‘They Are Gone, Vanished’: Missing Persons Haunt Ukrainian Village – The New York Times

Russian soldiers had occupied this remote village in eastern Ukraine for about two weeks and were using a farm as a base. But the animals at the farm hadn’t been fed. Their incessant bleating was wearing on both occupiers and townspeople.

A group of five residents from Husarivka, an unassuming agricultural village of around 1,000 people, went to tend the cattle.

They were never heard from again.

“My two nephews disappeared. They went to feed the cows on the farm,” said Svitlana Tarusyna, 70. “They are gone, vanished.”

What transpired in Husarivka has all the horrifying elements of the more widely publicized episodes involving Russian brutality: indiscriminate killings, abuse and torture taking place over the better part of a month.

‘We’re running out of time’: Dan Saladino on why the loss of diversity in our foods matters | Biodiversity | The Guardian

As a species we evolved with so much diversity but have created a system based on uniformity and we’re seeing the fragility of this for example with the cavendish [banana] and arabica [coffee]. It’s like putting your life savings into just one company and expecting it to be the winner … that’s a foolish thing to do. Yet we’ve invested so much in a really narrow range of genetics and systems – to maximise yield and efficiency while neglecting other traits – and now there’s clear evidence that this is problematic. Speak to farmers who are already seeing big fluctuations in temperature and access to water and the vulnerabilities are clear. Diversity matters for food security, our health, the planet’s health, for local economies, and to give us options for the future, the list goes on and on. Source: ‘We’re running out of time’: Dan Saladino on why the loss of diversity in our foods matters | Biodiversity | The Guardian

Older residents of the east reluctant to hit the road – BBC News – Ukraine

“We only have simple shelters here but we have prepared them,” said Valeriy Duhelnyy, 59, the head of the village and local territorial defence units. Duhelnyy is the equivalent of the village mayor, a position he has held since 2020.

“It’s hard for older people here to hit the road,” he said. “And maybe some are sentimental – they have stronger emotional ties to where they live. They don’t want to die anywhere but home.”

More than two million older people in the east of the country are at extreme risk as a result of the Russian assault, according to the charity HelpAge International. There is particular concern among charities focused on supporting the elderly that older people have been unable to move out of harm’s way, or feel unable to take on the hardship of upheaval.

Source: Older residents of the east reluctant to hit the road – BBC News

Ironic Effect of Efforts to Ban Books: Teenagers Form New Book Clubs to Read Them – Slashdot

The Banned Book Club at Firefly Bookstore [started by 8th grader Joslyn Diffenbaugh] read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” as its first pick. While the satirical novella, which makes a pointed critique of totalitarianism, isn’t one of the books currently being challenged in the US, it was banned in the Soviet Union until its fall and was rejected for publication in the UK during its wartime alliance with the USSR. And it faced challenges in Florida in the ’80s for being “pro-communist.” That history made for some thought-provoking conversations. “It taught a lot because it had references to different forms of government that maybe some adults didn’t like their kids reading about, even though it was run by pigs,” Diffenbaugh said. “I really thought it shouldn’t have been banned for those reasons, or at all.”

Teenagers at the Common Ground Teen Center in Washington, Pennsylvania, formed a banned book club soon after a Tennessee school district voted to remove “Maus” from an eighth grade curriculum. But while the graphic novel about the Holocaust was the catalyst for the club, says director Mary Jo Podgurski, the first title they chose to read was, fittingly, “Fahrenheit 451” — the 1953 dystopian novel about government censorship that itself has been challenged over the years. “Obviously this whole idea of taking away books that they wanted to read or that they thought they should read sparked a nerve in them,” said Podgurski, an educator and counselor who oversees the Common Ground Teen Center…. Source: Ironic Effect of Efforts to Ban Books: Teenagers Form New Book Clubs to Read Them – Slashdot

Muntele vrăjit

ore de drum

Paris, 2022

Templele au forma munților iar oamenii din Anzi au forma templelor, așa cum stau ei ghemuiți, răbdători și demni, gândindu-se la câte-n lună și-n stele.

IMG_5152

Tot ce li se întâmpla lor, cu trei mii de ani în urmă, ni se întâmplă și nouă.

IMG_5136

Naștere, iubire, sacrificii, strategii, împodobire, lux, adevăr, aparențe, rivalități, epidemii, războaie, moarte.

IMG_5141

Se ajutau precum căutăm și noi sprijin în tot ce putem, în zei, șamani, credințe, superstiții, sentimente, pasiune.

IMG_5184

Pășesc prin întunericul albăstrui, trec de la un capitol la altul al colecțiilor aduse de la Lima, pe cât de vaste pe atât de prețioase, care trasează repere de civilizație precolumbiană din anul 1200 î.Hr. până în secolul 15, când a fost edificat Machu Pichu, într-o expoziție eveniment la Cité de l’architecture& du patrimoine, place du Trocadéro, pe care o puteți vedea până în 4 septembrie 2022.

IMG_5234

Universul vechilor peruani era format din trei lumi…

View original post 880 more words