Myth of Reparations | 40 Acres Minus Mule

UNITED STATES, Washington, DC - As the grand-daughter of an early civil rights activist, Attorney Julius Winfield Robertson, who was a dedicated advocate for human rights, and worked closely with U.S. Congressman Senator Estes Kefauver and Attorney James Nabritt, Jr. on historical civil rights cases, it saddens me to witness the protests of the killing of George Floyd reigniting the discussions about the issue of reparation.

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Justice Americas Broken Promise, George Floyd Murder Protester, May 2020

The civil rights movement was governed by action versus committee. Activists were veritable “Davids vs. Goliaths” bravely challenging the legislative system which codified racism.  When Robertson’s firm, along with a junior partner, Dovey Johnson Roundtree, filed a segregation complaint in 1953 on behalf of a Women's Army Corps (WAC) private named Sarah Louise Keys, it would portend the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycotts.

Most descendants of slaves, at least those with voices in the public square, are vociferously demanding that the issue of reparations become a cornerstone of the Democrat’s electoral platform. However, as a person of color who does not agree with the premise, I understand that my position is in the minority. To be clear, I do not disagree with the fact that structural changes need to be implemented to increase parity in the economic fortunes of those whose ancestors were enslaved and those whose ancestors owned them.

However, doling out what amounts to a one-time cash settlement is short-sighted and will not address past issues of institutionalized inequality. Thus, a Commission to study what any African-American in this country can attest to, unfair and unjustified mistreatment, results in little more than a menagerie of wish lists, often to meet immediate needs. A cash settlement will never eradicate increased incidents of extra-judicial killings, that latest of which is the murder of George Floyd who was murdered by former Officer Derek Chauvin who knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 mins 46 seconds even after he became unresponsive presumed dead.

It will not assuage the pain felt by the family and community of Breonna Taylor an essential healthcare worker who was caring for COVID-19 patients at a local hospital, and who was murdered by police who stormed her home and shot her 8 times without cause. Then, there is Ahmaud Arbery who was hunted down by 3 men who decided that he should not be jogging in their neighborhood and therefore deserved to be shot and killed.

Six years after the 2014 article titled “Unarmed People of Color Killed by Police, 1999-2014,” which was written “after the announcement that NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo would not be indicted for killing Eric Garner, the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund Twitter posted a series of tweets naming 76 men and women who were killed in police custody since the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo in New York,” have yet to progress. As heinous is the string of extrajudicial killings are, they are not new, they are just being caught on camera. And as much as our heart aches from these murders, the system is inherently racist and it is the little things, the death by a thousand cuts that debilitates brown and black people in America.

Until systemic racism is eradicated and until people accept their culpability in maintaining this status quo, we will never begin the process of dismantling an inherently biased governance. Without this change, it will never stop a sales clerk from following blacks around the store who are legitimately shopping. It will never prevent a group of police from terrorizing a family, brutalizing their father. Then, threatening to kill their pregnant mom trying to protect her children, one of whom purportedly took a .99 cent doll from the Dollar Store. What started as a meme is truly the norm because we can never “breathe while black,” “jog while black,” “bird watch while black,” “drive while black,” think of any pedestrian activity and add “while black,” and that is the reality of most brown and black America.

It was a nice gesture that on Juneteenth, which commemorates the June 19th date of the end of slavery in the United States, that H.R. 40 a bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), was televised in well-attended and animated House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties’ hearings. But this bill is not an opening salvo for change; it is just another futile exercise in pushing a Sisyphean boulder up the proverbial hill. The bill’s title spells out its intent, which is not one of action, but bureaucracy since H.R.40 has been advanced to create a “Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African-Americans.”

Anyone who has spent significant time in the workforce, private or public, understands the efficacy of commissions and panels, and most if honest would say they are “a waste of time,” and resources. In this respect, it is another bite at the apple of assuaging “white guilt,” through some means of pay-off. It is the latest version of 40-Acres and a Mule. That the politicians jumped on this bandwagon smacks of pandering. It is as if they believe at best that “Reparations” is the magic catchphrase that will guarantee to deliver black votes to them in 2020.

Alternatively, and more cynically, they are selling reparations as a panacea to the reemergence of Jim Crow-era tactics that currently beset the nation, particularly in the South. From a legislative perspective, reparations do not address the urgent actions being implemented around the country to dismantle the protections from disenfranchisement, such as gerrymandering, efforts to overturn the Voting Rights Act, law enforcement killings of black men, women, and children, as well as mass incarceration.

It indeed is as they say in the South, it is “broke and needs fixin’;” but equally true is the sentiment openly expressed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and privately felt by many others:

I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” McConnell said. “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, bypassing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an African American president. (Source: MSN.com)

Thus, 150 years later it seems as if those who were against giving slaves 40 acres on which to rebuild their lives, are of the same ilk as those who felt that providing slaves their “freedom’ was payment enough.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explained how "Union General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15, issued on Jan. 16, 1865, prescribed the 40 acres policy, but not the mule. That “would come later. But what many accounts leave out is that this idea for massive land redistribution was the result of a discussion that Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton held four days before Sherman issued the Order, with 20 leaders of the black community in Savannah, Ga., Where Sherman was headquartered following his famous March to the Sea. The meeting was unprecedented in American history.

This policy was actionable and substantial and would have radically changed the nature of this country. IT WOULD have been an actual reparation for the country’s “original sin,” because of the power inherent in the permanence of land, and self-governance.

Gates continues to explain that “Section two of the order specifies that these new communities, moreover, would be governed entirely by black people themselves … on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves … By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro [sic] is free and must be dealt with as such. With this Order, 400,000 acres of land — a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John’s River in Florida, including Georgia’s Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast,” as Barton Myers reports — would be redistributed to the newly freed slaves. The extent of this Order and its larger implications are mind-boggling, actually.” (Source: PBS)

The crux of the matter and any discussions about reparations that do not institutionally compensate the descendants of slaves is a moot point. And even, then, it cannot and will not fix the view by some that people of color in this country are inferior and undeserving of equal treatment under the law de facto or de jure, especially in employment and equitable pay, which is the real currency of freedom in today’s world. It also will never prevent the institutional inequities which exist, not just for African-Americans, but all people who were not blessed by the lottery of birth to be born into extreme wealth.

In this era of globalism, when foreign investors hold nearly “30 million acres of U.S. farmland, and the remainder held by corporations and farmers, the possibility of achieving this ‘commensurate’ reparation equal to the pain, suffering, torture, and horrors of 400-years of slavery, as initially ordered, will never be delivered. In lieu of this, we cannot let this election slogan become the ultimate manifestation of our desires for justice and equity. It is not up to others to make right what is wrong in our society, and with our lives. It is up to us to push, to demand, to protest, and to legislate, otherwise “Black Lives [will not] Matter,” nor will the lives of all the great Civil Rights martyrs from emancipation until today.

Related Articles

• Unarmed People of Color Killed by Police, 1999-2014 (gawker.com)

• Derek Chauvin: What we know about the former officer charged in George Floyd's death (cnn.com)

• What We Know About the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery (thecut.com)

• Julius Winfield Robertson (BlackPast.org)

• The Truth Behind ‘40 Acres and a Mule (pbs.org/wnet)

Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias
LinkedIn: Ayanna Nahmias

Gender Based Violence, a Covid Lockdown Nightmare

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the world in so many ways. While the world learns to adapt to a new normal, it is still ignoring one crucial group, and this passivity has led to what some are calling, “a shadow pandemic.” While globally, other types of crimes decreased during the Coronavirus lockdowns, there has been, unfortunately, a commensurate increase in domestic violence cases.

Source: Pixabay

During this era of quarantine, women and children have been most at risk of death because of an inability to escape or reach out for help. Anecdotally, there have been reports of abusers threatening to lock victims out of their homes with the claim that they will be exposed to and contract the deadly Coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Fear and intimidation are the hallmarks of abusers, who ‘weaponize’ lies and manipulation to keep their victims quiet.

Statistical figures on the number of domestic abuse cases that occur annually are difficult to compile because the victims are often ashamed to report it. Abusers depend upon their victims’ feelings of complicity and responsibility for their abuse. All of which contribute to the difficulty in gather data about the number of domestic violence cases pre-coronavirus lockdown. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, here in the United States, the organization reported receiving an average of 1,800 to 2,000 contacts a day from March through April of 2020.

According to UN Women, “It is estimated that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner (not including sexual harassment) at some point in their lives. However, some national studies show that up to 70 percent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. Evidence shows that women who have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence report higher rates of depression, having an abortion, and acquiring HIV, compared to women who have not.”

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global epidemic. Female genital mutilation (FMG), child marriages, and rape fall under its rubric. There has been an observable correlation between pandemic health emergencies and increased gender-based violence. In a July 2015 Oxfam International report on the impact of Ebola, “22.9 percent of respondents reported that cases of GBV were still happening even during the Ebola crisis. Respondents in urban areas were more likely (32 percent) to acknowledge the existence of GBV than those in rural areas (24 percent). Different forms of GBV took place, including domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, etc. …The assessment found that 52.6 percent of respondents recognized that women and girls had been bearing a greater burden in the household since the Ebola outbreak began.”

These conditions that exacerbated domestic abuse and GBV seemed confined to Africa are now being seen in the United States and Europe since the spread of coronavirus. A variety of factors contribute to the increase in violence: primarily victims confinement in government-mandated isolation with their abusers, additional household stress, and those who were ready to reach out for help can no longer do so safely. The National Domestic Violence website has a pop-up warning for individuals seeking help “Safety Alert: Computer use can be monitored and is impossible to completely clear.” This effort is a means to encourage continued engagement but provides them with protection from controlling, tech-savvy abusers.

Women and girls have also borne the caretaking duties during this pandemic, and in countries with more deeply rooted patriarchal societies, access to help is impossible. These women lack access to phones and computers, and often the family and community tightly control their movements.  In this new world where governments are making decisions about what elements of society are essential and nonessential, many services like shelters, reproductive health clinics, and counseling are relegated to the latter. Throughout the Continent, law enforcement resources are enforcing strict city and country lockdowns. Like their U.S. and European counterparts, they are less concerned with responding to domestic violence calls unless there is evidence of clear and present danger and a probable life or death situation.

During this global pandemic, victims of GBV need our help, and it is incumbent upon society to be more vigilant and diligent in supporting them during these challenging times. We must no longer turn a blind eye or expect other people or organizations to help. As citizens, it is our responsibility and social contract to support women who may be experiencing domestic and gender-based violence without judgment.

Find discrete ways to check on friends and family who you suspect might be in trouble. If necessary, help them with cover stories and code words so that they can become survivors instead of victims. If feasible, please donate to women’s shelters because they are best equipped to help women and children safely escape dangerous situations. In these times of economic hardship, these organizations are in dire need of private and public support. Every dollar counts, and if you are in a position to help please do so.  

RELATED ARTICLES

• How Domestic Abuse Has Risen Worldwide Since Coronavirus  (nytimes.com)

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (suicidepreventionlifeline.org)

• 6 months of coronavirus lockdown could mean 31 million more cases of domestic violence UN says (cbsnews.com)

• As Cities Around the World Go on Lockdown, Victims of Domestic Violence Look for a Way Out

  (time.com)

• Measures to control the spread of coronavirus are a nightmare for victims of domestic violence. Advocates are demanding governments step up.  (washingtonpost.com)

AcroYoga - A Language of Perfect Union

The mission and focus of this website informs the presentation and dialogue about stories on gender relations with a particular emphasis on women’s’ rights. Consequently, we report on stories from around the world in which women are not allowed to realize their full potential either through force or circumstance. But, not every man is bad, nor every woman abused. In fact, the state of mankind is not as dire as it seems despite all our bad behavior, and millions of men and women across the globe experience healthy and loving relationships.

AcroYoga with Hagar Tsabar and Elad Sadeh Choreography and Production by Hagar Tsabar

Balance in reporting is as important as it is in life, and the video above featuring a husband and wife practicing AcroYoga or partner yoga is a beautiful illustration of the best in us as humans. Though this is demonstrated through yoga, one need not be a practitioner to achieve the highest ideals of harmony and peace between all people as there are many paths to this destination.

For some people, the path toward peace and enlightenment is achieved through religious observance and a belief in a higher power. For others it is meditation or actively living consciously by being aware of our impact on the world and other people so that we don’t accumulate negative Karma.

For others, it is a combination of all of the above and yoga. I fall into this category as I regularly practice yoga. In Western societies, most practitioners use yoga as a form of health and fitness similar to pilates which is an exercise created by Joseph Pilates to strengthen and stretch the body to achieve a strong core.

However "the traditional purpose of Yoga, has always been to bring about a profound transformation in the person through the transcendence of the ego," (Feuerstein, Georg. The Deeper Dimension of Yoga: Theory and Practice. Boston: Shambhala, 2003)

According to the Levy, “Yoga in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism means "spiritual discipline”…..It is an activity that has been practiced for thousands of years, and it is something that has evolved and changed overtime…..the exact history and origins of yoga is uncertain; however……the earliest signs of yoga appear in ancient Shamanism. Evidence of yoga postures were found on artifacts that date back to 3000 B.C.

Evidence of Yoga is found in the oldest-existing text, Rig-Veda. Rig-Veda is a composition of hymns. Topics of the Rig-Veda include prayer, divine harmony, and greater being. Yoga originally focused on applying and understanding the world. Its focus later changed to the self. Self-enlightenment became the ultimate goal.”

Though many may take umbrage, at the end of the day “When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it's not so much which road you take, as how you take it.” ~ Charles de Lint

Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias
LinkedIn: Ayanna Nahmias

Quarantine Protests Go Worldwide

Source: Tim Perdue. Flickr.com.

UNITED STATES - Many Americans look on in horror and disappointment as lock-down protesters take to the streets of California, North Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio. These, mostly, right-wing Americans march to end the lockdown enforced to combat the current Corona Virus epidemic. Their platform is simple. They believe that the lockdown infringes on their rights to work, congregate at church, hair and nail salons, and schools.

This “cabin fever” as President Trump put it, has many politicians and health-care professionals scared, and angry. Many doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers took to the streets to counter these anti-quarantine protests, by donning their scrubs and white coats to confront protesters and on some occasions bar them from continuing their march.

To some Americans, these protests seem like a phenomenon occurring only in their countries. This could not be further from the truth. Though international quarantine protests have not been covered by the media in the US; they are becoming more and more prevalent.

Anti-quarantine protesters have popped up in Canada, France, and Germany. These international protesters have similar oppositions to their American counterparts. They too feel that the counter-measures taken to flatten the curve are putting their countries’ economies at risk. The protesters do not focus on the need to quarantine to save lives by slowing the virus and giving healthcare officials the time and resources necessary to combat the disease. Instead, they take to the streets to fight for small business owners, and their jobs and in some instances their need for a haircut.

Some of the protesters’ claims do focus on saving human lives. Their fight for victims of domestic abuse, for example, can be said to focus on the well-being of others. However, Though the rise in domestic violence is more than devastating the number of lives that would be endangered if the quarantine was to end at this moment in time far exceeds the number of lives endangered by continuing it.

Protests in Canada have so far, been peaceful. This cannot be said for some of the European protests.  Protests in Paris have escalated to full scale riots. The lockdown has really intensified France’s economic inequalities.  The violence has been amplified in the past week as the protests gain traction and find their way into Parisian suburbs. Conflicts with police have escalated, trash cans and cars have been set on fire and just last week an elementary school was set on fire.

On the Polish-German border, hundreds of people protested against a Covid-19 lockdown last Friday night. Poland closed its borders for a mandatory two weeks due to the Corona Virus outbreak. Approximately 300 citizens that live in Poland but work in Germany are protesting their inability to leave their homes to go back to work. German citizens joined them in the protests though the two groups were separated by a fence to prevent people from crossing the border.

Approximately 20,000 Poles work in Germany and around 10,500 of them cross the Polish-German Border daily. Protesters are afraid that their jobs will not be waiting for them when the quarantine is finally lifted.

The Corona Virus crisis has brought virtually the entire world to its knees and it’s easy to believe that Americans are the only people reacting adversely to the quarantine efforts. It’s important to note however that these sentiments are felt worldwide. Many feel trapped in their homes, with no money, having just lost their jobs. They have no idea what the future holds. What we must keep in mind is that these measures ensure the safety of most people. While some are protesting that the quarantine may be worst than the disease, we must remember that, as Governor Andrew Cuomo stated, “the disease is death”.

 RELATED ARTICLES

• French authorities deal with protest in Paris suburbs during coronavirus lockdown (cbc.ca)

• Hundreds Protest Against Lockdown at Polish-German Border (nytimes.com)

• The anti-quarantine protests seem spontaneous. But behind the scenes, a powerful network is helping. (washingtonpost.com)

• These are the people behind the anti-quarantine protest events that Facebook is shutting down (Inquirer.com)

Will Kim Yo-jong Join the Ranks of Female Leaders?

Kim Jong-un, Photo by Victoria Borodinova.

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Today, reports seem to confirm the theory that North Korea's young and enigmatic leader, Kim Jong-un, 36, is believed to be dead. The United States has been consumed by the Coronavirus pandemic and the mounting death toll, which has currently topped 50,000, so the possibility of Kim's death, though noted by political pundits, has barely broken through the noise of the current national discourse.

The "supreme leader," as Jong-un is known, had been absent from the public's eye for some time, and speculations abounded regarding his ill-health. Following the death of his father, Kim Jong II, from a heart attack in 2011, Jong-un became the third-generation hereditary leader, and if he is indeed dead, he would most likely be succeeded by next heir, his sister Kim Yo-jong.

Fears of Jong-un's demise solidified when he missed an April 15 holiday honoring the founder of the country, Kim II Sung, who was his late grandfather. Then, ten days later, on the 88th anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, Kim was once again absent, prompting rumors of his demise.

If proven right, the timing could prove additionally problematic for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been seeking any win to off-set his administration's questionable response to mounting Covid-19 deaths. Trump became the first sitting president to meet with Kim, and in June 2019 stood next to him and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, in the heavily fortified demilitarized zone, which was established during the 1953 armistice which separated North and South Korea.

This third meeting between Washington and Pyongyang was unprecedented. However, these meetings were more advantageous for Kim, who had seized upon the elevation to the global stage by holding additional high-profile meetings, “four with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, and five with China's President Xi Jinping.” The U.S. meetings did not result in the promised denuclearization deal, and with the possible death of Jong-un, the potential for this deal to be realized is even more unlikely.

When asked at a White House Briefing about Kim Jong-un's condition, the president said, "I think the report was incorrect, let me just put it that way. I hear the report was incorrect. I hope it was an incorrect report," he added, and the administration failed to provide any further comment. "We have a good relationship with North Korea, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un, and I hope he's okay. And I think it was a fake report," Trump added.

According to Newsweek, a senior Pentagon official not authorized to speak on the record was quoted as stating that "North Korean military readiness remains within historical norms, and there is no further evidence to suggest a significant change in defensive posturing or national level leadership changes."

Until confirmation of Kim's death by U.S. intelligence agencies, we can only speculate that he is dead as asserted by a "Hong Kong Satellite T.V. executive. Her uncle is purportedly a Chinese foreign minister, and she told her 15 million followers on Weibo that she had a source saying Kim was dead.

If Kim has died, then a succession of leadership would demand that his sister, Yo-jong, assume the reigns of power. According to the Associated Press, which reported that the chances of her being appointed are "more than 90%," per Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea who noted that "Yong-un she has "royal blood," and "North Korea is like a dynasty." Kim's sister is reportedly feared, but a capable and accomplished leader who has been groomed for this eventuality.

"Kim Yo-jong is the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. She joined the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in 2007, eventually serving as secretariat to her father, Kim Jong-il, until his death in 2011. Kim Yo-jong continued to ascend her party's ranks under her brother's rule, taking control of his image as the first vice-department director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department and later becoming an alternate member of the WPK's powerful politburo. After making a highly publicized appearance at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Kim joined her brother for his denuclearization summits with Trump." (Source: Biography.com)

It remains to be seen if the change in governance will result in the "hermit nation" becoming even more of a player in the global economy, and if under Yo-jong's leadership, the country will accelerate its modernization efforts. If so, Yo-jong will join the ranks of influential female leaders and heads of state, as she shepherds the economic development of North Korea under the auspices of China's global marketplace of state capitalism.

RELATED ARTICLES

• North Korea’s Disappearing Leader: Speculation Grows Around Kim Jong Un’s Health (forbes.com)

• Trump: Reports on N Korea's Kim Jong Un illness are 'fake' news (aljazeera.com)

• Train possibly belonging to North Korean leader spotted in resort town: think tank (reuters.com)

• Are female leaders more successful at managing the coronavirus crisis? (theguardian.com)

• Biography of Kim Yo-jong (biography.com)

• Countries currently led by Women (247wallst.com)

• Trump meets Kim Jong Un, becomes first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea (nbcnews.com)

Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias
LinkedIn: Ayanna Nahmias

America's Dark Days of Intolerance and the Lessons of Religious Judgment

I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all, nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven who made me sputter and gasp–
The thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine, looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal? I would love to hear your take.
How’d all these sinners get up here? God must’ve made a mistake.

‘And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber – give me a clue.’
‘Child,’ He said, ‘they’re all in shock. They never thought they’d be seeing you!’

This story was told by Joel Osteen though the source is unknown.

Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias
LinkedIn: Ayanna Nahmias

Ethiopian Airlines Leading in Women's Empowerment

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopian Airlines is one of the premier international carriers operating throughout Africa and major hubs globally. Whenever we travel to Africa for the Zimbabwe Farm Project, we fly Ethiopian Airlines. Long known as one of the safest airlines on the Continent, the recent tragedy was an aberration. A defining ethos of the airline among other things, is its commitment to women’s empowerment, as evidenced by the fact that 35% of the company's 16,000-strong workforce is female.

Amsale Gualu is Ethiopian Airlines' First Female Captain

The airline’s hiring practices speak to its vanguard status as a proponent of gender equality in Africa. In an era when women’s rights are under assault globally, it is crucial to recognize an organization where highly trained professionals responsible for the lives of so many happen to be female.

The practice of hiring and promoting women to greater levels of responsibility is no accident. Ethiopian Airlines implemented initiatives designed to provide women in the workforce with opportunities normally reserved for men. It is a strategy which has been deliberative, and as Chief Executive Officer Tewolde GabreMariam “explained that initiative celebrates women on a continent where ’gender inequality still persists.’

The all-female-crew on 8 March 2019 flew from Addis Ababa to Stockholm-Oslo using female ground crews, flight dispatchers, load controllers, ramp operators, on-board logistics staff, safety and security personnel, catering service, as well as air-traffic controllers.

Ethiopian Airlines joins other carriers which have honored International Women’s Day by organizing all-female-flights such as Air India and British Airways. On 8 March 2018, British Airways London Heathrow to Glasgow flight was facilitated by over 60 women as featured in this U.K produced video.

Disclosure: I have not been paid to write this article, nor do I have any financial stake in the company, and the opinions expressed are based upon personal experience.

Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias
LinkedIn: Ayanna Nahmias

Solar Sail Craft Begins Orbiting Earth | Carl Sagan Prophecy

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - It has been two days since a tiny spacecraft began to successfully orbit earth propelled only by a solar sail named LightSail 2. It is the second generation of an earlier solar sail craft launched in 2015 which had limited success, but proved the technology was viable. This time, on 25 June 2019, the solar sail craft was launched into space aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket.

Long thought to be the stuff of science fiction, NASA and The Planetary Society have been working on this alternative propulsion solution to enable continuous space exploration once humans depart the planet. Thus, it is with great elation that LightSail 2 is orbiting without incident at 720 kilometers above the earth’s surface. (WATCH VIDEO)

Advocates of “Green Space Travel,” have sought to create solutions that do not rely on chemical propellants. Space travel has been limited in part by our ability to maintain a sustainable environment in deep space. That coupled with the challenge of fuel requirements necessary not only for launch but ongoing propulsion, adds to the potential adverse environmental impact of human beings in space.

Our propensity to litter is borne out by the evidence of the 12 trips humans have made to the moon. According to estimates, 400,000 lbs. of garbage now litters the surface, and there are no current plans of how to remove it. Additional environmental challenges occur during the launching spacecraft with heavy payloads laden with fuel tanks and boosters which once expended, fall back to earth as toxic pollutants.

LightSail 2’s successful deployment is the actualization of the vision that Carl Sagan, founder of The Planetary Society long ago prognosticated. Sagan first introduced the idea of using solar winds to power space travel in 1976, postulating that a solar sail could transform particles of light, also known as photons, to increase the momentum of spacecraft, making it the ultimate renewable energy source vehicle.

The famed scientist, Sagan was trained as both an astrophysicist and biologist according to The Planetary Society, and “was a consultant and adviser to NASA beginning in the 1950s, he briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon, and was an experimenter on the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo expeditions to the planets.”

The current CEO of The Planetary Society, Bill Nye, explained how this technology works to The Verge.

LightSail 2 be “twisting its sail back and forth to ride on sunlight. As it approaches the Sun, the spacecraft will keep its sail edge-on toward the light. Then, once it’s directly in front of the Sun, it will twist and face the sail toward the Sun. “It’ll work very much like a sailboat, where you push, twist, and tack into the ‘wind,’” Nye said. “And then you twist and take advantage of sailing ‘downwind.’” If all goes well, the sunlight will push on LightSail 2, and the spacecraft’s orbit will rise slightly as it whips around the Earth.”

These are exciting times as man continues to push the boundaries of space exploration, even more so, that space pioneers are environmentally conscious and aware of our role as caretakers. It is expected that the craft will operate for about a year, using the energy from the Sun to raise its orbit, until the positioning required for the continued harnessing of the sunlight will result in the earth facing side losing altitude. Ultimately, this will result in the eventual destabilization and loss of elevation, and like the mythical Phoenix bird, it will descend into the earth’s atmosphere bursting into fiery flames, from which the next iteration will launch and fly again.

RELATED ARTICLES

• The Moon is covered with 400,000-pounds of Human Trash (interestingengineering.com)

• The Planetary Society | Carl Sagan Biography (planetary.org)

• NASA's 'Green' Fuel Satellite Passes Its First Test (space.com)

• SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Lofts 24 Satellites in 1st Night Launch (space.com)

• The Verge - Spacecraft designed to ride on sunlight deploys its reflective solar sail (theverge.com)

Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias
LinkedIn: Ayanna Nahmias

Introducing U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe | Brian A. Nichols

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Brian A. Nichols presented his credentials on July 19, 2018, as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Ambassador Nichols previously served as the Ambassador to Peru from 2014 to 2017.  He pioneered strategies against illegal gold mining, illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, and environmental degradation.  

Brian A. Nichols, U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe

He supported American trade and investment in Peru, increasing agricultural sales to over $1 billion annually, defending the rights of American investors, and building the Hemisphere’s largest public-private partnership—the U.S.-Peru Cacao Alliance.

Brian Nichols was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) from 2011 to 2013.   In that capacity, he oversaw the full range of rule of law programs, counter-narcotics and multilateral issues managed by the bureau.  From 2007 to 2010, he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, where he managed day-to-day U.S. diplomatic activities in Colombia including overseeing over $500 million in annual assistance. 

Ambassador Nichols previously served as the Director of the Office of Caribbean Affairs, coordinating U.S. policy toward 14 Caribbean countries.  He also served as Counselor for Political Affairs at the American Embassy in Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. Ambassador Nichols has also served in Mexico and El Salvador during major democratic transitions.  He began his Foreign Service career as a Consular Officer in Lima in 1989.

Ambassador Nichols has earned over 20 awards during his diplomatic career, including the 2016 Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development.  He is married to Foreign Service Officer Geri Kam. They have two daughters.

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Humans Impact Climate and Extinction of 1 Million Species

UNITED NATIONS - The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which was established in 2012 by the United Nations Environment Programme and includes representatives from 132 countries release a report that humans are having an “unprecedented” and devastating effect on global biodiversity, with about 1 million animal and plant species now threatened with extinction.

WE SHOULD ACT NOW TO AVOID DIRE FUTURE, SCIENTISTS WARN.

Landfill in Danbury, Connecticut, by United Nations Photos

One hundred and forty-five expert environmental scientists took several studies to conclude that human activities are threatening the existence of living things like giant whales, plant species, and small flowers.

Robert Watson, the panel’s chair and a professor of environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., said evidence collected over the past five decades from roughly 15,000 scientific and government studies paints “an ominous picture. He said the decline in biodiversity is eroding “the foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”

Shrinking habitat, exploitation of natural resources, climate change and pollution are the main drivers of species loss and are threatening more than 40% of amphibians, 33% of coral reefs and over a third of all marine mammals with extinction, the report said. 

The report emphasizes the disastrous impact of population growth and rising demand. It notes that the world’s population has more than doubled (from 3.7 to 7.6 billion) in the last 50 years, and gross domestic product per person is four times higher. More than a third of the world’s land and 75% of freshwater supplies are used for crop or livestock production, it noted. 

In 2015, a third of marine stocks were being fished at unsustainable levels and the amount of raw timber being harvested has increased by almost half since 1970, with up to 15% of its cut illegally, according to the report with an average of 300-400 million tons of waste dumped into the world’s waters annually. Pollution entering coastal ecosystems has produced more than 400 ocean “dead zones,” totaling an area bigger than the United Kingdom. These areas are so starved of oxygen; they can barely support marine life. 

With just 5,000 Eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) left on Earth, the majestic species now faces the risk of disappearing completely, officials said at the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s global conference in Honolulu. Four out of six of the Earth’s great apes are now critically endangered, “only one step away from going extinct,” including the Eastern Gorilla, Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan, said the IUCN in an update to its Red List, the world’s most comprehensive inventory of plant and animal species. 

Pandas status improved from “endangered” to “vulnerable” due to intensive conservation efforts by China.

 Reprinted from HVY, permission granted by author, Malik Awan