Category Archives: Golden Rule

Britains bestseller lists are usually dominated by rural parish murder mysteries, John Grisham thrillers, and historical fiction set in every age other than our own. Novels that detail contemporary life in unflinching, unsparing detail are missing. The song of our country, as it is now, is not being sung.

Their absence is perhaps understandable. In our age of mass-strikes, cost of living crises, and political turmoil, escapism even of the murderous kind seems like an appealing option.

This wasnt the case in the 19th century, when everyone from Anthony Trollope and Elizabeth Gaskell to Benjamin Disraeli, turned their hand to writing novels which described the way we live now: itself the title of Trollopes 1875 satire of financial scandals. Gaskells North and South (1855) is an emotionally febrile exploration of the horrors of industrial England, as the initially nave and snobbish Margaret Hale is forced to leave the idyllic Helston a village like in one of Tennysons poems and move north. A few mill workers riots, some tasteless northern wallpaper and one naval mutiny later, Margaret is morally improved and, perhaps more importantly, engaged.

Disraelis novel, Sybil or The Two Nations (1845) is a similar exploration of the Condition of England. The poverty of those living in Englands industrial cities is so extreme as to seem to belong to another country. Many of Charles Dickenss works contain an element of reportage on the same places. Amidst the unstintingly ridiculous character names, putrid fog, and marauding donkeys, Hard Times (1854), David Copperfield (1850), Oliver Twist (1839), and Bleak House (1853) all attempted to reflect Britain back at the British.

Middlemarch(1872), George Eliots study of provincial life, is the undisputed masterwork of this genre. Through granular examination of the lives of the inhabitants of a middle-England town, Eliot explores everything from medical developments to the status of women in the early 19th century. But its regular appearance on lists of the best state of the nation novels leaves me queasy. Is the book intended to be about national change and the passing of the 1832 Reform Act, or is it a universal examination of human psychology?

State of the nation novelshave been definedas those that address social and political changes. This seems simplistic, even trite: by its nature, a work of fiction inevitably addresses social questions. By that reckoning,Middlemarchis certainly a state of the nation novel, but then so is Douglas AdamssThe Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy(1979). Eliot, like Adams, toys with the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. She gives us a tangled web of human interconnectedness, heartbreak, and failure. The number 42 is conspicuously absent.

Yet some contemporary novelists have taken up the challenge. Amanda Craig has written a sequence of nine interconnected novels all set in contemporary Britain, including 2020s The Golden Rule. For her, contemporary state of the nation novels are those which, like Middlemarch or any of Dickenss or Trollopes offerings, help us get a grasp of the way we live now. She acknowledges a scarceness of modern equivalents to the likes of Gaskell and Disraeli, and attributes it to being bombarded with current affairs by the media.

The author William Boyd similarly blames the news cycle. The basic problem is, it seems to me, that time moves on so much more quickly than in the 19th century. There is a risk for novelists that a on-the-nail, crucial novel will be irrelevant in three years time. He uses the example of Justin Cartwrights 1995 novel In Every Face I Meet. The central epiphanic metaphor is a try scored by the former England rugby union captain Will Carling. As Boyd says, that novel will now require footnotes to make any sense to someone who doesnt remember the occasion.

Looming obsolescence was less of an issue for Dickens and Trollope: their works were often serialised prior to publication, in magazines and newspapers which carried news as well as fiction. Rather than writing about the news cycle of politics and contemporary issues, they were practically a part of it.

Thackeray biographer, D. J. Taylor, identifies another issue that faces the would-be state of the nation writer: in the age Thackeray created Vanity Fair (1848), it was possible for a writer to understand his or her society in a way that isnt possible now. They could grasp the political, financial, and class structure of society. Now, no modern novelist really understands how money works. It is far harder to describe class signifiers and differences in an age where someone earning a six-figure salary can still call themselves culturally working class.

And, many novelists are out of touch with the class-based issues which are at the heart of state of the nation fiction. There are, of course, exceptions Luan Goldies brilliant new novel These Streets is about gentrification and the cost of living in East London; an area the author knows well. But it would be hard for a West London-dwelling, Remainer, Lib Dem-voting novelist to write convincingly about disillusionment and anti-EU sentiment in a former mining town.

The lack of literary fiction that deals with contemporary life is not a recent development. Out of the books which met with acclaim last year, it would be hard to find many which take, as their primary subject matter, the intricacies and relentlessness of modern life.

But it would be facetious to claim there have been no blockbuster state of the nation novels in living memory. In 2012, John Lanchester published Capital: a precisely observed chronicle of London life as the 2008 financial crisis shook the world. The lives of the inhabitants of one road in London from Polish builders to Senegalese footballers and rich Bankers are fastidiously explored, and a true portrait of Britain in the 21st century emerges.

Most recently, Ali Smith wrote her Seasonal Quartet in the years following the Brexit referendum. Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer and this years Companion Piece offer a commentary on British lives as they are lived now. While 19th century novelists recorded railway timetables, the price of stamps, and contemporary legal battles, Smith instead revels in descriptions of disembodied heads and an almost ekphrastic dedication to describing art. Her books are about contemporary life Summer managed to touch on Covid-19 despite only being published a few months after the pandemic began but, in their radical form and style, they are not so much state of the nation novels as they are markers of the state of literary fiction.

Neither Lanchester nor Smiths achievements alter the fact that this is a genre where the tide is going out. What could be the cause of this reluctance to fictionalise the day-to-day lives of normal people?

For Boyd, there is a pragmatic reason: it is risky, and potentially unrewarding, for writers to write about the present. Many novelists himself included write about the recent or semi-distant past because everything is fixed and known. From The Blue Afternoon (1993) to The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth (2017), Boyd has written contemporary novels and short stories, but he would defy any reader to determine what year theyre set in. He takes great pains not to make any topical reference so that its contemporary feel can last a decade or maybe two and is generic rather than precise.

But Craig takes a different approach. The protagonist of her most recent novel, The Golden Rule, is a single mother who cleans homes for a living and continually struggles to make ends meet. But Craig believes that readers are put off by the potential Left-of-centre moralising of a novel which deals with poverty and financial inequality. A state of the nation novel has to be able to hold a mirror up to some of the big social and personal problems of the day and ask readers what they sympathise with, but a strong moral compass hasnt been fashionable for the past 75 years.

This difference in opinion marks a subtly different approach from the purpose of contemporary details in fiction. Are they intended to provide a contemporary feel a modern backdrop to the storys action or are they a part of the storys direction, and the reason for it having been written?

With Boyds fiction, the answer is clearly the former and for Craig, as for her Victorian counterparts, the answer is the latter. But for Smith, the answer lies somewhere in the middle of the two: contemporary resonances give her stories momentum and purpose, but her Seasonal Quartet is less fiction that mirrors contemporary life than fiction which mentions contemporary life but retains an element of detachment from it.

This is why these novels have fallen out of fashion. For Dickens, Eliot, Trollope, and Thackeray, literary culture was inextricably linked to everyday life: novels appeared, quite literally, next to news in the pages of periodicals and often used events from current affairs as potential plot lines. In our day and age, authors, novelists, and the rarefied book world are separate from normal life. (Unsurprisinglypublishing statisticsreveal a dearth of working-class employees in the industry.) We dont want to read novels about the housing crisis, corrupt politicians, and global turmoil when we can watch it on our television screens. In response, fiction has found a home for itself ever further from day-to-day reality.

But we should not be content with this division of literary culture from everyday existence. Lets bring back serialised novels in newspapers, books with thinly veiled real-life politicians, and fiction about the minutiae of normal life. It isnt the issues or politics that readers remember about Victorian state of the nation novels, but the characters.

The Britain they lived in, with its financial scandals and venal celebrities, is not so different from ours. The stories are all still there: a modern day Becky Sharpe in a train strike; a scheming, corrupt Obadiah Slope in the contemporary Church of England; an updated Oliver Twist as a look at the woeful state of children in care; or even Dorothea Brooke as a certain feckless MPs wife. All we are doing is waiting for talents to tell them.

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Why fiction is failing Britain - UnHerd

Forensics expert Laughton Rees hunts an unusually clever killer who appears to be staging murder scenes just for her in this twisty new psychological thriller by the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy.

We chat with author Simon Toyne about his latest novelDark Objects, which is out this week!

Hi Simon, were excited to hear about your new book, DARK OBJECTS.

DARK OBJECTS is a twisty, fast-paced, psychological suspense thriller set in present-day London. It starts with a glamorous woman found brutally murdered in her sleek, architect-designed mansion. She has no formal identity so officially doesnt exist, no alarms were tripped, no forensics were left behind, and the only clues are four strange objects arranged around the body: a unicorn toy, some old war medals, a set of keys that dont fit any lock in the house, and a book on forensics and police procedure written by Dr. Laughton Rees.

Laughton, a brilliant but troubled and reclusive academic struggling to raise her teenage daughter alone, finds herself dragged onto the front pages by the media storm that whips up around the bizarre murder and the belief that her book helped the killer cover their tracks.

Realizing that the fastest way to return her life to normal is to solve the mystery, Laughton breaks her own golden rule to never work live cases and agrees to share her considerable expertise with the investigation.But as the objects gradually begin to reveal the identity of both killer and victim, Laughton realizes they also contain specific messages about the childhood trauma that shattered her life and eventually turned her into a recluse. Her childhood was stolen away by one killer, now she must catch another before her daughters is destroyed too.

Youve mentioned youre a fan of Charles Dickens. How has his work influenced your writing?

I dont know a single writer who isnt a fan or hasnt been influenced by Dickens in some way. Hes so influential that when you think about Victorian London what youre picturing isDickensianLondon, the one he described so vividly in books as varied asOliver Twist,A Tale of Two Cities, andGreat Expectations.

Hes also brilliant at taking complex ideas, particularly ones of social and economic problems, and dramatizing them in a way that makes them understandable and compelling and has this incredible ability to tell a story that incorporates the whole of society, from Lords to street sweepers and everybody in between. This is something I tried to emulate inDARK OBJECTS. I take the story all over Londonfrom the Home Secretary and Chief Police Commissioner to a teenage runaway, living on the streetsguiding the reader on a journey through a darker and more unfamiliar London.

Why set DARK OBJECTS in London?

DARK OBJECTSis the first novel Ive set in my native England. All the locations in the book are real places: the Murder Mansion, Suicide Bridge, New Scotland Yard, the Old Chelsea Nick, the offices of The Dailyall genuine parts of a very real, modern London.

The mansion where the murder takes place is called the Eldridge House which sits on the edge of Highgate Cemetery. Highgate Cemetery is a fantastically opulent and overgrown Victorian cemetery that looks like an enchanted wood filled with lop-sided tombs and gravestones and has quite a few famous people buried thereKarl Marx, author George Eliot, George Michael, the actress Jean Simmons.

I used to live in Archway, which is at the bottom of Highgate Hill. I know the area well and had always been intrigued by this striking, modern, steel and glass house overlooking the graveyard. I was inspired to set the murder there.

Many writers spend much of their writing time in isolation. How did Covid affect you and your work life?

Covid and lockdown meant having to share the house with my wife and three kids instead of being on my own between the hours of 8 and 4. Being a writer means you have no real structure so you either need to create some or cleave to a pre-existing one. Lockdown shattered my structure entirely. I had to create a new one in order to keep working, which mostly involved getting up a few hours earlier than the rest of our household.

I wrote a lot of DARK OBJECTS sitting up in bed, which was not ideal for my back and may have partly inspired the scene in the middle of the book where someone else is trapped in a bedroom against their will.

How do true crime stories fit into your work? Is DARK OBJECTS based on a particular case?

I think true crimes fascinate all of us, and crime writers are no exception. As I was prepping DARK OBJECTS, I was filming a true crime TV show called Written in Blood where I interviewed various bestselling crime writers such as Tess Gerritsen and Karin Slaughter about the real crimes that had inspired their work. One of the stories involved a double murder in Glasgow in the early eighties, where two women were killed in separate attacks. In each case the killer emptied the contents of their handbags and laid them out in a neat line. There was something very macabre and disturbing about that detail and it stuck with me and ended up being one of the hallmarks of my killer in DARK OBJECTS. I was reminded of the adage, Truth is stranger than fiction. Its another reason why people love true crime I think; an editor would probably make me take out half the things I encountered when making this show because they would say it was implausible or unbelievable. Alas.

DARK OBJECTS is your seventh novel. Do you view this novel as an evolution? What can we expect next?

My first three novels were compared to Dan Brown and my next two to Stephen King and Lee Child. DARK OBJECTS has been compared by early readers to Thomas Harris. I think the stories Im telling have shifted in tone and subject over the years. Having said that, I think all of my books are fundamentally still the same at their core. All of them have a big mystery at their heart, which complex characters attempt to solve through the course of the story. All of them have multiple twists and are carefully put together in a way that hopefully makes the reader get to the end of one page and turn another, get to the end of one chapter and say just one more until they close the book at three in the morning still wondering whats going to happen to the characters next. And so, as to whats next, Ive already written a first draft of a follow up to DARK OBJECTS.

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Q&A: Simon Toyne, Author of 'Dark Objects' - The Nerd Daily

A costly, time-consuming dispute over a security gate between a homeowner and the body corporate of his Cape Town complex highlights the importance of clear rules and compromise for harmonious community living, says specialist sectional title attorney Marina Constas.

Cape Town homeowner and the complex trustees wasted time, energy, and a huge amount of money fighting each other for nine years about a security gate that did not comply with the rules, said Constas, who is a director of BBM Law.

Constas contends that it could all have been avoided if the owner had a clear understanding of all the rules before installing the gate and if, when the disagreement started, there had been an effort to resolve it amicably through an internal dispute resolution process in the complex, rather than in court.

The case

The body corporate imposed a monthly fine for the gate and the owner then decided to stop paying his levies. Over the years, the parties have been to court several times. The owner owed R155,000 in arrear levies in the end and the body corporate was granted an application to attach his unit.

However, they decided not to do so and instead applied for a sequestration order which was granted and then overturned because there was no evidence that the owner was bankrupt.

The outcome was that the body corporate was slapped with a costs order because they should never have gone the sequestration route and a judge found that it was an abuse of court process. Having to pay legal fees ultimately impacts all owners in that complex.

To avoid a situation like this, Constas urges all sectional title owners to go to their annual general meetings and ensure that restrictions and directions are on the agenda.

Under this agenda item, owners can restrict the trustees from going to court for more than a specified amount of money. The expense of a nine-year court wrangle with an owner over a security gate could have been avoided in this way.

She said that trustees should not be dragging owners into litigation when a dispute can be solved if people are more conciliatory and willing to compromise.

If internal dispute resolution measures fail, the next step should be the Community Schemes Ombud Service, Constas said. Our courts are increasingly demanding that sectional title and community schemes disputes go to CSOS first.

Recent cases in which owners have approached the High Court before approaching CSOS have been dismissed with costs because the judges contended that CSOS was established for this purpose.

Going to court is not always the answer

Constas said that she does not fully agree with this due to concurrent jurisdiction, and the fact that people should be able to approach the High Court if they can afford to and the cases value is sufficient.

However, she said that going straight to litigation is not usually ideal in a community living dispute.

There are more amicable and reasonable means to resolve a dispute. The main thing is that there must be an internal dispute resolution process within the complex. Everyone should be able to air their views not just the trustees, but all members of the body corporate.

While CSOS has faced some criticism, including reports that they are slow, it is certainly worth approaching the Ombud, especially to mediate a matter. CSOS has successfully mediated thousands of cases, she said.

The golden rule in any complex in terms of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act is that all rules must be reasonable and applied consistently for all owners. The body corporate cannot make an exception for one owner.

Constas said that complexes may want to review their rules, to ensure that they are fair and reasonable.

In my experience, many rules are actually illegal, unenforceable, unconstitutional and ill-considered. Unreasonable rules must be dealt with by owners because disputes that end up in court will mean that everyone must cough up for legal fees.

Read: 10 things you can do to your home that will actually lower its value

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A warning for South Africans living in complexes and estates and the rules you should know - BusinessTech

Straws blowing in the wind are often said to presage great tempests and I believe that this chart shows just such a straw.

You do not need to take my word for it. After all, the straw is being pointed out by the United States Comptroller of the Currency.

Disinformation for many years has kept the lid on this tinder-box, and since 2018 the Financial Stability Desks at the worlds central banks have followedthe Bank of International Settlementsinstruction to hide the perception of inflation by rigging the gold market.

Of course they cannot be seen to do this and they need cover.

The only way to achieve the cover is by smashing the price of physical gold by the alchemical production of paper gold.With the help of the futures markets and the connivance of the Alchemists, the bullion traders yes, that includes me, I was Deputy Managing Director of Mocatta & Goldsmid managed to create an unshakeable perception that ounces of gold credited to an account with a bank or bullion dealer were the same as the real thing. And much easier, old chap! You dont have to store or insure it.

Once investors swallowed this stupefying pill it was easy to sell them gold that simply didnt exist. Of course there were wary investors who found it hard to believe that the likes of Mocatta, Montagu, Rothschild and Sharps Pixley were undoubted counterparties and wanted to be assured that the gold would be there when they called for it. Easy, we said. Dont bother to pay for it, just give us an initial cash margin and agree to a variation margin and our paper promise is as good as gold. This was the simple derivative. If you thought the price would go down, you could sell us gold you didnt have and margin the trade in the same way. Then along came a raft of options and other products and the derivative market for that is what this chimera was called started to spiral like a tornado.

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To make the bogus gold look even safer, the Bank of England was quietly willing to lend the London Gold Market Members physical gold, in the event that things got a bit tricky and our vaults were empty. When one of the Members went bust, the others clubbed together and with the Bank of England holding the ropes, the customers were bailed out. But I didnt get a bonus that year.

And this pseudo-confidence suited the brilliant theoretical economists. We the government, we the central bank, we the BIS can print the margin. That is what fiat currency is: not unlike BitCoin and easier to mine. Derivatives are unmargined and thus have no limit and may not even be on the balance sheet. The great banks of Wall Street will accept our fiat dollars as margin and manufacture gold to swamp the market.

Gentle folk: look at this chart and then go see your bullion trading counterparty and buy some gold. Then ask for your gold or silver or platinum or palladium or any other physical store of value and medium of exchange that you have acquired to protect you from the ravages of inflation.For Inflation will surely engulf the world when the paper gold emperors clothes are seen for what they really are.

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are among those who know the golden rule: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

The author has worked in the gold business for more than 40 years, both as a trader and investor. He co-founded and was chairman of Petropavlovsk plc until it was taken over by Russians and is now Chairman of, and a major shareholder in XAU Resources Inc, a precious metals exploration company with assets in Guyana and shares listed on the Toronto Ventures Exchange.

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Don't forget the golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules - Reaction

After the lamenting by progressives over the recent Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson decision, and the end of Roe v. Wade, they have only themselves to blame.

For over a decade, the progressive movement failed to codify accessibility to safe, rare, and legal abortion. Instead of strengthening their position and minimizing their reliance on the weak judicial argument that gave us Roe, they touted their belief that Roe was established law. Apparently not.

Their reliance on a weak Supreme Court decision and not legislative action by Congress has created unnecessary confusion and restrictions around abortion access in several states.

Progressives knew for years this would happen in conservative leaning states if Roe was ever overturned. They knew trigger laws were in place to take effect the moment Roe was no longer established law. However, they did nothing to promote reasonable access to abortion or debate why their view of abortion was permissible.

The reason they did nothing to codify Roe for decades was because it was not a legislative priority. What was their priority? Identity politics.

Progressives in all their cultural bourgeois hubris spent years deconstructing social norms to advance their postmodern relativist ideology. They pretended to be on the right side of history while looking down on everyone that disagree with them. To make matters worse, progressives refuse to debate or talk to anyone that made a fair or legitimate counterpoint regarding the moral impermissibility of abortions. They opted to shut down the conversation and ignore their interlocuters by contending my body, my choice or no uterus, no opinion as sufficient talking points.

However, progressives have delegitimized what moral authority they had concerning abortion. Two progressive movements ultimately undermined their irrational reasons to ignore opposing views about abortion: the totalitarian push for Covid-19 vaccinations and the fetishization of transgenderism.

The moment progressives started adverting rhetoric that denounced bodily autonomy, they lost the right to say, my body, my choice. Luke 6:31 says, Do to others as you would have them do to you. This is often considered the golden rule by moralists and for those not interested in moral philosophy it is prima facie a good rule to live by. However, progressives lost sight of the golden rule due to their misguided fear of Covid-19.

While being cautious when it comes to the spread of Covid-19 is appropriate, and getting vaccinated preferable, one should never let fear dictate their moral attitude when it comes to an individuals bodily autonomy. Unfortunately, that is precisely what progressives did they committed themselves to fear and lost their capacity to reason. Progressives praised decisions like that of two Ohio judges making Covid-19 vaccinations a condition of probation. They passionately favored vaccinating students when the threat of Covid-19 was negligible for children. Where was the moral attitude defending their bodily autonomy? Nowhere to be found, because their irrational fears were mitigated by depriving others of their bodily autonomy.

If the moral inconsistency around bodily autonomy exhibited by progressives was insufficient to discredit their legitimacy as moral agents in the fight for womens rights, their fetishization over transgenderism was the nail in the coffin.

Progressives have alienated women over their desire for inclusive language. Progressives prefer birthing person and menstruating people in lieu of having these functions associated with women. In doing so, they transform womanhood from concrete reality to an abstract concept. Here, the word woman is whatever the person that identifies as a woman wants it to be.

This has undermined the no uterus, no opinion charge insofar as progressives wish to be consistent with their inclusive language. If the rhetoric was originally for women, and biological men can now identify as a woman in the form of transwoman, then it is no longer necessary to have a uterus to have an opinion. Accordingly, the fight over concrete issues concerning womens rights, i.e., the biological condition of being able to have an abortion, was pushed aside in favor of the inclusivity of individuals with no uterus.

Progressives pushing identity politics ultimately alienated women from the pro-choice movement. And because womens rights were not made a priority by progressives, or at a minimum given appropriate attention as an issue for biological women, they allowed conservatives to set the terms of the debate and influence public opinion as progressives lost moral claims to legitimacy. And all this was of their own doing.

Joshua Peters is a philosopher and social critic from Raleigh. His academic background is in western philosophy, STEM, and financial analysis. Joshua studied at North Carolina State University (BS) and UNC Charlotte (MS). He is a graduate of the E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders.

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OPINION: Progressives should blame themselves for end of Roe - The Richmond Observer

PATIENT PERSPECTIVES

In his new book, Healing: Our Path From Mental Illness to Mental Health, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Thomas Insel, MD, underscores that although medications and healthy living may be necessary for recovery from mental/brain illness, they are not sufficient. For effective recovery that is built to last, the individuals life must be constructed upon a social foundation of people, place, and purposewhat he calls the 3 Ps.1 To this, I add a fourth P: perseverance.

This article illustrates and animates the 4 Ps by analyzing my ongoing recovery from acute bipolar crisis, which was based upon medication, therapy, and healthy living, anchored into the 3 Ps and infused with perseverance (Figure 1).

My recovery efforts were conceived and initiated in 2016, after studying recovery and how to construct a successful retired lifeyears before I had heard of Dr Insels 3 Ps in 2022.

What I discovered then is that recovery requires:

My story offers an example of the 4 Ps (Figure 2) and how someone recovering from mental illness can employ this concept.

Background

I was struck with bipolar disorder in 2003 at age 47, when the intense stress of leading thousands of soldiers in the Iraq War triggered my genetic predisposition for bipolar. For the next 11 years, my condition went unknown, undetected, and undiagnosed. My mania surged higher, and my depression sank lower, until I went into full-blown mania in 2014 as a 58-year-old 2-star general, was removed from my command of the National Defense University, and subsequently crashed into severe, hopeless depression with terrifying psychosis.

After 3 misdiagnoses as Fit for Duty, in July 2014, I was properly diagnosed with bipolar 1 4 months later, 11-plus years after onset. Then for 2 years, I was dysfunctional, in crisis, and in a fight for my life, tortured by passive suicidal ideationsvivid images of my own morbid, violent, bloody death, which was anything but passive for me. I did not wish to kill myself, but I believed my family and I would be better off if I were dead, and I would gladly die to escape the bipolar hell of my depression and psychosis.

I was hospitalized in March 2016 at the superb Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in White River Junction, Vermont. Although I was still months away from the start of recovery, this hospitalization marked the embryonic beginning of my path to wellness. My VA care team prescribed medications, therapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and other treatments, but all to no avail until we tried lithium, which caused my severe depression to lift within days and for me to begin feeling like my old, pre-bipolar self. The combination of my earlier prescribed bipolar medications of Lamictal and Latuda, along with bringing in the heavy artillery of lithium, were absolutely necessary and provided the biochemical basis of recovery.

For my recovery to be built on solid ground, however, I needed to construct my own 4 P foundation. With the combination of the right medications, a healthful lifestyle, my expert and compassionate VA care team, and the 4 Ps, I have been steadily rebuilding my bipolar-shattered life and continuing with my recovery (Figure 3).

My wife, Maggie, and I realize how very fortunate we have been, and we are most grateful!

People

Connection creates hope, and hope saves lives. People are the engine of hope, which is critical for recovery. When Maggie and I left New Hampshire and arrived in Cocoa Beach, Florida, we had each other, but knew no one else. We still had our family and good friends, but virtually no one nearby. We decided to connect with people and make friends in our new town. Our strategy was to make a friend and be a friend (MAF-BAF) every day. Making a friend is as easy as saying hellobeing a friend is a lifelong endeavor. We learned this powerful concept at a retreat shortly after moving to Florida.

We organized our people-meeting efforts and targeted MAF-BAF in our neighborhood, church, and community gym. To our surprise, the gymparticularly the group-dancing Gotta Dance! and fitness classeshas been the greatest producer of friends in terms of quantity, common interests, and depth of friendship.

Maggie and I talk about MAF-BAF every day: Did you make any new friends today? What did you do to be a friend and strengthen existing friendships? These friendships have been critical in my recovery efforts.

As a mental health advocate and mental wellness warrior, I have also made dozens of new friends and colleagues around the country through sharing my story, writing, and speaking. My network grows by the week.

On the inverse side of MAF-BAF, I have also eliminated or contained a number of toxic relationshipspeople who generate agitation, anger, stress, or anxietythat were a threat to my recovery and stability. Cutting out or building guard rails around friends and toxic subject areas was not pleasant, but it has been necessary and constructive for recovery.

Place

Since I was diagnosed with bipolar in 2014, Maggie and I have moved from Army housing in Washington, DC, to our vacation home in New Hampshire, then ultimately to Florida. For a variety of health, climatic, social, and economic reasons, neither Washington, DC, nor New Hampshire was the right place for my recovery.

Our vacation home in New Hampshire was low-cost and it had beautiful views, clean air and water, no traffic, and low crime. We had taken numerous vacations in New Hampshireskiing, snowshoeing, swimming, boating, and hikingand had thoroughly enjoyed it. Unforeseen, however, was that my severe bipolar depression, exacerbated by seasonal affective disorder (SAD) was made worse by the long, dark, cold winter. New Hampshire was also too remote for usnot enough people nearby. And, of course, my depression made everything miserable, hopeless, and dead. I found no pleasure in my previously enjoyable outdoor past times.

We researched SAD, consulted with doctors, took an exploratory trip to Florida, then decidedpending my doctors green light for biochemical stabilityto move, in the hope that the warmth, the bright sun, and the laidback culture would help me recover. We left home, family, friends, and familiar ways behind. It was not easy. But what a great move! We rented for the first 2-and-a-half years, then bought the house next-doora terrific home in a beautiful, safe neighborhood, in a fun, friendly, happy city.

We have loved our new life in Cocoa Beach! The place strengthens the people dimension.

Purpose

As an Army officer, I must have a mission. From the time I was stabilized on lithium in September 2016 and arrived in Florida, I thought, prayed, and worked on developing a clear, inspirational mission, or purpose, that guided and energized my life. I wanted a purpose that was of eternal value, was bigger than myself, and made a positive difference in the lives of others.

I was drawn to the Golden Rule: to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Drawn from the Gospels, which command us to love your neighbor as yourself,this mission lifted, fueled, and inspired me, and it helped empower MAF-BAF.

As I shared my bipolar story, I encountered a hunger for boldness, honesty, and authenticity regarding mental illness. As a result, my life mission, or purpose, transformed into sharing my bipolar story to help stop the stigma and save lives. The more I shared my story, the more positive and encouraging the response. I believe my sharp, clear purpose is of eternal value, and is making a difference in peoples lives.

I assess my life through the prism of this purpose and prioritize and allocate my time and efforts accordingly. The result is that, along with my wife, I have built a new life that inspires, energizes, connects me with people, and gives both myself and others hope.

Perseverance

One of the most underrated of human virtues, perseverance is continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.2 Recovery is hard! Sometimes you take 1 step forward and then are knocked 2 steps backwards. Nothing is easy. It can be discouraging.

Perseverance and willpower are no substitute for the right biochemical balance in ones brain or for healthful living, but they are necessary ingredients for fighting through the pain, difficulties, and challenges of recovery. Perseverance must infuse and animate all that you are and all that you docontinuously and in force. You must embrace the spirit that never quits, always fights, and always perseveres.

Perseverance binds together, energizes, and synergizes the right medications and therapy, a healthy lifestyle, and the 3 Ps: people, place, and purpose.

Concluding Thoughts

Lithium, other medications, and therapy have been fundamental to my ongoing recovery from acute bipolar disorderbut just as important has been my 4 P social foundation. The combination of medical care, healthy living, and the 4 Ps has enabled me to construct an ongoing recovery that is built to last and gives me a healthy, happy life of meaning, with wonderful people, in a beautiful place, inspired by eternal purpose, and energized with perseverance that infuses and ties it all together.

Dr Martin is a 36-year Army combat veteran, a retired 2-star general, and a bipolar survivor, thriver, and warrior. The former president of the National Defense University, he is a qualified airborne-ranger-engineer and strategist who has commanded soldiers in combat. He has led organizations from a platoon of 30 soldiers, to a base of 30,000 military and civilians. A graduate of West Point, MIT, and both the Army and Naval War Colleges, he is an ardent and full-time mental health advocate. He lives with his wife in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where he writes, speaks, and confers. His forthcoming book is entitled Bipolar General: My Forever War With Mental Illness.

These views are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Defense or the US government.

References

1. Insel T. Healing: Our Path From Mental Illness to Mental Health. Penguin Press; 2022.

2. Perseverance. Merriam-Webster. Accessed June 20, 2022. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perseverance

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The 4 Ps of Mental Recovery: Medical Care and Healthfulness - Psychiatric Times

Have you read Roe v. Wade? Dont feel bad. No one else has read it either. Yet people have marched in the streets over it; ranted and cussed and shook their fists and even injured property and people over it. A high school friend of mine was murdered over it.

Have you read Dobbs v. Jackson which overturned Roe v. Wade? Dont feel bad. No one else has either. Yet people march in the streets, hurl invectives at each other, and become incoherently rabid over it.

Abortion. The best definition I can find for that word is from Webster to arrest or check before being fully developed.

But, before what is fully developed? It can be a planned moon shot, or a false start of a painting on canvas, or even a family vacation before you pull out of the driveway.

But the what we are talking about here is the wonder of all wonders. It makes the Pacific Ocean, Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, moon, stars, sunset, sun rise all packaged together, trivial in comparison. It is the greatest miracle our Maker has created since this planet was formed.

The what we are talking about is human life. The checking or arresting of human life before it is fully developed. We know that many babies are born, needing heroic measures to keep them alive because they are not fully developed. They are human lives which survive, thrive and become human beings that may end up the biggest kid on their high school basketball team. So, abortion depending on when it is performed can be the termination of a human life, before it is fully developed.

So, the horrific question becomes when does life begin? It appears that we mere mortals who are the beneficiaries of that great miracle, cannot show our gratitude for it without hating each other over it.

It is the opinion of some of our sisters and brothers that life begins at conception. For others, it is when we can hear it cry. To many, each of these options seems extreme. Many reasonable people opt for somewhere in between. Heart beat? Brain activity? A person is declared dead when the heart beat and brain activity ceases. So that belief makes sense, even if its only six weeks into pregnancy. Viability? When the fetus can exist independently of the mother? But there are millions of people alive today who are not viable. Well into the yellow leaf of their long lives, they are unable to live free of the mothers womb without tubes hooked up to their arms, oxygen tanks, or defibrillator implants for the heart. We dont allow doctors, nurses or anyone to arbitrarily go around jerking tubes and wires out of people just because they are not viable.

So this wonder of wonders, and all the questions which leads up to a human life is complex. Incredibly and unbelievably complex. Just like life itself.

You can almost feel the anguish of the nine Supreme Court justices struggling with the issue of abortion in Roe v. Wade. You can feel the same anguish of those mere mortals deciding Dobbs.

Were all struggling with it. We should be struggling together, instead of apart. After all, whatever the answer is, its the same answer for all of us.

For a woman, the most monumental decision she will ever make is whether to carry a fetus inside her body from conception to full term and birth. That is a decision she should be able to make on her own and preferably after serious consultation with the father of the fetus. She doesnt need the state making that intimate decision for her. A womans body, and her reproductive rights are health care issues. These rights need protecting.

And yet.

There are the names of more than 58,000 American boys listed on a black wall in Washington, D.C. who gave up their bodies and their reproductive rights for their country.

My point? There are some not many but some things more important than our bodies and reproductive rights.

Human life is one. The human life of the person who is pregnant. And the human life that pregnant woman may have still abiding in her body.

But ... when is a human fetus a human life? When does the state have interest in stepping in to protect either or both? That is the issue. And it is terribly complex. The Roe v. Wade case tried to wade into the decision-making and didnt do a very good job of it. It said the state has an interest in protecting potential human life. But then, it virtually pulled viability out of the air. Of course, we know a potential human life begins much earlier than that.

Hopeful and excited couples start making the joyous phone calls to family and friends when the woman first learns she is pregnant not when the baby is viable whenever that is. Potential life begins at conception. But, is it a human life at that time? Should the state step in at that time and make a law to protect the unborn fetus? Many say yes. Many say no. And they hate each other.

Our fellow citizens on the Supreme Court who decided Roe v. Wade were not baby killers. They were good people, struggling with a mind-boggling issue. They tried. They didnt do very well. Even the late, liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was highly critical of the analysis in that case. It was a decision that was illogical, and split the country apart for 50 years.

Now, some more fellow citizens took a stab at it in Dobbs vs. Jackson. They decided that it wasnt their decision to make, but should be made in the respective legislative halls of the states closer to the people, rather than nine political appointees sitting in Washington, D.C. Now you can meaningfully express your views to the state representative who goes to your church, rather than nine, unelected strangers 1,000 miles away. Maybe the current justices didnt do a very good job with it either. Maybe well be at each others throats for another 50 years. But they are not advocates of women being butchered in illegal abortions. But their decision, like that of their predecessors in Roe, has split our country apart. Again.

Id like to think that our fellow Americans who sat on the Supreme Court of the United States when Roe v. Wade was decided were good people doing what they thought was right for our country and its people. Id like to think that our fellow Americans who sat on the Supreme Court of the United States deciding Dobbs v. Jackson are good people with the same good intentions.

Silly me, I guess.

The solution? I have my own opinion. But it makes no difference. I am often wrong. I once believed with all of my heart that there was a fat, little old man who flew around in the sky carrying toys for children at Christmastime.

But, I will say this with certainty. After spending over 50 years trying to resolve serious human conflicts, Ive learned they are never settled with people screaming at each other. We need to stop acting like children yelling at those with which we dont agree. We need to turn down the noise level and turn up the respect knob.

Why do people talk in low, considerate tones in funeral parlors? Because there is serious business going on. We are talking about serious business here.

We are supposed to be a religious nation, believing in the Golden Rule. When it comes to the abortion issue I dont see it.

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'We need to turn down the noise level and turn up the respect knob' - Princeton Times Leader

Ayurveda may be getting a lot of love from celebrities and influencers right now, but this isnt some trendy short-term fad. Its actually a traditional approach to medicine and wellness that has been practiced in India for thousands of years. The name is derived from a combination of two Sanskrit words that together loosely translate to the science of life.

The Ayurvedic Dietis rooted in the belief that five elementsearth, water, fire, air and spacemake up everything in the universe, and that these five elements are present in each person in different quantities, uniquely affecting the mind, body and spirit of the individual, says Mary Mosquera Cochran, a registered dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. This will affect what foods, activities and routines will be most suitable for each person.

Related: Which Low-Carb Diet Is Better for Losing Weight?

First, a bit of a clarification: Although it is sometimes called the Ayurvedic Diet, the Ayurveda approach to eating is not really a diet at all. Ayurveda is the ancient healing system in India. And I like describing it as a system, because it is very systematic, says Divya Alter, an Ayurvedic chef, founder of the Ayurvedic food brand Divya's, and author of the cookbook What to Eat for How You Feel: The New Ayurvedic Kitchen, and the forthcoming Joy of Balance: An Ayurvedic Guide to Cooking with Healing Ingredients. What I love about Ayurveda is that all of these recommendations are to help us live more of a life in balance on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level.

Alter says the first step in Ayurvedic eating is to do a self-check. When you speak about basic principles of Ayurvedic eating, it always starts with you. Where are you? She means that in a literal way, as well as what kind of mental and emotional state you are in. When you think about eating, consider things like the geographical location, the time of year, the season, the time of day, the stage of life you are in.

Mosquera Cochran notes that another important principle of Ayurvedic eating is "choosing foods and practicing habits that strengthen Agni, or digestive fire. Some basics would be to avoid ice cold drinks/foods, avoid highly processed foods and frozen foods, use warming herbs/spices with cooking, include healthy fats, eat at regular mealtimes and avoid overeating.

Related: Always Hungry? Here Are 11 Possible Reasons Why

While there are many nuances to Ayurvedic eating and wellness, one of the main tenets is eating according to your dosha, which is a term that refers to the energies that make up each person's mind-body constitution. There are three main dosha types:

Vata (air + space):People with more Vata energy are very creative, communicative and enthusiastic, says Mosquera Cochran, adding that they often have a tendency towards low body weight, dry skin, cold hands/feet, and variable appetite and digestion. If you have Vata energy, your digestion is best described as variable, and rightly so, as its dominated by changeable Vata, the bodys functional principle of movement and flow, says Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, who has a specific expertise in Ayurvedic practices.

Pitta (fire + water): People with more Pitta energy are ambitious, intelligent and passionate, says Mosquera Cochran. Common traits of this dosha type: they have a hard time withstanding hot temperatures, can easily lose and gain weight, and have very strong appetite and digestion. These people may be more likely to get hangry if a meal gets delayed, says Mosquera Cochran. Adds Dr. Lonsdorf about those with Pitta energy, Your digestion, when imbalanced, is best described as overheated. Your stomach acids tend to imbalance toward too much heat and inflammation and you may be prone to heartburn.

(scroll to keep reading)

Kapha (earth + water):People with more Kapha energy are very loving, patient and compassionate, says Mosquera Cochran. She says people of this dosha tend to have excellent strength and endurance, but they can struggle to lose weight, have sluggish digestion and have trouble with congestion/sinus issues. Dr. Lonsdorf says people with Kapha energy have a slow, struggling digestive fire, adding, Your food takes a long time to cook, and takes a lot of energy, meaning you may easily feel dull, tired or sleepy after a meal.

Related: Here's the Ultimate Keto Guide for Beginners

Alter says a fundamental principle of Ayurveda is the idea of like increases like. This means if you want to enhance the qualities of one dosha, focus on foods that feed that dosha. But she also stresses that its important to follow the golden rule of balance. You want to eat balancing foods. Dont just think about your prominent dosha, but also whats the aggravated dosha today that you need to balance?

Mosquera Cochran offers some basic tips to help you with dosha-guided eating:

Use warming spices in cooking like ginger, cumin and cinnamon. Be generous with oils and fats in your meals. Sip warm herbal teas throughout the day. Dont overdo it with raw vegetables, salads and frozen foods. Limit dry/light foods like popcorn, crackers and pretzels, and avoid cold and carbonated drinks.

Include cooling herbs/spice like cilantro, mint, coriander, fennel and cardamom in your meals. Eat a balanced mix of fresh, cooked foods and fresh, raw foods. Stay well hydrated but avoid iced drinks. Eat at regular times.

Eat more warm foods and warm spices like black pepper, chili, ginger, cumin and cinnamon. Eat a higher quantity of cooked vegetables and smaller quantity of fats with meals. Sip on warm herbal teas or warm water with ginger throughout the day. Go easy on heavy and oil foods like cheese, fried foods, ice cream, pastries/desserts and nuts. Limit cold and carbonate beverages. Avoid overeating and heavy meals.

Next up, check out the 12 best meal kit delivery services.

Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, who has a specific expertise in Ayurvedic practices

Link:

You May Have Heard Its Name, but What Exactly Is the Ayurvedic Diet? - Parade Magazine

Briefly stated, they are both folly. Because at their core, each intrudes into the basic fabric of our daily lives in counterproductive ways unwelcome to most, grounded on a surreal world view many of us do not share.

Defunding the Police

The notion that policing needs to be improved is not controversial. Where this initiative (pieces of which have already been enacted in places like New York City) falls apart is as a concept and in its execution.

My sense is the underlying, often unstated concept is that the police riven with white privilege (even among many officers of color) cannot be trusted. The public version (which is truer) is that police violence is due, at least in part, to officers being called upon to handle domestic violence and mental health situations for which the police are ill-equipped. The solution is to carve out that aspect of policing from the police and instead assign it to trained social workers, who would accompany police officers in the field funded through a reallocation of police budgets. And if that redistribution of funds results in fewer police and fewer arrest, then there will be fewer instances of institutional racism within law enforcement.

The reality is otherwise. Crime rates on a relative basis are skyrocketing. Most Americans trust the police, and the decided majority of those who dont still need and want an even greater police presence in their neighborhoods. Because without physical safety, everything else is an uncertain luxury. The money to fund social workers will come through reduced officer headcount and, therefore, less protective policing. And the notion that a social worker can, or would be willing to, enter highly charged, inherently unpredictable, and therefore dangerous situations is well, you can fill in the blanks.

Whatever their supporters motivations, defunding the police is a policy the decided majority of Americans do not want. And it cannot, as a practical matter, work. Because less police equals more crime. Making defunding the police a lose/lose for all of us at great human and economic cost.

As such, this disconnect between what we want, what can work, and what we are getting may (and let us hope, will) signal the high water mark of unrealistic Progressivism.

Criminalizing Abortion

If you believe that life begins at conception, then abortion is homicide. If you dont, it isnt.

I am not a legal scholar and this column is not about Supreme Court decisions, the Supreme Court as an institution, or existing laws. It is about folly.

What the state of play will look like when the smoke clears on this issue is hard to discern. Some states are strengthening the legal right to an abortion. Many others are criminalizing it. Which cannot, as a practical matter, work.

First, lets clear away some of the hyperbole. Criminalizing abortion is unlikely to return us to the days of backroom procedures routinely performed by untrained people in unsterile conditions. Medical science has advanced exponentially in the just under fifty years since Roe (i.e., the morning after pill). Most Americans support abortion under at least some conditions. And so do many states.

This does not diminish the fact that many women in many parts of this country will now suffer severe health consequences. However, blanket overstatements about a return to the world before Roe detract from the discussion, rather than adding to it.

Also sucking oxygen out of the room are those who contend that criminalizing abortion is an expression of purposeful racism against people of color. It is true that minorities have too little access to our health care system and, by extension, may be much less able to travel to states where abortion will remain legal than other groups. But that is also true for many whites. Nothing is more individually experienced than conception, abortion, and birth. When pundits blithely slide past that undeniable singularity, it suggests that they are more interested in remaining siloed inside their ideological comfort zone than engaging in the often promised but rarely delivered conversation about race in America.

The concept upon which criminalizing abortion rests is to end what millions of Americans in good faith believe is murder, replacing what they would describe as a culture of death with one that protects the sanctity of life. It will also effectively end the use of federal tax dollars to support abortions (and contraception), reversing the recently received truth that the most intimate of choices (entering into a voluntarily adult sexual relationship) is a healthcare right to be subsidized in part by those whom it deeply offends.

When viewed from inside ones own body looking out, the benefit of assuring the sanctity of life is a relative one. Which is poor soil upon which to build absolutes. After all, if I am against abortion no one will force me to have one. Abortion may be the wrong choice. It may even be a choice that is contrary to Gods will. But it need never be my choice unless I make it so.

And criminalizing that choice is not feasible.

Many others have detailed myriad social and other costs of unwanted pregnancies more articulately than I can. We take a slightly different tack here. Which is to instead focus on some of the ways that criminalizing abortion will impact how women, men, and their families live day-to-day.

Lets begin with intrusion. What makes a persons home their castle is the ability to stop others from entering it. Indeed, this countrys founding fathers bristled at the British Armys practice of quartering its troops in the homes of colonial Bostonians. It is hard to imagine a more intrusive government act then reaching inside and controlling a womens womb.

With profound consequences.

What raising a child means be it good, very good, or less good is well known to every family and requires no description from me. Also unaddressed here are the myriad issues that pregnancies involving rape, incest, and health risks to the mother entail. Consider, though, a related point.

Most arguments about abortion assume healthy children. Yet not all children are born healthy. Some of them come to this world with shattering chromosomal and other issues. Which is not meant to suggest that any such child should be aborted. Rather, this very hard and by no means rare situation is a way to realistically assess what eliminating abortion can mean to my family and yours. In that situation, who should be allowed to make the call? The family being shattered, or the legislators chumming for votes?

Then there is the difference between the law and law enforcement. Already, we have seen some district attorneys and other law enforcement officials openly state that they will not enforce laws eliminating abortion. Inevitably, more will follow. Because our system of criminal justice is the architecture through which decisions are reached. Not an immutable self-executing institution. What makes it run are the individuals who run it; prosecutors who decide whether to bring charges and against whom, jurors who decide the facts of cases when brought, and Judges who referee the process after it is initiated and then impose outcomes.

Few (if any) of these actors have themselves robbed a bank and share that lived experience with bank robbers. Can we say the same about abortion? About fathers and mothers whose children made decisions as pre-adults that put them at a crossroad? Or wives, mothers and grandmothers who have been at that crossroad themselves?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described the Golden Rule as the second great commandment. Which sets a floor; not a ceiling, although that floor is quite high. The floor is to Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is one thing to read about a situation faced by someone else, and quite another to live it yourself. Particularly if the reason why you have to do so is because a legislator who knows nothing about your life told you to.

In other words, criminalizing abortion invades the very fabric of our daily lives in unwelcome ways grounded on priorities that many of us do not share. And it cant work. Rendering it a lose/lose approach at great human and economic cost that may (and let us hope, will) signal the high water mark of unrealistic Regressivism.

Building a Center Lane

I am an aspiring columnist, not a policy maker, and it would be unwise for me to drive too far outside my lane. At the same time, phrases risk being empty unless substance is breathed into them.

What, then, might a viable center lane look like for these two issues? That is, one enjoying general support that can be feasibly executed in ways that improve our lives or, at least, do not make them worse.

At 30,000 feet, the defunding the police initiative is so flawed that improving it would be relatively easy. Intensify officer de-escalation training. Plan for more rapid and comprehensive intervention by social workers on a situational basis (e.g., when it is safe for them to do so). Fund these enhancements with new, additional money, and not cuts to current police budgets. And if we have the appetite for it, let us try being as vocal defending the police when they turn out to be right as we are in attacking them when they turn out to be wrong.

The binary nature of the abortion issue precludes a win/win solution. But it need not be lose/lose, either. We can permit abortions while protecting the potential for life and acknowledging deeply held beliefs of those who would outlaw it. That center lane would likely include no partial birth abortions (except where the health of the mother is at stake). A return to the Hyde Amendment that prohibited federal funding for abortions also comes to mind. Along with ready access to the morning after pill as well as contraception, and setting gestational limits on abortions driven by fetal viability outside the womb.

That is, the same familiar formula that until about a week ago had basically worked in post-Roe America, with all its embedded ambiguity. Because not all familiarity breeds contempt, and not all change is good. We can worry about the impact of advances in fetal viability on the right to abortions after those advances happen; we need not do so now.

There is a bottom line to all of this. We dont need a constitutional right to return to a time when America was more functional than it is now. Nor is that outcome so hard to imagine. We have only been where we are now for a handful of years. Very few of us are enjoying it.

Constructing a center lane between unforgiving guardrails is problematic. But distinguishing needs from wants, costs from benefits, and reality from ideology could make it easier to agree to disagree without making these (and other issues) zero-sum games that we intuitively understand no society can long endure. The amalgam of ethnicities, religions, races, and credos that is American society rests, at bottom, on degrees of consensus. It is a society worth protecting.

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The Center: What Criminalizing Abortion and Defunding the Police Share - InsiderNJ

Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) nationsthe United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japanannounced during a summit on Sunday that they had collectively imposed a ban on Russian gold, one of Moscows largest and most lucrative exports, in an effort to further isolate the Russian economy and deprive the Kremlin of funds following its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

President Joe Biden, who attended the G7 meeting in Schloss Elmau, Germany, declared that the new measures would help to prevent Russia from rak[ing] in tens of billions of dollars from the West.

British prime minister Boris Johnson concurred, writing in a statement that the ban would directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putins war machine.

We all need to starve the Putin regime of its funding, Johnsons statement read. The UK and our allies are doing just that.

Following Bidens remarks, an anonymous U.S. official reported that the G7 would officially announce the measure on Tuesday.

The measures against Russian gold came on the same day as a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraines embattled capital, disrupting a relative calm in the countrys ongoing fight against a Russian invasion, in which hostilities have largely been confined to the countrys eastern and southern regions following the withdrawal of Russian forces around Kyiv in late March.

Russia has also made territorial gains in Ukraines eastern Luhansk region, including the city of Severodonetsk, following a two-month battle.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the G7 to impose additional sanctions against Russia in response to the missile strike and to provide Ukraines armed forces with additional heavy weaponry.

This [seven-year-old] Ukrainian kid was sleeping peacefully in Kyiv until a Russian cruise missile blasted her home, Kuleba wrote on Twitter. Many more around Ukraine are under strikes. G7 summit must respond with more sanctions on Russia and more heavy arms for Ukraine.

Russia gained more than $15 billion from its global gold exports in 2021 although its exports to the United States and Europe shrank following the initial round of Western sanctions. Commodities experts noted that the larger impact to Russias gold exports had come in March after the London Bullion Market Association removed six major Russian gold refining companies from its list of accredited sellers.

Following the G7 announcement, the spot price of gold edged upward in the West although observers also noted that Russian exports to Asia would continue, preventing the G7 nations from isolating the Russian economy and keeping gold prices mostly intact.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.

See the rest here:

Golden Rule: G7 Announces Russian Gold Ban - The National Interest Online