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Interview: Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
By Farai Chideya
“One thing I realized very early was that if I was going to do any justice to this process, I needed to be transparent, I needed to be honest about it.”
The doppelganger is one of the sturdiest literary tropes around. A double, an alter-ego, a namesake. Sometimes it refers to haints/shadows, and sometimes, as in The Other Wes Moore, the doppelganger is as real as the steel bars in a prison.
The Other Wes Moore debuted in the number five non-fiction spot on The New York Times Bestseller List. The writing is as gripping as the improbable story that fuels the narrative. The author, Wes Moore, chronicles his journey from troubled youth to Afghanistan combat veteran, Rhodes Scholar, White House Fellow, and business leader. But he also cross-cuts his life with that of “the other Wes Moore,” a Baltimorean with the same name who got into the drug game. That man ended up in prison for life after being convicted of murdering a police officer in a botched robbery.
The Other Wes Moore is paced like a thriller at times, particularly when we follow Baltimore’s Wes Moore through critical decision-making moments. He follows his feared older brother into the drug game, becomes a father far too soon, and exacts bloody revenge on someone who attacks him. The author and leader Wes Moore shows us his own crisis points, including a moment where his family risks everything they own to get him out of a loop of academic failure and potential descent into thuggery. At other points the book deliberately slows to allow time for reflection about the author’s family life–which includes Afro-Cuban and Jamaican heritage as well as the loss of a beloved father, the love of a tireless mother, and true friendships that sustain him.
Moore now lives in New York and works in the financial industry, volunteers time for veterans’ affairs, and continues to write and lecture. We spoke by telephone about his story, the other Wes Moore’s story, and how to make sure more people have a chance to reach their potential.
You talk about the South Bronx so beautifully in your book and how it has changed between the time your grandparents bought a house there in the fifties and when you moved there in the eighties. How did you first come to understand place?
I think the first time I really understood place was actually when I first started to understand my need to be a part of one, and I felt myself having difficulty finding that. As I was in the Bronx and started getting older and going through that burgeoning process of manhood, and tried to get that understanding of what that felt like and what that was–and my mother was working multiple jobs to send me to the school across town–I increasingly found myself “too rich” for the kids in my neighborhood. I was one of the only kids in my class that didn’t go to school in the area. But as I went across town for this other school, I found myself being “too poor” for the kids in my school because they didn’t understand anything about my background or why I was one of the only kids in the school who had to travel an hour-plus to get to school. That’s the first time I started to understand place and my role and my footing because I found myself searching for it–I found myself searching for that comfort, that support, that acceptance that seemed so elusive at every turn. I just found myself increasingly more uncomfortable everywhere I went.
One of the moments in your book that had me cracking up was that, because your family was financially strapped, you actually sometimes wore your older sister’s pants to school. You say that you thought you could pull it off but in retrospect people were probably rolling their eyes. You have a lot of moments like that in your book, lightness and humor in a book that has a lot of tough moments, starting with the death of your father prematurely on.
That definitely came through in the first draft. One thing I realized throughout this process very early was that if I was going to do any justice to this process, I needed to be transparent, I needed to be honest about it. As I was going on thinking about my life there were a lot of lighthearted, humorous moments and I wanted to make sure that my story highlighted that–and Wes’s story also. This wasn’t just some purely macabre story about how bad things are, but about reality and about the reality of all of our lives. And the fact is there were, even in the midst of chaos, a lot of lighthearted moments that not only are important to remember, but also helped you kinda get by, particularly as you think back in retrospect and you can look at them from a different place. There were things that really came out in the first draft and ended up making it to the final cut.
Let’s talk about the other Wes Moore. You have spent hundreds of hours with him at this point, but you didn’t grow up with him. You write about his interior narrative very convincingly. Did you ever think you crossed the line and took too many liberties with how you constructed his life on paper? How did you hit the right tone?
My talks with the other Wes Moore were free-ranging conversations where you’d be asking one question and the next thing you know it’s an hour later and you’ve got all these amazing anecdotes, and these amazing facts, and these amazing stories that you’re going to have to go back and make sense of and let them process once you’ve done your transcription. It wasn’t about me coming up with a framework and having him fill-in the colors in between the lines. It was more taking what he was giving me and then processing it, and I think a lot of that came from Wes. The format of the book wasn’t something I came into the process with. It wasn’t like I came in and said, “Okay, we’re going to go over these couple of years: tell me about 1982, tell me about 1984.” It really was about hearing these different stories and that was when I started noticing a pattern and noticing a trend. Some of the years where Wes had some of the most influential and important factors in his life ironically took place in my life [as well]. It was really taking what he gave me and being able to process it from there.
Do you think you ever overstepped the line in turning his life into prose?
No, not at all. It’s interesting because Wes was one of the people who really pushed me to write this book when I was first approached by author and publicist Terrie Williams. She knew that I had reached out to Wes and I had gotten to know him. She said, “I think this is something bigger, I think this could be a book.” I was at first very reluctant, and told her, “I don’t know, Terrie.”
There were two things that pushed me over. One was that I thought about the tragic death of the police officer, and I thought if I could do something that would help keep these tragedies from happening again, I think it’s necessary and could be useful. And then I thought about something that Wes told me. He told me, “I’ve wasted every opportunity in my life and I’m going to die in here, and if you can do something that can help people better understand the ramifications of their decisions and also understand the neighborhoods these decisions are being made in, then I think you should do it.”
My mother was a Baltimore City school teacher; the other Wes Moore is from Baltimore and you really paint a picture of his struggles as a smart kid in tough schools. When I read your book I thought of my mother. Some of the kids she taught sixth grade science to went on to get MDs and PhDs. Others were in the drug game and shot dead on the street. Their potential was wasted.
Wasted is really the best word to use. One of the things I want to show is: this is not a dumb guy. This book is not a celebration of the exception, this is a book that questions why we even have exceptions in our society in the first place. There’s very little [that] separates us and someone else altogether. That’s one of the things I wanted to show with Wes–had that intervention been there, had those supports been there, had there been a certain level of attention instead of a certain level of apathy about his final destiny, I can’t help but think that things would be different.
You mentioned your book was originally supposed to be more prescriptive. What do you hope this book can do for readers, for kids, for society?
I wanted people to understand their potency and I wanted people to actually do something about it. In addition to the call to action I wanted to add all of these organizations where people could get involved, and all of them are vetted organizations that would love to hear from you, either if you’re looking for help or you’re looking to help. That was genuinely important to me because one thing the book helps to show is that if we’re willing to get engaged, if we’re willing to get involved, then we can really make a substantial and permanent impact, not just in the life of someone else, but in the life of our entire society.
How does being an author and the process of writing compare to being a paratrooper or a Rhodes Scholar or a White House Fellow: some of the other roles you’ve played?
I think some of the things I had done before really prepared me to be a writer in some ways. First of all, writing takes a real level of discipline. For example, with my schedule I would wake up at 5:15 am and write for a couple of hours before getting ready to go to work, and then go work my day job for the rest of the day. There were some mornings I would literally sit in front of the computer for an hour with nothing to say, but I forced myself to go through this process because I knew that was the only time I could really efficiently get it out. When you wake up reading articles about a father of five, a police officer that went to work one day and will never come home, and then you read letters from someone who will spend the rest of their life in prison, it adds a certain level of humility to your day and a certain level of clarity in a certain context. Everything I did before helped me respect the discipline of writing.
Your life has intersected in different ways with different types of African diasporic histories. Your family has roots in Jamaica and Cuba as well as the U.S. I’m wondering how you think of blackness in the 21st Century since we are so much more diverse in terms of immigrant groups influencing American blackness and we’re also at a critical point in history.
One thing that I have always been taught and believed in is understanding our past and our history and our roots. Not just for where you’re going–understand where you come from. There’s a certain pride in that. When you think about not just my family, but the larger diasporic movements, and the evolutions and the successes and the victories that have taken place, it has really been pretty extraordinary. It’s something that gives me a great sense of pride, it’s something that gives me a really strong foundation in terms of where we can go because I really do appreciate where we’ve come from.
One of the pivotal moments in your book is when your family sends you to military school in order to get you off of the streets of the South Bronx. You went on to train as a paratrooper and serve in Afghanistan. How can veterans get what they need from our nation?
One of the partner nonprofits we have throughout the book tour is Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America, the first and largest organization that supports younger veterans, particularly from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We’ll spend so much time giving soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines support when they are overseas, and then when it comes home it stops. Something that was really important to me–this is personal–I saw the challenges that so many families, including my own, had to deal with having someone deployed and not knowing who is coming home to you. If we are going to send people overseas to fight, then we need to support them [when they come home] as much as we did overseas.
It seems like today, versus when I was growing up, there is more of a disconnect between the role of servicemen and women and other citizens. Right now, maybe people are fatigued from the war, but it doesn’t seem as if we are having a dialogue.
We’ve been in Afghanistan for close to a decade, and you think about the amount of casualties we’ve had in Afghanistan and the casualties we’ve had in Iraq. But if you ask people what the biggest issue in the country is, I don’t know where the fact that we have more than 100,000 troops serving fits in their consciousness. Less than 1 percent of the population has served. Less than 1 percent really knows from a first-hand experience what it’s really like over there. In terms of what can be done, a lot of it will be up to not only the citizenry and population, but also up to the policy makers to make sure that this is a group on Americans’ minds.
And finally, Wes Moore, what’s your Six-Word-Memoir.
Grandma said have faith not fear.
Farai Chideya is a New York-based journalist, author, and novelist (her rock/love-triangle tale Kiss the Sky was released in paperback this May). She’s worked as a television and radio host, political pundit, and internet consultant. Her new project, Pop and Politics Radio, will start airing on WNYC and public radio stations nationwide this October.
BUY The Other Wes Moore.
WATCH Wes Moore discuss his book on The View, as well as at the Printer’s Row festival in Chicago.
VISIT Wes Moore’s website.
Tags: FaraiChideya, WesMoore
# Jun 23 10 3:34 pm
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“For example, with my schedule I would wake up at 5:15 am and write for a couple of hours before getting ready to go to work, and then go work my day job for the rest of the day. There were some mornings I would literally sit in front of the computer for an hour with nothing to say, but I forced myself to go through this process because I knew that was the only time I could really efficiently get it out.”
I’m going to make myself do this. Great Memorville piece!
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This memoir is an autobiography that chronicles his childhood and struggles of becoming self sufficient. This also reflects his true life story the none fiction setting,characters and the entire story of his life and a certain Wes Moore who inspired him to write in order to help many to learn that we have to take responsibility for our actions. The choices we make influences the outcome and responsibilities. (A police officer in line of duty who has 5 kids lost his life while the young man who was responsible wasted his life in prison.
The author also uses this medium to pass a message that those who sacrificed for this country should not be abandoned after giving all to the country.
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We are in the End Time – the most glorious time in the history of earth and mankind. The End Time is the Time of Ascension when this planet and humanity will move to the 4th and 5th dimensions, which is the “Paradise” promised to humans by all religions.
Humans will be able to overcome physical death and transform their biological bodies into crystalline light bodies. The Human race will be transmuted in the blink of an eye to a transgalactic multidimensional civilisation with a highly expanded consciousness. Humans will again become Gods, as they always are as pure souls in the higher realms.
This is the Divine Plan for this planet and the Human race in the current End Time.
A central piece of this plan is the mission, which the author of this website, Dr. Georgi Alexandrov Stankov, had to accomplish in this last incarnation on earth.
With the help of the Highest Realms of Cosmic Providence, from where he comes as an Elohim soul, he discovered the Universal Law of Nature, which is the physical presentation of the Law of Oneness, also known as Logos in Antiquity as a new Unified Theory of modern physics.
With the help of the Law, Stankov integrated the whole modern physics by deriving all known physical laws and natural constants from the Universal Equation (see Table below).
In addition, he developed the new General Theory of Biological Regulation of the human organism and furnished the scientific basis for the Light Body Process that leads to human Ascension.
He thus developed a complete new General Theory of Science of the Universal Law, which integrates all physical and other natural, and social sciences currently established on earth.
At the same time, the new Theory eliminates all wrong basic concepts of present-day empirical science, which rejects the existence of the soul and the higher realms of Creation. In other words, the author eliminates the ignorance of current human science and substitutes it with the divine knowledge of the Universal Law of All-That-Is.
The new Theory also eliminates all religions on this planet, which have so far failed to furnish any irrefutable proof for the existence of God. They will not enter the new Matrix of ascended humanity, which will be installed on earth in the near future.
This new website is the scientific ” Proof of God” (“Gottesbeweis“), which humanity has always endeavored to find, but has previously failed to render.
It represents a complete library (archive) of the lifetime of intellectual achievement of the author as a scientist, a researcher, and a thinker. This website encompasses the edition of 15 books in several languages, such as English, German, Bulgarian, Russian, Italian, etc. and more than 2000 publications.
The new Science of the Universal Law also integrates philosophy, theology, and esotericism to a new scientific Transcendental Human Gnosis. It is the basis of the new Science of Ascension of humanity.
Purely for this reason, the Divine Plan provided that the author transformed his carbon-based organic body into crystalline light body in August 2013 and ascended. This happened one week after his dual Elohim soul Amora (Carla Thompson) transfigured as the first human being and visited the crystal city of Shambala in the Inner Earth of Agartha in her light body, for whom he did the energetic back-up (read also here, here and here). Then they both ascended one more time in early December 2013 in Lofer, Austria, where they have built a city of light and became officially the designated Logos Gods of Gaia and humanity and the Creator Gods of the ascended Gaia-5.
After their full ascension, the author and his dual soul decided to leave one last soul fragment in human body on all 4D timelines in order to help as many incarnated human souls as possible to also ascend. Since then they exist in this reality as Avatars and constantly bilocate with their light bodies to different timelines.
In early 2014, after the author moved to Canada and joined his dual soul, where they created the second city of light and an Infinity Portal in the Vancouver area (the first city of light and Infinity Portal were created by them in Munich, Bavaria, and encompass Central Europe), they ascended humanity and Gaia for the first time (and here). Since then they have accomplished many planetary ascensions of 4D timelines of the earth with their human population, the most notable in late autumn 2019 and in March/April 2020, immediately after the lockdown due to the fake coronavirus pandemic was installed worldwide.
Now they are preparing the ultimate ascension of all the remaining 4D earth timelines which is planned to happen by the end of 2021, depending on the energetic developments on the earth and in the multiverse.
When the author and his twin flame will accomplish the ultimate planetary Shift of this last portion of humanity, he will officially appear in front of humanity as Ascended Master, Logos God, Elohim Creator, and spiritual teacher of humanity and will lead all humans on all ascending 4D worlds (timelines) to their individual ascension to 5D through the full understanding and implementation of the new Theory and Gnosis of the Universal Law, mainly from the new healing and study centres in Italy. He is already exerting this mission on the ascended Gaia-5, where his soul is mostly active.
This demonstration will be the material “Proof of God“, which this last portion of the slumbering, agnostic mankind so desperately needs as to finally awaken to the transcendental reality of All-That-Is.
The spiritual and scientific “Proof of God” can be already found on this website. One must only read and comprehend all the books and publications of the author.
This website is also a seamless chronicle of the energetic endeavour of the Planetary Ascension Team, the PAT, the captain of which I am, to ascend Gaia and part of humanity to the upper 4th and 5th dimensions in the New Golden Galaxy as this can be read in this documentation. The PAT is a comparatively small group of incarnated “warrior souls of the first and the last hour” who are experts in ascension coming from the entire multiverse and have taken over the responsibility to help Gaia and part of humanity to ascend in the current End Time. In religion and modern esotericism this group is equated to the 144, 000 warrior souls (oversouls) mentioned in John’s Revelation and also in a channeled message to us.
Listen also to the soul portrait of the PAT composed by Paul Armitage in the video below as to feel the creationary power and unconditional love for humanity of this unique group of light warriors and adventurers of poetic and romantic soul essence:
Paul Armitage: A Divine Symphony of the Planetary Ascension Team
While I am the captain of the PAT personally as editor of this website and energetically as an Elohim soul and thus the human nexus to the Source, there are many light warriors on earth who neither read my website nor know of its existence or that they are members of the PAT and thus are actively participating in the cleansing of darkness and raising the frequencies of Gaia and humanity. This should be stated absolutely clearly at this place as to prevent any misunderstanding or confusion from a limited human point of view. The PAT is not an earthly group of humans but an association of oversouls in the higher dimensions who have their human incarnations on earth in the current End Time in order to fulfill their light mission. Not all of these human incarnations need to come together or gain deeper insights into their mission, unless this is indispensable for their light work, as is the case with me. Read also the chronicle of the PAT for a better understanding:
The Journey of the Planetary Ascension Team
This website was created in a tour de force in the first three weeks of August 2011. All the summaries of the books and many publications on the Ascension and the economic collapse were written or revised during this time and are of great actuality.
This achievement was only possible due to the incredible expedience, competence, and creativity of Chris, who designed and developed this website with such a sovereignty and dexterity that I still can not stop admiring him.
This website is an open forum for all light warriors of the first and the last hour and for all ascended masters, as well as readers interested in the ascension process. All emails to the editor can be published at his discretion.
This website has an official mirror website: www.stankovuniversallaw.org
Dr. Georgi Alexandrov Stankov, MD
Munich, Germany, August 5, 2011; later revised
The Integration of Physics on a Single Page With the Help of the Universal Law (click on image for full screen)


Tropical Hotspots Face Food Woes in a Warmer World
By Bryan Walsh June 03, 2011
Thanks to the spring from hell—in the U.S., at least—much of the concern about climate change has shifted to the fear of the violent weather that could become the norm in a warmer world. (See Sharon Begley’s sobering take in Newsweek.) But while tornadoes and hurricanes and floods may get our attention, the greater threat from warming could be a quieter, slower and much less dramatic. For parts of the tropics and subtropics, the world in the future could be too warm to farm, with devastating humanitarian consequences for tens of millions of people, many of whom already live in poverty.
That’s the conclusion of a scary new study (PDF) from the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program, a part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global group of food research organizations. The group identified future climate change “hotspots” that are expected to suffer brutally high temperatures during growing seasons in the future, and matched them with areas that were already suffering from food insecurity. The result is a map of suffering for much of Africa and South Asia, and possibly parts of China and Latin America as well. “When you start to hit 30 C your crops start suffering, and that’s going to happen here,” says Andy Jarvis, a fellow with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, another subgroup of CGIAR.
A couple of maps from the report give an idea of what’s likely to happen. The first shows which areas are likely to suffer significant reductions in crops, and which ones are better prepared to deal with the changes:
And here’s another that shows where average max temperatures during growing seasons are expected to rise above 30C—the point at which many crops simply begin to fail:
The maps and the reports are a reminder of one of the inescapable facts of global warming politics: those who are least responsible for the problem, those who are already living close to the edge, are those who will almost certainly suffer the most. “It’s just a perfect storm,” Jarvis says. “The food is going to have to come from somewhere.”
That leaves much of the responsibility in the hands of the developed nations, whose wealth will shield them from the worst impacts of climate change—provided they plan well. Reducing emissions is a must, to blunt the worst effects of warming. (Although keep warming to just 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, as UN climate chief Christiana Figueres called for today, will require a time machine given the amount of warming we’ve already built into the atmosphere with our past greenhouse gas emissions.) But adaptation will be just as important—if not more so. That means investment in agriculture and farming research, better breeding and better crops, fertilizer and irrigation. (Perhaps reforming global agricultural subsidies to give developing world farmers a fairer shake wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.) In short, we’ll need to help with the hard work of international development—which in a hotter world, is all but synonymous with climate adaptation. “Adaptation is a hundred little things,” says Jarvis. “We need to do development better and faster.”
Given that perhaps the only thing the rich nations of the world have performed worse on than climate change is international development, that’s not a comforting thought. But we don’t have any other choice. As diplomats gather for yet another round of climate negotiations—this time in Bonn—I’d rather see governments make concrete pledges on adaptation, foreign aid and technological development, instead of another empty promise about preventing temperature rise or keeping the atmosphere’s carbon concentrations at a “safe” level. Action now is worth a lot more than promise tomorrow.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaiqWsQTeZ8]


Interview with Poet Laureate Charles Wright
April 4, 2015 Lisa Ryan Leave a comment
In His Own Right
A conversation with U.S. Poet Laureate and Charlottesville resident Charles Wright
What the city of Charlottesville, Virginia lacks in size it makes up for in culture. You won’t go ten minutes without passing a building bearing a whimsical mural, a metal sculpture gracing the bypass, or banners advertising book and film festivals and Live Arts performances.
So we’re particularly proud to call poet Charles Wright one of our own, and not just because he’s the current U.S. Poet Laureate. Wright served as a professor of English at the University of Virginia for over 30 years, and his poems are masterful responses to the ineffable mystery of landscapes both local and afar. Throughout his career, Wright has published over 24 books of poetry and is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Bollingen Prize for American Poetry.
Amidst numerous public appearances and interviews for his new role, Wright sat down with Streetlight for an interview, and we’re grateful.
There’s a lot of talk these days about how different childhood was 50 years ago. How would you describe yours and your family life?
CW: I remember my childhood as being very happy. We lived in places that were interesting to me, although I’m not sure they were very interesting to my mother. My father always said, “There’s no city or town I’d rather live in than outside of.” So we were always outside of town, which was great for me, I liked that. But my poor mother spent her life behind the wheel taking us in to town and back.
There were never any fights in my family. I never rebelled against anything the way all my friends seemed to have done. I just sort of went along with whatever my parents were doing, since I didn’t have any reason not to. Their parents were raised Victorian, so I guess my parents were raised Victorian, though they weren’t that way with us, but you knew what kind of background they were coming from. Always said, “yes sir” “yes ma’am” to my parents—which is not the case in my house.
Your Mother has floated in and out of your poetry and was an aspiring writer?
CW: That’s what I’m guessing. She never told me that, but after she died—very young, age 53—I found parts of stories she’d tried to write. I’ve told this story many times, I’m sure you’ve heard it, but at the University of Mississippi she dated William Faulkner’s brother, the one who got killed in an airplane crash. So she always had this feeling that it was a good thing to be a writer.
What kind of exposure did you have to literature in your school years?
CW: In high school there was never any encouragement toward literature, though I read all of Faulkner before I graduated, which was really stupid because I didn’t understand it but figured I was done with it. There wasn’t much more encouragement in college at Davidson because back then there was only pre-law, pre-ministerial, pre-business. Now all the courses I would’ve wanted to take are now being offered. There was one writing course offered every other year by the Shakespeare professor, so I didn’t really get interested in that. I was sort of co-editor of the literary magazine, such as it was. But I was never the guy who’s always writing poems or anything. It was all purple prose, since lyric seems to be my avenue.
We’ve heard would-be poet/English professor was a history major at Davidson?
CW: I just fell into being a history major because, at the time, I was interested in Southern history and took so many history classes that I ended up having enough to be a major. I could’ve been a double major in English, had I declared it, because I took enough English courses. Of course that’s where my interest was after my second year, I guess, after I’d already compiled all the courses to be a history major.
Have you had any heroes or role models along the way?
CW: Well, back in highschool, I liked Sam Snead and Ben Hogan—I was a golf nut. And I never really wanted to be like my father because he did stuff I wasn’t interested in, like construction. He understood that I wasn’t interested, and he never pushed me to get into that business.
Once I grew up I had two very strong heroes: Peter Matthiessen, I liked the way he lived his life and W.S. Merwin was the other because I liked the way he lived his life, too. And I liked both their writings. There are always people who you admire, like my teacher, Donald Justice—I admired his writing tremendously; my friend, Mark Strand, who just died, he was a year older than I, and we were in school together and I admired him and what he was doing very much.
I didn’t have any real literary heroes…I guess you could say Faulkner was a writer I’d at least heard of; and once I’d read Hemingway, he was a real force, until I learned what an asshole he really was. Still a great writer, though.
Speaking of influence, your wife, Holly, is a photographer and retired from teaching at U.Va. in 2000 after 16 years. What kind of creative input do you give each other in your work?
CW: She’s the only one who reads my stuff before it goes to the publisher, and her opinion matters me a lot. As I said, she’s very smart, very literary, she’s read more than I have. Of course you could drive tanks through the holes in my literary background. After a while, I never sent anybody any of my writing, figured I was doing what I was doing, and nobody else is doing it, so what do they know? It would’ve meant a lot if I’d brought myself to do it.
Holly shows me her work. I love her photographs and how serious she was and is about it. I used a couple of her pictures on a few book covers (Bloodlines, Chickamauga, Scar Tissue). She was a great teacher; boy, her students loved her. But there was never any reciprocity between our two disciplines.
You’ve lived and written most of your poetry here in Charlottesville for the past 30 years; do you consider it home, in the grander sense?
CW: I consider it where I live, I don’t know if I consider it home. I always think of Kingsport as being my home, where I grew up. Holly certainly doesn’t think of it as home. Our son Luke seems to like it, which was one of the reasons we came here, because he was getting to be 13 in Southern California and we didn’t think that was a great thing. But yeah, it’s where I live, that’s about it. I don’t want to be in Kingsport, don’t get me wrong, but that’s sort of what I think of as home, east Tennessee.
You’ve mentioned many times how your own back yard is a source of poetic inspiration. Do you favor any other spots for a landscape high?
CW: Not really. This is the prettiest county in Virginia, once you get up past Garth Road. It’s just beautiful out here with the Blue Ridge mountains.
Interview by: Lisa Ryan
For those unfamiliar with Wright’s poetry, his 2014 collection, Caribou, is a perfect introduction, with a diverse sampling of poems from his career-long exploration of “language, landscape, and the idea of God.” His current position as U.S. Poet Laureate extends through May, 2015.
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Tom Ince Is Your July/August 2022 Player Of The Month
The summer signing was the clear winner of our poll following his hard-working displays.
By Olly_Allen@OllyAllen_ Sep 6, 2022, 9:12am BST
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Congratulations to Tom Ince, who you have voted as Reading’s Player of the Month for July/August! The 30-year-old took home 69% of the vote, far ahead of Junior Hoilett (14%), Mamadou Loum (11%) and Andy Yiadom (6%).
Having signed on a permanent deal in the summer following his release from Stoke, Ince played every minute in the league in the opening month of the season and was one of the standout performers in a team that placed fifth at the end of August. He started the campaign in an advanced midfield role, but a few weeks in he was a fully-fledged strike partner to Lucas Joao or Shane Long and the first line of dad Paul’s pressing system.
Ince showed that he was the perfect fit for that with his relentless hard work and he has quickly become a fans’ favourite with the level of effort he shows every time he steps foot on the pitch. While perhaps his end product remains lacking, that can be forgiven for the way he typifies this team’s resolve and commitment.
That said, his one goal in August was an absolute belter. The movement and pace on his strike from outside of the box to win the game against Cardiff was rather special, while he had won the penalty earlier in the game that drew Reading level. Ince’s other goal contribution last month came against Blackburn, as his corner was headed in by Tom McIntyre to set the Royals off on a 3-0 victory.
A thoroughly deserved winner of our first monthly award of the season.


Chopra questions home appraisal regulation regime
ABA, trade groups urge FCC to require call authentication for non-IP networks
Positioning for Pro-Growth Policy
on January 28, 2019 Community Banking, Compliance and Risk, Policy, Tax and Accounting
By Monica C. Meinert
With a Congress and administration united in their commitment to regulatory reform, 2018 was a landmark year for banking policy.
Years of banker advocacy finally paid off when President Trump signed into law the first significant and bipartisan regulatory reform bill in nearly a decade. Changes in the highest echelons of the regulatory agencies brought fresh perspectives to Washington and a renewed commitment to tailoring banking rules. Spurred by a new tax reform law, the economy had an overall strong year of falling unemployment, healthy wage growth and job creation. Alongside all that, the financial industry was stronger and better capitalized than ever before.
Throughout this momentous year, the American Bankers Association was a strong, consistent advocate for policies that would grow the economy and ensure that the nation’s banks were well positioned to serve their customers and communities. And though congressional dynamics have since shifted—with Democrats regaining control of the House in November, prompting key leadership changes at the House Financial Services Committee—ABA’s message and advocacy priorities for 2019 remain the same.
“We might use different tactics, we might use different strategies, but our priorities going forward don’t change,” says ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols. He is quick to point out that historically, crafting banking policy has typically been a bipartisan exercise—Dodd-Frank was a notable exception. “With S. 2155, we went back to having a bipartisan conversation about banking,” Nichols says. Moving ahead in 2019 with a divided Congress, “any bill that makes it to the president’s desk will be bipartisan by definition.”
That’s a good thing. ABA EVP James Ballentine—who spearheads much of ABA’s congressional relations effort—points out that the association has a long history of working with members of both parties to develop commonsense solutions to the challenges facing the industry. The key, Ballentine says, is to “stay focused on our agenda. It does not matter who is in Congress, it does not matter who is leading the committees. We will continue to push it from a policy perspective, not a political perspective. That’s served us well over the years, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
As ABA continues to have constructive conversations with members on both sides of the aisle on everything from housing finance reform to data privacy, there are also significant opportunities for changes on the regulatory side. “We have a great group of stakeholders to work with over the next several years,” Nichols says of the Trump administration’s regulatory team, now fully in place. “They view in a different light the important role that the banking sector plays.”
With that in mind, persistent interaction with the agencies will be central to ABA’s advocacy strategy in the year ahead. “It’s a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of time,” according to ABA EVP Wayne Abernathy, who emphasizes the importance of providing regulators with concrete examples of how regulation affects banks’ ability to serve their customers and using hard data wherever possible. This will be especially critical in a year that’s likely to bring—at least in the House—more congressional oversight hearings where regulators will be called upon to defend any recent changes. “The facts are on our side,” Abernathy adds. “It’s our job to marshal those facts and put them in the hands of policymakers who are eager for them and want to use them to do the right things.”
While there are several issues ABA will be actively engaged in throughout the year, what follows is a preview of four areas primed for action in 2019.
Cannabis: A high priority for the banking industry
A critical issue that’s certain to arise both in Congress and the regulatory agencies is the ongoing conflict between federal and state laws regarding cannabis. With cannabis now legal in 33 states, banks are struggling with whether and how to serve marijuana growers, dispensaries and other marijuana-related businesses, given the potential for liability while cannabis remains illegal under federal law.
“We know that this is an increasingly urgent problem to solve,” says ABA Chief Policy Officer Naomi Camper. “Banks whether they like it or not are caught in the middle.” She adds that greater clarity and more prescriptive measures are needed to address all the challenges banks face in this area.
Ballentine expects any movement on cannabis this year to begin in the House Financial Services Committee. To that end, ABA is currently working with lawmakers interested in drafting legislative language that would allow banks to serve MRBs in states where that activity is legal and provide certainty that handling proceeds from legitimate cannabis transactions do not violate any provisions of federal law. He adds that “we are trying to stay squarely in our lane and focus on the banking issues and not get into the other legality issues of marijuana on the federal level.”
Continuing the CECL conversation
Another important conversation happening in both the halls of the U.S. Capitol and the regulatory agencies focuses on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Current Expected Credit Loss standard, which takes effect for some institutions as early as 2020.
As the implementation date nears, ABA has alerted lawmakers and regulators to the potential negative effects the standard could have on bank capital requirements and product offerings. “The outcome here is uncertain,” warns ABA SVP Jess Sharp. “The implementation is difficult. Consumers can be harmed if suddenly product offerings—like 30-year mortgages—are affected by this.”
Gathering enough data to paint an accurate picture of what CECL will look like when fully implemented is challenging, ABA staff experts note, but preliminary studies have suggested that hundreds of community banks could be forced to immediately raise capital in order to remain compliant as a result of the new standard. Accordingly, ABA continues to push for a delay in CECL’s implementation until a thorough quantitative impact study can be undertaken.
Spotlight on CRA reform
Regulators took a significant step toward reforming the decades-old Community Reinvestment Act regulations last year when the OCC issued its advanced notice of proposed rulemaking seeking feedback on how the rules could be updated. ABA VP Krista Shonk—who led the banker working group on this issue—notes that hundreds of comment letters were filed, including nearly 300 from bankers. These comments will play a critical role as the regulators prepare to issue a formal proposal.
Shonk points to three key themes around CRA reform that bankers should watch closely as the reform process moves forward, including CRA assessment areas; the “primary purpose test” banks must pass when determining which activities count for CRA credit; and the idea of creating a CRA metric.
Reforming CRA is a top priority for Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting, and the other regulators have signaled willingness to work together to make substantive reforms. “The regulators understand that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Shonk says. “Given the changes in technology, they know they need to update CRA not just for today, but with an eye toward the bank of the future. They know that just tweaking around the edges is not going to be sufficient.”
A second look at BSA/AML
Like the CRA, many of the rules and regulations regarding anti-money laundering efforts are also in need of a facelift, and ABA will continue working in 2019 to help lawmakers and regulators update the Bank Secrecy Act framework.
“Banks want to work with the law enforcement community to go after bad actors, but that system can be improved,” says Nichols. “Everyone on both sides knows it can be more efficient and effective.”
On the legislative side, BSA/AML reform could be an area where bipartisan compromise could be reached in both the House and Senate, as there is growing agreement about revisiting certain reporting thresholds and making further modifications to customer due diligence rules. And regulators have in recent months signaled a renewed openness to innovative solutions to address BSA/AML challenges. In fall 2017, for example, regulators gave the greenlight to banks to share anti-money laundering information to increase the overall effectiveness of their programs. Regulators also issued a formal statement encouraging banks to pursue innovative solutions to anti-money laundering challenges and noting their openness to bank pilot programs in this area.
Along with these priorities, the industry must also keep its eyes on the horizon, where a sure-to-be high stakes election is looming next year. Nichols anticipates that banking issues will inevitably come into play as the next election season ramps up. While it’s unclear exactly what weight they’ll carry a year from now, the time is now to lay the groundwork for a positive dialogue about banking policy in the future.
“In addition to all the public policy work, we need to keep in mind what the reputation of the industry looks like,” Nichols says. Bankers can help by working to spread the positive story of how banks support their communities by meeting customers’ credit needs, increasing financial capability and making philanthropic contributions.
With a focus on what’s achievable in the near-term and a longer eye toward the future election season, the industry is well-positioned and ready to continue its steady progress toward pro-growth banking policy, Nichols adds. “We’re 10 years past the crisis. We just had a bipartisan victory. We have regulators who are willing to work with us. This is the right time to have a positive set of messages about what we want to do as an industry.”
Advocacy Anti-money laundering Bank Secrecy Act CECL Community Reinvestment Act CRA modernization Information sharing Loan loss accounting Marijuana Regulatory burden S 2155
Jan 25 FinCEN issues alert on Russian activity in commercial real estate
Nov 21 Podcast: The community bank M&A outlook for 2023


India believes in value based health care and is continuously striving to provide high quality and cost-effective health care to everyone: Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya
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New Delhi : “India believes in value based health care and is continuously striving to provide high quality and cost-effective healthcare to everyone. Aligned with its philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and our philosophy of perceiving health as a service, India has offered Co-WIN platform as a digital public good to any interested country. India has offered Co-WIN as a digital public health good to WHO through WHO’s C-TAP initiative.” This was stated by Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya as he chaired the Health Ministers’ virtual session of “Voice of Global South Summit – 2023” titled: Cooperation to build resilient healthcare systems. The session served as a platform to generate ideas from the developing world for holistic healthcare.
Welcoming all participants, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said that “it is need of the hour to focus on long-term measures to build stronger, more resilient health systems that can prevent, prepare for, & respond to future health related challenges, while maintaining essential health services.” Highlighting the significant milestones achieved by India through its journey of managing COVID-19 pandemic, he added that “we have administered more than 2.2 billion vaccines with 90% 2nd dose coverage of 12+ population & 220 million precautionary doses. India’s experience has reinforced the fact that capacity building of healthcare workers at various levels of governance, coupled with harnessing digital technology is the way forward.”
Referring to G20 India Presidency, Union Health Minister said “India endeavors to imbibe the requirements and need of Global South in its G20 health priorities. Our Prime Minister has said ‘Our G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow-travellers in the global South.” Dr. Mandaviya further reinforced “Hence, we will take the voice of the global South to G-20 and other international forums as partners in our development journey. Amalgamation of these efforts will ensure health equity at global level & particularly to Global South”. Dr. Mandaviya commended India’s efforts in providing training to support countries in terms of capacity building of their healthcare professionals. The training included COVID-19 testing, clinical practices, case management, vaccine development & delivery for participants from Asian, South-East Asian, & African countries. India also shared its medical expertise by dispatching Rapid Response Teams to Kuwait & Maldives.”
Dr. Mandaviya stated that “under the soon to be launched Heal in India initiative, India aims to provide its health infrastructure for patients abroad and make it a global hub for medical & value-based healthcare for patients from across the world. With more than 1.3 Million allopathic doctors, 3.4 Million nurses, and 800,000 AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) doctors, India would provide required care to patients from all countries including Global South through quality and affordable medical care.” He mentioned that India affirms to work with partners in the Global South to harness the potential of traditional medicine to promote health, wellness and people-centric care.
The Union Health Minister highlighted that since 2015, the world has been observing the International Day of Yoga with huge participation. 170 out of 194 WHO Member States have reported the use of traditional medicine & their governments asked WHO to support in creating a body of reliable evidence & data on traditional medicine practices and products. Government of India in collaboration with WHO has established the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine at Jamnagar, Gujarat on 19th April 2022.
The Union Health Minister added that as a part of the Global South, India’s Presidency has a special significance. Following the notion of Aarogya Paramam Bhagyam” i.e. health is the highest fortune, investing in healthcare is investing in future, India has prioritized its health track to build consensus at global level focusing on converging on-going efforts, mapping health resources, & connecting them to most deserving areas, so health equity can be ensured at global level & particularly to Global South.
The dignitaries participating in the session emphasized the need to adopt an inclusive approach to global health security. Ways and means to develop digital public goods in healthcare, promote traditional medicine, build public capacities and develop regional hubs, and knowledge sharing were discussed. The Ministers were particularly appreciative of India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative as a substantive reflection of South-South cooperation at the height of the COVID pandemic.
The session was attended by dignitaries from Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Royal Government of Bhutan, Republic of Cameroon, Grenada, Republic of Guatemala, Republic of Liberia, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Niger, Independent State of Samoa, Kingdom of Eswatini, Republic of Paraguay, and Dominica.
Full speech of Union health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya can be seen here:
Customs Brokers Licensing Examination to be held on March 18, 2023
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya chairs National Symposium on India’s Roadmap to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF)


Peng Shuai has told Olympic officials she is safe, IOC says
Andy Brownbill/AP
China's Peng Shuai reacts during her first round singles match against Japan's Nao Hibino at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill)
Posted at 11:05 AM, Nov 21, 2021
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The IOC says Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has taken part in a 30-minute video call from Beijing with Olympic officials and told them she was safe and well.
It appears to be Peng’s first direct contact with sports officials outside China since she disappeared from public view on Nov. 2.
She made a sexual assault allegation against a former member of the Communist Party's ruling committee.
The IOC says the call was with its president Thomas Bach, athletes commission chair Emma Terho and IOC member Li Lingwei, who's a former tennis official.


Home » News » Putin Vows to Press Attack on Ukraine; Courts India, China
Putin Vows to Press Attack on Ukraine; Courts India, China
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Friday to press his attack on Ukraine despite Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he sees no need to revise it.
“We aren’t in a rush,” the Russian leader said, adding that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Some hardline politicians and military bloggers have urged the Kremlin to follow Ukraine’s example and order a broad mobilization to beef up the ranks, lamenting Russia’s manpower shortage.
Russia was forced to pull back its forces from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine’s move to reclaim control of several Russian-occupied cities and villages marked the largest military setback for Moscow since its forces had to retreat from areas near the capital early in the war.
In his first comment on the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin said: “Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.”
He noted that Ukraine has tried to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and “we so far have responded with restraint, but just yet.”
“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” Putin said.
“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south. “Let’s consider those as warning strikes.”
He alleged, without offering specifics, that Ukraine has attempted to launch attacks “near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants,” adding that “we will retaliate if they fail to understand that such methods are unacceptable.”
Russia has reported numerous explosions and fires at civilian infrastructure in areas near Ukraine, as well munitions depots and other facilities. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and refrained from commenting on others.
Putin also sought Friday to assuage India’s concern about the conflict in Ukraine, telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Moscow wants to see a quick end to the fighting and alleging that Ukrainian officials won’t negotiate.
“I know your stand on the conflict in Ukraine and the concerns that you have repeatedly voiced,” the Russian leader told Modi. “We will do all we can to end that as quickly as possible. Regrettably, the other side, the leadership of Ukraine, has rejected the negotiations process and stated that it wants to achieve its goals by military means, on the battlefield.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s Russia that allegedly doesn’t want to negotiate in earnest. He also has insisted on the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine as a precondition for talks.
Putin’s remarks during the talks with Modi echoed comments the Russian leader made during Thursday’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping when Putin thanked him for his government’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war, while adding that he was ready to discuss China’s unspecified “concerns” about Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Putin said he and Xi “discussed what we should do in the current conditions to efficiently counter unlawful restrictions” imposed by the West. The European Union, the United States and other Western nations have put sanctions on Russian energy due to the war in Ukraine.
Xi, in a statement released by his government, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also interest in working together to “inject stability” into world affairs. China’s relations with Washington, Europe, Japan and India have been strained by disputes about technology, security, human rights and territory.
Zhang Lihua, an international relations expert at Tsinghua University, said the reference to stability “is mainly related to China-U.S. relations,” adding that “the United States has been using all means to suppress China, which forced China to seek cooperation with Russia.”
China and India have refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine while increasing their purchases of Russian oil and gas, helping Moscow offset the financial restrictions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.
Putin also met Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss bolstering economic cooperation and regional issues, including a July deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume from the country’s Black Sea ports.
Speaking at the Uzbekistan summit on Friday, Xi warned his Central Asian neighbors not to allow outsiders to destabilize them. The warning reflects Beijing’s anxiety that Western support for democracy and human rights activists is a plot to undermine Xi’s ruling Communist Party and other authoritarian governments.
“We should prevent external forces from instigating a color revolution,” Xi said in a speech to the leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations, referring to protests that toppled unpopular regimes in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.
Xi offered to train 2,000 police officers, to set up a regional counterterrorism training center and to “strengthen law enforcement capacity building.” He did not elaborate.
His comments echoed longtime Russian grievances about the color-coded democratic uprisings in several ex-Soviet nations that the Kremlin viewed as instigated by the U.S. and its allies.
Xi is promoting a “Global Security Initiative” announced in April following the formation of the Quad by the U.S., Japan, Australia and India in response to Beijing’s more assertive foreign policy. U.S. officials complain it echoes Russian arguments in support of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
Central Asia is part of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across an arc of dozens of countries from the South Pacific through Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formed by Russia and China as a counterweight to U.S. influence. The group also includes India, Pakistan and the four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Iran is on track to receive full membership.


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10. Marina Bay Sands
If construction costs are a traveler’s bag, then they’ll delight in seeing the Marina Bay Sands, a resort that cost US$5.7 billion to build, making it the world’s most expensive building when it opened in 2010. The Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort that has it all: a luxury hotel, restaurants, an endless collection of shops, a convention center that is one of the largest in Asia, theater, an ArtScience Museum and other entertainment centers. It also has an indoor skating rink made with synthetic ice.
9. Singapore Flyer
The Singapore Flyer is a giant Ferris wheel, only with benefits, that only start with the stunning views below. Cars hold up to 28 people as they circle above the city. When it opened in 2008, it was the highest Ferris wheel in the world, reaching 165 meters (541 feet) up into the Singaporean sky. With advance notice, the Flyer can accommodate disabled guests in wheelchairs. Located on Marina Bay, the Flyer’s terminal has three floors of restaurants, shops and other services.
8. Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
The Chinese build temples to a lot of gods and other things, but the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is one of the more unusual. In the late 1980s when a Buddhist temple was first proposed for Singapore’s Chinatown, it was supposed to become a more traditional temple. Somewhere along the line it became the Tooth Relic Temple, a home for a tooth relic from Buddha. The temple, located in central Chinatown, also features other arts and culture of Singaporean Buddhists.
7. Night Safari
Travelers who enjoy nightlife but are tired of the club scene should head over to Night Safari where nocturnal, not party, animals are on display. Since it opened in 1984, it is one of Singapore’s top attractions, with more than one million people annually enjoying a tram ride through seven of the world’s geographic regions. Visitors also can take a trail walk to learn more about animal habits while another section features a show on the organization’s work to preserve threatened species through captive breeding programs. Three restaurants features menus and entertainment that reflect life in the jungle or rainforest.
6. Singapore Botanic Gardens
Travelers on a budget will appreciate the Singapore Botanic Gardens as most of the gardens are free; there is only a charge for the National Orchid Garden, the most visited section of the garden. The garden contains more than 60,000 species of plants and animals, and is home to the world’s first children’s garden. Past visitors rave about the tropical greenery of the gardens.
5. Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the Bay is a recent addition to Singapore’s tourist attractions, but is one that gardeners won’t want to miss visiting. Open less than a decade, Gardens by the Bay is built on reclaimed land in central Singapore. It consists of three gardens: Bay Central, a garden with a waterfront walk that will eventually connect the other two gardens; Bay East, which is opening in phases as sections are completed, and Bay South, the largest garden, which showcases tropical horticulture and includes tree-like structures up to 50 meters (160 feet) high that dominate the Gardens’ landscape.
4. Raffles Hotel
Raffles Hotel, with its graceful colonial style, is the face of Singapore. Since it opened in 1887, it quickly became THE place to stay in Singapore, with writers Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway, among others, adding to its fame. This epitome of luxury boasts 15 restaurants and bars, including the Long Bar where the cocktail Singapore Sling was invented. The Raffles Hotel is legendary the world over, down to the uniformed Sikh doormen who introduce guests to this bit of Southeast Asian history. The lobby of the main building is open to the public while the hotel museum is hidden away on the 3rd floor.
3. Clarke Quay
Clarke Quay is another part of Singapore’s past that is still a happening place today. One of the key tourist attractions in Singapore, the quay, at the mouth of the Singapore River, was the city’s hub of commerce in the late 19th century. It still hustles and bustles today, but with a different kind of commerce: trendy restaurants, unique boutiques, pushcart vendors and more, all of which blend Asian and European influences. Once a market, always a market, except at night when Clarke Quay teems with chic nightspots.
2. Resorts World Sentosa
Resorts World Sentosa is a Singaporean destination unto itself. Located on an island off Singapore’s south coast, the property features hotels, restaurants, a casino, theme parks – in short, something for everyone no matter how old they are. With this location, attractions obviously center around the sea: Marine Life Park, Dolphin Island, a water park and an aquarium. Other attractions include Universal Studios Singapore and nightly entertainment. The casino offers a variety of table games sand 2,400 slot machines; be forewarned, it does enforce a dress code. The resort offers more than 60 dining options for hungry guests.
1. Orchard Road
Orchard Road is the main shopping street of Singapore, regularly frequented by the locals as well as foreign tourists. Named after the fruit orchards that the road led to, Orchard Road is flanked by malls, numerous upmarket restaurants, coffee chains, cafés, nightclubs and hotels. It is also the site of the official residence of the President of Singapore, the Istana. The Christmas decorations along Orchard are famous and entirely over the top, with reindeers cavorting through palm trees and gingerbread houses topped with fake snow.
© 2022 Korean Scientists and Engineers Association in Singapore. All Rights Reserved. If you have any questions, please contact us at secretary@akc2022.org


UD Hall of Fame athletes
UD Hall of Fame Athletes List
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Jim Donnelly
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Harry Solimano
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer William “Bill” Blake
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Jerry Westendorf
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Louis Mahrt
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Herb Dintaman
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Al Mahrt
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Louis Tschudi
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Jack Brown
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Celebrating the Lifetime of UD Hall of Famer Tom Frericks
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Home Business U.K. Braces for Strikes Across Several Industries Through Christmas
U.K. Braces for Strikes Across Several Industries Through Christmas
Rarely would a brewery, a nonprofit housing organization and a pickle factory have much in common. But this week in Britain, workers at all three walked off the job in disputes about pay. They’re just the latest labor actions that have been gripping the country for months amid a deepening cost-of-living crisis.
Just under 200 employees at Greene King, the brewing company, are on strike after rejecting a pay offer. More than 600 workers at the housing and homeless charity Shelter have started a two-week strike, and about 50 employees at a Mizkan Euro factory that makes pickles and vinegar are walking out. Unite, the union that represents these workers, has warned that there could be beer and pickle shortages over the holidays.
But Britain is bracing for much worse. Workers in critical services, including nurses, ambulance staff and railroad employees, are set to go on strike, with walkouts expected across industries every day until Christmas.
The breadth of the labor action is the worst in Britain in nearly a decade, and poses another challenge to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which took office in October and is leading a country whose economy is already in a recession and isn’t expected to grow again until 2024.
Public service workers have taken to picket lines or voted to strike to demand higher wages as the country’s annual rate of inflation climbed above 11 percent in October, the highest in 40 years. Rising food prices and home energy bills are squeezing household budgets that were already been made vulnerable by years of low pay growth.
Demands for better pay from teachers and National Health Service workers are colliding with the government’s tight hand on the public purses. The Treasury recently announced large tax increases and future spending cuts as it sought to restore Britain’s fiscal credibility after Liz Truss’s stormy seven-week premiership.
Understand the Political Situation in Britain
Britain’s economic outlook is bleak. The Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent fiscal watchdog, forecast last month that living standards, as measured by disposable household income adjusted for inflation, would fall 7 percent over the next two fiscal years, the biggest drop in records going back to the 1950s.
Pay is central to these disputes — especially in the public sector, where the gap with private-sector pay is the largest it has ever been, outside of the height of the pandemic — but there are also fears that some public services are being hollowed out by underfunding and that drastic action needs to be taken to fix them and recruit more workers.
Ambulance staff across England and Wales will go on strike on Dec. 21, it was announced on Tuesday, and nurses are scheduled to walk off the job on Dec. 15 and Dec. 20 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It’s set to be the largest-ever strike by nursing staff, with the National Health Service already facing a huge backlog of cases for care. Meanwhile, ambulances are encountering “crippling delays” when trying to hand patients over at hospitals because of a shortage of available beds, due in part to a lack of home health aides in communities.
Over the next month, rail and Eurostar workers, bus drivers, Royal Mail postal staff, teachers in Scotland and even driving test examiners will also go on strike. For many of these workers, it’s the latest in a series of walkouts. Britain’s train network has been brought to a near standstill already several times this year. This week, the main rail union announced walkouts starting on Christmas Eve, in addition to two 48-hour strikes next week.
In September, 205,000 working days were lost to labor disputes, according to the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics. While the figures pale in comparison with the industrial actions of the 1970s and 1980s, they show a sharp increase in walkouts this year. The last time that Britain lost so much working time to strikes was in 2014, when coordinated action in the public sector protested pay freezes.
As Christmas approaches, the stakes seem to be getting higher. Nick Gibb, a government minister, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that unions shouldn’t hold the country “to ransom” and urged the rail union to call off Christmas strikes. But Mick Lynch, the head of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, defended the action. He told the BBC on Tuesday that the government was coordinating an attack on working people.
“It would be foolish of unions not to coordinate themselves in response to those attacks,” Mr. Lynch said.


Fedrigoni Annual Report 125
Who says that an annual report has to be dominated by the legal obligation to publish a plethora of financial information? Admittedly, this year's Fedrigoni annual report is a very special affair, the company is commemorating its 125th anniversary after all.
To celebrate the occasion, no stone was left unturned to honour the contribution of all the people at Fedrigoni – the proverbial Fedrigoni 'family'. A series of portraits of staff from all walks of life opens the publication and in addition, every single employee has their name printed on the endpapers of the report.
Little wonder that the 200 page book was greeted with rapturous applause at its unveiling at the Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona. Finished to match the occasion, with the finest Fedrigoni papers and flush silver edges, the report appears to be cut from a solid block of precious metal – an oblique nod to the publications financial origins.
Fedrigoni Group is one of Europe’s largest and most established special paper enterprises. With approximately 2,000 members of staff, the Group manufactures and distributes a wide range of fine quality, technically advanced paper and paper-related products. Through a network of distribution partners, Fedrigoni Group delivers to customers in more than 100 countries.
Giuseppe Fedrigoni founded his first paper mill in 1717 and the business has been in the family ever since, becoming properly industrial in 1888. Now in its fifth generation of family ownership, the Group continues to take the long-term view of the future.
Fedrigoni Cartiere Website
Fedrigoni at Drupa 2016


Home/International/France repatriates 47 nationals from Syrian camps
France repatriates 47 nationals from Syrian camps
PARIS: France has brought back 47 French nationals from northeastern Syria, the country’s foreign ministry said, after a United Nations committee condemned Paris for failing to protect its citizens held in the war-torn country.
The operation involved 32 children and 15 women, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Hundreds of women and children, many of them holding foreign nationalities, have been held in camps in the region since the collapse of ISIL (ISIS) in 2019, although the statement did not specify which camps the repatriated women and children had been held in.
“The minors have been handed to the services in charge of child assistance and will be subjected to medical and social monitoring,” the ministry said, thanking the Kurdish-run local administration in northeastern Syria for its collaboration.
Tuesday marks France’s third large-scale repatriation. In October, 40 children and 15 women were returned.
The repatriation comes as human rights campaigners have long urged governments to step up their efforts to bring back their nationals, especially children, from the camps, which were set up to hold the family of alleged ISIL members. Civilians also live in the camps.
Thousands of people had in the past decade travelled to Syria to join the armed group, many of them bringing their family members to live in ISIL’s self-declared state.
While ISIL has lost all the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, the transfer of foreign ISIL detainees and their family members has become a thorny issue for European countries, with the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces warning that it may be forced to abandon the camps.
More than 1,464 children and women have returned since 2019, according to local authorities cited by Save the Children in a report published in December last year. While the rights group has praised the repatriation effort, it noted that it was not enough, as people trapped in the camps face violence and trauma.
One of the biggest and most overcrowded camps is al-Hol, where more than two people died every week in 2021, according to Save the Children. (Int’l News Desk)
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How to Be a Complete Bastard
(thing) by arieh Sun May 18 2003 at 13:53:36
"How to be a Complete Bastard" was an hysterical book that became a computer game.
In 1986, Adrian Edmondson decided to cash in on some of his fame from playing the crazy punk Vyvyan in The Young Ones. He got together with two comedy writers, Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine, and produced a book 'How to be a Complete Bastard'. The cover featured Ade himself screaming, and the book was filled with, essentially, ways to be a complete bastard to those around you. Published by Virgin, the book was a success, being reprinted in 1989 and spawning a followup, 'The Complete Bastard's Book of the Worst'.
In 1987, Virgin published "How to be a Complete Bastard" by Sentient Software for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. In the game, you got to play as Ade who had been invited to (or gatecrashed) a party. Your task was to go around being a complete bastard to all the other guests and the hosts.
The GUI was rather innovative; the screen was split into top and bottom halves. Both halves displayed a third person 2d view from a wall of one of the square rooms. You could rotate each view, enabling you to see all four sides of a room, and by having the views at 90 degrees to each other, navigate around the various rooms without getting stuck behind something you can't see. This had its disadvantages too; if you had the views at 180 degrees from each other, your little Ade would appear to be walking left at the top but right at the bottom, which can be very confusing.
The gameplay was simple. Controls were back-forwards-left-right and an action key. When touching objects or people, the action key would bring up a menu of things you could do. This usually included options like 'eat it', 'take it' and 'smash it', regardless of whether the object was a condom, a can of lager, or lump of coal.
The object of the game was to light all the letters of the word 'Complete Bastard' that appeared at the bottom of the screen. You'd succeed in lighting a letter by performing a specific bastardy task, like, for example, putting ice cubes down a guest's underpants. You had to figure out all these tasks by yourself, though. There were also 'Bastard points' up for grabs for doing things like smashing stuff or weeing in someone's sink.
Up the sides of the screen were a 'Drunkometer' and a 'Smellometer'. These rose throughout the game as you got drunker and smellier. There were also two meters at the bottom of the screen; a 'weeometer' and a fartometer. These rose as you drank things or ate food likely to make you fart. Both of these gauges had to be watched, as if neglected, you would explode and die. Farting could take place anywhere just by pushing the fart key. Pissing could only be done through a menu option in the toilet, sinks and IIRC people's beds.
What really made this game were its quirks. If you fart in the kitchen, you die (there are naked flames there). If you drink all the lager or take pills from the medicine cabinet, you die. If you drink just some of the lager, your bottom window spins around. If you open an umbrella in the house you turn into an oven (it's unlucky!). Wearing a pair of 3d specs turns the two view-windows red and green. Perhaps most annoyingly, switching off the computer in the lounge resets your computer, meaning you have to spend 10 minutes reloading the game.
I got my hands on this game free on the cover of Your Sinclair magazine, which rated it a 7/10. This seems to be the score it got from reviewers across the board. There was nothing groundbreaking about the game itself, but I'd recommend a ROM download if you want a couple of hours of cheap, juvenile fun covering people with toothpaste and smashing flowerbeds.
Book: ISBN 0-86369-182-X
http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/howtobeacompletebastard.htm
http://tacgr.emuunlim.com/downloads/filedetail.php?recid=434
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Publish Date: 11 August 2019 - 13:19
The anniversary martyrdom of martyr Hussain Lashgari
Martyr Hussain Lashgari was born in Qazvin on 1952. He really loved to be a pilot. Finally he was graduated on 1977. As he finished the training courses at the Islamic Revolution Air Forces in Dezful, Mashhad and Tabriz.
Martyr Hussain Lashgari was born in Qazvin on 1952. He really loved to be a pilot. Finally he was graduated on 1977. As he finished the training courses at the Islamic Revolution Air Forces in Dezful, Mashhad and Tabriz. He had joined to the country defenders from the beginning of the sacred defense. Finally he was martyred after committing 12 missions and his airplane was shot by the Bathi forces.
Navideshahed – he had remained at the solitary prison at the first three months of the captive periods. After that he had been kept for 8 years beside 60 persons out of sight of The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement after the acceptance of the resolution the Bathi forces separated him from the other prisoners which lasted for 10 years. Finally he was introduced to The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement after 16 years and moved back to our country on 1998. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution called him "The Master of Captives of Iran". Finally he was martyred at the Laleh Hospital in Tehran on 2009.
The Master of Captives
It was 11:00 P.M one of the air force commanders came and told me that tomorrow you will receive your military rank by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, I could not sleep the night. In the morning I woke up at 7:00 A.M, we moved toward the house of leadership. It was 9:A.M that Ayatollah Khamenei entered the office. Suddenly we stood for the respect.
At first General Najafi started to explain about the captives periods, as he started to speak about me … Ayatollah Khamenei called me as "The Master of Captives of Iran". At the end of the session the Supreme Leader presented my military rank. That was a memorable moments for me in which I cannot forget it at all. It was impossible for me that a captive who had no value some days ago and now stood in front of the first character of the country.
navideshahed ، issar and martyrdom ، martyr hussain lashgari ، iaranian captive ، iran iraq war ، baath party ، iranian supreme leader


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AI for Accessibility
Reimagining the Future of Accessible Education with AI (Part 2)
Heather Dowdy Feb 18, 2021
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This month, the Microsoft AI for Accessibility program is calling for project proposals that advance AI-powered innovations in education that will empower people with disabilities. Through a two-part series, we are highlighting projects we are supporting. Part 1 of “Reimagining the Future of Accessible Education with AI” can be found here.
Imagine you are performing exceedingly well in high school, only to find out that you will have to take one of the most prestigious university entrance exams with a reader who does not fully understand the technical content. This is the story of thousands of students in Kenya and India who are not provided an equal opportunity to pursue the academic courses of their choice.
The majority of students who are blind or low vision in countries in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia and the Middle East rely on in-person readers and writers to take exams and complete homework. However, this leads to several detrimental impacts on performance, including lack of availability of test readers and writers with domain-specific knowledge, frustrations of test readers and writers during long exams or with unfamiliar material, poor working relationships due to confusion, and lack of communication, among others. Furthermore, local universities have been forced to focus more on technology and reduce face-to-face accommodations due to COVID-19 protocols.
inABLE, a nonprofit organization in Kenya that empowers the blind and low vision through computer assistive technology, partnered with I-STEM, a not-for-profit company in India that develops STEM technical solutions, received a Microsoft AI for Accessibility grant to revolutionize how blind students take exams.
“The I-Assistant is an artificial intelligence (AI) solution that gives blind and low vision people an alternative to an in-person test reader and writer with an automated tech-powered conversational experience,”, explains Irene Mbari-Kirika, Founder and Executive Director of inABLE. I-Assistant leverages a custom model built on top of Azure Computer Vision, particularly Text Extraction (OCR), that detects various document structures and layouts (e.g., tables, headings) and processes text, including math expressions. Then a readable and accessible document is created – thereby converting any exam into an accessible, digital format. Using Azure Custom Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech, and Language Understanding (LUIS), users can intelligently navigate the exam or document and perform context-aware actions, like checking exam status by asking questions such as “return to the question I skipped”, “how many questions have I answered?”, or “how much time do I have left?”
Kartik Sawhney, I-Stem cofounder, emphasizes the strengths of the AI through this work: “We are very pleased that we were able to build a fully functioning prototype with multiple AI-powered components coming together to provide a natural conversational experience to the users. What is even more interesting is that many of the individual components such as OCR and custom speech by themselves have great promise.”
To further promote research into content accessibility that was a core component of the I-Assistant project, the project team is sharing an open-source OCR and document analysis dataset so that other teams can build new innovations on top of it.
I-Assistant’s natural conversational experience considers the specific needs of the blind community while interacting with the computer, such as navigating fast and effectively and accurate speech-to-text. The system provides the blind or low vision student with the same experience as a sighted person, with the added advantages of consistency, accuracy, and comfort. I-Assistant helps blind and low vision students take tests more independently – a true testament to empowering people with disabilities.
Calling for New AI Innovations
Learn more about past grantees, how AI works, and the tools Microsoft provides to enable inventors of all skill levels to bring their projects to life.
As we look to support novel and innovative ideas to empower people with disabilities in their education journey, AI technology in the classroom is particularly capable of having an impact in these scenarios thanks to advancements in transcription, translation, and language understanding capabilities. Given the importance of accessible curricula and content and the possibilities to advance assistive technology for students with disabilities, there is no better time than the present to reimagine inclusion and accessibility in education and consider how AI technology can:
Innovatively support the transition from high school to college for students with disabilities.
Make it easier to learn to use Assistive Technology.
Provide flexible, multimodal, and personalized solutions.
Provide accommodations for students with disabilities including those impacted by:
Cognitive disabilities
Intersectional identities
More importantly, how will you use the power of AI to take your innovative idea for the future of inclusive and accessible education to the next level?
The AI for Accessibility program offers grants through data science skills, Azure compute credits, and cash to help innovators design and build the future of AI-driven, accessible, and inclusive technology. We support innovative AI projects led by individuals or teams rooted in the disability communities that they serve. Universities, non-profits, startups, and other organizations are encouraged to submit project proposals that leverage AI-powered innovations to build and advance equity for students with disabilities inside and outside the classroom.
If you are interested in applying for a grant award, our Education Request for Proposals is open now until the application deadline on March 12, 2021. Check out our application FAQs for more details on the program.
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