Monday, February 14, 2022

News: February 14

साना २८ पार्टीले राष्ट्रिय मानव अधिकार आयोगमा बुझाए ज्ञापन पत्र (पूर्णपाठ)
सर्वदलीय बैठकः संसद खुलाउन पहल गर्ने सहमति
अब एमसीसी संसदमा टेबुल हुन्छ : रामचन्द्र पौडेल
महाभियोग फिर्ता नलिए देशभर आन्दोलन गर्ने चेतावनी
किसानको समस्या दीर्घकालीनरुपमा समाधान गर्ने रोडम्याप हामीसँग छ : ई.दीपक साह (भिडियोसहित)

They Took a Chance on Collaborative Living. They Lost Everything. A group that sought to create Connecticut’s first experiment in collaborative living fell short. Some of the investors lost their life savings. ........ “a structure where I didn’t have to be outgoing and could still get the benefit of getting to know people” ........ After more than a decade of planning, the project, called Rocky Corner, finally broke ground in 2018 on a 33-acre plot in Bethany, a suburb of New Haven. ......... But instead, the entire project went into foreclosure. And Ms. Ruffle’s dream — and finances — was dashed. “That money is now gone and there’s no way for us to retrieve it,” she said. “We lost about $170,000. And we both have very low incomes. Ever since, we’ve been living in not good circumstances at all.” .......... the increasing complexity of the project proved more than the group could afford or manage. ........ There are about 170 established co-housing communities in the United States, according to the Cohousing Association. There are about 30 co-housing communities in California and five in New York State. In a co-housing model, residents own their own homes, but share common spaces — a structure aimed at fostering connection and community through collaborative living. ....... At Rocky Corner, members managed the project and their community affairs using a process called sociocracy, which organizes people into various circles to make decisions consensually. ......... She blamed the debt pileup on a series of unanticipated costs and bureaucratic delays that dragged out the timeline. For example, she said, just getting the project approved by the town’s planning and zoning commission took two years, partly because it was an unfamiliar concept and drew some local opposition. Then, after they broke ground, they unexpectedly ran into a lot of ledge — an underground mass of rock — that had to be removed. ........ the lessons to be gleaned from Rocky Corner are to “control your costs and your timing, and get your home buyers lined up ahead of time or during the early stages of construction.” .



Mr. President, It’s Time for a Little Humility . recognize that we are still in the grips of a national trauma ........ Unsurprisingly, incidents of suicide, drug overdose deaths and violence in our homes and on the streets have grown dramatically. ........ those wage increases have been eaten up by inflation, the likes of which we have not seen in four decades. And all the while, the rich have gotten richer. ..........

The state of the union is stressed.

.......... the grinding concerns that have soured the mood of the country. ........ the heroic, unsung sacrifices so many have made to see their families and communities through.
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The Uneasy Alliance Between Frederick Douglass and White Abolitionists . On Aug. 6, 1845, Frederick Douglass set sail on a speaking tour of England and Ireland to promote the cause of antislavery. He had just published “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” an instant best seller that, along with his powerful oratory, had made him a celebrity in the growing abolition movement. No sooner had he arrived in Britain, however, than Douglass began to realize that white abolitionists in Boston had been working to undermine him: Before he’d even left American shores, they had privately written his British hosts and impugned his motives and character........ “the casual racism of the privileged class” within Garrison’s abolitionist circle. ....... the ambitious and self-possessed Douglass. ....... Behind Douglass’s back, Chapman depicted him as untrustworthy, arrogant, selfish and in need of white supervision. ............ she warned her British friends that Douglass had “the wisdom of a serpent” ........ Chapman’s correspondents in England wrote her back in similarly disparaging terms, describing Douglass as “injudicious and jealous.” ............ The self-righteous Chapman proceeded to quickly inform her many friends that Douglass was oversensitive, “selfish” and quick to take offense. ..........

Racial prejudice ... permeated abolitionism.

......... Eager to manipulate him into becoming an unquestioning spokesman for nonpolitical abolitionism, they repeatedly reprimanded Douglass. Unmoved, and unwilling to limit the scope of his activities, Douglass responded, “I may do anything toward exposing the bloody system of slavery.” .......... was slavery itself sanctioned by the Constitution? Garrison had long maintained that it was, and therefore that abolition would never be achieved through law or politics. ....... Douglass, Smith and a small circle of abolitionist lawyers insisted that the Constitution did not sanction slavery, that natural law and the Constitution itself assured liberty, and that political action through the Constitution would be necessary to destroy slavery and secure freedom. .............. the personal was political. The alliance between Garrison and Douglass lasted long enough to power the fractious movement through its first decade, but broke because the Garrisonians had “actually never accepted the full humanity of Frederick Douglass.”
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The Conservative Case for Avoiding a Repeat of Jan. 6 . If these festering divisions cost the Republicans in the midterm elections and jeopardize their chances of reclaiming the presidency in 2024, which they well could, the believers and disbelievers alike will suffer. .

Can Democrats See What’s Coming?
There Will Be No Post-Covid . I believe that I experienced the pandemic like many others: stunned and isolated, shocked by the sudden withdrawal of social life and social customs. ...... the United States could have avoided 40 percent of deaths if its death rate reflected that of other Group of 7 nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. ........... I took joy in cooking. I learned to make bread. ...... I bought more plants. ...... Covid would most likely move from pandemic to endemic. ......... “If you look at the history of infectious diseases, we’ve only eradicated one infectious disease in man, and that’s smallpox. That’s not going to happen with this virus.” ........

The number of lives taken by Covid in this country alone — north of 900,000 — is almost unfathomable.

........... Covid has made us reconsider everything, the meaning of home and work, the value of public space, the magnitude and immediacy of death, what it truly means to be a member of a society.
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The End of the Pandemic May Tear Us Apart . For countries with high vaccination rates, 2022 may be the last year when strong measures are required against Covid-19. The end of the pandemic, however, will not come easily. ........

A waning pandemic does not mean the end of leadership on Covid, but may instead mean it’s more necessary than ever.

.......... we need to make complex trade-offs between deaths, the economy, public well-being and constitutional rights. ........ public trust has taken a hit in many countries, including Denmark. As fatigue, personal costs and miscommunications have accumulated, the public has become wary. ......... The key ingredients of an effective pandemic response — communication, trust and a shared sense of threat — are slowly dwindling. This can lead to social strife and will make it harder for leaders to steer their populations out of the crisis. .............

Republicans tend to overrate the risks of getting vaccinated, and Democrats tend to overrate the risks from the disease.

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American Dysfunction Is the Biggest Barrier to Fighting Covid . One important step would be to implement and broaden vaccine mandates. There’s plenty of precedent for mandating vaccines in health care, the military and schools, so it wouldn’t be some novel step to do so for one of the safest vaccines we’ve ever had. .......... Some large employers already mandate flu vaccines. Kentucky legally requires everyone working at a long-term care facility to be vaccinated against the flu and pneumococcal disease, unless they have a medical or religious exemption. Mandates for Covid vaccines, too, should be issued, especially for people who work with high risk or vulnerable populations — children, the elderly, the incarcerated and those in medical settings — and possibly for employees in workplaces where large numbers of people congregate indoors. ........ A staggering 40 percent of workers at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities remain unvaccinated. ........ Some might feel less concern for the unvaccinated, viewing them as hard-core anti-vaxxers or eager consumers of extremist propaganda on social media or Fox News. It’s true that attitudes toward vaccination have become affected by our political polarization. At a major conservative event recently, a mention of low vaccination rates was met with cheers. As horrifying as this was, we still have to try to reach this population. .......... Black and Hispanic people are still less likely to be vaccinated, despite having suffered disproportionately throughout the pandemic. This is probably due to lack of access, especially early on .......... historic distrust of the medical system, in which, studies show, they continue to face discrimination. ........ good ventilation is essential for lowering the risk of airborne transmission ........... The federal government allocated more than $120 billion for K-12 schools in the latest relief package for improving ventilation and other mitigations, but rules for using these funds are flexible, and local implementation remains haphazard. .

Paranoia About #MeToo Overreach at Harvard . Maybe they thought they were standing up against woke illiberalism. What they were really doing was closing ranks. .

I’ve Never Slept Better Than on a Japanese Futon . It was cool in the sticky summer heat and cozy in the damp winter chill. My back felt great. ....... Unlike a bed, a futon isn’t a piece of furniture, dominating the bedroom. A futon serves its purpose when needed, at night, but then it disappears into a closet with ease. My kids could use their entire bedroom floor space for play during the day or pull their futon into our bedroom when they got sick. ........ they’re very easy to clean. People in Japan routinely air their futons and other bedding, often by hoisting them out of windows or over balcony railings. .......... gather the futons, comforters, and pillows, and hang them all over our balcony for a few hours of sunshine and fresh air. ........ In Japan, you can even send your futon to the laundromat for a deep clean. Suddenly the idea of sleeping for years and years on a mattress that I could never wash seemed kind of gross. .

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