All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

VaYera, and advocating for others

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

     So, this week’s parashah is Parashat VaYera, literally “And he appeared” to Abraham.  This week’s parashah contains the famous bargaining session for the lives of people who lived in the two cities least known for hospitality.  

   But what about folks with no one to stand up for them, no one willing to speak for them, especially kids?  How do we protect children who have no one to properly care for them, let alone family?

What would you do, and how would you solve this thorny problem of protecting kids, not to mention vulnerable adults, Thoughtful Readers?

Would you flee the danger, sensibly, if a powerful being were threatening a smaller one, someone you did not know?  Or would you stand with that stranger, not knowing whether you would be punished, too, for offering your help? 

Is this the same as what Abraham did for the cities of the…

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Alphabet soup for the soul vol.2 -“C”

Words from Walden

C is for Challenge

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” -Joshua J. Marine-

In order to evolve, we have to challenge ourselves. In order to grow, we have to push a little further then last time.

To see expansion in our lives we have to do 1 more push-up, 1 more rep, 1 more mile, 1 more minute, 1 more page, 1 more sentence, 1 more brushstroke. Whatever it is, one more will get us where we want to go.

As humans, we are made to adapt. Look no further than nature and the seasons to see how we can adapt from brutally hot temperatures to the frigid cold.

Humans have been optimized to do this since the beginning of time.  Just like a muscle that we rip and tear in order for it to heal and grow bigger, we can do…

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Bolsonaro’s empty climate promises for Brazil | openDemocracy

In April 2021, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon broke global records. With a total of 580 square kilometers of the rainforest lost in just one month, the vast country hit a new high, according to the Real-Time Amazon Deforestation Detection System (DETER, by its Spanish acronym). In 2020, the total number was an appalling 10,851 square kilometers deforested.

That same month, during the Leaders’ Summit on Climate led by US president Joe Biden, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-Right president, committed to taking serious steps towards eradicating deforestation in his country by 2030. However, since he came to power at the start of 2019, the devastation of the Amazonian jungle has reached its worst-ever heights, and his environmental politics have been widely criticised. He defends the exploitation of natural resources in the Amazonian region, even in Indigenous reserves, and has made it easier for those who attack the environment directly, such as mining companies and illegal wood traders, to do so.

In fact, in August 2019, openDemocracy revealed that Bolsonaro had secret plans to facilitate the logging of the Amazon by whipping up a hate campaign against the Indigenous communities that live in and protect it.

Source: Bolsonaro’s empty climate promises for Brazil | openDemocracy

Headed Up Cottage Road, Inishmore

Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Enjoying travel on a horse trap, a type of carriage, on Inishmore (Inis Mór), the largest Aran Island in Galway Bay we headed up Cottage Road from Kilronan, the main island settlement. It was there we embarked from the ferry, hired the driver, his horse drawn trap. Our destination an iron age fort, Dun Aengus (Dún Aonghasa, the Irish language name) and the sights along the way.

Headed up Cottage Road, I captured this view of dry stone walls and homes against the May sky over the shoulder of our horse.

Click the link for my Getty IStock photography of the Aran Islands

Headed up Cottage Road

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

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Pensamentos Internacionalistas: Thomas More e a Utopia — Internacional da Amazônia

Barbara Crane Navarro

Vinicius Pontes – Acadêmico do 4° semestre de Relações Internacionais da UNAMA Thomas More foi um embaixador que nasceu na cidade de Londres, na Inglaterra, durante o ano de 1478. O autor ficou conhecido por ter escrito a obra “A Utopia”, que se tornou uma das obras mais importantes da vertente idealista das Relações Internacionais[…]

Pensamentos Internacionalistas: Thomas More e a Utopia — Internacional da Amazônia

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“O Agro não é pop, o agro mata”: estudo aponta que a fome é resultado do agronegócio — Antropofagista

Barbara Crane Navarro

Para pesquisadores, o setor não só não mata a fome, como fomenta a desigualdade que a cria Dificilmente alguém não conhece as imagens coloridas e modernas da campanha “Agro é pop”, transmitidas na rede Globo desde 2016 e que passam uma ideia do agronegócio como o motor do país: a “riqueza do Brasil”. Emcontraposição…

“O Agro não é pop, o agro mata”: estudo aponta que a fome é resultado do agronegócio — Antropofagista

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