The scale and intensity of the Black Lives Matter unrest in the United States has caused ripples throughout the world. In Singapore, it marks another occasion to reflect on the republic’s own progress in racial equality. Discussing race in Singapore, though, is fraught with assorted risks. One of the country’s most experienced and respected advocates of such conversations is MOHAMED IMRAN MOHAMED TAIB, who not only writes on these issues but also facilitates workshops to encourage dialogue and understanding among different communities. Academia.SG editor Cherian George interviewed him about how to talk about the perennial issue of race in modern Singapore. [Photo of Imran Taib by Foo Chuan Wei]
Cherian George: Race is an eternal issue, but of course it’s very much in the news now because of what’s going on in the US. Are you surprised that events so far away, in a very different context, are resonating in Singapore?
Imran Taib: Well, racism is a global issue, connected to the nature of the world system itself. Colonial conditions since the 17th and 18th centuries created a kind of hierarchy of races, and that continues to be part of the modern nation state in many countries. It also intersects with the global economic system, in terms of the supply of labour and the divide between the Global North and Global South. America had the history of slavery, which is not quite a similar experience to Singapore. But we had some systemic racism implemented when we were a colony of the British Empire.
CG: Including indentured labour, the coolie system, pushing opium to the Chinese population, and so on.
IT: Exactly. And the whole categorisation of the races came from the British system. It entrenched certain prejudicial views towards these races, and a lot of stereotypes continue to inform some of the ways we view issues of race here.
CG: Though the issue is constantly in the background, public discussions tend to spike with controversies in the news. Every two or three months, something will surface, there’ll be a flurry of debate about race, and then it’ll subside again. What do you make of that?
IT: What’s interesting is that it has become much more frequent in more recent times. One factor could be the opening up of spaces for people to talk about those issues. Social media, of course, has facilitated the airing of grievances, and making unintentional or intentional remarks that can be constituted as racist, as well as being informed of what is happening elsewhere.
CG: It is striking that the Sedition Act fell into disuse but had to be revived in the internet age because Singaporeans were suddenly able to bypass media gatekeepers and say things about race and religion that, according to prevailing norms, you were not supposed to say in public.
IT: But there’s something to be learned from these incidents. Because we had not been talking about those issues for a long time, many of the prejudices and stereotypes seemed to have been festering. And when people want to talk about race now, they are not sure how to do it. Or it comes out in ways that are offensive. I think we are in a transition stage. We know we can no longer not talk about it. But how to talk about it is something we are grappling with.
“It helps, particularly for those who do not believe there’s such a thing as racism in Singapore, to listen to the stories of those who felt they have encountered racism in their personal lives. It’s important to provide a safe space for people to engage with these issues.”
CG: So it’s partly a lack of experience? We sometimes overstep the lines, and then because we’re not used to hearing such things, we also overreact?
IT: Yes, that is one of the major factors.
CG: Staying on the subject of controversy-driven discussion: in general, we talk about race when there is bad news. That’s not true of your own work, though. Could you explain your approach?
IT: Well, firstly, a relatively peaceful period is the best time to talk about many of these controversial issues — when we are sober and able to manage those discussions. Once a problem emerges, sentiments are heightened, and people are more reactionary. Secondly, there are a lot of nuances that need to be uncovered, beyond calling out people for being racist. It’s important to understand what has shaped the individual’s thoughts, and what triggered certain reactions, and what is the whole conception of race itself.
For example, recently, there was a controversy over the Masterchef Australia contestant. She is an Australian-born Chinese, and a radio host greeted her with “ni hao ma”. She felt offended because it seemed to be pigeonholing her into a particular race marker, and she saw it as a kind of mockery. Of course, it would be different, for example, if I were to go to my Chinese neighbour, whom I know quite well, and then in a friendly tone, say, “Ni hao, how are you doing?” It would not be construed as racist. So, different contexts and dynamics need to be understood. When you are feeling subordinated or discriminated against, you’re a bit more sensitive to cues that seem to reinforce those discriminatory views.
CG: I guess we are all constantly trying to work out which of our many identities to foreground in any situation. Individuals need the freedom to choose which identities they emphasise at any point of time, and we need to respect that choice.
IT: Yes, we are all hybrid creatures, in one way or another. This whole idea of the authenticity of race is a myth promoted as part of the racist structures that emerged in the past: the idea that there is an authentic, pure, version of Malay-ness, Indian-ness, and all that. There’s no such thing. All cultures inter-mix and we have a bit of every culture within us.
In the past, a lot more people wanted to be identified as Malay. That’s why you find that Arabs and Indians who speak Malay and practice Malay culture, have no problem with identifying with the Malay community. Being Malay had its advantages at that time, perhaps because it was a lingua franca, and there was a lot more access to community resources and support systems.
But the dynamics have shifted. When the idea of Malay-ness came to be seen as something backward, then people started to dissociate themselves. This is one aspect of racism that has not been analysed or talked about much: the internalised racism, even among the Malays themselves. Successful Malays, in particular, will try to detach themselves from the community, thinking that they are a different “kind” of Malay. To them, Malay-ness is not something that they want to be proud of.
CG: That certainly goes on within the Indian community. And it is rampant among Chinese. Ironically, the first time I heard people say “so cheena” was at Hwa Chong Junior College, where my English-educated Chinese schoolmates encountered crowds of SAP school kids. I thought, huh, what’s happening?
IT: And now it’s still happening with the influx of the migrant workers from China, and local Chinese try to dissociate themselves from “those kind” of Chinese.
The psychology of denial
CG: There are several mental blocks or conversation stoppers that get in the way when Singaporeans try to talk about race. One common one is denial: we say, sure, Singapore has problems, but we’re not as bad as Malaysia or the US. How do you get past these responses, which may have a factual basis but also have the effect of cutting off conversations?
IT: Yes, of course, you will find in society a whole spectrum: those who say we have no problem with racism at all, and people who think we are similar to countries facing insurmountable problems. In my work, it’s important to bring both sides together, to listen to the way they articulate their positions and see whether they can listen to each other’s narratives and then come to a kind of — I wouldn’t say agreement — at least a mutual understanding: where have we done well, and where we have failed or need to do better.
“There seems to be quite a big conservative ground that is not exposed to the racial discourse that is going on in critical circles. The way they react to it has largely got to do with their inexperience in dealing with the issue, and not understanding their own privileged position.”
It helps, particularly for those who do not believe there’s such a thing as racism in Singapore, to listen to the stories of those who felt they have encountered racism in their personal lives. We facilitate that process of bridging the gap and the cognitive dissonance that might occur in the process. There are certain pedagogical ways of doing that within a workshop. It’s important to provide a safe space for people to engage with these issues.
CG: Public Facebook is not necessarily the best place to do it?
IT: I don’t think it’s necessarily the best place to do it. Unfortunately, in this Covid-19 situation, we have to really push ourselves to think of how to do it online.
CG: But in your experience, if you create these safe spaces, you find people willing to talk and listen?
IT: Yes, because we set the ground rules for participation. We value you telling us what you think, but you must be willing to also listen.
CG: You value the sharing of personal experience, but some misconceptions can be addressed through objective evidence, can’t they? It is possible to prove the existence of some of structural discrimination in Singapore; and it is a fact that there is no anti-discrimination law prohibiting discrimination in employment. It is also possible to prove that we are not as bad as the worst. For example, there is no campaign in Singapore to suppress minority votes, like there is in the US where minorities are being effectively disenfranchised. So, facts matter too.
IT: Yes, but what constitutes relevant facts can also be debatable. Someone, for example, who goes for a job interview wearing the headscarf, or hijab, and then doesn’t get the job, and then feels she’s being discriminated against on the basis of her dressing — how do we prove that the employers discriminated against her on that basis?
If you were to look at statistics, then maybe you can show, oh, a large proportion of people who apply for this job from a minority race don’t get it, and therefore, it might imply that there is some kind of systemic discrimination going on here. But again, the statistics can be interpreted in different ways. So that is the difficulty with conversations on race.
A conservative backlash?
CG: Another conversation stopper is the argument that you should not push the majority too fast, too far, or else there will be a backlash.
IT: But if there is a problem, it needs to be addressed. What would constitute pushing too far and too hard?
CG: Well, we hear comments like, why are these minorities being so sensitive about a harmless joke? To me, that’s an indication that members of the majority feel they are being forced to conform to a new multicultural order that they don’t quite understand. And if we communicate poorly, we may just confirm the impression that minorities are being too demanding. You already got a Malay President. Tamil is a national language. What more do you want?
IT: I agree that there seems to be quite a big conservative ground that is not exposed to the racial discourse that is going on in critical circles. The way they react to it has largely got to do with their inexperience in dealing with the issue, and not understanding their own privileged position.
I think at the root of it is that people don’t like to confront the possibility that they are potentially racist, or in fact racist, in how they think about certain issues. That’s the most difficult part. Nobody wants to admit that they are racist. When you bring up evidence, then that’s where the cognitive dissonance comes in. Then, you’ll find that they will try to defend themselves in whatever ways to show that they are good people and not racist. I think that’s just part of a natural human survival mode. People react with the emotions first and then they try to rationalise.
“We start from the presumption that all of us are potentially racist, and then we try to uncover our own demons. In that process, once we are able to forgive ourselves and learn to be better people, then I think we can be more charitable also towards others who are struggling to get out the demons from within them.”
So I would come from a more open-minded position. Let’s hear their stories and see how we can help them to understand our perspective better. We might want to come from the standpoint that people are naturally good. It’s just that they are not necessarily able to see certain things they can improve in themselves. I agree with you that if you do it the wrong way, then it will entrench further, and there’s no education process for them to get out of that mode.
Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, speaks about this polarisation in America — why good people seem to be polarised on issues of religion and politics. So I think we need to understand a bit of human psyche in order to advance the more productive discussion.
CG: So, the starting point should be that “even” the majority is capable of being good. In contrast, some of the more extreme antiracist discourse tells whites they are irredeemable by virtue of their race.
IT: Yes, that’s not going to be helpful in terms of advancing equality for people of colour. In order to dismantle a whole systemic racist structure, you really need ally-ship. You need a broad-based movement of people who are committed to the same ideals regardless of whether you are Chinese, Malay, etc.
But it is also important to recognise the notion of privilege of certain races. It needs to be understood. It needs to be confronted with. You can use that privilege to either create a more equal structure, or to benefit yourself. You cannot be part of the struggle until you recognise your own privilege first.
I don’t agree with the rhetoric that you need to be colour blind in approaching the issue. You need to recognise the racialised structure, and then you need to work towards creating a more equal structure. That is much more helpful than saying, I don’t see colour, just hold hands, kum ba yah, as if this will somehow resolve the issues.
The antiracist vocabulary
CG: The term “privilege” and many others in the antiracist lexicon are imported. And this is sometimes used to push back against multiculturalism in Singapore.
IT Singapore being a cosmopolitan, open city state, with high internet connectivity, I mean, what is this notion of importation? We are constantly importing things and constantly connected to ideas that are transnational.
We are constantly having to negotiate with all kinds of ideas from around the world. It’s how we make use of the ideas, in our context. This requires two things. First, you need to understand your local context very well. Secondly, you also need to understand the context from which a particular term or concept emerged.
CG: How would you apply that in the “brownface” debate?
IT: Well, we can’t deny that the term brownface, or “brown” issues, is relatively recent. We know that there have been discussions on discrimination and colourism in Singapore, but we do not specifically use the term “brown” in this context. It emerged in a situation where people had been talking about blackness and whiteness; then there were people of colour who did not fit into this discourse and said, hey, what about us who face problems in America or Canada, maybe we need a new term.
So when we use the term “brown”, you will find that there’s a bit of disjuncture here in Singapore, because people do not think in terms of those categories. So, I don’t like to force-feed it into the local situation. I would rather people work through the local situation and come up with your own analysis and your own terms that can be helpful in addressing your own local situation. If some of the imported terms might be useful to articulate some of these local issues, that’s good. But come with your own local materials first.
CG: So if I’m hearing you correctly, globalisation makes it inevitable that some terms will catch on among some circles here. But you don’t think that that is necessarily the most productive way for us to start thinking through questions of race in Singapore.
IT: Yes, I think that may not be necessarily productive at this stage. When some activists use these terms, they are quite detached from the lived reality of the so-called brown people that they’re talking about. A more productive way is to get involved on the ground, experience the lived realities of people on the ground, and out of that come up with materials to articulate what the real issues are. You cannot be discussing these issues only online because it does not give the picture of what’s happening on the ground.
CG: What does such grounded work look like in practice, and who’s doing it in Singapore?
IT: I would see grounded work on race as having two components. First, to connect lived experiences with structures, sort of connecting the personal biography with the policies and systems in place, and making sense of the whole situation. There have been quite a few initiatives, mostly state-led or government-funded, such as the Explorations-into-Ethnicities programme by the quasi-government organisation, OnePeople.sg, which pays attention to personal experiences of race and racism, but stopping short of raising critical questions on the structural dimensions of racism.
Second, is to connect theory and practice, or praxis, where critical perspectives on race are then connected to an antiracist pedagogy on the ground. The theoretical work is done largely within academia or academically-inclined groups or individuals, but I find their critical ideas do not translate into pedagogies on the ground that take into consideration the complexities and nuances of a very diverse population.
A more grounded work is also hampered by the fact that community organisations tend to be racialised and therefore work within their own silos of race categories — the CMIO self-help groups, for example. I can’t speak of other communities, but what I observed within the Malay grassroot organisations is that discussions on race do not take into serious account how it intersects with other identities — class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and many more — and how such intersections inform how we view and experience race problematically, be it our own race or other.
Community organisations tend to be racialised and therefore work within their own silos of race categories — the CMIO self-help groups, for example. … Inter-marriages — religious or ethnic — complicate our neat and conventional view of race and racialised structures.
Do we, for example, talk much about how access to certain resources are accounted for by your social capital, which comes along with class and privilege, rather than merit? What about a Malay person who belongs to a minority group within that community, and experiences race very differently from the mainstream public? Inter-marriages — religious or ethnic — also complicate our neat and conventional view of race and racialised structures.
So, I do not find any group that is taking into account all these nuances and complexities, and developing a sort of coherent strategy to deal with the issue of race and with an antiracist approach. We find pockets here and there, but not entirely grounded in praxis nor connecting the biography with the wider structures. Perhaps it is because we have only started to view issues of race from a more critical lens in the last few years. Even the word racism was a taboo up to the last decade. But we have to start somewhere.
CG: So it’s not surprising we resort to borrowing concepts from abroad.
IT: Yes, it’s not surprising. I think also it’s within a certain demographic. It is more of the younger generation who are much more exposed to critical discourses. I mean, if you try to bring this “brown” issue to the makcik or pakcik on the ground, they do not understand what you’re trying to say, unless you start from their common experience.
CG: Partly because of what you referred to earlier as our own internalised colourism? I don’t know about the Malay community, but there are of course many Indians who favour fair over dark.
IT: In the Malay community, too. So there’s a hierarchy within the minorities themselves. It’s quite common to find Malays having pejorative terms to refer to Indians. If you marry a Chinese, it’s like marrying up. But if you marry an Indian, it’s marrying down. Or Malay mothers saying, oh, you need to drink more milk so that your child will be fairer.
CG: And stay out of the sun, or else you’ll turn black.
IT: Part of my work is to help people see their inconsistencies and not be hypocritical about it. We start from the presumption that all of us are potentially racist, and then we try to uncover our own demons. In that process, once we are able to forgive ourselves and learn to be better people, then I think we can be more charitable also towards others who are struggling to get out the demons from within them.
People normally would react to racist remarks against themselves or against their community or identity, but they may not want to see that they are doing the very same thing against minorities within minorities. Until they can see that, they will never get far in this whole antiracist project.
Taboos and signals in public debate
CG: Traditionally in Singapore, race and religion have been taboo areas for public discussion. Should we be more open? What is say-able and what is not say-able?
IT: It’s difficult to have a broad generalisation. But I think it has to be made clear that you can engage in such conversations as long as you do not overstep certain boundaries, like, for example, making hate speeches or incitement to violence and things like that. That’s clearly not okay. When it crosses that line, the police have to come in and manage the situation.
Sometimes, you think it’s okay, but then there will be someone who gets deeply offended and then it becomes not okay. So it’s really a very grey area. That greyness itself allows us to try and see where we can push a little further towards more productive ends of the conversation.
But at times people are thin-skinned, they get offended easily. They would rather run off and make a police report. We would rather leverage on state agencies to clamp down on people we disagree with or we do not want to hear. That is a problem because it doesn’t allow us to mature. It also entrenches certain authoritarian ways of dealing with things that it may not be healthy in the long term.
CG: This goes back to your point that we don’t have enough practice or experience dealing with these issues among ourselves. Our dependence on the state perpetuates this lack of experience.
IT: Of course, you can’t deny that there will be a few individuals who are just out to create trouble and be provocateurs. These people need to be dealt with differently. But, I would say that generally people are just inexperienced and a bit more education would help, rather than the hard-line approach.
“If we are hearing more racist remarks, it is an opportunity to then educate and explain why it’s not okay. The way we call it out also needs a bit more skill: does it aid a person to understand why it’s not okay to make those remarks?”
There was one recent case of this mother and son who used the N-word. Someone made a police report and they are now under investigation. In this situation, why do we have to make a police report on this basis? It’s different, for example, with that 19-year-old guy who mentioned his dream of wanting to kill Muslims and all that.
CG: We are hearing a lot more of all this than we used to.
IT: If we are hearing more racist remarks, it is an opportunity to then educate and explain why it’s not okay. This requires people to have the courage to call out certain things. The way we call it out also needs a bit more skill: does it aid a person to understand why it’s not okay to make those remarks?
I would also appreciate a bit more signalling from the top of what is okay and what is not okay. Sometimes we get mixed signals. Of course, occasionally we do have some ministers coming out and saying this is not okay, this is denigration of a particular race. But you also hear ministers sometimes making remarks that are really problematic, making us question the whole multicultural model.
Like saying you cannot be a prime minister if you belong to a particular race because you will be rejected by a certain segment of people. That is framing it in a very negative way, and it does have an impact on the minority psyche — that we will always be not good enough, that there is a glass ceiling, and that glass ceiling is being maintained by a particular type of people who are not willing to re-examine their positions.
A more positive way is for leaders to challenge that very conception in order to educate the wider society. Like, for example, they can say there’s nothing in our Constitution that stops a minority from making it to the top post. Whether it’s going to happen now or not, is up for society to choose. Frame it that way, so that at least we know that it’s open.
That kind of conversation coming from the top could have been done better to be consistent with the whole messaging that we are a society that sees all races as equal. Then at least we can aspire towards that, rather than putting it in a form that entrenches further the kind of perception that people already have and the minorities already experience in their everyday reality. When you go to work, you think that you’re not able to have the top position in the office, and then you connect that with what the top leaders are saying about the whole political structure. It compounds the whole frustration being felt by minorities.
CG: It lowers your aspirations, too.
IT: It lowers your aspirations and you put yourself in place: I’m a minority, and this is as far as I can go. It also doesn’t help that some community leaders also, with the good intention of trying to help, keep reinforcing that by saying, for example, oh, you just have to work doubly hard. That is a painful thing to hear, if you have to face that same sentiment in your everyday life.
CG: In hate studies there is an argument that, although we pay most attention to the obvious hate speech and the extreme racist remark, what actually does more damage is so-called “reasonable racism”, including pseudo-scientific and seemingly civil ways of speaking. Speech that is obviously extreme activates resistance. But the reasonable-sounding stuff catches us off guard and may be more influential.
IT: Yes. For one of our workshops, my friend was facilitating an experiment where they go out to a job fair and this Indian person was going from booth to booth. At one booth, she was told the jobs are all taken, no forms for you to fill. Then she observed from afar that when Chinese job seekers come, they are still giving out the forms.
She confronted them, and the person was apologetic that these positions needed Mandarin speakers and the jobs were not suitable for her. Regrouping at the workshop, she was explaining how she felt at that moment, that she felt she’s being discriminated against on the basis of race. There was an academic there who said, no, I’ve done all the statistics, which show that people do not discriminate on the basis of race in jobs; maybe it’s just you feeling that way.
That’s a terrible remark to make, and she got really upset. So that is an example of putting it in a very “objective” way, which misses the point of the lived experience of the person who has to go through it on an almost daily basis. How do you prove it’s racism for some of these things?
Who gets to be heard?
CG: Who gets to speak about race? There is a kind of a hierarchy, isn’t there? There are authorised representatives who, we are told, speak for different races; and then there’s the rest of us. These authorised representatives could be seen as playing a moderating role, not only speaking up for their communities but also strengthening the larger national project. Their critics, though, say that they have been co-opted by the system, wedded to the status quo and preventing progress.
IT: I think we need to start from the standpoint that we are all co-opted, whether you like it or not. I mean, there’s no way you can override the system. The challenge is how to negotiate within the spaces that you have, and to try and push the envelope a bit more. That will be much more useful, rather than immediately categorising people between the co-opted and the not co-opted, which has the effect of splitting the whole movement towards reform. What is needed is the galvanising of resources and groups that are addressing the same concerns.
CG: That’s the value of alliances, which is the term you used before.
IT: Exactly. But at the same time, you can’t run from the fact that organisations that have been seen as traditional representatives of the people want to protect that space for themselves to speak on behalf of the community.
I would like to see more academic research on these middle structures. On the one hand, there is research that looks at the systemic, structural dimensions of race. Lily Zubaidah Rahim’s The Singapore Dilemma is a good example. On the other hand, you have studies that bring out personal stories: qualitative research that surfaces the lived realities of people. One missing element, I feel, is the middle structure: the people who are helming community institutions, and how they replicate the systemic problems we are seeing. There is a kind of duality going on here. They see themselves as representatives and saviours of the community, but at the same time also project the same problematic ideas onto their own community.
Sometimes we think that a lot of the problems come from the state. Not necessarily. We also have to give credit, that the state does want to resolve certain issues downstream. But they work via proxy institutions, or community organisations, and I think that is where the main problem lies. That is not being examined. Why not look at the community institutions and how much they are part of the problem? Is there any way of reforming community organisations?
I don’t think that means that the state is not listening to pockets of people outside the established groups. There has been a fair number of engagements with non-formal groups, non-established groups, because the state also wants to know what is happening within the wider society.
So we need to educate people also on the whole politics of representation: that no single organisation can speak on behalf of the entire community, because the community itself is diverse. We may have our views on how much or to what extent the Malay MPs are able to represent Malay interests in Parliament. But this seems to catch us in a bind: while we keep telling ourselves we do not want to engage in racial politics, we are in fact replicating racialised representations in the political system by expecting Malay MPs to speak on behalf of all Malays — not just their constituents. Those who think that the Malay MPs are not doing a good job then turn to Malay organisation leaders to do so.
But then, the question is, who elected these organisation leaders to speak on behalf of every one of us? The only ones who voted for them are members of that organisation, which is a smaller pool. So it is a myth that any single organisation can speak on behalf of the entire community. In any healthy democracy, we find multiple representations, political or otherwise, because the people are diverse. If we find ourselves in a neat, hierarchical structure of representation, be assured that there will be voices unheard and suppressed. This will be the seed for resentment and strife. It can also be setting the ground for populist leaders to emerge, or maybe they have. A populist leader, by definition, is antipluralist. Hence, it subverts the plural nature of our society, including the plurality we find within the racial categories we inherited from the British.
“I want to advocate for reform while taking into consideration the complexities of the issues, the nuances, and how we can galvanise the best resources in order to move the agenda.”
That’s part of the citizenship education and discourse that I think is currently missing. There’s a lot of confusion. For example, people are expecting MUIS [The Islamic Religious Council] to speak on issues that run contrary to state policies. How can that be? MUIS is constituted under AMLA [the Administration of Muslim Law Act], which means it is an extended arm of the state. So some of the demands coming from the community are unreasonable.
CG: So if I were to gather these thoughts, you are suggesting we shouldn’t write off any group or any organisation just based on where they stand in relation to the state. Each serves a purpose. Each has its own form of legitimacy. Work with them to the extent that they align with your own agenda, but also be realistic about what their limitations are. Don’t have unreasonable expectations of the group, since they are bound by their own structures and constitutions.
IT: Yes, and if our goals are also aligned with the state’s, we can work with the state. And even when we talk about the state, we have to understand the state itself is diverse, you can’t come from the standpoint that it is a monolithic entity, or that there are leaders who wake up every morning thinking of how to screw up the lives of minorities. I don’t think that happens.
There are avenues in which we can move ideas. We must have clarity in what we want to achieve, and we can work with different components of the state as long as they agree with the same ideals. Some people may not be too happy with this position. They think that it is kind of centrist. I don’t think so. Being centrist means you are not willing to take any stand and you just maintain the status quo. I want to advocate for reform while taking into consideration the complexities of the issues, the nuances, and how we can galvanise the best resources in order to move the agenda.
CG: You are describing a principled position that sees opportunities across the political spectrum, across state structures and organisations. You hold fast to your principles, but don’t deny yourself opportunities to work with others.
IT: Yes, because to me that is the only way positive change can happen.


Looking for a trip that combines the beauty of nature with a history lesson? Look no further. Here are 5 historic gardens that you must visit for a unique blend of greenery and history. These gardens can offer you a blast from the past and a perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city.
1. Versailles Palace Gardens, France
One of the world's most famous historic gardens, the Versailles Palace Gardens in France are an epitome of elegance and grandeur. These gardens, designed by Andre Le Notre, exhibit a perfect blend of art and nature. With its perfectly aligned trees, beautiful fountains, and grand statues, it is a sight to behold.
2. Keukenhof, Netherlands
Known as the 'Garden of Europe', Keukenhof is one of the most beautiful spring gardens in the world. With over seven million flower bulbs planted each year, it's a true spectacle when in full bloom. The historic garden comprises various styles, including the English landscape garden and the Japanese garden.
3. The Butchart Gardens, Canada
The Butchart Gardens in Canada is a historic site that dates back to 1904. The garden was created on a depleted limestone quarry and is now home to a stunning array of flowers and plants. The Ross Fountain and the night illumination are significant attractions of this garden.
4. Kew Gardens, UK
Kew Gardens in the UK is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's home to the world's largest and most diverse collection of living plants. The historic garden also houses a library with over 750,000 volumes and more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants.
5. U.S. Botanic Garden, United States
The U.S. Botanic Garden is one of the oldest botanic gardens in North America. It was established by the U.S. Congress in 1820. The garden offers a vibrant exhibition of plants, with a focus on the importance of plants to the well-being of humans and to earth's fragile ecosystems.
Here's a summary table of the five historic gardens:
Each of these gardens has their unique charm and hold significant historical and cultural value. So, pack your bags, and get ready to embark on a journey into the past, surrounded by the tranquillity of nature.


Bonnets, buggies, and bishops
Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites
Donald B. Kraybill
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010
Do you get your Old Order Amish confused with Beachy Amish Mennonite? Many people find distinctions between the 205 North American Mennonite-related groups and core beliefs confusing. In this concise encyclopedia, Donald Kraybill – known for his work on the Amish, and for penning the classic Upside Down Kingdom – attempts to describe these groups who gain their spiritual inspiration from the Anabaptist reformation.
Today, they’re in 17 of the 23 countries in North America (including the Caribbean) with 8,711 congregations and 809,845 baptized adult members.
The book was written as a succinct guide for journalists, students, scholars, and others. Throughout the encyclopedia, Kraybill places groups and practices on a continuum from traditional to assimilated. Traditional groups assert moral authority through the community and find ways of separating themselves from society. Assimilated groups are individualistic and blend into their surrounding culture. These two underlying principles impact all aspects of life.
Kraybill wrote all the entries, which focus on cultural topics in the 20th century rather than historical or religious ones; of course, there is substantial overlap. Cross-references and bibliographies help the reader undertake further study. Topics cover theology, customs, and a few biographies and events. A directory and table of current groups helps the reader understand the origins, practices, location, and size of each group.
The content is well-researched and concisely written, however there are occasions where the Canadian content could be more complete. One may wonder if there is a need for another encyclopedia after the Mennonite Encyclopedia and the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (www.gameo.org). However, in some cases, entries in these sources are dated and lengthy. Kraybill’s book is current and compact, providing helpful and easily accessible information in one volume.
So, next time you’re vacationing in Jamaica, you can prepare to visit the local Mennonite church by educating yourself with the Concise Encyclopedia.


Foot strain – Causes, symptoms and treatmentReading Mode
Foot strain is a mild or severe pain in the foot. The condition can be caused by a great deal of walking, standing, running on hard surfaces or even wearing shoes without adequate cushioning.
In people suffering from foot deformities, even normal pressure on the foot may lead to foot strain. Evidence claims that almost 70% of people suffer from foot strain at some point of their lives. Foot strain can be acute or chronic involving mechanical effects on soft tissues of the foot.
Causes of foot strain
The main cause of foot strain is excess pressure on the foot or any kind of deformity in the foot. Other causes like long term standing, walking or running, using inadequate shoes or hard studded boots, problem in ligaments, tendons, muscles, fascia, toenail beds, nerves, blood vessels, or skin can contribute to increased pressure on foot leading to foot strain.
Several factors that can increase the risk of having foot strain include:
- Age - Old aged people are at higher risk of foot strain due to widening of feet and dry skin on the feet
- Gender -Women are at a higher risk of developing foot strain due to the use of high heeled shoes.
- Standing work - Occupation that needs a person to stand for long hours like farmers, nurses, on site workers are prone to foot strain
- Pregnancy - Weight gain and release of a few hormones in pregnant women increases the risk of foot strain
- Obesity – Body weight can lead to foot strain as increase in weight leads to stress on the foot.
- Dancing and sports – Professional dancers and people playing outdoor games are at higher risk of foot strain
- Inward rolling of the foot
- Presence of blisters and corns
- Sciatica and osteomyelitis
Symptoms of foot strain
The most prominent sign of foot strain is pain. Though it can involve any part of the foot, it significantly appears in front of the heel and under-ball of the foot. Prolonged foot strain may lead to deformity of the foot.
Diagnosis of food strain
Though there is no specific test to diagnose foot strain, it can be diagnosed with the help of physical examination. Doctor may ask questions regarding symptoms appeared to evaluate the presence of foot strain.
Few examinations like an X-ray, MRI or CT scan may be required to confirm diagnosis and rule out other injuries to foot.
Treatment of foot strain
Foot strain can be treated with the help of medications, physical therapy and imaging/ultrasound.
Medication therapy involves use of several drugs like analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, COX-2 inhibitors, opioid analgesics, nerve pain medications, nerve blocks, corticosteroids etc.
The other treatment option available is ultrasound. It aims at reducing inflammation with the help of high frequency sound waves.
Physical therapy for foot strain involves:
- Foot massage – which improves circulation, stimulates muscles, reduces tension, and often alleviates pain
- Metatarsal support/ padding/ arch support
- Foot exercises
- Using comfortable footwear
- Avoiding shoes footwear with high heels
Photograph via sxc.hu
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1. Take leftover pesticides to an authorized depot
There are many depots in the region that accept pesticides, including Hartland Landfill.
2. Mow high
Mow on a high setting (3 inches or 7.5 cm) to crowd out weeds and conserve soil moisture. Keeping your mower’s blades sharp will also prevent lawn pests.
3. Leave grass clippings on the lawn
"Grass-cycle' by leaving grass clippings on the lawn, or set your mower on a mulch setting to provide a natural fertilizer and retain moisture. Grass clippings can supply 25 percent of your lawn’s fertilizer needs every time you mow. If needed, feed with compost, as it provides essential nutrients, retains moisture and lasts longer than chemical fertilizers.
4. Water wisely
Water only 1 inch (2.5 cm) per week, including rain.
Longer, infrequent watering helps develop deeper, healthier roots that resist disease. Water in the early morning to reduce evaporation.
5. Aerate and de-thatch as needed
Aerating promotes water retention and air circulation. You can aerate simply by puncturing your lawn with a garden fork or by renting a power aerator. Top dress with compost in the spring or fall. Re-seed where necessary.
Thatch is the organic layer that forms between the blades of grass and soil. A thin layer of thatch helps retain moisture, but too much thatch can be harmful. To de-thatch gently rake your lawn in late spring, or use a de-thatching attachment on your mower or a de-thatching machine.
Additional Helpful Hints
- Ensure you have the best grass and soil for the area and climate (adequate drainage and sufficient organic matter content is just as important for lawns as gardens)
- Use a variety of grasses that can tolerate a range of growing conditions, for both sun and shade
- Ensure the pH of your soil is between 6.0 and 7.0 (add agricultural lime to raise pH, peat moss or sulphur to lower it)


The Fresno County Department of Public Health is reminding parents of immunizations for children 11-12 years of age during Preteen Vaccine Week.
Children in sixth grade will need proof of a pertussis vaccination before entering seventh grade, and health department officials say it’s also a good time for preteens to have a complete check-up.
The following vaccines are recommended for 11 and 12 year old children:
– Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) booster: California law requires students to show proof of the vaccination prior to entering seventh grade. Pertussis causes a severe cough (whooping cough) that can last weeks or months. Complications can include pneumonia and may result in hospitalization.
– Annual influenza (flu) vaccine: Flu can be mild to life threatening and causes the most school absenteeism.
– Meningococcal vaccine: The vaccine protects against types of bacterial meningitis infections, which can rapidly progress to meningitis, pneumonia, and even death.
– Human Papillomavirus (HPV): The HPV vaccine protects girls from developing cervical cancer and lesions. It has been approved for boys to reduce the chances of acquiring genital warts.
– Varicella (chickenpox): Most preteens have had one dose of varicella but a second dose is recommended to boost immunity. Chickenpox is a highly contagious.
For more information visit the health department’s web site or (559) 600-3550.


Most of the endemic plants found in Sinharaja are ethno medically used by the people and not recorded formally. These include Depterocarpus zeylanicus, D.hispidus, Shore asp., Garcinia hermonii, xylopia championii, Mesua nagassarium, Loxococcus rupicola, Atalantia rotundifolia, Caryota urens), Calamus sp., Kokoona zeylanica, Elattaria, Coscinium fenestratum. Species with special medicinal value such as Zeuxine flava, Xeuxine regia, Anoectochilues setaceus, Lycopodium pheymaria, are highly threatened due to natural habitat destruction and degradation of micro-ecosystems.
Medicinal plants in rain forests are very important bioresources in a country like Sri Lanka. Studies have estimated the revenue generated from direct use of plants for medicinal purposes or from sale of pharmaceutical produced from chemicals derived from plants.
Some commonly used medicinal Plant Species are Kohomba, Adatoda, Dorana, Binara, Duhudu, Murva, Kara, Kotalahi, Bandura, Iruraja, Wellangi, Weniwel, Wanaraja, Binkohoba, Iruraja, Binkohomba, Narilata.


Ancient body clock discovered that helps to keep all living things on time
February 5, 2011
A group of Cambridge scientists have successfully identified the mechanism that drives our internal 24-hour clock, or circadian rhythm. It occurs not only in human cells, but has also been found in other life forms such as algae, and has been dated back millions of years. Whilst the research promises a better understanding of the problems associated with shift-work and jet-lag, this mechanism has also been proven to be responsible for sleep patterns, seasonal shifts and even the migration of butterflies.
The study from the Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge discovered that red blood cells contain this 24-hour rhythm. In the past, scientists assumed this rhythm came from DNA and gene activity but unlike most cells, red blood cells do not contain DNA.
During this study, the Cambridge scientists incubated healthy red blood cells in the dark at body temperature for several days, sampling them at regular intervals. It was discovered that the levels of peroxiredoxins (proteins that are produced in blood), underwent a 24-hour cycle. Virtually all known organisms contain peroxiredoxins.
"The implications of this for health are manifold," said Akhilesh Reddy, lead author of the study. "We already know that disrupted clocks – for example, caused by shift-work and jet-lag – are associated with metabolic disorders such as diabetes, mental health problems and even cancer. By furthering our knowledge of how the 24-hour clock in cells works, we hope that the links to these disorders – and others – will be made clearer. This will, in the longer term, lead to new therapies that we couldn't even have thought about a couple of years ago."
A second study by scientists working together at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and the Observatoire Oceanologique in Banyuls, France, identified a similar 24-hour rhythm in marine algae. Once again, the scientists held a previous belief that the circadian clock was driven by gene activity, but both the algae and the red blood cells proved this theory wrong.
"This groundbreaking research shows that body clocks are ancient mechanisms that have stayed with us through a billion years of evolution," said Andrew Millar of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences. "They must be far more important and sophisticated than we previously realized. More work is needed to determine how and why these clocks developed in people – and most likely all other living things on Earth – and what role they play in controlling our bodies."
The papers "Circadian Clocks in Human Red Blood Cells" and "Circadian Rhythms Persist Without Transcription in a Eukaryote" were published on 27th January 2011 in the journal Nature.
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The letters employed cultural stereotypes to suggest that the mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was justified, and sought to minimize the hardships they endured.
Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Times, said the letters did not meet the newspaper's standards for "civil, fact-based discourse" and should not have been published.
The Nov. 27 article highlighted the Tule Lake and Manzanar relocation camps in California, where thousands of Japanese Americans were detained. Tule Lake was especially notorious, the only one of the 10 war relocation camps with a stockade and jail. Japanese Americans deemed disloyal were sent there.
The article quoted park ranger Angela Sutton, who has worked at Tule Lake since the park was established in 2008, on why it's important to remember what happened:
"We take a dark spot in our own history, something other countries might want to cover up," she said, "and we maintain it and preserve it so that future generations can learn."
The facts surrounding the internment are well-established. In all, 120,000 Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. The majority were U.S. citizens. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, in which the U.S. government formally apologized to the internees and established a $1.25-billion trust fund to pay reparations.
The law said the mass internment resulted from "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership" rather than from legitimate security considerations.
The two letters published in the Dec. 11 Travel section accused the National Parks article of engaging in an "anti-U.S. remake of history" and of needing balance. The letters included racial stereotypes:
"Japanese have an extremely strong attachment to family, and even more so back then. First- generation and, to a lesser extent, Japanese here would have been expected to follow the wishes of their elders in Japan."
And they suggested that it wasn't so bad in the camps:
"Virtually everyone in the U.S. was assigned jobs to help the war effort. The Japanese were assigned the job of staying out of the way and not causing complications. Millions of Americans were assigned far worse jobs."
Or that the detainees could have had it worse elsewhere:
"War is evil, but I would have much rather been interned by the U.S. in California than by the Japanese in their captured lands."
Outraged readers found the opinions offensive and insensitive.
"Framing the forced internment of Japanese Americans as their 'contribution to the war effort' is, frankly, disgusting," wrote Matthieu Boblet of Bothell, Wash. "Many lost their homes, livelihoods, ways of life and childhoods as they spent years locked away, forced to live in rickety shacks out in the desert due to knee-jerk reactionary xenophobia. Framing it as anything different is a disgrace and outright falsehood."
Joanne Oppenheim of New York wrote: "To say the 'interned Japanese were housed, fed, protected and cared for' is an all too familiar whitewash for what really happened as immigrant and citizens were forced to leave their homes, jobs, schools and communities. Families of six were housed in horse stables that still stank of their former tenants and a few months later shipped to God-forsaken camps where families lived in single-room barracks with inadequate heat, terrible food and poor health facilities. To say that they were there to be protected and cared for is an outright lie!"
Karin Wang of Los Angeles said she was disappointed in The Times for publishing the letters. "The internment is widely acknowledged and accepted as a major civil liberties violation and resulted in no prosecutions for espionage; to print a letter saying that Japanese Americans should be grateful that the government incarcerated 120,000 of them without due process is normalizing the 'alt-right' and white supremacy."
The Times' Travel editor, Catharine Hamm, said she approved publication of the letters thinking that the writers' views, although provocative, would be balanced by subsequent letters of response.
Hamm said that, in retrospect, that was not the right decision, because the views expressed in the letters did not lend themselves to reasoned discussion.
Maharaj made the same point in discussions with staff members disturbed by the letters, and in remarks to editors during The Times' daily news meeting this morning.
"Letters in The Times are the opinions of the writers, and editors strive to include a range of voices. But the goal is to present readers with civil, intelligent, fact-based opinions that enlarge their understanding of the world," Maharaj said. "These letters did not meet that standard."
The Travel section plans to print letters of response in the Dec. 18 edition.


Posture, Breathing and Health
Faulty breathing behaviour is something we see frequently in clinic! It can be both the cause and effect of poor posture. Given breathing is something we really can’t avoid… well not for too long anyway… it is a very important aspect of your health, especially when dealing with spinal related disorders.
What is relaxed breathing and why is it important?
When we are relaxed and taking quiet breaths we should be doing this in and out of the nose and solely with the diaphragm. As the diaphragm contracts, it tightens and moves down towards the pelvis drawing air into the bottom of the lungs. As your diaphragm relaxes the elasticity in your tissues bounces back and the air is pushed out. This is a very energy efficient process using minimal effort.
What is the difference in ‘strained’ breathing?
Strained breathing occurs when we start taking shorter quicker breaths by contracting the muscles of the upper chest, shoulder girdle and neck instead of the slower fuller breaths into the lower lung with the diaphragm. This causes excessive stress and strain in muscle groups which should be in a relaxed state. This, in turn, can promote forward head posture and rounding of the upper back through muscle shortening and tightness. Strained breathing in conjunction with the use of the diaphragm is normal when there is an increased demand for oxygen. Such as with physical exertion and in states of acute emotional stress, but abnormal when in a relaxed state.
Some signs you might be a faulty breather:
- Frequent sighing or yawning
- Poor posture
- Tightness and pain in the neck, shoulders and chest
- Periods of breath holding
- Breathing through your mouth rather than your nose
- Excessive fatigue
- Nervousness and anxiety
What can we do about it?
Aside from our normal assessments, chiropractic and exercise-based interventions to correct your posture, we take a closer look at your respiratory biomechanics and physiology. For this, we have specialised biofeedback equipment called respiratory capnography (See more on our Naturopathy page about healthy breathing) to help us better understand your breathing behaviour and the effect it may be having on your health as a whole. This also becomes a useful tool in the re-education of proper breathing patterns.


Studies have shown that it can reduce the risk of travellers exposed to the coronavirus by 23% to 57%
In a new study, researchers report that keeping the middle seat empty during the flight can reduce the risk of passengers being exposed to the coronavirus by 23% to 57%.
The co-author of the study, mechanical engineer Byron Jones of Kansas State Sutter University, said: “Furthermore, it’s always better in terms of exposure.” It’s true in restaurants, it’s true in restaurants, it’s true everywhere.”
But this study may overestimate the benefits of empty seats in the middle, because it does not consider the use of masks by passengers.
Joseph Allen, a ventilation expert at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said: “It’s important for us to understand how aerosols spread on airplanes.” But he added: “I’m surprised to see that this kind of analysis is being done now and A good statement was made that when the model does not include the effect of the mask, as a method of reducing risk, the middle seat should remain vacant. We know that masks are the most effective measure to reduce respiratory aerosol emissions.”
Although scientists have documented several cases of the spread of coronavirus on airplanes, airplane cabins are usually in a low-risk environment because they tend to have excellent ventilation and air filtration.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, people have been worried about the risks of air travel. The entire flight of the aircraft in a confined environment makes social distancing impossible. As a precaution, some airlines began to vacate the middle seats.
This new article was published last Wednesday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly and is based on data collected at Kansas State University in 2017. In this study, the researchers sprayed harmless aerosol viruses through two cabins. Then, the researchers monitored how the virus spread in each cabin.
Cost-benefit analysis is complicated for airlines. But Alex Hoffman, an aerosol scientist at the University of Denver who was not involved in the study, said that from a health point of view, leaving the middle seat vacant is helpful. Provide a buffer between people. He said: “For sprays and drops, distance is important.”


Native Americans and the Clash of Cultures, by Peter N. Herndon
Guide Entry to 99.03.03:
My teaching unit, "Native Americans and the Clash of Cultures" is intended for high school U.S. history or World Cultures students. Also a course on civil law could benefit from the Lesson Plan section which gives attention to the recent legal battles the Native Americans have been fighting. I had several content goals in mind while preparing this material. First, that students would learn more about the conditions that forced the first Americans to arrive on this continent. Second, that they would learn more about the spread and development of early cultures in America. Third, students would become more aware of the reasons for the misunderstandings between the earliest Americans and the European immigrants, many of which continue to the present day. A fourth content goal is for students to discover what Indians are doing to preserve and promote their culture in a country that has traditionally excluded them from political and social participation. What kinds of issues and conditions are creating a renaissance in Native American life that are causing the rest of us to take notice? Another goal is for my students to use individual and group research methods that would enable them to make a classroom presentation to other students on an issue of contemporary interest to Native Americans. Finally, I want students to try to understand the cultural contributions and misunderstandings about Indians that have been perpetuated over the centuries and what we can do today to help dispel the old myths and misconceptions.
(Recommended for U.S. History, World History and Law, grades 9-12.)


Excerpt from The Maker Movement Manifesto by Mark Hatch.
So what is the Maker Movment and how can it change the world? Mark Hatch, CEO and cofounder of TechShop, breaks it down.
Making is fundamental to what it means to be human. We must make, create, and express ourselves to feel whole. There is something unique about making physical things. These things are like little pieces of us and seem to embody portions of our souls.
Sharing what you have made and what you know about making with others is the method by which a makers feeling of wholeness is achieved. You cannot make and not share.
There are few things more selfless and satisfying than giving away something you have made. The act of making puts a small piece of you in the object. Giving that to someone else is like giving someone a small piece of yourself. Such things are often the most cherished items we possess.
You must learn to make. You must always seek to learn more about your making. You may become a journeyman or mas-ter craftsman, but you will still learn, want to learn, and push yourself to learn new techniques, materials, and processes. Building a lifelong learning path ensures a rich and reward-ing making life and, importantly, enables one to share.
You must have access to the right tools for the project at hand. Invest in and develop local access to the tools you need to do the making you want to do. The tools of making have never been cheaper, easier to use, or more powerful.
Be playful with what you are making, and you will be sur-prised, excited, and proud of what you discover.
Join the Maker Movement and reach out to those around you who are discovering the joy of making. Hold seminars, parties, events, maker days, fairs, expos, classes, and din-ners with and for the other makers in your community.
This is a movement, and it requires emotional, intellectual, financial, political, and institutional support. The best hope for improving the world is us, and we are responsible for making a better future.
Embrace the change that will naturally occur as you go through your maker journey. Since making is fundamental to what it means to be human, you will become a more com-plete version of you as you make.
Image by ImageThink.


Git - Revision Control Perfected
In 2005, after just two weeks, Linus Torvalds completed the first version of Git, an open-source version control system. Unlike typical centralized systems, Git is based on a distributed model. It is extremely flexible and guarantees data integrity while being powerful, fast and efficient. With widespread and growing rates of adoption, and the increasing popularity of services like GitHub, many consider Git to be the best version control tool ever created.
Surprisingly, Linus had little interest in writing a version control tool before this endeavor. He created Git out of necessity and frustration. The Linux Kernel Project needed an open-source tool to manage its massively distributed development effectively, and no existing tools were up to the task.
Many aspects of Git's design are radical departures from the approach of tools like CVS and Subversion, and they even differ significantly from more modern tools like Mercurial. This is one of the reasons Git is intimidating to many prospective users. But, if you throw away your assumptions of how version control should work, you'll find that Git is actually simpler than most systems, but capable of more.
In this article, I cover some of the fundamentals of how Git works and stores data before moving on to discuss basic usage and work flow. I found that knowing what is going on behind the scenes makes it much easier to understand Git's many features and capabilities. Certain parts of Git that I previously had found complicated suddenly were easy and straightforward after spending a little time learning how it worked.
I find Git's design to be fascinating in and of itself. I peered behind the curtain, expecting to find a massively complex machine, and instead saw only a little hamster running in a wheel. Then I realized a complicated design not only wasn't needed, but also wouldn't add any value.
Git Object Repository
Git, at its core, is a simple indexed name/value database. It stores pieces of data (values) in "objects" with unique names. But, it does this somewhat differently from most systems. Git operates on the principle of "content-addressed storage", which means the names are derived from the values. An object's name is chosen automatically by its content's SHA1 checksum—a 40-character string like this:
SHA1 is cryptographically strong, which guarantees a different checksum for different data (the actual risk of two different pieces of data sharing the same SHA1 checksum is infinitesimally small). The same chunk of data always will have the same SHA1 checksum, which always will identify only that chunk of data. Because object names are SHA1 checksums, they identify the object's content while being truly globally unique—not just to one repository, but to all repositories everywhere, forever.
To put this into perspective, the example SHA1 listed above happens to be the ID of the first commit of the Linux kernel into a Git repository by Linus Torvalds in 2005 (2.6.12-rc2). This is a lot more useful than some arbitrary revision number with no real meaning. Nothing except that commit ever will have the same ID, and you can use those 40 characters to verify the data in every file throughout that version of Linux. Pretty cool, huh?
Git stores all the data for a repository in four types of objects: blobs, trees, commits and tags. They are all just objects with an SHA1 name and some content. The only difference between them is the type of information they contain.
Blobs and Trees
A blob stores the raw data content of a file. This is the simplest of the four object types.
A tree stores the contents of a directory. This is a flat list of file/directory names, each with a corresponding SHA1 representing its content. These SHA1s are the names of other objects in the repository. This referencing technique is used throughout Git to link all kinds of information together. For file entries, the referenced object is a blob. For directory entries, the referenced object is a tree that can contain more directory entries, in turn referencing more trees to define a complete and potentially unlimited hierarchy.
It's important to recognize that blobs and trees are not themselves files and directories; they are just the contents of files and directories. They don't know about anything outside their own content, including the existence of any references in other objects that point to them. References are one-way only.
Figure 1. An example directory structure and how it might be stored in Git as tree and blob objects (I truncated the SHA1 names to six characters for readability).
In the example shown in Figure 1, I'm assuming that the files MyApp.pm and MyApp1.pm have the same contents, and so by definition, they must reference the same blob object. This behavior is implicit in Git because of its content-addressable design and works equally well for directories with the same content.
As you can see, directory structures are defined by chains of references stored in trees. A tree is able to represent all of the data in the files and directories under it even though it contains only one level of names and references. Because SHA1s of the referenced objects are within its content, a tree's SHA1 exactly identifies and verifies the data throughout the structure; a checksum resulting from a series of checksums verifies all the underlying data regardless of the number of levels.
Consider storing a change to the file README illustrated in Figure 1. When committed, this would create a new blob (with a new SHA1), which would require a new tree to represent "foo" (with a new SHA1), which would require a new tree for the top directory (with a new SHA1).
While creating three new objects to store one change might seem inefficient, keep in mind that aside from the critical path of tree objects from changed file to root, every other object in the hierarchy remains identical. If you have a gigantic hierarchy of 10,000 files and you change the text of one file ten directories deep, 11 new objects allow you to describe both the old and the new state of the tree.
One potential problem of the content-addressed design is that two large files with minor differences must be stored as different objects. However, Git optimizes these cases by using deltas to eliminate duplicate data between objects wherever possible. The size-reduced data is stored in a highly efficient manner in "pack files", which also are further compressed. This operates transparently underneath the object repository layer.
A commit is meant to record a set of changes introduced to a project. What it really does is associate a tree object—representing a complete snapshot of a directory structure at a moment in time—with contextual information about it, such as who made the change and when, a description, and its parent commit(s).
A commit doesn't actually store a list of changes (a "diff") directly, but it doesn't need to. What changed can be calculated on-demand by comparing the current commit's tree to that of its parent. Comparing two trees is a lightweight operation, so there is no need to store this information. Because there actually is nothing special about the parent commit other than chronology, one commit can be compared to any other just as easily regardless of how many commits are in between.
All commits should have a parent except the first one. Commits usually have a single parent, but they will have more if they are the result of a merge (I explain branching and merging later in this article). A commit from a merge still is just a snapshot in time like any other, but its history has more than one lineage.
By following the chain of parent references backward from the current commit, the entire history of a project can be reconstructed and browsed all the way back to the first commit.
A commit is expanded recursively into a project history in exactly the same manner as a tree is expanded into a directory structure. More important, just as the SHA1 of a tree is a fingerprint of all the data in all the trees and blobs below it, the SHA1 of a commit is a fingerprint of all the data in its tree, as well as all of the data in all the commits that preceded it.
This happens automatically because references are part of an object's overall content. The SHA1 of each object is computed, in part, from the SHA1s of any objects it references, which in turn were computed from the SHA1s they referenced and so on.
A tag is just a named reference to an object—usually a commit. Tags typically are used to associate a particular version number with a commit. The 40-character SHA1 names are many things, but human-friendly isn't one of them. Tags solve this problem by letting you give an object an additional name.
There are two types of tags: object tags and lightweight tags. Lightweight tags are not objects in the repository, but instead are simple refs like branches, except that they don't change. (I explain branches in more detail in the Branching and Merging section below.)
Setting Up Git
If you don't already have Git on your system, install it with your package manager. Because Git is primarily a simple command-line tool, installing it is quick and easy under any modern distro.
You'll want to set the name and e-mail address that will be recorded in new commits:
git config --global user.name "John Doe" git config --global user.email email@example.com
This just sets these parameters in the config file ~/.gitconfig. The config has a simple syntax and could be edited by hand just as easily.
Git's interface consists of the "working copy" (the files you directly interact with when working on the project), a local repository stored in a hidden .git subdirectory at the root of the working copy, and commands to move data back and forth between them, or between remote repositories.
The advantages of this design are many, but right away you'll notice that there aren't pesky version control files scattered throughout the working copy, and that you can work off-line without any loss of features. In fact, Git doesn't have any concept of a central authority, so you always are "working off-line" unless you specifically ask Git to exchange commits with your peers.
The repository is made up of files that are manipulated by invoking the git command from within the working copy. There is no special server process or extra overhead, and you can have as many repositories on your system as you like.
You can turn any directory into a working copy/repository just by running this command from within it:
Next, add all the files within the working copy to be tracked and commit them:
git add . git commit -m "My first commit"
You can commit additional changes as frequently or infrequently as you
like by calling
git add followed by
commit after each modification
you want to record.
If you're new to Git, you may be wondering why you need to call
add each time. It has to do with the process of
"staging" a set of
changes before committing them, and it's one of the most common sources of
confusion. When you call
git add on one or more files, they are added
to the Index. The files in the Index—not the working copy—are what
get committed when you call
Think of the Index as what will become the next commit. It simply provides an extra layer of granularity and control in the commit process. It allows you to commit some of the differences in your working copy, but not others, which is useful in many situations.
You don't have to take advantage of the Index if you don't want to, and
you're not doing anything "wrong" if you don't. If you want to pretend
it doesn't exist, just remember to call
git add . from the root of
the working copy (which will update the Index to match) each time and
git commit. You also can use the -a option with
git commit to add changes automatically; however, it will not add new
files, only changes to existing files. Running
git add. always
will add everything.
The exact work flow and specific style of commands largely are left up to you as long as you follow the basic rules.
git status command shows you all the differences between your
working copy and the Index, and the Index and the most recent commit
(the current HEAD):
This lets you see pending changes easily at any given time, and it even
reminds you of relevant commands like
git add to stage pending changes
into the Index, or
git reset HEAD <file> to remove (unstage) changes
that were added previously.
Branching and Merging
The work you do in Git is specific to the current branch. A branch is simply a moving reference to a commit (SHA1 object name). Every time you create a new commit, the reference is updated to point to it—this is how Git knows where to find the most recent commit, which is also known as the tip, or head, of the branch.
By default, there is only one branch ("master"), but you can have as many
as you want. You create branches with
git branch and switch between
git checkout. This may seem odd at first, but the reason
it's called "checkout" is that you are "checking
out" the head of that
branch into your working copy. This alters the files in your working
copy to match the commit at the head of the branch.
Branches are super-fast and easy, and they're a great way to try out new ideas, even for trivial things. If you are used to other systems like CVS/SVN, you might have negative thoughts associated with branches—forget all that. Branching and merging are free in Git and can be used without a second thought.
Run the following commands to create and switch to a new local branch named "myidea":
git branch myidea git checkout myidea
All commits now will be tracked in the new branch until you switch to
another. You can work on more than one branch at a time by switching
back and forth between them with
Branches are really useful only because they can be merged back together later. If you decide that you like the changes in myidea, you can merge them back into master:
git checkout master git merge myidea
Unless there are conflicts, this operation will merge all the changes from myidea into your working copy and automatically commit the result to master in one fell swoop. The new commit will have the previous commits from both myidea and master listed as parents.
However, if there are conflicts—places where the same part of a file
was changed differently in each branch—Git will warn you and update
the affected files with "conflict markers" and not commit
the merge automatically. When this happens, it's up to you to edit the files by hand,
make decisions between the versions from each branch, and then remove the
conflict markers. To complete the merge, use
git add on each formerly
conflicted file, and then
After you merge from a branch, you don't need it anymore and can delete it:
git branch -d myidea
If you decide you want to throw myidea away without merging it, use
-D instead of a lowercase
-d as listed above. As a safety
feature, the lowercase switch won't let you delete a branch that hasn't
To list all local branches, simply run:
Git provides a number of tools to examine the history and differences
between commits and branches. Use
git log to view commit histories and
git diff to view the differences between specific commits.
These are text-based tools, but graphical tools also are available, such as
the gitk repository browser, which essentially is a GUI version of
git log --graph to visualize branch history. See Figure 2 for a screenshot.
Figure 2. gitk
Git can merge from a branch in a remote repository simply by transferring needed objects and then running a local merge. Thanks to the content-addressed storage design, Git knows which objects to transfer based on which object names in the new commit are missing from the local repository.
git pull command performs both the transfer step
(the "fetch") and
the merge step together. It accepts the URL of the remote repository (the
"Git URL") and a branch name (or a full "refspec") as arguments. The
Git URL can be a local filesystem path, or an SSH, HTTP, rsync or
Git-specific URL. For instance, this would perform a pull using SSH:
git pull user@host:/some/repo/path master
Git provides some useful mechanisms for setting up relationships with remote repositories and their branches so you don't have to type them out each time. A saved URL of a remote repository is called a "remote", which can be configured along with "tracking branches" to map the remote branches into the local repository.
A remote named "origin" is configured automatically when a repository
is created using
git clone. Consider a clone of Linus Torvald's Kernel
Tree mirrored on GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/mirrors/linux-2.6.git
If you look inside the new repository's config file (.git/config), you'll see these lines set up:
[remote "origin"] fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* url = https://github.com/mirrors/linux-2.6.git [branch "master"] remote = origin merge = refs/heads/master
The fetch line above defines the remote tracking branches. This "refspec" specifies that all branches in the remote repository under "refs/heads" (the default path for branches) should be transferred to the local repository under "refs/remotes/origin". For example, the remote branch named "master" will become a tracking branch named "origin/master" in the local repository.
The lines under the branch section provide defaults—specific to the
master branch in this example—so that
git pull can be called with
no arguments to fetch and merge from the remote master branch into the
local master branch.
git pull command is actually a combination of the
git fetch and
git merge commands. If you do a
fetch instead, the tracking branches
will be updated and you can compare them to see what changed. Then you
can merge as a separate step:
git merge origin/master
Git also provides the
git push command for uploading to a remote
repository. The push operation is essentially the inverse of the pull
operation, but since it won't do a remote "checkout" operation, it is
usually used with "bare" repositories. A bare repository is just the
git database without a working copy. It is most useful for servers where
there is no reason to have editable files checked out.
git push will allow only a
"fast-forward" merge where the
local commits derive from the remote head. If the local head and remote
head have both changed, you must perform a full merge (which will create a
new commit deriving from both heads). Full merges must be done locally,
so all this really means is you must call
if someone else committed something first.
This article is meant only to provide an introduction to some of Git's most basic features and usage. Git is incredibly powerful and has a lot more capabilities beyond what I had space to cover here. But, once you realize all the features are based on the same core concepts, it becomes straightforward to learn the rest.
Check out the Resources section for some sites where you can learn more. Also, don't forget to read the git man page.
Git Home Page: http://git-scm.com
Git Community Book: http://book.git-scm.com
Why Git Is Better Than X: http://whygitisbetterthanx.com
Google Tech Talk: Linus Torvalds on Git: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8


Offshore Wind and Environmental Justice
What is Environmental Justice?
Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (U.S. EPA). Environmental justice intersects with other forms of justice, including racial justice and economic justice. Both climate justice and energy justice are types of environmental justice.
What is Fair Treatment?
Fair treatment refers to the fair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income. No group of people should bear a disproportionate share of environmental benefits or consequences that results from the implementation of federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies.
What is Meaningful Involvement?
Meaningful involvement means that people and communities have the opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their environment, health, and/or ability to earn a living.
Environmental Justice & Offshore Wind Development
Incorporating principles of environmental justice in New Hampshire’s offshore wind development will help to ensure that the impacts and benefits are shared fairly among all of New Hampshire’s people. Public participation in New Hampshire’s offshore wind decision-making processes will also help make sure that development is more representative of New Hampshire’s public interests. This can be achieved through municipal action and through state legislative, executive, and regulatory actions.
New Hampshire has the opportunity to learn from neighboring states that are pursuing justice-centered offshore wind policies. Click through the slideshow below to learn more about efforts in other states to prioritize justice and equity during offshore wind development.
Reducing health impacts of fossil fuels
New Hampshire communities experience respiratory, pulmonary, and other negative health effects from fossil fuel pollution. Renewable energy from offshore wind can prevent local pollution by reducing dependence on fossil fuels for heating and transportation.
Other states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, are supporting strong renewable portfolio standards goals and net zero emissions targets, as well as energy efficiency and electric vehicle mandates. Clean energy goals such as these can only be reached by tapping offshore wind resources.
For the health benefits of clean energy to be shared fairly, lower income communities must be ensured access to electric power generation, heating, and transportation New Hampshire funds public benefits related to the provision of electricity through the system benefits charge.


Exhibit more than triples museum visits
Muskegon Museum of Art display documenting 82 major Native American tribes draws nearly 13,000 visitors in two months.
Anglo-American photographer and ethnologist Edward S. Curtis spent the first three decades of the 20th century taking photographs of Native Americans and recording their language, music and history.
An exhibit of his critically acclaimed — and controversial — magnum opus, “Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian,” opened May 11 at the Muskegon Museum of Art, 296 W. Webster Ave. in Muskegon. It is the largest exhibition in the museum’s history and runs through Sept. 10.
The display includes 723 photographs, 20 bound volumes containing historical notes and 1,500 images, as well as several original field recordings of Native music. It also features objects from Curtis’ life and examples of artifacts found in his photos.
Judy Hayner, MMA director, said the reaction to the exhibit from all over the U.S. has been overwhelming.
“We knew there would be a response, but we had no idea how much,” she said. “We have people coming from Texas, Arkansas, the southern tip of Illinois,” as well as journalists, docents from the Smithsonian and college photography instructors.
“It is immersive, and we are seeing people that are coming back. There’s a lot to absorb, there’s a lot to see,” she said.
Between May 11 and when the Business Journal spoke to Hayner on July 24, “Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian” drew 12,689 visitors from 37 states and 12 countries, compared to 3,787 visitors during the same period last year.
All told, the museum expects to top 20,000 visitors during the run of the exhibit, compared to 6,573 visitors from May 11 to Sept. 10, 2016, and 20,000 visitors in the entire 2016 fiscal year.
As of July 11, admissions revenue was up more than 800 percent from the same time last year.
“This is setting the largest run of attendance for us in recent history,” Hayner said.
She said the museum owns one of 222 identical sets of “The North American Indian” collection Curtis produced between 1908 and 1930. Curtis was hired by J.P. Morgan, along with an assistant, a journalist and an anthropologist, to produce a series on Native Americans west of the Missouri River.
After completing his work, poverty eventually forced Curtis to sell off the rights, and he died in obscurity in 1952.
Part of the collection was stashed in the basement of a bookstore in Boston and rediscovered in 1972. MMA acquired the set in this exhibit from Muskegon’s Hackley Public Library.
“It’s been here since ’76 and is part of our permanent collection,” Hayner said. “Since the ’70s, there have been four or five exhibitions of it, but not on this scale.
“All Curtis exhibitions tend to cherry-pick images — the most famous or artistic pieces or an exhibition on the women. What’s unique is nobody has put this much out at one time.”
Hayner said half the images are portraits and the rest are meant to depict families and children, housing, clothing, food, recreation, ceremonies and daily life — but many experts object to the way Curtis approached the project.
“We did a wonderful panel program one night with some Native American scholars talking about how they see this work,” Hayner said. “Some of the criticism is it’s overly romanticized, stereotyped or that he posed people.”
Detroit-based art critic Sarah Rose Sharp, who writes for Hyperallergic, said in a review of the exhibit, “A Critical Understanding of Edward Curtis’s Photos of Native American Culture,” that Curtis, in staging the photos — with period-inaccurate props and costumes — reinforced “white notions of Native American appearances and culture.”
Other observers noted Curtis leaned on the idea of a vanishing race of “noble savages” instead of depicting a complex and diverse people adapting to Western society, as the federal government took their land and denied their rights.
Larry Romanelli, tribal chief of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Manistee, served as an advisor to MMA as they planned the exhibit and spoke on the collection at the museum July 20.
Although his tribe is not represented in the exhibit, being too far east, he told Sharp in an interview that the work preserved history that would otherwise have been lost, and therefore he views the exhibit in a positive light.
“The work he did, not just in the photographs, but in those books, was taking down the music, language and culture of 82 major tribes and 117 named Native American groups in those 20 volumes,” she said. “He did the ethnology. If he hadn’t done what he did, some of that culture and language would be gone.”
She said MMA spent $300,000 from 22 donors to produce the exhibit, and the planning took three years.
“We had to design and build tables, new frames, new maps, new glass for the frames on the walls, new pedestals so it would have a uniform look throughout the museum.
“We also did a significant national advertising campaign, hired additional staff and a new guest curator.”
The expense and effort have been worth it to Hayner, who will retire this fall after 14 years in the director’s seat.
“People see the humanity represented on our walls, and it’s stunning and humbling,” she said. “People are leaving here with a different feeling about Native Americans. They did not disappear.”
To highlight Michigan tribes during the exhibit, MMA partnered with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Lakeshore Museum Center & Michigan’s Heritage Park, VisitMuskegon.org, Muskegon County and the Lakeshore Art Festival to host a series of events, including artifact displays, a powwow, cooking demonstrations and a showing of Anne Makepeace’s documentary on Curtis’s work, “Coming to Light.”
It’s too soon to tell what economic impact the exhibit has had in the county, but Hayner said she is hearing hotels and restaurants are getting business from out-of-town visitors.
Mostly, she wants the exhibit to influence the way people see Native Americans today.
“I really hope and firmly believe the next time you hear about the protests at Standing Rock, you’re going to think differently about them,” she said. “It’s going to be more real, more relevant to understand that it’s land sacred to the native tribes fighting for it. They should be listened to.
“You can’t walk away from this without understanding the humanity of the people on these walls.”


posted on Aug, 2 2012 @ 10:49 AM
It sounds to me like this 100-meter drop is a drop in the sea BED level, not the WATER level. There's now 100 more meters of water between the buoy
and the ocean floor; if the sea bed didn't fall 100 meters, that'd mean the water ROSE 100 meters, and since sea levels are the same globally,
everything less than that high above sea level would now be drowned the world over. A 100-meter drop in the sea bed would also trigger a tsunami
unless it was a very small area that fell.
But which buoy was it?


08 Oct M. G. K. Menon: A great Indian scientist
Mambillikalathil Govind Menon can be considered as the architect of modern scientific and technological India. According to V. Radhakrishnan, he is the most eminent “Statesmen of Science” we have in India.
He was born at Mangalore on 28 August 1928 into the family of Kizhekapat Shankara Menon who was a District and Sessions Judge. He matriculated from the Punjab University in 1942. After graduating with his Bachelor of Science degree from the Agra University in 1946, he took medicine as a career at Jaswant College, Jodhpur. He loved science and the spark that lit his deep commitment to fundamental research was provided by none other than the Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman. Menon then moved to the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay where he obtained the Master of Science in physics, under the guidance of N. R. Tawde, the noted spectroscopist. In January 1953, Menon was awarded Ph.D from Bristol and soon thereafter the Senior Award of the Exhibition of 1851, which he held for two years 1953–1955, just as Bhabha did years earlier. He met and married Indumati Patel, a student of philosophy.
Towards the end of 1955, at the invitation of Homi Jahangir Bhabha, Menon joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which had by then moved from Bangalore to Bombay and was well established at the Kenilworth and the Old Yacht Club. At TIFR, Menon started a programme to develop plastic balloons which could carry scientific payloads to stratospheric heights – a harbinger of India’s programmes in space. He also seamlessly integrated himself with the studies of particle physics and cosmic rays with detectors deployed deep underground, which was already moving forward vigorously, under the dedicated efforts of B. V. Sreekantan, one of the pioneers of Indian science. He also seamlessly integrated himself with the studies of particle physics and cosmic rays with detectors deployed deep underground, which was already moving forward vigorously, under the dedicated efforts of B. V. Sreekantan.
He was soon made the Dean of the Faculty of Physics immediately followed by elevation to the position of the Deputy Director (Physics). TIFR grew rapidly in areas as diverse as biological sciences, radio astronomy, solid state electronics and geophysics, and to quote Sreekantan ‘Menon was the guiding spirit behind these developments’. It was during this period that Menon and his associates, Sreekantan and others recorded the first event ever of a cosmic-ray neutrino interacting deep underground and generating a muon. This was reported at the International Cosmic Ray Conference in 1965 held in London.
It was soon after this that a great tragedy befell the Indian scientific scene: 24 January 1966, Bhabha was killed in an air crash over Mount Blanc, the Chairman of the Governing Council of TIFR, J. R. D. Tata while appointed Menon as the New Director of the Institute. During the early years of his directorship, Menon was invited by C. V. Raman to play a central role in the Board of Trustees of the Raman Trust. It was thus that when Raman died after a brief illness in November 1970, the responsibility of the future of the Raman Research Institute (RRI) at Bangalore fell on his shoulders. Upon Bhabha’s death in 1966, Vikram Sarabhai had been appointed as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Upon the sudden and tragic death of Sarabhai in December 1971, Menon, who was already holding the position as the Chairman of the Electronics Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Electronics, concurrent with the Directorship of TIFR, was asked by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to shoulder the additional responsibilities as the Chairman of ISRO and Director of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.
Amidst all this nation-building activity, Menon never lost his focus on science. He helped establish close collaboration in the field of cosmic rays between TIFR and groups at University of Durham led by Arnold Wolfendale and at Osaka University led by S. Miyake. Menon was elected Fellow, Royal Society (London) in 1970, in recognition of his contributions to particle physics and for the studies in cosmic rays.
Menon’s creative approach to science and elegant management skills projected him rapidly to the higher echelons of academia across the world. He has occupied the position of the President of the three academies of sciences in India – the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the National Academy of Sciences (India) (NASI). During his presidency and, indeed, through his continued association with them, these academies have vastly increased their scope and engagement with society in general. Soon after he was elected President of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the fellowship was significantly enlarged to bring in scientists from new and emerging fields of study. Menon was also responsible for vastly increasing the publications of the academy. C. V. Raman, the founder of the Academy, started with the publication of the ‘Proceedings’, in 1934, with monthlies in Physical Sciences, to which, in the very next year, he added a monthly devoted to other branches of science and mathematics. Menon, with the association of leading scientists in India, was responsible for the rapid growth of the publications: Premana, to start with, in 1973, and a significantly larger number of others covering various fields in 1977. This growth has continued ever since (including the rejuvenation of “Genetics”.
Such sterling human qualities, coupled with high intellect and administrative in Menon was recognized widely in the form of awards, election to the fellowship of several national and international bodies, and also in appointments to high-level administrative and advisory positions such as the Member of Planning Commission, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet and Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister of India.
 M. G. K. Menon, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
 Living legends of Indian Science, Current Science, Volume 105, No 4.