« Once the gold miners arrived where we live … I saw them ravage the river’s sources with the avidity of scrawny dogs. »

Barbara Crane Navarro

Yanomami shaman, Amazonas, Venezuela – photo: Barbara Crane Navarro

“This is what our elders who are great shamans say. These are the xapiri’s words, which they pass on to us. These are the ones I want the white people to hear. … Once the gold miners arrived where we live … They soiled the rivers with yellowish mire and filled them with xawara epidemic fumes from their machines. I saw them ravage the river’s sources with the avidity of scrawny dogs. All this to find gold, so the white people can use it to make themselves teeth and ornaments or keep it locked in their houses. … These white people’s thought is obscured by their avidity for gold. They are evil beings.”

  • Yanomami spokesman and shaman Davi Kopenawa in the chapter “Metal Smoke” of his book “The Falling Sky”

Gold mining site in indigenous territory

Gold mining and the…

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Day 20 High School in Five Months, the power of Zero, and Adulting Education…

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

Scheduling tasks by breaking large projects into smaller chunks, using a spreadsheet to organize your project from 0 to Finished, and supporting our public infrastructure is all part of Adulting Education for our modern society as an adult in any democratic nation.

Day 20 Lesson Plan
Scheduling sheets: use a spreadsheet to plan big projects
punctuation
Exponents: Pwrs of Zero and 1, -1
Day20ExitSlips

( Day 19Day 21)

Action Items:

1.) How would you find out what the three branches of the US government are, besides looking at the PDF of the lesson plan from today? Any primary sources, and from where?

2.) Share your ideas with us, and why you think that way,

3.) Write a book, story, blog post or tweet that uses one of the ideas, and then, please tell us about it! If you write a book, once it…

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Myanmar Junta to Dissolve National League for Democracy (Me: Junta takes page from Trump and levies trumped up lies about election)

The military regime-appointed election body said on Friday that it would dissolve the National League for Democracy (NLD) for allegedly committing voter fraud, and take action against those who it says “rigged” the November vote, calling them “traitors”. The military justified its February coup by alleging massive voter fraud in November’s general election, which brought a landslide victory to the NLD. However, the Asian Network for Free Elections said the outcome of the vote was “by and large, representative of the will of the people of Myanmar.”

Source: Myanmar Junta to Dissolve National League for Democracy

Hobbs says voting machines can’t be reused, were ‘compromised’ by audit – KTAR.com

Arizona’s top elections official is telling Maricopa County leaders that the equipment they were forced to turn over for the ongoing Arizona Senate audit “has been compromised” and can’t be used in future elections.
— Read on ktar.com/story/4431309/hobbs-says-voting-machines-cant-be-reused-were-compromised-by-audit/

‘People die in less than a week’: Covid wave catches Argentina off-guard | Global development | The Guardian

“I am seeing people die in less than a week – young patients unresponsive to treatment. You administer oxygen, do all the mechanics – turn them face down, face up – but it doesn’t work. Then there are other patients whose oxygenation level is not so bad – but they die anyway,” Edul says.

A devastating second wave of Covid cases has caught Argentina off-guard, with relaxed restrictions and a low vaccination rate. Cases have risen from a daily total of about 5,000 in early March to a record 35,000 this week, while deaths surged from 112 at the start of March to a record 744 on Tuesday. On Wednesday daily contagions set a new record, just under 40,000 cases, while deaths dropped to 494.

The figures put the country third in daily cases after India and Brazil, and fourth in Covid deaths, after India, Brazil and the US.

Relative to population, Argentina now has the highest number of Covid deaths per day in the world, with 16.46 Covid fatalities per million on Tuesday, far exceeding its giant neighbour Brazil, which saw 11.82 per million.

Source: ‘People die in less than a week’: Covid wave catches Argentina off-guard | Global development | The Guardian

Lee Evans, 400-meter champion in racially charged 1968 Olympics, dies at 74 – The Washington Post – (Me: RIP – great runner and human being)

Image without a caption

Lee Evans, center, crosses the finish line of the men’s 400-meter final in the 1968 Summer Olympics just ahead of Larry James, right, and Ronald Freeman, rear. (-/AFP via Getty Images)Source: Lee Evans, 400-meter champion in racially charged 1968 Olympics, dies at 74 – The Washington Post

Facebook won’t take down AIPAC ad targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar – The Washington Post

Omar’s office warned the company that similar images of her face with Hamas attacks have directly inspired death threats against her. Her aides told Facebook in emails later viewed by The Washington Post that it “peddles both hate speech and misinformation.”

A day of back-and-forth followed, after Facebook initially could not find the ad — then spent hours reviewing it — only to determine it did not violate company policies.

The ad ran as part of a series targeting other lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which Facebook’s ad tracking tool estimated could be seen by between 500,000 and 1 million people.

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone confirmed the company determined the ads did not violate its policies. However, the social network does reject ads that its fact-checking partners determine are false, and the company told Omar’s office in an email exchange that this ad would be eligible for a fact check.

Source: Facebook won’t take down AIPAC ad targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar – The Washington Post

Iowa bans mask mandates as issue grows more political | CIDRAP (Me: “Fake Freedom” argument used to advance political advantage while mindlessly endangering children and adults)

“The state of Iowa is putting parents back in control of their child’s education and taking greater steps to protect the rights of all Iowans to make their own healthcare decisions,” Reynolds said in a statement. “I am proud to be a governor of a state that values personal responsibility and individual liberties. I want to thank the Iowa Legislature for their quick work in bringing this bill to my desk so that it can be signed into law.”Source: Iowa bans mask mandates as issue grows more political | CIDRAP

‘Support your local beekeeper’: Caribbean concerns on World Bee Day · Global Voices

On May 20, the world marks the fourth annual World Bee Day via a virtual event hosted by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, guided by the theme “Bee engaged—Build Back Better for Bees.” Bees play an important role in pollination, a process that is critical to the survival of ecosystems, biodiversity, food security and sustainability, and they have been under threat at rates 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal because of habitat loss and other human impacts, including the climate crisis. Unsustainable agricultural approaches like monoculture and the damaging effects of pesticides have greatly harmed the world’s bee population. This year’s event aims to achieve global awareness of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened food insecurity, while advocating for ways in which to regenerate the environment and protect these vital pollinators.

Source: ‘Support your local beekeeper’: Caribbean concerns on World Bee Day · Global Voices

Tunisians left to themselves to fight COVID-19 · Global Voices

Since April, Tunisia has faced a sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. The Ministry of Health described the health situation as “very dangerous” with hospitals being at almost full capacity. To flatten the curve, the authorities—again—announced new containment measures that include a national curfew, school closure, travel restrictions. But few believe it will be enough.

Unlike wealthy countries, there are no relief schemes to support workers and businesses to stay afloat. With unemployment already high and the cost of living skyrocketing, the most vulnerable have barely received ad-hoc small state assistance, and people are left to fend for themselves to survive. Therefore, the prospect of catching the virus is less of a concern than the necessity of carrying on and making a living.

Though Tunisia imposed a stringent lockdown at the onset of the pandemic and for a while kept the spread of the virus low at a high price for the economy, there is now a wide feeling of powerlessness and fatigue. “If I don’t go out and work who is going to give me money?” asked Salah, a Tunisian builder who, like the majority of workers, relies on daily earnings.

Source: Tunisians left to themselves to fight COVID-19 · Global Voices