Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Solar for Gujarat Salt Farmers

November 5, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Ahmad Masood/Reuters.
Working on a salt pan in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The marshes produce 30% of India’s inland salt. 

I’m always up for a little good news from distance places, as I hope you are, too. Today we learn about the benefits of solar energy for one hands-on industry in India.

Suchak Patel writes at the Guardian, “In the expansive salt marshes of the Little Rann of Kutch the bleakness of the sunburnt, treeless landscape is matched only by the drudgery of the salt farmers who toil there for eight months of the year.

“In October, as the monsoon recedes and the flooded salt pans dry out, farmers and their families hop on to trucks and tractors to migrate to the Little Rann of Kutch in Kutch district, Gujarat, where they pitch tarpaulin shelters and begin mining the underground deposits.

“An estimated 10,000 families of farmers, known as agariyas in Gujarati, migrate to the marshes from across the state. They start each season by digging wells to pump out brine using diesel pumps; the brine is then poured into shallow, squarish plots carved on the salt pans and left to evaporate under the sun to produce salt crystals. These marshes produce 30% of India’s inland salt, typically table salt.

“Life in the salt marshes is uniquely challenging. Drinking water comes not from pipes but tankers, children attend schools inside buses not buildings, and the only avenue to healthcare is weekly mobile vans from the health department. Basic amenities such as an electricity grid and toilets are nonexistent.

“ ‘My entire family, including my brother’s two daughters, lives in the desert these eight months, and my nieces attend primary school in a mobile school bus,’ says Bharatbhai Shyamjibhai Mandviya, 45.

“Contracts made with salt traders before each season, where the traders pay an advance to the farmers to buy pumps, diesel, and to meet household expenses mean most farmers start the season in debt, with the harvest income barely enough to cover their costs, let alone allow them to save.

“Diesel constitutes nearly 65% of the input costs in salt farming, and about 1,800 litres [~476 gallons] of the fuel is needed to produce [about] 750 tons of salt, according to Purshottam Sonagra, area manager of nonprofit Vikas Centre for Development that works with salt producers in the region. …

“But the introduction of solar panels to the pans has triggered a significant shift in the lives and lifestyles of the impoverished salt workers. In 2017, the Gujarat government gave solar pumps to salt farmers at nearly 80% subsidy, as part of a larger push to cut emissions and bring down the costs involved in salt production.

“ ‘Solar-powered pumps have reduced the cost of salt farming to one-third of what it was,’ says Sonagra.

“Mandviya has installed three pumps on the salt pan he works on, the savings from which have led to many firsts in his life.

“ ‘We have now built a two-bedroom house with a separate hall and a kitchen in Kharaghoda [his home village],’ says Mandviya. The new home with tiled walls and built-in cupboards which he will share with his brother and family, is a big upgrade from the kuccha [mud and straw] house they lived in before.

“The brothers also bought a motorcycle and a refrigerator from the money they managed to save.

“With more than 5,500 solar-powered pumps now dotting the region, energy costs have fallen [and] the agariyas such as Mandviya are no longer as dependent on the capital from traders, which gives them greater negotiating power over salt prices. …

“Solar pumps and the financial stability they grant have improved access to health, education and mobility, while also offering freedom to salt farmers from an endless work cycle, campaigners say.

“ ‘Steady supply from the solar panels is powering not only pumps but also televisions. Children of salt makers are switching to state-run ‘edutainment’ programs to make up for the loss of education,’ says Bhavna Harchandani, a research scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, who has tracked the agariya community as part of her studies. …

“Sonagra says it was difficult to find an office assistant with basic secondary-school education among agariyas until a few years ago.

“ ‘Today, many agariya children attend private schools, complete ITI (vocational) courses, and some manage to go to college. Solar pumps have opened up educational opportunities for the next generation of the community,’ he says.”

More at the Guardian, here.


Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Curing Ballots

November 4, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Elements5 via Unsplash.

Do you always sign things exactly the same way? I myself have a couple different signatures and I know that using the right one in certain situations is vital. On the tax forms, for example. My signature for tax purposes is actually different from the one I use to vote. Long story.

In the ballot booth, the wrong signature can mean your ballot will not be counted.

On Tuesday I will be trying my hand at “ballot curing” to help voters who have made some small mistake according to their state’s laws.

What is ballot curing? VoteAmerica says: “Ballot curing is the process of fixing any problems with your absentee or mail ballot to ensure that your vote is counted. You will have very little time to fix issues with your ballot, so act quickly.

“If your ballot was rejected and it’s after Election Day, you will need to act quickly. In most cases you will need to appear in person at your local election office with photo ID within 2-3 days of Election Day.

“Use your state’s online ballot tracking tool to check whether your ballot has been received and counted. If your state does not have an online tool, call your local election office and ask.

“If your absentee ballot was rejected and it’s before Election Day, you can probably still vote in person on Election Day at your polling place. Your local election office can provide more information about the rules around voting in person after your ballot was rejected.”

Now, to give you an example of a state’s particular rules, here’s what VoteAmerica says about Michigan’s rules:

“Your ballot will be rejected if you forget to sign it or if your signature does not match the one on file for you. You must make corrections by 5:00 pm on the third day after Election Day for your vote to count.

“Michigan laws says, ‘The clerk must notify the elector by telephone, email, or text message, if available.’

“Michigan law says, ‘The elector must be permitted an opportunity to cure the deficiency as provided under section 766a until 5 p.m. on the third day following the election.’ “

I have signed up with my candidate’s campaign for four hours of ballot curing, with a break in the middle.

For the first half hour, I will receive training and be assigned to a state. Then I will get contact information for people who have expressed a concern that they made a mistake, and I will refer them to the right people to help them fix it as allowed by their state.

I hate doing “phone banking” as a rule, but I think this is something people will actually be grateful for.

Check your state’s rules at VoteAmerica, here, and share the site with friends who need it. And may the best human win!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

First Modeling Job at Age 69

November 3, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo:  Michael Willian.
“I’m a natural person and I’ve never had any surgery,” says Brazilian model Rosa Saito, 73.

In today’s story from the Guardian, Brazilian model Rose Saito looks pretty glam in her 70s, but that is not the point. The point is she never gave up on something she wanted to do. And it wasn’t until she was 69 that the movers and shakers in the fashion world realized they were plum out of beautiful older models. Suddenly she was in demand.

Ammar Kalia writes, “For her 68th birthday in 2019, Rosa Saito decided to give herself an unusual present. Over the past year, she had been approached by photographers and casting agents three times on the streets of her home town in São Paulo, Brazil, each telling her she should consider becoming a model. Initially, she brushed off the flattering advances, but after deliberating for several months, she changed her mind.

“ ‘No one had commented on my appearance until I reached 67, when people suddenly started to notice me,’ she says. ‘It was very strange, but being spotted made me realize I could still achieve something for myself at this stage of my life. I had raised three children and now I wanted to see what I could do alone. If not now, then I never would.’

“Contacting one of the agencies that had previously approached her, she was immediately added to their roster and sent out to castings. ‘At my first casting they asked me to act like I was just getting home from a nightclub, but I have never done that before,’ she laughs. ‘I didn’t get the job, but I started to see how modeling is about inhabiting a character and performing. It was a challenge that began to excite me.’

“It would be another year until Saito booked her first job. Arriving at dozens of castings and routinely turned away with little explanation or feedback, she was determined to see these experiences as an opportunity to practice her posing and walking in front of other professionals. ‘The rejections only made me want to book a job more,’ she says.

‘I was used to facing difficulties in my life and so these were small setbacks compared with everything else I had been through. I was prepared to keep going.’

“Saito learned resilience from an early age after becoming the sole carer, at 22, for her mother, who had a stroke. After the death of her husband, to whom she was married for 20 years, in 2000, she raised her three children alone. She has always been passionate about natural remedies and plant medicine. ‘I think that is the most important thing that has helped me look the way I do today,’ she says. …

“In 2020, at 69 years old, Saito’s persistence paid off and she finally booked her first modeling job for a Brazilian cosmetics brand. … ‘As soon as we began, my experience from all the castings kicked in and I relaxed. The production team asked me where I had been hiding, since they said they had been looking for older women like me for years.’ …

“Saito also found herself unwittingly becoming a role model for the younger women on the shoot. ‘I got so many compliments from the other models and it made me realize that my presence was showing them that you can grow older without fear,’ she says. …

“Now 73, Saito has modeled for clothing brands, cosmetics and magazine editorials, while her highlight has been making her debut at São Paulo fashion week in 2022 as one of the oldest models on the catwalk. … ‘It’s a gift to be doing this in my 70s,’ she says. ‘I love modeling because each job is a unique challenge and it pushes me to give the best I can. It has made me a more confident person in all parts of my life.’ ” More at the Guardian, here.

Say, did you notice that at São Paulo fashion week, she was only one of the older models on the catwalk!?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments »

Cities Reclaim Waterways

November 2, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Axel Schmidt.
The Fluss Bad swim in the Spree canal, Berlin, is part of a campaign to change bylaws against swimming. 

How many lovely, tinkling waterways have we forced through metal pipes and covered over with roads and buildings?

For some years now, cities have started daylighting them. And in the countryside, dams have been removed to bring back fish, often in collaboration with the tribes that always knew better. (See the Penobscot report.)

Last summer, it was touch ‘n go about what days the Seine would be clean enough for Olympic meets, bringing renewed attention to the issue.

At the Guardian, Oliver Wainright writes. “After a century of ignoring the very arteries that allowed them to grow in the first place, cities are learning to love their rivers again. Around the world, as global heating causes summer temperatures to soar, people are flocking to urban waterways and reclaiming these once polluted, poisoned gutters as indispensable places to cool off and unwind.

“[In the summer] the urban swimming movement made its biggest splash yet, when 110 athletes dived into the River Seine for the Olympic triathlon. The televised spectacle of swimmers front-crawling their way through Paris, flanked by beaux-arts bridges, offered a glimpse of what all our urban waterways could look like. Might these dangerous arteries of cargo and sewage be reborn as the great free public spaces that they could be? …

“ ‘What’s happening in Paris represents a generational baton change,’ says Matt Sykes, an Australian landscape architect and the convener of the Swimmable Cities Alliance, a global network of urban swimming campaigners pushing to make the scenes in the Seine an everyday reality for us all. …

“To coincide with this summer’s Olympics, the alliance published a charter, signed by a host of municipalities, government agencies, community groups and cultural institutions from 31 cities around the world, in a bid to create safe, healthy and swimmable waterways, accessible to all. The hope is to have 300 new cities starting their journey towards ‘swimmability’ by 2030.

“The alliance is already making headway. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, a masterplan for the Rijnhaven dock includes a new permanent beach and a tidal park. In Sydney, the Urban Plunge program has plans that include floating pools, and riverside ladders and lockers. By next summer, if all goes according to plan, New Yorkers will be swimming beneath skyscrapers in the safe surrounds of a floating, filtered pool in the East River.

“ ‘This is going to be the cleanest water anyone ever swims in,’ says Kara Meyer, the managing director of Plus Pool, a project which began in 2010 as a Kickstarter campaign by four young designers. Fourteen years on, New York State and New York City have announced changes to regulations that finally make the project possible, and committed [$16m] to see a prototype pool realized by 2025.

“ ‘The original idea was: “What if you just dropped a big strainer in the river?” ‘ says Meyer. ‘Now, we’re essentially building a floating wastewater treatment facility.’ Engineered by Arup, the pool will pass the river water through a series of filtration membranes and blast it with UV disinfectant, in order to meet stringent water quality standards. …

“The Clean Water Act, passed in 1972 with the ambitious goal of making all US rivers and lakes swimmable by 1983, set the wheels in motion, but that target is still a way off.

“ ‘The pandemic was a real catalyst,’ says Meyer. ‘There’s been a realization that we need far more public space, and much better access to our natural environment.’ She says a recent rise in drowning deaths, after decades of decline, underlines the importance of access to water and basic swimming skills – a need exacerbated by a shortage of lifeguards, after decades of pool closures. …

“Along with Switzerland – where Rheinschwimmen has been a tradition since the 1980s, after wastewater treatment reforms – Denmark is leading the way. Thirty years ago, Copenhagen’s harbor was a polluted mess of sewage and industrial waste. Now Danes are spoilt for choice of architect-designed bathing structures, and water quality is constantly monitored on a dedicated app. …

“Elsewhere in Europe, the Fluss Bad campaign in Berlin organizes an annual swim in the Spree canal, seeing swimmers splashing past the cultural palaces of museum island. The group is pushing for local bylaws to be changed to permit swimming, and has launched a water quality monitoring website to show the canal is clean enough to swim in 90% of the time. In Brussels, a city without a single outdoor swimming pool, the Pool Is Cool campaign operates a temporary pool each summer, as a prelude to future plans for swimming in the canal. In the bathing capital of Budapest, the Valyo group wants to see the city’s history of floating wooden pools return to the Danube. Swim fever is rampaging across the continent.”

More at the Guardian, here. No firewall.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Adopting Ancient Air Conditioning

November 1, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Sky2105, CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons.
Qatar University campus features a new wind catcher design built into the architecture. The science behind it is borrowed from 12th C Iran.

Here’s a “cool” air-conditioning concept that was new to me but apparently known in Iran for centuries.

Durrie Bouscaren reports at radio show The World, “As a kid, radio producer Sima Ghadirzadeh spent her summers in one of the hottest places on earth — the desert city of Yazd, Iran. … Here, intricate wind-catching towers rise above the alleyways — they’re boxy, geometric structures that take in cooler, less dusty air from high above the city and push it down into homes below. 

“This 12th-century invention — known as badgir in Persian —  remained a reliable form of air-conditioning for Yazd residents for centuries. And as temperatures continue to rise around the world, this ancient way of staying cool has gained renewed attention for its emissions-free and cost-effective design. 

“Wind catchers don’t require electricity or mechanical help to push cold air into a home, just the physical structure of the tower — and the laws of nature. Cold air sinks. Hot air rises. 

“Ghadirzadeh said she can remember as a child standing underneath one in her uncle’s living room in Yazd. 

“ ‘Having been outside in the heat, and then suddenly, going inside and being right under the wind catcher and feeling the cool breeze on you, was so mysterious,’ Ghadirzadeh said. 

“Temperatures in Yazd can regularly reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit. But somehow, it was bearable, Ghadirzadeh said. … Historians say wind catchers are at least 700 years old. Written records in travelers’ diaries and poems reference the unique cooling structures. 

“ ‘From the 13th century, we have references to the wind catcher — by some estimates, they were in use in the 10th and 11th centuries,’ said Naser Rabbat, director of the Aga Khan program for Islamic architecture at MIT. 

“Most wind catchers only cooled the air by a few degrees, but the psychological impact was significant, Rabbat said. They soon appeared all over the medieval Muslim world, from the Persian Gulf to the seat of the Mamluk empire in Cairo, where they are called malqaf. 

“In Iran, the wind catcher is a raised tower that usually opens on four sides because there’s not a dominant wind direction, Rabat said. The ones in Cairo are ‘extremely simple in form,’ usually with a slanted roof and a screen facing the direction of favorable wind, he added.

“Over time, wind catchers became symbols of wealth and success, growing increasingly elaborate. Homeowners would install intricate screens to keep out the birds. Water features and courtyard pools could bring the temperature down even more.  

“ ‘They would even put water jars made out of clay underneath — that would cool the air further,’ Rabbat said. ‘Or, you can put a wet cloth and allow the breeze to filter through, and carry humidity.’ 

“Many of the older techniques that kept life comfortable in the Persian Gulf fell out of favor after World War II, said New York and Beirut-based architect Ziad Jamaleddine. …

“Those shaded walkways, created by overhanging buildings and angled streets so beloved in historic cities like Yazd, were no longer considered desirable. 

“ ‘What they did is they substituted it with the gridded urban fabric city we are very familiar with today. Which perhaps, made sense in the cold climate of western Europe,’ Jamaleddine said.  But in a place like Kuwait or Abu Dhabi, mass quantities of cool air are necessary to make this type of urban planning comfortable. 

“Attempts to re-create wind catchers occurred during the oil crisis of the 1970s and 1980s in cities like Doha, where the Qatar University campus incorporates several equally distributed wind towers. But these projects became less common when oil prices returned to normal. Wind catchers are not easy to replicate without a deep understanding of the landscape and environment, Jamaleddine said. …

“Today, air conditioners and fans make up more than 10% of global electricity use, according to the International Energy Agency. The air conditioners are leaking refrigerant into the atmosphere, which acts as a greenhouse gas. And they no longer function when the power goes out — as seen this summer during extreme heat waves across the world. 

“Architect Sue Roaf thinks it’s ‘almost criminal’ to build structures that continue to rely on air-conditioning, knowing its impact on the climate. Roaf focuses on climate-adaptive building and chose to build her home using the same principles of ventilation and insulation that she learned while studying the wind catchers of Yazd.”

More at The World, here. No paywall.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

From ‘Dem Bones’ to Dracula

October 31, 2024 by suzannesmom

Delta Rhythm Boys singing “Dry Bones.”

I should have remembered that it was Ezekiel who was the original source for a song we used to sing in elementary school. It took this old video of the Delta Rhythm Boys singing “Dry Bones” to put me straight last Saturday. The reason I was looking for it on YouTube then was that a Pilates class got me thinking about how the sections of my backbone connected. I’m glad to share this in time for Halloween, when bones are a thing!

Dracula is also a thing at Halloween, and so a recent literary discovery is another just-in-time item. At Public Radio International, you can learn about a newly discovered Bram Stoker story — written before his Dracula masterpiece but unknown until now.

From The World: “All Dracula-inspired movies, TV shows and breakfast cereals can be traced back to a story published in 1897 by the Irish writer Bram Stoker.  His work is honored annually at the Bram Stoker Festival. … This year, the festival will highlight a a scary but lesser-known tale called ‘Gibbet Hill.’ …

“The story was published seven years before the original Dracula came to be, but received little attention until blogger and Stoker enthusiast, Brian Cleary, rediscovered the story in a library.  Cleary joined The World’s host Carol Hills to discuss his forgotten find.

“Carol Hills: Give us a brief synopsis of the short story, but no spoilers.
“Brian Cleary: The narrator of the story is a man who’s leaving London and going down to Surrey for a walk in a place called Gibbet Hill. He encounters what’s called the Sailor’s Stone. The stone is there because the sailor was murdered by three thieves, and they were actually gibbetted [and the bodies were] displayed as a warning to other criminals. Stoker sets his story off from that jumping-off point. …

“Hills: Tell us how you found this short story, “Gibbet Hill.”
Cleary : I was interested in Stoker for years. I read Dracula when I was 12. I moved to Marino when I was an adult. Marino is where Bram Stoker was born. So, I was interested in local history and probably spent the last 15 years or so reading about every little detail I could get on Bram Stoker. I had some free time and ended up in the National Library of Ireland. While there, I systematically searched the British newspaper archives for all articles mentioning Bram Stoker between 1880 and 1897, when he published Dracula.

“A few weeks into that process, after reviewing a few thousand results, I got lucky. I hit on an advertisement for Christmas Supplement, the Dublin edition of the Daily Express, and it was referring to something published two weeks prior to that. The supplement had a story called ‘Gibbet Hill,’ by Bram Stoker, which just froze me in my seat because I knew this was something that I hadn’t come across before. I did some quick searches, and it was not on the internet or in any of the Stoker biographies or bibliographies. So, I went racing back through the editions of the Daily Express, got back to the relevant one from December 17th, and sure enough, there it was. …

“Hills: What went through your mind when you realized, ‘Jeez, this is a big find’?
“Cleary Well, I’m sitting in this churchlike atmosphere. It’s a Victorian building, big, high domed ceilings and beautiful, old paneled walls. So, it’s a really reverent space. And I’m holding my breath and I’m reading it, and I’m surrounded by proper historians and real writers. I just want to shout out and tell people what I found. But I just put my head down and read through, and I was amazed. It was a really good ghost story, you know, it was on a par with some of his other well-known short stories. …

“Hills: ‘Gibbet Hill,’ was written seven years before Dracula, but what does it tell you about Bram Stoker’s evolution as a writer? …
“Cleary: It shows how he was gradually working his way up to this masterpiece. So, in March 1890, he made the first notes for Dracula. … During that year, he went to Whitby for summer holidays in August 1890. While he was there, he got a book out of the library, and he found the term ‘dracula’ in that book, and he wrote it down lots of times. I think he liked how it sounded on his tongue. And then a few weeks later he was writing ‘Gibbet Hill.’ So, there are themes. … You can see he’s very much a writer developing his craft.” Lots more at The World, here.

Note to Hannah: Did we go see The Horror of Dracula together as young teens? On Fire Island? It made an impression on me that has lasted all these years.

Photo: John and Suzanne’s Mom.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

New England Nomad in Salem

October 30, 2024 by suzannesmom

2024 Haunted Happenings Grand Parade (Salem, MA)

The New England Nomad, a blogger who takes lots of great photos, said I could reblog this post about Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, as I’m sure you know, was the site of a horrendous crime committed against innocent women perceived as different — the witch trials of 1692 to 1693. Not neglecting that dark history, Salem has also managed to turn its memories into a commercial and playful Halloween success. (We are a strange species.) Check out the fans who put on costumes and joined in the annual Haunted Happenings Grand Parade in Salem.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

The Health Value of Arts and Crafts

October 29, 2024 by suzannesmom

052917--crocheted-tree-Stockholm

Photos: Suzanne and John’s Mom.
Crocheted tree in Stockholm, 2017.

Working with your hands, creating something that is all you — how satisfying that can be! Today’s story is on the latest research showing that that can be good for you and the people around you.

As Nicola Davis wrote at the Guardian, “Winston Churchill had painting, Judi Dench is famous for her rude embroidery and Tom Daley has been known to knit at the Olympics. Now researchers say we could all benefit from creative endeavors and that such pursuits have a bigger influence on life satisfaction than having a job.

“While arts and crafts have long been used to aid mental health, experts said most research has looked at their effect on patients rather than the general population, and tend to look at specific activities.

“However, the researchers have now said such interests could be an important tool for improving public health in general.

“Dr Helen Keyes, a co-author of the research from Anglia Ruskin University, said: ‘It’s quite an affordable, accessible and ultimately popular thing for people to do. And that’s key. You’re not going to be shoving something down people’s throats that they don’t want to do.’

“Writing in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, Keyes and colleagues reported how they analyzed data from more than 7,000 people aged 16 or over who took part in the face-to-face ‘taking part survey’ by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport between April 2019 and March 2020.

“As part of the survey participants were asked to rate various aspects of their well-being on 10-point scales, report whether they took part in arts or crafts, and provide demographic details.

“The team found that just over 37% of participants reported taking part in at least one art or craft activity in the past 12 months – ranging from painting to pottery and photography. …

“The results revealed that people who engaged with creating arts and crafting had greater ratings for happiness, life satisfaction and feeling that life was worthwhile than those who did not, even after taking into account other factors known to have an impact – including age, gender, deprivation, poor health, and employment status. …

“Among other results the team found engaging in arts and crafts was associated with an increase in happiness on a par with aging by 20 years (as Keyes notes, well-being goes up slightly with age), while the sense that life was worthwhile was more strongly associated with crafting than being in employment.

“Keyes said [the reults] might reflect that not everybody is in a job they find fulfilling, while people often have a sense of mastery or ‘flow’ when undertaking arts and crafts – experiencing control, achievement and self-expression. …

“Keyes said smaller clinical trials have suggested engaging in arts and crafts can increase well-being. Keyes also acknowledged the increases in well-being associated with creating arts and crafting were very small – on average engaging in such activities was only linked with a 2% higher rating for the feeling that life was worthwhile. But, she said, the results remained meaningful at a population level. …

“Keyes said that backing such activities would offer a simpler route for governments to improve the nation’s well-being than other factors that are known to have a big effect. …

“ ‘But it’s a really quite cheap, easy, accessible thing for us to engage people in.’ ”

What was the last craft you tried your hand at? I made a pottery vase.

More at the Guardian, here. No paywall.

I used to make collage greeting cards.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Swifties at the Museum

October 28, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: The Albertina.
Thousands of Taylor Swift fans flooded museums in Vienna in August after multiple institutions waived entry fees when security threats forced the cancellation of three concerts. Fans also traded bracelets with museum employees.

We’ve all seen the influence that singer Taylor Swift directly exercises over her fans. Indirectly, she has probably made some of them museum fans, too. That’s because museums in Vienna saw an opportunity when her concerts were cancelled.

Karen K. Ho reports at ArtNews, “Thousands of Taylor Swift fans flooded museums in Vienna [last August] after multiple institutions waived entry fees after three of the singer’s concerts were cancelled due to security threats.

“ ‘We weren’t really sure what to expect,’ Haus der Musik managing director Simon Posch told ARTnews.

‘The participating institutions were the Mozarthaus Vienna, House of Music, KunstHausWien and the Jewish Museum Vienna owned by the City of Vienna; MAK Vienna (Museum of Applied Arts) and MAK Geymüllerschlössel; the modern art museum Mumok, the art museum The Albertina, as well as the museum at the House of Strauss. The Museum quartier also offered Taylor Swift ticket holders free guided tours in English and German on August 10 and 11.

“The initiative was publicized through the Vienna Tourist Board and statements by the city’s mayor, Michael Ludwig, especially on social media.

“Several museum professionals in Vienna told ARTnews the slew of additional visitors were a pleasant surprise to their institutions. The demographics were mostly English-speaking young women, often between the ages of 18 to 25, traveling to the city from countries as far away as China, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Many of them were also easily identifiable while wearing the singer’s concert merchandise, colorful outfits intended for the concert, and arms covered in friendship bracelets they intended to trade with other fans.

“The Albertina fully embraced the moment, waiving its [regular entrance fees] for more than 20,000 Swifties. … ‘On a normal and regular weekend, we would have, I would say 2,000 a day,’ spokesperson Nina Eisterer told ARTnews, noting that these types of visitor numbers are usually for blockbuster exhibitions like the one for Claude Monet in 2018.

“Eisterer said she and her colleagues in The Albertina’s marketing division were Swifties themselves, with several people planning to go to the concerts and personally devastated by the news of the cancellations. After the idea for waived entry fees was approved, the art museum’s security and ticketing teams were informed on August 6 that additional staff would be needed.

“The Albertina’s line for Swifties was so long that some fans stood outside in the sun and 91°F heat for approximately 20 minutes. ‘But there was no fuss about it,’ Eisterer said. ‘People were super nice.’

“The museum also switched the soundtracks playing its in 20 historical staterooms from classical music to Taylor Swift albums, prompting several large singalongs that went viral on TikTok.

“ ‘I love classical music, I love Mozart, I love Beethoven, I love all these classical artists, but it was really nice to have a Taylor Swift singalong more or less in the state rooms that normally stand for something else,’ Eisterer said. …

“Other institutions also saw an unexpected bump in activity. … Mozarthaus Vienna said they had 2,663 Swifties between August 9 and August 11, with additional staff called in on Saturday and Sunday. ‘Due to the large number of Swifties, guided tours in English were spontaneously added,’ spokesperson Jasmine Wolfram told ARTnews.

“Mumok’s head of press, Katharina Murschetz said 884 Taylor Swift fans stopped by. Eva Grundschober, the spokesperson for Capuchin’s Crypt said ‘exactly 500 Swifties’ used the option for the free ticket. And Josef Gaschnitz, the chief financial officer of the Jüdisches Museum der Stadt, said visitor numbers were ‘over 100% more’ compared to normal days. …

“Multiple people told ARTnews that social media played a major role in informing Swifties of the ‘super last-minute decision’ for the city’s offers and attracting them to the various museums. [Said] Posch, a self-professed Taylor Swift fan, ‘I think social media is the only way to reach this target group, because it didn’t help if the Austrian National Broadcasting System showed it in the evening news and they put it on their web page. None of these kids is going to visit the ORF home page.’ …

“ ‘We didn’t think about the money or the losing the money at all,’ Eisterer said, noting that its entry fees can be very expensive for young people. ‘It was, for us, important to set like a sign for this concert that had been canceled because of this horrible reason, and to give somehow a bit of hope and say to people, “Hey, we know it’s devastating. You can’t go to the concert, but hey, you can enjoy a bit of of art in Vienna, that’s what we can offer you.” ‘ …

“Some museums, like the Haus of Musik and The Albertina, also planned on extending the free entry offer to Swifties for one or two days beyond the weekend. ‘We will definitely still give them free access if they come with the Taylor Swift ticket,’ Posch said. ‘If they didn’t make it on the weekend and they’re still here, there’ll be no discussion, there’ll be our guests.’ “

More at ArtNews, here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

A Nation of Muralists

October 27, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Tamara Merino/The Guardian.
Chilean muralist Alejandro ‘El Mono’ González compares the dimensions between his mock-up and a recent mural. 

For a long time, I’ve been curious about murals and street art. (Search on those terms at the top of this blog if you are interested.) Whether the art is shared openly or under cover of darkness, it seems to convey messages we don’t usually hear from smaller, less public works.

At the Guardian recently, John Bartlett wrote that “in Chile, walls and public buildings are blank canvases to express dissent, frustration and hope.” Blogger and friend of Chile Rebecca will know all about that.

“Bridges across dry riverbeds in the Atacama desert,” Bartlett continues, “are daubed with slogans demanding the equitable distribution of Chile’s water, and graffiti on rural bus stops demand the restitution of Indigenous lands from forestry companies. Every inch of the bohemian port city Valparaíso is plastered with paint and posters. …

“One renowned street artist in paint-spattered jeans spent two weeks transforming a water tower at the country’s national stadium into a powerful symbol of Chile’s battle to remember its past.

“ ‘I have always had a strong social conscience,’ Alejandro ‘Mono’ González exclaims brightly. ‘The fight was born inside me, it just didn’t have an escape. There’s so much you can say with paint and a blank surface.’

“González, 77, has painted across Latin America and Europe, and his murals adorn hotels and public buildings in China, Cuba and Vietnam.

“González’s giant creations combine bright petals of color, separated by thick black lines, and resemble stained-glass windows.

“ ‘I wouldn’t say it’s cheerful, but they’re hopeful colors, which go beyond victimhood, pain and sadness,’ he said.

“The stadium was one of Chile’s most notorious detention centers, where thousands were held after Gen Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup d’état. …

“González talks animatedly about how colors vibrate and interact. … His approach reflects a selfless view of the collective.

“ ‘In the streets, anonymity is important,’ he says, ‘The individual isn’t, it’s the message that is interpreted by the viewer that I care about.’

“González was born in the city of Curicó, 120 miles (193km) south of Santiago, in 1947, the son of a laborer and a rural worker. At primary school, his friends named their energetic classmate ‘Mono’ – monkey. …

“After dark, González would go out painting with his parents, both committed members of Chile’s Communist party. In art, he found a release for his burning social conscience. González joined the communist youth ranks in 1965 to develop its propaganda activities, and painted his first mural at the age of 17 during socialist candidate Salvador Allende’s presidential campaign.

“He was among the founders of the Brigada Ramona Parra, a street art and propaganda collective named after a murdered activist, during the heady days of the Allende campaigns. ‘We’d go out every night, sometimes to paint murals, sometimes just to write ‘Allende’ on any blank surface,’ he remembers.

“After Allende won the presidency in 1970, a sinister black spider began to appear on walls, sprayed by the adherents of a fascist paramilitary group. A battle for the streets began, and it has never truly died away.

“In 2019, protesters thronged the streets of Chile’s cities demanding a host of improvements to their lives and an end to the country’s entrenched inequalities. … Those protesters included members of Todas, a collective of more than 100 female muralists who mobilized in a WhatsApp chat.

“ ‘We organized ourselves so we could occupy the walls,’ said Paula Godoy, 34, an artist and muralist from a southern Santiago suburb. ‘We were talking all the time – “Where is there a wall free? Where do we need to get this message across?” – it was a really beautiful period.’ …

“Half a century earlier, González was 24 when Pinochet seized power on 11 September 1973, deposing Allende. … González slipped into the shadows. He stopped wearing his glasses, shaved off his mustache, and went by the name Marcelo as he worked as a set designer in the Municipal Theatre in Santiago.

“When the end of the dictatorship neared, González helped design the most famous campaign in Chile’s political history, the NO campaign against Pinochet’s continued rule in a 1988 plebiscite. …

“ ‘Chile is very conservative and reactionary – we advance, and then we go backwards,’ he says, stepping back from the water tower and shielding his eyes. ‘But memory is the one constant. The most important thing is having a lasting effect. This will still be here in 50 years’ time, and people will still have their memory.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here. No firewall. Donations solicited.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

A Fearless Doctor in Haiti

October 26, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Victoria Onelien/Special to the Christian Science Monitor.
Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps walks through the medical area of the Gheskio center, welcoming patients, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in July.

It’s hard to imagine that in a country ruled by armed gangs like Haiti, a doctor keeps doing her work “without fear.” Would we be without fear if our country were taken over by armed gangs?

Linnea Fehrm writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “Marie-Marcelle Deschamps was speaking at a conference in Washington last spring about her work running one of Haiti’s most innovative hospitals when the startling news started spilling in: Criminal gangs were releasing incarcerated people from a prison in Port-au-Prince, police stations and government buildings were under attack, and the international airport was shuttered. …

“ ‘Every day that I can’t go back is a catastrophe for me,’ she said with a sigh, speaking from her hotel room in Miami several weeks later, where she was anxiously awaiting the possibility of flying back to Haiti. ‘I can’t sleep at night. My staff are struggling, people are dying.’ …

“Dr. Deschamps is co-founder and deputy executive director of Gheskio, a hospital in Port-au-Prince known by its French acronym, where she has worked for the past 42 years. It’s not a typical clinic; it looks beyond physical health to tackle issues such as education, women’s leadership, job training, and community-building. …

“The doctor has guided the organization through earthquakes, epidemics, state coups, and political unrest. But when she finally returned to Port-au-Prince in April, she says she was faced with the most severe crisis she has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians had fled their homes due to insecurity, many of whom began flooding her hospital in search of safety and treatment. Some people arrived close to starving, others with gunshot wounds, she says. …

“Gheskio is in downtown Port-au-Prince, adjacent to an enormous, gang-controlled area known as the City of God. The dusty access roads are teeming with heavily armed gangs, whose ranks have been reinforced by people who have escaped from prison. They regularly block the roads and kidnap people from passing cars. …

“Only a handful of hospitals have survived the past year’s violence in Port-au-Prince, according to Jean Bosco Hulute, head of UNICEF’s health program in Haiti. About a five-minute drive from Gheskio is the State University of Haiti Hospital, the largest health facility in the country. For more than four months this year, it was under gang control; doctors and patients were chased off the grounds and wards were looted of everything from medical supplies to ceiling fans. 

“Gheskio receives some funding and equipment from UNICEF, requiring Mr. Hulute to occasionally visit. These trips require ‘careful planning and authorization from the head office’ for safety purposes, he says.

“ ‘Dr. Deschamps, however,’ he says with a chuckle, ‘she just takes her car and drives there.’ 

“She holds weekly meetings with local community representatives, helping to earn respect for her organization’s work – even among gang leaders. When armed men on the street see her hospital ID, they let her pass, she says. …

“Today, the Gheskio grounds are like an oasis amid Haiti’s political and security-related chaos. Dr. Deschamps says she comes here to regain her strength, surrounded by green lawns, verdant gardens, and birds chirping from towering palm trees. …

“Shortly after founding Gheskio, Dr. Deschamps was selected by a group of Haitian and American doctors to study in the U.S. There, she trained under Dr. Anthony Fauci, who would later become a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“ ‘He always had a positive attitude, so we were similar in that way. It has become a strategy in my life to team up with positive people.’ “

Just think of the comfort that her attitude must give to patients!

More at the Monitor, here. No paywall. Subscriptions are reasonable.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Nurse Still in the Fray at 97

October 25, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: The Valley Ledger.
Grace Carr became a nurse cadet in 1944. She is still active as a volunteer at St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus in Allentown, Pa.

Nancy L and I, both living in retirement communities, have been fascinated to see how differently we ourselves — and the people around us — age. It’s like we’re making a study of our cohort.

Nancy tells me with a certain awe about an active woman over 100 that she’s met where there are people in their 70s who can barely function. What makes the difference? she wonders. We ponder together whether it’s all genetics, something about the life they’ve lived, a combination of those elements, or what.

From the Washington Post comes a story about an elderly WW II-era nurse called Grace Carr who adds to the wonderment.

Cathy Free writes, “Grace Carr was 17 when she left her family home in the coal town of Freeland, Pa., to pursue a dream she’d had since she was 5 years old.

“ ‘Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a nurse and work in a hospital,’ said Carr, who as a child spent hours wrapping her dolls in bandages and taking their temperatures. …

“Carr, now 97, is still at it, working exactly where she started: St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus in Allentown, Pa., about 60 miles from where she grew up.

“Although she retired from her nursing job at age 62, Carr continued as a volunteer at the hospital, and she now shows up every Wednesday to escort patients to their tests, deliver flowers to rooms and take specimens to the lab.

“ ‘From the time she shows up in the morning until she leaves in the afternoon, Grace always has the same happy smile,’ said Beth Fogel, the hospital’s volunteer engagement specialist, who has known Carr for 20 years.

“ ‘She never shows any weariness and always has the same pep in her step,’ she said. ‘Everyone loves talking to her.’

“Carr has logged more than 6,000 hours as a volunteer, taking only a few months off at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. ‘I love people, and my health is good, so I’m happy to do what I can,’ she said. …

“Carr, formerly known as Grace Malloy, started training to become a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital during World War II in 1944.

“ ‘When I went to nursing school at the hospital, we all lived on-site in a home for nurses,’ she said. ‘We had classes for most of the day, then we’d go onto the floors and learn about all the usual things nurses did, like making beds, taking temperatures and helping to keep the patients comfortable.’ In her first year as a trainee, she was paid $15 a month.

“The U.S. Army paid for her training on the condition that she serve in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps and work in a public hospital like Sacred Heart after graduation, she said. The nurse cadet program ensured that U.S. hospitals didn’t experience nursing shortages during the war. …

“Carr said the Army gave her two cadet uniforms — one for summer and one for winter — and she’d often wear them when she took the train home to visit her parents. …

“When Carr’s boyfriend, Edward Carr, came home from serving in the military, they were married in 1947 — the same year she graduated from nursing school.

“Carr was then hired to work the night shift at Sacred Heart, which she did for more than 20 years while raising four daughters and a son. She laughs when people ask her whether she slept during those years.

“ ‘I’d take little naps,’ Carr said. ‘Then when my husband came home, I’d let him take over until it was time for my hospital shift to start at 11 p.m. I look back on it now and I think, “How in the world did I do that?” … I always felt thankful to be doing something I loved.’

“Carr passed her work ethic along to two younger sisters who followed her into nursing. Her daughter Grace Loring also worked at the same hospital. …

“Loring, now retired after 35 years as a pediatric nurse, picks up Carr at her home in Allentown every Wednesday and drives her to and from the hospital. She said she often wonders how her mother managed it all while she was growing up.

“ ‘I also worked nights when I became a nurse, but I was single, and I could just go to bed,’ she said. ‘My mom was there for us after school, she handled the housework and the gardening, and she made matching Easter outfits for us every Easter.’ …

“ ‘When I was a student nurse, I was working in the maternity nursery and had to take this adorable baby boy to his mother,’ Carr said. ‘That little boy later married my oldest daughter, Janet, and he’s now 78. …

” ‘I’ve been given a lot by the hospital,’ Carr said. ‘So as long as I’m healthy and able, I’m going to keep coming back.’ ”

More at the Post, here, and at the Valley Ledger, here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Here Comes Halloween!

October 24, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Tualatin, Oregon.
The day of the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta is a great day in Tualatin, Oregon.

Although Halloween is the “hallowed” evening that comes before All Saints Day, I don’t think it has ever been as serious as that sounds. Human spirits were said to come out of graves and dance around, maybe do a little mischief. And living humans picked up on that playful aspect of the day.

In my part of the world, a holiday focused on fun fits in with harvest season, and ghosts get merged with pumpkins.

Talk about fun! In Providence you can walk around the lake at Roger Williams Park and enjoy hundreds of amazingly carved pumpkins on every imaginable theme. In Louisville, Kentucky, Meredith’s daughter, Alene Day, works on a similar event and is a genius at the art of pumpkin carving. (Click here.)

A festival called Pumpkins and Pints takes place in Tualatin, Oregon. From the town’s website: “Since 2004 people from around the country have gathered to watch costumed characters paddle giant pumpkin boats in a series of races. This fun-filled weekend [features] a giant pumpkin weigh-off, the 5K Regatta Run/Walk, and Pumpkin Regatta festival and pumpkin races. The giant pumpkins are supplied by our friends from the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers.”

“We grow ’em big!” PGVG says. “The Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers (PGVG) is an association of gardeners focused on the fun-filled, competitive hobby of growing obscenely large vegetables. While Atlantic Giant pumpkins and squash are often the show-stoppers, we grow and recognize all fruits and vegetables on the international competition list defined by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth. …

“As a community organization, we hope to encourage individuals and families to enjoy gardening together. We strive to treat all of our members equally and fairly, and are always looking for ways to improve our organization for the benefit of our members. Above all, we want the hobby of gardening and growing giant vegetables to be fulfilling, rewarding, and fun.”

Travel Portland also emphasizes fun: “Just when you think you’ve seen everything, you realize you’ve been missing the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta. Since 2004, this cherished local event returns to the Tualatin Commons every October with a series of races. The races are exactly what they sound like: costumed competitors piloting a gaggle of gigantic gourds through a watercourse on Tualatin Commons Lake. The regatta kicks off the day before the races with a pumpkin weigh-off at the Pumpkins and Pints event at Stickmen Brewing. The following day consists of a full day of pumpkin paddlers plying the shallow lake in giant pumpkin boats.”

What can I say? I was already speechless at “Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.”

Photo: Travel Portland.
Paddling a giant pumpkin takes perseverance.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

An Income to Keep Teens in School

October 23, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Chris Granger/Times-Picayune.
New Orleans 12th grader Dejah Grimes was part of a pilot program, soon to be expanded, that gives students $50 per week with no strings attached.

Paying kids to do something they should be doing anyway — for their own sake — does not always have the intended result. But I can see that to keep some teens in school, it might help. And for those who’d stay in school anyway, what a nice bonus!

Marie Fazio writes at the Times-Picayune, “Every Wednesday morning for nearly a year, Dejah Grimes woke up to a $50 deposit in her account, money she was free to spend however she chose.

“Most weeks she gave the card to her mom, who put it towards the water or electric bill. Occasionally she used it to go to the movies or the mall with her friends, or to pay for school expenses, including the recent purchase of a black polo shirt with the G. W. Carver school logo embroidered on the breast, a privilege reserved for seniors.

“ ‘It helped my family a lot,’ Grimes said. ‘It really made life easier.’

“Now, hundreds of other New Orleans teens are set to receive similar assistance as part of a groundbreaking study on the impact of providing young people with a ‘universal basic income,’ or recurring cash payments with no strings attached. 

“After promising preliminary findings and a $1 million investment from the city of New Orleans, a guaranteed income program that began with 20 students at The Rooted School in 2020 will expand this fall to 1,600 high school seniors at schools across the city over the next three years. Deemed the ‘$50 Study,’ the program gives students $50 per week and follows their academic and financial progress. It’s one of the first of its kind to study the impact of universal basic income on youth. 

“Researchers said that high schoolers over the past two years — 386 students from The Rooted School in New Orleans, The Rooted School Indianapolis and G. W. Carver High School — who received payments missed fewer days of school, showed more literacy growth and enjoyed more financial stability than their peers who did not receive money. …

“At the height of the pandemic in 2020, [Jonathan] Johnson, then executive director of Rooted New Orleans, noticed an alarming spike in absenteeism among his students, many of whom had to take on extra shifts at work to help their families make ends meet. 

“Hoping to alleviate some of the financial stress on students, they launched a ‘micropilot’ with 20 Rooted seniors, ten of whom received weekly payments. From 2022 to 2024, they expanded to a randomized control trial with 386 students over two cohorts.

“According to preliminary data, which has not yet been peer reviewed, students who were given the funds attended an average of two more school days per semester and their reading test scores grew by nearly double that of the control group. Researchers also found students who received the money demonstrated better ‘financial capability,’ a term used to refer to financial literacy and real-world application, and scored higher on tests measuring their financial well-being.

“Stacia West, who co-founded the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at University of Pennsylvania and acts as lead researcher for the $50 study, said the program can provide young people with valuable lessons, including how to navigate — or avoid — risky financial instruments such as payday loans and credit cards.

“ ‘The fact that these kids are able to interact with these financial markets so early,’ said West, who is also an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, ‘means they’re going to be better equipped when they get into their 20s to make better financial decisions.’

“Students in phase one of the study, which took place from 2022 to 2023, only used about half of cash assistance. About 47% of the money remains in the students’ bank accounts, suggesting many are saving.

“Of the money they did spend, about 50% went towards food and groceries, 30% to goods and services, 12% to transportation, 3% to healthcare and the rest to other expenses.

“Results from the second phase of the study, which followed 28 students from Rooted Indianapolis, 47 students from Rooted New Orleans and 155 students from G. W. Carver — a Collegiate Academy-run high school — will be published in the spring.

“Grimes, who participated in the second phase, said having the money helped her family with unexpected expenses, like food and travel purchases while out-of-town for her great-grandmother’s funeral. This summer, she used it to pay for Ubers back and forth to work as a camp counselor-in-training at Live Oak Camp. …

“Malik Williams, a junior at G. W. Carver, said he spent money on food and school supplies, including a pair of New Balance sneakers and a pair of headphones.

“New Orleans used to have a guaranteed basic income program aimed at young people ages 18-24 that was part of a national initiative called Mayors for Guaranteed Income. An effort to expand the program in December was not funded by the city council.

“Jeff Schwartz, Director of Economic Development at the City of New Orleans, said in a statement that the agency is ‘thrilled to be an investor’ in the $50 study. …

“West said that the Rooted School’s study is the first to track the impact of guaranteed income on young people. … ‘I think this could be a new way to think about educating and socializing our children financially.’ “

Not to mention relieving some of the stress that interferes with learning, I’d say. Financial literacy shouldn’t be the only goal. Staying in school, learning more, having a better shot at a good future as a result … what about that? I hope to track down the newer study once it’s completed.

More at the Times-Picayune (Nola.com), here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Rosie the Riveter, Ukraine Style

October 22, 2024 by suzannesmom

Photo: Dominique Soguel.
Kateryna Tolmachova (at left) and Olena Boiko stand in front of Metinvest Pokrovsk Coal, April 17, 2024. Both women have had to step up their work since Russia’s invasion has called away many of their male colleagues to military duty.

Yesterday I sent another donation to a Ukrainian I know from my four-month gig with Ukrainian journalists at the beginning of the Russian invasion. (Read about that here.) The war has kept going since then, affecting every aspect of life in Ukraine.

Consider how some women have had to step up to jobs men used to do. The women in today’s story work in coal mining. Whether coal mining is a bad thing in general is a topic for another day.

Dominique Soguel writes for the Christian Science Monitor, “Kateryna Tolmachova started working in the Donbas coal industry in 2017. But when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and men were called to military service, her career accelerated. For women like her, stepping into the critical roles the men left empty wasn’t just an opportunity, but a duty.

“ ‘Who, if not us?’ says Ms. Tolmachova, who recently became deputy head of the pumping division at Metinvest Pokrovsk Coal. ‘If our men are taken to the army and protect us from there, we need to protect the economy.’

“Nowhere is this shift more evident than in the coal mining industry of Donbas, where women have increasingly taken on critical roles to sustain both the war machine and their families. Ms. Tolmachova’s journey from machine operator to a leadership role highlights the expanding opportunities for women in the industry as more men get called to the front. …

“Metinvest Pokrovsk Coal, one of Ukraine’s newest coal mines, has been quick to harness the potential of female employees. … The war has brought significant challenges to the company. Approximately 1,000 employees have been mobilized to the Ukrainian military, and about 1,500 have moved to safer regions with their families. In all, 87 employees have been killed and 232 injured due to the ongoing conflict. Before the war, Metinvest employed around 8,000 people; now, this number has decreased to about 6,000.

“In response, the company’s female employees are taking on a greater share of the workload, and in more critical capacities. As Andry Akulih, general director of Metinvest notes, they make up almost a third of the current workforce (31%) compared with just under a quarter (24%) before the war. Those who stay often do so to care for older relatives who are either unable or unwilling to leave. Women are turning to the mine for employment opportunities as there is a dearth of other jobs, with most supermarkets and schools closed in the region.

“Traditionally, he explains, women at the coal mine were confined to roles such as operating the elevator or managing the facilities where miners receive their lamps and oxygen equipment. These jobs were considered suitable for women, as they did not involve the strenuous physical labor required underground.

“ ‘Women have come to substitute men in some underground jobs like pumping and electrical machines,’ he says. Before, ‘there were enough men to do these jobs. Women were not interested.’ …

“Metinvest’s training center, led by Larysa Batrukh, has adapted to this new reality. Previously, the center trained approximately 100 students per month, but now it trains around 50, including a small but growing number of women. …

“Inside a large classroom with boarded-up windows, most chairs are stacked on empty desks. One woman was killed after a Russian missile hit the grounds of the training center.

“But that did not deter Oksana Mariash, who returned to the mine after evacuating her daughter to Poland. She is training to become a pumping system operator, and focuses attentively on her lessons, aware that exams are approaching. ‘Of course, it is scary and hard when you hear explosions, but it is interesting to learn, and I really like my teachers.’

“One of those instructors, Yevhen Mezhenny, oversees the education for technical positions, including welders and machine operators. He is impressed by the seamless transition of women into traditionally male-dominated roles.

“ ‘I’m surprised, but it is going very smoothly, with no big hiccups,’ he says. ‘Ukrainian women are very smart and hardworking, and they put a lot of effort into studying. Many of them were previously teachers or accountants.’

“Most of the women working or training at the mine also have significant responsibilities on the home front, too.

“Tetiana Hrekova manages the demands of her job while caring for her 11-year-old son and her elderly parents. She begins her day at 4 a.m. to catch the bus, a crucial link in keeping operations running smoothly despite the war. She returns home at 5 p.m. and starts a fresh shift feeding the family and supporting her son’s online schooling.

“ ‘I can only hope that the war will be over soon and children will go to school,’ she says during her eight-hour shift deep in the coal mine. ‘We will not be afraid of leaving them above ground and be able to … enjoy our work.’ ”

Rosie the Riveter rises again!

More at the Monitor, here. No paywall.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »