NEW YORK In his book, Disruptive Power: Catholic Women, Miracles, and Politics in Modern Germany, 1918-1965, Marist College professor Michael OSullivan explores the revival of Catholic faith in Germany from 1920-1960, fueled in large part by Marian devotion.

Yet ironically, this new sense of devotion, primarily from traditionalist Catholics, unintentionally weakened the institutional Church, OSullivan argues.

His book, which won the Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize, explores this turbulent period in German Catholicism, and in an interview with Crux, OSullivan offers his thoughts on what it means for one of the most influential Catholic nations in the world today.

Crux: These miracles you chronicle often occuring in very rural areas take place when Germany is in tremendous upheaval after the first World War. Are the devotions you chronicled here more politicized than say previous well known Marian devotions, such as, say, Lourdes?

OSullivan: I have trouble thinking of an era in European history where popular religion and sainthood was not politicized. In an example from the medieval period, my colleague at Marist College, Janine Larmon Peterson, just wrote a book that shows how the political situation on the Italian peninsula during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries shaped the reception of local and unsanctioned saints cults.

In modern European history, the Lourdes apparitions were in fact quite political. Although the history of Bernadette Soubirous is certainly a local story about how formal rituals of the Church mixed with local traditions, the shrine became a lightning rod of controversy in the political battle between secular republicans and conservative Catholics during the late nineteenth century. I would also point out David Blackbourns study of the Marpingen apparitions of the Virgin Mary that highlighted the political clash between the Catholic minority and Protestant elites in Prussia during Germanys Kulturkampf (cultural struggle) of the 1870s.

While my book is not the first to demonstrate that unsanctioned religious figures became ensnared in politics, it follows how faith in religious miracles encountered new political terrain during the twentieth century. Of most interest is how Therese Neumann of Konnersreuth and other mystics fit into Catholic attempts at liberal democratic mass politics during the 1920s and 1950s. Furthermore, her circles messy engagement with the Third Reichs dictatorship highlights many of the grey areas in the relationship between Catholicism and fascism. Many of her followers suffered imprisonment or death during this era, but I argue that she backed away from open acts of dissent against National Socialism.

Conservative Catholics wouldbe characterized today as those wanting to preserve the institutional Church and its traditions, but you write that during this time,traditionalistbelieversunintentionallyweakened it. How so?

This is perhaps the most provocative element of my books argument and it relies on the work of other scholars, such as Thomas Grossblting, who show that institutionalized Christianity in Germany faded in the 1960s and 1970s. Although church attendance and membership declined, many Germans and other Europeans developed personalized beliefs outside the structures of churches that mixed different faith traditions.

Catholics attracted to unsanctioned instances of stigmata and apparitions of the Virgin Mary understood themselves to be more traditionalist in their faith practices than even some of the bishops, the clergy and leading members of the laity, whom they viewed as making too many compromises with modernity. However, they believed so strongly in their own traditionalist vision that they rebelled vigorously against the authority of the Churchs hierarchy and contributed to an erosion of institutional legitimacy. By demanding a personal connection with God that eliminated priests and hierarchical sanction as intermediaries, mystics and seers contributed to the larger pluralization and individualization of religion that overtook Germany in the period that followed them. I never claim that the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to small rural towns were exclusively responsible for this broader shift in spiritual practices. Long-term shifts toward urban lifestyles, consumer economies, socialism, totalitarianism, and war all contributed. Nonetheless, the traditionalist rebels who valued unsanctioned mysticism over Church hierarchy accelerated these larger trends in surprising ways.

How did the story of Therese Neumanns stigmata first catch your attention? As you chronicle, she caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of Germans and other European Catholics and even folks in the United States. You suggest that some of the cult that developed around her was fueled by the belief that Catholics in Germany had compromised too much with the modern nation state and were no longer living authentic Catholic lives. Can you explain this a bit more?

I first became interested in the veneration of religious seers such as Neumann by accident. When researching a dissertation largely about the secularization process of the Catholic regions of Germany, I discovered folders about alleged cases of stigmata and Marian appearances in the archive of the archbishopric of Cologne. Although I set these sources aside for many years, I eventually realized that there was a compelling book that could emerge about the resonance of Catholic mysticism in Germany from the 1920s to the 1950s. The challenge of the study was to find deeper meaning out of microhistories that had such colorful personalities and narratives.

The struggle by the German Catholic minority to fit into the Protestant-majority nation-state founded in 1871 became one of these touchpoints. After a traumatizing church-state battle during the 1870s, German Catholics made efforts to reach out from the subcultures created by the legacy of the Reformation to both demonstrate their loyalty to the new nation and integrate into the modern, urban economy. This led many bishops, clergy, and lay leaders to balance a sense of rationalism with their faith. It also caused the political party that represented Catholics (the Center Party) to overcome past differences and govern with secular opponents, such as the liberal and social democratic parties. Those most attracted to instances of stigmata in the 1920s rejected modernization of the faith or political Catholicism as inauthentic. Sites such as the home of Therese Neumann in rural Konnersreuth became symbols of opposition against the perceived abandonment of the faith by clergy from industrialized northwest of the country; bishops who deployed scientific methods to analyze the authenticity of alleged miracles; and Catholic politicians who dared compromise with past enemies of the Church.

How much momentum does the cause for her beatificationhave today and who are the major players in it?

My sense is that the momentum for beatification slowed in recent years, but I have also found it difficult to gather much information about what is happening beneath the surface. Perhaps I could have used some of your journalistic skills here. This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of when Gerhard Ludwig Mller started the process as Bishop of Regensburg and no report has yet been submitted to the diocese with an assessment of Neumanns heroic virtue or forwarded to the Vatican. I did interview the two figures leading the process in 2013: Msgr. Georg Schwager, who will send a report to the Bishop of Regensburg once all research is complete; and Toni Siegert, a journalist and historian based in Munich who leads an historical commission. In their comments to me and in subsequent public statements, they emphasize the vast amount of documentation that must be surveyed before a report is finalized. In a recent appearance in Konnersreuth, Siegert publicly stated that new documents have been released to the commission from the personal papers of Neumann supporter Fritz Gerlich, whose own beatification process started in 2017, and also from a religious order with links to Neumann.

Despite denials by both Schwager and Siegert, I speculate that the divisions within the Catholic Church between progressives and conservatives must play a role in the prospects of this beatification case. Cardinal Mller, who started the process right after Benedict XVI assumed the papacy, served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith after his time in the Regensburg bishops residence and now appears regularly in the press as an aggressive critic of Pope Francis. He also recently compared the Synodal Path adopted by the German Bishops to address a movement for womens empowerment within the Church and the sex abuse scandals (which Mller played a part in covering up) to Hitlers consolidation of power in 1933.

While the current Bishop of Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, seems publicly supportive of Konnersreuth, the recent association of the town and other sites analyzed in my book with deeply conservative Catholicism and right-wing populism, would seem to make it unpalatable to the current pontiff and most German Catholics who live outside the diocese of Regensburg. In some ways, the present conflict among Catholics in Germany has dimensions that were similar to the divisions within its Catholic community during the Weimar Republic of the 1920s.

How did individualssuch as Neumann change the way the German hierarchy related to women in the 20th century and the movement by other women in the Church seeking an expanded role in leadership?

The book treats the history of women in the Catholic Church extensively, but it largely explores the exceptional nature of Therese Neumanns accumulation of power as a seer in modern Catholic history. Disruptive Power argues against studies that view female stigmatics and visionaries as popular theologians who used mysticism to pursue a form of Catholic feminism. It also questions scholars that depict religious women as manipulated pawns in the hands of their religious patriarchs. Rather, the book highlights the story of a woman who adopted deeply conservative and traditionalist positions as she increased her fame and agency over time. Most other girls and women in her position suffered terribly as a result of claiming a direct connection to sacred figures. If they submitted too much to patriarchal authority or rebelled too aggressively against it, they wound up ruined, discredited and sometimes excommunicated. Many of them were institutionalized. Neumann carefully navigated a path where she cultivated male patrons to protect her without empowering any one of them too much. She used loyalty to her father in order to shield herself from her bishops desire for her institutionalization. Neumann also instrumentalized the Churchs conservative sexual politics as a tool with which to wield moral authority.

Neumanns approach to gender did not influence the German women leading the Maria 2.0 movement that calls for feminine empowerment within the Church in Germany today. Their predecessors were active within the Catholic Womens Movement of the early twentieth century, a subject for my new book project. Nonetheless, it is vital for scholars of womens history to access the mindset of traditionalists such as Neumann and the many women devoted to her during the era of the two world wars.

Follow Christopher White on Twitter:@cwwhite212

Original post:
Women played an intriguing role in Catholic revival in Germany, author says - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Approximately 67 million women are organized into 6 million self-help groups (Pardeep Pandit/HT Photo)

As India fights the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), it requires all stakeholders to take charge and deliver. Among those which are working on the ground, the women-led self-help groups (SHGs) have emerged as effective frontline responders, reaching the last-mile and ensuring an immediate relief and socio-economic protection to the countrys most vulnerable.

Their reach is staggering: Approximately 67 million women are organised into 6 million SHGs. Operating on the principles of self-help, cohesion and mutual interest, SHGs are voluntary groups of 10-20 women from their neighbourhood, who pool their savings and gain access to credit. As of today, these collectives have saved $1.4 billion, and leveraged another $37 billion from commercial banks. What began as a call to empower poor rural women under the aegis of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) has since grown into one of the worlds largest institutional platforms for the poor.

To facilitate the workings of SHGs, the Union ministry of rural development issues policy directions and advisories to state missions.

SHGs have local as well as national reach. They are producing masks and personal protective equipments (PPEs), creating awareness about the pandemic, and delivering essentials goods and financial assistance to the most vulnerable.

For example, in Bihar, women under the JEEViKA platform (the State Rural Livelihood Mission) are active in identifying and surveying vulnerable households. Using innovative communication methods, SHG members ensure that the risks of Covid-19 and its transmission are easily explained to rural masses. Using the information education and communication material developed by the state mission, the didis, as they are locally called, use the network of 1.4 lakh state-wide SHGs to create awareness about hand-washing, social distancing, sanitation and quarantine.

In Uttar Pradesh (UP), with the help of Khadi Gramudyog, SHG members plan to produce masks worth six lakh metres of khadi fabric. In Kheri district, SHGs are working round-the-clock to produce PPE kits for frontline health workers and police personnel. Moreover, SHG women under the Prerna platform use methods such as rangolis, TikTok videos and songs to create awareness about hand-washing and social distancing.

In Jharkhand, SHG women use the Aajeevika Farm Fresh mobile app to sell vegetables, ensuring that social distancing guidelines are not flouted. They also use their networks to identify vulnerable households, flagging to the administration the pockets in need of food. They help run a 24-hour helpline by the State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM), which provides important information and counselling to the returning migrant. Every Panchayat in the state has a Muhkya Mantri Didi Kitchen, which provides free food to the needy. At present, the state has about 4,185 community kitchens in as many Panchayats, with SRLM providing Rs 20,000 each to SHGs running these centres.

In Kerala, through the renowned Kudumbashree network, women collectives have been on the frontlines, home-delivering groceries through a floating market to the most vulnerable, providing PPEs to local government hospitals, and running 1,300 community kitchens across the state. They also help in Covid-19-related myth-busting.

In several states, SHGs have taken up the task of production, packaging and distribution of take-home ration (THR) as anganwadi centres across the country are shut due to the lockdown. In Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the SHG women also distribute eggs along with THR. This ensures that the State reaches every child under five, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and vulnerable target groups.

In many states, SHG members engaged as BC Sakhi (banking correspondent agents) help home-deliver the Centres financial relief packages for the rural community facing socio-economic distress, pensioners, and those who are dependent on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

There are four main reasons why SHGs play an important role in serving the poor:

One, they have a better understanding of local communities, and in times of crises, have immediate access on the ground.

Two, they serve as an integral community communication channel, help reach the last mile, and are trusted by local communities.

Three, they can provide short- and medium-term social and economic protection, serving as a critical conduit for providing relief to the most vulnerable.

Four, they quickly set up the production of relevant items using their well-honed skills, and put to use village distribution and supply chains.

As we celebrate and acknowledge their contributions in tackling the coronavirus pandemic, we must continue to strengthen them, and replicate the model across the country. They must be given a requisite economic and social empowerment. Governments and society must recognise that effective emergency response and the social and economic protection of the most vulnerable is critically dependent on institutions like SHGs.

Nita Kejrewal is joint secretary, ministry of rural development

The views expressed are personal

Originally posted here:
Covid-19: In times of crisis, women self-help groups lead the way - Hindustan Times

As governments fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Snopes is fighting an infodemic of rumors and misinformation, and you can help. Read our coronavirus fact checks. Submit any questionable rumors and advice you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease.

In April 2020, as conspiracy theories swirled about former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates alleged connections to the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, images supposedly showing an eerie quote ostensibly uttered by him circulated on social media.

Text from a February 1997 issue of George magazine was presented in such a way that suggested Gates had said an over-populated planet would be choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus:

Practically the only thing connecting Gates to the quote in this image is the neon green line drawn between them.

The above-displayed images are both genuine and both come from the February 1997 issue of George, a magazine founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and published between 1995 and 2001. Although this issue does feature a lengthy interview with Gates, the quote featured here comes from an entirely different article.

The February 1997 issue of George magazine included a Survival Guide to the Future that featured various commentators describing how the world was now and providing their thoughts on what the world would be like in 2020. The actual article, titled A Nations Future Foretold, was divided into themed sections such as transportation, education, environment, crime, warfare, and food. The quote shown in the viral image comes from the disease section of this article. Heres a screenshot from a digital copy of the magazine, which more clearly shows the author of this text:

The end of the article comes after a page break, where you can read the pull-quote in context:

Gates did not write that an over-populated planet would be choked to extinction by a lung-attacking virus. This article was actually written by poet and science writer Arno Karlen.

However, social media users did find an actual quote from Gates in this issue of George that they presented as equally controversial as the lung-attacking virus quote. A second image showing an excerpt from this issue appears to show Gates talking about funding population control:

This, again, is a genuine image from the February 1997 issue of George magazine. And this time, it is a genuine quote from Gates. He made this comment shortly after he was asked about how he keeps his personal opinions separate from his business decisions:

While this quote is often shared as if it revealed some secret and nefarious plot from the former Microsoft CEO, the truth is a bit more mundane.

This quote was widely circulated by those who adhere to the idea that Gates was using the COVID-19 pandemic to give himself an opportunity to microchip the population via vaccines. The above-displayed quote shows, according to proponents of this conspiracy theory, that Gates has long been planning to take control of the global population. We took a deeper look into the ID2020 conspiracy theory here.

However, the term population control isnt as literal as it may seem in this context. This term was widely used in the 1970s and 80s, but it fell out of fashion in the 90s and was replaced by terms such as reproductive health, family planning, and womens empowerment.

In writing about the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, the Christian Science Monitor noted a major philosophical difference between that years conference and conferences from years past:

If there is a major philosophical difference in the 1994 version of the once-a-decade international conference on population, it is the shift from population control to womens empowerment especially in areas of reproductive health, education, and economic opportunities, which planners of the UN conference see as closely linked to fertility rates.

Economic growth and improvement of quality of life have been fastest in those areas where women have higher status, and slowest where they face the greatest disadvantages, states the draft Programme of Action now being debated in New York.

Gates quote in this 1997 interview may have been a bit outdated, but it was not indicative of a nefarious plot to enslave humankind. Rather, Gates was noting his charitable work with global organizations that support reproductive health programs.

For example, in 1997, the year this interview was published, the Gates Foundation awarded a $2.2 million grant to Johns Hopkins University to support the Institute for Population and Reproductive Health to strengthen leadership and institutions in the developing countries. Two years later in 1999, Bill and Melinda Gates donated $2.2 billion to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Forbes explored Gates thinking on population control in a 2011 profile:

That same epiphany for his public health philanthropy came even earlier. Bills dad had set up a dinner at Seattles posh Columbia Tower Club with the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). While the meeting started with birth control among other efforts, PATH taught Chinese condom makers to test their products before shipping them Gates began consuming data that startled him. In society after society, he saw, when the mortality rate falls specifically, below 10 deaths per 1,000 people the birth rate follows, and population growth stabilizes. It goes against common sense, Gates says. Most parents dont choose to have eight children because they want to have big families, it turns out, but because they know many of their children will die.

If a mother and father know their child is going to live to adulthood, they start to naturally reduce their population size,says Melinda.

In terms of giving, Gates did a 180-degree turn. Rather than prevent births, he would aim his billions at saving the kids already born. We moved pretty heavily into vaccines once we understood that, says Gates.

See original here:
Did Bill Gates Tell George Magazine That an 'Over-Populated Planet' Would Fall to a 'Lung-Attacking Virus'? - Snopes.com

This article originally appeared on VICE India.

The most jarring visual of a crisis in any part of the world is always its human face. And the bigger the scale of a disaster, the more devastating the image. Over the last couple of months, as the coronavirus pandemic swept across Asia, it revealed consequences of not just the pandemic, but also how a virus can instantly change life as we know it.

In India, the worlds harshest lockdown manifested in the loss of livelihood and displacement of hundreds of thousands of informal labourers and migrantswhich some say saw an exodus bigger than the one during the India-Pakistan partition (which saw the displacement of 15 million people). Now, as we approach the end of the lockdown (May 3though this is tentative in many parts of the country which are seeing high numbers of positive cases), analysts and researchers are predicting the same demographic will possibly face even more exploitation as workplaces rush to meet the rising demands and make up for lost time and money.

Trinanjan Radhakrishnan, the project coordinator for private sector engagement at Oxfam India, an international non-profit that works towards issues such as women empowerment and inequality, told VICE that this scenario is very likely primarily because Indias informal workforcewhich stands at almost 93 percent of the total population (according to the Economic Survey of 2018-19)already work under a system where they have no legal protection and are thereby exploited because of that. Think of folks who are a part of the supply chain or construction workers they have lost three months of work, they have to make up for the lost time. There will be increased work hours, he said. In supply chains, the margins are already slim, so there will be more pressure or more hours at lesser wages.

This trend, adds Radhakrishnan, will be especially prevalent in textile supply chainsa trend that is currently unfolding in Bangladesh right now. Owing to the pressures from international brands to meet export deadlines and piling orders, many Dhaka factories opened this week despite a nationwide lockdown. In some Western countries, factories have reopened. In others, like in India, there are attempts to open up the economy to restore its broken supply chain because of the lockdown. Experts feel that the unorganised workers will face not just the dangers of coronavirus infection, but also an increased burden of work.

You have to choose between either losing your job, or working doubly hard, says Radhakrishnan. Their consignments still have to be made up for. There will be lesser breaks. If eight hours is the law, the norm is 12 hours, and now, it will increase further. They will probably see 18-hour shifts. This could be worse for some people more than others.

In India, such work conditions and its exploitative nature put the country quite high up on the Global Slavery Index 2018, where modern slavesthose who are severely exploitated for personal or commercial gainmade up of 7.9 million people (as of 2016). Workers in informal and unregulated sectors, owing to a lack of strict labour laws and regulations, often fall under this bracket. The United Nations has condemned this, and calls it contemporary forms of slavery. The majority of those who suffer are the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalised social groups in society, says the UN statement. Fear, ignorance of ones rights and the need to survive do not encourage them to speak out.

Over the last few weeks, the lockdown has also increased the risk of jobless informal workers resorting to loans, which will sink them deeper into modern slavery. In fact, there are concerns that those stuck in brick kilns and rice mills are already overworked and exploited. Owners of these facilities have pushed up deadlines for work to be completed, knowing that the workers will ... (go) home once the lockdown is opened, Jaba Prince, a social worker for the International Justice Mission in southern Tamil Nadu, told Reuters.

India is not the only country where experts have predicted exploitation of vulnerable workers even after the pandemic. UK-based charity Focus on Labour Exploitation, which works to end human trafficking for labour exploitation across the world, recently came out with a study that highlights this risk in low-paid and insecure employment in the UK. Struggling to make ends meet, low-paid workers are at high risk of falling into debt and facing destitution, reads the report.

There have also been concerns about women in the labour force facing even more exploitation owing to gendered, cultural and structural issues, such as discrimination related to pregnancy and maternity, gender-based violence and sexual harassment at work. The burden on them will increase at work along with the unpaid care work at home, said Radhakrishnan.

At the same time, there are reports of the pandemic and ensuing lockdown changing the labour market considerably. In India, this analysis has come after witnessing mass displacement of migrant workers, and them struggling to go back home even now. Now, experts say that this has taught workers that distance matters. The Indian economy is functioning at not more than 25 percent capacity and most of the unorganized sector has shut down leading to migration back to the rural areas. Consequently, in states like, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, demand for work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has increased dramatically, Arun Kumar, one of the leading authorities on black economy, tells VICE. This shows that workers dont have work and because of the fear factor, they will more or less not return to urban areas in the near future and look for work in rural areas. Kumar also predicts that owing to these factors, businesses will function way below capacity, which will lead to more unemployment. Poverty will increase all around.

Its also been argued that though Indias lockdown may have been successful in minimising the spread of the virus, it has also paralysed the markets along with its people. And if the unorganised sector is forced to get back to their unsafe and exploitative workplaces again, it might just lead to something bigger than we have now. A second wave of the pandemic is being predicted by the experts, especially because we do not have enough testing, said Kumar. Big businesses are being shortsighted in demanding an immediate restart of the economy because if the disease flares up again, the poor will be hit hard due to lack of adequate medical facilities and another lockdown would be required. And experts say that a second lockdown will be even more painful than the first. And if the poor continue to be unprotected, there can be chaos in society.

Radhakrishnan looks at this as a critical juncture for how to treat the marginalised and the poor, a response that even the UN is advocating for right now through their build back better campaign. This is not the economy for the 1 percent, he says. Whenever many people think of the economy, they think of that section of the newspaper with words like GDP or mergers or interest rates, and so on. But when the lockdown happened, you saw the other face of the economy. Thats the human face of our economy, and this is the time for us to refocus ourselves and relook at our priorities. We need a human economy that works for everyone and not just a select few.

Follow Pallavi Pundir on Twitter.

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Experts Worry That the Post-Lockdown World Could See a Surge of Exploitation and Modern Slavery - VICE

Tweets irreverent of Jameela Jamil directed to other famous to promote a body image not harmful have become their hallmark. The actress and tv presenter british broke their anonymity in the u.s. industry in 2016, with his role as Tahani Al-Jamil in the series The Good Place of the NBC (also on Netflix). But despite the success of the show, which recently renewed its fourth season, and his recent signing to present the program Misey Index (TBS), the name Jameela is hogging headlines for having been erected as a representative of the activism body attacking strong wherever the tag appears #sponcon (sponsored content) and it advertises some product that promises miracle diets, such as smoothies laxatives or polemics lollipops saciantes promoted by Kim Kardashian. As a twist to the character that has lifted, girl well obsessed with his image, his real self based his talk on defending a positive image of the body, free of charges, pressures or Photoshop. I was the teenager who was killed from starvation during years, they spent all their money on these miracle cures and laxatives and tips from celebrities on how to maintain a weight lower than my body wanted. I was sickshe wrote in a tweet, explaining the origin of their struggle.

Their ultimate aim of trolling vigilante has been Cardi B. The rapper posted on Instagram a video announcing a drink detox and Jameela went to Twitter to point out bluntly: God, I hope that all these celebrities do shit over in public the same way that the poor women who buy these trifles thanks to your recommendation. As if the reality of what to take. Its just that they need more money, satirised. And the response of Cardi B was soon in coming: Im Never going to do that because there are public restrooms and oh, the bushes. Jamil, demonstrating that we do not impose the unwritten rule that getting involved with a celebrity with more followers than you is not a good idea if youre trying to build your personal brand on the internet, threw up a video that is already viral in the that parody explicitly the reality of who consume these slimming products high-fiber content, which in many cases leads to an addiction to laxatives, an eating disorder, about which little is said.

Before that Cardi B came Iggy Azalea or the Kardashian, Kim and Khloe. Both in networks and in interviews, Jameela Jamil had already set his goal in the sisters pointing to the clan as the axis of evil, on question of body image and influence. A title that he has already been granted previously to promote an image of the woman, unreal and unattainable in the guise of empowerment frustrates the other women. No. That you are given. No. You are an influence terrible and toxic for young girls. I admire the ability of your mother to do mark, is a genius, exploitative but innovative. However, this family really makes me feel desperate when I see that reduce women, wrote in may to Kim Kardashian when she starred in the controversial campaign of the lollipops saciantes Flattummy Co. And recently collected several pictures of all these celebrities to denounce in the same line, the promotion of products of this type: Give us the codes off of your nutritionists, cooks, personal, personal trainers, makeup artists and plastic surgeons fucking lying, he wrote.

This entire complaint has been channeled through your project I weigh, an account on Instagram that arose as a critical response to a publication stars again (though not voluntarily) by the Kardashians. Tagged in an image of a profile of Instagram that indicated in the photo the weight of each one of the sisters to mode ranking, Jameela generated the countertrend: posing in the picture with labels that indicate the skills, characteristics, or passions of the person in question and not your weight. The profile sum of 250,000 followers, and collects most of photos posted under #iweigh by people not famous who want to participate in the project.

With his next move has gone further. Already he had proclaimed before his desire not to be retouched in the images published in magazines and campaigns, defending that saw their stretch marks the natural way of reclaiming the harassment to which she was subjected by the british press, when years before winning international fame sharply increased in weight by the consumption of steroids to treat asthma. Now, in a letter published in the BBC, same media that has been included in its list of the 100 women of the year, and through various tweets, requests that the airbrushing of the images is declared to be illegal. It is a lie to the consumer, is harmful to the person of the image or is even more damaging to the public, especially for young womenthese are some of the arguments that the british brings.

Although its defenders, among them media as the feminist The Cut from where the journalist Mariah Smith wrote: I have never been more happy to see someone threatening my livelihood with this tracking the lies of the celebrities, asking them to sit and be honest for once, the detractors are also there. Users social networking question not to get retouched in the photos that she herself published with messages anti Photoshop but appears made-up, and brightly beautifulsomething that labeled, paradoxically, as very own of the Kardashian-Jenner or his character in The Good Place, Tahani Al-Jamil. Media like the american Vox go further by including it in the sack of the feminism of the cool girls with Jennifer Lawrence. Jamil, as stress makes constant use of expletives and like Lawrence, he boasts of not having been sexy in its adolescence as it represents and perpetuates, in reality, the stereotype of beauty prevailing and will benefit from it: For very good who are the celebrities, the privileges that offers the beauty, wealth and status are simply too great, writes Elisabeth J. Dickson. And Jamil defends himself by appealing to the difficulties for its origin of pakistan and the color of their skin by constantly rinsing without my permission.

I know that I am being a bit extravagant in all of this, but the war against the bodies and the general image of women is ongoing and out of control. Surgery for adolescents, eating disorders and self-harm are on the rise. So the counter attack is going to involve a lot of noise. Do you not like? Cllame challenges from the field of battle tweeter.

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So trolea Jameela Jamil to other celebrities by the activism body | Celebrities, Vips - OI Canadian

Published Apr 22, 2020

7

Little Flower grows out of the folk-rock style of her Mapmaker EP from 2016 but keeps and expands upon the graceful, attentive arrangements of that release. While the piano remains her primary songwriting instrument, this album finds Rockarts gravitating further toward the guitar while fleshing out these songs with a variety of different sounds to suit each mood.

The title track is a blissful, laid-back beach-folk tune about the quiet strength of an introvert. The piano ballad "Margaret" reflects on a character who won't commit to love, emanating with the wounded tenderness of Regina Spektor or maybe even Joni Mitchell. "Stay" is a peppy, electrified indie-pop tune about a breakup that you wish wouldn't have happened, even though you could see it coming almost from the beginning. "Stranger" seethes with a dark, sinister energy, its thick guitars stomping along menacingly as Rockarts excoriates the predatory nature of the reviled catcaller: "I'm scared to go out late at night / And I'm frightened of the dark / You put this fear into my mind / When nobody has the right."

The lyricism is fairly modest, with room to be more evocative and uniquely stylish. Songs like "Without You" and "Right Now" are among those that are perhaps too literal and simplistic to be very powerful, but the pleasantness of the songs may be enough to subdue that desire for more depth. "Vistas" and "Golden Hour," meanwhile, have more of that poet's touch, coupled with dazzling, moving, string-based arrangements that end the album with delicate poignancy especially as Rockarts sings the gorgeous, tearjerker closer about lifelong partners fading away from each other with the onset of Alzheimer's disease and with more beauty than ever.

Particularly for fans of other Canadian indie-rock auteurs like Feist, Andy Shauf, Dan Mangan, Bahamas and Elliot Maginot (as well as non-Canadians like Faye Webster and Weyes Blood), Emily Rockarts' Little Flower is certainly worth a listen. (Independent)

Link:
Emily Rockarts' 'Little Flower' Glows from the Inside Out - Exclaim!

CHICAGO and SANTA ROSA, Calif., April 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leveraging digital channels for always-on, remote access has quickly evolved from a differentiator to a minimum requirement, especially when it comes to consumer finance. To better serve the evolving credit needs of consumers, TransUnion (TRU) has entered into a strategic partnership with CuneXus, a data-driven lending and marketing automation pioneer, to enable financial institutions to extend relevant credit offers to consumers via digital delivery channels.

This partnership delivers tremendous service power in the hands of our customers while providing relevant brand experiences to consumers that are safe and timely, said Sean Flynn, senior director of credit unions at TransUnion. The CuneXus solution allows lenders to harness the power of todays most sophisticated data assets, like trended credit data, and operationalizes that data for maximum consumer impact. In addition, our combined solutions will enable lenders to deploy prescreen strategies that have been optimized based on our companies combined expertise and many years of evaluating best practices in consumer lending.

The strategic partnership combines the cutting-edge technology of the CuneXus Perpetual Loan Approval platform with TransUnions robust data assets not only to enhance the lending experience for credit unions and banks, but also empowering them to serve members and customers more efficiently and effectively through existing digital channels. This enables lenders to deliver offers that are tailored to specific consumer needs, preferences and patterns.

CuneXus and TransUnion have a shared vision of how data and automation will shape the future of lending and digital engagement, making the partnership a natural match. We are thrilled to have found a partner with a long history of customer advocacy to enhance our application-free lending solution, said Dave Buerger, president & CEO of CuneXus. If the CuneXus platform is the engine, TransUnions wealth of data and knowledge is the rocket fuel.

Over the course of the partnership CuneXus and TransUnion will work together to integrate future products and services to deliver even greater capabilities and insights to customers. For more information on implementing digital lending solutions, please visit: https://www.transunion.com/industry/credit-unions.

About TransUnion (TRU) TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

About CuneXus CuneXus is focused on data-driven application-free lending that helps financial institutions optimize operational efficiency and customer experience. Its pioneering technologies are at the forefront of the transition to a new era of customer empowerment through on-demand lending and borrowing. With more than 130 of the nations largest credit unions and community banks as clients, CuneXus has generated tens of billions of dollars in consumer loan volume by bringing transparent borrowing experiences to over 17 million consumers in every major U.S. market. Among its numerous accolades the company has been recognized as one of just ten startups to watch on KPMGs global report of The 50 Best Fintech Innovators; named the winner of the Best Consumer Lending Company in the 2020 Fintech Breakthrough Awards; named the winner of the Callahan & Associates 2019 Innovation in Lending award, and named Top Emerging Technology Company at the 2019 LendIt Fintech Industry Awards . Visit http://www.cunexus.com for more information.

Read the rest here:
CuneXus and TransUnion Collaboration Delivers Enhanced Digital Lending Capabilities for Financial Institutions - Yahoo Finance

Richner Communications Inc., publisher of Herald Community Newspapers and The Riverdale Press, named Malverne High School senior Olivia Marco as a recipient of the 2020 Wonder Girl Award. Each year, the publication selects one female student from Nassau County for the award and Marco was chosen based on her grades, resume, leadership and dedication to womens health and empowerment.

During her time at Malverne High School, she founded and currently serves as president of the Girls Club, which celebrates female empowerment, and has a fundraising component to benefit Girls, Inc. In addition, this year Marco has started a local chapter of the Menstrual Movement and has organized drives to donate female products to local womens shelters. She is also captain of the color guard and a member of the varsity tennis team.

In addition to this honor, Marco has also received an Army ROTC Scholarship, which will cover full tuition to any university that has a program. Marco has accepted early decision to attend Vanderbilt University and intends to major in business and economics.

Courtesy Malverne School District; compiled by Nakeem Grant

See more here:
Malverne teen honored with Wonder Girl award - liherald.com

Surrender does not equate to inaction. Surrender is a deeply active and engaged process. Its thrown around as commonly as concepts like light and shadow, personal empowerment, and collective consciousness, with little context as to what it truly means. Though its become a sort of spiritual buzzword over the last few decades, it stems from roots thousands of years old in the ancient philosophy of yoga. There surrender is named Ishvara Pranidhana. Ishvara Pranidhana, what does this ancient, seemingly archaic perlocution mean? And how is it even acutely applicable, or relevant today? One might say, in this context it means surrender to God, the divine, the universe, or spirit. Lets trace it back a bit further.

Ishvara Pranidhana is one of the five Niyamas, or personal ethics, that comprise the eight limbs of yoga. These 8 limbs are often referred to as steps on the Raja Yoga path associated with Ashtanga yoga, meaning 8-limbed. This is not the yoga of core power studios and 98 degree sweat lodges, no, this is the yoga of life, a philosophy of values, ethics, and invitations into greater awareness and deeper skills of perception of ones experience and ultimately, of reality.

How does this serve us during a global crisis? With all the sources of input and information right now, our ability to perceive with clarity is of the utmost importance to our mental and spiritual well being. As we sit inside our homes, we are faced with a certain thundering uncertainty and so, we must sit with ourselves. Our hidden thoughts, emotions, ideas, positive and negative, in totality. Our instinctual inclination is to numb, distract, tune out, and engage in something that eases or soothes discomfort. There is absolutely a time and place for this. But what of the fact that we are ALL being asked to consider ourselves?

As we are needfully and necessarily shut in, many are wishing for things to return to the way things were and are actively awaiting the emergence of life as we knew it. *Cue the entrance of the title line Surrender*. The truth is, we cannot expect things to return to the way they were, and more than that, it is naive to believe so. Surrender invites us not only to accept that we can only emerge from the current global happenings as different it asks us to recognize and assimilate the fact that we have a role in how we emerge, individually and collectively. Surrender is the energy of full acceptance of what is and release of the grasp of what so many fiercely cling to.

Surrender is not inaction it is an active process of dissolution dissolution of false perceptions, untruths, programs that are no longer serving or protecting us. Surrender is allowing emotions to surface and finding spiritually mature ways to process, release, and assimilate them and the information they carry. Surrender is allowing ourselves to let go of outdated beliefs that are no longer useful and no longer offer us the protection they once did.

Allow me to offer lived example. In surfing, one of the least productive things a surfer can do when being tossed around in the ocean under a wave is to resist, to tense, to hold on. It will tire him or her out, send the nervous system into a state of panic, and can have grave repercussions. The best thing a surfer can do is surrender to the flow of the ocean, actively release and relax, and trust that they will surface, as they are attached to a board. The instinctual response for many is to tense, tighten, resist. To trust in something greater and more powerful feels utterly insane, and yet, its the quickest way back up to the surface. To trust that this collective shut-in is an opportunity to re-examine our inner lives and landscapes is the path of least resistance and most empowerment.

In short, we are not only being asked to practice letting go of what has been, but to actively and consciously disengage, so that we may re engage with the unlimited potentiality of what can be next. So we can call upon our imagination and our deep inner wisdom to pull us back up to the surface and emerge with gratitude and a kind of doe-eyed wonder about what comes next.

See original here:
What Most People Misunderstand about the Magic of Surrender - Thrive Global

Catherine Hover will tell you that, before moving to Saratoga, she had never experienced what it was like to live in small town USA. A native of New Orleans, she and her husband, Mark, came to Saratoga after living and working in New York City.

After being here for nearly 10 years, you can still hear faint wisps of that languid Big Easy drawl creeping into her conversation. We are sitting in the comfortable members only Palette Upstairs co-working space, part of her newest venture, Palette Caf, which opened last summer.

My goal was to learn more about this spritely young woman with seemingly boundless energy and her latest venture at 493 Broadway. By the way, dont let her youthful looks, bubbly manner and business title, Purveyor of Fun, blind you to the fact that she is a business powerhouse. In the relatively short time she has been here, Catherine has introduced the region to the paint and sip phenomenon, and Palette Caf is the next step in her journey of what she calls empowering women.

Catherine recalls first moving into town in 2011 with Mark, whose career as a hydrographer had brought them here to work on the Hudson River dredging project.

We had an apartment on the top floor of the Algonquin building and I remember watching the 4th of July parade on the street below. It was a totally new world to me!

The couple originally planned to live and work in Saratoga for five years and then return home. Not one to ride on her husbands coattails, as she puts it, Catherine began searching for an entrepreneurial adventure. Growing up in New Orleans, she and her mother would often frequent paint and sip cafes in and around the city, and she soon realized that there was nothing of the sort to be found in the Capital Region.

Now, I dont know one woman who doesnt drink coffee or wine, she says in that slow and easy cadence. A year after moving here, Catherine opened Saratoga Paint and Sip Studio on Henry Street, with two more locations in Burlington and Latham opening in the next few years.

It totally changed the trajectory of our lives. Today, Mark is her business partner and co-caregiver of their three young daughters.

So, we all know how successful her Paint and Sip Studios have been. But I wanted to know what makes Palette different from other coffee venues and why the focus is on women.

Its about bringing women together in a safe environment, she begins. Catherines sense is that, for many women, once we get to a certain point in our lives, we forget to try new things and often we become our own worst enemies.

The genesis of Palette Caf came about after Catherine heard of Sky Oro, a co-working community and event space in Bozeman, Montana, dedicated to advancing the personal and professional lives of women. Catherine realized that, like the paint and sip studios, there really wasnt anything like Sky Oro available to women in Saratoga.

However, Catherine is quick to point out that Palette Caf is open to everyone and kids, guys and puppies are always welcome! Even so, the focus of the space is on helping women in a variety of ways, and the vibe is one of inclusiveness and opportunities that may be lacking in other environments.

What Palette offers that no one else does is a community where patrons are encouraged to make new friends, team up for new ventures or learn something new, says their website.

Catherines vision for Palette Caf and Palette Upstairs, which opened in November, is to offer workspace to the mobile workforce, as well as programming and classes that will be offered by women (and an occasional dude) from the local community. Workshops are geared to women at all stages of their lives, from early career women, to stay at home moms, or those looking to re-invent themselves in a new career trajectory or personal lifestyle.

There are also book clubs, moms meetups, courses in financial literacy, all geared to bringing women together for dialogue, interaction and empowerment.

Women dont ask for help, says Catherine. By creating a space where support systems for women can flourish, Catherine feels she is bringing something unique and necessary to the area.

Although Palette Upstairs has only recently opened, Catherine held a live event at the Caf in July, where people could tour the space and learn more about Catherines and her teams vision for it. Forty-five women showed up for the event, with ten joining that first night. Now, there are 60 founding members, including several corporate founding members who contribute services to the caf and its patrons.

Each new member has an hour and a half onboarding session to learn about the features of Palette Caf and Palette Upstairs and the opportunities for enrichment, networking and collaboration amongst members. Palette also offers a concierge service for its members. If youre starting your own business and need someone to run for office supplies, or you forgot to buy a birthday gift for your childs teacher, Kiki, the virtual concierge is there to get the job done.

Catherine hopes that Palette Caf and Palette Upstairs will grow along with the rest of the community and provide the experiential resources necessary for that growth, which she believes is lacking in the lives of so many women.

Theres nothing in life that we shouldnt feel comfortable controlling or taking charge of.

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From Paint and Sip to Empowering Women; An Interview with Catherine Hover - Saratoga TODAY Newspaper