal accumulation of capital. As the crisis puts into question exploitative economic dependencies that subsist with little to no democratic basis within the Eurozone and beyond, it calls governments across the globe to politicize and transform our social, economic, and democratic horizons. However, the same planetary challenge prompting governments and citizens to consider deep societal changes has also accentuated the weak transformative capacity of the EU architecture, international organizations, and decision-making processes.

Characterized by outdated national(istic) response mechanisms to major threats, the current global crisis has catapulted world leaders across the political spectrum into a border-obsessed, technocratic and elite-driven management of the outbreak. Some countries like Germany have been praised for how they have handled the pandemic within their borders, favouring social rights and data-driven decision-making over economic ends and populist claims. Be that as it may, Germany has yet to prove whether it can work beyond nation-driven ends and a naive denial of hegemonic power at the regional and global level.

If Europe fails to respond collaboratively and globally to the pandemic, it will not only mean failing to give the immediate economic relief needed to countries in the South of Europe and the Global South. It will also mean failing to react to the long-term socio-economic effects of the pandemic and other internationally-connected challenges such as climate change. In an already-interconnected world, the lack of joint political decisions and global leadership could constitute a socio-economic threat as dangerous as the current pandemic.

In the EU, the increasingly shaky foundations of an international order based on multilateralism, the centrifugal dynamics stemming from its exiting member, and the entropy due to the mounting rise of anti-system political forces, have significantly complicated the landscape. Our ability to understand the blocks tumultuous path towards a collective (not just economic) response to the virus and its consequences is limited. Yet, like Minervas owl who rises only at dusk, Italys case can be particularly illuminating as one of the countries most harshly hit by the virus and a major European sufferer of its social and economic fallout.

Amongst the six founding members of the ECSC in 1957, Italys population was one of the most enthusiastic believers in the European project although its citizens support could never match the elites. Italys economic and political ruling class saw European rules, in particular those concerning exchange rates, competition and state aid, as a welcome external constraint on the economic policies that Italy would be de facto allowed to follow. After decades of impressive economic growth (even if volatile and increasingly fueled with a rise in public debt), the beginning of the 1990s saw the start of a new phase that would characterize the economic and political evolution of Italy for the next thirty years. On the one hand, there was a massive slowdown in economic growth, basically stagnant ever since. On the other, an unadvertised fiscal frugality - Italy has had the highest average primary balance in the whole world over the period 1995-2019, indicated a very sizable and prolonged constraint in its public sector spending, compared to its revenues. This exceptionally high degree of fiscal discipline responded to two driving motives: first, compliance with the requirements to enter the virtuous club of euro members and, second, the austerity measures taken in the aftermath of the financial and debt crises of 2008-9.

As in the case of fascism almost one century ago, recent Italian history can retrospectively be seen as a pilot project for the type of politics, institutions, and novel reactions we now see worldwide. Silvio Berlusconi, an allegedly self-made business man, became Prime Minister in 1994, after running a surprisingly successful campaign against old-style politicians by promising to run the country as efficiently as his own economic empire. After dominating the Italian political scene for almost two decades, Berlusconi was finally ousted in 2011 in the wake of rising financial stress and heightened political pressure for a change of regime from other European capitals.

His role as Prime Minister was taken by Mario Monti, a professor at the renowned Bocconi University of Milan and former EU commissioner. Monti, with his large bipartisan majority, pursued the agenda recommended by European institutions to other peripheral countries on the verge of financial collapse: raising taxes and cutting public expenditures, in particular through a historic pension reform. Despite his initial denial, he decided to run for the next elections in 2013, where he gathered a meagre 10 percent. Parties supporting his government obtained fewer seats than expected, and the moral winner of the democratic game was the Five Star Movement, which had never been in Parliament before and had run on a strongly anti-system platform.

Once elected, politicians running campaigns on anti-system platforms blaming Brussels for its economic performances would experience what Monti defined as the Tsipras moment. That is, a political impasse in which politicians either implement an agenda upholding EU/Eurozone institutions - if necessary, in opposition to their democratic mandates -, or are willing to bear the inevitable political consequences. These consequences range from a (more or less) induced removal from office or being forced out of the euro. The founding Tsipras moment occurred when the Greeks, through a dramatic referendum, rejected the 2015 Memorandum of Understanding with the Troika, only to see their Prime Minister sign a harder version of it a few days later. It exemplifies one of the crucial issues weighing on the EUs precarious democratic foundations: the impossibility of bringing about democratic changes in national economic policies, unless consistent with the eurozone economic and political framework.

Thanks to Germanys bluntness, this is an open secret. In 2011, Angela Merkel herself declared that parliamentary codetermination on the European Financial Stability Fund (the ancestor of todays hotly debated European Stability Mechanism) had to be market conforming. In 2015 her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble warned his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, that elections cannot be allowed to change economic policy. On April 11 2020, perhaps as a glimpse of the EUs capacity to transform, the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called European countries to help the most affected by the consequences of the virus without the torture tools that accompanied previous rescue programmes in the eurozone.

It is clear how populist politics and technocratic solutions have represented the great political opposition of our times, played on the grounds of sovereignty and necropolitics the sociopolitical power of deciding who lives and who dies, in the words of Mbembe. The Italian case illustrates, in a longer time span, the perverse effects of decoupling democratic accountability and the policy-making process, and how we are failing to trust in citizens' capacity to shape policies at the national and regional level. If the solutions to current fiscal and monetary challenges firmly lie in Brussels and Frankfurt, the display of citizens solutions and popular discontent remains a business only to be dealt with in Rome.

The distance between national actors and the supranational managers of the political game has strengthened elites lack of accountability and politicians irresponsibility. This has fueled citizens frustration, ultimately threatening their evermore wavering support to democratic institutions altogether. By the same token, one can explain seemingly paradoxical outcomes such as the six different voting behaviours by the six Italian parties at the European Parliament on the resolutions about the European economic reactions to COVID-19. Undermining the governments position in defence of a supposed national interest before historical negotiations is a small price to pay, when national politics have become merely about voicing concerns, while others are endowed with the tools to address them. The longer it is before the roots of this dysfunctional arrangement are eradicated, the deeper the divergence or outright hostility of European peoples. Today in Italy, once the most Europhile country, there are as many people willing to leave as to stay in the block, whereas another survey indicates that Germany and France are considered Italys main international foes, with China being its closest friend, followed by Russia.

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If Europe is forged in crisis, Italy has something to say - Open Democracy

The pandemic and the day after – Social Europe

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Emergence from the coronavirus crisis cannot be to business as usual but must urgently open a transition to socio-environmental sustainability.

The 2008-09 global financial crisis left the world with a new mountain of debt. Subsequently, global debt dynamics moved from advanced to emerging economies and from the private to the public sector, but by 2016 debt was again moving upwards in all sectors and regions of the globe.

This great debt period coincided with a period of persistently low growthwhat came to be termed the great stagnation. More debt had to be serviced from ever slower growth. The evident economic unsustainability of this model came to complement its social unsustainabilitymanifested in socially destabilising inequality, collapsing middle classes and additional poverty and hunger across the globe.

These interacting dynamics came to accelerate the environmental unsustainability of our socio-economic system. In this context, many researchers were projecting (before the Covid-19 crisis) the break-out of another major financial crisis in 2020, with some vulnerability indicators flashing red in all high-, middle- and low-income countries (see for instance here, here, here and here).

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This was the state of the global economy when the Covid-19 crisis struck. Since January 2020, gradually, different parts of the world have entered a lockdown, leading to an economic freefall. Although this is not happening simultaneously, and is in some countries being somewhat eased, the 2020 global economic recession is expected to be of such magnitude that it will make the 2008-09 Great Recession seem an event of minor importance. The explosion in unemployment, the destruction of economic future for great parts of our societies, is just unprecedented.

What has been the response? On the one hand, another wave of quantitative easing (including an expanded range of eligible assets and relaxation of collateral standards for refinancing operations), lowering further the cost of money, and giving further incentives and guarantees to banks to extend loans. On the other hand, emergency fiscal measures aiming to support health services, sustain those in temporary unemployment and the self-employed, avert mass lay-offs and offer debt rescheduling (including postponements of social security, tax and utility payments) to help corporations and households (and thus the financial sector) avoid defaulting.

Respective measures have also been taken at an international level, aiming to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The rationale of the response package is to deal with a situation akin to a natural disaster and lead us back to normality as soon as possible.

Maintaining this business-as-usual approach would be disastrous. Adding more debt to an economy which has been struggling with high indebtedness and many years of socially disruptive austerity would have catastrophic consequences. It would temporarily bail out a bankrupt economic model, for a second time in little over a decade, feeding a larger and more dangerous socio-economic collapse in the near future.

Equally important, the race to achieve a V- or U-shaped recovery would most likely push climate change beyond the point of no return, prolonging existing unsustainable practices and industries and diverting funding away from the needed global green new deal. This should not be allowed to happen.

Attempting to go back to a morally, socially and environmentally bankrupt past is no option and should be resisted at all costs. Achieving a V-shape recovery is meaningless if this leads to a socio-environmental collapse a few years down the road. Rather, what we should aim for is a sustainable recovery, which serves the necessary transition of our societies to a socially and environmentally sustainable future.

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Extending financial support to the record number of people whose livelihoods have been destroyed and/or are unemployed, as well as to an unprecedented number of enterprises (especially small-and-medium) devastated by the enforced lockdown is an essential emergency measure in a warlike situation. This should include thorough debt reworking arrangements throughout the economy (including households), to avert a violent domino collapse with dangerous systemic implications for the economy and society.

The true challenge, however, is to use these extraordinary measures not to create a new generation of zombie households, companies and countries, but to guide the required transition to a sustainable tomorrow.

In this framework, the state should quickly shift from the crisis mode of lender-of-last-resort to a transitional mode of employer-of-last-resort and driver of the implementation of the green new deal. Emergency cash transfers and debt reworkings at individual level should be transformed into job guarantees and (re)training schemes, boosting green, sustainable and care skills, practices and industries. Emergency support to private corporations should carry with it green, labour and responsible-investment incentives and conditionality.

Significant changes in public economics and accounting standards should also be introduced to support this transition. The aim should be twofold: first, to align our economic measurements with our social values, by adjusting the composition and calculation of gross domestic product; secondly, to register and manage the use of money as a public good, as opposed to a private, interest-bearing asset.

The neglect of money as a public good over recent decades has led to excessive inequalities and vulnerable societies. With the resources and technology available, access to food, shelter, education and health should not depend on it. This is not only a moral issue: as climate change and the pandemic make evident, resilience and sustainability cannot be achieved without securing basic human rights.

It is also evident that adopting state-centric strategies and securing these rights at a national level is not enough. The challenges we face today require pulling together knowledge, resources and expertise at a global level, through global structures.

Equally importantly, the transition described above cannot succeed without the active engagement of those called to carry it forward. It passes through the reinvigoration of our democracies, the active participation of citizens in shaping this transition itself. Thats why a developed education should not be a choice but a democratic responsibility, supported and expected as an integral part of citizenship.

The battle over the nature of the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis seems the best shot we have to move to a sustainable socio-environmental model. It may also be the last shot we have, before a wider social or environmental collapse.

A version of this piece was previously published by Global Policy

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The pandemic and the day after - Social Europe

An EU ‘Marshall Plan’ for training and education – EURACTIV

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In an open letter to EU leaders, civil society activists led by Raphale Bidault-Waddington and, Marie-Hlne Caillol explain why an EU Marshall Plan for training and education is need to avoid socio-economic collapse.

Raphale Bidault-Waddington, is the founder of LIID Future Lab, Paris; Marie-Hlne Caillol, is the president of the Laboratoire Europen dAnticipation Politique

Dear Ursula von der Leyen, David Sassoli, Charles Michel, Christine Lagarde, Mario Centeno, Werner Hoyer, and all European and national representatives willing to act now.

The prognosis is all too clear: covid-19 is provoking an unprecedented economic crisis and unemployment wavethat will be long, painstaking to get through and expensive to resorb. The International Labor Organization has already announced an expected loss of 12 million full-time jobs in Europe in2020. Without a doubt, this will put EU and national welfare systems at risk. We also know that a systemic crisis and high unemployment bring with them the additional risks of democratic decline and increased inequality. We are only at the beginning of the tsunami wave but it is possible to limit its impact by acting now.

With this letter, we would like to bring to your attention a resilience strategy, fully compatible with your ideas and projects such as the Green New Deal, the digital transition and the EU knowledge-based and creative society. It represents a real future promise for Europe and for all generations. European youth needs a hopeful horizon to engage positively in the future.

Instead of waiting for the collapse, our proposition is to transform the disintegration period we are in, into an opportunity to learn, train ourselves, innovate, design a fair post-crisis world, incubate projects, prepare the renaissance, and re-orient the economy toward a green, digital and inclusive economy. Not everything will be perfect, but the eco-systemic dynamics we propose is meant to lead toward a new form of collective prosperity compatible with Sustainable Development Goals.

Making a mass investment into education and training will kick-off a very virtuous and future-oriented dynamics, stop the unemployment explosion, and even help reshape our value-creation ecosystems to make them green and inclusive.

Concretely, this large scale EU investment plan and resilience dynamics work in 3 steps:

1 Help companies to keep their staff employed by putting them in remote or local training programs to develop the most advanced skills, innovate and look for new low carbon sources of value(s) (circular economy, short circuits, digital potentials, new forms of utility and contributions, etc.),

2 Help European citizens, both unemployed and employed (not forgetting students) to develop future-proof skills via training programs, reshape their professional figures and take initiative toward a more sustainable world.

3 Create a number of training jobs, thus giving immediate work opportunitiesfor unemployed as well as the independent workers who are already vulnerable.

In this scenario, the population remains active, included and empowered rather than waiting, insecure, devalued and marginalized (classic unemployment patterns).

This strategy also fosters pedagogical innovation toward hybrid and future oriented formats, coupling knowledge, creativity, experimentation and the incubation of projects. In this plan, learning is exciting and looks like a laboratory where knowledge is mixed with experience. Besides schools and universities, innovation hubs, third places and cultural centers can develop such training offers. Many of them already do and often pioneer in developing knowledge commons. Whether in the shape of prototypes, start-ups, associations, platforms, collaborative projects or ad hoc events, these projects will become the renaissance engine, slowly growing while the covid-19 is being sorted. The design of sustainable and innovative economic models comes with relevant prototypes.

Soon this buoyant societal dynamics will give birth to a new structural and circular immaterial, knowledge and creativity-based economy, converging toward the Green New Deal, fully compatible with core EU emancipatory and educational values, and becoming a new collective future purpose. With this strategy, the EU can renew its political economy and become again a future promise for the young generations, and for all.

More pragmatically, we are convinced that the recovery cannot happen by itself and that a mass investment in future-oriented training will reduce unemployment more rapidly in time and numbers. Such an approach will ultimately be more profitable for public finances, not even counting the additional climate and citizen benefits, European autonomy gain, and the construction of new knowledge commons for a shared prosperity.

A rapid implementation and distribution of funds could be done via digital platforms (at EU or regional levels) to match training offers and demands, and guarantee that the investment leads to local jobs.

We trust you for acting now and remain fully available to help you make it happen!

To co-sign the letter initiated by the EU Resilience Collective click here

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An EU 'Marshall Plan' for training and education - EURACTIV

After coronavirus: Global youth reveal that the social value of art has never mattered more – The Conversation CA

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Health and government officials around the globe are slowly and ever-so-tentatively moving to relax lockdowns due to coronavirus.

In Canada, where the possibility of health-care collapse seems to have been averted (for the time being), some are beginning to ask questions other than when will the pandemic end? Instead, theyre turning towards how will we move forward?

Young people have some answers that warrant our attention. Over the past five years, through my collaborative ethnographic research with 250 young people in drama classrooms in Canada, India, Taiwan, Greece and England, I have gained remarkable insight into these young peoples experiences and assessments of the world.

I found crisis after crisis being shouldered by young people. Through their theatre-making, they documented their concerns and hope, and they rallied around common purposes. They did this despite disagreement and difference.

Beyond simply creating art for arts sake, or for school credits, many of the young people I encountered are building social movements and creative projects around a different vision for our planet. And they are calling us in. This is an unprecedented moment for intergenerational justice and we need to seize it.

I have had an up-close look at how seemingly disparate crises around the globe are deeply connected through divisive systems that dont acknowledge or respect youth concerns. I have also learned how young people are disproportionately affected by the misguided politics of a fractured world.

In England, young people were burdened by the divisive rhetoric of the Brexit campaign and its ensuing aftermath.

In India, young women were using their education to build solidarity in the face of dehumanizing gender oppression.

In Greece, young people were shouldering the weight of a decade-long economic crisis compounded by a horrifying refugee crisis.

Read more: Solidarity with refugees cant survive on compassion in crisis-stricken societies of Greece and Italy

In Taiwan, young people on the cusp of adulthood were trying to square the social pressures of traditional culture with their own ambitions in a far-from-hopeful economic landscape.

In Toronto, youth tried to understand why the rhetoric of multiculturalism seemed both true and false, and why racism persists and, in so doing, they spoke from perspectives grounded in their intersectional (white, racialized, sexual- and gender-diverse) identities.

They embraced the reality that everything in popular culture may enter a drama classroom. But they responded to current news stories like the 2016 presidential debates in the United States by saying that they had different and more pressing concerns, like mental health support and transphobia.

Todays young people are a generation that has come of age during a host of global crises. Inequality, environmental destruction, systemic oppression of many kinds weigh heavily.

I found a youth cohort who, despite many not yet having the right to vote, have well-honed political capacities, are birthing countless global hashtag movements and inspiring generations of young and old.

These marginalized youth are aware that their communities have been living with and responding to catastrophic impacts of crises of injustice and inequalities long before now.

How do these youth live with their awareness of global injustices and what these imply for the years ahead? We learned some disturbing things: as young people age and move further away from their primary relationships (parents, teachers, schoolmates), they feel less optimistic about their personal futures.

But in terms of hope, we learned something very recognizable to many of us now: many young people practise hope, even when they feel hopeless. They do this both in social movements they participate in and in creative work they undertake with others.

This is something we can all learn from. In Canada, we are maintaining social distancing as a shared effort. Acting together by keeping apart is how we are flattening the curve, as all the experts continue to tell us.

We know that in communities around the world, government leadership matters enormously. But citizens, social trust and collective will matter at least as much.

In this pandemic, institutions, like universities, businesses and individual citizens have stepped up remarkably in the interests of the common good and our shared fate.

However, Jennifer Welsh, Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University, argues that the defining feature of the last decade is polarization, existing across many different liberal democracies and globally.

Along with this, the value of fairness has been deeply corroded because of growing inequality and persistent historic inequalities we have failed to address, like Indigenous sovereignty and land rights in Canada.

Read more: The road to reconciliation starts with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

In the context of the rise of populist politicians and xenophobic policies globally, and also the rise of the most important progressive social movements in decades, my research has taught me that in this driven-apart, socio-economic landscape, the social value of art has never been more important.

People are making sense of the inexplicable or the feared through art, using online platforms for public learning. Art has become a point of contact, an urgent communication and a hope.

But some are still without shelter, without food, without community and without proper health care. The differences are stark.

Arundhati Roy has imagined this pandemic as a kind of portal we are walking through: we can walk through it lightly ready to imagine another world. We can choose to be ready to fight for it.

Read more: What is solidarity? During coronavirus and always, it's more than 'we're all in this together'

Its time to put global youth at the centre of our responses to crises. Otherwise, young people will inherit a planet devastated by our uncoordinated efforts to act, worsening a crisis of intergenerational equity.

We should of course develop a vaccine and, in Canada, stop underfunding our public health-care system. But we must also flatten the steep curves we have tolerated for too long. For a start, we could act on wealth disparity and social inequality.

But our response to the pandemic could also illuminate new responses to fundamental problems: disrespect for the diversity of life in all its forms and lack of consideration for future generations.

Youth expression through theatre and in social movements are valuable ways to learn how youth are experiencing, processing and communicating their understandings of the profound challenges our world faces. How powerfully our post-pandemic planning could shift if we changed who is at decision-making tables and listened to youth.

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After coronavirus: Global youth reveal that the social value of art has never mattered more - The Conversation CA

Noam Chomsky: You have to decide whether the species is going to survive – Varsity Online

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FLICRK/JEANBAPTISTEPARIS

Noam Chomsky is a man who has seen it all. Many dream of attaining renown in their fields; Chomsky, born to socialist Jewish refugees in interwar Philadelphia, is not only commonly referred to as the father of modern linguistics but has also established a reputation as a political author, activist and critic of post-1980s neoliberal capitalism that has carried his work far beyond academia. We sit down with him after his talk at the Union: naturally it took place over Zoom, yet this hardly blunted its appeal. With nearly 30,000 people interested on the Facebook event (far in excess of the population of Cantabs) this may well have been the most popular live event in the Unions history, perhaps a fitting metaphor of how the pandemic is shaking up established institutions.

When asked about the responsibility of students in this moment of crisis, he is keen to stress action beyond the Covid-19 situation; he sees it as enormously destructive but not an existential threat, on the scale of climate change, future pandemics, or the often underappreciated threat of nuclear war. He offers a sobering reminder that todays youth are facing immense challenges: challenges that have never existed in human history. You have to decide whether the species is going to survive. That has never arisen before. He is similarly painfully aware of the statistics and scenarios around climate change. Under the current warming scenario of even a few degrees temperature rise, Chomsky points out that within the next 50 years...South Asia could be uninhabitable, a large part of the Sahara too. The Middle East? Forget it. This is, he stresses, a disaster of the kind you cant even imagine. And thats what were marching towards.

Though less commonly recognised since the end of the Cold War, Chomsky is equally keen to emphasise that global nuclear war remains a real and unimaginably destructive possibility. Referring to the countless near-misses of the 1960s and 70s, he says that anyone whos ever looked over the records seriously can barely imagine that weve somehow escaped. Its a miracle, and now its getting much worse because of the criminal actions of the megalomaniac in the White House, and the passivity of Europe, referring to the Trumps refusal to renew the START nuclear arms reduction treaty , due to expire in 2021). This despite what he describes as begging by Russia - the other nation with potentially planet-destroying stocks of nuclear weapons.

With humanity facing so many existential threats, it would be easy for someone of Chomskys calibre to become fatalist. Yet he is determined in his conviction that behind these threats - climate change, nuclear war, pandemics and economic collapse - lies the fundamental, but opposable problem of the neo-liberal plague. It can be dealt with right now, he maintains, but not under the current socio-economic regime. Earlier in our conversation, he notes that there is little motivation for pharmaceutical companies to devote resources to pandemic prevention, just as fossil fuel companies, as private actors, have no real incentive to commit to the ecological transition that is needed to avoid climate change. Underlying these existential threats to humanity are serious collective-action problems - ones that he doesnt think can be resolved by our current individualist society under capitalism.

So what can be done? Given the urgency of the problems at hand and the renaissance in Cambridge student activism over the last decade, its a question at the forefront of our minds. One of the most important things to do, wherever you are, is to deal with the institutions of which you are a part, he tells us. It's great to be involved in trying to save the arms control regime. That's important, but it's very important to take a look right where you are and see what you can do. Cambridge University is involved in supporting the fossil fuel industry. That means it's getting grants, giving professorships in their name to give them prestige; working for them. That means that the institution that you're in is working for the destruction of the human race. To quote Greta Thunberg, betraying your future. Well, you can do something about that. Chomsky views fossil fuel divestment as a concrete action, one that will hurt the bottom line but just as importantly a symbolic one which says, we dont want to contribute to the destruction of organised human society, and you shouldnt either. In doing so he echoes the words over the past few years of groups like Zero Carbon and Extinction Rebellion Cambridge.

Aside from climate change, he makes a point of foregrounding society-level struggles. Does Britain have to continue with the project of the Tories and new Labor to destroy the best health system in the world, and to turn it into the worst system in the world?, he asks, lamenting the effects of the neo-liberal attack, which tried to turn it into the US system, which is the worst in the world. Distraught about the US health system - the most cruel, expensive, savage form of universal health care that exists - he advises that England can go in that direction if it wants, but it doesn't have to. In Chomskys view it is our responsibility, as the privileged, to take a stand in a period of history which presents not only an opportunity, but a necessity for social change. In many countries, the choice is hard because you get thrown into jail, you get tortured and so on. It's tough. Countries like ours, it's easy. Maybe you'll get yelled out, or something like that, but not much punishment.

After the interview, we couldnt help being left with the feeling that Chomskys words had puzzled together what seems like a disparate set of injustices. Whether one agrees with him or not, perhaps it takes a structural linguist to best decipher the structural logic of capitalism. His style of pragmatic anarchism in 2020 has transpired to the launch of Progressive International- a global organisation to unite, organise, and mobilise progressive forces around the world - along with Naomi Klein, John McDonnell, Arundhati Roy and many others. Chomskys words may make for uncomfortable reading, but it seems that they have never been more important given the challenges he describes. In his view, the choice of human survival lies with us: either we join the fight or else, sit back and say, OK, Ill support whats happening. Its a very simple choice.

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Noam Chomsky: You have to decide whether the species is going to survive - Varsity Online

Gold loans, a panacea for the financing needs of MSMEs – BusinessLine

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The world is currently passing through an unprecedented situation. The coronavirus, that was first identified in China in December 2019, has now swept across the world, infecting over three million people. As the contagion spread, many governments across the world, including India, resorted to countrywide lockdowns as an appropriate strategy to flatten the curve of severely affected patients and reduce stress on the limited resources available to the healthcare systems. In India, the government-enforced lockdown has brought economic activity virtually to a standstill, and this inevitably will have a severe negative impact on economic growth. The impact is already seen in the rise of unemployment from 6 per cent to over 27 per cent; nearly one in three people is without a job and income as on the first week of May.

A survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) on the immediate impact of Covid-19 reveals that besides the direct impact on employment, demand and supply of goods and services, businesses are also facing reduced cash flows due to the slowing down of economic activity, which in turn has an impact on all payments, including those to employees, interest, loan repayments and taxes. The survey further revealed that almost 80 per cent of the organisations reported a decrease in cash flows.

Over the last decade, MSMEs have grown to become an integral cog in Indias economic growth. They currently contribute around 29 per cent to Indias GDP and have generated about 5.87 lakh jobs in 2018-19 under the Prime Ministers Employment Generation Programme. Additionally, with more than 50 per cent MSMEs being present in rural India, they are playing a critical role in the alleviation of the depressed socio-economic conditions of rural India, and in providing last-mile connectivity.

Having said that, the fact that the current lockdown has severely stressed the cash-flows of these enterprises becomes extremely significant when considering the revival of the Indian economy. These enterprises operate on a relatively small scale, with lower margins and do not have adequate liquidity buffers in order to honour their liabilities in the present situation. Their problems are further amplified due to challenges in accessing timely and affordable finance.

In the current credit environment, where there is a strong risk-aversion towards lending by banks and NBFCs, MSMEs need alternative sources of raising finance to continue as going concerns. However, if the show must go on, the best way for MSMEs to address the challenges related to financing is to consider gold loans.

Gold loans are essentially loans where gold jewellery is pledged as an underlying security. Due to the high liquidity enjoyed by gold and the established market values for the commodity, these loans have a quick turnaround time. Even prior to the economic crisis, gold loans were a popular and hassle-free method of raising capital for SMEs. Gold loans do not entail the extensive cash-flow assessments that a regular working capital loan would require. In the current pandemic, they can become an effective substitute and efficient source of financing for MSMEs.

To put things in perspective, the retail gold holding by the general public in India is estimated at 25,000 metric tonnes, the market value of which is around 100 lakh crore ($1.3 trillion). This is almost in line with the Covid-19 economic package of $ 2 trillion announced by the US government. Considering that gold is the most liquid asset and it is already present in the hands of most Indians, monetisation of even 10 per cent of this can infuse 10 lakh crore ($ 130 billion) liquidity into these stressed enterprises. This is a conservative estimate of the immense liquidity that gold loans can unleash into the economy to give the much required fillip to economic activity and growth.

NBFCs, especially gold loan NBFCs, act as conduits for the economy, imparting liquidity wherever and whenever it is required. NBFCs have the unique advantage of grass -root penetration as they have a majority of their branches in the unbanked rural/semi-urban suburbs. This means that gold loan NBFCs, with their last-mile presence and expertise in lending against gold, will be capable of speedy and efficient loan disbursals to every nook and corner of the country. In order to further augment their reach and impact, there are a few policy decisions that the government and the regulator can take. These include:

Categorising credit facilities extended by banks to gold loan NBFCs under priority sector lending.

Aligning the single counterparty exposure limit for banks exposure to gold loan NBFCs with that of other NBFCs ie, at 20 per cent of Tier I capital of the bank (against the existing level of 7.5 per cent for gold loan NBFCs) to enhance credit flow to the sector as well as harmonisation of single counterparty exposure limit.

Considering the following relaxations in securitisation/ assignment guidelines to help NBFCs raise funds from banks:

Gold loans may be exempted from the stipulation that assets with bullet repayment of both principal and interest cannot be securitised/ assigned.

Because of the short duration of the loans, gold loans may be exempted from the minimum holding period and minimum retention ratio stipulation.

Allowing gold loan NBFCs to advance against gold coins up to 50 grams, similar to banks.

Ensuring that the branch expansion policy is aligned with that of the banks ie, branch opening does not require a prior approval. The only requirement is to inform the RBI once the branch is opened this facility can be made available to NBFCs with Credit rating AA and above.

Permitting NBFCs with a credit rating of AA and above to accept privately-placed NCDs to mobilise savings of retail small investors.

If the economy is to wade through these turbulent times and emerge with only the battle wounds, then it is imperative that all stakeholders in the ecosystem come together and work in a collaborative manner. Considering the role that NBFCs, especially gold loan NBFCs, can play in fulfilling the governments agenda of inclusive growth, measures (as mentioned above) need to be taken to strengthen their reach and efficacy.

The virus will pass and economic activity will sooner or later get back to normal. However, not all MSMEs will be able to navigate through these turbulent times and the gap that their collapse would leave is not easily filled. A gold loan can act as a life-vest and help us weather this storm.

The writer is Managing Director, Muthoot Finance

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Gold loans, a panacea for the financing needs of MSMEs - BusinessLine

Extremists are going to thrive in the post-lockdown world – Spectator.co.uk

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Throughout the lockdown Ive been nagged by a persistent thought. As I sit indoors and read the news; as I alternate between cooking and takeaways; as I venture outside into the socially-distanced streets; and as I listen to commentators catastrophise about lockdown Britain, it is there. The thought is simple: what if all this the confinement and the fear and the confusion and the ever-rising death count what if all this is the good part?

True, we are stuck indoors, but the scaffolding of our world looks much the same, even if we are not allowed to move about in it. What happens when the time comes to restart? When the shops finally reopen how many will still exist? And even then, how many will be able to survive the reduced custom that will surely result from people now wary of congregating in traditionally crowded places? What will happen as the months wear on and we have to start paying for all this? What will happen to inflation as trillions are pumped into the global economy? And what will people say and do when they no longer have jobs? When they cant pay their rent or mortgage? And when they are poorer and sicker and angrier?

In terms of the economy: well, quite a lot, it seems. According to the Bank of England, GDP could fall by 25 per cent in the second quarter of this year. For 2020 as a whole, the economy could shrink by 14 per cent. Unemployment is predicted to more than double to around 9 per cent. In short, our economy will look the same but be diminished, its edges sanded down. The Economist calls it the 90 per cent economy.

Im not an economist though; what I do is watch society particularly its most dangerous elements. As I have written previously, the pandemic has been a gift for societys most malign and extreme; propagandists of every stripe have made hay while the corona sun has shined. They have taken advantage of our fear and confusion in a health crisis imagine what they will do when the likely devastating economic crisis hits.

In the last financial crisis in 2008 the banks almost failed but the economy still moved. People went to restaurants and bars, they bought ice cream and lipstick and iPads, and social media was still in its infancy. Now we are all stuck indoors, and every nutjob with a grievance can broadcast it to the world.

Which brings us to the nub. JM Bergers social identity theory of extremism argues that extremist ideologies are rooted in a crisis-solution construct where in-groups facing what they believe are existential crises think they can only be solved through radical, supremacist and often violent means. To see how it affects us now, we need only look at two of todays most threatening extremist ideologies: Jihadism and the far right.

As the researchers Milo Comerford and Jacob Davey of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) have noted, Jihadism is based upon a supremacist vision of Islam devoted to establishing an Islamic state ruled by the strictest Sharia law. There is a religious duty to defeat unbelievers. The far-right, meanwhile, is rooted in ethnic, cultural or national supremacism, generally geared toward establishing an ethnostate. Terrorism is an accepted means by which to hasten societal collapse.

Right now, the far right is flooding social media with posts about elites like Jeff Bezos, the Rothschilds, George Soros and Bill Gates and the deep state, both of which they blame for causing the pandemic. According to Chloe Colliver of ISD, the scale of all this is humungous. Jihadist groups like the Somalian Al Shabaab, meanwhile, claimthat coronavirus is being spread by crusader forces and the disbelieving countries that support them'.

Coronavirus has turbocharged the crisis-solution nexus. When I trawl the chat boards and the Jihadi messenger groups its clear that they are preparing to exploit the economic crisis to come. Who is to blame for our predicament? They ask. The other, comes the near universal reply.

As Comerford notes, dramatic socio-economic shifts are always co-opted by extremists to lay blame at the door of specific groups - mainly minorities - resulting in conspiratorial, hateful or even violent consequences.

This is already happening. Right now, be it by their employer or the government, most people are still getting paid. No major institution has failed; the markets have rallied, and we arent yetin the grip of inflation or adepression. But its coming. When the lockdown ends the real pain will begin, and not just economically. We must be ready, or as a society we will pay a heavy price indeed.

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Freedom is never defined as mob rule | Opinion – nj.com

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There have been numerous demonstrations lately regarding freedom. Mostly White men and women of all ages have marched on state capitols demanding their freedom, by which they mean meant removing social distancing restrictions.

In some states, protesters were so passionate that they came armed with AK-47s, AR-15s and other semi-automatic weapons, dressed in survivalist gear. Nazi symbols and Confederate flags were spotted among these crowds.

I have participated in numerous protests. In none of them did anyone bring firearms. Doing this has nothing to do with freedom. Its meant to intimidate and to make the statement that if the demonstrators do not what they want, they may use their guns to take what they want. Under the guise of freedom, their speech, attire and weaponry all shout revolution, and that is what makes these people dangerous.

Unfortunately, during this time of COVID-19, and with the spoken approval of the current president who refers to them as very responsible, these mobs are getting bolder.

When most of us speak of freedom, it is related to our personal independence and liberty as described in the Constitution. But there is a growing number who define their own freedom as having absolutely no constraint in their choices or actions. That is where the concept becomes dangerous, and leads Americans into becoming zealots who roam and patrol the streets. When those armed persons descend on state capitols demanding freedom, what they mean is removing the safety precautions that help protect all of us us from COVID-19.

Our safety and well-being is also being jeopardized by President Donald Trump, who has been egging on these fanatics, ignoring scientific evidence and the advice from experts on his team. This egomaniac, who did much to destroy Atlantic City when he owned casinos there, is doing the same thing to our nation under the guise of freedom.

Freedom is dangerous when an out-of-control president, defended by key Republican members of Congress, can remove an immunologist, Dr. Rick Bright, from his position as director of the federal office responsible for developing countermeasures to this current pandemic. Bright made the mistake of objecting to the Trump administrations narrative that the old anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was a safe emergency treatment for COVID-19. Despite Trumps push for widespread use, later research showed that hydroxychloroquine could be harmful, or even fatal, if given to COVID-19 patients.

Freedom is dangerous when, unrelated to the pandemic, it is the rationale for two armed White men, Gregory McMichael and his son Travis, to follow from their truck an unarmed 25-year-old Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, jogging down a Georgia street. The McMichaels claimed that their neighborhood had suffered several recent burglaries by a suspect matching Aberys description. But police records show that no break-ins were reported in their neighborhood for weeks before their Feb. 23 confrontation.

When Arbury refused to stop and explain himself, he was shot and killed by three shotgun blasts in broad daylight, an incident captured on cellphone video. Yet, no one was arrested at the time. Officials swept the entire episode under the rug for three months, until the video became public recently. Now charged with murder, the McMichaels apparently believed that they had enough freedom to make the incident deadly.

Freedom is dangerous when it provided a sense of superiority to 15 angry White men, searching for a missing 16-year-old girl, who banged on the front door of Monica Shepards North Carolina home around 10 p.m. May 3, while searching for a missing 16-year-old girl. One of the group was a sheriffs deputy in uniform, and others were reportedly armed.

The mob demanded information from Shepards high-school age son Dameon about the missing girl. But Dameon was not the Black teen possibly involved in a runaway incident; these fools were at the wrong house. As this teen tried to exert his freedom and go back in his house, the deputy reportedly prevented him from doing so by sticking his foot in the doorway. Fortunately, no one was killed but, yet again, no immediate arrests were made. It wasnt until five days later that the deputy lost his job and, along with one of the other men, faces charges related to terrorism and forcible trespass.

Freedom has now become dangerous. The rule of law is obviously breaking down, and once again Black boys and men are the targets. Refuse to become a victim.

Milton W. Hinton Jr. is retired as director of equal opportunity for the Gloucester County government, and is past president of the Gloucester County Branch NAACP. Email: miltonw@imap.cc. Twitter: MiltonHintonJr@WritestheNation.

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Freedom is never defined as mob rule | Opinion - nj.com

American freedom was tug-of-war from the start – York Dispatch

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About a thousand rally outside the capitol in Harrisburg, protesting Gov. Wolf's virus shutdowns. York Dispatch

We, the people. But individual rights. The common good. But dont tread on me. Form a more perfect union and promote the general welfare. But secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

From the moment the American republic was born right up until today, this has been its hallmark: Me and we different flavors of freedom that compete but overlap living together, but often at odds.

The history of the United States and the colonies that formed it has been a 413-year balancing act across an assortment of topics, priorities, passions and ambitions. Now, in the coronavirus era, that tug-of-war is it about individuals, or the communities to which they belong? is showing itself in fresh, high-stakes ways.

On Friday, protesters massed at the foot of the Pennsylvania Capitol steps most of them maskless for the second time in a month to decry Gov. Tom Wolf and demand he reopen the state faster. It is one of many states where a vocal minority has criticized virus-related shutdowns for trampling individual rights.

He who is brave is free, read a sign carried by one Pennsylvania protester. Selfish and proud, said another, referring to the governors statement that politicians advocating immediate reopening were selfish. My body my choice, said a sign at a rally in Texas, coopting an abortion-rights slogan to oppose mandatory mask rules.

More: Crying Wolf: Protesters lambaste governor's lockdown orders

More: Round the Clock Diner could face $10K per day fines for dine-in service

More: Face masks, worn and unworn, become political statement

Classic struggle: The pandemic is presenting this classic individual libertycommon good equation. And the ethos of different parts of the country about this is very, very different. And its pulling the country in all these different directions, says Colin Woodard, author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good.

Though polls show a majority of Americans still support some level of shutdown, the cries to reopen have grown in the past few weeks as job losses continue to mount. In Pennsylvania and across the country, the demonstrators chorus has generally been: Dont tell me how to live my life when I need to get out of my house and preserve my livelihood.

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Theyre being told to stay home, wait it out. And thats a really weird democratic message to get. And the only way to do it is to say, I trust the government, says Elspeth Wilson, an assistant professor of government at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

While the catalyst is an unprecedented pandemic, the collision of individual rights and the common good is as old as the republic itself: Where does one Americans right to move around in public without a mask end, and another Americans right to not be infected with a potentially fatal virus begin?

This is economic paralysis by analysis for some people. And theyre afraid, says Steven Benko, an ethicist at Meredith College in North Carolina. They feel devalued.

American romanticism: Americans have long romanticized those who reject the system and take matters into their own hands the outlaw, the cowboy, the rebel. Many American leaders have wrestled to reconcile that with common good principles that are generally needed to govern.

Reagan did that better than anyone. He was the cowboy selling the shared American vision. Thats quite a contradiction, Benko says.

Ronald Reagans crowning metaphor the United States as the city upon a hill was borrowed from the Puritans, whose traditions shaped the American ethos, including the compact that created the New Worlds first English government. But Puritanism also asserted that hard work, a form of moral righteousness, heralded success and salvation.

Over time, and with other ingredients added as more groups came to American shores, a vague sense of shame became attached to the inability to be an individualist: If you couldnt get along on your own, in the eyes of some, you were less of an American.

But is that kind of rugged individualism, as it came to be known, applicable in a 21st-century virus scenario where everything from food shopping to health care to package delivery requires a web of intricate, precise networks that form a common good?

Culinary union members prepare for a car caravan rally in Las Vegas last week. The union wants casino owners to make their safety guidelines and reopening plans public.(Photo: John Locher / The Associated Press)

Power dynamics: Overlaid on this debate, too, is what some call an ignored truth: Individualism tends to favor groups that are in power, economically or socially. In short, doing what one wants is a lot easier when you have the means (health care, money, privilege) to deal with the impact it causes.

Thats particularly relevant when the direct impact of ones individualism in the form of virus-laden droplets can ripple out to others.

We fail to recognize how interdependent we really are, says Lenette Azzi-Lessing, a clinical professor of social work at Boston University who studies economic disparity.

The pandemic and dealing with it successfully does require cooperation. It also requires shared sacrifice. And thats a very bitter pill for many Americans to swallow, she says. The pandemic is revealing that our fates are intertwined, that the person in front of us in line on the grocery store, if he or she doesnt have access to good health care, that thats going to have an effect on our health.

U.S. history has sometimes revealed that in times of upheaval the Great Depression, World War II, even the founding of the nation itself common good becomes a dominant American gene for a time. Will that happen here? Or is the fragmentation of politics and economics and social media too powerful to allow that?

The status quo is individualism. And then when we get to these crisis periods, it changes, says Anthony DiMaggio, a political scientist at Lehigh University who is researching groups that advocate reopening. All these rules go out the window and people are willing to jettison all these ways of looking at the world.

So is it, as Ayn Rand once told an interviewer, that each man must live as an end in himself, and follow his own rational self-interest? Or is it more like Woody Guthrie, paraphrasing Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath: Everybody might be just one big soul well, it looks that way to me.

More likely, in a nation stitched together by a high-wire act of political compromise, its somewhere in between a new path that Americans must chart so they can continue their four-century experiment through unprecedented times. Yet again.

Ted Anthony, director of digital innovation for The Associated Press, has been writing about American culture since 1990. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/anthonyted.

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American freedom was tug-of-war from the start - York Dispatch

In time of quarantine, we must resist Grand Inquisitors view of freedom – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

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As nations of the world attempt to deal with our current pandemic, and its accompanying quarantine, there has developed a renewed battle over the question of freedom. In listening to the civil discourse (and civil is used here with reservation), it appears there are many questions surrounding the nature of freedom, its spiritual dynamism, and the conditions under which it can (or should) be restricted.

Freedom asserts the dangerous belief that people know how to govern themselves and how to live in a way that enriches their lives and that of the common good. As such, there is a danger to freedom, since people are fallen. Freedom can be exaggerated or abused. It can be used to cause hurt, harm, or negligence.

People can cite freedom to injure their own bodies, dismiss civic laws and policies, and cause threats to public health. Such possible abuses of freedom are popularly cited, as if they are contemporary deviations peculiar to our present circumstances. But such abuses have always occurred whenever freedom has been attempted.

Such licentiousness and exaggerations of freedom have consistently been found within the interior logic of freedom itself. Freedom, as freedom, has always been uncontrollable and possibly dangerous.

Such possible danger is denounced by the fictional character of the Grand Inquisitor in the Russian novel, The Brothers Karamazov. In the disturbing account of the inquisitor, Jesus Christ returns to the earth, works miracles, and gives hope to people. But he is quickly arrested and scrutinized by the inquisitor. The examiner tells Christ that he is no longer needed. He mocks the freedom that Christ has given to humanity, and tells the Savior that he misjudged human nature.

The inquisitor argues that people dont want to be free and cannot be trusted with freedom. He declares that people simply want (and need) benign rulers. He argues that humanity should not be given freedom. Its too dangerous, too unreliable, and too uncertain. The inquisitor believes that freedom must be restricted. People should be controlled by fear and led by harsh rulers.

The creed of the Grand Inquisitor is unsettling. Its the end of freedom. And yet, his voice whispers into the ears of leaders and societies, sometimes in veiled and nuanced ways and at other times with boldness and without apology. Freedom cannot be trusted, we are told. People must be controlled.

The fluidity of freedom, and its possible dangers, do not always justify its restriction. Human persons were created to be free. We are at our best when we are free. And as good spiritual wisdom teaches us, an abuse of a good does not negate its use. Simply because freedom could be dangerous does not, by itself, justify muzzling it by authority.

In fact, it is precisely the dangerous nature of freedom that makes it such a dynamic source of creativity, ingenuity, and renewal. It is bold, risky, and unpredictable. And that is why freedom has always been feared by raw power in whatever form its exercised. Its also why freedom has always been the impetus for civil disobedience, the birth of new ideas, and the flourishing of culture.

A sober observation of human history reveals that freedom gives a person the power to do what is right and good. This is why in order for freedom to grow, it needs education, lived experience, virtue, and seasoned guidance. This is the where the real work of authority should be found. The task of leadership is to be a teacher, not an inquisitor.

This is why freedom loses its bearings, implodes, and becomes codependent on civic authority when it is repressed, overly regulated, and sequestered in its ingenuity. Freedom is crippled by Grand Inquisitors, just as it flourishes under Good Shepherds and Good Teachers.

With the turbulent nature of freedom in mind, however, there are times when the teaching by civic authority must exercise discipline and establish perimeters to freedom. At times, there are justifiable reasons to give prudential boundaries to the exercise of freedom, especially when it involves the common good. Such measures, however, should always be approached with keen discernment, caution, and serious oversight. They should always be given with the intention of nourishing freedom itself and eventually outrunning their course.

Freedom is an exercise of the our souls and, as such, it needs itself without needless chains to develop, auto-correct, and aspire to greater goods.

For those in the civil discourse, therefore, and those who hold authority over the common good, freedom is to be seen as a sacred trust. It is not the province of government. Freedom belongs to the people. Its protection is entrusted to civic authority by the people.

As such, public servants should avoid the alluring whispers of the Grand Inquisitor. In all its decisions, civic leadership is called to believe in freedom, and to use its authority hesitantly in the delicate balance of protecting both the common good and individual freedom itself.

Follow Father Jeffrey Kirby on Twitter: @fatherkirby

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In time of quarantine, we must resist Grand Inquisitors view of freedom - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Finding the balance between safety and freedom in the shadow of COVID-19 – VentureBeat

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This article is part of a VB special issue. Read the full series: AI and Surveillance.

Countries around the globe are focusing their collective attention on humanitys most immediate existential threat. The coronavirus threatens jobs, global economic activity, international relations, the health of our loved ones, and our own lives. To combat this pandemic, epidemiologists require data so they can better understand where and how the coronavirus may be spreading among populations. World leaders from the international level down to local ranks need to be able to track the spread of the virus in order to make informed decisions about how to manage resources, handle shelter-in-place restrictions, and reopen businesses.

The technologies politicians are testing, like phone-based contact tracing, thermal scanning, and facial recognition, are all euphemisms for surveillance, and tradeoffs being weighed now could extend well beyond this crisis.

Before the pandemic, one of the most important and popular movements in ethics and social justice was the push against technology-powered surveillance, especially AI technologies like facial recognition. Its a rich topic centered around power that pits everyday people against the worst parts of big tech, overreaching law enforcement, and potential governmental abuse. Surveillance capitalism is as gross as its name implies, and speaking truth to that particular sort of power feels good.

But now, with millions suddenly unemployed and some 80,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone, the issue is no longer corporate profits or policing efficacy versus privacy, security, and power. In a global pandemic, the tradeoff may very well be privacy, security, and power versus life itself.

The spread of the coronavirus poses an immediate life-and-death threat. No one alive has experienced anything like it on such a scale, and everyone is scrambling to adjust. Against such a dire backdrop, theoretical concerns about data privacy or overreaching facial recognition-powered government surveillance are easily brushed aside.

Is it really such a bad thing if our COVID-19-related medical records go into a massive database that helps frontline health care workers battle the disease? Or if that data helps epidemiologists track the virus and understand how and where it spreads? Or aids researchers in developing cures? Who cares if we have to share some of our smartphone data to find out whether weve come into contact with a COVID-19 patient? Is it really that onerous to deploy facial recognition surveillance if it prevents super-spreaders from blithely infecting hundreds or thousands of people?

Those are legitimate questions, but on the whole its a dangerously shallow perspective to take.

A similar zeitgeist permeated the United States after 9/11. Out of fear and a strong desire for solidarity Congress quickly passed the Patriot Act with broad bipartisan support. But the country lacked the foresight to demand and implement guardrails, and the federal government has held onto broad surveillance powers in the nearly two decades since. What we learned or should have learned, at least from 9/11 and the Patriot Act is that a proactive approach to threats should not exclude forward-looking protections. Anything less is panic.

The dangers posed by a hasty and wholesale surrender of privacy and other freedoms are not theoretical. Theyre just perhaps not as immediate and clear as the threat posed by the coronavirus. Giving up your privacy amounts to giving up your power, and its important to know who will hold onto all that data.

In some cases, its tech giants like Apple and Google, which are already not widely trusted, but it could also be AI surveillance tech companies like Palantir,or Clearview or Banjo, which have ties to far right extremists. In other cases, your power flows directly into the governments hands. Sometimes, as in the case of a tech company the government contracts to perform a task like facial recognition-powered surveillance, you could be giving your data and power to both at the same time.

Perhaps worse, some experts and ethicists believe systems built or deployed during the pandemic will not be dismantled. That means if you agree to feed mobile companies your smartphone data now, its likely theyll keep taking it. If you agree to quarantine enforcement measures that include facial recognition systems deployed all over a city, those systems will likely become a standard part of law enforcement after the quarantines are over. And so on.

This isnt to say that the pandemic doesnt require some tough tradeoffs the difficult but crucially important part is understanding which concessions are acceptable and necessary and what legal and regulatory safeguards need to be put in place.

For a start, we can look to some general best practices. The International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance, which has been signed by hundreds of organizations worldwide, has for years insisted that any mass surveillance efforts must be necessary, adequate, and proportionate. Health officials, not law enforcement, need to drive the decision-making around data collection. Privacy considerations should be built into tools like contact tracing apps. Any compromises made in the name of public health need to be balanced against the costs to privacy, and if a surveillance system is installed, it needs to be dismantled when the emergent threat of the coronavirus subsides. Data collected during the pandemic must have legal protections, including stringent restrictions on who can access that data, for what purpose, and for how long.

In this special issue, we explore the privacy and surveillance tradeoffs lawmakers are working through, outline methods of tracking the coronavirus, and examine France as a case study in the challenges governments face at the intersection of politics, technology, and peoples lives.

This is a matter of life and death. But its about life and death now and life and death for years to come.

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Finding the balance between safety and freedom in the shadow of COVID-19 - VentureBeat

Freedom Does Not Mean Being on the Loose – Psychiatric Times

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COMMENTARY

Many years ago, I treated depression in a man in his 50s who regaled me with stories of his tumultuous teens and twenties. Doc, he said, back then, I was drinking and drugging anytime I felt like it, sleeping with whoever I wanted to. I really thought I was free. But you know what? I was just on the loose!

My patient was on to something. His nice distinction was brought home to me in the past few weeks, as I viewed some of the more extreme anti-restriction protests springing up in several state capitalsostensibly in the name of freedom.1

No, Im not comparing protesting to drinking and drugging. But I am distinguishing between freedom and licenseand between genuine individualism and what I call hyper-individualism. To unpack these terms, we need a bit of historical and linguistic perspective.

Freedom vs. license

A common dictionary definition of freedom is the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.2

In that very narrow sense, my patient was arguably free, back in the day. But psychologists and philosophers point to a deeper and more mature concept of freedom, as philosopher Montague Brown explains:

Freedom and license must not be confused: freedom embraces responsibility and is guided by reason and virtue; license is choice without restraint . . . License is the throwing off of all responsibility. It is a carte blanche to do as we feel. As such, it is incompatible with virtue and destroys community.3

In short, license means being on the loose. But Brown is making a larger point. He is gesturing toward two principles that have guided American society since the earliest days of the Republic: individualism and communitarianism. These principles have coexisted in dynamic tension throughout our national history and are deeply ingrained in our national identity. I would argue that this dialectic has been one of the great strengths of American culture and government.

With regard to individualism, the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, Self-reliance, famously argued, To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all menthat is genius.4

The image of the self-reliant, iron-willed loner is an iconic American archetype, from the days of the lone cowboy, out on the range, to the novels of Ernest Hemingway. The motto, Dont Tread on Mewhich arose during the years of the American Revolutionnicely sums up the feisty spirit of American individualism.5 Indeed, during recent anti-restriction protests, Dont Tread on Me appeared on numerous flags and banners.6

In contrast to this spirit of fierce individualism, American society has always had a strong communitarian dimension. As philosophy professor Aeon J. Skoble explains,

The essence of communitarian thought is that the community can be thought of as a bearer of rights, or at least as the holder of interests, to which an individuals interests may have to be subordinated in some cases.7

A clear example of communitarian priorities is the imposition of isolation and quarantines to contain certain infectious diseases, such as cholera, diphtheria, and infectious tuberculosisand, of course, COVID-19.8 The federal government derives its (rarely-used) authority for quarantine from the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Andcontrary to the claim of some protesters that quarantines apply only to sick peoplethe Center for Disease Control states that, Isolation and quarantine help protect the public by preventing exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease.8(italics added)

Expressions of freedom or of license?

The tension between individualism and communitarianism has come to the fore in recent weeks, as protesters have gathered in opposition to the quarantines and business closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many protesters voiced perfectly understandable concerns about lost jobs, missed opportunities, and social isolation. These individuals deserve our empathic understanding. However, in my view, some revealed a troubling mindset that I call hyper-individualism. For example, some protesters have characterized COVID safety precautions as acts of tyranny.9

And while some protesters complied with social distancing directives or wore masks, many did notthus exposing themselves and others to the risk of a potentially lethal infection. These anti-communitarian actions have been rationalized under dubious notions of freedom. For example, Rep. A. Nino Vitale (R) of Ohio commented, I will not wear a mask . . . quite frankly, everyone elses freedom ends at the tip of my nose. Youre not going to tell me what to do.10

Rep. Vitales notion of freedom is not grounded in responsibility, reason, and virtue. What Vitale advocates is not a mature construct of freedom, but a raw manifestation of license. It is not traditional rugged individualism, but hyper-individualismin my view, bordering on sociopathy.

I hasten to add that hyper-individualism is not the province of one political party or orientation. Although the brand of hyper-individualism we find in the COVID-19 anti-restriction protests emerges from the far right of the political spectrum, this trait can also be found on the far left. Its anti-communitarian nature is exemplified in Abbie Hoffmans 1971 work, Steal This Book, described as . . . a compendium of methods that individuals can use to live freely, without participating in the social order.10 (italics added)

As for the anti-restriction protestors, I believe political columnist Dick Polman put the matter well: Going mask-free is the new dont tread on me. If more people die on the altar of others selfishness, well, I guess thats the price of freedom.11

Or, as my patient would have put it, thats not freedomthats just being on the loose.

Disclosures:

Dr Pies is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Lecturer on Bioethics and Humanities, SUNY Upstate Medical University; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine; and Editor in Chief Emeritus of Psychiatric Times (2007-2010). The author reports no conflicts of interest concerning the subject matter of this article.

References:

1. Extremists Involved in Nationwide Protests Against Coronavirus Restrictions. Jewish Defense League. Accessed May 15, 2020.https://www.adl.org/blog/extremists-involved-in-nationwide-protests-against-coronavirus-restrictions

2. Freedom. Merriam Webster. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freedom?src=search-dict-box

3. Brown M. Freedom/License. Catholic Education Resource Center. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/philosophy/freedom-license.html

4. Self-Reliance. Project Guttenberg. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SELF-RELIANCE

5. The Gadsden Flag. Chamber of Commerce. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.chamberofcommerce.org/usflag/history/gadsden.html

6. Hutchinson B. Protests against coronavirus 'stay-at-home' orders spread across the country. ABC News. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://abcnews.go.com/US/protests-coronavirus-stay-home-orders-spread-country/story?id=70242988

7. Skoble A. Communitarian and Individualist Ideas in Business. Foundation for Economic Education. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://fee.org/articles/communitarian-and-individualist-ideas-in-business/

8. Legal Authorities for Isolation and Quarantine. Centers for Disease Control. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html

9. Betz B. Maine protesters hit back at tyranny of states coronavirus restrictions. Fox News. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/us/maine-protesters-state-coronavirus-restrictions

10. Steal this book. Encyclopedia.com. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/steal-book

11. Polman D. Refusing to wear a mask is about the most un-American thing to do right now. Pennsylvania Capital Star. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.penncapital-star.com/commentary/refusing-to-wear-a-mask-is-america-at-its-worst-dick-polman

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Freedom Does Not Mean Being on the Loose - Psychiatric Times

The van gives me such freedom: Custom conversion gives Eugene woman wheels on which to roam – The Register-Guard

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More than 55 years ago, a young Christine Stockdale left England for the United States with $50 in her pocket. Today, Stockdale is 76 and still eager for adventure: She and her companion, a brown Labrador named Emma, have taken to the road in a converted cargo van.

"I've literally bummed around the world into Africa and places like that," the Eugene woman said. "This next phase in my life when I can't really go wandering the Himalayas the van gives me such freedom."

Stockdale started with a 2000 Ford Econoline E150 that she found advertised on Craigslist. Used only as a rescue van for a motorcycle club in Idaho, its insides were already gutted and there were only 130,000 miles on the engine.

With the help of Brendon Powell, a Eugene woodworker and craftsman, Stockdale's van now has a bed, fridge, sink, closet and bookshelf. An extra battery allows for taking it off the grid and still running the amenities.

Right away, Brendon knew what I was thinking of. In fact, he could think more of what I wanted than what I even could, Stockdale said.

Powells detailed woodwork created spaces for a hidden toilet, a small standing desktop and ceiling lights. His own experience as a van-camper creator, combined with the owners needs, contributes to highly personalized work.

Reports indicate a 121.8% increase in sales of type B RVs or van campers from last year, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association. Trends in camping support increased in 2019 as well, with interest in van life doubling, according to the North American Camping Report.

Stockdale, however, isnt new to #VanLife. For several years, she owned a Volkswagen Westfalia, another iconic camper van with a pop top. The vehicle was plagued with spendy mechanical troubles, though, so she let it go and settled for car-camping in her Toyota RAV4 for a time.

After dog-sitting for a friend last summer, Stockdale offered to drive the dog home from Oregon to Los Angeles. She, Emma and the friends dog all slept together in the RAV4 for a week as they camped down the West Coast.

By the time I got home, I said, That is it. No more sleeping in the car. Im just getting too old, Stockdale said.

Decades into her journey, Stockdale still doesnt let her age or gender stop her from finding adventure.

I was brought up by, especially, a mother in England and a father who encouraged me to be independent. I was never, ever told, No, youre a girl, you cant do it, Stockdale said. If I want to do it, Im going to do it.

To see the creation of Stockdales conversion, visit @brendonpowell on Instagram. For conversion inquiries, contact Powell at forayconcept@gmail.com.

Contact reporter Dana Sparks at dsparks@registerguard.com or 541-338-2243, and follow her on Twitter @danamsparks and Instagram @danasparksphoto. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

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The van gives me such freedom: Custom conversion gives Eugene woman wheels on which to roam - The Register-Guard

Freedom is Never Free – The Hudson Reporter

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Dear Editor:

Monday, May 25, Memorial Day, is a time of and for solemnity to honor our distinguished fallen heroes. A hero, in this sense, is any member of the Armed Services valiantly executing his (or her) duties, sometimes wondering why; for, at times, it seemed so foolish, so worthless, and so wasteful. But, the courageous Service Member performed sometimes at the cost of his (or her) own life.

As we approach the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, the Demilitarized Zone the DMZ separating North and South Korea allows one to fully comprehend the true meaning of Memorial Day. It reinforces the important lesson that the blessings of liberty come at a great cost.

The DMZ, the final frontier separating liberty from tyranny, serves as a grim reminder that the acrimonious flames of the Cold War have yet to be fully extinguished. An eerie, thunderous silence haunts the narrow strip of land that divides the prosperous south from its bellicose neighbor to the north.

On June 25, 1950, well equipped military forces from a Soviet-backed North Korea invaded the South. By that time, considering the events that had just occurred in Europe, the Western World had become more aware, more concerned, and more apprehensive about the aggressive and oppressive maneuverings of rogue nations. Consequently, led by the United States, the Allied World responded to the Norths aggression. By the time the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953; some 37,000 U.S. and 138,000 South Korean Military Members had given their lives to defend and secure freedom on the Korean peninsula. Their ultimate sacrifices were not in vain!

Today, the Republic of Korea stands as a living testimony to the sacrifices made during the Korean War. The Republic of Korea is a miraculous success story. Antiquated infrastructures have succumbed to modern technological developments. Parochial economic systems have acquiesced to expanding interest and active participation in international markets, to the extent that the Republic of Korea has the 12th largest economy in the world.

Without the hardships endured by U.S. Service Members heroically executing their duties in places such as the Busan Perimeter, the Chosin Reservoir, Heartbreak Ridge, and Pork Chop Hill; South Korea would have been denied the opportunity to emerge as a free, independent, and self-determined nation.

Over the years, we have corrupted this day of reverence into just another extended weekend. Sadly, we have a tendency to take for granted the ultimate sacrifices that brave individuals have made to preserve those endearing and enduring freedoms and liberties that all of us enjoy.

On this Memorial Day, we should remember the valuable lesson of the Korean War: Freedom is never free. We should take some time to reflect on those brave individuals of the Armed Services who died so we can continue to enjoy the blessings of liberty and live in freedom.

John Di Genio

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Freedom is Never Free - The Hudson Reporter

What will we do with the new freedom to shop and dine? – cleveland.com

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Last Tuesday, with the opening of stores, Ohio officials said more than 89% of the private economy would be able to open.

On Friday, those numbers grew exponentially, as barbers and nail and hair salons could open -- along with tattoo parlors and massage therapy businesses. Restaurants and bars also could start serving -- outdoors only. (Inside dining may begin next Thursday, May 21, when campgrounds can also open - with social distancing.)

Horse racing (no spectators allowed) is coming next Friday, May 22. Gyms, fitness centers, low-contact amateur sports leagues (tennis players, get ready), swimming pools and state motor-vehicle offices can open their doors May 26.

And the big one for many parents -- child care and summer day camps -- have a reopening date of May 31.

Its an exciting new world for many Ohioans who have been marooned at home for two months, only venturing outdoors for walks or the weekly dash to the grocery store. Many people are being called back to work, too -- no doubt raising concerns among some about how well-protected they will be, especially if they have a public-facing job.

Of course, as Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said at the state coronavirus briefing Tuesday, being allowed to open is not the same as opening. He recommended people call ahead to their favorite diner or bakery or mall store or barber, to make sure theyre actually open, before they rush out to start the frenzy of consumerism Ohio no doubt hopes is in store.

And DeWine, pressed Tuesday on his and Fran DeWines dining-out plans -- while admitting hes basically a homebody -- finally acknowledged hes been hankering for his friend Woodys fried chicken at the Mel-O-Dee Restaurant over in Clark County, and that he may be making a fried-chicken run for himself and extended family. (We called Tuesday and the Mel-O-Dee was open for takeout -- check out their broaster menu - mouthwatering! https://melodeerestaurant.com/menu/broaster-foods.)

So what does our editorial board roundtable hanker for right now? Whatll be our first non-grocery-store run in this new world of a reopening Ohio -- and what precautions will we be taking, and what nagging concerns might we still have? Read on!

Ted Diadiun, columnist:

Ill not be darkening the doors of any tattoo parlors, but my wife already has an appointment with her pedicurist the moment it reopens. For me, the sign of a return to normalcy will be sitting at a tavern outdoors if I must and blowing the foam off a cold one while a good country tune plays on the jukebox.

Thomas Suddes, editorial writer:

Ive hankered for bookstores, and (when Ohios Catholic bishops allow it) the return of Mass.

Victor Ruiz, editorial board member:

By the time this publishes, I hope to have a haircut in the books. Other than that, I do not plan on getting out much. For now, remote work, weekly grocery runs, and occasional takeout from our favorite places will suffice. For those of you who venture out, please be mindful of others and put a mask on.

Lisa Garvin, editorial board member:

After reading an enlightening study about respiratory droplet spread, I probably wont be dining out or lingering in crowded spaces anytime soon. But I miss estate sales, and Im testing my comfort level by attending one this week, which involves touching other peoples stuff a lot. If the experience doesnt send me back home screaming, a haircut will be next.

Eric Foster, editorial board member:

One word: barbershop. I scheduled my appointment the day of DeWines order. Ive been looking like a 70s blaxploitation movie character since mid-March. I thought about attempting to bribe my barber into a house call, but thought the better of it. What if she refuses? Then Ill look like a you know. Plus, Im not that shallow. I can wear hats.

Mary Cay Doherty, editorial board member:

I will be combing Last Act clearance racks at Macys and enjoying meals with my family at Burntwood Tavern, Danny Boys, and, on special occasions, White Oaks. Since mid-March, I stayed in to flatten the curve. But now, its time to unflatten the economy. I will adhere to social distancing guidelines, but businesses need customers, and Im happy to oblige!

Elizabeth Sullivan, opinion director:

I admit to being sorely tempted to make the three-hour drive to the Mel-O-Dee, but the chicken would go cold before I made it home, and the old family farmhouse nine miles away (on Sullivan Road) is long gone. So, I will content myself with my very favorite small businesses closer to home -- Andys Shoes, Baschs Moment in Time, and the incomparable La Campagna - please reopen, with tables outdoors!

Have something to say about this topic?

* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.

* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this editorial board roundtable to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.

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What will we do with the new freedom to shop and dine? - cleveland.com

Germany’s flag burning ban is a threat to freedom of expression – Spectator.co.uk

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Germanys national parliament has made the public burning of the European Union flag and flags of foreign countries punishable by up to three years in jail, classing it as a hate crime. In a vote last Thursday, the German parliament made the act of defiling foreign flags equal to the crime of defiling the German flag. The new law also applies to acts of defilement other than burning, such as publicly ripping a flag up.

The initiative for this legislative change dates back to 2017 when protesters in Berlin burned the Israeli flag to emphasise their outrage about the United States support of Israel, causing indignation in parts of German federal politics. In particular, Germanys Social Democrats (SPD) complained about the incident and began lobbying for legislative change. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, a member of the SPD, said burning flags publicly has nothing to do with peaceful protests. She is convinced that such actions stoke up hatred, anger, and aggression.

The defilement of foreign flags was already criminalised in Germany if the flags were placed at an official event, e.g. when a head of state was visiting. But every German was allowed to buy, carry, and destroy foreign flags at public rallies and for various forms of protest.

This is about the burning of foreign flags for symbolic purposes, argued Christian Rath, legal correspondent for the left-leaning German newspaper taz. The flag is used as a symbol for the foreign country and its politics. It might be aggressive symbolism, but the portrayal of anger and outrage are legitimate reasons for demonstrations, especially when anger and outrage are justified.

Apart from Denmark, there is not another democratic state with such a far-reaching law, stated Niema Movassat, a politician representing The Left. Germany would take an exceptional position with its prohibition of the burning of foreign flags, he told Legal Tribune Online before the ban.

The United States, for example, does not have any laws that make the burning of flags a punishable offence, as the Supreme Court has decided multiple times that such laws would interfere with freedom of expression and so violate the constitution. In Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Canada, it is not illegal to destroy foreign flags. Defiling the Union Flag isnt even a crime in Britain.

You could reason that the flag of Israel should be under special protection in Germany during world war two remembrance days. But the defilement of the Chinese flag in a protest against the countrys treatment of Uighur Muslims or the flag of Myanmar to show outrage about the Rohingya genocide seems like a legitimate form of protest, even if it is not the most sophisticated one.

Germanys federal government also intends to adjust the countrys laws against stirring up hatred against individuals online. But the defilement of flags is not about the protection of individuals. In its motion, the government argued that the reputation of foreign states and the good relationships between Germany and foreign states have to be protected. This law seems more like a deliberate effort to restrict public criticism of foreign governments. And in a time when freedom of expression is under pressure in many parts of the world, citizens of democratic states should be wary of any attempts to narrow forms of protest.

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Germany's flag burning ban is a threat to freedom of expression - Spectator.co.uk

What does freedom mean in this moment? – The Irish Times

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What does freedom mean in this moment? Over the past few weeks, Ive been asking writers around the world, from the metropolis of Moscow to a small town called Puebla in Mexico. Their work is connected by questions of change, memory and subversive individuality.

Zoomed in from their homes, they share insights across the distance, from the child of Holocaust survivors in Washington DC to a journalist in Berlin investigating her grandparents support for the Nazis. One writer, based in Japan, said freedom was paying taxes.

All these writers were due to travel here to Ireland for the International Literature Festival Dublin. The pandemic has postponed the in-person events but through these conversations, we are hoping to bring listeners beyond their radius, to hear insights from half a dozen authors worldwide during a moment of change. As author Arundhati Roy has written, the pandemic is a portal, laying bare inequalities and transporting us to a new reality.

The Portals podcast series, launching today, gives a virtual taste of the festival, accessible to everyone, anytime, anywhere. The first episode is with Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for the New Yorker. Before we spoke, Yaffa had filed a fascinating reporton Coronavirus spreading to far-flug oil towns in the Arctic. But he wrote it without ever leaving his apartment. Moscow is two hours ahead from Dublin and I learned from Yaffas book that Russia has 11 different time zones, an immense country to cover at the best of times, let alone under lockdown.

Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putins Russia tells the stories of activists, artists and maverick individuals and the way compromise becomes a way to succeed or survive. One of these is a zany entrepreneur, Crimeas version of Tiger King, who Yaffa speaks to me about meeting. His book explores the idea of freedom within unfreedom and though authoritarian leaderships might seem interminable, Yaffa reminds us that the fall of the Soviet Union, a system that had seemed eternal to many, ended in a flash. Things change here quickly and unexpectedly, he said.

Unexpected connections to Ireland emerged in the first few pages of Fernanda Melchors engulfing novel Hurricane Season, shortlisted for the yet-to-be-announced International Booker Prize. Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time, has described Melchor as being unafraid to confront the unspeakable.

The novel is about the violent murder of a witch, told through the fast-flowing, consuming narrative that allows us see through the eyes of men and women affected by and implicated in her death. Melchor chose a quotation from Yeats about the terrible beauty of the Easter Rising as one of her epigraphs for the novel.

We spoke about the growing protest movement in Mexico against femicide, a movement that is fighting for freedom from ongoing violence against women, and how people are still continuing their resistance in some ways even during lockdown.

While writing her memoir, I Want You To Know Were Still Here, Esther Safran Foer worried about including details of her falsified birth dates on the documents that she travelled on to the US, due to the threat she felt from Trumps presidency as an immigrant, even though she is a naturalized citizen. She remembers the exodus from Germany with her parents, who both fled hometowns occupied by Nazi murder squads, their families executed.

I had read her son Jonathan Safran Foers novel Everything Is Illuminated, when I was younger. Her book completes the quest he fictionalised and is the culmination of a life-long search for answers, involving memory jars and former FBI agents.

David Peace, born in Yorkshire but living in Tokyo for decades now, often writes about moments of massive change, from the aftermath of world wars to earthquakes and miner strikes. He advocates for change too, supporting the recommendations of the Common People report, which draws on evidence from contributors to Kit de Waals Common People anthology, highlighting how lack of representation in publishing perpetuates inequality.

Peace wrote The Damned United about infamous football manager Brian Clough. His novel Patient X is a vivid and haunting account of Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The final book of his Tokyo Trilogy, Tokyo Redux, is out next year. The real individuals his novels portray are extreme and consumed by their own ideas. Peace was sitting in his sons room with a poster for the latest Hollywood adaptation of the Great Gatsby in the background when we spoke. He had an unflinching response to the question of freedom: more sacrifice, more and more taxes. Almost always someones freedom means someone elses lack of freedom, he said. Freedom is somehow always pernicious unless youre in a state of equality.

I will be asking this question of Graldine Schwarz, a French-German journalist whose book Those Who Forget won the European Book Prize. Schwarz finds documents in a family file that lead to her investigating her grandparents support for the Nazi regime and their attempts to justify their actions, raising questions about collective guilt and national memory at a time when Europes unity is being challenged by far-right populism once again.

I will also be speaking with Rodaan al Galidi, a writer born in Iraq who sought asylum in the Netherlands. His novel, Two Blankets, Three Sheets, exposes the reality of the Dutch asylum process, drawing on the authors own experience of that Kafkaesque system. There are parallels to be made with Irelands system of Direct Provision, reminding us that across Europe there is a network of institutions subjecting people to years trapped in limbo. But there is humour and resilience in these stories too. There is freedom.

The first episode of Portals is out today and a new episode will be released every few days at ilfdublin.com. All of the authors books are available through ILFDublins festival bookseller The Gutter Bookshop.Caelainn Hogan is a writer and journalist from Dublin. Her first book Republic of Shame explores the ongoing legacy of Irelands religious-run institutions. She has reported internationally for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, The Guardian, Harpers, VICE, The Washington Post and others.

SCHEDULEMonday, May 18th: Joshua YaffaWednesday, May 20th: Fernanda MelchorFriday, May 22nd: Esther Safran FoerSunday, May 25th: David PeaceTuesday, May 27th: Graldine SchwarzThursday, May 29th: Rodaan Al Galidi

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What does freedom mean in this moment? - The Irish Times

Event captures memories of Freedom Riders’ heroic journey between Anniston and Birmingham – Bham Now

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Freedom Riders Historical marker on 4th Ave & 19th North site of the Trailways Bus Station in 1961. Photo by Pat Byington for Bham Now

It was one of the darkest moments in Alabama history.

On Mothers Day, May 14, 1961, Freedom Riders, peacefully demonstrating against segregation on buses and in facilities used by interstate passengers of public transportation, entered the state of Alabama. When they arrived in both Anniston and Birmingham they were met by mobs, beaten, and outside of Anniston, the Greyhound bus was firebombed.

Last week, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, local organizers replaced the 59th Anniversary celebration honoring the Freedom Riders with an online event that included interviews with surviving Freedom Riders and updates from the National Park Service.

Here is the entire hour long event:

This is a safe way to honor the memory of the Freedom Riders and kick off a full year in preparation for the big 60th anniversary, said Kristofer Butcher, National Park Service Superintendent of Freedom Riders National Monument and Birmingham Civil Rights Monument. We hope this online program will be shared throughout the nation.

Encouraged by Freedom Rider advocate Phillip Howard and supported by Jacksonville State University, as well as the Freedom Riders Park Committee, new interviews and National Park Service updates premiered on May 14th.

The program, which was co-hosted by Howard and JSUs Pete Conroy, has new, candid interviews with Freedom Riders Charles Person and Hank Thomas along with conversations from Superintendent Butcher, Montgomery Freedom Rider Museum Site Director Dorothy Walker and 98-year-old author of Beyond the Burning Bus, Rev. Phillip Noble.

I had planned to be on Gurnee Avenue (in Anniston), outside the Greyhound Bus Depot, but this online event will be a good replacement, said Freedom Rider Charles Person. We appreciate this community effort and hope people will watch, learn and model the Freedom Riders, he said.

Also featured will be filmmakers Chris OConnor and JSUs Seth Johnson revealing details of the Alabama Public Television special 60th Anniversary Freedom Rider documentary to be released in 2021.

The 60-minute, 59th Anniversary program was produced by Gilbert Creative using recording technologies from both the studio and home.

Reserve an hour this week to watch Persons and Hank Thomas provide their firsthand account on what happened that day 59 years ago. Also, listen to the latest progress report on the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and Freedom Riders National Monument.

Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.

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Event captures memories of Freedom Riders' heroic journey between Anniston and Birmingham - Bham Now